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Those of us who have jobs understand deadlines.

When the boss says, “The inspector is coming,” you don’t know exactly what minute he’ll show up, but you know you’d better be ready.

When the weather report says a storm is moving in, you don’t know the exact moment the first raindrop will fall, but you prepare.

The same is true of God’s judgment and God’s salvation. Throughout Scripture, God warns his people to be ready because the Lord comes suddenly.

The Thessalonian Christians were confused about the coming of Christ. They knew Jesus was coming, but they had questions. What about believers who had died? When would the Day of the Lord happen? How should they live while they waited?

Paul wrote them two letters to answer those questions. We call them 1 and 2 Thessalonians.

Scattered across the first half of the first letter are repeated references to the coming of Christ and the judgment of the Thessalonians’ enemies. Sometimes it sounds like the event is very close at hand for the Thessalonians (which would mean it happened long ago, from our perspective). Sometimes it sounds like it’s something that’s planned for the end of the world (which would put it somewhere in our future).

The first two chapters of the second letter are promising God’s vengeance on their Jewish enemies and warning about a terrifying villain. Both the promise and the warning sound like they’re talking about something that’s going to happen very soon for the Thessalonians (so in our distant past).

It’s all pretty confusing.

Some Bible scholars think it all happened in the First Century. There aren’t very many of those.

Some Bible scholars think it’s all going to happen in our future. They’re getting fewer and fewer these days.

Many careful Bible students who are thinking through these things are coming to the conclusion that some of it happened right after Paul wrote the letters, and some of it is still waiting, 2000 years later.

That’s my belief. I’m convinced that we need to keep all of that in mind if we want to understand both the coming and the day of the Lord.

Particularly, we need to understand that the immediate Day of the Lord came about twenty years after Paul wrote this letter, while we’re still waiting for the ultimate Day of the Lord twenty centuries after the letter was written.

Last week, we looked at the end of chapter 4, and saw that in that chapter Paul very clearly is looking forward to the day of resurrection, when Christ comes again to finalize his Kingdom and terminate the kingdoms of the world. That will be part of the complex of events at the ultimate Day of the Lord.

Next week, we’re going to look at chapter 5, where Paul describes the timing of the day of the Lord and how the Thessalonians and we ought to live in light of it. I believe that what he says in chapter 5 applies to both the immediate day of the Lord, that Paul expected the Thessalonians to actually see, and the ultimate day of the Lord that we are still waiting to see.

Today, we’re going to look at the terms “the coming of the Lord” and “the day of the Lord” and see if we can get a big picture handle on what those terms mean.

As I often do when things get complicated, I’ve prepared an information sheet laying out all of the basic factors that need to be considered.

Predictably, it begins with a list of 6 observations: simple facts you can just look at the text and see for yourself.

It also includes some conclusions: some suggestions about how to understand how all these puzzle pieces can properly fit together.

And that lays some of the footings for what we’re about to build together right now.

The preeminent passage in the two letters that deals with the coming of the Lord and the Day of the Lord sits astride chapters 4 and 5 of the first letter. That’s exactly where we are today. So let’s read.

1 Thessalonians 4 ¹³ Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

5 ¹ Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, ² for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ 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.

⁴ But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. ⁵ You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶ So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 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. ¹⁰ He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. ¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

• 4 crucial truths for understanding the Coming and the Day of the Lord

FIRST The Son of God and Man came to save

The greatest coming of Christ happened 2,000 years ago when the Son of God came into this world.

John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Matthew tells us that Mary and Joseph were instructed to name him Jesus because he was going to save his people from their sins

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again from the dead.

The four gospel accounts are written to introduce us to the person of Jesus and they tell us a lot about his character and his ministry and his miracles. But they all devote an inordinate amount of space to the last week of his life.

They all are focused on the fact that his whole life what centered on his death.

He came and lived the life we couldn’t live, a life of perfect love and obedience to God his father, and then died death we should have died. He became the Substitute for those who cannot love and obey God as they should, But who do repent of their sin and put their trust in Jesus Christ. He gave himself for us.

That’s why he came.

SECOND The Son of God and Man came to reign

Throughout his ministry Jesus repeatedly called himself “the Son of Man.”

it was far and away his favorite title for himself.

That title comes from Daniel 7.

Daniel saw One like a Son of Man who would receive a kingdom that would never pass away.

