What is Pentecost Sunday?

This name which signifies 'fiftieth' is found only in the N.T.: it corresponds to the FEAST OF WEEKS. From the waving of the sheaf of firstfruits fifty days were counted, and on the day after the seven sabbaths the feast was kept. A new meat offering of two loaves baken with leaven was offered; also seven lambs, one bullock, and two rams for a burnt offering, with their meat and drink offerings "even an offering made by fire of sweet savour unto the Lord." Also one kid of the goats for a sin offering; and two lambs for a peace offering. It was proclaimed a holy convocation, in which no servile work was to be done. Lev. 23:15-21. The Israelites came with their free-will offerings unto Jehovah, according as He had blessed them. See OFFERINGS.

Fifty days after the resurrection day, after the waving of the first-fruits, the wave-sheaf, was another feast of which we find the fulfilment also in the New Testament. If we take the Greek exactly, it says in Acts 2, verse 1 'And when the feast of the fiftieth was fulfilled', the fifty days mentioned here, seven weeks plus one day, the day of Pentecost. Pentecost is simply the Greek word for 'fifty'. The day of Pentecost was the fulfilling of the feast of the weeks which was to take place seven weeks after the presenting of the firstfruits, this wave sheaf and when we go to the New Testament and ask what was the meaning, what happened on this day of Pentecost, we see that it was the foundation day of the assembly.

" And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." Everything was now ready for the descent of the Holy Ghost, that the church might be formed. He could not be thus given until Jesus was glorified. If the church had been an earthly society, seeking salvation, it might have been formed whilst Jesus was here. But redemption must be accomplished. Jesus must be raised from the dead and received up to glory, before He, the Spirit, could be sent to form the church. People have no idea what an entirely unknown and new thing the church was. There had been for centuries Jews and Gentiles, but now a third company is formed. The disciples then were all together in one place, when a mighty rushing sound from heaven was heard in Jerusalem, and it filled the house where they were sitting. And they were all, not merely the apostles, but they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and a marvellous miracle bore witness to the presence of the Holy Ghost. They began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Jews who came together, who were present in Jerusalem from various nations, heard them speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of God. There was great amazement and wonder.

Having learned the meaning of the type, let us now see its blessed fulfilment in the antitype as given in Acts 1 and 2. There Christ is risen from the dead, gone into heaven, God accepts Him for His people, and the Holy Ghost comes down and falls on the one hundred and twenty gathered believers, and then adds to them three thousand new-born souls, and thus that day for the first time was constituted the Assembly of God. The start of the Church is intensely interesting, as showing how the saints were drawn together. "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2:1). The nucleus of the Church was small indeed, but from that day a deeper and larger work was to go on, in which Christ is to see of the travail of His soul. His Assembly by the descent of the Spirit of God was formed; and therefore, again, I say assuredly that the day of Pentecost was the birthday of the Church of God, because it had never existed before. From Abel downwards individual saints and servants of God had existed, but they were not in the Church. John the Baptist, and the thief on the cross, died before the Lord Jesus was risen to be the Head of it, or any one could be united to Him. It was due to Christ, who had so glorified God in death, that there should be an adequate answer to His sorrows and sufferings; and He finds that answer in the Assembly, which is His body, as she is also His Bride, the new Jerusalem.

First, Pentecost was the inauguration of a new thing on the earth. It was the beginning of Christianity. It was the birthday of the Church.

The day of Pentecost, and the descent of the Holy Spirit of God upon each of the assembled disciples at Jerusalem, was the hour of the Church's birthday. A new era had set in. No longer was our Lord upon earth. Henceforth He was to be represented on earth by His people, as endued with power from on high in the gift of the Holy Spirit.

What great event happened fifty days after Christ rose from the dead? The very word, Pentecost (Greek, Pentecoste, means fiftieth), points to that great happening described in Acts 2:1-13. We know how our Lord remained on this earth forty days after His resurrection, and before His ascension. The disciples were to tarry at Jerusalem until they were "endued with power from on high" (Luke 2:49). "And when the day of Pentecost [the fiftieth day] 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).

On the day of Pentecost, "the morrow after the Sabbath," "the first day of the week," fifty days after our Lord rose from the dead, the great event took place of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit to be in this world as He had never been before. Indwelling each believer, it was the glorious day of the Church's birth. On that day the Church was constituted. The mystery hid from all ages emerged in the sight of a triumphant Head in Heaven, even our Lord Jesus Christ, and believers on earth were indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, thus linking each believer with the Head in Heaven, and with each other as members of the one Body on earth. "There is one Body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling" (Eph. 4:4). "Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:25-27).

How expectant they must have been. What a wonderful moment in the history of the world! At length the fiftieth day after the resurrection arrived. Pentecost was a reality. From the glory the promise of the Father was fulfilled, The risen and ascended Saviour sent in the Father's name the Holy Spirit of God, inaugurating this new and wonderful dispensation, the period of the Church's sojourn on this earth. It was the Church's birthday.

There is the peculiar expression of fulness here, such as we hear of nowhere else. This feast only is marked out by seven sabbaths intervening It is the feast of weeks, but among the Hellenists or Greek-speaking Jews, the number fifty, as is well known, has given the name to this feast, which is therefore called "Pentecost." What then was fulfilled when the day of Pentecost was fully come? The Father made good His promise, that incomparable promise of which the Lord Himself had said, "It is expedient for you that I go away." What could outweigh the blessedness of His presence with His disciples on earth? The gift of another Advocate, not merely gifts but Himself baptizing them, no longer in hope but accomplished in fact.

At length the day of Pentecost arrived, and the Lord Jesus having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, shed forth that which the astonished multitude both saw and heard. The Holy Spirit had come, the third person in the Godhead now took up for the first time His dwelling-place on earth, an event fraught with important issues for believers collectively, for the world, and for saints individually.