“What Is Pentecost” | Sunday AM | Melody Shephard

Original Broadcast of Sunday Morning 10 AM Bible Class, 05/24/2026 

Speaker: Melody Shephard

Message Title: "What is Pentecost" 

We invite you to join us in person 

Sundays at 10am & 11AM 

Wednesdays at 7:30 PM

Transcript

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What is Pentecost? Say what is Pentecost? Oh louder than that.

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Right.

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Before Acts chapter 2, Pentecost was already an established feast under the Mosaic covenant as the feast unto the Lord. In the Hebrew language, it is called Shava'ot. Say Shava'ot. Say Shava'ot. Meaning festival of weeks, adding to 50 days. In Greek, we know it as Pentecost, meaning 50th. So we're going to take a moment, we're going to go back to the foundational scriptures that will set the stage for the New Testament church. Amen? Why are we doing what we do? In Deuteronomy chapter 16 and verse 16, it says, Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord, thy God, in the place which he shall choose. In the feast of unleavened bread, say Passover. And in the feast of weeks, say Shavaot, say Pentecost. And in the feast of tabernacles, say Sukkot. And they shall not appear before the Lord empty. Say empty. Empty. So let's discover what happened during those 50 days. We're going to take it from the crucifixion of Jesus to the day of Pentecost. We're going to walk through history. The first day of Passover, Jesus was crucified. Say, Jesus crucified. The third day into Passover is called the feast of the first fruits. Say first fruits. Jesus rose from the dead, the resurrection. Amen? In 1 Corinthians 15 and 20, Paul writes, but now is Christ risen from the dead and became the first fruit, say first fruits of them that slept. There are 47 days remaining until the arrival of the feast of Shavelot's Pentecost. So we walk through the history. Number two on your paper, during the 40 days of the 47 days remaining, we're going to read Acts 1, verse 3. To whom also he showed himself alive, say alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them, say being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Aren't you glad God shows up? When we call on him, he is there. And he said he's never going to leave us nor forsake us. We can call in the name of Jesus and He comes. He appeared to the weeping Mary of Magdalene, to the fearful disciples locked in a locked room, to Thomas, who just needed proof. To the two disciples as they were talking about what happened to Jesus as they were walking on the road into the village of Emmaus. To the fishing disciples by the Sea of Galilee. And I love how Peter said, once the Lord was crucified, he was feeling bad. We know that. But he said, you know what? I'm gonna go a fishing. I'm just gonna go back to what I normally did before. But God had other plans for him. Amen. To James and to more than 500 people at one time on the Mount of Olives before his ascension. Jesus was teaching, he was preparing, and he was commissioning. Every appearance Jesus made had a purpose. Say, I have a purpose. Proving he was alive, strengthening their faith. Lord comes to us and he strengthens our faith during those trials. Amen. When we go through those valleys, the Lord is there. He said he's gonna be there, whether we're in the valley or the mountaintop. Explaining the scriptures, bringing into the remembrance the prophecies. Because Peter, when he got up to preach, he quoted those prophecies. Just as Moses on the day of Shavelot Pentecost received the tablets of stone with the ten commandments and the 613 laws, and there were oral laws. There will be a day. There will be a day. Say, there will be a day. The prophet Jeremiah proclaims in Jeremiah 31, 33, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, say those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. The prophet Joel proclaims in Joel chapter 2 and 28 and 29, and it shall come to pass afterwards, say afterwards, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, say all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions, and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids, in those days, say, in those days, will I pour out my spirit. Another prophet named Isaiah steps forward. In Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 11 through 12, he proclaims for with stammering lips and another tongue. Say another tongue. Will he speak to this people? Say, this people, say that's you and me. Say that's you and me. To whom he said, This is the rest. Say rest. Say abiding, wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest. Say rest. That means to cease. And this is the prof refreshing, yet they would not hear. Aren't you so thankful? Aren't you so thankful that those disciples understood these prophecies? And now we can also hear them and we can obey them and we can wait on them and we can receive them. Amen. Aren't you so glad that they stepped forth and they proclaimed it? Hallelujah. The one true living God that we can experience, named what? Jesus. Say Jesus. Jesus was preparing them for the Holy Ghost and filling. In Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, Jesus