2 Thessalonians 1:5-10: Will the Second Coming Bring Relief or Reckoning?

Scripture reading and opening prayer

Our text today is out of 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. You’ll see it in your bulletin if you’d like. It’s on the back of the announcements page. And I’m going to start in verse 1 and just read through verse 10. We’re going to really concentrate on 5 through 10. This is 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Paul, Silas, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches, we boast about your perseverance and and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering. God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed. This is God’s word.

Let me pray for us. Psalm 119 Indignation grips me because of the wicked who have forsaken your law. Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge. In the night, Lord, I remember your name that I may keep your law. This has been my practice. I obey your precepts. Lord, once again, as we read these words, we’re reminded of our Lord Jesus who alone can take these words to his lips honestly. And we pray that you will more and more conform us into his image even through considering today’s text. And we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

C. S. Lewis on immortals and eternal destiny 3 min mark

Excuse me. I still remember reading C. S. Lewis’s book The Weight or is it addressed The Weight of Glory right after I graduated from college. Lewis says it is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses. To remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship. Or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet if at all only in a nightmare. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit. Immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. Today’s text clearly affirms that each one of us is marching inexorably toward either eternal glory or eternal regret.

The Thessalonian church and persecution 4 min mark

You’ll recall the The church was birthed in the crucible of persecution. Paul came. He and a few others planted this church and it wasn’t long until he was kicked out of town. And this church remained. And Paul writes them two letters and 2 Thessalonians goes into particular detail about Jesus’ second coming. There will either be a day of relief or a day of reckoning. And that’s you’ll see it in your bulletin. If you’re following and taking notes, I’ve got lines for those of you who like to fill in the blanks. Um relief or reckoning.

Three facets of relief and judgment 4 min mark

Paul calls our attention to three facets. First of all, with respect to relief of this day of relief. It will be confirmed with evidence. Confirmed with evidence. It will be characterized by justice. And it will be consummated in glory. Evidence, justice, glory. Are those three lines? First of all, it will be confirmed with evidence. So, look at verse five. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God. Now, when you see a relative pronoun like this, you say, “What’s it refer to?” Well, it refers to what we just talked about last week. Which that’s why I put that in the text above. It refers to what he just said in verses three through five.

Church identity, maturity, and endurance 5 min mark

Do you remember from last week three things he um he talked about in this introduction that came to light. First of all, their identity and these three um these three prepositions that we talked about. To the church of the Thessalonians. They are objects of God’s affection. In in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So, that union with God the Father through our union with Jesus Christ. And grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, recipients of God’s grace and mercy. That’s their identity. Their identity in him. And then their maturity, verse three, we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more. They’re maturing in the love all of you have for one another is increasing. And then you see their sustained endurance, thirdly, in verse four, therefore, among God’s churches, we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

Now, then and remember what we noticed about all of these truths about the church is God is enabling all of this. He’s thanking God for their maturity. He’s not saying, “Hey, you guys are doing great. Keep, you know, pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. You’re doing great.” No, he’s thanking God that these people are maturing, that they are enduring, that they are that this identity that God has given to them is theirs. So, Paul looks at their identity, maturity, and endurance, and he says, “All of this this is evidence.”

Evidence presented in the court of heaven 7 min mark

Now, the word evidence there means basically what it means in English. It but it has a particular It’s a It’s a pretty uh powerful word in the sense that it’s used of evidence or proof that’s presented in a public forum. A trial that was strong enough to convict, to secure a conviction. That’s what it means. This is that kind of evidence. You know, your honor, I submit into evidence um you know, exhibit A1. Paul says that this evidence of their identity, maturity, and endurance bears witness, notice, to two things. First, the righteous judgment of God. Paul is saying that the church’s gospel identity, the church’s gospel identity, Christian maturity, and sustained endurance in the teeth of persecution and trials will be evidence admissible into the court of heaven of the righteous judgement of God.

Let me put this another way. No one will dare to question whether God is righteous when he judges those who have tormented the church. Because on that day the proof will be in the pudding. All the ways in which the life of Christ was revealed in our lives. Well, it’s it’s like the security cameras will suddenly play back the tapes. And you’ll see those times, the world will see those times, when we prayed for our enemies. When we turned the other cheek. When we answered gently when we were accused falsely. When we obeyed whenever we felt like throwing in the towel. When we chose purity when no one else was looking. When we met anger with humility. When we met need with compassion. When we met slander with kindness. When we trusted God against all odds. It’s amazing. On the great day of judgement when Jesus comes again, some of the evidence that God’s judgement is righteous will be evidence derived from the life of the church. From your and my daily life. Isn’t that interesting? God will be vindicated by your obedience and faithfulness. Evidence of the Spirit working in us. The church’s identity, maturity, and endurance will be evidence of this.

