Now if you would take your Bibles in hand once again and turn in your own Bible to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. If you need to use a church Bible, you can find it on page 987. Now last Lord’s Day we began to consider Paul’s teaching on the subject of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Thessalonians had been wrestling with questions generated by the fact that the first generation of Christians were now beginning to die and the Lord Jesus still had not returned, as many of them seemed to have expected that He would, and they were wondering about the status of those who have been followers of Christ and who had since died. And in response, Paul told them what will happen. He outlined for them the sequence of events at the return of Christ at the end of chapter 4. Whether dead or alive, when Jesus comes if we are believers in Christ we will be transformed, clothed with resurrection bodies like Christ’s own glorious body and we will be forever with the Lord.
But now this week as we turn to chapter 5, verses 1 through 11, Paul addresses a second question that the Thessalonians seem to have been posing with respect to the return of Christ. Not this time what will happen and the sequence of events, but when will it happen and the timing of those events. Paul is writing, verse 1, “concerning the times and seasons.” So the Thessalonians want some help with calendaring. If Jesus is coming back next Tuesday, well then we probably should cancel the vacation at the beach. But if we shouldn’t expect Him within our lifetimes, well then frankly what’s all the fuss about? Does it really matter at all to us whether Jesus is ever coming back? How do you think about the return of Christ? Do you think about the return of Christ? If you do, is it a vague, distant, irrelevant and intriguing curiosity but not a present expectation? Are we supposed to live each day on a knife edge, unable to make plans for the future because we are anticipating the rapture any day now? Or are we to live every day ignoring the possibility that today might be the last day of all days? How do you get the balance right?
Answering that question is the focus of the opening eleven verses of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We’re going to look at them together under four headings. First, verses 1 through 3, there is the suddenness we must not forget. The suddenness we must not forget. Secondly, 4 through 7, the sleep we cannot afford. We suddenness we must not forget. The sleep we cannot afford. Third, verses 8 and 9, the sobriety we are meant to practice. So the suddenness we must not forget. The sleep we cannot afford. The sobriety we are meant to practice. And then finally, verses 9 through 11, the salvation we are destined to enjoy. You see those four themes in the text? The suddenness we must not forget, the sleep we cannot afford, the sobriety we are meant to practice, and the salvation we are destined to enjoy.
Before we look at each of those, let’s pray together again and ask for the Lord Jesus to help us as we hear His holy Word. Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, You speak. You have the words of eternal life. Grant now as we read and hear and examine and study Your Word, grant now the ministry of Your Spirit to give us ears truly to hear. Awaken us as we sleep in spiritual lethargy and stupor. Stir us to watchfulness and readiness at the return of You, O Lord Jesus, our Savior. For we ask this in Your name, amen.
1 Thessalonians chapter 5 at verse 1. This is the Word of God:
“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. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then suddenly destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 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. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 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. 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. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
Amen.
Well did you know that judgment day was meant to arrive on May 21, 2011? A few people even made the pilgrimage to the headquarters of the Family Radio Network where Harold Camping made his infamous prediction to await the final cataclysm. “Is this where the world is going to end?” asked one woman as she peered into the darkened building. Of course the office was closed that day with a post-it sign that read, apparently without any irony, “Sorry we missed you.” When Jesus did not return on the expected date, Camping recalculated for five months later, October 21, 2011. This was actually to be the third time his prophecy of the end of the world would fail. There had been one earlier back in 1994. You would think after the first attempt failed he would have given the whole thing up. Nevertheless, devotees up and down the country and around the world, taken in by Camping’s predictions, liquidated their assets and prepared for the end.
How ought we to think about the coming of Jesus Christ? Can we calculate the precise day of the end of the world? Should we sell up and climb the nearest hill to wait for the rapture? Well look with me please at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 1 through 3, and notice first of all the suddenness that we must not forget. The suddenness that we must not forget. Paul has adopted a rhetorical strategy in this letter that appeals back again and again to what the Thessalonians already know. He does it in chapter 1 verse 5. “You know what kind of men we were among you.” And in chapter 2 verse 1, “You yourselves know brothers that our coming to you was not in vain.” And he does it again in chapter 2:5, 2:9, 2:10, 2:11, 3:3, and 4:2. And in chapter 4 verse 9, if you look back there, you will see he uses almost the same phrase we see in our passage here in chapter 5 verse 1. “Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need of anyone to write to you.” And so here he says, “Now concerning the times and seasons brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully aware.”
