Yes, Robin was at church today, and he, too, had a comment to share about the Fiftieth Day.
John 15:25-27,16:4b-15; Romans 8:22-27; Psalm 104:24-34,35b; Acts 2:1-21
Happy Day 50! That’s what Pentecost means after all — it’s the Jewish festival that is 50 days after the passover, hence, Pentecost. It’s sometimes called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of the Harvest. It’s the day when the Israelites would bring the first produce of their harvest to the temple/tabernacle to celebrate God’s provision, in this case his provision of grain and food for the people. So it’s rather appropriate that on the day the Jews celebrate God’s provision that the Holy Spirit shows up, fulfilling what Jesus promised.
The group of believers, which Acts 1:15 tells us was somewhere around 120 people at this point, was gathered together in a reasonably public place, likely doing what the end of Luke’s gospel said they were doing, namely praising God. All of a sudden, the sound of a loud wind filled the place where they were. Now, every so often, we’ll get the sound of wind where we are at the church, especially since we’re so close to the canyon. So we can relate to a loud windy sound. What’s harder for us to relate with is what happened next, where “what seemed to be tongues of fire” coming to rest on each of the disciples. Then, filled with the Holy Spirit, they all started to speak in other languages.
It just so happened that there were a number of God-fearing people from all over the place near the disciples. The event was so noticeable that they formed a crowd around the disciples, and everyone was quite confused, because they all heard the disciples speaking in the languages of their homelands: people from modern-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Libya, Italy, Crete, and Saudi Arabia — basically from all around the Mediterranean.
So, as often happens in these situations, most of the people were completely amazed at this. A few, however, were convinced the disciples were just drunk. So Peter stood up and said, “Let me tell you what’s going on. First off, we’re not drunk — it’s only 9 am! — this is what the prophet Joel was talking about: that God will send his Spirit to all people and amazing things will be seen in heaven and on earth. You all know about Jesus of Nazareth and what happened 50 days ago — well Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, and is the Messiah we’ve been waiting for.”
Then, the people listening asked, “What do we do?” Peter responded, “Repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ and you will receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter continued to talk to them, and at the end of the day the church grew from 120 to over 3000 people. With the arrival of the Holy Spirit everything changed for the believers. They stopped spending all their time at the temple or in hiding, and instead went out to heal, preach, and teach wherever they went.
Now, nearly 2000 years after the fact, we are still empowered by the Holy Spirit. This same Spirit, as Jesus says in John 16, convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment; guides us into truth; brings glory to the Father; and takes from what is Jesus’ and gives it to us. Paul writes in Romans 8 that the Spirit helps us in our weakness, intercedes for us when we don’t know what to pray for, and gives us hope for the redemption of the whole world.
Just like the disciples on Pentecost Day, because of the Holy Spirit we too are empowered to do remarkable things. Be it offering prayers of healing for those who are sick, telling someone about God’s love for us in Jesus Christ, or anything else as we go through our Christian life. And on this day of Pentecost, we celebrate the Spirit’s presence in our lives, strengthening us to do God’s will.