The Feast of Pentecost
The Feast of Pentecost – also called the Feast of Harvest, Feast of Firstfruits, or Feast of Weeks. Pentecost is the New Testament name meaning fiftieth (50th). The feast began on the 50th day after the Passover:
Lev 23:15-16 “And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be complete. 16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall you number fifty days; then ye shall offer a new meat offering unto to the LORD.”
On ‘‘the morrow after the seventh Sabbath…’’ After Jesus rose from the dead, He was with the disciples for 40 days, then ascended into heaven. After 10 days, He sent the Holy Spirit on the disciples. Pentecost was a new feast (see Lev. 23:16 above); that is, it was not celebrating an event in the past, but a blessing of the present. Passover justifies the sinner and he is pardoned. At Pentecost, he is empowered for service:
Acts 1:4-5 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Acts 2:1-4 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Pentecost was called the ‘‘Feast of Harvest’’ because the people had just finished harvesting the firstfruits of their grain:
Exo 23:16 And the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.
Surely there was a great harvest after Peter’s sermon and three thousand persons (not counting women and children) were added that day. This continued indefinitely, of course, at a rapid rate after the Day of Pentecost. The Scripture says the harvest continued:
Acts 4:4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
Acts 5:14 And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
Therefore, Pentecost signified the founding (formation) of the body of Christ. The symbolism of the Old Testament, of bread, sheaves, and loaves, lays the groundwork for understanding the fellowship of believers and the indwelling of God, through the Holy Spirit, in that body:
Lev 23:17 You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD.
The two loaves of bread speak of Christ in union with His people:
1 Cor 10:17 For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.
Two is the number of witness (2 Corinthians 13:1), which is what the early Church was – the two loaves could also speak to the fact that the Jews and gentiles in the Body of Christ would be made from the same dough, Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 6:35). Two loaves in that body, kneaded together, comprising one dough:
Eph 2:15 Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
It is not incidental that these two loaves included leaven. We know that the Church still possesses much leaven (a symbol for sin). We know that the glory of the early Church departed because of the leaven that remained. Pentecost was a feast of firstfruits (Ex 23:16; Lev 23:17). It was the initial task in the overall process of sanctification of the saints. Thus, the harvest of Pentecost is both firstfruits but also a promise of the final perfection of the harvest at the Feast of Tabernacles, when God dwells on the earth with men and women.
Ez 48:35 The city [Jerusalem] shall be 18,000 cubits round about; and the name of the city from that day shall be, ‘The Lord is [dwells] there.’”
Rev 22:1-5 1Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; 4they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.
Note that there is an interval of four months between the last fulfilled feast (Pentecost) for the Body of Christ, and the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast yet to be fulfilled in the Church. Perhaps, if the Lord returns before 2,000 years have elapsed from His crucifixion – 32 or 33 AD, that is, until His glorious return – these four months testify to four, 500-year periods, or 2,000 years from His death to His glorification in His saints, which Tabernacles foreshadows. Or perhaps it references 40, 50-year Jubilees. There are many that wish to pin it down to a particular year. We can only venture a guess that it is very soon.