The text this morning is from Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, the second chapter:
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, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. 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. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits 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. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
We’re in the turn; we’re down to the final few weeks of the Church Year, and so our readings also begin to take a definite turn towards the end of all time, when our Lord Jesus will return to this earth to remake all things the way He desires them. This day is a wonderful day, in fact. The Day when our Lord returns is a day we should all long for, for it is the day in which He will make all things right, when He will raise all people from the dead, and when He will bring all those who believe in Him into eternal life. This is the deepest hope of the Christian, and when we take our eyes off this day, we start getting into wonky town, theologically.
That’s what happened to the Thessalonians. Now, Thessalonica, especially in Paul’s day, was a bustling city right on the coast of Greece. Anyone having to go from the east into Europe by land would have to pass through it. It made it a pretty wealthy city, honestly, and it brought a lot of people through it. Unfortunately, some of those people were absolute nitwits when it came to the Scriptures. Some people didn’t know what they were talking about, and others used the Scriptures for their own personal gain. They would come in, find the believers in Jesus, and just start spouting absolute nonsense. One of those nonsense things is something we still deal with today, by the way. They came in and tried to convince the Thessalonians that Jesus has already returned and they missed it.
You remember, maybe 15 years or so ago, a series of books called “Left Behind?” It was all about how Jesus is going to take all the believers out of this world in something called the rapture and make them disappear. When seven years goes by, then Jesus will finally come back after having given the world seven last years to repent and believe in Him. Total hogwash. Dangerous theology. Really awful writing. Oh, but people loved it. It’s an innovation out of what could be a heresy called dispensationalism that NO ONE in the Church believed until it was invented the 1800s. Nowadays, many evangelical churches believe it and they’ve made it so mainstream that it’s assumed that it’s a basic tenet of the Christian faith and it’s dumb and ridiculous. But I’ll hide from y’all how I really feel.
This is similar to what the Thessalonians had been taught by these intruders. Paul had taught among them, and confirmed to them in his first letter to the Thessalonians that when Christ came back to judge the living and the dead, He would come from the heavens with the angels and all of the Church who had gone before. They would come down together from heaven to dwell upon the earth, which would be transformed into its former glory, before sin. All those who were believers in Christ and were living at that time would see this and rise to meet Christ in the air. This actually is a picture of the ancient world, where the king, victorious in battle, would return to his city and the whole city would stream out to meet him and bring him to his kingdom and throne. So, when Paul gives us this picture, Jesus is the victorious king, and we who are alive are those in the city, streaming out of this earth to greet Him as He returns to His kingdom and throne on earth.
Yet, even with this picture, the Thessalonians were so worried that Jesus had returned and they missed it. They didn’t tell the Thessalonians out of any kind of monetary gain but it seems that this was a prideful thing, that they knew better than others, that they knew better than even Paul. But Paul taught the truth: Christ was coming back and the whole world would see it. In our text today, Paul tells them to hold fast to this, even if a letter should seem to come from the hand of Paul himself to contradict that doctrine. Nothing in the world can change the fact that Jesus is coming back; don’t freak out and doubt it. Jesus is coming, and He’s coming soon.
Now, Paul didn’t know when. It could be very, very soon, or it could be eventually. It’s safe to say that the Church has always waited in expectation of Christ coming back, much like a child sits on the garage stoop waiting for the door to open and Dad to drive up in his car from work. You don’t quite know when, but you pray it’s soon. But, before Jesus would return, the rebellion would begin. This really doesn’t mean much more than the idea that Christians will begin to fall away from the faith. Today, we’re like, well, now, right? But, in Paul’s day, you have to remember, it took make sacrifice to be a Christian. You probably gave up your family. You probably gave up your friends. If you were Jewish, you had given up the Temple sacrifices. If you were not Jewish, you gave up all your other gods. It took something to be a Christian, and people were converting left and right because they knew the truth when they heard it. They weren’t purposefully, yet, trying to leave the faith. Now, that would begin not long after Paul, when the persecution of the Christians by Rome would begin in earnest, but that seems to be the first iteration of the rebellion.
The man of lawlessness, well, of course that’s a bit harder. Sometimes, he’s called the antichrist, sometimes the beast. The idea of this man is that he comes from inside the church, teaching a false doctrine that causes others to sin by unbelief along with him. He ultimately is going to be destroyed. Many have been seen to be an antichrist throughout the last 2000 years. Our Lutheran confessions identify the office of the pope, though not necessarily the man himself, but the office, the role, of the pope as the antichrist. We still hold that today, by the way, since the pope requires that all people submit to his authority in order to be saved. He has set himself up in the church to stand against everything else in the world, even God Himself.
However you want to look at it, Paul was clearly talking about something which was coming, not something that had already happened. God was waiting, He was restraining these times from occurring, that the Church may grow in its confession. The time would begin soon, but it was not yet. Soon, the whole Church would see this time begin. But this is what we should remember: the time did already begin. For the Thessalonians, they were looking for it to happen. For us, we look back at its beginning and we see that it is still ongoing. We are currently in the state of rebellion. And the rebellion only ends when Jesus returns, when He unseats the antichrist, when he destroys all evil and makes all things new.
So, one, you haven’t missed Jesus coming, and He’s not coming back in secret. Two, we’re living in tough times and it’s really only ever going to get worse. But, three, and here Paul continues, you have been chosen. The Thessalonians were chosen before you because they lived before you, but you have been chosen in Christ Jesus to be saved. You have been chosen through your sanctification, which is, as you are being made holy you can see that you are chosen in Christ. And you are chosen through your faith in the truth of Jesus Christ. Because of this, we hold fast to what has come before in tradition and in truth, in comfort and in the Gospel, through work and the Word.
What does all this mean? Very simply, you can know that Jesus isn’t forsaking you and He isn’t going to leave you out of the resurrection. You should know this because it’s been told to you through the Word once, twice, and forever. The Word doesn’t change. And if that’s not enough, just look at what you’re doing. Are you being sanctified? That is, are you becoming like and looking more like Jesus? Of course you are. Are you doing good works for your neighbor? Of course you are. Are you doing it to get recognition, or are you doing it because of your faith? If it’s because of faith, and I’m sure it is, then it is just another indicator that you are indeed saved through Christ.
See, this whole passage is about Him, Jesus. He is the one coming back. He is the one who will destroy the rebellion. He is the one who will depose the antichrist. He is the one who will make all things new. He is the one who make sure you don’t miss Him. He is the one who comforts you. He is the one who loves you. He is the one who will make sure you’ve got your work in front of you and that it is accomplished. He is the one. After all, this Jesus is the one who took on your flesh. He is the one who lived perfectly for you. He is the one who died for you. He is the one who gives you all things, even faith leading to salvation. He is the one who rose for you, giving you the promise of everlasting life. He is the one. And that’s all that Paul is saying.
He is the one. Look to Jesus, and through Jesus, to the Father, that you might find your salvation in Him always and forever, never missing out on what He has to offer you. After all, He is coming back, and He is coming back soon. That is our great and certain hope, that He is coming to bring us to Himself forever and ever. Don’t disbelieve, don’t be lead astray, but believe and know. You’re His, and He’s most assuredly looking to that day with great joy and anticipation, just as we do. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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