Therefore Encourage One Another With These Words - [I Thessalonians 5:1-11]

and part of the 18th chapter of Acts. Paul and his companions then went over to Macedonia, first of all to Philippi, where in that city and in the others which would follow,

Paul followed his usual style of evangelism, which was to go first to the

Jewish synagogue. He would last there about two or three weeks, a little longer in some places, and he would tick the

Jews off because he declared that Jesus was the Messiah and that they ought to embrace him, and that the law of Moses had been fulfilled in Christ, and all of the things that they thought they must do under the law of Moses, they would no longer do, and they needed to embrace

Jesus of Nazareth. He would last two or three weeks, get beat up, thrown out of the synagogue, and then he often went someplace else, to a

Gentile house often, as in Ephesus or here at Thessalonica, and when he went over there, the uproar continued, and then

Paul was beaten up and thrown out of town. That's basically how the evangelistic style of the apostle

Paul went. One might even say Paul's view of evangelism was, tick them off, okay?

Because that's what he did regularly as he proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

I don't think he probably had ever been to one of the conferences on evangelism where you are given 17 different ways to sneak the gospel in.

Just make sure you don't ruffle any feathers. Or he had not been to a church growth conference where the strategy is get a

Ferris wheel and a merry -go -round in the parking lot. They will love it.

They will come in. The pagans will stream in off of the golf course at 11 o 'clock each

Sunday morning, and that was not the apostle Paul. In any case, that's exactly what happened here in Thessalonica.

It got so bad in Thessalonica that Paul went up to Berea. There he preached the gospel to the

Bereans, who were said to be more noble than the Thessalonians and the Philippians because they examined the scriptures and found some of them to be true.

But the Jews in Thessalonica found out that Paul was up at Berea. They went up there, caused more uproar, and so finally

Paul has to leave and he goes to Athens. And before he goes to Athens, though, he tells

Timothy in particular, he wants to know what's going on in Thessalonica. Why? Because he was there only a short time.

And so there was a lot that he had told them and there was a lot that he had not told them. And they had questions that came back to Paul.

Timothy's report to Paul basically was that they're doing fine in Thessalonica, but they have these questions.

And so the letters to the Thessalonians are written essentially to answer those questions.

And the basic question that they had was, we understood that we would not die, that Jesus would return in our lifetime, and now we have some believers that have died, and so what's the deal?

That's kind of the condensed version of what the questions must have been. So when you get to the letters to the

Thessalonians, you sort of get plunged into the whole eschatology thing.

What's going to happen at the end? Because Paul answers their questions, what about these people that have died?

And he speaks of things to come. And so we are thrust into eschatology, like it or not.

So I need to tell you right off the bat that I am a millennialist, all right?

I believe that when the Bible says that the Jewish Messiah will reign on the throne and in Revelation for a thousand years,

I believe that's exactly what it means. I am not a replacement theologian.

Some of our own millennial brethren in particular want to replace all of the promises of Israel in the

Old Testament. They want to replace that with the Church. And so we have become the

Israel. And as we go through this this morning, I'll mention some of those commentators, particularly from the time of the

Reformation, including John Calvin, and their view of how all of this goes, which

I think is not correct. Here's what I think we need to know. That we have, we,

Gentiles, you may not all be Gentiles, but as far as I know any of you, you are.

All right? You are not Jews. You are not Israelis, as far as I know.

Maybe somebody here is, but I don't know about it. So I'm going to assume we're all

Gentiles here. Our salvation is rooted in Jewish roots.

We are, in the words of Paul over in Romans, chapters 9, 10, and 11, we are branches grafted in to a root, which is the living root, which is the true root, which is

Jewish. And what has happened over a period of several thousand years, is a couple thousand years, is that the whole

Christianity thing has come to be looked at as, this is a Gentile deal.

No, it's not a Gentile deal. It's a Jewish deal. And we Gentiles have been grafted in to that.

