Stand Firm

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on May 7, 2023.  The Bible verses used are 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17.

            If you pay attention to the news, it’s easy to believe that Christianity is in a state of decline.  It seems like every month, if not more often, there’s a poll someplace that has negative news about Christianity.  There are fewer people who believe in God, fewer people who call themselves Christians, fewer people who attend church regularly.  If you believe all those polls, you’d have to think that Christianity is on a downhill slide and that there’s not much we can do to stop it.

            And if you look at society, you might conclude that’s right.  We don’t notice it so much here, in small town South Dakota, but there are places where being a Christian results in being looked down upon.  And that’s especially true if you’re open about your faith and try to share it with others.  A lot of people say they’ll tolerate your faith, as long as you keep it to yourself.  But they don’t want you to be too public with it.

            And then, too, you’ll see all kinds of pseudo-religions out there.  People whose faith can be found in Mother Earth, or karma, or in some sort of vague “spirituality”.  They believe in something, but a lot of times they, themselves, are not really sure what it is.  But whatever it is, it is not the divine Son, Jesus Christ.

            When we see that kind of thing, it’s easy to get depressed about the future of our faith.  But you know, there’s nothing really new about it.  The people of the church of Thessalonica were apparently concerned about these same things.  And Paul writes to them to tell them how to deal with it.

            Paul says they should not “become easily unsettled or alarmed” at the fact that there was false teaching out there.  They should not even be unsettled or alarmed if the people spreading that teaching claimed to be representing Paul and his associates.  He warns them not to be fooled by it, but he also tells them to not get overly upset about it, either.

            And Paul tells them why they should not get too upset about this stuff.  He says, look, we knew this was coming.  In fact, he says, I told you this was coming.  Paul says, “Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?”  He tells them, this is not unexpected.  We knew this would happen.  

            But there’s another reason the Thessalonians were not supposed to get too upset about all this.  Paul tells them that, ultimately, these false teachings and false teachers will not prevail.  It might look like they’re going to, for a while, but they will not.  Eventually, they will be defeated.  He refers to those who spread false teachers as representing someone he calls “the lawless one”.  And Paul says, “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.”

            But Paul does warn them that it’s going to be tempting to follow those false teachings.  He also says this, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works.  He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie.”

            Does any of this sound familiar?  Because there are a lot of false teachings out there, and there are false teachers, too.  And a lot of those false teachings are things that sound really good.  They can be really tempting.  And if we’re not careful, we can find ourselves falling for them.

            You’ve probably heard some of them.  “Well, you know, a loving God would never allow people to go to hell.”  “Well, it really does not matter what you believe, as long as you’re sincere in your beliefs.”  “Well, all that really matters is that you be nice to people.”  “Well, you can do whatever you want, as long as it does not hurt anybody else.”   “Well, the only religion you really need is kindness.” “Well, it does not matter what you do in your personal life, as long as your public opinions are right.  Give to the right causes, support the right laws, vote the right way, and what you do or what you believe privately does not matter.”

            I’m sure most of us have heard at least some of these, are some variation of them.  And of course, this is not a comprehensive list by any means.  There are all kinds of false teachings out there.  And some of them are spread by famous people who seem like really nice, really good people.  But they’re all designed to do the same thing.  They’re designed to lead people away from God and toward something else.  Some watered down, mild, milquetoast version of niceness.  A method of living that allows us to do the things we want to do and call them okay, regardless of what God might have had to say about them.

            But again, we should not be too upset about this.  We should be aware of it, of course.  But all of this is to be expected.  Paul told us it would happen two thousand years ago.  Jesus said it would happen, too.  In fact, Jesus predicted they would come in exactly the way we’ve talked about.  In fact, if you’ve ever heard that phrase, “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, this is where it comes from.  In Matthew Chapter Seven, Verse Fifteen, he says, “Beware of false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”  

In other words, it’s just like we were saying.  These false prophets, these people who spread all these false teachings, will do it in a way that sounds really good.  They’ll sound like they’re really nice people who just want everyone to get along.  And what makes it really deceptive is that there is truth in it.  Of course God wants us to show love.  Of course God is in favor of kindness.  But Jesus did not tell us that we should all just get along.  There’s a lot more to Jesus’ message than that.

Jesus is the one who told us to go the extra mile.  Jesus is the one who told us to show love even to our enemies.  Jesus is the only who told us to pray for those who persecute us.  Jesus is the one who told us that if someone wants our coat, we should also give him our shirt.  And of course, Jesus gave us the ultimate example of doing all those things and more when he went to the cross, dying for things he had not done, dying to save us from suffering the consequences of our sins.

            So what should we do?  We should do exactly what Paul told the church at Thessalonica.  “Stand firm and hold fast to the teachings” that have been passed on to us.  In other words, stay faithful to the word of God and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

            When we hear these false teachings, and when they sound really good to us, we need to go back to the Bible.  We need to ask, “Is that what the Bible says?”  “Is that what Jesus taught?”  Because, again, a lot of these false teachings do sound really good.  They sound really persuasive.  But if they don’t agree with God’s Word, if they don’t agree with the gospel of Jesus Christ, then they’re not true, no matter how good they might sound.

            You and I have access to the truth.  We need to make use of that access.  We need to make sure we are not fooled by the false teachings of the false teachers of the world.

            And of course, we need to do more than that.  We should not keep that truth to ourselves.  We need to share it with others.  We need to do what we can to keep others from being fooled by those false teachings.  After all, if they sound good to us, how much better will they sound to someone who does not have a background in Christianity?  How much better will they sound to someone who does not know what the Bible says and does not know the gospel of Jesus Christ?  

            Now, I’m not saying we need to go out and point a finger in someone’s face and try to force the gospel on them.  Jesus never did that.  What did Jesus do?  Jesus said, here’s how it is.  Here’s the truth.  You can choose to believe it and have eternal life.  Or, you can choose not to believe it and suffer the consequences.  If you have sincere questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.  But if you don’t want to believe the truth, well, that’s your choice.

            I think that’s the attitude you and I need to have.  We know the truth.  We need to share it with people.  But if they choose not to believe it, that’s their choice.  There’s not much more we can do.

            Except for one thing.  And really, it’s probably the most important thing of all.  We can pray.  We can pray that God will bless our efforts.  We can pray that God will touch people’s hearts.  We can pray that God’s Holy Spirit will break down someone’s resistance.  We can pray that God will show up for them in a way that they simply cannot deny.  We can pray that God will do what we cannot do.

            Because God can.  God can do that.  God can do anything.  In fact, that’s the only way anything is going to happen--with God.  You and I cannot bring anyone to faith by ourselves.  We can only do it if God chooses to work through us.

            There’s a lot of false teaching out there.  But don’t let that alarm you.  It’s to be expected.  Besides, we know that in the end, God is going to win.  What you and I need to do is simply stand firm and hold fast to the teachings of God and of the divine Son, Jesus Christ.  And then, we need to do what we can to share those teachings with others.  If we do that, God will take care of the rest.