November 8th/9th, 2009

Pastor Waldschmidt
Malachi 4:1,2a
The Day Of The Lord Is Coming!
I. With Judgment.
II. With Healing.

In the name of Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, dear fellow redeemed children of God;
I’m told that in the old St. Jacobi church during the winter the temperature would not get above the comfortable mark on many winter days. Pastor Eckert has said he usually wore his suit coat under his robe when he was preaching. Some of you might remember carrying buckets of coal to the classrooms for heat in the old St. Jacobi School. Some tell of winter weddings where the temperature was awful cold in church. By God’s grace through those years when heat was sometimes hard to come by, the members of St. Jacobi have learned about the heat God’s Word talks about today- the heat coming on Judgment Day. God’s Word speaks of two kinds of heat that will be felt on Judgment Day-the heat of God’s justice and the warmth of God’s love. In this world some might scoff and say that Judgment Day is not coming or at least is a long way off. But the day of the Lord is coming. I. It is coming with judgment. II. It is coming with healing.
Over the years many people have claimed to know the date of judgment day. As soon as they say that they have it figured out, you know that they are a false prophet because Jesus said, “No one knows that day or hour.” But while the Lord does not give us the date foe judgment day he did not want his people to be without information about the Day of the Lord. He wrote these words through the prophet Malachi. Malachi means “my messenger.” “Surely the day is coming, it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evil doer will be stubble and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. Not a root or a branch will be left to them.” We tend to look around the world and think that the deeds of people in the world are getting worse and worse. This week in the headlines there were two mass shootings. But did you hear the Lord say that he is concerned about both the attitude (arrogant) and the actions of the evildoer? Arrogance has reared its ugly head many times in human history. Think of Cain snapping back at God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Or think of Pharaoh asking “Who is the Lord that I should obey him? I don’t know the Lord and I will not let Israel go” Or the temple guards blindfolding Jesus and punching him in the face and demanding, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” We see this arrogance in our world too. I read the words of a so called history scholar on a website about end of the world prediction. He said that Jesus “thought that the end of the world would come during his life time and he was wrong.” Talk about arrogance! Here was a human telling the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that he was wrong. But let’s check our nostrils for the flare of arrogance. How about when we think that we can do a better job of directing our lives than God? We think God should have given us different skills or more possessions. The fires of God’s judgment could rightly burn against us.
No one should think that God will just let the sin of arrogance and all other sins pass by. “All the arrogant and every evil doer will be stubble.” Surely the day of the Lord is coming! It will burn like a furnace. When I think of stubble I think of razor stubble, but the people Malachi was talking too thought of stubble as the chaff or husks and hulls of the grain after the good part has been separated out. That chaff is thrown into the fire and it makes the fire flare up. John the Baptist talks about Jesus having “his winnowing fork in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering the wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The world tends to think of the devil as a wearing a nice Halloween costume and hell as a party place. Everyday people who reject Jesus are finding out when they die that the picture of hell as a party place is not true. On Judgment Day the whole world will see that hell is an awful place where those who arrogantly reject the Savior God sent will be confined forever. “Remember Jesus’ words, “Depart from me you who are cursed into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” It would seem the worst part about hell is not the roaring flames but the loneliness of being separated from God. Remember on the cross when Jesus was suffering hell he didn’t talk about the pain in his arms or legs, instead he called out, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”
We deserve to have it burn like a furnace on us too. But God now changes the picture for His people from the consuming fire of God’s judgment to the warm sunshine of His love shining in His Son Jesus. My little sister ruined my older sister’s birthday party. My older sister was all set for a wonderful birthday party complete with the gift of cowboy boots and suddenly mom had to go to the hospital to give birth to my younger sister. My sisters share the same birthday, July 2nd, 5 years apart. We don’t choose the day of our birth. God is the one who decides that. That’s OK. He loves us. He knows best. We also don’t get to choose the day of our death. God decides that. That’s OK. He loves us. He knows best. We also don’t know the Day when the Lord Jesus will return. That’s OK. He loves us. He knows best. That’s why the day of the Lord is not scary for us. The day of the Lord is coming with healing.
“But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.” One of the promises in Malachi has to do with John the Baptist. His dad, Zechariah, helps us to see that this Sun of righteousness is Jesus. Remember how Zechariah looked at his new son and his “unstuck tongue” said clearly “You my son will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him...because of the tender mercy of our God by which the rising Sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the path of peace.” Though we have been far from righteous, Jesus the Sun of righteousness has been righteous for us, keeping God’s commands in our place. On the cross Jesus took the fiery blasts of the furnace of God’s judgment on himself so that we would not be burned up by God’s judgment.
Jesus comes with healing in His wings. When Jesus comes again on Judgment Day, there won’t be any more wheel chairs or glasses. There won’t be anymore chemotherapy or insulin. Jesus will provide the healing. There won’t be any more sin sick souls. Jesus provides the healing.
Now that Sunshine of Jesus warms our lives too! We want to live for Him who comes with healing in His wings. The Bible says, “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.” Until the Lord burst through the clouds let’s be about the work he gives us.
As we wait there is a nice hymn to make our prayer… “ Thy holy wings, dear Savior, spread gently over me, And through the long night watches I'll rest secure in Thee. Whatever may betide me, be Thou my hiding place, And let me live and labor each day Lord, by Thy grace.” Amen