| Introduction We are now coming to the end of the 2019 advent season. We have, so far, examined how God purposed and executed his plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. From Genesis 3, through the prophets and to the gospels, we have seen how God sovereignly orchestrated our salvation in the coming of the Messiah over two thousand years ago. As we finished considering the coming of the Christ for this season, I want us to focus our attention on the second advent of Jesus Christ. Our Lord is coming again! I. Things That Very Clear from This Passage A. As sure as Jesus Christ came 2000 years ago, he will return to us, 4:16. B. We will be raised from the dead, 4:15, 17. C. Unbelievers will be judged when Jesus returns, 5:3. D. Because Christ will return in the future, we live righteously now, 5:8. E. These doctrines are most encouraging to those who believe in Jesus, 4:18, 5:11. II. Things That Are not Mentioned in This Passage (and not in the Bible). A. Nothing is mentioned about a resurrection of the unbeliever. 1. This is an important fact to keep in mind because some have assumed the resurrection of the wicked here and in 1 Cor. 15 and, because of that, have misunderstood the rest of the Scriptures concerning the resurrection of the wicked. ba. Paul speaks of the believers who are alive at the return of Christ. bb. Paul speaks of the believers who are dead at the return of Christ. bc. Paul speaks of the unbelievers who are alive at the return of Christ. bd. But no word about unbelievers who are dead at the return of Christ. 2. So, let's not read into this passage what is not here. B. There is no mention of a secret rapture of the church, 4:17. 1. Paul uses a word for meet that has a special meaning. a. This word was commonly used to describe the visit of a dignitary. b. The whole town would go out to meet him and then return with him to the town. 2. Paul says that what he is describing is not a temporary meeting with the Lord, but a permanent state. a. "Thus we shall always be with the Lord…" = "in this manner we shall always be with the Lord…." b. This doesn't agree with the idea of a temporary rapture. III. Why Is Paul Talking About the Coming of Christ Here? A. It seems like some believers had died in Thessalonica since Paul's visit, which created confusion among the saints because they expected Christ to return during their life time. B. Now that some died, what is it going to happen to them?, 4:13 C. The answer is that the Lord will bring back to life those who died as believers, 14. 4. At the return of Jesus Christ, God will bring those who have died (sleep) with him. 5. Those who are alive will also join the Lord but after the ones who died in him, 15. 6. The Lord will call them from the dead as he called Lazarus, as it were, 16. 7. Then the living will be transformed and both those who are alive and those who will be dead at the return of the Christ will have their eternal bodies. 1 Cor. 15:51-52 – Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ba. These are physical bodies. bb. They are able to enjoy and worship God in Christ physically and eternally. D. This is extremely good news in all kinds of ways, but specially when faced the death of a loved one, 13. 1. When a loved one dies, we sorrow, we cry, we grieve. 2. But it is not a hopeless grieving like the world grieves because we know that death is not a final separation. E. This is also encouraging because we know that the suffering, the struggles, the pain of this life in a sin-cursed world will be ultimately redeemed at the return of Christ. IV. Besides the Resurrection, There Is More to the Return of Christ, 5:1-8. A. Paul calls the return of Christ the Day of the Lord, 2. 1. This is nothing new for the Thessalonians, 1. a. It seems like the Thessalonians were flirting with some unbiblical views of the return of Christ. b. It seems that they were so focused on talking about the return of the Lord that they stopped living as if the Lord was going to return. 1) Eschatology, the study of the things related to return of the Lord and the last things concerning this world order, has a tendency to distract us. 2) Or better said, we tend to be distracted by eschatology. 3) We tend to look to the then so much that we forget the now. 2. The Day of the Lord was a day of judgment – Paul uses language that is common throughout the OT, 2-3. Amos 5:18, 20 – Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light. 20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it? a. This is a day of judgment upon unbelievers, 3 – they = unbelievers. b. But notice that the emphasis of the OT on this day of the Lord is judgment on unbelievers within the community of God's people. c. Not so much the unbeliever out there, but the unbeliever in here. 3. This judgment that is brought upon the unbeliever at the return of Christ will come upon him/her when they least expect, 3. a. That's what Paul means by the analogy of the thief in the night. 1) The danger of a thief is that he comes when no one is expecting, otherwise he would be no threat. 2) The unbeliever will be going about his/her business with no concern for the Lord when judgment will come upon them. Jer. 6:18 – They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying, 'Peace, peace!' When there is no peace. Mt. 24:37-39 – But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. b. The other analogy Paul uses is labor pains. 1) As labor comes upon a woman unexpectedly and painfully upon a woman, so will be the return of the Lord upon the unbeliever. 2) But it will be like the labor pains to deliver a stillborn child – nothing to show and no end in sight. 