Feast Of Trumpets - Rosh Hashonah Series

The most obvious connection is the way that trumpets are mentioned frequently in the New Testament in relation to the return of Jesus. Let’s look at a few of them. We’ll begin with the words of Jesus. In Matthew 24, Jesus told the disciples - - -

29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, 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 out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. - Matthew 24:29-31

Jesus told this to the disciples, showing how He would return. There would be a loud trumpet blast, which is exactly what occurs at the end of each day of the observance of Rosh Hashanah.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul wrote - - -

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

52 For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. - 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

Again, there’s the image of the last trumpet. And at that time, the bodies of the dead who have placed their faith in Jesus will be raised and given new resurrection bodies. Paul gives us more insight into that “last trumpet” in another of his letters, when he wrote - - -

16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. - 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

Again, Paul is describing the same event as in 1 Corinthians and in Matthew 24. He calls the trumpet the trumpet of God. Paul tells us that not only will the dead in Christ be raised, but the disciples of Jesus who are still alive at that time will also be gathered to Jesus. This is the “Rapture.” Even though that word is not in the Bible, it’s the Greek word for “being caught up.”

Now, we don’t know when this will occur. People have been trying to predict the date for 100's of years, but nobody’s been right yet. We don’t know when the end will come, in fact Jesus said when He was on earth, even He didn’t know. So, there’s no predictions.

Yet, on the other hand, we should not be caught off guard. We’re reminded to have enough oil in our lamps, to be ready for when Jesus does return. There will be signs, and we see signs all of the time, yet we don’t know, we simply don’t know. So we must continue living and preaching and teaching about Jesus.

How should we live then in light of what we’ve learned today?

So, what does all of this mean for us? Firstly, I believe we need to be preparing our hearts for Jesus’ return.