Sermon by Paul Stow
The sermon writers acknowledge various sources of Biblical literature and internet domains were utilised to assist in the compilation of the sermons.
If you were here a few weeks ago when I preached on the Rapture which will involve Jesus returning to Earth to supernaturally ‘remove’ or ‘snatch away’ His church from the Earth, you will have also heard me say that the reason He is returning for His church, is so His people do not have to go through the Tribulation.
The Tribulation, which we are told in the Book of Revelation will last for 7 years, is essentially God’s judgement upon all the ungodly inhabitants who will be living on Earth at the time of the Rapture, and we are also told in Revelation, that among the inhabitants will be two key servants of Satan – the Anti-Christ and the False Prophet.
The Anti-Christ will be a powerful charismatic global political figure who Satan will raise up to do his bidding by uniting the nations of the world under one Government, and by inciting those nations to violently oppose Christ.
He will be the most powerful dictator the world has ever seen. Initially he will portray himself as a man of peace, but during the Tribulation, his true evil, satanic nature will be revealed, primarily in the form of lies and deception
The False Prophet who Satan will also raise up, will be allied with the Anti-Christ, and he too will operate through lies and deception. His will cause the nations of the world to follow and worship the Anti-Christ, and together they will control every aspect of global society.
The world at the time of the Rapture will be controlled by Satan through the Anti-Christ and False Prophet, and it is against this backdrop that God will pour out the wrath of His judgement upon the world for 7 years, the last 3 and a half years of which is known as the Great Tribulation because of the severity of God’s judgment.
Now the word Tribulation is found in Revelation Chapter 4 verse 14, and the Greek word the Apostle John, who was the author of Revelation used, means, ‘distress; anguish, trouble; pressure; burden.
The Tribulation and especially the Great Tribulation, will be a time of great distress, anguish, trouble, pressure, burden for the ungodly inhabitants of the Earth which, according to Revelation Chapters 6 to 18, will come in the form of various global plagues, disease, and natural and supernatural disasters.
Like the Rapture, the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation are certain. They will happen. And here in our passage, the Apostle Paul not only reinforces the certainty of the Tribulation, but he also reveals how it will begin, and perhaps more importantly, what believers need to do to ensure they are prepared spiritually for when it does begin.
Although believers will escape the Tribulation by being raptured by Jesus, they nevertheless need to make sure that spiritually, they remain ready and alert as they see God’s judgment approaching.
They must NOT fall into the trap of thinking that because they will be rescued by Jesus from the Tribulation, they can just sit back and relax. Instead, and as Paul stresses in verses 6 – 8 which I will come to later, God’s people must ensure that spiritually, they are in a constant state of readiness.
Now you will notice that in verse 2, Paul uses the term, ‘The Day of the Lord’, and ‘The Day of the Lord’ is an Old Testament phrase that conveys a sense of imminence, nearness, expectation.
For example, In Isaiah Chapter 13 verse 6 we read these words of the prophet to the Jew’s who were being held in captivity in Babylon, ‘For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty’. And a little further on in verse 9 he wrote, ‘See, the day of the Lord is coming – a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger – to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within’.
In Ezekiel Chapter 30 verse 3, we read these words of the prophet to the Jews who were being oppressed and opposed by various nations, ‘For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near – a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations’.
And in Joel Chapter 2 verse 1, the prophet also wrote these words to the Jews who were continuing to be oppressed and opposed by various nations, ‘Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand – a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness’.
In the Old Testament, ‘The Day of the Lord’ was always associated with how God would soon pour out His judgment upon the nations who opposed Him and His people.
And in our passage, the Apostle Paul also uses it to convey how God will once again pour out His judgment upon the ungodly nations of the world in the form of the Tribulation, and how the Tribulation is fast approaching.
Now I just want to also add that whilst it is called ‘The Day of the Lord’, it doesn’t mean it will last for 1 day. Instead, it refers to a specific season, or a specific period of time, in which God will personally intervene in the affairs of the world.
As I said a moment ago, the Tribulation will last for a period of 7 years, and we are told in Revelation Chapter 20 that after the Tribulation, Jesus will again return to Earth with His people to reign on the Earth, and that his reign will last a thousand years which is known as ‘The Millennial Reign of Christ’.
