Living Before The Rapture Series

Please open your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 2……

We noted last week from v1-7, before Jesus Christ returns to earth, there will be::

- Deceivers misleading people from the truth

- a secular, ungodly world system will develop

- an ungodly world leader will emerge

- a rebellion in the world will occur

- the Temple in Jerusalem rebuilt

- an abomination in the Temple by the ungodly world leader

And we noted last week that there are many signs today of all of these things happening today. God’s truths will always happen!! Let us continue to learn from God’s Word. Read along with me now 2 Thessalonians 2:8-17……….

And so what truths can we note for this passage?

3 truths from v8:

a. the lawless one will be revealed; in other words, this ungodly world leader will first look very good; many people will be deceived; as a matter of fact, the whole world will be deceived by a leader (only those who believe in God’s Word will not be deceived)! Do you know the truth? The Bible is the truth; here in America we used to always swear the truth with a hand on a Bible; today, a person can swear on anything! The rebellion is happening!

b. Jesus Christ Himself will overthrow this godless leader! How will Jesus do it??

And what else can we note? As the lawless, ungodly leader is destroyed,

c. Jesus Christ’s splendor is revealed! The word splendor here signifies a glorious bright display; have you ever seen a glorious sunrise? Even with sunglasses you can not look directly at a bright sun! Jesus’ appearance will be like that! It will be so glorious, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Where will you be? If you’re a True Believer of Jesus Christ as your only Savior and God then when He appears, you will be sharing in His glory; no sunglasses needed for you and me as Christians because we will all be shining like Jesus when He comes for us (2 Thessalonians 1:10 states this)! Don’t miss out on the fun, believe in Jesus Christ now as your only Savior and Lord!

Now, what can we note from v9?

v9: the lawless leader to come will display all kinds of miracles, signs and wonders with satan as his power source! People of course will think that this person is a supergenius ready to do good, but the truth is the opposite; this world leader to come will be getting his power and agenda from a superangel who has fallen and goes against God.

And v10 affirms what I just said earlier: all who does not love God’s Word will be deceived and perish!

Now v11-12 may be hard to understand because it does not tell specifically what the powerful delusion sent by God is; but here’s what we can note:

v11-12: God allows people free will and the choice for life will lead to great results (either great blessings or great judgment)! Remember the Indiana Jones movie in which the Holy Grail was being picked? The guard states, “Choose Wisely!” Always choose the truth from the Bible!

In conclusion, what are Christians to do?

v13-17:

- Always give thanks to God

- Believe and stand firm in God’s truth

- Practice good deeds and speech in the power of the Holy Spirit

Let us close by noting that the next big event in God’s agenda.

The Rapture, the catching up of all Believers of Christ in the sky, can happen at any time now!

Believe in Christ now as your only Savior and Lord! Don’t be left behind when the Rapture comes!

All evil on earth will escalate after the Rapture to usher in the Man of lawlessness!

As we await for the Rapture, live the Christian life as described in v13-17.