The Coming of the Lord — Part Three

Now, if your Bible is still open to 1 Thessalonians 5, you’re at the right spot. And we’re going to pick things up where we left off last time.

The subject matter which is under consideration by Paul at this stage in his letter is the issue of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been encouraging the believers in Thessalonica not simply to look back to what Christ has accomplished on the cross, not simply to look around to the evidences of his grace within their lives, but to be clearly looking forward to the fact that this same Jesus is coming again.

And in the opening verses of chapter 5, he sets aside their potential preoccupations with times and dates and encourages us not to get off on the wrong foot in relationship to the matter of curiosity. And we spent some time on that last week. My secretary unearthed for me during the week an illustration that I’d had in my files and overlooked, concerning this whole periphery that has continued to surround the issue of the clear instruction of the Word of God. This was an advertisement that I had pulled from The Times in London. It also appeared in the LA Times and New York Times and various newspapers all around the world. And those of you who are close enough will be able to see that it bears the banner heading “The Christ Is Now Here.” And it goes on to tell us how we’ll be able to identify him—that he won’t be a religious figure, that he will be a teacher, he will be an educator, and so on. And then it comes finally to the question “And when will we see him?” to which the answer is given, “He has not as yet declared his true status, and his location is known to only a very few disciples.” That’s always a very helpful way to approach it.

One of these disciples has announced that soon the Christ will acknowledge his identity and within the next two months will speak to humanity through a worldwide television and radio broadcast. His message will be heard inwardly, telepathically, by all peoples in their own language. And from that time, with his help, we will build a new world.

And then it says, “This statement is appearing simultaneously in major cities of the world.” And this is from The Times of Saturday, April 24, 1982. And the aging yellow on the page is a tribute to the ludicrous nature of what was declared at tremendous expense.

Now, I mentioned it last time; I want to reinforce it for you: If you want to chase mice all under the chair, in relationship to these things, then go ahead and do it, but please don’t encourage everybody else to come scurrying under the chairs with you. Allow them simply to look forward to seeing the King.

The matter of curiosity was then considered in light of the fact of our identity. We went to that in verses 4 and 5, and we saw Paul’s clear emphasis in relationship to the fact that these people were no longer what they once were. This is one of the things about becoming a Christian. To become a Christian is not simply to decide to get religious. It is not simply to reprogram the way we think about religious affairs. To become a Christian is actually to be totally revolutionized as a result of the impact of the power of God through the Spirit of God by the Word of God. And these people had been made radically new. And he says to them, “Brothers, [you] are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.” Instead, “you are all sons of the light and sons of the day.”[1]

One of the fascinating things to do is to take the New Testament and go through it asking the question: How many different ways is a Christian designated in the New Testament? How many different ways are there of saying a person is a Christian? And here we come to one of them. Paul uses this picture in other places. In Ephesians 5:8, for example, he says to his readers, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of [the] light.” “We do not belong to the … darkness”—verse 5.[2] We are not what we once were. “We belong,” he says in verse 8, “to the day.” And the point is that our identity provides the basis for the activity in which we engage. He says, “If you belong to the day, then your behavior should be daytime behavior. There are certain things,” he says, “that go on at night. There are certain features of darkness. That was your previous existence,” he said. “But God in his grace has opened chapter 2 to you. And now,” he says, “you are not to be those who are living half-asleep. You are not to spend your life yawning. You shouldn’t be living around in your slippers. You should not be living in your pajamas. Instead, you should be marked by being children of the day.”

Now, once he has laid this out, the progression of his argument is very clear, as you will notice by just a simple reading of the text. He starts in verse 8, and he says, “Since this is true concerning who we are, then this is what we are to do. For,” he says, “this is what God has done. Therefore,” he says in verse 11, “here are the practical implications.” And if you can see that simple progression in the text before you, then it will allow you to trace a line through it, and I will try and follow along the same line to help you as we go.

First of all, then, he says in verse 8, “Since we belong to the day, a number of things should be happening.” And there are three he delineates—the first of which is we should be staying awake. Staying awake. That, of course, immediately brings some of you up short, who’ve already begun to nod off by this point in the service as a result of misspent evenings last night. But anyway, just so you know: we are to be staying awake.