Christian discipleship, as Paul well knows, rarely involves teaching truths we have never heard. To be sure, from time to time there will be truths to learn and to understand, that are new to us, especially in the early days of our Christian lives. But most of what we need to help us grow as Christians is really a reminder of the old, old story. It is a renewed appreciation of what we have already been taught but perhaps have never fully grasped or have simply taken for granted. Discipleship is really about pressing down the truth so that it moves those very difficult twelve inches from our heads down into our hearts and ceases to be mere doctrinal conviction and becomes instead a vital force for devotion to Jesus Christ in your life and habits day by day. Merely knowing the content of the truth is important, but it’s not enough. You can go to hell with a head full of sound theology. That’s why the puritan, William Perkins, famously defined theology, true theology as “the science of living blessedly.” Truth is for life, not just for intellectual entertainment. Truth is for life.
And so the pressing question for Paul is not, “Do the Thessalonians understand the doctrine of Christ’s final return?” The pressing question is, “Since they do understand it, is it really operational in their lives? What difference is the truth making?” When fringe groups make exaggerated claims to know exactly when Jesus is coming and their followers sell their businesses and liquidate their assets to wait for the rapture, isn’t it easy to overreact to those excesses and to sort of roll your eyes impatiently and swing all the way to the opposite extreme? If we don’t dismiss the doctrine of the return of Christ altogether, then it becomes a sort of vague idea to which we pay lip service without any real practical bearing on our Christian lives today at all. And as far as the apostle Paul is concerned, that attitude just won’t do. It just won’t do.
And so look at verse 2. He reminds them, “You yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” Now we said last time, if you recall, that in his treatment of the teaching about the return of Christ, Paul is meditating on the words of the Lord Jesus found recorded in Matthew chapter 24. Then he has that passage in mind here still as he compares Christ’s return to a thief breaking in at midnight while everyone is sleeping. Jesus told His disciples, Matthew 24:42, “Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, 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.” And so the point of the metaphor is clear, isn’t it? Jesus’ coming will be unexpected, unpredictable. Jesus is explicit – “You do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” And so if someone says it will happen next Tuesday, do not quit your day job! Do not cancel your vacation plans. Never trust anyone who says they know when Jesus is coming when Christ Himself said that not even He knows – Matthew 24:36, “But concerning the day and the hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only.” If Jesus doesn’t know, we can be sure that the Harold Campings of the world certainly don’t know either. So it’s going to be unexpected.
But more than emphasizing the unexpected character of the return, there is also an ominous overtone to this image, isn’t there? Thieves are destructive and dangerous. A burglary is a terrifying experience to have, as anyone knows whose homes have been broken into. It’s the stuff of nightmares to be still asleep in your bed, your children sleeping in their rooms, as thieves creep around in the dark in your house. And it’s that ominous note that Paul emphasizes in verse 3. Look there please. Verse 3. “While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape.” There are quite a few pregnancies in our congregation right now and all of those couples, I’m sure, have a bag packed and a plan made for when labor begins. They’ve made those plans because they don’t know exactly when it’s going to be. And so you have to be ready. And that’s the point.
Apparently, people in Paul’s day, just like in our own day, were constantly reassuring themselves saying, “There is peace and security.” Paul is actually echoing the words of Jeremiah 6:14, “Peace, peace, they say, when there is no peace.” You can lull your conscience to sleep with false promises of rest and ease of security and comfort. “All is well,” you tell yourself. “Nothing will happen. There’s no need to worry. Let’s not be like one of those crazies, you know, with a bullhorn and a sandwich board walking up and down the high street predicting the end is nigh. We’ve got plenty of time yet!” Have you forgotten Proverbs 24:33? “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man.” Only now the consequences will not be economic; they will be eternal. Destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape.
Beloved, there are two extremes to avoid here, aren’t there? On the one hand, there is the panic induced by false predictions of the imminent dawn of the apocalypse. But on the other hand, and this is where our danger mainly lies, it is the shrug of indifference that opens one eye to acknowledge the truth that, “Sure, one day, a way off sometime in the future, Jesus will come back.” And then we roll over and go right back to sleep as if that fact did not matter at all. But one day the skies will split open and the trumpet will sound and the archangel will shout and every eye will see the Lord Jesus coming in glory in the clouds of heaven. Will you be found alert and ready when He does? Will you be found living for Him, for His honor and praise and His glory when He comes? You must not presume that you have all the time that you’d like to get your spiritual life back on track. Stop delaying. Stop lying to yourself that you’ll repent tomorrow. You’ll turn from your beloved pet sin tomorrow. You’ll seek forgiveness tomorrow while you indulge today. You may not have tomorrow. Can you hear the alarm sounding? Jesus is coming soon. Are you ready today? Are you ready today? The suddenness we must not forget.
