Audio Worship, 7/28/2024, "I Will Pour Out My Spirit" Joel 2.28-32

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1647

July 28, 2024

Joel 2.28-32          Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

 

“I Will Pour Out My Spirit”

 

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. 29Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. 30“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32And 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.

 

  • It Shall Come to Pass

 

The prophetic voice rings throughout the ages. The prophets spoke to their time and context and because it was from the Lord, that Word continued to speak all through the New Testament and that same Word has spoken generation after generation and will continue to speak beyond our time on this earth. That is the power of God’s Word, the power of the prophetic Word, and all through the power of God pouring out His Spirit upon His people. Joel is our second prophet in this series on the minor prophets. This might be the most familiar portion of the book of Joel and may be the most known passage through all the minor prophets. Christians are more familiar with Acts 2, the day of Pentecost when Peter preached the first sermon on that day. Peter quotes this passage in that sermon, just this one section which has become so well known because of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on that day.

The power of God’s promises is that we have seen many of those promises kept. Those promises were given in the future tense, a characteristic of promise(!), promises of what will come, true and reliable promises given by the only One who can truly keep every promise given. “It shall come to pass” is a promise of a different future. Joel’s prophecy is really dark and devastating at the beginning. Joel 1.4 is a sample of the judgment placed upon Israel, “What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.” I did not even know there were that many types of locusts! God’s judgment comes with clarity and the destruction is massive, but with that judgment in Joel comes the call to repent, to return to the Lord. Joel 2.13, “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.” This is the character of God – gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. These adjectives are first listed in Exodus 34.6. I would encourage you to look up that verse and see the list. It is used multiple times through the Old Testament and Joel quotes them here because it is only because of God’s character and attributes that He can give these Words to Joel, “It shall come to pass.” It will, no doubt, come. Whatever it is, whatever God has promised, it shall come to pass. We trust this on a daily basis because we are not only encouraged by the promises that have already been fulfilled, but we are living faithfully for promises that have yet to come to fruition. It shall come to pass, Jesus will come again, God will judge the world, the church will be triumphant, there is a promised end to the way things are today.

Another prophet speaks of that end, Isaiah 65.17, ““For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”

Another prophet sees a vision, John in Revelation 21.1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”

It shall come to pass. We can trust that promise.

 

 

  • I Will Pour Out My Spirit

 

The promise that shall come to pass in this particular instance, through Joel, is that of the pouring out God’s Spirit. 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. 29Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. It is the Spirit who gives life, the Spirit who brings order to chaos, the Spirit who gathers God’s people into His kingdom, the Spirit who transfers us from darkness into light, the Spirit who breathes renewal and reconciliation and forgiveness and hope. That Spirit has come, in Acts 2 and in John 20.22, “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” There are others who received the Spirit in the book of Acts like in chapter 8, “14Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” These are times when we might quote Joel 2 as God pours out His Spirit on believers. He has done so on you and me and on all who, through the generations, have believed in Him as Savior and Lord.

 

In one section of the EPC essentials of faith we read: The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to our hearts. He convicts us of sin and draws us to the Savior. Indwelling our hearts, He gives new life to us, empowers and imparts gifts to us for service. He instructs and guides us into all truth, and seals us for the day of redemption.

 

From the Westminster Confession of Faith: The Holy Spirit, whom the Father is ever willing to give to all who ask Him, is the only efficient agent in the application of redemption. He regenerates men by His grace, convicts them of sin, moves them to repentance, and persuades and enables them to embrace Jesus Christ by faith. He unites all believers to Christ, dwells in them as their comforter and sanctifier, gives to them the spirit of adoption and prayer, and performs all these gracious offices by which they are sanctified and sealed unto to the day of redemption.

In our essentials and in the confession we see what the Bible teaches us about the Holy Spirit. He indwells our hearts, regenerates us by His grace, moves us to repentance, sanctifies us. This is the work of God’s Holy Spirit that He has poured out on us, poured into us, anointed and blessed us with His indwelling Spirit.

