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.