Pentecost
Marc Jolicoeur and Jeremy MacDonald · Tidal Church Moncton · May 24, 2026 · Pentecost Sunday series
Marc Jolicoeur and Jeremy MacDonald look at Acts 2 and the first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out. They explain that the Spirit lives in God's people and empowers them to share His goodness with the people around them.
More from Marc Jolicoeur · More from Jeremy MacDonald · The Pentecost Sunday series
Topics: Holy Spirit, Mission & Outreach, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] Goodness gracious. The only one who can. As I was listening to that song, I couldn't help but think that's a Pentecostal song right there. That's a song. So when you get to that bridge, it's talking about the idea that bones into armies. That's from the Prophet Ezekiel chapter 37, when God says to Ezekiel, "Prophesy to the wind that these bones would become alive again." It's the wind that blows is actually what puts those bones together again. That song also said, "You turn seas into highways." That's referring to when the people of Israel left Egypt, and God blew over the waters, and He separated the waters from the left to the right and created a dry ground. And you bring it all the way back to the beginning when the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, right? It's the Spirit of God, it's the breath of God, it's the wind of God. That is the Holy Spirit. And we're going to talk about how the Holy Spirit connects with Pentecost. I keep using the word Pentecost. Well, what do we mean?
[1:04] We'll get there in just a moment. We'll start with the story of Jesus. Most of you know the story of Jesus. He lived a miraculous life, He taught miraculous things, He died in a miraculous way, and then rose again very miraculously. And for about 40 days or so after He rose, we're told that He visited and had connections with His followers and His disciples. And one of the last things He said before He went was, "Wait. Wait in Jerusalem. Wait, and you will receive the promise of the Holy Spirit." A promise that was not brand new with Him, with Jesus rather, but had been prophesied to the people of Israel for a long time before that, that there was going to be a time when the Spirit of God would be poured out on all flesh.
[1:52] And this is what they were to anticipate. And there was a purpose behind that filling, that there was actually going to change and transform them. And then Jesus left. And before He left, ascended really, He assured them that it was going to be better for Him to go than for Him to stay. That's madness. Can you imagine that? How could that possibly be better for Him to go than to stay? And this is where we pick up the very beginning of Acts chapter 2. It's sort of a sequel to the Gospel according to Luke. In the second chapter in, we're going to start at verse 1, and we read, "Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
[2:40] Suddenly, a sound like a violent wind," there's that wind again, "blowing came from heaven and filled the entire house where they were sitting, and tongues spreading out like a fire appeared to them and came to rest on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them." "Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven residing in Jerusalem. When this sound occurred, a crowd gathered and was in confusion because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Completely baffled, they said, 'Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans?'" So from a specific area. "'How is it that each one of us hears them in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and the province of Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans, Arabs.'" Listen, "'We hear them speaking in our own languages about the great deeds God has done.' All were astounded and greatly confused, saying to one another, 'What does this mean?' But others jeered at the speakers, saying, 'They are drunk on new wine.'" I'd love to know that trick where you get drunk on wine and all of a sudden start speaking other languages, but... So what was Pentecost? What was Pentecost? That still doesn't answer it.
[4:18] Why were there Jews, as we read here, from every nation under heaven in Jerusalem? Why were they there? Not because they were like, "Hey, let's just go randomly." But Pentecost was actually a preexisting festival. It was actually one of the big three so-called pilgrimage festivals that the people of Israel would have been celebrating. So there's Passover, and Passover is when Jesus actually died on the cross, and so that was about weeks before this. There's Passover, there's also the Feast of Booths, which is kind of like camping, so that's kind of fun. And then you have this one here, which is often known in the Old Testament as the Festival of Weeks, or the Hebrew word is Shavuot. But we're going to find out why there's a Greek word for it as we go along here. But if you want to find out where this word comes from, or where the festival comes from, you actually find it all the way back in Leviticus 23.
