Devotion for Pentecost (Part 1)

Pentecost Sunday, 27 May 2012.  We observe another holy day of the Church on Sunday. Perhaps not so well known as Christmas or Easter, but it represents a watershed day in the early history of the Church. 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus, and 10 days after his ascension, God poured out his Spirit upon the Church. 120 followers of Jesus were filled with the Spirit and they represented all of God’s Church, including us. 

Pentecost Sunday remembers and celebrates that Jesus kept his promise that we will not be left alone after his ascension, but that God would send his Spirit to teach, guide and strengthen us, as we follow Christ and obey his command to spread his Word and Gospel across the globe.

Devotion for Pentecost (Part 1)

The English word “Pentecost” is a translation of a Greek word pentekostos, which means “fifty or fiftieth.”  It was not Christians who invented this name for our feast. They received it from Greek-speaking Jews who used this word to refer to a Jewish holy day, known as  Shavuot in Hebrew. It originates from Leviticus 23:16, which instructs believers to count “fifty days” from the end of Passover to the beginning of the next holy day, the Shavuot.

Shavuot was the second most important feast in Israel’s yearly series of holy days. It was a harvest festival (Exod 23:16), and later also included a celebration to remember the giving of the law on Mount Sinai.

This day became especially significant for Christians.  50 days after the resurrection of Jesus, who was crucified during the Jewish Passover feast, during the next Jewish holy day, Shavuot/Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon Christ’s first followers. The Spirit enabled and empowered them for their mission and constituted them as the Church of Christ.

What actually happened on that first Pentecost Sunday?

This event is recorded in The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2: “And when the day of Pentecost had come, [the first followers of Jesus] were all together in one place” (Acts2:1). All of a sudden, they heard a sound like a strong wind, filling the house. And something like tongues of fire rested on their heads. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak” (2:4).

The languages spoken miraculously on that day by the early Christians were known languages spoken by Jewish worshipers who came from many provinces, cities and nationalities, to celebrate the Jewish Shavuot.  They all could hear the Gospel in their mother tongue and were amazed by the Good News about Jesus, his sacrifice and his resurrection.  3000 new followers of Jesus came to Christ that day and were baptized into his Church.

But the promise that the Holy Spirit will fill God’s people and the Church of the Lord was not only for that generation. It was for all generations of believers. It was also for us.

We do not have to try to bring about God’s dominion and build the Church of the Lord in our own strength. The powerful “Wind”, the Spirit, and the cleansing passionate “Flame”, the same Spirit, will fill us anew and we too will be able to bring the Gospel to all – in his strength and through his wisdom.

Pray for the power, for being filled with the Holy Spirit, as we seek to do the Lord’s work and build up his Church amongst us.

May the Lord bless, keep and sustain you and grant you a blessed and empowering Pentecost!