First Thessalonians 5:1-3 The Day of The Lord Part 1

This is a small review. You've seen this before. I'm just using this as an introduction to the two divisions of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. We get this from Chad McCauley's site on 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. How many of you, since I've got you in front of me, how many of you use his site?

Have you? Roger? Yeah? Okay. So just to teachers, it's well worth your time to go online and listen to what he has to say as part of the preparation for the class. There's two divisions that he has given us in his outline. One is how we have or how the Thessalonians received the word of God and also how to live the Word of God, which is where we are today. We're going on in that half of 1 Thessalonians. Today, the context is last week's verses, so I'd like to read those with you first. If you have your Bibles, I really believe in following along with them. It helps me, and it probably would help each one if you have your Bible. to open it to 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that's a first class, and we do, even so, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, very authoritative statement, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, pretty noisy arrival, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

Isn't that wonderful? It's cloudy out there, folks. Are you looking up? Is he coming? I can't help but think of that. Today's verse is beginning in chapter 5 verse 1. I'm going to read it twice, once in the King James and once in the New American Standard. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, notice it's a follow-on to what we just read. You have no need that I write unto you. for yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night for when they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape I'm curious Bill can I just ask you are we online? I don't see anybody but myself in the auditorium That's why I'm asking. OK. I'm I just not seeing everybody. Yeah. OK. So, folks, if you're online, I can't see you. I'm sorry.

Hopefully, maybe if you speak up, we can hear you and answer questions. Looking at the new American standard, Now as to the times and epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. Pretty close. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night, and while they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. We're going to take a look first at verse 1 here. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.

And the preposition there is peri, which means about. And then the connective word in contrast to the previous context, but, on the other hand, is another way of saying that but contrast. The times, that's a word that means the chronology or the sequence of events, simply. And then the conjunction and, or also, the kind of events follows next.

And that is the actual quality of each one of the events is the focus. So, the Thessalonians knew two things. They knew the chronology of things. They also knew the kind of things that were going to go on One thing, two thing, three thing. So they had both aspects.

Brothers. I found this really interesting. That word brothers is a habit of Paul. Whenever he gives teaching over and over and over again, if it might cause offense, he uses the word brothers. Why? Well, number one, of course, it shows relationship that he and the ones that he's talking to are in the same family, just like we're in this room together. But we're also in a bigger room, aren't we? It's the called out room, called out into the family of God. So I can call you brothers and sisters. You can call me brother, too. Paul did that to the Thessalonians here.

I can't get over sometimes thinking about these things, that how personal the Holy Spirit is in working through us in a personal way, that when we speak to each other and teach each other or encourage each other, He, God Himself, makes it very personal. He makes it a family. It's not didactic. as much as it is personal, on a one-to-one. I love that. I'll just pass that along. I spent a long time thinking about that. I think it's great.

And then the word no. This is an adverb negative in a contrasting way. You have no lack or necessity to, you don't have this, it says, to be written to. It's an infinitive in the present tense, so it's a durative thing. You don't have that need right now to be written to about both the times, the sequence, nor the quality of each one of the events. Well, we'll get to that. I won't say it now. Here's my literal translation. But about the future times and the kind of events, brothers, no need have you to be written to.

And then verse 2, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Yourselves emphasizes a unique identity. Yourselves, because accurately you know that, and it's in the perfect tense here, so it's not that they are knowing right now, duratively. No. They came to know, and they are knowing duratively. So, they got the knowledge in the past, and it has durative consistency up through the present time. And here's what it is. The Day of the Lords.

This is a genitive of reference to the person here. We can call it either the objective or the subjective, but it is more than that. Because there is no article except in the Byzantine Greek text here. So it is the quality of the relationship that we are looking at.

This day belongs in a personal way to our Lord. Does that make sense? That's another area that in thinking this through took me quite a while to really sort of get down in thinking is that we're not talking about a day but like any other day and I'm using day very loosely. Not 24 hours, not a week, but a length of time that is determined by the owner. It is the Lord's day. How long it is is not the issue. It's his day.