[5:08] Starting in verse 15, it says, "From the day after the Sabbath, the day that you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special offering." So this is kind of like we're starting our festival of Thanksgiving in some respects. "Count off seven full weeks, then keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, which is 50 days later. Then present an offering of new grain to the Lord." So you hear the number 50 in there, 50 days after Passover. So Pentecost is actually the Greek name, which has the word penta in there. If anybody has been to school recently, you might know penta is Greek, like a pentagon, five-sided. So penta also means 50 in this respect, right? Seven weeks, seven days in each week, plus a bonus day, you got 50. So the festival in Greek is just called Pentecost, but it's been a festival that people had been celebrating, the Jews had been celebrating, by the time of Jesus for... Well, it's been instituted, let's just say, for about 1,500 years before this time. So it's not brand new by any means.
[6:14] And it started off, as I mentioned, a Thanksgiving festival, similar to our own Thanksgiving around harvest time. But over the centuries, it actually morphed a little bit to include not only being thankful for the physical things that sustain the people of Israel, but also to be thankful for the reception of what we usually call the law, which they received at Mount Sinai. Because they weren't only thankful for the things that gave them physical life, but they became thankful for the things that made them and sustained them as a people. And then not just any people, but as they were known and felt as a treasured people. We read in Exodus chapter 19, which is actually when this law is being given to the people of Israel from Sinai. This is what we read, God speaking to these people, He says, "If you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all the nations, you will be My treasured possession."
[7:16] He says, "Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." So yes, indeed, the whole earth is and was the Lord's. But He had intended specifically to work through a specific people to bring about blessing, to bless them all through this specific pouring out. And as many of you might know this, but actually this blessing was even promised long before Sinai to a man named Abraham, probably 400 or 500 years before this. We read in Genesis chapter 12, starting in verse 2, the Lord speaking to Abraham, He says, "I will make you into a great nation." This is what we believe Israel is the fruition of. "And I will bless you.
[8:03] I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse." Listen, "And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." All the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you. Now we know, here we are 2,000 years on the other end of Pentecost, if you're here in a Christian church, so we know or we believe that that blessing ultimately came through the person, the man, and the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and that ultimately was the source of the blessing. But here's my question. How did that incredibly good news make its way out of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago?
[8:55] Well, it happened through the fulfillment of Pentecost. Remember, Pentecost, by this point in time, had already been celebrated for centuries. And Pentecost, as you're seeing now, is still celebrated today. And it's celebrated even outside of Christian circles, like I said, the Jewish people will continue to celebrate the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot. But the author of Acts is actually giving us a window into something specific that happened on this particular Pentecost 2,000 years ago. If you read most of your translations, it will say, as we read earlier, that the day of Pentecost had come. Well, the day of Pentecost had come. But the Greek word itself, if you take a look, is actually , which if you look it up in a dictionary, I'm not making this up, you can look it up in any Greek dictionary, you'll see it actually tends to mean something more like to fill completely, to complete entirely, or to be fulfilled. Now, there are other Greek words that the author here could have used if all he wanted to say was, "And this day happened," "And Memorial Day happened," "And Victoria Day happened," right? But it's not just, "And Pentecost happened," it's, "And Pentecost was fulfilled."
[10:14] You see? And Pentecost was fulfilled. The long history of God's people celebrating the reception of God's word for them and God's purposes for them and through them, all of those centuries of celebrating their treasured possession and their reception of and holding of the law, all of it had come to fruition, to fulfillment on this day in this place. And we live on the other end of this Pentecost. But what was the promise that was ultimately fulfilled? Was it that good news, now we can all live according to the same law? Was it good news, now we can all move to Jerusalem?
[11:02] No, it was good news, the Holy Spirit is now poured out on all flesh. Church, we should know that we are called to be children of God. God is our Father. Why? Because Jesus is our brother. We're adopted into His family in that sense. But if all we know is God as Father and Jesus as brother, if we don't know the Holy Spirit as our comforter, we have actually missed part of, in fact, a crucial part of the story. We are not merely called to live as people who worship God. We're called to live as people who have God living inside of us.
