Words of Warning – Series on Joel
Get Ready
Joel 2:12-17
* Billy Graham was preaching the funeral of former U.S. President Richard Nixon before five U.S. presidents and a worldwide audience, & he said as he pointed to Nixon’s casket, "Every one of you will be there one of these days. Are you ready?..Don’t save the world & starve your own soul.”
* In the first part of the prophecy of Joel, we have been reminded of the Day of the Lord and what will happen on that day. It’s not pretty, but it is a reality. Our text calls us to GET READY for the Rapture and Revelation.
* We know about getting ready for things. We get ready for events, school, work, weddings, church and much more. Candidly, we don’t care to go somewhere and not be ready. How do we get ready for to meet God and eternity? Realizing that our world, society, and even church culture has missed God’s mark (which, by definition, is sinful) and that nothing sinful is ready to meet God, what do we do?
* For the people of Israel, after opening his prophecy with Judgment of an eye-opening type, God give Joel the way to get ready. I’ll suggest 3 actions which, as a church and a culture, are needed to “Get Ready.”
1. Assemble God’s Children – The first line in verse 15 is a repeat of verse 1, “Blow the horn” yet here it is for a different reason. Verse 1 is an alarm while verse 15 is a call to gather. When rural America moved into the 20th century, most church buildings were equipped with “Bells”. For most, these were sounded on Sunday mornings (& other occasions) to call the believers together. Joel says, “Call all God’s children together” and the call of the New Testament is the same, “Come Together.” Why?
a. The Power of the Assembly – When we speak of this assembly, the modern day counterpart is the church. The assembled church has incredible power. Jesus gave the church the KEYS to spiritual things in heaven and hell. The church has the power to lock and loose things in heaven and hell! But this is the church that is assembled and together. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit fell when they were ALL together and in unity. In John 17 the Lord Jesus prayed diligently & passionately for His people to walk in unity and harmony. God has chosen to work through His church (the assembly) so there are many other issues which we can glean from the text. We read of the call to ‘fast.’ In simple terms fasting (though not practiced by most Baptist) is a commitment to put God & His walk ahead of EVERYTHING! Then the KJV doesn’t call this just an “Assembly,” but a solemn assembly” (dealing with sin).
b. The Priority for the Assembly – Maybe the better way to state this is the “participation” in the Assembly, but it seems to me that the Prophet is giving us a picture of our expected priority and participation. Look at all the people who are mentioned; Senior Adults, children, babies, people & even newlyweds. It would seem that the word of the Lord is this: “Let nothing stand in your way of getting together, it’s that important!” We are living in an era of ‘I’ and ‘me’. Most of us are tired of hearing about this because (for many) it smacks us in the face. “I don’t like Sunday evenings,” “Wednesday night do nothing for me,” or if “I” have nothing else to do this week, “I” may be there; are all statements which are being spoken every week. In many minds, the Assembly is a man made institution which does not deserve first priority, yet this line of thinking is not from the mind of our Lord. Jesus loved and loves the church. He birthed her, died for her, empowered her, and one day is coming back for her. Initially, He sent the Holy Spirit when the church was gathered.
c. The Prayer by the Assembly – It was very common for the leaders and thus, the priests to offer corporate prayer for the assembly. Of all the Biblical examples of this I love the Nehemiah 9 example the best. (Read). Now, look at the last part of verse 17 and sense the passion for God and His people. The leaders are told to stand between the portico and altar to pray. With their back to the altar because they had nothing to offer & their faces to the Temple where God was enthroned, they were to pray with a broken heart. Why were their hearts broken? Because of the corruptness of God’s people. Perhaps the reason God answers so few of our prayers today is because He sees no brokenness over our sin, our unfaithfulness and even our inconsistent lives. I submit that if we are to get ready for the Day of the Lord, we must be like Joel speaks and be broken.
