1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
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The Baptist faith and message 2000, which is the official statement of faith of our church says this—
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord
I love that statement.
Though there maybe disagreements on some aspects of the end times, this statement is formed in a way that we can agree on some essential facts.
Jesus is coming back one day for his people.
He is going to judge the living and the dead.
Believers in Jesus will be in a blessed state with Him forever in Heaven.
And unbelievers, those who are outside of Christ will be punished forever in a place called hell.
Boil all that down—Christians believe that there is a future that God has prepared that we are headed toward.
Other worldviews do not share that same belief in the future.
The atheist believes that this world was created by some random act and we live in a meaningless line that one day may end, depending on whether or not some other random event changes that.
They would say our lives are meaningless.
We live. We die, and nothing happens after that.
And then you have Hinduism and Buddhism, which teach that we are in this ongoing cycle of life.
Where people are coming back as different things till eventually, you reach a state of tranquility and peace.
Others teach that you just can’t know.
But we believe we can know.
Because God has told us.
The Christian believes:
God has a purpose.
He created this world.
He sustains it, and He is bringing it to his appointed end.
We are promised eternal Hope and future.
And we rest in the truth that Jesus Christ is coming back to get us one day.
That belief sets us apart in the world from other people.
But it also should fundamentally change our lives.
In our text this morning, I believe Paul answers the question-
How should we live in light of the day of the Lord?
How should we live in light of- This day of judgment for unbeliever and this day of blessing for believers
Look at verses 1-2 as we beging to answer this question.
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
As chapter 5 opens up, Paul is dealing with something that they know.
He says in verse 1, I don’t need to write to you about the times and the seasons.
Because you know that the day of the Lord is going to be unexpected.
It will come like a thief in the night.
This is something they know…
But how do they know this?
The reason they know this is because Jesus himself taught this clearly whenever he was preaching his sermon on the Mount of Olives.
Listen to what he said in
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Jesus taught that the day of the Lord would come unexpectedly.
And Paul here is just repeating what Jesus said.
The Day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night.
That is his comparison.
It’s going to be like a thief in the night.
I know I’ve told you before that my granddad owned a store in Conway.
And I remember there were several occasions growing up that his store was broken into at night while he was closed and thieves would steal things.
It always upset him every time that this happened and rightfully so. He worked hard for what he has.
But Papa would always say something whenever this would happen.
In his anger, He would say “Boy I wish I would have been here whenever they popped their head through that door or that window, I would’ve gave him something to think about.”
And I have no doubt.
My granddaddy was a tough old bird.
We all understand this right.
Even Jesus said in Matthew 24– if the owner of the house knew what time the thief was gonna break in and steal, he would lie awake and be ready and be prepared.
I think we all would agree.
If you knew what time a thief was going to break into your house, we’d all be like Kevin on Home Alone.
You know The Christmas movie where the little boy outsmarts the two thieves who tried to break into his house.
He finds out exactly when they are coming, and so He gets prepared.
And he wears them out.
But that’s not how it works typically speaking.
Is it?
Normally, when a thief comes, they don’t call before to tell you they are coming.. it’s unexpected.
This is the comparison he makes.
It will be like a thief in the night.
There’s a few reasons for telling them this.
One is to assure this church that Jesus is going to come back.
He is coming.
That is a certainty.
But
It’s coming suddenly.
It’s coming unexpectedly.
And Paul goes on to say, this destruction is going to come at a time when people feel some kind of peace and security.
Listen to verse 3
While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Paul is saying—
Jesus is going to come when many assume he’s not coming.
Jesus is going to come when people are proclaiming that there’s peace and security and that everything is good and right and then all of a sudden Jesus is going to come back.
In other words, they’re going to be taken off guard.
But not only is it coming unexpectedly.
Also.. When it comes, there’s no stopping it.
Here he gives another metaphor.
He says it’s going to be like labor pains on a pregnant woman.
I remember when Lauren was pregnant with Abigail.
Obviously, first child.
We were super excited.
We were approaching our due date.
And I was in seminary at the time and, while I was in seminary, I played on an intramural seminary basketball team.
We called ourselves, the Boanerges, which translates to the Sons of Thunder.
A good biblical reference.
But anyway, we had a game on a Thursday night.
I wanted to go play in this game.
But I didn’t want to leave Lauren at home because I knew the way she was looking, beautiful as always,
The way she was looking, I knew it wasn’t going to be long.
And so I convinced her to go with me and we’re on our way to the basketball game.
