I Thessalonians 5:1-11 *
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
End Times is the final season of the church year, but it is
more than that. The end of the world is
a popular topic for Christians and non-Christians alike. It seems like people have been talking about
the end of the world ever since the world began.
Some predict that a cataclysmic natural event will bring
life as we know it to an end. Scientists estimate that there is between one
chance in 1,000 and one chance in 10,000 that a “doomsday” asteroid will
collide with planet earth during this century.
Other data suggests that the sun will explode into a red giant and
engulf the planet in about five billion years.
In another camp are those who believe that mankind will
bring about its own destruction. The
burning of fossil fuels, the shrinking ozone layer and the melting of the polar
ice caps will lead to a new Ice Age.
Others predict that a global nuclear war will destroy the human race
before that can happen.
Christians believe that the world will come to an end, but
it will not be because of mankind or Mother Nature. The world will come to an end when God says
so. The world will come to an end when
Jesus returns. This world will end with
the Last Judgment.
Unfortunately Christians don’t agree about how and when this
will happen. Some say that the believers
will be taken away before the end of the world (sometimes called “the
rapture”). Some maintain that Jesus will
return and rule over the earth for a thousand years before the end of the world
(sometimes called “millennialism”).
And even though Jesus himself said that “no one knows about that day or hour” (Mark
With all of the intriguing, confusing and misleading information out there, what
is a poor Christian to do? We do what we
always do when we have questions. We
turn to God’s Word for answers. And in
our text for today the Lord tells us everything we need to know.
Paul didn’t make any bold predictions about the end of the
world. He didn’t base his beliefs on
reams of scientific data. When Paul
wrote about the end of the world, he wrote by inspiration. When Paul spoke, God was speaking through
him. And even though he wrote these
words two thousand years ago, they are no less to true today. In fact, we can consider them to be…
THE LAST WORD ON THE LAST JUDGMENT
I. Our Savior’s return
II. Our
readiness
III. Our
redemption
“Now, brothers, about
times and dates we do not need to write to you…” (1). Why
not? Why didn’t Paul feel the need to
address these important issues? Because he already had.
Paul had visited Thessalonica on his second missionary journey. And even though strong
opposition forced him to leave sooner than he would have liked, Paul was able
to teach the Thessalonians the fundamental truths of the Christian
faith…including the subject of eschatology (the doctrine of the last things).
He taught them about the reality of Judgment Day. He taught them what Jesus had to say about
that day. The Thessalonians understood
the basics, but they still had questions. And so Paul used two different
pictures to deepen their understanding.
Illustration #1: “You
know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night”
(2). A thief normally works at night
to avoid detection. A skilled thief
cannot be seen or heard. A good thief is
able to do his work without anyone knowing he was ever there.
Now what do an invading burglar and our returning Lord have
in common? Not much, except that both
come unexpectedly. Like a thief, Jesus
will appear without any advance warning.
But unlike a thief, everyone will know when he arrives.
Illustration #2: “While
people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly,
as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (3). I have never met a pregnant woman who
didn’t anticipate that she would eventually go into labor. Most pregnant women know their exact due
date, but they also know that there is no guarantee the baby will be born on that day. In that sense, labor pains can come on
suddenly. But when they start there is
no stopping them.
The same can be said of Judgment Day. Jesus tells us that he is coming. We anticipate his coming. And when he comes there will be no turning
back. The people who scoff at the idea
of a final day of reckoning, the ones who think that the earth will continue to
spin on its axis indefinitely, they will be very surprised when the Lord
descends from the clouds. And to quote
Paul, “they will not escape.”
After the sermon today, we will recite the Nicene Creed, and
within the creed we will say these words: “He
will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” We say it. We believe it. But do we always act like we believe it? Or do we go along with those who are saying
“peace and safety?” Do we have a
tendency to look inward instead of upward?
Do we put off until tomorrow what should be our number one priority
today? If we do, we are placing
ourselves in real danger. If we do,
God’s judgment will come suddenly. If we
do, we will not escape.
