Faithful to the End of the Age (1 Thessalonians): The Day of the Lord is coming, along with the resurrection of the dead, judgment day, and the beginning of the age to come. But our destination ought to shape our journey. Our future ought to shape our present. The hope of our future in Christ ought to help us remain faithful, even to the end of the age. Recorded on Jun 22, 2025, on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 by Pastor David Parks.
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This sermon is part of our series on 1 Thessalonians called Faithful to the End. Being a Christian in the Greek, first-century city of Thessalonica was tough. Thessalonica was a big and prosperous city, but it was full of idols. The Apostle Paul and the first Christians there faced fierce religious persecution and tremendous political pressure to conform. But despite their suffering, they remained faithful. Our culture is different today, but following Jesus can still be very costly. Will we be faithful to the end?
Sermon Transcript
After today, we only have one more week of 1 Thessalonians in the Bible in our sermon series called Faithful to the End. As I shared last week, I’m very excited to start a new sermon series in July called For Such A Time As This from the book of Esther in the OT. But we still have a few more lessons to learn from 1 Thessalonians before we’re ready for Esther. Since 1989, Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has sold millions of copies because it’s a great little book. To start this morning, I’d like you to consider a little thought experiment Covey includes in the book. “Picture yourself driving to the funeral parlor or chapel, parking the car, and getting out. As you walk inside the building, you notice the flowers, the soft organ music. You see the faces of friends and family you pass along the way…As you walk down to the front of the room and look inside the casket, you suddenly come face to face with yourself. This is your funeral…All these people have come to honor you, to express feelings of love and appreciation for your life. As you take a seat and wait for the services to begin, you look at the program in your hand. There are to be four speakers. The first is from your family, immediate and also extended—children, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents who have come from all over the country to attend. The second speaker is one of your friends, someone who can give a sense of what you were as a person. The third speaker is from your work or profession. And the fourth is from your church or some community organization where you’ve been involved in service. Now think deeply. What would you like each of these speakers to say about you and your life? What kind of husband, wife, father, or mother would you like their words to reflect? What kind of son or daughter or cousin? What kind of friend? What kind of working associate? What character would you like them to have seen in you? What contributions, what achievements would you want them to remember…What difference would you like to have made in their lives?” (Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (pp. 103-104). (Function). Kindle Edition.) Isn’t that powerful? This little thought experiment helps illustrate Covey’s second habit, which is to “begin with the end in mind.” That’s very helpful. Well, in our series, we’ve been considering being faithful to the end, so a thought experiment like this helps us envision what this faithfulness might look like by the end of our lives. But today, we’re considering not just how to be faithful to the end of our lives, but what it might mean to be faithful even to the very end of this age. To be faithful until that great and cataclysmic day of the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, judgment day, and the beginning of the age to come. In both cases, of being faithful to the end of our lives or until the return of Christ (or, frankly, whichever comes first), it helps — to borrow the phrase — to begin with the end in mind. Or, in other words, our destination ought to shape our journey. Our future ought to shape our present. But what does the Bible teach about the end of the age and all these cosmic events? And how might that shape our lives today? Well, if you have your Bible/app, please open it to 1Th 5:1. Let’s find out together.
1 Thessalonians 5:1–3 (NIV), “1 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” This is intense. But what the Apostle Paul is doing is found throughout the Bible. He is saying the age we are living in right now will one day come to an end. The OT prophets said the day of the Lord would come in a smaller way in times of judgment against certain nations or kingdoms, including Egypt, Babylon, or even Israel at times. But even then, the prophets promised a future greater Day of the Lord where it wouldn’t be just one nation or kingdom, but the Lord would judge the whole world. When Jesus arrived on the scene, he taught a lot on this in his ministry, too. He taught plainly and in parables on this Day. Let’s look at one teaching from Luke 12:35–40 (NIV), Jesus said, “35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” So, what’s the point? What was Jesus saying? We need to be ready. And there is honor or some kind of reward for the servants who are ready for the return of their master. Right! Isn’t this what Paul is saying? “…you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” (No doubt Paul had heard the parable from Lk 12!) But Paul’s point is the same. We need to be ready. But this will be confusing, in some ways, because not everyone believes this. Not everyone believes in the Day of the Lord. Paul says, “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly.” Like a thief in the night. Or, as Paul says, “as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” Unless you have a planned C-section, you don’t really know when that baby’s coming. You can have a due date, but the baby might come early or late. You just don’t really know. Paul says that the end of our age, the return of Christ, the great Day of the Lord, will be like that. We won’t know exactly when this will happen, but it will happen. Now, we saw last week that Jesus told his disciples that we won’t know the exact day or time of his return. But it’s coming. It’s sure. Ok. So, what do we need to do to be ready? How can we be good servants of our master, Jesus, until he returns?
