The Coming of the Lord (Part 3 of 6)

Devotional

Day 1: Thieves Don’t Send Postcards

The suddenness of Christ’s return isn’t a puzzle to solve but a reality to embrace. Like a burglar who gives no warning, Jesus’ coming disrupts humanity’s false sense of control. Obsession with timelines distracts from the urgent call to live ready. Scripture redirects restless curiosity toward active faithfulness. His return isn’t meant for date-setting but for heart-preparing. Stay awake—not by calculating hours, but by cultivating holiness. [18:05]

“Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.”
(Matthew 24:42-43, ESV)

Reflection: What practical step can you take today to replace anxious speculation about Christ’s return with tangible obedience? How might your prayers shift if you saw readiness as a daily posture rather than a future event?

Day 2: Labor Pains in a World of Illusions

History’s trajectory isn’t random—it’s a purposeful arc bending toward Christ’s reign. Like birth pains that signal inevitable new life, global chaos points to creation’s coming redemption. Those trapped in cyclical views of time despair, but believers lean into the story’s promised climax. The world’s “peace and safety” chants cannot silence the groan of a universe in transition. Hope thrives where others see futility. [22:15]

“When 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.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:3, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been tempted to numb yourself to the world’s brokenness rather than leaning into its groaning with gospel hope? How does Christ’s promised return reframe your view of present struggles?

Day 3: History’s Roadmap in God’s Hands

Humanity’s story began with a Creator’s breath and will conclude with a King’s shout. Unlike ancient myths or modern nihilism, Scripture anchors history in God’s sovereign control. Every empire’s rise, every culture’s fall, serves His redemptive plotline. The classroom’s godless history lessons crumble before the cosmic truth: all roads lead to Christ’s throne. Our lives gain meaning as subplots in His grand narrative. [05:10]

“Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’”
(Isaiah 46:9-10, ESV)

Reflection: What current event or personal struggle looks different when viewed through the lens of God’s ultimate sovereignty? How might your work or relationships deepen if seen as part of His eternal story?

Day 4: Witnesses, Not Watchmakers

Christ rebuked date-obsessed disciples not to stifle curiosity but to fuel mission. His followers aren’t called to build theological clocks but to proclaim eternal truth. While the world chases horoscopes and karma, believers walk streets declaring a crucified, risen, and returning King. Every prophetic text ultimately points not to timetables but to the Lamb who was slain. Our task isn’t to predict the finale but to participate in it. [17:11]

“He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses…’”
(Acts 1:7-8, ESV)

Reflection: What conversations or habits keep you circling around speculative questions rather than advancing gospel witness? How could shifting from “when will He come?” to “how can I serve?” change your spiritual focus this week?

Day 5: Living Between Lightning and Dawn

Christ’s return will split the sky like sudden lightning yet arrive as the long-awaited sunrise. This tension fuels both urgency and endurance. Believers don’t huddle in bunkers or chase distractions—they labor while light lasts. Each act of love, each word of truth, becomes a torch lit from eternity’s fire. The world’s darkness cannot withstand saints who live as walking prophecies of the coming Day. [21:41]

“You are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:5-6, ESV)

Reflection: What mundane task or relationship could become an act of prophetic hope if approached in light of Christ’s return? How does the promise of dawn strengthen you to face today’s shadows?

Sermon Summary

The Christian view of the end is tied directly to the Christian view of the beginning. God created history, sustains history, and will bring history to its appointed conclusion. The Bible refuses the futility of a world that began nowhere, means nothing, and is going nowhere. The Hebrew prophets and the apostles set history on a straight line: creation, redemption, judgment, and consummation.

Contemporary godlessness leaves history to chance, cycles, pragmatism, or personal karma. God’s moral law, however, means that human choices are not merely useful or unhelpful but right or wrong. History therefore teaches something, because history unfolds beneath the rule of the Creator. The return of Jesus Christ brings this truth forcibly before every generation: the King of kings holds the final solution to the problems of the world.

Paul turns in 1 Thessalonians 5 from comfort concerning believers who have died to the question that always presses itself forward: when? The Thessalonians want times and dates, diaries and calendars, an accurate chronology. Paul gives them something far better. Paul says they do not need an accurate chronology; they need a biblical theology. Curiosity about dates, detached from theology, produces mythology.

