Sean C. Capparuccia

24 May 2026

Pentecost Sunday

Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 51; Galatians 5:13-26; John 3:1-13

And so here we are, celebrating the 1,994^th birthday of God’s New Testament Church. Of course, the Church, defined as God’s people, called out of the world into communion with Him – the ecclesia – is much older and runs through the entire Old Testament. But today marks the anniversary of the Holy Spirit being “poured out” as the prophet Ezekiel writes it (39:29), and Isaiah (32:15), Solomon (Prov. 1:23), and Joel (2:28-29). And of course, the prophecy given by Joel was the most vivid in the minds of the Jews and so this is why Peter references the passage from Joel on the day of Pentecost: “‘And it shall be in the last days,’ the Lord says, ‘that I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind.’” It has become an unfortunate state of things that this day – the remembrance of the day that the very gift that was promised by God to His people – has become, in many churches, just another Sunday. And this is probably due to many reasons, the main one being that we don’t see the manifestation of the Holy Spirit like we think we ought. But, I ask you, what is that manifestation which we are seeking?

          Before we get to that, I want to rehearse a little of what Pentecost is.  Someone just the other day asked me what Pentecost was; someone to whom I know I had explained it before. And this is not a problem with that particular person, not at all, it is due to the fact that maybe since we only talk about it once a year, it is not ingrained into our minds and hearts like Christmas and Easter are.  After all, those two holidays also have the immense backing of secular culture. And even though the Christian can separate what is true and biblical from what is secular and unbiblical regarding Christmas and Easter, Pentecost simply doesn’t get much play. It is truly over in one day, if not as soon as the worship service is finished. Let’s work to change that. On the positive side, though, we don’t have to have car magnets that say, “Keep the Holy Spirit in Pentecost!” Let’s spend more time thinking about and pondering the significance of Pentecost and the gift of God that is the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost

          Pentecost is the day that the promised Holy Spirit was in fact poured out on God’s people.  The Old Testament prophets prophesied that it would happen; Christ told the Disciples it would happen; and after Jesus ascended to heaven, ten days later, it happened! The fulfillment of what God said He was going to do came to pass. The same wind that “hovered over the waters” at Creation and brought life to a dead and barren earth[1]; the same Spirit that was given to various prophets over the thousands of years since Adam; is the same Spirit now given to all who are true believers in Christ. And so, it is the birthday of the Church. 

Moses

          That being said, I want to take you to Numbers 11:29. After the exodus from Egypt, Moses was having a very difficult time being the head of this vast multitude of Israelites. They numbered 600,000 (11:21) and Moses was asking God how he was going to keep feeding them? God answered, “Is My power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not.” And the Lord instructed Moses to gather 70 elders. Moses and the 70 gathered at the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle, and “the Lord came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses; and God took the Spirit who was upon Moses and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied…”  Listen here, “but they did not do it again.” And then two of the seventy, two men named Eldad and Medad, did not go to the Tent but stayed in the camp. And when the Spirit came down on the whole group at the Tent of Meeting, these two absent men got it, too. And they began prophesying. This alarmed a certain young man that these two were prophesying out in the camp and not there with the group, so he ran to tell Moses, “Hey, these two are prophesying in the camp. What should we do about them?” Now Joshua, a very young man at this point, but the one who would succeed Moses later, got upset and asked Moses whether they should go restrain these two (11:27-28).  But Moses answered, and pay attention to what he says here, he says, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all of the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His spirit upon them” (11:29). 

Would that all of the Lord’s people had the Spirit put upon them.

          And here is the wish that was fulfilled. Joel, over a thousand years later[2], prophesies, “‘And it shall be in the last days,’ the Lord says, ‘that I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind.’”  The question here is who is ‘all mankind’?  Surely, the Spirit of the Lord has not been placed on everybody since Pentecost.  Of course not, but here is the prophesy of the fulfillment of what Moses asked, “Would that the Spirit would be put on all of God’s people.”[3] Not just a select few as in Old Testament times; not just one here and there who would prophesy and then be done. But all of God’s people: Jews, Gentiles; old men, young men, old women, young women, sons, daughters, even on slaves.  There will be no type of person excluded from receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. That’s what Pentecost is all about.

