Y2K: A time to awaken unsaved sleepers

I Thessalonians 5: 1-11

January 2, 2000

Introduction: Chuck Swindoll, in his little Bible study guide on I Thessalonians, tells the story of a New Yorker who lived on Long Island. In September of 1938, he ordered a barometer from the respected company of Abercrombie and Fitch. Now this barometer was no ordinary instrument. It was an expensive, extremely sensitive barometer. When the order arrived at his home, the new owner was disappointed to discover that the needle of the barometer was pointed to the sector on the dial marked “Hurricane”.
After shaking this new gauge vigorously a few times and seeing no change in the indicator, the New Yorker wrote a scathing letter to Abercrombie and Fitch detailing his disappointment with their defective product. He mailed his letter the next day on his way to his office in New York City. We can imagine his surprise when he returned home that evening to find his new barometer missing --- along with his house!
It seems the barometer’s indicator had been right all along; a hurricane had passed through his area and demolished his neighborhood.
The text we want to study together today is like a barometer whose dial is pointed toward “Hurricane” or “Tornado” or “Severe Storm”. This text warns us that there is a dangerous storm coming, a very dangerous storm like none other that has ever devastated the earth, and it describes for us what we need to be about in anticipation of its arrival.
The question we must face is, “Do I believe this warning indicator?” Like the man from Long Island in 1938, will we assess the indicator to be wrong OR will we begin to take precautionary action? Are there things we ought to be doing before the storm arrives, OR do we go about our normal routines as if nothing will be different today from yesterday? These are questions we want to answer before we leave here today.
Now the storm that Paul anticipates in I Thessalonians 5 is none other than the Great Tribulation, referred to here by the technical terms, Day of the Lord. We know from our previous studies in Daniel and Revelation in years past that this will be a time of unprecedented, world-wide disaster, judgment, and tribulation. So we are fortunate to have some warning indicators. We have been given a heads-up concerning how we should be living, both toward each other in the church and especially towards those who are outside the church, outside the fold of Christ, unsaved as the Bible calls them.
It seems especially appropriate on this Sunday, the first in a new year and a new century, that this particular text comes up on the screen of our sermon schedule. We paused in our studies of I Thessalonians to focus upon the hymns of Christmas, and now it’s time to return to this little book and finish it up. Interestingly, right after Christmas and the first coming of the Lord, we pick up with a text regarding the second coming of the Lord!
The text is I Thessalonians 5:1-11 – (The Message) “I don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other – “We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!” – suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.
But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith , love, and the hope of salvation.
God didn’t set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we’re awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we’re alive with Him! So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it.”
Our text before us today deals with three issues, so those are what we want to consider this morning. The first is the timing of this coming Day of the Lord and how that day will come. The second is how the coming of that day will have consequences that affect unbelievers. And the third is how the coming of that day should impact us who are believers.
First then, what is this Day of the Lord, and how and when will it come? Paul gives us a clue that he is shifting gears somewhat from chapter 4 when he begins with the phrase, “Now as to the times and epochs, brethren…” The New King James version translates this “But concerning the times and the seasons…” In Paul’s writings, this phrase, “But concerning” characteristically introduces a new topic, and that is the case here. Paul had finished chapter 4 with insights and instruction concerning the rapture of the church, what we know as the initial phase of the second coming of Christ. Now he wants to remind his readers of what follows the rapture of the church. Notice in your Bibles, Paul had instructed the Thessalonians about the rapture; he now reminds them about a matter they already had knowledge of, the Day of the Lord.
“The Day of the Lord” as a technical phrase is used throughout the Scriptures, especially the Old Testament, to encompass two events. It is used in connection with both the coming judgment of God upon the world and the final dramatic return of the Lord Jesus to reign upon the earth. When we come across the phrase, the context of our reading lets us know which of these two elements is being emphasized. (If you have a good study Bible, you might look this afternoon at the Old Testament book of Joel to gain further insight into this particular Day.)
For Paul’s readers of this Thessalonian letter, they knew what Paul had in mind. They knew he was referencing the beginning of “that day”, for in verse 3 he writes, “While they are saying ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child…” Paul had also just made reference in verse two to that day coming “just like a thief in the night.”
So we have some clarity here in reference to our first issues. We know what the Day of the Lord is, and we know how and when it will come. As the Day of the Lord, this is the beginning of the great judgment of God upon the world.
Secondly, as to how it will come, we know now that it will come suddenly. I can still remember clearly that night in Indonesia when Suzie woke me to say she was having labor pains. She was pregnant with our first daughter, Stephanie, and it was too early for her birth. Though the pregnancy needed to go longer, there was no question that birth pangs had started. Labor pains, so I’m told, have a way of getting one’s attention! Suzie certainly got mine! So we know that this Day will begin suddenly and without warning, much as labor pains do, much as a burglar does when he breaks into a house.
And thirdly, we now know that this Day will begin in a time frame when, as Peterson has paraphrased it (vs. 3), “About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other – ‘We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!’…”
These phrases could be a description of our days, couldn’t they? How many times have we read in the newspapers and heard on the nightly news that the economy is purring along perfectly? In this “New Era” of economics, the old rules don’t apply. Now there is great productivity, there is no inflation to speak of, we have the fullest employment in decades, the stock market is going to the moon, people are spending more because their investments have made them wealthier…. How could life be any better? When this kind of news is wide-spread, it’s time to be alert and sober and perhaps a bit cautious.