 

 

  • Power In the Name

 

The second use of “it shall come to pass” reveals “that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It is here that we see the power of the name of Jesus Christ. But Joel does not reveal that name, that name is revealed much later. The name is revealed in the birth narrative when Joseph is told through a dream that you shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1.21). Paul would later write about the name in Philippians 2.9-11, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” This is the name that is above every name and all who call on that name shall be saved. This was the promise from Joel the prophet. It is the promise of God who gives us the faith to call on the name, because God has called those who shall call on Him as Joel reveals at the end of verse 28, “those whom the Lord calls.” This is part of what reformed people believe, that God calls us so that we might call on the name. We love God because God first loved us (1 John 4.19).

So we bless the name, we call on the name, we pray in the name, for the name itself has power because the name has meaning in and through the person of Jesus Christ. It is not just naming, not just saying the name, but professing faith in Jesus Christ and in the name. Naming someone or something has power in and of itself. I take part of that understanding from the times I’ve spent with people who have a serious health issue and they do not yet know what the problem is. The tests have been done and they are awaiting answers. It is in that unknown period when people are most distraught. Then comes the answers and even when the answer might be extremely troubling, like cancer, it still brings something of a relief in being named. Now we know what we are dealing with. It has a name. We can handle knowing the name because we have been brought out of the despair of the unknown.

To know the name Jesus is to know the person, the power, the meaning, the salvation, and all that comes with the name. There is power in the name by the power of the person, the Son of God.

 

 

  • Preaching Joel

 

Let’s read Acts 2.14-21, “But Peter, standing with the eleven, 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. 15For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17“‘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; 18even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 19And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Peter preached these words on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 and attributed the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples as a sign of what God promised to do and a sign of the new covenant in Jesus Christ. Joel offers other signs that were not seen or reported in Acts 2, things like the wonders in the heavens, the sun turned to darkness the moon to blood. This is why I would suggest that Joel 2 indeed was fulfilled in Acts 2, but that Joel 2 also is fulfilled in other times and places. But much if not all of Joel points us to Jesus Christ. We can call it a foreshadowing or an echo, whatever we call it, we can see it from Joel to Jesus.

Hear and see these examples, basically, the New Testament preaching Joel:

1) The poetry of Joel is an expression of the kingdom of God come in Jesus Christ. Joel 2.27, “You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.” Jesus came to be in the midst of Israel, in the midst of all of us, as it is written in His name Emmanuel, God with us (Matthew 1.23).

In His taking our sin upon Himself on the cross He has taken away our shame. Paul writes in Romans 10.11, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Joel speaks to both of these topics, His presence and taking away our shame.

 

2) The poetry of Joel points us to the call of repentance. Joel 2.12-13, “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.” It was the first sermon of Christ, Repent for the kingdom is here (Matthew 4.17).

 

3) The poetry of Joel is an expression of the restoration of all things in Jesus Christ. Joel 3.1, “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem...” In the same call to repentance Jesus came preaching the presence of the kingdom of heaven (again, Matthew 4.17).

The kingdom of heaven is the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem. It is the restoration for all who believe.

 

4) The poetry of Joel is an expression of the coming of the Spirit upon His people. Joel 2.28, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;” (See Acts 2 above!)

 

The prophets point us to Jesus Christ. They spoke a message from God to God’s people and that message carried on in the Words of Christ. These Words speak to us today, ancient Words with power and meaning to transform lives, to transform kingdoms, nations, systems, and everything, even the heavens and the earth. Is not that cool? Is not that a powerful message that we can take to the neighborhood, the store, the gas station, the community? We can speak these Words to human power, to authorities, to cosmic powers, because these Words of God still speak to the world today and they speak with power. Trust in these enduring Words for they will not pass away (Matthew 24.35). We study and engage these Words in the hope that they will become ingrained in us that we might walk more faithfully in what we believe will come to pass, in the Spirit poured out in us, and in the power of the name, that name and that person Jesus Christ. Amen.