The Lutheran Hour
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"Be Encouraged by His Coming"
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Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:4-9
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“But you, brothers and sisters…you are all children of the light and children of the day…Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and 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.”
Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ is coming again for you! Amen!
Paul is clear in our text today. He wants those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior to be encouraged by the promised fact of Jesus Christ’s 2nd coming. He reminds the believers in Thessalonica then, as well as believers today, to be prepared because that day will come upon all people like a thief in the night, or with a more positive image, like a pregnant woman who suddenly has those final labor pains before her child is born.
So the Bible is clear, “Jesus Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead.” The Christian church is clear when each Sunday believers around the world stand together and confess in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds that Jesus Christ is coming to judge the living and the dead. The One Who created the world, the One Who redeemed and restored the world through His death and resurrection, He is the One Who is coming to judge the world in perfect justice.
Now, I don’t know about you, but such talk doesn’t encourage me to be encouraged. What do you think? Such talk about justice and judgment, the sudden and sure reality of it, such talk makes me a bit afraid, not full of great expectation and joy.
How can Paul encourage Christians to be comforted by the fact of Christ’s certain coming to judge the living and the dead?
Well, maybe one of the reasons we’re not encouraged or not comforted, maybe why we fear such talk is that we think that Jesus, the One Who is coming; we think He is fickle. We’re afraid that He doesn’t have our best interests at heart.
Can you remember a time in your life when you were afraid because you were by yourself and you needed someone to come to your aid? We’ve all had moments like that in our lives when we were vulnerable to our surroundings. Can you remember hoping that someone would get there soon? It may have been a time when you were out late and the car stalled and you were waiting for your dad to come help look under the hood. But, suddenly, at that precise moment, a stranger approaches and calls out “Need some help?” What do you do? Or, maybe even something scarier, a robber in the house, and you’ve just called the police. Then, suddenly you hear a loud noise downstairs. Is the intruder leaving or coming up the stairs? When will those policemen get here? Or maybe you’re in a new city and you find yourself in an unfamiliar part of town, all alone. Then suddenly, someone’s comes up to you and says, “It looks like you’re lost!” What emotions are you feeling at those moments, relief or fear?
It all depends on Who’s coming? Or does it? Maybe it’s not who is coming after all, but what we are waiting for. You see, as sinners, we often see Christ, not as the comrade coming to save us, but the enemy out to destroy us; not as the loving Father, but the demanding stranger, not as the protecting officer, but as the robber of our freedoms. The real problem is our sinful love of the darkness, not our fear of the light; our rebellious love of our autonomy, not the fear of our connectedness to our loving Creator.
Jesus is no fickle Lord. He doesn’t come to judge or to grant mercy on a whim. The problem lies with us. As crazy as it sounds, as sinful human beings, we would rather grope around in the darkness of our sins and the darkness of our fears rather than let Jesus Christ call us into the light of His forgiveness, grace, and righteousness.
W.H. Auden gets humanity right when he says, “We would rather be ruined than changed; We would rather die in our dread; Than climb the cross of the moment; And let our illusions die.”
Even Albert Einstein, the scientist, seems to have had a foreboding sense of mankind’s problems. He says, “It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.”
But, the Bible says it even more pointedly in John 3:16-20 – “16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life……….whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world,” says John, “but people loved darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil.”
The Scripture calls us out. God’s Word calls us to repent of the darkness of our sin. It reminds us that our fears are not about “who is coming,” but they’re about who we are. Our fears, even our doom, if it be the final word of our lives, it’s not about who is coming, but what we love and what we finally desire on our own terms.
God is calling us out of that darkness into the light of His salvation, His forgiveness, His grace in His Son, Jesus Christ. For the Christian, repentance is turning away from our love of the darkness, our love of living life solely on our own terms, to a trusting faith in His declaration of our life in Him by His grace.
In faith, those who trust in Jesus Christ alone can await His coming with joy…for He comes with life, with light, He comes with forgiveness and hope, and He comes to put darkness and sin in its eternal place, once and for all.
