Where is God in a Pandemic? (Part 3)
Message Description
Dr. Kurt Bjorklund looks at the summary of the book of Joel, the different interpretations about the Day of the Lord and the destruction and beauty that's revealed in it.
Message Transcript
Hey, Orchard Hill, would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you just for a chance to be together via this medium. We look forward to the days when we can gather in person again, we hope that that will be sooner rather than later. But today I ask that you speak to each of us wherever we are, wherever we're coming from this week. God, I pray that if I prepared things that don't reflect your heart that you would help me not to say them, things that don't reflect your truth. And God if I've prepared things or if I haven't prepared things that would be beneficial in this moment, I pray you'd prompt me to say them and I would say them. And Father, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Well, today, we are concluding the series that we started on the book of Joel. And this is an Old Testament minor Prophet, major prophet means longer book minor prophets shorter. And this has been a book that really, I think speaks to us in our day because there was a locust plague in Joel's day. And so, we've looked at this book with the question, where is God in a pandemic?
And today, we're really going to jump into the deeper end of the swimming pool. I try usually when I prepare to have something that's kind of on the deep end, and something that's really easily accessible for those who are just wanting to dip their toes into the water. But today, because of the topics that are covered here, we're actually going to go further into the deep end and spend most of our time there.
So, I'm probably going have a lot of scriptures for you to look at because this passage takes us through so many themes that are in the Bible. We're going to look at the Battle of Armageddon and look at the issue of prophecy. We're going to look at the coming of the Holy Spirit. We're going to look at judgment. We're going to look at all of these topics, how Israel relates to the church, and what does Israel place in the prophetic place of God because Joel chapter two verse 28, through the end of Joel chapter 3, verse 21 deals with all of these issues. We're going to, to really dive into all of these.
But here's what Joel has taught us to date. And that is that when there's a disruption to life, when there's something that's a disaster, that it's a time for people to stop and say what's going on, and to say maybe this is a time to cry out to the Lord, maybe this is a time to return to the Lord. Those have been the themes of the last two weeks. Chapter one, cry out to the Lord, pay attention. Chapter two, return to the Lord. And who knows, maybe he'll yet relent. And then we get the beautiful picture of Joel 2 saying that God will restore the years that the locusts have eaten and that this plague will be taken away. And so really, the summary of Joel, in a sense has been when you experience a disaster or disruption, it's a time to turn toward God. That's what really Joel has been about.
You may think I'm making too much of an Old Testament book and a locust plague. So, let me just show you something Jesus says, and this is Luke chapter 13. And this is what we read, Luke 13 verses 1 and following, it says this, “Now there were some present at the time who told Jesus about the Galilee and whose bloods Pilot had mixed with their sacrifices.” In other words, somebody had perpetrated evil in a way that caused others to say, oh my goodness, what is happening here? And Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans are worse sinners than all the other Galileans? Because they suffered in this way? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you too, will perish.”
And then Jesus does something else. He doesn't just leave it with somebody perpetrating something that's evil, but he moves it to an accident or a natural disaster. Verse 4, he says, “Are those 18 people who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them? Do you think they're more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? Well, I tell you now, but unless you repent, you, too will perish.”
Do you see what Jesus does? He does almost the same thing that Joel does, in that he says when there's a disaster, when there's a catastrophe, when there's a disruption, use it to remind yourself that this world is not your home, that this world is not everything. And that there's something in that, that points to something that's future, that tells you that you need to turn toward God or the word Jesus uses, repent, which means to say, I'm giving up my own direction, and I'm aligning my life with the direction of God.
Now, one of the themes in the book of Joel, is this theme the day of the Lord. And that's why this is going to require us to kind of jump into the deep end of the swimming pool because when it comes to the day of the Lord, there are all of these ideas about what it means when it's coming, how it's coming, and different ways that people interpret different passages of the Bible.
