Hard Belief

Scripture Reading

Well, you turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Thessalonians 2. 1 Thessalonians 2. Again, if you're flipping through your New Testament, get after Romans, 1 Corinthians, get after Paul's other writings in Philippians, Galatians, Colossians, et cetera. When you get to the Ts, one of them is 1 and 2 Thessalonians. So 1 Thessalonians 2. If you're using your pew Bibles, you can find that on page 1049. Today's message will be coming from 1 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 through 16. Brothers and sisters, this is God's word. It is holy, it is perfect, it deserves your attention. Let's read together now. For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. which also effectively works in you who believe.

For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God, which are in Judea, in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us. And they do not please God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the uttermost."

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Father, we pray now that you would incline our eyes and our ears to your word. Father, we pray that your spirit would teach us We pray that we might feed upon your word and that it might work in us in a powerful way this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.

Sermon

Well, there is a woman over this past year, I'm gonna give you a fake name for her. Her name we'll say was Fatima. A girl who was convinced of the truth of Jesus Christ, but there was a problem. She was convinced of this truth in a Muslim country. And when her family found out that she had put her faith in Jesus Christ and that she had gone so far as to be identified with Jesus and his people that she got baptized, her parents took her took her hours away and forced her to marry a Muslim man in a foreign area so she could never be in contact with other Christians again. True story, real girl, our present age. In America, we don't suffer much other than maybe people telling us you're stupid or just be quiet or just quietly, politely censoring us.

But in the majority of the world, and especially at this time, it's not the case. Acts chapter 17 tells us about what happened when Paul, Silas, and Timothy brought the gospel, and they were run out of town. But when they were run out of town, the people's faith didn't just die away. But Paul, Silas, and Timothy give thanks that their faith is enduring, even though suffering continues to endure in their lives.

And so the question I have for you this morning is, why? Why would they keep believing in Jesus even though it's costing them so much? Why would you believe in Jesus and continue in the faith, even in the face of opposition? Why keep going when the world is constantly on an onslaught to tell you you're backwards and wrong?

Let's explore that together this morning. First, the three words I'm going to give you today as we work through this are receive, imitate, and know. Receive, imitate, and know.

First Point

First, the apostle and his two ministers beside him, Timothy and Titus, and give thanks always to God.

They give thanks always to God, but the question is, why did they give thanks always to God? Why is it every time God brought to their minds the Thessalonians, they were just filled with thankfulness for them? Well, they remember that when they had come from Philippi, and they were coming to Thessalonica, and they were bringing the gospel, the people received it. They actually received God's word. They accepted it, not as the word of man, but it truly is the very words of God.

This isn't something natural that happens. I cannot tell you how often I will speak to people about the things of God, about what the scriptures say about life. Well, that's nice. That's a good opinion. I'm glad you think that. I'm glad that's helpful to you, but I'm not sure I believe that. See, because in the world's unbelieving ears and in their unbelieving minds, to them, this is just man's opinion. This is just something that might be helpful to you. It might just be, as Mark said, an opiate for the masses. But that's not how the people in Thessalonica received this word.

When they heard this word, they heard it as it truly is, the word of God. That the Lord had spoken these words to them, that when they had told them about the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they received it. They could see past the apostles.

Every single Sunday when I sit here preparing for worship and my private prayers, I pray, God, let them see Jesus. God, let me decrease and let them see you. It is what every minister of the gospel desires is that the people we brought to the true shepherd, that they will see Jesus Christ and receive the word as it truly is the word of God. That they might go to the word that you might go every single morning and that you might know that his mercies are new to you every single day.

This is why they could give thanks. These were people who had understanding hearts, believing minds. ears that were open to hear and eyes that were enlightened to see. They gave thanks that the people had received God's words. And my question to you is when suffering comes, when tribulation comes, have you just heard this word or have you received it? When trials and tribulation comes, when people tell you that's a nice opinion or they might say you're backwards and you need to be quiet, Can you stand behind, but these are the very words of God. Not some man's opinion, but the triune God of the universe who made me, who knit me together in my mother's womb, and to whom I must give an account on the last great day. These are God's words. I give thanks that many of you are those people. I give thanks when I think of you in my prayers. receive God's word as it truly is, not the word of man, but as the word of God. So first, receive. That is one of the first things we stand upon, the word of God. But the receiving isn't just receiving and believing, but actually played out in their lives. Look with me again at verse 13.

