THURSDAY 2nd
1 Thessalonians 1:8-10
NIV (v10) – ‘. . . and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.’
ESV (v10) – ‘. . . and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.’
This letter that Paul has written to the Thessalonian believers, has a few references to the 2nd coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, our verse today, it’s hinted at in 2:12, and mentioned in 3:19, 3:11-13, 4:13-18. 5:9-11, 5:23.
Here in our text today we wait patiently. Jesus said he would come again, and he will.
In breaking this verse down, we see firstly that we are waiting for God’s Son from heaven, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He came the first time from heaven as a babe in Bethlehem to become the means of our salvation, after he had fulfilled his Fathers will he returned to heaven, we know this from Scriptures such as Acts 1:11, Philippians 3:20, at present he is preparing a place for us (John 14:2) and interceding for us (Hebrews 4:14-16), but we wait because we know he will come again, from heaven, a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:28) Secondly, we wait for the one who God raised from the dead, this of course is the same one, the Lord Jesus Christ, but we are reminded that he can come again because although he died and was buried, he rose again, and he lives forever over death to reign, it is because he is a risen, living and conquering Saviour that he can come again to save us, and it is as we see thirdly that he will deliver us from the wrath that is to come. There is going to be a dreadful outpouring of the wrath of God on this earth, we see it in the book of Revelation, see especially chapter 16 that talks about the seven bowls of the wrath of God, but the good news is the Saviour who we are waiting for his going to come and to deliver us from it.
In this letter, Paul twice says ‘encourage one another’ (4:18, 5:11) may we be encouraged again today, with the glorious truth that Jesus is coming again. Are you ready? Are you waiting?