Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 2:
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed… For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God…But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
As we keep getting nearer and nearer to the end of the Church year, the focus of our Scriptures keeps pointing us closer and closer to the end of all things, that time when our Lord Jesus Christ will return, resurrect us, and recreate this world for all of God’s chosen people. It is right that we continue to look to this latter day, for indeed, each day that we live is drawing closer and closer to that day.
But, concerning that day, Jesus says that no man, not even He, the Son of Man, knows that date or that hour. We don’t know when Jesus is coming back. We expect it, and we expect it soon. Just as we have been expecting it soon for the last 2000 years. He could come back in the next 5 minutes, 5 days, or 5 million years. Jesus will come back, but we do not know when. The Apostles had assumed it would be before they all died. But, instead, they all, except for John, were horrifically martyred for their faith. The Church Fathers all thought it would be before Rome fell, but instead they were fed into the mouths of hungry lions and burned at the stake. Some in the middle ages assumed it would be soon since Luther had finally brought the Gospel back to the world, but instead, they lived in a fractured Church, which, more and more, began to preach the same quote-unquote gospel that the Roman Catholics were preaching, which is not a Gospel at all but the Law.
But this is a good thing to assume, that Jesus is coming back soon. None of them were wrong for thinking that Christ would come back soon. In fact, it may have even served to motivate them well in order that they would preach the Gospel, administer the Sacraments, and live out their vocations towards their neighbors even better than they would have otherwise.
The thought that Jesus is coming back soon is a good one and it is one that we in our self- and sin- obsessed, American mindset have forgotten. We too often forget that we should be expecting our Bridegroom to come back at any moment, and we should be prepared lest He shut us out and say to us, “Depart, I don’t know you or where you come from.” We should always be ready for Him to come back, and we should always be prepared. This means to cast off our sin, and be forgiven and made holy by Christ’s Word and Sacraments. But we don’t always do this, instead we stick to our own sins and self-made obstacles to Christ.
For we can also err, we sin, when we try to interpret when Jesus will come back or we put our trust in those who do. Jesus has already told us, none, but the Father in heaven, knows the day or the hour. Not John Hagee, not Harold Camping, not Nostradamus, nor any man or woman who claims to know when the end will be. They all get to their conclusion by the same method: they make stuff up. They make it up to get you to listen to them, and to trust them.
And the Thessalonians were dealing with the same issue in today’s text. Except that people were coming into their church saying that Christ had already come back and had already taken all His chosen ones from this place into their eternal rest. This is a major issue. They were totally and completely freaked out about what was already happening in their world. They saw their entire world and realized how pointless it would be without Christ. And now the whole thing, their whole faith, their whole trust in Christ was upset.
People were telling them that Christ has returned and HE HADN’T TAKEN THEM. Imagine what that would mean. It means they aren’t real Christians. It means that Christ doesn’t love them. It means that they are stuck in this sinful world for eternity. They despaired and lost hope.
Now, we don’t have anyone, at least no one very popular, who is claiming this today, that Christ has already come back into this world to save sinners, but left us here. And that’s good. But we do have people in this world who are teaching that bad theology, like the rapture, like the health and wealth prosperity theology, like not to trust the Word, like you must work for your salvation, they are teaching that bad theology as if it were Gospel truth. It's not.
And ultimately, this is what Paul is dealing with in his letter to the Thessalonians. He must correct their bad doctrine. See, doctrine matters. It matters what you believe, and it matters why you believe it. When Paul was with the Thessalonians, he taught them everything he knew about Jesus Christ and how Jesus redeemed them and the whole world. When Paul was with them, he answered all their questions and entertained every thought that came up, testing it against the Scriptures to see if indeed it was true or not. But Paul has been gone an awful long time, it seems. And false teachers moved into the church, preaching a different gospel, a different understanding of the one true faith in Christ Jesus. And THAT, my friends, is INDEED the same as today.
False teachers have infected our church. They are everywhere. They come from within the Church, men and women as we’ve already mentioned, but they also come from outside the Church. We let them in, and they infect us. They are like a virus piercing the cell walls, they are like a soldier sneaking over the wall and invading the city, opening the gates to let the hordes in. False teachers want nothing more than to take your eyes off of Christ and point you to any other sign other than the cross. False teachers are sent by Satan to destroy you, to destroy us. False teachers will wreck your faith.
