but this is that which was spoken through the prophet Joel,
A crowd in Jerusalem has just heard the disciples speak in languages they never learned, and some of the listeners say the men are drunk. Peter answers by pointing to the prophet Joel — and what he meant by pointing there has been debated ever since.
Peter deals first with the sneer, and only then with the sign. The hour of the day was enough to answer the charge.
"Full of new wine," the mockers had said — an easy answer, as they thought, to the strange and startling sight they were watching. But the charge was easy to disprove, and its folly clear. The time of day should have kept the accusers quiet — it was only the third hour. Men were not used to being overcome with wine by nine o'clock in the morning. The disciples were not drunk with wine. They were filled with the Spirit.
Peter's exact words matter. These writers quote an older version — "This is that which was spoken" — where the ESV has "uttered." Peter names what kind of event this is; he does not say Joel's prophecy is finished.
The point he insists on was this — the wonder in front of them in Jerusalem was one their own prophets should have prepared them for. "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." He does not say that it was the fulfilment of the prophet. Men, theologians, have said so, but not the Spirit of God. The apostle only says, "This is that which was spoken." That was its character. How far it was to be carried out then is another matter. It was not the excitement of nature by wine, but the heart filled with the Spirit of God, acting in His own power and in all classes.
Read in its own book, Joel's promise follows Israel's restoration to their land. That setting is what keeps Pentecost from being the whole story.
"And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh"... God speaks here of the time when He shall have re-established the Jews in their land, for He says, "My people shall never be ashamed"... This is after the blessing of the people, so that they may enjoy it. But when the day of Pentecost is there, Peter says, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel," Acts 2:16. Yet the Holy Spirit came on only a small number, because the nation had not received Christ.
God kept the door open to Israel through the early chapters of Acts. How much of Joel's picture came true turned on their answer.
Students of Scripture have often noticed how patiently God bore with the Jews through the first seven chapters of Acts. Until Stephen's death, we might say, the Lord was ready to return to the repentant nation. Sadly, the nation was not ready to have Him, and so God's purposes went on to their fulfilment for the Church. If they had received the truth as a nation, Joel's prophecy would have been fulfilled in full. As it was, that fulfilment, for Israel, waits for a future day.
"All flesh" is the widest phrase in Joel's promise. The many languages the apostles spoke were the first sign of its reach.
"All flesh" here, we think, stands in contrast to Israel only. And Peter's heart at that moment must have been full of this. The last words he had heard from the Lord's lips as He ascended to heaven were "to the ends of the earth." He was filled with the Holy Spirit, who had come to bear witness to the world. Filled, gifted and inspired by the Holy Spirit, the apostles spoke — not the language of the Jew only, but many different tongues. The blessing was for all... All flesh does not necessarily mean every individual, but that all nations are in view.
Peter stops partway through Joel's prophecy. One writer sets this beside the Lord's own reading of Isaiah, where He stopped in the same way.
Peter's first use of the prophecy in Joel is similar to the Lord's use of Isaiah 61 in Luke 4. There He stopped at "to preach the acceptable year of the Lord"; the time for the "day of vengeance" had not come. So here, Peter ends with the words, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved," because this was the end of his ministry.
- Not that — Peter answers the mockery first. Nobody is drunk at nine in the morning. The crowd was watching hearts filled with the Spirit of God.
- This is that — Peter names the character of the event, not its completion. He never calls Joel's prophecy finished. This is the kind of thing Joel described.
- That is later — Joel's "afterward" belongs to a restored Israel in their land, so his full picture still waits.
- Only a few — the Spirit came on a small company, because the nation had not received Christ. Had Israel received the truth, Joel's words would have run their full course.
- But for all — Peter stops at the promise that everyone who calls on the Lord will be saved. "All flesh" means all nations, so a narrow beginning carries the widest promise.
And it shall be in the last days, saith God, [that] I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your elders shall dream with dreams;
Peter's first act as a preacher is to reach for an old prophecy. Joel had described this scene centuries earlier. But how does the day of Pentecost relate to Joel's words? Commentators still ask whether Peter announced that the prophecy had arrived, or something more careful.
Peter's exact wording matters. He does not claim the prophecy had run its course; he says the scene in front of them matched what Joel described.
Notice the point he presses. The wonder in front of them in Jerusalem was one their own prophets should have prepared them for. "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." He does not say that it was the fulfilment of the prophet. Men, religious teachers, have said so, but not the Spirit of God. The apostle only says, "This is that which was spoken." That was its character. How much of it was carried out then is another question. This was not nature stirred up by wine. It was the heart filled with the Spirit of God, acting in His own power and in every class of people.
