Pentecost: "What Does This Mean?"

 

Last week we referred to the final words of Jesus to his disciples in Luke’s gospel account. The last thing Jesus said to them was, “…stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high,” (Luke 24:49). They waited. Then, on a certain day, God fulfilled his promise, and the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and some strange things happened. And just as Jesus had said, the disciples were empowered to be witnesses of the risen Christ. 

            We call this day the Day of Pentecost. Some would say this is the day the church was born – I don’t think that is accurate. Others would say that this was when the Holy Spirit came, as if he was nonexistent before this day – that’s not right either. God is eternally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – he has always been three persons, one God. Pentecost marks the day when God poured out his Spirit on all who called his Son, Jesus, Lord. 

            Luke, the author of Acts, makes a lot of assumptions in his brief account of this Pentecostal event. He assumes that the reader knows what Pentecost means. He assumes that we know about Jewish feasts and their purposes. He assumes that we caught the significance of wind, fire, and speaking foreign languages. In his assumptions, Luke leaves us scratching our heads like the watching crowds in Jerusalem that day who asked, “What does this mean?” 

            What we do know is that without the Holy Spirit, following Jesus would be impossible. Without the Holy Spirit there would be no life in the church since he is the life giver. There would be no truth, no fellowship, no unity, no Christlikeness, no fruit, and thus no witness without the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Church without the Spirit is dead. 

            Would you not agree then that focusing on the Holy Spirit is worthy of our attention this morning? If he is so central to the life of God’s people, asking “What does this mean?” is an unavoidable question for you and me. 

What does the term “Pentecost” mean? (2:1)

 

To answer that question, we need to look at the Lord’s instructions to Israel in Leviticus 23. There we read that there were three great Jewish festivals to which every Jew was bound by the law to celebrate – the Passover and the feast of first-fruits, Pentecost (Feast of Weeks), and the Feast of Trumpets (Tabernacles). You may be thinking: “This Jewish ritual stuff is confusing, and it is beyond me.” But I want to give you a brief glimpse into why it matters.

            You will remember that Passover is a commemoration of when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and the angel of death came to kill the firstborn male of every family. Unless they sacrificed a lamb and smeared the blood on the doorposts of their homes, someone was going to die. For centuries after this event, the Jews observed Passover in their homes. The next day they celebrated the Feast of Firstfruits, a celebration of the grain offering. 

            When Jesus was hanging on the cross, it is said that the lambs were being slaughtered for the observance of Passover the next day. Jesus, the Lamb of God, died, and his blood covers those who believe in him. Then, the day after Passover, the firstfruits of the harvest were presented to the Lord. That’s the same day that Jesus rose from the grave, the firstfruits of those who would be resurrected on the day of the Lord (1 Cor. 15:20). 

            Fifty days later, another grain harvest was celebrated. “Pentecost” means “fifty.” The feast had a historical significance in that it commemorated the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. It was also a Jewish day of Thanksgiving for the grain harvest. No work was to be done on that day. It is no wonder that the streets of Jerusalem were crowded on the Day of Pentecost. 

            A possible parallel could be made: Just as Moses went up to receive the law and then brought it down to the people, so also Jesus ascended to the Father from whom he received the Spirit, which he in turn gave to the people. Instead of a law written on tablets of clay, the gift of the Spirit is given to write the law on the hearts of believers.  

            So, we read, “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place,” (1). 

 

Signs that Introduce Something New (2-4)

 

Then in verse 2 we read, “And suddenly…” I want to emphasize that the Holy Spirit is free and sovereign. “Suddenly” means that the disciples were not expecting what would happen next. And the Holy Spirit is not subject to our timing or activities that he should come running when we call. We cannot make him come. When he comes, he comes of his own choosing and blesses us as he decides. 

            It is also important that we acknowledge that the signs we will talk about are not the Holy Spirit, they are signs announcing his coming. Just as the sign “Welcome to Winnipeg,” is not Winnipeg itself, the signs are not the Spirit. At the same time, the signs are not random but carry a weight of meaning. 

1) Why the sound of rushing wind? “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting,” (2).

            The biblical words for “spirit” (Hebrew ruach; Greek pneuma) are onomatopoeic terms. That means that the words imitate the sound associated with the objects they refer to, like “crack” or “whiz.” Ruach and pneuma sound like rushing wind when you say them. 

            In both the OT and NT, the word for “spirit” is also the word for “wind.” Consider Genesis 1:2 where the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. That was the ruach elohim, the Spirit or wind of God, the creative agent at work in Earth’s first day. Throughout the Bible, wind is associated with God’s Spirit. When Jesus explained what it meant to be born of the Spirit to Nicodemus, he compared the Holy Spirit with wind saying, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit,” (John 3:8). 

            The “sound like a mighty rushing wind” echoes the imagery of God’s creation power in Genesis suggesting that the Pentecost event was the beginning of the New Creation.

2)Why the tongues of fire? “And divided tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them,” (3). 

            Fire symbolizes God’s holy presence, so it makes sense that tongues of fire would be included in this scene. Moses encountered the burning bush that was not consumed; Israel was led through the wilderness by a pillar of fire. John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And Jesus even said, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled,” (Luke 12:49). I believe he was hinting at the Pentecost event. 

