THE FEAST OF PENTECOST
Acts 2: 1 - 21
A Pentecost sermon by:
Rev. H.A. Bergsma
PUBLISHED BY
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.
(May 2005)
LITURGY:
Votum
Psalter 250
Law of God
Psalter 68
Scripture Reading: Acts 2: 1 – 21
Text: Acts 2: 1 – 21
Congregational Prayer
Offerings
Psalter 287
Sermon
Psalter 100
Thanksgiving Prayer
Psalter 204
Benediction
Doxology: Psalter 315
Congregation of the Lord,
Pentecost is a bit of a mysterious Christian feast.
Is it something to be celebrated or not?
I know that the world doesn’t celebrate it; and that’s all right, because it would only commercialize it, as it has done with some of the other Christian feasts. (Such as Christmas for instance)
But what is Pentecost, and what is to be celebrated?
Well, the word “Pentecost” itself means “Fifty.”
But that still does not tell you much does it?
Therefore, I would like to go over the background of Pentecost with you for a few moments, and discover what the number “Fifty” is all about, and also, that Pentecost is indeed a feast, and could even rank among one the greatest feasts to be celebrated by the Church.
My theme for this hour is therefore …
THE FEAST OF PENTECOST
- The Roots of this Feast
- The Reality of this Feast
- The Results of this Feast
Congregation,
The roots of our Pentecost feast are to be found in the Old Testament feast that the Jews celebrated, called the Feast of Firstfruits.
In Israel of old, each year, fifty days after the feast of the Passover, the Feast of the Firstfruits was celebrated.
It was in the month of May or early June, just as the wheat-harvest would ripen, and the wheat-fields would begin turning white, indicating that harvest-time was close at hand.
It might seem somewhat strange for you to hear about the harvest season already in this part of the year, but you must remember that the Bible was not written in cold North America, but in the regions of warm Palestine.
There, the harvest is much earlier than here, and indeed, during the month of May or early June the fields are ripening for the wheat-harvest.
The custom was then, in Bible times, that before the actual wheat-harvest would begin, some wheat-ears would be picked already, ground into very fine flour, mixed with some leaven (yeast), and baked into the form of two loaves of bread, which would then in turn be offered up to the Lord.
Those two loaves of bread were designated, as we are told in Leviticus 23:17 as “The Firstfruits unto the Lord.”
The people would bring those two loaves to the tabernacle or to the temple on the Feast of Firstfruits, into the presence of the Lord, dedicating them to the Lord, and praying the Lord that He would bless all the other loaves of bread that would follow the annual wheat-harvest.
The Feast of Firstfruits.
There is where the roots of our present-day Feast of Pentecost are.
At the Feast of Firstfruits, the Israelites expressed their thankfulness for the gift of wheat they were receiving from the Lord.
They received this gift of wheat, baked some bread from it, and offered this finished product from the wheat to the Lord as a token of their thankfulness, and with a prayer for increase.
Dear people, pay attention to this process that took place at the Feast of Firstfruits.
It will give you a better appreciation for what we are celebrating today.
Let me very clearly outline the process that was followed at the Feast of Firstfruits …
One … There was the gift of the Lord
Two … There was man’s involvement with this gift of the Lord
Three … There was the final product offered to the Lord with thanksgiving and a prayer for increase.
That, in simple terms, is what the Feast of Firstfruits was all about; the feast that was celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover.
And now, let’s look at our Pentecost feast, as it is rooted in this Old Testament Feast of Firstfruits …
On the same day, the fiftieth day after the greatest Passover the world has ever seen, is Pentecost celebrated.
And as you know, the greatest of all Passovers was on Good Friday, at the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, the great Lamb of God.
And exactly fifty days after Good Friday, Pentecost came to be celebrated; and the celebration of Pentecost calls for a similar process as that of the Feast of Firstfruits …
One … There is first of all the gift of the Lord; this time not just some wheat, but rather, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Two … Then, there is man’s involvement with this gift of the Holy Spirit.
Three … There is the final product offered up to the Lord, with thanksgiving and a prayer for increase of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Let me flesh this out a bit more you under my second heading … The Reality of the Feast of Pentecost.
