30th June - 6th July 2025
DEVOTIONAL: 1 Thessalonians 5:1—11
In the early nineties, in a dusty church hall, a group of pre-teens sat before a mottled projector screen. Their intense joy at unexpectedly avoiding another dreary Sunday school lesson would soon be washed away by the heart-wrenching horror of A Thief in the Night (1973). The film, a seminal piece within the sub-genre of American Evangelical Horror (which is apparently a thing), traces the experience of “Patty”, who is numbered among those left behind following Jesus’ rapture of the Church. How does a member of a heretical church navigate the Tribulation? You’ll have to watch the film to find out. I don’t recommend it.
Notwithstanding Jesus’ warning that “no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen” (Matthew 24:36), the details of the events at the end of human history provoke much interest, speculation, and controversy. And with good cause. What could be more fascinating than the epochal ending of all that humans have known, and the inauguration of the New Heavens and New Earth. It traps the imagination.
While the specifics of the ‘what’ and the ‘when’ and the ‘how’ remain veiled for now, the New Testament is crystal clear on the ‘whether’. Human history is speeding towards an end date, the events of which “will come like a thief in the night” (5:2). For Paul, the fact of this future event is something to be anticipated, something to be borne in mind as believers determine the values and principles by which they live. The Thessalonian anticipation of “The End” is to be characterised by alertness, sobriety and courage.
To be alert is to think and act and live in light of the reality of what is to come. While others will say “There is peace and security” (5:3), confident that there is no God and no judgement, we understand that the Lord has set aside a time and place for judgement. The stakes are high, the judgement is comprehensive; the wrath of God is no joke (2:16). No one will escape the scrutiny of the one appointed to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). As the world extols groundless peace and false security, a lullaby which draws the unsuspecting into silent slumber, wise believers are sentinels in the night, keeping themselves awake with rousing truth.
Sobriety, both literal and metaphorical, is essential for the one seeking to stay alert. If alcohol is used to help blunt reality and hasten sleep, the lies of “peace and security” are disarming nightcaps for the one eager for any kind of rest. The sober sentinel arms themselves by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and putting on the helmet of the hope of salvation. The basis of hope is the future salvation God has guaranteed. In the face of coming judgement, believers can and must take confidence in Christ and that which he has achieved on their behalf through his death and resurrection. The stakes are high but for those who entrust themselves to Christ, anxiety levels are not.
Encouragement between believers, in this context at least, is less about compliments and more about courage. The coming judgement, and the intervening period in which we live — a period requiring alertness and sobriety—is many things but it is not easy. Add to the fact that believers undergo the heartache of bereavement (4:13) and the burden of persecution (3:4), there are lots of reasons why they might lose hope and lose courage. However, the coming resurrection of believers is the concomitant fact to the coming judgement of the human race. It is the salvation we anticipate; it is the succour for circumstantial suffering, it is the sunrise the sentinel sees cresting the horizon of history. With this truth we take courage and we instil courage in one another.
The virtue of speculative films about the rapture is arguably questionable. A Thief in the Night (1979) got me to take seriously the coming judgement, although it manifested mostly in childhood anxiety when returning home to an empty house — had the true believers been raptured and had I been left behind?! Believers are to take The End seriously because it entails judgement, salvation and the inauguration of what’s next. But we anticipate it with clear minds, confident hope and the courage which precipitates from such clarity and confidence.
Written by Jamie & Judith Yohanis
MONDAY
For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:2
Lord, we know that you have appointed a future date for the judgement of humanity. We do not know when or exactly how these things will take place. You have reserved these details for yourself but revealed to us the most important truth – there is a coming judgement. Who knows whether this Day will take place in our lifetime? You do. Whether it does or not, we know that “people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
We know these things and yet the immediate so easily clouds the ultimate; there is a difference between ‘believing’ the truth, and that truth forming the backdrop against which we make our decisions, shape our values and solidify our convictions. Help us to be like our ancient Thessalonian brothers and sisters. Help us to “know very well that the day of the Lord will come…” Amen.
