The Day of the Lord

We started last week with our series, In the Light of His Coming. And we started speaking through from the book of 1 Thessalonians. In fact, our series is going to be based on the book of 2 Thessalonians. But we started with 1 Thessalonians because even though I had the privilege of speaking through it several years ago, about almost 2-3 years ago, wanted to give you a quick summary of everything that that passage was talking about before we go into 2 Thessalonians. Both of these books are very closely connected to each other.

So last week, I gave you a brief introduction to 1 Thessalonians. Who wrote it, why did he write it, the context of writing it. And our main key passage for last week was this, that the Apostle Paul writing saying, that we continuously remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor that was prompted by love, and your endurance in the Lord inspired by a hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Last week we talked about how these instances of work that is produced by faith, labor that is prompted by love, endurance that is inspired by hope does not come by accident in the life of the believer. First and foremost, it comes because every single one of these people that the Apostle Paul is talking about was chosen by the Heavenly Father. Secondly, we talked about the fact that every single one of these things happened in their life because they are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, we talked about the fact that every single one of these things happened because the gospel came to them not as empty words, but it was accompanied by the power and the continued work of the Holy Spirit.

So you see the triune God coming together and making us to be the beautiful people that we are in the eyes of God. See there are a lot of things that you can do to improve maybe the way you look on the outside, but only the God of the universe can transform you on the inside. And He is the only one that can produce to you spiritual things and beautiful things that the world could never give to you. The Father does it, the Son does it, and the Holy Spirit does it. And the entire book, He highlights great things that He’s proud about, about the church at Thessalonica.

And then, the second thing that I want to focus on next week, we’ll start on 2 Thessalonians. Throughout 1 Thessalonians, more than any other book in the New Testament, the main highlight is the rapture of the church, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s turn our Bibles this morning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, the end of verse 9 and the beginning portion of verse 10. They tell, talking about people, others, how you, the church of Thessalonica, turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. And not only that, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.

So they are people who have turned from one thing. What is that? Worthless idols, and they have now turned to serve the true and the living God. But along with that turning, now came the greatest expectation of their life. Which is this? What is that? The Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who is coming back again to rescue us again from the wrath that is going to come upon the whole world. The book of 1 Thessalonians is thought to be the first epistle ever to be written. You see how even very early on in the early church, the hope of Christ coming was so clear and so directive in their life, in the way they lived their life.

In fact, they would live their life in such a way that when their loved ones passed away, and that’s why 1 Thessalonians was written also, they were so baffled by it. They were like, what is happening? Our loved ones are dying, where is Jesus? We thought Jesus was going to come back in our lifetime and take us back to Himself. So these questions also were coming back from Timothy back to Paul. They were saying, we are burying our loved ones, they are becoming old, some of them are being martyred, they are being persecuted, they are dying. What is happening? Where is Jesus? I thought, we thought Jesus was going to come back. After all, just a few decades ago, about 20, 30 years ago, many of us on that mountain saw angels coming down and telling us, the same Jesus that you saw coming up will come back again. And we thought it was going to happen in our lifetime. I believe that even the Apostle Paul thought that Jesus was going to come back in his lifetime.

So there is this great deal of an eager expectation that we can read about in the writings of the New Testament. Jesus is coming back, Jesus is coming back. What is the Apostle Paul saying here? Why is that important to us? Here’s the first point. The coming back of the Lord Jesus Christ is important, because there is a day of wrath that is coming, but we will be rescued. That’s the first thing that he wants to mention to us. A day of wrath is coming, but we will be rescued.

We need to remember that, and the Old Testament prophets talked about this quite a bit. You know what they would refer to it, the day of the Lord. And the New Testament writer will pick up on it, the day of the Lord. Yes, there is a day that is coming. Today, evil is on the loose. Today Satan is roaming around like a roaring lion, destroying lives, making people do all kinds of wickedness and filth in the world. It seems like people get away with murder, people injustice all around the world. You’re probably living in the most just country in the world, but around the world that is not the case. If you have money, if you have influence, if you know the right people, you can get away with anything in the majority of the parts of the world.

But don’t think that evil will not be judged. Don’t think that injustice will not be tolerated forever. There is a day of wrath that is coming, and every sin that is committed in the world, every rebellion against the Holy God is being kept in account in His ledger. Soon and very soon He will unleash His wrath of fury upon the nation of this world. Our God is a loving God, but our God is a just God as well. The God of Sodom and Gomorrah is still alive today, and one day He will unleash His wrath upon the nations of the world. But here’s the good news, we will be rescued from the day of wrath.