The same care shows in where Peter breaks off. Joel's sentence continues, but Peter leaves the rest unsaid.
He stops in the middle of a verse... Peter stops at the general statement of salvation, which is true for every age. He deliberately holds back from quoting the end, which belongs only to the future, when the Lord returns to reign at Jerusalem. The Apostle was guided by God. Who on earth at that moment, apart from the Holy Spirit, knew what was about to happen, or the character of the work that must come before Israel's blessing?
Joel wrote "afterward." Peter says "in the last days."
If you look at Joel it is clearly this: "And it shall come to pass afterwards." That means after God has restored Israel, and set them in blessing in their land, and they own Messiah. Then they get the Spirit... "and afterward I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." Now here Peter changes the word "afterward" and puts in "the last days," and so takes in a distinct testimony.
Commentators differ over how far Joel's words were then met. Some place the full accomplishment still ahead:
For the Jew these are the last days, and they run on to the millennium... And the fulfilment of Joel's prophecy about the pouring out of the Spirit will come after the church is removed, and before those days close.
Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel all wrote about the Spirit being poured out. Joel's words reach further than the other two.
Isaiah and Ezekiel predict it, but they tie it to the last days, and to a blessing God would give Israel. On this matter their view as prophets stopped at the borders of the nation. Joel is different. His range of vision takes in all flesh... God was about to go beyond the narrow bounds of Judaism and to minister blessing to Gentiles. So saving grace would be known by some of all flesh, not only by some of Israel's race.
The phrase itself is wider than one nation, and it points to a blessing still to come.
Indeed, the prophet's words here reached beyond what that day accomplished. "All flesh" cannot rightly be limited to Israel. God was soon going to bring Gentiles to the name of Christ, and He will bless the nations in the future kingdom.
The blessing Joel promised was something new, and it reached even the lowest ranks of the people.
But there was a new thing God would give them. He would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. The young men and the old men of the people would have visions and dreams. Even on the male and female servants this rain from heaven would fall.
Dreams and visions are not decoration in the promise; they are the method.
It is to be noted that in the last days when God pours out His Spirit on all flesh the sons and daughters will prophesy, and the young men shall see visions, and the old men shall dream dreams. This will be the way that God will make known His mind in those days.
So what should Christians expect today? One writer warns against a common mistake.
In this time of grace the Holy Spirit is here. He belongs by right to every individual Christian and to the Church of God. It is ours to walk in the Spirit and to be filled with Him. Many are unclear about this. They see that the spiritual condition of the Church as a whole is low, and they grieve over it. But they think the only cure is another outpouring or baptism of the Spirit. This is not the case, however sincere they may be. The real need is more simple faith in the mighty fact that the Holy Spirit is present on earth. Let us use the power we have, and God will honour the effort.
- Promise. Peter answers the mockery by pointing to Joel. What the crowd saw was the Spirit poured out, not wine at work.
- Precision. He says "this is that," not "this is fulfilled," and stops mid-verse — leaving unquoted what belongs to a future day.
- Timing. Peter turns Joel's "afterward" into "in the last days." Commentators differ on how much came then and how much still waits.
- Reach. "All flesh" reaches past Israel — sons and daughters, young and old, male and female servants alike.
- Possession. The Spirit given at Pentecost is still here. The call is not to seek another outpouring but to use the power we already have.
yea, even upon my bondmen and upon my bondwomen in those days will I pour out of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
Peter answers the charge of drunkenness by turning to Joel: God pours out His Spirit on His servants, men and women alike, and they prophesy. Three questions follow — was Joel's word finished that morning, who is included, and what does prophesying mean?
Peter chooses his words with care. He says what kind of event the crowd is watching. He does not say Joel's prophecy is now complete.
Notice the point he insists on. The wonder now in front of them in Jerusalem was one their own prophets should have prepared them for: "This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel." He does not say it was the fulfilment of the prophet. Men, theologians, have said that; the Spirit of God does not. The apostle simply says, "This is what was spoken." That was its character. How far it was to be carried out then is another matter. This was not nature excited by wine. It was the heart filled with the Spirit of God, acting in His own power and in every class of people.
The verse names servants, the lowest rank in a household, and it names both men and women. So the gift was not kept inside a small circle.
We need only note that it came on all — young and old, male servants and female servants. There is no trace of a clergy, or of any group the gift was limited to. The wording says the opposite. And it was not only the apostles: a hundred and twenty were there, and women among them.
The promised result is prophecy. The word is easily misread as predicting the future.
