Doug McMasters: Take your Bible and go to the Book of Acts.
Doug McMasters: The Book of Acts in chapter 2.
Doug McMasters: On the morning of January 8th, 1815, a British army moved across the cane fields just below New Orleans to meet up with Andrew Jackson's line.
Doug McMasters: The battle lasted for only about a half an hour.
Doug McMasters: But when all of it cleared, some 2,000 British soldiers were either dead, wounded, or missing.
Doug McMasters: And on the American side, 13 were killed.
Doug McMasters: The tragic part about that, in that War of 1812, is that all of those men who fought and fell on that battlefield that day were fighting for a war that had already been over.
Doug McMasters: Fifteen days before, in Ghent, Belgium, a treaty had been signed, and the news that the war was over was on a ship, and it would take six weeks for it to come to the United States.
Doug McMasters: Those men fell on that day, and they had never heard that news.
Doug McMasters: They were fighting for a battle and a war they thought was still raging, but it was already over.
Doug McMasters: They weren't cowards, they weren't fools, they were doing what soldiers do.
Doug McMasters: But what made it tragic is they didn't know what day it was.
Doug McMasters: And I say I share that this morning because it's possible to live exactly like that, even as a believer.
Doug McMasters: It's possible to live our life in a way that we affirm the resurrection.
Doug McMasters: We can even talk about it clearly to others, but and we can sing about it on a Sunday, but we don't live like it on a Monday.
Doug McMasters: We don't live in light of the truth that the victory's already been won in Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: And then there are others who are not spiritually drowsy, but awake.
Doug McMasters: Awake to the diagnosis that's just come, awake to the trouble that's ahead of us, awake to the relationship that's broken, awake to a world that looks like it's falling apart.
Doug McMasters: And we can take all of our anxieties and pour them into our trouble.
Doug McMasters: And some of us can even call our anxiety vigilance by tracing the line of the 24-hour news cycle, thinking that by keeping up with it, we're actually being vigilant.
Doug McMasters: And those two postures have something in common.
Doug McMasters: Those who are spiritually drowsy and not living in light of the victory are acting as though as nothing good has happened.
Doug McMasters: And those who are living in anxiety about the troubles that they're facing are living as though nothing good is happening.
Doug McMasters: Both of them, just like those men in 1815, are still out in the field, still aiming, still firing, not realizing a victory has already been had.
Doug McMasters: The passage that we're going to look at this morning talks about something called the last days.
Doug McMasters: The last days.
Doug McMasters: And a lot of people, when they hear that phrase, the last days, thinking about it like we we did just a few days ago, that there was a tornado warning and it's there's a tornado out there and it's headed our way.
Doug McMasters: We look at that phrase, the last days, as though it's something that we have to brace for.
Doug McMasters: What if we had it backwards?
Doug McMasters: What if the last days weren't about something to fear, but rather something to expect, something to be excited about, something to claim as victory, a victory that Christ has been raised, and that Christ rules.
Doug McMasters: And if it is true that He has and is, and it is true, then the question is: are we living in the light of that victory?
Doug McMasters: Let's look at Acts chapter 2.
Doug McMasters: So we come into this passage that we'll be looking at, and we'll start in verse 14.
Doug McMasters: Jerusalem is crowded that day with pilgrims from every corner of the known world.
Doug McMasters: The spirit has just fallen on a room of ordinary men and women, and the sound has drawn a crowd.
Doug McMasters: And the people have come together with questions, astonished and perplexed and wondering, what does all of this mean?
Doug McMasters: And some of them have already started sneering, these men are drunk on new wine.
Doug McMasters: But Luke gives us a sermon inside of a story here.
Doug McMasters: Peter stands up and tells us what happened.
Doug McMasters: And we get to sit in Jerusalem for the next few minutes and listen to the first Christian sermon that was preached.
Doug McMasters: Let's hear it.
Doug McMasters: Verse 14.
Doug McMasters: Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you and pay attention to my words.
Doug McMasters: For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it's only the nine in the morning.
Doug McMasters: On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel.
Doug McMasters: And the rest of this part of the sermon is a quote.
Doug McMasters: And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all people.
Doug McMasters: Then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams, and I will even pour out my spirit on my servants in those days, both men and women, and they will prophesy.
Doug McMasters: I will display wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and a cloud of smoke, the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
Doug McMasters: And then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Doug McMasters: In the face of the question, what does this mean?
Doug McMasters: And in face of the statement, oh, they're just drunk on new wine, Peter stands up and notice what he doesn't do.
Doug McMasters: He's not panicking, he's not speculating, he's not trying to give a better argument to the crowd.
