Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders.              Psalm 119:2

And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, 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. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Acts 2:19-21

            I like stories that have nice endings.  The hero wins in the end and the day is saved.  The sun breaks through and the symphony breaks out with a cascade of triumphant music after the storm.  The good guy gets the victory even if he had to go through misery upon misery to get there.  But that’s usually the point.  Before the victory there exists the struggle and the possibility that all things might not turn out so well.  Every Prince Charming has to go through his monsters and dragons to get to Sleeping Beauty.  The Hobbits have to go through the dark land of Mordor before they can go back to their families in the Shire. Dorothy has to take on and slay the Wicked Witch before she can go home.

            Our text is like that today.  I love the way it ends: “And it shall come to pass”…. (that almost sounds like the ending of a Fairy Tale).. “and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  You almost want to end: “And God’s people lived happily ever after.”  That is, in fact the promise.  It is the guarantee assured to you and to me by the Savior Who died for us and rose again for us to give us heaven and salvation.  Today we called upon the name of the Lord;  we began our worship that way and we will call upon His name more than once in our celebration of the salvation Jesus won for us.  But I could not help but notice that before the great and magnificent day of the Lord comes, the days of darkness will also be upon us.

            How did St. Luke phrase it today when he quoted St. Peter who was himself quoting the Old Testament prophet Joel?  “I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;  and the moon to blood.”  All of a sudden I don’t have that nice comfortable feeling inside.  This description is a grimmer one.  Before we can know the salvation that is ours in heaven we journey through the blood and fire and smoke.

            In many ways it reminds me of the description of God on the top of Mt. Sinai in the Old Testament.  The people of Israel were about to see the God who delivered them from slavery in Egypt and had rescued them from certain death at the hands of Pharaoh.  As Exodus puts it: “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.” Exodus 19:16-20.  I wouldn’t want to be Moses that day.  I wouldn’t want to take those footsteps that would bring me into the presence of that kind of God – to go alone and stand before that kind of power and might.  But it seems from Acts today that before we enter into the day of salvation you and I may in fact go through the darkness and the fire and the smoke.  And you wonder if you have to do it all alone.

            In many ways it reminded me of a day long ago in my life.  It was before Ruth and I were married and before we were even officially engaged.  It was at her parents’ home in Syracuse, New York.  Being the traditional kind of guy I am and with Ruth’s backing we decided that we would do the traditional thing and I would go talk to her father and ask for his blessing on our plans to get married.  I remember the day clearly.  I remember how the moment at last came after dinner and I asked where Ruth’s father was so that I could go talk to him.  I discovered he was down in the basement in his workshop waiting for me.  He was “down there” waiting for me.  I looked at Ruth at one point almost in the hope that she might consider going with me.  But I soon remembered that this was not how it was to be.  I had to go down there alone.  In the Old West when they were going to hang a condemned man he had to walk up the steps to the gallows.  Well for me it was walking down the steps into the dark room below where I was to face my future father-in-law, or so I hoped at least.

            This text from Acts today or from the Prophet Joel if you will as it appears in Acts 2 makes me think that it will be very similar to that when we go into the presence of the Lord God someday.  Blood, Fire, vapor of smoke – the sun turned to darkness – the moon to blood – and the day of the Lord is upon us.

            But today on Pentecost Sunday the most wonderful news of all comes to you and me.  When we go to stand before the Father as we all must someday you and I won’t be alone.  Right before He died Jesus had something to say to His disciples and to you and to me.  He knew He was about to leave the world;  the crucifixion was only hours away now.   But what He said to those He loved including you and me was this: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. John 14:16-17  Jesus was talking about the gift of God the Holy Spirit which the Acts 2 passage today in its entirely is all about.  The English Translation calls Him the “Helper”.  That’s a good name for the Holy Spirit.  Other versions use the word “Comforter” or “Counselor” or “Advocate”.  Those are good words too. But each of them are at best very good attempts to translate a word there that is extremely difficult to translate.  The Greek word for the Title Jesus gave to the Holy Spirit is “Paraclete”.  A very literal translation of “Paraclete” is “One Who is called to Your side”.  You can understand how “Comforter” or “Helper” might be used.  But there is no great translation of “Paraclete” other than to read it literally.  The Holy Spirit is the One Who comes to your side.  The way I like to translate it is with the phrase: “He is the One Who is always there when you call on Him.”  And He tells you and me today that when we go through the blood and fire and smoke and darkness before the Great and Magnificent Day of the Lord you and I are not alone.

