The Day of the Lord - Joel 3

3:11Help us to imitate His love for the Word as He imitates Christ and help us come to the Word even tonight, seek to learn from it. Help us grow. Help us apply and understand these things. In Jesus' name, amen. I was reminded this week of a story about James Dean. I don't know if many of the young adults remember who James Dean is, but in 1955, he had skyrocketed into popularity and was in several movies that, or two movies, that were released in 1955, Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden. East of Eden was 1955. And then The Giants was 1956. And so he is becoming super famous, especially with the youth. You know, he was super cool. He's like the coolest guy who's ever lived in terms of, you know, like cool, like James Dean. I don't know how else to say it.

4:20But that year, 1955, when he was skyrocketing, he passed away. He was only 24 years old. And he had a reputation for loving to. Race cars like on a racetrack, but he also apparently drove too fast sometimes on the highway. And it seems like that's what he was doing, and he died in a car crash. He lost control. But a lot of people know that story, but I don't know if you've heard this, that two weeks before he died in a car crash, he actually filmed a public service announcement. Have you guys heard this before? He filmed a public service announcement that was going to be televised, and he was speaking to the youth of America. And this was in the same month he died. He died at the end of September in 1955. The same month that he died, towards the beginning of that month, he filmed a public service announcement. You can watch it on YouTube if you're interested, where he tries to warn the youth of America not to drive so fast.

5:23And, you know, you could tell he doesn't really want to be there. He's kind of too cool for school. But he's going along with it and telling people not to drive so fast. And at the end, he's supposed to say something like, the next life you save could be yours. And he ad-libs, because he's super cool. And he says, the next life you save could be mine. And then he laughs and walks out the door. And then that's how he dies, like two weeks later. Well, also, not only that, but two hours before he died in a car crash, he got a speeding ticket for going too fast. So I just. Bring this up to say that he had warned himself in all of America, and then two hours before he died in this car crash, he got a warning, a ticket, a speeding ticket, and then he didn't obey those warnings. He still went fast and died on the highway. And in our text, in Joel, they did the exact opposite, right? They received this warning of the locusts. God had told them ahead of time that they need to pay attention to locusts and drought and disease because God is using those as a consequence for when they disobey. You know, when cities in America, when they experience natural disaster, we don't automatically think, oh, it must have been because they did something wicked, right? But God had this arrangement with his covenant people in the Old Testament that that is how it was. That if they were obeying the law, God would bless them. If they were not, then they would receive these curses and things would not go well for them.

6:59Some of those curses were locust and drought, which they seem to be experiencing at the same time in the book of Joel. These locusts have come, they've eaten everything, and everything is dried up. And so, Joel, the prophet Joel, the word of the Lord through the prophet Joel, is calling the people to repent and turn from their ways, all the wickedness that they're doing, in order to respond to this consequence. As an update on the locusts, I don't know if any of you have begun to track the stories of the locusts. It's still not over. It's getting worse. So last week, if you weren't here last week, there's this gigantic locust plague right now in Africa that has spread over into Asia. And I'll read this from the article I read last week. In Kenya, police facing the country's largest outbreak in 70 years have fired machine guns and tear gas into swarms of desert locusts in an effort to prevent them from consuming fields. Ethiopia is spraying pesticide from small planes to displace hovering throngs. Those swarms have forced passenger jets in the region to make emergency landing. In Eritrea and Djibouti, teams in the hundreds are chasing swarms with handheld pesticide pumps. You can just picture that scene, right? You know, like the pesticide, you know, you pump them and then you run around and spray them. And you can picture like hundreds of these people just chasing down the swarms of locusts and trying to get them. And truck-mounted sprayers. So they're really trying to fight these, and it's not going well. The locusts are just continuing to expand. Last week, this was from February 1st. In the middle of last week, two weeks ago, we read about how they've reached China, and China's not too worried because they've got modern technology and ducks. They unleashed 100,000 ducks. Well, this week, two more articles came out about it in the newspaper just as an update.

