06/07/2026 - The End of Ends (1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:10)

But what makes something worth waiting for? Think about the lines you stand in. How long do you wait for your favorite coffee, even on a Monday morning, five minutes? Maybe 10 minutes. But if that line stretches out the door and down the block, probably most of us would immediately go to the other shop down the street. I remember when the Nintendo Wii was coming out back in the winter of 2006. This was Nintendo's first console since its epic N64 and then GameCube. It was supposed to be groundbreaking. I had very high expectations. I was excited. I remember going to Target. Keep in mind, this was winter in Maine. I was freezing cold outside. We pulled into the parking lot at 6am. It was already full. It was so cold out, though. Basically, what was happening was everybody was playing chicken to see who would be the first one to leave their warm heated cars and start that domino. In fact, there was still an hour before it opened. I'm proud to say I was that first person. I was all business. I was not messing around. I got right out right away. I walked right up to those automatic doors. I planted myself with my back against those locked automatic doors just looking out at the parking lot, ensuring that the domino effect began. And there was a line that was endless out the back. How bad did they want it? How long were they willing to wait? How about a line that none of us want to stand in? Or nobody chooses to stand in? But everyone's going to end up eventually in. And that is the line to the emergency room. Perhaps it's middle of the night. Maybe you are doubled over or you are struggling to breathe. Or maybe your kid has a fever that just is not breaking. You drive to the ER. Maybe you check in and you're just sitting how long are you going to wait there? As long as it takes. You're probably not walking out. You're probably not looking at your watch, deciding if it's worth it or not. You're going to choose to sit and wait in any situation for however long or not, depending on what's on the other side of that waiting. That's exactly the issue that is put before this first century church in the ancient city of Thessalonica. We know from our previous weeks that there were two big temptations facing this church and those temptations that they were facing were the temptations to get out of line, so to speak, and just give up on their faith. The first was hardship, hard times, unpopularity. The second was worldliness or immorality. So those two things, and in both of those cases, the real challenge underneath it all was actually the same, and the real challenge was the wait. Were they willing to endure the wait or not? Friends, waiting is a core component of the Christian life. We ought to be training ourselves in our ability to wait. God intends that his people grow through their waiting. Not apart from it. This has always been the case. Abraham waited decades for a son, Israel waited while wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. The prophets waited for a Messiah that they would never see in their own lifetime. The people of God have always been a people who wait. This matters for us today because we are still awaiting people. They waited then for the Messiah to come, and we wait today for that same Messiah to return. That's what we're going to see in our passage this morning. So I have two points for you from our text for today. In those are number one, the end is coming. It's chapter four, verses 13 through 18. And number two, the end is near. Chapter five, verses one through 10. So the end is coming, and the end is near. What we see when we pick up in verse 13 is that the Apostle Paul seems to be responding to some sort of question coming out of the church of Thessalonica. He writes, "We do not want you to be uninformed." There, remember we learned from Acts 17, Paul had just three weeks with this church before he was chased out of town by people who were hostile to the gospel in church planting. That is almost no time whatsoever when it comes to planting a church and teaching new believers everything they were going to need to know about the faith, so in one sense, he is writing this letter in part to fill in what he didn't get to finish. And so he focuses on those who are, as he says, asleep. You see there in verse 13 and verse 14, verse 15. Paul describes those who have died as those who are simply asleep. What Paul wants us to see is that for every believer and in actuality for all people, that death is only a temporary state. Every sleep ends in an awakening. That is his point. And this isn't a new idea. This isn't just a biblical concept. The instinct that death is not the end is one of the oldest in most universal instincts of the human race, long before the New Testament, ancient peoples buried their dead with food and with tools, even with treasures. Not even just as like good luck charms, but they did it because they believe that person was going somewhere and was going to need those things to take with them. The Egyptians built giant pyramids on this very conviction that life would continue for the dead across nearly every culture in every age human beings have refused to believe that death simply results in a ceasing to exist. Even the vast majority of some of the most godless people you know will still believe that in some form or fashion. What do you think that comes from? Is that just a faulty wiring? Is that just a bug in our evolutionary code? Perhaps there's something to the biblical truth that eternity has indeed been written onto every human heart by the one who actually made all those hearts. It's exactly what any read for us some a few minutes ago on the book of Daniel written long before our passage today was written. So Paul is saying in effect, I want you to know what actually happens to those who die and then he gives the reason in verse 13, which is so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. In other words, you need to know what happens to those who die and you need to know how to handle loss as a Christian so that