Acts 1:1-5 “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
There is a couple of things I want to mention here.
#1, Jesus has risen.
#2, he was with them for 40 days.
#3, He made a promise.
Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Verse 12, “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey.”
Verse 14, “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.”
#4, They traveled for a week.
#5, Then, they began to pray.
For those of you who don’t know. Jesus died on Good Friday, ran a revival down in Hell on Saturday, and rose sometime around sunrise on Easter Sunday. From these passages of scripture, we know Jesus had risen, he spent forty days with them, then the disciples traveled for a week, and then stayed in an upper room. That puts the time frame at 47 days after Easter Sunday.
Acts 2:1 “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. The word Pentecost literally means “Fiftieth day”. So that tells me they prayed for three days.”
Acts 2:2–4 “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Pentecost, is the day that The Spirit showed up. And Acts 2:5–13 mentions 16 nations and multiple people groups. And I believe all those people had to be there, so they could hear what the spirit was going to say, in their language.
The Greek word for spirit and wind is pnuma. The Greek word for a human spirit is Pnumatikos. It is where we get the word pneumatic. Compressed air.
In the Upper Room, the wind was blowing, rushing with an irresistible force. Perhaps Nicodemus was among those who heard and saw this undeniable evidence of the wind.
There something interesting about the first 64 verses of the book of Acts. The word Pnuma is used 9 times. Acts 1 verses 2, 5, 8, and 16, and then in chapter 2 verses 4, 17, 18, 33, and 38.
Twice a year. Once in late March, and again in late September, the equinox happens. And the equinox is when there is 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light. Day and night are equal. In today’s calendar, Easter is determined by the following formula. The First Sunday, after the first full moon, After the spring equinox.
In the year 325 at the Council of Nicaea, that is when it was decided. Back to my point. Pentecost is always 50 days after Easter. Because Easter moves with each year, Pentecost moves with it. For the first time, in my life time, Pentecost falls on my birthday. The last time Pentecost fell on June 9th, was 62 years ago, in 1957, my father had his second birthday just 2 months prior. If the Lords grants me a life past the age of 67, I will see this happen just 4 times. The next time this happens it will be 2030.
