For Christmas we have the build-up of Advent, and Easter Day is preceded by Holy Week.\u00a0 But when it comes to Whit Sunday, it just arrives! \u00a0Yet Pentecost is all about the birth of the Christian church and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Surely, that is something to get excited about!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For forty days following our Lord\u2019s resurrection, Jesus appeared to His followers and taught them about the Kingdom of God. Just before His ascension into Heaven, Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten days after His ascension, it was the Feast of Pentecost and this was a significant festival for the Jews.\u00a0 It was an annual occasion for\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 people to assemble in the Holy City.\u00a0 The day marked the time when the barley harvest officially ended.\u00a0 This feast day was characterised by\u00a0religious ceremonies and the offering of sacrifices.\u00a0 No work was done.\u00a0It was a day of thanksgiving.\u00a0 A time to remember deliverance from Egypt and God\u2019s mercy and reconciliation with His covenant people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the day of Pentecost, the followers of Jesus met together in an upper room. Its location was probably on Mount Zion to the west of Jerusalem.\u00a0 The site can be visited although it\u2019s not the Upper Room. It\u2019s an ancient building dating from the 14th century and built on the site of a church destroyed by the Persians seven centuries earlier. \u00a0But the first floor chamber is large with old paving stones, surrounded by stone pillars and arches.\u00a0 According to tradition, this is where Jesus ate the \u2018Last Supper\u2019 and His followers received the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Whit Sunday we would do well to remember why the Holy\u00a0Spirit was sent to us. We are given power to live God\u2019s way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– to lead us into the things God has prepared for us;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– to worship and glorify Him;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– to enable us to pray;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– to lead us into truth;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– to give us a desire to share the love of Christ with others and to help us trust God for all our needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Pentecost may our prayer be for God\u2019s Spirit to transform us, for the gentleness of His Spirit to lead us, and for the gifts of His Spirit to equip us. By Lester Amann writing in parishpump.co.uk<\/em><\/em>\n\n\n\n\n\n\ns <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For Christmas we have the build-up of Advent, and Easter Day is preceded by Holy Week.\u00a0 But when it comes to Whit Sunday, it just arrives! \u00a0Yet Pentecost is all about the birth of the Christian church and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Surely, that is something to get excited about! For forty days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"Phone_number(s)":"","email_address":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","category-more-pages"],"mb":[],"mfb_rest_fields":["title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1263,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions\/1263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}