INTRODUCTION

AGE OF GRACE

I had a dream, well I suppose you could call it a dream, for Joel prophesied that old men would dream dreams, and I am 75 years old. This dream, this sense, was people of all ages and types weeping openly in the streets and in their homes, weeping in Northallerton and Thirsk, and surrounding villages. They were weeping because they were overcome by a personal revelation of the goodness of God; just how good God is to them, and what He has done for them, just how good and holy He is. This dream was during a service at Hollybush Christian Fellowship on Sunday, 2nd March 2025. It lasted just long enough for me to take in a measure of its enormity and significance and it brought me to tears for it was so real.

SACRED ASSEMBLY

Sacred Assemblies have been taking place for over 4000 years. Essentially, a Sacred Assembly is a gathering of all to give honour to God.

They were times for God's people to come together, in worship, repentance, and celebration, to honour Him and to renew their relationship with Him. They were usually called for a special purpose.

The Sacred Assembly in the Book of Joel was called because the land had been laid waste and people had fallen away from the Lord. The Sacred Assembly was like being given activities to do such as worship, intercessory prayer and repentance.

If we pick up the theme of activities to do, and move to Pentecost, we see there the expression of a whole range of activities prophesised in the Book of Joel.

Allegory helps sometimes to understand what is going on.

The activities are like being given a bunch of flower buds, where each one takes time to unfold into a beautiful flower.

The activities are like being given a fitness programme at a gym, each activity a part of the programme, due diligence to carry out each activity producing the right effects.

Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the House of the Lord your God, And cry out to the Lord. Joel 1:14

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Joel 2:13

And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Joel 2:28

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for … there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls. Joel 2:32

The Book of Joel prophesises the activities at Pentecost.

Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. … Then Peter said to them, “Repent … Be saved from this perverse generation.” And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. … So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house ... praising God. … And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:33-47

Acts 2:33-47 describes these activities.

I … pray for … those who will believe in Me … that they all may be one, … that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me…. that they may be one just as We are one: … that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. John 17:20-23

There is one more we add here which is so important it was the subject of Jesus’s Prayer for All Believers. It is being perfect in one that the world may believe in and know God. At the time of Pentecost, being one  was a given because they ‘continued daily with one accord (Acts 2:46)

The activities we are going to cover in our Sacred Assembly are:-