And if you take that view, then you end up in this replacement theology, as Andrew said last week, impressing upon the

Old Testament, your view of end times truth.

Our Amillennial brethren, in particular, want to do that. And so they read the New Testament back into the

Old Testament, replace what the Old Testament prophets, what the Old Testament patriarchs would have understood, when they were told certain things, when things were revealed to them by God.

And then we look and say, well, yeah, but they didn't really get it right. It's over here in the New Testament that we understand what happened there.

So, this whole issue comes down to a matter of interpretation, how you view the

Scriptures. And I view the Scriptures in a grammatico -historic way.

I'm going to shy away from the word literal, because that says things to people that isn't true.

In other words, you just take the language at face value. You place it in its historic context, in its cultural context, and in its grammatical context.

Old Testament to New Testament. We don't start a new method of interpretation, because we have replaced

Israel. If you do that, you have to spiritualize, allegorize, analogize the

Old Testament. And I think we do not want to do that. So, I am a

Millennialist. Not only that, it gets worse. No. I am a

Pre -Millennialist. I am a Pre -Tribulational

Pre -Millennialist. And if that means anything or a lot to you...

Okay, I have not time to explain all of that today, except as it touches on the letter to the

Thessalonians. So, let's jump right into the 1 Thessalonians again to review what's gone on here.

Paul writes to them in chapter 1, and he commends them for their faith which has been heard all through Macedonia.

And then over at verses 9 and 10, he says to them at the end of chapter 1, they themselves, that is those who have heard about your faith in Macedonia and Achaia, that's basically

Greece and Northern Greece, okay, they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true

God. Now, in Thessalonica, it was an idol -ridden city, but it was also a city in despair.

One of the inscriptions that has been found from ancient Thessalonica kind of ends like this, after the grave, nothing.

That's an inscription that was found there. So, that's the idolatrous and despairing kind of atmosphere that the gospel of Christ goes into when

Paul and his companions went there. In any case, those people believed, and they had a good report throughout all of the

Greek peninsula, and in the northern parts up in Macedonia. And so,

Paul commends them for that. They turned from idols to serve the living and true God. Now, watch this.

And to wait for His Son from heaven, he must have told them about the second coming of Christ, perhaps from John.

You know, I go to prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself.

So, they knew something about the Lord Jesus returning. So, they are waiting for His Son from heaven, whom

He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

And at those two verses, the Apostle Paul introduces what is going to be the discussion eschatologically.

You know, eschato, that's the Greek word for end times things.

And we get all excited about some of these words, eschatological and dispensational and all of that kind of thing.

I don't want to get hung up on that. When I say eschatology, just get it.

It's what happens at the end. What happens at the end of the age and so on. Okay, but Paul introduces that as he commends them for embracing the gospel, to wait for the

Lord Jesus from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Then he goes on to review his own ministry with them, to rehearse

Timothy's encouraging report from them, and that brings us over to chapter 4, where now he gets down to business about answering one of the questions that they must have had, and that is, what about these people that have died?

We thought Jesus was coming to receive us to Himself, and we have been waiting for His coming.

Okay, so Paul says at chapter 4, verse 13, here's what he says to them. We looked at this in pretty good detail last time

I was with you. But let me just review it. I want you to listen carefully now, because there's a test at the end of this, and after I get into chapter 5, and I'm going to ask you a question.

And it's a question that you've been asked often in school on the tests that you take.

You know those essay questions that start out this way? Compare and contrast, okay?

And then you know, oh, we're to deal with the similarities and the differences between. We're going to do that in a minute, okay?

Here's what Paul says to them about the coming of the Lord. That was one of their questions.

What's the deal with the coming of the Lord? We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others 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.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord. I've been thinking about that.

I think that's interesting. Because this is the first time that we hear about what

I'm going to read about next. Apparently the Thessalonians had not been given this kind of detail.