2. Acknowledge God’s Character - Candidly, we could stay here all night speaking about God’s character and still not cover it all. Yet, to read the end of verse 13 & verse 14 is to see common characteristic of our Lord. By the way, do you remember that these same things are mentioned in Nehemiah 9?
a. He is Gracious – Think about those first three attributes which we have read; gracious, compassionate, and slow to anger. I submit there is one word which encompasses all of these thoughts; merciful. Would it be fair to say, that God has not given us what we deserve? He has given us kindness, understanding, leniency, and the best gift of all, His Son. God is THE God who takes the first step toward us so that we can find Him.
b. He is Good – He is so rich in love that He (of His own choice) can be merciful! Think about this: Muslims are afraid of Allah because he is a god of violence and viciousness. Unless they sacrifice their lives in jihad they have no security that Allah will receive them in paradise. Jehovah God is good to us in that He offers us His love and the assurance that when we come to Him, He will abundantly pardon. Consider this: God is so gracious and good that He desires that no one fall under His divine judgment. He sent Jesus to die because He desires that no one perish. However, make no mistake: His goodness is only exceeded by His righteousness and Holy God will indeed judge unholy man because God will judge and punish sin. Getting ready for the Day of the Lord means recognizing that He is gracious, good and;
c. He is Generous – God’s character is such that when we come to Him ‘who knows’ what He might do? He may replace His judgment with a blessing. We know that James the brother of Jesus writes that ‘every good and perfect gift comes from the Father’ and we know that Jesus taught that if “we who are sinful give good gifts to our kids, what do you think God will do?” Never forget, God is rich! He is rich in grace, He is rich in life, and He is rich in love: He is generous with all that He has! Too many think that God wants to ‘cramp their style’ and ‘take away their fun’ when actually the opposite is true. We will never be ready for His coming until we recognize the true Character of God.
3. Accept God’s Call – (for repentance). We are familiar with the call to repent. John the Baptist and Jesus began their ministry calling people to repent. In Acts 2, the Apostle Peter’s response to “what must we do” was “Repent and be baptized for your sins,” but he didn’t stop this message. In Chapter 3 , he concluded his message with ‘repent and turn back (to God) that your sin may be wiped out.’ Jesus’ message rings clear; “Unless you repent, you will all perish.” There is no exception. To look in verse 12 & 13 is to know that God was talking with His own people. He says, “Repent” and gives us 3 pictures to see;
a. The timing – He says “EVEN NOW.” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians “Now is the acceptable time and NOW is the day.” God never says you can, will, or should wait. He says, “Do it now, do it quickly.” Many will respond, “I’ll repent however, I want to wait.” First of all, if you can wait—it probably won’t be true repentance because true repentance comes from a broken heart. Generally, no brokenness equals no repentance.
b. The turning – To turn to God means turning from something. Most of the time it means turning from self. This is not easy or desirable.
* Just like you can never turn toward the east without turning your back on the west, you can never turn to God without turning your back on the world. To be a friend of God is to be an enemy of the world (and visa-versa). Maybe this is why turning to God takes such action.
* Notice the three participles; fasting, weeping, and mourning. A participle is the adjective form of a verb. A verb is the action word and just like turning, all three of these require us to take action. Can you sense the hurt of the heart when you see weeping and mourning?
c. The tearing – I submit that the act of fasting, weeping and mourning is the bridge which leads to the “tearing.” In Old Testament days it was common to tear your clothes and dirty your face to demonstrate your repentance. However, the prophet says, ‘Don’t stop with your clothes, tear your heart also.’ It is only when we tear our heart that we will become tender enough to return to the Lord with no excuses.
* God calls us to “Get Ready for His coming.” We must be ready in our hearts and with our lives.
In an article for Youth Ministries magazine, a 14-year veteran of the Navy SEALs describes the color-code system they use to indicate levels of combat readiness. Each stage has a parallel in spiritual warfare.
Condition White: The soldier is relaxed and daydreaming, unaware of his surroundings. A Christian in this condition is easy prey for Satan.
Condition Yellow: The soldier is relaxed physically but alert mentally. A believer at this level may sense trouble coming, but he’s not ready to confront it.
Condition Orange: The soldier is physically prepared, mentally alert, and ready to fight. A believer at this stage has on the full armor of God.
Condition Red: As in condition orange, the soldier is ready to fight. The difference is experience. A battle-seasoned Christian knows quickly what to do because of his experience and familiarity with Scripture.
Wherever we as followers of Christ happen to be--at work, in the mall, on a business trip, even among fellow believers--we need to know about Satan’s methods and be prepared to resist. He always seems to attack at our most vulnerable moments. But if we stay alert and armed, we can fend off his most powerful attacks. --DCE
THINKING IT OVER
Which color code describes your spiritual condition?
How have you responded recently to temptation?
Are you studying and obeying God’s Word?
PPT’s available from the author.
