Growing Through Affliction

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  Growing through Affliction

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  This letter that we started last week, 2 Thessalonians, was written by the Apostle Paul to the church of Thessalonica. Silvanus and Timothy were his missionary buddies that he helped found this church in Acts 17 around A.D. 50, and it was the capital of Macedonia. It was located on a major east west highway cutting across the Roman Empire. It was a political and commercial powerhouse of the region, and it had immediate success. Paul gets there. Acts 17 starts preaching the gospel in the synagogues, and some Jews convert and then preaching to Gentiles...converted. And yet at the same time, quickly the enemy moves and the jealous Jews come and persecute Paul and his friends and to run them out of town. And so they weren't there very long, maybe just a few weeks. And on to the next city. Paul goes, and the gospel continues to go forth in their second missionary journey. And so we get 1 Thessalonians as a letter written by Paul to check on that church. And we studied that last spring, and then we took a little break this summer. And here we are back in 2 Thessalonians, picking up where Paul left off, which is to check up on this growing church  They're a good church.  They're grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're growing in him. They understand that the heartbeat of the faith is faith, love and hope. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, love for God and the saints, and hope of his return. However, there was opposition and that opposition is he's writing about in this letter came in two ways. The first one was persecution from the outside. And that's really what chapter one is about in totality, is the opposition that this church was facing by being persecuted and afflicted, as we left off in verse four last week. And we'll pick up today in verses 5 to 12. Chapter two then moves on, not to the threat on the outside, but a threat on the inside. And the church always faces threats on the inside by way of false teaching. And chapter two is dedicated by Paul to clarify some false teaching regarding the day of the Lord and the return of Jesus Christ. And so he has to deal with that matter and the rebellion of Antichrist in chapter two. And so if opposition from the outside or confusion on the inside, if either of those kind of suit your fancy for what you think about when you think about your place in the church today, and maybe some of the things that weigh you down, you'll find yourself right at home in this letter. Because those are the two major issues Paul is dealing with. And then for chapter three, that's more of an exhortation that comes out of the first two chapters by way of, hey, with this persecution and opposition and longing for the return of Jesus, don't be so heavenly minded that you become no earthly good. As in, if you knew Jesus Christ or believed he was coming back tomorrow, you might not show up for your job because you want to share the gospel with everybody. But if you're kind of living in a perpetual state of he is coming back, not quite sure, and you quit your job, you might be leaning on other Christians a little too much, and that's really what he has to address in chapter three. But we're in chapter one today. And so let's look there. And we looked at the greeting last week. It was a familiar greeting. And Paul's writing to a good church where he blesses them. He says he's thankful for them. He shows that connection between grace and gratitude we talked about...when you recognize God's grace in your life, the instinctual response that should be cultivated in us is a response of gratitude. Because when we see grace, we should want to say thank you. Thank you to God first and foremost. But we also can thank the people around us. And that's just a good principle in life to live by. It doesn't have to limit itself to the church. At your employment as a student, in your homes, with your parents kids, recognizing the grace that you've been shown and then saying thank you for it and looking for it, will bless you far more than being what?...ungrateful and a critic. That's not going to get you anywhere. That'll just leave you in this place of always feeling everybody owes everything to you...when you forget it, you know...what am I actually owed in the big picture of life? And yet, what has Christ delivered me from? And so that's Paul's heartbeat as he opens this letter. And then look at verse four. He said, therefore we ourselves, I'm so thankful for you. I'm spreading proudly the word about you guys growing to many churches. Why? And it zeroes in on this. And this is where we'll pick up today...for your perseverance and faith in the midst of persecutions and afflictions which you endure. And so that's where we'll pick up today from verses 5 to 12 is to say, what does it look like for a church to grow through affliction? I'm not talking about general suffering. The you know, things that are, you know, in the largest category of trials in life. Not to say those are unimportant, but that the particular language Paul uses here in verse four is about when Christians face persecution, which is the the opposition from the outside, and then he connects it to a word affliction, which is the actual challenge you face in your heart. What is it that afflicts you? What's the force of it that hits you? And he puts these two ideas together and he says, you're a growing church. And I know this because you're persevering in faith through it. So let's hear him encourage this church in their growing through affliction in verses 5 to 12. Follow along with me as I read.
  "This", referring to persecution and affliction which they're enduring.  "This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment, so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted, and to us as well. When the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God. And to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed for our testimony to you was believed. To this end, also, we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."
