The Sermon On The Steps
Today our band of Holy Land pilgrims will be visiting the Southern Steps of Herod's Temple. These were also known as the Teaching Steps, because it was a common sight to see rabbis teaching their disciples upon them. You can still stand on a portion of those same steps not long after you walk on the first century streets that led worshippers and visitors to the Temple by a marketplace. Jesus almost assuredly would have walked those same streets, and he undoubtedly taught on the Southern Steps. But the story that we'll be focusing on today is from Acts chapter 2---the Day of Pentecost, which occurred roughly fifty days after Jesus was raised from the dead. It was the Feast of Shavuot, or the "Feast of Weeks," one of the great feasts in the Jewish tradition. The Feast of Shavuot commemorates the moment when God gave the Law to Moses--49 days after the first Passover when the Israelites fled slavery in Egypt. In Acts chapter 2, Peter...