Living in Light of Jesus’ Return: A Theif in the Night


Sermon by J. Ligon Duncan on July 22, 2012 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

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The Lord’s Day Morning


July 22, 2012



“Living Life in Light of Jesus’
Return: A Thief in the Night”


1 Thessalonians 5:1-11


The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5 as we continue our way through this letter of the apostle Paul.
As you’re turning there, let me remind you that at the end of 1
Thessalonians 4 and in these first verses of chapter 5, Paul is addressing
specifically the issue of the return of Christ.
We’ve said all along our theme in the study of this letter has been,
“Living Life in Light of Jesus’ Return,” to everything that Paul has said to us,
everything he’s encouraged us with, everything he’s exhorted us to do, has been
in light of the coming of the Lord Jesus.
But in these passages especially he is specifically addressing the matter
of the return of Christ. Last time
as we were looking at 1 Thessalonians 4 the question had to do with, “What
happens to believers who die before Jesus’ return?
What is the status of believers who die before that final day, the return
of the Lord Jesus Christ?” And we
were able to look at Paul’s teaching there and learn tremendous comfort for all
of us who lose loved ones before the return of Christ.
What is their state? They are
immediately present with the Lord.
And the apostle Paul comforts the Thessalonians with tremendous Biblical truths,
some that have come directly from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in that passage.

Today the question has to do still with the return of Christ but it’s a little
bit different. The question is, “How
do you prepare for the return of Christ?”
The Thessalonians want to know.
And specifically you’re going to see in the first three verses of this
passage the Thessalonians are interested in trying to nail down the timing of
Christ’s return. And the reason,
you’ll understand, makes sense.
Well, surely it would help to prepare for the return of Christ if you know when
that was going to be. “Paul,
wouldn’t it help us to know when Jesus is coming again so that we’re better
prepared for His coming?” Now Paul
gives them a very definite answer to that question and it’s the same answer that
Jesus gave to His disciples, and he does it in this passage.
But then, Paul goes on to tell the Thessalonians how, in fact, every
believer ought to go about preparing for the return of Jesus Christ.
And that’s what we’re going to study together today.

Let’s pray before we read God’s Word.

Father, this is Your Word, it comes from Your mouth, and we pause right now and
reflect that, in Your providence, some of our forbearers were willing to be
burnt at the stake so that we could hear this word read in our own language.
We do not take it for granted.
We ask then, O God, that by Your Holy Spirit You would open our eyes to
behold wonderful truth in Your Word, that You would open our ears that we would
receive it and our hearts to believe and to respond in faith and obedience to
this Your Word. We ask this in
Jesus’ name, amen.

This is God’s Word. Hear it in 1
Thessalonians chapter 5 beginning in verse 1:

“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.”

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired, and inerrant Word.
May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

So, how do we prepare for Jesus’ coming?
How do we live life in light of Jesus’ return?
Well everything that Paul has already taught us in that letter, in this
letter that we’re studying, helps us answer that question.
But he is specifically addressing that issue in the passage before us.
He is teaching us how to prepare for the return of Christ.
And if I could divide it into two parts, he says, “Not by
prognostication, but by the pursuit of godliness.
Not by prognostication about when Jesus is coming again, but by the
pursuit of godliness.”

And I’d like you to see four things in this passage.
Let me just tell you where they are so that you can be on the lookout for
them. First of all, in verses 1 to
3, Paul is going to explain why the best way to prepare for Jesus’ coming is not
trying to figure out when that coming is going to be.
It’s not about prognostication.
He’ll make that clear in verses 1 to 3.
Then, in a glorious passage, verses 4 to 8, the apostle Paul will spell
out five specific things that we ought to do by way of pursuing godliness.
And we’ll look at each of those words as we work through that part of
this passage. Then in verse 10,
third, he’ll show us what the great prize of the Christian life is.
And understanding who the great prize of the Christian life is makes all
the difference in preparing for the coming of the Lord.
And then in verse 11 he’s going to tell us that we need to encourage one
another in these things. We need one
another in the Christian life. We
were never meant to live the Christian life alone and we’re to encourage one
another in the truths which he teaches from verses 4 all the way down to verse
10 so that those things are worked into our heart, into our lives, into the very
fabric of who we are so that we are prepared for the return of Christ.
So let’s look at these things together today.


