First Thessalonians 5:8-11 The duty in light of the Day of the Lord
1 Thessalonians 5:8-11 · Bob Eckel · Jun 13, 2021
Thessalonians, No. 20
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261923117589

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So could somebody read 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 1 through 11? So Roy, could you read that for us? that either they are not in the darkness of the day, or they could be in the light of the day. We are all sons of the light, sons of the day. We are not in the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as we sleep, but watch, and be super-mindful that we do not sleep in the night. But God had not appointed us to that, but to attain salvation by the power of the Holy Thank you, Roy. Can those of you who are videoconferenced in, can you see the screen? Yes. Okay, good. So you're seeing the first one? Yes. Okay, good.

So 1 Thessalonians 5, 8, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. So to whom is this verse addressed and what is Paul's message here? Okay, the Church of Thessalonica, and to us today, right? Okay, and what's the message here? First of all, it tells us that we're of the day. This picture here is going to develop. It tells us about some additional things after that. All right. Well, this is for the children of light.

And this idea of being sober, I mean, we think of drunkenness and sober. I mean, those are really the darkness and the light of being un-intoxicated or intoxicated. But in the Greek, the term sober could mean to be awake, to be calm, to be collected in spirit, be temperate, dispassionate, circumspect.

I mean, these are all attributes, attributes of the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is enacted. So this being sober is just not simply being intoxicated or free from that. It's in fact all these attributes that may apply to the way the believer carries him or herself. And you know, Roy read this. First Thessalonians 5, you are the sons of light and the sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

And ultimately Paul exemplifies this in Philippians 2.15. that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world."

And you know, as we carry ourselves in light, what happens to the darkness that we expose that light to? That's a question. to bring light into the darkness, but it shows the contrast. Okay, but, you know, I asked how the darkness perceives the light. Does the darkness perceive the light? It doesn't like the light. It doesn't like the light. Alright. It doesn't want to be in the light.

But the light, what's it reveal about the darkness? How dark it is. I mean, it reveals And I often say that we grow in grace and that light that we're defined as, ultimately the darkness becomes more apparent for what it really is in each and every one of us individually. That doesn't mean we want to continue to think about that darkness, but the light does reveal that we're sinners saved by grace. And that process is an eye for it.

Could you repeat that for our New York Congress audience? And this is a bit of a rabbit trail, but I'm going to go down it for a second. We're founded in truth, hopefully rightly dividing the word of truth, and that we still have a sin nature. And I can remember before I was saved, I thought the church, the so-called church, was hypocritical. And that's, I think, this light we shine into darkness. If we fall short in some way, the darkness perceives it as our faith is really not real.

So how do we respond to that? I think we're very open and confessing that we've been there, we've been at fault. And sometimes that leads to an initial conversation. Anyway, too much of a rabbit trail away, but it does affect our day-to-day walk and how we care. All right, and this sober experience is to be ours. We're talking about that right now in our day-to-day walk in the Lord.

In 1 Peter 5, be sober, be vigilant. Your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Boy, does it, you know, when we're not as light as we're created to be in terms of his likeness and likeness, ultimately the devil has a curse to play on.

All right, good. Let's continue. What passage does putting on the breastplate of faith and love as a helmet of hope and salvation remind us that we're soldiers engaged in spiritual warfare and need to be on Okay, Bonnie's done her homework or something. Oh, Patty, I wasn't seeing who is, but anyway, whatever. If we don't know that Ephesians six is where we need to go, we're needing to get into Ephesians six and read it to ourselves again.

So putting on is to be clothed, and this is an heiress middle participle. So how would we interpret an heiress middle participle? Well, the middle typically is for our own benefit. Okay, and the aorist tense? It's a fact, it's a past point fact. Okay, so we, but it's not a verb here, it's a participle. So the idea that we've been created to be putting on, we've been clothed with this. This is something that, it's not passive, but it's a participle reflects it's been done in the past and we're involved. So let's look at Ephesians 6, 14 through 17.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with a preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God." Interesting, the word of God. So, but here, the breastplate relates to faith and love. And in the Ephesians passage, the breastplate was of righteousness, okay?

And the helmet is the hope of salvation, and in the Ephesians passage, the helmet of salvation. I mean, it's not the hope of salvation. So what do we make of these roles of armor and expectation of the day of the Lord? Is Scripture inconsistent here, or how can we interpret what appears to be not a contradiction, but certainly Well, one thing about the armor, it has both offensive and defensive capabilities.

