Good morning, everyone. Having some beautiful December weather. Better than October. It looks like it's coming to an end, so I hope you enjoy winter.

We're going to be looking in Acts 2 again today at the day of Pentecost, and I was kind of planning on taking a larger chunk, but I couldn't get past this quotation that Peter makes of the prophet Joel and wondering why he uses that text. And I think as I've studied this and prayed about it and asked for wisdom, I believe it's become a crucial thing to understand in order to understand Peter's sermon and what he's saying to these Jewish people. So we're going to trust the Lord and endeavor to explain that today in Acts 2, 14 to 21.

We're studying together the day of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. And we saw in the first 13 verses God's preparatory work in bringing a crowd together through the sound that came from heaven, the sound as of a mighty rushing wind. And then we saw the tongues of fire on them as well, and we heard a sign, the sign of tongues. The disciples speaking the wonderful works of God in different languages. In fact, each man there from all the different places hearing the disciples speak in their own native tongue. 

God was working on the day of Pentecost. He was fulfilling His promise to send the Holy Spirit, and He was arranging circumstances for an opportunity, an opportunity for Peter to preach Christ, to boldly proclaim the gospel of grace. And we see that the result of the sound and the sign was that the people were confused. God created confusion, bringing a question, a burning question in their hearts and minds.

In Acts 2, 6 it says, "And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language." Then they all were amazed and marveled, saying to one another, "Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?" And then down in verse 12 it says, "So they were all amazed and perplexed. And here's the burning question saying to one another, whatever could this mean?" 

This passage makes me think of Ephesians 2, 8 to 10. We love that passage for verses eight and nine, "For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." But listen to verse 10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

Paul asked the believers to pray for him that God would open a door for the gospel, to allow him opportunity to preach it as he ought. God arranges circumstances. He orchestrates details. He brings people into our lives and across our paths, and He prepares them to hear the message of Jesus Christ. And that's what we see in Acts 2. God is working powerfully through His spirit, not only in the disciples, but also in arranging an opportunity for Peter to preach, for men, multitudes, to hear the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, because it's his desire, it's his intention, it's his will that men hear the truth and that they believe and they are saved. 

And God has done this in this instance, by creating confusion in the minds and hearts of men, by giving them this question, whatever could this mean? And today we're going to begin to study the message of Peter that he preached on that day to those crowds, the cure for their confusion. And we're going to try to understand why he preached what he did and what it meant to the Jews to whom he preached.

If you look at verse 14 with me, please, we're just going to go through verse 21 this morning. "But Peter, standing up with the 11, raised his voice and said to them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words, for these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on my men servants and on my maid servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

I've given you three points this morning on your outline. First, the time. Second, the audience. And third, the age.

Well, it's important that we keep in mind the time in which these events are happening. It was a crucial point in the history and progression of God's salvation plan. On this day, we have passed, as we talked last time, from the old covenant time to the new covenant time. And I think this is so important for us to understand. 

We looked before at the new covenant promises found in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31 and clarified in Hebrews 8 as applying to the church. You'll remember that the new covenant was made with the house of Judah. The promises were made to Israel, and the ultimate fulfillment of these promises will be in Israel. God will keep His promises. In order to understand the time, we need to understand what led up to this day of Pentecost. What was going on and what God is doing concerning the accomplishment and fulfillment of His salvation plan.

Jesus came to this earth. He took on flesh. He became a man as a Jew born under the old covenant under the law of Moses. And He lived His life under that old covenant law of Moses. He came to His own, John tells us. He came offering the kingdom of Israel. Matthew is so clear about that, offering Himself as the Messiah of Israel to His people. 

When He sent out His disciples in Matthew 10, He sent them exclusively to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And He sent them preaching the message that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And He gave them power to do mighty signs and wonders, works befitting the kingdom time. Jesus came to Israel to His own and He offered Himself as King and He offered them the kingdom promised to them if they would receive Him. But they did not receive Him. 

John says He came to His own, but His own received Him not. They rejected their Messiah. They cried, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." The leaders of Israel rejected Him. They sought to kill Him, and the people followed their lead, calling for His death. Nonetheless, the Messiah of Israel had come. He had fulfilled so many prophecies that they had missed and misunderstood like Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22 and so many passages. He fulfilled the law. He ended the old covenant, making it obsolete, and He instituted the new covenant in His blood. 

