“The Day Is Coming” Malachi
4:1-6
Intro.: As we approach the end of another Church
year our focus turns to the conclusion of time.
Today, we hear the voice of the prophet from Malachi echoing through the
centuries to warn us that the day of Christ’s return is at hand. He calls out to us as He did to the people of
his day, urging us to prepare for it, because it will be the great and
dreadful…
I.
Day When Christ Comes To Judge.
In the movie “Talladega Nights” Ricky Bobby says
that he prefers to think of the “tiny infant Jesus”, the “Baby God”,
the “Eight Pound, Six Ounce, Newborn Baby Jesus”. He is not alone. Many
prefer to see only the quiet and gentle Christmas Jesus lying in a bed of
hay. But scripture tells us that when He
returns it will be different. His coming
will be accompanied by the thundering voice of the archangel and the loud
trumpet call of God. On that day Christ will come in all His glory
and render His final judgment. No one
will be left behind or given a second chance to work out their salvation. In Malachi, the prophet tells us that, depending
on which side of judgment a person falls, that day will either be good and
glorious or bad and dreadful.
A. Malachi tells us that on the last day when
Christ returns to judge it will be a bad day for arrogant evildoers.
1. He writes that
it will be a day “burning like
a furnace, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day
that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will
leave them neither root nor branch.” (v.1) The arrogant,
evildoers, are those who challenge God, who have little regard for the Lord’s
will, but expect Him simply to accept the way they have chosen to live. In the chapters preceding this Malachi
challenged the people of His day in some key areas of their life in which they
had been living in arrogant rebellion.
Two of the problems that seemed to be leading them toward a bad and
dreadful day of judgment were their love of money and a faltering worship life.
2. The writer of Malachi cried out against his
people who had turned money into their idol.
All they thought about was buying, selling and getting rich. The merchants had no qualms about breaking
the Sabbath to make a profit. It didn’t
bother them in the least to take advantage of the widows, the poor or the
orphans if there was a chance to get ahead and make themselves
wealthy.
3. Malachi also called the people to take a good
look at their worship life that was in a shambles. He challenged them regarding their
halfhearted worship. Many only went
through the motions, honoring the Lord with their lips while their heart
remained far from Him. He questioned the
way they only showed up part of the time, and how, even then, they imagined that
they were doing God a favor and expected him to be pleased with their
sacrifices. And then there were their
sacrifices which were hardly sacrificial.
Instead of returning to the Lord the first and best of the blessings
they had received from Him they brought their leftovers and treated the giver
of every good gift like a wretched beggar in the alley who should be content
with the pennies they tossed at his feet. What a bad and dreadful day it would be for
the arrogant evildoer when Christ would return to judge, when they will be
burned in an unquenchable fire.
B. But on the other hand the prophet goes on to
say that it would be a good and glorious day for those who revere God’s name.
1. Malachi writes, “But
for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in
its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they
will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the
LORD of hosts.” (vv.2-3) Those who put
their trust in the Lord, and joyfully receive His gifts of mercy and grace anxiously
anticipate Christ’s coming. They are
able to stand up and lift up their heads, because they know that their
redemption is drawing near.
2. People who look forward to the Lord’s return
with joy and excitement as a great and glorious day are described by Jesus in
our Gospel. They are the ones who would endure
the troubles of life in the last days, who would face persecution and betrayal
because of their faith, and through it all would stand
firm in their fear and love of Christ’s saving name. Our epistle describes them as people of faith
who would live according to sound teaching and would never tire of doing what
is right in God’s sight. For people such
as these the day of the Lord’s return will be a good day, a day of healing,
deliverance and victory.
Transition: And now comes the all important question that is
prompted by Malachi’s warning..
II. What Kind Of
Day Will It Be For You?
What kind of day are you going to have when
Christ returns to judge the living and the dead? Will it be a dreadful day of burning and
consuming judgment, or a glorious day of redemption and endless
celebration? As the Lord’s servant I beg
you…
A. Do not look to yourself to find out, because
your life and circumstances may lead you to a state of hopeless despair and
unbearable fear.
