Well, we have been working through the Heidelberg Catechism in the evenings, and I paused on question answer 52 to spend a few weeks here on the second coming of the Lord. This is a really wonderful question and answer on the second coming, and I'd like to—I don't know that I printed this in the bulletin. We've been working from it. Yes, we did. All right. Good. So we will say, I will ask the question of 52, and please answer there with the answer that is provided. How does Christ's return to judge the living and the dead comfort you? In all distress and persecution, with uplifted head, I confidently await the very judge who has already offered himself to the judgment of God in my place and remove the whole curse from me. Christ will cast all his enemies and mine into everlasting condemnation, but will take me and all his chosen ones to himself into the joy and glory of heaven. And now I will read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 as our text tonight. Now, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. And the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things, and you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort and establish, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. And there will end the reading of God's word. Well, one of the challenges with studying the second coming of the Lord is that the scriptures are not hesitant to capture all of the struggle that comes for the church in this time before the second coming. Revelation, you know, as we went through that book, And Revelation is a book that really does show the conflict between the church and the world. And you really do feel the sort of us versus them in the book of Revelation. Conflict culminating in this great battle of the ages before the Lord Jesus Christ comes to bring an end. Jesus often spoke this way when he said, When the Son of Man comes again, will he really find faith on the earth? He said that those days will be, before he comes, so difficult and challenging that he will have to cut them short for the sake of the elect. But he will do that. He will do that. So you have this strong language that underscores in the Scripture how difficult the time will be before the Lord comes. And you study an approach of the last days. And at times, this is what is so, I think, difficult for us. It doesn't feel very optimistic, does it? It seems that the message of Scripture is we just have to go through this awful, horrid time just to finally get to glory. And while there's a church in great struggle in the earth, you'll notice that through and through the Lord has the perspective of giving his people help and encouragement and joy through it. I suppose that's part of the challenge is that depending on the particular place that we are in life when everything's going well and everyone's doing well sometimes the conflict that we read about in the scriptures leading up to the second coming is not what we what we truly want to talk about or hear but that's not how the scriptures present it to us you notice in the heidelberg tonight that that the second coming through and through is presented as a deliverance and a relief to a church that is in deep struggle in this world. It was always meant to be, and think of the first century, this was very much a persecuted church and a persecuted time. And so already he was comforting them. The apostles were comforting them with the truth of the second coming. It was to give them great hope in this age that the struggle in whatever form it came and whatever degree it came at different times and in different places, There was relief coming. There was a good future coming. So how does the return of Jesus to judge the living and the dead comfort you? Notice that that question picks up the theme of comfort in the midst of the catechism. In all distress and persecution, with uplifted head, I confidently wait the very judge who has already offered himself to the judgment of God in my place. He will take me and all his chosen ones to himself into the joy and the glory of heaven. So this is the context in which these epistles come to us. That's why the Heidelberg picks up on that, that depending on the difficulties that we see in life and how often do we stand around now and say, wow, look at the times. Look at the times we're in. Look at the things we're facing. The church has always said that. Every generation has thought that. Surely the times we're in are challenging ones. And this particular passage tonight helps us then in how we are to anticipate the second coming. How we are to think about it as one of the most comforting truths in all of the Bible. Because the second coming is announced to us as a coming of relief. That's a theme I want to hold on tonight as we go through this. It's relief. We can lift up our heads in anticipation of relief from all of this distress. But we have to have some understanding of what to expect while we're expecting. We have to have some understanding of what is going to transpire. We have to know what we can expect before the Lord Jesus Christ comes on the clouds of heaven so that we are not led astray by false ideas. Or to think in this particular case, as the Thessalonians did, that the things that were happening said to them, well, maybe you've missed the coming of the Lord. I mean, it's really remarkable that that was what Paul's dealing with in this particular passage, but he is. And this had so troubled the church. They thought they had missed the second coming. They thought, in our language, they had