The Day of the Lord, Part 1
1 Thessalonians 5:1‑2
This morning we return to our study of 1 Thessalonians. And I would encourage you to open your Bible, if you would, to chapter 5...1 Thessalonians chapter 5, we now begin the last chapter in this wonderful epistle which has so blessed and encouraged our hearts for many months. And as we come to chapter 5 we're going, this morning, to begin to examine the first three verses. Let me read them to you. "Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child and they shall not escape."
One of the most frightening truths in all of Scripture surrounds the event that is identified in verse 2 as the day of the Lord. That term is a technical term in the Scripture to describe the day when Jesus comes back to bring the flaming fury and anger of God on all the sinners of the world. It is a day of devastation. It is a day of destruction. It is a day of doom. It is a day of damnation.
Paul here reminds us of this significant important climactic cataclysmic day to come in human history. Frankly, it is not at all popular to talk about God's fury. It is not popular to talk about God's anger, God's vengeance. In fact, seldom do you hear a sermon on the day of the Lord, on the time when Jesus comes back to judge those who have rejected Him. Everything today needs to be positive and affirming and comforting. And very few preachers really want to deal with this particular topic. Rarely does someone preach on the vengeance of God.
But to ignore such a truth would be to be unfaithful, to teach and preach the whole counsel of God. And the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, front to back is loaded with warnings about the judgment of God, eternal punishment on unbelievers, damnation, retribution, vengeance, wrath, anger, fury. And, in fact, the prophets had much to say about it, the Apostles had much to say about it. But the one who had the most to say about it was Jesus Himself. And so, we have the prophets and the Apostles and even our Lord Jesus as examples of the pattern that all true preachers must follow, and that is to warn men about the day of the Lord.
Now as we approach the passage you will remember that Paul has just completed explaining the Rapture of the church. In chapter 4 verses 13 through 18 he described the nature and character of the catching away of the church, to meet the Lord Jesus in the air and to go to heaven to dwell in the places that He is preparing for them there. And so, chapter 4 ends with the statement, "Therefore comfort one another with these words." There's great comfort, there's great joy and there's great hope, there's great confidence, there's great assurance and affirmation in anticipating the Rapture when the Lord Jesus comes and takes us off this Earth to heaven to dwell with Him in the Father's house. From the blessed event of the catching away of the church to be with the Lord, Paul now turns to the horrible event that follows it, the destruction of the wicked. All those who are on Earth who reject Christ and reject God will feel the fury of God in the day of the Lord.
Now again as we noted in chapter 4, Paul's purpose here is not so much theological and eschatological as it is pastoral. Obviously among the Thessalonian believers they were troubled by some of these issues. The first thing that troubled them was they thought Jesus would come and get them while they were still living. They thought the Rapture would come in their life time. And some Christians were dying and Jesus hadn't arrived yet. And so their question was, what happens to believers who die, do they miss the Rapture? And so Paul wrote, as we noted in chapter 4, no, the dead in Christ will rise first and then we'll join them so we'll all be there, don't worry about those who die, be comforted with this truth.
But it was also a curiosity on their minds as to when the end was going to come. When was this Rapture and when was the day of the Lord to come when God poured out His fury on all the Earth? And by the way, they knew about the day of the Lord. In 2 Thessalonians 2:5 Paul says, "I was telling you about it when I was with you." So they had information about the day of the Lord, and now they have information about the Rapture. The church is going to be caught away and they already know the world is going to feel the fury of God's final vengeance in a cataclysmic holocaust of judgment, the likes of which the world has never seen or even conceived. They knew it was coming but their question was...when is it going to happen? And so in verse 1 Paul says, "Now as to the times and the epochs..."
First of all, they wondered about the believers who died. And now since people were dying they wondered...well, when is it going to happen? How long are we going to wait for this? Will it or won't it happen in our life time? And so Paul in wanting to answer the queries that no doubt they have raised to Timothy who has visited them and now as chapter 3 verse 6 says is come back to Paul to tell Paul what concerns them, he wants to speak regarding the day of the Lord in answer to their concern. So we could say that he moves from teaching the Rapture which takes the church out of the world to heaven to talking about the day of the Lord which calls for the judgment of God on the ungodly in the world. His discussion of the Rapture was to encourage and comfort the Christians. And you will notice down in verse 11 please, that even his discussion of the day of the Lord is to encourage and build up the Christians. So his purposes are pastoral. He wants these things to have an impact on their life.
