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May 19, 2002
Pentecost Sunday
Joel 2:28-29
Pastor Robert Raasch

Joel's Dramatic View of the Future

1. The Spirit will be Poured out on All People
2. Your Sons and Daughters will Prophesy

Well, have you seen it yet? I mean the new Star Wars movie? Did you stand in line for hours to get your ticket? Did you walk in the door at 12:01 Thursday morning? Did you call into work with a case of the Star Wars flu? Maybe, if you're like me, you haven't seen the movie, but you feel like you've see the movie from all the clips they've shown on TV. Trouble is, they keep showing the same clips over and over again, right?

Now, whether you are a Star Wars fan or not, I think you have to admit that the whole concept behind the Star Wars series is pretty amazing. I mean, somebody had to have a pretty active imagination to come up with the Star Wars idea. In fact, we know who that man was. His name was George. George Lucas. The Star Wars Saga, in effect, is George Lucas' vision of the future. It's a vision of what life would be like way off in a distant galaxy, in a different time period. It's that dramatic vision that still has people today looking at movie screens and going, "Wow! Would you look at that! Can you imagine that?" You might say that what millions of people pay good money to see is, in a sense, George's dramatic view of the future.

Well, this morning you and I won't be putting up a movie screen to see George's view of the future-because George's view is just make-believe. No, this morning we get to see a view that's for real. This morning we turn our attention not to George's view of the future, but rather, to Joel's view of the future. Joel's view? Who's Joel? Joel is the prophet that God used to transmit to his Old Testament believers a vision of what the future would hold for them. A future which at the time maybe seemed really unusual, even out of this world. And yet, a future which became a reality on Pentecost Sunday, and still is reality today.

This morning let's turn our attention to God's inspired Word, where we find what we might call,

Joel's Dramatic View of the Future

What does the Prophet see in the future? He sees a time when,

1. The Spirit will be Poured out on All People
2. Your Sons and Daughters will Prophesy

First a little background on this portion of Scripture. In Joel, chapter 1 and 2, the prophet pleads with the nation of Judah to repent, to turn from their wicked ways. Joel tells them that God is going to send an army of locusts against the people. And it's going to bring a famine on the land. But after that bad news, Joel turns his attention to some good news. God himself speaks through the mouth of the prophet and says, "And afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all people."

Maybe we should first answer the question, "What does God mean by 'afterward'?" Exactly when is "afterward"? Well, in his sermon on Pentecost Day, the Apostle Peter helps us answer that question, doesn't he? Peter stands up and quotes this very passage of Joel. Only in Peter's case, he changes one phrase. Instead of saying, "And afterward," Peter, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says, "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people." In fact Peter points to the events of Pentecost Day as the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. In other words, what the Prophet Joel saw as a view of the future, St. Peter recognized as a description of the present. Joel was foretelling the events of Pentecost and really the whole New Testament era.

But now, let's look a little closer at exactly what Joel was predicting-or really what God was predicting through Joel. First God says, I. A Time will come when I will pour out my spirit on all people. Now, what does that mean? Does it mean that there was a period of time when the Holy Spirit was not active? Does it mean that God never sent His Spirit into people's hearts and lives? No, the Holy Spirit was definitely active in the Old Testament era. Already at the beginning of time, while the earth was still formless and empty, the Bible says that "the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Down through the centuries, the Holy Spirit was actively calling people to faith, leading them to put their trust in God's promise of a Savior. If you think about it, if the Holy Spirit had not been at work in the Old Testament, there could have been no believers at all. For the Bible makes it clear that without the Holy Spirit, no one can believe in the true God.

So what is God promising would happen sometime in the future? Well, notice the word God uses here. He says that he will "pour out" his spirit. In other words he will no longer sprinkle his Spirit. He will pour it out . In the original language, the word God uses there would be applied to a torrential rain, a downpour. I expect that we've all experienced the difference between a little sprinkling of rain and a time when the heavens just opened up and it poured. We had one of those kinds of rains a few weeks ago, didn't we? Well, that's what Joel is predicting here in our text. He's looking ahead to a time when God would no longer sprinkle his Spirit here and there. No rather, now he was going to pour down the Holy Spirit.

When did that spiritual downpour occur? I think you know the answer to that. It occurred on Pentecost Day, right? On that day, in a very dramatic fashion, the Holy Spirit was poured out onto the Christian Church. Accompanied by the sound of a violent wind and descending tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit gave to the apostles the ability to spontaneously speak in a variety of foreign languages. The Holy Spirit not only gave them the ability to speak, he gave them the courage to speak. The Holy Spirit inspired them to boldly preach law and gospel to the thousands of people gathered together that day. That was not just a sprinkling of the Holy Spirit; it was a downpour.

