Sunday, November 9th 2025
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost (27C)
Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, 13-17
Sermon Audio
As we gather… Someone once said, “If I knew tomorrow the world was going to end, I would still go through with my plans today to plant my cherry tree.” In Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, he issues dire warnings and paints fearful pictures of what life will be like in the end times. He warns of the man of lawlessness who will reveal himself and cause chaos. Nonetheless, he comforts them telling them not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed. Likewise, he writes, “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” When the world is falling apart, we still plant the cherry tree. We stay steadfast in the promises of God, continuing to worship, continuing to pray, and continuing to seek God’s will in His Word. Whether good times or bad, we trust the Lord even if the world is ending.
As the leaves on the tree start to fall and it starts to look like winter, we get ready for the end of the church year. The Church year ends at the end of November and a new year starts in December with the season of Advent. As we approach the end of the Church Year, we also discuss topics having to do with the end of the world. Our Epistle reading from 2 Thessalonians deals with the end of the world. The Church in Thessalonica was worried they missed the end of the world. Paul offers them comfort in the midst of uncertain times. These words of comfort are also for us. Today we learn: BECAUSE THE FATHER CHOSE YOU, THE SPIRIT PRESERVES YOU FROM THE REBELLION UNTIL THE SON RETURNS.
First, I. The rebellion shakes and alarms. Our text starts “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,”
Paul is telling them that Christ won’t come until the rebellion happens and the man of lawlessness is revealed. The word rebellion is the Greek word apostasy. In English, the word apostasy means to renounce one’s faith. Jesus Himself warned that in the end times, “…many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.” The loss of faith characterizes the end times.
Many speculate as to who this man of lawlessness is. Many consider this man of lawlessness to be the antichrist. Only John in his first and second epistle use the term antichrist. But Jesus also talks about false Christs who will arise in the last days.
John writes, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” John doesn’t just speak of one antichrist, but many antichrists. Paul tells us the antichrist is the one “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.” There are plenty of things and people that can take the place of Christ in our lives. Family, sports, work, or our hobbies. These all can take their seat in the temple of God proclaiming themselves to be gods.
In our society, there are plenty of antichrists who seek to lead us astray. The newest smooth talking preacher on the television claims if you just say the right prayer, riches can be yours. Politicians promise that if you vote for them that you don’t need heaven, because they can bring it to you right here right now.
As these antichrists take their place, as people fall away and are misled, we too can be shaken as those who we once thought would be faithful to the end stray away. We too can be tempted to do the same. Nonetheless, we have a word of hope, Christ will make things right.
II. The Son will return to defeat the rebellion. Our text continues, “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.” One of the hymns in the old Lutheran Hymnal is “The world is very evil” The first half of the first stanza goes, “The world is very evil, The times are waxing late; Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate;” Indeed, as we look at the world around us, we can see the ways in which the world is very evil.
But the stanza ends with a word of hope, “The Judge that comes in mercy, The Judge that comes with might, To terminate the evil, To diadem the right.” Things may be dark all around us, but there’s hope that Christ is coming again to make all things right. He will come to defeat the antichrist and ultimately to chain the devil forever. The things that bother us so much will be destroyed at the appearance of his coming. The false gods that take the place in the temples of our hearts will be taken from their thrones and we’ll see all that matters are the things of God.
We live in a world where we think evil is getting away with it. We live in a world where many fall away and we wonder if we’ve reached the high water mark of the Church and it’s just downhill from here. Even if it is true that the Church will enter a period of decline and a period of apostasy, we know that the best is yet to come.
As we look at this epistle text from 2 Thessalonians, we have hope that Christ is coming again. The day of the Lord’s return has not yet arrived, and we’re not going to miss it. There will come a day where we will be gathered together at Christ’s coming, and we will live in a world without suffering, without tears, without death, and without sin. Despite grim outward appearances, there is still hope for the future as we gather here as we approach the end of the world.
We don’t know the day of Christ’s return, but each day is one day closer to that day when Christ comes to defeat evil and to crown the righteous. The day is drawing near when Jesus will end your suffering. What a wonderful message of hope!
But until then, III. The Father chose you and the Spirit preserves you. Paul continues, “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits 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.”
Despite all the chaos in the world around us, it’s important to understand that the Father chose you. Your salvation is not anything that you decided for yourself. Before eternity the Lord saw you in love and predestined you for eternal life with Him in heaven.
We have to admit, that if it were up to us, we would have fallen away long ago in the rebellion, the apostasy. We would have strayed away. But the Lord chose us. Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” We have been appointed for salvation. What a great comfort!
You take hold of this gift through belief in the truth. The Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with his gifts, sanctified and kept you in the true faith. Despite this being a bad news world, the Lord has called you by the Gospel, the good news that even though we sin daily, the Lord even more richly forgives our sins through His death and resurrection.
The Holy Spirit uses this truth to sanctify you, that is to make you holy. To be holy is to be set apart, to be like God, and to belong to God’s family. Even in a world where things fall apart and tragedy strikes, you are part of God’s family and you are safe in the family of Christ’s Church. The Holy Spirit is working in your heart to help others out of this mad, mad world into the community of faith where things make sense and we have hope, even at the end of the world.
How then do we live in the midst of the rebellion as we await Christ’s second coming? Paul concludes, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” We keep busy with the acts of piety the Lord has given us to do which are to hear His Word, pray, and receive His sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
Our text starts with the coming of Christ and being gathered to Him. The only other time this gathered together word occurs is in Hebrews 10, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” We stand firm at the end of the world and get ready to be gathered to Christ even as we gather together for regular worship wherein we hear God’s Word, pray, and receive the Lord’s Supper.
Christ destroys the man of lawlessness, that antichrist through the breath of his mouth and the appearance of His coming, so regularly hear God’s word preached which is the breath of Christ’s mouth, and await the appearance of Christ’s coming through the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. Stand firm in what Christ has given you even as the Father has appointed you for eternity. Have peace in the fellowship of saints, and before you know it, we will be standing before Christ, the king who reigns forever. Amen.