THE BREATH OF HIS MOUTH

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3:18

Key Verse 2:8

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

Today we would like to think about the kind of promise we have in the Lord, that is, the promise of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ back to this world, and in view of this glorious promise, the kind of position we are to take. Let us think about this passage then in two parts: I. The promise. II. The position. 

I. The promise we have (2:1-12)

The Bible is filled with many promises from God. Some of them have been fulfilled, but some have not. Of all the good promises, the promise of the coming of the Lord again is one of the greatest. Why then is this hope so great? 

(1) Its contents (1-2)

The promise of the coming of the Lord is great because it is the time for the saints to be "gathered to Jesus Christ". Look at vs. 1-2. "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come." The word "gathered" means "to be together". It means for us to be together with Jesus Christ. As of now, the saints are not literally with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not here on earth. He has risen. He is with God. Of course he is with us, but not by himself physically being with us, but by sending the Holy Spirit to us. But the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ. The other day I talked to a bachelor who got married but whose wife is not still with him. He felt lonely. He felt gloomy and distressed. He was largely unsettled. I knew the reason why. He is as unstable as he is because he misses his wife. So after much prayer I wanted to suggest to him that he visits his wife in Korea. But to my great surprise even before I made the suggestion he had already talked to his wife and he decided to go and see his wife. Plus he had already bought a ticket! What a surprise! To him making international phone calls with his wife is not enough. The two really want to get together!

When you think about it, this is what our relationship with Jesus Christ is all about. In many places of the Bible our relationship with Jesus Christ is described as a marriage relationship. At the outset of John's gospel John the Baptist proclaimed: "The bride belongs to the bridegroom." By the bride John meant people like tax collectors who fell in love with Jesus. And by the bridegroom Jesus meant himself. The Bible consists of 66 books. One of the books is entitled "Song of Songs." This book is inserted almost at the center of the Bible. And this book sings of the beautiful relationship between the two lovers. To carnal minds, the Song of Songs is nothing but fleshly. But to a regenerate mind, this book describes the two lovers who are none other than the saints and Jesus Christ. And the love song describes the nature of the relationship between Jesus and his bride in most accurate terms. But in the meantime we have to live up with what we have, for Jesus is not with us physically. But there will come a moment of his coming. And the Bible abounds with the expressions describing the day of his coming in all different phraseology. For example, Solomon says in the Song of Songs, "See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me." What is Solomon talking about? Is he merely being poetic to describe his love affair with one of his many lovers? I do not think so. To me he is describing prophetically the beautiful day of the Lord's coming, first to look for his bride. 

(2) Its timing (3-9)

The Bible says that God has made everything beautiful in its time (Ecc 3:11a). In the passage as well the Apostle Paul also shares the same idea by using the expression "the proper time." Look at vs. 3-9. "Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders..." I would like to call this passage  “eschatology" in a nutshell. It is the book of Revelation condensed in 7 verses. But today we are not going to decipher and sort out the complex scheme of the coming of the Lord which involves numerous factors. For us, it is sufficient to say only a few things. 

First of all this passage begins with a warning and ends with the key. What is the warning? Don't let anyone deceive you in any way... What is the key? The key is "the proper time." Here the word proper is the same as "right" or "beautiful". The proper time means the right time which is also the beautiful time. It is beautiful and perfect. It is not a time but "the time." God is the God of time in the sense that to him everything is all planned out. And he fulfills his promises including the promise of the coming of the Lord all in accordance with the time schedule set in advance, set even from before the creation of the universe. 