Prophesying has no necessary link with the future, as some suppose. Nor is it preaching or teaching in general. It is forth-telling rather than fore-telling. It is speaking to a person in a way that puts him in the light of God — of God's dealing with his heart and conscience. It gives His mind.
The mention of female servants is not a throwaway. Women were praying with the disciples before the Spirit ever came.
"Women" were expressly named in Acts 1:14. At that point the disciples, close together as they were, were still only separate people holding to the Lord in faith, giving themselves with one mind to constant prayer. The one Spirit had not yet come down from heaven to unite them and baptize them all into one body. Joel's prophecy, applied to the gift at Pentecost, assumes that women were to have a share in the promise of the Father, and in its mighty result.
Writers are careful, though, about what this verse does not settle. Sharing in the gift is one question. Where a woman may use it is another.
This is also all that can be said of the passage in Acts 2:17-18. The daughters of Israel, the Lord's "female servants," were to prophesy — but where? Not in public preaching, for even "the law" forbade them that.
Joel's phrase "all flesh" in the verse before covers these servants too. Those words reach further than what happened that one morning in Jerusalem.
It really was what Joel spoke of — not the fulfilment as it will be in the last days, but a pouring out of that same kind. In fact the prophet's words went beyond what that day carried out. "All flesh" cannot be limited to Israel. God was soon to bring Gentiles to the name of Christ, and He will bless the nations in the future kingdom.
A further outpouring is still ahead, with a different purpose from the one at work now.
But we must remember what happens when the day comes for God to pour out the Holy Spirit again. That outpouring will not gather out a people for heaven. It will serve God's purposes of grace on the earth — that is the difference. Then it will be plain that God gives the Holy Spirit to men quite apart from their being Jews. So on the day of Pentecost, when everyone there was a Jew, the miracle of Gentile languages still showed that God did not mean to stop there, but to go out to all the nations.
- Promise. Peter says this is what Joel spoke of. He names the character of what happened, not the finish of Joel's word.
- Reach. The Spirit falls on male and female servants. There is no clergy and no closed circle, and women were among the hundred and twenty.
- Voice. Prophesying is forth-telling, not fore-telling. It puts a person in the light of God's mind.
- Limit. Sharing the gift is not the same as having a platform. This passage does not give women a place in public preaching.
- Horizon. "All flesh" already reached past Israel that day, through the tongues. A fuller outpouring still waits, for God's purposes on the earth.
And I will give wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke
On the day of Pentecost the crowd heard their own languages spoken. Peter explained it from the prophet Joel. But his quotation runs past the gift of the Spirit into wonders in the sky and signs on the earth. Nothing like blood, fire and smoke happened in Jerusalem that morning. So was Peter saying Joel's words had already come true?
Peter's wording is careful. He names the character of what was happening, not its completion. (The quotations below come from an older translation than the ESV.)
Notice the point he presses: the wonder in front of them in Jerusalem was, after all, one their own prophets should have prepared them for. "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." He does not say it was the fulfilment of the prophecy. Theologians have said so, but the Spirit of God has not. The apostle only says, "This is that which was spoken." That was its character. How much of it was to happen then is another question.
The New Testament has a set phrase for announcing that a prophecy has come true. Here it is missing.
Many passages in the New Testament use the phrase "that it might be fulfilled." That phrase is missing where Joel's prophecy is used in Acts chapter 2. Instead we read that Peter said, "But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel." There is a great difference between this word and an out-and-out declaration that the passage was fulfilled. Peter's words point out that something like what happened on the day of Pentecost had been foretold by Joel. But they do not claim that Joel's prophecy was fulfilled there and then.
Acts later reports "wonders and signs" done by the apostles. Those were not the ones Joel described.
Plainly, the wonders in heaven above and the signs in the earth have not even yet come to pass (Acts 2:19). Verse 43 tells us that "many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles." But those were not the ones Joel foretold: "blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke," the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood. God did pour out His Spirit in Jerusalem as He had promised, so to that extent the prophecy came partly true.
These signs have a purpose. They come before the judgment, and God works the same way with us now.
God will make a striking outward display of His power before the judgment falls. He always sends a witness ahead of the event itself. He does not strike before He warns. He deals with us the same way every day… These wonders are bound to catch people's minds and attention, but they will not take them to heart. Deluded, and hardened under God's judgment, they will turn a deaf ear to it all. So the great and terrible day of the Lord will overtake them like a thief.
Joel ties the outpouring to the nation's repentance. Commentators differ over whether history has already given a small first instalment of the signs.
