The Day is at Hand – Romans 13:11-14 (I Thessalonians 4:13-18)

 I believe, and I have often said, that Paul was expecting the return of the Saviour during his lifetime. There are several scriptures which say essentially the same thing as this: “It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” I know that it is possible to interpret these words as something other than the Lord’s immediate return and the soon establishment of the Millennial Kingdom. But I believe that when these statements are kept in their proper relationship to what other scriptures teach about the end times, there is no reason to misunderstand Paul’s intention. Because we are recipients of God’s saving grace, and because the completion of our salvation is quite near, “we should we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

I realize that we are in the midst of a study of the Book of Romans, but I’d like to jump from Romans to a scripture to which I referred this morning – I Thessalonians 4:13-18. You may be thinking that you know all about this subject and this scripture. I will not debate that with you, because you might know it as well or even better than I do. But I remind you that was exactly what Paul said here in Romans – “Knowing the time…” I have said it before and I say it again, don’t be surprised if I preach this subject every three or four months. I believe that it is that important.

Paul’s stay in Thessalonica was very short, but we don’t know exactly how short it was. Acts 17 says that he preached in Jewish synagogue for three weeks. But how long after that he stayed in the city can only be estimated. Sir William Ramsay, at one time the acknowledged expert on the life of Paul, declared that he was there from December 50 A.D. to May 51 AD. That is, he was there about six months or so. And to keep things in perspective, that was before he went to Corinth and before he wrote to the Romans.

During that time there grew a fantastic and flourishing church in Thessalonica. Perhaps it was not as noble as the church down the road at Berea. What made that congregation great was that “they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” But it seems that the first Baptistic Church of Thessalonica was like a sponge, soaking up all that Paul had time to teach them. It appears that everything which the Apostle said was taken in like a dying man.

It’s almost incredible what that church learned in just six short months. And it’s interesting to see just what the proto-missionary taught them. Of course the majority of his teaching centered around redemption, just as it is here in Romans. So they learned about conversion (1:9), assurance (1:5), and election (1:4). They knew that sanctification grows out that salvation, and about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Then there the doctrines of eschatology followed, keeping each of the others pointed in the right direction. It is safe to conclude that the church didn’t meet three hours on Sunday and one hour on Wednesday.

They learned a lot in six months, but there were also things that they hadn’t learned and others which they mis-learned. They remind me a bunch cowboys which had caught a herd of wild horses. They had broken some; some horses had broken them, and some just looked pretty. This doctrine of the “translation saints” had thrown a few of the brethren and had hurt them badly. And there are still few folk today who can’t ride that doctrine very well.

Satan has been very busy in the last few years trying to muddy the waters of the Second Coming of Christ. Fundamentalists in the past have usually believed in the imminent return of Lord. In other words, they have believed in a pretribulational rapture or translation of the saints. There have always been the liberal interpretations of amillennialism and post-millennialism. These are teachings that Christ will never establish an earthly kingdom, or that He will come only after the church establishes a thousand years of peace, and after humanity rids the world of sin. And now, there is a new breed of trouble, teaching that Christ will let His people go through the terrible time of Tribulation, elsewhere called “Jacob’s Trouble.” To prove their theories, these people misinterpret some scriptures and ignore others. But that is my opinion, they say. And they undoubtedly accuse me of doing exactly the same thing. Tonight I don’t want to answer their arguments; we’ve done that before. This evening I simply want notice the evidence which is here, making us think that the “day is at hand.”

For example there is the argument of EMPHASIS.I hope that you have read these words often enough that you are familiar with them. I hope that you have heard and read them often enough that you have them practically memorized. And in this condition, what do you think is Paul’s emphasis? What direction is he pointing? Obviously, the theme here is not salvation by grace through faith. And here Paul is not trying to promote holy and sanctified living, although he does so in Romans 13. He isn’t emphasizing the importance of prayer or any of a hundred other things. Neither is his main theme the passing of a few Christians in death. In fact he is trying to point the church in exactly the opposite direction from death. “You’ve been dwelling too long on death, sorrowing like heathen over the passing of your loved ones. We shall all one day leave this world, but it’s not death for which we are looking.” Although death is mentioned here, that is not the emphasis.

And then you’ll look in vain for any reference to the seven years of Tribulation. He brings up that subject in chapter 5, but not here. And even there we are not warned to prepare for, or to fear, the Tribulation. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” It is in Revelation, Daniel and a few other places where we are taught about the time Jacob’s Trouble. It will be a seven year period designed to prepare that nation for the Messiah. When God’s judgments fall on Israel and then on the rest of this ungodly world, she will be made ready. But I am already ready by the grace of God – today – to stand before the Holy God. I have met the Messiah as He hung there on Calvary. The child of God has little to learn from the dread of the Tribulation.

