Preparing for Worship - November 24, 2024

This is the Last Sunday of the Church Year. The focus again is upon the last times and the return of Christ on the last day. There can also be an emphasis on Christ as King, now, and most clearly seen when He returns at the end. I’ll try to give you a sense of all this in a brief look at the readings.

The Psalm is Psalm 93. The Lord reigns with majesty and strength from of old even before He created all things, including the universe and our world. He is from everlasting and will exist forevermore. We can see great power at work in our world, at times, as with recent hurricanes and floods and mighty waves of the sea. The Lord on high is much, much greater. We can trust what He says and does, though we do not always understand, for He is our holy Lord.

The Old Testament lesson can be Isaiah 51:4-6. The Lord calls upon us to pay attention to Him and give ear to what He says and does. He will provide a “Light” for the peoples. Twice He promises that He will bring righteousness and salvation, pointing to the coming of our Savior, Jesus, in whom people should hope and trust. A day of final justice and judgment will then come, when the heavens and the earth will pass away, as we know them. Some will face eternal death, but those trusting in the Light of the Savior will have righteousness and salvation forever.

An alternative Old Testament reading is Daniel 7:9-10,13-14. In a vision that John sees, the Ancient of Days, the Heavenly Father, is seated on a fiery throne and many thousands of thousands are serving Him and standing before Him. It is a courtroom judgment scene. With the clouds of heaven, a Son of Man comes before Him and is given an everlasting dominion and glory and kingdom, with all peoples serving Him, from all nations and languages. Jesus is that Son of Man, returning to heaven, and eventually bringing with Him innumerable believers. (See Revelations 1:13ff, 7:9ff, etc.)

The Epistle lesson is Jude 20-25. Many scoffers will be around in the last times (v.19). God’s beloved people are to build each other up in the holy faith and prayer, by God’s grace, waiting for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. As we have received mercy in Christ, we are to be merciful to those who struggle with doubt, or who are in great spiritual danger, while seeking to avoid their negative influences. We trust our Lord God, who can keep us from stumbling, ourselves, and will present us blameless on the last day through our Savior’s sacrificial work for us. To Him be glory now and forever. Amen.

An alternative Epistle lesson is Revelation 1:4b-8. John speaks to seven churches, representative of all, and wishes them and us grace and peace through the One True Triune God, the eternal Father who was and is and is to come, and the Holy Spirit, with His seven-fold gifts (see Isaiah 11:2, for example), and the risen Lord Jesus and His faithful witness to us, all His life, and His love, in freeing us from all our sins by His blood. We are now part of a spiritual kingdom, priests to our God (see 1 Peter 2:9-10, for example), giving all glory to God. He will come again on the last day, bringing sorrow and wailing for those who have rejected Him, but eternal joy for believers in Him. Amen. (This is most certainly true!)

In the Gospel lesson, Mark 13:24-37, Jesus describes His second coming, when heaven and earth will pass away, but His Words and promises will be fulfilled forever, as He comes with the clouds in great power and glory, to gather all believers to Himself, bodies raised and changed and glorified (see, for example, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) and reunited with souls, for the fullness of eternal joy. No one knows, though, but God Himself, when that last day will come. We are called then to be on guard and stay awake in our faith in our Lord, by His grace, until we die or He returns, whichever comes first.

The alternative Gospel reading, John 18:33-37, also includes words of Jesus, talking with Pontius Pilate, not long before His suffering and death. Pilate asks Him if He is a king, and Jesus explains that His kingdom is not of and from this world. He had come into the world to bear witness to the truth about His kingdom, and everyone who knows real truth listens to His voice and keeps on trusting Him and His Word, for the eternal kingdom to come, not like an earthly kingdom we see now. Right after this passage, of course, Pilate, like so many skeptics still today, says, “What is truth?” and rejects Jesus and condemns Him to die, though he knows that Jesus is not a guilty man. Yet through all that, we are saved and are part of that everlasting kingdom, glorifying God and receiving His blessings forever.