The Day of Pentacost

Unit 1 Choice 3

What is the Day of Pentacost?

It is a celebration and a feast of the first fruits or harvest.  It is held 50 days after the feast of the Passover.  It is also a festival of pilgrimage and so there are many people from many different nations and languages that attend.

What happened at the Day of Pentacost as recorded in Acts 2?

All 12 Apostles were gathered in one place at this time.  Everyone heard the sound of a mighty wind and so they gathered where the Apostles were.  The brethren prophesied and the Spirit was present and manifested in the form of cloven tongues like as a fire.  Those teaching spoke in tongues and all could understand them despite the fact that they all spoke different languages.  Peter taught about Jesus and about the scriptures.

Peter as Prophet

Peter was the President and Prophet of the church at this time and one of his roles is to be a special witness of Jesus Christ.  On this special day he fulfilled this role by teaching and testifying of Christ.  He also told people what they needed to do in order to live with Him again.

Gifts of the Spirit

The people were in tune with the Spirit and were taught by the Spirit.  The people also recognized the sound of the rushing wind as the Spirit.  The people were able to understand words that were not in their language.  The people had the desire to follow Christ.

How did the people respond to what happened?

After hearing the words spoken they simply said, "What shall we do?"

I have not studied about the Day of Pentacost since I was in Seminary and so it was interesting to read and study about this subject.  What a great demonstration of the gift of the Spirit that the Savior had given people.  Before he was crucified He told them that they would have this gift after He left the earth and this day was such a powerful way for them to know about this priceless gift.  Pure teaching went on and the Spirit must have been so strong that all felt and saw it's presence.  After all of that "drama" my favorite part of this story happens.  After seeing and hearing amazing, heavenly events the people simple asked what they needed to do.  And then Peter told them very specifically that they needed to repent and be baptized.  Three thousand souls were baptized that day!