Worthiness of the kingdom of God 10 min mark

It will also be evidence of something else. Notice what else it’s evidence of. That you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering. Now, the kingdom of God is a central teaching in the Bible. It’s very In fact, we pray for it every Sunday. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When Jesus came, he came as the king. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news. But he did not come as a conquering king when he came first. He came as a servant king. And he willingly laid down his life and offered up himself as a substitute to atone for the sins of his people.

In fact, it’s Psalm 72. What did he What did the king do? Well, he defended the afflicted among the people. He saved the children of the needy. He delivered the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He took pity on the weak and the needy. He rescued them from oppression and violence. This is what our king is like. And here Paul is saying that as we follow that same As we follow Christ, we will follow that same pattern.

Pattern of growth 11 min mark

So, last week we saw another pattern. Remember if you remember, it was the There’s a pattern of growth, right? Your your faith and your love are increasing. That is a design principle that God has written into the universe. Things grow, and Christians grow. That’s a pattern. Well, there’s another pattern here. And that is that God That growth

will proceed along the lines of suffering and resistance. That’s how growth happens. Suffering and resistance. Even as Christ suffered, so we will suffer. Even as humiliation preceded exaltation for Jesus, it will be the same for us. The cross comes before the crown.

Union with Christ through suffering 12 min mark

Part and parcel of union with Christ is, as Paul says in Philippians 3, participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. There’s the pattern. God conforms us to the image of Christ through union with him in his suffering.

The pattern of spiritual growth 12 min mark

I remember seminary days hearing someone talk about the Christian life, the It’s this pattern of growth. It’s like a guy walking up the stairs with a yo-yo. So, the trajectory is growth, but at any given time, I mean, we all know. We understand this. You know, it may be a day, it may be a week, it may be a month, it may be years where you feel like you’re at the bottom of the yo-yo, you know, swing, and there’s your life. It’s like it’s hard. It’s difficult. It’s It’s suffering. It’s persecution.

And oddly enough, the times It’s those times whenever we’re sort of at the bottom of the arc there, those are probably the times when we will look back and say, “That’s when I grew the most.” You know, it’s just It’s just the way it is. Because this is the pattern. We grow through suffering. We grow through difficulty. The faithful suffering of the church after the pattern of Christ sustained sustained by the spirit is evidence that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God. It’s evidence of your citizenship.

The day of relief characterized by justice 13 min mark

The day of relief for the church will be confirmed with evidence. The day of relief for the church secondly will be characterized by justice. Specifically two aspects of justice Paul calls our attention to. The justice of retribution verse 5. God is just, he will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and we’re going to get to that in just a minute. But for now this day of the Lord will be characterized by the justice of relief. The justice of relief. He will give relief. This is 7A, verse 7A. He will give relief to you who are troubled. This is a specific promise from God. If you’re troubled, he will give you relief.

And this is a very important promise because trouble, persecution, tends to either our own persecution trouble or that experienced by those we love tends to eclipse everything else in our field of vision. We see this trouble and it’s very difficult to get around. It’s very difficult to not think about. It keeps us awake at night.

The perspective of Psalm 73 15 min mark

Asaph, the author of Psalm 73, knew this feeling. Here’s what he says. He says, “I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. I envied the wicked. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens. They’re not plagued by human ills. This is what the wicked are like, always free of care. They go on amassing wealth. They scoff and speak with malice. With arrogance they threaten oppression. Surely in vain I’ve kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted. And every morning brings new punishment.”

There it is, the wealthy wicked and the righteous afflicted and poor. He says, “When I tried to understand all this it troubled me deeply until I entered the sanctuary of God.” Asaph only got his perspective whenever he went in and worshipped. He regained it there. He said, “Then when I entered the sanctuary of God, then I understood their final destiny.” Surely you place them on slippery ground. You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors. They’re like a dream when one awakes. When you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.

So when he entered the holy place, he saw the Lord high and exalted and on his throne and sovereign over governing all of the affairs of mankind. He knew the relief that comes with God’s justice. And so he continues. He says, “Yet I’m all This is the psalm saying Yet I’m always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? Earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Do Notice that. “Whom have I in heaven but you?” See, there’s the point. The great relief is that I have God as my blessedness and reward. I have him personally. Not just knowledge about him. I have a relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ. He will give relief to you who are troubled, and that relief looks like a person. The person of Jesus Christ.

