WWUTT 517 Like a Thief In the Night?

The Bible says that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. And some have interpreted that passage to mean that Jesus is going to come back in secret. And that's not exactly what that analogy is supposed to illustrate when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When We Understand the Text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Paul’s Teaching on the Day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 5

Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 1 Thessalonians, where Paul taught them about the day of the Lord. We'll be reading chapter 5 again, verses 1 through 11. Paul writes,. 1 Thessalonians 5.

2 Thessalonians 5. Now, if you're familiar with Paul's teaching concerning the day of the Lord in 2 Thessalonians, because he has more teaching that he gets to there, the judgment of Christ he talks about in chapter 1, and then in chapter 2, the revealing of the lawless one, or who is more commonly known as the Antichrist.

So, as Paul teaches about some of those things there, you know, if you're familiar with that teaching, you know that 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 is kind of ironic. Because Paul says, Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.

But then it turns out, they did need to have something written to them. Because some people who either pretended to be the apostle Paul, or they claimed to be apostles themselves, between 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians, they had convinced the church there in Thessalonica that the day of the Lord had already happened.

And so Paul had to write another letter to them to say, No, that day hasn't come yet. These are the things to look for before that day happens. So when he says, you have no need to have anything written to you, then they were led astray by a false teacher, and it turned out, okay, I guess I do need to write to you about that.

So then we get to 2 Thessalonians, and he gives a little bit more details concerning what will happen preceding the day of Christ. So then in verse 2, You yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Jesus’ Olivet Discourse and the Thief in the Night

And as I said yesterday, this is a term that Jesus uses also in the Olivet Discourse. In Matthew 24, starting in verse 36, Jesus says,. But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

And I've been asked several times about that passage. You may have even asked the question yourself. If Jesus is God, then why does he not know the day and the hour of his return? Why is it that the Father has knowledge, the Son does not, if Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all co-equal and divine persons in the Godhead?

And Jesus is simply speaking out of his own humanity here. There are things in the Gospels that we read about Jesus learning, just as any human being learns. In Luke 2, it talks about Jesus growing in stature and learning the trade of his earthly father, Joseph.

In Hebrews 5, 8, we read that although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And so Jesus is speaking here about his limitations as he emptied himself and took on the likeness of a servant, described for us in Philippians 2.

So that's simply the response to that, why Jesus says that not even the Son knows the day and the hour of his return. As he is speaking there to his disciples, he doesn't know the answer to that question.

But when he ascended back to the right hand of the Father, then he did know. Verse 37,. For as the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one left. Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.

No Secret Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4

So last week when we were reading in 1 Thessalonians 4, I explained that there is no such thing as a secret rapture. You do not find it anywhere in the scriptures, that when we read about the second coming of Christ, it is a loud, announced, bright event.

The whole world will see it, and there will not be any mistaking that Jesus returned. He will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

These are all noises of war. The day that Christ returns to receive his saints unto himself is the same day that he pours out wrath upon his enemies. It is the same event. So there is not this rapture in which people just vanish and there's piles of clothes left and we don't know what it is that happened.

Hey, why is there a pile of clothes here? Where did all the Christians go? Oh my goodness! And then the Antichrist deceives people and tries to say, well here's what really happened to the Christians.

Nothing like that happens. We don't have any picture of that whatsoever in the scriptures. The day of the rapture and the day that Christ pours out his wrath are the same day. So where do we get this concept of a secret rapture from?

The whole Like a Thief in the Night movie that was out in the 70s, and there was the Larry Norman song that went with that, I wish we'd all been ready. Then you've got the Left Behind series. I mean, this is what is common to Christian apocalyptic fiction, that there's this mysterious rapture that happens and nobody knows where all the Christians went.

Where do we get this concept from? Well, it comes from misinterpreting passages like this one in the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24, verses 36 through 44. So Jesus says, For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Don't read too much into that. Don't read that as, they didn't know where Noah and his family went. Yeah, they knew exactly where they went. They just didn't understand what it meant. They were not aware of the judgment that had been spoken about coming upon them until the floodwaters came.

