Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] So we established last week the context of first and second Thessalonians, really.
[00:00:10] But here's just a quick reminder in case you forgot anything or if you weren't here last week, this book was written. First Thessalonians specifically was written by Paul, Sylvanus or Silver, Silas and Timothy. These authors, on a missionary journey, preached the Gospel and established a faithful church in Thessalonica. The Thessalonian Christians were then immediately persecuted by hostile pagans and the local Jews. They were bullied, they were stolen from.
[00:00:47] They were probably, almost certainly alienated from society in many ways.
[00:00:53] But when Timothy returned to Paul after going back to visit them after they were chased out, they told him, or he told him, that though the persecution was severe, the Thessalonians actually stood up under the pressure. Their faith proved to be authentic and true. Those young baby Christians were persevering in faith, hope and love in Christ.
[00:01:17] And this made Paul joyful and happy, ecstatic. And so he writes to them to encourage them and to exhort them to press on and to continue to be faithful in the midst of difficulties.
[00:01:30] So in chapter one, which is what we did last week, Paul encourages them by pointing out how confident he is in the authenticity of their faith, reminding them that the gospel which they had believed is true and it's powerful.
[00:01:46] Well, now, as we turn to this second chapter and cover most of it, something else comes to our attention.
[00:01:53] Paul, in this next portion of the letter, I believe, is pretty clearly defending his ministry to the Thessalonian Christians as. And knowing this, he writes to them to defend himself, knowing that it would be read aloud to the congregation, that they may be confident in his ministry. That's kind of his worry. Now, are they going to start doubting that what he taught them was true? Is that going to wreck their faith?
[00:02:21] Now, they knew him, and. And so we probably can assume that there definitely was opposition to Paul, otherwise, why would he tell them about the trip that he just did? It's kind of reads like a little biography, like a reminder of what he had just done, which certainly they would have known. So that's why I think we know there's a purpose. Again, I believe the purpose is a defense. So the source of these accusations, you know, who is doing the accusing and what exactly they're saying, we can't know for certain. There's no document where they wrote out a list of wrongs that Paul had done and signed it. But based on, you know, what he responds to, we can make some guesses about what was being accused of him. And in the text, we even see a hint that it may have come from their countrymen, fellow Greeks, fellow or fellow pagans, as these Thessalonians, most of them had been pagans before.
[00:03:18] Whatever the case, in this we're going to see Paul point out at least six marks of his faithful ministry. And as we read these, we too can think about our own lives and think, does your faith exhibit these marks? Does your ministry to others match what Paul is saying his was like? So we can think about this even for ourselves.
[00:03:44] But at the end of this section that we're going to read, he actually turns away the focus from himself back to the Thessalonians. He wants to point out how they have been faithful, the marks of their faithfulness.
[00:04:00] Now, as a reminder, the theme of first and second Thessalonians. So when you pick up either of these books, you should think of this phrase or something like it, I think is, excel still more in faithfulness for the sake of Christ.
[00:04:16] Excel still more. Continue to grow and excel in faithfulness for Christ's sake.
[00:04:25] That's what Paul is doing in both of these letters to these Christians. But the main idea for this week for this specific passage, when we zoom in on it, is that the word of God that worked in Paul's ministry to the Thessalonians is powerful to work in you today. So the same word of God that worked in his ministry is powerful to work in you today.
[00:04:52] Now let's, if you haven't, flip to 1 Thessalonians, and we'll read the first 12 verses.
[00:05:04] 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 1. For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity, or any attempt to deceive. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak not to please man, but to please God, who tests our hearts.
[00:05:40] For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness.
[00:05:48] Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others. Though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we are ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves because you had become very dear to us.
[00:06:11] For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses and God also. How holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
[00:06:41] We'll stop there.
[00:06:43] Go into our first point. The marks of a faithful ministry. The marks of a faithful ministry.
[00:06:52] And as we go through this first large chunk of the passage, remember that Paul's I believe, answering accusers and defending his ministry.
[00:07:01] In chapter one, he Paul was encouraged by their authentic faith. And that alone is evidence, as he says, that he did not come in vain. So right he's referencing that first part because Paul didn't write in a little subtitle. He didn't put a big number two there. This is all kind of one big explanation where he focuses on their faith, defends his ministry, and then returns to focus on their faith again at the end of this passage. Passage so he knows because of them standing through persecution, having an authentic faith, that what he did was not in vain. It wasn't pointless, it was worthwhile. There's fruit from it that he can see.
