1 Thessalonians 5:1-11: Children of the Light or the Night

Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the book of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5. We’re continuing today our series “Kingdom Called” in this great book of the NT, Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. And as you’re turning there, I want to start with a quotation from one of my favorite Texans—the incomparable David Crowder. 

Crowder writes as follows in his song “Child of God”:
This dirt I came from // This dirt I came from // This dirt I came from
It's my dirt, but it ain’t my home
This dirt ain’t my home // This dirt, no, it ain’t my home // This dirt ain’t my home
From the breath of God, I was born
In the next verse Crowder transitions, and he talks about the dirt from a different vantage point. 
This dirt couldn’t hold Him in // This dirt couldn’t hold Him in // This dirt couldn’t hold Him in
He's resurrected, I’m born again
This dirt, gone someday // This dirt, gone someday // This dirt, gone someday
He's comin’ again and we're flyin’ away 

That’s a great summary right there of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Last week we talked about the positive aspects of Christ’s return. We talked about how Christ will come and there will be this awesome spectacle of sight and sound and fury. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” And this will be a great day for us. Dead or alive we will be raised with Christ Jesus. And we will join him in the air. 

But I want to be clear about something, Christ’s return won’t be great for everybody. Are y’all with me? I hope that that’s clear in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. And I say that with a heavy heart. Christ’s return spells victory and triumph for the believer. But for the unbeliever, it triggers judgment. Or to use Paul’s language here, it’ll be a great event for the “children of light.” But for the “children of night,” it’ll spell destruction. It triggers wrath, retribution, and terror. 

And by the way, there are only two categories in the NT. You’re either a child of the light or a child of the night. And there is no third option. Which one are you? You’ve got believer and unbeliever. Saved and unsaved. Child of God and enemy of God. Wheat and Weeds. Sheep and Goat. And the question is, “Which one are you?” Because there is no third option, and there is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. Because Mohammed’s not coming back for those who belong to him. Buddha’s not coming back. Joseph Smith isn’t coming back. Only Jesus has a second coming. 

So, the structure of this message today is very simple. In verses 1-3, Paul addresses Christ’s return and what that spells for the unbeliever. And it’s not pretty! And in verses 4-11, Paul addresses Christ’s return and what that spells for the believer. And as part of Paul’s assurances for the “children of light” in verses 4-11, he also gives us some practical commands. Because Christ’s return isn’t just some hypothetical subject that theologians wrestle over in their ivory towers. There are practical implications concerning Christ’s return and how that should affect our daily lives. And Paul fleshes that out for us here. So let me give you some practical instructions from the text on how Christ’s return should affect our daily lives. 

Go ahead and write this down as #1 in your notes.

1. Christ’s return is accompanied by judgment (5:1-3) 

You know, I’ll just tell you that this is not my favorite topic to talk about, judgment. I’d much rather talk about God’s love and mercy. But this is an inescapable part of God’s nature, his hatred of sin and also his wrath. That’s what makes the cross of Christ so precious to us as believers, because Christ absorbed the wrath of God for us on the cross, so that we don’t have to experience it. So even though this isn’t my favorite thing to talk about, it’s essential to pure doctrine, and it’s an essential part of Scripture. In fact, there’s discussion of the “Day of the Lord” in several books of the OT as well as the NT. So, we need to understand this and reckon with this, Verse By Verse Fellowship. And hopefully it’ll motivate us towards prayer and evangelism.

Paul says in verse 1,

1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 

So maybe Paul didn’t get into the particulars of how Christ was going to raise the dead when he returned, and how Christ was going to rapture believers… that’s why he wrote 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. But the Thessalonians did know something about Jesus’s return. Paul taught them something. And he reiterates it here.

