2nd
Sunday in the END TIMES
Rev. Norman F. Seeger
2 Thessalonians 1:5-10
5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
2 Thessalonians 1:5-10
"JESUS’
JUDGMENT: PAIN or PLEASURE -- TODAY or
TOMORROW”
1. Unbelieving
Trouble-Makers Will be Troubled
2. Troubled
but Faithful Souls Will be Relieved
Dear redeemed children of God,
In Thessalonica,
a big business, a politically influential
Preaching
God’s promise of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, Paul is regularly
opposed by ignorant people who unwittingly act as Satan’s earplugs, trying to prevent
souls from hearing God’s saving truth by silencing his missionaries – or who serve
like Satan’s loudspeakers, trying to drown out God’s heavenly promises by trumpeting
hellishly human messages. Paul is often
forced to flee from cities like Thessalonica after preaching a little
while. Often imprisoned, Paul is twice
stoned & presumed dead.
Gospel persecution
is painful & persistent. Opposition
to God’s gospel truth may lower in intensity as he leaves a city, Paul
understands, but it will not simply disappear.
New Christians in Thessalonica (like Jason) will continue to be
persecuted as neighbors or business associates out-rightly ridicule their faith
-- as some subtly call for tolerance, understanding & acceptance of everybody’s
beliefs even as they refuse to tolerate God’s truth – as souls occasionally
cause Christians trouble with political rulers through false accusations, saying
Jason & other believers are defying Caesar’s Roman government by following
Jesus as their ‘King’ or ‘Lord of their life.’
Persecution
is still painful, never pleasant, in my life.
Christians today are tempted to feel as if following Jesus merely makes
us targets for mockery if not murder.
Paul understands by experience how religious trials & tribulations may
make it appear as if Jesus’ faithful followers ask for punishment as we are
continually judged & regularly being condemned by our unbelieving world,
yet Paul urges us to persevere, knowing our worldly neighbor’s judgment is
neither accurate nor final.
Pointing to
religious persecution being productive, as well as painful, Paul praises
Thessalonian believers: “We
ought always to thank God for you, brothers, & rightly so, because your
faith is growing more & more, & the love every one of you has for each
other is increasing… Among God's
churches we boast about your perseverance & faith in all the persecutions
& trials you are enduring.”[2 THES 1] The Thessalonians’ faith, Paul explains,
actually increasing in the face of persecution “is evidence God's judgment is
right, & as a result you will be counted worthy of the
Realizing
painful persecution can be productive, Paul encourages us believing brothers of
these Thessalonians to lift our faithful eyes to look all the way to the end of
time. When we grasp the fact people who
oppose Christians are actually opposing Christ – when we understand how worldly
souls openly or insidiously persecute believers only because we are tied to
Jesus – we can ask, “Is it painful or pleasant to be judged with Jesus?” If I only look at today, like these
Thessalonians, I may see troubles, trials & persecutions coming into my
life simply because I as a Christian talk & walk like Jesus. Our world will temptingly tell us the way to
remove persecution’s pain is to eliminate faith, to ‘lighten up a little bit,’
to bend God’s Word a few degrees; to eventually move Jesus out of my life. Paul, however, simply tells us to look at
‘tomorrow,’ look at Jesus’ final judgment where today’s unbelieving
trouble-makers will be troubled while today’s troubled but faithful souls will
be relieved.
Picturing
the painful side of Jesus’ judgment day, Paul first notes: “God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble
you.” When will people who now
persecute Christians finally be punished?
When will souls who now sneer & scoff at our faith finally be
silenced? When will tables be turned so
Jesus’ faithful followers appear victorious instead of appearing to be victims
of this wicked world? No person can
pinpoint the time. Judgment Day is
already decided by our Father in heaven, but has not even been revealed to his
holy angels & is certainly not written on any human calendar. But, without being able to say when, we can
be certain, “When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his
powerful angels, he will punish those who do not know God & do not obey the
gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
Today, as
faithful Christians suffer, unbelieving opponents often appear to prosper &
selfish sinfulness seems to have the upper hand. But tomorrow, in eternity, souls “who do not know God;” souls who hear
God’s gospel promises but “do not obey”
– souls who refuse our Savior’s invitation to “repent & be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,”[AC 2] -- souls
who reject Jesus will finally & forever be punished with pain we cannot
begin to comprehend, hellish pain pictured as a blazing fire where unbelievers
are burning but will never burn up.
