{"id":22000,"date":"2023-01-28T19:42:28","date_gmt":"2023-01-29T01:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/sermon\/first-thessalonians-013-flee-sexual-immorality\/"},"modified":"2023-07-25T12:11:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T17:11:49","slug":"first-thessalonians-013-flee-sexual-immorality","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/first-thessalonians-013-flee-sexual-immorality\/","title":{"rendered":"First Thessalonians 013 – Flee Sexual Immorality (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[97],"series_event":[546],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-22000","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-1-thessalonians","series_event-first-thessalonians","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"First Thessalonians 013 - Flee Sexual Immorality (part 1)","sermon_date":"20230129","sermon_month":"01","sermon_year":"2023","sermon_notes":21998,"sermon_slides":22007,"sermon_mp3":22011,"sermon_id":"12923346201207","series_or_event":546,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":97,"chapter_and_verse":"3:13\u20124:2","sermon_transcript":"
First Thessalonians 013 \u2013 Flee Sexual Immorality (part 1)<\/strong><\/h5>\r\n
1 Thessalonians 3:13\u20124:2 \u2022 Dr. Andy Woods \u2022 January 29, 2023<\/strong><\/h5>\r\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\r\n
Prayer<\/h5>\r\nAll right well, let's open in a word of prayer.\u00a0 We'll get started.\u00a0 Father, we're grateful for Your truth today, grateful for Your word, grateful for, at least I am, cooler weather, grateful for the rain.\u00a0 I do ask that You'll be with us today in our study of Thessalonians and also the book of Genesis, as we're dealing with things that were written, in some cases, 4000 years ago in Genesis, or 3500 years ago, to be exact.\u00a0 So only Your Spirit can take these ancient texts and documents that You have preserved for us and apply them into our lives in a meaningful way.\u00a0 And so we remain this morning totally dependent on Your ministry of illumination to do that for us.\u00a0 And so in preparation for that ministry, Father, we're going to just take a few moments of silence to do personal business with You, confess sins privately, if need be, not to restore our position, but restore fellowship so that we can receive freely today from Your Word.\r\n\r\nWe're thankful, Lord, for the promise of 1 John 1:9, and I do ask, Lord, that as Sugar Land Bible Church meets today from beginning to end in every area, that Your Spirit and Your will would have its way in our lives.\u00a0 We'll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus' name, and God's people say, Amen.\r\n\r\nHappy, I think, last Sunday in January.\u00a0 It's hard to believe that January is almost over.\u00a0 I just remember being at the end of December saying, \"I can't believe we're in a new year.\" And the new year is 1\/12 behind us.\u00a0 Can you believe that?\r\n
1 Thessalonians 3:13<\/h5>\r\nWe're just sort of wrapping up, we just have one more verse in it.\u00a0 This section of the book of Thessalonians, and you can open up to 1 Thessalonians 3:13, where the Apostle Paul is looking backward to his relationship with the Thessalonians.\r\n\r\nHe had planted the church at Thessalonica.\u00a0 He was driven out of that area by unbelieving Jews.\u00a0 The unbelieving Jews then targeted Paul's flock, and they were trying to basically, when Paul was gone, wean his converts away from Paul back to themselves.\r\n\r\nAnd so one of the things that they did, very, very sadly, is they stirred up a bunch of lies about the Apostle Paul.\u00a0 In the legal system, we would call that defamation of character.\u00a0 When you speak it, it's slander.\u00a0 When you write it, it's libel.\u00a0 And I think Paul, when you put the two Thessalonians books together, was a victim of both slander and libel.\u00a0 And it's sort of hard as a minister, particularly an apostle, to offer any correction to the flock if you're discredited in the eyes of the flock.\r\n\r\nSo, Paul has to respond to these spurious attacks against his character, which he does in the first three chapters.\r\n\r\nAttack number one<\/strong>, to the Thessalonians from the unbelieving Jews.\u00a0 Your conversion isn't real.\u00a0 You just got talked into something.\u00a0 Paul responds to that in Chapter 1.\r\n\r\nThe second attack<\/strong> against Paul is his motives were impure.\u00a0 Paul responds to that attack in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16.