GATHERING UNTO HIM

GATHERING UNTO HIM

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 (KJV)

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

When it comes to prophecy – what God says will happen in the end of time,

The chapter we have before us is one of several major pieces in the prophetical puzzle of God’s holy Word.

I personally believe it sits on top of the pile of all those pieces in its importance.

It is the corner piece from which we can begin to put together the picture of God’s plan for the future.

The chapter begins with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The coming of the Lord is a term that describes several different things.

·   His coming as a baby

·   His coming for the saints

·   His coming with the saints

To really know what the coming of the Lord is a reference to, we need to study the context of each reference.

This chapter is one of the easiest to find what the “coming of the Lord” means in the text.

I see the key phrase of 2 Thessalonians 2 as in the last phrase of verse one…..

“…by our gathering together unto Him.”

That is without question a reference to the rapture, that point in the prophetical picture when the saints of God will be removed from this earth, to meet the Lord in the clouds.

·   1 Corinthians chapter 15 describes the particulars of the rapture

·   1 Thessalonians chapter 4 describes the order of resurrection and rapture and

·   2 Thessalonians 2 gives to us the details about where that rapture fits in the prophetical puzzle.

Having said all of that, I am not going to preach on the rapture itself this morning.

While those doctrinal truths are presented in the chapter, the goal of the chapter is greater than stuffing our heads with prophetical facts.

God’s Words has a response it requests of us based upon these truths….

The chapter begins, “we beseech you brethren….”

·   Because of the coming of Jesus Christ and

·   Because of our gathering together unto Him in particular

We beg of you certain important responses…..

And I find three of them in the chapter

First of all

I. DON’T BE SHAKEN

2 Thessalonians 2:2 (KJV)

That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

He uses two terms; shaken and troubled.

This world can do that to us.

·   Problems in the world

·   Pressures in workplace

·   Tensions in the home

·   Stresses in the church

All of it can shake and trouble us.

But he identifies several things that have been shaking those in Thessalonica

A. A certain spirit

You know how a person can have a certain sot of spirit that unnerves you?

·   Sometimes it is a guy who is mean spirited

·   Sometimes it is a guy who is creepy spirited

·   Sometimes it is a guy who is hard spirited

There was somebody in Thessalonica that had a “false spirit.”

They were claiming to have revelations from God that were contrary to the things that Paul had preached.

They were claiming that the spirit of God told them that Paul’s understanding of prophecy was wrong and that the Tribulation period had already begun, and these Christians would have to suffer in the Tribulation.

We still have people with that sort of spirit around today.

Some of them claim to be Baptists and

All of them I know have an arrogant, know it all spirit.

·   They think they are smarter than the rest of us.

·   They boast of understanding the Bible better than the rest of us and

·   They try to belittle us 

telling us we’ll be sorry we didn’t listen to their more enlightened spirit when we are suffering in the Tribulation.

Paul was never afraid to rebuke people who had wrong spirits about them

B. A certain speaker

Paul speaks of a word…..

So there was someone there who was preaching to them these false ideas of when the rapture happens in relation to the Tribulation.

A number of years ago, I was involved in a college down in California that sold the campus and relocated to Oklahoma City.

Of course such a move was not appreciated by everyone.

I can still remember my wife and I taking an evening walk on the campus and I could hear students in their dorms, preaching to the other students that they should rebel against the school leaders for organizing the move.

Somebody was trying to stir up the believers in Thessalonica by the word

C. A certain statement

Paul was an avid writer of course, having written more than half of the New Testament. 

And by this time he had already written one letter to the church there in Thessalonica.

Someone had a letter, or at least claimed to have a letter from Paul, supporting this new idea that Christians would have to go through the Tribulation and

That Thessalonica was already in the Tribulation.

·   In this chapter Paul outlined to them what had to happen before the Tribulation could begin

·   Paul told them what would happen after the Tribulation had begun and

·   Paul told them that because they would be gathered to the Lord when the Tribulation was going on

They did not need to be shaken or troubled.

We let too many things stir us up.