Verse 6, he had said the same thing: “We’re not like the others, who are asleep. Instead, let us be alert and let us be self-controlled.”[3] In other words, the Christian is the person who, amongst other things, has their wits about them. They are alert to the challenges, opportunities, struggles, and responsibilities of the day.

And the primary emphasis here in 1 Thessalonians 5—and, indeed, throughout the whole of the New Testament—is that the call to alertness, the call to self-control, the call to set aside dreaminess and carelessness is primarily a moral and a theological call. In other words, it is imperative that we are not falling foul of immoral pursuits as a result of not staying awake, and it is very, very important that we’re not hoodwinked by all kinds of crazy ideas because we’re living half-asleep.

The Christian is the person who, amongst other things, has their wits about them. They are alert to the challenges, opportunities, struggles, and responsibilities of the day.

When you’re half-asleep, a number of things are possible. Danger lurks nearby for those who are half-asleep. Certainly that is true when you’re driving your car. When you first go off to college or whatever it is, your parents are always telling you, “Would you please call every twenty minutes? Because we want to know that you’re safe, and we want to know that you haven’t fallen asleep at the wheel and imperiled yourself.” In the same way, those of you who have responsibilities for the care of others know how important it is that you’re awake and not asleep. The nurse in the middle of the night who is caring for people in the intensive care unit of a hospital needs to make sure that he or she is well awake so that they may read the charts, so that they may observe the signs, and so that they may produce the medication in the right doses at the right times. We don’t want the people there half-asleep. It’s dangerous to have them half-asleep.

Flying this week to San Antonio, the flight was late out to Chicago by an hour. I asked the girl, one of the stewardesses, “What’s the problem? Was it the weather last night?” “No,” she said, “the pilot’s asleep.” “Oh,” I said, “that’s good.” She said, “You’re right it’s good. We like them well rested.” And the fact of the matter was that they needed to meet the legal requirements of rest before they took the throne, once again, and zoomed off into the great blue yonder. We understand that. Because to be half-asleep represents danger.

Peter, writing on the same thing—1 Peter 5:8—says, “Be self-controlled and alert. Because your enemy the devil is going around like a roaring lion seeking those he may devour.”[4] Peter had learned his lesson eventually, but in the garden of Gethsemane, along with the other disciples, he failed to learn the lesson. Jesus said, “Watch and pray … that you [do] not [enter] into temptation.”[5] They neither watched, nor did they pray, and they fell right into it. First, then, it is imperative that we stay awake, because when we’re half-asleep, there is potential for danger.

Also, when we’re half-asleep, we don’t give attention to the things that deserve attention, and we don’t give attention that is deserved. The church in Ephesus was warned of this when Paul took his leave of them. You can read it in Acts 20. He says to the elders there, “I want you to watch yourselves and watch the church. I want you to make sure that you’re really paying attention. Because if you don’t, then you will find that all kinds of things will creep up on you.”[6] And it is when we’re half-asleep that we may be compromised.

You ever fallen asleep on the couch and awaken to find that somebody has done something to you—put something on your head, or tied something to you, or tied your shoelaces together, or whatever else it was? How did they possibly manage to do so? Because we were half-asleep. If we had been alert, they would not have managed to pull it off.

Now, what Paul is saying is very clear: “Here you are, believers. You have been made children of the day. It is right for me to anticipate that you will then be marked by daytime activities, and I want you to make sure that you stay awake.”

“Secondly,” he says, “it is imperative that you guard your heart.” Where does this come from? “Let us be self-controlled”; next: “putting on faith and love as a breastplate.” The picture here is of Christian armor. We don’t quite know how Paul makes it to this metaphor, except to say that the issue of being alert probably triggered in his mind the question of a sentry. Because the responsibility of a sentry on guard is to make sure that even if the whole city falls asleep, he doesn’t fall asleep. He is the one to be alert. And maybe that’s the progression in Paul’s mind. As soon as he starts to think about being alert, he then moves immediately to the picture of the soldier on guard, and so he says, “By the way, make sure you got your breastplate on. Make sure that you’re guarding your heart.” In Ephesians 6, he uses the picture of a breastplate in terms of righteousness.[7] Here, he figures it in relationship to faith and love—reminding us that the metaphor may be used in a variety of different ways, and he felt free to apply it in whichsoever way he determined.

