“Encouragement Desperately Needed!” 1 Thessalonians 5.11, Pentecost 24A, Nov. ‘17

1.         Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ is coming again for you! Amen!  St. Paul reminds the believers in Thessalonica then, as well as believers today, to be prepared because the day of the Lord will come upon all people like a thief in the night, or like a pregnant woman who suddenly has those final labor pains before her child is born.  1 Thessalonians 5:4-11 says, "But you, brothers and sisters...you are all children of the light and children of the day...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. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."  The message is entitled, “Encouragement Desperately Needed,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.         So the Bible is clear, "Jesus Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead." The Christian church is clear when each Sunday believers around the world stand together and confess in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds that Jesus Christ is coming to judge the living and the dead. The One Who created the world, the One Who redeemed and restored the world through His death and resurrection, He is the One Who is coming to judge the world in perfect justice.

3.         Now, I don't know about you, but such talk doesn't encourage me. What do you think? Such talk about judgment makes me afraid, not full of great joy. How can Paul encourage Christians to be comforted by the fact of Christ's certain coming to judge the living and the dead? Well, maybe one of the reasons we're not encouraged, maybe why we fear such talk is that we think that Jesus, the One Who is coming; we think He is fickle. We're afraid that He doesn't have our best interests at heart.

5.         Can you remember a time in your life when you were afraid because you were by yourself and you needed someone to come to your aid? We've all had moments like that in our lives when we were vulnerable. Can you remember hoping that someone would get there soon? It may have been a time when you were out late and the car stalled and you were waiting for your dad to come help. But, suddenly, at that moment, a stranger approaches and calls out "Need some help?" What do you do? Or, maybe even something scarier, a robber in the house, and you've just called the police. Then, suddenly you hear a loud noise. Is the intruder coming up the stairs? When will those policemen get here? Or maybe you're in a new city and you find yourself in an unfamiliar part of town, all alone. Then suddenly, someone's comes up to you and says, "It looks like you're lost!" What emotions are you feeling at those moments, relief or fear?

6.         It all depends on Who's coming? Or does it? Maybe it's not who is coming after all, but what we are waiting for. You see, as sinners we often see Christ, not as the friend coming to save us, but the enemy out to destroy us; not as the loving Father, but the demanding stranger, not as the protecting officer, but as the robber of our freedoms. The real problem is our sinful love of the darkness, not our fear of the light; our rebellious love of our independence.

7.         Jesus doesn’t come to judge or to grant mercy on a whim. As crazy as it sounds, as sinful human beings, we would rather grope around in the darkness of our sins and the darkness of our fears rather than let Jesus call us into the light of His forgiveness, grace, and righteousness.  W.H. Auden gets humanity right when he says, "We would rather be ruined than changed; We would rather die in our dread; Than climb the cross of the moment; And let our illusions die."  But, the Bible says it even more pointedly in John 3:16-20 - "16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life..........whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world," says John, "but people loved darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil."

8.         God's Word calls us to repent of the darkness of our sin. It reminds us that our fears are about who we are. God is calling us out of that darkness into the light of His salvation, His forgiveness, His grace in His Son, Jesus. For the Christian, repentance is turning away from our love of the darkness to a trusting faith in God’s grace in Jesus our Savior.  In faith, those who trust in Jesus can await His coming with joy...for He comes with life, with light, He comes with forgiveness and hope, and He comes to put darkness and sin in its eternal place, once and for all.

9.         So, it's not a question of His coming, it's the joy of the fact that Jesus is coming again to judge the "living and the dead," to finally put the things of the night into their eternal place and to establish the light of His righteousness, joy, and peace forever. And that's good. Who would want the "Darkness of sin and death to reign forever?" Bad things, evil things, they usually happen in the darkness. In the literal darkness of night or in the darkness of unbelief, but the result is the same, destruction, hurt, guilt, loss.

10.        By the cross, Jesus literally "took on the darkness" and overcame it. Jesus didn't just defeat sin, death, and the Devil, He defeated loneliness and heartache, frustration, jealousy, sickness, disease, and all those other things that are aspects of a world that is passing away. He took them all to the grave and He defeated them. He's coming. He's coming again, and for those who trust in Him that's very good news! The One Who is coming, has come so that we might live. The Christmas Baby became the Good Friday Savior and the Easter Hope for the whole world. And He is coming again to judge the living and the dead.  As Christians, we live in Him now by faith and on that day we will be with Him forever in love! Because of Jesus Christ and His work for the world, for you, be encouraged by those words.

11.        Paul says an amazing thing. "God did not appoint you to suffer wrath." If you are honest with yourself, wrath and punishment, these are the things that you and I know we deserve. Deep in our hearts we know that there should be punishment for the things that we think and say and do and even the things we don't do. But then we hear this incredible phrase, "God has not destined us for wrath." That's not what God wants for you!  Be encouraged by His Words!

12.        Paul talks about living "sober lives," focused lives, armed lives! Arm yourself for work in the daylight! Put on the armor of faith and love. Let God's gifts of life and salvation guard your heart like a Roman breastplate. And put on the helmet of God's Salvation or should I say, "the helmet of God's future expectation" for those who trust in Him. Helmets guard our minds, breastplates guard our hearts, God has called us to a life that was meant to be lived, body, mind, and spirit in His grace and in His love, and in service to our fellow man. To be truly human, not just today, but forever, that's news to live by now.  The Christian life is not about trying to prove to others that we have light and others don't, instead it’s shining the light that we have  received so that others might receive the light they so desperately need.

13.        In New York City, a boy in dirty clothes was seen with a small piece of a broken mirror in his hand. Holding it high in the air he moved it back and forth, watching the narrow slit of a window above him as he did so. "What are you doing?" suddenly said a man as he shook the youngster by the shoulder. "Like most boys in this neighborhood, you're probably up to some mischief, aren't you?" The boy looked up to the stern face of his accuser and said, “No, I'm not up to mischief. See that window up there? Well, I have a little brother who has a room on that floor. He's a cripple and the only sunlight he ever sees is the sunlight I shine up to him each day with my mirror! I want to make sure that he sees the sunlight that I get to see every day!"  If you are a believer in Jesus, the day of the Lord's Second Coming is a day when darkness, sin, sickness and disease will forever be put away, and the light of eternal life will shine forever! Believers don't live in fear of that day, they live in eager expectation. They shine, they reflect the light they've received to all who will receive it.

14.        So pick up your mirrors dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Find the windows that need the light of Jesus and reflect what God beams to you. Are you forgiven? Then forgive. Are you blessed? Then bless. Are you comforted? Then comfort. Are you strengthened? Then strengthen.  Every one of you not only has a mirror, but the light of God in Jesus in your lives by faith, a light that illumines, a light that even nourishes your hearts and your minds.

15.        This is the encouragement we so desperately need! Live as believers who already belong to the gracious light of God's salvation. Pray that His day comes sooner rather than later, that day when there will be no more heartache, no more fears, no more troubles, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more strife, just God's grace in full, eternal life.  For that day, the night will be dissipated and the daylight of eternal life will dawn, there will be great rejoicing in the "waiting room of heaven." Thief in the night? No, better, labor pains of new birth. Encourage each other with these words!  God bless you until you see Jesus face to face. Amen.