Pentecost Sunday

CATHEDRAL NEWSLETTER - 16 May 2024

Image courtesy Bible.com

Friends in Christ, in the church calendar, this Sunday is Pentecost Sunday (known in England as Whitsunday).  

Just before Jesus ascended to the Father's side in heaven, he promised to send the promised Holy Spirit, in Acts 1:4b-5.

"...wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit."

Jesus told his first disciples in Acts 1:8 that:

...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.’

This was soon fulfilled on the Day of the Jewish Pentecost festival (also known as the "feast of weeks", 50 days after Passover).

"Tongues like fire" settled on the apostles and, possibly, some other Christians, enabling them to speak in foreign tongues (Acts 2:4).  These tongues were recognisable human languages (listed in Acts 2:9-11), but ones which the Galilean disciples had not learned (vv5-8).    

So what was happening there? Jews had moved all over the Roman empire. Many had grown up in other countries and were not fluent in Aramaic, the local language of Palestine. In other cases, people of other religions had converted to Judaism. Some of these foreign Jews and converts had moved to Jerusalem to live. Others were visiting for the Pentecost festival. What they heard on this amazing day was the Christian Jews speaking in familiar languages.

And what is the content of their speech? Acts 2:11 says that it was the wonders of God!

Peter’s explanation says this fulfils Joel’s OT hopes that all God’s people would prophesy. To prophesy is not just to predict the future, though it may include that.

Fundamentally it is to declare the Word of God. In the Old Testament this was reserved to a select few prophets. But the OT also promised a time when God’s Spirit would enable every believer to have a direct relationship with God and the privilege and power to prophesy, that is, to speak out God's Word.   

And Peter says this hope was fulfilled when the Christian Jews were filled with the Spirit and spoke in other tongues. To speak in tongues then was to prophesy. Why? Because they are telling the word of God in other languages, to people who otherwise could not have understood it.

It becomes clear that by the Spirit, the gospel will transcend all language and therefore racial barriers; that it will be able to reach to the ends of the earth!

But there would be no prophecy, no preaching, no witness, no world-wide Christian movement without the Spirit empowering Christians, and above all the Apostles, for their ministry.  

Acts 2:16-17 records how Joel said God would pour out his Spirit in the ‘last days’. Some people try to predict when the last days will arrive, like various crazy cults that sometimes come along.

But Peter says the last days arrived on the day of Pentecost almost 2000 years ago. And we have been living the last days ever since.

The Day of Pentecost was a unique event. We don't now normally see "tongues of fire", nor speak in unlearned languages. Nor has this been happening all through church history.

But we can keep the ethos of Pentecost alive. It’s a bit like with the Anzacs. The original Anzacs at Gallipoli were a unique bunch. They are all gone now. But the fighting spirit and courage they displayed has come to be seen as a turning point in Australian history. And the Anzac ethos is kept alive when other Aussies show the same courage under fire; sacrifice beyond the call of duty and so forth.      

Likewise we must keep the ethos of Pentecost alive. In the beginning of Acts, Christ set up his witnesses. They did a unique job of testifying to his resurrection, upon the truth of which Christianity stands or falls. They did it by the help of the Holy Spirit.

We are to keep that Pentecost ethos alive, by the same Spirit, through singleminded faithfulness to that same message of the resurrected Jesus, handed down to us by the Apostles.      

Jesus has done all that he needs to do. He has died, risen and sent his Spirit.

We are now in the last days. It's a bit like 'extra time' in the soccer, where we await the referee’s final whistle.

All that remains is to see the gospel continue on to the ends of the earth. That is the business of the people of Christ's church. We must support that mission 100% in every way.

And let's play our part to speed the progress of the Word however we can, above all, by speaking it, with courage given by the Holy Spirit. 

That's the Pentecost ethos!

Warmly in Christ,

Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney