"The Day Of The LORD"

Two thousand years ago Jesus gave his followers the following specific signs of his return in Matthew 24:3-7

If you ask, “Do you know for certain that Jesus will come back in your lifetime?”, the answer is No, I don’t know that and neither does anyone else. Date setting, or even time setting is a mark of a cult. Jesus may not come back for a 1,000 years. But here is my challenge to you. Read the Bible and study what it describes about the world situation when Jesus does return. Then pick up the newspaper and read it. I believe you will be amazed at the similarity between the Bible and today’s headlines. I believe the overall situation in the world today is very similar to the situation the Bible describes for the days leading up to the return of Christ.

With that introduction, let’s turn our attention to our text—1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. The key word is found in verse 2, where Paul assures his readers that they “know very well.” The phrase means to know accurately or in detail. In this passage Paul is reminding us of certain things we already know about the Second Coming of Christ.

Now, brothers, 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. 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.

Paul uses a particular term to describe the end times. He calls it “the day of the Lord.” That’s a phrase used many times in the Old Testament. It describes any time when God suddenly interrupts the normal flow of life and “breaks in” to time and space. The prophets used the term to describe God’s judgment on the pagan nations surrounding Israel. In fact, throughout history there have been many periods that might be called “the day of the Lord.” But all of those little “days” look forward to be the big “day” at the end history. They are like the preliminary fights leading up to the main event.

Our text tells us that we know three things about the coming Day of the Lord at the end of the age: First, it will come suddenly, like a thief in the night. Why did you lock your door last night? You did it because thieves normally come during the darkness while you are sleeping. Verse 3 even tells us what people will be saying in those days. They will cry, “Peace and safety.” That’s interesting. It means that the days just before the beginning of the final judgment will seem tranquil and peaceful. Jesus predicted the same thing in Matthew 24:37-38:

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Second, it will be a period of great destruction. This refers to the vast judgments described in the book of Revelation, when the seals are broken, the trumpets sound and the bowls of God’s judgment poured out on the earth. All those terrible events will take place during a seven-year period called “the tribulation”

Third, there will be no escape. Here is the most important fact we need to know about the future. When the Day of the Lord finally comes and God’s fury is poured out on the earth, there will be no place to run, no place to hide. He uses a fascinating analogy to make his point. He compares it to a woman in the throes of childbirth.

Every woman who has ever been pregnant knows what I mean. For months you wait for the day to come. You don’t know the exact day but you sense when it is getting close. Finally something happens and you say to your husband, “Sweetheart, it’s time to go to the hospital.” He may try to argue or reason with you but to no avail. When the time has come, you’ve got to go because the baby is on the way. You can’t ignore those sharp pains and you can’t make them go away.

The same is true of the Day of the Lord. When God’s judgment is poured out on this earth, no one will escape. The world cannot escape the tribulation period. Your only hope is to find the way of escape through the Lord Jesus Christ.

But you, brothers, 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. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.

Here is some very good news. There is light and there is darkness. These stand for the two great divisions of the human race—the saved and the lost. There are those who belong to the light and others who belong to the darkness. Note two key words in this text: “you” and “we.” Paul says clearly that Christians belong to the light and to the day, not to the darkness of the night.

Finally, we must put on the soldier’s uniform. Verse 8 tells us to put on the breastplate of faith of love. Just as the breastplate covered the vital organs, even so faith in God and love toward our brothers and sister will protect us in the time of battle. Then we are to put on the helmet of the hope of salvation. This protects the mind and produces clear thinking. What is the “hope of salvation"? It is the certainly that if we die before Jesus returns, we who believe will go directly to heaven. If we live till his return, it is the certainty that we will be raptured off this earth to meet the Lord in the earth. Either way we’re going to be delivered—whether alive or dead we’re going to meet Jesus very soon.

Paul is telling us there is a moral value to the Second Coming of Christ. There are certain standards that go with that truth. While we wait for his return, we live in a world of spiritual darkness that is hostile to spiritual truth. There is a battle raging all around us, a battle for the hearts and minds of men and women. I dare say it is also a battle for our culture and for our nation. Every Christian is a soldier in that battle.

