Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Signs Of The Times That Point To Christ’s Return (4)


The Fourth of an On-going Series

4.  The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit – Acts 2:17)





 


4. The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a foremost and basic sign of the "last days."  On the day of Pentecost, Peter quoted Joel 2:28, and translated the word "afterward"  in Joel to "last days," "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flash…" (Acts 2:17).

Peter was answering the query posed by the amazed and bewildered observers of heaven’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit: "What meaneth this?" The answer: The "last days" – signified by the coming of the Spirit – had now begun! Peter  proclaimed that the new significant moment was really a fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy: "And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come" (Joel 2:30,31).


Thereby we see a vital connection between the outpouring of the Spirit and "the day of the Lord": both belong to the "last days."  Peter proclaimed that the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost was but the beginning of a spreading movement of the Spirit (cf. Acts 8:14-17, 10:44-47), and that accompanying the gospel’s proclamation, forthwith there
would be "signs and wonders…[with] divers [various] miracles, and gifts of the Holy ghost" (Heb. 2:4). [Note carefully the early church’s Gentile mission as the fulfillment of the promise of Amos 9:11, 12, cited at the council at Jerusalem in Acts 15:15-17.]

Several commentators have noted that the more fully the Holy Spirit is known and experienced among believers, the greater is their sense of expectancy of the Lord Jesus’ return.  It is not the absence of the Lord, but His presence intensified – that is preparation for His return.  Hence, the apostle Paul could say, "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear" (Col. 3:4). Thus, to live by the Spirit is to so live in Christ’s presence (in the Spirit’s power) that a deep note of inner-joy, love, and expectancy calls out for His return. He was so real to the early church that it could hardly wait for His full appearance, So may it be with us: let His life I us increase our expectancy.

This expectancy extends to beget a hope for triumph over evil today! We are not escapists because we are looking for the Lord to return.  Rather, our participation in the latter-day outpoiuring of the Holy Spirit provides as adequate fortification against and dynamic to retaliate against the assaults of evil. Such faith challenges all theologies of fatalism in the face of evil. The church is enabled to deal effectively with history’s problems in the here and now.  We must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, deal with drug addiction, and other addictions.  We must alleviate suffering and misery.  We must struggle against injustice.  And these things we must do we are enabled to do in the Spirit’s present  power.

Our witness and works evidence we are not "running from reality" as we look for our Lord to return!  Faith and good works cannot be eliminated from this faith, as the presence of Christ in the Holy Spirit keeps us expecting His literal, physical return.


Be prepared,




Playwright Janet Irene Thomas
Founder/President/CEO
Bible Stories Theatre of
Fine & Performing Arts

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