[00:07:44] And now the accusations and persecutions seem to come primarily from the Greeks. Like I said, if you look in verse 14, which we didn't read, he says they suffered the same things from their own countrymen. So we can think about people that they know, people that are like them from the very same place making these accusations toward them. So Paul needed to prove and defend his ministry.
[00:08:09] Not because he couldn't take any hits, he couldn't absorb any blows. Not because his name needed to be clean and spotless, but because the Gospel mattered that much. He was less concerned with his own reputation as he was with the reputation of the message he preached. That's the heart behind his explanation here.
[00:08:31] Paul saw that a turn away from him would be as if a turn away from the Gospel.
[00:08:38] So here are the marks that he listed for them. Number one. We see this in verse two. His ministry was persecution. Proof it stood through persecution. We already know that he had been chased out of Thessalonica and Berea. We read that out of Acts 17 last week. But we read here that he was terribly treated by the Jews in Philippi ever before coming to them. And he must have told them because he says, you. You guys knew about this.
[00:09:09] And this isn't remarkable because Paul is this manly and bold guy. We're not marveling at this because he's just so tough. He runs into any town. He doesn't care what's going to happen to him. This is remarkable because the gospel means that much to him.
[00:09:25] I don't know what his temperament and his boldness and manliness was like, but I know that the gospel means a lot to him, that he is willing to go town to town enduring suffering and persecution and hatred and insults and attempts on his life for the sake of the gospel. He is remarkably willing to endure persecution because of his faith in Christ, his love for the church, and his hope that Christ will come again. Faith, hope and love.
[00:09:59] This. Actually, this account reminds me of a really good friend of mine named Jacob who spoke here in November on a Wednesday night, talked about missions in Acts 16. If you remember that we were fraternity brothers when we were in college. That's how we met and became really good friends.
[00:10:18] And while we were there, this fraternity, if you don't know what this is, it's just a group of college guys that are. They live in a house together and have a lot of fun and all that good stuff. And some of my best friends came out of this experience, including Jacob. Anyway, while we were there, the environment, the culture, got really contentious around religion and faith.
[00:10:42] In fact, some of our former close friends labeled Jacob, myself and some of our other friends as the God Squad to make fun of us. They didn't like us. They talked poorly about us. They tried to disobey the rules of the fraternity at our expense. Long story short, there was just a lot of issues in these sorts of organizations. You actually have meetings every single week. So on Monday nights, we would meet together, all of us, and these would be full of conflict. Not every week we had a lot of fun. It's not just this grim picture, like, why would I do this to myself? We didn't have a lot of fun. And again, I made good friends. But. But a lot of them were full of conflict, especially depending on what was going on at the time.
[00:11:31] But we have this fun tradition. At the end of each meeting, the president would take his gavel, which he, you know, like a judge. He'd keep order if things were chaotic, and he would pass it around and every person got to hold the gavel. And when you had it, you didn't have to, but you had the floor. You can say what you want, and everyone has to listen.
[00:11:52] And Jacob one time, I think after a very contentious meeting, he took the gavel, stood up, and he shared the gospel by telling about his change, which he hadn't done. And he felt convicted that he hadn't done this for them before. Because the year before he had lived a very different life and then had come to Christ. And now his life had dramatically changed. And by believing in the gospel, this is why he's different. I think that's a great example of having what Paul says, boldness in our God, to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. Now, the conflict may not look like it did for us in college, but how does it look for you?
[00:12:36] What is the conflict into which you need to proclaim the Gospel of God?
[00:12:42] Whatever it is, be bold in Christ with the Spirit. You can be bold.
[00:12:49] Is there any conflict that could be true too? But if there's not, then all the more reason for you to minister to others. To be bold with the gospel like Paul, your ministry needs to be persecution. Proof.
[00:13:06] The second mark of his faithful ministry was that it was God tested. We see this in verses 3 through 5. We see a few phrases where he says, God tests our hearts. He says, God is witness at the end of verse five.
[00:13:21] Now, it's possible that people were saying that Paul was wrong.
[00:13:24] Maybe he had impure motives, he wanted to build himself up. Or maybe they were just calling him a liar. Maybe they're calling him crazy. We don't know.