said, but ye shall, say shall, that's a promise. Receive power, say power. After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall, say shall, be witnesses, say witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, say locally. And in all Judea and in Samaria, say regionally. And into all unto the uttermost parts of the earth, say global. That's why we pray. That's why these signs are here. We're praying for our area. We're praying for our church. And we're also praying for the missionaries. Amen. Number three in the paper, the remaining seven days of the 50 days. In biblical numerology, seven means complete. The Bible says in Acts chapter one, they all went into an upper room. Five hundred individuals approximately were told to tarry in that upper room. Five hundred. But how many lasted? A hundred and twenty stayed. So here's a parallel for you. And here's a fulfillment for you. In ancient times, as well as today in Israel, so in ancient times it was called the Sanhedrin. Say Sanhedrin. In modern times today, it's Knesson. Say Knessin. In order to have a ruling Israel government, they must have a total of 120 representatives seated in their government, and that is today as well. If they do not have 120, they have no seated government. So we read in the book of Acts, chapter 1 and verse 15. 120 were seated in the upper room. That's all God needed to obtain the spiritual government, and it was ready to begin. Amen. 120 sealed it, and God was ready. Number four, the final 50th day of the 50s. Acts chapter 2 records the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. And the church government begins. God chose that day and that moment because he knew it was a great feast. A great feast. And in Jerusalem would be full of people. Now, when I was in Jerusalem, that they took us to the upper room, and those streets are very narrow. And hundreds and hundreds, not even thousands, probably, were there in Jerusalem, crowded. And a lot of them went up into the temple for the Shavu'ot feast. And they were all hanging out and they heard such a great and powerful noise. So they would hear the fulfillment of prophecy that they have been quoted for thousands of years. And they would be able to experience the power of God for the first time. The meaning of Shavu'ot's Pentecost was changed forever on that day. Those individuals on that day fulfilled the scriptures. They didn't come to God just empty. Remember, it said, don't come empty, the law says. But they didn't come empty. No, they didn't bring a sacrifice of a lamb, they didn't bring a sacrifice of a goat. They didn't bring the harvesting fields, but they brought themselves. And what they brought inside their heart was repentance. Say repentance. Say prayer. Say worship. They came with anticipation. Say anticipation. It's a good thing to come to church with anticipation. Amen. It's a good thing that we bring a soul and we anticipate they're going to get the Holy Ghost. They're going to get baptized in Jesus' name. It's a good thing to bring somebody that's sick or you yourself and say, God, I anticipate that I am going to be healed in the name of Jesus today. Amen. I'm going to be delivered. God responded, and now the church found its voice. Number five, the Great Commission. The crowds of people in that ancient city, pushing, shoving, getting ready, heard a great noise, and they stopped in their tracks. And they said, What is going on in this upper room? Then Peter stood up and began to preach with anointing and with boldness. Say anointing. Say boldness. We need anointing. We need a boldness, right? God wants to give it to us and has given it to us. On Pentecost, the church not only found its voice, but that day the church received its voice. So you can just find something, but you've got to receive it. Amen? We can bring souls into the kingdom of God. We can bring them here to this church, but until they step forward, then they have found it for themselves. They have experienced it for themselves, and they have been born in the church. Amen. I'm so glad God has chosen such a powerful day in which we can live and see the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. The day the church received its voice. But before Pentecost, the disciples were hiding. Before we knew Jesus, we ourselves were hiding. We were hiding our sins. We were hiding from sin, from goodness, from light. Hiding in darkness. We were unsure, not just unsure of the world, but unsure and scared of even ourselves. Afraid of the things that were coming down to this earth. That we may have heard a glimpse of revelation by somebody, but we didn't know what to do about that. So we were afraid as well. And they were quiet. They didn't know what to say. They didn't know how to act. They didn't know what to do. Can you relate? I can relate to that. Hiding, fearful, scared of the things that I've heard about what is coming down upon this earth. Thinking, am I going to survive it? Am I going to be here? Or how do I get out of it? How do I get peace? How do I find God in all of this mess? Any of you been there? I have been there. I've experienced it. But when the Holy Ghost came, something changed. And when the Holy Ghost came upon