Young Men Shall See Visions
by Darrell W. Johns
Atlanta West Pentecostal Church (Lithia Springs, GA)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Acts 2:17-18, Jeremiah 31:33, Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:1-4, Acts 2:14-15, Acts 2:38-39

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/darrell-w-johns--young-men-shall-see-visions
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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acts chapter 2 verse 17 and it shall come to pass in the last day say of god i will pour out of 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 o my servants and all my handmaidens i will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy i'm not limiting my message today to particular gender but i want to preach from the phrase of verse 16 verse 17 that says young men shall see visions god bless you please be seated again i want to say congratulations to all of our graduates this is a time of significant celebration for the young people and not so young people in our church who have achieved a significant milestone in their journey of life and i want to say well done and the greatest respect to everyone who has accomplished a goal earned a degree and is pursuing a brighter future for your life and your family and for the work of god the reward for your commitment will be commensurate to your effort the payoff is always proportionate to the level of devotion and each of you has shown a commitment to your education and now be a lifetime learner someone said to get a good education and then get over it but be a lifetime learner both formally and informally never become arrogant with what you know always remember that there's a whole lot more that you don't know than that you know amen this is a wonderful season of celebration in graduations in honoring our graduates today is graduate sunday and pentecost sunday is a universally celebrated as i mentioned earlier as the birthday of the christian church pentecost was a day of new beginnings for people of faith just as commitments commencements are a time of new beginnings for graduates so this is a start of a new season graduations commencing in a new season of your life pentecost sunday celebrating out with the old and in with the new testament pentecostal today that pentecost message wrapped up the covenant of the old testament and initiated the new covenant that we call grace jeremiah identified the outpouring of the holy ghost as the beginning of the new covenant in jeremiah 31 33 the lord said to jeremiah but this shall be the covenant that i will make with the house of israel after those days saith the lord i will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their god and they shall be my people instead of the law being externally imposed on the lives of people and impossible to keep god would write his law in our hearts and the power to live by the law of god would be motivated by the holy spirit that the lord would put inside of us amen i want to speak to the future of our graduates and the future of all of us and the future of our church pentecost was prophesied by the prophet joel about 700 years before pentecost we read where peter quoted from joel in his sermon on the day of pentecost but now let's look at joel's writings joel 2 28 and it shall come to pass afterward that i will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will i pour out of my spirit the lord first says that i will pour my spirit out on all flesh all flesh that indicated that the lord would not just pour his spirit out on jewish people or a certain select group of prophets or kings or especially assigned people for specific tasks the lord could have stopped by saying all flesh because that includes everybody but he goes on to give a little definition to what all flesh really meant the lord intentionally addressed people who were marginalized in their culture he addressed sons and daughters he addressed older people and young people he talked about slaves servants and handmaidens and he wanted us to know that the holy spirit is for everyone it doesn't matter who you are or what your background is on pentecost sunday we celebrate the fact that god loves everyone and he promised to give the holy ghost to anyone who would ask him amen praise god in the old testament there were specially called men and women who experienced supernatural empowerment by the holy spirit there were ladies like sarah who supernaturally conceived and bore children there were men like joseph who saw dreams of divine providence there were leaders like moses who was supernaturally used in signs like the 12 miracles that plagued the land of egypt there were judges like samson who could carry off the gates of the city when the power of god was on him there were prophets like joel joined by isaiah ezekiel malachi and many others who could write the future as if they were writing history with pinpoint accuracy they could speak of things that would happen 700 years a thousand years 2 000 years and more in the future and they wrote it like they were looking back because god is not bound by time he knows the end from the beginning and it was the anointing of the holy spirit that moved on those holy men of old amen the holy ghost of the old testament is not different in kind than the holy ghost of the new it is the spirit of god that power of god that has demonstrated the people to people but what joel said is that the spirit of god is going exponential instead of it being for a few select people god is going to pour out his spirit on all flesh amen it will not be limited to a select few it will be for all flesh god is a spirit and he is one indivisibly one and the holy spirit is not a separate entity from