Pentecost Sunday

Light of Christ Anglican Church 

The Reverend Michael J. Moffitt

May 24, 2026 

Sermon: “Much More Than They Expected” Acts 2:1-11

One of the most important things that every Christian should know is that there is unity in the Scriptures. Genesis to Revelation is the story of the history of redemption where God declares his holy will and reveals to us how He intended from the beginning to accomplish it. This is termed “Progressive Revelation” which is the belief that God’s truth was revealed in stages according to His sovereign plan and man’s ability to comprehend it. It should be understood as God’s way to reveal His plan from creation to New Creation. To fully understand the plan of God for man we must pay attention to how the story unfolds. To do so is to discover that everything that happens in His word reveals how God’s plan was/is moving forward. This should bring confidence that every event was purposeful, not random but revealing that God was still at work accomplishing His plan for us.

The Apostle Paul reminded his spiritual son Timothy in 2 Timothy

3:14-17, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned

and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned

it    and how from childhood you have been acquainted

with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for

salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.    All Scripture is

breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,

for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man

of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Of course it’s helpful to remember that the Scriptures that the

Apostle referred to was what we would call the Old Testament as

the New Testament had not yet been written and compiled.

Today we celebrate the Day of Pentecost which most church

going people know to be the day when the Holy Spirit was poured

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out upon the disciples of Jesus as he promised in our gospel

reading from John 14 that we read this morning. This morning

we’ll consider how that day almost 2000 years ago was foretold

many, many years before.

The overall theme of the Book of Leviticus was God giving the law

to Moses on Mt. Sinai. God gave instructions for the Levitical

priests concerning sacrifices, worship, the priesthood, ceremonial

cleanness, the Day of Atonement, feasts, and holy days, and the

Year of Jubilee. The prominent message is that God is holy and

requires his people to be holy which is something that we struggle

with.

In Leviticus 23:1-2, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak

to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the

appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy

convocations; they are my appointed feasts.”

In Leviticus 23 there are seven major Jewish feasts to be

celebrated annually as they are considered “appointed times” for

worship and reflection. They are closely tied to the agricultural

calendar but looking back we can see that together they reveal

an outline of what would be considered God’s plan of redemption

and therefore each would be a time for worship and reflection.

They carry profound spiritual symbolism. They are in order: The

Sabbath; The Passover; The Feasts of Firstfruits; the Feast of

Weeks; The Feasts of Trumpets; The Day of Atonement; The

Feast of Booths.

We’re not going to cover each of these events today, but I want us

to see the importance of the Day of Pentecost in the history of

redemption.

Pentecost was the celebration of the beginning of the early weeks

of harvest that came sometime during the month of May or in

early June.

There were several festivals, celebrations, or observances that

took place before Pentecost. There was Passover, there was the

Feast of Unleavened Bread, and there was the Feast of First

fruits.

Of course Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were

celebrations of the time when God delivered Israel out of captivity

in Egypt. As Israel was preparing to flee Egypt, God instructed

Moses that the people should slaughter a lamb and place some

of the blood on their doorposts of their homes so the Angel of the

Lord would pass over their homes but would kill the firstborn of

every house in Egypt without the covering of the shed blood of the

lamb. This was going to happen that very night. While this event

was happening they needed to prepare to quickly leave. There

wasn’t even time to put yeast in their bread, so they left with

unleavened bread to eat.

Historically, the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are

foundational events in the history of Israel, marking the birth of the

nation as God's chosen people. Theologically, these feasts point

to the redemptive work of Christ, who delivers believers from the

bondage of sin and death. The Passover lamb's blood, which

protected the Israelites, prefigures the blood of Christ, which

redeems and protects believers from eternal judgment.

The observance of these feasts is a testament to God's

faithfulness and His covenant promises. They serve as a

reminder of His mighty acts of salvation and His ongoing work in

the lives of His people. Through the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, believers are called to remember, celebrate,

and live in the light of God's redemptive grace. The Feast of First

fruits was the celebration of the beginning of the barley harvest. It

was a festival commanded by God that took place within the

Passover celebration. It served as a reminder to Israel of God’s

provision in the Promised Land. They were to acknowledge that it

was God who rescued them from slavery in Egypt and provided

them with a place to live and grow crops.