“But you, brothers and sisters (fellow believers in Jesus)…5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. …8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Repentance is a call to turn from the darkness of our sin and to receive the light of Christ’s grace and salvation. I mean, who would want to return to the darkness anyway?
So, it’s not a question of His coming, it’s the joy of the fact that Jesus is coming again to judge the “living and the dead,” to finally put the things of the night into their eternal place and to establish the light of His righteousness, joy, and peace forever. And that’s good. Who would want the “Darkness of sin and death to reign forever?” Bad things, evil things, they usually happen in the darkness. In the literal darkness of night or in the darkness of unbelief, but the result is the same, destruction, hurt, guilt, loss.
By the cross, Jesus Christ literally “took on the darkness” and overcame it. Jesus didn’t just defeat sin, death, and the Devil, He defeated all the “allies” that run with such things at night. He defeated loneliness and heartache, frustration, jealousy, sickness, disease, and all those other things that are just aspects of a world that is passing away. He took them all to the grave and He defeated them. The day is coming when the final gavel will fall on the sin of this world, the final day of death will be past and the day of eternal life will come.
He’s coming. He’s coming again, and for those who trust in Him and not in themselves, that’s very good news! The One Who is coming, has come so that we might live. The Christmas Baby became the Good Friday Savior and the Easter Hope for the whole world. And He is coming again to judge the living and the dead.
As Christians, we live in Him now by faith and on that day we will be with Him forever in love! That’s good news for us and for all who will believe!
“4 But you, brothers and sisters (fellow believers in Jesus)……..5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. …..8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Because of Jesus Christ and His work for the world, for you, be encouraged by those words.
Paul says an amazing thing. “God did not appoint you to suffer wrath.” If you are honest with yourself, wrath and punishment, these are the things that you and I know we deserve. Deep in our hearts we know that there should be punishment for the things that we think and say and do and even the things we don’t do. But then we hear this incredible phrase, “God has not destined us for wrath.” That’s not what God wants for you, and, trusting in Him, that’s not what He has in store for you!
Listen to what He says of you by His grace. See what He has done for you out of love. He not only hasn’t appointed you as a believer to wrath, He has taken upon Himself, the wrath you and I deserved, so that we can have His eternal life!
By grace, through faith, you are not children of wrath, but children of the daylight of eternal life. Trust in the words of the One Who loves you, Who offers you eternal life at His coming, in these very words.
Believe Him, for His Word has power and authority and real staying power for your life. Be encouraged by the words of the One Who redeemed you, Who loves you!
Greg Scharf in Ravinia Magazine shares with us an example of an encouraging word. He says, “Edvard Greig, the nineteenth-century Norwegian composer, wrote his parents concerning the encouragement he received from famous Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt, who had just played Greig’s Piano Concerto in A Minor. Greig writes:
‘Finally, as he, Liszt, handed me the score, he said, “Hold to your course. Let me tell you, you have the talent for it, and-don’t get scared off!” This last is of infinite importance to me. It is almost what I will call a sacred mandate. When disappointments and bitterness come, I shall think of his words, and the memory of this hour will have a wonderful power to sustain me in the days of adversity; that is my confident hope.'” – Greg Scharf; source: Ravinia magazine (August, 2008), p 160Greig talks about the power of those words, words from the great composer and pianist, Franz Liszt.
But what about the Word of the One Who literally created and redeemed the world? Listen to the promise that He makes to His people: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him'” (1 Cor. 2:9,10a).
Be encouraged by His Words! And get ready for the day of the Lord by undergirding your life with those Words of God and encouraging others in the light that you have received.
Paul talks about living “sober lives,” focused lives, armed lives! Arm yourself for work in the daylight! Put on the armor of faith and love. Let God’s gifts of life and salvation guard your heart like a Roman breastplate. And put on the helmet of God’s Salvation or should I say, “the helmet of God’s future expectation” for those who trust in Him. Helmets guard our minds, breastplates guard our hearts, God has called us to a life that was meant to be lived, body, mind, and spirit in His grace and in His love, and in service to our fellow man. To be truly human, not just today, but forever, that’s news to live by now. Come Lord Jesus!