\r\n\r\nAnd then the third attack<\/strong> beginning in 1 Thessalonians 2:17 going through the end of Chapter 3 is the reason Paul left is he doesn't care.\r\n\r\nSo it's in that section that Paul explains that he does care.\u00a0 After all, he always planned to visit them, 1 Thessalonians 2:17-18.\u00a0 After all, he was concerned about their future glorification, Verses 19 and 20.\u00a0 After all, he sent his very best to look in on them, a man named Timothy in 1 Thessalonians 3:1-6.\u00a0 And number four, Paul was emotionally relieved at the good report Timothy brought from the Thessalonians, something a man who doesn't care wouldn't do, 1 Thessalonians 3:6-10, and so Paul sort of concludes that whole section by showing how much he does care by praying for them.\r\n\r\nHe had already told them that he had been praying for them night and day.\u00a0 And then you go to 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13, and you get some insight into his prayer.\u00a0 I mean, what exactly was he praying? \u00a0So the prayer, Chapter 3:11-13 can be divided into three parts.\r\n\r\nThe first part of his prayer<\/strong> is he desired to return to them, Verse 11.\r\n\r\nThe second part of his prayer<\/strong> is he prayed for their progressive sanctification, their continued growth in Christ Jesus.\r\n\r\nAnd then the third part of his prayer<\/strong>, which we're going to look at briefly here in Verse 13, and then we'll be moving from there into Chapter 4 this morning, is he prays for their favorable ruling at the bema [\u03b2\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1<\/strong> b\u1e17ma] <\/em><\/strong>seat judgment, the judgment seat of rewards.\r\n\r\nSo with all of that being said, take a look at what he says in 1 Thessalonians 3:13:\r\n\r\n\"So that we may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.\"\r\n\r\nSo notice first of all, he wants to establish them.\u00a0 That's a point that he made earlier in the chapter, and we looked at this in more detail back in Verse 10 last week, where in the second part of Verse 10 he says, \"... and may complete what is lacking in your faith.\"\r\n\r\nOne of the things we pointed out as we've gone through this letter to the Thessalonians is Paul was not interested simply in their justification before God, evangelism in other words, he was interested in their growth.\u00a0 Paul was an obstetrician, a doctor that helps with the birthing process, but he was also a pediatrician, because he wanted the Thessalonians to mature and to grow correctly.\u00a0 And if you don't understand those two facets of Paul's ministry, you really can't make sense of a lot of the things he does and says.\r\n\r\nFor example, this right here on the screen is his first missionary journey.\u00a0 And you see that in Acts 13 and 14.\u00a0 This is where he went into southern Galatia.\u00a0 And the blue arrow, if you can see that, is the incoming trip.\u00a0 And then he gets to, let's see there, Derby.\u00a0 Turns right around and the red arrow is his trip home.\u00a0 And you look at that and you say, well, why in the world would he do that? \u00a0I mean, you look at Derby and you look at Antioch, Syrian Antioch, which is on the northern tip of the nation of Israel, which is where he started all three missionary journeys, why didn't he just, once he hit Derby, why didn't he just take the land route back to Antioch? \u00a0He actually goes the opposite direction.\u00a0 He goes exactly back where he came from.\r\n\r\nAnd the answer to that is Paul wanted to make sure that the churches that he had planted on the incoming route were growing properly as he went home.\u00a0 So he didn't take an evangelistic route here.\u00a0 I mean, if someone who was just an evangelist was taking this route, they would have gone in, planted the churches, got to Derby, and just took the land route back to Antioch.\u00a0 You notice that Paul does not do that.\u00a0 He takes a stranger route, but it's not strange if you understand Paul, where he retraces his steps.\r\n\r\nSo in the blue line end, he's doing the work of an obstetrician, help birthing.\u00a0 And on the way back, he's doing the work of a pediatrician, where he is helping the newborn children grow correctly.\r\n\r\nSo in the body of Christ, God has put different gifts into the body of Christ.\u00a0 There's a gift of an evangelist.\u00a0 There's other spiritual gifts.\u00a0 One of them we mentioned is the gift of a pastor-teacher.\u00a0 I've seen pastors that have both gifts, but it's sort of rare.\u00a0 An evangelist is an obstetrician.