But the issue is clear: How are we, then, going to guard our hearts? “Well,” he says, “you guard them in relationship to faith and in relationship to love.” What is this faith to which he refers? Well, it is the faith that believes in the promises of God, it is the faith which receives the forgiveness of God, and it is the faith which lives life in relationship to those two truths. How are we going to go out and face the issues of our day in a world that is increasingly preoccupied with syncretistic and pluralistic religious experience, that is increasingly disenchanted with science and with secular, humanistic thought? Indeed, probably within a few years, the great issue will not be science against Christianity or humanism against Christianity, but it will be spiritism against Christianity. It will be two rival forms of spirituality probably by the end of the twentieth century. And how, then, is the Christian going to be able to articulate what they believe? How, then, is the believer going to be able to say, “Well, you know, I believe in God,” in a way that sets it apart from someone who says, “So what else is new?” How are we going to be able to speak concerning the issues of the faith and of truth in a way that delineates it and sets it apart as distinct? The answer is: we are not, unless we ensure that we are taking to ourselves this breastplate—believing in God’s promises, trusting in God’s forgiveness, and behaving life in relationship to the two. Also, the love of which he speaks, which is a constituent part of the breastplate, is not some kind of vapid sentimentalism, but rather, it is our response to the love which God has shown us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that love will be displayed in relationship to one another.

Oh, so what is a Christian? Well, a Christian is someone who is awake, and a Christian is someone who is preoccupied with faith and love. He is seeking, she is seeking, to guard his or her heart.

Then, thirdly, you will notice that we’re not only to stay awake and guard our heart, but we are to keep our heads. That’s the whole point of the helmet: “the hope of salvation as a helmet.” Doesn’t it scare you to see people screeching down the freeway on motorbikes without helmets? Doesn’t it make the hair stand up on the back of your neck as you just think for a moment of the implications of falling off that thing at sixty or seventy or eighty miles an hour and landing on your head? It’s not a pretty thought, and it’s not a pretty sight, if you’ve ever seen the end result of it. The helmet may not be particularly attractive, it may not allow you to look cool, it may not make you feel the way you want to feel on your bike, but it’s really, really important. And there is a great temptation, it seems, on those who ride bikes to do it without their helmet. And there is a great temptation in Christian living to try and live our Christian lives, as it were, without the helmet. And Paul says, “You shouldn’t do it. It’s dangerous, and it may prove fatal. The helmet,” he says, “that we gather to our heads is the hope of salvation.”

What is the salvation to which he refers? How do we define it? It’s important that we can. Indeed, if we can’t, then we don’t know what it is.

We tell somebody, “You know, I really believe in salvation.”

And they say, “Well, what’s that?”

And we say, “Well, it’s… It’s salvation, you know?”

Say, “No, you haven’t told me anything yet. You just told me a word. What does the word mean?”

“Well, it just means salvation, you know. Saved.”

“Uh-huh.”

So, we need to know what he means.

When you read the Bible, you discover that salvation is regarded both negatively and positively—that in being saved, which is a word that the Bible uses continuously, we are saved from and we are saved to. So, from what are we saved? Well, we are saved, says the Bible, from the guilt and pollution and the punishment of sin. All the things that marked our lives before Jesus entered in we have been saved from. You can find this all over the place. The positive side of it is that we have been saved to. And God has not only taken us away from all this bad stuff, but he has promised to us all this good stuff, if we might put it in that way. And all the promises that are ours in the Lord Jesus Christ have been granted to us on the basis of what Jesus has done. But until a man or a woman understands this—and that’s why the Bible is given to us, so that we might understand it. That’s why it’s written down in sentences, with verbs and adjectives and nouns and pronouns and conjunctions and everything. That’s why it’s not there as a big sort of mishmash of nonsense, of blessed thoughts. It is there in order that we might apply our minds to it. And in applying our minds to truth, we may be able to stay awake, guard our hearts, and keep our heads.

