We have already introduced Jesus’ coming in judgment in the preceding blogs by pointing out the victory of saints over Satan. However, this new age would commence with the end of the old regime. The wheat would be gathered in barns, but the chaff would burn with fire.
When Joel had predicted the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he specifically noted that the outpouring would take place before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. The Jews understood Joel’s prophecy of a coming judgment and understood the coming of the Holy Spirit as a sign of that judgment. For this reason, the relationship between the work of the Holy Spirit and the coming of the Lord (Greek, parousia, conveying “presence”) in judgment is unmistakable. When Peter explains, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel…” (Acts 2:15), he was announcing something with which every Jew was acquainted and in which every Jew anticipated. Luke records, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it (Luke 16:16). The kingdom of God was the ultimate goal of the last days. It meant the establishment of Christ’s rule and the judgment against a nation that rejected His rule.
They, also, knew that severe persecution of God’s elect at the hands of His enemies would precede that judgment. What they failed to understand was that the judgment was not the salvation of the literal nation of Israel and reestablishment of his physical rule in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 1:6). Instead, His salvation was the restoration of the true people of God and judgment would start with the physical nation of Israel. The many parables spoken by Jesus concerned His rejection by the Jews who rejected Him as the Messiah. Judgment began with the Jews just as the gospel had begun with them (cf. Romans 1:16; 2:9-10). When Peter is preaching in Acts 3:26, he explains that God had sent his servant to the Jew first (Acts 3:26). Paul and Barnabas explain in Acts 13:46, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
The new Israel of God was not the physical lineage of Abraham. In fact, he becomes the father of many nations, because, through him, all nations would be blessed. We have also concluded in the previous chapters that these same ones received the promise of the Holy Spirit in the last days. The elect was not the Jewish nation, but the called out the spiritual body, the “ekklesia.” Romans 2:28-29 reads,
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
Peter alludes to the fulfillment of Joel’s outpouring before the great and terrible day of the Lord. He exhorted them with the words, “escape from this perverse generation” (Acts 2:39). This is the same generation that the gospels reference over and again. Jesus calls it an adulterous and sinful generation that craves for a sign (Mark 8:38, Matthew 12:39, 16:4), that will be condemned at the judgment for rejecting Him (Matt. 12:41, cf. 42, Luke 17:25). He calls it an “evil or wicked generation” (Matthew 12:45), an unbelieving and perverted generation (Matthew 17:17, Mark 9:19, Luke 9:41), and one who is the object of His wrath (Matthew 24:34, 23:36, Mark 8:38). Luke records Jesus explaining, “For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation” (Lk 11:49-51, NASV).
It is important to recognize that even though the phrase “this generation” is now past, it was promised to occur in that present generation of the first century. The punishment they would receive for their rejection was the final straw. Jesus, the very Son of God, was their last and only hope. Yet, they did what their fathers had done in killing the prophets. They killed the prophet and the blood of all the prophets would be laid on them of that last generation.
When Peter exhorts those on Pentecost to “save yourselves from this perverse generation,” each individual could avert personal punishment that was to be carried out against this nation. To accept the Messiah’s rule (cf. Acts 2:36) and prepare for that day, they were told, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38, NASB).
The terrible day of the Lord was to be a time of judgment when the harvest, which is at “the end of the age” will include both the wheat gathered into the barn and the tares burned with fire (Matthew 13:39-40). When were these things to occur? Ans: “at the end of the age.” So, Jesus ends by saying, “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous” (Matthew 13:49). When Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, his disciples asked him privately (Matthew 24:3),
“Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Our next blog will compare the accounts in the gospels that contain His answer to their question(s).