Well there are four Lord’s Days until we roll out the new teaching theme for the coming ministry year here at First Presbyterian Church, and in those weeks I thought it might be helpful to consider the short book of 2 Thessalonians. So if you have your Bibles in hand, turn there with me please to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1; 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. You can find that on page 989 in the church Bibles.
The church in Thessalonica was planted by Paul, Silas and Timothy; you can read about it in Acts 17, around the year 50 AD. When they moved on from Thessalonica, Paul left Silas and Timothy in Berea and he went on alone to the city of Corinth where he planted another church – you can read about that in Acts 18. Then Silas and Timothy rejoined Paul. And from the evidence in the book of Acts, it seems they stayed in Corinth for almost two whole years. Now the only letters in the New Testament addressed to the church by Paul, Silvanus – which is the Latin version of Silas – and Timothy, are the first and the second letters to the Thessalonians, which means that these two letters, 2 Thessalonians that we’ll be considering, they were likely written sometime in the early 50s AD from the city of Corinth. And after the book of Galatians, they are likely the earliest Pauline letters that we possess. Most scholars believe these two letters were written relatively close together in time so they give us the sense that, having only recently planted the church in Thessalonica, Paul is quite anxious to do all he can to further strengthen and support them. He doesn’t simply plant churches and then move on and wonder how things are going. He is a faithful pastor, and so he writes now to address his concerns for them. He cares deeply about them and these letters, as we are going to see, bear eloquent testimony to that.
In particular, we know from the first chapter of 2 Thessalonians, that we’ll be considering in a few moments together, there are two principle issues facing the Thessalonian believers by this point. As Paul writes 2 Thessalonians, there are two issues that he is responding to. First, there is persecution from outside the church. He mentions that, for example, in chapter 1 verse 4 and again in verse 5. These are Christians in a hostile, cultural context, and life was hard for them as they sought to follow the Lord Jesus. Paul says they were suffering for the kingdom of God. And so he writes to help them stand firm and to persevere in the face of trials. Persecution from outside the church. And then, perhaps unsurprisingly, the second major issue facing the Thessalonians was false teaching from inside the church. In this case, there were those among the Thessalonians who were teaching that Christ had already returned in some abstract, spiritual sense, and that we really ought not to look for a physical, literal, bodily return of Jesus at the end of the age at all. That had been their message.
And we’re going to see Paul address both of those in turn in this second epistle, but you’ll notice as we go through that his major focus falls not so much on the persecution they endure as on the false teaching that they are wrestling with, for this one very good reason – Paul knows that the strength to persevere through trials and persecutions, the spiritual resources we need to endure suffering for Jesus’ sake, depends in no small part on knowing the truth and embracing it clearly and faithfully. Resolve the theological confusion, deal with the false teaching, and the spiritual equipment the Thessalonians are going to need to face down whatever suffering might come their way, will be secured.
And that, by the way, is one of the great benefits of studying the second letter of Paul to the Thessalonians. It provides us with a kind of case study in how sound doctrine and right living are connected and flow one from the other. Knowing the truth and living a faithful, fruitful Christian life, cannot be separated. And that is crystal clear in this letter as Paul roots the power to endure in the theological certainty of Christ’s future, bodily return to judge the living and the dead. So the big idea we’re going to see here in 2 Thessalonians is – “Living faithfully until Christ comes.” “Living faithfully until Christ comes.” And this morning, we are going to look together at the opening twelve verses of the letter. And we are asking, “How does Paul encourage the Thessalonians here, how does he encourage us, to stand firm, to persevere, to endure all the way until Jesus comes?” And in answer, first of all, verses 3 through 5, he says we need to celebrate the marks of grace. Celebrate the marks of grace. Secondly, 5 through 10, we need to remember the return of Christ. Celebrate the marks of grace. Remember the return of Christ. Then thirdly, 11 through 12, pray for the power of God. Celebrate the marks of grace. Remember the return of Christ. Pray for the power of God. That is Paul’s opening strategy for shoring up their faith and encouraging them not to lose heart, even in the midst of persecution.
