When people come to church on Christmas and Easter, there is a palpable sense of expectation. When preachers preach, when singers sing, when dancers dance, and when liturgists liturgize on these holy days, there is a bounce to our step, an energy in our voice, a passion to our proclamation. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs ‘pop’; on these days in particular, we’re a ‘singy’ bunch.
But what about Pentecost? [It’s this Sunday, June 8, by the way.]
When we come to church this Sunday, will we come with the same palpable expectation on this day? Do we know why Pentecost matters? When you see the red banners framing our stage, marking off this time on our calendars not as ‘the end of the school year’, or ‘the beginning of summer’, or ‘the start of barbeque season’, but as the season of Pentecost, will your soul leap, your heart flutter a few extra excited beats?
If not, we want to share with you a few reasons why Pentecost matters every bit as much as Christmas and Easter—and why Christianity wouldn’t be Christianity without Pentecost. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be posting one blog a week (every Tuesday morning) on our website entitled, “Why Pentecost Matters.” Each week we’ll look at one reason why Pentecost is absolutely central to what it means to be the people of God.
Before we say any more, however, we begin with this simple foundation:
Pentecost matters because the Holy Spirit matters.
From here, we’ll look at six aspects of the Spirit’s work:
- The Holy Spirit makes the church
- The Holy Spirit gifts individual believers in order to build up the church
- The Holy Spirit draws us into the life and love of the triune God
- The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and enables our obedience
- The Holy Spirit empowers us for mission
- The Holy Spirit guarantees God's promised future
Darrell Johnson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Vancouver, says, “I know that the church of Jesus Christ in the West will have finally come to understand the fullness of the gospel when Pentecost is as big a celebration as Christmas and Easter.”
We agree, and so over the next several weeks we’re going to learn to celebrate Pentecost. Even more so, we’re going to pray that we, like the church down through the ages, would be a people shaped and enflamed by the Holy Spirit of the Living God.
So when you come to church this Sunday, come with expectation—Christmas and Easter expectation—and feel free to sing a bit louder. It’s Pentecost.