Through the Bible - 2 Thessalonians

Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth... (2 Thessalonians 1)

A persecuted church, a coming day of wrath, and a people called to stay in step and at work until Christ returns.

Background to the Letter

Tonight we have before us very likely Paul's third letter, written to the church at Thessalonica. His first letter was probably Galatians, then 1 Thessalonians, and now 2 Thessalonians—written around 50 to 52 AD from the city of Corinth, where Paul spent nearly two years.

Remember how this church was birthed. Paul planted it in Acts 17, but he was only there a few weeks before being run out of the city. Wherever Paul went, either people repented and revival came, or they rebelled and kicked him out. In Thessalonica, men of the baser sort went to the magistrates and called Paul and his companions the ones "who've turned the world upside down." So Paul was sent on to Athens, and from there sent Timothy back with his first letter.

In that first letter Paul's major theme was the coming of the Lord—the Lord descending from heaven with a shout, the dead in Christ rising, and those alive being caught up to be forever with Him. He closed by saying, "comfort one another with these sayings." Now he writes again because the church still had questions and errors about the second coming. It seems someone had written a letter and forged Paul's name to it, confusing the church into thinking the day of the Lord had already come.

The Structure of the Letter

This letter divides cleanly. Chapter 1 encourages those who were downhearted and discouraged because of persecution and tribulation. Chapter 2 addresses those who were fearful that they were already in the midst of the day of the Lord. Chapter 3 deals with those walking in a disorderly manner.

The Bible declares there is coming a day of great tribulation. Jesus prophesied about it; Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Joel all reference this great and terrible day of the Lord. Jesus told His disciples, "in the world you will have much tribulation. Be of good cheer, because I've overcome the world." But difficult times easily discourage us, and this church had become discouraged, fearing they had missed something vital. So Paul writes to clarify.

Grace, Peace, and a Growing Faith

Paul opens, "Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." All thirteen of his letters begin with grace and peace, and the origin matters—true peace and grace come only from God. There is nothing better for a discouraged believer than the peace of God, the peace that rules our hearts (Colossians 3) and removes anxiety (Philippians 4).

Then, as was his pattern, Paul gives thanks: "your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth." This was a church growing in faith even in the midst of tribulation. Our faith grows most when we are tried. When everything is fine, our sinful nature tends not to pray or seek God. David prayed that he would not become so rich that he no longer sought the Lord. Jesus said it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom—not just rich in money, but in pride or position. To the church at Laodicea He said, "you think you have need of nothing, but really you're miserable, poor, blind, and naked."

Faith, Hope, and Love

Their love—the word agape, often translated "charity"—abounded toward one another. This is the self-sacrificing love of 1 Corinthians 13 that gives without seeking anything in return. We celebrated Christmas and all gave gifts, but often people give expecting to receive. God's love is different: "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." We love Him because He first loved us, and as we receive His love it overflows toward others.

The Macedonian churches—Thessalonica and Philippi—suffered greatly, yet they were the most giving and charitable churches in the New Testament. Paul says, "we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure." The words endure and patience are tied to hope. You will patiently go through something if you know good is coming on the other side. If you knew three years into college that there'd be no degree at the end, you'd quit. So Paul reminds them: "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

Turn back to 1 Thessalonians 1 and you find the same three traits: "your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope." And in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 he urges them to put on "the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." Faith, hope, and love are the marks of a maturing believer—and you'll see they are key to the book of Hebrews as well, which is all about growing to maturity.

God the Righteous Judge

Paul calls this "a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer." They weren't suffering for nothing; they suffered because they were God's children. "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you."

There is comfort in recognizing that God is the Judge. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay," says the Lord. One of David's strengths was that he knew God was his defender and shield. Twice he had opportunity to kill King Saul, who was persecuting him, yet he left vengeance to God. This is hard for us. When someone cuts me off on the freeway at ninety miles an hour, I wish I were a cop so I could enact justice. Yet we love mercy for ourselves—when we're the one being reckless and see flashing lights in the mirror, our heart jumps. We want justice for others and mercy for ourselves. But God is the one who will recompense.

