The Gospel and Deception

The nature and the timing of the second coming of Jesus has been a topic of concern for Christians for nearly 2,000 years.

! Many predictions have happened as well as well as it would happen.

And the most recent prediction was from a South African pastor who claimed in June this year that the rapture, the coming of Jesus, would occur in this past week, if you were not aware, on the 23rd of September.

Although there's been some confusion, it could have been any time between 23rd and 25th of September based on the different time zones and exactly when Jesus would land.

Again, social media exploded.

A thing called Rapture Talk is a corner of TikTok filled with videos of content where people are getting ready for the return of Jesus on the 23rd of September.

A lot of the content is very practical in terms of tips, ensuring that the anticipation of the disappearance of Christians from the world would not leave a mess behind.

Some were selling their cars, others their homes, others quitting jobs or, if not quitting jobs, applying for eternity leave from their employers.

Others were stockpiling survival kits, leaving Bibles marked with key passages.

Others were unlocking their mobile phones so that those left behind could, in fact, use their mobile phone.

There was the inevitable ridicule as well.

One person laments that the rapture, the timing of the rapture was one day before payday.

And so therefore, a whole month of work for no pay.

Others posted that it would make rent more affordable for those who were left behind.

Some even pranked their Christian housemates by leaving piles of clothes randomly on the floor and hiding in the hope that their Christian friends would say,

Oh no, we've missed out and we've got it all wrong.

Now, I find that kind of cheeky.

But I also know that this chapter tells us that for the Thessalonians, the thought of missing the coming of Jesus produced a whole heap of confusion, hysteria and discouragement.

And so this topic, while there's stuff that I've chuckled at in this last week, is crucial.

Quite a lot of ink has been spilled on these verses in 2 Thessalonians 2 over the past 200 years, especially, particularly with the rise of a theology called dispensationalism from the 1830s.

This chapter, according to biblical scholars, is one of the most difficult of the entire New Testament to understand.

And it's done my head in.

And we need to be careful how we interpret it, how we understand it.

And the key to understanding it is to focus on the bits that we know and are certain of, rather than the bits that we want to speculate on.

The ones that we have particular questions of.

And the ones that we think we've got solved.

So it requires a great deal of humility and open hearts.

So I've got three points.

It's on the St. Paul's app as well.

The problem of deception, the power of deception, and disempowering deception.

So the problem, the first thing we can absolutely be certain of is that Paul is writing these verses here so the Thessalonians are not unsettled or alarmed by wrong thinking.

That is, false teaching rocks faith.

It diminishes hope.

And when hope is diminished, Christian lives wander.

There's a lack of purpose to it.

So you see that in the second half of verse 1.

The particular false teaching that has rocked them is in verse 1 concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him.

This, as I said, is a massive topic.

And Paul has already written a bunch about it in 1 Thessalonians 1 and last week in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1.

2 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

Thessalonians says,

That's why he's written.

But for the Thessalonians, as we open up to Thessalonians 2, are their hopes dashed?

You see, verse 3, the false teaching is that maybe they've missed it.

Jesus has already come and they've missed it.

And if they've missed the coming of Jesus, then what awaits them is what they already know of the coming.

It's just purely condemnation by God on the day of judgment.

And so it's no wonder their faith has been rocked.

Deception destroys.

It destroys.

Deception is the act of getting others to believe what is true and valid,

what is in actual fact false and invalid.

Very few people would say that they are easily deceived.

For the Thessalonians, their deception was that they had missed the coming of Jesus.

Often our deception in the West is to so live for the moment that we don't look for the coming of Jesus.

That's more likely our deception.

And the problem is in both deceptions is they call us to take our eyes off eternal hope.

And when that hope, that happens, we stop living for and with Jesus in the present.

And Paul does not want them or us to be deceived.

Verse 3, don't let anyone deceive you in any way.

And so Paul writes this chapter, and in fact, his entire letters here to the Thessalonians,

out of pastoral concern.

He doesn't want hopes to be dashed.

He doesn't want faith and love to be diminished in any way.

And so his goal here in this chapter is not to predict the future.

He wants to see gospel confidence.

That's why these are written.

Hope, faith and love is what's at stake.

And so as we move into this chapter, we must not miss the forest for the trees,

even if the tree is what we particularly want our attention to be attached to.

So the power of deception.

This brings us to the most confusing part of this chapter with all its questions and missing pieces.

It's like we're trying to put a puzzle together without pieces.