According to the Old Testament, you would go to the day of the

celebration of First fruits, and beginning with that day, you would

count off 50 days. The fiftieth day would be the Day of Pentecost.

So First fruits was the beginning of the barley harvest and

Pentecost was the celebration of the beginning of the wheat

harvest. 

Since it was always 50 days after First fruits, and since 50 days

equals seven weeks, it always came a "week of weeks" later.

Therefore, they either called it the Feast of Harvest or the Feast of

Weeks (Shavuot). Jewish tradition also taught that Pentecost (50

days) marked the day when God gave the law to Israel.

The disciples could not imagine what they were going to do when

Jesus went back to the Father. He continued to assure them that

he would send a helper and told them to return to Jerusalem and

wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them. I doubt that they knew

what to expect but Jesus knew the power that they would need to

accomplish all that God intended for the building of his kingdom.

On the first Christian Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out

and took up residence in the early followers of Jesus, who

believed that he was not only the Son of God, but the Savior

(Messiah) that Israel had longed for throughout their history.

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One of the advantages they had was the awareness that what

Jesus asked them to do in building the kingdom of God on earth

was impossible to accomplish without the power of the Holy Spirit

and the authority of the name of Jesus.

This morning we will look at the importance of Pentecost as we

seek the path back to the basics of our faith, so that we might go

forward in the same transforming power that grew the early

church and has kept her moving forward for 2,000 years.

Pentecost was the best-attended festival because usually the

weather made the traveling conditions more favorable. It was the

time when more people from all nations would be in Jerusalem. It

was the most appropriate time for the Holy Spirit to come in

power. It was closely connected to Passover but now the Holy

Spirit coming on Pentecost would now be associated with the

saving event of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. The feast

celebrated the first produce of the Promised Land, Israel’s

inheritance, just as the Holy Spirit is the “first fruits” of the

salvation blessings to the believer.

In the liturgical year, Pentecost is the turning point on the

calendar. It is the transition from the Gospels and the life of Jesus

here on earth to the Acts of the Apostles. It symbolizes the time

when Jesus’ mission here on earth was finished and the mission

of the Body of Christ, the church, begins. Pentecost is the final

season of the year and begins what is called “Kingdomtide” or

“Ordinary Time.”

For disciples of Jesus Christ, it is the time where all that we have

focused on since Advent, and the journey of the disciples from

Easter to Pentecost, is meant to prepare us to live as disciples in

the knowledge of God’s Word and the power of the Holy Spirit.

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What we see from our passage in Acts 2:1–11 is that what

happened that day should not be seen as unusual or out of the

ordinary for those who have come to Christ by faith, but as the

way to stand against the Kingdom of Darkness in the Light of

Christ.

You likely remember that in John 20: 21-23, “Jesus said to them

again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even

so I am sending you.” And when he had said this,

he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy

Spirit.    If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them;

if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

So the question is what was different about Jesus breathing on

them and what was to happen on Pentecost? I believe that in

John 20 Jesus was commissioning them to be His apostles with

the authority of His sending and the right to speak in Jesus’ name

with the authority of their Lord. However, it was at Pentecost that

they received the same power that resurrected Jesus from the

dead and would allow them to accomplish the same miraculous

things as their Lord had done while on earth.