In short, Paul is telling us to do three things in light of Christ’s return:

Wake up! (verse 6)

Clean up! (verse 7)

Dress up! (verse 8)

Jesus is coming again and we will meet him when he comes—whether by resurrection from the dead or by rapture of the living. Is that just wishful thinking? Can anyone be sure they are going to meet the Lord someday? The last section of our passage clearly answers that question.

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. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. The word “destiny” means “an appointed end.” We all plan for the future.  But God has a plan for you that is so certain that we may call it a destiny.  Paul calls it an “appointment.”  Here are three statements to ponder:

God knows where you came from.

God knows where you are right now.

God knows where you will end up!

1. This text is teaching an important truth about the future. The order is crucial. First there is the rapture of the saints, then the Day of the Lord begins. Unbelievers cannot escape the Day of the Lord while believers will be rescued from it. We will not be overtaken by the Day of God’s Judgment because God has not destined us for wrath but for deliverance. Let me say it as plainly as I know how:

We are not waiting for the Tribulation … We’re waiting for Jesus to return!

2. Many believers are not ready for Jesus to return. They are spiritual sleepwalkers who have been intoxicated by the world. They have compromised their values and sold their spiritual heritage for a insignificant moment of earthly pleasure.

Are you ready for Christ to return? Are you ready to meet him today? Tomorrow? What if he were to return in the next 24 hours, would you be ready or would you be ashamed to see him?

If you are a Christian, God is saying something to you this morning: Keep you eyes open and your armor on! Look up for your redemption draweth nigh.

3. Your Identity Determines Your destiny. Think of the words Paul uses in this passage:

Light and darkness

Sleeping and waking

Night and day

Us and them

Wrath and Salvation

Your choice is ruin or rescue, destruction or deliverance! 

The unbelieving world will not escape. All that man has built will be crumble when Christ returns. If you don’t know Jesus, you have a date with judgment. Your future is wrath, judgment and tribulation. And you will not escape!

God’s Word tells you the truth. There is no reason to be unprepared. If Jesus comes today and you aren’t ready to meet him, you will have only yourself to blame.

~Bits and Pieces of sermon by Dr. Ray Pritchard

Two Links Connecting Christ's Love for Us and Our Love for Each Other

Galatians 5:1–6

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

What is the link between God's love for us and our love for others?  Christ's love for us. The cost of it was infinite: it cost the suffering and death of the Son of God. The strength of his love was so great that he overcame the obstacle to it in our own ungodliness and unworthiness. The benefits of his love are as great as everything God owns in the universe. Nothing will separate us from him. And nothing good will be kept from us by him. We are his heirs. And his love was free. Nobody took his life from him. He laid it down of his own accord. He loves his people—those who will have this love as their treasure—with a love that cannot be greater than it is. If you will receive it as your treasure and cherish it, Christ loves you more than you can comprehend.

And yet it has been our goal to comprehend it in part. And we have been encouraged to pursue this because of Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:17–19,

[May you be] rooted and grounded in love, [and thus] be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.

So he prays for us—and we are praying—that by sending our roots down into the depths of the love of Christ, we may comprehend it. Not by standing aside and merely observing it, but by rooting our lives in it. Drinking it up. Savoring it. Depending on it. Taking some risks on the basis of it.

Two Links Connecting Christ's Love for Us and Our Love for Each Other

Now today we ask more about this root—this link between being loved by Christ and our loving others. What is it practically that converts the love of Christ for us into our love for others?

There are two answers in the book of Galatians. One answer is the Holy Spirit. The other answer is FAITH. And then there is a text that links these two answers in a way that is full of practical implications for living a life of love this week.

