"The Day of the Lord" by Rod Bayley, 9 March 2008, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

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Christine and I, as most of you are aware, are expecting our third
child in August. Of course the arrival of a baby is a special event
and produces much expectation. Though there are predictions by family
members and others as to whether it will be a boy or a girl, or what
the name might be, no one usually wants to offer a prediction about
the arrival date. As we all know, babies are renowned for coming in
their own time, possibly early, invariably late, but always
unpredictable, unless the mother is having a caesarian. Everyone
knows that the child must be delivered, that it will come - it’s
inescapable, but who knows when. You may have had the experience of
talking to the baby while in-utero, or seeing others do so. Among
other things we might say - ‘Hello in there - there’s a big world
waiting out here - when are you planning on coming out?’ If the baby
could answer, he or she would probably say something like: ‘I’m in no
rush - the temperature in here is just right, I have food on tap - I’m
getting a bit short on room, but I won’t complain because the
positives outweigh the negatives - I think I’ll stay put for a
while.’ But of course, eventually the walls of their room will start
moving in, contractions will commence, and the baby will soon make its
entrance, or exit, depending on your point of view - he or she will be
evicted. It’s inevitable.

Well, as we continue our series in Thessalonians today, and come to
the first part of chapter five, we read Paul’s continued instructions
about Christ’s return. And in the opening verses we learn that Paul
likens Christ’s second advent to the delivery of a baby and the
arrival of a thief. Notice again what the apostle states in verses 1
to 3:
“Now brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you,
2for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a
thief in the night. 3While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’
destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant
woman, and they will not escape.”

Notice firstly in verse 1, however, that the context of Paul’s
teaching here is that he is answering another question from the
congregation. That is inferred from the opening construction: ‘Now
brothers, about times and dates ...’ Last week he was answering the
question from 4:13-18: ‘Will those who have died be disadvantaged at
Christ’s second coming?’ Answer: ‘No they will not’, with the
concluding exhortation in verse 18 to encourage each other. Here at
the start of chapter 5 the question is: ‘When will Christ return?’ No
doubt driven by the unremitting persecution they are facing, they
presumably want to know the ‘when’ question so as to know how long
they have to persevere, and how long it will be before their
oppressors will face God’s judgment. Again, after addressing this
issue, Paul will leave them with an exhortation to encourage one
another in verse 11. It is clear from the phrase ‘you know very
well’, at the start of verse 2, that Paul has already provided
teaching on this point. However, Paul patiently highlights again the
certainty of that great day, its inevitability, as well as its
unpredictability.

But before we consider further what is being said about the Lord’s
return in the two metaphors in verses 2 and 3, it’s worth considering
the phrase used to refer to the second coming here - that is, ‘the Day
of the Lord.’ This is a term which has a clear background, a pedigree
if you like, in the Old Testament. It is a phrase, which as we saw in
the reading from Joel 2, gives focus to the judgment that will
accompany God’s appearing. The day of the Lord can be defined as the
day the Lord will come to judge and to pour out his wrath on sin. And
so the various descriptions in the Old Testament of this Day actually
inspire fear and dread, at least for those upon whom God’s judgment
will fall. For example, the prophet Amos provides a clear summary of
the expectation of this day, as he rebukes God’s people for their
idolatry and oppression of the poor. In chapter 5, verses 18 to 20 he
states:
“Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the
day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. 19It will be
as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he
entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake
bite him. 20Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light -
pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?”

Having understood this biblical background, verses 2 and 3 of our
passage make perfect sense. The picture of sudden, inescapable
destruction amidst reassurances that life is happily travelling along
in peace and safety is vivid, and points to the nature of the ‘Day of
the Lord.’ With regard to the two metaphors, firstly, the thief in the
night is unpredictable - he comes unexpectantly at an hour when people
are asleep. He never makes known his appearance - there is no
forewarning. Secondly, we have the metaphor of the pregnant woman,
whose labour pains come upon her suddenly - though the general timing
is known in this example, the hour is unknown, and it is an
inescapable event.

And so Paul neatly conveys three principles about the day of the
Lord:
1) it’s timing is unpredictable,
2) but the event is certain and inescapable,
3) and it will bring judgment or destruction. It should be noted that
the word translated ‘destruction’ would be better translated
‘disaster.’

Verse 3 does not tell us that non-Christians will be destroyed or
annihilated on judgment day. We know from elsewhere in scripture,
that God’s punishment for sin is not to extinguish their
consciousness, but rather that they will continue while being shut out
of God‘s presence. For example, turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 1,
verses 6 to 9, which state:
“God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7and
give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will
happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire
with his powerful angels. 8He will punish those who do not know God
and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished
with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the
Lord ...”

