2 Thessalonians 1:1-4

Upheld through Upheaval

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on April 26, 2020 at Beacon Church

These three missionaries had planted a church, but it was a miracle it had ever taken root much less grown. Then they heard this church was being hammered from the outside and sabotaged from the inside. They were being physically persecuted, and some bad end-times teaching had worked its way into the church. The missionaries were concerned this church might stop growing, might stagnate, might wilt and start to wither. Christians can wither you know. Maybe I don't need to tell you that right now. Stagnant ponds, where the water is still too long, grow scum. They start to smell. Does that describe your spiritual life? Is your faith stagnant while you sit at home? If Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy spent a week in lockdown with you do you think they would be worried you have stopped growing? A couple of weeks ago, I heard the PM announce that it could be a long time before we go back to normal. I was deflated. This church had been listening to some deflating ideas about Jesus’ second coming. (later) But Paul & Co. begin this letter by reminding them where hope starts: Hope starts with God. And in the opening sentences of this letter we are reminded that the way God assembles, cares for, and grows His children through upheaval shows you are His and He is yours. I hope that this sermon will help remind you not to gauge God’s love by the size of your hardship, but to gauge your hardship by the size of God’s love.

God assembles His children

“Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…” (2 Thess. 1:1 ESV). “…The church of the Thessalonians”—what is the church made of? Thessalonians. Now what is “a church?” A little while ago the BC Government said people can’t gather together in groups of more than 50; another word is “congregate”, or “assemble”—that’s the word trans. “church”—lit. the idea of calling people together in an assembly (In the Old Testament, with an emphasis on being called by a voice). It’s not a building. It’s a congregation. Literally. Of people.

“…In God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”—the assembly is God’s doing; He does it as “our Father” and He does it under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And He always does it through speaking to His people, through His Word.

Did you know the very first Church was scary? Nobody wanted to go to meeting. They were afraid. God assembled and spoke from the beginning of the OT Church:

9 And the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever." When Moses told the words of the people to the LORD,  10 the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments  11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people…

When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain."  14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments…

16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.  17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.  18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.  19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.  20 The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up…

18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off  19 and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die." (Exod. 19:9-11, 13b-14, 16-20; 20:18-19 ESV)

15 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers-- it is to him you shall listen--  16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.'  17 And the LORD said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken.  18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.  19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.  20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.'  21 And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?'--  22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. (Deut. 18:15-22 ESV)

Preachers today aren’t prophets, but it is our duty to preach what God spoke through His prophets. Whey they wrote. Scripture. That’s why there is such a thing as an assembly—a church even today: to hear God’s Word. We need more reverence and awe and humility when we gather as a church.

But God has been assembling His people ever since, to hear His Word, receive His promises, believe and be saved. When all the people could no longer gather as a nation, they held local “get-togethers”—synagogues. In the NT, Jesus revived the word “assembly” for His Church, the new way God was still gathering His children, assembling them, and speaking to them. There is nothing more contrary to the Bible than Christians who don’t gather together when they can.

Think about the story of the assembly of the Thessalonians – Acts 17:1-14--Three weeks in the synagogue; a few more weeks among the Gentiles; the church was a couple of months old when Paul was driven out of the city! The Jews were hostile; the city government took their side; 1 Thess was written to help the church stand, help the plant take root and grow in the worst circumstances. Then they heard another report: the persecutions continued; the church was shaken by bad end-times teaching; they needed help before they lost their hope.

Hope begins with God. God had assembled them “in” Him; that God is their Father and Christ Jesus is their Head, their Lord. Exalted. Divine. Ruler. Omnipotent. God assembles His children. Next, Paul & Co. show God still speaks His Word to the children He has assembled.

God cares for His children

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” (2 Thess. 1:2 ESV). God cares so much that He speaks. What is Scripture but God speaking to His children? For example, Paul to Timothy, writes,

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it  15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.  (2 Tim. 3:14-17 ESV)

Peter too knew that God had used Paul to write Scripture:

15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,  16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. (2 Pet. 3:15-16 ESV)

And Paul knew even this letter carried God’s authority:

14 To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.  16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,  17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thess. 2:14-17 ESV)

“Grace to you and peace” – this letter is a channel of grace and peace from God to the children He assembled in Thessalonica. “from God our Father and the Lord…” (exact repetition!); why? I planted some potatoes in our backyard but I’m worried they aren’t growing…! Maybe because they are in the shadow of a fence and a tree. I don’t know much about gardening, but I do know plants need light. You are saved by grace but you never stop needing grace from God. The OT calls “grace” lovingkindness—hesed—without it we think God is not good and loving and we grow cold to Him, we shrivel up like a plant with no sunlight; grace is light; peace is to live in God’s love.

