In 1644, the cloud of emotional darkness descended on the Puritan minister, Richard Baxter.
! There are a number of colliding factors as to why life got so hard for him.
! There was a civil war that had basically shut down what was a very successful parish ministry.
He was shunned as an army chaplain by the nation's leadership because he was, in their words, too spiritual.
Close friends of his, dear friends of his life in the civil war.
His own father at that point was a political prisoner.
His health also broke down, rendering him very ill and weak and thinking at the age of 31 that he was near death.
And as all those factors collided and his despair of life set in,
Baxter wrote what became one of the most professional books for generations called The Saints' Everlasting Rest in 1650.
Baxter, in his book, he calls Christians to contemplate our eternal heavenly rest as a way of life now, in the moment.
As an ongoing practice of daily life, constantly recalling the heavenly rest.
He exhausts us not to seek our promised rest and comfort here in earth,
but to keep the new heavens and the new earth at the forefront of our minds, reflecting on it consistently.
And he says that, in fact, that is what fuels a life of faith, love and hope now.
Baxter's book, quite famous even to this day, really is echoing the Apostle Paul in the letters to the Thessalonians.
The moment Paul started this church, as we know from the first letter, there was persecution.
In fact, this young, small church in Thessalonica had never known a time of peace at all.
And so Paul's first letter to them was designed to strengthen a church under pressure and to encourage a church that was immature and vulnerable amongst that pressure,
in order that they would continue to make progress as believers in the Lord Jesus.
Paul urged them, as we know from one of the first letters, to turn away from their sinful life,
to walk obediently to God's word and to set their minds and their hearts and their hopes on the return of the Lord Jesus
and the future glory and joy that awaits for them in that moment.
And so as we open to Thessalonians, we see their trials have not diminished.
Paul again strengthened them by pointing them to the glorious end of all things.
And that is when Jesus returns.
And he also encourages them with the perspective of what it means to live the Christian life until the day of Jesus' return.
And what he says is, you will always be at war in one way or another.
There will always be a battle.
It will always be a struggle in one way or another.
Their trials and their sufferings, crucially, are not a sign that God is not powerful, that he's not good,
or that God had abandoned them.
But it's how God is gloriously changing them.
Their hardship is how God is gloriously changing them.
So as we open up to Thessalonians, we've got three points there.
Apologies for those of you who have got the handouts.
It's mostly there in those handouts, but I've had some more recent inspiration very early this morning.
Anyway, so three points.
First of all, thanksgiving for past grace.
So in his first letter, Paul remembered gratefully the Thessalonians, particularly for three things,
their faith, their love, and their hope.
The trinity of a healthy Christian life, faith, hope, and love.
And the fact that they were productive in their faith, in their hope, and their love.
And now, however, he emphasizes that these qualities from the first letter to the second letter have actually been increasing and growing.
So the persecution that they've been experiencing has not been a hindrance to that at all.
At all.
The original language here, in fact, means that their faith is growing like a plant in the tropics.
You just can't stop it.
And their love for all is overflowing.
The language is like the floodgates of the dam have been opened and just flooding everywhere.
And although he does not mention hope, he does refer to their perseverance and endurance,
which in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 3, he says perseverance and endurance is inspired by hope.
It's a hope, he says, that he boasts about to other churches.
And it was flourishing even amongst the persecution and trials which they were enduring.
And so when he jumps into verse 5,
what he's saying here in verse 5 is that growth in faith, in love and hope is not just evidence of God's grace in their lives,
but it's also evidence that God's judgment is right.
That is, the combination of their trust in Jesus with their current trials, hardships, persecutions they're facing,
it's those things together which are producing great, growing faith, growing love, growing hope.
And God is right in not just calling them to himself,
but he is right in them facing those persecutions, in God gifting them with those persecutions.
What Paul is celebrating here in the first few verses is what you would call healthy Christians and a healthy church.
Now, Western Christians tend to celebrate the growth of programs and facilities and budgets and staff and attendance and energy,
the worship, quality of the worship as signs of church health.
Not Paul, necessarily.
Paul boasts here of their growing faith, their increasing love for each other,
and their hope in the face of hardship.
Those things may flow over into progress in other things, but they may not.
