Word of Salvation – May 2026
Scripture Readings: Numbers 11:24-30; Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:14-21;
Sermon: “The last days of salvation.”
Rev John Zuidema
Congregation, today is Pentecost Sunday and if the state of the church and indeed the world is anything to go by, we certainly do well to focus on this wonderful event. And just in case some are unaware what Pentecost Sunday stands for, it is the day when the Father in heaven along with the Son who sits at his right hand, poured out the powerful Holy Spirit on the church. This event occurred fifty days after Easter Sunday.
The OT equivalent is the 50th day after the Sabbath of Passover week (Lev 23:15-16), thus the first day of the week. Pentecost is also called the Feast of Weeks (Deut 16:10), the Feast of Harvest (Exo 23:16) and the day of first-fruits (Num 28:26). It was a week of festivities celebrating God’s goodness.
Our text is a quotation from the prophet Joel. Joel prophesied to the southern kingdom of Judah, just before the Babylonian exile. The context of Joel’s prophecy contains a call to repentance in the hope of divine forgiveness.
However, this particular passage in Joel also points forward to the end times. ‘Afterwards’ v28, or in ‘those days’ v29, or even ‘at that time’ 3v1. These type of prophetic passages and others similar, Isa 13:10, are often used to describe the Lord’s second coming [cf Mk 13:24; Rev 6:12]. So Peter uses this prophecy of Joel to tell people that repentance is God’s desire in these last days before judgment comes.
Now when Scripture speaks about the last days in the NT, it refers to the whole time between the two comings of Jesus Christ. It is the time of the Kingdom of God. It is the Messianic Age. It is the Day of Salvation. It’s the day that the writer to Hebrews refers, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden our heart” (Heb 3:7b-8a).
Now look what happens in the last days. V17. “…God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” Up to the time of Pentecost the pouring out of the Spirit was only temporary and it was poured out only upon chosen men and women like judges, prophets, priests, and kings to equip them for a certain task. For instance, Scripture tells us of how King Saul was temporarily blessed with the Spirit so he could carry out his duties as king (1 Sam 11:6). But in the last days the Spirit will be poured out on all people.
That is also evident from the previous verses where we read that the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost seemed liked tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each one of them and they spoke in their own languages. People from various places heard the disciples and others declaring the wonders of God in their own tongues. It was a not a sign of drunkenness, but the Holy Spirit being poured out.
Congregation it is a wonderful blessing to know that the Holy Spirit has been poured out on God’s people. That is what we celebrate this day! Mind you, it is no less than what Jesus promised. Before Jesus left His disciples and returned to heaven, He promised that he would send them a helper, the Counsellor, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
Unlike unbelievers, Christians have the Holy Spirit living within them, guaranteeing the wonderful salvation that is to come and testifying to their spirits that they are God’s children. This is a wonderful comfort for those who are believers in Christ fight no battles and face no issues alone. This day we remember and we celebrate that the God who is above us and the God who saved us now lives within us by his Holy Spirit until the day Jesus returns.
Now we know that some churches place a great emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit. In fact over the years we have seen some abuse. We have seen all sorts of weird and silly things in the name of the Holy Spirit. We have seen people falling over backwards and barking like dogs and claiming all sorts of weird things in the name of the Holy Spirit.
However, as much as we are appalled at these abuses, we need to be careful that we don’t go to the other extreme. The presence of the powerful Holy Spirit must make a difference in the lives of believers and if it doesn’t then we must ask whether they are believers at all?
Whether we are Reformed or Baptist or Pentecostal the pouring out of the Holy Spirit should make a difference in our lives in these last days. And it makes a difference in at least two areas. First, it means we are prophets. And second, the purpose of the powerful Holy Spirit is to turn people to Jesus.
Note again verse 17-18. “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. (18) Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
There were times in Israel’s history when the voice of prophecy was almost nonexistent. At the time of Samuel, for instance, we are told, “In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions” (1 Sam 3:1). By the time of the NT things were even worse. There were 400 long years between Malachi and John the Baptist, when the voice of prophecy was silent.
But at Pentecost all this is reversed. Quoting Joel, Peter tells us that all of God’s believing children receive the Holy Spirit and prophecy. There was a time when Moses wished he could see this happen. In Numbers 11:28-29 we read how the Spirit of the Lord rested on two Israelites, Eldad and Medad, who began to prophesy.
Joshua was jealous for Moses’ sake and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” What Moses was only able to dream about, Joel prophesied about and Peter was privileged to see become a reality – a reality that still exists today: God’s people filled with the Spirit and turned into prophets.
Now perhaps we had better make sure we know what a prophet and prophecy is. Most people define a prophet as someone who predicts or prophesies about the future. Now that certainly occurred in the OT. However, in these last days, God has given his last word in the person of His Son as Hebrews 1:1 reminds us.