When they repent, the Holy Spirit will be poured out on them and on all people. Peter quoted this in Acts 2:16-21, but the nation did not repent; only a remnant turned to the Lord. There will also be signs in the heavens and on the earth before the great and terrible day of the Lord. According to the historians, there were some such signs before the destruction of Jerusalem. So this passage, quoted in Acts 2, may have had a partial fulfilment then, though it still waits to be fully proved true in a future day.
Alongside the promise of the Spirit, something less obvious reached that crowd.
It was less prominent, but still clearly there: the Spirit of God had brought home to them the reality of judgment… All nature would shake before its Judge, and that judgment was close at hand.
Notice what the signs are timed against. They belong to the day of the Lord, not to Christ's coming for His people.
This hope may come true this very night. There is nothing at all to wait for… And, blessed be His name, when He does come for us, He will not come with terror, wrath and judgment. He will not come with blackness and darkness and storm. Those things belong to "the day of the Lord," as the apostle Peter tells the Jews plainly in his first great sermon.
- Wording. Peter says "this is that," not "this fulfils that." The New Testament's usual phrase for fulfilment is missing.
- Portion. God did pour out His Spirit, so part of Joel came true. The wonders and signs of this verse have not happened yet.
- Warning. These signs are God's testimony sent ahead of judgment — He does not strike before He warns.
- Deafness. People will see the warning and still ignore it, so the day will overtake them like a thief.
- Hope. Blood, fire and smoke belong to the day of the Lord. Christ's coming for His people is different, and there is nothing left to wait for.
the sun shall be changed to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and gloriously appearing day of [the] Lord come.
Peter explains a morning of wind, fire and foreign languages in Jerusalem by quoting the prophet Joel. Yet Joel's darkened sun and blood-red moon did not appear that day, which raises two questions: was the prophecy finished at Pentecost, and what is "the day of the Lord" these signs come before?
Peter introduced the whole quotation in verse 16 with the words "this is that." One writer weighs what those words claim:
It is strange that all these commentators use the word "fulfillment" for this prophecy. They say Peter called the day of Pentecost the fulfillment of what Joel wrote. But the Holy Spirit did not use the word "fulfillment" at all. He avoided such a statement on purpose. Many passages in the New Testament use the phrase "that it might be fulfilled." Peter does not use it here. Instead he says, "But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." … Peter's words point out that Joel had predicted something like what took place on the day of Pentecost. They do not claim that Joel's prophecy was fulfilled there and then. … The outpouring of the Holy Spirit had taken place, but not in the full sense given in Joel's prophecy. He came for a special purpose, the formation of the Church, and for this purpose He is still on earth.
Nothing in the sky changed that morning. One writer marks off the part of Joel that was left for later:
The verses he quotes (Joel 2:28-32) were not completely fulfilled when God poured out His Spirit at Pentecost. Verses 19 and 20 at least will be fulfilled only at the time of the tribulation period. Yet his words "this is that" show that God was doing an unusually striking work, in line with that prophecy. Such partial fulfilments are not unusual in Scripture.
The word "before" carries the verse. One writer draws a rule from that order and applies it to daily life:
God will show His power in a remarkable, visible way before He carries out the judgment. God always sends a testimony before the thing itself. He does not strike before He warns. He deals with us the same way every day. What Christian feels God's discipline before the Spirit of God has warned him? … He gives us the chance, if one may say so, to set ourselves morally right; and if we do not take the lesson, then the sorrow comes. So it is here too. These wonders are bound to catch people's minds and attention, but they will not truly heed them. … They will turn a deaf ear to it all, and so the great and terrible day of the Lord will overtake them like a thief.
Peter's hearers already knew this phrase from their own Scriptures. One writer sums up what it means wherever it appears:
On the day of Pentecost Peter speaks of "the day of the Lord, the great and magnificent day." … In all these passages, and in 1 Thessalonians 5, the phrase points to sudden and overwhelming judgments on the wicked. Those judgments open the way for Christ to set up His kingdom on earth by power.
Commentators differ on how to read the sun and moon here. Some take the language as a picture of authority collapsing:
Signs in the sun. These probably stand for the darkening and change of those in supreme authority over the earth in the last days.
Another writer takes the same words at face value:
In Joel the sun is darkened and the moon turned to blood before the day comes. I take it that if the sea in the appointed area literally becomes like the blood of a dead man, then the moon is literally turned into blood too. But then that is before the great and terrible day of the Lord in Joel.
Some read these signs as events believers must wait through. One writer asks what the word "before" actually points to:
Christ may come for His people tonight. Nothing stands in the way. … And when He does come for us, He will not come with terror, wrath, and judgment. He will not come with blackness and darkness and storm. Those things belong to "the day of the Lord," as Peter tells the Jews in his first great sermon on the day of Pentecost … "the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before" — what? Before the coming of the Lord for His people? No; but before "the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day."
