Sermon by Pastor Robert Green, 2nd Sunday After Epiphany, 1/15/12, Yr. B, No. 918, Ascension Evangelical Lutheran Church, W.E.L.S., Harrisburg, PA, based on 2 Thess. 2:13–17
Are you standing firm and holding onto the teachings passed on to you?
Paul was a great missionary who, we believe, went four missionary journeys, three are described in detail in the Book of Acts. During his second journey Paul, Silas and Timothy established congregations in Macedonia, including congregations at Philippi and Thessalonica. In Macedonia the missionaries encountered fierce opposition from Jews jealous over the success of the missions. Persecution drove the missionaries on to other towns often in just a few weeks.
Persecution in Thessalonica drove the missionaries to Berea. Then persecution in Berea drove Paul to Athens. Timothy and Silas came from Berea to visit Paul and then Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to find out how the congregation was doing, especially with the severe persecution that was going on. Timothy came back with a report that brought Paul great joy because the Thessalonian Christians were holding firm, though there were some doctrinal issues. Paul wrote his first letter to encourage and strengthen the believers in faith and understanding of these issues.
One doctrine the congregation members struggled with was the proper understanding ofthe Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. There was much confusion and Paul wrote to them in his First Letter to the Thessalonians 4:13 (NIV84)“Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.” Some were worried that if a believing loved died before Christ came again there was no hope for them. So, Paul went on to explain how because Christ raised all the dead will raise and when he returned he would bring all the believers who had already died with him. There was nothing to worry about Christians who die before Christ returned.
Later, a second report came to Paul showing, among other things,doctrinal confusion still remained over the Second Coming of Christ. So Paul again addressed the issue inhis Second Letter to the Thessalonians. The reading for today closes this part of the letter which Paul began saying, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 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. 3 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.”
Paul went on to describe the work of the man of lawlessness, identified elsewhere to be the Antichrist, saying he would set himself up in God’s temple, proclaim himself to be God, do counterfeit miracles, and “every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”
This is where the reading begins in which Paul shows the great contrast between those believing lies and to those who have faith in the Savior and believe the truth. In this reading Paulassures all believers of salvation by the work of God and calls all to stand firm on the teachings handed down to them. Thus, God asks each of us,“Areyou standing firm and holding onto the teachings passed on to you?”
The reading begins with Paul saying, “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. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” In a marvelous way Paul reminds us that our salvation is entirely in God’s hands, not our own, and thus it depends not on our thinking, reasoning, or abilities but belief in his truth.
God tells you that he chose you who believe through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. The word “to sanctify” means to make holy. The Holy Spirit’s work to sanctify us is to bring us to faith for the moment we believe all our sins are removed and we are credited with the perfect righteousness of Christ Jesus and declared justified, pure and holy in God’s eyes.
But this sanctification comes to us only through the gift of faith. As Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8–9 (NIV84) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”God wants you to know that our coming to faith is not something we did; he gave faith to us as his gracious gift. Understand that faith is trust in something, for faith takes an object. The object of Christian faith is God’s truth about who he is and about our Savior Jesus. God’s truth is found only in his Holy Word, on every page, in every sentence and word of the Bible.
The Holy Spirit uses two tools or means to bring to us God’s gracious gift of faith, the Word and Sacrament. God in his grace uses infant baptism to bring an infant to faith. God uses his Holy Word to bring children and adults to faith. As Paul says in Romans 10:17 (NIV84), “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”This is why Paul says in the reading, God “called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God uses the Word and Sacraments to keep and to strengthen us in faith. This makes hearing, reading, making and inwardly digesting his Word and using God’s Sacraments of the highest importance.
Paul also tells believersthat from the beginning, in pre-history, God chose his elect. The elect are all those who go to heaven having died in saving faith. This is the doctrine of predestination or election. This doctrine speaks only to the believers; it says nothing to unbelievers whatever. Predestination is God’s assurance that our salvation is entirely in his hands for he elected us before he made us, therefore, we can rest assured that as we believe we will be saved.
Yet, while God chose his elect, and as we believe we have the assurance of heaven and hence the status of election, believers can lose their faith. Therefore, we cannot know who the elect finally are until we get to heaven. Faith can be lost when a believer refuses to repent sin. Faith can be lost through the corruption of doctrine, what is believed, so that a believer no longer trusts in Jesus as Lord and Savior. That is why our faith must be based on the Word of God, for it is the only source of what we are to believe.
Hence in this reading, Paul went on to say, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” Our God through Paul wastes no words in encouraging us to hold onto the teachings he has given to us by the preaching, teaching and writing of the prophets and apostles. The word in Greek for translated “letter” gives us our English word “epistle” which is used to refer to the various letters written by the Apostles and which are part of the New Testament.
God wants you to have at least bare saving faith, but also a much greater faith. Therefore he says, stand firm and hold to the teachings… passed on to you.” God uses a word here that means to constantly stand firmly and another word to constantly hold onto. To constantly stand firm and hold onto the teachings will happen only to the extent that you know these teachings and are convinced they are not the mere words of men, but of God. This will happen only when you hear, read, mark and inwardly digest the words. You will find all the reason you need to hear, read, mark, and inwardly digest the Holy Scriptures when you become convinced that the Bible is God’s Word of absolute truth given to us so that we would know exactly what he wants us to know and believe about him. Believing this gives you reason to join with Samuel and say as you hear God’s Word, “Speak, O Lord, for your servant is listening.”
It is worth noting that the word for teachings as used here can be translated “traditions.” Some have used this use of the word to promote the foolish notion that God wants us to follow the traditions of a church body, meaning that whatever a church body teaches, even if it is merely from the imaginations of man, are to be followed even above the Bible. But such a translation is spurious for the Greek word means traditional teachings. In context it refers to the traditional teachings not of mere men, but of God’s inspired writers. To be sure, church bodies present the God’s truths in formulations we can doctrinal statements, but church bodies can and do make mistakes.
After all, why would anyone constantly stand firm and hold onto the teachings of the Scripture if they are merely the words of sinful men? Why bother to study the Scriptures if the Word of God is so vague and open to meaning that, as some claim, each reader is left to his or her own interpretation of the Bible? But since the Scriptures are not the mere words of sinful men, but of God, why not stand firm and hold onto the Scripture, written not for us to twist and turn to our liking, but for us to clearly hear the voice of God teaching us what to believe!
Peter explains why we can trust the Scripture to be God’s Word saying in 2 Peter 1:19–21 (NIV84), “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”The key for each Christian is to test all statements of doctrine, formal or not, with the Scripture and throw out any that conflict with the Scripture in the smallest degree.
The reading closes with Paul saying, “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”Do you want to encouraged and strengthened in every good deed and word? Then study God’s Word which is his guide in holy living and good deeds. Hear, read, mark and inwardly digest his Word so that your word is true and correct in all matters of faith so that you stand firm and hold firmly to the teachings that have been handed down. Then you will be able to properly hand them to others.
Believing that the only true God is the Trinity and believing that Jesus is our only Savior is absolutely critical for without faith in these truths there is no salvation. But this faith can be lost and that makes the standing firm and holding onto his teachings of the highest importance. Only you can answer the question, “Are you standing firm and holding onto the teachings passed on to you?” May you be strengthened in faith through your use of the Means of Grace to answer yes, with the help of God! To God be all glory, amen!