Episode 12
The Last Days: A Prophetic Fulfillment of Divine Promise
The commencement of the last days, as foretold by the prophet Joel, is marked by the extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh, signaling the fulfillment of divine prophecy and the initiation of Christ's spiritual reign. This pivotal moment, occurring after a prolonged period of prophetic silence following Malachi, heralds a time of miraculous activity and profound revelation that was previously unseen. It is imperative to recognize that this era, often misinterpreted as an end in the temporal sense, constitutes the culmination of God's redemptive purpose, wherein the distinctions between Jew and Gentile are abolished within the ecclesia. Furthermore, the events of the first century serve not merely as historical accounts but as critical manifestations of God's plan, emphasizing the immediacy of His kingdom and the impending judgment associated with the great and terrible day of the Lord. In our discourse, we shall delve into the implications of this divine intervention and its significance within the overarching narrative of the New Testament.
Prophetic activity ceased by the end of Malachi's prediction of Elijah's coming as the forerunner to the Messiah. For 400 years, the region grew accustomed to a world without such direct intervention. Yet, the Jews were fully aware that in the "last days," there would be a "great and terrible day of the Lord", a time of judgment. In addition, it was further prophesied by Joel that before that day comes, the Holy Spirit would outpour upon all flesh.
Therefore, the clear and obvious sign that the last days had come was the presence of the miraculous that accompanies the prophetic fulfillment. Peter would explain that what was being witnessed on that day was what Joel had prophesied. This marks the time of fulfillment (cf. Gal. 4:4) of all prophesy regarding the Messiah's reign and not the return of a physical regime in the literal city of Jerusalem, but the spiritual reign of Christ within His people, the called out. The first would end when the Christ returned after His ascension to enact His vengeance on a people who rejected Him.
The plan had to be fully completed before that divine day of vengeance began. One cannot fully understand the New Testament until seeing that the age was the age of fulfillment. Another mistake is to equate the "end" of the age with the end of time and the world. The word translated "end" means the accomplishment of a purpose. It is not the "end of time" but the "time of the end" or the age of fulfillment. The redemptive plan will be achieved when the Messiah enters this realm and returns victorious as Lord and King. The "end" is similar to the thought expressed in the translated word, "perfect", i.e, complete or mature.
Numerous time statements confirms the imminence and expectation of his kingdom and the end of the age. But, to accomplish it, the Holy Spirit would be at work. His out-pouring was miraculous and those who receive Him and His power as a gift were guaranteed to be children of God and part of the called-out. This outpouring of divine power was necessary to accomplish divine prerogatives. It involved the inclusion of the Gentiles and the judgement of a people who had been the proud choice of God's possession - a feat that no man or group of men could accomplish. We are about to mark the presence of the Holy Spirit in the work of Luke.
Takeaways:
- The cessation of prophetic activity until the arrival of the Messiah is significant.
- The promise of the Holy Spirit's outpouring heralds the commencement of the last days.
- Understanding the 'end of the age' requires recognizing it as the fulfillment of divine purpose.
- The miraculous events of the first century were clear indicators of the last days in action.
Transcript
And good day to you.
Speaker A:Thank you for tuning into this study.
Speaker A:We are so thankful for the opportunity to share with you some of these things that are of importance to our understanding of the New Testament and the fact that there is a overreaching purpose for all of revelation and all of God's redemptive plan to bring about a Savior into the world for Jew and Gentile and to bring those saved people into a fellowship called the called out the Ecclesia the Redeemed.
Speaker A:The first century was the time of fulfillment.
Speaker A:Christ would come in that era, the Holy Spirit would also come, as was promised by Joel in chapter two, and the redemptive plan would be accomplished.
Speaker A:God sent forth His Son born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that are under the law.
Speaker A:Now, whenever a stated purpose is associated with a plan of action, it implies that once the plan was executed or is executed and the task is accomplished, that the work is therefore ended.
Speaker A:It's finished because it has been completed.
Speaker A:Now, unless there's some ongoing purpose in the work of the Holy Spirit, we should not continue to assign him the same purpose that he had before this plan was accomplished.
Speaker A:To answer people who are quick to conclude that any activity of God always implies some miraculous intervention, then we must say that God often acts without miraculous intervention.
Speaker A:For example, God was still active among people even though there was neither prophets in Israel after the days of Malachi nor an outpouring of the holy spirit for 400 years.
Speaker A:There was no activity as in the days of the prophets.
Speaker A:So there is a terrible misapplication of truth to conclude that God is absent if there are no miracles.
Speaker A:To see God's presence does not equate always to miraculous activity.
