The End?
Week 2: Yeah, But When?
Pastor Rick Henderson August 29-30, 2026
Note: This manuscript isn’t a transcript of the sermon, but a planning guide showing what the speaker intends to say.
I want you to go back in time with me to circa 1991. I’m in 7th grade. It’s a Saturday morning. The sun hasn’t come up yet. I’m dead asleep. Drooling, ring-out-your-pillow asleep. My mom shakes me awake. Her face is my groggy face as she says these words, “The police are outside and they want to talk to you.” That’s a terrifying way to wake up.
Does anyone remember TP-ing houses?
Some kids in the neighborhood did that to our house. There might have been some other minor vandalism too. My mom called the cops, and they wanted to know if I had any idea who did it. But she didn’t wake me up with the backstory. She woke me up with urgent terror! Not cool, mom.
Have you ever gotten a text, or read a post, or heard something from someone confident and it just wrecked your whole day? Something that sounded urgent. Something that sounded like it might be true. And before you even had time to think, your stomach dropped, your mind started racing, and you felt that familiar cocktail of fear and dread?
Believe it or not, that is basically the situation that led the Apostle Paul to write a second letter to the Thessalonian church. They were freaking out. They were on edge. They were duped by someone who appeared confident, and it led them to believe something that drained them of all their confidence.
2 THESSALONIANS 2
Grab a Bible and find this passage. It’s the 14th book in the New Testament. If you found 1 Thessalonians last week, just turn the page. Second Thessalonians is the very next letter. Same author, same church, written not long after the first.
As you are turning there, I want to share something that I hope is settling and soothing to you. In the moments that we need more clarity, and we don’t have clarity, and we feel the dread start to rise in us—will you remember this?
Your NERVOUS SYSTEM is not the same thing as the HOLY SPIRIT.
Just because something makes you anxious does not make it true. And just because someone is confident does not mean they are correct. Let’s read it.
2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-2 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.
Do you hear the pastoral tenderness in that? Paul isn’t scolding them. He’s not saying, “How could you be so gullible?” He’s saying, don’t be easily unsettled. Don’t be alarmed. He’s talking them down off a ledge.
Here’s what had happened. Somebody had come to the Thessalonians with a message. And it wasn’t just a wild rumor from a stranger on the street. Look at the sources Paul lists: a prophecy, a word of mouth, or a letter—and the kicker—allegedly from us. Somebody had claimed spiritual authority. Somebody said, “This is from the Spirit. This is from the apostles. This is from Paul himself.” And the message was this: the day of the Lord has already come. You missed it. It’s already happening, and you got left behind in it.
Now, imagine being told that. Imagine believing that the great and final day of God—the day you’d been taught to long for—had already come, and somehow you were on the outside of it. That would unravel you. That is exactly the kind of teaching that leaves a person paralyzed, hopeless, and afraid.
So Paul’s very first move—before any theology, before any timeline—is to calm his people down. And I think that tells us something important about how God wants us to engage the end times.
Don’t let FEAR do your THINKING.
Notice what Paul does not do. He does not say, “Well, you never know—maybe they’re right, better panic just in case.” And he does not say, “Stop asking questions, just have faith.” He does something much better. He says: consider the source and think it through.
Not every urgent spiritual claim is a trustworthy claim.
If you missed last week, you won’t be lost in today’s message—but you’ll be able to tell that you’re starting with part two. It will probably help to watch the sermon from last week. For now, here’s a quick recap. In the first letter he wrote to this church about the end times and the return of Jesus, he said this.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:1-2,8,11 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night…
Jesus is going to return. We don’t know when. We will all be surprised when he returns—we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s returning. When he returns, he is returning as king. He’ll raise the dead, judge evil, and bring his kingdom in all its fullness. The point of all of that is this.
let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet… Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
You can’t PREDICT his return, but you can be PREPARED for it.
Being prepared means being faithful, loving, and making it our primary concern to encourage each other and build each other up. That’s the point of remembering and thinking about the return of Jesus.
