Unity within the Holy Spirit

Joel 2:28-32

Well we are doing something a little bit different today. To be honest with you all, the obvious part out loud is that I’m obviously nervous. But I feel okay because if I crash and burn up here, at least the church has it on video to laugh at later.

If you would all turn with me to the book of Joel. Joel is a minor prophet towards the end of the Old Testament in case you need help finding this small little book.

We will be focusing on Joel chapter 2, verses 28-32. So if you would kindly stand with me in honor of reading God’s Holy Word.

28 After this

I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity;

then your sons and your daughters will prophesy,

your old men will have dreams,

and your young men will see visions.

29 I will even pour out my Spirit

on the male and female slaves in those days.

30 I will display wonders

in the heavens and on the earth:

blood, fire, and columns of smoke.

31 The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.

32 Then everyone who calls

on the name of the LORD will be saved,

for there will be an escape

for those on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

as the LORD promised,

among the survivors the LORD calls. CSB

*Prayer* Lord, be with us today to hear with our ears and hearts the message you have for us.

For those who are unfamiliar with Joel, and if we are being honest, most aren’t because most never touch the minor prophets. I can take a pretty good guess that some of you, prior to me telling you to flip to Joel, didn’t even know Joel was a book of the bible. And that's a reality of the church at large today, not just in our church but the church at large is that we simply aren’t familiar with our bibles like we ought to be. So that being said, please indulge me as I give you the time of Joel and a brief overview of the Book of Joel so you can have some level of understanding the context. Because context is key to everything within scripture.

As to when Joel takes place, believe it or not, there is no scholarly consensus as to when. There are those who believe its from before the Jewish exile and those who argue for afterwards.. While there is no consensus to the actual dating, with scholars ranging from the 800 BC to 300 BC. The debate is so spread out as to the dating of Joel that I can’t in good faith give you a certain time frame. Each scholar that I trust on the Old Testament minor prophets has a few different views and they all have really good arguments for it. So I can’t give you an exact point to reference. I know, lack luster right? Okay but what about the book itself? What’s the message?

Now Joel is a highly prophetic book and Joel was quite skilled at using imagery and nature to deliver God’s word to His people. Joel begins his address to the Israelites in a way that most of us would find odd and troubling if we are being honest with ourselves. Joel chapter 1 and the first half of Joel chapter 2 are focused on past events known the Israelites as the Day of the Lord. Times when God stepped into human history and divinely intervened in some form or unleashed His wrath at some level. He speaks of waves of locusts coming to be utterly destructive to Israel in a way that references the eighth plague in Egypt, only now the judgement is against Israel. And its not a hopeful message as you read through this first chapter.

Joel spends it describing a call for lament, repentance and seeking the Lord. Joel tells Israel to tell their children of the judgement, for their children to tell their children, and so on. Joel calls for every person within Israel to repent. From the elder’s to the drunk’s, from the Priests to the farmer’s of the land. Everyone that fell within every type of social structure (even himself as he says that “To You, O Lord, I call) Joel 1:19 was to repent and that is important was we bring this into more of a focus as to why we are speaking on this small passage today.

You see, Joel, while being a small book, has much to offer us if you examine the entire book’s structure. Joel begins it, as I mentioned, with a call to the nation to repent of their sins and fast. Joel never actually accuses the nation of any specific sin, but rather sin in general as Joel is relying on you the reader having been familiar with the rest of the Old Testament where the other prophet’s have done a wonderful job revealing just how shallow an broken the nation of Israel and the divided kingdoms were, and how they were just ask broken and in need of repentance as the rest of the nations. How the other prophet’s described Israel and Judah as being failing nations who fell into idolatry.

The prophet then shifts his focus onto this recurring theme throughout the Old Testament known to the Jews as THE Day of the Lord. Joel is now pointing out for the first time, and really being the first to elaborate on this impending Day of the Lord. Joel essentially uses the setup to remind the Israelites of all the previous events in their history that they would consider to be little days of the Lord. And Joel then shifts and is elaborating on how all of them were foretelling of the coming Day of the Lord. In fact, to borrow from Joel as he describes this coming calamity in the beginning of chapter 2 as a day the sun is darkened and the earth quakes.

