To Wait for His Son from Heaven
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
In this paragraph of praise and thanksgiving by Paul, expressing his praise and thanksgiving to God for the work that He's done in this body of Christ, this body of believers, believers there in Thessaloniki, and he really gives God praise for their genuine conversion, for their genuine, meek, joyful, delightful reception of the Word of God. And you see the effect of that reception, that welcoming embrace, that warm embrace of the Word of God, really expressed in genuine repentance—how they turned from idols, they turned to God from idols, and they turned to serve the true and living God. And of course, from them, as a result of their genuine conversion, you see the effect of it, how the Word of the Lord sounded forth, reverberated, all throughout the region around them.
Not only the Word of God really sounded forth, but also reports went out how truly their life has been transformed by the power of the Gospel. And that's always the case. When there's genuine reception of the Word of God, there's always, always, always the fruit of that being transformed lives to the glory of God.
And tonight we come to this third, really, element that is found in a genuine repentance and transformed lives. Really, he says, "and to wait for His Son from heaven," and to wait for His Son from heaven. Beloved, this is so much what was driving this church, that this was really the engine beneath the hood of this church. This is what really put this church into overdrive. They were waiting for the Son of God to return from heaven. They were a second coming people. They lived every moment of every day with this bright hope and expectancy of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It prevented them from being lukewarm. It prevented them from being laid back, apathetic. I mean, they were laboring. I mean, he mentions earlier in this chapter, he says, I “give thanks to God always for all of you," – he says, – "remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." They were far from being apathetic. They were far from being lukewarm. Really, they lived on the edge of the coming of the Lord. They lived with this bright hope and expectancy that the Lord Jesus is coming again, and this prevented them from being laid back, apathetic.
And it prevented them from just simply shuffling through life, going through the motion, going through mindless routine and rituals. It kept their hearts bright. It kept their hearts on fire for God. It brought a sense of urgency to their Christian walk, Christian life. It brought a sense of urgency to their witness. The Word of God sounded forth, sounded forth with power and with reach, and it was comprehensive. We had no need to say anything, to add anything to what you already were doing. It brought a sense of urgency to their witnessing. They had only so much time to share about Christ because He was coming back again. He was returning.
And it brought a sense of unity to their fellowship as they came together, and they were waiting for the return of Christ. This truth from Scripture so fills our tank with a sense of passion and urgency to be about the work and the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. They turned to God from idols to serve, to serve.
Remember, a disciple is one who serves Christ, serves Christ. And let me say, beloved, every believer needs to be a second coming believer, and every church needs to be a second coming church. And we should carry out our ministry and live our lives as if the Lord Jesus Christ is in the process of coming back to us right now. Understanding this truth really has powerful, very powerful implications on our lives, powerful effects on our lives.
Because as a result, there's no doubt when we are gripped with this truth of Scripture that Jesus Christ is coming back again, we begin to see the world differently. We begin to see people differently. We begin to see people around us—would they be one of those who would be taken? Or would they be left behind? We begin to see life in light of eternity, life in light of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what effect, what an effect this truth of the second coming has upon the heart of the child of God.
The truth of the second coming also has a restraining effect, a restraining effect upon the heart, upon the soul of the child of God, because you wouldn't want to be in sin when the Lord comes back. You wouldn't want to be dabbling with prohibited things when the Lord comes back. It keeps you on the narrow path, it keeps you keeping short accounts with God, it keeps you on the right path, it keeps your feet pure. We all need that today, the sense of urgency, the sense of eternity that produces purity, that produces holy living, and that would cultivate till the ground of the fear of God in our lives.
And as we come to this last verse in this first chapter, Paul confronts us, really, with the truth concerning the coming of the Lord. And what I want to bring our attention to is that this book, this little epistle, 1 Thessalonians, is a second coming book. It is. And it is, actually, in fact, throughout the entire letter. In fact, you'll find this quite really interesting. Each chapter of this book ends with the second coming of Jesus.
Look at it with me. First of all, here, you find it here in chapter 1: "and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come." Now move forward to chapter 2, and look at verses 19 and 20: "For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting? Is it not even you, before our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy."
Paul saw people in the light of the second coming. He saw people to whom he ministered as His crown, and when Christ comes back, Paul is saying all the reward that I need is to see you rewarded at the second coming of Jesus. That's all the reward that I need, to see your Christian life built up, to see you encouraged in the faith, to see you walking with the Lord, and when the Lord comes back, for Him to put a crown on your head—that would be my crown, to see the Lord crown you. What a perspective for ministry. What a perspective for servanthood, for us to have that as we serve Christ, as we serve others under Christ, that the only reward that I need is to see you rewarded in that final day because you've been walking with Jesus faithfully.
Look at the end of chapter 3. Verse 13 really is a kind of a benediction, a doxology, beginning in verse 11, and in verse 13 offers like really a prayer for the Thessalonians. We read in verse 13: "so that He may strengthen your hearts blameless in holiness, before our God and Father,” – what's next? – “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."
And what Paul is saying is that my ministry is about preparing you for that day, that last day. Everything that I'm teaching you, everything that I'm imparting to you, and living before you simply to prepare you for that day when He comes back.
At the end of chapter 4, of course, we read the very same thing, that classic portion of the Word of God concerning the rapture of the church. We'll get there and see that in more details, Lord willing, when we get there. Verse 16: "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words."
Paul comforted the believers with these words as they've lost loved ones to death. He comforted them with this truth: there's going to be a day of great reunion one day. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And what a glorious day this is going to be when Christ comes back to take His church.
And then to end at chapter 5, the end of chapter 5, verses 23 and 24: "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who will also will do it." Paul is telling us, if God has begun the process of sanctifying you, and that begins the moment that you are converted, that you are saved, that you are regenerated, he said God will complete what He had started in your life.
Just as he says that also in Philippians 1:6, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." That's what he's saying in this verse. Faithful is He who has called you out of darkness into fellowship with His Son, and faithful is He to bring it to pass. He will fully sanctify you one day. He will fully prepare you one day and present you to stand faultless and blameless before the Father. What He started, He will finish. What He began, He will complete.
We unmistakably saw that if your faith is genuine, it's been inseparably joined to true repentance. We've seen it here, even in this first chapter, and you remember the first elements of repentance are these: a turning away from all false gods and a turning to the true and living God. That's always, always the case in Scripture—turning from, turning to. We are the church, the called out ones, called out of the world, out of darkness, but we're called unto, unto Christ, unto God, the service of God, the service of Christ, to live for Him. So from, to, that's always the case.