Rest at the Revealing of Christ

How do we rest in the midst of trial? Paul points us forward: "to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God." There is coming a day when Jesus will wipe away every tear. That is where our hope comes from—this is not all there is.

For the unrighteous who reject Him, the Scriptures make clear He will bring justice and "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord." This is not a pretty thing, and we don't look forward to God's wrath upon anyone. Rather, the understanding that this day is coming should inspire us to evangelism. When we grasp the justice and punishment of Almighty God, we don't want anyone—even an enemy—to face it. So Paul closes the chapter praying that God would count them worthy of His calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, "that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him."

Don't Be Shaken: The Day of the Lord

In chapter 2 Paul shifts to the coming day of the Lord: "be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand." This church was troubled by outside persecution and by internal confusion—someone had brought a word, a spirit, or a forged letter claiming the day of the Lord had already come.

So what is the day of the Lord? You can only understand it through the Old Testament. In Isaiah 61, the very passage Jesus read in Luke 4, He stopped mid-sentence after "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," closed the scroll, and said, "today this is fulfilled in your hearing." But verse 2 continues, "and the day of vengeance of our God." Note the contrast: the "acceptable year of the Lord" is the period of grace we now live in—it's been going on 2,000 years, a long season where men receive forgiveness by grace through faith. But "the day of vengeance" is a short but terrible period when God pours out wrath upon a Christ-rejecting world.

Everywhere you read of the day of the Lord—Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Daniel—it is associated with vengeance, destruction, wrath, fierce anger, and terrible darkness. Isaiah 13 calls it cruel with wrath. Joel 1:15: "Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand." Joel 2: "the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?... The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood." Joel 3:14: "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision." None of this sounds good. We don't anticipate it with excitement—we view it with dread. Yet 1 Thessalonians 5:9 assures us, "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."

Two Things Must Come First

Paul says, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." Deception always surrounds this day. Jesus said the same in Matthew 24: "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."

The first sign is a great falling away—apostasia in Greek, from which we get "apostasy." It means a departure, forsaking, or defection, and it always refers to a bad thing. Paul speaks of it in 1 Timothy 4:1—"in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils"—and in 2 Timothy 3, where men become "lovers of their own selves... having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." In 2 Timothy 4 he warns of a time when men "will not endure sound doctrine" but heap up teachers to satisfy their itching ears. In every generation some have fallen away, but Scripture points to a coming mass exodus from the faith. I don't think we've seen that yet.

The second sign is the revealing of the man of sin, "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God... so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." Who does that? The Antichrist. Revelation, Matthew 24, and Luke 17 all reveal a man who will sit in the temple in Jerusalem and proclaim himself God. There is no temple in Jerusalem today—the one standing when Paul wrote was destroyed by Titus in AD 70. Today there's fighting over that ground; a golden dome sits on the Temple Mount, one of Islam's holiest sites, and the conflict has raged since Israel became a nation on May 14, 1948. I believe the Scriptures—one day a temple will be rebuilt there, and after that a great world leader will go in and claim to be God.

The Abomination of Desolation

Jesus' disciples asked Him, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" He answered in Matthew 24: don't be deceived; wars and rumors of wars are not the sign; famines, pestilences, and earthquakes are just the beginning of sorrows. Persecution and false prophets will come, the gospel will be preached to all nations, and then the end comes.

But the actual sign is in verse 15: "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place." Daniel 9, 11, and 12 tell of this wicked man standing in the holy of holies, proclaiming himself God. Then comes "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." That is when the Lord brings His wrath on a Christ-rejecting world.

