WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.960 Okay, we're going to go back for a little while to look at the first chapter of Second 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:06.960 Thessalonians. 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:13.120 And I think sometimes truth is so huge, it's so monumental that it should stop us in our 00:00:13.120 --> 00:00:20.440 tracks and it should really shake us sometimes out of our complacency and maybe even bring 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:21.440 us up short. 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:23.719 I wonder when the last time it was that we... 00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:28.719 You opened Scripture, I opened Scripture and it brought us up short and it really shook 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:29.719 us a little bit. 00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:34.519 I think maybe a passage like the one we read tonight might do that. 00:00:34.519 --> 00:00:36.240 Because I know we all love a letter, don't you? 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:37.240 Don't you love a letter? 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:40.200 Maybe people don't give letters anymore. 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:46.439 But if it's not a circular or something from the bank or something trying to sell someone, 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.799 it's great to get a personal letter, isn't it? 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:49.799 It's beautiful. 00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:53.320 And imagine getting one from God. 00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:59.039 And yet that's exactly what really was happening for the Thessalonian church and for us as well 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:03.399 when we look at God's Word, we're getting a letter from God. 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:10.280 And so Second Thessalonians was written to a new church in Thessalonica and the Word 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:15.960 that was written to them, written by Paul the Apostle, inspired by God, was for them. 00:01:15.960 --> 00:01:19.879 But it's also for us because it's the living Word of God. 00:01:19.879 --> 00:01:26.159 And the great thing, even in this first chapter, is that God gives them lots of encouragement. 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:30.280 He says that they're persevering, really, they're a young church, young Christians, 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:31.679 they're persevering well. 00:01:31.679 --> 00:01:33.000 They're growing in faith and love. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.840 And he boasts about them to other churches that he goes to meet with. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:40.519 But also, he says they're believing some wrong things. 00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:41.519 Now, you'll need to apologize. 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:42.959 I'll need to apologize rather. 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:43.959 You don't need to apologize. 00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:53.280 I'm going to use my old Bible tonight, which is kind of earmarked and old and I'm very 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:54.280 familiar with it. 00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:56.280 I'm just happier looking at it. 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:59.040 I just find it easier to find things in it. 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:04.120 It's what's called an old Thompson Chain Reference Bible, which is a great thing. 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:08.120 If you can ever get a Thompson Chain Reference Bible, get one, because it will take you through 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:11.159 lots of different themes in the Bible. 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:15.560 But in chapter 2, verse 2, he says to them, you know, don't become easily unsettled or 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:20.319 alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter, saying that the day of the Lord has come. 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:25.079 In other words, they were listening to some wrong teaching. 00:02:25.079 --> 00:02:29.280 And then in chapter 3, verse 6, he says, you know, keep away from every brother who is 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:31.919 idling and who's not living according to the teaching. 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:34.799 So some people were living in a disobedient way within the church. 00:02:34.799 --> 00:02:38.840 So he brings both encouragement and he also brings some rebuke to them. 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:42.479 And it might have been quite uncomfortable for them to read that. 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:47.120 Imagine the first time that they got together and this is an exciting letter from Paul and 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:51.319 Paul reads it out, the church leaders read it out and there's good things, but there's 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:54.240 also some quite really challenging things. 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:59.960 I wonder, I wonder what Christ would write about St. Columbus. 00:02:59.960 --> 00:03:02.360 I wonder what he would write. 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:09.280 When he would write about us together as a church, encouraging things, hopefully, and 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:11.840 maybe challenges as well. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:15.640 Or maybe if he wrote to you as an individual, what do you think would be the things he would 00:03:15.639 --> 00:03:19.679 encourage you about and maybe even challenge you about? 00:03:19.679 --> 00:03:24.959 Sometimes think as leaders, we're kind of afraid of all that side of things in church. 