Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year - November 16, 2025

Praise to you and peace from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The last two Sundays of the church year, this Sunday and next, focus on the end times.

Scripture presents a very simple and clear order of events concerning the last day.

Sadly, false teachers have created many confusing and complex interpretations of the end times.

Numerous books and movies promote a distorted view of Christ's second coming.

Therefore, beware of false prophets.

The hymn we just sang, The Day is Surely Drawing Near, was written by Bartholomus

Ringwalt. He was a Lutheran pastor in Germany during the 16th century.

His hymn provides a clear and faithful ordering of the events at the end times.

Let us look at this hymn alongside our Holy Gospel and other passages from Scripture.

The hymn starts off, The day is surely drawing near, when Jesus God's anointed,

in all his power shall appear as judge whom God appointed.

The second coming of our Lord is surely drawing near, but we do not know when.

The day or the hour no one knows.

And scripture warns us not to predict or pick a day when he might be coming.

Instead, we are always to be ready, living lives of faith in Christ,

repentance, sorrow over sin, and faith in the forgiveness of sins.

Because our physical death or our Lord's coming could come at any time.

Our Holy Gospel for today says that on the last day, Jesus will,

quote, come in his glory and all the angels with him.

For us, this will not be a day of fear or wrath, but a day of joy.

We will stand up straight, look up, and see Christ coming.

We will see him with all joy. And our Lord's return will be a source of hope

for us because we know that he brings our eternal salvation.

Stanza 2. The final trumpet then shall sound, and all the earth be shaken,

and all who rest beneath the ground shall from their sleep awaken.

But all who live will in that hour, by God's almighty boundless power,

be changed at his commanding.

So when Christ will come, the dead will be raised.

The same bodies that died will be raised to life. The soul will be rejoined

to a body, but the body will now be a glorified body, immortal and incorruptible.

Jesus said, A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out.

And he also said, My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and

believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

At my father's middle service there in the cemetery, I looked at his coffin

and I said to myself, someday my dad is going to come out of this coffin with

a glorified body that's incorruptible and immortal.

And I said the same thing at my mother's funeral, committal too as well.

We confess in both the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed that there will

be a resurrection of the body.

Someday you will rise with a glorified body Because Jesus rose from the dead

You too shall rise Unbelievers, however,

will rise to eternal damnation.

After the resurrection of the body, then all people will be caught up in the air with our Lord.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4. All people, not some and not others,

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

but everyone, will be caught up in the air with our Lord.

Our holy gospel for today says, Before him will be gathered all the nations,

and he will place the sheep on his right, and the goats on the left.

All believers in Christ will be to his right and all unbelievers will be to his left.

Then Christ sitting on his throne will judge the world.

We confess in both the apostles and Nicene Creed that he will come to judge

both the living and the dead.

Stanza three. The books are open then to all, a record truly telling what each

has done both great and small when he on earth was dwelling.

Christ will know whether there is faith or not, and Christ will know whether

one loved the neighbor or not.

And Jesus noticed that those who have faith in Christ naturally loved their neighbor.

They gave food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty.

They cared for the stranger. They gave clothing to those who are in need.

They visited the sick and those in prison.

And their love toward the neighbor flowed freely from their faith in Christ. And so also with you.

You, with faith in Christ, you gladly give food to the hungry and clothing to those in need.

You visit the sick in the hospital or in the nursing home.

You write a get well card or bring a meal to those who are grieving.

You love and care for one another in your various vocation, husband or wife,

father, mother, son, daughter, employer or employee.

And you do not perform good works in order to be saved. No, you are saved by

God's grace through faith in Christ. You love others because God has loved you.

Stanza 4. Then woe to those who scorned the Lord and sought but carnal pleasures,

who here despised his precious word and loved their earthly treasures.

With shame and trembling they will stand, and at the judge's stern command to Satan be delivered.

Woe to those who have rejected the gospel.

Jesus will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed,

into everlasting condemnation, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Who will experience eternal damnation?

John the Baptist said, he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life,

but the wrath of God abides on him.

And then Jesus himself said, he who does not believe is condemned already,

because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And again, Jesus said, Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous

and sinful generation of him, the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in glory,

in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

And so the reality of hell is a warning for each and every one of us.

Lest we fall away from faith in Christ do not fall away from faith in Christ

but may the gospel and sacrament keep and nurture you in the faith.

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather he wants the wicked

to turn from the way and live.

