This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday! After the overwhelming excitement of Easter, Pentecost sometimes seems like a minor event. But Pentecost (which actually brings a close to the liturgical season of Easter) is a key moment in the history of the Christian faith. Let’s take a few minutes today to walk through the significance of Pentecost.

Pentecost (a reference to the 50 days that have passed since Easter) is a peculiar event that took place after Jesus’ ascent into heaven (which was celebrated last week on Ascension Day). It’s described in the second chapter of the New Testament book of Acts. Here’s the key part of the account:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” —Acts 2:1-13 (NIV)

On the surface, the Pentecost story is interesting but doesn’t seem especially significant. God empowered his disciples to be understood in many different languages—amazing, to be sure, but doesn’t this “just” a miracle like the countless other ones described in the New Testament? Not so fast—while Pentecost is certainly miraculous, its background context makes it especially important and noteworthy.

Pentecost Had Been Promised

Pentecost is important because Christians understand it to be the long-awaited fulfillment of prophecy. In other words, Pentecost was important enough to have been predicted hundreds of years in advance. In the Pentecost story linked above, the disciple Peter reminds his audience of the Old Testament prophecy that was being fulfilled right in front of them:

[Peter explained that] this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy….”

That prophecy can be found in Joel 2:28-32, and had been made many hundreds of years earlier. But the arrival of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost had also been predicted much more recently by Jesus himself. Just before his ascension, Jesus told his disciples that the Holy Spirit would empower them to preach to the nations of the world:

“…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” —

An earlier promise by Jesus seems also to be a reference to the events of Pentecost:

“The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised….” — Luke 24:46-49 (NIV)

If you want to reach much farther back into the Old Testament, you could also consider Pentecost to be a mirror reflection of the ancient story of Babel (read about it in Genesis 11), in which people were confused and divided by language as punishment for their rebellious actions. At Pentecost, God has reversed the confusion of Babel, uniting people across language barriers.

So Why is Pentecost Important?

You might be thinking, “That’s all very interesting, but why is Pentecost important?” It’s important because it infused the small community of Jesus-followers with the core mission that would define the Christian church ever after: to share the message of Jesus Christ with the entire world.

Consider that in the weeks following Christ’s death and resurrection, many of his followers were undoubtedly still processing the incredible events they had witnessed, and were probably wondering what God wanted them to do now that Jesus had carried out his mission. On Pentecost, God made it clear what Christ-followers should do with the news of Jesus Christ: share it with others. And not just with the Jewish communities in which they lived; the multi-linguistic nature of this miracle made it plain that the Gospel message was not confined to one community, nation, ethnicity, or language.

Pentecost is when the Christian church received, and was empowered to carry out, its grand assignment of evangelism. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes referred to as the “birthday of the Christian church.”

The mission given to Christians on Pentecost still stands, thousands of years later. We are to share the saving message of Jesus Christ with the world—and as we do so, we should rely on the presence of the Holy Spirit, who empowered the early church to share the gospel, and continues to do so today. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon, reflecting on Pentecost, challenged Christians to appreciate the gift of this remarkable event:

“[The Holy Spirit’s] power was gloriously manifested in and after Pentecost. He remains at this hour the present Immanuel–God with us, dwelling in and with his people, quickening, guiding, and ruling in their midst. Is his presence recognized as it ought to be? We cannot control his working; he is most sovereign in all his operations, but are we sufficiently anxious to obtain his help, or sufficiently watchful lest we provoke him to withdraw his aid? Without him we can do nothing, but by his almighty energy the most extraordinary results can be produced…. The Holy [Spirit] is no temporary gift, he abides with the saints. We have but to seek him aright, and he will be found of us.” — Charles Spurgeon

Images: the 16th-century painting “Pentecost” by El Greco, and Michelangelo’s 16th-century fresco “The Prophet Joel.”