On the Day of Pentecost, the Christian Church could celebrate the Lord’s gift of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus had promised this gift already when He spoke to His disciples in John 14:26 … “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name” and in Luke 24:49 … “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
Well, this is what the disciples had done, in obedience to the words of the Lord, because we read in our text-chapter … “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”
By this time there were approximately 120 faithful men and women gathered as a congregation somewhere in a house in Jerusalem.
And notice how they were together, as God’s Word emphasizes it … “They were all with one accord in one place.”
This is how the New Testament Christian Church started … “with one accord in one place.”
What a beautiful testimony!
Here is the Christian Church, … all the people, with one accord and in one place, awaiting, expecting, looking forward to the Lord’s gift namely, the Holy Spirit.
This is how it should be, dear people, if we truly desire the gift and the work of the Holy Spirit amongst us … we too, should then be in one accord in the faith, and expectantly looking forward to what measure of the Holy Spirit the Lord is willing to give us.
It stands to reason of course, that lack of accord amongst us as believers, or little in the way of a sense of expectation amongst us, could hold back the work of the Holy Spirit amongst us.
And therefore, let’s return to the Biblical standard of being a New Testament Christian Church … “With one accord in one place”, waiting, expecting what the Lord will give us of the Holy Spirit.
This is how it was when the New Testament Christian Church began.
And the people were not disappointed; they did receive the promised gift!
Because “suddenly”, so we read, the gift arrived from the Lord of Heaven, at the address of the Church.
And this gift did not arrive secretly, or in an obscure, unnoticeable way, no, the gift arrived with great commotion … “There came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.”
In other words, the roaring of hurricane-force winds could be heard in and around Jerusalem at about 9 o’clock in the morning; enough to startle the ears of everyone.
But there was more yet!
There was also something to startle the eyes … “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and sat upon each of them.”
The sight must have just been astonishing, as you can imagine.
Here were these disciples of the Lord; and as they stood there in a group there was this awesome sight about them of what appeared to be flames of fire on their heads.
Two signs … very noticeable signs, indicating that the gift from heaven had arrived, … the signs of wind and fire.
Wind and fire, often symbols of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Wind, or breath … symbolic of the life-giving powers of the Holy Spirit.
And fire … symbolic of the purifying holiness of the Holy Spirit.
And so we read … “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit!”
And then this too yet … these men, weak and of themselves sinful men, were allowed to become involved with the Holy Spirit, and cooperate with the Holy Spirit, to become a sort of “firstfruit”, because we read that once they were filled with the Holy Spirit … “They began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Imagine for a moment!
The disciples of Jesus Christ - Galilaean fishermen - poor, uneducated men; each with their faults and shortcomings; each with their own leaven of sinful human-ness about them … but they were allowed to become involved with the Holy Spirit, and by the strength of the Holy Spirit they became people who began to do things that they could never have done in their own strength.
They began to speak in tongues, that is … in languages of which uneducated people would never have been capable.
And the list of languages spoken by them is as long as the list of foreign visitors in Jerusalem that day.
If you would count the number of different regions mentioned in our text passage, in the verses 9 through 11 particularly, you would count up no less than eighteen different languages … of the common languages then spoken in the world of that day.
And so we read that the people who were attracted that day by the windy noise and fiery sight … “were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?”
This is what happens congregation, when the Holy Spirit, as gift of the Lord, begins to involve Himself with our human activities.
This is what happens when we are operated on by the Holy Spirit, and we begin to cooperate with and yield to, and become useful to the Holy Spirit.
Then marvelous things begin to happen, and amazing things will begin to show up in our life.
Those disciples of the Lord became firstfruits, so to speak, on that Day of Pentecost.
They used what they had received and employed it in the service of the Lord, and just like those two loaves of bread at the Old Testament Feast of Firstfruits, those disciples offered their gift – and themselves - to the Lord.
How?
Basically in two ways …
One … by speaking well of the Lord and His work, and …
Two … by defending the cause of the Lord.
Well then, what did the disciples speak about under the influence of the Holy Spirit?
From the comments of the people standing around, we may conclude that they were exciting things, as you can read of it in verse 11 … “we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”
This is what the disciples were speaking about, under the influence of the Holy Spirit … they were busy speaking well of God and of His work … in fact, “of the wonderful works of God.”
