Jack T Chakhesang
Period of Lent: It is relevant to understand the events leading up to Easter Sunday and aftermath for all time to come. On April 09 Christians will celebrate Easter with hope for redemption. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and seventh Wednesday before Easter Sunday: so called for the practice of putting ashes on the forehead as a sign of penitence. This year it was on February 22 last. Lent is the period of forty weekdays from Ash Wednesday to Easter, observed in Christian Churches by fasting and penitence to commemorate Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness for forty days.
The significance of Lent includes Palm Sunday, the Sunday---April 02---before Easter commemorating in Christian Churches Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem riding a pure white donkey which had never been ridden before, when palm branches were strewn before him amidst hail of Hosannas. Lent presages Christ’s Crucifixion on Good Friday, followed by Holy Saturday and culminating in the glorification of His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. As Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote in LIFE OF CHRIST, ‘’First the Fast and then the Feast….For there can never be an Easter Sunday without a Good Friday.’’
Pentecost, the Feast of Harvest: Pentecost is significant in the New Testament because on that day the Christian Church was born. Christ the Passover lamb had been sacrificed; then fifty days later, God poured out His Spirit on that small group of disciples who were the first fruits of His new people, the Church of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:1-4; cf of 1 Cor 5:7).This is the Christian Festival on the seventh Sunday after Easter and this year 2023 it is on June 05.
The word “Pentecost” means fifty, and comes from the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It refers to the Israelite harvest festival that was held fifty days after Passover. In the Old Testament the feast is called the Feast of Harvest and the Feast of First fruits. In the New Testament it is called the Feast of Pentecost (Lev 23:5-6, 15-16; Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor 16:8). It was also known as the Feast of Weeks, being a week of weeks after the offering of the first barley sheaf (Deut 16:9-10).
Israelite Feasts: Israelites were largely a farming people, their religious festivals, or feasts, were built up into the agricultural cycle. There were three main annual festivals; Passover-Unleavened Bread and Pentecost-Harvest at the beginning of the year, and Tabernacles-ingatherings in the middle of the year. On these three occasions all adult males had to go to the central place of worship, which was originally the Tabernacle and later the Temple (Exod 23:14-17).
Passover and Unleavened Bread: The Feast of Passover was God’s appointed way for the people of Israel to celebrate their miraculous escape from bondage in Egypt (Exod 12:14,24). The Passover recalled God’s “passing over” the houses of the Israelites when He killed the firstborn throughout Egypt (Exod 12:27). However, God withheld judgement from Israelite households only when He saw the blood of the sacrificial animal outside the door. The blood was a sign that an innocent life had been taken in place of the one under judgement (Exod 12; 5, 7, 12-13; Lev 17:11).
God decreed that month of Passover should be the first month that is Abib (Exod 23:15) or Nisan (Neh 2:1) of their religious year (Exod 12:2). This Jewish month fits somewhere into the period of March-April on our calendar. In the middle of the month the people kept the Passover, followed by the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:5-8; Mark 14:1).
The accompanying Feast of Unleavened Bread recalled the people’s hasty departure from Egypt when they had to make their bread without leaven (yeast), cooking as they travelled in order to save time (Exod 12:8, 34, 39).
Once the Israelites had settled in Canaan, the festival became an occasion to acknowledge God’s care in giving them their grain harvest. At Passover time the barley was ready for harvest, but before the people could reap it and use it for themselves, they had to acknowledge God as the giver. Therefore, on the third day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they presented the first sheaf of reaped barley to God (Deut 16:9-10). They accompanied this with animal sacrifices that expressed confession, gratitude and dedication (Lev 23:10-14; Num 28:16-25).
After the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, the people returned home and the next six weeks were busy harvesting, first the barley and then the wheat. At the end of the wheat harvest, they showed their thanks to God for their food by presenting to Him two loaves of Bread such as they would eat in their normal meals. Since this festival fell on the fiftieth day after Passover, it later became known as Feast of Pentecost. Again there were additional sacrifices (Lev 23:15-21; Num 28:27-31).
Baptism with the Holy Spirit: The baptism with, in, or by the Holy Spirit was an event that John the Baptist foretold (Matt 3:11), that Jesus promised (Acts 1;4-5, and Peter and Paul referred to (Acts 11:15-16); 1 Cor 12:13). Historically it took place on the Day of Pentecost, when the risen and glorified Christ gave the Holy Spirit to His disciples as He had promised and, in so doing, united them all into one body, the Church (Acts 2:1-4, 33; 1 Cor 12:13).
On the Day of Pentecost two separate groups of believers received the gift, or baptism, of the Spirit. The first group consisted of the one hundred and twenty mentioned in Acts 1:15, 2:-4. The second group consisted of the three thousand mentioned in Acts 2:37-42. There are several differences between the two groups.
The first group consisted of those who had been believers for some time and who had awaited Jesus’ departure in order to receive the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. In his book “The Big Fisherman” Lloyd C. Douglas wrote, “And so it was that in strangely convincing dreams, and by intuitive, compelling impulses, and many other indubitable signs, one hundred and twenty men, having no consultation with one another, turned their faces toward Jerusalem, arriving (at the Coppersmith’s Guildhall) mid-morning of the Day of Pentecost, to receive tidings concerning the future of the Kingdom. Nothing like this had ever happened in the world before.”
