The book of Joel is about one thing—the Day of the
Lord. The Day of the Lord is the day
when God simultaneously judges and vindicates. He judges and punishes sinners.
He vindicates and rewards those who are right. The Day of the Lord is when
things come to an end and are sorted. The time of harvest is here. The angels
are sent out to gather the wheat into the barn, but the weeds are bundled
together and thrown into the unquenchable fire. “Time’s up!”
This is the tone of the prophecy that the Lord gave to Joel.
The Day of the Lord is the stuff of nightmares for every sinner. Joel was given
to see the beloved homeland overtaken by hordes of evil enemies sent by none
other than God himself. The enemies are so thick that they swarm and move as
one mass going over hill and dale. And they are coming for one purpose: to
destroy everything. Not one stone will be left upon another.
The Day of the Lord, as in the final Day of the Lord, has
not yet come, and yet it is always coming. It has not yet come in its final action
when the powers of the heaven will be shaken, the sun, moon, and stars will do
unusual things, and God will roll up this creation like a scroll. That day has not yet come, and yet it is
always coming. It comes with the end of each one of our lives. That is the day
of reckoning. That is when we will be judged or vindicated—our fate is then
sealed. The time for repentance is over. The only thing left is to await the
Day of Judgment and the fullness of our bodily existence in heaven or in hell.
And so we cannot pass off the Day of the Lord as overblown
and dramatic and only something that involves other people as though it is
about some characters in a work of fiction. That is not true. Each of us will
experience stupendous things. The fullness of the Last Day might come while we
are still living. No one knows the day nor the hour when the Lord Jesus will
return. But even if our lives are cut short before that day, we will still
experience it.
On the day of Pentecost the disciples were speaking about
the Day of the Lord. The first words out of St. Peter’s mouth when he stands up
to address the crowd in a more public way were from the book of Joel, and the
book of Joel is “the Day of the Lord” from one end to the other of it. The
other disciples were no doubt speaking about similar things. That is because
they were speaking about the great deeds and promises that are revealed in
Jesus Christ. The wages of sin is death. The wrath of God against all
unrighteousness whatsoever cannot be overcome except in one way only—only the
sacrifice of Jesus, true God and true man, is able to set things right and
achieve reconciliation between God and sinners. This is what Jesus did by his
perfect life of fulfilling the Law that we have not kept, and dying and being
damned with the punishment that we deserve because of our misdeeds.
When the Day of the Lord comes—and it comes for every single
person—those who have taken refuge in the death and resurrection of Jesus will
be welcomed with a perfect love from God and they will be restored to the
creatures that God originally created them to be. They will be without sin,
filled with love, and ever increasing in love. But those who by their unbelief
set aside the work of reconciliation that Jesus has worked between God and
sinners will remain unforgiven and unclean.
When things are sorted they will go where they belong, which is in hell.
Hell is the place where all of us belong according to what we have done, but
because of what Jesus has done for us we have a righteousness before God that
is not from the Law—it is not based on us or what we have done—but upon perfect
Jesus. That is a superabundant righteousness that far surpasses our
imagination, to say nothing of whatever righteousness we could possibly achieve
by good living.
And so it is no mere coincidence that St. Peter opens his
sermon on Pentecost by an extensive quotation from Joel. He knows that the Day
of the Lord, the Day of Judgment is right here. New and glorious revelations from
God have been made concerning this awesome and terrible Day. What has been
revealed is that the Messiah, whom the people of God have been waiting for from
the beginning, from the fall into sin, to set them free from death and
decomposition and turning into dust. What horrible sorrow and disgust and fear
Adam and Eve must have experienced with that first death and all the ugly
things that go along with it! It is only by long association with death that we
become calloused to it and cannot understand the tragedy that it truly is.
But now Jesus, resurrected from the dead, has brought life
and immortality to light. The wrath of God against us evil creatures has turned
away. Just as Jesus rose from the dead full of vitality, so also all those who
die trusting in him will rise with purified bodies and will be blessed with an
experience of life that we have never known. The only life that we have known
is weighed down with sin and its consequences of disease, sadness, and death.
But that is all over with with the resurrection from the dead and the Day of
the Lord.
One of my favorite passages in all of Scripture is Micah’s
prophesy concerning this Day. It is the Old Testament reading for the second
Sunday in Advent, and so we hear it every year. The Lord says to Micah that
that Day is coming, burning like an oven. All the evil doers will be like
stubble who will be burned and their ashes will cling to the feet of the
righteous. But that same heat will be enlivening and healing to those whom God
has chosen for salvation. It will be like the warm sun of spring with healing
in its wings. Then we shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. Calves
are so happy when they are finally done with the musty old barn they’ve been
cooped up in all winter long, and instead of dried out, tasteless hay, they now
have fresh sweet grass to eat. When calves are turned out to pasture they romp
and leap and run, just for the fun of it. They are feeling the strength and
vitality of life and are rejoicing in it. That is how it will be for those whom
God has chosen for salvation. We will finally be out of this death-house of a
fallen creation and be basking in the hot sun of God’s love for us. We will be
happy and rejoicing.
But how can any of us know if we will be among those who are
happy and rejoicing? How can we know
whether God has chosen us for salvation? This question has not always been
handled very well, and so it is understandable that people shy away from it.
