{"id":22282,"date":"2023-04-01T14:39:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T19:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/sermon\/first-thessalonians-020-after-the-rapture-part-1\/"},"modified":"2023-08-01T12:39:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T17:39:22","slug":"first-thessalonians-020-after-the-rapture-part-1","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/first-thessalonians-020-after-the-rapture-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"First Thessalonians 020 – After the Rapture (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[97],"series_event":[546],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-22282","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 020 - After the Rapture (part 1)","sermon_date":"20230402","sermon_month":"04","sermon_year":"2023","sermon_notes":22280,"sermon_slides":22287,"sermon_mp3":22299,"sermon_id":"422336484598","series_or_event":546,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":97,"chapter_and_verse":"5:1-3","sermon_transcript":"

First Thessalonians 020 \u2013 After the Rapture (part 1)<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 \u2022 Dr. Andy Woods \u2022 April 2, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Prayer<\/h4>\r\nFather, we're grateful for today and grateful for this morning.\u00a0 Grateful for this particular Sunday that we call Triumphal Sunday, where Your Son rode into Jerusalem presenting His Messianic credentials to the nation, only to have tears in His eyes as He rode in on a donkey because He knew what they would do.\u00a0 He knew prophetically they would reject Him, and how they turned him over to Rome for execution in the events of this week, culminating on Good Friday.\u00a0 So I do pray Lord that You would help us to be circumspect this week, reflective of the fact that a great price was paid for our salvation.\u00a0 And we're grateful Lord that the story doesn't stop there.\u00a0 It doesn't stop with the crucifixion.\u00a0 It also includes the resurrection and then after that, the ascension.\u00a0 And we're thankful Lord that You took a very dark situation and turned it around for humanity's betterment.\u00a0 You took lemons and turned them into lemonade as only You could do.\u00a0 We're so grateful for the salvation that we have in the person of Jesus.\u00a0 I do ask Lord that as the Scriptures are taught this morning, that we could receive completely and totally from You today via the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And in preparation for that, Father, we're going to take just a few moments of silence to do business with You if need be.\u00a0 Not to restore salvation, which can never be lost, but rather to restore broken fellowship.\u00a0 We ask that You'll do this work, and we'll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 In Jesus' name, first of all, taking a few moments of silence.\r\n\r\nWe're thankful, Lord, of how You have provided for us in every way.\u00a0 We ask for the Spirit to work today through the teaching of Your Word, through the Lord's Supper and the fellowship lunch that follows.\u00a0 And as we said earlier, 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 said Amen.\r\n

1 Thessalonians 5:1<\/h4>\r\nSo if we can take our Bibles this morning and open them to 1 Thessalonians 5:1.\u00a0 So that basically means we're no longer in 1 Thessalonians 4.\u00a0 And we're going to try to look at, Lord willing, this morning 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 in a teaching, a Sunday school lesson that I've entitled \"After the Rapture.\"\u00a0 In other words, once the Rapture occurs, end of Chapter 4, what is the world going to experience?\u00a0 And you really have a description of that as Paul continues his thoughts on eschatology or the end times in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3.\r\n\r\nPaul, of course, is in a section of the book of 1 Thessalonians where he is no longer defending himself against unfair attacks and criticism that have come against him.\u00a0 Having responded to each of those unfair accusations and allegations, he has restored his reputation and now, beginning in 1 Thessalonians 4:1 with the word \"finally\", he is now in a position to correct the Thessalonians.\r\n\r\nLargely dealing with issues that he became aware of through different delegations that he sent back to Thessalonica while he was in Corinth to sort of ascertain their spiritual progress.\u00a0 So he's dealt with immorality, (4:1-8).\u00a0 He's dealt with laziness (4:9-12), and then beginning in Chapter 4:13 through the end of Chapter 5 he deals with the end times.\r\n\r\nThey had some concerns, not about the rapture, but they wanted to understand how the rapture affected their deceased loved ones in Christ, and he's answered that in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.\r\n\r\nAnd now in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 he begins to deal with something called the Day of the Lord.\u00a0 Something that will hit planet earth subsequent to the rapture.\u00a0 So here in these verses Paul broadens the scope of the discussion from the rapture.\u00a0 So he's still talking about the end times but he's going a slightly different direction.\u00a0 He's no longer speaking of the rapture, but he is speaking of the subsequent era of history that the world will experience following the rapture.\r\n\r\nSo we have in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 a description of this time period that he calls the Day of the Lord, and then beginning in 1 Thessalonians 5:4-11, he applies these truths to the Christians who had not yet experienced the rapture, the Thessalonians.\r\n

