Eternal Encouragement - 1&2 Thessalonians
Lanse Evangelical Free Church
June 15, 2025 :: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Who wants to be ready for the return of Jesus Christ?
We’ve noticed so far in our study of these letters to the Thessalonians, that the Apostle Paul brings up the return of Jesus Christ an awful lot!
He mentions it in every single chapter. And, last week, at the end of chapter four, he really emphasized it. Paul reassured this beloved church family that none of their loved ones who belonged to Jesus Christ and who had already died would miss out on His Return.
The dead in Christ and the alive in Christ would together be caught up with each other to meet the Lord in the air when the Lord comes down from heaven. Return, Resurrection, Rapture, Reunion (cf. John Stott). And Paul said, “And so we will be with the Lord forever” (4:17). Which is just the greatest thing, isn’t it?
So, how do you get ready?
Well, one idea for getting ready would be to find out when it’s going to happen. The date and the time. That might be helpful to know, right? I mean, if I knew that my Dad was coming over on Father’s Day for lunch, I might get the house ready for his arrival. Maybe hide my dirty socks and get them off of his place at the dining room table. (Don’t worry, Dad. I did it already.)
It might be helpful to know when someone important is going to arrive so that you can get your place cleaned up. And Paul is telling us that the Person Who is on the way is the King of Kingdoms!
But Paul says that knowing the day and the time is actually NOT what we need to be ready for the Lord’s arrival. Look with me at chapter 5, verse 1. He has not changed the subject. He’s still talking about the return of Christ.
“Now, brothers [and sisters], about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (vv.1-2).
We said it last week. When is Jesus coming back?
We don’t know. And that’s okay!
We don’t need to know. And that’s okay.
In fact, it’s better that we don’t!
Paul says, “We don’t need to write to you about times and dates.”
Those are the same words that King Jesus used with His disciples in Acts chapter 1 when they asked Him “when?”
He said, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set...” (Acts 1:7). Jesus said at one point that He didn’t even know. So it must NOT be important for us to know. In fact, it must be important for us to NOT know.
Paul had already taught this to them when he planted the church. He says, “you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”
How many here know when your next home invasion is going to be? Me neither. Thieves don’t tend to send a notification. They don’t even knock!
Jesus used the same illustration when He was teaching about His return (Matthew 24:43-44, see also 2 Peter 3:10, Revelation 3:3, 16:15). I think the emphasis here is on how unannounced and therefore unexpected this event will be. It will be just sprung on those people. And for those who are not ready, it will be very scary. Verse 3.
“While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
These people are not ready. They think that life is hunky dory and they have everything together and they don’t need Jesus to have peace and safety. Those words were used in the ancient Roman world to describe the “Pax Romana,” the “Peace of Rome.” “Peace and safety.” “Peace and safety.” All is well. “Peace and safety.”
And then destruction hits. And they are doubled over in pain. Labor pains. The Lord Jesus used that metaphor, as well, when He was teaching about His return in Matthew chapter 24. The birth pains.
We’ve heard about a lot of those in the last few weeks as all of these moms have been having their babies!
Labor pains say that something big is happening, but you don’t know exactly when, right? And they get increasingly intense and inevitable, but you still don’t know exactly when it’s going to happen. Unpredictable. That’s what Jesus was emphasizing with this metaphor (see also Isaiah 13:8, Jer 6:24).
But I think Paul is also really emphasizing how dangerous and scary it could be. Back in those days a lot of women died in childbirth. And so that first big contraction hitting out of nowhere might be the harbinger not of joy, for some, but of doom.
“And they will not escape.” They will not escape what? Verse 2 calls it, “The Day of the Lord.”
“The Day of the Lord” is a phrase that comes up again and again especially in the Old Testament. It’s a time period predicted in the future when the LORD will bring both judgment on evil and salvation for His people. It’s not just one thing, it’s all of that. It’s a complex of events where evil is finally judged and God’s people are finally saved.
The Prophet Joel calls it “great” and “dreadful” (see also Amos 5:18-20).
“The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?” (Joel 2:11).
“Great” and “dreadful.” Especially for those who are going to experience judgment when Jesus returns (either in the Great Tribulation or/and in the Great Judgment).
“They will not escape.”