So Paul says, look, and he doesn't say about this, that he had told them about this when he was there the first time.

About the second thing in view he does. But not about this. This I declare to you by a word from the

Lord. That we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

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.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in clouds.

I don't think the definite article is there in the text. Anyway, in the clouds to meet the

Lord in the air. Where are we going to meet the Lord? In the air. This is Paul's description of the great meeting of believers.

These Thessalonians were a mixed crowd. Some Jews, probably mostly Gentiles. This is the account and the prediction and the prophecy of the great meeting in the air of the church.

We will meet them in the clouds. We will meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the

Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. What was their question?

What about all these people that had died? Okay, here's the deal. The Lord is going to come to the air.

Not to the earth, to the air. The Lord is going to come there. We will be snatched up.

That's where the whole term rapture of the church comes from. Rapture comes from the

Latin word meaning to snatch something. You walk in and there's the

Oreo on the counter. You snatch it. It is a raptured Oreo. All right.

And that's exactly what's going to happen. You may not want to put that in your notes. Okay. Anyhow, we can talk sometime about baptizing

Oreos too. But anyway, that's another story. All right. The church is going to be snatched up.

And so that's where we get that word rapture. And so Paul says to these Thessalonians, don't worry about the dead in Christ.

They're going to precede you. If you are alive, when the Lord comes back, He is coming back to the air.

Those who are dead in Christ, those who are asleep in Christ, they will rise first. Then we who remain, we will go with them.

We will meet the Lord in the air. And so we will ever be with the Lord. Now I want you to keep that in your mind.

Because that's part of the compare and contrast thing that we're going to come to. Now we come to chapter 5.

So Paul says, you Thessalonians need to encourage yourselves with the fact that the

Lord is coming back. To snatch you out and you're forever going to be with the

Lord from that point on. All right. Now, chapter 5.

Now concerning, those two little words are important. Because they are a phrase that is used often.

Meaning, okay, now we're going to talk about something else. Now we're going to talk about something that I told you about when

I was here, says Paul. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers.

The times and seasons are not the same word. It's not just redundancy. It is, times is chronos,

I think. Chronology, the chronology, we know about chronology.

Because we are very taken up with chronology by the time civilization has come on to this point.

Where we can talk about thousands and ten thousands and hundred thousands and nanoseconds and all of that stuff.

Well, that's the chronos. All right. Now concerning the times and the seasons, the seasons are more like the epics.

You know, fall has come. Summer was yesterday. Fall has come to New England.

Okay. Summer might return for a couple of days. And then three weeks from now, we expect to have the snow shovels out and winter will be upon us.

Okay. These are the epics. Okay. The seasons that Paul is talking about here.

That's going to be important because we're going to look at a question that Jesus' disciples asked of him about the seasons, the epics that were going on.

Okay. Now about those things, the chronology, the times and the seasons, brothers.

You have no need to have anything written to you. Really? Well, we asked a question about that.

That question is described in 2 Thessalonians. And we'll probably get there next week.

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him. We ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to come from us to the effect that the day of the

Lord has come. We're going to look at that today. What is the day of the

Lord? What's he talking about? Paul says, I talked to you about that already at verse 5 of chapter 2 of 2

Thessalonians. He says, do you not remember that when I was still with you,

I told you these things. But notice, it doesn't look like he told them about the snatch.

It doesn't look like he told them about the great meeting in the air. But now he says that in his letter, his first letter to them.

He says, by a word from the Lord, I'm telling you this. It's the first time that issue has come up.

It's not, it doesn't appear in the Old Testament and it has not appeared up to this time.

But now the day of the Lord that's being talked about here. Paul says, I told you about that when

I was here. I get it. There are people that are sending letters or they are coming bringing messages saying that the day of the

Lord has occurred and you're all excited and bent out of shape about the fact that the day of the

Lord has come already. Now he's going to tell them the day of the Lord has not come already and that's going to be part of what we discuss today.

