2 Thessalonians 1:5-12 (part 1)

The Faith That God Accepts

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on May 3, 2020 at Beacon Church

This past week the BBC interviewed a man and gave him an audience of millions. And he used that chance to preach to the whole world. He told the world what they were doing wrong and what needed to change. He told the world they needed to stop denying the truth and believe. He called the world to turn from their ways and choose life. And the BBC interviewer showed him respect. They broadcasted the interview and still have it on their website. That man is the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, and he was talking about how the world has failed in the face of Covid-19, and what we all need to believe and do to save ourselves from Climate Change.[i] Suffice it to say this was not the message the world most needs to hear. But the BBC would not broadcast the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That interviewer would not show the same respect to someone preaching God’s Word.

When Paul, Timothy, and Silas arrived in Thessalonica to preach the Gospel, they went to the local synagogue where their fellow-Jews were gathered, and over three Saturdays, Paul “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.’” Acts 17:4-5 records how that went over. Some of the Jews believed, many of the Greek Thessalonians did too, but most of the Jews were enraged by what they heard. They rioted. Formed a mob. Began attacking and persecuting the Christians. In the next town, the people of that synagogue “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were [true]” (Acts 17:11). Some people wake up when they are given a chance to repent and believe, some people don’t. I agree in part with the UN Secretary General: Covid-19 is a wake-up call. But not to save ourselves from climate change—to repent and believe that Jesus is the Christ.  

Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy wrote this letter to those believers in Thessalonica to help them keep on believing in Jesus through a season of ongoing persecution, which, for many of them, was at the hands of their former friends in the synagogue. That must have been really hard. Not just the suffering, but the rejection by people they once thought of as brothers and sisters. But they believed what they heard, what they read in the Scriptures about Jesus. How long, though, could they keep on believing, since they had only been Christians for a short time? Their faith was real, but they had only had a couple of months of teaching before their teachers had to leave and they were on their own. In verse 4, the missionaries say how proud they are of them that their faith was holding up, enduring, lasting, even under pressure. That’s what the word “afflictions” means there—tribulation—crushing pressure. Even if nobody is trying to beat your faith out of you, I’m sure you know about other pressures—doubts that whisper, anger that wants revenge, bitter hurts, fear, longing, impatience. Christian faith has to endure a lot of pressures doesn’t it? In these verses Paul & Co. show these new believers Christian faith is not about wishing something unbelievable was true, or about following a set of rules that can save us; Paul shows us there is a day coming when the whole world will face God and that the only faith God will honour is the faith that honours God. Here are four ways that faith honours God to give you strength to keep believing.

Our faith honours God now by enduring wrong for Jesus' sake

“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--,” (2 Thess. 1:5 ESV). Evidence. That’s the word Paul uses here—talking about (v4) the way their faith didn’t crumble and collapse even in affliction. It’s evidence. Not the kind of evidence that might save your life if it was admissible in court—but evidence the Judge has already ruled in your favour! And this is evidence—when these people who believed from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ but then began to suffer at the hands of people who refused to believe—the fact they weren’t so intimidated that they recanted; that they continued to profess faith in Jesus no matter what it cost them; that they had kept on believing God—that’s the evidence. One preacher put it this way: “If we continue to trust God through our trials and afflictions, that, the perseverance of faith in trials, is evidence that God’s judgment has been passed upon us and we are part of his kingdom.”[ii] But the same persevering faith is also evidence against the ones making them suffer.

Like Paul said to another church, when they, “striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,  28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.  (Phi 1:27-28 ESV) Christians believe Jesus is the Lord God of the Old Testament Scriptures who came and fulfilled the Scriptures and is coming again. Their recent faith in Jesus got them kicked out of the synagogue. That didn’t make them stop believing; they believed Jesus was worth it. They believed being part of Christ’s Kingdom was worth being thrown out of the synagogue. So when they suffered, it’s like Canadians in another country being targeted because they’re from Canada—only, the country they represent is a Kingdom. And the King is Jesus. And He is coming. They believed that it was worth it now to lose respect, membership, approval, even life, for the sake of honouring Jesus as their King. This is evidence God already accepts their faith. Matthew Henry once said that true Religion, “if it is worth any thing, is worth every thing…” and that if people “cannot find in their hearts to suffer for it” whatever religion they have is not worth having.[iii] Is faith in Jesus worth having?

