Being Prepared for the Coming Day of the Lord
Introduction:
-as we make our way through the New Testament, we come across truths of the Kingdom of God that must be believed and received by faith
-the Bible tells us the truth about our world, about our Lord, about our position in Jesus by faith
-it also tells us the truth about what is going to happen in the world before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to this earth; there are clear signs and historical events that will precede His Coming
-many today steer away from teaching on these ‘last things’ (eschatology is the technical term) because they feel it’s too controversial; they don’t want to stir people up causing needless anxiety
-but the Apostle Paul taught about these things to these new believers in Thessalonica during his three weeks with them; it is very evident from this epistle as well as from his second epistle to them
-there really is a mandate upon every Christian leader and teacher to declare the whole counsel of God to their congregations; Paul said this very clearly in his testimony to the elders at Ephesus
Acts 20:27 NKJV
For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
-teaching what the Bible has to say about the last days is part of this ‘whole counsel of God’
-just what is it going to look like on the earth before Jesus returns? Are there any significant historical events that must first take place before Jesus catches away His church unto Himself?
-these are among the questions we will be answering this morning as we look at 1 Thessalonians 5
-read 1 Thes. 5:1-11; pray
I. The Day of the Lord vv. 1-3
A. It Comes as a Thief in the Night vv. 1-2
-Paul had made it perfectly clear to the Thessalonian believers about the tribulation period that would come upon the earth just before Christ’s Second Coming
-in ch. 4 of this epistle he had clarified about the catching away of the believers unto the Lord occurring just before this time of trouble that would begin upon the earth
-from vv. 1-2 we can conclude that the coming judgment of God upon the world was shown to them by Paul and Timothy from the Scriptures
-the term ‘the times and the seasons’ is used three times in Scripture: once here, once in the book of Daniel, and once in Acts ch. 1
-in all three cases the context centers on God’s dealings with Israel’s future
-this event called ‘the Day of the Lord’ will begin after the church has been taken away from the earth
-after that the man of sin will be revealed (more on that when we get into 2 Thes. 2)
-the Day of the Lord culminates with the Second Coming of Christ to this earth
-when Christ returns to this earth He will set up His righteous world Kingdom headquartered in Jerusalem
-the Day of the Lord is a period of time, a season of seven years, during which God will bring Israel as a nation to a saving knowledge of Yeshua as Messiah
-it will also be a season when God will bring judgment upon the world for their iniquity
-there will be a purging of the world from its sin before the Lord Jesus comes to take His rightful place as King of kings and Lord of lords
Isa 13:6-11 NKJV Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. (7) Therefore all hands will be limp, Every man’s heart will melt, (8) And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like flames. (9) Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it. (10) For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine. (11) “I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
-some Bible commentators say this is only a prophetic reference to the coming destruction of Israel and Judah by the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires
-but Jesus also spoke of this Day of the Lord, putting it into a future tense
-and in case some believe it was a reference to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, you’ll find in the Book of Revelation (written down in 90 AD) a detail of the events that will transpire during this ‘Day of the Lord’
-Jesus gave instructions to His disciples (and to us today) about what would take place during this time period; you can read about it in Matt. 24-25, Mk. 13, and Lk. 21
-I also refer you to our church website under the link ‘archived sermons’ for further study on these chapters; the book of Daniel also speaks of this Day of the Lord
-as a matter of fact we are going to be showing a DVD teaching from Joel Rosenberg on Daniel 9 this Wednesday night
-Joel will show how that current events today with Iran, Israel, and Russia fit right into Biblical prophecy and what we can expect in the coming days
-Jesus also used this terminology ‘thief in the night’ when exhorting His disciples to be prepared for this coming Day
Mat 24:42-44 NKJV Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. (43) 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. (44) Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Rev 3:2-3 NKJV Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. (3) Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
-and to the Jewish believers alive during the tribulation period Jesus says:
Rev 16:15 NKJV “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”
B. It Comes as Labor Pains Upon a Pregnant Woman v. 3
-this idea of world peace and safety is something that has been espoused during our generation, especially in the last twenty years or so
-but the Bible tells us it will be brought about by one who is inhabited by Satan himself
-he is referred to in Scripture as ‘the antiChrist’, ‘the man of sin’, ‘the little horn’, ‘the prince that shall come’, ‘the beast’, ‘the son of perdition’, ‘the lawless one’
-but just as it appears that this one man has the answers to really bring about this elusive goal to the world, then the judgment of God begins to fall
-this illustration of labor pains coming upon a pregnant woman about to deliver is used throughout Scripture, usually in the context of a coming judgment
Jer 30:5-7 NKJV “For thus says the LORD: ‘We have heard a voice of trembling, Of fear, and not of peace. (6) Ask now, and see, Whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins Like a woman in labor, And all faces turned pale? (7) Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it.
