When I was young I lived on a farm. In that district there was a well dressed man who had a smaller holding. He watched all the TV programs, read all the magazines and followed them assiduously. He worked on the soil of his farm and he watched the rains come and invigorate the soil. He purchased the best fertiliser and bought the most expensive brand-new Massey tractor one could with which he worked the soil and its additives all over until it was black and gleaming. That ground was full of earth worms and manure; friable and solid yet crumbly. It was the best soil for miles around and all the other farmers nodded wisely and said, ‘he’s spent so much money on that soil, he’d better get the best crop anyone’s ever had here if he’s going to make any profit.’
The time came to harvest and all the farmers made a reasonable living from their sales. The season had been a fair one – rain at the right time and sunshine when needed. The well-dressed man never made a cent though. Despite all his hard work, he had never put a crop in – he hadn’t put the seed in. While other farmers had put theirs in during autumn and nervously watched the skies, that farmer had been off elsewhere on an expensive holiday, secure in the knowledge that he had the best soil in the district and in all the time and effort he’d spent developing the best soil.
If this sounds like a fable – a fiction; it is. Although I did grow up on a farm, I have never heard of a farmer preparing soil in good times, getting everything ready and then never bothering to grow crops. The story is plainly ridiculous.
God is NOT like the well-dressed farmer and we see this in the New Testament in Acts in the opening chapters about Pentecost, the establishment of the church. We have four superb gospels which give us the most wonderful account of Jesus coming and dying for us and then, in evidence that completely confounds all the critics of His life, rising from the dead and visiting so many of His followers.
But this is only the first stage. God doesn’t expend all of His riches and value in the death of His son, Jesus, to procrastinate like my fictional farmer who tilled only the soil. This is Jesus’ action with a purpose and we see the second stage, the outworking of this in the harvest of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, 50 days after Christmas.
I love the history recorded in Acts. Its author, the gentile physician, Luke, states that he is writing to his friend, Theophilus but I think he knows that his account will surely have a much wider audience. Acts is so carefully and methodically researched and has all the hallmarks of a history where the writer is present for some of the events and has carefully tested the evidence for accuracy when he wasn’t there at the other times. I think Luke sees the significance of what he is writing and so wants everyone to see the sublime actions of God, who has provided salvation but now plants the crop and sees the greatest harvest of all time as His word spreads like a bushfire across the Mediterranean world and for the first time to non-Jewish people. Having four gospels about Jesus is glorious! I secretly wish though we had more than one book of Acts and Luke had written so much more about the spread of the gospel because this news is so exciting and the events are simply astonishing! (As John says ‘the whole world couldn’t hold all the things about Jesus.’)
Tens of thousands of people become Christians! Now the apostles are raising people from the dead, (Acts 9) healing the blind and the paralysed (Acts 8); blinding and binding false prophets (Acts13); and God Himself appears in blinding light to convert Saul, the enemy of Jesus. (Acts9) Likewise the Holy Spirit commands evangelists where to travel and gives visions, ensuring that they speak in just the right way to their audience who immediately follow in obedience with changed lives (Acts8). All sorts of miracles are taking place, and some of them quite strange. On the day of Pentecost, suddenly people who have never known a foreigner’s language can speak fluently in it! What a reversal of God’s punishment when he condemns humanity at the Tower of Babel to lose all ability to communicate with each other in Genesis. Now the curse is replaced with a blessing! To cap all this, God gives permission for you and I, (represented by Cornelius) to become Christians and receive Him. (Acts10)
This is the best farmer ever! He has not neglected to plant the seed and He is carefully tending every aspect of the crop – each day in the fields, directing every aspect of the growth through the Holy Spirit. He is the God beyond the universe, yet He is completely consumed in our best interests. This is our God diligently at work and we can learn so much from close study of Acts, particularly in how the enemy (who must be driven to distraction) seeks to subvert what is happening. He drives some to oppose. In Acts 16, two apostles are beaten so severely it takes days for them to recover. Most concerning is undermining from followers: Simon the Magician (Acts 12) claims to follow Jesus when he sees the overwhelming power of the apostles yet then tries to purchase this gift from Peter who is horrified at his request. Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) undermine the unity of the church with their lies and deceit and are rooted out by God. In our day the Evil one is as active as ever, seeking to blot out every little fire where the gospel takes hold and ‘prowling like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.’ (1Peter 5:8).
Perhaps this is why we often hear so little from the book of Acts in recent times and why the anniversary of Pentecost often goes unremarked in contemporary churches. Yesterday I went to a gathering celebrating this in our district to play for their service. As an elder Christian, Ann, remarked to me, this was the only church locally that she knew which was marking this event. I’m not sure why this is so. Every time I study Acts closely and consider the astonishing events that are recounted in it, I can’t help but be fired up by what I have read and long to see our community and churches marked with the same unity of purpose; encouraged by glorious news that another stranger has become our partner in God’s Kingdom. And what an encouragement it is to see when one who has had no knowledge of Christianity and has been bound by the curse of the Tower of Babel has now been blessed to speak a new language about Jesus.
Jesus spoke repeatedly about the harvest being ready. It still is. “Your Light” celebrates the work of the Spirit in this harvest in New Testament times but also reminds us that this work is not finished. With prayer, action and enthusiasm to act, bountiful harvests still await.