            At times the Holy Spirit makes himself known with visible, audible, and significant manifestations. Sometimes the building shakes (Acts 4); Stephen’s face shone like an angel’s (Acts 7). Why he does this at certain times and other times not is part of his sovereign wisdom. He is not fire, however, nor is he wind or a dove. He is not a warm glow. And we cannot nail him down and say “this is the experience of the Holy Spirit. Why don’t you have it?” The Spirit freely chooses to reveal himself how and when it suits his purposes.

3) Why the speaking in foreign tongues? “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance,” (4). 

            The third sign of speaking languages that the disciples had never learned was as perplexing to the hearers as the other two signs. On the morning of Pentecost, the disciples spoke in various languages so that the visitors to Jerusalem heard the gospel in their own language. Jerusalem was a city of about 30 thousand people on an ordinary day. During these festivals, the population of Jerusalem swelled to two or three hundred thousand. Some scholars even say a million people were present. According to Luke, there were devout men from every nation under heaven (5). They were there for the feasts, but there was also a messianic expectation in the air. If you scan verses 5-10 you will see these nations listed. Look familiar? It is the Table of Nations from Genesis 10:1-32. 

            What happens following Genesis 10? The descendants of Noah decide to build a tower to give themselves a name, to become great. God sees this and knows that this will be trouble. So, he confuses their language, the result being disunity and failure to understand each other. This tower becomes known as Babel, a play on babbling lips. 

            At Pentecost, the curse is reversed. The Pentecost event became the staging ground for the arrest of Babel’s confusion. The message of the gospel of the risen Lord would now be proclaimed in all languages so that both Jew and Gentile would be reconciled into one people of God. 

When the disciples came boiling out of the house they were in, the crowds in Jerusalem heard something new. Luke tells us what the crowd heard, “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God,” (11). You could say that the disciples were overflowing with worship and praise. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And being filled with the Spirit is another way of saying they were overwhelmed with the greatness of God. That’s what it means to be full of the Spirit – when we are filled with the Spirit, we are experiencing what the Spirit knows to be true about the Father. 

Before Pentecost, this experience was limited to a few people like David or the Psalmists. Since Pentecost, this new thing is available to everyone.

 

What Pentecost means for us (11-13)

 

The math of Pentecost is a little disconcerting. If we take the lower number regarding the population of Jerusalem that day, there were near two hundred thousand people present. Of that number, only three thousand were added to the number of believers to form the new church. There is a reason for this and a caution.

            We read of two reactions to the Pentecost event in verses 12-13: “And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others mocking said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’”

            The reason for the lower number given the audience is that whenever the Holy Spirit is poured out in extraordinary power, there is division, even among Christians. There will be those who welcome the Holy Spirit, even with his strange manifestations, and will investigate this experience with eagerness and biblical inquiry. Others will stand apart from the experience with cynicism and skepticism and write off the enthusiasm as hype or emotionalism. Just like the mockers, they will say, “They are filled with new wine.” 

            Mennonites tend to be wary of charismatic experiences, and with good reason. Our own conference has known division and other negative results over the last 200 years. Consequently, we are hesitant to open ourselves up to Holy Spirit movements. 

            I remember a Pentecostal pastor in Winnipeg saying that he admired Mennonites for their knowledge of the Bible. It was a quality missing in his own congregants. But what his congregation possessed was enthusiasm for the Spirit and because of the Spirit. What if we had both? What if we allowed the Spirit to activate our knowledge of the Bible to do greater things for God? 

            In Ephesians we are told to “be filled with the Spirit,” (5:18). Colossians is a near carbon copy of Ephesians in many ways. An almost identical command is given to the Colossians when Paul said, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly…” (Col 3:16). To let the Word of Christ dwell in you is intimately related to being filled with the Spirit. The Word and the Spirit work together in the believer. Then the Holy Spirit reshapes you to become like Christ. This is what Pentecost means for us; this is what the Holy Spirit does in your life and mine.

        As you are filled with the Word, you are filled with the Spirit – and as you are filled with the Spirit, the Word begins to make sense. The Holy Spirit illuminates the scriptures planted in our hearts. 

  

Dwight Moody was an American evangelist and pastor in the nineteenth century. That’s so long ago it almost seems like another world to us, but I want to share his story because it resonates with our attitude to the Spirit. 

            In the summer of 1871, two women in Moody’s congregation were led to pray for their pastor. They specifically prayed that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit and the fire of his person. Moody would see them praying and was irritated by their efforts. Perhaps there was a resistance to the Spirit, or maybe he felt that they were presumptuous about his needs. But he soon gave in and began to pray with them since he felt like this ministry had gone flat. 

            On November 24, 1871, Moody’s church building was destroyed in the great Chicago fire. He went to New York to see if he could find financial help to rebuild. As he walked the streets seeking help and simultaneously desperate for a touch of God’s power in his life, he suddenly experienced the touch of God.

            He wrote, “One day, in the city of New York – oh, what a day! – I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name…I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different…yet hundreds were converted.” (W. R. Moody, The Life of D. L. Moody, New York: 1900, p. 149).

            Can you imagine having to ask God to STOP pouring out his love? I can’t handle it, Lord, not so much. What an experience that would be. That must have been what the 120 disciples felt on Pentecost – overwhelming worship and praise that spills out into the community.    

            I pray that we would know the overflowing power of the Spirit’s presence.                        AMEN