Day of Pentecost
The Day of Pentecost was the Jewish feast day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out on Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem. It marks the public beginning of the church’s witness in Acts 2.
At a Glance
The Day of Pentecost was the Jewish feast day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out on Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem. It marks the public beginning of the church’s witness in Acts 2.
Description
The Day of Pentecost was an annual Jewish feast, observed fifty days after Passover, and in the New Testament it is chiefly remembered as the day when the risen Christ poured out the Holy Spirit on His disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 2). On that occasion the believers were filled with the Spirit, spoke in other tongues as God enabled them, and publicly proclaimed the mighty works of God to the gathered crowds. Peter explained the event in light of Old Testament promise and the exaltation of Jesus, showing that Pentecost was not merely a festival date but a decisive moment in salvation history. Conservative evangelical readers commonly understand this day as marking the public inauguration of the church’s Spirit-empowered mission, while recognizing that some details of how Pentecost relates to later Christian experience are interpreted differently among orthodox believers.