2 Thessalonians 1
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Well, good morning again. It's good to be here together under God's Word together. We'll be in 2 Thessalonians this morning. You can open up a Bible and find your way there. It's page 989 of one of those Red Pew Bibles. If you're a guest, I would invite you to take one of those out and open up there. We'll be looking at that, explain more of that here in just a moment. So there's an age-old question that we all come up against at one point or another. whether you're young, whether you're old, I think even transcending cultures. That question is this, why does God allow injustice to happen? Why does God allow injustice to happen?
And when it does happen, will he ever make it right? Because a lot of times it just simply seems like it goes on, and he's not going to make it right. So whether you're suffering now, Maybe a loved one of yours is going through a difficult time. Maybe someone is just looking at the larger global scale of suffering. You're kind of doom scrolling through your social media. You've probably asked yourself this question, will there ever be justice? Well, that's an important question, and it's one, thankfully, that the Bible addresses too.
In fact, that's a big part of what we're going to be doing in our passage and what we're going to see in our passage for today. So for thousands of years, Christians have been asking that very same question that you and I are prone to ask. Will God bring justice? And if so, how and when will he do it? So today, we're going to be beginning, we'll be beginning a new short series in this letter of 2 Thessalonians. So this letter was written by the Apostle Paul sometime in the early 50s A.D., the best we can tell.
And this makes it one of his earliest letters. So what we're studying then in this letter is, in fact, one of the first pieces of Scripture penned for us after the death and resurrection of Jesus. And at this point, we're actually less than two decades into the life of the church as it spreads throughout the Roman world. As you can imagine, then, that means that there are a ton of unusual and a ton of unsettled questions in the minds of the believers in this church in particular. And we're going to see quite a bit of that through this letter, and we'll get to even some of those later on this morning.
But first things first, and I just need to be up front with you on one really, really important piece of information. In fact, I think it's so important that I'm afraid if we're not at all on the same page with this, it's really just going to derail the entire series here. You ready for it? The name of the city to which Paul was writing is Thessaloniki. All right, say it with me. Thessaloniki. Very good. Thank you. I'm sorry we've been misled as a culture. I'm sorry that even our own senior pastor tried to mislead us last year when we went through 1 Thessalonians, but it is indeed Thessaloniki.
And, you know, the reason I bring that up is not just because I'm a Greece snob, though I might be, but it's also honestly because if I try to say Thessalonica or anything else, it's just going to come out bleh. So at a previous church, I preached through part of 1 Thessalonians, and I kept saying Thessalonica. And I was really proud of myself because I didn't say Thessaloniki. And, of course, that just made everyone else even more confused because they thought, where in the world is Thessalonica? So we're just going to go with Thessaloniki. If you don't know where that is, it's Thessalonica.
That's what you've been taught. You've just been taught wrongly. It's Thessaloniki. All right. So getting that out of the way, what was the situation like there in Thessaloniki? So into what kind of world was Paul writing this letter of 2 Thessalonians? Well, that's a question that is going to ultimately give us way more color, way more shape to this entire letter. And while we don't know everything about that context, we do know this much. They were a young church plant in a major city that had a history of persecuting Christians.
In fact, that persecution was so bad, so bad, that when Paul first brought the gospel to Thessaloniki, the book of Acts tells us that in chapter 17, that some in the city formed a mob. They attacked the house of Jason, where Paul and some of his companions were staying, and they demanded that Jason release them to the mob, presumably to kill them. Well, thankfully, Paul and Silas, at least, ended up escaping under the cover of darkness to a city relatively close by called Berea, where they continued to preach the gospel. But even that didn't satisfy the Thessalonians.
No, this unbelieving mob went all the way from Thessaloniki to Berea and chased them out of there as well. So eventually, Paul kind of finds himself in a different city, and he sends Timothy back to Thessaloniki, and we find this out in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, to check on the new believers and that young church plan. And it seems, praise God, that they are growing in the faith, and that they're holding to the gospel. But not everything is great. They're evidently, as we find out here, believing some strange teachings about the coming return of Jesus, and are apparently undergoing persecution for their faith. And so, sometime shortly after Paul pens 1 Thessalonians, he writes this letter and sends it to them and aims to address those doctrinal questions that they have and offer some deep, heart-filled exhortations to them to hold fast to the gospel and to the end.
So with that, let's jump into the letter and let's read our passage for today. So 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, we'll begin in verse 1, we'll read through the whole chapter together. Paul, Silvanus, 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. 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 and 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.
