1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 - Gods True Word and His Wayward People

Well, at the time of recording, it is night time here in a not so sunny middle river, and hope that you have had a, let's just cut all that out. Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.

We are in the Book of First Thessalonians today, and we are in Chapter 2 and beginning in verse number 13.

We've been walking through this book written from Paul, Silas, and Timothy to a little baby church with some new Christians that, despite their lack of age spiritual wise, that they hadn't known Jesus for very long, what they knew of him they loved

and they followed. And so Paul here has been walking through the book.

He mentions that he's thankful to God for how they received the word that was given, how they then passed it on to other people, and he reminded them of how he had interacted with them and kind of motivating them to treat others the same way, to pass

on to others what they had received from Paul. And that's where we pick up in verse number 13.

This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the word of God that you heard it from, sorry, that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is the word of God, which also works effectively in you who

believe. What a wonderful truth that all of us ought to embody ourselves that when we hear the word of God, we would not just think of it as coming from maybe a pastor or Sunday school teacher or a podcast host.

But when we hear the word of God, may we receive it as it really is the word of God. What a message, what a thought that when you think of maybe the big world religions, who does the word of the gods go to?

Like their sacred writings, it's revealed to a particular person, and everyone's kind of relying on that one person to tell the truth, whether that might be Mohammed or Joseph Smith or one of the Popes, or one of the Mormon Apostles nowadays that

say, okay, now you can drink Coca-Cola or something. What a difference there is in the Christian faith.

In the Christian faith, it's, hey, here's God's word, and it's clear to everyone, and you don't just have to take one person's word for it, that this is real.

Instead, as we look at even the totality of scripture, here we have 40-plus different authors at least over the course of about 1,500 years, that this wasn't just like one person going into a cave and getting something, or one person saying that the

angel Moroni had an interaction with him. Instead, this was over the course of century after century that as God gave the message, as he gave it to the people, as the people even with the very first time that there was that message given of God

speaking to humanity, he's talking to Adam and to Eve. He's talking to Cain and he's not telling Cain what Abel needs to do. He's telling Cain about what he needs to do.

When he talks to Noah and his family and gives them the message of what they are to do, it's just such a different kind of God than the gods of this world.

That as they try to exercise power over other people, they try and get them under their religious sway, they try and amass them to their armies, that how God works, it's different. God wants everyone in it together.

It's why he has created the church. It's why he created, as I've mentioned many times before, for the leadership of the church to work in a plurality of elders, that there would be multiple people all working together.

We have one head of the church, that is Jesus, and as we follow that one head, we follow together. And none of us are more important than someone else.

The ground is level at the foot of the cross, and so it doesn't build up like gigantic hierarchies instead, as we're all part of a local church and God sets some people to serve in specific ways and other people to teach in specific ways and other

people to give and be generous, other people to administrate just all the gifts that God gives to his local bodies of believers. It's just so cool. So I say all of those things to look back at the fact that the Word of God is something else.

It's different than any other thing.

As you look at perhaps ancient prophecies, and I'm putting air quotes here, ancient prophecies that were so vague that they could have really meant anything to anyone versus what you would read about in the major and minor prophets where God

specifically details, hey, this is how Babylon's going to be defeated. This is how the ancient city of Tyre off the coast of Sidon. Here's how it's going to be taken over.

And then hundreds of years later, that that's exactly how alexander the Great did it.

All the effects of Jesus' life, all prophesied hundreds of years prior in astonishing detail where he would be born, the life circumstances that his mom would have as he was born, where he would go after his birth, the manner of his death, that his

hands and his feet would be pierced, the effects of his preaching, that the poor have the gospel preached to them, that people would receive, the blind would receive their sight, prisoners would be released, all sorts of incredible things that when

you pair them all together, it is manifestly clear that the Bible is not the invention of humans. It is the Word of God. That it talked about scientific discoveries long before other people knew that they existed.

Of the statements that we even read about in Leviticus, that the life of the flesh is in the blood.

A fact that in the 17 and early 1800s, George Washington's doctors might have done well to listen to, instead of trying to take away the quote unquote bad blood of George Washington through leeches.

If they had maybe picked a different way to try and heal him, maybe he would have lived a little longer. You can think about, it says that God is the one that sits on the circle of the earth. That was already testified.

You can read in the book of, I think it's Isaiah. It's either Isaiah or Job, where it says that God stretches out the heavens like a curtain, that nowadays we know that our universe is expanding outward.