But there are generally two camps when it comes to this. One is the group of people that I would say are kind of the doom gloom and glee people. Now the reason I say that, is they'll say the day of the Lord is coming, doom and gloom to everyone. And then there's a little piece of glee in them because they like to tell everybody who hasn't turned toward Jesus, that the wrath of God is coming on them that there's doom and gloom coming. And so, it's the doom gloom glee crowd that basically says, look at all of this, that's going to happen to these people. And there's almost a little bit of happiness about it.
And then there's the group that I would say is kind of the candy and nuts for everyone crowd. And this is the group that basically says, the day the Lord is coming. It's all good. Everyone's going to be good. Everything's going to be great. Everything's awesome in terms of what's coming. And what Joel does in the Old Testament, Jesus in the New Testament, the book of Revelation does, is it doesn't let us simply go into one of those two camps. Because the day of the Lord is this idea of saying there's coming a day when God is going to set things right. And that will involve judgment. And it will involve mercy because those who've come to Jesus will, instead of having judgment will watch that judgment be taken out on Jesus or has been taken out on Jesus. And because of that, we'll live in the splendor of God's eternal kingdom. That's the idea of the day of the Lord.
So, with that in mind, let's jump into Joel chapter three. And I'm going to start in Joel 3. And we'll come back to Joel chapter 2, verse 28 through 32 that you heard read. And the first part of this in verses 1 through 16 of Joel 3 is really about judgment and war. Here's what it says, “In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.” Now as far as we know, there is no literal place, the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Most people think that this just is a euphemism that people would have understood to mean a valley where God will make decisions or something like that. And it says this, “Bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.”
Then it says this, verse 3, “They cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes and sold girls for wine to drink.” Do you hear the evil here of trafficking in human life? It was happening then, and it still happens today. And God says there's coming a day when I'm going to judge people for these kinds of atrocities. At the end of verse 13 it says, “so great is their wickedness!” One of the things that we read about in Joel, we read about in Revelation, we read about throughout the pages of the Bible, is that one day all of the injustice, all of the wrongs of this world, God will bring his judgment to bear. And that is not a happy thought, entirely.
There’re times where you may say I'm happy about it because I want to see injustice dealt with. But if you understand what the Bible teaches about sin, you'll recognize that it isn't just sin out there. But there's sin in here. Because what the Bible says very clearly in Romans 3 is that we're all guilty of sin, every one of us. In fact, that's the idea of going all the way back to Genesis one that that the sin issue entered the world because of human disobedience. And we're all part of it.
But there's not just that imagery here. There's also imagery of war. And we see this because it says this, verse 9, “Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.” And what you get here is not just a picture of judgment, but a picture of war because you have this idea of the nation’s gathering together to fight against the army of the Lord.
Now, this, some see as being purely pictorial language. Others see this as being really a prediction of yet a future battle. I'll talk more about that in just a moment. But here's really, I think, what's going on when it talks about this gathering for war, and that is that the people who set themselves against God, don't just set themselves against kind of an ethereal thing, but there's actually a hardened resistance to saying I want nothing to do with a God as my Lord who tells me and has authority over my life, or who is my substitute my savior because I don't need such a thing.
I don't know if you've ever been in a game situation where, you know, maybe it's a board game, maybe it's a competitive athletic game, and you hit a point where you just say, you know what, I don't care about the game as much as I'm going to take out a personal vendetta on somebody else.
I saw an interview. Evidently there's this Michael Jordan thing that's going on right now on TV, one of the few events that seems live, but where it's talking about the last dance, his last season in Chicago. And I think it was Steve Kerr, or maybe Bill Wennington, who told a story about how they made a play on Jordan and Jordan spent the rest of the practice not caring about the game at all, but just dominating him individually.
