The Mystery Resisted

INTRODUCTION

For the last few weeks we’ve been looking at a mystery. One of life’s greatest mysteries, in fact. It hasn’t been a mystery like the “who-done-it” novels on Amazon or the latest suspense drama on Netflix.

This mystery is the “Mystery of God.” Or, since it’s getting close to Christmas - “the mystery of Christmas.”

Biblically, a mystery isn’t some secret that nobody knows about. It’s something that was hidden in the past but now revealed in the present.

What was that mystery? In a word - it’s the Gospel. It begins with Christmas, climaxes on Easter and carries on even now until the ultimate day of Advent comes. It’s the truth that Jesus is the Christ and his Kingdom shall come.

He lived, he died, he rose and he ascended on high. He sits at the right hand of God and one day he will come again and establish the fullness of his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

That’s the mystery. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Two Opposite Errors

Over the past two weeks we’ve had the mystery defined for us by the apostle Paul in two different letters he wrote to two separate churches.

This week we’re looking at a third letter to a third church and that’s the book of 2nd Thessalonians.

Today’s message is entitled “The Mystery Resisted.”

We’ve seen the mystery revealed in Christ. We’ve seen the mystery displayed through the Church. Today we’re going to see the mystery of God resisted by a counterfeit mystery: the mystery of lawlessness.

2 Thessalonians 2:1–12 (CSB)

1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him: We ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to be easily upset or troubled, either by a prophecy or by a message or by a letter supposedly from us, alleging that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

There’s a lot there so before we continue let me give you a little context to what’s going on.

This is Paul’s second letter to this church. Like most churches, it had some problems going on and a few questions they needed answered and a few bad apples who were raising a commotion.

In Paul’s first letter the major theological problem was an OVER emphasis on the second coming of Jesus. (they started to predict dates and events and got everybody riled up.)

As usual, the predictions they made did NOT come true. Many people got disenfranchised. But then the theological error swung to the other side of the pendulum.

Later on, instead of OVER emphasizing the second coming of Jesus they were now arguing that his second coming had already happened. Churches make the same two mistakes today.

Some say much more than what the Bible says and others say much less.

Some preach way more than what the Bible says and others take what the Bible says and water it down so that it’s more palatable to our modern sensibilities.

Those who go beyond do the same thing the false teachers in Thessalonica did. (predicting dates … correlating events that aren’t biblically defined…etc)

Other churches say Jesus has already come in a spiritual or metaphorical sense. He’s alive right now in our hearts. When you live by the Spirit then Jesus is living through you and he comes again in that sense.

Two Key Events

That’s what was going on in this church and Paul writes to say - don’t buy that nonsense. If Jesus is going to come back you’re not going to miss it.

Not only that, you’re not going to miss the two things that must occur BEFORE Jesus comes again.

“That day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.” (2 Thess 2:3)

The apostasy he’s talking about is an apostasy in the church. The church will grow carnal and fleshly. They will have preachers who tell people what they want to hear (itching ears).

The church will be corrupted from within. In addition to that - the church will be crushed from without.

The “man of lawlessness” will be revealed. This man is otherwise referred to as the “Antichrist.” We’ve talked about him recently in our series on Revelation.

He continues in 2 Thessalonians 2:5-12

2 Thessalonians 2:5–12 (CSB)

4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s temple, proclaiming that he himself is God. 5 Don’t you remember that when I was still with you I used to tell you about this? 6 And you know what currently restrains him, so that he will be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way, 8 and then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and will bring him to nothing at the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with every kind of miracle, both signs and wonders serving the lie, 10 and with every wicked deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie, 12 so that all will be condemned—those who did not believe the truth but delighted in unrighteousness.

A KINGDOM IN TENSION

There are so many different ways we could take this passage but for our purposes today I really want us to hone in on the phrase in verse 7 “the mystery of lawlessness...”

Because, whatever this mystery of lawlessness is - it’s the power that paves the way for the coming of this MAN of lawlessness. It’s also the dynamic that’s at work around us right now; RESISTING the mystery of God being displayed through the Church.

It’s obviously very interesting to try and define what the end times antichrist is going to look like and spend tons of time guessing who that person might be. However - that’s not our purpose this morning. We’ll do that when we get to Revelation 13 in a few weeks from now.

