Good day, welcome to the day after Christmas, the calm after the storm. After all the excitement, anticipation and build up, the day after Christmas certainly has a different feel. The gifts are opened, Santa has come and gone, and thankfully for us, the mall traffic will get back to normal. Margie and I had a fantastic day yesterday. We thoroughly enjoyed the day off, the relaxing pace, the quiet in the neighborhood and the time together. Last night we wrapped up the day with some popcorn and a double header of Holiday Inn and It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s been many years since I actually sat down and watched It’s a Wonderful Life in its entirety. You know, now a days, most cable stations will play a Christmas movie over and over and over. By doing this it seems that you lose the intent and purpose of the movie. You catch the middle, then the beginning or maybe just the end, or something distracts you in the middle and you walk away. Last night we just sat and enjoyed it, and boy, what a great film. For me, the most impactful part is at the very beginning as you hear all the different voices that are joining in prayer for George. So powerful.
Well, as we cruise right along in the 5MC, we are moving rapidly through the 2nd half of the New Testament as the books get shorter. We finished 1 Thessalonians yesterday on Christmas Day and today we’ll start the next book right after it, 2 Thessalonians. This is the 2nd letter that Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica. Paul started this church in a hurry, he had only 3 weeks, and then he was run out of town by an angry mob. He didn’t have a lot of time to teach them the Word of God and they continued to have questions for him, even after his first letter to them. But there was a specific reason that additional questions had arisen, and the reason is one that’s hard to believe. Someone had written a letter to the church and was pretending to be Paul and specifically giving the church false information about the return of Christ to confuse and frustrate the church. Wow. Pretty amazing that even after 1950 years people have not changed. Some people just want to cause harm, destruction and chaos. That’s just what some people do, and they’re good at it. Paul is writing this 2nd letter to comfort them, confirm the true gospel and the details of the 2nd coming of Christ. He also deals with the judgment of God upon unbelievers when Christ does return, which we’ll be looking at today.
The judgement of God is not a popular subject. At all. Today our society loves to paint a rosy picture of God as an old white guy with a beard in a long white robe that pets animals and HAS to love everybody with kindness no matter what they have done. The whole ‘God is love’ thing. Yes, God is love, but God is a righteous God and cannot stand in the presence of sin. God is light and in him is no darkness at all (John 1:5) If you desire to one day stand in the presence of God, you will need to be presented with no darkness, no blemish, no sin. There’s only one way to do that. Period. Through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. God made a way for our sins to be washed white as snow on that day we move into Heaven and appear before God. When we stand before God, He will see someone that has been redeemed by the sacrifice of His perfect Son, not an unrighteous sinner. What a beautiful gift God has given us in His Son Jesus Christ!
So, when it comes to hearing the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have a choice. We believe it or not. Act on it or not. I have never seen God force anyone to believe in His Son. You see with perfect love comes freedom and God gives us the freedom to hear and believe. Or not. I think this is where many in society struggle with God's judgement. If God really loves everybody then why doesn’t He force everyone to accept Jesus? I mean why would He allow even a chance for someone to suffer eternal torment and separation from Him? If He really loves people, wouldn’t He make sure ALL people go to Heaven?
Great questions, but ultimately it all comes back to our choice. If God makes you believe do you really believe? Nope. We all have minds and we can make up our minds to believe whatever we want to believe. Good or bad. We have to make a decision. It’s our choice. We all have to make a decision what we will do with Jesus Christ and what He did on that cross 2000 years ago. If you have heard the Gospel of Jesus the decision is yours. It will not go away or be forgotten. It lies at your feet for you to either pick up or let lie. There is one guarantee that none of us can deny, in one hundred years, none of us currently on this planet will be alive. All that will matter in one hundred years to any of us is, what did you do with Jesus?
So if you make a decision for Jesus, admit you’re a sinner and call upon Him to save you, He will. Its that simple. It’s a gift, its free and its instant. You can’t work for it or do good for it. If you work for a gift, it’s no longer a gift but something you have earned. You can’t earn God’s grace, its just a gift from a loving God full of mercy and love. So, this is the great part we love to talk about, the grace, mercy and love of God and Heaven, but what if you hear the Gospel of Jesus and leave it lying at your feet. What if you just refuse the message? What if you make a choice to disobey the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Our world today is a world of choices. There are choices for everything. You can choose to do good or bad. You can choose to work or not. You can choose to lie or be honest. You can choose to steal or not. You can choose to forgive others or carry a grudge. You can choose to be thankful or be unthankful. And, you can choose to obey the Gospel or not. So, what happens to those that make a choice to refuse the Gospel? That brings us to our study verses for the day.
“This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.” 2 Thess. 1:7-10
All decision have results. If I choose to rob a bank, I open up the chance of getting caught and possibly going to prison. My decision brings consequences. I’m not sure why, when dealing with the eternal destination of our souls, that people think there is no choice and no consequence involved. We think that because God loves us that we can refuse His Son and He will still have to let us into Heaven. Like He somehow owes us something.
Our verses today are very clear about the consequences of disobeying the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our decision regarding Jesus Christ will carry the consequence of eternal separation from God. Did you know that Jesus talks more about Hell than any other person in the New Testament? Did you know that Jesus talks more about Hell than Heaven? Jesus is very clear in informing us about the dangers of eternity without Him. These warnings from Jesus are out of pure love, He is not trying to just scare us or intimidate us, He is alerting us in love.
Let me pose a story. A huge earthquake takes place in North Texas. As a result, it opens a huge bottomless pit right outside my back door. I open the door early one morning and see it. Margie is still asleep, so I wake up her up and with great focus tell her of this huge pit and the danger it presents. I warn her. Now as we go about our day do you think that I would ever mention it to her again? What are you kidding? I would be telling her every 2 minutes, “do not walk out the back door!” “Do not even go close to the back door!” “Don’t even think about going near that door!” I would want her to know without a shadow of doubt that there is danger and death beyond that door. I NEED to make it very clear to her.
Now at this point would you say that I made it clear? I would think so. I have told her over and over, warned her of the impending danger and even reminded her countless times. So, what if Margie walked over, opened the door and walked into the pit? It seems silly but what if? Was she warned? Did she know? It was so clear, how could this have happened?
You see this is the crux of our verse this morning. The message is clear. The warning has been made. Jesus alerts us over and over. Paul warns us over and over. Hell is not a surprise. It’s not hard to learn about it or hear about it in God’s Word. So how can it be that people are denying Jesus with all of these warnings right in front of us?
But there is Good News, literally. Jesus Christ came to save the world from its sin. One perfect sacrifice, the Son of God, is capable of achieving this once and for all. Our job? To tell the world. There are people all over this planet today that have never heard the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are called to simply give out the Word of God so that the Holy Spirit can work. There is unlimited power in God’s Word, we are to simply give it to the world in any way we can.
May God bless your personal time in His Word today and may you continue to seek the knowledge and wisdom that lies within it.
Praise God for Jesus.
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