Before we begin this material in chapter five we need to discuss just what the Day of the Lord is. Now the Day of the Lord is not just a “day.” It is THE Lord’s Day. I don’t mean Sunday. I mean His coming day of retribution. And as everyone gets his day in court this will mark the beginning of God’s day in court and He will be the judge. Now I am simply summing up this material from the Scripture. If you want to look in detail at this then I suggest that you read the book of Revelation and Daniel. 2 Thessalonians, Matthew 24 and Luke 21. The Old Testament prophets are filled with material on this subject as well.
The Day of the Lord begins at the Rapture. We looked at what that was two weeks ago from chapter 4:13-18. The Rapture is the removal of believers from the earth to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. And the Day of the Lord runs until the end of the millennial reign of Christ. So the Day of the Lord lasts about 1007 years. So what is the time schedule involved in this Day of the Lord? First, the Rapture marks the beginning of this period. At some time after the Rapture, the man of sin will be revealed, that is the Antichrist. He will ascend the throne of the world and lead the world to worship Himself by a trumped up world religion founded in Rome.
His public revealing to the world will be through the founding of a seven-year peace pact with the nation of Israel, giving them full rights to rebuild their temple and resume sacrifice in Jerusalem.
This seven-year peace pact marks the portion of the Day of the Lord called the tribulation. In it God continues to turn up the heat, so to speak, increasing the pressure of His judgments until they are completely unbearable in order to show people the severity of His righteous judgment so that they might repent before they are cast into hell forever. It is this first part of the Day of the Lord (this seven-year period of Antichrist’s rule on earth) that is in view in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.
Therefore, the key idea of this passage is that the Rapture (4:13-18) will mark the beginning of the Day of the Lord. This will be a day of distress for the unbeliever through the just vengeance of a holy God. Seven years will mark this tribulation. And it will culminate in the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to rule on earth for a thousand years.
1. The Day of the Lord in Relation to unbelievers (vv. 1-3)
Paul breaks this passage into two parts. The first part of this passage is found in verses 1-3. What we see here is the Day of the Lord in relation to unbelievers. Paul notes four truths concerning the Day of the Lord in relation to unbelievers.
A. It will be unexpected
The first truth that we notice from this passage concerning the Day of the Lord in relation to unbelievers is that it will be unexpected. In speaking to the Thessalonians, Paul says, “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.” Paul speaks about its unexpected character. No one knows when the Day of the Lord will come. No one knows when it will take place. Paul uses the imagery of the thief in the night. The thief never announces his coming. The thief doesn’t send you announcement cards concerning the time of his job on your house. “Please be away on the night of September 14th between the hours of 8-10 o’clock.” He comes when you are completely unaware. He normally comes at night. He normally comes when you are asleep. He doesn’t make his entry if the lights are on in the house and he sees people moving around inside, that is if he is a mildly intelligent crook. People will not be saying, “O the Day of the Lord is near, let’s get ready.” The fact is that people will be completely unprepared for what will take place. They will be taken completely by surprise.
When we lived in Minneapolis we had opportunity to know of several robberies that took place in our neighborhood. One of these robberies happened at my friend, Fred Odem’s house. He was sleeping and all of a sudden he was awakened by someone quietly saying, “Mister, mister are you awake?” Here Fred was caught completely by surprise. The first reason was that Fred wasn’t expecting company. He knew that he hadn’t invited anyone over. The second reason was that Fred was as blind as a bat. And without his glasses he couldn’t see a thing. He thought it best to stay in bed and pretend he was asleep instead of trying to find out who it was who that was dropping by for some fellowship. Can you imagine the nerve of these people? They didn’t call Fred beforehand and ask him if they could come over. They didn’t tell him to have his glasses nearby so he could figure out if they had weapons or not. They came completely by surprise and for Fred it was completely unexpected. He was completely helpless. So it will be on the day of the Lord.
Jesus spoke of its unexpectedness in His Mount of Olives discourse found in Matthew 24. There he says, “For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark.” There will be people who are without concern as to the judgment of God but carrying on their lives as if nothing would ever happen to them. They were living their lives as if they God didn’t matter. There was no preparation for meeting God. They had no plans for God in their lives. They were continuing in normal everyday events without realizing that very soon they would meet God’s wrath. They weren’t doing wrong things. They were eating and drinking. They were getting married. But God did not figure highly into their plans.
There are people today, and I’ve heard them, say, “When I have time I’ll pray. When I get Sunday’s off from work I’ll come to church.” Or “If I get my yard work done, then I’ll come to church. When I have a family I’ll start reading the Bible with them.” They always have other things to do, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage but they never have time for the Lord. The Day of the Lord is the period when God will get their attention.