9:00The first one was maybe politicized. I don't remember what section it is. It was in the opinion section, okay? So maybe politicized. But it's all about how these countries, because of the pressure of the UN to get rid of pesticides, because they're harmful to nature, these countries have listened to them to be more green. And really, they probably should have been harmful to one part of nature, right? The locusts. Okay? So they had stopped using these pesticides, and that's part of the reason for this gigantic outbreak, especially in Kenya. Well, yesterday, another article came out. I just want to read to you a little bit from it, okay? Across Somalia, desert locusts in a swarm the size of Manhattan have destroyed a swath of farmland as big as Oklahoma. That's in one country, Somalia. In Kenya, billions strong clouds of the insects have eaten through 800 square miles of crops and survived a week-long spraying campaign. In parts of Pakistan, the pests have eaten 40% of the harvest, forcing the government to declare a national emergency. It's the worst plague in generations. Billions and billions of the insects feared by many of the world's ancient civilizations, like the one we're reading about today.

10:26They're 20 million people at risk of starvation. Africa alone could rise to 33 million. This article also says one more kind of well anyways one more thing that they've said is that they so apparently in 1960 they made a desert locusts control organization but that most of these countries these countries like band together to control the locusts and months most of these countries stopped paying their dues in 1980 and that when this locust plague start they started they all scrambled to to pay all of their dues in arrears so that they could get this equipment to fight the locusts but it was too late so just a crazy story and experts warned that there could be another surge in the locust population next month so something to keep an eye on of just how devastating these can be that even in our world today these are causing millions and millions of people to starve because they're they're swarming all over the land and so you can imagine how terrible it would have been back then in tiny little israel that you have these locusts come on top of a drought and eat everything all the plants you need for sustenance and all the plants you need for or you want for enjoyment they've taken everything and the word of the lord through joel comes and and god says pay attention because you need to repent and it Chapter 2, he begins to describe the day of the Lord. We saw this last week, that he begins to describe the day of the Lord, saying, if you don't repent, it could get a lot worse. Repent now, for the day of the Lord is near. Now, remember what I said about Joel, that he's likely one of the very first prophets, the writing prophets. So he's really the first one to be talking about this day of the Lord, either Joel or Obadiah. They're kind of at the same time, and it's hard to know which one comes first. But they both talk about the day of the Lord. And of course, it'll get picked up by Isaiah and Ezekiel and almost every minor prophet. They'll all start using that phrase, the day of the Lord, to refer to a day of judgment. But this is one of the first times the people of Israel were hearing about it. And God was speaking to them, saying, Repent now. You've seen these locusts, but I can take this away. Rend your hearts and come to me. I'll forgive you. And we saw last week that they seemed to have come to him and repented, and he forgave them. In chapter 2, what was being threatened was another invasion by the Lord's army. And I'll let you know, Pastor Thomas and I have slightly different positions on this. I take it to be another worse invasion of locusts that's going to correspond with the day of the Lord, an end times invasion of locusts. Maybe the invasion of locusts we see in Revelation 9 that has the scorpion stingers. I don't know if you remember those.

13:39And I think that throughout the passage in chapter 2, he's comparing those locusts to a human army and saying that it's like an army. They're scaling all the walls. They're coming through. Thomas thinks the flip that it's a human army the whole time in that beginning part of chapter 2, and he's comparing them to the locusts. So it's a little tricky there. I told you it was a little tricky last week, and Thomas and I landed in a little bit different place. But either way, what happens is that the Lord threatens that if they don't repent, they need to repent. And if they don't repent, it's going to get a lot worse. The day of the Lord is near. And so they need to repent before this new invasion comes. And they do repent, and the invasion doesn't come. Okay? And so they're not put to shame. They call on the Lord, just like he told them to in Solomon's day and in Deuteronomy. They call on the Lord, and God listens right away, and he speaks to them and says that he is having pity on them. He's going to restore to them what the locusts have taken and fill them with joy. Let them be glad and rejoice. For the Lord has done great things. So we stopped last week at the end of chapter 2, verse 27. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is none else in my. People shall never be put to shame. And so I think that he has been called upon by the people, and now they can see that we never need to be put to shame. When we call, God will answer. And he is the God who dwells in Zion. He's dwelling in the temple. Remember, this is a hundred years after Solomon. And so he is the God who dwells in Zion. They don't need to be ashamed. And if they call on them, he will answer, just like he said he would. And if they repent and come to them, he will restore them.