So the structure of this chapter is actually interesting. On a larger level, I think it's very straightforward, but that internal structure of the middle section, it's a little more complex. So hang tight, we're going to get to that. But at the larger level, you can see how this whole chapter breaks down. It's very straightforward. Verses 1 to 4, this is a letter opening and a greeting. As is common for Paul in letters of his time, it's followed by a thanksgiving. So the Thessalonians have shown remarkable growth in the face of persecution, and Paul thanks God for that growth.
That's verses 1 to 4. And then verses 5 to 10 is the next big chunk. There's an obvious change here in what Paul is addressing as you get to verse 5, and that's where it gets more complex. So to be clear in the Greek, verses 3 to 10 are one sentence. Just one long run-on sentence with Paul bouncing around from one thing to the next. And that alone makes it very, very tricky to kind of pull apart and understand the main focus. But even more than that, the content and the teaching are just so heavy that we have to spend some time trying to stare at it to see what is actually happening here.
You may have noticed that just at this initial reading. What is he trying to communicate? What is he doing in these verses? So I think we'll be able to put that in order here in a moment. But for now, just say that this part of the passage is about the second coming of King Jesus. That that will mean something for everyone. That when he's revealed, that day will mean something for everyone. And in the last section, the last two verses of the chapter, verses 11 to 12, this final section is the smallest, but it's certainly not an unimportant part of the passage. Paul wraps up his comments on the coming return of the Lord Jesus and then in effect kind of pans back to where the Thessalonians are in their current situation.
And it's marked very clearly as a sort of like, in light of what I've just said, now this type of field to it. So he reminds them to live in light of the grace of God and in light of what's just happened, in light of what he's just said. So then, taking that structure and kind of looking at the whole chapter, the main idea for the sermon, the main idea of this chapter, I think, is this. King Jesus will return to bring justice to everyone. So trust him until that day. King Jesus will return to bring justice to everyone, so trust him until that day.
There's three different points for how this unfolds in our passage, just aligning with those three different chunks of the structure. Verses 1 to 4, number 1, a reason for thankfulness. Verses 5 to 10, the second point, a revelation yet to come. Verses 11 and 12, third point, a reality for today. That's alliterated. no one even caught that and said anything that is alliterated and it's probably not the best outline um but i hopefully that will stick in your minds a reason for thankfulness a revelation yet to come and a reality for today or maybe even more helpfully you have been trusting in the lord your trust will prove that you are his so keep on trusting in him that's kind of another thing that he's looking at in all of this all right point number one a reason for thankfulness so some of you, in fact, maybe many of you in this room have what is a common Thanksgiving tradition. You'll gather around with your family and friends at Thanksgiving, and you'll ask, what are you thankful for? And as you go around the table, maybe you'll get some interesting things that people are
thankful for. Maybe typical things that people are thankful for. Maybe strange things. Maybe funny things. But what is interesting in the whole exercise itself is that it takes an entire holiday called Thanksgiving for us as a culture to stop and think about why we're thankful. We're just not typically a people who stops and thinks much about why we're thankful or what types of things we might be thankful for. Well, here in this passage, Paul points us to a very important and yet, I think, unusual thing to be thankful for. This is just a typical opening for one of Paul's letters in many ways, but it's also very instructive for us. He identifies himself and he says he's writing to the church in Thessaloniki, but notice what he grounds all of that in. What does he say? He says this is a group of Christians gathered together in a church under and in the name of the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are not just Paul's ideas or desires. What he says afterwards is it's not just to a random people. These are not just powerless and empty
things he's about to say. No, from the beginning, from the outset, all of his understanding of who God is transforms the way he thinks about the Thessalonians and about the Christians there. Look, that may seem self-evident, right? This is commonplace in Paul, right? We know this is how Paul begins almost every single one of his letters. But I wonder, is the way that he's approaching this, is that how we approach our lives? And in the ways that you relate to the world around you, and especially to other Christians, maybe even other Christians in this room, do you see that those interactions, that those relationships, that the words and the attitudes you relate to one another with, the experiences and the hardships that you share, that they're all to be filtered through this grid, that we are in and under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father.