And so the elements, these first elements of repentance, are found here. Paul reminds us: a turning away from all false gods, idols, and a turning to the living God. And then here now, he says, you turn not only from the false god to the true God with a disposition to be submissive to Him, but notice now, he says in verse 10, and to wait for His Son from heaven. If you put it together, it reads like this: "You turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come."
In other words, this radical change in their lives, this radical change in their worldview, didn't just have to do with the present; it also had to do with their view of the future, what is to come. Whereas prior to this reception of the gospel, the report of which has gone forth everywhere, their lives were earthbound—they were earthbound. The things of eternity were a thing of no concern to you whatsoever, but having turned to the true God, having become believers in God, your whole sphere of interest has shifted tectonically from earth to heaven, radically.
So 1 Thessalonians 1:10, as we look at this verse tonight, I want to draw your attention to the six truths that really are bound up in this verse that were taught here by the Apostle Paul. Truth number one, I'm going to state the obvious, I'm going to state the obvious, and sometimes we miss the obvious because we become too familiar with the obvious. Number one, Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming again.
We can be so earthbound and so really focused on the here and now, we can't think beyond—well, you know, tonight, after the service, I have this, this and that, and tomorrow morning, Monday morning, first thing in the morning, and I have this and that, and this week is going to be busy—and Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming again, and so this is so obvious here, "and to wait for His Son from heaven." They were waiting for His Son from heaven.
If this verse, beloved, says anything, it says to us that Christ is coming again, and He's coming to this planet earth for His bride, the church, church of the redeemed saints, to take them back to heaven, and beloved, this truth ought to dominate our thoughts. When you get up tomorrow morning, you need to be reminded that Jesus is coming again. I need to be reminded that Jesus is coming again, and when you go to school, and when you go to work, you need to be reminded that Jesus is coming again, and when you come back home from school, and come back home from work, you need to be reminded that Jesus is coming again, because Jesus is coming again.
Jesus Himself said this to His disciples. In John 14:3, "I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." And this was not a figure of speech. Jesus was saying literally, I'm coming back. I will come back for you, and you will be with Me, and right now I am preparing a place for you.
The angel said He was coming back again. Remember in Acts 1:11, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." The angel said to these disciples, who were really distraught, and just, I mean, everything is just moving quickly and changing, they said to them, He's coming back, and the apostle Paul repeatedly said that as well, that He's coming back.
In Titus 2:13, I love this: "looking for the blessed hope"—looking. We live our lives looking. We serve looking. We do what we do looking—"looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." This is a tremendous verse concerning also the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." And this is what we need to do. Jesus is coming again.
We read in Revelation 1:7—I love how John puts it, or the Holy Spirit puts it, of course—"Behold, He is coming with the clouds." And that doesn't even say He will come. It's not a future tense. It says He is coming, present tense. His return is so close, it is spoken of in the present tense. He is in the process of coming back to planet Earth. How exciting this is.
The Bible ends with Jesus making this statement: "Behold, I am coming quickly." "I am coming quickly." How the Lord wants this truth to flood our minds, to saturate our thinking—better yet, to marinate our thinking. We ought not to be so attached to this world, earthbound, that we lose sight of what's going to happen from heaven, that the Lord is coming back. This truth ought to transform every decision we make. It ought to have an effect on each and every one of us, His children.
This tells us there's a work for the Lord to be done in our sphere of influence, in our schools, in our works, in our homes, in our relationships, and whatever we can do for the Lord, we must do it. As God gives us strength, Jesus is coming again.
The second truth we find in this verse: Jesus will descend from heaven. He will descend from heaven. Look at the text: "And to wait for His Son from heaven," simple. "and to wait for His Son from heaven." Now I want to underscore this word, heaven—"from heaven," the Greek word ‘ouranōn’ for heaven. Ouranos literally means heights or lofty place, elevated place. That's what the word means.
But what we need to know is that the Greek word here in the text is not singular, it is plural. It is ‘ouranōn’. It is translated in our Bible singular, heaven, but the reality is it is plural and it should read "to wait for His Son from the heavens." From the heavens. You say, what does that mean? I thought there's only one heaven. Well, to put it in the plural really intensifies the heights of heaven and it is the way that Paul conveys to us that when Christ comes back, He will come from the heights of heaven, from the very highest heights of heaven.
And the Bible speaks of the outer atmosphere, the sky above us and of the earth, and then there's the outer space and beyond outer space is what Paul referred to in 2 Corinthians 12 as what? The third heaven. Meaning the third layer beyond the earth's atmosphere, beyond the outer space, planets, galaxies, beyond all of that is heaven. In other words, beloved, heaven is a real place. It's a real place. It's a real place on God's map. Heaven is not just a mystical, nebulous place in our thinking, concocted in our own mind, wishful thinking.
No, no. It is a real place. It is a real geographical place on God's map. It is where Jesus is right now. It's where the redeemed saints are right now. Their souls are right now there. It is where many of the angels are right now. It is a real place on God's map.
And there is a layering in heaven, and at the very apex of heaven, you have the throne of God above at the heights of heaven. And what this is saying is that when Jesus Christ comes back, He will come back from the very heights of heaven, from the highest place of all created matter. Even heaven itself was once created by God. God always existed, existed always as God. God was alone, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, alone in the sense that nothing else was there, but He was never alone because there was Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And then God created, and when God created the planets, He also created the heavens, and at the heights of the highest point of heaven, that's where the Lord Jesus Christ is. Here are some verses, really, that will help us amplify this. For example, in Luke 24:51, it says, "And it happened that while He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven." Was carried up into heaven. Jesus ascended and left the earth. It says that He was carried up into heaven.
Hebrews 4:14: "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us make, let us take hold of our confession." That means He passed through the earth's atmosphere. That means He passed through the solar systems. He passed through the galaxies. He passed through all that there is throughout space, and He kept passing through the heavens.
In Ephesians 4:10, "He ascended far above all the heavens"—plural. In Hebrews 7:26, it says that He is “exalted above the heavens." In Hebrews 8:1, He “sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." He passed through everything that was created all the way up to the very apex of heaven, the very heights of heaven itself, and He's now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the throne of the Majesty on high.
Beloved, there is no one higher than Jesus. No one. And when Jesus comes back at the second coming, He will arise from the throne, and He will descend from the highest of the heights of heaven all the way down to the atmosphere of the earth. And the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the trumpet of God, and the voice of the archangel, and we, the church, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
Oh, what a glorious day. Christ will descend from heaven Himself. You know what that tells us? He's not sending a representative. He's coming Himself. He's not sending a special envoy to represent Him. He'll come back Himself to receive us. I'm coming back for you, to receive you to Myself so that you will be where I am.
