God Sends the Holy Spirit
Pentecost
Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D., Andrews University
Pentecost began as the celebration of the Spring wheat harvest in ancient Israel and became the celebration of the first spiritual harvest of souls that marked the founding of the Christian church as an institution. Pentecost is the festival that celebrates the birth of the Christian church, because it was on that day that Christ’s followers were consolidated into a new messianic community, the Church.
Christ revealed His intent to establish His Church by calling and training His disciples. However, He did not form a separate synagogue, nor did He start an independent movement. In spite of the constant conflicts with Jewish leaders, Christ did not break in any outward way with either the Temple or the synagogue. His disciples formed an open fellowship within the Jewish religious communities whose only distinguishing mark was their commitment to their Master.
Even after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples, now numbering 120, still believed in the restoration of the Jewish theocracy (Acts 1:6) and waited on God for divine direction. The situation changed dramatically on the day of Pentecost. Something extraordinary happened on that day that transformed the apostles into men of conviction and courage and provided them with a spiritual impetus that enabled the Christian movement to expand rapidly into the major cities of the Roman Empire.
The meaning of the Christian Pentecost depends partly upon its connection to the Jewish Pentecost. In the case of the Christian Passover, we found that its meaning grew out of the typology of the Jewish Passover. This is also true of Pentecost, though the New Testament offers fewer explicit connections between the Jewish and Christian Pentecost.
One of the explicit connections is the timing of the first Christian Pentecost given by Luke. Time references in Acts are few and far between, but in introducing the events that occurred on the day of Pentecost, Luke says: "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come" (Acts 2:1, KJV). Literally translated, the Greek verb "sumpleroustai" means "was being fulfilled." This awkward verb seems to be intentionally chosen by Luke to make the point that the momentous events associates with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurred at the very time when the celebration of Pentecost was in progress, perhaps to indicate the morning hours. There is no question, then, that whatever is the meaning of the events, they occurred while the Jewish Pentecost was in progress.
It is evident that for Luke it is significant that the events associated with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurred not before, not after, but on the very day of Pentecost. One wonders, Why was Christ sacrificed as true Paschal Lamb on the very day when the Jews sacrificed their Passover lambs? Also, Why did God pour out the Holy Spirit to harvest the first fruits of the spiritual harvest procured by Christ’s redemptive mission on the very day when the Jews celebrated Passover? The answer is to found in God’s concern to prove that Christ was indeed the fulfillment of the hopes of redemption that had been typified and nourished by the celebration of these annual feasts. By timing Christ’s redemptive acts in accordance with the feasts that foreshadowed them, believers could more easily recognize and accept the reality of salvation that had been accomplished by Christ’s death, resurrection, and inauguration of His heavenly ministry.
The manner in which the coming of the Holy Spirit manifested itself on the day of Pentecost is also significant, because it resembles the extraordinary phenomena that occurred on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law. In chapter 5 we noted that Pentecost became for Jews a feast of covenant renewal commemorating the giving of the Law at Sinai.
Luke reminds us of God’s cataclysmic manifestation at Sinai when he describes the phenomena of the day of Pentecost as "a sound . . . like the rush of a mighty wind," and "there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them," and all "began to speak in other tongues , as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:2-4).
It is not difficult to see a parallel to the phenomena which heralded the giving of the Law from Sinai. In the course of time, Jewish traditions embellished these phenomena (Ex 19:16-25; Heb 12:18) and added such particulars as that at Sinai "God’s voice, as it was uttered split up into seventy voices, in seventy languages, so that all the nations should understand . . . ."1 The notion of seventy languages is derived from the number of the seventy children of Israel that came out of Egypt (Ex 1:1-5; Deut 32:8) which is interpreted to represent all the nations of the world.
Rabbi Moshe Weissman explains the rabbinical interpretation of the supernatural phenomena accompanying the giving of the Law, saying: "In occasion of the giving of the Torah, the children of Israel not only heard the Lord’s voice but actually saw the sound waves as they emerged from the Lord’s mouth. They visualized them as a fiery substance. Each commandment that left the Lord’s mouth travelled around the entire Camp and then to each Jew individually, asking him, ‘Do you accept upon yourself this Commandment with all the halochot [Jewish law] pertaining to it?’ Every Jew answered ‘Yes’ after each commandment. Finally, the fiery substance which they saw engraved itself on the tablets."