Christ’s own words shut the door on date-setting. Jesus says that the Son of Man will come at an hour when people do not expect him. Jesus says that no one knows the day or hour, not even the angels, nor the Son, but only the Father. Christ redirects the disciples in Acts 1 from speculation about the kingdom’s timetable to the work of witness. The church is not meant to sit on a hill with calculators, but to get into the streets, shops, restaurants, and laboratories with the good news that Jesus Christ has come.

Paul’s image of a thief in the night exposes the folly of trying to crack the code. A burglar does not send advance notice, and Christ’s return will be secret in that sense. The day of the Lord will also be sudden, arriving while people are saying, “Peace and safety.” The image of labor pains adds another note: Christ’s return is not only sudden but unavoidable. The real issue is not knowing the date. The real issue is staying alert.

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Key Takeaways

1. History moves toward God’s appointed end. God gives history its origin, meaning, and destination. Human life cannot be reduced to chance, repeating cycles, or whatever seems useful in the moment. Christ’s return means every thought, word, and deed belongs within a history that will meet the God of creation, redemption, and judgment. [06:49]
2. Chronology without theology becomes mythology. Paul refuses to satisfy curiosity about dates because God has not made the date the issue. Speculation can feel spiritual while quietly distracting believers from what Christ has plainly commanded. Biblical theology produces watchfulness and faithfulness, while date-setting repeatedly produces embarrassment and confusion. [12:03]
3. Christ redirects curiosity toward witness. Jesus tells the disciples that the Father has kept times and dates under his own authority. Christ immediately directs their attention to the Spirit’s power and the worldwide work of witness. The return of Christ should not make believers spectators of prophecy; it should make them active heralds of the gospel. [16:56]
4. The day of the Lord is certain. Paul’s thief image means that Christ’s coming will not be scheduled by human calculation. Paul’s labor-pains image means that Christ’s coming cannot be avoided or escaped. The certainty of that day calls for alertness rather than panic, obedience rather than endless prediction.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:55] - History, Beginning, and End
[03:18] - The Futility of a Godless History
[05:10] - God Rules History
[07:03] - Christ Will Bring History to a Close
[09:19] - The King of Kings Holds the Final Solution
[10:52] - Times and Dates in 1 Thessalonians 5
[12:03] - Biblical Theology, Not Chronology
[14:13] - No One Knows the Day or Hour
[16:42] - Stop Calculating, Start Witnessing
[18:05] - The Thief in the Night
[21:10] - Sudden and Unavoidable Return

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

1 Thessalonians 5:1–6
“Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 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. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” [10:52] [12:58] [13:29] [18:05]

Matthew 24:36
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” [14:18] [15:27]

Acts 1:6–8
“So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’” [16:40] [16:56]

Matthew 24:44
“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” [14:22]

Observation questions

In 1 Thessalonians 5:1–6, what three pictures does Paul use to describe the day of the Lord, and what does each picture emphasize?
What are people saying just before “sudden destruction” comes, and how does that attitude differ from Paul’s command to believers in verses 4–6? [21:10]
When the disciples ask Jesus whether he will restore the kingdom at that time, what does Jesus say is not theirs to know, and what does he immediately gives them to do?
What connection is made between God as Creator, the meaning of history, and the return of Jesus Christ? [05:06]

Interpretation questions

Why does Paul answer questions about “times and seasons” by stressing readiness rather than supplying a timetable? What does this reveal about what God wants his people to focus on? [12:03]
Jesus says that only the Father knows the day and hour. How should this shape the way believers respond to confident predictions that Christ will return on a particular date? [15:27]
The thief image emphasizes that Christ’s return will be unexpected, while labor pains emphasize that it will be unavoidable. How do these two truths together call for steady faith rather than fear or denial? [21:55]
In Acts 1, Jesus turns his disciples from curiosity about the kingdom’s timing to Spirit-empowered witness. What kinds of distractions can keep Christians from being witnesses where God has placed them? [17:30]

