Signs Of That Coming Day
Luke 21:25-36
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Luke 21:25-28 “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; 26 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. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Where is planet earth headed? What is coming for our human race? It is hard to doubt that there is a growing and palpable uneasiness in men’s hearts about the future of our world. Several years ago, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking – a hardcore atheist – gave our planet an expiration date. He said that within a thousand years the earth would be uninhabitable for humans. Well, then we better get ourselves to Mars and figure out how to colonize that and maybe other inhospitable planets! We better find another home somewhere else in the galaxy because planet Earth’s days are numbered!
A lot of people know, or sense, that something dreadful is coming. Apocalyptic visions of catastrophe and destruction, either for our race, or for our planet, or both, are commonplace. Whether that sense is due to the climate change hoax, or wars, or an unfortunately aimed asteroid, the loss of the ozone layer, solar radiation, the degradation of earth’s magnetic field, super volcanoes, or alien invasion, most inhabitants of Earth seem to suspect that something dreadful is coming on the earth.
Of course, we Christians know that those suspicions are warranted. We know that something dreadful is coming: it’s called the Day of the Lord. That Day will most certainly come, and when it does, we know that the Lord Jesus will come for judgment; He will wipe out not just the earth, but the heavens, too. And leading up to that dreadful Day, there will be any number of signs which the Lord Christ told us about nearly 2,000 years ago.
So, what should we be watching for leading up to that dreadful Day? What are these signs? Luke’s Gospel account mentions several of them, and Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 24, mentions others. So, when we combine those two accounts, there are nine different signs that should keep us awake and focused and ready for the Day of the Lord; nine signs that proclaim clearly that the end of the age is coming.
#1: “There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars.” What does that mean? Asteroids? Sun spots? Solar and lunar eclipses? Supernovae – stars exploding? Sure. And the world has been seeing these signs ever since Christ first mentioned them. This is a clear indication that we have been in the End Times ever since the days when our Lord walked the earth.
#2: There will be “distress of nations, with perplexity.” Anguish and anxiety, stress and unrest are all around us. Not for everyone, and not all the time, but enough that it is very noticeable. Have you noticed a growing amount of anguish and anxiety in the world, stress and unrest? It’s certainly not hard to find.
#3: “The sea and the waves roaring.” To those signs in nature, Matthew adds earthquakes, famines and pestilences. Heard of any of those things recently?
#4: In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of “wars and rumors of wars,” (Mt 24:6) and “nation rising up against nation and kingdom against kingdom.” (Mt 24:7). When have those things NOT been around? When I was a kid, several conflicts and two World Wars had already come and gone just in the 20th Century. And then it was the Cold War and the constant rumor of WWIII and the threat of nuclear holocaust. Today it’s cyberwarfare, the Middle East, monetary crises, and growing tensions among the super powers. So, nothing new here either.
#5 “Men’s hearts fainting from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.” We sure do see that happening. The suicide rate keeps rising. There is global panic over global warming…or is it global cooling…or is it climate change? Over the past 40 years the terms have changed, and the end of life on earth has been predicted multiple times. It’s a wonder we’re still here! To be frank, many climate change alarmists are just hypocrites pushing an insidious agenda to cripple capitalism and to promote socialism and fascism. But many people are truly alarmed, and their “hearts are fainting from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.” The problem is that they just don’t believe what Jesus says about what is really coming on the earth.
#6: Matthew writes that Christians will be hated, persecuted, and put to death. There certainly was a rabid hatred of Christians in the first few centuries after Christ. We saw it again, to a degree, at the time of the Reformation. But it is hard to deny that never before in the Christian era has Christianity been as widely and as openly hated as it is today. And you can think of all sorts of examples, big and small, from creation-believing students being ridiculed by their teachers, to bakers and photographers being fined, to suspensions of pastors, to Christians in other parts of the world having their heads removed and their bodies burned. See the signs for what they are.
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#8: In Matthew Jesus says that “because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Mt 24:12). Of course, we see many such things happening. We see the lawless side, for example, when people target and kill police officers and loot and burn down businesses without penalty. We also see love growing cold as people react to such lawlessness with hatred and rage of their own.
And finally, #9, the one sign of Christ’s coming that is pure and pleasant and sweet: Jesus says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Mt 24:14). Well, look at that! The Gospel of Christ is still being preached. It has reached into all the world, and it will continue to be preached until the end of the world, no matter how much the devil and the world try to snuff it out.
So, all the signs are there: this world is coming to a close. And hear this, dear fellow redeemed; none of the signs that we see taking place – none of them – should give us reason either to fear, or to complain, or to indulge in self-pity. None of the signs that we see taking place around us should cause us to panic; we should not be wasting time and energy trying to reverse the course of the world or to save the planet. Mankind is not going to destroy the earth; God will do that, and He will do it instantaneously on the Last Day. We do not need to act like the tree-hugging wackos who worship the earth and the things in it. The planet is unsalvageable. Our race is unsalvageable, un-savable…except…
Except for the one and only salvation that God Himself has provided: that all men should repent, believe in Christ crucified, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. And it needs to be done now before it is too late, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
You, dear fellow redeemed, are baptized; you believe; you are members of Christ’s bride, the Church. You are loved eternally by Christ who willingly gave up His body on the tree of the cross for every one of your sins and the sins of the whole world. Look at that cross: Christ’s love is on display there for all the world to see: it is His unending and unfathomable love for you. You belong to Jesus. You have the sure and certain hope of everlasting life in Christ. And God continues to provide for your salvation with daily forgiveness of sins in His Church with the preaching and teaching of His Word, and with His Holy Supper that gives you the body and blood of Jesus to keep renewing you in faith in hope and in love. And it will be that way all the way up to the day of His coming. You need not fear the end of the world because Jesus has paid for your sins and relieved you of having to worry about things that only He has completely under His control.
Heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus says. Sorry, Stephen Hawking, but Mars and the rest of the galaxy will offer no shelter from that day. And it is not only the earth that will be destroyed; heaven and earth will pass away. “But,” says Jesus, “My words will by no means pass away.” That is the reason to keep hearing and keep learning the Word of Christ: His words will outlast even the earth itself. His promises will never fall. His truth will never change or become obsolete.
In that Word, Jesus pleads urgently with His dear people, “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.” Carousing can include partying, being obsessed with sports and entertainment, being obsessed with food, being obsessed with clothing and style, and letting those things come between you and the Divine Service. Drunkenness includes overindulgence in drink, in drugs, in sex. Cares of this life includes just about everything else: technology, education, career, retirement, buying Christmas presents, etc. It is easy to become weighed down with all these things and to put the Last Day on the back burner of your heart.
But you, dear friends, are given to “watch and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” How do you escape all these things? By being preserved in faith and in watchfulness until the end, whether that end means your death before the Last Day, or your being preserved in faith while you are still alive on earth when the Last Day finally comes.
You, dear fellow redeemed, stand before the Son of Man by God-given faith in Christ who died for you and rose again. That’s all. Faith alone makes you worthy to stand before Him. There is nothing to fear or dread on the Day of His coming for those who are in Christ. Instead, Jesus says, “When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” Christ, your Redeemer, has already paid for your sins and reconciled you with God through faith and made you children of God through Holy Baptism. Only the final redemption awaits, when this planet is destroyed and the rest of the human race is cast out into eternal torment.
Take heart. Dear Christian. For you who are found believing in Christ at His coming, there will be no punishment and no condemnation. There will be only the redemption of your bodies, the destruction of sin and death, and the beginning of a new and glorious life in the New Jerusalem, the home of righteousness. That’s your home, where you will live with Christ forever in a body that is sinless, powerful, and spiritual. That’s your Home where you will be reunited with all those in the faith who have gone before you, from Adam and Eve to Moses and Abraham, to King David, to Sts. Peter and Paul, the Apostles, Martin and Katy Luther, and all your dearly departed family and friends who died in the one true faith.
So, lift up your heads, for He is coming to take You Home.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
