Scripture referenced 18 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Acts 3:1-10 read aloud at the opening of the service, the healing of the crippled man at the temple gate
1 Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
2 A certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple.
3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive gifts for the needy.
4 Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, “Look at us.”
5 He listened to them, expecting to receive something from them.
6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”
7 He took him by the right hand, and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength.
8 Leaping up, he stood, and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God.
9 All the people saw him walking and praising God.
10 They recognized him, that it was he who used to sit begging for gifts for the needy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
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Keep this verse
Psalm 34:8
Felix quoted it as the song Taste and See while encouraging his wife Guadalupe in her suffering
8 Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
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Joel 2:13
rend your hearts not your garments, cited as the call to sincerity before God in the first half of Joel
13 Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
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Joel 2:28-29
the promise of the spirit poured out on all flesh, described as future for Joel but past for us, fulfilled at Pentecost
28 “It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.
29 And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.
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Joel 2:32
everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, cited in connection with Pentecost and all nations
32 It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.
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Joel 3:1
in those days I will restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, opening the judgment section of the sermon
1 “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
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Joel 3:9
proclaim this among the nations, beat your plowshares into swords, God calling the nations to judgment
9 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up.
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Joel 3:13
swing the sickle for the harvest is ripe, the winepress is full, judgment on the nations
13 Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”
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Joel 3:14
multitudes in the valley of decision, the moment of judgment
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near, in the valley of decision.
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Joel 3:16
the Lord roars from Zion, the heavens and earth quake, but the Lord is a refuge to his people
16 Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.
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Joel 3:17
so you shall know that I am the Lord your God who dwells in Zion
17 “So you will know that I am Yahweh, your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no strangers will pass through her any more.
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Joel 3:18
in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine and the hills shall flow with milk, restoration
18 It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters, and a fountain will flow out from Yahweh’s house, and will water the valley of Shittim.
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Joel 1:3
tell your children of it and let your children tell their children to another generation, used to close the sermon
3 Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.
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Revelation 14:14
one like the son of man seated on a cloud with a golden crown and a sharp sickle, paralleling Joel's harvest judgment
14 I looked, and behold, a white cloud; and on the cloud one sitting like a son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
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Revelation 14:19
the angel swung his sickle and threw the grapes into the great winepress of God's wrath, blood flowing for 180 miles
19 The angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
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Acts 2
Pentecost, Peter quoting Joel, seventeen nations hearing in their own languages, fulfillment of Joel 2:28
1 Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them.
4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under the sky.
6 When this sound was heard, the multitude came together, and were bewildered, because everyone heard them speaking in his own language.
7 They were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Behold, aren’t all these who speak Galileans?
8 How do we hear, everyone in our own native language?
9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia,
10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretans and Arabians: we hear them speaking in our languages the mighty works of God!”
12 They were all amazed, and were perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
13 Others, mocking, said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spoke out to them, “You men of Judea, and all you who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words.
15 For these aren’t drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is only the third hour of the day.
16 But this is what has been spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.
18 Yes, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.
21 It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know,
23 him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;
24 whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
25 For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before my face, For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
26 Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope;
27 because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.
28 You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
29 “Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,
31 he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in Hades, and his flesh didn’t see decay.
32 This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses.
33 Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear.
34 For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand,
35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’
36 “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
40 With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.
42 They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.
43 Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
44 All who believed were together, and had all things in common.
45 They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need.
46 Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,
47 praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.
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Isaiah 2
they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, cited as the reversal of Joel 3:9
1 This is what Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go out, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 House of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of Yahweh.
6 For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled from the east, with those who practice divination like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.
7 Their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures. Their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.
8 Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.
9 Man is brought low, and mankind is humbled; therefore don’t forgive them.
10 Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty.
11 The lofty looks of man will be brought low, the haughtiness of men will be bowed down, and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.
12 For there will be a day of Yahweh of Armies for all that is proud and haughty, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:
13 For all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, for all the oaks of Bashan,
14 For all the high mountains, for all the hills that are lifted up,
15 For every lofty tower, for every fortified wall,
16 For all the ships of Tarshish, and for all pleasant imagery.
17 The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and Yahweh alone shall be exalted in that day.
18 The idols shall utterly pass away.
19 Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.
20 In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
21 To go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.
22 Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?
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John 7
briefly connected to the fountain coming forth from the house of the Lord in Joel 3:18, mentioned in relation to the Thursday men's lunch study
1 After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn’t walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.
2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.
3 His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here, and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do.
4 For no one does anything in secret, and himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.”
5 For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.
6 Jesus therefore said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.
7 The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.
8 You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.”
9 Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee.