15:35Today, we're going to start in verse 28. Chapter 2, verse 28. This is actually where chapter 3 starts in Hebrew of Joel. So chapter 2, verse 28 is a new chapter in the Hebrew. And then chapter 4 will start where chapter 3 starts in our Bibles. Not that the divisions matter, anyways, but chapter 2, verse 28. 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.

16:31And 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.

17:04Does that passage sound familiar to anybody? Yeah, what does it remind you of? Pentecost, right? Actually, Peter stands up at Pentecost and quotes this passage. We're going to go there later. But before we do, let's see if we can determine what this passage is saying in its context. It seems to be in response to the fact that these locusts came, the drought came, God said, repent. They did repent. God said, repent, for the day of the Lord is near. They did repent. And so God said, okay, I will have pity and bless. I'll take those locusts away. And it shall come to pass afterward that these things will happen. Okay, so do you see the logic there? So he's saying, you need to repent, or the day of the Lord is coming. They did repent. He's. So he says, okay, I'll bless you, and later the day of the Lord will come. Not now. Okay? So it shall come to pass afterward.

18:13When Peter quotes this, he changes the quote or adapts it just a little bit and says it shall come about in the latter days, in the end times. But here it says, 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. Now, I want you to think for just a moment, you can turn to Numbers 11 if you like, or just listen. But I want you to think for just a moment about how rare this was. To us, this sounds, I mean, we're past Pentecost. And so to us, this sounds like maybe something that could be pretty common. Why is it a big deal that the Spirit has been poured out on them? So back in Romans, or in Numbers, chapter 11.

19:27Verse 26. Now two men. Remained in the camp. One named Eldad, and the other named Medad. And a Spirit rested on them. So we don't get in the Old Testament, we don't hear a lot of times of the Spirit resting on somebody or the Spirit doing something. There's a few times in Genesis, you remember the Spirit that was hovering over the waters before creation. You have a couple accounts like that. But it's not too often that we hear about the Spirit coming and resting on somebody. Here is one of those times. The Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent. So they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.

20:14Amber Alert. And Joshua, the son of none, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, My Lord Moses, stop them. Okay, so Moses is the one that's supposed to be prophesying. These other two guys, Eldad and Medad, the Spirit rests on them and they start to prophesy. And Joshua, who's Moses' protege, he says, stop them. They can't do that. What do they think they're doing? But Moses, verse 29, said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them. And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. And so Moses doesn't feel the The same urgency that Joshua does. He's fine if the Spirit of the Lord rests on them. He doesn't want to go and stop it. And so you just get the picture that this is something uncommon, that this was a shock to Joshua, that these other two guys are doing what Moses normally does and able to prophesy. In fact, the same terminology is used in the early accounts of Saul's life: that Saul was the Spirit came to rest on Saul, right, before he was king Saul. The Spirit came to rest on him and he prophesied. And that made the people freak out about it. They had this saying about it. It says it twice in Scripture. Is Saul among the prophets? That's what the people used to say. And so this was not a common thing. This was really rare.

21:49It seems to be true of David as well, that the Spirit rested on him and he could prophesy. And maybe that's what he was frightened of in Psalm 51 after he sinned when he says, Take not your spirit from me. So all of that to say, we just don't get a lot of language in the Old Testament before Joel, especially. I listened to you almost every time this happens. That the Spirit comes and rests on somebody and they prophesy. This is a really rare thing. And yet, Joel says, it shall come about that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions, even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my spirit. So this is a big reversal of the pattern that's going on over the course of the Old Testament. Instead of being something rare and isolated and infrequent, it's going to all of a sudden be poured out. The Spirit is going to be poured out on all flesh. And all kinds of people are going to prophesy and dream dreams. Okay?