They don’t even know it’s coming! They might have heard something about it, but they don’t believe it. They think everything is “peace and safety,” and then destruction falls.
That sounds scary, and if you are not ready for it, you should be scared. Let this be your wake-up call! The King of Kingdoms is coming. The Day of the LORD is on the way. And you won’t know when. So get repent while you still can.
But that’s not the main the reason why Paul writes about it here. Paul actually writes to reassure the Thessalonians that they will escape! Not to scare them but to encourage them. “Eternal encouragement!” Look what he says in verse 4.
“But you, brothers [and sisters], are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day” (vv.4-5a).
“Children of the light and children of the day.” It’s not just the boys. The title of this message comes from verse 8 where it says, “We belong to the day.” Literally, “We are OF the day.”
We belong to the day. We are characterized by the day. We are children of the light and children of the day. That means that we are characterized by the light and by the day.
What a beautiful thing to say, right?! “Hello, Light People! My, you are glowing today!”
King Jesus said that He is the Light of the World. Remember that? And He also said that we, His people, are the Light of the World. The Children of God are the Children of the Light. And the Children of the Light are the Children of the Day.
What Day is that? It’s the Day of the Lord! We belong to that Day. It’s ours. And we are it’s. We are not scared of it. We want it to come, amen?
I have three simple points this morning. Here’s the first one.
Because we belong to the day we are:
#1. NOT SURPRISED.
We will not be surprised when the Day comes. Listen to verse 4 again.
“But you, brothers [and sisters], are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.”
What does he mean? He doesn’t mean that we will know the timing of Jesus’ return. We will NOT know the timing. We’ll still be surprised in that way.
“We don’t know, and that’s okay.” It’s better if we don’t.
But we do know that it’s coming. And it won’t be for us like a home-invasion and everything is ripped away from us in the night. No, we belong to the day, so when the day comes, we will rejoice!
I once saw a movie where these zombie-like things came out a night, and when the dawn came and the sun broke through and hit them, they all died. If they saw the sun, they were stopped. They hated the day arriving! But the good guys in the movie were happy when the sun came out because they were safe in the daylight. They belonged to the day.
We will not be surprised that the Day of the Lord has arrived. Because we have been looking forward to it with great anticipation.
That’s our Day!
We know who we are. We are children of the light and children of the day.
Do you know who you are? Paul is encouraging the Thessalonians by reminding them of their true identities. “You are all sons of the light and sons of the day.” How encouraging that must have been for them to read!
I love that word “all” there in verse 5. He doesn’t leave out any true believer in Jesus Christ.
“You are ALL sons of the light and sons of the day.”
I won’t make you say it to your neighbor, but you should do it anyway. We should say this to each other. Tell them, "You are a child of the light and a child of the day.”
On this Father’s Day, your Father is light, and you are a child of the light. Your Father is the Day, and you are a child of the day. Paul goes on to say it the other way around (v.5).
“We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.”
And that means we are not surprised, and we are not asleep.
#2. NOT SLEEPING.
Look at verse 6.
““We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.”
There are a lot of contrasts here in this passage, aren’t there?
They and you.
Night and day.
Darkness and light.
And here, asleep and alert. Some versions have “asleep” and “awake.”
Now does that mean true believers in Jesus Christ never go to sleep? “Sleep is bad!”
Of course not. We all need sleep. Even our Jesus Christ needed sleep. Sleep can be a really good thing, amen? God made Sunday afternoons for naps!
But this kind of “sleep” is a bad thing. Sleep here is a metaphor for spiritual indifference and spiritual lethargy. [It’s not like last week where “sleep” was a metaphor for death.] In verse 6, Paul is talking about how unbelievers are insensible to spiritual things. They are dull and lethargic and missing out on true life. They are cut off from the light and the day. And they are out of control. It’s like they are drunk. Look at verse 7.
“For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.”
He’s saying that’s the general rule of when that happens. And it was back in that day because there wasn’t any harnessed electricity. You sleep at night because that’s your chance. There was no third-shift working under the lights. And if you were going to get drunk, the night was when you did that, too. Because it’s hidden.
And “drunk” is a metaphor here, as well. He’s not just railing against drunkenness (which is sinful, of course, see Ephesians 5:18), but he’s warning against all kinds of being out of control and acting like the darkness, acting like the night.
