1 Thessalonians 5 (Part 1) :1-11 • The Day of the Lord

all right we're in thessalonians 1st thessalonians chapter 5 so open your bibles there please this probably won't surprise any of you at all to know that there has been a increased interest in people's lives to understand last day's events with everything that's been going on you know since the first of the year my my revelation study online has just absolutely blown up and and you know i i recorded it quite a long time ago so people write me and ask me questions they're like well how does this work and i'm like i gotta go back and look at it again because i forgot you know but um it's just huge the number of people who are kind of asking the question so where where does all this fit and and what's what's next you know on on the prophetic calendar and last week we had the opportunity to talk about the uh the catching away of the church that paul talked about there at the end of first thessalonians chapter four where he he talks about the fact that that we will all be caught up together to meet the lord in the air and i hope you were able to hear that message last week it's very encouraging uh if you missed it it's it's on our website um just go there and and you can catch up there but the rapture or the catching away whatever you want to call it is is a delightful thing for us to kind of talk about but now as we get into first thessalonians chapter 5 paul is going to talk about something that is a little less fun to think about as it relates to the day of the lord but it also is is kind of a it doesn't apply as much to you to be completely honest with you as believers and we're going to see that so let's go ahead and read through the first 11 verses of chapter 5 and then we'll pray and then we'll get into this here today it says 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 sudden 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 stop there let's pray lord we come to you completely dependent upon the work of your spirit among us to open our eyes open our hearts and help us to see what these verses are saying we pray that you would guide and direct our hearts to really truly assimilate the truths that are laid out for us in this passage guide and direct us through your spirit into truth we pray it in jesus name amen amen so we talked about the rapture last week the catching away of the church but now as we get into the fifth chapter of paul's letter to the thessalonians he issues a sober warning that there's going to be another side to this whole time period and you can tell from reading these first 11 verses that paul had obviously taken the time to speak to the people there in thessalonica about these matters because he begins you know by telling them you don't have any need of anyone writing to you about this and you know the rest of us who weren't there in thessalonica are kind of going no tell us again just say it again it would have been great to know exactly what he shared you know with the the believers there that he tells them they have no need to hearing about again but interestingly enough paul says enough in these verses for us to gain some important insight into this period of time that is called the day of the lord and you'll notice that that is one of the first things that paul makes reference to the day of the lord the day of the lord first thing you need to understand about the day of the lord is that it's not just a single day we we refer to a day usually in the context of a 24-hour period of time but the day of the lord covers actually biblically a long period of days and they are yet future when god will bring about some pretty incredible pretty powerful pretty dramatic sort of events in the course of mankind's history and the day of the lord includes such things as the catching away of the church it includes the great tribulation and we know that covers a seven year period of time it includes the second coming of jesus to the earth which we know happens at the very tail end of the great tribulation and it also includes a time of judgment that happens after that as well so you can see that the day of the lord is actually a protracted period of time and you can also tell that that when paul makes reference to the events that he covers in this part of 1st thessalonians chapter 5 largely he's talking about things that are happening to unbelievers how do we know that it's because of the pronouns that are used whenever paul's talking about what's happening to the church he uses pronouns like we and us and when he talks about things that are happening to unbelievers and not happening to the church he uses pronouns like they and them okay now all you got to do is just kind of pay attention as you're reading through these passages and we'll do our best to point out these pronouns again as we go over these verses but you can tell who who his you know who he's talking about he's obviously talking to the church but he's talking about sometimes unbelievers in these verses now verse 1 if you look with me again paul begins by saying now concerning the times and the seasons and i'll have you stop there because that's the first phrase that we need to kind of take note of here because it's an interesting one and it has significant meaning times in the greek is the word chronos it's where we get our word chronology which means the passage of time and essentially the greek word here speaks of the duration of time whether it's a long time or a short time or whether it's a near time or a far off time and and we know that paul taught that as far as timing goes that these things were imminent at least the coming of the lord for the church and even though we don't know the exact time we know that it is imminent meaning that it could happen at any time you'll remember in matthew 24 jesus said concerning the day and the hour remember he said no man knows the day nor the hour not the