THE HARVEST OF REDEMPTION
Modified notes prepared by: Every Nation Churches
Focus: God poured out his Holy Spirit that his church might be empowered to bring in his harvest of redemption.
The Beginning of the Harvest
The Harvest in Progress
The Final Harvest
The Beginning of the Harvest
Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Let’s start by discussing the historical and theological backdrop to Pentecost.
The Day of Pentecost changed everything; it was a turning point in redemption history.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit fulfilled ancient promises, inaugurated the Church, and initiated her mission.
To fully understand Acts 2, we have to understand the role of Pentecost in the story of redemption.
The Hebrew calendar was based on three vital events in the harvest cycle.
Each of these three events was celebrated with harvest feasts in Israel’s calendar.
The first was Passover (which includes the Feast of Firstfruits - Leviticus 23:9-14).
Leviticus 23:9-14 ESV
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.”
The second harvest feast was Pentecost.
And the third was the Feast of Tabernacles.
Each event has a New Testament application and fulfillment.
Firstfruits had its prophetic fulfillment in Jesus and his resurrection — we will call this the beginning of harvest.
Pentecost had its prophetic fulfillment in our Acts 2 text — we will call this the harvest in progress.
Tabernacles will have its prophetic fulfillment at the end of the age, when there is the final ingathering of souls — we will call this the final harvest.
It may be difficult to comprehend the all-consuming nature of the harvest in an ancient agrarian society.
The following illustrations will help you visualize the importance of the harvest.
A City Without Trucks
Imagine waking up tomorrow and every delivery truck in your city stops moving.
No produce arrives at grocery stores.
No bread is baked because no flour comes in.
Restaurants shut down by noon.
By day three, shelves are empty, tempers run high, and the city begins to feel fragile.
That’s how deeply our lives depend on a harvest we never see.
In ancient Israel, people did see it.
They planted, waited, prayed, and depended on God for rain, grain, and life itself.
That dependence is what the harvest festivals celebrated: gratitude, provision, and trust in God’s faithfulness.
Pentecost was not just a date — it was a declaration: “We live because God gives.”
Payday Meets Thanksgiving
In American cities, people celebrate payday with relief, and Thanksgiving with gratitude.
Canada, Liberia, Germany/Austria/Switzerland, South Korea, Ethiopia, China and other East Asian locations have similar thanksgiving festivals.
Imagine if your biggest payday and your biggest Thanksgiving happened on the same day — and the whole nation stopped to thank God together.
T
hat’s what the harvest festivals were.
They were “payday” for the farmer — the grain harvest was finally in — and “Thanksgiving” for the nation, because God had once again proven faithful.
Pentecost celebrated work, provision, dependence, and worship together.
The Rooftop Garden
Picture a skyscraper with a rooftop garden.
The building is filled with people typing at computers, selling products, fixing elevators, and writing code.
But the garden is what keeps them alive — it produces the food they need but never think about.
The ancient Israelites lived in that garden reality every day.
They knew life was not built on human hustle but on God’s provision.
Every harvest feast reminded them that God — not their effort — was the source of life.
Pentecost brought that truth into worship.
Leviticus 23:9-11
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Understanding Christ in the Firstfruits:
The First Sheaf in an Ancient Field
In ancient Israel, farmers would walk their fields before the full harvest arrived.
The very first ripened stalk of grain was not eaten, sold, or stored.
It was cut, bundled, and brought to the priest.
That single sheaf represented the entire field.
If the first sheaf was good, the farmer knew the rest of the crop was coming.
One sheaf waved before the Lord meant the whole harvest was guaranteed.
The First Domino:
When the first domino falls, the entire chain is set in motion.
The first movement guarantees the final outcome.
The resurrection of Jesus is the first domino in the chain of redemption.
Because he rose, the rest will follow.
His empty tomb is not the end of the story — it is the beginning of the harvest.
The Down Payment:
When someone places a down payment on a house, it is not the full payment, but it guarantees the full purchase is coming.
Christ’s resurrection is God’s down payment on the resurrection of all who belong to him.
God has already made the first installment in history.
He will not abandon the rest of the transaction.
1 Corinthians 15:20
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Jesus’ resurrection is that offering — the guarantee of more to come.
His victory over death is not an isolated miracle but the beginning of the full harvest to come.
Key truth: God will complete what he started in Christ — in his plan of redemption and in our individual lives.
The Harvest in Progress
Acts 2:1
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
•Fifty days after Firstfruits came the Feast of Pentecost — the end of the grain harvest.
The Holy Spirit is poured out on Pentecost in Acts 2, and 3,000 souls are saved and gathered to become the church on the same day.
•This is the church’s season — the time of the Spirit-empowered harvest.
Understanding the importance of the Holy Spirit in mission
The Wind Filling the Sails:
Imagine a ship stuck in harbor with full cargo but no wind.
The destination is clear, the crew is ready, but there is no movement.
Then suddenly, the wind comes.
The sails fill.
The ship moves with power it does not generate itself.
That is Pentecost.
The Spirit came like wind, and suddenly three thousand souls were saved and gathered to be the church in a single day (Acts 2:41).
Acts 2:41 ESV
“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”
The harvest is not driven by human strength, but by the Holy Spirit’s power.
The Holy Spirit allows you to stand boldly for Christ and his truth in the midst of reviling, persecution, and false accusation that the gospel might continue forward in the love of God to the glory of God.
Jesus said:
Matthew 5:11-12 ESV
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
He also said:
Luke 6:26 ESV
“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Acts 4 is a clear example of how the church was able to stand by the power of the Holy Spirit in the midst of persecution:
Acts 4:23-31 ESV
“When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”
The Great Awakenings:
During the Great Awakenings, preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield preached to crowds numbering in the thousands.
