Pentecost

Pentecost plays a crucial role in salvation history. Yet there are many communities that claim to be Gospel oriented who do not celebrate Pentecost. In order to bring God’s people into a full experience of the Good News, an emphasis on Pentecost is necessary. Broadly speaking, Pentecost brings understanding to the followers of Jesus, empowers them in ministry, establishes the church, and points to the end of history when the kingdom of Christ will be established over all the earth.

First, Pentecost results in a clearer and deeper understanding of Jesus. Throughout his ministry Jesus taught his disciples the purpose of his presence on earth, referring in particular to his divine origin and his destiny in death and resurrection. Obviously these comments were veiled as his closest disciples failed to get it. During the forty days after his resurrection he also “spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3 NIV). Again, while the teaching may have been intense, greater clarity was achieved through the coming of the Holy Spirit. For by the insight of the Spirit, Peter declared that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the messianic hopes and was Lord. Here, in Acts 2:36, is the heart of the kerygma: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (NIV). This proclamation must have been clearly understood, for it was met with the dramatic question, “Brothers, what shall we do?” to which Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:37–38 NIV). While this was a start in understanding the faith, it was a crucial start. As we now know, the Spirit continued to pour out an understanding of the faith as recorded in the New Testament literature.

Second, the coming of the Holy Spirit resulted in a new empowerment. It was here that the mission of the church given by Jesus just before his ascension began to take form. Present at the feast of Pentecost were “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5 NIV). Shortly thereafter the message of God’s mission in Jesus Christ was proclaimed in the known world. The Spirit also provided gifts to God’s people. The gift of tongues was given to proclaim God’s message throughout the world—and as we follow the missionary journeys and the spread of the faith in the first century, other gifts of the Spirit unfold. One of these gifts is that the Spirit prays prayers for us that we are not able to utter (Rom. 8:27).

A third result of Pentecost is the church. Christians have always marked Pentecost Sunday as the birthday of the church. The church is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the continuation of the presence of Jesus in and to the world. The metaphor of “the body of Christ” that became common in the early church captures this incarnational dimension of the church. While Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, he is also completely present in a mystical way to his body, the church.

Finally, Pentecost points to the end of the world and to the establishment of God’s kingdom over all that God has created. Peter proclaims that Pentecost begins “the last days” and points to “the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord” (Acts 2:17, 20; see vv. 17–21). This quote from Joel (3:1–5) emphasizes the judgment that is to come, a judgment that is clarified in the later Epistles as the final blow to the powers of evil, which will be followed by the establishment of God’s kingdom over all (see 2 Peter 3:10–14). We now live in the final days, the time between the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the return of our Lord. Therefore, Pentecost is an essential moment in God’s saving time, the moment in which we now live, awaiting the return of our Lord.

The Pentecost service ends one season in the Christian year and begins another. Pentecost Sunday ends the extraordinary season that began on the first Sunday of Advent. In approximately six months the church has been carried through all the saving events of God—his incarnation, manifestation to the world, life, death, resurrection, and ascension as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit. All these crucial events form faith and the spiritual life.

Webber, Robert E.. Ancient-Future Time (Ancient-Future): Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year . Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.