St Mary Magdalene, Sun 15 Dec 2002, 6p.m.

Malachi 4
 

Someone once said , "The hope of dying is the only thing that keeps me alive."
C.S. Lewis wrote, "Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."
A constant theme throughout the Bible is the hope that there is more to our lives than the few short years we live here and that this world is only temporary. The promise is that there is a day coming when all the things of this world will seem unimportant and shabby.
Malachi concludes his brief prophecy with this hope. Malachi 4. He begins
  Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace.
Malachi wrote about 400 years before Christ was born.That means this book around 2,400 years old. What could he say that could possibly have any relevance for us as 2002 draws to its close? .
Two years ago all sorts of newspaper articles appeared predicting what will happen in the coming century. They were all highly subjective and revealed more about the dreams of the writer than actual knowledge of the future.
Interestingly, America's Newsweek magazine had  an article looking back a predictions made during this century and how far off they were.
Wilbur Wright thought in 1901 that man would not be able to fly for 50 years.
A bank president, advising someone not to invest in the Ford Motor Company in 1903 said, "The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad."
Darryl Zanuck, head of Twentieth Century Fox said in 1946 that television "won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon tire of staring at a plywood box every night."
Popular Mechanics wrote in 1949 "computers in the future may only weigh 1.5 tons."
Looking ahead to the twentieth century, Charles Duell, commissioner of patents said in 1899, "Everything that can be invented has been invented." And the list goes on and on.
The problem is most of these predictions are based on things, not people. Things can change drastically. Kenneth Olsen, president and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation said in 1977, "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home."
It is hard to predict the future because we don't know what kind of things will come along. Who would have predicted 100 years ago air conditioning, or the internet, or video cameras?

The prophecy of the Bible stands out because it is not based on things but on people. And more importantly, it is based on what God will do not what man can do. Malachi 4 is not so much a guess as to what will happen some day as it is a promise by God on what he will do.
In chapter 3, God already said he does not change. Hebrews 13:8 reaffirms that when it says,     Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Tonight, let us go back in time. Back in history to a land far away and a culture very different from ours. So, if we would see the future, let's go back to God's word in Malachi
.
First, let us go...
I. BACK TO SEE THE FUTURE OF THE EVILDOERS.
The hardest question in the world to answer is "why?" Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does the crook, the cheat, the bad guy get away with murder? Why should we follow God when it seems as if the proud, the evildoers and the ungodly  always get the girl, the house, the car, the wealth, and the recognition? And why should we refrain from sin when everyone else is doing it and having a good time in to boot?
Those questions are the reason we have God's prophecy. He wants to make it very clear to us that the unrighteous will not get away with it forever. For those who are obedient to him this is a promise. For those who do what they want to do it is a warning.
God's words in verse 1 are the same as his words in Isaiah 47. There he taunts the people by saying, Go on, keep reading your astrology, keep calling the psychic friends network. Maybe they will be right. Maybe they will help you. But let them try to save you, then further on  Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame.
The whole message of Malachi has been, "you think you are pretty good, but you aren't."
In Matthew 3:12, John says this: he (Jesus) will clear his threshing floor, gathering the wheat in his barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
In Malachi 4:3 God talks about trampling the wicked. It is the same image that he gave in Isaiah 63 when he talks about trampling the grapes in the winepress. It is the image you find in the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Both of those images have to do with judgement and paying for our sins. We think of God in terms of love, because he is. We think of God in terms of mercy, because he gives it abundantly. We think of God as kind-hearted, because he loves us so much. But never let those images cause you to forget his wrath and demand for justice.
How often would you last if you went into work when you wanted? How well would you do in school if you never did your homework or went to school? Can a marriage survive if one partner continually cheats on his or her spouse? How can we expect to escape God's wrath if we ignore what he has told us to do?
The day is coming. Maybe soon. Don't be surprised when you see God coming with fire. Don't be shocked when you see his terrible swift sword. He has already told us this will happen. It is up to us to decide if our future will be that of the evildoers or the righteous.

Next, let us go...
II. BACK TO SEE THE FUTURE OF THE RIGHTEOUS.
In Malachi God says, the sun of righteousness will rise. Jesus is often referred to as a light. Isaiah 9:2 says, The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
Malachi 4 is hard to swallow. His criticism stings. The sin hits home. And it is supposed to.. God wants us to see our true state. It's only when we know how bad we are can we really understand what Jesus did for us. Jesus said it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. He did not come to save the righteous but the unrighteous.
God says in Malachi there is healing in his wings. The idea is of salvation and renewal. In Jeremiah 30:17, God declares, I will restore you to health and heal your wounds

How can we rejoice with all this death and destruction around us? Our tenderheartedness tells us we should feel bad. Our selfishness tells us to be worried because that flame is awfully close to us. But God tells us we will rejoice.
God will be coming and the noise will be awful. We have images of fire and anger and trampling underfoot. But none of that will bother us because we will be going home.
What will that day be like?  We can probably best compare it to an atomic catastrophe, a nuclear nightmare. Those are images we can understand. People often speculate and try to guess the date it will happen but the only clue the Bible gives is "Surely the day is coming."
How and when are not the real question I would address this evening.. The real question is: are you ready? Have you been healed by the wings of righteousness? Have you been obedient to God and received the salvation found only in Jesus? And the obedience God requires is just this: to believe in the saving grace of Jesus Christ: his Cross, his shed blood. That is the scandal of the Gospel.
How you answer that question will determine which side of the judgement you will someday see.

Finally, let us go...
III. BACK TO SEE THE FUTURE OF GOD'S PROMISE.
If you are a Christian Peter has a question about this. In 2 Peter 3:11 he asks, Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.
In verse 4, God encourages us to remember the law given at Horeb. Horeb was the name of the mountain range where Mt. Sinai is located. It was there that God gave his law to the people.
How do we live? How do we act? How do we behave? All those issues are addressed in the law. But it was not the law by itself that would save them. Malachi has already pointed out how they could not obey it completely and how angry they had made God.
That's where verse 5 begins: See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
Elijah was a prophet who pointed out the sin in the people and brought many back to the Lord. The Elijah Malachi is talking about is a person who will do the same thing before the day of the Lord. This person, history teaches us, was John.
In Luke 1:17, the angel Gabriel tells Zechariah about the son he will have, And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous - to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
God has promised that he will punish the wicked and sinful but not before they have one last chance to repent.  God always shows grace before he judges. Peter wrote, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Tonight, as we look back to see the future, we can see that Elijah has already come. The way to salvation has been made clear. Verse 6 has been fulfilled through John the baptist. The only thing left is the day of the Lord. And the only thing stopping that is God's patience, giving you just one more chance to repent, one more chance to come to him.

The day is coming when he will burn like stubble all those who disobey him. Before that day comes however, he will send a prophet like Elijah who will call us home. If we do not listen now, if we still refuse to obey, the only thing left is for God to "come and strike the land with a curse."
All the predictions about the future you may hear on TV or read in your newspaper might be entertaining and might make you think but they will probably be wrong. History has shown that these kind of predictions usually are. But as we look back in history to the future God predicts, we can know that it is true. He has promised us.

Return