The
Day of Pentecost is recognized throughout the Church world as the birthday
of the Church! It was more than 2000 years ago when 120 followers of Christ
were gathered for prayer and God the Father poured out the Holy Spirit
upon the entire group!
Acts 2:1-4
1 When the day of Pentecost
had come, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly there came from
heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole
house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared to them
tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each
one of them.
4 And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Spirit was giving them utterance.
This
was Pentecost. But what does that mean to
you and me? First, the term Pentecost actually
means “50”. In
the Commandments given to Moses concerning the Feast Days of Israel,
Pentecost was to be celebrated fifty days following Passover. In
Exodus and Deuteronomy Pentecost is called the Feast of Weeks,
the Feast of Harvest, and the Day of First Fruits. It
is described in Leviticus:
Leviticus 23:16
You shall count fifty days
to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new
grain offering to the LORD.
God
gave Moses instructions for three annual feasts to be celebrated and
all the men of Israel were
to travel to Jerusalem in
celebration of these three feast each year. The
first feast was the Feast of Passover, the second was the Feast of Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks when the first harvest
of wheat was completed, and the third feast was the Feast
of Tabernacles to be celebrated in the fall of the year after all
the crops were gathered.
Each of these feast
days has a significant relationship to Christianity. Passover was when the Jewish Passover lamb was sacrificed
for the removing of the sins of the people, and Jesus fulfilled His role as the
sacrificial Lamb by being crucified during the week of Passover. Fifty
days following Passover the Jew’s came to Jerusalem to celebrate God’s
provision in the first harvest and it was on that day that God the Father
poured out the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit is God’s provision which we celebrate at the time of Pentecost!
In passing,
we should note that the final feast day is yet to be fulfilled: The
Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles
is in remembrance of Israel’s trek
from Egypt to the Promised Land when God “tabernacled”or
lived with them as they traveled through the desert. The
presence of God could be seen as a pillar of fire by night and a cloud
by day. He was present! The
Feast of Tabernacles is yet to be fulfilled in the Christian calendar
for we are still waiting for the day when Jesus is coming to earth again
in physical form! There are a number of people who believe the fulfillment
of Christ’s return will be at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles
which is celebrated in late September or early October depending on the
lunar calendar! We shall see!
When
we understand the significance of the Day of Pentecost being a Jewish
feast day when all the men of Israel were
to gather in Jerusalem, we see God’s plan for having such a
large representation of onlookers on hand to observe what happened
when the Holy Spirit birthed the Church! There
were Jewish men who had traveled to Jerusalem from
every point in the civilized world!
Acts 2:6-12
6 And when this sound occurred,
the crowd came together and were bewildered because each one of them
was hearing them speak in his own language.
7 They were amazed and astonished,
saying, " Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 "And how is it that we each
hear them in our own language to which we were born?
9 "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,
both Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretans and Arabs —we
hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God."
12 And they all continued in
amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this
mean?"
From
that time until now, men have asked the same question, “What does
this mean?” The question of God’s
work in the power of the Holy Spirit and the act of speaking in tongues
has been controversial for centuries! Why speak in tongues? What
significance does it have in my life? What
does this mean?
To begin
to understand requires us to remember the three feasts of Israel which
were planned by God. Pentecost was a time
to celebrate God’s daily provision. The Holy Spirit is our provision. We
need the presence of the Holy Spirit for our daily supply of grace and
strength for living!
John 3
6 That which is born
of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not be amazed
that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
8 The wind blows where
it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes
from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Salvation is
the first work of the Holy Spirit in our lives! The
provision of the Spirit brings us everlasting life when we are born again
by the Spirit of God. We have no hope of
eternal life without having the Holy Spirit within us! The Holy Spirit is our provision!
John 4:24
24 "God is spirit,
and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
The ongoing
relationship we have with God is through the Holy Spirit. God
is Spirit and His relationship with us is through His Holy Spirit which
comes to live within our spirit! Our walk
with God is of the Spirit! The
Holy Spirit is our provision! Jesus said,
John 7:38-39
38 "He who believes
in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers
of living water.'"
39 But this He spoke of the Spirit,
whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was
not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
The
Holy Spirit is our life! Jesus made
an analogy of the Holy Spirit as being similar to a river of water
which flows from within you, which flows out of you as words and deeds
which give life to all those who come in contact with you. The
Holy Spirit is our provision!
That
said, the question still remains as to why anyone would want to pray
in tongues? The first reasonable answer for
me is “That is the way God chose!” I
must admit that most of what God has done has not been understood by
mankind. Why did God create us in the
first place? Why did God choose to bless
Abraham? Why did God become a man and live
among us, and then die on a cross? How did
Jesus bear all of our sins in His own body? Why
does God desire to forgive us? Why does God
want to live with us on a daily basis?
When it comes to answering
the question of why speak in tongues, it is a small thing in comparison
to all the other questions of how God has chosen to relate to mankind! God chose to pour out His Spirit on the Day of Pentecost
with signs and wonders, including the phenomena of speaking in tongues!
On
that day, there were Jewish men who were bi-lingual who were visiting Jerusalem for the celebration of Pentecost. They spoke the Jewish language as well as the language
of the country where they were residing. When
they heard this group of Galileans speaking all of these foreign languages,
they were amazed! God chose the time, God chose the place, God chose the people, and
God chose the method!
Pentecost
was God’s provision for you and for me to receive eternal life,
to fellowship with Him, to be enabled to touch others with grace, and
much, much more. You don’t need to speak in tongues to be saved,
and you don’t need to speak in tongues to have fellowship with
the Father, and you don’t need to speak in tongues to minister
to other people …but praying in a new language is a part of God’s
provision which we will discuss again at another time!
Pentecost
is God’s provision for you! Will you
invite Him to be your provision? |