The world lives in complete ignorance of these things, but a day of wrath is soon coming upon the world, and the glorious good news of what is coming is that we will not be here to face it. The Bible says we will be rescued from the day of wrath. Aren’t you glad that we do not know when that is, but even when that will be unleashed on the face of the earth, we as children of God will be rescued because we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thousands of years ago the flood was a foretelling of that day that was soon coming. On that day He judged the whole world with water, when people did not even know, expected something came up from the sky they had never seen before, and the entire world from the little child to the oldest person living on that day were drowned under the deluge of the flood that God sent upon the whole earth. But then there was a righteous man among all of them, a man by the name Noah, along with his children and his daughter-in-laws, eight of them, who were rescued by the hand of God because they found themselves inside that ark that they had constructed, the boat they had constructed. That boat is foretelling about the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s soon a day of wrath that is coming, but if you find yourself in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be rescued from the day of wrath, and what a glorious thing that is.

Second thing the Apostle Paul writes is in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20. By the way, these are passages in which I spoke through for several weeks a couple of years ago. I’m just giving you a very quick summary here. 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, he tells the second thing about His coming. What is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. Do you know that? Believers are going to have glory unlike any other on a day. Do you know that believers are going to experience joy unlike any other day when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back? That is my second point, a day of celebration and a day of joy is coming for the people of God.

Today our lives always does not seem as happy as the people of the world. They’re dancing, they’re singing, it seems like there is nothing that is worrying them. Where we are sitting on our knees, we are crying, we are mourning, we are weeping, Jesus talked about that, didn’t He, John chapter 16, verse 20. Very truly I tell you, you will weep and moan while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. Look at verse 22, so with you now is your time. In verse 21 it says when a mother is going through the labor pains, the pain is so intense, but the pain of the labor is quickly taken away the first time she ever looks at the baby. That’s why I’m really glad when the nurses take a brand new baby, the first person that it gives it to is what? The hands of that mommy that is so went through the labor pain. Because at that moment she’s not thinking about the pain anymore. Only thing that she’s thinking about is the joy that is in her heart when she’s looking at a brand new baby boy or girl that is born.

Jesus says so with you, now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice and no one will take away your joy. Now in the immediate context, Jesus is talking about His death and His resurrection. When Jesus dies, the disciples are mourning and grieving, they’re hiding behind the walls afraid of what will happen to them. But three days later when the whole world is puzzled over what is happening, guess who are filled with joy, inexpressible, because the disciples had seen the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. But this also applies to us as New Testament believers. We are mourning today when the world is rejoicing in the artificial joys they have created. But a day is soon coming when our joy will be complete in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our best days are ahead of us. Our glorious future is more wonderful than anything earth could ever give to us. You know what God’s word said to us, at His right hand are pleasures forevermore. God gives us a glimpse of this joy when we are in His presence. When we pray, even this morning as we worshiped, we experienced that joy of the presence of God in our lives. But see, these are all just glimpses of the joy that is waiting for each one of us. God said a day is coming when He will wipe away all tears from our eyes. Do you know that your grief will one day turn to joy that no one can take away.

Every joy that you are feeling in the presence of God today are just a small glimpse of the joy that you will feel in His presence when you are with Him forever. Today in this earth, I am seeing Him with eyes of faith. I’m experiencing only His realized presence in the world. But on that day, I will see Him face to face. I will be literally in His presence. Can you imagine what kind of joy that will be when we will be seeing Him face to face, worshiping Him? All of earth’s sorrows will be a distant memory in the presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Yes, the story is told of a bright young girl, she was only 15 years old, when she was suddenly cast into a bed of suffering, completely paralyzed on one side and nearly blind. She heard the family doctor say to her parents as they stood by the bedside, she has seen her best days, poor child. And the doctor came back to her. This woman who was full of faith, even at the age of 15 said, no doctor, my best days are yet to come when I shall see the King in His beauty. A lot of people, when they go through debilitating diseases, diagnosis that says that for the rest of your life, you will have this pain. For the rest of your life, you will have this sorrow. For the rest of this life, you will bear this burden. For the rest of your life, you will bear this shame and mistake. People don’t forget. People always judge you by that. You always walk around with the burden of that. Maybe it’s a prison sentence. Maybe it is some kind of a bad remark. Maybe it is some kind of a sin that became public. People will live with the burdens of it and they always think the best days of my life are behind me. That is if your hope is only for a life on this earth. But you know what the Word of God says, a day is soon coming when every pain will be taken away. When every sorrow will be lifted. When the shames of earth will be a distant memory and the burdens of even prison sentences and judgments by the world will be forgotten things of the past. When we will be in the presence of God, your grief will turn to joy and the Apostle Paul says that is a glorious day that is going to be when everything of earth will be a distant memory to us.