10 But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret.
11 The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, “Where is he?”
12 There was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “Not so, but he leads the multitude astray.”
13 Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.
14 But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How does this man know letters, having never been educated?”
16 Jesus therefore answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
17 If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself.
18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
19 Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?”
20 The multitude answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”
21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel because of it.
22 Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy.
23 If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath?
24 Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
25 Therefore some of them of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill?
26 Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ?
27 However we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
28 Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know.
29 I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
30 They sought therefore to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
31 But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?”
32 The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
33 Then Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer, then I go to him who sent me.
34 You will seek me, and won’t find me; and where I am, you can’t come.”
35 The Jews therefore said among themselves, “Where will this man go that we won’t find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?
36 What is this word that he said, ‘You will seek me, and won’t find me; and where I am, you can’t come’?”
37 Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!
38 He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.”
39 But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn’t yet glorified.
40 Many of the multitude therefore, when they heard these words, said, “This is truly the prophet.”
41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “What, does the Christ come out of Galilee?
42 Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”
43 So there arose a division in the multitude because of him.
44 Some of them would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him.
45 The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”
46 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!”
47 The Pharisees therefore answered them, “You aren’t also led astray, are you?
48 Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees?
49 But this multitude that doesn’t know the law is accursed.”
50 Nicodemus (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them,
51 “Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?”
52 They answered him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search, and see that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”
53 Everyone went to his own house,
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Before the sermon proper, Felix stood up and told the congregation what his family has been through over the past year or so. His wife Guadalupe developed a debilitating neuropathy that left her unable to walk or sleep, and after four hospital visits without a diagnosis, months of suffering, and Felix losing his job when he took time off to care for her, the church covered the cost of her surgery. She is now walking and regaining feeling in her hands and feet. The sermon that followed, led by Van, finished the study of Joel that Pastor Ray had started the week before.
What was said
Felix spoke first, and his testimony set the tone for everything that followed. He and Guadalupe came from Mexico, where church life as he knew it was obligation without love, buildings full of people kissing the priest's hand and sending money to Rome, but no one praying with you in the street. When they arrived in Jackson and joined First Baptist, people he barely knew stopped him on the sidewalk and prayed for his wife. That was genuinely new to him.
The suffering went on longer than Felix thought he could bear. He told God he was disobedient and unloving for not answering sooner. When Steve Landis came to the house, found out the surgery cost around $30,000, and came back to say the church had already set the money aside, Felix said he went to his knees and asked forgiveness. His words were that God's timing is not when we want it but when he wants it.
Felix also talked about the people around him, Mexican neighbors and coworkers who are curious about what Christianity is but afraid to ask openly. He described it as similar to his own journey with God, the same way you fall in love with a person: you test, you have conversations, you spend time together. He drew on Psalm 34:8, "taste and see that the Lord is good," as the frame for how he tries to encourage people toward faith.
Van picked up from there and worked through the second half of Joel, chapter three. The first half of Joel, covered the week before, showed God fighting against his own people to get their attention. The second half shows God fighting against the nations. The Valley of Jehoshaphat, whose name means "the valley of God's judgment," is where the nations are gathered, and the sickle-and-winepress imagery of Joel's harvest maps directly onto parallel language in Revelation 14.
Van paused at that winepress image to connect it to communion. The point was not to frighten anyone but to ask what puts distance between a person and that wrath. His answer was simply Jesus. At the Lord's table the cup is a sign that Christ absorbed the wrath that would otherwise fall on those who trust him, and that is the only thing that makes the difference.
The sermon then moved backward in Joel's timeline to chapter 2:28 before returning to chapter three. That passage, "I will pour out my spirit on all flesh," was future for Joel but is past for us, already fulfilled at Pentecost when Peter quoted it directly. Van noted that seventeen nations were present at Pentecost, understanding in their own languages, the reverse of Babel, and that the promise extends to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.
Van closed by reading the restoration promises at the end of Joel, mountains dripping wine, hills flowing with milk, a fountain from the house of the Lord, and setting them alongside Isaiah 2, where the command to beat plowshares into swords is reversed: swords back into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks. He read that reversal as the shape of hope. Joel ends where it began, with a call to tell the next generation, and Van ended there too, noting the series would move to Ephesians the following week.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Felix said that when he first came to First Baptist he expected it to be like the churches he knew in Mexico, where there was obligation but no love. What was it that first showed him something was different here, and what does that say about what the church is actually for?
- Felix described a long season of praying for Guadalupe and feeling like God was not listening or did not care, and then later saying, 'It is not when I want it, it is when he wants it.' Have you ever been in that kind of waiting, and how did it change you?
and 3 more questions in the guide