the spirit of god from god the father amen god the son we don't believe in god the son we believe in the son of god that god became flesh and dwelt among us we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth joel said that he would pour out his spirit on all flesh all people then he told us sons and daughters will prophesy young people will be used in spiritual gifts after they are filled with the holy spirit prophecy can be speaking to the future or it can be speaking insight into the present he said that old men shall dream dreams now god gives dreams to people of all ages but he wanted us to know that elders would not be left out of what he was going to do amen it is normal for a person to dream amen but god speaks to people through dreams dreams are god speaking to us while we sleep sometimes that's the only way people will listen because they can't help but god loves you enough when you won't listen to preaching and admonition sometimes he has to put something in your mind that doesn't have a man or woman's fingerprints on it to get your attention amen and he gives dreams for other reasons rather than stubbornness of course spiritual dreams are mentioned at least 19 times in the bible with at least eight dreams described in the new testament abraham dreamed of a promised son jacob dreamed of a ladder reaching up to heaven joseph was 17 years old when he dreamed of his future and the future of his family pharaoh an egyptian king dreamed of a famine that would come nebuchadnezzar king of babylon he dreamed of an image that represented all the world empires that were gentile that would be him and those who follow daniel the prophet dreamed of the end of all things joseph the husband of mary dreamed a dream from god that said do not be afraid to take mary as your wife that was just conceived in her is of the holy ghost i'm glad that god can supernaturally speak through dreams amen young men shall see visions amen that's what joel said and peter quoted a vision is generally a supernatural mental motion picture that god gives to direct and give insight to people a vision is like a waking dream people in the new testament saw visions and god spoke specifically to them just as he did in the old amen god has shown me a few visions in my life i've shared them with this church they've been significant messages for me to share and give direction in the church in the old testament moses saw visions of god isaiah saw the lord high and lifted up ezekiel saw a wheel in the middle of the wheel and prophecies of the future and daniel had god ordained and visions as god spoke to him in the new testament there were many visions that were quoted stephen saw a vision of god paul saw a vision that led to his conversion others saw visions that gave direction to them john saw visions that became the book of revelation we should not think it's strange that god speaks to us through dreams and visions now as he did them this is what comes with the outpouring of the holy ghost acts 2 18 and all my servants and on my handmaidens i will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy male and females of the lowest degree will be used in the gifts of the spirit old men young men male female rich poor it doesn't matter who you are or your background the spirit is a great leveler and it brings us all up into the presence of the lord and pentecost brought power of visions and dreams and gifts of the spirit that were for all flesh no matter who you are amen moses wish for this day where the people would not say moses you go up there and talk to god alone while we stay down here and worship a golden calf and dance lewd dances moses said i wish that all god's people were prophets and that god would pour his spirit upon them moses saw this day where it wouldn't just be a preacher behind a pulpit but we would be an anointed congregation and anointed body of christ that young men old men men and women that they would be power empowered with the gifts of the holy ghost amen better thank the lord for pentecost right now because it is the power of god that is operating in your life and in the church and right now as i look around i wish the holy ghost would come wake a few people up kind of slap you on the back and say hey this is pentecost sunday you don't have to be dead in your sins you don't have to be dead in the spirit why don't you wake up and thank god that the holy ghost is god's promise for you [Applause] and if i'm stepping on your toes thank god someone was wishing i would fast forward from joel to the day of pentecost acts chapter 2. the church begin like this acts chapter 2 verse 1. now let me just pause because pentecost was a jewish celebration a feast day that came 50 days after the passover picked up p-e-n-t-e that prefix means 50 50 days after the passover and later judaism it was honored as the celebration of the giving of the law of god by moses i don't know if that's a hundred percent true but certainly god gave the law in our hearts at pentecost pentecost jewish feast day many jews came for passover from all over the world there were three mandated feasts by god but 50 days is not a long time to stay rather than traveling back hundreds of miles on foot or by animal so they were dwelling in jerusalem on the day of pentecost waiting for it to fully come but fully come meant more to god than it meant to them because it was the fulfillment of pentecost past that happened on the day of pentecost so here we go acts 2 1 and when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place they were all in church for the same reason about a 120 people we know gathered in an upper room or maybe by now uh in the temple and they are there in one accord and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy ghost and all of them they were filled with the holy ghost spoke with other tongues as the spirit gave them a utterance they began to speak with other tongues not just two or three of them that have the gift of tongues but the gift of the holy ghost always comes with tongues for everyone everywhere regardless of who you are everyone who receives a gift of the holy ghost speaks in other tongues just as they did on the day of pentecost they began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance or the ability to speak they didn't learn it no one coached them they didn't know for sure what would happen when it came the tongues of fire the wind that blew into the room the sound of a rushing mighty wind just were pretending what god would do that god would fill them with the wind of the spirit the word spirit is pneuma or breath do you remember that jesus breathed on his disciples and said receive the holy ghost it is like the wind of god that blows into your life just as god breathed into adam the breath of life and he became a living soul when we receive the holy ghost god breathes into us the eternal breath of god the holy spirit we become a living soul we become a quickening spirit amen the holy ghost fell on them well this was dramatic and when fire falls from heaven so to speak the holy ghost people get curious we learn from these next verses that there's a crowd in jerusalem they were jews devout men out of every nation under heaven when they heard about this it was noised abroad people were talking about this don't you wish that's what people would be talking about a revival that was happening at atlanta west and thousands of pentecostal churches and even more non-pentecostal churches he would have a pentecostal experience and go back to the roots of the church amen god doesn't owe us anything because pentecost is on our side he's not obligated anyone he's no respecter of persons he doesn't show partiality he's drawn to spiritual hunger and someone who will seek truth and not be stuck in tradition no matter what that tradition is amen noise abroad they're confounded and they come close and there's about 120 people they've spilled out of the upper room they're in the streets they may be in the temple course now and they start listening and they hear jews from that area speaking languages that they did not know not gibberish but bonafide languages from these people from all over the world they're amazed they're marveling they're saying aren't these that are speaking all galileans they don't speak this language they don't speak it at all and how are we hearing every man in our own tongue wherein we were born when i was on ambitious trip to korea at the age of 18 there were some japanese girls there we heard them receive the holy ghost and speak in perfect english they did not speak english but when they received the holy ghost they spoke in a language they did not know and it happened to be english and i will never forget it we were on a tour bus when it happened there are 16 different people groups that are listed in acts chapter 2. so people from all over the world instantly hear the gospel they hear praising god from 120 or so galilean jews they are amazed and they're in doubt and they ask what does this mean and then there are some others who are mocking maybe they were not close enough to know maybe they didn't care some people know the truth but they mock it anyway and they started mocking them and said they're drunk they're full of new wine but here's peter's sermon the beginning of it acts 2 14. but peter standing up with the 11 they're supporting him like many of you are doing right now as i'm trying to preach this message they lift he lifted up his voice and he said to them you men of judea and all you that dwell of jerusalem be this known unto you and hearken unto my words for these are not drunken as you suppose seeing it is but the third hour of the day the jewish day started at six am it is now nine o'clock in the morning and good people don't drink that early bad people may still be drunk from all night but they're not drinking amen we're not drinking that we've got something else that we're being affected by it's only the third hour of the day but this this i'm talking this that you hear and see this is that which was spoken of by the prophet joel 700 years ago and he quotes him and it shall come to pass in the last days instead of afterward he identifies the day of pentecost as the beginning of the last days the church dispensation that we live in right now before jesus comes back and he wraps up all the events of world history this is that which was spoken of by the prophet joel it shall come to pass in the last days saith god i will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams no one is excluded and all my servants and on my handmaidens i will pour out in those days of my spirit and they will prophesy amen if you have the gift of the holy ghost then why don't you let god use you in the gifts of the spirit and the power of the holy ghost god has given you a gift now he wants to give you gifts that will make you powerful that will make you a world changer that will guide your life he wants to give you dreams and visions and prophecies and all kinds of power amen amen praise god peter preaches the miracles of pentecost where the manifestations of what joel said would happen he summarizes joel he doesn't summarize joel he quotes him about pouring his spirit on all flesh remember that's everybody but now it is defined sons and daughters young men seeing visions o men dreaming dreams servants and handmaidens receiving the gift of the spirit amen so today as we celebrate pentecost sunday i want to tell you that pentecost is for everyone that