Hi, Pastor John welcoming you to our broadcast. The end times are always a fascination for believers and there's no shortage of ideas concerning what they are and when they're going to start. But what does scripture say? Are we living in the end times? Elder Peter Ristow takes a deep dive into what Paul has to say about this issue in his second letter to the Thessalonians. Let's join the service and see if Paul answers this most interesting question. So a couple of weeks ago, Pastor John asked me to share this morning, and I struggled a little bit. Have you ever known what you wanted to say but not exactly how to say it? That's what it's been like for me the last couple of weeks. It reminds me of a time some years ago when I was asked to give a presentation at a large, the annual conference of a large software company. I prepared for weeks. I poured over the code. I conferred with the programmers. I tested all my examples, all with the idea of reducing this very highly technical subject down to something easily understood by my non-technical audience. Well, the day the presentation came and all the preparations seemed to pay off. It was well received by the audience. The president of the company thanked me profusely, and I felt pretty good about it. Later, when we were alone, I asked the one who knows me best, my wife Lois, what she thought of the presentation. She gave me this quizzical look, and then with a wry smile, said, you know, watching you give a speech is kind of like watching a dog walk on its hind legs. Even when it doesn't do it well, it's amazing that it can do it at all. And my wife goes, now, before we go to prayer and the word of God, I know it's going to be hard, but try and erase an image from your memory, OK? Family, Father, laughter is good for the soul. And we do so much appreciate how you move in us, Lord, and make us happy. But more than that, Lord, we look to you for the joy of the Holy Spirit. And now, Lord, let that reside in us as we hear your word. Open our eyes, open our ears, and open our hearts to hear what it is that you would have us hear this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. or this message this morning is going to be Paul to the Thessalonians living in the latter days. And we're going to take a brief look at first and second Thessalonians to answer these three questions. Are we living in the latter days? What should we expect in the latter days? And how are we to live in the latter days? Of course, before we begin, it's always helpful to understand the historical context and occasion for Paul's writing. In the Book of Acts, we learn that Paul and Silas, who is also known as Silvanus, accompanied by Timothy, had traveled to Thessalonica from Philippi after being driven out under adverse circumstances. Merchants in Philippi were gaining much by using a slave girl as a fortune teller. After Paul cast out of the girl a spirit of divination, the merchants lost their gravy train and had Paul and Silas publicly stripped of their garments, beaten, and thrown into prison. This was extremely dishonorable and a shame culture. After being released from the Philippian jail and arriving at Thessalonica, Paul reasoned with the Jews there in the synagogue on three separate Sabbaths and gained many converts, both among the Jews and devout Gentiles. However, some of the Jews grew jealous. and agitated the crowds, and before the city magistrates, accused Paul and Silas of acting against the decrees of Caesar by saying there was another king, Jesus. Hearing this, the faithful Thessalonians sent Paul, Silas, and Timothy away by night, but some of the jealous Jews followed them, agitating and stirring the crowds along the way. Paul finally traveled south by sea through the Greek regions of Macedonia and Achaia and arrived in Athens, leaving Silas and Timothy and North and Berea. The letters to the Thessalonians were written from Athens after Timothy returns from Thessalonica with a good report about the faithful there. Paul writes to the Thessalonian church to address something that's troubling them, our first point. Are we living in the latter days? Please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 1. Paul writes, Now concerning the times and seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. So, if the Thessalonians were already aware of the times and seasons, why then is Paul writing to them that they have no need for anything to be written to them? The biblical scholar G.K. Beale says in his commentary on Thessalonians, to answer that question, and even to answer the New Testament in its fullness, we must be familiar with how the biblical authors viewed the end times. Many Christians think of the end times as only a period at the very end of history. After all, can we not have an excellent understanding of the New Testament without knowing what will happen at the very end of the world? Aren't questions about the time of the rapture, tribulation, and millennium secondary to the salvation that Christ accomplished at the cross? Well, yes, of course, but only if the end times were a period coming just at the final phase of history. Indeed, many Christians assume that Christ's death and resurrection are events that happened at his first coming and thus not closely connected with events leading up to his second coming. But is this correct? I think not. The popular understanding in the church today that the latter days concerns only the future yet to happen at the end of the world needs correction. In fact, biblical scholars increasingly recognize that the New Testament authors understood the latter days not merely as a future event, but as beginning with Christ's first coming. Now the concept of the latter days is not restricted to the actual phraseology of where it's used. So to start our understanding of the concept, let's look at some of the explicit