Joel's Remarkable Prophecy of the Outpouring of the Spirit

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Joel's Remarkable Prophecy of the Outpouring of
the Spirit
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And it will come about after this that I will
pour out My Spirit on all mankind and your sons
and daughters will prophesy, your old men will
dream dreams, our young men will see visions. And
even on the male and female servants I will pour
out My Spirit in those days. (Joel 228-30)
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Was the outpouring of the Spirit to last to the
end of time?
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What insight could we gain from the prophecy of
Joel?

• Does Joels prophecy establish a beginning point
  for the outpouring?
• Does Joels prophecy suggest a time limit for the
  outpouring?

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• And it will come about after this that I will
  pour out My Spirit on all mankind (Joel 228)
• And it shall be in the last days, God says,
  that I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all
  mankind (Acts 217).

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Time frame for the outpouring
MessianicAge
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End
Beginning
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Joel prophesied that the outpouring of the Spirit
would be coordinate with wonders God would
display before the great and notable day of the
Lord.
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• And I will display wonders in the sky and on the
  earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun
  will be turned into darkness, and the moon into
  blood, before the great and awesome day of the
  Lord comes. And it will come about that whoever
  calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered
  for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be
  those who escape, as the Lord has said, even
  among the survivors whom the Lord calls. (Joel
  230-32)

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What is this day of the Lord?

• Jesus prophecy in Lk. 2121-28 borrows the
  terminology of Joel and speaks of a day of
  vengeance falling upon Jerusalem resulting in
  both the destruction of the unbelieving and the
  deliverance of the faithful.
• And with many other words he solemnly testified
  and kept on exhorting them, saying, Be saved
  from this perverse generation! (Acts 240)
• This day of the Lord would also include
  Israels enemies embodied in the Roman Empire
  (Cf. Joel 3 Dan. 7).

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Time frame for the outpouring
Day of the Lord
MessianicAge
End
Beginning
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What insight could we gain from the method of
impartation?

• How was the outpouring imparted?
• Did these means of impartation imply a time
  limitation?

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The outpouring of the Spirit came upon the early
church through the laying on the apostles hands.
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• Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that
  Samaria had received the word of God, they sent
  them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for
  them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
  For He had not yet fallen upon any of them they
  had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord
  Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on
  them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
  (Acts 814-17)

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Time frame for the outpouring
ApostlesMinistry
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What insight could we gain from the duration
statements of Pauls letter to the Corinthians?

• Is there a prediction of a termination of
  spiritual gifts?
• If so, what is the termination point?

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We see that the apostle Paul predicted the
cessation of spiritual gifts when the perfect
came (1 Cor. 1310).
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• Love never fails but if there are gifts of
  prophecy, they will be done away if there are
  tongues, they will cease if there is knowledge,
  it will be done away. For we know in part, and we
  prophesy in part but when the perfect comes, the
  partial will be done away. (1 Corinthians 138-10)

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The Perfect is the completed revelation as
preserved in the NT.

• The perfect in this context is the opposite of
  the part.
• The Greek word itself means what is complete.
• Paul contrasts the condition of partial knowledge
  with the condition of full manhood and full
  knowledge that comes through the completed
  revelation.

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Time frame for the outpouring
PartialRevelations
CompleteCanon
End
Beginning
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Does history confirm our projections?