What does Tribe teach about pentecost?

At Tribe, the teaching on Pentecost starts with a reframe: the feast of Shavuot is not a Jewish tradition that has nothing to do with Gentile Christians. Brian Hunter has taught that the seven feasts belong to God, not only to Israel, and that God shared them because he wants to be known. Israel was simply the first group invited in. God designed all seven feasts to do three things for his people: help them remember what he has done, recalibrate when they have drifted, and rehearse events that have not happened yet. Four of the feasts have already played out in history. Three are still ahead. The reason rehearsal matters, Brian has said, is so that when those events unfold, believers can do what Peter did on the day of Pentecost and say 'this is that' rather than losing their footing.

The Leviticus 23 ordinance for Shavuot describes seven lambs and two loaves, and Brian walked Tribe through what each image points to. The seven lambs offered without blemish point to Jesus as the perfect sacrifice, with the number seven carrying the idea of completeness. Every day, he said, believers are invited to remember that sacrifice. The two loaves, made from fine flour, point to a process, since fine flour requires the grain to go through the tribulum. The Hebrew word behind 'holy assembly' in that passage carries the meaning of gathering for the purpose of rehearsal, which is the posture Brian has consistently called Tribe back to around these feasts. Brian also pointed out that in 2020 the Holy Spirit prompted him to get Tribe synced up with God's calendar, and that all three purposes, remembering, recalibrating, and rehearsing, are meant to run together.

The story of Ruth, which is traditionally read during Shavuot, brought the practical question into focus: what does it actually look like to follow the Holy Spirit? Brian drew out three moments in Ruth where following is the explicit action, Ruth following Naomi, Boaz directing Ruth to follow his workers through the field, and Ruth telling Naomi she would do everything she said. He set that pattern next to Luke 4 and the way the Spirit led Jesus, and argued that the same invitation stands for every believer. He also paused on Naomi's attempt to rename herself Mara, noting that the narrator of Ruth, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, kept calling her Naomi anyway. Brian says, 'God's like, I'm only ever going to call you by the name that I have for you.' And for anyone who feels like they've drifted too long or started too late, the teaching lands with this: Brian says, 'At 80 years old, remember, it's never too late to get synced up with the plan of the Holy Spirit.'

Taught from Leviticus 23:15-21 · Acts 2:1-4 · Deuteronomy 16:9-12 · Ruth 1:1-22 · Luke 4:1