It was a normal night's choir practice a few years ago and I began as I always did by going over some of the songs that we had learned the week before and then moved on to some new material. As the choir had grown I adopted the practice of having them repeat the words in rhythm so that everyone pronounced and approached the lyrics the same way. We were learning a song called "Any Day" that was about Jesus Christ's return for His church that is yet to happen. They had already learned to say and sing the chorus:

And so without pausing I began to recite them the words to the next part of the song:

To which one man raised his hand and interrupted choir with an incredulous look on his face and the words "I can't believe that we're singing this song!" "Isn't it sort of disrespectful to call Jesus a thief?" To which I smiled and said "but it's scripture. Over and over again the Bible tells us that He's coming back as a thief." And to prove my point, I had to show him the verses, because he wasn't going to sing such a thing unless he saw it himself!

As strange as it may sound, that part of the song was a direct reference to several scriptures. We think "thief" and we think about the devil or some evil person. And that is natural for the normal connotation of the word. Jesus, Himself, said in contrasting the works of evil versus what He had come to do:

It is clear that in this scripture, it is the devil that is the thief. Satan would like you to think of this verse as the other way around. He would like to make you think that Jesus comes to rob you of freedom and he is the one whose ways to live are liberty, but in reality the devil comes to "steal, kill, and destroy." He wants to steal your joy; kill your future; destroy your family. And it is really Jesus who comes to bring life in those areas and every other area and life "more abundantly!"

Other scriptures refer to Judas Iscariot as a "thief" and that he criticized the woman who poured the alabaster box on Jesus for her "waste" not because he really cared for the poor but that had the box of perfumed ointment been sold, the money would have gone in the treasury giving him an opportunity to steal it. In every sense of the word, Judas Iscariot was a "thief." And Peter used the word in the full sense when he talked about how that a Christian should never have to be accused or even thought of as a "thief" (1 Peter 4:15). Of course, "thou shalt not steal" is one of the first commandments given to Moses and stealing is a sin that will keep you out of heaven, if you do not repent of it and change your behavior.

The most famous instance of thieves are of course the two that were crucified with Jesus at Calvary and a quick study of Roman history reveals that thieves were so hated that habitual thievery was usually punished by crucifixion. The men hanging on the cross to each side may have stolen things that did not belong to them all of their lives, but the man in the middle was not a thief. In fact, He had never done anything wrong or sinful and was the only man able to die as the spotless, blemishless, Lamb of God. Because He did not need to die for His own sins, Jesus Christ's death made atonement or is able to be transferred to "pay the price" for our sin, if we follow the plan that He made. It's important and it is scriptural: the One in the middle, the Christ, never sinned and that includes sneaking into someone's home and stealing something that didn't belong to Him.

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Understanding all of this, it's understandable why my new convert in choir that night was shocked to find out that we were going to sing of Jesus Christ as a thief and that it was scripture that we got the idea from! But scripture it is. In fact, the word "thief" is used 15 times in the New Testament and 10 (!) of those times are in reference to Jesus Christ. When they were coming to arrest Jesus, He asked the soldiers "why the swords, have you come to arrest me as a thief?" They didn't answer, but the question is obvious: Jesus Christ had never stolen anything in His life and they were coming to arrest to Jesus because they rejected His claims to being God in flesh, the Messiah!

But listen to some other scriptures:

Jesus is speaking and He says "behold, I come as a thief!" Earlier in the same book, He said:

In our text we read Jesus' words about His own coming:

Which is the passage that Peter quoted:

And also that Paul in our other text quoted:

Jesus Christ represented by a thief! It's certainly a strange analogy and one that would have never been used except it was Jesus, Himself, that coined the phrase. Most people who have been in the church a while have at least heard the phrase and yet few have ever really contemplated what is meant. This week I had a little fun and asked some of my fellow ministers throughout the week about it. I would call them or they would have called me for some other reason and then I'd sort of pop it on them "hey, when the scripture likens Jesus Christ to coming back as a thief in the night, what exactly does that mean?" Over and over again, I got "well, uh, I don't really know, never really thought about it, what do you think?" Comparing the coming of the sinless one to a common criminal is really a remarkable thought isn't it!

