A Timely Sermon

      In Acts 1 we see Jesus ascending into Heaven where He presented the final blood sacrifice on the Mercy Seat once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12). In Acts 2 we see the distinguishing trait of the latter Days—the outpouring of the Spirit on believers.
      The many disciples in the upper room are praying in the Spirit, speaking in other tongues that they have not learned themselves. Since the upper room was typically a flat room on top of the house, the many pilgrims in the streets of Jerusalem for the feast could hear the disciples loud and clear. Miraculously, the languages the disciples were speaking by the Spirit just so happened to be the languages represented by the pilgrims.
      Not in tune with the move of the Spirit at that moment, the masses automatically assume that the disciples are drunk on wine. That doesn’t make sense to me because usually when a person is drunk they have a hard time speaking in their own language, let alone an unknown language!
       So Peter steps up to explain what is happening. This is the first sermon being preached under the inspiration of the Spirit after Jesus’ resurrection. So what does God choose as the topic? The chronos times and seasons! “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh…” (Acts 2:16-17).
       Peter quotes Joel 2:28-32, which was a prophecy concerning this New Covenant feature. Isaiah 44:3, Ezekiel 11:19, Zechariah 12:10, and Christ (John 7:38) likewise prophesied about this same feature.
       Peter then passes along what Jesus taught them on the Mount of Olives about the signs of this age and the Lord’s return. “I will show wonders in Heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:19-21).
       In case you’re wondering, the final sign of darkness and a blood-red moon is not the same as the various eclipses and blood moons that so often coincide with specific events on the earth during the Church Age. Those do not cover the whole earth simultaneously. They are meant as signs, but they’re not the FINAL sign because it shall come at the end of the sixth great Day. Their increased frequency, however, does alert us that the time is drawing nearer for the final sign.
       The Chronos Lesson: Peter then goes on to summarize Jesus’ earthly ministry that the disciples would be continuing by the Spirit. As he draws to a close, Peter quotes from Psalm 110, which is a prophetic messianic Psalm about Christ’s millennial reign over the earth. “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool’ ” (vs. 1).
       So if you ever hear someone say that the end-times doctrine is not important, ask them why the Spirit of God made it the topic of the very first sermon preached after Jesus’ death and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on believers. It was a timely message at the beginning of the Church Age, and it is even timelier now! It’s time to get our “act” together.