And then they saw, and then they knew. So the coming of the Son of Man will be the same. Judgment has been pronounced to the whole world that those who do not turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ will perish at the coming of Christ when he comes back to judge the living and the dead.

This has been proclaimed to them just as Noah was a herald of righteousness in his day. And people who do not believe will be surprised on that day of judgment. So verse 40,. Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken and one left.

Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one left. And those are the two verses that get used in that Larry Norman song. Two men walking up a hill, one disappeared and one left standing still.

I still remember the song pretty well. So that's misinterpreting what Jesus was talking about there. The one who disappears is not the one who gets raptured. The one who vanishes is the one that got judged.

The one who is left is the one who inherits the earth with Christ. So that's the misunderstanding of those couple of passages among that secret rapture group. So then verse 42,. Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. So here's where we get that thief in the night concept.

Let me finish with verse 44. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. And so then Paul uses that same language in 1 Thessalonians 5. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

This does not mean that Jesus returns in secret silently and we just did not know when he was coming back to rob away all of the Christians. That's not the reference. Clearly that's not the reference, because we just read in chapter 4 that his return was going to be very bright and very loud.

So what does this mean that Christ will return like a thief, but that a thief is an unwanted and unexpected visitor. We don't know when the thief is coming, just as the world does not want Christ and is not expecting his return.

And so when he does return, it will be unexpected and unwelcome, just like the thief. That's the illustration. But for us who are children of the day, his return will not be unwelcome and unexpected. We knew he was coming back.

And the day that he comes, we're rejoicing, baby. We're ready to go home and be with the Lord. We're ready to meet him in the air. This is the day we have been anticipating. We have been praying with the Apostle John, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

And so when he returns, it's not going to be an unwelcome, unexpected event. We've been looking forward to that day, anxiously awaiting that day. Verse 3, 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.

Peace and Security, Judgment, and the Day of the Lord

There's the illustration to Noah and the Ark, as Jesus gave it also in Matthew 24. This can also be a reference back to the book of Obadiah. And that's something that I talked about yesterday. So we can read the Old Testament book of Obadiah in which the prophet was warning the Edomites about the judgment that was going to come upon them because they had betrayed their brothers.

The Israelites had handed them over to the hands of their enemies. And the Edomites thought there was peace and security where they lived. And they lived in a city high up on a hill and they also thought, hey, we've got friends among these pagan nations.

So who exactly is going to come against us? We won't ever be destroyed. We're safe up here. We have peace and security. And I mentioned that we can read that book. And even though Obadiah was warning the Edomites, we can also see that as a picture of what will happen on the day of wrath when Christ comes back in judgment.

That can be a warning for a future generation as well. Or I take that back. It is a warning for all generations and all nations who will be under the judgment and the wrath of God on that great day. And so that pertains specifically to the Edomites, but it can also have a macro fulfillment, something that is more in the global sense.

And that verse applies to that. While people are saying there is peace and security, just like the Edomites thought, there was peace and security where they were and because of the friends they had, 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. This is the same as Jesus saying, so keep awake and be sober for you don't know the hour in which the thief will come.

For you are all children of light, children of the day. We're 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. Now, some of what Paul is saying here is actually kind of a play on words related to Roman imperial propaganda.

The whole concept of there is peace and security. This may have actually been something that the Roman Empire would have its citizens believe. There is peace and security in the Roman Empire. Come and be part of the empire.

You will be safe and secure because if a person believes that, then they're more likely to put their goods on ships and send it overseas and do trade in various places and things like that or to travel and not have to worry about, you know, bandits or rogue people out there because the Roman Empire is taking care of us.

So there's not a whole lot of crime going on in these roads. And the more that people trade and do business, the more taxes are collected and the better that is for the Roman Empire. So this was one of their imperial propaganda slogans.

There is peace and security in the empire. And for those that were not Christians, that also encouraged debauchery because, hey, I can go get drunk. I can go have sex in the pagan temples and nobody's going to rob me out of house and home.

The Imperial Guard is around. They're taking good care of us. They're a pretty intimidating police force. And so this would encourage in the heart of sinners, of pagans, a desire to engage in sinfulness because they walked in darkness.

