Lawlessness Takes Its Last Stand

Normal Christianity in Extreme Times – 2 Thessalonians Series – Part 5
(2 Thessalonians 2:5-8, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, January 26, 2014)

[5] Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?

Paul had explained certain things when he was with the Thessalonians regarding the return of Christ.  He had explained that Christ’s return will not come until the final great apostasy when many turn away from God, being led by the man of lawlessness, who will proclaim himself to be God.  Yet rumors were now spreading among the Thessalonian Christians that the return of Christ had come, even though none of these final events had taken place, and Paul is reminding them of what he had already taught them.

[6] And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.  [7] 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.  [8] 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.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they knew based on his prior teaching what it was that was holding back the appearing of the man of lawlessness.  Even now lawlessness is at work, but it is, we might say, working undercover.  It has not yet fully revealed itself.  This is, I think, the meaning of the word “mystery” here.  There is someone who is holding back lawlessness.  He will one day be taken out of the way and lawlessness will burst forth in all its hatred of God and his sovereign rule.  It will be embodied in the man of lawlessness who will lead the final great rebellion against God.  So for now, something and someone are holding back lawlessness and the lawless one.  Apparently the Thessalonians knew what something and someone Paul was talking about.  I’m afraid I do not know what he meant.  But what is clear is that this great rising of lawlessness will be its last stand.  God is over all and opposition to him cannot win.  He is sovereign over when the lawless one is revealed.  He has determined when it will be time to pull back the restraints.  And he will send his Christ back to this world in blazing power and glory to win the final victory.  Christ’s breath will be enough to slay the man of lawlessness.  His mere appearing will bring this foe to nothing.  There is opposition to God everywhere now.  One day it will burst forth in full strength.  But it will not prevail.  God and his Christ will prevail.

Put the Word to Work:  We must stand against lawlessness, first and foremost by submitting ourselves and our church to Christ and his Word, knowing that Christ will have the final victory.

Singing Psalm 27:6 from Trinity Psalter (Tune: St. John, 66.66.88)
My head shall lifted be / Above my enemies. / Within His tent with glee / I’ll offer sacrifice. / With shouts of joy my song I’ll bring; / There praises to the LORD I’ll sing.

A Second Thessalonians Hymn – Verse 5 (Louisville, S.M.)

The man of lawlessness
Will die by Jesus’ voice.
All lawlessness will be removed.
God’s people shall rejoice – God’s people shall rejoice!

Tasting the Day of the Lord -- Safely

Normal Christianity in Extreme Times – 2 Thessalonians Series – Part 4

What needs to happen before Jesus comes again, and why should we care?

(2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 19, 2013)

[2:1] Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, [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.

We have been considering together what normal Christianity is. It certainly includes a healthy awareness of the coming return of Christ. But not all thinking about the day of the Lord is healthy. Some ideas need to be rejected. One of the worst of these wrong ideas is the claim that the day of the Lord has already come. A version of this wrong idea that is too easy to swallow is that the foretastes that we have of final justice and mercy are actually all that there is, and that it will only be through the church's gradual progress in obedience that the new world will come. Like all powerful lies, there is some truth in it. We are involved in the work of the kingdom of God right now, but we cannot reduce the return of the Lord to a minor event. When Jesus returns, all of His children will be with Him. That kingdom that is currently in the heavens will come down upon the earth with a greater work of renewal by far than anything we have ever known. What we see now is not all there is. Do not be moved by the lies of men. Heaven is real and it is coming down upon the earth in the return of Christ with all His saints and angels.

[3] 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, [4] 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 are there signs of that great day that would help us to think rightly about the time in which we live? Are the extreme times that that world is facing now an indication that the end is very near? First, remember what Peter says in 1 Peter 4:7, “The end of all things is at hand.” Since the days when the New Testament was written, the return of Christ has been imminent. Not only that, none of us knows how long our lives may be, but the Scriptures everywhere encourage us to consider this fading life as very brief.

Paul does give the church two helpful markers that must first be seen before the final day comes. 1- There will be an unprecedented apostasy (doctrinal and moral rebellion) in the church. 2- A worse-than-ever “man of lawlessness/son of destruction” will be revealed who will oppose every god and demand the worship of the church, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Men like Napoleon and Hitler gave us a hint of this in former days. Yet the day of the Lord has not yet come.

Put the Word to Work: Your best defense against apostasy: The Lord Himself and a life of joyful worship in His presence. That is the only safe way to taste the day of the Lord now.

Singing Psalm 27:5 from Trinity Psalter

When troubles fill my day, / When fears and dangers throng, / Securely hid I'll stay / In His pavilion strong. / He'll hide me in His tent always; / And high upon a rock me raise.

A Second Thessalonians Hymn – Verse 4 (Louisville, SM)

The coming of the Lord

Is our hope every day.

With shouts of joy we sing to Him

Unmoved by what men say— Unmoved by what men say.

