Anytime, Anyone, Anywhere

Anytime, anyone, anywhere

joel 2:28-32

Main Idea: Anytime anyone, anywhere calls upon the name of the Lord, they will be saved

I. The Spirit (2:28-29)

Passages where the Lord bestows His Spirit:

  • Kings – 1 Sam 16:13 – 14; Isa 1:2

  • Prophets – 1 Sam 10:6; 19:20 – 24; Isa 61:1; Mic 3:8

  • Other Leaders – Ex 31:3; 35:31; Judges 3:10; 6:34; 14:6

The gift of the Spirit was not to be for personal satisfaction, or even for national recovery and stability. It was to strengthen the people of God to take up a position of prophetic leadership among the nations in a world heading for an apocalyptic day of final reckoning. If individual prophets had the task of taking God’s word to a nation at risk of God’s judgment, a prophetically inspired people would have the task of taking God’s word to a world on the brink of Ultimate judgment.

~ David Prior, The Message of Joel, Micah, and Habakkuk

II. The Day (2:30–31)

The Day of the Lord:*

  • Is a time and event, not just a singular day (Joel 3:1)

  • Emerges in more than one historic moment in the history of God’s people

  • Emerges with/after momentous cosmological events

  • Is a time of restoration and salvation and it is followed by peace and harmony

  • Is a time of judgment and punishment

  • Anticipates a coming vindication of the righteous and punishment of the wicked

  • Correlates with the coming reign of God, which can also be identified as the coming kingdom of God

  • Is a day of refuge and restoration for those who, in humility and fidelity, call on the Lord and wait for him

  • Reveals the just and restorative character of Yahweh

*Adapted from The Minor Prophets: A Theological Introduction, Craig G. Bartholomew and Heath A. Thomas

The day of the Lord is the advent of God into the world in judgment and salvation to usher in his kingdom.

~ Craig G. Bartholomew and Heath A. Thomas, The Minor Prophets: A Theological Introduction

III. The Call (2:32)

I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that great Biblical doctrine.

~ Charles Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon's Autobiography

We are invited to rejoice in a God who is still pouring out his Spirit on those who, in glad and humble response to his call, turn to him to be saved — from the grip of sin and the powers of death, but supremely from the day of judgment. They then become part of the people of God, a ‘remnant’ called and equipped to speak his word to their generation and, by such ministry, to provide godly leadership in society at every level.

~ David Prior, The Message of Joel, Micah, and Habakkuk

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