Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Because you never know when the day before is the day before… prepare for tomorrow.

Bobby Akart.

The future being unknown we plan and prepare because to fail to plan is to plan to fail.

We spend time money and effort to plan for things we postulate could most likely happen.

How differently would we prepare for a cataclysmic event that we knew without a doubt would happen?

Its one thing to expect the unexpected and quite another thing to plan for what is sure to happen.

There isnt anything more sure to happen then something that God has announced, declared or prophesied through his prophets.

In continuing with our over arching theme of “Being Prepared” we are closing this book with knowing what to expect because when you know what to expect you can plan and prepare accordingly.

Listen and heed the message to know what to expect.

The worst thing would be to be caught unprepared - especially after being given the message of what to expect!

Before that Day

In the Hebrew scriptures these five verses would form chapter 3 and chapter 3 would be chapter 4.

These five verses however warranted their own chapter and own look at them according to the Jewish scholars.

Joel starts off with the prepositional phrase after this, which leads to a natural question “after what?”.

Joel is referring to the events described in Joel 2:18-27 when the Lord heals the nation after the invasion of the Assyrians.

So after this the Lord will pour out His Spirit on ALL humanity.

It does not mean immediately afterward for it will be a few centuries passing before the Spirit will be poured out.

The important thing is they should expect the pouring out of God’s Spirit upon all humanity.

Peter quotes this passage in Acts 2:17 and interprets this phrase after this to be “in the last days”

The “last days” began with Christ’s ministry here on earth and the last days will conclude with the Day of the Lord.

I will pour out MY Spirit on all humanity then your sons and daughters will prophesy, old men will have dreams and your young men will see visions.

I will EVEN pour out MY Spirit upon male and female slaves.

The Day of the Lord will be preceded by an outpouring of His Spirit on all people.

This outpouring will be upon all people and this is true regardless of age, gender, or social class.

Expect that God’s Spirit will be upon all flesh - not just selected men at selected times for selected duties!

The Old Testament has many records of the work of the Holy Spirit but He was not poured out on all flesh under the Old Covenant.

It was selective and limited.

Joel is looking forward to the glorious New Covenant when the Spirit would be poured out on all flesh.

In this New Covenant every believer can receive the full measure of the Spirit and be used in a special and wonderful way.

Sometimes the common churchgoer simply wants a building to worship in, a nice service that isn’t too offensive, and a good sermon—after that he thinks, leave me alone.

That isn’t New Covenant Christianity, which sees the work of the ministry as belonging to the people, not the “clergy.”

Some people have taken this idea and run too far with it saying, “Therefore we don’t need ministers or clergy.

We believe in the priesthood of all believers, so there is no room for offices of any kind in the church.”

The clear teaching of Scripture says that the work of the ministry belongs to all the people of God, but the precise work of equipping the saints belongs to God-appointed offices and ministries outlined in Ephesians 4:7–16.

It is for the precise reason of the ministry belonging to every individual believer that God has appointed offices and ministries to equip every saint to fulfill their role and place in the body of Christ.

It is important to note that though Joel was quoted by Peter on the Day of Pentecost that this prophecy Joel was fulfilled it was not completely consummated.

The Day of Pentecost has ushered in the last days up to the edge but now riding along the edge.

The prophecy of verse 30-31 about the wonders of the heavens blood fire and smoke, sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood have no record of occuring or being yet fulfilled at Pentecost or anytime since Pentecost.

The signs will also precede the great and dreadful day of the Lord - but while they signal doom for the enemies of God His people should interpret them as precursors of deliverance.

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for there will be an escape as the Lord promised.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved - no matter what nation they come from.

This is a broad call.

“ ‘Ah!’ you say, ‘I wish my name was written down in the Bible.’

Would it comfort you at all?

If it were written in the Scripture, ‘Charles Haddon Spurgeon shall be saved,’ I am afraid I should not get much comfort out of the promise, for I should go home, and fetch out the London Directory, and see if there was not another person of that name, or very like it.

How much worse would it be for the Smiths and the Browns!

No, my brethren, do not ask to see your name in the inspired volume; but be content with what you do see, namely, your character!

When the Scripture says, ‘Whosoever,’ you cannot shut yourself out of that.”

(Spurgeon)

Everyone who CALLS on the name of the Lord shall be saved - this is a call to pray as a sinner for salvation.

“You cannot perish praying; no one has ever done so.

If you could perish praying, you would be a new wonder in the universe.

A praying soul in hell is an utter impossibility.

A man calling on God and rejected of God!—the supposition is not to be endured.

‘Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

God himself must lie, he must quit his nature, forfeit his claim to mercy, destroy his character of love, if he were to let a poor sinner call upon his name, and yet refuse to hear him.”

(Spurgeon)

Everyone who calls on the NAME of the Lord shall be saved - this is call to come to the true God.

Coming to a false god, a god of your own imagination will do you no good.

The god of your opinion does not exist and cannot save you.

You must come to the God of the Bible.

“The pity of it is that the most of people in these days worship a god of their own invention.

They do not make an image of clay, or of gold, but they construct a deity in their minds according to their own thoughts.

They proudly judge as to what God ought to be, and they will not receive God as he really is.

What is this but a god-making as gross as that which is performed by the heathen?

What can be more wicked than to attempt to imagine a better god than the one true and living God?

As the deity of your fancy has no existence, I would not recommend you to trust in him.”

(Spurgeon)

Will be saved as the Lord promised

If you trust in the Lord God Almighty, he will save you as surely as he is God.” (Spurgeon)

During That Day

In those days and at that time I will gather the nations and take them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat and I will enter into judgment with them there.

Nations in those days and at that time prepare for judgment.

This is the broad period of the Last Days, initiated by the ascension of Jesus and the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost.

When considering the last days dont think in terms of final years or months but rather an era.

The last days is an era that began with the birth of the church.

Since the birth of the church time has not been rushing to a distant edge but rather since the birth of the church has been on the edge for the last 2000 years.

Joel here describes the final gathering of the nations in rebellion to God at the battle of Armageddon.

There is no valley in Israel known as the valley of Jehoshaphat mentioned only here in Joel, but Jehoshaphat means the Lord judges or decides and it describes God’s place of judgment.

Some scholars speculate that perhaps this is a yet unformed valley that will come into existence at the splitting of the Mount of Olives.

The importance however is not location but the meaning of the place.

This is a judgment of the nations to show that the ungodly nations will not escape the hand of God.

God refers to the Israelites as MY people and MY inheritance Israel and the silver and gold as His also.

The Jews have disobeyed the covenant and have not sought to please the Lord but He has not abandoned them.

He preserves them and will one day come and defeat their enemies.

Gods complaint against the nations is how they have mistreated His people.

God takes it personally and will avenge the mistreatment of His people.

This judgment is the separation of the sheep from the goats and is determined by how Jesus’s brethren were treated in His name.

This separation determines who goes into the Millennial earth and who goes straight to judgment.

Nations prepare for war to rebel against God’s judgment.

This draws them to the valley of Jehoshaphat the harvest of judgment is ripe swing the sickle and trample the grapes.

Nations prepare for defeat in the valley of decision.

The Day of the Lord is near the Valley of decision or determination - this is the position after judgment is reached.

Joel looking out at the battlefield of Armageddon - those who fight against the Lord and His Messiah are in the wrong place of the Valley of Decision.

Now countless evangelistic calls have started with that idea.

Showing people that they stand in the valley of decision and must decide.

Joel’s context has the opposite idea in mind.

Men do stand in the Valley of Decision but it is God who does the deciding not man.

For it is the Valley of judgment and determination.