Intro: Our whole family would be getting ready to go out to eat, and my twin brother Larry would be in his room watching everybody else taking their showers, getting dressed, etc. When we started to leave and yelled for Larry, He replied, "I’m not ready, no one told me we was leaving." It should have been obvious to Larry and He should have been ready. He had no excuse not to be, today I want us to be informed about the Lord’s return, so we will all be ready.
Let’s look at (I Thess 5:1-11.) Keep Bibles open.
I. The Day will Come Unexpectedly (vs 1-3)
-Paul said, "We don’t need to write to you about times and dates." The reason why is that it isn’t for us to know that.
-NIV Acts 1:6-7 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the
kingdom to Israel?" He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own
authority.
-There are some things that we are not meant to know until it happens, when we will die, surprise birthday
parties, your mother in law is coming to stay, and the day the Lord will return. Yet the idea that we are not supposed to know doesn’t satisfy some people, and they have got to try to figure it out.
-Some have gone so far as to set a date. You might remember a man by the name of Edgar Whisenant. He was
a NASA engineer who used his mathematical skills to set a date for the return of Jesus. He wrote a book called, "88 reasons why the rapture will take place in 1988" The book caused a real buzz in the Christian community. He was so certain that Jesus would return on Sept 10 that he said, if I’m wrong than the scripture is mistaken.
He knew for certain that Jesus would be here that day.
-Now this is amazing to me. Jesus said in Matthew 24:36 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
-The angels didn’t know, and Jesus didn’t know, but amazingly enough, Edgar did. But the day came and passed and Edgar didn’t know half as much as he thought he did. The old saying held true, if first you don’t succeed, fail and fail again." Edgar wrote a second book the next year claiming that he forgot that the calendar didn’t start with 1 but year 0, so he said he was a year off. Failed again. No one knows, be weary of anybody who claims to know.
-That day will come as a surprise. Jesus said in Matthew 24:37-39 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
-What He is saying there is that life was going on as normal. People were going about their normal routine, and then when the least expected it, the rain started to fall. They had warning the rain was coming, Noah preached for 120 years, but they ignored it. (Read vs 3)
-The day will shock people and find them unprepared. Listen to these verses and try to catch the reoccurring
theme.
-NIV Matthew 24:43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief
was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
-NIV 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the
elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
-NIV Revelation 3:3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
-Read (vs2) How does a thief come? He comes unexpectedly. He comes while you are safely tucked in your beds, you are comfy, you are unaware. It is a surprise. He comes suddenly, and he doesn’t announce his coming. A thief doesn’t call ahead.
-When the Lord returns, it will be sudden. Matthew 24:39-44
-Many will not be ready when He comes. How awful that would be. Perhaps one of my greatest fears is not
being prepared for something. I’ve never liked pop-quizzes or surprise parties. My greatest fear would be
thinking up a sermon during the offering.
-Yet worse to me would be knowing that I wasn’t ready for the Lord’s return. For some that day will come and
they will find themselves unprepared. And they will be surprised, even though they were told it was coming.
-Once growing up my uncle told me that if I touched the electrical fence, it would shock me. SO I
touched it. My Uncle said, " I told you that it would shock you". "Yeah but I didn’t think you meant it."
-It will catch many by surprise. Like I said, Noah preached for 120 years that the flood was coming, yet the rain caught everybody offguard.
II. But as a Believer, It Shouldn’t Surprise You. (vs 4)
-1) It should not surprise you, because you know it will happen.
-The fact of His coming is made throughout scripture 1/8 ratio of prophesy.
-Jesus said He would. NIV John 14:1-3 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there
to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be
with me that you also may be where I am.
-If Jesus has kept all His promises thus far, why would He break this one. He is returning.
-2)It should not surprise you, because you should be ready for it now.