Speaker A:The Book of Esther why, it's a prime example of the providence of God without one miraculous event ever mentioned.
Speaker A:Now you can definitely see his hand at work, but we would hardly call that miraculous.
Speaker A:There is no mention of God in the entire book of Esther, and yet God's hand is throughout the events that were unfolding in those chapters.
Speaker A:The events were natural events that the casual observer of the day would never characterize it as being miraculous.
Speaker A:Someone watching and paying attention to the events of the days in which they lived.
Speaker A:They probably would never see God's hand in that, at least not while it was going on.
Speaker A:Yet his hand is throughout it.
Speaker A:The events were again very natural events that the people of that day would never have seen or characterized it as miraculous.
Speaker A:The 400 year period before the Messiah's arrival was certainly a time where God was active in creating the right environment and the time for Christ coming into the world.
Speaker A:To help us appreciate the context of Scripture, I think that we have to fix our minds that the prophecy that had ended with Malachi's work would be brought back up or would be again commence with the arrival of the one that Malachi had prophesied regarding, I.e.
Speaker A:john the Immerser.
Speaker A:The Jews living at that time, they understood that the Holy Spirit would return in the last days, as Joel 2 says he would in verse 28.
Speaker A:Now, two observations about this period before the last days will, I think, assist us in handling the Word of God or the Word of truth correctly.
Speaker A:First Timothy, chapter 3 and verse 15.
Speaker A:Paul references this that we need to handle or write the Word of truth.
Speaker A:The first thing I think we would say is that the widespread belief among the Jews was that prophecy had ended with Malachi and that the Holy Spirit would return in the last days with the coming of Elijah, or as I said, John the Immerser.
Speaker A:If we can correctly quote the passage stating that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, then why was there 400 years where he had no miracles or no prophetic oracles?
Speaker A:This illustrates that the same God who does not change did have different purposes and plans in place at different times.
Speaker A:And the way God dealt with people during those ages were also different.
Speaker A:The way God dealt with the patriarchs, for example, and how he dealt with the nation of Israel was very different.
Speaker A:Yet he was the same God and He was interacting with both of them.
Speaker A:But the way he dealt with them was very different.
Speaker A:Reaching from Abraham to Malachi, God had given revelations in different ways and visions or in miracles, or rather in dreams.
Speaker A:And he had miraculously delivered his people from an array of hardships and oppression.
Speaker A:The prophetic call was given to a select few prophets as was needed.
Speaker A:God would bring up or call up a prophet to call his people to repentance.
Speaker A:But when the last days came, there was an overwhelming flood of revelation and miraculous power than was ever seen in the past.
Speaker A:It is so important, I think, to accentuate that the last days was a time of extraordinary display of divine power.
Speaker A:The Holy Spirit empowered men and women like never before.
Speaker A:Imagine yourself as a Jew living in Jerusalem at that time.
Speaker A:Your worldview was built around the promise of Joel 2.
Speaker A:And all of a sudden you're seeing what can't be explained.
Speaker A:Naturally, Peter explains.
Speaker A:He says this is what Joel prophesied regarding the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:Now, since Joel gives the time frame as being in the last days.
Speaker A:And Peter explains that this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.
Speaker A:That is, it's being fulfilled.
Speaker A:What you're seeing today is the fulfillment of Joel's prediction.
Speaker A:Now, how would you, at that time, how could you not see that the last days were there, were upon you?
Speaker A:You certainly would not place the last days at some unknown future, in the distant future.
Speaker A:That would not be something that you would naturally think.
Speaker A:You would think that, well, the last days is here.
Speaker A:The Holy Spirit has come.
Speaker A:And of course, when Peter explained the event as a fulfillment of Joel's prophecy, we're not surprised that 3,000 souls accepted their guilt and cried out to each other, men and brethren, what must we do?
Speaker A:It doesn't matter how hard you try or how loud you shout, you're going to never be able to duplicate that power.
Speaker A:Today it was an event of the last days of the Jewish regime as foretold by Joel the prophet.
Speaker A:As a review, I want us to notice the end.
Speaker A:And when I use the word end, I'm not talking about end as in time, but a completed task, an accomplishment.
Speaker A:The end is a purpose once achieved, is fulfilled.
Speaker A:And so look at the end or the completion of the work in the first century.
Speaker A:The first thing I think that we would have to say is that the term last days marked the time of fulfillment.
Speaker A:Now, many references throughout the New Testament speak of use expressions like this generation that's focused on the time of which the people lived at that time.
Speaker A:Another phrase, something would be said to be at hand or coming soon to reflect the time as at that age of fulfillment.
Speaker A:They were mentioned in connection with the judgment.
