1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

The Bible says that the Day of the Lord is like a thief in the night or a woman in labor. The scene is a dark room: a bedroom. The people are asleep in the dark warmth and security of their house. They think all is safe. They are snug in their beds oblivious to what is happening around them.

But outside the wind is blowing the leaves are rustling. A thief is stalking. Wearing a mask and gloves the thief lurks in the bushes. He comes to a window and begins to work it open. Then he crawls in.

Once inside the thief goes to work grabbing jewelry and throwing it in a bag. Priceless heirlooms to be hawked at a fraction of their real value. Suddenly the people in the house awaken to find an intruder. A woman screams. The thief pulls a gun. He fires.

The image of the thief who comes in the night is disturbing. If this were a television show I would switch channels. Quick! Change the channel!

-- CLICK --

Wheew! Thank you. The new scene is a small house. The sun is shining and the birds are singing. It is spring time. On the front lawn a young couple is dancing joyfully. They have just heard that they will have a baby.

Quickly the scene changes to the nursery. Time has passed and the mother-to-be is beginning to show. Her husband is carefully placing stuffed animals in the crib and bassinet. On the wall on a calendar, a date is circled in red. The due date perhaps?! But everyone knows that babies don't come on their due dates. They come whenever they decide to come.

Next we see the woman later in the pregnancy. She tries to get out of her chair. You can see the pain on her face and as she walks. One can tell that her body is not used to carrying this much weight. She looks at the tattered calendar with the red circle. The seemingly endless waiting is weighing upon her soul just as the unborn baby weighs upon her back.

Finally, we find ourselves in the a brightly lit room. There is a lot of noise - it is a delivery room. The husband says, "Breath, breath" as his wife hollers from the pain of the contraction. The hours of labor have etched lines in the woman's face. The woman begins to holler and the doctor says, "Push! push!" After pushing for a moment the woman lays back out of breath and begins nodding her head and whispering, "I can't. I can't do it." But the doctor replies, "This baby is coming whether you like it or not. Push!"

The baby is born and the doctor holds it up! A perfect little person. The lines etched in the mother's face by hours of labor suddenly disappear. Tears of pain and cries of agony become tears of joy and laughter. And, in the blink of an eye, hours of labor are forgotten. The baby is born!

A thief in the night and a woman in labor - these two images seem as different as day and night. They seem utterly unrelated, but the Apostle Paul uses both of them to describe the day of the Lord to the Thessalonians. If fact he uses both images in the same sentence in verses 2 and 3. What was he thinking; didn't Paul's grammar teacher tell him never to mix his metaphors?! He was probably thinking of Jesus' words. Jesus had said his return would be like a thief in the night.(Matthew 24:43) He had also said that the troubles of this age were the birth pains of the Kingdom.(Matthew 24:8)

But how are the thief in the night and the woman in labor like Jesus' return. Well the thief comes at a time that one least expects. Jesus said, "If the householder knew when the thief was coming he would have been waiting."(Matthew 24:43) The householder didn't know that a thief was coming and he was surprised by the bandit's arrival. As a result the thief brought destruction. When Jesus returns many will not be expecting him. They will be surprised. They will be spiritually unprepared. They will be asleep. For them the coming of the kingdom will bring God's judgment. The total destruction of all that is opposed to God's will. All sin and hatred, all adultery and lust, all prejudice and greed will be cast in the lake of fire. No more will people kill one another for money or exclude on another because of race or color. God will do away with all those ungodly things.

The thief in the night makes sense, but what about the woman in labor. Well like the thief in the night, no one is quite sure when a baby will be born. Barring the intervention of modern medicine, babies come when they are good and ready: no sooner, no later. And once they start coming it is too late to stop them. But with the coming of a baby one knows that it is coming. One prepares for its arrival by decorating a nursery, and buying or making clothes. And when it arrives there is a time of pain, but in the end there is joy and happiness. In the same way when Jesus returns, we will be waiting for him and expecting him. There will be hours and years of waiting, and there will be travail when he is near, but he will bring joy and peace to us. God is giving birth to a Kingdom of light and peace. And those who are ready for its arrival will share in its warmth and light; they will feast at the bridegroom's banquet.

These images are as different as day and night. In fact one is an image of darkness and the other of light. The thief comes at night in the dark and brings destruction. And the people in the house dwell in darkness. In contrast the woman in labor is an image of light. The couple sees that the baby is coming and it brings light and joy.

I believe the Apostle Paul is deliberately contrasting these two images. They are both accurate depictions of Christ's return. But they are views from different perspectives. The thief in the night is the perspective of those who are spiritually asleep and in darkness. The woman in labor is the perspective of those who are eagerly waiting the return of Christ in glory and light.

Let me demonstrate how Paul is contrasting these two images. I will divide you up into two groups. When I point to the first group you say "light", and when I point to the second group you say "dark." "But you, beloved, are not in (dark)ness, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of (light) and children of the day(light); we are not of the night(dark) or of (dark)ness. So then let us not fall asleep(dark), as others do, but let us keep awake(light) and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night(dark), and those who get drunk are drunk at night(dark). But, since we belong to the day(light), let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath(dark), but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ(light) who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep we might live with him."(I Thess. 5:4-10)

How do you imagine the coming of Christ? The Bible says, "Now concerning the times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you."(5:1) Christ's return will be sudden and no one but the Father knows the exact time. But you had better decide what you believe about his return.

I personally am expectantly waiting his return. I see it as God giving birth to his kingdom. I am a child of the light and Jesus' return will bring glory and light to me. How about you?

