THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
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prca.orgDear radio friends,
In our last broadcast we considered
the comfort that we have in connection with Christ’s second coming. We considered then the order of events that
will take place on that day when Christ returns. We even considered, in connection with that,
the resurrection of God’s people at the end of time.
But more needs to
be said concerning that coming of Jesus Christ.
When does He come? That is a
question that confronts God’s people, too.
And the apostle Paul addresses that in I Thessa-lonians 5:1-6.
There we read: “But of the times
and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of
the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction
cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not
escape. But ye, brethren, are not in
darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the
children of the day: we are not of the
night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us
not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”
When does Christ
return? That really is at the heart of
these verses that we have before us today.
Christ comes again as He has promised.
But when will Christ come? And
that is a pertinent question. Paul had
just told the saints of Thessalonica about their being alive and remaining when
Christ came. Did this mean that Christ
was coming in their lifetime? Obviously not. Can we
say that Christ is coming in our lifetime? Can we say that Christ is coming in the
lifetime of our children or their children?
“Of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write
unto you. For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” With this, Paul, in the verses of this
passage, proceeds to give us instruction concerning the time of Christ’s
appearance, and with it, he gives practical instruction concerning our
need to watch for that coming of Christ right now.
The goodman of the house and his wife
are ready to lay themselves down to sleep.
It is evening. It is dark
outside. And they must rise again at
daybreak to begin anew their day’s labors.
The goodman routinely
checks the doors of the house to see that they are all bolted tight and,
confident that the house is secure for the night, he retires. He is assured that his house is safe, he lays
himself down thinking to himself, “Peace and safety,” and he falls into a deep,
deep sleep. But sometime in the night,
while the goodman and his
wife lay soundly asleep, a thief breaks into the man’s house and steals away
all the goodman’s possessions. This thief knew his profession well. He came swiftly, unexpectedly, and
suddenly. Who would have thought it was
his intent that very night to rob and plunder the goodman’s house? Certainly, what Jesus tells us in
Matthew 24:43
is true. “But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in
what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have
suffered his house to be broken up.”
But who was to know
that the thief was coming? And who was
to know what watch of the night he was coming in? So the goodman
was caught unawares. He was not
watching. He was not prepared. He was sleeping, and he lost everything that
he had. Such is the coming of the
thief. He depends on the element of
surprise, he comes when no one is expecting him, he
descends upon the house suddenly and swiftly.
The goodman of the
house is simply not prepared to keep him from robbing him. The thief is foiled in his attempts only when
the goodman is forewarned
and prepared.
Now everywhere the
Bible uses this same figure to describe the coming of Jesus Christ. Thus the passage we consider today does
too. Verse 2 reads: “For yourselves know
perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” And throughout these verses, the same figure
is used to instruct us concerning Christ’s return. His coming is as a thief.
Let us apply this
figure to the coming of Christ. The
obvious meaning here is: Christ’s coming
at the end of time is going to be swift, sudden, and unexpected. This is true, first of all, from the point of
view of the wicked world itself. This
world will have fallen asleep, just like the goodman of the house.
Jesus tells us that, just as in the days of Noah, so also at the end of
time, men will be going on with life as if this world will never end, willingly
ignorant of the coming of Christ. They
will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Life will be going on as usual. From the spiritual point of view, therefore,
this world will have fallen asleep, calmly and confidently. They will say to themselves, “Peace and
safety.” And, being soundly asleep from
a spiritual point of view, this world will not be prepared for, or even
expecting, the coming of Jesus Christ.
This is why Christ’s coming will be swift and unexpected.
As far as the exact
moment of Christ’s coming is concerned, we can say that He comes at a time
when, as far as the world is concerned, He is least expected.
This idea is
supported by another picture that Paul uses is verse 3: “For when they shall say, Peace and safety;
then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with
child; and they shall not escape.”