\u00a0 A pastor-teacher is a pediatrician.\u00a0 Making sure that the flock is maturing properly.\r\n\r\nSo you see Paul exercising both of those ministries, and that's what he's talking about there in Verse 13 when he says so that he may establish your hearts.\u00a0 He wanted to see Thessalonians established.\r\n\r\nWhy? \u00a0Because they were baby Christians, brand new Christians, and they were being persecuted by the very people that persecuted Paul when he was in Thessalonica.\u00a0 And a new Christian is really vulnerable to sort of not losing their salvation, but if you're not taught correctly, the doctrine of suffering, and the gospel is not presented to you correctly, the moment you hit suffering you're going to think, \"Well, wait a minute.\u00a0 They all told me that this was supposed to be my best life now.\u00a0 And what's gone wrong?\" And so you're particularly vulnerable as a new Christian when you suffer because you think that somehow you missed the plan and purpose of God.\r\n\r\nIf you're taught correctly at the beginning, you start to understand that suffering is necessary as a Christian - not to save you, you're already saved, but to help you grow correctly.\u00a0 In fact, you really can't grow into the full stature of Christ and learn to depend upon God through trials, and how in the world would you ever learn to depend upon God through trials if you never have any trials?\r\n\r\nSo the adversity that we go through as Christians is designed specifically by God to assist us in our maturity and to assist us in our growth.\u00a0 But if no one's ever explained that to you or taught you correctly, all of these new Christians would just think, \"Goodness, we must be outside of God's will.\" \u00a0Or they would become embittered against God.\u00a0 \"God, you said you loved me and yet all these problems have taken place in my life.\" \u00a0And they would just sort of move into immaturity.\u00a0 They would move into carnality.\u00a0 They would apostatize from the faith.\u00a0 And so that work where he's retracing his steps is very, very significant.\r\n\r\n1 Thessalonians 3:13, \"So that he may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father.\"\r\n\r\nHe is also here praying for their practical holiness.\u00a0 Not their positional holiness.\u00a0 They already have that.\u00a0 He's praying for their practical holiness.\u00a0 He's praying that their lifestyle will catch up or start to mirror or emulate the position that they already have as holy people in Christ Jesus.\r\n\r\n1 Peter Chapter 1:15-16, quoting the book of Leviticus really, says,\r\n\r\n\"but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.'\"\r\n\r\nAnd that's really what growth is as a Christian.\u00a0 It's not becoming sinless, but hopefully you're sinning less as we learn to walk the Christian life under God's resources.\u00a0 I'm certainly not the man I should be, but I praise the Lord I'm not the man I used to be.\u00a0 I can look back in my life and I can see some growth.\u00a0 When I hit some issues, I say to myself, \"Well praise the Lord.\" I'm not reacting the exact same way to that issue that I reacted to it a year ago or two years ago.\u00a0 I'm a growing Christian and gradually what's happening is my practice is mirroring my position.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, because of very bad teaching, a lot of people think that \"Boy, I better live the Christian life, so I don't lose my salvation.\" \u00a0\"Oh, I better live the Christian life right to prove that I have salvation to begin with.\" \u00a0That's not the proper motivation for growth.\r\n\r\nThe proper motivation for growth<\/strong> is see what God has said about you.\u00a0 You're at the point of justification and then you start to look at your life and you start to say, \"You know, I guess me talking that way or reacting that way or harboring this thought or that thought or looking at this website when I shouldn't be looking at it or going to that movie when I shouldn't have gone to it, but that really doesn't fit who I am as a Christian.\u00a0 It doesn't really fit my position.\r\n\r\nYou start to adjust your life according to who you already have been decreed or declared to be.\u00a0 That's basically what growing in Christ is about.\u00a0 This is what Peter is getting to when he says you should be holy in your behavior.\r\n\r\nWhy is that? \u00a0Because God has already said you're holy positionally.