2 Thess 2:1-17 "The Day of the Lord"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful

that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either

by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray

for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,

I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,

they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will

do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a

non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't

hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the

types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

We have the great privilege this morning that Steve will be opening the Word for us.

Thank you, George. Always good to have the privilege of being prepared to speak. And I trust that what

our reflections will encourage us and also by God's grace bring glory to Him only.

The focus of our reflections will be around the topic of the Day of the Lord, as I just read.

But this verse in 1 John 2 will help us enter into that theme. 1 John 2.28 says,

And now, dear children, continue in Jesus so that when He appears, we may be confident and unashamed

before Him at His coming. So I invite you to pray with me.

Father, we ask that by Your Spirit You would come and soften our hearts to hear Your Word,

to embrace the good news, to hold fast to it, that we may continue to hope and to pray

that others will come to know You and that we will together look forward to Your appearing,

to Jesus' appearing. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

How many of you watched King Charles' Christmas message?

Wow. Okay. A couple. Right? Well, you might want to go have a listen to that after you hear what I say.

After watching that brief message, I thought I'd glance through the comments that had come in,

both on this side of the pond as well as the other. And my eye picked up on these.

Absolutely beautiful. Very thoughtful. Full of compassion. A message the world needs to hear.

And even praise Jesus. Not a single negative comment, as far as I could tell in my scan.

Only top marks for a king who's now coming into his own.

Now, here in Canada, we honor the king. And if we're guided by the prayer book, we pray for him.

And so, I mean no dishonor whatsoever when I say that I'm troubled both by what he said and by what he didn't say.

And here I'm appealing to the collect that we prayed more than once, I think.

But starting with the first Sunday of Advent, which is a collect that we and the king are familiar with.

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light.

Now, in the time of this mortal life, in which your son Jesus Christ to visit us in great humility,

that in the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead,

we may rise to the life immortal through him who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit,

now and forever. Amen.

Now, what King Charles spoke of was the humility part, leaving aside the majesty,

which meant, in effect, that the greatness of the humility was lost.

So we heard about the one who came to serve and who taught us to care for others.

We heard that all religions teach that creation is a manifestation of the divine

and that we're called to live a simple life and to care for the environment.

And we were reminded also that Jesus taught us to treat others as we would want to be treated

and that this universal truth can lead us out of the present conflict in the Middle East.

Now, the vague, lopsided Christmas message didn't just reduce the truth, giving us one part of it.

Instead, I would suggest it distorted the truth because it left us putting our hope in ourselves.

The king didn't bear witness to the king who's coming over all the earth, to reign over all the earth,

and who alone can bring peace and restore what's broken.

By looking within and not up, the message offers no cure

to what we can call the disease of presentism.

What do I mean?

Well, the disease of presentism trains us in the art of not waiting,

of not longing for what God has promised.

That's because we assume that in one way or another, perhaps we already have it,

or that it's ours to make, to create.

And I think this is a great disease of our time, and to the extent that we've caught it,

I believe we've given way to a pagan attitude.

So what's the response to the disease?

Well, of course, it's never wrong to serve others and to care for the environment,

and it's true as long as we've trusted in Jesus that we can have assurance

precisely in the now that we belong to him.

But this does not, for a second, remove the longing and the waiting

that's part of life in these shadowlands,

with a tip of the hat to C.S. Lewis,

knowing that what awaits us is far more glorious than we could ever imagine.

But this brings us to a question that if you were here at the 8, I didn't get into.

But 8 o'clock service, I kind of walk through this passage,

but here I want to do something a little different.

I want to ask, well, I want to address that big question,

where are we in history in relation to the great day of the Lord?

You might want to answer with another question.

Is that something we can know?

Is that something that we ought to try to know?

Well, at least we can say that Christians have tried to know where we are in history

and have come up with very different conclusions.

Some would say something like, well, we're in the last act.

The day of the Lord is happening very soon, quite likely in the next decade or so.

Look at the signs, wars, disasters, and famine.

The fact that we can wipe ourselves off the map.

Widespread lawlessness, selfishness, and a falling away within the church itself.

Others say, I disagree.

I think we're in the first act.