Paul says in verse 3 that they haven't missed the second coming Jesus,

because that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed.

And when it comes to the timing of Jesus' arrival, that's all we know.

That's it.

This is where it gets tricky.

Who is the man of lawlessness?

So many people in the Western world, particularly,

their whole focus of this passage is to identify who the man of lawlessness is.

Paul does not give us enough distinguishing features for us to point out the man of lawlessness in a police lineup.

At all.

For 1900 years, Christians have been diligently trying to find a contemporary in their world

that leads us to think that that person there is the candidate.

They fit the bill.

They is the man of lawlessness.

In our current day and age, there seems to be a temperature rising saying Donald Trump is the man of lawlessness.

In the early days of when Paul wrote these, the prime candidate was the Roman emperor,

and in particular, the emperor Caligula, who set up a statue of himself in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem

and demanded that that statue of him be worshipped.

Once upon a time, with the rise of Islam, Muhammad was the prime candidate.

In the 16th and 17th century, Martin Luther identified the role of the pope, the papacy,

as the man of lawlessness.

They returned favour and said, no, actual fact, it was Martin Luther who's the man of lawlessness,

other popular contenders throughout history, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler,

and the list is virtually endless.

Some scholars reading this actually say it's most likely not a person,

it's more likely a movement.

It could be an ideology, even an institution.

The reality is, who knows?

And every prediction has been wrong.

Every prediction has been wrong, without exception.

And verse 6 doesn't clear things up for us either.

It tells us the man of lawlessness is currently being held back.

Who's doing the restraining?

Multiple answers to that question over the centuries.

And to add confusion, the reference to holding back is in the present tense,

suggesting the man of lawlessness, whoever that is,

has been held back for 1,900 years since this was first written.

That's an old person.

Or is it multiple people?

Or is it an institution or an ideology?

It's also difficult to know what the temple is referring to in verse 4.

Scholars have confused about this one.

The temple in Jerusalem doesn't exist,

and there is no reference at all for the temple being rebuilt

in a physical form once it was actually destroyed.

The New Testament says that the church and the individual Christian

are both now the temple of God with the Holy Spirit.

And so any reference to a future rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem

is a misreading of Scripture.

There are so many questions about the second coming,

and yet we actually don't need to know the answers in order to have hope.

Put it this way.

Understand it.

Let's wind history back.

If I was an Israelite reading all the Old Testament prophecies

about the coming of the future Messiah,

that is what we know to be the first coming of Jesus,

what would I conclude about the nature and the timing of his coming,

about the identity of the Messiah?

Would I have expected Jesus?

No.

The reality is that when he did arrive,

the experts on the Messiah,

the teachers of the law,

did not even notice him.

And for 30-odd years,

they rejected him.

He was not the one they thought the prophecies were predicting,

and so we need to be careful.

And make sure we focus on what we do know.

So what do we do know?

First of all,

we know that the man of lawlessness is quintessentially lawless.

Lawlessness is not the same as being a lawbreaker.

There's a distinction here.

The lawbreaker acknowledges the rightfulness of law,

but fails to obey it fully.

I acknowledge the goodness of speed limits,

unless it gets in the way of me needing to be somewhere in a hurry.

Lawlessness means without law.

That is,

there's no goodness in a speed limit at all.

This lawless one specifically rejects the eternal,

absolute law of God.

They reject God being the determiner of right and wrong,

and absolute truth.

And so,

therefore,

the second thing we can be certain of is that they reject God.

And this lawless one does not do it by arguing that God doesn't exist.

They set themselves up as God to be worshipped.

They deceive everyone to say,

God does exist,

but I am God.

Thirdly,

this lawless one will work real signs and wonders with great power,

but all of it is in the service of a great lie.

They are not false signs and wonders.

They are real signs and wonders.

He is empowered and driven by Satan,

animated by Satan,

serving Satan,

accomplishing Satan's purposes.

And this means,

number four,

that they will have,

they'll be unparalleled in their ability to deceive.

Because they'll be in the place of God,

claiming to be God,

showing the powers and wonders of God.

Hence my picture on the screen.

When you see that,

you don't automatically imagine a man of lawlessness.

You're not getting what you think you're getting.

However,

Paul carefully records in verse 10,

that only those who are perishing will be deceived.

Very crucially,

the word perishing there

is the same word Paul uses elsewhere in the New Testament

to specifically describe those

who reject the gospel of Christ.