1. If you honestly look at your life you will
probably find many similarities between yourself and those described by Malachi
as arrogant evildoers.
What Malachi said about his people’s
idolatry of wealth could easily be applied to us. Remember Enron, the bankrupt energy company
from
And what about Malachi’s warnings about a
faltering worship life? Do they hit a
sour cord with you? Maybe you are only a
part time worshipper. Maybe you stay up so
late on Saturday night that you barely get to church on time and when you do
you are too tired to pay attention. Perhaps
you find yourself only going through the motions in worship, but your heart and
mind are somewhere else. You might find
that you complain when the service goes longer than the time you prepared to
allow God this week instead of being thankful for the blessings you have
received. You might be one of those who slams your hymnal closed because a hymn is difficult, rather
than just reading through it to find the Gospel treasure it offers. Maybe the love of money and the fear of being
without it has kept you from giving generously, sacrificially and cheerfully to
the Lord, so that your offerings are scraps rather than deep expressions of
love for the God who blesses you with all things, and did not even withhold His
Son from you. Malachi’s words of warning
regarding a sick worship life applies just as much to most of us as they did to
the people of His day. They reveal that
if judged on the basis of the lives we live we would be shown to be arrogant
evildoers, who are worthy to be burned as stubble. So I urge you do not look at your life and
the things you do or fail to do as the sign of what kind of day you will have
when Christ returns. And do not look at
the kind of day you had yesterday, or what happens to you today or tomorrow.
2. Our Gospel lesson shows you that your days in
this world may seem bad and may be getting worse, but do not let them frighten
you. Jesus warned His disciples of the
bad days they must endure before His return.
They would see the destruction of their city and the temple they loved
and the appearance of false Christ’s who would turn the people they cared about
from the faith. Man made devastation and
natural disasters would touch their lives.
They would be betrayed and persecuted by the members of their own
family, and hated by many because of their faith. In short they would face many bad days, but
the Lord tells them not to let any of this shake their faith and hope. Our bad days in this life are not a foretaste
of a bad day to come nor an indication that God hates
us and is getting a head start on punishing us.
If you want to know if the day of Christ’s return to judge will be a
good or bad day for you, do not look at yourself. Do not look at the things you do or the kind
of day you are having. Instead….
B. Look to Christ, the Sun of righteousness. Jesus is the long awaited Light of the world
who gives life to those who were dead in sin.
He came to shine His light of salvation on those who for so long sat in
darkness. He came to life, die and rise
again so that you and I, who by nature are arrogant evildoers, might be
forgiven and declared holy through faith.
When we look to Jesus, and to the brightness of His love shown for us on
that cross, we know that the day of His return will be a good day, because He
has come near to us and turned our hearts.
1. After issuing his warning Malachi turns us
away from ourselves and directs us to Moses and Elijah. He tells us to
“Remember the law of [His] servant Moses..” and promises "Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to
their children and the hearts of children to their fathers” Moses and Elijah are representative of the entire Old
Testament which Jesus tells us testified about or pointed to Him, so that
whoever would believe in Him would not be condemned as an evildoer and perish,
but be saved for eternal life to “..shine like sun in the kingdom of [our] Father” (Mt.
2. When we are near to Jesus with our eyes fixed
on Him, we are safe. When we are close
to Him we can, even now have healing as our sins are forgiven and our souls
made whole. When we draw near to Him,
here in our worship, we are set free by the His Word to leap like the calf
released from its stall. As He comes
near to us in His Body and Blood, we can shout and sing, because we know that
there is in store for us a great and glorious day.
3. Because Christ has turned our heart to Himself and come near to us we can stand up even on worst
day, we can lift up our heads without fear, as we look for the Son of man to
come in a cloud with power and great glory, because we know that our redemption
is coming near. Our Lord is coming to bring
us into a good day that will last forever.
Concl.: What then is left for us to say but, “Come, Lord Jesus!”