The Meaning of Pentecost
Acts 2:1-4; Galatians 4:1-7, 5:16-26

Today is Pentecost Sunday. We observe it by wearing red clothing. We mark Pentecost in the liturgy with banners, hymns, scriptures, sermon, and prayers appropriate to the day.

Our English word “Pentecost” comes from the Greek word pentecoste, which means “fiftieth.” Pentecost refers to the Jewish festival celebrated on the fiftieth day after the first fruits of the harvest were offered to the Lord. In the Old Testament it is called the “Feast of Weeks” (See Duet. 16:9-11). It was a moveable feast. Its observance could vary a little from year to year. Beginning with the day when the first winter wheat was harvested, the Israelites counted seven weeks or forty-nine days. Pentecost was the fiftieth day. The Feast of Pentecost was essentially a harvest festival.

For us as Christians, Pentecost commemorates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which coincided with the Day of Pentecost, the Jewish Feast of Weeks. There is still a hint of the original harvest festival theme for us, but now it is the nations of the world being harvested into the granary of God, through the witness of the first Christians. “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power. […] So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added” (Acts 2:9-11, 41).

The Day of Pentecost is critically important for the Church universal, the local church, and individual Christians. Without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, there would be no effective proclamation of the Gospel, no new birth from above, and no Church itself. But why is this the case? Why is the Holy Spirit so vitally important? This morning’s readings from the New Testament suggest some answers.

First, the Holy Spirit makes the witness of the Church powerful and effective. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples gathered in a house in Jerusalem, it manifested its presence with sound. A rushing wind filled the place. Crackling tongues of supernatural fire rested on each of the disciples and filled them. And the people who received the Holy Spirit began to make sounds of their own. They began to speak in foreign languages!

Jesus foretold these events. He told his first followers, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (Jn. 14:26).
Jesus told his first followers, “Do not worry about what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say” (Lk. 12:11-12). And before his ascension to heaven, Jesus commanded his first followers to wait for the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4). He told them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).

It is the Holy Spirit who empowered the proclamation of the Gospel on the Day of Christian Pentecost in Jerusalem, and it is still the Holy Spirit who makes our witness powerful. As a result of the effective proclamation of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit births men, women, and children into the kingdom of God. When people hear and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit; they experience the new birth from above. When people hear and receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God sends the Holy Spirit into their hearts, and the Holy Spirit begins to cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Gal. 4:6). “I am a child of God! God is my heavenly Father”

Second, it is the Holy Spirit who gathers believers into the new community of the Church where “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). The Holy Spirit makes it possible for the new community to function and to flourish in this evil world.

Paul goes on at some length about the ills of mankind. The world lies in darkness. The darkness is described as the works of the flesh: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things (Gal. 5:19-21). The world, through its actions, has set its face against the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The evil in the world is against this new witness and this new community. The world will do all in its power to keep people from trusting the Gospel or becoming part of the new community. The world entices us to gratify the desires of our sinful nature and seeks to prevent us from doing what we really want to do. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit of God is a much stronger power than the power at work in the world.

The reality of the Holy Spirit means it is possible to be led by the Spirit, to live by the Spirit, and to be guided by the Spirit. We are not hopelessly destined to be conceited, competitive, and envious of each other (Gal. 5:26), or to embody the works of the flesh. We are not irresistibly driven to fulfill the desires of our sinful nature. A new possibility exists. The Holy Spirit can begin to produce the singular fruit of love in our hearts. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, singular, but love has two foci.

First, the Spirit empowers us to love God. The great conundrum of humanity is that God exists and has created a moral universe. God has created all that is and infused creation with a sense of “the ought.” We have an inkling of how things ought to be, and we also realize that all is not right with the world or with our own heart and mind. The question is how we discover and do God’s will. Thankfully, God has revealed the divine will in the law of God, in the Ten Commandments, in the holy scriptures. But here is the crux of the matter. We have a sense of “the ought” in creation, and we even have God’s revelation in scripture, but both remain external forces that clash with our twisted, distorted, and ill-formed will. We have the capacity to recognize what is good, and we even have the desire to do what is good, but we do not seem to have the ability to do the good, at least not consistently. We can recognize that God’s law is good, but we are evil and resist the good. This is the human dilemma. “Wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

Our wretchedness did not catch God by surprise. God understood all along and promised in the prophets to solve the human conundrum. Through Jeremiah, God said, “I will put my law within them, and I will write on their hearts” (Jer. 31:33). Through Ezekiel, God said, “A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statues and be careful to observe my ordinances" (Ez. 36:26-27). The gift of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was God making good on these promises. The Holy Spirit produces the fruit of love, love for God which is conformity to God’s will.

But the Holy Spirit also produces the fruit of love in our horizontal, human relationships. The Spirit enables us to love neighbor as self, to embody the golden rule. The fruit of love produces joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end” (1 Cor. 13:4-8a).

Vertical love for God and horizontal love for mankind is what the Spirit produces in us, and that love makes it possible for the Church to function and to flourish.

The Holy Spirit is the essential gift of God because it is the gift of God’s divine-self indwelling and transforming the human heart, mind, soul, and strength. Without the Holy Spirit there is no effective proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without the Holy Spirit there is not new birth from above. Without the Holy Spirit there is no Church of Jesus Christ. Without the Holy Spirit there is no light that shines in the darkness.

I do not think we are focused upon the Holy Spirit enough. Our theology is binary. We are focused on God our Father, the maker of heaven and earth, and on Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord. We need a truly trinitarian theology. We need to focus on and press into the person of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit is the answer to our personal, political, and planetary problems. Whatever ails you, the Holy Spirit is the cure. The Spirit is the power both to will and to do of God’s good pleasure.

When the Holy Spirit is withheld, we wither and perish. When the Holy Spirit is poured out, we flourish. As the Psalmist puts it, “When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground” (Ps, 104:29-30).

Oh, that God would pour out the Holy Spirit on our planet, our nation, and on the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Oh, that God would pour out his Holy Spirit on Jackson, MS, on Briarwood Presbyterian Church, and on each one of us. Then there would be a great harvest to gather in, then the works of the flesh would be cast off as the filthy rags they are, then we would have the power to love what is good and hate what is evil.

Indeed, as the Psalmist says, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power” (Ps. 110:3). Or as Saint Augustine prayed, “Give what you command and command what you will.” Or as we are wont to sing, “God of grace and God of glory, on Thy people pour Thy power. Crown Thine ancient Church’s story, bring her bud to glorious flower.”

O Lord God Almighty, pour out your Spirit on all flesh that we may see your wonderful salvation, through Jesus Christ your Son, and the blessed Holy Spirit. Amen.