2 Thess 2, What Is the Kingdom of Your Dreams?

Class Outline:

Tuesday August 15, 2023

 

LUK 4:5-8

And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 "Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." 8 Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'"

 

Who or what you worship will determine the kind of kingdom you value or desire.

 

2CH 12:13-14

Now Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. And his mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess. 14 He did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.

 

Jesus’ Teaching During Passion Week:

 

Jesus left the temple for the last time, saying, “Behold, your house is left to you desolate.”

 

He ascended the Mount of Olives and His disciples and the disciples drew His attention to the beauty of the temple. However, though the building itself was beautiful, the hearts of those within it were not.

 

Jesus then prophesies that the temple will be destroyed.

 

The disciples then ask Him four questions.

 

The Olivet discourse: Mat 24-25; Luk 21; Mar 13.

Answers to:

[click to fly in]

When will these things be?

What will be the sign that they are about to happen?

What will be the sign of Your coming?

What will be the sign of the end of the age?

 

He answers the last question first.  It is similar in all three gospels.

 

There will come false Christ’s, wars and rumors of wars; nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes. Luke alone adds pestilences, terrors, and signs from heaven (MAT 24:4-8; MAR 13:5-8; LUK 21:8-11).

 

He calls these birth pangs and they defy direct identification with time.

 

Then, and only in Luke, Jesus answers the first question. He speaks of the destruction of the temple and the signs accompanying it (refer to lesson on 8/13/23).

 

Then the Lord refers to the second half of the Tribulation.

 

The first half (3.5 years) would have an intensification of the birth pangs.

 

The second half would start with the abomination of desolation sitting in the temple of God and this would be the worst time the earth has ever seen.

 

Jesus then gives the sign of the second coming.

 

MAT 24:29

“But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

 

Terrible things await the world. The wrath of God will come against the sin of mankind.

 

LUK 21:25-27

“There will be signs in sun and moon and stars [darkness on earth; MAT 24:29], and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory”

 

Darkness comes upon the earth, which was prophesied.

 

JOE 2:1-2

For the day of the Lord is coming;

Surely it is near,

2 A day of darkness and gloom,

A day of clouds and thick darkness.

 

We remember that all of this is being taught during His final days. He entered Jerusalem on the colt to present Himself to Jerusalem as her King, knowing full well that she would reject Him.

 

During this time, He resorts largely to parables as His form of teaching and it is a new series of parables (the two sons, the wicked vine-growers, the king’s marriage feast, the fig tree, the faithful and unfaithful servants, the ten virgins, and the talents).

 

The parables present a composite picture of the kingdom as something definitely future, associated with the glorious advent of the King with great power; and that its establishment will be sudden, catastrophic, accompanied with the ordeal of Messianic judgment on the wicked and reward for the faithful.

 

This same idea that is so prominent in the parables, is repeated and underscored in the Lord’s direct teaching which immediately follows the series.

 

MAT 25:31-33

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.”

 

This is not the final judgment of the wicked dead, but a judgment on the living nations; a judgment on earth, not in heaven.

 

Our point is that the kingdom of OT prophecy, which was announced in our Lord’s earthly ministry as “at hand,” was not established because of Jewish unbelief, and its arrival is now set definitely at the second advent of the King. The nation of Israel, in the meantime, must suffer a period of Gentile supremacy.

 

LUK 21:24

“Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

 

In our main passage (2Th 2), Paul is not interested in detailing the events of the Tribulation, but is rather emphasizing the manner of life of those who anticipate its coming. It is coming because the Lord was rejected by His people, and still He is faithful to His covenant promises, but for a time, that nation and the world’s nation must be disciplined. Until that time a partial fulfillment of the New Covenant has been granted while Gentile nations reign on earth.

 

During this passion week, the Lord came into His final conflict with Israel’s rulers. The parables of the two sons (MAT 21:28-32), the wicked vine-growers (33-41), and the king’s marriage feast (22:1-14) were spoken against them.

 

Spitefully, the leadership then convened meetings in which they sought ways to trap the Lord in His words so that He might lose face and them save it. The combined shrewdness of the Herodians, Pharisees, and Sadducees came to nothing, but their attempts had the opposite effect.

 

MAT 22:33

When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

 

And then at this moment, the Lord becomes the questioner. Cutting through all of their nonsensical, trivial projections, He gets right to the point - the divine character of the true King, the Messiah, whom He was now publicly claiming to be.