Pentecost Is Not A History Lesson

Today is the day we celebrate the birthday of the church on Pentecost, nearly 2,000 years ago. However, while we are going to read about the remarkable, earth-shaking events of that day, this is not a history lesson. The story of Pentecost does tell us how Christ's first disciples reached the world with the Good News that He is Lord. If anyone believes that the world--or even their little part of it--has already been given that Good News, then they may well treat the events of that day as if they have nothing to say to us about our situation in the present. I'm not one of those people. I know too many people whose grandparents or great-grandparents may have heard about Jesus, but He's only a part of the past as far as they themselves are concerned. It's even fashionable in some circles to deny that Jesus even existed. Most people will not go that far, but they still see Him merely as a historical figure. They see the church as a place where some people go to make a big deal about something that happened 2,000 years ago or more, but for them it's just another building they drive past on their way to and from work. That is not too different from the sentiment those first disciples faced. They were a small group of believers in the midst of a world that was unaware of them if not hostile to them, that did not know they had anything to share and was not prepared to listen. Nevertheless, the Lord had given them an assignment 10 days before. Acts 1:6-8 relates it as follows:

"So when they had come together, they asked him, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'"

Notice that they asked Him to keep on doing all the work, and He refused. He told them that the next phase in God's Kingdom work would happen through them; however, He promised them power. He did not lay out a program. I have had several conversations over the years with church board members who bemoaned the fact that their congregation's numbers kept dwindling, and their presence in the community kept getting smaller. They agreed readily that something should be done to reverse the trend and improve their future. When asked what should be done, though, most have responded with two P's: Pastor and/or Program. Either they wanted a pastor who would turn things around with a magnetic personality and dynamic preaching, or they advocated more classes, more services, more community involvement to make their presence known. None ever said they needed power.

One could ask why the disciples needed power to witness. After all, they were part of the biggest news story in History, right? Why wait? Why not just go out and start telling everybody that Jesus is risen from the dead? After all, that's what it means to be a witness--to tell people the things you have seen and heard. In the words of Top Gear co-host Richard Hammond, "What could possibly go wrong?" Of course, there were a lot of things that could go wrong. They would probably have been arrested and executed by the authorities. At any rate, Jesus told them to wait until they had received power through the Holy Spirit, so He clearly believed that they needed power to be His witnesses. Let's read Acts 2: 1-13 and try to discern why.

"When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”