And then along with that, building on that, notice in the second place the sleep we cannot afford. The sleep we cannot afford. Paul returns to the thief metaphor in verse 5. Do you see that in verse 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.” The reason Paul says that real Christians are not taken by surprise when Jesus comes is that they are children of the light, children of the day. Now he’s sort of mixing metaphors to make an important point. In John 12:35, Jesus said, “The light is among you,” speaking of Himself, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may be sons of light.” Jesus is the light and those who believe in the light, trust in Him, walk in His light, are sons of light. The thief, Paul says, comes at night while we are sleeping and unprepared. Children of the day, children of the light, they are awake when that great day of the Lord comes. The character of Christ, the light of the world, shines in those who trust Him. That’s why they are called “children of the light.” The light of the world shines in the life of the children of light. His character, His life fills us.
This is who and what we are as Christians. We belong to the day as children of the light through faith in Jesus Christ whose light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. But if that’s who you are, Paul says, if that’s who you are – a child of the day, a child of the light – you’d better start acting like it. You’d better start acting like it. Verse 6, “so then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” On top of the metaphor of sleep he adds the image of drunkenness. Verse 7, “For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober.” The sin of drunkenness is Paul’s metaphor here for someone who is intoxicated with life according to the values and priorities of the world. They are living for the accumulation of stuff. Their ambitions are for the lifestyle and the pleasures of material plenty. Jesus is an accessory to their nice life like their nice car and their nice house and their nice children. They are drunk with the potent lies of worldly success.
And the point Paul is making I think is clear, isn’t it? Sleep or drunkenness leave you powerless when the thief breaks in. To be spiritually asleep is to be completely ignorant of your danger, oblivious. To be spiritually drunk, as one commentator put it, “is to be intoxicated with the world’s wine, numbed to feeling any fear in the present of a coming judgment.” Now is this a description of your life, I wonder? Asleep – spiritually asleep, intoxicated with the wine of worldliness, living for the world’s priorities, shaped by the world’s values, driven by the world’s ambitions, living for everything but the glory of Jesus Christ? The suddenness we must not forget. The sleep we cannot afford.
And then thirdly notice what the passage says we are to do instead. Here’s the sobriety we are meant to practice. 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. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here’s how we are to practice sobriety and alertness that Paul commends to us. Here is how to get ready, in other words, for the coming of Jesus Christ. Here’s how to do it. Yet another metaphor or an extension of the metaphor he’s already been using of being watchful and on guard through the night like a sentry standing guard at his point, properly equipped should the thief come.
You see what he says? Christian sobriety and alertness and spiritual readiness involves, he says, verse 8, it involves “putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of the hope of salvation.” Now Paul uses the imagery of armor and of being a soldier in various places in the New Testament, most extensively in Ephesians chapter 6:10 through 18. And you’ll notice that here he returns to the imagery of the armor of God but he adjusts it – the different elements of the armor are not the same in every place – he adjusts it here to fit his specific purpose. Here he focuses on his favorite, three-fold summary of the Christian life – faith, hope and love. You see that? Each of these are featured extensively as we’ve worked our way through 1 Thessalonians – faith, hope and love – haven’t they? This is what a real Christian is. This is how they live. Faith and love. Faith in Jesus Christ and love for all His people. And the hope of salvation. These are like armor, Paul says. They protect us from danger; they preserve us when the great day dawns.
Greg Beale puts it like this. “If we do not have the helmet of hope, things in life will come crashing down, cracking our spiritual skulls and incapacitating us spiritually.”
The key point though is that the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of the hope of salvation, these are not unusual, extra preparations done in an emergency state, specific to the coming of Christ because, after all, that’s not what is needed – emergency, last minute preparation. That’s not what’s needed. What’s needed is faith in the Gospel, love for all the saints, and a firm grip of the hope of glory through our Lord Jesus Christ. What is needed is the constant, daily, ordinary faithfulness of living the Christian life with sincerity and diligence and integrity. This is what it means, Paul is teaching us, to keep alert and be sober and live as a child of the light, a child of the day. You have to be the real thing all the time. Are you the real thing? Clothed in the armor of grace and salvation, living in faith, trusting the promise of God, clinging to the Lord Jesus alone for pardon and peace in the sight of God. And living in love, seeking to serve the Savior who loves you and has given Himself for you by clearly loving all His people. And living in hope, clinging firmly to the joyful certainty of the coming new creation when at long last we will be forever with the Lord.
Our heads are sometimes turned far too easily by unusual claims of exciting discoveries made by esoteric methods, identifying exactly when Jesus is coming and calling us to take special action and unusual preparation and make extreme commitments. But what is really called for if you believe that Jesus will come like a thief in the night? What is really called for is basic Christian faithfulness. This is not a call to extremism, fanatical fervor. This is a call to diligent, daily plodding in faith and love and hope. Do those things. Be like that. Trust Jesus. Love your brothers and sisters. Fix your eyes on the horizon in the sure confidence that the sun is going to rise very soon and the dawn of Christ’s glorious final advent will break at last. And then do it again tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that until He comes. The suddenness we must not forget. The sleep we cannot afford. The sobriety we are meant to practice.
