1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we are returning to the paragraph that we began last Sunday.
We'll finish it today.
And so let's read the whole paragraph together, though most of our focus is going to be on
verses 15 and 16.
Let's read the entire paragraph, beginning at verse 13.
1 Thessalonians chapter 2, 13 to 16.
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive 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.
For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God and Christ Jesus that are in Judea.
For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who
killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased God and oppose
all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved.
So as or with the result that they are always to fill up the measure of their sins.
Wrath has come upon them at last.
Well, as we said last week, there's two groups of people that are presented to us in this text.
Both groups of people share an immense privilege that many people actually do not experience
in their lifetime.
And it's this, everyone to which and about which Paul was writing in 1 Thessalonians had
at some point received the word of God.
They'd received the word of God.
And in the context of the passage that we just read, received refers to hearing a particular
message.
And that message, what he calls the word of God, is the good news of salvation through Jesus
Christ as it is revealed to us in the scriptures.
We call it the gospel, right?
So everybody to which he's writing and about which he's writing has received this message,
this gospel message from the word of God.
However, not everyone who receives the gospel, who receives the word of God, responds in the
same way.
As we discovered in our study of verse 13, some people, like the Christians in Thessalonica,
upon receiving the gospel of Jesus, accept it as Paul's word.
If you'll just set your eyes on verse 13 again.
When you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it.
So this is in direct reference to the Christians in Thessalonica.
They accepted it.
That is, they welcomed it.
They believed it.
And so Paul offers his thanksgiving to God for this because he recognized that the conversion
of the Thessalonian believers ultimately was the result of God's work in them through the
preaching of the gospel message.
That's what he says, isn't it?
That you had accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of
God, the gospel, which is at work in you.
And we said that this work of God through the word of God continues in each believer so that
their faith that is established at their conversion then continues and perseveres even in the face
of serious suffering.
So in verses 13 and 14, we find that the word of God works.
It is at work to save sinners and to strengthen saints.
That was all last Sunday.
But there's another group that's represented and described in these verses as well.
Well, those who accept the gospel are represented in the text by the Thessalonian Christians.
Those who reject the gospel are portrayed here in these verses by the unbelieving Jews who
persecuted them.
That's the focus.
The end of verse 14 all the way to the end of the paragraph.
Just look at it with me once again.
He says at the end of verse 14, you became imitators of the churches of God and Christ Jesus
that are in Judea for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did
from the Jews.
Countrymen here in this case is directly correlating to Jews.
So that while the Thessalonian Christians certainly endured suffering at the hands of unbelieving
Gentiles, the opposition against them was initiated, it was instigated, and it was continued by the
Jews in their city in particular.
And in this way, their experience and their perseverance imitated the Lord Jesus.
It imitated the prophets.
It imitated Paul and his team.
And of course, it imitated the other congregations in Judea.
Now, let me just show you from Acts 17.
Once again, that's Luke's record of the beginnings of the church in Thessalonica.
In Acts 17, verse 5, and then again in verse 13, it tells us this,
but the Jews were jealous and taking some wicked men of the rabble.
They formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason,
seeking to bring them out to the crowd.
And then a little bit later in verse 13, it says,
But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also,
they came there too, agitating, stirring up the crowds there.
So Paul doesn't write to the Thessalonians, and he doesn't mean to say that all Christian persecution,
that every hardship that they faced came at the hands of the Jews.
He's just referencing in the beginnings of the church the historical reality of the fact
that what they were experiencing in their suffering was started and continued,
at least up to this point, specifically by unbelieving Jews,
who in Acts 17 were said to have been jealous over the conversion of some of the Thessalonican people.
And some people have looked at passages like this,
and they have used them to try to accuse Paul of being anti-Semitic.
But that's a weak argument when you really begin to understand what he means here,
and then of course, some of his other writings.
He wasn't putting the blame of all Christian persecution on the shoulders of the Jews.
He was using their historic involvement in such things as an example of those
who after hearing and receiving the Word of God even repeatedly,
continue to reject it, sometimes even vehemently, violently.
Their rejection of the gospel, their harm toward God's people,
led to greater and greater sin.
And Paul gives us an illustration here,
like a glass being continually filled with water.
Their rejection of God's Word eventually spills over.
And what does it spill over into?
The wrath of God.
So the Word of God that works to save sinners and strengthen saints in verses 13 and 14,
we're told in verses 15 and 16 is the same Word of God that works to condemn rebels.