And the fact that there are growing budgets and so on and so forth are not necessarily a sign that the church is growing in faith or love or hope.
And Paul is very keen for them for this growth that they're seeing to continue.
And once again, what he does is he gets them to fix their eyes on the hope of their future glory,
which is the section, the most of this chapter.
And we're launching into a topic that our world society does not like the Christian to talk about.
And unfortunately, way too many Christians are embarrassed by.
That is the concept of future judgment.
All religions in the world believe in some concept of judgment.
Or for some, it's the idea of karma.
For others, Christians, it's a judgment day.
That is, all religions have this concept of a reckoning of some description or accountability of some description.
That is, every person will have a day in a cosmic court, face their record,
and to satisfy the demands of an eternal absolute justice of some degree, whatever it might be.
The secular worldview, however, which is dominant in our society at the moment,
rejects the concept of a final judgment because it asserts there is no moral absolutes.
And so you cannot have a cosmic judgment if there are no moral absolutes that all people must comply with.
So there is no final reckoning.
For instance, Sam Harris, a prominent atheist, begins his book, Free Will,
by recounting a set of callous crimes committed by two men against an innocent family.
And if you read it, it is stomach-churning stuff, awful stuff.
And he concludes that while we might seek some level of restorative justice to stop those people doing that again,
he says you cannot hold those people morally accountable, however.
Sam Harris, secularism.
And Western civilization generally hates the idea of judgment.
Why would we want to believe and embrace the Bible's teaching on Judgment Day?
There are multiple reasons, and I just need to exercise the spiritual gift of superficiality this morning
and just mention two.
It's not a spiritual gift.
Don't need to look that one up.
Give me that gift.
First of all, because the Bible's teaching on Judgment Day is actually good news.
That's the first reason.
The problem with removing a final Judgment Day is it doesn't just mean that moral wrongs are never made right.
That in itself is a problem.
But it also means that no act or life of moral courage is rewarded either.
It means both of those things.
Not just that there's no accountability for wrong, but there's no reward for right.
In fact, removing of Judgment Day means there's nothing at all.
Nothing at all.
So if you want to remove the concept that, well, I don't like the idea God's going to judge me,
but I don't want him to reward me, you remove both when you remove a Judgment Day.
You've gotten rid of both.
Judgment Day means that every sacrifice we make for others actually matters nothing in the end.
It means that no one notices it at all in the end.
Those sacrifices are forgotten.
But Judgment Day means that those sacrifices will never be forgotten.
That there is a reward.
There is someone who sees and so everything means something.
Everything means something.
If, on the other hand, there is no Judgment Day, there is no judge in the end,
and human suffering and injustice goes on until the sun burns out and history ends,
and that means, according to the Nealist, nothing means anything.
There are only two, ultimately, views of life.
Either everything means something or nothing means anything.
And the difference between the two is Judgment Day.
That's the difference.
You see, the big secular thinkers of history, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertrand Russell,
all explained away this concept of a final Judgment Day,
and all of them were honest enough to suggest that when you do,
it takes away all meaning in history.
At least they were honest enough to say that.
Jean-Paul Sartre once said that atheism is a long, hard, cruel business.
And he says, I've lived it to the end.
I'm not sure what he was celebrating in that moment,
but Judgment Day is good news.
But it also is good news because it means that forgiveness is possible.
Have a look at verse 6 there.
God is just.
He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you.
Now, when you read that, you go, hang on a bit.
That seems really harsh.
But it's actually liberating.
It's meant to be liberating for the Thessalonian Christians.
The liberation here is God is just.
He's the one who pays back.
You don't have to.
You Thessalonians, you Christians,
don't need to be in the position of judge of humanity.
Being the judge of someone else when they've wronged us
is a job that we are not qualified for.
Potentially, you know the experience of being in a job
that you're not qualified to do.
I've known that experience myself when I first became the minister here
and other, for instance, when I first became a dad.
It's like, what do I do now?
This is the ultimate job we are not qualified for.
You see, if we keep putting ourselves in the role of judge,
jury and sentencer of other people,
then we are the ones who become imprisoned in our own bitterness.
It destroys us, not them, when we are the judge.
And the reality is, some of us just cannot get past the wrongs
that have been perpetrated against us
because ultimately we don't believe in judgment day.
