Pentecost is the Sunday seven weeks after Easter, when Christians celebrate the day the Holy Spirit came on Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem (Acts 2). The name means “fiftieth” in Greek: it falls on the fiftieth day, counting Easter Sunday as the first. It began as Shavuot, the Jewish Feast of Weeks. In 2027, Pentecost is Sunday, May 16.
It is one of the great turning points in the Bible. Here is where Pentecost came from, what happened that morning in Jerusalem and what it means for anyone who follows Jesus today.
Where did Pentecost come from?
Long before Acts 2, Pentecost was a harvest festival in the Law of Moses called the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot in Hebrew. God told Israel to count seven weeks from the start of the grain harvest and then celebrate:
You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.
Leviticus 23:16 (BSB)
Greek-speaking Jews called the feast Pentecost, the fiftieth day. Israel brought God the firstfruits of the wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22), gave “in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you” (Deuteronomy 16:10) and rejoiced together, with servants, foreigners, the fatherless and widows included (Deuteronomy 16:11).
It was one of three feasts when the men of Israel went up to Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16:16), which is why the city was full of Jews “from every nation under heaven” on the day the Spirit came (Acts 2:5). Jewish people still celebrate Shavuot, and their tradition also links it with God giving the Law at Mount Sinai.
Jesus promised the Holy Spirit
On the night before He died, Jesus told His disciples that His leaving would be good for them:
But I tell you the truth, it is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
John 16:7 (BSB)
He called the Spirit the “Advocate,” a word other Bibles translate Helper, Comforter or Counselor, and promised that the Spirit “abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). After His resurrection, Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift the Father had promised (Acts 1:4–5), and He gave them a mission:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8 (BSB)
Our messages The Spiritual Habit of Gospel Witness and Empowered by the Spirit look at that promise and why Jesus told them to wait.
What happened at Pentecost?
Acts 2 tells the story. About ten days after Jesus returned to heaven, His followers were together in one place when four things happened:
- A sound like wind. “Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2).
- Tongues like fire. They saw “tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them” (Acts 2:3).
- New languages. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4). A crowd gathered, and people from fifteen nations and regions heard them “declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2:11).
- A sermon. When some scoffed, “They are drunk on new wine!” (Acts 2:13), Peter stood up and explained that God was keeping His promise through the prophet Joel: “I will pour out My Spirit on all people” (Acts 2:17, quoting Joel 2:28).
Peter preached Jesus, crucified and raised, whom God had made “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). The crowd was “cut to the heart” and asked what they should do (Acts 2:37). Peter answered:
Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38 (BSB)
“Those who embraced his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to the believers that day” (Acts 2:41). They devoted themselves “to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). Families can read the story together in our lessons The Holy Spirit Came and Peter Preached in Jerusalem, and Embrace the Awkward looks at what that first community teaches us.
What does Pentecost mean for Christians today?
Pentecost wasn’t only for the first disciples. Peter told the crowd, “This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself” (Acts 2:39). Today the Holy Spirit lives in everyone who turns from sin and trusts in Jesus:
- He makes us God’s children. “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:16).
- He lives in us. Your body is “a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Corinthians 6:19), and “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9).
- He gives gifts. “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7).
- He grows Christlike character. The fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). See Living in the Spirit.
- He sends us out. The Spirit gives power to be Jesus’ witnesses (Acts 1:8), and Pentecost shows that the good news is for every language and nation.
Our statement of faith puts it simply: the Holy Spirit indwells all who believe in Christ and is “an abiding helper, teacher and guide.”
What about Pentecostal and charismatic churches?
Pentecostal churches take their name from this day. Many Pentecostals teach that after conversion, believers should seek a further experience called the baptism in the Holy Spirit, usually marked by speaking in tongues, and charismatic Christians in many denominations expect all the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 to be active today.
Many other evangelicals believe every Christian is baptized in the Spirit at conversion, since Paul writes, “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13), and that believers can be filled with the Spirit again and again (Acts 4:31). Paul also asks, “Do all speak in tongues?” (1 Corinthians 12:30), a question that expects the answer no.
Sincere, Bible-believing Christians land in different places on these questions, especially on how gifts like tongues work today. What Scripture asks of every believer is clear: “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18) and “walk in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). Our message on Acts 2, Embracing the Spirit, calls us past both complacency and the fear of excess into daily dependence on the Spirit.
When is Pentecost?
Pentecost is always a Sunday, seven weeks after Easter. Count Easter as day one, and Pentecost is day fifty. Because Easter moves, Pentecost moves too, falling between May 10 and June 13. In 2027, Easter is March 28, so Pentecost is Sunday, May 16. Ascension Day, the fortieth day, is Thursday, May 6.
How do churches celebrate Pentecost?
Churches that follow the church calendar mark Pentecost with readings from Acts 2 (sometimes read aloud in several languages) and prayers for the Spirit’s help. Many hold baptisms that day; in England it was long called Whitsunday, probably after the white clothes worn by the newly baptized. Other churches don’t mark the day specially. Scripture doesn’t command Christians to keep Pentecost as a holiday (Romans 14:5–6). What Acts does show is a church that gathers, prays, shares the good news and depends on the Spirit every week, not just once a year.
Questions about Pentecost
Many Christians call it that, and the description fits. Scripture doesn’t use the phrase, but on Pentecost the Spirit came to live in Jesus’ followers, about three thousand people were baptized (Acts 2:41), and the believers began meeting daily as one community. From then on, “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).
For forty days after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His followers and taught them about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). Then He was taken up into heaven, and two men in white promised He would come back (Acts 1:9–11). The disciples returned to Jerusalem, “continued in prayer” (Acts 1:14) and chose Matthias to replace Judas. Our message Faithfulness in the In-Between looks at those days.
Yes. The crowd was bewildered “because each one heard them speaking his own language” (Acts 2:6), and Luke lists where they came from, from Parthia and Mesopotamia to Egypt, Rome and Arabia (Acts 2:9–11). Whatever Christians conclude about tongues in churches today, the gift at Pentecost let people from many nations hear about the wonders of God in their own languages.
Red recalls the “tongues like flames of fire” that rested on each believer (Acts 2:3), so it has long been the traditional color of the day in churches that follow the church calendar. Some decorate with red banners or flames, and some people simply wear red to church. It’s a custom, not a command, but it’s a vivid reminder of the Spirit’s power.
In the Bible they are the same feast. Shavuot is the Hebrew name for the Feast of Weeks, and Pentecost is the Greek name; Acts calls it “the day of Pentecost” (Acts 2:1). Jewish people still celebrate Shavuot, while Christians use the name Pentecost for the Sunday that remembers the Spirit’s coming. The two usually fall on different dates because they are calculated differently.
Clarity Church meets Sundays at 10am at Edinbrook Elementary in Brooklyn Park, and we’d love to learn to walk in step with the Spirit alongside you. Plan your visit — come as you are.