Pentecost Sunday

The word "Pentecost" is actually a Greek word, which means the fiftieth part of something. In the Old Testament it was called the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of Weeks, and the Day of the First Fruits. It commemorates both the first fruits of the wheat harvest and the giving of the Mosaic Law, because the belief that the coming of the law was fifty days after the Exodus.

The Passover celebrated the angel passing over right before the Exodus and the Feast of Pentecost was fifty days after Passover. The Holy Spirit's coming on the Day of Pentecost is a matter of divine chronology. It fulfills typical prophecy.

Leviticus 23:15-16 lay out the key features of Pentecost, which is predictive in its features, the third of three feasts: Passover, First Fruits, and then Harvest (Pentecost). When the wheat crop was not yet fully done, Israel would gather the first fruits of wheat and baked it into two loaves. Israel ate the loaves and this was like receiving the first of the wheat as a guarantee. The reception of the Holy Spirit guarantees, like an earnest, that the believer will experience the blessings of the death and resurrection of Christ (the first two of the feasts in Leviticus 23) and the entire harvest later when the Lord returns.

The Feast of the First Fruits could have no leaven in that Feast. Christ had no sin. But Pentecost included leaven. In the church is sin. The church is the temple of the Holy Spirit and where is the unity of the one Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings the experience of the blessings of Christ's work and guarantees a future harvest at His coming.