Sermon Text: 2 Thessalonians 1:5–10
Date: November 16, 2025
Event: Proper 28, Year C

2 Thessalonians 1:5–10 (EHV)

This is evidence of God’s righteous verdict that resulted in your being counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also suffer. 6Certainly, it is right for God to repay trouble to those who trouble you, 7and to give relief to you, who are troubled along with us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful angels, 8he will exercise vengeance in flaming fire on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9Such people will receive a just penalty: eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious strength, 10on that day when he comes to be glorified among his saints, and to be marveled at among all those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Worthy of the Kingdom… and Suffering?

Anxiety can be a wicked resident in your mind. A book I’m reading right now gave a definition of anxiety and worry that rang pretty true to me: “Worry, at its core, is the repetitious experience of a mind attempting to generate a feeling of security about the future, failing, then trying again and again and again—as if the very effort of worrying might somehow help forestall disaster. The fuel behind worry, in other words, is the internal demand to know, in advance, that things will turn out fine” (Oliver Burkeman. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, p. 116). We want to know that things are going to be fine, and our brains can, sometimes, spin out of control trying to find that certainty.

But the reality is that such certainty is not always evident, at least on a level that would satisfy our minds. We can’t always see how things are going to turn out, or how we will get from here to there safely or in a way that seems good. And so worry can step in, distract, and pull us down into dark places.

This morning, we don’t have a lot that will probably satisfy that base desire we have for certainty. We would love a promise from God along the lines of, “Don’t worry; everything will always be good!” Yet, we don’t have that. In fact, we really have just the opposite. We have warnings that our lives will be filled with trials and hardships. God’s clearest promises center on our eternal future, far-flung as that may be or seem. We know where this story ends, and so we lean on God’s promises both in good times and in difficult times, certain of his love for us. But that doesn’t mean that the here-and-now is always going to be pleasant.

In our Second Reading for this morning, we have Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. The Christians in Thessalonica had many worries about the future. False teaching had snuck into their congregation regarding the end, saying that those who had died before Jesus’ return were lost forever. In his first letter, Paul addressed that false teaching head-on, with the comforting and stunning description of what the end will be like, assuring the Thessalonians that those who had died in faith were not lost—just the opposite, in fact. Paul describes the day of judgment this way: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). So, those who had died were not lost, and we are all looking forward to the great return of Jesus to bring us to eternal life.

But what about in the meantime? Sure, those who had died were safe with God, but what about those who were still alive? The Thessalonians were undergoing intense persecution and trials; Paul says he holds these Christians up as examples of how to patiently endure these difficulties among the churches everywhere (2 Thessalonians 1:4). But you can already feel the tension, right? The Thessalonians felt it, and you’ve probably felt it as well. If I’m loved by God, if he is caring for me, if I will inherit these great blessings for eternity, then why-oh-why do I suffer here today?

Now, of course, we do well to take our sufferings with some perspective. While we do face persecution and trouble for our faith, we know that by virtue of when and where we live, our sufferings are not on the level of what our brothers and sisters in the faith undergo. But just because our lives may not be in constant danger because of our confession about Jesus, doesn’t mean there are no sufferings or persecutions; they are just probably more on personal levels rather than organized assaults. The mockery you face when you share your hope in Jesus and eternal life, the friends you lose when you won’t go along with their plans that you know are an affront to God’s will, the guilt you endure when you do make compromises and you do go along with others’ sin even though you knew better.

When we go through that kind of suffering, some emotions naturally spill out. Some in our day will talk about a war against Christianity as if God needs us to physically fight people to defend the faith—but ultimately that kind of attitude seems to boil down to insecurity or seeking a feeling of superiority while trying to put others down as “wrong.” The reality is that, despite claims to the contrary or feelings that we might have had, the true, Christian, biblical faith has never been the norm. Perhaps the trappings of the Christian faith have been popular, but often these things are warped and twisted beyond recognition. Christmas becomes just another opportunity for crass commercialism, and even churches that are supposed to be proclaiming the truth about Jesus proclaim a distorted message that preaches your own works as necessary to get forgiveness or even jettisons the idea of sin altogether in exchange for a “live and let live” attitude.

This warping of the truth is another form of persecution and trouble in this life. And again, we are left wondering: What is our response? What should we do? How can we fix these problems?

