Home Topics Index Download
Transcript 259C
The Pouring Out of the Holy Spirit Explained [Joel 2:28-31]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: I have a question for you. I would like to have you explain Joel 2:28 through 31. I would like to know what period in time he is speaking of. It sounds to me as though he was talking to men of that day, but then I read down in Joel 2, and it sounds as if all of this is to be followed by Judgment Day. So I'm just a little bit confused about whether the time is yet to come for all of these things he's talking about, or whether they have already come.
HC: All right. I'll be happy to speak on that. We have before us a question concerning the meaning and understanding of Joel 2:28-32. Now this is an excellent passage to give us a lesson in how to understand the Old Testament Scriptures. We have here a passage in which God declares, through the prophet Joel:
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, and your young men shall see visions. Even upon the menservants and the maidservants in those days, I will pour out My Spirit. And I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that all who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said. And among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.
Now in trying to understand a passage, one of the principles that we must follow is to search the Bible to see if there is anything else that relates to it. Now in this particular instance, we have very excellent information at our fingertips, because we find this very same passage is quoted, not absolutely precisely, but very close to precisely, in Acts 2, where at the time that the Holy Spirit was poured out, on that Pentecost Day back in AD 33, the apostles are beginning to speak in foreign languages, and there are these other signs the tongues of fire on their heads, and the sound of the rushing wind. And now Peter stands up and says that "This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel."
And then, beginning in verse 17 of Acts 2, down through verse 21, he quotes these very same verses, not completely exactly, but very close to exactly. For example, in the first phrase, in Joel 2:28 it says, "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh." Well, when Peter quotes it, he, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, adds a little bit more truth. And he says, "And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." And then he goes on and continues the quotation.
And so we know immediately that Joel 2, beginning with verse 28 to verse 32, is that which was prophesied concerning the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, or the beginning of God's program to evangelize the world. Now as one of the aspects of evangelizing the world, it was God's purpose that every believer would become a prophet, that is, would be qualified by God to become a witness.
Before Pentecost in AD 33, only occasionally a believer was so qualified. Only occasionally was there a prophet raised up who was under the activity of the Holy Spirit and would be qualified to be a spokesman for God. But it was God's intention that, beginning with Pentecost, immediately after Christ ascended to Heaven, after paying for our sins at the cross, God would begin to evangelize the world, and He would do this by putting His Spirit on all believers, qualifying them to be a witness.
Now the difficult language is verse 30 of Joel 2: "And I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke." And then the next verse: "The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes." And that is also quoted in Acts 2, because in verse 19 of Acts 2 we read, "And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day."
Now is this talking about something different, or is this also to be understood as part of the event that is being described here in Acts 2, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit? Now it's certainly part of the same quotation. And God has declared: "This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel." And he's referring to it in the present tense, that this is what has occurred.
Moreover, in verse 21 of Acts 2, it says, "And it shall be that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved," which is taken over from Joel 2:32: "And it shall come to pass that all who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said. And among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls." Now from Acts 2:21 we know that this is talking about the fact that the Gospel would go into all the world. And anyone from any nation, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, would be saved. And this is the second part of God's program to evangelize the world. The first part was that every believer would be qualified to be a witness. That's spoken of in Acts 2:17.
The second part is that God the Holy Spirit would bring believers forth from every nation. And that is Acts 2:21. And since Acts 2:21 is covering most of the information of Joel 2:32, and since Joel 2:30 and 31 is all part of the same context that is being quoted in Acts 2, as being fulfilled at the day of Pentecost back in AD 33, we know that we must read verses 30 and 31 and 32 of Joel 2 as being related to that which happened in AD 33.
Now let's see if we can do a little bit better work with this. First of all, let's look at verse 31. That's the easiest one to look at. "The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes." Now there are two days spoken of in the Bible that relate to the sun being turned into darkness. One of these days is the Judgment Day of the last day, at the very end of time. We find, for example, in Revelation 6, where God declares in verse 12: "When he opened the sixth seal, I looked and behold, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth."
And we read in Matthew 24:29, in speaking about the end of time, when Christ would return in judgment: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened." And so we know that this is one possibility. But Judgment Day is at the end of time. So that does not relate directly to the prophecy of Joel 2, because Acts 2 indicates that it was fulfilled back in AD 33.
Well, we also discover that when Christ hung on the cross, the sun did not give its light. Remember? Over the whole world the sun's light was hid for three hours. And so the sun was turned to darkness at that time.
Now at the same time, if the sun is turned to darkness, the moon would not give its light, or it would be turned to blood. That has really a double meaning, the moon being turned to blood, because the moon, well, let me give the physical meaning first. And then we'll look at the spiritual meaning perhaps as an afterthought.
But if the sun does not shine, then the moon does not shine, because the moon gets its light as reflected light from the sun. And so we see the same thing in Revelation 6:12, where it says, "The full moon became like blood," at the time that the sun became black as sackcloth. That's at the end of time.