\r\n\r\n1 John 3:2-3 says, \u201cBeloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. \u00a0We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. \u00a0And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him [Jesus] purifies himself, just as He is pure.\u201d\r\n\r\nWow, the Lord is coming back, and the Lord has already told me that I am purified, positionally.\u00a0 Well, maybe I should start to purify myself.\u00a0 In other words, I don't plan on adding to my position in Christ.\u00a0 That was a free gift.\u00a0 But what I can do is I can allow my lifestyle to catch up with who I am in Christ Jesus.\r\n\r\nAnd that's why you see these sort of exhortations in Paul, like in the book of Ephesians, where he's talking about silly talk and coarse jesting and sexual immorality.\u00a0 You see some of this in Ephesians 5.\u00a0 And he says these are just unfitting.\u00a0 Don't be involved in these things because they're just unfitting for God's holy people.\r\n\r\nThese things kind of, and I dropped my papers here.\u00a0 The moment you talk about sanctification, God tests you.\u00a0 These things are just not consistent with who you are as a Christian.\u00a0 They're not fitting.\u00a0 And I hope you understand that the moment you trusted Jesus as your Savior, what happened is the positional righteousness of Christ was transferred to your account in a nanosecond.\u00a0 And God the Father looks at you as if you're just as righteous as Jesus.\r\n\r\nYou may not feel just as righteous as Jesus.\u00a0 We may not always act just as righteous as Jesus.\u00a0 But it is a positional declaration of truth that you, right now, if you're in Christ, having trusted in Christ for salvation, God the Father looks at you as if you were just as righteous and pure as His Son.\r\n\r\nPhilippians 3:9 says, \u201cand may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law,\" \u2013 In other words, this positional righteousness that we have is not something that we got any other way other than allowing the Lord to give it to us as a gift.\u00a0 \"not having a righteousness of my own ... but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,\u201d\r\n\r\nI'm not planning on standing before the Lord one day in my own righteousness.\u00a0 I'm planning on standing before the Lord one day in transferred righteousness.\u00a0 The Protestant Reformers called it alien righteousness, meaning righteousness that is not your own.\r\n\r\nAnd so, the moment you trusted Christ, God took the purity of His Son and applied it to your account.\u00a0 That's why Romans 6:11 \u00a0talks about \"reckon things so.\" In other words, the word there at Romans 6 is logizomai (\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03af\u03b6\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9).\u00a0 It's an accounting term.\u00a0 You look into the books of accounting and they're not going to lie to you unless you work in Washington, D.C. or something where they cook the books.\u00a0 But if it's good accounting, I mean the balance statement is not going to lie.\u00a0 It's an objective mathematical fact.\r\n\r\nAnd so, you see this objective mathematical fact that cannot lie that you are just as righteous as Jesus.\u00a0 And you didn't receive that righteousness because you earned it.\u00a0 You received that righteousness because it was transferred to you.\r\n\r\nAnd you say to yourself, I can't believe I have this.\u00a0 Gosh, maybe I shouldn't get so upset on the freeway at people.\u00a0 That's not really fitting who I am.\u00a0 Maybe I shouldn't hold a grudge against so-and-so anymore.\u00a0 Maybe I shouldn't be so angry about things.\u00a0 Maybe I shouldn't be so quick tempered.\u00a0 Maybe I should kind of change some of my speech because if I don't do that, it doesn't really fit who I already have been declared to be.\r\n\r\nSo this is what the Apostle Paul is getting at there when he says, \"so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father.\" \u00a0(1 Thessalonians 3:13)\r\n\r\nAnd then look at the last phrase there, Verse 13, \"at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.\"\r\n\r\nYou'll notice there that practical holiness is linked to eschatology.\u00a0 Eschatology is the study of the end.\u00a0 What does the Bible reveal about the future?\u00a0 And you'll notice that when you study what the Bible reveals about the future, it automatically has a purifying effect on God's people.\u00a0 Because when you study eschatology, you start to understand that a lot of the things that are so important to us and a lot of the things that we're invested in are just going to burn anyway.\r\n\r\nSo, why pour so much sweat into something that God has already marked for destruction?