Prepared for Anything

Introduction

-{1 Thessalonians 5}

-As we see all these world events happening around us, we Christians must remind ourselves that we not only contend with the physical realities that we face, but the spiritual realities behind them. There are spiritual forces behind everything that is going on.

-But we know that eventually, both the physical and the spiritual forces that oppose God and His people and His work will face judgment. Jesus will return to judge humans and demons alike, but we do not know when. While many people say that we are living in the end days (and have been for decades now), the truth is that Jesus may not return in our lifetime, and we have to be ready to live faithfully for Him with that reality in mind.

~But then again, Jesus might return today. We just don’t know.

-Whether Jesus returns or He doesn’t in our day, we have to be prepared to live for Him in either situation. We have to get it in our mindset that we are going to live for Jesus and be prepared for His return and be prepared for Him not to return. We have to be prepared for anything.

-I don’t remember who originally said it, but we have to live like Jesus is returning today, and at the same time we have to live like Jesus isn’t returning for another thousand years. We have to be prepared for either scenario.

-I am reminded of a story I read of a couple in Colorado during these fires the past month or so. They were told to evacuate, but they didn’t take the evacuation order seriously, and didn’t want to leave their home, and they didn’t think the fire would reach them anyway. Unfortunately, the fire made a turn that headed right for them and they were unprepared for the consequences and lost their lives because they were not prepared for the reality of what was headed their way.

-Christians must be prepared to live for Christ in whatever circumstances might come our way. In the passage we are looking at, Paul wrote to the church that since no one knows the timing of God’s plans, Christians are to live in preparation for anything God has in mind for the world.

~Whether Christ’s return is near or far, Christians need to be prepared to actively live for Christ in any circumstance.

READ 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

1) Avoid preoccupation with the unknown

-Paul tells the Thessalonians that he doesn’t need to write to them about Christ’s second coming because they know all that they need to know—it is going to come like a thief in the night. You don’t know when the thief is coming, you have no warning signs that it is coming, it just happens.

~So it is with Christ’s return. Jesus will return when He returns, and there really will not be any warning about it. Jesus in the parable of the master and servant said that the master will return at a time when the servants aren’t expecting him.

-Now, Christ’s return is most definitely something we look forward to, and it is an important part of our faith, but we ought not to be so obsessed with the details that the Bible is silent on or be obsessed with those things that are shrouded in mystery such that it takes us away from our Christian duty.

-Right before Jesus’ ascension into heaven in Acts 1, the disciples asked Jesus if now was the time that He was going to set up His kingdom on earth—or, as they put it, restore the kingdom to Israel. Listen to Jesus’ response:

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:7–8 ESV)

-Jesus tells His disciples that it isn’t for us to know the times and the seasons God has set up for end time events. If the angels don’t know when Jesus will return, and Jesus Himself doesn’t know when He will return, then we sure will not. It will be like a thief in the night.

~Jesus says that instead of preoccupying ourselves with things that we will not know, we are to go out and be His witnesses to the world in the power of the Holy Spirit.

~As one author said it:

Knowing how to live in preparation for the Lord’s return is more important than knowing the timing [or details] of His return

-As all the different things go on in the world, while it might make for interesting discussion thinking you can fit things into different prophetic scenarios, that is not where our focus is supposed to be. We are instead to focus on living for Christ and be Spirit-filled witnesses of His first coming—telling people about what Jesus can do for them in the here and now.

~When we see different events going on in the world, our question ought to be how we can speak the truth of Jesus and live-out the truth of Jesus in the midst of these events and how can we be a trustworthy witness for Christ under current circumstances.

-And so, that naturally leads to the next section:

2) Actively live in the present

-Paul tells the church that the fact of Christ’s coming is no surprise—it will happen in its time. For unbelievers it will be a big surprise and be their destruction.

~So, Paul emphasizes that in light of this knowledge, we Christians are to live in the here and now in a certain way—live like we are prepared for it to happen whenever it does happen. And we will quickly mention six ways that Paul mentions how we are to live in current circumstances as people prepared for whenever Christ returns.

a) Live in the light

-Paul mentions that unbelievers live like people of darkness. Not only does this describe their moral state, but it describes their spiritual understanding (or lack thereof). Being in darkness means that they are ignorant of the ways of God and are unable to discern the true meaning of God’s Word.

~Unbelievers, in the dark, live like they live because they have no light from God or from His Holy Word.

-Believers, on the other hand, have the Holy Spirit within them to enlighten them to God’s Word and the truths that it contains. Therefore, Paul says that we ought to live as people of the day, people of the light, meaning our lives are to reflect biblical truths.

-When people see us in our daily lives and interactions, they ought to see that we walk and talk and act differently than others—the Word of God is to have influence on us. It is to enlighten the way that we live.

-Some of you may know the name Fanny Crosby—she wrote several of the hymns that we are familiar with. Fanny became blinded at the age of six weeks, so she never got to see what was going on around her. However, her family was very religious and she came to know the Lord at an early age. Even though blind, knowing the Lord so moved her that she wrote poems about it, which eventually became songs.

~I mention her because I find it interesting that a blind person could see the truth and live in light of the truth while people who had perfect 20/20 vision were completely in the dark when it came to spiritual truths.

-We are to live like people who can see spiritually, not like people in the dark.

b) Live on alert

-Paul also warns that we are not to be asleep, but we are people who are to keep awake, or as the term really means, we are to be on high alert.

~Paul is warning Christians that it is easy to become morally and spiritually disengaged. These are people who are asleep at the wheel of living for Christ. Instead of actively living life in light of Scripture, life just happens to them and they either miss the opportunities God has given them or they get run over because they are completely unaware of what is going on around them.

