Can You Hear The Trumpet Sound? A Sermon For The Feast Of Trumpets Series

Can You Hear The Trumpet Sound?

A Celebration of Rosh Hashanah-The Feast of Trumpets

EOLS: The Feast of Trumpets celebrates God’s call to His people announcing His voice and His coming.

Leviticus 23:23-25

(23) Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

(24) "Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ’In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

(25) You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’ "

I’ll never forget the night of September 11, 1988. It was a Sunday night, and I had gone home to visit my parents. It was pretty much a normal Sunday evening, and I’d get up the next morning to drive back to Athens to work.

There was one major difference. It was the first day of Rosh-Hashana, the Feast of Trumpets. I don’t know that I had ever really been aware of it before.

But in 1988 man named Edgar Whisenant had received a lot of attention in the Christian world with a booklet he entitled “Eighty-Eight Reasons the Rapture Will Occur in 1988.” TBN had dedicated that entire weekend to special programming about the Rapture, with special announcements for people who might miss it!

While most of the Christian world was taking this prediction with a large grain of salt; “we’ll see” attitude, it had gotten a lot of press. Whisenant was a retired NASA engineer, and used a lot of impressive mathematical gymnastics to arrive at his conclusions. He at least had the ear, if not the total confidence of several big-name evangelicals.

Jesus himself told us NO man knows the day or the hour. I knew in my heart that whenever someone makes a specific prediction, you can discount that date! That tells us when it WON’T happen!

Yet I went to bed, praying a little differently than usual. “Lord, if it should be true-then it will be great, but if not I still look for you every day.” After talking to the Lord for awhile, I drifted off to sleep, fully expecting to wake in the morning.

It must have been about midnight when the house began to rattle and quake. Flashes of light were coming in through the window, and at times the entire earth seemed to light up with a luminescent glow. I woke suddenly from my sleep…and my heart began to pound as though it would jump from my chest! I sat straight up in bed, and as I did, I heard in my head:

Matthew 24:27

(27) For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

“This is it Lord…the Rapture!” Oh, I was scared to death for those few seconds!

I began to come to my senses and hear the rain. It was a fall thunderstorm! I laughed at myself as I breathed a sigh of relief. As my racing heart settled, I prayed and fell asleep as the lightning struck and the thunder rolled.

But some seventeen years later, I never forget this season. Each year I look up to the sky during this time and wonder if this could be the year! You see, it was Rosh Hashanah, 1988. It was the Feast of Trumpets!

Many Bible teachers believe that Holy History coincides with the Feasts of the Lord, and that the Rosh Hashanah will be the season when Jesus comes back. There’s some good evidence that this could be the case-whatever year He may choose. It could well be during this very season.

It’s the beginning of a new year on the Jewish Calendar. Chances are it’s marked on the calendar you keep in your home. It’s a two-day holiday that will run Tuesday and Wednesday October 4-5, 2005. In the ancient Hebrew calendar it’s called the 1st and 2nd of Tishrei, Year 5766. Traditional Judaism holds it as the date of Creation.

A Jewish parent called his son in New York. The father said to David, "I hate to tell you, but your mother and I can’t stand each other anymore, and we are divorcing. That’s it!! I want to live out the rest of my years in peace. I am telling you now, so you and your sister shouldn’t go into shock later when I move out."

The father hung up, and David immediately called his sister and tells her the news. The sister says, "I’ll handle this." The sister calls Florida and gets her father on the phone. She pleads to her father, "Don’t do ANYTHING ’til David and I get there! We will be there Friday night."

The father says, "All right, all right already." When the father hangs up the phone he hollers to his wife, "Okay, they’re coming for Rosh Hashana.”