When the Disciples began speaking in other languages (not exactly something one sees every day) the people thought they were drunk. Obviously, the people who spoke Hebrew did not automatically perceive that Matthias there was now speaking Parthian; nor did the Elamites perceive that Phillip was speaking Cappodocian. All they heard was gibberish. And so they said, “Look at these guys, they’re all drunk.”

Ruach – Pneuma – Anothen

          And what was the answer? “We’re not drunk, it’s only nine in the morning.” What does that mean? If this was after lunch, then, well, yeah, it’d be a different kind of spirit, for sure. I mean, who gets drunk before noon? Well, either way, they weren’t drunk and they weren’t talking gibberish – they were speaking in languages that were understood by others in the crowd.

          In the Old Testament, the word used for ‘spirit’ is ruach. It is also translated to mean ‘wind,’ and ‘breath.’  In the New Testament, the Greek word is pneuma, from which we get a lot of words having to do with air or wind: pneumonia – being hard to breath; pneumatic – tools that use air. Holy Spirit, then, is Pneumatos Hagion, holy wind. In our Gospel, Jesus was trying to explain to Nicodemus the concept of being born again. A quick note on the phrase “born again,” though. The Greek word for “again” is anothen, which means “from above” in every other instance in John’s gospel. It can also mean “again.” So, genethe anothen, means both. “Unless one is born again (or from above), he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). To “not see” the kingdom has two meanings here. One is like, “unless you give me a million dollars, you’ll never see your kid again,” meaning you’ll never lay eyes on the kid again; you won’t live in the reality of the presence of your kid. And unless you’re born from above, you will never attain or realize the kingdom of God. The other meaning is not being able to perceive. You’re explaining your idea of a new house design and the other person says, “Yeah, I don’t see it.” Well, of course you don’t see it, it doesn’t exist; it’s an idea. But you can’t perceive it either, you can’t even envision it.

          “Now, Nicodemus, unless you are born from above, you can’t see God’s kingdom.” And then Nicodemus proves the point when he asks, “Born again? How can someone be born again when he is old? How does someone get back into his mother’s womb?” (Jn 3:4).  As Paul says in II Corinthians 4:3, “Even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.”  This is why we can’t beat ourselves up over not adequately explaining our faith to some people. If they don’t “see” it, it’s because they can’t see it. So, just keep testifying to the Truth leave the results up to God.

          Anyway, Jesus comes back and says, “Look here, Nicodemus, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Flesh is flesh; Spirit is spirit… the wind (the ruach) blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (Jn 3:5-8).  So, “born again”, “born from above”, and “born of the Spirit” are all the same thing. And ultimately, what Jesus is telling poor old Nicodemus here is that no one can choose to be born again – it is an act of God. In chapter 1 of John, the Gospel writer was stating this same thing in verse 12-13, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” In other words, to all who are born from above does God give the right to become His children; not those who were born by blood, or descended from Abraham, or were born out of physical or biological causes, but those born again by the Spirit’s power.

          Ezekiel 37:14, the Lord says, “I will put My Spirit within you and you shall live.” He doesn’t say, “I will send My Spirit and ask you if you’d mind having a new spirit.” This is the same sentiment with which the angel Gabriel approached Mary. I think much is made of Mary saying, “Yes,” when it really doesn’t appear that God came to her with a choice, per se. “Hello, Mary, God has found favor with you, and this is what He is going to do…. What do you think about that?”  Fully understanding the promise, she didn’t understand the how. She answered, “Well, I don’t really understand how that can happen, I’m a virgin, I’ve never been with a man. Isn’t that what it usually takes to get pregnant?”  “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and will overshadow you.”  Again, this is what is going to happen. Gabriel wasn’t standing there biting his nails fretting over whether Mary would agree. This was a courtesy call, not a survey. The Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, moves when, how, and where (and in whom) He wants.