The day of the Lord can't happen until the world has experienced widespread peace and prosperity

on account of the great success of the gospel.

That's a Christian.

Many Christians hold that view.

What's behind that view is the idea that when Jesus speaks of the end of the age in Matthew 24,

he was speaking only of events in the immediate future.

In other words, the lawlessness and tribulation,

great tribulation and lawlessness that are now behind us.

Others might say, I came up with this, and I don't know, maybe some would say,

well, we're in the intermission.

Somewhere in the middle.

Well, it might feel like the end of history as we know it,

but Christians of the past have felt the same way.

Martin Luther and many of the reformers thought they were living in the very last act.

But likely it'll be in another millennium or two.

Well, as I've said, the answers matter.

Why?

Well, because in one way or another, they impact the way we live our lives.

In the now.

How so?

Well, first act Christians can say,

well, in spite of present troubles, we're learning to take the long view of history,

to be hopeful about human flourishing precisely through the gospel,

and to help put things in place so that our children's children's children can be part of that great flourishing.

Well, last act Christians can say, since Jesus is coming soon,

thinking about the kind of world we're bringing children into,

or caring for the world around us, is really pointless.

And intermission Christians, if they exist, might say,

well, look, I'm not too concerned one way or the other.

I've got plenty of other things to think about.

So I think we need to turn to God's word and see what we can learn this morning.

I think it might be helpful to start by backing up to the first letter that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians,

and think about the nature of the event itself.

The first thing to say about the day of the Lord is that it will be public and cataclysmic.

I choose those words guided by Scripture.

Well, we see there in the first letter to the Thessalonians,

you can follow with me if you flip back to 1 Thessalonians 4, starting at verse 13.

Bibles are up here and available if you don't have one of your own,

and you're welcome to take one.

If you read fine print or bring your glasses as I ought to.

But I'll read 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 to 18.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep,

that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again,

even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,

that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,

will not precede those who have fallen asleep,

for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command,

with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God,

and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds

to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

Well, what's Paul doing here?

He's taking us right back to that Easter morning and telling us this.

At a point in history that's coming,

that original event, the resurrection, will be applied,

literally applied to those living and dead

who have been in this life included in Jesus' death.

It will be applied to those who have been in this life included in his death.

Well, you might be wondering, since some will be alive when he returns,

as the text says, in what sense are they going to be resurrected to?

Well, I think the answer comes in the nature of the event itself,

and that's what I'm talking about, some of the cataclysmic part.

The point is, the day of the Lord means the end of history as we know it,

and therefore to our existence as we've known it up to that point.

So cataclysmic because it will be an event like on the order of creation itself,

when God spoke the universe into being.

And I've said it's public because it's not going to happen somehow behind history

or somehow above it, but in human history for every eye to see.

So it will be an earth-shaking event when God issues a new command.

Arise, and the dead in Christ will come out of their graves.

Now, when I was hanging around some Pentecostal friends,

and I was still a Baptist, my Pentecostal friends,

well, the dead in Christ, that must mean the Baptists, right?

But joking aside, Paul wants to make it clear that that fact,

that these believers have been dead, doesn't mean they'll miss out,

be left out when the whole church, since Adam,

is raised up bodily and made fit for the new creation,

transfigured, transformed.

That's the moment when all those in Christ will be caught up together in the clouds

to meet Jesus, to go out together, to welcome him as he comes,

to take his rightful place as King and Lord of all creation,

to welcome him as King and Lord.

Well, in a nutshell, that's the nature of the glorious appearing of Jesus

that we long for, his gracious gathering of the saints.

And I'm sure you know this basic biblical teaching

has been challenged in a couple of ways.

In one case, the event is denied altogether.

Many people throughout history have said,

nothing of the sort is going to happen.

For the Sadducees, the idea of future rewards in a life to come

were just simply out of the question.

I'll leave aside the joke about the Sadducees.

If you like, you can ask me later.

Which grand ideas, though, were the Sadducees drawing from?

As early as the 6th century BC,

Aeschylus had said that once a man dies, that's it.

That's my paraphrase statement.

And about 50 years before Jesus was born,

the Latin poet Catullus had written,

when once our brief light sets,

there is one perpetual light through which we must sleep.