Paul finishes this part of his letter by saying, "encourage one another and build up one another."(5:11) Let me give you a word of encouragement. If Jesus is your Lord, then his return will be a day of light. That is a promise from God's Word. Don't you let the world scare you. It will be a day of darkness for them, like a thief in the night, but it will be the fulfillment of the promise of salvation and light for you who trust Jesus.

Matthew 25:14-30

There are talents and then there are talents. The way that this parable is written in English often confuses people. In common English a "talent" is an inborn ability or gift for doing something. A good pianist is said to have a talent for music. Or a good basketball player is said to have a talent for athletics. But that is not what the parable is talking about, at least on the surface. In ancient times a talent was a measure of weight. In this case it is obviously the weight of gold or silver. Each talent was probably about a thousand dollars.

On the surface this parable is about a rich man and the three servants who look after his money while he is gone. But it has a deeper meaning. The Parable begins, "For it is as if a man..." What is it? "It" is the return of Christ. So when Christ returns it will be as if a person had gone away and entrusted his servants with money.

This is a story about our Lord and those who serve our Lord. Our Lord has given each of us gifts. And he will return to see what we have done with those gifts. But the talents of money in this parable represent more than our talents of being able to paint or keep the churches books straight. They include everything that God has so graciously given us. They include our life and health, our money and family, and even the gift of forgiveness and salvation itself.

Another aspect of this parable needs to be clarified. It is the nature of the trust that was given to the servants. It says that this master summoned his servants and entrusted each of them with portions of money. To one he gave five thousand dollars to another he gave two thousand and to a third he gave one thousand. It says, "He gave each of them differing amounts according to their ability."

Ability to do what? The man did not want these servants to just protect the money until he came back. If that had been the case this rich man would have put all the money in safe and entrusted each of the three with a sword to protect it. They were supposed to do more with the money than preserve it intact until he returned.

The ability mentioned here must have been their abilities to handle money. This man did not acquire his money by making bad investments. The first servant was the type that had a Masters in Business Administration. That servant knew about finances was good with the stock markets. So the master gave that servant the largest amount hoping that he could make more. The second servant was the type who had done a little investing for his great aunt. That servant knew a thing or two about money market accounts and certificates of deposit. So that servant was given a smaller amount than the first. The last servant didn't know much about money. He was the type who just had a savings account at the bank. So the master gave this last servant the smallest amount. As a result if one of the three made a bad investment the other two would probably do better. He was making sure he did not have all his eggs in one basket. In Financialeeze he had a diversified portfolio. The man's actions show that the whole point of this exercise of giving each servant money was to put his money to work for him while he was gone. The master did not want his money to be merely safe. He expected his servants to invest those funds and try to get the best return they could.

Well the man left and two of the servants went about their business trying to put their master's money to work. When the Master returned he gathered the three together and asked them what they had done with the talents he had given them. The first one, the MBA type, replied: "Well, I invested in high risk junk bonds and I made five more talents." And the Master said, "Well done good and faithful servant. You have done good with little I will entrust you with much." Then the master asked the second what did you do with yours. He replied, "I put it on a C.D. which came due yesterday with a yield of two talents." And the Master said, "Well done good and faithful servant. You have done good with little I will entrust you with much."

Then the Master turned to the third and said, "What about you?" Now the third servant hadn't done anything with his talent. He had buried it in the ground so that if would still be there when the Master came back. But he had not even tried to put it in the bank to earn interest. So in response to the question he tried to fast talk his way out of the problem. He said, "Oh, Master, I knew you were a hard man and that if I lost your money you would be mad at me and the last thing I want is for you to be mad at me, so I hid your talent in the ground so that I would not lose it through bad investments."

This infuriated the Master. And he said, "Take that talent away from him and give it to Mr. Junk Bonds over there." And as for you, you knew I intended for you to use that money to better my interests, but you didn't even put it in the bank. Throw him in the outer darkness.

We have been given so much in this life. If we truly realize that all of it is a gift from God we will want to give thanks for these gifts. God has given us life. The very breath in our bodies is a gift from God. In America we have an abundance of food and all the other necessities of life. For these things we want to give thanks. God has even given us the most precious gift that a Father could give. God sent his only child to come and suffer death on a cross to give us salvation from our sins and eternal life.

God has given us much to be thankful for. But God didn't give us all this just so that we could sit there and mouth thank-yous in lip service to our Lord. God wants more than fancy talk out of us. God gave us all these gifts for a reason. And the more we have the more is expected out of us. God gave us abundant and eternal life, but God expects us to respond with faithful devotion.

Too often we take our salvation and bury it in a hole hoping to preserve it until Christ comes again when we can use it to buy our way into the Kingdom. But there will be a day of reckoning. When Christ returns he will ask each of us what we have done with all our gifts. And some will say, "I preached to millions and brought them to a knowledge of your saving grace." Some will say, "I helped other Christians deepen their spiritual life by leading them in study and praise." Some will say, "I took the love you showed me and showed it to whoever came my way." Some will say, "I took that little child you gave me and tried to teach her that 'Jesus loves me.'" These people will be able to say to their lord, "We took the light you gave us and we took it into the darkness of the marketplace and of people's lives and we let that light shine." But then there are some who will say, "Lord we knew you were coming back some day to account for these gifts so we buried them in the ground and saved them because we were afraid we might lose them and then you would be mad." And Jesus will say to those, "I gave you those gifts for a reason. Take them away from them and give them to those who were faithful."

God has given us much to be thankful for, let us not waste what we have.