Third, third truth that we see in this verse, Jesus will appear when He comes back in bodily form. He is coming back in bodily form. He will appear in bodily form. We need to read in verse 10, "and to wait for His Son from heaven"—and here it is—"whom He raised from the dead." Whom He raised from the dead. I mean, it seems at first glance almost out of place in the middle of the verse. And we're talking about the second coming, and all of a sudden, Paul throws in sort of like the resurrection of Jesus, but there's a reason for everything in Scripture. There's a reason for everything in Scripture. And the Holy Spirit, who is the author of the Scripture, has interwoven this letter as well as this book so perfectly.
And again, let me remind us—just a parenthesis here—when we have difficulty, when we have trouble, when we are confused, the fault lies in us, in our limitation, not the Word of God. Because the Holy Spirit has interwoven this book so perfectly. And the reason Paul now writes, "and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead," is to remind us that Jesus Christ was bodily raised from the dead.
That it wasn't the Spirit of Jesus, as Jehovah's Witnesses and the liberals would want us to believe. No, no, we believe in the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that the tomb was empty on the third day, and when the angel rolled back the stone, it wasn't so that they would let Jesus get out of the grave. No, no, it was simply to let the women and the disciples go in. He could have walked right through that stone in His glorified body, but He was raised from the dead.
And I believe the reason this is inserted here in verse 10 is to remind us that the same Jesus who was raised physically, bodily from the dead, will come back in just the same manner—bodily, physically, and victoriously. And when He comes back, it will not be the ghost of Jesus. It will be the same Jesus who was taken up from the Mount of Olives, who was raised from the dead bodily. This same Jesus is coming back, beloved—bodily, visibly, victoriously, and physically.
Acts 1:11: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven?" Can you imagine that scene that day? Their jaws dropped as they stared up into the heavens, as they watched Jesus being lifted up supernaturally, up into the sky, up into the clouds, taken up into heaven until they could see Him no more. It was mind-blowing, mind-boggling for these disciples as they were amazed, stunned, unfounded, dazzled, staring up into the clouds. And then two angels appeared and they say, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven? This Jesus, this Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way, in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."
However He went up, that's how He's coming back down to take His people. He went up in a glorified, resurrected, physical, visible, touchable, tangible body. That's exactly how He's going to come back. And I want to also tell you, beloved, if you're a child of God, that's how you're going to go to heaven as well at the rapture. The Bible says that in that split second when Christ returns, there's going to be an immediate transformation of your body, mine, and your body will be transformed in that moment into a glorified, resurrected body in a twinkling of an eye. And you will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
You see, you and I could not look upon the glorified Christ in our fallen body. We would be incinerated. We would burn up. God has to give us a glorified body so we could look and behold Him in His glorified body. 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, now… we will be made like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." No wonder in that vision John fell flat on his face as though dead. In order to see Him just as He is, you must be made like Him. And how this speaks of our transformation as it awaits us at the coming of the Lord.
Truth number four, Jesus rescues us from wrath. We're going to skip that because we're going to come back to it next Lord's Day. He rescues us from wrath. What a glorious truth. It is found here at the end of the verse, "who rescues us from the wrath to come." What a glorious truth.
Truth number five, Jesus could return today, tonight. Jesus could return tonight. There's one word that jumps off the page as I look at verse 10. And it may be the least noticeable word in verse 10. And look at it. It's the word “us”. You see that? Little word "us," us. Paul actually believed that Christ was perhaps coming in His lifetime. And then not just him, but all the believers—"us" is in the plural. And these Thessalonians were waiting for Jesus to return, anticipating His return, watching and waiting. And there is this sense of imminence about the return of Jesus Christ, that Christ would come back, could come back at any moment. Any moment.
Paul lived this way. Paul never told us to be looking, watching for the appearance of the Antichrist. He never. He gave us details about the Antichrist, but he never said wait and look for the appearance of the Antichrist. He always tells us to be looking for the appearing of who? Jesus. Jesus.
Beloved, the next event on God's prophetic calendar is the catching up of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ to meet the Lord in the air. And we need to live every day as if Christ will return in my lifetime. And Paul lived that way 2,000 years ago. And how much more we ought to be living on the edge of the return of Jesus Christ, you and I. And I believe, beloved, that the strongest argument for the pre-tribulation rapture of the church is the doctrine of the imminence—of imminence that Christ could come back at any moment. That we're not looking for the Antichrist. We're not looking for any of that. We're looking for Christ to appear and take us home.
So Christ could return today. And I want to tell you, beloved, there isn't a single prophecy that yet needs to be fulfilled that would prevent Christ from coming right now. You say, well, what about the building of the temple over in Jerusalem before Christ can come? No, that only needs to be built in the first half of the tribulation. There's not yet one single verse that needs to be fulfilled that would prevent Christ from coming back in the middle of my next sentence.
How do we need to live? We need to live as if Christ were going to come back tonight. To live for Him. To love Him. To adore Him. To serve Him. To make much of Him. And to sound forth His word like these Thessalonians.
Truth number six. By way of extension, obviously then, Jesus' return demands our readiness. His return demands our readiness. If Jesus could come back any moment, if there's that doctrine of imminence, then we need to be ready. We need to be ready. And look at it. It's found in the text, actually, this last truth. Look at the beginning of verse 10. You see the verb there? "and to wait." To wait. You could just draw a circle around the word "wait." "To wait for His Son from heaven." Now, you may find it interesting that it's the only time this Greek word, ‘anamenein’, is used in the entire New Testament. It's only found here. It's a very special word. It's a strong word. It's a word that means to wait expectantly. To look forward for something with great eagerness. With great expectation and anticipation.
It's not merely that you need to believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ. You need to be waiting for the second coming of Christ. Longing for the second coming of Christ. And looking for the return of Christ. It's almost like, and maybe this is the best illustration that we could identify with—even though it pales into comparison—it's almost like when you have a dear, dear beloved family that are coming to your house to spend a few days with you. What do you do? You get everything ready. Everything ready. At least you ought to. You get the guest room fixed up. You get the bathroom fixed up. You get the refrigerator full to the brim. You get the house cleaned up. You scrub the floors. You dust everything. I mean we should be doing this every day. But even more so. Especially.
And you eagerly wait for them to come. And the day of coming you eagerly wait by the window to see the car coming into the driveway. So you could run out and meet and embrace your family member and receive them. There's excitement. There's eagerness. And there's that warm welcome. That's what it means to wait for His Son. The Lord Jesus Christ. That your life and my life would be in order. That your heart would be ready. That your whole would be ready. That you would be ready for the Lord to descend from heaven with a shout, and for you to be ready to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. We are always, always, always to live this way.