In other words, the war here is a culmination that even in the end of time, that all of humanity will say, we're set against the very things of God. You hear this sometimes in our music. You go back 30-40 years Billy Joel, Only the Good Die Young when he says, “I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun. They say there's a heaven for those who await. Some say it's better, but I say it ain't.” But what he's doing, is he's saying, I don't need God, I'll do it my way, you come to our day Post Malone. And the music in his song Rock Star, which I'm not recommending, but the song goes through one kind of indulgence to another saying, this is how I live and I don't care about anything, because I'm going to take care of me. And what's behind this is this whole idea of war. And so, the prediction here is of God's judgment and this coming battle.
And then verse 14, says this, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.” Now, this is God's decision, not our decision. And here's probably a chance of what this is a reference to. Now, not all scholars agree on this. But in Revelation 16, there is the account of the seven bowls, and these are all judgments of God and over and over, it says, and the people still did not repent. Does that sound familiar? In other words, God would bring something, and the people would say, well, I'm still not going to repent, no, no, no. And then we get this. It says, “Then they gathered the kings together in the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.” Or the Valley of Megiddo is another way to do it. Here's a picture from when I was in Israel a few years ago. This is the actual valley of Megiddo, where some people think this great battle of Armageddon will take place. Now, whether or not that is the actual Valley is something that that's up for debate.
And there's a lot of people who will say something like, like this, there's really two big camps of interpretation and that is that Revelation and Joel all speak of literal future events. In other words, this will take place in a literal battlefield, in the valley of Megiddo, and that this is exactly what is coming in the future. And this is very pictorial. In fact, in Revelation at one point, it says that the blood will run as high as the horse’s bridles. And the valley is huge when you look at it. I mean, just a horrific picture about the armies gathering together to fight.
And others see it not so much as predicting a literal event as much as saying this is a future prophecy using pictorial or symbolic language. You know, we know something about symbolic or pictorial language. The other night, I made a little dish for our family, and it was called heaven in a crock pot which didn't mean that heaven was literally in the crock pot, it meant that what was supposed to come out of the crock pot was supposed to taste really good. And then my wife said, heaven in the crock pot means hell on the scale to me. And so, and she didn't mean that that literally hell was happening on the scale, it was just a euphemism for that's not going to be good for me or you to eat.
You know, some people are talking about COVID-19 being a deal. I'm on the COVID five plan right now. thinking maybe we'll push for the COVID-10, but we understand this kind of pictorial language in everyday life. If I were to, to move to something much more serious and say, you know, there are people who right now are having a hard time getting food in some countries. I saw a video the other day about people just lining up in such desperation to get food. And then if somebody were to say, there won't be food there for months, well, they may mean literally months to three months, they may just mean a very long time.
And so, the language the Bible employs, a lot of times could be literal, or it could be figurative. But either way, it really isn't a determining factor as much as saying, it's pointing to something that's serious. And so that this war, this battle, is speaking about the culmination of all things where people will rise up against the God of heaven and say, we don't want you to be our ruler. We don't want your kingdom. We don't want anything that represents you. And it's something that's been going on all through time. And this is verse 15 and Joel predicted it as well says, “The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine.”
In Mark chapter 13, which again is a reference to this kind of time toward the end of time, we see this. This is Mark chapter 13, verses 24 and 25. It says, “But in those days, following that distress, “’the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’” Now that's quoting actually a different portion of the Bible and Isaiah 13.
But what we're seeing here is these cataclysmic events at the end of time, that are being pointed to here, and then verse 16, back in Joel's chapter 3 says, “The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the heavens will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.” In other words, it's saying that in the end, God will be victorious, he will win.
I love what Billy Graham once said, he says, you know, I don't know much about prophecy, but he's I know this. In the end, we win, we win. And what he was saying was, I don't want to get caught up in all of the debates about is this country this or is this that or, or how does this all work? But he says, I know the big scope of this, and that is there's judgment, but there's victory. And that's what we see. In Joel chapter 3, verse 17, to the end of the chapter, it says this, “Then you will know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy hill. Jerusalem will be holy; never again will foreigners invade her.” And that's just talking about how there will come a time of complete safety and security.