That's a very significant clue

to the nature of the deceiving.

The deceiver

doesn't say the gospel doesn't exist.

The deceiver gives you an alternative gospel,

an alternative good news

to cling your life to.

The followers of lawlessness

have failed to love the truth of Christ's gospel.

Instead of loving truth,

verse 12 literally says,

they take pleasure

in unrighteousness.

And the final certainty that we can

about the man of lawlessness

is that they are going to be destroyed.

He is quintessentially lawless,

he opposes God

and so condemned by the law of God,

he opposes

and is therefore doomed by God.

Verse 8 tells us,

the Lord Jesus will overthrow

with the breath of his mouth

and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

Jesus will only need to exert

as much effort as a mere breath

to defeat the lawless one.

And so what we can be certain of here

is that whatever transpires in the future

and is obvious from this text

is that God is sovereign

and he is all-powerful.

And we can be absolutely certain

that the man of lawlessness is not God.

God has no equal.

Whatever is in the future,

God reigns

and all his,

the deceiving

of the man of lawlessness

is simply fulfilling

God's plans and purposes.

So to avoid deception,

to avoid deception,

we need to understand,

we don't need to know

the identity of the deceiver.

We need to know

how it is

that they are deceiving.

What's their playbook?

How do they work?

And verse 7

is a crucial verse

to help us understand.

The secret power of lawlessness

is already at work.

We need to know

that the secret of lawlessness,

or if you like,

the power of deception

of the man of lawlessness

is already at work right now

and has been for 1900 years.

We don't need to know

the secret power of,

sorry,

we need to know

the secret power of lawlessness,

not the mystery

of the secret identity

of the powerful man of lawlessness.

Before the man of lawlessness

is revealed,

lawlessness is operating secretly.

The Greek word there,

translated secret in verse 7,

literally is mystery.

The mystery of iniquity.

The mystery of sin.

The power.

The secret power of sin.

What is the mystery of sin

that is in play now?

Now?

Now?

Verse 4 is the key clue.

He sets himself up

in God's temple.

Literally,

quite literally

in the original language,

he takes his seat

in the temple.

Takes his seat in the temple.

We could try and work out

what temple he's talking about,

but more and crucially,

what we need to understand

is how does the Bible

understand the seat

in the temple?

What's he saying here?

What's the nature

of the secret power of lawlessness?

Some have interpreted

this as a man of lawlessness

will be a great political leader.

He will rebuild the temple

in Jerusalem,

and when that happens,

Jesus will come back

at some point.

That's not the point of this.

That is importing

a theological framework

that began in the 1830s

into this passage.

This here is talking

about the role

and the purpose

of the temple.

The temple

was the place

where God met

with his people

in the Old Testament times.

The temple

represents

ultimate reality,

and the man of lawlessness

is putting themselves

at the centre

of the ultimate reality,

that you must govern

your life

by this.

In the centre

of the temple,

in Old Testament times

for the Israelite,

was something

that revealed

what was the centre

of ultimate reality.

The reality

of both creation

and redemption.

What was it?

Was it a statue?

Was it an image

of God?

No,

it was a piece

of furniture

that pointed

to an event.

It was,

in fact,

a wooden box

at the centre

of the temple

called the Ark

of the Covenant,

and that Ark

contained

the two stone tablets

inscribed

with

the Ten Commandments.

We,

two other things

that pointed

to God's goodness

and God's power.

And both,

all of that there,

this thing

was the sacred object

at the centre

of the temple

and the lid

on top of the temple

was a,

on top of this Ark

was a gold slab.

And each year,

once a year,

on the Day of Atonement,

the high priest

would come

into there

on behalf

of all Israelites.

They would come

into the Holy of Holies

and they would

sprinkle the blood

of a sacrificed animal

on the top

of the Ark

of the Covenant,

on that slab

for atonement

for the sins

of God's people.

And that slab

where the blood

was sprinkled

was called

the mercy seat.

It's very significant

when it says

he will take

his seat.

there is no

other furniture,

there's no

other seats

in the temple.

There's only one

seat in the temple

and it is

the mercy seat.

And it's the place

where God

sat

and dwelt

with his people.

And the slab

there

with the offering

of blood,

the condemnation

of the law

which the Ark

of the Covenant

held,

with the offering

of the blood,

the condemnation

of the law

would be taken

away

and the violations

of God's law

were covered

by the sprinkling

of the blood.

