Our God Reigns

Introduction

Background

The book of Joel is comes to us in three parts. First, there is God’s judgement against the nation of Judah and Israel. Because of their disobedience, God sent locusts to turn them back to Him. We tend to think we have everything put together, and that we are living in victory, but the truth is that our world is extremely fragile. All it takes is for something not to go our way, and we are not so sure about our own victory. Even worse, most times our eyes are opened to the reality that we are the major source of all of our problems.

So it was with God’s people. They were living in luxury, but when the locusts came, it all came crashing down. But the wonderful thing about God is that He never chastises us for our misery, but He chastises us for or benefit. Even what comes in the form of evil, God will turn it around for our good. And He did this for the His people in the book of Joel.

After the locusts came, God gave them a restoration that they couldn’t replicate.

Context

In the final part of the book of Joel, God is pointing us to the end of time. Joel prophesies the church age. Now, what’s the church age? In Acts 2, God sends the Holy Spirit, and the early church began. So, presently, we are in the church age. What all the world is heading toward now is the tribulation period. This will be a seven year period where the world will be in total dismay, the people of the nation Israel will experience intense persecution, and the antiChrist will be alive and well.

However, his reign won’t last long…because the people of Israel belong to the Lord Jesus, and one day He is going to come back and claim what is rightfully His. When He claims it, He is going to destroy this world, and He is going to create a new Heaven and a New Earth for His people to enjoy.

I. The Church Age

Joel 2:28–31 NKJV

“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, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

We know that Joel is a prophet. And in this case, we know that we are looking back at this prophecy fulfilled because Joel is talking about what is going to take place on the Day of Pentecost following the resurrection of Jesus.

In Acts 2:17-21, Peter quotes this passage to recognize the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Can I tell you that God’s plan is, and always has been, to save all of mankind? This prophecy was given around 800 years before it was fulfilled. We don’t always understand God’s timing in the waiting, but when He brings us to the other side, all we can do is look back and tell about how good He is.

All we can do is talk about how He is always going to keep His promises.

However, in God like fashion, there is a duality of meaning from this prophecy. There is the truth for now, and the prophecy for later, contained in the same prophecy.

The Truth for Now

When I say the truth for now, I am talking about the truth for right then and there in the life of the Jewish people.

For us to understand, we’re going to have to review the events of history.

What is getting ready to take place for the Jewish people in that time is a judgement so fierce, that 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel will be extinguished from the earth. God has revealed this through Hosea and through Joel.

God has also made a promise that He is going to restore the years that the locusts have eaten, and that He is going to be faithful to the Jewish people.

What Joel is doing right here in 2:28, is he is delivering God’s encouragement to the Jewish people.

How so?

When Joel says “afterward” there in v. 28, he is talking about a time after the invasion from Assyria.

Now, look at the promise and think about its significance…the promise is that the Spirit of God will be poured out on all flesh.

In the Old Testament, there are times when we do see the Holy Spirit, but it is for the sole purpose of anointing kings, prophets, and God’s judges…but now Joel is describing a time when God’s Spirit will be available to all believers.

This is something that is remarkable to the Jewish people, who really, on a personal level, don’t understand the Spirit of God because they have never experienced the Spirit of God like we do today.

Where we are in our Christian walk, is taking advantage of God’s grace and how freely we can approach Him. We talked this morning in Sunday School about this truth, “familiarity breeds contempt.” Well, we’ve gotten so familiar with the idea that the Holy Spirit lives in us and through us, that we really don’t consider it to be that special.

Well, here, in the book of Joel, God uses the promise of the Holy Spirit to encourage His people through war, famine, bloodshed, and hopelessness.

We cannot disregard the freedom that we have to know and to be known by God. We cannot disregard the opportunity that we have to boldly approach His throne of grace. We cannot fail to see His goodness to us, that He would allow us to experience Him every day.

Now, look in v. 32.

Joel 2:32 NKJV

And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.

Here is where we are in the book of Acts…that now the Jews are seeing that salvation really is this simple…that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Some get the idea that at one time salvation came by works, but that was never true…it was God’s plan from the beginning to make salvation available by grace through faith. Hebrews 11 is the explanation of this…that the entire religious system of Judaism and now Christianity has always been based on faith in God.

The Truth for Later

Now, let’s look at the truth for later…and when I say that, I mean the promise of the church and the promise for 800 years in the future from the mention of this prophecy.

Think about the events in Acts 2…there the apostles were praying when the Holy Spirit comes in like a mighty rushing wind! They begin to speak in different tongues and the people begin to laugh and say, “These guys are drunk!”

