Untitled Sermon (34)

Investing in Heaven

1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:6–18

“Work for the night is coming,” goes an old hymn. But as we have already seen, biblical eschatology tells us that we are on the verge of a new day.

GROUP DISCUSSION. What effect on your daily activities would these changed words have: “Work for the day is dawning”?

PERSONAL REFLECTION. What effect does a threatening catastrophe announced on the news have on your attitude toward your daily work?

In the Western world and much of Asia people are working themselves to death to become successful. The people Paul was writing to appeared to have the exact opposite problem. Writing in the Greek world, Paul was confronted by people inoculated against work by the culture. Work was seen as a curse, and to be out of work was a piece of singularly good fortune. Further, in his ministry in the Gentile churches, Paul had to face a problem that is still with us: when people become Christians they instinctively feel that the best way to serve God in gratitude would be to leave their “secular” jobs (and possibly their marriages) and “go into the ministry.” This problem was exacerbated by the conviction held by many in the Thessalonian church that Jesus’ coming was just around the corner. This text has a message both for those who are lazy and for those who are workholics. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11.

1. What new perspectives does this passage bring regarding what will happen when Jesus comes back?

2. What will it mean for you to be “alert” and “self-controlled” (5:6)?

3. How does Paul comfort those whose loved ones died before the Lord’s return (4:13–18; 5:10)?

4. What further information does Paul give us about the timing of the Lord’s return (5:1–11)?

5. Why would this message be encouraging rather than threatening to Paul’s friends in Thessalonica (4:18; 5:11)?

6.Read 2 Thessalonians 3:6–18. How does Paul answer the argument that if Jesus is coming back tomorrow there is no point in working today?

7. Why do you think Paul made such a strong example (3:9) and gave such strong teaching (3:14–15) on the relationship of work to end-times living?

8. In what ways are both idleness and workaholism symptoms of moral sloth and spiritual disease?

9. In light of this study how will you use your daily activities to invest in the Lord’s coming and in heaven?

10. In light of all the studies, what new meaning does Paul’s final blessing have: “The Lord be with all of you”?

Praise God our Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer and Consummator for the privilege of entering into his work.

Now or Later

Study some of the biblical teaching on work: God is a worker (Genesis 1:1, see also Robert Banks, God the Worker); work is a divine calling for human beings that includes making things, music, crafts, culture and meaning (Genesis 1:28; 2:15); work is frustrated by sin (Genesis 3:17–19; Ecclesiastes 2:17–23); work is a means of serving our neighbor (Ephesians 4:28); God receives our work (Colossians 3:22–24).

We can commit ourselves without reserve to all the secular work our shared humanity requires of us, knowing that nothing we do in itself is good enough to form part of that city’s building, knowing that everything—from our most secret prayers to our most public political acts—is part of that sin-stained human nature that must go down into the valley of death and judgment, and yet knowing that as we offer it up to the Father in the name of Christ and in the power of the Spirit, it is safe with him and—purged in fire—it will find its place in the holy city at the end.