Last Judgment 2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5

ILCW C 2016

Have you noticed how nervous people get in an election year? During the campaign people are anxious about the outcome and grow very cautious about spending and investing their money until they know for sure who will be the next president. That makes for a real nail-biter in the stock market and retail industry. When people don’t spend, profits slide and jobs are threatened.

The media loves to feed on our natural skittishness and fuel imaginations. It’s hard to sort through all the bits of information – and disinformation – that’s flooding the airwaves, our inboxes, our newspapers, Facebook, and Twitter. During this campaign “fact-checkers” are busier than ever, and then there are fact-checkers who are checking the fact-checkers!

Misinformation has been around for a long time - in fact, it was the first thing the devil introduced to God’s perfect world when he handed Eve and then Adam a phony line about the advantages of sin. Ever since man swallowed that lie, we have been gullible to fall for just about anything in spiritual matters. Satan’s goal in all of it is to cast doubt on God’s Word, raise the anxiety levels of our hearts and minds, and replace any joy we could have in a relationship with God by substituting it with fear and confusion.

And that includes you and me. For instance, have you noticed how quiet it gets when we talk about the end of the world and judgment day? It isn’t just because we’re curious. We’re concerned. We’re wondering. What’s going to happen? What will it be like? Will I be all right? Is there still something I need to know? Who’s telling me the truth?

God doesn’t want anyone to be biting their nails or wringing your hands. He wants you to know beyond any doubt exactly what your future with him will be. He’s done all the fact checking for you and he knows that what he’s telling you is 100% true. And he wants that great certainty to calm your hearts and fill you with joy that spills over into your life – a calm, joy, and certainty that allows no dark clouds to linger in your mind and no frustration to zap the life out of your zeal in serving the Lord because JESUS IS ON THE WAY!

  1. Every reason to rejoice

Did you know that you and I are targets of a great conspiracy. When I say that I’d almost be willing to bet that you’re thinking of a sinisterconspiracy planned by the devil, right? We even sing about it one of our hymns, “Satan has designed your fall.” He’s out to deceive you and drag you into hell with him. It’s obvious! Every corner of your life is bombarded by evil – the words you hear, the violence, the self-centered attitudes. Every one of the ten commandments is tossed in the air like clay pigeons and shot at with hatred and defiance. It has great entertainment value – makes a boatload of money at the box office, sells tons of video games and makes millionaires out of people with bad singing voices and poor writing skills. Life is moving so fast that most people don’t have time to do anything but work to make less money than they spend and look forward to the next day off so they can veg out in front of the TV. And the conspiracy is working. The devil has masterfully manipulated everything to convince people that life really is all about us. Multitudes are blissfully ignorant of where they areheaded. Life’s a party and nobody’s asking the important question, “What will happen when the party’s over?” because it seems most people don’tcare and really don’t want to know.

But you’ve been the target of another, much different conspiracy. For reasons known only to God, he has conspired to defy the odds against you and plucked you out of a dead-end life destined for hell. He arranged it all before you were born – in fact, he planned it before he created the first particle in the universe. Paul included you and me when he said to the Christians in Thessalonica, “…we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.” Did you hear that? From the beginning God chose you to be saved. A divine conspiracy!You didn’t choose him, he chose you! You didn’t send him an invitation to come into your heart. He moved in! “He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now, if I were the devil, I’d want to do everything I could to keep anyone from the gospel. I’d want you to be skittish, anxious, and uncertain of how God feels about you. I’d want you to be in turmoil over your eternal future and I’d definitely throw all kinds of leaky life preservers your way - all kinds of false teachings, false hopes, false heroes – anything to keep you from clinging to the only one in the universe who can save you from the eternal consequences ofyour sins. I’d want you to be so tangled up in the complicated problems of your life that you saw no way out and melted in hopelessness. I’d love to see you miserable and in despair.

But you don’t have to be jerked around by Satan’s chain anymore. Your life has been invaded by a powerful message from heaven by which Jesus has stormed the gates of hell and formed a barricade of hope around your soul. God conspired to bring you out of spiritual darkness and assures you that, without a doubt, he is coming back to dispose of that arch enemy of your soul forever along with every lie he’s concocted. And despite all of Satan’s attempts to keep you from hearing the truth of God’s Word, the Lord has cleverly conspired to keep you connected to him by sendinga flood of fellow Christians like pastors and Sunday School teachers and Christian friends and parents and spouses to remind you of his promises.“So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” Jesus is on the way. Nothing will stop him. You have every reason to rejoice!

  1. Many reasons to pray

Here’s another important part of God’s conspiracy. As the Holy Spirit increases our knowledge of his Word in our hearts, he not only makes us more and more sure of our own salvation; he also makes us want to share it with others. But sharing the only message that rescues people from certain death in hell and gives them new life in Christ is not always easy. The believers in Thessalonica knew first hand that Paul didn’t waltz into their city and start making disciples left and right. Paul faced severe opposition and finally had to run for his life. The devil does not take it lightly when anyone, especially puny human beings, dare to oppose him. But God had given Paul and his fellow missionaries had another weapon to use. They prayed. And the new converts to Christ prayed. Even though Satan’s opposition made it difficult, God gave Paul three weeks to teach them the basic truths of God’s Word. And as Paul wrote his first and then this second letter to them, his heart swelled with thanks and praise to God for his grand conspiracy to keep them believing in Jesus in spite of constant attacks against their faith.

We don’t know how much time we have in our mission fields, either.Every hour we have is a golden hour. In the past we’ve seen some countries like Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim country, tolerate our gospel outreach for a few years, then suddenly the government was in an uproar and we had to evacuate our mission team. As Paul did with the Thessalonians, our main missionary has had to communicate with the small Christian church there from a distance. The same is true today in China and other countries.

You and I have so many reasons to pray! Sometimes there aren’t enough men training to be pastors and missionaries so we end up with a shortage of leaders to teach the Word of Life. Other times we’re closing or reducing missions because mission offerings drop. Many of our church members drift away from God’s Word to focus only on this life. Our young people face intense pressure to follow the crowd to hell. Each day we wake up to a world that is 24 hours closer to a head-on collision with eternity.

Paul made his requests specific: Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.

  • Pray that God opens the eyes of his people to see the hope that is laid up for them in heaven and that they grow in their knowledge of his Word.
  • Pray that our love for the lost and for each other never grows cold
  • Pray that he moves us not to store up treasures on earth but to store up treasures in heaven.
  • Pray that when we talk about our gospel mission the question is never “can we afford it” but “where else can we go?”

Jesus is on the way, and he has prepared us to stand before him on that day. We have

  1. No reason to be afraid

Let me close with these fear-dissolving words of encouragement from Paul: “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one…Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” Jesus is on the way!Amen