February 26, 2006, Transfiguration Sunday

Lesson: Matthew 24.29-31

Sermon Title: Sky Signs

(Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

INTRODUCTION: The cartoon below was in the March 2006 issue of the Arena Congregational Church "The Good Tidings".

  1. Did you like the cartoon in the newsletter where two boys talking during the sermon.

    1. One says to the other: "Don't get your hopes up...It's not over until the fat man says 'Amen'"

    2. We are people of hope.

  2. Sometimes hope gets a little bent out of shape.

  3. What we need to remember is that "Its not over until God says 'Its over.'"

    1. The, when its over, its over!

    2. There is no starting over.

    3. There is no second chance.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

MAIN BODY:

  1. We need to know where we are.

Richard Harris on Letterman's Show talking about an experience that he did not remember. He was very drunk. His first wife getting a divorce. Her attorney hired a private detective to follow him.

Harris became very angry.

He called up the detective at his home at 3:00 a.m. "I hear you are following me around."

"Yes that's true."

"Tell me where I am."

    1. We need to know where we are in the time of our lives.

    2. We need to know where we are in the spiritual development of our lives.

  1. We need to know if we are ready

SONG: Are You Ready for Jesus To Come?

The theme of the Bible is Jesus and how he died to save men,--
The plan of salvation assures us he's coming back again.--

Chorus:

Don't cling to this world and its treasure, this earth will soon pass away.--
Oh, give him your love without measure he's calling you today.--

Chorus:
Are you ready for Jesus to come?
Are you faithful in all that you do?
Have you fought a good fight?
Have you stood for the right?
Have others seen Jesus in you?
Are you ready to stand in your place?
Are you ready to look in his face?
Can you look up and say, 'This is my Lord!'
Are you ready for Jesus to come?

    1. What does the song have to do with the sermon?

    2. Much has been written about the return of Christ.

    3. In prose, in poetry, in song, in the Bible?, yes, in the Bible.

Job 19:25-27 (NRSV)

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; {26} and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, {27} whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

Psalms 50:3 (NRSV)

Our God comes and does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him.

Psalms 96:13 (NRSV)

before the LORD; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.

Isaiah 25:6-9 (NRSV)

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. {7} And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. {8} Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. {9} It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

2 Timothy 4:6-8 (NRSV)

As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. {7} I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. {8} From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Titus 2:13 (NRSV)

while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 9:28 (NRSV)

so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

1 John 3:2 (NRSV)

Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

  1. What an extraordinary day it will be.

    1. It is not like the day of quiet innocence when Jesus was born.

    2. It will be a day of thunder and lightning with the sound of a trumpet.

Revelation 1:7 (NRSV)

Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen.

Matthew 16:24-27 (NRSV)

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. {25} For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. {26} For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? {27} "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.

Matthew 24:24-31 (NRSV)

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. {25} Take note, I have told you beforehand. {26} So, if they say to you, 'Look! He is in the wilderness,' do not go out. If they say, 'Look! He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. {27} For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. {28} Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. {29} "Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. {30} Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see 'the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven' with power and great glory. {31} And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

  1. It will be an eye popping, ear splitting, mind blowing day.

    1. It is not secret!

      1. Every eye will see him

      2. No one will be left out or left behind.

    2. It is not hidden!

Tim Redden, "Heaven Bound," The Door, November-December 2001, 22. Writes a tongue in cheek story about the Left Behind series of books.

"May I help you?" the clerk asked cheerfully, as Megan browsed through the children's book section of the Christian bookstore.

"I'm looking for something for my 3-year-old," the young mother replied. "She loves books, and I want to get her something with a 'Christian message.'"

"I have exactly what you're looking for," the sales lady replied with a wink. "It just came in; we're really excited about it…It's the latest from Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind: The Toddler Edition."

"I'm not sure that's what I'm looking for," said the young mother, trying to be polite.

"Nonsense," the clerk replied, taking a volume from the rack to show her..."It's about a group of toddlers at a Christian pre-school," the clerk explained. "On a trip to a petting zoo, the school's minivan suddenly swerves out of control."

"Oh, how awful!"

"It's the rapture," the sales lady continued. "The teacher and two of the children are taken, and the rest are left behind. Look, their little clothes are still in their car seats. Isn't that cute? One little guy was taken right out of his diaper!"

      1. Do not listen to those who claim that Jesus is in the desert or in the inner room.

      2. No one will be left out or left behind.

    1. It is eye popping!

      1. Glory

      2. 30Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see 'the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven' with power and great glory.

        1. The glory is so bright that:

the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from heaven,
and the powers of heaven will be shaken.

        1. 2 Peter 3:10 (NRSVA) declares:

10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.

        1. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 12:28-29 (NRSVA) encourages and observes:

28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; 29for indeed our God is a consuming fire.

      1. That's a revelation of unlimited power

Power = Dynamite, Dynamo, The creative and sustaining power is now fully unleashed.

    1. It is ear splitting!

      1. The sound of the trumpet will be heard.

31And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

We are alerted to danger with the sounding of a siren, a modern trumpet.

    1. It is mind blowing!

      1. The appearance of angels.

        1. Huge number of angels.

        2. Revelation 5:11-12 (NRSVA) records John's vision of angels.

11Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands...

      1. It is beyond imagination.

      2. For some it will be terrifying.

30Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,

      1. For the rest it will be a time of profound rejoicing.

        1. This is our God.

        2. We have waited for him.

        3. He will save us.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

CONCLUSION

  1. It's the vision that keeps hope alive

British novelist/poet/rector's wife Sara Maitland in her book A Big-Enough God notes that children in playgrounds and at fun fairs like to be a little scared: Those screams of fear and of joy are very close. It is the readiness to run risks-both physical and emotional-with open-hearted excitement, and the willingness to be surprised by whatever happens next, that wins the glittering prize: the vision of the glory of God. (1)

1. Sara Maitland, A Big-Enough God (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1995), 158.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)