First Reading: Exodus 3:1-15
1Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” 13Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”
Psalm 148
1Hallelujah! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights. 2Praise him, all you angels of his; praise him, all his host. 3Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars. 4Praise him, heaven of heavens, and you waters above the heavens. 5Let them praise the name of the Lord; for he commanded, and they were created. 6He made them stand fast forever and ever; he gave them a law which shall not pass away. 7Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps; 8Fire and hail, snow and fog, tempestuous wind, doing his will; 9Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars; 10Wild beasts and all cattle, creeping things and winged birds; 11Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the world; 12Young men and maidens, old and young together. 13Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name only is exalted, his splendor is over earth and heaven. 14He has raised up strength for his people and praise for all his loyal servants, the children of Israel, a people who are near him. Hallelujah!
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, 13-17
1Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
13But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 14To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. 16Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
Gospel: Luke 20:27-40
27There came to {Jesus} some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30And the second 31and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32Afterward the woman also died. 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” 34And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
When Will the End Come?
What does 1874, 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1984 have in common? These are the years that certain religious group prophesied as the year that the world would come to an end. Question number 2: What do Napoleon, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Adolph Hitler, and Ronald Reagan have in common? They were all identified, by some religious group, as the Antichrist. For the record, the reason Ronald Reagan is included in this list is his full name is Ronald Wilson Reagan; since each name has six letters, people associated him with the number 666 in Revelation chapter 13. I bring this up because this tells us something about prophecy.
Biblical prophecy is important, not just to religious groups but to a great number of people. We all want to know not only the future, but about eternity. This is what philosophers and thinkers have been pondering for centuries. It’s the basis for questions like, what is the meaning of life, and why am I here. It’s why Hollywood continues to churn out movies and TV shows based on future events. Therefore, prophecy, especially Biblical prophecy, is too important to be neglected, rejected, or ignored. However, we cannot let it control us, or our future. We must not become obsessed with apocalyptical writings.
There are some people who say that prophecy is unimportant, that it’s irrelevant, and we don’t need to dwell on the future, we just need to take care of the present. The last part of this statement I agree with. Our spiritual and kingdom focus should be on the here and now. However, we must bear in mind that we cannot dismiss or ignore prophecy, because God included it in His word. All things considered, about one-third of the Bible was prophecy at the time it was written. Of course, the last book of the Bible is devoted exclusively to prophecy. And when you take the book of Daniel into account, about half of it is prophecy. Of course, Jesus addressed the end of times as did St. Paul and some of the other Biblical writers. So, we must wrestle with these passages that are shrouded in mystery. Again, it should not become an obsession or a distraction.
Our lectionary readings for the past couple of weeks and for the next two weeks, have touched on, and will touch on, what will happen at some point in the future. These passages were written primarily to give us warnings to watch, to stay awake, to look for signs, and to be about the business of the kingdom. But, for the faithful, these readings are also about God fulfilling His promises, they’re about reassuring us as God’s children, that He is in control and will always be in control. Thus, these readings are not meant to frighten us, rather they were written to give us hope and reassurance. But we need to be careful, we cannot allow some self-proclaimed expert to mislead us in any way.
Another important point to remember, since end time prophecy passages are shrouded in mystery, we need to guard ourselves against speculation. There will always be people who will try to convince others that they have the key to unlocking the mysteries, that they alone have been given the knowledge. To this, I remind myself of what Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 24:36, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
What we need to keep in mind is that God has revealed to all of us what we need to know so that we do not become complacent, that we stay awake, and that we stay focused on the job we’ve been given, that is to “Go and make disciples.” This is the case with our epistle reading for today. As we see in St. Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, prophecy was of great concern to the early church. In the church at Thessalonica, it appears that a false prophet had caused great confusion over events that they claimed had already taken place, namely, Jesus’ return.
In this passage, Paul lays to rest some myths about the coming day of the Lord, the day in which the world is going to end and gives us a biblical plumb line on how to measure true prophets and false prophets. And the first thing St. Paul addresses is that the misery of the Saints is relieved. Paul wrote this chapter because there was anxiety because of rumors: “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come” (vv. 1-2). Paul is telling the early church, and us, to not be rattled by these dooms day preachers.
Paul’s use of the word “shaken,” here depicts a ship that is driven from its moorings, has lost its anchor, and is being tossed about in a storm. The source of this confusion apparently came from someone who had preached a sermon and evidently produced a forged letter claiming to be from Paul, saying that the day of the Lord had already come. The concern for the members of the church was that the Jesus had already come back and that they were not part of the elect. The Christians in Thessalonica had let the wind of rumor blow them away from the anchor of revelation. This is a cautionary note for us as well.
Since the first century, false prophets have been claiming to know the end of time, and we should be careful about who and what we listen to. To be clear, I’m not saying we should ignore what the Bible says about Jesus’ return, I’m saying we need to be very careful when dealing with end time prophecies. Remember, Jesus told His disciples, only the Father knows the day and hour (Mark 13:32).
