What is Pentecost and the Time of the Church?

Fifty days after Easter is Pentecost, the day the Lord fulfilled His promise to send the Holy Spirit. Following Pentecost is a time focused on growing in the teaching of the Lord and in knowing God. This time period lasts until the season of Advent, when the Church Year starts anew. We pray this video and the article below are helpful in explaining the reasons for this time and the significance of it in the life of the Church.

What is Pentecost and the season “after Pentecost”?

The Church Year is divided into three major blocks of time: (1) The Time of Christmas, which centers on Jesus’ coming to earth; (2) The Time of Easter, which centers on Jesus’ death and resurrection for us; (3) the Time of the Church, which focuses on how God’s people live now, in light of His coming and His death and resurrection for us.  Pentecost is the first day in this latter block of time, which is why some count the rest of the Sundays as “after Pentecost.”  The second Sunday following Pentecost is the Festival of the Holy Trinity.  This led to the older practice of counting the Sundays after Holy Trinity and labeling them “after Trinity.”

This Time period stretches from around May to the end of November and involves the following Sundays:

Pentecost entails the celebration that God the Father and Jesus has sent forth the Holy Spirit to be with His people as Jesus promised.  Jesus taught that He would send the Holy Spirit as a “Helper, to be with [them] forever” (John 14:16 ESV).  He would “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8 ESV), “guide [the disciples] into all the truth” speaking “whatever he hears” and “glorify[ing Jesus] for he will take what is [Jesus’] and declare it to [them]” (John 16:13–14 ESV), and “teach [them] all things and bring to [their] remembrance all that [He had] said to [them]” (John 14:26 ESV).  The Holy Spirit would also assist them to “bear witness about [Jesus]” (John 15:26), so that they could be His “witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” for they would “receive power when the Holy Spirit [came] upon [them]” (Acts 1:8 ESV).

Following His resurrection, Jesus taught His disciples that, “‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:46–49 ESV).  From this, it is clear that the mission of the Church, preaching repentance (the Law) and forgiveness (the Gospel) in the world, would begin with the disciples at Pentecost and would continue to be the purpose of Jesus’ institution of His Church.

All these themes are expressed at Pentecost as God’s people gather and reflect on the action of God sending the Holy Spirit as detailed in Acts 2 and foretold by John the Baptizer (Luke 3:16-17).  This is reflected in the color red used for this day—a color that recalls the Holy Spirit coming down in flames of fire, the passion and zeal with which the disciples (and the Church) go forth to share the Word of Jesus, and their willingness to have their blood spilt to proclaim that Word of God.

Following Pentecost, the Church reflects on and teaches Jesus’ teaching, especially expounding on anything that has not already been reflected in the other Sundays of the Church Year.  In this regard, the first Sunday after Pentecost focuses specifically on the revelation that God is Triune (three-in-one).  This teaching is a mystery of God that cannot be fully comprehended by anyone other than God.  Although many claim human explanations, these all fall short because they are attempts by the finite and the creature to explain the Infinite Creator Who far exceeds us and our limited reasoning abilities.  The Festival of the Holy Trinity is a time set aside to ponder and meditate on this mystery and what God has taught and revealed to us about Himself.  As this Sunday is focused on God in His majesty, glory, and holiness, the color associated with it is white.

Most Sundays following after Holy Trinity use the color green, which symbolizes growth in God’s Word.  Some churches will switch halfway through this season to a darker tone of green to symbolize the deepening and richness of that growth.  These Sundays take up various aspects of Jesus’ teaching from His parables to His sayings.  During this time, there are several minor festivals and two major festivals that may “interrupt” the normal flow and theme of this time frame.  These festivals only last a day and then the season continues towards its end.

As the Church year comes to a close, the readings begin to focus on the teaching of the End Times.  This focus may involve only one Sunday or several Sundays. In any case, the Church Year ends looking for Jesus to come as He said He would.  Scripture reveals that He will come to judge the world and to raise all the dead.  He will gather His people and take them to live with Him in the new heavens and earth as He promised while those who resisted and rejected Him are thrown into the lake of fire for eternity. (Daniel 12:2; Matthew 25:31–46; Acts 17:30–31; 1 Corinthians 15:51–58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; Isaiah 65:17-25; Revelation 20:11-15)

This theme of Jesus coming and the end of the world, continues into the new church year where Advent celebrates His coming, which includes remembering His coming in the flesh and His coming on the Last Day.