The story of Pentecost is told in Acts 2. It is a central Christian festival. Here are ten things that I reckon we should know about Pentecost.
One. Pentecost was originally a Jewish festival. It was one of the “great three festivals” that took place each year in ancient Israel: Pesach (meaning Passover), the feast of the Unleavened Bread; Shavuot (Weeks or Pentecost), the feast of the first harvest of the grain (wheat); and Sukkot (Tabernacles, Tents or Booths), the festival of ingathering which marked the end of the harvest season. These three occasions are identified as recurring annual festivals at Exodus 23:14-17 and again at Deuteronomy 16:16-17.
Two. Pentecost means “fiftieth”. In Judaism, it is the 50th day since the feast of Passover (see Leviticus 23:15-16). In Christianity, it becomes the 50th day since Easter Sunday. The significance of 50 is that it the day that comes after seven weeks (that is, 7 X 7 days = 49 days). So it is a perfect “week of weeks”.
Three. Pentecost symbolises two key things in Judaism. The prescriptions for Shavuot, the festival of Pentecost, are set out in the Hebrew Bible. Exodus 34:22 states that it marks the all-important wheat harvest in Israel; Leviticus 23:15-22 sets out the requirements for celebrating this festival. Its importance as an agricultural festival is thus clear. Alongside that, as Jewish tradition developed, Pentecost became the anniversary of the giving of the Law; the day when God gave the Torah (the Law) to the whole nation of Israel, assembled at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:1–20:21).
Four. The people gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost when the spirit came were all Jews.Acts 2:5 makes this clear; those present were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. They were not Gentiles. Luke and Acts persistently make it crystal clear that the Gospel was intended for the whole world—Jews and Gentiles alike (Luke 2:30-32, 3:6, 24:47; Acts 1:8, 2:17, 9:15, 10:34-43, 11:18, 13:47, 14:27, 15:7, 22:21, 26:17-23, 28:28). Nevertheless, this event is one that gathers only Jews.
However ….
Read the article by Rev. Dr John Squires in Insights.