How does Jesus handle the Sadducees' challenge?

Well, you might recall from Matthew 22 or Luke 20,

how the Sadducees had set up that question.

They said something like,

well, take a woman who was widowed seven times by seven brothers.

They said,

in the resurrection, to whom will she be married?

Now, under the circumstances,

they might just have wanted his thoughts or clarification about Moses' rule.

The rule that stipulated that if a man died,

having fathered no children,

his brother was to marry the widow

and to give him offspring that way.

But here the question just served as an excuse to make fun of the idea of resurrection.

So what does Jesus do?

Knowing their skepticism,

he takes them right to the authority they themselves have named,

Moses.

And there he asks them effectively,

how can you dismiss the resurrection when Moses himself,

that God is,

and not just was,

the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

The living God is even now their life.

And so Jesus can say,

on another occasion to his disciples,

because I live,

you too shall live.

John 14, 19.

And there's a second point that Jesus picks up on,

and it relates directly to their concern about offspring.

He actually mentions it first.

For Sadducees,

the idea that our life endures in a certain sense through our children

would have been a strong idea.

But Jesus takes up the question of offspring

in order to point them to the kind of life that really endures.

What do I mean?

Well, he explains that in the life to come,

there is no marriage.

Well, because the question of offspring has been addressed

by the gift of adoption,

by God's adoption of his children,

as children of the resurrection.

That's in Luke 20, 36.

So Jesus is here telling them, evidently,

this passion you have to find personal significance

through your offspring.

Well, only God can satisfy it

by making you a child

who will never die.

But let's move on.

From it's not going to happen,

we come to the other challenge,

to the biblical teaching about resurrection.

And that's, it's already happened.

And this claim brings us back, of course,

to the question of where we are

in relation to the great day.

We haven't left the world of grand ideas,

because in 2 Timothy 2,

we read about a couple of teachers

named Hymenaeus and Philetus

who were pushing a doctrine

they probably thought was quite exciting

and ingenious.

The day of the Lord has already come.

We can say that if their idea was to have any weight,

they would have to persuade people

not only that resurrection was something in the mind,

that it didn't apply to physical things.

They would also have to convince them

that the judgment and the new creation

were collapsed into the now.

Since these other ideas have a certain attraction,

he no doubt had quite a decent following.

And we know what this teaching looks like today.

It comes in this form.

The resurrection, it's now, not future.

And you can live in it

by pursuing perhaps a higher consciousness.

Of course, the Hymenaeus and Philetus's of our day

will be quick to promote a new program

or new experience

or maybe new retreat or method

that will just flood your soul with peace and joy

as well as a sense of oneness with all that is.

And we shouldn't be too quick to say,

look how silly of those Thessalonians

to believe such a thing.

The fact is the teaching came with authority.

Apparently.

So turn back with me now, finally,

here on page 10 of my notes

to 2 Thessalonians 2.

That's why Paul has to warn them in verse 2.

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.

These teachers were claiming to speak

or to write in the name of the apostles.

And not only that,

their words were persuasive

as they claimed special knowledge

or insight or even a revelation.

And no doubt,

their lifestyles appeared to be godly,

even full of peace and serenity.

So what does Paul say?

Well, with the authority he enjoys as an apostle,

he says nothing doing.

Something else has to happen

before Jesus appears.

The man of lawlessness has to come on the scene.

And what's all that about?

Well, if you look with me at verse 7,

the context is the mystery of lawlessness,

which Paul says is already at work.

And he thinks,

as he thinks of figures who have set themselves up in the temple,

declaring themselves to be God,

he no doubt had in mind men like the emperor Gaius,

who ordered that a statue of himself be erected in the temple

in Jerusalem in A.D. 40.

In our own times,

I'm thinking of at least two men

who think of themselves as the Christ.

There's a man,

because of my interest in Russia,

there's a man named Vissarion

out in outer Siberia somewhere,

who gives himself the title

The Word of God.

And there's a man,

because we spent time in the Philippines,

Stella and I,

a man in a place called Davao City,

who claims to be the appointed son of God.

His name is Apolo Kiboloi.

