Last Sunday of the Church Year - 1 Thess 5:1-11

 

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.