This week we start the second oldest book in the New Testament as recorded in its publishing. We began with James on our year-long journey chronological study of the New Testament. Hence the reason we are calling this message series Chronos. It's a word that means “time.” We will be journeying through time back to the start of the early church. For the next few months we will be walking through the books written to those in Thessalonica.
Today, we open to the second chapter of this amazing letter to the church plant in one of the main travel junctions in all the Roman empire. A city of around 300,000 with some upper class but a great deal more working class people. The city was made up of Romans, Greeks and a powerful group of Greek speaking Jews.
The leadership collective (Paul, Silas and timothy), who had a relationship with this new church plant, were together reviewing the Christian movement and were sending this letter to the new church plant in Greece as encouragement and to correct some issues that had arisen.. Although Paul had only spent three to four weeks at this house church, he was impressed with the willingness of Thessalonians to live the mission when others would not.
Last week, we discovered that a witness for Christ must try everyday to express the hope we have within our hearts
We pick up the scriptures in 1 Thessalonians 5:1. Before we begin, let me remind you that we don’t have all the correspondence between the new church plant leaders and Paul. However, we have enough to understand the issues at hand.
Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Last Sunday we left off with Jesus’ reminder of the timing of the final days. No one knows the timing of the end of the world. The term “the day of the Lord” can refer to a 24 hour day or to a longer period of time whereby God accomplishes some special purpose. For example in Genesis 2:3 it means 24 hours, in Genesis 2:4 it means a week of creation. The day of the Lord in this context refers to the time when God will judge the world. If you don’t like the word judge, think of it as a time when He decides what to keep and what to repurpose. God created everything so God gets to decide what to or whom to keep.
In the scriptures, the timing of this event will happen when the world is complacent with itself or ignorant of God’s intention to return. Paul has been simply reminding everyone of the truth and of the suddenness of the final days. He was encouraging them to live with an urgency.
Wait a minute Pastor. Why would Paul tell them to live with an urgency? Aren’t we supposed to live in peace and calm because our future is assured?
Urgency is defined as: importance requiring swift action or an earnest and persistent quality; insistence
Have you noticed how much more productive you are right before you're getting ready to go on vacation? There is no better way to establish a priority of what has to be done and what can wait than the 24-36 hours before leaving on a vacation. There is a limited amount of time so you’re forced to decide what has to be done versus what you’d like to get done.
Paul is establishing this same priority in the Thessalonian Christ followers. Paul is asking them to prioritize their days by what is truly important to God.
Let’s take a listen…
4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
Paul uses the word sleep or asleep a number of times in these last few versus. It refers to the attitude of those who do not know Jesus or who have rejected Jesus. The word itself does not mean death but refers to moral indifference and carelessness about spiritual things or the spiritual life.
He is once again reminding the Thessalonians and us, faith, hope and love are the greatest protection in this life from the evil all around us. The hope of salvation is not a hope we will be saved from a life of never ending torment but the blessing of what our belief assures us.” Salvation brings us three types of hope:
Past Hope: We no longer have to be attached to the guilt of and penalty for our sin.
Present Hope: We have the power to reject sin and its devastating effects
Future Hope: We will never have to endure the detrimental aspects of sin again and will live in place without the pain and destructive power.
Since I live with this hope, I believe many don’t understand the significance of being part of the Christ follower tribe. Who doesn’t want to be released from the guilt of sin, the terrible effects of, have the power to say "no" to our selfish desire and receive the gift of a life with the creator of love?
It’s just baffling to me. Let’s continue…
9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Believers do not have to fear judgment because it is not part of God’s appointed plan for us. Jesus himself said,
Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil (John 3:18-19).
Did you catch that? Paul was reiterating what he’d heard and knew to be true. Whether we are alive or dead when Jesus returns, those who have chosen to believe in Jesus will be admitted into the new kingdom.
I will never forget an older woman from a former church plant. She was a godly woman. She returned to Christ later in life. She would come to all the events we offered. She would live out her disciplines of prayer, reading scripture, fasting, meditating, confession, sharing her faith and live the life of generosity. However, without fail when we were alone she would ask me if I thought she was going to heaven. I would give her my standard line, it's above my paygrade to give an absolute. However, from what I could hear and see she had committed her life to Christ, shared what she was given and lived in a way that Jesus himself would be smiling about. She would say, “Thank you.” And then the next time we were alone at a table, she’d ask again. At first, I thought she had some unresolved shame or guilt, then I wondered about her understanding of her covenant commitment. Her constant questions began to frustrate me as a pastor because I thought she wasn’t listening to me. I don’t don’t know when it happened, but I came to the conclusion that she was a person whose primary love language was “words of affirmation” and because she lived alone, her constant question was not a need for assurance of her salvation, it was a cry for love. She needed this encouragement to come from a representative of the faith so she could feel God’s love in a tangible way.
I think many of us need to hear the truth. Hence the reason, Paul closes this portion of the letter with the advice to encourage one another. Knowing one's own love language as well as others is important to encourage others as well as:
Being Positive - There is solid evidence that emotions—positive or negative—can “infect” others through a process known as “emotional contagion.”
Model Encouragement for those closest- There is a process to learning. We first must become aware, then practice, then be critiqued, try again and then teach others. Modeling encouragement requires first learning how you are best encouraged and then practicing it in front of others being authentic with those closest about your practice
Regularly expressing the “why” of any of our shared activities. If people don’t understand the mission, it's hard to encourage them to be the best of who God created them to be.
Communicating clearly the smaller goals that tie to achievement of the larger mission/vision
Celebrating regularly - Research has suggested that the best way to encourage people is to allow the person to experience “small wins”—breaking down a large task into smaller, measurable steps and celebrating the attainment of each step or level. This is the strategy that makes on-line games so “addicting”—as you reach each level in Angry Birds or Candy Crush, or get a small win in your game battle or add a piece to your farm, etc., you are motivated to achieve more.
communion