The key to understanding these references, though, is that they don't say that "Jesus Christ is a thief." But rather they say that "He's coming back AS a thief in the night." Every reference is talking about the return of Christ for His saints! It's talking about the Rapture of the Church! It's referring to the time when Jesus Christ will come back for those who have been washed in His blood and filled with His Spirit and who have been living as He has commanded them! When Jesus Christ left the earth the first time after His earthly ministry, the scriptures say that He ascended slowly into the clouds until He disappeared from view in the clouds and as the disciples stood gazing into the empty sky where He had gone, two angels appeared to them and told them "why are you standing here like idiots gazing up into the sky, this same Jesus will return in like manner just as you have seen Him go" (Acts 1)! Jesus, Himself, had told the disciples that:

And so those promises, that Jesus Christ would return just as He had left and this time to gather together the faithful followers to take to a better place, became the most important teachings of the Early Church. They lived every day in hope that today might be the day that Jesus Christ came back!

And that promise still applies to you and I today! It's been a few thousand years and Christ has tarried His return, but that just means that we are closer than we ever have been before! Jesus Christ really is coming back! If you believe that He came the first time, then you must also believe that He will come the second. He is not dead but is alive evermore and there is coming a day when He will reappear in the clouds and gather together His faithful children! Our bodies will be changed and we will be given a body free of defects and sickness that will never grow old and that will never die! We will fly away to meet Him in the air and go to be with Him in the place that He has prepared for us! It's more than just a plot dreamed up by Hollywood. It's more than a song or dance. It's more than a fable or superstition, but the One who cannot lie has promised that He WILL come again! And that means that Jesus Christ will come just as He said He would! I believe it because the Word says it! Jesus Christ will come again and we who have our being and living in Him will fly away to meet Him! I not only believe it but I'm looking forward to that day. No more sickness; no more tears; no more work; no more bad days! Forever with Jesus Christ! I believe that He's coming back! Like one old preacher said: "call me crazy, call me nuts, call me what you want to, but when He comes back call me gone!" Jesus Christ is coming back!

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Not only has He said that He's coming back, but He told us how that He was coming back. He's coming back "as a thief in the night." Let me answer my own question of this week and perhaps explain to you somewhat what that means.

1. It means that He'll come when most are asleep.

"As a thief in the night." Most robberies occur in the middle of the night, the wee hours of the morning because there is less chance of detection when most people are asleep. The natural thief doesn't come at lunch when dinner is being served and everybody's up. He waits until most are zonked before he makes his stealthy approach to the home.

We don't know the day or the hour that Jesus Christ will come back, but I don't think that it will be on Easter Sunday when even the heathens go to church. I've heard people leave a red-hot Sunday night service in a time when the church was in great revival and say something like "I hope that Jesus comes back right after a service like that one!" For many people's sake I agree with them, but yet, I don't think that He'll come back after a red-hot Sunday night service. That's when people are expecting Him. My father used to say that Jesus will probably come back on Super Bowl Sunday. Bro. Wallace used to say that he thought Jesus would probably come during a church prayer meeting. I don't know if that will be that way or not, but I do know that the scriptures say that He'll come "as a thief in the night." It will be at a time when you least expect it. It will be in a dark season. It will be in a time when most people are "sleeping!" That doesn't mean after literal sundown but in a spiritual time when the people who choose to live on the fringes are not "on fire" for God! Paul wrote:

He's not talking about a physical sleep; you need your beauty rest. He's talking about becoming lethargic spiritually. He's talking about a time when you grow complacent in God. A time when the fire no longer burns as bright as it once did.

In the old Christian classic novel, Pilgrim's Progress, we find the hero named "Christian" having to face some great perils such as times of fighting for his life and the "Hill of Difficulty." But the greatest danger comes when he is faced with the beautiful garden called "Slothful's Friend." It looks beautiful and peaceful and a place to "take a break" for a while but when pilgrims on their way to heaven stop there, they fall asleep and are easy prey for the enemy of their soul. The monsters didn't get them. The perils and the valleys didn't get them, but falling asleep did.

It's human nature that when we are going through a battle or a "low time" we seek God with a renewed vigor and passion. When we have nothing but God to turn to, we tend to turn to Him and trust Him completely. But the greatest danger comes when everything seems to be going alright. When you have a good week and you're not broke and the valley seems far behind. The tendency then is to slack off. To take a break from spiritual activity. To "rest up." Or to put it as the scriptures say "fall asleep!"