Dear people, this is what happens when the Holy Spirit is received and involves Himself with our life and begins living and working in us … we, invariably will begin to speak well of God and of His work, even so that others too, can hear from you something about the wonderful works of God.
You see, this is part of “firstfruit” offering of ourself to God … speaking well of Him and His wonderful works.
When the Holy Spirit has begun to work in you and work with you, you too will not shy away from speaking about what God is doing.
That’s part of offering ourselves up to God.
That’s what those disciples did on the Day of Pentecost.
They gave themselves to speak well of God.
But they did something else too yet, and it too, was part and parcel of offering themselves to God, namely, they defended the cause of the Lord.
How so?
Well, some of the people, having listened to the disciples speaking in foreign tongues, had become skeptical of the whole affair, and had begun to mock with the disciples, and slanderously declared “These men are full of new wine!”
What a terrible thing that was to say!
Unbelievers are always quick to label the work of the Holy Spirit as something totally different.
At this particular time they called the phenomenon of Pentecost a case of drinking too much wine.
You see, unbelievers never want to admit to a work of the Holy Spirit.
They will look for calling it something else; even something derogatory if they can manage it.
And you and I should be alert to such backlash from unbelievers about the work of the Holy Spirit.
At any rate, Peter, as spokesman of the disciples, would not leave such mockery and slander against the Holy Spirit unchallenged, and promptly spoke up … “These are not drunken as ye suppose” he said, and immediately added a powerful word from the Bible to set things straight.
And again, with that, the disciples, in the strength of the Holy Spirit, offered themselves to the Lord by defending the work of the Holy Spirit and opposing those who slanderously called good to be evil.
And really, defending the work of the Holy Spirit is something that every believer should be prepared to do.
In the strength of the Holy Spirit we should not shy away from defending the cause of the Lord, or the cause of the Gospel against those who wickedly want to tear it down.
As believers, we should be prepared to offer ourselves to the Lord in defense of His cause.
Can this be said of you?
If the Holy Spirit has begun to work in you and with you, something of such similar spiritual boldness should also be seen on you and heard from you, even in the face of mockery.
It is part of the reality of Pentecost for believers.
But now lastly yet, something about the Results of the Feast of Pentecost.
On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has been given to the Church, to become involved with people like you and me.
And as the Holy Spirit becomes involved with you He accomplishes a great deal of work in you.
Such work of the Holy Spirit will be evident for instance, as He convicts you of sin, brings you to repentance of sin and confession of sin.
Such work of the Holy Spirit will also be evident, as He brings you the awareness of the forgiveness of your sins and the blessedness that accompanies it.
The work of the Holy Spirit includes making Jesus Christ dear to you, and you will begin to consider it a tremendous privilege that the Savior sacrificed Himself for you, so that you could be at peace with God again.
The work of the Holy Spirit includes generating faith within you – faith in Jesus Christ, and faith in His saving powers.
The work of the Holy Spirit includes renewing you and teaching you to live a holy life, pleasing to God.
All this, and more, is result of the Holy Spirit given to us.
But, and this is what the Feast of Pentecost teaches us, … as you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and as the Holy Spirit has begun a good work in you, you are called to carry-on in the spirit of the Feast of Firstfruits, and offer yourself as a firstfruit of thankfulness to the Lord, even as the disciples did on the Day of Pentecost.
Then you too are obliged to speak in praise of the wonderful works of God.
Then you too are obliged to defend the cause of the Lord, and defend the work of the Lord, against everyone who opposes it.
Indeed, there will be those who will mock with you for being a believer in Jesus Christ.
Boys and girls! Some of your friends might then make derogatory remarks to you, about you being a Christian.
They might even slander you and speak evil about your good ways.
But do not let any of this discourage you or put you in the dumps.
Through faith in Christ you have the Holy Spirit within you who will teach you all things so that you may patiently bear your burdens.
You have the Holy Spirit within you, who will also teach you when and how to defend the cause of the Lord, as opportunity arises.
When the Holy Spirit finds it necessary, He will give you to open the Word of God, and to use it, even as Peter was able to do on the Day of Pentecost, and refute the unbeliever with their skepticism, and boldly address those with wicked intentions.
You will not fail, because the Holy Spirit – as gift of God – will be with you, and will be your strength at such times.
Peter, later on, in his letters to Christians writes about the Holy Spirit in Christians …