But now, I want you to notice another contrast between how the Holy Spirit worked in the Old Testament and how he works in the New Testament era. Notice that God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people." Think about it. During the period of the Old Testament, whom did God concentrate his efforts on? Didn't he have one chosen nation? God selected Abraham and his descendents, the nation of Israel, to carry the promise and the bloodline of the Messiah. And although there were cases of non-Jewish people coming to faith in the Messiah by the power of the Holy Spirit, the fact is, the majority of the believers in the Old Testament were Jews.

But now, in this prophecy, God was foretelling a time when the Holy Spirit would begin to work among the people of all different nations, and races and languages. You realize, that's a major change in direction. If you were an Old Testament believer reading these words, you probably be thinking, "Wow! That's amazing! I can hardly imagine that. God pouring the Holy Spirit on all nations?!? What a dramatic vision of the future!"

In fact, if you remember, when Jesus finally told his disciples, "Okay, now it's time to go and make disciples of all nations," it took a while for that concept to sink in. It's like they couldn't fathom that idea. Remember how God had to finally come to Peter in a vision and lead Peter to understand that he could no longer consider certain kinds of animals unclean-nor could he consider certain kinds of people unclean. God no longer expected his people to avoid the Gentiles. Now he expected them to evangelize them! God wanted his Holy Spirit poured out on all people.

My friends, do you realize what that means for you and me today? You and I are in church today in perfect fulfillment of Joel's vision. The very idea that there would be hundreds of people from every national heritage gathered around God's Word right here-well, to Joel's readers that would seem about as out-of-this-world as a Star Wars movie. But it's reality, isn't it? God has poured out his Holy Spirit on us and on millions of Christians all over the globe-all in perfect fulfillment and in complete agreement with Joel's Dramatic View of the Future.

But now, someone might ask, "Wait a minute. How do I know that the Holy Spirit has been poured out here and around the world? I don't see any tongues of fire coming down onto people's heads. I don't hear any rushing wind. Nobody's blurting out in a foreign language. How do I know that the Holy Spirit has been poured out on us?"

Well let's take a look at the second part of Joel's vision. For here the prophet speaks about something that will accompany the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, something that will be evidence of the Holy Spirit being poured out. In Joel's dramatic view of the future, he sees a time when II. Our Sons and Daughters will Prophesy.

Hmmm. What does that mean? "Your sons and daughters will prophesy"? Well, again, think of the distinction between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, God chose a select few to serve as his mouthpieces. By means of dreams and visions, God chose to reveal to those prophets a fuller picture of his plan of salvation. For example, to the prophet Isaiah, God revealed that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. And to the prophet Zechariah, God revealed that Jesus would enter the city on a foal of a donkey. The prophets in turn were expected to share each of those revelations with the nation of Israel.

In the New Testament, however, God has not restricted that fuller revelation for a select few. No, now God has seen fit to reveal the entire plan of salvation-from Jesus' humble birth, to his bitter sufferings and death to his glorious resurrection and ascension. And God has placed that whole account into our hands, in the form of His inspired Word.

You might say that what the prophets of all longed to see with their own eyes, but never saw…the things they longed to hear with their ears, but never heard, you and I have seen and heard in the New Testament Scriptures. And now, God has given us the responsibility to share that message with others. In that sense, you and I have become God's modern day prophets. When we share God's world with others, we are serving as God's mouthpieces. What did Jesus say to his NT believers? "You will be my witnesses." And again, "Whoever listens to you, listens to me." My friends, those promises apply to every Christian, no matter what their age. Does that mean that our sons and daughters can also serve as God's prophets? Absolutely. It happens every Christmas as the children recount for us the story of Jesus' birth. It happens when our children proclaim God's word in song from the balcony above. It happened last Sunday when one of our sons stood in this pulpit and preached Gods' Word to us for the very first time. It happens when you and I are moved by the Holy Spirit to talk to others about what we believe, to speak the truth in love, to share a message of Law and Gospel for souls in need.

What began on Pentecost Day with the Apostles standing and boldly proclaiming the wonders of God still continues to this day. God the Holy Spirit is being poured out on us through his Word and Sacrament, opening our eyes to his truth and opening our mouths to declare his praises.

Look around you, dear Christians. Look at the people who by the power of the Holy Spirit call Jesus their Lord. Look here at the font, and here at the Altar where the Holy Spirit is busy washing away sin and delivering people from death and the Devil. Look and see the people who have been called out of darkness into God's wonderful light, people who are committed to living their lives for God. Look around you and you will see the Prophet Joel's Dramatic View of the Future. My friends, by God's grace, that future is right here and right now. To God be the glory. Amen.