even in the real grief you experience and you will experience, you'll grieve differently because you can grieve as one who has hope. - Brother and sisters, death brings grief for all of us. We see it on the news, we see it up close with the people who are near and dear to us. Even when we ourselves with every year that goes by, we are all one step closer to the end for you young people and you'll hear about everyone around you getting into this school or that school and then you'll get a little bit older, you'll hear about everyone around you starting to pair off and get married and then you'll hear everyone around you starting to get engaged and married and things like that. Oh, they'll come in time where those closest to you, you'll just start hearing, oh, so and so passed away. So and so is on their death bed and that day is coming very soon. And what this text is telling us is that those who are in Christ, they're able to grieve differently. They are able to face death differently than those who are not in Christ. And that goes for both the one who dies, that goes for those who are left behind. So for those who are not in Christ, for those who reject God's word, for those who refuse to bow to Him, the only comfort available is maybe the wishful hope that maybe they're just in a better place or maybe the light just kind of turns off and that's it. As I said last week, where is that place, if there is a better place, what is it like? Who made it? How does that place even exist? But for those who are in Christ, for those who have turned from their sin and for those who have trusted in Him, verse 14 says that there is hope beyond death. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, or in other words, defeated death, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. Saints, for everyone here who has trusted in the Lord Jesus, for all who have ever died trusting in Him, I have great news and I have news for you that is more than just wishful thinking. And it is news that is more than just superstition and it is more than, let's just wait and see what happens. You have gone Himself, the creator and giver and sustainer of life entering into His creation to live for us in the ways we have not and to die for us in the way that we deserve and to literally walk out of the grave for us to defeat the one thing that no human being left to ourselves can escape. We did all that so that we might be right there with Him if we would just simply receive His free gift of grace. Where death for the believer is not like this violent cutting off or a ceasing to exist, Bye. like a sweet release. It's like a robot gently pushing off from the shore into the water, a glorious transformation from rags to riches, from sin and brokenness to finally being restored and perfected and made whole in the twinkling of an eye. And why? Because Jesus has already been there done that. God brings us through the doorway of death not into nothing but into full and lasting satisfaction and glory into His loving arms as we've sung about this morning. Make no mistake about it. God the Son Christ Himself. He is our pathway, but He is also our destination. He is the end in Himself and the destination, brothers and sisters, is worth the way. Whatever it may end up costing you, however long it takes, He is worth it. And so Christians are able to therefore grieve losses in this life and in this world very differently. That doesn't just go for death either. Of course, this passage talks about death, but it also talks about grief. For example, maybe it's not a loss that you experience at a hard funeral. Maybe it's a real loss in the form of great disappointment. Maybe it's a marriage that didn't make it or it's a child who walked away from the Lord or it's a job or a dream that you poured your years into. And it's not gone. Perhaps maybe it's a body that doesn't work the way it used to or maybe it's friendships that you thought would always be there that have faded. Maybe it's the family you always hoped for that just never came to be. Maybe life took a turn. You didn't choose. This just isn't the life that you thought that you would have. I love the way John Piper puts it and says there's really two kinds of losses. Those who had something precious and lost it and those who hoped for something precious and never had it. It works both ways. So there's real grieving which is expected and there's real hope. Grieving is real. Losses are real. Pain is real. Really felt. Really expressed. And yet there is a kind of hope that is also real that changes it profoundly. Years go by and you think I've come to terms with that. And then one morning it breaks over you and you weep about it. My counsel is yes go ahead embrace that moment weep but then say to your weeping after a season no. You will not define me sorrow because my God has said no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. I trust my God and he has not withheld anything that is good for me. Yet there will be weeping in those seasons. Feel those losses but then wash your face. Trust God and embrace the life he's given you. Saying is the experience of grief is different for the Christian because we have a great God who is all sovereign and who is all powerful and all loving. He is a God who defeated the grave himself and he promises to take us with him as he destroys all the sin and evil and brokenness of this world that we find ourselves living in. May we trust this God our God together today the one who's given us the strength to weep and rejoice and weep and rejoice but then rise and rejoice for that one more. Look at verses 15 through 18 together. We see there three very important things there namely Jesus will judge the living and the dead upon his return. He will raise the dead and he will gather those who are still living. A Paul's whole point here is that these things happen all together. The dead have not missed out as some of the Thessalonians were perhaps thinking or being taught by false teachers. The living do not get there first or have any advantage over the dead. We will all be united to Christ himself the second person