Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week we started a series called Return of the King.

Jesus told us in the final chapter of Revelation that he is coming soon.

Let me go back over the highlights from last week real quick.

We talked about 7 signs coming from the nation of Israel that signal that Jesus is preparing to return soon.

One of them was that in 1948, He brought the nation of Israel back together, in fulfillment of Ezekiel 37.

Another was that the nation would be born in a single day.

Which it was, in fulfillment of Isaiah 66:8.

Since that day, Israel has been a “cup of staggering” to surrounding nations, in fulfillment of Zechariah 12:2.

In 1967, God gave Israel control of the Temple Mount, in fulfillment of Revelation 11:1.

And their capital city, Jerusalem, in fulfillment of Luke 21:24.

According to Luke 21:24, Jerusalem would be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

And on June 7, 1967, the time of the Gentiles was fulfilled.

If retaking Jerusalem wasn’t enough.

In 2018, the United States, followed by many other nations, recognized Jerusalem as the capital city of the Jewish homeland.

And we learned that, in order for the Temple to be cleansed, it requires the sacrifice of a Red Heifer.

Israel had not seen a red heifer for over 2,000 years.

But on August 28, 2018, not one, but two red heifers were born.

Jesus could return soon.

However, we have a lot to learn before he does.

For the next few weeks we are going to walk through the events of the final decade or so of planet earth.

But before we do that I want to walk you through one more set of signs that tell us the end may be near.

If you have your Bibles with you today, go to Luke chapter 21.

I want to begin reading at verse 24.

The disciples ask Jesus a question.

They asked, “And what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?

Verse 24 was his answer.

He said...

Then he points them to the sky and says...

Psalm 19 is saying that God is constantly communicating from the heavens.

Look up on a cloudless night and you get a sense that there is a marvelous maker behind all we see.

God is communicating in the sky all the time.

And sometimes His communication is more specific and direct than others.

What Jesus is saying in Luke 21 is, “Towards the time of my return, I’m going to be sending you signals, using the sun, the moon, and the stars as My communication device.”

So, the question you might have is how?

When Jesus came the first time, God used the stars to forecast Jesus’ birth.

Remember the wise men?

Here is the story of the Wise Men following the star.

In September of the year that we know as 3 B.C., the planet Jupiter passed over the top of a star named “Regulus.”

It then passed back over Regulus two more times over the next few months.

This is what’s called a “crowning.”

Jupiter crowned Regulus in the constellation of Leo.

So, here is some interesting information for you to follow with this.

Jupiter is called “The King Planet.”

Regulus is called “The King Star.”

And Leo is called “The King Constellation.”

Between late 3 B.C. and mid 2 B.C., the King Planet crowned the King Star in the King Constellation.

King, King, King.

The wise me of Persia were astronomers.

They saw this happen and knew exactly what it meant.

Before television, people did a lot more watching of the stars.

It was their nightly entertainment.

So, when these eastern astronomers saw a crowning of the King by the King in the King, they gathered up gifts and mounted their camels and followed the star on its westward migration, which led them to Israel.

As they followed this planet, Jupiter, the King Planet, it came so close to the planet Venus, that the two looked like they merged in the night sky.

If Jupiter is called the King Planet, Venus is called the Mother Planet.

This merger took place inside the constellation of Virgo.

Virgo represents Virgin.

This conjunction of the biggest star in the sky and the brightest star in the sky not only signaled something was up between the mother and the king, but their combined light produced what appeared to be the brightest star in the sky during the wise men’s lifetime.

Do you see how the heaven’s can tell a story, or signal an event?

That’s what Jesus is talking about in Luke 21 when He says, “Then there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars...”

So, we just read how God announced His son’s first coming through the stars, and He is announcing the second coming of His Son by forecasting it int he stars today.

How is this happening?

Go to Matthew 24, which is a parallel passage to Luke 21, Jesus gets much more detailed about these heavenly events.

That is what we are going to look at for the rest of this message today.

This verse describes 4 events that will occur.

These events will foreshadow the end of days.

One is, “The sun will be darkened.”

That happens during a solar eclipse.

A second is, “The moon will not shed its light.”

That happens during a lunar eclipse.

A third is, “Stars will fall from the sky.”

That sounds like a meteor shower, or maybe a series of comets.

And the fourth is “the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

“The power of the heavens” are angels and demons, so this may be some sort of spiritual event that takes place.

We may not be able to understand everything illuminated in this verse, but let me tell you what we do know.

And here’s where you want to start taking notes.

According to Jewish tradition, solar eclipses are signals about the Gentile nations, and lunar eclipses are signals about the Jewish nation.

Jesus says that after the distress of all the things He’s already talked about in Matthew 24—things like wars and rumors of wars, nations rising up against nations, false prophets appearing on the scene, a rise in lawlessness, and the love of many growing cold.

He says “after these things have started to take place, you can expect to see a significant solar eclipse.”

Maybe more than one.

Sign #1 - There will be Solar Eclipses

Remember, I am not a prophet, but I do read my Bible and I do read the news.

If you can remember back a few years ago, on August 21, 2017, our nation spent an entire day tracking a total solar eclipse that crossed over the United States from one shore to the other, moving from the west to east.

The last time there was a full continental eclipse over out nation was on June 8, 1918.

You have heard about what happened then.

The Spanish Flu happened to hit our nation, causing a lot of sickness.

That flu pandemic infected 20% of the world’s population.

It resulted in 675,000 American deaths, and somewhere around 40 million deaths worldwide.

Before the 1918 solar eclipse, there was another solar eclipse that spanned our entire nation.

That eclipse took place on November 30, 1776.

You know what happened then?

17,000 Americans died during the Revolutionary War, and we were a much smaller nation then, so that’s a big number.

Here are a couple of interesting things about our most recent solar eclipse:

The eclipse hit landfall near Salem, Oregon at the same moment sunset occurred in Jerusalem, Israel.

So the sun disappeared in America and Israel at the same time.

Five days after the eclipse, Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Port Aransas, Texas.

In the Basque language, Aransas means, “sitting on thorns.”

The word, “Aransas” was named by a Basque shepherd who, in 1740 believed he saw the Virgin Mary “sitting on thorns” there.

During Hurricane Harvey, the entire area was “sitting on the thorns of a disaster.”

Hurricane Harvey was projected to make landfall in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Corpus Christi was spared from that hurricane though.