When Jesus suddenly and unexpectedly returns, will our response be different from our unbelieving friends? It ought to be. We're going to find out why and learn how Christ's anticipated return should affect the way we're living right now. Today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg continues our study in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. I was brought up in the 60s with the late great planet Earth.
explained the whole of the 1960s to me. Explained the emergence of the common market, explained how locusts were helicopters, and goodness knows what else. It was the biggest selling book in airport bookstores in America. And most of it is totally fatuous. As of today.
What was the problem? The problem was not to up the ante on the truth of the return of Jesus. That is fabulous. The problem was to try and disprove the Bible. When Paul said, you don't need this stuff about times and dates, he was saying it because of what Jesus had said.
The classic from history, again from the 18th century, is a Roman Catholic theologian who set the date of the return of Jesus Christ as 1784. And the book which contained the information was not published until 1785. It's a bit of a let down. Everybody's still around. not reading it.
It's secret. Secondly, it's sudden. It's sudden. That's verse 3. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly.
Suddenly, the suddenness of it all is made much of in the gospel records too. Again, back in Matthew 24, to which we would turn frequently. Matthew 24 and verse 26, and we quoted this last week.
So if anyone tells you there he is out in the desert, don't go out. or here he is in the inner rooms, don't believe it. Why not? Because of verse 27. For as the lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
In other words, it is going to come with dramatic suddenness.
Now you'll notice the juxtaposition here between these two pictures. The thief comes, suddenly, And unexpectedly. That's the strategy of the burglar. But for a lady Labor pains are not unexpected. They're expected.
And that is the great fun, at least for the man, of the first child, you know, is this: are they happening yet? You know, what are those things, you know? I can remember Sitting around in the middle of the night and And then the next day going in a shoe shop in Glasgow, and Sue said, Oh, I think it's, I said, What? It's what? She said, No, no, I don't think it is.
And then a little later, I said, Yeah, I think it is. No, I don't think it is. For crying out loud, get the, what is this thing? Branston pickles, Branston Hicks, or whatever you call these things? What are they?
I don't know. But I know now, after three of them, they are unavoidable. You get yourself in that condition, they're coming.
Now that's his point. In relationship to the burglar, his return is sudden and unexpected. In relationship to the pregnant woman, the birth pangs are sudden and unavoidable.
So we know two things then. We know that it is secret, we know that it is sudden and unexpected, but also at the same time unavoidable, and thirdly we know that it will bring about separation. We say, where do you get that? In 1 Thessalonians 5, it's not in 1 Thessalonians 5, but it is back in Matthew 24. We always want to interpret Scripture with Scripture.
Matthew 24 and verse 37. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels and so on, as it was in the beginning. In the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Verse 40: Two men will be in the field, one will be taken, the other will be left. Two women will be grinding with a handmill, one will be taken, and the other left.
Now you say to me, that's not the totality of everything we need to know about the return of Jesus Christ. And to that I say a hearty amen. But I want to tell you this. If you know this much, you know enough to do what the Bible calls you to do. If you know that curiosity is to be avoided because the day is secret, the day is sudden, and the day will bring separation.
Now you got a pretty good head start. on what God wants you to do. And indeed, If what you want to do is sit around and delve into the intricacies. and curiosities. You're not going to have enough time to do what the Bible calls you to do.
Because you'll be so busy doing what it calls you not to do. But isn't that the story? of our lives. The curiosity that is to be avoided, and then he goes on to the identity that is to be affirmed. He introduces the contrast with two words at the beginning of verse 4.
But you, brothers, Again, this term of endearment. Generically used, he might equally have said, but you brothers and sisters.
So you're not like this. You're not like the rest of men. You don't live in the darkness, he says. You're not in the darkness so that the day should surprise you like a thief. When the Lord Himself comes down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God.
You're not going to be surprised. Not in the way that the unbeliever is going to be surprised. Because when all of that cuts loose, unbelievers are going to be saying, what in the world's this? And the believer's going to say, it's Jesus. That's 1 Thessalonians 4.