Jesus was saying, “I am that Son of Man.”

He came to take the sinners that he saves and remake us into glad subjects.

He came to establish his kingdom.

He came to reign.

Forty days after his resurrection, he ascended into heaven.

The disciples watched him rise through the clouds from the Mount of Olives.

Many Christians think of this only as Jesus leaving earth. Plenty of us think the whole thing is so weird we don’t even know what to do with it. But it’s mentioned in three of the four gospel accounts and at the beginning of the book of Acts.

Daniel’s prophecy shows us what the picture means.

In chapter 7, One like a Son of Man comes with the clouds up into the presence of the Ancient of Days to receive his everlasting kingdom.

In his Ascension, Jesus wasn’t merely leaving earth.

He was ascending to his throne.

He was being crowned King of kings.

Today Jesus is not waiting to become King.

He is King.

He is reigning now.

He is ruling now.

He is building his church and his Kingdom now.

Many people live as though Jesus is only a future king.

The Bible says he is already King.

That means your job belongs to Him.

Your family belongs to Him.

Your time belongs to Him.

Your money belongs to Him.

Every part of your life belongs to Him.

The question is not, “Will Jesus be King”

The question is, “Am I submitting to His kingship today?”

THIRD The Son of God and Man came in judgment on the Old Covenant world

We say this the same way the prophets of the Old Testament say Yahweh came in judgment against Egypt or Babylon or Israel.

It wasn’t that he took human form and physically came to attack them.

It’s that in his sovereign control over all the details of reality, from galaxies to gravel, from the birds or the hairs that Jesus says cannot fall without his Father’s involvement, to the hearts of kings that the Lord turns in whatever direction he wishes, God is active and preeminent. He uses even the brutal military atrocities of evil emperors to accomplish his holy purposes—most particularly to judge sin.

We say it here because of how Paul borrows language from the Lord’s Olivet Discourse when he talks about the final Day of the Lord.

He makes it clear, here in this passage, that he does not know whether he will be alive for the day of resurrection and the final coming of the ultimate Day of the Lord.

That’s why all this prophetic talk is jumbled together in one letter.

Paul knows WHAT is going to happen, but not WHEN or HOW.

He knows that Jesus, like God had done so many times before, is coming to save his people and judge his enemies.

But his key point here at the beginning of chapter 5 is that nobody knows when Jesus will come to judge.

Some people today cannot imagine Jesus as Judge. He’s simply too sweet and too kind. But that’s not the Jesus who actually exists.

Read John’s Apocalypse. The sovereign king Jesus, the Lamb of God, rides on a white horse, with his garments drenched red in the blood of his enemies (Rev 19), or sits on a Great White Throne to judge the nations (Rev 20.

And he embraces lepers and accepts harlots and welcomes little children. He is a gentle Shepherd and a fierce warrior and a faithful friend and a terrifying judge, all at once. That’s Jesus.

There’s something crucial we need to remember when we come to passages like Matthew 24 and the parts of Thessalonians that are clearly interacting with it—like this one.

Jesus predicted that Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed, that the world of the Old Covenant Jews would come to an end, and that this would be the righteous judgment due to Old Covenant Israel for centuries of disobedience and unbelief.

He said it would happen in the generation that heard him speak.

And that’s exactly what happened.

In AD 70, Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple.

The Old Covenant system came to an end.

The sacrifices stopped.

The priesthood ended.

The Temple was gone.

Everything Jesus said came true.

Just as God had brought “Day of the Lord” judgments in the Old Testament against Egypt, Babylon, Edom, and others, he also brought judgment upon apostate Israel.

This was a coming of Christ in judgment.

Not p8hysically returning to earth.

But exercising his heavenly authority as King on earth.

Paul told the Thessalonians that relief was coming and that God would deal with those persecuting his people.

Across the Roman empire, after the fall of Jerusalem, Jews were left shocked, staggered, and cowed. Their focus was on surviving the Romans, not stopping the Christians.

What Paul prophesied came true.

Paul also warned the Thessalonians about the Man of Lawlessness and other events that had to appear first, before the Day of the Lord that Jesus had predicted in the Olivet Discourse. Jesus warned that they would come like a thief in the night. So did Paul.

These things were all connected to the crisis facing the first-century churches.

And just as Jesus promised, those events unfolded within that generation.

