Are you ready?
-The old Monday Night Football song featured Hank Williams Jr. singing, “Are you ready for some football”?
-The obvious answer for most viewers was a resounding, “Yes!”
-It used to be that those Monday Night games were absolutely worth waiting for
-They were premier matchups of equally matched teams bound to have some wonderful surprises and some extraordinary highlights
-In our texts today, we see a premier matchup of teams that are not equally matched in the least but there are still bound to be some probably not so wonderful surprises but some extraordinary highlights
- Let’s take a look at our texts for today. Let’s start at the beginning with the prophet Amos.
-Amos was one of the first prophets to serve Yahweh (not long after that of Elijah and Elisha) during the reigns of King Uzziah (who reigned from 792-740 B.C.) over the southern two tribes that comprised Judah and King Jeroboam II (who reigned from 793-753 B. C.) over the northern ten tribes called Israel. The main part of his prophetic ministry probably happened from 760-750 B. C.
-This was a time of great prosperity in Israel. King Jeroboam II was evil in the sight of the Lord but won some big military battles, restoring the original borders of Israel. Uzziah was a much better king. He built up a quality fighting force to beat back the Phillistines. He had a well-trained 300,000 man army but his successes led to much pride which brought about his downfall.
-Along with the great wealth and prosperity came, as usual, idolatry, extravagant indulgence, immorality, corruption of the judicial system and the oppression of the poor.
-Sounds a lot like today, doesn’t it?
-Apparently, there were many in Amos’ day that looked forward to the day when God would return to make everything right, especially when their enemies threatened their national survival
-There were many who looked to God to deliver them from their adversaries but only half heartedly
-Kind of like the folks that you see reading statements during the sentencing phase of a trial. The family members of the dead victim will get up and rant about how God will certainly exact His revenge on the convicted murderer. I’m sure in their pain they wish that it came true but do they really know what they are asking for? The same judgement may come upon them, especially for their lack of forgiveness.
-How about us?
-Are we guilty of the same offenses?
-Don’t you hope that the police officers will snag the guy who dangerously races past you on the highway but then turn around and pray that there aren’t any police patrolling the area when you are late for work?
-Don’t we expect everyone to get out of our way as we drive down the road but then we get irritated when someone tailgates us when they want to get by us?
-You know, we do double standards all the time. We are experts at it because we are good at justifying.
-One of my seminary professors says, “Justification is inevitable.”
-When we do wrong, we all try to justify our actions to ease our consciences and save face.
-But ultimately all self-justification gets blow away by the holy, righteous, perfect demands of God’s law
-If you break God’s law it will not be good for you. It will be like at Amos says, “It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear.”
-With Halloween on Friday, it reminds me of all those gruesome super scary but super funny (in a way) Halloween movies. The person thinks that they are safe only to find out that Jason or Freddy Kruger is standing right next to them.
-God’s going get you no matter where you try to run or hide.
-It is inevitable.
-However, at the end of our text, Amos says, “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream.”
-How easy is it to stop a river?
-It’s impossible
-When they built the Hoover dam in 1930, they had to divert the Colorado River through four diversion tunnels through the Boulder Canyons walls, joining the water with the Colorado River downstream.
-You can’t build a dam on a river that continues to move and expect it to stand.
-It’s impossible.
-That is because water flows and so does justice and righteousness
-Especially that of Jesus
-Normally, when we think of justice and righteousness, we think of laws and rules and getting what you deserve.
-However, when the terms are used in the Old Testament they are often used as synonyms for mercy and compassion.
-And that is why they roll
-God, because of His great love for us, sent His son, Jesus to roll.
-He wouldn’t judge with a double standard. He would judge not according to the misdeeds of the people.
-He came to take on the misdeeds of the people.
-To pay for their sins of judging wrongly, using a double standard
-Jesus was hung up for our hang ups
-Now we don’t have to fear the Day of the Lord
-But we should be prepared because it will come fast, when it comes
-Jesus warns us in the parable of the ten virgins to be ready, to be wise
-This parable follows right on the heels of a long section in Matthew 24 about the signs of the end of the age when there will be two men in the field, one taken and the other left. Two women grinding, one will be taken and the other left. We’ll come back to that in a moment.
-However, in this section in chapter 25 Jesus instructs us to be like the five young women who had prepared and brought some oil along with them to make sure that they had enough oil to last the night.
-You see, this was part of the marriage custom that we talked about a few weeks ago that after a long engagement period, similar to our custom, save that they had already incurred much more commitment than do we in engagement (they were considered really already marriage) the bridegroom would come to claim his bride and begin the wedding celebration.
-Jesus tells us to be prepared to be wise {PAUSE}
-I was watching CNN on Friday night and hear about a politician who took some money from an undercover FBI agent in a sting operation
-How embarrassed he must have been when they came to search his house and discovered it in his freezer. He caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
-How do we remain prepared? We act wisely.
-By not putting our hand in the cookie jar.
-Keep our consciences clear.
-We know that God will forgive us when we come to Him so if we do put our hand in the cookie jar and we get caught or we catch ourselves, we make things right. We ask for the forgiveness of others and God.
-If we have a grudge against someone, we seek to reconcile with them. We apologize for our actions that led to the breakup.
-If you are a gossip, you stop talking about others and apologize to those that you constantly rip.
-We act wisely {PAUSE}
-Now the Thessalonians passage and the passage from Matthew 24 that I referred to earlier are two key passages for what some Christians believe to be the Rapture of the church before a great tribulation breaks out and Jesus returns to rule on earth from Jerusalem for 1,000 years.
-The problem is they have the texts messed up.
-Those who believe in the rapture of the church believe that the one taken is the believer in Jesus and the one left is the one who does not believe.
-Please turn to Matthew 24:37-41
-It reads, “37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”
-In this example the ones removed from the earth were those that did not believe in God
-It was Noah and his family that remained
-Interestingly, the word for “taken” is used to mean “seized” or “taken prisoner” like when Jesus was arrested.
-The word “left” can mean “to forgive” like in the Lord’s Prayer
-That is pretty clear.
-However, 1 Thessalonians 4 makes it more clear. Please turn to verse 16-17.
-16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
-It doesn’t make sense that as the Lord comes down that He would turn around and go back up again. Why wouldn’t He continue coming down, especially in the context of the verses in Matthew 24 that refer to the same timeframe and in light of Matthew 25, our gospel lesson.
-It is the bridegroom that comes and continues on to the celebration
-We can enjoy watching some football once in awhile but ultimately what we are waiting for is the bridegroom, Jesus, to come
-Are you ready for some wisdom?