In our epistle lesson for today, we learn that God wants all to be saved and

to come to the knowledge of the truth.

And so the gospel goes out to all

nations, to all people, calling them to repentance and faith in Christ.

Christ died for the sins of the whole world. He suffered the wrath of God.

His blood was the atonement, payment for the sins of the whole world.

And he died and then rose again.

And the blessings of that cross and resurrection come from God's word,

taught and preached in holy baptism and also in the Lord's suffer.

Because of what Christ has done, there is forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Yet unbelief says no thank you. They say no thank you to what Christ has already done.

Again, Scripture is clear that those who hear the gospel and reject it will

be condemned on Judgment Day.

And since they have rejected the gospel, then the gospel cannot save them.

Eternal damnation is the consequence of their unbelief. Hell is a faith that

really we don't want anyone to endure.

Again, this is a warning for us, lest we fall away from faith in Christ.

And those on our Lord's left will ask Jesus when did we see you hungry or thirsty

or a stranger or naked or a stranger or in prison.

Well, Jesus was hungry during the 40 days of his temptation in the wilderness.

He was a stranger in the Garden of Gethsemane when his own disciples left him.

Jesus was counted among the transgressors when he was crucified between two criminals.

Jesus was stripped of his clothing. They divided his clothing by lots.

And as he hung on the cross, he was thirsty.

They gave him no water. They gave him vinegar and said, Did you do anything to help Jesus?

We were not there. Yet had we been, we would have fled like the disciples in

the garden of Gethsemane.

We would have denied Jesus like Peter.

We would have been more concerned about our own comfort, our own safety,

than defending Jesus or the gospel.

Inwardly we are naked in sin

Our righteousness was stripped of us in the

Garden of Eden And we hunger and thirst

not only for daily bread But also for righteousness We are like a lost lamb

wandering away from the fold And we are in prison in the house of death With

no escape on our own By nature we deserve eternal damnation.

Sansa 5. My Savior paid the debt I owe, and for my sin was smitten.

Within the book of life I know, my name has now been written.

I will not doubt, for I am free, and Satan cannot threaten me.

There is no condemnation.

Notice the author in this hymn uses the first person pronoun, I.

My Savior paid the debt I owe, and I will not doubt.

I am free. And you can say the same thing.

Jesus paid the debt of sin, your sin.

He paid it not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and with

his innocent suffering and death.

Jesus was smitten in your place and on your behalf.

Therefore, you are free. In Adam, you are a slave of sin, but in Christ, you are free.

In Adam, you have a sinful nature, but in Christ, you have his righteousness.

You are sick with iniquities, but God absolved you.

You were hungry and thirsty, and God gives you here this morning his body and

blood for the forgiveness of all your sins. and when we receive this meal St.

Paul says that we proclaim Christ until

he comes again stanza 6

may Christ our intercessor be and through his blood and merit read from his

book that we are free with all who life inherit then we shall see him face to

face with all the saints in that best place which he has purchased for us Thank you.

Christ is your intercessor, pleading before the Father for you and on your behalf.

It is through Christ's blood and merits that you are free.

On the last day, Jesus will say to you, You blessed my Father,

inherit the kingdom of God prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

The gift of eternal life is just that, a gift, an inheritance.

Not something that you earned by your works.

Eternal life has been purchased for you by the blood of Christ.

Our epistle lesson talks about the creation of the new heavens and the new earth.

There we will see Christ face to face and all his saints in that best place.

We will begin a full enjoyment of being with Christ forever,

and there there will be no sin, no death,

no suffering, and no Satan because he will be locked up forever.

We will be reunited with all who have died in the faith, and there will be a

great wedding feast with unending joy. The Lord's Supper is a foretaste of that feast to come.

And then we will see God, and God will dwell with us forever.

The last stanza is a beautiful prayer.

It's a prayer that we often pray. O Jesus Christ, do not delay,

but hasten our salvation.

We often tremble on our way in fear and tribulation.

O hear and grant our fervent plea, Come, mighty judge, and set us free from death and every evil.

While we remain here in this fallen earth, we often are filled with sorrow.

There is fear and tribulation. There is sin and suffering.

But Christ is our hope and joy. He is our Savior.

He is our refuge and strength.

And may our Lord's precious gospel and sacrament keep and preserve you in the

one true faith until life everlasting.

Yes, come Lord Jesus, come. Come and set us free from this fallen world.

And in time, come and bring us to our eternal home. Amen.