Before we look at each of those in turn, as always, first of all, would you bow your heads with me and we’ll ask for the Lord’s help and then we’ll read God’s Word together. Let us pray.
O Lord, would You come now, and by Your Word and Spirit, instruct us, encourage us, convince, rebuke, exhort and train us in righteousness that indeed we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Do it for the glory of the name of Christ we pray. Amen.
2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. This is the Word of God:
“Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. 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.
This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering – since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Amen.
One of the things I love about First Presbyterian Church is how abundantly God has blessed you with the gift of encouragement. Some of that is cultural, I know. It is, after all, very southern to express affection and love in effusively generous terms. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very welcome! Some of that is cultural, but some of it, no doubt, is a clear mark of God’s rich grace at work in our midst, drawing us toward one another in love. And if we’ve been on the receiving end of that kind of encouragement, we know, don’t we, what a difference a quiet word of affirmation and encouragement can make in a struggling brother or sister’s life. In the opening verses of 2 Thessalonians, Paul models for us how to do Biblical encouragement well, and he reminds us why it’s such an important ministry to cultivate. Would you look with me at the opening five verses please?
Celebrate the Marks of Grace
Here, first of all, we are being taught to celebrate the marks of grace. Celebrate the marks of grace. After the standard, apostolic greeting in verses 1 and 2, Paul pauses – notice this – to express his gratitude to God for the Thessalonians. And notice the emphatic way in which he does that. Verses 1 and 2, “We ought always to give thanks to God for you.” “This is right,” he says. The word translated “ought” doesn’t mean to insert some ambiguity there as if we ought to give thanks to God, but we might not. Rather, it means we are under obligation; we consider it our duty to give thanks to God for you always. We are compelled to do this. And he says this is right, in verse 3. “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right” – the word means “worthy” or even “appropriate.” This is the only fitting suitable response to what I can see in your lives. Think about that for a moment. When we see the evidence of the work of God in someone’s life, Paul is saying that puts us under obligation to give thanks. It’s the only thing that really fits by way of response if we are Christians. We’re not to look at them in envy – “I wish I was like that.” We’re not to look on them cynically – “I’ll bet they’re not really like that deep down.” We’re not even to look on them admiringly – “You are so amazing. How did you get like that?” We are meant to look on them, rather, and to trace in their lives the evidence of the work of God and then pour out our gratitude to Him for what He is doing in them. Not flattery, not jealousy, but thanksgiving.
But if you look down at verse 4, you’ll see that while the encouragement instinctively and in the first case flows naturally in a vertical direction – Paul gives thanks to God for them – it also flows equally naturally along a horizontal plane out toward other Christians. You see that in verse 4? “Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God.” You understand, of course, when Paul talks about boasting there he’s not saying, “I take credit for what is happening in your life. Look at the amazing impact my ministry is having among the Thessalonians.” That’s not what he’s saying. Rather, he is giving all the credit to God. He is boasting about what God is doing in the Thessalonians. He is privately giving thanks and he is publicly declaring the mighty works of God. He is saying, probably to the Corinthians amongst whom he was ministering at this point, “Now look at the Thessalonians. Here are people just like you, and God has been at work so wonderfully within them. Marvelous works of God changing them, delivering them from their bondage to sin and from idolatry and making them examples of Christian fidelity and godliness. I want you to see in them what God can do in you too.”
And before we unpack, in just a moment, why Paul is so encouraging about the Thessalonians, I think it would help us to pause for a moment to examine our own practice in light of Paul’s example. Don’t you? Listen to John Stott’s comments on these verses. He says, “If we follow Paul’s example, we will avoid both congratulation, which corrupts, and silence, which discourages.” Very often we feel like those are our only options. Isn’t that so? Congratulations, which ultimately runs the risk of swelling egos; it corrupts. Or silence, because we don’t know what else to say, and that can be so discouraging. “Instead,” says Stott, “we can affirm and encourage people in the most Christian of all ways. ‘I thank God for you, brother or sister. I thank Him for the gifts He’s given you, for His grace in your life, for what I see in you of the love and gentleness of Christ.’ This way,” says Stott, “affirms without flattering and it encourages without puffing up.”
