Day of Pentecost

The Day of Pentecost is one of two comings of the Holy Spirit, and the preacher would do well to have the whole movement in view. The first is related in the John 20 passage, when Jesus breathes on his disciples, creating the apostolic ministry by imparting the Holy Spirit. This seed later comes to full flower in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit rushes upon the whole church.

First, in the private upper room, Jesus breathes life into his body on earth, recalling the breath of life given by God to Adam at the dawn of creation. Jesus’ breath is not just a commissioning, but an incorporation of his Apostles into his own body by giving them his own life and authority. Later, in the public gathering, the breath whips into a wind that comes upon the whole congregation in a miracle that symbolizes the church’s mission: to preach the good news to the world.

The timing of the day is propitious. The Day of Pentecost in the Feast of Weeks is harvest time, setting the stage for God’s harvest of the world, bringing the wheat into his barns awaiting the separation of the good wheat from the darnel at the final judgment (Matt. 13:30). Pentecost also traditionally celebrated the giving of the Law. The miracle of the tongues allows each person to hear the Apostle’s teaching in their own native language, fulfilling the promise in Ezekiel, that the new covenant would write God’s law onto the hearts of the people.

Hence, it is too simplistic to title Pentecost “the day the Holy Spirit came” or even “the church’s birthday,” because the reality is much richer. It is the culmination of a process of birthing the church into the world. Everything Christ has done has been to midwife his church into the world. The labor pains are on the Cross, the delivery is at the Resurrection, the first breath outside the womb comes in the Upper Room, and at Pentecost the baby gives its first cry, breathing out the breath it has received to the world in the message of the gospel.