You can think of many sports where, I've always said, being a sports fan, I've always believed that defense wins championships. In baseball, you've still got to get some runs. In football, you've got to get a few touchdowns. And in basketball, you've got to get some points. I mean, but the armor has capability of being offensive. But what are we looking at here? Is this mostly offensive or defensive? Put it in context. What are we looking at? We're looking at the day of the Lord that Roy taught last week. Well, for the belief of the day of the Lord, he won't be there. No, but anticipation.

I mean, the church in Thessalonica is being called to a holy and sanctified life. Well, it's mostly defensive here. I mean, the armor, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, really, I think, maybe take on more of an offensive perspective. So really, it's the life of Christ we all have, isn't it? This breastplate. I mean, it's not like we have to pray that we're going to have a new breastplate put on us. It's a new life. It's not something we try to do.

It's knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, and so that really accomplishes, really, what Paul is calling us to in 1 Thessalonians 5. And it's interesting to reflect back, I'm just pulling a couple of verses here that I think are relevant. Isaiah 59, 17. Notice this, Isaiah 59. What an incredible section of Scripture in the Old Testament that relates to the Lord Jesus in the New Testament description.

For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. I mean, I must admit, I would not have immediately thought of that message. Yeah, Roger. It kind of makes me think of the fact that we, you know, the attributes that the believer has are Christ's attributes, just like his love that we were teaching last week. you know, our armor is, in a sense, his armor. It is his armor. So it shouldn't be surprising that he talks about his armor for him, and that armor is our armor.

So it solidifies that connection between our Savior and ourselves. But the prophecy in Isaiah, isn't that amazing? I know, but you wouldn't have guessed it. You wouldn't have realized that. And that's what makes us who teach Sunday school so humbled by the time that the Lord has us in the Word, because I would not have thought of this unless I drill down on this particular passage. And 1 Thessalonians 1-3 at the beginning of this epistle, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father.

So what's this hope related to? When we think about hope of our salvation, what's that hope? What's the hope of our salvation? Is it to be better tomorrow in the new life? So what's the sure hope? What do you think of when you think of the hope as believers that we have today? What's our hope? to be with Him, where? I mean, don't you think it relates to the glory of the Lord and our physical and spiritual presence with Him one day?

I think that's kind of the, maybe a little bit simplistic, but the hope of salvation is really, you know, remember, three verb tenses, I was saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved. All the continuation of this eternal relationship we have in our home in heaven and Christ. And I think that the hope of salvation, that is the way I interpret that. All right, let's go ahead. 1 Thessalonians 5, 9, for God did not appoint us to wrath, okay? Why you covered this, again, nicely, Leslie, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. All right, moving on. For God did not appoint. It's aorist, middle, indicative, us to wrath. So we're making Roger be our biblical scholar today. So again, indicative is fact, okay? And notice aorist, middle, okay? Done, once, and we're involved, right? So he didn't appoint us to wrath.

And Macaulay says wrath should be understood in the sense in which it has been used in this letter eschatological wrath. So then the question is, what's eschatological? Well, I looked actually in the dictionary, and not in Merriam-Webster or any other dictionary. I went to, you know, what I thought was a spiritually good source. And I think this is something we're not going to look at in detail, but eschatological relates to death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and humankind. are there for us to read later, if you want.

So, Roy, any comment on that interpretation? So, you know, the Day of Wrath is not anything the believer is going to experience. And we're going to look at that in some more detail in terms of page two. Doesn't, I think, this whole statement about the fact that we're not going to face the day of wrath, doesn't this convincingly eliminate belief in a post-Trib or an even partial or mid-Trib rapture? We hope so. But boy, there's still people that defend these positions, right? No thoughts about that. Andrew, any comment? Sorry, I was stepped away. We were wondering what. So anyway, are you with me? Do you see the screen? Yeah. All right. So never mind.

So what I was going to say is, doesn't this verse in part, in addition to the rest of the section that Floyd taught last week, doesn't this eliminate convincingly the idea that the rapture is post-trib or even partial or mid-trib. The idea of a partial rapture would be that believers who are living out the Lord Jesus Christ to meet some sort of criteria are going to be raptured, and those who are immature, more carnal, would be left behind. I mean, no. I mean, I was just asking for your thoughts on that.

Oh, yeah, definitely. I had a study before that the rapture kind of sets off the whole day of the Lord program. It's the precursor to it. All right. But to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ and to obtain best relates to possession, to having it be part of us.

