I'd ask you to turn your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Begin reading at verse 1, 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 1. But concerning the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. But when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that that day should overtake you as a thief. Heaven and earth will pass away, but God's Word will by no means pass away. The title of my sermon this morning is The Day of the Lord. Last time, when considering the end of chapter 4, we saw Paul encouraging the believers in Thessalonica about how to think about those who had died in Christ. And in instructing them about these things, about what happens to those who die in Christ, Paul also talked about the second coming, which brings an end to history as we know it. And it is the time when both the dead and those who are living when Christ returns are raised together, caught up in the air, receive their new resurrection eternal bodies, are changed, and forever dwell with the Lord and each other. That's what he talked about in chapter 4 at the end of it. As we begin chapter 5, we are struck with many familiar phrases that we read in other places in Scripture that have to do with the Lord's coming in some way. We have times and seasons, we have the day of the Lord, we have as a thief in the night, we have labor pains. These are common phrases that we read in other places. What makes it tricky to interpret any particular passage is that phrases like these can be used to refer to different historical events. When you hear a phrase, it doesn't automatically mean X. It gives yes, it's talking about a coming, but which one, when, and those kinds of things. It doesn't in itself reveal that to you. So while the Day of the Lord speaks of the Lord coming in judgment upon His enemies, that's what it means, the Day of the Lord. When you ever read the Day of the Lord, it's God coming in judgment upon His enemies. When He is coming, and upon which enemies He is coming, you're going to have to do some more work within the text, and sometimes a broader context to try and understand those things. So the Day of the Lord doesn't tell us anything other than that He's coming in judgment, which He has done repeatedly. throughout history. And so the Lord can come, the day of the Lord can be Him coming at different times in history, coming in judgment upon His enemies. So we are confronted with a number of fairly common phrases in the passage we are studying today which don't automatically explain the meaning of the text. And so we have to do careful work in trying to make sense of our passage. And so verse 1, he says, But concerning the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. The words Paul uses to begin chapter 5, but concerning, as my Bible translates, as you might have a slightly different one, but concerning, is a common way that Paul's used, he's already used it in Thessalonians, it's a common way that he uses where he's changing direction. He's changing tracks. He's not continuing necessarily with the same topic that he has just ended off in verse 4, at the end of chapter 4. He's changing, changing direction. He's alerting us to that fact. So the beginning of chapter 5 introduces a new topic. Commentators agree on this. However, many commentators say that Paul continues talking about some aspect of the second coming in chapter 5. So that's where the debate is going to revolve. He's just ended off in chapter 4, talking about the second coming. In chapter 5 he changes direction, but many commentators say he continues speaking about the second coming, just another aspect of it. They agree the way he begins chapter 5 changes direction, but they want to stay in the second coming. I suggest it changes the discussion from the second coming to some other coming. My reasons or support for my position will be unpacked as we work through this passage today, but I just wanted to alert you up front, that's where I'm going, and hopefully I can support why I'm going there. So the way Paul begins this chapter, I believe, At least contribute support, that's not my conclusive proof. He's changing direction, so it's alerting me, alerting you. Okay. He's changing direction. Yes, might be another topic of the Second Coming, but I'm suggesting not. Often those who interpret 1 Thessalonians 5 as teaching about the Second Coming also agree regarding 2 Thessalonians 2, which talks about the man of lawlessness and all that stuff. They say that's also talking about the second coming. So they say chapter 4, chapter 5 in 1 Thessalonians, and chapter 2 in 2 Thessalonians are all talking about the second coming, the end of the world. I'm suggesting to you chapter 4, clearly second coming. Chapter 5 and 2 Thessalonians 2 are a different coming of Christ, and both those chapters, chapter 5 and 2 Thessalonians 2, are both talking about the same event, the same coming, which is not the second coming. I won't be unpacking 2 Thessalonians 2 today. You're going to have to wait for me to get into the real detail later. I'm just alerting you to the fact that 2 Thessalonians 2 is helpful in understanding chapter 5. Now, all dispensationalists regard all the comings in 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Thessalonians 2 as second coming. They're all consistently second coming. Most amillennials believe they're all second-coming. Okay, so the times and the seasons phrase in verse 1 tells us about some point when something is going to happen. In and of itself, it's not identifying a particular historical time and season. I mean, Paul is talking about a specific historical time, but the phrase itself doesn't tie us to a particular time. Thus Paul is saying that there is something that is going to happen, but that the Thessalonians had no need for him to give details about the exact