Speaker A:They were used in connection with the gathering of the elect, or the end or completion of the age and the coming of Jesus.
Speaker A:Now, many elements of this era combine to complete God's purpose and his scheme of redemption.
Speaker A:We are reminded from the very beginning that the seed of woman would crush the head of the serpent.
Speaker A:And so throughout that period, from that time on, God is implementing a plan in which he might.
Speaker A:Well, he accomplishes a lot of things.
Speaker A:The establishment of the law and the fact that the law could not justify.
Speaker A:Of course, it was never intended to justify, but to bring up the point and to accentuate the idea that no man can obey the law so as to be justified by it.
Speaker A:For by the works of the law, Paul would say, no flesh can be justified.
Speaker A:Not only that, but you have the priesthood of the Old Testament pointing to a time when a great high priest in the person of Jesus Christ would come.
Speaker A:Now, all of These things are pointing to its final fulfillment.
Speaker A:There are shadows, and there's the reality that the completion, the shadows only pointed to that which would be a final completion, the fulfillment of which these shadows only were a reflection of.
Speaker A:In Genesis chapter three, in verse 15, we are told that the seed of woman would crush the head of the serpent.
Speaker A:And when the fullness of time came, this child was born of a woman born under the law to redeem those under the law.
Speaker A:Galatians 4, verse 4.
Speaker A:All of history before that time was pointing to this time.
Speaker A:It was leading to this final age of fulfillment, or as Paul describes it, the fullness of time.
Speaker A:However, to bring us to this point, there had to be much preparation given to the production of nations.
Speaker A:The choice of one from whom God would make his special people and through whom the Christ would be born.
Speaker A:They were given the law.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And what a glorious occasion on that day when Moses returned from Mount Sinai with the commandments in hand.
Speaker A:And yet it would not compare to the glory of the new and better covenant written upon the hearts of men and women who would make up the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Speaker A:And so the last days mark the time of fulfillment.
Speaker A:Second, we have this idea or thought of the end of the age.
Speaker A:And as I said earlier, that word needs some explanation.
Speaker A:The word end speaks of the completion of an age.
Speaker A:By completion we mean simply it is the time of achievement, accomplishment, the purpose being fulfilled, that which accompanied that age, including the gift of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts, it served a purpose for that age.
Speaker A:Peter would write of the end of all things is at hand, first Peter 4, 7.
Speaker A:Now, he's not talking about the end of the world.
Speaker A:He's talking about the all things that is, that relate to the scheme, the plan of God to bring redemption to the human race.
Speaker A:When the New Testament refers to the end, he's not referring again to the end in the sense of time.
Speaker A:In Matthew 28, for instance, when Jesus gives the what we call the Great Commission, he says, and lo, I'm with you unto the end of the age.
Speaker A:Now, unfortunately, we have translations that we've grown up with, and we quote from the King James that says the end of the world.
Speaker A:Sometimes that word world is used to translate this term age.
Speaker A:It's aion.
Speaker A:He's talking about an era or an age, a specific period in the time of human history until the end of the age, Jesus says.
Speaker A:And that term that's used there is an intensive form of the Greek tele.
Speaker A:It means it's the consummation.
Speaker A:It's A goal or an end.
Speaker A:It points to a determined end with the accomplishment of divine purposes.
Speaker A:In the case of the end of the age, it describes the age's goal or purpose being completed.
Speaker A:Now, once the purpose had been met, the arrangement was no longer required.
Speaker A:And as the Book of Hebrews suggests, there was the coming to naught, that covenant, that law.
Speaker A:It had not yet been accomplished as the writer was writing this book, but it was intended to be accomplished at the end of that age.
Speaker A:And so in the case of the end of the age, it describes the age's goal, the age's purpose being completed.
Speaker A:Again, once that purpose had been met, the arrangement was no longer required.
Speaker A:This is likened to a scaffolding that you might use in a construction zone.
Speaker A:You know, once the construction is completed, the scaffolding comes down.
Speaker A:Why it served its purpose.
Speaker A:Now, that doesn't mean to diminish its value at all.
Speaker A:It was necessary, and in fact it would not have been accomplished without it.
Speaker A:But when it served its purpose, it accomplished its end.
Speaker A:End, if you please, then you would remove the scaffolding.
Speaker A:Jesus promises to be with them until the consummation of the age, or until it is fulfilled.
Speaker A:Therefore, this end or this goal is directly linked to the work of the last days or that present age in which they were living at the time they these letters were being written.
Speaker A:The Greek word translated end also corresponds to the Greek word perfect, which also has to do with completion or maturity.