-Jesus also used this life reality to illustrate how the events at the end of time would culminate in this Day of the Lord in Mt. 24:8: ‘the beginning of sorrows’
II. The Disciples are Sons of Light vv. 4-11
A. The Day of the Lord is Not For Those Living in the Light vv. 4-5
-in the remaining verses of our text today we read of these contrasting terms, ‘darkness and light’, ‘night and day’
-they are used as a spiritual reference to describe the moral state of a person before God
-we see these terms used quite frequently throughout the gospel of John and in his epistles of 1, 2, and 3 John
-many have not even considered the words that Jesus spoke after He told Nicodemus that famous gospel summary of John 3:16
Joh 3:16-21 NKJV For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (17) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (18) “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (19) And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (20) For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (21) But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
-if you have believed on, trusting in, relied upon Christ for your salvation, you are considered by God a person of the light
-the Day of the Lord is not going to come upon you
-now there were those in Israel that thought this Day of the Lord would finally rid them of their outward enemies; but they continued to live daily in sin and iniquity
-they couldn’t see that their own unrepentant hearts made then targets of this Day
Amo 5:18-20 NKJV 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. (19) It will be as though a man fled from a lion, And a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, Leaned his hand on the wall, And a serpent bit him! (20) Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?
B. The Determination to Be Alert and Aware vv. 6-8
-even though the Day of the Lord will not fall upon the church of Jesus Christ, there is this warning from Paul about being watchful and abiding in faith, love and hope
-all throughout Jesus’ message to His disciples when speaking about these last things, there were continual warnings to be watchful
-why? Because of the tendency in our flesh to grow complacent in the daily life pattern
-many people come into church services seeking answers to their life problems
-they hear how God understands their situation and loves them implicitly
-they are shown the way of salvation through faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ
-they leave considering it all; but just because they have heard with their ears and understood with their mind doesn’t mean they have actually boarded the train
-if they trust in their hearing and their understanding but do nothing about surrendering their life to the Lord, they are in grave danger of the coming Day of the Lord
-there were those in Noah’s day who watched the ark being built, understood why he was doing so, but they never entered the ark to the saving of their soul
Mat 24:37-42 NKJV 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. (40) Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. (41) Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. (42) Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
C. The Deliverance from the Wrath to Come vv. 9-11
-there are those today who teach that the church of Jesus Christ will be the mighty army going through the great tribulation triumphant in the end
-but in the full context of the Scriptures, and from a simple, literal reading therein, we find that the Day of the Lord is a time of the pouring out of the wrath of God upon a godless, sinful world
-looking at both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and considering God’s plan for the nation of Israel in these last days, we see that the church of Jesus Christ will be snatched away before the wrath falls upon this world in judgment
-our hope is that we not only are partaking of this Life (Zoe’) right now, but we will continue to partake of it after we physically put off this body
-God did not appoint us to partake of His wrath; do we understand this? God has given us the Passover Lamb of Jesus Christ that the destroying angel will not touch us
-does this mean that we will not have trouble and tribulation in our own lives?
-no; we may suffer greatly as we live out a godly life in Christ Jesus; persecution may become our lot as we stand fast to the word of God
-it is already happening in nations around the world, even in Canada
-also, the society in which we live may collapse and bring untold hardship and trouble upon our life; but God will be with us in the midst of it all
-this is His promise: I will NEVER leave you, nor FORSAKE you
Heb 13:5-6 NKJV Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU.” (6) So we may boldly say: “THE LORD IS MY HELPER; I WILL NOT FEAR. WHAT CAN MAN DO TO ME?”
Psa 46:1-3 NKJV To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song For Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. (2) Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; (3) Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah
-what great comfort and encouragement we can have as we understand and receive these important truths—especially as we see the event in our world unfold!
-today we see the particular alliance of nations coming together as in no other time in history—an alliance that was prophesied about thousands of years ago that would take place in the last days
-we see the establishing of the nation of Israel, we see Russia in alliance with Iran and Libya, we hear the threats of annihilation against Israel from the Islamic Middle-Eastern nations; we understand the potential for nuclear disaster worldwide
Luk 21:28 NKJV Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”