Pentecost - 5/25/2010 7:35pm

This Sunday (May 23rd) we celebrated the feast of Pentecost, bringing the Easter season to a close and marking the birth of the Church as a covenant community under Grace.

“They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers” (Acts 1: 14).
                                    El Greco, The Pentecost (1596-1600).  Oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid.

In Exodus 23: 14-16, God prescribes three great pilgrimage festivals that Israel is to celebrate annually:  1) the Feast of Unleavened Bread at the beginning of the spring barley harvest; 2) the Feast of Harvest (also called the “Feast of Weeks” in 34:22) at the end of the spring harvest; and 3) the Feast of Ingathering at the end of autumn’s olive and grape harvests.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread, or “Passover,” began on the fifteenth day of the first month and lasted seven days, with a holy convocation on the first and last days.  The “first fruits” of the barley harvest were offered on the Sabbath during the seven days of Passover.  Fifty days after the offering of “first fruits,” the Feast of Harvest was to be celebrated (later called “Pentecost,” from the Greek pentekoste hemera, “fifty days”).  The Feast of Ingathering took place in the autumn on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and like Passover it lasted seven days.

All three festivals were at once agricultural and historical:  Passover celebrated the “first fruits” of the spring harvest, as well as the Exodus from Egypt; Pentecost celebrated the final crops of the spring harvest, as well as the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai; and Tabernacles celebrated the final fall harvest, as well as the Israelites’ forty years in the wilderness.

When we move up into New Testament times, we learn that Jesus is crucified on Friday of Passover week, A.D. 32, just before the Sabbath begins (he is our Passover Lamb--1 Corinthians 5: 7); he is resurrected on Sunday, the day after the Sabbath, the feast of “first fruits” (he is the “first fruit” of our salvation--1 Corinthians 15: 20); and the Holy Spirit arrives in Jerusalem fifty days after “first fruits,” on the Jewish feast of Pentecost (the birth of a covenant community--Acts 2).

Here’s the story in Acts 2: 1-4—

When the day of Pentecost came, they [the disciples] were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

As the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai marks the birth of Israel as a covenant community under Law on the first Pentecost, so the giving of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem marks the birth of the Church as a covenant community under Grace on Passover A.D. 32.

This is a remarkable set of parallel events.

And here’s something even more remarkable.  When Moses delivers the Law to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, he finds the people worshipping a golden calf.  Outraged, Moses commands:  “‘Each [Levite] strap a sword to his side.  Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’  The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died” (Exodus 32: 27-28).  With the arrival of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost A.D. 32, Peter stands on the temple platform and delivers the message of Grace, and we read:  “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2: 41).  

With the birth of Israel as a covenant community under Law, about three thousand people died; with the birth of the Church as a covenant community under Grace, about three thousand people were saved.  

The parallel is not accidental.

The Holy Spirit has always been present in the world.  As far back as Genesis 1: 1-2 we read:  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”   In Psalm 51:11, David pleads with God:  “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”  And in Isaiah 63: 11, Isaiah wonders:  “Where is he [God] who . . . set his Holy Spirit among them [the Israelites]?”  Recall, too, that after Jesus’ resurrection he appeared to his disciples in the upper room and “he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:  22), a private gift given by Jesus to “open their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24: 45) and prepare for the job he would give them in Acts 1: 8 of being his “witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”   

But on Pentecost A.D. 32 the Holy Spirit enters Jerusalem in a unique, powerful and very public way.  Jesus had told his disciples that when he leaves them he will “ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth” (John 14: 16-17).  And prior to his ascension he tells his disciples:  “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about . . ..  [For] you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1: 4, 8).  

The public entry of the Holy Spirit into Jerusalem on Pentecost A.D. 32 marks a new role for the Holy Spirit in the plan of salvation.   As Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1: 14) at the Incarnation, so did the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, enter the world to live among us at Pentecost.

In the world the Holy Spirit has two distinct jobs:  one is relative to the world at large, and one is relative to the Church.  In the first instance, the job of the Holy Spirit is to “convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16: 8).  That is, the Holy Spirit is to hold up a mirror of reality to the world, creating in the world a sense of conviction regarding the reality of sin, the holiness of God, and the inevitable judgment that must follow:  a holy God must, by his very nature, judge sin.  Consequently, a person cannot take a single step toward a savior until he recognizes he needs to be saved.  That is the Holy Spirit’s job:  to create for those in the world a sense of conviction regarding sin, righteousness and judgment.

In the Church the Holy Spirit has two jobs:  one regarding the Church as a corporate body and one regarding individuals within the Church.  For the Church as a corporate body, the Holy Spirit is to guide, shape and nurture the Church throughout the ages.  And it is clear throughout the ages that when the Church is attentive to the Holy Spirit, following God’s Will, she does quite well, often performing heroically.  Conversely, when the Church is not attentive to the Holy Spirit, following her own will, she does poorly, often behaving shamefully.  History offers stunning examples of both.  

Regarding individuals within the Church, the job of the Holy Spirit is two-fold:  1) to pull up along side of us, to live within us, to be our Comforter, and 2) to provide talents, gifts and abilities to be used in service to the family of God.  It is not easy to live a life in Christ:  it can be lonely, frustrating and seemingly futile. Life in Christ is radically counter-culture. The Holy Spirit is present to help us on the journey.  As Paul reminds us:  “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God” (1 Corinthians 6: 19); and again:  “Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2 Timothy 1: 14).  

We each have responsibilities in the family of God, and the Holy Spirit has given us “spiritual gifts” to help us fulfill those responsibilities.  As Paul says, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.  There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.  Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12: 4-7).  Each one of us has “spiritual gifts,” and each one of us will be accountable for how faithfully we use those gifts.  As Paul reminds us:  “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.  So it is with Christ” (1 Corinthians 12: 12).  And just as each part of our body must function properly to ensure good health, so each one of us must function properly, using the spiritual gifts given us, to ensure a healthy “body of Christ.”  

I’ve taught the Bible for nearly thirty years now:  at UCLA, in the local community and in the global community of Logos Bible Study.  During that time I have focused a great deal on God the Father; I have focused even more on God the Son; but I have, frankly, neglected God the Holy Spirit.  I aim to correct the imbalance.

Pentecost is an extraordinary event, remembering—and celebrating—the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world in a unique and powerful way.  Pentecost marks the birth of the Church as a covenant community under Grace.  It is a time to reflect on the astounding reality of God’s mercy and love.  It is a time to remember the family in which we live.  And it is a time to recommit our efforts to live a life “worthy of the calling [we] have received” (Ephesians 4: 1).