Now as he discusses this day of the Lord judgment there are three things that I want you to notice...its coming, its character and its completeness. For now we will simply look at that first point, its coming. But before we do that, let's introduce it by an examination of verse 1. Follow along. "Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you."
Just a note of interest. Those first little words "now as to" could be translated "but concerning" but they translate two little Greek words peri de(??). Any student of the Greek New Testament will recognize that peri de is a familiar little phrase. It occurs in the writing of the Apostle Paul very often when he changes the subject. He is now moving to another subject. In chapter 4 and verse 9 he used it when he turned from one subject to another one. In chapter 4 verse 13 in the Greek text he uses it, turning from the discussion in 9 to 12 to another subject in verse 13. Now he uses it again here as he turns to another theme. He has talked about the Rapture and now he is discussing the day of the Lord, a different event.
By the way, if you were to take a Greek New Testament and go through 1 Corinthians, for example, you would become very familiar with the use of this little phrase. I think you find it in chapter 7 verse 1 and 25, chapter 8 verse 1, chapter 12 verse 1, chapter 16 verse 1, as a way in which he changes the subject. And so again we note here the word "brethren." Very often that kind of address is a fresh call to attention and a fresh call to attention is a call to a new subject, a new thought and a new idea. So both the use of peri de and the use of brethren are elements used in introducing a new line of discourse. We note even the use of that word brethren in verse 13 and that word brethren back in verse 9 and that word brethren back in verse 1. So he seemingly sort of moves from theme to theme in this discussion, noting the word brethren as a fresh call to attention. Here we can say that while he's talking about the general scenario of the end time, he moves from one event which is the Rapture of the church to another which is the day of the Lord, judgment on the ungodly. Both events have implications for the church and for believers, as we note as he calls them to encouragement and edification at the end of this section.
Now as we look at this we need to understand just a very very simple background. And that is this, the Thessalonian believers were curious about when all of these end time things were going to happen. That is not a curiosity hard for us to identify with, is it? That has been a curiosity through all the history of the church and is nonetheless a curiosity that is never satisfied. It is still yet a curiosity even today, when will it happen? First we're wondering why are these people dying if Jesus is coming, why doesn't He let them live till He gets here? Second, if He keeps delaying His coming, when is it going to happen? When is He going to arrive? And so they wanted to know. And they wanted to know the times and the epochs. Very interesting phrase, fascinating phrase.
It had become, I guess, a technical phrase for the Second Coming. It's used in Acts 1:7 where our Lord says it is not for you to know the times and the epochs. The Greek is the chronos and the kairos. Two different kinds of time. I suppose they could be used interchangeably, they could be overlapping. They could be here referring in a very general sense just to the time of the end. But if we're to separate the two words, chronos is the word from which we get chronology. It simply means clock time, or calendar time, chronological time. Kairos means seasons, epochs, events. It looks at time, not from the viewpoint of a day and an hour, it looks at time from the viewpoint of an event, of an epoch, of something that happened. We talk about the times of the Gentiles. We talk about modern times. We mean by that that this period of history is characterized by certain events. And so they're curious about the timing in terms of chronology, they're curious about the events of the end, the time period and the epochs that mark the end.
And by the way, I would just note to you that the use of the plurals here "as to the times and the epochs" indicates the plurality of chronological times and the plurality of significant events that make up the end. For example, just think of the various times from a chronological viewpoint. You have at the end of the age a time period called the seventieth week of Daniel. Very clearly in Daniel 9 he says there is prophesied upon the nation Israel a final seven‑year period where God will sum up His work with Israel, that's the seven‑year period we know as the seventieth week of Daniel. There is also a period called the Great Tribulation designated as three and a half years, 1260 days. It is also called "times, time and half a time." And there is another time period added to that by Daniel, 1290 days, which adds 30 more days. And then Daniel refers to 1335 days. And then there is the one thousand year millennial kingdom mentioned in the book of Revelation. So you have the time of Daniel's seventieth week, the time of the Great Tribulation. You have the time of the millennial kingdom. You have...those are different times, different chronologies in which certain epochs and events will take place.
Then you have a number of events. You have the Rapture of the church. You have the rise of the Antichrist. You have the salvation of the nation Israel. You have a series of judgments that come through natural means. And then you have a series of judgments that come through supernatural means. You have the return of Jesus Christ. You have the battle of Armageddon, the destruction of the world's nations. You have the judgment of the sheep and the goats. You have the establishment of the millennial kingdom. You have the binding of Satan as loosing the world‑wide rebellion, the destruction of the world and then the creation of the new heaven and the new earth. Many times and many epochs make up the end.
