The Second Coming of Christ: Body, Soul, and Spirit Sanctification

Lord willing, we'll pick it up in 2 Thessalonians next week. But as we close out this five-part series through the book of 1 Thessalonians, it's been on the subject of the Second Coming of Christ. It is a theme that Paul emphasizes throughout this book because he ends each chapter with some reference to the Second Coming. Now, chapter 5, this last chapter is a little different in that he doesn't simply end this chapter with a reference to the Second Coming of Christ. Really, the entirety of this chapter is about the Second Coming of Christ and the importance of our being ready. And so, in a moment, I'm going to read the whole chapter. It's only 28 verses, but I want you to see all that he says about the Second Coming as we close out this book together today. And I want you to notice in particular when we get near the end of the chapter, it's at verse 23 where he talks about body, soul, and spirit. And he's going to mention there in verse 23 how he wants us to be blameless in our body, soul, and spirit until the coming of our Lord. And so, I'm going to focus on that. What does he mean by body, soul, and spirit? What does he mean about being blameless until the Lord comes? And then, after that, I'm going to summarize the chapter with three points about the Second Coming of Christ. So, it's all related. So far, in our study, we've looked at these four chapters and the four things that Paul has emphasized from chapter 1, how we are delivered from God's wrath as it relates to the Second Coming, chapter 2. We have reasons to rejoice. He gave us several reasons in chapter 2. In chapter 3, he exhorts us to love others while we wait for the Lord's return. In chapter 4, he wants us to be ready for the rapture. And then, today, in chapter 5, we're going to be looking here at spirit, soul, and body sanctification. So, I'm going to read again the whole chapter, 28 verses, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, starting at verse 1. Paul writes, "But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape." But you, brethren, notice he's writing to Christians. He's saying, "Brothers, sisters, you are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk or drunk at night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God

did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. That whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly. Comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things. Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil, verse 23. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greed all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read, do all the holy brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with you. Amen. Lord, bless our Bible study now as we study this chapter together. you would be saying to us today. And thank you for your word. Thank you for the Bible. Our hearts break when we know that many churches now don't even teach out of the Bible. But it is your word for us. It is your word for every generation. So speak to our own generation now through the pages of Scripture. And we bless your name. We praise your name. We thank you together in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. In Genesis chapter 1, the Bible tells us that man is created in the image and likeness of God. The word image in Hebrew is selem. It means essential nature. God's essential nature is spirit. Did you know that your essential nature is spirit? It's just that your and my essential nature is housed within a body, within a physical frame. But the body without the spirit is dead. It is the spirit within us that is the real essential nature that gives life to our physical being. Think of it kind of like a glove on a hand. If you take the glove off of the hand, it is lifeless. It just lies there. It has no motion whatsoever. But when the glove is on the hand, then the hand can give it motion, if you will. And that's kind of the concept behind the spirit within the body. Absent the spirit, the body is just lifeless. But the spirit is the real essence of our nature because we are created in the image, selem, of God.

We're also created in his likeness. It is a different Hebrew word. It is demuth. And his likeness has to do with his character, his qualities, the capacity to have relationship. And so God, when he breathed life into man, he gave us the capacity to have relationship with him. That's demuth, likeness. And he created us in the same essential nature as he has, selem, spirit. And thus, when you look at the human being, every individual person created in the image and likeness of God has been created in this type of triune being where we are, as Paul mentions here in verse 23, three parts. We are body, soul, and spirit. And in that way, we actually mirror the trinity of God. My pastor Chuck would always say that man is the inferior trinity. God, of course, is the superior trinity. But we bear that similarity in that God is one God who reveals himself in three persons, father, son, and holy spirit. You are one being, but God has created you with body, soul, and spirit. And so we are created in the image and likeness of God. And this is what we call a tripartite nature to our human existence. Now, in practical terms, I'm going to break it down for us so that we understand biblically what does it mean that we are body, soul, and spirit. When we talk about the body, we're talking about having world consciousness, having an awareness around us. It is the physical tent or vessel that allows humans to interact with the material world through the five senses. And there are certain physiological needs that our body has in order to survive, air, food, water, shelter, sleep. So that's the body, the physical material aspect, the part of our lives that we can actually feel and touch. And it's that part that experiences our world. But we need certain things in order for this body to survive, like air, food, water, shelter, and sleep. But the body is different from the soul. The soul is self-consciousness. It is the center of human personality. Intellect, thoughts, will, and emotions. It is the part of us that reasons and processes choices and feelings. And there are emotional needs that the soul has to love and to be loved. The need for connection and closeness, the need for meaning and purpose. This is sukei in the Greek, the soul, the sukei. Now, you know, psychology, the word is the study of the Sukkai, the study of the soul. And someone who's gifted at it, particularly if they are a Christian,