Description of the Day of the Lord<\/h4>\r\nSo what we're going to focus on today is 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, this description of the Day of the Lord.\r\n\r\nSo notice 1 Thessalonians 5:1, he says, \"Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.\"[1]<\/a>\r\n\r\nNow here I'm reading from the New American Standard Bible and it says, \"Now as to\" \u2013 the Greek, is a little expression, it's typically translated \"now concerning<\/strong>,\" but it's a little Greek expression called \"peri de<\/strong>\" [\u03a0\u03b5\u03c1\u1f76 \u03b4\u1f72].\u00a0 Peri = concerning, de = now; now concerning.\r\n\r\nAnd when Paul uses that little expression, he's typically switching subjects.\u00a0 So if you look back at 1 Thessalonians 4:9, in Greek it may not show up well in the English translation, but there's a \"peri de\"<\/strong> there.\u00a0 He says, \"Now as to the love of the brethren,\" so he switched subjects.\r\n\r\nAnd if you take a look at 1 Thessalonians 4:13, the rapture passage that we've been studying the last few weeks, he says in 4:13 , \"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who have fallen asleep.\"\u00a0 The two words peri and de<\/strong> are not exactly together here, but \"about<\/strong>\" is a translation from the word peri<\/strong> in Greek, which means concerning, now concerning.\r\n\r\nSo, this becomes a really wonderful tool once you understand this, how to outline many books of the Bible that Paul has written.\u00a0 This is how, for example, we would outline the book of 1 Corinthians.\u00a0 In Chapters 1 through 6, he's dealing with issues reported to him.\u00a0 And then in 1 Corinthians 7-16, he's dealing with issues asked of him.\u00a0 And so how do you divide up Chapters 7 through 16?\u00a0 You just look for the repetition of that Greek expression \"peri de\".\u00a0 Because when he says, \"peri de,\" now concerning, he's switching topics.\u00a0 In other words, he's dealing with another question asked of him by the Corinthians.\r\n\r\nSo in chapter 1 Corinthians 7:1, he says, \"Now concerning,\" and now he's dealing with marital issues.\u00a0 When you go down to 1 Corinthians 7:25, he says, \"Now concerning virgins ...\" so now he's dealing with the unmarried.\u00a0 In 1 Corinthians 8:1, he says, \"Now concerning things sacrificed to idols ....\"\u00a0 So he's dealing with that issue.\u00a0 In 1 Corinthians 12:1, he says, \"Now concerning spiritual gifts ...\".\u00a0 So he switched topics to deal with the whole subject that they were curious about called spiritual gifts.\u00a0 When you go to 1 Corinthians 16:1, he says, \"Now concerning the collection of the saints ...\".\u00a0 So he's dealing now with the offering that he was taking up for the suffering saints in Jerusalem.\u00a0 And then in 1 Corinthians 16:12 he says, \"But concerning our brother Apollos ...\", he's got some things that they apparently asked him about Apollos.\r\n\r\nSo \"peri de\" is a wonderful little expression that Paul typically uses to transition or change subjects.\u00a0 And so there it is right there in 1 Thessalonians 5:1.\u00a0 He's switching subjects.\u00a0 There's a peri de.\u00a0 \"Now as to the times and the epics, brethren, ...\".\r\n\r\nSo he's changing the subject from positive things.\u00a0 The rapture that they didn't know anything about.\u00a0 They did understand the rapture, but they didn't understand how it affected their deceased loved ones in Christ.\u00a0 So he's left that subject behind and now he's switching to a negative subject.\u00a0 That they did know a lot about, the future tribulation period called the Day of the Lord.\r\n\r\nHe says, \"Now as to the times and the epics, ...\".\u00a0 The Greek for times is chronos [\u03c7\u03c1\u03cc\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2] where we get the word chronology, and the Greek for epics, some of your Bible translations say seasons is kairos [\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u03cc\u03c2].\u00a0 Chronos and kairos, times and epics, times and seasons.\u00a0 You might remember that the Lord Jesus prior to his ascension used those same expressions.\r\n\r\nBecause they were asking him are you going to set up the kingdom right now?\u00a0 And Jesus responded to them in Acts 1:7, \"He said to them, \u201cIt is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;\" \u00a0In other words, don't worry about the coming of the kingdom.\u00a0 That's going to be manifested in God the Father's timetable.\u00a0 You don't have to be worried about the times and the seasons, the kairos and the chronos concerning the future kingdom.\r\n\r\nAnd here Paul, the apostle, uses those same expressions, kairos, chronos, times and seasons, essentially to refer to what planet Earth is going to face after the rapture that he's described at the end of Chapter 4 transpires.\r\n\r\nAnd then you'll notice the expression \"brethren.\"\u00a0 \"Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, ...\", so very clearly, he's talking to believers.\u00a0 And the reason we believe he's talking to believers here is he can't be referring to Jewish brethren because his audience, as we've tried to explain, is primarily Gentile in the Thessalonian books.\u00a0 He's using the word \"brethren\" the way the Lord Jesus used it in Matthew 12:46-50 when Jesus was told His mother and His brothers are waiting for you.\u00a0 And He says, well, who is my mother?\u00a0 Who are my brothers?\u00a0 Are they not the ones that do the will of my Father in heaven?\" So brethren can be used of a spiritual bond, spiritual brotherhood.\r\n\r\nAnd he's explaining to the brethren, the believers who are receiving this, that they will not be in this time period called the Day of the Lord.\u00a0 More on that in just a moment.\r\n\r\nSo he says in 1 Thessalonians 5:1, \"Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.\"\u00a0 Meaning that when Paul was there in Thessalonica on his second missionary journey, he had already instructed them about this issue.\u00a0 He had taught them about the rapture.\u00a0 He had taught them about the Day of the Lord that would hit planet Earth subsequent to the rapture.\r\n\r\nIn other words, largely what you're getting in the Thessalonian books is you're getting sort of a review course.\u00a0 He's already explained to them a lot of these subjects.\u00a0 By the time he writes these books, he's just sort of re-emphasizing the high points.\u00a0 So we, in the 21st century as we're trying to read this, are getting into the conversation kind of late in the game.\u00a0 It's studying the Bible is a lot like listening to someone talk on the phone.\r\n\r\nMy wife, you know, for example, who's here, I hear her on her cell phone talking and I'm trying to think, \"Who's she talking to?\" Sounds like a great conversation.\u00a0 And then when she gets off the phone, I say, \"Who are you talking to?\" She'll say, \"So-and-so.\"\u00a0 I go, \"Yeah, that's what I figured,\" based on the conversation.