He decided that because

Jesus ascended

not to the Father,

but as the Father,

well, the Father needed a new son,

and he happened to pick Pastor Kiboloi

very conveniently.

Now, that sounds funny,

but he's led a lot of people astray

with that pure,

plain and straightforward distortion

of the scriptures.

But all the false Christs that come and go

evidently point to the Antichrist,

who will come on the wave

of the apostasia,

or rebellion,

verse 3,

which refers to a great,

massive falling away from God

and his ways.

And the Antichrist is the son of destruction,

meaning he is appointed for destruction,

the text explains,

because he's the one

who Jesus will kill

with the mere breath of his mouth

and bring to nothing

by his appearance,

by the appearance of his coming,

verse 8.

Now, for the son of destruction

to pass himself off

as the son of man,

he'll, of course,

have to present himself

as a messenger of light

and peace,

with great signs and wonders

that serve to camouflage

his rejection of God

and his word,

and so to deceive those

who, according to verse 10,

refuse to love the truth

and to be saved.

Now, we can't say much

about the timing

or the exact nature

of this great falling away

that will pave the way

for the Antichrist.

But if the man himself

is to take his seat

in God's temple

and proclaim himself

to be God,

there in verse 4,

then it's not hard to imagine

how one of the grand ideas

of our day

could actually herald that event.

Let me say that again.

It's not hard to imagine

how one of the grand ideas

of our own times

could herald that event.

And what's that grand idea?

Well, the grand idea

is that we are all the Christ

together.

And on that basis,

all of us could collectively

take our seat

in the great cosmic temple.

I'm speculating, of course,

but I'm trying to invite you

to think of how,

what it would mean

for all of us

to be together the Christ.

to take our place

in the great cosmic temple

and set ourselves up as God.

To celebrate that fact

liturgically,

because we all love ceremony,

we would let a man

stand out among us

as our representative

in this great cosmic

false Eucharist.

if our new high priest,

that man would also be

for us a prophet

who teaches us,

look here,

don't be misled

by mere words,

mere words attributed

to Jesus,

who represents only one stage

in the evolution

of the Christ.

Christ.

And he would present himself

as our king,

as the latest,

fullest incarnation

of the Christ

who promises peace

and prosperity

with all kinds of

amazing demonstrations

of his power.

Now,

I have to insist,

this is speculating

on the details

as we try to understand

the signs

of our own times

and what a great

falling away

might look like

in practice.

There's so much

we don't know.

Although we know

who's in control,

there is one,

according to verse 7,

who is restraining,

even now,

the man of lawlessness

until the time

that God has appointed.

This is consistent

with what Jesus said

to his disciples

about what must happen

before the end.

You'll have heard it

many times.

Matthew 24, 14

and this gospel

of the kingdom

will be preached

in the whole world

as a testimony

to all nations

and then the end

will come.

Well,

this, of course,

brings us back

to the question

of where we're situated

in relation

to the day of the Lord.

I would invite you

to get

perhaps a fuller view

of the great drama

of redemption

by widening the scope

and think of the first act

as the period

that began

when we left

the Garden of Eden

with the first Adam.

That moment we left

the Garden

with the first Adam.

This is a great drama

of God's redemption

and it began there

when we left.

And think of the last act

as the period

that began

with the coming

of the last Adam.

the logic is there

in Paul.

In that sense,

we've been in the last phase

of human history

ever since Jesus died

and rose again.

And that's why

the writer to the Hebrews

can begin his letter

with these words.

Long ago,

at many times

and in many ways,

first act,

God spoke to our fathers

by the prophets,

maybe even second act.

But in these last days,

he has spoken to us

by his son.

But whether Jesus

will come back

in our lifetime,

in the lifetime

of our grandchildren,

or in some distant century,

when our names,

all of us here,

are all but forgotten,

we really can't say.

I think we need

to consider

the possibility

that it could be

any of those.

what's important

is that we're ready

when he does come again.

Ready along with others

we've invited

to come along with us

to the banquet

that's being prepared already.

And that brings us,

as I bring things

to a conclusion,

to the practical implications

of Paul's teachings.

And I want to highlight

just three points there

in the verses that follow.