been left behind. Anybody reading those books, this is a time to rebuke you. That is a bad theology series, okay? Nobody's going to be left behind. And this is exactly what Paul is addressing here. This heresy, this terrible idea that had developed in the church in Thessalonica. So tonight I want to look at this. Paul is making this great case that the second coming and return is a comfort to us as he answers their concern over false teaching, provides clarification, and then leaves them with comfort. So there's your points tonight. this concern over false teaching, the clarification that he provides and the comfort that he leaves them with. If you notice in verses 1 through 2 of 2 Thessalonians 2, now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Notice that. Paul had written in the first epistle to the Thessalonians giving great detail about what is going to happen when Jesus comes. He had already said this to them. He said, I don't want you to be ignorant about those who've fallen asleep, which was a way of saying that they've died in the Lord. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes again, when he returns on the clouds of heaven, he's going to bring with him those who sleep in him, those who've already gone to be with him. Their bodies are in the grave and they've gone to be with him in soul. He's going to bring them and their bodies on that last day when the trumpet sounds are going to get up out of the earth. Brand new resurrected bodies being reunited with their souls. And then we who are alive are going to be caught up together to meet the Lord with him in the air. And therefore we will always be with the Lord. And Paul said immediately after that, comfort one another with those words. Talk about that. That's how we can really comfort one another. If you're, if you're, if we're thinking about how do we comfort one another? What do we put in our cards? What a great truth. Together we will soon be together with the Lord. We will soon be together with brand new bodies. He's coming. See, Paul meant this to be the second coming, a great blessing of comfort to us, but the devil has always used it as a playground to trouble us. The devil has always used this teaching as a playground to trouble us. And so this is exactly what he's dealing with here. Between the first and second epistle, somebody, some group, some people in the church, some mockers within the community began to trouble them with the lie Jesus had already come and you've missed that getting caught up together. Christ had already performed the gathering together. I should say it comes in various forms today. I think in some way you could say that that the idea of preterism fits into this. That Jesus already returned in AD 70 and that in many post-millennial camps preterism teaches that. And that can be a very dangerous teaching to undermine exactly the glory of what the new testament talks about that is fully coming when jesus comes again finally and you know that paul's talking about that because in chapter two of second thessalonians he is talking about the gathering together did you notice that notice very carefully there in second thessalonians chapter two now concerning the coming of the lord jesus christ and our being gathered together to him that's what he was talking about in the first epistle we're going to be gathered together in the air to be with the Lord. So he's talking about that last day. He's thinking about that. He's not talking about AD 70. He's thinking of exactly what Jesus talked about when the sun will not give its light, and the moon will be darkened, and the clouds, everything will be shaken, and the Son of Man will appear. That is not AD 70. There may be an application, but it's not. So notice he says, I don't want you troubled by those who are going around and saying Jesus has already come and you've missed it. This is what his concern is in this first passage. And you see what a mishandling of the study of the last things can do. Paul said in his second letter, he addresses this falsehood. He writes to them saying, I don't want you to become alarmed by spirit or by word or by a letter as though from us. Paul seems to appear that he has no idea who's saying this, But he says it's not apostolic who's saying it. It doesn't come with the apostolic authority who's saying it. So this is an important moment for him to correct this problem. Remember in the last chapter, what we considered last week, what Paul said would happen when Jesus comes. He said it is a righteous thing, verse 6 of chapter 1, with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with all his mighty angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. These shall be punished, he says, with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power when he comes on that day to be glorified in you. That has not happened. That has not happened yet. That's the issue. So now what Paul does here in this concern is help them on the other consideration here, that on that day the Lord will bring judgment against those troubling. They didn't have to worry about missing the second coming because it's one major event. Nobody will be left behind. Nobody's going to be missed. The Lord's not going to lose one of his sheep. Think about this morning. Think about all the trouble we've had on this stuff. Really, on this stuff. If I wrote a book called Left Behind, I could make millions today. Did you know that? If I wrote a book called Late Great Planet Earth, I could make millions. Paul's saying none of that. Don't let this