Already Not Yet

What I want you to notice from this text is that the Kingdom of God is a kingdom in tension. There’s an “already not yet tension” to the Kingdom of God.

Already Christ has come, died and rose again.

Already Christ is King. Already he’s ruling and reigning at the right hand.

Already the power of sin and penalty of sin is abolished in our life.

But not yet do we see an end to the enemy of death.

Not yet do we see victory over things like disease and division decay.

Not yet have we seen an end to conflict and chaos - it still surrounds us.

The penalty and power of sin has been abolished but the PRESENCE of sin still remained in our hearts and in our world. The wheat and the weeds are growing together - even in the context of the local church.

Over/Under Realized Eschatology

It’s important we acknowledge this and live our Christian lives in light of this tension. Otherwise, we’ll make the same mistakes the false teachers in Thessalonica made.

It’ll breed an over-realized eschatology that says the victory is already ours over disease and death all we have to do is name it and claim it and have enough faith.

OR it’ll breed an under-realized eschatology that accommodates and accepts the brokenness of our world as “this is as good as it’s going to get so just get used to it.” Maybe that sin isn’t such a big deal… maybe it’s ALWAYS going to be this way.

The answer isn’t an over-realized eschatology or an under-realized eschatology. It’s a REALISTIC eschatology. A realistic eschatology acknowledges the authority and supremacy of Christ over all but it also acknowledges the principalities and powers resisting Christ and his authority over all.

Stages of Development

There’s a saying about salvation that we have BEEN saved, we are BEING saved and we WILL BE saved. Salvation is a past act that has continuing effects and a future culmination.

The same thing is true of the kingdom of God . It HAS been established (with the first advent of Christ) it IS BEING established (through the Spirit’s advancement of the Gospel) and it WILL BE established fully on the earth when Christ comes again.

Think of it as a “stage of development.”

Human beings have stages of development but no matter where you meet a human in the process they are always a human being.

Your house or this church building has stages of development but no matter where it is in the process it’s always your home/broadview baptist church.

As it’s true of those things so also is it true of salvation and the kingdom of God.

Knowing How To Wait

Because the kingdom of God is a kingdom in tension we need to be kingdom citizens who know how to WAIT.

When Jesus taught about the end times in Matthew 24-25 one of the parables he gave was about the 10 virgins. Five virgins were wise and five were foolish. The thing that distinguished between the two was their ability to wait.

THE MAN: ANTICHRIST

To help us wait well, I want to help us understand two forces resisting the mystery of God being displayed by the church. (1) the MAN of lawlessness and (2) the MYSTERY of lawlessness.

In some ways the man and the mystery are one and the same, interchangeable and synchronistic. However, they are distinct and in understanding their individual parts we might be better able to resist their combined power.

The Man of Lawlessness

The first thing that Paul describes is this “man of lawlessness.” We know a few things just from reading this passage. I’ll mention 6 because he IS the antichrist after all.

He opposes and exalts himself above every other object of worship. (v 4)

He sits in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God (v 4b)

He’s presently being restrained by something until the proper time. (v 6-7)

He is brought to power and animated by Satan’s working. (v 9)

His rise to power will be assisted by miraculous signs and wonders. They will “serve the lie” advancing his agenda and deceiving many. (9)

He is doomed to destruction by the Lord Jesus Christ. (v 3, 8)

Reading some of these descriptions sounds fantastical. It also immediately disqualifies many people who are accused of being the antichrist (Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton, etc)

Types of Antichrists

It’s important to note that this “man of lawlessness” described by Paul is patterned off of many “types” of Antichrists that came before him. As John says in his letter, “There’s an antichrist that IS coming but there are also many antichrists that are already in the world.”

1 John 2:18 (CSB)

18 Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour.

Two of historical note leading up to Paul’s letter are Antiochus Epiphanes IV and the Roman Emperor Caligula.

Antiochus Epiphanes IV

Almost two centuries before Jesus’ birth, the Syrian governor, Antiochus IV Epiphanes sent troops into Jerusalem and sacrificed pigs in the temple and set up Pagan deities to be worshipped.

This essentially make Judaism as practiced by the Jews a capital offense. It was either worship Antiochus or die resisting.

He made it an offense to own any part of the Old Testament.

He made it a capital offense to be a priest.