Relief consummated in glory 17 min mark

A day of relief is coming. It will be confirmed with evidence. It will be characterized by justice. And thirdly, it will be consummated in glory. Verse 10. Well, and seven. Look at verse seven. He will grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven. Skip down to verse 10. When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.

Paul reminds the suffering church that on that great day of Jesus Christ appearing the Lord will be revealed from heaven, and we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And there’ll be no more sorrow and no more tears and no more folly and no more sin. And this is so wonderfully this idea of when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed, it’s so wonderfully captured in this hymn, The Sands of Time Are Sinking. That that verse in particular, this verse. The bride eyes not her garment. So, the bride isn’t going, “Man, I look good.” She’s saying it’s it says, “The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom’s face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my king of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hands. The lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel’s land.”

It’s him, person-focused. He is. The day of relief is coming. Confirmed with evidence, characterized by justice, consummated in glory.

The day of reckoning for the unbelieving 19 min mark

Now, contrast this with Jesus day of reck- this this aspect of the second coming is a day of reckoning for all who have not trusted Christ. Look at verse 6. God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you. Skip to verse 7b. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. And I notice three aspects of this eternal reckoning.

The justice of retribution 20 min mark

First of all, the justice of retribution. The justice of retribution. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you. This is the biblical concept of retributive justice. And it is a biblical idea. It derives from the holiness of God. That God cannot overlook sin and he will not overlook sin. He will punish sin and he will punish it proportionally. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

So, here’s the deal though. Sin against an infinite God is an infinite sin that requires infinite punishment. So, why aren’t all of us swept up in the in the justice of retribution? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and there is none righteous, not even one. And this is precisely why we need the gospel. Retributive justice was ultimately satisfied when Jesus Christ took our sin upon his own body on the tree and God poured out his justice, his just wrath. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As he died in our place, bearing the retributive justice of God.

And it’s satisfying. This is why Isaiah 53 is so piercing to us. He Isaiah a ahead toward Jesus. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him and by his wounds were healed. Retributive justice. Poured out upon Christ. But poured out upon those who have not trusted Christ if they don’t flee to him.

And for the church now, the suffering persecuted, oppressed church, God will pay back those who trouble you. So Christians who take are are troubled at the hands of troublers can take comfort that a day of reckoning is coming.

The comfort of future justice 22 min mark

I was reading an article in the Banner of Truth magazine about a by a missionary and he was talking about the difficulties that missionaries often face. Very dark times often times. You go in the mission field and then you get malaria five times and then you you know, and all and and it’s hard. You’re trying to learn a language and no one’s responding and you’re in a different and your team is at each other’s throats and it’s just very difficult. And he talked about the persecution that you endure as well and he he remembered he said often times I’ll remember Adoniram Judson. He was a Baptist missionary in the early 1800s in Burma. Well, he was accused you know, he was a spy, right? Well, I know he was a Christian missionary and so they wanted to get rid of him. So they persecuted him and they put him in the death prison. And can you imagine a Burmese prison in the early 1800s? So

What they would do at night is they would so their feet were fettered together and they would put a bamboo pole between their legs and hoist their feet up so that only their head and shoulders were on the ground and their feet were in the air and that’s how they slept all night.

See, the church suffers this kind of persecution even to this day. Our brothers and sisters around the world, many of them suffer like this. This is good news. Retributive justice is very good news for Christians who suffer at the hands of troublers. And no persecutor, no enemy of the church will escape God’s retributive justice.

The day of reckoning and God’s vengeance 23 min mark

The day of reckoning will also be a day of vengeance. Look at verse 8. See, persecuting the church is a horrible crime. But it’s not the worst crime. Here’s the worst one. He will inflict vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, unbelief and stiff-arming God, that’s the sin that will cast you into hell. Cuz you won’t repent. You won’t trust. And God’s vengeance awaits those who commit this sin against God. The background of this idea is Deuteronomy 32:35. It is mine to avenge. I will repay.

Justice and love reconciled on the cross 24 min mark

And now, if you’re a Christian here this morning, or maybe you’re just visiting, I don’t know what your experience has been with this truth of vengeance or retributive justice. I do know that in some Christian circles, this becomes a sort of fire and brimstone beating over the head sort of there’s no love of God, there’s only vengeance. In other places, there’s only love and there’s no vengeance.

