Now about the times and seasons, brothers, we do not need to write to you.But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you.But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that aught be written unto you.
4 sermons cite this verse
… and we'll come back to this at the end of tonight. 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 1 through 4, Paul said to the believers in Thessalonica, but concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you'll 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 of the night. 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. But you, brethren, are not in darkness. Notice the contrast. The believer is in the light. They, them, those, they're in the darkness. So that this day should overtake you as a thief. Isn't that a great word? In other words, everything that you're reading right now is that we are to be a people that are sticking to the word of God. We should be a people in prayer and that we should be a people that are not surprised by the day and the age in which we live in. We should be as the sons of Ishakar, the Bible tells us in the Old Testament, that they discerned the seasons and they knew what Israel ought to do. That's a good thing for you and I to do. Look around the world, look around our community, look around our life, this culture, our nation, and we should know what to do next as believers. Amen to that? God's given us the roadmap. So we're going to do this the best we can. And if we do, if we finish tonight, it will …
… the flow of time in chronological order when things happen and then kairos event time the epical moments, the pivotal moments in redemptive history concerning the times and the seasons, you have no need that I write to you. The Old Testament is filled with the times and the seasons leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ. As I said, it's one of the great themes of scripture and especially the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Joel, Amos, Zephaniah, Zechariah all speak about the day of the Lord in graphic detail and some of the events leading up to it and during this period that I'm going to be describing to you called the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is not a 24-hour day. It is a season. It is an era of time. It's a season of time. The day of the Lord. A season of time that the Old Testament writes about. Concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write to you. Now you may remember that when Jesus rose from the dead and was with his disciples for 40 days teaching things concerning the kingdom of God in Acts chapter 1, the disciples came to him and they said, is now the time? Are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Okay, you rose from the dead. …
… that we're actively engaged doing the will of God on earth as it is in heaven. And Paul teaches this principle in 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 1 through 3 when he says this, about the times and dates we do not need to write you for, you know, very little and very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. He's going to come like a thief in the night. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly. He's gonna come suddenly, so we wanna be ready. And he reminds them, we do not know when Jesus will return. We do not know when the rapture will take place. So we're gonna live ready. We're gonna be ready. What I like about this is pretty cool. Paul is both prophesying what's to come, and that he's being a little bit of a smart aleck. He had an edge like that. I like that. Maybe not his best trait. God might not like it. I like it. He was both prophesying and he takes a jab at the Roman empire because Rome boasted about something called pax et securitas, which means peace and safety, peace and safety, peace and safety. Rome bragged that Caesar and the armies would guarantee peace. If you trust in Caesar, you'll have peace. It was a lie because peace that's enforced is not real peace. Peace that's enforced is not lasting. And there's similar lies today that people think if we just vote in the …
… and be sent to the lake of fire. As we bring this to a close, go back to 1 Thessalonians 5 one more time. And we'll pick it up in verse 4. The day of the Lord is coming, coming like a thief in the night. Destruction is coming. No one can escape. And then this wonderful section. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness. This doesn't apply to us. It's why, as we saw in the first part of the service, Psalm 27, we run to God, but not away from Him. We want to be as close to Him as we can get. We want to seek His face, look Him in the face, and we have no fear because He is our salvation. He is our defender. He is our rock, our refuge, our hiding place. So since that is true, verse 6, so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. …