09/28/2023 – Joy is in the Harvest
Acts 2: 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one lace. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
A wonderful thing about the day of Pentecost is that EVERYONE was filled with the Holy Spirit. The fullness of the Spirit does not refer only to one person, but to the whole body of Christ. Spiritual growth is not only individual, but also corporate.
An essential element of the beauty of any body is symmetry. The normal growth of a body must be proportional. Like growth, the fruit must also be produced collectively and uniformly. A harvest, by definition, is not limited to a few plants of the same variety.
Many times, we seek our spiritual growth without caring much about that of others. But Christ uses the harvest analogy to refer to the redeemed ready to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and the fruit of the Spirit in the redeemed.
The schoolyard where I studied elementary school in Barranquilla, Colombia, was full of fruit trees. These trees did not bear fruit most of the year. But when it came time for the harvest, they all produced at once, and they did so abundantly that they seemed to throw their delicious mangoes at us aggressively. The handles rolled thunderously through the ceilings of the classrooms for anyone who wanted to enjoy them.
The fruit is produced primarily at the time of harvest. This time is like a celebration in which all plants of the same genus produce fruit in abundance. On the day of Pentecost, they were all unanimous, together. This festival was celebrated precisely at the time of the wheat harvest. Let us seek the fullness of God’s Spirit, not only for ourselves, but for all of us in the church. There’s the joy: in the harvest.