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

It will not come by a letter or a rumor or a message from somebody. It 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.

At the end of this, at the end of this, he says, therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.

After this recitation about the day of the Lord, which comes like a thief in the night, which is sudden destruction that comes on people that are saying peace and security.

And the comparing, the compare and contrast question is going to be compare the meeting in the air and the day of the

Lord. Contrast the meeting in the air and the day of the Lord. But before you do that, or before we do that,

I want to read to you from the Old Testament. I just happened to jot these down from my computer.

Alright. There are 19 Old Testament references to the day of the Lord. What Paul is talking about here to these

Thessalonians. Let me read them to you so you get a flavor of what the day of the Lord is all about when it is mentioned in the

Scriptures. Isaiah chapter 13, verse 6. Wail for the day of the

Lord is near, as destruction from the Almighty it will come. Verse 9,

Isaiah 13. Behold the day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.

Jeremiah 46. That day is the day of the Lord God, the

Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes.

The sword shall devour and be sated and drink its fill of their blood, for the

Lord God of hosts holds a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

Ezekiel chapter 13. You have not gone up into the breeches or built up a wall for the house of Israel that it might stand in the day of the

Lord. That's an accusation in Ezekiel. That it might stand in battle in the day of the

Lord. It's going to be a battle in the day of the Lord. Wait, we're not going to compare and contrast yet.

For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.

Joel chapter 1, verse 15. Alas for the day, for the day of the

Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. Joel chapter 2, verse 1.

Blow a trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the

Lord is coming, it is near. Joel 2 .11. The Lord utters

His voice before His army, for His camp is exceedingly great. He who executes

His word is powerful, for the day of the Lord is great and very awesome. Who can endure it?

And then from chapter 2, verse 31, which is quoted by Peter on his sermon on the day of Pentecost.

The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the

Lord comes. Joel chapter 3, verse 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.

That would be when the Lord gathers the nations to the valley of Jehoshaphat to deal with them face to face,

He says. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the

Lord is near in the valley of decision. Amos chapter 5, verse 18.

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. Why would you have the day of the Lord?

It is darkness, not light. Amos chapter 5, verse 20.

Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?

Obadiah, verse 15, that is only one chapter. For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.

As you have done, it shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return on your own head.

Zephaniah chapter 1. Be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the

Lord is near. The Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated His guests.

Zephaniah chapter 1, verse 8. And on the day of the Lord's sacrifice,

I will punish the officials and the king's sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire.

Zephaniah chapter 1 again. The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast.

The sound of the day of the Lord is bitter. The mighty man cries aloud there.

And finally, Malachi chapter 4. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the great and awesome day of the

Lord comes. That prophet, incidentally, was identified by Jesus as John the

Baptist. The Elijah -like prophet, before the great and awesome day of the

Lord comes. In the New Testament, there are four references to this.

And the New Testament writers, of course, base what they write on the

Old Testament prophets that I have just quoted to you. Acts chapter 2.

The sun shall be turned to dark, quoting Joel. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the

Lord comes. The great and magnificent day. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 2, which is where we are right now.

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 2. You are not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the

Lord has come. In 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 10. But the day of the

Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Now, compare and contrast the meeting in the air and the day of the

Lord. You see that the day of the Lord is sort of a technical term used throughout the Old Testament and quoted in the

New Testament to describe something very specific. So compare and contrast.

First of all, compare. How are they similar? Get your blue books out.

Okay. How are they similar? Yes. They are unexpected.

Okay. Anything else? Jesus is instrumental in both of them.

And where is He coming from, by the way? In both cases, where is He coming from?

Berry Plains? No. He's not coming from there. All right. West Boylston?

No. Not coming from there. Where is He coming from? He's coming from heaven. Remember what

Paul said? Well, you're going to see what Jesus says in a minute. But He's coming from heaven.

All right. Now, just contrast a little bit. What are the differences between the great meeting in the air and what

I've just described here from the Old Testament and the New? Joy versus wrath.

