(014) The Fruit of God’s Word Received or Rejected | The proper character of a healthy church.
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vs 1-13 show us what effective gospel ministry looks like.
vs. 14-16 shows a genuine response to the gospel.
Paul had no doubt who the christians were in Thessalonica and he says why.
13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,
15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind
16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!
1. Fruit of the Word of God received.
1. Fruit of the Word of God received.
A. Imitating the saints.
A. Imitating the saints.
They imitated Paul in chapter 1.
They imitated the church in Jerusalem.
Word traveled across the world from Jerusalem.
Their suffering encouraged the Christians in Thessalonica.
a. They counted it joy and not hardship to suffer for Jesus.
a. They counted it joy and not hardship to suffer for Jesus.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
b. They did not respond with abuse, but responded like Jesus.
b. They did not respond with abuse, but responded like Jesus.
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
c. They prayed for the people that caused them harm.
c. They prayed for the people that caused them harm.
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
d. They trusted that their suffering would bear good fruit in their lives.
d. They trusted that their suffering would bear good fruit in their lives.
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
We know this because their lives were worth imitating.
We see it as we study acts.
We have no idea how who our suffering my impact.
B. Perseverance during suffering.
B. Perseverance during suffering.
True believers must expect suffering.
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
B. Perseverance during suffering.
B. Perseverance during suffering.
Not only that, Paul says they were being persecuted by their own people.
Fellow citizens.
Our own people will turn on us if we are true believers.
Our own countrymen.
Our own families.
Our own friends.
We need to remember that they are no longer our people.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
B. Perseverance during suffering.
B. Perseverance during suffering.
Paul at Jason’s house is a good example of what Paul was talking about.
(Acts 17) The Jews formed a mob while Paul and Silas were in Thessalonica and set the whole city in an uproar.
They attacked Jason’t house where they were staying and when they couldn’t find them, drug Jason and some other Christians in front of city authorities.
When Paul left, the believers stood firm in their faith.
Paul makes an abrupt change from those he is praising to those he calls out.
2. Fruit of the Word of God rejected.
2. Fruit of the Word of God rejected.
Paul gives three reasons we should grieve for them.
15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind
16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!
A. Rejecting God.
A. Rejecting God.
Paul gives a long history of the Jew’s rejection of God.
The jews killed Jesus.
The crowd of Jews shouted to crucify Jesus.
They also chose to release Barabbas instead of Jesus.
The jews killed prophets.
Describing prophets…
37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
The jews drove Paul out of the city.
The jews made no attempt to please God.
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
The jews opposed all mankind.
They were at odds with mankind.
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
A. Rejecting God.
A. Rejecting God.
Paul is talking about a nation who rejected God. He wrote thousands of years ago and it is easy to disconnect from today.
Could this be said of you?
Are you rejecting God?
You might say - of course not, I’m in church.
What are you doing with what you hear?
48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
A. Rejecting God.
A. Rejecting God.
If you are not believing and acting on what you hear, you are rejecting God.
It is possible that even as a believer we reject God.
If we are not doing what we learn we are rejecting God and being disobedient.
B. Hindering God’s message.
B. Hindering God’s message.
There is no specific incident mentioned but we see it all through the New Testament.
The Jews hindered God’s message.
Just as it was God’s will that all be saved it was the will of the Jews that no one find salvation.
Paul says they actively fought against the spread of it.
We can do the same.
When we don’t put ourselves in a place to hear.
When we don’t come to God’s Word ready to hear.
When we ignore the Word we hear.
Who are you thinking about when you hear God’s Word?
What are you thinking about when you hear God’s Word?
C. Receiving God’s judgement.
C. Receiving God’s judgement.
They filled up the measure of their sins.
Think of a scale and the sins of the Jews are being piled onto the scale.
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
C. Receiving God’s judgement.
C. Receiving God’s judgement.
Paul understands that eventually God’s patience will run out and judgement will come.
Now they face God’s wrath.
In the Old Testament they killed prophets and sinned against God.
In the new Testament they made no attempt to please God and prevented the gospel from being spread.
These are the sins of a nation.
What about personal sin.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
C. Receiving God’s judgement.
C. Receiving God’s judgement.
This passage describes those who have never received Jesus as their savior.
Those who, like those opposing God in our passage today have never had that moment in their life where they repented of their sins and believed.
The Jews were God’s chosen people.
Their savior was right front of them
Yet they rejected Him.
Your rescue from your sin in right in front of you today.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
We need to look at Colossians because if fits with what we have studied today.
14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
C. Receiving God’s judgement.
C. Receiving God’s judgement.
This is what Christ did for us.
The record of debt.
“So always to fill up the measure of their sins”
This is a legally binding record of debt.
(For all have sinned)
Stood against us.
“Wrath has come upon them at last”
(The wages of sin is death)
He nailed it to the cross.
He paid the debt for our sin so we don’t have to face the wrath of God.
12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
You can reject this message or you can receive if for what it is, not the words of men but the Word of God.
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
