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The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, they are accepting free will donations at https://www.graceagenda.com/donate.
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As we work through this next portion of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, we want to continue to hold the various elements of “the last things” loosely, and in the palm of our hand. After we have all the pieces on the workbench before us (e.g. after 2 Thess. 2), we will then look at how they relate to one another. For the moment, to help keep things clear in our minds, I am going to begin referring to the end of all things as the Final Coming, and not the Second Coming.
We should work through all of this in humility, remembering that Augustine, one of the greatest minds in the history of the church, once said of 2 Thess. 2: “I frankly confess I do not know what he means.”
“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. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do” (1 Thess. 5:1–11).
Paul had not had the opportunity to teach the Thessalonians everything he had wanted to, but he had already covered this. You know the “times and seasons,” he said (v. 1). The day of the Lord would be sudden and unexpected, like a thief in the night (v. 2). Be aware that throughout Scripture, “the day of the Lord” is commonly used for any number of historical judgments. The day of the Lord is not necessarily the Final Coming. When they are expecting peace and safety, they will suddenly give birth to “sudden destruction” (v. 3). But their complacency was a moral darkness, not an intellectual one (v. 4). The believers in Thessalonica were children of the day, children of light, which would prevent the day from overtaking them like a thief (vv. 4-5). So his exhortation is that they remain awake and sober (v. 6). Sleep and drunkenness belong the night, not the day (v. 7). Those who are of the day should be sober, putting on the helmet of the hope of salvation, and the breastplate of faith and love (v. 8). The reason for this preventative behavior is that God has not appointed them to wrath (as He did the others), but rather to obtain salvation through Christ (v. 9). Christ died for those believers who were already dead, and for those who remained alive, so that all would live through Him (v. 10). These were to be words of comfort and edification, which Paul assumed the Thessalonians would continue in (v. 11).
Paul obviously has the Thessalonians of the first century living in a state of high alert. They are to be awake, and with their armor on. If they could read his words to them, and not be looking out the window at what might be happening in their day, then it would the result of not paying close attention. That tone of urgency is very clear in this passage. Just as I have argued that the presence of the general resurrection is an indication we are talking about the Final Coming, so also the presence of an “any minute now” vibe is an indication that we are talking the events that run up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. In the two letters of Thessalonians, we have both elements weaving in and out with each other.
And looking ahead to 2 Thess. 2:6-7, we see something similar, in that Paul tells the Thessalonians that “he that restrains” is currently restraining, and that is why the man of lawlessness has not yet appeared.
As the first century Christians were navigating their way through a very dark pagan century, they were warned by Paul against some very real perils in their day. Formal emperor worship had begun under Augustus, and Thessalonica had a temple to the emperor. In 41 A.D. Caligula had ordered a statue of himself to be set up in the Temple at Jerusalem, which was only forestalled because Caligula was murdered. To give you a sense of the atmosphere of the times, in the forecourt of one of his homes, Nero had a bronze statue of himself built, a statue that was 120 feet tall—like a twelve-story building.
There were certain signs that indicated the pending destruction of Jerusalem (the day of the Lord), and that destruction was something that had to occur before there could be a Final Coming. That Final Coming was in Paul’s view, but it was like a very high and distant mountain range behind the mountain range that they were about to cross.
The Jewish War would “fill up” the sins of Israel (Matt. 23:32). That time would begin the “times of the Gentiles,” a period of time that would eventually be completed. I take that completion as being marked by the conversion of Jews, an event that has not yet happened (Rom. 11:15).
Once the judgment begins, that is no time to begin to prepare. The judgment might be temporal and historical (a day of the Lord), or it might be the Final Coming. In either case, the daylight is coming, and so Paul’s charge to us is to act as though the day has already come. We are not to be ethically groggy for whatever reason. You don’t want to be among those who were appointed to wrath—because that appointment will be kept. Rather, we should yearn to be among those who will “obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us.”
And this is what brings us back to the everlasting center—Christ, our Lord. Because He was not overcome by the night, it becomes possible for all those who have trusted in Him to follow Him and to do the same.
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The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, they are accepting free will donations at https://www.graceagenda.com/donate.