Our faith honours God now by believing God is just

“…Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,  7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us…” (2 Thess. 1:6-7a ESV). This is how God sees things; this is how God sees the wrongs done to people who believe in Christ, what God thinks of those who abuse and mistreat people because they follow Jesus. And this is what we need to believe about God’s justice. Right and wrong matter to God. Justice matters. He is fair. God is honoured by faith that believes He is just and right in how he deals with people who use their power to make believers suffer. To God, says Paul, it is a matter of rightness, of justice, to repay believers who endure tribulation and affliction, and to repay unbelievers who inflict affliction on followers of Christ. The Bible translation that was most familiar to the people in the synagogue in Thessalonica was an ancient Greek translation we call the Septuagint. Isn’t it appropriate then that Paul keeps quoting their own Bible translation in these verses? Like that word “repay” (6). It comes from Isaiah 66:6 the ESV has, “rendering recompense”.

“The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of the LORD, rendering recompense to his enemies!” (Isa. 66:6 ESV). The message Isaiah brings in these verses is kind of like if God sent a prophet into the most respected, leading church in the country, while the pastor was preaching and all the best-dressed, most admired and devout people in the whole country sat listening, and this prophet bursts into the back of the church and announces at the top of his voice that God will repay all of them for all the true believers they kicked out of their church. “The sound of the LORD, rendering recompense to his enemies!” (Isa. 66:6b ESV). Paul was telling those Thessalonian Christians that God would kick out of His Kingdom those who kicked them out of the synagogue. We need to believe God repays. God cares about justice. God will not let wrong done against His people go unpunished, and he will not let the honour shown to him by believers go unrewarded.

When Jesus was hauled in front of the high priest and beaten, he didn't throw insults, he didn't make threats.

21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.  22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.  23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. (1 Pet. 2:21-23 ESV)

He didn't just hope God would deliver justice in the end: he counted on His Father being just. He entrusted himself to God. True faith honours God by believing Jesus is worth it, believes God is just, and therefore also honors God by waiting for God to judge. The shocker for the Jews who persecuted the new Christians in Thessalonica will be when they finally see their Judge and realize it is none other than Jesus.

Our faith honours God now by waiting for Jesus to avenge us

“…When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels  8 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,” (2 Thess. 1:7b-8 ESV). Verse 7 says “when the Lord Jesus is revealed”—using the word “apocalypse”—the second coming of Christ—it’s the title of the book of Revelation and the climax the whole book leads up to! But the imagery here is distinctly taken from Isaiah 66:15. “For behold, the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire,” (Isa. 66:15 ESV). So where Isaiah prophesied that Yahweh will come in fire with his chariots, Paul shows us that this is none other than the Lord Jesus coming with his army of angels.

Those chilling words, “he will inflict vengeance” are also taken from the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 66:4. Paul is on purpose telling his readers to go and look up that prophecy in the final chapter of the Book of Isaiah because it’s about God’s final judgement on the people who should have known better, the people who claimed to serve Him, the people who took God’s favour for granted. Outward, religious duty is not what God wants from you. For those Jews, even though they were obeying lots of God’s commands—about sacrifices and ceremonies and so on—their hearts were far from God. Isaiah 66:2-4 is a powerful indictment of loveless religion: God does not want your sacrifice and duty; verse 2 says, “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word,” (Isa. 66:2 ESV)! Humble faith honours God by waiting for Him.

Shortly after Paul left Thessalonica he went to Athens and found an opportunity to preach there to the philosophers in the Areopagus. He preached a sweeping overview of the whole Bible, from Creation to the Cross, and he drew their attention to the honour God the Father has given to Jesus, that He should be the Judge of all mankind, that He has raised Jesus from the dead as proof that Jesus the righteous Judge appointed by God for that last Day.

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,  31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31 ESV)

Believers honour Jesus by waiting for Him to judge. By waiting for Him to avenge the wrongs done to us. We don’t take our own vengeance—not if we trust the One Appointed Judge; we wait. We don’t defy our governments—as Peter said,

13 Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,  14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.  15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.  (1 Pet. 2:13-15 ESV)

You cannot have the humble faith God says He accepts in Isaiah 66:2 while being a person who slanders, or stirs up resentment. Humble, God-honouring faith does not take vengeance into our own hands; or into our hearts; it honours God by believing Jesus is worth it, believing God is just, by waiting for Jesus to avenge, waiting for Jesus to judge. It Waits. And in waiting true faith honours Jesus.

