April 02, 2025
5:55 PM - 7:00 PM
Choir Room
Dear Friends,
I hope you can attend our Bible study tonight! We will be studying 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. Notes are attached.
LIVING THE CHRISTLIFE
WAYNE BARRETT
HILLTOP LAKES CHAPEL
APRIL 2, 2025
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.
2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While
people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor
pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for
that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of
the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But since we belong
to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of
salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11 Therefore
encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
______________________
v 1 – “Now concerning the times and the seasons …”
chronos and kairos
“you have no need…”
Paul may have been being tactful and gracious. There apparently was some need, or he would
not have reminded them about these things. Also, there were false teachings circulating and
he wanted to set the record straight.
v 2 – “the day of the Lord…”
This was a major topic and sure expectation of the early church
The “day of the Lord” is the Second Coming of Christ, which includes the final Judgment of the
world. (See the attached sheet for further references.)
Early Christians, in large part, were expecting the Lord’s return during their lifetimes.
In this regard, some people said that he already had returned and others, perhaps, were claiming
to know the exact time when it would occur (e.g. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2)
Both of these false teachings are corrected in the NT
As a part of these corrections, things would be pointed out that were requisite to the Day of the
Lord which, clearly, had not occurred—this to help people not to be deceived and upset. (e.g.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, “Let no one deceive you in any way …”)
We also recognize that prophetic words in Scripture often have intermediate, partial fulfillments
which align with that word prior to the final fulfillment of the prophesy.
The Second Coming of Christ has not yet occurred, but there times when the Lord does come
upon a person or a church or a nation in judgment.
“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at
first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you
repent.”—Revelation 2:5
In addition, while a person’s death is not the same as Christ’s Second Coming, a death is another
way that the time for judgment—unto life or punishment—comes to a person, and this
happens to everyone during their lifetimes, often at unexpected times.
2
vv 2-3 – “like a thief in the night…”
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days
before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the
day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them
all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”—Matthew 24:37-39
“Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I
will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.”—
(Review 2 Peter 3:10, and see Revelation 16:15)
The day of the Lord will be sudden and unexpected—although not for Christians if they have
paid attention to Scripture and remain vigilant.
It is also often sudden and unexpected when the Lord comes in other ways in judgment
“While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security…’”
more lit. “For when they might say ‘peace and security’ then suddenly ruination comes upon
them!”
ruination – olethros, ruin, doom, destruction, death (Strong’s)
“as labor pains”—without warning, and they cannot be prevented or stopped, an example
everyone could understand and was memorable
A demonstration of the delusion under which a godless world lives—which is not always an
“uncomfortable” would. Far from it.
cf. areas in Germany that had been shielded during much of the first part of WWII. It was
somewhat comfortable for a while. Life went on fairly normally. But then …
vv 4-5 – “But you are not in darkness brothers …”
more lit. “But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that the day might overtake you like a thief.”
Here “darkness” meaning more than just ignorance, but the darkness of living apart from God
and under the delusions of the world
more lit. “For you are all sons of light and sons of day.”
We cannot do justice to this phrase within time constraints; books are written on “light” in the
Scriptures.
“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light,
but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be
darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly
bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”—Luke 11:34-36
“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we
walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in
the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us
from all sin.”—1 John 1:5-7
“Light” means more than photons! It references God’s holiness, truth, and in some higher sense,
his very nature. It certainly means the absence of sin and having an “enlightened”
understanding.
more lit. “We are not of night nor [sic] darkness.”
Double negative for emphasis
Paul contrasts our state with that of the world—he is also about to extend the metaphor (to the
extent that this is a metaphor)
3
v 6 – “So then, let us not sleep…”
Since we are not of the darkness—and those who are asleep (even though they don’t necessarily
know it). They are not paying attention to God or to what is going on.
more lit. “But we should watch and we should be sober”
We are often enjoined in Scripture to be both
vv 7-8 – “For those who sleep…”
Continuing this analogy…
v 8 is in parallel with Ephesians 6:10-18, the armor of God
This all relates to being sons of light and being sober-minded
vv 9-10 –“For God has not destined us for wrath…”
This is a continuation of “and the helmet the hope of salvation;”
[and what is that hope?]
“that God has not appointed us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ, the One having died for us…”
“so that whether we might watch or we might sleep, we might live together with him.”
Paul gives his metaphor a twist for ending the teaching—here he means a godly watching
and a godly sleep
Our hope in Christ is assured by God—our salvation is something he is doing.
The inescapable corollary is, though, that the sinful world is indeed under the wrath of
God. It is from this that we are saved by and in Christ.
v 11 “Therefor encourage one another…”
This should be our goal in Christian community: to encourage one another and to build one
another up.
This teaching has its main application in what we do when we are not “at the church”—which is
the vast majority of all of our hours each week
4
The Day of the Lord
Selected References in the New Testament
“…the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the
great and magnificent day.”—Acts 2:20 [From Peter’s sermon at Pentecost; he is quoting Joel]
“…who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”—1 Corinthians 1:8
“…you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in
the day of the Lord.”—1 Corinthians 5:5
“For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will
fully understand— just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will
boast of us as we will boast of you.”— 1 Corinthians 1:13-14
“Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask
you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter
seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”—2 Thessalonians 2:1-2
“Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will
award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”—2 Timothy
4:8
“…then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under
punishment until the day of judgment.”—2 Peter 2:9
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the
heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be
exposed.”—2 Peter 3:10
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does
the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”—
“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they
will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the
angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”—
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