- Sample, not completion. Peter says "this is that," not "this fulfils that." Pentecost matched Joel's words but did not use them up.
- Still future. Nothing in the sky changed that morning. The darkened sun and blood-red moon belong to the tribulation still ahead.
- Before, always before. God sends a warning ahead of the blow. He never strikes first — not in world judgment, and not in His daily dealings with us.
- A day of judgment. "The day of the Lord" means sudden, sweeping judgment on the wicked that opens Christ's kingdom on earth.
- A different expectation. These terrors come before that day, not before the Lord's coming for His people. Nothing has to happen first.
And it shall be that whosoever shall call upon the name of [the] Lord shall be saved.
Peter has just explained the rush of the Spirit at Pentecost by quoting the prophet Joel. He ends the quotation on a promise, not a threat. That raises three questions: whose name is meant, what calling is, and why Peter breaks off where he does.
Joel's sentence does not end where Peter's quotation ends. One writer traces the missing half and explains the choice.
He stopped in the middle of a verse. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Joel gives a reason for that. He adds, "For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls" (Joel 2:32). Peter stops at the general statement of salvation, which is true in every age. He carefully avoids quoting the end, because it applies only to the future, when the Lord returns to reign at Jerusalem.
Peter was following a pattern his Master had already set.
Peter's first use of the prophecy in Joel is like the Lord's use of Isaiah 61 in Luke 4. There He stopped at "to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" — the time for the "day of vengeance" had not come. So here Peter ends with the words "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," because this was the end of his ministry.
Peter's crowd was Jewish, yet the prophecy he chose was the one with the widest horizon.
It was really what Joel spoke of: not, of course, the fulfilment as it is to be in the last days, but an outpouring of that nature. Indeed, the prophet's words went beyond what that day saw accomplished, for "all flesh" cannot fairly be limited to Israel, and God was soon about to bring in Gentiles to the name of Christ.
Peter never calls this the fulfilment of Joel. His care carries a warning for anyone who thinks a later day will do.
Peter says, in effect: this is the first instalment of the prophecy of Joel… I have no doubt the complete fulfilment of Joel's prophecy remains for a future day, when the Jews are again in their land — a restored people. So Peter is careful not to say it is the fulfilment… But you, my reader, if you miss salvation now, will never come in for it then.
In Joel the name to call on is Jehovah. For Peter's hearers, that raised a problem.
Joel had added the necessary condition of salvation in the trouble of those days. It could hardly be called a condition at all. To "call upon the Name of the Lord" (that is, of Jehovah) would so naturally be what anyone turns to in trouble. Yet even here, sadly, man's unbelief might turn this into a stumbling-block — something to fall over and perish. For Jehovah had already come to them, and they had rejected Him!
The apostles put the same truth in its sharpest form, ruling out every other name.
At Pentecost the apostles preached and prayed in the spirit of these scriptures, in the name of the holy Servant Jesus. They said, "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And they announced with force, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
The condition is as small as a cry — which is the whole point.
What is required of men in order that they may be saved? Simply to "call" upon the name of the Lord. This was all Israel could do while they were suffering in Egypt. To shake off Pharaoh was impossible; to get rid of the taskmasters was out of the question; but they could cry to God. In the same way today, the one who calls upon the name of the Lord, acknowledging Him as his only hope, will be saved.
But a cry can also be empty.
The calling spoken of here is not the vague cry of an uneasy conscience, but the cry of faith… Sadly, as we are solemnly warned, the cry "Lord, Lord" may come from lips whose sound never came from a believing heart.
The word "everyone" leaves no boundary standing.
It is clear that, if it is everyone who believes in Jesus, the Gentile comes in as well as the Jew. There is no difference; the same Lord is rich to all who call upon Him. It is beautiful to see this phrase, "There is no difference," repeated here. The apostle had used it before with the addition "for all have sinned." Sin puts all men on a level in ruin before God.
- The name — the Lord to call on is Jehovah. Peter's hearers had already rejected the very One they were told to call on.
- The call — the condition is a cry, all a helpless person can manage. But it must be the cry of faith, not the empty sound of "Lord, Lord."
- The reach — "everyone" takes in the Gentile as well as the Jew. The same Lord is rich to all who call.
- The pause — Peter breaks off mid-verse on purpose. He leaves out the part that belongs to the day when the Lord reigns at Jerusalem.
- The window — Pentecost is an instalment, not the finish. The offer stands now, and whoever misses it will not pick it up later.