“Now,” says Paul, “it’s imperative that you do these three things, because,”—you will notice what he says in verse 9—“God has done certain things in your lives, as Christians, to enable you to that kind of activity and to strengthen you as you seek to live out the Christian life.” Now, the progression is very, very clear. How we should behave, he says, is based on who we are. Right? “Since you are children of the day—this is who you are—this is how you ought to behave.” And who we are is based upon what God has done. “You ought to behave in this way because of who you are. And the reason you are who you are,” he says, “is because of what God has done.”

What has God done? That’s what he gives us in verses 9 and 10. First of all, he says, he “did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation.” Let’s just stop here for a moment on this issue of wrath. What does he mean, he doesn’t “appoint us to suffer wrath”? As soon as we think of the word wrath in relationship to God, we usually think of it in negative terms. We think of it in terms of man’s anger, which is often just an outburst. It is capricious. It is volatile. It is not, in any sense, consistent. And so, when we look at the idea of wrath in relationship to God, we’re tempted to press onto who God is the misconceptions that are based on who we are.

But in point of fact, this is what we discover: because God is absolutely without sin, because God is absolutely pure and undefiled, the character of God must have a settled reaction to sin when it confronts it. And the settled reaction of the character of God to sin is the response, on the one hand, of his wrath—that it is not capricious in any way, but it is his divine nature that God must punish sin. He cannot overlook sin. He cannot wink his eye at sin. He doesn’t let us off with sin. He must bring to bear his rightful response upon it. And, says the Bible, the rightful response of God is his wrath and that men and women—and you can turn to this in Ephesians 2 and see it there—men and women, outside of the work of God in Jesus Christ, live their lives as objects of God’s wrath.

“Well,” people say, “well, I never heard this before in my life. I thought the message of the Bible was ‘God loves you.’ Now you’re saying here that unless I know God in Christ, that I am an object of his wrath.” Well, it’s not so important what I’m saying. What is important is: Does the Bible say it? Ephesians chapter 2, describing their preconverted state: “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”[8] In other words, that’s what we deserve. We deserve punishment. We deserve death, which was the punishment for sin, and we deserved hell, which is simply eternal separation from God as a result of him meting out his wrath.

So, in other words, it was the wrath of God that made Calvary necessary, for sin had to be dealt with; and it was the love of God that made Calvary a reality. Because there, in the death of Jesus, you have the necessary punishment for sin making possible forgiveness for those who are united with Jesus, so that all of my sin was imputed to Christ upon the cross—he bore my sin—and all of his righteousness was then credited to my account. “And,” says Paul, “here is the wonderful thing: we should rightly have been appointed to wrath, but God did not do that. He appointed us instead to receive his salvation.”

It was the wrath of God that made Calvary necessary, for sin had to be dealt with; and it was the love of God that made Calvary a reality.

And the Thessalonians understood this. And the believer needs to understand it. They were grateful for God’s initiative in their lives because they understood their predicament. And until a person understands their predicament, there is no reason for gratitude at someone coming to save them.

You remember, I told you years ago how, in the middle of the night in our previous house, all the fire brigade and ambulances and police cars from who know where came and came battering on our door in the middle of the night. And I ran down the stairs and answered the door and was confronted by flashing lights and sirens and policemen. And the policeman said, “We’ve come to rescue you!” And I said, “But I don’t need rescued! There’s nothing wrong here.” He said, “Oh! We must be at the wrong house.” And then he went up the street to rescue somebody else. But if it had been the other way around—that I was sound asleep, and the house was burning around me, and I was in danger, and I was unaware of my predicament—I may just the same have said, “I don’t need rescued.” And the man would have said, “Don’t you smell that burning? Don’t you see those flames? Don’t you see your predicament?” I’d have said, “Oh, goodness gracious! Yes, I do. Save me!”

