On the Road to Pentecost

Pentecost – fiftieth [day] – celebrated fifty days after Easter, is a commemoration of when the promised Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Jesus in a most fantastic way.

On the fiftieth day after the Feast of Passover, the apostles were all in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks, variously called the Feast of Firstfruits or the Feast of Harvest.

“The Harvest Festival (Festival of Pentecost): Fifty days later you shall bring to the Lord an offering of a sample of the new grain of your later crops." – Leviticus 23:15-16 (TLB)

The Old Testament records it as a time of festivity where, observing much ritual and ceremony, the first fruits of the grain harvest of the later crop were dedicated to God.

This feast first began when the sojourning Israelites had crossed over into Canaan during their first year in the Promised Land after they had harvested their first fruits.

"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest." – Leviticus 23:10 (NKJV)

The first fruits were a physical offering unto God, but the more meaningful spiritual offering was yet to come.

Acts 2:1-13, describes the event that transformed the Jewish feast into a Christian festival. The event was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus Christ had promised will come, upon all believers present.

On that particular day they were all gathered physically to dedicate the harvest but unknown to them, God had gathered them in, like a harvest, spiritually.

That experience of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in their lives fulfilled the explicit promise of Christ and was at the same time the beginning of the firstfruits of the Spirit however, Christ who made the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17), became their Firstfruits Offering before God.

"But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died…But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back." – 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23 (NLT)

Pentecost can be seen as the spiritual counterpart to the Feast of Weeks.

As we travel on this road to Pentecost, let us meditate on these things so that we can gain a better understanding of how it relates to our own lives as Believers.

Amen †

Shelley Johnson “On the Road to Pentecost” © 2025 April 25, 2025