\r\n\r\nThat's kind of like what reading the Bible is like.\u00a0 We're not privy to the whole conversation.\u00a0 We're kind of like the person on the couch wondering who your wife talking on the cell phone is speaking to.\u00a0 Paul is speaking to the Thessalonians, and he's dealing with subjects that already occurred in prior conversations.\u00a0 And so we're sort of picking up things late.\u00a0 But he was very clear here at the end of 1 Thessalonians 5:1.\u00a0 He says concerning the Day of the Lord, you don't have any need of anything being written to you.\u00a0 Meaning that he had already talked to them about this subject.\u00a0 So this is a review course, what we're getting for the very first time.\r\n\r\nIn the second letter, 2 Thessalonians 2:5, Paul is going to lay out a tremendous eschatology, a series of events in Chapter 2, and we're reading this and we're saying, \"Wow, this is really neat.\"\u00a0 But Paul says to the Thessalonians, \"Don't you remember that when I was with you, I was telling you these things?\" In other words, he's not laying the foundation for the first time.\u00a0 He's reviewing prior material.\r\n

1 Thessalonians 5:2<\/h4>\r\nAnd you move on into 1 Thessalonians 5:2.\u00a0 It says, \"For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.\"\r\n\r\nNow notice at the beginning of Verse 2, he says, \"For you yourselves know full well.\"\u00a0 In other words, he had previously taught and explained the subject matter to them when he planted the church in Thessalonica before he was driven out of Thessalonica by the unbelieving Jews into Corinth.\u00a0 But when he was with them \u2013 and he was probably with them about 6 months to a year.\u00a0 A lot of the commentaries say Paul was only with them for 3 weeks.\u00a0 I don't think that's right.\u00a0 He was in the synagogue for 3 weeks in Thessalonica until he got kicked out, but then he went and reaped a great harvest amongst the Jews.\r\n\r\nAnd as you read through 1 Thessalonians, he's assuming that they know an awful lot, and these are brand new converts, so he obviously had to be with them more than just 3 weeks.\u00a0 I think a better understanding of it, he was with them about 6 months to a year, and taught them everything, including the subject of prophecy to the point where they knew about the rapture, they just didn't know how it was going to affect or impact their deceased loved ones in Christ.\r\n\r\nHe says here, \"You know full well about the day of the Lord.\"\u00a0 You know about what is going to hit planet Earth subsequent to the rapture.\u00a0 That's what he means here when he says, \"You know full well.\"\u00a0 And I find this to be very, very interesting because as I mentioned before, there's a mindset amongst Christian leaders that you don't talk about Bible prophecy to new Christians.\u00a0 I've given you some examples of even myself when I became a Christian in 1983 and became interested in Bible prophecy.\u00a0 You know, people were kind of, don't get too much into that stuff kind of mindset.\u00a0 You need to focus on the important things.\u00a0 And I was thinking to myself, well if it's in the Bible, it's important, right?\r\n\r\nAnd even moving on into seminary, I had professors say things like, well the prophecy, eschatology, rapture, the kingdom, those are what they called C-level doctrines.\u00a0 So they actually started to rank doctrines in terms of what they thought were the clearest.\u00a0 So virgin birth, that's an A-level doctrine.\u00a0 Trinity, A-level doctrine.\u00a0 You move off into the other things, you know, head coverings, for example.\u00a0 Well that's a B-level doctrine.\u00a0 And I said, well what about the rapture and eschatology, where that fit?\u00a0 They said, well that's in the C-level doctrine.\u00a0 And I said, well what about the creation days being 24-hour days?\u00a0 Is that a C-level doctrine?\u00a0 And this particular professor says, well that really is a C-minus, you know, kind of thing.\r\n\r\nAnd what all of this is, it's an anthropocentric, man-made attempt to relegate certain things out of the mind that make us nervous.\u00a0 We just say, well they're less important.\u00a0 They're less significant.\u00a0 Now I fully understand that someone doesn't come to Christ necessarily because of their views on the rapture.\u00a0 That coming to Christ is a birth issue.\u00a0 What we're dealing with here are growth issues.\r\n\r\nAnd so people play this little game of, well, this doctrine over here is salvific, but these other ones over here are not.\u00a0 And I just want you to understand that that whole mindset is foreign to the way Paul thought.\u00a0 If Paul thought in the 21st century people were going to take his writings and say, \"This is important.\u00a0 This is less important.\u00a0 This is even less important.\"\u00a0 He would be as shocked as anybody else that they were doing that to his work and the writings of the rest of the Scripture because the Scripture knows no such concept.\r\n

The Ecumenical Mindset, The Urge To Merge<\/h4>\r\nOne of the things that's happening in the body of Christ is the movement called ecumenism.\u00a0 I call it the urge to merge.\u00a0 We all got to come together and be one sort of mindset.\u00a0 And if there's any doctrinal differences between Christians, then that's actually a sin.\u00a0 In fact, there's a pastor that said in one of his sermons, I've quoted it before, that if you post your doctrinal views on your church website about eschatology, then you actually are in sin because you're dividing the body of Christ.\u00a0 So let's just all be one happy family and let's bring everybody together.\u00a0 Not understanding that through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, when Jesus said, \"I pray that they are one,\" John 17:20-23, that prayer request was already answered on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit already made everyone that's born again one in the body of Christ.\r\n\r\nSo we don't have to sit around saying, \"Okay, we've got to merge with the church down the street.\u00a0 We've got to merge with this other group over here to fulfill the priority of Christ's prayer that we would all be one.\"\u00a0 That's a prayer request that was already answered.\u00a0 And by the way, the unity that Jesus spoke of is a unity that revolves around truth.