The Sign of the Son of Man
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2015 · 1 February 2015
Matthew 24:29-31
Matthew 24:29-31 says this, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 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. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Do you remember in Acts 1:11, when He ascended up into heaven, two angels came and said, “This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” In other words, as He went away, so will He return, physically, bodily, in clouds. The very same Jesus in the very same way.
Now, one way to go through this is just to look at the sequence of the second coming, verse 29, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days.” A clear chronological indicator for us that the Lord’s second coming in glory to set up His kingdom will follow immediately after this time period called the Tribulation.
Israel in the end time will be in their land where they will rebuild the temple to worship God. But in the middle of the seven-year period the antichrist will make a pact with them, but in Daniel 9 it says that he will break the covenant and he will abominate, that means, he will desecrate and blaspheme the sacred place of the Jews. He will tear out the altar to God and he will establish an altar to himself. He will make himself the God of the world. And when that happens the signal has come that the Tribulation has begun.
Now, let’s see how the Lord sets the stage for the second coming. Verse 29 again: “The sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give its light, the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” The whole universe as we know it, begins to disintegrate. In Luke 21:25-26 it says, “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26 men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
One statement at the end of verse 29 helps us understand more, “The powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” Now, in the heavens, there is a controlling influence. In fact, Hebrews 1 it says that the Son upholds all things by the word of His power. So God Himself in the Son holds things together so that gravity doesn’t fluctuate, so that orbits don’t fluctuate. And we can calculate all of that because of the unchanging, fixed powers of the heavens so that bodies move consistently at all times.
But all of a sudden, the Lord changes things and the powers that normally hold the universe together no longer do the same and you have big changes. And the earth is affected by this incredible change of the whole universe.
Now is the Lord saying this for the first time that all this will happen just before Christ comes? Do you know that this has been described in the Old Testament before? Look at Isaiah 13 and 34. Many people believe that these Isaiah passages only relate to Babylon’s destruction. Yes, Isaiah does predict Babylon’s destruction, but as so very often in the Bible there is an historical fulfillment and there is a prophetic one as well in the future.
Notice Isaiah 13:6-9, “Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore all hands will be limp, every man’s heart will melt, 8 and they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; they will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; they will be amazed at one another; their faces will be like flames. 9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it.”
Look at this in Isaiah 13:10-12, “For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. 11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 12 I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.”
Look at Isaiah 34:1-4 where he sees the future, “Come near, you nations, to hear; and heed, you people! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world and all things that come forth from it. 2 For the indignation of the LORD is against all nations, and His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter. 3 Also their slain shall be thrown out; their stench shall rise from their corpses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. 4 All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; all their host shall fall down as the leaf falls from the vine, and as fruit falling from a fig tree.”
So the Lord’s imagery in Matthew 24 is consistent with the prophets before Him and even after Him in writing the New Testament. Verse 30, “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven.” Now, Jesus gave them a list of general signs in Matthew 24:4-14, but He still hasn’t given them the sign. What is the sign of the new kingdom? Well, the old church fathers used to believe that it was a blazing cross that would fill the black heavens. But that is not in verse 30.
The sign is the Son of man in heaven, that’s the sign. In fact, at the end of verse 30, it says He will come not just with glory but with great glory. Glory like the world has never seen. So much so that Revelation 6:16 says, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” From the face of the One who sits on the throne, the One who comes in blazing glory. And it’s none other than the Lord Jesus Himself.
We can see a glimpse of the glory of Jesus in Matthew 17 where it describes the transfiguration. Jesus took James, Peter, John up to the mountain, pulled aside the veil of His flesh, and they saw His glory and they got a taste of what His second coming glory would be like. Even though it was only a small one but Peter never forgot it, because he wrote 2 Peter 1:16 which said, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” Peter saw His glory!
The sign then is going to be the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ coming in majesty. He will be distinguishable, he will be recognizable, and yet He will be in full glory. It also says at the end of verse 30, “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.” In the same manner as you have seen Him go, Acts 1:9-11 says, He will come back. He went in the clouds, He will come back in the clouds.
Why mention clouds? You know, the Old Testament tells us that clouds are the chariot of God. Psalm 104:1-3 says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty, 2 who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. 3 He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, who makes the clouds His chariot, who walks on the wings of the wind.”
And so the scene is chaotic, the world is in panic, people everywhere are dying of sheer terror. They are in the dark and only the Lord holds them together enough so that they can see the rest of these events. And in the midst of that black chaos appears the glory of the Son of God in heaven, in majesty, an unveiled holy Shekinah presence and riding on the chariot of God, the clouds. And no doubt He circles the globe because it says in Revelation 1:7, “Every eye shall see Him.” That’s the sign.