they can understand things in terms of the way that God has created us with this soul that is the seat of or the center of human emotion and personality and thought and reason and will. And then the third part of our being is the spirit. This is the real essential nature of who we are. And this is the God consciousness part. It's the deepest and it's the eternal part of a person's being and the spirit has a need to commune and connect with God. So this is every single person, body, soul and spirit. John 4 verse 24, Jesus said that God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. The only way you can really commune and connect with God is by the spirit within an individual. But until and unless a person comes into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, his or her spirit is dormant. It's there, but it's dead. It does not commune and connect with God. So therefore a person who is not born again, who does not have a relationship with Jesus, through faith in what Christ did on the cross, that third part, the spirit is dormant, it is dead, but it doesn't have a consciousness of God in the sense of communing and connecting with Him. So therefore it's only the first two aspects of the human life that a non-believer is engaged with, body, world consciousness and soul, self-consciousness. But without a spirit that has been made alive, they have no real God consciousness,

they have no God connection, no communing with God. But when you accept Christ by faith, his spirit comes into your spirit and gives life to that which was dormant or dead. And this is what Paul would write in Colossians 2.13. He said, "You being dead in your trespasses "and the uncircumcision of your flesh, "Jesus, He has made alive, together with Him, "having forgiven you all your trespasses." So the Bible talks about this. The Bible talks about how you come into faith with Jesus Christ, and there's that part of you that was dead, it was just dormant, it was just lying there. It was part of your creation, but it had no real life until you accept Jesus, then his spirit comes within your spirit, gives life to that which was dead, and now you communing and connect with God in a way that well, you were only perhaps aware of Him, but not really engaged in relationship with Him. And now, having his spirit within us that gives life to our spirit, we have the capacity to commune and connect with Him. And the question becomes to every single one of us who professes to be a believer in Jesus Christ, are you doing that? Because it's one thing to say that we have the capacity to commune and connect with God, but it is another thing to say that we are actually doing that.

And how do we commune and connect with God? There are three simple ways that we can commune and connect with God. We've done one already through worship. We're doing another one right now through the word, and another simple way is through prayer. Through worship, the word, and prayer, we can have regular communion and connection with God. And we can listen, and we can hear, and we can receive. So it flows both ways. But if you look here at verse 23 again, as it relates to all this, body, soul, and spirit, Paul tells us in this passage in verse 23 that we should be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Meaning that what he tells us is, as we get closer to the second coming of Christ, we need to be living in holiness, body, soul, and spirit. This is whole life holiness, whole life holiness, because it's all three, it's body, soul, and spirit. It's not just what you do with your body. It's not just the things that we do physically. That's what we mostly think of when we think about sin issues, how we sin physically. But the challenge is also to be pure in our soul, to be pure in our spirit as well. And our soul, since it is the seat of emotion and the seat of reason, and the seat of our will, and our mind, and our thoughts, then the question becomes, what are we dumping

into our thoughts? Because a lot of times we're injuring our soul, is what we do with our bodies. But you have to also think about what are you doing with your minds? What are you putting into your soul? What are you feeding your soul? And when it comes to your spirit, how are you feeding your spirit? What are some of the spiritual things? You know, there are some demonic spiritual things in our world. And there are some demonic spiritual practices in our world. We have to guard against sinful things, body, soul and spirit so that as he says in verse 23, we can be blameless, that doesn't mean we're perfect, it means without accusation because we're living a life that is pure and honorable before the Lord in all three ways, body, soul and spirit. But here's the challenge with this everybody. And I think most of us understand this at least intuitively, but just to kind of put it out there. The challenge is, you see, that of the three parts, body, soul and spirit, it is our body that always wants to dominate. And the Bible refers to our body often as the flesh and how the flesh is at war with the spirit. There's a war internally within our three parts. The soul and the spirit are intertwined with the body,