It's not close on the forefront of our minds.
Or we haven't understood it.
We're not constantly reflecting on it right now.
The more the good news of judgment day goes deep into our hearts,
ultimately what it means is the more patient and loving
and forgiving we will be.
The Christian who is harsh in their proclamation of the gospel condemning humanity
has not understood judgment day.
They've not understood it.
It hasn't penetrated to the depths of their hearts.
Now, the second reason to believe in this final judgment day
is that Jesus tells us so.
He reveals the reality of it.
Judgment day is good news, but we also need to believe it.
In order to believe it, we need evidence for it.
And like millions and millions of people throughout history,
I myself came to believe in who Jesus is and what he did
because of the facts about him, the facts of who he is.
You see, when you look at the person of Jesus Christ,
you see this combination that you don't see in anyone else in human history.
He's incredibly confident and centred on himself
and who he is and what he declares about himself,
and yet you've never met anyone who is at the same time more humble.
He combines both the confidence and the humility.
He combines courage to death and incredible tenderness
for the sinner and the sufferer.
People become overwhelmed by his moral perfection
and attracted by his love.
And yet it is Jesus who talks about judgment day
more than any other biblical writer,
more than any of them put together.
You see, what we read in the Gospels
is that Jesus has come to us not just as a saviour
and as a friend, but as a judge.
He said that.
His salvation absolutely means nothing without judgment.
What the Bible says about judgment day is, however, quite distinctive
and is often misunderstood
and it has massive implications for how we live right now.
And the first distinctive compared to other religions
is the nature of God's judgment.
Have a look there at verses 8 and 9.
It says,
He will punish those who do not know God
and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
They'll be punished with everlasting destruction
and shut out from the presence of the Lord.
Now, sentences like that
stir up an emotional response.
I could stand on the street corner in Chatswood
and talk about God's love
and people walk past and go,
you know, I'll ignore you, but that's okay.
Read this, however,
and you're going to get a response of some description.
It should, in fact, stir up an emotional response.
And, in fact, if you're a Christian
and it doesn't stir up an emotional response,
it means you need to understand judgment day a bit deeper.
The reality is there's no nice way to smooth over words
like everlasting destruction.
What is important here
is to see what this everlasting destruction actually is.
Notice the statement.
It's actually described for us.
Shut out from the presence of the Lord.
In other words, everlasting destruction
in biblical terms is the removal of God's presence.
To not have God is to be eternally destroyed.
The presence of the God, of God,
is the source of all life and love and beauty,
of all goodness,
whether we realise it or not.
You see, a person walking in the countryside
on a beautiful sunny day
is living off the presence of the sun in the sky.
They feel it.
They experience it.
They know it.
They can see it.
But in that exact same moment,
a person working in a mine shaft
three kilometres under the ground
is also living off the presence of the sun
even though they don't experience it.
They can't feel it.
They can't see it.
They don't know it.
They're both living off the presence of the sun.
If in that moment,
the sun disappeared,
the sun ceased to exist,
both of them would freeze to death
instantaneously.
It matters not whether you are
three kilometres under the ground
or you're walking in the countryside.
It matters not.
You're both done.
It's not where you are
on the face of the earth
because you are both
living off the sun's presence.
You see, what the Bible tells us
is that every person in history
has lived off the presence of God
while they have lived,
whether they know it or not,
whether they acknowledge it at all.
It matters not whether you have sought
and trusted and followed him
or you instead have existed in darkness
and you've rejected him
and gone your own way in life.
It matters not.
Now, every person has breathed his air,
drunk his water,
lived off his gracious presence.
And if God's presence goes,
everything goes.
There is no life.
There is no joy.
There is no beauty.
There is no good.
And so the Bible's teaching
on God's judgment day
is the thing that all of humanity
actually want deep inside of their hearts.
Perfect justice.
It's what we want.
Perfect justice in the sense
that the punishment truly fits the crime.
The Bible often uses imagery of fire
for eternal destruction.
Lake of fire, burning fire,
Jesus here coming in, blazing fire.
It is figurative language.
It's figurative language.
Now, number one,
stick with me in case you think
I'm moving into heresy here.
Secondly,
if you think,
oh, phew, great.
It's only figurative.