The Holy Spirit
 
Let's begin with the first answer: the Holy Spirit. Look first at Galatians 5:13–16,

You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' 15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care lest you be consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

So walking by the Spirit is the way not to bite and devour each other but to serve one another through love. The Spirit is the key.
Then look at verse 22:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The first fruit of the Spirit listed here is love. So it is plain that one crucial link between our being loved by Christ and our loving others is the Holy Spirit. Love for others is a fruit that grows in our lives by his doing. Somehow he makes it happen. It won't happen without him. And when it does happen, we don't get the glory for it, God does.

The Christian life of love is a supernatural life. It is not produced by merely human forces. It takes resources that we do not have. This is very crucial for us to admit. It is humbling. Left to ourselves we cannot love. But this is very encouraging. Because what it means is that, if you are sitting there and feeling: I am not by nature a loving person, you are not at a disadvantage, because in fact nobody is by nature a loving person. If we were, love would not be a fruit of the Holy Spirit; it would be a fruit of our personality or our upbringing or our chromosomes. In fact you may be farther along than a person who feels that love is a natural thing. They will have a harder time learning how to love because they may not look for the resources in the right place.

So the first answer is that the Holy Spirit is the link between Christ's love for us and ours for each other. He works in us in some supernatural way to bear the fruit of love. We will see how—at least partly—as we look at the second answer.

Faith
 
The second answer is that the link between Christ's love for us and our love for others is FAITH. The key text here is Galatians 5:6.

In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

What Paul is wrestling with here is the false teaching that getting circumcised will help a man merit or earn salvation. He says in verse 2,

If you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

In other words, if you look to your own merit, or to the merit of the things you can do, then the all-sufficient worth of Christ in dying for your sins and obtaining your salvation will be of no use. When you depend on your works, you reject the work of Christ.

So if our works don't merit the salvation Christ offers, then how do we receive it? What's the connection? He answers in verse 6,

In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

What connects us with Jesus so that the salvation he accomplished becomes ours is faith—trusting his forgiveness; banking on his promises; cherishing his fellowship. But what makes verse 6 so remarkable is that the faith that connects us with Jesus and receives his justification is "faith that works through love." In other words it is a kind of faith that proves its reality by producing love. Love doesn't merit our salvation. Love proves the reality of the faith that receives the salvation.

But remember our question is: What is the link between Christ's love for us and our love for each other? Well, here is one of Paul's answers: it is faith that produces love. Faith is somehow a link between Christ's love for us and ours for each other.

How Does the Holy Spirit and Faith Work Together to Produce Love In Us for Others?

Now the question is: what's the relationship between these two answers? If the Holy Spirit is a link between Christ's love for us and ours for each other, and if faith is a link between Christ's love for us and ours for each other, how do these two links fit together? If love is the fruit of the Spirit, and if love is the fruit of faith, then how do faith and the Spirit relate to each other in bringing about love?

Paul's answer is given in Galatians 3:1–5. Paul is distressed over the report that the Galatian churches are turning away not just from justification by faith, but from sanctification by faith (cf. Acts 26:18, 2 Thessalonians 2:13). In other words they are falling for the false teaching that you start the Christian life by faith and with the power of the Holy Spirit, but you complete the Christian life NOT by faith, but by other kinds of striving and working.

1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected [or completed] by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

So you can hear Paul's passion here. The Christian life is supposed to be lived every day in the same way that it began. In the Christian life you don't graduate from Spirit to flesh or from faith to works. The Christian life begins with faith and the Holy Spirit; and it is lived by faith and by the Spirit. Faith is the first grade of the Christian life and it is the graduate school of the Christian life. And the Holy Spirit is the teacher and the power at every level. We never graduate to something else. It's always faith and the Spirit.

So here we have the Spirit and faith brought together. Remember, this is our question: if love is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and love is a fruit of faith (Galatians 5:6), how do these two relate to each other? What practically does it mean for us when we want to be more loving people?

The Holy Spirit Is the Sap and Faith Is the Root
 
Galatians 3:2 and 5 give Paul's answer. Verse 2b:

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

So he says that at the beginning of the Christian life the Holy Spirit was received by faith, not works of the Law. The Spirit comes through the channel of faith. That's how we got started in the Christian life. If the Holy Spirit is the sap, then faith is the root.