1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 (NIV), “4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” So, Paul is writing to the church here. He started both v. 1 and v. 4 with the same address of brothers and sisters. This family language means these are Christians, and as such, they should not be surprised by the return of Christ. They should be ready! And here, Paul uses the common metaphor in the Bible of darkness and light to represent moral goodness and evil. The Bible says this world is a kingdom of darkness, influenced by the spiritual forces of evil, and filled with people who often choose deeds of darkness over light. The Apostle John wrote, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (Jn 3:19). But what happens when someone is saved, when someone becomes a Christian? A number of things change, but one is that God removes your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh, with new capacities and desires. Then he gives you his Holy Spirit to dwell within you, to write his law on your heart, and help you obey it, and strengthen you when you are weak. Being filled with the Spirit means you are united with Christ, who is the light of the world. Being united with the light means that you become the light as well. Paul is reminding these believers of their identity when he says, “You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.” This is about who you are in Christ. This is your true identity. But does this mean that Christians will never sin? Or that if a Christian does sin, they aren’t really a Christian? No, but living or walking in darkness is acting out of character for a Christian. That’s not who you are. This is why, in v. 6, Paul says, “So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.” Commentator Gene Green writes, “…in the NT [the word translated being sober] always carries the metaphorical sense of exercising moral self-control or self-restraint and having clear thinking in the face of adversity or danger, especially as Christ’s revelation and the end of all things approaches.” (Green, Gene L. The Letters to the Thessalonians. W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos, 2002, p. 238.) Again, we must be ready. Being asleep or drunk means you’re not ready. Now, we need to actually sleep. This is a metaphor for being morally prepared, morally awake. We must be thinking people, not careless, careful to do and say what is right, to walk in the light. This is why Paul says in v. 8, “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” What does being sober/ready/walking in the light look like? It looks like this: to put on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. We’ve already encountered faith and love in 1 Thessalonians. This is what Paul rejoiced over back in chapter 2, that Timothy told him he saw when he returned to Paul. We said that these are the two main marks of a true believer and of a true believing community in the church. Faith in God and love for one another. Now, here, Paul adds one more aspect of the Christian life: hope, the hope of salvation. This can’t be the hope of being saved through hearing and believing the gospel, which is needed to become a Christian. These are Christians! So what salvation is Paul talking about here? The hope of final salvation that the people of God are waiting for, including the return of Christ, salvation from this kingdom of darkness, salvation from these bodies of death, and salvation from the influence of sin. In Christ, God has saved us, is saving us day by day through the work of his word and Spirit, and will one day return to finally save us, just as he promised. Praise God! But do you see how these three, do you see how faith, hope, and love, protect us? Faith in God and our love for one another serve as our breastplate; these things protect our hearts. And the hope of salvation serves as our helmet; it protects our head. Faith, hope, and love are what faithfulness looks like for the Christian, but also, faith, hope, and love help us remain faithful. This is a way of thinking and believing, it’s a way of life that is in the light. This is what it looks like to walk in the light as he is in the light. But the stakes couldn’t be higher. This teaching on being ready for the Day of the Lord is not so that our lives might be a little better or easier. It’s life or death.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 (NIV), “9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” This is God’s word. Now, Paul is intense in this passage because he doesn’t want people to be confused or led astray on this point. There were some people in Thessalonica who were claiming “peace and safety,” but, Paul said, destruction was coming. Wrath is coming. This is the just wrath of God against all the evil, wickedness, oppression, and abuse in this broken world. God is the perfect Judge. He sees all and understands all, including the thoughts and motives of the heart. And he has promised to bring justice to bear on the evil of the world. In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul describes it this way: “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2Th 1:8-9). This final separation from God is hell. Paul doesn’t play around here because this is serious. However, he doesn’t end this passage by using the fear of judgment as our main motivation to walk in the light. Paul actually points to the good news of Jesus as our motivation. He reminds these believers that Christ died for us so that, “whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.” Here, Paul is referring to what we looked at last week, of using the language of sleep to refer to a Christian who died before the return of Christ. In other words, whether we are alive when Christ returns or have already passed away, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins is the only sacrifice we need. His death pays the price of justice for our sins. His death allows us to be forgiven and freed from the power of sin. He suffered the wrath of God for all the sins of the world so that we do not have to. He suffered our death so that we might receive his life as a gift of God’s grace. And it is this grace that is the best motivation for us in walking and living in the light as he is in the light. Want more power to experience more faith, hope, and love? Don’t look to the wrath of hell. Look to the love and grace of heaven! Look to the grace and the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And if you do believe, then you should walk in the light because that is who you are in Christ. Flee sexual immorality. Mind your own business, work with your hands, be generous, and respectable. Tell the truth. Protect life. Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Learn the way of Jesus. Why? Because God loves you so much, he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. The gospel not only saves, it sanctifies, in fact, it strengthens our faithfulness. Because in the gospel, and only in the gospel, do we see the depth of God’s faithfulness to us. But part of the good news is yet to come. Jesus will return, the dead will be raised, judgment will come, and eternity will begin. Are we ready? Are we awake? “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” (Ro 13:12). We started with the thought experiment of what we would like people to say about us at the end of our lives. What about the Day of the Lord? What do you want God to say on that great and glorious day? Paul is trying to help us begin and continue with the ultimate end in mind, the end of the age and the return of our Lord. Our destination ought to shape our journey. Our future ought to shape our present. The hope of our future in Christ ought to help us remain faithful, even to the end of the age. And this should be an encouragement to us today. Things may or may not get easier today or tomorrow. Certain times may be quite difficult or painful. But these times will not last forever. This age will not last forever. Evil will not last forever. Death will not last forever. Jesus will return, and the best way to live, the best way to walk in the light, is to be awake and ready, quick with faith, hope, and love, and remembering our end is sure. Thank you, Lord. Let us pray.