They thought that there was no threat of any enemy coming against them or judgment that would come against them because of their actions. They walked in darkness. And Paul says here, verse 4, you are not in darkness.

Speaking, of course, to the Christians, the church there in Thessalonica, you're not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. Everybody else is going to be totally stunned on that day because they think, based on the Roman imperial propaganda, there's peace and security.

The barbarians are not going to come and wipe us out. What other nation or empire on Earth is there that is as big and as strong and as powerful as the Roman Empire? So they don't see there being any risk of judgment whatsoever.

But you know better because you're not in darkness like they are. So that day is not going to surprise you like a thief for you are all children of light, children of the day. Now, as I read that in the ESV, children of the day is in lowercase letters.

I can't remember what translation it was I was reading it in. I was reading this in. But day was actually capitalized. So it was like a proper noun. It is a specific day. It is the day that we are looking forward to.

You are all children of light, children of the day. Specifically, you are children of the day of the Lord. When Christ comes back, you won't be among those who are going to be destroyed. You will instead be among those who will be delivered from the wrath of God.

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. And I believe there's a little bit of a hint there at something else that Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse.

Back to Matthew 24, and I'm picking up where I left off. So I finished with verse 44. Here's verse 45. 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?

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed and he begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites.

In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So there are those who even profess to be Christians, but they have no fear of God. They have no fear of judgment. And so you see in their behavior, though they might acknowledge God with their lips and though they might believe there is a day in which Christ will return,.

They'll say,.

Ah, but he's delayed. When is that going to happen? And then he goes and he beats his fellow servants, those who are supposed to be his brothers and sisters in Christ, whom he loves. As John talks about in 1 John, if you do not love your brother whom you see, then you cannot say that you love God whom you do not see.

And so this wicked servant, the one who appears to be in the service of the master, instead starts to beat his fellow servants and he gets drunk with all of the drunkards, exactly what Paul is warning against doing.

And we need to be sober if we are children of the day. And then when the master comes back, he's going to take that wicked servant by surprise, just like the rest of the world will be taken by surprise.

And he will bind him and cast him out with the hypocrites, casting them into hell, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so we must not be like those who walk in darkness, but we must keep awake and be sober.

Remember that the apostle John also said that if we are in the light as he is in the light, we must walk as Jesus walks, doing the things that Jesus told us to do. And so when he returns, he will find his servants doing exactly what he said for his servants to do.

And that day of the master's return is not going to take us by surprise. It will be welcome. He will come in and fellowship with us, and then we will forever be with the Lord. So let us encourage one another with these words.

Prayer for Readiness, Holiness, and Hope in Christ’s Return

And we'll finish up this teaching in 1 Thessalonians 5 tomorrow. Let us pray. God, our father, I thank you for adopting us into your family through your son, Jesus Christ, where previously we were children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

In Christ, we have become children of the day. And like a good father, you discipline us as sons and daughters. This is talked about in Hebrews 12, shaping us more and more into the image of Christ, preparing us for that day.

So let there be nothing in this world that makes us cling to it. Those who are wealthy, who have been given a lot of prosperity during their lifetime, let them not cling to those things. The more a person has, the more likely they are to want the stuff of this world.

But let us not be satisfied with anything of this world. We are looking forward to the coming of Christ, the return of our Lord and Savior, and the ushering in of his peaceful kingdom. For if our treasure is in heaven, then we will be forever with him.

But if our treasure is here on earth, then the return of Christ will surprise those like a thief, a day that will be unexpected and unwelcome. And let us not be that. Let us not be that people who will be taken by surprise on that day.

But we understand as the Apostle John prayed, come quickly, Lord Jesus. And that's what we long for. We want to be delivered from this world. We suffer with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted for their faith.

And so that even those of us who live in prosperity, that's nothing to be comfortable with. Let us cast aside any weight or any hindrance and focus entirely on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

Lord, deliver us from this world into your eternal kingdom. And while we are here, give us courage. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes.

In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word, when we understand the text.