2 Thessalonians 1:3-4
You can be seated. Turn in your
copy of the scriptures to 2 Thessalonians 1, 3-4. As you’re making your
way there, remember Paul, an apostle set apart by Jesus Christ. a minister to the Gentiles. He would go to a Jew first and
then to the Gentiles and preach in the synagogues. And this is
his second missionary journey. We studied those things in the
book of Acts and we’re making our way through his letters chronologically. So we did Galatians, first Thessalonians,
now second, and I suppose the Corinthian letters are next.
When we land in 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 3-10 are actually a
complete sentence, but we’ll break it up. Y’all know what
a run-on sentence is, right? Y’all weren’t allowed to do that,
but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it’s allowed.
So there’s no red ink. But we want to give attention
now to God’s holy word. This is 1 Thessalonians 1, verses
three and four. So the we here is Paul, Silas
and Timothy. We ought always to give thanks
to God for you brothers, as is right, because your faith and
the love of every one of you is increasing for one another.
Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of
God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions
and in the afflictions that you are enduring. Amen. The grass withers, the flowers
fall, but the word of our Lord stands forever. There’s a statement
that I’m sure a handful of you have heard if you’ve been in
the Christian life a little bit, and it goes like this. The blood
of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The blood of the
martyrs is the seed of the church. In a sense, to say it another
way, it’s on the backs, it’s on the life of the martyrs that
the church grows or even explodes. is the seat of the church. If
you read church history, a couple thousand years of it, you will
find that when the church is most pressed down and shaken,
you’ll find it growing the best, growing into the most healthy
state. More opposition equals growth
and less opposition makes it more worldly. I think we find
ourselves in that position in America, the ease that we have,
the affluence that we have, especially compared to the rest of the world.
In fact, a lot of Christianity in America is health and wealth.
God wants you to be healthy and God wants you to be wealthy.
Well, read the book of Job, read Peter and his sufferings, read
a passage like today. Well, when the church is pressed
down and shaken, it often thrives. When the church is most under
opposition, it grows. I wonder what persecution would
do to the American church. I think we have a glimpse of
that when we went through COVID and lockdowns. A lot of churches
closed and yes, there were fears, there were health concerns, there
was the unknown. I think we were out about eight
weeks and then we said, no more of this. We got to be together. We’ve got to worship but God’s people called by his
name who love him and look for his appearing. They long to be
together and there is nothing that will stop them. A couple of years ago, I went
to a breakfast for local ministers and they were presenting to us
a mission effort, I believe. I can’t remember exactly what
it was, but a story was told about how in the Chinese church,
In China, there were two Bibles in the congregation. One Bible
was for the minister. Of course, he had to have it
to study and prepare to teach the congregation and also had
to prevent it from being confiscated. And there was a second Bible
that was passed from family to family, that second Bible every
week. handing off ceremony, I guess
it was, was passed from one family to the next. So the one family
would get it on Sunday, they’d go home, they’d take the week
off work, and they would just read, read, read, read, read.
And the story was they got pretty far through about the middle
of the Old Testament before they had to bring it back. And the
family that handed it off to the next family handed it off
with tears, and the next family received it with joy. We got
a stack of Bibles collecting dust. We don’t come to church
and look for a padlock on the doors. We can drive our cars
to church. We can worship in freedom. We’ve
got it pretty good. And I wonder what a good persecution
would do to the American church. One teacher, pastor, theologian
said years ago, it would likely clear the deck. It would show
who is who and who is made of what. Think of He was tied to the stake and
soon to be burned alive until death. And he was asked one more
time, would you recant? Your faith, would you deny Jesus
Christ? And his word was this, I have
served the Lord for 86 years and he has done me no harm. And so why would I now blaspheme
the Lord Jesus Christ, my kingdom, or my king and my savior? That
was the response of a man who was suffering for the sake of
the gospel. Well, remember what Jesus said,
the way of the master is also the way of his disciples. And so if we are going to serve
God, we will go through stretches. We will go through periods of
suffering and persecution. Now, in America, you know, we’ve
got soft persecution. You know, they yell at us Christians
for being Bible, was it Bible-believing, gun-toting, you know, right-wing,
whatever. There’s that, but that’s not
so terrible. Think of people in church history
or people around the world today who are really, really, really
suffering. Maybe we get poked at, maybe
we get made fun of, maybe we get passed over for a promotion
at work. You can get over that stuff,
but you can’t get over loss of life or a burned out village
or a torched church. There are things you cannot ever
get over. But one of the things Paul reminds
us of in the book of Colossians is that while Jesus is exalted
and sitting in heaven at the right hand of God, the father,
we who serve in his name, whether it’s the apostle Paul and Silas
and Timothy, or today in the church of Jesus Christ, we are
filling up what is lacking in the sufferings of Jesus. So the
sufferings and persecutions and trials meant for Jesus as the
target, they come to us. And so we should expect hard
things, hard times. We should give thanks when they
don’t come upon us. We should never ask for it or
want it or even welcome it. But the way of the master is
the way of the servant. And so there’s opposition in
the Thessalonian church context. They are bearing up under persecution
by thriving spiritually. And that’s what the Apostle Paul
is going to give thanks for. Now, remember he’s on a second
missionary journey. The first one was to the Galatian churches.
