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 youre 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 youre
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, youll 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. Hell 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 well look at each of those words as
we work through that part of this passage. Then in verse 10, third,
hell 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 LORDS 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, wed 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. Youre not in moral
darkness. Youre not in the deadness of sin. Youre 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 youd 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 youd 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 youre not living this life like this is all that
there is. Youre 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. Youre
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 youre 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.
Youre 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. Theyre 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? Youre 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
youll 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
youd 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 youre called to love sinners and sinners hurt you, even
when youre 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? Youre watchful, youre 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 youll 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 youre living for something here that youre kind of not
wanting to give up, it's going to be bad news at His coming. But if
youre living for Him, youll 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 youd 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.