The commitment of the search-and-rescue teams has been outstanding. It has been encouraging that, among the first teams sent to this task, was a group from Greece (traditionally hostile to Turkey) and Israel (a Jewish nation sending a large team to a mostly Moslem country). Our earnest prayer is that there may yet be more survivors discovered and that relatives and friends (and survivors and the whole nation) will know real comfort as they live again.
The greatest need is that, in the midst of disaster, all of us (including the Turks) will turn to the Lord and cry out to him. The issue is more than the ethical integrity of certain builders in Turkey. We have a wider problem in the presumed self-sufficiency of our lives because of our great technological advances.
We ended last time with the promise of restoration, "I will give you back what you lost in the years when swarms of locusts ate your crops" (Joel 2.25a).
V. 28 brings us to the beginning of the passage quoted by Peter to explain what the Lord did at the first Christian Pentecost - "Afterwards I will pour out my Spirit on everyone: your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your old people will have dreams, and your young people will see visions. At that time I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, both men and women. I will give warnings of that day in the sky and on the earth; there will be bloodshed, fire, and clouds of smoke. The sun will be darkened, and the moon will turn red as blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. But all who ask the Lord for help will be saved. As the Lord has said, 'Some in Jerusalem will escape; those whom I choose will survive'. " (vv. 28-32)
This is still a fairly grim picture of the Day of the Lord. We miss the setting when we read it in Acts 2. The Spirit of God is first spoken of in Genesis 1.2 - "moving over the water" (GNB). The Spirit of God was given to a number of individuals, usually so that they could fulfil a special task from the Lord. For example, after Saul was anointed by Samuel, "the Spirit of God took control of him" (1 Sam. 10.9-13). Things went wrong in his life to the point where God rejected him as king. Being filled with the Spirit at that time didn't guarantee that he would remain faithful to the Lord. With David also, we are told that "the Spirit of the Lord took control of David and was with him from that day on" (1 Sam. 16.13). David, "a man after the Lord's own heart", served as king over Israel for many years. He too fell, but he was sensitive to that convicting work of the Holy Spirit which brought him to repentance.
A number of other people too… Listen to the account of Bezalel, one of the workers on the tabernacle - "God has filled him with his power and given him skill, ability, and understanding for every kind of artistic work, for planning skilful designs and working them in gold, silver and bronze; for cutting jewels to be set; for carving wood; and for every other kind of artistic work" (Ex. 35.31,32). See the footnote in Good News - "power or spirit". The Spirit was given to special people for particular tasks.
Here we have a different promise - "I will pour out my Spirit on everyone" (Joel 2.28). We rightly see that this was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. It wasn't fulfilled before the day of Pentecost. Why couldn't it be fulfilled before then? Because the perfect sacrifice for human sin had not been offered. So because of the work of Jesus Christ when he died for our sins on the cross, it is now possible for the doors of heaven to be "blown open", as someone has put it, and for the Spirit of God to come on all people - all because of that redemptive work of Jesus. There is a great deal said about this in Hebrews where two related words Greek meaning "once" or "once-for-all" occur eleven times. The "once-for-all" offering of Jesus Christ has done something so that the doors of heaven are blown open by the Spirit of God. The curtain hanging in the Temple to keep people away from the presence of God in the Most Holy Place was torn in half from top to bottom (Matt. 27.51). God is not a distant figure, remote from us. He has come close to us. As we read in Rev. 21.3 announces, "Now God's home is with human beings! He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God." Because the door of heaven is blown open.
In a special way at Pentecost we see the Spirit poured out on everyone. This doesn't mean that everyone became believers. Jesus had said that one of the ministries of the Spirit would be to "prove to the people of the world that they are wrong about sin and about what is right and about God's judgement" (Jn 16.8) - recognised better in the New International Version, "convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned" (vv. 8-11). The great conviction of sin that occurred on that occasion was because of the Holy Spirit was not just operating in the people who believed in Jesus.
We notice some of the special gifts that the Spirit would give - not just enabling someone to be king or priest or prophet, not just so that a person could do gold-work or silver-work or work with precious stones. In a new way, "your sons and daughters will proclaim my message." This reminds me of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31.31-34. "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant. The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. [Note this next part] None of them will have to teach his fellow-citizen to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. [And what is the basis of all this?] I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken." That is the basis of it all - because God forgives our sins and no longer remembers them. It is the basis of the new relationship in which people will have this direct knowledge of God. It will not just be that the prophet tells you about God - you will have within yourself the awareness of God.
And so, Joel says, "your sons and daughters will proclaim my message (literally 'prophesy'); your old people will have dreams, and your young people will see visions." Hebrew poetry often sets a similar thought or even a contrasting thought side by side. There is a richness we discover when we observe that kind of comparison.
Old people have dreams - it is way up there ahead and we probably won't be around for it to happen. Do you have dreams of what God is going to do? Young people see visions - they need to be pursued, they are a call to action to turn them into reality. What is the vision God is setting before you and that he may be calling on you, by the power of his Holy Spirit, to bring into reality?
We have warnings about what is going to happen in the natural world. Jesus himself warned us about such things - "There will be terrible earthquakes, famines, and plagues everywhere; there will be strange and terrifying things coming from the sky" (Lk. 21.11). Jesus, of course, made it clear that the occurrence of such an event is not a reflection on the goodness or otherwise of people in the area (Lk. 13.1-5).
