Latest / Life For Toledo / Paul Assures the Early Church 1 Thessalonians 5:4

Transcript

Paul Assures the Early Church 1 Thessalonians 5:4 · Life For Toledo

• 0:00
  I'm thinking today a verse in 1 Thessalonians
• 0:03
  5. Pretty interesting. It says, But you, brethren,
• 0:06
  are not about the coming of the Lord, the Lord's
• 0:08
  day, when Jesus will come again. And in this
• 0:10
  verse, Paul is telling the Thessalonians that
• 0:12
  they will not be taken by surprise. To quote
• 0:15
  Jesus, no one can know the day or the time. Only
• 0:18
  the Father knows the day or the time of his own
• 0:19
  second coming. But here Paul says that the brethren
• 0:22
  at Thessalonica would not be taken by surprise.
• 0:24
  So we can indeed not be taken by surprise when
• 0:27
  Jesus comes again. But we have to realize, that
• 0:29
  this was written in the context of the New Testament
• 0:31
  church. It was written to people who were doing
• 0:33
  church, people who were serving every single
• 0:35
  day, people who were spending their lives together
• 0:37
  with investing in each other as brothers and
• 0:40
  sisters in Christ. That's why he threw in the
• 0:42
  word brethren, if you ask me. That's why he was
• 0:44
  saying, if you are the church, as I know you
• 0:46
  are the church, as you are in community together,
• 0:48
  and as you are working together to bring about
• 0:50
  the will of the Lord in this day, you will not
• 0:52
  be taken by surprise. We don't have to be afraid
• 0:54
  that someday, just all of a sudden, Jesus is
• 0:56
  going to show up and we're not going to be ready.
• 0:58
  We just need to be. alert and ready and preparing
• 1:00
  ourselves for that moment at which Jesus comes
• 1:02
  again and will not be taken by surprise. And
• 1:04
  praise God for it, that we're a part of the family,
• 1:06
  the inner circle. If you're not, you're not serving,
• 1:08
  you're not giving, you're not going, if you're
• 1:10
  not as the church, I would encourage you to get
• 1:11
  involved in the local church today and live life
• 1:13
  in community as the New Testament leads. God
• 1:15
  bless.