Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate the Coming of the Holy
Spirit… the birthday of the Church.
Let us take some time to read
about the story in Acts2. The Acts of the Apostles recounts the story of the
original Pentecost (Acts 2).
Jews from all over were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish
feast. On that Sunday, ten days after the Ascension of Our Lord, the Apostles
and the Blessed Virgin Mary were gathered in the Upper Room, where they had
seen Christ after His Resurrection:
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind
coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there
appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one
of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak
with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. [Acts
2:2-4]
Christ had promised His Apostles
that He would sent His Holy Spirit, and, on Pentecost, they were granted the
gifts of the Spirit. The Apostles began to preach the Gospel in all of the
languages that the Jews who were gathered there spoke, and about 3,000 people
were converted and baptized that day.
This is why Pentecost is often called "the birthday of
the Church." On this day, with the descent of the Holy Spirit, Christ's
mission is completed, and the New Covenant is inaugurated.
I like the article I read which stated that the Pentecost
turned boring religion into an amazing adventure, and it transformed ordinary
people into bold missionaries. It can do the same for us today.
According to the article, there are several relevant reasons
why we should celebrate Pentecost.
Pentecost empowers
us. The early Church could not fulfill its mission without the wind and the
fire of the Holy Spirit. And the Lord wants to make Pentecost personal in every
Christian's life.
Pentecost interrupts
us. The Bible tells us that the wind of the Spirit blew into the upper room
"suddenly" (Acts 2:2)—and His arrival was not on anyone's timetable.
Jesus Himself said the Spirit is unpredictable. Like an invisible wind He blows
where He wills (John 3:8). We cannot control Him. Yet Jesus expected His early
followers to wait for His interruption.
Waiting for the Spirit is not convenient, and patience runs
contrary to our human nature. We would rather run our lives and ministries
ourselves, using our good ideas and clever church-growth strategies. We'd
rather do things on our schedule. Thankfully the early disciples resisted that
temptation. They waited for the suddenly—and the result was the most explosive,
effective and fruitful ministry strategy the church has ever known. Effective
work for God today must follow the same model.
Pentecost unites us.
When the Holy Spirit was poured out in the upper room, the New Testament church
was born and Jesus redefined who can be anointed for ministry. Under the Old
Covenant, only Jewish males from the tribe of Levi could serve around the altar
of sacrifice. But when the Spirit came, the oil of His anointing was poured on
men and women—and Peter told them that all races and all ages would be
empowered to preach the gospel.
The wind of the Spirit always breaks down barriers of race,
gender, age and even economic class. He dismantled old traditions and ushered
in a revolutionary new day of reconciliation. After Peter was anointed by the
Spirit, he found himself in an Italian house, leading dozens of Gentiles to
Christ in the house of Cornelius. Wherever the fire of Pentecost spreads,
barriers of race, culture, gender, age and class are dismantled.
Pentecost propels us.
There is nothing static about Pentecost. Although Jesus told His early
followers to "stay in the city until you are clothed with power from
high" (Luke 24:49), He never intended for them to linger there after the
fire fell. Once they had been baptized in the Spirit they were energized with
hot zeal. They could not sit still or keep their mouths shut.
From that moment the book of Acts becomes a blur of noisy
commotion. The newly ignited saints darted back and forth through Jerusalem
like spiritual pyromaniacs, spreading the fire of God as they healed lame
beggars, baptized new converts and miraculously broke free from prisons. After
Philip the evangelist took the gospel to a Samaritan village, he was literally
picked up by the Spirit and carried to Azotus in an instant.
Pentecost was an
accelerant—it seemed to speed up time, and it gave Jesus' followers an
uncanny mobility. Pentecost turned boring religion into an amazing adventure,
and it transformed ordinary people into bold missionaries. It can do the same
for us to Pentecost Sunday is one of the most ancient feasts of the Church,
celebrated early enough to be mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (20:16) and
St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (16:8). It is the 50th day after
Easter (if we count both Easter and Pentecost), and it supplants the Jewish
feast of Pentecost, which took place 50 days after the Passover and celebrated
the sealing of the Old Covenant on Mount Sinai.
Seven months in the aftermath of typhoon Yolanda in the
Visayas, Pentecost is celebrated. May it empower us, interrupt us, unite us and
propel us all not only to spread but to live the Gospel.
May Pentecost serve as an accelerant to transform ordinary
people into bold missionaries, united in the mission of spreading Love by doing
something not waiting for the action of other people and entities, but acting
in every little way,to alleviate the physical and spiritual wants and plights
of the Yolanda-hit people. opt