I want to be really direct with you, because this is one of the places that church people haven’t always put their best foot forward. American Christian culture has a track record of getting swept up in end-times panic. We’ve set dates. We’ve named names. We’ve pointed at presidents and popes and dictators and barcodes and supposed microchips in vaccines and said, “That’s it, that’s the sign, this is the end.” And every single time the date passed, people looked foolish, and a watching world learned to roll its eyes at the whole subject.
That is not new. Look at 2 Thessalonians—it’s happening in the very first generation of the church. The impulse to sensationalize the end is as old as the church itself.
And I want to say something to those of you who have quietly checked out of this whole subject. Maybe you grew up in a church where the end times were used like a weapon. Maybe somebody scared a kid version of you with a movie or a chart or a sermon, and you decided you were done with all of it. I understand that. But please hear me: the answer to bad teaching about end times is not no teaching about end times. Paul didn’t tell the Thessalonians to stop thinking about the return of Jesus. He told them to think about it correctly. Fear had hijacked their theology, and Paul refused to let a bad message steal good hope.
QUESTION: What/when are the end times?
Believe it or not, the end times is the period of human history between the resurrection of Jesus and the return of Jesus. If that sounds surprising—I want you to hear something from the first public sermon after Jesus’ resurrection. This is the Apostle Peter, quoting the Old Testament.
ACTS 2:17 In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
He was talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit, who is with and in every person who trusts in Jesus. From a biblical perspective, we’ve been in the last days or the end times for a long time.
And I know that some people are disappointed by that answer. Because inquiring minds want to know, how do we know we’re at the end of the end? I can’t answer that. Paul says the return of Jesus will be a surprise. We can’t predict it. It’s incoherent for a person to take the Bible seriously and seriously think they can know when we’re at the end of the end. It’s incoherent and disregards Scripture.
I can do this. Here’s a way too quick overview of how Christians have thought about this throughout history.
4 VIEWS OF END TIMES:
Historic Premillennialism: One day Jesus will return and launch a literal 1,000-year reign.
A 1,000-year reign comes from the book of Revelation. Instead of seeing that number as symbolic, this view takes it literally. This is the oldest view. Some version of this view was widely affirmed for the first 300 years.
Amillennialism: The 1,000-year reign is symbolic and is happening now. Jesus is reigning from heaven; our job is to share the gospel, and one day he will return to bring his kingdom in all its fullness.
This view really took hold after 300 AD. This doesn’t make it true, but it is probably the view that has been the most widely affirmed for Christian history.
Postmillennialism: The 1,000-year reign is symbolic, is happening now, and the church will grow in greater prominence until Jesus returns.
This view began to take hold after the Reformation, so about 500 years ago. This is the view that’s held by many, not all, Christian nationalists. The idea is that if Christians can establish prominence and control at the national level, that can expedite the return of Jesus.
Dispensationalism: Jesus returns before a literal 1,000-year reign. Prior to that there will be a rapture, and great tribulation (not necessarily in that order).
This is the youngest view. It’s only about 200 years old. This is the view that the Left Behind book series is based on. This was wildly popular in the 1970s - 90s. This has no bearing on whether or not it’s true, but we should know it’s very young and it’s the minority view in the global church.
If you’re curious what our church’s official view is—we don’t have one. We affirm that Jesus will return and we should be ready. I don’t mind telling you my view. I lean heavily toward amillennialism. But you know what, there are good-hearted, smart people in every camp.
Let’s remember what the point is. This is coming from lasts week’s sermon: Be prepared for his return. That means being awake and sober. See clearly and think clearly. And if we are living that way we make it our mission to be faithful, to love, to encourage each other build each other up. I really hope you can receive this. That is the only appropriate response to thinking about the return of Jesus.
I’m asking you to hold on that because it may feel like the Apostle Paul is taking us for a ride.