eschatological pertaining to the last times language in the New Testament. The phrase latter days and similar phrases occurs about 25 times in the New Testament, and only exceptionally do they refer exclusively to the very end of history. They're used most of the time to describe the end times as already beginning in the first century. Therefore, one can make the bold assertion that all doctrine of the New Testament is essentially eschatological in nature. This may sound shocking, but as we explore the topic, I hope to show you, or at least make plausible, the main point that we are, in fact, living in the latter days. Some New Testament eschatological language alludes to identical phrases in the Old Testament, so let's consider the Old Testament expression latter days before we explore the New Testament use. In the Old Testament, the wording is prophetic and therefore refers to a future event. Ezekiel and Daniel prophesy that there will be a tribulation for Israel consisting of oppression, persecution, false teaching, deception, and apostasy. Hosea adds that after the tribulation, Israel will seek the Lord and be delivered while their enemies will be judged. This deliverance and judgment will occur because a leader from Israel, the Messiah, will finally conquer all his Gentile enemies. Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah tell us that God will establish a kingdom on the earth and rule over it together with a Davidic king. Even when the actual terminology isn't used, the concept of eschatology appears in the Old Testament just like the New Testament. For example, Daniel speaks of the final resurrection of all people in Daniel 12 too. Awake, sorry, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And Isaiah refers to the coming new heavens and earth in Isaiah 65, 17. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. Both the Old Testament prophecies and the New Testament repeatedly address the concept and use the phrase latter days, and the meanings are identical except for one difference. In the New Testament, the latter days, the times and seasons that Paul is referring to, are understood to find their beginning fulfillment with Christ's first coming. The Old Testament prophecies were set in motion by Christ's death, resurrection, and the formation of the Christian Church and continue into our present day. Jesus' messianic reign began with his resurrection. And at his ascension, Jesus told the disciples in Acts 1.8, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And when the Spirit fell on the day of Pentecost, Peter explains to the gathered crowd what is happening. In Acts 2, 14 and 17, we read, But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. The day of Pentecost signaled the inauguration of Jesus' kingdom rule through the true Israel, his church. And the beginning of the final tribulation began with the persecution of Jesus and of the church that followed him. If the Thessalonians understood this, why is Paul writing to them about times and seasons and the day of the Lord? It's because neither they nor the Old Testament writers clearly saw that the kingdom and the tribulation would coexist at the same time. The apostle John clarifies this point when he wrote in Revelation 1.9, I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos. Paul also iterates this point when he says that the Old Testament prophecies were written to instruct the Corinthian Christians about how to live in the end times. 1 Corinthians 10, 11. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Additionally, the author of Hebrews proclaims in Hebrews 1, long ago and at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away by the sacrifice of himself. And finally, Peter in 1 Peter 1 declares, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you. Christ's death, resurrection, and the formation of the church have ushered in the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the tribulation, the Messiah's conquering of the Gentile enemies, Israel's deliverance, and the long-awaited kingdom. In this initial phase of the end times, Christ and the church are seen by the New Testament as the true Israel. Of course, many end-time prophecies have not yet been fulfilled, but will be when Christ returns a second time. As Christians, we presently experience only a part of what will be completely experienced in the final form of the new heavens and earth. This is the already and not yet dimension to the end times. But the point of the present discussion is that the great end time predictions have already begun the fulfillment process. Therefore, we must understand eschatology not only as futurology, but also as psychology and for the present. That is, eschatology is also a redemptive historical and theological mindset within which we as a church are to place ourselves and think. Every aspect of our salvation should be conceived of pertaining to the end times. Like the apostles, we must think of Christ's death and resurrection as the central event that launched the latter days. This pivotal event of death and resurrection is eschatological because it launched the beginning of the new creation. We, like the Thessalonians, are living in the latter days. Therefore, let us now turn back to the Word of God, where we find that this already and not yet notion of eschatology is crucial to our understanding of what we should expect and how we should live in the latter days. What should we expect in the latter days? Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, but understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. Did your mind, like mine, just now immediately jump to something that will happen in the future? Remember, this is the already and not yet. The last days are not only futurology, but also psychology. As Christians, we must set our minds to think of every aspect of our salvation, our sanctification, and even our very ishnish, our whole soul and being, as being joined to Jesus Christ and his kingdom for his glory. It's essential to remember that Paul is writing these words from Jesus Christ under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to Timothy for the building of the church, both that which was at his time and to us, which is his future. And the first thing he says is that there will be difficulty. But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. What difficulty? Paul continues. For people will be lovers of self. We could almost put a colon after that and delineate the rest of the passage as a list describing lovers of self. Let's try that. For people will be lovers of self, colon. Lovers of money. proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people. Telling Timothy to avoid such people is our key to understanding that this passage is not predictive of some future event, but rather that it is and was imminent. But who is Paul describing? The lost? Unbelievers? Those in the church? the clear indication that those having the appearance of godliness but denying his power are those who consider themselves Christians but are unwilling to obey God's commands. I ride bicycles with a guy who considers himself a Christian. He attends church weekly, is involved both financially and in service to a church, and serves the underprivileged and those in need. His grandfather was a pastor, and his father was the leading chair of New Testament studies at a major New England university. He's a kind and decent fellow. Yet his theology is all wrong. His thought, and that of his father, is that scriptures need to be reinterpreted within the context of the current culture. He says it doesn't matter what you believe, what religion you practice, how you identify, or even what you do, as long as you have love. You've heard it before. All you need is love. Love. Love is all you need. This is what I call the reemergence of Platonism and Gnosticism within the Christian Church. Now, I'm no philosophy major, and Plato's thinking and that of the Gnostics that followed can be quite complex and convoluted. But let me see if I can simplify the thought a little bit for you. Take, for instance, the pew that you're sitting on. It's not actually a pew, because it hasn't always been a pew. For it to be a pew, it has to always have been a pew. Therefore, it's simply in a temporal state of representing a pew, because the real pew that has always been a pew is the idea of a pew. Therefore, What you're sitting on is not being the real pew. It's simply the physical manifestation of the idea of the pew, which is the real pew. So the pew that you're on is actually not a pew. Plato and the Gnostics separate the physical from the idea. The idea is that which is incorruptible and the physical is that which is corrupt. Therefore, the focus becomes on the ethereal, the spiritual, whereas the material and physical is inconsequential. We see this all around us. It's the idea of bodily autonomy that justifies abortion. It's the idea that gender identification determines one's sex and not genitalia or chromosomes. It's the idea that actions are justified by political ideologies. It's the idea that it doesn't matter whether you're straight or in the alphabet soup if you love God, because everyone is different and God loves us all. We can love him in return without giving any thought to changing our behavior. R.C. Sproul used to say of this, they've become so broad-minded, they've become flat-headed. We must not only think biblically, but we must also behave biblically. This is essential to every true believer that hopes to escape judgment. This leads to my last point. How are we to live in the latter days? There's no better authority in how we are to live in the latter days than Jesus Christ through Paul's writing to the Thessalonians. So rather than taking my word for it, let's hear what he has to say, paying careful attention to the verbs. Now for this, I'd like you to put your Bibles away. I'm going to challenge you to read 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians when you get home. But for now, just let the words seep into you that Paul is writing to the Thessalonians, beginning with 1 Thessalonians 1-2. We give thanks to God always for you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and your labor of love and your steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. He repeats this theme in second Thessalonians. Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. Paul is telling the Thessalonians that it's not merely having faith or loving God, as the Gnostics would say, but rather that it takes work and labor and steadfast, even in much affliction. Paul continues again in 1 Thessalonians. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. There is no witness if we only look upward. There is no witness without affliction. We must engage outwardly, regardless of the hostility around us, to be models of what others should imitate. Paul, continuing. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything." The Thessalonian church had modeled Christ so well throughout Macedonia and Achaia that Paul didn't need to go there to evangelize him. Verse 2. Chapter 2, verse 1. For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. for our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts." How and why does God test our hearts? Once again, Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians, Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God. How do we become worthy of the kingdom of God? Through the testing with afflictions. Why does God test us in this manner? To make us worthy. People, there is nothing that we can do to make ourselves worthy before God. It is all in his hands to both save us and sanctify us through testing. Paul continues, since indeed considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to 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 Christ. Vengeance is enacted not only of those who do not know God, but also on those who know God, but do not obey the gospel. Seems like a harsh word from Paul. Very, very difficult. But listen how he continues, and soak in this imagery that he uses. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. That includes you. and you are our witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct towards you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. What a model, like a nursing mother affectionately caring for her children, and like a father exhorting, encouraging, and charging his children to walk in a manner worthy of God. That is the image that we should be imitating. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God and Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things for your countrymen as they did from the Jews. Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. Now, from here to the end of Thessalonians, Paul gives specifics on how we are to lead sanctified life. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. that each of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this disregards not man, but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you." It doesn't matter what the law of the land says about morality. It doesn't matter what man may say about Any of that, whether it's good or whether it's bad, whether it's right or whether it's wrong, is not for man to determine. If you engage in sexual immorality, you are disregarding God, not man. I wish to lead a peaceful and dignified life. Paul tells us how to do that. Aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. Encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. Now there's a whole, there's another whole sermon in that last verse. But briefly, let me see if I can convey the thought behind this, the Greek meaning and thought behind it. Admonish the idle, to warn, to correct by discipline the unruly, the undisciplined, the idle. Encourage the faint-hearted, means to soothe, to comfort the fretful, the worried, the discouraged. Help the weak means to assist, to hold firmly, to guard the powerless and sickly, whether it's in a spiritual or physical sense. When a brother or sister walks through those doors, it's right and good with patience for this word first to guide your actions towards them. Paul continues, see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Paul ends it with, brothers, pray for us. I find the humility in that last statement, brothers, pray for us, just astounding. Here's Paul asking those that he's brought to the Lord to pray for him. And I ask you, brothers and sisters, pray for us and one another because we are living in the latter days. We should expect false teachings, tribulations, distress, difficulties, afflictions, and even imprisonment for righteousness sake. Look around you. It's everywhere. But they are for the building up of the church and for your sanctification so that you may be found worthy in the day of the Lord. With that hope, let's conclude this message with two parables from Matthew 13. Jesus spoke, saying, He put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. He told him another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened. The kingdom is ever growing even through much affliction. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, reigning in the church, the true Israel, and he cannot be stopped. Though the early church may have met secretly in homes and catacombs, by their faithfulness and the boldness of the testimony, the church irresistibly grew, just like the mustard seed or the leaven, until, within 300 years, the whole of the Roman Empire declared the lordship of King Jesus. And that continues even now and until Jesus returns. When we look across the panorama of a history, we see the faithful church rising and receding like the tides of the sea. Today, perhaps the tide is out. Today, perhaps it's a season of setback. But King Jesus is still enthroned, and we who are joined to him through faith will see his glory declared. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are and what you've done in our lives. Father, we want to be worthy of the sacrifice made by your son, Jesus Christ. And we ask you, Lord, bring it on. Test us, Lord. Let us be witnesses in light to a world that desperately needs light, to darkness that desperately needs light, Lord. We ask these things so that your name would be glorified and all would proclaim that you are Lord God and reign as King Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. And also we ask a blessing on the food today as we go together to a potluck supper. Let's conclude our service today with these words from Paul, from 2 Thessalonians, starting in verse 16. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Brothers and sisters, and those of you out there, go in peace. Pastor John back here again. If you are blessed by the service, let me ask you to do us a favor. Would you click on the like button below that little thumbs up? If you're listening on Sermon Audio, perhaps you can comment or even share the sermon with someone else. We'd love to hear from you. We're on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter at WBFVA. We're on the World Wide Web at WBFVA.org. Let us know if you'd like us to pray for you. If you'd like to support us financially, you can make donations through our website at wbfva.org. Just click on giving, you'll receive a tax deductible receipt at the end of the year. Either way, we would love to hear from you or even have you visit us in person one Sunday. We meet at 46 Winchester Street in downtown Warrington, Virginia at 11 o'clock every Sunday morning. And now may God bless you richly until we gather again.