What then is the beauty of the time being proper? The beauty is found in the little expression "the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way." This expression generated a lot of speculations among the Bible students as to the meaning of what holds the lawless man back and who the "he" in the expression "he is taken out of the way" means. Direct answers to these questions are not found in the passage we have just read. They are rather found in other places of the Bible. But we do not have to read all the Bible passages to figure out all the intricate meanings of them. But rather for us it is sufficient to read the Book of Genesis. Genesis is the book of design. It is God's manual for creation and redemption. And it contains all we need to know about the way God designed the universe, including the design of time of the coming of the Lord. Among many there are two places for us to go concerning the time of the Lord's coming - Noah's flood, and the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. The former came with water. The latter with fire. But the messages are the same. In the case of Noah, he and his household lived among the wicked. Yet before the Lord judged the unbelieving, the Lord God removed the Holy Spirit from the inner sanctum of the rebellious. Then the Lord visited Noah to build an ark. Then after the ark was completed, and after inviting 8 plus animals into the ark, the Lord God shut the door behind. The five words recorded in Genesis 9:16 is perhaps the most dreadful remark found in the Bible. "Shut the door behind him." I think here "him" means "Noah." After Noah, the Lord shut the door. What about the rest? Oh, they are going to enjoy swimming. 

We find a similar pattern in the case of the Lord's judgment on the Sodom and Gomorrah. There it was only after removing Lot and his family members that the Lord God turned the place into a bunch of French fries. 

Then more surprisingly than these, when Jesus came he said, "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. "It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:26-29)." Here two days are important: No. 1. "The day Noah entered the ark." No. 2. "The day Lot left Sodom." But the expression "just as" indicates that the message these two days are sending to us is one and the same, that is, the church will be taken out of the world, before the judgment falls on this earth. 

In 1 Thessalonians the Apostle Paul elaborated the idea of the church being taken out of this world in a little more detail saying, "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever (1Th 4:16,17).” This is the time when the Lord is going to come "for" the saints. This coming weekend we would like to have a Spring Bible conf. where 8 people will share the gospel symposium and 7 people will serve the victory symposium. The victory symposium will be based on 1 Corinthians 15 which is a resurrection chapter. While we will study a little more about the details of the "Operation (not Iraqi but) Saints Freedom" at the conference site, for now it is sufficient to say that the time for the Lord's coming as described here in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 will be the time of the saints receiving the resurrection body. This will take place in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye (1Co 15:52). The Lord means business on this transaction (of resurrection of the saints, so in order to ensure this to happen he built inside of each child the Spirit of God which is called the deposit (or guarantee) of what is to come (2Co 1:22; 5:5). 

After rising from the dead Jesus "ascended" into heaven. Just like this, after rising from the dead, Jesus will let the saints "ascend" into heaven. Here "heaven" does mean the sky or some other place. It means the presence of God as opposed to this earth which is a lowly dimension than the dimension of God. When this is done, the world will be rid of the bride of Jesus Christ. It will be inhabited by people minus a specific category of people called "the Bride." The purpose of their being taken out of the way into the presence of God is to let them participate in the "marriage feast" as described in Revelation 19:7-9 (as well as in Matthew 22:1-14). This will take at least 7 years (perhaps much longer) which correspond to the Daniel's last one seven (in Daniel's 70 sevens) (Dnl 9:27). So they are not going to stay in the heavenly realm indefinitely. After seven years they will come back to this earth again. It will be the time for the Lord to come to this earth "with" the saints (Zech 14:5; Col 3:4; 1Th 3:13; 4:14; Jude 1:14). The point of his arrival will be on the Mt. Olives (Zec 14:4; Acts 1:9-12; Mat 24:29-31). 

In Daniel 9:20-27, Daniel indicated that while the wedding feast is going on in the heavenly realm, at the outset of the Daniel's last seven, the lawless one will appear. For the first three and half years, he will make peace with the earthly inhabitants. Then, during the remainder of the 3 and half years, the so-called "Tribulation" (Rev 7:14) also known as "Jacob's trouble" (Jer 30:7) will be staged here on earth. Towards the end of the tribulation period Jesus will come only to set aside the lawless man with the breath of his mouth, and destroy him with the glory of his coming (2Th 2:8). Here "breath of his mouth" refers to the power of Jesus' word. In John 1:1-4, John teaches us that it is with this word of his mouth that he created the world. In Genesis 1:1-31, it is with this word that Jesus created the heavens and earth. His word is all powerful. With this word, we too can defeat all kinds of evil. And with this word that we can enter into the world of God's glory.

This little observation shows us that the timing of the Lord's coming is beautiful in that God picked its timing to serve the best interest of his children despite all the terrible circumstances in which his children might be in. 