Speaker A: uses it in First Corinthians: Speaker A:Neither Jesus nor the Holy Spirit was ever promised to be with the body of Christ to the end of the world.
Speaker A:Now, when I say be with, I'm not suggesting that Jesus abandoned his people.
Speaker A:But when Jesus promised to leave his disciples in John 14, he tells them, I'll not leave you comfortless.
Speaker A:I'll not leave you without, as if you were going to be left orphaned.
Speaker A:He promises that he'll send another comforter that is another of the same kind.
Speaker A:And when he comes, he'll do this.
Speaker A:He's promising then the coming alongside of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And he says, yet I have to leave in order for me to send him to you.
Speaker A:So there's a sense, obviously, in which he left.
Speaker A:And his parresia is his presence.
Speaker A:So when he leaves, he's no longer present in that sense.
Speaker A:Of course, in another sense he's with them through the Holy Spirit, because what the Holy Spirit is bringing to them is that which he gives.
Speaker A:And so in a sense he's still with them, but through or by means of this other comforter.
Speaker A:Let's be clear that we can use the sense of being present in those two different ways.
Speaker A:So when he says, lo, I'm with you alway even to the end of the age, you have to understand the context and the use of that term, those phrases.
Speaker A:Yes, he would be with them, but not in person, not like he was while he was walking among the disciples on earth.
Speaker A:He has to leave, and yet he's still with him, is what I'm getting at.
Speaker A:So again, these gifts and the Holy Spirit, they were never promised to be with the body of Christ till the end of the world.
Speaker A:Yet both of them would be with the disciples till the completion of the age.
Speaker A:Now, John's Gospel presents a clear reference to the promise of Christ not to leave them alone.
Speaker A:His promise to be with them was through the provisionary work of the Holy Spirit, who would be completed that plan in that present era.
Speaker A:So in summary, there are some points that favor the view that the last days refer to a specific period, an age in which the Holy Spirit would not only come, but he would complete his work.
Speaker A:So what I want to do at this time is, and I hope you will listen carefully, study these things and not dismiss them too quickly.
Speaker A:There are many time statements in the New Testament that refer and confirm the idea of the last days.
Speaker A:The New Testament recognizes that they were in those days, as I've already said.
Speaker A:And to confirm that, you might compare passages like Hebrews 1:2, where God speaks to us in these last days through His Son.
Speaker A:There were some things to take place in those days that were yet future, but they were spoken of as taking place soon.
Speaker A:For instance, there was the promise of Acts 2:39.
Speaker A:Let's read that together.
Speaker A:Peter says, for to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him.
Speaker A:Now some say, you see there, the Holy Spirit was promised to every Christian for all time.
Speaker A:And many of the same who believed this also unknowingly condemned themselves and a host of other Christians because they also believed that if you don't have the miraculous gift today, then you're neither saved nor a child of God.
Speaker A:Surprisingly, some desperately try to convince themselves and everybody that'll listen to them, that they have that gift today.
Speaker A:Once again, let's examine the text and its use in Scripture.
Speaker A:From the use of the words far off and near, as when Peter said the promises to you, to your children, and to all that are far off, you find this far off and near terminology also in Ephesians 2.
Speaker A:You can begin that reference by looking in verse 12 and beginning from there and read on through the chapter.
Speaker A:It is clear that the expression all afar off is a reference to the Gentiles.
Speaker A:While in contrast, those near referenced the Jews in the text of Acts 2.
Speaker A:There are two observations that stand out in that text.
Speaker A:First of all, the phrase you and your children that is found seven or eight times in the New Testament is a term or phrase that points to one generation, not you and your posterity ten generations down the line.
Speaker A:Those near are the Jews to whom Peter addresses with the words you and your children.
Speaker A:Second, the basic word for call is the word kaleo, present, active, indicative of the word.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's a word that you might use to make a call to everyone in your office.
Speaker A:However, the word used here is a compound word in the middle voice that indicates doing something yourself for your purpose and your intent.
Speaker A:It's the word proscaleomi, and it means to call to one side for a purpose.
Speaker A:Of all those who obey the Lord, he will choose for himself and for his own purpose.
Speaker A:And so in Acts 13, there is a school of prophets there at Antioch, and verse one talks about them.
Speaker A:He says, to which he speaks of those to which I have called them.
Speaker A:And he uses this same word, proscholomai.
Speaker A:Now, did God call all of them in Antioch?
Speaker A:Well, instead of calling them all, he said, I want Paul and Barnabas.
Speaker A:I have called them for the work.
Speaker A:They're going to be chosen for the work.
Speaker A:Whereunto I've called them.
Speaker A:In Acts 15 and Luke 10, a multitude gathered around Jesus with the disciples there, and Jesus called his disciples to him from the multitude.
