Pentecost

Originally, Pentecost was only a Hebrew holiday. That fact, however, does not suggest that the festival was insignificant. Along with the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles, Pentecost was one of the three major festivals on Israel’s calendar. Also called the Feast of Weeks because it took place seven weeks after Passover, Pentecost was the Jewish equivalent of our national day of Thanksgiving.

But when Jesus gathered with his disciples in the Upper Room to celebrate the Passover, they weren’t looking fifty days into the future. They weren’t in any mood to celebrate either because their Lord and friend had just told them that he was leaving. They had been with him for three years. They listened to his sermons. They witnessed his miracles. Jesus meant everything to them, and the thought of life without him filled their hearts with grief.

The disciples couldn’t understand how Jesus leaving them would do them any good, and yet that was exactly what he said (John 16:7a). But that was not all he said. Jesus followed up that perplexing statement with a promise. He told them: “Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7b).

Those words may not have been a great source of comfort for the disciples at that moment, but in time they would come to understand and appreciate them. After Jesus was arrested in the Garden, after he was condemned and crucified, after he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, more than seven weeks after Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to help his disciples, his words came true.

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit made his presence known in the sound of a rushing wind, in the tongues of fire that came to rest on the heads of the disciples, in the disciples’ miraculous ability to speak in other languages. On Pentecost Sunday we give thanks to God for the miraculous work the Holy Spirit continues to perform in the hearts of people today as he creates faith and strengthens our faith through the means of grace.

Pentecost is the Holy Spirit’s day. The Spirit’s work should be our focus on this day. The words Jesus spoke to his disciples in the Upper Room don’t take anything away from that. In fact, they make the events of this day even more meaningful. They make Pentecost more special because they provide us with proof, proof that God keeps his promises.