The King's Church in Ilford
Reading: 2Thess 1:1-12
Have you ever had the shock of meeting someone you didn't think was very important, only to find out they're your new boss?! Sometimes I'm playing golf with a visiting team. Often word goes ahead of me, and these guys have been told that they're playing with "The Vicar". I know this because they skirt all reference to "What do you do for a living?" - which is an otherwise normal question to ask. Sometimes, however, they're not told and they don't ask - until near the end of the game. Then when I tell them I'm a minister, this guilty look comes over them, and they're thinking back to all the swearing they've done during the game.
Now multiply that effect a few million times, and you may start to comprehend the horror that will rise in people's hearts when they see the One whose name has meant little more than a swear word, coming on a white horse in the clouds, and they realise that here before them is the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. No longer a baby in a manger on a Christmas card. No longer the kindly face dandling little children on His knees - but the One whose face shines brighter than the sun; the One whose eyes blaze like fire; the One before whom all the most powerful men on the earth put together, are but a candle to the sun. The One they've ignored all their lives has come to judge the earth, and to call all men to account for their rebellion against, and rejection of God.
These people that stirred up trouble and persecution for the Thessalonian Christians might have thought twice if they'd realised who they were really attacking. The OT is full of mighty kings like Pharoah, Sennacharib, Nebuchadnezzar, the Philistines, who came against the people of Israel, only to find in doing so, they had come against the King of Kings & Lord of Lords.
The Scriptures make it clear in many places that this day is coming. In Acts 17:30, Paul tells the Athenians that "God has appointed a day when He will judge the world in justice by the Man He has appointed". Jesus teaches over and over about His return, and what will happen when He does. In Matt 25:31, He tells the story of the Sheep & the Goats, the Righteous & the Unrighteous will be separated out before the Great White Throne, and the Righteous will enter into eternal life, but the Unrighteous will go away into eternal punishment.
Just outside Jerusalem is a deep valley called the Valley of Hinnom. The sun never shines there. In 2Kings 23:10, it is the place where worshippers of Moluch used to sacrifice their children. It is an evil place. Over the years, it became a rubbish tip, and in Jesus' day, it had become known as Gehenna. Day and night, the smoke from this rubbish tip used to rise up out of the valley, as people burned their rubbish on this tip. For the Jews, it became a picture of Hell itself. Hence the word Gehenna is used in the NT to describe Hell.
The word the Bible uses to describe those who are lost for eternity is "to perish". We use it to describe a hot water bottle, eg, where the rubber has perished. It doesn't mean the hot water bottle has ceased to exist. It means it is no longer fit for the purpose for which it was created. So we throw it onto the rubbish dump.
So what was the purpose for which we were created? It was to worship God; to know Him and to enjoy Him forever. John Piper says, "Mission exists because worship doesn't". Our mission is to bring men, women and children to kneel in worship before the throne of God. When those same people steadfastly refuse to do so, and depart this life in that condition, they become no longer fit for the purpose for which they were created. They perish, and are thrown onto the rubbish dump of Gehenna where their worm never dies and the fire never ceases.
We should weep for them. Millions of people are perishing all around us. No longer fit for the purpose for which they were created. I remember once reading of a missionary who had this vision one night of standing at the top of a precipice. Coming towards her were thousands of people walking steadily towards this precipice, and then they were walking straight off it to destruction. This lady ran desperately from one to another trying to warn them, trying to stop them. For the most part she was ignored, and the people kept walking to their death. Then off to one side, she saw a group of Christians sitting in a circle making daisy chains!
William Booth wrote: "Some like to live within the sound of church or chapel bell. I'd rather run a rescue shop within a yard of hell."
It's not easy to weep for our persecutors. These people don't just ignore Jesus, they are aggressive towards Him and His people. There is a growing aggression in British society towards Christians; but it's still hard for us to imagine what it's like to be arrested, beaten up, lose our jobs, put in prison, have our families taken away, and our property confiscated - simply because we are Christians. It's even harder to forgive, and pray for our persecutors. These Thessalonians knew what it was like, and there may have been some who wanted to hit back. But Paul was teaching them not to take revenge. Leave it to God. He will pay them in kind. Trouble for trouble. It may not happen immediately, but when Jesus comes back, they will be called to account, and will rue bitterly the day they ever lifted a hand against God's people.
Paul says "They will be punished with everlasting destruction, and shut out from the presence of the Lord, and from the majesty of His power." Whatever imagery comes to mind about Hell, the reality is that it will be a place where there is nothing of God whatsoever. Nothing of the beauty of God's creation. No trees, flowers, animals, sea or rivers. There will be no love, compassion or concern shown by anybody. There will be no kindness or goodness anywhere. There will be no light. It will be a place of thick impenetrable darkness. There will be nothing to live for, and people will long for death, but they won't be able to die. They will have to exist with the awareness that having rejected God, they have lost everything, they've missed their chance, and now they have to exist with the thoughts of what might have been. They'll be in anguish, despair, and torment. The worst suicide case, in the midst of his despair, thinks he can end it all by taking his own life, but in Hell he won't be able to. Apparently it will be worse for some than for others. "And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgement, than for you." Matt 11:23
The Day of God's Judgement of the earth is more certain than the sun rising tomorrow morning. He holds back now because God doesn't want anyone to perish, but that all should come to repentance (2Peter 3:9). God wants everyone to be saved. He has done everything He possibly can to save us from this fearful destruction. He did not withhold even His own Son, but sent Him to bear our sins and rebellion in His own body on the cross, and to die the most excruciating death so that we could be delivered from the eternal punishment of Hell.
When Jesus does judge the world, it will not be to decide our status before God. He already knows that. Rather, it will be to reveal the truth about each one of us. How else can justice be done? In Luke 12:3, Jesus says: "Whatever you have said in the dark, shall be heard in the light, and whatever you have whispered in the inner rooms shall be proclaimed from the roof-tops." In other words, our innermost thoughts and our secret motives shall be revealed for what they are, because the truth must be revealed. God's judgements must be shown to be true and right. So the truth about what's really going on in our hearts must be revealed. There is only reality in Heaven.
Nevertheless, were it not for God's mercy, all of us would perish. I used to try and shock people by preaching, "I wish that all Christians would go to hell - for long enough to know what it's like!" It wouldn't hurt for us to know what we've been saved from. We would weep with relief as we fall on our faces in worship and thanksgiving. It would add such an edge to our evangelism that we could never be the same again.
But let me urge those of you who don't know God to get right with Him today. "Save yourself from this eternal punishment. Come humbly before God, and ask Him to have mercy on you, and to pardon you all your sins - your selfishness, disobedience, rebellion against God, your neglect of Him. Get right with Him today while there is still time. I don't know when Jesus is coming back. It's nearer today than it was yesterday. But let me urge you, get right with God while you still can.
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1