23:01But also, I will show wonders in the heavens and on 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. So he expands it even more. He doesn't just say the day of the Lord this time. He says the great and awesome day of the Lord. This time of wrath where the sun will be turned to darkness, the moon to blood. Verse 32, 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. So in this great day of judgment, the day of the Lord, the first thing you should think of if you find yourself in the day of the Lord is call upon the name of the Lord, right? Because he has said, I'm going to keep some people safe in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord. But this day of the Lord is going to have all kinds of signs around it. There's going to be crazy things happening in the heavens, wonders in heaven and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the great day of the Lord comes. So all of these things are happening in the heavens. And in addition to that, it seems like there is this massive outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and people are prophesying and dreaming dreams. Even women and old men and slaves, you know, everybody is experiencing this before the day of the Lord.

24:48Let's keep going. We're going to come back to this topic later. At the end, we're going to flip over to Acts and talk more about it. But I want to see more in this context. Chapter 3, verse 1. For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of my people and my heritage, Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it. Okay, so the people are being very sinful. They're even willing to sell. People, and God is saying that in the day of the Lord, there are going to be the signs of the Holy Spirit, there's going to be these signs in the heavens, and he's going to restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem. Verse 2: He's going to gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. This, and when he's about to say it in a few verses, are the only two times we hear about the valley of Jehoshaphat. We don't really know where it is.

26:00Most people think it's maybe the valley by Megiddo, where Arm Mageddon is going to happen, or maybe the valley to the east of Jerusalem, the valley in between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. And that's where this valley of decision, the valley of Jehoshaphat, which means the Lord will judge. And he says, And I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of my people and my heritage, Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations, and have divided up my land, and have cast slots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine, and have drunk it. Okay? So since the nations have been so wicked throughout Israel's history to Israel and scattered them across the nations, then when the day of the Lord comes, he's going to restore their fortunes and bring them back.

26:51This is going to be the day in those days when those big signs are going on in the heavens and the Spirit has been poured out. Verse 4. What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you're paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. For you have taken my silver and gold and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabaeans, to a nation far away. For the Lord has spoken. Okay, so here he's talking directly to these nations that are right around Israel. You have Tyre and Sidon right above it, and then Philistia is kind of crammed in between Israel and the coast down on the southern side. But these nations that are right around Israel are treating Israel very poorly in this time. They're even selling some of their people into slavery to even the Greeks. And at this time, remember, the Greeks aren't the big world empire. They're just some coastal peoples, the Ionians. And so the point is that they're very far away. So they've sold them to someone very far away. They've been unkind to God's people. And God is saying in response, whenever I'm judging all these nations, you better believe that I'm going to do it to you as well. And my people are going to sell you. Into slavery, and you're going to get what you deserve. Tyre and Sidon in Philistia. The young adults remember everything about Tyre and Sidon because we studied it a few months ago in the book of Ezekiel and the judgment that God specifically foretold about them and then fulfilled in history to the T.

28:55But let's keep going. Verse 9. Proclaim this among the nations. Consecrate for war. Stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. Okay, so he's just talked to some of the nations and said, okay, when the day of the Lord comes, you're going to get what's coming to you. You know, I see what you're doing right now to my people. You need to remember I'm the God of the universe, and I'm going to judge you for treating my people like that. But also, then he says he has a call to all the nations to come out to battle against Israel. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. Verse 10, beat your plowshares into swords. Normally we hear that backwards, right? You know, in a time of peace, there are beautiful passages in the scripture that talk about beating all of the weapons, the metal weapons, into plowshares or something because you don't need to fight. It's a time of safety. You can go till the soil with that metal. This is backwards. Verse 10, beat your plowshares. Into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am a warrior. Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord.