We were riding down Creedmoor Road headed towards Wake Forest and Lauren from the passenger seat said, “Put your hand on my belly she’s kicking like crazy.”
And the moment, I put my hand on Lauren’s belly, her water broke and she went into labor right there in my truck.
And so, We immediately turned around.
We headed straight to the hospital.
I sent my teammates, a text, letting them know that I wasn’t going to make it and what had happened, and they all responded like you would expect friends to respond.
They said—
She couldn’t have waited till after the game?
Tell her to hold up, we got a game to win.
But If you’ve ever had a baby, you know how it works.
When labor starts, it becomes the priority regardless of what you’re doing.
And whenever it comes, there’s no escaping it.
There’s no stopping it.
It’s there and it’s there until it’s done.
This is the second picture Paul gives.
Paul is telling us— The day of judgment is going to come.
And when it comes, there is no stopping it.
It is going to be sudden and unexpected.
And when it’s here, it’s here.
He speaks with certainty. It’s coming.
You know, there are people right now who live as if there is never going to be a day of judgment.
They think they dwell in peace and security.
You may know people like this.
There are people who say “only God can judge me, but then they live as if God won’t judge them one day.”
They live as if this day won’t happen.
You may be here this morning and you can think of a time in your life where you lived, as if there was no day of judgment.
Our world is full of false confidence that tomorrow is guaranteed.
People believe that everything’s going to be just fine.
I’ve heard people tell me that they will get their life right “eventually.”
As if the call of God and salvation is something that they can do whenever they want.
I know of those who consistently reject the earnest, pleas of their friends and loved ones who try and plead with them to go to church, to consider the day of judgment, and to consider their own soul.
And this is the warning of this text.
Many will believe that everything is fine, and then suddenly it won’t be.
And it can’t be stopped.
And the damning part and the most horrific part of it all is at the end of verse 3..
Did you hear it?
They will not escape.
On that day, it will be too late to repent.
It will be too late to prepare.
It will be too late to respond to the gospel.
Those who are outside of Christ on that day will be caught off guard and they will not escape.
In verses 1-3, he’s talking about the condition of the unbeliever on the day of the Lord.
But what about us?
How should we be?
The very next thing he says in verse 4-5 is he contrasts the difference in those who are caught off guard by the day of the Lord and those of us who should be ready for it.
Look at verse 4-5
But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
Now, you can already tell, this passage is rich in imagery and metaphors, and its tedious, but we have to understand what he’s saying here.
Throughout Scripture, being in the dark refers to those who do not understand the truth of the gospel in a saving way.
The unbelieving.
So too in Scripture, Those who are in the light are those who have understood the gospel in a saving way.
In verse 4, he says, you are not in the darkness brothers.
In others words, we believe.
We know he’s coming back and it could happen at any moment.
We have been told countless times throughout scripture to be prepared for this day.
For the believer, when the day of the Lord happens, we are those who should be prepared for it.
This again is really the heart of this passage.
Paul is urging the church to live differently now, because of who we are and what we know.
The first thing he does is he reminds us of who we are.
In verse 4-5, He’s explaining to us our identity as those who have been saved.
He says here, we are not of the darkness.
Rather..
We are children of light.
We are children of the day.
We no longer belong to the spiritual night and darkness.
He wants us to understand who we are in Jesus.
Because if we understand who we are, that will make all the difference in how we prepare for the coming of the Lord.
Our identity in Christ is such that we know who Jesus is, and we know that he is coming back.
And so, the way we live our lives ought to be different.
Because we possess the light and so we see things how we should.
Illustration-
The other night, I woke up in the middle of the night and I was thirsty.
So I crawled out of bed.
I start walking down the hall and all the lights are off.
And all of a sudden, I step on a tiny toy that one of my girls, and I think I probably know who, they had left it there in the middle of the hallway.
Let me just tell you, if anything will test your sanctification at 3:00 AM, it’s that.
It hurt. It was painful.
But I didn’t see it.
The lights were off.
I was unaware that it was there.
Had the lights been on I would’ve seen it.
And here is what Paul is telling us.
We live as those possessing light.
The lights are on. In other words, we have the truth.
We know he’s coming back and so then our lives should look different.
But what do we mean by different?
If we as believers should be different because of who we are, what does that mean?
Look at verse 6–
So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
The first thing he says here is:
1. Let us not sleep.
What does he mean here?
We all know what sleep is.
Some of you may be fighting it right now.
Some of you need to have one more cup of coffee before you come to church.
Sleep is characterized by a lack of movement, a lack of attention, lack of activity.
Sleep is relaxing.
We know what sleep is.
