Welcome Home: Where You Are Perfectly Safe

“Welcome Home” and Judgment Day, and we’re putting these things together in such a way that we feel safe, as a result of our place here in God’s Church.

Because “safe” isn’t the first work most people assopiate with Judgment Day. Instead of safe, I think we’d suggest “scary” as a better word to describe our reaction.

Let me just put some of the passages together for you about that Day. For example, first, there’s going to be “thousands upon thousands of (God’s) holy ones,” (,)—so angels are going to fill the sky everywhere—and those angels aren’t going to be floating down nice and pretty like Tinker Bell, and softly landing on a flower next to you one foot at a time—NO—there’s going to making some noise. The Bible says they will come down from heaven, “with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God.” (). How do you feel about loud sounds? Once in a while I’ll make the mistake of unplugging my phone from the jack in the car as my wife and I are driving along—(without first turning down the volume on the car stereo)—and it blares out scary the heck out of Bonnie! It’s so loud it’s scares you right down into your inner being! Now imagine all the stops of heaven’s organ being pulled out at once. These things will happen, “In a flash,” Paul writes, “in the twinkling of an eye…the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised.” (,). So there’s that, too—I think “scary” is the operative word here. And there’s more. Jesus says that, “Immediately after the distress of those days,” () “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” God says, (,). “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The prophet Joel said the same things about the sun, moon, and stars and said, (3:16). “The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jeruslem; the earth and the sky will tremble.” Peterin his Pentecost Day sermon spoke about, “wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.

I have this nice astronomy app on the phone that gives me this regular updates, “Close approach of the Moon, Saturn and Pluto,” or, “Venus kisses Mercury after Sunset.” Nice. We’re used to a wonderful regularity in the heavenly bodies—everything’s so scheduled in the universe that I can say, “Hey Google, what time is the sun setting tonight?” And I get an exact time, down to the minute. There’s the gradual change of seasons, but on the Last Day, cataclysmic things are going to be happening all around in every direction. Isaiah wrote that, (34:4) “The whole army of the heavens will fall apart. The sky will be rolled up like ascroll, and its whole army will waste away and fall, like leaves withering on avine, like fruit that falls from a fig tree.” With mention of these things in both the OT and NT it seems there will be a literal shaking of the heavenly bodies and the earth on the Last Day. And the Lord will appear in all his glory.

“In a flash,” Paul writes, “in the twinkling of an eye…the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised.” (,). Not your typical Sunday afternoon In the park.

It seems that with mention of these things in the OT and NT that there will be a literal shaking of the heavenly bodies and the earth on the Last Day. And the “

All things considered, Judgment Day seems likes it’s going to be a very scary day. The Bible tells us how unbelievers will react. Jesus says, (,). “On earth, nations will be terrified…men will faint from terror, prehensile of what is coming on the world.” Revelation says, (1:7). “Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the people’s of the earth will mourn because of him.”

How do you think people will react? The Bible tells us how unbelievers will react. Jesus says, (,). “On earth, nations will be terrified…men will faint from terror, prehensile of what is coming on the world.” Revelation says, (1:7). “Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the people’s of the earth will mourn because of him.”

“But you,” Jesus says, just look at how Jesus tells us to react to the events of Judgment Day. “When you begin to see these things,” he says, () “Stand up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Because Jesus is telling you what to expect ahead of time, you’re going to be like, “Yea, this is it—this is what Jesus told me was going to happen—and it’s happening now!!” But the only way that a believers is going to react that way to all the calamity of J-Day, and that’s if you have a faith and hope in Christ that’s only been building in the days, weeks and years leading up to that tremnedous day.

You see that with the Christians in our text for today that Paul is encouraging and Thessalonians. Welcome home to a place where you are perfectly safe, here and now there's a member of golds church, and eventually as judgment day

With everything going on around you all at once, you will suddenly find yourself among angels and separated into groups, with unbelievers to Jesus’ left, and believers to his right. Together, the Church will look around and look at him and each other with what I can only imagine as nothing but a look of holy awe on our faces at what the Lord is bringing about.

Dear people of God, there’s only one way to know for sure if you will be enjoying the safety of being at the Savior’s right hand on that day. The Apostle Paul talks about the safety of being “at home” in faith with Jesus together right now in his Church. Safe from everything, including one day, the condemnation and the fires of Judgment Day. It’s just another reason to find yourself here, in God’s House now, safe and sound. “Welcome Home.”

I think people can relate to that. It’s supposed to be the place we feel the safest, isn’t it? At home, warm, surrounded by family that loves us. Nothing in this world so tainted by sin is safe anymore.

The reality is, no earthly home can really keep you safe.

God brings the same safe feeling Over the believer...