no one has to be left out you can be young or old you can be rich or poor you can be male or female you can have a religious pedigree or you can be the first one in your family to find god but no one is left behind in the power of pentecost god does not show partiality it doesn't matter who you are if you are hungry for god you can have him and if you're not you won't but if you want jesus christ to fill you with this kind of power he will after his sermon in verse 37 they're cut to the heart they ask men and brethren what shall we do then peter preached the plan of salvation that we are still preaching today that was preached on the birthday of the church we have not dumbed it down or watered it down why would you try to erase what god has written then peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost verse 39 brother joel quoted it earlier but the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the lord our god shall call he said i'm reaching to every gentile every person who's a sinner i'm reaching to every drug addict every alcoholic every person has never walked in a church door this power is for anyone and it is for everyone today is pentecost sunday the birthday of the christian church and i'm thankful to say that by the grace of god we have not compromised this message that was preached on that day we understand what it means to believe on the lord jesus christ we know the believing goes beyond a mental decision that accepting the lord jesus christ is your personal savior happens here but the holy ghost happens in your whole being believing is turning your entire life over to the lordship of jesus christ really believing is obeying acts 2 38 it is repenting of your sins turning away from them it is being baptized in water in the name of the lord jesus christ for the remission of sins believing is receiving the gift of the holy ghost and then believing doesn't stop there it's every day of your life you are believing in jesus you are trusting him you are walking with him you're walking in the spirit so you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh believing doesn't stop with the first believing that jesus is lord but it is making him lord of your life every day today is pentecost sunday and at atlanta west it's also graduate sunday and i want to tell every graduate male or female high school college or otherwise that god promised that young men and i believe women shall see visions amen it is in the prophecy of joel it is one of many ways that the holy spirit speaks to us visions come from god amen as does a vision for your life and let me talk about that for a moment visionary leadership is needed in the church out in the world today there's enough finger pointing we need someone pointing toward the future there's enough people talking about the problems we need some problem solvers we need some people who are empowered by the spirit to say we know what the bible says and the holy spirit is speaking to us giving us a vision some direction for the future a vision is a picture of what could be and what should be a vision builds a bridge from the present to the future when martin luther king said i have a dream it was a vision of what america could look like if hate was under the blood of jesus christ and everyone loved everyone as jesus taught us in the bible if you go very far in life it will be because you have a vision for the future amen you can call it a dream or a vision but it is a picture of where god wants to take your life and i can tell you that if you're powered with the holy ghost if you have the spirit of the lord inside of you you know you are not a nobody you are somebody to god he has a plan for your life he has a vision for your future amen but the vision you should begin with the end in mind this vision or dream is like a magnet that pulls you toward a god ordained future and dreams will come true if you don't over sleep in life it is better to aim high and miss a little than to aim low and make a perfect shot the power of the holy ghost that fell at pentecost and has been falling ever since was a gift and a promise but it was not cheap it came to people who had walked with jesus and spent a week to ten days in a prayer meeting waiting for the promise to come and a vision for your future will come to you if you don't oversleep if you will pay the price if you will pay the price for pentecost to come in your life and the vision of god to come in you amen this power of pentecost it was preserved it was propagated by men and women who were not lazy they were not shy they were not ashamed but they were willing to proclaim the name of jesus at the price of persecution and even martyrdom but they had a vision that came from god they had a power that came from god they did not go back they went forward they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers so to every graduate to every student to every young adult on this graduate sunday i challenge you to aim high amen and pay the price with discipline and hard work to be your best in life but today i want to give you an added dimension that comes by the holy ghost that joel said that that all flesh young men and women can be filled with the power of the holy ghost what we desperately need in this last day is not pretty church we need a powerful church we need spiritual people in the church today we don't need people who say like they said of moses you go pray while we stay down here and play we need people who understand that pentecost ushered in a new day a priesthood of every believer that every man every woman every young person every child is filled with the holy ghost and has a personal responsibility to be pentecostal through and through to be filled with the spirit to pray and