angels in heaven nor the son but only the father that's recorded for us in matthew 24 but we know that the coming of jesus for his church could happen at any time again that is what is imminent and imminent means at any moment all right now the word seasons speaks of the characteristic of a time period uh the the new american standard bible uses the word epoch which is kind of an interesting i prefer seasons better but when you think of an epoch you might say well the the biggest epoch in the life of our newborn son was uh probably when he started walking at 12 months that was the you know so an epoch is usually a significant sort of event that is notable but when we think of the word as season as it's used here in the esv you can think of seasons i hope to god that we're in a season of this you know coronavirus junk and i mean i hope this is a season right but we talk about that we talk about a season of awakening or revival you know we look back over the history of the united states of america and other parts of the world we say well that was a season where god was doing an incredible work of reviving men's hearts we talk about seasons of judgment we talk about seasons of blessing sometimes people come up to me and say pastor our family is going through a real season of trial right now and of course the idea is that they're they're describing the characteristic of the time period that they are in it is characterized by blessing trial revival awakening you know whatever it might be and it's interesting that god gives some people insights into understanding times and seasons i want to give you an example here in just a moment but you know there was there was a time period back when david was taking over the kingdom after king saul died you'll remember and it took years actually for the for the whole kingdom of israel to come under his his rulership as king but eventually different factions or groups of israelites began to come alongside david and support him and in the book of chronicles it talks about the different groups basically from the different tribes that came to to uh to david and it says something very interesting about the descendants of issachar let me show you this on the screen from first chronicles chapter 12 it says of issachar it says that there were men who had understanding of the times they understood the times to know what israel ought to do and then it goes on to say of those men there were 200 chiefs and then all the kinsmen that were under their command any great number of men we don't know but they had a sense of understanding they knew that they knew that they knew this is david's time this is time for david to be king that's why we're going to do this it's time right they had a sense of the time and and so there are people that have uh just a sense of the time it's time and you'll hear people talking sometimes about the coming of the lord they'll say well it's got to be close i just you know now on the other hand the lord criticized his own people for not recognizing the signs of the times do you remember that let me show you this passage also online from matthew 16. he says you know you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky you can look at it and say there's going to be rain or it's going to be nice weather tomorrow or whatever but after all the prophetic insights that that you know your heavenly father has given you over the years as the jewish people to recognize the coming of messiah you missed it you couldn't even recognize the signs of the times that you're in and so you know they were kind of admonished for not paying attention and and so forth so again if you look with me in verse 1 paul says concerning these times and seasons brothers you know you have no need to have anything written to you for you yourselves verse 2 are fully aware that the day of the lord will come like a thief in the night and that's the first characteristic that paul gives us here about this whole period of time called the day of the lord he says it'll come like a thief in the night now don't assume from that that it means it's going to happen at night the phrase a thief in the night is just simply meant to pass along the idea that it's going to come unexpectedly it can't come at night for everybody because if it's at night in one place it's going to be day somewhere else right and it's going to be a global event when the these things take place so a thief in the night means you know they're not going to know people are are going to be unaware from that uh standpoint paul goes on to give us even more insights in verse 3 when he says while people are saying there's peace and security that's interesting then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape you know i speaking of labor pains i texted between services i texted the wife of the pastor up at calvary chapel baker city uh megan her due date is like today and so i just texted her quick between services said you got any baby action she said no but i did read a verse about labor pains today coming upon us suddenly i thought that's right where we are right so she's she's wondering if that's kind of a word from the lord for her for today i said well keep us posted but but anyway paul gives some interesting insights as to the season that will usher in the day of the lord and and you know we'll we'll talk about what that characteristic is but do you know who he's referring to who's going to experience these things did you see what he said there in verse 3 did you did you notice the pronouns let me read it again while people are saying there's peace and safety then sudden destruction will come on us that's not what he says does he he says sudden destruction will come on them and then he goes on to say as labor pains upon a pregnant woman we will not escape he doesn't say we he says they okay he's not referring to the church to whom he is writing in other words