2 THESSALONIANS 1:1-12 - Standing Fast In Trials

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago we finished our study of 1 Thessalonians, and so we’re going to pick up with 2 Thessalonians for the next few weeks. And the reason that I want to follow up with this book is because Paul’s message here is such a perfect counterpart to his message in the first letter.

In 1 Thessalonians, Paul went to great lengths to demonstrate two great works of God in the Thessalonian churches lives—their regeneration and their sanctification. He recounted God’s amazing work in regenerating them—how they became imitators of Christ (1:6) and received the Word of God obediently and reverently (2:13); how they persevered through the temptations to abandon their faith because of the afflictions and suffering they were going through (3:6-8).

And then starting in Chapter 4 Paul went on to call the Thessalonians to reckon on the holiness that God was calling them to, and willing them to:

1 Thessalonians 4:3 (ESV)

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification...

How to live pleasing to God (4:1-12), how to grieve like a Christian in light of Christ’s Second Coming (4:13-18), how to wait on Christ’s return like a Christian (5:1-11), how to grow a healthy flock by loving one another and looking to Christ as the Great Shepherd (5:16-22), all while resting in the promise of their complete sanctification guaranteed by the blood of Christ shed for them (5:23-28).

It appears that Paul wrote this second letter very soon after the first—perhaps even within a few weeks or so. Consider 2 Thessalonians as a sort of “emergency followup” letter. We learned earlier that the believers in Thessalonica were being put through a great deal of persecutions and trials for their faith; here in this letter we see that they were also being frightened and confused by false teachers trying to convince them that they missed the return of Christ:

2 Thessalonians 2:1–2 (ESV)

1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

The thought that they missed the return of Christ had thrown them into turmoil, with some church members giving up their vocations or abandoning their families because of their mistaken belief that the end of the age had come.

So this quick note that Paul writes covers each of these three issues—here in Chapter 1 he writes to them to stand fast in the midst of their trials; in Chapter 2 he instructs them to stand firm against evil, and in Chapter 3 he exhorts them to stand faithfully in their Christian duties. My plan is to take one week to consider each one of these chapters—this week, standing fast in the midst of trials.

Paul begins his letter with his customary encouragement to his readers:

2 Thessalonians 1:1–3 (ESV)

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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.

And then in verse 4 he gives his reason for boasting in them:

2 Thessalonians 1:4 (ESV)

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.

And so here we come to the first call to stand firm—standing fast in the middle of trials. The word for “persecutions” here is used in Acts 13:50 to describe Paul and Barnabas being “persecuted” and “driven out” of Pisidian Antioch. So the same thing was happening to the believers at Thessalonica—this is more than just animosity, more than just people not wanting you to talk about Jesus; this is the kind of “persecution” where you are getting chased down by angry mobs. It wasn’t enough for them to “keep their heads down” and stay out of trouble; trouble was starting to come looking for them.

And so this is the question before us this morning—how do you keep going in light of the continuing animosity of this world against your faith? We’re not to the point in our country of Christians actually being chased down and driven out because of our commitment to Christ, but the atmosphere is getting increasingly hostile.

I don’t know about you, but watching or listening to or reading any kind of news these days is an exhausting endeavor—you’re always on edge; always waiting for the penny to drop, as it were. Is this going to be the day when HR sends around the form that I have to sign stating that I will use people’s preferred pronouns? Is this going to be the day that Congress passes legislation forcing abortion on demand on all 50 states? Is the next mass murder going to take place in our area? Is the IRS really going to send out an army of new agents to try to shut down churches over alleged tax law violations?

And on and on you could go—there is always some new threat to religious liberty, some new way that believers are slandered as bigots and idiots, some new reason why Christianity is a danger to society. And over time, the constant tension of living under these things takes its toll. You begin to succumb to anxiety and fear, you begin to give in to unbelief that says there is no place for Christ in this world.

But here is what Paul aims to show his readers who were suffering persecution—and here is what I hope to help you see in the Scriptures today:

Jesus promises RELIEF to those who REVERE Him and RETRIBUTION to those who REJECT Him

This is how Paul answered the fears and anxieties of the believers in Thessalonica who were suffering the hatred and animosity of the culture around them—first, by pointing to

I. A HOPEFUL future for the FAITHFUL (2 Thess. 1:6-7, 10-12)

In verses 5-7 we read

2 Thessalonians 1:5–7 (ESV)

5 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— 6 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, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

In the midst of all the stress and tension and anxiety of the days you live in, Christian, see here that when Christ returns, He will bring you

RELIEF from your ENEMIES (1:6-7a)

In the middle of being hounded down, take heart, knowing that God will be pleased to make your enemies suffer in the same way!