And in their curiosity they want to know when is this all going to happen. Can you tell us about it? And that's the level of their curiosity. They feared, I suppose, that they might not be spiritually ready when the Lord returned and they miss the Rapture. And maybe they thought there was something that they needed to do in anticipation of these things to be sure they didn't miss the Rapture and end up in the day of the Lord. They didn't want to get caught. Paul says to them, however, in verse 4, "Brethren, you're not in darkness that the day should overtake you like a thief." You don't belong to the day of the Lord. That's not for you. You're not in darkness, you're children of light, you don't belong in the day of the Lord, you belong in the Rapture not the day of the Lord. But at this point they probably had some fears and some questions and were wondering. It isn't long apparently until someone comes and says that they're in the day of the Lord. And they're starting to feel some persecution and some hostility and animosity and they're told by somebody, as 2 Thessalonians 2 says, that they're in the day of the Lord. And Paul has to say...No, no, no, you're not in the day of the Lord, you know what I told you about the day of the Lord, you know it can't come until Antichrist is known, you know it can't come until he abominates the temple with a sacrifice, you're not in the day of the Lord.
Well that indicates to us that the persecution and hostility coming against them made them fearful that maybe they had...maybe they were going to miss the Rapture and they were in the day of the Lord. So they had the confusion of these things in their minds and they wanted to know, one, what happens to the people who die and in chapter 4 he says, no, they'll be there at the Rapture, too. When is it going to happen? Is it now? Is it later? Are we in it? And he says to them, "As to the times and the epochs, brethren," look at this, "you have no need of anything to be written to you." You don't need anything written to you. He used that same phrase in chapter 4 verse 9. As to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God. It's almost the same as he says here. You have no need of anything to be written to you for you yourselves know full well. You don't need anymore information. You already have all the information you need about that.
You say, "Now wait a minute. You mean, we have all the information we need about the coming judgment, about the coming of Christ, about the day of the Lord? We don't know when it's going to happen. We'd like to know all of the chronologies and all of the epochs, we need to know all of that." He says you don't need to know any of that. You don't need to know that. You know all you need to know. By the way, they're not alone in this. The disciples had the same curiosity. In fact, their curiosity kicked off the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 when the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Tell us, when will these things be and what will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age." And then in Acts 1:6 they say, "Lord, is it this time that You're going to start Your Kingdom?" They had the same curiosity about timing details. How long do we have to wait? When will the Lord arrive?
Now listen carefully. Paul's response is that spiritual preparedness for the coming of Christ does not involve date setting, clock watching, or sign seeking. Not for the believers. He says you don't have any need of anything to be written to you. You're not going to be there. Verse 9, "God hasn't destined you for wrath," on an eternal level, and God in verse 4 he says hasn't even destined you for the day of the Lord. Paul's point is you already know everything you need to know and everything God has told you. In chapter 5 of 2 Thessalonians 2 he says basically that same thing, he says, "Do you not remember that I...while I was still with you I was telling you these things?"
Beloved, your spiritual preparedness for the coming of Christ is not related to date setting, clock watching and sign seeking. You don't need to know those things. Now on the issues they needed knowledge, he gave it. Chapter 4 verse 13 to 18, they needed to understand about the Rapture, the character and nature of the Rapture and he explained it. Didn't tell them the time of it. Nowhere in the Bible do we know the time of it. And when it comes to the day of the Lord, and all the events surrounding that and all of the things of the end, all the times and epochs, he says you don't need to know that. I will tell you what you need know, need to know and can know, that's not something you need to know. Furthermore, you can't know it anyway.
In Matthew 24 Jesus Himself makes a really astounding statement, 24:36, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father alone." Nobody knows, not men, not angels, not the incarnate Son of God in His self‑limitation. He doesn't even know, He says. In Mark's gospel chapter 13 and verse 32, "But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son but the Father alone. Take heed, keep on the alert for you do not know when the appointed time is." You can't know that. No one knows that. Acts 1:7, "It is not given for you to know the times and the seasons, brethren, which the Father has put in His own power." It's not for you to know that. We don't need to know that. Knowing that would be counter‑productive, wouldn't it? If we knew when Jesus was going to come and Rapture His church and when He was going to come in the day of the Lord judgment, if we knew the precise moment of all of that it could make us spiritually indifferent if we were a long way away...or put us in a position of some kind of panic if it were near. God has chosen not to reveal the time of the final epochs so that all believers live in anticipation expectancy all the time.
