Sermon: Children of the Day

Well good evening, URC. If you don't know me, my name is Jake Logan. I'm a pastoral intern here at the church. Um, it's been my honor to serve this past year and it's a pleasure to open up the word with you this evening. Uh, I'll invite you to turn with me in a copy of scriptures to First Thessalonians chapter five. If you're using a Pew Bible, you can find it on page 987. We're nearing the end of this letter to Paul or from Paul Silas

and Timothy to the church in Thessalonika. It's a letter of encouragement, if you'll remember the circumstances that led to it. Paul has not had the opportunity to visit this church since he first was brought there along his missionary journey and he is not had the joy of seeing the gospel flourish there. Yet Timothy had a chance to go back and visit and he returned with a joyful report and so together they wrote this letter

where they recount their history with the church and then return their own encouragement. And then finally here we see them address some particular concerns that the Thessalonians had about the return of Jesus. Now before we read from chapter five, let's turn to the Lord and ask his help.

Our Father, we praise you because you are a God who is not hidden yourself, but you've revealed yourself through your word and to your people. This word teaches us who you are and what it is to be like you and to follow you what it is, to love you, what it is, to love our neighbors as ourselves. And so God, we ask for your help, illuminate it by your Holy Spirit that we may see what it is you have for our hearts tonight.

Press it in on us, convict us, reprove us and encourage us this evening. We pray all these things in the powerful name of Jesus our savior. Amen. One Thessalonians five verses one through 11. Hear now the fully iner sufficient word of God. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night

while people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness brothers for that day to surprise you like a thief for your all children of light children of the day. We are not in the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober for those who sleep, sleep at night

and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober. Having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation for God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up. Just as you were doing.

The word of God is living and active, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Thanks be to God. Amen. Now, two weeks ago we had been in chapter four and Paul was answering some confusion that the church had about Christians who had fallen asleep. What he meant by that is they had died and they were still waiting for Jesus to return when they had died. His answers to them then had been, do not grieve as if you have no hope.

Because when Jesus does return, there's a promise resurrection of those believers and in fact they are the first to rise and meet him before those who are still alive are caught up to join them. And this is a loud and obvious event. Jesus comes the same way. He left descending from heaven with the sound of trumpets in the voice of an archangel. Now throughout the last few centuries, many people have paused here and taken upon a task that they themselves cannot do.

It's an impossible task because they want to determine, well, we know Jesus is coming now we have to figure out when the exact day and the exact hour. But if they kept reading just a little bit further into chapter five, they would find something helpful there. With the Thessalonians, it seems as though a matter of when is not actually the core issue. Paul tells them in verse one, concerning the times and seasons, you have no need

to have anything written to you. We saw the same sort of affirmation in chapter four verse nine. Paul uses the same phrase, but concerning brotherly love. Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you. In other words, they knew well and demonstrated that they knew how to love each other as Christian brothers. And so also here concerning the times and seasons they've shown that they know already Jesus is teaching about his return.

In fact, Paul uses the phrase times and seasons hearkening back to Jesus's teaching to the stifles right before he ascended. He says in Acts one verse seven, it is actually not for you to know the times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority. So the Thessalonians are not concerned with the question of exact day or hour of Jesus' return. They know that that detail is for God alone, rather they're ready actually to move on

to the be the better question, what does this mean for you? Since we don't know the hour, how will we be ready? It's the right question to be asking. It's the right question for you to be asking if you belong to Christ and you are also looking forward to his return. Paul gives a threefold answer for us to see here first in verses one through five, we'll see we are to keep awake. Then in verses six through 10, we'll see we are to keep sober.