Thessalonians, calm down. Here's what's going to happen. The Lord is coming to the air.

He's going to snatch you out of here and you will ever be with the Lord. And all the dead in Christ will rise first.

That is a joyful thing. And what happens on the day of the

Lord? It's not a joyful thing. It's a disastrous thing for somebody.

All right. So, I want to turn over. We have to do this.

I want to turn over to Matthew chapter 24 where Jesus talks about this very thing.

This is also found in Luke 21. And a question of the

Pharisees, which is the same as what's here, which was the questions of the Thessalonians. Okay.

Now, this is Jesus talking about these things. Get an estimate of several things.

And we can't take time to do Matthew chapter 24 in the next 10, 15, 20, or 30 minutes.

No, the next 10 minutes or so. We'll get started anyway. Jesus left the temple and was going away.

When His disciples came to point out to Him the buildings of the temple. This is the second temple in Jerusalem.

But He answered them, You see all these, do you not? Truly I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

Now, we know that that prophecy was fulfilled in 70 A .D. when the

Romans invaded Jerusalem and they took the temple apart stone by stone.

Some have reported that they did that because in the burning of the city and the temple, the gold which overlaid so much of the temple ran down between the joints and the stones.

And so they took it all apart, at least in part to get the gold. Jesus said to these guys, this would be about 30, maybe 31

A .D., He said to these guys, not one stone is going to be left on another. That prophecy was fulfilled in A .D.

70. And a temple has not been built since. As He sat on the

Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately saying, Tell us when these... Now, here are their questions.

Tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?

Now, notice this one thing. These Jewish disciples knew that there was an age that would be closing.

There is a close of an age. Apparently the age they thought in which they existed.

Now, where would they get an idea like that? You know, when we look at history, there are many people who look at history and it's just this.

Hey, what goes around comes around. And what goes around comes around. And what goes around comes around.

I think it's Arnold Toynbee that listed something like 19 or 20 or so cycles of what goes around comes around.

Civilizations come, they rise, they reach a pinnacle, and then they go, and then the next guys come, and they rise, and they reach a pinnacle, and then they go.

That's not a biblical point of view. The Bible says history is going somewhere. And this description that Jesus is talking about here to these disciples as they ask the question, we see that they have in their minds whatever age this is, it's going to close.

And the idea that they got to close that age is this. They read the Old Testament prophets.

And what did the Old Testament prophets see? The Old Testament prophets saw and prophesied and were persecuted for telling the people of Israel that they were deep in sin and idolatry and a variety of other things which displeased the

Lord. And in accordance with what is said in Deuteronomy, about chapter 4, when the people of Israel did not keep their covenant with God, that is the

Mosaic covenant with God, they would be punished and scattered throughout the world.

Now that happened really about three times in Israeli history.

The first time was when Abraham goes down to Egypt. Abraham goes down to Egypt and then he comes back to the land which

God had promised him. And then Jacob goes down to Egypt and comes back to the land that God had promised him.

And then the people of Israel are sent into exile, but they come back to the land that God had promised them.

And then in 70 A .D., Jerusalem is destroyed, the temple is destroyed, the people are scattered all over the world, and they remain scattered all over the world to this day.

You need to understand that the people of Israel are under judgment.

This is all not just what goes around comes around, what goes around comes around. It is because in this case, in the modern case, they have not embraced their

Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we look at Israel back in the land. 50 years now.

They celebrated this year 50 years of being back in the land. All kinds of people before they got there and after they got there said it will never last.

It will never last. Well, 50 years. It has lasted against insurmountable odds.

And they are in the land now. But they are still under judgment because the observation would be except for a small number of them,

Israel is a very secular place. There are many people in Israel who want nothing to do particularly with these

Orthodox Jews who are still believing in the promises of the

Old Testament. A lot of Israelis want nothing to do with that. And they certainly want nothing to do with the proclamation that Jesus is the

Messiah. They are under judgment. God had promised that if they did not believe

Him that they would be under judgment. I want you to understand that when Jesus says what

He is about to say here, that He is talking to Jews. Alright?