\u00a0 Why not instead invest my life into things that are going to stand the test of time? \u00a0This is why 2 Peter 3:10-11 links daily life, Verse 11, to eschatology, Verse 10.\u00a0 That's exactly what Paul was doing at the end of 1 Thessalonians 3.\u00a0 Peter says, \"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.\"\r\n\r\nA thief in the night is not the rapture.\u00a0 The rapture is a happy thing, as we'll be studying.\u00a0 A thief in the night is a sad thing, a negative thing.\u00a0 So a thief in the night is the unbelieving world being totally slept off guard by the coming judgment of God.\r\n\r\nIt's like the unbelieving world was completely and totally caught off guard when the flood waters hit, despite Noah and his warnings.\u00a0 \u201cBut the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.\u201d (2 Peter 3:10)\r\n\r\nAll right, everybody, that's your lesson for the day.\u00a0 We've got our charts filled out.\u00a0 Close your Bibles and let's all go home.\r\n\r\nWhoops! \u00a0There's another Verse there.\u00a0 \"Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be ...\" \u00a0(2 Peter 3:11a)\r\n\r\nIn other words, an awareness that this is coming.\u00a0 I mean if you know the Titanic is going down, you're not going to spend your waning moments arranging the deck chairs in the Titanic.\u00a0 You're trying to get off the Titanic, you're trying to get others off the Titanic, you're trying to warn people, but you would never do that unless you had specific knowledge that the ship is sinking.\r\n\r\nThat's what eschatology does.\u00a0 It tells you exactly what's about to be destroyed.\u00a0 So you can make corrections in daily life now while there's still time.\r\n\r\n\u201cSince all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct (which is what we're talking about here) and godliness,\u201d (2 Peter 3:11)\r\n\r\nThat's what the previously quoted Verses that I gave in 1 John 3:2-3 said also.\u00a0 Once again, \u201cBeloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him (in other words, the person that's thinking about the return of Jesus) purifies himself, just as He is pure.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn other words, these eschatological passages are there to change our behavior in the present.\u00a0 And because of eschatology, we should be people of hope.\u00a0 Amen.\r\n\r\nOh, you guys, you're always talking about the end of the world.\u00a0 You're gloom and doomers.\u00a0 You're pessi-millennialists.\u00a0 All this sort of stuff.\r\n\r\nAre you kidding me?\u00a0 I'm one of the most optimistic people because of eschatology.\u00a0 Because I know that in the end, God wins.\u00a0 So I walk through life with all of its problems, you know, this terrible fatality thing that just happened to me on Friday night, all of these things you see, I can actually look at something like that and still have hope because I know it's temporary.\u00a0 Evil is temporary.\r\n\r\nWhat is happening now won't always be.\u00a0 God is coming back to execute justice and to make things right.\u00a0 And because I live like that, I can look at different incidents or events in the world and still be a hopeful person.\r\n\r\nSo you'll notice here that Paul writing to Titus links hope to eschatology.\u00a0 \"Looking for the blessed (what?\u00a0 Hope, which is something we're optimistic about.\u00a0 Well, what is that hope?)\u00a0 And the appearing, (this is eschatology) of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.\"\u00a0 (Titus 2:13)\r\n\r\nIf I know that the any moment appearance of Jesus is a reality, then that's my blessed hope.\u00a0 I walk through life with hope.\u00a0 So you'll see with all of these passages that I'm referencing here, kind of using 1 Thessalonians 3:13 as a springboard, that they're all linked to daily life.\u00a0 It's not just eschatology for the sake of eschatology.\r\n\r\nMy professor, J. Dwight Pentecost, in his book Prophecy for Today<\/em>, says, and I heard him actually say this in class one time, and at the time I really didn't believe it was true, but I did my own study, and I think what he said is completely accurate.\r\n\r\nHe says, \"A short time ago, I took occasion to go through the New Testament and to mark each reference to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and to observe the use made of that teaching about His coming.\u00a0 I was struck anew with the fact that almost without exception, when the coming of Christ is mentioned in the New Testament, it is followed by an exhortation to godliness and holy living.