CHURCH YEAR/SEASONAL DESCRIPTIONS

PENTECOST

The Day of Pentecost is a Christian festival day observed on the seventh Sunday after Easter. On Pentecost we remember an event that occurred to the disciples 50 days after the Passover in which Jesus was crucified and 10 days after they watched Jesus literally ascend into the clouds.

The disciples and followers—we are told there were 120 in all—had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feast of Shavuot. Passover, Succoth, and Shavuot were the three holidays on which all Jewish adult males who were able to do so were required to come to Jerusalem to sacrifice the first loaves from the new grain on the altar in the temple.

When Jesus’ disciples met for this holiday it must have been a troubling time, given the recent events they had experienced. In Acts 2, we are told that while they were gathered there was a sound like a violent wind, then something that looked like tongues of flame came down and rested on each person’s head. The disciples all began to speak in such a way that people of many different languages could understand them, each in their own language. Hearing the noise, others came to investigate and were astonished to hear this group of mostly uneducated Galileans speaking the various languages of many countries.

The people began to ask each other what all this could mean. Some thought the young men must be drunk, but Simon Peter pointed out that it was only 9 o’clock in the morning and offered another explanation: Peter equated the events of Jesus during his life and beyond with fulfillment of prophecy, reminded them of the miracles they had all witnessed, including their Rabbi’s resurrection. He equated the physical ascent of Jesus that they had witnessed to Jesus’ being exalted to the right hand of God and declared that it was the Spirit of God, which Jesus had promised, who had “poured out” what the crowd was seeing and hearing that day. His conclusion was that God had made Jesus both Lord and Messiah. The first Pentecost ended with Peter baptizing all 3,000 people in the crowd in the name of Jesus.

Christians consider the Day of Pentecost (also called Whitsunday) the birthday of the church because, from that moment on, the disciples carried the message of Christ everywhere they went all over the world.

At Calvary, a Pentecost tradition is to conclude the service with the congregation joining in the retiring procession carrying red balloons. Decorations on the Day of Pentecost are red to symbolize tongues of flame and the Holy Spirit; during the season of Pentecost they are green to symbolize the growth and life of the church.

Previous Season: Easter

Next Season: Days following Pentecost

Proper Preface: The Preface of Pentecost

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