30:14Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Okay, so this seems to be a big end times battle, and he's saying, Let the whole earth gather all their forces and come to Israel, to this valley of Jehoshaphat, whichever valley it is in Israel. And he's saying, Let all these nations come, and the Lord is also going to show up with his mighty ones.

30:49Verse 13: Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. Israel. So these nations assemble themselves. They're called out, all of them, to come and fight against God's people. But the Lord is going to roar from Zion. He's going to meet them with his mighty ones. He's going to judge them. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in and tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. You can just picture that judgment, right? All these hordes come to attack. And it's like you're just mowing them down with the sickle, right? Because the judgment is so huge.

32:14Mowing them down with the sickle or treading on them like in a wine press. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. And then again, in verse 15, he talks about the sun and the moon being darkened and the stars withdrawing their shining, that these delights have gone out, these signs in the heavens in the day of the Lord. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. Verse 17, so you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. So after this battle, the Lord himself is Going to come and dwell in Zion, his holy mountain. And from that point forward, the nations aren't going to be able to just come and do whatever they want in the temple or around the city. After this big battle, it has been purified, and these nations, Israel's back on top, and these nations aren't able to come. Strangers aren't able to come and just pass through the city. Verse 18: And in that day, the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water. And a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the valley of Shetim. So not only has there been this giant political wind of this military wind where the Lord roars forth from Zion, we've just been studying a lot of these things in Ezekiel, that this big battle where the Lord wins and then sets up this kingdom, this temple, when everything is in a good time. You know, the mountains are dripping sweet wine, the hills are flowing with milk, all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water. That was an issue there. The stream beds there were super dependent on the rain. And so a lot of the time out of the year, they're just totally dry, like a dry creek, and they're all over the place in Israel. Well, all of those are going to be full of water. And not only that, but from the temple itself, we've also just studied this with the Yags, from the temple itself, from the house of the Lord, there's going to be a fountain that springs up so that there's this river that comes out of the temple. And this river is going to have so much water that it's going to water the whole valley of Shetim. So that's on the western side of the Jordan River, this part of the world that's always been arid for as long as anyone's ever seen it. And this river is going to spring out of the house of the Lord and flow and water that area so that it's got crops. We saw in, I don't even remember what book now, Malachi?

35:16No, it was Ezekiel. We studied with the Yags about how the Dead Sea is going to be changed, and that area is going to be filled with fresh water instead of the super salty water that's there that kills anything that would try and live in it. So all of these changes are happening. There's water everywhere. There's even water coming out of the temple, which has never happened before. Verse 19: Egypt shall become a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall be inhabited forever, in Jerusalem to all generations. I will avenge their blood. Blood I have not. Avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion. So he mentions a couple other people groups. He's already talked about Tyre and Sidon, Tyre and Sidon and Philistia getting judgment. Now he brings in Egypt, way down here in the top part of Africa, and Edom over here on the west side, their perpetual enemy, the descendants of Esau. So whenever the day of the Lord comes, when the signs happen in the sky, when the Spirit falls on the people, and there's this big battle, and all the armies come and attack the people, the Lord is going to roar forth from Zion, and then he's going to restore the fortunes of his people. And in the land, there's going to be these crops everywhere that are well watered. There's even going to be a river coming out of the house of the Lord.

36:46These other nations, because of the way they treated Judah in verse 19, because they have shed innocent blood in their land, these other nations, it's going to be the opposite, that they go into this drought and these terrible circumstances instead of Judah and Jerusalem. Verse 20, Judah shall be inhabited forever in Jerusalem to all generations. So after this time, there's never going to be a time where Judah and Jerusalem aren't inhabited. Verse 21, I will avenge their blood. Blood I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion. Some of your translations might have something different there. Does anybody have something different?