So let me ask you as I ask myself, “Are you engaged in the vital ministry of encouragement?” I hope you are. And if you are, here’s how to do it well. Neither congratulations which corrupts, nor silence which discourages; instead, thank God and boast to others of the wonderful work of God in their lives. “This way affirms without flattering and encourages without puffing up.”
Growing Faith
Now why is it that Paul sees in the Thessalonians what should generate so much thanksgiving? What is he so encouraged by as he looks at them? Three things. First, in verse 3, he points to their growing faith. Do you see that in verse 3? Growing faith. We ought always to thank God for you because your faith is growing abundantly. That language of growth, according to one scholar, refers to “internal, organic growth, as of a tree.” Growing faith, flourishing, fruitful, vibrant, lively faith. Did you know that faith grows? It’s not static. It’s not a blob of stuff you either have or you don’t, so you can’t say, “Oh, I wish I had faith as strong as yours.” Neither is it right to say, “I used to believe, but I lost my faith,” as if your faith sort of wandered off one night while you were sleeping. Christian faith is a living thing. It grows like a tree, and like a tree, it needs to be tended and cultivated and cared for and trained and developed and matured by actively trusting God in hard places, by looking to Christ in the small things as well as in the big deals, and by the careful and diligent use of the means of grace – by regular attendance at public worship, morning and evening on the Lord’s Day, and in the daily reading of God’s Word and in prayer. If you neglect these things, no wonder your faith is stunted and withered and fragile and fleeting. But Paul can see, in the case of the Thessalonians at least, the faith that God had given to them was flourishing. They were, as Psalm 1 describes them, “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.” Does that describe your faith? Is it increasing, growing? Are you cultivating spiritual vibrancy in your faith?
Increasing Love
The second mark of grace for which Paul gives thanks you can see also in verse 3 – “We ought always to thank God for you because the love for every one of you for one another is increasing.” This time, the word “increasing,” the same scholar says, “has a diffusive or expansive character, as of a flood irrigating the land.” That’s what their love was like, he is saying. I saw pictures of the banks of the River Nile in Egypt the other day. And it’s really just this amazing, vivid, bright green stripe, slicing through the barren desert, watered and made vibrant by the regular flooding of the river. All the life there depends on the floodwaters bringing nourishment and vitality to it. And the Thessalonians’ love for one another was like that – a rising flood in the church of life-giving, mutual care as the believers supported and served one another in difficult days.
And actually, if you were to flip back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 12, you would see that Paul had prayed for them that the Lord would indeed make their love increase and abound toward one another more and more. And now here he’s saying, “My prayers are being answered, and you love one another, and you do so in an increasing way so that there is this flood of mutual care and support.” Do you love one another? It is an evidence of grace that believers should care one for the other.
Steadfastness
And the final mark of grace you’ll see in verses 4 and 5. They have a growing faith, they have increasing mutual love, and then verses 4 and 5, “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.” Growing faith, increasing love, and now the third mark is steadfastness – stickability, perseverance in affliction. They were suffering for their faith. Following Jesus in their context was painful – socially, financially, politically, perhaps even physically. Now we still live, don’t we, in a bit of a cultural bubble here in Jackson, Mississippi, but I rather suspect that bubble is already beginning to burst and it is becoming increasingly difficult to be a forthright and courageous and bold Christian witness in the public square. And the Thessalonians here are standing firm in the face of cultural opposition.
And notice was Paul says about all of this – your faith and your love and your steadfastness. All of it, he says, they are the evidences of God’s righteous judgment in your case. That is to say, they display the fact that He has counted you worthy of His kingdom. He has accepted you freely in Christ and has since been at work in you to change your character, your motivations, your words and ways and works so that having made you His child, and justified you freely by His grace, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to you and received by faith alone, even so now you’ve begun to live like the child of God that He has made you to be.
