Pentecost: What Does It Mean?

Sermon by Judy Turner

Today marks one of the major annual celebrations of the Christian calendar: Pentecost. Although most people in our culture have some vague awareness that we’re celebrating the birth of Jesus at Christmas and the resurrection of Jesus at Easter, you might get a confused look if you mention Pentecost. Did anybody here have someone at Wal Mart wish you a Happy Pentecost this weekend? Maybe we’re glad that marketers have not found a way to commercialize one of the greatest things God has done in human history. But the sad thing is, many Christians don’t know what Pentecost means. This morning let’s take a few moments to think about Pentecost: What does it mean?

What It Meant Then
First, let’s talk about the original event and what it meant to the first disciples of Jesus. Their story is recorded in the book of Acts, Acts 2:1-8.
Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. So, what’s the day of Pentecost? Jesus came as a Jew, living among the people of Israel who had religious celebrations remembering the mighty acts of God in history. One of their religious celebrations was the Passover, when they remembered God delivering their ancestors from their bondage in Egypt. Jesus was crucified during this Passover observance. Three days afterwards, he rose from the dead, the event that forever removed the power and fear of death and opened eternal life to all who place their trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. For 40 days after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to His followers at various times in his resurrected body. Then he ascended into heaven, promising His followers that He would be with them in a new way through His Holy Spirit, and instructing them to wait in Jerusalem and pray for the fulfillment of this promise. And that when the Holy Spirit came, they would receive power to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. Now, about 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven, the time came for the observance of another Jewish festival called Pentecost. Pentecost was observed 50 days after the Passover, and it was a harvest festival. About this time of year we are receiving God’s provision of food as we’re harvesting the first onions and lettuce. In Palestine they were thanking God for the first harvest of grain at Pentecost. Just as there were lots of people in Jerusalem for Passover, when Jesus was crucified, there were lots of Jews from all over the known world for the Pentecost festival. God’s always chooses the right time for His momentous works to have the greatest impact. We’re going to see that the Holy Spirit comes and empowers the followers of Jesus to communicate with these different groups of people and the result will be God gathering diverse groups of people into one new fellowship called the church of Jesus Christ. This particular day of Pentecost was going to be a great harvest for God.

But back to verse 1. Note that the followers of Jesus were all together in one place. They were following Jesus’ instructions to wait and pray. They were obviously obedient, which is one of the reasons God was able to come into their lives in a new way. But I believe another reason God was able to do this amazing miracle in them and through them, was that they were seeking and wanting all that God wanted to give them, even though they probably had no idea what it would be like for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. Verses 2-4 is the attempt to describe in words what is beyond the power of words to describe. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?”

What Pentecost meant for the first disciples of Jesus was they received new abilities to communicate with people about Jesus, and a passion to continue His work that overcame their fear. Those fear-bound disciples who hadn’t even been able to claim that they knew Jesus in their own language now began to speak in other languages. They told of the mighty works of God. And people were amazed to hear the disciples’ witness in words they could understand. Some responded by scoffing and discounting the whole event. But some responded with faith and became followers of Jesus. About 3,000 people were baptized and added that day to the company of the followers of Jesus.

What It Means Now
So that is the event of Pentecost, what it originally meant 2000 years ago. But what does it mean to me and to us today that the Holy Spirit came into our world and continues to live in the lives of the followers of Jesus? Let’s unwrap this amazing gift of the Holy Spirit to see what the gift means. I have listed here just some of the scriptures that describe who the Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit does in our lives:

Counselor
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—
John 14:16

Revealer of Truth
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. John 14:16-17

Teacher
"All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:25-26

Changes Us
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. Romans 8:9

Prays for Us
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
Romans 8:26

Gives Special Abilities
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. Ephesians 4:11-12

Empowers Us to Witness
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 1:8

Have I received the Holy Spirit?
In this church we take the points from Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost to simply describe what it means to receive new life in Christ. We call it “The Five Finger Exercise: faith, repentance, baptism, forgiveness of sins, gift of the Holy Spirit. The first three actions are our response to the good news of new life available to us as followers of Jesus. We choose to believe, to place our trust in Jesus. We repent and turn away from self-centered living and walk with Jesus as Lord. Then we receive what God does: forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. If we have asked Jesus to be our Savior and Lord, we have received the gift of His Holy Spirit. Let this pitcher of water represent our lives in Christ. This packet of Alka-Seltzer represents the gift of the Holy Spirit. Drop it in the water still in the package. It’s there, but not much is happening in the pitcher of water, just as we can have the Holy Spirit in our lives, but not be experiencing much of the Spirit’s reality and power. We can choose to hang on to our pride, our attitudes toward people, our habits, our comfort zones. We can choose to say, “God, I want you in my life, but don’t do anything that would change my world or make me uncomfortable or embarrassed.” That’s like having the Holy Spirit within us, but not able to act, like the Alka-Seltzer still in the package.

But we have another choice we can make – every day, sometimes moment by moment. When we unwrap the packet and drop it into this second pitcher of water, we demonstrate that other choice. We can say, “God, I want everything you have for me. I’m not going to limit you or put restrictions on your freedom in my life. I’m willing to be as 100 percent for you as you enable me to be. I’m asking for the power of your Holy Spirit in my life to witness for you in what I do, what I say, and how I live.” You see, the power is not going to be fully released in our lives or in this congregation, until we want it. Like those disciples gathered in the upper room, we need to ask for it. The Holy Spirit never comes in like a bully violating our choice. The Holy Spirit lovingly waits to be invited. Our continually opening ourselves to God and asking is what releases the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It’s like taking the wrapper off the gift so the power is manifest in us and through us.

The Holy Spirit won’t make us wild-eyed religious fanatics. The Holy Spirit will make us more like Jesus, with His power to love people into the Kingdom of God. As we receive all God has for us, we become all God created us to be, fully alive in Christ, joyfully and effectively doing His work in the world.