There were ten days between the Lord’s ascension and Pentecost, Israel’s blessed harvest feast. The church, Christ’s new covenant community, waited for power from on high! No doubt there was what one commentator¹ has called “an intense pitch of anticipation.” It was an anticipation generated by the Spirit Himself as He moved history to this redemptive historical moment in which the church was drenched with his powerful presence.

The sign above the door of that “one place” (Acts 2:1) might well have been “Place of Prophetic Promises Fulfilled!” The Spirit knocked at the door of that place and quickly filled it with his personal, heavenly sound and sight (vv 2-3). Those marvelous, symbolic things did not only announce his divine presence, but also his active engagement. It was an engagement that moved the hearts and lips of no less than 120 saints,

In many tongues, one God, one faith confessing.

Psalm 87:4, Book of Praise

The fullness of God’s harvest is present. No more “a prophet here, a priest there, and a king at a distance.” Instead, there was a multitude of prophets, each one “declaring the wonders of God” in languages heard all over the world.

Here is the vanguard of the church, Christ’s holy, Christian congregation. They are together as the instruments of the ascended Lord Jesus Christ, so that the “glorious things” enumerated by the Sons of Korah in Psalm 87 might be fulfilled. Indeed, so that true Israel’s “sons and daughters” might prophesy, God’s “old men might dream dreams” and his “young men might see visions.” These weren’t pipedreams nor hallucinations, but the living Word of God (Joel 2:28-31).

On Pentecost, “The Holy Spirit comes to finish and perfect the work of Good Friday and Easter, to bring in from the first fruits (Easter) the full harvest of all God’s children.”² For Jesus Christ does not stand still. He’d promised to send the abundant Spirit down (see John 14-15), not only to comfort and counsel the disciples, so often quivering with fear and doubt. But also so that this Spirit, testifying of Jesus Christ, might open the mouths of all Christ’s followers to testify of Him! The latter activity was not just a suggestion but the command of Christ, who would have his “living stones” confess God’s glorious acts without fail (John 15:27; 1 Peter 2:9).

No doubt those “wonders of God” declared to the international audience on the day of Pentecost would have been many. They surely would have included the saving acts of God in Jesus Christ: the wonders of his incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension to the throne room of God.

Would they not also have included those “wonders in the heaven above” of which Joel had spoken and which Peter called to mind (Acts 2:19)? These are the signs which testify of God’s impending judgment at the return of Jesus Christ. Those things too, belong to the “revelation repertoire” of God’s people, his word of justice and judgment, as well as of peace and comfort and hope. For all Pentecost prophets must follow the lead of Enoch, who minced no words as he warned his own generation (Jude 14-15).

Now here we are in the year of our Lord, 2008. We celebrate Pentecost, but not as a brief and momentary “high” on the church’s calendar. We celebrate it as a lasting gift and the initiation of that universal proclamation which must engage us every day. It is an engagement in which ministers and missionaries of the gospel have a leading role, for

How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

Romans 10:14

But it does not stop there. For “from the lips of children and infants” God has ordained praise (Psalm 8:2). Even from the mouths of teenagers the world will know of the power and mercy of our Triune God. Think of that young girl in Naaman’s household who directed that powerful commander of a heathen army to the prophet in Israel (2 Kings 5)! Think of Daniel and his three God-fearing friends who witnessed to their God while under duress and far from home (Daniel 1).

May we not be tongue-tied and unwilling to confess God’s Name. Rather, may our tongues be joined to that swelling, Spirit-filled throng which delights to declare the mighty works of God! Let us do it, so that one day the whole earth may be filled with God’s praise and glory. For the gift remains and the Spirit will abide with the church forever.