They will ultimately be held accountable to God for their rejection of His Word.
So in contrast to the Thessalonians who accepted the gospel are the Jews who rejected it.
Now do you understand what I'm getting at there?
Why is it that Paul is writing this?
Why is he focused so much on the Jewish involvement in this persecution?
Well, one, because that was the reality of the persecution.
He's just being honest about what was happening.
There's more to it than that.
This is a picture here.
On one hand, we have those who receive the gospel and accept it.
They believe it.
They welcome it.
That's the Gentile believers there in Thessalonica.
But then on the other hand, we have those who receive the gospel.
They hear the Word of God preached over and over and over and over and over and over.
They reject it.
They're filling up their sins.
It's going to spill over eventually into wrath.
Paul is describing for us two groups of people.
Those who accept.
Those who reject.
And the fact of the matter is that each of us shares in the same exact privilege as they did.
So as we come to this text again for the second week in a row, the overarching question is very simple.
To which group do you belong?
We already know that you share in the privilege.
You've heard the gospel.
Most of us have heard it probably hundreds, maybe thousands of times in our lifetime.
You've heard the gospel.
Now what are you going to do with it?
Will you accept it?
You believe it.
You welcome it.
Or will you reject it?
Turn away from it.
And what I want to do this morning is actually quite simple with the end of this paragraph.
I just want to look at the scriptures to show the pattern and the result of hearing the gospel and yet continuing to reject it.
And then at the end I just want to draw three simple but important applications.
Okay?
You're going to look specifically at the pattern of the scripture with the Jews in particular.
Of hearing the gospel and rejecting it again and again.
What the result of that is.
And then at the very end we'll come back and we'll just make three simple and essential applications about it.
Okay?
So let's think about the word condemns the rebel.
The word condemns the rebel.
Look with me again at verses 15 and 16.
The Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved.
So as always to fill up the measure of their sins.
That's that illustration.
And when it spills over what is it?
The wrath of God has come upon them.
The progression of Paul's argument is simple enough to see.
First he recounts a series of hateful responses by unbelieving Jews beginning with Jesus' crucifixion.
He could have gone earlier than that.
Jesus goes earlier than that.
And we'll get to that in just a moment.
But in the case of this text Paul goes as far back as Jesus.
And he says they killed the Lord Jesus.
The crucifixion of Jesus.
And then he continues through a series of hateful violent responses to the gospel message and to God's people.
That culminates in this context in Thessalonica.
Leading all the way up to what they were experiencing even then.
That's the first thing he does in verse 15.
And then after he illustrates those incidents as I said as a glass being filled up.
You know what's the illustration about?
It's about anticipation.
I should have brought a pitcher of water and a glass with me this morning.
If you were to just slowly begin pouring water and glass or if you're ever watching your waiter refill your drink at the table and they get distracted while they're pouring your drink.
And you're just anticipating that any moment now is going to get to the top and it's going to spill over.
That's the point of the illustration.
That they are filling up in their rejection of the gospel.
In their sin.
They are filling up like a pitcher that's just pouring water in a glass.
It's getting fuller and fuller and fuller and fuller and eventually what's going to happen, the final thing, is it's going to spill over.
So he declares that the filling up of Israel's sins results in the pouring out of God's wrath against them.
And that final statement there in verse 16 when he says that God's wrath has come upon them at last.
It's a bit tricky, isn't it?
Until you remember that Paul is speaking prophetically.
There's a type of statement that can be unveiled in the original languages here.
We would call it a prophetic perfect, which essentially means Paul's speaking prophetically here.
Essentially what he means here is that the condemnation of the Jews as a people, right, for the rejection of the Messiah has already been inaugurated.
And it is going to be fulfilled ultimately at the final judgment.
That's what he means when he says the wrath has come upon them at last.
It's been inaugurated now as the gospel is going throughout the world.
God has turned his focus away from Israel and he's focused now on the world and the salvation of the world.
And this judgment from God will be made final.
It will come to its completion at the return of Christ.
So when Paul says this at the end of the passage, what he means is it's been inaugurated, but it's certain.
There's no question they will be condemned for their rejection.
So Israel in this illustration receives the word,
rejects the word,
and is ultimately judged by God according to the word that they have rejected.
Okay, you follow me?
With me.
That's the flow of argument here in verses 15 and 16.
Now let's think about the scandal of it.
The scandal of Israel's rejection of the gospel is magnified by the fact
that no group in history, in the history of humanity,
no group was more privileged and prepared to rejoice in God's Messiah than Israel.