[00:13:34] Whatever it might be, it could happen to you where people just throw accusations at you that aren't true.
[00:13:41] This happens a lot to Christians all around the world, even in our circles. But it's important to remember, as I think Paul is trying to tell us right here, that their judgment does not matter.
[00:13:53] Their judgment doesn't matter. It is God who is witness. It is God who we should seek to please. Only his judgment matters. Because at the end of it all, at the end of the ages, you don't stand before the judgment seat of those people that didn't like you and bullied you. They don't judge your actions. God does. And he judges theirs as well.
[00:14:16] So Paul is saying that he, Silas and Timothy had been approved by God. And that's huge. It's like people say sometimes, that he serves an audience of one. This is true. This is true for Paul. He served God and God alone. He doesn't seek to please anyone else. And that's how you and I should live too.
[00:14:37] But unfortunately, we really struggle with this a lot. Of us do anyway. We struggle with a sin that you might call the fear of man. It could be fear of woman, just fear of people. That doesn't mean you're just, like, afraid to be around other people. I don't know if very many of you would be here if that were the case, but it could be that you feel like you have to please everyone. And if you can't please everyone, if anyone's upset, it rocks you to the core and it prevents you from saying the things you might need to say, doing the things you might need to do. Maybe fear of man can make you feel like you can't confront someone when you need to, when it's appropriate.
[00:15:19] Or maybe you just feel like you have to avoid offending people. You can't offend someone's lifestyle. You can't call sin sin. You can't disapprove of what somebody says or does in their own life. But what Paul is saying here is God is the judge. So don't fear them. Don't fear what they might do or say to you in return, but fear God alone.
[00:15:42] Because ultimately what we do is. Is tested by God.
[00:15:47] The third mark of Paul's faithful ministry is that it was innocent, blameless, innocent. We see this in verse six, and then the first little clause in verse seven. So let me read this again, because there's a little difficulty with some translations.
[00:16:08] He says, nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you.
[00:16:18] All right, raise your hand if your Bible says gentle. It's probably going to be a lot of you, but raise your hand if it says something else.
[00:16:27] Okay. Nobody. Nobody says something other than gentle.
[00:16:33] Well, that's fair enough.
[00:16:35] There are other translations that you might have heard of, like the New American Standard Bible. I believe there are others that use a word like infant or little children.
[00:16:51] Now, that sounds kind of different. Now, infants and little children are gentle, typically. Right. But it's a different word entirely. Mine says gentle, but I actually don't think that this is the best way for us to understand it. I don't usually want to point out translation issues because our translations are very, very good. But I think that this is important because it kind of makes even the next part about the nursing mother confusing. Like, how can Paul be a child and a nursing mother makes more sense for him to be gentle like a nursing mother?
[00:17:26] Well, the reason Paul, that it says gentle is mostly because of that mixed metaphor. The translators didn't Feel right about having this mixed metaphor. Is he a child or is he like a mother?
[00:17:39] And so they were a little confused by this as well as there's a variant, you guys may know. But as the New Testament was proliferated, they didn't have printing presses. And so what they did was they would copy the books of the Bible and send them to other churches. That's how the Bible was passed out to churches all over the world. And sometimes if you write. Maybe you write an extra letter, maybe you forget a word as you type or something. If you've written anything, you've almost certainly dealt with this before. Well, this sort of thing would happen, too. But with the thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of copies we have, we can almost always verify what is actually being said. Here's a little bit of an ambiguity. So I wrote this, actually. Each of these lines is two Greek words written as they would have been written, right?
[00:18:29] So what they did is they wrote in all caps. There were no spaces and no punctuation. That's how it was written. So it's. You can imagine, like there would be a lot of letters before and after these too. So it's kind of hard to. To figure them out. And you see basically the first word and ends with that N, right? And then there's apioi. But then the next one has two ends, or news is what the letter is called in Greek. But there's two.
[00:19:01] Some of the translation or some of the copies have one, some have the other. How do you choose? One of them says little children at the beginning or at the end, and the other says gentle. That's confusing. Now, I think the top one, which is the one that says little children at the end, is most likely because most of the older copies, the ones written first, were written like that.
[00:19:27] And since there is no punctuation in the Greek, I think we just need to rearrange the commas and periods to understand this a little clearer. Now, I don't think this is twisting the word. I think this is how it should be written.