This Jewish embellishment of the giving of the Law, in which God’s voice looked like a "fiery substance" which split into seventy languages, is strikingly similar to Luke’s comparison of the Holy Spirit to tongues like flames of fire alighting for a while on each head. A number of scholars acknowledge the similarity between the manifestation of God’s power at the giving of the Law and at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps the most vivid description of the analogy between Sinai and the Christian Pentecost is offered to us by Jerome (A. D. 342-420), the famous translator of the Latin version of the Bible known as Vulgate. He wrote: "There is Sinai, here Sion; there the trembling mountain, here the trembling house; there the flaming mountain, here the flaming tongues; there the noisy thunderings, here the sounds of many tongues; there the clangor of the ramshorn, here the notes of the gospel-trumpet."5
The close connection that Luke establishes between the time and manner of the Jewish and Christian Pentecosts suggests that Luke saw in the Christian Pentecost the Messianic fulfillment of the events typified by the Jewish Pentecost. Since the time of Luke, many Christians, like Jerome, have seen the Christian Passover in the same light.
The Jewish pilgrimage feast of Pentecost gained new significance for Christians because it coincided with the birthday of the Church as an institution. On that day, the Holy Spirit baptized 120 disciples of Jesus as they awaited His coming in an upper room (Luke 24:53). This event was the crowning of Christ’s Paschal sacrifice, for by sending forth the Holy Spirit after His ascension, Christ fulfilled the "promise" of the Spirit (Acts 1:4) which had been predicted by John the Baptist (Acts 1:5).
John the Baptist said to those who came to receive the baptism of repentance, "I have baptized you with water; but he [who is coming after me] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:8). Before His ascension, Jesus promised that John’s words would soon be fulfilled: "John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5). This promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Peter proclaimed that God’s promise had been fulfilled because the Holy Spirit had been given, in accordance with the prediction of the prophets (Joel 3:1-5; cf. Ezek 36:27).
When Jesus ascended to heaven following His resurrection, He presented Himself to the Father as the first fruits of a coming harvest. On that occasion He took into the Holy Place "not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Heb 9:12). In this sense, Pentecost represents the climax of Christ’s Paschal sacrifice that was celebrated in heaven. When the Father accepted His sacrifice "for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2) and exalted Him (Acts 2:33), the Father and the Son sent forth the Spirit. Pentecost is then the crowning of Christ’s Passover in heaven, which was manifested on earth with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:32-33). "By the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost," writes Ellen White, "thousands were to be converted in a day. This was the result of Christ’s sowing, the harvest of His work."
Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D., Andrews University
Pentecost began as the celebration of the Spring wheat harvest in ancient Israel and became the celebration of the first spiritual harvest of souls that marked the founding of the Christian church as an institution. Pentecost is the festival that celebrates the birth of the Christian church, because it was on that day that Christ’s followers were consolidated into a new messianic community, the Church.
Christ revealed His intent to establish His Church by calling and training His disciples. However, He did not form a separate synagogue, nor did He start an independent movement. In spite of the constant conflicts with Jewish leaders, Christ did not break in any outward way with either the Temple or the synagogue. His disciples formed an open fellowship within the Jewish religious communities whose only distinguishing mark was their commitment to their Master.
Even after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples, now numbering 120, still believed in the restoration of the Jewish theocracy (Acts 1:6) and waited on God for divine direction. The situation changed dramatically on the day of Pentecost. Something extraordinary happened on that day that transformed the apostles into men of conviction and courage and provided them with a spiritual impetus that enabled the Christian movement to expand rapidly into the major cities of the Roman Empire.
The meaning of the Christian Pentecost depends partly upon its connection to the Jewish Pentecost. In the case of the Christian Passover, we found that its meaning grew out of the typology of the Jewish Passover. This is also true of Pentecost, though the New Testament offers fewer explicit connections between the Jewish and Christian Pentecost.
One of the explicit connections is the timing of the first Christian Pentecost given by Luke. Time references in Acts are few and far between, but in introducing the events that occurred on the day of Pentecost, Luke says: "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come" (Acts 2:1, KJV). Literally translated, the Greek verb "sumpleroustai" means "was being fulfilled." This awkward verb seems to be intentionally chosen by Luke to make the point that the momentous events associates with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurred at the very time when the celebration of Pentecost was in progress, perhaps to indicate the morning hours. There is no question, then, that whatever is the meaning of the events, they occurred while the Jewish Pentecost was in progress.
