What Significance Does the Feast of Pentecost Have for Christians?
Course Content
Pentecost commemorates both the giving of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of God’s Church—symbolizing the firstfruits of His spiritual harvest and the power to live in obedience through His Spirit.
Pentecost, which this year falls on June 1, 2025 (starting the night before at sunset), is one of God’s Holy Days listed in Leviticus 23—and, not coincidentally, the day on which the New Testament Church began in Acts 2.
For the ancient Israelites, this festival marked the offering of the initial produce or “firstfruits” of the wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22). Called “the Feast of Weeks,” it came seven weeks or 50 days (the name Pentecost is from the Greek for 50th) after an offering of firstfruits of the smaller barley harvest presented during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (see Leviticus 23:4-22).
In a special ceremony the priest would lift up two loaves of bread before God as an offering. The offering recognized God as the One who blessed Israel and gave the people the fruit of the harvest. It was a great festival of both hope and joy.
According to Jewish tradition this was also the same day that God had given Israel the Ten Commandments. But the Israelites did not have God’s Holy Spirit in them, so they failed to obey the immutable spiritual laws God had given them.
In the New Testament, we see a deeper and more profound parallel. Jesus Himself was the first of the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20-23), represented by the waved barley sheaf during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And His followers of this age are represented by the firstfruits of the harvest at Pentecost, a spiritual harvest of humanity (compare James 1:18; Luke 10:1-2 and John 4:35).
Jesus in returning to heaven after His resurrection was not, He promised, going to leave His disciples as orphans (John 14:18). He had said that both He and the Father would come to them by and through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-23).
Before His ascension, He told them, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry [or wait] in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). That power is the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5). The Holy Spirit was given to the disciples on the day of Pentecost with the witness of miracles, as we read in Acts 2.
In that event, the Church of God suddenly came into being—with many more people also added. These were now the firstfruits of the people of God, the first part of God’s harvest. Through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit they, and we too, would now be able to truly overcome sin—obeying the commandments as God desires. And through that same power, God’s Church would take the gospel to the entire world—looking toward more people being added and becoming part of God’s spiritual harvest today and anticipating the abundant harvest of the future.