What will
be even worse than this fire’s physical suffering, “those who do not know God, those
who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus…will be punished with everlasting
destruction & shut out from the presence of the Lord & from the majesty
of his power.” Without God,
nothing in hell is good or even tolerable.
Totally separated from God, no soul in hell has any hope of any
improvement. God’s just decision is
horrible to hear: “Whoever does not believe [in the Lord Jesus] will be condemned.”[MK 16] Jesus’ second sentence as every
soul’s eternal judge is dreadfully final:
“Depart from me…depart from me into the eternal fires prepared for the
devil & his angels.”[MT 25]
Fortunately
for us, for Paul & Silas, for disciples in Thessalonica first reading this
letter, Jesus’ final judgment has two sides.
Today’s unbelieving trouble-makers will undoubtedly be troubled – be
sentenced to suffer in hell. But today’s
troubled yet faithful souls will be relieved – be invited into heaven. Let’s look ahead through Paul’s inspired eyes: “God will pay back trouble to those who
trouble you … God will give relief to you who are troubled & to us as
well.” Am I a saint being
laughed at or looked down upon for faithfully following Christ today? Listening to our Savior’s promises, I can
look up & see myself rejoicing to be identified with Jesus in eternity as
our Lord unrolls the whole picture for his faithful people: “When Jesus is revealed from heaven in
blazing fire with his powerful angels, he will punish those who do not know
God…those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus will be shut out from
the presence of the Lord …on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy
people & to be marveled at among all those who have believed.”
Whatever
other people may say about us saints & our Savior today, our Lord’s apostle
Paul always promises: “Believe
in the Lord Jesus; you will be saved…you & your household.”[AC
16] If evil appears to gain the upper
hand in this world as faithful Stephen is stoned; as Paul is imprisoned for
confessing Jesus our Savior -- if the Lord appears to be winning the war as
3,000 souls repent & are baptized into Christ on the day of Pentecost; as a
large number of God-fearing Greeks & more than a few prominent women in
Thessalonica are persuaded by Paul’s preaching to rely upon Jesus as their
Redeemer – if evil or good, if God or the devil seems to be winning today -- Jesus,
who produced the good news of redemption we are told to tell the world, always promises
us forgiven souls: “Whoever believes & is
baptized will be saved”[MK 16]… “Whoever believes in [Jesus] the Son [of
God] has eternal life.”[JN 3]
Forget what
other people may say today. In the end,
Jesus the Judge who already lived our righteous life & died the death our
sins deserved always previews this same sentence for us saints as he pictures
the day he will return with his holy angels to separate his sheep from the
goats, the righteous from the wicked, his believing disciples from disobedient
doubters: “Come,” – notice, not “depart
from me,” but “come, you who are blessed by my father,
come; take your inheritance…take the kingdom prepared for you since the
creation of the world.”[MT 25]
In the end,
as Jesus returns for his final judgment, our Lord & Savior will take us
into his heavenly glory, a marvelous place of perfection we cannot possibly
comprehend in human minds limited by always living in a world of sin. Suffice it to say, with psalmist David, “We
will be filled with joy in the presence of God; we will experience eternal
pleasures at our Lord’s right hand.”[PS
16]
Faithful
friends, look ahead. If today is painful
or pleasant for us Christians -- if we believers are being opposed or assisted
in our ministry -- look ahead to heaven. For, as our Lord’s inspired apostle Paul
pictures the pleasant side of Jesus’ judgment, he notes, “This includes you.” Amazing but true… God’s unending glory, our Savior’s heavenly
home “includes
you because you believe our testimony to you” – you believe what we
preach as Paul preached, you believe “Jesus was put to death for our sins &
raised to life for our justification”[ROM 4] – you believe “Jesus bore our sins in his body on the
tree, so we might die to sins & live for righteousness” – you
believe that “by his wounds we have been healed.
For we were like sheep going astray, but now have returned to the
Shepherd of our souls.”[1 PT 2]
Amen.