As you came into the marketplace in Thessalonica, there was an archway with the words written: 'Caesar is lord'. The believers who did not acknowledge Caesar as lord, could not buy or sell. The persecution became worse and many believers were killed for believing in God as their Sovereign God.
When the fourth Roman kingdom came to a fall, the Caesars became the Popes that we know today. The Papacy today are declaring that they are god's representatives on the earth and therefore they are god.
In their turmoil and hardship, the Thessalonians knew that Jesus is coming soon, coming to fetch His Bride. Don't get despondent when hardships come, but look up to the sky and realize that Jesus is coming soon to fetch His Bride. We have to expect the Bridegroom. When you look up and see the clouds, expect Jesus any moment. We need to live our lives in expectation and in preparation as a holy Bride set apart for Him, ready to meet our Bridegroom in the air.
While we are on this earth, we are salt and we are light. Yes, we are in anticipation, expecting Jesus to fetch us soon, but while your feet are still on this earth and while you are still breathing, we are salt and light. We are a letter written by the Lord Jesus Christ for the world to read. And this is our purpose to give Him all the glory.
So Paul writes to the Thessalonians, as they are getting despondent. Some of them were selling their properties, expecting the Lord to come any moment. So Paul writes to them reminding them that while they are waiting for the return of the Bridegroom, they must be salt and light.
Reading from 2 Thess 1: 11-12
To this end, we always pray for you, that our God will count you worthy of His calling, and that He will powerfully fulfill your every good desire and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Thessalonians are an encouragement to people who are suffering, being persecuted and are killed because of Christ.
This kingdom that God is building, is not by human hands, nor by making the assembly more inviting to unbelievers nor by charismatic preachers or new revelations. The Lord Jesus said 'I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it' - stand against it, keep on pushing it back. (Matt 16:18). History has shown us that the worse persecution becomes, and the more that the saints pay with their lives, the quicker the church spread like wild fire.
Paul is saying (VS 11) that God wants to do His good pleasure - all the best - in your life. His good pleasure is that we would become like His Son. Paul gives the explanation in vs 12: '...the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him according to the grace of our God..' It's not by your goodness, but by God's grace; according to the grace that you have received; according to the work that He had done in your life.
You are a letter written by the Lord. God's good pleasure for your life is to be like Jesus. Jesus was perfected, made perfect through suffering. It is to the glory of God that you in Him. You did not save yourself; you do not sanctify yourself; it's God's work of grace in your life. It is by His goodness and His grace that we are changed, that our lives glorify Him.
2 Thess 2:1-12 Paul explains that Jesus is not coming yet, there a a few things that still needs to happen: A great falling away and 'that man of sin' - The Antichrist - the 'son of perdition'- the man of lawlessness - will be revealed. He will exalt himself above God. He will sit in the Temple and demand to be worshipped, saying 'I am god'. He will be revealed at the right time.
The mystery of iniquity (vs 7), is the hidden things; the secret of lawlessness. The lawlessness of our time is increasing. At the end of the Tribulation, when Jesus puts His foot on the Olive Mountain, and He opens His mouth, the Anti-Christ will be destroyed. The Anti-Christ will be Satan possessed (not demon possessed). Satan will possess him. Remember when Judas betrayed Jesus, the Bible says that Satan entered him. (Luke 22:3) Judas was possessed by Satan. The Anti-Christ will do the same.
When you are confronted by truth and you reject that truth, it means you don't have a love for the truth. (vs 10).
Vs 11-12: 'And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness'. GOD, will send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Satan is not going to deceive them, but God will send this delusion.
If Jesus is is not enough; if it isn't enough that you are saved by grace through faith, that not of yourself; its a gift from God. If that is not enough, you are already in trouble.
This deceit, this delusion, is a delusion of unrighteousness and injustice. The Lord Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. They will not have a love for the Truth. Salvation - Repentance - always comes with an acknowledgement; an acknowledgement of the Truth.
So this strong delusion is an efficiency; it's a working of supernatural power.
The Anti-Christ is going to perform miracles. The Jewish Nation will be so deceived that they will make a covenant with him. And right in the middle of this prophetic seven years (1 260 days), the Anti-Christ will go into the Holy of Holies in the Third Temple, defiling it, and declaring himself to be God - the most high - as Elohim. Remember he will be Satan possessed, and that is what Satan wanted - 'I [Satan] will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation..' Isaiah 14:13 Satan wants to be like the Most High. This delusion is a deception, taking you away from the Truth.
Vs 12: There are people who have pleasure in sin' in destroying other people's lives. Pleasure in being not right with God. They have pleasure in unrighteousness; in lawlessness. We do not have to be a part of those being deceived. If you hold on to the Truth, onto Jesus, keeping your eyes fixed on Him. God has pleasure in fulfilling what He has for your life. And that is to make you like Jesus.
May you be encouraged; may you understand that The Lord is in control. In the Western world - the world that is shaped by Christian-Judaeo values, has rejected the Truth. We have rejected God. And once you do that, you don't have a foundation. You don't have a ruler to measure Absolute Truth. But once again: It is God's delight that we are in Christ and that Christ be glorified.
Look up and expect Him, but remember that you are salt and light. Your purpose is to be the letter written by the Lord, so that people can read, so that God may lead them to the Truth, so that they may accept the invitation of coming to the lamb of God; of coming to the Lord of Lords through Jesus.
There is going to be a physical kingdom, but not yet. We first have to come to the end of the age of the Gentiles; the Roman kingdom is getting itself ready. The Roman kingdom is the great whore that rides the beast (Revelation 17)
But OUR PURPOSE is: His royal rule and reign over our lives - that's the Kingdom of God.
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