-I fear that too many Christians are at this stage. God has allowed disease, disaster, riots, violence, and political upheaval to happen all around us, and it barely gets a raise of the head from Christians.

~Here God is trying to awake His sleeping church so that they seek Him and increase in their prayer and study, and instead they just roll over and go back to spiritual bed.

-Narcolepsy is a neurological disease that some people have where they just fall asleep in the middle of whatever it is they were doing. I personally have known people who were driving and then they just fell out (thankfully no one was hurt).

~Paul says that we need to get out of our spiritual narcolepsy and be on alert for the spiritual dangers that are around us that would seek to do us and others spiritual harm. But we also must be on alert for the opportunities that God has created for us and be on alert for His presence in a special way.

-So, WAKE UP SLEEPING CHURCH!

c) Live with self-control

-In the ESV, several times Paul calls the church to be sober, which is the opposite of being drunk. He is not necessarily speaking about actually being physically drunk, although that would be included, but it is a warning against spiritual drunkenness.

-When someone is drunk, they are under the influence of a different kind of spirit, and they often lose their inhibitions, leading them to do things that they might not due in normal circumstances. Their senses are dulled, and they are lackadaisical. In other words, they completely lack self-control and give in to almost anything.

-Paul warns, that is not supposed to be the church. The church is to be self-disciplined, keeping ourselves in check, not giving in to every whim and fancy that comes our way.

~It is also a call to be vigilant in living out the Christian faith with all integrity and character.

~We are not to be easily influenced and swayed by the world, the flesh, and the devil, but give the members of our body and mind to the Lord’s use. Although tempted, we stay the course that the Lord has lain for us, without distraction and without swerving off the path.

-We have to be careful what we give ourselves over to—there are consequences to lacking self-control.

~You know, I absolutely love peanut M&Ms. And sometimes Trish will get a big bag of them. A day or two later she’ll ask, where are the M&Ms, because they’re all gone. I had no self-control, and trust me, my body lets me know there are consequences.

-That is not to be us, we are to be self-controlled, not under the influence of anything but the Spirit, vigilant in staying the course of living for Christ.

d) Live ready for battle

-Paul tells Christians to put on spiritual armor because we are in a spiritual battle.

~Although we are familiar with the armor in Ephesians 6 (such as the breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, etc.), here Paul tells us to put on faith and love and the hope of salvation.

~Since our battle isn’t against flesh and blood, but against the power and principalities and spiritual rulers of this dark age, then the armor we wear and the weapons we fight with are not physical, but rather spiritual.

~So, Paul tells Christians to put on these spiritual virtues that protect us from the attacks of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and help us to be prepared to fight until the Day of the Lord comes.

-Here again, Paul reminds us that we cannot merely be passive people. Preparation takes action, and we are to actively put on armor and actively take up spiritual arms so that we can actively be in the fight.

-This is no less than a reflection of who God is, because God has revealed Himself as a divine warrior:

[God] put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. (Isaiah 59:17 ESV)

~And now God supplies believers with armor so that they too can join Him and engage in spiritual battle against the enemy.

-Imagine, though, what would happen to a soldier who is the middle of an intense battlefield, but instead of putting on his helmet and his uniform and his gear, and instead of picking up his gun and other weapons, he chooses to remain in civilian clothes and just passively sit there empty-handed while bombs and bullets are flying all around him. That soldier (who really is no soldier at all) would lose his life, and probably cause the loss of life of several of his comrades.

~Yet how many Christians just mosey along in life, acting unaware of the spiritual battle that rages hot around them, and fall prey to the attacks of the enemy.

-Christian, we must be prepared, ready to fight the battle at all times.

e) Live in assurance of salvation

-Paul reminds us that those born again in Christ do not need to live in fear. We can live for Christ in trying times knowing that our eternal destination in completely secure because it is all based on what Christ accomplished, not our ability to live perfectly prepared.

-Yes, we are to live in the light and live on alert and live in self-control and live prepared for the battle, but we will never do it perfectly. Our security in Christ can never be based on who we are or what we do, it is based on who Christ is and what He did.

-Paul declares that we are not destined for wrath. If we have repented of sin and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are safe and secure in His arms. So, no matter what happens here on earth, and no matter when it is that Jesus returns, we need not worry that we will lose our salvation in the meantime. Our eternal destiny is completely based on Jesus giving us salvation.

-But if you are without Christ, yes you ought to be in fear because God’s wrath is upon you. As Paul described, sudden destruction will come upon you and there will be no relief from it if you die without Christ or He returns without you knowing Him.

~As it says elsewhere in the Bible, now is the acceptable time, today is the day of salvation. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ…

~If you do, you too will have assurance and safety and security and will be able to live prepared for whatever God planned.

f) Live as encouragers

-Paul concludes this passage with the exhortation to encourage one another and build one another up with all that he has written.

~We are to encourage one another to live in the light and live on alert and live with self-control and live ready to fight and live in assurance of our salvation, living in light of Christ’s return but also living in light of the fact that we are on this earth in the circumstances that we are in, and we want to please Him.

-We can come alongside one another and strengthen one another when our faith is weak or when temptation seems overwhelming. We build one another up through the use of Scripture and being examples from which others can gain courage.

~As the writers of Hebrews recorded:

…let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 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.” (Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV)

Conclusion

-Yes, world events have us thinking and hoping for Christ’s return, and it could happen today. At the same time, it could happen 1000 years from now. We need to be prepared to live in light of either occurrence, ready to stand for Christ in whatever situation we find ourselves.

-Christian, pray that the Holy Spirit would fill you and guide you to live for Christ….

~But if you have not believed in Christ, God’s wrath is still upon you…