This holy day was known as the Festival of Weeks,
or, more simply, Weeks (Shavuot in Hebrew). This name comes from an expression
in Leviticus 23:16, which instructs people to count seven weeks or “fifty days”
from the end of Passover to the beginning of the next holy day (pentekonta
hemeras in the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scripture).
Shavuot was the second great feast in Israel’s
yearly cycle of holy days. It was originally a harvest festival (Exod 23:16),
but, in time, turned into a day to commemorate the giving of the law on Mt.
Sinai. This day became especially significant for Christians because, seven
weeks after the resurrection of Jesus, during the Jewish celebration of
Shavuot/Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon his first followers,
thus empowering them for their mission and gathering them together as a church.
This event is recorded in the New Testament book
known as The Acts of the Apostles. Chapter 2 begins, “And when the day of
Pentecost [ten hemeran tes pentekostes] had come, [the first followers of
Jesus] were all together in one place” (2:1). All of a sudden, a sound came
from heaven, like a strong wind, filling the house where the people had
gathered. 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).
At some point, Peter, one of the leading followers
of Jesus, stood up and preached his first sermon. He interpreted the events of
that morning in light of a prophecy of the Hebrew prophet Joel. In that text,
God promised to pour out his Spirit on all flesh, empowering diverse people to
exercise divine power. This would be a sign of the coming “day of the Lord”
(Acts 2:16-21; Joel 2:28-32).
Peter went on to explain that Jesus had been
raised and had poured out the Spirit in fulfillment of God’s promise through
Joel (2:32-33). When the crowd asked what they should do, Peter urged them to
turn their lives around by repenting and being baptized in the name of Jesus.
Pentecost knits together several themes, emphases,
and experiences. I will share four ways that Pentecost matters today.
1. The
Presence and Power of the Spirit
What happened on the first Pentecost continues to
happen to disciples throughout the world today, though usually not in such a
dramatic fashion. We rarely get a heavenly wind and tongues of fire anymore.
Nevertheless, God pours out His Spirit upon all who put their faith in Jesus
Christ and become his disciples.
Disciples are meant to live in the presence and
power of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit helps us to confess Jesus as Lord
(1 Cor. 12:3), empowers us to serve God with supernatural power (1 Cor.
12:4-11), binds us together as the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13), helps us
to pray (Rom 8:26), and even intercedes for us with God the Father (Rom 8:27).
The Spirit guides us (Gal 5:25), helping us to live like Jesus (Gal 5:22-23).
Pentecost presents us with an opportunity to
consider how we are living each day. Are we relying on the power of God’s
Spirit? Are we an open channel for the Spirit’s gifts? Are we attentive to the
guidance of the Holy Spirit? Is the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, )
growing in our lives? Most disciples, live in the presence and power of the
Spirit, but only to an extent. We are limited by our fear, our sin, our low
expectations, not to mention our tendency to be distracted from God’s work in
us. Pentecost offers a chance to confess our failure to live by the Spirit and
to ask the Lord to fill us afresh with his power.
2. The Central Role of the Church in God’s Work
in the World
On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended on
individual followers of Jesus as they were gathered together in Jerusalem. This
gathering became the first Christian church. New believers in Jesus were
baptized as they joined this church. They, along with the first followers of
Jesus, shared life together, focusing on teaching, fellowship, breaking of
bread, and prayer. They shared their belongings so that no one was hungry or
needy. As these first Christians lived out their new faith together, “the Lord
added to their number those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). Thus we speak of
Pentecost as the birthday of the church.
The fact that the Spirit was given to a gathering
of believers is not incidental. It underscores the centrality of the church in
God’s work in the world. The actions of the earliest Christians put all of this
in boldface. The Holy Spirit is not only given to individuals, but also, in a
sense to the gathered people of God. Thus, in 1 Corinthians 3, the Apostle Paul
observes that the church is God’s temple and that the Spirit dwells in the
midst of the church.