Verse 18, “In that day, the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water. The fountain will flow out of the Lord's house and will water the valley of the acacias.” And what this is saying very clearly as there will be incredible beauty, incredible satisfaction. This is a picture of heaven. This is a picture of God's ultimate fulfillment and kingdom. This is the victory.
Now, here's one of the challenges. Now, I don't know if this is true for you. But even being a pastor who studies the Bible a lot, a lot of times, I have a hard time imagining heaven or the future being better than the present. And so, I load many of my hopes into the present. But one of the things we see here is that there is coming a time and a place that will be way more satisfying, way more secure than anything we can encounter or experience or secure for ourselves here and now.
Here's what came out of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This is old now, but it still makes a great point. It’s talking about a conversation that the boys had with Miss Watson, that Huck Finn actually had with Miss Watson. He says, “Then she told me all about the bad place. And I said that I wished I were there. She got mad then. But I didn't mean no harm. All I wanted was, was to go somewhere else. All I wanted was change. I wasn't particular. She said it was wicked to say what I said. Said she wouldn't say it for the whole world said she was going to live so as to go to the good place. I can see no advantage and going to where she was going. So, I made up my mind, I wouldn't try for it. But I never said so because it would only have made a trouble, and it wouldn't have done no good. Now she had a good start and went on and told me about the good place.” And this euphemism is heaven. She said “that all a body would have to do there was go around all day with a harp and sing forever and ever so I didn't think much of it. But I never said so.2
I asked if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there. And she said, not by considerable sight. And I was glad about that because I wanted me and him to be together.”
And the reason that I read that is because many of us, our version of future is, well, you know, the good time the party will be wherever everyone else is, and that my friends will be in that heaven thing. And I don't know that I want too, it's going be a harp and an endless choir and some of these things that I don't think I'd, really love. But notice the language of Joel, there's judgement and destruction in the day of the Lord. And then there's this incredible beauty in the day of the Lord.
Now, you may say, okay, so that gives me a little picture of Joel, but doesn't it say that it has this image of Jerusalem and Zion and Israel? And you're absolutely right. I'm glad you asked that question. So, here's what we learn. And this is where we need to go back now to Joel chapter 2, verse 28 through 32. This is what you heard read earlier. And this is a prophecy in a sense. And it talks about prophecy. And here's what it says again, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.” Do you hear that? That's the same reference probably to what we just saw in Mark 13 and Joel 3. “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Okay, so he's saying it's coming. It's coming. “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.”
Now you may say okay, so what that's doing is that saying there will be this this outpouring of prophecy. Now we need to understand something about prophecy and how it was used in the Old Testament. Because one of the things you'll hear if you're around church world for any amount of time, is you'll hear people say that, that Joel says, the prophet Joel says, that in the last days that everyone will prophesied and they'll see dreams and visions. And so, people will use this to say, I had a vision, and I'm this and that, and, and we're living in those days. And so now everyone has these dreams and visions.
But what we need to understand is how this was understood. And so, let me just give you a couple things in Numbers 11 what we see is how prophecy was restricted in the Old Testament times. Now prophecy, generally in the Old Testament meant an authoritative word from God. It did not mean an impression that you thought was from God. And if you were wrong, you could retract okay. A lot of times today when people make prophecies, they throw things out there. This is again, you'll see preachers on TV do this where they'll throw things out there. And they'll be like, here's my prophecy for 2020 or 2025, or whatever year it is. And then when they're wrong, they're just like, Oh, you know, I was wrong. And the Old Testament if you were wrong, you were stoned. Because you couldn't be wrong and claim that you were speaking for God. That's just how that work.
Now Numbers 11 verse 26 and following, we see this, it says, “However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders but did not go out to the tent. Yet the spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp.” Now again, Old Testament, you speak authoritatively for God when you prophesied. “A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Joshua was son of Nun, who had been to Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them! Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.” Now, the reason that I read this, the reason this is significant, is because in those times, God's Spirit rested on prophets, people with the office of prophet, who then spoke for God authoritatively.
