Last
Sunday
1
Thess 5:1-11
11/20/22
On
Sunday morning I am the first person up at the Surburg house as I get ready for
the 8:00 a.m. service. My normal routine
is the same each Sunday. I shower and
get dressed, and of course the great thing is that I don’t have to think about
what I am going to wear to church. Then
I go downstairs and let let the dogs out before eating breakfast. After that I go down to the basement and
practice my sermon before heading over to church.
However, about a month ago I let the
dogs out, and as I looked out the door I saw something that was not
normal. The large tree in front of our house had been toilet papered. And this had been a very thorough job.
Now I am probably starting to show
my age, I because I find this venerable prank to be incredibly annoying. It makes a huge mess that has to be cleaned
up. And often, you can’t get all of it down.
There are still pieces of toilet paper hanging from our tree.
I learned later that this was not a
random event, but rather part of recurring competition between a group of high
school boys and girls. The girls had been toilet papered, and they were
responding in turn. Since then, they
have moved on to more creative actions.
I laughed out loud recently when on Sunday morning I saw that Matthew’s
car had been wrapped in plastic like a Christmas gift with accompanying writing
on the windows.
None of these things were done
during the day. Instead, they were done at night, in the very early hours of
the morning after everyone had gone to bed.
Of course, that’s when people usually do things when they want an action
to be unexpected. They do it under the cover of darkness when people are
asleep.
In the epistle lesson today, St.
Paul uses this theme to talk about the return of Jesus Christ on the Last
Day. He says that for those who are not
prepared – those who are in the dark – it will be surprising and destructive
event. However, he encourages us with the
knowledge that we are not in the dark. And so he reminds us to live in ways that
are prepared for our Lord’s return.
Just before our text, the apostle
has addressed a concern that had arisen among the Thessalonians. Paul had preached the Gospel to them on his
second missionary journey. They had been called to faith in Christ by the
Spirit. However, as time passed some of
the believers had died before the return of Jesus. What did this mean for them?
Would they miss out on God’s final salvation?
Paul had replied by saying, “But we do not want you to be uninformed,
brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others
do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have
fallen asleep.” He assured them: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a
cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of
the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” Jesus
Christ’s return will be a dramatic event in which the dead will be raised and
the living believers will be transformed. Paul assured the Thessalonians about
all believers: “so we will always be with the Lord.”
That’s what will happen. In our text
St. Paul takes up the matter of when it will happen. He says, “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.”
The Thessalonians knew that Christ’s return would be sudden. Paul describes the event using language that
goes back to Jesus himself. The thief
comes in the darkness at night when nobody is ready – nobody is looking for
him. So also, Jesus’ return will occur abruptly and without prior notice.
However, Paul tells the Thessalonians and us that while Christ’s return will be sudden and without notice, for us it will not be unexpected. He says, “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.”
The apostle says that you are not in darkness because you
know Jesus Christ as the crucified and risen Lord. He writes at the end of our text, “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.”
Paul mentions two alternatives: wrath or salvation. He has
made a similar statement at the beginning of the letter when he referred to
“how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait
for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us
from the wrath to come.”
The wrath of God is not something the world wants to talk
about. But Paul certainly does. He does because God is the holy and just
God. Sin evokes his wrath and judgment
against sinners. This is true of every
sinner – including you. On your own, you
are a person who does not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Instead, you have your own idols. They are not gold or silver statues like in
the ancient world, but gold and silver, in the form of money and possessions,
the trips, and the sense of security wealth provides, are certainly among them.
You love yourself more than your neighbor, and this shows through in selfish
actions and hurtful words.
The wrath of God is what we deserve.
It is what we should receive. Yet Paul says in our text that Jesus Christ died
for us. Elsewhere, in Second Corinthians, the apostle explains in more
depth what this means. There he says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we
might become the righteousness of God.” Though sinless and holy, Christ
became sin by taking ours as if they were his own. God poured out his wrath on Jesus, and justly
punished sin. Jesus died for us on the
cross to rescue us from the wrath and punishment that we deserve.
The wrath of God brings judgment and
death. It did for Christ on Good Friday.
But death that simply ended in death could not be salvation for us. Adam had brought sin and death. Jesus
suffered death for our sin in order to bring us life. Paul wrote in First Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a man
has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so
also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
On the third day – on Easter – God raised Jesus from the
dead. He began the resurrection life that will be ours. Forty days after his resurrection, Jesus
Christ was exalted as he ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand
of the Father. But his promise is that
he will return. Our Lord said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all
the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.”
On the Last Sunday of the Church year we focus on this
truth. The risen and ascended Lord will
return in glory. In our text Paul tells
us that this event will be sudden and surprising. However, as Christians it
will not be unexpected. In fact
quite the opposite, Paul tells us how we are to live because we expect it.
Paul writes in our text, “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.” Those around us who do not believe in Jesus Christ are in the dark. The devil is their lord, and they don’t even realize it. That’s exactly how he wants it to be.
But because the
Holy Spirit has called us to faith in Christ, we have been born again. We are children of the light, children of the
day. We know that the devil, sin, and
death are darkness, and that we have been freed from them. We know Jesus Christ the risen and ascended
One is our Lord. We know God’s love and what he has done in Christ to
save us. We live in this light because for us the day forgiveness and life has
dawned.
This makes all
the difference. Paul says that those who are in the dark – those who in the
night of the devil’s power – sleep and get drunk. These are metaphors for the
life of sin. Those who say there is no
truth – not even the truth that a man is man, and a woman is a woman; those who
use sex outside of marriage; those who engage in homosexuality; those who kill
the unborn are all sleep walking. They are in a drunken stupor. Paul says that they will receive destruction
when Christ returns if they do not repent
However, we who
know Christ are different. Paul says in our text, “So then let us not
sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” To keep awake and be sober is to be ready for
Christ’s return. The apostle explains
this further when he adds, “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.”
Paul says that
we are to be sober – a word that means well balanced or self-controlled. He
describes how this is done by using the metaphor of armor. The apostle refers
to the breastplate of faith. To be ready
for Christ’s return we need to place faith in Jesus Christ at the center of all
that we are. Faith in Jesus as our Lord who died and rose from the dead to give
us forgiveness and to defeat death must be the focus that runs throughout our
life.
In order for
this to be the case, this faith must continue to be nourished by receiving the
Means of Grace. We need to return to our
baptism through which we have shared in Christ’s saving death and have the
guarantee of sharing in his resurrection on the Last Day. We need to hear and
read God’s Word. We need to receive the body and blood of Christ in the
Sacrament of the Altar since this is food for the new man. We keep ourselves ready for the Last Day by
receiving the gifts that deliver forgiveness and sustain faith.
Not surprisingly, Paul places love right next to faith as
he speaks of the “breastplate of faith and love.” Faith acts in love, and this is life that is
lived in the light; lived in the day.
Just after our text the apostles writes, “See
that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good
to one another and to everyone.” Because
we have received God’s love in Christ, we seek to live lives that act in love
towards others.
Finally, Paul mentions “for a helmet the hope of salvation.” This hope of salvation is not a mere
wish. It is instead the confident
assurance of what will be ours because of what Jesus Christ has already done.
For Paul, salvation usually refers to the final outcome of the Last Day, but in
his statement at the end of our text he leaves no doubt that it includes those
who have died. He says, “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.”
We are children
of the day; we are children of the light because the Spirit has called us to
faith in Jesus Christ. We are therefore
people who live each day by faith in Christ our Lord. We are people who act in love, because of the
love God has given to us in his Son Jesus. We live with the hope of salvation
as we pray “Come Lord Jesus!” and wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised
from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
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