00:03:24.959 --> 00:03:31.199 We're afraid of being honest as leaders in the church with one another and also with 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:32.199 the church. 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:38.000 We're afraid because maybe people will become very defensive if we say anything that's 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:39.000 challenging. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:45.840 And I think individually together we might be quite slow at being honest with one another 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:49.199 as brothers and sisters and letting God's word speak into our lives. 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:54.080 Are we afraid if we say anything to one another that they'll just walk away and never come 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:56.719 near us again? 00:03:56.719 --> 00:03:58.479 This passage certainly rebuked me. 00:03:58.479 --> 00:04:03.039 I don't know if in the short time you've had to read it, it's challenged you. 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:09.439 It's challenged me about my own complacency spiritually and also my fear of persecution 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:13.479 because it speaks about this early young church being persecuted. 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:19.199 And that can be difficult. 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:23.560 And yet he does it in love and he does it in grace. 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:28.439 So I want to look at this chapter and God really, He kind of obliterates three presumptions 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:31.199 that sometimes we have about the Christian life. 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:36.159 The first is that young Christians will, people young in the faith, there may be any Christians, 00:04:36.159 --> 00:04:41.279 but maybe particularly young Christians will never survive persecution. 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:45.959 So maybe we think that we can't tell, we can't invite people to Christ and then encourage 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:50.079 them to become Christians and then tell them that if they do so they're going to get persecuted 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:52.879 for their faith because they're never going to survive that. 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:57.039 They're just going to walk away and say, well, it's far too difficult. 00:04:57.039 --> 00:04:59.120 That's clearly not the case here. 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:04.680 This is a young church, they are young Christians and yet God is delighted with how they're 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:11.120 persevering and keeping going and more so that their faith and love is increasing. 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:13.280 So that's one presumption that sometimes we have. 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:19.800 The other presumptions that we might have is that it's okay to change God's truth, to 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:23.439 make it easier and more acceptable to live by. 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:27.800 That's what was happening in this church when they were hearing a prophecy and a letter 00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:34.400 was changing God's truth, in some way it would make it easier for them to carry on as believers, 00:05:34.400 --> 00:05:40.840 but all it was doing was encouraging idleness and careless living. 00:05:40.840 --> 00:05:45.040 And the other presumption I think that comes through this whole letter is that sometimes 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:47.480 we think might is right. 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:52.759 So we had all these people who were against this young Thessalonian church, pushing against 00:05:52.759 --> 00:05:59.000 them to persecuting them in all the strength of the society and the people around them 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:00.839 and the church was very weak. 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:05.039 And it seemed that the persecutors were the powerful ones and the Christian gospel and 00:06:05.039 --> 00:06:09.920 the Christians were weakened and were weak. 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:12.719 That is also not the case. 00:06:12.719 --> 00:06:17.319 I think it's easy for us to drift towards thinking like this, that we think that if we 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:23.319 are persecuted as Christians, our faith will be destroyed and we will crumble and the church 00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:24.399 will collapse. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:26.399 We may be... 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:30.319 You know, you hear it quite a lot, people are afraid of persecution in society because 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:34.680 then the church will stumble and struggle and fail. 00:06:34.680 --> 00:06:35.680 Think again. 00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:39.879 That has never been the case. 00:06:39.879 --> 00:06:49.639 I think it's also challenging to say that the truth or it's also, I think, something we often are tempted to think that the truth is too demanding. 00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:52.439 So let's make it more acceptable. 00:06:52.439 --> 00:06:58.759 Jesus, we want Him to be fluffy and warm and easy and it's easy to be a Christian, ignoring 00:06:58.759 --> 00:07:03.560 maybe the ethical or the moral imperatives of the gospel. 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:10.160 Or easy, maybe we don't say much about business ethics or loving our enemies or sex within 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:12.720 the parameters of marriage only. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:17.280 We don't deal with issues as we should maybe about the damage and the danger of pornography 00:07:17.280 --> 00:07:21.560 or misogyny or opposing gender idolatry. 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:30.120 We mustn't allow our Christian faith to take offense or be offensive in the society we live 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:31.120 in. 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:36.800 Christians, let's just keep silent, let's take it easy, let's just be bland. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:41.639 Then others might believe and be attracted to what we have. 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:43.240 Think again. 00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:50.199 Because the principle that we recognize gently here but right through history is that it's 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:53.319 always false teaching. 00:07:53.319 --> 00:07:59.639 It's abandoning the revealed truth of God that destroys Christians and weakens the church. 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:03.159 It's never persecution. 00:08:03.159 --> 00:08:08.279 Persecution throughout history has strengthened the church and more people have become Christians 00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:16.800 in such times rather than when the truth of God is diluted and abandoned in order somehow 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:21.079 to appease an opposing world. 00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:27.159 And that's when we see the strength of the gospel and gospel truth. 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:32.519 So there's two things in this passage that we're going to look at with that background. 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:35.399 The first is two important truths. 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:38.240 The first is that God is right. 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:40.320 And the second is that God is just. 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:42.240 So God is right. 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:49.240 In verse 5, all this is evidence that God's judgment is right and as a result will be 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:54.120 counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering. 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:55.759 God is right. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:00.919 And what Paul is saying here is that he's just spoken about the persecutions and the 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:03.939 trials that this young church are enduring. 00:09:03.939 --> 00:09:07.679 And he's saying that that persecution is inevitable. 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:09.120 It's absolutely inevitable. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:15.080 God is right in His judgment that when He says that we will be persecuted as Christians, 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:19.039 that is exactly what will happen. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:29.360 They hunted down Jesus and He was faced with the reality of evil and sin, hunting Him down. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:36.959 They crucified the perfect Son of God so all His followers will also be persecuted, maybe 00:09:36.959 --> 00:09:40.599 in different ways, maybe not in such overt ways. 00:09:40.600 --> 00:09:49.720 But we know that if we stand up for Jesus, we will find opposition and trials and persecutions. 00:09:49.720 --> 00:09:55.240 And it's interesting in Acts chapter 5 and verse 41, where the apostles were persecuted 00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:56.759 in the very early church. 00:09:56.759 --> 00:09:58.240 The speech persuaded them. 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:01.159 They called the apostles in and had them flogged. 00:10:01.159 --> 00:10:07.279 Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus anymore and let them go. 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:11.879 The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering 00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:14.519 disgrace for the name. 00:10:14.519 --> 00:10:22.159 So right from the beginning, the church of Christ and Christians will be opposed. 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:23.159 You will be opposed. 00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:24.679 You'll be opposed in your workplace. 00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:29.759 You'll be opposed with the belief system that you have, with the truth that you profess 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:34.199 and with the exclusivity of the gospel that you follow. 00:10:34.200 --> 00:10:40.920 As you confess Jesus and as I confess Jesus, it's like walking into a COVID deniers dinner 00:10:40.920 --> 00:10:46.120 party flashing a vaccine passport. 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:51.440 You're going to have a hard time if you do that. 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:56.320 And obviously this is much more serious and much more solemn. 00:10:56.320 --> 00:10:58.200 But as a Christian, if we are conf... 00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:02.759 I'm not talking about flashing our Christianity in some kind of arrogant way, but if we are 00:11:02.759 --> 00:11:08.919 professing Jesus Christ, please don't be deluded to think you will not find opposition. 00:11:08.919 --> 00:11:12.399 God is right in saying what He is saying here. 00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:19.080 That persecution is inevitable, but perseverance is invaluable. 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:23.840 And He speaks in verse four about this young church, how they're already... 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:24.840 They're persevering. 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:29.519 They're keeping going in the faith and persecutions and trials. 