Last Days Living 1 Thess 5 1 11
Series: Trinity Season Epistle Sermons
November 24, 2024
Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
The Last Sunday Of The Church Year 24-November-2024 Sermon Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Sermon Theme: “Last Days Living!” I. Know His Word! (Vs.1-3) II. Walk In His Light! (Vs.4-8) III. Comfort One Another In Hope! (Vs.9-11) by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
Episode Notes
The Last Sunday Of The Church Year 24-November-2024
Sermon Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Sermon Theme: “Last Days Living!” I. Know His Word! (Vs.1-3) II. Walk In His Light! (Vs.4-8) III. Comfort One Another In Hope! (Vs.9-11) by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
I.N.R.I. Isa 38:1 , "Thus says the LORD: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.' " King Hezekiah was severely ill and this is the sermon his pastor - the prophet Isaiah preached at his sickbed. How would you react if your pastor was sent to preach this to you while hospitalized? How would you live if you new that by next Sunday morning your lifeless body would’ve been carried into this sanctuary for your funeral?
People change when their days this side of the cemetery are few. As a pastor I’ve cared for many of my parishioners in their last years, months, days, hours, seconds, and gasping breath of their lives. As death nears priorities change. It doesn’t matter if their favorite team wins or loses. The noise of the news is drown out with weightier matters. Often the petty disputes that tore them from family and friends are mourned - they long for reconciliation. Even if they seem unresponsive they want their family near their bedside, talking to them, reading them Scripture, singing hymns, and praying. Maybe the closest hug they can give is to squeeze your hand, or roll a tear down their cheek. Living in their last days priorities change.
Why wait until you are disabled and dying to change your priorities? Isaiah’s sermon rings out for us also, 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.' " Our days are numbered as David sang, Psa 31:14-15 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." (15) My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, And from those who persecute me.” The end of another church year, another year Christ Jesus graciously filled our lamps with the oil of His forgiveness, His life, His salvation at His Table within His House - The Christian Church - Emmanuel Congregation. This may have been your last, or it very well could be the last our world will see - for Jesus promises that He is coming quickly! Two short millennia have passed - perhaps today will be His Day! Dear Christian learn: “Last Days Living!” I. Know His Word! (Vs.1-3) II. Walk In His Light! (Vs.4-8) III. Comfort One Another In Hope! (Vs.9-11)
I. What are the most damning words to hear when King Jesus comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead? The court will be seated and the books will be opened. Will it be...”Do you remember what you thought? What you said? What you did? What you failed to do?” Will the scariest words be... “Let’s see what is written about you.” Will it be the chief prosecutor Satan the Accuser’s words exposing all your secret sins you hid under a veneer of respectability? What will be the most damning words? “I do not know you,” spoken by the only Redeemer and Brother of mankind.
Does Jesus know you? Do you know Jesus? Or, are you only a casual acquaintance visiting Him when your schedule allows? Do you know a lot about Jesus, His conception, His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection..Jas 2:19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!.... or do you really know Jesus? Last Days Living press us to be known by Jesus and to know Him. How? HEAR HIM! (Vs.1-2)
The fledgling congregation at Thessalonika didn’t need Paul to write them a long theological discourse on the end times - days and seasons for they had Jesus’ Words recorded by St. Luke, St. Matthew, and , St. Mark. Escape rooms are popular now. A group of people are locked into a room with a series of clues to open doors and work their way back out to freedom. Concerning end times - Jesus didn’t place us in an escape room leaving us clues to decipher and only them will He return. St. Luke records that on the day of Jesus’ ascension He told the twelve, Act 1:7 ... "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” The task of every member of the Church is to tell the world about Jesus. False preachers don’t know Jesus as they read the Holy Bible through the news cycle looking for clues of Christ’s return. Knowing Christ is to hear and trust His Word as God the Holy Spirit inspired and recorded it in writing - The Holy Bible.
Jesus teaches that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. When was the last time a thief called you up to schedule his break-in? Jesus isn’t teaching us to break the seventh commandment by using this phrase. He instructs us to prepare. We don’t know when a thief may break into our homes, church, or business so we take precautions. We lock the doors at night, install security lighting, maybe even security cameras covering the doors. These preparations aren’t to spy on family or lock them out - they catch the thief when he comes at the unexpected hour. As family we trust the locks, lighting, and cameras are for our security not to punish. Only paranoia takes preparations personally rebelling against them - leaving doors unlocked, security lights, and cameras unplugged. Knowing Jesus’ promise to steal us back from the grave, death, and Satan we prepare.
