This Sunday marks another change in the church year. For the next three weeks we focus our attention toward Jesus’ Second Coming. During these Sundays known as the season of "End Times" we consider the things our Lord has told us about his Second Coming. This morning the Apostle Paul talks to us about that last day. As we look to that final day, Paul exhorts us to:
Encourage One Another
1. To be ready
1. To be different
2. To be confident
As we await the Last Judgment we are to encourage one another to be ready. We encourage one another to be ready for the Last Day because as Paul tells us it is coming like a thief! What does he mean by that? First and foremost he means that none of us actually knows when that day will be. There have been many people throughout history who have claimed to know, who have predicted that Jesus would come on a specific day at a specific time. As we approach the new millenium many such predictions have been circling. But Paul tells us that this day will come like a thief - because no one knows when a thief is coming! If they did - he wouldn’t be a very successful thief.
Paul also warns us that there are going to be many who won’t be prepared for the final judgment because they’ve focused all their attention on the things of this world. He says in the text that there will be many in the world who will be calling out, "Peace and safety." They will think they’ve got life by the tail - plenty of money to live on, insurance to guard against any unexpected disasters, in good health, and with relatively few conflicts or problems. They will believe they have found and achieved heaven on earth. They won’t be ready to meet their maker because they’ve focused all their attention on finding earthly happiness. That’s why Paul wants us to continue to encourage one another to be ready - so that we don’t lose our eternal focus!
Paul also exhorts us to encourage one another to be ready for that Last Day because it is going to come on like labor pains. A pregnant woman may know when her due date is, she may know when she should be going into the delivery room, she may know when the baby is supposed to be resting in her arms. Yet how often are babies born exactly when they’re expected? Many women have been rushed off to the hospital to give birth in the middle of the night - without warning. When the birth pains come - it’s time to go regardless of what had been planned. So also with the Last Day - it will come suddenly with very little warning.
When that day comes there will be no turning back. For the woman who is going into labor it doesn’t matter if she wishes she weren’t pregnant. She can’t change her situation. The baby is coming - and it’s coming now! The woman in labor that pain is unavoidable! Keep in mind Paul is speaking at a time when the epidural wasn’t around, no C-sections, or knock-out drugs. The same is true with regard to the Last Day - when the trumpets blare and our Lord returns unbelievers won’t have a chance to come to know their Savior. No longer will the gospel preached because there will be no more converts. On that day all will stand to be judged before the throne of the Almighty God. If they had not come to faith by that point in time it will be too late. No further preparations or changes can be made.
As we consider all of these things it’s important that we constantly encourage one another to be ready for that Last Day. Why is that so important? Because this world, our sinful flesh, and the devil don’t want us to be ready for that Last Day. They want us to get caught up in the things of this world and push God out of our lives. They want us to concentrate all of our attention and focus on the pleasures of this life so that we’re not prepared when Judgment Day comes. They don’t want us to be prepared because ultimately they want us to spend eternity in the torments of hell with them. They’re working very hard to try and keep us from preparing ourselves for our Lord’s Return.
That’s why it’s important that we continually encourage one another to be ready for that Last Day. As we prepare for that Last we are to encourage one another to be different.
When Paul encourages us to be different he isn’t talking about expressing individuality. He is talking about being different than the unbelievers around you. He encourages us to be different because we are sons of the day. We are sons of the light.
Paul uses this imagery in opposition to being controlled by darkness and night. This imagery represents the night of unbelief. Those who live in unbelief wander through life like people who are walking around in total darkness. If you’ve ever been on a tour of a cave and when you were deep inside that cave your guide turned off the lights - you vividly understand the picture Paul is painting here. If those lights stayed off you wouldn’t be able to get out. Without light you would wander around, tripping over things, bumping into other things looking for the way out - but without a light to guide you it would be very difficult. For those who live in unbelief getting out of this life into heaven isn’t just difficult - it’s impossible. They wander through life devising various plans for getting there but they can’t do it on their own. They can’t get there without someone or something to guide them.
That shouldn’t be us, Paul says because we’ve been "enlightened" by the gospel. Someone shared God’s Word with us. A message that gives us light. It tells us who we are, gives us the meaning of life, it shows us where we come from and where we’re going. It gives us directions on how to get there. It shows us our Savior - the one who leads and guides us through His Word. As the Psalmist says, "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."
We are also different because we won’t be surprised when that Last Day does come. Why? Because we know the day is coming. God has told us so in his Word. It won’t catch us off guard. We will be expecting it. That’s why we’re in this church week after week, listening to him speak to us, learning more about him and his plans for us. We’re preparing ourselves to meet him. We’re different than the unbelievers around us because we’re ready to meet our Maker.
