Untitled Sermon

Introduction

More than Baptism:

Today, we celebrate Pentecost as the day that God baptized the church with power. Especially in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles we see it as a day of “dunamis power” and visitation.

It is all of those things, but there is so much history and significance around Pentecost.

Pentecost in the Hebrew Bible

Leviticus 23:15–21 instructs the Israelites to hold an annual one-day harvest festival seven weeks, or 50 days, after Passover (see also Exod 34:22). This festival included extensive sacrifice (Lev 23:15–21; Deut 16:9–10; 2 Chr 8:13). At Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Weeks, Israelite farmers would start their journeys toward Jerusalem to present their firstfruit offerings (Wigoder, “Shavu’ot,” 707; Werblowsky, “Shavu’ot,” 628).

Fire and Sinai. At some point during the intertestamental period, the Jewish people had begun to observe Pentecost as a commemoration of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai—an event that involved a fiery theophany (Exod 19:18). VanderKam suggests that Acts 2 understands Pentecost to be a covenant renewal festival (VanderKam, “Covenant and Pentecost,” 239–254). Thus, Acts may be portraying the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 as the establishment of a covenant between God and the Church in a way reminiscent of the events on Sinai (Davis, “Acts 2,” 43–45; Witherington, Acts, 131).

Instructions for the celebration of Pentecost

Its timing and sacrifices Lev 23:15-21 The “fifty days” (verse 16) gives rise to the term “Pentecost” which is derived from the Greek word for “fiftieth”; Nu 28:26-31; Jer 5:24

Its link with the deliverance from Egypt Dt 16:12 Pentecost later became associated with covenant renewal and the giving of the Law.