1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

What's Missing in Our Waiting?

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on October 29, 2017 at Beacon Church

News was travelling fast: there was a new religion making headlines in ancient Greece—"something about a Jewish rabbi who came back from the dead.” Within about six months after Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy had brought the Good News about Jesus to the city of Thessalonica and many had believed, Paul said people around Greece were talking about what had happened in Thessalonica. They had turned from their traditional idols to serve the true God and to wait for Jesus to come again:

9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,  10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thess. 1:9-10 ESV)

But there are signs that this new church that started with such enthusiasm, was beginning to lose their courage, and in some cases, maybe even turn back to their old idols and away from Jesus. Some gaps in their understanding left the church unsteady. 3 chapters into this same letter, Paul started “filling in what was [evidently] lacking in their faith” in various areas—in their relationships (4:1-12), in the way they grieve for their fellow Christians who were dying (4:13-18), and now, in 5:1-11, in how they lived while they waited for Jesus. They were waiting for Him; it was how they waited that showed they were unstable. What we believe about God always shows in how we live.

Verse 1 begins with this attention-grabbing introduction. “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you,” (1 Thess. 5:1 ESV). From these words it sounds like the Thessalonian believers had been asking Timothy some specific questions about the second coming of Jesus, and Timothy passed those questions on to Paul, who basically says here, “those are the wrong questions.” The two words “times and seasons” are really interesting. When I looked them up,[i] I found that one has the nuance of periods of time, and the other with appointments in time. In other words, it looks like the Thessalonians were asking Timothy a lot of questions about a) the length of time until Jesus’ return, and b) some specific event to watch for. But Paul responds not with a length of time, but by mentioning plural lengths of time; and not with some specific event, but with plural events: “times and seasons” seem to imply multiple eras and many important events still to come in God’s plan before Jesus was to return. If the wait was long (and it has been!) Christians would need to know how to stand strong. So Paul reminds these new Christians that they had already been told what they needed to know most about the coming of Jesus: His coming could be compared to when a thief breaks into your house.

The Timing Will Be Unexpected

2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  3 While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.  (1 Thess. 5:2-3 ESV)

The wording of verses 1 and 2 imply that Paul was quoting from specific sayings of Jesus that he had probably already taught to the Thessalonians after they began to follow Christ: Jesus had said, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority,” (Acts 1:7 ESV). And He had said,

39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.  40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." (Lk. 12:39-40 ESV)

It’s not for us to know exactly when Jesus will come, and when He does come it will be unexpected. The purpose of this information is not to tell you that studying Bible prophecy is a waste of time—far from it! Rather it’s to tell you that the future coming of Jesus is a promise you ignore at your own peril. It’s deadly dangerous to downplay what will happen on that day.

Paul says that as the day of Christ’s return draws near, people will be saying things like “there is peace and security”. Paul might be borrowing a little from Israel’s history here to make a strong point: in Jeremiah 8:11, the people who were saying, “’Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace”, were not people in general, but the prophets, priests, and teachers of the people who told them there was nothing to worry about, when in fact God had already decreed that their country was about to be judged (c.f. by the army of Babylon in 606-586BC). So the people in greatest danger today, of believing the lie, “there is nothing to worry about”, are those who listen to pastors and teachers who treat our sin like it’s no big deal. Because they treat Jesus like He is not God. What did you think Paul meant in verse 2 when he said, “the day of the Lord”? His birthday? No, it’s the day the Creator and Lord of this Universe, Jesus Himself, comes again to judge and claim what belongs to Him. That day will bring “sudden destruction” (v3) to every single citizen of planet Earth who refused to acknowledge Jesus’ authority and rights of ownership over this world and its inhabitants. The warning of these first verses is this: this world belongs to Jesus and He’s on His way to collect.

But You Must Be Prepared

“But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief,” (1 Thess. 5:4 ESV). It’s probably important to notice that Paul is not comparing Jesus to a thief; he is comparing the “day of the Lord” to a thief. In other words, that day will arrive in a way that’s similar to how a thief breaks into your house—when you don’t expect it. You and I can’t prevent that day from coming—nor would we want to! We want Jesus to come again, right? That’s why we are waiting for Him, like 1:10 says these new Christians in Thessalonica, Greece, were also waiting for Jesus to come again. But if we love Jesus, and serve Him, then that day He comes won’t surprise us like a thief breaking in through your kitchen window. Because we will be waiting to see Him! It will still be unexpected as far as the timing goes, but we will be ready for it when that day comes.

I said we will be ready “if we love Jesus, and serve Him”, but Paul describes people who are ready more in terms of who they are than what they do: “5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.  6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober,” (1 Thess. 5:5-6 ESV). It’s a really good idea for new Christians to start to notice this pattern when they read the Bible—especially Paul’s letters: what you do follows who you are. So Paul does that here: he says the Thessalonian Christians are “children of light” and “of the day”. It’s a descriptive metaphor for their identity. Looking back at verse 2, people who aren’t ready for Jesus return will feel like that day arrives the way a thief does at night—they don’t see him coming because they’re asleep, and they don’t realize he’s in the house until it’s too late. “Children of light” are different in two ways: they have their eyes open, and they have light to see. It’s not dark for followers of Christ: “We are not of the night or of the darkness,” (1 Thess. 5:5b ESV). But on that day when Jesus suddenly returns, it might happen when you are standing beside someone who doesn’t know Him or love Him. For you it will be like day time, with light to see, and your eyes will be open, but for your friend standing next to you it might feel like night time, with no light to see the truth, and with her eyes closed. You will be awake, and hopefully behaving like it’s daytime; your friend might still be asleep, and behaving like it’s nighttime.  The point in verse 6 is very visual: You’re going to feel pressure to conform your behaviour to the lifestyle and behaviour of “others” who aren’t waiting for Jesus. Resist that pressure. Don’t sleep. Don’t numb yourself like people do who drink to forget their troubles. Don’t live like the day of the Lord is a thing to be avoided; live like you are looking forward to seeing Jesus. Live like you want that day to come. Because you’re waiting for Him. You and I must not be like those in the metaphor who drink to forget, but who try to remember. We remember Jesus’ promises, that He is coming back to be with us, and that we will always be with Him.