2 Thessalonians 1:6 (ESV)

6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,

And so, consider this: when you are being pressed upon because you won’t go along with the way this society rebels against God’s decrees; when you are excluded or ridiculed or threatened because you are standing firm on what God’s Word says (no matter what the company policy says!), remember that the day is coming when all of your steadfastness will be vindicated! The Day is coming when there will be no more opposition to God’s decrees, because all of those who have opposed Him will themselves be afflicted. Not with the affliction that comes from mere human opposition, but afflicted by the very hand of God Himself! Take heart—God sees your affliction, and He will repay!

God promises a hopeful future for those who are faithful to Him—when Christ returns He will bring relief from your enemies, and He will bring

REST from your SORROWS (1:7b; cp. Rev. 21:3-4)

2 Thessalonians 1:6–7 (ESV)

6 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, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

The Greek word here for “relief” is also used to describe a bowstring that is unstrung from its bow—the idea of the tension being relaxed. When Christ returns, He will bring with Him your final and complete relief not just from your enemies, but all of your sorrows!

There is a game that we used to play as kids, where you stand in a doorway and press your arm against the jamb as hard as you can for thirty seconds. Then turn sideways and relax your arm—and because you have been exerting so much outward pressure, your arm muscles will still involuntarily contract, causing your arm to “float” upwards in the absence of that resistance of the door jamb.

Now, on the Day that Christ returns, your battles with sin and sorrow and persecution will be over for good! Think of it—what will it be like to finally let your guard down for good? You have never—never for one fraction of a second in all your life—been able to rest from your battles with sin and sorrow and trials in this fallen world. You have always been pressing and straining against the sin and twistedness and rebellion of this age.

What will it be like to be completely and totally free from those pressures and anxieties? What heights will your spirit soar to when it is no longer under the pressure and strain of your sin and sorrows?? No wonder the Scriptures tell us that on that Day we will fly up to meet the Lord in the air!!

The Apostle John gives us just the merest glimpse of that Day in Revelation 21--

Revelation 21:3–4 (ESV)

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Stand fast, Christian, because you have the promise that when Christ returns, He will bring your rest with Him! Relief from your enemies, rest from your sorrows, and

REWARDS for your FAITH (v. 10; cp. 1 Peter 1:6-7)

Look down at verse 10:

2 Thessalonians 1:10 (ESV)

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.

The hope you have to stand fast in the midst of your trials, Christian, is rooted in the rewards that Christ brings with Him for your faithfulness! See here that we will marvel at Him when He returns—and not only will we see His glory face to face, we will be participants in that glory!

Peter writes about this same moment in Chapter 1 of his first letter—it’s on page 1014 of the pew Bible if you want to take a look. He is writing about the appearing of Christ at His Second Coming, and says

1 Peter 1:6–7 (ESV)

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

When you stand fast while being “grieved by various trials”, it demonstrates the genuineness of your faith—and that genuine faith will shine like gold on the Day Christ returns! The result will be “praise, glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. What seems to be in view here is that on the Day Christ returns, all of your faithful steadfastness through all of your trials and sorrows and persecutions will be rewarded with glory! Christ will be glorified on that Day, but a great part of the glory of that Day will be His glorifying you!

Every sorrow you have borne for the sake of His Name, every insult, every put down thrown your direction for being “so religious”, every time you have been passed over or sidelined or thrown under the bus because of your commitment to Christ—all of those things will SHINE in you on that Day, because they reveal the tested genuineness of your faith! You will be rewarded with the privilege of sharing in Christ’s glory on that Day!

This is how you stand fast in the trials you suffer in this fallen world, Christian—Christ’s coming will bring relief to those who revere Him and retribution to those who reject Him. His coming is a hopeful future for the faithful—and it is

On the Day when Christ returns, we will all marvel at His appearing...

II. A HORRIFYING future for the REBELLIOUS (1:6, 8-9)

Look at verse 6 again:

2 Thessalonians 1:6 (ESV)

6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,

On that day, no one who receives affliction from His hand will be able to object, because

God’s judgment is JUST (1:6)

Over and over you hear people object to the thought of God’s punishment, saying that they believe in a God of “love”, and that a “loving” God would never punish anyone, that it wouldn’t be “fair” for God to afflict those who reject Him. But God considers it just! As Matthew Henry says of this verse:

God’s suffering people will lose nothing by their sufferings, and their enemies will gain nothing by their advantages against them. Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 2346). Hendrickson.

There is no one on that Day that will be able to accuse God of injustice—every saint will receive perfect repayment of all of their sufferings, and every rebellious rejecter of Christ will receive perfect justice for all their rebellion.

His judgment is just and

God’s judgment is FEARFUL (1:8)

Paul goes on to say that the Appearing of Christ on that Day will bring relief to the afflicted

2 Thessalonians 1:7–8 (ESV)

7 ... 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.