[00:19:38] So basically, it should read like this, saying, we could have made demands as apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you. Or like little children among you, put a comma between verse six and seven and then a period after the among you. This is how we should understand it.
[00:19:54] They could have made these demands, but instead they were innocent. They were gentle. I think it could still be the right way. Either way, we should kind of close off this thought because Paul then starts another thought afterward, and we'll get into that in a second. But all this being said, I thought this was interesting. You can learn a little bit about how the Bible was passed out to churches all over the world before they had printing presses.
[00:20:19] But the point is that Paul is, instead of demanding respect by his title of apostle, he acts humbly and innocent like a child, like an infant.
[00:20:34] And he did this in an effort to make no hurdle to their belief in the gospel. He wanted them to believe in the gospel because they believed it, not because he commanded them to.
[00:20:47] That's why he came innocently and even gently.
[00:20:50] And this then kind of brings us right into the fourth mark of his ministry. In verses seven through eight, if we start right after that, we were like children among you, or we were gentle among you, period. We would read this like a nursing mother taking care of her own children, comma. So being affectionately desirous of you, we are ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
[00:21:21] I think when we make this change with the punctuation, we can understand this better. See, Paul and his companions were loving like mothers.
[00:21:32] What a beautiful and vivid way to describe how much they cared for these people.
[00:21:38] Now we can see, and this is partly why I think this phrase in verse seven goes with verse eight.
[00:21:45] He says they shared their own selves.
[00:21:50] This is the exact type of love a mother has for her children. She shares her very self. A mother doesn't just love her baby with words, but she literally shares her being, her body.
[00:22:03] The baby occupies space in her body for nine months, and then she feeds and nourishes the baby from her own body after that as well.
[00:22:13] This love points us to God. This self giving, sacrificial love points us to God. For who loves like this more than God?
[00:22:23] God pours forth his love to those found in His Son.
[00:22:29] I don't know what difficult things you might be enduring.
[00:22:33] I trust that it can be significant for some of you. And it could be an internal mental battle, or it could be something external to you, happening to you.
[00:22:43] Never forget that your suffering in this life is intended to reveal to you just how much you need God. And no matter what, if you turn from your sin and put your faith in Christ, he's pleased to share his love with you as he shares Himself with you.
[00:23:05] God shares Himself with Christians by giving them his spirit.
[00:23:10] He does this by treating them as his own Son, giving to us his very self. Paul's ministry reflects this indescribable love the fifth mark of his ministry is that it was self sustaining.
[00:23:26] See that in verses 9 through 10, we won't spend as much time on this.
[00:23:30] But in typical Paul fashion, he wants to remove any barrier to belief in the Gospel possible.
[00:23:36] So he would refuse to be paid. He would work for his own wage.
[00:23:42] In reality, for all of this, this could be an accusation. People say he's greedy, he's just trying to take money from you. Well, the Thessalonians would know better than anyone else that Paul, Silas and Timothy were blameless in these charges. They worked hard to live, they were self sustaining.
[00:24:00] And then finally, his ministry was fatherly.
[00:24:05] Now, before we get into that notice real quick, he has now described his ministry to the Thessalonians as childlike, motherly and fatherly, all three.
[00:24:16] I think the emphasis here is that they are like family to one another. The bonds between these people, between these missionaries and the church that was planted there are so close. He compares it to actual family. And indeed it is actual family as brothers and sisters in Christ. They're all adopted by God and are in the family of God. They're brothers even with the Son.
[00:24:41] So he now calls himself fatherly. Verses 11 and 12.
[00:24:46] This is kind of the final nail in the coffin against these accusers. He says they were like fathers. Not only was their proclamation to these Thessalonians that which brought them to faith, so they were in that way spiritually, fathers begetting them.
[00:25:01] These fathers lovingly pointed their children in the right direction. They exhorted them and encouraged them to grow in Christ as a father would.
[00:25:12] Paul, Silas and Timothy had gotten to know them, and especially Timothy. And so they deeply, deeply cared for them.
[00:25:21] They deeply cared for them so that even when their life would be hard, Paul, Silas and Timothy wanted the best for them. They wanted them to walk in a manner worthy of God. And what's remarkable of them saying walk in a manner worthy of God is that they can because God is their father.
