Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

 Sermon Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

 Other Readings: Isaiah 52:1-6 and Matthew 25:1-13

 

If you want to read about Paul’s first trip to Thessalonica, check out Acts chapter 17. You can find Thessalonica in the Macedonia region on the map below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Paul connects “the day of the Lord” to destruction and wrath that will come upon the unbelievers. It led one commentator to write the following. What do you think of his comment?
   “One of the things that gave salvation so full a meaning for New Testament Christians was that they were sure of the wrath of God and had a deep gratitude to Christ for saving them from it. In modern times some take Christianity lightly because they have emptied the wrath of its content. To banish the wrath of God from the scene is to rob life of a good deal of its serious purpose.”
    
2. Paul says in verse 10 that Christians could be “awake or asleep” on the day of the Lord. There are three ways people have interpreted those verbs–literally (that is, some will be asleep in bed and others awake), as a metaphor for being physically dead or alive, or as a metaphor for our moral/spiritual preparation. Which interpretation do you think fits best, especially when you consider 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18? Defend your position.
    
3. Why does Paul list faith, love, and hope as the things we are to put on (v. 8)? Confer 1 Thessalonians 1:2 and 1 Corinthians 13:13.
    
4. As you wait for the day of the Lord, what are some of the ways you have been encouraged and built up by brothers and sisters at Living Water? How might you encourage and build up others?

 

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1. It is a helpful comment because by taking God’s justice seriously, his grace and mercy are magnified all the more. This is what God himself emphasizes in Exodus 20:5,6.
    
2. The last two options are the most likely, but the context of this part of 1 Thessalonians seems to favor the understanding that Paul is talking about physically dead or alive. Jesus is Lord of both the living and dead and will make sure both the living and dead enter heaven with him on the Last Day.
    
3. Faith, hope, and love are often called “the great Christian triad.” Where we have confidence in God (faith), there is produced love for God and others and also certainty (hope) about what’s coming. These three spiritual gifts help us navigate all sorts of different situations in this life.
    
4. God be praised for the way others have served you and the ways that you can serve others!