1 Thessalonians 1:6-10 - Jesus Rescues Us From the Wrath to Come

6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. 9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

Target Date: Sunday, 17 April 2022

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Rescues/ delivers – rhyomenon – the root of the word is to “drag from the deep [or current]”

The implications of this word are:

Desperate danger – the danger is real and life-threatening

Utter helplessness – you are not able to drag yourself out of the danger

Complete salvation – not merely mitigating our danger, but allowing complete escape

Wrath - ὀργή – orgēn – This word, in its use in the New Testament, has nothing to do with anger per se. This word carries with it the result of disobedience, punishment, but a punishment unrestrained and unmitigated. It is the just, even dispassionate, result of violation of the law.

It is the sentencing and punishment side of God’s justice, and will be accomplished by His holy standard.

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, - Colossians 3:5-6

There is another word (unused here), θυμός, that implies burning or blowing rage or fury.

Thoughts on the Passage:

For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. – 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8

There we find the same correlation as here between the resurrection of Jesus and the judgment to come; but, whereas the Athenians are warned that on that appointed Day Jesus, the risen one, will function as universal judge (cf. 2 Thess 1:7, 8), the Thessalonians have learned to recognize in Jesus their “deliverer from the coming wrath.”

For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? – Hebrews 2:2-3

But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. – Hebrews 2:9

In this verse, the scope of God’s redemption is including both elements – the suffering and death leading to the live coronation of glory and honor.

The resurrection implies death; but death does not necessarily imply resurrection without God’s intervention and promise.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. – Hebrews 2:14-15

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. – Hebrews 9:27-28

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” – John 3:36

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. – Romans 1:18-20

for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. 16 For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, - Romans 4:15-16

Building Points:

The wrath of God will be entirely just.

We are now living in the time of God’s common grace. You see the beauty of His creation, you feel the hope in His love – but if you do not follow Christ in this time of respite, this time of His patience, all that will end. For those who, when they give an account before God, who are not found in Christ, there is the terrible eternity separated from all God’s goodness:

Hell is a place of not love, no beauty, no cool wind on a balmy afternoon.

It is a place of no hope, no expectation of any future other than the complete absence of God’s mercy and grace without end.

Think of anything you love here – anything that gives you pleasure – and know that if you are not found in Christ on that day, you will never have that contentment for eternity.

But if you have found your contentment in Christ here, all the goodness of God will be yours forever.

No one can stand before God on that day and claim any goodness, any good deed, or any worthiness before Him – NOT EVEN BELIEVERS IN JESUS CHRIST.

Believers are just as dirty, just as polluted, just as fallen as the best of other people.

Our hope lies ONLY in Jesus Christ, in Whom we stand in that day.

He is our God-provided protection from His wrath, a secure armor that keeps us from the burning of God’s holy judgment.

Just like the blood on the doorposts during Passover night, the blood of Jesus keeps us through God’s fiery judgment.

God’s righteous judgment can only be satisfied in the way HE has ordained – through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Sermon Text:

This morning we come to the final phrase we will look at in this passage.

Many of you will recall that what we have in verses 4-10 of this chapter represent the basic doctrines that were taught to new believers in the first-century church.

I will not take time to review the proofs of that we have covered over the past several weeks,

Except to remind you that these things in which Paul and the other writers, Silas and Timothy, are commending the Thessalonian believers represent all the formal gospel training they had received from these missionaries.

You will remember from the book of Acts, chapter 17, that their ministry there had been cut short by aggressive opposition by the Jews of Thessalonica.

It had gotten so severe that the local leader, Jason, had been dragged before the Roman magistrate, and had been required to pay a bond to guarantee that these missionaries would leave the town.

Over the last several weeks, we have looked at each of these doctrines in-depth, and this morning we come to the last mentioned.

It is not last because it is the least important.

On the contrary, it is last because it IS the gospel:

Jesus rescues us from the wrath to come.

Yes, it is built into a slightly different phrasing, but this is the heart of the doctrine – Jesus rescues us from the wrath to come.

That is nothing short of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Everything else he has mentioned in this passage have been the effects of this one thing – Jesus rescues us from the wrath to come.

This is the same doctrine Paul told the Corinthians in his first recorded epistle to them:

I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. – 1 Corinthians 15:3-5

This is the very way Jesus rescues us from the wrath to come – because He died for our sins.

But we are used to hearing that, aren’t we?

We really expect to hear it on Easter Sunday morning, the day that proves His sacrifice was accepted and He was exalted.

That is what the Resurrection in – we looked at that last week.

But for this week, I would like to explore what Paul says right here in 1 Thessalonians about that rescue that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished by His death and resurrection.

And for the sake of clarity, I would like to look at these vital elements in the reverse order in which they are presented in this verse.

Because it will help us, I hope, to better understand the rescue that Jesus provides once we understand the peril we are in.

So we see in this verse that Jesus rescues us from the wrath to come.

How are we to understand that phrase “wrath to come”?

The first thing we have to understand is whose wrath he is talking about here.

The second is why we are in peril of that wrath.

And finally to look at the certainty of that wrath, meaning how we might possibly rescue ourselves.