Want to subscribe to our new podcast feed? Click here or search ‘ChristKirk’ in your podcast app.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The sons of Adam and daughters of Eve have always had to deal with the presence of sin, at least since the third chapter of Genesis. We have to “budget” for it, meaning that we allow for the possibility of sin encroaching into any situation, however blessed, and for the possibility of that sin creeping in through our own hearts, the hearts of our loved ones, or through the hearts of those who are not that close to us.
But in our day, we are no longer guarding against sin creeping in. There has been a great sexual apostasy, and the guardians of the new disorder are the ones who are trying to keep any kind of “normal” from creeping in. The new public square now positively celebrates sodomy, lesbianism, transsexualism, porn, polyamory, and worse, and castigates biblical masculinity as toxic and biblical femininity as craven. And this means that heterosexual monogamy, with lots of fat babies, is the new transgressive, and is a great privilege. Not many generations of Christians have had the opportunity to be righteous and naughty at the same time.
“And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do . . .” (1 Chron. 12:32).
Without application, the Scriptures are worse than useless. Without application, the Scriptures are simply the instrument we use in order to deceive ourselves (Jas. 1:22-24). But in order to make application, it is necessary to translate the principles of the Word into the customs of our times. Where those customs are false, we must repent and leave them behind. Where they are good, we must allow the Word to come in to strengthen us. As the Word strengthens us, we are strengthened in the truth, and the truth is the only thing that can answer the lies that surround us on every hand.
In the area of marriage, in the realm we are discussing, we want to create the kind of setting where the young men can come into a deeper understanding of what Scripture teaches about: 1. The world the way God created it; 2. The sexual center of all human culture; 3. The pressing need for real masculinity in young men, and; 4. The equally pressing need for true femininity in young women.
All of this is a function of who you are becoming. I have said several times that you should work on this: become the kind of person that the kind of person you would like to marry would like to marry. But in the light of what is coming up in just a few minutes, we may want to expand this just a touch. Become the kind of person that Scripture describes so that someone of the opposite sex, also described by Scripture, might recognize in you a good thing. So the standard is always Scripture, and not random ideals you might have picked up from trashy movies, trashy sitcoms, trashy novels, and trashy women’s magazines.
So you want to be among the sons of Issachar. What are the basic things you must come to understand better? You must understand that you are living in a world crammed with flattering lies, slathered in butter, and the only reason they are not immediately and glaringly obvious to you is that they are so flattering to you. You deserve a porn queen. You can be any gender you want to be. You are as good as anybody else. You have a right to sexual happiness. You are entitled to every lust. You must learn to take pride in your lusts, and march in parades under their banner. You are the epicenter of all your sexual conceits.
What a putrid mess. Note the contrast with how Scripture speaks to us.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Rom. 12:1–3).
First you present your body to God as a living sacrifice. This means your body is not yours. You were bought with a price. As a Christian, you surrender your body to God, which means that He then directs what you are to do with it. But take note: His assignments will mostly likely include having babies with it.
Second, after you have presented your body on that altar—and the altar is everywhere—what follows? This leads to not being conformed to this world—the very thing I am preaching against in this series—and in addition results in being transformed by the renewing of your mind. This confirms the will of God.
And then, third, this leads to your ability to think of yourself soberly. You have learned the secret of seeing yourself by faith. When you see yourself by faith, you do not build your ambitions on the world’s flatteries (which are always false and very slippery), but rather on God’s promises. Because God’s promises are all of grace, it is now possible to have high ambitions without being conceited. When you see yourself by faith, you do not see yourself more highly than you ought, but you do see Christ, high and lifted up. And He can do anything. And one of the extraordinary things He specializes in doing is saving the world through the instrumentality of lots of ordinary people doing lots of normal things. Like asking a girl out.
The Church is a fruitful household, and she has a perfect husband. This marriage relationship is to be our primal model. So as we pursue mundane realities like marriage and children, we are doing so in a world where these relations have been sacralized forever. We are commanded to set the everlasting gospel before our eyes as we think about these things. Future husbands, follow Jesus Christ. Love your wife as Christ loved the Church. Go and fetch her. Future wives, follow Jesus Christ by imitating the Church. Glory in the glory that is coming. Glory in the glory that you are.
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