In verse 17 in our text where Peter quotes Joel 2, we see two very important words. He says, "And it shall come to pass in the last days." These are the words that caught my attention as I studied this passage. The term last days is a term that refers to the time of Messiah, the time after He comes and begins to fulfill all that is promised in the law and the prophets. The last days began when Jesus came the first time, when the Messiah came and ushered in the new covenant and the beginning of the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies.

Listen to Hebrews 1. You're familiar with this passage. It says, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things through whom also He made the worlds."

In the Old Testament, God spoke in many ways to the people through the prophets. But now in these last days, the time of Jesus coming, the time of Messiah, Jesus, God speaks to us through His Son, through Jesus Christ. The last days that Joel speaks of began with Christ's first coming in the beginning of this age. 

And what we see as we noted last time is that there is a pre-fulfillment of the promises of the new covenant in the church. We now live under the new covenant. And we experience since the day of Pentecost, the new covenant promises of regeneration, a new heart and a new spirit and the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

It's important that we understand the time if we're going to understand Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost. And it's also important that we understand his audience to whom he preached. Look at verse 14. It says, "But Peter, standing up with the 11, raised his voice and said to them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words." 

In our next message, we're going to get to the meat, the theme, and thrust of Peter's message, which is really the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the gospel, the cure for the confusion. But the question that began to trouble me as I studied Acts 2 and the beginning of Peter's sermon is why does he quote from this passage from Joel 2? 

And it seems to be something that has been troublesome for many who try to interpret and comment on this text because I looked at some commentaries and I didn't really find any good answers. So I had to sort that out for myself. The problem is this. Joel 2 is a prophecy about the day of the Lord, about the second coming and all the terrific signs that will come about in that time. 

Listen to Joel 2.1. He says, "Blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming. For it is at hand, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness like the morning clouds spread over the mountains." 

"A people come great and strong, the like of whom has never been, nor will there ever be any such after them even for many successive generations." The day of the Lord, a time of judgment, a time of darkness and gloominess. This language is very similar to Jesus' words in Matthew 24 describing the great tribulation and His second coming. The day of the Lord always refers to God's judgment in the scriptures, His wrath poured out. 

And the day of the Lord speaks of that tribulation time for Israel and the second coming of Christ and setting up His kingdom on this earth. But listen to the latter part of Joel 2 where Peter quotes from. Joel 2.28, "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, your young men shall see visions. And also on my men's servants and on my maid's servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days."

"And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls."

This is reminiscent, I think, of Paul's instruction in Romans 11. The truth that when the deliverer comes out of Zion, they will look on the one whom they pierced, and all Israel will be saved. It will be a time of deliverance and salvation and a pouring out of God's spirit and an ushering in the promised kingdom to Israel.

So why does Peter quote this passage in this context referring to the day of Pentecost? It's all about his audience. This was a completely Jewish audience. The men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem and proselytes as well. Peter's moving toward the clear gospel, the truth that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Now, if you have an opportunity to witness to one of your Gentile coworkers this week, I'm not sure that Joel 2 would be a good way to go. I'm not sure that beginning in Joel 2 in order to explain that Jesus is the Messiah would make a lot of sense to us or to people that we know.

But for Peter's audience, this was super clear, perfectly appropriate, because what it said to them was that the last days had come, that the messianic time had begun. Not the messianic time in the sense of the kingdom and the promises to Israel, but the fact that Jesus, the Messiah of Israel had come. And that what they saw was a pouring out of God's spirit just as it will be in the time when God gives the kingdom to Israel.

As we said before, this was a pre-fulfillment of that fulfillment for Israel in the tribulation and the second coming. But nonetheless, it was a pouring out of the spirit in consistency with Joel's prophecy of the last days in conjunction with the coming of the Messiah. And in this time, he says, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The age of grace has come.

Think about this. There's been a drastic change at this point. These are people of Israel. These are people with an old covenant mindset. In Acts 2.22, it says, "Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which he did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death." 

And they asked him at the end of the sermon, "What should we do?" They were cut to the heart. They had killed their long-awaited Messiah. What could they do? They were old covenant thinkers. They were terrified at these words. 

I want you just to consider what happened in the old covenant when there was disobedience. Many examples of that. One is really good, I think, in Joshua 7. If you'd turn to Joshua 7 with me. 

Now the context here is that God had instructed His people when they conquered their enemies that they were not to take any of the spoils. They were not to take the accursed things from their defeated enemies. And really what I want you to notice is what happened concerning disobedience under the law. Joshua 7.11. 