And as he takes all of that in, Paul feels a profound sense of obligation to return thanks and praise to God who has done this mighty work within them. Here is how to make the ministry of encouragement a means of grace to help people persevere. Paul doesn’t speak in vague generalities. It’s not a pat on the back. He gets specific about what he sees the hand of God doing within them and he overflows in praise to God for them. Look for the marks of grace. Look for growing faith and increasing love and steadfastness in the pursuit of Jesus Christ when doing so is hard and sore. Look for the evidence of God’s righteous judgment in making people His children. And then point it out and thank God for it and celebrate it in others. So that’s the first thing that we need to see here as Paul seeks to encourage us to persevere. Celebrate the marks of grace. Do you have, are you building the ministry of encouragement? Celebrate the marks of grace.
Remember the Return of Christ
Secondly, if we are to persevere through affliction, Paul says we need to remember the return of Christ. Celebrate the marks of grace. Remember the return of Christ. Look at verses 6 through 10. He’s going to go on in chapter 2 to tackle more directly the false teachers who were saying, “Jesus is not going to return bodily. He’s already returned, but only spiritually. And there’s no final return of Jesus to look forward to.” In chapter 2, he’s going to tackle that head on. Here, he addresses it more obliquely by pointing out the consequences that will follow – the twin consequences that will follow from the fact that Jesus is indeed coming back soon one day. So verse 6, they are suffering for the kingdom and Paul says, “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” How are you going to persevere through afflictions, through persecution, through trials, through suffering? Well, you need to remember Jesus is coming to settle all scores and to bring final justice one day very soon.
And those who do not know God, who do not obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they will face His terrible vengeance. Verse 9, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” Now there really is no soft pedaling that, is there? There is no downplaying it. There’s no dodging the implications. Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead, and if you do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, this will be your fate. Eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might. How you live, what you believe, have eternal consequences.
And we need to be reminded of that from time to time, I think. If you’ve grown up here in Jackson, the chances are you have a decent dose of religion in your background and you’re familiar with the language and the basic outline of the Christian message so it can sort of go – “Zap! Zap!” in one ear and out of the other when you hear it. It’s too familiar. It’s white noise. It is background music. And so we don’t really hear it anymore. But here in our passage, suddenly Paul, very helpfully, cranks up the volume. He wants to be sure we are all hearing him loud and clear because the consequences of ignorance or indifference are everlasting. If, after having heard the Gospel about Jesus Christ all your days you have not yet responded to it, I hope you’re beginning here today to see your terrible danger. I hope you feel the urgency of your situation. Understand what Paul is saying to you. The same Jesus who died in the room and stead of sinners like me and you, who bore our condemnation at His cross, this same Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead and everyone who does not trust in Him, who does not rest for their salvation on His sacrificial death in their place alone, everyone will face eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord in hell forever.
Then notice Jesus is also coming back, verse 10, “to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.” Paul’s great encouragement to the suffering Thessalonians is, on the one hand, their unbelieving persecutors will be punished justly one day. And on the other hand, they themselves will be swept up into that vast and innumerable company of the redeemed, glorifying and marveling at the exalted Christ when He splits the skies and their eyes see Him at last in His majesty. For those of us who trust Him, His glorious appearing will be the moment of our supreme joy. When our eyes see Him, all thought of self will evaporate like the fog before a bright sunshine. What a day it will be! Paul wants our hearts to long for it and resolve right now to persevere until that day comes, to press on to reach that glorious destination.
And of course you see the thing that makes the difference between which group you will eventually belong within. According to Paul, it’s whether you have believed His testimony. Jesus is coming to judge and condemn those who reject Him and to be glorified in His saints and marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you is believed. They have embraced the Gospel, Paul’s message. They have trusted in Christ. They have not turned aside to false teaching, to homespun theology, to superstitious best guesses. Instead, they have committed themselves to the testimony of the apostles, which by the way, we still have access to, the testimony of the apostles. We have access to it here in holy Scripture, which is why we preach the way we try to preach here. We want to give attention to every phrase, every verse, every line in the Book because this is the life-giving testimony of God communicated to us by Christ’s authorized spokesmen, His apostles.