  Father, your word is a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path, and in the present darkness of our day, how we need that light. So, spirit, illuminate Your word to our hearts. Enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we can behold Christ by faith, and be encouraged in him today to live for his glory. We ask in his name. Amen.
  If you and I were to sit down this week in the comfortable environs of a Third Wave coffee shop and grab a nice single origin pour over. In those perfect environs in that comfortable setting, wouldn't it be most appropriate for me to ask you this poignant question coming out of the text today? Are you ready for it? Yes. What does it mean to be persecuted for Jesus Christ in America in 2024? And he would just take that nice long sip and say, um, let me think about that. Persecution in America in 2024. Uh, would you mind turning on the AC? Turn the AC up a little bit. You know, this heat wave is still going. Can we change the music? I'm ready to answer this question about persecution, but I need the right vibe. Look, I'm not saying we don't face persecution in America in 2024, but it is good when we talk about this type of persecution that the Thessalonians were facing...life on the line, persecution and affliction. That it does call us to attention...just a quick side route today, just pulling the car over to say, let's answer that question, remembering the greater discussion, because we don't want to go so off the path of like, let's talk about persecution across the world. But it does help us to remember what persecution and affliction is like in Paul's time by connecting it to countries today like Nigeria, where it's estimated by Newsweek, a secular source, that up to 7000 Christians were killed there in 2023 for their faith. Or if you go on a website, Open Doors and started by a man named Brother Andrew who just wanted to get into persecuted countries around the world decades ago just to bring Bibles to Christians. Brings out statistics. You know, over 14,000 churches in 2023 attacked by people opposed to Jesus Christ and the gospel. 1 in 5 believers face persecution daily in Africa, 2 in 5 in Asia. Just to throw those things out by way of reminder, it's not a guilt trip. It's just to remember that even in us thinking about what does persecution look like for us...a teenager in a public school, getting mocked at lunch for stopping to pray before you eat, that's a real thing maybe you're going to do see you at the pole. That's still around. Kids in public schools around the country someday in September, gather around a flagpole to pray for their school. Kids pull up in the buses, laugh at them. That's persecution. It is. So I'm not making light of that. You working in the secular world at your job. And, you know, I hear from some of you when I talk to you about it, just hey this is the latest memorandum that went around the corporation that says we have to start including this language in how we talk to each other. And you want to stand up against it because you feel convicted by what you believe. So it's not to say those things don't exist, but it is good to just take in the whole right now to think about it on the widest before we narrow it down to our lives. And this is the entryway into thinking rightly about how Paul's talking to these people in this church, because what he wants them to know is this. And knowing this is everything for understanding how to deal with affliction in chapter one. That growing through it, and that's the point of Paul writing right here. He's encouraging. He's saying, you guys are doing it. You're growing in faith. But if you're going to continue to grow through it, this is what you need to know. That affliction that is experienced by believers vindicates the justice of God, while at the same time indicating the righteousness of God in you. It's doing both of those things at the same time. That Christians being persecuted, going through affliction is not a vindication that God is not there, which is the way we might think, right? Look at verse five. A plain indication of God's righteous judgment is that you're being persecuted. I mean, that's entirely backwards from the message of the prosperity gospel, an indication of God's righteous judgment for somebody that buys into the name and claim it...word of faith, health and wealth message would be the a plain indication of God being a righteous judge is that I get everything I want and my life is easy street...blessing...windows of heaven opened up, blessing...let it pour. And the moment I receive any conflict, any affliction. Well, I don't know if I signed up for that. No no, no. This verse five flips that idea on its head, doesn't it? Because he's saying the plain indication that God is a righteous judge, the anchor for us to hold to as Christians is that God wants us to grow through this affliction, and that actually vindicates God's righteous judgment. How does it vindicate it? Because it's showing these people who are experiencing that presently and will be delivered from it one day, that faith that is now shining through that I Peter talks about...that persecution that actually is the flames, that burns away the superficiality of a shallow gospel that gets preached today. It burns it away. And you see, you actually have something left that's worth something...that nobody, when you go through persecution and affliction for your faith, can sit back and say, oh, you Christians, you got it so easy. What's different about you than everybody else? You got the money. You got the success. You got the big church. Pastor drives a Escalade.  Whatever, you know. I don't drive an Escalade, by the way. It's a Subaru Outback. It's a fine ride, but you get my point. It's counter culture to the way the world thinks. And even false teaching in the church today. But the principle is growing through affliction actually shows the world it's his righteous judgment in the world that, look, my people didn't sign up for this to escape something down here, but to stand firm through it and to prove to the world that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And they will rise one day, too. And that's where their hope is.