And so the mystery

that God gave

Israel

in their temple

is the exact same

that he gives us

now.

It is the mystery

which says

that all life

flows

from this mystery.

and it's the mystery

that all life

flows.

My life

for yours.

All of creation

and all of redemption

is built

on that mystery.

It is my life

for yours.

That's the central

mystery

of all

of reality.

And the reality

of lawlessness

is the exact

opposite.

It is

your life

surrendered

for me

and that is

the nature

of the man

of lawlessness.

That is

the mystery

of sin.

God's law

says

lay down

your life

for others.

Sin says

you lay down

your life

for me.

The man

of lawlessness

will deceive

for his own

gain

even though

he knows

he is destroyed

and he will

take

everyone

with him.

The secret

power of lawlessness

is a philosophy

an ideology

a belief

that goes

right back

to the very

first act

of rebellion

against God

in the

Garden

of Eden

where God

says

I have

given you

all of

this

for your

enjoyment

but you

must obey

my word.

This one

word

and Adam

and Eve

say no

God's

holding back

from me.

No no no

he's holding

back.

They believe

the lie

of Satan

that God

is not

good

and for

my

fulfillment

for my

realization

for my

desire

to know

what's

right

and wrong

and to

be like

God

I must

eat of

the fruit

and all

destruction

flows.

And the

destruction

that flows

the power

of sin

is that it

sets people

against one

another

it sets you

against your

very self

it sets you

against creation

and it sets you

against God

himself.

My

life for

yours

is the

central

reality

of the

Godhead.

It's the

central reality

of all

of creation

of the

Jewish

temple

and the

Christian

faith.

You see

Jesus

Christ

at his

first coming

talked about

the law

and obeyed

the law

of God

like no

other

human

being.

He didn't

go away

with the

law.

He made

it very

clear he

didn't do

away

with the

law.

He upheld

the demands

of the

law

absolutely

perfectly.

Galatians

4.4

and 5

puts it

like this

God sent

his son

born of

a woman

born under

the law

to redeem

those under

the law

that we

might receive

adoption to

sonship.

How did

you do

that?

2 Corinthians

5.21

says that

God made

him who had

no sin

to be sin

for us

so that

in him

we might

become the

righteousness

of God.

What is

the Christian

faith?

Jesus

exchanged

his life

for ours.

That's the

central

message of

Christianity.

It's the

gospel.

Jesus has

satisfied the

demands of

the law

of God.

In Jesus

we are

forgiven,

we are

loved by

God and

that creates

a love

for every

word that

proceeds from

the mouth

of God.

The secret

power of

lawlessness

that is at

display right

now utterly

hates God's

word and it

hates the

gospel which is

the central

of God's

word.

And the

great deception

that's making

a life,

is to make

the life of

unrighteousness

attractive.

the great

deception of

lawlessness is

to say you

will not

receive full

complete

fulfillment as

an individual.

In fact,

it's restrictive

in your life

if you obey

God's word.

You need to

reject that in

order to live a

full and

wholesome life.

You need to

set yourself up

as the ruler and

determiner of your

life.

So how do

we disempower

that deception?

The first

step

is to see

that the

principle of

lawlessness

is at work

now.

That's the

first step.

We cannot

avoid what

we do not

see and

acknowledge.

everyone

operates on

the default

principle of

lawlessness.

Our default

position is

it's your

life for

mine.

You exist

to serve

me.

You exist

to affirm

me.

You exist

to build

me.

All of us

want to rule

our own

life, be

masters of

our own

destiny and

determiners of

what is right

and wrong.

That's the

nature of the

very first

sin of

lawlessness

in the

garden of

Eden.

And all

destruction in

our life

flows from

it and

yet we

justify it

consistently.

The second

step to

disempowering

deception is

to do the

same thing

that overcomes

the man of

lawlessness

here in

verse 8.

What is it

that destroys

the man of

lawlessness?

The splendour

of his

coming.

I talked

about this

last week.

It is the

splendour.

Not just

his coming.

It is the

splendour of

his coming.

In other

words, look

to the

splendour of

Jesus Christ.

He is

better than

any offer

of righteousness.

What he

offers us

in life,

in life in

him right

now is

fundamentally

better than

anything that

we think that

we could build

for this world

can offer.

Look at the

splendour of

the mystery

of God's

grace to

me, a

sinner in

Jesus Christ.

Marvel at

the gospel of

Jesus Christ

and all its

implications.

His life

for mine.

He died

that I

might live.