timing of this happening, about the exact details. You don't need me to write to you about the details of this event we're both thinking about. There's no need for you to know the details. I am not going to write and give you the details, therefore. Paul is not saying they were not allowed to hear the details. Paul is not saying nobody knew the details. He's saying, I am not going to write them to you because you have no need to know them. Okay, that's the difference. You are forbidden, I'm not going to. When Jesus was teaching his disciples about the second coming, he said in Matthew 24, verse 36 and verse 44, He said, but of that day and that hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Second coming is secret. Just before this, Jesus had given very clear markers that would announce and identify him coming in judgment upon Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Matthew 23, but certainly beginning in Matthew 24 when the disciples come and say, tell us, tell us. He gives very clear things. When you see this, do that. When you see this, do that. When you see this, this is going to happen. You know he's giving you specific markers. And then he gets to verse 36 and following and he says, of that day and hour you, nobody knows. So suddenly we're alerted in Matthew 24 to two separate comings. One with markers and predictions, you will see it, you will know it. Another one, nobody knows. And so commentators in Matthew 24 regard the beginning of Matthew 24 as the second coming. Oh, when the sun darkens and the moon doesn't give its light and the stars fall, that has to be the second coming. They're understanding it in contradiction to what Christ says about the second coming. Keep these things clear in your mind. It's not complicated. I don't need a thousand charts and arrows and diagrams and pointings and mountains and falls and thousands of toes stretched out over extensive periods. It's simple. In Matthew 24, we see the distinction between Jesus coming in judgment in A.D. 70, this generation will not pass away till all these things have been fulfilled. To what things? All these things. When you see it, you'll know. And of that day and that hour, nobody knows. It's not complicated. Jesus likened the unexpected second coming to when a thief breaks into someone's house, unannounced and unexpected. There's no criticism to anybody, whether you're a good person or a bad person, I'm talking about a believer or an unbeliever, with the second coming, there's no criticism that the thief came upon you unawares, because that's how the second coming is going to be. The analogy of the thief, however, is not to tie a particular historical coming to the analogy, but merely expresses the idea of the thief coming, merely expresses an awareness we did not know. The phrase in and of itself is not saying good or bad. You were good, you were bad for not knowing. The context will tell you whether you were good or bad or indifferent for not knowing. So the unawareness, the thief in the night expresses an unawareness of a coming of Christ to either a group, the group is unaware, one group is unaware, one group is aware, which we have in our text this morning, or the second coming, where everybody is unaware. Nobody knows. The believers who are on the earth, the unbelievers who are on the earth, the Lord comes as a thief to both groups. In AD 70, the Lord came as a thief to a particular group. The other group knew. The other group had signs. The other group was told what to look for. The other group was told they would know when he was coming. Now what Paul is saying here to the Thessalonians, he says it's not needful for them to know the details about the signs leading up to the coming that he was talking about. He didn't tell them, you cannot know. He didn't say nobody knows, therefore I cannot tell you. He says it's not needful for me to write and tell you about these things. The clear implication behind Paul's words were that he could have written to them about those details, but it wasn't necessary for them at that stage. If Paul was talking here about the second coming, he's playing a silly semantic game. He's, in fact, being deceptive. It'll be like me saying to you, you have no need for me to tell you what the codes are for the US nuclear missile-launching missiles. You have no need for me to tell you those codes. i.e. implying I know those codes. So unless I'm making a joke on illustration, you can disregard me as a fool if I say, you have no need for me to tell you those codes implying I know, I'm a liar, I'm a deceiver, I'm a wannabe. Paul was not a wannabe. You have no need for me to write about those details. Why? It's not necessary for you to know those details now. Why? Because Paul wanted them to focus somewhere else. And the text clearly shows us where he wanted them to focus. So the best way to honor Christ's words about nothing, indicating when the second coming would take place, is to understand the detailed signs and indicators in the first half of Matthew 24 as signs announcing the judgment that came upon Jerusalem in AD 70. There are the signs. Why can't we Why can't we see that, the simplicity of what Christ is doing there? The beginning of Matthew 24 is not talking about the second coming. We have looked at all of these things before, Matthew 24, and seen that they all happened around A.D. 70, that first bit of Matthew 24. They can all fit in there. They're not a stretch. It's not difficult to see what was being talked about in the light of the whole of Scripture and prophetic utterance. There were meant to be signs that warned people about the A.D. 70 judgment. But the Second Coming, which we are still waiting for, has not yet happened, has no indicators. No one knows except the Father. Verse 2 says, For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. As I've said, this