Doug McMasters: He opens up the scriptures and he tells them that the spirit's arrival that morning is not chaos.
Doug McMasters: It's actually the fulfillment of a promise that God had given long ago.
Doug McMasters: And that promise was that the Spirit would come in the last days.
Doug McMasters: And he uses that phrase to declare that a promise is being fulfilled.
Doug McMasters: And he leaves us no question as to why that promise has happened.
Doug McMasters: Just take a look for a second down at verse 32.
Doug McMasters: God has raised this Jesus.
Doug McMasters: We are all witnesses of this.
Doug McMasters: And then in verse 33, therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God, and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear.
Doug McMasters: That noise of a mighty wind, that fire in the streets, those languages that are spoken by people declaring the glorious things of God, Peter is saying, is all because Christ is raised from the dead, and all because he's seated in the place of authority.
Doug McMasters: So here's the message in one sentence.
Doug McMasters: Live like people that know what day it is.
Doug McMasters: This is the last days.
Doug McMasters: And because it is the last days through the risen Christ, there are three things that we should do.
Doug McMasters: First of all, we should live awake to his word.
Doug McMasters: And second, we should live active in his mission.
Doug McMasters: And third, we can live assured by his promise.
Doug McMasters: So we're going to move through each of those this morning.
Doug McMasters: We're going to look, first of all, that we are to live awake to his word.
Doug McMasters: The crowd is here.
Doug McMasters: They're looking at the very act of God and they're calling it something completely different.
Doug McMasters: These men are drunk.
Doug McMasters: And the only thing that's going to correct them is when Peter stands up and shares the scriptures with them.
Doug McMasters: They're reading everything at that moment before they hear Peter on a surface level of their own assumptions.
Doug McMasters: Something all of us can do.
Doug McMasters: But notice the moment when they're told something different.
Doug McMasters: Scripture interrupts them and tells them exactly what's happening.
Doug McMasters: And so Peter says to them in verse 15, these people are not drunk as you suppose.
Doug McMasters: They'd already drawn that conclusion.
Doug McMasters: And he wants them to know that look, this isn't what you think it is.
Doug McMasters: And their assumption seemed logical to them.
Doug McMasters: They're not silly people or stupid people.
Doug McMasters: Pardon me.
Doug McMasters: And they're thinking these guys have just come out of a rave party or something.
Doug McMasters: Maybe they've been up partying all night.
Doug McMasters: And Peter says, look, it's not that at all.
Doug McMasters: And then he tells them that only the word can give them an understanding of what they're looking at.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 16.
Doug McMasters: Everything hangs on this phrase right at the beginning of that.
Doug McMasters: On the contrary.
Doug McMasters: Peter's not offering a competing theory, he's contradicting them flatly.
Doug McMasters: And what he's telling them is that the arrival of the Spirit here is because of something God promised many, many years ago.
Doug McMasters: And he brings the word to them and tells them exactly what they're looking at from scripture itself.
Doug McMasters: Notice how he deepens this.
Doug McMasters: Thank you, Brian.
Doug McMasters: Look at verse 17.
Doug McMasters: In verse 17, he says, Joel had prophesied that in the last days God would pour out his spirit on all people.
Doug McMasters: And so he combines together this occurrence of the Spirit falling on the people, and all of them speaking out the mighty acts of God with the coming of the last days.
Doug McMasters: The Spirit's arrival is not incidental to the last phrase, it's the actual marker of the last days.
Doug McMasters: And Peter is not predicting something about the future, he's announcing something about the present.
Doug McMasters: The clock has already started.
Doug McMasters: Peter is saying we're in the last days now.
Doug McMasters: Joel had promised it.
Doug McMasters: When the Spirit is poured out, when salvation is offered to all in the name of the Lord, you will know that the last days have arrived.
Doug McMasters: Listen to how Hebrews describes it, and we read this verse.
Doug McMasters: Long ago God spoke to the ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways, but he has in these last days spoken to us through the Son.
Doug McMasters: Hebrews chapter 1.
Doug McMasters: So what is this telling us?
Doug McMasters: What is the teaching that's underneath all of this?
Doug McMasters: It tells us that the last days are not about a chart that somebody might bring up and talk about some distant future and start talking about lions and tigers and bears.
Doug McMasters: Oh no.
Doug McMasters: The last days are not about a chart.
Doug McMasters: You see, the last days are not a chronological question.
Doug McMasters: The last days are a monarchial question.
Doug McMasters: The last days don't answer the question, when will this end?
Doug McMasters: The last days answer the question, who is ruling?