So he swung through there again to say, hi, how you doing? Can
we help you? And then they went on to Asia
where the spirit of God forbade them to minister. And so they
went to Macedonia because Paul had a vision one night, a dream
one night, and someone from Macedonia said, come here and help us.
So they go from Troas across the water to Philippi. And from
there, after being run out of town, they go to Thessalonica.
They minister about three Sundays or three Saturdays, three Sabbaths.
And they’re run out of town by the jealous Jews who raise up
the rattle of the town and put the quarter million population
city into a big uproar. And so Paul escapes with his
life and goes on to Berea and then to Athens. And then he’s
writing this letter from Corinth. But Paul and his companions are
continuing the ministry of Jesus. He’s risen. He’s ascended. He’s
given them the great commission, go into the world, make disciples. How do you make disciples? Two
key things. You baptize. So you enfold people
into the local church and you teach them everything Jesus has
commanded. So as the church goes in the
world, we’re to baptize, bring people into the church. but we’re
also to teach them everything Jesus has commanded. And Paul’s
teaching them everything that Jesus commanded got cut short.
You can’t really give a crash course on Christian living in
three Sundays or three Sabbaths. And so his heart is still with
the Thessalonians. And so Paul is worried about
them and that’s why all these letters. Well, a couple of things
for us to consider, and here’s the big picture. God can minister
to his people under duress. even when ordinary churchy things
aren’t available. So Paul gets run off, their pastor,
their theologian, their disciple, he’s gone, but God has a way
of making that church thrive. And so we ought to consider that
as we live life in a very imperfect world. Church may not be perfect,
but God still uses an imperfect church, but he uses all sorts
of means to help us grow in grace. And the first thing Paul teaches
us in this passage is our spiritual obligation. Our spiritual obligation
is to give thanks. Somebody says to you, what does
Jesus want you to do? Well, one of the things he wants
you to do is to be a thanksgiving person. Notice in the passage,
it says, we ought to do this. We ought always to give thanks
to God for you brothers. And then he says, as is right,
or as is fitting. So we give thanks. And we give
the thanks to God who is the creator. He’s the sustainer.
He’s the source of all good things. He’s the father above, the father
of heavenly lights. And it’s to him that all glory
and thanks is due. But it’s a spiritual obligation.
We ought to give thanks. If we are not giving thanks,
something is wrong with us spiritually. Something is wrong with our mind
and with our heart. If we are ungrateful, remember
the Israelites, we’ve been thinking about them a good bit on Wednesday
evenings. They grumbled, they murmured, they complained. Would
that we were back in Egypt, where at least we had leeks and onions
and garlic. And they forgot about the whips
on their backs, didn’t they? They forgot about bricks without straw.
They forgot about all the hardships, the taskmasters. But would that
we could go back to Egypt where at least we had a buffet. Tired of this manna in the wilderness.
Well, Psalm 92 is a good reminder, isn’t it? It is good to give
thanks to the Lord. It is good to sing praise to your name,
O Most High. It is good to declare your steadfast
love by morning and your faithfulness by night. And then it says, by
your works, O Lord, you have made me glad. So how do we give
thanks? It’s our spiritual duty. Well,
we need to look for things. Perhaps we ought to write them
down. We talk a good bit from time to time about prayer, and
we talk about the ACTS, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and
supplication. And it’s helpful to have an open
Bible and something to write on, because your brain now has
got TikTok brain. Right? And we don’t think, we
don’t ponder, we don’t do what we used to do. And it’s good
to have an open Bible, not an open iPhone, but an open Bible,
a piece of paper and jot down these adoration, confession,
thanksgiving. But you’ve also got to look around the world
and see the works of God. We see the works of God in the
stars and in the heavens. We see the works of God in creation.