Now, you see, this is what had happened to the Thessalonians. First of all, someone had come—namely, the apostle Paul—and said, “You know what? You have a predicament. And there is no possible way of getting yourself out of it. There is only one way to come out of it, and that is as a result of the intervening work of God, who, in his great mercy, has appointed you to salvation—which,” you will notice, “you received through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Why is it that men and women do not cry out to be saved? Because they don’t know there is anything from which they need to be saved. And when we remove the wrath of God from our preaching, we denude it of its importance, of its emphasis, and of its authority. And all we’re left able then to say is “You know what? I think it’d be a good idea for you to believe in Jesus. I think you’d really like it, you know. I think you’d find it fun. I think it would help you. I mean, I think you’re lonely, and you could go somewhere. I think you’re upset, and you could get calmed down. I think there’s peace in this and there’s joy in this.” And the person says, “Yeah, I know. But there’s peace and joy other places. You know, I can get calmed down other ways. I don’t think I want to get into this.” So they pass it by.

But that’s not the message the Bible brings. The Bible doesn’t suggest it. The Bible says, “Listen, you’re in deep trouble, and I’ve got good news for you.” “God,” he says, “did[n’t] appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “He came [to] his own,” says John in his opening prologue, “and his own received him not. But [to] as many as received him, to them [he gave] power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”[9]

So that’s what it means to be an evangelical Christian. In part, it is to say to people, “Listen, because Jesus died on the cross, it doesn’t mean you’re automatically forgiven. You’re not! That’s why you don’t feel forgiven. That’s why you still feel guilty. That’s why you go and do religious things, and it doesn’t meet the longings of your heart.” Because Jesus died on the cross, it doesn’t mean you’re automatically set free. What do you need to do? You need to come to him personally, acknowledge your predicament, and ask him, by his mercy and his goodness, to remove you from your predicament. He appoints. We receive. And there is no other way to go. There is no other person to whom we may go. There is no other philosophy that can deal with the guilt and the stain of sin that needs to be removed.

And all of this on the basis of his death; you will notice that. How do we receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ? And how does our Lord Jesus Christ grant salvation to us? On the basis of his death. “He died for us,” he says. Now, Paul doesn’t work out the whole doctrine of the atonement here. He does it elsewhere. But when we compare Scripture with Scripture, we understand that Paul’s clear emphasis is this: that the death of Jesus was on our behalf, and it was for our benefit. Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life [through Jesus Christ] our Lord.” So do you want to continue to live your life drawing the wages of sin, or would you like to come to God and find the benefit of the gift of his eternal life?

And the life that we now enter into is on the basis of his death. And the life into which we are brought is a life lived together with him. That’s verse 10: “He died for us so that”—what? — “whether we[’re] awake or asleep, we may live together with him.”

Loved ones, this is a tremendously important truth in Scripture. It’s absolutely crucial for us as we seek to live our Christian lives. It was summarized and sung so helpfully for us, together, in the words of the great hymn: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”[10] And yet many of us have lived another week relying on the shifting, sinking sands of our own performance or our own feelings. So we determine how well we’re doing in relationship to God on the basis of how we happen to be feeling, or how well we’ve been reading our Bible, or how many people we may have witnessed to, as if somehow or another, by our good deeds—albeit Christian, conservative, evangelical, religious deeds—as if somehow or another, by these things we make ourselves Christian and we ensure ourselves for heaven.

It is on the basis of the fact that God has intervened in our lives, shown us our predicament, brought us to himself through the power of his Son, died for our sins, raised for our justification, sent his Spirit to live within our lives that we are able to say, “I understand it now. My Christianity is based not upon who I am or upon what I do, but it is based upon who Jesus is and what he has done.” And there’s all the difference in the world. It is a dreadful tyranny to seek to live a Christian life based on who I am and what I do. ʼCause who I am is wretched, and what I do is worse. And if I take the performance of the last few days and base my hope of heaven on my performance, what solid ground is that to face eternity with? Not a lot! For “we have erred, and strayed from [his] ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, … and there is no health within us.”[11] So what are we going to do? We’re going to plead the only thing we can ever plead. “Bold I shall stand in that great day,” said Count Zinzendorf,