We talk to Jesus praying with David, “Psa 141:3-4 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips. (4) Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice wicked works With men who work iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies. We ask Jesus to securely watch over us: “Psa 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; (24) And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. We honestly confess all our sins to Jesus and beg Him to create a clean heart within us in which He and the Father dwell.
Do you know Jesus? Does Jesus know you? (Vs.3) Where is your peace and safety? It is in your own reason and strength? Jesus often honors His gift of life using a pregnant woman for an illustration. Pregnant women cannot hide the new life growing in her womb. The pain of miscarriage is the sorrow mourning a human life never born. The pain of abortion is the weight of snuffing out your babies life. As the months pass it becomes increasingly hard to hide a pregnancy. As the third trimester approaches a mother knows she will go into labor, but not the exact day, hour, and minute. If she’s been through it before, she may dread the labor for it is the closest she comes to death. Still with great anticipation she waits to joyously see her new born baby. Labor pains often come suddenly and there is no turning back, no escape, the pain must be endured to bring forth new life.
The world’s false peace and safety will fail when Christ returns. You may have prepped with a bunker filled with beans and bullets - they won’t save you from the pain of labor as your imagined good works only bring forth death - nothing - for you weren’t known by Jesus! Hell is your wages.
Daily come clean as you talk to Jesus. Confess your sins to Him by confessing them to those whom you have sinned against. Ge honest - throw all your sins upon Him that He might know you as His own. Let Him alone be your “peace and safety” - ‘yesterday, today, and forever!’ Let Him bring forth new life in you! A mother’s sorrow in labor ends when she hears the cry of her newborn baby - sorrow flees as new life joyfully floods her heart. So it will be for you who know the Bridegroom and are known by Him!
II. Darkness is deceptive. That 12 point buck in the dark becomes a fallen tree trunk with twisted branches once the sun arises. Few people are afraid of the daylight, but many fear the night. Night lights may give some comfort, but when electricity fails comfort flees and terror seizes.
Our world stumbles in darkness. Why are there less and less people in church in these Last Days? Hear Jesus! Joh 3:18-21 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (19) And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (20) For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (21) But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." People drift away from the Light - Jesus shining every Sunday in this sanctuary - because they’d rather stumble on in the comfortable darkness of sin and self-deception. Not you! Last Day Living calls you to walk in His Light! (Vs.4-5).
You are baptized into the Light - Jesus - the Life of man. While you have the Light believe in the Light! Look only to Jesus! He is the Way, the Truth, the Life - the only path to reconciliation with our Heavenly Father. The Last Day will not overcome you as a thief - for every Sunday you are filled with His oil of forgiveness, life, and salvation from His hand at His table.
Walk in the Light! (Vs.6-8) God the Holy Spirit isn’t teaching us to become insomniacs and teetotalers. We need physical sleep and wine in moderation to make the heart merry. We are not to sleep spiritually. Be sober. Daily rise and put on your baptismal armor. Beginning, ending each day in His Name as you trace the sign of His victory upon your body. Confess reality - speak out loud the Apostles’ Creed - view all of life through it’s lense. Pray with Jesus - His Words - Our Father! Know Him! Ask Him for His Holy Spirit and protection. Then go joyfully to work singing a hymn as your morning devotion suggests. Repeat the same every evening, preparing for your last hour - as your pastor speaks the Name, marks you with His cross, confesses The Faith, and you hear Jesus praying His Prayer over you - then you can fall asleep in peace - knowing the day of resurrection and bodily reunion is FOR YOU! You wear the helmet of th Hope of salvation!
III. Do not loose heart! He is coming for you! Jesus says to you, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth” FOR YOU - that you may live with Him forever in His Kingdom clothed in His innocence, righteousness, and blessedness!
Comfort and build each other up in this hope! (Vs.9-11) God the Holy Spirit exhorts you, Heb 10:23-25 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (24) And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, (25) not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Make coming to Church every time there is a service a priority - not only for yourself, but for your fellow members here a Emmanuel - that you may comfort and build them up. Attend every funeral comforting the mourning - “whether we wake or sleep - we live together with Jesus.” 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.' King Hezekiah hearing this truth, fixed his eyes on Jesus praying. Maybe he used the 71st Psalm: Psa 71:18 Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come. The Lord heard, healed, and lengthened his days. Live in the Last Days knowing Jesus, your Savior, walking in His Light, comforting one another. Amen.