Nobody was better prepared for it.
Nobody was more privileged to be ready for it, to receive it, to accept it than they were.
It was Israel that God called out to be the people through which he would display his glory in the fallen world,
beginning with Abraham and continuing on through the patriarchs to David and ultimately to Jesus.
It was to Israel that God gave his law and his very presence.
It was Israel that God preserved as a people over and over and over in spite of their sin and rebellion.
And supremely it was to Israel that God gave his very son, the Messiah, the Christ,
the serpent crusher from Genesis 3, 15,
the perfect lamb, spotless lamb pictured for Israel in the sacrifices that they would make at the temple
and the tabernacle all throughout their history.
The one that the prophets continually preached to them was coming,
all the promises, the covenants, everything God had promised.
He was sending this Messiah to and through Israel
in order that he might bring salvation to the world.
And yet despite this immense privilege on the whole as a group,
they routinely rejected God,
rejected his covenants,
and ultimately rejected his Messiah.
Isn't that what John means in John chapter 1 in that great prologue?
What is it that he says?
He came into his own,
his own in the Jews.
He came to his own,
and his own did not receive him.
They would not receive him.
Now, I want to read just a few verses from Romans chapter 9.
They're on the screen for you.
Notice what Paul says about it here.
And this is another thing that works against this claim that Paul was anti-Semitic.
He says,
I'm speaking the truth in Christ.
I'm not lying.
My conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit
that I have great sorrow
and unceasing anguish in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed
and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,
my kinsmen according to the flesh.
They are Israelites.
And notice what he says.
To them belong the adoption.
God made them his own people.
The glory.
He gave them his presence.
The covenants.
He spoke to them his promises.
The giving of the law.
The worship.
The promises.
To them belongs the patriarchs.
From their race, according to the flesh,
is the Christ,
who is God over all,
blessed forever.
That's their privilege.
Over and over and over.
Israel heard the word of God.
Over and over and over.
They heard the promises of the Messiah.
And then they saw the Messiah.
And they killed him.
Then he rose from the dead.
And they rejected him still.
Because of Israel's privilege,
yet hardness of heart,
Jesus routinely warned them
of the future wrath of God
if they would not repent and believe.
Even a cursory reading of the Gospels
will show that much of Jesus' interaction
with his own people,
especially in the days leading up
to his crucifixion and resurrection,
was on this very topic.
And I want to show you just one example
that I think Paul is drawing from
when he writes this
in 1 Thessalonians 2.
In fact, why don't you turn with me there
to Matthew 23.
Matthew 23, verses 29 to 36.
Matthew 23, verse 29.
Jesus said, this is Jesus speaking,
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you build the tombs of the prophets
and decorate the monuments of the righteous,
saying this,
If we had lived in the days of our fathers,
we would not have taken part with them
in shedding the blood of the prophets.
So they recognized that their forefathers
killed the men that God sent to warn them.
And Jesus says,
You build these tombs for them
and you decorate them
and you make these festivals around them
and you acknowledge them, special days.
And then you say pridefully
that if we had lived at the time
that our fathers did,
we would have never done what they did.
And notice what Jesus says next.
Thus you witness against yourselves
that you are the sons of those
who murdered the prophets.
Now notice what he says.
This is what Paul's drawing from.
Fill up then, he says,
the measure of your fathers.
You serpents,
brood of vipers,
how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Now notice what Jesus says.
Therefore, I am sending you prophets
and wise men and scribes.
And here's what you're gonna do.
Some of them you will kill and crucify.
Some you will flog in your synagogues
and persecute from town to town
so that on you may come
all the righteous bloodshed on earth
from the blood of the righteous Abel
to the blood of Zechariah,
the son of Berechiah,
whom you murdered
between the sanctuary and the altar.
Truly I say to you,
all these things will come upon this generation.
So what is it that Jesus does?
First he looks back
and he says,
look, this is what your forefathers did.
This is what Israel has always done, he says.
He says, God sends you his people.
He sends you his messengers.
They preach the gospel to you.
They preach the word to you
and they killed them.
And now today you say
that you would never do that.
So let me tell you what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna send to you prophets
and wise men and scribes
and you're gonna do to them
the same thing that your forefathers did
to the ones that God sent to them.
That's what he says.
He is going to,
they are going to fill up to the brim
the measure of their father's sins.
These wise men and prophets and scribes
verse 34,
they're the apostles.