There are physical manifestations in the natural world, but - "all who ask the Lord for help will be saved" (v. 32a). As the NIV puts it, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
That was the message on the day of Pentecost to all of those people. Listen to the words in which Peter spoke to the people. They were convicted by the Holy Spirit and asked "What shall we do, brothers?" And Peter said, "Each one of you must turn away from your sins and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven; and [because the door of heaven has been blown open] you will receive God's gift, the Holy Spirit. For God's promise was made to you and your children, and to all who are far away - all whom the Lord our God calls to himself" (Acts 2.37-39). That promise still holds true.
Sometimes we look at people and say, "There's no hope for him/her!" But that isn't how God looks at people. The invitation is open. Sometimes we can feel that there are people who have so hardened their hearts that they are near that stage that Jesus talked about - the sin against the Holy Spirit - they have so resisted the promptings of the Holy Spirit that they are no longer able to respond to the call of God's grace. But "all who call to the Lord for help will be saved." What does John 3.16 say? How did we learn it? "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "Whosoever" - the invitation and possibility is for all.
Joel chapter 3 looks a bit rugged, doesn't it? All the things that are going to happen.
The Lord is saying to them, "At that time I will restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem. I will gather all the nations and bring them to the Valley of Judgment. There I will judge them for all they have done to my people. They have scattered the Israelites in foreign countries and divided up Israel, my land. They threw dice to decide who would get the captives. They sold boys and girls into slavery to pay for prostitutes and wine" (vv. 1-3).
"The nations must get ready and come to the Valley of Judgment. There I, the Lord, will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. They are very wicked; cut them down like corn at harvest time; crush them like grapes are crushed in a full winepress until the wine runs over. Thousands and thousands are in the Valley of Judgment. It is there that the day of the Lord will soon come. The sun and the moon grow dark and the stars no longer shine" (vv. 12-15).
"The Valley of Judgment" is mentioned three times in these verses. Jesus himself spoke about judgment. Judgment is the backdrop to our understanding of God's grace. So often we have made human sin a very light thing. Of course, we live in the days when the gospel has been proclaimed to all nations. That affects how we look at a passage such as this. But we are reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew 25. Jesus painted a picture of the Last Judgment. The people of all nations are gathered before the Son of Man when he comes as King. He will be dividing them into two groups, just as a shepherd divides the sheep and the goats. One group will be commended - "Come, you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world..." (vv. 34ff). And there is another group to whom the King will say, "Away from me, you that are under God's curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels!..." (vv. 41ff). Jesus foretold blessing and judgment upon the nations. The basis would be what people have done to the Lord from the heart. That is why they are not particularly aware of having done or having omitted to do various acts of kindness.
There is blessing and judgment. It is not just between Israel and the nations. The nations themselves will be in that Valley of Judgment and will know the blessing or the judgment of God upon them for the way they have lived.
"There I will judge them for all they have done to my people" (Joel 3.2) - a similar thought to Matt. 25 where the nations are judged for what they have done to the Lord's people. The strongest and most direct reference in Jesus' words about "one of the least important brothers of mine" was really his disciples. We rightly use this also in reference to other people in need, but the primary reference is to the disciples. It is the same thought that we have in Joel 3 - "I will judge them for what they have done to my people."
And from v. 4 - "What are you trying to do to me, Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you trying to pay me back for something? If you are, I will quickly pay you back! You have taken my silver and gold and carried my rich treasures into your temples. You have taken the people of Judah and Jerusalem far from their own country and sold them to the Greeks. Now I am going to bring them out of the places to which you have sold them. [Again the promise of restoration] I will do to you what you have done to them [Here is another principle, expressed by Jesus, 'Do for others what you want them to do for you', Matt. 7.12]" (vv. 4-7).
"The Lord roars from Mount Zion; his voice thunders from Jerusalem; earth and sky tremble. But he will defend his people. Then, Israel, you will know that I am the Lord your God. I live on Zion, my sacred hill. Jerusalem will be a sacred city; foreigners will never conquer it again. At that time the mountains will be covered with vineyards, and cattle will be found on every hill; there will be plenty of water for all the streams of Judah. A stream will flow from the Temple of the Lord, and it will water the Valley of Acacia." (vv. 16-18).
There are promises here that we ourselves would claim - the protection of the Lord. But notice again - the door of heaven is open. "Then, Israel, you will know that I am the Lord your God; I live on Zion, my sacred hill..." (v.17a). You will know that within your being.
Then the promise of restoration - vineyards, cattle, plenty of water (v. 18). But notice the last part of the verse - "A stream shall flow from the temple of the Lord..." We remember the words of Jesus in John 7 - "Whoever is thirsty should come to me and drink. As the scripture says, 'Whoever believes in me, streams of life-giving water will pour out from his heart'." (vv. 37-38) There is no clear Old Testament reference for this quotation, but, John writes, it is a reference to the Holy Spirit who "had not yet been given, because Jesus had not been raised to glory" (v. 39).
And so we come back to the promise of God. What God has done in Jesus Christ - Jesus who bore our sins in his own body on the tree, all the penalty for our human sins - so that whoever calls on the name of the Lord can be saved.
The door of heaven is blown open. The Holy Spirit is poured out for us, so that we can know God and glorify him, so that we can speak his word and his will in the part of the world in which we live. Not just so that you can prophesy in church or share our dreams and visions from this microphone, but so that the vision and redemptive love of God can begin to reach our neighbours and the people we see in the supermarket... because the door of heaven is open. "This is the hour to receive God's favour; today is the day to be saved!" (2 Cor. 6.2c)
Back to Sermons