Peter Barnes | Joel 2:28-32
SERMON NOTES
THE SPIRIT WILL COME
Joel 2:28-32
1. The promise of the Holy Spirit.
– 2:28-29. Then we have the announcement: ‘This is it’ in Acts 2:16. Moses’ wish is fulfilled (Num.11:29).
– tongues understood = prophecy (Acts 2:6-11; 1 Cor.14:5).
– see Micah 3:7-8; Rev.22:18-19.
2. This will be a wondrous event.
– 2:30-31. Is that meant to be literal? Calvin says that we are to understand these verses ‘metaphorically for a disordered state of things’. There are good reasons for saying this:
(a) Isa.13:1, 9-10.
(b) Ezek. 32:2, 6-8.
(c) Matt.24:29-30. This sounds like the Second Coming but it seems to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 – see Matt.24:34.
– What are we like without the Spirit? Isa.40:6.
3. Call on Christ for salvation.
– 2:32. This is cited twice in the New Testament – Acts 2:21 and Rom.10:12-13. The Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ.
– this is a promise held out to ‘whoever’.
Much of the passage was fulfilled at Pentecost, but the invitation and the promise come straight through to us today. This is the Spirit’s work.