From Ascension Day to the Day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit in power and in Person was ten days we now know. What was happening during those ten days?

In Jerusalem

In Jerusalem, the disciples of Jesus were waiting as instructed.

“Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” Luke 24:49

They had been despondent, since their paradigm of Jesus being the Messiah, a conquering king, was crushed at the crucifixion. The resurrection appearances, and the forty days since with Him appearing to them in intimate situations, and to over 500 at once, had them reenergized and expectant, with their paradigms again in transition to the Truth they beheld and touched and heard from Jesus Himself. Proverbs says, “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” But hope had been restored, and the adventure wasn’t over apparently, it was about to shift into a higher gear. Maybe they remembered now Jesus telling them before the crucifixion, “It’s better for you that I leave you, so the Holy Spirit can come.”

“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:25

They might have even wondered, “Might this power come at the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot—Pentecost)? Our Master often does things on the Jewish feast days!” Indeed His most important life events seemed to be predicted and choreographed to the holy feast days given to Moses by God for the people of Israel some 1600 years before Jesus appearing.

But alas, they wait. For just what, and what it will look like, they do not know.

In Heaven

In Heaven, what was happening? The writer of Hebrews answers this question in part for us at the beginning of his letter. “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:3c) The writer of Romans tells us, “There Jesus is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34) And we’re told from that position of power at the right hand of the Majesty of Heaven, “He upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Hebrews 1:3b) Powerfully Jesus continues the work of our redemption from heaven in the earth.

In The Fullness of Time

In the fulness of time, in this case ten days after Jesus Ascension, on the Feast of Weeks, fifty days after Passover, known as Shavuot (weeks) in Hebrew and Pentecost ( fifty days) in English, the promise of Jesus to his disciples would be fulfilled as the Holy Spirit would be sent to tabernacle with Jesus’ disciples, endue them with power, and dwell with them as recorded prophetically centuries earlier by the Prophet Joel, and after the fact by Luke in Acts chapter two.

“This time of year marks the start of the wheat harvest and the end of the barley harvest. Shavuot also marks the time that the Jews were given the Torah on Mount Sinai.” BBC

Without too much difficulty one can see that this first Pentecost after Jesus resurrection was a deeply significant chapter change in God’s plan for man, resulting in a different type harvest and with God giving a new revelation from Heaven for men, this time not from Sinai, the mountain of God, but Jerusalem, the City of the Great King. And writing His laws no longer on stone or parchment, but internally, upon His believer’s hearts, dwelling with them. Immanuel — “With us is the Mighty One.” (Isa 7:14, Col 1:27, Eph 3:20, and many more.)

This first Pentecost would be remembered and celebrated as the birthday of the church.

The over arching lesson might be, that we should all wait for God to endue us with power from on high, and then go forward following Him in that strength instead of our own.

To be continued…

“His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.” John 12:16 NLT

“Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me;” Acts 1:4 NASB

“Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.” Acts 2:33