Our faith honours God now by waiting for Jesus to honour us

9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,  10 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. (2 Thess. 1:9-10 ESV)

These last two verses contain a final picture that show what Jesus will one day do because verses 6-7 are true. There are people who God will accept and people God will reject. The people God accepts are people whose faith honours God. He accepts and honours the faith that honours Him. But the cruelty, and the presumption, and the impatience of those who dishonour Him will be punished. They dishonour Him by their unbelief. So these last two verses show a scene of two fates—and it’s about honour. That honour makes the difference between people who will be terrified or overjoyed when they see Jesus’ face.

Verse 9 seems a bit repetitive, since verse 8 already predicted the judgement of those afflicting the followers of Christ. Until you realize verse 9 contains an almost exact word-for-word quote from Isaiah 2—a quote repeated three times in Isaiah 2—although again Paul quotes from the Greek translation of Isaiah, so it’s easy to miss that he’s quoting here:

·         10 Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty. (Isa. 2:10 ESV)

·         19 And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. (Isa. 2:19 ESV)

·         21 to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. (Isa. 2:21 ESV)

The unbelievers from that synagogue in Thessalonica didn’t believe in Jesus then, and so they won’t trust Him when they see His face: they will try to flee and hide from his holy face. Verse 9 in Greek literally says, “away from the face of the Lord.” You see Isaiah was speaking to the ancient Kingdom of Judah, where God’s temple was in Jerusalem. They were chosen by God to be a light of Good News, of salvation, of hope, and of holiness to the nations. But they did not honour God, they did not obey God, they did not love God, and they certainly didn’t share the Gospel with the nations. Charles Spurgeon said, “Whatever God does or does not do, there is one role of His procedure from which He never deviates, namely, to cast down the proud and those who boast from their high places. He condescends to the humble and He has a tender eye to the contrite, but wherever man, the creature, dares to think himself great, God will bare His arm to overthrow him, or puff at him — for a puff will do it — and he shall pass away.”[iv]

The worst part of this is not the punishment but the crime. The Hebrew word for honors also means heavy. When someone you respect speaks you give more weight to his words than when a fool cracks a joke. When a great Queen enters the room you get up from your seat. When you stand before God you bobow. The unbelievable dishonor these Thessalonians Jews showed God by oppressing and persecuting and pursuing these messengers of Yahweh when they came with Good News and mercy on the name of Jesus Messiah! They thought the Gospel of the Lord Jesus was optional. They thought the mercy offered by the Omnipotent Creator and Judge was a light thing. They thought nothing of the blood of the Son of God. They, Paul prophesies, will be punished for that dishonouring unbelief.

Another wise pastor wrote,

When we read about “the terror of the LORD” in verses 10 and 19, we feel uneasy. We should. But the worst that can happen is not the terror of the Lord deconstructing the whole world. The worst that can happen is not the loss of retirement investments, the loss of health, the loss of face. The worst that can happen to us is the loss of delight in the glory of God alone. And the best that can happen to us is to be awakened to his glory as our joy, even if we must be humbled to experience that awakening.[v]

The joy of seeing Jesus’ face will be so much better than you imagine. When v10 says “he will be glorified… and marvelled at…” it doesn’t merely say “by His saints” and “by believers” it says “in” them, and “among” them. The final and ultimate grace of God is that because your faith honours Him—it believes Jesus is worth suffering for; it believes God is just; it waits for Jesus to avenge; it waits for Jesus to honour—therefore God will give us the highest honour possible: He will welcome us into His Kingdom not as servants but as co-heirs, co-rulers, a multitude of children of God welcomed to the feast on that great Day, to sit beside and rejoice beside the Lord Jesus. His honour will become ours. We will share in His glory. The thought is so high, so amazing, so surprising we cannot take it in. But it means that the appreciation you and I crave now, can wait. The slight and embarrassment we are made to suffer now, is only for a while. The future is decided by faith that honours Jesus now. Verse 10: the future “when He comes on that day”, and whether God rejects or honours your faith in Christ, depends on whether you believe this Gospel now: “because our testimony to you was believed” (v10). The indignity we receive from those who dishonour Jesus now, becomes an honour to wear and to bear for the sake of waiting for Jesus to come.

21 "And as for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD: "My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring," says the LORD, "from this time forth and forevermore."  60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.  2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. (Isa. 59:21-60:2 ESV)

But then Isaiah 61:6 makes a promise: “…But you shall be called the priests of the LORD; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast,” (Isa. 61:6 ESV). God will honour those who honour Jesus with such faith.  So be encouraged. Rest assured. And keep believing.