The Unexpected Hour

Let’s pray again for the Lord’s help. Heavenly Father, as we come to your word, Lord, as we come to this passage, which has a very clear and severe warning, Lord, we ask that you would help our eyes truly to grasp these things. Lord, that you would make what we read here in this passage real to us. Lord, that you would use this to awaken us from that spiritual sleep that we talked about this morning. That you would use this to awaken us and to see this day that is coming, that it is a day that will be terrifying for those that are in darkness. But for those of us who are in the light, it will be a day that brings our redemption.

So we ask that you would be with us, that you would help us as we study this passage tonight, and that it would turn us to cling to Christ more closely. And we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So just three things I want us to look at tonight. The day of the Lord, firstly. Secondly, days of comfort. And thirdly, a day to be ready.

1 The Day of the Lord

But firstly, the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord.

So last time I was here, we were looking in 1 Thessalonians. We looked at the end of chapter 4, about the coming of the Lord, where Paul is encouraging these young Thessalonian believers. Again, the concern that they had was that their loved ones who were Christians had missed out on this event, that somehow they had died and they had missed out on this coming of the Lord. And what Paul was doing was, it was just that pastoral concern, he wanted to encourage them. He wanted to remind them that the dead in Christ will rise first, and then those of us who are left behind will be raised to meet Christ in the clouds, that he’s coming with the trumpet call, and that he is coming. And this is something that should encourage them. That’s what he’s just talked about at the end of chapter 4.

And Paul very much just continues on this topic. He changes gear a little bit. You see at the end of chapter 4, he says, “therefore encourage one another with these words.” Now concerning the times and seasons, he continues the discussion. But in this description in chapter 5, he’s talking about the day of the Lord. He uses this term, the day of the Lord. But we’ll come to that.

We see again, in chapter 4, verse 13, Paul addressing this concern. And it seems in this passage too, in chapter 5, that he’s also trying to address whatever’s riled them up. They get a lot more riled up in 2 Thessalonians about all these things, but he seems to be trying to moderate them a little bit, to calm their stresses and their fears and all their panic a little bit about this event. In chapter 4, their fear was about those who have died. We’re afraid of what’s happened to those believers that have died. And now this other side of it is that they’re afraid of what’s going to happen to them if this comes. They’re afraid of what’s going to happen to the living during this event, this coming of the Lord. So Paul wants to show them how they should be thinking about these things.

Again, we’ve seen this throughout Thessalonians, it talks constantly back about, “as you have been taught,” as we mentioned. Paul has taught them very well in the short time that they were there. And it’s like they’ve been taught that there is a coming wrath, there is this coming judgment. If you want to look at verse 1 again, he says, “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.”

There’s only one other place in the New Testament where those two phrases are put together, times and seasons. If you want to turn there, just briefly, turn to Acts 1. We read this a few weeks ago in our consecutive reading. Acts 1:6, and we see this times and seasons mentioned, and it comes from the mouth of Jesus. So Acts 1:6:

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

So what we see there is Jesus says to them, the times and seasons, they’re not of your concern. They’re not really of your concern. You’re not to know the specifics about these things. Rather, he’s actually telling them that what you should be concerned about is the work that I’ve given you to do. Look to the work that has been given to you by God. And what he says there is, trust the times and seasons to God, because it says the Father is the one who has fixed them. They’re not moving about. He’s not moving things depending on what happens here and circumstances on earth. The Father has fixed them in place by his own authority. And he’s telling the disciples, you don’t need to worry about the times and the seasons.

And then back in 1 Thessalonians where we are, Paul is saying that concerning the times and seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. You might read that and go, oh, why is that? Do they know? Do they already know about the times and seasons? Well, no, that’s not the case. So what’s he saying? Well, verse 2 says, “For you yourselves are fully aware.” Again, fully aware of the times and seasons? But no, they are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. So what he’s saying is, the reason I don’t need to write to you about all of this, about the times and seasons, is because you’re fully aware, as I’ve taught you, that the day of the Lord is going to come quickly. The day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. You’re not going to know when it’s happening. The idea is that it’s a shock, it’s a surprise, they won’t know.

But before we get to that, we want to look at this term, the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. It’s an expression that’s used right throughout the Old Testament. It is used in the New Testament as well. And it’s used to refer to the coming of God to judge his enemies, to punish the evildoers. It’s almost always, exclusively, a coming wrath. In the Old Testament, there were smaller days of the Lord. They wouldn’t have seemed small at the time, but there were smaller days of the Lord where God steps in, where he judges, where he defeats his enemies. And you see examples right throughout Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and plenty of others.

Just to give you an example of one of them, Joel 2, it says:

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, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!