He started a slaughter that was truly horrific (matched only by things like the Holocaust.)

It finally led to what was called the Maccabean Revolt. (amazingly through guerrilla warfare the Jews were able to win. They celebrate Hanukkah every year in remembrance of that victory)

So in that sense, you see, there was a rebellion where somebody set himself up, in effect, as God right in the temple itself.

Roman Emperor Caligula

Within Paul’s recent memory (about 15 years prior to the letter) was another historical “type” of Antichrist: Roman Emperor Caligula.

History remembers this Roman Emperor as a madman. It wasn’t unusual for Roman Emperors to divinized after their deaths. This guy declared himself to be God while he was still alive! Not only that, he divinized his horse as well! (why not?)

One of the last things he did was set up his image in the Jersualem temple to be worshiped by the Jews. This was blasphemous and just plain wrong but he had a mind to paganize the Jews under his rule.

Mercifully, he died before they could do any of that. It’s a good thing they did because there would’ve been another blood revolt if he would’ve had his way.

Modern Day Theories

Since this event took place BEFORE Paul’s letter, this is not the antichrist Paul has in mind. He’s thinking about something else; someone else. So then who is it? What is it? The answer is it’s just not clear. And for that reason, all sorts of theories have been presented to answer that question.

Some have suggested that the temple language by Paul is meant to describe the Church. (he uses the word this way elsewhere for sure). So the idea is that somebody from “within the church” is going to rise up and seek to be worshiped above every other God.

He will attempt to exercise an authority that belongs to God alone. And the apostasy in the church will provide the exact kind of context to make this blasphemy possible.

The protestant reformers in the Middle Ages saw this being fulfilled by the Roman Catholic Church and her Pope. (that theory still has currency today in many circles)

So who is it? Is it the Pope? Was it Hitler? Is it Joe Biden? Donald Trump? The problem is the text doesn’t say and there hasn’t been anybody in history thus far who perfectly embodies everything this man of lawlessness is described to be.

The Spirit of the Antichrist

I don’t know who he is. But we can know HOW he thinks. We may not know his identity but we can know his mindset. We see it in our text with his zeal for setting himself up in the temple of God to be worshipped.

In any temple - regardless of the religion in question - the image that is in the CENTER of the temple is put there to communicate that THEY are the foundational reality of the universe. They are the MOST IMPORTANT thing.

The Spirit of the antichrist says “the most important thing in the universe is ME.” It is literally “against Christ” because it craves for itself the worship and glory that belongs to Christ alone.

You see this with almost every evil dictator who has ever lived. We saw it with Antiochus and with Caligula. THEY wanted to be the foundational reality of the universe.

The Ubermensch

Fredrick Neitzsche called this figure the “Ubermensch.” It’s a German word that means “beyond human or suprahuman.” He presents himself and received as the ideal human.

But this man will not point to “other worldly” truth or virtue. He will point to mankind in general and to himself in particular as the ground for everything good.

Might makes right. Power is centralized in himself. When God dies in the mind of a culture the appetite for God doesn’t go away. It just gets replaced by someone or something else. For many cultures in our recent past that God substitute was the State and ill-intentioned charismatic leaders.

This god-hating, self-centered, worldly focused mentality is the spirit of the Antichrist. So whoever he is - that’s how he thinks. And that THINKING is very much alive in our world today.

THE MYSTERY: LAWLESSNESS

Which leads me to the second thing we need to understand about the resistance.

Not only must we identify the “man” of lawlessness who will come one day. We must also fight against the “mystery” of lawlessness that is at work right now.

It’s not just a MAN who will one day resist the display of God’s mystery through the church. There’s also power or spirit that energizes the antichrist and all who follow after him. Paul calls it the “mystery of lawlessness” in this passage.

2 Thessalonians 2:6–8 (CSB)

6 And you know what currently restrains him, so that he will be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way, 8 and then the lawless one will be revealed...

Identifying the Restrainer

The immediate question that pops up when you read these verses is the question of the “restrainer.” Who or what is the restrainer?

I spent way too many hours researching that question and I’m more confused today than when I started. It important to note that Paul says “what” in verse 6 and “he” in verse 7.

Because of that some have posited that the what is the church and the He is the Holy Spirit. That certainly fits the paradigm of a pre-tribulational rapture.