That's what you're going to see. That's what it was. Voice, trumpet blast, loud command, it's Jesus.
Now, why do we know that? Because of the radical transformation that has taken place in our lives. You are not in the darkness, your identity has been changed. The day won't surprise you like a thief, because after all, he says, picking up on this metaphor of light and darkness, you're all sons of the light and sons of the day. We don't belong to the night or to the darkness.
We were once darkness, but now we're light in the Lord. That's Ephesians 5. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9: We were once not a people, now we are the people of God. We once lived in darkness, but now we've been brought out of darkness and into His marvelous light. We are different.
1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13. We are not like the rest of men because they have no hope. We are different because 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9, we have turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead.
So we are not like the rest of men on a Monday morning who go back to their days and say, I don't know where the world's going. I don't know what's going on in this newspaper. I can't stand watching the news. I haven't got a concept of how it will end. This is driving me absolutely insane.
Answer. Let me explain to you how it's going to end.
Well, how would you know how it's going to end? Because I know how it began.
Well, how did it begin?
Well God let Light shine out of darkness. He said, let there be light and there was light. Oh, you don't tell me you believe that. Absolutely. And he made man and he made woman, and he walked with them in the garden in the cool of the day.
Oh, you don't believe that, do you? Yes, I do, absolutely. And men and women turn their back on the living God, and suddenly the world that we know today is not the world the way man made it, but is the world the way man has spoken, not the world the way God made it, but the world the way man has spoiled it. Sin has entered into the world. We live in a fallen world.
We can't put ourselves in the right situation with God. That's why God came in the person of Jesus Christ and died upon the cross, not to show us how much He loved us, but to pay the penalty for our sin, which did show us how much He loved us. And those who believe into Christ become new creations, become identified with light, and love, and peace, and hope, and joy, and reality. People say, Well, you know what? I can't process that much that fast, but maybe we could talk about it again.
Answer, I'd love to talk about it again. I'd love to talk about it every coffee break from now until the day when the truth dawns on your mind and you say, you know what? I understand it now. And listen, folks, until we have a new identity in the Lord Jesus Christ. Which is the whole point of the gospel.
That Jesus comes and lives in us. I've given you the illustration before. Show me a Shakespeare play and tell me to write it. Write one just like that. I can't do it.
Show me a painting if I go and ask me to paint a painting like that and I can't do it. Show me a life like the life of Jesus and ask me to live a life like that and I can't do it. But if the genius of Van Gogh could come and live in me, I could paint that kind of picture. If the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write that kind of play. And if the reality of Jesus can come and live in me, then I can live that kind of life.
That's the gospel you see. and everything else is a call to externalism.
Well, come on now, have a good week. Try and be a kind person this week. Do your best this week. Shape up. Stop swearing in your car.
Stop getting aggravated at other drivers. Try and be nicer to your wife. Give yourself a shake. Pull your socks up. Spend more time with your kids.
Da da da da da. The guy's going, you know what? I don't even know if I want to, and even if I wanted to, I don't even know if I can. That's not Christianity. That's moralism.
That's externalism. Christianity is, you're in deep trouble. Jesus died to get you out of the deep trouble, but unless you admit you're in deep trouble, you ain't never getting out of it.
So, first, you've got to admit it. But I want good news.
Sorry, there ain't no good news without bad news first.
Well, I don't want to listen to it. Fine, see you around.
Next, there's bad news, then there's good news. You ready for the bad news? Yes, okay, here it is. Oh, I understand. And what's happening in pulpits all across this city this morning on rally day and come to church day and this next day.
It are people that are being called to a lifestyle without any life. And it is the worst possible thing I can imagine. To do Christian stuff. without knowing why or how. to be involved in externalism.
moralism and just doing stuff. I have no interest in doing stuff. All the stuff I want to do by nature is bad stuff. Believe me. And unless someone came and changed the mechanism inside of me, I'd be doing all that bad stuff, and as it is, I still do some of it.
