GOD POURS OUT HIS HOLY SPIRIT (Outline)
May 23, 2010 -
Pentecost -
JOEL 2:28,29
INTRO: God’s gift of the Holy Spirit provides faith in the hearts and for the lives of every believer. Those who lived during Jesus’ earthly ministry did not always understand the truth that Jesus was the Son of God. The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 is a good example. After that miracle, people pursued Jesus for this bread for life. They did not see that Jesus was the very Bread of Life. When Jesus pointed out that he was the Bread sent from heaven, many left. Even Jesus’ closest disciples were challenged. The ones who stayed with Jesus were the ones blessed by the gift of faith from the Holy Spirit. "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life" (JOHN 6:63). Just as in the Old Testament and just as on the first day of Pentecost, so also today:
GOD POURS OUT HIS HOLY SPIRIT.
I. This is God’s glorious gift.
II. This is God’s practical gift.
I. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD’S GLORIOUS GIFT.
A. Joel was one of God’s prophets during the time of the Old Testament. God had chosen Joel.
1. God’s prophets had a two-fold mission in life. First they received God’s message from God.
2. Secondly, God’s prophets relayed God’s message to God’s people.
3. Joel proclaimed God’s message of repentance to God’s disobedient people (READ JOEL).
B. Verse 28a, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” This is God’s amazing message.
1. God promises to pour out his Spirit on all people – not just prophets (or priests and kings).
2. The Hebrew word for people means, “flesh”. “Flesh counts for nothing,” Jesus said.
C. Verse 29, “Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”
1. God’s Spirit would come upon both men and women. This is God’s glorious gift.
a. Prophets had been only men. b. Priests and kings were also only men.
2. “All flesh” would even include servants. They were usually only considered outsiders.
D. God pours out his Holy Spirit. We see this special outpouring on the first Pentecost (READ: ACTS 2). The disciples spoke to “people from every nation under heaven”. The people heard the disciples and understood what they were saying. What they said was important. The disciples were “declaring the wonders of God”! As Peter continues preaching to that crowd he preaches about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. These are the very same wonders of God that have been poured out into our hearts. God pours out his Holy Spirit upon us whenever we read, study, or hear God’s living and active word. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 TIMOTHY 3:16, 17).
E. God pours out his Holy Spirit. This is God’s glorious gift for and to his church here on earth. Thank-fully the Lord God Almighty is not fussy. The gift of the Holy Spirit is God’s glorious gift because it is meant for and provided for “all flesh”. God’s message is no longer given only to a prophet who then re-lays that message to God’s people. God’s word comes to all flesh. "For we were all baptized in one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many" (1 COR. 12:13,14). God’s church grows.
F. God pours out the glorious gift of the Holy Spirit on “all flesh”. What does God’s gift of the Holy Spirit mean for us today? God’s glorious gift is the guarantee for believers that eternity belongs to them. We are all born as the enemies of God. Our nature is sinful from the moment of our conception. By grace, the Lord God Almighty gloriously and miraculously changes us into members of his family. "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir" (GAL. 4:6,7). Every believer is a child of God. Every child of God will inherit eternal life – glorious!
GOD POURS OUT HIS HOLY SPIRIT.
The Holy Spirit is God’s glorious gift for all flesh.
II. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD’S PRACTICAL GIFT.
A. Joel received God’s message. Joel relayed God’s message to God’s people.
1. Joel was probably as much amazed at this message as the rest of the people of God.
2. God’s word coming to all people: servants, men, and women? This was gloriously amazing..
B. Verse 28b, “Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”
1. God’s word would be revealed to “sons and daughters”. Once again, women are included.
2. “Old men, young men” will know God’s message. Joel didn’t know when this would happen.
3. On Pentecost Peter declared the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (ACTS 2:16-18).
C. God poured out his Holy Spirit in a practical way. People from all nations received God’s word.
D. God pours out his Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is faith. Without faith there can be no other gifts. The gift of saving faith freely comes by the working of the Holy Spirit. Once again, we are reminded that our Lord God Almighty does not show favoritism. God would have all men to be saved.
"Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right’" (ACTS 10:34,35). God’s saving message is not just meant for a few chosen people in Jerusalem or Judea or Galilee or Rome. God wants all men from everywhere to come to his saving knowledge of the truth. Such is God’s practical gift of faith.
E. God pours out his Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is God’s most valuable gift for all believ-ers. Without the Holy Spirit there is no faith. Without faith there is no forgiveness. Without forgiveness there is no eternal salvation. Eternity is so important that God does not entrust this blessing to our own devices. Consider Adam and Eve. In a perfect world they disobeyed. They sinned and ruined perfection. Left on our own we would never come close to eternity. We cannot earn salvation. We cannot buy forgiveness. We do not deserve eternal life. "God…saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior" (TITUS 3:5,6).
F. God pours out his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s practical gift for us. By grace and in his mercy our Lord God Almighty provides us certainty in our uncertain world. By faith we are blessed to be able to look beyond the distractions of this life and focus on our treasure in heaven. By faith God gives us many gifts. Believers are given hearing ears. Our hearts of stone have been miraculously changed into hearts of flesh. We know Christ—our Savior. This is God’s practical gift of the Holy Spirit. Knowing Christ means we also know, confess, and believe in the Way and the Truth and the Life. "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 JOHN 4:1). God warns against many false prophets who go out into this world. These false prophets do not preach Christ. Test them with the light of God’s truth!
CONC: God pours out his Holy Spirit. The prophets of God were blessed to receive God’s message. The prophets of God were privileged to relay God’s message to God’s people. Today, God pours out his Spirit on “all flesh”. This is God’s glorious and practical gift for each and every believer. Like most gifts, God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is undeserved, unearned. Our gracious God freely gives. "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" (ROM. 5:5). Our world seems to be almost always in a hopeless state. God pours his Holy Spirit to give us eternal hope. God pours out his gifts. Pour out is like a bucket or spilled glass of water. Once poured out it spreads. GOD POURS OUT HIS HOLY SPIRIT. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
PENTECOST rdgs:
GENESIS 11:1-9;
ACTS 2:1-21;
JOHN 15:26,27;
(PSALM 51)
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