Today is Pentecost

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:1-4

Today is Pentecost Sunday. A celebration of this wonderful, amazing, historic event. What is the meaning of Pentecost? The significance? Amazingly, this is not explained in the New Testament. I’m serious. Pentecost only occurs two other times in the entire New Testament, and those two simply refer to the Jewish feast itself.

So what does this all mean? Obviously it is the fulfillment of the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but what is the significance of this day itself? It seems to me there are three basic views:

1) This is the birthday of the Church
2) This is the model of baptism in the Spirit as a second blessing
3) This is proof that speaking in tongues is evidence of this baptism

Concerning #1 The Bible nowhere states this. The early Fathers believed the church existed before all other things. Others have set forth that the church was formed in the ministry of Jesus. Whichever of these we decide, the New Testament does not say this is the birthday of the Church.

Concerning #2 While I believe this does indeed set forth a normative New Testament experience, that is, each believer may seek, expect, and receive such a baptism (minus the wind and fire!), this is not the significance of Pentecost.

Concerning #3 This is actually significant!! I believe tongues is a continuing gift, still available today, although not necessarily the evidence of baptism with the Spirit, but speaking in tongues here is really significant!

In Genesis 11:7-9 we read: Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

This was a judgment from God to scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth. Pentecost marks the reversal of this judgment, as people all over the face of the earth are now invited to join the new people of God. That’s what speaking in tongues on Pentecost signified - through Christ God is gathering out of all nations a people. And like the baptism in the Spirit, the blessing continues throughout the age (with many other benefits!).

But is that it? I think we can learn the full significance of Pentecost from the Old Testament Feast as it is set forth in Leviticus 23:15-22

15  And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
16  Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
This is why it’s called Pentecost - pentecost means 50.

17  Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; [they are] the firstfruits unto the LORD.
By this time the harvest has begun, and they were to bake two loaves* of bread from this first-fruits of the harvest and present them to the Lord. And this is the significance!! First, that these loaves are the first-fruits of a greater harvest to come. Second, that there are two loaves here presented before the Lord.

You may be thinking, What? Yes, and it’s glorious.

First-fruits – The sign of a fuller harvest to come; in the case of the church, a world-wide harvest. This is the significance of Pentecost, the beginning of a season of worldwide harvest: thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.

Two loaves – One loaf symbolizing Israel, the other loaf symbolizing the Gentiles. Both are presented to the Lord; at the same time; the two become one body in Christ.

The chapter goes on to describe sacrifices to be offered at Pentecost: a burnt offering, a meal offering, drink offerings, a sin offering, and peace offerings. Of course, all these offerings are types of Christ and his sufferings for us; but the main purpose of Pentecost is the wave offering of these two loaves as first-fruits of the harvest to come. We are living in the Age of Pentecost. Yes, The Comforter Has Come, and yes, His gifts are available, but this is the summer of harvest. The next feast is not until the seventh month and the feast of trumpets (v 24). I believe this is God’s calendar: Passover has come – Christ has come and suffered for us that we might go free; Pentecost has come – the Spirit has come and with his power and gifts we are reaching all nations; the next feast, the Feast of Trumpets, is the second coming of Christ.

I believe this is the significance of Pentecost. By all means, press in until you also have been baptized with the Spirit and walk in the fruit and gifts of the Spirit, but remember, this is bigger than just me being blessed: For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

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More on the Feast of Pentecost

* “The size of each loaf was fixed by law. It must contain the tenth of an ephah, about three quarts and a half, of the finest wheat flour of the new harvest (Le 23:17). Later Jewish writers are very minute in their description of the preparation of these two loaves (Josephus, Ant, III, x, 6). According to the Mishna (Menachoth, xi.4), the length of the loaf was 7 handbreadths, its width 4, its depth 7 fingers.” ISBE


Shavuot - the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost 
The Old Testament does not give it the historical significance which later Jewish writers have ascribed to it. The Israelites were admonished to remember their bondage on that day and to re-consecrate themselves to the Lord (De 16:12), but it does not yet commemorate the giving of the Law at Sinai or the birth of the national existence. Philo, Josephus, and the earlier Talmud are all ignorant of this new meaning which was given to the day in later Jewish history. It originated with the great Jewish rabbi Maimonides and has been copied by Christian writers. And thus a view of the Jewish Pentecost has been originated, which is wholly foreign to the scope of the ancient institution. ISBE
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This day is said to mark the dividing line between the ministry of the Lord and the ministry of the Spirit. The later Dutch theologians have advanced the idea that the origin of the church, as an institution, is to be found in the selection of the Twelve and that these men were "qualified for their calling by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Whatever we may think of this matter, the fact remains that Pentecost completely changed the apostles, and that the enduement with the Holy Spirit enabled them to become witnesses of the resurrection of Christ as the fundamental fact in historic Christianity, and to extend the church according to Christ's commandment. Jerome has an especially elegant passage in which Pentecost is compared with the beginning of the Jewish national life on Mt. Sinai (Ad Tabiol, section 7): "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." This vivid passage shows the close analogy between the Jewish and Christian Pentecost.   ISBE