Then Shall They See the Son of Man

In Nomine Iesu!

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon Text: St. Luke 21:25-36

“‘And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh.’”

Prayer in Pulpit before Sermon:

Cleanse our conscience, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, by the daily visitation of Thy grace, that, when Thy Son, our Lord + Jesus Christ, shall come, He may find us fit for His appearing, and ready to meet Him without spot, in the company of all His saints; Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end.  Amen.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior + Jesus Christ. Amen. 

My dear friends, many people when they read, or hear, the end of times texts, picture the Last Day as a dark day; a day of woe and sadness, or weeping and gnashing of teeth. These end of days texts are especially used by the fire and brimstone preachers to strike fear into the hearts of those to whom they are preaching. And while it is true that on that Last Day those who have rejected the Lord God, who have rejected His Anointed One, the Lord + Jesus, the Christ, will be in great fear and trembling, because their punishment draws nigh, this is not the case with those who cling in faith to the Lord + Jesus, the Christ, as their Savior from sin and death. Our Lord + Jesus in the Gospel reading from the Evangelist St. Luke tells us exactly that. For the unbeliever, the Last Day will be a Day of weeping and woe, a day of eternal punishment. But for the believer on the Lord + Jesus, the Christ, the Last Day will be the Day of our Redemption; the Day when at last our war with sin and death, with the evil powers of this life and world will finally be over. 

If it were not so, why then does our Lord + Jesus tell us that when these things begin to happen, we should “look up,” that we should “lift up our heads.” The Last Day will be so great and glorious for those who believe on the Lord + Jesus that we will not want to hang our heads in shame and pity, but we will want to look up, to lift up our heads and take it all in. We will not want to miss a single, glorious minute of the great things that will be happening for us. For in that Day we shall see the Son of Man coming in all His glory. He will be riding on the clouds of heaven, bringing eternal paradise for all those who believe on Him with Him. We will not want to miss one second of that great and glorious Day.

That these things are true we can ascertain from the rest of holy Scripture. It is the nature of sinful mankind to ignore the signs and wonders that point to our Lord’s coming, the signs and wonders that our Lord + Jesus gives in today’s Gospel reading which point to His coming to us. When we see these things beginning to happen, we know that His redemption draweth nigh. The signs that our Lord + Jesus gives have been happening ever since He ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. These signs throughout history are the Church’s constant reminder that our Lord + Jesus is coming soon. They are our continuous reminders that the marriage feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom is soon to come. His Bride, the Church, will be united to Him for all eternity. We will be joined with Him in heaven for all eternity. We will be His people, and He will be our Lord and God. But the world ignores these signs and wonders. They do not care about the life of the world to come, for they are only concerned with the life that they live here on this earth.

The Egyptians when the Lord God was about to lead the Israelites out of slavery into the Promised Land of Canaan so that they might be His people and He would be their Lord God, hardened their hearts along with Pharaoh. Consider the signs and wonders that the Lord God performed to show His power and authority before the Egyptians. He sent ten plagues upon the Egyptians, and each time they hardened their hearts with Pharaoh. They ignored the signs. These signs increased in significance and effect toward the Egyptians. Each of the ten plagues attacked one of their false gods. But in their impenitence, they clung to their false worship, and refused to acknowledge that the Lord God Almighty was the One and only True God. Even when Pharoah and the Egyptians relented after the tenth plague in which all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians were killed, in which every single house in the land of Egypt suffered at least one death, from the least of them even to the greatest, they still returned to their impenitence, and chased after the Israelites to destroy them. Pharaoh and his army ended up dead at the bottom of the Red Sea, and the people of Egypt never became again a nation of great power and influence.

The people of Israel, on the other hand, because they knew that these signs and wonders were from their Lord God, did not fear the signs and wonders. Each sign was a sign that their redemption from Egypt and slavery was soon to be over. This is why the signs of the end times for us Christians are not meant to lead us into fear and doubt. Wars and rumors of wars, famine, pestilence, and all the other signs listed in the other End Times texts in St. Matthew (24) and St. Mark (13) are all signs that our redemption draweth nigh; they are signs that our Lord + Jesus is coming to free us from the bonds of sin and death eternally, and that He is coming quickly.