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:34.319 Now it's very interesting here, I wonder if I asked you what you thought about perseverance 00:11:34.319 --> 00:11:39.679 or how you would describe perseverance, how would you do so? 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:43.480 We usually think of dogged determination, don't we? 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:50.360 To just keep on going, to plow on something like, I've got to finish this horrible, ugly 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:52.679 green bottle of medicine. 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:56.600 I've got to persevere with it because I'm sure it's doing me good. 00:11:56.600 --> 00:12:01.960 Now you're climbing a mountain and it's absolutely chucking it down this way and it's steep. 00:12:01.960 --> 00:12:03.519 You don't have the right shoes on. 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:04.960 You're desperate to get to the top. 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:09.639 You're persevere and you'll just grit your teeth and get to the top. 00:12:09.639 --> 00:12:16.600 We often think of that in terms of describing perseverance as doer resistance, just hating 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:22.080 every minute in a sense of what we're doing, but having to do it. 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:29.120 Now the interesting thing here in Thessalonians is that perseverance is kind of a byproduct 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:34.120 because what he's really delighted about is that they're growing in faith and they're 00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:38.160 growing in love for one another more and more. 00:12:38.160 --> 00:12:41.000 So it's tremendously positive, this perseverance. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:42.560 It's not a negative thing. 00:12:42.560 --> 00:12:44.440 It's not a doer thing. 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:49.800 It's that they're growing deeper in their faith despite the opposition and the difficulties 00:12:49.799 --> 00:12:55.959 and their great growth and their love for one another, for their brothers and sisters 00:12:55.959 --> 00:12:57.240 and for their enemies. 00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:03.399 There's this great shalom in their life, this great peace and growth. 00:13:03.399 --> 00:13:09.079 They're not being the judge and jury of those who mock them, who deride them, who hate them, 00:13:09.079 --> 00:13:11.879 nor are they secretly longing for their destruction. 00:13:11.879 --> 00:13:18.759 They're growing in love and commitment and in perseverance. 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:24.039 God is right in saying that persecution is inevitable. 00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:28.559 He's also right in saying as Christians as we look to Jesus, our perseverance will be 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:35.919 absolutely invaluable and it will be a growing, not in gritting our teeth, but it will be a 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:40.360 growing in faith and love. 00:13:40.360 --> 00:13:48.740 So if your faith and if my faith never rocks the boat, those around you, if it never causes 00:13:48.740 --> 00:13:58.320 some kind of friction at one level, another persecution, or if your faith journey is one 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:08.039 that's full of bitterness and a miserable and loveless hanging on, if God and your God 00:14:08.039 --> 00:14:17.560 is a mean-spirited father that you're just clinging onto, I question what road you're 00:14:17.560 --> 00:14:18.560 on. 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:22.199 I question if it's a Christian road. 00:14:22.199 --> 00:14:27.639 If that is the mentality we have, if there is no growth in faith and love, but it's a 00:14:27.639 --> 00:14:39.000 miserable, ugly determination simply just to hang on in there and when nobody ever opposes 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:44.479 our faith or our stance for Jesus and we're faced with the consequences of that. 00:14:44.480 --> 00:14:52.480 God is right, but also God is just, and that's the second point here, and He speaks about 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:56.120 that in verse 6 and forward. 00:14:56.120 --> 00:15:00.360 God is not only right in what He says about persecution and what He says about perseverance. 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:07.120 He's also just, He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:10.000 who are troubled and to us as well. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:17.639 So brings us to that kind of reality in the New Testament of something that I think maybe 00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:24.200 we don't, maybe I'm kind of unique, uniquely weak or difficult to cope with, struggling 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:30.559 with the second coming of Jesus and the perfect justice of God. 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:38.159 Well, yeah, I don't think we have any problem to hell in a handcart with all those who are 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:44.600 deserving, but God's piercing grace into my own soul. 00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:51.000 I wonder if we see and if we recognize the darkness and the deception that without Christ 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:56.879 in my heart would rightly condemn me to everlasting destruction. 00:15:56.879 --> 00:15:58.919 Do I see that? 00:15:58.919 --> 00:15:59.919 I doubt it. 00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:02.559 Do you see that? 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:04.480 I'm not sure. 00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:08.720 Do we honestly see ourselves in the way that Jesus Christ seizes? 00:16:08.720 --> 00:16:16.000 If any of us I think could see ourselves as God seizes, I think our grip on grace would 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:20.759 be much, much tighter than possibly it is, certainly mine would be. 00:16:20.759 --> 00:16:26.200 So when we look at this, I want us to look at it with awe and with humility, but also 00:16:26.200 --> 00:16:32.240 with faith and try and grasp its enormity a little bit more. 