2 Thessalonians 2:1-17, Deception: A present reality.

Theological Proposition/Focus: Deceptive teaching is present in our world but God is bigger than any deceptive teaching.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: Deceptive teaching is a danger we must look out for but it should not cause us to lose hope because we know that the truth of the Gospel will prevail.

Introduction:

Image: Deception in the Movies verses real life (Mission impossible vs identity theft)

I love a good deception in a movie. One of my favorite parts of the movie mission impossible is watching the different characters reveal their rubber masks and realizing who is behind which mask and how all the little details fit together at the end. Deception is fun in the movies. However, in the real world deception is very real problem. In 2021 there were over 1.6 million cases of identity theft reported to the FTC. Just talk to banker and you will learn how big of a problem deception is in our world. Well, in the spiritual realm things are no different. Deception is a reality and we need to understand the truth that can only be found in Scripture.

Setting the Stage:

Christians are inconstant danger of growing cold and losing hope. We live in fallen world a world plagued with a. constant temptation to give up and flow with the currents of society. The Christian must remember to remain firm, to hold tight to the doctrines that have been recorded for us in Scripture. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 Paul bridges an important theological gap between our progressive sanctification that comes through Christ and our need to be personally disciplined.

Christ is the one who is has, is, and will sanctify us but that does not mean we should grow complacent. Rather, as we look forward to our ultimate sanctification we should be driven to discipline ourselves more and more. The biggest threat to that drive to be spiritually disciplined is deceptive teaching and that is exactly what Paul seeks to counter right here.

In First Thessalonians Paul had taught a little on the coming Day of the Lord, a time when God would definitively intervene on the earth, judging sin and righting wrongs. By the time Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians some confusion and arisen. We will see that some false teachers had taken Pau;'s teaching on the Day of the Lord and used it deceive some in Thessalonica. As we read through each portion of Scripture I want you to pay attention to what we can learn about deceptive teaching.

Body (All at the begining)

Deceptive teaching is dangerous to the Christian (1-5)

Deceptive teaching can rob the Christian of their hope (1-2).

Paul had taught that the day of the Lord would come as a thief in the night in 1 Thess 5:2.

In 1 Thessalonians Paul had taught the believers that the Day of the Lord was coming, but before the coming Day of the Lord Christians would be taken to be with Christ. During the day of the Lord God would judge the world for its rejection of God and Salvation. Paul had taught that the day would come as a Theif in the night (1 Thess. 5:2). That is, the day would come in an unexpected manner.

False teachers twist the truth to rob believers of their hope.

The problem, as we see in verses one and two was that apparently some false teachers had come in and convinced some in Thessalonians that the Day of the Lord had already occurred. They had missed it! These false teachers were, in effect, robbing the Thessalonians of their hope. We learn that this teaching was unsettling and alarming to some. In the midst of persecution perhaps these individuals thought that God had already come and judged the world, they had been left behind or worse were being judged by God right now. They had expected to be gathered together with Christ before the day of the Lord but now they were being told the the day had already come. In their minds some probably wondered what to believe. The rug had been pulled out from under them.

The proper response to deceptive teaching is "Don't lose hope!"

Paul's response to this deceptive teaching is simple, don't easily lose hope! Don't be easily alarmed! Paul could have stopped there but he didn't, he gives explanation. However, before diving into that explanation I want you to hear the first response to teaching that unsettles the Christians or is alarming. The response is simple Don't be alarmed, don't be unsettled. It is cliche but it is true, God's got this! We must learn to trust God and boldly stand without losing our hope.

Accurate teaching must be tested to be consistent with the message of Scripture (1-2).

As we look deeper into verses 1 and 2 an interesting issue arises. Somehow, false teachers had deceptively used Paul's name to spread false doctrine. This brings up an interesting point. We, as believers have a responsibility to check out any teaching we receive. We need to check what we are taught against Scripture. We need to verify teaching. Just because someone with some credentials tells you something does not mean it is true.

In the case of the Day of the Lord there are some important prerequisites that need to be met (3-5)

The Rebellion or Apostasy

Almost since the beginning of the church, people have turned from sound doctrine. However, as suggested by the text, there appears to be a coming time when the departure from sound doctrine will be so significant, so severe that it can only be called The Apostasy. I will add a personal note here, when will this happen? Well consider this, when the rapture occurs all true Christians will be taken to Heaven, this will leave only fakers around. How could the church descend into complete apostasy? Easy, remove those who have the indwelling Holy Spirit to keep them on the right track. I wonder if it is something like this, if you are theologically sound then you might ask "has the apostasy occurred?" The answer is no, because there are still people like you who are theologically sound enough to care. When the apostasy occurs I suspect it will be so bad that nobody will even notice.

The Man of Lawlessness

The second event mentioned here is the revelation of the man of lawlessness. He is described also as a man doomed to destruction. Paul's use of the aorist subjunctive suggests that this is a distinct point in time revelation. I think this is suggestive that anybody who cares to know will know. When this happens it will be so obvious that people won't debate who it is, they will know.

1 John 2:18 suggests that there are many who could be described as antichrist but there is one coming who will dwarf them all.

What is the point of all this for us today? We could get deep into discussions of where the AntiChrist comes from, when the rapture takes place, who is taken in the rapture. How long the Day of the Lord or Tribulation lasts. But we are not going to do that. What we need to understand is rather the point of this message. The point is we need to not lose hope. God has planned out every detail and given us what we need to know. The right action, instead of reading every Newspaper to try guess when the rapture will occur, why not read the Bible. Learn all you can learn of God. Learn to trust God. Does eschatology matter? Absolutely, it is our hope. But the details matter only so far as they point you to Christ! As they help you to hope in Christ.

