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Have you ever been told by someone you are going to go somewhere with them and it was not a place you really wanted to go? The person who was taking you felt like they were dragging you along kicking and screaming instead of accepting of where you were going. Let’s say someone tells you they are taking you to WashingtonDC and it is the last place you want to go, what would you do? Now: Let’s say you get a personal invitation to go to WashingtonDC from the President, what would you do then? Would you feel special that the President had personally invited you to go there? If so, what is the difference between the 2 invitations you received?
Wouldn’t you feel special that the President had personally invited you while the other is just a regular person? The regular person was in a sense forcing you to do what they wanted, so you go kicking and screaming while the invitation came from a greater authority which made it more significant and acceptable.
Would the President have asked you personally or would he have sent someone to bring the invite?
Paul began this letter to the Thessalonian believers with great thankfulness to God for the way they had received the Gospel. He was full of joy for how God worked mightily in them by the power of the Holy Spirit to change their hearts and lives. He was even amazed that the work God was doing in them was being reported to him by others who didn’t even know them personally. 1:8-9.
They were reporting how God was changing these new believers.
In this next section Paul again gives thanks to God, not for how the message was received but how these people in Thessalonica had welcomed the Gospel, not as man’s word or opinion but as God’s own invitation to them to enter into eternal life with Him.
Vs 13 Paul praises God because these folks had welcomed his preaching with open hearts and glad spirits, not following kicking and screaming as he dragged them along. They realized that he wasn’t bringing them some manmade philosophy or made up message but he was delivering an invitation from God. Paul and his companions were sent to the Thessalonian people as messengers from God with His very own words to them.
The Gospel, the good news of Jesus is not something man could make up. In fact if you were to look at all the other religions of the world you can see the very difference between Biblical Christianity and other religious attempts to get to God. When man tries to make their own way to God it always involves works. Man’s gospel is a works gospel which teaches people that they have to work and sacrifice in order to get good enough to be acceptable to God where as in the true Gospel God says that He knows we can not do it for ourselves so He came as a man, Jesus Christ, and accomplished for us what we could not.
Rom. 3:21-26 These new believers in Thessalonica were open to the witness of the Holy Spirit to them and felt the conviction He brought home to their hearts. They did not go kicking and screaming resisting what God wanted to do in them but went accepting.
I wonder at times if we realize that when we are out there witnessing for Christ we are not preaching man’s word or philosophy but God’s own words, announcing the truth of God as He revealed it to us in His word. When we speak God’s word we are speaking forth life changing power. This is why when the OT prophets proclaimed God’s word it was considered God’s Word and there is power in it going out. 1 Sam 3:19 The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.
Do we even realize the power of God’s word? Consider creation itself; Genesis 1:3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
God’s word has the power to create and to destroy; Is. 54:16 “See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc; John 1:1–4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
Paul saw for himself how the word of God went to work in these new believers in Thessalonica. The word went to work giving them forgiveness of sins in their past and continued to work in them changing their lives. Why do we need to take all your antibiotics? God’s word is like medicine for the soul, continued intake of it brings healing to sin-sick souls, when it is received by faith.
Vs 14 How do you know if you are getting better after being sick? Paul encourages the new believers by reminding them how the Word worked in them, just as it works in all who receive it by faith. Often when we receive God’s word by faith we will find ourselves the victims of criticism and attacks by unbelievers. This is a common to all true believers. The lie of Satan is that we are being attacked because we are misled when the reality is when we are criticized and attacked for our faith it is a common experience for all true believers. Those who refuse to believe the truth of the gospel don’t want to accept what it says or the truth of it at work in us so they get angry and attack those who bring the good news.
This was true of the Thessalonian believer’s as well. They were facing the same kind of attacks and suffering that the believers in Judea were facing. The non believing Jews in Judea persecuted and abused the believers just as the new believers in Thessalonica were being abused by the non believing Jews and their own countrymen.
Vs 15 Paul had suffered the same kinds of things just as Jesus did, but they even killed Jesus and the prophets when they brought God’s word to them. People who refuse to receive the grace of God drove Paul and the apostles as well as many other believers out of Judea, because of their faith. These people continued to sin against God, refusing His word and Jesus paid with His life for them. Those who set themselves against others who believe God’s word are really setting themselves against God Himself. Acts 26:14-15 These people not only hurt themselves but hurt others as well, the non-believers who may have been open to the truth of God because they make it harder for them to come to faith.
Vs 16 One who takes the attitude “live and let live” is less dangerous to others than those who will do all they can to keep others from hearing the truth of God. But the unbelievers in Thessalonica would do anything they could to keep others from hearing the truth of God. Doing this they were heaping upon themselves additional sin for which God would punish them. Luke 17:1–2 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.
Enough rope to hang themselves. God has set limits to how much sin a person or people group is allowed to accumulate before He sends His wrath or judgment against them. He will not judge before the limit is reached. Gen. 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” The unbelievers there were hastening their judgment by persecuting the new believers.
Paul next makes reference to God’s wrath having come upon them. We really don’t know what he meant by this but we can make some educated guesses; Paul may have been made aware by the Lord of the destruction that would be coming upon Jerusalem in a few years. He may have had in mind the fact that the majority of Jews who refused to believe in Jesus, Matt. 23:37-39, that God had turned His back on them to reach out to the Gentiles so to make a new body of believers, the church, who were made up from Jew and Gentile alike, but on equal footing because of Christ.
Eph. 2:13-18 Paul could also have been thinking about the wrath of God that comes, as a fact, on everyone who fails to believe in Jesus.
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
These at the Tribulation and resurrection of the dead will know the eternal wrath of God on them. Paul, also, could have said this so these new believers would know that God was not ignorant to their plight but was waiting for the right time to judge for the actions against them. 2 Thess. 1:6-10
We really don’t know what Paul has in mind here but we do know that those who persecute believers are fighting against God and His wrath will come upon them and greater so if they hinder others from coming to trust in God’s truth for mankind. They will go kicking and screaming into eternal damnation.
How do we fit into this whole picture? Do we hinder others from coming to Christ because we refuse to trust God’s word and let it go to work in us? Are we living in a way that turns people off from wanting to know God? Have we been the ones persecuting others for their faith in God and His word? What will the consequence be? Are we trusting in God’s word and allowing it to work in us?
Are we suffering because we stand for Christ? Then take encouragement from this word to the Thessalonians.
God knows and cares.
Benediction: Col. 3:15-17