In all we do and say we should be different. We live different lives than unbelievers. Paul encourages us to live lives that are self-controlled and alert. He uses a couple of pictures to help us understand what he means. First of all he talks about sleep. Those who are asleep are unaware of and unaffected by things that are going around them. I know that when I’m asleep a major catastrophe would have to take place to roust me from my slumber. This is a picture of the way unbelievers are spiritually - they are unaware or ignorant of God’s Word. Even when they hear that Word they are unaffected by it because they remain spiritually asleep.
Paul also uses the picture of drunkeness. Those who are drunk their senses are impaired. Their senses are dulled. They’re not always aware of what is taking place around them because everything is a haze. In a spiritual sense there are many who are like this in the world today. They are drunk on man made notions about what life is all about, who God is, and what he wants from us. There are many who have gotten drunk on the pleasures of this world - unconcerned with God, religion, and church.
That’s not supposed to be us. We’re not supposed to live like people who are spiritually asleep or drunk. We are supposed to live as people who have been woken up by God’s Word, who have been sobered up by God’s Word. We are supposed to live as people who are preparing to live as citizens of heaven. We are supposed to live differently than the spiritually asleep and drunk of this world. We’re supposed to encourage each other to live in this way!
As people who are to live differently and encourage one another to do so, Paul tells us that God gives us special equipment to carry out this task. God gives us armor. What is that armor? It’s faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. Faith is the confidence that God will do whatever he promises. Love is faith in action, living each day as an expression of thanks to God for all he has done for us. The hope of salvation is what sustains our faith and love and encourages them to grow. Without certain hope that we will be raised from death to live eternally in glory, our faith would be meaningless! Equipped and energized by this armor we can resist the temptations of the devil. We can encourage one another to live differently than the unbelieving world.
Encourage one another to live differently! Easy to say but not always so easy to do! Sometimes it can be tough to encourage each other to live differently because that means that we’ll have to confront sin. That’s not always such a fun thing. Fear of what our fellow Christians might say to us often keeps us from confronting sin in their lives. At times it’s tempting not to encourage out of love but just gloss over sin as no big deal. How often isn’t it easier to complain about how rotten a person is behind their back rather than approaching them in love and encouraging a brother or sister in the faith to live differently?
I know it’s difficult for me! I’ve fallen short of perfect encouragement of my fellow believers. I’m willing to guess that we all have fallen short of God’s desire that we would encourage one another in love. That kind of failure deserves God’s wrath. It deserves his punishment for all eternity because we’ve failed to show that perfect love that he requires.
That’s why it’s so important that we also encourage one another to be confident. We need to encourage one another to be confident of God’s desire for us. As Paul says God does not want us to suffer wrath. When he created this world, when he set Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden he gave them perfection. The perfect place to live, the perfect spouse, the perfect food, perfect jobs, a perfect relationship with him. Since Adam and Eve fell into sin that perfection has been ruined. What’s even more amazing though is that even after Adam and Eve defied his orders God didn’t desire that they should suffer for all eternity.
That’s not to say that he didn’t take their sin seriously. To be true to his righteousness he had to punish sin. He had to punish sinners. What’s astounding is the way that God did this. He put the sins of the whole world on his own son’s shoulders and punished him for those sins. Paul makes it clear that Jesus paid the price for all people’s sins. That’s why he says, "Whether we’re awake or asleep we may live together with him" In other words - whether we’re believers or unbelievers Christ has paid the price for sin so that eternal life is possible. Those who don’t believe that message refuse Christ’s forgiveness for their sins - but that doesn’t mean he didn’t pay for them.
As people who believe in Jesus that forgiveness has been made our own. Because we are sinful people it’s imperative that we encourage one another with that message of forgiveness. Yes it is important that we confront each other’s sins. Even more importantly is that we assure each other that God forgives us all our sins - even our sins of being less than willing to encourage, our sins of not always encouraging one another. When Christ went to the cross - he paid that price - the whole thing. We are forgiven. That’s the beauty of our encouragement. We have the sure promises of God with which we encourage one another.
By encouraging one another we build each other up. Paul commends the Thessalonians for building one another up. The word for "building up" in the Greek carries with it the picture of building up a house. That’s really a beautiful picture of what happens as we encourage one another. As a house is built it is built strong so that it can endure rain, wind, snow, and sleet. First a solid foundation must be laid, then the studs are erected, they’re reinforced, the insulation goes in, the siding goes on, the shingles are nailed into place. As the construction process continues the structure is better equipped to handle stormy weather. So also with us in a spiritual sense. As we encourage one another we build each other up to handle the storms, that trials, tribulations, and difficult situations that this life throws at us. We are given strength through the power of God’s Word at work in the encouraging words spoken by fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
May we continue to encourage one another about the certainty of our home in heaven. May we constantly encourage one another with that message of forgiveness. Let us continue to build one another up in the faith so that we can withstand the stormy times in life, but more importantly so that we might remain firm in the faith until that Last Day.
Continue to encourage one another so that we might all stand at the Last Judgment and declare with confidence that heaven is ours because the blood of Jesus has purified us from all our sin. May God grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
