SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/17/2024 7:46 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-4 “The Sign in the Sky”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
24:30a
Message of the verse: “30 "And then
the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of
the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF
THE SKY”
I have to say as I begin this fourth section looking
at “The Sign in the Sky” that I am a bit confused, and the confusion is that in
my thinking this seems to be talking about the return of Jesus Christ as seen
in Revelation 19, and when I look at that I see the Lord returning to planet
earth on a great white horse with a sword in His mouth accompanied by saints
and angels in order to end the battle of Armageddon so that the earth will not
be destroyed through the nuclear bombs that are about to go off which would
destroy the entire earth. Anyway I will
keep looking at what John MacArthur has written in his commentary to see what
he has to say about this.
“Just
as Jesus ascended to heaven in the clouds, He will also return ‘in just the
same way’ (Acts 1:11). When He appears
at His second coming, the son of Man will come on the clouds of the sky (cf.
Matt. 26:64; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27). In
his night visions Daniel beheld ‘with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of
Man…coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a
kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve
Him’ (Dan. 7:13-14). In his vision on
Patmos, John also saw Jesus ‘coming with the clouds.’ Then, he said, ‘every eye will see Him, even
those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him’
(Rev. 1:7).”
The
Bible has much to say about clouds as that word is used 51 times in the entire
Word of God. I think that is interesting
in that there never were clouds until after the flood in the time of Noah
happened, for it never rained before that flood took place. So the Bible has many interesting things to
say when it talks about clouds, and the going back to heaven of our Lord and
the returning of our Lord is probably the most interesting use of clouds found
in the 51 times it is used in the Bible.
MacArthur
not talks about something said in the book of Zechariah. “Speaking of the end time, Zechariah wrote, ‘And
it will come about in that day that there will be no light; the luminaries will
dwindle. For it will be a unique day
which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but it will come about that
at evening time there will be light’ (Zech. 14:6-7, cf. Jer. 30:7). At the end of that insufferable period of
darkness and anguish, the light will come, not by the reillumination of the
sun, moon, and stars but by the brilliance of Christ’s own divine glory, which
will later light the eternal new heaven and new earth. In that day there will
be ‘no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon [the new Jerusalem], for
the glory of God [will] illumine it, and its lamp [will be] the Lamb’ (Rev.
21:23), ‘and there shall no longer be any night; and they shall not have need
of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine
them’ (22:5).”
Now I have already mentioned that in the return of
the Lord Jesus Christ to planet earth from heaven will be accompanied by angels
and the saints of the Church age, but it seems that the Old Testament believers
as well, will probably be included in ‘the armies which are in heaven, clothed in
fine linen, white and clean,’ which follow Chris ‘on white horses’ (Rev.
19:14). I have to say that I have never
been too good riding a horse, and so I am looking forward to riding one of
heavens white horses returning with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as He comes
to save the world from total destruction.
MacArthur
concludes this rather long section by writing “While unbelievers on earth are
dying from fright, disease, or from the Antichrist’s carnage, those who are
coming to salvation and who escape being killed during the Tribulation will
have great reason to rejoice at Christ’s appearing. In his account of the Olivet discourse Luke
reports that Jesus says to those surviving saints: ‘When these things begin to take place,
straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near’
(Luke 21:28).”
Lord
willing in tomorrow’s SD we will look at a much shorter portion of verse 20 of
chapter 24 and it is entitled “The Strength and Glory of the Lord.” “with power and great glory.” (Matt. 24:30b).
1/17/2024 8:25 AM
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