-The rapture is imminent so we should be prepared today. I remember hearing a story about a man
who was visiting a certain school and made a promise to the tiny students that he would give a prize to
the one whose desk was found in the best order when he returned. He gave no indication of when that
might be. Shortly after he left, a little girl, noted for her messy habits, announced that she meant to win
that prize. He classmates jeered, "Why, Mary, your desk is always out of order! It’s never been cleaned."
"Oh," she replied, "Starting right now, I’m going to clean it up the first of every week." "Just suppose he
comes at the end of the week?" "Well then, I’ll clean it every morning." "What if he comes in the
afternoon?" Mary was silent, then her face lightened up and she said, I know what I’ll do, I’ll just keep it
clean all the time!"
-That’s how we should be. Ready all the time.
-Remember that Ameritrade commercial, where the guy is on the couch and his wife leaves and tells him the only
thing he has to do that day is open up the account, and he starts watching football and falls asleep on the couch, then he hears his wife pull up, then runs to the computer and gets the account open. When the wife makes it to the door, she asks, "Did you get it done." "Yeah." That may work to open up an Ameritrade account, but it won’t work with the Lord. We need to be ready to go now, because it will happen in a blink, in the twinkling of an eye.
-He says in (vs5-7). Scripture uses the distinction between day and night and darkness and light to mark the differences between good and evil. Satan is referred to as "the Prince of darkness" whereas Jesus is referred to as the Light of this World. Jesus when He was being arrested in the garden of Gethsemene tells of the darkness in Luke 22:52-53 Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, "Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you
in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour--when darkness reigns."
-We associate evil with darkness right. Sin w/ night. If someone comes and asks you what the nightlife is like in Wayne County, what do you think they want to know? We have evening worship. No they want to know what kinds of sin can they find to do. But as a born again believer, we do not belong to the night but to the day. Not to the darkness but to the light.
-NIV 1 John 1:5-7 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
-Look at (vs8). As we look forward to the Lord’s Coming, and as we live in the light, we are to live a life that is different than the world. As children of light we shouldn’t live like those in the dark. That’s what Paul says in I Thess. 4:4-5. That doesn’t mean that we all wear robes, shaking tambourines, and chanting Kum-Bah-Yah, it means that we live a life worthy of the calling we have received.
-We are alert. We are to practice self-control. The is opposite to what pop-physiologist will tell you. The current philosophy is if it feels good do it. But there are some things that feel good, but our very bad. There are times I’m sure it would feel good to pop a fellow right in his nose, but you learn to control yourself, you learn to say no to those instincts.
-I believe these ideas of darkness and light, night and day, being alert and self-controlled are expressed in a clear way by Paul in Romans 13:11-14 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
-To be Ready means to remove your old garments of the sinful nature, be purified by the precious blood of the
Lamb, clothe yourself with Jesus, receive His gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and have the hope of
eternal life this brings. We are to be ready.
III. Why Should we be Ready?
-Some get ready because they fear the result of not being ready. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge, and when you read about the second coming and realize what will happen if you do not know Jesus,you get motivated to do so quick.
-Look at II Thess. 1:6-10.
-But for many, such as myself. The motivation to get ready is found in what Jesus has done for us. Look at
(vs9-10) -He has appointed us to receive His gift of salvation. After all we have done to Him, He still, in His infinite mercy and unboundless love and given us this wonderful gift. (John 3:16)
-And consider the price He had to pay for this. Look at (vs10) again.
-Romans 5:6-9 " You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
-In addition to this, because Jesus had died and has created a way to cross the great divide sin had created, we are told in (Vs 10) that either by crossing the valley of death (asleep) or by a cataclysmic climatic event that will end history, the good news is that we live together with God.
-NIV Revelation 21:3-4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with
men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old
order of things has passed away."
-Fanny Crosby wrote a song called "Saved by Grace". It simply goes, "And I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story-
saved by grace."
Conc: How encouraging. In fact Paul says to use this to encourage each other. Look at (vs11).
-Oh how wonderful that will be. I want to close this morning with a wonderful verse from Luke.
-KJV Luke 21:27-28 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things
begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