Many have tried to pry into the mind of God and to figure out his secret
councils: whom he has chosen; whom he has not chosen? They think that this is
predestination. But whom God has chosen for salvation is not a secret. We do
not need to go up into heaven or down into the depths. He sets it before us
with his Word. God from the beginning has made known whom he has chosen by
telling them that he has chosen them. That’s what he said to Adam and Eve, to
Noah, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so on down through the centuries of
history. This is also the most important element to Pentecost.
At Pentecost God, through the preaching of Peter and the
testimony of all the disciples, made known to the people that God had chosen
them for salvation. This is surprising, given the makeup of that crowd.
Included in that crowd were a great many people who were either directly involved
in the crucifixion of Jesus or who went along with it by their inaction. They
had committed the worst sin imaginable—they had murdered the perfect and
sinless Son of God. But when they are cut to the heart and ask St. Peter what
they should do, he says that they should repent and be baptized for the
forgiveness of all their sins. He even urges the goodness of the Lord upon them
so that they are not shy and bashful in the face of their terrible crimes. He
tells them that it is for them and for their children, for those who are near
and those who are far off. Whoever hears and believes the words that come from
God about reconciliation in Jesus have been chosen by him for salvation. The
greatness of Pentecost is the delivery of God’s chosenness to those who hear
the Word of salvation in Jesus.
This delivery of salvation by God’s own word and sacraments
is something that continues on to the present day and the present hour. It was
not a coincidence that all those people from hither and yon were in the presence
of the apostles and disciples to experience the pouring out of the Spirit of
God by the preaching of Jesus. It is no coincidence that you are here today.
God has brought it about. And he wishes for you to believe that this testimony
I have given you from the Bible is yours. Although you are filthy and belong in
hell, because God has inexplicably loved you and sent his Son to ransom you,
you will not go to hell. God is not angry with you, but for the sake of Jesus
is even well pleased with you like a dear father towards his dear children. By
your hearing this, you can be assured that it is for you—God has picked you—for
God is not a liar.
Now it is possible for the glad tidings of great joy that is
for all the people to be disbelieved. This is a great mystery tied up with the
unimaginable evil that resides in every human heart. Why should God’s truth be
opposed? And yet it is. Even on that Pentecost day there were those who
despised the excitement that God’s children had for the coming of the great and
terrible day of the Lord and they said that the people were drunk. The high and
mighty have very little regard for God’s promises. They believe that the
building of the tower of Babel holds out much more promise for blessing, for
progress. “When did hearing and believing do anything, or put bread on the
table, or cure cancer?” they scoff. “Believe in the power of Man,” they say,
“as for this God of yours, we don’t know what to make of him. He seems to have
forgotten about coming and we do not know where he is.”
The truth of God’s Word can be blocked with unbelief in many
other ways too. We won’t get into them all, because they are legion. The devil
is an exceedingly good liar, and if we were to be forsaken by the Word of God
and the Holy Spirit there isn’t a single one of us who could remain believing.
We walk in danger all the way, as the hymn-writer puts it, and so do not let
yourself be caught off guard.
But none of this changes the facts that have already been
laid out for you today. It is only by lies and deception that you can be
overcome. The facts speak for you. The facts are these: Jesus died for you—for
the sins you committed yesterday and the sins you sadly might commit today and tomorrow.
Jesus rose for you and so you also will rise. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to
make known to you God’s eternal council concerning you. He does this through Christians
who become testifiers and preachers so that the authoritative word of God, of
forgiveness and salvation, could be made known to all the earth beginning at
Jerusalem. There is a direct line from Pentecost to you today. Those who heard
the Gospel at Pentecost preached it to others—to those whom God put into their
path. Those who believed also spoke, and so they also told others what they had
learned of Jesus. This preaching of the Gospel has gone out far and wide on
down the centuries until it could fill up your ears this morning—so that you
may know that you have been chosen by God for salvation in Jesus Christ.
I’m sure that over the years that you have known me you’ve
heard me say this several times, but I’m going to say it again: Pentecost is
the third great Christian festival of the Church Year. Everybody knows about
the other two—Christmas and Easter—and knows something of the importance of
them. Attendance is pretty good for those services since Christians know that
these were crucial events that God worked for their salvation. But Pentecost
tends to get lost in the shuffle and it’s just one of those Sundays during the
summer. That is not how it should be. Pentecost is just as important as these
other festivals, for without Pentecost Christmas and Easter wouldn’t benefit
you. Jesus and his righteousness can only be received by faith, and the only
way that we can believe is by the power of the Holy Spirit working in the Word.
And so without the preaching of the Gospel that began that day you would remain
in your unbelief and hostility towards God. But God has made it so that you
should hear of him and his love towards you in Christ by the pouring out of his
Holy Spirit.
And so on this day we might ask God to work up in us the
fire of his love—that he should take away our apathy and coldness and fear, and
that he give us strong conviction, boldness, and courage. God is not stingy
with his gifts. You just might be surprised at what he might decide to do
through you for the furtherance of his Kingdom.
Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord,
with all your graces now outpoured
on each believer’s mind and heart;
Your fervent love to them impart.
Lord by the brightness of Your light
In holy faith Your Church unite;
From ev’ry land and ev’ry tongue
This to Your praise, O Lord, our God be sung:
Alleluia, alleluia!
with all your graces now outpoured
on each believer’s mind and heart;
Your fervent love to them impart.
Lord by the brightness of Your light
In holy faith Your Church unite;
From ev’ry land and ev’ry tongue
This to Your praise, O Lord, our God be sung:
Alleluia, alleluia!
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