WWUTT 518 Children of the Day?

The Day of the Lord and Living as Children of Light

The Bible says that we who are in Christ, we are children of the day, looking forward to the day of the Lord. Those who are not in Christ are children of darkness, and we should not walk in darkness as they do when we understand the text.

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Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 today. I'll once again be reading the section that goes from verses 1 through 11. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there.

Starting again in verse 1, the Apostle Paul writes,. 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 you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of 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 are doing. So the apostle Paul is reminding the Thessalonians of some of the things Jesus taught concerning his return. Paul would have shared a lot of that with them when he was in Thessalonica, but he didn't get to the resurrection of the dead.

So that's how he starts in chapter four to give assurance to the Thessalonians that their brothers and sisters in Christ who have preceded them in death have not missed out on the day of the Lord, nor will they should they die before Christ returns.

But we will all be participants on that day. And some of the things that Paul is sharing with the Thessalonians is very similar in language and word usage to what Jesus taught in what's popularly known as the Olivet Discourse.

We have it recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. This was Jesus telling his disciples the things that would take place preceding his return and even some of the things that they would see at the return of Christ, what the whole world would witness.

And we've been looking at the most popular account of what's called the Olivet Discourse as it's recorded in Matthew 24. It's called the Olivet Discourse because Jesus was teaching his disciples this on Mount Olivet or what's also called the Mount of Olives.

Yesterday, we were reading, beginning in verse 45, where Jesus says, who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time? And that's supposed to be us.

We are to be the faithful and wise servants whom Christ has commissioned to go and make more disciples and also to disciple them, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And so this is what Jesus said for his disciples to do in the Great Commission at the end of Matthew, Matthew 28, last couple of verses in that whole gospel.

We also think of what Jesus told to Peter at the end of John's gospel, where he commissioned him to go and feed his sheep. And so we kind of have that similar language used here in verse 45. The faithful and wise servant is the one that the master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time.

So as we are making disciples and discipling those disciples, we are giving them the food, the bread of life, the bread of God's word that has been taught to us by the master. Blessed is that servant, Jesus says, verse 46, whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

So when Jesus returns, he expects us to still be doing the work that he had commissioned us to do. Let us not be lazy. Let us not be those who sleep at night the way that Paul puts it in First Thessalonians five.

But let us be children of the day. Let us keep awake and be sober. So verse 47, truly, I say to you, he will set him over all of his possessions. We will inherit the earth, as Jesus said in the Beatitudes in Matthew, chapter five.

But if that wicked servant says to himself, so you have a person who claims to be a follower of Christ. They claim to be in the household of God and and and doing the work that Jesus told them to do. But he's a wicked servant.

He says to himself, my master is delayed. He when is he going to come back? It's not going to be any time soon. He has no fear of God, no concern about the day of judgment. And he begins to beat his fellow servants.

He does not show love for the brothers and sisters of Christ. Instead, he he ridicules. He compromises on matters of biblical Christianity. And then when Christians raise their voices and say, that's not what the Bible says, he makes fun of them.

He calls them radical fundamentalists. He marginalizes them and says they're the ones not loving the marginalized. He says they don't love. They don't know Jesus, so they don't love like Jesus. He'll call them Pharisees.

He'll call the true followers of Christ Pharisees and say that they cling to their religion and they're the ones that Jesus used to rebuke. He'll say they're the ones who crucified Jesus. He'll say things like the Bible has an overarching story, and it's that story that we need to be looking at rather than the words themselves.

People who believe doctrines like substitutionary atonement believe in a monster God. God didn't have anything to do with the death of Jesus. Jesus was killed because he upset the establishment, and that's what they believe they're doing.

But the reality is they look a lot more like the world than they look like a Christian infused in their processed version of Christianity or a lot of secular ideologies like believing that gender is fluid, that God made gay people to be gay, and that gay marriage can be as holy as any other kind of marriage can be holy.

There's no difference in the sexes. Women can do everything that men can do. Saying a woman can't be a pastor, that's oppressive. That was an old Greco-Roman interpretation of the Bible, and that just doesn't apply to us today.

God speaks in more ways than just the Bible. He speaks in my heart. He speaks in my mind. He gives me dreams and visions. He speaks through nature and friends and the least of these. In fact, it's rude to quote the Bible.

Not everyone believes it, so you should just keep it to yourself. If it means something to you, that's great, but it probably means something different to someone else. To some, the Bible has been a source of pain and damage, and if you start throwing verses at people, it's the same as throwing stones, and Jesus said, only those who are without sin get to cast stones.

Judge not, lest ye be judged. The church is full of hypocrites. The church started the Crusades. Don't go to church. Just be the church, and on and on it goes. So their language is not at all loving to the people of God.

In fact, it's almost like at every twist and turn, they try to distinguish themselves from the people of God. I'm not with them. This is the wicked servant who says to himself, my master is delayed, and he begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with the drunkards.

Looks more like the world than he looks like the kingdom people of God. And then the master of that servant will come on a day that he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, because again, he will come back like a thief, like an unwelcome and an unwanted visitor to those who were not looking forward to the master returning.

And the master will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. And in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And there he will perish forever in hell with those who did not love God, nor did they love the people of God.

And so Paul is is referencing them when he says that they are drunkards who drink at night and they sleep at night. But we are not children of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

That's 1 Thessalonians 5, 6. Consider also what we read in John 3, starting at about verse 19. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and the people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil for everyone who does wicked things, hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. And so that's who we are to be. We are to be children of light, children of the day, as John would say in his first epistle.

If we are in the light as he is in the light, then we must walk as Jesus walked. So this is who we are to be. Let us not sleep as others do who walk around in darkness, who try to conceal their deeds, not wanting to be exposed because their works are evil.