This concerns the nation of Israel. It doesn't concern

West Boylston. Except, except as there are some things that we can learn from this to help us be alert.

Looking for and waiting for what we say in our statement of faith,

I trust, that we believe in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no prophecy that must be fulfilled before the great meeting in the air.

We are the guys that ought to have one eye cast upward all the time because Jesus could return to snatch the church out of here at any time.

We will see that there are all kinds of things that have to happen before the day of the

Lord. But these disciples being Jews would have seen this kind of chronology in the

Old Testament. The Jews are scattered. They are restored. They are scattered.

They are restored. But the day comes when they will be restored and that day is the day of the

Lord. The Lord will return to judge the world and to judge their enemies.

And you heard the word vengeance in the quotations that I gave several times. That's their chronology.

We are scattered all over the world. We are restored from time to time to the land.

But the day comes when Messiah comes and sets all of this straight.

That's what they knew. Alright? They knew nothing about the great snatch because that doesn't even come up until you get to the

Thessalonians. As He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came privately and saying to Him, Tell us, when will these things be?

First question. What will be the sign of Your coming and of the close of the age?

Second question. These are the times and the epochs.

These are the times and the seasons that are mentioned over in 1

Thessalonians. Chapter 5. That's the same question that these disciples were asking.

So Jesus answered them. Here's the beginning of the answer to question 1. Jesus answered them.

See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in My name, saying, I am the

Christ. And they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

See that you are not alarmed. For this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

And I think we are even observers to the beginnings of the beginnings of birth pains.

Alright? We see that. We see all of those things described in the world around us right now.

But this is not about us. This is about the nation of Israel. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation.

Good word. Tribulation. And put you to death. And you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.

Hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved. This is not about eternal security, by the way.

This is about the nation of Israel. This is about who survives after all of the chaos that the

Lord has just described. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

And then the end will come. You say, well, what's that all about?

Well, we see the precursors to it, do we not? The gospel of the kingdom is preached throughout the whole world.

Our post -millennial friends, our optimistic friends say, and what's going to happen is the gospel is just going to be preached and everybody's going to get better and better and better.

And finally the whole world is going to say Jesus is Lord and we will enter what the

Bible describes as the millennial kingdom. A casual look,

I guess, at the Internet these days on any morning will tell you that's not how things are going.

Even a casual listen to PBS will tell you that's not how things are going.

In fact, things are going more like Jesus described. Nation will rise against nation and so on and so forth.

Wars and rumors of wars. Many will come claiming I am the Christ and lead many astray and all of that.

Nevertheless, in the midst of all of that chaos, the gospel is preached throughout the whole world.

We're going to have to stop and I'm not there, but we're practicing the bailout school of homiletics. So I'm going to bail out in a minute.

Alright? If you think the gospel isn't preached throughout the whole world, throughout the whole world, you need to examine some of the things that are going on.

And I'll just close with this this morning. You keep your finger in Matthew 24. Take your

Bible even to work with your finger in Matthew 24. Because I'm coming back there next week and to some other places too.

Well, I don't want to leave the Thessalonians hanging, so I'll finish that up too. I have a friend named

Bruce Johnson who works with the Chumani Indians, tribal people, indigenous people, however you want to...

I'm trying to be politically correct here. Okay? Tribal people in the headwaters of the

Amazon in Bolivia. Bruce is a colleague of ours and was when we were in Bolivia.

We had his kids in school and all of that. Now here's what Bruce is asking for these days.

Bruce is asking that if you're going to give to the Chumani project, that you need to do that so that they can purchase little

SD cards for the Chumanis to put in their cell phones.

Cell phones? These guys are still paddling around in dugout canoes.