Among these 120 men were included, to name a few, Simon the Cyrene who carried Christ’s Cross to Calvary, Roman Proconsul Mencius, Prince Joseph of Arimathea, Jairus the official whose daughter Sharon Jesus healed, Ephraim the lone farrier (blacksmith) of Nazareth who was always kind to Jesus since He was a boy and others who had been specifically chosen accordingly.
In his Bible Commentary Matthew Henry states that between the promise of the Spirit and His coming there were but a few days; and during those days the Apostles lay perfectly wind-bound, and not offering to preach. But with reference to Acts 1 chapter two, “the north wind and the south wind awake, and then they awake and we have them in the pulpit presently. Here is the descent of the Holy Ghost at a time of a solemn feast, because there was then a great concourse (gathering) of people to Jerusalem from all parts, which would make the fame of it to be spread the sooner and further. Thus now, as before as the Passover, the Jewish feasts served to toll the bell for Christian services.”
When those of the first group received the Holy Spirit, the experience was dramatic. But, because of the special circumstances in their case, such an experience should not be considered the normal experience of the Christian. Those disciples had lived with Jesus and could receive the Holy Spirit only after Jesus had returned to the Father (John 7:39; 16:7).
The second group consisted of three thousand mentioned in Acts 2:37-42). They became believers only after they heard Peter preach that day and who received the gift of the Holy Spirit immediately. The experience of those in the second group, who received the Holy Spirit when they believed, without any unusual happenings, was the normal experience of the Christian, then as well as now (Acts 2:38-41).
The third group who received the Holy Spirit in unusual circumstances consisted of some disciples of John the Baptist whom Paul met in an unevangelized part of Asia Minor (Asiatic Turkey). At first they did not fully understand how the life and work of Jesus was the true fulfilment of John’s ministry. When Paul explained this to them they believed, and showed themselves to be disciples of Jesus, not just of John, by being baptized as Christians. They then received the Holy Spirit, as the original disciples had on the day of Pentecost.
The Early Church: Only three exceptions to this normal experience are recorded in the New Testament, and all are related to the development of the early Church. At first the Church was entirely Jewish (Acts 2:5, 22, 41; 4:1-4), but when a number of Samaritans believed, a difficulty appeared. The Samaritans were a people of mixed blood and mixed religion who originated partly from Old Testament Israel, but they and the Jews hated each other. This division was not to be carried into the Church. It seems, therefore, that before God gave the Holy Spirit to the Samaritans, He wanted the Jerusalem leaders to be assured that the Samaritans were true Christians, who were to be welcomed into the Church as the Jews (Acts 8:14-17).
Later, the Apostles were even more amazed when a group of full-blooded Gentiles believed the Gospel and received the Holy Spirit without the Apostles doing anything at all. It was a repetition of what had happened on the Day of Pentecost, but this time among Gentiles, not Jews (Acts 10:44-46; 11:15-17).
The Lord’s Supper: Jesus’ death on the Cross was the great act of redemption of which the Israelite Passover was but a picture (Exod12:5 with 1 Peter 1:18-19; Exod 12:46 with John 19:36, Exod12:21, 27 with 1 Cor 5:7). Once Jesus had died, the Passover was of no further use. It was replaced by a new remembrance ceremony, the Lord’s Supper (Matt 26:17-30; 1 Cor 10:16; 11:23-26).
In both the New Testament and the present day Church, the Lord’s Supper is known by a number of names. Paul calls it, literally, the Supper of the Lord, because Christians keep it on the Lord’s authority and in His honour (1 Cor 11:20). Paul speaks of it also as a communion, meaning an act of fellowship, or sharing together, in Christ. Luke calls it the breaking of bread, referring to part of the meal as a shortened title for the whole (Acts 2:46; 20:7). Another name, the Eucharist (from the Greek word for “thanksgiving”) refers to Jesus’ act of giving thanks for the bread and wine (Mark14;23; 1Cor 11-24).
This Feast of Pentecost was kept in remembrance of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. Fitly, therefore, the Holy Ghost is given at that feast, in fire and in tongues, for the promulgation of the evangelical law, not as that to one nation, but to every creature. The Feast of Pentecost happened on the first day of the week, which was a confirmation of it to be the Christian Sabbath (Sunday). It is a standing memorial in His Church of those two great blessings---the Resurrection of Christ, and the pouring out of His Spirit.
The Timeless, Universal Church: At present times, Pentecost Church has third largest number of adherents, after Roman Catholics and Orthodox Churches and is followed by Lutherans, Anglicans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists and so on there were 102 recognized denominations till 1991but apparently have increased manifold over the years.
Be that as it may, Paul pointed out, through a letter he wrote to a church of new converts in southern Greece, that there is a sense in which all Christians, regardless of era or nationality, have some part in the events of the Day of Pentecost. Because Jesus was to be the channel through which God would give the Holy Spirit to believers in general, through the baptism of the Spirit, all Christians, the moment they believe, are then brought into the Church and made sharers in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). Jesus’ promised gift of the Spirit, though initially received at Pentecost, extends through the ages to all who repent and believe the Gospel (Acts 2; 38-39; Acts 12:12).
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