Pentecost – A Day We Will Never Forget
Date: May 15, 2016
Audio Sermon: Click on the play button below.
Pentecost is a Jewish festival known as Shavuot that takes place each spring to commemorate giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, to make an offering of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and to honor God as the owner and provider of the harvest. But during one particular Pentecost about 2,000 years ago, everything changed. That Pentecost was a Pentecost unlike any before it because on that day the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled as promised by God (Joel 2:28-29) and prophesied by Jesus Christ (Luke 24:49).
On Pentecost, God poured out his spirit upon the 12 apostles gathered together in the Temple area along with a demonstration of God’s power through the apostles when they began to speak in other tongues as “the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). Never before had anything like this ever taken place, and those who heard the apostles were mesmerized by what was happening. However, some of them mocked them thinking they were drunk. But Peter then stood up and delivered the first Christian sermon explaining that what those in the Temple were seeing and hearing was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, and they were witnessing this demonstration of power on account of the gift of holy spirit that Jesus has poured out, having been exalted to God’s right hand (Acts 2:33). ~JW