Peter's Plagiarism - 2:14-21

Okay, so Peter didn't really plagiarize but, half of his sermon had been preached by an OT prophet as something that was to come, and now Peter preaches it as something that has been fulfilled. Here Peter explains the phenomenon of Spirit-filled believers declaring God's glory in foreign languages as the fulfillment of Joel's prediction that God would pour out his Spirit on all flesh:

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

One of the first things we notice Peter does is change Joel's 'and it shall come to pass' or his prediction of something still to come to 'in the last days it shall be' in order to emphasize that with the Spirit's coming the last days have begun. Peter also applies the passage to Jesus, so that they understand that this Lord who brings salvation is no longer a distant 'Yahweh' but Jesus Christ who saves men from sin and judgment.

So what we have going on here is the proof of Jesus ushering in the last days through the outpouring of the Spirit. So, what does this mean today? Simple: We must NOT re-quote Joel's prophecy as if we are still awaiting its fulfillment or we are waiting for some future and complete fulfillment. The way Peter saw it was that the whole Messianic era, which spans between the two comings of Christ is the age in which the Spirit would be poured out with abundance.

So, let's break it down a bit:

...sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your young men shall see visions; your old men shall dream dreams... Is Luke talking about a mass of people who can tell the future? No, any sort of gift related to this is talked about else where. Is Luke talking about the position of pastors and elders? No, that too is addressed else where. So what is Luke/Peter/Joel talking about? Let's start with the words of Martin Luther, "prophesying, visions and dreams are all one thing." That is, the universal gift (the Holy Spirit) will lead to a universal ministry (prophecy). In other words, prophecy as talked about here as God speaking, God making himself known by his Word. So, if the Old Covenant Prophets declared that the knowledge of God would be universal, and the New Covenant writers declare that this has begun or has been fulfilled through Christ. In this sense all God's people are now prophets, just as all are also priests and kings. So Luther understood prophecy here as the 'knowledge of God through Christ which the Holy Spirit kindles and makes to burn through the word of the gospel.'

...I will show wonders in the heavens...signs on the earth...blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke...the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day... This is talking metaphorically about dangerous, dreadful, socially distraught, convulsions of history, since this is traditional apocalyptic imagery for times of social and political revolution. Between the Day of Pentecost and the day of the Lord there spans a long time of opportunity during which the gospel of salvation will be preached throughout all the nations, "And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved!"

I believe the greatest application here is simply that throughout history and our lifetime there will be many things that could easily take our eyes off of the 'preaching/living of the gospel' so that we will be distracted from through living and proclaiming the gospel so that, "everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." There are many views on the statements, "I will show wonders in the heavens...signs on the earth...blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke...the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood" And though I do have a personal belief on it, I don't believe the book of Acts was written so we will get all caught up to the point we are busy looking upward and not outward...it was written to let us know, "persecution, hard times, national upheavals, restlessness, etc, is gonna happen, don't let that throw you off, so while that stuff is happening use it as a tool to point people to Jesus." When it comes to eschatology, let's not allow it to get our eyes off of the mission, but maybe enjoy conversation and debate on it over a nice tall Guinness...oops, I mean fresh iced tea!