So what is the wrath to come?

I suppose in casting about for answers, someone could think it means some societal wrath, some great persecution.

That would mean that the phrase, rather than being a statement of the gospel, would be a promise to protect His people from earthly persecution.

But I would remind you this phrase, though, is a statement of the basis of the faith of the Thessalonian believers,

the thing that allowed them, as well as the writers of this letter, to ENDURE persecution.

They weren’t kept FROM persecution – they were kept THROUGH persecution.

They weren’t, by any but the most twisted redefinition, RESCUED FROM persecution.

They endured the worst the world could throw at them.

And Paul himself, in a few short years, would be executed, a martyr (witness) for the truth of this very gospel.

There are many today who believe that it is God’s will that His PEOPLE win.

In the Scriptures, there are certainly places where God’s people do triumph on earth,

But that is NEVER the point – it is always about God’s glory through HIS victory.

God was glorified when Elijah challenged the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel,

And He was glorified when He destroyed the temple through the hand of Nebuchadnezzar because of the faithlessness of His people.

He was glorified when Daniel was brought safely through the den of lions,

And He was glorified when Job experienced the loss of everything but his faith.

It is not the victory of God’s people that necessarily brings glory to God – that is what the Israelites wrongly thought in Jeremiah’s day:

Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ – Jeremiah 7:4

They comforted themselves that they could do anything they wanted because they had the temple.

It is not the victory of God’s people, but their faithfulness, that glorifies Him.

This interpretation that the “wrath” is some great earthly calamity or persecution is also flawed for a more fundamental reason: it is in the wrong order.

If we were to read this phrase in this way, then the eternally-sure rescue of Jesus would keep us from all difficulty and trouble.

And I will confess, there are well-known preachers who peddle this spiritual snake oil every Sunday.

But Jesus didn’t see it that way:

You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. – Matthew 10:22

Because of My name – simply following His will be enough to cause people to hate us.

By his own words, Jesus is telling us that it is not His goal for us to AVOID persecution, but to faithfully endure it.

So we can say for certain that the wrath to come Paul speaks about is not the wrath from people on earth.

No, the wrath Jesus rescues us from is not of this world – it is the wrath of God Himself.

We don’t like to think about God’s wrath.

Preachers don’t get rich preaching about God’s wrath.

But the wrath of God is our natural state.

It is exactly what we deserve when our sinfulness meets God’s justice.

Because God’s wrath is the perfect and holy outcome of His justice.

But often when we think of “wrath”, we think of someone in fury or rage, venting their anger on those around them. That is NOT what God’s wrath means.

There is no loss of control or temper in God.

God’s wrath is no less than the righteous punishment for those who are in rebellion to Him.

And it is a certainty, not simply a possibility:

It is the wrath TO COME, not the wrath that MIGHT FALL.

This wrath, the result of God’s judgment, is more certain than the sunrise or your next breath, if you do not follow Jesus Christ.

But so many people comfort themselves, thinking that they have lived “pretty good” lives, and they “believe” that there is a God.

But if this is what you are relying on when you stand before Him when He judges you, you will discover you are still his enemy, and you will face His wrath.

That brings us immediately to WHY we are in peril of God’s wrath?

There is much we can say from the Scriptures, but the short answer is we are, every one of us, fallen so severely that we can never hope to live up to God’s holy standard.

We come polluted and ruined by sin into this world.

And then, even when we try our hardest, we only make things worse.

God gave, in the Bible, His Law to teach us His holy standard.

And we, each one of us, has broken that Law.

Everyone.

But then we look around, and we see all the beauty of this world –

The beauty of God’s creation

- And we think that God could not possibly have wrath for ME?

We think of all the things we cherish here – loved ones, family, puppies, kittens…

And we delude ourselves into believing that there could not possibly be a terrible Day when we will stand before God.

Or perhaps some may count on their trials here earning them special favor with God.

They were victims of someone else’s sin.

They had troubles with people, or health, or just trouble living.

Perhaps they even suffered within themselves, battling fears and torments no one knew.

And they tell themselves that certainly they have paid the price to be happy in the next life.

Yet even these have some hope, some glimmer of God’s grace calling to them.

The time we live in, our time here in this flesh, is the time of God’s common grace.

Those things you take comfort in – they are evidence of the mercy and love of God.

But one day, your time in God’s patient forbearance will come to an end.

For most, it will end with your death that will culminate with God’s judgment:

it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment – Hebrews 9:27

For a few, they will be alive when our Lord Jesus Christ returns to finish this world in judgment.

In either case, the few years you have spent living under God’s common grace will be over, and only those who have followed Jesus Christ in faith will persist in His grace.

If you have not followed Him in faith,

If you have loved other things more than Him,

If you have simply avoided the question until it is too late,

You will find what it means to live OUTSIDE the grace of God – forever – without end.

All those things you love,

All those things that give you comfort,

Any hope you may have had,

Will be removed in an instant, and you will be FOREVER be in hell, a place of torment that is removed completely from the tiniest bit of God’s mercy.

You will remember the times of His common grace,

The times you were refreshed, or happy, or content,

The beach or mountains, the sun or refreshing rain,

The times when everything on earth seemed to be crying out praise to God, but you wouldn’t listen.