but the soul and the spirit being intertwined must be protected. And yet the world's basic emphasis is on the body, not on the soul and the spirit. And our body is constantly wanting to dominate our soul and our spirit. Paul would write in Galatians 5, 16 and 17. He says, so I say, live by the spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature or of the flesh, of the body, for the sinful nature, the body desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. Paul just spells it right out there in Galatians 5. And so the challenge for all of us is learning to feed your spirit and to exercise your spirit so that it will be stronger than your body. That's what the Bible teaches. It's like give time and emphasis to feed and strengthen your spirit so that your spirit will be dominant the most dominant part of your life. But this is a challenge because everything else we are taught and the basic thing that we focus on is what we see in the mirror. And so we go, oh, I gotta take care of my body. I gotta eat right, I gotta exercise, I gotta groom it. I gotta exercise it, I gotta take care of it, I gotta wash it, I gotta clean it.

I gotta eat right, I gotta make all these choices all around the body. Nothing wrong with eating healthy, getting rest, taking vitamins, moisturizing it, washing it, grooming it. Nothing wrong with that except that if you are living to improve your body more than your spirit, guess which one will be dominant in your life. This is why Paul writes, this is what I call a chuckle-voi-verse because people like chuckle at this verse, but this is why he writes this to Timothy and Paul wrote in 1st Timothy 4-8, "For physical training is of some value." See all the gym rats hate that verse. Physical training or physical exercise is of some value, but godliness has value for all things holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. Why does Paul say that? He's saying because if all you're doing is exercising and feeding your body, your body's gonna be dominant. He says the thing that has the most impact on your life now and the life to come is by strengthening and training the spirit. To be more dominant over the flesh, over your mind 'cause sometimes our feelings are not reliable even though they're real, they're not to be trusted. So therefore the spirit is that aspect of our lives that we have to really feed and grow and exercise. Now think about it, think about it for a moment. How much victory over sin could we have in our lives? If we gave our spirit half the time that we gave attention to our bodies

in terms of strengthening and feeding it. I mean just think about that for a moment. Just, I'm gonna throw a random number out there. Think about how much time the average person. I didn't look this up, I'm just making up a number but I think it's probably safe to say. Think about how much time the average person spends grooming your body, exercising your body and sitting down for three minutes. Let's just say two hours a day, okay? Three meals, exercising, grooming, all of that. Two hours. I think that's safe to say, that's a minimum, all right? What if we spent just half of that strengthening and feeding our spirit? How much time do we spend strengthening and feeding our spirit? And then we wonder why we fall into temptation? Because we're making the body the most dominant thing. We're investing the most time, effort, and energy into the physical part of our being and that's not even the essential nature of who we are. And then we fall into sin and we're like, what's wrong? You know, why am I always falling into sin? Well, how much time are you giving to feed the spirit and to strengthen your spirit, to exercise the things of your spirit? 'Cause if we just spent half the time, do you remember in the Gartenagussemane when Jesus was there praying in agony

before he was crucified? And the Bible says that he goes off a little further from his disciples and he prays. And he does it three different times. This is when the Gospel of Luke says that under such agony, he perspires droplets of blood. The capillaries in his forehead break under such anxiety. It's called homodidrosis. It's an actual physical thing that can happen medically. When we get under such intense agony, we can break the little capillaries in our brow and it mingled with sweat and he perspired droplets of blood. And he goes back to his disciples and he finds them sleeping. And here he is praying in agony and he finds them sleeping. And he says in Matthew 26, verse 40 and 41, he says, "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" He says, "For the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." He's talking about our own tripartite being, body, soul and spirit. There's a spirit is willing, like we have good intentions, but our body, our physical body is weak. We have to feed it, it needs sleep. And it often becomes the dominant part of our lives that we give into. And Jesus was pleading with his own disciples saying, "Could you not pray with me for one hour?" One hour? Now, look, I don't think Jesus is being legalistic there. I don't think the takeaway is that one hour