Live daylight lives for others. Put the power of His light to work, the power of His light to bless. Too often Christians have given the impression that living faithful lives is meant to impress one’s neighbor. That’s not “day light in the grace of Jesus” living. No, living “daylight” lives means that we are not to be seeking to “impress” others but to “bless” others with the blessing that we have received by the One Who gives us forgiveness and peace, freely.
Children of Christ’s light, we rejoice in reflecting what we’ve received!
So, Christian life is not about trying to prove to others that we have light and others don’t, it is rather, shining the light that we have so graciously received so that others might receive the light they so desperately need.
In a tenement district in New York City, a boy in ragged clothes was seen with a small piece of a broken mirror in his hand. Holding it high in the air he moved it slowly back and forth, watching the narrow slit of a window above him as he did so. “What are you doing?” suddenly said a man as he shook the youngster by the shoulder. “Like most boys in this neighborhood, you’re probably up to some mischief, aren’t you?” The boy looked up to the stern face of his accuser and said, “No. No, I’m not up to mischief. See that window up there? Well, I have a little brother who has a room on that floor. He’s a cripple and the only sunlight he ever sees is the sunlight I shine up to him each day with my mirror! I want to make sure that he sees the sunlight that I get to see every day!”
If you are a believer in Jesus, the day of the Lord’s Second Coming is a day when darkness and sin, sickness and disease will forever be put away, and the light of eternal life will shine forever! Believers don’t live in fear of that day, they live in eager expectation. They shine, they reflect the light they’ve received to all who will receive it.
So pick up your mirrors dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Find the windows that need the light of Jesus Christ and reflect what God beams to you. Are you forgiven? Then forgive. Are you blessed? Then bless. Are you comforted? Then comfort. Are you strengthened? Then strengthen.
Every one of you not only has a mirror, but the very light of God in Jesus Christ in your lives by faith, a light that energizes, a light that illumines, a light that even nourishes your hearts and your minds.Paul speaks to the Christians of Thessalonica and tells them to be comforted by the good news that the Jesus Who lived and died and rose again for them, is coming again to judge the living and the dead. He is coming for all who believe in Him, to bring to light what is already true by faith!
The day of the Lord, the day of the end of night and the eternal, never-endingness of Salvation’s Day is coming. Paul reminds us that Jesus is coming again and that’s good news! Such a coming might be sudden, but its certainty calls us to a life of joyful expectation. A picture that Paul uses to finally help us get our minds and hearts around this issue is the picture of a woman in the final stages of her pregnancy. There is worry, there is pain, there is excitement, but even more than that, there is eager anticipation. The “due date” is a day to be “longed for.” It means the excitement of a new life, of a new bundle of joy, it’s close at hand. Soon the pain will be overwhelmed with an inexpressible joy!
For those who live in the light of Jesus Christ, His Second Coming is the due date for eternal life. It is a move from “good now” to the “best forever,” even waiting amidst the “labor pains” of this life, gives way to eternal joy. That’s how Christians wait for the judgment. That’s why we get prepared, that’s why we get ready as we wait by trusting in God and loving others, then, the way that He loves us. We don’t want anything to get in the way of our being prepared for that great day!
So, be encouraged by His Coming! Live as believers who already belong to the gracious light of God’s salvation. Pray that His day comes sooner rather than later, that day when there will be no more heartache, no more fears, no more troubles, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more strife, just God’s grace in full, eternal life.
For that day, the night will be dissipated and the daylight of eternal life will dawn, there will be great rejoicing in the “waiting room of heaven.” Thief in the night? No, better, labor pains of new birth. Encourage each other with these words!
God bless you until you see Jesus face to face. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for November 13, 2011
Topic: Living Together Before Marriage?ANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Gregory Seltz responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. A listener says, “I know the Bible says that God doesn’t like divorce, so isn’t it better, then, for people to live together first to see if a relationship can work before they get married?”