of the eternal triune God forever that's the comfort that's why he wrote this you know that eternal life isn't just like some kind of reward like hey great job here's a gold star for the life that you live here's your eternal token to redeem now it's eternal because the Bible teaches that by faith we are literally wedded to we are united to inseparable with the one who is himself eternal in the comfort that we're supposed to get from this passage the encouragement for endurance is that you will not be lost if you are in Christ your loved ones in Christ are not lost we will all be together with the Lord you look closely there's one word that keeps showing up in these verses what is it it's the word will God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep the Lord himself will descend the dead in Christ will rise we who are alive will be caught up together with him and we will always be with the Lord this is not a maybe that might happen this is not a just hope really hard and maybe you'll see it come to fruition now you can bank your life you can bank your eternal existence and destiny upon the end is coming for all of us from from the youngest person here to the to the oldest person here to the person who who has the best of health here this morning for the person who has the worst of health here this morning you can count on picture picture the bottom dropping out of this world this universe any minute any instant and only those who are united in Christ will be the ones left standing the writer of Hebrews in the bible speaks about this he speaks about when that time will come and and he he talks about how God will roll this universe up like a dirty garment and then he's just going to toss it into the hamper how many times have you changed this week what about when you change after you work out or after you're soaked from the rain or after a long hot summer day or barbecue think about it to us this world feels so solid this world feels so permanent I mean we were born into it it's all we've ever known we are a miss that vanishes in an instant into the god who made it he and the one who is holding it all together by the power of his word this world this universe is as light and as changeable as the shirt you have on your back to us to those who live but for a moment in time before we vanish this world feels like the whole story it feels like the main event because of how narrow our window is because of how short our view in perspective is we are creatures the bible teaches that god is getting ready to fold this world up and lay it aside and the only thing more certain than your own death in this life is the return of god the sun to gather all of those who are his and to transfer all of us into a kingdom that cannot be shaken and into a home that will not wear out and out of this fading world and into his unfading presence forever so what do we do with that how do we live in light of that I mean we just spent the whole spring in the book of Ecclesiastes about how do we live this life today but we just look at verse 18 here it says therefore what do we do encourage one another with these words that's our application Maranatha encourage one another with these words the end is coming and we will all so soon be with the Lord so we need to encourage one another regularly towards that end encourage one another to make it to the end to not fall in love with or worship all the mirages this world has to offer in all of its trinkets that are going to pass away oh so soon we need to encourage one another to endure the weight and to fight sin and to stay in line that day is coming oh so soon that's what takes us to point number two then the end is near so the end is coming the end is near chapter five verses one through ten and the nearer it gets the more worth it the weight becomes versus one and two say now concerning the times and 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 so every generation has its date setters and its conspiracy theorists someone with a chart and a microphone typically a large following they will announce exactly when that day is coming so you need to to figure it out and follow them probably donate to their campaigns every time two things happen those days come and those days go and they they reinterpret things and they have a new date for you it's simply how it has worked and they could have saved themselves so much trouble by just simply reading the Bible reading verses one and two here you have no need to have a specific date in order to predict when the Lord Jesus is coming because the point of these verses here is you're not going to know it and you're actually not only not going to know it but you're not going to expect it either there is no countdown clock all we know is that it's coming and it's coming soon the day of the Lord comes like a thief it says here so it comes suddenly it comes unannounced which means that the call on us we need to be ready we need to truly live as though it could be today how many of you actually believe that Jesus could return today or is that there's something you chuckle at are you ready to give an account for your life the reason I ask that is because Paul calls this upcoming event the day of the Lord there this runs through all of scripture actually if you know your old testaments at all uh this day of the Lord that that scripture points to is talking about actually a great terrible day of judgment against God's enemies we see it in Jeremiah we see it in Ezekiel we see it in all over the place we see it in Joel for example he cries alas for the day for the day of the Lord is near and as destruction from the Almighty it comes this idea has thundered through God's people for ages and it's coming to its fullest and its final form here it is it is fast approaching this text is telling us again do you believe that today are you ready to give an account or will you get caught like a boxer he eats a left hook because he never saw it coming if you look at verse 3 what we see there is that those of the world they won't be ready they'll say peace and security they'll be feeling really good about