Next, Paul provides an outline of the things that must happen before Jesus returns which is the mystery of sinfulness is restrained. Again, this is a reminder that God is in control, they are a reminder to stay awake and concentrate on the task we’ve been given as disciles. In verses 6 and 7 we read, “And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.” The mystery of lawlessness is simply this: The devil is already at work spreading evil all over this world. You see the evidence everywhere. He’s at work in our government, he’s at work in schools, he’s working in the courts, and he’s even working in the church. But Paul reminds us that the sinful one, the prince of this world, has a limit.
St. Paul tells us that there is a boundary beyond which the mystery of wickedness cannot work and cannot go. God has drawn a line in the dirt that the devil cannot cross. Sometimes people have a problem with God and evil. They say something like, “If there is a God, why is there so much evil in the world?” What they don’t understand is, if it wasn’t for God, the world today would a war zone. In this passage, we are assured that there is a restraining force that keeps the devil from doing all the evil that he wants to do. The problem is, we sometimes give the devil too much credit.
Yes, satan is powerful, but God is All-powerful. Yes, satan is mighty, but God is Almighty. Yes, satan is sinister, but God is Sovereign. Although the mystery of lawlessness is working, and the word work here means literally to work with power and effect, the devil is having an impact on this world, but that impact is limited, it’s being restrained. Here in verse 6 Paul speaks of “what is restraining, and in verse 7 he speaks of “who restrains.” So is it a what, or is it a who? The answer to that is yes. It’s both a power and a person.
In verse 6 Paul uses the neuter gender and in verse 7 Paul uses the masculine gender to refer to this restrainer. Now the only being in the Bible that fits that description is the Holy Spirit of God. In Isaiah 59:19 we read, “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” The Holy Spirit has a two-fold ministry: for the saint, He is our helper; to satan, He is a hindrance. St. John said, “Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world.” We know that the “one in the world” is satan. And who is the One in us? The Holy Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit in us helps us overcome the attacks of the devil and He’s also the One who hinders the devil from unleashing the full forces of evil against the world. Next, Paul tells us that a representative of satan will be revealed. In verse 3 we read, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition (or destruction).” Before Jesus returns, there is going to be an apostasy, a rebellion. The word “falling away” comes from the Greek word “apostasia” which gives us the word apostasy. It literally means to defect, to rebel. It refers to a military revolt where soldiers become insubordinate to their commanders.
Paul described this apostasy in I Timothy 4:1-3, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”
Paul is warning us that there will come a time when we will see those who make up the wheat and those who make up the tares, the sheep and the goats. There’s going to be a great rebellion against the word of God, against the Son of God, against the truth of God, and against the church of God. This apostasy is linked to an appearance. For it is at this time that “the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.” Now in I & II John he is called the Antichrist. In the first days of human history, we see the sin of man; but in the last days of human history, we’re going to see the man of sin. But this man is not satan, he will be satan’s right hand man.
Satan wants to be worshipped as god. In fact, he wants to be worshipped instead of God. The word “anti” not only means against, it means instead of. All of this is made clear in verses 9-12: “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
“The man of lawlessness, the son of destruction” will come and deceive millions and turn them from serving God to serving satan. And furthermore, “this sinful man will proclaim himself to be God.” This is what St. Paul is warning us about. This is what Jesus warned us about. But as faithful followers of the one true God, we don’t have to worry. As these reading also indicate, we have nothing to fear, God is in control and will always be in control. Yes, there will be difficult times, but as our epistle text points out, Jesus will return and “the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of His mouth and bring [him] to nothing by the appearance of His coming” (vs.8).
It’s a good bet that Jesus isn’t going to come back in the middle of a revival; He’s going to come back in the middle of a rebellion. And for the Christian, when we see these things happening, we ought to say, “Praise God, Jesus’ return is near!” When things seem darkest in this world, it could mean that our Salvation is at hand. Consider this, what is the darkest part of the night? Just before dawn. What we can count on is, when things seem their darkest, Jesus will return and consume the wicked one and conquer the worldly ones. He is going to do it with His breath and the brightness of His light. In other words, He’s going to simply blow satan and his minions away.
St. Paul writes, “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way” (vss. 1-3). Then St. Paul concludes this passage with wonderful reassurance: “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. 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” (vss.13-17).
As the “firstfruits to be saved” we have nothing to fear. Yes, dark times are coming, yes satan will continue to wreak havoc in our world, but he has already been defeated. He knows he’s fighting a losing battle, and he knows what the future holds for him. He also knows that God is in control and will always be in control. God’s promises are sure; we can count on that. But until that day, our focus in on the present task, to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” If we do this, God has promised to take care of the rest. Our hope is to one day hear our Lord and master say, “well done good and faithful servant, enter into your master’s rest.”
Amen