The Man of Lawlessness
2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
28th September 2025

Introduction

Charles Taze Russell … the founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses … co-wrote a book titled ‘Three Worlds’ … in which he said Christ would return in 1874. When nothing happened in 1874 … that date was revised to 1914. When nothing happened in 1914 … Russell’s successor … Joseph Franklin Rutherford … said Jesus HAD returned in 1914 … he’d just done so invisibly. Convenient. Because of these failed prophecies … along with secretive and authoritarian leadership … almost three-quarters of the church had left by the 1920s. But that didn’t stop Jehovah’s Witnesses. They’ve since declared 2 OTHER dates for Jesus’ return; one being 1925 and the other 1975 … BOTH of which passed by uneventfully.

Yet predicting Jesus’ return is not a new thing. It’s been happening ever since the 1st century. And in our passage today … the Apostle Paul addresses a rumour that had been spread among the Christians in Thessalonica … that Jesus had ALREADY returned. And this rumour was causing a fair amount of distress in that church. I mean think about it. These Christians had previously been taught BY Paul that Jesus would one day return. And as Jesus himself teaches in the parable of the weeds in Matthew 13 … WHEN he returns … he will gather his followers to be with him in heaven … while the ‘weeds’ will be burned up in Hell. Now … if Jesus has already returned … and you’re still here on earth … doesn’t that suggest maybe you’re not one of Jesus’ real followers … and are instead destined for Hell?

Well this is the situation Paul is addressing in our passage today. So we’re doing a short holiday series for the October school holidays … looking at Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. We did chapter ONE of this letter back in January … during our summer series on Paul’s prayers. And in 2 Thessalonians 1 … Paul dealt with a situation in Thessalonica where the Christians there were being persecuted for their faith.

In Chapter TWO … Paul turns to ANOTHER situation in Thessalonica … which has to do with certain false teachers who have infiltrated their ranks … and started teaching that Jesus has already returned. What made this false claim WORSE … was they attributed this lie to the Apostle Paul. So the Thessalonians are kind of freaking out.

Well to allay their fears … Paul says ‘guys … I TOLD you about all this when I was with you.’ Jesus’ return CANNOT happen until 2 very big and very public things occur. And they are (i) the final rebellion, and (ii) the coming of ‘the Man of Lawlessness’ … who the Apostle John calls the Antichrist. And so that’s what we’re looking at today. We’re looking at the end times … and in particular the Biblical figure known as The Antichrist.

And there are 3 things I want us to look at with regards this this end times figure … which are our 3 points for today … as your sermon outline shows. So we’re going to begin by looking at what Paul has to tell us about this ‘Man of Lawlessness’. Yet just as important … is what Paul DOESN’T tell us about him. So our first point is simply titled (i) The Man of Lawlessness … v. 1-10. We’re THEN going to see that WHILE there is a historical figure to come called ‘The Man of Lawlessness’ … or ‘THE Antichrist’ … Paul says the things he will do … are already happening RIGHT NOW. And I’ve titled this point (ii) The secret power of lawlessness … v. 7. We’ll then conclude with our application … which is what Paul tells Christians we are to do with this secret power of lawlessness. And I’ve titled this third point (iii) Overcoming lawlessness … v. 11-12. So let’s dive on in … and look at the Man of Lawlessness.

The Man of Lawlessness (v. 1-10a)

And our passage begins with Paul changing gears from (a) persecution in chapter 1 … to (b) this teaching they’d received. So …

2 Thessalonians 2:1 (NIV) 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

And why have they BEEN unsettled? Because certain false teachers were asserting …

2 Thessalonians 2:2 (NIV) … that the day of the Lord has already come.

Now … WHY should we not be unsettled by this? It’s because ANYONE who thinks they can calculate the end of the world is a class-A crackpot. There’s an episode of Parks & Req … where a local cult predicts the end of the world every couple of years … and they have a big ceremony in the park to celebrate it. Rom Swanson goes along … to sell them his hand-made flutes … because flutes are important to their cult. And he sells them at inflated prices. They say ‘hey … will you take a cheque? You can cash it tomorrow.’ Ron of course TAKES the cheques … cashing them the next day … when the end of the world doesn’t come.

