Sermon for Pentecost

Pentecost means fifty, an Old Testament harvest feast that occurred fifty days after the Passover, also the Feast of Weeks, for it is a week of weeks, seven weeks. Luke begins the account in Acts with “when the day of Pentecost arrived,” as in this translation, but more literally, “In the day of the fulfillment of Pentecost.” Often the way a day comes in Greek and Hebrew is literally understood as the days being fulfilled. But that is not the only meaning here. In Pentecost, we have a fulfillment of all the things which Christ has promised throughout Easter, culminating in the fact that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.