Tomorrow the Christian Church celebrates Pentecost. Pentecost is observed 50 days after Easter when God sent the Holy Spirit to the first disciples to empower them to preach about Christ and build the church. Normally when we think of Pentecost we think of the Holy Spirit descending on the 12 male apostles. But Acts 1:14 tells us that "All these [the male disciples] were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers" (NRSV). Verse 15 tells us there were "about 120 persons" in the upper room 10 days before Pentecost. Acts 2:1 goes on to tell us that that "they were all together praying" when the Holy Spirit came. This means there were many more people there than just the 12 apostles. Women were there, and it is very likely that children were present as well.
Instead of the traditional picture of Pentecost with the Holy Spirit falling on 12 men and sometimes Mary, I find this contempory painting by Nora Kelly to be closer to what the book of Acts describes. In Kelly's picture men and women of every age are portrayed along with children. Entire families were praying when the Holy Spirit fell and empowered the whole church to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in different languages. "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability" (Acts 2:4, author's emphasis).All of them were empowered to preach the gospel to the crowds in Jerusalem. Peter's sermon is given as a representative of all the preaching that happened that day by both men and women and possibly children.
When Peter quoted the prophet Joel that first Pentecost, he was describing what was happening at the time in Jersualem:
In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy (Acts 2:17-18).
He was also describing how God would now work in the world through both men and women. In the Old Testament only a few received the power of the Holy Spirit. Now all would. None would be disqualified: sons, daughters, young, old, slave, and free would all receive the power of the Holy Spirit to preach and proclaim the gospel of Christ.
There are a lot of restrictions on leadership from some in the Christian Church. But the Holy Spirit did not discriminate on any basis on the first Pentecost. All who were there were sent to preach and prophesy what God had done in their midst.
Photo by Andrejs Pidjass/PhotoXpress
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