Let’s now consider our reading from Acts 2:1–4,

It was now 10 days after the ascension of Jesus back to the

Father. Jesus commanded them to go back to Jerusalem and wait

for the promise of the Holy Spirit to come in a way not yet

experienced by them. In Acts 1:8 Jesus promised,

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come

upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in

all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

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The disciples were not strangers to the person and work of the

Holy Spirit because they saw it continually at work in the ministry

of Jesus. They also experienced something of the power of the

Holy Spirit as they were sent out in Jesus name to heal the sick

and take authority over the demonic. However, Jesus had

promised them a new, coming work of the Holy Spirit in John

14:15–18,

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will

ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with

you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot

receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You

know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

The disciples stayed with Jesus throughout his ministry on earth

and they showed their belief in who he was as the Son of God,

the Messiah. That they came to the knowledge of who Jesus was

would not be enough for them to accomplish all that Jesus was

sending them to do. In other words, they couldn’t stay like they

were and accomplish what they did. Since the resurrection of

Jesus they were learning that when he makes a promise, it will

come to pass, and it will be worth waiting for, but it may come in a

way that they never suspected. They were waiting together when,

“…suddenly, there came from Heaven a sound like a rushing

wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested

on each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them

utterance.”

What a powerful image of God’s mighty presence. Three signs of

God’s presence were witnessed: wind, fire, and inspired speech.

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The wind, in particular, is a symbol of the Holy Spirit’ presence.

In Ezekiel 37:9 God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath and

command the four winds to breathe life into the dead bones. It

was like God’s prophetic word at creation where God spoke and

new life was created or in Genesis 2:7, “the Lord God formed

the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his

nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.”

This wind at Pentecost had that kind of presence and power

because it was emanating from the Spirit of God Almighty. The

fire is the symbol of the Spirit’s cleansing and judging power as in

John the Baptist prophecy in Matthew 3:11–12,

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is

coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not

worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and

fire.”

The tongues spoken were not ecstatic utterances but clearly the various languages spoken by the Jews who had come from all over the Eastern Mediterranean region from Rome to as far east as Parthia in eastern Iran. Luke tells us in verse 11 that “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

Those on whom the outward sign of the Holy Spirit rests experience an inner filling with the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit moves and inspires their speech, the believers are speaking in the languages of those from other places. It’s a sign that something extraordinary and unexpected had happened as the promise of Acts 1:8 is fulfilled all at once. They have become witnesses in Jerusalem to those in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the

earth. John Stott commented on the unity of the believers through the witness of the Holy Spirit,

“Ever since the early church fathers, commentators have seen the blessing of Pentecost as a deliberate and dramatic reversal of the curse of Babel.”

We read in Genesis 11:9 that, “the Lord confused the language of all the earth” and “dispersed them over the face of the earth.” At Pentecost unity began to be restored for those around the earth when they gathered to praise the Lord of glory.

In our gospel reading from John 14:8-17 the Apostle John

recounts the words of Jesus concerning the importance of the

Holy Spirit indwelling those who follow him. These promises were

not meant only for the disciples who were with him but for all who

believe Jesus to be the Lord and the only way to the Father.

There would be three things that would characterize the followers of Christ.

1. They would do the same works that Jesus did, and even

greater because he went back to the Father (v.12)

2. For those who love Jesus and obey his commandments will be

able to ask anything in Jesus’ name he will do it. (v.13-14) How

would they know how to pray for those things that God will give?

Paul would later write in 1 Corinthians 2: 9-10, But, as it is

written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart

of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love

him”— these things God has revealed to us through the

Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”

3. The Holy Spirit within will reveal all truth to those who love

Jesus. There will be a clear distinction between those who follow

Jesus as opposed to those who cannot receive the truth because

they don’t know him. (v.17) God’s truth is not subjective but found

in his word, regardless of how we feel.

In Acts 2:1-11 the crowd’s reaction shows that when God’s people

are willing to wait upon the Lord to move in power, he will do it in

ways that are not predictable and are far different from what we

would have planned. In this one event that happened at the birth

of the Christian Church, we can see God’s plan to reach the

nations in the power of the Holy Spirit moving in and through

those who were the disciples of Jesus Christ. They would never

be able to do this in their own power or abilities. They had already

proven that they were well-meaning but unreliable when faced

with grave danger. In this one moment where the Holy Spirit is

poured out on the disciples and approximately 120 people who

were there, everything from that point on changed.

There was truly a birth that took place and a new life with God. It

forever changed what it meant to be a Christ follower. Does this

resonate with you? Is this how you have encountered Jesus

Christ?