In Jeremiah, chapter 23. We see how prophecy had been abused even in the Old Testament. This is Jeremiah 23, beginning at verse 25. It says this, “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship. Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” “Therefore,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me.”
Now, the reason again, I read this is because this just helps us understand something about prophecy. It was authoritative, it was from God, but even then, there were false prophets. Okay. Now, Joel says in these last days, that people will prophesy. So, what is he referring to? Well, Peter, who was a New Testament apostle, tells us exactly what he was speaking to. This is Acts chapter 2, verse 16. It says, now this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel and he quotes Joel chapter 2, verse 28, almost verbatim, verses 17 through 21 and Acts 2. Now Acts 2, just for context, is where the church experienced the Holy Spirit Pentecost. And what happened was, people were gathered from every nation and people would come in and they would start to speak prophesy in a tongue. And a tongue was a known language, check out your footnotes in Acts 2, it was not gibberish. It was a known language. And they spoke in such a way that everyone could understand the words that they were speaking. And so, what would happen is, it would be like you walking into a market somewhere, not knowing a language and all of a sudden speaking a language that people there could all understand. And they'd say, wow, this is God's word coming through this, and Peter says this is what Joel was talking about. This is what Joel was prophesying.
And here's why this matters. Because in saying that this is that, he's telling us that God has worked in such a way as to pour His Spirit out on all of his followers in a definitive way. In fact, it's significant that he stopped short of, of the little bit in Joel chapter 2 where he says that there's a rescuer, a deliverer in Zion and all my people will be safe in Jerusalem. He stops when he says this in verse 21, “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And then a little later in Acts chapter 2 verse 37 he says, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off - for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Now here's why this matters. Because Israel is not just the people of Israel in the Old Testament, and when we come to our New Testament times in Bible prophecy. It's all the people of God. Romans chapter 9, verse 6 and following says, “Not all Israel is Israel.” And it says, “Only those who are spiritual Israel.” In other words, this is not just a promise about Israel in the nations, this is a promise that speaks on a much broader term.
Now, I'm not here to debate the nuances of whether or not Israel has any function in the Bible in terms of prophecy. But what I'm saying is that it's significant because Peter says this is what Joel was talking about. It means that we are living in a time in which anyone can call on the name of the Lord, in which anyone can minister, that the Holy Spirit is on anybody who comes to faith in Jesus Christ. And I'll talk about the implications of that a little more in just a moment. In first Peter chapter 2, Peter, again, who was there at Pentecost says this, verse 9, he says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into this wonderful light.” In other words, what he says is any follower of Jesus Christ is now able to encounter the Holy Spirit in all of his fullness. It's not reserved just for profits.
Now, you may say, okay, Kurt, you said, we're going to the deep end of the swimming pool, you just, you know, kind of made me drink from a fire hose for a few minutes here. I'm not sure what any of this has to do with me or my current situation. Again, I'm glad you asked. Let me give you four statements of application, just from kind of where we've looked and what this passage teaches and what I think it really points to here today.
First this, and that is, faith in Jesus Christ is the only escape of certain judgment and is available to everyone. When the writing of Joel goes through the nation's, he mentions Tyre and Sidon selling the children of Israel for slavery or human trafficking, something that in any day we'd call evil. But he also mentions the Greeks. You know, the Greeks were the ones who had great culture and great sophistication. I think this is a picture even in the Old Testament of self-indulgence and self-righteousness. And they were both in the armies that were gathering together in Joel's picture. In other words, we need to be aware that we can run from the escape that God offers either through our self-indulgence and saying I don't want any part of anything, or from our suppose goodness, from our way of saying I've done it right, I've got it right. And I don't need a God or a savior to help me.