Figurative language in the Bible
is always used
to explain something that is far worse.
So figurative language is not better.
It's actually far worse.
It's symbolic of something
that's so much more worse.
So the picture of everlasting destruction
that you have in the Bible
is not God poking people with pitchforks
or employing people to do pitchfork poking.
It is far worse than that.
It is his presence removed.
Far worse.
It's his presence removed.
There is only two ways to live in this life.
It's either God's will be done
or it's my will be done.
There's only two ways to live.
It's either facing God
or it's turning your back
and facing away from God.
That's only two ways to live.
And the person here described,
destined for eternal destruction,
are getting what they have chosen
and what they have wanted
for all of their life.
Existence without God.
God throughout their life
has been facing them,
facing them,
facing them
and they have turned their back
and faced the opposite direction
and then when they eventually
on the judgment day
turn to face God's ability
for their life,
God will turn his face from them.
Perfect judgment.
And as C.S. Lewis wrote
in his book,
The Great Divorce,
once they get what they want
on that moment,
on the day of judgment,
when they receive it,
they still won't change their mind.
They still won't change their mind.
They will still have for eternity
the very thing that they wanted
and they will not change their mind.
You see,
what this means is,
this is really important,
the Christian teaching on judgment day
is not about good and bad
at all.
It's not about whether I've done enough good
and it balances out my bad.
It's got nothing to do with
good or bad at all.
Judgment day gives us
what we have been after
all of our life.
That's what judgment day is.
If we have sought communion with God
or we have sought distance
from God in life,
then we will get that
on judgment day.
It's what we have chosen
in relation to God.
It's unbelievably just.
And the confirmation of this
is Jesus Christ on the cross.
That's the confirmation of it.
That's the evidence for it.
And that's why the Christian teaching on this
is so distinctive.
Because Jesus is the only person
in history
who has ever gone through judgment day.
The only one
who's ever gone through
the judgment day
that's described here.
He's the only one in history
to be abandoned by God
in the most final way.
And when Jesus Christ
was being crucified,
there was no sulfur,
there was no burning fire,
there was no pitchforks,
what happened
is God
turned his back
on him.
In fact,
his ultimate
cry
of dereliction,
the thing that caused him
to scream
from the cross
was not
the spear in the side,
was not the nails,
it was not the crown of thorns,
the thing that called him
to scream
from the cross
is,
my God,
why have you forsaken me?
The cry of dereliction
as his father
turns his face away.
Judgment day.
The hell
that Jesus experienced
on the cross
was deeper
than any hell
than anyone
will ever experience
in life
or the afterlife.
on the cross
Jesus faced God.
You see,
Jesus
in his entire
perfect life
lived the life
facing God
in perfection.
Perfect
obedience.
He obeyed
his father
all the way
to the cross
facing God
in obedience
all the way.
His father
turned his back
on him.
and that
will never happen
to another person
in human history.
That will never
happen
to a Christian
who looks
facing to Jesus
in all of their life
when judgment day
come
and that's the
confirmation here
for the Thessalonians.
Jesus,
your life
of suffering
in this moment
is not
a wasted life
because when judgment
day comes
your father
will not
turn his face
from you
and the confirmation
he will not
turn his face
away from you
is because
he turned it
away from his son.
Jesus is the only
one who
experienced
the presence
of God
perfectly.
He obeyed God
perfectly
and on the cross
the sun
went out
for him.
He was
facing God
and God
turned his back
at him.
His hell
was deeper
than anyone's
and his hell
pays for all
of our sin
and guarantees
that God
will not
turn his face
away from me
on judgment
day.
No matter
who I am
no matter
what I've done
in my life.
See the Bible's
teaching on
judgment day
is justice.
The punishment
fits the crime
it explains
the cross
judgment day
explains the cross
and the cross
explains what
happens on
judgment day
and it is
profoundly good
news
to those
who face
Jesus now.
Turn their
face to him
and the
encouragement
here
for the
Thessalonians
is you
need to keep
your eye
on that
end.
in the
midst
of
suffering
temptations
sin
in this
world.
Verse 10
is the
perspective
the good
news
the outcome
if you like
on that
day he
comes to
be glorified
in his
holy people
and to
be marveled
at among
all those
who have
believed.