The ‘Day of the Lord’ therefore will last a minimum of a thousand and seven years, and once that is ended, a number of other events will take place that are also part of ‘The Day of the Lord’.
Once Jesus’ Millennial Reign is over, the final battle between Satan and his army, and Jesus and his army will take place on the plains of Armageddon; Jesus will be victorious; Satan, together with his demons and all human unbelievers will be judged by Jesus at His Great White Throne which will result in them being cast out of God’s presence for all eternity; and God will create a new heaven and a new Earth upon which God’s resurrected people will live with Jesus for all eternity.
The Day of the Lord will last for over a thousand years, but when that ‘Day’ is finally over, you and I will live with the Lord for ever in our perfect resurrection bodies, on the perfect new Earth He is going to create – Revelation Chapter 21 – which is both an incredible and incomprehensible thought.
Now from what Paul writes, there are four other things about the ‘Day of the Lord’ we need to be aware of, and the first is that no one knows when it will take place.
In verse 1, Paul reminded the Thessalonians that because he had already spoken to them about ‘times and dates’, there was no need for him to give them any more information. They were already well taught on this topic.
And the reason they were well taught, is because Paul would have passed onto them teaching from Jesus in which Jesus makes very clear that apart from God the Father, no one – not even Jesus – knew the exact time and day of ‘The Day of the Lord’.
In Matthew Chapter 24 verse 36 we read these words of Jesus to His Disciples: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Paul had no need to write to the Thessalonians about ‘times and dates’, because he had no ‘times and dates’ to give them.
The ‘times and dates’ of ‘The Day of the Lord’ were known only by God the Father, and would only be revealed to Jesus by the Father, when those ‘times and dates’ had been reached.
The second is how ‘The Day of the Lord’ will ‘come like a thief in the night’ by which Paul means it will come ‘unexpectedly’. Just as burglars burgle homes during the night when no one expects them, so too, the Day of the Lord will come unexpectedly.
In the same way burglars never announce their arrival to their victims, neither will Jesus. He will come when He is least expected. He will come when people ae feeling safe and secure. As He warned in Revelation Chapter 16 verse 15, “Behold, I come like a thief”.
The third is how it will be destructive. In verse 3 he wrote, ‘While people are saying, “Peace and safety”, destruction will come on them suddenly’. The Greek word Paul used for ‘destruction’ refers to the loss of everything worthwhile, causing the victim to despair of life itself.
Jesus summed up this destructiveness in Matthew Chapter 24 verse 21. He said “For then there will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now–and never to be equalled again.”
And the fourth is how ‘The Day of the Lord’ will be inescapable. There will be no place to run, and no place to hide. And to drive home his point, Paul uses the analogy of a pregnant woman enduring labour pains.
In the same way a pregnant woman is unable to escape labour pains when it is time for her baby to be born, people will be unable to escape the chaos and destruction of ‘The Day of the Lord’.
The Day of the Lord brothers and sisters, is known only to God the Father, but when He gives Jesus the green light, it will be unexpected, it will be destructive, and it will be inescapable. The world will be caught unawares, and the world will pay the price for its evil and wickedness.
Having reinforced the certainty of the Day of the Lord, what it will involve, and how the believers shouldn’t be surprised at what is to come, Paul further reinforces how the Thessalonians are to prepare for ‘The Day of the Lord’ by reminding them of who they are in Christ, and how they are to live.
In verse 5 Paul wrote: ‘You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness’. Paul is reminding them – and us – that as God’s children, we are no longer living in spiritual darkness and spiritual night, but instead we are now living in spiritual light and spiritual day.
In Colossians Chapter 1 verse 13 Paul wrote ‘For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he love’s’. The Greek word Paul used for ‘dominion’ – other translations use the word ‘domain’ – translates as ‘power; strength; authority’.
By telling us God ‘rescued us from the dominion of darkness’ Paul is telling us how God has rescued us from the ‘power’, the ‘strength’, the ‘authority’ of sin and death. Before we became Christians, because of our sins and our disbelief in Jesus, we were spiritually separated from God, and we were destined for spiritual death. We belonged to the ‘Dominion of Darkness’.
But because we have now confessed faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour which has led to God forgiving us of our sins, and redeeming us from the power of sin and spiritual death, we no longer belong to the dominion of darkness, but instead we now belong to the dominion of righteousness and redemption – of light and day.
