Moon Mission

Matthew 24:29

We’ve been captivated by the Artemis II voyage. Pilot Victor Glover pointed out that his team aren’t the only ones alone on a spaceship, floating in the vastness of the heavens…the same is true for all of us on Earth. He continued to give an inspiring Easter message about creation and faith.

The heavens declare the glory of God. And the moon has been on a mission ever since day 4 of creation, when God assigned it the duty of being a lesser light, reflecting the sun’s rays at night. But one day both of them will finish their task. In heaven there’s no need for either, for the Lord is the light of heaven. He who said, Let there be light, and temporarily handed over duty to them, will then take over for all eternity. God is light, and in Him is no darkness.

For 6,000 years the moon has done its job. Don’t listen to those who say it has been millions of years or more. You see, the moon is inching away from the earth at a rate of about 1.5 inches per year, about the distance your fingernails grow in that span…and still I can’t get my wife to scratch my back! At that rate, the moon would have been more than a tenth of a mile closer to earth at creation. But if the earth were as old at evolutionists claim, the moon would be touching the earth back then, with its forces tearing both bodies apart.

For 6 millennia the moon has done its job of orbiting the earth and reflecting the sun. So when God is done with the sun, He’s done with the moon, right? Mostly. But I want to show you that it actually has one more job to do even after the sun goes out. And only God could help it accomplish this. We’ll come back to that.

Jesus gave many signs about the end of the world, including signs in the sun, moon, and stars.

Matthew 24:29

²⁹ Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

It will be a total collapse of the celestial order. The lights that have governed the sky since the fourth day of creation will be extinguished in a single event. Not at some unspecified point in the future. Immediately after the tribulation. This sign is the last thing that happens before Jesus appears. [not rapture, but His appearing]

This sky sign is not a warning for people in the tribulation to prepare. It is a signal that preparation is finished and the king is arriving. Every human being on earth will know in the same instant that something beyond any human power is acting on the universe. The sky sign is the moment deception becomes impossible. The false Christs who claimed divine authority cannot relight the sun. The false prophets who performed miracles cannot restore the stars. The beast who controlled buying and selling cannot control the powers of heaven. And the world that spent the entire tribulation believing the lie will have the lie stripped away…not by argument, not by evidence, not by preaching, but by the sun going dark over their heads. When the fundamental framework of reality shifts beneath you, the psychological impact goes beyond fear. It produces recognition that a power greater than the universe is acting on the universe from outside it, above it, with authority over it.

God has done this before, more than once. And every time it meant the same thing. God used supernatural darkness to judge a world system 3,400 years before the sky sign of Matthew 24. And the structure of that judgment is identical.

Exodus 10:21-23

²¹ And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. ²² And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: ²³ They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

The entire civilization of Egypt, the most advanced empire on Earth at the time, was frozen, paralyzed, immobilized by a darkness no human technology could penetrate. And the plague of darkness was the ninth plague, the next to last judgment, the final warning before the death of the firstborn. It was the judgment that broke Pharaoh's resistance and liberated God's people. Darkness came right before the final act of deliverance, exactly as the sky sign comes right before the return of Christ. While Egypt was in total darkness, Israel had light in their dwellings, in the same geographic region, at the same moment in time, but two completely different experiences based on one factor: Which group you belong to. Darkness for the enslaver, and light for the enslaved, from the same sky.

In the end, the world will be in darkness. The tribulation remnant, saved during that horrific time, will see what the world cannot because the darkness is not for them. It is for the system that surrounds them.

The prophet Joel adds an escape clause that most people miss entirely.

Joel 2:30-31

³⁰ And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. ³¹ The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come.

Joel adds this further detail to the moon’s final duty. Now how could that be when we know the moon reflects the sun? I’ll answer with another question: How can the remnant have light at all? Remember, God is light, and doesn’t need the sun and moon. But He uses them as He sees fit.

Joel then adds an escape clause.

Joel 2:32

³² And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

Still the door is open. Deliverance is available. The sky sign is judgment and invitation simultaneously. So what about this ‘whosoever’? I thought tribulation rescue was not available to those who take the mark. Yes. It’s clear. It’s clarified at the end of the verse…it’s talking about the remnant.

Isaiah 13:9-10

⁹ Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. ¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

These are the same elements Matthew describes, but from a prophet writing 700 years before Christ.

Isaiah 34:4

⁴ And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.

God has already darkened the sun in human history, not only in Egypt, and not in a vision, not in prophecy, but in a documented, witnessed historical reality. And it happened at the most important moment in all of scripture, the crucifixion.

Matthew 27:45

⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

3 hours - noon to 3 p.m. The brightest part of the day - the sun was at its zenith and darkness fell over the land. While Christ hangs on the cross and bears the sin of the world, God, who is light, turns His back on His Son. While the most consequential event in human history unfolds, the sky goes dark.

Now here's what connects Calvary to the Egyptian darkness and the sky sign because the pattern is identical. In Egypt, darkness covered the moments just before the final judgment. Meanwhile, Israel had light, and put the blood of the lamb on the cross of the door, leading to their rescue. At Calvary, darkness covered the moments of judgment on sin in the body and blood of the Lamb on the cross. At the return, darkness covers the moments of judgment on the world, just before the final rescue and Christ’s kingdom is come.

At Calvary, the darkness ended with it is finished, the completion of the sacrifice. At the return, the darkness ends with the arrival of the king, the completion of the redemption.

The cross was the payment. The return is the reward. And both are marked by the same sign, the sun refusing to shine while God acts decisively in human history.

This is God's signature. The old is ending. The new is arriving. And the line between the two audiences, those who belong to God and those who belong to the world is about to become permanent. And here's what makes this pattern so significant for you right now. Because Matthew 24:29 is the last time God turns off the lights. After this, the light He turns on will never go out again.

Matthew 24:30

³⁰ And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

They see the son of man and they know. They know they chose wrong. They know the mark is permanent. They know the beast they worshiped is a counterfeit exposed by the one act of power he could never replicate from creation: Let there be light. And the mourning is not repentance. It is the grief of a decision that cannot be undone. But here's what the same moment means for the remnant. The remnant sees the same sky and feels something entirely different.

The sky sign is not the end. It is the transition, the pause between the old world and the new one, the silence before a final rescue.

Matthew 24:31

³¹ And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

This isn’t the rapture trumpet. There are many trumpets during the tribulation.  This is the end, and yet it will be a new beginning. The moon mission is over. The curtain falls between the sheep and the goats. On one side is eternal darkness, and on the other is forever light. The moon mission has ended, and we will stand forever in the Son!