There's a
little word
in that
verse
that's so
easy to
miss
but it's
absolutely
essential
it's very
crucial
in fact
the way
it's put
together here
in the
original language
is so
unique
it's only
used two
times
in the
New Testament
here in
verse 10
and again
in verse 12
two verses
later
and it's
so unique
it's
it's the
word
in
what it's
saying here
is that
when Jesus
comes on
that judgment
day
Jesus will
not be
glorified
among
his holy
people
as if
they will
be the
stadium
in which
he appears
neither
is it
by them
as if
they will
be
spectators
who applaud
him
for his
glory
everyone look
at his
glory
kind of
thing
neither
is he
glorified
through
them
as if
they are
the mirrors
reflecting
his glory
he will be
glorified
in
them
in that
sense
his
people
are like
a filament
in a
light globe
which
itself
glows
with light
and heat
when the
electrical
current
passes
through it
you see
a
stadium
is
never
itself
changed
by
the
activity
of the
stadium
a
theatre
is
never
changed
by
the
play
that's
played
there
whatever you
call it
in there
performed
in the
theatre
an
audience
is never
necessarily
changed
by the
drama
in the
theatre
itself
a
mirror
is
certainly
not
changed
by the
image
it
reflects
in
that
moment
in
any
moment
the
mirror
of my
home
is
going
to
get
me
one
moment
not
the
next
and
the
mirror
is
still
the
same
but
a
filament
in a
light
bulb
is
changed
dramatically
it's
actually
changed
when
the
electricity
flows
through
it
and
it
glows
you
see
when
Jesus
revealed
in
his
glory
on
judgment
day
he
will
be
glorified
in
his
people
we
will
not
only
see
his
glory
but
we
will
in
fact
share
his
glory
that's
what
it's
saying
we
will
share
his
glory
and
much
more
than
a
light
globe
where
the
filament
glows
temporarily
but
it
only
becomes
dark
and
cold
again
once
the
electricity
stops
the
Christian
will
be
radically
and
permanently
changed
into
his
the
best
example
of
this
I
think
in
the
Bible
is
the
transfiguration
of
Jesus
where
on
that
occasion
Jesus
was
glorified
in
his
physical
body
his
face
just
radiated
like
the
sun
his
skin
and
clothing
gleamed
became
as
white
as
light
in
other
words
his
body
became
a
vehicle
for
his
glory
and
that's
the
best
picture
in
the
New
Testament
that
we
can
find
what
will
happen
on
the
day
when
Jesus
comes
we
will
be
transfigured
by
the
glory
of
Christ
eternally
everything
that
attracts
a
person
to
the
person
of
Jesus
will
become
ours
it
will
be
ours
because
verse 10
says
we are
marvelling
at
him
now
stick
with me
here
because
this is
the
really
important
bit
what
is it
we are
marvelling
at
in
particular
what
we are
marvelling
at
is
the
love
of
God
for
us
displayed
what
Jesus
done
for
us
on
the
cross
to
marvel
is
not
just
to
go
that
was
good
as
you
might
as
a
spectator
in
a
stadium
watching
something
before
you
or
in
a
theatre
watching
something
before
you
go
that
was
good
I
admire
that
they
did
that
well
to
marvel
is
so
much
more
than
that
it
is
to
have
our
expectations
our
desires
our
imagination
explode
exceedingly
that's
what it
means
to
marvel
it
means
to
have
our
heart
and
our
mind
overflow
beyond
comprehension
and
Jesus
will
be
glorified
in
the
Christian
on
judgment
day
because
we
are
marveling
at
him
one
of the
most
unpalatable
!