          With that out of the way, let’s turn our attention back to the Ruach, the Spirit. As Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus, the Spirit, like the wind, is invisible. So how do we see it?  We see it by the effect it has on what we can see. [4]  When we see a tree bend we don’t scratch our heads and wonder what could have caused it.And when we know that a big wind is coming, we take the washing off the line because we know what that wind is going to do. 

Ruach also has the meaning of disposition.  One’s ruach is their character or condition. One can have a bitter spirit, or a sad spirit; Scripture talks about a “shortness of spirit” meaning discouraged; also a quick spirit or short-tempered spirit; high spirit, low spirit, an adulterous spirit, or a grieving spirit. All these describe our dispositions.[5]

          Ruach and the mind are sometimes used synonymously; ruach and heart as well [21 instances].  And the mind and heart are used synonymously. When we talk in these terms we differentiate between the emotional side and the cognitive side.  In Hebrew, the heart organ is generally thought of as the seat of thinking; whereas the “heart” as the emotional organ is attributed to the bowels, kidneys, liver. 

Thinking/cognitive – heart // Emotions/feeling – bowels

I’m hearing Bon Jovi now, “Shot through the bowels, and you’re to blame….”

Keeping this in mind, we could say that we meditate (cognitively) with our heart and ponder (emotively) with our ruach.  And so, again, Ezekiel says God will give His people a new heart and put a new spirit/ruach within them.[6] Heart and ruach together denoting deliberate action, not emotional things.[7] Did you catch that? He will give a new heart to think and understand, and put a new ruach within. He’s talking about a new will! God will place His Spirit in whomever He wishes and will give them a new will that is no longer in bondage to sin, but is free in Christ. This is what it means to be “born again.”

Baptized in the Spirit – Full of the Spirit

          At this moment of being born again, which we also call justification, we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Baptized in water is an ordinance, a sacrament, a thing we do in obedience to Christ’s command. It may happen long before the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or sometime after the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or it may happen and there never be a baptism of the Holy Spirit, but it is a work of ours.

The baptism of the Spirit is not a work of man but a work of the Spirit.  And from this point on, after being baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit works in you – not just on you – but in you, conforming you more and more to the perfect image of Christ. This is sanctification. A few things to note here then: the sanctifying doesn’t begin until you are justified; justification happens once; sanctification begins and never ends until God “may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God the Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all of His saints” (I Thess. 3:13).

          What does it mean to be “full of the Spirit” then? There is a difference between baptized in and full of the Spirit.  There are some who teach that being full of the Spirit is a “second blessing” or something else the Spirit does in you to make you a “super Christian” or something.  It is often taught that speaking in tongues and doing miracles are evidences of this filling of the Spirit.  And here is where the ice starts getting thinner. Up until now all in Christendom could probably agree, but now we step into places where some people get touchy. And they get touchy because now we’re moving away from Scripture and into experience.  We are moving from objective truth to subjective truth. From what is true for all to what is true for you, or for me. And it is dangerous territory.  This is why there is a First Church of Waycross, and a Second Church of Waycross, and eventually there’ll be an Independent Church, a Magnificent Disciples of the Waycross Witness Church, and The Way of Waycross Church.  This is where the toes get stepped on and people say, “Ima start my own church.”

          No, it’s probably not that bad but this is why Scripture must prevail over feelings. Many people look at the effects of the outpouring in Acts and claim that that is how it is for everyone. The Spirit was poured out on the Disciples as they were all gathered together and they were baptized in the Spirit. Then, in verse 4, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. In other words, if and when you are full of the Spirit, you will speak in tongues. This is the teaching in some churches. It is wrong.