We find there a woman in travail, a woman who is about to be delivered
of a baby. And the idea is that
suddenly, without a clue, that first hard labor pain
strikes. The woman has been expecting to
have her baby all along. She knows it is
close. But she does not know exactly
when the moment will hit that will bring about the birth of her baby. It comes suddenly and unexpectedly.
So will be the
coming of Christ. He comes when this
world believes that they have “found their way,” that they have found the
answer to all the ills and the problems of society. Christ comes when the kingdom of man in this
world is convinced that it is on the verge of establishing itself, and that,
without God. At a time that no man can
figure out, at a time that no man will be able to determine or predict, Christ
will come. And that coming will not be
quietly, in rapture. It will be a coming
with shouts and trumpets unto the destruction of the wicked of this world.
Now it is important
for us to realize why Paul makes this point before moving on. There was an error about Christ’s coming that
prevailed in this
But, having
established this fact, Paul goes on to say in verse 4: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that
that day should overtake you as a thief.”
Now that is striking. Paul tells
us, after saying Christ comes as a thief, that the coming of Christ ought not
to overtake us as a thief in the night.
No contradiction is found here.
Christ does come in an hour no man knows. At the same time, however, we are those who
must be prepared for His coming. We know
that He is coming. We may not know
exactly when. We may not know in what
watch of the night He will come. But,
nevertheless, we know He’s coming. And,
because we know, we will be ready for Him, even if that means that we are going
to sit awake and watch the whole night long, which, really, we are called to
do. We may not know in what watch of the
night the thief comes, but he comes. And
we are not as the wicked world who sleeps in its
unbelief. We will be sitting there awake
and watching for Christ, that He might not catch us unprepared.
And all this is
true because we know perfectly of Christ’s coming. We ought not to overlook the perfect
knowledge we have of Christ’s coming that Paul speaks of here in verse 2. It is not just the knowledge about some facts
of Christ’s coming. It is not some kind
of human deduction we have made for ourselves that Christ comes again. It is a perfect knowledge. It is a knowledge of
faith, a knowledge of Christ’s coming that the people of this world do not
have. When the wicked man is warned and
instructed concerning the swift and sudden return of Christ, he does not
believe. His reasoning is blinded by
unbelief. He knows and yet he does not
know that Christ comes again. He knows
about it but he does not believe it. And
for that reason, too, Christ will come upon that unbelieving man suddenly and
unexpectedly. Then Christ’s coming will
overtake him with sudden destruction.
But you and I have
been given a perfect knowledge that Christ is coming. We know He comes soon and suddenly. And we, by all means, believe it. We may, at times, grow weary. We may, at times, be not so alert. But we know perfectly that Christ is coming
and that we must watch.
That blessed truth
Paul emphasizes in verse 5: “Ye are all
the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” We are children of the light. Oh, we were at one time children of the
darkness, lost in our unbelief. It is
true, sin had
hold of our hearts. Our hearts and minds
were darkened to this truth. We lived in
the night of sin. We could not know,
neither did we even desire to know, about God and about the things of the
kingdom of heaven. Of the times and the
seasons we could not know because God had not revealed them to us. That is true of countless throngs of people
today. Our world is lost in the darkness
of sin and unbelief. These are the
children of the night to which our text refers, those still stumbling about in
their unbelief.
But God has been
gracious, has He not? He proves in the
hearts and lives of people yet today that He is a gracious God, because He
graciously has poured out into our hearts the light of salvation. He has laid the burden of sin and unbelief on
the shoulders of Christ. And Christ
carried away the burden of our sin on the cross. He earned there, for God’s people, the gift
of faith. Included in
that faith is a certain knowledge that Christ returns as a thief in the night. And we watch for Him. We know that the time of Christ’s return is
getting very, very close. We are tense,
we are anxious, in our anticipation that pretty soon the thief will appear, and
we must not allow ourselves to be unprepared when our home is broken into.
How can we say that
Christ’s coming is very close? Because we know the times and the seasons. God has revealed to us the times and the
seasons. The times—the
Greek term translated “times” here in verse 1 is the word that we use for
chronology or chronological. When
we use that term, in our own language, it refers to a sequence or succession of
events that take place in time. When we
put something in chronological order, for example, we are putting it in the
sequence of events in which it occurred.
