Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, November 16, 2025
“God’s Righteous Verdict Will Be Revealed”
Judgment is a bad word in our society today. Perhaps you’ve noticed that. This is a time when people want to believe that anything goes. You can not only have your own opinion about things, you can have your own truth. Our society tells us that it doesn’t believe in placing limits on choices, lifestyles, or decisions. If you think that something is right for you, not only is it OK, it is what you should be doing. And if that is the case, the worst thing someone can do is judge someone else’s decision. It seems like the only thing that is not OK in our society is telling someone that something is not OK. Most don’t see how ironic that is, either. They simply think that disagreeing with someone’s lifestyle or choices must be mean and cruel. And that seems to imply that if everyone just avoided judgment, let everyone else do what they want, that would be the best for our society and everything would be fine.
If that’s the idea that not only floats around in society but also affects us, the idea that Judgement would cause Peace seems strange and far-fetched. We can understand a lot of the other pairs of causes and effects that are listed in the front of our worship folders. Sainthood causes stamina. Grace causes joy. Cause and effect. But Judgment seems the opposite of Peace. Judgment appears to bring strife and conflict.
That’s not the case, however, when the judgment belongs to God. We’re not talking about people judging others, though there is certainly a place for that. We are talking about God judging, proclaiming a verdict, and his verdict is righteous. These last few weeks of the church year call on us to think about the End Times and specifically the last day, Judgment Day. We can’t help but feel a little apprehension about the extreme sort of judgment that day brings. But the reason God would have us think about these things is to provide us with peace right now, peace in the face of, and as a result of, judgment.
The words we’re considering this morning come from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians. God led him to write these things, along with his associates Silas and Timothy, to people who were being persecuted for their faith. From the time Paul first preached in Thessalonica, he and those who listened faced trouble. When people believed what God said through Paul and started following him, the Jewish leaders were jealous and stirred up all sorts of trouble. They instigated riots and ran Paul and Silas and Timothy out of town. And they didn’t stop there, the trouble-makers followed to the next stop on the missionary journey. That sort of opposition and trouble continued for the believers in Thessalonica. What Paul was so thankful for, though, was that these believers continued to worship God and grow in faith and demonstrate love.
That’s how this letter started before the verses in front of us. Paul was thanking God for these believers and for the fact that they are standing up to persecution and growing in faith and love in spite of it. And then he writes, “This is evidence of God’s righteous verdict that resulted in your being counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also suffer.” God’s righteous verdict had already come for these believers. God had declared them not guilty. He had rescued them from their sins. He had connected them to Jesus as Savior. He assured them that Jesus had taken all the punishment that they deserved. He had taken all the guilt that they had acquired. It was as though they had never sinned and had no guilt.
And what was the evidence? People opposed them. They faced persecution. They suffered. They didn’t suffer because they had done something wrong. They suffered because they believed in Jesus, and the sinful world around them punished them for it. That was real evidence of God’s righteous verdict.
I suppose, though, we could call that incomplete evidence. How do we know that this suffering was righteous suffering? How do we know it wasn’t because of something they had done? How do we know that it wasn’t the same sort of suffering that plagues believers and unbelievers in a sinful world? After all, people who go to church and people who don’t get sick, have car accidents, have relationships that sour. How could Paul assure the Thessalonians that they were right to hold on to Jesus and continue living for him?
He could point them to the promises Jesus had given. We heard some of those promises in Luke 21. We heard Jesus talk about how difficult and how challenging things would be for his people as the end drew closer and closer. And we heard him assure believers that they would gain their lives. Not a hair on their heads would be destroyed. Paul could take those same promises and offer them to the Thessalonians. Jesus
would come back. There would be a time when things stopped going as they had been. As Paul wrote, people were making trouble for the Thessalonians because of their faith and their confession. Jesus would turn things around. He would set things right.
There is no doubt that those who were troubling the Thessalonians were in the wrong. They weren’t trying to do what was best for society. They weren’t trying to help these Thessalonians. Some probably didn’t even realize it, but they were engaged in a spiritual battle on the side of evil. What could be more just and righteous than for the tables to be turned? The trouble makers should receive trouble, and God should give his people relief.
And ultimately, that is exactly what Jesus would do. Just as he promised. Just as God had promised even before Jesus came. The Prophet Malachi had told God’s people in the Old Testament that they would leap for joy when the day came, when God kept this great promise.
So what does all of this mean for us today? I don’t think it’s fair to say that we face the same sort of persecution those Thessalonians did. I’m not convinced that we walk around thinking about how much we suffer for being Christians. And in some ways, that is probably because of weakness in our faith. How much have we swallowed society’s thinking that the best thing we can do about our religious beliefs is to just keep them to ourselves? How much do we suppose that the worst thing we can do is let someone know that we don’t agree with their lifestyle or with their choices? And if we don’t tell them that, how will we ever be able to tell them about how much Jesus has done for them?
I suppose you could make a case that the hesitancy that we feel is part of the trouble that others cause us as Christians. Some Christians think that the answer to that trouble is to fight back. Be loud. Make an argument. Win an argument. But that’s not really the point of what God had Paul write to the Thessalonians, is it? God said that we ought to remember his righteous verdict, his vengeance, his penalty, and his glory.
Can you imagine the despair of suffering every day at the hands of evil with no hope of relief? That’s the reality for so many in this world who suffer because the world says that anyone can do whatever they want. So if someone wants to take what belongs to others or oppress them, there’s no real answer.
The real answer is the answer that Jesus gives. It has been shared over and over again in Scripture. It is the rich and beautiful and absolute promise of God’s righteous verdict. We do see small glimpses of it in our lives and in the lives of others. There are challenges to living our lives as Christians in a society that is intolerant toward the claims of Christianity. Our situation challenges our courage and our commitment. It challenges our peace.
So God reminds us of his righteous verdict. Our struggles are evidence of his love in counting us worthy of his kingdom—not because of what we have done but because of his love. And one day—a day unknown— whether it is soon by our way of thinking or not, on that day, Jesus will return. Flaming fire. Vengeance. He comes with powerful angels. He comes in glorious strength. And he will bring the just penalty of eternal destruction on all who have rejected his gospel and all who have refused to acknowledge him.
God’s judgment means we don’t need to worry about opposition and trouble. God will deal with it. Where we would not deal perfectly with trouble, God will. When Jesus returns, everything will be set right. He will bring eternal peace for all who believed in him, all his saints. And that gives us peace right now, no matter what we face.
Judgment is a bad word for many in our society. But we can rely on God’s promise of a righteous judgment, a perfectly righteous verdict. It isn’t a matter of our decision or thinking. It is a matter of listening to God in his Word. Then we will see evidence of his verdict now and wait for it to be fully revealed when Jesus comes. And that is the only way to true peace now and forever.
The Text: 2 Thessalonians 1:5–10 (EHV)
5This 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.