Joel: You Don't Have to be 'Pentecostal' to be Pentecostal

You Don’t Have to be ‘Pentecostal’ to be Pentecostal:
The Utter Necessity of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit for World Missions

Joel יוֹאֵל means Yahweh is God. The book is quoted only once in the New Testament; but, as we shall see, scarcity does not mean insignificance. In fact, Joel will interpret a watershed moment in church history several hundred years before it happens; an event that has more relevance to us this morning then the invention of the light bulb or a cure for cancer.

Little is known about Joel, except that he is the son of Pethuel. Joel’s message was most likely proclaimed sometime in the middle of the 9th century B.C., but it is as timeless as if it were preached last week. Joel prophesied during a time of extreme famine and military vulnerability which he used to describe the coming Day of the Lord.
What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten;
What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;
And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. (1:4)

For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number;
His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. (v. 6)

The Day of the Lord is the over arching theme of Joel. Some of the elements of the Day of the Lord include things like: signs in the heavens, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord” (2:3; 12:31; 3:16); fierce weather patterns (Ezek. 13:5ff.; 2:2; Zeph. 1:7ff.), “…cosmic upheaval (2:3,30), and a “great and very terrible” (2:11) day that would “come as destruction from the Almighty” (1:15).”[1] According to the NT writers, the Day of the Lord is a yet future event to be fulfilled at Jesus’ second coming.
But Joel also describes a day that must precede and herald the coming Day of the Lord, a day that is a deposit of that age that will come after the final judgment. A day in which all flesh will taste a sampling of the glory of the realization of the hope of eternity. That is the day in which we now find ourselves. Read Joel 2:28-32

In this passage, God is speaking directly to us and He makes a remarkable promise that is a promise to all mankind. One that began to be fulfilled in the third decade of the first century. “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.” This outpouring has come to be known as the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and associated with the Pentecost. Jesus explains it in Acts 1:8,
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Martyn Loyd-Jones describes two kinds of Christians: Advocates and Witnesses. An advocate has all the information, he can present the evidence and even convince people of the truth of his case (even if he doesn’t really believe it himself); but the witness if different because he was there, he experienced it- he saw; he touched it; he smelled; he felt it- and he describes it with passion and conviction; regardless of whether you believe him or not- its true! It happened! And that’s that!

What Jesus said in Acts 1:8 about receiving power when the Holy Spirit comes was fulfilled in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost: READ 2:1-4


And afterwards the very same disciples, who 50 days earlier were cowering and hiding and denying Jesus Christ out of fear and shame, were now publicly declaring his praises in every known language before, as the text says in verse 6, “devout men from every nation under heaven” (All Flesh). The disciples had been transformed; before Acts 2, they were advocates: sure, they believed in the resurrection, they confessed Jesus as Lord, they preached him to others- but they had no power; it was only intellectual.

But after Pentecost, they became witnesses. And look at Peter, the disciple who once denied that he ever knew Jesus, now standing before the very crowd who cried “Crucify him!” and saying… no, commanding them, “Repent- for you have crucified the Lord of Glory but he is now risen!” And look at the text that Peter chooses to preach: Read vv. 14ff (as far as v. 21).

Unpacking the Text:
Briefly, let’s unpack this promise and then see how it applies to us; Why should it be so important to believers that it should overshadows the light bulb and a cure for cancer? Let’s break this down and look at some of the key words.

I. Pour out (שָׁפַךְ)
The first key word (phrase) is to pour out; when I read that word I think of pouring water out of a jug. In fact, the Hebrew word literally means to empty the container; it’s as if God is saying that He will empty heaven of his Spirit.[2]
But this is not just something as simple as the emptying of a container of its contents, this is God emptying heaven of himself and pouring himself out over all flesh in a way that has never happened before.

The best way I can describe it is in the way that I pour myself out over my children. For example, I pour myself out on my son Parker when we wrestle. First I pick him and hold him over my head and shake him up; then I gently throw him to the floor and jump on top of him and tickle him so that he laughs uncontrollably then I fall on him and I wrap my arms around like I’m being poured out on him and put my cheek against his cheek and I give him the biggest hug and tell him how much I love him and how proud I am of him. When I’m finished pouring myself out him, Parker is so full of me and so full of my affection and approval he just looks like he could explode. That’s what God does to us when He pours himself out.[3]

II. All Flesh בָּשָׂר:
The next key word is flesh. God does not say that His Spirit will be poured out on some flesh, but on all flesh. What does that mean?