That doesn’t mean a prophet cannot prophecy something about the future today. Paul writes in 1 Thess 5:19-21 “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good.” A prophet who prophesises about the future does not do so with divine authority. It needs to be tested and sifted according to what God has revealed in his word.
Therefore, today when we speak about being a prophet, we speak primarily about the present. We speak about forth telling rather than foretelling. He or she looks at the world around them and says, “This is what the LORD says in His word”
Even though I may be the only one called and ordained as a preacher here, each and every believer filled with the Spirit is also called to be a prophet. This means that each and every believer has a calling to look at life and society and family and say, “This is what the LORD says in his word.” Let me give some clues on how this can happen.
We function as prophets when we speak against abortion and euthanasia. We function as prophets when we object to the violence, murder, rape, pornography, homosexual practice, alcoholism and drug abuse. We function as prophets when we raise our children in God’s ways; when we teach them the difference between right and wrong; when we give them moral and spiritual guidance. We function as prophets when we lead Bible Studies and Sunday school and any other activity where we apply God’s word in our lives. So that is one sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence.
Second, in these last days the Holy Spirit will come with power and turn people to Jesus in repentance. The wonders in the heaven and on earth, the blood and fire and billows of smoke were always signs of God’s awesome and powerful presence and for Peter and his listeners that occurred seven weeks earlier, on Good Friday when darkness fell on the earth for three hours.
But in these last days the powerful Holy Spirit also works in the lives of Christians. 2 Tim 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” We find ample proof of the Holy Spirit’s power in Scripture. Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes…” and the book of Acts has numerous references to the power of the Holy Spirit as the Apostles proclaimed the gospel and performed miracles.
And that brings me to ask the question, “For what purpose has the Holy Spirit been sent?” The prophet Joel prophesied that God would intervene in history with judgment so that people would repent and be saved. Now I put it to you that that same powerful Holy Spirit is given to us also for that purpose and that is also the context of this passage for in v38 Peter calls on the people to repent and be saved and 3000 people are cut to the heart and are saved.
Dearie me, I would be delighted if I could see just 3 people with such a response every month. The point is that the Holy Spirit isn’t given to people so that they can fall over backwards or start speaking in tongues or begin barking like dogs. The powerful Holy Spirit isn’t given so that we can show off some exceptional talent for our own glory or satisfaction and claim it as our own as some charlatans do today in the church.
No, the powerful Holy Spirit is given so that we can proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ so that people may be saved to the glory of God the Father. That’s Peter’s emphasis and Paul’s emphasis and John’s emphasis. We are in the last days and there is no more important message than to tell people about God’s love to them in Christ so that they may be convicted of their sin, or to use the words of Luke, so that people may be cut to the heart and cry out, “What must we do to be saved?”
The Holy Spirit was sent so that we may know we are sinners who need a Saviour for God’s word tells us that Jesus is both Lord and Christ and that there is going to be a judgement at the end of time. Did you get that? The powerful Holy Spirit fills us so people can be saved and that we can fight sin and evil and live like new people in Christ.
The powerful Holy Spirit enables us to flee the acts of the sinful nature: sexual immorality, impurity, hatred, discord, jealousy, envy, fits of rage, and drunkenness; and helps us to show the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The powerful Holy Spirit reminds us that the only way to avoid the coming judgment and to be saved is to call on the one who the Father has made both Lord and Christ!
Yet, many times we are scared, powerless, ineffective, confused. Instead of living in the power of the Holy Spirit we tend to put out the Spirit’s fire” (1 Thess 5:19). In fact, more than that, we sometimes are guilty of grieving the Holy Spirit within us by our ready-made excuses for not doing the will of our glorious God and Saviour.
Oh sinful creatures that we are for we have become very good at putting a nice spin on plain disobedient living. On the one hand we say, “Jesus is Lord of my life, he is my Saviour, my King and his powerful Holy Spirit lives within me.” On the other hand, it doesn’t make any difference. May the Lord forgive us!
Congregation we live in the last days implying that there will be an end. There is a day coming soon that Jesus will return. Then it will no longer be necessary for the Holy Spirit to live within us, but we will be walking with our God in the cool of the day when all things have been made new.
The people of Judah failed to heed Joel’s warning about the coming day of the Lord and impending judgment and to repent before it was too late and they were sent into exile. Many people in Judah heard Peter’s sermon and responded in repentance and three thousand were added to the 120 that originally met in that upper room. The sad part is that many more didn’t respond.
Today, I have spoken to you about the Holy Spirit and his role to convict us that we need to have Jesus as our Saviour. Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. May our thinking, our words and our actions show that we are prophets filled with a powerful Holy Spirit for God’s glory, and our friendly yet unbelieving neighbour’s benefit. Amen.