Pentacost

This past weekend was the anniversary of Pentacost, so I wanted to take some time to discuss how this remarkable moment can still affect our lives today.

For those who need a refresher, the story of Pentacost takes place in Acts 2. It is shortly after Jesus ascended into Heaven, promising to leave a Helper with the Christians still on earth. All of the believers were hanging out together, and if you’ve seen the TV show The Bible, they are kind of bummed because Jesus isn’t actively walking the earth with them anymore. Yes, they know He’s alive and they’ll see Him again, but they’re missing that daily interaction with their Savior. But suddenly, there is a rush of wind and fire and the believers all start speaking in tongues. The people around were understanding the apostles in their own languages, which is a bizarre and beautiful miracle. Others thought they were just drunk, but we know what really happened. The Holy Spirit came upon all of the believers in order to dwell within them and guide them along the way for the remainder of their time on earth. He was the spiritual being of God and Jesus, meant to be with us 24/7, no matter what. 

Moses got to talk to God, the disciples got to walk with Jesus, but how cool is it that us Christians today have the Holy Spirit with us at all times? As soon as the believers understood that they had the gift of the Holy Spirit, they were filled with other gifts of prophecy, visions, and dreams. They were immediately inspired to go serve the cause of the Lord with their new gifts. They taught the Gospel, they fellowshipped together, they broke bread and prayed prayers. They sold their possessions, gave to the poor, attended church, and added new believers every single day. 

It is often hard for us to be inspired like they were in the days of the early church, but I believe that we still have the Spirit, the gifts, and the motivation to spread the Word like they did back then. 

Way back when (before Covid), I was able to be a part of a jazz band at my work. We often made jokes about how the four of us in the band were a part of four different Christian denominations: Catholic, Episcopal, Baptist, and Non-denom (our band name is the Ecumenicals, haha!). But we all came together with our piano, our trumpet, our trombone, and our drum and made some amazing music for our peers. We are different colors and came from different backgrounds and some of us had only met that very week we performed. And when it comes to jazz, the notes don’t always line up or make sense, but by the end, we had beautiful pieces of music. My friend who played the keyboard in the band said that he felt like our practice was like Pentacost. We hadn’t ever played together before, but after an hour, it just felt right. We were improving together and it was working. It was awesome. And I think that’s part of what Pentacost was about. 

The early believers all came from different backgrounds and had different jobs and skills. They were speaking different languages at the time of the Holy Spirit coming, and yet everyone around them could understand. Acts 2:44 says “And all who believed were together and had all things in common.” Wow, all things?! Yes, because they had faith in common. They had the Holy Spirit in common. They had a goal of spreading the Gospel in common. And that is everything. 

So in today’s day and age where there is sickness and racism and harsh political divides, let us as Christians remember that as long as we have Jesus, we have all things in common. Let us join together and speak languages and play music and spread God’s love. Let us continue to add to the number of believers every single day.