The One that this world has so desperately tried to cover up and reject and forget about, the One Who has been the butt of their jokes and the casual curse in their mouth, Who has been ignored as an irrelevant superstition—on that Day the horror of their realization—too late—that they have been ridiculing and mocking this One Who appears in such power and fearful vengeance will cause them to completely come apart.

Those who have spent their lives rejecting the knowledge of God, those who have heard the Gospel faithfully proclaimed to them, who have heard the call to repent and obey the Gospel but who have refused—on that Day they will see their folly and realize that it has brought about their destruction—God’s judgment is just, His judgment is fearful, and  

God’s judgment is FINAL (1:9; cp. Matt. 25:46)

2 Thessalonians 1:9 (ESV)

9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

That phrase there “the punishment of eternal destruction” points to another truth about God that people want to reject; the fact that the consequences of rejecting the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ is never ending punishment, destruction that goes on for eternity.

Jesus Himself warns of the nature of this punishment in Matthew 25:46, that the guilty will

Matthew 25:46 (ESV)

46 ...go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Paul warns here in our text that this never ending destruction will take place “away from the presence of the LORD and from the glory of His might”. Understand what Paul is warning about here—God is omnipresent; which means that there is no place where He can be absent. And yet it says here that this eternal punishment will take place “away from His presence”. Understand this: In that place of eternal punishment, God will be absent in all the ways you will want Him to be present, and He will be present in all they ways you want Him to be absent. His kindness and grace and mercy and peace will be gone from you forever, and His indignation and hatred and terrifying presence of utter holiness and infinitely fierce wrath will rest on you forever. And on the Day He appears, it will be too late to repent.

Christ’s coming will bring relief to those who revere Him and retribution to those who reject Him. It is a hopeful future for His faithful ones, and it is a horrifying future for those who are determined to rebel against Him. Christian, you can stand fast in the trials that you face here as you wait for His return—you have a hopeful future in His return, and verses 10-12 of our text show you that you have

III. A HAVEN of present PROMISES (1:11-12)

until His return.

Look with me at verse 11:

2 Thessalonians 1:11 (ESV)

11 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,

Paul takes all of what he has just written—the hopeful future for those who by faith love Christ, and the horrifying future awaiting all those who reject Him—and applies it to how we are to live in the present. He says, “To this end...” or “Because all of this is true, I am praying for you...” If Christ is coming to grant relief to those who revere Him and retribution to those who reject Him, then we should be praying for each other in these three ways: First, since Jesus is returning we must ask Him

To be WORTHY of His CALLING (cp. 1 Peter 1:7)

"To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling...” This connects back to what Paul said in verse 5:

2 Thessalonians 1:5 (ESV)

5 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—

We see the same idea expressed back in 1 Thessalonians 2:12:

1 Thessalonians 2:12 (ESV)

12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Where will you find the strength to walk worthy in the middle of the trials and opposition of this world? Not in your own strength; not by your own cleverness. There is so much weariness and despair that we put ourselves through by our unthinking presumption that we need to have the grit and perseverance and inner strength to deal with this world’s animosity.

But see here what God’s Word tells you—the storms of adversity and bitterness that break against God’s people can’t be weathered by your own strength and determination; it is only as you call on God to see you though those storms in His strength that you will show yourself worthy of being called a “Christian”!

Paul is not telling the Thessalonians that they must show themselves worthy of that name; he is telling them that it is God who makes them worthy! The only thing you and I will ever be worthy of by our own strength is death. But God has now in Christ made you worthy to be called by His Name!

In light of His coming we pray that we may be found worthy of His calling; and secondly in this verse we see that we pray

To become COMPLETE in His HOLINESS

I see this in the second part of verse 11:

2 Thessalonians 1:11 (ESV)

11 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,

Once again, Paul is connecting his thought back to his previous letter:

1 Thessalonians 4:3 (ESV)

3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification...

All of the holiness that you desire in your life; all of the victory over sin that you long for, all of the Christlikeness that you are pursuing day to day; all the good that you resolve to do in the midst of the trials and opposition of this world—He will fulfill! He will fulfill your every desire for holiness in Him; He will complete every good work in you to conform you to His image!

What an amazing promise! Not only will He fulfill your every resolve for holiness, but He will also equip you by His power for effectiveness in this world! When everywhere you look around you is nothing but the devastation of sin in the lives of people you care for; the darkness and animosity of a society bent on hating everything you love and loving everything you hate; when you see all of that and resolve to serve Him with good works and faithfully trust in His power to work through you—He will fulfill that resolve!

When the darkness of this world’s sin and brokenness seems overwhelming and the tiny little deeds you resolve to do for Him feel wholly inadequate, as if you are using a snow shovel to stop the tide coming in—He has promised to make your faithful work powerful by His power!

