A. The Holy Spirit’s Ministry on the Day of Pentecost.
Pentecost was called Whit-Sunday in England after the custom of people being baptised in white robes on this Special Day. [Whit-sun-tide]
The Day of Pentecost from the Greek Pentecostos meaning fiftieth, was the Jewish Harvest festival. It occurred fifty days after the Passover.
- It represented a week of weeks after Passover. Exo 23:16 and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labours, which thou sowest in the field: and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in thy labors out of the field.
- On the Feast of the Firstfruits of Harvest, called also the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Pentecost, see Exo_34:22;
- Lev 23:15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering; seven sabbaths shall there be complete:
Lev 23:16 even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meal-offering unto Jehovah.
Lev 23:17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave-loaves of two tenth parts of an ephah: they shall be of fine flour, they shall be taken with leaven, for first-fruits unto Jehovah.
Lev 23:18 And ye shall present with the bread seven lambs without blemish a year old, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be a burnt-offering unto Jehovah, with their meal-offering, and their drink-offerings, even an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto Jehovah.
Lev 23:19 And ye shall offer one he-goat for a sin-offering, and two he-lambs a year old for a sacrifice of peace-offerings.
Lev 23:20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the first-fruits for a wave-offering before Jehovah, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to Jehovah for the priest.
As the Feast of Harvest now there would be a harvest of souls. On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 three thousand souls were saved at the start of the Church Age. This was the first-fruits of the Harvest of souls to be gathered in during the coming Ages.
The New Testament Pentecost Acts 2 Compared with the Old Testament Pentecost Ex 19:1
1. Fifty days after leaving Egypt the Israelites arrived at Mt Sinai. Ex 19:1
The Day of Pentecost Acts 2 was fifty days after Jesus Rose from the dead. He spent forty days with His Disciples after the Resurrection
Act 1:3 to whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God:
Act 1:4 and, being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, said he, ye heard from me:
Act 1:5 for John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence.
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| Israel at Mt Sinai |
Act 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place.
So the Apostles and those with them tarried in Jerusalem waiting in Prayer as they were instructed until they were clothed with the Power from on High. [Baptised in the Holy Spirit]
2. The Old Testament Pentecost celebrated the Birth of the Nation of Israel.
Exo 19:5 Now from among all peoples: for all the earth is mine:
Exo 19:6 and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.
Cp Acts 7:53 and Gal 3:19
The New Testament Pentecost celebrated the Birthday of the CHURCH Acts 2:41-47C. Notes on Acts 2: 1-4 The day of Pentecost
Acts 2:1b They were all with One ACCORD, KJV all the believers were together in one place.GW
one accord [homothumadon hom-oth-oo-mad-on'] Strongs
Adverb from a compound of the base of G3674 and G2372; unanimously: - with one accord (mind).
RWP says “ All together in one place (pantes homou epi to auto). All together in the same place. Note homou here (correct text), not homothumadon as in Act_1:14, and so a bit of tautology.[tau·tol·o·gy (tô-tŏl′ə-jē) n. pl. tau·tol·o·gies 1. a. Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy. b. An instance of such repetition.
2. Logic An empty or vacuous statement composed of simpler statements in a fashion that makes it logically true whether the simpler statements are factually true or false; for example, the statement Either it will rain tomorrow or it will not rain tomorrow. Free Dictionary
John Wesley says “At the pentecost of Sinai, in the Old Testament, and the pentecost of Jerusalem, in the New, where the two grand manifestations of God, the legal and the evangelical; the one from the mountain, and the other from heaven; the terrible, and the merciful one. They were all with one accord in one place - So here was a conjunction of company, minds, and place; the whole hundred and twenty being present.”
Act 2:2 Suddenly, a sound like a violently blowing wind came from the sky and filled the whole house where they were staying.
Suddenly,Strongs aphnō af'-no
Adverb from G852 (contracted); unawares, that is, unexpectedly: - suddenly.
a sound like a violently blowing wind GW. [ there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind,ASV]
RWP “Luk_21:25 for the roar of the sea. It was not wind, but a roar or reverberation “as of the rushing of a mighty wind” (hōsper pheromenēs pnoēs biaias). This is not a strict translation nor is it the genitive absolute. It was “an echoing sound as of a mighty wind borne violently” (or rushing along like the whirr of a tornado).”
and filled the whole house where they were staying.Filled (eplērōsen). “As a bath is filled with water, that they might be baptized with the Holy Ghost, in fulfilment of Act_1:5” (Canon Cook).
They were sitting (ēsan kathēmenoi). Periphrastic imperfect middle of kathēmai.
Act 2:3 And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them.
Parting asunder (diamerizomenai). Present middle (or passive) participle of diamerizō, old verb, to cleave asunder, to cut in pieces as a butcher does meat (aorist passive in Luk_11:17.). So middle here would mean, parting themselves asunder or distributing themselves. The passive voice would be “being distributed.” The middle is probably correct and means that “the fire-like appearance presented itself at first, as it were, in a single body, and then suddenly parted in this direction and that; so that a portion of it rested on each of those present” (Hackett). The idea is not that each tongue was cloven.
Act 2:4 All the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
All the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit
Were entirely under his sacred influence and power. See the notes on Luk_1:41, Luk_1:67. To be filled with anything is a phrase denoting that all the faculties are pervaded by it, engaged in it, or under its influence, Act_3:10, “Were filled with wonder and amazement”; Act_5:17, “Filled with indignation”; Act_13:45, “Filled with envy”; Act_2:4, “Filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.”
With other tongues (heterais glōssais). Other than their native tongues. Each one began to speak in a language that he had not acquired and yet it was a real language and understood by those from various lands familiar with them. It was not jargon, but intelligible language. Jesus had said that the gospel was to go to all the nations and here the various tongues of earth were spoken. One might conclude that this was the way in which the message was to be carried to the nations, but future developments disprove it. This is a third miracle (the sound, the tongues like fire, the untaught languages). There is no blinking the fact that Luke so pictures them. One need not be surprised if this occasion marks the fulfilment of the Promise of the Father. But one is not to confound these miraculous signs with the Holy Spirit. They are merely proof that he has come to carry on the work of his dispensation. RWP
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