I said this, I think last weekend, but sometimes what we do is we use Jesus to run from God. We use our goodness to run from Jesus. And what I mean is, we use goodness and Jesus, as a way to say I don't have to deal with the wrath of God. Instead of saying, it is in my acknowledgement that it is Jesus who went to the cross on my behalf, not how well I followed this Jesus that gives me standing.
Here's the second thing. We are living in times in which all of the preliminaries are fulfilled. And therefore, we can move quickly to the ultimate day of the Lord. Because Joel’s prophecy is fulfilled in Pentecost, Peter says so. It means that you don't have to look forward and say when some group gets together and says, hey this is what Joel was talking about, now we're close. We are living in what the Bible calls the last days. It's like you've gone to a play somewhere and intermission has already happened, and you know that you are coming to the climactic scene. In the Bible in terms of the timeline of events, that is where we are living now. Does that mean that we are living in the ultimate last days? Probably hard to say because what second Peter 3 again says is that with the Lord one day is like 1000 years, and that he is not slow concerning His coming, but he's giving everyone time to repent. So we don't know if God is in the in the final wrap up or if there's still a bit of the play to go, but we know that we're past intermission, and that the only thing left is the final act. I hope that gives you a sense of urgency for how you live your life.
Here's the third thing. Nobody has a special interpretation or prophecy for you, that isn't rooted in a common or shared interpretation of Scripture. Now this may seem like you may say, okay, Kurt, now you're going down in the weeds again. But let me just talk about this for a moment because here's why this matters. You will not have to be a follower of Jesus for very long and somebody will say to you, I have a word for the Lord from you, I have a prophecy for you, I have something for you that God told me to say to you. And if you give those people credibility and credence, you are giving them something that I don't believe you need to give them based on scripture. So, here's the statement again, and then let me just talk about it. Nobody has a special interpretation or prophecy for you, that isn't rooted in a common or shared interpretation of Scripture.
Now, the reason again that this is significant, is because if you don't understand this, then when somebody says something like that, you're going to be beholden to them. Let me give you an example. When I was first pastoring at a little church, and we had a lady who loved to sing special music and she wasn't any good at it. In fact, whenever she would sing it was just like, like you were just like, oh, this is awful. This is like, shut the church down, you know it was just one of those things. But what made it harder is she would always say the Lord has given me a song. And she would say the Lord's given me a song that he wants me to sing. And she would come and you know, I was a young pastor, I was just like, okay, if the Lord gave you a song, I guess you got to sing, you know, we don't want to tell people no, you can't sing. She'd get up, she'd sing, it was awful, would empty the place out and I'd be like, this can't be of God. And then I realized that God can say to me just as much as she says, God says to her about the song and so you know, I would just be like, you know what, I'll tell you what, you get your song ready and if I sense that God is leading, I'll give you the thumbs up, and if I don't, I'll just be like, no, I don't sense God's leading. And you know the time would come, she'd be ready to sing, and I'd be like, yeah, I don't know. You know, I'm not hearing it. Now, I'm exaggerating. It wasn't that bad, but my point is, there was a lady who came and always thought God gave her a word in a song or something that had happened in the service, and it took me a while to say, just because God you think God says something to you doesn't mean that it happened. In fact, in the Old Testament if you were ever wrong, you were stoned.
And here's why again this matters. You will have people trying to manipulate you, control you, can tell you to something that is not biblical. And this is why it has to be based on a shared understanding of Scripture, a shared interpretation. Even Peter, now again, this is Peter, who was at Pentecost, who was the person who was there who was who was saying, this is what Joel was talking about. He says this, verse 19, and following, “We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
What's he saying? He's saying that there is prophecy that is shared. And here's what this means when I say it's got to be a shared interpretation. Well, let me just make this as practical as I can. Somebody might come to you and say, you know, I feel like the person you're dating, God told me you shouldn't date. Okay? Prophecy, God told me. Now, there's different ways people use the word prophecy. Some don't mean prophecy, like the Old Testament when they use it today, but I would prefer you use the phrase, you know, I feel like I have spiritual discernment, I have something else because of the confusion of that. What is legitimate is to say, I don't believe that you dating that person is in your best interest or as wise or as biblical.