And then finally, notice the salvation we are destined to enjoy. Having warned us and exhorted us, Paul now also assures us and comforts us, doesn’t he? Look at verses 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.” There are three elements that combine here to provide wonderful assurance and comfort in these two verses. There is God’s choice, our faith, and there’s Christ’s death. God’s choice, our faith, and Christ’s death.
God’s choice, first. “God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation.” If you obtain salvation it is not because you have figured out the puzzle, unlocked the secret by the brilliance of your own intellectual insight. No, “You were dead in your sin, but God who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved you, made you alive together with Christ. For it is by grace you have been saved.” He destined you to obtain salvation. “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” Beloved, from the foundation of the world the Father purposed to make you His child and give you salvation. The ground of your security at the appearing of Jesus Christ is ultimately the electing love of God the Father.
The second part of the assurance these verses provide is found in the expression, “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We obtain salvation through faith in Him. The eternal, electing purpose of God that destins us for salvation works out by means. The instrumental means by which you obtain salvation is faith in Jesus Christ. It comes through Him. You get it from Him. God’s predestinating choice does not mean your faith is irrelevant. All those the Father chooses, choose Jesus for themselves. There’s no use saying, “The Father hasn’t chosen me, so I can’t believe.” No, believe and you prove that the Father has chosen you! Jesus Christ is the mirror of election. Trust in Him and find well grounded hope and assurance.
And the third part of the assurance these verses provide is verse 10. Here is the object of our faith – the cross of Jesus Christ. Christ died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him. Whether we die before Jesus returns or we’re still alive on the final day, if we put our trust in the cross of Christ to satisfy all the requirements of God’s broken law, to pay all the penalty that our sin has incurred, we will be saved. We will live with Him. The faith, love and hope that describe the basic pattern of Christian preparedness for the return of Christ, they flow directly from these three great truths – the Father’s eternal choice is the foundation of your salvation, our faith is the instrument of your salvation, and Christ’s cross is the price of your salvation. Here’s the Gospel root of faith, love and hope. Here’s how you stay alert and practice sobriety and live as a child of the light, a child of the day. Here’s how you do it – you cling to the good news about Jesus who died for you that you might live, and know as you do that the Father has destined you for glory and He will never let you go.
One more thing. Notice Paul expects us to use these truths to help one another, to help each other live in readiness for the coming of Jesus Christ. You see that in verse 11? “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” Getting ready, living an alert, sober life, waiting for the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, is a community project. It is a group effort. It takes the church. It takes one another encouraging, exhorting, comforting, teaching, speaking truth into each other’s lives. And the truth we are to speak is the truth about Jesus, about His cross. We are to help each other look back to what Christ has done so that we might be ready for what He is coming again to do at the last day.
In 2004, newspapers predicted that 250,000 people would be stranded if a major hurricane struck New Orleans, leaving the low lying city 20 feet underwater. National Geographic vividly described a scenario in which 50,000 people drowned. In 2001, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency stated that a major hurricane hitting New Orleans was one of the three likeliest catastrophes currently facing the United States. And in September 2004, when Hurricane Ivan, with 142 mph winds, was barreling directly toward the city, it looked like those terrible predictions were about to become reality. More than 1 million residents were warned to evacuate. USA Today predicted “a modern Atlantis,” stating the hurricane would “overwhelm New Orleans with up to 20 feet of filthy, chemical polluted water.” The city’s mayor begged people to flee, but he couldn’t make evacuation mandatory because more than 100,000 people had no cars. The roads of the city were jammed by traffic. The airports were closed. There were no emergency shelters. The stage was set for a catastrophe. And then Ivan turned aside and New Orleans was spared and everybody breathed a sigh of relief. And life went back to normal in New Orleans. And nothing changed. And eleven months later, Katrina hit the city and the levees broke and hundreds of people died.
Friends, Jesus is coming. You have had all the warnings you need. Will you be found saying, “Peace and security” when He comes? Be warned – sudden destruction will come upon you. Are you asleep in the darkness of spiritual indifference, intoxicated with the strong wine of worldliness? There is a hurricane coming. Are you ready? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who died that you might live with Him. Live as a child of the day. Keep alert. Be sober. Encourage one another and get ready. Let’s pray together.Lord our God, forgive us for our spiritual lethargy, our indifference and our lack of alarm. Forgive us for our indifference with regard to ourselves and our families, with regard to our unconverted neighbors and colleagues and loved ones and friends. Help us to hear in the passage we have just read and studied together the alarm sounding, the hurricane siren warning us – Jesus is coming. Teach us to be alert and to live as children of the light, not surprised by the dawning of that great, final day. For we ask it all in Jesus’ name, amen.