So if all of those previous times you saw God’s wrath pours out, His anger unleashed, all those times. And now The Quake is coming. Its not small tremors like you had seen in the past, this was the mighty day. And Israel, you watched God’s wrath pore out on other nations like Egypt previously, but your not being spared this time. So imagine yourself as an ancient Jew, whether your pre-exile in a divided kingdom where both nations struggle with idolatry and the other prophets have described you as a failing nation. Or your post exile and your rebuilding the city and Joel comes along and tells you these things.

Your reaction is not one of grandeur or of excitement. Even the prophet, the mouth piece of God, the one who is supposed to be the most righteous guy around, is saying that even he is calling upon the Lord! Joel, your not sounding very hopeful, your sound like your giving me nightmare fueled horror story.

Then Joel shifts again. He speaks of repentance once more and a short window into God’s response to their repentance will be that God will turn the Day of Judgement into the Day of Salvation. His Divine presence will once more be accessible to those who follow Him.

It’s in that second shift of Joel’s writing that we find our passage today, where God’s mercy and Grace is pouring over those who love Him. It’s where Joel quotes from Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel all these promises the prophets relayed to the people. Promises of God empowering those who follow Him and that they might do incredible things in the name of God. Joel then returns to more of a doom and gloom situation where Joel shows God in the future Day of the Lord confronting the evil nations of the world. Joel again taking from different prophets and saying how God will turn their violence on themselves. But Joel ends with saying God’s final Day of the Lord will be a renewing of Eden. That’s God grace and mercy and forgiveness bring about a new creation.

But your probably asking at this point “Thanks for the commentary but again, how does this connect to the Holy Spirit uniting us as God’s Kingdom, His team?

Well look with me to Acts 2:14-21. This is part of Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. This is part of Peter’s larger sermon after the Holy Spirit has decended on those in the Upper room, and many outside are hearing the comotion and thinking they have gone insane and are drunk. And Peter rightly corrects this in this moment by appealing to his fellow Jews in a way that they would rightlfuly understand.

14 Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it’s only nine in the morning. 16 On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 And it will be in the last days, says God,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all people;

then your sons and your daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

and your old men will dream dreams.

18 I will even pour out my Spirit

on my servants in those days, both men and women

and they will prophesy.

19 I will display wonders in the heaven above

and signs on the earth below:

blood and fire and a cloud of smoke.

20 The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

21 Then everyone who calls

on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Peter quotes this very prophecy to these surrounding Jews as to show them “Look! These people aren't drunk. They aren’t lunatics. This is God’s Spirit pour over us. This is what God said was going to happen. Remember Joel.

And if your a Jew witnessing that and you know your Old Testament well, as many did, then your first reaction is probably “Oh yeah. Joel did say something like that.” Followed by “Wait a minute, what else did Joel say was gonna happen?” As these different passages of Joel begin to trigger in their minds about a coming Day of the Lord.

Look forward with me to verse 44.

44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

The early church, under the unified Spirit of God through the Holy Spirit, given to us by the atoning work on the Cross by Christ, were gathering together to worship the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and working with each other for the progression of the Great Commission given to us by the Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ.

It matters what Joel prophesied because it shows that our God knew and has always known this was His goal, to have His people unified not under a central temporary nation but under one Spirit, thereby making One Body. And by unifying us through His Spirit, God gave us this singular goal to be the hands and feet of God, to be His tools to go out and share the Gospel to the world. Because being united under one body under the Spirit of God is a stronger unified body than any other temporal thing on this earth. Why give us the goal?

Because we are designed to be workers. From Genesis to Revelation, humanity are workers. We are either working for God or for ourselves, but we are working. So are we working to build up His church, build up His kingdom, to expand it via the salvation of souls, or are we using this building for nothing other than storing up our own treasures on this earth and hoarding the treasure we have been given?