the state of how things are going the love that things feel oh so peaceful things are great here the last thing we need is for the Lord to return I think it's basically never going to happen it could never happen not here think back to Noah Noah for years this man was building this enormous boat on dry land and warning of this massive judgment from God that was coming the people around him didn't believe it for one second rain like that judgment like that impossible this man is a psycho and then the rain came it was too late the window or the door quite literally had closed for that what were you at the end of 2019 perhaps January of 2020 you remember what were you up to where were you in your season of life what was going on we heard about this virus that was running rampant on the other side of the world we almost all of us watched it like a news story and nothing to do with us that February I remember I was preparing to teach a Sunday school class at my church in Washington DC I ran into this guy in the church office we got to just some small talk he asked me what I thought about this thing called the coronavirus and I think I said I don't know let me find then I asked him what do you think and this guy was he's a pretty smart guy he's a very steady guy he always had his head on straight and I remember him saying to me I think it's actually going to be pretty disruptive and I think it's going to I think that's going to happen very soon and I think I took him about 0% seriously that couldn't happen to me that couldn't happen to us not here you can never shut this country down Americans are not going to be walking around in masks or closing their businesses and not going to church and standing on dots six feet apart we're bigger than that until we weren't two weeks later everything came to a screeching halt and that is exactly what verse three is describing people are saying will it be good it's not fine all good here right up until those labor pains hit it says there and oh my goodness you guys it's happening what do we do about it Maranatha may we not be so foolish the name of our church is quite literally com Lord Jesus scripture speaks of this present age as but a shadow so like right now as I stand here under this line I can see like a faint shadow even you if you look to your left and you're right you can see the shadow of your legs or of the chair the Bible compares this world that we live in this reality that we find ourselves in this life as a mere shadow scripture speaks of the substance or the reality as Christ in the world to come but when that day breaks it will not feel the same for everyone and so for those who are trusting in Christ it will feel like the sun finally rising after a long cold harsh night and and everything will finally become clear and bright and healing and glorious look for those who reject them to the very end those shadows only deepen into a kind of flaming darkness that same day will be experienced as two entirely different mornings versus four and five say 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 meaning you can see clearly we are not of the night or of the darkness and then in verse six he says so then let us not sleep as others do but let us keep awake and be sober and to drive this point home further you look at the pattern in verse seven sleep night drunk what do all of these things happen common a total lack of readiness when you're asleep you have no idea what's happening around you when it's when it's nighttime you can't see what's happening around you when you are drunk you can't even think clearly about what's happening around you and Paul says that's a condition of everyone who belongs to this world they're literally drunk on the world they can't see things clearly how many of you are our chronic snooze button hitters in the morning it's just nine more minutes and then those nine minutes come so fast nine more minutes church some of you were late here this morning because you just kept hitting that snooze button we know we know we know we know we need to deal with our sin but not today I get to it another time I don't need to live differently yeah someday something will shake me and wake me up that could be the coming of the Lord Jesus to judge you the sobering thing about the day of the Lord is that when that alarm sounds oh there is no snooze button option verse three says there is no escape there's no just a minute while I while I get ready now that time is now friends what have you been hitting the snooze button on that the Lord is calling you to wake up to this morning because what's on the other sign of all of this is worth waking up for it's worth being awake for it is worth getting up for if you're here today and you are not a Christian first we're so excited you are here we have genuinely been praying for you you are not here by accident but I wonder what you make of all of this the day of the Lord heaven and hell the return of Jesus maybe it sounds like nonsense to you or maybe you just think you're just trying to scare me I wish I could scare you it's either true or it's fiction we have great reason I'd love to talk to you more about at any point to believe why it is true because truth is not ultimately up to us something is either true or it isn't and whether it is true or not is is independent of us I could tell you there is a ravenous lion on the outside of those those doors there and you could tell me you're crazy that's not going to change whether that lion is there or not as I said last week heaven is not simply the place where we finally just get everything we always wanted although in one sense that is true but the reason it is true is because it's the very dwelling place of God himself the only people who will ever want to be there are those who love him and those who want to be with him and those who love what he loves and those who love his people so friend if that doesn't sound like good news to you yet I just want to like encourage you and about you that's something worth being honest about talk to somebody about it I pray that you would come to know him if you don't already