And would you please note with me that this is a present active infinitive: to wait for His Son. In other words, to be always waiting for His Son. To be always in readiness waiting for the return of Jesus. And like I said, this verb is in the active voice, which means it is something that I must do. I must do. That means I just can't sit back and wait for Him passively. I can't just sit on my hands and be passive, laid back, nonchalant. I must prepare myself. I must be active in getting ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That tells me that waiting involves activity. Waiting involves ministry. Waiting involves serving. Waiting involves doing, laboring. Waiting involves purity. And all within biblical balance that we be spending time with God and that we be sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's more than sitting at the feet of Jesus. Yes, we ought to do that. We must be also serving and doing the work of the Lord. And this we will do if we are waiting for His Son from heaven. We will be the perfect balance of Martha and Mary.
And we see the beautiful balance here exemplified by the Thessalonians themselves. Look at verses 9 and 10, “how you turn to God from idols to” – what? To do what? To sit on your hands? No. – “to serve”. Right? To serve. Remember that verb. We get from the word ‘doulos’, slave. Serving a master. "to serve a living and a true God, and to wait"—see the balance?—"to wait for His Son from heaven." They weren't waiting sitting on their hands. They were waiting serving. Doing. Laboring. Laboring. Doing. Working. Eagerly. Working hard. Working to the point of exhaustion. And when they have nothing more to give, they give more.
This radical change in their lives, this radical change in their worldview, didn't just have to do with the present. It also had to do with their view of the future. Whereas prior to the reception of the gospel, the report of which has gone forth everywhere, all around, your lives were earthbound, he says, prior to that. Things of eternity were a thing of no concern to you. But having turned to the true and living God, having become believers in Christ, your whole sphere of interest shifted from earth to heaven. You have a heavenly mindedness.
Now your sphere of activity was not shifted. You still had to get up in the morning and make your Greek coffee there by the sea in Thessaloniki. You still had to get up in the morning and shine your sandals and prepare breakfast for your kids and wash the clothes. No, no, he said, life itself in terms of what's necessary to make up life and human existence, well, that didn't change. He didn't say you all of a sudden became monastics. No, no, no. But he said in the midst of all the normal routine of life, an entirely new focus came in.
Having turned from idols to the living and true God to serve Him, your expectations, your longings were now fixed not upon the passing things of time, but upon the great issues of eternity—to wait for His Son from heaven. What does that mean? Sit back, put on a white robe and find the highest hill and wait for the Lord to descend from heaven with a shout? That's the way some interpreted it. And they've actually done that and Paul had to correct them. And it doesn't mean a passive kind of waiting as I mentioned. This is not the kind of waiting in the sense of passing time. When we talk about waiting for the Lord Jesus, we're not just letting the calendar run, letting the clock run as we live our lives just like everybody else lives life.
Our beliefs about Jesus' return ought to be affecting how we're living right now. That's what it means to wait for Him, to wait with anticipation, to wait with expectation, to wait with burning devotion. Decisions made today in light of what He's promised tomorrow. And tomorrow's coming. And I know it's coming. He's told me what's coming. So I'm going to live today in light of what God has told me is coming tomorrow.
Waiting for His Son means that in the midst of all of the responsibilities and all of the activities—and later on He mentioned some of them, very practical things about working with your hands and providing for yourself and for your family, very practical things—but in the midst of all of this, you're not bounded to it. You're not tied to it. This is not your end. This is not your goal. This is not what you're living for. No, he said, in the midst of all of this, you're longing for that day when the work of grace that has been begun in you will be completed. That day when we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Radically different lifestyle in the present. Because they've embraced a radically different perspective about the future. Living their lives with expectancy. Living their lives—and I love this—in a new fellowship. In a new fellowship. I love how Paul puts it in verse 10. It's right here, "and to wait for His Son" –do you see it? Do you see it right here? – "for His Son from heaven." Not just waiting for heaven. Not just waiting for paradise. Not just waiting for a better world. And sometimes, you know, certainly the Bible talks about that too. Looking for a better city. That's true.
Oh, we look forward to that day. To be in a place when there's no sin and no suffering and no pain. Of course. But look how Paul puts it: "to wait for His Son." To wait for His Son.
Living in a new expectancy. Living their lives in a new fellowship. He says, at the center of our hope, at the center of our waiting, is Jesus Himself. Jesus Himself. We have come to know Him. We have come to fellowship with Him. We love Him. And we want to be with Him. And Peter writes, "And though you have not seen Him,” – you what? – “love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but you believe in Him”. 1 Peter 1:8; and we “rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” And look toward the day when we meet our Savior face to face.
That's one of the attendance of true saving faith. For it's one of the inseparable attendance of repentance. And I want to tell you, beloved, as I speak to my own heart: If your life is not in order, then you're not waiting for His return. If you're not serving God today, you're not waiting for His Son. If there's sin unrepented of in your life that needs to be dealt with and confessed, if you need to go and turn in a new direction and you haven't done that, then you are not waiting for the return of the Son of God.
You're not truly waiting for Christ's return unless your life is dressed with readiness—ready, prepared to go and be with the Lord this very moment should He come right now. If there's a need for repentance, then do it tonight. Confession of sin, do it. Do it right now. Service for the Lord. Why are you holding back? Serve Him today. If there's someone to whom you need to go and reconcile and ask for their forgiveness, do it. Do it today. If there's an act of kindness and mercy that you need to do, then do it. Do it today.
Our lives are like vapor—here today but gone tomorrow. And the second coming brings the necessary sense of urgency to our Christian walk, Christian life. What do you need to do in your life to be ready to meet the Lord in the air should He come tonight? Whatever it is, do it now. Do it tonight. Do not procrastinate.
The devil will always tell you, you have tomorrow to get right with God. You could do it later. But God the Holy Spirit is saying, "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." If you've never come to faith in Jesus Christ, I want to tell you tonight—tonight is the night. Today is the day that you need to come to faith in the Son of God because you may not have tomorrow. You may not have even tonight.
God has brought you into this place to hear this truth proclaimed from God's Word. And you are not here by accident. Remember, this is a truth we recently were reminded of. There are certain times designed by God, and this is one of them, that you're here by divine appointment. God wanted your heart to be impacted by this truth.
