The Glorious Kingdom
All of us look forward to certain events or milestones in our lives. As children, most of us had a strong desire to get older faster. We knew that our older siblings got to do more things than we did, they had more privileges. What we didn’t realizes was that with those privileges came greater responsibility. It’s a lesson many young people aren’t being taught today.
As a young teenager I remember anticipating getting my driver’s license. After that it was graduation from high school. Then it was a job, dating, and marriage. At every step there was a sense of anticipation. Someone once said, “anticipation is half the fun.” There’s some truth to that. Even the Scriptures use anticipation to encourage us to be faithful.
In Luke 21, Jesus was talking about the events leading up to the Day of the Lord. After telling His followers about the destruction of the Temple, about the terrible suffering they would endure, and about the violence and wars that were coming in the future, here’s what He said.
“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
Did you see the idea of anticipation in those words? One is negative and, one is positive. The negative is men’s hearts failing them for fear; they anticipate the terrors that are coming upon the earth. The positive is for Believers to look up and lift up your heads because your redemption is coming closer. That sounds like anticipation to me.
In our study of the book of Joel, we’ve come to the final verses. Our study today will be taken from Joel 3:18-21. The title of my teaching is, “The Glorious Kingdom.” As I’ve said before in my teaching, I believe in a literal Millennial reign of Christ. The prophets seem quite clear that this will be a 1,000-year time of unprecedented peace and prosperity when Jesus will rule over the earth from His throne in Jerusalem. Truly that will be a glorious kingdom and a glorious time for all who follow Christ.
So, as we begin our study on these final verses, I will read our text, Joel 3:18 to 21. I invite you to follow along as I read these words from the Lord through the prophet, Joel.
From these words of the Lord through the prophet, Joel, we learn several important DETAILS about this coming glorious kingdom.
The First DETAIL is,
The Renewed Land
Verse 18 begins, “And it will come to pass in that day…” In that final Day of the Lord, when God delivers Israel once and for all, the land of Israel will overflow with blessing. The description of these blessings is very picturesque, very poetic.
“The mountains will [drop] drip new wine and the hills will f...