We’re supposed to be different. As children of the day, we need to be different from the children of the night who are going to be “caught napping” when the Lord returns.
Paul says (in v.6), “So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.”
What does it mean to be “alert?” The Lord Jesus used the same word when He was teaching on His return (see Matthew 24:42-43, 25:13). It’s the opposite of “asleep” in this context. It means to be vigilant, aware, sensitive to spiritual things. It means to be connected to the light and the day with the eyes of our heart fully open and taking in truth, seeing things for how they really are. It means to be spiritually conscious.
And Paul pairs it with a word that means the opposite of “drunk,” sometimes translated “sober,” but it doesn’t just mean not having too much alcohol, but not being out of control. So most of our English versions say, “self-controlled.”
“Let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled” (v.6).
That means calm, cool, and collected. It means steady and unfazed.
Have you ever noticed how people lose their minds over the end-times? Every time something happens in the world that seems like it might be a part of what Jesus said was going to happen, people start going crazy. Speculation. Following conspiracy theories. Listening to crackpots. Quitting their jobs. Stocking up on ammunition. Going into a panic.
I get it. Sometimes it seems like the world is ending. And one of these times, the world is going to end.
But we are not going to know when! And the New Testament tells us that when it seems like it’s the end world, that’s not the time to go into a panic. Again and again, the New Testament says, “Alert and self-controlled.”
As the Brits say, “Keep calm and carry on.”
“Alert and self-controlled.” Why? Because we are not sleeping. We are not children of the night. Look at verse 8.
“But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled [same word], putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet” (v.8).
That’s the very opposite of sleeping. That’s dressing for battle!
“...putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”
The picture here is of a warrior who is putting on his armor. It’s kind of like “the armor of God” from Ephesians 6, but it’s a little different. Here, the breastplate, which protects the soldier’s core, is faith and love. And (as in Ephesians) the helmet which protects the soldier’s head is the hope of salvation.
Paul says that we (and notice how ever since he got to verse 5 he’s been including himself in all of this. It’s not just “you;” it’s “we.” We) belong to the day, so we need to put on this armor.
Faith, Love, and Hope.
Faith, Love, and Hope.
Faith, Love, and Hope.
Do three things sound familiar?
Paul loves these three virtues, and he employs them over and over again his letters. The most famous is in 1 Corinthians 13 when he puts them in this order, “Faith, hope, and love.”
It’s sometimes called “The Pauline Triad” or Paul’s Triangle of Virtues. Faith, Love, and Hope. He’s already used this triangle back in chapter 1. Do you remember this? Paul was so thankful for the Thessalonians? He wrote, “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 1:3).
This is the answer to the question we started with this morning:
How do you get ready for the return of Jesus Christ? By putting on faith, love, and hope.
Put on faith. Faith in God’s promises. Believing what God has said. Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that genuine faith will work itself out in genuine love. Loving one another and loving even our enemies!
You know, since we don’t know when the Lord will return, we have to wait. We have to be patient. He may come sooner than we expect, but He may come much later than we expect. We just don’t know, so we have to wait.
But the waiting we do is not like waiting at the bus stop or at the gate at the airport, just passively sitting there waiting for our ride to come. "Beam us up, Jesus!" No, our waiting is active. We stay busy. We stay awake, alert, and active loving other people, putting other people ahead of ourselves.
Following our Lord’s example of love.
Put on love. This week, I had multiple occasions to watch God’s people loving others with a Christ-like love. These loving people “belong to the day” and they showed it with how they gave of their time and energy and life-blood. They were warriors–not against flesh and blood but against the darkness. And not with worldly weapons of iron and steel but heavenly weapons of love.
“Faith and love as a breastplate, and [on top of it all] the hope of salvation as a helmet.”
One thing that’s really neat to know, and maybe you’ve got a footnote or something to point this out, but Paul is almost certainly drawing this imagery from Isaiah 59:17. Isaiah writes about this armor with a breastplate and a helmet, but it’s not believers who are putting it on, but the LORD Himself.
Isaiah says, “The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak” (Isa. 59:15-17).
In that context, the LORD put on His armor to save His people–fully fulfilled perhaps on the Day of the Lord. And here Paul says that we need to put on the armor ourselves, so it’s not just our armor, but it’s the Lord’s armor for us!