So the identity is key to the activity. To be called to activity without an identity is to live in externalism which is bogus and worthless and facile and empty and trivial and irrelevant and the world looks on and says, I want none of it and frankly I couldn't agree more. But when life comes into the tree Then leaves appear on the branches. Not by an act of Congress. But as a result, of the intake.
of that resource. And when Jesus comes to live within a life, Then there's lifestyle. And so says Paul, there's the deal. You're sons of the light. You're not in the darkness.
Proverbs Solomon says the way of the wicked is deep darkness. Paul says to the Ephesians, Ephesians 5: Once you were darkness, now you're light in the Lord. To be a son of something in the Semitic idiom was to be characterized by that thing.
So when he says your sons are the light or your daughters of the light, he says one of the things that marks you out is light. You know It's really quite simple. If Christians would just go out and shine a wee bit, We make a devastating impact. I mean, some of our faces could not exactly be called shining faces.
Some of us have got Miserable faces. You know. Don't you go back in your bank as a teller. And start sticking up dirty big signs that say, repent, the end of the world draweth nigh. And be going in the coffee room criticizing the manager and everybody else in the place.
Tear down your sign. And shame. And once you shine, then you can have a sign. In fact, once you shine, you will need a sign. I just made that up now.
If you shine. If you shine, no need of sign. That's it. And that's what he's saying to them. Listen, guys.
Listen, you are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We don't belong to the night or to the darkness. We're not like that. We've been made new. The prologue of John's Gospel.
It says the light shines in the darkness and the darkness is not understood it. Of course it hasn't understood. It didn't understand Jesus. And you can't argue somebody into it either. John chapter 3.
The progression is very clear. This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds. Will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
I mean, once again, you don't have to be a genius to understand this. I was driving down 71 during the week. Way down 71, and in the distance I saw this huge big pole, and it had a neon sign wrapped around one word, and the word said adult. I said to myself, what a remarkable thing to put on the end of a freeway. A big pole to be seen for miles around that just says adult.
Attractive sign. At the base of which Paul you will find total darkness. In the mercy of God, I haven't been in those rooms. But I've noticed from the outside. They don't have windows.
They're all boarded up. They're all blacked out. They are all Darkness. And as unbelievers, we live in darkness. We are born into darkness.
We're on the road that's full of darkness. And our eyes are dark. Therefore, our whole body is dark. Unless we hear the words of Jesus saying, I am the light of the world, he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And suddenly he turns the light on.
And we go. Where do we go? We go to do his bidding. What is his bidding? That's the last point.
There is a strategy to be adopted. Verse 6 introduces us to it. Two words.
So then.
So then.
So what? That's what we always need to be asking. Is there a point to this? There is a curiosity to be avoided. It's secret, sudden, and separation.
There is an identity to be affirmed. We are no longer what we once were. We have been radically changed.
So what? Here it is.
So then.
Don't be like the others. That's got to tell you something. In other words, don't be a walk in contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction. Don't be saying one thing and living another thing. You are late in the Lord.
Therefore, live as light in the Lord. These people are drunk, they're asleep, they live in the darkness. We belong to the day, therefore our strategy is clear. Say no. to moral carelessness.
And say yes. to alertness. The word there is watchful.
So then let us not be like the others who are asleep, but let us be alert or watchful. Gregorio is the Greek word from which we get our English boy's name Gregory, and it means vigilance or watchfulness or alertness. Let's all be Gregory's, he says. The proper attitude of the Christian is not sleepiness, dreamy cluelessness, moral indifference. but it is alertness.
The next verb is nefo. which means to be sober in the authorized version, self-controlled. It has to do again. with discipline. and moral alertness.