believers he is referring to unbelievers so he says the day of the lord will come upon them and and and the destruction that happens will come upon them and they will not escape but did you notice also that right before the day of the lord people are going to be saying peace and security now do you hear people saying that right now i sure don't uh it's not happening right at this minute is it people are not saying peace they're not saying security there we have a world that is actually in upheaval right now right so we know that right before this thing happens the day of the lord there's going to be a sense of peace people at least people will be saying peace and security it's interesting you know the word peace in the greek means a complete absence of alarm interesting huh and then the word security or your bible may say safety it refers to a a sense of blind safety or blind security in other words hinting at the fact that this this is all kind of unreal that it they're just not genuine but people will be saying peace and security and that means that the unbelievers living on the earth will have no idea at that time what is lurking and just about to pounce and what makes the people believe that there's going to be a time of peace and security well we believe that the book of daniel actually gives us some insight into that time period and this may suggest that that we as the church will be around to see the very very beginning of the the the day of the lord coming to pass but in daniel chapter nine let me show you a passage here it speaks of he and that he is the antichrist all right it says he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week and the one week which is made up of seven days is poetically speaking of seven years so what we know from this passage is that the antichrist will sign a seven year contract peace contract with many in the world but then we know also from daniel that halfway through that seven year period of time he will renege on the contract and things will go very bad very quickly not only will he set up his image at that time and demand to be worshipped as god but the the the wrath of god will begin to be poured out upon the earth at that time in earnest so it's going to be a a terrible time but i believe that it is this contract with the antichrist that will lull people into a false sense of security that paul refers to here in 1st thessalonians but it will be a false sense and it will literally be like labor pains coming upon a woman suddenly and sudden destruction will follow now please notice as we get into verse 4 that paul changes the pronoun verse 4 he says but you that's the church now we're talking to believers but you are not in darkness brothers he uses the word brothers and that could be translated brethren and that is a really a generic reference for the body of christ he says for that day to surprise you like a thief all right he says that day now he's talking about the day of the the lord he says that day is not going to surprise you like a thief and the reason is is that paul had told them to expect to the coming of the lord at any time you know if you have a working knowledge that somebody's going to break into your house you're going to prepare i always use that dumb example of home alone you know the movie the dumb christmas movie where uh little kevin overhears these two bumbling thieves planning to hit the house at a particular time that very evening and he knows he's got so much time so what does he do he's prepared for them right you know we watch this stupid movie every christmas i don't know why but you know i can't believe that movies become like a christmas classic you know but it has anyway i guess it's because it has christmas music in it and it was done around christmas but when you know that somebody's coming to break into your home you prepare you would be prepared to meet them so what paul is saying is that day is not going to surprise you because you know he's coming you know and this is the part where for us the day of the lord is imminent because the first thing that's going to happen in the day of the lord is the catching away of the church and we don't know the day we don't know the hour we just know he's coming and so we're told be ready be ready for his coming well when he comes what are we going to do we're going to go hey we were expecting you we didn't know when but we knew you were coming great you know it's a wonderful thing so he says it's not going to surprise you and then he explains a little bit more of why verse 4 he says you are not in darkness that means you you have a knowledge you understand you know you know what to expect concerning these last days events you're not sitting around going i wonder what's going to happen as the church you know what's going to happen he told you what's going to happen right here in the bible you know you're not in darkness you've been brought into the light on this thing in fact he goes on to say in verse 5 for you are all children of light children of the day you're a child of the light did you know that do you ever think of yourself as a child of the light it's okay to say that because that's what you are i think about that for a minute i'm a child of the light huh i'm a child of the light i mean i suppose there's implications to that you imagine such as i don't belong in the darkness i'm a child of the light i'm a child of the day yeah god has shared things with me and you know whatever some of your bibles may actually say a son of light instead of child of the light in the semitic languages whenever they would say son of something it would always mean that you bore a characteristic of that thing in other words it defined you do you know barnabas meant son of encouragement that was what his name means and he they called him that because he was an encourager you are a son of encouragement you are a son or a child of light