INTRODUCTION
As you will remember from Part 1, a great noise exploded from the Upper Room in Jerusalem. Within those walls, a hurricane-like wind came rushing in, a torch-like flame settled onto the crown of each disciple’s head, and a crowd began forming to make sense of the confusion. Amid this pandemonium, all of the elect believers in the group, meaning everyone whom God had chosen for salvation, began hearing Peter preaching in their native language, causing wonder to come over the crowd. For the ones whom God chose and poured out His Holy Spirit, this was an exhilarating affair, watching the plague of Babel dissolve right before their very eyes.
But, men and women were standing there that day who were not elect. There were some whom God did not pour out His Spirit and for whom this dramatic display was patently absurd. They even began hurling the accusation that the recipients of the Spirit must be inebriated from drinking too liberally of spirits. This was a terrible mischaracterization. And suggesting the Holy Spirit’s work was on the same level of foul inebriation was likely a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that Jesus previously warned about.
Against this context, Peter began preaching from a text in Joel that perfectly fit the situation and precisely addressed both groups. Last week, we saw the situation. God was bringing the Old Covenant period of a temple, a priesthood, a sacrificial system, kosher laws, and clean and unclean statues to an abrupt halt. He ended that transitional era to bring about the final epoch of human history, where His Son, the true and better Adam, would recapture everything the first Adam lost. Because of this, that old Kingdom of types and shadows needed to go away because our Lord would not allow any rival kingdoms to become a distraction from His purposes.
With that, Joel also declares that there will be dramatic signs in the heavens, on the earth, and among the people of God, showcasing exactly when the last days began. According to Joel, “the last days” were not a future end of human history but the final moments of the Mosaic era, and when that glorious era faded away, there would be undeniable signs proving it was happening. As we saw last week, some of those signs applied to the believers, to the ones who experienced the outpouring of the Spirit, spoke in tongues, prophesied, had visions, and dreamed dreams. These signs would confirm that the old boat was sinking and they were on the new covenant raft. Today, we will look at the five remaining symbols, the ones that are signs of judgment for all those who have rejected Christ, and we will understand how all of this proves the last days Peter, Luke, and Joel were speaking about already occurred.
A NOTE ABOUT EARTHLY SIGNS AND HEAVENLY WONDERS
For many, Acts 2:19 guarantees that the events described concern things that have not already occurred. They will tell you that the first-century sky over the top of Jerusalem wasn’t filled with any significant wonders, the earth during those forty years was not full of various perturbations and signs, that the blood, fire, and smoke have no historical referent, and the sun and moon did not go dark and stop casting their light. Because, they say, these things have not yet happened; we cannot be living in the last days, and anyone who says so is full of malarkey.
One need only reply to that assertion with: “Hold my beer.”
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