\"\r\n\r\nWhich would explain why God has devoted 27% of His Word to eschatology.\u00a0 27%, over a quarter of the Bible, contains in it material that predicts the future.\u00a0 Now, some of those prophecies have come to pass.\u00a0 Some haven't.\u00a0 But 27% - and this number, because people think we just cooked the books here and made up this number.\r\n\r\nNo, it comes from J.\u00a0 Barton Payne, who was just a scholar, who was a man that was actually very hostile to our interpretation of the end times dispensationalism.\u00a0 But he wrote a book.\u00a0 It's very thick.\u00a0 It's called Encyclopedia of<\/em> Biblical Prophecy<\/em>, something along those lines.\u00a0 I've got it on my shelf.\u00a0 He just wanted to go through the Bible and figure out how much of the Bible was devoted to the subject of eschatology.\u00a0 How many passages did God give us that were eschatological at the time they were written?\r\n\r\nIn fact, the very first eschatological passage in the whole Bible is Genesis 3:15, where it's a prediction that there's coming one from the seed of the woman, Jesus, who will take the serpent's head, Satan's head, and crush it.\u00a0 I would argue that the whole rest of the Bible is a clarification of what Genesis 3:15 means.\u00a0 It goes into more detail.\r\n\r\nBut it doesn't take God long in His Word before He starts talking about eschatology.\u00a0 And J. Barton Payne wanted to figure out, how much of the Bible was prophetic at the time it was written, and his number is 27%.\u00a0 And you can get his book and see all the passages that he references and see exactly how he gets that.\r\n\r\nThis is why prophecy 2 Peter 1:19 \"... is a lamp shining in a dark place ...\".\u00a0 Would you say our world is in a dark place?\u00a0 See, you keep yourself sane in a dark world.\u00a0 We have the word of prophecy, which is a lamp (2 Peter 1:19), shining in a dark place that we would do well to pay attention to.\r\n\r\nYou'll notice specifically the language, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, \"... at the coming of our Lord Jesus (look at this) with all His saints.\" Did you catch that?\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 He's coming back with all His saints?\u00a0 Well, of course, I'm so glad you asked that because Paul's going to explain that in the next chapter.\r\n\r\n1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, which is probably our greatest treatment of the doctrine of the rapture found anywhere in Scripture.\u00a0 Paul's going to explain that the rapture is going to begin with the dead in Christ.\u00a0 \" ... the dead in Christ will rise first.\u00a0 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up ... so we will be always together with them, always with the Lord.\"\u00a0 (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)\r\n\r\n1 Thessalonians 4:15 says, \"For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.\" He goes on, and he says, \"With the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ will rise first.\u00a0 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them (Who's the \"them\"?\u00a0 The \"them\" is the dead in Christ.) together with them in the clouds ...\".\r\n\r\nIn other words, when the rapture happens, let's say it happens this afternoon.\u00a0 I have a book out there arguing it's going to happen this afternoon.\u00a0 No, that was a joke.\u00a0 I'm just joking about that.\u00a0 We don't know when the rapture is going to happen.\u00a0 I hope it will happen in our lifetime.\r\n\r\nBut let's say it does happen this afternoon.\u00a0 What exactly is going to happen?\u00a0 Well, the dead in Christ will rise first.\u00a0 But all the Christians over the last 2,000 years that died prior to the rapture, they will be put in resurrected bodies first and will start to descend.\u00a0 And then we who are alive and on the earth at the time will be caught up to join them in the clouds, and there's this giant reunion in the sky.\r\n\r\nPaul's going to call this a mystery because this is something that really has never been revealed before.\u00a0 It's never been fully unveiled before.\u00a0 But it is unique information concerning how the church age will end.\r\n\r\nSo when Paul in Verse 13 says, \"At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints,\" that's what he's referring to.\u00a0 He's referring to something that he's going to explain more in the second half of Chapter 4.