What our text here means, therefore, is that we are given to know
perfectly the sequence of events that take place in the history and development
of this world. We have been given a
knowledge and understanding of the order of events that take place in
history. We know that all of history is
ordered by God from eternity. We know
that God has ordered all things in such a way that, through them, the salvation
of the church will be accomplished and God will glorify His name. He created all things for that reason. Man fell into sin for that reason. Christ has come for that reason. The church is defended, guided, and preserved
for that reason. And the end of the
world will come for that reason. Every
event in creation and history leads to that perfect end. We are given to know the times.
And we are given to
know the seasons. That term refers to a
certain fixed period of time. We know
the various periods of fixed times in this world. We know of the time of the prediluvian world, that is, the world before the
Flood. We know the time from the Flood
to the establishment of that nation and the
The Bible
everywhere gives the signs that point us to the imminent return of Christ. We are given to know what will transpire in
history before Christ returns. The Bible
reveals those signs to us. We see those
signs in creation. We see those signs in
the development of the nations. We see
those signs in the church. God’s Word
indicates to you and to me what will happen.
And we watch these signs as they develop in creation and in the nations
in order that we might be prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ.
In this regard, let
us not forget the command that we also receive in verse 6: “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others;
but let us watch and be sober.” That command
is based upon the knowledge that we have of Christ’s coming. It is based on the fact that we know He comes
suddenly and unexpectedly, at a time when no man knows. And that command is this: “Do not sleep and do not be drunken, but watch and be sober. Always be prepared, for we do not know the
watch of the night in which the thief will appear. Sit and watch. Every hour of the night.”
Oh, that very error
of those who wish to predict a certain hour in which Christ comes is exposed in
these verses. If I knew that the thief
was going to come at 4:00 in the morning, then I need not worry for the rest of
the night, just so I am ready at that particular time for him. If I knew exactly when the birth of my baby
was going to take place, as some do today of course, then I need not worry
about the labor pains until that particular time. If I knew exactly the year, month, day, and
hour that Christ will return, then I would have no reason to watch right now. All I would have to do is sit and wait until
that time, and then, rather hurriedly and quickly, prepare myself so I am
ready. There would be no need to ready
myself right now, every day. That is why
Christ does not reveal, anywhere, the exact time of His coming. He does not want us to know. And He does not want us to know, so that
right now, today, and tomorrow, and every day of our lives, we might prepare
ourselves for His coming. He wants us to
live every day of our lives as if Christ is coming tomorrow. Always we must be prepared. Always we must be anticipating His return—and
that, in order that we might walk a holy life in this world.
We must be sober,
not drunken with the delights of this world and the pleasures of this
world. Our minds must be clear and
bright. Our spiritual senses must be
honed so that we watch the signs around us and read them correctly, in order to
understand the coming of Christ. Our
lives must be filled with spiritual concerns.
Every day we must busy ourselves in the study of God’s Word. We must busy ourselves in worship and in
prayer. All of that equips us to be
sober and makes our eyesight clear. Then
we will watch. We will stand in these
last times with our eyes wide open, and we will be waiting every day, all day.
The thief
comes. Are you prepared to meet him when
he comes? If the goodman is prepared, the thief will not catch him
unawares. Are you prepared for Christ’s
coming? Can He come tomorrow and will
you be ready to meet your Lord?
Watch. He comes. Prepare.
Then we will be ready when Jesus comes.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank
Thee that Thou dost reveal to us the times and the seasons, and that we can see
by the signs around us that Christ comes.
We do not know when. We pray
therefore that Thou wilt teach us to be diligent in preparing ourselves for the
coming of our Lord and Savior, living the life of holiness before Thee. Where we falter and fail along life’s pathway
and grow weary of watching, we pray, forgive.
But equip us by Thy Spirit and grace, so that we might look for the
return of Christ. In His name we pray,
Amen.
Last modified: 14-aug-07