The prophets,
the churches that Christ would use
to spread his gospel around the world
and Jesus prophesied
that the Jews of his day
would continue filling up
the sins of their fathers
who killed the prophets
God sent to them
and they will do it
by crucifixion,
by flogging,
by persecuting those he sins.
And what did Jesus say
would be the result
of this continued rejection
of his gospel
and of his people?
They will not, quote,
escape being sentenced to hell.
This is what I think Paul is drawing from.
They receive the word,
Christ sends it to them.
They reject the word,
they reject the prophets,
wrath.
And the end is,
the result,
is hell.
Eternal hell.
Wrath.
Now it's not very long after this
that there was a man in Jerusalem
named Stephen
who preached this very gospel
in Jerusalem
after Jesus rose from the den
and he was using the same themes
as Jesus did.
And at the very end of his sermon,
notice what Stephen says
in Acts chapter 7.
You stiff-necked
people.
He didn't mince words,
did he?
Now he's not just being a jerk.
That's Old Testament language
that God used
to condemn Israel
when they rebelled against them.
And what Stephen's doing here
is he's not just,
not just trying to be a jerk
to them.
What he's doing
is he's drawing on
the parallels
from the Old Testament
from the sins
of their fathers.
And he says,
you stiff-necked people,
uncircumcised
in heart and ears.
You always resist
the Holy Spirit.
You keep doing it.
As your fathers did,
so do you.
And which of the prophets
did your fathers
not persecute?
They killed those
who announced beforehand
the coming of the righteous one
whom you have now
betrayed and murdered.
Now notice what he says.
You who received the law
as delivered by angels
and did not keep it.
Now notice that last part again.
They received the law,
the word of God,
but they did not keep it.
Or in the language
of 1 Thessalonians 2,
they did not accept it.
That sermon itself
by Stephen,
it was another
gracious opportunity
for the Jews present
to turn from their sin
and unbelief
to trust Christ.
But do you know
what they did?
They murdered Stephen instead.
Doing just as Jesus
prophesied they would do.
He said,
I'm going to send you prophets.
You're going to have
more opportunities
to respond to the gospel message.
And God sends them
and they hear the message
and they remain hardened
in their heart
to the message.
And they kill God's prophet.
But just as an aside here,
if you need a ray of hope,
there was another present
who is said to have been
consenting to Stephen's murder
in that moment.
later he would repent
and believe.
His name was Saul.
We know him as Paul,
the author of 1 Thessalonians.
Now can we just say,
if you were to look
at that crowd,
based on what we understand
the scriptures to say,
if you were to look
at that crowd that day,
of the people
that were stoning Stephen
and consenting to this murder,
and you were to point out one
and say there's no way
that person will ever
turn to Christ,
Saul's probably the one
you'd point to.
He was a murderer.
He thought on behalf of God
he was doing God a favor
by actually putting to death
and imprisoning Christians
who believed
like Stephen believed.
And all of us probably
would look at him
and say there's no way.
There's no way
he'd ever turn.
And yet he's the one
who turns.
And here in 1 Thessalonians 2
he's reflecting on all of this.
But of course being underscored
by the gospel.
And so maybe there's somebody
in your life
and you've proclaimed
to the gospel
to them hundreds of times maybe.
And they keep rejecting
and they keep rejecting
and they keep rejecting.
Don't stop proclaiming.
Don't stop.
If Paul will turn,
if God can transform him,
surely he can transform
your kids and your parents
and your co-workers
and your friends
and the people that you love
that are so hardened
to the gospel now,
just keep giving them the word.
Isn't that what we learned
last week in 13 and 14?
That God works through the word.
So what is it
that is our responsibility?
Give the word.
Give the gospel.
That's what God uses.
Just keep doing it.
Just keep praying.
Perhaps what you have
is a song
and God is prepared
to transform them soon enough.
Now back to 1 Thessalonians 2.
What's Paul's point
in saying all of this
to the Thessalonians?
What's the point
in us taking so much time
to think about it now?
Again,
it's to show Israel
as the supreme example
of receiving the gospel,
the word of God,
yet continually rejecting
that truth
through willful hardness of heart.
it's a warning for us
not to be like them.
Now give me your attention.
If you don't listen
to anything else,
listen to this.
Give me your eyes.
Old and young,
teenagers,
listen to what I'm telling you.
This is a warning
not to be like Israel.
Some of you
are dangerously close
to being like Israel.
Israel isn't the only privileged people
in this sense.