Speaker A:Now here's an example in this case of isolating his disciples out from the rest of the multitude, as if he were saying, you, 12, you come with me.
Speaker A:It carries the idea of choosing certain ones out of a number and excluding, by its very nature, those who are not called the rest of them.
Speaker A:And so in Acts 2:39, it's used in the same way and represents the meaning of the Greek word ekklesia, which is the called out, those included, to receive the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:According to verse 38 were among those who repented and were baptized for the remission of their sins.
Speaker A:They were the same ones that verse 39 describes as being called unto him.
Speaker A:Not everybody would be called unto him.
Speaker A:So this promise of the Holy Spirit was promised to them, and I might add, it was promised to them.
Speaker A:The miraculous outpouring was a generational application, that is, one generation of Jews and one generation of Gentiles that he had chosen for his purposes.
Speaker A:The novelty of it all was the fact that the Gentiles are included in this plan, not that everyone for all time is included in it.
Speaker A:Not all Gentiles, Peter explains in chapter 15, when they met with the other disciples to confirmed the truthicity of what was required of the Gentiles, he said in verse eight, brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the Gospel and believe.
Speaker A: t he's referring back to Acts: Speaker A:And God, who knows the heart, testified to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us.
Speaker A:And he made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
Speaker A:Now, with regard to the outpouring and that being fulfilled, the Holy Spirit, who is this other comforter, he accomplished several things.
Speaker A:First of all, the Spirit's gift restored the office of the prophet.
Speaker A:As when Moses led Israel out of Egypt by the miraculous hand of God, led them through the wilderness by a cloud in the day, and a pillar of fire by night, he provided consolation and confirmation during that whole time, that whole period of infancy and uncertainty.
Speaker A:Also through the laying on of the apostles hands, each saint received at least one gift from the Holy Spirit, who compacted them into one body.
Speaker A:And it was done as it pleased him, that is, as the Spirit chose to give it.
Speaker A:Now it was designed for their mutual edification, as we find in First Corinthians, chapter 12, all the way through 14.
Speaker A:And it was to provide the evidence necessary that the receiver was a child of God.
Speaker A:I believe this is what is meant in Romans, chapter 8 in verse 16.
Speaker A:As the cloud and the fire had served as a testimony for ancient Israel, so the Holy Spirit would bear witness that God was among his people.
Speaker A:A second, he was instrumental in revealing the mystery of the Gospel.
Speaker A:And according to Paul's description and definition, that mystery included the grafting in of the Gentiles under a new covenant, this transition of creating this one new man, Ephesians 2, both from Jew and Gentile, or as he describes it in Galatians.
Speaker A:Whether Jew, Gentile, slave, freeman, male, female, it took the time to be integrated into the practice and the treatment of one another.
Speaker A:Thirdly, I think we could say the Spirit's work confirmed that the message was from God.
Speaker A:Not only did it confirm that the receiver was a child of God and gave testimony and proof for that for them, but it also confirmed to those listening to their teaching that the message they were hearing was a message from God.
Speaker A:How did they do that?
Speaker A:Well, it couldn't have been known in any other way.
Speaker A:People can claim what they'd like to.
Speaker A:They could say, hear ye the word of the Lord, or they could give an oracle and say something like that, like the prophets had done.
Speaker A:But the only way to have confirmed that the message was from God was through miraculous wonders.
Speaker A:Now, this is pointed out in Mark 16 after the great Commission, as Mark records, it is given, we are told from verse 20 on that these signs will follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out devils.
Speaker A:And he names a number of things and then he comes down to the end of the chapter and says that God was working with them, confirming the word.
Speaker A:That is the word they spoke with signs and wonders.
Speaker A:The miracles that worked in conjunction with that revelation gave powerful, powerful testimony that, number one, the last days of the Old Covenant Israel had come.
Speaker A:Number two, the Christ is about to establish his rule.
Speaker A:Number three, the great and terrible day of the Lord is soon approaching.
Speaker A:You remember in Joel 2 when he prophesies about the Holy Spirit being poured out upon all flesh?
Speaker A:He also tells us in that same setting that there was a judgment coming before these things would happen before that great and terrible day of the Lord.
Speaker A:Once this was accomplished, the Jerusalem's temple, which was a symbol of that present age, the Hebrew writer tells us this in Hebrews 9, that once that was accomplished, that that temple was destroyed, the scaffolding of miraculous confirmation and revelation was removed.
Speaker A:Well, we are going to drop off this study for now and pick up where we're leaving off and talk further about the evidence for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker A:Have a good day and a pleasant week ahead.