First of all, they spoke in different languages, not in unknown tongues. Secondly, there is nothing in all of Scripture which teaches that these same miracles that were poured out on the Apostles were supposed to continue. [8] They were for a specific purpose. Kind of like the booster engines on the space shuttle. They are used to get the ship out of the atmosphere and into space and then they are dropped.  These miraculous gifts were like a shot of epinephrine in the veins of the Jews to get them over the obstruction of formalism to belief in Jesus. It was to give credence to the Apostles as they were preaching Jesus Christ at the same time that the Pharisees were denouncing Him.[9] Which ones would you believe?  

Paul tells us in I Corinthians 14:22, “So then tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers, but to those who believe.”  Here Paul says that speaking in tongues wasn’t even for the Church; it was so people outside Church would believe. But prophecy, now that was for the Church, for what did unbelievers care about what was being prophesied?  And of course there are many charlatans who speak in the “angelic language” and speak prophecy, but John tells us to test every spirit. Test every utterance. If someone speaks a prophecy, we first see if it is in accord with Scripture, then we see if it comes true. Simple as that.

Subjectivity of the Spirit

But there is something deeper at work here than just testing the spirits. It is a question of why some seek these miraculous signs.  Theologian John MacArthur, in his book Charismatic Chaos, writes that this Pentecostal desire for sign and wonders is rooted in mysticism. It is an attempt to “perceive spiritual reality apart from objective, verifiable facts. It seeks truth through feelings, intuition, and other internal senses.”[10]

He says that there are two approaches to biblical truth: the subjective approach, which  emphasizes human experience; and a “historical, objective approach which emphasizes God’s action(s) towards men and women as taught in Scripture.”[11]  Does this mean that experience has no role in our faith? Of course not![12] In the Methodist tradition, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral says that we look to Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience to interpret our faith – experience being unique to Wesley over and against the Anglican view which does not include experience. But at no time should our experience have place over and above what the Scripture teaches, nor Tradition or reason, for that matter. Until we are fully conformed to the image of Christ (i.e., “perfected”), our feelings and even our thinking are subject to sinfulness. 

Here’s an example: someone is going through a rough patch, I mean, really down and out. They’ve been praying and praying to God but He just doesn’t seem to answer. Then a friend suggests, “Hey, why don’t you take this problem to Mary. She will certainly hear you and take it to Jesus and He will listen to her.”  (Now, this is not a far-fetched illustration as Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglo-Catholics pray to Mary.)  One is here faced with an option: keep praying to God as he knows how, or take his friend’s advice and try this praying to Mary approach. What does Scripture say? Firstly, where in Scripture does anyone pray to Mary?  Secondly, where in Scripture does it say “in case of emergency, pray to someone, anyone, other than the God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”? And yet that is what many do. Why? Well, one, because they were taught it – you can’t help how you were brought up.  And secondly, because perhaps at some point they may have done it and then the problem resolved. It goes against all reason, but experience tells you, I had a problem, I prayed to Mary, and the problem went away.  Experience is what we feel, and it feels very real, but it is not always the truth.

Life in the Spirit   

What does God’s Word say about our relationship to the Holy Spirit? There are only five commands given to the believer in relation to the Holy Spirit:[13]

          Walk by the Spirit (Gal 5:25)

          Don’t grieve the HS (Eph 4:30)

          Be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18)

          Don’t quench the Spirit (I Thess 5:19)

          Pray in the Spirit (Jude 20)

From these we deduce that, as believers in Jesus Christ who have been baptized with the Spirit, we can, by our own wills, do these things.

We walk by the Spirit.  In other words, we obey God’s Word and follow the promptings, the “still small voice” of God in us. We do the things which we know we ought to do.

We don’t grieve the Spirit. In other words, we don’t do those things which we know bring grief to God. This is just another way of saying, obey your Father in heaven. 