It says, "Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things and have both stolen and deceived, and they have also put it among their own stuff." Remember that story with Achan. Now if you go down to verse 19, Joshua confronts Achan. 

Now Joshua said to Achan, "My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to Him and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me." And Achan answered Joshua and said, "Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it." 

So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was hidden in his tent with the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel and laid them out before the Lord. 

Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had. And they brought them to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day." So all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore, the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day.

Under the law of Moses, disobedience received a just reward. Now, let me ask you, do you think rejecting and crucifying God's son, the Messiah of Israel, is at least as serious as taking some silver and burying it in your tent? 

Listen to the author of Hebrews concerning this. In Hebrews 10.28, he says, "Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace?"

What strikes me in our text is that Peter confronts them with their sin, the great sin of killing Jesus, of rejecting their Messiah. But when they ask what they must do, Peter tells them to call on the name of the Lord. To turn to Jesus in faith so that their sins might be forgiven. 

We've entered a different time, my friends. And this audience had no understanding other than the law of covenant. And the ones who were hearing, who understood what Peter was saying, not the ones who were mocking, but the ones who were listening and hearing, the ones who were cut to the heart, they were filled with terror at what would happen to them now. 

Why did Peter quote Joel 2? Because he was talking to a bunch of Jewish people who would clearly understand from the reference that Peter was saying that the time of Messiah had come, the last days were here, and it was now time to call on the name of the Lord to be saved. Clearly not all of this prophecy had been fulfilled or even pre-filled. Paul's quite clear in 2 Thessalonians 2 that the day of the Lord has not come, right? We've not seen the signs that Joel speaks of, of vapor and smoke and the darkening moon and all these different things.

But what we do see is that we've entered a new age. So if we are to understand Peter's sermon, especially the quotation from Joel 2, we must understand the time, and we must understand the audience, and finally, we must understand the age. What is different? The new covenant had come. The Messiah had come and suffered and died for our sins and our place. And the age of grace had come and the day of salvation had come. The day had come for calling on the name of the Lord to be saved. 

It's important that we really try to put on a Jewish mindset for Peter's message, to see things, understand things from that perspective. It was so monumental what was happening, what Peter was preaching, and especially what he was about to say, because what he was going to tell them was going to cut them to the quick, to the very core. They could understand that the amazing events they were witnessing, the tongues and the speaking in other languages and the mighty rushing wind, that they were tied to Joel 2. 

They knew this passage. They were waiting on and anticipating their Messiah. His coming was their ultimate hope. And it would be clear what Peter was saying in quoting it, that the Messiah was here, had come, and now the new age was dawning. None of them understood the church age, this mystery, but they would be right on board with what Peter was saying until he tells them who the Messiah is. 

"Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know." This is the part that was going to shake them to the core. Because what Peter was telling them was that the new age was here, the age of grace. That was good news to them. That was what they wanted to hear. But Jesus is the Messiah? Jesus of Nazareth? This is a major problem. 

Because as Peter will recount, they had killed him. They had crucified him. And in their old covenant mindset, this would mean the absolute end and destruction for them. But that wasn't the message of the new covenant. That wasn't the message of the age of grace. It would take a lot of explaining and teaching and persuading from the Old Testament, as we will see in the book of Acts. But what these Jewish people needed to understand was that they had entered a new age, the age of grace of the new covenant, of calling on the name of the Lord to be saved.

Jesus did not come in His first coming to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He did not come in judgment, but to offer Himself as the spotless Lamb of God for the sins of the world, that whosoever would call on Him, believe on Him, would be saved. 

He will come in judgment. He will come to set up His righteous rule. He will fulfill the rest of this prophecy from Joel 2, but this coming, this suffering Messiah, was not something that they had ever anticipated, that they had ever considered, or had any way to understand in the context of their thinking and their religion. This whole idea was confusion to them. 

But the cure for that confusion, as we will see, is the resurrection, is the gospel of grace. I just want for you to see the contrast as we strive to understand this new time and what this would mean to the Old Covenant Jew. I think it's easy for us, for Gentiles, who are familiar with the New Covenant, the saving work of Christ, the grace and mercy of God, the good news gospel, to understand God's grace demonstrated and offered freely in Christ. 

But for the people to whom Peter preached that day, the idea of this kind of love, this kind of grace was really foreign to their thinking. Now listen to me. Even though this did not rightly represent who God is even in the Old Covenant, it was how they thought. You think about how they reacted to Jesus when He told them parables of God's grace like the prodigal son. They were abhorred at Him. He should be stoned to death, but He was received with open arms. They didn't understand that.

