"Believe!"_II Thessalonians 1_Nov 08 2020

Intro

Continuing our series: "Becoming a Church of Faith, Hope, and Love"

Bibles: II Thess 1

My message today is called “Believe”

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Today, we’re going to look at II Thess 1

We just completed I Thess

This is an upbeat and encouraging letter about a vibrant Christian church in ancient Macedonia

Paul and his missionary team shared the gospel with these Gentiles - they were once idol worshippers - but they received the gospel with the power of the Holy Spirit

They grew in Christ and they became examples to all the Christians in Macedonia - and their faith went forth everywhere to all people

They did this even though they suffered afflictions for Christ

But Paul loved them and discipled them - and Paul was eventually separated from them

But Paul’s disciple, Timothy had visited this Thessalonian church and brought back a good report to Paul - the church was healthy and vibrant

We learned about discipleship

We learned how to love all people - believers and unbelievers - and to love with the right motives

We learned to walk more and more like Jesus - and allow him to sanctify us

And we learned that he coming back one day

And we were encouraged - I Thess 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

And now - let’s look at II Thess

As Paul said at the end of I Thess - this letter read to all the brothers

I am going to read this first chapter to you (12 verses)

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Greeting

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.

Thanksgiving

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. 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.

The Judgment at Christ’s Coming

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

Pray...

Very quickly I want you to notice a subtle difference in the intro between this letter and I Thess

V. 1 - To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father

In I Thess 1:1 To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father

These used to be pagans - now they are part of God’s family - he is now OUR Father

Notice - immediately after his introduction - Paul says he ought to always give thanks for this church

Why?

Because their faith is abundantly growing -

and their love for one another is increasing

It is for these two reasons why Paul boasts about them to the other churches (v. 4)

Do you remember - I Thess 3:12-13 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Do you remember how I made the point: probably the key verse in all of I Thess

Paul followed up with them in this second letter

Keep this in mind, Paul’s prayer is not try harder to love one another

Paul’s prayer is literally “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another”

Keep this in mind

So, here he is - pleased that their faith is abundantly growing - and that their love for one another is increasing

There is a sense of urgency in I & II Thess - the books are always looking to the return of Christ

And there is an urgency: to get right with the Lord - and walk closely with him - because he is returning soon

Even that verse I just read in I Thess 3:12-13 - notice he wants these things for them, so that God may may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Jesus died on a cross - and rose from the grave - and ascended to Heaven - but he’s coming back!

Get ready for his return

But notice that all of this preparation comes from God himself - our job is to let him

Place your faith in him - and let him prepare your heart for the day of his return

As we study these two letters, we get the sense that while everything is going pretty well for this church

There is still a sense - he wants them fully prepared for when Jesus comes back

That should be our prayer: Lord, establish my heart blameless and holy - prepare me for when you return...

The message is - no matter how closely you are walking with Jesus - there is always a sense of urgency

The rest of the the chapter - verses 5-12 lays down some heavy stuff:

Like: the “righteous judgement of God”

whether or not we are considered “worthy of the kingdom of God”

suffering, affliction & God afflicting others

Jesus, returning one day - “with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God...”

those who will “suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord...”

Along with the heavy duty stuff, there is a stark contrast of uplifting and encouraging words:

God will repay with affliction those who afflict us

And he will grant us relief

And we will marvel at him

And that God “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.”

Such sweet, beautiful words in contrast to heavy judgement

The question becomes: How can I be sure I receive these sweet words of encouragement, and not God’s wrath?

On the day Christ returns, how can I be sure it will be a happy day and not a sad day for me?

And just to be clear - everyone will meet Jesus - either when he returns to Earth, or when they die

Can I be assured that Jesus is coming to take me with him - and not sent away for eternal punishment?

What’s really at stake is this: On that day, will I be considered worthy of the kingdom of God?

II Thess 1: 5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God

As if it’s no big deal to attain that

That’s all - just make sure you’re worthy enough for Almighty God

My next question: How in the world can I possibly live a worthy life to his standards?

A holy, perfect, righteous, God

The God who made the universe - and owes us nothing

How can my sinful, wretched life possibly be considered to be worthy for his kingdom?

First of all - we don’t have the ability to make our lives worthy for him

It’s his grace - and his righteousness - it’s all him

We are saved by grace because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross

And God’s the one who makes your life worthy - if you let him - it’s all there in verse 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

Remember, earlier?