Be filled with the Spirit. In other words, yield yourself to the Spirit who is already within you. In Ephesian 5:18, where Paul tells us to be filled, he then describes how to do that. He says, “speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart” (Eph. 5:19). Worship together; give thanks together; pray together; and in humility, serve one another with grateful hearts.

          Don’t quench the Spirit. In other words, don’t suppress what the Spirit is telling you to do. If the Spirit says sing, then sing. If the Spirit says, read Scripture, then read Scripture. What is the Spirit asking you to do?

          Pray in the Spirit. In other words, pray continually and for all things. This shows dependence on God and that we are willing to wait for Him to provide our needs. And what we don’t know to pray for, the Spirit prays on our behalf.

          This is how we live as Christians with the Holy Spirit inside of us. We do what He urges us to do and we know it is true if it is in accord with the rest of Scripture.  

But there is one more piece to all of this that should be brought out. What does the Spirit do in us? I mean, how do we know that the Spirit is working in us? Well, Galatians 5:22-23 says that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” When we are baptized in the Spirit, He will begin working these things in us. And Paul sets these things in direct opposition to another list of things that work naturally in us, things like: adultery, immorality, fornication, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery (or fortune-telling and talking to the dead), outbursts of anger, disputes, dissention, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21).  These are not the things which one who follows after the Spirit does.

Here is where the power of the Holy Spirit is most made manifest: He can take your sinful and selfish will – what some call your “free” will – and bring it to repentance. As you all know, saying, “I’m sorry” is not at all natural to sinful man. And yet, through the power of the Spirit, even the most hardened sinner can be brought to his or her knees in sorrow for their sins.  “What shall we do to be saved?” the Jews asked. “Repent! And be baprized.”[14] This, Beloved, is the Power of Pentecost!

          So, yes, Pentecost happened 1,994 years ago, but the Pentecostal Power of the Spirit is still working to create and make every believer since. Signs and wonders would be neat, but how much greater is it that God should take you in all of your natural proclivities toward sin, and create in you love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and a spirit of self-control.  Just ask yourself – and be honest – which of these do I have the most trouble with?  Pray and patiently watch the Holy Spirit of God mold you into His image.  This is working out your salvation. 

When the Savior ascended into heaven, it wasn’t the end. No, it was just the beginning.  And now, because of His finished work, the work in us begins. The work to make us fit for eternal life with Him by the Holy Spirit.  And we do it together. Happy Pentecost.

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[1] And most importantly, breathed the life/image of God into Adam. Nevertheless, these are the three major works of the H.S. in Scripture: creation, spirit of prophesy (Eldad & Medad), and Pentecost.

[2] Moses, ca. 1530 BC, and Joel, ca. 450 BC.

[3] We say, “Of course not,” because if the Spirit was poured out on all as some interpret it, all would be Christians. And yet even Jesus continued to separate the all of humanity into two groups: believers and non-believers (the world).

[4] Willem A. VanGemeren, ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis  (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997) 1073.

[5] Ibid. 1075.

[6] Ezekiel 18:31; 36:26, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”

[7] VanGemeren, 1075.

[8] John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos  (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 141.

[9] Nonetheless, I do not commit to being a complete cessationist. I believe that just as the Holy Spirit moved in miraculous ways to get the Church going in the first century, He can do it as He pleases, where He pleases, when He pleases. He simply does not do it as a matter of course in every “true” believer to “prove” that they are “true” believers; He does it to spread the Gospel in difficult places.

[10] Ibid, 35.

[11] Ibid. 36.

[12] C.f., Question #37 of the Christian Faith and Doctrine (GMC) catechism.

[13] Ibid., 141.

[14] Notice in Mark 16:16, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that does not believe shall be damned.” It is the believing, the repenting, that is the hard part, nay, the humanly impossible part, not the being baptized. Anyone can be baptized, but not everyone can repent. Does not our experience prove this?