4. At that time, this will be an inescapable judgment – "they shall not escape." "Paul reaffirms the constant danger in which the unbeliever lives." Gordon Fee B. The main point of the passage, however, is encouragement of believers, 5:4-7. 1. The return of Christ will not catch the believer by surprise, 5:4. a. This is a complex thing to understand because there is a way in which the believers will not know when Christ will return. b. But it is in the way when you are expecting someone you love to arrive, but because they are driving, you don't know exactly what time they will arrive – the parable of the Ten Virgins. Lk. 12:35-40 – Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 36 and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38 And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 2. The Church of Jesus Christ will be prepared and not surprised by the return of Jesus, 5-7. a. Because those who believe in Jesus Christ are children of light and of day, 5. b. Because, being children of the day, they will behave according to that identity, 6-7. 1) There is a clear distinction between those who believe in Jesus and those who don't. 2) In this passage, this distinction is described in term of sleeping when one should be awake and bring drunk when one should be sober. C. The truth that Christ is coming back for his Church and that we will see him as he is for we will be like him impacts how we live now, 6-8. 1. Any view of the future return of the Lord Jesus that does not teach that our life now counts and that our life now should be lived in righteousness according to the Word of God is an unbiblical view. a. Our Lord Jesus himself teaches us that the only way to be prepared for his return is to be living right now according to his Word. 1) In the Parable of the Ten Virgins, the five virgins that were ready to meet the groom at whatever time he showed up had oil in their lamps at all times. 2) In the Parable of the Talents, the two people who were found faithful were the two that, while the master was gone, used their time to grow what the master had given them in obedience to them. 3) The servants that are blessed are those whose waists are girded and their lamps are burning. a. In a time when fuel was scarce and expensive, the lamp would only be lit when work was being done. b. There is no need to gird your waist (secure your cloak so it doesn't get in the way) unless you are going to work. Lk. 12:35-40 – Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 36 and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. 37Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38 And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. b. The apostles taught the same thing – we obey God because Christ has come and because he is coming again. Titus 2:11-14 – For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. ii. Our passage uses two sinful behaviors to summarize how not to wait for Jesus and contrast how we should wait for Jesus: sloth and drunkenness. a. We wait for Jesus by being righteously productive instead of sleeping away, 6-7a. 1) Sleeping should happen in the night and we are people of the day. 2) Paul is not saying that you are sinning if you get a good night of sleep or if you take a nap on a Sunday afternoon. 3) He is saying two things: a. Don't waste your time by being slothful. b. Don't be involved in things that are done under the cover of darkness. Eph. 5:11-13 – And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. b. We wait for Jesus attentively, with focused minds, with minds that are not clouded or incapacitated by substance abuse (that's what drunkenness is), 8. 1) Paul is not just saying that the believer is not to be drunk or high, but is not saying less than that. 2) For the life of me, I don't understand why Christians try to justify getting high on pot as a righteous activity when everyone else agrees that getting high on pot is the opposite of being sober. 3) As we wait for the return of the Lord Jesus, we do it with focused minds, which Paul describes here as putting on the protection of faith, love, and hope. a. This is Paul well known triads of the Christian living. b. Faith both subjectively (believing in Jesus) and objectively (the content of what we believe). c. Love of God and for God that preserve us to the end. d. Hope of salvation – "[The] full assurance of absolute certainty of the believer's future, predicated on the death and resurrection of Christ." Gordon Fee 4) These are the protections (breastplate and helmet) that we need to endure to the end. V. We Persevere to the End Because God Is Working in Us, 9-10. A. God has poured his wrath upon his Son for those who were his, 9a. 1. Because God has done that for us, we are no longer children of wrath, but sons and daughters of God most high. 2. We don't fear the return of Christ, we look forward to it. 3. What for the unbelieving world will be a display and outpouring of God's wrath, for us who believe will be a reunion with the one whom we love and are loved by. B. And we will arrive at the end because God appointed us to full salvation, both body and soul, 9a C. All of this through Jesus Christ who lived, died, and rose again for us, 9b-10a. D. So, it really doesn't matter if we are alive or dead when our Lord returns – either way we will live with him, 10b. 1 Jn. 3:1-2 – Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
So, we encourage, comfort, and build each other up. Christ is coming again! All is well with our souls because he is coming again. We look to his appearing with great hope faith and love.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2019/12/he-is-coming-again-1-thessalonians-413.html
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