Ephesians 1.14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. But I thought we were already saved. I think we kind of dealt with this a few minutes ago. Yeah, we are saved. But ultimately, yes, but this relates to how the Lord Jesus Christ is enlightening us to the hope of our salvation, something we can experience now, I think ultimately is what I described previously about that eternal presence.

In 2 Thessalonians 2, 13, and 14, here we're looking at a verse that I think really does substantiate this. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God, from the beginning, chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit. This is the ongoing process and belief in the truth to which he called you to our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we're going to come to the second Thessalonians next as we proceed through the study that Paul has written to this time. Let's go to verse 10 then.

Who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. My comment here is who died for us needs no further comment here. I mean, if we don't believe you know, is death related or forgiveness of sins? You know, but what I'm saying here, but was his death for us and the entire global history of the descendants of the first Adam all that's relevant?

I mean, in a sense, I'm relating to some place where Christ is still on the cross, right? There's something more that needs to be done than simply looking at his crucifixion. I would say if Christ, and in fact Galatians deals with it, if Christ died only, his death is in vain. Right? It's worthless for him to be crucified. And what's the issue? No, his death is totally meaningless without his resurrection. Bob? Yes? Doesn't that kind of allude to the entire work of Christ, though? That he died for us?

You know, it just encompasses everything. Well, absolutely. I mean, our sins are forgiven, but also the sin nature has been crucified. Yes, if that's what you mean by your statement. Yes, and that he, you know, he did, he was buried and he rose again. It's all included in that he died for us. Romans 6 is really a great place. We're buried with Him with baptism unto death and risen with Him in the goodness of life. If we're just buried with Him and baptized unto death, we've got to work at self-righteousness to do to please God. I mean, this doesn't work. So again, if Christ died only without the resurrection, we believe in vain. It's empty. It's worthless.

So kind of one of the teaching points here is this, and we can talk about this briefly, When sharing the Lord with a questioning and curious non-believer, this must be our ever important focus. So notice the qualification here, with a questioning and curious non-believer.

This isn't going down to the street corner, not that the Lord can't use it, but you know, Jesus saves, he's resurrecting, I mean, the point is, I think when the Spirit allows us to share the Lord in a meaningful way, in terms of ultimately bringing someone to an understanding that may allow the great mercy and grace for him or her to be saved. Ultimately, you know, then they say, well, Jesus was a great prophet, he was a teacher, and that's where they go.

And I say, well, was he crucified? And you know, you might say, well, yeah, he was. I mean, that's history. But then you say, what did he do with the resurrection? And that's a good place. to open up new doors or ultimately have them be shut in your face. So I think I'm not being critical of the scripture here, I'm just saying he died for us, but for this class and our day-to-day thinking about he died for us, that could just, that can't stop there in terms of how important the resurrection is. Any pondering, any thoughts about that?

Let me just look at another verse. In Colossians 2, the chapter 2 parallels and on into 3 parallels a lot, which is around the 6th. I think there's a lot of relation. Good comment, Pat. And I think the rest of this verse does address this. Paul's not dismissing this idea that the resurrected is not important. I'm just saying, for our consideration, the fact that he died for us stops short of really the importance of Christianity and how it impacts our individual day-to-day lives.

And that relates to whether we wake or sleep. So the question to the class, is this 24-7? Meaning, you know, whether we awake or when we go to bed at night we sleep. Or is it, in fact, our death? What are your thoughts about that? Our physical death, being asleep, or earthly, bodily death? I wonder if it refers to, in 1 Corinthians 4, where he's talking about those that sleep in him.

Well, Patti, that's one position you could take here, and that would have been my initial position. To live is Christ, to die is gain. Well, no question about that. I'll rest in that truth, thank you. Let's turn to somebody who's smarter than me, for sure. Constable has an interesting thought about this, and I think He may be correct, as I've looked at the count of Greek origins.

The Greek word translated asleep in verse 10 is from the same root as the one translated sleep in verse 6, where the reference is to spiritual lethargy. It is different from the word translated asleep in 4, 13, 14, and 15, where the reference is to physical death. So, what are your thoughts about that? Spiritual lethargy. In other words, the partial rapture. These are people being left behind, unlike the novel about the left-behind series. I remember when I was first saved, I was at another church in Denver when Sharon and I first moved here. One of the guys in the class, and this was fair, I was a new believer.

