Sermon Tone Analysis

Over the past week we have been looking at some key issues which we need to grasp in order to properly Understand Prophecy - that is, what God has revealed to us about what is yet to come.

Last week, we were looking at the topic, The Day of the Lord.

Our discussion today flows right out of that topic, so let’s review for a moment.

What is the Day of the Lord?

What is a part of the Day of the Lord?

Who is acting upon whom?

Why is this happening?

When is the Day of the Lord?

What is the Day of the Lord?

What characterizes The Day of the Lord?

It is judgment and wrath.

Darkness and gloom.

There has been no time like it before.

It is that bad.

What is a part of the Day of the Lord?

It begins with the revealing of the man of lawlessness, the anti-christ, the one who will make a covenant with Israel for 7 years.

The wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb as described from Revelation 6 on is a part of this.

The return of Christ to the earth to destroy the armies of the world that have gathered to destroy Israel, and to establish His kingdom.

His earthly kingdom in which He reigns with a rod of iron.

The final rebellion, and the Great White throne judgment, and the destruction of the current heavens and earth.

All of this is included in the Day of the Lord from the verses we looked at last week.

Now we will get into more detail later about what some of these things are later.

Our goal right now is to understand what the Day of the Lord is.

Who is acting upon whom?

God is the One pouring out His wrath upon Israel and the nations.

Later, God will restore Israel, but still pour out His wrath upon the nations.

Why is this happening?

Because of the sin and arrogance of man.

When is the Day of the Lord?

Sometime soon.

Only the Lord know when.

That is the Day of the Lord.

Last week, we closed with these verses:

We should know what the Day of the Lord is, and that it is coming soon.

We should know and be warning others.

We should be teaching our children and our friends and neighbors.

We do not want them to be a part of the Day of the Lord.

But what about us?

Paul says to encourage one another and build each other up.

Where is the encouragement in the Day of the Lord?

In the Day of the Lord there is no encouragement for those going through it.

It is awful.

But for us, those who believe in Jesus—those who are trusting that He is our only savior, the One who died for our sins, and rose again to give us new life in Him—are not appointed, or put in the position of suffering that wrath!

Look at verse 9 again.

God did not appoint us to suffer wrath.

The us here is referring to believers.

The word appoint is used elsewhere when Paul speaks of God appointing him to be a minister of the gospel.

An appointment is when you are put into a specific role, or position.

This verse says God did not appoint us to suffer wrath.

Why won’t we suffer wrath?

Well, why is the wrath coming?

Sin and arrogance of man.

What did Jesus do for us?

I am using the New American Standard here because they use the word Propitiation.

Some of your bibles will say atoning sacrifice.

I like the word propitiation.

It means He was the full satisfaction to God for our sins.

John writes it again in chapter 4.

He is the propitiation for our sin.

Sin brings God’s wrath upon us.

Jesus died to take the punishment, the wrath of God for our sin.

In doing so, He satisfied God’s wrath.

Therefore, those who believe are saved from God’s wrath, while those who do not believe still have God’s wrath on them, because they have not received what Jesus did for them.

Back to 1 Thessalonians.

God did not appoint, or put us into the role of suffering wrath.

Why, because we have been put into the position of having received salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ!

He satisfied God’s wrath for us.

So, we do will not be a part of the Day of the Lord, when God pours out His wrath on the world of men who have not received His offer of salvation.

Paul wrote about this earlier in 1 Thessalonians.

Turn to chapter 1 if you will.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians to encourage them, and let them know about his love and concern for them.

He also wrote to encourage them regarding questions they had.

Apparently they knew that the Day of the Lord was coming.

He wrote in the portion we already read that they knew about this, and should not be unaware.

Paul also wrote in chapter 1, verse 10, after speaking of how they were saved and had a great testimony in all the area around them,

The Thessalonians were serving God, and waiting for Jesus.

Why were they waiting?

Because all through the New Testament, the believers were

Waiting for Jesus’ Imminent return

The word, ‘imminent’ does not occur in the bible.

Imminent just means it could happen at any moment.

Why do we call it imminent?

Because the bible makes it clear that we should be waiting because it could happen at any moment!

Believers have always had the mindset of waiting for the Lord.

He could come at any time for us, and we want to be found waiting for Him!

Why are we waiting for Him to come?

What will He do?

He is coming to rescue us from the coming wrath.

We know the wrath is coming.

The Day of the Lord is coming.

But we also know that Jesus is coming to rescue us from that outpouring of wrath.

The word rescue here means to rescue by drawing to oneself.

There are other words that could be used for rescue, which would mean to either to take out of danger, or to preserve from danger or destruction.

The Holy Spirit chose to have Paul use this word for rescuing by drawing to oneself.

It is like my friend Pastor Bob rescuing his son Nate… story

He rescued him by pulling him to himself.

Jesus is going to rescue us from the wrath that this coming by pulling us to Himself.

We have not been appointed to suffer wrath, so Jesus will rescue us by pulling us to Himself.

Where is He? Heaven.

What is He doing there?