Title: Holding It Together When Everything is Falling Apart | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson | Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:1–8, 13–17 | Liturgical Date: Pentecost 22, Proper 27 C | Calendar Date: November 9, 2025 | Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County

Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County serves Fish Creek and other areas in Northeast Wisconsin.

The following transcript was produced with the assistance of AI.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This Veteran’s Day weekend, of course, we are very thankful for the service of our veterans and our armed forces, and above all, we thank the Lord for the freedom of religion that is secured by their work as Christians. That is the greatest freedom that we enjoy.

We praise and thank the Lord for this freedom of religion here at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church and the way that has been secured by armed forces. Now, I myself am also a veteran and I enjoyed my time in the service. Something I really enjoyed about my time in the service was singing cadences.

You know, those songs that soldiers or marines or airmen or sailors will sing when they’re marching or when they’re running. Those are cadences. Now, I’m not gonna sing any for you today. I like singing and that’s probably why I like cadences. But most of these are not pulpit appropriate. But let me tell you about a couple themes that, or one very big theme that came up.

In those cadences, and that’s all the terrible things that you could expect in the military. There was one person that you’d end up hearing about quite a bit, a person named Jodi. Oh, we couldn’t stand Jodi. You know who Jodi is? Jodi is the guy back home who steals your girl when you’re away training in the military.

Oh, we couldn’t stand Jodi. We’d sing about Jodi. We’d sing about other terrible things. We’d sing about the terrible food, the terrible living conditions, the terrible leadership we had. We’d even sing about dying and bullets whizzing by your head, and that was a deliberate thing, by the way. That was a deliberate part of the training.

You see what that was teaching you? Is that even when these things happen, even when Jodi is stealing your girl back home, even when the food is terrible and the living conditions are rough, and when bullets are whizzing by your head, and even if you face the threat of death, you keep on marching, you keep on working to fulfill your mission. And St.

Paul was indicating the same thing to the Thessalonians today in our epistle lesson, and that’s our theme for today: holding it together when everything is falling apart. And the falling apart that St. Paul is referring to in our lesson today is the ultimate and final falling apart. When the whole world seems to be falling apart and the Thessalonians, it appears, seemed to think that the return of Christ was right around the corner and they could see things falling apart around them.

And it seemed as if this was causing no small number of their congregation distress, and maybe some of them were falling away from the faith and losing heart and confidence. And Paul helps to build ’em up in the faith, but he does so through, in the first instance, something that might seem counterintuitive.

He tells the Thessalonians, well, expect the worst. Yeah, things might be bad and they are probably gonna get worse. He tells the Thessalonians, you might think to yourself, my goodness, why would he be telling the Thessalonians to expect the worst? Well, first of all, let’s take a look at how he tells the Thessalonians that they can expect the worst.

He says, look, before the coming of the Lord, let no one deceive you for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so he takes a seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

What is Paul talking about there? He’s talking about two themes that we see consistently in prophecies of the end times, whether these are prophecies that Christ himself uttered or what he himself is here discussing or what we might find in the Book of Revelation. And the two themes are this: apostasy and the arising of the antichrist.

Now apostasy, that’s what he calls rebellion here in a somewhat different term. What is apostasy or the rebellion that he is talking about here? Apostasy is when those who claim to be Christian turn their backs on the Christian faith and fall away from the faith and oppose the faith even. And Paul is saying, look.

You might think that it’s bad now, but guess what? The time is coming when huge numbers of those who you considered your Christian brothers and sisters will turn away from the faith.

And not only this, but many of them, he says, will be led astray by this figure. This man he calls a man of lawlessness, but in other places is called the antichrist. And who is the antichrist? It’s a religious figure who exalts himself and puts himself into the place of God and leads many astray. And so Paul is saying, look, many are gonna turn away and this false religious figure is going to rise up and he’s gonna turn the hearts of many and he’s going to speak lies and many people are going to be led astray by his lies.

Paul is saying it might be bad, but guess what? Things are going to get worse. Paul is telling the Thessalonians to expect the worst, and that’s good advice for us as well in whatever circumstance we might face. Now, we may not ourselves see the end of the world. We don’t know when Christ is gonna return.

It could be tomorrow. It could be in a thousand years. We don’t know. But here’s what we do know. Even though we may not see the end of the world, all of us will see the end of our days in this world. And what then? And when that day of death comes, how will we stand firm in the faith? And maybe that day is far off for us.

Maybe the end of our days in this world are 20, 30, 40, 80 years ahead of us. For some of the young ones, at times it may seem as if the world is still collapsing around us. Maybe our household is not a place of peace and harmony, but rather is a place of division and distrust. Maybe things are not going well for us at work and we’re worried that a layoff or maybe even a firing is around the corner for us.

And how are we going to supply the needs of our household? And well, we could go on and on and on about all the ways it might seem that everything is falling apart. Well, just taking stock of the fact that yes, indeed, in this world things can go from bad to worse. And taking stock of the fact of the bad things that could happen.

Helps us to reckon with them. Let me give you some real world examples about this. This is a bit of a trite example, but it’s an example nonetheless. Whenever I am working with a couple getting ready to get married, and we’re going through our preparations for the service, I always tell them, expect something to go visibly, noticeably wrong in the service.

Now, why do I tell them that? Well, when it happens, and it happens in probably two thirds of the services, when that thing happens, they, you know, they don’t get bent out of shape, but instead they can say, well, yep, pastor told me that was gonna happen. There it was. Let’s keep on trucking with our mission here to get married.

Right? Want me to tell you an example in my own life? I came up in ministry, the first years of my ministry in a time that, uh, maybe it’s not the great rebellion or the great apostasy that was talked about here, but it was a time of apostasy nonetheless. So those who might remember back, like in the eighties and before, churches were full, right?

I mean, on special services you had to put up chairs in the aisle and back in the narthex, and ushers had a hard job ’cause they actually had to find spots to put people because there were so many people filling the pews. In the early, mid nineties, churches started emptying out and a lot of churches lost their nerve and they went far off mission.

How far off mission? There was a great deal of pressure among Christian churches, even in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, I am sad to say, to give up the gospel itself. You know, there were prominent leaders in that era among people who call themselves Christians who said, you know, you probably shouldn’t even talk about the name of Jesus that much in your services.

Why? Because the name of Jesus is divisive.

People lost their mettle. When they should have known from St. Paul that yes, there will be times when people turn away and going back to the soldier example, if you are singing about bad leadership, well guess what? When you don’t agree with your sergeant, when the times get tough, you can stay on mission.

You knew that was coming. When the bullets start whizzing past your head, you sing about that and so you can keep on rolling. And it’s the same with us brothers and sisters in Christ. We know the scriptures are clear that before the return of Christ, things will go from bad to worse. Now, this is not a reason to lose heart, but rather instead, we keep the faith because we cling to the truth and the knowledge of what awaits us.

And that’s the second thing that St. Paul tells to the Thessalonians to encourage them to hold it together when everything is falling apart. He goes on to say this: But we are always to give thanks to God for you brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

To this He called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. St. Paul encourages the Thessalonians by telling them to cling to the truth of the gospel, which they had been taught.

Why? Because by trusting in this gospel, the gates of heaven, eternal life, the glory of God, were open to them. Paul says, look, we know that in this world, things will go from bad to worse, but your lot is not this world. Your lot is the world to come, and you are worthy to dwell in that kingdom. Not by our works, not by our words, not by anything in you, but rather by the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are worthy because through Christ and His death for you on the cross,

your sins have been forgiven, your righteousness fulfilled, and therefore, heaven is your heritage. And even as this would give encouragement to the Thessalonians, this gives encouragement to us as well. It gives us encouragement to keep the faith, even though it seems that the world is falling down all around us and encourages us to keep the faith when our life in this world comes to its close.

When this day in this world has its evening, we can know and be certain that the day of eternity is dawning for us and when things otherwise seem to be falling apart around us, this can strengthen us when things are going difficultly at work. We can have the knowledge that God has given us all things in our heavenly home, God has provided for us lavishly, He has provided for us lavishly.

He will not fail to provide for us in this world as well. All things equal beyond this, it can empower us in this world when things are going poorly to reflect the glory of God in this world. And this brings us to our final point. Paul tells the Thessalonians, expect the worst, cling to the truth of the gospel,

and finally, to do your best. It says, now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and listen to this, establish them in every good work and word. As we take stock of this world and the situations that we find ourselves in, we may be tempted to go the way of the world.

So we look at the world and we see that things are going from bad to worse, and we may be tempted to ourselves accommodate, and ourselves go from bad to worse. We may see immorality arising, and we may say, well, maybe I will act immorally, or perhaps things are not going well for us at work, and we think well.

Then I’m not going to do my best at my job. Or maybe our home is marked by conflict. And so we think we just have to give into the way things are and be a participant in this. But brothers and sisters in Christ, our lot is not this world. Our lot is the world to come. We have a share in the glory of Christ, and therefore we seek to reflect that glory in this world.

And so even as we have peace with God in heaven, through the work of Jesus Christ, we seek to be a peace agent here in this world, offering forgiveness and mercy in our relationships, seeking to make amends where we have done wrong. We seek to do this good work. And even when others give themselves over to immoral ways of life, and it seems like we are the odd man out for the way we live.

We seek to not be conformed to this world, but rather to the world to come. We seek to be that light on the hill. We seek to be the salt of the earth, knowing that yes, we’ll look different. But that’s because we do not belong to this world, but rather to the world to come. And when we lead our lives in such a way that it is obvious that we have a hope and a peace that this world does not give,

and people notice. We are glad to give testimony to the reason for the hope that lies within us. And we reflect God’s glory not only in our work, but also in our word as we testify to the gospel of Jesus Christ and our hope for heaven, which animates and motivates us in this world. We seek to do our best in work and word, not in order to attain eternal life.

Not in order to attain salvation, but rather because through Christ we have been given eternal life and through Christ we have salvation and brothers and sisters in Christ. Therefore, we are well to listen to the encouragement of St. Paul. Expect the worst, but cling to the truth and do our best in the knowledge of what Christ has earned for us.

And yes, singing a cadence here and there about this can certainly help us. At the beginning of the sermon, I talked about how in the military we sang these cadences talking about all this terrible stuff that can happen to us, and that was part of the design to give us courage in the face of these things.

Did you know that you did this today already? We are the church militant. We are God’s foot soldiers here on Earth. Open up once again to hymn 713. I put Grace, uh, on the spot at our last service at Rankin here, so she knows to expect this now. Poor Grace, she handled it well, but uh, on verse six, you notice what we sang about? Yet, even though I suffer the world’s unpleasantness and though the days grow rougher and bring me great distress, that day of bliss divine.

The day of Christ’s return, which knows no earthly measure, and Christ is my pleasure. Forever shall be mine. With these words, we took stock of the darkness of this world, and yet we clung to the truth of the gospel to empower us in this day. And so let us conclude by saying that stanza of this hymn once again.

Yet even though I suffer the world’s unpleasantness and though the days grow rougher and bring me great distress, that day of bliss divine, the day of Christ’s return, which knows no earthly measure, and Christ is my pleasure. Forever shall be mine.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The post Sermon: Holding It Together When Everything Is Falling Apart first appeared on Saint Peter's Lutheran Church.