The Lord be with you! Happy Birthday to the Body of Christ!
The festival known as “Pentecost” in the New Testament is as old as the Mosaic Law itself, having been established in the first few chapters of Exodus after Moses received the Ten Commandments. Yet you can’t find that name in the Old Testament, not even in the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. Pentecost simply means “50 days,” in the Christian context, that’s 50 days after Easter (Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, is considered “Day 1,” so subsequent Sundays are a multiple of 7 plus 1 in the day count[1]).
When it was established, it anticipated Israel being settled in the Promised Land, but of course it took them 40 years to get to that goal. In Exodus, what became Pentecost was originally the “Festival of Weeks” or “Festival of Harvest.” It occurred 50 days from the Sabbath of the Passover week. The Jews considered it a sacred day, a Sabbath if you will, and was one of the three festivals in the year where men had to appear before the Lord at the Tabernacle/Temple.
Even though the Greek New Testament uses the term πεντηκοστή pentēkostē, some English-speaking Christian traditions as early as the 12th century called it “Whitsunday,” for the white robes new converts wore after being baptized on that Sunday. It was common for the churches in the Middle Ages to set aside sacred days like Easter and Pentecost for confirming young communicants or recognizing those who completed the catechism and were baptized.
The name Pentecost, then, seems to blur what might otherwise be an obvious connection between what the festival represents historically and what Jesus said about his own ministry, why it makes the day of Pentecost that much more significant for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the church. What did Jesus say about the harvest? Maybe you’ve already made the connection to John 4:35: “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”[2] Jesus had said much about the harvest, usually in connection with the end times, but in Acts 2, the harvest theme seems to be in the background.
In Joel chapter 2, in the verses leading up to the passage Peter quotes at the end of our NT reading this morning, the prophet speaks of God’s blessings in terms of a complete harvest:
21 Do not be afraid, land of Judah;
be glad and rejoice.
Surely the Lord has done great things!
22 Do not be afraid, you wild animals,
for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green.
The trees are bearing their fruit;
the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
23Be glad, people of Zion,
rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains
because he is faithful.
He sends you abundant showers,
both autumn and spring rains, as before.
24The threshing floors will be filled with grain;
the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. [3]
In light of this background, then, let’s look at Acts 2 more closely. When the 120 or so initial followers of Jesus[4] gathered on the day of Pentecost, I’m convinced they had absolutely no clue what was about to happen. They simply gathered because Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem. They were likely continuing to evangelize in Jerusalem, and the large crowd present for Pentecost (remember, a required feast for men to present themselves) was wondering about the gathering of the Jerusalem-based believers would bring about.
It’s not clear where they were gathered at. Chapter 1 says they had been staying at a house. Verse 2 suggests they are still in the house, so it must have been a very large place in a location near the heart of the city where many others could gather. The text tells us the sound of the wind was so powerful that people heard it from a few blocks away. They began to gather around the house and they begin to recognize they’re hearing the praises of God being spoken in their own language.
It’s significant here that the miracle is in the speaking and not the hearing. God-fearing Jews from all over the world at this event, and each one is getting the seed of the Gospel and the outpouring of the Spirit in their own language so they can take that message back to their own people. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that some of those who were empowered to speak in other languages, perhaps a language they had never learned or had limited exposure may have also been commissioned to be a missionary to those people. That’s essentially what the purpose is of the gift of tongues. It’s not a personal prayer language; it’s a gift to help spread the gospel to people and places distant from Jerusalem.
The place names mentioned are most likely not exhaustive. The area covered is immense, from Persia to Rome east to west, and from northern Turkey to Arabia north to south. Within one generation, the gospel will have spread through the eastern Mediterranean region and the entire Middle East. There is no discrimination based on race, gender, or language. God’s blessing is no longer solely upon the Jews. Let’s break down the quote from Joel.
We saw leading up to Christmas that Jesus made a point of showing his ministry was not just to the Jews exclusively but to the Gentiles as well. We see this in the rest of the book of Acts along with the 13 letters Paul would eventually write to the young churches. Not only that, but we see it in the interaction among the churches, especially when some of the churches in southern Europe provided support for the church in Jerusalem.
Sons and daughters will prophesy. Prophecy is not necessarily proclaiming the future, although we see hints of that in the book of Acts. Prophecy is at its most basic level is proclaiming the Word of God. We see plenty of that coming from folks who aren’t part of the inner circle. Priscilla and Aquila; Apollos; Timothy; Phoebe and many of the others mentioned at the end of Romans; and the list goes on.
Stories of signs and wonders have perpetuated throughout history. Constantine converted the Roman Empire to Christianity because he claimed to see a cross in the clouds and took that as divine appointment for his kingship. The Catholic Church claims to have validated several miracles, like the Lady of Fátima in Portugal in 1917.
However most of these “signs and wonders” seem to refer what will happen in the end times, as next verse refers to “the great and glorious day of the Lord.” Even as the church is being formed in its infancy here, the prophetic pronouncement of Peter here looks forward to the end of time. God wants to make sure the faith grows and that the whole world has the chance to hear the gospel eventually. The recent talk of revival breaking out is proof that the church is still fighting the good fight to get the gospel message out.
So the harvest that began on that first Pentecost after the resurrection is still going on even today. The promise of Joel, as affirmed by Peter, still holds true today as well: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And this missionary call still applies to us as well.
In Romans 10, Paul says this:
9If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”l 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”p
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[5]
You and I are called to help bring unbelievers into the harvest. Just as we can love others because he first loved us, so we can call others to God because God has called us to him. In fact, other than laying our life down for someone else, there is no greater love we can show to our fellow man than inviting them to join you on your walk with the Lord, to join the fellowship of the faithful.
The early church grew rapidly in the first few years after this event, and the church has continued to grow in certain cycles. In a culture that is hostile to Christianity, we shouldn’t be surprised to find that people are in fact coming back to church in greater numbers. In places like China where the church continues to operate underground for the most part, the number of believers continues to grow.
As we celebrate the birthday of the kingdom, let us also recommit ourselves to sharing the good news with those in our lives. We may feel like the culture is against us, but we have a God who is bigger than our culture. We may feel like world events are too much to handle, we have a God who is still in control. We have God who’s promised that as the church advances against the gates of hell, hell’s gates cannot withstand the onslaught. We know that we win in the end in the great and gloriously day of the Lord. Let us live in that victory even now. Amen.
Pastor Scott Stocking, M.Div.
My opinions are my own.
Not created with AI.
[1] For an in-depth excursus on how the Jews counted days, see my article Counting the Days: Acts 10 and Jewish Time References | Sunday Morning Greek Blog.
[2] John 4:35. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[3] Joel 2:21–24. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[4] Acts 1:15. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[5] Romans 10:9–15. The New International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
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