Maybe after these frozen tundra weeks we’ve had and you Get outside
first thing in the morning and you hear the birds and you say,
what did the birds know? Well, I think the birds know
more than Pax Atoni feels at his name. He said, it’s going
to be winter. The birds are telling us it’s going to be spring. But
you look in the faces of people, you see God at work in all sorts
of ways in your own life and in the life of others. And we
ought, as it is right, to give thanks to God. We owe it to God. In fact, when you read through
the Psalms, there’s a number of worship commands. Remember, what’s the verb that
has the exclamation point? It’s the one your mom always
uses. Imperatives, that’s right. These
are all imperative verbs. Worship God, serve God, give
thanks to God, give glory to God, sing to God, praise God,
on and on. These worship words are imperatives.
They are commands. And so we owe God our worship.
But we also need to engage our mind and our hearts. What should
we see and say that he has done? Paul had worried over the Thessalonians.
He’d been run out of town after a couple Sabbaths with them.
He did not get to firm them up in the Christian faith. And so
he prayed over the Thessalonians. He worried over the Thessalonians.
He sent Timothy to the Thessalonians. Timothy taught them and tried
to encourage them, which he succeeded in doing. And so now they’re
demonstrating the fact that they have signs of spiritual life,
signs of spiritual fruit. And so what does Paul do? Oh,
No, he gives thanks. His heart is overflowing. He’s
grateful. And when we are grateful to God,
we see things, we say things, and we sing things. Otherwise,
we’re ungrateful, we’re idolaters, and perhaps our hearts aren’t
with Almighty God. So what do you see? What do you
see God doing? What do you say back to God that
he has done? And what do you sing about? Those
are good probing questions. And so the Apostle Paul tells
us our spiritual obligation. Now he’s going to speak of the
signs of grace in the lives of the Thessalonians. It’s our spiritual
obligation to give thanks. We should also look for these
signs of grace in our own lives and in the lives of others. These Thessalonians are baby
Christians. I mean, by the time we have second
Thessalonians written and delivered to the church, Paul’s only seen
them six months ago for the very first time. Cold call visit. preaching the spirit at work,
salvation coming, discipling them for a few weeks, being run
off, leaving Timothy and Silas behind. They meet up with him
in Athens. When he can’t stand it anymore, he sends Timothy
back. It’s been a… It’s been a spotty go baptize
and make disciples sort of church life there in Thessalonica. But
God is blessing them in spite of it all. God is blessing the
Thessalonians. And there’s this great hope,
this great faith, this great growth on display in the life
of the church. And it comes in two ways, faith
and love. their faith in God, but also their love for one another.
How do you know you’ve got a healthy church? Is faith increasing? Is love for one another abounding? Well, that’s one of the many
ways the Bible tells us we can evaluate church. Sometimes we
say it’s the preaching of the word, it’s the sacraments administered,
it’s church discipline, it’s the right color carpet in the
sanctuary. No, that’s not it. But here you want to measure
the health of your church. Is the faith of the people increasing? And is the love of the people
for one another increasing? Remember Jesus tells the story
or the parable of the soils. And he says, a sower went out
to sow and he’s casting his seed, which is the gospel. And some
of that seed falls on the path. Other of the seed falls among
the rocks, and still more of the seed falls among the thorns,
but some lands on the good soil. And so as the gospel is being
sown, it falls on the path, but Satan comes like a bird and snatches
it away. And so those who hear never get
the chance to respond because of Satan’s evil and wicked schemes. But then the seed, the gospel
that falls on the rock, It’s received with joy. You know,
rah, rah, I’m a Christian now. But there’s no root. Roots can’t
grow down in rocks. It has to have good soil, good
dirt, good moisture. And so there’s no root. And those
who hear fall away. And still the gospel that falls
among the thorns. It grows and it begins to look
like it has life, but the thorns are the cares of the world. And
eventually the person says, you know, I’ve counted the cost of
following Jesus and I think it’s not worth it. Remember the rich
man who went away sad because Jesus told him you got to sell
all that you have and give it away to the poor. But the seed
does fall on good soil. The gospel lands in good soil
and the person hears it. They hold it fast in their heart.
and they bear fruit with patience. And that’s where the Thessalonians
are. And so Paul is fulfilling his spiritual obligation to give
thanks to God for the Thessalonians’ signs of grace. They’re bearing
fruit with patience. They’re bearing fruit under the
duress of persecution. Remember the jealous Jews raised
up among the rabble, a mob, they sent the whole city into a riot.