·         You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. (Job 10:12 ESV)

·         88 In your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.  89 Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.  90 Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast.  91 By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants.  92 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.  93 I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. (Ps. 119:88-93 ESV)

·         "Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life." (Acts 5:20 ESV)

·         63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.  64 But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) (Jn. 6:63-64 ESV)

You need to listen to God’s voice more; that doesn’t mean imagining Him talking to you—He has already spoken through His prophets and apostles and those words they wrote are still for you and me. To give life and grace to His children. Channels of grace and peace (v2). One way you can listen better is to prepare yourself to hear God’s Word every Sunday. Why does this matter? Because Grace and Peace will come to you through the preaching of Scripture.  God assembles His children and He cares for His children, speaking to them a Word of grace and peace. Maybe you believe the Bible’s testimony that God created the Universe by speaking, by His Word, but have you ever thought about what He accomplishes when His Word is given in love to His assembled Children, to His Church?

God grows His children

“3 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,” (2 Thess. 1:3 ESV). When persecution and affliction can’t stop faith and love from growing doesn’t it show that God is still doing miracles? That God is still working? Or is that just our imagination?

“…We ought…”—some atheists seem angry that God always gets the credit for good things but none of the blame for bad things. I can imagine Paul replying, “excuse me, I said, ‘God’…” = Ultimate Reality. Eternal holiness. Infinite glory. Majesty. Power. Authority forever. The Creator and Sustainer of Life, of breath, of you and me. Why do some atheists ask this question? You might as well ask back, ‘Why does suffering and pain seem like a problem?’ It’s because we have this idea that God is good. (If we all thought God was bad, nobody would this pain is a problem for theism!) That idea for many is barely a whisper but it is true. And if God is good suffering and pain seems out of place, wrong. Maybe atheists think all that is wrong with the world means there is no good God.  But they have it backwards. If there was no God, when we get a terrible diagnosis we ought to lie down like a sick dog and accept our fate and prepare to die in passive silence. It’s because God is good that we can imagine a world as good as He is; because God is good, faith and love can grow in hardship, in persecution.

“because your faith is super-growing and your love for each other is abounding (or intensifying)…” – this is not two things but one cause and effect. WE don’t need a larger amount of faith. We don’t need “more” faith; we need faith more often. Tom Schreiner says, “Our faith doesn’t thrive when we think about how much faith we have; it springs up when we behold our God—when we see Jesus as the One crucified and risen for us.”[i]

What is stronger? A mustard seed or a mulberry tree? Can a tiny seed tear deep and strong roots from the ground? This is the point Jesus makes in Lk 17:5-6. “5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"  6 And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you,” (Lk. 17:5-6 ESV). What was so difficult that the disciples wanted “more faith”?—to forgive and love someone the way God has forgiven and loves you. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,  4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him," (Lk. 17:3-4 ESV).

I love what Dr. Schreiner says:

We know it’s God’s will that we forgive those who sin against us. Yet when we’re faced with actually forgiving them, we often struggle because the pain is so severe.

Mustard seed faith, then, is faith that kills works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19–21) and produces the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23). Love, joy, peace, and patience are mountains that can only be climbed by faith; faith, after all, expresses itself in love (Gal. 5:6). Mustard seed faith believes the gospel will go the ends of the earth and triumph over the gates of hell. And the clearest evidence of mustard seed faith is whether you love God and your neighbor.

Our greatest enemies are not outside of us but within. Our greatest foe is the hate and rebellion that overtakes us, and mustard seed faith—because it is placed in Jesus Christ—gives us the victory over our sin.[ii]

When these Thessalonians endured more persecution and more affliction and yet kept trusting Jesus more and more often so that they loved one another even more intensely the more difficult and costly that love became, it shone a spotlight on the One their faith was in. The Lord Jesus Christ (vv1-2). Why did they say, “we ought…”? Because their super-growing faith and abundant, intense love for each other was exactly what they had prayed for: Here’s the prayer: "...And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you," (1 Thess. 3:12 ESV). And here’s the answer: "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," (2 Thess. 1:3 ESV; emphasis added). You tell me: who should get the credit?

So you don’t need bigger faith, more of faith, a huge pile of faith; you need faith in Jesus more often, growing faith that exercises confidence and trust in the lovingkindness, the grace and peace Jesus gives, more and more often—when it’s hard to forgive your brother; when it’s hard to endure suffering; when it’s hard to love your enemy. How do you do that? Remember more often what Jesus had done for you, given you, chew on His Word like a piece of beef-jerky. His Word leaves a sweeter taste in your mouth and nourishes your soul. Again, why does this matter? Living things grow. Living potatoes sprout, right? If your faith in Jesus and love for God’s children is not growing, you should ask whether you are yet one of the children God has assembled in the Lord Jesus? He assembles His children in churches to speak His Word of grace and peace to them—He does it still—and He grows them, nourishes them, sustains them by His Word—Scripture like this letter that brought life-giving hope to afflicted believers. Dead flowers don’t bloom. But God’s children do.

" 4 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," (2 Thess. 1:4 ESV). When God upholds you and me through upheaval it isn’t because we are such good Christians. It isn’t because we have so much faith. It is because God is our Father, and Jesus is Lord. It is because He assembled us as His children; because He speaks to us and through His Word grace and peace flows; It is because He is making us grow, and trust, and love each other. The way God upholds us through upheaval makes it more and more obvious—to us, reassuring us and giving us comfort—and to others, a testimony, that He is our God, and that we are His children.