But Peter says… “No, no…but this is the Holy Spirit in them.” Then Peter quotes Joel 2…he says, “remember what Joel said the fruit of the Spirit was? He say that it will come to pass that God’s Spirit will be poured out…that they will see visions, dream dreams, they will prophesy?”

What Peter was doing in Acts 2 was revealing the nature of the Holy Spirit and explaining why they were speaking in tongues…he was saying, “these men aren’t drunk, that are full of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God!”

But church, I want you to see something about the Spirit of God…that He is ready to be poured out on all flesh…that the Holy Spirit wants to bring revival to your life and to our church.

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church

We cannot witness without Him

Acts 1:8 NKJV

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

When we go to share our faith, we have to be walking in the power of God’s Holy Spirit. It’s not enough to just get out there and blab it…we have to make sure that we are carrying that Advocate, the Holy Spirit, with us.

Did you know that it’s possible to live your life filled with the Holy Spirit? After all, God has given Him to us freely…but to stay in fellowship with Him, we need to have purity and humility of heart.

Purity means “without mixture”, humility means “to bring low”.

If we want God to fill us, then we have to be empty of ourselves.

We cannot understand the Bible without Him

John 16:13 NKJV

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

Sure, we can know the information, but if we don’t have the Holy Spirit, then we will never understand to experience transformation.

The Bible says this, “sanctify them by Your Word.”

That’s Jesus talking to God about His disciples…that is, “make them holy by helping them understand Your Word.”

It’s not enough to use religious language or to sound intelligent, the people of God need real understanding, and the Holy Spirit is the only One that can give it.

We cannot bring glory to Jesus without Him

John 16:14 NKJV

He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

The main job of the Holy Spirit is to bring and to give the glory to Jesus Christ. To walk in pride and to be mixed with sin is to give ourselves glory.

If we aren’t pure, and if we aren’t humble, then the Holy Spirit is quenched, and He is not empowering us.

We cannot pray for God’s will without Him

Romans 8:26–27 NKJV

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Unfortunately, lost people everywhere are wasting their breath when they pray to God. He won’t hear them. The only way for our prayers to reach God is to pray in the Spirit. Fortunately for believers, we have the Holy Spirit in us…so we can know that we are heard, even when we don’t feel it.

However, when lost people say something like, “I am praying about this” they just don’t understand that they are just talking into the wind. The only prayer that they can pray to be heard is a prayer of faith in Jesus Christ.

Why? Because they have no Holy Spirit to make intercession for them. The Holy Spirit brings our broken requests before God and makes sense of them for us…while His Son Jesus Christ pleads our case.

If a person doesn’t know Jesus Christ, they have no hope.

We cannot develop Godly character without Him

Galatians 5:22–23 NKJV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

The most important attribute in this list is love. But it is that divine and unmerited love, it is an agape love. No lost person, no person who is void of God’s Holy Spirit is capable of this. Sure, they love as anyone else loves…but their love isn’t divine and it isn’t unfailing…their love is conditional and subject to change.

The love that God produces is a steadfast love for what is good and what is true, and it never expires.

In the church, the Holy Spirit is the catalyst for every function of the church. If they Holy Spirit of God is not the One Who initiated, then it isn’t holy.

Also, the health of any church is directly correlated with that church’s relationship with the Holy Spirit. You can be sure that when the Holy Spirit is quenched or grieved in the lives of the church members, that the church has abandoned its purpose.

Lastly, the Holy Spirit has to initiate leadership and build leaders in the church. When we try to select for God, then we do a really good job of messing things up. But when we let God select the leadership, then we will always be on track.

(We don’t have time to get into the appropriate methods on those things…but those are some principles we need moving forward.)

So then, verses 28-32 give us a glimpse of the church age…which is what we are living in now…we saw the promise of the Spirit and what it meant in that day…what it meant on Pentecost…and how it affects you and me.

II. The Judgement

God’s Judgement

These next verses push us past the church age and address the judgement to come in the tribulation.

Joel 3:1–8 NKJV

“For behold, in those days and at that time, When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; And I will enter into judgment with them there On account of My people, My heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; They have also divided up My land. They have cast lots for My people, Have given a boy as payment for a harlot, And sold a girl for wine, that they may drink. “Indeed, what have you to do with Me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia? Will you retaliate against Me? But if you retaliate against Me, Swiftly and speedily I will return your retaliation upon your own head; Because you have taken My silver and My gold, And have carried into your temples My prized possessions. Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem You have sold to the Greeks, That you may remove them far from their borders. “Behold, I will raise them Out of the place to which you have sold them, And will return your retaliation upon your own head. I will sell your sons and your daughters Into the hand of the people of Judah, And they will sell them to the Sabeans, To a people far off; For the Lord has spoken.”