Now turn for a brief moment to Zechariah 14:6. If we translate just out of the literal Hebrew we really get a clearer picture, “And it shall be in that day that there shall not be light.” That’s exactly what Jesus said in verse 29, “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven.” Zechariah said there won’t be light. Either way, it refers to the sun, the moon and the stars.
And then Zechariah 14:7 says, “And it will be one day which shall only be known to Jehovah.” What Zechariah is saying is there is nobody that could ever describe this day. There is no scientific explanation for this day. No human being could understand this day. It is one day that only the Lord can explain. And then the rest of verse 7 says, “Not day and not night.” It’s not day and it’s not night because there are no heavenly bodies anymore. That’s why Jeremiah 30:7 says: “Alas, for that day, for there is none like it.”
But the end of verse 7 says, at the time of closing, at the end of that day, there will be light. And at the end of that prophetic period, the light will come. And what is that light? It is the sign of the Son of Man in heaven coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. How brilliant is that light? Well, in Revelation 21:23 and Revelation 22:5, it tells us that in the eternal city of Jerusalem, in the heaven of heavens forever, there is no light for the Lamb Himself, God is the only light.
So what is happening to all the Christians? The church will be taken up maybe seven years before the Tribulation begins to be with the Lord. We will be having the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:9) and there is a time of rewards. Why? Because in Revelation 3:10 God says, “I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” We will be delivered, 1 Thessalonians 1:10 says, from the wrath to come.
Do you mean we won’t get to see it?” Well, let me answer that this way. Turn to Colossians 3:4, “When Christ who is our life shall appear,” when He appears for the whole world and comes in His glory, “then shall you also appear with Him in glory.” Wow, that’s a great truth. You are not down there, you are already up there. And when He comes in glory, you will appear with Him in glory.
In Revelation 19:7, we have a picture of the marriage supper of the Lamb when the Lord is joined to His redeemed church, His bride. It’s called the marriage of the Lamb. Then verse 14, “And the armies that were in heaven,” already redeemed souls that includes the church and the redeemed saints of the Old Testament who also are the invited guests to the marriage supper. Verse 9, “Blessed are they who are also invited to the marriage supper,” verse 8, “all robed in fine linen, white and clean, symbolizing their perfection in purity and righteousness,” And we all come out of heaven together.
Notice, verse 30 at the end, “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power,” that’s the word for strength. He has power over the whole created universe. He has power over Satan. He has power over demons. He has power to slaughter all the Christ-rejecting unbelievers worldwide. He has power to establish His kingdom. He has power to redeem His elect. This is power without equal. His power is so great that the things that have been devastated in the chaos of blackness and the chaos of the earth immediately are made right.
When His feet touch the Mount of Olives, Zechariah 14:1-4 says, everything begins to turn. He comes right back to the very place He left. That’s where He is going to set up His kingdom. And He comes with a sword out of His mouth, Revelation 19 says, and He kills all the people who are rejecting Him who are still alive, and they’re sent into eternal hell. And then He establishes the glory of His kingdom. Daniel 9:24 says, “He ends transgression, and He ends sin and He brings in everlasting righteousness.”
Another key word in verse 30, “Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.” Look at that word “mourn”, when He comes, there will be sorrow. They are going to not be repentant, but they are going to curse and blaspheme God. Like Revelation 18:2 says, “Oh, alas, alas, Babylon, which is our worldly system, is fallen. Verse 22, “The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore.” Music will suddenly stop all over the world because the terror will be so great. So the Gentiles will mourn.
But the Jews will mourn also. Zechariah 12:10 says: “They will look upon Him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as for an only son.” They will realize that they have pierced their Messiah. Then it says in Zechariah 13:1, “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.” Their redemption will draw near, and at that moment all of the work of the hundred and forty-four thousand and the fruit of the gospel preached by the angel is going to come together and in that moment all Israel will be saved, says Romans 11.
And verse 31, the word “select”. When He has judged all and the mourning has taken place, the mourning of those who are dying in the eternal judgment, the mourning of those who are repenting, He will send His angels. Angels are God’s gatherers to collect men. In Matthew 13 we find them in several of the parables, sent out to gather people for judgment, to bring them before God. But in this case, they are not gathering people for judgment, they are gathering them for glory.
And by the sound of a trumpet, the angels, the messengers of God go and they gather together His elect, the redeemed who have been scattered all over during the work of the hundred and forty-four thousand going all over the earth. And during the gospel preaching by the everlasting angel, there have been those who have believed. And the angels go all over the world to gather them from the four winds, another way of saying from everywhere – nobody is left out.
That is how it is all going to end. It cannot be very far away. And if Christians are leaving seven years before the tribulation happens, we better get ready. So ask yourself: Where are you? Your eternal destiny is at stake. Are you going to be a part of the disaster here or a part of the glory up there? It’s your choice. By God’s grace as the Spirit prompts your heart, I pray you will respond to the Savior. Let’s bow in prayer.