Some new preacher comes around

·   He has a charismatic way about him

·   He likes to use new gimmicks to draw a crowd and

·   His congregation seems to be growing quickly

And we get all shaken up about it… “What if the guys who taught us the Bible were wrong?”

The Bible says, don’t get shaken and troubled by all of that.

You stick to the old time faith.

·   First comes the resurrection of the Christians who have died in Christ

·   Immediately following that, the Christians who are alive and remain are caught up to meet the Lord in the air

·   Then the wicked one will be revealed and the Tribulation will begin

In that order.

Response number two, because of the return of Christ and the gathering of the Christians to Him

II. DON’T BE SWINDLED

2 Thessalonians 2:3 (KJV)

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Of course, the word is deceived.

And the message is a simple one… 

Don’t fall for the lie that the Rapture happens in the middle of or at the end of the Tribulation

The Bible lists several things that will happen as a part of the coming of the Tribulation

A. There will be a falling away, and the revelation of the man of sin (Anti-Christ)

2 Thessalonians 2:3 (KJV)

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

B. Someone will be taken away

2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 (KJV)

And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

Someone prevents the Antichrist from revealing himself. And that someone is eventually removed.

There are two ideas as to whom this is

1. The Holy Spirit

2. The Christians

I think it is a moot point to argue which because the Holy Spirit permanently indwells Christians.

·   If you take away the Christians, you take away the Holy Spirit and

·   If you take away the Holy Spirit You take away the Christians

The obvious lesson is precisely this, the man of sin cannot reveal himself until Christians are no longer on this planet.

·   Just as God would not destroy the world by flood until Noah and his family was safely shut up in the Ark and

·   Just as God would not rain fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah until Lot and his wife and daughters were removed

The Christians, with the Spirit of God indwelling them, prevent God from allowing Anti-Christ to be unleashed in the world of the future.

C. Those who have perverted the Gospel and rejected the truth of God’s Word will be sent strong delusion

2 Thessalonians 2:11 (KJV)

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

So that they believe a lie and will not know what happened to those Christians who are at that time suddenly and mysteriously all gone.

And they will, because they rejected God’s Word, be damned.

2 Thessalonians 2:12 (KJV)

That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

God’s Word says that 

·   Jesus is coming again and 

·   The first thing He is going to do is gather all the Christians to be with Him forever

Based on that truth

Don’t be shaken

Don’t be swindled – do believe a lie

And finally

III. DO STAND FAST

2 Thessalonians 2:15 (KJV)

Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

The word stand fast, means, to remain in place, to persevere.

And the Word of God tells us what to persevere in - 

The traditions they had been taught in Paul’s preaching and epistles

The word traditionmeans, something transmitted or handed down to us

Paul through the Word of God, has handed down to us two very important things

A. Our doctrine

That is what we believe

B. Our practice

That is how we do what we believe

If you look at a copy of our church constitution and by-laws you will find reference several times to “faith and practice.”

We fellowship only with churches of both 

·   Like faith – what we believe and

·   Like practice how e do what we believe.

The Bible makes it pretty clear 

·   We are to defend our faith and practice

·   We are to hold our faith and practice and

·   We are to mark and not fellowship with anything that is not our faith and practice.

Look back at verse 15

See the word hold? The word means

·   To seize

·   To lay hands upon

·   To use strength to obtain and retain

My goal as a pastor is not to come up with new ways to make church more exciting and enjoyable; either to Christians or to the lost.

My goal is to do my dead level best to understand

What Paul and the Apostles preached and

Then to do my dead level best to find out

How Paul and the Apostles lived and served God

And then do my dead level best to lead this church to do that.

·   I am not looking for a more modern way of worshiping God.

·   I am looking for the most ancient way of worshiping God

And I am doing that because I believe Jesus is coming again and we who are Christians will be gathered to Him.

And I want to make sure those I pastor will be gathered with meand not be deceived that they are saved when they are not….

And I want to do my best to ensure that those I pastor all get to hear the Lord say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

·   That won’t happen if I allow you to be shaken and troubled by false doctrines

·   That won’t happen if I allow you to be deceived by false teachers and

·   That won’t happen if I don’t urge you to stand fast and hold the traditions of the Bible.