[00:25:42] They cannot walk in a manner worthy of God if God's not their father, because if he's not their father, they are outside of the church. They have not turned to Christ. They cannot please God without knowing Christ. Paul is so confident in their faith, he's telling them, walk in accordance with the profession of faith. You made that you believe in the gospel and live like it. Now, if you turn to God in faith, then he will take you in like a loving adoptive father, treating you as he treats his own son.
[00:26:20] Now, let's finish reading the passage. Look at verse 13.
[00:26:25] And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received 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 in 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.
[00:27:05] So as always to fill up the measure of their sins, but wrath has come upon them at last.
[00:27:12] Now, this is our second point. The marks of a faithful Christian that would be on the back of your handouts, the marks of a faithful Christian. He's now turning his attention to the Thessalonians, pointing out first in verse 13, that they had faith in the Word. They had faith in the Word.
[00:27:35] Now, if we remember chapter one, he points out the authenticity of their faith while being persecuted. And this causes him to pray prayers of thankfulness for them. Well, here again, he's mentioning how he prays for them. So if you missed it last week, I'm going to say it again. You should pray for other Christians.
[00:27:53] Paul is a great model for this. You should pray for other Christians and Paul prays a prayer of thankfulness that they had faith in the Word of God.
[00:28:02] Now, again, Paul's theology, I mentioned this last week. It's foundational. He doesn't always explain the whole doctrine that he's referencing, like you might see in parts of Romans or other letters, but it's foundational to everything he says, even when he's talking about his travel plans. We can see his theology coming up. So the point is that the Thessalonians believe in God truly. And that is because they didn't just take Paul's proclamation, his preaching into consideration. They didn't say, I'll just think about it.
[00:28:35] Even though in their culture there were a lot of religions and they probably all had their own gods that they would worship, they had a lot of options.
[00:28:47] But they knew and understood what they proclaimed. They didn't just file it away as another option for them.
[00:28:55] They heard Paul, Silas and Timothy preach, and they believed it to be the Word of God itself. They knew it was different.
[00:29:04] They knew that this alone is the Word of God. It doesn't fit in with this pluralistic culture. Pluralistic just means a bunch of religions all being had by people in the city.
[00:29:19] This is important because Christianity is exclusive and it's very unique in that way. Because if Christianity is true, then no other religion is true.
[00:29:33] Many other religions, maybe most don't believe that they might make room for other religions to be right. But that's not the case with Christianity. So you got to imagine when these Thessalonians turned and believed in this word as the Word of God. They had friends and neighbors and family members and co workers.
[00:29:56] You can imagine how offended some of these people could have been that these people would say that that Jesus guy, that that Jew that we've never heard of is the only way to heaven. He is the only God. How absurd would that be to the people around them? Plus, they would realize that this means that their lifestyles are sinful and what they are doing in worship is idolatry.
[00:30:22] All of their lives would have been contradicted by the faith now professed by the Thessalonians.
[00:30:30] And of course, that's exactly right, that this is exactly what Christianity says, that those lifestyles that they were living were sinful, that those gods they were worshiping were false and idols.
[00:30:44] But these beliefs that the Christians held, they're not offensive because they're wrong or bigoted. They're offensive because all other religions are false gods and are contradictions of the one true God. They all steal God's glory.
[00:31:03] But even with as much peer pressure as you can imagine upon these people, these Thessalonian believers, they professed that Jesus is the Lord, he is the only way to heaven. The Bible is God's Word, and the preaching of his apostles are also God's Word.
[00:31:22] Students, do you believe in God's Word so much that you would risk being a social outcast because of your beliefs? Think of the risk Paul made, the persecutions from city to city, the risk these Thessalonians are making by proclaiming all of their loved ones and friends and family are sinners outside of the family of God.
[00:31:44] Do you believe in the Word that much that you would risk that?
[00:31:53] I went to a Christian school?
[00:31:55] And even there I can recount so many times where my Christian convictions would have made me a social outcast if I would have been bold enough to live them out.
[00:32:06] Be bold to live them out.
[00:32:09] Are you bold enough to stand for the truth in the face of your friends?
[00:32:14] If the Word of God has truly transformed who you are, then your life should reflect it. We ought not be ashamed of what we profess to believe.
[00:32:22] Paul says elsewhere. For I am not Ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes in Romans 1:16. He's not ashamed because he believes it can save anyone.
[00:32:38] Jesus likewise says in Luke 9:26, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words of him, will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels?