And finally we're told in verse 11, we ought to keep each other awake and sober. So firstly, keep awake. Paul commends the Thessalonians because of their demonstrated knowledge of the coming of Christ. He says they don't need to have anything written to them on the subject. Why? Because they're fully aware. He does not have to tell them, come on, wake up. Jesus is coming and establishing his kingdom. They already know and you can tell they know

because of the questions they're asking. They have a right concern about the coming of Christ, showing that they're eager for it, they're ready for it, they're getting ready for it. They were asking, what about our brothers and sisters to who died? Will they get to join us? And there's also the evidence in their actions. We recognized earlier the great care they have for one another and for the apostles they received the gospel with full faith

and responded with godly living. And in doing so were preparing themselves for Jesus' return. So the knowledge that the day is coming meant something for them and they knew there was a need to be ready. So what is it they were fully aware of? When Paul tells us they're aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night they've been taught that the day is going to be a surprise, it'll come suddenly. And for some without warning, this is in line with exactly

what Jesus said about the day in Matthew 24. He tells in a parable, know this, if the master of the house had known what part of the night the thief was coming, he would've stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you must also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. And Paul uses another analogy here to the same effect and he's drawing from Isaiah 13 in his comparison

to the suddenness of labor pains. Think what difference it would make for a married couple with a baby on the way to be prepared for its arrival. A couple knows what's about to happen and they'll be on watch, they'll see the signs, the mother will feel the baby kicking. The dad will have a bag packed ready by the door so that they can jump into the car at a moment's notice and rush to the hospital and they'll be fully prepared

for a multi night stay. Even though they don't know the exact time and day, they won't be surprised by it. They know it's coming. So this knowledge should make a difference for you. It makes a difference whether you know about the day or not and whether you are ready or not. There are those who are not ready, who have no awareness of the coming of Jesus. For them it is like a thief in the knights. Their guard is down and they're caught sleeping.

Now to clarify here, this doesn't mean sleep in the same way as the previous chapter. Then it was talking about Christians who die and are awaiting the resurrection. But here Paul means sleep to refer to those who are alive. And yet in regards to the coming of Christ, they might as well be sleeping. Why? Because they have a false sense of security. They aren't watching. They're convinced as it says in verse three, that in their world there's peace and security

and there's nothing to prepare for. They are in darkness because they lack the light of Christ's knowledge and their eyes are effectively shut to the truth of his coming. But you the believing brothers and sisters are not in darkness. You know what's coming. So you make ready, you search the scriptures, you keep watch for the science and you look eagerly to the day when you see your beloved savior face to face. Do you see though that there's,

there's action involved here. It's not simply knowing that makes you ready. There's something that you need to show for it. How do we show ourselves ready? That brings us to 0.2. We keep awake and secondly, we keep sober. Look at verse six says, let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. Why do these go together? Well, Paul gives us the logical connection in verse seven, you're told keep awake because you live in the day

and that's what you do during the day. Those who sleep on the other hand, sleep at night. So in a similar parallel, those who are not sober, who make themselves drunk, do so at night. Paul is using these contrasts to describe how the people of God live and differentiate themselves from other people. You belong to the day so you stay awake, active and eager for the coming of Christ and you stay sober. So Paul again is affirming the church here.

He says, you are sober. I know this about you. How does he know? Well, he can say that because there's evidence in the life of the church. They live in purity in holiness as God has called them to in chapter four, verse seven. And furthermore in chapter four verse nine, we saw that they live with brotherly love. And so it shows their readiness. They wear their faith like armor. They wear their love like armor and they wear their salvation from sin like a helmet.

They live on guard so that the cares of the world and persecution and idols and Satan's accusations all have no chance of choking out the love of their savior while everyone else has their eyes set on what they can accomplish before they die or what they can gain from their earthly citizenship. These Christians have their sights set on what's coming and are willing to part with everything here if it means gaining everything there.

Do you struggle with this hope? Do you see people who belong to this world in enjoying favor and pleasure and wonder, why have I put my hope in future things that I can't yet? See, You're not alone. Consider Asaf. He writes in Psalm 73 about a deep struggle for his faith in the heaven, the kingdom. He looks upon the people of the world, the wick who he presumes to be wicked. And he says, but they have prosperity. They're affluent. They are.