Peter describes another reason why it will be unexpected. It will be unexpected because God is patient and does not want any to perish. So He will delay His wrath in order to bring in the fullness of those who will be saved. But the unsaved do not see God’s delay as patience but as an opportunity to say that God doesn’t exist. In chapter 3 of Peter’s second letter we see this. In verse 3 Peter says, “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” Because they want to justify their lusts and do not want to repent of their sin they come up with this uniformitarian view of the origin of the earth and say, “all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” Peter goes onto say, “For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the Word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water . . . but by His Word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”
At God’s time in God’s way He will bring the destruction of the ungodly to pass. It will happen. And it will happen when God says it will and not before. For this reason it will be unexpected.
B. It will be sudden
The second truth that we notice from this passage concerning the Day of the Lord in relation to unbelievers is that it will be sudden. In verse 3 of 1 Thessalonians 5 Paul says, “While they are saying, “Peace and Safety!” then sudden destruction will come upon them.” In this sentence, Paul emphasizes the suddenness of this event by bringing the word “sudden” right to the front of the sentence. Literally we would read it, “Then suddenly upon them shall fall destruction.”
It will be so sudden that while they are crying out peace and safety then this destruction will begin to fall upon them. Look at Jesus’ words from Matthew 24 once again. This time I will read verse 39 as well. “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, (pay attention to this) until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away.”
When Noah and his family entered the ark what do you think the people were saying? Oh, peace and safety! Finally this nut and his family are out of our way. Now we can really do what we want. Now there is no more restraint upon us.” For seven days they celebrated. For seven days they taunted. “Noah, that boat looks silly on dry ground.” For seven days they announced peace and safety. And as they were saying this, for the first time in human history it began to rain. They had never seen rain before. Prior to this time God had watered the earth with a mist that went up from the ground. Then it began to pour. And they heard a great rumbling and the waters from below the surface of the earth broke through the ground and began to wash them away. At that point they sought the shelter of the ark but it was no longer available. They sought to get inside but God had shut the door.
What is going to happen in the Day of the Lord? The rapture will take place and the true Christians will be removed from the earth. After recovering from the shock of it and making up a story to cover for what really happened they will begin to shout, “Peace and Safety! The people who troubled us about morality and righteousness are gone. Now we can do whatever we please.” The Antichrist will arise and make a peace treaty with Israel and allow them to rebuild their temple and sacrifice once again. He will revive a great political-religious organization from which He will rule in Rome. And people will think that this is Messiah. He will promise them wonderful peace and deliverance from all their troubles as they submit to him. But it is precisely at this time that God begins His judgment against the world and the people find no relief. And swift destruction shall come upon them. And though God will not bring it to a conclusion as swiftly as in Noah’s day, though He will bring these judgments over seven years instead of in seven days, yet before they can fully revel in “Peace and safety” God will begin to bring judgment upon them and take peace from the earth. True peace and safety will not come until the end of the seven years when Christ returns.
C. It will be painful
The third truth that we notice from this passage concerning the Day of the Lord in relation to unbelievers is that it will be painful. Again in verse 3, Paul says, “destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child.” We saw that this tribulation period will be unexpected and sudden but it will also be painful.
Now when a woman goes into labor she experiences pain. To let you know, what I am about to say is all second hand information. The contractions to which a woman is subjected when delivering a baby can be excruciating. They come on suddenly and little by little build up until the child is born.
This is how the tribulation will be. It will be painful. God’s righteous wrath is being poured out upon the world. At the beginning of the tribulation, described in Revelation 6, there will be war, the removal of peace and deadly conflict between people. There will be worldwide famine and a quarter of the population of the earth will be killed. If we use present day figures then during this initial phase of the tribulation over 1.5 billion people will die. Also there will be multitudes of people living in great fear. And it won’t be just the faint hearted who will be trembling at the events taking place. Revelation 6 describes great and important men acting like frightened children. Verse 15 says, “Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” If this takes place at the beginning of the tribulation, how dreadful shall it be at its end?
In the middle portion of the tribulation, we see that people are tormented by the painful bites of locust-like creatures. The pain and the torment of these creatures lasted for five months. It was such that John says in chapter 9, “their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them.” After the world recovers from the bites of these creatures, the Scripture says that another 1.5 billion or more people will die.
As the time for Christ’s return approaches, in the midst of the tribulation, God turns up the heat one more time. And in a series of plagues that take place in rapid succession God pours out chaos on the kingdom of the Antichrist. Those remaining alive, who have taken the economic loyalty mark of the beast, receive malignant sores upon their bodies. The seas and the rivers are turned to blood. The sun’s energy is somehow magnified so that the radiant energy coming from the sun scorches men. And directly after that the world is plunged into darkness. And it will be a darkness that can be felt and will induce such great pain that John says, “they gnawed their tongues because of the pain and blasphemed the God of heaven.”
