Staring in Acts 2:17, Peter, quotes Joel 2. Peter is quoting this as a rebuttal to those from verse 13, who thought this outpouring of the Spirit was not that, but saying these people were drunk. He quotes Joel 2 to show that, here at Pentecost the Joel passage is exactly what is going on. The Spirit is poured out and the people are prophesying to show them this event is prophecy fulfilled and not people drunk.
As we have seen in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, and from Joel, all these passages say The Spirit will come. In Acts 2, it has come. The Spirit was given to enable and to mark all believers as chosen for service by God, its no longer just a few individuals. The Spirit came upon all people who were gathered there, who were all Jews, as the prophecies say. (Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:26, Joel 2:28). This then enabled and empowered them through The Spirit to to speak to other Jews, to take the gospel back to the nations where they came from, to reclaim the scattered nations, and that began the reclaiming of the nations for God.
In Acts 1 they’re told to wait in Jerusalem so they can get baptized by the Holy Spirit, what they’re told to wait on happens in Acts 2. Jeremiah 31, although does not specifically reference The Spirit to the new covenant as the other passages do. Ezekiel 36 talks about gathering them to their land, sprinkling clean water on them, cleansing them, giving them a new heart and a new spirit. And Jeremiah 31 might not mention the spirit at all it does mention other things from Ezekiel 36, new heart, and the internal desire. So we, by studying the scriptures can see all of this is connected with Acts 2 and Peters use of Joel 2. But we can also pull from New Testament passages to show the coming of The Spirit is linked to the new covenant from 2 Corinthians 3.
6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
We are ministers of the new covenant, which began under the pouring out of The Spirit, Paul later in this passage talks on the law not having glory, and because of this the Sinai covenant coming to and end for something that is long lasting and much more glorious.
There is this “already but not yet” eschatological idea expressed here. There are in fact missing items from Jeremiah, Joel, and Ezekiel in Acts 2. And that’s important. Earlier in Joel 2 if we read up before Peters quotation we get an “escape” idea. Those who do escape the Day of The Lord, the survivors, are the ones whom the Lord calls. (Joel 2:32) This is where this framework can get tricky, because in Acts 2 we don’t have anything like that, we don’t have the Day of The Lord, which is a time of judgment, therefore we don’t have people escaping. But we still have an overlap with what Joel says and Acts 2, and that overlap is the part where Joels passage shows the New Covenant passages being fulfilled in the events of Acts 2. Acts 2 is where everyone who has believing loyalty has The Spirit, but it is unfair to say everything from Joel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah was fulfilled at Pentecost.
But everything within these prophecies that did not happen at Pentecost we do see happening later in the ending chapters of Revelation. There is present fulfillment in the days of the apostles that is extended to our time, the time of the church but there’s also promises that have yet to happen. The kingdom of God is already here, its not just a millennium, but its also not yet. There are many things that fit now, but there are many things that are not yet. The nations are being reclaimed and judged, but also not yet. The Lord is here, he’s The Spirit, but not yet. Our hearts are made new but not yet, We are sanctified as children of God, but not completely yet. If we don’t understand this basic idea the Bible will be extremely hard for us to understand. And we will reside fully in one theological camp that strips the integrity of the scriptures away.
This is why, in my opinion, all eschatological systems kind of suck. They all lack, each has to bring something extra, or read something extra into the texts. They all cheat when they have too. Now, I will give the Amil and postmil camp the most credit, as those two represent the scriptures the best. But a premil has to continually argue nothing has happened yet and this is all future, so they latch onto all this futuristic stuff, and its clearly both. A post mil just has to wrestle with the idea that the kingdom is not here and not happening when I believe scripture clearly shows that it is upon us. They have to read this “perfection” idea into the millennium. There is major tension between each eschatological framework. But it all can be reconciled if we’re able to grasp the tension of end times passages with the “already, but not yet” framework.
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