Fake News
Year C - 2021-2022 • Sermon • Submitted
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1 Brothers and sisters, we have a request for you concerning our Lord Jesus Christ’s coming and when we are gathered together to be with him.
2 We don’t want you to be easily confused in your mind or upset if you hear that the day of the Lord is already here, whether you hear it through some spirit, a message, or a letter supposedly from us.
3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. That day won’t come unless the rebellion comes first and the person who is lawless is revealed, who is headed for destruction.
4 He is the opponent of every so-called god or object of worship and promotes himself over them. So he sits in God’s temple, displaying himself to show that he is God.
5 You remember that I used to tell you these things while I was with you, don’t you?
6 Now you know what holds him back so that he can be revealed when his time comes.
7 The hidden plan to live without any law is at work now, but it will be secret only until the one who is holding it back is out of the way.
8 Then the person who is lawless will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath from his mouth. When the Lord comes, his appearance will put an end to him.
9 When the person who is lawless comes, it will happen through Satan’s effort, with all kinds of fake power, signs, and wonders.
10 It will happen with every sort of wicked deception of those who are heading toward destruction because they have refused to love the truth that would allow them to be saved.
11 This is why God will send them an influence that will mislead them so that they will believe the lie.
12 The result will be that everyone will be judged who is not convinced by the truth but is happy with injustice.
13 But we always must thank God for you, brothers and sisters who are loved by God. This is because he chose you from the beginning to be the first crop of the harvest. This brought salvation, through your dedication to God by the Spirit and through your belief in the truth.
14 God called all of you through our good news so you could possess the honor of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions we taught you, whether we taught you in person or through our letter.
16 Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and a good hope.
17 May he encourage your hearts and give you strength in every good thing you do or say.
Fake News
Fake News
Have you ever known someone who wouldn’t know the truth if it smacked them in the face?
Bishop Wright wrote about Horatio Nelson in his commentary on this passage. He wrote
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians The Lawless One (2 Thessalonians 2:1–12)
Horatio Nelson (1758–1805), England’s most famous naval commander, is remembered for many things; but one of the best-known incidents in his life occurred when he was leading the siege at Copenhagen in 1801. He was informed of a signal instructing him to withdraw, which he was determined not to do. He had lost his right eye in battle seven years previously; so, placing his telescope to that eye, he declared that he really did not see the signal. He was telling the truth at one level, but was of course remaining wilfully blind to wider truth which he did not, at that moment, choose to acknowledge.
The problem with a habit of lying is that you have to remember all of the lies that you have told. If you don’t remember the lies then you just might get tripped up.
Sadly as Christians we can get caught in believing lies that others tell. Every day at my work I have people lie to me. I know they are lying, hopefully they realize that they are lying, and sometimes I call them on their lying. They lie because they want to paint a better picture than what is really the truth.
The problem with people like that who create a web of lies around themselves that they end of creating a false world around themselves.
Sadly, sometimes it is deeply religious people who create that false world and believe that they are right and everyone else is wrong.
Have you ever gotten caught up in believing a rumor? Our former president liked to use the phrase “fake news” when speaking about the mainstream news media. The University of California at Santa Barbara on their website defined fake news this way:
The term fake news means “news articles that are intentionally and verifiably false” [1] designed to manipulate people’s perceptions of real facts, events, and statements. It’s about information presented as news that is known by its promoter to be false based on facts that are demonstrably incorrect, or statements or events that verifiably did not happen. [1]
Rumors or fake news are nothing new. Christians can be easy targets of fake news or rumors. We want to believe that someone who is called a pastor or respected Christian is telling the truth.
The Thessalonians had fallen for some fake news. Paul opens this passage with these words
1 Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we will be gathered to meet him.
He said there “let us clarify some things.” Some people are really good at hearing what they want to hear. It really isn’t a hearing problem but rather a listening problem. I teach my patients about the importance of active listening all of the time. It’s important so that you are focused on what is being said so that you don’t miss something important. Paul says let us clarify some things because they had missed what he had previously taught them.
If you go back and read his first letter to them, he wrote about the second coming of Jesus. He spent time in Thessalonica and taught them personally about the second coming of Jesus.
Apparently there were some who came into the church and began to teach something entirely different than what Paul had instructed them about Jesus coming. Look there at verse 2
2 Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us.
