The Face Of The Deepনমুনা

The Spirit Who Does New Things

In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended in wind and fire upon the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem, Peter said that the prophecy of Joel was being fulfilled. Full of the Spirit, Christ’s brash disciple, raised his voice and addressed them,

“Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.… This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” (vv. 14, 16–21)

Peter said that when the Spirit was poured out, the world was seeing its last days. Confusing, perhaps, because history has obviously continued, but true—all things were beginning to end. It was the apocalypse. The end of the world had truly come. Has truly come, by the Spirit, who at once was a descending fire of judgment (but not the judgment we expected), and the poured out promise beginning to flow over all flesh. The vision that Joel saw.

What do Peter’s words mean? That the last days are these days, our days. The day of the boy in the field. The day of the dancers. We have lived in the last days ever since the Spirit fell to indwell the church with power. Ever since Pentecost, we have lived at the end of the world. But it has not been the end that we expected. Because God is doing a new thing, the fire of the apocalypse that fell from heaven to end the world was not the fire of destruction. It was the fire of the Holy Spirit.

God began to end the world on Pentecost, began a new chapter of making all things new.