Paul doesn't come in to the Thessalonians and say, hey, I planted you guys. I'm the leader here, so listen up. I've got all authority. Or even, look, I've been around the block. I'm more mature than you, so why don't you guys just listen, because I've probably got great advice that you need from me. Well, to be sure, he launches into some of those things, but don't rush on by what he's done here from the very beginning. His entire orientation towards these Christians stems from his view that the triune God has made them, and will keep them, and will give them what they need. It's from there, then, that he launches into words of gratitude, words of thankfulness.
He's heard about the Thessalonians, and the report he's heard has caused him to give thanks to God. But notice how he phrases it. It's not just that he's heard some good things, and he thought, no, I'm thankful to hear that. That's great news. You know, I'm really glad you did that. That's really pleasant. No, he uses language of obligation. We ought to give thanks. It is right for us to give thanks. It's not as though this was an optional thing for Paul. It's the only correct path to take.
When he hears good news, he knows he has to render thanks to God for it. But they're deeply interesting things that he's thankful for, right? Look, he's not thankful for things they've done for him. He's not thankful for things that they could be doing for him. He's simply thankful for what? He's thankful for their faith and their love. He knows that they're growing in the faith and that their love for one another continues to multiply. And when he finds it out, he's not actually even shocked. It's not like this pattern of growing faith and increasing love are unusual or unexpected.
That's not his point. In fact, as you read the rest of the New Testament, you find out just the opposite. Paul isn't thanking God because these Christians were some sort of model Christians that every other Christian should aspire to be like. They weren't the mature ones that he just wished everyone else would look like. No, he's just identifying and calling out what he teaches all Christians everywhere should expect to see, a maturing in the faith, an increase in the knowledge of God, a continual transformation by the Word of God as they sit underneath it, a pressing on toward the goal, a sanctification, becoming more like Jesus. Look, that is the expected, typical pattern for Christians, that they would grow in their faith and increase in their love.
Brothers and sisters, that remains the same for us. Our growth in the faith should never stop. But do you tend to think that maybe you've reached a level of growth in your faith where you no longer need to grow? Maybe you've hit a spot in your life where everything else seems to be steady and coasting and comfortable, and so you approach your faith in that same way. Or maybe you are just tired and worn out, and the idea of working hard to see the Lord give more growth in your faith seems utterly exhausting.
Whatever the case, the expected normal pattern for every single one of us is to grow in the faith. But it's not just growth in the faith. It's also an increase in our love for one another. See how Paul goes out of his way to highlight that it was all of them loving all of them? There weren't only a few of them loving one another, right? He didn't allow for only the kind-hearted, warm kind of people, people to love one another. No, it was every person in the church.
It wasn't just the elders loving the congregation. It wasn't the congregation loving the deacons. It wasn't the deacons serving the elders. It was everyone in the church increasing in their love for one another. Look, we are all to love one another. More so, we're to increase. We're to keep growing in our love for one another. So how are we, third avenue, doing at that? Do we both as a whole and as individuals love one another more today than we did last year, last month, last week?
And how is that love expressed among us? How would we even know? Well, to be clear, I think as a congregation, we do love one another really, really well, right? We've committed to do so as members of this church. It's a part of our covenant that we make when we join this church, and examples of how we do that abound, right? You need only to check your unofficial email occasionally to see that requests that go out are met almost instantaneously, right? It's just very practical ways that we love one another. Meal trains fill up. Prayers are offered for the sick, for the hurting. Jobs are offered.
There are rides given. There are just so many different practical things that happen through that. May that continue to increase among us. But look, in a week's time from now, right, next Sunday, we should hope that we can truthfully say we love one another more then than we do today. And the same for a month from now, and a year from now, and a decade from now. I pray the Lord does that work in us. But here's where all of that comes back to what Paul is actually saying here, right? So yes, an increase in love is what we're hoping for, but what is Paul saying here? Well, he says when we see these things, when we notice, for instance, a brother following the Lord more faithfully than he used to in certain situations, or when you see a sister more carefully showing love to a fellow member that you know in the past she struggled to love, we should give thanks to God for those things. These are not things that they just mustered up on their own. Any good like that must have come from God, and he deserves praise for it. So brothers
and sisters, cultivate, work on developing a pattern of looking for growth in the faith and an increase in love for one another among your fellow members. Actually look for those things, and when you see them, when you identify them, give thanks to God for it. But notice how Paul doesn't just thank God for it. Verse 4 says he boasts about the Thessalonians to other Christians. This is such a noteworthy, commendable thing that he actually tells others, hey, have you heard about the Thessalonians and what the Lord is doing among them?