37:30Yeah. Sometimes it says pardon their blood guilt or something like that. I will forgive their sin, basically. But I think that that is what he's saying, that he will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, talking about to the other nations. That this is going to be a time where Israel is restored. The other nations are desolate, and it's because of the blood of God's people that they've spilt. And God is going to avenge that blood. Why? For the Lord dwells in Zion. That's the place where he lives. Okay, so we just went through that super quick, but it's because I wanted to get to Acts. But before we go there, let me just summarize, since we went so quickly through that, that the day of the Lord, and it seems to be that all of these things are together, that the day of the Lord is going to come with all these signs in the heavens and the Holy Spirit being poured out on all flesh, people prophesying left and right, this big battle happening that the Lord roars forth and then re-establishes his people in the land and blesses them and brings water even out of the temple and then dwells in Zion with his people forever.

38:48This is the first time we hear to such a great extent, the first time chronologically. I know in your Bible, in our Bibles, Isaiah and Ezekiel have come before Joel. But chronologically, Joel is before them. And this is the first time that we hear such detail all about this day of the Lord. And it's because this locust invasion came. The people needed to repent, for the day of the Lord was near. And God told them to repent, and they did repent.

39:23And so instead of it happening, instead of judgment happening on them, he said it's going to happen afterward. And then he tells them all about this day of the Lord, when the people of Israel will be restored, the nations around them won't be, and it'll be a glorious time since the Lord dwells in the house of the Lord. Any questions about that before we move on to Acts? All right, the hardest question to figure out about this passage is what is going on in Acts. All right, let's turn over there. Acts chapter 2.

40:14Acts chapter 2. God had told the disciples to go and wait because he was going, Jesus had told the disciples to go and wait because he was going to send the Spirit. They go and wait, and he sends the Spirit. Verse chapter 2, verse 1. 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.

40:55Okay, so I want you to pause right there for just a second. And if you had been paying attention to Scripture, if you knew the Old Testament forwards and backwards, you would have seen what we had seen: that these times where the Spirit is put on somebody are rare. They're far and few between. That's the right thing, right? Few and far between. I knew it didn't sound right. But they were just select individuals that the Spirit came on and prophesied. But we have Joel saying that someday this is going to happen to all flesh.

41:38Verse 5. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven, and at the sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered. Because each one was hearing them speak in his own language, and they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these speaking who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents. Of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pemphilia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? But others, mocking, said they are filled with new wine. Okay, so this is the morning time. Peter's going to make this clear in a few verses that it's about 9 a.m. in the morning. And the Spirit rushes down with a great sound and empowers all these people to speak in tongues.

42:45There were divided tongues of fire that rested on each one of them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And this wasn't an isolated one person. This wasn't just on an elite prophet of the people or something like that. Instead, this was on several people. We might not say all flesh, but we would say several people, in that there are a lot of people there who heard them speaking in their own language because of the way that they were speaking in tongues. Well, people heard this and asked what it meant, but others mocked and said they're just drunk. You know, that's why they're. Saying all these crazy things as they're just drunk. So, Peter, verse 14, standing with the 11, lifted up his voice and addressed them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. That's what we've just been studying. Okay, and then he quotes Joel. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my male servants and female servants. In those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Okay, so let's stop there. So Peter is going to give them a sermon about Jesus. They crucified Jesus. And he's saying, Jesus. Jesus is the Lord. And I think if you read this passage, you would come away with that understanding that he is saying Jesus is the Lord that they need to call upon for salvation. But before he goes there, he quotes this prophet Joel. And he doesn't just quote the part about the Spirit. Did you notice that? He also quotes the part about all the stuff happening in the heavens, right? I will show wonders in the heavens above, signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, a great and magnificent day. Okay, so I don't know if you see this, but do you see the tension that's there?

45:47Because it seems like Joel in his context is talking about this time when the Spirit of the Lord is poured out on all flesh before the great day of the Lord. And there's all these other things that are going to happen on the great day of the Lord. Peter quotes that text, including a lot of those other things that, at least as far as we have it in the text, aren't happening around them. The sky being darkened and things like that. There is fire mentioned. The tongues of fire that appear on them could be one of the signs on the earth below, blood and fire.

