Is it best to be agnostic about everything having to do with the return of Christ?

“Gathering and Perfecting the Elect”

(Matthew 24:29-31, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, July 20, 2008)

Matthew 24:29-31 ²⁹ "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰ Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, 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.

Introduction – The clear and important story of Paul’s hope

To understand Biblical prophesy can certainly be very challenging. The three verses we are looking at here were not written in isolation from everything else in the Bible. They make use of images that come from at least 28 other passages in the Bible. 16 of these are from the Old Testament and 12 from the New Testament. These are only the most significant references. As a small example, the image of a trumpet sounding connected with some final gathering of the elect is found in four other passages, two from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. The two other New Testament passages that use this one idea of a trumpet that gathers the elect are very clearly about the final coming of the Lord. Here they are:

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ⁵¹ Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

The trumpet sounding is not the only image in our three verses. There are 7 stock images from other Bible passages that are used here: An ultimate time of trouble, signs in the heavens, the appearance of the Lord on clouds of glory, the mourning of the earth, the angels as gatherers, and a worldwide gathering of the elect, together with the trumpet call heard by everyone all come together in these three verses. These images are used at other devastating moments of lesser judgments, but the reason they can be powerfully used in those situations is because of the fact that the Lord will finally return in judgment. The fact of the Lord’s return in judgment has been a basic Christian belief throughout the entire history of the church. As we saw with the passages on the trumpet call, some of these can only be understood as referring to the final coming of the Lord. This same fact can be demonstrated with the other stock images that the Lord uses here. By the use of all seven of these images together, Jesus Christ is most definitely saying something about His return and the delivery of the new body temple which is His resurrection church. It is very sensible for Him to talk about these things here since the building temple will soon be destroyed, and the entire period of the New Testament age will be the period of gathering of the elect through the trumpet call of the gospel, the New Testament church. We do not know how long that period will be, but one day the final trumpet will sound and there will be a final resurrection of the dead.

Whenever we encounter hard texts in the Bible, we remember that the Bible interprets the Bible. We use the New Testament to interpret the Old, and the easiest and clearest passages as our commentary for harder texts. Many of these clear texts are in Paul’s letters. That is where we often find the most straightforward presentation of Christian teaching on any number of issues. While some of his writing is difficult, Paul is not trying to be visionary or hidden in most of what he says. He is trying to teach the faith plainly and clearly. It is a very worthwhile question to ask what Paul’s hope for future years and future events was. We especially see this in his dealings with the Thessalonian and Corinthian churches since there were some who were causing trouble in these churches by suggesting that there was no final fulfillment of the coming of the Lord remaining.

In these letters we see a very clear system presented by the Apostle Paul that lines up well with the rest of the Scriptures. First, there are only two ages for us to consider. We have the current age and the age to come. The dividing line between these is the return of Christ. Second, for each of us, the other major event in our lives is our own death. When we die, our spirits go to be with the Lord, and our bodies rest in the grave. When the Lord returns we will be given new resurrection bodies which will be forever united with our spirits. This simple hope is not only one person’s understanding of Paul. It was also the interpretation of the Westminster divines. In the catechism at the back of your hymnals you can read what they say that the Bible teaches on these matters in questions 37 and 38. For Matthew 24:29-31 this all means that Jesus used seven stock images from the Bible to speak about His physical return and the coming of the final resurrection body temple which is the Christian hope.

The apostasy and the tribulation (29)

One of the things that Paul writes of in 2 Thessalonians 2 is also very briefly mentioned here by the Lord with the phrase “the tribulation of those days.” Biblical prophesy can have more than one fulfillment, as we saw when we looked at the “abomination of desolation.” It is the same with this word “tribulation.” It usually refers to the persecution and sufferings that are a normal part of New Testament life. Here and in some other places it is connected to the period immediately prior to the coming of the Lord. In 2 Thessalonians 2 the word “apostasy” or “rebellion” is used to describe something that must take place just before the return of Christ. There is a connection between an intensified period of tribulation and a falling away from the faith in the church.

After the tribulation (29)

In Matthew 24, this tribulation is mentioned as a reference point. Something must happen first, and then immediately after that will come some events that will not be missed. Here we are reminded again that the return of Christ will not be a secret matter. Something will happen with the sun, moon, and stars that will be obvious to everyone. These exact same things are mentioned by the Old Testament prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel and Haggai, and also the New Testament book of Revelation. We find another reference in the Letter to the Hebrews quoting from the prophet Isaiah and the Psalms

Hebrews 1:10-12 ¹⁰ … "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; ¹¹ they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, ¹² like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end."

There is an end to this current age coming, and that end will be visible in the heavens. That end will not be the result of natural processes or even the evil of men and nations. There is a first cause mentioned in these passages. The Lord who made the heavens and the earth that we inhabit today can roll them up like a garment.

The sign of the Son of Man (30)

As amazing as those events will be, there will be something more wonderful happening in the heavens. That something is the Someone we long for coming with power in the heavenly cloud. While God has appeared many times in the Bible in connection with a glory cloud, the particular Old Testament reference for this event is found in Daniel 7 which speaks of the coming Messiah using the title that Jesus so frequently used referring to Himself.

Daniel 7:13-14 ¹³ I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. ¹⁴ And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

This sign of the Son of Man is the Son of Man Himself, the Messiah. The Lord speaks of this when He is being questioned by the High Priest prior to His crucifixion:

Matthew 26:63-64 ⁶³ ... And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." ⁶⁴ Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven."

What better sign than Christ, the fulfillment of every good sign. Yet not everyone will rejoice at His coming. The earth will mourn as Zechariah had said centuries before, but those who eagerly wait for His appearing will rejoice.

A return with a clear purpose, and your life of purpose (31)

We have already referred to the Lord’s angels, the sound of a trumpet, and the gathering of the elect from all over the earth. The return of Christ, spoken of so frequently throughout both the Old and New Testaments, is not some lesser thing. It is not some unimportant item of Christian faith. It is not some little miracle among many other miracles. It is not some smaller religious ceremony. It is not gradual or hidden. It is the main thing. He comes not just because He can do things like this, though He can. He comes with a purpose that fits into all that God has spoken of and accomplished up to this point.

Two thousand years ago a Baby was born in Bethlehem. He was both Son of God and Son of Man. He lived a life of sinless perfection and then He died on the cross. After His resurrection He ascended into heavenly realms, and for these many centuries He has been ruling over every atom of existence. He made you. He knows you. He knows what you don’t know about you. He has brought you to this moment here today, and he has not given up on you. All of what He has done is for this return that He will be doing at just the right time. I cannot tell you when it will happen, but I can assure you that it has not yet occurred, that it will happen, and that you won’t miss it.

You and I would do well to think about this coming Jesus on the clouds of glory. If we see His purpose in living and dying as intimately connected to this coming again, this new resurrection life that He will bring for His elect, we will then find some purpose for our lives that goes beyond the grave. If we cannot see His coming as real and sure and vitally important, it will be hard to feel that anything that we do here matters. That’s why the Apostle Paul sharply corrects those in Corinth by teaching them about the coming of the Lord and the resurrection with these important words: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What is the range of meaning in the Bible for the concept of “tribulation.”

2. Why do we find it so hard to believe in the cataclysmic events described in these verses?

3. Why would people mourn about the coming again of Christ?

4. What are some of the truths that we learn from these three verses concerning the return of the Lord?