[00:32:53] Are you ashamed of the Word?
[00:32:56] Are you ashamed of how the Word says, you need to live your life?
[00:33:01] Jesus? And when he says son of man, he's referring to himself in the end times. But Jesus is saying that when he comes again, those who have been ashamed of the Word don't really believe it.
[00:33:12] They don't really have faith at all.
[00:33:17] So the end when Jesus comes, which is supposed to be what these Christians are hoping for, what all Christians are hoping for is the end when Christ comes, it becomes something to dread. If we've lived our lives ashamed of the Gospel.
[00:33:35] So love the Word more and more and pray to God that He would teach you to love it more and more.
[00:33:42] Some days we don't feel like we love it. And so you really do. I promise. You need to pray that God would help you to love it more and more. Even if you're hearing a boring sermon, we should at least be interested in the Word being opened and the opportunity to discuss it.
[00:33:59] And then if you do love the Word and have faith in Jesus, look at your life like we discussed last week. Is there evidence of a living and act of faith? Paul says that he sees the Word at work in their lives. So not only have they believed it, but it's working in them. Let's strive to make that true ourselves.
[00:34:19] Second, he says that their faith, they have faith through persecution. So they have faith in the Word and faith through persecution, which we hit on a lot last week. He's kind of closing off this bracket, and he likens the strength of their faith to the Christians in Judea, which is where the Jews had been killing the prophets for many, many years. And where they killed Jesus too, is what he says. And now Paul kind of does this quick aside about the Jews in Judea. It's a little bit off the beaten path of the main point, but I want to just briefly address it, because it's there.
[00:34:55] They oppose the Jews. And so he's talking about a specific group of people. He's not making a sweeping generalization about Jews, even Jews today. He's talking about these Jews in Jerusalem that killed the Lord. They oppose all mankind, he says, because they work to thwart the mission of the church.
[00:35:15] And so the same could be true of anyone who tries to thwart and stop the mission of the church, which would be to make disciples of all nations. So these Jews opposed God and the whole world by trying to stop the spread of the gospel, which offers life to dying people.
[00:35:32] For doing this, Paul says, God has brought wrath upon these people of Israel already, and he will continue in the end times.
[00:35:41] So God's wrath, it says, has come. That's what the last phrase of this section says. Wrath has come upon them at last.
[00:35:49] And looking back, there are multiple events that happened in the decade leading up to the writing of the letter that it could be referring to. It could be referring to all of them, one of them, a couple of them. Or he might just be saying that their rejection of the gospel is judgment against them. It's not actually clear from the context. I couldn't arrive at an answer I felt comfortable with.
[00:36:11] I think the point is that whatever the case, judgment has already been felt by those Jews. And the phrase at last might also be translated as until the end, which indicates this ongoing reality that though they have experienced wrath, it continues in the end when Christ returns. But again, whatever the case, the Thessalonians have an authentic faith that perseveres even under persecution.
[00:36:41] Their faith springs from the word of God in which they believe and which is at work within them.
[00:36:49] So, students, tonight, think about what the word of God means to your life. Adults, too, everyone. Think about what the word of God means to your life.
[00:36:58] Really be honest with yourself and reflect. What does it mean to me? Do I believe it?
[00:37:05] Am I ashamed of it?
[00:37:07] If the answer to both of those is yes, why those don't really work out together? If we believe it, how can we be ashamed of it?
[00:37:16] The word of God that worked in Paul's ministry is powerful to work in you today.
[00:37:21] The offer of the Gospel in Christ is that God will take you in as his own own son or daughter because of his great love.
[00:37:29] Let's pray, and then we can break up in groups.
[00:37:34] Father, we thank you for your word.
[00:37:37] Lord, we pray that as we break in groups, you would help us to further reflect on your word. Whether we love it, if we're ashamed of it, what it means in our lives, if our lives are active and filled with fruit, as the Thessalonian Christians had at this point, and how Paul exhibits in his ministry. God help us to remember through it all, though, that ultimately we can have these discussions and we can come to you and examine our lives and our fruit because of your Son. That if we have not turned from our sin and placed our faith in Christ, then all of the works we do are for nothing.
[00:38:15] God grant anyone in the room that does not know you faith tonight. And then help us to excel still more in faithfulness. And we pray this in Christ's name, Amen.