See, the the cross is where the two meet. His justice and his love are reconciled on the cross. His righteous wrath is satisfied, but Christ is the one who bears it. Let that melt your heart. If you’ve had a difficult experience with this idea. Just stay take a take a step back and see that that justice, that righteous justice fell upon Christ on for you. From the hands of a loving father.

It’s the ultimate loving command, believe and live. And to disobey that command is to die. Receive and rest upon Christ alone and live. He will inflict vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what he means by obeying, believe.

Eternal punishment and the nature of hell 26 min mark

For some, Christ’s second coming will be day of reckoning, retribution, vengeance, and finally eternal punishment, verse nine. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. This is hell.

Notice it’s punishment. It’s eternal. And it’s separation from God’s glory presence. It’s not separation from God. God is present everywhere where all of him. But he’s present in wrath. And those in hell are getting what they want. They want to rule their own lives. And that’s what they’re getting. And it’s hell.

One theologian, you know, well, we’ll get there in a second. Jesus describes it as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, of torment. Hebrews 12:29, our God is a consuming fire. One theologian put it like this, the New Testament teaching about hell is meant to appall us and strike us dumb with with horror. Convincing us that just as eternal life with God will be better than we could dream, so eternal punishment will be worse than we could conceive.

When the 2nd century bishop Polycarp was accused and sentenced for not worshipping the emperor, the and he’s going to be burned at the stake, the Roman official says, “I will cause you to be consumed by fire.” To which Polycarp reportedly replied, “You threaten me with fire that burns for an hour and after a little while is extinguished, but you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly.”

And then they burned him. And I think they had to stab him because he didn’t quite die whenever he was burning.

The coming revelation of Christ 28 min mark

A day is coming when the Lord Jesus Christ will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, and it will either be Again, I’m just a messenger. According to scripture, it will either be a day of relief, confirmed with evidence, characterized by justice, consummated in glory, or it will be a day of reckoning. Retribution, vengeance, eternal punishment.

C.S. Lewis on the two possibilities 28 min mark

We began with C.S. Lewis. From Weight of Glory, let me close with it as well. At the end of it, he writes, “In the New Testament, we are warned that it may happen to any one of us to appear at last before the face of God and hear only the appalling words, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me.'”

“In some sense, as dark to the intellect as it is unendurable to the feelings, we can be both banished from the presence of him who is present everywhere and erased from the knowledge of him who knows all. We can be left utterly and absolutely outside, repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored.”

“On the other hand, we can be called in, welcomed, received, acknowledged. And the difference between these two incredible possibilities is not our political affiliation, it’s not our philanthropy, it’s not our resume, it’s not our religious sincerity, it’s simply this, as Jesus said in John 17:3, ‘This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.'”

Closing prayer 30 min mark

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, this is a um sobering text, but it’s good for us to remember that there is a day coming. It is as certain as the sun rising this morning. You will come in your glory with your mighty angels in flaming fire.

And some will run for the hills and beg the rocks to fall upon them that they might escape from the glory of the Lord. And yet, the sky will be rolled up like a scroll, the sun and the moon will darken, and we will stand before the great throne of our king, and you will separate the sheep from the goats. And it will be perfect. And will not the judge of all the earth do what is right? You will.

Oh, Lord, until that day we pray that you will make us faithful to trust in our Lord Jesus Christ, to receive and rest upon him alone, and then to live out the obedience of faith in union with him by the spirit.

Father, we pray for Christ Community Church that we will be a light to Chapel Hill and this area. And we pray for those who are missionaries sent out by this church that you would help them and strengthen them in their very difficult work of bringing the gospel uh generally as uh as American citizens in other countries where they’re learning different languages, they’re learning different cultures.

And we pray for them that you would sustain them and support them and help them and strengthen them and give them the hope of this great day toward which they are running full on. And Lord, may we all do that.

And Lord, often times this obedience works itself out in very specific and quiet ways. We pray for Kevin Allman as his mother is slowly declining and soon will be with you. And we thank you for the months and months of faithful service to his mother that he and his brother and sister have rendered to her.

And we pray that you would usher her into the kingdom soon and free her from her afflictions and bring her into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, we pray for our friends and family who don’t know the Lord and ask that you would help us to be winsome and gentle and bold witnesses of Christ. Father, we pray that you would make us useful and faithful as we follow you.

And thank you, Lord, that we can now uh take this supper that you prepared for us. And we pray that you will minister to us as we believe the promises therein. In Jesus’ name. Amen.