And let me show you the biblical principle and help you understand why I think that, but ultimately you have to make your own decision. So, for example, you might say you're dating somebody who is not a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe that second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 says, “You shouldn't be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever.” Therefore, I think your dating this person violates that clear essential Scripture, I think you should reconsider it. Do you hear the difference between that, and God told me? God told me as manipulative, the other says, here's a shared interpretation, you can see where I'm getting it, you can see what I'm saying about it. And now you have a chance to interact with Scripture.
If somebody tells you, they are a prophet, they are not. That's a good general rule. And if you get this, it will actually free you to say I'm under the compulsion of Scripture, and I have the same access to God that anybody else has. And that'll save you a lot of pain in spiritual life.
And then here's the fourth thing. If you believe in and follow Jesus Christ, you have an opportunity and a responsibility to invite others to this great escape. If you believe in and follow Jesus Christ, you have an opportunity and a responsibility to invite others to this great escape. You know, there's this virus right now. And many have postulated, you know how this is similar to sin, it's potential that all of us can have it. Sin is different in that we all do. But if somebody had a cure for it, a vaccine, and it was universally available, what good news it would be. But how cold hearted would you have to be to say I have a cure, and I'm not going to share it with anybody. I'm just going to keep it to myself, because it's a little socially uncouth to tell everyone that I have a cure. If you really believe that history is moving forward, what Joel talks about, and that our little disruptions and disasters that we have today are pointing forward to the great day of the Lord. But the day of the Lord doesn't have to be experienced as this awful event because if we repent, we can escape it. Then the only loving thing to do is to say how can I help other people be in the reality of this great escape?
You know, the church right now is going through Church around the world is going through a time because we are realizing again that the church isn’t a building. It's not a not a bunch of services. It's not staff. It's not programs. It's the people of God living in their own community and living out what it means.
And these days, if you believe what the prophet Joel has spoken of, and you've come to trust Jesus Christ as your own Savior, then these days are great days of opportunity and responsibility to say how can I invite more and more people who are thinking about spiritual things right now in a way that maybe they haven't for a long time. And that is, in many ways, the message of Joel. So, four applications, I hope one of these is something that you can grab ahold of and say, this is something that I can put into use this week as I move forward.
So, I just want to pray and give you a moment just to respond and then we're going to hear a great rendition of one of the great hymns of the faith, How Great Thou Art, talking about our great God who will one day judge what is wrong in our world and make right what is wrong, what is broken, the great God that we worship. But for now, let me just ask you where we are to bow your heads, close your eyes and pray with me for a moment.
God, current disasters, current hardships remind us that there's coming a day, your day, the day of the Lord. And God I pray that when this current disaster is done, that we wouldn't just go happily back to our ways and forget the reality that this is pointed to. But God instead I pray that some of us would run to you Jesus as our great escape. That some of us would live with greater urgency and responsibility. God, I pray that we would know that we have the potential to speak for you, because your spirit is now on all believers. And then it would change the way that we live for this day, and for the rest of our days on this earth. Father for those maybe who are partaking right now and have never trusted Your Son, Jesus Christ, Lord, I pray that instead of getting lost with Israel and Armageddon, signs and the Holy Spirit, that there would just be a recognition that they have been in some ways at war with your purposes, not wanting you to be their God, but wanting to be their own God, the essence of sin, and would turn to Jesus as the Savior. The one who provides shelter. The one who Joel talks about as the lion who will roar. But Revelation says he's not just a lion. He's also a Lamb who was sacrificed on behalf of the people and those who run to him can experience salvation because God, that reminds us of how great you are and what you have done on our behalf. So, we worship you in this, in Jesus name. Amen