phrase, the day of the Lord, doesn't give us an immediate understanding about what Paul is saying. I suggest to you that he uses the same phrase in 2 Thessalonians 2. And in 2 Thessalonians 2, when he uses this phrase, the day of the Lord, I believe he ties that to the Thessalonians, to their day, and to a soon-coming judgment. He ties that to AD 70 and assures the Thessalonians that they knew specific details about who was restraining or holding back the events which were soon to unravel. You know. You know that. We pass over that as if, what, he's talking to them about the United Nations and the EU and 2,000 or 3,000 years into the future. You know. You know the United Nations, don't you? That's what's restraining the evil one? Please. It's madness. It's taking your doctrine, it's taking your eschatological expectation and forcing it into 2 Thessalonians. You're not getting your eschatological understanding from 2 Thessalonians 2. What is he saying? He's saying to the thing, you know. Do you know what's restraining? Do you know what's restraining the lawless one? They knew the person or organization that Paul was talking about. He was talking in veiled terms. And when we unpack that chapter, we'll know why he was talking in veiled terms. But he ties it to 70 A.D., 2 Thessalonians 2. So he ties that phrase in 2 Thessalonians 2 at least, because he's talking about the day of the Lord. They were worried that the day of the Lord had come. And so he's addressing their understanding of the day of the Lord. and saying, but you know who's restraining. And when that restraint stops... You see, so by the time that Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians 2, there was confusion in the thinking of the Thessalonians about what? About the Day of the Lord. What did they understand about the meaning of the Day of the Lord? Paul had taught them these things when he was with them in person. He says that in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 2. You know these things. I taught them to you, as I taught you when I was with you. He's talking about the day of the Lord. So he had taught them about these things to some degree when he was with them. He is reteaching them in 1 Thessalonians 5 about the day of the Lord. Now, stay with me. Okay, it's significant. You can see a little problem with those who want to hold the contrary position. If Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 4, is teaching about the second coming, which I agree he is, and none of my opponents would disagree, so we're all in full agreement there. 1 Thessalonians 4, second coming. Those who died are still being caught up in that stuff. If Paul then, in chapter 5, continued speaking about the Second Coming and referred to it as the Day of the Lord, then according to this view, Paul would have taught the Thessalonians that the Second Coming and the Day of the Lord are synonymous. They're synonymous. They are the same. Thus, when the day of the Lord came, all believers would be caught up into the air, into the heavens, they would receive their resurrection bodies, they would be ever joined together as a body, they would be ever with the Lord in fellowship. That's what 4 teaches. If 5 is talking about the day of the Lord for that, What on earth did the Thessalonians get wrong when they were thinking, oh, as the day of the Lord happens. That was their teaching. If this was the teaching, the day of the Lord is the same as Christ calling everybody up. 4 teaches that. If 5 is teaching second coming, 5 is equating the day of the Lord with the second coming. Therefore, therefore, The second coming, the day of the Lord of the same, this is what the Thessalonians have been taught. Therefore, how did these idiots, after being taught by Paul this on at least two separate occasions, both in person and in letter, how did these idiots say, has it already happened? Well, are you in the air, fool? How could it have happened? How did they arrive at such a confusion over the instruction that Paul had given them? The Second Coming and the Day of the Lord are equated. But if Paul did not equate the Day of the Lord, as we're reading here in chapter 5, with the Second Coming, as we read in chapter 4, Then we have to say, the Second Coming and the Day of the Lord are different events. Therefore, the Thessalonians could arrive at a misunderstanding about the Day of the Lord, a different coming of the Lord in judgment. They could have arrived. Has it happened? Oh no, don't believe any letters coming and telling you that the Second Coming has happened. That's stupid. It really is. Because that's what he says in 2 Thessalonians 2, if anyone sends a letter telling you the day of the Lord has come, don't believe them. Unless the day of the Lord is a different judgment of Christ coming upon the people at some point, which it was, 70 A.D. They're talking about 70 A.D. in chapter 5 and 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. So the only way I suggest to make sense of the phrase the day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 5 and in 2 Thessalonians 2 is to see them as referring to the same day. The same day. And he uses that phrase consistently between chapter 5 and chapter 2 in 2 Thessalonians. Because remember in 2 Thessalonians he's trying to clear up a misunderstanding. So if he uses the Day of the Lord to mean one thing in one place and another thing in another place, you're just adding confusion. So what day of the Lord would the Thessalonians have been interested in and why? What day do you think was something that held their attention? They want to know. You don't need to know the signs leading to the day. The day is coming. And then when they get confused, he explains more. This day, has it come? Has it come? Why were they so anxious to know about this day? The persecution of the