            Jesus in the very next verse in John’s Gospel after promising His beloved disciples the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the One Who is always there when you call on Him, said, “I will not leave you as orphans.  I will come to you.”  (John 14:18).  That means that He will be right next to you on the day when you come into the presence of the Lord.   That is what the faith the Holy Spirit gives you and me tells us. In fact, I recently heard it explained to me at the funeral of our brother Al Werner in a way I will never forget.  The Family member who spoke for a moment said that when we get to heaven you and I will meet Jesus right there with open arms and smiles and all the love He has for us.  And after you and I have that moment we long for, the moment when we meet Jesus face to face for the first time, the Lord Jesus will turn to us and say, “Now, let’s go meet my Father together.”

            To know that Jesus is right by our side when we face the Father is the difference between heaven and hell.  Some who have rejected the Lord Jesus and His free offer of forgiveness and eternal love will face God on their own because that’s the way they wanted it to be.  And God will look at them and say, “Why should I let you into my heaven? – and they won’t have a leg to stand on.  Joel and Acts today seem to indicate that you and I will stand there some day and God may ask us the very same question.  “Why should I let you into heaven?”  And we are not alone;  Jesus is right next to us.  And there are some answers the believer can say to the Father – and they are good.  We could say, “God, I am your child.  In my baptism you said that you were my Father forever and that I was your child forever.” – that’s a good answer.  We could say, “I have faith and I believe that you are a merciful God who has forgiven me all my sins and has by His grace opened the gates of heaven to me.” And that’s a good answer.  But the more I think about it the more I am inclined when God says to me, “Why should I let you into heaven” to simply reply:  “Hey, don’t look at me… I’m with Him!”

            And all of this will be possible because there was a time when Jesus faced the fire and the darkness alone. Absolutely alone.  God the Father in heaven once turned to God the Son and asked Him something.  He said, “Do you see the darkness down there?  That’s where the people I love live – and their living is short.  They are dying in their sin and they are facing hell.  Will you go down there and save them for me?”  And Jesus must have asked if the Father would go with Him.  Answer:  “There will come a time when you face the darkness alone.  When you bear their sin I will utterly renounce you.  I will judge you and condemn you because You have taken on their sinfulness and their guilt.   And you will be utterly alone in all of eternity. Will you go down into their dark world and do that?”  And without hesitating Jesus thought of you and said, “Yes.”  And because of that when you and I call upon the name of the Lord you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are saved.

            That’s the message the Holy Spirit gives you and me today – a message to share with as many people as possible.  We’re still in that dark world.  We’re still in the darkness of Mt. Calvary, the blackness of Good Friday.  But in that darkness of the day of the Lord there is a cross that stands. And the Holy Spirit is a light in the darkness, a fire burning in the nighttime of this world’s sin.  And He burns in our hearts as surely as the tongues of fire burned on the Apostles’ heads long ago at that first Pentecost.  And He says through the gloom of bloody days and smoke that can choke us and the fires that can terrify the heart of even the strongest believer that when we look to that cross and call upon the name of Jesus we are saved on that day.  It must disturb Satan incredibly that in a moment, in the calling of one name, Jesus, he can lose a soul he has dominated all throughout that soul’s life.  But as the author CS Lewis once put it, that is the way of the Lord.  As he put it in the mouth of one of the demons observing the way of things.  “It’s horrible.  We control these human vermin.  Yet all they need do is call His name and He pops right up there to comfort them and free them.  It’s disgusting. He honestly seems to love these creatures.  But beyond the best efforts of our research and intelligence departments in hell, it’s beyond our ability to fathom.”

            You know what?  It’s beyond my ability to fathom too.  But knowing that Jesus at the mention of His name runs to our side to be with us and is with us every day and will be with us when we stand before the Father someday and will be with us forever in heaven--- who cares whether I understand it or not.  All I know is that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord – the name of Jesus – shall be saved.  And that includes you and me. Amen.