Bob Prichard

Topic(s): Bible Study

Pentecost was one of the three great feast days that the Jews observed by making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. To Christians, Pentecost is the birthday of the church, because it is the day on which Peter and the other apostles first preached the good news of the resurrection of Christ, and three thousand who “gladly received” (Acts 2:41) this gospel message were baptized and added to the church by Christ. The miraculous events of that Pentecost were in fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel of what would occur in the last days when it would come to pass that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:16-21).

The name Pentecost means “fifty days,” and was the name Greek speaking Jews gave to the “Feast of the Harvest,” or “Day of First Fruits,” or “Feast of Weeks.” The date of Pentecost was linked to the feast of the Passover, because the Jews calculated the date of Pentecost by counting fifty days from Passover to the offering of the first fruits of grain. Thus Pentecost, or “fifty days” was the name of the feast. Moses described the introduction of the feast in Leviticus: “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 be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD” (Leviticus 23:15-16). The “morrow after the sabbath” would be the first day of the week, the day we call Sunday. Seven weeks later, plus the day itself, would make Pentecost always fall on Sunday, the first day of the week. Since Jesus was resurrected on the first day of the week, and the church began on the first day of the week (Pentecost), we easily understand why Christians meet on Sunday, the first day of the week, rather than the Sabbath day.

An essential part of the feast of Pentecost was the offering of two loaves of unleavened bread made from the grain crop that they had just harvested. In many ways the feast of Pentecost was the completion of the celebration that had begun with Passover, which they also called the “Feast of the Unleavened Bread.” Fifty days before the people had eaten unleavened bread when they began the harvest of the grain. At the end of the period, they again used leaven, and offered a thanksgiving to God in the form of bread made from the first fruits of the harvest.

The second chapter of Acts describes the multitude of men who gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost. “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). Thus Jews from all over the world were there when the church began, so that the new Christians would be able to take the gospel message into all the world. There is no record of the early church celebrating Pentecost as a special day. The only special day for the New Testament church is the first day of the week, or Sunday. It is the day Christ conquered death and the day His church began. Christians have continued to meet on the first day of the week since that time.