Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Three Christian theologians predicted Jesus would return in the year 500.
One prediction was based on the dimensions of…wait for it…Noah’s ark.
Pope Sylvester II predicted the end of the world on the first day of January of the year 1000.
In 1533, a mathematician calculated Judgment Day would begin at 8:00 a.m on October 19, 1533.
Henry Archer took the 1,335 days in the book of Daniel as years instead, counted 1,335 years from the end of the reign of Julian the Apostate, for some reason, and decided Jesus would return in the year 1700.
1836 was the year John Wesley referred to as “when Christ should come.”
The first president of the Jehovah’s Witnesses calculated the year 1874 to be the year of Jesus’ second coming.
The Mormon founder, Joseph Smith, supposedly believed no one knew when the Second Coming would be, except apparently him.
Smith determined it would happen in 1891.
Hal Lindsey’s whackadoodle book The Late Great Planet Earth suggested Jesus would return in the 1980s, probably no later than 1988.
Edgar Whisenant, jumping aboard the crazy train, wrote 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.
When this didn’t happen, he wrote a follow-up book entitled…any guesses?
89 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1989.
Five years later, Harold Camping published a book, 1994?
Fellow whackadoo, Jerry Falwell predicted in 1999 that the Second Coming would probably be within 10 years.
23 years later, and…
You might remember back to 2011 when good ol’ Harold Camping ran out of money from his book 1994? and claimed the rapture would be on May 21, 2011 and the end of the world on October 21, 2011.
Ronald Weinland predicted September 29, 2011.
And then May 27, 2012 and then May 18, 2013, claiming “a day with God is as a year,” giving himself another year for his prophecy to take place.
Pretty clever.
Bible juke.
Weinland also decided he didn’t have to pay taxes (because Jesus was coming back) and was sentenced to three-and-one-half years in federal prison.
A few years out of prison, Weinland predicted the end of the world would be June 9, 2019.
I bet he paid his taxes this time, though.
There are thousands of predictions about the end of the world and the return of Jesus.
I just picked a few to illustrate how crazy it sounds when anyone attempts a prediction.
It’s been satirized in popular culture because it’s absolutely ridiculous.
On the sitcom Parks and Recreation, there’s a local group called “The Reasonabilists”, a cult whose members follow Zorp the Surveryor—a 28-foot tall lizard with a volcano for a mouth who controls the universe.
Every few years, they claim the world is going to end and they hold an all-night vigil in the park.
The Reasonabilists, or “Zorpies” as some call them, base their beliefs on the group’s founder’s writings.
Lou Prozotovich wrote their holy texts, unassuming business guides: “Organize It!” and “Organize It! 2: Engage with Zorp.”
When Zorp doesn’t return and melt the skin off all doubters leaving behind a mass of chattering skeletons, the current group leader revises his prediction for the return of Zorp.
After finding the park is booked on the date of his new prediction, he just switches it to the next available date.
Sound crazy?
It should; it’s absolutely bonkers!
And that’s exactly what people sound like when they make predictions about Jesus’ Return.
They make a prediction, they miss, make another, adjust, come back and say, “Oops, I made a mistake.
It’s not today; it’s 6 months from now.”
The Thessalonians, remember, were new Christians, infants in the faith, and even they knew better than to make predictions about when Jesus would return.
Paul had taught them about this; they seemed to get it better than a good chunk of religious people today who just can’t help themselves.
This is what Paul writes to the Thessalonians on this topic.
About Times and Dates:
No doubt, when he taught the Thessalonians in person, Paul taught them about Jesus’ return; it’s a major part of the Christian faith.
The Thessalonian church knew it was going to happen just as Jesus said:
The resurrected Jesus told His clamoring disciples:
We don’t know when, but we do know what, because Jesus tells us; God’s Word tells us.
After Jesus ascended into heaven, two men dressed in white stood beside the disciples and said:
We know, we KNOW Jesus is going to return.
Jesus Himself said so.
The Biblical witness is clear.
Jesus is coming back.
This is part of our message.
But listen:
We Don’t Speculate; We Share.
We don’t speculate.
We don’t make predictions.
It’s neither wise nor helpful to speculate.
It’s okay to say, “I don’t know.”
It’s even wise to say, “I don’t know,” when it’s something about which Jesus says, “It’s not for you to know.”
Shouldn’t that settle it for us?
The Risen Jesus says, “It’s not for you to know the times and dates the Father has set by His own authority.”
Fair enough.
If I needed to know when, He would have told me in His Word.
If we needed to know, it would be written down for us.
Attempting to calculate precisely (8:00 a.m. on January 23rd) or even imprecisely (within the next decade) is a fool’s errand.
Doing any predicting is just going to make us look ridiculous.
Ridiculous and disobedient.
“It’s not for you to know.”
“I know Jesus said it’s not for me to know, but I think I’ve figured it out; I’m smarter than average bear.
I might even be smarter than Jesus, just sayin’.
After all, there’s this blood moon and a solar eclipse and the Mayan calendar and the Cubs won the World Series.
I got a ‘B’ in Algebra, but I’ve done the math...”
It’s not for us to know.
We don’t speculate about what we don’t know and aren’t meant to know.
We don’t venture a guess.
We don’t hypothesize.
We don’t speculate; we share.
Share what we know.
What do we know?
We know what the Thessalonians know.
Paul writes that they know very well.
That is, they know accurately that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
They know that.
So do we.
“The Day of the Lord” here in verse 2 and “the Coming of the Lord” in 1 Thess 4:15 are the same event, despite what some believe.
In Paul’s second letter to the Christians in Thessalonica, he equates the two— “The Day of the Lord” and “The Coming of the Lord” —showing they are the same event.
Someone had sent the Thessalonian Christians a letter, trying to pass themselves off as Paul and Silas and Timothy.
Their fake letter said “the day of the Lord” had already come.
Paul writes to them concerning “the coming of our Lord Jesus...”
For Paul, “The Day of the Lord” = “The Coming of the Lord.”
Same thing.
We share what we know.
Christians must not shrink from declaring this important Bible truth.
This day will come like a thief in the night.
It’s unexpected.
It will surprise.
The Lord’s return will arrive at a time and in a way unforeseen by the world.
Thieves don’t announce their coming, but wait for an unexpected opportunity.
In spite of this Biblical certainty—that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night—there have been thousands or predictions like the few I mentioned at the start of the sermon.
There’s even something called “The Rapture Index” online, offering advance warning of Christ’s return by means of a point scale for activities associated with the end of the world.
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