The Day Of The Lord Series

The Day of the Lord

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

What is the Day of the Lord?

The Day of the Lord is a Day of Judgment

The Day of the Lord is a Day of Wrath

The Day of the Lord is a Period of Time

When is the Day of the Lord?

The Date of the Day of the Lord is unknown

The time of the Day of the Lord is After the Rapture

How should we live NOW, having been rescued from the Day of the Lord?

We must be spiritually Awake

We must be Self-Controlled

Choose to be a person of faith and Love

Choose to be a person of hope

Slide

Intro

December 21, 2012 – the predicted end of the world according to some interpretations of the Mayan calendar – now with a movie based on that prediction, “2012”

According to Harold Camping, he sees the beginning of the end happening with the rapture on May 21, 2011. He came up with that date after his prediction of September 27, 1994 did not occur.

Edgar Whisenant – published a book, 88 reasons why the Rapture is in 1988. That didn’t happen and the next year he released a publication predicting it would be the following year, 1989. That didn’t happen so he moved it to 1992, then 1995 and so on.

Speculating about the date of the end times is nothing new.

People can get away with this it seems because the subject fascinates so many people.

In fact, many in the Thessalonian church were fascinated by end times dates and events.

However whenever you have much interest, you always have people who will begin putting forth false information.

The Thessalonians were hearing and believing some false information that some events near the end times had already occurred and were worried. They wanted to know from Paul if that was true and if not, when they could expect the end to come.

In last week’s text we saw that Paul reminded the Thessalonians of what to expect when Jesus returned for them and what would happen to those who died in Christ. It will be a joyous time as the dead in Christ have their bodies resurrected and glorified and those still alive would be transformed as we are raptured and meet the Lord, and all who are in Christ, in the air and are with Him forever.

Now Paul goes on to tell them not to worry about the times or dates that these things will occur and begins talking about the events that occur after the Lord returns for the church, what is known as the Day of the Lord.

Slide

Turn with me this morning to 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.

This morning we are going to look at what Paul had to say about the Day of the Lord to the Thessalonians and see what we can learn about this so we can live in light of it.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

1Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

4But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. 7For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8But 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. 9For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Pray

This morning, I want to seek to ask and answer some questions concerning the day of the Lord and see if might learn a bit about what the Day of the Lord is. It is obvious that Paul had done some teaching on this topic to the Thessalonians because he mentions this without really elaborating on it. In this letter, we don’t have the benefit of that teaching so we are going to look at a number of other Scriptures to ascertain what it was that Paul had taught about this day so we can have the same benefit that the Thessalonians had in learning from Paul’s letter to them.