come to know him now as savior so that you don't come to meet him that day as judge I pray that on that day you would run towards in glorious joy rather than running away from him in terror that's why verse 8 says but since we belong to the day let us be sober having put on the breastplate of faith in love and for a helmet the hope of salvation for God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep meaning alive or dead we might live with him the armor language is there because armor is for soldiers who are awake and on watch they're ready to go rather than the ones who are snoring in their bunk beds and what's the armor made up well you remember maybe perhaps from our first sermon in this series it's the same three things in chapter one of this letter the armor is made of a faith that rests in the past and what Christ did for us it rests in a love that works in the present and a rest in a hope that looks ahead to what is coming what does that look like very practically how about making it a point to open your bibles before you open up your phone tomorrow and from now on starting the day awake so to speak that could look like stop delaying those critical decisions right now that will set the trajectory for the rest of your life in the faith or that could look like having that hard conversation or submitting to Christ's church by joining one and not being the final ruler an arbiter of your own spiritual life, or picking up or returning to a ministry or pursuing baptism if you call yourself a Christian. That could simply look like waking up from being rocks to sleep in carnalty by the ways in wins and priorities of this world that you started to believe really might actually be your home. For all of us here's perhaps the simplest one before next Sunday and make it a point to be obedient to what this passage tells us by making it a point to proactively encourage somebody this week and on a regular basis let me just ask you straight up are you are are you someone who is quick to encourage and I mean like actually encourage not just be a nice person are you someone who is quick to encourage or are you perhaps someone who is very good at just noticing what's always wrong. Noticing what you don't like it's not good enough what you don't appreciate. I'll tell you one of those things is a is a marker of real spiritual maturity and the other one of those things is a marker of great spiritual immaturity. Also don't make the mistake of thinking that encouragement is just flattery those are not the same things to encourage someone is to literally put courage into them so that they can keep going tell a person you see serving how much you blesses you send an encouraging word on Tuesday of this week instead of just shaking someone's hand today on Sunday remind a brother or sister of God's promises or tell them specifically how you have seen God at work in their lives. Friends point out the growth that you see before maybe even they see it themselves. How can you grow an encouragement I'll tell you you can start by looking for a mature Christians look for ways to encourage others they see it they meditate on it they rejoice at seeing God's grace in the life of other people. They're actively looking for it here's something worth thinking about when it comes to Christian maturity mature Christians are not people who are never discouraged. Mature Christians are people who are easily encouraged meaning it's not that they are always happy it just means that the smallest evidences of God's grace in another person gives them great joy. Some people walk into a room and they just instantly see what's wrong. They have a radar for fault whereas the mature believer trains their eye and heart to do just the opposite. They want to see people so badly be more and more holy and more satisfied in Jesus Christ. What we have to remember is that this passage is written to Christians as an encouragement to endure this whole text today is not intended to be a giant warning hanging over those who are trusting in Jesus it's an encouragement to be ready. It's an encouragement to endure to the very end because that day will be here so soon as I have said as we prepare to wrap up a Jonathan Edwards he was the great New England pastor of the 1700s he kept a list of resolutions to ground him and to govern his life. But one of them that has never left me he said resolved never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life. Or as another pastor as memorably put it may we live today as though we're so clear that we are living for 10,000 years from now. The sobering at glorious truth underneath this whole passage is that though the end is coming and though the end is near the end is really no end at all. It's the end of ends as was read to us from the prophetic book of Daniel all people shall awake. Some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Friends there is no end for anybody we are all eternal beings if you are alive right now you have a soul and that soul is eternal and we will spend that eternity in one of two places. So let me take you back to where we all started what would it take to get you to just give up on waiting. What would cause you to just fall out of wine or get out of wine before the end remember it always depends on what's on the other side of it is it actually worth it or not. I can just tell you there is nothing you have ever come close to waiting for in this life that will compare to what is waiting for you on the other side of your death. Or on the other side of Christ returning as you live the end of all our grief the end of all of our tears this worn and weary world rolled up and laid aside in the kingdom that will never fade moves to the forefront would you pray with me. Father we praise you for your amazing grace and kindness towards us. What we thank you for sending your son that that we might actually be able to be reconciled to you as a free gift of grace. God would you strengthen us by your spirit to the very end we pray would you would you keep us awake. Encouraging one another until we see you we pray all these things in Jesus name Amen.