Some say it’s some sort of moral/philosophical system (western enlightenment) or governmental power. (Israel/US)

Some say it’s it’s a powerful angelic being like Michael the archangel.

Some say it’s the preaching of the Gospel.

The verb is in a neutered gender in verse 6 but the participle is verse 7 is masculine and so it’s some sort of powerful force enacted by a force giver and for it to restrain THAT level of evil I think it has to be something supernatural.

That’s as far as I can go. Whoever the restrainer is and whatever force he’s using to restrain the rise of the antichrist - when God says stop, he’s going to stop. And we’re going to see a “mystery of lawlessness” or some translate “secret power of lawlessness” unleashed on the earth.

Identifying The Mystery

Just as the antichrist is a counterfeit of the true Christ. The mystery of lawlessness is a counterfeit of the mystery of God. It’s not just a DIFFERENT Gospel, it’s an “anti-Gospel”

In that way, the mystery of lawlessness is religious in nature. It’s ideological. It’s metanarrative. It’s philosophical and foundational. It’s the underpinning assumptions of an entire culture and generation of people.

Just as Hitler PERVERTED biblical Christianity and used religious platitudes to brain wash a generation of Germans to do the unthinkable. So also will this end times antichrist USE religion to advance his agenda. People are by nature religious. We were made for God.

The antichrist will exploit our craving for God by having people satisfy that craving through allegiance to him and the false religious system that validates his claims. It’s the mystery of lawlessness and it’s at work in seed form even now.

We’re going to see this play out in detail when we get back to the book of Revelation but I want to paint some broad brush strokes today.

Without Law

What the man of lawlessness and the mystery of lawlessness have in common is lawlessness.

When Paul says lawless he’s not just talking about a “law breaker.” A more literal translation might be antinomian. He’s anti-law. Without law.

It’s not that he believes other people should have laws but he’s able to break them. He believes if there are ANY laws then they flow from and are defined by YOU. They come from within and therefore aren’t “law-like” at all.

Lawlessness is not saying, “I know this is wrong, but I’m going to do it anyway”; lawlessness is saying, “Who’s to say what right and wrong is?” Lawlessness is saying, “My feelings are more real than any law outside of me...”

Don’t you understand the power of that false religion?

The seductive power of this mystery is that it makes MAN the measure of all things. We are the source, we are the means, we are the point. Everything is created from us, FOR us and to us.

You are the source and sole authority of your life. That kind of religion is already at work today in seed form.

Christianity says “The law outside of me is more real than any of my feelings.” Those are two completely different worldviews. One has tremendous respect for law; the other one is without law, disdains the very idea. “ Only I can say what’s right and wrong for me!”

A Relatively New Idea

These “big ideas” of deconstructing truth and moral relativism and subjective values are a recent development of ideals.

It wasn’t very long ago that our Western intelligentsia maintained that moral judgments were objective and not subjective. Now it’s reversed.

Many today - even Christians - when decrying the immorality of a thing appeal to their feelings instead of an objective moral standard.

Sex outside of marriage is wrong (for me.)

Racism is wrong unjust because it feels wrong.

Animal cruelty and factory farming are immoral (but you do you).

100 years ago there was a universal consensus that murder, lying, theft, disrespect, pedophilia, sexual immorality were wrong regardless of one’s perspective. It was recognized by all moral and religious centers in all cultures in all centuries. This idea of lawlessness was certainly rare in Paul’s culture.

There has never been a culture, there has never been a century, there has never been a religion, there has never been a society that said “there are no objective moral values...” until around the 1940s. (Tim Keller)

There was disagreement over what the law was, but there was never disagreement about whether right & wrong was more important than your feelings.

A Force Unleashed on the West

That subversive idea has been unleashed on the world and it has been wreaking havoc ever sense.

The 20th century was the bloodiest most murderous century in human history.

We saw war and genocide unlike any other time. You saw the rise of communist and fascist governments that inflicted untold destruction on the world.

Though their politically/economically opposite, they’re identical in terms of their moral philosophy. The state is “god” and right is right because WE say it is.

That moral framework has only grown WORSE since the 20th Century. Our culture is SO SICK with this ideology and so broken because of it’s impact on our politics and economy and cultural institutions that the field is RIPE for the harvest.

