This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s in Maybole,
Ayrshire, Scotland on the 16th November 2014
(a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
Welcome
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today we continue our study into Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, where the theme of today’s service is "the Day of the Lord", which is the period of time where the Lord outpours his wrath upon the world. Yes it is a scary subject from a very difficult reading however when putting this service together, I kept getting these revelations of hope and encouragement ... and although I do not mention them, I sincerely pray that you too will be encouraged.
We meet in Christ's name. Let us share his peace.
Psalm 123 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Matthew 25:14-30
The New Testament Reading.
Our New Testament reading sermon today comes from the 1st book of 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5 Verses 1 to 11
Concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When 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! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But 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. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
For the word of the Lord: Thanks be to God.
“Please join me in my prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. Amen. (Ps. 19:14)
Introduction:
So far in our study of the Thessalonian church we have looked at “Commendation as opposed to Condemnation”, we looked at Evangelism and “how we could be an effective witness for Christ”, but today we move to the surprising topic of “the Day of the Lord” … surprising ... because his feels so out place here … surely the book of Daniel in the Old Testament and Revelations in the New deals with this topic more fittingly.
Well they do, but many in the Thessalonian church were fascinated by end times … and it is obvious that Paul had done much teaching on this topic, as he mentions this without really elaborating on it.
Verse 1 for instance ... “Concerning the times and the seasons’ brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night”.
So we start by asking, what exactly is “the Day of the Lord”? … Well, “the Day of the Lord” is the one of the most frequently mentioned prophetical doctrines in both the Old and New Testaments and it refers to “the Day of Judgment”, or the day of where God’s wrath is poured out on all mankind.
And yes this is very scary and depressing ... but Paul tells them that it will be a joyous time for those who are or were in Christ ... as those now dead will have their bodies resurrected first … and glorified … and those still alive would later join them … to meet the Lord … and live with Him forever.
This is the essence of today’s sermon ... and as you can see it is rather complex and heavy going ... but Paul tells the Thessalonians not to worry about the times or dates that these things will occur, as they don’t really apply to them ... although it will apply to those who are left behind.
So we will now as we look at this phrase … and we find according to the prophets of the Old Testament that “the day of the Lord” is mentioned in Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, and Malachi.
Oh dear, we shall keep this short, Isaiah 13:9-11 “See, the day of the Lord is coming … a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger … I (says the Lord), will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins”. So the “Day of the Lord” is a Day of Judgment upon the world for its evil and sin … and where justice will be served on those who have not been cleansed and forgiven through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Zephaniah 1 verse 14, "The great day of the Lord is near … That day will be a day of wrath … Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath”. Now you can be forgiven for liking the sound of that, because we all know people who we recon, deserve it, but I will come to that later.
This is all good fire and brimstone teaching, but it is so wrong to do so, because when some people hear passages like this … they immediately believe that God can’t wait to pour out his wrath, and show the power he has ... just like he is some big bully, desperate to throw their weight around. … But that is not our God at all. ... Our God is a God of love, and don’t you ever forget it … because it is important for us to know who God is, and who he is not. Yes God is holy, yes he is just and yes he will judge and condemn evil and sin, but only in his time, and he is not in a rush to do so, which at times feels like a pity.
And we need to realize that, because of God's great love for us. God has been patient with us ... remember our own darkest periods of sin … God does … although he chooses to forget it ... God has forgiven us through or because of His Son Jesus Christ. And God wants to draw others to Himself … so that they too will receive the forgiveness that He offers … but ... he needs us to do it, and that takes us into evangelism again, telling us why.
2 Peter 3 verse 9 says “The Lord is … patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”. God’s great desire is that people recognize their sin for what it is … and then ... to repent … so that they can receive the salvation for themselves through Jesus our Lord.
However, there is a time coming ... when sin and evil must be and will be dealt with … where God will pour out his judgment and wrath … and that time is called, “the Day of the Lord”.
Now you might still be thinking, “and so he should ... and I might enjoy watching this”, no you won't, ... listen to what the prophet Ezekiel has to say about God’s judgment on the evil and wicked. Ezekiel 18 verse 23, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked … declares the Sovereign LORD? Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? ... (verse 32) For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord … wherefore turn yourselves, and live”.
The Lord truly wants people to repent and live … and He is patiently waiting until all who will trust in Him, will do so … but there is a limit … because at some point in time, God will finally call it a day, and His judgment and wrath will be poured upon the world.
And we can relate to God himself here … think of the people who have really harmed us in the past … then think of how many times you have said, “where is God … why does he not judge and condemn them for what they have done”. Then think to yourself, what if those people had said … “Sorry, I got it wrong … I am so ashamed, I will never do that again”. What is the more powerful and constructive response of the two. True repentance ultimately results in ... victory and life ... ... whereas judgement leads to condemnation, which leads to punishment, loss, destruction and … ultimately death.
Returning to 1 Thessalonians 5 again, verse 3 “While people are saying, "peace and safety"; then sudden destruction will come on them, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape”.
When a woman begins labour … (so I am told, and I am sure you will correct me) … it often starts abruptly, but it is not just one single intense labour pain, but an extended time where the labour pains get closer together, becoming more and more intense at the end of the labour … before the birth of the child.
And so it will be the same with the Day of the Lord. This will be an extended period of time where the events, painful and disturbing, get closer and closer together, increasing in intensity, until the Lord's patience final gives in and says, "I have had enough; I do not want them ... even if they do repent".