And even those happy memories will be bitter in the unrelenting torment of God’s wrath.

And so I beg you, while it is still in the time of God’s common grace, that is, in this life, hear and receive God’s great offer:

God KNOWS you are ruined and have no hope of eternal life.

God KNOWS you are entirely incapable of following even His simplest command, let alone His holy standard.

And so, in His grace, He has made this great offer:

Have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31).

He cannot be righteous and lower His standard, and no natural man can ever achieve His standard.

You may have heard this before, but it bears repeating often:

God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [has faith] in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. – John 3:16-17

Notice that when God loves the world, He saves those who believe in the Son – who have faith in Jesus Christ.

Pointing back to our verse today, 1 Thessalonians 1:10, that is why Paul says that Jesus rescues US – that is, those who follow Jesus Christ in faith.

And so, in sending His Son, who was fully God and fully man, to live a completely perfect life and die as a sacrifice for the sin of all who will call to Him in faith, God resolved the dilemma.

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. – Romans 3:23-26

That brings us to the third question: what other options do we have?

Put another way, what can I do to save myself?

Nothing – you can do nothing.

No one can stand before God on that day and claim ANY goodness, any good deed, or any worthiness before Him.

NOT EVEN BELIEVERS IN JESUS CHRIST.

People have this unbiblical idea that if we could follow God’s Law, we could save ourselves.

1. If you are able to ask the question, you are already ruined.

Besides the sinful state you were born in, you have already sinned more than that.

2. For the unbeliever, for the person who does not follow Jesus Christ, God’s Law was not given to show you how to live.

God never had ANY expectation that you would do the things He said to do apart from Christ.

That doesn’t mean that there are not many who, on their own strength, make it through this entire life without murdering anyone or committing adultery.

And in this life, they certainly will be happier and lead less-complicated lives without the weight of these sins.

But none of those merit any grace from God, who has made the Law such that breaking a single point breaks the whole thing.

Not even a good human judge would accept this kind of argument.

That would be like a child molester standing before the judge and claiming he should be released because he gave a lot of money to children’s hospitals.

Or a murderer pleading for clemency because he had never cheated on his wife.

Even in our imperfect justice system, we are judged on the infractions of the law rather than merited by our keeping of it.

Violations of the law can only condemn you;

Adherence to the law can never save you.

But the Law of God, for the unbeliever, has a single purpose – to show you how bad you are,

And how much you need a Savior.

if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. 22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. – Galatians 3:21-24

God has allowed no other way to Him, to eternal life in His grace.

there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. – Acts 4:12

No works will earn you anything, no new virtues, no political correctness, no good intentions.

The only hope anyone has on that Day will be to be clothed in the goodness of Jesus Christ through faith.

Please understand – I am not simply standing here teaching you the “secret answer” to a question.

I am not revealing to you what to say when God asks you why He should let you into heaven – nothing of the sort.

On that day, you will not be able to give a reply, change your mind, or turn from your sin;

The life you have led, whether you have trusted Jesus Christ in THIS life, will be what speaks for you.

In explaining the utter helplessness we have apart from Jesus Christ, the writer of Hebrews cries out:

How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? – Hebrews 2:3

That is why you need to follow Him in faith today:

Today if you hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts … Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. – Hebrews 3:7-8, 12

Finally, very quickly, I would like to go back to the beginning of the phrase we are looking at this morning: Jesus rescues us from the wrath to come.

He rescues us…

It doesn’t say that He helps us with God’s wrath,

Or that He advises us about God’s wrath,

HE RESCUES US.

This word implies desperate danger.

As we have been talking about this morning, it is a terrible thing to face the wrath of God.

His wrath will fully judge any sin He finds, and He will punish it according to His word without mercy.

If He didn’t, He would not be JUST.

This word also implies our utter helplessness.

Someone who is capable of saving themselves doesn’t need rescue.

A swimmer who is doing well has no need for the lifeguard to dive into the pool.

But one who is unable to keep their breath or reach the side must be rescued or they drown.

A healthy man has no need for a surgeon who specializes in cancer.

But when the tumor is discovered, he must be rescued by the surgeon’s hand.

That is why the Pharisees in Jesus’s day could not be persuaded of their need of Him: they didn’t recognize their utter helplessness to save themselves.

They trusted their own goodness, their own meticulous adherence to the Law of God,

And never recognized they were as doomed as someone who is carried to sea in the riptide.

That is, until it was too late.

And this word RESCUES implies a complete salvation.

The salvation Jesus gives through faith has no expiration date.

He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. – Hebrews 7:25

He did this by completely satisfying God’s wrath that we deserved:

By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. – 1 John 4:9-10

That word, propitiation, if you are not familiar with it, means “satisfaction of divine wrath”.

God did this by allowing us, by faith, to have your sin put onto Christ and punished completely,

And then to place the goodness of Jesus Christ, by faith, onto you.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. – 2 Corinthians 5:20-21

To paraphrase one of our modern hymns:

No guilt in life.

No fear in death.

And no dread of God’s wrath for anyone who trusts in Christ.