What is Pentecost?

Learn more about why Christians celebrate Pentecost.

Some things happen at specific points in time – for example, the day we get married or obtain our driver’s licence, the day we finish secondary school or the first time we go to our favourite holiday destination.

However, some things occur without a definite date. Could we note the day that we learnt to speak English? Or what day we learnt how to cook? 

One day that is easily marked is the annual celebration of our own birth. We often celebrate with friends and family and, ideally, with a nice birthday cake and a few presents too.

If I was to ask how old the Christian Church is, many would guess about 2,000 years old. That’s a fairly accurate conclusion, but in the Bible we can read about the day – yes, the actual day – that many Christians consider to be the ‘birthday’ of the Church.

Seven weeks after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, his followers had gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish Feast of Weeks, which was also known as Pentecost.

In the Bible, we read that as they were gathered together there was a supernatural occurrence involving wind and flames, and they were ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:4).

The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in the world that we can experience as individuals in our own lives.

As a result of that experience, those early followers of Jesus felt empowered by God to work for him in new and exciting ways.

That same day, one of those followers, who was called Peter, spoke to a crowd about Jesus and his offer to give them a brand new way of living. 

The Bible says that about 3,000 people became followers of Jesus that day. And there it is. In one day Jesus went from having a few hundred followers to having a few thousand.

Think of the logistics of that – how do you organise and teach and care for and train and lead thousands of people? 

What you need is a structure or an organisation with appointed leaders. So what was born that day became: church. 

At Pentecost – 50 days after Easter Sunday – the Christian Church celebrates the ongoing empowering of the Holy Spirit and the formation of the worldwide Church. Happy birthday!