The Shaking of Nations - A Harvest Tsunami Is On Its Way....

After making this statement, Jesus proceeded to characterize

the harvesting work of the church as having two parts: “harvest

sowing” and “harvest reaping” ( John 4:36-38). God sends His

people to speak into the lives of individuals and nations (the

sowing), with the hope of them believing His message,

responding to it, and thereby finding eternal life (the reaping).

Everything Jesus did — the calling and preparing of His

disciples, His teachings, His signs and wonders, and the

sending of the Holy Spirit upon His church -- was for the

express purpose of saving lost humanity (Mark 16:15-20; Acts

1:8).

In Matt. 9:38, Jesus describes God the Father as the “Lord of

the harvest.” The harvest is His focus. It must be our focus, too.

The Meaning of Pentecost

It is no accident that the Jewish Feast of Pentecost was when

the church was commissioned and empowered to witness.

Pentecost means “50 days,” a reference to the bringing in of

the “first fruits” of the nation's agricultural harvest 50 days after

the Feast of Passover (Deut. 16:9-11). Late in autumn came

another festival, the Feast of Tabernacles, to commemorate

Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness and also to celebrate

bringing in the final harvest (Lev. 23:40-43).