us, something changed. Amen. Not just tongues of fire, not just a rushing mighty wind. They opened their mouths and they spoke and they testified. And the world has never been the same. Let me tell you, in the Jewish faith, when you go to the whailing wall, they know about us. Because they'll clean over those men. There's it's a divided between the men and the women during the at the whaling wall, the western wall, where everyone goes to pray. And we were making our way down to go and pray at this wall, and some of them got a little loud speaking in tongues. I was trying to like, okay, calm down because we don't want to be kicked out of here either. But do you know those Jewish men leaned over the wall and said, We know about you, you need to stop that tongues. They know about us. It is not hidden. It is not hidden. They know well about us. When Moses went onto the mountain, this is some history that they said that Moses went into the mountain with God those 40 days and began to hear the voice of God. And those rabbis today say, Moses didn't speak Hebrew up there. He didn't speak his language. But he got so close to God that he began to speak God's language. Isn't that something? How revelation, how understanding is coming upon the Jewish people. They're hungry out there. Whether you're Jewish or Greek or Gentile or whatever, they are hungry out there. Every nation is experiencing a powerful revival because of the hunger. In the Philippines, we've seen hundreds receive the Holy Ghost. We've seen hundreds healed by the power of God. We've seen hundreds get baptized in Jesus' name. They are hungry. They are hungry. Say, Lord, send me. Say, Lord, use me. Amen. We want to be used in this last day. So when the Holy Ghost came, something changed. And the world was never the same. Pentecost experience, it is about power. Say power. And it's about the courage to speak. Say, I want to receive the courage to speak. Come on, I want to receive it, Lord. I want to receive it. I want to receive it right here. Give me the courage to speak it out and not hide. Because Peter spoke what Jesus commissioned. People received the message. They were pricked in their hearts. Conviction came over them. Repentance was experienced. Repentance is a matter of about faith. I am facing the world. I'm marching to the world's standard. But all of a sudden, when a heart receives repentance, they turn around and say, Jesus, I want to be with you. I want to follow after you. I want to be in your kingdom. They get tired of the ruling of the satanic kingdom and they want to come to God. They need peace that passes all understanding. They need joy unspeakable and full of glory. Amen. So why not get busy? Because the harvest is ripe. Amen. Repentance was experienced in Acts chapter 2 and verse 37 through 41 records it. They asked the disciples, what shall we do? I remember in a Bible study, I kept asking the lady that was giving me a Bible study. And she said, I kept saying, How do I get my name in the book of life? How do I get my name in this book? Because in the Jewish faith, on Yom Kippur, all you hear is about your name getting in the book of life. And you've got to get your name in that book of life in order for you to make it. So my goal was, I need my name, I need my name, I need the assurance. Back in the day, the priest would come out of the tabernacle, the temple, and he would tell the people, your sins are rolled. But what do they have today? Nothing. They sit on stools, they begin to pray, they begin to call out names, and they and then you get up from that moment and you walk away and you say, Is my name written? Amen. So it took the 12 weeks that she was going through this Bible study to tell me how to get my name in the book of life. And my husband and I received it, and we were baptized in that precious name of Jesus. Amen. My name is written. Your name is written. If you have been born again of the water and the spirit, your name has been written in the roll call of Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah. So Peter answered and he said this repent. He didn't hold back words. He said, Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for what? The remission of your sins. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior is a great start, but that does not remit your sins. Amen? That does not remit the sins, these people in these different churches, but God bless them because they're hungry for God. They'll come up to an altar and they'll begin to lift their hands and say, God, I accept you as my personal savior, and they'll walk out those doors. And their name was never written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We have that obligation that when we see a soul that confesses Jesus as their savior, to begin to say, That's wonderful, that's great. But now let's take the next step. Let's get your name written. Let's get the blood of Calvary over you. Let's get authority in the power of Jesus upon your life. Amen. For the remission of your sins, nothing else remits it but the blood of Calvary. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 3,000 souls, 3,000 individuals were born again on that day. What a revival! Seven times greater, the Lord promised. Are we ready for it? I'm ready for it. Amen. I'm ready to see the outpouring. I'm ready to see these chairs packed up. Out. I'm ready to see them just lined up on the upon the walls over here and begin to say, I want to know this Jesus that you know. I want to experience the God that you've experienced. This was the beginning of the church. This is the church covenant. There is no amen at the end of the book of Acts. None. Why? Because we say you and I. Say you and I are the continuation of the day of Pentecost, of that great feast. The book of Acts is called Acts because it's the action, say action of the apostles and the church. Number six, the sharing of our testimony. And this is where we play a crucial part of this New Testament experience. The sharing of our testimony is our responsibility to carry Pentecost forward. Say forward. The Spirit empowers ordinary voices, the Spirit gives boldness to speak. The Spirit turns simple stories into supernatural impact. The disciples didn't preach a perfect sermon. They testified to what they had seen and what they had heard. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 4, it says, Paul writes it and says, And my speech, say speech, and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration, say demonstration, say demonstration of the spirit and of the power. And in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11 says, And they overcame, say overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. When do they get the blood? In baptism in Jesus' name, amen. And by the word of their testimony, when do they get their testimony? They experience the Acts 238 power and the anointing and the flow of the Spirit. We have the blood, we have the name, we have the testimony. Amen. It carries God being able to change that individual. I'm always excited about how when people come into church, and I tell the different ones that I work with personally, I said, step back and watch, watch the miracle. Because you're gonna see the miracle of God's hand. Number seven, your testimony. It gives strength to others. You can't keep it quiet. Your story is someone else's lifeline. Amen. Say how. Say how. Your breakthrough becomes someone else's hope. Let that sink in. Your healing becomes someone else's faith. Amen. Your obedience becomes someone else's courage. They will watch you through the fire. They will watch you. People are watching us. They're watching our walk. Our family members, when we first got in church, said, Oh, it's just a phase. They'll come out of it. But the more and more that we got our heels stuck down deep into the roots of this truth, we begin to say, you can have your birthday parties on Sunday, I'll just be there afterwards. Amen. We got this revival we're going to this weekend. We got the children's church and they're experiencing God. And before you know it, our family's like, well, what is going on in that church? And before you knew it, my mom got baptized in Jesus' name, filled with the Holy Ghost. Amen. My dad, my husband's dad, mom, sister, brother, all of them came into the church wanting to know about this experience. We were with our father-in-law as he prayed through the Holy Ghost. He came up, this big, tough man, walked straight up, raised his hands, and my husband was on one side and I was on the other. And we began to see him begin to buckle and cry with tears. And then he started shaking, and then he started speaking in tongues. God does the miraculous. Amen. God does a raccoon. Give the Lord a hand clap. Lord, you do the miraculous. Hallelujah, Jesus. He does the miraculous. We just have to bring them. We just have to be a witness. We have to tell our testimony. Your obedience does become someone else's courage. They watch how you go through the trials, they watch how things happen in your life, and they see how you come out of it. Glorifying God, bringing Him the praise. Testimony multiplies courage like fire spreading. I'll say it again. Testimony multiplies courage like fire spreading. From Genesis to Revelation, testimonies after testimonies are given to us. But now, say now, it's our time to continue the testimony. Amen. To someone else that comes into our lives. Two precious people right there. Our testimony honors God. It doesn't just, it's not supposed to lift you up, it lifts him up. Amen. It lifts him high up. In Psalm 66, 16 says, Come and hear all that it fear or re reverence God. And I will declare, I will tell you what he had done for my soul. Testimony is worship with words. When you speak of his goodness, you magnify him. Amen. When you share your story, you point people to Jesus. When you testify, heaven gets the glory. Pentecost wasn't just about the disciples being bold, it was about Jesus being lifted up. Amen. It was about him being high and lifted up. Jesus said it like this in John chapter 12 and verse 32. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, and we know that's the crucifixion, will draw all men unto me. But we think about this: we lift Jesus up, that blood flows. We lift Jesus up, the power is received. Anointing, hope, help, encouragement. Amen. We lift him up in our lifestyle. We lift him up in what we speak. We lift him up in our character and in our attitude. We lift him up the way we live. And as people begin to see him lifted up, they're gonna come to you and say, sis, what do you've got a hold of? What is that light that I see inside of you? I need to know a little bit more about what you've got a hold of. Amen. I need to see it. I kind of hear you kind of praying. Have you ever been in a place that you begin to pray? And people begin to say, What is that noise? What is going on over there? We were in a room in our very first church that we had, and we begin to pray. And we were in a home mission setting, and this is our first pastor, he was also home missions, and we said to our pastor, Can we come a little early? A bunch of us girls come a little early. We would like to pray. And they had rented out a room next to them, and we brought our babies and we put our babies, and Desiree was one of the babies, and we put our babies down with their toys, and we began to pray. Well, two hours went by, and we were praying, and all of a sudden we would hear this knock on the wall bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And they would be like, You need to stop. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. We didn't realize the time had passed, but we did realize they were hearing the sounds of prayer. We did realize that something was being back, impacted and into their lives, and they will never forget it. They will never forget it. There was a young man that came by when we were home missions in San Diego, and we were having a ladies' prayer meeting. And this man, little this boy going to the gym, had to cross through our property, and he began to hear the sound of prayer. And he didn't said, I hear a noise coming from this door. And he began to peek out of this door into the into the room. And my daughter caught him and said, and started going out and talking with him. And then she brought him in. Now, this is the ladies' prayer meeting. Amen. Ladies, we can pray, amen. And before you knew it, we said, Would you like to have some prayer? He said, Yes, I would. I'm going to the gym, but I don't think I'm gonna make it today. So we said, Okay, we're gonna put a hot seat. We used to call it the hot seat. We'd put a chair right here and we'd put it in the middle, and us ladies would gather around. We began to pray for that young man, and he slid off that chair and began to speak in tongues. He got so drunk he couldn't get up. It works, prayer works, power works with God, amen. When you lift him up, he would draw all men unto him. Before you knew it, he came out of it. Must have been about an hour later. An ish. And he looks at us and he says, Wow, this is the best high I've ever had. He says, I've got to go tell my friends. Look at that. Right from that spot, he says, I gotta go tell my friends about this high. I gotta go tell my friends about this experience. And he says, Oh no, my dad is gonna pick me up at the gym. How am I gonna explain this? I said, just tell him. Just give him your testimony. And then he turned to us and he said, Well, I want you to know. I said, Have you ever been baptized in Jesus' name? He says, I want you to know I'm in a Bible study. And my my minister that's teaching me is apostolic. And he's been talking to me about Jesus' name baptism. I said, Well, go tell your minister that you receive the power of Jesus today, and that God has got his hand upon your life, and you need to be born again of the water, too. Amen. Testimony. Right away, he wanted to give his testimony. Right away. But what happens is when we let the fire go down in our life, then we become quiet, we become scared, we become fearful. Nobody needs to know it, nobody wants to know it. Nobody wanna we have all these excuses. But you know what? Remember when God filled you with the Holy Ghost. Remember when God got you baptized and you were filled with that spirit of Him. If you can bring your mind back to that part, and every time you raise your hands, you begin to think how God has saved me, as God has redeemed me, had God filled me with His Spirit, called my name out of the darkness, and brought me into His marvelous light. If you can worship from that point and you can praise from that point, your testimony will come as a fire from that point to somebody else's life. Bring them into that experience that you experienced with Him. So let us stand. Pentecost is a reminder that the Holy Ghost does fill us, but also He sends us. He will send us, not necessarily to foreign soil, but to your soil, to your family, to your friends, to your neighborhood, to the hospital where they feel there's no hope. Where they're prison, where they're locked away, maybe for a lifetime. God wants to use you. He wants to use me. He gives us courage to speak. He empowers our story. He turns simple words into supernatural impact. Your testimony is not a is not small, it's not ordinary, and it's not insignificant. It is the evidence of God's power in your life, and someone needs to hear it. On Pentecost, the church found its voice, but today we can use ours. We have found our part to do in this great commission. One soul is equal to one world. How many worlds can be changed by one soul's experience and testimony? It's now our time, and the harvest is ripe.