Christ Will Return To Rescue His People: Be Filled With Hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11)

So far we have discussed the past. We have discussed what God has done. Now we are going to look at what He has promised to do in the future. God’s story is not finished. He is still moving all things toward the end and Christ’s Second Coming is an event that has yet to be fulfilled. God is still writing this story and now we find Him telling us what lies ahead.

Christ has already come once. The first time He came it was as a suffering servant. The second time around He will come as the Conquering King who has come to fully and finally rescue His people.

This truth is the bedrock of our hope. And it is something that we need to see when everything seems to be falling in around us.

There have been a lot of different times in my life when I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I found myself getting depressed about the issue at hand and losing sight of how the story ends. We are looking here at the end of the story; Christ will return and bring about the New Heavens and New Earth.

The hardest day of mine and Amanda’s life was probably spent in Lowell, Ar. where we found out for sure that Haddon was autistic. The days and the months that followed were very dark. We had done everything the way that we were supposed to do it. We were devoted to God and His mission and ended up in terrifying territory. We are still in terrifying territory. There are a lot of unknowns in the world we live in. Yet, it is looking ahead to a day…it is being encouraged by a day coming when Christ will set all things right. He will return and bring His people to Himself.

We knew these things and had to return to our understanding and trust of God. We had to essentially preach this hope to ourselves over and over. But we have to have this understanding before things happen to us or we will not be prepared.

There are probably people reading this that feel the pain that this world brings very deeply. There are probably some of you here who need the encouragement of knowing that you will be with Jesus when He returns. You likely need to look into the future a bit for encouragement for the fight that we go through in this dark world. I am sure that you need encouragement in this dark world, and Christ’s return gives it to you.

Life can get very dark. Extremely hard trials can come upon us in an instant. We must be ready. We must be prepared. In “The Hobbit”, Bilbo, the hobbit was entering the tunnel with the dragon inside. He began to see signs of the dragon and Tolkien writes this,

“This grew to the unmistakable gurgling noise of some vast animal snoring in its sleep down there in the red glow in front of him. It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterwards were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.”- J.R.R. Tolkein, 2012, Del Ray pp. 214-215

Much like Bilbo the battle begins in our head. We will be faithful in mind long before we act out our faithfulness in our actions. Looking forward to the second coming of Christ brings encouragement and courage in this dark world.

Let’s look at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11.

 

Be Encouraged: You Will Be With the Lord When He Comes (4:13-18)

 

We live in a very dark world where is not easy to be a believer. We are surrounded by all sorts of evils. Wickedness seems to be surrounding us on all sides. But, Paul would have us to be encouraged in this dark time, not because of anything that happens now, but because of where we will be later. Actually, it would be more correct to say who we will be with later. We are to be encouraged because we will be with the Lord when He comes.

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. He notes here a few things that should give us encouragement. First, all believers will rise to meet the Lord. All of those who have trusted in Christ will rise. And just in case his readers misunderstood what the word “all” means, he gave an explanation. The Lord will descend from Heaven “with the voice of an archangel and the sound of the trumpet of God”. What an entrance! This is not Christ coming as a humble servant, but as conquering King. And when He comes, the dead in Christ rise first and then those still alive. Those believers both dead and alive will rise when Christ returns and head to our eternal home where we will always be with the Lord.

Now, some may see this as a bit boring due to the images of angels lazily resting their heads their cloud pillow. This is not what we find in Scripture concerning the presence of the Lord. Rather than being a place of boring laziness we find that the presence of the Lord is where an unlimited fountain of joy and pleasure reside (Psalm 16:11). For the first time since the fall the great divide that stood in the way of our intimacy with God will be completely removed. And we will be with Him fully and forever. We will be in the presence of the One person who holds joy and pleasures forevermore within Himself. With Him is where we will finally be.

As we stare into the great darkness of this world we are reminded that things are better on the other side. We are but strangers and aliens in this place. This is not our eternal home. Our final resting place is much grander than anything we can imagine here. We can give up what many believe to be the good life because we are living for something greater. This is not our true home; we are strangers and aliens here.

We can also be a joyous people in the midst of the chaos of this world because of how glorious our true home is. Some of the struggles that we persevere in this life are horrific. But we can face them with hope because we know that it will not always be this way. Imagine this with me: you and your family escape a hotel that’s on fire. You go home and virtually everything is back to normal. Your attitude is normal. Your life has not really been changed. But why?

It wasn’t your home. You lost 2 sets of clothes in the fire.

When you get discouraged about this life, be encouraged. This residence is only temporary. We are staying in a hotel during this life and will one day leave to go home. You will eventually be with Him in your eternal home. And so, looking forward to and trusting the promises of God about Jesus’ future coming gives us encouragement in this life.

Be Ready: You Do Not Know When He Will Come (5:1-3)

 

There have been many people predict the end of the world to no avail.  May 21, 2011 and then October 21, 2011 were two predictions that didn’t pan out. Both of these made nationwide news both before and after the non-event. Jehovah’s Witnesses have predicted the end on seven different occasions. Many others can be included in this list throughout history. This is evidence of a real tension for people.

People want to know when it all will end. There is a desire to know, but the reality is we can’t know.

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3.

Plainly we see that Jesus will come suddenly and without warning. Jesus says that he will come like a thief in the night. People don’t expect thieves to break into their houses. And, they generally do not announce their self before they break in. In fact, they oftentimes in our day use social media to find out when the home is going to be vacant so that they can really surprise you. It’s totally and completely unexpected. That’s what thieves do.