Every church goes through seasons of awakening and sleep. You will hit a time of revival when it seems that even those on the fringes of commitment are stirred by the Holy Ghost and excited with a fresh passion. We all know what it's like to go through a revival season where some that we had thought had "gone to sleep" suddenly awaken and blaze with the Holy Ghost. But somehow I don't think that Jesus Christ is going to come back during such a season. I think that He'll come back at a time where only those who are really determined to make it spiritually are awake. Only those who are truly committed are on fire. Only those who have bothered to discipline themselves into a prayer life will be aware of His return. At a time when most are "asleep." That's a sobering thought isn't it? But remember: He's coming back as a thief in the night!

"As a thief in the night." What else does that mean?

2. It means that those who are caught unawares at His coming will be distraught!

If you've ever experienced a "break-in" in the natural, you know what a sinking feeling to know that sometime during the night, someone entered into your life and now something that was always there is missing! Once during a wedding reception in San Antonio, the bride and groom didn't have anybody to get their presents for them and couldn't take them with them on their honeymoon, so my wife and I agreed to load our car down with their gifts and drop them off at the bride's mother's house. Before we did that we had to go back to the church and get things ready for a service the next day. As we were inside the church cleaning it up, someone broke the window to our car and stole all of the wedding presents of the newly-married couple. It's a sick feeling to find that a thief has come and you were unaware. It sort of feels as if you have been punched in the gut.

Despite the "badness" of our personal experience, those feeling cannot even compare to the person who misses the Rapture of the Church and wakes up in a world where the greatest gift ever given to men, the Holy Ghost, is absent! If you think that a few wedding gifts stolen can make you distraught how about to wake up and find that the gift that could get you to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb has been taken out of the world with all of the saints of God with it!? Whatever you do, you don't want to find out what that feels like! I don't know what the scene will be like when some of the half-committed folks realize that they've been left or when some of the people who said "well that, it's just a little sin" realize that they didn't make it, but I can imagine that it will be quite horrible! There will no doubt be some that rush to church and make coming to church a priority THEN. Perhaps someone will beat the doors and rush to an altar and cry out to God then, not caring what other think. But you see, it will be too late. All the repenting will be in vain. He will already have come to carry His children away. And you missed it because you weren't ready at all times. You missed it because He came "as a thief in the night."

I remember as a seven year old boy taking a nap one afternoon and waking up to find the house empty. I called out my parent's name and they didn't answer. My brother didn't answer. I searched the house frantically all the while with a great fear that the Rapture had taken place and I'd been left rising in my mind. I ran outside by the pool and then to the storage shed and garage -- nobody was in sight. By the time I got to the workshops I was frantic. It's funny now, but I can't begin to describe to you the horror that was alive in my soul as a seven year old child. I knew that if you missed the Rapture that there was not hope and I was about to go crazy. Crying by this time, I ran into the shop and screamed "is there anybody here?" My brother, twelve and a half years older than me, called from the back "what's wrong" I was so far panicking by then that I screamed "I knew you wouldn't make it" and ran out the door!"

This is a true story. I found the church phone list and I thought of the most spiritual person in the church that I knew, Sis Charlene one of my old Sunday School teachers and the lady who with her husband had won my mother and father to God. I called her up, knowing that she was usually home and it just rang and rang and rang. I was about to go bananas when I looked outside and my parents were strolling across the pasture from where they had been the entire time at my cousin's house! When they found out why I was spazzing they laughed and laughed and then I remember my dad saying "well, he's certainly sensitive to the things of God!"

It's been a long time since I've heard of something similar happening. You know why? Because we don't preach and teach about the coming of Jesus Christ as much as we used to. Parents don't teach their kids. For that matter most parents don't live in such a way that they are ready for the coming of the Lord. But we need to get back to that! We need to get back to living as if He was coming back today! That was a healthy fear of God and His return that kept me as I grew up from some things. Because I knew -- "If I do this, just my luck Jesus will come back and I'll be lost." That thought crossed my mind a few times when I was a teenager. We've lost the expectancy of Christ's return in the church today! And we need to get it back!