[11:52] This is the promise of Pentecost. And so this morning, as we get ready to continue on in worship, I'm going to just pray for us that we're going to be learning a little bit more about Acts 2 and what else there is in there for us, but we want to make sure that we take a moment here to actually acknowledge that the Holy Spirit wants to live inside each and every one of us. So I'll invite you to stand, actually, as we pray. Lord, You are good. Lord, You are merciful. Lord, You are righteous and just. And You, through the mouth of Jesus, You spoke and said that it is good for me to go so that the comforter can come. And so if we don't live in the goodness of what it means to be filled with and keep in step with the Holy Spirit, then we are living two-thirds of what You've actually apportioned to us as Your children.
[12:54] And so today, Lord, maybe for the thousandth time in a deeper way, or maybe for the first time, would Your Holy Spirit pour out on each and every one of us? And would You help us to know that we are not left as orphans, but that we have been given the Spirit of adoption by which we can cry, "Abba, Father." Holy Spirit, we submit and surrender to You before we go any further in the service today. Would You have Your will? Would You have Your way? Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on us today. In Jesus' name, we pray. What is it that causes young people like that to have stories like that?
[13:45] Whoa. Honestly, if you've been at church for any length of time, these are the kinds of things that got to fire your heart up because you see the power of God and what it does for people in their real and practical and everyday kind of life. Those testimonies will keep you going hopefully forever because it's unbelievable to see. And here's the thing, if some of you are here and you're like, "I'm not sure what I believe," we can talk about the scriptures. We believe each and every one of these words. We can talk about the ideas. We believe them all to be true. But when you see the power of what the Spirit of God does in people's life, you've got to recognize there's something there. There's something there that is beyond the scope of what we could manufacture or come up with or pretend that it's about. And instead, you've got to recognize that this is something worth talking about, something worth sharing and celebrating, something worth seeking after.
[14:52] And so 2,000 years ago, the Holy Spirit comes and shows up in this wild kind of way. You read in Acts, and it's the tongues of fire and it's the different languages. And I grew up in church world and reading those stories, and I'm just fascinated by it. But then in the last year, I've been talking with Marc from our team, and he was kind of pointing out these really intriguing parts about, hey, when the Spirit of God comes, what actually ends up happening? What actually ends up becoming of those people when they're filled with the Spirit? If the Spirit of God wants to be present in His people, which He does, what ends up happening? And it's that what's next question that I think you and I need to wrestle with here this morning because those stories can also be our stories. And those stories of how the power of God is so present is something that we should be wanting to see and experience in our own midst. And so what happens is 2,000 years ago, the Spirit of God comes. Peter gets a chance to preach to all of the people that are seeing these things happen.
[16:08] Now, if you have read through the scriptures, you might catch that Peter is a little bit of a character. He's the guy that denies Jesus three times after seeing all the miracles. Some of you are like, "God, just send me a sign." Peter saw all the signs, and then still there was a group of people huddled around the fire, and they're like, "Did you know that guy?" And he's like, "That's not... I don't know." Because he was terrified. He was the Peter that was willing to step out of the boat and then sank, and he cries out to Jesus. Peter, the guy with confidence and yet the real-life struggle. Peter gets a chance in front of everybody with the power of the Spirit of God. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead preaches a message worth hearing.
[16:54] And I want to highlight a couple of important parts of that message. In Acts 2:32, Peter says, "God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses to this." This part of his message is so critical because for you and for me, if you have any sense of faith in Jesus or if you're any part of believing in this kind of thing, you got to know the core part of our faith, the spark to it all, the thing that we hinge everything on is the resurrection of Jesus. And the scriptures actually say if the resurrection isn't true, if we discover that Jesus is still dead and He's buried and there's his bones over there, then our preaching is pointless and our faith is worthless.
[17:44] But in those days, Peter says, "God is the one who raised Him from the dead, and we witnessed that happening. We saw the resurrected Jesus. We can go and visit the empty tomb." This is a fact that we all understand, and of the hundreds and thousands of people in that region, they understood that the power of God was unbelievable, and yet it was so believable because they could see it. Now He's exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven at God's right hand, and the Father, as He promised, gave Him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon ... us just as you see and hear today. And in verse 36, Peter will highlight from the scriptures, tie the story of God throughout all time, and then Peter will come to his conclusion.
