1 and 2 Thessalonians: Encouragement from the coming of the Lord – it is more than relief.
Sunday March 19, 2023
The Rapture for all believers is going to be many things – amazing, exciting, unbelievable, glorious … and also, a relief.
Jesus coming to transfer His church to heaven and deliver her from the tribulation is something like the cavalry saving the day. Knowing the relief is coming at the proper time affects the way you live. On earth, in real war, the relief is not always guaranteed.
Chris Kyle, American Sniper (when he was in Iraq).
By this time, we were working with the entire platoon; all sixteen of us. We came up to a small building compound at the edge of a town. Once we were there, we began taking fire.
The firefight quickly ratcheted up, and within a few minutes we realized we were surrounded, our escape cut off by a force of
several hundred Iraqis.
I started killing a lot of Iraqis—we all were—but for everyone
we shot, four or five seemed to materialize to take their place. This
went on for hours, with the fighting stoking up, then dying down.
Most firefights in Iraq were sporadic. They might be very intense
for a few minutes, perhaps even an hour or more, but eventually the Iraqis would withdraw. Or we would.
That didn’t happen here. The fight continued in waves all through the night. The Iraqis knew they had us outnumbered and
surrounded and they weren’t quitting. Little by little, they started
getting closer and closer, until it became obvious that they were
going to overrun us.
We were done. We were going to die. Or worse, we’d be
captured and made prisoners. I thought about my family and how
horrible that would all be. I determined I was dying first.
I fired off more of my rounds, but now the fight was getting
closer. I was starting to think about what I would do if they charged us. I’d use my pistol, my knife, my hands—anything.
And then I would die. I thought of Taya, and how much I loved
her. I tried not to get distracted by anything, tried concentrating on
the fight.
The Iraqis kept coming. We estimated we had five minutes to
live. I started counting it off in my head.
I hadn’t gotten very far when our company radio squeaked with a transmission: “We’re coming up on your six.”
Friendlies were approaching our position.
The cavalry.
The Marines, actually. We weren’t going to die. Not in five
minutes, anyway.
Thank God!
This is something like the coming Lord, but His coming is not only about relief. It is about much more. Today we’re going to see some of the ways the coming of the Lord affects our daily lives.
2Th is quite short, only three chapters, and like 1Th it is written for encouragement. Paul (and therefore God) wants them to live godly, sanctified lives and to keep improving that manner despite how difficult it becomes. The difficulty, in these letters, stems from persecution and suffering.
Part of Paul’s encouragement is the fact that God is going to judge their accusers and persecutors.
2Th 1:6-7
1 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well …
And then Paul tells us when our relief is coming.
2Th 1:7-10
when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed — for our testimony to you was believed.
It is unmistakable that what Paul refers to here is the second coming, which comes after the seven year Tribulation period, well after the living church is raptured from the earth.
The coming of the Lord is a promise of relief. This has a great impact on our psychology.
Paul has in mind not just our relief but the judgment of those who reject the gospel, some of whom cause a lot of trouble for the church.
If Chris Kyle was absolutely sure the marines were going to show up when they did, his whole mindset would have been different. That is what I’m calling the psychology of relief. The coming of Christ gives us this psychology daily. It is a force multiplier and of great advantage. And, as great as this is, the coming of Christ is far more.
The coming of the Lord motivates our desire for sanctification. It reveals the climax of our redemption.
Our home and kingdom, our certain destiny, is one of holiness and righteousness.
The coming of the Lord is not just relief, but it is a clear and present reminder of the climax of all things, which is our destiny. What is the reality of our eternity, our final home, our place in heaven in the kingdom of Christ? Righteousness, justice, love, peace, and joy. Paul and Peter both press the point – “If this is our certain future and it could come at any time, what sort of people should we be?”
1Th 5:21-24
hold fast to that which is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
Psa 81:11
Oh that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways!
Deu 5:29
Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!