They are living their life seemingly to the fullest. And so he writes, I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. And he concludes for a moment that he's kept his heart clean all in vain. Then what does he do? He says, I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned their end, whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. The difference for Asaf is knowing where his portion is and knowing what will become of the things he sees down here on earth. He doesn't find satisfaction in the world as the wicked do because he's soberly reminded of where everything is going for him for for them it all ends in ruin. They keep trying to get more and more in this life because they're never satisfied.

But you know as ASAP knows that there's a reason why nothing in this world can actually satisfy us. This world is cursed, it has an end, and everything here will rust and decay until it's destroyed. So then what do what? What's different for us? What do we have to look forward to? The return of Christ. Why? Because of what his return means. It means joy for us. He's ushering in a kingdom and what a kingdom it is. Listen to how it's described in Revelation 21

where John writes, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away in the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorn for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more and there shall be no more mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for those are former things and the former things have passed away. And furthermore, he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. I'm the beginning and the end and to the thirsty I will give from the spring of water of life without payment to the one who conquers will.

He will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. Children of the day, the true children of God keep sober and wear the armor of God because of where you're headed. You are doing well to walk in faith in the spirits. So keep going and you will be prepared on the day of Christ's return because as Paul writes here, you are not destined for wrath before salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now before we reach our third point,

there is an additional application I want to draw to your attention here. We have a lot of encouragement for believers and I think that's the main point of what Paul is trying to show us here. There's a lot of encouragement for believers who are aware and eager for the return of Christ. And you if you're in that camp, are just directly, you are fully aware you are not in darkness, you are children of the day. But in between the lines there's an implied

warning to others. Do you see that? It's in the third person, they're addressed indirectly. Those who sleep, those who get drunk, we're not to sleep as others do. So you get the sense that these others are being left out while believers eagerly await the blessing of the glory of Christ return. These others are on the outside looking in. Now, I don't assume from this text that Paul's assuming no one in the Thessalonian church matches this description.

He does directly address believers and not unbelievers, but he's not assuming that the church is devoid of unbelief. And neither do I assume that they aren't present in the church today. I don't assume that there's no one that matches this description even in our church. And I don't assume that they aren't in this room. Maybe this is you. Maybe you are becoming sleepy or you're already fast asleep. Your dole of hearing the word weary of discipline,

weary of well-doing. You might even be convinced that you don't even need to worry about Jesus' coming back in your lifetime because it hasn't yet. It's been 2000 years, it's been long enough. Why should I be concerned? What's to say that it it'll happen when I'm alive?

Or maybe you're not worried because you've taken his talent and buried it in the ground and that's your safety in your mind. Maybe it's worse. You're not only asleep, but you're being lulled into a drunken stupor. You've doled your own senses and inhibitions by the sin that you actively take in. And there's evidence in your daily life, not of love for Jesus, not of brotherly love, but of idols and lusts and selfishness and pride and anger.

And it causes your believing friends to wonder if there's anything left to your seared conscience. You rely on your own measure and sense of goodness instead of recognizing your need for grace. If this is you, you probably aren't just ignorance of Jesus' return. You probably don't want it. So if you find yourself here, if that's you and your eyes have been so impaired that you're believing that the glory of a small decaying world somehow outshine

the glory of the eternal kingdom and you're saying in your heart, not yet Jesus, not yet because I haven't achieved all that I want. Not yet because I still haven't enjoyed my college years. Not yet because I still haven't married and have kids, not yet because I still haven't retired and been at rest. Let me speak directly and urgently. Wake up, sober up. You've made peace with the world and along with that world, you're set up

for sudden destruction. You will be surprised by the thief in the night and you will be robbed of your peace. Insecurity. Stop presuming on God's patience and grace when he's gar, when he's intended those things for your repentance, you are in danger because whether by death or by divine intrusion, you are not guaranteed another day there is a call and a free offer of grace at the foot of the cross and that call is crying out to you still today

the author of Hebrew writes, don't harden your hearts as in the rebellion if you hear his voice, But answer that call because those who stay in rebellion, the Lord has sworn they will not enter my rest.