THE LORD’S RETURN IS INEVITABLE
BUT UNPREDICTABLE

The first thing that Paul says is prognostication is not the way to prepare for
Jesus’ return. Look at verses 1 to 3 with
me. “Now concerning the times and
the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.”
Now they’ve clearly said to Paul, “Paul, we’d like to hear more from you
about the timing of Jesus’ return.” And his response is, “You don’t need me to
write to you about the timing of Jesus’ return.
I’ve already taught you about that and Jesus has already told us that His
coming will be like a thief in the night.”
You remember when His disciples say, “Lord, explain to us when the end
will come and what the signs of that end will be.”
And do you remember what Jesus says to His disciples?
“Of that day and of that hour no man knows, not even the Son of Man.”
Now when Jesus tells you that He doesn’t know something — little note to
self here — it’s probably a good thing for you to drop trying to figure out what
it is that Jesus says He doesn’t know.
And so Paul is essentially repeating that right here.
“You yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a
thief in the night.” Now that
language is coming right out of what Jesus said to the disciples.
If you look at Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in all of those gospels, Jesus’
teaching to His disciples on His coming is recorded in different forms, in
different lengths, but they use that language of His coming being like a thief
on the night.

What’s the point of that? The point
is it’s unpredictable. If you knew
the thief was coming it would be vain for the thief to try and break into your
home. It’s the unpredictability of
it that’s being pointed to there.
And what’s the point of that? The
point is this — the Lord’s return is inevitable but it’s unpredictable.
Paul makes that very clear here.
The occurrence of Jesus’ coming is absolutely certain.
It is more certain that Jesus is going to return than it is that the sun
is going to rise tomorrow. It is
absolutely certain but the timing of it is uncertain.
If there is one thing certain about the Lord’s return it is that we
cannot be certain about His timing.
And so the apostle Paul says, “The way for you to prepare, Thessalonians, and
the way for you to prepare, Jacksonians, is not to try and figure out the date
of Jesus’ return. Prognostication
about the timing of His return is not the way because His return is going to be
sudden, it’s going to be surprising, and it is certain.”
Now Paul emphasizes here that that coming is going to be sudden and
surprising, especially for unbelievers.
Look at the language that he uses.
Verse 3 — “While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ sudden
destruction will come upon them.”
And then in verse 4, “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to
surprise you like a thief.” He’s
using darkness with moral connotations there.
“You’re not in moral darkness. You’re not in the deadness of sin. You’re
not in the grave of unrighteousness unlike the world.”
And he’s speaking of a world that just thinks it’s every going to go on
and it’s going to meet a great surprise.

You know I think there have been different eras both in our nation’s history and
in western history and even over the course of the last two thousand years where
our culture and other cultures have been more attune to the reality of the
return of Christ. But we live in a
time — and don’t you feel this in the air?
We live in a time where there is a pervasive carnal security.
Very few people in our culture, outside of the churches, have any kind of
anticipation of a reckoning with God at the end, a real belief in a returning
Savior who is going to judge. And
there’s a certain poison in our culture that seeps into our souls — unbelief
that this coming is really going to happen.
That’s one reason it’s so important for us to sing this truth, to sing
about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to pray.
Do you remember the last prayer in the Bible?
“Come, Lord Jesus! Come
quickly!” That’s part of the
Christian faith — an expectation of His coming, a longing for His coming.
But our culture, our culture promotes this kind of carnal security.
You know the scientists tell you we’re in a universe 13.8 billion light
years across and 6 billion years from now, give or take a few, you know, the
world will implode upon itself, but we don’t have anything to worry about until
then. And that kind of attitude
seeps down into your heart. And Paul
is saying, “Believer, when He comes, it’s going to be sudden and the world is
not going to be looking for it. It’s
like a thief in the night. It’s
going to be surprising but it is certain.”


THE WAY TO PREPARE FOR JESUS’
RETURN IS BY CULTIVATING GODLINESS

So the way you get ready for it is you don’t prognosticate.
What do you do then? That’s
the second thing that Paul begins to tell us here and look especially at verses
4 to 8 because he says that the way to get ready for Jesus’ return is not be
prognostication, it is by the pursuit of godliness.
The way to be ready for Jesus’ return is the pursuit of holiness in
Christ by the life of faith. Look at
what Paul says here. In verses 4 to
8 he says five things. First, look
at verse 6. “Let us not sleep as
others do but let us,” two things, “keep awake and be sober.”
And then if you’d look down at the end of verse 8 he then says, “Let us
be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of
hope.” So notice those five things —
keep awake, be sober, and then cultivate faith, love, and hope.
Those five things – pursue holiness in Christ by the life of faith, by
being awake, being sober, cultivating faith, love, and hope.
Let’s think about those for just a few moments.