2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 

The language here is similar to Jesus’s language during what’s called the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24-25). Jesus took his disciples aside and told them what to expect before his second coming. And one of the things that Jesus told his disciples is that people will be surprised (even shocked!) at his coming. Jesus even compared his second coming to the days of Noah. Jesus said, “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt 24:37-39). People will be having a good time. People will be assuming that they are good with God. People will be saying, “There is peace and security” even though there isn’t on earth or in their hearts. They are not at peace with God. And in that season of obliviousness and apathy towards God, Christ will return. And the wrath of God will be poured out on the earth. 

I’m really thankful for that “Noah analogy” that Jesus uses, because that’s how I see the church at the time of Christ’s return. We will escape God’s judgment and the pouring out of God’s wrath just like Noah and his family escaped God’s judgment at the flood. But instead of a boat, we will escape through rapture and the receiving of our new bodies. 

Jesus also compared the timing of his coming to the labor pains that come upon a pregnant woman. Let me read another section from the Olivet Discourse. This is Matthew 24:3-8. “As [Jesus] sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’ And Jesus answered them, ‘See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.’”

So, as I understand it, there will be “signs of the end of the age” including these birth pains: war, rumors of war, false messiahs, famines, earthquakes, etc. It’ll seem like the earth is groaning and heaving like a woman about to give birth. And this will signal that the time is near. Keep in mind, though, that in that same Olivet Discourse, Jesus said, “No one knows the hour or the day” (Matt 24:36). So, we will have a sense that the coming is near, but we won’t have specificity. 

Some of you might come and ask me after the service, “Pastor Tony, do you think Christ’s return is soon?” And if you do, I will tell you, “Maybe!” Maybe because I can see an increase in catastrophes worldwide and wars and rumors of wars. I even see evidence of false Christs out there who try to compete with Jesus. But I’m not going to stake my reputation as a Bible teacher on Christ’s coming this year or next year or any time soon. But I do believe in what’s called the “imminent return of Christ.” I believe that his return can happen at any time. And that’s why we need to be ready for it. More on that in a second. 

Now in terms of verse 3, where Paul says, 

3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them … and they will not escape. 

Concerning that, you might say, “What does that destruction look like?” Well, I believe that this is the wrath of God detailed in the Book of Revelation (cf. Rev 6-19) including the seven seal judgments, the seven bowl judgments, and the seven trumpet judgments. There are descriptions of this in the OT as well. All of this “destruction,” as Paul calls it, will take place in a seven-year period of tribulation involving an anti-Christ, a false prophet, and Satan producing a massive upheaval in our world. Some believe that the church will live through that seven-year period of tribulation and be a witness for Christ in the midst of that chaos. But I personally believe that the church will be raptured out of the world during that period and escape God’s wrath, like Noah in his Ark. 

But for the unbelievers who live through that period, they will experience God’s wrath and judgment. And verse 3 says clearly, 

they will not escape. 

Coincidently that wrath will not just involve their physical death. The Book of Revelation also speaks of a permanent place of eternal torment and retribution called the Lake of Fire (Rev 19:20; 20:10-15). The Bible states clearly that Satan and his demon hoard along with the anti-Christ will be cast into the “Lake of Fire.” But also, all who reject Christ as Lord, whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of life, they will populate the Lake of Fire with Satan for eternity. They will be eternal recipients of God’s wrath. As the Book of Daniel prophesied many centuries ago: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2).

By the way, last week I mentioned what all Christians everywhere have believed concerning the end times. There are things that we can disagree on (like the timing of the rapture), but there are things that we have to hold to in order to be considered orthodox Christians. And this is one of those non-negotiables in the Christian faith. This is essential to our doctrine—eternal life for the believer and eternal death for the unbeliever, meaning eternal conscious punishment in the Lake of Fire. There’s no getting around that. 

And that’s what gives our mission here in the world such urgency. Because Christ could return at any moment! And yes, we pray, “Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus.” But every day that God gives us before Christ’s return is a grace. Every day that that prayer goes unanswered is a grace; it allows us another day, another chance, another opportunity to share the gospel with someone, so that they might move from darkness to light. 

