Pentecost Joel 2:28-32a
May 15, 2016
During the final days of a sale, businesses often put out big display ads in newspapers and on TV to sparkinterest for last-minute bargain hunters. They do everything they can afford to get the message out to as many people as possible so no one misses out on the deals.
If you and I had been in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost around 30 A.D. we would have witnessed the ad of a lifetime as the Holy Spirit camein a special way to some early believers and announced the deal of a lifetime: the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life to all people. That day themembership in the church swelled by 3,000 as multitudes came to faith in Jesus as their Savior.God had poured out his Spirit on them through the preaching of the gospel, just as he had foretold through his prophet, Joel, long ago.
The event that ushered in the age of world-wide gospel proclamation was unprecedented in history and has not been repeated since. It was God’s signal that the last days of earth’s story, the last days of God’s patience and mercy, are upon us. The present heavens and earth are going out of business. The Lord will close shop forever on his generous offer – his incredible,undeserved gift – of pardon and peace to all sinners.
As you and I read this prophecy about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, written several centuries before that amazing Pentecost Sunday, and read its fulfillment in Acts 2, it’s very clear: “WE ARE IN THE LAST DAYS”
- God has poured out the promised Holy Spirit
Before I say anything else, let’s answer a question that may be on someone’s mind today. Where was the Holy Spirit and what was he doing before that amazing day of Pentecost? The third person of the Trinity was doing what he always does. He was gathering his Church by bringing sinners to faith in Christ. Through the mouths and pens of his chosen prophets – men like Joel – he worked repentance in people’s hearts and created in them a longing for the coming promised Savior, who would pay the price for sin.
But Joel’s prophecy is especially amazing for this reason.Until God sent his Son to be a sin offering for all people, the Holy Spirit limited his work to one small chosen nation, the people of Israel. By God’s grace they held the treasure of the gospel as herevealed it to them through his Word. From their gene pool the Lord determined thatthe human body of the Savior would come. Christ would be born in their land, walk on their soil, and proclaim the good news within their borders. Remember what Jesus said to the Gentile woman who asked Jesus to heal her daughter? “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” When he sent out his disciples to make their first evangelism visits, he instructed them, “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.” Yet in the same breath he gave all kinds of clues about God’s world mission plan. Jesuswent on to heal that Gentile woman’s daughter. At a well on foreign soil in Samaria he introduced himself to as her Savior from sin. During his final week in Jerusalem before he was crucifiedsome Gentiles asked to see him and he told his disciples, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” The Spirit of the Lord was already spilling over to those outside of Israel from the Lord’s overflowing love for the world.
After Jesus rose from the deadhe erased all doubt and questions. “All authority has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…” When he later gathered his disciples to witness his ascension into heaven, hepromised them that he would open the floodgates of heaven so the saving message would spill out over the entire world, beginning with them.“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” He would“pour out [his] Spirit upon all people….and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Here’s what had changed. By paying the price for sin, Jesus destroyed Satan’s iron grip on the souls of all sinners. Jesus gave his disciples a foretaste that victory before he wentto the cross when he told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.”Later John would write about it in Revelation, “He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore.” On the cross Jesus bound the Strong Man. Satan’s power was crushed. Now the way was clear for the good news to go out into the world. Through that message God would pourout his Spirit on all people.And that’s why you and I are here listening to this message today.
Sometimes Christians get hung up on the dazzling display the Holy Spirit gave on Pentecost. “That’s how it’s supposed to be today. When God pours out his Spirit it’s gotta be spectacular, like speaking in other languages or some other supernatural display of the Holy Spirit’s power. You need an amazing experience to prove that you are a Christian.”But focusing on that is like recording a catchy TV ad on your VCR and playing it over and over again because you like the way it sounds but never going to get the deal it’s advertising. The Holy Spirit’s work alwaysputs the focus on Jesus, not himself. The real evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work is when an unbeliever is able to turn to Jesus and in faith declare, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” and say, “Jesus is Lord” and sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
This is the point of Joel’s prophecy:“Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dreamdreams; your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”In Old Testament times God chose certain men to be his prophets, his spokesmen. Sometimes the Holy Spirit would use visions and dreams to reveal his truths to those prophets. But Joel foretold something more far-reaching after Jesus came. Everyone who received the Holy Spirit would become one of his prophets! Men and women of all ages everywherewould see amazing things and say amazing things. Martin Luther summed it up in his explanation to the 3rd article: “The Holy Spirit has enlightened me with his gifts.” The Holy Spirit shows us that Jesus is our Savior.The promise of heaven and being with Jesus fills all our dreams.We have the living hope of our own resurrection from the dead. All of us, men, women, children are God’s prophets, his spokespersons, sent to share hisWord freely with one another and witheveryone, telling about the Savior who lived, died, and rose again to reconcile us to God.
Every time we confess our faith in the words of one of our creeds we announce the truth that God has poured out his Spirit upon all flesh. For instance, in the Nicene Creed we confess what the Bible says about Holy Spirit’s work: “We believe in one, holy, Christian and apostolic church; we acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins; and we look for resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” Christians all over the world joyfully believe those truths because God has poured out his promised Holy Spirit. And that is also a sign from God that we are now in the last days. The only thing left in God’s work of saving us from our sins is the Day when Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead and bring his time of grace to an end. We are in the last days.
2. The Day of Judgment is at hand
When God used his prophets of old to foretell coming events, sometimes itsounded like those events weregoing to comeimmediately after one another. So as far as Joel knew, the next thing after the Holy Spirit’s great outpouring would be the end of the world. He could not have known that the End would be thousands of years later. But then, we don’t know when it will be, either. Until then the only days that matter in our lives are THIS day and THAT day.
Peter’s sermon to the people of Jerusalem that first Pentecost morning was one of urgency.“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off…”he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Unending punishment in hell under the consuming wrath of God is far more horriblethan we could possibly imagine in this life.That is why, in amazing love, God suffered that punishment for us on the cross. That is why everyone needs to know Jesus so they can be saved. It is no coincidence that the harvest of souls began on Pentecost, the Jewish harvest festival. The people in Jerusalem were the firstfruits, and there was more where that came from. “The harvest is plentiful,” Jesus told his disciples. Some of that abundant harvest is here this morning.
But Jesus went on to say, “but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” God uses believers to pour out his Spirit on all flesh as we proclaim the good news about Jesus. We carry God’s “blank check” to the world. “Whoever believes in [Jesus] will not perish, but have eternal life.”
We are in the Last Days. The Day of Judgment is now 2,000 years closer than it was that Pentecost morning. God is still patiently carrying out his plan to pour out his Spirit upon all flesh. It’s the deal of a lifetime, and he wants no one to miss it. That says something about our priorities and our mission. Life is not about this passing world. It’s about being ready for the End of the world and everlasting life in heaven with Jesus. It’s about getting everyone else ready for the End, too. The blank check is in our hands. Today is the day of salvation. How will we share it today? Amen.