stuff trouble you. Don't let it do. Don't let them do that to you. Now, this is an important moment. In the second coming, we all want to be freed from sin and death and receive the resurrection of our bodies and live in the joy of this comfort forever. So what does Paul do to help them? This is what's a little troubling for us because it doesn't seem initially like help, but when you're done, you stand back and you say, it's a real big help to them. Paul speaks of certain observable events that we will be able to understand before the second coming, that we will be able to see happen before the second coming. And Paul says, because these two things have not happened yet, that's why we know the second coming hasn't happened. So this is a real interesting moment where Paul addresses this. I want you to notice what he says. Verse 3, so that he takes a seat in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God. That's a pretty remarkable statement. How could we miss that? How could we miss that? And yet this has been one of the most confusing, I think, passages in the New Testament to exactly and precisely understand what he was talking about. What Paul says here, the apostle says here, is that there are going to be two things that must happen coincidentally together before Jesus returns. First, he spoke of a rebellion. It's the Greek word apostasia, which he calls the apostasy or the falling away. There's going to be a great falling away. A great falling away before Jesus comes. Hold that thought. In connection with that, he says there's going to be a man of lawlessness who shows up, who is going to be revealed, who is going to set himself up above everything that is called God or that is worshiped so that he actually takes his place in the seat where God is, in the temple of God. Now, there's a lot to say about this, that this is very what we call apocalyptic genre. That's borrowing from a long history of apocalyptic language in Scripture. But I want you to notice here that he seems to indicate that this day is not going to come unless these observable events come first, of which we will be able to see and to discern. That was always the big discussion, I think, in our world. Well, does that deny the imminent return of the Lord? could the Lord come today? And I think the right way to look at this is to say the Lord could come at any time. The Lord could be here tonight. The Lord could return at any time. So how do we understand this? What is, what is Paul saying? And, and how big of events are these? And, and what exactly are, are we, are we talking about when we talk about the apostasia and the revelation of the man of lawlessness. Jesus told us to look at life a certain way, which I don't think we do well at. What do we do well at? Discerning. The weather. I mean, it doesn't go without saying. If we go outside, we walk outside, and we're, oh, what a beautiful day. You know what it's going to be today? Yeah, we all know. We know there's going to be clouds in the sky. We know if it's going to rain. This is our common talk. That's the way we talk. We are able to discern the weather. We have this strange obsession with the weather, don't we? And Jesus took that and said, you should be able to be discerning as Christians about something else. When these things, Luke 21, begin to take place, straighten up and raise up your heads because your redemption draws near. What are you talking about? What things? This. And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars and on the earth distress of nations and perplexity because of the roaring of the seas and waves. It's apocalyptic. This is Psalm 46. Even though the waves in the sea billows roar. People fainting with fear. I mean, you stop now and you read that and you think, whoa, wait, we're living that. People fainting with fear and foreboding of what is coming on the world. And they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and great glory. When you see these things, you know, says Jesus. We may not ever be able to know the day nor the hour. but there are many things that tell us the day is at hand. That's the effect of this. There are many things to tell us the day is at hand. Paul says, a great apostasy will happen before the second coming, and there will be a revealing of an Antichrist. That's what he says will happen. Now, to some degree, we're a little lost on this, Do we have to be reminded? Because verse 5 makes a qualification on this. When I was with you previously, I gave you a lot more detail about this. Notice he says that. Do you remember when I was with you? I used to tell you these things. Key verse. We don't have access beyond these two letters of more detail about this. But it's meant to be an embedded truth, a general truth about our present age. He had discussed a coming apostasy and a revelation of a man of lawlessness that John understood to be the Antichrist, obviously in detail, Because he seems bothered that they have received a report that Jesus has already come. When he said, I told you about all this. Now, the first thing I suppose tonight is to say, it's okay that we don't know everything in detail. But what are we looking at here? That's what I just want to explore for a minute. What are we looking at? a falling away, and an antichrist. Now, if I stopped and said, you already know this. You've seen this throughout history. The Bible has taught this to you throughout history. Paul follows Jesus in portraying the time when there will be times and periods, but a final escalation, a final period