The emphasis of this passage is not to death or the Tribulation, rather it is on the Lord Himself. In itself this argument means little, but added to others it supports the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ for his saints.

There is the argument of the INORDINATE SORROW of the Thessalonians. “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” Let us assume that Paul taught the church that they have to face the Tribulation. If taught at all, he would have told them of the incredible diseases, natural disasters and human wickedness. He would have mentioned the slaughter and the mark of the beast without which no man could buy or sell. He would have told about flying scorpion-like beasts, rivers of blood and oceans of acid. He would have told them about the unmatched wars, and men crying for death. If Paul had taught the Tribulation, he would have described it in its fullness.

And if we want to assume that he told them that they would have to pass through that time or die, it would naturally follow they would have praised God for their friends who escaped by way of death. They wouldn’t be in uncontrollable mourning because someone had died. They would have been praising the Lord! Those dead souls would have been like escapees from a horrible prison camp.

Obviously, these people were not expecting Tribulation, but rather something good. It appears they had the mistaken idea, that their loved ones would miss the Second Coming and the translations of the saints. Apparently they thought that the dead will not rise again until much later, and that they would miss many of the Lord’s blessings. It wasn’t that they would not eventually be raised from the dead, but of something else more immediate. They were wrong and the Apostle corrected them.

Their sorrow proves that we should not look for the time of Jacob’s Trouble – the Tribulation.

Then there is the argument of HOPE.“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” I may be stretching things here, but I tie that word “hope” to Titus 2:12-13: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Since Paul mentions “hope” in I Thessalonians 4, I wonder if he taught those people its full meaning? Was his ministry any longer in Crete than it was here in Thessalonica? Crete was where Titus was when he received the letter bearing his name. The teaching in Titus is that we should live righteously in this present world. And a part of that righteous life is to look for the blessed hope and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Were the Cretians looking for Tribulation? Were they looking for the Antichrist? Were they expecting demands that they receive the mark of the Beast? Were looking for war in Israel with the armies of the North, South and East? No, they were looking for the Saviour, piercing the skies, and calling His people.

The people, both in Crete and in Thessalonica, were living in the light of the blessed hope. Not just living in hope, but living in the hope.

This too may be a weak argument, but there is also the argument of ORDER.“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

If the translation of the saints does take place at the end of the Tribulation, and if the Tribulation is as awful as we believe Revelation describes, I would think that the Lord would be interested in rescuing His suffering people quickly. It would seem to me that since the dead are no-longer suffering, the Lord would rescue the living prior to calling the dead from their graves. If you came home and found your house in flames, wouldn’t run in for your children before your dog? Sure you have valuables, but your loved ones supercede the property.

This argument sounds like I’m clutching at straws, but not so, because there is more.

There is also the argument of PREVIOUS MENTION.What does I Thessalonians 1:9-10 say? Were those people waiting for Tribulation? No – they were waiting for the Lord. “From you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”

What do 2:19-20 and 3:13 talk about? “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy.” “Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” These passages don’t speak of Tribulation; they imply the coming of the Lord. Is Paul trying to get his friends to look past the seven years of disaster? I think that he would have said so, in just the same way that the Lord spoke of his crucifixion. When Jesus was teaching the disciples that He would be taken and slain, He reassured them, by saying, “but…. but…. I shall rise again.” If the Tribulation lay between the Thessalonians and the return of the Lord, then Paul should have been honest enough to tell them that and then to comfort them. But all he does is give the comfort. The implication is that Christians will not face the time of Jacob’s Trouble.

Six, there is the Argument of the PLACEMENT of the APOSTLE PAUL.It was characteristic of some classic painters to put themselves in their pictures. Similarly, notice where Paul places himself in this text: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that WE which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then WE which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall WE ever be with the Lord.”

Paul was expecting himself to be among the living saints at the return of the Lord. The opponents say, but he was just talking editorially. He was just saying, “those who will be alive sat that time shall caught up in the air.” They are welcome to their opinion, as false as I believe it to be, and I am entitled to mine. Remember that generally speaking “the times and seasons” of the Lord’s return are unknown to man. Not even the Son of God knew while upon this earth. Certainly not the Apostle Paul. So he was personally looking for Christ in the sky, not in death and not in tribulation.

And since we live about 2000 years after Paul, our expectation should be even greater. Our salvation is certainly nearer than we believed, and we he believed. Lift up your heads pilgrim aweary, Jesus is coming again, Jesus is coming again. “Be ye also ready; for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”

There is one further Argument: that of COMFORT. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” I find no great comfort for the dead in Christ, nor for myself, nor the dying, contemplating the Tribulation. The comfort that I see Paul pleading is the comfort of the return of Christ. Comfort seven years down the road, with who knows what kind hardship between, isn’t comforting. Comfort a hundred years away, or maybe a thousand years away?

I take comfort in the thought: “maybe today, maybe right now.”

“Even so, come Lord Jesus.”