Pentecost Today

For those who did not know this before and for those who have perhaps forgotten, we all have been brought to one mind in regard to the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Harvest. Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. Exodus 23: 16a.

Here is the uncalculated wisdom and unfathomable actions of Jesus. He knows that after the celebration of Passover or Unleavened Bread, the next festival for which Jews will come to Jerusalem is the Feast of Firstfruits. Just as people left all over the world to come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, it is now fifty days after Passover and people will be gathering again in Jerusalem for the Feast of Firstfruits.

Jesus, before His Crucifixion, as was His custom, had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with His disciples. Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus saying to Him, Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover? Matthew 26: 17 NKJV. It was at this Feast, this well-known time that Jesus changed the entire meaning and ethos of Passover, for His disciples, for all time, when He instituted the Lord’s Supper.

And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. Mark 14: 22 - 26

Think of it! Jesus had strategically set the time of the first outpouring of the Holy Ghost, His own Baptism, with the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Acts 2: 1

After His Resurrection or after Easter, Jesus, in risen Body, spent forty days with all His disciples, convincing them that He was really alive. To whom he also shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them for forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Acts 1: 3.

After His Ascension, we know that Jesus wanted His disciples to be in Jerusalem, during the Festival of the Firstfruits. And, being assembled with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father. Acts 1: 4a. We also know that in this time, there was a returning to Jerusalem. We believe this to be so, because Jesus had told them, after His Resurrection, to meet Him in Galilee. This was the message He gave to the women to tell His eleven disciples. Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. Matthew 28: 10b.  

We also know that Jesus had taken them out of Jerusalem to Bethany. Bethany is a village that sits on Mount Olivet, or the Mount of Olives. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Luke 24: 50 – 52.  

The Acts of the Apostles also gives information. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. Acts 1: 12. I’m told that a Sabbath day’s journey or walk is about twenty to twenty-five miles. 

As we are purporting, when Jesus told His disciples to wait for the promised Gift, it would be a Jewish Feast time, the time when Jews celebrated the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the Feast of Passover. As has been more than once indicated, it was a pilgrimage feast and many pilgrims were there in Jerusalem.

Just as Passover was taken by Jesus and made new, into commemorating the Lord’s Supper, so too, the Feast of the Firstfruits was taken by Jesus and made new into the Lord’s Baptism. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2: 4

When we celebrate Pentecost, we celebrate our Sovereign God, as a promise-making God and a promise-keeping God. Pentecost is the time of our Lord fulfilling His promise to His people. During the time when the people of God had sought God for forgiveness, and had returned to Him with rent hearts, God was merciful to them and restored them to fullness in Him. In a very real way, these children of God cannot but be seen as a resurrected people. They have been resurrected by God, from the death of sin against Him, the death of separation from Him and the death of sanctions by Him.

God went even further, to say that His children would come to know, beyond any doubt, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be ashamed. Joel 2: 27b. It was after this healing, this returning, this resurrection and this time of wonderful communication that God made the Pentecostal promise to them. I have described it as the Pentecostal promise simply because it was all fulfilled at Pentecost. What was God’s promise?

Though we may all know about it, for those of us who do not know, are unsure, or who need reminders, we shall look with keener eye at God’s promise to His resurrected people.