The Lord’s Message:  Pentecost:  The Coming of the Holy Spirit

The Lord’s Message:  Pentecost:  The Coming of the Holy Spirit
Date:  May 19, 2024
Where:  Tilghman Methodist Church
Scripture Reference:  Acts 2:1-21

            Today is Pentecost.  We celebrate the Holy Spirit being poured out upon all believers in Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit is fully God. The Holy Spirit is the God that lives within us.  It is the gift that Jesus told us about in John 14:16-17.  The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to teach people about Jesus, John 14:26.  Why is it important that we know about Jesus?  So that we will be prepared for the return of Jesus and the harvesting of souls.

            Let us pray.

            Now before Pentecost was a Christian celebration, it was a Jewish religious ceremony.  It was one of three Jewish religious ceremonies that God told the men that they had to come to Jerusalem to observe.  You can find this in Deuteronomy 16:16. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is Passover, where the angel of God passed over the Israelites houses because they had the lamb’s blood on their doors. The Egyptian’s did not have the blood on their houses, so their first-born male son and first-born male livestock were killed.  The Feast of Weeks is Pentecost.  It comes 50 days after Passover. These all occur in the Spring.  The other religious ceremony occurs in the fall.  That is Feast of the Tabernacle.  It is also referred to as the Feast of Booths.  People make shelters to remind them of their wandering in the desert and that God provided for them.

            I want to compare the Jewish religious celebration of Pentecost to the Christians celebration of Pentecost.  Both are celebrated 50 days after Passover or Easter.  Now, because Passover and Easter do not fall on the same days, Pentecost is celebrated on different days.  Passover begins the 15^th day of the first Jewish month, Nisan, and ends the 22^nd day of the month.  The Hebrew calendar is based on the lunar cycle, the fifteenth day is always on a full moon.  It can occur between March 26 and April 25 of our calendar.  Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.  This was established in 325 AD at the Council of Nicaea.  Now, there are some Christian congregations that do celebrate Easter on the same day as Passover. 

With Passover and Easter having different dates, the Jewish Pentecost and Christian Pentecost have different dates.  The Jewish celebration of Pentecost is to observe God giving the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai.  It is also the beginning of the wheat harvest.  It is celebrated by reading the book of Ruth.  Ruth was a Moabite living in Bethlehem, because her husband has passed away and she felt an obligation to take care of his mother, Naomi, because not only had Ruth’s husband died, but his brother and father also died in Moab.  Through her mother-in law, she would come to accept the Jewish faith.  In Ruth 1:16-17, Ruth tells Naomi.  When Ruth and Naomi came to Bethlehem, it was during the barley harvest.  Naomi sent Ruth out to pick up the barley heads behind the gleaners, so that they would have food.  It just so happened that the field that Ruth picked was being harvest by Boaz’s men.  Boaz was a kinsman to Naomi.  Boaz looked with favor upon Ruth, and she not only stayed and harvested the barley, but also the wheat.   Later on, Boaz would become Ruth and Naomi kinsman redeemer.  He would marry Ruth, providing both Ruth and Naomi with what they would need to sustain their life.  Ruth and Boaz would have a son Obed, who would have a son Jesse, whose son would be David, the second king of Israel and God said was a man after the heart of God.  Under King David’s rule all the tribes of Israel would be joined together and become a mighty nation.  The Jewish religious ceremony for Pentecost celebrates the harvest that has come, God providing the Torah, His laws, for His people and is looking forward to the second harvest, the Messiah coming onto the earth. 

The Christian Pentecost celebrates God sending the Holy Spirit to teach us about Jesus, our kinsman redeemer.  Only by believing in Jesus can we be saved, verse 21.  Jesus told us that He came not to abolish the Torah, but to fulfill it, Matthew 5:17.   Does Peter say in verse 17 that in the last days God is going to pour out His Holy Spirit on just a few people, just the pastors?  No, it says everybody.  The Holy Spirit is going to be poured out upon sons and daughters and upon men and women.  The Harvest is coming and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  Pentecost is a celebration of God preparing for the harvest, the second coming of Jesus. 

Let us be prepared for the Harvest of souls.  The Holy Spirit has come.  We rejoice because God has sent all of us the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.  The Holy Spirit helps us grow together in Faith.  Happy Pentecost!  Amen.