Marvel at

the gospel

that declares

that the

Christian is

because of

Jesus Christ.

They are

loved by

God.

We are

not

lovable

because of

any of the

lovability

but because

it was his

initiative

to choose

to set

his love

for us

in the

person of

Jesus Christ

by Jesus

giving his

life for

ours.

And it's

in that

gospel of

Jesus Christ

the sprinkling

the shedding

of his

blood that

fulfills

all the

law of

God.

It's because

of that and

his act that

we are

declared to

be his

much-loved

children.

That in

despite

this is

in fact

that you

are his

much-loved

children

despite the

ongoing

presence that

we have

inside of

us of

lawlessness.

Holy Spirit

is sanctifying

us through

belief in

that truth.

To

disempower the

deceiver,

to stand

firm in

the truth,

to grow in

confidence in

the gospel

and stable

in life,

verse 5

calls us to

hold fast to

the teaching

of God's

word.

15 holds us

to hold fast

to the teaching

of God's

word.

That is

the only

way to

disempower

deception

and the key

instrument to

disempower

deception is

to marvel

at the

splendour

of the

gospel

in God's

word.

God's

word is

the key

instrument

and it's

unfortunate that

this South

African pastor

chose to

believe a

dream

and set

his hopes

on a

dream

rather than

the authority

of God's

word.

Because if

he did,

he would

know,

as we've

already seen,

1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 4:16

chapter 4

verses 16

and 17

are the

only verses

in the

entire Bible

that refers

in any

vague form

to this

idea of

a rapture

as it's

understood

in its

modern idea

by a

very small

group of

Christians.

A very

small group

of Christians.

It's a

recent

doctrine

out of

dispensationalism

that didn't

exist before

the 1800s.

And those

verses in

1 Thessalonians

4 are

about a

meeting of

Jesus and

his faithful

ones to

encourage them

because their

friends had

died.

And had

they missed

out,

they are

about the

dead in

Christ not

missing out,

so keep

living,

trusting God

now in

the gospel.

and in

1 Thessalonians

4 there

is no

further

information on

any direction

of travel once

that meeting

has happened.

there is no

evidence in

the scriptures

at all

if you're a

rapture talk

person

that you

then go

with him.

Nothing.

It's all

about the

meeting and

you're not

lost, you're

not forgotten.

Crucially

though, even

more crucially,

a few verses

later Paul

writes to

the

Thessalonians

and

emphasises

something that

Jesus has

already said.

He will

come back

like a

thief in

the night

and we

do not

know the

time or

the dates

and that

even Jesus

does not

know the

time or

the dates.

And so

if you

have a

dream,

even a

vivid

dream of

Jesus telling

you the

date of

his return,

you are

being

deceived.

Because

Jesus

already said

in his

word, I

don't know

the time

and the

dates.

How can

he tell

you what

he does

not know

himself?

It will

just happen

when the

father tells

him to do

it now.

So to

live with

confident

hope,

hope, and

I feel

for those

who have

been brought

into this

latest lie

of deception,

to live

with confident

hope so

that we

grow in

trust of

God and

love for

all people,

we need

to know

our

Bible.

And with

the gospel

of the

Lord Jesus

is the

central

interpreting

principle

of it.

Paul's

desire,

his whole

plan, is

for you to

grow

confidently

in the

gospel.

And that

is our

desire here.

In

1987, a

pilot was

flying an

empty plane

in the

US when

he heard a

noise at

the back

of the

plane.

So he

left a

co-pilot

to fly the

plane while

he went

and investigated

he discovered

a door that

would have

been sort

of left

ajar.

While

trying to

close the

door, he

fell out.

And so

the co-pilot

saw what

happened,

radioed

Coast Guard,

said, hey,

search area,

pilot's fallen

out over the

Atlantic Ocean.

And when

the plane,

which made

an emergency

landing,

when it

landed,

the emergency

service discovered

that the

pilot was

hanging on

to the

railing of

the stairs.

emergency

service said

he was

hanging on

so tight

they literally,

he did not

let go

when he

landed.

They literally

had to peel

his hands

off those

steps by

extreme

force

because he

would not

let go.

do not

be deceived

now or

in the

future.

Hold

tight,

so tight

to God's

word with

the gospel

of the

Lord Jesus

as its

centre and

its focus.

That is

how we

stand firm

with hope

and grow

in faith

and love

in the

face of

lawlessness.

each.

Stop

Thank you.