We aren’t here to be a book club, to be a breakfast club or a place we go to just be a moral compass. We aren’t here just for community or for status. Theres a huge silent revival taking place within our younger generations as they greatly desire to pursue God, while the culture is beginning to shift to encourage it. It most likely won’t be long, and there's good and bad things about it. Some are finding church for the morals but don’t want the God. Again, we aren’t here to simply be a moral compass. The church is to go out into the world and reach those around us to add to our number. To do everything we can think of and do in order to gain souls. Not hunker on down in our four walls and hope the unbelievers just come seek us out. Our prayer and our heart can’t say “Well I hope they come talk to me about jesus so I can invite them to church.” It needs to be “God, give me the strength and courage to go out and reach those for Christ.”

Are we going out of our way to serve one another or are we allowing petty arguments and fights about human traditions get in the way of what the church needs to do to reach the community? Are we not moving forward on decisions or projects because that's not how we’ve done it for the last 40 years and we aren’t going to change it. Or are we looking biblically at the decisions having to be made, the money having to be spent, the changes that have to come and saying “Is this for my own personal preference or is this for the betterment of God’s kingdom?

Are we taking advantage of the church in order to gain for ourselves? Have we fallen into the slope of ripping our Garments instead of ripping our hearts? As Joel said, “Rend your hearts, not your Garments” Joel 2:12. In other words, are we actively looking for ways to serve in the church or are we simply looking to be served by the church? Do we care about pouring into the body that pours into us or are we doing everything we can to take out of the body but doing nothing to build the body up? Are we truly broken for Christ? Are we fully committed to God’s team? Are we having outward repentance but no inward change?

Do we break bread as often as we need too? Do we gather with each other as often? Are we committed to serving one another? Serving the Lord? Or have we gotten complacent in the chaos of life and the mundane routine of church? Do we come here and genuinely worship our Lord in Prayer and song or are we simply following along to the words on screen? When we gather together and sing “I’m so glad to be part of the Family of God” are we serious when we sing that? Is that the most important thing you see in your life? Or is it just another check box for you to finalize on a Sunday morning? Are we ripping our garments for public praise and satisfaction, or are we ripping our hearts in true repentance to God?

We have heard Pastor Steve preach and teach us about how the Holy Spirit Gives us Life, how He Gives us Power for Service, He Purifies us, Directs Us, Gives us Assurance, Teaches us. And its true, he does all those things for the betterment of us as we grow in Christ and are sanctified by the Spirit. But are we genuinely commited to being united as the body of Christ in service to our Lord and the Great Commission? In service to one another and the betterment of those around us? Or are we simply putting on our best faces, and coming to church on Sunday morning. Every Sunday, our pastor gives an invitation to accept the call to come into Christ and accept Him as your Lord and Savior. And will I will do the same, I have to ask you all: Have you repented of that sinful habit you have? Maybe its something that sounds mundane like driving a little too fast on the high way that your somehow proud of. I know I struggle with that “I can make it to Taylor in 10 minutes” thats not a good thing Michael! Or maybe its something our culture has convinced you is something you don’t need to repent from like cursing. I know I struggle with this one. I do really good on it until I get really frusterated or if I am working on my truck. Then suddenly I have just as colorful of language as a marine on deployment. Again, its not good and something that needs to be corrected. So what is it that you struggle with that you need to be honest about? Is it anger? Jealousy? Maybe spite or envy? What is keeping you from fully committing to this church body, or damaging your walk with Christ that you need to be honest with yourself for and honest with us so we can better help you overcome it and serve you? Because I’ll tell you this: Sin will continue to thrive in the dark, until you finally decide to kill it with the light. Your sin will not go away if your not honest with yourself as to what it is your facing. But that is a tumor that will continue to grow. Don’t wait to cut it out. And I know this church’s history with cancer so I don’t use the example of a tumor lightly.

Allow the Holy Spirit to press upon you and move you to come up here and repent if that's what needs to be done. Allow yourself to move today. Rip your heart open for God, not your clothes.