But there's a twist here. Do you see it? It turns out that their faith, their love, they've not come in easy times. That's easy, right? We can all do that. It's in very difficult times that they've had this growing faith and increasing love. Theirs was an extremely difficult situation, and yet they exhibited steadfastness. They showed forth great faith in the Lord in all of it, and that is what catches Paul's eye. He knows firsthand how hard it can be in Thessaloniki. Remember, he was chased out of that city by those very same people under whose hand they, these Christians, are struggling. And he says, you're enduring and you're trusting the Lord in all of that. Look, patience, steadiness, trust in the Lord, those are easy things to just kind of toss out there, right? We should trust the Lord. We should be more patient. We should endure in hard times. Those are things we know to say to one another. But those aren't always qualities that we look to emphasize in others, right? Or even in ourselves. Now, when we're in
a hard spot, we tend to emphasize the hardship itself. We tend to focus on the difficult thing itself. Paul shows us here that we're to focus on how we endure, our character in those hardships. Look, friends, encourage this when you see it. Tell others that you're thankful for it. For so many of you in this room, you're in a hard season. Whether that's a very temporary hard season. Maybe you've had a recent health issue and you're on the recovery, or maybe you're heading into a significant health issue. Maybe it's a broken relationship and heartache that comes with that. Maybe it's a struggle with sin and spiritual dryness that's now been going on weeks and months, and you feel just burdened. Maybe it's social and work pressure to loosen your grip on the gospel ever so slightly, to believe this lie about who God is, to accept this cultural belief about
a certain fad of the day, or to bow the knee finally to the God of tolerance. Brothers and sisters, when you see someone standing firm in the gospel in the midst of all of those things, tell them that you're thankful for that. Let them know that it's an encouragement to your heart, to your faith to see them continue to cling to Jesus in the midst of their hardship. That's what Paul is doing here. He's encouraging brothers and sisters to look around at other struggling brothers and sisters and say, keep on holding to the gospel.
Look, at the very end of this section, you can tell that Paul is turning our gaze, right? He's not just thankful for endurance in the midst of suffering. He knows that the Thessalonians are going at this point to naturally question why in the world they're facing affliction in the first place, right? After all, hasn't Jesus already died and defeated sin and death? Why are we suffering, Paul? And so he begins to speak to one of the key issues, doctrinally, that are upset, that's upsetting the Christians there in Thessaloniki. And so our second point, a revelation yet to come.
I can't stand summers. Like, I hate the summer, really, unless I'm on the beach, unless I'm on the beach with a nice iced coffee, something like that, and preferably no children to watch. Love you guys, but just a book, maybe Cindy, maybe not, and an iced coffee. I don't like the summer. She knows that. It's fine. I just don't like the heat. I don't like the sweat. I don't like the humidity.
I don't like feeling like I'm always about to sweat. Up here, I'm like soaking wet right now. You know, I just much prefer winters. There's just the cooler weather. And let's be honest, it does not get that cold here in Kentucky. So don't complain about it. And there's the holiday season, right? I mean, everyone loves the holidays. So I love the decor. I love the excitement. I love the food, the parties. I love that time of year. But one of my favorite things now as a father is watching the anticipation my kids have once Thanksgiving ends and that Christmas tree goes up in our living room.
Soon, they know, there will be presents under that tree. And the anticipation is just almost palpable for them, right? They wake up each morning and run downstairs. Are there presents yet? No, not yet. But soon, there will be, right? They can't wait to have what will soon be theirs. You remember what it was like as a child, right? You remember that anticipation that present under the tree with your name on it was, in fact, yours. It had your name on it.
