By Raufu Spagnoletta
Sunday School Lesson: Be Ready
Scripture Lesson Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Christians through out the ages, have asked the question, even Jesus could not answer. When will Christ return? The event is certain, yet, according to Scripture, the time is only known to the Father: Mark 13:32, Matthew 24:36, Acts 1:7. Knowing this, how should believers live in view of the fact Christ could return at any moment? How do believers apply the expectation of Christ’s return in practical Christian living?
Paul reminded the Thessalonians, you yourselves know the Day of the Lord will come, suddenly and unexpected; as a thief in the night. And children of the darkness and of the night will be surprised and overtaken and without escape, as a pregnant woman in travail. Therefore, as children of the light and the day, let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch (alert, awake, ready) and be sober (sound mind, self-controlled); putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to His wrath, but to obtain salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ died for us, And whether we are awake or sleep, when Christ returns we should live together with Him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also we are doing you.
Related Scriptures: Isaiah 13:3-16; Jeremiah 30:7-9; Matthew 24:36-41; Luke 21:34-36; Roman’s 13:11-14
In Isaiah 13:3-16, Isaiah warns of the “Day of the Lord”, a day filled with wrath and fierce anger, intended to make the land desolate and destroy its sinners. The imaginary of the heavens shaking and the earth moving from its place underscores the magnitude of this event. In, Jeremiah 30:7-9, the word of the LORD, came to Jeremiah, saying. “Alas! that Day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
The theme in, Matthew 26:36-41, is: No one, but God, knows when the Son of Man will come again! Jesus speaks of His own return in Luke 21:34-36, “Take heed to yourselves…. lest that Day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” And in Roman’s 13:11-14, Paul insists, Christians must prepare for that Day by throwing away the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light which is the Lord Jesus Christ. “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” (vs.14, NIV)
Practical Point: The Lord’s coming is to be a present hope, not an abstract curiosity
Jesus promised, He would return for us; “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that, where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
