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“You Shall Be My Witnesses”: Pentecost Service

by David Rylaarsdam
Issue #79

The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5). By pouring love for God into our hearts, the Spirit gathers and forms a new community.

This service celebrates Pentecost both verbally and symbolically. Who is involved in the liturgy is symbolic of the new community which the Spirit gathers. Girls and boys process with flags and gather the offering, for the new community formed by the Spirit includes young and old. Flags are seen and five languages are heard and an offering for missions is received, for the Spirit is gathering a community from every tribe and language.

What is done during worship is also symbolic of the new community pictured in Acts 2:44-45: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. . . . They would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Throughout the liturgy, the worship leader could highlight ways in which these practices are continued today: During the reading of the Word and preaching, we devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching. The mutual greeting and congregational song are examples of our koinonia, our fellowship as a new community united by God’s Spirit. In the Lord’s Supper, we break bread. In our generous Pentecost offerings, the new economy of the new community is proclaimed.

May the Spirit, through our worship and missions, pour the love of God into hearts and add to our number those who are being saved.

Gathering for Worship

Prelude
[During the last part of the prelude, music appropriate for Pentecost and the procession of world flags is played. Youth groups bring in the flags and offering plates, placing the plates by the flags of countries represented by the congregation’s missionaries.]

Welcome
[Pastor gives a brief welcome and provides a very basic explanation of Pentecost and the purpose of the children bringing in the flags and offering plates in preparation for worship.]

Call to Worship

Gospel Promise:
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you,
and you shall be my witnesses to the ends of the
earth. (Acts 1:8)
Sung Prayer for the Coming of the Spirit: “Eternal
Spirit, God of Truth” PsH 422
The Promise Fulfilled:
The love of God has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
(Rom. 5:5)

Greeting from God

Greeting Each Other

Celebrating God’s Grace: The Story of Pentecost

Dramatic Reading: (see box)

Bible Song: “Fear Not, Rejoice and Be Glad” PsH 201, WR 392

Scripture: Acts 2:22-28

Psalm: “Protect Me, God, I Trust in You” PsH 16, SFL 217

Scripture: Acts 2:29-41

Hymn: “Baptized in Water” CH 465, PH 492, PsH 269, SFL 60, WR 679

Proclamation of the Word

Prayer for Illumination

Scripture Reading: Acts 2:1-4

Response

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Sermon: The Coming of the Spirit

Hymn: “For Your Gift of God the Spirit” PsH 416, TH 339

Celebrating the Lord’s Supper

Call to the Table: Acts 2:42-47
[Pastor reads final verses of Acts 2, briefly ties the celebration of communion with Pentecost, and invites believers to the table.]

Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give God our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right, our duty and delight always and
everywhere to give you thanks, eternal God,
Creator of the universe.
By your mighty hand you shaped the world and
everything in it.
By your Holy Spirit you breathed life into human
form, and set us on the earth to praise and serve you.
When we wandered from your ways and were lost
in sin’s wilderness, your truth burned in the
hearts of the prophets who called your people to
return to you.
In the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be
our deliverer.
At his baptism by John, your Spirit came onto him
with gentle wings.
In the wilderness of temptation your Spirit empowered
him.
In his life and ministry your Spirit led him to serve
the poor, proclaim freedom from sin’s bondage,
and heal the sick.
By his death on the cross and rising from the tomb,
he broke the power of death and led the way to
eternal life.
Ascended on high, he sends the Spirit on the church
to raise us all to new life in him.
We thank you, Father, for sending your Spirit to
us today, awakening faith and teaching the
truth of your son Jesus, working in the church
to make us faithful disciples, and empowering
us to proclaim the living Christ to every nation.
Therefore with choirs of angels, and with the
whole company of heaven, we worship and
adore your glorious name, joining our voices
in their unending praise:

All Sing: “Holy, Holy, Holy/Santo,Santo, Santo” PsH 626,
WR 739

Words of Institution

Prayer of Consecration

Invitation

Communion

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession
[Focusing on the missionaries supported by the congregation, naming them and the countries where they work.]

Offering

Hymn: “Shine, Jesus, Shine” CH 431, SNC 128, SFL 239, WR 319

God’s Blessing

God’s Blessing

Moment of Meditation

Excerpt

Celebrating God’s Grace

The Story of Pentecost: A Dramatic Reading.

[The reading calls for seven participants using three mics. In addition to three English-speaking parts, you’ll need readers who can translate their lines into four languages: Spanish, German, Greek, and Dutch, or choose other languages represented in your congregation.]

Narrator: When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked:

German: Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?

Spanish: Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?

Narrator: Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?”

Greek: Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?

Dutch: Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?

Narrator: Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs— Simultaneously in German, Spanish, Greek, and Dutch:We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our tongues!

Narrator:We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our tongues! Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another,

German: What does this mean?

Spanish: What does this mean?

Narrator: What does this mean? Some, however, made fun of them and said,

Greek: They have had too much wine.

Dutch: They have had too much wine.

Narrator They have had too much wine.

Narrator: Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:

Peter: Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

Joel: “In the last days,” God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Author

David Rylaarsdam

David Rylaarsdam is associate professor of historical tehology, Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan.