Signs
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sun and moon shall darkened be,We have seen the signs; the days are at hand. Have we seen false christs and false prophets? Just turn on the television, and Joel Osteen’s shining teeth and false promises are staring back at you. Within the visible Church, faithless Christians and false pastors ridicule such things as the Lord’s Prayer and the Creeds which confess the very Word of God, and replace them with liturgies which spring from the hearts of men and prayers for earthly riches. They take the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which are the work of God to forgive sinners and give them life, and turn them into decisions by which sinful men claim to prove their faith to the world and earn their place before God. Have we seen people pretending to know when Jesus is coming and where He will be? In the last month, another prophecy of the return of Christ has proven false—just one of many such predictions that have come and gone. If that’s not enough to convince you the day is at hand, remember this: the world praises laziness, abortion, lust, and everything else the Word of God calls evil, and it vilifies what the Word of God calls good and just and right. We are living in the days of which Jesus spoke. We are in the midst of the great tribulation, as indeed have been all who have lived by faith since Christ ascended.
Stars shall fall, the heavens shall flee;
Christ will then like lightning shine,
All will see His glorious sign...
Between all the
horrors of a fallen world and the temptations of a false spirituality, the
baptized are as surrounded by evil as Noah and his family before the flood. The
life of a Christian is not a life of ease, nor does Jesus promise it will be;
in fact, the opposite is true, for Jesus promises us that we will be persecuted
because our Lord is despised by the world. Our life in Christ is a life lived
under the cross. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something; a preacher
who tells you that this is your best life is looking to add an addition to his
mansion. Even in those instances where life is comfortable, when the weight of
the cross isn’t as cumbersome, do not give into the temptation of believing
this is God’s thank-you gift for your life of faith, lest you become so
attached to your earthly blessings that you forget the things of God.
Our Lord knows we
will go running for Him where He will not be found. He knows we will look for
Him under every nook and cranny, thinking He will appear secretly to us first,
before He appears to the rest of the world. Rest assured, we will know along
with the rest of the world when Jesus returns visibly to judge the living and
the dead. That’s a certainty that should put us at ease.
Jesus does give us
the tiniest of hints about the when of Judgment Day. When we see or hear those
false christs and false prophets who claim to have that “new revelation” or
“insider information” concerning the End Times, we should stop walking toward
them and put a finger in our ears. But hasn’t this been going on for a long
time? Precisely! That’s why Paul says therefore comfort one another with these
words. Though we might not think judgment is comforting, it is. Judgment is a
certainty proclaimed in the Bible. We believe the Bible to be God’s error-free
Word to us. No matter what anyone else says or does, we have the certainty of
Holy Scripture that tells us the Truth about the faith.
Though we may not
know what tomorrow holds, we know there is a bright future for those who
believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior from sin, death, and the power of the
devil. Though we are sinners living in a sinful world, we live in the sure and
certain hope of eternal life. While we live here, God feeds our faith through
certain things. He attaches forgiveness, life, and salvation to words, water,
bread, and wine. We believe that these means certainly sustain us until Jesus
comes again to take us home.
The life in Christ
through Word and Sacrament is certainty amid the mountains and valleys of
uncertainty we tread every day. God’s people gather around God’s altar and
pulpit to be comforted with God’s Word. His Word says Jesus will return as the
lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west. Before you know it, the
Lord is come, the dead will rise, the living will be caught up in the air with
Christ, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. This is our certain hope,
for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with
Him those who sleep in Jesus. Christ is coming soon. Even so, Lord Jesus, come
quickly! In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all
understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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