“I Wonder…”
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I Wonder…
August 21, 2011
by Rev. William “Buck” Day
Well we are continuing in our study through the book of 1 Thessalonians and I invite you to take out your bibles that you might follow along with us. It is not too late, you can still bring your bibles; we have next week, too. So I invite you to do that, otherwise, I will also have it on the screen, but I invite you to follow along as we are kind of into Paul’s more instructional portion of his message. So today we are looking at another fairly long passage of Scripture from 4:13 through 5:11. So, God’s word for us today:
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. 15For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. 16For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.
5Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. 2For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3When they say, ‘There is peace and security’, then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! 4But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; 5for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. 6So then, let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; 7for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. 8But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. 11Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
God’s word for us this morning! Would you join me in prayer?
Lord you are with us through all of life, through every aspect, through every piece that we walk through; so Lord as we look as this aspect of our lives, Lord we ask that your Spirit would have full reign over our hearts and our thoughts right now. Lord speak to us what you would have for us. We ask that because Jesus is Lord over all. Amen.
My dad died in November of 2005. He died at the age of 81 after battling cancer for a couple of years. That was before I started here at Faith but it was right in that transition time; so he knew I was coming to Faith but he never had the opportunity to see me here at Faith. Being a World War II veteran he was buried at Fort Snelling, alongside of my mom. It has been almost six years and yet there are places where I will go where I have been with my dad and almost inevitably every time I go to those places I will remember my experiences that I had with my dad in those places. One of those places happens to be a golf course in Farmington because he loved to play golf. Every time that I go to that golf course now, I think and reminisce about all those experiences that I had with my dad on that golf course and how much fun we had there. My dad renewed his faith later on in his life and I have no doubt that I will see him again.
I am guessing if you are like me you have wondered, you have wondered, what will it be like when we will be reunited with our love ones? How will that happen? Will it be different than those of us who happen to still be alive when Christ returns? Will it be different for us, for those who have died?
Well in our text today Paul is seemingly responding to a couple of questions that have been asked him from this church in Thessalonica. Remember, Timothy went to visit the church, sent by Paul, and in the course of that they probably asked Timothy a couple of questions for Paul to answer; and Timothy has brought those questions back and now Paul is responding in this letter to the questions they are asking.
One of the questions is around this notion of those who have died in the church; because, if you remember, this church was a struggling little church just trying to get hold and there was a lot of persecution in the midst of this church from the surrounding community. As a result, some of the people in the church died as a result of that persecution. So many people who are alive had their friends or people they knew die because of this persecution. And they are wondering: Will they be O.K.? How and when will I see them again?
And the other question that I think Paul is addressing in our text today addresses the question of our own judgment. They were wondering if they were ready to stand before Jesus when he returns. That question, like the first question—the death of a loved one—I think is very appropriate for us because I think we wonder about the same things, as well.
And with both of these questions what Paul is seeking to do is he is seeking stimulate hope within this little church that’s going through a hard time, hope that Jesus will return–the same Jesus who lived, who died and rose again. That is our course today and that is what we want to dig into. So as we start that, we want to start with this statement around the death of a loved one that we see in the beginning of this first section, 13 through 18. The death of a loved one is always one of those things that always raises some questions in our mind, doesn’t it? We wonder about whether we will see them again, what happened to them, are they O.K.? I think these are all very natural questions. They come out of a natural curiosity because we don’t know. We don’t know what is on the other side of death.
But I think beyond that it also reminds us of our own mortality. I think of the words of Jesus when he says, “Don’t be so quick to count your days, you never know what tomorrow will bring. Make the most of each day.” So there is this uneasiness around our mortality; but even beyond that there is this understanding that, you know what, we don’t have a lot of control over death. We don’t know when it is coming. In fact, one Christian leader said, “We struggle to bring our faith and our emotions together.” I think the overarching question here that Paul is trying to bring to them in the context of hope is understanding that Jesus is going to return; because that had been taught to them by Paul when he was there in their midst and so they new that and Paul is seeking to remind them of that.
