The Day of Pentecost

This is a synopsis, or quick review, of the sermon for Sunday morning, May 19, 2024.  I am only hitting the highlights of the message, not reproducing the entire sermon.

First Scripture Reading:  Acts 2:1-21 & 37-39

Today is Pentecost Sunday!  50 days after the resurrection of Christ, and the birthday of the Church!  The Jew had three major Holy Days when all males were to appear before the Lord at the Tabernacle or Temple.  Passover, Pentecost (Festival of Weeks), & The Day of Atonement (Yom Kupper).   After the Babylonians expelled Israel from the Promised Lands, the political situation and distance made it impossible to make three trips to the “Holy City” each year feasible.  So, Jews from throughout the world, even beyond the Roman Empire, made trips only when they were able.  Pentecost was one of those days when many of the faithful would gather at the new Temple in Jerusalem.  Both persons of Jewish decent and the growing number of Gentile converts to Judaism, called “Proselytes” ventured there.

The original Holy Day, called the Feast of Weeks in the OT, was the first day of the week, seven weeks after Passover, or 50 days after Passover, thus the Greek term Pentecost.  On this day the OT Jews offered up the “first fruits” offering of their wheat offering to God.  They said in essence, “Thank you for the harvest, this is the first cuttings, and by faith I believe there will be more to harvest with which I can feed myself and my family.

The “First Fruits” were waved before the altar, then given to the priests.  This symbolically represented a statement of faith.  “You, God, have given me this harvest, so I will return to you the first of it, trusting you will reward me with more, on which I and my family will live.” 

It further had a futuristic meaning they did not understand, followers of the Messiah, “The Church,” born on this Pentecost day. It was a small minority of Christ-followers on earth, who look forward to the day when all on earth will be “believers” and will live in peace in the kingdom of God, with Messiah-Christ ruling over us.  The Church is the “first fruits” of the Kingdom still to come.  The understanding on how it will be achieved differs between various scholars of Scripture.

The last time we were together, I spoke about Jesus’ ascension to heaven.  He told His disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit.  For ten days, a group of disciples, men and women, prayed in the “Upper Room” for Christ to send the Spirit.  Then on Pentecost morning, He, the Holy Spirit, arrived with power to energize the disciples to spread the word of Jesus’ resurrection eventually to the whole world. 

On Pentecost there were “temporarily staying” in Jerusalem all sorts of Jews and proselytes from all over the world, even from beyond the Roman Empire proper.  Each of these people had a native tongue, which they normally spoke.  There were “trade languages” like Greek, Latin, or Aramaic which were known well enough to speak to foreigners.  “Eastern Jews” knew enough Hebrew to hear a sermon or Scripture reading in Synagogue but did not know how to speak it themselves.  The non-native languages were usually limited except by merchant traders, who used them enough to be fluent.

Suddenly, on this “first day of the week,” the prayer meeting in the Upper Room was interrupted by the sound of a great wind.  Down from the big and noisy wind came “tongues of fire” which divided and rested upon each of them.  Look at the candle on the altar.  See how the flame resembles a tongue.  That is where we get the term “tongue of fire.”  That was the physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God who came and rested upon each of these praying disciples.

Now a word about the disciples is in order.  The majority of the 120 persons (Acts 1:36) in the upper room were “ignorant” persons, by which we mean they had never gone to school, or did not get much “book learn’n.”  Yes, Nicodemus probably was among them, but the “common disciple” was a common working man or woman with little or no schooling, and not having any language training beyond their own Galilean Jewish dialect of Aramaic and a little Koine Greek.

Yet as a crowd gathered to see what this “wind and fire” was all about, each person heard these 120 Galileans speaking in the hearers own native language, telling of the greatness of God and what He had done.

Think about that for a minute.  Unlearned common Galileans were conversing with a Persian, or a Roman, or an Egyptian in the hearers own vernacular vocabulary, dialect, and grammar.  This is amazing.  Never had anything like this even been thought of, much less experienced before.  It was a sign of significance to the Jews.

However, some mocked.  “These people must be drunk!”  There must be some sort of trick here.  Peter replied, it’s only nine in the morning (3rd hour of the day).  The taverns all closed last night and have not opened yet.  How could this be drunkenness.  I am no expert of drunkenness, but from what I have seen, no drunkard ever started speaking fluently in their own mother tongue, much less a language he has never learned.

Peter goes on to proclaim, “This must be the sign of the arrival of the Holy Spirit, just as promised in the OT book of Joel.”  Acts 2:17-21 is a quotation of Joel 2:28-32a explaining events of the last days before Messiah (Christ) invades the earth, rescues His own, and establishes His Kingdom.  Old men will dream dreams, young men will see visions.  The Holy Spirit will be poured out on all believers. 

Most important of all is that anyone who “calls upon the LORD will be saved.”  In the OT, salvation was offered to any who were willing to become a member of the Jewish “Commonwealth.”  Now salvation was opened to any who “called upon the LORD.”  Look at the context of Joel.  The enemy is invading Israel.  Israel is overwhelmed with an invasive warfare.  Then Messiah comes in the sky with His mighty army.  All who “cry out” to Him for deliverance from the invading hordes of evil and sin will be saved or delivered.

Now the Kingdom is still future.  Yet the “First Fruits” or Church exists on earth today as loyalists to the King, Jesus Christ, who has promised to return to rescue His own and establish His rule over the world.  Christ has given the Holy Spirit to indwell these “First Fruits” in order to have the power to deliver the message of “freedom from sin” to all who will follow Him.  God is calling, even today, His people, the Church, to continue telling the “wonderful works of God” to our world, and drawing people into this “First Fruit Kingdom.”  What does an individual need to do to join the “first fruits?”  Peter tells us in Acts 2:38-39.  “Repent,” or turn around, and be baptized, make a public confession of your belief in Christ, and receive the same Holy Spirit that Peter and the 120 disciples received.  Make sure you do that today if you never have before.

God Bless.  

CH Jim Odell