\u00a0 Because prior to Verses 20 through 23 of John 17 is Verse 17.\u00a0 Do you all agree that Verse 17 comes before Verse 20 in John 17?\u00a0 And in John 17:17, he says, \"\u201cSanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.\" Then he moves on to a discussion of unity.\r\n\r\nTrue unity never sacrifices truth.\u00a0 If you're in some sort of church or group where they're always talking about, \"Let's tone it down.\u00a0 Let's tone down certain doctrines for the sake of unity,\" you know you're dealing with the spirit of ecumenism.\u00a0 You're not dealing with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit never says, \"Pursue unity at the expense of truth.\"\r\n\r\nBy the way, if you want a group of people in the Bible that pursued unity at the expense of truth, look at the Tower of Babel.\u00a0 Boy, they had unity.\u00a0 And yet, it was a unity that was so horrific that God had to confuse the existing language at the time so that these builders will not cooperate with each other.\u00a0 But we're being pushed into this sort of one world religion of the last days of the Antichrist.\u00a0 Evangelicalism, very sadly, is being sucked into that.\u00a0 And that's why there are so many voices within evangelicalism that keep talking of the ecumenical mindset, the urge to merge.\r\n\r\nAnd so churches like ours that want to emphasize the whole Bible, you know, what a thought, a church that wants to emphasize the whole Bible.\u00a0 You know, we're kind of on the outs because we don't really fit with the ecumenical spirit of the day because our views on doctrine would divide us from Mormons, would divide us from Roman Catholics, would divide us from Lordship salvation type preachers, would divide us from people that don't want to take eschatology literally.\u00a0 And so essentially what we're told is, well, we're outside of God's will.\u00a0 No, you're outside of God's will.\u00a0 Because you're promoting unity at the expense of truth, something that the Holy Spirit will never do.\r\n\r\nSo Paul the Apostle, when he was with the Thessalonians, taught brand new Christians all these subjects.\u00a0 To the point where when you read through the Thessalonian books, which are two of the earliest letters Paul wrote, he's reviewing prior material.\u00a0 So this idea that you don't teach Christians certain doctrines concerning the eschatology is just an unbiblical ministry philosophy.\u00a0 So Paul says here, \"You know full well about the day of the Lord.\"\r\n\r\n1 Thessalonians 5:2, \"For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.\"\r\n

The Day Of The Lord Is Not The Rapture<\/h4>\r\nNow, what is this business here about the Day of the Lord?\u00a0 The Day of the Lord is not the rapture.\u00a0 The Day of the Lord is the time period that will come upon the earth subsequent to the rapture.\r\n\r\nNow why do I think that the Day of the Lord is not the rapture?\u00a0 Because all you have to do is go back into the Bible to the very first time \"day\" is ever mentioned.\u00a0 And what you'll see is a day has an evening followed by a morning.\u00a0 In fact, the very first reference to the word \"day\" in Scripture, is in the book of Genesis 1:5.\u00a0 This is the first time the word day, yom, in Hebrew is ever used.\r\n\r\nAnd it says in Genesis 1:5, \"God called the light day, and the darkness He called night,\u00a0 And there was evening [What comes first?\u00a0 The dark, the evening.], and then there was morning, one day.\"\u00a0 And this was day one, or the first day.\u00a0 So in a biblical understanding, when you use the word day, there is a darkness time period followed by a light time period.\r\n\r\nSo obviously the Day of the Lord can't be the rapture because the rapture is not a dark event.\u00a0 It's a happy event.\u00a0 Because Paul says, \"Comfort one another with these words.\"\r\n

The Day Of The Lord Begins With The Night \u2013 A Thief In The Night \/ Post-Rapture<\/h4>\r\nSo when he uses the expression, \"the Day of the Lord,\" he's talking about what planet Earth will experience post-rapture, subsequent to the rapture.\u00a0 The Day of the Lord begins with the night.\u00a0 That's why it's analogized here to a thief in the night.\u00a0 If a thief breaks into your house in the middle of the night, is that a happy thing or a bad thing?\u00a0 That's a bad thing.\u00a0 So thief in the night imagery does not go with the rapture, which is a happy thing.\r\n\r\nNow, learning this was very unsettling because our youth group had been subjected to the thief in the night series.\u00a0 Anybody ever watch that?\u00a0 I think there's been other prophecy movies subsequent to that that have kind of raised the budget a little bit.\u00a0 It was sort of a low budget type thing.\u00a0 But youth groups all over America were shown this, and what they kept saying is the rapture is a thief in the night.\u00a0 Well, how could the rapture be a thief in the night when a thief in the night is a bad thing and the rapture is a good thing or a happy thing?\r\n\r\nThe thief in the night imagery is what hits planet Earth post-rapture.\u00a0 After the rapture, what can the world expect to happen?\u00a0 That's what Paul is reviewing here.\u00a0 There will be a tribulation period lasting seven years, Daniel 9:27.\u00a0 That's the evening or the night.\u00a0 And it will be followed by the kingdom ultimately leading into the eternal state.\u00a0 That's the daylight section.\u00a0 That's what the Day of the Lord is here as Paul mentions it.\r\n\r\nNow sometimes the Day of the Lord can have different meanings in other contexts.\u00a0 For example, in the book of Amos 5:18, the coming invasion of the northern kingdom is analogized to the Day of the Lord.\u00a0 Over in 2 Peter 3:10-11, where this earth post thousand-year kingdom is going to be destroyed by fire and replaced with a new heavens and new earth.\u00a0 The destruction of the earth in that brief time period is called the Day of the Lord.\u00a0 Peter describing that event says, \"But 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. \u00a0[If you're a global warming advocate, there's where to put it.]\u00a0 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,\"\r\n

