The Last Days
He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you 21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
In our last lesson, we spoke of the “blood of the covenant rooted in the “precious blood” of Jesus, the Christ. This week Peter takes us to the theme of his first preached message found in Acts 2:17. Turn with me to Acts 2, and look at Peter’s first sermon in context, Acts 2:14-21.
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 21 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved’ (NKJV).
There are many things here for us to consider and learn that we might more accurately understand the New Testament and its application in our day. First, go back to 1 Peter 1:20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. That is quite a span Peter deals with, “foreordained before the foundation of the world.” Peter says that God knew what He would do before the world was created. Before there was something known as time and space, God preordained what would occur.
The apostle Paul speaks to this subject of “preordained” in Ephesians 1:7-14
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth — in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Look at the similarities between Peter and Paul:
- Redemption through the blood of Christ
- The dispensation of the fullness of the times
- To gather everything together in Christ, both in heaven and in earth
- In Him, we have received an inheritance that was predestined
- We were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise
Here is a little more detail to consider:
- Paul bridges the gap between “before creation to the fullness of time in Christ’s first coming.”
- Peter does the same thing in his writings.
- Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost gave the beginning understanding of the mysteries of the Old Testament as he opened up the scriptures written by the prophet Joel. Peter explains what is happening in Jerusalem is directly related to what Joel prophesied. He describes Jesus coming, His death, His resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit in the context of the “last days.”
What is interesting about Peter’s message is that Joel did not mention the “last days.” Still, Peter, by the power of the Holy Spirit, interpreted Joel’s message and related it to the Day of Pentecost, to that period of time as “last days.” The last days were not about the end of the world, but the end of Adam’s race, the end of Moses, and the end of the law as a means of righteousness. These three “ends” make up the writing of the New Testament.
But, it was also the beginning of something brand new, yet established before the beginning of the world and before time
itself. That new thing was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father that Jesus mentioned in Luke 24:49. The New Creation of the Spirit through the blood of Christ as a New Covenant, bringing forth a New Man in the earth. Paul calls the new man “the last Adam” in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49.
All of this God purposed and planned before creation. All of this was hidden in the Old Testament as a “mystery.” Now in these “last days” which began in the resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Promised Holy Spirit and will end on the “last day” when Christ returns in what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15:20-24, also in the last part of the chapter, 15:50-58.
During these last days that both Paul and Peter speak about, the kingdom of God is coming to earth in the person of the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17) to bring righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is coming in power, in signs and wonders, in gifts of the Holy Spirit, in the character of God and Christ in the Fruit of the Spirit. It is coming in revival power; it is coming with a view toward the “Harvest of the Nations.”
In our verses for today, we see all this contained. Note 1 Peter 1:21, who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. It is through Christ we come to believe accurately about God. “Through Him believe in God.” The world is filled with ideas and thoughts about God, but only through Christ can one truly believe in God. “Belief in the resurrection.” Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection in Christ. This belief includes His enthronement in glory at the right hand of the majesty on high. That is, a man is seated next to God and is ruling over the affairs of mankind. Jesus, the resurrected Christ said in the Great Commission, “All authority has been given unto Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).
Remember beloved that our God is eternal. He does not see things as we do. He sees from a much higher place, the place of eternity. He is the God that Abraham worshipped “who calls the things that are not as though they were”
(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18 who, contrary to hope, in hope, believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be” (Romans 4:17-18 NKJV).
He has called us to walk in this same kind of faith through the resurrection of our Lord and the receiving of the Holy Spirit and walk out this great salvation with fear and trembling. That is by faith through grace.