It’s almost always described with this idea of darkness, where God comes in his judgment. So that’s one description of what the day of the Lord is like. But honestly, what we see is that there’s a two-edged sword in these events. The day of the Lord has a reckoning for sinners, but there’s also a deliverance of the faithful. There’s a reckoning for sinners, but there’s a day of deliverance for believers. And you see it in Malachi. When it’s talking about the day of the Lord, it’s talking about God setting ablaze those that are wicked, those that are against him. It talks about the Lord burning with fire. And then it goes on to say, “but you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you shall go leaping like calves out of the stalls.” It’s a strange response to judgment. Again, there are two sides to this.

But all of those events in the Old Testament are ultimately pointing forward to a great and final day of the Lord. A great day of the Lord is coming. And like we’ve seen here, this is a term that’s used in the New Testament as well. The New Testament too draws images of war and darkness and judgment and talks about the day of the Lord. In 2 Peter 3, it says that “the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.” And what we see also in 1 Corinthians and Philippians is the same thing, this double aspect of the day of the Lord. In 1 Corinthians, he calls it the day of the Lord, but he also calls it the day of Jesus Christ. So it’s just two aspects.

So it seems that this day is the same event as chapter 4. And here again, we see it in what we’ve looked at in chapter 5, he shifts the description a little bit. He switches terms from the coming of the Lord to the day of the Lord, because in this aspect he’s talking about judgment. So the emphasis is more on the judgment of this event.

So again, these Thessalonians, they know full well, they’ve been taught about the day of the Lord, they’re fully aware they’re not to know the exact timings. But what they do know is that the coming of the Lord will be like a thief in the night. It will come like a thief in the night.

About a year ago, I actually remember asking for prayer at the time. My in-laws, mum and dad, they live out in the country a little bit and they have those Ring cameras that are everywhere. They have one above the garage. And as my father-in-law was going to sleep one night, I think it was midnight or a little bit later, his phone dings, it sets off a little alarm. And he says everything sets it off, cats set it off, the leaves set it off, so he just ignored it and didn’t look at it. And it wasn’t until the next morning when he got up and he looked at his phone and clicked on the little notification that this picture came up. There were three robbers, three men, there’s only two in that picture you can really see, and they came up the driveway and, in the middle of the night, they tried to break into the garage. They went around the whole outside of the house, they couldn’t get into the house thankfully, but they stole stuff from the little outhouses and the sheds around and they left.

You can imagine the fear that came upon them, just the dread, the shock that these men were outside of their house. Even when he got this notification, they were really shaken up by this. And I remember asking for prayer for them because they were concerned with this. They were going to come back.

But the way that this passage is describing this, this is the emotion that this passage is trying to grasp. Just like they had that fear, the shock that that brought them as they watched these men at their house, this is the description that this passage wants us to grasp, that it’s an unexpected shock. It’s a thief at night that you’re not expecting.

So these Thessalonians thought that if we could be more ready for this event, if we knew exactly when it was coming, we could be more ready. But Paul’s showing them there’s a problem with your thinking. And that is, like we’ve seen, the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It means the Lord’s return will come in a day and a time and in a way that’s unforeseen by the world. It’s unexpected, just like those men coming into their house in the middle of the night. You don’t see it coming. That’s the problem with thieves, is they don’t announce when they’re going to break into your house.

So Paul is, no doubt, borrowing from one of Jesus’ analogies. In Matthew 24, Jesus says:

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

So the whole idea is that this is an unexpected and a sudden event, but all the more for those that are in darkness, as we’ll come to see.

2 The Day of Comfort

So secondly, we’ll see days of comfort. Days of comfort. So let’s look at verse 3:

While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

So it’s saying, while people are saying peace and security, this is when this is going to come. It turns out peace and security was a really popular slogan at the time. This was something that Paul borrows from the Romans and their propaganda machine. You know, basically, once we’ve conquered you, once we’ve restored law and order the way we see it and put to the sword anyone that steps out of line, you’ll have Pax Romana. The peace of Rome, Roman peace. But it’s believed there was also another slogan that was common at the time, Pax et Securitas, peace and security. So Paul is borrowing from what the Romans promised, and he’s using this, and it’s basically a delusion. There are no guarantees that anyone can bring actual peace and security. Only God can bring that.

And what he says is, the day of the Lord is going to take place when people are saying peace and security, when people are living with the idea of peace and security. Basically, people are going to be relaxed, they’re going to be comfortable, they’re going to be complacent. We already saw Paul mirror Jesus’ analogy of the thief in Matthew 24. But we see something else in Matthew 24 that goes along with this. If you want to turn there, please, again, to Matthew 24, verse 37. Matthew 24:37, as Jesus speaks about this. And he says:

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

So you see, before this event, the day of the Lord, people will be saying, peace and security. They will be eating and drinking and getting married and going on holiday and just living ordinary life, enjoying life. And out of nowhere, this flood is going to hit them. The flood that is coming, that is the Son of Man, the day of the Lord.