To reject God now is to have your decision honoured for eternity - the
word translated ‘destruction’ is the same Greek word (), and
this instance makes it clear that ‘disaster’ would be a better
rendering as one cannot be destroyed eternally. Besides, this phrase
is defined as being shut out from God’s presence. That is the
experience of the rich man in Jesus’ parable in Luke 16 where he goes
to the place of the dead and has conscious existence beyond the grave,
and similarly for the goats in Matthew 25, where they experience
eternal punishment (v46) - its not non-consciousness. Now God takes
no delight in the punishment of those who’ve rejected him, and neither
should we, but it is the inescapable outcome of Christ’s return. The
day of the Lord involves God expressing his holiness.

As we apply this first section to ourselves, the simple but necessary
point to make is that speculation about the timing of Christ’s return
is a fruitless exercise. It hardly seems worth stating, but given the
millions of Christians who became obsessed with such predictions in
the last century, and who must have wasted countless hours reading and
writing such forecasts, it needs to be reiterated. One of many
predictions in recent years was made in 1981 by Bill Maupin. Maupin,
who was a pastor in Tucson, Arizona, wrote a book predicting the date
of the Second Coming as June 21, 1981. His congregation sold all their
belongings and went to a hilltop on that day to await the event, which
of course never happened.

Well, the apostle Paul had no doubt already repeated Christ’s own
words on the subject to the Thessalonians, which are recorded in
Matthew 24:36:
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven,
nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Not even Jesus knows when that day will be, and so Paul does not know,
and neither can the Thessalonians know. If someone tells you they
have the answer, or wants you to read an article or a book which
unlocks what was previously unknown, politely tell them that you could
better use your time.

Turning to the second point on my outline, Living in the light of the
day, we come to verses 4 to 8. Paul turns from the unanswerable
question of ‘when’ will Christ return, to the pressing issue of how to
live while we wait for the Day. Look again at verses 4 and 5:
“But you brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should
surprise you like a thief. 5You are all sons of the light and sons of
the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness.”

Paul draws a clear distinction between those in the dark or the night,
and those of the light or the day - it is about our identity. The
dark is a symbol of moral darkness - those who are comfortably living
in the reign of sin. That symbolism is not as striking for us today
because we go out at night - night is the time for us to go and eat at
a restaurant, to go to a movie or a show, to have fun. But in the
first century it wasn’t like that - night was the time of darkness as
there wasn’t any street lights, night was the time of danger. At
night you faced drunkenness, at night the thief came under cover of
darkness. Those who are in the dark in verse 6 are asleep, unaware of
disaster that is going to overtake them because of their rejection of
God which produces a moral indifference.

However, those whose identity is in Christ, those who are sons and
daughters of the light or day, are different in verse 6. We’re not to
be surprised (v4) because we are not of the dark (v5), and therefore
we are not asleep. Rather we are to be prepared, and that
preparedness is characterised by the words ‘alert’ and ‘self-
controlled’ in verse 6. We are not morally asleep, but we’re alert so
that we’re not giving ourselves over to temptation, indifferent to the
sin which God has called us out of. It is a picture of vigilance, and
has the example of a soldier in mind - one who is always ready.
Moreover, we are also told in verse 6 to be self-controlled, and this
command is repeated in verse 8. This verb means literally to be
sober, instead of drunk, but in this context carries the general idea
of exercising moral self-restraint and having clear thinking. In
verse 8 Paul tells us how this self-control will be demonstrated - it
means exercising the virtues of faith, love and hope.

Well, here is Paul’s application in this second section for his
original readers and ourselves. The way for Christians to live while
we await Christ’s return is to remain morally alert and self-
controlled, which will be indicated by our faith, love and hope. Paul
uses a military metaphor in verse 8, as faith and love are our
breastplate, and hope is the helmut of our salvation. The source of
this metaphor is Isaiah 59:17 where God himself is compared to a
soldier. Here Paul has reworked the metaphor so that it now refers to
Christians who put on these qualities. The armour is defensive and
represents preparedness. These three virtues were already discussed
at the commencement of the letter - Paul has stated that the
Thessalonians already had these qualities. Chapter 1 verse 3 states:
“We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced
by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Despite this, they are to grow in
each of these virtues. Their faith in God and their love toward other
Christians and to all people, plus their hope in the coming of the
Lord Jesus, enable them to be completely prepared for the day of the
Lord. The hope of salvation spoken of in verse 8 refers to the
consummation of their salvation on the day of the Lord - it is the
assurance of future deliverance from God’s wrath.