It had been given by someone who loved you, right? It was probably something good or maybe useful, but good in that sense for you. You couldn't wait to unwrap it. You couldn't wait to have it. But you didn't actually have it yet. well that's a little bit i think of what we're seeing here in this passage and there's an anticipation of something astoundingly good incredibly good and something that's actually promised to us something that's assured to us but it's not here yet paul makes what feels like this huge sudden jump here between verses four and five and it kind of feels jarring on a surface reading we we look at this and go wait so christians are enduring suffering and now we're talking about god's righteous judgment how how is that i mean that is a big jump if you don't see what paul is doing with how he's organized his argument so as i said at the beginning that this middle section here the internal structure of it is a little bit more challenging and but it's very important for
us to see so we're going to get a little bit down in the weeds on this and i think will actually help us so so look back at verses five through ten at this middle section the structure of that entire chunk runs something like this. You actually need to think of it in terms of an if-then type of argument, right? If this is true, then this necessarily follows. And that's basically what he's doing here, but he switched the order all the way around, right? So rather than if-then, it kind of reads then-if, which is not how we think in, at least in English typically, but it's allowed in Greek. It's certainly allowed in this type of logic. And so that's essentially what he's doing, right? So if, then, and look at verses 6 through 10, and I think this will, you'll be able to see it. So verses 6 through 10 are the if part of that statement. Verse 6 says, since indeed God, on and on and on, this is another way to kind of start off this type of if-then conditional thought. It's like saying, well, if indeed God considers it just, and he does, to do da-da-da-da-da-da-da, right? Then the rest of verses 6 through 10 spell out what those things
are that God considers just to do. Namely, he'll punish those who persecute the Thessalonian Christians, and he'll reward the Thessalonian Christians who are being persecuted, and he'll do all of this at the glorious return of Jesus, right? That's the if part of his whole statement right here, all right? So hang tight, keep up with me. Verse 5, that's then the then part of this statement, right? So that means that the evidence right there, this is evidence. Evidence, according to all of that then, is the way that God will hand down the different verdicts of justice found in verses 6 through 10, right? The wicked are going to be punished. The righteous are going to be given eternal life. So it's like he's saying with all of that, if God will do all of the things he says in verses 6 through 10, all of those kind of big picture things, and he will do those things, then that is the evidence of God's righteous judgment.
I think that's what he's doing here. I think that's how this is all organized. So if that's the organization of it, what is he actually trying to communicate? What's he trying to say? That's neat that he structured it like that, but what's he trying to get across to us? Well, remember the situation of the church there in Thessaloniki. They're new believers, and they're being relentlessly persecuted and harassed for their faith. So when Paul says what he does in verses 3 and 4 about how thankful he is that they're growing in their faith and they're increasing in their love, can't you just imagine that for some of the Thessalonians that felt a little tone deaf? Like Paul's giving out platitudes and all the while they're just drowning in their afflictions. You can almost hear them say, but Paul, why are we suffering? Why are we being afflicted? And this is Paul's response to that. He says, God will judge everyone. He has all authority and every right to judge everyone, and he will do so. So for those
who persecute you now, God will one day repay them with affliction. And to you who are being persecuted, you will one day be granted relief. And not just a temporary one, but a full and a complete rest. Notice, and this is huge, though, that in all of that, it's future-oriented, right? All of that was yet to come. Look at the middle of verse 7, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire. So, what he's talking about with that kind of interesting, really descriptive language there is the return of Jesus. It's his second coming, and in fact, much of that language is pulled from places like the end of Isaiah. I'm assuming we'll see that here in a few weeks when we wrap up our series in Isaiah, that there's a final judgment when the Lord will come and fire to execute judgment against all of his enemies. This here in verse 7 is a king coming to defend his honor. It's a king coming to destroy those who've rebelled against him. It's a king coming to righteously and perfectly and finally bring justice to everyone.
That's what Paul is trying to paint for them. That's the picture he's trying to give them in the midst of their hurting. But it's also a picture of something that's yet to come. It's not here yet. With all the pain and all the anxieties in this room, how often are we tempted to think, I just wish that my afflictions, my sufferings were done now. My heart's just consumed with trying to fix all my problems here, now. I want to bring justice to this situation today.
Yes, yes, I know that one day Jesus is coming back. Yes, I know on that day all things will be made right. But what about today? I heard today, brothers and sisters, the difficult and yet clear teaching from the Bible is that we are just not promised that those afflictions will go away today. It's when Jesus is revealed that this righteous judgment is handed down. against those who wrong us in this day. So what does that mean then?
Do we just sit back and kind of take it, just resign ourselves to being beaten down? No, not necessarily, but it does mean that the suffering you experience, the heartache your loved ones are enduring, the evil we see all around us, that it won't go away yet. It doesn't take much to see those things and to feel overwhelmed by them, but the encouragement we're to receive from this passage, from the Scriptures, is to look past them to a future day. Friends, do that. Set your eyes on that day out there, trusting that the Lord is keeping a perfect record of all that needs to be fixed.