In their cell phones? Yeah, their cell phones. In South America there are cell towers, in Bolivia at least, there are cell towers all over the

Andes. They've skipped all this wires hanging and all that stuff. They've skipped all of that.

The other thing they need is solar cells. What for? To charge the cell phones.

Of course. And so the Gospel is going exponentially to the whole world.

Sometimes I think that the Gospel is more like the ocean.

That the Gospel sweeps in waves over different places. The Gospel swept over Europe.

The Gospel swept over the United States. The Gospel has swept into South America.

The Gospel has swept into Africa. And if you look at the United States, there are a lot of Christians in the

United States. Don't misunderstand. A whole bunch. Including us. Alright?

But as you can see, in our culture, in our biblical world view and all of that, the whole biblical world view is receding from the

United States. Not coming to it at this point. In all that is going on.

So I think sometimes the Gospel is like that. Listen to this. I have an aunt and uncle.

A dear aunt and uncle who are saved. Believe me, they're saved. They were

Episcopalian. Well, the Episcopalian church, as you know, has gotten into all kinds of fruitcake.

Alright? But there's a whole bunch of people. A whole bunch of people in what was the Episcopalian church that said, no, that's not what the

Bible says. And so we're going to leave. I think they haven't.

There's a little old Episcopal church sitting in Barry Plains, Massachusetts. And it is now an antique dealer's place.

You know why? Because the church went down, but the

Episcopate still owned the property. So these people that say, no, no, we want to reform that deal.

They can't just say, and so we'll take the property too because they can't. Anyway, that's a long story.

But get this. Those people that have wanted to remain true to the Scriptures that were in the

Episcopal church, which has gone completely liberal, those people now call themselves

Anglicans. And there's a whole bunch of them in Southern California who have placed the

Episcopal thing. It's not like this. There's a whole hierarchy. Anyway, there is a bishop of the

Anglicans in Southern California. A large group of them. You know who he is? He's the

Bishop of Cochabamba, Bolivia. And he has authority over those

Anglican groups in Southern California. You say, what? The Bishop of Cochabamba, Bolivia?

Yes. Because the Bishop of Cochabamba, Bolivia in the Anglican church still believes in the

Scriptures. So what does Jesus say? He says this gospel is going to be preached over the whole world.

And when it gets preached over the whole world, there are some things that are going to happen that we're going to talk about next week, not this week.

Alright? Some things that are going to happen. And they include us, but they also don't include us.

And so, if you want to find out whether you're included, or what's included, or not included, you're going to have to come back next week.

Alright? Let's not leave the Thessalonians hanging. Let's close them with this and detail it next week.

Thessalonians. The day of the Lord has not come. Alright? The day of the

Lord has not come because nothing has happened like a thief in the night. Destruction has not come to the world, which

Paul described in about one sentence in 1 Thessalonians 5. So, fasten your seat belts,

Thessalonians. The major reason that the day of the Lord has not come is because you're still here.

And you have not been snatched out. Therefore, since you will not be part of the wrath to come, that's how he put it in chapter 1.

Since you will not be part of that, encourage one another with these words.

After his rundown about the day of the Lord. Now, we'll detail that more next week. It's going to take a while.

So, you better come about 630. No, okay. We'll not do that. Alright. Thank You, Lord, for Your Word.

Thank You for the encouragement that we keep our eyes up because You may come for us at any moment.

That there is no prophecy that has to be fulfilled before we are snatched out to You and are in Your presence forevermore.

We think, however, about the destruction when you come to earth. Not to the air, but to earth.

The destruction that will be visited upon people that do not know You. And we pray that You would give us interest and passion in sharing the

Gospel with them. We pray that You would encourage us, Lord, to know that we will not be part of the judgment of those who have refused

You. We pray for the people of Israel this morning. We pray that as they go back to their land, ignorant, ignorant of why they are going, that they are going by Your hand.

We pray for them that they may embrace their Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.