Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, join us here today.

How long Lord
Before our daughters are safe in Ithaca?
Before they are safe
In a thousand cities
On countless campuses

How long Lord
Before children can play
Without fear
In Kiev?
Before they can play
Without fear in Gaza?
The West Bank?
Israel?

How long Lord
Before men stop
Marching through
Charlottesville,
Dumcree,
And the Damascus Gate
Infecting their neighbors with
Hate and fear?

As our anger rises
And burns
And as our tears spill
And flood our hearts
Cause us to come to you
Hard
Fast
Broken and ready

Asking, asking, asking
What place we might have
Somewhere
Somehow
To stop these things
Giving ourselves to you
Wholly (holy)

Show us what we might do
And how
And with whom
We might share the work

And teach us what to love
And how to love
those things
With our depths
With our lives
To be the people
To do the things
To end the sufferings
Of so many.

It’s not too late Lord
It’s not too late
To love our neighbors
Whom we know
Whom we can see

It’s not too late
Is it?
It’s not to late
To give place
To give shape
To make real
Our love for you.
Amen

(Hat tip to Over The Rhine, Idea #21 “Not To Late”)

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
(Note: The translation I’m reading follows the Hebrew Bible, in which today’s passage is all of chapter 3, which in our English translations append these verses to chapter 2, making Joel consist of three chapters, whereas the Hebrew Bible has the same content in four chapters.)

Joel chapter 3

1 And it shall happen afterward:
I will pour My spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
Your elders shall dream dreams,
your young men see visions.
2 And even upon male slaves and slavegirls
in those days will I pour My spirit.
3 And I will set portents in the heavens and on earth,
blood and fire and columns of smoke.
4 The sun shall turn into darkness
and the moon into blood
before the coming of the day of the LORD,
great and fearful.
5 And all who call in the name of the LORD shall escape. For on Mount Zion there shall be a remnant, as the LORD has said, in the survivors whom the LORD calls Joel 3:1-5

Intro: This is one of the most remarkable passages in all the Bible

For me, it is second only to John’s introduction of Jesus
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:1 and 14)
– what makes this prophecy given to Joel extraordinary,
• is this experience of the Spirit that is promised was definitely exclusive
◦ this is clear from a passage I have frequently quoted
◦ when Moses complained his assignment was too much for him, God told him,
“Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel . . . and bring them into the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them . . . . ¶ Then the LORD came down in the cloud . . . and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it” (Nu. 11:17 and 25)
• that the moment of prophetic expression did not continue,
◦ tells us that served as a sign of what they received
◦ the specific purpose of their experience of the Spirit was to empower their service
– two elders had not arrived in time to receive this gift with the others
• they were on their way, moving through the campsite
◦ but the Spirit fell on them there, out in the secular sphere, and there they also prophesied
◦ Joshua was offended by this (he had a special regard for holy places!)
• Moses’ answer to him was,
“Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them” (Nu. 11:29)

If not everyone–not even many of the faithful followers of God–then whom?
– people chosen for special projects or specific roles
• leaders: Moses, the “Judges,” and King David
• artisans: for instance, craftsmen and musicians
“The LORD said to Moses, ‘See, I have called by name Bezalel . . . of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft” (Ex. 31:1-5)
“David and the chiefs of service also set apart for the service the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who prophesied wit lyres, with harps, and with cymbals . . . .”
(1 Chron. 25:1-3)
• the Messiah: Isa. 42:1, “Behold my servant / whom I uphold, / my chosen, in whom my soul delights; ; I have put my Spirit upon him; / he will bring forth justice to the nations.”
• the prophets: Isaiah represents all of them when he says:
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor . . . .” (Isa. 61:1)
– I want to stress two points:
• the experience of being filled with God’s Spirit was rare
• a person was filled with God’s Spirit for a specific service
◦ as service for which the Spirit supernaturally equipped them