But we are children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. There is there is nothing about the works that you do that you want to keep hidden from somebody else. There are no secret sins that you're keeping stashed away and believing.

Well, you know, God's a gracious God, so he's just going to forgive me for it. Anyway, you are willing to have everything exposed by the light, specifically the light of Christ, who is described there in John 3, 19, as the judgment.

The light is the judgment. We don't condemn anybody. As it says, the verse before in John 3, 18, everyone is self-condemned because of their sin, because of their rebellion against God. We show them their sin through what is explained in the law, and then we resolve the conviction that they feel in their hearts by delivering the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The good news that Christ, by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, has taken away our sin and given us his righteousness. So if we wear the righteousness of Christ, we will do the things that Jesus did.

We will walk in the light as he is in the light. We are his children, children of the day, not of the night or of the darkness. So again, 1 Thessalonians 5, 6, so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

We're not fallen into drunkenness and debauchery doing the things that the world does, but instead there's clarity of mind, which is what the Holy Spirit does for us. He shows us clearly what the will of the Lord is.

Paul says this to the Ephesians, Ephesians 5, starting at about verse 6, let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not become partners with them for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says awake, O sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Look carefully, then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit and the contrast there between don't be filled with wine, which leads to debauchery, but be filled with the spirit.

Being filled with wine is is temporary. It is going to make a person drunk there. They're going to be clouded in their thinking. They're going to think like the world. They're going to behave like the world, but to be filled with the spirit is clarity of mind, and it's also eternal.

It is. It is something that wells up into a spring of eternal life the way that Jesus put it with the Samaritan woman in John chapter four. So it is always giving, whereas drunkenness with wine is temporary.

The spirit that leads to life is eternal, and so we are to be filled with spiritual things and not with earthly things. So once again, Paul saying to the Thessalonians not to get drunk as those who are worldly as those who sleep and get drunk at night.

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. This is also like something that Paul shared with the Ephesians because we have the armor of God that is talked about in Ephesians chapter six.

So Paul gives kind of a mini version of the of putting on the armor of God here with the Thessalonians put on the breastplate of faith and love and a breastplate is center mass. It guards your heart, but it is also right there at the front.

So everybody can see the works that you do in faith and in love are the things that Jesus did. So your very works are a testament to the Christ whom you follow and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

You've got those three essential Christian virtues mentioned right there, faith, love and hope in verse eight. Now, verse nine, for God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is this is a very simple contrast here in that we who are in Christ Jesus will not be under the wrath of God, but rather we are in his love and we will be saved on the day of judgment. There are some who will take this verse to mean that God did not mean for us to live during a seven year period of tribulation that precedes the rapture or Christ return.

That is not what that verse is talking about. That is reading something into that passage that is simply not there. The contrast is between those who walk in darkness and those who are the children of light.

Those who are in darkness are children of wrath, as as Paul describes them also with the Ephesians and Ephesians chapter two, they are going to perish on the day of judgment. But for those of us who are in the light, who have been rescued by Christ from darkness and delivered into his marvelous light, we will obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are not those who are going to perish in wrath, but we are among those who are going to live forever. Verse 10, Christ died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him. And this comes back to what Paul was teaching the Thessalonians in chapter four, that those who have preceded us in death, who have fallen asleep, they are not going to miss out on that great day of the Lord for the dead in Christ will rise first.

And then we who are left will be caught up together with them in the air and we will be with the Lord. So Paul is coming back to that teaching here in verse 10, where he says, whether we are awake or asleep, we will live with him.

None of us are going to miss out on that day. Everyone who is in Christ will be with Christ on the day of Christ. Therefore, verse 11, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing same way he concluded the previous section at the end of chapter four.

Therefore, encourage one another with these words, verse 11. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing. And so when it comes to talking about the day of Christ, the day of his return, which we are anticipating, we are looking forward to, we should encourage one another with the hope of that promise.

Not all of you may agree with the way that I have exposited first Thessalonians chapter four, verse 13 through chapter five, verse 11. You may not agree with what I have shown you that the word of the Lord says here.

You may interpret it a different way, but I hope that you realize we're both longing for the same thing. We're desiring for Christ's return, and that's what we're looking forward to. And so there's no reason for us to be divided because we see the events preceding his return differently.

Rather, we can encourage one another, though there may be disagreements about what happens prior to Christ's return or even what happens after his return. There's disagreements on that as well. This is no cause for division, but we can encourage one another with these words.

We can have kind, civil discussions. There is no reason to condemn one another over differences of opinion related to end times teaching, though what I have taught you here is correct. Let us conclude with prayer, and then tomorrow we'll continue with our study in second Kings for our Old Testament study.

Lord, I thank you for the word that has been presented to us, your Holy Spirit through your prophets and apostles, giving us the things that we read about in the Bible. And I pray that we would be submissive to this word.

This is our guide in all matters of faith and practice. It is our authority. And so what the word of the Lord tells us to do, that is what it is that we should do. And so let us not be children who are behaving like the children of wrath, who are walking around lost in this world and in darkness and being filled up with wine and drunkenness and debauchery and behaving as lost children.

But rather, we are children who have been adopted into the family of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. We're no longer children of darkness. We are children of the day. So let us walk in the daylight, looking forward to the day of the Lord and encouraging one another in the hope of this promise that nothing that we are experiencing in this world is going to last.

None of this stuff we're taking with us. Christ is coming back to make all things new. And so we're looking forward to anticipating all the more that day saying, come quickly, Lord Jesus, take us from this place and deliver us into your eternal kingdom.

Forever. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.