Now, of course, there’s nothing wrong with marrying and going on holiday and eating and drinking. But what it’s showing is that people are going to be oblivious. They’re going to be totally oblivious. They’re going to be totally complacent. They’re unconcerned by what God has called them to do. They don’t care about turning from their sin or the call that Christ is coming back again. Just like the days of Noah. Noah was there, he told them that this is coming, there’s a flood coming, and they didn’t believe. And we as Christians are here, we’re saying that Christ is coming back again. We’re saying once you die, it’s appointed unto each one of us the judgment. So the witness is there, but it seems they’re totally unconcerned.

I mean, it’s the very thing that we should be most concerned about, the very thing that should keep us awake every millisecond of the night and of the day, if we’re not right with this God. And yet people are concerned about everything else, but not this. All these people, these nations, the rebels against God, they’re just concerned about everything else, their own pleasures, their own ambitions, their worldly plans. Living their self-centred lives, worried about other causes that they want to see done in the world, but they’re not concerned about this one.

And what we see in nearly every one of these judgments in the Old Testament is that the unbelievers had turned away. They turned away from the light of God’s word and the light of God, and they were in the dark. They were totally in the dark about the devastation that was going to come and strike them. We see it in Jeremiah. While Jeremiah was prophesying, telling Jerusalem there’s coming destruction, you’re going to be destroyed, you’re going to be taken away into exile, there were other false teachers saying, you are not going to see the sword, there’s not going to be famine. Peace, peace is what they cried. Peace, peace. But there was no peace. There are other influences, and people obviously want to listen to that rather than the judgment.

And we know there are all sorts of the usual things that we all talk about. What is going to be the end of the world? What’s the next best thing, the next worst thing, that we should be worrying about? Is it the US, Iran, Russia, China? Is it mega diseases? CO2 emissions? Is it AI? There are endless things that people are anxious about. But again, nobody is giving any thought to what the world is actually heading towards. It’s good to consider the risks of these things, but no thought is given to the way the world is heading.

And yet at the same time, we also live in a very comfortable age, a very secure, very technological age. We have overcome many illnesses and diseases. We have more comfort than any generation that has ever lived. You can get an instant hot shower whenever you want, for most of us. That’s something that kings couldn’t even do a couple of hundred years ago. We can reduce and eradicate nearly every risk. And if you have the resources, if you have the money, you can basically go from birth to death without really feeling any pain, if you really want to get the drugs and the medication to take that away from you. Even, as we see in some countries, you can end your life before the suffering comes, where you will die. We live in a very comfortable age.

But what Paul and what Jesus are saying is that before the day of the Lord, while yes, there will be horrible sins, there will be all sorts taking place, at the same time people will be very complacent, very full of pride, self-centred, and just getting on with life. And as our passage says in verse 3, “then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” So this destruction of God’s wrath and judgment will come, and it will come as suddenly as labour pains on a pregnant woman.

Now, I know there are plenty of people in church at the minute that have a very recent memory of what this is like and the pains that that brings. But I don’t want us to get this wrong. It’s not talking about the contractions where it’s gradual and gradual and it gets closer and closer and closer and more intense and more intense, to the point where it’s so close it’s obvious. It’s very obvious when the baby’s coming. That’s not what this is talking about. It’s not talking about these contractions that make it obvious. It’s the idea of the actual sharpness, the suddenness with which the pains come upon a woman. The wince in pain, that’s what it’s speaking about, the sharpness, the suddenness with which they come. That’s what this day is going to be like.

And unlike what we see in AD 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed, as God poured out his wrath on Jerusalem for their sin, for their rebellion, for their rejecting his Son, for crucifying Christ, you know, via the Romans again, we saw that there were still those who escaped that day. But on this day, on the day of the Lord, there will be no one who will escape. There will be no one who will escape. Well, except for one. One group of people will be the only ones that escape. And we’ll go into our last point and we’ll see what that is.

3 The Day to be Ready

Lastly, a day to be ready. A day to be ready. So what is this group who will escape? Well, look at verses 4 and 5:

But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

So Paul is telling these Thessalonian believers that are worked up, that are stressed about all of this, that they will be those who do escape, that they’re not of the darkness. They will escape this day. You know, the thief is not going to come to them in the same way, because they are ready.