So, Christ’s return is accompanied by judgment. But this is true as well. Go ahead and write this down as #2 in your notes.

2. Christ’s return is anticipated by the children of light (5:4-11)

And to that you might say, “Why? Why Pastor Tony?” “If Christ’s return is accompanied by judgment, why do we anticipate it? Can’t we just postpone it indefinitely?” Well here’s why we anticipate it according to Paul. Here’s why we, as believers, have nothing to fear when Christ returns. Paul says in verse 4, 

4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, 

The “you” there is emphatic in the Greek. It’s a hard contrast from those who won’t escape judgment in verse 3. “But you (You, brothers!) are not in darkness!” It’s emphatic, but it’s also plural. It refers to all the brothers and sisters in Thessalonica. And it applies to you as well, Verse By Verse Fellowship. If you truly are in Christ, then you are not in darkness, and you have nothing to fear. 

4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

Jesus said himself, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Do you follow Jesus, church? Are you one of his disciples? If so, you do not walk in darkness. You have the light of life.

6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 

Now let me explain this, because this is a little confusing in English. It’s clearer in Greek. Last week we talked about those who sleep as a euphemism for death. And Paul used the word κοιμάω. Do you remember that? “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep [κοιμάω meaning “those who are dead”], that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (4:13). But here Paul changes the vocabulary of sleep from κοιμάω to another word for sleep, καθεύδω. Sorry to be so technical here, but this is important. 

So, Paul isn’t talking about those who are asleep in the Lord, those who are “dead in Christ” (4:16). He’s talking about those who are asleep spiritually. They are not “awake” to the things of the Lord. Let me put it this way, “they are slumbering spiritually.” You talk about the Lord, and they yawn. You mention Christ’s imminent return, and they rub their eyes and nod off. 

But Paul says, “We are not like that!” “We are not children of the night; we are children of the light!” 

8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 

Notice the threefold armor of the Christian in that verse: faith, hope, love. Have you heard that trifecta before? “The breastplate of faith and love.” THERE! “I’ve got my breastplate on! Faith and Love! I believe the Lord Jesus Christ. I love the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I’m going to man-up and guard my post. I’m going to guard my heart. I’m not going to give my heart over to the things of the world.” 

Also, there’s “the helmet of the hope of salvation.” THERE! “I’ve got my helmet on. It’s protecting my mind. And I’m going to fix my mind on the coming of Jesus Christ. He’s coming back for me. He loves me. That is my hope.” 

And by the way this is a sure-fire hope. It’s not like, “gee-whiz, I hope that happens… cross-my-fingers.” That’s not how biblical hope works. Biblical hope is a sure thing, because it’s built upon the promises of God. It’s more secure than the Rock of Gibraltar. In a world of insecurity and uncertainty, you can be certain of this, our hope of salvation is secure in Christ Jesus. 

So, I got my heart guarded with the breastplate of faith and love! No cynicism. No doubts. No love for this world. I got my mind guarded with the helmet of salvation! No godless philosophies. No false doctrines or false teaching getting in here. I’m holding fast to the hope of my salvation! 

And what is salvation? What is it? What do we need to be saved from? Why do we need a savior? I think we need to be clear about this, because people in our day don’t understand the nature of what it means to be saved. It’s not just that we receive eternal life when we are saved, that’s true. But also, we escape eternal death. We are saved from God’s wrath! Do you know that?     

Paul says,

9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 

We are saved from God’s wrath! How? Through the death of Christ. It’s right here in 1 Thessalonians 5 among other places. 

9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us

Remember the verse in that song “In Christ Alone.” 
Til on that cross as Jesus died // The wrath of God was satisfied
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid // Here in the death of Christ I live.