46:24But there's also blood and vapor of smoke. The moon turns to blood. Is turned to darkness, all of these other things. And then Peter also repeats the great, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. So there's a tension there, right? Because the day of the Lord wasn't there. This Spirit came. But then these other signs that accompany the day of the Lord. And so the question is: when Peter says, this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel, what is he saying?

47:01Is Peter saying, everybody watch out, it's the day of the Lord now. And he got it wrong? We wouldn't say that, right? That he got it wrong. But there are three other options. So let me tell you the three options that are all pretty common. The first option is that maybe those things that were spoken of by Joel and then repeated by Peter, the darkening of the sky and all of those other big signs, maybe they were something spiritual or maybe they were something exaggerated. Maybe he's doing something with wordplay. Or maybe it's two times got crammed together and it's talking about when it went dark when Jesus was on the cross or something like that. So they would look at all those events and maybe say that this is all fulfilled. The prophecy of Joel is all fulfilled in this account that we just read in Acts. Acts 2 of Pentecost. It doesn't have to be, but usually that's tied with the group that believes in covenant theology, if you know what that is. But it actually has no firm connection to that. You could have covenant theologians that believe another option, and you could have other theologians that believe this option, but usually they go together often. So that everything is being fulfilled in Acts 2 that was prophesied by Joel. Okay? First option. Second option is probably the most common in our circles, is, and this is Pastor Tom's position, is that what happened is that the Spirit came and inaugurated the last days. That we see that his Spirit gets poured out on all flesh. And yes, it's just a few people right now. But in a couple chapters in Acts, we're going to hear about another group that the Spirit gets poured out on. And then we're going to hear about another group that the Spirit gets poured out, even Gentiles. And so this is the Spirit being poured out on all flesh. It's accompanied by some signs. And that shows us that now the day of the Lord is any time. It could happen at any time. The rest of these signs are still waiting for the great and magnificent day, the dark day. And we're still waiting for those. But before that has come, the Spirit has been poured out. Okay? So that's the second option. So our first option is that all of this has been fulfilled. The second option is that. The part about the Spirit has been fulfilled, just like Joel said it. And then the rest of the part about the day of the Lord is still waiting to be fulfilled. And Peter is trying to get them to see, okay, this could be any moment now. God said the Spirit was fulfilled. Now it could be the day of the Lord. It could come in any moment. There's a third option. This is the one that I lean towards, although these are very close.

49:53The third option is: I think that when he says, this is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel, I think he's saying, this is the Holy Spirit. Instead of saying, verse 16, instead of saying something like verse 16, these are the events that were uttered through the prophet Joel, that all of this is fulfilling. He doesn't say this was in order to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Joel, these events. I think Peter is trying to say, Jesus just sent the Spirit. Okay? And I think that if you're thinking like a Jewish person and you're thinking of all the separate occurrences of the Spirit being sent, and they are few and far between, but you have this one prophecy about that someday in the day of the Lord, in the great magnificent day, the Spirit's going to come, and here are the things that the Spirit is going to do. He's going to cause all kinds of people to prophesy.

51:00kinds of people to speak out for the Lord. I think that would stand out in your head. You know, that's not normal. In the future, someday, there's going to be a day where all flesh prophesies. And so I think when Peter sees this and he sees all these people speaking in tongues, I think he's thinking these are the kinds of things that the Spirit of the Lord does. And so when he sees it, he says, this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. This is the Holy Spirit. And I think his point in saying that is, and then he quotes Joel to talk about the day of the Lord and say, this is what it looks like when the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out on all the people. But I think that Jesus had told them, look, you go and wait because I'm going to pour out the Spirit on my, I'm going to send the Spirit. Well, how would they know what that would look like? I think the only place that they could go are the prophets or someone like Joel who said, this is what it's going to look like when the Spirit comes. And so I think Peter, when he sees this going on, he stands up and says, let me be clear to everybody. Nobody's drunk here. It's 9 a.m. in the morning. This is the Holy Spirit.