He says, I'm tired of all this Greek stuff. He said, The Bible speaks very clearly to what I need to know. And I said, Yeah, I think he's right. I just need this simple stuff. I'm a milk guy. Don't get me into this Greek stuff. And Roy, you probably would have either been that never, never. So I agree. In a sense, there's some truth to that. I think if you're into milk, I think not that milks, we all start with milk, right? That was important to me to hear that. So I didn't really worry too much about it, more of an analytical approach. But this is an example where in fact the Greek word does make us interpret this differently. So Patty, I think that's with my initial bond. These are those who are dead in the Lord. But no, this apparently Greek term reflects spiritual leprosy. What's spiritual leprosy anyway? How would we define spiritual equity again? So, Bob? Yes?

Is this saying that no matter what, you're living with Him, you're in Him? You know, it's an encouragement? Yeah, I think you could interpret it that way. Whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. I mean, we're going to come to with here in a second. because I think whiz is a preposition, and going beyond what that recommendation was some, what was that, 40 years ago now, prepositions can be really important. So we'll come back to that. So, I mean, this speaks to the whole body, doesn't it?

It doesn't divide them, it's whether you're awake or lethargic, right? Spiritually lethargic. Well, it also helps me to say that my position is secure. I may not be you know, in reducing guilt, well, I wasn't really awake, I wasn't really with it today, so the Lord's gonna, you know, do something else. Once you trust in him, he, you know, it's unchangeable, your position's unchangeable. Well, that's why I set the stage with this, is really he dying for us enough, but Paul oppresses that here, when you're waking or sleeping, we should live together with him, the resurrection must be necessary for us to be living together with him, scripturally sound.

Because, you know, I think also what it says is it's not complicated to be a believer. See, yes, you grow by learning and reading and studying and all that. But if you believe, just basically believe. 1 Corinthians 15, right? The gospel. And you're saved and you're with us. But I think a lot of people still think they have to do all the works and they have to you're a Christian in some way. But you don't, that's what this is saying. No, you don't. You believe.

You're a faith leper. So, honey, how would you define spiritual leprosy then? Well, I think it's, um, maybe you walk away, maybe you, you know, you're not interested in learning more, you're not, I don't know. There's no metric here, is there? Yeah. 1 to 100 scales, we're working at an 18 rather than an 82, right?

I mean, only the Lord can judge, ultimately, the life of the believer. But the thing is, we're fully accepted in the Beloved, right? There's therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. And if we don't have that security, then you're not saved. Being saved is a secure position.

They just make you think that they're fellow believers that don't have an understanding. A lot. And we have a lot of these relatives and friends that don't have that. And it's disappointing and heart-wrenching to see them say, well, I know myself. I know myself, but I wouldn't do that. You could. You could walk away from the Lord sometime. Absolutely. And you may do that. the Lord wants you to realize that your place is secure. And we grieve over our brothers and sisters that they're upset about that and struggle with that.

Could we perhaps define spiritual leprosy as a hungry heart or chalactera? And again, we're not going to define that. I'm not going to make any decision. We need a hungry heart to grow in grace. And I think the Spirit leads that. And when we depart from wanting to know the Lord Jesus better, leprosy becomes apparent, I think, but we fall away from that. And we're not going to put a metric on this. I just think the hungry heart's what drives us. And that needs to be something that we respond to. So we should live together with Him.

Why is should live subjunctive tense? Maybe you will and maybe you won't. You may walk with him and you may not. Well, do you think it relates to what precedes it, Roger? Well, we are going to live together. I see that. Okay, this should live is subjunctive, because I guess it's possible that would not happen. But this is not I tried to find in the group whether this was a, you know, a sense interpretation. What's that? first conditional use of the term, is that right?

It's just technical, it just means that anything we want to relive it, that we're alive in now, that's what it's intended to be. All right, and I promised a little bit drilling down on the preposition with, and according to Strong, if you look at with, there must be thousands of references in the Bible, but by association, companionship, process, resemblance, possession, instrumentally addition. So all these, when I think about, you know, basically the positional truth is our life is in Christ, right? So the use of the term with here, we should live together with him. I mean, if I'm going to pick my favorite with, it's ultimately possession. Resemblance is walking in Jesus's shoes. No, I think that's all self-directed, right? But with could be an association is weak, I think. Companionship, is he our companion? Well, yes, but that stops far short, doesn't it?

Resemblance, process, well, in a sense, process could be part of this. addition, no. Instrumentality maybe is closer, but position is what I like here. And Roy, it relates to what you just said. So, the question is, which of these definitions of with do you prefer in context to?