Rumors or fake news are generally designed to stir up people. As a pastor I have a duel role when it comes to ministering to you. One role is to be a source of comfort and stability in a time when people are clamoring for peace and stability in their lives. The second role is to stir you up to get you to think about your relationship with God and others, to urge you on in ministering to others. It is a very fine line that I walk. Pastor Donna Schaper wrote “ministers can't be trusted if they are only telling people what they want to hear.”
It is uncomfortable to hear what I need to hear. It is easy to listen to what I want to hear.
Paul is telling them to not get “easily shaken or alarmed.” Some were coming among them and were saying that the day of the Lord had already begun.
We have to exercise caution if someone claims to have some new knowledge or they claim that the “Spirit” spoke to them. The Apostle John told use to test the spirits.
1 Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world.
2 This is how you know if a spirit comes from God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come as a human is from God,
3 and every spirit that doesn’t confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world.
Just as in John’s day, there are many false prophets out there. We have to test to see what they are saying aligns with the Scriptures.
Take a look at verse 5, he says 2 Thes 2:5 “5 You remember that I used to tell you these things while I was with you, don’t you?”
He’s reminding them that he had already taught them about the coming of the Lord. Hundreds if not thousands of books have been written about the coming of the Lord. There was the entire Left Behind series. There have been countless false prophets who have claimed to know the exact day and hour the Jesus was going to return.
There is much speculation about when Jesus will return. Will there be a rapture first, the great tribulation second, and then the second coming of Jesus or will it be the great tribulation and then the second coming of Jesus. There is evidence for either view and for many other views.
What will happen before Jesus returns?
Paul states emphatically states
3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. That day won’t come unless the rebellion comes first and the person who is lawless is revealed, who is headed for destruction.
Two things Paul says that will happen.
1 - the rebellion comes first. The word rebellion used here is where we get the word “apostasy.” Apostasy is the rejection of faith of God. It is a rejection of the Christian faith.
Paul wrote about this great rebellion in his letter to Timothy. He wrote:
1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
We are definitely seeing this today. We see it happening with individuals who turn their backs on the cross and walk away from the Christian faith.
I don’t think there has ever been a time in Church history where we have seen the wholesale desertion of the Christian faith by denominations. One by one, entire denominations have created a muddy mess by welcoming sinful behavior into the very leadership of their denominations. The Episcopal Church, several branches of the Lutheran Church, several branches of the Presbyterian Church, and now the un-United Methodist Church.
Sadly this has to happen before Jesus comes again. Those in leadership in these denominations will be held accountable to God and be judged by Jesus for leading people astray.
The second thing that Paul would happen is that the “person who is lawless is revealed, who is headed for destruction.” The anti-christ. He is known by many names throughout the Bible. He will want to put himself in the place of God to be worshipped.
Paul wrote about how this will happen. Look at verses 9-10
8 Then the person who is lawless will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath from his mouth. When the Lord comes, his appearance will put an end to him.
9 When the person who is lawless comes, it will happen through Satan’s effort, with all kinds of fake power, signs, and wonders.
10 It will happen with every sort of wicked deception of those who are heading toward destruction because they have refused to love the truth that would allow them to be saved.
Who is behind all of this? Satan. All sorts of “fake news.” will be used. Fake power, fake signs, and fake wonders. He is the master of deception. There will be every sort of wicked deception.
What is the hope that we can take from this? Well Paul does not leave us wondering he says beginning there in verse 13:
13 We always have to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, for you are dearly loved by the Lord. He proved it by choosing you from the beginning for salvation through the Spirit, who set you apart for holiness, and through your belief in the truth.
14 To this end he handpicked you for salvation through the gospel so that you would have the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This salvation is something that is to be lived out every day. God the Holy Spirit is the source of holiness. He gives us the power to live a life of holiness today. He gives us the power to remain steadfast in a world that is anything but stable.
There will be fake news and rumors. There will be false teachers. Our faith is to be found in the one who brought salvation. There will be hard times, there will be troubles and persecution.
But God! But God is greater.
31 So what are we going to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
32 He didn’t spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. Won’t he also freely give us all things with him?
[1] What is Fake News? (n.d.). Center for Information Technology and Society - UC Santa Barbara. Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://cits.ucsb.edu/fake-news/what-is-fake-news