Many of you take care of special needs children in our own church. You might be looking at your life and thinking, this is all what my child has. You know what the Gospel says, no, a day is soon coming when she or he will rejoice in the presence of God in the fullness of the glory of the risen Savior. It’s hard because the realities of life are hard. When you daily go through the pain that you’re going through, it is hard to lift our eyes and focus on a heaven that is beyond death. But that is what the Gospel asks you to do. If you don’t do that, your life can become miserable. You can drown in the sorrows of life. But as a Christian, may your heart always be lifted beyond the temporary circumstance of your life to a home far away when our Lord Jesus Christ shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. There will be no more sorrow, no more death, no more pain, there will be joy unspeakable in this presence that is coming. Yes, a day is coming when our grief shall turn to joy. What a glorious message.

Every morning I drive down here and I see homeless people on the side of the road. I cannot help but look at them. I don’t care what mistakes they made, they’re human beings just like you and me. Maybe one of us will judge them, and I do too. Maybe it’s because of drugs. Yes, it could be, but they’re human beings, they’re people, flesh and blood. What is the most glorious message even they can hear? A day coming when you will have a home forever and ever. Riches won’t matter on that day. What you wear don’t matter on that day. Only thing that will matter is His presence that will bring joy into your life. What a glorious thing.

The Apostle Paul continues, I can say so much about that topic, but time is running out. In 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13, he comes and says, may the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. That’s his prayer. May your love for each other increase every single day. May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones. He says, I want your love to increase day by day for each other, just as our love for you is increasing day by day. But then he says, I want also your hearts to be strengthened. But a day is soon coming when that work of increasing in love, increasing in faith and increasing in holiness and increasing in hope will be finally complete when what will happen? We will stand before Him holy and blameless in His sight.

That’s my third point. Believers will experience the culmination and completion of the work of sanctification at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know this morning that the work of sanctification will never be done in the life of the believer? We will never reach a state of perfection this side of eternity. But do you know what will happen? The Bible says, when we see Him, we will become just like Him. You know when we will truly become holy and blameless? Even today, we are considered to be holy and blameless by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the grace that God imparts to us. But you know when we will become purely spotless, holy and blameless? It is when we see Him face to face, we will become just like Him. And guess what? When He comes, there’ll be no more sin or the power of sin reigning over us anymore. No more temptation. What a great world. No more Satan. What a beautiful existence. No more chance to fall into sin. What a beautiful case where the presence of God will so envelop us that we will be perfect just as He is perfect and the work of sanctification that started at the point of your justification would have been completed in the life of the believer.

Today our pursuit is that we become more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what Christian life is all about, the body looking more and more like the head every single day. The body looks a certain way and the head looks a different way. It looks kind of really ugly. If you take the body of a human being and you put the head of an elephant on top of it, what would it look like? Well, it would look good in a cartoon, but not really in real life. See the body and the head is supposed to look one and the same. But it doesn’t always look like that. Sometimes it’s deformed because we’re living in a fallen world. Our lives are not perfect. Even the most righteous holy saints out there are prone to wander. There can be things happening in our life that is not in accordance with the standards of a Holy God. And so God’s Spirit doesn’t give up on us. He continues the work of sanctification in the life of the believer. The believer strives and God helps him in his striving. It is God and man coming together in that glorious work that we call sanctification. But that work never is fully completed this side of eternity. It is completed fully when we stand before Him holy and blameless. Even the Apostle Paul, just maybe a few months before he passed away from this earth, you know why he called himself? I am the chief of all the sinners in the world. Just because he had a greater awareness of the holiness of God in his own life. But that work of sanctification will be fully complete when we stand before Him holy and blameless.

Fourth thing, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 2. For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Verse 4, But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, so this day should surprise you like a thief. What is the fourth thing that we can learn about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? Life, as you and I know it, will come to an end unexpectedly and the whole world will be caught off guard. He will come as a thief in the night. The thief does not announce beforehand that he is coming. Jesus Himself talked about this. The day or the time, even the Son does not know. Only the Father knows when the Son is going to come back to this earth. So all these prophecies and predictions are absolutely useless as to when the Son comes back. I believe that it is probably right before He is supposed to come back that the Father will reveal it to the Son. Yes, time has come for You to go back. I can’t fully understand that theologically how the Father knows something that the Son does not. But maybe Pastor P.B. can explain that at a later time. But what here we know clearly is that the hour or the day, no one knows. Only the Father knows. That’s what it means. When the world is least expecting it, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back.