Flesh has a many implications; let’s quickly look at three of them:
1. Flesh is Sin; when God says He will pour out his spirit on all flesh, He is not pouring His Spirit out on something that is naturally disposed to His Spirit. When sin began to multiply on the earth God said,
My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh…. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:3,5)

Paul describes the deeds of the flesh as being evident,
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries… (Gal 5:19-21).

2. Flesh includes all humanity[4] and humanity alone;
3. Sinful Flesh that represents the condition of all humanity is completely opposed, hostile towards and utterly antithetical to the Spirit.
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another (Gal 5:16; see Jer 17:5)

III. SPIRIT רוּחַ:
The final key element of this phrase is that on all flesh God will pour out His Spirit, His רוּחַ meaning Breath of Wind. The Spirit of God is his creative wind, His life giving Breath. The Spirit does many things upon the Spirit baptized believer:
1. to Judge- this is the most literal meaning of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist understood it this way; he warned the Pharisees saying (Mat 3:11-12),
 …[Jesus] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (even) fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Pentecost was a deposit of that Baptism. But for the church, the sting has been removed. For us the Baptism is a washing and renewing (Titus 3:5); but on the Day of Judgment it is for purging and purification.

2. To illuminate: “the breath of the Almighty gives [man] understanding” (Job 32:8). He opens our understanding so that we can effectually grasp the full meaning of the gospel and believe it in a saving way.

3. To save: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1).

4. To create anew: “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor 5:17); “Made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin” (Eph 2:1-3).

5. To empower: Acts 1:8- “You shall receive power…” When? “…when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” This is the power that was at work in the incarnation that resulted in the virgin birth, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you…” (Lk 1:35).

Paul described his preaching saying that his “speech and (his) preaching were …in demonstration of the Spirit and of power…” (1 Cor 2:4). He also reminded the Thessalonians that his “gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess 1:5). “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but (a Spirit) of power…” (2 Tim 1:7).

6. It signifies that the Presence of God is with you because the Spirit is God.

I could go on describing the many benefits and consequences of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. But I want to be able to move on to an exhortation. Let me just answer the question “What does the Baptism in the Holy Spirit look like?” In other words, how do we know that it has happened? Joel lists several evidences, he says in the second half of Joel 2:28, “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.” Prophesying, dreaming and visons.

What Joel is saying in the Old Testament and what Peter says is happening at Pentecost is that Spirit Baptized believers prophesy, dream dreams and have visions.

Predicting the future is a small part of prophesying. Abraham was a prophet; Moses was a prophet; David was a prophet; Prophets do two main things when they prophesy: 1) they call people to repent and believe in God. That means when we preach the gospel, we are prophesying- we’re preaching the most powerful message in the universe and the only means by which God saves people. It goes out in power and never comes back empty.

2) The second thing we do when we prophesy is that we declare the praises of God. On the day of Pentecost, when the disciples began to speak in tongues, they were prophesying- and when the Jewish pilgrims heard them, what they heard was “declaring the praises of God.” That’s worship!

So, this how we know we have been baptized in the Holy Spirit? we have a desire to preach the gospel and worship the Lord.

Epilogue:
“What if I’m a believer and I’ve been a believer for a long time, but lately I feel like I’m just going through the motions- I haven’t told anyone about Jesus in weeks, months, years and when I worship I’m often distracted and don’t sense the presence of the Lord, does that mean I’m not Baptized in the Holy Spirit?”

Maybe, If you’re not a believer! I believe that every person who is born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit has been baptized in the Holy Spirit. But I also believe in on going fillings. And if you feel like your Christian life is powerless and lifeless and on cruise control, then what you may need is a fresh filling. You need to place yourself in positions that require an utter dependence on the Holy Spirit- i.e. sharing the gospel.

And you need to ask for the Holy Spirit. Jesus said,
11If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Let’s ask for the Holy Spirit this morning.


Benediction:
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom 15:13).

Notes:
[1]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible. Nashville: Word Pub.
[2] God says something similar in Zechariah 12:10
[3] A better picture may be pouring out the finest most expensive perfume on the most disgusting dung
[4] can refer to man, it can also refer to mankind (Isa 66:16, 24, etc.) and even further to all living things (Gen 6:19, etc.). (Harris, Harris,, Archer, Waltke, B. K. (1999, c1980). TWOTt)