And if you've never committed your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I call upon you to believe upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to give your life to Him, to repent of your sin, turn from your idols—whatever those idols may be—and turn to the true and living God and come to Him in the name of His Son, the one and only mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then and then only you shall find forgiveness, and you shall find mercy and grace and acceptance. His name means Jehovah saves, and He will save you, and He will forgive your sins, and He will pardon you, and your sins may be washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. And so if that is you tonight, I beg you—I beg you—turn to Him. Enter through the narrow gate. Come to Christ. Believe on Christ. He's coming, and He's coming soon. Are you ready?
Let's pray.
Not only the Word of God really sounded forth, but also reports went out how truly their life has been transformed by the power of the Gospel. And that's always the case. When there's genuine reception of the Word of God, there's always, always, always the fruit of that being transformed lives to the glory of God.
And tonight we come to this third, really, element that is found in a genuine repentance and transformed lives. Really, he says, "and to wait for His Son from heaven," and to wait for His Son from heaven. Beloved, this is so much what was driving this church, that this was really the engine beneath the hood of this church. This is what really put this church into overdrive. They were waiting for the Son of God to return from heaven. They were a second coming people. They lived every moment of every day with this bright hope and expectancy of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It prevented them from being lukewarm. It prevented them from being laid back, apathetic. I mean, they were laboring. I mean, he mentions earlier in this chapter, he says, I “give thanks to God always for all of you," – he says, – "remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." They were far from being apathetic. They were far from being lukewarm. Really, they lived on the edge of the coming of the Lord. They lived with this bright hope and expectancy that the Lord Jesus is coming again, and this prevented them from being laid back, apathetic.
And it prevented them from just simply shuffling through life, going through the motion, going through mindless routine and rituals. It kept their hearts bright. It kept their hearts on fire for God. It brought a sense of urgency to their Christian walk, Christian life. It brought a sense of urgency to their witness. The Word of God sounded forth, sounded forth with power and with reach, and it was comprehensive. We had no need to say anything, to add anything to what you already were doing. It brought a sense of urgency to their witnessing. They had only so much time to share about Christ because He was coming back again. He was returning.
And it brought a sense of unity to their fellowship as they came together, and they were waiting for the return of Christ. This truth from Scripture so fills our tank with a sense of passion and urgency to be about the work and the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. They turned to God from idols to serve, to serve.
Remember, a disciple is one who serves Christ, serves Christ. And let me say, beloved, every believer needs to be a second coming believer, and every church needs to be a second coming church. And we should carry out our ministry and live our lives as if the Lord Jesus Christ is in the process of coming back to us right now. Understanding this truth really has powerful, very powerful implications on our lives, powerful effects on our lives.
Because as a result, there's no doubt when we are gripped with this truth of Scripture that Jesus Christ is coming back again, we begin to see the world differently. We begin to see people differently. We begin to see people around us—would they be one of those who would be taken? Or would they be left behind? We begin to see life in light of eternity, life in light of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what effect, what an effect this truth of the second coming has upon the heart of the child of God.
The truth of the second coming also has a restraining effect, a restraining effect upon the heart, upon the soul of the child of God, because you wouldn't want to be in sin when the Lord comes back. You wouldn't want to be dabbling with prohibited things when the Lord comes back. It keeps you on the narrow path, it keeps you keeping short accounts with God, it keeps you on the right path, it keeps your feet pure. We all need that today, the sense of urgency, the sense of eternity that produces purity, that produces holy living, and that would cultivate till the ground of the fear of God in our lives.
And as we come to this last verse in this first chapter, Paul confronts us, really, with the truth concerning the coming of the Lord. And what I want to bring our attention to is that this book, this little epistle, 1 Thessalonians, is a second coming book. It is. And it is, actually, in fact, throughout the entire letter. In fact, you'll find this quite really interesting. Each chapter of this book ends with the second coming of Jesus.
Look at it with me. First of all, here, you find it here in chapter 1: "and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come." Now move forward to chapter 2, and look at verses 19 and 20: "For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting? Is it not even you, before our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy."
Paul saw people in the light of the second coming. He saw people to whom he ministered as His crown, and when Christ comes back, Paul is saying all the reward that I need is to see you rewarded at the second coming of Jesus. That's all the reward that I need, to see your Christian life built up, to see you encouraged in the faith, to see you walking with the Lord, and when the Lord comes back, for Him to put a crown on your head—that would be my crown, to see the Lord crown you. What a perspective for ministry. What a perspective for servanthood, for us to have that as we serve Christ, as we serve others under Christ, that the only reward that I need is to see you rewarded in that final day because you've been walking with Jesus faithfully.
Look at the end of chapter 3. Verse 13 really is a kind of a benediction, a doxology, beginning in verse 11, and in verse 13 offers like really a prayer for the Thessalonians. We read in verse 13: "so that He may strengthen your hearts blameless in holiness, before our God and Father,” – what's next? – “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints."
And what Paul is saying is that my ministry is about preparing you for that day, that last day. Everything that I'm teaching you, everything that I'm imparting to you, and living before you simply to prepare you for that day when He comes back.
At the end of chapter 4, of course, we read the very same thing, that classic portion of the Word of God concerning the rapture of the church. We'll get there and see that in more details, Lord willing, when we get there. Verse 16: "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words."
Paul comforted the believers with these words as they've lost loved ones to death. He comforted them with this truth: there's going to be a day of great reunion one day. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And what a glorious day this is going to be when Christ comes back to take His church.
And then to end at chapter 5, the end of chapter 5, verses 23 and 24: "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who will also will do it." Paul is telling us, if God has begun the process of sanctifying you, and that begins the moment that you are converted, that you are saved, that you are regenerated, he said God will complete what He had started in your life.
Just as he says that also in Philippians 1:6, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." That's what he's saying in this verse. Faithful is He who has called you out of darkness into fellowship with His Son, and faithful is He to bring it to pass. He will fully sanctify you one day. He will fully prepare you one day and present you to stand faultless and blameless before the Father. What He started, He will finish. What He began, He will complete.
We unmistakably saw that if your faith is genuine, it's been inseparably joined to true repentance. We've seen it here, even in this first chapter, and you remember the first elements of repentance are these: a turning away from all false gods and a turning to the true and living God. That's always, always the case in Scripture—turning from, turning to. We are the church, the called out ones, called out of the world, out of darkness, but we're called unto, unto Christ, unto God, the service of God, the service of Christ, to live for Him. So from, to, that's always the case.
And so the elements, these first elements of repentance, are found here. Paul reminds us: a turning away from all false gods, idols, and a turning to the living God. And then here now, he says, you turn not only from the false god to the true God with a disposition to be submissive to Him, but notice now, he says in verse 10, and to wait for His Son from heaven. If you put it together, it reads like this: "You turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come."
