Pentecost Harvest
When the day of Pentecost came, they were together in one place … With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day Acts 2:1,40,41
Pentecost was an agricultural festival celebrated fifty days after Passover. Hebrew farmers would bring the first sheath of wheat from the crop to offer to God. They did this in gratitude and anticipation for the coming harvest. These “first-fruits” were the small part of the crop that had ripened early.
On the day of Pentecost referred to in the above text, Peter’s preaching drew an enormous response. A full three thousand people received the gospel and showed their full commitment to Jesus by being baptised in water. This was the first-fruits of multitudes that have followed the same pathway over the past two thousand years.
The most conservative estimates of evangelical Christians on the planet claim there are around 600 million believers. This is around 8% of the world’s population. The actual number is almost certainly higher.
God is continuing to look for a harvest. Do you have a harvest mentality? Do you think “harvest?”
When D. L. Moody was in London for one of his crusades, several British ministers visited him wanting to know his secret. How and why was the poorly educated American so effective in winning so many people for Christ?
Moody took the men to the window of his hotel room and asked them to tell him what they saw. One by one the men described the people in the park below. Then Moody looked out the window, and his eyes began to well with tears. “What do you see Mr. Moody?” one of the men asked.
Moody replied, “I see countless thousands of souls that will one day spend eternity in hell if they do not find the Saviour.”
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