But when Jesus hung on the cross, the sun did not shine. And therefore the moon would not have given its light. Now was the cross a "great and terrible day"? Well, yes. It was Judgment Day, wasn't it? What kind of Judgment day? Well, you see, those who are not saved, who do not have Christ as their Savior, must answer to God on the last day for all of their sins. And they will be condemned by God, and they will be cast into hell, to begin to suffer the penalty of God for their sins. That's Judgment Day, at which time the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood.
But there is also Judgment Day at the cross, because Jesus had become sin for us. He was standing before God as a guilty sinner on our behalf, and He was condemned, exactly as the unsaved will be condemned on the last day. He was condemned for our sins, and God began to pour out His wrath on Him, and Christ did endure the equivalent of an eternity in hell for our sins. This all took place when Christ hung on the cross. That was Judgment Day. That was the "great and terrible day of the Lord" just as much as the last day is a great and terrible day of the Lord.
And so verse 31 fits into the context. You see, it's speaking here about an event that would occur when Christ would go to the cross, and the Holy Spirit would be poured out. And here it says that in connection with this, "the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes," that is, at the time that Christ went to the cross to endure the wrath of God for our sins. This was the great and terrible day of the Lord spoken of in Joel 2:31.
Now let's go back to verse 30 and see if we can figure that one out. "And I will give portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke." Now this is language that is actually taken from the Old Testament. Back in II Samuel we find a song of praise penned by David, who is a great type of Christ, incidentally, in II Samuel 22. And he wrote this psalm or this song of praise, which is also found in Psalm 18, incidentally, at the time that he was delivered from the hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
Now David is a great Messianic type. He is a type of Christ Himself. And even as David was literally delivered from the hand of his literal enemies, so Christ went to the cross, and there He obtained victory over all of the enemies that sought to destroy Him, namely, Satan and all of his hosts.
And so we read this song of praise, and we find that it is the language of Christ hanging on the cross, enduring hell. II Samuel 22:5: "For the waves of death encompassed me. The torrents of perdition assailed me. The cords of Sheol entangled me. The snares of death confronted me." That is the language of Christ enduring hell for our sins.
Then notice this song going on. Notice verse 8 of II Samuel 22: "Then the earth reeled and rocked. The foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked, because He was angry. Smoke went up from His nostrils and devouring fire from His mouth. Glowing coals flamed forth from Him. He bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under His feet." And so on and so on.
Now this is poetic language describing the majestic nature of God, as He poured out His wrath on Christ on the one hand, and on the other hand as He brought victory over Satan and all the enemies of God. And notice how similar this language is to Joel 2:30 or Acts 2:19, "And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth, blood and fire and vapor of smoke." Now to some degree this was literal. The sun was darkened, the moon did not give its light. There was a great earthquake. These literal signs were there. But it is actually going beyond this, and giving us a paean of praise, a song of praise, illustrating the majesty of God, as God's wrath is poured out, and as victory is obtained over the wicked.
And so verse 19 of Acts 2 and Joel 2:30 are also speaking of Christ on the cross, as He gets victory over sin, which is a prelude to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, or a prelude to God's program to evangelize the world.
Now this brings us to verse 32 of Joel 2: "And it shall come to pass that all who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered." And we know from Acts 2:20 that this is referring to Christ's promise that whoever turns to the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.
Now this gives us a little bit of insight as to who these are who will bring the Gospel. "For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said. And among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls." Now that again is somewhat ambiguous language. It's not quoted in Acts 2, but it is totally a part of the context of what is quoted in Acts 2:32. It is directly related. It is in the same context. It says, "All who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be those who escape." And so it's got to be talking about the events that began with the cross, and were coming into full fruition when the Holy Spirit was poured out in AD 33, immediately after the cross.
Now you see, what God is saying here is that Mount Zion and Jerusalem effectively are figures of the body of believers that is sent forth into the world to bring the Gospel. Mount Zion is a synonym, in this instance, of the body of believers. Now true, the first believers came from Jerusalem. But it actually is a figure that goes on throughout the New Testament period, because the phrase before is covering the whole New Testament period, "It shall come to pass that all who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved (or shall be delivered)." And that's a promise that continues throughout the New Testament period.
And so Mount Zion and Jerusalem, therefore, while literally began as the believers who were Jews, living in Jerusalem, is actually expanded to include all who are born again believers, and who are those who are being saved. Now it says they "shall be those who escape." Escape what? Well, what does the New Testament say? "How shall ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation?" Escape what? The wrath of God for our sins. And so anyone who is a born again believer is included amongst those who escape. They are the survivors, they are those who are not subject to judgment – "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" – they are the ones whom God has called and predestined to be His own.
Now I could go on in Joel 3, which is part of the same context. We see that verses 1 and 2 are also talking about the cross. But that's another subject altogether.