Paul calls us to pray for these things—to be made worthy of His calling, that He may fulfill every desire for holiness and faithful work in His Name—and in verse 12 he brings all of it down to one purpose:

2 Thessalonians 1:12 (ESV)

12 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.

As you stand fast in the trials in the midst of this life, as you are waiting in hope for His return pray

To be CONSUMED with His GLORY

The first half of this verse is one that we have no trouble affirming: “That the Name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you...” If you belong to Christ, then you love to have His Name magnified in your life; you delight to know that your deeds and thoughts and actions are contributing to making His Name great—as Isaiah wrote in the Old Testament:

Isaiah 26:8 (ESV)

8 In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.

You stand fast in trials because you love His Name, and you want the “remembrance” of it—the renown of His Name—to grow everywhere in your life.

But it’s the second part of this verse that holds such a mind-blowing promise—that the Name of Christ would be glorified in you, and that you would be glorified in Christ! Not only that you would glorify Him, but that you would be glorified in Him! That Christ Himself, on the Day He returns, would grant you to share in His glory! That Christ would lift you up on that Day, that He would vindicate you against those who have hated you for loving Him, that He would wipe away all your tears and perfect you in His holiness and cause you to shine with the brightness of His glory!

It would sound presumptuous to the point of blasphemy if Paul did not complete the sentence the way he does:

2 Thessalonians 1:12 (ESV)

12 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!

On that Day when He comes to be marveled at among all who have believed, when He comes to repay with affliction those who have afflicted you and grant relief to you from all your afflictions and perfect you in His holiness, all of it will come about according to His grace! It will all be a gift; it will all be a result of His faithfulness to you.

When He exalts you with those most precious words you will ever hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant—enter into the joy of your Lord!”, it will all be grace! The “Well done” is because He made you worthy of His calling—the “good and faithful servant” will be because He fulfilled every resolve for good and work of faith by His power—the eternal joy He invites you into was purchased by His death, burial and resurrection!

So, Christian—stand fast in trials! Stand firm on His promises that when He returns He will bring relief to you who revere Him. There is no opposition or hatred or malice or slander that will not be made right on that Day! The constant tension that you live under in this world, the constant friction with this world’s animosity toward God, the never-ending pressure to conform to this world that you lean against every second will some day be done! And for the first time in your entire life you will know what it is like to live without that burden!

And if you are here this morning and you don’t have any particular trouble coexisting with this world, if you’re perfectly at home here in this life—you need to understand that the Scriptures warn you in the book of James that

James 4:4 (ESV)

4... friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

If you’re more concerned with making peace with the world than with God; if your great concern of your life is doing what you have to do and becoming whatever you have to be in order to avoid trouble; to “go along to get along”, to do your best to fit in with this world, please understand: You are making yourself an enemy of the God whose return is described in this passage.

If you spend your life setting aside God’s call in the Gospel because obeying Him means you can’t have what you want out of this life, then there are nothing but threats in this passage for you. If you will not acknowledge Him and you will not obey the call of the Gospel that He extends to you, then that Day that comes as a vindication for His children will come as a Day of vengeance for you. While He is being marveled at by those who love Him, your misery will be just beginning—when you realize that your whole life has been wasted on a lie that says He didn’t matter!

You don’t want to see the Day of His return and realize that it is too late; to have it dawn on you that you have sealed your fate by your unbelief and refusal to heed His call to repentance. The great grace of God that has appeared to you today is that you have been given this chance to obey this Gospel call—to turn away from your sin against Him and your idolatrous desire to have this world over Him, to call on Him to forgive you for your sin on the basis of His sacrifice on the Cross, so that when He comes on that Day to be glorified in His saints and marveled at among all who have believed, you will be one of those marveling at His grace to you!

Make this the day that you obey this Gospel call; make this the day that you turn away from the false promises of this world and make His Name and His remembrance the desire of your heart, the day that you cry out to Him to be saved. Come and talk to me so that I can show you how you can know that you are a Christian—talk to one of the other elders, talk to someone who is a member here at Bethel, “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.” (2 Thess 1:12).

BENEDICTION:

Hebrews 13:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Of the ways that you have to “lean” against this world, what is the most burdensome for you? Is it the outward pressures that push you to walk away from God, or the inward pull of your remaining sin that draws you away from Him? How does this chapter strengthen you in your struggles?

Read 2 Thessalonians 1:7 again. What does it mean for God to grant “relief” for His faithful people? List some ways in which Christ’s appearing will be a relief for you.

Consider again the way Paul prays for the Thessalonian believers in verses 11-12. Which of these three petitions regarding your present life here in this world is most meaningful for you today? Spend some time this week asking God to glorify Himself in you until He returns!