THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

Paul here reminds us of this significant, important, climactic, cataclysmic day to come in human history. Frankly, it is not at all popular to talk about God’s fury. It is not popular to talk about God’s anger, God’s vengeance. In fact, seldom do you hear a sermon on the day of the Lord, on the time when Jesus comes back to judge those who have rejected Him. Everything today needs to be positive, and affirming, and comforting, and very few preachers really want to deal with this particular topic. Rarely does someone preach on the vengeance of God.

 But to ignore such a truth would be to be unfaithful, to teach and preach the whole counsel of God. And the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, front to back is loaded with warnings about the judgment of God, eternal punishment on unbelievers, damnation, retribution, vengeance, wrath, anger, fury. And, in fact, the prophets had much to say about it, the apostles had much to say about it. But the one who had the most to say about it was Jesus Himself. And so, we have the prophets, and the apostles, and even our Lord Jesus as examples of the pattern that all true preachers must follow, and that is to warn men about the day of the Lord. 

Now, as we approach the passage, you will remember that Paul has just completed explaining the Rapture of the church. In chapter 4 verses 13 through 18 he described the nature and character of the catching away of the church, to meet the Lord Jesus in the air and to go to heaven to dwell in the places that He is preparing for them there. And so, chapter 4 ends with the statement, “Therefore comfort one another with these words.” There’s great comfort, there’s great joy, and there’s great hope, there’s great confidence, there’s great assurance and affirmation in anticipating the Rapture when the Lord Jesus comes and takes us off this Earth to heaven to dwell with Him in the Father’s house. From the blessed event of the catching away of the church to be with the Lord, Paul now turns to the horrible event that follows it: the destruction of the wicked. All those who are on Earth who reject Christ and reject God will feel the fury of God in the day of the Lord.

 Now, again as we noted in chapter 4, Paul’s purpose here is not so much theological and eschatological as it is pastoral. Obviously, among the Thessalonian believers they were troubled by some of these issues. The first thing that troubled them was they thought Jesus would come and get them while they were still living. They thought the Rapture would come in their life time. And some Christians were dying and Jesus hadn’t arrived yet. And so, their question was, what happens to believers who die, do they miss the Rapture? And so, Paul wrote, as we noted in chapter 4, no, the dead in Christ will rise first and then we’ll join them. So we’ll all be there, don’t worry about those who die, be comforted with this truth.

 But it was also a curiosity on their minds as to when the end was going to come. When was this Rapture and when was the day of the Lord to come when God poured out His fury on all the Earth? And by the way, they knew about the day of the Lord. In 2 Thessalonians 2:5 Paul says, “I was telling you about it when I was with you.” So, they had information about the day of the Lord, and now they have information about the Rapture. The church is going to be caught away and they already know the world is going to feel the fury of God’s final vengeance in a cataclysmic holocaust of judgment, the likes of which the world has never seen or even conceived. They knew it was coming but their question was: when is it going to happen?

 And so, in verse 1 Paul says, “Now, as to the times and the epochs.” First of all, they wondered about the believers who died.

And now, since people were dying they wondered: well, when is it going to happen? How long are we going to wait for this? Will it or won’t it happen in our life time? And so, Paul in wanting to answer the queries that no doubt they have raised to Timothy who has visited them and now as chapter 3 verse 6 says is come back to Paul to tell Paul what concerns them, he wants to speak regarding the day of the Lord in answer to their concern. So, we could say that he moves from teaching the Rapture which takes the church out of the world to heaven to talking about the day of the Lord which calls for the judgment of God on the ungodly in the world. His discussion of the Rapture was to encourage and comfort the Christians. And you will notice down in verse 11, please, that even his discussion of the day of the Lord is to encourage and build up the Christians. So, his purposes are pastoral. He wants these things to have an impact on their life.

Remain blessed....