But, if you remember, some of the folks in that church thought that Jesus was going to return right away and so they actually quit their job waiting for Jesus to return. We talked about that a couple weeks ago. As a result, in the midst of this waiting some of their friends now have died, and they are going, “On my God! What is going to happen to them? Are they going to miss the blessing of Christ’s return?” So Paul begins to address that, to address that question. He is saying, first off, that our hope is different than the hope of those in the world.
Let me start around that with what Paul is not saying. Paul is not saying that we should not mourn when someone dies. Mourning is a natural reaction to the death of a loved one. We see Jesus mourning the death of Lazarus before he raises him. So mourning when someone dies is appropriate and needed. It is a part of our grieving process. Mourning can happen even in the midst of acknowledging the hope that we have in Christ and that is what we see at every funeral, isn’t it? We say at a funeral, “Because Jesus lives our loved one lives too.” We say that many times even through the tears of our mourning. So Paul is addressing our hope; he is saying, “We have hope. We have hope that is different than the pagans of that day, knew.” In fact, one writer from that time, that time frame, said that “Hope is for the living, the dead are without hope.” How hard would that be?..if we saw a loved one die and we knew there was no hope? So Paul is making this case that those who don’t know Christ don’t have the same kind of strong hope that we do who do know Christ.
Then Paul begins to lay out that hope. He begins to unpack it a little bit by focusing on the return of the Lord in verse 15. The key phrase here that I want you to focus in on is this phrase “coming of the Lord,” because for Paul and his audience this word “coming of the” Lord had an important meaning and they caught it. It had almost like a double meaning for them. On one hand the idea of this phrase “coming of the” and we add “Lord” referred to the coming of a hidden deity that comes and reveals their power; but this “coming of the Lord,” this term is also an official term that was used when a dignity like a king or an emperor were coming to a town. The king is coming! The coming of the King! was an official term that was used. So Paul uses this because the people knew that term, they knew the double meaning that went along with it, and Paul is saying, “You know what? We have a powerful King who is coming to visit. He is Jesus, and his coming is going to be a big deal.”
So when the King comes, Paul is telling them, you are not going to be alone. You are not going to be alone because those who have died are going to be with him with those who are still alive. We will all be joined together. So Paul is addressing this question about those who have died directly, straight-on for them. He is saying “those who are dead will be with him and those who are alive will still be with him; so you don’t need to worry about your loved ones who have died. They are going to be with Jesus when he returns, too.” He is saying no one is going to be excluded. No one is going to be left behind here; and when they come together, there will be unbreakable unity at that time and there will be unspeakable joy to be with Jesus as well as being with our loved ones.
There is a story about a little girl who had a baby brother who died suddenly. She asked her mother, “Where did the baby go?” And the mom said, “He went to be with Jesus.” Well a couple days later the mom was talking to one of her friends and she said, “I am so grieved over the loss of my baby” and the little girl heard it. She remembered what her mom said and she said, “Mom is a thing lost if we know where it is?” The mom goes, “Well, of course not.” Well then how can the baby be lost if we know it is with Jesus?” That is the hope that is ours, hope that comes even in the midst of mourning, even in the midst of grieving.
Paul begins to continue to expand on that by talking about the four, what might be called, great movements around this with Christ’s return and it starts at verse 16. And it says, one, Jesus will return, will descend from heaven; two, that the dead… will rise first; three, those who are alive will be caught up in the air… to meet the Lord; and then four, they will be with the Lord for ever. Those verses have had a lot written about them over the years and they can I think lead to a lot of places that God and Paul don’t have in mind. So I think we need to look at these verses and read them very carefully and understand a little bit about them. So a few words of precaution I think are appropriate here as we talk about these verses.