For who aught to my charge will lay
While through his blood absolved I am
From sin and fear and guilt and shame?[12]

What do you do as a believer when sin comes into your life? What do you do as a believer when you are confronted by your guilt and by your proneness for rebellion and the pressing urgency towards disinterest in the things of God? To where do we run? There is only one place to which we might run, only one person to whom we might run. And this, you see, is the emphasis here. He’s encouraging these dear, threatened Thessalonian believers to understand, “Listen…” Again, in Zinzendorf’s words:

When from the dust of death I rise
To claim my mansion in the skies,
E’en then, shall this be all my plea:
“Jesus has lived and died for me.”

The ground of our salvation is what Jesus has done upon the cross. The evidence of it is the outworking of it in our lives.

I wonder: do you understand that? I wonder, loved ones: Are you wearing your helmets, or are you flying down the freeway of your Christian life with your hair blowing in the breeze, susceptible to every bump on the road and tyrannized by the thought that you may fall off? ʼCause if you fall off, you know if you hit your head, you’re a goner. And every magazine article that comes your way, and every new theory that blows across your brain box, and every idea that comes walloping out of somebody’s bookstore, you don’t know where you are. I’ll tell you why: ʼcause you’re not wearing your helmet.

The ground of our salvation is what Jesus has done upon the cross. The evidence of it is the outworking of it in our lives.

The devil comes to you, sows a thought in the back of your mind. It appears from nowhere. You say to yourself, “Goodness, what a heinous thought!” While you’re recognizing you have this horrible thought in your mind—a murderous thought, perhaps; even the thought of your own suicide, perhaps; even the thought of spiteful hatred towards someone that has come from nowhere to you—and while it’s in your head, he comes through the front door of your head, and he says, “Hey, excuse me? I believe you call yourself a Christian. How come you’re having these dreadful, heinous thoughts?” What do you say?

This is what you say: “I’m having dreadful, heinous thoughts because while sin no longer reigns in my life, it remains—and because you, stinko, devil-o, are around with your hordes and your fiendish schemes and your fiery darts and your devilish thoughts. But here’s my answer: yes, I had the thought, but the ground of my salvation is in what Jesus has done upon the cross. He defeated you at the cross. He died for my sins. He deals with that thought. And I look not to my own performance, but I look away to Jesus Christ.”

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From thy [riven] side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save me [from its guilt and its power].[13]

All right. Well, our time has gone. Let’s just go to verse 11 and wrap this up.

What’s the progression of his thinking? Verse 8, he says, “Since we belong to the day, it is imperative that you stay awake, guard your heart, and keep your head.” Why? “Well,” he says, “because God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation, and he died for us so that whether we lie in the grave in our bodies or whether we are walking the streets when we come, we may live together with him.” There is nothing that can thwart the purpose and plan of God within our lives. Sickness may come. Premature death may take us, from a human perspective. All kinds of things may cross our path. But for the believer, we are safe. Neither angels nor principalities, neither powers, neither sword nor persecution, says Paul in Romans 8, can “separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[14] It is the only relationship in all of life that is eternal in its dimensions. Neither marriage nor parenthood nor childhood nor sibling relationships will last in the way that our relationship with the Lord Jesus will last.

So what, then, is the implication of this? Well, he tells us in verse 11. What are we supposed to do with all this information? He says, “This is what you’re to do: I want you to encourage one another, and I want you to build each other up.” Some of you may have a version where the word edify is found. Oikodomeō is the Greek word. It means “to build up.” It’s the same word that would be used for putting a building in place, constructing all those two-by-fours and making sure that it stands fairly and safely; or, from fishing, the mending of nets to put them all back so that there will be no holes when you go fishing the next time; or, from orthopedics, the resetting of broken and fractured bones so that growth may proceed from there. “Now,” says Paul, “I don’t want the news of the coming of Jesus to be a source of embitterment or a source of confusion, but I want it to be a source of encouragement and a source of edification.”