For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. You see, the gospel, the word of God isn't just something that comes to us and we just believe it, but it makes our feet move. It changes how we live.

Could you imagine what it would be like to be the neighbor of one of these people in Thessalonica? As you sat there, you can imagine their neighbors saying, I don't know what happened to Marcus. I mean, he was a good guy. He used to go up to us with the temple, and he would drink with us. He was a good old boy. I mean, we really liked this guy.

And something's happened in his life. I mean, this dude's gone off his rocker. He talks about this dead guy Jesus that he says is alive, and now he won't partake in some of the core central stuff in the community. I don't know what's happened to this guy. I'm not sure he's part of us anymore. I don't know what's happened to Susanna as she heard this guy, he came from Philippi. I don't know why she believed this guy. I mean, he didn't even give him any money and they told her she needed to live her life serving other people. Why would she believe that?

I mean, but this is what God's Word did. It changed their hearts, it changed their lives. Instead of going and serving the false deities and going up to the temple anymore, they stopped those things. Instead of being those who might work for their own gain and greediness, they began to share with other people around them. It changed the way that their family structure worked. It changed where husbands, instead of lording over their wives as the paterfamilias, my way or the highway woman, became loving servants of their wives. cared for them, because some guy named Jesus did that. It didn't make sense to the world around them, but to them, it was something that the apostles could rejoice in.

The word of God was effective in their lives, that it was at work in them. So brothers and sisters, when the time of suffering and persecution comes, I need to ask you, have you received the word of God as it is, and is at work in your life? I'm not saying you're gonna be perfect, but it's God's word convicting you of sin, turning you away from it, and turning you towards the way of life. Receive God's word.

Secondly, they give thanks because they became imitators. Imitate, imitate. Look with me at verse 14 and 15. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God, which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things which your own countrymen did, own countrymen just as they did to the Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us.

And they do not please God and are contrary to all men. They became imitators. They became imitators. How did they imitate? Both in the godliness of God's word working out in their lives, but also in a real way, they became imitators in suffering. They became imitators in persecution. They became imitators in what Jesus had warned about.

If they hated me, they're gonna hate you also. But we need to be careful. It's really easy to kind of, there's a whole section of Christianity that's kind of like obsessed with the martyrs. There's even people who would go and purposely try to get martyred. One of them, if you want to look up a funny story, sometime there was an ancient Christian named Origen. He's not the best theologian in the world, but he was a really pious guy.

He so desired to serve Jesus and be martyred, he was consumed with this idea that he had to die for the gospel. that he wanted to go and he wanted to die, and so he was gonna go confront the Roman soldiers, and the only way that his mother could stop him, his Christian mother could stop him, was to steal his clothes so he couldn't go out of the house. Notice what verse 14 says. You became imitators of the churches of God, which are in Judea. The Greek here is, you were made imitators.

It's not that they were seeking out martyrdom. It's not that they were purposely running and trying to get killed. But when persecution came, they imitated the faithfulness of the apostles. When persecution came, when suffering came, when trial and tribulation came, they endured it. They held fast to the faith that they had received.

And notice what it says about the church. The church is God's church. The church is God's church. the church of God in Christ. This is where the church finds its identity. We imitate the apostles when we realize that we are a part of God's church, that we are Christ's body, that we can lean and rely on one another, that we can be there for one another when suffering does happen, when persecution does come.

The question I asked, though, when I was reading this is, why does Paul point out Judea? What is it in this that Paul says, you became like us and like the churches of God in Christ in Judea? Why did he bring up Philippi? Why didn't he bring up the churches in Aeonia? Why did he go back to the churches in Judea? Remember Paul's past life. Who was Paul before he was Saul? He was a persecutor of the church.

Just for a few seconds, put your finger here in 1 Thessalonians and flip back a few pages with me to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 8. We're not going to spend much time here, but I just want you to hear what Paul is described at. Acts chapter 8, verse 3. Acts chapter 8, verse 3. As for Saul, he made havoc on the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Then flip over a page to Acts chapter nine, verse one.

