Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
We all know what it is like to anticipate important dates marked on our calendars. Sometimes they are wonderful events long anticipated. Sometimes they are dreadful events. The USA recently faced a national deadline with precarious and potentially catastrophic possibilities, so politicians told the world.
The US government was running out of available money. Without additional borrowing, on top of the 30 trillion dollars the US government has already borrowed over the years, the USA would default, and no one could imagine what that would really mean for our world. As you know the crisis was averted with more borrowing. Actually, that simply means the crisis was delayed, for now the USA is surpassing a 31 trillion national debt, according to: https://www.usdebtclock.
We’re with the apostle Paul as he is writing his first letter of encouragement and further spiritual teaching to his friends in the city of Thessalonica in Macedonia, in the year 50ad. Paul begins his fifth and final chapter with these words: “Now, brothers and sisters, about the times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the Day of the LORD will come like a thief in the night. 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. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief…” (1 Thess. 5:1-4)
You notice I’m sure, Paul again uses this phrase “brothers and sisters” to clarify to whom he is writing this letter. They are not Paul’s biological family but rather the spiritual family of God! People around the world who are all united by one experience… their salvation from their sin condemnation, by Almighty God as He accepts the full death payment of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross, to be payment sufficient for all our sin.
And God applies that payment to the sin of any and every repentant person who trusts fully in Jesus. God then adopts these repentant, forgiven sinners as His children, (John 1:12; Romans 8:14-17) and thus we are ‘brothers and sisters’ in Christ.
Do you see Paul is clearly affirming there is a very special day coming which Paul refers to as the “Day of the LORD”. This same phrase is used by several Old Testament writers who are anticipating this future remarkable day. Isaiah 13:6-12; Joel 2:28-32; Zephaniah 1:14-18 are three examples of the predictions of this Day of the LORD.
Listen to a portion of God’s prophetic message spoken to Zephaniah: “The great Day of the LORD is near and coming quickly. The cry on the day of the LORD will be bitter…that day will be a day of wrath – a day of distress and anguish, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness – a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against all corner towers. I will bring such disaster on all people that they will grope about like those who are blind, because they have sinned against the LORD.”
Yesterday we looked at the last few statements of Paul, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, where he describes a great day of “rapture”, the gathering up by God of ALL those who have believed in God and trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation. It is also the gathering up of those Christ followers who are alive at that rapture moment. Therefore, all those living human beings on earth 5 minutes AFTER this rapture event will be people who have rejected Jesus Christ as the only God given Savior; people who have pushed God out of their society; people who don’t even believe there is a God.
Can you even begin to imagine what that world will be like, a totally Godless world, chaos and anarchy like never before!? But do you also see God will bring His judgment against those who have sinned and not trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation from their sin? That judgment of God is further explained in Daniel 11,12 and Revelation 6-20.
The Holy Spirit of God was leading the apostle Paul to write encouragement to these new Christians in Thessalonica, do you see that in the last phrase of the 4th chapter: “Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thess. 4:18) Paul was saying that his description of the “rapture” of God’s people should be a source of great encouragement wherever you live in the world, no matter your age, your marital status, your economic situation… as long as you have fully trusted in Jesus for your salvation and your future!
This rapture will remove you from the wrath, the judgment of God upon the sinfulness of a world which has rejected Jesus! So, while the exact time this rapture will happen is not certain, this “Day of the LORD” should not be feared by God’s people, as it is feared by those who have rejected God’s provided Savior Jesus!
So, Paul continues: “You are all children of the light…we do not belong to the darkness…so then let us not be like others who are unaware, let us be alert and sober… Since we belong to the light let us be alert and wise, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” (1 Thess. 5:5-8) We understand the difference between light and dark, evil and holy, right? You recall Jesus said “I am the light of the world, whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness.” (John 8:12) Can you see how Paul is encouraging these new Christians as they consider that Jesus is their light of truth and strength, and they need not fear the darkness? Are you and I living that experience of walking with Jesus in the light of His truth even though we live in a dark world filled with deceit and evil?
A few years later Paul built on this truth when he wrote the Christians in the city of Colossae with these words: “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of God’s will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Holy Spirit of God gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord Jesus and please Him in every way: bearing spiritual fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all God’s power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to God the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light. For God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.” (Col. 1:9-13)
Now there is so much powerful truth in that paragraph you might want to read it several times. In my Bible I have drawn a frame around it and highlighted it, for it’s a wonderful and powerful description of what God has done in my life, and the lives of millions of us who have trusted Jesus Christ to rescue us from the dominion of Satan’s dark kingdom of evil and brought us into the kingdom of Jesus Christ the Son of God!
Do I hear you saying AMEN because that has been your experience too? Or are you looking at that powerful paragraph and reflecting with regret about what you are missing since you know you’ve NOT trusted Jesus Christ to be your Savior?
May I point out three wonderful, hopeful, encouraging truths in these words of Paul?
First... We Christians have been rescued by God, from Satan’s dominion of darkness in which we lived in hopeless bondage!
Through the power of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection we are rescued from our sin! We live free in Jesus Christ! Free from the power of sin in our lives and free from sin condemnation which was sending us to hell for eternity! Now that’s worth celebrating, do you agree?
Second… We followers of Jesus Christ will be rescued a second time from impending doom as Jesus returns to earth to gather up ALL Christians from all over the world BEFORE the wrath of God is poured out on the “Day of the LORD”!
That great justice judgment of God is deserved by all people who have been ensnared in or perpetrating the evil of our world, that has been living in rebellion against God from the days of Adam and Eve!
And third, do you see Paul describing a glorious, wonderful, victorious lifestyle that you and I and anyone in the world can be living TODAY, if the Holy Spirit of God lives within us empowering us.
Now these three great truths of God, are for God’s people, and are worth celebrating all around the world today, do you agree my friends? And here’s a song to help us celebrate and tomorrow we’ll return right here to see what Paul wrote next and how it pertains to us today in 2023.
Today’s Scripture is 1 Thess. 5:1-8.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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