Joel 2:21
Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.
Dorothy:
The book of Joel has only three chapters, but it is like a crash course of several prophecies. Crash course means several things at one time. I choose to share about one fulfillment: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit 800 years later.
Joel prophesied the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit [Joel 2:28-32] probably during 835-830 B.C. Then about 35 A.D. which was about 800 years later, in the book of Acts 2, there was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon 120 disciples. They were making ‘noise’ until many people outside of the Upper Room heard them ‘speaking in strange languages.’ 120 disciples went outside and probably still speaking the languages that was new to them. Many people came from 14 different nations to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and Pentecostal Festival, heard them speak the languages where they came from. The people knew Greek language which was universal second language of many nations which Alexander the Great from Greece had great empire before Romans took over. The Romans kept the Greek language. This was why people of 14 nations were able to come to Jerusalem where everyone knew Greek as their second language.
To me that was a great thing the Lord had done. He used Alexander the Great from Greece in his time to conquer many nations to add the Greek language to their ‘school’. This was to prepare for this time that people of many nations could come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and Pentecostal Festival because everyone knew Greek language. For the Jews, their original language was Hebrew and so was the Old Testament. New Testament was written in Greek language and when the writing was written in Greek, many nations could understand them already. The Lord had done great thing, didn’t He?
So Peter was able to stand up and answer the questions of many people of other nations who had asked how come their disciples were able to speak their original languages of their own countries. Holy Spirit spontaneously spoke their languages through the disciples who didn’t know their original languages. This was called the baptism of the Holy Spirit and He spoke wonderful things of God. Acts 2:14-40 was “Peter’s Pentecost Sermon” and through the power of the Holy Spirit, 3,000 souls were saved in one day. Joel prophesied was fulfilled [Joel 2:28-32]. The Lord has already done great things since 2,000 years. There are 77 millions of people that received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. God will continue to pour out His Spirit to all whose hearts are hungry for more experience with Christ’s love for them and to empower them to live for Christ and be able to help other know about Christ’s love and saving grace. Truly the Lord has done great thing!
Have you receive the Holy Spirit since you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Paul ask this question to certain disciples at Ephesus is found Acts 19:1-7. May the Lord bless you and touch your hearts.