TUESDAY
While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
1 Thessalonians 5:3
Lord, we live in a culture that for the most part scoffs at the notion idea of divine judgement, let alone an appointed day at history’s end. Rabid speculation by some within the church has made such mockery easier, but it takes little to induce scoffing by those predisposed to rebel against the authority of the living God. It suits them to say, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1) and “There is no one who sees” (Psalm 10:11); an unaccountable world has a base appeal. But this is not the world in which we live.
God exists. God judges. God’s appointed day awaits. This God is also full of mercy. For those of us who trust in you, the waiting at times can seem interminable, but we require patience because the God who called us is also exerting patience. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise…Instead he is patient…not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9). Noah’s detractors would find kindred spirits in our modern world. By your grace and mercy, and for your glory, please bring our unbelieving friends and family to repentance. Amen.
WEDNESDAY
You are all children of the life and children of the day… so then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.
1 Thessalonians 5:5-6
Lord, we are tempted to join those in the world who are ‘asleep’, those who have been lulled into slumber by the lie that there is no God and there is no judgement. It suits us to be avowed believers and functional atheists, because a life of holiness, a life lived in pursuit of the character of Christ, at a superficial level at least, seems less appealing than the other. But what you have given us is Life. You have made us your children; you have given us the capacity not just to follow you or be like you but to know you. What could be more exciting? What life could be more worthwhile? And yet we so readily trade the eternal love of God, for temporal and enslaving gratification. Help us wake up, sober up and live as the children you have made us through New Birth. Amen.
THURSDAY
God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:9
Lord, when many in our country think of the coming judgement – if they believe it at all – they think primarily of your wrath. They shudder and shrink away. And so they should. Who could stand under the holy judgement of God and escape unscathed? Sin is so woven into the fabric of our being that all are deserving of judgement and all are deserving of wrath. But through Christ, you have not appointed us for judgement. When, on that day, you examine us and our thoughts, actions, dreams and intentions are laid bare, it will not be wrath we receive, it will be salvation. Not because we do not deserve wrath but because we will point to Christ. What praise we will utter that day as we see with crystal clarity exactly what Christ’s death is covering on our behalf. We look forward with confidence to the day of judgement because we know that Christ has been judged already on our behalf. In anticipation of that day, give us a glimpse of the reaches of your grace and mercy to us in him. Amen.
FRIDAY
But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:8-9
Thank you, Lord, for your generous and never-ending love. Thank you that we can look to your word and immerse ourselves in promises about who you are and the emphasis you place on our lives. Lord, I thank you that you give us this free choice to place our trust in these truths. Lord, as we choose to trust you and ‘put on faith and love as a breastplate’ in the highs and lows, the uncertainties and unknowns of what lies ahead for us, we can be sure that you will protect our hearts and bring peace in the chaos this life can bring. Lord, in the midst of the choices we face, people we meet, interactions we have at home, work and elsewhere, would you remind us to ‘put on this helmet of salvation’ to protect our minds and in your love would you let that be the power that transforms our attitude, our actions and our speech today. Amen.
SATURDAY
So that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.
1 Thessalonians 5:10
Lord, I thank you for reassurance; the comfort we can know in relationship with you. Lord, to think that what we experience of your goodness and kindness towards us is just a glimpse of what’s to come in eternity is so far beyond what our minds can fathom. Lord, I’m thankful for this glorious hope of living together with you. Lord, with this reality of eternity, blow our minds today and the fact that we get to ‘live together’ with you compel us to do the groundwork in building your kingdom as we wait for you with hope, with your power and with a joy that only your promise of salvation can bring. Amen.
SUNDAY
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Lord, I’m so grateful for the Body, your church. Lord, we’re all broken and in need of your help. Thank you for your forgiveness and your Spirit to help us be a new creation in you. Lord, I ask that you would give us, Glenabbey Church, a fresh awareness of our need for the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in the depths of our souls so that we can be instruments of peace. Help us continue to learn to listen to each other well, love each other beyond ourselves and build each other up with encouragement and self-sacrificial love like you have shown us through the gospel. Amen.