The Day of Pentecost

/ The Lighthouse Blog and Books

The Lighthouse Blog and Books

Written by: Chad D Krueger

            The Day of Pentecost marks the 50th day after the resurrection of Jesus. I find this is a benchmark in Scripture because this was the day the Holy Spirit became available to everyone worldwide. In the Old Testament and through the Gospels the Holy Spirit was only on a select few. The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity or the hypostatic union. There are a couple of places where we see this come to pass.

Matthew 3:13-17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

In the Gospel according to John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, stated this event as the following:

John 1:29-33

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.” And John bore witness saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

            John the Baptist was testifying about the hypostatic union of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let’s quickly not confuse John the Baptist with the writer of the Gospel of John. The writer was John; however, he never penned his name to the Good News Daily. He was known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. I won’t take time to elaborate on this today. It’s for another study.

Matthew 3:11-12

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

            The Day of Pentecost is the first day of the budding of the harvest. In other words, it was the first day of planting season. It is better known as the “Day of firstfruits” or the “Feast of Weeks”. Throughout Scripture, there are many different celebrations, but there are three main ones that are a requirement for all of Israel.  The different festivals are all mentioned in the book of Leviticus. There are seven in total. I am not going to take time now to go into detail, but I am going to mention them by name.

  1. The Feast of Passover (Leviticus 23:4-5, Exodus 12:1-28 – The night the death angel swept over the land of Egypt)
  2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6-8, John 6:35 – I am the bread of life.  Unleaven means without leaven or yeast, which is a type of sin)
  3. The Feast of Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:9-14, the celebration of the barley harvest which ripens in March.)
  4. The Feast of Pentecost/Weeks (Leviticus 23:15-21, which I am speaking about in this article)
  5. The Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:23-25, Rosh Hashanah)
  6. The Feast of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32, Yom Kipper)
  7. The Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33-44)

The Day of Pentecost wasn’t just a New Testament event fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus. Leviticus 23:15-21 explains the command for the festival. It was also known as the Feast of Weeks.

Leviticus 23:15-21

And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD. You shall bring from your dwelling two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD. And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offering, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the LORD. Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering. The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

            However, in the Old Testament, the Feast of Pentecost was known as the Feast of Weeks. This is fifty days after Passover. Passover is the day that Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God, was slain on Calvary’s Tree. On the third day, He rose from the dead and conquered death, hell, and the grave. (Revelation 1:17-18)

Revelation 1:17-18

And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”

            Jesus was speaking one day to His mighty men of valor saying to them to gather for a prayer meeting in Jerusalem. He was commissioning them to wait there for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. See, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came on a select few, and they weren’t infilled like on the Day of Pentecost. He spoke this to the eleven that were with Him.

Luke 24:45-49

And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

            Luke also penned the book of Acts. Thus, the book of Acts is a sequel to his preaching of the Good News Daily. (The Gospel means good news). He continues with the commission in Acts 1:1-11

The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

This is actually a fulfillment of the prophecy that Joel the Prophet spoke some 800 years prior to this event.

Joel 2:28, 29

And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

            As Acts 1:8 tells us about power, that power is the dynamics of heaven. When we raise our hands in worship, they become like jumper cables. The Holy Spirit is also the transformer of heaven. A transformer in electricity divides the power from hydroelectric or wind energy into the electricity that we use in our businesses, churches, and homes. Another way to look at the power is dynamite or explosive power. In Greek, it is derived from dunamis. Dunamis (doo’-nam-is) means force (literally or figuratively); specifically miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself):- ability, abundance, meaning, might (-ily, -y, -y deed), (worker of) miracle (-s), power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful) work. (G1411) Now on the other hand, if you notice that the Father has His own power in verse 7 (Acts 1). The Greek word for the power is not dunamis, but exousia. Exousia (ex-oo-see’-ah) is defined as: (in the sense of ability); privilege, that is, (subjectively) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (objectively) mastery (concretely magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence: – authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength. (G1849)

            After Jesus was taken up into heaven, the men gathered in Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit to show up. I found that the deepest spiritual growth is in the waiting. Yeah, in our society, waiting or being patient is something that we don’t like. However, Scripture says that in the waiting is when our strength is renewed. In the waiting is when we can rest. In the waiting, the small still voice speaks. In the waiting, circumstances change. Yet, in our microwave society, we want everything supersonic. We want our food fast. We want that cup of coffee fast. If a church service goes more than fifty-nine minutes people go crazy and some even have left the church. In the waiting, is when the breakthrough happens. In the waiting, the suddenly will come forth.

            In the next article, I will be speaking about the suddenly. So, stay tuned as I continue the Day of Pentecost.

Your Lighthouse Blog and Books author,

Chad D Krueger

© May 28, 2023

All Scripture is taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted. All Greek and Hebrew words are taken from the James Strong dictionary for Greek and Hebrew Words.