Doug McMasters: That's the question that the last days are answering.
Doug McMasters: And the answer is Jesus.
Doug McMasters: That's who's reigning.
Doug McMasters: You think, wait a second.
Doug McMasters: Well, as we get into this, you'll understand that more and more.
Doug McMasters: But just think of it for a moment when you wake up bright and early in the morning.
Doug McMasters: And for those of you who are teenagers, that means before noon, right?
Doug McMasters: You get up in the early morning and most of the sky is dark, but there in the eastern horizon, the light is already starting to move.
Doug McMasters: Brian McLaughlin and I used to get up very, very early in the morning and go cycling in the dark, and we would watch that night turn to day, and it was a beautiful thing.
Doug McMasters: What's that saying?
Doug McMasters: The dawn is already hit the horizon, and soon the sun is going to dispel every whisper of darkness, and it will be gone.
Doug McMasters: And this is exactly that first day, the first day of the dawn of the last days.
Doug McMasters: The sky is looking dark, but don't be mistaken.
Doug McMasters: Christ is reigning and he's doing his work.
Doug McMasters: So what does all of this look like in this first point for us?
Doug McMasters: To live awake to his word?
Doug McMasters: What does it look like for us on the next week that has a Tuesday in it?
Doug McMasters: Not the kind of weeks my dad would warn me about.
Doug McMasters: He'll knock me into the second Tuesday of next week.
Doug McMasters: But what about those regular weeks that we have?
Doug McMasters: Those regular weeks that are filled with disappointments.
Doug McMasters: Those regular weeks where we draw an immediate conclusion about somebody's character or competency.
Doug McMasters: Those weeks in which we go through what is the beginning of a long, difficult season.
Doug McMasters: Those weeks in which we continue to hear the silence from somebody we love.
Doug McMasters: Well, it's easy for us to be certain and make assumptions about things.
Doug McMasters: It's easy to draw conclusions, just like this crowd mistakenly looked at what they were seeing and draw conclusions.
Doug McMasters: And Peter is telling them look, you need an answer to your question, but your answer is not going to come from your surface level assumptions.
Doug McMasters: Your answer is going to come by scripture and God's revelation.
Doug McMasters: And it's no different from us.
Doug McMasters: When we go into situations, we too need a perspective from God.
Doug McMasters: And without biblical data, we can bring an interpretation based upon our past experiences, our past hardships, and answer the moments already packaged with those presuppositions.
Doug McMasters: Listen to how James talks about it in James chapter 1.
Doug McMasters: When you experience various troubles, what are you to do?
Doug McMasters: Well, just two days, two verses later, he says, Ask the Father for wisdom.
Doug McMasters: When you go into situations that are difficult, and when they're hard and troubling, the first thing to do is not to interpret them based upon your own history or your own presuppositions, but to ask yourself, does God have something to say about what I'm entering into?
Doug McMasters: And the wonderful thing is, is if we ask God for wisdom, he graciously gives it.
Doug McMasters: And so this week, take your moment, your hard conversation, the person you're already judging as incompetent or without character, or that situation that's filled with trouble, or that season that you're just entering, or perhaps deeply into already, and ask yourself does God have wisdom for me in the middle of that moment?
Doug McMasters: This is what Peter's doing.
Doug McMasters: He's bringing the light of scripture to people's presuppositions.
Doug McMasters: He's bringing an answer to their sneers, he's giving them God's wisdom in the face of their foolish reply.
Doug McMasters: But I want us to see something different here.
Doug McMasters: Not only are we to live in a light of being awake to God's word, but we're also to live in a way that's active in his mission.
Doug McMasters: Notice how Peter describes this in verses 17 and 18.
Doug McMasters: There he says that God was going to have his sons and daughters prophesy, his young men see visions, his old men dream dreams, his servants, both men and women, are going to have the Spirit poured out on them.
Doug McMasters: Just think about the categories here: sons, daughters, young, old, male, female, servants, all.
Doug McMasters: Every category of people that a first century listener could have dreamt up.
Doug McMasters: And notice the verb.
Doug McMasters: They're going to prophesy, everyone.
Doug McMasters: Now, prophecy in scripture is not primarily about telling the future.
Doug McMasters: Prophecy in scripture is primarily about standing up and speaking out God's word to someone who needs to hear it.
Doug McMasters: And this is exactly what they're doing in Acts chapter 2.
Doug McMasters: In every language that could could that was there, people were standing up and speaking a language that they did not learn, the mighty acts of God.
Doug McMasters: They were speaking the things of God to people who needed to hear it.
