[Note: This sermon expounds Luke 21:25–27 and Matthew 24:29–30, covering the signs in the heavens before the Lord's coming, the meaning of perplexity and fainting, and the identification of the sign of the Son of Man with the rapture. Delivered 16 August 1981, Montreal.]
We begin today at Luke chapter 21, verse 25, where we left off last week. Every week we expound the word of God systematically, going straight through the teaching of the Lord Jesus rather than jumping from passage to passage. Today we cover two texts together: Luke 21:25–27 and the parallel passage in Matthew 24:29–30. Luke 21:25–27 reads: "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." We saw in our earlier studies that among the signs the Lord describes, some are general signs continuing throughout the age and some are specific signs close to the end. These signs in the sun, moon, and stars belong to those signs very close to the end.
We should not spiritualize "sun and moon and stars" here; the Lord is referring to actual occurrences in the heavenly places, things visible in the sky. We mentioned last week the so-called Jupiter effect that Cambridge scientists describe: in 1982, the planets of the solar system will line up roughly on one side of the sun, with Jupiter in the middle and Pluto farthest out. These scientists suggest that this rare alignment will produce a strong gravitational pull on the sun's surface at a time when sunspot activity is at its peak, leading to disruptions of radio communications, shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere, and a braking effect on the earth's rotation that may trigger earthquakes. Natural phenomena in the heavens — including the planets, since the Greek word for "stars" encompasses the planets as well — will increase in intensity as we approach the end.
However, Scripture uses "sign" far more specifically of supernatural divine activity than of natural phenomena. A sign in the biblical sense is a message conveyed by visible actions rather than by audible words — you receive a sign through the eyes rather than through the ears. When God acts visibly in the world to convey a message to mankind, that is a sign. The natural use is seen in Genesis 1:14, where God gave the heavenly bodies for signs of seasons and times. But the specifically supernatural use is what the Lord has in mind here. When the Lord Jesus was crucified, God wrote signs in the heavens: at noonday the sun was darkened (Luke 23:45), with no clouds in the sky and no natural explanation — the weather at Passover in Israel is generally clear and predictable. By that sign, God indicated his displeasure to those who had crucified his Son, warning them that they had acted not against a man but against God.
In the same way, the book of Joel speaks of divine signs in the heavens immediately before the day of the Lord. Joel 2:10–11: "The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining... for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?" Joel 2:30–31: "I will give portents in the heavens and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes." The moon turning to blood simply means that when the sun is darkened, the moon takes on a dark reddish color — I myself once saw the moon looking like blood, the sunlight passing through some filter that gave it that strange dark red appearance. Joel 3:14–15 repeats it: "The day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining." In each case the sign is tied to the day of God's judgment — God warning mankind with what they can see, since they have refused to hear.
Returning to Luke 21:25, we see that these events will produce a remarkable effect on mankind. We read of "distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves." This can be understood in two senses, and probably both are intended. Literally, activities in the solar system affect the earth — the gravitational pull of the moon produces tides; similarly, natural phenomena in the heavens will produce physical upheavals on earth, including storms and tidal waves of great magnitude. But Scripture also uses the roaring of the sea as a figure for the tumult of the nations. Psalm 65:7 places these in explicit parallel: "who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples" — the waves of the sea picture the tumult of the peoples. Isaiah 17:12–13 likewise: "Ah, the thunder of many peoples — they thunder like the thundering of the sea... the nations roar like the roaring of many waters." This same imagery governs the book of Revelation: when a monster rises from the sea, the sea there is not the literal ocean but the nations. In those last days there will be both enormous physical upheaval and great social and political unrest among the nations.
So great will this disturbance be — natural and social together — that mankind will be in what the Lord calls "perplexity." The Greek word is aporia, from a- (negating) and poria (from poros, a crossing or ford of a river). Aporia means no crossing, no way through, no passage — literally, nowhere to go, at your wit's end. Mankind will come to the point of total desperation because there is no way out. And verse 26 adds that men will be "fainting with fear and foreboding." The word translated "fainting" literally means to stop breathing — to be deprived of air to the point of dying. Men literally dying of fear is a possible translation. The word "foreboding" means premonition. I myself had such an experience: before I was arrested by the communists, I passed through the night with a deep sense that something terrible was about to happen. The next morning I was arrested and marched off at gunpoint by several soldiers; all of us feared we would soon join the number of those being shot. That foreboding was completely justified. In those last days, the same feeling will spread across all mankind — they will know that something terrible is about to happen, and they will be right. God's judgment is about to descend.
We turn now to Matthew 24:29–30, the parallel passage, which adds something Luke has not included. Matthew 24:29: "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." This parallels Luke 21:25 exactly. But then verse 30 adds: "Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man 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." Notice that this sign of the Son of Man appears before the actual coming and produces mourning across the earth. Commentators are quite uncertain what this sign might be — some suggest it is a special cloud. But as we study the Lord's teaching, he has not left us in uncertainty, because Scripture speaks of only one sign associated with the Son of Man.
