By Mike Chaffin
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Acts 2:1
Growing up, our family got together several times a year for reunions. I loved going to family reunions. There would be around ninety of us at grandma’s house to eat, play, and celebrate Easter, the fourth of July, and Thanksgiving. It was great seeing everyone in one place.
Pentecost was a Jewish holiday so all the disciples, their friends, families, and other followers of Jesus were together to celebrate. Pentecost is from the Greek word pentecoste meaning fifty. This celebration was the for the early Harvest and was celebrated fifty days after the Feast of First Fruits.
The greatest gift ever given, besides Jesus’ sacrifice, was about to occur. Jesus said a few verses earlier in Acts,
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Acts 1:4-5
Pentecost occurred ten days after Jesus told them this just before ascending into Heaven. All the people present were followers of Jesus. They believed He was the Son of God, the Messiah. However, they had not yet been filled with the Spirit, or given the gifts of the Spirit.
On Pentecost the Holy Spirit infilled them and they immediately understood the Old Testament scriptures pointing to Jesus as the Messiah. They understood the teaching of Jesus that had eluded many of them. Love filled their hearts and a deep desire to fulfill Jesus’ command to go tell everyone the good news of the gospel.
Today, new believers, filled with the Holy Spirit, want to shout from the rooftops and tell anyone who will listen there is victory in Jesus. Old believers, if you haven’t told anyone lately, ask Jesus for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit to refresh and renew your work for the Lord.
Prayer: Lord thank you for family gatherings. Thank you for the love and mentoring shared. Thank you for choosing to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit at one such gathering and continue to give the Holy Spirit to indwell every believer. Fill me with your spirit today, in Jesus’ name, amen.
* There is a website that conducted a search for Bible verses. They compiled a list of the verses in order of the magnitude of hits they got in their search. Some of these verses probably qualify as ‘people’s favorites’, while others might be on the list because they are some of the most important and most teachable words of God.