When Paul spoke about the great and ultimate day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 5, he used the language that Jesus had used twenty years earlier to talk about Jerusalem’s Day of the Lord—which was going to happen 20 years after Paul wrote this letter.

When Paul wrote this letter in 50 AD, he knew WHAT was going to happen, but not WHEN or HOW. And he may or may not have known that what was about to happen to Jerusalem and the whole Jewish world was going to happen to the whole Gentile world at some later date.

Today, we can look back and see the 1^st century timeline clearly: 30 AD to 70 AD. 40 years. One generation. Just like Jesus said.

Why does this matter?

Because it reminds us that Jesus keeps his promises.

The destruction of Jerusalem proves that Christ is trustworthy.

When Jesus says something will happen, it happens.

If He was right about that judgment, he will also be right about every promise he has made to his people—and every warning he has given us, too.

You can trust Him when life is hard.

You can trust Him when money is tight.8

You can trust Him when your health fails.

You can trust Him when death comes near.

The King keeps His word.

FOURTH The Son of God and Man will come again to save and judge and rule the world forever

A few people today make the mistake of thinking every prophecy was completed in the first century.

But there’s so much more. Paul points beyond the fall of one city.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, he speaks about the resurrection of believers, and echoes this language in 1 Corinthians 15.

The dead in Christ will rise.

The living will be transformed.

The people of God will be gathered to their King.

This is not merely about the fall of Jerusalem.

This is the final resurrection.

The final victory.

The final coming.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul calls the same event “the Day of the Lord.”

He talks about it the way Jesus talked about the fall of Jerusalem and its Temple: coming like a thief in the night, and calling for Christians to stay awake.

The Bible teaches that history is moving toward a glorious conclusion—a great, final, ultimate Day of the Lord.

One day Jesus will return visibly, gloriously, and suddenly.

One day every eye will see Him.

One day every grave will open.

One day every person who has ever lived will stand before Him.

The believer has nothing to fear on that Day.

But the unbeliever has every reason to flee to Christ now.

The final coming will include 4 elements:

The Return of Christ

The King who ascended will return.

Not in weakness.

Not in humility.

Not as a suffering servant.

But in glory.

The Resurrection of the Dead

The just and the unjust will be raised.

No cemetery can hold back the voice of Jesus.

No grave can resist His command.

The Reckoning at the Judgment Seat

Every person will give an account before Christ.

Every hidden thing will be revealed.

Every wrong will be made right.

Justice will finally come.

The Rest of God’s People forever

Every burden will be gone.

Every tear will be wiped away.

Every sin will be removed forever.

God’s people will dwell with Him in perfect peace.

No more hospitals.

No more funerals.

No more divorce courts.

No more heartache.

No more cancer.

No more pain.

Only Christ.

Only joy.

Only everlasting life.

Paul doesn’t give these truths merely to satisfy our curiosity.

He gives them to change our lives.

In chapter 5 he says believers are children of the light.

Since Christ is King and Christ is coming again:

Stay awake spiritually.

Don’t drift.

Don’t become careless.

Don’t become comfortable with sin.

Live faithfully.

Work honestly.

Love your family.

Serve your neighbors.

Honor Christ in the ordinary routines of life.

Encourage one another.

Paul ends by saying, “Comfort one another with these words.” next week

The doctrine of Christ’s coming is not meant to make Christians afraid.

It is meant to fill Christians with hope.

There are many things we do not know.

We do not know the day.

We do not know the hour.

We do not know when Christ will return.

But we do know this:

Jesus Christ the Son of God and Man came to save.

He came to reign.

He came in judgment on the old covenant world exactly as He promised.

And Jesus Christ the Son of God and Man will come again in glory to raise the dead, judge the world, and bring his people into everlasting rest.

So let’s live ready.

Let’s work ready.

Let’s worship ready.

Let’s die ready.

For the King who came once is coming again.

And when he comes, all his promises will be fulfilled.

Eternal Father, in this very moment, we turn again from our sin and ourselves to you and your glory,

Trusting only in your Son’s sacrifice for our sins to make us right with you.

We want to shelter ourselves in the shadow of his cross,

Bathe ourselves in the blood that he shed there for us,

Rest ourselves on his redemption

Robe ourselves in his righteousness,

Renew ourselves in his resurrection,

Lose ourselves in his Lordship,

And find ourselves in his friendship.