\r\n\r\nSo you'll notice, as we have said, concerning one of the unique characteristics of the Thessalonian letters, the second bullet point there, every Chapter of the book ends with a reference of the return of Jesus to the earth<\/strong>.\u00a0 Either in the rapture or in the second coming, I think most of these texts are rapture passages.\u00a0 So you recall that when Paul got to the end of Chapter 1, how did he wrap up Chapter 1?\u00a0 Verse 10.\r\n\r\n\u201cand to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.\u201d (1 Thessalonians 1:10)\r\n\r\nHow did he end Chapter 2?\u00a0 It's right there in Verse 19.\r\n\r\n\u201cFor who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?\u201d (1 Thessalonians 2:19)\r\n\r\nWell, how does he end Chapter 3?\u00a0 It ends with the same theme.\u00a0 And you know that because that's what we're talking about.\u00a0 Here, Verse 13,\r\n\r\n\"... at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.\" (1 Thessalonians 3:13)\r\n\r\nBut Paul's going to end Chapter 4 with a reference to the return of Christ.\u00a0 Our fullest rapture presentation is found anywhere in Scripture.\u00a0 And then when you get to the end of Chapter 5, around Verse 23, he ends that Chapter with a reference to the return of Christ.\r\n\r\nSo obviously this is a subject that's pretty strongly on his mind.\u00a0 I mean this is early in his ministry.\u00a0 This is what he's talking about all the time.\u00a0 Jesus is coming back.\r\n\r\nI did enjoy, I will say, the Left Behind<\/em> movie, which I went and saw with my family.\u00a0 I thought it was pretty well done.\u00a0 There was a couple of tweaks I would have given it if they didn't ask my opinion, but they didn't.\u00a0 But I always appreciate Christians trying to get out there into the arena of the movies and try to present Biblical truth in a way that people can understand it.\r\n\r\nSo if you get a chance to see that movie, you might enjoy it as well.\u00a0 But whether the movie is good or whether the movie is not good, the truth of the matter is the Bible, which is our ultimate authority, right, indicates that Jesus is coming back.\u00a0 And if you believe Jesus is coming back, then you live differently, you talk differently, you act differently, you prioritize your life differently.\u00a0 And this is why Paul is ending every chapter in Thessalonians with a reference to the return of Christ.\r\n\r\nAnd because 2 Thessalonians is written in close proximity to 1 Thessalonians, he's going to continue on talking about the return of Christ into 2 Thessalonians.\u00a0 It's just they had been blown off course by a letter allegedly coming from Paul giving them a confused understanding of the end times.\u00a0 And Paul had an opportunity to correct that in Chapter 2.\u00a0 But the tone of his focus on the return of Jesus that we see in the first letter is going to continue on in the second letter.\r\n\r\nSo once you hit the end of Chapter 3, that's sort of a transitional marker in the book.\u00a0 Paul has successfully defended himself against the charge of not caring.\u00a0 He's refuted now the three major charges that have been issued against him.\u00a0 And now you move into Chapters 4 and 5 where he's no longer looking backward to his relationship with them, trying to sort of rehabilitate his character and have been assaulted.\r\n\r\nBut now he's in a position to look forward where he's dealing with specific correction that they need.\u00a0 And he's answering specific questions that they knew he they had because Timothy brought this information back to Paul when he was in Corinth.\r\n\r\nSo Chapters 1 through 3 is largely personal experience looking backward.\u00a0 Chapters 4 and 5 is practical exhortation looking forward.\r\n\r\nSo as we move into Chapters 4 and 5, here's the things he starts to deal with.\u00a0 And he goes right for the juggler.\u00a0 Sexual immorality Chapter 4:1-8.\u00a0 Laziness.\u00a0 Why work if Jesus is coming back.\u00a0 Why hold a job?\u00a0 He deals with that in Chapter 4:9-12.\u00a0 Then he'll deal with eschatology, Chapter 4:13 through Chapter 5:11, where he'll deal with the rapture, End of Chapter 4.\u00a0 And then the coming day of the Lord.\u00a0 The tribulation.\u00a0 Chapter 5:1-11.\r\n\r\nThen there's some sort of miscellaneous questions that I think they had for him concerning ministry imbalances.\u00a0 He deals with that in Chapter 5:12-15.\u00a0 And then he'll end the 1 Thessalonian letter on a note of progressive sanctification, admonishing them to live the sanctified Christian life through God's resources.\r\n\r\nSo we can take Chapter 4, the first 12 Verses, and divide it up as follows.\r\n