SELTZ: Well, Mark, our listener is right in one sense, God hates what divorce does to our families and our relationships and that’s why He wants people to have strong, committed marriages.
ANNOUNCER: So the listener get’s God’s Word right concerning divorce, but at the same time seems to be, maybe, a bit confused as to what God’s Word says concerning what healthy relationships, courtship, and marriages are all about.
SELTZ: Yeah, I agree, but, unfortunately, that’s just echoing what our culture has been saying and doing for some time and with deadly results, I might add.
ANNOUNCER: Deadly results? Could you explain?
SELTZ: Yes, but let’s step back first. Let’s talk about relationship basics. For the Christian, marriage is ultimately an expression of faith towards God and fervent love towards our spouse. So, it’s more than seeking a compatible relationship.
ANNOUNCER: So, it’s really a commitment to share the love we receive from God with that one person in this world who means the most to us.
SELTZ: Well said. In fact, it’s learning to do that. Marriage is a promise to do what God says is right for the other person, to practice faithfully sharing the love we’ve received so graciously. So, it’s more than an intense emotion, it is a commitment to love the other person the way they need to be loved.
ANNOUNCER: And that faithfulness starts by trusting God and what He says we should do towards our potential mate.
SELTZ: Absolutely. And that starts before marriage. That’s why sexual relations, or living together before marriage, is so damaging. A person is already disobeying God at the same time that they say they are loving the other person. So, if God is the source of our love and forgiveness, we’re already short-changing our relationship to each other by disregarding His Word about such things.
ANNOUNCER: So commitment to God and commitment to one another is really the first thing in a godly marriage, not the last.
SELTZ: That’s right. So many people have it backwards today. They want intimacy before commitment and living together demands an intimacy that one’s lack of commitment can’t bear.
ANNOUNCER: So this command to “not live together” before marriage isn’t just being old fashioned and prudish.
SELTZ: No way. It’s really talking straight about love, relationships, intimacy and how to make it work! It’s letting God Himself build a love in you for each other that you could never manufacture on your own.
ANNOUNCER: Faithfulness to God, commitment to each other, sharing God’s love for life. It sounds like an adventure.
SELTZ: It sure can be. And that’s the journey of faithfulness to God and respect and love for our potential spouse, and it begins long before the marriage ceremony. You see, when two people trust in God first, when they are committed to His Word first, that “third party” resource of His love, that’s going to be the key to how one acts in marriage when emotions might get the best of us.
ANNOUNCER: So, suddenly ideas like “forgive as God has first forgiven you,” or, “Love one another as God has loved you,” that’s more than a platitude.
SELTZ: Right. They are keys to being blessed, to even having a joyful marriage, that’s for sure. And that’s the thing that couples should be focusing on that before marriage. Practice that…following God’s lead, trusting in His Word as to how to act towards one another…that can prevent a lot of heartache.
ANNOUNCER: Could you be more specific?
SELTZ: I’m happy too. This new “love without commitments” view of marriage has caused a lot of pain. We’ve seen an exponential rise in venereal disease, divorce, and even worse, children growing up without one or both of their parents. In fact, people are having a hard time trusting one another today!
ANNOUNCER: So, it unleashes a whole lot of misery.
SELTZ: It’s a lot of unnecessary hurt, too, that’s for sure. But in all this, we need to remember that even today, there can be forgiveness and a fresh start with God and with our spouse.
ANNOUNCER: And that cycle of hurt can be broken.
SELTZ: People can begin today, committing themselves to exercise their faith in God by loving each other the way God has called us to do.
ANNOUNCER: Which is something to begin practicing right now. Thank you Pastor Seltz, this has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending” arr. Robert A. Hobby. From Hymns for All Saints: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (© 2005 Concordia Publishing House)
“Jesus, Your Blood and Righteousness” arr. Chris Loemker. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Trumpet Tune” by Jeffery Blersch. From Resounding Allelulias by Jeffrey Blersch (© 2004 Concordia Publishing House)