They say that this is a controversial verse in that song. Some churches won’t even sing it! But really, it’s not all that controversial… not for a Bible-believing Christian anyway. It’s the truth. It’s 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10. Christ died for us so that we might escape God’s wrath. Jesus absorbed the wrath of God into himself, that’s why he cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He took God’s wrath for us on the cross, so that we might escape God’s wrath eternally! Isn’t that awesome?!!! I don’t deserve that. You don’t deserve that either. It’s called grace. And it’s the most important thing in this world. 

Listen, this has been a hard couple years for our country and also our church. You want something to be thankful for in the midst of hard times. Be thankful that you are a recipient of God’s grace and not a recipient of God’s wrath. Because even if there’s nothing else in your life to give thanks for, you can give thanks for that. If you have that, if you have your sins forgiven and you are able to escape God’s wrath, you have everything you need, even if you don’t have anything else. If you don’t have that, you don’t have anything, no matter what else you have!

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep [not asleep spiritually like we saw in verse 6 but asleep physically meaning “dead in Christ” ] we might live with him. 

11 Therefore 

Notice how Paul says almost the same exact thing as he said earlier at the end of chapter 4.

encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 

Encourage one another with the truth about Christ’s return. Encourage one another with the truth of the gospel. “Build one another up!” The Greek here is οἰκοδομέω. It’s a carpenter’s term. It’s construction terminology. “Build each other up!” Like Bob Vila. Like Chip and Joana Gaines! Build each other up with the truth of Christ’s return. “Christ is coming back. He’s coming back soon. I can’t wait. I’m going to get a new body. I’m going to be sin-free for eternity! Jesus is going to judge all the sinners and all the evildoers in this world and nobody gets away with evil. Hallelujah!” 

So, quickly now, let me give you four applications from this passage (a, b, c, and d). Write this down under letter a. 

a. Be Ready

Be ready for Jesus’s return. To that you might say, “I’m not ready, Pastor Tony.” Well, get ready! Because it could happen at any moment. Remember that song from the 1990s, “People Get Ready!” 

People get ready Jesus is comin'

Soon we'll be going home

That song came out in the nineties, but it still resonates with me. It’s a good song. And it’s true. By the way, Alastair doesn’t say the nineties, he says the late 1900s. He said something a while back about George H.W. Bush and the late 1900s, and I said “the late 1900s?!!! You mean the nineties?!!!” 

People get ready Jesus is comin'! When’s he coming? I don’t know. But I want to be ready when he does. 

Secondly, don’t just be ready, be vigilant. Be watchful! 

b. Be Watchful

You might say, “What does watchfulness look like, Pastor Tony? Should we quit our jobs and move to Israel and wait for Christ there?” No! Be vigilant, but not paranoid or presumptuous. Be awake spiritually. This means be vigilant in terms of holiness and readiness. And it means in the words of Paul here, be sober-minded. 

Write that down as c.

c. Be Sober-minded

Don’t be out indulging your flesh and living like a sinner. Be self-controlled. Be sober-minded. Speaking of watchfulness and sober-mindedness, there’s this great dialogue between Christian and Hopeful in The Pilgrim’s Progress, when they are passing through “The Enchanted Ground” and they are both drowsy. If you would, just indulge me for a second as I read a section of that great book.

John Bunyan writes,
I saw then in my dream, that they went till they came into a certain country, whose air naturally tended to make one drowsy, if he came a stranger into it. And here Hopeful began to be very dull and heavy of sleep; wherefore he said unto Christian, 

HOPEFUL. “I do now begin to grow so drowsy that I can scarcely hold up mine eyes; let us lie down here, and take one nap.” 

CHRISTIAN. “By no means… lest, sleeping, we never awake more.” 

HOPEFUL. “Why, my brother? Sleep is sweet to the labouring man; we may be refreshed if we take a nap.” 

CHRISTIAN. “Do you not remember that one of the Shepherds bid us beware of the Enchanted Ground? He meant by that, that we should beware of sleeping; ‘Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober.’”

