2 Thessalonians 1

[00:00:00] You are listening to the Through the Bible Studio series with Pastor Nate Holdridge. Join us as we continue our study through the new Test in the Book of 2 Thessalonians. Here's a name. Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians is a powerful and encouraging little book. In this letter, Paul in the short three chapters will first of all encourage

[00:00:30] the Thessalonians in the midst of persecution. Secondly, in chapter 2 he'll explain to them correctly what the coming of the day of the Lord will look like clarifying some of the confusion that had entered into the church and thirdly because some had believed that the day of the Lord was amongst them. Some had refused to work and so Paul would correct and rebuke

[00:01:00] the Thessalonians. Paul, after leaving Philippi had gone to Thessalonica to preach, he had brought Silas and Timothy with him. They were successful in reaching especially the Gentile world but they were also successful in being heavily persecuted by Jews who, Luke records, were jealous of their ministry success there in Thessalonica.

[00:01:29] After fleeing to Berea, the persecutors chased them to Berea and so Paul eventually went down to Athens where he sent for Silas and Timothy to join with him. After a period of ministry there in Athens, when Paul could stand it no longer. We learned in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3.

[00:01:50] He sent Timothy away from him to the believers there in Thessalonica and we assume as well that he sent Silas not to Thessalonica but to Philippi to check in on these brand new churches.

[00:02:09] Eventually Paul left Athens alone and went to the city of Corinth where alone he did a little bit of preaching, did some tent making and waited for his companions Silas and Timothy to return from their follow-up ministry trips to Thessalonica and Philippi.

[00:02:30] From Corinth when Paul heard the gray report concerning what God was doing amongst the Thessalonians, he wrote the letter first Thessalonians. In that letter he encouraged them in their state of persecution, he reminisced about the brand new church and the recent experiences that he'd had there.

[00:02:54] He encouraged them and exhorted them concerning sanctification. He spoke to them concerning what the coming of the Lord would look like and warned them about the day of the Lord and what it would look like and finished up his letter with some basic instructions for brand new Christians, for brand new believers.

[00:03:18] Now after sending that letter Paul then received a report of how that initial letter first Thessalonians was received. Still in Corinth conducting his ministry just a brief time after having been in Thessalonica for the very first time launching this church, Paul hears how they'd received first Thessalonians and he writes now second Thessalonians.

[00:03:47] And as I mentioned the purpose was threefold to encourage them further in their persecution, but also to add clarity concerning the coming day of the Lord. It tells us in chapter 2 verse 1 of second Thessalonians he says now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus and are being gathered together to him, we ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word.

[00:04:17] Or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. In other words, somehow there were those who were claiming to have a prophetic spirit or those who were speaking a word or those who were even offering forged letters proclaiming that the day of the Lord had already come.

[00:04:42] And so these brand new Thessalonian believers were very confused, they're wondering has the Lord returned as the day of the Lord come.

[00:04:52] And so Paul is going to write to them this letter in order to encourage and instruct them rightly in these things.

[00:05:02] And I look forward to studying this short little epistle with you. Now as I mentioned the first chapter really doesn't deal with the prophetic elements as much, the day of the Lord and clarifying different details of it, but is more a chapter of encouragement to the Thessalonians giving them great hope.

[00:05:24] First of all the greeting in verse 1. Paul, Sylvainus and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians and God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:05:42] So first of all the authors are included there in verse 1. Three authors, we know that the real author is the Holy Spirit. The real human author is Paul himself.

[00:05:55] He includes however his two comrades Sylvainus and Timothy. Now you might be confused. You've read perhaps the book of Acts and you have seen that there was a character named Silas who along with Timothy helped in the Holy Spirit.

[00:06:11] He helped in the launch or the birth of the Thessalonian Church. Who is this Sylvainus character you might ask? Well Sylvainus is simply the Roman version of the name Silas. So Luke refers to him as Silas and Acts. Paul refers to him as Sylvainus in his letters.

[00:06:32] Paul's main companions on that particular missionary trip. And since they're all together it lends credence to the idea that there they are in Corinth doing ministry together for that year and a half plus in Corinth and writing a letter to encourage these Thessalonian believers.

