BibleProject | Why Is Pentecost Important?Sample

Conclusion

The apostles are witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection and God’s deep, unbreakable love for all people. And to help them tell everyone from everywhere in the world, God empowers them to become multilingual right then and there, in the middle of a massive crowd of international travelers. Again, Isaiah spoke for Yahweh when he wrote about this kind of mission beforehand. “I will also make you a light of the nations, so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6).

This is the moment when God’s divine fire identified the new temple, the new place where Heaven and Earth overlap, which is the Church community made of Jesus’ people. Not a mountain, not a beautiful building or a sacred place or space—God’s temple is made with unexpected men and women. God’s dwelling place is in people who bear witness to the risen Jesus by choosing to live in his way of love. And the whole world is eventually going to meet God through this community of people who love God and others like Jesus does.

So what is Pentecost Sunday all about? It’s about this unexpected (yet expected) moment in 1st-century Jerusalem when the apostles’ heads caught fire, when a strange indoor windstorm swirled through a packed party filled with international travelers. It is the day foreshadowed by every wind-and-fire episode in the Old Testament and the day Jesus promised would happen as he quoted the prophet Isaiah.

It’s the moment his loving Church began, and it’s the beginning of a new, peaceful world. Happy Pentecost!