HOPEFUL. “I acknowledge myself in a fault; and had I been here alone, I had by sleeping run the danger of death. I see it is true that the wise man saith, ‘Two are better than one.’ Hitherto hath thy company been my mercy, and thou shalt have a good reward for thy labour.”

CHRISTIAN. “Now then…to prevent drowsiness in this place, let us fall into good discourse.” 

HOPEFUL. “With all my heart.” 

CHRISTIAN. “Where shall we begin?”

HOPEFUL. “Where God began with us. But do you begin, if you please.” 

CHRISTIAN. I will sing you first this song— 

When saints do sleepy grow, let them come hither, 
And hear how these two pilgrims talk together: 
Yea, let them learn of them, in any wise, 
Thus to keep open their drowsy slumb’ring eyes. 
Saints’ fellowship, if it be managed well, 
Keeps them awake, and that in spite of hell. 

Charles Spurgeon considered “The Enchanted Ground” to be the most dangerous place on Pilgrim’s way. He says, “It does not abound with lions, there are no dragons in it; it has no dark woods, and no deep pitfalls, yet more seeming pilgrims have been destroyed in that portion of the road than anywhere else…They are lying down on the ledges of lukewarmness in the arbours of the Enchanted Ground. There is not that activity and zeal we would wish to see among them.” 

And what would Spurgeon say to us as Christians. He would say, “Wake up, Christians!” “Be vigilant.” “Don’t get slothful in spiritual habits. Don’t get sloppy or sleepy with sin. Maintain Christian discipline. Be sober-minded. When Christ returns, you don’t want him to find you indulging your flesh or living a life of apathy towards the things of the Lord.” 

Warren Wiersbe tells the story of a woman in his congregation who, against his counsel, married an unbelieving man. And Wiersbe tried to explain why that was wrong from the Bible. And she said, “I don’t care what you say. I don’t care what the Bible says. I’m going to get married!” Let me just state the obvious, that’s not sober-mindedness. That’s not vigilance. I don’t want the Lord to find me in a state of selfish indifference towards him when he returns. And I don’t want you to find yourself that way either. Be watchful, church! Be sober-minded!

And finally write this down as d.

d. Be Uplifting 

Take Paul’s words seriously in verse 11. Do this every day. 

11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 

Build one another up. Be uplifting to other people. Let me put it this way, “Go be Bob Vila to someone this week.” Build them up! Does everyone know who Bob Vila is? If you are older than 30, you probably do. If you are younger than 30, maybe not. Bob Vila is like the grandfather of Home Improvement TV. Before there were all those ridiculous HDTV shows about home renovations, there was Bob Vila and his show “This Old House.” And he was all about building up and restoring old homes. He would take these old, saggy, stately homes that had fallen into disrepair and he would build them up. 

So, go be Bob Vila to someone this week! Go build someone up… in the truth. And don’t build them up with a lot of fluff about how awesome they are and how they can be anything they want to be if they just put their mind to it! Don’t pump them up with a lot of goofball, self-help nonsense. That is a house of cards, and you know it! 

Don’t pump them up with man-centered foolishness. They don’t need that. Build them up with the truth! “Jesus loves you, and he’s coming back for you!” That’ll build you up. Even if everything else in your life is falling apart, you can hang your hat on that! “Jesus loves you. Be built up in that. Be encouraged in that. Jesus is coming back for you. Be encouraged by that.”

And to that, some of you might say, “How do you know that, Tony?” “How do you know that Jesus loves me? I’m not sure about his love right now. How do you know that? How can you say that?” Here’s how I know that. Here’s how I can say that with hope and assurance and conviction. I know he loves you, because of 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10. 

9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 

He died for you. That’s how I know he loves you. He died for you so that you can escape the wrath of God… so that you might have an eternity with him… so that you might become a child of the light and not a child of darkness. He loves you. He died for you. He’s coming back for you. Believe that. Be built up in that.