So we are to keep awake, we're to keep sober. But lastly, we are to keep each other awake and sober. Now, I was talking through this passage with a couple of brothers last week on two separate occasions, and when I got to this point, keep awake and keep, keep each other awake and sober, they each remarked to me. You know, that's just good driving advice. They're right. If you think about it, you take your family or a group of friends on a long road trip

and there's a risk that after a few hours the driver's gonna doze off and fall asleep and you're, it puts everyone in the car at risk. So what do you do? You designate one passenger to stay awake. You keep in conversation with the driver, you talk with each other, you check in. Are you still awake? Are your eyes on the road? Can you make it the rest of the way? Or do you need me to drive for a while and take the wheel?

Are you fit to drive at all or is there something impairing you? This is what we do for each other in the church. We keep each other in check. We keep up with each other. We ask, are your eyes on the kingdom? Are you pressing on forward in your walk with Christ? Are we keeping pace with each other or straying off to the side? We keep awake and we keep sober and we keep each other awake and sober by this means. This is the purpose of that brotherly love

that Paul saw in the Thessalonian church. They were sharing in the anticipation of the return of Christ and they work out their brotherly love by encouraging each other towards the return of their king. He says, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing so, how are you to encourage one another? Look back at the end of chapter four, and Paul says similar words, therefore encourage one another with these words.

It's the things that Paul is telling them. The coming of Christ brings us the assurance of the resurrection, the assurance of their preparedness for the day and their assurance of salvation. And those are the same things that we tell each other when we meet together on Sunday. We sing together because Jesus died for us, because he was raised for us and because he's coming back for us this morning. Even when you took of the Lord's supper,

there's something we always say when we take the Lord's supper. It's that we are proclaiming his death until he comes. We partake of the visible word in anticipation of the day. When he comes back, that is what we are looking forward to. So he says, encourage one another just as you are doing. And I would say I'm quite thankful to see this in our own church as the Thessalonians we're doing, you also are doing well and you need nothing written to you

concerning brotherly love. You pray together throughout the week. You meet together to study the word you share with each other. You visit the sick and the injured among you. You welcome new members and you raise covenant children up in faith with love. You rejoice together. You weep together. You even forgive one another as people who have been forgiven much. All this is because the spirit of Christ has long been at work within you and among you.

So here Paul's encouragement, it's for you as well. You are doing well. Keep going. And with all these things add this to your encouragement from one another that Jesus is coming. When your sister is weary from illness and you pray for her and you remind her, Jesus is coming when your brother is discouraged because in his witnessing he's persecuted and he's ostracized and he's ridiculed. Well, your, you remind him. Jesus is coming your prayers when they're answered

for healing or for provision and you rejoice that God has blessed you. Well rejoice and also let your church remind you that this isn't the ultimate blessing. It's a foretaste of what's coming. Jesus is coming. So if you are a child of the day, take comfort in the knowledge that you are not destined for wrath, but to obtain salvation in your beloved Jesus when he returns. You have a wonderful king who loves you and a sure hope to look forward to.

So let me close with the words of the beautiful song we sing at the Lord's table this morning. Oh, that day when freed from sinning, we shall see thy lovely face full array in blood wash linen. How we'll sing thy sovereign grace come our Lord no longer Terry, bring thy promises to pass. For we know thy power will keep us till we're home with the at last, let's pray.

Our Father, we thank you for your promises and the sureness of those promises you have kept everyone and the resurrection of your son has assured us that you will keep the your promise of returning him. We look forward with eagerness and with patience making ready for the day that we will see our savior face to face, whether it is after death or whether we live to see the day. Either way, Lord, we are confident in, in, in our salvation.

And Lord, we pray also that for those who do not yet know you, who have not yet answered that call, that you would press upon their hearts that that call is urgent, that that time is coming and we do not know the day or the hour. Lord, we pray that for more people, it will not be like a thief in the night, but that they will be ready, prepared in their hearts and so that we might have the fullness of the body of Christ joining with us in the heavenly kingdom.

We pray these things in the powerful name of our risen Lord Jesus. Amen.