2 Thess 2. Have You Been Left Behind?Sunday August 30, 2023Theme: God reveals enough information about the future to give us a living hope and not enough to make predictions.
Do you want you to sound good or God to sound good?
Would God not give us enough information about His future to give our expectations a solid footing? That does not mean all the details. But to know enough to confidently look to the future in a knowing way.
Should I expect the wrath of God? Should I expect the Son and glory?
1Th 5:2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
1Th 5:8-10 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.
Eschatos = last. Eschatology = the study of the last days.
It seems that just enough information has been given to make every generation expectant and at the same time to not be able to make any predictions.
Imminency: Christ could come at any day or hour (we do not know either).
The early church knew His return to be imminent just as much as the church does today:
“Therefore, let us every hour expect the kingdom of God in love and righteousness, because we know not the day of the Lord’s appearing.” [Clement of Rome, ~90 AD]
“Watch for your life’s sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ready, for you know not the hour in which our Lord comes.” [Didache, first century]
The imminency of His return is overwhelming in Scripture (Mat 24-25; Mar 13; Luk 21; Joh 14:2-3; 1Co 1:7; 5:5-9; Tit 2:13; Jam 5:8-9; Rev 3:10; 22:17-22).
Mat 24:44 “For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”
Mat 25:13 “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.”
Luke 12:40 "You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect."
What is fascinating is that in the midst of these passages there are numerous others that prophecy signs and events to occur before the coming of the Lord.
The curtain is only partially pulled back. In light of all the other things we should like to know but do not, this shouldn’t surprise us.
What is clear is the wonderful application to both imminency and prophecy to us now.
Application to imminency: Be alert, ready, expectant, and be found by the Lord doing His will when He returns (your reward will be great).
Tit 2:11-14 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Mat 24:42-51 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
45 Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 "Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. 47 Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that evil slave says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' 49 and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Application of prophecy: We have not missed it. We are not in the Great Tribulation. Keep looking. Keep alert.
Ever missed the school bus? That feeling in the pit of your stomach.
Mat 24:15-16 “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.”
Mat 24:29-31 “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. 30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”
And, our passage of study:
2Th 2:1-4 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
We do not know how the Thessalonians became bewildered about the coming of the Lord, but they did. Paul leads them into some prophetic events that must occur before the Lord comes.
Paul does not write about distinctions between this coming of the Lord in 2Th 2 and the coming of the Lord he writes about in 1Th 4.
1Th 4:16-17 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
“will be caught up” – harpazo = snatch or catch away. Translated in Vulgate using “raptus” which evolved to “rapture.”
First, we should know that there are good theories and bad ones – strong theories and weak ones.
The doctrine of the Rapture is a strong theory. It resolves all the issues.
For those who reject it, their explanations for imminency and prophecy (Tribulation) and how it all fits, are wanting. It is obvious that their theory has issues. So, I think properly, we choose the best theory.
Application to imminency / prophecy:
The alert steward does not know when his master is returning, but he knows exactly what to do while he waits, is ready, anticipates, and watches. The bad steward does not look to the return of his master and lives according to the world. The master will come when he does not expect him.
It is obvious that the return of the master is imminent. All the worldly contacts of the believer will be over. If you knew the Lord was returning today, this week, this year, or even in the next 5 years, would you go to college, get married, plan a family, start a career, by a house, plan for retirement, plan a ministry. It would have us doing nothing, lazy.
Enough signs are given to us (we did not have time to go into today, but we will) that are just vague enough to not actually be single events to be looking for. Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famine, persecution of the church. The Thessalonians might have easily thought that they were deep into these “birth pangs” as Christ called them.
Every day we are to anticipate the Lord. Speak with the Father in prayer about it. Plan for the future but do not be stressed or concerned about how it turns out (Sermon on the Mount).
Be open and bold with your spiritual life, with humility, gentleness and joy. We are going to all be judged by Christ.
Do not build more doctrines on top of theories, no matter how strong the theories are. They do not have divine foundations and so there is something either wrong with them or missing from them. It is okay. If we had to know all the details, God would have given them to us.
Boldly search the Scriptures. There is nothing to fear in the Scriptural revelation. Do not fear being wrong about a doctrinal theory. Do not gloss over or neglect passages because they look to contradict your theology. Everything in God’s word is necessary and pure and true. It is also an endless well of learning. |