Paul’s prayer is literally “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another”

It’s all by his power - not yours - your job is to let him have his way in your life

God will transform your life - but only if you let him

Let me explain something… [I say “rest in Jesus” - not about doing nothing - not about works - before you came to Christ, you were devoted to something - switch that devotion to the Lord - put off the old self and put on the new]

My next question is this: How do I get to the point where God makes my life worthy for him? How does it all start?

The answer to that is in v. 10: when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have…HAVE WHAT?

...and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Remember how Paul started things off in I Thess 1? Everything started because “our gospel came to you...” [1:5]

They heard the gospel and they believed

You have heard the gospel - do you believe?

Believing is the starting point of loving God and serving him

There’s no class we go to - you don’t need a First Communion or some other ceremony

Just believe

God is eternal and never changes, therefore he never had a starting point

You were never NOT the object of God’s love

God has always loved you

But we start loving God the moment we believe in him

The salvation is a free gift to us - we’ve done nothing to earn it

We are saved by grace through faith (which is believing) - it is not from yourselves - it is the gift of God

If you’ve heard the gospel - you need to obey it - you need to respond and repent - and place your faith in Jesus

It’s all about believing in him

Remember last time? I have a marriage certificate - but my “faith” (love) for my wife is what makes the certificate real...

Your certificate is the day you got saved - but you serving Jesus tells you if that certificate was real or not

Ever wonder why people call Jesus their “Lord and Savior”?

The Savior is the easy part - it means you get to go to heaven

The Lord part is the lifelong dedication - to serve him and love him

For as long as I know, folks have tried to get God to be their Savior - without any concern for him to be their Lord

But everything starts when you believe

“Well, yeah but I have a lot of doubts” - people have told me

I had one atheist kept asking me a bunch of critical questions about my faith…[“Did you know every single thing about your wife before you married her?”]

I want to give three examples from the Bible about believing (faith)

There was this old man from a long time ago - God called him out of pagan worship to be a father of many people

But the man thought this was impossible because he and his wife were very old

They had no kids - they were like, 100 years old - the last thing they thought God would tell them was that they were going to have a big family

The old man tried to suggest to God that maybe one of his servants could have the child instead of this old couple

But God said “No” - and he yanked him outside one night, and said, “Your servant will not be your heir - you will have an heir - look up in the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have.”

And right there - he believed the Lord.

The Bible even says the Lord considered him righteous because he believed and because he showed faith

(When the Lord considers you righteous - remember, that’s the highest standard of righteousness you can get)

The old man didn’t do anything for God to consider him righteous - just believe

He wasn’t even good at believing - he made a lot of mistakes along the way...

That seems a little weird, doesn’t it? That a person is considered righteous because of their faith?

Another time, Jesus met this woman - she wasn’t a Jew like Jesus was

and the two of them got into a conversation about her life, and Jesus knew so much about her life

and they talked about the coming Messiah - and Jesus revealed he was the Messiah

and the woman got so excited, she ran away to tell everyone in her village about Jesus, the Messiah

But the real story is about the people in the village - they heard the testimony of the woman

Then they came out and begged Jesus to stay with them

after he stayed with them for a couple of days, this is what they reported to that woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

That’s how true belief in Jesus works - you hear about him from someone else, and you believe because of what they said

Then you get to really know him, so you can believe in him for yourself

And then the time when Jesus hung on the cross

The Bible tells us that there were two criminals who were next to Jesus on their crosses

And the crowds mocked Jesus - even the criminals next to him

But then one of the criminals had a change of heart and told the other guy, “Will you just shut-up! Both of us are guilty, but Jesus is innocent”

And the criminal cried out to Jesus while he hung there, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom”

And Jesus assured him that he would be coming with him to Heaven

That was the key - for him to understand that Jesus was on the cross, but that he was innocent

And then he simply said, “Remember me”

Three lessons - three applications for us:

When we believe in God, he makes us righteous because of our faith, not because of things we do for him

We believe in God because of what others say - but then our belief deepens as we get to know Jesus

We believe in Jesus because we see him for who he is - he was an innocent man, the Son of God, who died on the cross for us

Let me break it down even more:

God makes us right with him through our belief in him

The faith that you have - make it your own personal faith with Jesus - allow him to deepen that relationship with you

Believe in the Biblical Jesus - that he loves you - he died for you - he ascended to Heaven - and is coming back for you