Pray that God would increase your ability to see long-term. Ask for endurance in the midst of your suffering, yes, but more so ask for a clearer picture in your heart of that day when the one who has all authority will make all things right again. this righteous judgment of God here in verse 5 that Paul is describing, it has two very clear dimensions, two very clear directions. There's going to be a punishment for the wicked, and there's going to be a relief for God's people. You see that there in the text. So we need to spend a little bit of time talking about each one of those. First, the righteous judgment of God in the punishment of the wicked. So Paul directs most of his energy here trying to comfort the Thessalonians, somewhat ironically, in detailing the punishment that their persecutors will one day face. But this isn't retaliatory. This isn't vindictive. This isn't angry like you and I might be, right, when we're red hot mad about something that I just want to punish this person for what they're doing to me. No, this punishment is horrific, but it's not indiscriminate. It's not
reactive. In fact, it's actually very targeted on a specific group of people who have done unthinkable evil. Look at how he describes this group in verse 8. It's those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. In other words, the people being punished, it's not people with whom there are minor disagreements or even major disagreements. Instead, it's people who have committed the highest form of treason against the creator of the universe, against their king. That's who's being punished. You know, there are probably two significant groups of people in a room like this, in a church on a Sunday morning. On the one hand, there's probably those of us who grew up in some sort of tradition where all we heard about was hell, and hell was discussed often, right? But maybe in a more hellfire and brimstone way. You were kind of beaten down with it. It was used flippantly to describe the place where others went, but not you, right? Not people like you. That's where the bad people went, right? Maybe it
was used as an evangelistic piece, but be saved so you don't have to go there, but that's kind of really all you heard. Or maybe on the other hand, and probably increasingly so in our culture today, there are those of us who would shrink away at the thought of hell, that we're a little more sophisticated than that. We don't talk about that. Maybe we say we believe in it, but we actually wonder if it's really necessary. I wonder if it does any good in our evangelism, and we certainly would never say that it brings me comfort to think about hell. But I hope we can build a better understanding of hell from this passage. So what Paul is telling the Thessalonians here is that there's a place of eternal destruction, right? That's what he says there in verse 9. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, where affliction never stops, where the Lord is entirely absent, where His mercy and kindness and love and glory are nowhere to be found, where justice, though, is finally and fully served to those who are His enemies. One pastor this week
has been tremendously helpful for me in thinking about this. He says that hell is, quote, needed, awful, close, and deserved by everyone, but there is a way to avoid getting there. So very quickly, I want to take just those things he's mentioned and spend just a few minutes thinking about hell and this reality that Paul is painting here for us. So number one, needed. Hell is needed. It's needed because if there's no place of eternal destruction, then God is not truly just. The Son of God has suffered for no reason. So the wicked must be punished, and God must deal with humans in a way that is just. And the reality of hell, the fact that there is a hell, shows that God is fair. It shows that God is just. The injustices that you and I experience today will one day be avenged, and they will be avenged in this place of eternal destruction.
So it's needed. Number two, it's awful. Look, hell is not a place of unmitigated revelry and partying. It's a place of shame, anguish, condemnation, horror, pain, and the eternal, clear displeasure of God. That's what hell is, according to the Scriptures. Number three, it's close. It's at hand. Look, we're all but one moment away from our last breath.
Oh sure, all of us think in this room, no, not today, that's not coming for me today. In fact, it might not come for me for 10 years, 50 years, whatever. But even if it lasts 60 years until we die, in the grand scheme of eternity, hell, or death rather, is right there. It is but one breath away for all of us. And for those who have not had their sins cleansed and forgiven, hell is close. And number four, it's deserved.
We all deserve hell for our sins, every single one of us. This isn't somehow a place or a type of punishment that doesn't align with the crimes committed. God, as our holy creator, demands and deserves a perfect love and a perfect obedience from us. But that's not what we've given him. Instead, we continually rebel against him. Hell is what is deserved by sinners. But number five, hell is avoidable.
By God's grace, there is a way with 100% certainty to avoid hell. This is the great news of the gospel. Though it's deserved for you, for me, for every single one of us, God, by faith in Jesus, mercifully rescues us from hell and from that punishment that we deserve. And all the while, he perfectly satisfies his justice. Look, as Christians, Paul here, with this description of this eternal destruction and the punishment that's awaiting his enemies, he's offering that as a source of comfort to the Thessalonians in the midst of their present sufferings, but it wasn't just that punishment that was to bring comfort. Look what else he does there. Paul talks about this righteous judgment, including a coming relief from their present afflictions. So, verse 7, the Thessalonians will be granted relief, and in verse 10, Jesus will be
glorified in his saints, and those who have believed in him will marvel at him. Friends, don't miss that. Don't miss that one little phrase kind of tucked away in there. That Jesus, when he comes back, will be glorified. How? He'll be glorified in his people. Look, the way the king of kings will come, the way that the king of kings will be glorified is by safely gathering every single one of us to himself. We don't deserve this.