teachings
of the
Christian
faith
in our
modern
day
is
what
we
have
just
looked
at
here
in
the
God
as
judge
and
there
being
a
judgment
day
many
in
our
society
are
very
willing
to
accept
a
God
of
love
a
God
of
love
not
a
God
reject
Jesus
the
cross
judgment
just
a
God
of
love
and
unfortunately
way
too
many
churches
want
to
just
talk
about
a
God
of
love
in
the
end
what
that
means
is
a
God
that
reinterpreted
as I
see
love
a
God
who
just
approves
of
me
a
God
whose
face
is
towards
me
and
my
face
is
away
from
him
and
he
just
says
well
that's
okay
that's
alright
I
want
to
affirm
that
person's
choice
in
life
a
God
who
doesn't
mind
if
I
live
life
my
way
and
God's
love
becomes
about
what
I
want
him
to
be
not
about
who
he
is
and
so
therefore
if
you
look
at
those
people
and
you
look
at
those
churches
and
look
at
those
people
who
want
to
downplay
the
judgment
of
God
what
you
see
is
no
change
in
their
life
at
all
at
all
there
is
no
change
because
the
love
of
God
does
not
exceed
their
expectations
their
desires
or their
imagination
there is
no
marvelling
and so
there is
no
change
Christian
it
is
the
marvelling
at
the
gospel
that
brings
change
the
marvelling
of
the
gospel
I
want
to
ask
you
do
you
as
a
Christian
do
you
see
that
your
life
is
changing
are
you
seeing
that
you're
becoming
more
compelling
as
a
Christian
people
noticing
the
glory
of
Christ
being
in
you
right
now
there
is
so
much
pressure
in
our
world
to
conform
to
the
values
of
this
world
and
to
reject
things
that
are
unpalatable
even
in
good
churches
the
gospel
of
the
Lord
Jesus
Christ
has
become
an
accessory
to
middle
class
values
where
it
affirms
my
choices
in
life
where
we
are
culturally
captive
to
consumerism
and
convenience
and
comfort
and
maybe
we're
not
seeing
the
growth
in
faith
we
are
not
increasing
in our
love
for
all
and
we're
not
enduring
with
hope
and
we're
not
seeing
evangelistic
fruit
because
as
churches
we are
not
looking
much
different
to the
world
around
us
this
is
the
consequence
of
redefining
God's
love
as
him
being
the
great
permission
giver
this
is
the
consequence
of
taking
our
eyes
of
judgment
day
being
embarrassed
by
judgment
day
there
is
no
glory
without
a
cross
there
is
no
glory
without
a
cross
there
is
no
good
there
is
no
grace
without
judgment
it
is
the
marvelling
at
the
wonder
of
the
gospel
of
the
Lord
Jesus
Christ
where
justice
and
mercy
meet
that
brings
transformation
in
life
if
we
don't
see
what
it
costs
God
to
love
us
we
have
nothing
to
marvel
at
which
brings
me
to
my
third
point
Paul
ends
this
section
by
praying
and let
me be
very quick
here
he
prays
he
doesn't
just
give them
a vision
of their
future
glorification
he
prays
that
future
glorification
will be
starting
in them
now
that
the
power
from
God
to be
changed
now
he
does
that
in
verses
11
and
12
he
gives
thanks
for their
growth
and he
prays
that it
will
continue
growth
in
faith
love
and hope
he
wants
them
to
see
them
grow
in
that
way
and so
let me
just
leave you
with
a
very
quick
challenge
it
could
be
unpacked
in
so
many
ways
!
is the
marveling
at
the
love
of
God
displayed
in
the
cross
of
Christ
that
transforms
us
now
if
there
is no
marveling
there's
no
change
and
in
a
day
when
we
are
bombarded
with
competing
objects
of focus
in our
lives
email
social
media
breaking
news
all the
time
millions
of
other
things
in
our
lives
there
has
never
been
a
greater
need
to
lift
our
eyes
to
the
gospel
of
the
Lord
Jesus
Christ
consistently
day
in
day
out
moment
by
moment
to
fix
our
eyes
on
the
gospel
and
the
eternal
hope
of
glory
that
awaits
all
those
in
him
you
we
us
Christians
will
never
see
change
in
our
lives
while
ever
we
have
dust
forming
on
our
Bibles
this
with
that
future
glory
this
tells
me
there
should
be
dust
on
our
technology
but not
on
our
Bibles
that's
what
this
is
telling
me
and
if
it
is
not
happening
we
are
being
captive
to
the
culture
of
our
age
we
need
to
be
walking
with
God
in
prayer
we
need
to
be
lifting
our
voices
to
him
in
worship
and
we
need
the
fellowship
of
brothers
and
sisters
consistently
pointing
us
to
the
gospel
and
to
the
future
glory
and
so I
commend
to
you
our
next
steps
here
as a
church
pursue
them
and be
changed