Image: Consumed with the news.

I meet a lot of people who are consumed with the news. They generally fall into some sort of broad category. Things are so bad, surely Jesus is coming soon. I hope Jesus comes soon because things are so bad. Let me change channels and see how bad it is somewhere else.

Deceptive teaching is present and it will get worse but we should not lose hope (6-12).

Know that even though there is much evil in the world, God is actually holding back the worst of it (6-7).

Some force, I think the Holy Spirit, is holding back the evil that our world so desperately wants.

Yes, the world we live in has all sorts of evil within it. Yes, there are times when the things we see in the world are disgusting, revolting, and depraved. Yes, there are times when it seems like God is nowhere to be found, but that is not the case. In fact, God is at work. Paul had apparently taught the Thessalonians that while there was evil at work, something was holding that evil back. I suppose I should share my opinion with you on this. I think the one who is restraining evil is the Holy Spirit working through His people. At the rapture of the church, God's people will be taken from the Earth and evil will be able to flourish. Let me be a little more blunt, the tribulation will be a time of God judging the Earth, but in my opinion, some of the events that occur will be less about God actively judging casting judgement on the earth and more about the earth being allowed to descend into the evil is so desperately wants. I think that much of what happens will be the result of God allowing the man of lawlessness to descend into the evil that our earth so desires.

The NIV translation of "secret power" in verse 7 is the greek μυστήριον, a truth previously unknown before its revelation here. In this case, the coming climax of evil

We need to understand that God is working right now, restraining evil. A question that people sometimes ask is how can we believe in God when there is so much evil in the world. The answer is that things could be so much worse and one day they will. I would go so far as to say, the only reason we know there is evil is because of God.

Never forget that the end is already written and God wins! (8)

What I have just said might be depressing if what comes next was not written. Yes, there is a very dark time coming. But remember two things. First, if you have accepted Christ as your Savior then you won't be here. Second, Jesus himself is going to step in. The cliche it is always darkest before the dawn is applicable here. The passage tells us that Jesus will destroy the man of lawlessness by the breath of his mouth. What exactly does this mean? I think at the very least the idea is that the epitome of evil will be no match for Jesus. But as I think about it, I am reminded that breath is part of life. Think about it, breathing is fundamental to living, when God made Adam he breathed life into him. I wonder if there is not some sort of meaning here. The living Savior is the one who defeats the epitome of evil. The splendor of Christ's Second coming and Kingdom will bring destruction on evil.

Recognize the basic traits of Satan's deceptive works (9-12).

Here is something interesting, the name of the Antichrist is never given in Scripture. We have some information, he is called the man of lawlessness, in Revelation, we are told his number is 666, but we can only guess as to what that means. Why is that? Because his name is not worth mentioning, it is not what we are to focus on. Yes, these things are coming and we need to be aware of them but the point in not the details. The point is for us to realize that sitting behind all of this is the work of Satan and by understanding our enemy we can be better prepared to resist our enemy.

So what do we learn about Satan's methodology? Satan is a counterfeit!

Wickedness that deceives those who don't know Christ!

Have you ever watched someone fall for something that you see as clearly wrong?

Image: Emanuel Cleaver end his prayer with Amen and A Women. (Jan 2021)

Back in January 2021 I was shocked when Representative Emanuel Cleaver ended his prayer with the words amen and a woman but what shocked me more was how many people didn't see anything wrong with it. The man had a clear misunderstanding of the word amen but instead of admitting a mistake or bad choice some dug their heels in. The fact is that people's minds can be blinded to the truth. Throughout all of this we need an important reminder.

When someone rejects God, God sends them a powerful delusion so they believe the lie.

I cannot be dogmatic on this, but I do wonder if even this is an act of grace on God's part. Rejecting God leads to hardening and anger, by believing the lie perhaps that hardening is actually not as bad as it would be.

So now let me work to bring this to an application. What we have learned is that there is real evil in the world. There is deceptive teaching, and it will get worse. However, Jesus will ultimately destroy evil. Let me ask, are you content with waiting for Jesus? This does not mean we do nothing. Remember I think the Holy Spirit is working through us to restrain evil. We should vote wisely, we should take evil seriously. However, it should not consume us. We are never going to solve the evil problems in the world. That is something that only Christ can do.

MTR: Perform a humility check, are you content waiting for Jesus to act to destroy evil while taking your responsibility to defend righteousness seriously?

What follows in verses 13-17 is a bridge in Paul's letter from teaching focussed on the future to teaching focussed on present living in light of the future.

Deceptive teaching cannot prevail against the truth of the Gospel (13-17).

The truth of the Gospel is the solution to the deception of the world (13-14).

The deception of the world is real but again, that should not be our focus. We need to be aware of the evils of the world. We cannot just stick our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is awesome as in the Lego Movie. We must admit there are problems but neither can we focus on those problems we must remember that

God has chosen to save us

The initiative for salvation comes from God. This is consistent throughout the NT. We are saved from sin because God chose to save us from sin. This means we should not take any personal pride in our salvation but rather as we look at the deception and evil of the world we should give God all the more glory because he has saved us from that.

The result of salvation is sharing in the glory of Christ.

So, it is all about God, but in His grace, he chooses to allow us to participate!

The truth of the Gospel can be found in Scripture (15).

We no longer have the word of mouth of the apostles but we do have their writings and we should stand true based entirely upon those writings. The solution to deceptive teaching is the message of Scripture. The key here is to stand firm in Scripture. We are not to be swept away by false teaching. We are not to be swept into discouragement by false teaching. We are to be grounded in Scripture.

Hope and encouragement come from God (16-17).

Ultimately, we turn to God for encouragement. Don't let deception get you down!