And we found that out way later in human history when the Bible already said that God was doing that. That was how he was orchestrating what was going on. And many, many other things that I could relate.

But the Bible is true. It is the Word of God. And it's not just true when it talks about history.

It's not just true when it talks about things of science. It's not just true when it talks about our spiritual state, which a lot of people would agree on. It's true when it interacts with your real everyday life.

That if you follow what God says, you will find God's blessing. You will find the benefits of life lived for Jesus, that He says, do this and see the blessing that will come as a result.

So here Paul says to the Thessalonians, you guys didn't just receive it as coming from me and Silas. You really believed that it was coming from God and it is working effectively in you. It's powerful in how it is operating in your life.

Verse 14, for you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God's churches in Christ Jesus that are in judea.

Since you have also suffered the same things from people of your own country, just as they did from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us.

They displease God and are hostile to everyone by keeping us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. As a result, they are constantly filling up their sins to the limit, and wrath has overtaken them at last.

Here, I want to mention one particular thing because antisemitism is at such an incredible level right now in ways that kind of fearfully mimic some of the things that we've seen at other points in human history.

Here, as Paul details this, he is not saying that those that are ethnically Jewish are somehow responsible for Jesus' death. Paul and Silas and Timothy, half Jewish, on his mother's side, not on his father's side, these were ethnic Jews.

And Paul was not saying that those that are ethnically Jewish are under some sort of special condemnation by God.

Here, what he's saying is those in judea, those that actually interacted with Jesus during his earthly ministry and then delivered him up to Pilate, both the guards, the temple guards, the Pharisees, the priests, everyone that delivered Jesus to

Pilate, Pilate said, hey, I'll release him. And then the crowds that were there stirred up by those same religious leaders said, no, we'll take Barabbas, crucified Jesus.

That all of that, that was happening, then followed by the rejection and persecution that came against the early church as they continued to preach Jesus after his ascension, that that way in which they treated the Christians, many of them ethnically

Jewish themselves, that that was the sign of their like wrath and condemnation. Like that showed that they were now under judgment because they were not aligning themselves with God. They weren't aligning themselves with Jesus.

And so as a result, they were not under, if you will, the fountain of God's blessing, but they had removed themselves from that and were now under condemnation.

Even as we would hear about in John chapter three, the one that has the sun has life, the one that does not have the sun will not see life. And so here, this is not saying ethnic Jews are under some sort of particular curse or condemnation.

That is not the case. It is also not to be the case that today, not a single Jewish person for the past 1900 years, not a single Jewish person is responsible in any way for the death of Jesus.

There are some antisemitic people that want to even to this day, try and with a racial hatred, place on people thousands of, you know, almost 2000 years removed from the event itself, try and blame it on those people.

And that is not what Paul is saying here.

Paul is saying, you guys from your countrymen have experienced the exact same type of rejection and persecution that we as Jews experienced from our fellow countrymen in judea from the people that killed Jesus, that killed the apostles, and that Paul

at one point participated in. So he's not saying these people are beyond forgiveness.

He is the perfect example of someone that was persecuting, that was against Jesus, that was under condemnation, and but because of the grace of Jesus found forgiveness and new life in Christ.

So I do want to mention that just because it's a real kind of hot ticket thing in the world right now. And one way in which that has manifested has been frankly, both on the right and left political spectrums for some different individuals.

I won't go into their particular names or the offending things right here on the podcast.

I would just say whenever you have someone that is blaming the Jewish people for something, the people group, not an individual, but an entire race of people for something, it should always set off giant red ringing bells in your head that you go,

hmm, I wonder who really hates the race of the Jews? Who would not want them to exist?

And if you think about it long enough, and maybe if you open your Bible to Genesis 3, if you open your Bible to the Book of Esther, if you open your Bible to perhaps Matthew 3 or Luke 4 or Mark 1 or the Book of Revelation and Chapter 12, you might

find someone that really dislikes the Jewish people. So don't get sucked into these ones that want to convince you of the hatred that you need to bear towards these people. And these are God's people. They are currently wayward.

They have wandered away from their Messiah.

But the testimony of Scripture, as you look at Romans 11, as you look at the Book of Revelation, as you look at Zephaniah Chapter 3 that we went over, as you look at Isaiah and Daniel, God has a plan to rescue Israel once again, just as he did so

many times in the Old Testament. He is planning his grand rescue again. And I'm looking forward to one of these days, going through the Book of Revelation with you all.