We deserve death and eternal destruction, right? That's been laid out clearly for us already. but God in his mercy and by his grace saves a people for himself. That's what is most glorious. His mercy, his grace, his love, his forgiveness of sin, salvation, all of that is making a people for himself. And when he comes to be glorified, it won't just be a coronation like the one perhaps we saw with King Charles III a few months ago, right? It won't just be with opulent wealth. It won't just be with dominance over his enemies. No, it will be with the throngs of his people circled around him, not a single one of whom deserved to be there. And yet, because of his great love for them, they've all been transformed and given a new life, and they're singing praises eternally to him. That is what our king does. He doesn't come and say, look at all my glorious things, and then demand worship. No, he says, you are my glorious things, and we freely worship him.
Friends, that's what it's talking about in us marveling at the king when he comes. For all of us who believe the gospel, we'll see him and we'll be overwhelmed that we should be given the righteous, eternal judgment of destruction, and yet he saved us and made us his own and put us into his kingdom. We'll have nothing left to do but to marvel at his infinite love and his infinite kindness and his infinite mercy for us. So at that revelation yet to come, when Jesus does come back, there are only two possible paths, right? The entire world will either face a wrath reserved for those who reject God, right? There will be eternal torment completely away from the presence of the Lord, or in believing the gospel, they'll find the most wonderful relief. They'll see the glory of the Lord. They'll marvel at him together with all the saints of all time. So what will it be for you?
In a room this size, there's certainly, undoubtedly, some who have not trusted in Jesus, who are not Christians. Maybe you're a guest, maybe you're a first-time visitor here. We're glad you're here. Maybe you've grown up in the church, and you've deceived a lot of people, including yourself, into thinking that you are. But you know that you face that wrath reserved for those who have not bowed the knee to Jesus. Friend, you're not too far gone. You're not too far away from the grace of God.
You haven't done too much. But you do have to believe this testimony. You do have to believe that Jesus came and lived and died and was raised to save sinners like you. And you have to turn from your sins and trust him. That day when the Lord is revealed from heaven that Paul is talking about here, friend, that can be the day when you're numbered among the saints who proclaim his glory. But friend, you have to turn from your sin. Being a member of the church, knowing lots of churchly things, giving off certain appearances won't do it. You have to believe this testimony.
Do so today, and you'll be numbered among the saints on that day. So all of these things, Paul says, are evidence that there's justice, right? That's been his whole argument, that this, since God does these things, then we know that this is evidence that God righteously judges. And because the judgment is just, that means that although we suffer now, he will ensure, like he says there in verse 5, that those who follow him are included as citizens in his kingdom and are given the full blessings of that coming rule. That's Paul's point.
You suffer now, but a righteous God will make sure you are included in the kingdom on that day. But we're not there yet, right? We're not there yet. And so point number three, a reality for today. Have you ever woken from a vivid dream and felt just completely disoriented? Maybe you're in some weird location with people from different times of your life kind of all mixed together, and you knew that they didn't know one another, and there's just weird storylines going on, and you wanted to know what happened next, and all of a sudden the alarm goes off, and you wake up, and what in the world?
Where am I? Okay, what was that, right? I mean, you've had that feeling, right? You've had those dreams like that. Hopefully I didn't just wake you from one. So, well, that's almost the abrupt feeling we get here in verse 11, right? One second we're marveling together at our returning king, and you can almost see him coming, and you want to sing with the saints, and then all of a sudden Paul brings us back in verse 12 and says, ah, yeah, actually we're not there yet, right? You're here, you're suffering, and life is not like that yet. Well, that's what he's doing, right? He's trying to say that that day is coming when all the wicked will be punished and the righteous rewarded, but he knows it hasn't come yet, and actually we'll dig more into that next week in chapter 2. He's trying to encourage the Thessalonians, reminding them that it hasn't come yet further in the next chapter. But that means if we're still here, right, if we're still here in this day and age, then there's still growth and maturity yet to happen. And that seems to be
his point. It's like he says to the Thessalonians, so since that day hasn't come, we pray that God will shape you and mold you and make you more and more into the image of Jesus so that you'll glorify Jesus. Well, what does he mean by that? What does he mean by those words there in verse 12? that he prays that our God would make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power. Well, surely part of what he means there is what he describes in verse 3, that you would grow in faith, that you would increase in love, maybe even that you would endure in the midst of affliction. But what about resolve for good? What about work of faith. What are those things? Well, they're certainly not works in the sense of something that saves us, something that accomplishes salvation for us. No, they're things that come from hearts that have already been saved. So, when someone is converted, for example, and they suddenly have a desire to evangelize their friends, this would be an example
of a resolve for good and a work of faith. Or when a person desires to use their money that the Lord has given them to be maybe sort of extraordinarily generous in enabling gospel ministry to continue. That's a resolve for good and a work of faith. Or maybe when someone comes alongside another hurting member whose trials have caused that person to just kind of reveal a crack in their once rock-solid trust in Jesus. And if that first person comforts and encourages the other with the scriptures.