Every Sunday,
there are people
who sit in worship services
like this one
where the gospel of Jesus
is proclaimed
through preaching,
it's praised through song,
it's displayed
through ordinances,
ordinances,
yet they continue
to reject
what they've been
so privileged to receive
so many times.
And it's real easy
to look at the Bible
and say,
how could Israel
be so stupid
after all of that
and over and over,
after all that privilege
to still reject it
and yet there's people
who sit in churches
like this every Sunday
and they hear the gospel
every Sunday
over and over
and over and over
and they continue
to reject it.
They will not respond
in repentance and faith.
And here's the question.
Is that you?
Is it you?
Because if it is,
you can appropriately
read yourself
into this text here.
You are filling up
the measure of your sins
and unbelief
which will eventually
spill over
resulting in the eternal wrath
of the Almighty God.
The Word of God
that you now reject
that can save your soul
is the same Word
that will condemn you
in the end.
And what a shame
it will have been
to have heard
the gospel message
so often
and still be condemned
in the end.
But it's a faith
that you don't have
to accept.
There is hope for you
now.
Can I just read
to you Romans 3?
In fact,
why don't you turn
with me there?
Turn with me
to Romans chapter 3.
Romans 3.
Maybe you know
this passage well.
Romans chapter 3
verse 19.
Now we know
that whatever
the law says
it speaks to those
who are under the law
so that every mouth
may be stopped
and the whole world
may be held accountable
to God.
Now what's Paul saying?
He's saying nobody's
without excuse.
He's saying if you're
a Jew
or you have received
the law
or you've had opportunity
you'll be condemned
by that very law.
It's the point
that we're making
from 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2 as well.
That you will be held by it.
You'll be held accountable
to it.
And every mouth
will be stopped.
Every mouth will be
accountable to God.
Verse 20.
He acknowledges
by works of the law
no human being
will be justified
since it's through
the law
that comes the knowledge
of sin.
In other words
if Israel
couldn't do it
through the law
what hope do we have?
What hope do we have?
And the answer is
before you get to verse 20
you don't have any hope.
You don't have any.
On your own
you have no hope.
Oh but verse 20
or 21
it comes into play
for us so helpfully
doesn't it?
But now
the righteousness
of God
has been revealed
apart from the law.
Even though the law
and the prophets
testify to it
it's the righteousness
of God
through faith
in Jesus Christ
for all who believe.
For there's no distinction.
All have sinned
and fall short
of the glory of God
and all are justified
by His grace
as a gift
through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus
whom God put forward
as a propitiation
by His blood
to be received
by faith.
This was to show
God's righteousness
because in His divine
forbearance
He passed over
former sins.
It was to show
His righteousness
at this present time
so that He might be just
in that He has condemned sin
through Christ
and He might be
the justifier
of the one
who has faith
in Jesus Christ.
Now this is where
your hope comes in.
This is the gospel message
that we're all broken
we're all sinners
we're all rebels
that deserve to be condemned
by the very word
that we have rejected
and yet Christ
in the fullness of time
as we're thinking
about all month
Christ in the fullness
of time
was sent by the Father
born under the law
to redeem those of us
who are under the law.
Why?
So that He might make us
adopted
so that we might receive
the adoption
and how do we receive that?
Well it's not because
you go to church
it's not because you give
it's not because you do
the charitable work
that you do
it's not because you go Friday
to Operation Christmas Child
and fill out
fill out Christmas boxes
it's not that
it's all about
faith in Christ.
Christ has done it
He's done it for you
this is the message
that the Jews rejected
this is the message
that you must accept
you must accept it
and why wouldn't you?
Why wouldn't you?
Come to Christ
trust in Him
what He's done for us
on the cross
Romans 3 is said
to be a propitiation
it has appeased
the wrath of God
that 1 Thessalonians 2 says
has come upon the Jews
who continue to reject
the Christ
but in Romans 3
whether you're a Jew or not
it has appeased
the wrath of God
if you will just
come to Christ
and believe it
isn't that amazing?