[Continues in Part B]
# Signs in the Heavens — Luke 21:25–27 / Matthew 24:29–30 (Part B) — Sign of Jonah as Resurrection; Five-Point Parallel to 1 Thessalonians 4; Rapture Immediately Precedes Second Coming
[Note: This is Part B of the sermon on Luke 21:25–27 / Matthew 24:29–30, continuing directly from Part A. Delivered 16 August 1981, Montreal.]
The sign of the Son of Man is specific, and there is only one. Matthew 12:39: "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." Matthew 16:4 repeats it: "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah." The sign of Jonah is the one and only sign of the Son of Man, and what is that sign? It is the sign of the resurrection. The sign of the Son of Man in Scripture is the resurrection. In Matthew 24:30, this sign appears in heaven — not on earth as the first time. The first time the Son of Man was on earth; this time the sign of the Son of Man is in heaven. If the resurrection sign is to be visible to all in the sky, it can mean only one thing: it is the rapture — the event where God's people are caught up into the sky to meet the Lord in the air, as Paul expounds in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Once you grasp what the sign of the Son of Man in heaven is, you will see that Paul's teaching on the rapture is derived directly from the Lord's own teaching here.
Notice carefully that in Matthew 24:29–31, every verse contains the word "heaven." In Greek, the words for "sky" and "heaven" are the same word, and every reference in these three verses describes events visible from earth in the sky. You will look up into the firmament and see these things happening. When the rapture occurs, the dead in Christ — true Christians over the last two thousand years — will be raised from their graves. One can imagine the perplexed conversations: someone takes a walk through a cemetery and finds the graves open and empty. Strange things are happening. The sign of the Son of Man — the sign of resurrection — will be visible in the heavens. And then those left behind will see the Lord coming in the clouds. The one they had never expected to see will appear. They dismissed the preacher who stood behind his pulpit and spoke of Jesus coming — religious nonsense, they said. And now there he is, Jesus, coming on the clouds. As surely as the prophets predicted his first coming and he came the first time, he will come the second time.
Paul's exposition in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 is a direct, point-by-point parallel to Matthew 24:30–31, and we can trace five exact correspondences. First, 1 Thessalonians says "the Lord himself will descend from heaven" — he is coming, descending from heaven, but note that he stops in the air; he has not yet descended to the earth. Second, 1 Thessalonians speaks of "the sound of the trumpet of God" — this matches Matthew 24:31: "he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call." Third, 1 Thessalonians speaks of "a cry of command" — at present the gospel is an invitation that can be accepted or rejected; even Jesus himself was taken and crucified, rejected as finally as it is possible to reject anyone. But not when he comes again, for then it will be a command, not an invitation, reflecting the power and glory in which he comes. Fourth, both passages refer to the clouds. Fifth, both passages speak of gathering the elect: "we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." Paul is following the Lord's teaching point by point, expounding it for the Thessalonians.
The rapture, therefore, is not a distinct event occurring years before the second coming. As you study the Lord's teaching, the rapture immediately precedes his coming — he descends from heaven, his saints ascend to meet him, and they meet in the air. It is an inseparable part of the second coming. At that moment, the joy of Christians stands in absolute contrast to the distress of the world. The world is in a state of nervous breakdown, perplexed and fainting; the Christians are full of joy and hallelujahs. The condemnation of the one is the sign of the salvation of the other, simultaneously. Luke 21 says: "Lift up your head, because your redemption draws near." What the world experiences as the onset of judgment, the Christian experiences as the approach of redemption.
From the four winds — from all directions — the Lord gathers his elect. Zechariah 2:6 uses "four winds" to mean all directions, and that is exactly what Matthew 24:31 means by it. "From one end of heaven to the other" is Old Testament language: Deuteronomy 30:4 speaks of God gathering his people "from the uttermost parts of heaven" — no matter how far away his people may be in that moment, no matter whether you are flying in an aircraft or on the space shuttle at that time, God will gather his elect from every direction. The Lord encourages his people through all this teaching that through the midst of the suffering and persecution ahead — and the persecutors will not necessarily be non-Christians; history and Scripture alike show that the worst persecutors of faithful disciples have always been the nominal Christians, those more interested in dogma than holiness, those who reject serious commitment as unnecessary — through all of this, the Lord's people are kept toward the day of their full redemption. As we shall see in the next chapter, there are sheep and goats, eagles and vultures, outwardly in the same family but different in nature. It is the eagles that gather where the true body of Christ is.
The Lord says in Matthew 24:35: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." He is saying: you may think these are stories, fairy tales, mythology — but they will come to pass as certainly as anything he has ever said. I have followed the Lord Jesus for over twenty-five years, and I can testify that not once, in no matter what situation, have I put his word to the test and found it to fail. Not once. To some his coming will be a shock and a surprise; to others it will be the fulfillment of what they have long waited for. Where will you stand on that day? Let us be quiet before God.