I think I've emphasized that enough. This is really an intro to the quality as an example. And the example that the Holy Spirit has given through Paul is a thief in the night. Isn't that something? In this way is coming And that is in the middle passive, it's a, he's personally involved, okay? And it has nothing to do with you and I. Isn't that neat? So, he's coming, is a fact. He's personally involved. You and I have nothing to do with him. Roy, because in the previous passage, We're out of here, right? We went to be with the Lord. So now, this is going to happen, which is very interesting.

Isn't that neat? How careful is the Holy Spirit? Using Paul's writing of words to choose not just the words, but the tense of the words, the timing of the words, and the kind of the words. There is no other greater emphasis in my perception of how great God is that the care that he has taken with us as his family to tell us things succinctly and carefully. So if we just take the time.

Anybody can look this up. This is not special, guys. It's all right there on the web. You can look it up. Because yourselves accurately have come to know that the day of the Lord, like a thief at night, in this way is coming. Verse 4, when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them. This connective is a temporal particle of time. It is an indication that this is going to happen at a particular time. for when they say, subjunctive is one step away from reality.

It's a, they will do this, but it's not right now. OK? And so it agrees with that particle all the time. Peace and safety. The emphasis here is, here are some people that are referred to as the third person plural. Notice we've shifted. It's not you anymore, it's they. They say, Peace! Safety! That's what they're saying. And when they say it, then a sudden or unexpected event happens. It comes on them suddenly and it happens without warning. Notice that? And the destruction actually has the idea of ruin comes upon them.

Not believers, folks. OK? This is a picture of they. These are others than believers. Not the Thessalonians that are in view. Just want to make sure that that's clear. Not only did the Holy Spirit change from you know these things about the future. They don't know these things about the future and when it happens it will be unexpected.

They're looking at having peace and security. Boy do we hear that in the news, don't we? Isn't that the message that we're getting through the news media? If we just had peace, if we just had getting along, oh boy. Are they saying, we now have peace and safety, or please, we need peace and safety?

Which way? You know, I'm not going to go too far with that, if you don't mind. And the reason is... Sorry. No, no, no. I was just trying to think, how can I say this? Look at the verb there, they say. It's a subjunctive, one step away from reality, but it's in the present tense, Well, that's the mood of the day. That's on the news. Exactly.

So, all we know is that this text, the Holy Spirit is saying, the world, not the believers that are in Thessalonians, but the world people are going to be saying, as far as a characteristic is concerned, Peace and safety is on their mind. They're not focused on God. They're focused on themselves, aren't they? For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes on them. Boy, I'm losing the time here.

And as prevailed upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape, This phrase, as the labor pain, and this is a single woman here that's in view, in pregnancy she has labor pains, right? But these are labor pains of delivery. This is not labor pains that are false. These are labor pains in the last stage of delivery. She has these, also in that form, have these people who don't know up from down, and are thinking about peace and safety. And then a very strong form in Greek is used here. No, not a double negative, ume. It's not as strong as another one in Hebrews, where there's a triple negative, but it's a double negative. It's very strong. They will not, no, never escape. They cannot run away from it. It's going to come. I'm glad that you and I are gone. Right? Amen! As the labor pain a woman in pregnancy has, also know they do not escape. That's my best literal rendering.

OK, looking at the text now from the form that I have here we've got it in three forms The New American Standard My Literal, and also Weist You've listened to My Literal in pieces, let me read it as a block here But about the future times and the kinds of events, brothers Personal, isn't it?

No need have you to be written to, because yourselves accurately have come to know the day of the Lord, like a thief at night, in this way is coming. For when they say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes on them, as the labor pain a woman in pregnancy has, also know they do not escape. And because of time, I'm going to skip W.E.A.S.T.s, but it's there if you want to read it. Things to observe in these verses. These believers had come to correctly know the facts about both the sequence and the quality of the events of the coming quote day of the Lord. But of the times and the seasons brethren you have no need that I write unto you. Another observation.