So he says you don't need to know that. He says you already know full well what you need to know. What's that? "That the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night." Now that leads us to point number one in our outline, its coming...its coming. He's going to tell us about its coming, and he's going to tell us what really we already know.
What he's saying here is the one thing you need to know is it's going to happen when nobody...what?...expects it. It's going to happen when nobody expects it. It's that unexpectedness that concerns him. They were curious about times and seasons so he launches into a response and says the only thing you need to know is that the day of the Lord will come when you don't expect it, when the people alive at that time don't expect it. And then he moves from that into a section on exhortation to holy living in the light of that reality.
But let's look at verse 2 in more detail. "For you yourselves know full well." That "full well" there, akribos, means you know exactly. It's a word that comes out of research. It points to painstaking research to come to a conclusion. You know perfectly, you know exactly, you know accurately that it's to be unexpected. I've told you that. And we know already from this epistle back in chapter 1 verse 10 that the whole church was waiting for...for Christ to come from heaven. In chapter 2 verse 19 he reminds them of the Lord Jesus coming. Chapter 3 verse 13 again reminds them of the coming of the Lord Jesus. Chapter 4 discusses the Rapture. And never does he tell them when...never. He doesn't tell them that. And the reason he doesn't tell them that is because you can't know that.
Let's go back to Matthew 24. Would you go back there with me for a moment? You're going to have to have your Bible handy because we're going to jump around a bit, but this is very essential. In Matthew chapter 24 and verse 36, Jesus has been talking about the time of the end, talking about His Second Coming and when He comes in terrifying judgment and also when He comes to gather the elect from the four corners of the world. He talks about the fact that heaven and earth are going to pass away in verse 35, and all of this in the end time. But verse 36, He says, "The day and the hour no one knows, the angels in heaven don't know it, the Son on earth doesn't know it, only the Father knows it." So this is...this is the major secret here, folks. The time we don't know. And then He describes the most interesting conditions. Verse 37, "The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah, for as in those days which were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark." What does that mean? They were utterly indifferent to 120 years of Noah doing what? Warning, preaching righteousness, warning them. And they were indifferent to it. And they were indifferent right until he got in the thing. And they still were indifferent until the flood came and took them all away. So the coming of the Son of Man will be, it will be to the generation that is alive when it happens unexpected...unexpected.
That's amazing. Because He has just described, starting in verse 4, all kinds of things that people living at that time could look for. He says, verse 6, "There will be wars and rumors of wars, and there will be nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, there will be famines, there will be earthquakes." He goes on down to talk about false prophets leading people astray. He talks about the abomination of desolations spoken of by Daniel the prophet when they desecrate the temple. Talks about terrible tribulation, verse 21, such as not occurred since the beginning of the world until now. And all of this stuff is going on in the world and they still are going on, life as usual, marry, given marriage, eat, drink, just live your life until the time comes and they're swept away. And it's going to come quick. They're going to be doing business as usual, verse 40, two guys are working in a field, one is taken, one is left. Two women grinding at the mill, one's taken, one's left. It's going to happen when people are just doing the normal duties of life. And He says, verse 42, "Therefore be on the alert, for you don't know which day your Lord is coming, but be sure of this, if the head of house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into, for this reason you be ready, too, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will."
Jesus said this to a crowd of people who would never experience this. They're already dead and this hasn't happened yet. But He put every generation on notice that they had to live in expectation, right? Because only God the Father knows when it's going to happen. And His point is it's going to be sudden, it's going to be unexpected. Back in verse 27 of Matthew 24, it's going to be like lightning flashing from the east to the west. Just a flash of lightning and the Son of Man will be here in a time when people don't think it's going to happen.
So, the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. And we can thank our Lord Jesus for that analogy. He is not a thief but the day of the Lord comes like a thief. He's the one that said it right there in verse 43, if the head of the house had known at what time the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert. The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Beyond that, he says, you don't need to know anything about timing. You don't need to know anything about dates. And, of course, because you're the redeemed, you're going in the Rapture, you won't even be there for this event.
The world, the church has been given enough information. The church, you're not of that day, you're not even going through it, you're going to be caught up. That's what you need to know. But you also live your life in the light both of the coming of Christ for His own and of the terrifying terrible judgment on the sons of darkness to come in the future. To the world, there's a judgment day coming, you can't know what day and what hour. And even when the precursor signs begin to take place and wars and rumors of wars and famines and terrible pestilence, plagues, disease, earthquakes, and all of that stuff begin to escalate and Antichrist rises and there's a desolation of the temple in Jerusalem, and all of this is happening, amazingly the world alive at that time isn't going to expect Christ to come. It's going to be unexpected. They're not going to be ready.