Many disciples, especially those of us who have
been influenced by the individualism of American culture, live as if the church
is useful but unnecessary. We seem to believe that as long as we have a
personal relationship with God, everything else is secondary. But Pentecost is
a vivid illustration of the truth that is found throughout Scripture: the
community of God’s people is central to God’s work in the world. Thus,
Pentecost invites us to consider our own participation in the fellowship,
worship, and mission of the church. It is a time to renew our commitment to
live as an essential member of the body of Christ, using our gifts to build the
church and share the love and justice of Christ with the world.
3. The Multilingual Nature and Mission of the
Church
On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit empowered believers
in Jesus to praise God in many languages that they had not learned in the
ordinary manner (Acts 2:5-13). Symbolically, this miracle reinforces the
multilingual, multicultural, multiracial mission of the church. We are to be a
community in which all people are drawn together by God’s love in Christ. As
Paul writes in Galatians 3:28: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no
longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are
one in Christ Jesus.”
Although there are some glorious exceptions, it
seems that the church has not, in general, lived out its multilingual mission.
We are often divided according to language, race, and ethnicity. Pentecost
challenges all of us to examine our own attitudes in the regard, to reject and
repent of any prejudice that lurks within us, and to open our hearts to all
people, even and especially those who do not share our language and culture.
Yes, I know this is not easy. But it is central to our calling. And it is
something that the Spirit of God will help us to do if we are available.
4. The Inclusive Ministry of the Church
After the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples of
Jesus, Peter preached a sermon to help people understand what had just
happened. In this sermon he cited a portion of a prophecy from Joel “In the
last days,’ God says, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants–men and women alike–and
they will prophesy. (Acts 2:17-18; Joel 2:28-29)
Later, Peter explained that the Spirit would be
given to all who turned from their sin and turned to God through Jesus (Acts
2:38).
This was a momentous, event. For the first time in
history, God began to do what he had promised through Joel, empowering all
different sorts of people for ministry. Whereas in the era of the Old
Testament, the Spirit was poured out almost exclusively on prophets, priests,
and kings, in the age of the New Testament, the Spirit would be given to “all
people.” All would be empowered to minister regardless of their gender, age, or
social position.
Although
this truth would not mean that every disciple would be gifted for every kind of
ministry, it did imply that all disciples would be empowered by the Spirit. The
church would be a place where every single person matters, where every member
contributes to the health and mission of the church
(see Eph 4:11-16).
Each
of us needs to ask: Am I serving God through the power of the Spirit? Am I
exercising the gifts of the Spirit in my life, both in the gathered church and
as I live for God in the world? Pentecost is a time to ask God to fill us
afresh with the Spirit so that we might join in the ministry of Christ .
It is a time to renew our commitment to
fulfilling our crucial role in the ministry of God’s people in the world.
Those
of us who hold positions of power in the church should examine our attitudes
and actions. Are we encouraging all of God’s people to minister through the
power of the Spirit? Are we open to what the Spirit of God wants to do in our
churches and communities through his empowered people? Or are we gatekeepers of
the church who would even keep the Holy Spirit out of our carefully tended and
controlled communities? As a pastor, my role is to equip
God’s people for doing the ministry of Christ in the church and the world (Eph
4:11-12). Pentecost is a day for pastors
and other church leaders to recommit to equipping and encouraging all disciples
for their ministry. When we do this, the Holy Spirit will be free to use the
church of Jesus Christ for God’s purposes in the world.
Make today a day of Impact for the Kingdom.
Pastor Todd A. Brown
First Baptist of Chesterbrook
1740 Kirby Rd. Mclean Va. 22101
Vision:" Disciples Making a Kingdom Impact"
Mission: Exalting, Evangelizing, Equipping, and Encouraging every soul in Christ
Listen to "Life Notes" & "Kingdom Impact with Pastor Brown
Mon-Fri at noon and Sundays at 9am and Wednesdays at 9pm on WBGRonline.comwww.fbcc-va.org
