Encouragement to Stay in Alignment with the Assignment

We left off in our last study in 1Thess 2:12 with Paul saying, “we exhorted each one of you (literally “each one of you one by one) and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” 

Paul’s encouragement, exhortation, and charge was for them to stay in alignment with God’s assignment. Question? What was that assignment and does it apply to all believers for all of history? The answer is YES, it is applicable to all followers of Christ until the end of the age. The definition of the assignment can be succinctly summed up in the current vision statement of Bethlehem Baptist Church, in Minneapolis, MN where John Piper was pastor for 33 years. It declares: "We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples."

God’s ancient covenant people, Israel, except for a remnant, had not only rejected the gospel, but were doing everything in their power to prevent the gospel from spreading to Gentile nations. “1 Thess. 2:16a, “…by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved …” God does not take kindly to this.

I want to unpack our text by considering 4 big ideas that sums up the content of chapter 2:12-20 and its encouragement to stay in alignment with the assignment:

1. A Demonstration of the Way to Welcome the Word of God – 2:13

The words for "received" and "accepted" are not the same. The word "accepted" means more than "receive" as we receive teachings or traditions handed down to us. It means "welcome." It means "embrace" as what it is. We can see this use in 1 Cors. 2:14. Right after Paul says that he teaches in words taught by the Holy Spirit he adds, "The natural person does not accept [same word] the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

Notice Three Things about How They Received the Word of God.

1. They received the word even though it meant persecution. They received it with "much affliction." They welcomed the word as precious. To have it and believe it and trust in it was worth more than comfort and safety. It was a treasure. They accepted suffering rather than give it up. So the right way to accept the word of God is to accept it as precious – more precious than possessions and life.
2. They received the word in this affliction with the experience of pleasure. 1Thess 1:6b, “…for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”Note the phrase "with the joy of the Holy Spirit." The word of God was pleasing. It produces joy. It is precious and pleasing.
3. They received the word as practical. It changed their lives in visible ways. We see this in 1 Thess. 1:7, "So that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia." This is what Paul’s gospel word did when they received it as what it really was, the word of God, the gospel of God. It was good and practical and life-changing news that “came to them not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5).

2. An Illustration of the Wages for the Rejection of the Gosple - 2:14-15

“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 displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!”

1. Hating the Lord Jesus and those sent to proclaim Him to them.
2. Persecuting those who proclaim Him.
3. Not pleasing God.
4. Standing in contradiction to all men (i.e., opposing man's need to hear the Gospel).
5. Forbidding the preachers to speak to those who need to hear and thus be saved.
6. Filling up the measure of their sins.
7. Suffering the wrath of God 'to the uttermost' as a result.

Both Jews and Gentiles suffered persecution from their own countrymen. The Jews were the persecutors of the churches everywhere. They did everything in their power to keep the Gentiles shut off from God’s saving grace.

In Acts 22:21, Paul has gained the attention of a large crowd of Jews in the Temple and upon hearing him speak in Hebrew, they are very quiet and respectful as he gives his testimony, until they hear him say that God “said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.” Then in Act 22:22, we read, “Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live!” What was it that upset them so much? The thought of making salvation available to Gentiles.

Over and over again in the book of Acts, we see the Jews as the foremost opposers of the gospel and persecutors of believers. Among the Gentiles they caused them to be stirred up against the Christian faith (Acts 13:6,45 50; Acts 14:2,5,19; Acts15:1-2, 15:5; Acts 16:3; Acts17:5,13; Acts18:5-6).

Here is on unchangeable truth, “You cannot window shop with the Word of God.” Every exposure to the truth of the gospel of King Jesus and His kingdom, creates a crisis of choice. And in refusing to receive and accept the gospel of God, judgement is pronounced on them by their rejection. After reading the most precious and promising verse in the New Testament, John 3:16, we read in John 3:18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” And in John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” The verdict has already been given, but the sentence has not yet been executed. Why? Because God is patient and long-suffering, and continues to call sinners to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Paul then notes that there is a filling or heaping up of sin in the lives of those rejecting and attempting to block the spread of the gospel: 1Thess. 2:16, “by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved - so as always to fill up (“heap up” – NIV) the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!”

"The rendering "heap up" (NIV Translation) conveys the picture of the unbelieving Jews continuing to pile up their sins as a great heap. The more familiar rendering here, "to fill up,"" conveys the common Hebrew image of a measure or cup that is being filled up.

3. An Explanation of the Spiritual Warfare Against the Followers of Christ - 2:17-18

Satan's chief activity and goal in the believer’s life is twofold: he'll do all in his power to get us to think differently to biblical truth and to act disobediently to God's will, especially in taking the Great Mission seriously. He attempts to accomplish this end through five basic strategies:

• by twisting the truth of God's word (cf. Matthew 4:1-11),
• by threatening the lives of those who give public witness to the gospel – (cf. Acts 9:1-2, 23).
• by tarnishing the testimony of God's people (cf. Acts 5:1-11),
• by trashing a believer's zeal to accomplish God's work (cf. 2 Cors 12:7-10 “a messenger of Satan to harass me,”),
• by thinning down the effectiveness of God's church (cf. Luke 22:3-6 -22:3, “Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.”). 

4. A Celebration of the Worth of Biblical Hope in the Presence of God - 2:19-20

“For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.”

Always keep in mind that the only thing that makes it across “death’s chilly waters” into God’s new heaven and new earth is people. Not money, houses or land, but people who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

King Jesus takes the Great Commission very serious, so get in alignment with it if you haven’t and stay in alignment at all cost. Paul encouraged them to not give up because of the opposition to the gospel. He encouraged them and us to lay hold of the spiritual resources we have in our Lord Jesus Christ, which being the Word of God within us, the people of God around us, and the glory of God before us.

So stay in alignment with the assignment to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples by making fruitful, reproducing disciples who have on their hearts what Jesus has on his – the world of people!"