Day Of The Lord It Is Not A Technical Expression<\/h4>\r\nSo the Day of the Lord doesn't always mean the same thing every time it's used.\u00a0 In other words, it is not what we would call a technical expression.\u00a0 A technical expression is an expression that always means the same thing every time it's used.\u00a0 So when you see the Day of the Lord, you have to examine the context to pour the right meaning into the concept.<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAnd here, when Paul mentions the Day of the Lord, he's talking about what is coming to planet Earth after the rapture.\u00a0 There will be a time of evening or darkness, the seven-year tribulation period, followed by a time of light or morning, which will be the millennial kingdom manifesting on planet Earth.\r\n\r\nAnd you'll notice here that he calls that time period just like a thief in the night.\u00a0 If you want to know what it's going to be like, it's going to be just like the days of Noah.\u00a0 That's your parallel.\u00a0 When a thief breaks into your house in the middle of the night, he doesn't text you in advance and say, \"I'm showing up at 2.33 a.m.\" kind of thing, because it's a surprise.\u00a0 It's a bad surprise, but it's a surprise, nonetheless.\r\n

Just Like The Days Of Noah<\/h4>\r\nThat is what is going to hit planet Earth once the Day of the Lord starts.\u00a0 The Earth will be completely and totally taken off guard by this, even though they've been warned.\u00a0 And this has actually happened before, just prior to the flood.\u00a0 By way of prophetic parallel, Jesus says, \"\u201cBut of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. \u201cFor the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.\" \u00a0(Matt 24:36-37)\r\n\r\nNow keep in mind that Noah was a preacher in that time period, 2 Peter 2:5.\u00a0 There was 120 year, which is a long time, grace period.\u00a0 But Noah, his message just fell on deaf ears.\u00a0 And so when the flood hit, everybody was shocked that it was happening.\u00a0 Matt 24:38-39, \"For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day [right up to the exact day] that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand [in other words, this is a surprise, this is thief in the night] until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.\"\u00a0 In other words, this has happened before.\r\n\r\nThe rapture occurs, the world comes up with some sort of bizarre explanation as to where everybody went.\u00a0 It'll probably have something to do with the, well do I even say this?\u00a0 All the Maga people just disappeared.\u00a0 All the conservatives disappeared.\u00a0 All the people, you know, always talking about the Bible, disappeared.\u00a0 Now some churches, I mean, they'll have a full house the day after the rapture, I'm convinced.\r\n\r\nSo all the people that were sort of holding up planetary progress, nature had a way of sort of getting rid of them.\u00a0 So rather than it being a blessing, they'll turn it into a negative.\u00a0 All the politically incorrect people are gone.\u00a0 And the Antichrist will most likely have some kind of really glib explanation for this.\r\n\r\nAnd the world will just go right back to normal as usual, even though they've been fully warned about what's going to happen subsequent to the rapture.\u00a0 And pow, here comes the Day of the Lord.\u00a0 Here comes the seven-year tribulation period.\u00a0 And it takes them completely and totally off guard, just like the flood did in the days of Noah.\r\n\r\nSo this expression, \"thief in the night,\" is the surprise of the unsaved when the Day of the Lord hits.\u00a0 It's not talking about the rapture at all.\u00a0 Because a thief is a negative thing, the rapture is a positive thing.\u00a0 That's why Jesus prefaced His comments on the rapture by saying, \"Do not let your heart be troubled.\"\u00a0 This is why Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:18 concerning the rapture, \"Therefore comfort one another with these words.\" \u00a0This is why Titus 2:13, concerning the rapture, calls it a blessed hope.\u00a0 None of those descriptors fit thief in the night imagery.\r\n\r\nThief in the night imagery is the unsaved person and the unsaved mind that has rejected God, rejected a knowledge of God, rejected a knowledge of the Scripture.\u00a0 The moment judgment hits, they're just completely shocked it's happened.\r\n\r\nIn fact, over in Revelation 6:16-17, the last couple of verses in the chapter, it's the pagans kind of going through the mental process about, you know what, this is the wrath of God.\u00a0 And they don't figure it out until the end of Revelation 6, but grammatically, as I've tried to show in other teachings, that statement backs up to the beginning of the chapter.\r\n\r\nThe wrath of God has started in Revelation 6:1.\u00a0 The pagans don't figure it out until the end of Chapter 6.\u00a0 But in the process of figuring it out, they're saying to themselves, \"for the great day of the wrath has come, ...\" (Rev 6:17).\u00a0 \u00a0And actually, it started with the first seal judgment.\r\n

1 Thessalonians 5:3 \u2013 \"While they are saying, \u201cPeace and safety!\u201d<\/h4>\r\nNow, if you look at 1 Thessalonians 5:3, you'll see something very interesting there.\u00a0 While they are saying, \"Peace and homeland security,\" oh, I'm sorry, sorry.\u00a0 \"While they are saying, \u201cPeace and safety!\u201d then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.\"\r\n\r\nLook at the very first part of Verse 3.\u00a0 \"While they<\/strong>,\" you see that?\u00a0 That's a big deal.\u00a0 \"While they are saying peace and safety\".\u00a0 He doesn't say, while we<\/strong> are saying peace and safety.\u00a0 Which means we can't be in this time period because a \"we\" is not a \"they.\"\u00a0 Amen?\r\n\r\nDoes Paul know how to say \"we\"?\u00a0 Sure does.\u00a0 Remember what he said in 1 Thessalonians 4:15 in the prior chapter?\u00a0 \"For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we<\/strong> who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.\" \u00a0Paul said \"we\", the believers, are going to participate in the rapture.\r\n\r\n1 Corinthians 15:51, also a rapture passage.\u00a0 This is a good time to review it because we're coming up on Resurrection Sunday.\u00a0 And the reason Paul includes it here is because the rapture is the time period that we as believers receive our resurrected bodies.\u00a0 \"Behold, I tell you a mystery; we<\/strong> [1st person plural] will not all sleep, but we<\/strong> [1st person plural] will all be changed,\".