The Day of Pentecost

Today is the day of Pentecost which is one of the most important days for both Christians and Jews but may be one of the most unknown dates among all people. This is the day considered by most to be the birth of the Christian church in the new age and takes place fifty days after the day, or feast, of Passover. We cannot forget the different events that led up to the Pentecost of the Christian faith.

When we think of the Passover feast and the Last Supper, we see Christ together with His disciples. Here, Christ informs His disciples that He would soon be leaving them but He would come back, again. This is often seen as the end of Christ’s Earthly ministry. Another significance of this day is that is when the Holy Spirit fell unto the Apostles and the followers of Christ that were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks (Acts 2:1-31). As we see from Acts 2:4, they spoke with tongues: ”And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

For Christians who believe in the Pentecost, the doctrine of the Trinity is significant to their faith. We see here and different times throughout scripture that the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is a part of Christ and is a part of the Godhead. Think about when Jesus was baptized by John. After the baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ: “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).

And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased”

–Luke 3:22

Christ tells His disciples that He will send a comforter unto them (John 16:6). When Jesus ascended into Heaven, forty days after His resurrection, ten days after His ascension, the day of Pentecost came. Pentecost is much more than just a day when Christ sent His spirit but it also saw a massive launch of spreading the Gospel. When Peter spoke to the crowd of people after he received the Holy Spirit, three thousand people were baptized in the name Christ: “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41).

It was mentioned earlier that this is a day important to both Christians and Jews and while the day is celebrated by both, it is celebrated for different reasons. For the Jews, it is celebrated to observe the day Moses was given the Ten Commandment on Mount Sinai after the Exodus. Like Christian tradition, the Jewish tradition celebrates Pentecost fifty days after the Passover. Pentecost is also significant as it fulfilled the promises that Christ gave in Luke 24:46-49:

“And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”

The day of Pentecost, while misunderstood by many, should be treated with importance and significance as Christmas or Easter. This day was not just about the beginning of a new age of Christianity or about another tradition but detailed the lengths that Christ would go to to reconnect His people with Him. Pentecost is much like a Christmas present to His people as He gifted to them the Holy Spirit. One of the most known Baptist evangelists, A.C. Dixon, had the following to say of Pentecost:

We need a quickening of faith; faith in the power of the God of
Pentecost to convict and convert three thousand in a day. Faith, not
in a process of culture by which we hope to train children into a
state of salvation, but faith in the mighty God who can quicken a
dead soul into life in a moment; faith in moral and spiritual
revolution rather than evolution.”