2 THESSALONIANS 2:3-4 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. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Okay. Now we’re in the deep end of the pool. The rebellion. The man of lawlessness. Setting himself up in the temple. Proclaiming himself to be God.
I feel some pressure to be careful here, because this is exactly the kind of verse people love to abuse. This is where the charts come out. This is where somebody wants to tell you the man of lawlessness is definitely this world leader, and the temple is definitely that building, and if you just connect these dots, you’ll crack the code.
Let me tell you what I’m not going to do. I am not going to stand up here and tell you the man of lawlessness is a specific politician or a specific figure alive today. I’m not going to do that, for two reasons. First, the text simply does not give us enough to do that responsibly. And second—every generation that has tried it has been wrong. Every single one.
So what is Paul actually telling us?
Look at the pattern he describes. The man of lawlessness exalts himself over everything called God. He takes a seat that isn’t his. He demands the worship that belongs only to God. Do you recognize that? That is the oldest story in the Bible. That’s the serpent in the garden: “You will be like God.” That’s what happened at the Tower of Babel: “Let us make a name for ourselves.” That’s Pharaoh, that’s Caesar, that’s every tyrant who ever demanded to be treated as ultimate. The man of lawlessness is the concentrated, unmasked, final form of a rebellion that runs all the way back to Genesis 3.
We can’t PREDICT Jesus’ return. We can recognize PATTERNS.
We’re not going to trace our way through the book of Revelation in this series. But let me say this. You can read it as full of symbolism to decode what’s going to happen in the future, OR, you can read it as full of symbolism that exposes a pattern of self-rule and rebellion.
In this letter, when Paul writes about lawlessness and rebellion—you can read it as a singular future event, OR as a recognizable pattern of events that will continue until Jesus returns to fully defeat evil and death. Whichever option you go with, we’re supposed to remember this.
Evil is REAL, but it’s not in CHARGE.
And here’s the part we cannot skip. Look at the next verses.
2 THESSALONIANS 2:6-8 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then 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.
The secret power of lawlessness is ALREADY at work.
Do you see what Paul just did? He took the whole thing off the calendar and put it in the room with us. He’s saying, don’t just scan the horizon for one terrible figure in the future. The rebellion he embodies is already operating. Right now. The mystery of lawlessness is loose in the world, and—if we’re honest—it’s loose in the human heart.
And here’s the pattern. Lawlessness begins whenever we give a created thing the place that belongs to God.
That’s not just tyrants and dictators. That’s the quiet idolatry that lives in all of us. When power becomes the thing I must have. When my desires become the boss I obey. When my nation or my party becomes my source of significance and security. When my own self takes the throne—remember CEO of Me, Inc. from last week? That’s the mystery of lawlessness, already at work.
So before we go hunting for the man of lawlessness out there, we’d better deal with the lawlessness in here.
And let me make that concrete, because it is easy to nod along at idolatry in the abstract. Ask yourself: what is the thing that, if I lost it, I’m not sure I could go on? What is the thing I would compromise my integrity to protect? What is the thing that determines whether I’m at peace or in a panic? Whatever answers those questions is functioning as god in your life. That’s not a chart to decode. That’s a mirror.
But church, do not miss the main thing. Paul mentions a fearsome figure—and then, almost in the same breath, he tells you exactly how the story ends. I want to put it on the screen.
2 THESSALONIANS 2:8 And then 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.
The breath of his mouth.
Do you feel the deflation of that image? This great enemy, this terrifying figure who exalts himself over everything—and Jesus doesn’t even need to break a sweat. No epic battle. No cliffhanger. No contest. Jesus exhales, and it’s over.
I don’t want you to miss how much of the drama in this passage is about the lawless one, and how easily Jesus wins. That imbalance is the point. Evil looks enormous from where we sit. It fills our algorithms. It seems to be winning. But from the throne of God, it is a puff of breath away from being finished.
Evil is real. Deception is dangerous. But neither one gets the last word. Jesus does.