[18:38] He says, "So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah." And with that message, with those words, with understanding what God had done, Peter's words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" And this is the question for you and for me. When faced with the reality of the message of Jesus, what should we do? And when you've been following Jesus for any length of time, there's all sorts of parts of the journey that are absolutely incredible, and God will take you to different places, and He will reveal new and different things about what He has for you in your life. But at the core, at the center point of this message that Jesus is Lord, that He is Savior, that He is Messiah, what should we do? Peter gives three steps, and for us today here at Pentecost Sunday at Tidal Church, Moncton, in May 2026, I think it's worth contending with these three steps because I think for each and every one of us, it will reveal our next step spiritually here this morning.
[19:51] Peter says, "Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God." Now, for some of you, you've been in church for decades, and this has not been a part of your journey or part of your story. Some of you are new, or you're kind of checking things out, and this is indeed your next step as you're here. Peter makes it really clear. The whole invitation point isn't just to show up at a church, although we love showing up and being at church. But being in the building, as great as it is, doesn't make you a Christian, just like sitting in your garage doesn't make you a car. The whole point is that you would come to the place, but that you would be compelled by the message and surrender and give your life to Jesus.
[20:37] Peter makes that clear. You have to repent. You have to turn away from the things. You heard the stories. Sometimes it's brutal. It's hard. It's difficult. They're walking away from lives of all sorts of challenges, and they're leaving that behind to look and to face after Christ. And then we keep our eyes focused on Him, and so we repent, sometimes even more than once. But the point is that to start this life with Jesus, we repent and turn over to Him. And if that's your next step, I'm going to pray here in a moment. I would love for you to pray along because that decision is how you become a part of God's family. That's how you become His son, His daughter. That's how you become a Jesus follower, by repenting and asking for the forgiveness and turning your eyes over to Him.
[21:23] And then Peter says, secondly, "Be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins." And some of you that have been a Christian, and you've repented, and this has been your journey, you haven't yet stepped into the waters of baptism, it's time to do that thing. I don't know what's holding you back. We can talk about it if it's fear of water. Let's pray over that. But it's time because this is the invitation. And then thirdly, and I think for us today, Peter says, "Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And this is the invitation for Christians, to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then once the Spirit is inside of you, this is the part that blew my mind.
[22:08] What actually ends up happening? Well, the Spirit does all sorts of incredible things in your life, and there's lots more than just what I'm about to explain. But in this moment, at Pentecost, the Spirit came and did something really important in the lives of each of those people. And so if you are a Jesus follower, having repented and been baptized, and have the Spirit, it's for, partly, the power of what I want to just read to you now. And if you've not experienced this, welcome to the room. We want you to experience this. Marc had read it. In verse 11, we actually hear at that first Pentecost, the people hearing all these other languages, they say this. And the first part is the part that I kind of understood and knew. They say, "We hear all these people speaking in our own languages." And that's usually where we stop. It's like, oh, that's fantastical.
[22:59] That's interesting. I'm trying to learn Spanish on Duolingo. I'm really bad at it. I would love the Spirit to just give me special languages so that I can, you know, "Por favor." Have a conversation about... You can see it's bad news. And then I've been in... Anyways, that's not the point. The point is, that's where I usually stop. Speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things that God has done. The Spirit comes to give the people the power to share about God's goodness. The Spirit of God is in His people so that they have the strength and the power and the wisdom to actually spread the incredible news about God's goodness.
[23:45] And if you've been a Christian for any length of time, we love perhaps the Spirit. Yes, of course, it's been in you. But have you allowed the Spirit to do the Spirit's work of empowering you for that great work? And my guess is, as I was discovering this again this last year, I'm like, man, I would love the chance at being able to look as many of you in the eye and say, "The Spirit of God has actually empowered you for this work." And so that's what we're going to do. It's a little bit different. It's a little bit wild. It's a little bit crazy maybe. But what we want to do is when you came in this morning, you got this card that says Pentecost Sunday on it. I want you to grab it, pull it out, flip it over. Your next step is likely one of these three things. So the first thing is, as Peter says, repent, acknowledging God's gift of salvation.