is the magical number. I'm just giving an example of like, if we spend two hours grooming, exercising and feeding our flesh, what if we spent just half of that? And then I'm just giving this example out of Matthew 26 where Jesus mentions an hour. I don't think there's a magical number. You know what I've come to realize in my life? The more that my body, my flesh wants to become dominant, it requires more time in the spirit. It might be two hours. Some days you might be able to get by with 30 minutes. I don't know. I'm not legislating this in terms of a quantity of time. But all I'm saying is that the Bible tells us if you want to have victory over the body, over the flesh, you better be feeding your spirit, at least as much as you're feeding your body. We have to be people who are seeking the Lord and laying down our lives and dying to self and spending time in His Word and praying and seeking His face. Because in order for us to be blameless, body, soul and spirit, when Jesus comes, we must be intentional about feeding and strengthening our spirit. And because all three are intertwined, when your spirit is dominant, it has a wonderful positive effect on your body and on your mind. Look, your mind becomes more at rest in peace

when your spirit is strong and your body is healthier when your spirit is strong. Even in Proverbs 14, verse 30, it says, "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. A heart at peace, like when my spirit is right with God." The benefit is it gives peace and life to my physical body. But see, envy rots the bones in that verse, like there are detrimental effects when the flesh is dominant, like envy. And there are wonderful benefits when the spirit is dominant, it gives rest and peace to my body, to my life. So what happens, let's shift a little bit here, what happens to your body, soul and spirit when you die? Answer is, your body goes back into the ground. This is all assuming that we die before Jesus returns, okay? If you die before Jesus returns, Genesis 3 19 God said by the sweat of your brow You will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken for dust you are and a dust you will return And that is true. We know it scientifically the human body is the same chemical elements as dirt Basically your human body is about 15 chemical elements the three most Prevalent elements are oxygen carbon and hydrogen and then there's about a dozen other trace elements But we are dirt we will return to dirt in fact the word human in our English language is from the Latin word humus Which means ground or soil? We are dirt I Know turn to the one next to you Say hello dirt clod The men are a little dirtier than the ladies, but we're still dirt. We're all dirt When Christ returns we all get a glorified body though. That's the good news

those who have Pre-deceased the second coming of Jesus. We'll get their glorified body first We who are alive and remain is what Paul says in chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians will be caught up together with the Lord to meet the Lord in the air Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15. We shall not all die But we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet So at the second coming of Jesus when he comes to take the church The dead in Christ Christians who have already gone before us they get their glorified body Whether it's been cremated whether it's been buried or scattered at sea God pulls all those atoms together recreates a glorified body much like what Jesus had reunites it with the soul and spirit and Then we are alive and remain we don't even have to experience death in the second coming of Christ We got a glorified body on the way up. So you'll either get it because it'll come up out of the ground or you'll get it on the way up But Philippians 3 20 and 21 tells us Paul writes But our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there the Lord Jesus Christ Who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body So we will all get a glorified body, but if we die before he returns Our body just goes back to dust in the ground What about our soul and spirit? Okay, check this out our soul and spirit is very intertwined in fact in the Bible sometimes it's used interchangeably Sometimes the Bible says soul. Sometimes it says spirit. Sometimes it says soul and spirit It's often used interchangeably because the spirit being the real essence of who we are Retains that soul part of our lives so that we retain an Understanding of things only when we're with the Lord we have a greater understanding because Paul would write that in 1 Corinthians 13 Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully even as I'm fully known So you still retain what you know It'll even be at a greater capacity when you're with the Lord But all that mind will emotion thought reason that stays intertwined with your spirit And if you are a Christian and you die and your body goes into the ground before Christ returns your spirit and your soul intertwined go immediately to be with the Lord That's where your loved ones are right now who know Jesus their spirit and their soul is with the Lord They'll get their glorified body

Which will be reunited with their spirit and soul But that's what happens when we die to be absent from the body Paul says to the church in Corinth is to be present with the Lord Do not believe what Jehovah's Witnesses tell you that when you die, you're put into the ground It's called soul sleep and you only come to life when Jesus comes again Paul tells us clearly that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord your soul and spirit goes to be with Jesus in heaven, but that's the good news Here's the harsh reality that is not the good news if you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior The same is not true for you your body goes into the ground But your soul and spirit goes into hell where it is eternally separated from the Lord Where the Bible describes hell as outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth It describes it as a place of complete separation and isolation from the Lord and a place of eternal punishment and suffering Now I can't give you the good news without giving you the bad news But here's even better news upon that nobody has to suffer in hell nobody Because this is why Jesus dies on a cross so that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Do you understand that God wants none to perish? Why do you think he sent us on Jesus dying across because he doesn't want anyone to go to hell when people say I can't trust a loving God who would send people to help they don't understand their theology the reality is we are all destined for hell already because of our own sinful condition. It is not God who sends us there. It is we who go there because in our sinful state we have rebelled against God, but the good news is God put in motion a plan to rescue us and no one has to go there. You could choose to go there, but no one has to. It's like the whole scene of Noah and the ark. God sent this ark to rescue as many people, but unfortunately it was only Noah and his family. Everybody else mocked God, decided we don't need to be rescued, and they suffered the consequences for it. People are no different today, everybody. You have to make a choice that you receive the love of Christ demonstrated on a cross, surrender your life to his lordship, and then by choosing him you can be saved and your sins forgiven. No one has to go to hell. That becomes a personal choice.