If our destiny is heaven’s holiness, and if our Lord could return at any minute and transfer us into it, and if God has given us now everything pertaining to a holy life, what sort of people ought we to be?
Col 3:4
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
This is not in question. Verse 1 asks, “If you have been raised up with Christ?” The NT clearly reveals that all believers have been raised with Him. Verse 2 says that our life has forever been hid with Christ. Imagine Christ, the Son of God, existing before the worlds were created, and yet in Him was your life. How wonderful must that life be?
Col 3:4 means that all believers will be revealed with Him in glory when He is revealed. In glory means the light of holiness, righteousness, and purity. If that is true, and it is, what sort of people should we now be? This, and not fear of loss, is the highest motivation.
Peter, in looking at the most distant future has the same message. Therefore, the fact that the Bible’s end time prophecies show us a Rapture, a second coming, a thousand year reign of Christ, a final victory, and a final judgment; all of them point to our destiny with Christ and so spotlight our conduct and manner of life now.
2Pe 3:11-15
Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, …
It shouldn’t be hard to do, but the difficulty with holy living is the flesh, the world, and the devil.
The epistles place the completion of the Church at the Rapture of the church. The second coming is the fulfillment of Israel’s covenants. The church is regarded as an interim.
For the church, the interim is regarded in a light of suffering… humiliation, persecution, testing, trouble, suffering and groaning, patient endurance, refining and perfecting, unceasing labor, agonizing conflict, unrelenting struggle toward a goal which lies beyond this age and world. That is not the kingdom of God.
Though all believers are members of that kingdom, the reality of it will not occur on earth until the second coming of Christ. Hence, the church will always suffer in the world of the kingdom of men.
Christ’s kingdom belongs to the future rather than the present age of the church.
2Tim 4:1
by His appearing and His kingdom:
2Th 3:1-2
Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you; 2 and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men; for not all have faith.
So we walk by faith and not by sight (the sight ain't so hot), live in hope, endure hardship as good soldiers of Christ, looking at the things which are unseen.
The present sufferings have a beneficent purpose in relation to the future kingdom.
2Ti 2:13
If we endure, we will also reign with Him;
Passages that show us to be in the kingdom, “transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13) should be interpreted in the same light as “we are seated together with Him in heavenly places” (Eph 2:6), meaning that this future is so certain that we can live now in the reality of it. Our position and our calling to holiness and blamelessness give us a spiritual life that is identical to the life of the members of the heavenly kingdom.
The coming of the Lord proves to us (reminding us) that we lack the ability to judge anyone.
Mortal sinful men, though saved and perhaps even mature, cannot rule or judge others.
Perfection and infallible penetrating wisdom is needed for judging rightly, and on this side of heaven, no one will ever have it.
Only when we are changed fully to Christ’s image, immortal and incorruptible, than and only then can we exercise His heavenly authority. Confusion on this point, leads to the promotion of the church as a kingdom of God over the present world, and that will not happen until the second coming of Christ. It has historically ever led in one direction - the political control of the church over the state, which at times is evil, and at all times is far removed from the original purpose of the church as spelled out in the Scripture. It makes the church of the world, and blunts its impact in witnessing, as well as its ability to lift people up and away from sin to eternal life and glory of living by the Holy Spirit. The job of the church in this age is not to rule but to save.
Joh 3:17
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
The coming of Christ = The psychology of relief, sanctification, and no judging
Moses stood in God’s place and judged the people. He didn’t follow God’s commandment and instead judged the people, something only God can do.
The climax of all things is also to lead us / motivate us in sanctification. The second advent was intended by God to be a purifying hope (Pentecost, Things To Come, p. 163).
1Jo 3:2-3
We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Purity is our destiny. The humble believer therefore should conclude that purity is what he must be now. It is only pride and a love of the flesh and world over God that says live life in fleshly pleasure until God forces me to be pure at His coming.
2Ti 4:8
in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.