Thanking God for His Harvest

Hello New Hope Family,

May 28 was Pentecost Sunday. In the Old Testament, the Israelites would celebrate Passover. This honored and recognized when God passed over the people of Israel when they marked their doorposts with lamb or goat blood (Exodus 12). Each year, they would celebrate the event with the Feast of Firstfruits, thanking God for the harvest that was collected in the springtime in ancient Palestine.

Then, the Israelites took a leap of faith trusting that God would bless them with more harvest to come. This would be a time where not much was ready to be harvested, but they honored God with this first fruit and knew He would bless them in the future.

The celebration ended with Pentecost, the final day, where the offerings and animal sacrifices would be bigger more abundant.

Two things happened during this time; the Israelites honored God while they remembered His faithfulness and provisions.

Fast forward to Jesus' time. Jesus died on Passover weekend and 50 days later it was Pentecost. In Acts 2, we see this group of people (probably the group mentioned in Acts 1:15), together in one place.

Suddenly the place was filled with a sound like a mighty rushing wind and "divided tongues as of fire" came into the room and filled each of them. God's Spirit poured out on this group to speak in other tongues or languages, being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Many Jews all over the world celebrating Pentecost together saw what was happening and the crowd grew. People were amazed that they were speaking their native languages. The Bible says all were amazed and perplexed at what happened.

The Holy Spirit Pours Into Peter’s Sermon

Peter delivered the first sermon in which the Holy Spirit was poured over the people. He clarified confusion (v.15), reminded them of the Old Testament prophecy being fulfilled (v.16-21) and preached the life of Christ (v.22-24, 32-33). Peter also quoted Psalm 16:8-11 that points to Jesus' resurrection, reminded the crowd that King David didn't do what Jesus did (v34) and then finally urged them to repent and be baptized (v38). 

Upon hearing this truth, 3,000 people gave their life to Christ that day. Church, we read this and often think "wow, that's amazing!". And yes, I would agree that it is amazing, but I would like to end by reminding us that the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and saved those 3,000 people is still very much alive and active today.

Let us preach with great fervor and tenacity as Peter did that day and go with his same message to all we interact with. The message of repentance and believing that Jesus is the Lord and Savior of our lives.  

~Pastor Matt