I'm going to end with three quick things from this chapter that remind us about the Second Coming. For you note-takers, write quickly. Number one, the Second Coming of Christ, it will be sudden. Right here in this chapter, verses two and three, tell us, for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. That's verse two. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. This is not the only place where the Second Coming of Christ is compared to a thief in the night. Jesus said so about his Second Coming in Matthew 24, 43. Peter said it in 2 Peter 3, 10. John said it in Revelation 16, 15. Four times in the New Testament the Bible speaks about how Jesus comes like a thief in the night, meaning very suddenly, very suddenly. But also, number two, the Second Coming of Christ will be surprising to non-believers, but not to believers. This is verses four through eight. He says, but you brethren, again, notice he's addressing believers. Believers are not in darkness, so that this day, capital D, the return of Christ, should overtake you, or the NIV says, should surprise you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk at night, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. What's the charge here? The charge here is we have to be watching. We have to be sober. We have to be looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ.

But that's why the church will not be surprised because we are looking forward to the Second Coming. Only non-believers will be surprised. What is this Second Coming? That's why it's incumbent upon us to tell as many people about Jesus coming again. So that they won't be surprised either. But the charge to us here is, listen, Christians, live like people of the day. Step into the light. Don't live like people of the darkness or of the night. They do things that are sinful because that's their nature. And they don't know Christ. Before you came to know Christ, you did stuff that was just common nature until you come into a relationship with Christ and then his spirit comes into your spirit and now you have a whole new perspective and conviction about things and an awareness about stuff. And so he says, don't be living like people of the night. You are people of the light. So live like people of the day. Be watching, be sober, be looking forward to a Second Coming. And finally, number three, the Second Coming of Christ will bring suffering to non-believers but not to believers. This is something we need to understand out of verses 9, 10, and 11 where he says, for God did not appoint us, that's believers, to wrath. And IV says, to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Like I think wrath is meant here in terms of the coming wrath of the tribulation. But I think in the bigger picture it means the wrath of God which is punishment for sin. Because God is just, he must punish sin. The wrath of God is coming upon the earth, but it's for those who do not believe. You see, when Jesus dies on the cross, he's assumed the wrath intended for us. So if we trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are sheltered from God's wrath because Jesus took it for us. It is only when you reject Jesus that you can no longer benefit from the shelter because

you were outside of Jesus having rejected him and thus subject yourself now to the wrath of God. all who were in Christ have been forgiven and the wrath intended was placed on Jesus, so that through faith in Him and what He did on that cross, we can be forgiven and free, and given the hope and the promise of eternal life, trusting Him as our Lord and Savior. Look everybody, you're either gonna die or you're gonna be here when Jesus comes again. I don't know which is gonna happen, but at that point, it will be too late. Like, make a decision for Christ now. Trust Him as Lord and Savior now. While you know, be forgiven. Receive Him as your Lord and Savior. Trust Him today. Pray with me. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. We look forward to the imminent return of Jesus, and we wanna be found blameless in body, soul, and spirit. And for those who don't know you today, I pray, God, that they would open their heart and trust you as Lord and Savior. They would just simply surrender their lives and humble themselves and say, "Jesus, I need you today. Forgive me of my sins and come into my life.

Breathe life into my spirit, by your spirit. Make me a new person. I surrender to your Lordship today. By faith, we accept you, Lord, and we thank you that you died on that cross so that no one has to perish, but all can be forgiven. As many as received you to them that believed on your name, you gave the right to become children of God. So we love you, Lord, and we thank you for that eternal promise. And we give you praise and thanks in Jesus' name. And everybody said, "Amen, and amen." (congregation applauding) [BLANK_AUDIO]