Turn over to Hebrews 12 with me, please. Let's look at the contrast. Hebrews 12 at verse 18. The author of Hebrews writes, "For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire into blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, 'I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.'" 

Verse 22, "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God and the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel." 

"See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now He has promised, saying, 'Yet once more I shake not only the earth but also heaven.' Now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are made that the things which cannot be shaken may remain." 

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire." 

The old covenant law, the meeting at Mount Sinai, the tabernacle, the holy of holies, the sacrifices, all these things spoke to the old covenant Jew of his complete sinfulness, of his insufficiency, and of the wrath of a holy God. The idea of access, direct access to God was completely foreign and unattainable.

Listen to the contrast with the new covenant, the age of grace in Hebrews 4, verse 14. "Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but it was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in time and help in time of need." 

Romans 5 speaks to this as well, that we are now at peace with God. We've been justified by faith. We have access by faith into this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 

Peter is explaining in his quotation of Joel 2, "To the Jews in Jerusalem that day that a new age had come, the time of Messiah, the last days, and that now was the time for calling on the name of the Lord to be saved." He will cut them to the quick with the truth that Jesus is the promised Messiah. And the truth that they had rejected and killed Him. 

And He will bring terror in their hearts and minds, confusion, surety of judgment for their sins, their absolute sinfulness and need before a holy God. But then, my friends, in light of their question, Peter has not judgment, not terror, not justice to offer them, but good news, grace, the gospel, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah from the dead, the marvelous truth that what they need to do, what they must do is repent. That is to turn from their trust in themselves and their own righteousness and their religion and turn to Jesus alone. 

To place their faith in Him and receive Him personally as their Messiah, their Savior. And their sins, even the sin of crucifying their Lord will be forgiven and they will be saved. Call on the name of the Lord and be saved. Don't you love that truth? Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord Jesus and believes Him is saved forever. 

The last days have come, my friends. And this time extends to now, today in 2017 at Living Hope Church in Winchester, Wisconsin. And the truth still remains for any and every man, if you will hear the truth of Jesus' death for your sins in your place, His burial and His resurrection, and if you will turn to Him in faith, and if you will call on the name of the Lord in desperate need to be saved from God's wrath for your sins, you will be saved.

The age of grace is now, but the time is coming when the age of grace will end when it will be too late. It may be too late for any one of us today. We do not know if we have tomorrow. But surely the time is coming when the church will be taken up, caught up to be with the Lord. And then the day of the Lord will begin, the time of judgment, and then the second coming of Christ. And those who will not repent, who will not believe, will experience not the grace and mercy of God, but His fierce wrath and judgment. 

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. There's a lot of people who listen to these messages. And there may be people here this morning in this church who are listening who don't know the Lord. If you do not know Jesus, if you're trusting in your works, your religion, your own goodness, or if you... If you only know the law of God, if you don't know the grace of God, look to Jesus. Look to the truth of the Gospel and take it for yourself. Believe Him. Turn to Him. Today is the day of salvation, my friend. Call on the name of the Lord and you shall be saved.

And if you have called on Him, my brother, my sister, if you have trusted Him in His death and resurrection, then thank Him. Appreciate the magnitude of His grace in light of our sin and rebellion. And live in thankfulness every day for Jesus, for His grace, for the new covenant. And please, go out into this world each day and look for opportunities. Pray for those prearranged meetings like Peter had on the day of Pentecost to preach Jesus, to tell men about God's grace and the Gospel of Christ so that they might call on Him and be saved. That's why we're here. 

That's our privilege as believers in Jesus Christ. In Romans 10.13, Paul said, "For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? We are His preachers, my friends. 

And we have the same good news message that Peter preached that day. We might not use Joel 2 because our audience is different. But the core of our message is the same. Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. 

Let's take that message to the world for the salvation of men and for the glory of God. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank You for this historical account of Peter's message on the day of Pentecost and the wonderful works that You were doing by Your Spirit through the believers in that time. And thank You for those men that were saved and the men You've been saving ever since for the preaching of the clear Gospel. Help us to understand, Lord, that that's our commission. That's our job. That's our privilege. That's our service as long as You leave us in this world to tell men the good news about Jesus Christ. 

And no matter what their sins are, that because of His grace, because of His love, because of His mercy, because of His sacrifice in our place, we can be saved through faith in Him. What good news that is. We give You all the glory in Jesus' name. Amen.