revelation second-temple

Pentecost (Outpouring of Holy Spirit)

c. 30 or 33 CE (50 days after resurrection) (scriptural)

The dramatic outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples fifty days after Jesus’s resurrection, marking the birth of the Christian church and the fulfillment of Jesus’s promise to send the Comforter. What began with 120 believers in an upper room became a movement of 3,000 by day’s end, as the Spirit empowered the church for its worldwide mission.

The Biblical Account

Acts 2: The Day of Pentecost

The Setting (Acts 2:1-4):

  • Day of Pentecost (Jewish festival of Shavuot)
  • 50 days after Passover/Resurrection
  • 10 days after Ascension
  • All believers together in one place
  • About 120 people (Acts 1:15)

The Phenomena:

  • Sound like violent rushing wind filled the house
  • Tongues of fire appeared, resting on each person
  • All filled with the Holy Spirit
  • Began speaking in other tongues (languages)
  • Spirit gave them utterance

The Crowd’s Response (Acts 2:5-13):

  • Devout Jews from every nation gathered in Jerusalem
  • Each heard the disciples speaking in their own language
  • Amazed and perplexed: “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?”
  • Listed nations/languages: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Crete, Arabia
  • “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
  • Some mocked: “They have had too much wine”

Peter’s Sermon

The Explanation (Acts 2:14-21):

  • Peter stood up with the Eleven
  • “These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!”
  • Fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people”
  • Sons and daughters will prophesy
  • Young men see visions, old men dream dreams
  • Spirit on servants and handmaidens
  • Signs in heaven and earth
  • “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”

The Proclamation (Acts 2:22-36):

  • Jesus of Nazareth, man attested by God
  • Delivered up by God’s plan and foreknowledge
  • You crucified him
  • But God raised him from the dead
  • “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah”

The Response (Acts 2:37-41):

  • Crowd “cut to the heart”
  • “Brothers, what shall we do?”
  • Peter: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”
  • “And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”
  • About 3,000 added to their number that day

The Birth of the Church

The Fellowship (Acts 2:42-47):

  • Devoted to apostles’ teaching
  • Fellowship, breaking of bread, prayers
  • Many wonders and signs done by apostles
  • All believers together, had everything in common
  • Sold possessions, gave to anyone who had need
  • Met daily in temple courts
  • Broke bread in homes with glad and sincere hearts
  • Praising God, enjoying favor of all people
  • Lord added to their number daily

Theological Significance

Fulfillment of Promise

Jesus’s Promise:

  • John 14:16-17: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper”
  • John 16:7: “It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Helper will not come”
  • Acts 1:4-5: “Wait for the gift my Father promised…you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit”
  • Acts 1:8: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”

Old Testament Promise:

  • Joel 2:28-32: Spirit poured out on all flesh
  • Ezekiel 36:27: “I will put my Spirit in you”
  • Isaiah 44:3: “I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring”

The Trinity Revealed and Active

All Three Persons:

  • The Father sends the Spirit (John 14:16)
  • The Son requests and pours out the Spirit (Acts 2:33)
  • The Spirit descends and indwells (Acts 2:4)
  • Baptismal formula fulfilled: Father, Son, Spirit (Matthew 28:19)

Reversal of Babel

Genesis 11 Inverted:

  • At Babel: One language divided into many (judgment, scattering)
  • At Pentecost: Many languages unite in one message (grace, gathering)
  • Babel: Human pride, building to reach heaven
  • Pentecost: Divine condescension, heaven reaching to earth
  • Babel: Confusion and dispersion
  • Pentecost: Understanding and unity

Birth of the Church

The Moment Church Began:

  • Before: Disciples waiting, praying
  • After: Empowered witnesses proclaiming
  • 3,000 added in one day
  • Universal mission launched
  • Body of Christ formed

The Spirit’s Arrival Completes Redemption:

  • Incarnation: God with us (Emmanuel)
  • Cross: Atonement accomplished
  • Resurrection: Victory won
  • Ascension: Christ exalted
  • Pentecost: Spirit sent, church born

Democratization of the Spirit

Old Covenant:

  • Spirit came on select individuals: prophets, priests, kings
  • Temporary empowerment for specific tasks
  • Moses wished: “Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets” (Numbers 11:29)

New Covenant:

  • Spirit poured out on “all flesh”
  • Sons and daughters, young and old
  • Servants and handmaidens
  • Permanent indwelling
  • Every believer Spirit-filled

Power for Mission

Acts 1:8 Fulfilled:

