What is the Meaning Behind Pentecost? || Deuteronomy 16:9-12

Text: Deuteronomy 16:9-12

The next festival is the Feast of Weeks. This is also called the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Harvest, or Pentecost.

 

The Feast of Pentecost follows the Passover. It is an Old Testament Picture of a New Covenant Reality.

Old Covenant Picture:

–        The blood of the Lamb delivers you from death (Passover)

–        Then comes the harvest

–        First fruits belong to God

–        Rejoice with others (Especially the vulnerable)

–        In Jerusalem

–        Because you have been set free from slavery

–        Leavened offerings (Set aside for the priesthood)

–        No work

In Acts chapter 2, we know that the Holy Spirit is poured out at Pentecost. What we fail to see is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant teachings.

New Covenant Reality:

–        Jesus delivered us from death by His shed blood

–        Then came the harvest

–        First fruits (3,000 saved)

–        Rejoice with others (Especially the vulnerable)

–        In Jerusalem

–        They are delivered from slavery to sin

–        There is still sin
     –   They are not consumed and taken to heaven
     –   They are set aside for the priesthood
–        This salvation is by grace not works

In reference to Pentecost, Christians are constantly referred to as first fruits. This is teaching us that even though we are sinners, we have been dedicated to God as priests. Our job is to participate in the harvest to come by making disciples and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded.

 

The New Testament also makes it very clear that this harvest is so much more than people coming to faith. It is a radical transformation of all creation. The Dominion Mandate of Genesis is fulfilled in Christians obeying the Great Commission. As we make disciples, we will not just see people come to faith, we will see all of creation transformed.

–        Are you part of the harvest?

–        Are you participating in the harvest?

–        As the first fruits, will you go back and help with the harvest to come?