Pressing On - from Passover to Pentecost; from Pentecost to Tabernacles

‘Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Festival of Weeks (Pentecost) and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed’

Deuteronomy 16 v 16

Passover – approximately April 15th

Pentecost – approximately June 5th

Tabernacles – approximately 11th October

I’m not sure I’d want to be a man in OT times.

Travelling by donkey or on foot to Jerusalem might take a few days. If you like a pilgrimage that’s OK, but if your feet are sore… And that’s maybe two weeks away from work for each feast: fishing in the lake, or the office job, or building, or teaching, or the lab, three times a year. You’re barely home before you have to get ready to depart once more.

But then again…

To get to Pentecost you must first leave Passover, go home, and return two months later. To get to Tabernacles, you have to leave Pentecost and return three months later.

After the crucifixion of The Lamb of God, Jesus, at Passover, the crowds dispersed and went home, only to return for Pentecost two months later. In Acts 2, early in the morning at Pentecost, we read that the crowd heard the noise of the wind, saw the flames, and heard Peter preach. Three thousand were brought into the kingdom. A week later and virtually none of them were in Jerusalem. The church, so large on day one and subsequent days during the feasts, had now departed as baptised pilgrims on the road, carrying home the news of Pentecost with them perhaps to return with their families four months later for Tabernacles.

What was true for the Jews in the Old Testament in terms of chronological progression through the feasts has been matched in the New Testament age. Historically, we can trace a progression.

If Martin Luther and others rediscovered the ‘Passover’ gospel of salvation by faith, not works, in the sixteenth century, the protestant churches that followed, for the sake of this article, we can label ‘Passover Churches’.

Passover Churches

Key concepts: Justification by faith. Grace, not works. Salvation. Born again.

In terms of Paul’s letter to the Romans, Passover Churches are inspired by chapters 1-5, unsure about chapters 6 and 7, but attempt to live in the good of Romans 8 without passing through chapters 6&7 as written.

In the West, those that recovered the gospel and preached that forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life are obtained through faith in Christ as the Passover Lamb and not secured by good works. This produced thousands of ‘Passover Churches’ full of believers rejoicing in their redemption as slaves set free. Songs and hymns followed:

And can it be that I should gain, An interest in the Saviour's blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! how can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach the eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ, my own.

Pentecost Churches

Baptism in the Spirit, power, gifts and ministries, apostles, prophets…, the church as the body of Christ.

In terms of Romans, there is little difference between Pentecost churches and Passover churches except for a direct experience of the Holy Spirit at work in individuals and the church.

At various times, for example at Azusa Street in 1904, believers who had been part of Passover churches rediscovered the baptism in the Spirit and pioneered the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches we see in every town and city in the UK today. Typically they are characterised by believers receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, and experiencing freedom in worship; building on but not abandoning, the gospel message of the Passover Churches.

Many songs and hymns have followed:

Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me. Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me. Melt me, Mold me, Fill me, Use me, Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me.

Tabernacles Churches

When the Jews celebrate Tabernacles, they meet under booths the rooves of which are made of overlapping branches of four kinds of trees (myrtle, willow, palm, and citrus). Light can penetrate the gaps between the branches and the whole family or group meets together under the roof in the booth to eat and share bread and wine together.

Churches formed with the characteristics of Tabernacles will look entirely different to Charismatic/Pentecostal churches in the same way as they do to Evangelical Churches (of various denominations).

In terms of Romans, chapters 6 & 7, specifically that the sinner, not just the sins, was taken to the cross with Christ and that we have been raised ‘in Him’ and live in union with Christ as ‘Christians’ (a first century nickname meaning ‘little Christs’) in the world.

Paul’s statement in Galatians, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me’ is not seen as his radical enthusiasm and staggering commitment to Christ, or even fanaticism, but a simple statement of historical truth.

Tabernacle churches have not abandoned salvation through faith, or the necessity of being born again, or the baptism in the Spirit, but have been brought individually and collectively into a realm of glory, unconcerned about how ordinary their lives may seem to be or how weak they are. They can be Jesus like a vulnerable baby dependent on others one moment, or in ‘secular’ work, like Jesus the carpenter the next. Or a miracle worker on Tuesday, and a bible quoter on Sunday. One day they may be used to heal many in a crowd, the next they will walk through a hospital full of sick people to heal one man. They are led by the Spirit entirely.

I fed you with milk and not meat 1 Corinthians 3 v 2

Their leaders, called elders, have a clear understanding of spiritual maturity and the stages of growth from milk to meat, distinguishing between foundations and building, thoughts and intent, and soul and spirit, and are able to model that to their congregations. Their ‘normality’ is living in the presence of God, open to His light, His love, and fellowship with others – just like the family meal under the booths with the light streaming through the branches.

Their dependence is entirely on the Lord not on a single minister, pastor, Vicar, Priest, prophet, or apostle to lead the church. Their churches will be overseen by a plurality of spiritually mature elders in whose hearts are all the believers in their village, town and city however many different congregations and churches there may be. They will have discerned the body of Christ in their location even if not all believers in their village, town, or city look to them for eldership oversight.

Their hearts are open and wise, knowing the Lord, not motivated by manipulation or their powers to produce anything. They know the truth that it is ‘Not by might nor by strength but by My Spirit says the Lord’.

The elders will model to their congregation the fruit of dying to their own abilities, preferring to rely on the Lord. For example, one elder might know naturally how to raise finance through marketing and social media but instead leads the church to pray, and financial gifts appear without recourse to advertising. Or an evangelist arrives and instead of organising meetings is led by the Spirit to a pub and speaks to a man who comes to Christ, one thing leads to another, like Jesus at the well (John 4), and many are born again.

There is an expectancy in the congregation when they meet; musicians, artists, preachers, teachers, prophets, evangelists, apostles, helpers, and administrators are bathed in the light from God and are moved by the Spirit. The elders trust God is in charge of the meeting and that Jesus, as Lord and Head of the body, coordinates their meetings just as our heads can run our bodies. There is faith for this.

But to get to Pentecost you have to leave Passover and go home. To get to Tabernacles you have to leave Pentecost.

Many had to abandon their Passover Churches to pioneer Pentecostal/Charismatic churches. This was achieved either by literally leaving, if not asked to leave, and setting up new fellowships, or by dying to the old and embracing the new within their existing churches which collectively embraced the new.

Wonderfully, whole churches, Anglican, Baptist, Brethren, and Catholic churches became Charismatic Anglican, Baptist, Brethren, Catholic churches in the 1970s and 1980s but many had to form their own churches from which ‘streams’ or new denominations were formed e.g. Salt and Light, Vineyard, New Frontiers, Kingdom Faith, and so on.

Abram had to leave his father and family in Haran to journey on to Canaan. If we are of the faith of Abraham, we too will need to leave our spiritual parenting churches – whether evangelical or charismatic. Leaving does not necessarily mean abandoning fellowships. Revelation in the heart precedes any actions. How ‘heaven’s will be done on earth’ is a further step led by the Spirit.

Great songs, no doubt, will follow!

Abram did not know what lay ahead in detail, just that He had been told by God to leave his family and move into Canaan.

‘By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going…dwelling in tents (tabernacles)’ Heb 11v8