Then Saul, This is later Paul. Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, that being Christians, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Saul was there when Stephen was stoned. As he watched a man be executed and murdered for believing in Jesus Christ, he stood there giving his approval. And not just that, then Saul, in his zealosity to destroy the church, went out into the area trying to destroy the church of God, as if that would be possible. Saul knew what it was like to look into the face of one of Christian women as he was dragging them out of their homes because they believed in Jesus Christ. Saul knew what it was like to look into the eyes of children as he was threatening murderous insults at their parents. Saul knew what this was like.

And indeed, in Jerusalem, this was the hotbed of persecution. This is where the Jewish people had killed Jesus Christ himself. And after Jesus, they weren't satisfied with that. Jesus' own brother, James, they took him to the top of the temple and they threw him off the wall. And when he didn't die there, someone came along and beat him to death on the floor.

In Jerusalem, they persecuted the Christians from house to house. In Jerusalem and in Judea and in Galilee and the whole area, they persecuted those people who followed the way, Jesus Christ. They sought to kill them, they sought to destroy them. They wanted to wipe out the people of God. And yet, they couldn't dissuade the Christians to give up their Messiah.

And yet, even in the face of tribulation, even in the face of persecution, even in the pressure of suffering, someone, something was more valuable to them than their very lives. Why would they keep going? Why would those people in Thessalonica keep going? What would be the anchor of their soul? What would it be that would cause them to actually Stay there.

I mean, brothers and sisters, I've noticed what he says here again in verse 14. This wasn't just strangers coming and persecuting them. What does verse 14 say? For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, from your neighbors. This is like going to school with somebody since you were kindergartners and now you're 55 and someone comes along and you've known them your entire life and they're selling you out to the authorities. These are your business partners. These are people in your neighborhood. These are your friends who are turning their backs upon you and turning you in to the authorities. This is what Jesus said, that fathers would turn against their children and sisters would turn against their brothers. This is the reality of how divisive the gospel is.

What would keep them? Why would they keep going? Why would our brothers and sisters in China lose their jobs because they won't sign on to the formalistic Communist Party? Because if you join the Communist Party, you're making a vow that you're an atheist. Why is it that a Christian would give up their place in the Communist Party, even though they know it's going to cost them their job? Even though they know that it could cost them their livelihood, but not just that, their landlords being pressured into evicting them, getting deported into far away corners of the country.

Why? Why would they keep doing this? Why would this Russians during the Cold War, why would Christians continue to profess Jesus Christ even though the Soviets would come along and throw them into labor camps in Siberia? Why? What would keep them going? What would keep our Canadian brothers as they are preaching the word even now?

Just this week, another Canadian pastor was arrested for preaching. Just this week, An elderly man saw what was going on in the streets in London, got up and he couldn't bear it anymore, seeing people walk away that leads to destruction. The city where Charles Spurgeon was once the famous pastor, the city in which D.L. Moody held massive revivals, the city full of Puritans, the city that once was a heart of Protestantism. And this older man, seeing a generation that has gone towards debauchery, got up and just said, repent for the ways of sin leads to death and began to preach. And people called the police and they arrested him for hate speech. What would cause people to continue to believe, to continue to hold on?

What would cause you to be an imitator of the apostles, of Paul, Timothy, Silas, the prophets, Do you think that much of Jesus? Is Jesus Christ worth that much to you? Is God that big in your eyes that you would give up everything to follow after him? Would you be willing to forsake mother and father that you would follow after Jesus Christ? Would you be willing to join a church and be a part of the people of God and go into God's church saying, this is my family, these are my mothers, these are my brothers, these are my sisters, even though you know that it might cost you your reputation? and your friendship, is Jesus Christ worth it to you? Have you counted the cost?

This is a real heart check for you this morning, I pray that you really ask yourself. Because brothers and sisters, the time of, unless the Lord does some type of miracle, the time of the evangelical privilege that we have in America is going to come to an end. Might sound like a broken record because pastors have been saying this for 50 years. If they knew what was going on today, it'd be even that much more so true now, because it happens slowly.

Your children face it in schools. Our friends face it when they go to college. Go talk to any psychologist or counselor and they'll tell you about deconversion therapies. There's entire movements of having unbaptisms. It's become cool. It has become cool in my generation for people to take the term ex-evangelical. Not because they're turning to some other type of Christianity, but because they want nothing to do with the faith. And they're pressuring their friends likewise to do it.

