On Thursday, May 8 many Christians around the world celebrated the Day of Pentecost. This is the day on the Christian calendar when we remember and celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the Jewish feast of Pentecost. Fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection and ten days after Jesus ascension, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus’ disciples.
In the time of the early church, Pentecost (also the “feast of weeks” or “first fruits”) was one of three Jewish pilgrimage festivals. The feast of Pentecost marked the completion of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. And it drew people from many nations back to Jerusalem. God’s dispersed people would gather at the Jerusalem Temple to offer gifts and sacrifices to God and to celebrate his gracious provision.
The significance of God sending the Holy Spirit during the festival of Pentecost is profound.
God poured out his Holy Spirit during the Jewish celebration of “first fruits” in order to communicate that the “first fruit” of God’s new creation has begun with the coming of the Holy Spirit. God’s gathered people were witnessing a further fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation.
What is more, when we consider the flow of the church calendar from Advent to Pentecost, we are confronted with an amazing truth:
In the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Messiah Jesus we witness the fulfillment of God’s multi-layered promise to Abraham and Israel. All God’s promises are “yes” in the Messiah Jesus (2 Cor 1.20). In the person and work of Jesus the curse of the fall is reversed, evil is defeated, the power of death is broken, and God’s worldwide family is established. In Jesus, God’s dispersed people are gathered and the return from exile and the forgiveness of sins are accomplished.
And now, with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, God tells us that the Messianic age and the era of the new covenant has dawned. God’s new creation has burst forth out of the old creation! A new humanity is established in Christ and the Spirit. The wall that once divided Jew and Gentile is torn down. And the racial, ethnic, gender, and socio-economic distinctions that once divided humans are done away with. “If anyone is in Christ: new creation!” declares Paul in 2 Cor 5.17. That’s what the Christian celebration of Pentecost is all about!
In a world that is divided because of hate, injustice, and war, God’s Spirit enables us to walk in the Jesus way of love and peace. Stanza 31 of the contemporary testimony Our World Belongs to God gives poetic articulation of this reality:
Jesus stays with us in the Spirit,
who renews our hearts,
moves us to faith,
leads us in the truth,
stands by us in our need,
and makes our obedience fresh and vibrant.
The Holy Spirit transforms us into the glory of Christ so that we can reflect his glory into the world. The Holy Spirit sets our minds on a life of peace and righteousness. And in the end, the powerful work of the Holy Spirit will bring us to experience resurrection life with Jesus Christ in God’s new creation.
That is the good news of Pentecost for us today!