Resolve and Do by the Grace and Power of God

Normal Christianity in Extreme Times – 2 Thessalonians Series – Part 3

We Always Pray for You

(2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 12, 2013)

[11] To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, [12] so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul believed in the power of prayer on behalf of Christians that were suffering for their faith. In fact, when he wrote to the persecuted church in Thessalonica he said, “We always pray for you.” When Paul preached and wrote, he had a purpose. You can see that in his messages recorded for us in the Scriptures. We expect that his and our prayers would also have a purpose. In preaching, we speak to people (and ourselves) for God. In prayer we speak to God for people. Paul's continual prayers for the suffering church in Thessalonica have at least this one goal: that the Lord would make them worthy of His calling—to be followers of a King who died.

Not everyone in Thessalonica had faith in Jesus Christ. Some did. They were supposed to be different from the others. They were to be people of better resolves—better decisions. They were to turn their good resolves into works consistent with their faith in the cross that saved them. Paul prayed that God's power and grace would achieve this goal in them. It was their only hope.

Why would Paul want this for the church? Why would he want them to make better resolves consistent with their faith in Jesus? Why would he care that they would always be putting those resolves into action? Probably lots of reasons, but here's what he writes: that the name of Jesus would shine gloriously in them, and that they would shine gloriously in Him.

When something shines gloriously it becomes visible in the darkness. A church that faces the darkness and confusion of extreme times needs to be filled with people that are making and fulfilling resolves of faith to love God and neighbor. That is the only way they will shine, and when they shine, the glorious body of Jesus, the temple of the Holy Spirit, appears.

What do you think of Paul's prayer? He does not pray here that their hard times would necessarily be gone immediately, but that they would shine by the grace that can only come from Jesus. That would be worthy Christian living in accord with our calling as followers of the Suffering Servant. What would Thessalonica (your town, church, family...) look like if Jesus were reigning this way today, not only in good resolves, but also in the disciplined and gracious follow-through of His suffering church here? How would His people show forth His glory?

Put the Word to Work: Pray this way for me and for our church. Pray that we would have resolves and follow-through consistent with greater love for God and neighbor.

Singing Psalm 27:4 from Trinity Psalter (Tune: St. John, 66.66.88)

My one desire has been, / Still to the Lord I'll pray, / That all my days within / The Lord's house I may stay, / The Lord's own beauty to admire, / And in His temple to inquire.

A Second Thessalonians Hymn – Verse 3 (Louisville, SM)

Our prayers ascend to God

That they might stand in faith,

According to His perfect love

Empowered by His grace— empowered by His grace.

God will bring justice upon the earth. That's part of the good news.

Normal Christianity in Extreme Times – 2 Thessalonians Series – Part 2

The Righteous Judgment of God

(2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 5, 2013)

[5] This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—

Belief and obedience based on the righteous judgment of God is part of normal Christianity. God is just. Wrong will be punished and right will be rewarded. How does the cross make sense then? Jesus had no wrong in Him. How can His death on the cross be just? Only through substitution. God's justice allows for another to take the penalty that we deserved. This makes the cross a supreme display of both God's justice and His mercy to all who would put their trust in Jesus.

The cross is evidence of the righteous judgment of God. The proof of that righteous judgment becomes visible over many centuries in the faithful suffering of the church. We prove the reality of God's work within us by believing the promises of God, especially in times of extreme difficulty. The Thessalonian Christians who held to their new-found faith in 50AD were very different from those who were persecuting them for that faith. God displayed His hidden work in the lives of His children through their steadfast faith and love. Something real had taken place in their lives. Something worthy had come to them as a gift from heaven. Through embracing the power of their Substitute's worthiness, they had been changed, and were showing themselves worthy of the kingdom of God, for which they were suffering.

[6] since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, [7] and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels [8] in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. [9] They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, [10] when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

The inherent worthiness of Jesus was displayed in His own resurrection. The borrowed worthiness of His church will be obvious to all when Jesus returns. The same event—the return of Christ—will be disaster for the persecutors of the church and delight for the faithful. Like the arrival of a strong husband who suddenly comes home to find an enemy attacking his bride, the return of the Lord will be greeted by the bride of Christ with tremendous relief, while her enemies will be horrified by the coming of an overwhelmingly real Adversary.

The righteousness of God is forever—eternal destruction and eternal life. Believe. Don't give up.

Put the Word to Work: Remember that wickedness will not ultimately win. Train your heart to look at today's extreme times through faith in the cross of Christ and the coming justice of God.

Singing Psalm 27:2-3 from Trinity Psalter

When adversaries came / To eat my flesh away, / Those wicked tripped in shame, / And fell to their dismay. / Though hosts surround I will not quail; / And still I trust, though war assail.

The vengeance of the Lord

Will come upon the world,

But He will grant His sons relief

Who have believed His Word—

Who have believed His Word.