where people will not love the truth. a time characterized, as Jesus said, by lawlessness. When things that God said in his word are completely rejected. This is the falling away. Now, this reaches into the kingdom of God. This reaches into the church. But I used to take the position that he was just looking at the church. But I'm not convinced of that. Now that I look at exactly the things that unfold in life and in society and in the world, we see that there's a general rebellion that takes place away from all that God has said that reaches into the temple of God, which is his church. Well, think of our time. No longer is there definitive truth. Think about your time. Truth is now dependent, and it's not truth, but this is what people say. It's dependent upon what the Bible has long characterized as people ruling by the dictates of their own hearts. That's not new. That's not new. That has always been. Throughout history, this ebbs and flows, and at times it gets really bad. And in the end, it's going to get really, there's going to be one final escalation of this before Jesus comes. But it's not unfamiliar to us. That's what I'm saying. It's not unfamiliar to us. Paul describes the apostasy that's connected with someone that's going to come and who is going to attempt to replace God in the church and in the world. That's not unfamiliar to us. Where did this first happen, boys and girls? The Garden of Eden. There was a rebellion at the instigation of an antichrist who slithered into the garden in the form of a serpent and said, and what did he attack? Did God really say? You can be your own gods. Don't listen to him. He's oppressive. And they chose their path at the instigation of an antichrist. And all of history captures this for us. This collective rebellion. It made it all its way. Think of what happened shortly after in Genesis with a figure named Nimrod, whose name meant rebel. From the cursed line of Ham, this king of Babel, literally gate of God, organized a rebellion against God and his command to fill the earth. And Nimrod sought to build a tower, a ziggurat, whose heights would reach up into the heavens. There was an antichrist and there was an organized rebellion. It's not unfamiliar to us. In Isaiah 14, the king of Babylon says in his heart, now listen, This is the exact language Paul's borrowing from. I will ascend into heaven. This is the king of Babylon. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the congregation. I will ascend in the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. The language is almost word for word. King of Tyre in Ezekiel 28. I am a god as he lifts himself up by desiring to see himself in the temple of the gods. There it is. You see, there's been antichrist activity throughout history. There have been figures who've risen up, and they've organized great rebellions. And it appears that in Paul's day, he could have looked in many places. In A.D. 40, the emperor Caligula set up a statue in Jerusalem in the temple for worship. In 1855, Nero would come and set up his statue in Rome's Temple of Mars to be worshipped. There are inscriptions in Cyprus attributing worship to Nero as the almighty God and Savior. He sets himself up. What we're dealing with is not just atheist stuff. It's just highly religious stuff. Worldwide religions forming. rebellions organized that are religious activities. You have to understand that. And John would come along after this and say, little children, it's the last hour. You've heard that the Antichrist is coming. Even now many Antichrists have come, by which we know it's the last hour. And then he says this, this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming. He's thinking of Paul. I'm convinced of that. which you've heard was coming and is now already in the world. The spirit or the stuff of the Antichrist, it's always been here. And Paul grasps all of history this way as there's been an activity in history of two things throughout history. Collective rebellion and an Antichrist phenomenon of somebody who sets himself up in the place of God. Boasting that reaches into the very temple, which is the church. Now open your eyes today. You see it. You see it. What kind of rebellions do we see today? We see rebellions from everything that God created right now. We see rebellions from an organized rebellion right in the middle. We are in the middle. 20 years ago, we didn't see it. Right now, we're in the middle of an organized rebellion in human sexuality. Men, females, distinctions being obliterated. Boundaries gone. Marriage, not as God defined. This is organized rebellion. You should be able to see a collective rebellion that's forming. A falling away, and it's a religion. Don't miss that. This is not secular. This is religious stuff. You will bow to the new religion or else. And that's the spirit of the Antichrist at work. Our concern is to keep the sheep from falling into this. Our concern is that our children don't fall into the organized rebellion. Right? That's our big concern and our big prayer. That our children will not fall into the organized rebellion of the system of the world right now. We're in one. There's always been a debate as to whether a literal man will show up on the scene. I have no idea. Gerhardus Voss said, once you'll know when it happens. I think that's right. Is this the final one? I don't think that's the point of Paul. Every church has, every time period has thought, well, we've got to be at the end because things are so, you're in one. You're in one. A rebellion and an