fast and walk with god and engage with the word of god you're not to be a deadbeat christian you're to be a powerful holy ghost higher brand wherever you go we're not graduating into nothing we're graduating to mission and purpose and pentecost and graduate sunday go together we commission you today this is the commencement of a brand new season of your life [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hallelujah pentecost makes it possible for you to hear from god through dreams and visions pentecost makes it possible for you to be used in the gifts of the spirit pentecost makes it possible jesus said i am with you but i shall be in you the holy spirit the holy ghost is a guide for life he will lead and guide you into all truth pentecost makes it possible for people like you and me to rise above our own human potential to something greater as god gives us power to go places and do things that we can never do without the holy ghost you're not worse off than your peers you're better off than your peers because god has gifted you with the holy ghost so don't lay it aside don't lay it on the shelf don't think it's an ancillary or auxiliary thing in your life it is a central thing about you amen it is the holy ghost that we celebrate today in our lives what i'm saying is that the holy ghost gives you an edge on everybody else it makes you better than you are it made daniel in the old testament the spirit of god working in here better than all of his peers who were there in babylon he was better than them because spirit of the lord moved on him have an edge when you have the holy ghost amen this is graduate sunday and it is pentecost sunday and i can proudly say sanctified proud that our church is filled with a generation of young people who are hungry for the things of god i love their worship i love your passion i love what i see in our children and our young people and i want to tell you go pig for the dreams god has given you and for the visions of a future of changing the world that god has put in your heart because we have god working in us it can be bigger and better than you ever dreamed don't seek for a platform to elevate you to seek for a place to serve in life have a prayer life be ready for god to use you bring your flesh into submission serve our church serve our world serve your school serve your job wherever you are go the extra mile amen don't wait for someone else to offer you a place to serve find a place to serve find people to serve show initiative in life take responsibility for something small and it will make you important to other people i'm talking about the power of the holy ghost working in us to take servants and handmaidens to another level while they serve where god has planted them amen now i want to take a little side trip for a minute because our world is filled with people who have a lottery mentality that it's the luck of the draw that makes you successful in life i'm talking about the power of the spirit that makes you successful in life your chances of winning the powerball jackpot are one in 292 million you're more likely to end up in the emergency room because of a pogo stick related injury than to win the lottery you're more likely to die because of being stung by hornets wasps or bees than to win the lottery i've had young people tell me here and there i want to be a youtube star youtube star good for you amen you know how many people have a thousand subscribers less than nine percent you know how many people have a hundred thousand subscribers less than a half a percent i'm not saying it's bad but it takes work to be successful whether it's as a doctor a lawyer a pediatrician whether it is a truck driver a pastor someone who works in law enforcement or in education or wherever you serve you are not successful because you're a placeholder you're successful because you work at it and you trust god to make you the best that you can be [Applause] how many people have a million subscribers 0.028 of all youtubers it can happen but it doesn't happen just because you show up there's a lot of young men who think they want to play in the nba that was my ambition in life actually for me it was the nfl .02 percent of high schoolers play the nba or the wnba that means out of 10 000 high school players two or three will ever have a chance at professional basketball out of over a half a million high school basketball players 3.4 percent will play in college and 1.2 of college players will play in the nba the statistics are about the same for the nfl in other words there's a lot of competition to be in those places but when it comes to god there's nobody competing for your altar there's nobody competing for your walk with god it is you and god you can be as successful as you desire to be and god will take you places and allow you to do things that you never dreamed of because of the power of pentecost that is working in you praise god the chances of you becoming a professional athlete are like the chances of you getting struck with lightning sometime in your life but i've got something better why don't you let fire fall from heaven on your life let you be empowered by the holy ghost there are no odds with god no odds with god he doesn't show partiality and anybody who wants him can happen hallelujah so i want to tell every graduate and everyone else listening in that god is ready to use you now he said young men and women servants and handmaidens amen that doesn't matter your age you don't need to wait for a place for a platform for an opportunity that man provides for you that god is ready on pentecost sunday to open your eyes to open your eyes to what he has for you a dimension greater than you ever dreamed if you will make yourself available for it