So what does it mean to be ready? We’re called in Scripture to be ready for this day. What does that mean? Well, I remember when I was a teenager, this is something that terrified me. I was brought up in circles where it was very heavily used almost as a weapon to think about. I was terrified that the Lord is going to come back and I’m going to be caught in some sin. I’m going to be caught in the act of some sin that I’m doing. I’m going to be distracted. I’m not going to be ready. I’m not going to be walking with the Lord as I should that week. And if the Lord comes back when I’m like that, then what does that mean? What if I’m not ready? And it used to terrify me.

But the reality is, what it means to be ready is to belong to Christ. It’s to belong to Christ. That’s what it means to be ready. There’s not some special way that we can make ourselves ready. We get the doomsday clock out or we get the calendar and calculators out. Again, we see it’s not about asking for times and seasons, or anything else other than trusting in the good news of the gospel.

You know, Elsie was waiting a while ago on my sister coming back from Canada. My sister was coming back from the airport any time. I just hadn’t seen her in maybe a couple of years. And Elsie’s at the front window, you know, on tiptoes with her neck straight and constantly jiggling all over the living room and looking, expecting my sister to come back. And that’s the imagery that we’re told. There’s that aspect of readiness, that we as Christians are to be expectant, we’re to be excited, we’re to be on tiptoes looking for this day. But that’s not ultimately what it is to be ready. To be ready is to belong to Christ. To be ready is to step out of the darkness and into his light.

You know, let’s be honest, I and probably most of us, we try to avoid fire and brimstone preaching. Some of us think we’ve maybe moved on from that a little bit, and there are good parts to that too. But that’s not what I’m doing here. What I’m doing is what God’s word says, because it’s true. This day is going to happen. This day is approaching. This is a real and a coming day.

And sometimes we think, look, we’re Christians so we can switch off. But the truth is, stop and think about this. There’s real, honestly real pain, real suffering for individuals that’s going to be at the hand of God. This will really impact societies and nations and individuals that we know. This is real and it’s terrifying. And this was coming for us if we’re not in Christ. If anything, it should lead us to greater urgency, to a greater realisation that we need to share the gospel, to tell our loved ones and our neighbours about their need of him, because this is real.

And the world will not, you know, it will not foresee this day. Even though there are those of us who warn, they’ll not even see this coming. And all the world’s leaders and all the armies of the world will not be able to withstand the armies of the Lord. It’ll be like a conqueror heading against a wrecking ball. When it comes, it comes fast. And yet the Lord is gracious and merciful and slow to anger. This is the day of grace. When his judgment comes, it is coming, and it is coming suddenly. Again, the people of the world will be oblivious, and then darkness. This day comes like a robber, a thief in the night.

But Christ isn’t going to come, he’s not going to sneak in like those men did. He’s not going to come sneakily. And he’s not going to come like a baby this time. But he’s coming as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He’s coming to destroy and defeat all of his enemies once and for all. And we see that sudden and total destruction. And no one will escape except for those that are found in him.

So just to finish. There are a lot of beliefs out there about where the world is heading. There’s the humanist, secular idea that everything is just random. It’s heading nowhere, there’s no real achievement at the end of it, there’s no real purpose to any of it. There’s also the idea of reincarnation, or a lot of New Agey stuff, that everything’s just cycles of life. It’s just cycles and cycles and cycles. But in Christianity, it’s linear. It’s linear. There is a clear, sovereign beginning and there is a clear, sovereign ending. We are on that path to a coming end, and we are closer to that day than ever before.

And we saw the sudden destruction for those in darkness. But for us who are believers, we’re not of the darkness, we’re not of the night, we are of the day, we’re of the light, and we want to live our lives every day with this joyful expectation, with this readiness, like a groom stands at the front of the church waiting for the bride to come, that nervousness, that excitement. Or biblically, it’s the bride waiting for the bridegroom to come. For us, he’s not going to come like a thief in the night coming to attack. For us, he is coming as our long-awaited King, finally returned to earth.

So Emmanuel, in light of this, we want to let our lifestyle, our choices, our priorities, our identity reflect what is coming, to reflect this day. We want to be people who live as children of the day, not of the night. We want to be ready. Let’s live as those who have stored up treasures not on this earth but in heaven. And when he comes, we unlock that inheritance, the ultimate inheritance that is Christ himself. Because only in Christ do we have true, everlasting peace and security. As we saw in the Old Testament, it is true of this day, this day of the Lord, the coming of the Lord, that it will be a day of absolute reckoning for sinners, but it will be a day of deliverance for believers. A day of wonderful hope where we will be restored to our God and our King.

I want us to just finish by turning to the very last book of the Bible, just as we close, Revelation 22. I want us to think about the hope that we have, the hope that is coming, what this day will ultimately bring in. Revelation 22 and verse 4:

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

And down to verse 20:

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

Amen.