So Paul comforts the Thessalonians: the day of the Lord has not come yet. It cannot come until these things happen. And remarkably, Paul taught them this in just three weeks—"Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?" He thought it important enough to ground them in this truth quickly. That day of wrath will fall on those "who received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." Jesus said, "I am the truth." God sends those who reject Him "strong delusion, that they should believe the lie... that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

Chosen, Called, and Established

But Paul turns to the believers: "we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." God wants to cleanse and transform us, removing everything wicked—and He does so by pruning, which none of us enjoy. He chose us and called us "by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Therefore he says, "stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught"—not human customs like Sunday attendance, but the apostolic doctrine handed down. And he prays that the Lord, "which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace," would comfort their hearts and establish them in every good word and work.

Chapter 3: The Disorderly

Chapter 3 speaks to those who had become lazy. This is often a problem when the church gets fixated on the second coming and the rapture. About 20 years ago a book came out predicting the rapture in 1981. Christians stopped paying their mortgages, dropped out of college, and sat on mountaintops waiting. The date came and went. The author wrote a new book explaining why he was wrong and the Lord would come in 1988—and here we sit on the verge of 2009. When people get fixated this way, they check out, yet the Lord has commissioned us to go into all the world and make disciples. We have work to do until He comes.

Paul writes, "pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course." He was doing his work, preaching the gospel. "The Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil." Then he commands: "withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us."

Now when I hear "disorderly," I imagine the brother in fornication or drunkenness or greed. But the word literally means walking out of step or out of rank. Some of you with a military background know this; I confess I learned it in junior high marching band, where I was one of the guides checking that everyone stayed in step. The body of Christ is to march forward in unison, keeping the unity of the body. An army out of step is not together.

"If Any Would Not Work, Neither Should He Eat"

Paul set the example: "neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day." He worked with his hands so as not to be a burden, making himself a pattern to follow. And he had already commanded, "if any would not work, neither should he eat."

Here was the actual problem: "we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies." A group in Thessalonica had checked out—"the Lord is coming, the rapture is coming, we don't have to work"—and were living off everyone else. That's disorderly. It's a bit different from what we might expect. They refused the work God called them to and became busybodies, always in other people's affairs. So Paul commands them "that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread."

To the rest he says, "be not weary in well doing." And if any man will not obey, "note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed." Mark him, withdraw fellowship—"yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." Come alongside and say, we want you with us, but you're out of step; get back in rank so we can march together. Can two walk together except they be agreed? What fellowship has light with darkness? Sometimes we simply cannot fellowship with a brother because there's no koinonia—but our correction must always be by the rule of grace.

A Letter Bracketed by Grace

Paul closes, "The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write." This matters—because of the forged letter mentioned in chapter 2, Paul signs in his own hand so they can recognize his genuine letters. And notice the bookends: the letter opens and closes with grace—"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."

So yes, the day of the Lord is coming. Yes, we are not appointed to wrath, and for that we praise God. But until He returns, there is work to be done. We are to occupy until He comes, to preach the gospel at all times. Next week we get into the pastoral epistles, where Paul tells Timothy to "be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." I believe we are living in the last days, seeing things come to pass that the Scriptures say precede that day. So we need to be in step, walking in rank, marching as one unit, fulfilling the work God has called us to.

My prayer is that every person at Calvary Chapel Escondido is engaged and in step with the work of God. Perhaps tonight you sense you're a little out of step. The Scriptures clearly declare what we're to do to get back in step—and that's why we study the Word book by book, to hear what the Lord would speak to us. May we take it to heart that the Lord comes quickly. Even so, Lord Jesus, come.

Closing Prayer

Father, I do thank you for this passage of Scripture in this book, and I pray that you would cause us to take it to heart, Lord—to take heed to what your Word has to say, and to be those who are rightly dividing your Word of truth and declaring the truth of your Word to those that don't know you. Especially as we have opportunity during this holiday season, as we step into a new year and spend time with friends and family this week, would you give us the words to speak and to declare the truth of the gospel. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.