Paul ends Chapter 4 with this sentence. “Comfort one another with these words.” This is an intensely important charge. Because their world was growing more unsure and unstable for them – the more they learned, the more they sought truth in the scriptures, the more their eyes opened, their hearts changed towards this world and man the world knows it! And so things were shaking up! And for us, even so now more than ever, our world is entirely unsafe and unstable. Paul says understand that this was all foretold. It is all part of the plan and God is in complete control. Know (this is the hope we have in Christ), know what is coming next and comfort one another with these words.

That word comfort in the Greek is “parakaleo” and it literally means to come alongside of each other. To comfort, to console and to strengthen but it also means to challenge and instruct each other with these truths. Here’s why. When the world is falling apart and folks are beginning to panic, who will be their beacon if we are doing the same thing? Who will lead them to the truth? Where will they turn for hope? The answer is to the world and in that they will be lost.

We must comfort each other. We must continually challenge ourselves and one another to have an eternal mindset. To think outside of ourselves and our single puzzle piece in the 7 billion piece jigsaw puzzle (that forms the Person of Jesus) so that we are effective for the kingdom. Because God has foretold us all of these things…(John 14:29). Look at the beginning of Chapter 5 with me…

1 Thessalonians 5 Verses 1 – 4

•This is an amazing statement by Paul because concerning the rapture of the church, the Bible says, and folks quote all the time…, “No man knows the day or the hour…” Turn over to Matthew 24. Let’s digest this entire chapter! (Read Matthew 24)
•Paul says that day comes upon THEM as a thief in the night but then he uses an entirely different pronoun as he continues. For YOU, it won’t! No we won’t set a day on a calendar but we know this…when the leaves crumble up and hit the grass we know winter is coming. And when the snow falls and we spend a few hours each day shoveling then we know winter is upon us! So too is the coming of the Lord to claim His church!

•Folks, let me be clear. The SNOW IS FALLING! Not only is Bible prophecy being fulfilled, but it is being fulfilled quickly! God is shaking things up, mixing things up, so that His people will begin to look up! It’s not just flaking or spitting out there any longer. It’s a blizzard now! Remember what is written in Revelation 1:1? “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants – things which must shortly take place!”

•The word used there is “tachos” and it is where we get our word “tachometer.” The revolutions are increasing! Things are happening quickly! The world scene has changed dramatically towards setting the stage for the rapture of the church, the Great Tribulation, the New World Order and the One World Leader! 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 5 years ago…no one ever heard of ISIS. No one would have thought that Iran would be bold enough to carry out a medium range ballistic missile test in breach of two UN Security Council resolutions. No one ever would have thought that France and Russia would be teamed up with Syria against a common enemy! No one would have told you that Turkey would be anywhere in that equation and I’m dag on sure that no one would have thought China would be building militarily strategic islands in the middle of the ocean!

•You see the fig tree has budded. It began in 1948. When in a moment, Ezekiel 37 is literally fulfilled in front of the eyes of the entire world. Turn over to Ezekiel 37 (v1-14)…In the 1950s, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion stated, “Ezekiel 37 has been fulfilled, and the nation Israel is hearing the footsteps of the Messiah.” On Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2010, in Aushwitz, Poland, Benjamin Netanyahu made this amazing statement, “We have returned to our homeland…from every corner of the earth…The Jewish people rose from ashes…Dry bones became covered with flesh, a spirit filled them, and they lived and stood on their own feet.”

•Israel is back in their land. The fig tree buds again. And the stage is set and reving up quickly in the context of Ezekiel 38 and 39 and therefore the time is upon us for the claiming of the church! Folks are calling good bad and bad good…the love of many has grown so very cold (58M abortions in the last 25 years)…ignorance within the church is surging as mainstream millions of members denominations are embracing openly what the Bible clearly condemns…and it seems that each day the revolutions are increasing with each new terrible headline…

•So what are we to do. We are to be comforted. Why? Because we are not in bondage to this world. Jesus said that no one can plunder a strong mans house unless the strong man is first bound…well we are not bound…He has told us of all of these things and instructed us to go to church!!! (Hebrews 10:25) Jesus loves us…He is coming for us and He has well prepared us!

1 Thessalonians 5 Verses 6 – 10

•Look, the wrath of God is ordained upon sin and this world is lost, fallen and sin in and of itself. But God has not appointed us to wrath. This is huge! Why? Because he is speaking specifically about the Great Tribulation. There is no Turn over to Revelation Chapter 6. Look with me at verse 16. The time of the great day of His wrath is the Great Tribulation and Paul says here…put on that breastplate of faith and love and rock that helmet of hope because although we have all fallen short, by the sufficient blood of Jesus, we are appointed (tithemi – He has laid upon us) now unto salvation!

1 Thessalonians 5 Verse 11

•So look up man! Get out of the rut of self and out of the myopic channeled narrow and fail-focused stare upon yourself and your own life and wake up to the times we are living in! The snow is falling! It is accumulating and the rapture is upon us! The world has fundamentally pivoted towards its own demise and the church finds itself in the state of the Laodiceans in Revelation Chapter 3. Our 1s and 0s so we think we are rich. We are the poorest generation that has ever lived, with the richest of all saints in my opinion! And as the living alive people of God, WE should be the ones the world begins to beg for because we are the only ones not moved…