Pentecost Sunday
What is Pentecost Sunday and why Sunday?
Why Pentecost and why Sunday? Pentecost simply means “fiftieth” and its Sunday because …lets find out. It turns out that, Pentecost is exactly 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus, and on that Pentecost day the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised to them. Luke 24:49 “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.” They were filled with power and spoke in other languages. This is all detailed in Acts Chapter 2.
Other Tongues
Now note the timing of events. The apostles speaking in different languages happens before Peter gets up to preach and those who heard them speaking were from many different regions and each heard their own language. I liken this to a group of several people in a crowded room all speaking at the same time but in various languages and you as a bystander would only pickup the language you understand or are most familiar with.
3000 souls saved
So the crowd has gathered because of the strange phenomena of hearing their own dialect or “tongue” spoken. Then its at this point that Peter speaks up and is recorded by Luke addressing the people in his native tongue. I say this because Luke was able to record it, so he must have understood it. Also Peter addresses “fellow Jews and those living in Jerusalem which meant that locals could understand it. So to sum up, the first miracle was the apostles speaking in other languages that they did not learn which in effect attracted the crowd that Peter addressed and 3000 souls were added to the disciples number. That was another miracle.
Meaning of Pentecost and Why Sunday.
So pentecost in Greek means 50th and is referring to the 50th day after the resurrection. In Hebrew it would be called Shavuot, which is a feast that comes 50 days after the feast (or moed) of “first fruits”. Another name for Shavuot is “feast of weeks” because it comes after seven weeks have passed from “first fruits” on the first day of the week ( a Sunday by our standards). God wanted His people to observe this feast 50 days after the ” first fruits” harvest. The name Pentecost is taken from the Greek Πεντηκοστή (Pentēkostē) meaning “fiftieth” and it is referring to days after the resurrection of Christ which co-insides with the start of first fruits ( a Hebraic feast also known as a moed). This was not a coincidence as Jesus is our first fruit and its no coincidence either that the Holy Spirit is sent on the 50th day after that. If we count the 50 days from Nisan 18th (the start of first fruits) we end up at 5th Sivan – A Sunday and the first day of the week in the Hebraic calendar called the feast of weeks or Shavuot. Jews today tend to fix this date to the 6th Sivan. In the UK Pentecost Sunday is also called Whit-sun or Whit Sunday.
The First Pentecost
To see why this is not a co-incidence, and why God chose to follow the Shavuot timetable for Pentecost we must start by going back to the first Shavuot or Pentecost or 50 days (or so its thought) after the Jews fled from Pharaoh’s Egypt. It is said to mark the time that God came down to meet with Israel and Moses on Mount Sinai and when the law was given. Not just the ten commandments but the whole 613 commands or words from the Lord. Why is that significant and what is its relevance to Pentecost? Well because what the law failed to do because mankind failed to follow it, the Holy Spirit achieved on the day of Pentecost by giving the disciples (and later those who were to believe in Jesus) the power to obey God through the Spirit. See 2 Cor 3:6.
Jesus the Lamb of God
So on that Pentecost or Shavuot day when the disciples were empowered by the Holy Spirit which appeared like tongues of fire that rested on them, Peter preached and 3000 souls were saved. There was now the power of God operating through him and the other disciples and we read in Acts what they did. We cannot be considered Christians without the Holy Spirit in us and the way we receive the Holy Spirit is through believing in Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world as John the Baptist said when he first set eyes on him.
The question for us today is do we know Jesus? Have we begun our walk with Jesus, and if we have, are we filled with the Holy Spirit? Don’t think that’s scriptural? Look at Acts 4:31. When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God courageously. (emphasis mine). This was after the 3000 souls were saved and after they had been imprisoned for healing a lame man in the name of Jesus. They had already received the Holy Spirit and this time they were filled. Notice that they had been praying and that afterwards they spoke with boldness.
A note of caution, the Holy Spirit is referred to as “He” not “She” or “it” See John 16:13. The Holy Spirit is not electricity or power in that sense but gives us divine spiritual power to accomplish the things of God, for the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. If we are not operating in the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit then we will not be able to fulfill God’s plan and purpose for our lives. Trying to do good in our own strength and wisdom may look cool and we may help someone but to fulfill your appointments in God’s kingdom you need the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit so Pentecost is significant in that God gave us the Holy Spirit to be our guide, comforter and power to live the righteous life that God deserves from us, living here on earth, for Him.
May we all think and pray and ask Jesus to lead us into all truth through the Holy Spirit for His glory, not just on Pentecost Sunday but every day of our life on earth.