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:37.799 Because what God is saying here is He's saying there will be a reckoning, but that reckoning 00:16:37.799 --> 00:16:38.799 will be reversed. 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:46.120 Verse 6 and 7, He says, God is just, He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you. 00:16:46.120 --> 00:16:50.840 He will reckon with those who are reckoning with you. 00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:55.360 And the picture here is very much that God is going to deal with those who have already 00:16:55.360 --> 00:17:01.840 acted in this life as judge and jury on the character of God and on the gospel of grace, 00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:09.440 who have deliberately opposed Christians and gospel truth and have reviled Jesus. 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:15.680 And He says, those who have troubled Christians will themselves be troubled. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:21.319 And that word for troubled there is kind of the idea of being cornered or hemmed in or 00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:23.279 pressed against. 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:30.240 And they have used that in their life to hem and trouble and make life difficult for 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:31.720 Christians. 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:37.319 And He says they will receive that back from God. 00:17:37.319 --> 00:17:39.240 The day of reckoning will be reversed. 00:17:39.240 --> 00:17:44.440 Those who have acted as judge and jury on Jesus and in the gospel and have lived without 00:17:44.440 --> 00:17:51.079 Him will face the judge of all creation. 00:17:51.079 --> 00:17:54.759 And it will happen at the apocalypse of Jesus. 00:17:54.759 --> 00:17:58.640 This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed, and that word there is just the word that 00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:08.400 we get apocalypse from, when He's revealed from heaven blazing fire with powerful angels. 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:12.320 And so we recognize that there is a day of reckoning for sure. 00:18:12.320 --> 00:18:13.480 And Jesus will come back. 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:15.920 He's come once and He will return. 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:17.800 Everything points to it, doesn't it? 00:18:17.800 --> 00:18:20.960 Everything in life points to a day of reckoning. 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:22.600 Every day He finishes. 00:18:22.600 --> 00:18:24.640 Every year He finishes. 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:25.960 Every life He finishes. 00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:30.240 This universe is finite, and it will finish. 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:36.120 And it will finish in God's time when Christ returns on that day, when there will be an 00:18:36.120 --> 00:18:39.200 accounting for every living and dead. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:48.840 So those who have judged Christ and turned their backs on Christ will not be on the throne 00:18:48.840 --> 00:18:50.840 on that day. 00:18:50.840 --> 00:18:52.400 Jesus will be. 00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:55.519 And He says they will be rejected. 00:18:55.519 --> 00:19:00.079 He will punish those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel of Jesus, the 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:01.079 Lord Jesus in verse 8. 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:05.440 They will be punished with everlasting destruction, shout out from the presence of the Lord and 00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:08.319 of His majesty, of His power. 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:15.039 Those who have persecuted God, who have despised knowing God, who have rejected the good news 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:21.119 of God will experience God turning His face from them. 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:24.559 That's a very solemn truth. 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:29.639 It's the opposite of what we looked at before. 00:19:29.639 --> 00:19:36.000 In the psalm we looked at, and in the Aaronic blessing that it spoke of, the Aaronic blessing 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:39.960 which is the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord turn His face towards you. 00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:45.359 And we saw that that was speaking, a really big concept of speaking of God's blessing, 00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:50.720 true happiness, the blessing of His light, the light of His face shining on us, His 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:54.119 favor that we find in Christ. 00:19:54.119 --> 00:20:02.759 And here we have the opposite of His face turning against them in His act of judgment, 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:06.959 unimaginable darkness. 00:20:06.959 --> 00:20:16.319 If only they realized His love, His gifts that they've enjoyed every day, His grace 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:18.519 and His rescue. 00:20:18.519 --> 00:20:20.199 I can't conceive of that. 00:20:20.199 --> 00:20:22.279 Can you conceive of that this evening? 00:20:22.279 --> 00:20:25.160 I'm not sure I can. 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:27.680 That darkness. 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:36.319 Except to consider the wrath of God on His own Son in that darkness of Calvary from 12 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:44.680 to 3, which spoke in that first apocalypse of God's judgment being poured out on His 00:20:44.680 --> 00:20:47.039 Son that was due to us. 00:20:47.039 --> 00:20:58.359 He turned His face away from His Son as He bore my sins to rescue me from what I deserve. 