Sermon Text: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Sermon Theme: “Last Days Living!” I. Know His Word! (Vs.1-3) II. Walk In His Light! (Vs.4-8) III. Comfort One Another In Hope! (Vs.9-11) by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
I.N.R.I. Isa 38:1 , "Thus says the LORD: 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.' " King Hezekiah was severely ill and this is the sermon his pastor - the prophet Isaiah preached at his sickbed. How would you react if your pastor was sent to preach this to you while hospitalized? How would you live if you new that by next Sunday morning your lifeless body would’ve been carried into this sanctuary for your funeral?
People change when their days this side of the cemetery are few. As a pastor I’ve cared for many of my parishioners in their last years, months, days, hours, seconds, and gasping breath of their lives. As death nears priorities change. It doesn’t matter if their favorite team wins or loses. The noise of the news is drown out with weightier matters. Often the petty disputes that tore them from family and friends are mourned - they long for reconciliation. Even if they seem unresponsive they want their family near their bedside, talking to them, reading them Scripture, singing hymns, and praying. Maybe the closest hug they can give is to squeeze your hand, or roll a tear down their cheek. Living in their last days priorities change.
Why wait until you are disabled and dying to change your priorities? Isaiah’s sermon rings out for us also, 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.' " Our days are numbered as David sang, Psa 31:14-15 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." (15) My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, And from those who persecute me.” The end of another church year, another year Christ Jesus graciously filled our lamps with the oil of His forgiveness, His life, His salvation at His Table within His House - The Christian Church - Emmanuel Congregation. This may have been your last, or it very well could be the last our world will see - for Jesus promises that He is coming quickly! Two short millennia have passed - perhaps today will be His Day! Dear Christian learn: “Last Days Living!” I. Know His Word! (Vs.1-3) II. Walk In His Light! (Vs.4-8) III. Comfort One Another In Hope! (Vs.9-11)
I. What are the most damning words to hear when King Jesus comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead? The court will be seated and the books will be opened. Will it be...”Do you remember what you thought? What you said? What you did? What you failed to do?” Will the scariest words be... “Let’s see what is written about you.” Will it be the chief prosecutor Satan the Accuser’s words exposing all your secret sins you hid under a veneer of respectability? What will be the most damning words? “I do not know you,” spoken by the only Redeemer and Brother of mankind.
Does Jesus know you? Do you know Jesus? Or, are you only a casual acquaintance visiting Him when your schedule allows? Do you know a lot about Jesus, His conception, His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection..Jas 2:19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!.... or do you really know Jesus? Last Days Living press us to be known by Jesus and to know Him. How? HEAR HIM! (Vs.1-2)
The fledgling congregation at Thessalonika didn’t need Paul to write them a long theological discourse on the end times - days and seasons for they had Jesus’ Words recorded by St. Luke, St. Matthew, and , St. Mark. Escape rooms are popular now. A group of people are locked into a room with a series of clues to open doors and work their way back out to freedom. Concerning end times - Jesus didn’t place us in an escape room leaving us clues to decipher and only them will He return. St. Luke records that on the day of Jesus’ ascension He told the twelve, Act 1:7 ... "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” The task of every member of the Church is to tell the world about Jesus. False preachers don’t know Jesus as they read the Holy Bible through the news cycle looking for clues of Christ’s return. Knowing Christ is to hear and trust His Word as God the Holy Spirit inspired and recorded it in writing - The Holy Bible.
Jesus teaches that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. When was the last time a thief called you up to schedule his break-in? Jesus isn’t teaching us to break the seventh commandment by using this phrase. He instructs us to prepare. We don’t know when a thief may break into our homes, church, or business so we take precautions. We lock the doors at night, install security lighting, maybe even security cameras covering the doors. These preparations aren’t to spy on family or lock them out - they catch the thief when he comes at the unexpected hour. As family we trust the locks, lighting, and cameras are for our security not to punish. Only paranoia takes preparations personally rebelling against them - leaving doors unlocked, security lights, and cameras unplugged. Knowing Jesus’ promise to steal us back from the grave, death, and Satan we prepare.