Then verse 5 says that this is the way we go on in the Christian life as well:

Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you . . .

Both of those verbs ("provides" and "works") are present tense, which in Greek means that the action is ongoing, and continuous. So God is supplying or providing the Spirit to you in and ongoing way and working miracles among you in an ongoing way . . . HOW? Paul asks. The verse ends,

[Does God] do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

And the answer is clearly, "by hearing with faith."

So both verse 2 and verse 5 emphasize the answer to our question: The Holy Spirit is received the first time and is supplied for ongoing work in our lives not by works of law but by faith. The Spirit and faith relate this way: faith is the channel or the pipeline or the conduit or the aqueduct of the Spirit. Love is the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of faith because faith is what receives and depends on the Spirit. God supplies the Spirit. He does this through faith. And love is the fruit of the Spirit released or received by faith. The love of Christ is the deep, nutritional soil where we are planted; the Holy Spirit is the sap that pours that love into our lives; and faith is the root that we send down into the soil.

What Can We Do to Become More Loving People?

So if you ask yourself, what can I do to become a more loving person, you answer, experience more of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. But then you will ask, yes, but what can I do to receive or to release more of the fruit-bearing work of the Holy Spirit? The answer from Galatians 3:5 is: believe God, trust God, bank on God. (See Stephen and Barnabas as examples of men "full of the Holy Spirit" and "full of faith," Acts 6:5; 11:24.)

But how do you do that? What practically does that mean from day to day—or for this afternoon, so that I will be a more loving person this afternoon?

We get help in answering that question from the way Paul expresses himself in verses 2 and 5. He doesn't just say that we receive the Spirit "by faith" or that the Holy Spirit is provided and works "by faith;" he says the Spirit is received "by hearing with faith." Both times (in verses 2 and 5) he says that the Spirit comes and works "by hearing with faith." This gives us a focus in fighting the fight of faith and the fight for love. It involves a hearing of something to be trusted, something to be believed, something in which we have faith.

So if you ask, what can I do to become a more loving person this afternoon, the first answer is have the Holy Spirit fill your life with his power and fruit. Love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is not the product of our hard work for God. It is fruit.

But how do you do that? How do you bear this fruit? What receives and releases the fruit-producing power of the Holy Spirit in your life? The answer is faith. God supplies the Spirit to us and works miracles among us (of which love is the greatest) by faith.

But faith in what? What practically do I do? Paul says, it is a hearing with faith. That means there is a message that you need to hear and believe. There is a word that you need to hear with faith. So if you want to receive and release the Holy Spirit in his love-producing power, listen to the word and believe it, rest in it, bank on it, rely on it, depend on it.

But practically what word? No doubt the Word of God, the Bible, especially the promises of God. But we can be more specific here because of verse 1.

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

This was the message they had "heard with faith." A message in which Paul had painted a picture for them of Christ crucified. He had publicly portrayed Christ as crucified in his preaching. Paul couldn't believe that they could turn away from this to their own flesh as a way to make progress in the Christian life.

If You Want to Be Loving People . . .

So what he is saying is this. Do you at Bethlehem want to be a more loving people? Do you want more manifest and visible demonstrations of love among each other? Do you want to be more open and winsome to outsiders who visit you? Do you want to have hearts that are more free to care for the hurting? Do you want the heart to love your enemies and bless those who curse you? Do you want to be less self-absorbed and less enslaved to things, and more free to take risks and make sacrifices for others?

If so, then make it your aim day and night to be filled with the fruit-bearing Holy Spirit. For the fruit of the Spirit is love.

And to that end, make it your aim day and night to be filled with faith, trust, confidence in Christ, who loved you and promises to forgive you and cleanse you and take you all the way to glory.  And to that end, make it your aim to be filled day and night with the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Especially with powerful pictures of the love of Christ for you—like Christ crucified.

So here is the answer to our question: what is the link between Christ's love for us and our love for each other? The answer is the fruit-bearing Holy Spirit, released in our lives by faith, which is begotten and sustained by the Word of God. And at the center of that Word is the portrayal of Christ crucified for our sins—all the promises contained in that love.