What would keep you? What will keep you holding on to the faith? Children, what will keep you believing in Jesus Christ. He needs to become greater. We need his word to work effectively in our own hearts. We need to care for one another, pray for one another, build one another up. We need to look to Jesus Christ. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ who sits above in the heavenly realm at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. We need to think about the things above. Brothers, sisters, We need to lift up our chins to Him.

We need to think much of Jesus. Because if we turn our eyes away from there when tribulation and suffering comes, if He's not greater to us, then everything else in this world will buckle under the pressure. This doesn't look, this doesn't look like, you know, going out like Origen and purposely trying to go seek martyrdom. but it might mean like for you living a quiet faith with inner resilience from the Holy Spirit. Do you encourage your spouse in their faith? Do you encourage your children to look to Jesus Christ? Are you raising your children up as you walk along the way, as you sit down with them at dinner? Do you talk to them about Jesus? Brothers and sisters, we need to become imitators being willing to suffer persecution, but we'll only be able to do it if our eyes are fixed on Jesus.

Lastly, know.

Know that there is judgment to come. know that there is an indictment here that Paul has that he lays out five different charges against the Jewish people. Three of those charges still apply today outside the Jewish people. What are the five charges that he brings up with me at verses 14, or sorry, 15 and 16? Speaking of the Judeans who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own people and have persecuted us and they do not please God and are contrary to men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins, but wrath has come upon them to the utter most. Five different charges Paul brings against the Jewish people of his time.

Number one, They killed Jesus. Number two, they killed the prophets. This is exactly what Peter said at Pentecost, that you put Jesus to death by the hands of wicked men. Yeah, it was the Romans who killed Jesus, but you're the one who incited the trial and forced Pilate's hand. Jesus himself is the one who says in the book of Matthew that the people, the Jewish people themselves killed the prophets. So first two charges, killing Jesus and killing the prophets. You remember what they did to John the Baptist. Thirdly, they drove out the apostles.

What was Paul's normal mode of operation when he would come into any new city? He would go to the synagogue first. He would go to the worship place of the Jews, and if there wasn't there, he would go find whatever small prayer group there was for Jewish people. And time and time again, when he would go there, the Jewish people would hear him for a little while, then have hardened hearts, and then would chase them out of town, persecute them, arrest them, beat them, hand them over to the authorities, cause riots. Remember in Ephesus when they caused a whole mob violence and took the people, took the Christians into the amphitheater and chanted, great is Artemis of Ephesus, great is Artemis of Ephesus. I mean, just pushing them again and again out of towns.

Fourth charge, they displeased God. In all of these things, they displeased God. The Jewish people thought that they were those who were bringing God's favor upon them. In all reality, their legalism and their rejection of Christ was filthy rags. God had won no part of it. It was displeasing to God.

Lastly, his fifth charge against the Jews of that time is that they were hostile to all people. hostile to all people. The New King James Version translates it, and are contrary to all men. They're against, they're opposed to all people. And how is it shown that they were opposed to the people? It's a very real way in verse 16 when he shows them how they were opposed to all people. They hindered, they thwarted the gospel going out.

Have you ever heard the magician's pen and teller? They're not for kids, right? But one of their dads was actually a pastor. And he left the church and left the faith when he became an adult. But one of the things he tells a story about is this man who came up to him. A man who came up to him very unassumingly and gave him a Bible and he said, I'm not a preacher or anything like that. I just wanted you to know about Jesus Christ. And he said he had more respect for that man than the thousands of Christians who would come to his shows and laugh at his jokes, but then would let him go to hell because they wouldn't ever tell him about Jesus.

Even though he still rejected, he said, at least he actually cared about my soul. That's what Paul is saying here is that they don't even, the Jews don't care about people's souls because they're actually stopping the good news from going out. They're stopping the apostles from going and spreading the good news. What hatred you must have towards others if they cannot hear the peace and good news of Jesus Christ, that God has made a way for sinners to be made right with him.

That's what it says here. This is one of their charges. The gospel could not go out. And God was letting this happen. The Lord was actually letting this happen. The Lord lets this happen in a number of times, in a number of different ways. Look with me at verse 16. They were forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. God is allowing their sins to be filled up.

This is exactly what he said about the Amorites in the book of Genesis. Genesis, I'm finding it in my notes here, I don't see it, but in the book of Genesis, when he's talking about, Genesis 15, 16, when he's talking about the Amorites, why the people aren't in Abraham's time able to just go, or sorry, Jacob's time, able to just go straight into the promised land. He said, their sin's not yet full.