Think about this. Jesus impressed upon the Apostles that He was coming back SOON! All of the Apostles preached it that His coming back was right around the door. Listen to some scriptures:

And if that wasn't enough, Jesus Christ, Himself, proclaimed in the book of Revelation:

"Behold, I come quickly." And not just once in this book does Jesus give that warning but FOUR times (Revelation 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20)! And yet Jesus knew that He wasn't coming for at least another couple thousand years. Why then, did He impress upon the Early Apostles to preach and live as if He were coming back then? Because God knows that for us to be saved, we've got to be in a state of spiritual awareness. Maybe He hasn't come back in the Flesh yet, but everyday Jesus Christ wants to come in the Spirit and make Himself known in our lives! He wants to talk with us and perform miracles. He wants to be a part of our everyday lives. Every time we come to church, He wants us to come with an expectancy that He will come to us and do something great. He wanted the Early Church and THIS church to live as if "this might be the day" so that we would be in the proper frame of mind to believe and receive all that He has for us today!

And I'll say this: if Jesus Christ considered His return as being "very soon" during the time of the Apostles, then His return is VERY VERY close now! Jesus Christ is coming back! Now is not the time for a generation to slack off. Now is not the time to have a lazy or uncommitted church. Now is not the time to let sin or well-doing rob us of being spiritually awake! Rather, it is high time that we awake out of sleep! Think on it: if you knew without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ was coming back tonight at 10 pm, is there anything in your life that you would want gone? Is there anything that you would want to repent of? Then think on this: how do you know that He's NOT coming back at 10 pm tonight? Or even if the Rapture doesn't take place, how do you know that you will awake in the morning? After all isn't it God that commands you to breathe throughout the night? I'm not trying to scare you, but rather impress upon you that you do not want to know what it will feel like to wake up and have missed the Rapture. Now's the time to get things right with God. Now's the time to get our priorities in order! Get ready now, before He comes "as a thief in the night!"

Thieves do not enter into a place just for the thrill of entering, but they are usually after something valuable! I do not think that Jesus Christ will break His own commandments of "thou shalt not steal" and yet the scriptures say that He's coming "as a thief." The only way that a thief can steal without it being a sin is for him to have purchased something and it rightfully belong to him and he is coming to get what is rightfully his!

We are the treasured valuables for which Jesus Christ is coming back! If the purchase price of something determines it's value, then realize that we are priceless because the price paid on Calvary for our freedom is far beyond anything we could have paid! And when you have been born again, you are "in the world, but not of the world." You are still living in the same body and the same home, but you belong to a heavenly kingdom. We still have to live in a world full of sin, but in reality we belong to the one who purchased us on Calvary. He's coming "as a thief in the night" but He's no thief, and is rather coming back to claim and lay hold of what is rightfully His! I'm glad I belong to Him! And you must belong to Him for Him to take you. If He were to take someone who had not applied His precious blood and Spirit then that would be stealing. And so only those who have had the purchase price of Calvary applied to their lives through obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be taken. Jesus Christ is coming back for His own!

Which brings us to our last point about why He's coming "as a thief in the night:"

4. It means that He wants someone to catch Him.

What thief foretells of his coming and intentions? Only the one who desires to be caught! And yet Jesus plainly has told us that He is coming. Jesus wants someone to be awake and catch Him! That's why Paul wrote in our other text to the church:

What is Paul saying? Jesus Christ wants us to be awake at His coming! He wants us to be expecting Him. He wants us to be ready when He comes. That's why He told us about it ahead of time.

There's a great truth in this and let me show you why. Solomon said in the book of Proverbs a curious statement:

Does not this apply to the One who is coming "as a thief in the night?" He is coming in that manner because He has a hunger and desire for His prized creation to be with Him forever! And notice carefully what the scripture says: "if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold, he shall give all the substance of his house." In those days if a thief was caught, he had to not only restore what he had taken, but if he had any other possessions he had to give them up to the ones who had caught him.

Maybe this is a little of what Jesus was talking about when He said:

Jesus Christ is coming back "as a thief in the night" but He wants to be caught. And to those who are ready and those who are watchful for His return, He will restore sevenfold anything that you've had to sacrifice in living for Him and not only that but "He shall give all the substance of His house!" Think about that!

He owns a cattle on a thousand hills.

He has built us a city where the streets are paved with gold.

He created the universe with all of it's splendor and power.

The jewels and rare gems of this world are the "side effects" of His creation.

He is the holder of eternal life.

And yet all the substance of His house will be mine... IF I'm ready when He comes!

Somebody make up in your mind tonight that you're going to be ready! Somebody make up in your mind that you will give Him everything! Somebody awake out of spiritual slumber and get ready for His return! He's coming back, "as a thief in the night." And I aim to be watching when He gets here!