This is where we live. We don't ever grow beyond this. Our aim is love, which is the fruit of the Spirit, who is supplied through faith, which is sustained by the Word of God that portrays the depths of Christ's love.

Confirmation of This in the Old Testament

Let me close with a wonderful confirmation of all this in the Old Testament. There are two texts in the Old Testament that bless the person who does something so that they are like strong trees planted by streams of water that go on bearing fruit.

One is Psalm 1 which says,

Blessed is the person whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on it day and night. He will be like a tree planted by a stream that bears fruit in season and does not wither.

The other is Jeremiah 17:7–8,

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

There you see it again. The Word delighted in and meditated on day and night, producing strong trust in God—confidence that God is for us, that he loves us and will be for us all that we need—and the strength to bear the fruit of love, even in the year of drought.

O let us be a people of the Word, and a people of faith, and people of love, by the power of the Spirit.

~Bits and Pieces of Sermon by John Piper

View more sermons by John Piper on Galatians 5 - Desiring God:

The War Within:  Flesh Vs. Spirit 
Let Us Walk by the Spirit
Walk by the Spirit
Freed to Love
Saving Faith Produces Love 
Our Hope: Righteousness
For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free
Fulfilling the Law of Love

“JESUS PRAYS FOR OUR UNITY”

JOHN 17:20-26 (NLT)  20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!

25 “O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. 26 I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”

John 17 is a prayer of three sections.

· verses 1-5 Jesus prays for Himself.

· verses 6-19 He prays for that immediate group of eleven disciples gathered around Him.

· verses 20-26, He prays for all believers yet to come.

Beyond His death, Jesus expected a dynamic and growing church that would last throughout the ages.

· When Jesus looked at the face of Peter in that circle of eleven, He saw behind Peter the whole of Pentecost and thousands more behind them.

· When He looked at the face of John, He saw the church of Ephesus and all the churches of Asia Minor.

· And when He saw the gap where Judas Iscariot had been, surely he thought of the face of Paul and all of the churches of Europe.

· And crossing generations and oceans, right down to this very day, He said I pray for every one of them who will believe through the Word of that original eleven.

He moved beyond the eleven and prayed for the generations to come. In verse 21, what He prayed for them, He then prayed for all believers.

Jesus prayed just one thing. He prayed for believers unity, so that the unity of Christians would make such an impact that the world would believe He had sent Jesus the Son.

We need to note here that Jesus asked God to give us unity as a request. That means that unity is given and not achieved. It is indeed received, or Jesus wouldn’t have urged the disciples to "be one." Rather, He looked to the Father and said grant to them the gift of unity. The unity of God’s people can never be fabricated by man … it must be generated by the Spirit of God. It can never be organized by the church it must be vitalized by the Spirit of God.

Jesus prays that the present church on earth and the future church in heaven will see His glory. "Glory" is the visible manifestation of all the divine attributes. It is what we see when we look at God.

Christ has already revealed all the glory we can comprehend on earth below. In verse 22 Jesus says, "I have given them the glory that you gave me." We see in the divine manhood of Jesus Christ all the glory that our eyes are capable of seeing below. Verse 22 continues saying that the purpose of showing us His glory was that "they may be one." Even now, when we get our eyes off of one another and contemplate the revealed glory of God in Christ, we are one. That glory transforms us even now. Paul told the church in Corinth: "We...are being transformed into His likeness with an ever-increasing glory."

Christ will fully reveal all of His glory in heaven: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory (:24a). There is more to come. We will be perfectly one when we perfectly see his glory. The final object of believers’ thought will be on the exalted Jesus Christ. The more we look at Him, the more we will see forever. The more we see, the more we will become one forever.

That glory is the outward, visible expression of love between the Father and the Son. The last part of verse 24 states: "the glory You have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world." We will spend eternity meditating on the love between the Father and Son!

~Bits and Pieces of sermon by Bobby Gilstrap