God is patient. Brothers and sisters, people presume upon the patience of God. And they think because God isn't sending down hellstone and fire right now, that he's not zapping people who are sinners right now, that somehow God just doesn't care about their sin. People presume upon the mercy of God, the patience of God. In a real way, the Lord is patient with them. But the Lord is patient with us when he shows us mercy because for some reason, I don't know why he chose us, sinful people like myself, he's patient with us to show us mercy. But his patience isn't always for mercy. Sometimes his patience is to say, I've given you enough time to repent.

The list of charges goes on and on and on. You know this weight against your conscience. You know people like this in your life, don't you? They know the things that they're doing are wrong. They use the Lord's name in vain, and they'll say it, you know, because their consciences are burned, and they say, oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that. You know, they're weighed down by this, and they know the list of charges against them is something that they could never deal with themselves, but they just keep on going with it, because they'll still wake up tomorrow, because their house won't burn down today, presuming upon the graciousness of God.

What does it say here? But wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. This is an interesting use. There's only a handful of times that this form is used, but wrath has come upon them. This is grammatical. If we were in chalk and talk, I'd break this apart for you, but this is what's called a future aorist. Aorist is normally a past tense type thing, which is why it says has come as if it's already there. But sometimes the apostles and the prophets will use this form to speak of something that's so sure to happen that they could talk about it as if it's already happened.

Paul is so sure that the wrath of God is going to be poured out upon them, that he's able to say the wrath of God has already been poured out upon them. God's displeasure is already seen upon them. And we do see this in our own lives already. This is what Paul says in Romans chapter 1 verse 18, that the wrath of God has already been seen on those who are children of disobedience. And then he goes on, and the fruits of those, of seeing that judgment, as they continue in idolatry and homosexuality and greed and lust. These sins are not an indication that God's judgment is going to come. Brothers and sisters, the sins that we see so prevalent in our culture around us are an indication that God's judgment has already started. And I say that again because it should bring tears to our eyes. It brought tears to Paul's eyes in Romans chapter nine. God's judgment has already begun and is so severe that we see the fruits of his judgment now. We see it in our own country.

I was just talking to someone in the congregation not too long ago. If you pick apart the culture of what's being pushed at us now, it all leads to no more families, Broken relationships, abusive relationships, addictive relationships, culture, the foundational stones of having a society crumbling under our feet. It's indications that the judgment has already started. It's not to say that the Lord can't change this, that the Lord can't pour out his Holy Spirit, that the Lord can't give us revival, that people can't see their eyes, but this is what I'm saying.

Do we have the heart, brothers and sisters, like Paul had in Romans chapter nine, when he would say that if he was able to go to hell for his countrymen, these Jews, he would do it, that he could go to hell and they could be safe, he'd be willing to do it.

Brothers and sisters, do we think about our neighbors that way? Do we think about those around us as they're in lockstep going down the road that leads to destruction? Do we say, Father, I don't deserve your mercy. Please, please do whatever is necessary to save my child because they're going this way and I know the way that it leads. And it's going the way that's going to destroy their future. not just here in this life, but for all eternity? Do we cry for our neighbors and our communities for what's being pushed in our secular universities and even in our Christian schools? Do we cry out to God that these things that we see of his judgment already being here, that people would have their eyes opened and their ears unstopped as they're marching the way that leads to death?

We cannot sit here glib and just say, oh, the charges are against him, but God loves me. No, our hearts grieved. And is that well up in us, thanks? Because we were under the same condemnation. That this is the way we used to walk. Those charges, many of them could be used against us as we were those who lived lives displeasing to God. Do you see why Paul could say he gives thanks for them every time he remembers? Because we, you used to live a life like that. You had all the heart inclinations to lead you like that. And God in his mercy opened your ears, gave light to your eyes, that you might receive the word of God as it truly is.

Closing Prayer

That I might work in your hearts and that you might imitate Jesus Christ and his apostles. Brothers and sisters, know where your own heart is. Know where God's brought you from. Let your vision of Jesus Christ become greater, that you might endure the affliction that is to come. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you might well us up with joy in Jesus. Father, we pray that you would let these words hit true to our hearts. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would burn away all the silly and extra things that I might have said, but that your word might remain, and that our eyes might see your glory, and that our hearts might be steadfast in Jesus. It's in his name