Peter Barnes: 2 Thessalonians 1:9-12
(25 March 2018)
SERMON NOTES: THE COMING JUDGMENT OF CHRIST : (2 Thessalonians 1:9-12)
Christ’s coming again does not appear to usher in a millennium of a thousand years of bliss on earth, but the last judgment.
1. The punishment of eternal destruction.
– 1:9; Rev.20:10, 15; being away from the presence (or ‘face’) of the Lord. Christ is the source of life and joy and truth and blessing; and away from the glory of Christ’s might, His heavenly presence.
2. Christ glorified in the judgment.
– 1:10. This reflects Psalm 89:7 and Isa.2:11, where what is said of God in the Old Testament is said of Christ in the New.
– at the second coming of Christ, our understanding of our debt to Christ will become clearer to all God’s elect. Paul says that they have believed ‘our testimony’. God whispers to us in all sorts of ways – Job 26:14. But they are nothing if they do not lead us to the apostolic testimony to Christ.
3. Prayer for Christ’s glory in our sanctification.
– 1:11-12. Paul says he prays for the sanctification of the Thessalonians – Phil.1:27. We are, says Calvin, ‘as fluid (‘weak’) as water’.
– Jesus is glorified here on earth in His people and His people are glorified in Him. The glory in verse 10 was at Christ’s second coming; the glory in verse 12 is on earth.
On John 17:24, Matthew Henry comments: ‘Christ speaks here as if he did not count his own happiness complete unless he had his elect to share with him in it.’
To the unbeliever, God is just and that is all. To the believer, He is just and gracious.