PAUL CALLS US TO BE AWAKE

First of all, “be awake.” What’s he
saying? He’s saying be watchful.
You know, if you knew the thief was coming you’d be ready for him.
Be awake; be watchful. Be
watchful for what? Be watchful for
the signs of the timing of Jesus’ return?
No, this watchfulness is of a different sort.
It is a watchfulness in which you are living life anticipating the return
of Christ, and that puts everything else in its place.
That means that you’re not living this life like this is all that there
is. You’re living this life knowing
that there is going to be a day when He comes again and He will settle all
accounts and this world will be transformed in the new heavens and the new earth
and so you don’t overvalue things that are going to pass away.
You’re watchful in that all of your life is lived in light of the fact
that He is going to come again.
Aren’t you encouraged when you’re around people like that?
People that the world admires for what they have and they appreciate what
they have as a gift from God but it’s not what they live for.
They live for Jesus; they live for God; they live for His return.
That’s the kind of watchfulness that he’s talking about.
You’re living in light of the reality that Jesus is coming again.

PAUL CALLS US TO BE SELF-CONTROLLED

Then, “be sober.” Now there’s no
indication here — he uses the illustration, if you look in verse 7 — “for those
who sleep, sleep at night, those who get drunk are drunk at night.”
Somebody met me at the door after the early service and the said, “You
know, I’m a trauma nurse and I see all sorts of bad things happen at night and
you kind of get Paul picking on the night.
I can remember my mother telling me, ‘Nothing good happens after good,’
she said, ‘nothing good.’” That was
her warning to her young son, to stay out of trouble late at night.
There’s that intimation going on here but there’s no indication that the
Thessalonians had a problem with drunkenness.
You know if he were writing to the Corinthians you might think so, but
there’s no indication that the Thessalonians are abusing alcohol.
It’s a metaphor here. The
metaphor, “be sober,” and notice he repeats it.
Look again in verse 8 — “since we belong to the day, let us be sober.”
It’s an indication that they are to be self-controlled.
They are to use the things of this world in moderation.
They’re to exercise self-control in the use of the world.

Now how does that feed into living life in light of Jesus’ return?
Well it’s a very easy connection. If you think this world is all there
is, what are you trying to do?
You’re probably trying to grab up as much of it as you can.
There used to be a beer commercial on television that encouraged us to go
for the gusto because you only go around once in life.
Well that attitude is out there.
You know, “He who dies with the most toys wins.”
And Paul is saying, “No, no.
Because we believe in Jesus’ return, be sober, be moderate, be self-controlled
in the way you use this world because this is not all there is and this is not
the most important thing. There are
things that will last forever that matter more than this.
So learn to use the world and love the Lord, not love the world and use
the Lord.” So he says be watchful
and be self-controlled.

PAUL CALLS US TO CULTIVATE FAITH

Then he says, “Put on the breastplate of faith.”
You know we live by faith. We
live by faith. We live by believing
in the Word of God, trusting in the promises of God, putting our trust in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, believing what God says in His Word.
And the minute that you start to try and measure this life by what you
experience and what you see and not in accordance to God’s Word you’ll go wrong.
Most of the life of faith is learning to trust the Lord with all our
hearts and lean not on our own understanding.
You know if you had been standing there late at night in Aurora, Colorado
and you measured the love of God by the carnage that you saw there you’d be
confused. In fact, someone wrote on
the internet in the hours after the tragedy that occurred there, “Do you still
believe in the mercy of God in light of what’s happened?”

Well my friends, if you had been standing on a hill outside of Jerusalem
watching what Jesus’ mother and His disciples saw on the afternoon of the
crucifixion and you didn’t have the Scripture to tell you what was going on,
would you have drawn from that that God was, in His love and grace and mercy,
saving the souls of billions? No,
you would have looked at that and you would have said, “There’s no justice in
this world. This is the victory of
hate and spite and envy and bitterness.
This is a good man who’s been crushed by the machine, the political
machine, the religious machine.
There’s no justice in this world.”
But the Bible teaches you to look at that cross differently.
The life of faith is learning to take God at His word despite all
evidences of the contrary. And Paul
says, “You want to be ready for Jesus’ return?
You’ve got to live by the Book.
You learn from God’s Word how to live.
You don’t estimate God and His purposes by the world.
You learn by the Word not by the world.”

PAUL CALLS US TO CULTIVATE LOVE

Be watchful, be self-controlled, live by faith, live by love.
There’s the next thing. “Put
on the breastplate of faith and love.”
Jesus could sum up the whole of the commandments — “Love God, love your
neighbor.” One of the last things
that Jesus said to His disciples right before He was betrayed and taken captive
and taken to an illegal trial and then crucified, do you remember what He said
to them? “Love one another as I have
loved you.” In other words, “You
want to show Me that you love Me?
Then here’s what I want you to do. I
want you to love one another.” Paul
says, “You want to be ready for His return?
Be loving. Love God, love one
another. Love your neighbor, love
your fellow congregation member, love your spouse.”
And that’s hard because you’re called to love sinners and sinners hurt
you, even when you’re trying to love them. But if you want to be ready for His
return, be about loving.