Doug McMasters: Something else we can learn from this passage is that God and access to God is not run through a middleman here.
Doug McMasters: This is something really different than the old covenant economy.
Doug McMasters: This is not just a modest expansion of the ministry either.
Doug McMasters: This is not like some churches and denominations who think they need to reproduce the Old Testament priesthood.
Doug McMasters: And you come through the mediation of their ministry to God and to his grace.
Doug McMasters: It is not like that at all.
Doug McMasters: Here, everyone has the Spirit.
Doug McMasters: Everyone can stand up and speak out the very word of God to the people who need to hear it.
Doug McMasters: Because they already have it.
Doug McMasters: And so we have an end of the need for an earthly high priest.
Doug McMasters: We have an end for the need to have a mediator on earth, because there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
Doug McMasters: There's no middleman.
Doug McMasters: But it also means, and this is why the second point means to be active in his mission.
Doug McMasters: There are no spectators.
Doug McMasters: Okay?
Doug McMasters: Do you hear that?
Doug McMasters: All right, there's no spectators.
Doug McMasters: God has given this work to all of his people.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 17 again.
Doug McMasters: I will pour out my spirit on all people, and your sons and your daughters, and your young men, and your old men, and the servants, both male and female, and they will all speak out.
Doug McMasters: What is he saying here?
Doug McMasters: In the new covenant economy, God has called out every one of us to be a representative of him.
Doug McMasters: Every single one of us are given a responsibility to be messengers of God to people who need to hear it.
Doug McMasters: There might be some who need a word of comfort.
Doug McMasters: There might be some people who need a word of encouragement.
Doug McMasters: There might be some people who need a word of warning.
Doug McMasters: There might be some people who need the invitation of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: There might be some people who need Teaching.
Doug McMasters: There might be people who need rebuke.
Doug McMasters: There might be some people who need to hear you speak out the glorious promises of God.
Doug McMasters: Every single one of us.
Doug McMasters: And this is what God's people have been longing for for a long, long time.
Doug McMasters: All the way back in the book of Numbers.
Doug McMasters: Moses says out loud these very words if only all of the Lord's people were prophets, and the Lord would place his spirit on them.
Doug McMasters: Well, Moses, it's happened.
Doug McMasters: In Ezekiel, the promise in its most intimate form is, I will place my spirit within you.
Doug McMasters: Within you.
Doug McMasters: Moses wished for it.
Doug McMasters: Jesus promised it, when I go, another comforter will come.
Doug McMasters: And here, Peter is standing up in a street in Jerusalem, and he's announcing it that it's happened.
Doug McMasters: So the church is not a people who gather to spectate.
Doug McMasters: The church are people equipped by the Spirit of God to be his representative all, every single one of us.
Doug McMasters: And when you read 1 Corinthians 12, when you read Ephesians chapter 4, when you read 1 Peter chapter 4, when you read all of these passages that talk about body life, there's not a single passage in there that says, defer to that ordained guy over there, and the rest of you just sort of sit back and wait till he tells you everything's okay.
Doug McMasters: It says we all minister together, every single one of us.
Doug McMasters: Verse 39, Peter says it again, as many as the Lord will call.
Doug McMasters: Because the same grace that brought us to grace is the same grace that puts us into active ministry in his mission.
Doug McMasters: There's a term that we use, every member a minister.
Doug McMasters: And it's an important word.
Doug McMasters: Let's be specific about that because it's easy to nod at that and to ignore it, or to nod at that and carry our presumptions and our assumptions and our expectations with us.
Doug McMasters: Consider noticing perhaps someone who hasn't been here for five or six weeks, well past a good vacation, and you call them and say, Hey, I just wanted to pray for you.
Doug McMasters: I've missed you.
Doug McMasters: What's happening?
Doug McMasters: Every minute, every member of ministers.
Doug McMasters: Or someone's ill and you go visit them.
Doug McMasters: Every member a minister.
Doug McMasters: Or someone looks dejected and you side up to them in the pew and say, How's it going this week?
Doug McMasters: Can I pray for you?
Doug McMasters: Every member a minister.
Doug McMasters: Or you hear that there's a number of children who are longing to hear the word of God, and you go up to Ethan and say, Can I be in the rotation to teach?
Doug McMasters: And he'll talk to you about what that might look like.
Doug McMasters: Every member a minister.
Doug McMasters: Or you see that there's no toilet paper in the women's bathrooms.
Doug McMasters: And you go, Vic, how can I get this filled?
Doug McMasters: Let me go downstairs and get into the stock.
Doug McMasters: I'll do that.