In other words, this radical change in their lives, this radical change in their worldview, didn't just have to do with the present; it also had to do with their view of the future, what is to come. Whereas prior to this reception of the gospel, the report of which has gone forth everywhere, their lives were earthbound—they were earthbound. The things of eternity were a thing of no concern to you whatsoever, but having turned to the true God, having become believers in God, your whole sphere of interest has shifted tectonically from earth to heaven, radically.
So 1 Thessalonians 1:10, as we look at this verse tonight, I want to draw your attention to the six truths that really are bound up in this verse that were taught here by the Apostle Paul. Truth number one, I'm going to state the obvious, I'm going to state the obvious, and sometimes we miss the obvious because we become too familiar with the obvious. Number one, Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming again.
We can be so earthbound and so really focused on the here and now, we can't think beyond—well, you know, tonight, after the service, I have this, this and that, and tomorrow morning, Monday morning, first thing in the morning, and I have this and that, and this week is going to be busy—and Jesus is coming again. Jesus is coming again, and so this is so obvious here, "and to wait for His Son from heaven." They were waiting for His Son from heaven.
If this verse, beloved, says anything, it says to us that Christ is coming again, and He's coming to this planet earth for His bride, the church, church of the redeemed saints, to take them back to heaven, and beloved, this truth ought to dominate our thoughts. When you get up tomorrow morning, you need to be reminded that Jesus is coming again. I need to be reminded that Jesus is coming again, and when you go to school, and when you go to work, you need to be reminded that Jesus is coming again, and when you come back home from school, and come back home from work, you need to be reminded that Jesus is coming again, because Jesus is coming again.
Jesus Himself said this to His disciples. In John 14:3, "I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." And this was not a figure of speech. Jesus was saying literally, I'm coming back. I will come back for you, and you will be with Me, and right now I am preparing a place for you.
The angel said He was coming back again. Remember in Acts 1:11, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." The angel said to these disciples, who were really distraught, and just, I mean, everything is just moving quickly and changing, they said to them, He's coming back, and the apostle Paul repeatedly said that as well, that He's coming back.
In Titus 2:13, I love this: "looking for the blessed hope"—looking. We live our lives looking. We serve looking. We do what we do looking—"looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." This is a tremendous verse concerning also the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." And this is what we need to do. Jesus is coming again.
We read in Revelation 1:7—I love how John puts it, or the Holy Spirit puts it, of course—"Behold, He is coming with the clouds." And that doesn't even say He will come. It's not a future tense. It says He is coming, present tense. His return is so close, it is spoken of in the present tense. He is in the process of coming back to planet Earth. How exciting this is.
The Bible ends with Jesus making this statement: "Behold, I am coming quickly." "I am coming quickly." How the Lord wants this truth to flood our minds, to saturate our thinking—better yet, to marinate our thinking. We ought not to be so attached to this world, earthbound, that we lose sight of what's going to happen from heaven, that the Lord is coming back. This truth ought to transform every decision we make. It ought to have an effect on each and every one of us, His children.
This tells us there's a work for the Lord to be done in our sphere of influence, in our schools, in our works, in our homes, in our relationships, and whatever we can do for the Lord, we must do it. As God gives us strength, Jesus is coming again.
The second truth we find in this verse: Jesus will descend from heaven. He will descend from heaven. Look at the text: "And to wait for His Son from heaven," simple. "and to wait for His Son from heaven." Now I want to underscore this word, heaven—"from heaven," the Greek word ‘ouranōn’ for heaven. Ouranos literally means heights or lofty place, elevated place. That's what the word means.
But what we need to know is that the Greek word here in the text is not singular, it is plural. It is ‘ouranōn’. It is translated in our Bible singular, heaven, but the reality is it is plural and it should read "to wait for His Son from the heavens." From the heavens. You say, what does that mean? I thought there's only one heaven. Well, to put it in the plural really intensifies the heights of heaven and it is the way that Paul conveys to us that when Christ comes back, He will come from the heights of heaven, from the very highest heights of heaven.
And the Bible speaks of the outer atmosphere, the sky above us and of the earth, and then there's the outer space and beyond outer space is what Paul referred to in 2 Corinthians 12 as what? The third heaven. Meaning the third layer beyond the earth's atmosphere, beyond the outer space, planets, galaxies, beyond all of that is heaven. In other words, beloved, heaven is a real place. It's a real place. It's a real place on God's map. Heaven is not just a mystical, nebulous place in our thinking, concocted in our own mind, wishful thinking.
No, no. It is a real place. It is a real geographical place on God's map. It is where Jesus is right now. It's where the redeemed saints are right now. Their souls are right now there. It is where many of the angels are right now. It is a real place on God's map.
And there is a layering in heaven, and at the very apex of heaven, you have the throne of God above at the heights of heaven. And what this is saying is that when Jesus Christ comes back, He will come back from the very heights of heaven, from the highest place of all created matter. Even heaven itself was once created by God. God always existed, existed always as God. God was alone, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, alone in the sense that nothing else was there, but He was never alone because there was Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And then God created, and when God created the planets, He also created the heavens, and at the heights of the highest point of heaven, that's where the Lord Jesus Christ is. Here are some verses, really, that will help us amplify this. For example, in Luke 24:51, it says, "And it happened that while He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven." Was carried up into heaven. Jesus ascended and left the earth. It says that He was carried up into heaven.
Hebrews 4:14: "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us make, let us take hold of our confession." That means He passed through the earth's atmosphere. That means He passed through the solar systems. He passed through the galaxies. He passed through all that there is throughout space, and He kept passing through the heavens.
In Ephesians 4:10, "He ascended far above all the heavens"—plural. In Hebrews 7:26, it says that He is “exalted above the heavens." In Hebrews 8:1, He “sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." He passed through everything that was created all the way up to the very apex of heaven, the very heights of heaven itself, and He's now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the throne of the Majesty on high.
Beloved, there is no one higher than Jesus. No one. And when Jesus comes back at the second coming, He will arise from the throne, and He will descend from the highest of the heights of heaven all the way down to the atmosphere of the earth. And the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the trumpet of God, and the voice of the archangel, and we, the church, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
Oh, what a glorious day. Christ will descend from heaven Himself. You know what that tells us? He's not sending a representative. He's coming Himself. He's not sending a special envoy to represent Him. He'll come back Himself to receive us. I'm coming back for you, to receive you to Myself so that you will be where I am.
