Now for something completely different... plain preaching

“Immanuel Spirit” – Part 3

(Acts 2:14-21, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 9, 2011)

14 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. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.

16 But 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;

18 even on my male servants and female servants

in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above

and signs on the earth below,

blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;

20 the sun shall be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood,

before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice... (14-15)

What is that enables some people to hear the great works of God in their own dialect, when others hear nothing but what sounds like nonsense to them? Why is it that the coming of the Holy Spirit and an experience of the presence and power of God working through people would divide people rather than unite them? Why doesn't everyone gladly receive the message of the love and holiness of God in the cross of Christ, and His power and promise in the Word of His resurrection? Why isn't everyone a Christian, and what is the church supposed to do about it?

These are difficult questions, and I am not sure that we have answers to them, but we do have this account of what the Holy Spirit led Peter to do on the Feast of Pentecost that came after the Passover when Jesus died. The entire group of 120 were waiting and praying, and God came to be with us in power. The sign of languages that He chose was a generous hint of what was to come: The whole world would hear. But not everyone “heard” that day. Some heard about the great works of God in a way that was unmistakably and personally calling them, and others heard drunken nonsense. I don't know why, but I do know what Peter, filled with Holy Spirit, did on that historic occasion. He addressed everybody, including the open skeptics. He preached.

And in the last days... (16-17)

He did something that had not exactly been done before. The prophets preached in the Old Testament times, but have you read their sermons? You heard part of one from Joel this morning. It was given in the shadows of the time of preparation. Jesus taught with authority, but He used parables, explaining the meaning to His disciples. What Peter did here was different. He took an Old Testament word out of the shadows and shined the light of Christ and the Holy Spirit onto it. He spoke plainly, trusting God that some would hear the Word of Christ and respond.

The reason why He did that was because the period that Peter calls here “the last days” had come. The time of living in the shadows of preparation was now over. The light of Christ and the Holy Spirit was shining brightly. The key to understanding the Bible had arrived.

I said that Peter called this new era “the last days.” He was quoting a prophesy from Joel. The wording was different. “Afterward.” (Joel 2:28) “It shall come to pass afterward...” Now the time of “afterward” had begun. The Law had been fulfilled in Jesus, in His life and His death as the Passover Lamb. The age of resurrection had begun in His empty tomb.

In Joel, God uses the sad occasion of societal and economic distress to wake up His people to reality. They need to eat, there are armies (or hordes of locusts) at the door, and the farmers (which is pretty much everyone) have dry dust for land instead of fertile soil. These things get everyone's attention. They call a solemn assembly. They worship God. They cry out to Him. He uses this occasion not only to help them in their desperate need (He does bring them rain, and restores to them what the locusts have eaten), but He goes on to talk to them about a better blessing and a more desperate situation that will happen “afterward.” How long afterward? He does not say. That part was in shadows, but Peter is saying the afterward has begun to come in this Pentecost event. We are still in that afterward today, right now, until heaven comes here.

I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh... (17-18)

First God talks about the better blessing. He will pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Everyone will be moved by the Holy Spirit. Your sons and daughters shall speak the Word of God. Young and old will have prophetic visions and dreams from the Lord. The Word of the Lord will be in everyone's mouth. All of what it means to have the Holy Spirit pour out on people and poured into people will happen to all flesh.

Sounds like heaven, and it is, only earlier than we dreamed. Peter is connecting these verses to that Pentecost. Afterward is now. Immanuel is with us today, and in a very good way.

I will show wonders in the heavens... (19-20)

But it is not all blessing. It is also a more desperate situation than back in the days of Joel, when they faced a dust bowl land for farmers with a sky that won't give a drop of rain. It will be worse than having the Assyrians at the gates in overwhelming numbers. It will be like Passover was for the Egyptians. It will be Immanuel too, but in a very bad way. He will come with wonders in the heavens to judge the unrighteous. It will be the Day of the Lord.

What do people do when Immanuel, God with us, is bad news for them. We run. We hide. We blame. We wonder if there is some honest way out.

And it shall come to pass... (21)

You have come to know know that there is an honest way out. Not a dishonest way of pretending that God will be satisfied with me just because someone said so. An honest way out through the blessing of Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, who became God with us, and God for us. God for us in the manger, and God for us on the cross. God for us coming out of the tomb. God for us now at the right hand of the Father. Honest to God, with wounds that have canceled our debt, and righteousness for all who believe. Honestly revealing to us the Old Testament word, taking it out of the shadows and preaching it from heaven by His Spirit, but through the lips of men like Peter.

This is the opening up of a gift that had been carefully wrapped. This is Christ for you, and Christ in you. This is salvation. How does someone get that gift? You hear with your heart. I don't know how that happens, but when it does, then you call upon the name of the Lord. And He brings rain. And it has been raining since that Pentecost straight through until today, and God is saving people, so that they will get the blessings of Joel's prophesy and not the disaster part; the good news of the Immanuel Spirit, and not the bad news that we could never handle. So we open up the Old and New Testaments. So we preach. And so you hear, believe, confess, and worship.

1. What did Peter do to address the event of Pentecost?

2. What was the context of the Old Testament passage that he quoted?

3. What is the meaning of the words “last days” in this passage?

4. How can the last days bring both blessings and curses?