you are of the light it is what defines you and that's an important thing to remember so he uh he uh he goes on and talks about the fact that uh we are we are children of the light and we are not of the night we are children of the light and not of the night you got to say that just right or of the the darkness do you remember what jesus promised us related to that let me show you this from the book of uh john chapter 8 verse 12 jesus spoke to them saying i am first of all the light of the world but then here's a promise whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life have you ever noticed that people who are in the world and don't know christ are just kind of bumbling around in the darkness and they really can't see to know where they're going and they stumble all over the place but you and i by just the goodness of god have been given the light of life because he is the light of life what a cool thing so paul continues verse six so then let us not sleep as others do and sleep is used here as a metaphor for walking in the ignorance of the times and seasons the lack of readiness he says let's not sleep as others do but he says let us keep awake let's be alert and be sober and by the way that word sober means clear-minded and and it doesn't necessarily mean let's not drink obviously drinking will do the opposite it will not make you sober if you drink a lot it will make you cloudy in your mind but it could be way more than drink or drugs or or even smoking weed for that matter as an aside i i happen to believe the legalization of marijuana in our state is a very specific work of the enemy to keep people's minds cloudy i do with all my heart and i know that the enemy knows that his time is just about done and he's doing everything he can to keep people's minds cloudy because we are called to be alert we're called to be sober-minded clear-minded so that we can pray and so we can know the things that are happening in the scriptures but you know there's frankly a lot of other things that can cloud your mind that don't have anything to do with chemicals or things you put into your body you can be your your mind can be clouded by fear your mind can be clouded by drama that you're just not firing on all cylinders in terms of just your ability to pay attention and see what's going on so we have to be careful about those things we have to be on the lookout against things that cloud our mind you know like i said you might you might not take drugs drink smoke weed great you know i applaud you for all those things doesn't mean that your mind is completely clear be careful be careful of the other things that can cloud our minds so paul reminds us in verse seven for those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk or drunk at night and now he's using the metaphor of night to speak of that period of time when darkness rains and people sleep and people get drunk which is those times when they're just not aware whether whether because they're drinking or whether they're just asleep they're not aware of what's going on and that's why he goes on to repeat and he says but in verse 8 since we belong to the day that time of light let us be sober again clear-minded having put on the breast plate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation so what paul's doing here is he's using this image of kind of a sentry a soldier who's put up on the wall to watch out for an enemy that might be approaching and these sentries were put there to stay alert and to call you know people to a place of of readiness you know if there were uh the attack of an enemy or something like that and so he uses these pictures of this soldier and the essentials of his armor and so what does he say is essential for you and i as we wait on the lord he says what is essential for you and i is faith and love and the hope of salvation think about those things you guys faith faith in god don't let your faith in god wane don't let it deteriorate how does faith deteriorate have you ever stopped to think about that have you ever asked that question how does faith deteriorate well it happens several different ways number one usually what happens is we go through a very difficult time or season in our lives time of great difficulty pain and you know how we respond to that time of difficulty we back away from god's word we back away from fellowship we don't read our bible as much sometimes because we're even disappointed with god we're wondering why is this happening and so i'm kind of angry with god and i don't really want to talk to him right now and i really don't want to hear from him either and so we back away what happens to our faith begins to deteriorate why because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god and when we are not in the path of god's word our faith will deteriorate period as you and i are waiting in these last days as we are doing our best to keep our eyes on jesus we cannot afford to back away we cannot afford to back away and then we're also told that we have to hang on to love we've got to hang on to it because it's going to be easy to let go of it in these last days jesus said that because of the lawlessness that will characterize the last days he said the love of many will grow cold the love of many people is going to grow cold they're going to stop caring they're going to start just looking out for number one because of lawlessness because of the the way things say you know what you just got to take care of yourself these days you know nobody else is going to watch over my life what i've got in my what my existence i i'm gonna have to do it you know the heck with them and the love of you know the love grows cold love for other people grows cold and then our love for god follows suit he says you got to hang on to it you've got to protect it it's like a breastplate got to hang on faith and love but also the hope of salvation don't ever