Doug McMasters: Every member, a minister.
Doug McMasters: Or if we're in a fellowship luncheon and we've run out of forks, and instead of going, I wonder who's going to fill this up, every member, a minister.
Doug McMasters: We meet the need, every single one of us.
Doug McMasters: And so let me encourage you this week, not this month, not this year, but this week, find someone who might need a word of encouragement, or maybe the gospel.
Doug McMasters: Or find a need in the church that's standing in a gap and you recognize it.
Doug McMasters: Be the one who fills that gap.
Doug McMasters: Be the one who preaches that gospel.
Doug McMasters: Be the one who gives that encouragement.
Doug McMasters: Be the one who steps into that kitchen.
Doug McMasters: Be the one who comes alongside that discouraged one.
Doug McMasters: This week.
Doug McMasters: Just prayerfully ask the Lord to have you move toward that.
Doug McMasters: So God has given us the risen Christ, and it is the last days.
Doug McMasters: And because it is the last days, we're to live awake to his word.
Doug McMasters: We're to live active in his mission.
Doug McMasters: But last of all, we're to live assured by his promise.
Doug McMasters: Assured by his promise.
Doug McMasters: And I want you to see verses 19 to 21.
Doug McMasters: And again, this is a quote from the book of Joel.
Doug McMasters: And you might be looking at this and thinking, well, you know, Joel, Peter's just quoting Joel because he wants to get to the very last part of this in verse 21.
Doug McMasters: And, you know, he's he's got to quote this, but it's not really for those guys he's preaching to.
Doug McMasters: And it's probably not even for us.
Doug McMasters: And um, you know, let's just get to verse 21.
Doug McMasters: Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Doug McMasters: Don't think like that, please.
Doug McMasters: This is very important.
Doug McMasters: And Peter's quoting Joel because he sees these verses as as imperative and as applicable to the people that day as they are to ours, as they will be in the very last day.
Doug McMasters: We are to live assured by his promise.
Doug McMasters: And so he says this, speaking from Joel, I will display wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and a cloud of smoke, the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
Doug McMasters: And then everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Doug McMasters: One of the questions we all carry into this life is how is it all going to end?
Doug McMasters: How is it all going to end?
Doug McMasters: And Peter answers it.
Doug McMasters: He says, We're in the last days.
Doug McMasters: And what Peter does is he gives us the front door and the back door of the last days.
Doug McMasters: But he also gives us everything in between as well.
Doug McMasters: Now, watch what happens as he's quoting here.
Doug McMasters: He talks about blood, he talks about fire, he talks about smoke, he talks about a darkened sun and a red moon.
Doug McMasters: Peter's calling us to capture all of that imagery.
Doug McMasters: And what is he telling us?
Doug McMasters: He's telling us the last days from the dawn to the dusk.
Doug McMasters: He's giving us the scope of it all.
Doug McMasters: And notice how he describes it in verse 20 before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
Doug McMasters: He gives us the front door of the last days when he said, This is what was spoken.
Doug McMasters: And the Spirit's arrival is the first day of the last days.
Doug McMasters: And then he mentions the sun going dark and the moon turning to blood.
Doug McMasters: And he said, This is the last day of the last days.
Doug McMasters: And so he straddles all of that in this quotation.
Doug McMasters: Part of it landing at 9 a.m.
Doug McMasters: in the morning in Jerusalem, and part of it landing still out ahead of us.
Doug McMasters: But in between is also covered every bit of it.
Doug McMasters: So he's telling us what day it is.
Doug McMasters: It's the last days.
Doug McMasters: But listen closely to this.
Doug McMasters: What he's also telling us through the sky that's coming apart is that he's telling us what kingdom is coming down.
Doug McMasters: Okay?
Doug McMasters: And I'm going to prove this from scripture for you.
Doug McMasters: And I think you'll understand this a whole lot better than simply saying, where was that chart?
Doug McMasters: Where did I put this clearance larken chart at?
Doug McMasters: I want you to hear something about this language.
Doug McMasters: Every single person hearing Peter speak is a Jewish person.
Doug McMasters: Every person listening to him speak had already read the book of Joel.
Doug McMasters: They had already read about all of this darkened sun and red blood.
Doug McMasters: And they had read other scriptures as well.
Doug McMasters: They knew what prophetic poetry was all about.
Doug McMasters: Listen to prophetic poetry.
Doug McMasters: This is Isaiah speaking about the fall of Babylon to the Medes.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah 13, 10.
Doug McMasters: The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine.
Doug McMasters: Listen to Ezekiel announce the fall of Egypt.
