Saints Triumphant (3)

13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. 16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. 1 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. 2 And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. 4 We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

Outline of Sermon in Bulletin

In St. Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians, he prays for their future and is confident that it will be glorious. “He called you to this through our gospel that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When do we think about and pray for our the future?

Short term: Travel safely. Pass a test. Be hired. Accomplish the project we are doing. It may be something as mundane as praying for our team to win a game or a championship. It may be as serious as recovering from a life threatening illness.

Longer term: Successfully complete a long term project. Get married, have a family, enjoy a meaningful career, own our own home or business, retire at a life style we are accustomed to, accomplish successfully our long term goals.

As Christians, we not only pray for ourselves but for others as we realize their needs and concerns.

A common theme in St. Paul’s letters is that he would begin the letter with a description of a prayer that his is praying for them. In this letter he prays the following:

Thanks God that he chose them to be saved.

2 Thessalonians 2:13–14 NIV

This is a very important truth to remember. Luther teaches us to say “I believe I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, nor come to him but he SS has called me by the gospel.”

At times we sing:

Lord, ‘tis not that I did choose thee.

That I know could never be.

For this heart would still refuse you

Had your grace not chosen me.

You removed the sin that stained me,

Cleansing me tobe your own;

For the purpose you ordained me,

That I live for you alone.

John 15:16–17 NIV

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

God chose us through the Gospel in Word and Sacraments. “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the Word of Christ.” Later in this section St. Paul urges the Thessalonians to pray that this gospel may spread rapidly in spite of opposition. He he prays that they hold fast to what they have learned.

Application: We do well to hold fast to what we have learned. How?

Review what we learned.

Israelite parents were encourage them to teach this daily. That you involve a certain amount of review. But even when we are adults, we can reread our catechisms.

Put what we have learned into practice.

2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 NIV

16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Request that they pray for him and his coworkers that the message of the Lord will spread rapidly and be honored.

A key element in this prayer is the one mentioned at the beginning of the sermon. He prays that they share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What does this mean?

2 Thessalonians 2:14 NIV

14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

to … glory—In it was “salvation,” that is, deliverance from all evil, of body and soul (); here it is positive good, even “glory,” and that “the glory of our Lord Jesus” Himself, which believers are privileged to share with Him (, ; , , , ; ).

Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 398). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Faithlife Study Bible Chapter 2

Jesus suffered a humiliating death on the cross in order to put God’s redemptive plan into effect. God exalted Him as a result (Phil 2:6–8). The Thessalonian believers also suffered humiliation and shame because of persecution by nonbelievers. Paul encourages them that they will share in the greatest of honors: the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul hopes this encouragement will give the Thessalonians strength to endure their trials and afflictions.

Evangelical Commentary on the Bible A. By Recalling the Foundations of Their Faith (2:13–14)

“He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2:14). Salvation, sanctification, and faith are but preparatory for possessing the glory that is yet to be revealed. God’s call to experience the blessings of salvation comes through the gospel. However, in this life believers never enter fully into all that Christ has procured for them, and so they look forward to the day when they will gain possession of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers will enter Christ’s glory at the parousia.

1 & 2 Thessalonians: Verse by Verse Paul Thanks God for Their Election to Salvation (2:13–14)

The ultimate purpose (eis) of this calling is “that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This repeats Philippians 3:20–21: “we eagerly await a Savior from [heaven], the Lord Jesus Christ, who … will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (also Rom 8:17–18). The literal statement is “for an obtaining [peripoiēsis] of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ,” which probably has the active sense of “acquiring” or “obtaining” something for one’s self. Obviously we do not acquire the glory of Christ for ourselves but rather receive what God has given us. Certainly the primary thrust is the resurrection of the body at the return of Christ, but there is an inaugurated sense as well, as from the moment of conversion we actually share in the glory of Christ, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:12: “live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.” We have begun the process and are already growing in glory (!) but await the consummation of our glory at Christ’s parousia.

This is the ultimate goal for Christians. Sometimes we have an idea of how the life of a Christian progresses and this is often recorded in a congregation’s record book. (Those events that happened at church and were often officiated by the pastor).

Baptism: Becoming a child of God through this sacrament.

Confirmation: Publicly confessing our faith in God after careful instruction.

Marriage: Pledging our love and commitment to our spouse as long as we both shall live.

Funeral: Worship service of comfort from God’s Word for those who have died in the Lord.

Burial: Our congregations also have their own graveyards (not every church does) and it is recorded when and where people are buried.

Some people have had all of their official acts carried out in the same congregation although is is becoming more and more rare due to the mobility of our society.

But the final goal is the same. Regardless of everything else we do in our lives (and in a free society we have many, many options), our final goal is not only to be buried (or interred) at the graveyard or cemetery of our choosing, we pray that what happens after we die to our souls and on the Last Day our bodies is that we will completely “share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This Sunday near the end of the church year reflects on that with the label “Saints Triumphant”. It conveys the belief that those who have been sanctified by the Lord through faith that when they die, death is not the end but a transition from a world still affected by sin in which we are vulnerable to the evil one to an existence in which we been made triumphant over evil.

Just as it is God who gets the credit for choosing us to be his own, so too we praise God for strengthening, protecting, and directing us in our lives of sanctification as we prepare for eternal glory. St. Paul prays about this near the end of our text:

The Lord loves us.

God chose us to be saved. (This happened through the sanctifying work of the Spirit through belief in the truth.)

Our responsibilities include:

Stand firm by holding fast to what we were taught. (Call for review) — God will encourage us through his word.

Also a call to pray for others.

Pray that the Gospel may spread and be honored.

Pray that missionaries be delivered from wicked people.

Trust that God will protect us from “the evil one”. Define.

Confidence that they will do this.

Confident his prayer would be answered because of the things that had already or were currently happening in their spiritual lives.

2 Thessalonians 3:2 NIV

2 And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith.

He reminds them of the persecutions they were and would continue to face and trust in God to deliver them.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 NIV

3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.

“The evil one” is Satan and his cohorts. We are warned to watch out because he is a roaring lion seeking to devour us with his lies and deception. Not every temptation comes from this source, but we rely on God when temptation does come our way.

Luke 21:34–36 NIV

34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

1 Corinthians 10:12–13 NIV

12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

2 Thessalonians 3:4–5 NIV

4 We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

In the final verse, St. Paul prays that the Lord will be the one to direct them.

We pray for this in hymn 462:

Oh, that the Lord would guide my ways.

To keep his statutes still!

Oh, that my God would grant me grace

To know and do his will!

Conclusion: We need the Lord to be the one to direct us to our final destination.

God has a plan for each of us. It is more than the morbid idea that we will all die (unless Jesus comes first). It is more than when and where we will be buried. It is more than all that we will do in this life. (Although that is planned too.) God’s ultimate goal for us is to share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ—to be among the saints triumphant.

It is God who directs how we get there through his Word and Sacraments. Our responsibility is to rely on him for his directions.

When else do you rely on directions? Most often it is when we are going somewhere we have never been before. How do you find the way? AAA trip ticks? Google maps? Garmind? Word of mouth? In most cases we are finally directed to the right place. Usually, if we miss it, we have a second chance and we may be late but we will get there.

We cannot be late when it comes to our final destination. Those who are ready when the final summons comes will not share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now is the time to follow God’s directions. We can rely on him because Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. “ Amen.

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