Sermon audio Sermon Manuscript: There is an advent hymn that goes like this: “O Savior, rend the heavens wide! Come down, come down with might stride! Unlock the gates, the doors break down! Unbar the way to heaven’s crown.” We have some dramatic imagery here. “Jesus,” the singer says, “Rip the heavens in two as though you were ripping some fabric. With a determined march, looking neither to the left nor to the right, come right down here to us. There are gates and there are doors that are in the way. They are between us and heaven. They are between us and God. Kick them down and let us out! There’s a crown for us in heaven, let us get to it.” We do not know when this day will be when Jesus will come. It could be today. It could be this Christmas. Perhaps Jesus will delay his coming for another couple years. But it is coming. Perhaps it won’t come before your body dies and you are placed in a coffin in the ground. With this event, unlike other things that might happen after your death, you won’t be excluded from experiencing it. Jesus says that when he comes down, comes down with mighty stride he will have an alarm clock of sorts. There will be a mighty trumpet that will be blasted by the angels. I wonder what that trumpet will sound like. Jesus will speak with the voice of an archangel. The net result of this is that all those who have died will wake up. The second coming of Christ is an event that all of the creatures whom God has made in his own image are going to participate in whether they are living in that moment or had died thousands of years before. All will participated in it, whether they like it or not, whether they believed that it would happen or not. This is something that God is going to do regardless of whatever anybody else thinks. Unfortunately, there will many people who will want to hide on that great day, but they will find that they won’t be able to. In fact, the Bible seems to indicate that there will be more people who will be wishing that the mountains would fall on them or that the ground would swallow them up, than there will be those who are looking for their crown to be given to them. The fear that is put on display for us as we anticipate the Day of Judgment is tremendous and awe inspiring. It easily holds our attention. But Paul says that this word of condemnation, although tremendously glorious, is actually the lesser glory. The glory of salvation on that day will be so great that the terror of condemnation, although extremely glorious, won’t be able to hold our attention. The glory of the resurrection to eternal life will be so glorious that we won’t even notice the condemnation. It’s like the glory of the moon and the glory of the sun. The moon has a bright countenance and a definite glory. Full moons are impressive. But the moon’s glory is such that when the sun rises in the morning, the moon can no longer even be seen. The moon is often there somewhere in the sky during the day, but we can’t see it. That is how it is now with the thought of condemnation. While we are still making our way through this darkened world, there is nothing that is so captivating to all people as the thought of God’s judgement, of death, of horror, of hell. I can always count on having people’s attention while talking about such things. They might think that I’m crazy, but they can’t help but look at the light of that full moon shining down on them. “But,” Paul says, “we Christians are not preachers of the letter of the Law that kills. We Christians are preachers of the Spirit, who gives life.” The ministry of the Spirit so far surpasses the ministry of the letter that condemnation’s impressiveness is swallowed up by the greater glory of our justification in Christ, God’s only-begotten Son. When the life giving Holy Spirit raises us and all believers in Christ from the dead, we will see him with an unveiled face. We, who have died together with Christ and been raised together with Christ, will see God. We will full