A NOTE FROM PASTOR MARGE
Pentecost Sunday occurs fifty days after Easter, and it is the fulfillment of Christ’s promise of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost signals that we as Christ-followers have a new power for ministry and that is the power of the Holy Spirit living and dwelling in us. While the Holy Spirit serves many roles in our lives as believers, including helping us, convicting us, changing us from the inside out, bringing us everlasting peace, and teaching us, specifically at Pentecost, we witness one of the major roles the Holy Spirit has in our lives; the Holy Spirit empowers us to share our faith and proclaim the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the very ends of the earth. It is a message that has eternal, everlasting significance.
Over two-thousand years ago, one hundred and twenty believers were gathered in a small house to celebrate the ancient Jewish harvest festival, called Pentecost, which was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the Passover. Suddenly, there came from heaven “a sound like a mighty rushing wind” that filled the whole house and “divided tongues of fire” rested on each of the one hundred and twenty people. What happened next was a miracle. These people filled with the Holy Spirit began to “speak in other tongues,” in other languages, that were not their own. In other words, they started to proclaim the truth, the Gospel, to the large crowd that had gathered in languages they did not know.
Thousands and thousands of Jewish pilgrims from all over the world had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost, which was an ancient Israel festival. There were all these different languages and cultures present and so when the apostles began to speak in other tongues, it was astonishing because people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Parthia, Egypt, etc, were hearing each of the apostles speak in their own language. In other words, they were speaking in other tongues. How were they doing this, you may be wondering? The apostles had been filled with the Holy Spirit, who was directing the syllables the apostles spoke. It was a true miracle.
There were two reactions from the crowd that heard the faithful proclamation of God’s Word by the apostles: confusion and rejection. In fact, the crowd eventually mocked the miracle, claiming that the apostles were drunk. Then the apostle Peter gets up and preaches the very first sermon to the very first official church service on planet earth. The main message of Peter’s sermon to the crowd is this: it is all of our sin that nailed Jesus to the cross and it is that same sin that is forgiven at the cross for anyone who believes and receives. The apostle Peter wants this confused, unbelieving crowd to know for certain that they are not just mistakers in need of a life coach but are sinners in need of a Savior. So, the crowd is cut to the heart by Peter’s Holy-Spirit-filled sermon, and they ask Peter, “What shall we do?” Peter responds by saying, “Repent and be baptized…and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Biblical account of Pentecost ends by proclaiming that on that day, three-thousand people surrendered their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and were baptized.
It is my prayer that even still today, on this Pentecost Sunday, thousands of people would be cut to the heart and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to share the Good News of the Gospel with this confused, skeptical, and unbelieving world. That same power that lit the apostles’ heads on fire in that house in first-century Jerusalem lives and dwells in anybody who believes and receives. We have the power, not our own power but the Holy Spirit’s power, to set this world on fire in the best possible way. My prayer even still today is this: come, Holy Spirit, come.
— Pastor Marge
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