One final thought on the “when” issue”-- For us who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, we are convinced that this Day of the Lord, this day of destruction and judgment and the wrath of God, this day will begin AFTER the church has been snatched away, out of the world. That was what chapter four was about; that’s why we started our study in this book with chapter 4 instead of chapter one! But having said that, we still don’t know exactly when the trumpet of the Lord will sound and when we who are believers will be called to the skies. That is a mystery! We know it will happen, we just don’t know the precise timing. That’s exclusively God’s business. But the same signs that indicate the coming of the Day of the Lord are valid for the Rapture, for the Rapture immediately precedes the time of the great tribulation.
Also in this passage, Paul addresses a second issue: what will be the consequences of this coming day upon unbelievers? How will those outside the fold of faith be impacted when this day suddenly arrives without warning? We know Paul has these folks in mind because of the pronouns.
Notice how the pronouns change from verses 1 & 2 and verse 3. In verses one and two, it is “you, you, you”, the people of the church who receive this letter. Now in verse 3, it is “they”, the people outside, those without faith, those without Christ as their savior.
For these, Paul uses a single word to describe their fate: destruction! Destruction here means utter ruin; it means a loss of everything of any value; it portrays hopelessness and despair brought about by cataclysmic losses. We only have to glance through Revelation 6-18 to get a perspective of the nature of this destruction. Because of the judgments that come from the 7 seals, the 7 trumpets, and the 7 bowls, the world and all in it are basically destroyed. For just a peek, consider Rev. 9:1-3 – “Then the fifth angel sounded (his trumpet), and I (John)a saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power…” It wouldn’t take 30 minutes this afternoon to read Rev. 6-18 if one wanted to get a clearer picture of God’s wrath poured out upon an unbelieving world. In a word, it is almost unbelievable.
Worse than all that, this destruction that Paul refers to is unanticipated destruction. It’s one thing to see the flares and hear the enemy’s’ bugles. It’s quite another to look up and see him ready to fire into your foxhole. It’s one thing to hear the weather report and see the sky turning black. It’s quite another to look out the window and see a funnel cloud a block away. For these unbelievers, Paul says that while in a spirit of peace and safety, while in a spirit of security and well-being, the whole world falls apart. It’s like the alarm system is set, but it didn’t go off. It’s a bit like playing soccer and having your knee suddenly and inexplicably crumple on you. It’s like the Y2K bug was real, but none of these folks took any precautions whatsoever. It’s like the earthquake fault lines running through California. Scientists have long anticipated a quake near the very top of the Richter scale, but few people living out there seem to think it will happen in their lifetime.
Destruction will be sudden and without remedy. Paul says in verse three, “they will not escape.” There will be no way out. There will be no back doors, there will be no bridges, there will be no trap doors by which to escape. Destruction will be total and complete.
In the third and final issue Paul addresses, he speaks to the church family and challenges it to a particular kind of response in light of this coming day. He says in verse 4, “But you, brethren…” But friends, you are not like those outside. That little word “But” could be spelled, r-e-l-i-e-f! All those terrible things wrapped up in the expression “destruction” are not for us! But there is a challenge for us. Let’s not sleep as others do!, vs. 6, i.e., to be asleep morally. Let’s be alert and sober!, vs. 6. Let’s be sober, vs. 8. Sober simply suggests senses that are un-numbed. Let’s be sure we’ve put on the breastplate of faith and love. Let’s be sure we’ve put on as a helmet the hope of salvation. Let’s be sure we are encouraging one another. Let’s be sure we are building up one another.
Did you notice the lack of panic in these challenges? Did you see the lack of anxiety and worry here? Yes, judgment is coming. A terrible judgment is just over the horizon. But for us in Christ, we are to be about the stuff of light. We are to be bearers of light. We are to be forewarning those who are yet lost in the darkness.
These are the smallest expectations that God has for those for whom Christ died. The Lord Jesus died for us that whether we are alive or whether we die, we will live together with Him. To be alive and to live with Him means that all of these things could be said about us!
Having a grip on what the text has said, there are a couple of lessons from this passage we can take with us this morning.
One, A safe tomorrow should not mean a complacent today. Yes, we who are in Christ have no reason whatsoever to be afraid of what’s coming prophetically tomorrow. Paul makes it very clear that we have not been destined for wrath (vs. 9) like the rest of the unbelieving world. Our future is as secure as the promises of God! Christ took all of our condemnation upon Himself upon the cross. There is therefore no wrath or condemnation for us. We want to be encouraging one another daily with this truth. The idea behind this word in verse 11 is of “strengthening by means of one’s words”. We need to tell each other these precious things.
But, our unsaved friends do not have the same assurances. They are in a different boat altogether. In fact, if we are complacent about sharing the good news with them, if we are careless in allowing them to continue to sleep in moral darkness, we can be very sure of the nature of their future! It will be destruction with no escape.
As sons of light, as daughters of day, our most distinguishing feature, our most prominent trait, is light. We are not to be known for things characterized by night or darkness. We are not to be spiritually insensitive as ‘sleepers’ would be. We are to be temperate and balanced. We are to be wary of situations and circumstances that look spiritually dangerous. For us to wear the breastplate of faith and love surely means that we are being bold for Christ (faith) and selfless for others (love). For us to wear the helmet of salvation’s hope surely means we are confident every day.
Sadly, sometimes we are easily complacent and careless because we are genuinely facing a very secure future.
Two, A calm today does not guarantee a calm tomorrow. If all is going well in your life, if you are healthy, your bank account is growing, life is good… if you are here today without a relationship to God through Jesus Christ, I want you to know, God wants you to know, today’s calm cannot last. The Scriptures make it very clear that judgment is coming. There is a storm coming. And when it comes, there will be no escape.
Today would be a good day to make a decision that locks in your future.

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