PAUL CALLS US TO CULTIVATE HOPE

And then there’s hope. “Put on the
helmet of hope” — not a wishful thinking but a sure and certain hope that He is
coming again. How do you prepare for
Jesus’ coming? You’re watchful,
you’re self-controlled, you live by faith, not by sight, you live in love, you
live in hope. That’s how you prepare
for Jesus’ coming.


JESUS DIED FOR US THAT WE MIGHT
LIVE WITH HIM

And then to that Paul adds this, and you’ll see it in verse 10.
He tells us something very important for us to understand about why Jesus
died. You know there’s not just one
Biblical answer to, “What did Jesus’ death accomplish?”
Jesus’ death accomplished untold blessings for His people and here’s one
of the things that Paul tells us that Jesus died for.
Look at verse 9. “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,” and by the way, what does
that language remind you of, “whether we are awake or asleep”?
It’s a metaphor for whether we are alive or dead.
It reminds you of Philippians — whether I am alive or dead, whether I am
awake or asleep I am in Christ. He
says, “who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live
with Him.” Now listen to the main
flow of the argument. Our Lord Jesus
Christ died for us so that we might live with Him.
He didn’t just die so that we would be forgiven of sins.
He did die so that we would be forgiven of sins but more than that, He
died so that we might live with Him.

What’s Paul saying to us here? Paul
is saying that fellowship with Jesus is what Jesus died for us for, so that we
might live with Him, so that we might fellowship with Him, so that we might be
His and He ours forever. And that is
the great blessing, the great treasure in life.
No temporary pleasure or blessing in this world could possibly substitute
for that eternal blessing of fellowship with Him.
And so what Paul is saying is, Jesus is not just a means to an end.
He is the end. He is the
goal. He is the point.
He is the prize. He is the treasure in life and boy, won’t that get you
ready for His return! You know, if
you’re living for something here that you’re kind of not wanting to give up,
it’s going to be bad news at His coming.
But if you’re living for Him, you’ll never have to give Him up.
Jim Eliot, quoting one of the Puritans, said, “He is no fool who gives up
what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
And that’s what Paul is saying.
You can’t lose Jesus. He’s
forever. The reason He died is so
that you would have Him and He would have you forever.
Don’t prize anything in this life more than that.


ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE
THINGS

And then he says, fourth and finally, look at verse 11.
“Encourage one another, build one another up with these things.”
I’ve told you before about my Scottish friends, Ian and Alison Macleod
and Murdo and Emma Macleod, but I
could tell the story about five hundred families in this congregation too.
Just being with Ian and Allison and Murdo and Emma — encouragement,
because from the world’s standpoint they have it all.
But the things that the world would look, at least initially, at Ian and
Allison and Murdo and Emma and admire, are not the things that Ian and Allison
and Murdo and Emma count most important.
Ian is a high ranking attorney with the British foreign office, our
version of the office of the secretary of state.
Allison is a medical doctor.
People would look at them and say, “They’ve got it all.”
Murdo is a high ranking attorney with a national health service and Emma
is a university professor. They’ve
both got wonderful families. But
they treasure Jesus more than anything and just being around them and seeing
them live a life in which they treasure Jesus more than anything is a huge
encouragement to me. And I could
tell that story about five hundred families right here today.

Do you realize that you can be an encouragement to one another just by living
like this is not all that there is?
Like there’s something more important than the things that the world around you
is just clamoring after? Do you
realize that you can be an encouragement to one another just by doing that, just
by valuing Jesus more than anything this world can give?
Paul’s saying, “We’ve got to encourage one another.
The acid of unbelief in the world is trying to seep into our souls and
rob us of joy and rob us of perspective and rob us of living for what we ought
to live for. So therefore, encourage one another.
Build one another up in these truths.
May God bless you as you do so.
Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word.
We ask that we would pay heed, by the grace of Your Holy Spirit, to these
exhortations. And even more than
that, that the Holy Spirit would make us want to desire these things, to do
these things, make us want to treasure, prize, and find our satisfaction and joy
in Jesus Christ above everything else.
Grant that we might do that as a congregation and encourage one another
in these things. We ask this in
Jesus’ name, amen.

Now if you’d take your hymnals and turn with me to number 320, we’re going to
sing the first two stanzas of, “Rejoice, All Ye Believers.”

Our God is so kind. He doesn’t say,
“I saved you, now the rest is on your own.”
He provides you what you need as you wait for His coming, as you prepare
for His coming. He provides you
everything that you need. Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.

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