No sane thief announces the hour of his coming. You don't get a postcard, "I'm going to rob your house Thursday between 8 and 10. Could you be away?" The generation alive at the day of the Lord event will have seen many preliminary events. But they won't be ready. They'll have enough evidence to know it is soon and they should be ready, but they won't know exactly the day or the hour. Look at chapter 24 verse 50, "The master of that slave will come in a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know and shall cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, weeping shall be there and the gnashing of teeth." They're not going to know.
Down in verse 44 of this chapter He says, "You better be ready because He's coming when you don't think He will." Chapter 25 verse 13, "Be on the alert then for you do not know the day nor the hour."
In Luke, look at chapter 12 just to show you the sort of complete use of this analogy. Luke 12:35, this is a very vivid description by our Lord. "Be dressed in readiness and keep your lamps lit and be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast so that they immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master shall find on the alert when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will gird himself to serve and have them recline at the table and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes in the second watch or even in the third and finds them, so blessed are those slaves. And be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You too be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect."
That's the key. The concept of a thief is the concept of unexpected, uninvited, unexpected. You also find the same analogy in Revelation 16:15. In Revelation 16:15 it says, "Behold, I am coming like a thief." Again I say the Lord is not a thief but He comes suddenly and unexpectedly. "Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes on, lest he walk around naked and men see his shame." The point is, if the guy takes off his clothes and goes to bed and he gets looted in the middle of the night and he's roaming all over in the morning and has nothing to put on, it's shameful. So he says you better stay dressed and awake because I'm coming when you do not expect it.
There is one other usage of this same metaphor, not in an eschatological sense but in a historical sense. In Revelation 3:3 with the church at Sardis where they're warned that if they don't change their ways the Lord's going to come suddenly like a thief to them in judgment. So the concept of the thief in the night, the phrase "in the night" is used only here. The other ones talk about a thief but this one adds "in the night" because that's an obvious assumption that a thief would come in the night under the cover of darkness. And it fits what Paul wants to say also about the children of the day and the children of the night which is his main practical application of this while concept.
So, in answering their query, follow along, answering their query, Paul quotes the teaching of Jesus and says the exact time is not knowable. It is not knowable. And you already have all you need to know. But in saying that, in wanting them to know they don't need to know the times and the seasons, he quotes the Lord that His coming will be like a thief in the night. And in so doing he therefore introduces the phrase "the day of the Lord." The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. And that leaves us with the question, what is this day of the Lord? How are we to understand it? What is it? It is one of the most important terms in the Bible repeating over and over very explicit events to come. It talks about God's future judgment. But what specifically is it?
Now I want you to follow this along, this is going to give you a foundational understanding of a very important concept that you'll bump into again and again in your study of the Bible. Four times in the New Testament the day of the Lord is mentioned. A number of other times it is referred to, four times the phrase "day of the Lord" is used, Acts 2:20, here, 2 Thessalonians 2:2 and 2 Peter 3:10. But its greatest usage is in the Old Testament. It is four times stated in the Old Testament "the day of the Lord." It is many more times referred to and described. But whatever the New Testament writer understood about the day of the Lord he got from the Old Testament prophet. So if we're going to understand what the day of the Lord is, we have to understand what it mean to the prophet of the Old Testament who prophesied it.
Let me give you a very simple little list of verses that will describe to you the character of the day of the Lord. Listen to this, this is what the prophets said about the day of the Lord. Isaiah 2:12, "For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up and it shall be brought low." Isaiah 13:6, "Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand." Isaiah 13:9, "Behold, the day of the Lord comes cruel with both wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate." Jeremiah 46:10, "For this is the day of the Lord, a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Himself on His adversaries." Joel 1:15, "For the day of the Lord is at hand, it shall come as destruction from the Almighty." Joel 2:11, "The day of the Lord is great and very terrible." Joel 2:31, "The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." Amos 5:18, "Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord, for what good is the day of the Lord to you?" Amos 5:20, "Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light?" Malachi 4:5, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." Zephaniah 1:14, "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and hastens quickly, the noise of the day of the Lord is bitter." And then this, Zephaniah 1:15, "That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness."
It's all negative. All the prophetic word of the day of the Lord is about judgment, it is about bringing people low. It is wrath and anger and desolation and vengeance and destruction and terrible. It is said that it is a time of gloominess and darkness and distress and trouble always. Six times it is referred to as a day of doom. Four times it is called a day of vengeance.
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