let go of the hope of your salvation keep that in the forefront our hope is not in this life our hope is not in this world our hope is not in the things of this world our hope is not in whatever is coming down the pike in terms of this world our hope is in our salvation period and and as when we get our eyes off that and start putting our hope in other things we start getting into trouble and we have to be very careful so faith hope and love don't leave home without them and then verse nine once again you'll notice you know the emphasis he's been emphasizing the we and they references in the past few verses but now notice he switches he's back to us again verse nine he says for god has not destined us for wrath and and wrath is you know what the great tribulation is largely about but i really love how paul says we are not destined for that we the body of christ are not destined for wrath why are we not destined for wrath this is very simple jesus bore it for us already he bore it for us he bore the wrath of god do you understand jesus bore the wrath of god for you he carried it he consumed it it enveloped him it crushed him but it was all for you but it was the wrath of god there's this interesting word we come acro come upon in the new testament that i'm sure probably isn't in our daily vocabulary but it's the word propitiation and it doesn't appear in all english translations some of them uh use the word atonement like the niv instead of propitiation but the esv uses it i think so does the new king james and so forth jesus it says in the bible is our propitiation that's a fancy word that simply means this he removed the wrath of god for us it means to turn aside the wrath of god the wrath has been turned aside for those who are in christ whose faith is in the finished work of jesus on the cross the wrath of god has been turned aside and now so what can we say with the apostle paul we are not destined for that how could we be if there was any wrath of god that was coming our way it would mean that what jesus did wasn't enough right it would mean what jesus did wasn't good enough but it was good enough and he said it's finished so for you and i it's a done deal so paul can say this god has not destined us for wrath what have we been destined for to obtain salvation to obtain salvation through our lord jesus christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep and now he's changing these metaphors it's interesting when people mix metaphors you have to kind of keep up with them now he's talking about being alive or dead when he says awake or asleep he says that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him and then he ends this section of the chapter by saying therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing and that's so important isn't it build one another up encourage one another i hope i hope that every single person who walks out of calvary chapel ontario after i've gotten finished teaching the word and after we've had worship i hope that everybody can walk away saying i'm encouraged i hope so i'm built up but i hope you also come not just to be built up but to build up others because that is the exhortation of this final verse build one another encourage one another and he even says about the thessalonians just as you are doing they were actively thinking about how they could encourage and build one another up and he says i want you guys to do it more and more do it more and we need it because of all the the physical and spiritual battles that rage around us every single day you know there's somebody in here in this room and we're even limited to how many we have in our room there's also people watching live right now but but of all the people that are are part of this service today there's somebody here and i don't have to be a prophet to know this who's going through a hard time i mean who's going through a really hard time and they probably had to even work hard to get themselves here today so that they could just sit and hear the word of god somebody needs your encouragement somebody needs you to perhaps pray with them to encourage them and say hey keep your eyes on jesus man it's going to be soon hang in there don't let your faith you know get beat up keep growing in jesus we went through a period of about 12 weeks here at calvary chapel where we didn't have anybody in this auditorium except a couple of people in the booth and i was sitting here you know teaching to a camera let me tell you something i'm glad to have just a few people i was so glad when we started having people come back um i was it was so fun to have human beings again you know sitting in the chairs and not looking at empty chairs i remember the first time we did a online only service i told a joke man i never did that again it went nowhere i mean nobody i think my wife in the back row went or something like because she's heard them all you know so she nobody laughed what a drag no but we just we need each other we need to be actively encouraged i know that some of you guys are going through some very discouraging times and some of you guys have really had your faith kicked around your faith has been kicked around and you feel it and we need each other we need to be together as the body of christ loving on each other and even if it's just a word of encouragement hey i'm praying for you man i'm praying for you or when you see somebody who is certain how can i pray for you how can i lift you before the lord oh do we need that of course we do he says therefore encourage one another build one another up that word means edify edify one another as you are doing let's not stop amen you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

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Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

Id: VidrXYrQNrQ

Length: 37min 19sec (2239 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2020