These believers only had a short exposure to Paul's teaching The Old Testament Scriptures were also available to them, weren't they? But what part of the New Testament did they have? Not very much. Written about 52 AD, they probably had maybe Mark, maybe Galatians, but that's about it. So, this knowledge that they had about the future things was from Paul, and from the Old Testament. The but in 5.1 is in contrast to the but in 4.13, which we read. They had to be taught by Paul the information about the sequence and the quality of the rapture events. Why? Because they didn't have it. It's not in the Old Testament. And that's open.

Verse 13 of chapter 4 and 5-1 both have the address of being brothers. I'm going to repeat here. This is common by Paul. When he teaches, he gives those taught a personal family relationship to himself. He says, I'm learning this too, guys. I'm part of the family.

The pronouns you and they are used to distinguish between You believers who know the facts about the day of the Lord, and they who do not know these facts. I'm trying to keep it simple. Three facts are given about the coming day of the Lord. Two are human in perspective, and one is from God's perspective. We get that from these three verses.

First, the first one, people are unprepared for the day of the Lord. Their focus instead is on peace and security. They have no preparation for this day of the Lord. Second, they're surprised. It's a sudden event. The arrival of the day of the Lord will be unexpected. And third, this is from God's viewpoint, if we didn't have the scriptures We wouldn't know this.

People will not have any way to escape the day of the Lord. They can run, they can hide, they can say to the hills, hide us, fall on us! Because the vengeance, the discipline, the correction that God is going to administer in the day of the Lord is so severe that people will run. You can ask the physical environment that they're living in to take them out rather than face it. Pretty bad. They don't escape though. Things to observe in the preceding context.

These believers had turned toward the living God and away from idols. This is by way of remembrance. These believers had believed the words that were given to them about God. God had made these believers to be outstanding examples of his new-in-kind called-out-ones. By the way, that's what we are, that's what the church is. Called-out-ones. These believers had a focus on the coming of our Lord, but not some details of his coming to take them to be with him.

And their questions through Timothy to Paul made him right for the Thessalonians to answer that question that they had Paul tells them that he had, and I want you to notice, from the Lord information specifically about those who are asleep now as believers who will be coming with the Lord when he returns to gather his called out ones unto himself In verse 15 of chapter 4 it says, by the word of the Lord. Did you catch that? Paul wasn't making this up. Paul tells them that we, the Lord's called out ones, will be with our Lord forever. Isn't that neat? And Paul tells them to comfort one another with this information.

That's all in the context just ahead of this text. Six times in 1 Thessalonians, this hope on him and his coming is mentioned. And I've shown you this before, but this is so outstanding, I can't get away from it, I'm sorry. Verse 3, steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 10, you are waiting for his son in confident hope. Isn't that something? verse 19 of chapter 2, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming and verse 13 of chapter 3, so that he may establish your hearts without blame and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. How many? Anybody get left out? That's the word POS usually, non-exclusive. Non-exclusive. You get them all. That's right.

Verse 16 of chapter 4, the Lord himself will descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first and then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And verse 23 of chapter 5, now may the God of peace and self sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the work of God making us complete. Faithful as he who calls you, he also will bring it to pass. Now, was it appropriate for Paul in chapter 4 to say to them, comfort one another with these words?

I think it was. And by the way, he repeats that, not once, several times. Things to observe in the following context in these verses, and here's some homework. How does God speak to us in the following verses about his for and with us return? There's two aspects to it. He comes for us, and then he comes with us. How does he talk about it in these verses? I want you to do this as homework. Will you do it?

Look at the verses in Thessalonians and make believe that you are a Thessalonian. You don't have the rest of the New Testament. You've got the old, but you don't have the new. You can use the whole letter of 1 Thessalonians in the process. You've got that much. Make a list.

Things to observe in the Old and New Testaments about the Day of the Lord. This I got from Ron Merriman. It's 44 texts in the Old Testament. 19 are explicit references. to the day of the Lord. 25 are to the day for that great day. Quite a few references, aren't there? Question. What are the two main things that describe this day in these five texts?

