Message: The last chapter of Thessalonians is about the end times. Most of us have read the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation so we have a vague understanding of the symbolic meanings, but what we do understand is that there is expected to be a time of judgment and lots of trouble. Paul was reminding the church (and us) that it will come on suddenly and unexpected at a time when the world is looking for peace. Paul was warning the church (and us) of the importance of staying awake and alert spiritually. He made comparisons to being asleep and being drunk as activities of night time done in the dark, and he reminded us that we are children of light so we should not be participating in darkness. He isn’t saying we shouldn’t physically sleep. He is using the spiritual comparison of darkness to associate with the spiritual condition of death. The current condition of our world has caused more and more people to believe we are “in the end times” and while I believe we should be discerning the seasons just like Paul wrote here, I’m disturbed when I see that many of the people that believe we are in the end times are not living like they believe we are in the end times. Paul wasn’t warning us to be aware just for the sake of knowing. He was warning us to be spiritually ready. This is the time more than ever to lay aside our selfish ambitions and truly follow him at all costs. We need to remind ourselves that we were bought for a price and we are called to die to our own selves so that we live in him. We are saddened by the condition of our world, but our purpose is not to bring peace on earth through the world’s systems. Our purpose is to reconcile people with Christ for his kingdom. In order to fulfill this we can’t be distracted by trying to fix the problems going on in the world. This world is not our home. We need to be about the kingdom of God so our focus is preparing ourselves and others for that world to come.