These signs are in three classes: those that occur in the heavens and in the air, those that happen upon earth and the seas, and those that happen within us, in the heart and conscience. The evil and unbelief in the world will be so great toward the Last Day that the whole heaven and earth, and sea and air will groan from the weight of unbelief existing in this world. There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars. The powers of heaven will be shaken. There will be distress of nations, and perplexity for the roaring of the seas and billows. Men will faint from fear, and for expectation of the things about to happen. They will fear and be perplexed because they know the Day of their eternal judgment is upon them.

But when we see these things, we know that our Lord and Savior is coming to take us from this vale of tears to our eternal home in heaven. The world and all sinful unbelievers will hang their heads in shame and fear. We will not! We will look up and lift up our heads to see the Son of Man coming on the clouds in great power and glory. We will rejoice to hear the blast of the trumpet. We will be exuberant when we hear the angels sing and proclaim that the Day of our redemption is at last come. For we will have been seeing the signs for a long time, and we know that finally the fruit of those signs will be ready for harvest. The fig tree will be ripe with fruit for picking.

And this is why we hear this Gospel pericope every year on this Sunday, Populus Sion Sunday. Populus Sion, People of Zion, or to quote the Antiphon from the Introit today, the Daughter of Zion. This is the Day when we rejoice to hear that marriage feast of the Lamb of God is coming soon. The Bridegroom and the His Bride, the Church, will soon be united forever in Heaven, and then we will celebrate eternally in the eternal liturgy of the Lamb in His Kingdom which has no end. This is depicted on the bulletin cover. The Bridegroom meets His Bride. He meets the Church, decked out in beautiful raiment. We are that Bride. We are the Church. And our husband, our head, is the Christ of the Lord God. He has suffered and died to win His Bride, the dowry for us was His own precious and innocent blood, and His life offered on the tree of the holy cross. He paid the price and now we are His and He is ours. 

Our Bridegroom wants us all to meet at the wedding feast. He wants all of creation to be there. He wants all of us who are believers on Him not to fall away at the last because of the cares and concerns of this world. Therefore, He leaves one final warning in the Gospel reading for today. Do not let the treasures of this life draw our attention away from the signs that point to His coming soon. Let us not be like the unbelieving world, which ignores the signs and wonders that point to our Lord’s coming. The unbelieving world is like the world before the flood, in the days of Noah. They were eating, and drinking, and marrying until the rains came. It was not until their destruction began, that they began paying attention. Then it was too late. Our Lord + Jesus warns us to not mimic their behavior. 

He tells us to keep our focus upon the signs and wonders that have been happening since His ascension. Because they are signs telling us that He is coming quickly. Let us therefore, my dear friends, continue to look up and lift up our heads when we see this world groaning under the unbelief of mankind, for our redemption draweth nigh. Let us in contrition and sorrow humbly confess our sins, and cling in faith to our Lord + Jesus, for salvation is found only in Him. Let our focus continually be upon the One Who can save us from sin and death, and bring us into His eternal home forever and ever. For then on that Last Day, we will rejoice to see the Son of Man coming in power and great glory upon the clouds of heaven. On that Day we will be exuberant to be free from the pains and sorrows of this life, and live in joy and peace with Him and all the saints and angels in heaven for all eternity. May our Lord + Jesus, come quickly, bring us into the glorious Promised Land of heaven. In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Prayer in Pulpit after Sermon:

Almighty God, be pleased to accompany Thy Word with Thy Holy Spirit and grant that Thy Word would increase faith in us; bring into the Way of Truth all such as have erred; turn the hearts of the unrepentant; and for sake of Thy Name grant succor to all heavy hearts and those who are heavy-laden, that they may through the mercy of the Lord + Jesus Christ be relieved and preserved so that they succumb not to the temptation of despair but rather that they gain the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil; through the same + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with the Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

The Votum:

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!