We are now Children of light and day. And as Children of light and Day, we are, or we should be, walking in the spiritual light of our righteousness and redemption. As Jesus the Light of the World said to His Disciples in Matthew Chapter 5 verse 14:
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven
Friends, if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you are now a different person. You have become someone you never were before – a child of spiritual light and day. And because of who we have become, our behaviour and conduct must give witness to who we have become.
Again, as Paul wrote in Ephesians Chapter 5 verses 8 – 9, ‘For you WERE ONCE darkness, but NOW you ARE light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” Brothers and sisters, we are children of light and day, NOT of darkness and night.
And by way of stressing our new identity, Paul identifies 3 qualities in verses 7 & 8 that should mark our lives – we are NOT to be like others who are asleep, we are to be alert and self-controlled, and we are to demonstrate faith, love, and hope.
In verse 7 Paul wrote, ‘For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night’. ‘Those who sleep at night’ is a reference to unbelievers, and as unbelievers, they live in spiritual and moral darkness which, among other things, will involve them getting drunk.
When a person gets drunk, which usually occurs at night, it often leads to them being unable to control their conduct and behaviour, which in turn can lead to them doing something, and saying something shameful and embarrassing.
So what Paul is saying is that as believers – as children of light – we must NOT be like unbelievers who are spiritually and morally asleep, and who are completely oblivious to ‘The Day of the Lord’.
Instead, we must let our light shine before all men. We must demonstrate our light by living as children of light, especially as ‘the Day of the Lord’ approaches. And one of the ways we are to do that, is by being ‘alert’ and ‘self-controlled’.
As ‘children of the day’, we are to be wide awake, and we are to lead sober, controlled lives in daily anticipation of the Lord’s imminent coming.
And to help us achieve these, Paul urges us to do three things – we are to put on ‘faith and love as a breast plate’, and ‘the hope of salvation as a helmet’.
A breastplate and helmet were items Romans soldiers used to wear when going into battle. The breastplate covered a soldier from his neck to his waist and protected most of his internal vital organs including the heart, and the helmet protected his head and neck.
By instructing us to ‘put on faith and love as a breastplate, Paul is telling us that our faith in God and our love for God and for others will guard – will protect – our hearts from ‘falling asleep’ and from ‘losing control’, as ‘The Day of the Lord’ approaches.
And by instructing us to ‘put on the hope of our salvation as a helmet’, Paul is telling us that our ‘hope of salvation’ will guard and protect our minds from the attacks of Satan that are designed to cause us to question and bring into doubt our salvation and the certainty of the ‘Rapture’ and ‘The day of the Lord’
Friends, our hope of salvation is not a vague or wishful longing that someday we MIGHT be saved. As followers of Jesus, the hope of salvation is the CERTAINTY that if we die before Jesus returns, we will go directly into the Lord’s presence, and if we are alive when He returns, it is the certainty we will be RAPTURED off this earth to meet the Lord in the air.
Either way we can be certain of our salvation and our destination, and this certainty is further reinforced by Paul in verse 9 where we read, “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Brothers and sisters, if you have truly been born again. If you have truly confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, and if you have truly committed your life to Jesus, then know for certain that God has NOT appointed you to suffer the wrath of His judgment either through the Tribulation or Jesus’ Great White Throne Judgement, but rather He has appointed you to receive salvation.
When God pours out His wrath on the Day of the Lord, you and I, should we be alive when that day begins, will NOT be targeted, because as children of light and day, we will be lifted up by the Lord to meet the Lord in the air.
Because of our faith in the Lord Jesus who died for us, we have been appointed by God for salvation. We have been appointed by God for deliverance either through the rapture, or through our physical death before the Rapture.
My redemption, and your redemption, IS assured and secure. Do not allow Satan to snatch that truth away.
Friends, as I finish, from what Paul writes both here and elsewhere, three things are certain – the Rapture is certain, the Tribulation or The Day of the Lord is certain, and if you believe in Jesus, your Redemption is certain.
Absolutely nothing can stop them. And because they are certain, and because they are unstoppable, we as God’s redeemed children of light and day, need to be ready. We need to be spiritually awake, and we need to be spiritually prepared.
Jesus said that He will come like a thief in the night. Let us make sure we are not caught unawares. AMEN.