Friends … the Bible purposefully gives very little information about when Jesus is going to return. In fact … 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 says it will come ‘like a thief in the night’. And the REASON the Bible is so ambiguous on when the end will come … is to ensure Christians don’t sit around being distracted over eschatological speculation … end time speculation. So ANYONE who claims they know when Jesus is returning … is a Class-A crackpot. Do not listen to them … and do not be unsettled by them … because the Bible says WHEN it happens … we’ll ALL know about it.

However … the little info the Bible DOES give us … says that right BEFORE Jesus returns … that’s what theologians call The Parousia … or Judgment Day … right before Judgment Day … a man will rise to prominence … who will lead ‘the rebellion’. This rebellion is described in Revelation 20 … where the nations will gather together against God and his people. And the person leading this rebellion is described in 2 Thessalonians 2. And we’re told 7 things about this Man of Lawlessness:

He will be human. Now there is some speculation as to whether the Antichrist will be an individual … or a group or movement. But in either case it will be a man-made group or movement. The Antichrist will not be an angel or a demon … he will be human.
This man will consider himself to be above the law.
He is doomed to destruction … v. 3.
He will set himself up as a false God … v. 4.
Though he is a man … he comes in the power of Satan … v. 9.
The power he gets from Satan will allow him to perform signs and wonders … v. 9.
And through these signs and wonders … he will have an unparalleled ability to deceive people.

And so our FIRST point of application for today is … be vigilant. God doesn’t reveal things in the Bible unless they’re important. And what he’s revealed here … is that the Man of Lawlessness will deceive people. So be vigilant … to ensure you’re not one of them.

Yet at the same time … we also need to be humble. Be vigilant … but be humble. Why? Because we’re not really told too much more about this figure. We’re not told if he will be a political leader … or a religious leader … or a philosophy professor. We’re told he’s going to set himself up in the temple of God. But NO commentator knows what that means. Like WHAT temple? It was torn down in AD70. And NO commentator knows who is currently holding him back … v. 6. We’re not told THAT either. So WHILE we’re being vigilant … keeping an eye out for this deceiver … we need to be very careful about speculating over who this might be. Many have claimed to know who the antichrist is. The early church claimed Caesar was the antichrist … because he demanded Emperor worship. During the Reformation many Protestants claimed the Pope was the Antichrist. Others claims Hitler or Stalin were the Antichrist. Yet all such speculation has thus far been wrong. Because the Antichrist arises just before the end. And the end has not yet come.

So when we discuss things like the end times or the Antichrist … this passage says we should drink a big, long glass of humility before doing so. For the Bible is PURPOSEFULLY ambiguous on such topics … to stop us from being needlessly distracted. The fact is … If God wanted us to know WHO the Man of Lawlessness is going to be … or WHEN the rebellion is going to take place … he would have told us. But he hasn’t. So let’s be very careful and very humble when looking into these matters.

The secret power of lawlessness (v. 7)

So … that’s the Parousia … the end times … which Paul says in v. 6 will be:

2 Thessalonians 2:6 (NIV) … revealed at the proper time

But in the very next verse Paul says something quite alarming:

2 Thessalonians 2:7 (NIV) For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work;

What he’s saying is … though there is a historical figure … called the Man of Lawlessness … who will arise at ‘the proper time’ … the kind of deception he will promote is ALREADY present in our world. People are ALREADY being deceived. The Apostle John says the exact same thing. Let me read to you:

1 John 2:18 (NIV) Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.

So Paul and John are saying the same thing. There are many little ‘a’ antichrists … who have already appeared. Now again … we’re not told enough to be able to identify who these little ‘a’ antichrists ARE. So be humble. But we CAN identify their deception. And their deception is lawlessness. They operate through ‘the secret power of lawlessness’ … v. 7. So what does that mean?

