Sermon Tone Analysis

Initial Thoughts

Outline:

So Paul first identified the nature of the error (2:1–3)

Contradicted it by a full exposition of appropriate truth (2:4–12)

Expression of confidence in the Thessalonians’ stability (13–17)(Stott).

Concerning eschatology and the many views, the old joke is, “I’m a pan-millenialist!

I’m on board with however it all ‘pans’ out.”

In other words, how important is the program or system of eschatology; rather than the practical importance of eschatology?

One thing is clear about Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian church that we cannot miss; and that is Christian’s have a hope and purpose in life that should not inhibit our growth, the truth of the gospel, or the glory of Christ and His church.

More succinctly spoken, “In view of the future God has planned, what can give our lives meaning and purpose?

What can we do that our lives will not be wasted?”

In thinking about what Paul says to the Thessalonians; we have to think about how this yet-future event might shape our lives today.

Excuse Me, I Must Have Been Wrong

How many of you have began to learn something new; but then after having been instructed in that new information, later had questions about how to practically work it out?

While you were learning, did you have occasion to forget or practically come across an obstacle that caused you to track down some solution to the problem; or even cause you to get upset, troubled, anxious, or even cause you to bring into question what you first learned?

It seems that some in Thessalonica reasoned that, since the Lord might come at any moment, it made little sense to plan ahead.

Why even work, if Jesus might come before evening?

Why plan, or prepare for the future, if Jesus’ arrival might make any preparations a moot point?

So those who reasoned this way simply sat back, idle, and refused to work!

They let other Christians feed them, and sat around gossiping their lives away.

The fact that Jesus may come at any moment does not mean that He will come during our lifetimes!

God calls us, not to sit and wait, but to be actively and responsibly involved in the affairs of this life.

Paul wrote very bluntly:

You yourselves know how you ought to follow our example.

We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it.

On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.

We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

When was the last time you were concerned with the “coming of Jesus” or “when we will be gathered to Him?”

This is exactly what the Thessalonian church was concerned with…so much so that Paul used words like ‘shaken,’ or ‘startled’ to describe the countenance of the people.

He says in v.5, “Don’t you remember that when I was still with you I told you about this?”

In fact, because of the unspoken familiarity between Paul and the Thessalonian church, Dr Leon Morris, stated that ‘This passage is probably the most obscure and difficult in the whole of the Pauline writings and the many gaps in our knowledge have given rise to extravagant speculations.’

This is what I have kind of mentioned to you before about speculating what the Scripture says, instead of resting with what God had revealed to us.

We came across this in our study of 2 Thessalonians 1, regarding the “clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment.... for which you are also suffering” What can we say in regards to the fact that we DO NOT UNDERSTAND or KNOW WHY we suffer?

He also does not tell us everything about the future.

Is He giving us just enough information to increase our faith and allow us to depend upon Him?

In the interim, there will be those who speculate about specific times, dates, and places when Christ will return or when the Antichrist will appear.

They try to identify the leading characters of earth’s final days, naming individuals and speculating on how the nations will be aligned.

Books on the subject abound and religious doctrines have even been built upon these speculations.

After all the rhetoric, the supposed Antichrist fades from public life, or dies, and the anticipated day of Christ’s appearance comes and goes.

People are left disappointed, disillusioned, or cynical.

This is one of the reasons that Paul’s instructions are so very important.

We should not presume to know the mind of God; except where He reveals His mind to us.

By the way, If we only consider what happens in this life to matter; then maybe questioning God is valid.

But when we realize that God has set a future time to fulfill His role as Judge, then we might think differently.

….

When Jesus returns all will be reconciled.

Paul said that it was “with this in mind” that he shaped his prayers for the Thessalonians.

He did not pray that they might have relief now from their troubles.

Instead Paul prayed that God would continue to work among them, “so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ”.

Verse 2 says, not to be easily upset in mind or troubled

SHAKEN : σαλεύομαι: to become emotionally unsettled and distraught—‘to become unsettled, to be deeply distressed, to be upset.’

Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 314.

STARTLED θροέομαι: to be in a state of fear associated with surprise—‘to be startled.’

μηδὲ θροεῖσθαι μήτε διὰ πνεύματος μήτε διὰ λόγου

μήτε δἰ ἐπιστολῆς ὡς δἰ ἡμῶν, ὡς ὅτι ἐνέστηκεν ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ κυρίου ‘don’t be alarmed by some prophecy, report, or letter supposed to have come from us saying that the day of the Lord has already come’ 2 Th 2:2.

The single word unsettled translates a phrase meaning ‘shaken from your mind’, that is, from your conviction or composure.

The verb (saleuthēnai) is an aorist infinitive, referring to their initial upset, and was used of ‘ships being forced from their moorings by the pressure of a storm’.

Paul was not only concerned with them being shaken or startled in their countenance; but also about them being deceived by other ‘spirits, messages, or letters.’

Had the Thessalonians thought that Paul had changed his mind about what he had taught them?

Even if they thought the contrary information had come from Paul; would they have reason to deviate?

Very clearly, “the safeguard against deception and the remedy against false teaching were to hold on to the original teaching,” “which is still the test of truth and the shield against error.”

DAY OF THE LORD HAD COME?

Why did they become unsettled?

Because word was going around that the ‘day of the Lord’ that Paul had initially taught them about had already come.

‘Day of the Lord’ A Definition

In the Old Testament this time of worldwide trouble is given various names: “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” “that day,” “the Day of the Lord,” and “the Tribulation.”

Against this Old Testament background, the disciples would quickly identify this time.

Here are two examples:

Woe to you who long for the Day of the Lord!

Why do you long for the Day of the Lord?

That day will be darkness, not light.

Amos 5:18

The great Day of the Lord is near—near and coming quickly.

Listen!

The cry on the Day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there.

That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.

Zephaniah 1:14–15

In these two passages, who are the prophets speaking to?

In the past, they were concerned (1 Thes.

4:13–5:11) that the Parousia had not come quickly enough, since some of their friends had died before it had taken place; now their problem was that it had come too quickly.

SO, WHAT IS THE TRUTH?

Before Jesus comes again (the day of the LORD) some things have to happen first.

In other words, the ‘day of the LORD’ will be ushered in by these things.

He does not deny that Jesus’ coming will still be sudden and, to those unprepared for it, unexpected.

But, as he argued in his first letter, it will not take believers by surprise.

For they already belong to the day; and they know that the rebellion will herald its arrival.

-the ‘man of lawlessness or sin’ .... also known as (AKA) ‘the son of destruction’ will be revealed

He will be ‘anti-law’ or ‘law-less.’

The phrase ‘son of destruction’ is a Hebrew allusion to the fact, that his destiny is ruin.

Jesus himself predicted that, in the future, ‘Because of the increase of wickedness [anomia, ‘lawlessness’], the love of most will grow cold’..

Matthew 24:12

-an apostasy will come first: What is the apostasy?

The Greek word used by Paul is ἀνίσταμαιe: meaning to rise up in open defiance of authority, with the presumed intention to overthrow it or to act in complete opposition to its demands—‘to rebel against, to revolt, to engage in insurrection, rebellion.

Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 495.

The same word for rebellion occurs in Luke 21:9, “When you hear of wars and rebellions, don’t be alarmed.

Indeed, these things must take place first, but the end won’t come right away.”

So Luke brings to our minds Paul’s later teaching that some things have to take place first before we expect Jesus’ coming.

This will be an apostasy like none other: In reference to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas....and if you remember, he was referred to as the ‘son of perdition,’ John MacArthur said, “Monstrous as that apostasy was, it pales in comparison to the act of future apostasy Antichrist will commit.

Judas betrayed the Son of God; Antichrist will proclaim himself God.”

—In this apostasy, this ‘man of lawlessness’ will do three things:

—oppose and exalt himself above every god or object of worship