[00:06:55] Paul, Silas and also Timothy. These men are of course communicating with the Thessalonians because of a deep love in their heart for the Thessalonian Church. And you know why of course they had a deep love in their heart for the Thessalonian Church.

[00:07:13] It was because of their deep personal investment in the Thessalonian Church. Jesus said where your treasure is, their heart will be also. These men had treasured. They had invested. They had laid down their lives even to the point of great physical danger so that this church could thrive.

[00:07:38] And as they placed their time, their treasure and their energy into this group of believers they wondered how they were doing and had a deep love for the Thessalonian Church. It speaks to us of the importance of investing well.

[00:07:54] Now notice here the in verse one that he writes the letter to the Church of the Thessalonians in God. Our father and the Lord Jesus Christ isn't it wonderful?

[00:08:06] That even though they were persecuted and even though they were experiencing great trial, their position was in God.

[00:08:15] Every believer is placed in Christ into God. Incredible to have the same position in Christ regardless of what our circumstances might be whether persecuted or in times of great peace.

[00:08:30] We have a position before God in God in Christ. And then in verse two that very typical apostolic blessing grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:08:45] In one sense these words grace and peace most accurately describe a fully functioning Christian life operating in grace, operating with total peace.

[00:09:00] These are things that are absolutely unique to and beautiful in the Christian life.

[00:09:07] In verse three Paul moves on as he often does to speak of the good things about the Thessalonians and to give thanks for them and speak of his prayer life for them.

[00:09:18] This is common in many of Paul's epistles when he had something to be thankful for. He expressed that thanks to whatever church he was writing to.

[00:09:27] And he says in verse three 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.

[00:09:44] Now that word ought when he says we ought always to give thanks to God for you it speaks of literally the pain of a debt.

[00:09:54] He felt a debt of thankfulness for what he was watching amongst the Thessalonian believers and all that more Christians would have a sense of their debt of thanksgiving unto God for what God has done in their lives and in the lives of others.

[00:10:12] The thing that fascinated Paul so much about life was watching God change and transform human lives.

[00:10:20] It never got old to him. It was always exciting to him and he had a debt or a was bound to give thanks to God for this great work inside of their lives.

[00:10:33] And so he says I'm always giving thanks to God for you the incredible work of God amongst the Thessalonian believers.

[00:10:43] Now there were two distinct things that Paul was thankful to God for about the Thessalonian believers.

[00:10:51] First of all, he says because your faith is growing abundantly they had this abundantly growing faith which caused Paul to rejoice.

[00:11:02] Now in one sense faith cannot grow. When you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ even a faith like a mustard seed you are saved and positionally you belong to the Lord.

[00:11:17] That salvific faith cannot really increase. I mean your confidence might grow stronger but that faith did what it needed to do inside of your life.

[00:11:30] There is an experiential faith. Amen. The kind of faith that a Christian needs to trust in the Lord to lean upon him to realize that Christ is more than just a savior but there's a deeper experience with him where we lean upon him.

[00:11:49] As the proverb says in Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

[00:12:03] There is this growing trust for the Lord inside of the life of a maturing believer. We trust him for eternity. Let's trust him for today and Paul rejoiced that he had seen that in the Thessalonian church.

[00:12:18] Secondly, he also rejoiced and gave thanks because in verse 3 of their love for every one of you for one another is increasing.

[00:12:31] He just rejoiced that their love for each other was on the rise that it had increased. I would encourage you to allow your love for other believers to increase, be available in your local church.

[00:12:45] Stick around after services ask people how they're doing. Pour your heart, your soul, your care into other believers around you. Their love for each other had increased, their faith had grown.

[00:13:00] Now it's interesting because quite often when Paul speaks of faith and when Paul speaks of love, he also then speaks of hope.

[00:13:08] He had done that in first Thessalonians. He had spoken to the Thessalonians about their faith and their love and their strong hope.

[00:13:18] But here in second Thessalonians hope is not mentioned. And perhaps there was an absence of hope amongst the Thessalonian believers because of these rumors that the day of the Lord was already happening.

[00:13:34] And so they weren't exercising the same confident expectation of the future that they had previously had.

[00:13:43] And so Paul is going to write a letter to try to restore their hope in so many ways.