00:20:58.359 --> 00:21:01.639 But I can't fully understand. 00:21:01.639 --> 00:21:08.519 I would love to meet someone who understood that fully, but it doesn't stop us from seeking 00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:20.240 more faith and more insight and for the deception or the curtains to be lifted from our eyes 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:23.519 to see that more clearly every day. 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:31.839 And I think on that day, those who have rejected Christ will know their abject weakness. 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:36.119 You know, it speaks there, verse 9, about being shut out from the presence of the Lord, 00:21:36.119 --> 00:21:40.639 from the majesty of His power. 00:21:40.639 --> 00:21:45.359 They will just sense that, that weakness. 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:49.759 And they will know that they're shut out. 00:21:49.759 --> 00:21:54.599 They will understand that God was the source of their life and the source of the power 00:21:54.599 --> 00:21:59.159 that they had, the love that they enjoyed in this life. 00:21:59.159 --> 00:22:04.839 They'll be shut out from sharing that or enjoying that and everlasting undoing. 00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:10.119 And I have to say, I can say that, but I can't comprehend it. 00:22:10.119 --> 00:22:11.879 I can't comprehend that. 00:22:11.879 --> 00:22:19.359 But I believe it with all my heart because I trust God's Word and I trust what Jesus 00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:22.319 has done. 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:25.559 So in closing, how do we respond to that? 00:22:25.559 --> 00:22:28.199 How do we respond to these things? 00:22:28.200 --> 00:22:34.600 I think we respond firstly by prioritizing prayer again and again. 00:22:34.600 --> 00:22:38.200 We prioritize prayer always over and over. 00:22:38.200 --> 00:22:44.039 Verse 11, Paul says, with this in mind, we constantly pray for you that our God may count 00:22:44.039 --> 00:22:47.559 you worthy of His calling and that by His power He may fulfill every good purpose of 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:53.039 yours and every act prompted by your love. 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:59.119 That's the only place that I can go to to begin to help me comprehend the reality of 00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:05.319 what lies ahead, what we can't see, but what is there by faith we believe. 00:23:05.319 --> 00:23:10.279 So the only place we can go for our faith to grow, where we can intercede for those who 00:23:10.279 --> 00:23:14.559 are lost, and especially our enemies. 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:16.519 You know, Jesus says something impossible, doesn't he? 00:23:16.519 --> 00:23:20.279 In Matthew 5, 44, he says, pray for those who are your enemies. 00:23:20.279 --> 00:23:21.559 Pray for those who persecute you. 00:23:21.559 --> 00:23:22.559 Love them. 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:26.279 And that's the response that we're asked to make to those who persecute us. 00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:28.079 We're not to persecute them back. 00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:29.079 We're not to dam them. 00:23:29.079 --> 00:23:32.359 We're not to say, well, I can't wait till you get your comeuppance. 00:23:32.359 --> 00:23:38.879 We're to pray and to plead for them and to love them and to show them something completely 00:23:38.879 --> 00:23:41.839 different. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:46.399 Those who refuse to love the truth, we are to plead and pray for them. 00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:52.840 So God takes me from this place, I'm going to keep on pleading that you and I recognize 00:23:52.840 --> 00:23:56.920 the importance, not just of praying alone, but of praying together. 00:23:56.920 --> 00:24:02.960 He prays here to the church that we will grasp it and that we will see for the significance 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:09.680 of what prayer is, not just for the select few, not just for the few who are committed, 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:13.080 but to every one of us to recognize is everything. 00:24:13.079 --> 00:24:17.879 Is everything in our Christian lives to not only just be praying alone, but praying together 00:24:17.879 --> 00:24:20.839 as a church, as this young church was? 00:24:20.839 --> 00:24:23.759 Do you ever try getting fit in your own? 00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:25.759 Going to the gym in your own? 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:26.759 It's a nightmare. 00:24:26.759 --> 00:24:31.079 You ever try learning a new language on your own without any help from anyone else? 00:24:31.079 --> 00:24:32.079 A nightmare. 00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:35.079 You ever try to build a house on your own? 00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:37.879 A nightmare. 00:24:37.879 --> 00:24:40.240 Great to do with other people. 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:44.519 Great to be encouraged at the times when you want to give up, great to learn from others, 00:24:44.519 --> 00:24:48.680 great to hear what they are teaching us on all of these things. 00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:52.759 And that's what prayer is, you know, when we struggle to carry on or understand or know 00:24:52.759 --> 00:24:58.519 what to do, prayer is there together that we encourage one another and we become encouragers 00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:00.480 of others. 00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:05.240 Verse 11, with this in mind, Paul says, we constantly pray for you. 00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:10.599 And if I flick forward to chapter 3, verse 1, he says, finally, brothers, I'm asking you, 00:25:10.599 --> 00:25:15.240 you pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread quickly and be honored. 