There were three great Jewish feasts each year: Passover (in the spring), celebrating Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks, which occurred 50 days (seven weeks) after Passover and, Tabernacles (in the fall). It was not by coincidence that God poured out His Spirit on the disciples on that day. To understand this event, we must understand the Jewish Feast of Pentecost. God’s plan for being glorified among the nations was to form the church. If we properly understand this great historic event, our hearts will be enflamed with cause of seeing some from every tribe and tongue and nation bowing before the exalted Lord Jesus Christ. The point of Pentecost is mission, and the goal of mission is that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. The meaning of Pentecost is God’s equipping His church with the power of His Spirit so that He will be glorified among the nations. And the fulness of the Spirit in God’s people is to empower them for witness to all the nations.
Pentecost signals the dawning of the age of the Holy Spirit. Thus Acts 2 must be interpreted as a special historical event, signifying a new period in God’s dealings with His people. While they had experienced a measure of the Spirit’s power before (John 20:22), now He would come to dwell in them permanently (John 7:37-39 14:17). Just as the ministry of Jesus depended on the Holy Spirit descending on Him at His baptism, so the ministry of the disciples depended on them receiving the Holy Spirit and relying on His power. Jesus explained that they would “be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (1:5) and they would receive power to be Christ’s “witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (1:8). We all need to answer biblically, in light of the context, What is the meaning of Pentecost?Īcts 2 must be interpreted in light of Acts 1:4-8, where the risen Lord Jesus instructed the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit. You have probably had other Christians ask you, as I have, “Have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit?” If you have not spoken in tongues, they are eager to help you have this experience for yourself. Many claim that the meaning of Pentecost is that we should have the same experience as the disciples, namely, that we are to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit and to speak in tongues. When the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and the other believers on the Day of Pentecost, those who heard them speaking in tongues were perplexed and asked, “What does this mean?” (2:12).
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