Sermon Tone Analysis

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Understand the Context

God had given Paul an open door into Greece, but this new opportunity did not come without struggle.

Paul’s work in Philippi led to imprisonment (Acts 16:6-40), and trouble followed him to Thessalonica.

There, Jews upset with Paul’s message, tried to turn Gentile leaders against him (17:5-9).

Acts 17:2-3 tells us Paul spent three Sabbaths sharing the gospel with Jews in the Thessalonian synagogue.

But his ministry probably involved more than that.

If his later work in Athens is any indication, he may have preached to Gentiles in public settings during the week (Acts 17:17).

[LifeWay Adults (2021).

Explore the Bible: Adult Leader Guide, Spring 2022]

Our passage today picks up in the middle of chapter 2 where the writers shift back to the prayerful way they remember and think of the Thessalonians.

There are also hints of responses to things that they heard in the report from Timothy which will study a little next week.

The new church was growing in faith and the 3 missionaries wanted to encourage that growth regardless of their presence or surrounding situations.

Explore the Text

What we do with the gospel and with Jesus determines our eternal destiny.

This is a truth we cannot avoid, and Paul expressed gratitude that the Thessalonians had embraced God’s plan.

Their acceptance of the gospel demonstrated that the gospel was true and their faith was genuine.

[LifeWay Adults (2021).

Explore the Bible: Adult Leader Guide, Spring 2022]

One major thing that Paul and his associates were thankful for was the way the Thessalonians had not only accepted the men into their homes and lives but also the message of hope that they brought.

Although the aorist tense makes this a single “receiving” the active voice makes its affect continue to the present.

The word is more than just an acknowledgement but points more to “taking in” or “taking with”.

The word of God was taken into their lives and continues to be affective as they go on in their daily activities.

God’s word is not something that should put aside or forgotten while working but we allow it to permeate our work and it then becomes an act of worship.

Only when we have truly “received the word of God” can we “do all thing unto the Lord.”

(1Cor 10:31)

I like that Paul wrote “the word of God” instead of just referring to the gospel which many today correlate with salvation.

The Thessalonians accepted “all” the word of God from these men and not just for salvation.

The gospel does more than save, it transforms, it is the “sword of truth” and is “living and active” (Heb 4:12) within the person after the initial justification.

The whole council of God is “good news” to those who love and accept His gift of eternal life.

God uses His word to draw us into His Kingdom and keep us faithful in His work allowing us to “walk in a manner worth” of Him.

(1Thes 2:12)

The gospel message did not appear in the air or come to the Thessalonians in a dream, they heard it from these brave men.

Later Paul writes to the Romans that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

(Rom 10:17) And as we read last week, these three were not thwarted by the mistreatment they had received in the previous cities but came into town with the purpose of letting the inhabitants “hear” from God through His word.

This word “accepted” is also translated as “received” but different from the word earlier in the verse as it was “without necessarily signifying a favorable reception.

[Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words] The Thessalonians were gracious and took God’s Word from these men as getting a gift from an unfamiliar person, but then as they realized what a grand gift they were being presented, they were very glad of having taken it.

I like the example that the first “received” is being given food you have never tried before and graciously thanking the host, the second “accepted” is asking for seconds.

Part of the reason the Thessalonians accepted what these strangers were saying is because the Holy Spirit had enlightened them to what was being said.

These men spoke more than “silly stories and strange myths” (1Tim 4:7, 1Tim 1:4) but were speaking with power and truth that only a righteous and holy God could produce.

I like the way one of my commentaries stated this contrast of God and man’s word, “Man’s word forms a shaky foundation for faith.

Only God can be fully trusted, and it is only when His word is trusted that results are produced in hearts and lives.”

[Believer’s Bible Commentary]

We have it emphatically stated rather than just inferred that God’s Word works within believers.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul calls it the gospel the “power of God” (Rom 1:16).

The word “work” is in the present tense making it a continuous action.

God is eternal and never sleeps (Psa 121:4), His word is equally eternal and active.

Once God begins working within the believer, He will never stop using His Word and Spirit to continue to grow us until the day of completion (Phil 1:6).

After being glorified, God’s Word may even continue to sustain us as our “bread” of life.

Earlier in the letter the Thessalonians were encouraged to be imitators of the missionaries and more importantly of Christ.

Then they were commended for being examples to all the believers in their region.

Paul now writes that they had also mimicked or “strived to resemble” the churches that were not much older than themselves which were found in Judea.

By using the Greek and Roman name for the territory in Israel, Paul confirms that he is writing to the Gentile believers in Thessalonica.