Well the Greek word translated as ‘lawless’ here is ‘anomia’. So ‘nomos’ means law. And when you put an ‘a’ … or an ‘alpha’ in front of a Greek word … you get the opposite meaning. So if a theist believes there is a God … an a-theist believes there is no God. In the same way … if ‘nomia’ is acting in accordance with the law … ‘a-nomia’ is acting as though there is no law. And it’s important we understand this … because the Man of Lawlessness will not be encouraging people to disobey God’s laws. That’s disobedience. ‘Anomia’ declares there IS no law. Let me explain.

C. S. Lewis wrote a book called ‘The Abolition of Man’. I’m not recommending you rush out a read it. It’s a very hard book. But in this book … Lewis says that up until around the 1900s … most societies based their moral law codes on what they saw was the natural law of the universe. This is why MOST societies have historically known that murder is wrong … and stealing is wrong … and lying is wrong … and greed is wrong. But around the 1940s … a principle started to creep into Western thinking that said ‘who is to say what is right or wrong?’

This principle basically says there is NO universal or natural law … and that we have to figure out for ourselves what is right or wrong for US. Now if you take this to its natural conclusion … anything goes. And I saw an example of this just this week. So Charlie Kirk clips are all over YouTube at the moment … due to his assassination. And I saw one of him talking to an atheist on a college campus somewhere … where Charlie asked him whether he thinks the Holocaust was objectively wrong?’ And the atheist said ‘no … I cannot declare the holocaust to be objectively wrong’. And that’s where you HAVE to end up … if you’re an atheist of integrity. If there is no God … then there is no universal law.

And for the past 60-80 years … this secret power of lawlessness has been growing in the West. Paul said that a secret power had been released into the world … that would grow into many different manifestations … many different little ‘a’ antichrists. And one of those manifestations is this notion that moral judgments are now subjective. There’s no natural or eternal law that our actions must align with. If I feel like doing this or not doing that … then that’s what I’m going to do.

Now in case you don’t realise the danger of this … let me remind you of what the 20th century brought us. Fascism … of which Hitler was a proponent … and Communism … of which Stalin and Mao were proponents … are diametrically opposed political ideologies. Their views on things like race, economics and government are diametrically opposed. Yet the 20th century saw genocides by BOTH ideologies like the human race has never seen before. And the reason those wicked regimes were able to carry out their wicked actions … is because of the secret power of lawlessness. They weren’t disobeying God’s natural and eternal law. They were denying it exists altogether. And when you deny the natural or eternal law … to be a person of integrity … you HAVE to assert that such wicked actions … like the holocaust … are simply not objectively wrong.

And THAT’S what Paul is warning us against. When the Man of Lawlessness appears … he will operate in the secret power of lawlessness. Yet that secret power is already at work in our world … v. 7.

Overcoming lawlessness (v. 10b-12)

So … the NEXT question is … what do we do about this lawlessness? Well there are 2 things I want to point us to in this passage by way of application. And the first … in those famous words of Lance Corporal Jack Jones (of Coldplay) … is ‘don’t panic’! Paul is not sharing these frightening details with the Thessalonians to unsettle them. He literally says:

2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 (NIV) … we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 NOT to become easily unsettled

And the reason we should NOT be unsettled … is because God is in charge of history. He’s told us ahead of time what is going to happen … not just so that we’re vigilant … but so that we’re not unsettled by it. Now ‘yes’ … terrifying things are going to happen when the Man of Lawlessness appears. But terrifying things have ALWAYS been happening. The secret power of lawlessness is ALREADY in our world. And the first half of the 20th century saw arguably the GREATEST iteration of that secret power so far. Yet the end has not come. So don’t panic.

And there are 2 things that should help us not panic about lawlessness:

The first is … God is in control of this secret power of lawlessness. While we’re not told exactly WHO is currently holding back the Man of Lawlessness … it could be an angel … we’re not told. What we can be sure of is … it is GOD who will take this guardian out of the way … at the proper time. Everything in history is happening according to God’s plans … because God is in charge of history.