I want to add something here, because it speaks to a spiritual longing

Harold Kushner was a well-known Rabbi and author
– a few years ago, in an interview, he asked about psychology
• his answer, in part, was that
“To the degree that psychology is about helping people cope with their problems, that’s a very religious mission”
◦ then he said there were two people he’d like to interview, Freud and
Kushner, “I would also like to meet the Prophet Jeremiah and to ask where he got his message and how specific it was. If I could understand what the Bible means when it says ‘the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,’ I would know a lot more about how the world works than I do now. I would like to ask him what he meant when he said that.”
• I share that longing
◦ it reflects a desire to be closer to God, have a clearer knowledge of his will, and better serve people with God’s wisdom and power
– God’s promise through Joel is that he was going to give this gift of the Spirit,
• not only to special agents, but to all his people — and this is astounding

God’s Spirit brings a message, but it is not always spoken

Joel’s prophecy mentions dreams and visions
– through Hosea, God said,
“I spoke to the prophets;
it was I who multiplied visions,
and through the prophets gave parables” (Hos. 12:10)
• we cannot limit the communication channels God will use
◦ some of us receive insight and inspiration through words
◦ others will write poems, others with drawings and paintings, some with dance
◦ however, God’s Spirit speaks to almost everyone through nature
• what you need to know is that you do have a Spirit-given means of service to others
◦ Paul began his letter to the Corinthians affirming them, that they had received God’s grace,
“so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:7)
and further into his letter he explained, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7)
– even if you do not know the gift you’ve received,
• God’s Spirit will still use it and work through you
• in fact, being “surrender to the Spirit” is all that’s needed

The prophecy makes a huge leap in verses

From the awesome movement of God’s Spirit on all his people,
– to the climatic entrance of God into the world of humankind
• we have seen how the prophets use word pictures
◦ their prophecies are often like abstract paintings
◦ explosive colors, dramatic movement, dynamic objects–cf. Ezekiel chapter 1
• in this instance of Joel’s prophecy, God makes his presence known
◦ throughout history, God has been hidden from us
As Isaiah said, “Truly, you are a God who hides himself, / O God of Israel, the Savior” (Isa. 45:15)
But soon after that, God responds,
“I did not speak in secret,
in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘Seek me in vain.’
I the LORD speak the truth;
I declare what is right” (Is. 45:19)
– for now, we have God’s word and God’s Spirit
• but the history of humankind has a goal, a “grand finale”
• the day he comes out of hiding–so to speak–
◦ it will be “great and fearful”
◦ the last word of the prophecy reveals how to be prepared
“All who call on the name of the LORD shall escape”
What did it mean to Joel’s readers, to “call on the name . . . ?”

It was a symbol of their pledge of loyalty to the Person identified and known through his name
– it was their turning to Yahweh and away from all other gods
• just about anything in this world can become a god
◦ anything to which a person can devote their interest and energy
◦ anything that takes a central place in their thoughts and behavior
– there is something like a sad twist here at the end of this prophecy
• “a remnant” is a small cohort extracted from the whole
◦ those who’s loyalty was with God
(the faithful remnant God would bring back to Judah and bless, is mentioned frequently in Isaiah and Jeremiah)
“For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return” (Is. 10:22)
• this last verse of this section of Joel begins with people calling on the LORD,
and ends with the LORD calling his people to himself

Conclusion: To me it seems inevitable, that we’re left with a question

What might happen if we took this message seriously?
If we applied it to ourselves today?
That is precisely what Peter did in Acts chapter 2,
when the Spirit of God filled all the followers of Jesus who were present at that time
It seems remarkable to me that Joel’s prophecy would just come to Peter in that moment
Perhaps he and the other apostles had been pondering what Jesus meant when he told them,
“you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8)
Maybe they found the answer in Joel’s writings,
and it was still fresh on Peter’s mind
Now he was witnessing a fulfillment of what Joel had prophesied would happen

Francis Schaeffer gave a sermon that was published in 1974
I would like for you to listen closely to what he said:
“The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism . . ., nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus that surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances around them.”

We are moving through a critical moment in our nation’s history
We don’t want go forward without God’s help,
especially when he gives it freely