The first thing I think we need the think about as we read about the idea of Christ returning is one, we have to be careful not to read into the text more than what it says. There has been a lot of speculation written about what these verses are all about and how they are going to unfold; perhaps some of you have read that. But if you look at the text it doesn’t say anything about the judgment of unbelievers; it doesn’t say anything in that text about that. It doesn’t say anything about the nature of a resurrected body. How does this idea of meeting him in the air…you know, wait a sec—they are up there; how can they be down there? It doesn’t say anything about that. It doesn’t say anything about Judgment Day. It doesn’t say anything about a new heaven or a new earth here, does it? So we have to read these verses in light of all the New Testament and let them say what they say and not add our own presuppositions into them. That is one of our precautions.
The other end of that spectrum is the next precaution, and that is the other side of it is that we cannot just dismiss these words as simply myth or something of Paul’s imagination, because that is not true. These are real events that will happen in history and they are not a myth.
And third I think we have to avoid understanding these passages in a completely literal fashion. Paul is using figures of speech here. By using figures of speech, we may not completely understand what he is referring to; but having said that, we also have to say that they do have some reality in them. There is some truth in them. We may not understand and it isn’t a technical kind of breakdown in terms of how it is all going to go down; but it is going to go down.
Remember what Paul is trying to do here as he answers these questions for this church. He is trying to give them hope. He is trying to inspire them and he is saying you guys are worried about your dead friends; I understand that. But you know what? When Jesus returns, your dead friends, those of us who are still alive, and Christ are all going to be together. That is what he wants to give them inspiration around. That is what he wants to encourage them with. The return of Christ is going to be a good day for both the living as well as the dead, in Christ.
And then Paul begins to turn to that second question and that is: What happens at the end of the world? What happens? Will there be a judgment day? And if so how are we to prepare for it? Because, the bottom line for the Thessalonians at this point is they were a little afraid. They were saying, “Jesus is supposed to return any time. How do I know if I am going to be ready when he comes in his judgment? Will I be really ready to stand before Christ?” I don’t know about you, but have you ever wondered that? I have, I have wondered about that. Every time I think of that I always think of, I will show my age here, the old Randy Stonehill song from the late ‘70s. He is one of the original Christian kind of artists, contemporary artists, and he wrote a song, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” I always think about that in my own mind when I think about this question of Christ’s return. I think that question has echoed down through the centuries and continues to echo and bubble up today, as well.
So the question is: Are you ready? For Paul tells us in our text that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” Like a thief in the night. Now he is not the first one to use this phrase “day of the Lord.” It is sprinkled throughout the Old Testament. Paul being a Rabbi knew the Old Testament. He knew those scrolls like the back of his hand and no doubt he had that in his mind. He was thinking of some things like from the prophets: prophet Amos, where he said, “Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord, …day of darkness and not light, …pitch-dark without a ray of sun;” or the prophet Joel, who says, “great and terrible is the day of the Lord.”
So the Thessalonians are wondering, what do sinners like us need to do to get ready? And Paul answers it in our text today. He answers it first in verses 1 through 3 by saying what we should not do and then in 4 through 6 what we should do. He starts here by telling them what they should not do. He says which is to try and know the day on when the Lord is to return. Don’t go down that road. But if you think about it, the Thessalonians are asking a very practical question, aren’t they? They are saying, “O.K., if I know when Christ is going to return, then I could be ready because I know he is going to come and I am afraid I may miss it; but if I know, I’ll be ready. I’ll be looking for it.”
So Paul responds to that question by using the phrase times and seasons in our text. That is referring usually to a season of time or a particular period of time and what Paul is saying is that going down that road of trying to figure out that time or that season is not going to be helpful in answering your question of how do you be ready for Christ’s return. That is not going to get you where you need to go. Because the reality is that only God the Father knows. Jesus doesn’t even know when he is going to return. Jesus tells us that in Mark 13:32 and he basically reiterates it at the beginning of the book of Acts, too, when he says, “It is not for you to know the dates and the times and the seasons of Christ’s return, of my return.”