In their recent book about the end times, called ‘666 and all that’,
John Dickson and Greg Clarke spend the first chapter looking at these
three dimensions of the Christian life - faith in God, love for
others, hope in God’s promises for the future. They note that Paul
places hope, our eager expectation of God’s promised future, right
alongside faith and love, and that if we lack hope (indeed any of
these) we are in danger of becoming a distorted follower of Christ.
Without the third dimension of hope, our Christian lives will be flat
and unbalanced, and yet it is often the poor cousin of the three.
They then ask the question: ‘what exactly do we hope for as
Christians?’ They answer by arguing that it boils down to four main
things: Christ’s second coming, the final judgment (or God’s justice),
resurrection life, and God’s new creation. The final three are all
ushered in by the first - Christ’s second coming. Well, let me ask
you: Is that your hope? Is that your eager expectation? Or is your
hope in worldly things - in your possessions, your family, your stocks
and shares? Paul tells us to put on faith, love and hope.

Lets move to the third and final point on the outline - the Day holds
no fear for those in Christ, in verses 9 to 11. We’ve already noted
that the aspect of Christ’s coming that is brought into sharp focus by
the phrase ‘day of the Lord’, is the judgment that accompanies his
return. Perhaps the danger of verses 4 to 8, particularly for a
sensitive conscience, is that we think we are ensuring our salvation
through our performance of being alert and self-controlled. Thus, if
we’re struggling we can fear that we will not be saved. But as Steve
Leibman used to tell us, we can be alert and not alarmed - we don’t
have to fear that we will lose our salvation by falling asleep. There
is always that tendency to take that which is the fruit of our
salvation, and make it the root of our salvation. But the basis of
our salvation is spelt out in verses 9 and 10 - it is Christ’s death
for us. Look at verses 9 and 10 again:
“For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation
through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10He died for us so that, whether we
are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.”

Christ’s substitutionay death is the basis of our salvation, and it is
this that ensures that we are appointed to receive salvation, not to
suffer wrath. This is the only place in this letter that the purpose
of Christ’s death is explained - he takes our place, he takes our
punishment, “he died for us” says verse 10. Our salvation does not
depend on our readiness but upon God’s sovereign electing purposes -
we are appointed to salvation by God. We will be awake, we will be
alert and self-controlled because we have been appointed to salvation
- we are sons and daughters of the light - that is our identity now by
faith. And this salvation in verse 10 means that whether we have died
or are still alive at Christ’s coming, we will live together with
him. We will be with our Saviour and Lord forever together. We will
be part of a perfect community - what a great reunion it will be when
we will live together with Jesus.

Well, how do we apply all this? Paul doesn’t say, ‘here is a fancy
formula’ - it’s just faith, love and hope. Keep pressing on while you
wait. How do you get ready for the day? Faith, love and hope - trust
all that Christ has done, love your brothers and sisters in Christ and
all people, and long for the day. And we are to encourage each other
to keep doing this in verse 11. More than simply encourage, as he has
already said in chapter 4 verse 18, he now adds ‘build each other up’,
or literally ‘construct each other.’ We have a responsibility to each
other. Let me ask you, ‘When does such spiritual building, such moral
construction take place?’ Well, at morning tea, dinner, or supper for
the most part on a Sunday. It happens in the small groups, prayer
triplets and other groups through the week. It’s not that the church
service itself is unimportant but this ministry that he is telling us
to get on with is for all of us - we are all to be pastoring each
other, encouraging, building one another up. This happens as we spend
time talking to one another, time one on one or in small groups. So
please don’t see morning tea (or dinner or supper) as the bit to avoid
and rush off - it is an integral part of our gathering together.
Don’t view small groups as an optional extra that you can do without -
see Carolyn today if you are not part of one, or speak to myself, so
that you might take on your responsibility of encouraging and edifying
others. We come together to work, to be pro-actively constructing each
other spiritually. It takes interaction - every gathering of
Christians should be active, not passive, because we’re preparing for
the future.

Our world is consumed with the here and now - our politicians talk to
us about security now, freedom from terrorism now. But Christian
faith will issue in hope, in real security and justice in the future.
The Earl of Shaftesbury, that great British reformer who followed on
from Wilberforce’s efforts at social reform, was a very practical man,
but also a man of hope. He helped ban child labour, he set up schools
to educate the poor, he established orphanages. In John Pollock’s
biography of Shaftesbury, he is recorded as saying this: ‘There are
not two hours of the day that I don’t think of the second advent of
our Lord - there is no real remedy for all this mass of misery except
for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ - why don’t we plead for it
every time we hear the clock strike.’ Well, may we be like
Shaftesbury. We don’t know when the day of the Lord will come, but we
are to be in readiness. While we wait, we are to put on faith, love
and hope.