For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
5 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 …
… Lord, but concerning verse 1 chapter 5, the times and the seasons, brethren, you 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 in 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. Concerning times and seasons. chronos and kairos chronos times kairos seasons chronos times chronological time 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. …
… 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 …
… "'You have no need of anything to be written to you, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come.'" This is part of apostolic doctrine and teaching. You know full well." He uses the Greek word akrabos, which means accurately, precisely, exactly. You know about the day of the Lord, and you know it will come like a thief in the night – suddenly, unexpectedly, devastatingly. How do they know that? Because that's what our Lord said back in Matthew 24, 42, and 43. Be aware that the day of the Lord is coming. Just something to note is if you back up into chapter 4 and verse 13, you have the wonderful revelation of the rapture of the church. And it's positioned in a perfect way, really, because the rapture occurs before the day of the Lord, as we have already talked about many times. But listen to what it says in verse 13. We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as those who have no hope." So they didn't need to be informed about the day of the Lord. …
… not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But now notice verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Have you ever had a thief call you up and say, I'm coming tonight? You say, well, I don't think he's coming today. Well, that's a good sign that he might because Jesus said, in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh. The day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. When Peter wrote this, people didn't know anything about nuclear fission. They said, that's ridiculous. Dirt burning, elements burning, air burning. It's not ridiculous today. The elements shall melt with fervent heat. The word fervent literally means fever heat, internal heat, nuclear combustion. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Now here's the question for all of us today. …