Last Sunday of the Church Year (2025)

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

A follow up to the Armor of God sermon preached on 11/9

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, just a few weeks ago, we heard about the Armor that God gives us that we may stand firm against the assaults of the evil one. It is fitting that we are reminded of those precious gifts as the end of the world comes and we await the close of this age, and the end of this creation. For those who belong to the world this is cause for alarm, but for those whom Christ has fought and died for, for those whom He has purchased with His holy precious blood, we do not fear the end, we long to hear the Trumpet call because that means Jesus has come to gather His people!

The End Times

Jesus says, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

This is an important detail for what it tells us is that since Christ’s victory over the powers of sin, death, and the devil on Calvary. We are now living in the last days. This is why whenever we ready the description of the end, we look at them and say, it sounds like today! We aren’t reversing course, we are continuing to head straight towards the end of all things.

We just don’t know when.

That’s the big question. All the signs have been fulfilled and they have been since about 70 AD, that is why from the earliest days, the church has been calling people back to the word and calling people to repent today, not tomorrow, or next, but today. For

We are called to be ready.

Jesus told us that the Father alone knows that day, and so we are all left wondering, which encourages us to live Godly lives and not indulge in our sins. This is why it is important to not only confess our sins to God, but to our neighbor, and to also show the same mercy, grace, and forgiveness that God has shown to us. This is different than the world.

The World’s Prophets

The world will ignore the warnings.

It reduces all things to temporal problems that are under our control. Disease, Famine, Wars, rumors of war,these aren’t reminders of the world coming to an end. It is due to man’s failing to lead better lives. If we do a better job of taking care of the planet, treating our neighbor with kindness, improving and transforming ourselves then it will all work. The world looks for worldly solutions to save ourselves.

What are the signs? Here is a list from 2 Timothy chapter 3

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Does that describe our world?

The day will come like a thief.

We won’t be anticipating it, indeed most of the world will go to sleep in their sins, and abandon righteousness, thinking that they had time to take a nap. They will be unprepared when Jesus returns in power glory and might. We must remember who God has called us to be. We no longer belong to the night, we belong to the Day.

The Day of the Lord

We are children of the light.

For the world was covered in the darkness of sin, and under the dark dominion of satan since the fall, but you no longer belong to the night. God has called you out of darkness and made you his child that you may live with him in His kingdom. Where the darkness of sin, and the domain of satan is gone. For

Jesus satisfied God’s wrath.

The debt that you owed him for your sins has been paid in full. It has been credited to your account that you might know salvation is yours. You belong to Christ and you have no reason to fear the coming of that day to flee from it and to go back into the sleep of sin. You can look forward to that day with joy. Because

We don’t belong to this world.

The world that is passing away. Part of the reason that the world doesn’t want this day to come is because they are terrified of the judgment. It is easier to sleep if the reason that the world is this messed up is because people aren’t being nice to each other, and it seems fixable, fixable by other people, but its not my responsibility. But if these things are reminders of God’s judgment against sin, it would be very hard to sleep, and you would want to keep the blinders on, especially if you don’t know what Jesus has done. This is part of the reason we are to stay awake.

Staying Awake

We get tired, and fed up

It isn’t just frustration with others, but also at times frustation with God, and pursuing what is right and good. Especially when it seems that the return of Jesus is delayed. So what does Satan whisper on our bad days?

It’s been 2000 years, why not nap?

He didn’t come back last year, why do you think he is coming back, this week, this month, or even this year? Haven’t you done enough good to indulge your sins and your temptations? Why not embrace the drunkenness of sin? If God was really worried wouldn’t he have told you when he was coming back, so you could be sure to be ready?

Why remain sober?

Jesus didn’t shed his blood so that you might perish in your sins. Jesus didn’t shed his blood that you may live as a slave to your sinful desires. Jesus died on calvary that you may no longer belong to Satan’s dark domain, and prison, which is hell, but Jesus died that you might belong to God. Even though He did not give us an exact day, He told us everything we needed to know. Remain faithful, and He has shown by example what happens when people forsake his word and left it as a warning. This is why we are to

Encourage One Another

It’s difficult to live this way.

Jesus is aware of this, and that’s why He encouraged his disciples and reminded them to continue sharing the Gospel, and also promised that the helper, the paraclete, the comforter, and the encourager would also come. To help them in this task and to endure. So we as the church

We are to build each other up.

This is tricky, because the world would have us exalt and lift up ourselves, but we are not alone, and God placed us here with each other. Throughout the Scriptures there are multiple calls for us to encourage and build each other up as the body of Christ and to care for each other. In Hebrews it says, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Heb 10:25) Why?

We belong to the house of God.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we do not want family to fall. So we encourage and build each other up. We pray for each other, and are concerned about each others well being. To do this, it means we have to lift our eyes up from ourselves and look to others. For that is what Christ has done for us, He didn’t consider Himself, but considered you and came to comfort you with the hope of salvation, and the promise that He would pay for all your sins.

My Brothers and sisters in Christ, The night grows long as the world comes to an end, but do you know when the light gets a bit longer? When Christ returns, that is why the Church season of Advent looks not just to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, but also looks to the return of Christ. For none of us can deny that the world looks a little bit darker as the years go by, but we know that Jesus who is the light of men, will return and rescue us from the end. So we do not fear the day of the lord nor the day of our death, for we continue to pray, Come Lord Jesus, Amen.