Seeing the connection between Passover and the crucifixion of Jesus is not difficult. As we know, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples on Thursday evening before going to the garden to pray with them. Hours later, in the middle of the night, Jesus would be arrested, tried, and found guilty of bogus charges. He would then be crucified beginning Friday morning into that afternoon.

Passover was the celebration of God’s deliverance of His people from Egyptian bondage. The Israelites looked back to remember how God had spared their firstborn sons from sure death by the substitute death of a lamb, its blood covering the door so that the angel of death might passover that house. Again, the dots are not difficult to connect. Jesus is the greater Passover Lamb. We have been spared from sin and death because the Father sacrificed His only begotten Son for us.

But what about Pentecost? Why did Jesus ascend just before this other religious holiday and why did God choose that day as the day to form the church? To see these connections, we need to make sure we understand what Pentecost was about first.

The Law Given to Guide God’s People

Pentecost (meaning fifty), also called the Festival of Weeks, came fifty days after Passover and celebrated the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. We read of God instituting a perpetual festival for this occasion in Leviticus:

15 “You are to count seven complete weeks starting from the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the presentation offering. 16 You are to count fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 Bring two loaves of bread from your settlements as a presentation offering, each of them made from four quarts of fine flour, baked with yeast, as firstfruits to the Lord. 18 You are to present with the bread seven unblemished male lambs a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offerings and drink offerings, a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 19 You are also to prepare one male goat as a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a fellowship sacrifice. 20 The priest will present the lambs with the bread of firstfruits as a presentation offering before the Lord; the bread and the two lambs will be holy to the Lord for the priest. — Leviticus 23:15-20 (CSB)

And we read of God giving the law to Moses at Sinai in Exodus. We know that God revealed His power through thunder and lightning on the mountain during this time, which hints at Him revealing His power through the tongues of fire in Acts, but we can’t miss what God said to Moses at the start of this occasion:

3 Moses went up the mountain to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the house of Jacob and explain to the Israelites: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, 6 and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.” — Exodus 19:3-6 (CSB)

Let me paraphrase.

“I have rescued you from bondage. Now I want to make you My people. You will be my priests, a holy people.”

And then God gave the law to Moses to guide His people on how to do that—how to be a set apart people after God’s heart.

Which takes us to Pentecost in Acts.

The Spirit Given to Guide God’s People

Why did God choose this time to pour out the Holy Spirit and start the church? Because this was the new, the greater Pentecost.

God had just rescued His people from the bondage of sin. God was about to make a new people—the church. And the church would be His priests, declaring His glory to the nations.

But no longer would they be guided by the law. Now, God’s people would have a better guide—the Holy Spirit Himself, poured out freely and abundantly on all who have trusted in Jesus. The Spirit would not just guide the church in how to live, He would empower the church to do it too.

Passover foreshadowed how God would save His people.

Pentecost foreshadowed how God would empower His people.

For we are not … made righteous by the doing of righteous deeds, unless we deceive ourselves; but rather—if I may say so—in becoming and being righteous people we do righteous deeds.” — Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Martin Luther, quoted in The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology, eds. Robert Kolb, Irene Dingle, and L’ubomír Batka (OUP Oxford, 2014) [eBook].

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