1 Thessalonians 1 "Just You Wait Till Jesus Comes"
Notes
Transcript
“Just you wait till your father gets home!” was uttered by my mother from time to time. And I tell you what, when it was close for Dad to get home, I was always on my best behavior, in my room, working on homework, or something that I knew would please Dad. And sure enough, when Dad came home he and Mom would talk in the kitchen and when the talking stopped, all I could hear was Dad’s footsteps in the hallway coming toward my bedroom.
It probably wasn’t the most wholesome approach to discipline, but the intent is to make me tremble in anticipation of the coming wrath and judgment of his father. St. Paul’s statement to the Corinthians that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor 5:10) sounds a little like the mother saying, “Just you wait!” But in today’s Epistle, Paul tells the Christians in Thessalonica that we wait for Jesus to come because he will rescue us from the coming wrath. This sounds like a good thing.
Just You Wait!
Just you Wait for the Coming Wrath.
Just you Wait for the Coming Wrath.
God’s anger is coming on all who disobey his commandments. Therefore, we should fear him. Jesus says that whoever rejects the Son “will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (Jn 3:36).
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
St. Paul exhorts the Colossians, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming” (Col 3:5–6). The increasing wickedness in the world—for examples, the push to hold on to and legitimize same-sex “marriage” and the murder of over 62 million children in America since 1973 — even if an abortion fails and the child is born alive, certain political figures in our nation are working to make it a crime to come to the aid of this newborn baby and insist that the abortionist leave it to die. I would have never thought that we would see such evil in our nation and from certain political figures. Now these same individuals are trying to keep God’s people from receiving the gifts that He has for us in His Word and Sacraments, by making us afraid of a virus. Some are delaying baptisms, while others have not received the Lord’s Supper in months. In some states it’s not illegal for Christian congregations to gather for worship. God’s wrath is coming.
We have seen firsthand a foretaste of God’s wrath on our country this summer. Fires burning out of control out west; three hurricanes in the south; tornados, and high velocity winds that wiped out crops in the midwest. Some may be reluctant to chalk this up to God’s displeasure on this nation, but what do we expect when a nation thumbs their nose at a holy God when 62 million children are murdered and homosexuality is normalized and a threat of being charged with a hate-crime hangs over a persons head who speaks against it.
In a couple weeks citizens our nation will go to the polls to cast their ballot for the direction they want this nation to travel. The choice has never been more clear. The execution of more babies or every attempt to bring it to an end.
What we are seeing today with fires and tempests is nothing compared to God’s wrath that will be unleashed and revealed on the Last Day. What some political figures attribute as “climate change” is the One true God who controls all things in this world.
19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard of the earth and tossed them into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
The emphasis on the idea of ‘wrath’ derives from the fact that God is holy and that his holiness cannot bear sin but consumes it totally. Friends, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a wrathful God!
The threat of God’s impending wrath can leave us thinking, I can wait. No hurry. But that’s not the reaction the Thessalonians had. Instead, it drove them to repent from following the gods of the world; the text says, they “turned to God from idols” (v 9). We must repent of our sins and turn to God for mercy.
Just you Wait for the Coming Rescue.
Just you Wait for the Coming Rescue.
There is good news, because the individual who repents of the evil they do, or the evil they support does not have to dread Judgment Day. Those who repent are Christians who look forward to Jesus’ coming to rescue them. The Christian is loved by God and chosen by him (v 4). Therefore, he can be confident that he will stand with the sheep at God’s right hand (Mt 25:31–46).
As Christian who are refuse to embrace evil and refuse to support those who promise to continue down that road of destruction can look confidently to the day of Christ’s return to judge the living and the dead. They can be confident because they have “turned to God from the idols” of this present evil age. And because of the judgment that Christ has accomplished on the cross. Christ took all our dread and fear of God’s judgment, all our sin and guilt and shame in his body. It brought him under God’s judgment of death. But as God raised Christ from the dead, so this judgment upon him brought us eternal life and salvation (v 10).
Even now Jesus comes to rescue us. As our text tells us in verse 5, He comes in the preaching of the Word to rescue us from sin by announcing that our sins are forgiven. He comes in the water of Holy Baptism to drown the old sinful man and rescue us to life with him. He comes at the altar to rescue us from sin by feeding us his body and blood, the antidote to sin and death. Oh, some in our society would have us stay away from these holy gifts of God, but remember God told us to use them. So embrace them, to run to them, and cherish them because God’s promise of life and salvation are contained therein. This, by the way, is exactly what the devil — the prince of this world — does not want for us. Satan would have us live in fear; but God’s gifts will NEVER brings us harm.
Just you wait! Who can wait for this great and free salvation Christ comes to give us? The Christian’s prayer is “I can’t wait. Come, Lord Jesus”
22 If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!