Pentecost Eve
Joel
2:28-32
5/19/18
So why are we here tonight? What makes Pentecost such a big deal that we
start the celebration on the night before, just like Christmas and Easter? The
answer can be found in our text. You
probably aren’t surprised to hear me say that.
However, it’s not quite what you expect.
You see, I am actually am preaching
on the wrong text for Pentecost
Eve. The assigned text is Joel
3:1-5. You will see in the bulletin and
you heard me announce in the reading that our text is from the end of Joel chapter 2. Now after twelve years, you know that I don’t
go off “free texting” for sermons. This
is in fact a mistake on my part – a mistake generated by a very good reason,
and one that also helps us to understand what Pentecost means.
The assigned text is Joel
3:1-5. As I do in preparing any sermon,
the first thing I did was to read the text in the original language – in this
case, I read it in Hebrew. So I turned
in my Hebrew Old Testament and read Joel 3:1-5 and then worked on the exegesis
for my sermon.
What I forgot, is that the book of
Joel is one of those rare cases where the numbering of the chapters in the
Hebrew text is completely different from the English Bible. In the English Bible our text is the end of
chapter two. This is followed
immediately by chapter three, which is the last chapter in Joel. However in the Hebrew text the verses of our
text are set off as a separate chapter – they are chapter three, verses one to
five. The next and final chapter is then chapter four.
In short, I am preaching on the
wrong text because I read it in Hebrew – so sue me. But the mistake is actually a helpful
one. The text that is assigned – our
English Joel 3:1-5 – says: “For
behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah
and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley
of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my
people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the
nations and have divided up my land, and have cast lots for my people.” Yahweh gathers all nations and enters into
end time judgment against them for what they have done to his people.
The reason
that the editors of the Hebrew text had separated the end of chapter two as a
separate chapter – a chapter three followed by a chapter four - is because they
understood that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is an end time event. It is something that stands in direct
relation to the judgment of the last day.
They are right.
And it is not just I who am saying that.
The apostle Peter announced it on the day of Pentecost. Our text tonight begins by saying, “And
it shall come to pass afterward, that
I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.”
Yet when Peter quotes the text in his Pentecost sermon he says, “But this is what was uttered through
the prophet Joel: ‘And in the last days
it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.’” As
often happens in the New Testament, Peter builds the inspired interpretation
into the quotation. He explicitly says
that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is an end time event.
This is
because of the direct connection that it has to Jesus Christ. When the Fall occurred and sin entered into
the world, God promised that a descendent of Eve would defeat Satan. In the incarnation God sent his Son into
world as we was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. The incarnation was the beginning of the end,
because it was the beginning of the new creation. Jesus Christ is the second Adam sent to undo
all that the first Adam had caused in the Fall.
But the Son of God didn’t become flesh and dwell among us only to
provide the answer to Adam’s sin. He
came do so for your every sin as well – every thought, word and deed that is
not true to God’s will.
He took
your sin, or as Paul says, he became sin for you and received the judgment for
your sin as he died on the cross. The sky became dark, there was an earthquake
and rocks split when Jesus died because it was an end time event. It was the judgment of the Last Day executed
against Jesus Christ because of your sin.
Yet God’s
saving work in Jesus was not finished. And on the third day God’s Spirit raised
Jesus from the dead. He defeated
death. Resurrection, by definition, is
an end time event. It’s a Last Day
thing. And so we see in Jesus Christ that the Last Day has already begun in Christ.
For forty
days Jesus demonstrated to his disciples that he was alive and taught them
about the kingdom of God. And then, he
ascended into heaven as he was exalted to the right hand of God. In his Pentecost sermon, Peter said that it
is as the exalted Lord that Jesus has poured forth the Spirit.
The Spirit
who was involved in the work of creation is the One who works recreation. It is the Spirit who creates new life as we
are born again of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism. The Spirit makes us a new creation in
Christ. It is the Spirit who will transform our body in the
resurrection to be like Jesus. And so for all of these reasons, the outpouring
of the Spirit was an end time event.
In Christ,
the end has begun. But it is also not
yet. And so while we look for our Lord’s
return in glory we listen to Joel’s words: “And
it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be
saved.” In faith we call on the name of
the Lord Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord.
We find forgiveness in him and peace with God. We know that because of Jesus’ resurrection,
we too will be raised. And we know that the Spirit poured out on Pentecost whom
we have now received is the guarantee of our own resurrection on the Last
Day.
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