And that's the whole contrast between verse 7 and verse 8. Those who sleep sleep at night, those who get drunk get drunk at night. But we belong to the day. I mean, unless you're working the night shift, why would you ever want to be out at 1 o'clock in the morning? Should be in your bed, shouldn't you?
Early to bed? Early to rise. Makes a man healthy. Wealthy? And wise.
Tell my kids. There's no reason to be driving around in the middle of the night. Unless you're delivering the plain dealer. And since I know you're not, Let's go to bed. It's what you do at night.
Unless you are of the darkness. We'll come back to this next week, but there are two. Immediate telling points of impact in relationship to the return of Jesus Christ, and they're these. The strategy which is to be adopted Is a strategy number one for moral purity. 1 John 3:3.
Everyone who has this hope within him purifies himself even as he is pure. The real question of whether I favor and long for the return of Jesus Christ is not going to be answered by looking at the books on my shelf. It's not going to be answered by articulating my view of eschatology. It's going to be answered by you coming in my house, walking in my shoes as it were, driving in my car, listening to my music and watching my videos and reading my books. And me the same for you.
Moral purity. is one of the key indicators that a man or a woman It's saying no to curiosity, saying yes to their identity, and is impacting. The strategy. We'll come back to this in the second one. is the issue of zealous evangelism.
Zealous evangelism. When I understand that the day is sudden, it's secret, and it brings separation. What excuse does that give me for sitting around having a happy little class for myself? John chapter 9. And verse four.
As long as it is the day, says Jesus. We must do the work of Him who sent me. Night is coming. when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
And when I am not in the world, When I am not incarnated. When I am not walking the Jerusalem streets. You're the light of the world. Hey, Paul. Tell us all that good stuff about the times and the dates.
We want to get it down. Get a crystal ball, Paul. Let's get into the nitty-gritty of the return of Jesus Christ.
Somebody gave me two books since last Sunday. I'm not reading them.
Okay. I told the guy that already, so it was no surprise to him. I flat out not reading them. I don't have the time to read them. Good.
And if I read them, it would drive me nuts. And since you know that I'm already kinda nuts. You don't want to run that risk, so quit giving me these books, would you? I'm having a bad enough time reading this book. And understanding this.
Take your curiosity and sit on it. Take your identity. and live it. and take their strategy. and implement it.
And you'll be amazed. What's gonna happen? You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. He'll return in just a minute. If you're looking for a way to introduce others to Jesus, we have a tract, a little leave-behind fold-out, that presents the gospel succinctly.
We want everyone to hear about Jesus before he returns, so we have priced this tract at our cost of just twenty cents each. and shipping is free in the United States. For just five dollars you can get a pack of twenty five tracks, and this is an easy way to introduce unbelievers to the gospel. Purchase your supply at truthforlife. org slash tract.
And when you add a donation with your purchase, be sure to request Alistair's brand new book, titled We Will Be Changed, Nine Inner Glories the Spirit is Cultivating in You. One mark of true Christian faith is evidence of spiritual growth.
So, what does that look like? What role do you play in that process? And how can you tell if it's really happening? These are some of the questions Alastair addresses as he walks you through each trait of the fruit of the Spirit. The book is yours for a donation at truthforlife.org/slash donate.
or call us at eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four.
Now here's Alastair to close with prayer. Father, forgive us. For always wanting to take the parts that are peripheral and make them central. and taking the central parts and inevitably making them peripheral. We are so much like these early disciples.
Lord, is this the time? Are you going to do this now? What will happen next? And we need to hear you saying to us again today, as you said to them on that day before you were caught up into heaven. Listen.
It's not for you to know the times and the dates. But it is for you to go into all the world. and fulfill my commission. Understand my mission. and live in such a way that unbelieving people might become committed followers of Jesus Christ.
Lord, help us. Help me. We need you. to clarify our thinking. to purify our hearts.
to set us on the pathway of your appointing. And we pray in the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Are you a Christian?
Does your life give evidence of this new identity? Join us tomorrow as we work through the answers. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