It is evident that for Luke it is significant that the events associated with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurred not before, not after, but on the very day of Pentecost. One wonders, Why was Christ sacrificed as true Paschal Lamb on the very day when the Jews sacrificed their Passover lambs? Also, Why did God pour out the Holy Spirit to harvest the first fruits of the spiritual harvest procured by Christ’s redemptive mission on the very day when the Jews celebrated Passover? The answer is to found in God’s concern to prove that Christ was indeed the fulfillment of the hopes of redemption that had been typified and nourished by the celebration of these annual feasts. By timing Christ’s redemptive acts in accordance with the feasts that foreshadowed them, believers could more easily recognize and accept the reality of salvation that had been accomplished by Christ’s death, resurrection, and inauguration of His heavenly ministry.
The manner in which the coming of the Holy Spirit manifested itself on the day of Pentecost is also significant, because it resembles the extraordinary phenomena that occurred on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law. In chapter 5 we noted that Pentecost became for Jews a feast of covenant renewal commemorating the giving of the Law at Sinai.
Luke reminds us of God’s cataclysmic manifestation at Sinai when he describes the phenomena of the day of Pentecost as "a sound . . . like the rush of a mighty wind," and "there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them," and all "began to speak in other tongues , as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:2-4).
It is not difficult to see a parallel to the phenomena which heralded the giving of the Law from Sinai. In the course of time, Jewish traditions embellished these phenomena (Ex 19:16-25; Heb 12:18) and added such particulars as that at Sinai "God’s voice, as it was uttered split up into seventy voices, in seventy languages, so that all the nations should understand . . . ."1 The notion of seventy languages is derived from the number of the seventy children of Israel that came out of Egypt (Ex 1:1-5; Deut 32:8) which is interpreted to represent all the nations of the world.
Rabbi Moshe Weissman explains the rabbinical interpretation of the supernatural phenomena accompanying the giving of the Law, saying: "In occasion of the giving of the Torah, the children of Israel not only heard the Lord’s voice but actually saw the sound waves as they emerged from the Lord’s mouth. They visualized them as a fiery substance. Each commandment that left the Lord’s mouth travelled around the entire Camp and then to each Jew individually, asking him, ‘Do you accept upon yourself this Commandment with all the halochot [Jewish law] pertaining to it?’ Every Jew answered ‘Yes’ after each commandment. Finally, the fiery substance which they saw engraved itself on the tablets."
This Jewish embellishment of the giving of the Law, in which God’s voice looked like a "fiery substance" which split into seventy languages, is strikingly similar to Luke’s comparison of the Holy Spirit to tongues like flames of fire alighting for a while on each head. A number of scholars acknowledge the similarity between the manifestation of God’s power at the giving of the Law and at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps the most vivid description of the analogy between Sinai and the Christian Pentecost is offered to us by Jerome (A. D. 342-420), the famous translator of the Latin version of the Bible known as Vulgate. He wrote: "There is Sinai, here Sion; there the trembling mountain, here the trembling house; there the flaming mountain, here the flaming tongues; there the noisy thunderings, here the sounds of many tongues; there the clangor of the ramshorn, here the notes of the gospel-trumpet."5
The close connection that Luke establishes between the time and manner of the Jewish and Christian Pentecosts suggests that Luke saw in the Christian Pentecost the Messianic fulfillment of the events typified by the Jewish Pentecost. Since the time of Luke, many Christians, like Jerome, have seen the Christian Passover in the same light.
The Jewish pilgrimage feast of Pentecost gained new significance for Christians because it coincided with the birthday of the Church as an institution. On that day, the Holy Spirit baptized 120 disciples of Jesus as they awaited His coming in an upper room (Luke 24:53). This event was the crowning of Christ’s Paschal sacrifice, for by sending forth the Holy Spirit after His ascension, Christ fulfilled the "promise" of the Spirit (Acts 1:4) which had been predicted by John the Baptist (Acts 1:5).
John the Baptist said to those who came to receive the baptism of repentance, "I have baptized you with water; but he [who is coming after me] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:8). Before His ascension, Jesus promised that John’s words would soon be fulfilled: "John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5). This promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Peter proclaimed that God’s promise had been fulfilled because the Holy Spirit had been given, in accordance with the prediction of the prophets (Joel 3:1-5; cf. Ezek 36:27).
When Jesus ascended to heaven following His resurrection, He presented Himself to the Father as the first fruits of a coming harvest. On that occasion He took into the Holy Place "not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Heb 9:12). In this sense, Pentecost represents the climax of Christ’s Paschal sacrifice that was celebrated in heaven. When the Father accepted His sacrifice "for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2) and exalted Him (Acts 2:33), the Father and the Son sent forth the Spirit. Pentecost is then the crowning of Christ’s Passover in heaven, which was manifested on earth with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:32-33). "By the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost," writes Ellen White, "thousands were to be converted in a day. This was the result of Christ’s sowing, the harvest of His work."