And as if that weren’t enough God sends great hailstones, about 100 pounds each, upon the earth. The Day of the Lord will be unexpected. It will be sudden. And it will be painful.
D. They will not escape
The fourth truth that we notice from this passage concerning the Day of the Lord in relation to unbelievers is that they will not escape. At the end of verse 3 Paul says that when the Day of the Lord comes, “they will not escape.”
There are two ideas of which Paul speaks when he says, “They will not escape.” Before we look at those two ideas, however, we must note the fact that Paul uses the strongest language possible to declare that these unbelievers will not escape. In the Greek language there are 5 ways in which to make a negative statement, all with varying degrees of strength. Paul makes this statement as strong as he can. Paul says that they shall certainly not escape. One translator rendered it this way, “There shall be no escape for them – none!”
The first of the two ideas of which Paul speaks when he says that they shall not escape is the fact that once having entered the tribulation they will not have any way out, except death. There will be no rapture for those who have rejected Christ up until that time. There will be no vehicle for them to bypass this event in earth history as the wrath of God is revealed in great intensity before the coming of Christ.
But there is a second way in which Paul announces that there will be no escape. And I am more convinced of this than I had been in the past. There is no escape in this; those who have heard the Gospel previously and have not received it shall have no other opportunity to do so. These shall not escape the wrath of God. God’s wrath shall certainly be poured out upon them and in its fullest eternal measure.
If you have refused to receive Christ as your Savior though you clearly understand what it means don’t think that when the Rapture takes place that you will refuse to follow this Antichrist who comes on the scene. You will have no choice because he will deceive you with the wonders he performs.
Paul describes this in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 where he says, “the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish (why do they perish?), because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.”
If you will not accept Christ now, when that day comes God will send you a deluding influence so that you will believe what is false. Even though now you may say to yourself that you will recognize and reject Antichrist. You will not be able to do so but will be duped by the wonder of his false signs. God will give you want you want. If you don’t want Christ now you won’t have Christ later.
Do you see who these people are? Verse 10 says, “Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.” Are you one of these people? There are people today who say, “I believe in Christ” but their lives do not reflect a love of that truth. Their lives are no different today then they were before they said they came to receive Christ as their Savior. There is no love for the truth in their hearts. How do you know that there is no love for the truth in their hearts? They don’t love the Word of God. They don’t want to know the Word of God. They don’t want to obey the Word of God.
Don’t let your refusal to receive the love of the truth of God’s Word confirm you in condemnation at the Day of the Lord. My friend, do not be one of those who will not escape. If you understand this message today and will not receive it you have no promise that in tomorrow you will be able to receive it.
God is patient for He is unwilling for any to perish. But the Scripture says in Romans 1 that if you understand this Gospel and refuse to accept it because of your sinful heart, God may very well turn you over to the desires of your heart. And you will not escape. And you will be condemned.
Next week we will look at the Day of the Lord in relation to believers. But let me leave you will some hope this morning if you have not yet placed your trust in Jesus Christ alone.
As I have said, God is merciful. He is abundant in loving kindness and willing to forgive. But God will only forgive one way. He has promised full forgiveness and eternal life to all who would reject their self-righteousness and receive Christ’s death on the cross as payment for sin.
You see, until you realize that you are no better than a thief or murderer or idolater you cannot be saved. This is why Jesus tried to show the Pharisees what was really inside their hearts. They kept the Ten Commandments faithfully, outwardly. They thought that their salvation would come from the fact that they were obeying the commandments and in their own words, “Weren’t like other people, swindlers, unjust or adulterers.” But Jesus said that they would not be justified until they lost their self-righteousness. And until you recognize that as the Scripture says, “Your righteousness is as filthy rags” you will not be saved. This is why the Scripture says that the prostitutes and tax collectors heard Jesus gladly. They knew they needed to be saved from their sin. But the self-righteous Pharisees hated Jesus because He revealed that their life long striving to do good would not benefit them one wit. If you are resting in the fact that you have always sought to do good to gain God’s favor you are lost. Your pride in looking to your goodness is simply as bad as theft or murder or idolatry.
So the first aspect of the truth that you must love so as to be saved is that you cannot contribute anything to your own acceptance before God. It is God’s work. He has done it. You must receive it. Will you humble yourself to do so? Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Give up your self-righteousness today and come to Christ. Don’t let the pride of your heart keep you from receiving eternal life.