The rioters went to Jason, their host house, and demanded Paul. I think Paul sneaks out the back
door and down the back alley and out to Berea. And just a
random thought. Do you remember in our study
of Acts, these persecuting Jews follow Paul all the way through
his missionary journeys from city to city, town to town, all
the way back to Jerusalem. And what do they do? They want
to see him die. God spares his life until his
mission for Paul is accomplished. So this is a persecution. This
is a hatred. This is a big deal that lasts
in the life of Paul, but also in the ministry of the Thessalonian
church. But he hears that there are signs
of spiritual life manifesting in faith and manifesting in love
for one another, manifesting in faith. Now, as we always have
to do, we have to explain which meaning of faith Paul is using.
You can use the word faith, and here is how it’s used, just simply
trust. or fidelity. You know, you’ve
got a dog, you name it Fido. Maybe you’re in the Marines,
Semper Fi. Just simple faithfulness. No matter what, I’m going to
be faithful. And then you can use the word faith in the way
we often think of it in salvation. I have faith in Jesus Christ.
I have faith in his righteousness. I have faith in his forgiveness
of my sins. I have faith that He’s taken
my sin and given me his righteousness. And so faith is the instrument
by which God grants us salvation. There’s a third way to use faith.
We have a confession of faith or Jude, the half brother of
Jesus writes in his little bitty letter at the end of the New
Testament, I was going to write to you about contending for the
faith, like the body of beliefs. So you’ve got body of beliefs.
You’ve got faith in God for righteousness, but here it’s simply fidelity
or trust or standing firm and holding fast, being established
and unshakable. And so he rejoices to God in
thanksgiving that their faith is at last holding. But he also sees that their love,
or hears that their love for one another, their love for one
another is abounding and increasing. You think about in the scriptures,
how many times you bump into the one another passages. Love
one another, bear with one another, forgive one another, serve one
another. The one another’s are a very important part of the
New Testament. And so how do you know the church is healthy
at Thessalonica? Their faith is standing under
fire and their love for one another is abounding. You know, we measured church
growth today, don’t we, in very wacky ways. You know, you’ll
hear of a church that has 60,000 in weekly attendance. You’ll
hear of, you know, we baptized 9,412 people. You’ll hear all
those things. And metrics only mean something
if the spiritual reality is behind them. And consider this, how
would this fly today? you know, the boasting. My church
is this big, and it’s this big under persecution. That doesn’t
fit the whole health and wealth business of America, does it?
It doesn’t fit the story, the narrative that’s out there today.
The growth, the abundance, the spiritual vitality Paul is reporting
of and giving thanks to God for in the Thessalonians is simply
because the Word and the Spirit And the ordinary simple church
life has worked. And so step by step, day by day,
they’re growing in their love. They’re growing in their faith.
And so our spiritual obligation is to give thanks to God, which
he is doing. He’s giving thanks for signs of grace in their case.
It’s the faith and it’s the love. And now we’re going to see him
boasting about this. And so we want to think about
proper boasting. Sometimes we think about boasting and say,
boasting is bad. You know, look at my new car. Christmas letters or maybe you’re
on Facebook. There’s a lot of boasting in
there. Look at what tropical island you’re not on. Isn’t that
how it goes? So there’s bad boasting, but
there’s also good boasting. And here there’s good boasting.
Paul is saying to all the churches that he visits, and it’s probably
in the Athens and the Corinthian context, he’s telling them about
how God is at work in the Thessalonians. They’re Psalm 1 Christians. Blessed
is the one who does not sit, walk, or stand in the way of
the ungodly, but he delights in the law of the Lord and meditates
on it day and night. He’s like a tree planted by living
waters. And the storm has hit these trees.
And maybe they’re new trees. They’re young trees because they’re
young Christians, but they’re standing firm. They’re holding
fast. Their faith is strong. Their
love for one another is strong. There’s not division in the church.
And so he’s boasting about it. I know in the church, we’ve had
a couple of babies born in the last couple months and it used
to be back in the day a grandma had a brag book you know they
had to have a little mini picture album in their purse now you
just whip out your phone and you know some of you in the back
if you get asked tell me about your grandchild you’re not gonna
say I don’t feel like it right you’re gonna brag and it’s appropriate
and it is for Paul as well the spiritual father of the people
of God at Thessalonica He can brag about their faith and their
love, but he’s also gonna be able to brag about what’s coming
in the next bit of verses. He’s gonna boast that they are
walking in the faith and enduring or persevering under hardship. And so what do we give thanks
for? Thank the Lord I got a new car.