Application questions

Where are you most tempted to look for security—politics, money, health, personal plans, or something else? How does the certainty that Christ is King over history change the way you view that concern? [10:16]
Have you ever been drawn into end-times speculation, alarming headlines, or date-setting conversations? What effect did that have on your peace, your Bible reading, or your concern for others?
Paul says that the real issue is not knowing the date but staying alert. What might spiritual sleepiness look like in your ordinary week—in your thoughts, speech, entertainment choices, prayer, or treatment of others? [12:44]
Jesus directs his people away from calculators and toward witness. Who is one person in your streets, workplace, school, neighborhood, or family who needs to hear the good news of Jesus Christ? What is one simple step you could take to speak with them this week? [17:30]
Because every thought, word, and deed matters before the God of creation, redemption, and judgment, is there a particular area of life where you have been treating sin as unimportant? What would repentance and renewed obedience look like there? [05:49]
Christ’s return will be sudden and unavoidable. If you truly expected that Jesus could return at any time, what unfinished act of obedience, reconciliation, generosity, or witness would become more urgent this week? [22:25]

Sermon Clips

“And what Paul is about to say and what I'm about to show you is that Paul's answer is you don't need an accurate chronology, you need a biblical theology. For a preoccupation with chronology minus theology will give you nothing else than a mythology.” [00:11:59]

“All are agreed that the final solution to the problems of this world is in the hands of the King of kings. Not in the hands of the United Nations. Not in the hands of Washington, D.C. Not in the hands of Peking. But in the hands of the King of kings. The Lord God omnipotent reigns. It doesn't always seem so. What says scripture? It is so.” [00:10:16]

“the greater concern is this, that young people are being taught history within a framework of total godlessness. So that their explanation of and interpretation of events has to do with the immediacy of the moment, not the legitimacy of a right decision and the illegitimacy of a wrong decision, because absent a creator God who has established a moral law, there is no right or wrong decision. There is only pragmatism.” [00:07:57]

“You don't go sit on a hill and get your calculators out and start working this stuff out. Get off the hill, get into the streets, the valleys, the shops, the thoroughfares, the restaurants, the laboratories, and tell everyone the good news that Jesus Christ has come.” [00:17:30]

“Paul declares in this section, if I can summarize it, that the Thessalonians needed to hear and we need and every age needs reiterated for us that the real issue is not knowing the date. The real issue is staying alert.” [00:12:33]

“A fellow by the name of Olson puts it very succinctly when he writes, ‘Ever since the first days of the Christian Church, evangelicals have been looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.’ They may, he said, have disagreed as to its timing and to the events on the eschatological calendar. However, all are agreed that the final solution to the problems of this world is in the hands of the King of kings who will someday make the kingdoms of this world his very own.” [00:09:40]

“And so I dialogue with my children as they come home from school, and it becomes increasingly apparent to me that without a view of God who began it, God who sustains it, and God who concludes it, history is pretty well a futile exercise, and certainly at the graduate level of study. Because it started no place, it is no place, and it's going no place.” [00:08:30]

“Now, you see, it is this issue which is forcibly brought to us in the return of Jesus Christ. Because the Christian recognizes that the God who acted in history and still acts in history is going to draw matters to a close as he intended.” [00:06:55]

“Our view of the end of the world is going to be inevitably directly related to our view of the beginning of the world. It is impossible to have a view of how it will conclude that it is not directly related to our view of how it's begun.” [00:00:55]

“Verse two, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Nobody knew the date. Nobody could know the date. Therefore, it was idle for them to spend their time focusing on the date.” [00:13:27]

“You also must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” So, the fact that you expect him doesn't make it any sooner. And the fact that you don't expect him doesn't push it any further back. [00:15:01]

“But when we read our Bibles, we discover the reverse to be the case. I say to you again that our view of the return of Jesus Christ, how the end will be, is directly related to our view at the beginning.” [00:09:05]

“The Jewish mind understood perfectly that the creator God is in charge of history. That he decisively works in all the events of human history. That he is responsible for its origin, and he will in turn be responsible for its conclusion.” [00:05:18]

“It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses.” You notice something? [00:16:56]

“Carl Henry, Henry, one of the best and brightest theologians of the 20th century, puts it in this way in one of his books. The Bible, throughout, insists that God the creator holds mankind eternally accountable for every thought, word, and deed.” [00:05:39]

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