I'll just read verses 13

and 14 again.

And here I do have

the English Standard Version.

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 the Lord

Jesus Christ.

Well, the message here

is about confidence.

And in the light

of what Paul has just

taught us,

it's this.

God in his mercy

has protected us

against the great delusion

of the Antichrist.

God in his great mercy

has protected us

from the grand delusion

of the Antichrist.

But if we're inclined

to trust in our own strength

to think that we deserve

to be gathered together

by Jesus when he comes

or that by our own insights

and powers we can avoid

being deceived by Satan

and his instruments,

we have to remember

that our confidence

can only be in God.

He's the one

who spoke to our hearts

when the gospel

was proclaimed to us.

He's the one

who by his Spirit

made us aware

of our need for him

and enabled us

to embrace his truth

and promise.

This truth

is the truth

that set us free.

Free to trust

in Christ.

Free to remain in him.

Free to leave behind

a life of sin

and aimless wandering.

And so our confidence

is not in our obedience

but it's in his faithfulness.

Look there in verse 15

at the second practical lesson

that comes in the form

of a command.

So then brothers and sisters

stand firm

and hold to the traditions

that you were taught

by us

either by spoken word

or by our letter.

What's Paul urging

his readers

and you and me

to do here?

Well,

I love that song

written by Andrew Peterson

called

You'll Find Your Way.

One verse

goes like this.

Go back,

go back

to the ancient paths.

Lash your heart

to the ancient mast.

And hold on,

boy,

whatever you do

to the hope

that's taken a hold

of you.

Now,

this song,

I think,

speaks

very poignantly

of our desperate need

for a foundation

for something

that we don't

readily admit

in our day.

a foundation

as we

make our way

through life.

Our intuitions

are going to fail us.

We can't just live

in this eternal spontaneity

where we just

work it out,

work it all out

as we go along.

If God in Christ

has taken a hold

of us,

then we desperately

need that ancient

mast

of his word.

Well,

it's himself,

but it's the,

known to us

through his gospel

that Paul preached

wherever the spirit

took him

to preach it.

We're talking about

the good news

of our salvation

accomplished

through Jesus'

death

and resurrection.

And the promise

that awaits us,

says Paul,

is nothing less

than a share

in the glory

of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus gives us

a picture

of what it looks like

to stand firm.

He says this

in Luke 12,

be dressed,

ready for service.

Keep your lamps

burning

like servants

waiting for their

master

to return

from a wedding banquet

so that when he

comes

and knocks,

they can immediately

open the door

for him.

And there at the end,

there's a third lesson

about comfort.

In verses 16

and 17,

Paul ends

as he does,

as he often

incorporates

into his teaching

a prayer.

Sometimes his teachings

are a prayer,

a prolonged prayer,

aren't they?

But here he ends

with this prayer.

Now may our God,

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.

And I think here

Paul sums up

the comforting work

of the Holy Spirit

in the lives

of believers.

It's a double comfort.

And I say that

because in verses

13 and 14,

he had said

that God

by his Spirit

working in us

sets us apart

and makes us his own

as we embrace

the truth of the gospel.

And the comfort there

is the comfort

of hope

because we're given

the assurance

of the future glory

of the Son.

It's the comfort

of the living

triune God

whose life is ours

by the grace

of adoption

that those Sadducees

without knowing it

yearn for,

I suppose.

But notice

the other comfort,

the comfort

that enables us

to obey.

May God comfort

your hearts,

says Paul,

and establish them

in every good work

and word.

So in conclusion,

Christ

is the King

who will one day

come

enveloped

in a glory

that we

cannot yet imagine.

But even now

he's present to us

through the Holy Spirit,

the Comforter

as he promised.

And our comfort here

lies in this.

If the Spirit

is at work in us,

we don't just have

a part of Jesus

or an idea

about Jesus

or even

the truth

about Jesus.

That's because

we have Jesus

himself

and his life

and his power

strengthens us

for the work

he's called us

to do

until the day

he comes again.

So may

we

together

as brothers

and sisters

at Church of the Messiah,

may we

look into

2024

with hope,

with expectation,

longing for the day

of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.