Second Wednesday in Advent

Advent Banners – Christ’s Final Coming

Malachi 4:1–6

Revelation 1:1–8

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We learned last week that Advent means “coming.” We also learned, even as we sang in the opening hymn (LSB 333), that there are basically three times or ways that Christ comes. These three Advents are depicted in our Advent banners.

First, in the back, two banners that show Christ’s first advent—His coming in the flesh and in humility. The manger and the star, the cross and palm branch direct our minds and hearts to the incarnation of the Son of God and to His state of humiliation when He suffered here on earth and finally died. This is also what we will soon celebrate at Christmas. Second, in the middle, two banners that show Christ’s current coming in the Means of Grace. But we’re going to skip over those tonight and come back to them next week. So, third, up in front, we have two banners that depict Christ’s final coming in glory. This is what we call the End Times or the Last Day or Judgment Day. This is what we confess when we say in the Creed, He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end… And I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

So, on the one banner we see Christ coming on the clouds. This is how His return is described again and again in Scripture. We heard tonight in Revelation 1: Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him (v.7). As I said last week, the reason blue can be a color for Advent is because we will see our Lord coming in the sky. Jesus Himself describes His return in this way in Matthew 24: Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (v.30). Or as we also heard from Jesus in the Gospel this past Sunday, Luke 21: The powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Although some people will be afraid on the Last Day, some will mourn and wail when they see Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven, we will not be afraid or sad. When all the earth is trembling and falling apart, when all the things of this life don’t matter anymore because they are perishing, we can straighten up and raise our heads. We stand up tall and confident because our redemption is drawing near. That is to say, our Jesus is drawing near. And we long to be near Him.

On the other banner we have two symbols for the Last Day. The more obvious one is probably the crown. Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will speak His judgments to those on His right and those on His left (Matthew 25:31–34). Now, it’s true that Jesus is King now, sitting and ruling at the right hand of the Father. Our Lord’s Ascension into heaven was really His coronation and we are in His Kingdom now. But we can’t see it yet. On the Last Day, Jesus will establish God’s Kingdom in a visible way. Unlike His first coming, Jesus will not return in humility, lowly in a manger, powerless on a cross. At His final coming Jesus will show and use all of His power and glory. His judgment will make it known to all who belongs in this Kingdom. Then our God will create a new heavens and a new earth, a new and perfected creation where God is all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). This is what we sang in our theme hymn:

            Soon will come that hour

            When with mighty power

            Christ will come in splendor

            And will judgment render,

            With the faithful sharing

            Joy beyond comparing (LSB 333:3).               

Other Banner symbol: Sheaf of grain

            We are the Lord’s harvest

            Christ was the firstfruits of the resurrection 

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. (1 Cor. 15:20–23)

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)

Resurrected bodies sprout from the earth, ripe and ready for harvest

Parable of the Weeds…

“The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. (Matthew 13)

Angels are the reapers. This is more explicit in Matthew 24: And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:31)

The Last Day is also described as a Harvest in Revelation 14:14-16

Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

This image of Judgment Day as a Harvest shows us bad news for the weeds. They are thrown into the fire. Malachi’s vision is similar: For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. He sees the wicked as stubble, what’s left after the harvest. What’s more, The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. God’s glory consumes sinners—God is a consuming fire. His glory descended upon Mount Sinai and anyone who touched it would be killed. His glory filled the Tabernacle, and when the sons of Aaron disobeyed the Lord, the fire of God came out of the Tabernacle and consumed them. His glory is pure and holy, and cannot abide sin. Just as fire instantly consumes gasoline, His holiness instantly destroys sinners.

But our Lord has made a way for us to receive Him and come into His presence without being burned. He made a way for us in the flesh of Jesus—through His cross and resurrection. As we sang in the second hymn:

            So, when next He comes in glory 

            And the world is wrapped in fear,

            He will shield us with His mercy

            And with words of love draw near (LSB 345:4)

God’s glory is shared with us and God blesses us when we are covered in the righteousness of Christ. When we are forgiven and justified by faith in Him, then we are declared pure and holy in God’s sight. So the Lord also promised us through Malachi: But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. “You who fear the Lord’s Name”—those are Christians—that means you have faith in Him. And that means the Lord will not come to you in His wrath but as the glorious Sun of righteousness. We will sing about this in our closing hymn:

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,

But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings;

Tears for all woes, a heart for ev’ry plea.

Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me. (878:3)

            At this time of year when the days grow short and the darkness deepens, Advent helps us to look for the rising of another and greater Sun—the sun of righteousness who is none other than the Son (S.O.N.)—Son of God and Son of Man. And our Advent Banners remind us of this too. A new Day dawned in Christ’s first coming, with His incarnation and birth, His death and resurrection, so, you can see the first rays of the sun shining at the bottom of those banners in the back. As we progress through Advent, the light begins to grow, just as the candles are gradually lit on the Advent Wreath. So, the middle pair of banners show a partial sun. The Light of Christ shines out more and more as the Gospel is preached throughout the world and as the Sacraments are given. We are living in this time, called the time of grace, so we gather around the bright beams of His Word. And finally we come back to the last pair, where we see that the Sun is fully risen. We are now waiting for that glorious Day, for the full brightness of Christ’s final coming. Then we will behold the Sun of righteousness shining with the full force of His glory.

And we will be able to stand with joy in that glory on that great day because we know and receive the righteousness of Christ now by faith. In Rev. 1 it says every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Those who pierced Him are those who rejected Him and refused to believe in Him. They will wail on that day. The marks of the nails and the spear still remain in His glorified flesh, and those marks will condemn the people who scorned the Lord’s death and rejected His gift of salvation. But for those who trust in Jesus, we will see those glorious scars with joy. We know our salvation is secure because the crucified Lord who died for us is the same Lord who rose again and will come in glory. The loving Lord who comes to us now in His Word, who feeds us His holy flesh that was pierced, who gives us to drink of His holy blood that poured from His side, that same Lord, He will greet us on that day and welcome us into the Kingdom He has prepared for us. And we will go out to meet Him with uncontainable gladness, kicking up our heels like calves released from the stall.

Come quickly + Lord Jesus. Amen.


This Advent series was inspired by the six Advent banners that hang in our nave. The sermon for the first Wednesday in Advent on the first set of banners (first coming of Christ), I preached from a rough outline so I did not preserve a manuscript. This manuscript also has an incomplete section in the middle where I preached from the Bible verses and notes given here.