antichrist phenomenon is at work. It's always been this way. And before Jesus comes, there will be a final escalation crisis in it. Will it reach to the ends of the earth in this organized rebellion? Seems to be. That's what Revelation 20 says. But do you see what Paul's done here? This escalation of this cosmic conflict that has happened from the beginning is not new to history. But it shows itself up in a final form before the Lord Jesus Christ comes. Which tells us, in whatever day we live, in whatever time we're in, be ready. Be ready. What all this tells us is, he hasn't come yet. You see? See how it all comes together. They were being told you've missed it. Because this stuff is still happening, it tells you Jesus has not come yet, but he's coming to stop it. That's the message here. There's a climax of history coming. And Paul didn't want us living in fear about this. So that we would be soon alarmed or shaken or stirred up in spirit about the things that are coming to pass. Jesus told us beforehand it would come to pass like this. We're almost there. See, that's the message. We're almost there. I always think of that passage in Romans. It's high time to wake up out of sleep. For right now, your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. Think about it now. We're in 2021. There have been organized rebellions since the Garden of Eden. And there have been Antichrist all throughout history. And we have come to a point where we're seeing things that we have not seen before. We are almost there. That's the message. Here's the beauty of this that we'll come back next time to encourage. When this comes, when this day comes, it's like dust in the wind. The brightness of Jesus' glory when he shows up. Whatever is going on in the earth is no match. Just his appearance slays the Antichrist. Just his appearance. Notice what it says there. Slays the dragon. And the brightness of the glory of his coming. Let's verse 9. And the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of His coming. It's going to be awesome. And nothing of what is happening can stop the salvation of God's people. So I think one of the dimensions of the second coming that I have missed in my preaching on this subject over the years is to really emphasize the relief of it all. The relief of it all. Can you hear it again? The church is in struggle all these years. We're in struggle raising children. We're in struggle living in this world, believing these promises. And here's what the Lord said just previous to this. All of this stuff that's happening is evidence, verse 5, of the righteous judgment of God and that you are worthy of his kingdom. God considers it just to replay with affliction those who afflict you. And then he says something so beautiful, verse 7. And when he comes, he's going to grant you relief. Can you imagine the relief of all this? To you who are afflicted as dwells to us. When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints. When he comes again, and to be marveled at by all those who have believed. You always ask, well, why can't I see Jesus? You know how wonderful that day is going to be? When you get to see him coming, and he's your champion, and you who have believed your whole life and waited in these promises, he said, I'm not slow to give him to you. Let me save. Let me go out and save all of my sheep, and then the end will come, And there comes your champion to give you relief and to take you, as the Heidelberg says so beautifully, he will take me and all his chosen ones to himself in the joy and the glory of heaven. That's the good news about all of this. You know what happened in the church in Thessalonica because they were being troubled with false ideas? We'll come back to this next time. You know what happened to them? They became idle. That's what chapter 3 is all about. Be about the service and work of the Lord. Don't become idle. Don't become idle in discouragement. Discouragement makes you idle. Don't be discouraged. Don't be idle. We've got a mission to accomplish. We've got work to do. Be busy in the calling of the Lord, Paul says. but be comforted that when that day comes, you're not going to miss it. You're not going to miss the coming. As the lightning flashes from the east and the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. You're going to see him in all of his glory. Justice will be administered, and he promises right here, I will take all of you who have believed in me, believed my word, have been kept by my power, as we heard this morning. I will take all of you into the joy and the glory of heaven, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Lord, I want you comforted with those words. Comfort you tonight with those words. We will always be with the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word tonight and thank you for helping us to understand what to expect. So it doesn't catch us off guard. At times where we stand back and watch the news and we think things are spinning out of control and that you're absent from all of this and you've told us here exactly what will happen. But to be a ready people knowing that if this conflict is still going on you're still saving and the return has not yet happened. Give us eager hearts for we know that the time is at hand. And let us Lord live not being idle but active in the callings that you've given to us for your glory. Thank you Lord for a day in your house for hearing your word and to be able to worship you in spirit and in truth. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.