[00:13:49] Now verse 4, Paul tells them that not only was he praying for them but also boasting about them. He says in verse 4,

[00:13:55] 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.

[00:14:09] Not only were they thankful but Paul and Silas and Timothy, they were actually Paul says going around bragging to other churches about the work of God amongst the Thessalonian believers.

[00:14:24] It's wonderful when a church rises to that kind of place where workers for Christ begin to boast about the work that God is doing in some other town, some other city, some other place.

[00:14:38] And so they were just boasting and the thing that they were boasting about concerning the Thessalonian church wasn't necessarily that their doctrine.

[00:14:48] It wasn't their understanding of the day of the Lord because they were confused about these kinds of things but the thing that Paul was boasting about, he says in verse 4,

[00:14:59] your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

[00:15:07] He looked at this persecuted group of believers mostly by the Jews who were there in Thessalonica who were jealous of their following.

[00:15:18] And Paul looks at them and he says, listen I'm boasting about your endurance in the midst of these persecutions and afflictions.

[00:15:28] I am so impressed by your steadfastness in the midst of this particular trial and whenever I meet a believer who is overwhelmed with great trial, overwhelmed with the circumstances of life and I watch them holding fast to their faithfulness in the Lord.

[00:15:49] I am so impressed and I want to boast about them. I want to speak of them.

[00:15:54] Just recently, I sat down with a young man who his life has just been turned upside down through the sin of others and to no fault of his own as much as he wants to learn from it and grow from it.

[00:16:09] It really is not this young man's fault or responsibility yet he has held fast to the Lord in the midst of his trial.

[00:16:18] And I so want to boast of his faithfulness and his steadfastness.

[00:16:25] The Thessalonians were steadfast persevering literally the word means remaining under this season of persecution.

[00:16:36] Sometimes we speak of persecution as if it's a magical thing that when it happens to the church, it always purifies. It always produces great fruit in our lives.

[00:16:51] Listen, the reality is that persecution doesn't always produce the kind of steadfastness that Paul boasts about the Thessalonian church for.

[00:17:03] Oftentimes persecution crushes the church in a local community.

[00:17:09] Sometimes persecution crushes the church through death or people leaving that community, but oftentimes persecution crushes the local church because that local church begins to compromise their beliefs.

[00:17:26] Look around in your town. Can you find a liberal church that has the look and the trappings of a real church?

[00:17:36] They have bibles, they have crosses, but when you get into their doctrine, you come to discover that they don't believe much of anything.

[00:17:46] And would never believe in a literal heaven, a literal hell, a literal one way for salvation and justification through the blood of Jesus Christ.

[00:17:57] The reason that they don't believe to these very exclusive views is because some kind of persecution, whether it was physical or just merely intellectual and emotional,

[00:18:10] was directed towards them and they were not steadfast in it. They began to buckle and change their views.

[00:18:18] The Thessalonian church stood their ground as a fellowship, and they stayed under that uncomfortable place and stood strong in it.

[00:18:33] Paul rejoiced at them for it. He says, I rejoice, I boast over your steadfastness and your fate in the Lord.

[00:18:41] On verse 5 he tells them something marvelous that would encourage them greatly. Here's a real word of encouragement from Paul in these following verses.

[00:18:50] He says 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.

[00:19:00] In other words, one way of looking at this is that Paul is saying, listen, this persecution that you're enduring, it's actually evidence of the righteous judgment of God about you.

[00:19:13] This persecution in other words is evidence that you are who God says you are, that you are a bloodbath redeemed child of God.

[00:19:27] Your persecution is simply evidence of that wonderful and strong reality.

[00:19:33] As Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 12, he said, indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

[00:19:46] The Thessalonians, as they were persecuted, it was evidence that they were who God had judged them to be. He had made them into a righteous people.

[00:19:59] Now it should be said that all quote-unquote persecution is not a result of our righteousness.

[00:20:08] For instance, when a Christian stands up for something that is actually unbiblical to stand up for and tries to make it into a biblical thing and all of that.

[00:20:20] And people begin to reject them as a result of what they're getting all gung-ho over.

[00:20:26] That's not persecution for being a child of God, it's persecution for having a ridiculous stance on a subject or an unreasonable stance on a subject.

[00:20:39] But all true Christians on some level will at some time experience persecution.