“Oh,” you say, “isn’t that an amazing conclusion? I mean, you would think after he’d gone all along on these things, there would be some, you know, big, dramatic punch line: ‘Jesus is coming back! I want you to understand this and this and this. Now, therefore, encourage one another and edify one another.’ Is that it?” Yeah, that’s it! Don’t you think that’s good? Couldn’t you do with a little bit of encouragement? Wouldn’t you like to be built up a little bit? The world’s a tough spot to live, isn’t it? Which of us comes in here this morning without some kind of battle scars from the week that is gone? Which of us emerges from the race of the Christian life without a few spikes in the shins, without a few bruises, when you take your shirt off and see your rib cage, as a result of elbows? What do I need? What do you need? Encouragement! Where are you going to get encouragement from? From whom? Notice: from “one another.” Who’s “one another”? The guy sitting next to you, the lady sitting behind you, the person sitting in front of you.

My task is to teach the Scriptures so that I might edify the saints so that you might do the works of ministry.[15] When that starts to happen, I start to get real obsolete, and so do my colleagues. And we like that, not because we’re lazy but because the penny is beginning to drop, and people are beginning to discover what’s supposed to be happening here—that they don’t have to go and see “the man” or “the men”; they just need to see “one another,” if we’re going to do what the Bible says: “Encourage one another.”

There’s people around you this morning who are, frankly, flat-out discouraged. They are discredited. They are misunderstood. They are maligned. They feel as though they were attached to a combine harvester with a long rope and dragged through a hayfield for about four and a half weeks. They have emerged bloody and bruised into the company of God’s people, and they’re not probably going to go away real strengthened as a result of “How are you?” “Fine.” “How are you?” “Fine. Fine. Fine. Good. Fine. Good. Fine. Fine. Fine. Good. Fine. Fine.” Forget it! Now, it doesn’t mean we’re all going to run out and trip over one another, say, “Excuse me, could you just stand still here? I want to edify you for a moment. Excuse me? Here comes some… Some encouragement is about to come your way.”

But what it does mean is this: in simple ways, and not as a result of an elite group retaining the prerogative, we can reciprocate the necessities of life to one another. Supporting, caring, encouraging, comforting are ministries which belong to all the members of Christ’s body. Don’t tell me you don’t know what to do in this church. Don’t tell me you can’t find a ministry in this church. That is absolutely bogus! I’ll give you a ministry right here—and when you’ve finished this one, you come back, and I’ll give you another one. Okay? As of today, commit yourself to being an encourager in Parkside Church: “That will be my ministry. Well, what’ll I do?” You figure it out. “Where will I go?” You figure it out. “Who will I do it to?” Anyone you want to! And you got a whole group to work with. How are you going to do it? Well, you can smile; that would help. Some of you can hug, cards, squeezes, slaps, shakes, milkshakes, tears, listening.

But let me tell you how you really do it. Back in 4:18: “Therefore encourage each other with these words.”[16] “These words.” And people say, “Why am I supposed to read the Bible? Why do I have to read the Bible every day?” Well, it’s food for your soul. No army can march on an empty stomach. It’s a lamp for your path.[17] You shouldn’t go out without a map; you’ll just get totally lost. It’s the way that God has decided to communicate to you and declare his love and guidance and faithfulness to you in your life. Therefore, it’s imperative that you hear him speak to you on a daily basis. And also, it is the source of your instruction and edification in the lives of other people. So we are to encourage one another with the Word of God.

So when we read the Word of God, one of the ways in which we can appropriate it to ourselves is simply to say, “Here’s something that I can use to encourage somebody.” I read Psalm 46, let’s say, and I opened it up, and it said, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore [we] will not … fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be [cast] into the [depths] of the sea.”[18] And at eleven o’clock, somebody phoned up and told you that their daughter found a tumor in their uterus, and they were going to have a test following on Monday. Now, what are you going to say to them? Well, you see, if you never read your Bible and you never read Psalm 46:1–2, you’re sure not going to use that. But if you did, you might just say, “You know what? I could encourage you. Psalm 46. Let me read it to you on the phone.” It strengthens. It builds up. It encourages.