Jesus’ return will be much like a thief’s break in. It will be totally unexpected. In Jesus’ day thieves were likely to come “in the night”. They would strike when no one could notice them. The whole house was asleep and when no one expected it a thief was robbing them of their stuff.

Paul goes further into this by describing it as similar to a woman going into labor. “There is peace and security then destruction comes upon them like labor pains on a pregnant woman.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

When Amanda was pregnant with Haddon there were no labor pains that were surprising because he had to be induced a week after his due date. Lydia, however, was a different story.

At around 3am one morning Amanda calmly looked at me and said, “I’ve been having labor pains for about an hour.” It was completely unexpected. Nothing was planned here. We didn’t know when it was going to happen, but all of a sudden in the wee hours of the morning Lydia was coming. But, we were ready. The bag for the hospital had been packed for weeks.

Be ready. Are you ready? Christ will come at any time. He did not tell us when, but the important thing to know is that you are ready. Do you know Christ? Have you trusted in Him? When He returns will you be His or will you still belong to this world and be destroyed?

Be ready and be doing the things you are supposed to be doing. Be doing the work or our Master while there is still time, you really don’t know when it will all be over. Stop wasting your time on those things that really don’t matter. Be ready, be working for the Lord.

Prepare Each Other For War: We Are Children Of Light Destined For Salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:4-11)

 

There is an incredibly corporate nature to Christianity. We aren’t living this life alone. We are to live it amidst a community of believers. We don’t just go to church to sing and hear a sermon. We are tied into a body of believers who are encouraging one another for the war that we wage day in and day out. It is not a war waged with fists, swords, guns, or nukes. It is a war within ourselves and against the evil that pervades culture.

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:4-11.

Notice the first declaration. Paul is declaring to you who you are in Christ. We must begin here. You are no longer people of darkness. Christians are people who have been brought out of the darkness and brought into the light. We are people who have been rescued from this world and are being fitted for the life to come with Christ.

Though evil and wickedness seem to reign supreme, that is not us or of us. We are separate from evil and wickedness now. But this separation is not of our own account. It is because Christ has brought us out of that wickedness through what He accomplished for us.

We were rebels against God. We had disobeyed Him and had earned the just reward for these actions: eternal death. We were destined to be separated from God forever doomed to pay the punishment for our sin for eternity. But God sent His Son to pay the punishment that we owed on our behalf. He came as our substitute. He died on the cross taking the full wrath and justice of God upon Himself. Then, He rose from the dead three days later. He had completely and totally accomplished our salvation for us. And now, we can be rescued from the wickedness of this dark world and brought into God’s glorious family.

We are now people of light. We are the Blood Bought Bride of Christ. We are not who we once were. If we are Christians then we will never be that person again. Christ has plucked us out of the world and made us “people of light”. This is who we are. This is our identity. Will there be times when we act against our identity? Yes, there will, but this will not characterize us forever. We are people of light.

As people of light, Paul says that we should not sleep but go to war. This identity is not to make us lazy. We are not to kick back and think, “Christ died for me. He accomplished everything for me. Now, I’m gonna take a nap.” Paul says, that’s not how it works. Yes, Christ died for you. Yes, He accomplished everything for you. Now, go to work. Go and fight the battle. Battle yourself and your own sinful desires. Go to war with your laziness. Go to war with your bad attitude. Go to war with your lack of love for the poor. Go to war.

Remember, I said that there is a very corporate nature to this battle. Well, Paul tells us to encourage one another in this battle. We can’t do it on our own. And we are not to be alone. We are to be plugged into a local body of believers and love and care for one another. We are to hold each other up, pray for one another, and come alongside brothers and sisters in Christ who have been wounded in the fight. We are to commend to one another the value of fighting sin, and we are to insist that we do these things.

During different wars it has sometimes been though best to convert luxury cruise ships into vessels of war. In the conversion the luxury plates and tables and chairs are gone and make way for more people and more durable tableware. The luxury beds are replaced with bunks that can hold many more people. Why is this done? Relaxing is not for war time. We have to understand that our days on this Earth are not for luxury. We don’t give ourselves over to a life of ease. We serve Christ. We war against our self and our own evil desires. We work to spread the good news of what Christ has done to the ends of the Earth. We live in a time of doing, so let’s no lie around. Let’s go to war.

Why would we waste what little time we have? “Only one life it will soon be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last!”

Are you fighting against your own sinful temptations or are you giving in to them? Are you fighting against slothful laziness? Are you fighting against pornography? Are you fighting against lust? Are you fighting against rebellion against your parents? Are you fighting sin in your life? We are children of the day, fight.

John Flavel, the Puritan preacher and writer, once said,

“If I am the Lord’s, then my time, my talents, and all I have are His.”

That is who we are and what we are. We have been rescued from the darkness of this world if we are believers. And we are His. We are children of light and all we have and all we are is His.

But, there may be some of you reading this who are still children of the darkness who have not been made children of light. If you have not surrendered your life to Christ do so today. If you still live in a dark world and have not been rescued by Christ then trust Him today.

But if you are a believer,

Be Encouraged In This Dark World: You Are Destined For Life With Him (5:9-11)

 

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:9-13. Do you notice what our great hope is in this dark world? Do you notice what it is that we are to encourage one another with in this present darkness?

This is the great hope that we have in this dark world. It is that Christ has saved us from God’s wrath through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. Whether we are alive or dead we can rest in the love and grace that God has given us through the perfect work of His Son. And, this is the great hope and truth that we are to encourage one another with at this time.

R. Dwain Minor