(3) Its partakers (10-17)

Luke 17:34-35 say, "I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left." Who then will be taken and who will be not? Who is qualified and who is not? Who are the partakers of the glory of the Lord's second coming? Who will be allowed to participate in this glorious occasion? 

In vs. 10-17, Paul describes first negatively and then positively, that is, in vs. 10-12 Paul describes who is not, and in vs. 13-17, he describes who is. 

Let us read vs. 10-12. "And in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." Here Paul describes who is not - the one who refuses to love the truth! The truth here refers to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the embodiment of all the truths, especially the truths about salvation. 

Then let us read vs. 13-17. "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." Here by the "teachings" Paul means the teachings about the gospel of Jesus just as he elaborated in many of his epistles particularly in the book of Romans. At the Spring Conf. the gospel symposium speakers will talk about the essence of the gospel in a little more detail, so I would not repeat it here. 

II. The position we take (2:13-3:18)

With this glorious promise still standing for the saints, how are we to live? In 2:13-18, Paul exhorts us to do three things. 

(1) Stand firm (2:13-17)

Let us read 2 Thessalonians 2:15 again, "So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter." How can we stand firm? How can we hold to the teachings we learn in the Bible? One of the best ways to do this is to do the daily bread each and every day. Another way is to write a deep Bible testimony at least once a week. Another way is to memorize important Bible verses. At the conference “Good News Symposium” speakers and “Victory Symposium” speakers will show us an example of memorizing Bible verses. Still another way to stand firm and hold to the teachings is to prepare good study notes, and teach the Bible! And during the spring conf. we will see examples of those who struggle to write Bible messages and serve the messages.

(2) Pray (3:1-5)

Let us read 2Th 3:1-5 responsively. Here Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to pray that through the evangelical work of the servants like the Apostle Paul, Silas, and Timothy (2Th 1:1), the word of God would spread rapidly and be honored by many. He also asked them to pray for the protection of the gospel workers from evil men. Likewise we must constantly pray that God would bless the speakers to serve God's word at the Spring Conf. Let us pray that God would protect Bible teachers from evil men. Nowadays Shep. Neal has been diligent in serving 1:1's on campus. But as he works hard to spread the word many tried to disrupt his Bible studies. So we need to pray for him. 

(3) Work hard (3:6-18)

In vs. 6-18, the Apostle Paul warned against those who are lazy. Because some people spread false ideas about the coming of the Lord, they began to adopt the hedonist's lifestyle saying, "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die." Some misinterpreted the message of the Lord's coming, so they said, "Look! Soon the Lord will come. Then we will all go up! And we go up, we do not need a thing." Then they goof around doing nothing. But still they have to eat. They have to pay rents. But because they do not work, although they are capable to work, they end up becoming a great burden to others. They borrow money from others, never being able to pay back. On many occasions they also excuse saying, "Oh, nowadays the economy is bad, and no one is going to hire me." But this is only a lame excuse. If you cannot find a job, at least you can deliver news papers. Or you can find a job at a Taco Bell. If you look for a more gainful job, at least you can apply to a community college like LBCC and get training in a trade or two like plumbing or welding. Then you can set up even your own business and become a CEO, still working full time for the Lord. 

But those who are idle are not enemies of God. They are just lazy people. So Paul says that we should not regard them as enemies. So instead of passing judgment on them we must pray for them. We must encourage them to copy the example of our missionaries in overseas countries like Russia or Africa where despite the poor economy they somehow figured out the ways to support themselves still serving the Lord. 

In conclusion: the beautiful work of God will all be done by the beautiful word of God. The power of evil is raging. As Paul mentioned in this so called information age the secret power of evil is raging in full speed. But we should not be overwhelmed by the ever increasing degree of wickedness. Rather, as we hold onto the living word of God daily the Lord God will surely keep our spirit soul and body sanctified through and through. Then he will enable us to participate in such a glorious work of God as the resurrection of the dead or rapturous transformation of the living saints, all according to God’s creation power. This sounds impossible but to God it will be done easily, as easily as one breathes. 

One word: Breath of his mouth.