Sleep is a good thing physically speaking.
I believe our physical sleep is a reminder every day that we are finite.
We must rest.
And so, Paul is obviously not telling us that we are not to physically get rest and to physically sleep.
We understand that part of the human existence is that we must sleep every day.
It’s vital to our health.
And so….When he says let us not sleep, he’s referring to being asleep spiritually.
He’s referring to a life that’s lived with your eyes closed toward the things of God and the things of the spirit.
He’s referring to a life that’s lived with no attention toward the things of God or toward the kingdom of God and the return of Christ.
Spiritually asleep.
A life lived in the darkness of worldly complacency.
And here’s what is interesting, you can be very active in this world… you can be very busy in this world, but you can still be spiritually asleep.
In fact, I think one of the ways that Satan lures so many people to sleep spiritually speaking is to have them ,Asleep,lying in the bed of the world busy enjoying its comforts and pursuits.
Being spiritually asleep takes all kinds of different forms.
But the major characteristic of it is a lack of concern with preparing for the day of judgment that is coming.
And this is where it should be different for us.
For the believer in Jesus, We’re not to be people who are asleep spiritually.
Instead, end of verse 6
We are to-
2. Keep Awake
And what this means again spiritually speaking is that we are to be alert.
We are to be vigilant.
We are to be watchful.
We are to live in this world with our eyes wide open.
We are to be awake.
This word here is used in multiple passages of Scripture.
Peter used it whenever he said-
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
And what this word means is that the Christian is to live a life that is watchful.
Watchful over our lives.
Watchful over our worship.
Watchful over our obedience to the mission of Jesus Christ.
Busy about his business.
Watchful for the return of Christ.
Consistently and continually ready if the Lord were to return.
This is what it means to be awake.
But then he takes it a step further..
He tells us also here to:
3. Be sober.
What does this mean?
Most of the time whenever someone refers to being sober, it’s in reference to them not being under the influence of some kind of inebriating substance..
Here in this text, it’s referring to our minds as believers
Certainly, I think part of that is making sure we are not giving ourselves unto substances and being controlled by those things.
Paul says in Ephesians 5
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
In other words, the only thing that should be influencing the Christian’s life from the outside is the spirit of God.
But this soberness here is more than that.
It is referencing a spiritual sobriety.
And spiritual sobriety is characterized by self-control over your life.
It means that you’re clear minded.
I believe it carries with the idea of being disciplined.
Level headed.
Not allowing our emotions or our feelings to be manipulated by the outside influences of this world.
I think for some of us, this is the hardest thing because We are constantly derailed from our peace and sobriety because of the intoxicating nature of this world.
There are so many influences that we allow to come in from the outside that do not steady us in the gospel, but rather they seek to make us angry, they make us stumble, they make us sink into sinful worry.
But for the believer, there ought to be a peace that I believe the Lord through Jesus gives us in salvation
Whenever we see the world going the way it’s going, there should be something within us that knows that one day all of this wrong will be made right.
It’s the believer who can sing the song.
This is my father’s world,
Oh, let me not forget.
That though the wrong seems oft so strong
God is the ruler yet
Being sober means remembering that…
Being sober means—
Whenever everyone else loses their minds over a political thing, over a medical thing, over natural disasters, over human evil, and wickedness, we should be those who have the peace of God and it should be evident.
Because we know— Our hope is not in this world.
The author of Hebrews said
For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
Paul said in Philippians—
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
The truth of those verses should transform our thoughts and mind.
Our minds are sober because our minds are set on something solid that will outlive this passing world.
When we see the world going the way of the evil one, it should break our hearts.
We should do all that we can to preserve some good in society.
I think that’s part of being salt and light.
But when things don’t go our way, we don’t lose our peace.
We remain sober.
This is the difference between the world and those of us who are children of the day and children of the light.
Listen to verse 7.
For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.
In other words, the unsaved are in the darkness and they’re going to act like it.
Their behavior will follow their condition spiritually.
They are in the dark.
Those of us who are believers. We are of the light and that should change the way we live.
And so what do we have available to us that sets us apart?
Look at verse 8
But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
There are 3 Christian virtues here that he mentions them as pieces of armor.
Now, these things are our in Jesus.
If we have Jesus, we have faith, hope and love.
But we may need to apply these things.
As believers, we are to prepare for the battle that we will face each day in the world.
And, first, he says we are to put on the breastplate of faith and love.
A breastplate is a protective piece of armor worn by a soldier that protects the vital organs, especially the heart.
Again, these are metaphorical.