We want him to become for us, for today and forever, wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and salvation.

For he is the One who suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to you, our Father.

The Son of God and Man came to save

The Son of God and Man came to reign

The Son of God and Man came in judgment on the Old Covenant world

The Son of God and Man will come again to save and judge and rule the world forever

The Return of Christ

The Resurrection of the dead

The Reckoning at the Judgment Seat

The Rest of God’s people forever

BACKGROUND STUDY:

THE COMING AND THE DAY OF THE LORD IN PAUL’S LETTERS TO THE THESSALONIANS 

Observations

1. Throughout the early chapters of 1 Thessalonians, Paul refers repeatedly to the coming of the Lord (1:9-10; 2:14-16; 2:19-20; 3:11-13), which the Thessalonians are apparently to expect soon, or even recognize is already happening, and yet also stretches to the very End, and which includes both salvation for them and judgment for their enemies.
2. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 is clearly one long continuous instruction about fundamentally the same subject: the coming of the Lord, and the Day of the Lord, which are two different terms for the same event, clearly connected to the resurrection of Christ’s people (which was the “presenting issue” for the Thessalonians).
3. Paul’s predictions of Christ’s coming and the Resurrection of his people in 1 Thessalonians 4 clearly echo what he says in 1 Corinthians 15. Both these passages are clearly about the Resurrection Day.
4. Paul’s practical admonitions in 1 Thessalonians 5 clearly echo what Jesus says in the Olivet Discourse, recounted in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, which is clearly about the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the end of the Old Covenant age.
5. In 2 Thessalonians 1 Paul promises the Thessalonians that Christ will soon come and destroy the Apostate Jewish enemies who are persecuting them
6. In 2 Thessalonians 2 Paul warns that that cannot happen until the coming of a Man of Lawlessness.

Tensions

How can all these things possibly fit together?

Solutions

1. The Old Testament repeatedly describes God as coming to judge. However, with the judgment he also came to save.
   1. Sometimes he is described as coming personally and visibly.
      1. He is described as personally coming to the Garden to confront Adam and Eve and cast them out.
      2. He is described as personally shutting Noah in the Ark, before unleashing the fiercest judgment so far in human history.

• He is described as personally coming down to the Tower of Babel to judge the builders.

1. He is described as personally coming down to warn Abraham that he was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
2. He is described as hearing the cries of his people in Egypt and personally coming down to charge Moses to go and set them free

1. Other times, especially in the Prophets, he is described as coming in devastating events that are happening—especially in disastrous defeats at the hands of human armies acting as the unwitting agents of God’s judgment. Each of these events was conceived as the Day of the LORD, when he came to judge:

2. Long ago, Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and the Son of God, came to save and to rule and to judge, and many knew the time was near.
   7. 2000 years ago, he came down from heaven to earth to live and die and rise again for our salvation. This was far more than just a personal and visible coming. This was the Incarnation. During his ministry, he consistently identified himself as the Son of Man described in Daniel 7.
   8. 40 days after his resurrection, he came up from the earth to heaven to be enthroned at the Father’s right hand, ascending through the clouds as his Apostles watched from the Mount of Olives. This was the coming of Daniel’s Son of Man with clouds up to the throne of the Ancient of Days.
   9. 40 years after that, he came judicially to put an end to the Old Covenant world. This was the public proof that he, Jesus of Nazareth and Daniel’s Son of Man, had been enthroned in heaven. This coming was also just the most recent of several “Day of the LORD” events across OT history, delineated above. As the Lord Jesus had predicted, the coming of HIS Day of Judgment happened to the same generation that saw his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Also as he predicted, no one knew the day or the hour in advance, but his disciples, alert and watching, were able to escape the devastation before it arrived.
3. At the End, Jesus Christ, the Son of man and the Son of God, will come again to save and to judge and to rule. No one knows the day or the hour of this great and final Day of the LORD, so Christians are called to stay ready. The final climax will include:
   1. The Return of Christ in glory
   2. The Resurrection of the Just and Unjust
   3. The Reckoning at the Judgment Seat of Christ
   4. The Rest of God’s people forever

Paul professed that he did not know if he or indeed any of the Thessalonians would be among the believers still alive at that Day (1 Thessalonians 5:10)