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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

Pentecost and the Latter Rain

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this time again.

And Lord, as we have been listening to the word already, we ask for your presence once more.

Father, please don't ever tire of pouring out your blessings upon us.

You told us that your mercies are new every morning.

And so Father, as we come to you now, pleading for a blessing, we know that you desire and delight to bless your children so much.

And so Lord, this morning, we are seeking for truth.

May our hearts and our minds be drawn heavenward, and that as we study the scriptures, you'd speak to each and every 1 of our hearts individually, that we might hear your voice speaking so clearly to us.

May my voice and my thoughts not be the 1 that is heard, but Jesus Christ today.

In Acts chapter 2, we study about a situation that is very hard to, we read about a situation that is very hard to comprehend.

And if we could do that work today, Jesus would quickly come.

We'd wrap up the work very quickly and Jesus would come and take us home to heaven where there'll be no more sin or sickness or pain or death.

And so I'd like for you to turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 2.

And in Acts chapter 2, at the very beginning there, and even in the previous chapter, really that's where it all began.

The disciples were all gathered together in an upper room and they were studying together, They were praying, they were confessing their sins.

They were praying and waiting for the promised blessing that Jesus said he would give them.

And when the Holy Spirit was poured out, they began to speak in tongues and Peter preached a very powerful sermon.

Acts chapter 2, and we're starting in verse 14.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 2, and we're reading, starting there in verse 14.

But Peter, standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said unto them, ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words.

For these are not drunken as he supposed, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

So people were beginning to say, oh, the reason why you can speak in a language that I can understand, which you've never been to, is because you're drunk.

And so they were accused of being drunk with wine, but Peter had to stand up and defend that notion and say, look, we are not drunk.

Verse 16, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, and on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days my spirit, and they shall prophesy." Peter is saying, look, what you are seeing here before your very eyes is a manifestation of the words that were spoken by the prophet Joel.

And he was saying that what Joel talked about in his book is being fulfilled before your very eyes and that is the reason why you're able to hear us speak in your language which we have ourselves never learned.

It is the outpouring of the Holy spirit and the handmaidens and the servants and the men and the women, they would all begin to prophesy.

But look, friends, it can't have been totally fulfilled in those days.

Look at what he says there in verse 17 of Acts chapter 2, he said, and it shall come to pass, what?

And maybe when Peter stood up, he really believed that he was living in the last days.

Everybody that has ever lived has probably thought they were living in the last days as Noah was all the way up to even our time today.

But it can't have been the direct fulfillment there in Acts chapter 2 because it was not the last days.

If Peter had stopped there that would have been good, but you know Peter was a good Bible student.

He always quoted in context, and he was about to prove to them why it was the last days.

And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath.

The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and notable day of the Lord come, and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." So he still was still quoted quoting from the Prophet Joel and he was telling them look This prophecy in Joel 2 is being fulfilled before your very eyes as I stand here and I'm preaching.

For now, the second reason we see, first, it wasn't the last days as today is.

But secondly, the last days will be signified by these things that are taking place in heaven.

Sun be turned into darkness, moon into blood, and this would signify the great and the notable day of the Lord.

Look, Peter was correct in his application up to a certain extent.

It was a partial fulfillment of what we see there written in the book of Joel.

And the reason why I can say that so confidently is because of these events that are outlined there in Acts chapter 2 and verse 20.

That did not take place in the time of Peter.

Maybe it did, but we don't know about it.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 6 and verse 12.

Where did we see this repeat of what we saw in Joel chapter 2?

Revelation chapter 6, we're starting there in verse 12, And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of air and the moon became as blood and the stars of heaven fell onto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind." Friends, we see this in the book of Revelation.

There are other places in the Gospels that talk about this as well, like Matthew.

But here we see similar things that are being fulfilled in the book of Revelation that Joel also talks about.

There's a great earthquake, but then the sun becomes black, and the moon becomes as blood, and then the stars fall into heaven.

Friends, those have been fulfilled in our recent history.

Not 2, 000 years ago, but less than 200 years ago.

In November, 1755, rather, that's about 250 years ago, pardon me, and on the 1st of November, 1755, there was a great earthquake that would be called eventually the Great Lisbon Earthquake, and it would shake few continents.

More than 1 country felt it over there in Europe.

I think it was Portugal that was where the epicenter of the earthquake was, but it would shake, it would be felt over a few continents, not a few countries, but a few continents.

This earthquake was so great, yes, it would flatten anywhere.

Even today, if there was an earthquake of 8.0 magnitude, it would flatten the place where it would take place.

But it would be shaking nearly a few continents where it was felt.

But then in 19th of May, 1780, the sun would become black and the moon would also become red like blood.

The sun, it would come up and then it would just go dark.

Birds would begin to stop singing their morning songs.

The cows would go back to their barns and the horses.

Everybody lit a candle thinking that it was nighttime.

And so friends, the sun went black that night, that day, and that very night when the moon came up, it was blood red.

Please take all these dates down and you can go back and research it out for yourself.

And then on 1833, that was 19th of May 1780, but then in 1833, less than 200 years ago, on the 13th of November, the stars would fall from heaven like shooting stars.

It would be shooting across the great Eastern skies over there in the US, and people would see it for a few hours, a few hours.

And so these 4 signs, as we see in Revelation 12, and verse 13, Revelation 6, pardon me, verse 12 and 13 would be fulfilled in our recent history.

And friends, that is a time that Joel is also pointing to.

But if we continue in Revelation 6, what event is this actually referring to?

Revelation 6, verse 14, the Bible says, and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, every mountain and island will move out of their places.

And the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bond man and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb.

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Pentecost and the Latter Rain

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