We can’t do this on our own. But He has done it for us. And that includes our salvation. We have hope for our salvation from our sins, not because of us, but because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross and at the Empty Tomb. Because of Jesus, we can put on that helmet of the hope of our salvation to come.
And it’s real hope. Biblical hope. That’s not just wishful thinking or what we want to happen but don’t know if it will. This is real hope. This is certainty. This is God’s promises guaranteed.
Look at what Paul says in verse 9.
“Putting on...the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (vv.9-10).
Because we belong to the day, we are:
#3. NOT SCARED.
We are not scared of God’s wrath.
It must have been so encouraging for them to read this, right?!
Paul assures and reassures this church that because they belong to the day they are not headed into wrath but headed into salvation. They have nothing to worry about! Nothing to worry about in the grand scheme of things.
Again, I see Christians getting worried about the end times. Every once in a while, somebody tells me that they think the end is near, and what do I think about that. There is some development in current events that has them spooked.
And if I have a good relationship with them, I like to say, “Great! That means that Jesus is coming back soon, and He’s going to bring us salvation! The King of Kingdoms is going to bring the Kingdom of Kingdoms!”
We who are children of the light, children of the day, have nothing to fear.
God has not appointed us to suffer His eternal wrath, but to receive eternal salvation. [Pre-tribulational Christians would also say that Christians will not receive God’s wrath poured out on those alive during the Tribulation.]
And not through ourselves, but through His Son! V.9, “...salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And here’s how He did it. He suffered God’s wrath in our place. V.10
“He died FOR US.” He took our place. He died the death we deserve. He took the wrath of God that we had earned in our sin. And He died on that Cross to save us. And He did save us, and He is saving us, and one day He will bring salvation in all of it’s fullness. Body and soul. Verse 10.
“He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.”
I think that Paul is going back to talking about “sleep” the way he was at the end of chapter 4. “Sleep” as in a metaphor for “dead.” Paul is saying that whether we are alive or dead, when Jesus Christ returns, if we belong to the Day, then Jesus’ death and resurrection guarantees that we will “live together with him.”
Like he said in chapter 4, verse 17, “And so we will be with the Lord forever”
That is our blessed hope, is it not? That is the helmet that we put on every single day, reminding ourselves of our salvation that is on the way. We have nothing to be scared of, if we belong to the day.
And how do we apply that truth to our lives today?
By now, it should be no surprise. We encourage each other with this truth. Look at verse 11.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
Paul wants to encourage each other. Remember, encouragement comes in two related flavors: consolation and exhortation, comfort and command. This one is both.
Paul is comforting them. “Don’t worry, Christians. You are not headed into wrath. You are headed into salvation.”
And He’s also urging them to live differently than the world does. Awake, alert, and active.
Faith, love, and hope.
Faith, love, and hope.
Faith, love, and hope.
And we need the same.
Who have you encouraged this week? Did you send an encouragement card? A text? A message? A phone call?
Did you remind another Christian who they are?
“You are a child of the light.”
“You are a child of the day.”
“We belong to the day.”
Did you remind another Christian where they are headed?
Not just where this world is headed. The Day of the Lord is coming. “Great and dreadful” like a thief in the night, like the first dangerous contraction out of the blue, like destruction that the world will not escape. But we will! We will escape the wrath of God, not because we deserve to escape, but because Jesus absorbed the wrath of God in our place on the Cross. So that we are headed into salvation.
Have you encouraged somebody with that truth this week?
I’ll bet you have! Paul says that the Thessalonians were already doing it.
And he was just encouraging them to do it more and more. And I know Lanse Free Church. For the last 27 years, I’ve seen you in action encouraging each other and building each up in this truth.
“Just as in fact you are doing.” Keep it up, church! Keep it up!
Because we belong to the day!
We are not surprised. We are ready. We are waiting. We are eager for the return of Christ.
We are not sleeping. We are alert. We are self-controlled. We are putting on faith, love, and hope, every single day.
We are not scared. The world should be, the darkness should be, the night people should be scared, but we belong to the day.
Jesus Christ is coming back to bring wrath and salvation. And we know which one of those is ours!
Because we belong to the day.
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