Thank the Lord I got into the college I applied to. Thank the
Lord that my stocks went up. These are not things we shouldn’t
be thankful for, but maybe a little perspective change. Thank you,
Lord, for showing me my sin. Thank you, Lord, for the hardship
that I’ve hated, but I see the fruit in it. Thank you, Lord,
for maybe not answering me and making me wait on you. All those
sorts of things can be things we give thanks for. And so there’s
proper boasting. How about enduring endurance? That’s the next thing Paul speaks
of, an enduring endurance. He gives thanks for their steadfastness
and their faith, that in all their persecutions and in all
their afflictions, they are enduring. If we’re Christians, we will
suffer. If we are Christians and we are serving the Lord and
sticking our neck out for Jesus, as it were, it will cost us. and he’s grateful that they are
patient. That’s the steadfastness word.
Remember the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, or
steadfastness. It means bearing up under weight,
bearing up under hardship. Maybe some of you go to the gym
and you get on the thing for 45 minutes, and at about 27 minutes,
you think, I got, what, 18 more? What have I signed up for? But
if you bear up under the stress, you’ll get there. Maybe you’re
a runner. Maybe you’re a weightlifter, maybe you’re in some sort of
athletic or physical endeavor, maybe a project at work. It just,
it takes the stick-to-it-iveness. You know what it means to bear
up under hardship and see it through. But what about afflictions
such as persecution? I don’t know what it was like
in Thessalonica, but it stayed pretty hot for a while. The Jewish
unbelieving people did not want Jesus proclaimed as Messiah. They did not want it proven from
the scriptures that the Christ must come and suffer and die.
They could only see a king that would live and reign forever
on earth and bring about the Jewish nation again. And so it
was pretty hot, the persecution, and then the rabble and the Romans
and the others there as well. And so God calls us from time
to time for periods of suffering, periods of fire, periods of trials. And it’s all under God’s providence.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that bad things are out of God’s
control. God does not sin. God is not
the author of sin, but he does permit evil. And he sees us through
it. Just read the book of Job. Remember
when Satan was going to and fro on the face of the earth, looking
for trouble, and he came into the council of God, the court
of God, and God says, where have you been? I’ve been going to
and fro. And what does God say? Have you considered my servant
Job? God is the king of the universe.
Satan is the dog on the chain, and he can only go as far as
God allows. Or think of Jesus’ words to Peter.
I’ve prayed for you, Peter. but Satan is going to have you
and he will sift you like wheat. But remember the sweet time later
where Jesus met him by the shore of Galilee. And three times he
asked him, Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Do you love
me? Feed my lambs. And so you may go through hardships,
tailor-made, providentially overseen by God for your good and for
his glory. And it may hurt like the Dickens,
but he has his ways. He has his purposes and our call
is to bear up. Our call is to be steadfast. What does the Bible say? You
have heard of the steadfastness of Job. Blessed are you when
you go through these things. Count it all joy, James says. We are to have patience. Life
is hard. Life can be miserable. Life can
be difficult. What kind of faith does your
life demonstrate? Something to think about. I want
to give Peter the last word here. You know, Peter suffered mightily. It’s said that he was put on
a cross in the way of his master, but upside down. That was the
way of his death. But he says to Christians scattered
under persecution, you know, some years after Paul’s writing
to the Thessalonians, he says this, humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he
may exalt you. And so while you’re under the
heavy hand of God or under the persecutions of this world, he
says, cast all your anxieties on him. I wonder if that’s what
the Thessalonians did as they were firm in their faith. Cast
all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be sober-minded,
he says. Be watchful. Your adversary,
the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone
to devour. Resist him. Firm in your faith,
knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced
by your brotherhood throughout the world. And then he gives
a message of hope. And after a little while that
you have suffered, the God of all grace, the God who has called
you to his eternal glory in Jesus Christ, he will himself, catch
this, restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. And then he
gives a little praise, a little doxology. To him be the dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Let’s look to God now in
prayer. Lord, we thank you that in the story of the Christian
faith through history, we’ve seen people with all sorts of
troubles, and we know that in every case you’ve seen them through.
We may not make it through life in this world, but we will be
ushered into everlasting life. We will be brought into the presence
of God where there is no more pain, sorrow, sickness, suffering.
The last enemy death has been beaten. And when we get to heaven
and that great city, the city of Zion, the heavenly Zion, there
will be no wickedness, no wicked person there, only the redeemed
of the Lord. And we will dwell in the safety
and the shadow of the almighty. Lord, we want to trust you and
we want to love one another. So help us. We pray in Christ’s
great name. Amen.