[24:38] If that's not been your experience yet, I would highly encourage you, recommend, implore you, surrender your life to Jesus, and in a second, I'll pray, and you can pray along with me and make today the day that you make that decision. You can get baptized. Not right now. We've got other stuff to do, but head to our website. The details are right there. You've got to take that step. But my guess is that for most of us, it's this invitation that if the Spirit of God is in us, to recognize and realize the commissioning of the Lord for His work in our midst. And what happens here is I would love for this next song that we're about to sing, worship team's going to come, and they're going to lead us in another worship song, that you actually take a few moments, and the reason we left this blank here at the bottom is that if indeed you have the Spirit in you, that you would receive the commissioning of the Spirit. That you would receive your commissioning by asking the question, where has the Lord placed you so that you will proclaim His goodness?
[25:45] Peter was at Pentecost. He was surrounded by the people that he needed to share these words with. That's where he was. Would you take a few moments here now and pray and actually ask the Spirit of God to reveal to you who has He placed you with so you could proclaim His goodness? Because for some of you, you're like, "Well, I'm at that high school, but I'm there because my parents moved across town, and so that's why I'm there." It's like, no, no, no. The reason you're there is because the Spirit of God actually has a message that you need to share with the people in your class. Some of you, you're in Moncton, New Brunswick, the east coast of Canada.
[26:30] You never would've imagined being here a decade ago. And you're like, "Well, I got here because I got transferred or because of cheap housing or because of whatever the reason." It's like no, no. The reason you're here is because there's somebody that's broken that needs the power of God to see their lives transformed. You get to be a part of somebody's story that's going to get baptized in nine months from now. You're going to be a part of somebody's story that's going to get baptized in seven years from now, and the story starts with you recognizing that the Spirit has given you the power to proclaim His goodness to those around you. So would you take seriously this for a moment and ask, "Lord, who is it?"
[27:17] Maybe it's a name pops into your mind. Maybe it's a place that you see, something that reminds you. But if the Spirit of God is in you, who has He placed you around? And so we're just going to take a moment, because if you could think that through and recognize that perhaps God has indeed done this good work, if you would write their name or initials. This is just for you. It's not for me. You're not going to hand this in. I don't need to see it. But in a few moments, we actually want to pray and commission you. We want to pray over you, lay hands on you, and actually commission you for this work. Because at the first Pentecost, it was the power of the Holy Spirit that allowed the apostles to share the God's goodness with those around them, and the Spirit will do the same thing in your life this week and next week and next month, and the world will be different because you took seriously this call and this commission. But it starts with wrestling with this question.
[28:17] It might start with repentance or baptism. And so let me pray with you. Father, we're grateful that in this place and in this way, we can reflect on what You've done for us. We can celebrate the stories that You're writing in others. And Lord, we can recognize that in these moments, if we are more like the person wrestling in the darkness than we are with the person struggling with what to do with all this light, in these moments, Lord, I would just pray that we'd be able to repent and ask for Your forgiveness and ask for Your guidance. And so, Lord, for somebody here this morning that just needs the hope that we just saw on the faces of those six folks, Lord, I pray that they would repeat in their minds after me, "Lord, would You please forgive me? I have looked in all the wrong places, and Lord, I need to turn to You. I need to repent.
[29:12] I don't know exactly where this leads and where this goes, but here's what I know. I can't do it anymore on my own. Would You be the one that guides and directs my life? Would You provide my salvation and my forgiveness? Lord, would You come into my heart and transform me from the inside out?" Lord, for those in the room that make that decision, would they be the kinds of people that reach out and talk and ask for prayer later. But Lord, we know that in this room, there's also those that need to take that step of baptism. Prompt them, and empower them, we pray for sure. But Lord, for so many of us, the ask in this moment has to be with our hands open. Lord, we know that You're with us in what we go through, but would You in this moment, would Your Spirit speak to our hearts and give us a picture and a vision for who You've put us next to and with, so that we could proclaim Your goodness.
[30:06] Lord, would You reveal in these moments so that we can respond, so that we can be confident, so that we can be commissioned. We pray this in Your name. Amen.