We talk to Jesus praying with David, “Psa 141:3-4 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips. (4) Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice wicked works With men who work iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies. We ask Jesus to securely watch over us: “Psa 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; (24) And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. We honestly confess all our sins to Jesus and beg Him to create a clean heart within us in which He and the Father dwell.
Do you know Jesus? Does Jesus know you? (Vs.3) Where is your peace and safety? It is in your own reason and strength? Jesus often honors His gift of life using a pregnant woman for an illustration. Pregnant women cannot hide the new life growing in her womb. The pain of miscarriage is the sorrow mourning a human life never born. The pain of abortion is the weight of snuffing out your babies life. As the months pass it becomes increasingly hard to hide a pregnancy. As the third trimester approaches a mother knows she will go into labor, but not the exact day, hour, and minute. If she’s been through it before, she may dread the labor for it is the closest she comes to death. Still with great anticipation she waits to joyously see her new born baby. Labor pains often come suddenly and there is no turning back, no escape, the pain must be endured to bring forth new life.
The world’s false peace and safety will fail when Christ returns. You may have prepped with a bunker filled with beans and bullets - they won’t save you from the pain of labor as your imagined good works only bring forth death - nothing - for you weren’t known by Jesus! Hell is your wages.
Daily come clean as you talk to Jesus. Confess your sins to Him by confessing them to those whom you have sinned against. Ge honest - throw all your sins upon Him that He might know you as His own. Let Him alone be your “peace and safety” - ‘yesterday, today, and forever!’ Let Him bring forth new life in you! A mother’s sorrow in labor ends when she hears the cry of her newborn baby - sorrow flees as new life joyfully floods her heart. So it will be for you who know the Bridegroom and are known by Him!
II. Darkness is deceptive. That 12 point buck in the dark becomes a fallen tree trunk with twisted branches once the sun arises. Few people are afraid of the daylight, but many fear the night. Night lights may give some comfort, but when electricity fails comfort flees and terror seizes.
Our world stumbles in darkness. Why are there less and less people in church in these Last Days? Hear Jesus! Joh 3:18-21 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (19) And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (20) For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (21) But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." People drift away from the Light - Jesus shining every Sunday in this sanctuary - because they’d rather stumble on in the comfortable darkness of sin and self-deception. Not you! Last Day Living calls you to walk in His Light! (Vs.4-5).
You are baptized into the Light - Jesus - the Life of man. While you have the Light believe in the Light! Look only to Jesus! He is the Way, the Truth, the Life - the only path to reconciliation with our Heavenly Father. The Last Day will not overcome you as a thief - for every Sunday you are filled with His oil of forgiveness, life, and salvation from His hand at His table.
Walk in the Light! (Vs.6-8) God the Holy Spirit isn’t teaching us to become insomniacs and teetotalers. We need physical sleep and wine in moderation to make the heart merry. We are not to sleep spiritually. Be sober. Daily rise and put on your baptismal armor. Beginning, ending each day in His Name as you trace the sign of His victory upon your body. Confess reality - speak out loud the Apostles’ Creed - view all of life through it’s lense. Pray with Jesus - His Words - Our Father! Know Him! Ask Him for His Holy Spirit and protection. Then go joyfully to work singing a hymn as your morning devotion suggests. Repeat the same every evening, preparing for your last hour - as your pastor speaks the Name, marks you with His cross, confesses The Faith, and you hear Jesus praying His Prayer over you - then you can fall asleep in peace - knowing the day of resurrection and bodily reunion is FOR YOU! You wear the helmet of th Hope of salvation!
III. Do not loose heart! He is coming for you! Jesus says to you, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth” FOR YOU - that you may live with Him forever in His Kingdom clothed in His innocence, righteousness, and blessedness!
Comfort and build each other up in this hope! (Vs.9-11) God the Holy Spirit exhorts you, Heb 10:23-25 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (24) And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, (25) not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Make coming to Church every time there is a service a priority - not only for yourself, but for your fellow members here a Emmanuel - that you may comfort and build them up. Attend every funeral comforting the mourning - “whether we wake or sleep - we live together with Jesus.” 'Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.' King Hezekiah hearing this truth, fixed his eyes on Jesus praying. Maybe he used the 71st Psalm: Psa 71:18 Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come. The Lord heard, healed, and lengthened his days. Live in the Last Days knowing Jesus, your Savior, walking in His Light, comforting one another. Amen.
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