Doug McMasters: Ezekiel 32.
Doug McMasters: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light.
Doug McMasters: Listen to Jeremiah speak about the destruction of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in Jeremiah 4.
Doug McMasters: I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void, and to the heavens, and they had no light.
Doug McMasters: Jeremiah is saying that the destruction of Jerusalem is akin to the pre-creation chaos in the universe.
Doug McMasters: Listen to Isaiah 34 speak about the judgment that will fall on Edom.
Doug McMasters: All of the hosts of heaven shall rot away, and the skies will roll up as a scroll.
Doug McMasters: All their hosts shall fall, for my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.
Doug McMasters: Behold, it will descend for judgment upon Edom.
Doug McMasters: Did you hear all of that?
Doug McMasters: Babylon falls, Egypt falls, Jerusalem falls, and Edom falls, and the sun comes up the next day.
Doug McMasters: So this language is not just language about astronomy.
Doug McMasters: This language is about the collapse of an order of rebellion that was sure it was going to stand forever.
Doug McMasters: Babylon and all of its arrogance, Egypt and all of its pride, Jerusalem and all of its rebellion, Edom and all of its connivance against the people of God, all these kingdoms thought that they were sure that they would stand, that they could be strong in the face of the God of heaven.
Doug McMasters: And God says, You will fall, and your fall will be just like the whole creation crumbling.
Doug McMasters: So what's happening here?
Doug McMasters: Now don't mistake me.
Doug McMasters: Joel is speaking about a real day, also.
Doug McMasters: This is not just figurative language.
Doug McMasters: God will do what He's promised to do with the very Son we look at every day.
Doug McMasters: Peter himself speaks about it.
Doug McMasters: The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will burn and will be dissolved, and the earth and its works will be disclosed.
Doug McMasters: It's not just a figure of speech, it is talking about the very last day of the last days.
Doug McMasters: But I want you to grab something more significant here, because what's happening here is not just a statement about that very last moment of the last days.
Doug McMasters: This is a declaration to the people in Jerusalem and a declaration to the whole earth to this very day that there's a kingdom that's been brought down that lived in arrogance, thinking that it would constantly rule and reign.
Doug McMasters: And here what is happening is Peter is using prophetic poetry from the book of Joel to indicate that in these last days a new kingdom is rising, and an old kingdom is falling.
Doug McMasters: What's happening here is that there's a tearing down of one kingdom and a replacement of it by another.
Doug McMasters: And do you know what that new kingdom is?
Doug McMasters: For we have received the spirit of life.
Doug McMasters: It is the new creation.
Doug McMasters: If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation.
Doug McMasters: The old is gone, the new has come.
Doug McMasters: In theological terms, we call this the already and the not yet.
Doug McMasters: That there is already the reign of Christ.
Doug McMasters: There's already the new creation.
Doug McMasters: And by the Spirit of God, that new creation is living inside of people.
Doug McMasters: This is why we live by the fruit of the Spirit.
Doug McMasters: Love and joy and peace and patience and gentleness and meekness and kindness and perseverance and self-control.
Doug McMasters: What is all of that?
Doug McMasters: That's the eternal future kingdom punctuating itself into this king, into this kingdom, showing us that there is already a kingdom of life.
Doug McMasters: And the spirit reigns within people already.
Doug McMasters: Peter is crying out to the people in Jerusalem that a new day has dawned.
Doug McMasters: It's called the last days.
Doug McMasters: But he's also saying there's an old kingdom that's been put on notice, that it's about to fall, because there's a new king on the throne, and his name is Jesus.
Doug McMasters: It's no longer sin and darkness, it's no longer the devil.
Doug McMasters: It is God in Christ who reigns.
Doug McMasters: So the sun is going dark, and it's the end of the kingdom of darkness.
Doug McMasters: So when Jesus rose up out of the tomb, when he showed himself alive to all of these men and women for 40 days, and when he ascended into the heavens, and ten days later sent his spirit, he's putting this dark world on notice that Jesus reigns.
Doug McMasters: And he's putting this dark world on notice that the kingdom of darkness is falling, and the gates of hell will not prevail against the kingdom of God.
Doug McMasters: That's what he's saying.
Doug McMasters: And so he's speaking here the very words of the resurrected and ascended Christ, who put the words into Joel to speak about these days, that this world is coming to an end.
Doug McMasters: And the world of Christ is dawning, and his people are coming alive.
Doug McMasters: Now, let's take a look at this just a little more deeply, and this is where it gets personal for all of us.
Doug McMasters: How this day lands on us, whether it is going to be a glorious or a terrible day, all falls down to one name.
