Pentecost Sunday: What & Why? Acts 2:1-4

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate or commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, what many call the birth of the church. Pentecost means “50th” and long before it became the birth of the church it was one of the three Jewish festivals. 50 days after Passover, Israel celebrated Pentecost, which was also called “The Festival of weeks”. The day after the High Sabbath of Passover, the high priest would wave a sheaf of barley, a green sheaf, not yet ready for harvest, as a wave offering to the LORD. 50 days later, on the day of Pentecost, the first fruits of the harvest were offered to the LORD in thanksgiving, believing in hope that God would add His blessing to the remainder of the harvest. The Holy Spirit was poured out on a day in which Israel was gathered together, celebrating God’s provision and asking for God’s blessing. Without making this confusing, the Holy Spirit was poured out on a day that God had already set aside for celebration and blessing. God created the original festivals of Israel to reveal Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus died, as the Lamb of God on Passover, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church, as the promise of the Father, on the day of the firstfruits. We don’t have time today to do a good enough study of all the imagery, I’m working on that for some time in the future, but it’s important that we understand, that just as Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundations, the Holy Spirit has been given to us from the foundations, the outpouring and infilling of the Holy Spirit is God’s plan, for the glory of Jesus and the redemption of man. What truly happened that day of Pentecost and why did it happen?