We are primed and ready for an “ubermanshe” or “Hitler-like” leader to rise to power and go to war against the mystery of God displayed through the church.

Which Mystery is Captivating You

Until Jesus comes again, his Kingdom “on earth” will be a kingdom in tension. We must be citizens of that kingdom who know how to WAIT.

We wait well by being able to recognize the MAN of lawlessness. But we also wait well when we’re able to identify the MYSTERY of lawlessness.

And it’s not enough to just recognize it “out there.” You also need to be able to recognize the mystery of lawlessness in your own heart.

The Middle of the Temple

I mentioned earlier about the antichrist setting himself up in the middle of God’s temple because the center of the temple displayed the central reality of the universe. It was meant to inspire awe, worship and the ground for meaning and purpose.

Do you know what was in the center of God’s temple? What did the antichrist try and remove and defile?

It wasn’t a picture. It wasn’t a throne. It was an object of furniture: the ark of the covenant. A wooden box in the holy of Holies that housed the Law - the Ten Commandments. And the place in which the shekinah glory of the Lord would dwell.

Over the box was a golden slab. It was called “the mercy seat.” The blood from an animal sacrifice was sprinkled over the slab making communion with God possible. Through the death of a substitute - God’s presence could be received.

At the center of God’s temple is an object containing God’s glory. The central theme communicated by that object is substitutionary sacrifice, mercy, grace and love.

My Life For You

The mystery God gave the Israelites in their temple is the same one he gives us. It has not changed. At the heart of their temple, was a object displaying God’s mercy and grace. Someone laying down life that others might live.

God was saying, “the foundational reality of the universe is this: My life for you.”

Tim Keller - quoting Tom Howard - says these four words form the central reality of both creation and redemption.

No child was brought into this world without a mother who first said, “my life for yours.”

There’s not a toddler learning his first few words that isn’t accompanied by a tired and worn out guardian who says, “my life for yours.” (my money for your development, my time for your growth, my convenience for your potential…)

Dying little deaths. My time? No, yours. My money? No, yours. My comfort? No, yours. My life for yours.

It’s the ground of all creation. Life is created through sacrificial love.

But not only are we created through sacrificial love. We are redeemed - recreated - through that same reality. My life for yours is the foundational reality of redemption.

Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are all grounded in “my life for yours.” The cross says to every person who looks upon it “My life for yours.”

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone who’s sole purpose in life was to give their life for yours? It’s a foretaste of heaven.

That’s the reality marriage is meant to be built upon. Because that’s the only culture in which life can flourish and grow.

This is the reality the church is meant to display. A community of people laying their life down for others.

My life for yours is the ultimate reality of the universe. And when you come to understand and love that truth then it breaks the power of lawlessness in your life.

The Opposite Message

Because the power of sin is the opposite. The Man and Mystery of Lawlessness presents a counterfeit ultimate reality. It’s the opposite of Christ and his Gospel.

The man of lawlessness hates what’s in the temple and replaces it with himself. They say the ultimate reality of creation and redemption is: “your life for me.”

The antichrist sets himself up in the temple and says “It’s all about me.” If you want money and prestige and respect then you have to take it for yourself by taking it away from others. You get by taking not by giving.

Love and mercy and grace are WEAKNESS, not strength. FOOLISHNESS not wisdom. It’s a message we already hear in seed form today.

My life for yours = ultimate reality of the the kingdom (heaven on earth). Your life for mine = the ultimate reality of the hell.

But if you embrace the counterfeit instead of the truth then you’re only inviting your eventual destruction. God’s presenting you with the truth but for those who desire the counterfeit mystery over the mystery of God the truth is a blinding light.

God doesn’t send people a delusion in a malicious way. He merely presents the truth. And some people, in seeing and hearing the truth only harden their heart and press further and further into the mystery of lawlessness.

Which Has Your Heart?

The question for you today is which reality has your heart? Which mystery currently energizes you? Because until Jesus comes we’re going to continue wrestling with this tension.

We will be in a battle of ideas for which message makes the most sense.

Will it be the message of Christmas? “My life for yours… better to give than to receive?” Or will we fall prey to the more immediate gratification of “your life for mine?” The choice is yours to make.

But we can only say to others “my life for you” when we embrace the truth that God has already said those same words to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you received him? Are you living in light of his love?