I want to give you some context that should bring light, not heat every time you read something about the end times or the return of Jesus. The New Testament was originally written to people who were persecuted, hunted, imprisoned, dispossessed of their property, even killed. To be a Christian in the first century required courage.
Sometimes it was local thugs; almost all the time, it was the iron boot of Rome trying to stomp out Christianity. From a natural, human point of view, it must have felt hopeless. None of it was written to people to stoke anxiety and debate and predictions about when Jesus was returning. All of it was 100% written to encourage bullied and persecuted people to live with hope. Jesus is King. He is returning. He wins. S o live faithful to him. Never stop loving. Don’t fear. You’re ambassadors of the King who defeats evil with the breath of his mouth.
And if we take that seriously, if we are awake and sober—this is what we will do.
LOVE the truth enough to be CHANGED by it.
2 THESSALONIANS 2:9-12 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, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Now, that phrase “God sends them a powerful delusion” can sound troubling, so let me handle it honestly. Paul is not saying God tricks truth-loving people into believing lies. Read it again. It’s judicial. People first refused to love the truth. They delighted in wickedness. And God, in judgment, finally hands them over to the very thing they chose. It’s not that they wanted the truth and God fooled them. It’s that they wanted the lie, and God let them have it.
But look at the diagnosis. Why do people get deceived? Paul says, because they refused to love the truth.
He does not say they refused to know the truth. He doesn’t say they weren’t smart enough, or informed enough, or educated enough. He says they refused to love it.
That is such a penetrating insight into how deception actually works. We tend to think being deceived is an intelligence problem—if I’m just smart enough, if I gather enough information, I won’t be fooled. But Paul says it’s a love problem. It’s a desire problem. It’s a heart problem.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: we are most easily deceived by the lies we want to believe. We are wide open to whatever flatters us, confirms us, and lets us keep doing what we already wanted to do. You can know all the right words and still prefer a comfortable lie over an inconvenient truth.
And this is where following Jesus gets real. It is possible to want a Jesus who blesses my agenda, protects my comfort, endorses my tribe, and crushes my enemies—but who never confronts me. That’s not loving the truth. That’s using religion to prop up a lie I already loved.
Loving the truth means I want it even when it costs me. Even when it exposes me. Even when it tells me I’m wrong. A person who loves the truth can be corrected. A person who loves the truth can repent. A person who loves the truth can have their mind changed by God’s Word instead of bending God’s Word to fit their mind.
That is your protection against deception. Not more information. More love for the truth.
Here’s a simple test. When was the last time you changed your mind about something because of Scripture? When was the last time you read the Bible and it corrected you instead of confirming you? If it has been a long time, that may not mean you’re doing great. It may mean you’ve quietly learned how to read around the parts that press on you. People who love the truth get changed by it.
2 THESSALONIANS 2:13-15 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
That’s it. That’s the application. After all the talk of rebellion and the man of lawlessness and delusion and the day of the Lord—Paul’s marching order is stand firm and hold fast.
So let me bring this all the way home to us.
Here’s how this looks on a Tuesday afternoon, when the news is bad and your group text is on fire and your anxiety is climbing:
AWAKE AND SOBER:
- You don’t have to believe everything you hear. Test it. Run it through the filter. Does this sound like Jesus?
- You don’t have to be afraid of evil. It’s real, but Jesus wins with a breath.
- You don’t have to be an expert on the end. Love the truth and stand firm.
- You don’t have to do any of this alone. Stand firm together.
If you remember our series through 1 Corinthians—this probably feels familiar. And it should. This was our theme verse.
1 CORINTHIANS 16:13-14 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.
That’s it. That’s everything. Thinking about the return of Jesus is supposed to motivate that. The point is never about figuring out when Jesus will return. It’s about being ready. I’ve to one more thing for you write down.
The church that’s most READY for Jesus’ return is the one that’s most like Jesus before he RETURNS.
Paul ended the conversation with this.
2 THESSALONIANS 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 work and word.