00:25:15.240 --> 00:25:16.240 Do you see that? 00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:24.599 There's that great corporate sense of praying for and encouraging one another, prioritized 00:25:24.599 --> 00:25:27.720 prayer is a response. 00:25:27.720 --> 00:25:36.240 And also, as we do so, we experience true fulfillment as we entrust ourselves to Jesus, 00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:42.120 follow Him and believe in who He is and obey Him. 00:25:42.120 --> 00:25:49.000 It says, you know, that we will be counted worthy of verse 11 of His calling that by His 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:55.680 power you may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. 00:25:55.680 --> 00:26:02.360 And he's saying there that there'll be true fulfillment in your life as you're motivated 00:26:02.360 --> 00:26:12.880 by the living God as you're acting with that motivation and prompting of faith that God's 00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:20.039 power will be in our lives and there'll be a worthiness in all that we do, we await a 00:26:20.039 --> 00:26:21.039 significance. 00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:27.839 You know, we share in God's glory just when we live our ordinary lives for Him, ordinary 00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:31.720 lives that nobody sees or knows sometimes. 00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:37.079 But it'll have the weight of the glory of Christ, He'll be glorified in us as we follow 00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:39.119 Him. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:44.960 By the choices we make and the actions we have, they'll have weight, they'll have significance 00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:52.400 because in Christ they'll be worthwhile and lasting and full, fruitful. 00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:58.279 And we'll be held then, I think the other responses in the grip of His grace. 00:26:58.279 --> 00:27:03.559 We pray that verse 12, this is so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified 00:27:03.559 --> 00:27:09.680 you and you and Him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:27:09.680 --> 00:27:14.880 That's always the most significant thing that we need to go back to again and again and 00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:19.640 again that we are saved by His grace. 00:27:19.640 --> 00:27:22.520 Who was it that wrote that great book in the grip of grace at Maxal Caddo? 00:27:22.520 --> 00:27:25.960 I think it maybe was, in the grip of grace. 00:27:25.960 --> 00:27:32.320 A great title and a great reality that that's the kind of Christians we are to be in the 00:27:32.320 --> 00:27:39.880 grip of grace, that grace that is freely given to us in Jesus Christ, that grace that reminds 00:27:39.880 --> 00:27:49.200 us of this God, this sovereign blazing fire, God coming on that last great day with the 00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:57.160 powerful angels, the same God who was moved to become flesh in the womb of an unmarried 00:27:57.160 --> 00:27:59.960 teenager in the Middle East. 00:27:59.960 --> 00:28:07.760 Die in a Roman tree and take the wrath of God to set us free from anything that would 00:28:07.760 --> 00:28:09.320 separate us from Him. 00:28:09.319 --> 00:28:19.559 How little I grasp the enormity of His grace and how it should motivate and give me courage 00:28:19.559 --> 00:28:29.039 and help me to not just hang on when I'm persecuted but to grow in faith and love and for that 00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:35.359 to be the kind of perseverance that enables me to believe in these solemn truths from 00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:36.919 God's Word. 00:28:36.920 --> 00:28:42.800 So let's do consider these things, meditate on them, go home, spend some time thinking 00:28:42.800 --> 00:28:44.519 about these things. 00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:47.840 Don't just forget about it when the hour of worship is over. 00:28:47.840 --> 00:28:51.440 But go back to that passage yourself and read it and pray over it. 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:58.240 Pray this but it will take it and help you and especially pray that I'll have some kind 00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:02.400 of insight into chapter two for next week. 00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:08.880 Is that if this week was hard, next week's the man of lawlessness, so pray for God's 00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:12.880 Holy Spirit to guide and protect you all over this week. 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:13.880 Let's pray. 00:29:13.880 --> 00:29:18.759 Father God, we ask and pray that you would take your Word and that you would apply it 00:29:18.759 --> 00:29:20.259 to our hearts. 00:29:20.259 --> 00:29:26.400 May it not be a passive exercise that we're engaged in in church. 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:32.720 May it be something, may it be that we see and know this letter from You is just as real 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:40.080 today for us as it was for the early believers in Thessalonica, the battles, the persecutions, 00:29:40.080 --> 00:29:49.080 the struggles, the temptation to change the truth, the temptation to be idle or be disobedient 00:29:49.080 --> 00:29:54.840 to what is revealed in Scripture and help us to encourage one another and build each 00:29:54.840 --> 00:29:55.840 other up. 00:29:55.839 --> 00:30:02.359 And be honest with each other because we all struggle and we all find the Christian way 00:30:02.359 --> 00:30:05.319 at different times at battle. 00:30:05.319 --> 00:30:13.919 And yet Lord God, may we grow in faith and love as we understand and are just surrounded 00:30:13.919 --> 00:30:17.519 by Your grace and understand how great that grace is. 00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:19.559 We pray in Jesus' name. 00:30:19.559 --> 00:30:28.799 Amen.