We’re Soldiers On Duty, Not Citizens On Vacation

7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.  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. (1 Thess. 5:7-8 ESV)

Others who are in the dark about Jesus’ second coming live like they’re in the dark, like it’s nighttime for them. But not for us! We aren’t like civilians: in verse 8 the breastplate and helmet are parts of a soldier’s uniform. Paul was telling these new but shaken believers who they were—citizens of Christ’s Kingdom, soldiers in a heavenly army awaiting the return of our Commander in Chief. And who you believe you are dictates how you live. Heather and I saw a movie this week called, Only the Brave, in which a drug addict found out he was about to become a father. This realization had such a powerful effect on him, that he immediately got clean, and applied to join the local fire-fighter crew. As part of his interview, the crew captain told him to come along with the crew on a cross-country run up to the peak of a hill and back. He wasn’t ready and even had to borrow running shoes. After a short distance he was already gasping, and his face was an disturbing shade of green. There was no way he could keep up to the fit and ready fire crew. But he wouldn’t give up. When they were on their way back down to base, he was still struggling up the rocky slope. But when they were all done for the day and about to go home, he came straggling into the yard. He meant it when he told his captain he was doing it for his new daughter, that he wasn’t going to let her down. Who we believe we are, dictates how we live. And as Paul’s words show in verse 8, we are not private citizens, carefree and unaccountable. We are servants of the living and true God, answerable to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So how far will you make it before your enthusiasm fails, and your endurance fades? Did you begin as “children of light” only to wash out before Christ comes again? Children need to grow up and become men and women who take a stand, who suit up to answer the call of their King. I’m sure verse 8 is meant to be a daily exercise—like in Paul’s similar instructions to the Ephesians when he tells them to make sure they grow up spiritually and equip themselves using words that picture their daily preparation like putting off old clothes and putting on new clothes—Paul seems fond of this sort of imagery! “…put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:22-24 ESV) In verse 8, the pieces of our uniforms are armor that not only reminds us who we are, but also protects us: faith and love are like a breastplate. Faith is that deliberate and conscious act of depending on the strength of Jesus, to stand our ground and serve when if it was up to us we would have given in to the darkness long ago. Love is the loyal affection in our hearts that spurs us on to want to please God. And hope! Hope is a helmet that guards our minds against discouragement, despair, and defeat. Because hope takes hold of all that Christ Jesus has already achieved—the forgiveness of our sins, our acceptance into God’s family, the promise of the Holy Spirit in us, the certain future of the resurrection of our bodies, and life forever with Jesus in Paradise!—all of this is the “salvation” that we look remember, look forward to, and with which we guard our thoughts, keeping in mind “who we are” so that our lives more and more show the changes that honour Jesus.

“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (1 Thess. 5:9 ESV). The best way to rob a soldier of his courage is to undermine his loyalty and affection for the country or King he serves. If you want to dishearten a child, all you need to do is make them doubt your commitment to them, and show them condemnation. But it’s this very forgetfulness of the Gospel of Jesus that has robbed generations of immature Christians of their courage and turned countless new disciples into disillusioned casualties of the spiritual war for humanity’s future. Therefore Paul almost shouts it—“God has not destined us for wrath!” That’s not the future He has chosen and prepared for you! But He has chosen you; He has called you; He has predestined you! “…But to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,  10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him,”  (1 Thess. 5:9b-10 ESV). Wake up. Wake up! Chapter 3, and the rest of chapter 5, show the kinds of things we should do while we wait for Jesus—not apathy, but action; not lazy, but loving others; not selfish, but as servants. These first 11 verses remind us why—what motivates us? “…Who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him,” (1 Thess. 5:10 ESV). Christ died for us. We belong to Him, don’t we? So many moral, respectable people, who go to church, get mad when government spends money that belongs to taxpayers. But what many of us do is much worse: we take the lives Jesus bought with His blood, and the bodies He has redeemed by His grace, and these things that don't belong to us, we spend on ourselves.

Finally Paul comes back around to the fact that while we wait for Jesus to return, because the wait could be long, we can expect that many believers will die before He comes. That’s what he means, here in verse 10, by “asleep”. Not that believers would live like they’re asleep, but that while waiting, many will literally die. But as we saw last week, their deaths won’t be permanent. That’s because everyone who believes in Christ Jesus will live forever, together with Jesus in person. To stay standing, some of the people near you will need you to encourage them to remember these things. Don’t assume the people around you are doing okay just because they look so good! Take the time out of your busyness to encourage each other—to help one another stand firm until we see Jesus: [read v11] Jesus, our precious Saviour and Redeemer, died for us, so that we might live with Him. Therefore let us give our lives to please Him, while we wait for that great Day to come.