  • “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes”
  • “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of earth”
  • Pentecost launches this mission
  • From upper room to uttermost parts

The Spirit Empowers:

  • Bold proclamation (Peter, who denied Jesus, now preaches fearlessly)
  • Supernatural signs (tongues, miracles)
  • Wisdom and conviction
  • Unity and love
  • Growth and expansion

The Feast of Pentecost/Shavuot

Jewish Background

Shavuot (Feast of Weeks):

  • 50 days after Passover
  • Harvest festival (firstfruits of wheat)
  • Celebrates giving of Torah at Sinai
  • One of three pilgrimage festivals
  • Jews from all nations in Jerusalem

Pentecost Timing:

  • Jesus died at Passover (Lamb of God)
  • Rose on firstfruits (first of resurrection harvest)
  • Spirit came at Pentecost (harvest of souls begins)
  • God’s redemptive calendar

Christian Observance

Pentecost Sunday:

  • 50 days after Easter
  • Birth of the church celebrated
  • Confirmation services often held
  • Red vestments/paraments (fire of Spirit)
  • Emphasis on Spirit’s power and gifts

Pentecost Season:

  • Begins Ordinary Time in liturgical calendar
  • Focus on church’s growth and mission
  • Holy Spirit’s ongoing work

Gifts of the Spirit

Tongues at Pentecost

Nature of the Gift:

  • Known human languages (not ecstatic speech)
  • For proclamation to foreigners
  • Sign gift authenticating apostolic message
  • Inclusive: All nations hear gospel in their tongue

Debate: Tongues Today?:

  • Pentecostal/Charismatic: Ongoing gift for believers
  • Cessationist: Sign gifts ceased with apostolic age
  • Middle view: Gift continues but differently

Other Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12-14:

  • Word of wisdom, word of knowledge
  • Faith, healing, miracles
  • Prophecy, discerning spirits
  • Tongues, interpretation of tongues
  • All for building up the body

Historical and Critical Questions

Historicity

Criteria for Authenticity:

  • Church wouldn’t invent being accused of drunkenness
  • Sudden boldness of disciples needs explanation
  • Rapid growth of church unexplained without Pentecost
  • Early Christian experience of Spirit pervasive in NT

Skeptical Views:

  • Mythologizing later spiritual experience
  • Symbolic/legendary development
  • Borrowing from pagan ecstatic cults

Traditional View:

  • Real historical event
  • Supernatural but attested
  • Best explanation for birth of church

The Nature of the Phenomena

Wind and Fire:

  • Theophanic imagery (God’s presence manifested)
  • Not literal wind/fire but sound like, appearance like
  • Old Testament precedents: Sinai (fire, sound), Elijah (wind)

Tongues:

  • Xenoglossia (speaking unlearned languages)?
  • Or hearers miraculously understanding?
  • Text suggests speakers speaking different languages

Significance

Pentecost is the hinge on which history turns—the moment the Spirit who brooded over creation, inspired prophets, and conceived the Messiah came to indwell all believers forever. What Jesus accomplished on the cross, what the Father vindicated in resurrection, the Spirit applies to human hearts at Pentecost.

The upper room became the birthplace of the church. The same disciples who cowered behind locked doors after the crucifixion now stood in temple courts proclaiming the risen Christ. The same Peter who denied Jesus three times now boldly declared him Lord and Messiah before thousands. What changed? The Helper came.

Pentecost reversed Babel’s curse. At Babel, human pride scattered nations through confusion of language. At Pentecost, divine grace gathered nations through gift of languages. Every tongue heard the wonders of God. Every tribe and nation invited into the kingdom. The gospel for all people announced in all languages.

And the church was born. Not an institution, not an organization, but a living organism—the body of Christ animated by the Spirit of God. The age of the Spirit began. The last days inaugurated. The harvest commenced.

Three thousand believed that day. But it was just the beginning. From Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth, the Spirit-empowered witnesses would go. What began in an upper room in Jerusalem would spread to every continent, every nation, every generation.

The tongues of fire still burn. The rushing wind still blows. The Spirit still convicts, converts, empowers, sanctifies. Pentecost wasn’t a one-time event but the launching of a permanent reality: the age of the Spirit, the era of the church, the mission to all nations.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses.” The promise was fulfilled. The power came. The witnesses went forth.

And the church is still going, still witnessing, still empowered by the same Spirit who fell on that Pentecost day two thousand years ago. The Helper has come. The Comforter abides. The Spirit indwells.

Pentecost continues.