Bible Talks - Traditional Church (Sunday 8am)
Living in the last days
Sunday, 10 December 2006
This morning we come to the end of our sermon series on Thessalonians. One of the ideas running through Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians and much of the other NT writings is the warning to watch out for false teachers, people who teach something other than the authentic gospel of Jesus as taught by the apostles. The Apostle John in his first letter warns about the Antichrist who is anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ. The book of Revelation tells about the beast from the earth who will deceive the inhabitants of the earth. In all the NT refers to false prophets or false teachers about 20 times.
There were people in the Thessalonian church who were claiming that the Day of the Lord had already come, but Paul in a sort of funny reversal, uses the fact that the man of lawlessness, who will falsely claim to be God, had not yet come, to reassure them that the Day of the Lord still lay in the future. In Mark 13:5-6 Jesus himself warned, "Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many.” And in verses 21 & 22 “At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ !' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect--if that were possible.”
The Apostle Paul’s response to these false claims that the Day of the Lord had already come was to say to the Thessalonian Christians 2 Th 2:15 “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” Paul is concerned to show the authenticity of his own writing and writes near the end of the letter, 2 Th 3:17 “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.” It’s possible that other people has been writing letters and claiming they had been written by Paul saying that Jesus had already come, and that there were other ways to salvation than faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul condemns not just these other gospels but also those who write them for as well as not believing the truth they have actually delighted in wickedness. He thanks God that the Thessalonian Christians have been called by God to salvation through what he calls “our gospel”, the true blue authenticate gospel taught by the apostles. And he encourages them to 2 Th 2:15 “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.“
Now this is a very important principle. That we hold firm to the gospel that has come to us from the Apostles. It’s why we say in the Nicene Creed that we believe in the one, holy, universal and apostolic church. Our faith is based on the truth of Jesus Christ as recorded for us by the Apostles in the gospels and the other NT writings.
The Christian writers of the second and third centuries AD -- what is known as the sub-apostolic age, a time when the church was still growing rapidly, but the Apostles had all died -- had to fight to retain the authenticity of the Christian message as false teachers tried to substitute false gospels for the true gospel. And of course people who want to do this are still around today. People, for one reason or another, take offence at the true gospel and try to substitute something else in its place. At times the true church finds itself swamped by these false gods and false Christs.
In the early church the orthodox Christians overcame some of the false teachings by composing the Christian creeds. In them they summarised what true Christians believe. The apostles’ Creed had its origin as a baptismal creed. If you became a Christian from out of a pagan background you were given a course of instruction and required to recite the Apostles’ creed before you were baptized. The apostles’ creed dates back to about 140AD.
The Nicene creed was formulated at the Council of Nicea in Ad 325 when Constantine, the first Roman emperor to become a Christian called the council to deal with a particular false teaching that was spreading through the church at that time. The false teaching, or heresy, was that Jesus wasn’t God become man but just the first being created by God. This was known as the Arian heresy after Arius who was teaching it. The Arian heresy is still around today, taught for example by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Christadelphians.
Even in Paul’s time there were those who were saying that you have to obey the Jewish law as well as having faith in Jesus in order to be saved. This is what the books of Galatians and Hebrews are about. And versions of that heresy is still around taught by the Seventh Day Adventists and others.
The Athanasian creed, which was named after Athanasius who was the leader of the goodies at the council of Nicea was drawn up to counter wrong teaching about the Holy Spirit. And down through the ages churches have felt the need to write down what they believe in order to refute false teaching. The reformation produced our 39 Articles and the Westminster Confession as well as the longer and shorter catechisms which were all summaries of Christian faith written to refute the heresies of the time.
In recent years we’ve had a whole swag of people who have tried to persuade us that Jesus is something other than what is portrayed for us in the bible. Almost every Christmas or Easter a new book appears on the bookstands or there’s a TV documentary supposedly telling us the truth about Jesus.
Paul’s answer to this was for the Thessalonian Christians to cling to the Gospel that had been taught to them by the Apostle Paul. Our answer today is to cling to the Gospel that has been recorded for us by the Apostles in the Bible.
In the Sub apostolic age the true blue Christians even had to fight to preserve the integrity of what we now call the New Testament against those who wanted to chop bits out because they didn’t like what it was teaching. One guy called Marcion threw out all the Old Testament, all the gospels except Luke’s, substantial parts of Luke’s gospel, particularly those bits that referred to John the Baptist and to Jesus as the fulfillment of the OT prophesies, the Acts of the Apostles, all the letters except those of Paul and he only kept 10 of Paul’s thirteen letters. It was in response to guys like Marcion that the church acknowledged what books it believed comprised the true apostolic account that we call the new Testament.
At that time there were other so called gospels floating around that claimed to be true accounts of the life of Jesus but were patently false.
When these false teachings come from outside the church it’s easy to refute them. But when they are coming from within, from people who are in positions of influence and responsibility within the church it is more difficult. The Apostle Paul says stick to what you were originally taught by the Apostles.
The apostle John says, 1 John 2:24-25 “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us--even eternal life.”
These days we turn to the Bible to know what it is the apostles taught. We must fill our minds with the truth of God from the Bible in order to protect ourselves from the false garbage that people will try to teach us. Read the Bible for yourself. Belong to a bible study Group. Listen to sermons from reputable preachers. Read books by reliable Christian authors. Fill your minds with God’s truth because that is what will protect you from error.
Paul finishes up his second letter to the Thessalonians by warning them against idleness. 2 Th 3:10 "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." He says. And 2 Th 3:12 “Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.”
This is not an injunction against those who cannot find work, they deserve our help and compassion, but against those who will not work, who instead of being busy become busybodies.
There is also the possibility that such people had decided that if Jesus is going to return soon then what’s the point of working. But the way to live in these last days is to be ready to go when Jesus returns and in the meantime to get on with the work he has given us.
I’d like to finish this series from 1 & 2 Thessalonians with the prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed for the Thessalonian Christians. 2 Th 2:16-17 “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.”
AMEN