[00:20:47] Jesus said, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.

[00:20:52] If you're of the world, the world would love you as its own but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you.

[00:21:03] And the world will of course persecute believers over doctrine, you know our belief in the fallenness of man and our belief in a creator God.

[00:21:15] And the world will also persecute us over our morals, the way we feel about intoxication or certainly one major area is sexual activity.

[00:21:29] And just the view that we have, we're even if we were to say we believe this is how a Christian should behave themselves.

[00:21:39] Even to just say that there still will be persecution that comes up against the church for our views concerning the way a believer should live their life.

[00:21:48] Paul says this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God about you, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God.

[00:21:58] Now Paul begins to comfort them in verse 6 when he says, since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and a grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.

[00:22:17] And so Paul encourages them with two future realities. First of all Paul tells them of the coming judgment of those who have persecuted the Thessalonian church, he says God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you.

[00:22:38] And so Paul is saying, listen God is a God of justice. He's concerned with that which is right, that which is just in Revelation chapter 19 at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

[00:22:50] One thing that we will sing as we will sing his judgments are true and just.

[00:22:58] In other words Paul is laying out and saying, listen God has not forgotten you. God sees God is right, God is true, God is just and there is nothing that escapes his sight.

[00:23:11] He says God is going to repay with affliction those who have given you Thessalonians affliction.

[00:23:20] Now the scriptures that come here that Paul unfolds in these next few verses are very clear and very horrible in a sense, laying out the judgment of the wicked and the pain that they will experience as a judgment from the Lord.

[00:23:48] Paul encourages these Thessalonians, he says listen God sees God knows the persecution that you are enduring and God will repay with affliction those who afflict you but number two he encourages them with this.

[00:24:06] He will grant you relief.

[00:24:10] A day is coming where there is literally what the word means relaxation rest and the Thessalonians Paul and his companions and all believers throughout history will find great relief at the coming of Christ.

[00:24:27] He says when he comes and is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in verse eight flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

[00:24:45] They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

[00:24:53] And so Paul refers to this vengeance that God is going to bring upon two groups of people.

[00:25:01] Number one those who do not know God.

[00:25:06] Group number two those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

[00:25:12] You know those who do not know God you need to look no further than Romans chapter one verse 18 to 32.

[00:25:19] There Paul describes the revelation that all of mankind has had in creation and that how God's invisible attributes could be known through what is visible.

[00:25:33] But how that knowledge of God was suppressed by man intentionally in order to do as he wished and how God gave them up to their vile passions.

[00:25:46] These are those who do not know God according to Romans one verse 18 to 32.

[00:25:53] But secondly there are those who have heard of God but who reject the gospel message.

[00:25:59] Those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus as Paul said.

[00:26:04] John said in John chapter three verse 36 whoever believes in the sun has eternal life.

[00:26:10] Whoever does not obey the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

[00:26:18] Now Paul in describing this coming judgment this vengeance from God he describes it in verse nine as the punishment of eternal destruction.

[00:26:30] I don't think that the judgment of the wicked will be temporary and I don't think that they will be annihilated.

[00:26:38] It appears here in another places that it will last for all of eternity and that they will be conscious for it.

[00:26:47] Jesus said in Matthew 25 verse 46 these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life.

[00:26:57] In other words you are either going to head into eternal life or eternal death and this eternal death is described as by Paul verse nine being away from the presence of the Lord.

[00:27:14] Really in one sense that's how you could describe this eternal judgment.

[00:27:19] It's always opposite God if God is like this place is dark if God is up this place is down if he is here it is away.

[00:27:33] It's a separation from the presence of God which is true pain.

[00:27:38] Paul says in verse 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 this will be a day of great marveling from God's people just rejoicing in what they see in and of him.

[00:27:56] These are hard things to contemplate to be sure painful things to think about to be certain but we will celebrate the just judgment of God for all of eternity and we will marvel at him at his coming.

[00:28:14] So Paul prays for them to close out this chapter by saying to this end verse 11 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.

[00:28:29] You know the things that you're working on every resolve for good every work of faith you're attempting we're praying the God would fulfill them in your life so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you

[00:28:42] and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:28:49] Paul wanted to see Christ glorified in and through their lives. God bless you and amen.