Doug McMasters: Jesus.
Doug McMasters: And take a look at verse 20 with me while I do it.
Doug McMasters: This is how the Hebrew puts it.
Doug McMasters: What does it say in verse 20?
Doug McMasters: Great and what?
Doug McMasters: Glorious.
Doug McMasters: It is both.
Doug McMasters: The last days are both terrible and glorious.
Doug McMasters: The Jerusalem crowd had grown up hearing the scriptures in Greek.
Doug McMasters: And they were hearing an invitation.
Doug McMasters: Something new about what that day would look like.
Doug McMasters: It would be perhaps a glorious day for them.
Doug McMasters: But if they didn't heed the warnings and the words and the invitation of Peter on that day, it would be a terrible day.
Doug McMasters: And that's why he says at the very end of this sermon, flee from the wrath to come.
Doug McMasters: Peter reads those verses.
Doug McMasters: He talks about that great and terrible and that great and glorious day.
Doug McMasters: And he pulls them both together because the day of the Lord is both terrible and it is glorious.
Doug McMasters: And Paul writes about it in 2 Thessalonians when he says this.
Doug McMasters: When he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, and they will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord's presence and from his glorious strength on that day, when he comes to be glorified by his saints, and to be marveled at by all those who have believed.
Doug McMasters: The only way it can be glorious is not by becoming a church member.
Doug McMasters: The way it can be glorious is not by saying, I want to turn over a new leaf and do my life a little different than I've done it.
Doug McMasters: The only way to be delivered on that day and to find it a glorious day and not a terrible one is whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Doug McMasters: That's how.
Doug McMasters: The judgment is real.
Doug McMasters: And Peter doesn't strike out a single syllable of how terrible that judgment is.
Doug McMasters: But the judgment is not the only message.
Doug McMasters: There's an invitation here.
Doug McMasters: An invitation to change your allegiance from self and sin and to follow the Lord by calling out on his name.
Doug McMasters: And this is why Peter, later in this sermon, says, Repent, every one of you.
Doug McMasters: Turn away from your allegiance to that kingdom that's been put on notice, that it's about to die.
Doug McMasters: Turn away your allegiance from the kingdom of darkness that it's going to be destroyed.
Doug McMasters: Turn away your allegiance from the disobedience that is sin, because that will be brought to an end on that day, that terrible day, if you still cling to that kingdom.
Doug McMasters: And go to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: And on that day, you will join the new kingdom.
Doug McMasters: And on that day you call upon him, you will become a member of the kingdom of light.
Doug McMasters: When you come into that kingdom, you will be filled with a spirit of life.
Doug McMasters: And the promise of eternity.
Doug McMasters: When you enter that kingdom where Jesus is Lord, your life will be transformed and you will start to feel the power of that kingdom.
Doug McMasters: Because in you will be transformation.
Doug McMasters: In you, your old loves and your old desires will be transformed to become more conformable to this new kingdom.
Doug McMasters: And you will say, I'm a different person.
Doug McMasters: I don't understand it all, but God is making me something different.
Doug McMasters: Yes, He is.
Doug McMasters: He's showing you that you belong somewhere else.
Doug McMasters: You belong in His kingdom.
Doug McMasters: The apostles couldn't get over this word.
Doug McMasters: Paul, when he writes in the book of Romans, and he's talking about Jews and Gentiles both coming to the life and the Savior.
Doug McMasters: And a wonderful, wonderful truth.
Doug McMasters: He pulls from Joel and he goes, And whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Doug McMasters: It is this very verse.
Doug McMasters: Let's get practical.
Doug McMasters: There are people waking up today, and waking up today without God.
Doug McMasters: And guess what?
Doug McMasters: Life is good.
Doug McMasters: The job's going well, the house is set out nicely, the mortgage is nearly paid off.
Doug McMasters: The college funds are already already full.
Doug McMasters: Life is good.
Doug McMasters: God?
Doug McMasters: He's a distant thought.
Doug McMasters: And why do I need him?
Doug McMasters: I'm doing well.
Doug McMasters: Babylon thought that for a while.
Doug McMasters: They had good years too.
Doug McMasters: Right up to the last day.
Doug McMasters: When Daniel stands up to the king and says, This night.
Doug McMasters: Smooth days are not a verdict about whether or not your eternity is going the right direction.
Doug McMasters: A good day is simply today's weather forecast.
Doug McMasters: That's it.
Doug McMasters: Your pleasant days lived without God under the rule of the old order, they'll come to an end.
Doug McMasters: And that old order will come to an end.