if you're alive
and breathing right now
it's not too late
to repent
and accept the good news
of Jesus
it's not too late
how long
you've rejected Him
or even harmed His people
or prevented others
from hearing the gospel
doesn't matter
if you come to Him
in faith
at this moment
now
you will receive
nothing
but mercy
mercy
through Christ
this is why
we call it a gospel
because it really is
good news
it's the best news
oh don't reject it
come to Him for it
now
let's just finish
with three
essential applications
from 1 Thessalonians 2
it's really just a summary
of what we've already said
first thing is this
the opportunity
to respond to the gospel
is now
it's now
we live in a time
of God's patience
and grace
don't we
the fact that you're here
today
is a testament
of God's
gracious
merciful work
in your life
you're here
you hear the gospel again
oh that's His goodness
at work
in your life
now is the opportunity
to respond
don't be like Israel
don't refuse
every opportunity
to be saved
the time of judgment
has not yet come
now is the time
to receive mercy
and grace
that's what Paul writes
to the church in Corinth
behold now is the favorable time
now is the day of salvation
don't wait
second
there is an end
to God's patience
toward those
who reject His word
there's an end
it's a determined end
decisive end
you may feel at ease
in the moment
but judgment really is coming
the glass just keeps filling up
eventually
it will spill over
and all who refuse the gospel
will face God's wrath
and no one
who's in this room
this morning
will be able to stand
before God
and say
well nobody told me
you'll be held accountable
to the very word
that you hear now
so
now's the time
to respond
don't wait
because judgment
does eventually come
now
for those of you
who are Christians
let's not forget
that this whole
section
in this paragraph
that flows out
of the Thessalonians
suffering for the gospel
that's the context
isn't it
Paul goes on
this little digression
here as he's presenting
to us the differences
between the two groups
we have those
who accept the word
and those who reject it
so let's return
to that first thought
for those who accept it
what was their experience
suffering
hardship
which is a reminder
to us
that to be a Christian
what it means
is to see
the supreme
value
of Christ
over everything else
even your very life
isn't that the testimony
of the Thessalonians
they willingly
endured
the suffering
why
because they saw
Christ
and his gospel
as far more valuable
than even their own lives
and their own comfort
isn't this what Jesus
says
in the parables
of the kingdom
when he says
that the kingdom
is like
a man
who's walking
through the field
and he finds a treasure
that's of incalculable value
and he goes
and he sells
everything that he has
to buy that land
in order that he can
have that treasure
Jesus says
that's what I'm like
I'm the treasure
in the field
I'm more valuable
than anything else
what I offer you
is more valuable
than anything
you might try
to hold on to
in this life
we understand that
as believers
don't we
that's the work
of the word
at work in us
not only at conversion
but that's why
we keep coming back
to the gospel
isn't it
because when things
are hard
whether it be
through persecution
and suffering
at the hands
of unbelievers
or maybe it's just
the result of life
in a fallen world
we get sick
and we have pain
and we lose people
we love
death awaits
all of us
this life is hard
every day is hard
in some way
and some of you
know that
even more than
than others
you experience
it every day
why do we keep
coming back
to the gospel
as God's people
because in the pain
and in the suffering
and in the persecution
we're reminded
that Christ
is far more valuable
than any comfort
I might receive now
he's just better
and I can endure it
because he's good
and he's gracious
and he's gonna bring me home
and when it brings me home
I'll never have this pain again
I'm never gonna have
the sorrow again
I'll never have to face
death again
I'll never be broken again
he really is better
Christians know that
which is why
when we do face suffering
the word of God
keeps working in us
to do what?
Causes us to persevere
isn't that the point
for the Thessalonians?
Isn't that why
Paul's thanking God?
I thank God
that you've done this work
in the Thessalonian Christians
God
through your word
what work?
Persevering work
that is based on the gospel
so what do we learn
from that as Christians?
Oh Christian
we need the gospel
every day
you need the gospel
can you just close
with reading a section
from Romans 8
take this as an encouragement
Christian
that those whom he predestined
he also called
those whom he called
he also justified
those whom he justified
he also glorified
and what then shall we say
to these things?
if God is for us
who can be against us?
He who did not spare
his own son
but gave him up
for us all
how will he not also
with him graciously
give us all things?
Who shall bring a charge
against God's elect?
It's God who justifies
who is to condemn us?
Christ Jesus is the one
who died
more than that
who was raised
who is at the right hand of God
who indeed is interceding for us
and who shall separate us
from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation
or distress
or persecution
or famine
or nakedness
or danger
or sword?
No
in all of these things
we are more than conquerors
through him who loves us
for I am sure
that neither death
nor life
nor angels
nor rulers
nor things present
nor things to come
nor powers
nor height
nor depth
nor anything else
in all creation
none of it
will be able to separate us
from the love of God
in Christ Jesus
our Lord
into that we say
Amen