When he speaks of the breastplate and the protection that it offers to our heart, he’s not talking about our physical heart, but our spiritual heart.
Paul says the believer’s heart is protected by:
Faith which means, in this world, as we await his return, we trust Christ rather than being shaken by fear, false teaching, or other difficult circumstances.
Faith means trusting the Lord.
There may be times where we feel like our faith is small.
There may be times where we have doubts or fears or or we might be really discouraged by our circumstances in the world.
But faith is that active belief and trust in what God’s word has said.
Admittedly, it’s really hard sometimes to walk by faith in this world.
I think Satan seeks to attack our faith.
He would seek to wreck our faith.
Jesus even told Peter that this was Satan’s goal for him.
In Luke chapter 22, Jesus said.
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.”
In other words, Jesus told Peter, Satan was coming after his faith.
But Jesus prayed for him that his faith will not fail.
And I want you to know this-
If you have been saved by the grace of God, I don’t think this was just a benefit for Peter.
I believe he prays for us, that our faith would not fail.
So put on the breast plate of faith and know that the Lord himself is praying that you keep it there.
Next, he says, put on the breast plate of love.
Here’s another one of those Christian virtues that we see all throughout Scripture.
We are called to love God supremely and to love others as ourselves.
Loving God and loving others actually is a protection of our own heart.
As we see the day of the Lord approaching.
I think Paul wants the Thessalonian Church to continually grow in this love for God and for each other.
That our heart would be set on trusting God and loving God and loving others.
Faith and love are the breastplate of the Christian heart.
SDFS
These virtues guard our heart, and the good news is they’re also fruit of the spirit which means the spirit produces these things.
But then he tells us to put on the helmet of the Hope of salvation.
What does a helmet protect?
The helmet protects the head.
And the head is where we understand our mind to be.
The “hope of salvation” is something that I believe guards our minds in an ever-changing ever confusing world.
Hope guards the mind against despair.
Hope guards our mind against discouragement.
Hope hopefully will keep us from panic and fear.
Beloved, we have the Hope of salvation.
We don’t face this world or even the day of the Lord with any kind of fear because we know what Jesus has done for our souls.
He has saved us.
We have the Hope of salvation.
And in case we needed any further encouragement and explanation listen to what he says in verse 9 and 10-
For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.
God has not destined believers for wrath.
This is one of the clearest statements of gospel security.
Because the Wrath of God fell on Jesus, you and I don’t have to worry about the day of wrath coming upon us like the unbeliever does.
The Very reason we don’t have to fear the wrath of the day of the Lord is because on Calvary, God poured the wrath out that was due to us on Jesus and he absorbed the full weight of it so that Paul can say:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
No condemnation.
We aren’t destined for wrath.
We are destined for salvation.
We have true Hope.
Whether alive or dead at His return, we will live together with Him.
This connects directly back to chapter 4.
No believer misses out.
This is profoundly encouraging for us, isn’t it?
This is why he delivers one last command in this section.
Look at verse 11
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
He says to encourage one another.
This hope is a collective Hope.
You know today as your preacher here I stand before you and encourage you to hope in God.
To trust in God.
There may be times where you have to come and sit in my office and you are struggling and I may have to encourage you in the Lord.
But just as you may need that… so too, I may need that as well.
There may be days where I am struggling where I need your encouragement.
And I’m so thankful that many times I have found that here in the church.
Where you have encouraged my heart and my soul to continue to trust and the one who is trustworthy.
The church strengthens one another by reminding each other of gospel truths.
And so he ends here with the command to encourage one another.
As we bring this passage to a close:
I want to end with the question we began with.
For believers, who believe in the day of the Lord.
We believe that Jesus is coming back. We believe that there is a day of judgment coming, but how should we live?
We ought to live as children of the day.
Children of the light.
We don’t sleep.
We are awake and watchful.
We stay sober. Which means keeping our lives free from other outside influences.
It means when everybody else is panicking, and in constant despair and discouragement, and a lack of peace, we rest in the promises of God.
I think this passage is best applied by me telling you.
Keep on believing.
Keep on loving.
Keep on hoping.
Some days it may be harder than others, but we have the promises of God.
Finally, I would say to the unbeliever-
I hope this morning is that the Lord would open your eyes.
But he would shine light into the darkness of your soul and show you that apart from Christ there is no Hope.
There is no peace apart from him.
On the day of judgment, it will be too late.
Call on Him now.
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed”
Let me assure you of something.
No one here who is a believer is ready for the coming of Jesus because of what we have done our selves.
We are prepared for His coming by the one who is coming.