Thessalonians—and remember, as we saw in the beginning of 1 Thessalonians, there was serious persecution that they were enduring— but the persecution of the Thessalonian believers was orchestrated by whom? The Jews. Acts 17 and verse 5. When they first went to preach in Thessalonica, it was the Jews who stirred up the crowd. It was the Jews who followed Paul around and brought persecution and trouble upon him wherever he went, disrupted the believers, disrupted the church. The Jews were doing this all the time. They had a mission and a goal to squash this new movement. Paul said to the Thessalonians in the light of their own persecution that it was the Judeans who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us. And they do not please God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved. So as always, to fill up the measure of their sins, but the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. 1 Thessalonians 2, he's already mentioned this, verses 14 and 16. What this tells us is that it was the Jews who were behind the persecution of the believers in Thessalonica. This is the important issue that was in the minds of the Thessalonians and in Paul's mind for that matter. How long until the head of this persecuting monolith was crushed? How long? Something the martyred saints in the book of Revelation asked as well. How long, Lord? until you come in judgment. Where was the pulse, the heartbeat, the energy, the motivating power for worldwide Judaism? Where did the heart exist? Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Thus the ultimate source of the suffering in Thessalonica came from the Jews who were tied to Jerusalem. These enclaves of Jewish communities throughout the world were connected by an umbilical cord to Jerusalem. Their energy, their life, came from the existence and the structure of the operations in Jerusalem. They got their identity from Jerusalem. They got their justification for existing. As this little group of Jews meeting in Thessalonica, they got their justice for existing from Jerusalem. The Thessalonian Jews had influence because they all Because of all that existed in Jerusalem, the temple, the priesthood, the ceremonies, these things were their lifeblood. Their credibility, authority, and power flowed straight from Jerusalem. And the temple in Jerusalem, it's a simple picture. Now you understand why Jesus focused so strongly on Jerusalem in Matthew 23 and 24. Why was this so significant? Why does it keep coming up in the Scriptures? The 70 AD judgment is an incredibly important event in the unfolding plan of God's kingdom and establishing his kingdom on the earth. It becomes significant. In essence, what Paul is saying to the Thessalonians in this section of chapter 5, the first 11 verses, is that there is no benefit for them to be focusing upon the signs leading up to the day of the Lord, but rather to focus upon their own character development. That's what he goes on, if you read the rest of those verses. Focus on your character. You have no need to, oh, the signs, interpreting the signs, that's why. Judgment is coming. You focus upon what you should be doing. In this section he's also saying, in a nutshell, even though their persecutors appeared to be formidable and secure in their religious establishment, the Thessalonians knew that things would change very quickly. They were going to be wiped away in an instant. That's what you know. You know this for sure. You clearly know this. Hold on to it. That's all you need to know at this stage. Focus on your character. Focus on your responsibilities. Focus on building godliness into your life. The passage tells us the Jews would not be aware of the impending doom that was coming upon them. They would not be aware of it. But the Thessalonians would not be taken by surprise. It wouldn't come to them as a thief. So this young congregation in Thessalonica was being warned by Paul not to be distracted by trying to predict when Christ's judgment would fall upon Jerusalem. You're not even going to be able to see the signs that the people in Jerusalem are going to see. Don't bother yourself with that. It's coming. That's all you need to know, and you know that for sure. And it's going to be sudden. The Day of the Lord speaks of the Lord coming in judgment upon His enemies. Scholars say that Amos was possibly the first prophet to reveal that God's people could be the ones that the Lord came to judge. Because Amos says to them, they must have been saying, oh yeah, we're waiting for the Day of the Lord, you know, all our enemies are surrounding us, we're in trouble, and we can't wait for the Day of the Lord to come and judge all of them. So the prophet Amos, very politically correct, stands up, and he says, Woe to you who desire the Day of the Lord, for what good is the Day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness and not light. Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light? Is it not very dark with no brightness in it? You see, what Amos was the first one saying, brethren, realize the day of the Lord is God coming upon His enemies. You are His enemies at this stage. He is coming upon you. Amos 5, 18 and 20. Malachi was also warning God's people when he said, For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven. And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch." Malachi 4.1. This was clearly meant to be tied to Christ's ministry, because shortly after this Malachi says, Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and the dreadful day of the Lord. Christ came. That was John the Baptist, Jesus tells us. Elijah was John the Baptist. John the Baptist came, introduced Christ, Christ preached his ministry, at the end of his ministry he said, Jerusalem, you're destroyed, it's done. Days are numbered, you're over. Finished. The day of the Lord. This kind of language is found throughout the prophets. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said that the prophet Joel The words that Joel spoke are being fulfilled. This is that. Acts chapter 2. And then he quoted Joel saying, I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth beneath, blood and fire and the vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and the awesome day of the Lord. Acts 2, 19 and 20. Those who heard Peter say that, would have known what he was saying. Judgment is coming. The sky, the moon, these are prophetic judgment terms. They knew exactly what he said. Jerusalem. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, pronounces judgment upon Jerusalem through the prophet Joel. Jesus had already done that. He had already done it. This teaching and a lot more scriptural evidence to show that this is the consistent teaching could be added. But this teaching would have been communicated by Paul to the Thessalonians. Would Christ's emphasis in Matthew 23 and 24, that huge explanation about Jerusalem and the judgment and the temple and everything being crushed and broken, do you think that would have been part of Paul's teaching to the Thessalonians? Was this important to Christ? Would it be important to Paul? Would it be important to them? Yes, you need to know what is happening, you need to understand the emphasis. And Paul would have taught them these things. And they were anticipating these things to be fulfilled. They were anticipating the day of the Lord to be fulfilled in the way Christ said it would be fulfilled. And so they were waiting. Their persecutors were having the day at the moment. They were suffering under their persecutors, but they were waiting for the day of the Lord because that would change things. Those three, for when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. You see, the dominance of the Jewish temple and its influence would be suddenly and dramatically brought to an end. They wouldn't see it coming. and their loss of influence and power would not be gradual but instant and inescapable. Jesus had used the same image of being in labor when he spoke of Jerusalem's destruction, calling it the beginning of birth pangs in Matthew 24, verse 8. He's speaking about the same judgment in 70 AD, and he uses the same term. This is birth pangs coming upon, upon the nation. The same word is used in the Greek, though my Bible translates the Thessalonians as labor pains and the Matthew 24, 8 one as beginning of sorrows. But it's the same word there, it's this labor pains coming upon you. No matter how secure the Jewish structure looked, this was not what ought to inform the Thessalonian believers about the future. Instead, they were to trust in what God had revealed and confidently wait for it. Jerusalem and the whole religious system anchored in the temple would be overwhelmed suddenly. It will be gone. You know that. Believe it. Wait for it. They will not see it coming. In fact, they will have a completely opposite perception of their circumstances. They will assume that they are safe and that peace will prevail. However, the destruction will suddenly fall upon them and will be like a lady going into labor. There is no escape and it's all-consuming. There's nothing ho-hum about labor. It's there. There's no escaping from it. There's no ignoring it. There's no acting casual toward it. That's the judgment that was coming, and when that judgment comes, they will know. It's not, did it happen? No, they will know. Christ's judgment would be sudden and inescapable. And finally, and very briefly, verse 4, But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You see, in comparison to those who will be overtaken by Christ's judgment, the Thessalonians would not come under His judgment. It would not be like a thief coming upon them. The Lord's judgment came upon the world in Noah's day like a thief. It did not come upon Noah and his family like a thief. When God comes in that kind of a judgment, He comes as a thief to one group of people and not as a thief to another group. When His angel came upon Egypt and killed, smote all the firstborn in the land in the night, He came as a thief upon those families, but He did not come upon the children of Israel as a thief. It wasn't even a surprise that the angel was coming. They were prepared, they were waiting, they knew. And it's the same with the A.D. 70. Very different from the second coming. So when Christ comes as a thief upon one group here in Thessalonians 5, and not as a thief upon the other group, this is clearly not talking about the Second Coming, but Christ coming to judge Jerusalem in A.D. 70. If you keep these things distinct in your reading of Scripture, the Second Coming, thief to all, Christ coming in judgment, A.D. 70, or at another time, a thief to some, not a thief to others. Those are different, different comings. If you do that, Scripture will be much clearer, and your understanding will be much better. But we can rejoice as we wait for that second coming. Being prepared for that second coming does not mean it has to be imminent. We prepare because Christ is King. So it's by our hearts. Father, we do thank you that you are indeed the great King, that you are the God who comes and judges your enemies. Thank You, Lord, that we do not fear such a judgment because of what Christ has accomplished for us. And I pray that we would have hearts that would stay focused upon Him, upon His completed work on our behalf, and that we would trust wholeheartedly in that. And in trusting in His work, we would know that we stand boldly in Your presence. And while we await for Your second coming, We know, Lord, we have much to do in these days, and so I pray that you would give us the grace and the wisdom and the courage to live faithfully before you. We ask these things in the name of Christ. Amen.