The Thessalonians’ needs were like our needs: they were personal; they were pastoral. And the answer to their needs? Theological. The true pastor must always be a good theologian. I get worried when I hear guys tell me, you know, “I’m not a theologian.” I know what they mean by that, I think. But if they mean by that, “You know, I’m not getting into Christian doctrine and, you know, explaining the Bible and stuff,” we ought to be really concerned. Because I have nothing else to say to you except Christian doctrine and theology.

You come and ask my advice, my encouragement, the only reason to listen to me is if it comes out of this book. You want to be a Christian counselor? I’ll tell you how to be a Christian counselor. You know what a Christian counselor is? It is someone who is able to skillfully understand and apply the Word of God to the needs and longings and hopes and aspirations of people around them. And the reason that we have flushed out so much in the way of professionalism is not solely due to the depth of the needs of people—although I recognize there are many, and there is need for skillful care in many cases—but it partly is because maybe we need to do a little better on 1 Thessalonians 5:11: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up.”

“Oh, you know, I don’t think I’ll come to the Communion service tonight. I just don’t feel like it.” Yeah, I know you don’t feel like it. But 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says you’re supposed to encourage one another and build one another up. And this would be a good chance to do that. “Yeah, I think I’ll be there.”

“I don’t know who the people are getting baptized. They don’t know me. They don’t need me.” Yeah, they do. And since you’ve been called to encourage one another and edify one another and build one another up, you wouldn’t want to miss a chance like that, would you? You wouldn’t want to miss the chance to take somebody who has been brought from darkness into light, has been made a child of the day, is struggling to make their way through life, is coming out of the buffetings of a week, is trying to find their understanding of the Scriptures and make progress, and they put one foot in front of the other, they fall down on their faces, and they’re looking around for somebody just to pick them up and set them on—you wouldn’t want to miss a chance to obey the Bible, would you?

Loved ones, God’s Word has been given to us not simply to increase our knowledge but to change our lives. And the emphasis here is real clear: the Jesus who is coming back is the same one who died for us and rose again. The coming King is our crucified and risen Savior. Therefore, we’ve got nothing to fear. And the ultimate reason for boldness on the day when he comes doesn’t lie in who we are but lies in who he is.

PS: You’ll never know who you are till you find out who he is. And some of you are spending all your time trying to find yourself, and then you’ll go look for him. I want to tell you: meet him, you’ll find yourself.

Let’s pray:

Father, thank you that your Word is clear. I do pray that you will, by your Spirit, clarify the myriad thoughts in the minds of our congregation here today. Some have come and are just unsure about all these things, and I pray, Lord, that they may hear your gentle voice speaking to their lives, calling them to yourself. Some of us have just come buffeted and beaten up, and we need a word of encouragement, and I pray that the truth of who you are and what you’ve done may be the very underpinning of all of our Christian experience. And we thank you most of all that when we look to Jesus, we look to one who is our Redeemer, and we look to one who is faithful and who’s true. So enable us to look from ourselves and away to him. For Jesus’ sake we ask it. Amen.

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[1] 1 Thessalonians 5:4–5 (NIV 1984).

[2] 1 Thessalonians 5:5 (NIV 1984).

[3] 1 Thessalonians 5:6 (paraphrased).

[4] 1 Peter 5:8 (paraphrased).

[5] Matthew 26:41 (NIV 1984).

[6] Acts 20:28 (paraphrased).

[7] See Ephesians 6:14.

[8] Ephesians 2:3 (NIV 1984).

[9] John 1:11–12 (KJV).

[10] Edward Mote, “The Solid Rock” (1834).

[11] The Book of Common Prayer.

[12] Nikolaus L. von Zinzendorf, trans. John Wesley “Jesu, Thy Blood and Righteousness” (1739, 1740). Lyrics lightly altered.

[13] Augustus M. Toplady, “Rock of Ages” (1776).

[14] Romans 8:39 (NIV 1984).

[15] See Ephesians 4:12.

[16] 1 Thessalonians 4:18 (NIV 1984).

[17] See Psalm 119:105.

[18] Psalm 46:1–2 (KJV).