One of the reasons we observe a Last Judgment Sunday is to
remind ourselves that the world is coming to an end. This is not a hypothetical possibility. It is a future reality. We don’t know exactly when it will happen,
but it will happen. Our Savior will
return, and when he does, he wants us to be ready.
According to Paul, the difference between believers and
unbelievers is like the difference between night and day: “You, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise
you like a thief. You are all sons of
the light and sons of the day. We do not
belong to the night or to the darkness” (4,5).
What does it mean to be “sons of the light?” It means that we follow Jesus, the Light of
the world (John
And this leads to a very practical question. Since we know that Jesus is coming, since
Jesus tells us to be ready when he returns, what can we do? We can we do to prepare ourselves for the
Last Judgment? This was Paul’s answer: “Let us not be like others, who are asleep,
but let us be alert and self-controlled.
For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk
at night” (6,7).
A person who is asleep is unaware of his/her
surroundings. Alcohol numbs the senses
of the person who has had too much to drink.
And according to Paul, there were plenty of people who were stumbling
from one day to the next, sleepwalking their way through life without any
consideration of the life to come.
This was not what Paul wanted for the Thessalonians. This isn’t what God wants for us either. God tells us to be self-controlled. God tells us to be alert. But God does more than just demand that we be
ready. He gives us the help we need, he
gives us the tools we need so that we will be ready when he returns: “Since we belong to the day, let us be
self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of
salvation as a helmet” (8).
It is no coincidence that Paul compares the Christian’s
preparation for the last day with a soldier preparing for battle. The forces of darkness are powerful. The prince of darkness wants to tear us
up. The world wants to drag us
down. And our own sinful flesh wants us
to give up the fight, to give in to temptation and drift off into a sin-induced
slumber.
How can we cope? How
can we survive? How can we possibly
stand up against such powerful enemies?
With the weapons that God himself provides: faith and hope and
love. The Holy Spirit has given us the
faith to believe the impossible, to trust in God at
all times, to know that he is the solution to all of life’s problems.
As we put on the breastplate of faith and love, we remember
how much God loves us. God so loved the
world that he gave his one and only son.
And because he did, we have hope.
We have the hope of salvation. We
have the hope of eternal life. We have
hope for the future because of something that happened in the past. Our readiness for the Last Judgment is
directly connected to our redemption.
“For
God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our
Lord Jesus Christ” (9). Our God is not the kind of God who takes
pleasure in our pain. Jesus is not the
kind of judge who wants to lock us up and throw away the key. He doesn’t want anyone to suffer. He wants all people to be saved (I Timothy
2:4). And he made the ultimate sacrifice
to prove it.
“He died for us so
that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (10). Bible commentators have spent a great
deal of time and energy trying to explain what Paul meant by the phrase “whether we are awake or asleep.” Instead of examining the different possibilities,
I would like to focus on the phrase that comes before.
“He died for
us.” No confusion there. “He
died for us.” Those words are so
simple. “He died for us.” That says
it all. Jesus gave up his life to save
us from eternal death. Jesus died on the
cross to take away our sins. Jesus died
for us so that we might one day live with him.
And because he did, the Last Judgment is not something that
fills our hearts with fear and trembling.
We anticipate that day. We look
forward to that day because it will be the day of our final redemption.
If you were talking with another Christian who was feeling
down and wanted to offer some words of encouragement from Scripture, what
verses would you choose? Perhaps you
would open up to the Psalms, maybe Psalm 23 or Psalm 46, the sermon texts for
the last two Sundays. Or maybe you would
turn to favorites like Romans
Whatever you would decide, I am guessing that I
Thessalonians 5 would not be your first choice.
But based upon the verses that bookend this text, maybe these words deserve
some consideration. In the last verse of
chapter four Paul says: “Encourage each
other with these words” (
It is encouraging to know that this world is not all there
is. It is encouraging to know that on
our journey through life God is walking with us every step of the way. It is a great encouragement to know that the
one who will return to judge the world is the same person who came to save the
world.
That means we have nothing to fear. That means we can dedicate our time and
energy to praising God’s name. That
means we can devote our talents and treasures to advancing God’s kingdom. That means we can recite the Nicene Creed
this morning with confidence. That means
you can say “He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead” and smile. Amen.