Doug McMasters: But verse 21 gives you a promise that if you call upon the name of the Lord, you will be delivered.
Doug McMasters: You don't have to fear that day.
Doug McMasters: You don't have to worry over which kingdom you're in.
Doug McMasters: Because you've been brought into the kingdom of life in Christ.
Doug McMasters: This is not information, this is an invitation.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ as your Savior, and you've been living your life without God, please hear this.
Doug McMasters: You're living under the domain of darkness, and it's going to be destroyed.
Doug McMasters: And unless you turn from that kingdom, which is filled with disobedience and sin and ignorance and rejection of God, so will you.
Doug McMasters: Every one of us were under the threat of that destruction.
Doug McMasters: And the only hope of news is not anything other than this.
Doug McMasters: Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Doug McMasters: That's the only way.
Doug McMasters: Well, let's go back to where we started here.
Doug McMasters: I asked you to do one thing this week.
Doug McMasters: Take one conversation, one situation, one perspective that you can't fully understand without the word of God.
Doug McMasters: Read it in the light of God's word.
Doug McMasters: And here, I want to give you the assurance of his promise if you're a believer in Christ.
Doug McMasters: What Peter is declaring here is that the new order has come.
Doug McMasters: And every trouble, brother and sister, every difficulty, every hardship that you're in the middle of, anything that's got you by the throat and is threatening your walk with the Lord, who is dulling your perspective of his person and his promises, everything that's clenching a hold of you that feels more powerful than you, God is going to put all of that down.
Doug McMasters: Every bit of it.
Doug McMasters: Amen.
Doug McMasters: There's not a single thing that troubles you now that will trouble you eternally if you're in Christ.
Doug McMasters: There's not any of it.
Doug McMasters: And like I said to Honey on Friday, and I told her, I said, the words from the scriptures are not going to make your loss any less in George's passing.
Doug McMasters: But one thing the word of God will do, Honey, is it makes your loss temporary.
Doug McMasters: Temporary.
Doug McMasters: And if you're a brother and sister in Christ and you're one of those ones who've called upon the name of the Lord, whatever it has that has its grip on your throat, it's temporary.
Doug McMasters: It's only temporary.
Doug McMasters: And so live assured by the promise of God.
Doug McMasters: He's already put the old order on notice.
Doug McMasters: It's going down.
Doug McMasters: And the day will come when the heavens will melt with a fervent heat, and it will be over.
Doug McMasters: And then will be said, those things, the former things, have passed away.
Doug McMasters: And so here we are, just at the beginning of this sermon, a sermon where we need to understand that we are to look at God's word and affirm the realities of things based upon it.
Doug McMasters: That as God's people, we should be active in service because the Spirit has landed on all who believe.
Doug McMasters: And we can all be representatives of God to people who need to know more about Him, whether we're praying or serving or speaking.
Doug McMasters: But also, as God's people, we can be assured by His promise.
Doug McMasters: Back in 1815, over 2,000 British soldiers were either killed or wounded or missing after a half an hour of battle, and 13 Americans were dead.
Doug McMasters: All for a battle in a war that had been won.
Doug McMasters: Already over.
Doug McMasters: And I want to say something to you, brothers and sisters, as we close.
Doug McMasters: Don't fight the battle as if it isn't decided.
Doug McMasters: Don't fight the war as if it needs to be won.
Doug McMasters: Hear the words that cry out at the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
Doug McMasters: Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: The war's won.
Doug McMasters: It's already won.
Doug McMasters: The world, the flesh, and the devil have been put on notice.
Doug McMasters: It's over.
Doug McMasters: And Christ will bring it all to a close one day.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: Father, we're so grateful that our Savior has risen from the dead, that he's broken into the heavens eternally, and there rules and reigns.
Doug McMasters: And that he has set this world on a new course, a course of life, ushering into a kingdom of life.
Doug McMasters: We pray, Father, that all of us who have heard these words might be careful to be found in him, that we would seek him with all of our heart, and that we would call out upon him for life, for deliverance, for home.
Doug McMasters: And Father, I pray that you might comfort your people through these words.
Doug McMasters: May it give them hope in the middle of their discouragements.
Doug McMasters: May they give them perspective in the middle of seasons filled with hardship.
Doug McMasters: May it activate us all to serve as you've gifted us through the Spirit, to be your representatives.
Doug McMasters: And Father, we also pray for those who do not know you.
Doug McMasters: They would awaken to the realization that they should flee that wrath to come and enter into the kingdom of life by calling upon the Lord Jesus, who welcomes all who do.
Doug McMasters: And we pray this in Christ's name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.