Look at the signs pointing to your redemption!

Sermon for Advent 2 – Populus Sion

Micah 4:1-7  +  Romans 15:4-13  +  Luke 21:25-36

In our Gospel today, Jesus warns us to be watching for certain signs. There are different kinds of signs. Some signs have a message of their own. They mean to communicate some short and simple point. Protest signs, like, “Abortion is murder.” Billboards that have a message instead of an advertisement, like, “Keep Christ in Christmas!” Or, “Keep the Mass in Christmas!”  But most signs are made to draw your attention to the sign only for a moment, so that you then turn your eyes or your car or your thoughts to the thing the sign is pointing to. Road signs are like that. Or signs advertising a business or a place or an event. And, of course, the more important the event, the more important it is to pay attention to the signs, so that you don’t miss it, or fail to learn what you need to know or to do in order to gain entrance.

Now, the event to which Jesus points us is the most important event that will ever be in all of creation’s history: the Advent of Christ to bring an end to this creation and to bring the chosen ones, the elect, into the new one. It’s an event that will produce everlasting results: everlasting death and torment for the many, everlasting life and joy for the few. So it’s good that you’re here today, so that you can be made readier to read the signs and to follow where they point. They point, as Jesus says, to your redemption!

First, let’s be sure to understand what “your redemption” means here. Redemption, in the Bible, implies two things: both the ransom payment for something or someone, and the actual rescue of something or someone from slavery or from suffering, from danger or from destruction. When it comes to “our redemption,” the ransom payment has already been made; the holy, precious blood of Christ has already been shed and His victory over sin, death, and the power of hell has already been secured. In that sense, “your redemption” took place at Christ’s first Advent, long before you or I were even born.

Then, for all of you here who have been baptized, another redemption has taken place during your lifetime, an actual rescue from Satan’s kingdom and deliverance into the kingdom of Christ, the conversion from unbelief to faith, the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ Jesus. We heard about this redemption last Wednesday evening from Colossians 1: He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

But there still remains one more redemption for Christ’s people who are waiting for Him when He comes. “Your redemption” will be the actual rescue from every kind of slavery and suffering, from all danger, and from all corruption and destruction. It will mean your removal from this world and the beginning of the life that is truly life with God.

Now, only those who are still found penitent and believing when Christ returns will take part in that final redemption, and, as Jesus warns repeatedly, not all who started out as “the redeemed” will still be believing at the end to take part in that final redemption, because not all Christians will heed His warnings to watch and pray. As a reminder to watch and pray, there will be signs, Jesus says, pointing to the day of your redemption as it draws closer and closer, reminding you to focus where you need to focus. Let’s take a look at some of them.

First, let’s look at the signs the prophet Micah gave us, as you heard in the first lesson today. What would happen in the “latter days”—meaning, the last times of the earth, the times just before the end, before the second Advent of Christ? Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD!” That’s the very thing that St. Paul celebrates in today’s Epistle, that the Gentiles—the nations—are streaming into the Christian Church. People from all over the world are hearing the Gospel of Christ, which first went out from Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. And now the Church that began so small within the Roman Empire has spread to every continent, and to every people. That’s a God-given sign that we are in the latter days: the spread of the Gospel and the very existence of the Christian Church throughout the world cries out that our final redemption is drawing near.

But the signs in our Gospel today aren’t so pleasant. Signs in the heavens: in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars. Look for anything out of the ordinary, day-to-day behavior of the heavenly bodies. It includes even things that we might call “natural events,” like comets and asteroids and meteorites—things that God built into the universe when He first made it, having known and planned already at that time the day of Christ’s second Advent and the signs in the heavens that would point to it. Every out-of-the-ordinary occurrence in the heavens is a sign, pointing Christians to turn their eyes upward, to watch and to pray, and to remember: Your redemption is drawing near!

There will also be signs on the earth: distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring. Matthew, in his Gospel, spoke of other signs on the earth, like famines and earthquakes. Luke mentions only the roaring of the sea. So, strange weather and natural disasters are signs. And not only that, but the world’s reaction to it is also a sign. Men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth. I don’t think there has ever been more distress, more hysteria on a global scale over the climate than there is now, and every year the distress seems to grow worse. Young people are especially vulnerable, because they’re having it pounded into them that the planet is falling apart, and that it’s all our fault, and that there’s something we have to do about it! And we’d better! Or else!

Such is the fear of those who don’t believe Jesus, who have to invent their own stories and scientific (or perhaps pseudo-scientific) explanations about the origins of our universe and about what the weather is doing. Such is the distress of those whose life is tied to this planet, or even to this universe, who refuse to acknowledge that Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, is sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and that He is coming to judge the earth.

But for Christians, these signs, in and of themselves, aren’t meant to be fearful things. They’re simply reminders—vivid reminders—that this world, this creation, is in labor, as Paul wrote to the Romans: The earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Something wonderful awaits the people of God at the end of these signs, as Jesus says, When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.

Then He gives us the example of the fig tree, or of all the trees as new leaves start to bud in the spring. Even if you didn’t have a calendar to tell you that summer is near, the new growth on the trees is a sure sign of it. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.

Yes, your redemption draws near. But here’s the question: Do you want to be redeemed? Will you still want to be redeemed at the time of Jesus’ return? Will you be ready and waiting to be taken away from this world, from this life, or will you be like Lot’s wife, who started to flee from Sodom before it burned, who was warned about turning around and looking back, and yet still was so tied in her heart to her former life in the city that she looked back with longing, and was then turned to a pillar of salt?

Take heed to yourselves, Jesus says, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. Jesus knows that this life is heavy. Not just heavy as in difficult, but heavy, as in, it pulls down at your heart like gravity. There are so many cares of this life to take care of, so many responsibilities. There’s so much to do, so much to keep you focused on earthly things. In fact, the cares themselves are so heavy that some indulge in carousing and drunkenness as a way to set aside the responsibilities and “have fun.” You can escape from the pressure, escape from the boredom, escape from the guilt by making yourself numb to it all, for a little while.

It’s when God’s people allow themselves to get weighed down with these things that they are in the most danger, because, Jesus says, the day of His return will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

But, of course, it’s not a snare for those who have been watching the signs to watch out for the snare! Hunters set traps for wild animals, for brute beasts who are focused solely on earthly survival and can’t read signs anyway. The woods may be filled with warning signs announcing where the traps have been laid. But those signs don’t have any effect on the animals. They only work for people, for people who are paying attention, at least.

So God has set the snare for the people of this world who refuse to repent and believe in His Son, and carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life are like the bait. But He doesn’t intend for any of His people to be caught in that snare, so He warns us over and over in Scripture and year after year in the preaching of His Word, don’t be fooled! Don’t take the bait! Be careful where and how you walk! And He gives us in the Gospel the directions that will keep us safe: Watch therefore, 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.

You won’t be counted worthy because of any worthiness in yourself. You will be counted worthy if you’re found taking refuge under the cross of Christ, mourning your sins and trusting in Him for the forgiveness of your sins, even as you confessed your sins today and received absolution from them, even as Christ offers His body and blood again today to keep His people safe. By that blood He paid the redemption price for the world. By Holy Baptism He has applied that blood to you and redeemed you from Satan’s kingdom. And soon, as the signs make clear, your final redemption will come. Hold on until then, by the power and the means that God Himself provides! Watch and pray! Look at the signs, but only for a moment, so that they can point you to where you need to be looking: at Jesus Christ, your dear Savior, and at the redemption He’s bringing with Him at His Advent. Amen.