You know why the thief comes in the night and not during the day? Because he can be clearly seen if he comes during the daytime. You are awake. You are out and about. Your dog is awake maybe. And you are more aware of what is going on around you during the daytime. He comes at night because you are sleeping. And everyone else around you is sleeping. There’s darkness that is covering over the whole earth. I cannot think of a time more than the present age when the darkness has covered the earth much more than it is covering today. And even people who confess to be believers, the farthest thing in their mind is the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unexpectedly, unexpectedly at a time that you and I don’t expect, He will come back. And oh, what a surprise that will be for the whole world. The problems in China will be a distant memory. The problems in Ukraine will be a distant memory. Stock market you will not worry about. 401k you will not worry about. Your homes you will not worry about. Your cars you will not worry about. Your churches even you will not worry about because the true church won’t be here. Oh hallelujah, that day is going to change the course of history once again. In His first coming, He changed the course of history. In His first coming, He changed the trajectory of the universe. And in His second coming, He will once again alter the course of history. All the presidents won’t matter anymore. All the prime ministers won’t matter anymore. Divisions in countries won’t matter anymore. You know why? History and life as we know it will come to a screeching halt on that day when He comes and takes His people to be where He is.

Oh Bill Gaither wrote about this so beautifully, the marketplace is empty, no more traffic in the streets, all the builders’ tools are silent, no more time to harvest wheat, busy housewives cease from their labors. You won’t worry about what you’re cooking for dinner on that day. In the courtroom, rents and you can take your day off, no debate on that day. Traffic on earth is all suspended as the King comes through the gate. Oh, the King is coming, the King is coming. I just heard the trumpet sounding and now His face I see. Oh, praise God, He says He’s coming for me. And when He comes, happy faces will line the hallways. Oh, those whose lives He has redeemed, broken homes that He has mended, those from prison He has freed, little children and the aged, hand in hand, stand all aglow, who were crippled, broken, ruined, clad in garments white as snow. Oh, the King is coming, the King is coming. I can hear the trumpet sounding. Oh, the King is coming. If you believe that there was a Man named Jesus who walked on this earth 2,000 years ago, who died and rose again and history tells us more than any other event, His resurrection is a proven fact. Believe me when I tell you this morning that He will come again and He will change history again. Don’t be caught off guard on that day. He will come as a thief in the night. He may not come back in the middle of a revival meeting. He may not come back in the middle of a fasting prayer. Church, let Him not find you sleeping on that day. He is coming back. He is coming back and may you be ready, may I be ready at His coming when He comes back. Hallelujah.

He ends that song so beautifully. I can hear the chariots rumble. I can see the marching throng. The flurry of God’s trumpets on that day spell the end of sin and wrong. Regal roles are now unfolding. Heaven’s grandstands all in place. Heaven’s choir now assembled and they come together and sing amazing grace. Wow, what a day, what a beautiful day it’s going to be. And guess what? The only ones who are not going to be caught off guard on that day are going to be people who put their trust and waiting for the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is that?

1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13, brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who has no hope. Remember what I said in the beginning. These people were puzzled. They were having funerals, burials, and they’re laying their appas and their ammachi and their brothers and sisters on the ground and they’re asking the question, what is going to happen to them? We know that we will go to be with Him when He comes back. What about the ones that are buried in the ground? It is kind of hard for us to imagine what is going to happen.

See, this is the place in which the Bible clearly tells us what happens to them and the Holy Spirit is now revealing it to the pen of the Apostle Paul. Can you imagine the first time you ever heard this from the Holy Spirit? This is not something he was born with. Even this is not something so clearly written in the Old Testament. This is for the first time ever Jesus, the Holy Spirit is providing to the Apostle Paul the sequence of events that would happen at the rapture of the church or the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds. And so we see here that events and it’s so beautiful. He says, I don’t want you to be uninformed. You know why? If you’re uninformed, you will cry and grieve like the rest of the world. You should cry. You know why? Death is not a pleasant thing. Death is still an enemy. Death was never in the plan of God. Death still causes pain and hurt. And if somebody tells you don’t cry, don’t believe them, cry. But when you cry, there is a hope in the midst of it. And why is that?

Look at verse 14. We believe that Jesus died and rose again. We can say that too. We believe that Jesus died and rose again. And so, look at that, the two are so connected together. See, one plus one is equal to two. You know why? Because we believe this, we also believe this as well. If you believe one, you have to believe the other because they’re so easily connected together. He says, so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. Oh, what will happen? Verse 16, the Lord Himself will come down from heaven. Hallelujah. It is not an angel coming down. It is not one of the prophets coming down. It is not anybody else, but the One who died and paid the price, who will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Hallelujah. I want you to picture that, what that going to be. You know what a miracle that is? All these things that became the dust of the ground, all became the ashes that were scattered in different parts of the world or they were buried in the sea and all these molecules and tiny cells that have become part of the earth, immediately, immediately in the twinkling of an eye, they will come back together in such unison and such coordination with each other that the heart and the brain and the kidney and the liver all starts functioning together in unison. What a miracle that is. Only the God of creation can do something like that. It doesn’t happen over a period of time. It happens, the Bible says, in the twinkling of an eye.