That's your homework. OK. I put this on the web. You can download it. You can look these verses up. But I want you to notice something. In each of these five cases there is a contrast. So when you write down the two main things that describe the Day of the Lord, keep in mind that there is one half and there is a contrast to that in each case. So I just sort of left it a blank slate because I've got so much material today. I just wanted to introduce it to you and ask your participation please. Look it up! Read! Forty-four texts! In the New Testament there's only four. Two times right here in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.

Once in Acts 2.20 and once in 2 Peter 3.8-10. That the day of the Lord is mentioned. And you can look those up. I'm going to give you just sort of an overview. Let me see how I'm doing on time. I guess I've got time.

These are the most frequently used inscription words returning to the return of Christ. The first one is parousia and it means to be near or alongside. It's got para, alongside, and ani, to be, joined together in one word. in classical Greek writings that word usually meant the arrival or the visit of a king or an emperor, somebody in status even a governor or a mayor or whatever would be arriving and so they'd shout it out and people would come and assemble on both sides of the road angry whoever or if they had a senate and the senator was coming they'd meet him in their meeting place, whatever That's classical. But biblically, it's used for the coming of Paul's friends.

1 Corinthians 16, verse 17. Also, the coming of Titus in 2 Corinthians 7. The coming of Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 26. The coming of the lawless one. We're going to get to that in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 9. The coming of the day of God. We already covered that. Remember that?

In 2 Peter? that parousia was used for the coming of the day of God, as well as Christ's second coming, here in 1 Thessalonians 2.19, 3.13, 4.15, 5.23, and looking back, now we're just talking about the day of the Lord, remember there's two aspects to it, right? There's a rapture, and there's a revelation. So when we talk about this day, it's a big picture.

And if you include all of those references, then you get Matthew 24, verse 2, 27, 37, 39. You've got also 2 Thessalonians 2, 1, 8, 2 Peter 1, 16, James 4, 7-8, and 1 John 2, 28. That's a lot of references. But the Thessalonians didn't have all that, did they? Isn't that something?

So they were dependent on Paul answering their questions. The stress is on Christ's presence at his coming. Parousia means, I am with you. I am personally coming to be with you. That's the emphasis of the word. It has that emphasis both in the rapture context and the revelation context. That he is personally involved. Notice last week. Who was it that comes in the clouds for us that we learned about? Give an answer. Christ. Was it an angel? No. Was it another believer? No. Was it a representative of anybody else? No. Personal.

Parousia. A personal presence of the Lord. And that's why it's used. By the way, when he comes back to set up his kingdom at the Revelation, it's parousia also. It's personal. Yes, he sends his angels to gather from the extent of the created world, all those that are His, to Jerusalem. He's gathering the Jews. That's going to happen also. So, only at the Rapture is it personal with the Lord Jesus. In the Revelation, there are many more individuals involved of His creation.

The stress is, though, a personal one. I just wanted to bring that out. It helps me to know these things, because this is the mind of God. What words did he use? The second word is apakalupsis. It's made up of apa and kalupto. It means a laying bare, a making naked, or in a broader sense to uncover, to unveil, and hence to reveal. It's the title of the last book of the Bible. The revelation, the revelation is this word.

Like parousia, it's used for the coming of Christ in the air in 1 Corinthians 1.7, Colossians 3.4, 1 Peter 1.7 and 13, and for the return of Christ to earth in Luke 17.30, 2 Thessalonians 1.7, and 1 Peter 4.13. The importance of Apocalypse is that it speaks of the future manifestation of the glory of Christ. of different emphasis of that I am with you. It's here I am revealed as a word. That's what it means. The third word of Christ's return is epiphania. That's pretty close.

Epiphania. The epi of Natanis is to bring forth or come into the light, to cause to shine or to show, hence an appearing that can be seen is the word. In the Classic Greek it used to be the occurrences of deities, they became visible in their thinking.

In the New Testament it's found in the writings of Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2.8, 1 Timothy 6.14, 2 Timothy 1.10, 4.1, 4.18. Timothy got a lot of this one, didn't he?

And Titus 3.13 is an interesting passage, we'll get to that.

Acts 27.20 is used for the reappearing of stars, and in Luke 1.79 it's used of Christ's incarnation. Isn't that something?