Third, third truth that we see in this verse, Jesus will appear when He comes back in bodily form. He is coming back in bodily form. He will appear in bodily form. We need to read in verse 10, "and to wait for His Son from heaven"—and here it is—"whom He raised from the dead." Whom He raised from the dead. I mean, it seems at first glance almost out of place in the middle of the verse. And we're talking about the second coming, and all of a sudden, Paul throws in sort of like the resurrection of Jesus, but there's a reason for everything in Scripture. There's a reason for everything in Scripture. And the Holy Spirit, who is the author of the Scripture, has interwoven this letter as well as this book so perfectly.
And again, let me remind us—just a parenthesis here—when we have difficulty, when we have trouble, when we are confused, the fault lies in us, in our limitation, not the Word of God. Because the Holy Spirit has interwoven this book so perfectly. And the reason Paul now writes, "and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead," is to remind us that Jesus Christ was bodily raised from the dead.
That it wasn't the Spirit of Jesus, as Jehovah's Witnesses and the liberals would want us to believe. No, no, we believe in the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that the tomb was empty on the third day, and when the angel rolled back the stone, it wasn't so that they would let Jesus get out of the grave. No, no, it was simply to let the women and the disciples go in. He could have walked right through that stone in His glorified body, but He was raised from the dead.
And I believe the reason this is inserted here in verse 10 is to remind us that the same Jesus who was raised physically, bodily from the dead, will come back in just the same manner—bodily, physically, and victoriously. And when He comes back, it will not be the ghost of Jesus. It will be the same Jesus who was taken up from the Mount of Olives, who was raised from the dead bodily. This same Jesus is coming back, beloved—bodily, visibly, victoriously, and physically.
Acts 1:11: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven?" Can you imagine that scene that day? Their jaws dropped as they stared up into the heavens, as they watched Jesus being lifted up supernaturally, up into the sky, up into the clouds, taken up into heaven until they could see Him no more. It was mind-blowing, mind-boggling for these disciples as they were amazed, stunned, unfounded, dazzled, staring up into the clouds. And then two angels appeared and they say, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven? This Jesus, this Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way, in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."
However He went up, that's how He's coming back down to take His people. He went up in a glorified, resurrected, physical, visible, touchable, tangible body. That's exactly how He's going to come back. And I want to also tell you, beloved, if you're a child of God, that's how you're going to go to heaven as well at the rapture. The Bible says that in that split second when Christ returns, there's going to be an immediate transformation of your body, mine, and your body will be transformed in that moment into a glorified, resurrected body in a twinkling of an eye. And you will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
You see, you and I could not look upon the glorified Christ in our fallen body. We would be incinerated. We would burn up. God has to give us a glorified body so we could look and behold Him in His glorified body. 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, now… we will be made like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." No wonder in that vision John fell flat on his face as though dead. In order to see Him just as He is, you must be made like Him. And how this speaks of our transformation as it awaits us at the coming of the Lord.
Truth number four, Jesus rescues us from wrath. We're going to skip that because we're going to come back to it next Lord's Day. He rescues us from wrath. What a glorious truth. It is found here at the end of the verse, "who rescues us from the wrath to come." What a glorious truth.
Truth number five, Jesus could return today, tonight. Jesus could return tonight. There's one word that jumps off the page as I look at verse 10. And it may be the least noticeable word in verse 10. And look at it. It's the word “us”. You see that? Little word "us," us. Paul actually believed that Christ was perhaps coming in His lifetime. And then not just him, but all the believers—"us" is in the plural. And these Thessalonians were waiting for Jesus to return, anticipating His return, watching and waiting. And there is this sense of imminence about the return of Jesus Christ, that Christ would come back, could come back at any moment. Any moment.
Paul lived this way. Paul never told us to be looking, watching for the appearance of the Antichrist. He never. He gave us details about the Antichrist, but he never said wait and look for the appearance of the Antichrist. He always tells us to be looking for the appearing of who? Jesus. Jesus.
Beloved, the next event on God's prophetic calendar is the catching up of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ to meet the Lord in the air. And we need to live every day as if Christ will return in my lifetime. And Paul lived that way 2,000 years ago. And how much more we ought to be living on the edge of the return of Jesus Christ, you and I. And I believe, beloved, that the strongest argument for the pre-tribulation rapture of the church is the doctrine of the imminence—of imminence that Christ could come back at any moment. That we're not looking for the Antichrist. We're not looking for any of that. We're looking for Christ to appear and take us home.
So Christ could return today. And I want to tell you, beloved, there isn't a single prophecy that yet needs to be fulfilled that would prevent Christ from coming right now. You say, well, what about the building of the temple over in Jerusalem before Christ can come? No, that only needs to be built in the first half of the tribulation. There's not yet one single verse that needs to be fulfilled that would prevent Christ from coming back in the middle of my next sentence.
How do we need to live? We need to live as if Christ were going to come back tonight. To live for Him. To love Him. To adore Him. To serve Him. To make much of Him. And to sound forth His word like these Thessalonians.
Truth number six. By way of extension, obviously then, Jesus' return demands our readiness. His return demands our readiness. If Jesus could come back any moment, if there's that doctrine of imminence, then we need to be ready. We need to be ready. And look at it. It's found in the text, actually, this last truth. Look at the beginning of verse 10. You see the verb there? "and to wait." To wait. You could just draw a circle around the word "wait." "To wait for His Son from heaven." Now, you may find it interesting that it's the only time this Greek word, ‘anamenein’, is used in the entire New Testament. It's only found here. It's a very special word. It's a strong word. It's a word that means to wait expectantly. To look forward for something with great eagerness. With great expectation and anticipation.
It's not merely that you need to believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ. You need to be waiting for the second coming of Christ. Longing for the second coming of Christ. And looking for the return of Christ. It's almost like, and maybe this is the best illustration that we could identify with—even though it pales into comparison—it's almost like when you have a dear, dear beloved family that are coming to your house to spend a few days with you. What do you do? You get everything ready. Everything ready. At least you ought to. You get the guest room fixed up. You get the bathroom fixed up. You get the refrigerator full to the brim. You get the house cleaned up. You scrub the floors. You dust everything. I mean we should be doing this every day. But even more so. Especially.
And you eagerly wait for them to come. And the day of coming you eagerly wait by the window to see the car coming into the driveway. So you could run out and meet and embrace your family member and receive them. There's excitement. There's eagerness. And there's that warm welcome. That's what it means to wait for His Son. The Lord Jesus Christ. That your life and my life would be in order. That your heart would be ready. That your whole would be ready. That you would be ready for the Lord to descend from heaven with a shout, and for you to be ready to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. We are always, always, always to live this way.
