Pentecost was the starting line for the conversion of the world.

If you’ve ever observed a starting line, you’ve noticed anticipation. You’ve felt the moment that exists between preparation and the main event. You’ve witnessed the “Not Yet”; a limbo that exists before the starting gun sounds

Those are the moments that can make or break a race. The athletes who can talk themselves up instead of putting themselves down are gaining on their competition before even taking a step. The ones who can push aside distractions and focus on the finish line are already helping themselves cross it. What we do in the waiting matters.

At Pentecost, the Apostles were already anticipating the race. When Jesus was among them after the Resurrection, He told them: “…Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), and “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19). I can’t imagine a more impactful pre-race pep talk than the Son of Man, having risen from the dead, telling His most trusted disciples that it is now up to them to build His kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven.

And then he told them to wait.


“…He enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for ‘the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 1:4-5). In obedience and anticipation, the Apostles stayed in Jerusalem and waited. They hovered over the starting line.

The 11 waited wisely. They left the mountain where they saw Jesus ascend and returned to Jerusalem as they had been instructed. There, they devoted themselves to prayer and appointed a 12th apostle, Matthias, who had been with Jesus since his baptism.

Then, 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven, it happened.

“When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” (Acts 2:1-4)

There was wisdom in the waiting. Pentecost occurred on Shavuot, the Jewish feast that commemorates Moses receiving the tablets of the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai. Because of that celebration centering on the temple in Jerusalem, “there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, ‘Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language?’” (Acts 2:5-8).

In His perfect timing, God gathered thousands of people who needed to hear the truth-that Jesus was the Messiah - and delivered them to the Apostles’ doorstep just as the Spirit descended upon them. In what would be considered the first homily of the early Church, Peter stood and proclaimed to the crowd that Jesus was the Messiah for whom they waited (Acts 2:14-36). About 3,000 people heard the message, repented, and became followers of Christ that very day.

The Apostles were waiting no more. The starting gun had sounded, and they were released into their calling.

We share the calling of the Apostles: to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel. The Holy Spirit is what guides us in our unique timing and technique for that mission. A Spirit-led life is one of both anticipation and action, of both waiting and working. It is trusting the Third Person of the Trinity, the divinity dwelling within us, to guide our every step.

Pentecost fulfilled the promise that “…I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33). In the midst of the Shavuot celebration of the law written on stone, the Holy Spirit came to write the law on our hearts. The same God who showed Himself to Moses on the mountaintop came to walk beside us as Christ and now resides within us as the Holy Spirit.

If Pentecost was the starting line for the conversion of the world, then we are well into the race. Whether we are waiting for the baton to pass to us or sprinting “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8) as witnesses for Christ, we may trust that the Spirit of God sent to us at Pentecost is more than sufficient to complete our calling.