We're going to be going through the Book of Daniel later this year and next year in our sermon podcast. So just want to mention that. Number one, believe God's Word.

It is the Word of God. Number two, don't be anti-Semitic in any way, shape or form. That is never the thing that you should be doing.

I do want to mention maybe one last thing here in interacting with how Paul is saying, hey, here's these enemies of the Gospel. You guys are experiencing it with your countrymen. We who came from judea, we experienced this with our countrymen.

The way in which these people held their particular positions, I think, is a warning sign to us.

He says this, they displease God, which is different than what Paul and Silas and Timothy were doing, where they say, hey, we're not trying to please men. We are trying to please God.

Here, to placate Rome, to placate the religious leaders, to placate the sinfulness of people like Herod and others, they put Jesus to death.

And when we choose to please people, instead of pleasing God, there are always going to be terrible consequences. So in your life, you want to interact with people, and if you tell them the truth, they're not going to like it very much.

If you say, hey, I'm not going to do that with you because I'm a Christian, because I believe this, there will be some people that don't like you.

If you say, hey, I can't hold that particular political opinion because to me, it's not a political opinion. This is a Bible opinion. This is what God's word says.

And so I have to believe and follow this, even if it's not popular. People won't like that. But it is so worth it to please God instead of pleasing people.

So he says, they displease God. They are hostile to everyone. Man, I think of Jesus' words.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the kingdom of God. I think of Paul's words in Romans 12, I think. As much as lies in you, as much as it's in your ability, live at peace with everyone.

And I think of James chapter four, or no, sorry, the end of James three, where it says, now, the wisdom from above is first, peaceable and easy to be entreated. Are you always angry with everyone? Are you always angry at everything?

Are you angry at the economy, angry at our politics, angry at your neighbors, angry at your school board? Are you angry at this and this? Are you angry at your pastor?

Lord willing, not me. Are you angry at your family members? Are you angry with your so-called friends?

Is anger, hostility, the way that you live your life? Now, that's not to say we shouldn't have any anger at any point in time. Our God is said to be angry at wickedness, at sin.

But how does he deal with that anger? Well, number one, the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus on the cross, that as our substitute, he received the full just punishment for sin. So when you're angry, bring it to Jesus.

As Romans 12 would say, don't seek vengeance ourselves, but give it to God because he will repay evil in this world.

We can also encourage other people in righteousness to be able to encourage them to say, or sorry, we can encourage them by saying, God doesn't want that for your life. That's not a right thing to do.

This is bad and it's going to have consequences, but we can do so in a way that warns, that pleads, that begs for them not to careen themselves off of a cliff.

We don't have to do it in such a way that demeans others, that brings them down, that is trashing of their intelligence or something like that.

There is a way to warn that is serious, that is meaningful, but that isn't just hostile towards everything.

Jesus was the one that as he interacted with big sins, with adultery, the betrayal and brokenness of marriages, that he dealt with kindness even in that situation.

The people that he reserved his deepest anger towards were those that put themselves up on big pedestals religiously and through their whatever of scripture just had so much power down on other people. Jesus modeled for us what gentleness looks like.

Jesus preached against sin. Jesus didn't let anything slide. Even the woman caught in the adultery.

He didn't just say, I forgive you. Go and be free. He said, neither do I condemn you.

Go and sin no more. That he called what she did sin. It was wrong.

He didn't back away from calling it sin, but he did so in a way that wasn't, it wasn't with hostility. And I would encourage us, let's hold our positions.

Let's hold truth in a loving, gentle, entreating way, inviting, begging people to come to a knowledge of the truth, to obedience to God. Let's do it earnestly. Let's do it passionately.

Let's choose to be vocal to not just for the sake of people pleasing, not say anything. Let's talk against sin and wickedness, but let's do so in such a way that no one could deny that we genuinely love those that we are warning.

And here, by keeping us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved, we ought to have a desire to tell others about Jesus and don't stop other people from telling others about Jesus. That's the goal for our lives and everything.

Let's point to Christ. Thanks for tuning in today. That was First Thessalonians, chapter 2, I believe verses 13 through, I'd closed my Bible just too soon.

Yeah, 13 through 16. Thanks for tuning in. See you next episode.