\u00a0 I was just going to entitle this lesson, \"We<\/strong>.\"\r\n\r\nBut you'll notice that he doesn't say \"we<\/strong>\" here.\u00a0 He says \"they<\/strong>.\"\u00a0 1 Thessalonians 5:3.\u00a0 He's not talking about the rapture.\u00a0 He's talking about the Day of the Lord subsequent to the rapture.\u00a0 And he says \"they<\/strong>.\"\u00a0 In other words, he just switched from first person to third person.\r\n\r\nSo one of the great questions of a person's life is, \"Are you a 'we' or are you a 'they'?\"<\/strong> As for me and my house, we're a \"we.\"\u00a0 Because we're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 But if you haven't trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a \"they.\"\u00a0 And this is what you will experience after the rapture has already taken place.\r\n\r\nIt's the unsaved world left behind at the rapture.\u00a0 Completely and totally swept off guard, just like in the days of Noah concerning the flood.\r\n\r\n\"While they<\/strong> are saying \"peace and safety, ...\".\u00a0 Who is Jesus Christ?\u00a0 Isaiah 9:6-7, He's the Prince of Peace.\u00a0 You will not have peace in your life.\u00a0 You won't have peace internally.\u00a0 You won't have peace with God until you trust Him as your Savior, and the Holy Spirit comes into you.\u00a0 That's why Jesus in the Upper Room says, \"\u201cPeace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.\" (John 14:27)\u00a0 The peace of God that the book of Philippians says transcends all understanding.\u00a0 (Philippians 4:7)\r\n\r\nIf a person rejects that, they've got a major hole in their heart that they're trying to fix.\u00a0 And what they have a tendency to do is they have a tendency to fill that with an artificial substitute.\u00a0 We've got to get the right leader in power.\u00a0 We've got to get the economy under control.\u00a0 We've got to get inflation down.\u00a0 We've got to get our guy into the White House.\u00a0 Because if we don't have all this stuff, we can't have peace.\r\n\r\nNot understanding that Jesus is the Prince of Peace.\u00a0 If you want peace in your life, peace with God and inner tranquility, which has nothing to do with the direction of the world, I hope your peace doesn't come from the direction of the world.\u00a0 Because you're going to be one miserable person.\u00a0 You have to have something more than that.\u00a0 You have to have Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the peace of God which transcends all understanding.\r\n\r\nBut if you reject that, you're going to try to fit anything that fits the bill by way of an artificial substitute.\u00a0 That's why this world is a sitting duck for the Antichrist.\u00a0 Because the world is Christ-rejecting.\u00a0 And they're just looking for anybody or anyone to come on the scene and fix the problems of this world.\r\n\r\nJesus talked about that.\u00a0 In John 5:43, He said, \"\u201cI have come in My Father\u2019s name, and you do not receive Me; if another [Antichrist] comes in his own name, you will receive him.\"\r\n\r\nIn other words, Israel, you're a sitting duck for the Antichrist because you're rejecting Me, the Prince of Peace and so you'll settle for an artificial substitute, a person that comes along and gives you a phony peace, a peace that can't last.\r\n\r\nAnd this is why the world is clamoring for peace and safety at this particular time.\u00a0 Now, the Antichrist will show up and he will give people what they want for a season.\u00a0 See, that's the difference because it's going to lead to destruction, as we're going to see.\u00a0 But for a season, they're going to bask in this peace that the Antichrist gives.\r\n\r\nIn fact, Daniel 9:27 says, \"\u201cAnd he [Antichrist] will make a firm covenant with the many [Israel] for one week ...\".\u00a0 He will give them territorial peace, political peace from their enemies, and of course, 42 months into the whole thing, he's going to betray them by desecrating the Jewish temple.\u00a0 But they'll have peace for a very short period of time.\r\n\r\nThis is why the seal judgments, by the way, there's the covenant that he'll make with Israel guaranteeing her peace for a season, Daniel 9:27 which launches the final seven years of the tribulation period.\u00a0 This is all post-Rapture.\r\n\r\nAnd there's going to be a first seal judgment and a second seal judgment.\u00a0 The first seal judgment is the coming of the Antichrist, the rider on the white horse.\u00a0 Boy, that sounds familiar.\u00a0 Kind of like Jesus in Chapter 19, the rider on the white horse.\u00a0 Except this rider on the white horse, who's a man of peace, is giving an artificial substitute.\u00a0 Revelation 6:1-2 says, \"Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, \u201cCome.\u201d I looked, and behold, a white horse, [this is not Jesus, this is the artificial substitute, the Antichrist] and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.\"\r\n\r\nMiddle East problem fixed.\u00a0 Jews clamoring to rebuild their temple, not offending the Muslims in the process fixed.\u00a0 Global security, economic security fixed.\u00a0 Inflation fixed.\r\n\r\nWow, who wouldn't go for that?\u00a0 Well, the people that go for it are people that don't know Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Because anybody that knows Jesus Christ can see the writing on the wall that this is going to be very short-lived, as enjoyable as it may be for the moment.\u00a0 Because seal judgment number one is followed by seal judgment number two.\u00a0 And that's where global war breaks out.\r\n\r\nI guess the peace didn't last too long.\u00a0 Revelation 6:3-4 says, \"When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, \u201cCome.\u201d And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, [you see that] and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.\"\r\n\r\nSo first we have peace established on the earth, but it is not lasting, because in the second seal judgment, peace is taken from the earth.\u00a0 But I'm trying to give you an explanation as to why they're saying, \"peace and safety.\"\u00a0 In other words, this is what the world will fall for.\u00a0 This is what the human heart always falls for when it rejects Jesus Christ, the true Prince of Peace.\u00a0 They will settle for the artificial substitute.