And so, as Paul says all of this, you see what He’s really doing, don’t you? He’s trying to lift their hearts, our hearts, and fill them with renewed hope, to raise our chins and to fix our eyes on the true and ultimate horizon line, instead of having our gazes fixed right here in the midst of our own sorrows and sufferings and to say, “Look there! Look there! Your Savior is on His way! Press on until that bright day dawns!”
Pray for the Power of God
Celebrate the marks of grace. Remember the return of Christ. And then finally and very briefly, pray for the power of God. Pray for the power of God. If you are going to persevere, we need to call upon God for power to press on. That’s what Paul models for us now here, isn’t it, here in verses 11 and 12. Would you look there please? Verses 11 and 12, “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith.” That’s what we want, right, if we are Christians? This is persevering, growing, healthy Christian living summed up in just a few phrases. Isn’t it? A life worthy of His calling, with every resolve for good and every work of faith fulfilled. That’s what we want. And verse 12 tells us the consequences and the effects of living such a life. It will mean “that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him.” This is everything a world-weary, suffering servant of God longs for and cries for. And how do you get it? Where does it come from? Verse 11, “by His power;” verse 12, “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Look, my problem isn’t really that I don’t know how to live the Christian life. It’s not that I’m ignorant of what Jesus asks of me. My real problem – maybe you can relate to this – my problem is the same problem Peter, James and John had in the Garden of Gethsemane. Do you remember? Jesus went to pray on the night when He was betrayed and He asked them to keep watch with Him. And when He came back, you remember what He found? They were sound asleep and He rebuked them and said, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” It’s weak. That’s my problem. Wiley quoted Paul in Romans 7. It was Paul’s problem too. “The good that I want to do, I do not do, and the evil that I do not want to do, that I do! Who can save me from this body of death?” I wonder if you relate to that. It’s such a perplexing reality in the Christian life.
What do we do about it? Paul says pray for the power of grace. If your every resolve for good and your every work of faith is to be fulfilled to the glory of the name of the Lord Jesus, it’s only going to be by the power of God and by the grace of Jesus Christ. And so that’s what Paul prays for the Thessalonians and it’s what we must begin to pray in earnest for ourselves and for one another. “O Lord Jesus, empower my resolutions to live for Your glory. Talk is cheap. Give me the grace I need to be more like You. Give me the grace that will make me worthy of Your calling. O Lord Jesus, fill us with Your power so that our faith might grow abundantly and our love for one another might increase more and more and our steadfastness, no matter what trials may come, will be immovable and do it all, we pray, that Your name might be glorified among us.” Do you pray like that? That’s the pattern that Paul provides here, showing us if we are going to persevere, if we are going to press on, it will be only by the power of grace at work within us.
Well, how will you persevere through trials and afflictions and persecutions when they come? First, you must learn to celebrate the marks of grace that you can see in one another. Perseverance is a community project and we need each other to encourage one another along the way. Secondly, you must remember the return of Christ. When things get hard and sore, it has a way of eclipsing every other considerations. We find our horizons shrinking. We become self-absorbed. We’re given to naval-gazing. Paul lifts up our eyes to the hills and shows us the true horizon of our hope – the final appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And finally, you must pray – urgently, persistently, pray for the power of God to fill you and strengthen your daily obedience that He might be glorified in you and you in Him. May God help us to do it. Let us pray.
Our Father, we bless You for Your holy Word, for the testimony of the apostles. Help us by it to be warned and to be instructed and to be reformed. Call the lost, even now, to repentance and to trust in Jesus, to flee the wrath to come. We pray for the unconverted in our midst, that You would, right now, bring them to the end of themselves and bring them to Jesus. And for one another, we pray for grace to pursue and implement the ministry of encouragement, to remember that Jesus is coming and to look to that final day with great anticipation and hope and to plead with You more and more in the days to come for fresh effusions of Your grace. For we ask it all for Your praise and honor, amen.