In 1 Timothy 6.14 and 2 Timothy 4.8 at least they refer to the rapture.

In Titus 2.13 it seems to bring us into contrast with two expectations of Christ. The blessed hope of Christ's return to us and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

This will change the present world of Titus 2.12 into the Millennial Kingdom. That's an interesting passage. Spend some time looking at it, it's cool. The importance of the word is that Christ, when he comes, will be positive in his manifestation as a visible reality. That's the emphasis of the word.

There are four major positions among pre-millennialists. Have I used too big of a word? What's a pre-millennialist? The rapture comes before the millennium. It means that there's a tribulation before the millennium. and part of that tribulation period includes a revelation at the end and a rapture at the beginning of the tribulation period anyway, the four major positions of pre-millennialists that the Lord is coming back before the millennium I want to say that that way because there are some people that believe the millennium doesn't exist they call themselves amillennialists There are some people who believe that the millennium is right now! That it started in 70 A.D. with the destruction of the temple. They call those preterists. And Biola is one of the schools that currently has that as its foundation in its eschatology. I don't agree with that.

But, looking at pre-millennialists, to the time of the rapture of the Church, there are four positions. The rapture will precede the tribulation, and no member of the church will enter into any part of it. That is, the rapture is pre-tribulational. And this is the position held by Holy Hills Bible Church. Secondly, some members of the church will be raptured before the tribulation, but believers who are not spiritually mature, who are not ready, or watching, will be forced to endure all or part of its purifying fires in order that their lives may be purged of all withdrawals.

This is a position called partial rapture. This is the third position. The church will be raptured at the point midway through the tribulation, generally associated with the resurrection of the two witnesses and the seventh trumpet in Revelation 11. I have probably that many pages on that. Before wrath and the great tribulation are poured out on the earth, that is, the rapture will be mid-tribulation, that's that position. And then fourth, the church will go through the entire tribulation period, the rapture and the revelation of Christ to earth, being one simultaneous event at the end of the seven year period of tribulation. And this is called post-tribulationism.

You might want to know about this. I don't know if you do. Maybe you already know. Most Reformed theologians hold that fourth position. It's a big one. most conservative, bible-based, literally interpreting the scripture both from a historical and a grammatical perspective hold to number one at the beginning. Okay, I don't have any more at this time, my time is gone.

But I wanted to give you that as a foundation. That's sort of a groundwork for where we're going in the remaining verses. four through seven or eight, I can't remember. Anyway, the next session we're going to go into a little bit more. But I've given you some homework, right?

How many of you here in the auditorium have looked at what position we have as a church and how it fits in, you know, where did we get that belief in scripture? Back in 1959, one of my teachers at Biola wrote a paper on kept from the hour and he was in the middle of developing that and had one early version of it when I was there and he taught me, number one, in Christian Foundations of all the class that I had the Holy Spirit, God Himself, living inside me! Man, was that exciting!

I stood up, left my books in the pew and I said, I've got to take a walk I went down to Pershing Square told a few people about it. By the way, Pershing Square, downtown LA, that's where you stand on a soapbox and say whatever you've got to say. It's a little park right in the middle of downtown. Anyway, the bottom line is, folks, what we're dealing with in this passage, these three verses, they already knew all about the Day of the Lord, but what they didn't know was what happened to my son or my wife or my Joe or whoever has died and that's why Paul wrote about what happens to those who have already died he actually calls it sleep isn't that something? we don't die our bodies do but we don't we're just going to wake up right there and if you have a concept of time that I've been sort of meditating on lately that time to us in the future is a totally different dimension when we die we enter into that dimension so that what we think of here as centuries maybe or even days if you die You're instantly awake in here with the Lord and you're coming back for your family or whoever that's still alive.

Okay. Isn't that neat? Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Purify whatever was spoken by your Holy Spirit in the minds of those who have been listening. But most of all, Lord, help us to be among those mentioned in Scripture who are eager for your return and looking for your return in our thinking. Looking for you to take us to be with you forever. Thank you for being so personal. In Christ's name, Amen.