The SECOND reason we shouldn’t panic is that even when the secret power of lawlessness is given free reign … when the Man of Lawlessness is revealed … Jesus will overthrow him … with the breath of his mouth … v. 8. Jesus will simply go ‘whooh’ … and end him. So don’t panic … because God is in charge of history.

The SECOND thing we can do by way of application … is to make sure we’re on the right side OF that history. We can’t STOP the secret power of lawlessness. It’s already at work … v. 7. What we CAN do … is make sure we’re not on the side of lawlessness. Paul closes this passage by showing there are only 2 sides to this battle; the deluded side … or the side of truth. Read it with me:

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 (NIV) … They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

So there are only 2 sides to choose from. There’s no sitting on the fence … for as the saying goes ‘The Devil owns the fence’. We can either be on the side of truth … or lies. But notice WHY people choose the side of lies. The last 3 words. They delight in wickedness. They reject the truth … because they find wickedness to be more fun.

So the million-dollar question is … how do we avoid delighting in wickedness? Well … like our first application point … there are 2 things we need to do … to make sure we’re on the right side of history. And the first is to believe that there IS a universal law that God set up at creation. The Bible actually tells us this in its opening chapter. In Genesis chapter 1 … we’re told that:

On day 1 … God created light. Then on day 4 … He created the heavenly lights. The sun, moon and stars.
On day 2 … God separated the ‘waters’ above from the waters below. He called the ‘waters’ above sky … and the waters below ocean. Then on Day 5 … God created the birds for the sky … and the fish for the ocean.
Then on day 3 … God created dry land. And on day 6 … he created land animals and humans.

The whole point of Genesis chapter 1 is to show that God created the world … AND that he created it in a very structured way. And if we go against the structure God has built into his universe … bad things happen. The TRUTH is … there IS a universal or natural law in this universe. That includes the laws of physics … like gravity. But it also includes a universal MORAL law. And when we go against that moral law … we descend into wickedness.

But that’s just step 1. Step 2 is we need to find God’s law MORE delightful. The fact is … Sin is fun. If it wasn’t … none of us would do it. So the way we avoid delighting in wickedness is NOT by trying really hard to follow God’s laws. It’s by delighting in God’s laws more than in wickedness. And the way to do that … is by delighting in the lawgiver himself. Paul hints at this in v. 8. He says the Man of Lawlessness will not just be overthrown by Jesus going ‘whooh’. It will be by the splendour of his coming. And the splendour of the king is seen nowhere better than the cross.

In Matthew chapter 18 … Jesus tells a parable about a man who owes ’10,000 bags of gold’. The Greek says 10,000 talents. Now ONE talent is about 20 years wages. So for rounding purposes … lets say the average wage in $100,000. When we multiply $100,000 by 20 years … then by 10,000 … we get $20 trillion. The GDP of Australia is only $1.7 trillion. Jesus’ point is … you and I have absolutely no clue as to just how much we’ve been forgiven. $20 trillion dollars is an unfathomable amount. Yet that’s the debt Jesus took upon himself … $20 trillion … for every single one of his people.

What breaks the delight of wickedness … is the delight of grace. For when we marvel at the splendour of God’s grace … the splendour of sin starts to fade. And THAT … brothers and sisters … is how we overcome the secret power of lawlessness.

Conclusion

So … do not be unsettled by those who might claim Jesus has already returned … visibly or invisibly. The Bible tells us the rebellion, and the Man of Lawlessness must come first. So be vigilant … even now … because the secret power of lawlessness is already at work. The way we overcome this secret power … is to rest in the fact that God is in charge of history … and that …

2 Thessalonians 2:8 (NIV) [WHEN] the lawless one will be revealed, […] the Lord Jesus will overthrow [him] with the breath of his mouth and destroy [him] by the splendor of his coming.

The Man of Lawlessness 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 28th September 2025