And God’s blunt answer is, “You can’t.” Nothing that you or I can do will ever make faith in Christ-crucified for the sins of the world be the universally trusted message across the globe. That doesn’t mean we don’t share it and work to let people in our sphere of influence know their Savior, but if we’re looking for a global conversion to the truth of God’s promises or a majority support of the truths of God’s Word, that, sadly, will not happen.

So what do we do with the false teaching that surrounds us (and perhaps even tempts us)? What do we do with those who make a mockery of us or our Savior? What do we do with the persecution and suffering and sorrow we have as Christians in this broken, sin-corrupted world?

Where does Paul point the Thessalonians and us along with them? Certainly, it is right for God to repay trouble to those who trouble you, and to give relief to you, who are troubled along with us. God’s message to you is, “Leave it to me.” It is not for us to be judge, jury, and executioner in these matters. We don’t need to stick up for and defend God; he can handle himself.

Paul’s words correspond directly with what God had told Old Testament Israel when they suffered at the hands of their enemies. Just prior to entering the Promised Land, God claimed this act of meting out justice for himself, “To me belongs vengeance and repayment. It will come at the time when their foot slips. Indeed, the day of their disaster is near, and their impending doom is coming quickly” (Deuteronomy 32:35).

You don’t need to keep a list of those who wrong you; you don’t need to seek vengeance against those who persecute you. For the unbeliever who takes his stand against Jesus, justice will be served, and it won’t be the shallow “justice” that we so often want to inflict on others (which is heavily tainted by our sinful feelings of pride or selfishness). No, God will take care of the enemies of his Word, of those who set themselves against him (and by proxy, against us) with his completely holy justice.

So what is there for us to do while we suffer at the hands of these enemies of the gospel right now? Pray for them. This ultimate justice that will come down on the unbeliever will mean an eternity in hell, as Paul puts it in our reading, God will exercise vengeance in flaming fire on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Such people will receive a just penalty: eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious strength. Those who reject the gospel will be cut off from the blessings of God forever, a fate so bad that if we truly appreciated how horrid it is, we wouldn’t wish it on our worst enemy.

Instead of reinforcing the conflict with others who seek to have a conflict with us, we respond in love, in care, in compassion, and in decency, even if the same isn’t shown to us. We look for opportunities to share the love of God. This is precisely the point Jesus made when he famously instructed us to “turn the other cheek.” In fact, that section of his Sermon on the Mount is worth hearing freshly this morning:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evildoer. If someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone wants to sue you to take away your shirt, give him your coat too. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:38-45)

What is our goal? Jesus had explained that a few verses earlier in that same sermon: “You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket. No, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. In the same way let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).

Our good works are our response to the message of sins forgiven in Jesus. The way we treat others—even those who set themselves against us—is a way to show our gratitude to God for all that he’s done for us. Paul said that the Thessalonians were being counted worthy of God’s kingdom, and the same is true for you. But you and I and the Thessalonians are not worthy because of our work, but because of Jesus’ work for us. We have this certain hope as a free gift from God, accomplished in Jesus’ death and proved by his resurrection from the dead.

Along with the worthiness of God’s kingdom that God gives comes suffering at the hands or mouths of those who set themselves against God and the message of the gospel. Patient endurance in that suffering—turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, even praying for and forgiving those who set themselves against you and your faith—is a powerful witness to the world and even to those very people who cause you harm. Not responding in kind is a powerful testimony of where our priorities are, what our God has done for us, and truly, what God has done for them as well.

Suffering feels like an odd pairing with being counted as worthy of God’s kingdom, but it is the Christian’s lot in this fallen, sin-corrupted world. But, my dear brothers and sisters, a day is coming when that will all change, when we will receive in full the blessing that our Savior won for us. Until that day, pray for strength and patience amid suffering and hardship. Trust that your Savior is working all things out for your eternal good and will not leave you or forsake you. He will return to be glorified and we will be glorified with him.

Until then, encourage and strengthen each other with this confidence. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus—the one who has freed you from sin and its punishment—knowing that in him you are worthy of the kingdom, despite the suffering that will come along with that.

Lord, keep us steadfast in our faith in times of joy and times of trial. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria