Pentecost
Louise Duval
6/6/2022
LPC, LAC, CAC
This year Pentecost will be celebrated on Sunday, June 5. It is a day set aside to commemorate the day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples. After Jesus’s resurrection which we celebrate on Easter, Jesus was on the earth for 40 days and appeared to many, including his disciples. When He ascended into Heaven, he left his disciples with a mission and the promise that the Holy Spirit would help them be able to fulfill that mission. Jesus’s last words to his disciples before He ascended, known by many as the Great Commission were these, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8).
After Jesus gave his disciples this command, he ascended to Heaven. A verse that stands out to me, that I find funny and also convicting is Acts 1:10-11: “They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee, “they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into Heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into Heaven.” Jesus had just given his disciples the command to go wait on the Holy Spirit to come and then go tell everyone around them and all around the world about Him and they were standing around staring up at the sky. The angel was basically telling them to stop looking at the sky, go to Jerusalem to wait on the Holy Spirit, and then get busy with the work Jesus told them to do because He is coming back. Since those of us who know Jesus are the modern-day disciples, I believe that Jesus’s mission for us is the same as His disciples on that day. I believe sometimes as Christians it is easy for us to get focused on praising God for the resurrection and lose focus of what God commissioned us to do.
It is right to be in awe of the resurrection and to praise God for it, but a right understanding of the resurrection should motivate us to share with others so they can experience the joy and hope that we have. There are people who have never accepted the gift of salvation and if they die without that gift, they will spend eternity separated from God. If you have experienced the priceless gift of Jesus through the resurrection, He has also given you the power of the Holy Spirit to share that with others. When Jesus returns, don’t let Him find you staring up at the sky, let Him find you sharing the treasure you have found in Him with those around you!