52:16Peter will also quote a few Psalms in this chapter. I wish we had time to read the entire chapter. Look down, verse 30 of Acts 2. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw, this is David, and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

53:11For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, sit in my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. We'll stop there for right now. But I think his point is Jesus said he's going to send the Spirit. And when Peter sees these things, he stands up in front of everybody and says, yes, this Jesus you crucified, but what just happened, this is the Holy Spirit. And so now you know for sure that this man that you crucified, That he is the Lord and he is Christ. And later he's going to say, call upon the name of the Lord, just like Joel has. I think he has the same message. So we really need to wrap this up. Sorry, I'm just going all over the place. But the three options there. All the events that are prophesied in Joel, that early part of Joel, or I guess the last part of Joel, chapter 2, could be fulfilled in Acts. Or it could be that God sent the Spirit, and the rest of the things of the day of the Lord are still going to come in the day of the Lord. Or a third option is instead of saying this is the fulfillment of that prophecy, instead he's saying, this is that Holy Spirit that Joel taught us about. This is what's happening. The Spirit has come, and you know who sent him? It was the man who you crucified. And so now you can know for sure that he is the Lord and the Christ. So something for you to ponder. Really, these two are very similar.

55:00Both of these positions would say that the great day of the Lord is still coming. It's still waiting for us when we'll see all these signs in the heavens and need to call on the name of the Lord. And so if you are like the people in Joel's day that hear the words of the prophet Joel, the word of the Lord through the prophet Joel about their sin, that they need to repent and they're cut to the heart about it, and they do repent, and God relents and says, okay, here's what the day of the Lord is going to be like, but it's not going to come till late. Now, or if you're like the people who heard Peter preach and they were cut to the heart because they realized that they had crucified this one who sent the Spirit and was prophesied about by David, if you're cut to the heart like them, the answer in both passages is the same: that you call upon that Lord to be saved. And he will. He will relent.

55:54And so I think the message, the attitude that we can take from both of these, is that the wicked in the world will receive terrifying judgment. But those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And that we need to repent and come to the Lord. And this Jesus that they crucified is the very one that we need to come to and call upon and receive salvation from. All right? Any questions before we close?

56:34Let me say one more quick thing. If you're a visitor here last week and this week, or something like that, and you've been hearing on Sunday night these stories from the Old Testament about God's judgment coming and the need to repent, I just want to let you know that you might not have the whole story. The rest of the story is that we do have Jesus Christ who came, and that all of us who place our faith in him. And because he died on the cross and paid for our sins, that all of us who do come to him and ask for forgiveness from God, God will forgive us. That's what he says. Call on the name of the Lord. We too can repent from our sins and turn in faith to the Lord. And because of that payment on the cross, because he suffered under the wrath of God, we can find full forgiveness. There will be a terrifying day of judgment where the Lord judges all people. That is coming. Joel talked about it, and the New Testament talks about it.

57:38But any of us who call upon the name of the Lord, who take shelter in the Lord, and ask for forgiveness because of the price he paid on the cross, can be forgiven. Let's pray. God, I pray that you would let us have that humble attitude like the people in Joel's day who repented. I pray that you would help us rend our hearts and not our garments, that you would cut us to the core and convict us of our sin. And rather than running from you or pretending like we can hide, or even worse, flaunting our sin out in the open.

58:26I pray that instead of either of those, we see our sin, we are. convicted and the only place we run is straight to you. Jesus Christ did come just as was foretold and he died on the cross for our sins. I pray, Lord, that we would repent, trust in Christ's sacrifice, and call upon your name. We thank you, God, that you have given us such great promises that we'll be saved from the wrath to come. I pray that we would lean on those and trust in you. In Jesus' name, amen.

59:15You're dismissed.