And would you please note with me that this is a present active infinitive: to wait for His Son. In other words, to be always waiting for His Son. To be always in readiness waiting for the return of Jesus. And like I said, this verb is in the active voice, which means it is something that I must do. I must do. That means I just can't sit back and wait for Him passively. I can't just sit on my hands and be passive, laid back, nonchalant. I must prepare myself. I must be active in getting ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That tells me that waiting involves activity. Waiting involves ministry. Waiting involves serving. Waiting involves doing, laboring. Waiting involves purity. And all within biblical balance that we be spending time with God and that we be sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's more than sitting at the feet of Jesus. Yes, we ought to do that. We must be also serving and doing the work of the Lord. And this we will do if we are waiting for His Son from heaven. We will be the perfect balance of Martha and Mary.
And we see the beautiful balance here exemplified by the Thessalonians themselves. Look at verses 9 and 10, “how you turn to God from idols to” – what? To do what? To sit on your hands? No. – “to serve”. Right? To serve. Remember that verb. We get from the word ‘doulos’, slave. Serving a master. "to serve a living and a true God, and to wait"—see the balance?—"to wait for His Son from heaven." They weren't waiting sitting on their hands. They were waiting serving. Doing. Laboring. Laboring. Doing. Working. Eagerly. Working hard. Working to the point of exhaustion. And when they have nothing more to give, they give more.
This radical change in their lives, this radical change in their worldview, didn't just have to do with the present. It also had to do with their view of the future. Whereas prior to the reception of the gospel, the report of which has gone forth everywhere, all around, your lives were earthbound, he says, prior to that. Things of eternity were a thing of no concern to you. But having turned to the true and living God, having become believers in Christ, your whole sphere of interest shifted from earth to heaven. You have a heavenly mindedness.
Now your sphere of activity was not shifted. You still had to get up in the morning and make your Greek coffee there by the sea in Thessaloniki. You still had to get up in the morning and shine your sandals and prepare breakfast for your kids and wash the clothes. No, no, he said, life itself in terms of what's necessary to make up life and human existence, well, that didn't change. He didn't say you all of a sudden became monastics. No, no, no. But he said in the midst of all the normal routine of life, an entirely new focus came in.
Having turned from idols to the living and true God to serve Him, your expectations, your longings were now fixed not upon the passing things of time, but upon the great issues of eternity—to wait for His Son from heaven. What does that mean? Sit back, put on a white robe and find the highest hill and wait for the Lord to descend from heaven with a shout? That's the way some interpreted it. And they've actually done that and Paul had to correct them. And it doesn't mean a passive kind of waiting as I mentioned. This is not the kind of waiting in the sense of passing time. When we talk about waiting for the Lord Jesus, we're not just letting the calendar run, letting the clock run as we live our lives just like everybody else lives life.
Our beliefs about Jesus' return ought to be affecting how we're living right now. That's what it means to wait for Him, to wait with anticipation, to wait with expectation, to wait with burning devotion. Decisions made today in light of what He's promised tomorrow. And tomorrow's coming. And I know it's coming. He's told me what's coming. So I'm going to live today in light of what God has told me is coming tomorrow.
Waiting for His Son means that in the midst of all of the responsibilities and all of the activities—and later on He mentioned some of them, very practical things about working with your hands and providing for yourself and for your family, very practical things—but in the midst of all of this, you're not bounded to it. You're not tied to it. This is not your end. This is not your goal. This is not what you're living for. No, he said, in the midst of all of this, you're longing for that day when the work of grace that has been begun in you will be completed. That day when we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Radically different lifestyle in the present. Because they've embraced a radically different perspective about the future. Living their lives with expectancy. Living their lives—and I love this—in a new fellowship. In a new fellowship. I love how Paul puts it in verse 10. It's right here, "and to wait for His Son" –do you see it? Do you see it right here? – "for His Son from heaven." Not just waiting for heaven. Not just waiting for paradise. Not just waiting for a better world. And sometimes, you know, certainly the Bible talks about that too. Looking for a better city. That's true.
Oh, we look forward to that day. To be in a place when there's no sin and no suffering and no pain. Of course. But look how Paul puts it: "to wait for His Son." To wait for His Son.
Living in a new expectancy. Living their lives in a new fellowship. He says, at the center of our hope, at the center of our waiting, is Jesus Himself. Jesus Himself. We have come to know Him. We have come to fellowship with Him. We love Him. And we want to be with Him. And Peter writes, "And though you have not seen Him,” – you what? – “love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but you believe in Him”. 1 Peter 1:8; and we “rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” And look toward the day when we meet our Savior face to face.
That's one of the attendance of true saving faith. For it's one of the inseparable attendance of repentance. And I want to tell you, beloved, as I speak to my own heart: If your life is not in order, then you're not waiting for His return. If you're not serving God today, you're not waiting for His Son. If there's sin unrepented of in your life that needs to be dealt with and confessed, if you need to go and turn in a new direction and you haven't done that, then you are not waiting for the return of the Son of God.
You're not truly waiting for Christ's return unless your life is dressed with readiness—ready, prepared to go and be with the Lord this very moment should He come right now. If there's a need for repentance, then do it tonight. Confession of sin, do it. Do it right now. Service for the Lord. Why are you holding back? Serve Him today. If there's someone to whom you need to go and reconcile and ask for their forgiveness, do it. Do it today. If there's an act of kindness and mercy that you need to do, then do it. Do it today.
Our lives are like vapor—here today but gone tomorrow. And the second coming brings the necessary sense of urgency to our Christian walk, Christian life. What do you need to do in your life to be ready to meet the Lord in the air should He come tonight? Whatever it is, do it now. Do it tonight. Do not procrastinate.
The devil will always tell you, you have tomorrow to get right with God. You could do it later. But God the Holy Spirit is saying, "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." If you've never come to faith in Jesus Christ, I want to tell you tonight—tonight is the night. Today is the day that you need to come to faith in the Son of God because you may not have tomorrow. You may not have even tonight.
God has brought you into this place to hear this truth proclaimed from God's Word. And you are not here by accident. Remember, this is a truth we recently were reminded of. There are certain times designed by God, and this is one of them, that you're here by divine appointment. God wanted your heart to be impacted by this truth.
And if you've never committed your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I call upon you to believe upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to give your life to Him, to repent of your sin, turn from your idols—whatever those idols may be—and turn to the true and living God and come to Him in the name of His Son, the one and only mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then and then only you shall find forgiveness, and you shall find mercy and grace and acceptance. His name means Jehovah saves, and He will save you, and He will forgive your sins, and He will pardon you, and your sins may be washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. And so if that is you tonight, I beg you—I beg you—turn to Him. Enter through the narrow gate. Come to Christ. Believe on Christ. He's coming, and He's coming soon. Are you ready?
Let's pray.
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