\r\n\r\nAnd that's why, we were just talking about this earlier, when the Gog-Magog invasion happens, I believe with the second seal judgment, the nation of Israel is living in temporary peace.\u00a0 Ezekiel 38:8 says, \"\u201cAfter many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, ...\".\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I mean how happy are the Jews going to be here.\u00a0 We have gone the sword our whole lives, and now someone has given us peace.\u00a0 \"... whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them<\/strong>.\"\r\n\r\nNotice the Hebrew betah (b\u011b \u1e6d\u01ce\u1e25)<\/em>.\u00a0 \"Living in security.\"\u00a0 Ezekiel 38:11, \"and you will say, \u2018I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, [different word saqat (\u0161\u0101\u00b7q\u01ce\u1e6d<\/em>)] that live securely [betah (b\u011b \u1e6d\u01ce\u1e25)]<\/em>, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates,\"\r\n\r\nThey have betah, military security because their existence has just been guaranteed by the Antichrist.\u00a0 I mean, he wouldn't lie to you, would he?\u00a0 Well, he's lying to them when he enters the treaty with them.\u00a0 They just don't figure it out until halfway through when he desecrates their temple.\u00a0 That he, by the way, has let him rebuild.\u00a0 And then there's a second Hebrew word there, saqat, which means to be living in tranquility.\u00a0 No turmoil in Israel.\u00a0 People are telling me that this is happening now.\u00a0 Do they not watch the news?\u00a0 Israel is in total tranquility.\u00a0 Not tranquility, but lack of tranquility.\u00a0 Israel is living in turmoil.\r\n\r\nSo these prophecies aren't happening now.\u00a0 These are prophecies that will come into existence post-rapture.\u00a0 Beginning of the tribulation period when the Antichrist enters a peace treaty with Israel, guaranteeing her security, that's when Israel experiences betah and saqat, but it's short-lived.\u00a0 And they fall for this because they rejected the true Prince of Peace.\r\n\r\nIt is a dangerous thing to reject Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Because when the human mind or the human heart rejects a true knowledge of Jesus, it becomes open to all kinds of deception.<\/strong>\u00a0 That's what's happening here.\r\n\r\nYou continue on, 1 Thessalonians 5:3, \"While they are saying, \u201cPeace and safety!\u201d then destruction will come upon them ...\".\u00a0 Seal judgment number one is followed by seal judgment number two, which is all out war.\u00a0 Even though Israel has betah and saqat, here comes Iran, Russia, Turkey, and others saying now is the time to invade Israel.\r\n\r\nSo obviously the peace that the Antichrist brought is not lasting.\u00a0 How different the peace of Jesus, Who is called the Prince of Peace.\u00a0 He will permanently bring to an end a state of conflict between you and God.\u00a0 And He will put inside of you His Spirit, which gives you, in the midst of the worst type of events, the peace of God that transcends all understanding.\u00a0 And by the way, when He sets up His Kingdom, how long is it going to last?\u00a0 Forever.\u00a0 A thousand years and after that it will merge into the eternal state and will last forever.\r\n\r\nHow different the kingdom of the Antichrist is that brings peace to the world for a moment.\u00a0 Peace to the world for just an instant.\u00a0 It's a major bait and switch that's gone on here with the inhabitants of the earth.\u00a0 They thought they were getting one thing; they end up getting something else.\u00a0 They thought they were getting peace and safety.\u00a0 No, you didn't get peace and safety.\u00a0 You got destruction.\r\n\r\nAnd when you look at 1 Thessalonians 5:3, it says the destruction will come suddenly.\u00a0 Now there are people running around saying today that the first half of the tribulation period is not going to be that bad.\u00a0 So we're going to be here for the first half of it.\r\n\r\nI'm sorry folks, but that's not what the Bible says.\u00a0 The Bible says that when the destruction happens, it will come suddenly, and it will be destructive in nature.\u00a0 The first sealed judgment is actually a judgment as well.\u00a0 Although there's not yet any physical harm.\u00a0 Because what did Jesus say in Matthew 10:28?\u00a0 \"\u201cDo not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.\"\r\n\r\nFollowing the Antichrist brings a moment of peace, but you're actually in so doing consigning yourself to the lake of fire, particularly if you take the mark of the beast.\u00a0 I'm not denying that there will be salvations in this time period, there will be many, but what you have to understand is when God allows the Antichrist to come forward, He's actually judging the world.\u00a0 He is solidifying them in some respects in their Christ-rejecting state, which is actually a worse judgment when you think about it, because it has eternal ramifications.\r\n\r\nAnd so the destruction does not happen later in the tribulation period, it happens immediately, beginning with the Antichrist.\u00a0 Well, gee, Paul, I would love an illustration where you can illustrate this for me.\u00a0 Do you have one?\u00a0 Paul says, \"I'm so glad you asked.\"\r\n\r\n\"... then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child ...\" (1 Thessalonians 5:3)\u00a0 Notice the word \"like.\"\u00a0 It's a simile, it's an analogy that he's using.\u00a0 Once a woman goes into labor, it's irreversible.\u00a0 When you get that phone call from your wife, or you're sitting there in the living room with your wife, she says it's time to go to the hospital, you don't say, \"Well, I'm going to just take a fast run to Starbucks, and I'll be right back.\"\u00a0 Because that baby's coming.\u00a0 It's an irreversible process once it starts.\r\n\r\nOnce this process called the Day of the Lord starts, you can't shut it down. <\/strong>\u00a0You can't reverse it.\u00a0 There's no pause button.\u00a0 There certainly is no rewind button.\u00a0 By the way,\r\n\r\nJesus Christ Himself describing this time period, used the same analogy.\u00a0 It's in Matthew 24:8.\u00a0 Now here He's describing the Jews in the tribulation period, and He's describing the various birth pangs or pains, Matthew 24, which I believe lined up with the seal judgment, as you can see from this chart.\u00a0 But early on in the process, Jesus says all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.\u00a0 It is an irreversible process once it begins.\r\n\r\nWhile they are saying, \"While they are saying, \u201cPeace and safety!\u201d then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they<\/strong> will not escape.\"\u00a0 Are you a \"we<\/strong>\" or are you a \"they<\/strong>?\"\r\n\r\nPaul when he was describing the rapture, 1 Thessalonians 4:15 says, \"we<\/strong>.\" 1 Corinthians 15:51, 51 Paul describing the rapture says, \"we<\/strong>\" twice, first person plural.\u00a0 Now there's a completely different shift and he talks about \"they<\/strong>.\"\r\n\r\nPeople that think the church is in this time period, how do they explain this?\u00a0 Well typically what people do is they just ignore it.\u00a0 It goes against their narrative.\u00a0 It goes against their theological system.\u00a0 They really don't want to believe that they bought into a system that has no Biblical support.\r\n\r\nSo they would say something like, \"Well, you know, that's just stylistic,\" or something.\u00a0 No, this is not stylistic.\u00a0 When Paul is talking about the end of the age of the church, he says \"we<\/strong>.\"\u00a0 When he talks about what follows the rapture, he says \"they<\/strong>.\"\u00a0 And he says it twice.\u00a0 Switch first person to third person.\r\n\r\nAnd then how does it end here?\u00a0 They will not escape.\u00a0 Now when you study that expression, \"they will not escape,\" in Greek, there's a double negative there.\u00a0 Two negatives right next door to each other.\u00a0 If I got the pronunciation right, it's like \"ou\" and then \"me\" (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bf\u1f50 \u03bc\u1f74 \u1f10\u03ba\u03c6\u03cd\u03b3\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd).\u00a0 It's like Paul saying \"\u03bc\u1f74<\/strong> \u03b3\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03c4\u03bf<\/strong>\" (me genoito), if I'm pronouncing that right in Romans, may it never be.\u00a0 In other words, it's impossible.\r\n\r\nA double negation is like saying an impossibility.\u00a0 It is the strongest negation you can possibly have in the Greek language.\u00a0 It's like when your five-year-old says \"Can I have the keys to the car?\" You don't just say \"no.\"\u00a0 You say \"no, no, no, no, no, no.\"\u00a0 That will never happen.\u00a0 And if you're reading in the Spanish version, it would say \"no way, Jose.\"\u00a0 No way.\u00a0 No way it could happen.\r\n\r\nWhen it says, \"they will not escape,\" the world is not going to get out of this time period.\u00a0 It's simply overtaken them.\u00a0 It's overtaken them like a woman in labor, a process that's irreversible.\u00a0 Once the process starts, the process can't be undone.\u00a0 So this is what the world has in store for them subsequent to or after the rapture.\r\n\r\nAre people going to get saved in this time period?\u00a0 Yes, there will be many salvations, Revelation 7:8.\u00a0 But they will be saved in and through.\u00a0 We in the church age are kept out of it completely.\u00a0 I don't preach or teach this doctrine that many of my colleagues and teachers of Bible prophecy teach that if you don't trust Jesus now, you're going to go into the tribulation period, and you'll have no hope of receiving Him as Savior.\u00a0 I don't see that doctrine in Scripture.\u00a0 I know they try to yank a couple of verses out of 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12, and we'll deal with those if and when we get over there because the rapture might happen before we finish the Thessalonian letters.\r\n\r\nBut the doctrine that you better trust Christ now or you're going to go into the tribulation period and you're never going to be able to trust Him there's no real Biblical support for that other than out of context verses.\u00a0 So it is possible for somebody to, listening to me, to reject the Gospel and yet go into the tribulation period and get saved.\u00a0 That's possible.\u00a0 But as for me and my house, I'm a path of least resistance type.\u00a0 Why would I do something that dumb?\u00a0 When I can trust Christ now and escape this time period in its totality.\u00a0 Isn't that a little smarter?\u00a0 And a little wiser?\r\n\r\nAnd by the way, if you're a Christ rejecter now, why would you think that you're going to be some great spiritual superhero in the seven-year tribulation?\u00a0 Doesn't the Bible say if you're unfaithful with the little thing, you can't be trusted with the bigger thing?\u00a0 So this presumption that people have that they're going to be some kind of cosmic saint in the tribulation period, and they're Christ rejecters now, I don't necessarily think that will always work out in most cases.\r\n\r\nMost people in the tribulation period will be converted under the threat of death.\u00a0 In other words, if you do convert, you die.\u00a0 And that's why it speaks of mass martyrdoms in this time period.\u00a0 I mean, if you can't trust Christ now sitting in an air-conditioned sanctuary, or people watching online sitting in the comfort of their own office or living room, if you can't trust Christ now, why would you think that all of a sudden you're going to trust Him later?\u00a0 Maybe you will.\u00a0 I'm not saying it's an impossibility, but it's going to be a lot, a lot harder.\r\n\r\nWell gee, how does this apply to daily life?\u00a0 I'm glad you asked, because he takes this concept of the Day of the Lord, applies it to the Thessalonian church in 1 Thessalonians 5:4-11, which Lord willing we'll take a look at next week.\u00a0 So we're actually going to get out on time today.\u00a0 Now, don't get used to that.\r\n\r\nLet's pray.\u00a0 Father, we're grateful for Your Word, grateful for Your truth, grateful for the reality that it presents to us about the end.\u00a0 Help us to walk wisely and circumspectly with these truths in these last days.\u00a0 Give us opportunities this week, Lord, to share these with people that we know that are lost.\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 said amen.\r\n\r\n[1]<\/a> All Scripture quotations are from New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update<\/em>. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, unless otherwise noted.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t