The Day of Pentecost | Eighth Sunday of Eastertide | Day Fifty of the Great Fifty
Today is The Day of Pentecost. It always falls on a Sunday. It is the Fiftieth Day since Easter Sunday, which is Day One of “The Great Fifty Days” known as the Season of Easter, which concludes today. The word “pentecost” is a Greek word meaning “fifty” and is the New Testament name for the Old Testament Feast of Weeks, a well-known yearly festival in ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai to Moses. It is sometimes called Whitsunday or “White Sunday.”
Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday, as it is most often called, are bookends for a great celebration of resurrection life. On Easter Sunday Jesus is resurrected by the power of God. On Pentecost Sunday the disciples are filled with the power of God as the Holy Spirit comes, enabling them to speak about the resurrection, which includes speaking about His life, suffering, death on the cross, and burial, in ways that all people could understand.
The story is recalled in Acts 2:1-4. The results are noted in the rest of Acts 2. The truth is that the results are noted over the course of the next 2,000 years or so! It is a dramatic event and comprehending it today is, perhaps, challenging. I’m not implying that no one knows what it is like to be “filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 4) since all believers should know something of what that is like. But on that first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, it is hard to imagine how overwhelmed those gathered in that “one place” (v. 1) were.
On the day of His ascension Jesus had ordered His disciples to “wait”in Jerusalem “until they had been clothed with power from on high” telling them that they would be “baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (see Luke 24:44-49 and Acts 1:1-5). It would be ten days to be specific (although they had no idea it was ten). And what a baptizing it was! It has led some to reference the first Pentecost Sunday after Jesus’ ascension as the Birthday of the Church. Another way to put it: Pentecost Sunday is to the Church what July 4 is to the United States.
Historically my Baptist tradition hasn’t done a very good job at observing, by way of some sort of celebration, the Day of Pentecost. Fortunately that has begun to change in recent decades. I know some say, “Well every day is a Day of Pentecost.” That is true. But every day is also an Easter Day; but there is a specific “day” set aside for acknowledging that Christ the Lord was resurrected. The same could be said of Christmas Day. In a sense, every day is a Christmas Day because every day Christ wishes to be born once more in our lives. But a “day” has been designated to confess that Christ the Lord was born. It stands to reason there should be a “day” to commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit marking the birthday of the Church and her mission in the world.
Pentecost is about power – “Pentecostal Power” as the old hymn lyric puts it. It is not secular-humanistic power. Rather, it is super-natural power that comes from God Himself in the Presence of the Holy Spirit. All believers have power – 100% complete power – because of the constant baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Give thanks for Pentecost. Celebrate it by worshipping with other saints. May the Holy Spirit fall today and every day on God’s Church throughout the world. Remember: none of us in Christ is powerless. And Pentecost is a testimony to this.
The song “Hymn of Pentecost” was published in little over a year ago. As you listen to the familiar tune read the really neat lyrics. It is two minutes thirty-four seconds.
My sermon for this Pentecost Sunday at Garden Lakes Baptist Church in Rome, GA, “Going to All Those Places You’ll Go in the Holy Spirit’s Power”, is based on Acts 2:1-4 and John 14:12-18, 25-27. It is appropriate that on this Day of Pentecost the church will dedicate two high school graduates – Connor Lancaster and Leslie Thompson. GLBC will also commission Cole Abbott who departs for missional service in Nepal. Bible Study for all ages is at 9:45 a.m. and the Worship Gathering is at 11:00 a.m. There is no 8:45 a.m. worship this morning.
The stained-glass at the top, “Pentecost,” is by Keiko Miura.