That is a work of faith. That's a resolve for good. Look, you can multiply those things out in the life of this church a hundredfold over. When Christians desire to do spiritual good to others, when they practice spiritual disciplines, when they exercise their faith in Jesus, both in the good and in the bad times, that's the kind of thing Paul has in mind. But that's not natural, is it? kind of humanly speaking, for those things to happen, right? Left to our own in our still fleshliness here that it's usually the opposite. It's usually more natural for us to live lives that bring shame to the name of Christ. It's usually more natural for us to live lives that are marked by inability to do good, to accomplish the things of faith. It's just not natural for us in our flesh to bring glory to Jesus. So notice how Paul says this would be done. He knows that.
And what does he say? He says, it's according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Paul prays that God would do these things. He knows that you and I and the Thessalonians alike cannot do this on their own, but that God can and does indeed do these types of things. Brothers and sisters, that should be the same type of prayer. We pray for one another. We pray so many good, even biblical things for one another. We pray for healing.
We pray for endurance in the midst of suffering. We pray that God would save the lost. And the list goes on and on. But a massive piece of our prayers for one another here at Third Avenue should be that God would work in us to make us worthy of his calling and that he would fulfill desires for good and works of faith. Look, don't just pray that the Lord would heal someone. Pray that the Lord would cause that person in the midst of their healing to look more like Jesus. Don't just pray that the Lord would bring relief in a circumstance. Pray that the Lord would allow that person to grow in their understanding of the scriptures so that they too can then comfort others when they hurt, right?
Pray that the Lord would do good things in us, that he would cause us to want to do good and do works of faith, to evangelize, to comfort, to disciple, to encourage, to love one another. Do you see what's at stake here? Paul's not just rattling off those types of things, kind of throwing it at them, saying, you've got to do this, do more good things, Thessalonians. No, it's not about how godly they can be so that they can impress others, and it's certainly not about earning God's love.
What is it? What does verse 12 say? It's about bringing glory to Jesus. those actions, those desires for good, those works of faith, they're not done for our benefit. They're not even primarily done for the benefit of others. They're done for the benefit of bringing glory to our Savior Jesus. By us being included in the kingdom, sinners and rebels though we are, and by us living like we've been transformed, we will bring glory to Jesus. That's what Paul is saying. So friends, in the midst of your suffering today in the midst of your present day very real suffering and affliction and trial and difficulty pray pray that the father would grant strength by his power to live honorably to live holy and that our savior would be glorified in us on that day by how we live in this day that's what paul is trying to drive home so that age-old question will god bring justice
maybe some of you for good reason have been asking that before this morning through this entire time looking at this passage together and maybe still are asking it will god ever bring me justice will the hurt i've experienced ever be taken care of friends yes yes he will king jesus will return to bring justice to everyone, but He's not come back yet. And so, brothers and sisters, trust Him until that day. Let's pray.
Father, we thank You that in Your wisdom and in Your complete knowledge, You know Your people perfectly. You know the hurts and the desires of our hearts in the midst of our sufferings. You know the types of questions that our hearts are prone to raise, especially questions like, are you a just God? And God, we praise you that you've given a clear and definitive answer in your word that yes, indeed, you are a just God. Father, we thank you for the gospel of our Lord Jesus, that in the midst of your justice, you've also given a way to avoid eternal destruction through the cross of Jesus. We pray that you would strengthen us as we look to his cross. We pray that you would remind us of his great love for us. We pray that you would encourage us in our present day affliction to bring glory to him by enduring well. We pray this in the name of our Savior Jesus.
Amen.