And this is what was happening to the Thessalonians. False teachers had infected their church, leading them away from faith in Christ. But, Paul heard about it, and so, he sent them this letter, clearing away the false teacher’s fog and pointing them back to the clear appearance of the Christ. After all, he says, he had taught them these things before and desires that they should remember all of what he gave them. But Paul doesn’t kick them while they are down, instead he reminds them of Christ.
The Day of the Lord, Paul says, will not come until the man of lawlessness is revealed. The man of lawlessness is that person, that thing, that sets itself up in the Church, demanding you listen to him, so that, instead of looking to Christ, you look to this man to be saved. No wonder the Lutheran confessors looked to the office of the Pope as the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, when he says you must place yourself under his headship in order to be saved into everlasting life. And moreover, when the Pope preaches his quote-unquote gospel of faith plus works equals salvation.
Now, I don’t want to spend the whole morning railing on Roman Catholic theologies, so I won’t. But I bring these up so you can see that we continue to deal with these things in our own churches. We have not outgrown the man of lawlessness, and we have not outgrown the coming of Christ. There will always be men and women in our churches who set themselves up as little popes, demanding submission to them and their false gospels in order that they might rule the Church. They will be here until Christ comes back. These men and women are in America, and they aren’t going away. In fact they are getting worse.
But this is our hope: Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of which I am the worst. And moreover, Christ Jesus gave me gifts in order that I might receive Him and be strengthened in faith. This is what Paul speaks of when talks about the traditions that were taught by the Apostles. The traditions are the gifts of Christ!
Christ gives you the gift of the preaching of His Word. When you hear the Word proclaimed from this pulpit and read from the lectern, realize that these are gifts the Lord gives to you to strengthen you and preserve you. Test all that you hear in this world to the words you hear here, and test the words you hear here from me to the Word itself. This is God’s gift to you. False teachers? Test them. See if what they are saying is true. If they are false, they along with their doctrines are destroyed with the breath of Christ, the very Word of God, the Word that comes and says, “THEY ARE MINE, YOU MAY NOT HAVE THEM, YOU MAY NOT EVERY HAVE THEM, THEY ARE FORGIVEN!” Never listen with an open mind, but listen with an open Bible.
And Christ has also given you the gift of Baptism. You are baptized. You are God’s child and this will not stop. He has washed you in the regeneration and renewal of the body, wiping your sins away from you forever.
And Christ has also given to you the gift of His flesh and blood in the Lord’s Supper. You eat and drink Him. You receive His crucified and risen body and blood on your tongues and in your bellies. This preserves you unto everlasting life.
And Christ has given you the gift of His absolution, his forgiveness. When I forgive you, Christ forgives you. When you confess your sins, Christ forgives you and wipes away those tears of guilt. You no longer need to fear your sinful state, but look to the one who took the punishment for you on the Cross.
And Christ has given you His sure and certain promise that when you hear Him, when you are washed, when you eat and drink, when all these things happen, you are His. Do not let ANYONE or ANYTHING steal you away from the promise of Christ. As long as the Church is proclaiming the Lord’s Gospel and administering His sacraments, Christ has not yet come. We will continue to do these things until the Lord comes in His glory. We will continue to reach into the world and proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Then all flesh will seem Him together. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Christ is Lord of all. And of that day, no one will have seen it coming.
We expect the Lord to come, and to come soon. But even if he should not come on my own timetable, the Lord has promised that as He washes you in His Word and Sacrament, He shall deliver and preserve you unto that Last Day, the day of His final advent. For you shall see, that on that Last Day, Christ has preserved you and saved you unto everlasting life. That means that you are real Christians. It means that Christ loves you dearly. It means that you are no longer stuck in this sinful world, but are brought into eternal bliss with Him. It means there is no more despair and hope. It means that Christ has done just exactly as He has promised in His Word and Sacrament. Keep the faith, for the Lord is already keeping you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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