The real focus of the imitation is Christ, as there were synagogues which were churches or assemblies of “God”, but Christ Jesus separated these congregations from all the others.

Christ’s work saved the church members and God’s word continues to sanctify them.

This work and process is still active today.

Saul was one of “the Jews” that persecuted the church even “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” before being confronted by Christ on the road to Damascus.

(Acts 9:1) Now he was rejoicing over the work God was doing in and through the Thessalonians as the Word of God continued to work in them and its hope was being heard throughout the region.

Frequently when Christians suffer persecution they are tempted to think God’s blessing has departed.

Paul countered this lie of Satan by reminding his readers that their experience duplicated that of their elder brothers and sisters in the faith [The Bible Knowledge Commentary]

One of the ways the new church imitated those in Judea was not by their own actions but by those that oppose the gospel of Christ.

In Judea it was the Jewish presence that instigated the persecution of the believers, but in Thessalonica it appears to be cause by Gentiles, or at the very least those living in the area and not the group that had followed the three men from Philippi (Acts 17:5).

This suffering would also be another way that the church was imitating Christ’s example and growing in the knowledge of him.

(Phil 3:10)

The exact identity of the persecutors is not as important as the faithfulness of Christians standing in harm’s way and enduring various degrees of persecution.

Most likely, the Thessalonian believers did not know about the Judean suffering firsthand, but Paul was emphasizing that such oppression was a part of the Christian life.

He was thankful that opposition did not stop the gospel in either Judea or Macedonia.

Instead, believers in both places developed boldness and continued their work for the kingdom.

[LifeWay Adults (2021).

Explore the Bible: Adult Leader Guide, Spring 2022]

Paul now writes down some of the ways that the Jewish leaders in Judea had made the believers suffer, starting with the person whom they blamed for all those turning away from “their” faith.

Those who interpret this passage through an anti-Semitic lens misunderstand Paul’s message, and Paul’s heart for his own people.

The apostasy of the Jews is set in contrast to the faithfulness of the Thessalonians.

God’s pleasing plan is for “all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth” (1Tim 2:3-4).

By going against this plan, they were against all men fulfilling God’s desires for everyone.

(Eze 18:23, 32)

Later this word is used without the negative participle to describe how the men “wanted” to return to be with the congregation.

Here the negative indicates that God does not “approve” of the actions of the Jewish persecutors as a contrast to the men whom God had tested and approved earlier in the chapter.

The writers use the word translated to “hindered” and not “prevented” because try as the may the Jewish resistors could not stop Paul and his associates from speaking God’s word of truth and Christ’s message of redemption.

Jesus uses the same word when speaking to those who were opposing him.

Luke records him as speaking about the kingdom of heaven to them “You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

They may not have been able to stop the preaching of God’s Word, but they could sow seeds of doubt and fear in those listening preventing them from making a decision for Christ.

They would definitely add to God’s displeasure as they are working directly against God’s desires for all to be saved.

The phrase “might be saved” may be the best our English language can translate but the connotations to the modern hearer convey the possibility of “not being saved.”

Vincent comments, “Not, to speak to the Gentiles in order that they might be saved, but to tell the Gentiles that they might be saved.”

The possibility of salvation and sanctification is not what is being hindered but the hearing and presentation of the gospel that could lead those listening to eternal life.

Just as Christ came to redeemed us from all our sins even those that we have yet to commit before being glorified, those that are in sin have not “completed” all the sins before the final punishment of sin is to commence.

Jesus uses the same language and concept in his seventh “woe” upon the pharisees in Matt 23:32.

This mentally first is seen in the Old Testament when God says that Abram descendants will have the land from those who were currently living there, but not yet because the “iniquity of the Amorites” was not finished accumulating before God’s judgement.

(Gen 15:16).

The phrase “wrath has come upon them at last” took a little more study for me.

Paul may mean (1) the Judean famine in a.d.

44–47, (2) the riot and massacre in Jerusalem in 48–49, (3) the expulsion of Jews from Rome in 49; or, most likely, (4) an unspecified future event that is certain or has already begun.

[ESV Global Study Bible]

The last option fits into “already but not yet” mentality that Paul often uses.

The wrath had not happened or been meted out upon the Jews yet, but neither had it come upon the Gentiles either, both of these would come after Jesus’ return.

In the first chapter the Thessalonians were commended for worshipping Christ “who delivers from the wrath to come.”

(1Thes 1:10) Paul is expressing his joy of both God’s judgement and salvation through the wrath and is accepting God’s timing of His vengeance on the Jewish opposition.

This is also a theological contrast with those being saved as Mark 16:16 tells us that whoever believes will be saved but those who do not are condemned to wrath.