You know why it says twinkling of an eye? If you bat your eye, you will miss it. That is how fast it’s going to happen. After that, we who are still alive and are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever. Hallelujah. Yes, there is a reunion that is promised for us, that gives us hope in the midst of the sorrow of death. Every person sitting here this morning is missing someone this morning. You are. Even as I’m preaching this morning, your mind is racing to someone that you have buried that you cannot wait to see again. Yes, that’s the reality of life. And every single one of us will have to say goodbye if the coming of the Lord tarries. Parents will have to say goodbye to wives. Children will have to say goodbye to parents. Life on earth does not go on forever. That is the reality of life. But it is the gospel that allows you to stand at that burial place of a loved one and look at them and say, I will see you again in this body, but a glorified body. I will see you again just like this, but be free of all the troubles of earth. No more diabetes, no more blood pressure, no more heart problems. I will see you in that glorified body and we will meet the Lord together in the air. What a glorious day that is going to be. It is all because Jesus rose from the dead.

Lot of times, I don’t know if we live in expectation of the coming of the Lord as much as we should. We all believe it. We all talk about it. We preach about it. But do we live in light of it? The other day I was reading a story, not a story, true thing from Jerusalem. You know, one thing you have to give a lot of credit for is the faith of the Orthodox Jewish believers. I’m not talking about the nominal Israelite or the nominal person who calls him Jewish. I’m talking about the small remnant that is left, the Orthodox Jewish believers that still cling on to everything of the Old Testament. You know what they do when they rent out a property in Jerusalem? Say they’re living in America and they have an apartment in Jerusalem and they’re renting out that apartment for someone. They put a clause in the contract. You know what the name of the clause is? The messianic clause. The messianic clause is actually legally written down into the contract. Here’s what the contract says. If the Messiah comes at any time that you are occupying my property in Jerusalem, you will vacate that property on that same day so that I can leave my home in America and come back to Jerusalem and live in my apartment. Basically the agreement between the owner of the property and the tenant completely ceases on the day the Messiah is going to come. Because they believe Messiah is going to reign from Jerusalem and I want to be living in my apartment in Jerusalem close to the kingdom and the King that is coming to reign over in Jerusalem. They’re missing a little bit of the order of His coming but the idea is still the same. If you have real estate in Jerusalem, you want to hold on to it. You know why? Because the King is coming and He’s going to rule over the world from that place for at least a thousand years before a new Jerusalem comes that would dwarf everything else in existence in the world. But until that day, they want to be close to it. So it is written into the contract something called a messianic clause. That is living truly in the light of your faith. That is really putting into practice what your faith is all about.

In our instance, we know that the Messiah has already come. We know that He’s coming back. So now the question is, how should we, me and you, live our life in light of His second coming? If He could come tonight, what would my life be? If He’s coming back tonight, Woodrow Kroll, a longtime host of Back to the Bible radio broadcast, once said, live as though Christ died yesterday, rose from the grave today, and is coming back tomorrow. What a great principle to live by. What if Jesus died yesterday? What if this morning, before you came to church, was the actual day of resurrection when He rose from the dead? What if? What if? Imagine how your life would change if you knew for a fact He was coming back tomorrow. Live like that. Because the hour of His coming, or the hour of His death, no one knows about.

We learned a lot of things this morning about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. A day of wrath is coming, but we’ll be rescued. That day when He comes back is a day of inexpressible joy in the life of the believer. And not only that, thirdly, we’ll be the only ones who will not be caught off guard on that day. And finally, what a grand day of reunion that’s going to be when He comes back to take His church to be with Him. I pray that the hope of His coming, the hope of the fact that Jesus is coming back soon, will fill our hearts, will continue to prompt us to holy living and faithful living in the days to come.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for this morning, Lord we thank You that You have gone to prepare a place for us. And once You have prepared a place, You have promised to come back to take us so that we can be where You are, oh God. What a glorious morning that’s going to be, a day like on any other. We thank You that we are in the fold of God, having rescued from the wrath of God. We pray that we will love You even more, faithfully live our lives for the glory of Your name. In the name of the Lord Jesus that we pray, amen. Amen.