The Promises of God
The Prophet Joel • Sermon • Submitted
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Last week - God’s plan - Repentance, Obedience, Redemption - New creation - living out new creation
This week, we are going to spend some time looking at the promises of God that we see at the end of Joel 2 once the people repented and turned in obedience claiming God’s redemption and plan for new creation.
28 “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
32 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
I. The Promise of the Spirit (28-29)
• “And it shall come to pass afterward”
o Afterward – after God’s promise of restoration (vv.18-27)
Both first and second advent significance in this short passage
• “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh”
o Significance of giving of the Spirit of God in the OT. - The Spirit was alive and well - part of the Trinity even before Pentecost. We see God’s promise to pour out his spirit upon those he has restored.
o God’s promise was to all people here, both Jew and Gentile - First Coming of Jesus Christ
o (Promise of Christ)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
o (Day of Pentecost) Acts 2:38-39
38 Peter replied, “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.
39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
• “Your sons and daughters…your old men…your young men.”
o Israel is still God’s chosen people and still has a major role to play in God’s redemptive history.
Also significant that God mentions both men and women - God will pour out his spirit on all and calls regardless of gender or any other category we may put people in.
1 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.
2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.
3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.
6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.
8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ”
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’
12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.
13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.
14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”
• How blessed are we to be counted among those to whom the Holy Spirit of God has been so generously poured out upon.
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,
16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
o Through God’s Spirit we are given the ability to know and understand spiritual truths - God reveals himself more and more to those that follow him - what a privilege and blessing to learn more about our God!
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
o Also God gives us the ability to live a life of obedience that is pleasing to Him and no longer just serving to please ourselves.
II. The Promise of Signs (30-31)
Vs. 30a
• Again both first and second advent significance in this prophecy also.
• First Coming “show wonders in the heavens and in the earth”
o Jesus’ life
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.
o Jesus’ death
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split
52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
Vv. 30b-31
• Second Coming
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,
13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.
14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
• Why does God promise signs?
o To get our attention, scripture says that we are not even looking for God, He must come to us.
o To give us direction, God wants to make sure that we know the way to Him.
III. The Promise of Salvation (32)
• The pouring out of the Spirit, the signs; were all done for this reason - that we might be saved.
o First Advent
41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
12 I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles.
o Second Advent
4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
• God is still pouring out His Spirit, He is still doing wonders (changed lives), and He is still saving people.
• Are we doing our part?
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
o “preacher” means one who proclaims or one who tells. - Anyone who shares the Good News
How are you doing as bearers of the Good News of God’s New Creation - both in the here and now and in the yet to come?