So, we just kind of looked at the options. Alright, we need to move and we'll be done fairly soon. All right, verse 11. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. So comfort, that's present active imperative, do it. Comforting one another is something we're called to do. And ultimately, why is therefore, therefore? So, you know, J. Bernard McGee, I'm going to bring it to the class again. Why is this a conclusive statement? What preceded it? We've been looking at what preceded it today.

Well, he was encouraging them, basically, that they're secure in the Lord, and that there's no wrath to come, and so on. All the things that we talked about in previous semesters. They're not going to go to wrath, but they can be confident that they're going to go to be with the Lord. Even though the day of the Lord is coming, that's not going to be part of their future. That's good, Roger, and I think next week we'll continue on this theme of what we're being confronted with in terms of our responsibility. to the body.

Here, comfort is best interpreted to mean admonish and exhort. It's not kind of making, this is not 2 Corinthians chapter one comfort. Not that that's not important for us as believers, which is a beautiful chapter by the way. 2 Corinthians chapter four. Chapter four on comfort.

But this is more admonishing and exhorting one another. And here edify, present active imperative. Again, do it. And that edification's one to another, and that means to promote growth in Christian wisdom, affection, grace, virtue, holiness, and blessedness. And I think this edification relates to kind of our being together here, it couldn't occur in video conferencing, but it's being with one another, having a chance to have conversations on the side, and ultimately encouraging one another in the faith that we all share. Any other comments about edification?

Okay, we'll get to that next week. So how is this accomplished? And notice one another, whose responsibility is this? Well, this is a long quote, but we'll get through it fairly quickly. So this is Keith Lee III, and Roger sent this as one of our commentators. He's very lengthy in his descriptions of everything that's in the text. But I'm going to pick this out because I thought it was pretty good.

This is the Greek Oikodomio, to build up, erect and restore. Here it is used metaphorically of spiritual edification or restoration as might be needed in the life of each individual believer. It refers to an intellectual grasp of the truth discussed so that it fortifies the heart and the mind. but toward what are we to build up, how are we to build up one another? What are we to build up one another?

Towards living for the Lord in the sufficiency of His glorious life. I love that statement. We are to help another stay sober and spiritually awake in view of who we are as Christians and in view of our glorious inheritance. This means we're to help other believers find their strength in the Savior rather than in the details of life or from the things of this world which is passing away and headed for sure destruction. We are not to be of this generation kind of people who live as worldlings or earth dwellers, as those who make no plans for the future, who are unconcerned about spiritual matters. Isn't that well stated?

I mean, it's really, it's a little bit more verbiage, but he was a verbiage guy. He never quit sharing stuff. But anyway, I thought that really relates to our role in edification, and that's building one another up. I mean, even, you know, I guess that can reflect our Bible studies on every other Monday. I mean, just getting together is great. The scripture then even uplifts us and edifies and unifies us as a body, and we may talk about worldly things, but it's being together and really, I think, encouraging and uplifting one another.

Hebrews 3.13, but exhort one another daily. while I was called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 2 Peter 1, 12, for this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. I think that's true of us here. We're established, we rightly defy the word of truth, not in an overly confident sense, but that's why we're here. So just as you also are doing, and I'm gonna end with two questions.

Doesn't this reflect the maturity of the Thessalonica church? I think it does. And if you look at all the epistles that Paul has written, or even the other, you know, apostles, but ultimately, I think the Thessalonian church rises up to maybe one of the more mature churches.

But here's the final question. Is the Lord doing this at Hollyville's Bible church? Are we doing this? Hold on a sec. From my perspective, I think we are. We're teaching God's Word. We're encouraging people to keep their focus on the Savior and teaching the things they need to know about the Savior. It's actually an individual matter. If they don't partake of that, then, you know, that's sad, but I think it's available to them.

Now, could you shut the door just in closing so we can close? Thank you. I know it gets hot, but we'll close it just for a second. Again, who's to judge this but the Lord? But I think, and we're here because it's happening, not because Margaret and I need that, but we want to be part of it, you know, and I think that's what Keith was calling us to, is that but the Lord. Any closing thoughts about today's lesson? All right, let's close in prayer.

Father, we're thankful for the scripture. It's so revealing and so uplifting, and this exhortation and admonishment that we're called to is really our responsibilities by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're thankful that the class and the prayer meets have been mentioned. There are many more that have not been, and we again have that confidence that you know our needs and you meet them as we so desire. We're thankful for this morning and the service to follow. Peace and love. Amen.