What Joel refers to as the valley of decision is the valley of Jehosephat. Not only would this valley plague them in the invasion of the Assyrians, most will say that the battle of Armageddon will take place in this valley of decision.

Why is this judgement announced

Well, it’s the same old story. The Jews have disobeyed the covenant of God.

But there is hope even in this condemnation…because every time something is said of God’s nation…He always calls them things like, “My people” or “My heritage.”

All this does is solidify what we know to be true, that even when we are far off from God, He is not ready to abandon us…Sure, He might chastise us, He may deliver us to judgement, but He will never abandon those Who He calls His.

Well, what’s He saying?

These verses are not a judgement against His people…but against the Gentiles. God is actively judging the world, and with every rejection of Him, the judgement gets that much closer. God says that He is going to gather the world into that valley of decision, and there He is going to judge them.

He says He is going to judge them for the following reasons:

Because they scattered the Jews.

Because they sold the Jews into slavery

Because they treated His lovely bride like cheap merchandise

Because they stole the Gold and Silver that belonged to God

And because they desecrated what was reserved for God and used it for pagan worship.

On this basis, the whole world will be judged…that God showed them their flaws and their sins, and they rejected His mercy and His grace.

The War of the World

Joel 3:9–15 NKJV

Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, Let all the men of war draw near, Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ” Assemble and come, all you nations, And gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is full, The vats overflow— For their wickedness is great.” Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness.

Joel is describing the Battle of Armageddon.

in v. 13, God describes that He will have no trouble defeating the evil in the world. That He will cut them down like a farmer cuts down the harvest.

in v. 15, God promises to show His power by signs of terror. In that day, no one will be able to say anything but, “this is an act of God.”

in v. 10, Joel says, “All the world better get ready for war…you better beat your farm tools and shape them for war, because it’s coming.

The way that ushers in peace for the New World is by defeating all wickedness, by judging the nations of the world.

God’s Victory

Joel 3:16 NKJV

The Lord also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; But the Lord will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel.

Do you see Who God is? Now, I believe that we will be raptured before the tribulation period…but there will be those Jews left here on the earth and they will need to turn to Jesus for their salvation.

When we talk about God today, we talk about Him by describing Him as our fortress, as our High Tower…and that He is. But He is that for us in a seemingly intangible way…we get peace in the inner man because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives…

but in this day, in the final day, when God brings His victory over sin and darkness, when we get raptured into the Heavens, everything that we experience intangibly will become so real to us…everything that we hoped for is going to be right before our eyes.

We will finally be at rest, and we will finally be under the shelter of God, and we will experience His rest and His strength for all eternity.

There in, in this final section of Joel…the promise of the Holy Spirit and the Church Age…there is the warning of God’s coming Judgement…and finally, finally, we will get to experience His victory.

Our God Reigns

He will Prepare a Holy City

Joel 3:17 NKJV

“So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, And no aliens shall ever pass through her again.”

This is the New Jerusalem. And in this New Jerusalem, there won’t be any foreign objects. There will be no sin and no effect of sin…in other words, it will be totally pure, that is, “without mixture.”

As we are right now, we are mixed with flesh and with Spirit, but in that day, we will be totally pure and in the presence of our victorious God.

He will Restore the World

Joel 3:18–19 NKJV

And it will come to pass in that day That the mountains shall drip with new wine, The hills shall flow with milk, And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord And water the Valley of Acacias. “Egypt shall be a desolation, And Edom a desolate wilderness, Because of violence against the people of Judah, For they have shed innocent blood in their land.

We won’t have to sweat and toil anymore, because the world will finally be at peace. This is a time when God has created a New Earth, and we will get to enjoy all of the pleasures of God without the work and toil of sin.

He will Free us From Guilt

Joel 3:20–21 NKJV

But Judah shall abide forever, And Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted;

We talked about mercy and grace this morning…not only will we experience God’s blessings and be free from labor and strife, but we will be declared completely innocent from all sin we have committed. We will be acquitted from all guilt and shame, never again to be blamed or to feel regret for anything.

He Will Reign Forever

Joel 3:21 NKJV

For the Lord dwells in Zion.

No more earthly kings, no more presidents, just God in all of His splendor. Just an eternity with Jesus Christ our savior and our King. He will be the light, and He will be our peace…for the Lord dwells in Zion.

Conclusion

We get so caught up in this fragile world that we live in…we think that this life is all there is. Of course, we know that eternity is coming…but I can imagine that there is room in every heart here to expect and to hope in the reality that our God reigns, and that He is doing in the Heavenly places things that we can only hope for.

On this earth, I pray that you will walk everyday in that reality, understanding that we have the power of God in the Holy Spirit, and we can live in peace and harmony even now in this sin cursed world.