So Paul is saying you know this where he says, “Brothers and sisters, don’t be concerned about time and seasons. You do not need to know, for you yourselves know that the day of the Lord will come like a thief…” You already know it, he is saying to them. You know this day is going to come unexpectedly, and then he uses a couple of the metaphors here to reinforce this idea that the day of the Lord is going to come unexpectedly; it is going to come suddenly; and it is going to be unavoidable. So he is laying that out for them. He said you know that sometimes all of sudden peace and then something happens and chaos breaks loose. Or like when a woman goes into labor, it just happens. We don’t know when, it just does. And that is what he is saying about the day of the Lord.
So then Paul moves on and he says you know the answer. You know the answer. The answer to being ready for the judgment, for the return of Christ, is simply to be ready, to be ready. The key word here is “surprise” from verse 4. The key word here is “surprise.” What he is saying is you are not going to be surprised when the Lord returns because you are children of the light; you are not children of the dark—that is what he is talking about here. Paul is reminding them that they belong to the light. The light is a metaphor for belonging to God’s kingdom, belonging to Christ. And he is saying you belong to the light as opposed to the opposite of that which is being a child of the dark, or darkness. That is a metaphor for being lost in your sin as if all the lights were out in here and we are just kind of trying to find our way—we are living in darkness.
So Paul is laying out this contrast for them and beyond that, the Bible talks about the idea that we live in two ages. One is called the present age which is also called the Age of Darkness. The age that we live in right now since Christ’s ascension into heaven is the present age, and it is characterized by darkness. Think about that. Think about that for a minute. The age we live in, in God’s understanding, is characterized by darkness. Then he says there is another age. There is another age which is called the age to come which is when Christ the Messiah will reign fully. His kingdom will be in full force. Sometimes these ages are referred to as night and day so that the age that we are living in right now is night; but the age that is to come is day. You can see that kind of reference through the text.
So what he is saying to the Thessalonians and now to us I think is that, you know what? It is night right now, it is night right now; but when Christ returns, a new age, a new day, a new life will come and that will be what is characterized by light. So Paul is affirming them and he is saying, you know how you be ready? You are ready because you are children of the light. You know what is going to happen and the way that you live by being ready is being faithful as you live out your lives, day in and day out. Continue to be faithful until the day of the Lord finally does arrive. Be found living lives faithfully. That was the message of Jesus, too. In Matthew 24:25, “Be ready, for our call is to know who we are, we are children of the light.” We are children of the light and we are to be found faithful, living out our lives until that time until Christ returns. And how do you live out living faithfully? Continue to do the work of the gospel, continue to spread the gospel. 1 John references it as being obedient to Scripture. That’s how you are found faithful, by living out your life by being obedient to Scripture. That’s how you do it. If you continue to live obediently, you will be found faithful. You will be ready when Christ returns.
Let me finish up with this. You will notice that at the end of both of these passages, both referring to a loved one who has died, remember Paul is trying to inspire hope through both of these, and now as he is talking about standing before Christ on Judgment Day, he ends it with this. He says, “…encourage one another with these words.” Encourage one another, strengthen each other, stand by each other, remind us of the hope that is ours in Christ. How good a word is that?! How good a word is that because lots of times living faithfully means having to choose a path that might get you in hot water with some folks, particularly in an age of darkness. So we are to know our hope, know our hope, know your hope not only for the loved ones that have gone before you, who you are looking forward to being reunited with when you get to heaven, but also towards our future. Towards our future knowing that we are secure in Jesus Christ because we are children of the light. Amen? Amen.
Let’s pray.
Mighty and holy God, thank you. Thank you that you are the one who has everything fixed in your charge. Lord, I am glad that you know what is going on and that nothing will thwart the plans that you have. So Lord I pray for us that we might not lose hope because sometimes Lord when we look around our world it is really easy to get discouraged. So Lord I ask that you would help us to live faithfully, to be found faithful in your sight bringing the good news of your death and your resurrection to this world. Lord let us be about our business so we may be found faithful in your sight when you do return. We ask that because of Christ. Amen.