And we see a couple of things in these verses … the first is that Paul tells the Thessalonians that they do not need to worry about times or dates because he does not know himself, and neither does anybody else. Matthew 24 verse 36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”.
“The day of the Lord” is going to come as a shock: people are not going to be expecting it; it will come as a thief in the night; but we do know that it will be at the end of this age, and although there are some signs of that just now, there are still many more signs still to come. ... For example, a good indicator I find is the single currency, we are surely getting there, but not yet, and that will only be the start as there are much more to follow.
We also know that the day of the Lord must happen about the same time as the rapture. ... Wow, what is the rapture? Well the rapture to many is as a feeling of intense pleasure or joy … however according to scripture, the rapture is the transportation of believers to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ; it basically means to "being caught up" as we read last week in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16 ”For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: … Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so we shall be with the Lord for ever”.
Now, there are many schools of thought on the rapture but the most popular is that the dead in Christ will rise first, and those alive will remain here on earth for a time ... after which they will ascend later "to meet the Lord in the air". From which we can concludes that the Rapture and the beginning of "the Day of the Lord" are simultaneous.
Paul supports this in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 1 “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers … not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come”. Which means that the Rapture is the event that kicks off the "the Day of the Lord" ... but for those left behind, there will be much tribulation as Paul speaks at length in this chapter.
And that is not us ... us who call Christ our Lord because Paul himself confirms in this letter that we are a not going to be here … verse 4 “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief … Ye are all the children of light, and as the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness”.
In Colossians 1 verse 13 Paul tells us that God has rescued us “from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves … in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” ... and this is supported in verse 9 of today’s reading where we are told that “God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is a great encouragement for us ... we who trust in the Lord. Yes we suffer persecution and troubles in this world, but we will certainly not be here when God pours out his wrath ... because that great day of the Lord will begin after the church has been raptured.
So now that we are children of the light whom God has rescued us how shall we now live? Verse 11 “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do”. We are therefore to “encourage one another and build each other up”. … Returning to verse 6 to “let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober … For they that sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night … But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation”.
We must therefore be spiritually awake, as opposed to spiritual sleepwalkers like most people. Listen to what Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, and I paraphrase, “each one should be careful how he builds (or lives his life). … If any man builds on this foundation of Jesus Christ … using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, … his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. … It will be revealed with fire … and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work … if what he has built survives, he will receive his reward … but if it is burned up, he will suffer loss.
Since we have been rescued from God’s wrath during “the Day of the Lord”, we should be busy building our lives spiritually; and how we build our lives will be tested by fire. If we use money to build our lives, and purchased good will or that we rely on money to get us out of difficulties, this will gain us nothing with the Lord, because his fire will destroy it. And again we can take comfort from that because we do not naturally think of money as being our God.
We therefore need to grow in our understanding of how the Lord wants us to know him ... to know his ways and his will for us, in what he wants us to do. He wants us to grow in our knowledge of the word and our relationship with Christ ... and other Christians … so we can encourage them in living for the Lord.
To close, verse 8 “But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet”. Paul tells us that we must be self controlled, as faith, love and self control are all fruits of the Holy Spirit according to Galatians 5:22 ... so we must allow the Spirit to take control of us, instead of our sinful nature.
And as we walk in faith and love, choosing to follow God and to love his people ... He will help us to see our next steps of faith and new ways to demonstrate his love, so we can continually grow in our relationship with him. Finally he tells us to put on hope as a helmet: to protect our minds from the temptations that the enemy brings ... and a helmet of hope for our salvation in this world ... and the world to come. What more can we ask.
Amen. Let us Pray.
Let us pray
Father we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that through him our eternal salvation has been secured.
Father we thank you that we do not need to fear the coming "Day of the Lord", rather we will be gathered at the rapture to meet with you forever.
Father, this is not all good news as their are many on this earth who we know, but who do not know your love for them. Father we pray for them today, that they be more receptive to your calling, that they be more bold in their desire to know you, and who really need to reach out for your saving grace.
Father let us be your servant, to present to them your gospel, to share your love and to share your forgiveness. Father create the opportunity to give them hope, and willingly let them turn their hearts to you.
Father we pray also for Scott Kircher and his congregation, whose inspiration helped me start and complete this complex sermon.
Father we humbly ask, in Jesus name,
Amen.
Note to the reader:
If you have been blessed by this sermon, or any of my sermons, I would be greatly honoured to receive an e-mail from you saying so; I like so many others need encouragement.
I often feel that to deliver a sermon one time to my congregation is such a waste; where as many more could be blessed by its message, after all, it is not for my glory but for his. I would therefore like my sermons to bless more people, preferably internationally and not only in a small part, of a small country called Scotland.
Simply let me know where you are in the world … and any other information you may want to share or be prayed for. I would also take it as a compliment for you to use my sermons in order to bless others in his almighty name. I do not even need acknowledged, but he does, and I will receive a blessing directly from him.
Thank you for taking the time to read, and I wish you "all the best" as we say in Scotland … and I pray that your endeavours in the Lord are equally blessed. Yours in Christ, Gordon McCulloch, Scotland.
Compiled By: Gordon McCulloch (Worship Leader),
St Oswalds Episcopal Church,
Maybole. Ayrshire.
Scotland. UK
KA19 8KF
E-Mail: gccmcculloch @ aol.com or through Sermon Central