Entire towns were transformed, not by clever strategies but by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.
Observers often wrote that it felt as though the Spirit himself was sweeping through communities.
Pentecost is not a one-day event in Acts — it is the ongoing season of Spirit-empowered harvest throughout church history.
Key Truth: The Spirit given at Pentecost is God’s power for the Church to bring in the harvest.
The Final Harvest
Jesus taught about the final harvest.
Matthew 13:24-30 ESV
“He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’
Matthew 13:36-43 ESV
“Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
•The Feast of Tabernacles celebrated the year’s final harvest.
Israel gathered all crops, and God’s people rejoiced in his provision.
•The final “harvest” is the gathering of the redeemed of all nations into God’s eternal kingdom.
The Final Gathering of the Crops:
At the Feast of Tabernacles, Israel gathered the last fruits, olives and grapes.
The barns were full.
The fields were cleared.
The entire harvest had been brought in.
It was a celebration of completion.
Revelation 7 shows the ultimate Tabernacles moment — not of crops, but of people.
Not from one field, but from every nation.
Not from one village, but people from the entire world gathered before the Lamb.
The Olympic Opening Ceremony:
At the Olympic opening ceremony, nations from across the world enter the stadium one by one.
Different languages, different cultures, different flags — but all gathered in one place.
Revelation 7:9–10 is the eternal version of that scene.
The Great Reunion:
Imagine a massive family reunion where relatives arrive from every continent — some you have never met, some you thought were lost, some you never knew existed.
That is the final harvest.
God is not gathering a small group.
He is gathering a redeemed humanity.
Revelation 7 pictures a great multitude from every nation, tribe and tongue standing before the throne.
Revelation 7:9-10
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Key Truth: The final chapter of redemption is for the redeemed of all nations to be gathered before God.
Conclusion
We live in the “in-between time” - between Pentecost and Tabernacles.
The Feast of Firstfruits has already happened — Christ is risen.
God has promised the final harvest where he will gather the redeemed of every nation to himself.
But now we live in the Pentecost season where we are to be on mission as the church, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Jesus is the Firstfruits — He is our risen Lord, the guarantee of the harvest.
We are Pentecost people — Spirit-filled, sent into the harvest fields.
Our hope is Tabernacles — the final ingathering of the redeemed of all nations into God’s presence.
Key Truth: God has given Pentecost power to reach the nations.
The Time Between Sunrise and Sunset
Christ’s resurrection is the sunrise.
The final harvest is sunset.
We live in the daylight hours — when the work must be done.
John 9:4-5 ESV
“We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
The Relay Race:
In a relay race, the first runner begins the race, but the victory requires multiple runners passing the baton until the finish line.
Christ ran the first leg (Firstfruits).
The Spirit empowers the church to run the middle leg (Pentecost).
The final runner crosses the finish line (Final Harvest).
We are the middle runners in God’s redemptive relay.
The Fields Are Already White
A missionary once described flying over a rural region during harvest season.
From the air, the fields were golden and ready, but many remained unharvested because there were not enough workers.
He said, “The problem was not the crop. The problem was the labor force.”
May we not be part of the problem, but God’s willing, joyful, thankful servants who by all means make Christ, his cross and his redemption known in the nations!
Appendix:
So again, there is an Historical and Theological Backdrop to Pentecost
The Day of Pentecost changed everything; it was a turning point in redemption history.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit fulfilled ancient promises, inaugurated the Church, and initiated her mission.
Pentecost in the Old Testament
Pentecost was one of three major Jewish pilgrimage festivals, celebrated fifty days from the first Sabbath after Passover (Exodus 23:16).
Exodus 23:16 ESV
“You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.”
Pilgrims came from every corner of the known world to Jerusalem.
They remembered Mount Sinai, where God gave the Law, and read Ruth, a story of redemption for the nations.
The Prophets Saw It Coming
Joel saw the day that would be described in Acts 2: God pouring his Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28–32).
Joel 2:28-32 ESV
““And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.”
Ezekiel promised a new heart and Spirit for restoration (Ezekiel 36:25–27).
Ezekiel 36:25-27 ESV
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
Isaiah likened it to water reviving scorched earth (Isaiah 44:3).
Isaiah 44:3 ESV
“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”
Pentecost didn’t arrive unannounced—it was promised.
Jesus Prepared Them
John the Baptist spoke of the One who would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16).
Luke 3:16 ESV
“John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Jesus promised to send us a Helper and a Guide (John 14:15–17).
John 14:15-17 ESV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
Before his ascension, he instructed his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for power to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:4–8).
Acts 1:4-8 ESV
“And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””
A New Covenant Sealed
There can be no Pentecost without Christ’s salvific work.
Through his death and resurrection, he inaugurated the New Covenant and enabled the Spirit’s outpouring (John 7:39; Hebrews 9:15).
John 7:39 ESV
“Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Hebrews 9:15 ESV
“Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”
At Sinai, God gave the Law on stone; at Pentecost, the Spirit inscribed his law on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:31–34; 2 Corinthians 3:3).
John 7:39 ESV
“Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Hebrews 9:15 ESV
“Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”
This empowers us to live as Christ’s witnesses.
The Mission Begins
Pentecost was not just an event but a commission—a climactic moment in redemption.
It fulfilled prophecy, confirmed Christ’s work, and began the Spirit’s empowerment of the Church.
The Spirit enabled us to overcome barriers, proclaim the gospel, and fulfill God’s mission to redeem all nations.
What started in that upper room surged outward, reaching nations and reshaped human history.