  So let's see how Paul breaks this down in these verses from 5 to 12. Uh, first way he breaks it down is he gives a principle for growing through affliction. And let's look at that in verse five. We already touched it shortly, but he says this is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment, so that you, Christian, will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. The first principle on which we build our faith is this  God is just, and he doesn't qualify that with anything. It's not a debatable point to him. God's judgments that we as believers, we look around the world. We believe he is sovereign in his providence. He rules over all. Our God is in the heavens. He does what he pleases. He is ordaining all things right now, everything in your life, so you don't have to feel like it's out of control. He's not even trying to defend that. He's just saying it's a plain reality. The persecution and affliction you're enduring, Thessalonians, is actually the indication that God is the righteous judge of the world because he has perfect character. There is no flaw in God that if you belong to him, that you could think maybe something is outside of his control right now. Or maybe because I'm going through some type of affliction that his justice is off. Paul would have known in his understanding of Old Testament, going back all the way to the beginning of Genesis. He would have known the stories of the men of faith of old, even prior to coming to faith in Christ on the Damascus Road, he would have understood the justice of God. What do you think drove Paul's passion? Even as a God fearing Jew before he believed in Jesus Christ. He believed that God was righteous. He believed that God was just, and he was opposed to any idea that God is pleased with anything less than perfection. So this idea that you could be righteous by faith. He wanted to kill the Christians, But he would have understood this idea of God being a just God. Going back to Genesis, the story of Abraham in Genesis 18, when Abraham is met by the Lord, the angel of the Lord, and they're standing outside of a wicked city named Sodom. And Abraham asks the Lord a question in verse 23 of Genesis 18, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? That's a question of God's justice, isn't it? So you see this really wicked city. But if there are righteous people in that city, will you sweep the whole thing away, because he's setting it up? Abraham's really trying to understand something about how God works. He says, suppose there are 50 righteous people in that city. Will you indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of 50 righteous in it? And then listen to what he says about God? This is what Abraham knows about God's character. Far be it from you, God, to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from you. Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly? I mean, from the beginning of Abraham's faith, if he understood anything, it was that God is just. But yet he poses this question to him to test that. Is he a just God? That if there are 50 righteous people in the city, you're going to treat them all like the wicked and just wipe the whole thing out. And so God, his response is, sure, if there's 50 right people, I will spare the whole place. And Abraham has now been called out. So he, if you read on this story, has to keep lowering the amount. And it wasn't just Abraham's life of faith. Moses at the end of his life, he has seen a great amount of injustice and injustice drove him to action early on in his life, when he saw one of his own people being mistreated. Drove him out into the wilderness. God brought him back to save his people. He has been through it all and at the end of his life. Deuteronomy 32. When all is said and done in Moses' life, and he might even be calculating in his mind when God tells him, because of the time you struck the rock, Moses, you don't get to enter the Promised land. What an injustice. I mean, this guy's been through it. He has dealt with grumbling, complaining Israelites in the desert, eating manna every day and people complaining to him. Hundreds of thousands, never got a break. And because of his one act of disobedience, that one time striking the rock prematurely, he's out. You would think if anybody might have had a problem with...is God just. It might have been Moses. Listen to his famous last words in Moses' song in Deuteronomy 32. Give ear, O heavens, and let me speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distil as the dew, as the droplets on the fresh grass as the showers of the fields. For I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. The Rock, His way is perfect. All his ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is he. Has he made his point about what he believes about the justice of God? A guy that would have, we would have all said man if he had a if there was a case for maybe not believing that God was treating somebody unjustly, it could be Moses. And what are the first qualities of God's character off of his lips at the end of his life? His famous last words in his song...his work is perfect. All his ways are just, a God of faithfulness and without injustice. It's not just Moses, it's David. In Psalm 19 where he writes, the law of the Lord is perfect. The testimony of the Lord is sure. The precepts of the Lord are right. The commandment of the Lord is pure. The fear of the Lord is clean. And then listen to Psalm 19:9. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether. What does that teach you about the judgment of God? It's not just that they're true...His judgments. We associate with truth. They're valid. There's right and there's wrong and and God's right. His judgments are true. But there's actually a moral quality. It says in Psalm 19:9, that they're righteous altogether, that when we see the judgment of God, it's not just that we could say he's right. That's true. There's a wonderful quality about the truthful judgements of God. They're right altogether. All throughout every part of God's judgments, you can't find a flaw in them. That's unlike us, right? I mean, we can make true judgments. We can call a spade a spade. You know, we can differentiate between...that's true, that's false. But sometimes our judgments people question, they might not like the outcome of it, and so they would question its righteousness. You, maybe as a teacher, have some rules for your classroom or parent in your home and you've laid them out. And so the consequence comes and they would say your child or that student or as an employee. Yeah, that is in the handbook. I goofed up, it's true, but you might not like it for its moral quality. You might think and grumble in your heart. That's a stupid rule. I know it's true, and I know I broke it, but that's not the way with God's righteous judgments. They're not only true, they're righteous. They're moral...the quality of them. Psalm 119:160 says, the sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous ordinances is everlasting. The sum of it all in Psalm 119:160 is this...mark this down in your mind. This is what you have to believe that undergirds understanding affliction in your life if you believe it's ordained by the hand of God. Every judgment God has ever made is ever right every time. That's what Psalms 119:160 is teaching us. That's what the testimony of Abraham is teaching us,the testimony of Moses is teaching us, the testimony of David is teaching us and the testimony of Paul here. Every judgment God ever made is ever right every time. That's it. You either square with that or you don't. And you got to believe it before you see it. We don't play Monday morning quarterback looking back at the game film of God's judgments. And then we get to determine whether or not we agreed they were true and righteous altogether. That puts us in the place of God sitting over him. And that's not how the Christian faith works. It's that we come into it by faith. We believe the Word of God. What it says about his judgments, his ordinances, whatever you want to run back to. God's will working itself out in your individual life. It's righteous altogether. It's true every time, and it will never fail. So that's the baseline for verse five. And yet Paul tests it with a very challenging thought, the question of evil in the world. Why do bad things happen to good people? If you want to call it that. I mean, that is the test. Right. Why does God allow evil in the world? That's what Paul's saying here. But Paul's not questioning it. He's just saying, listen, this is the reality. Look at verse five. The plain indication, the evidence that God is a righteous judge and that you're being considered worthy of the kingdom is that you're suffering, but your faith is surviving. That's his answer to that question. He's saying, Thessalonians, your faith enduring right now through this affliction, is the proof that God is just. It doesn't maybe take the sting out of it. It's still affliction. It's still persecution. It's still painful. It's still pruning. But do know that these things are what is showing you worthy of the kingdom of God. Look at that phrase, worthy of the kingdom of God. It's not saying you have to prove your worth yourself. It's actually a passive, right?. You're being considered worthy. That means somebody is doing this to you. Who's doing it to you? Your haters?...No. The God who is allowing and ordaining the haters in your life. God is a righteous judge, using unrighteous people and unrighteous actions to prove the true worthiness of your citizenship in heaven. Do you believe that? If you're a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, what's a citizen of the kingdom of heaven act like an affliction? I'll read you your Bill of rights in Matthew 5:3-12.   You want to plead for your rights in today's society? You should know this better than you know the United States Bill of rights. Those may tell you what your rights are, but this tells you what your righteous response should be when you don't get what you want. This is how Kingdom citizens respond to a kingdom that isn't down here. The kingdom Jesus talked about that's not of this world. You want to know how you're to respond no matter how the world treats you. Go to Matthew 5:3-12. This is the character qualities of citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. First, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. How do you get into this kingdom? You go low. You don't walk in puffed up chest. Look at me, Lord. Paul tried that. How far did it get him? It got him flat on his face, bowed before the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, because he thought his credentials are what would get him into God's kingdom. They were what kept him out. He had to be humbled. And so do we. That's what it means to be poor in spirit. It has nothing to do with physical poverty. Poor in the inside. You can have a lot or a little, but if you don't understand, you got to humble yourself and bow before your Redeemer, your creator, your maker. You won't make it in. Attach to that. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. What's the response to that humility? It's brokenness over sin. It's weeping over sin. It's repentance over sin. It's turning from it. It's realizing. Wait a second, I thought I was good. I'm not good enough. I'll never be good enough. Woe is me, God. Be merciful to me, the sinner. That's how you get into this kingdom. And that's the mark of a true citizen of heaven. I mean, that's where you start. But it doesn't stop there. Then blessed are the gentle, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, they will see God. These are all qualities that these Thessalonian believers were displaying that Paul was exalting in saying, you are these people, you are being afflicted. But rather than fight back and demand your rights, you're being merciful to people that aren't being merciful to you. Why? Because you understand you've been shown mercy. You're pure in heart. Meaning how you're responding is from the heart. It's sincere. You're not just putting on some show. Who would be impressed by it? Paul's not even there to see it. Nobody's patting them on the back. There's no ulterior motive for how these Thessalonians are responding. Why? Because the pure in heart aren't in it for the applause, are you? When nobody's watching the sincerity of your response to how you're being treated. Is it pure in heart? It's coming from the inside? Hungering and thirsting for righteousness  meaning I'm satisfied with what God can give me, not what I can get from down here. Gentle, meek...all of these are qualities of Kingdom citizens. And then look at verse nine and ten. Or listen, if you're not looking, blessed are the peacemakers. They will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What's that saying? Even when you live this way, the world's not necessarily going to accept it. You could try to be a peacemaker and they could reject you. You can try to help, and they're going to persecute you because of your righteousness. And that's the proof that you're in the kingdom. So I ask you again, is that how you're living right now? In light of affliction, right now in your life. Do you understand that this corresponds completely with what the first Church understood right out of the gates? I mean, in Paul's mind, first missionary journey. Acts 14 he' getting beat up and kicked out of Iconium. Verse 19, Jews came from Antioch and Iconium. They having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. He pops back up, preaches the gospel to Derby, heads over to Lystra. What? To strengthen the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. He knew it. This is how it goes. This is how we live. This is who we are. That was the beginning of his journey. You think he changed even an inch by the end? Listen to his last letter, probably written mid AD 65. Around then. So over ten years past, when he wrote First Thessalonians. Listen to his words in 2 Timothy 3:10-12. "Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, sufferings such as happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, Lystra. He's talking about Acts 14. Beat up, stoned, left for dead. That was part of it. Does he try to explain it away and say, oh, yeah. You know, you hit some rough spots at the beginning. You just got to kind of get through the bumpy water? No, he says, the persecutions I endured. And out of them all, the Lord rescued me. The irony of that statement is he's actually in chains in jail, writing that, but he's chained to Christ. He's not chained to Caesar. I mean, he understands what his chains are for. They're for the promotion of the gospel. And then he says this. 2 Timothy 3:12...mark this down. Remember it today. Indeed, meaning this is true. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It doesn't give you a persecution complex. That could be dangerous, actually. That could actually be detrimental to the gospel. Do you know what I mean by that? That any amount of persecution or affliction, you feel the slightest touch. You throw the red challenge flag. And you actually twist it around and say, oh, any persecution I get for me, being me must mean that I'm living godly in Christ Jesus. Does it always mean that? You know ever since becoming a Christian, my family just doesn't like me. Did they like you before? Does Christianity have anything to do with it? Do you see what I'm saying? There could be a fallacy to this type of thinking. I read a guy's essay on it this week....a Christian writer. He was pulling apart this verse and saying it's a fallacy called affirming the consequent. If P, then Q if I'm a true follower, I'll be persecuted. I'm persecuted, therefore I'm a follower. It's not necessarily true. You know why? Because you got to underline one word in verse 12...godly. Godly...if you desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. And that godliness goes right back to Matthew 5:3-12. If you are belligerent in Christ Jesus, which is an oxymoron, you shouldn't be, believer. But if you are, if you're a pot stirrer looking to offend, going out of your way and then you're persecuted. Oh, me. If you can't tell, you probably won't find a sympathetic voice from me. I hope that wouldn't be the mark of our church in Hickory...in your job. I mean, just at the slightest touch calling foul. But being that person that's just grating on everyone else and thinking, that's what I'm saying. This verse is true. If you desire to live godly in Christ, you'll be persecuted. Acts 14:22...through many tribulations we enter the kingdom of heaven. But we have to just look and check our own hearts and say, am I actually receiving this type of persecution for being godly in Christ? Or am I getting it for some other reason? Am I doing something to bring this upon myself? So back to 1 Thessalonians 1:5. This is all proving the worth of your salvation for which indeed you're suffering. So question. When's the last time you've been under the anvil of God ordained affliction? I say that word. I stole it from Calvin, who writes in this about this verse. Paul is pointing out the way we are being polished under God's anvil as affliction teaches us to renounce the world and aim for God's kingdom. We're being polished under God's anvil. So have you felt that lately? When's the last time? I'm not saying you're going around looking for it, but has it found you? Because of why? Because of your desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. And then when you experience that this first verse teaches you to say, God, you are just, you're righteous altogether. And what I just...that hate I just received. That persecution I just received. That rejection I just received on behalf of Jesus Christ. You weren't looking the other way. You weren't falling asleep. You weren't indifferent. I didn't receive it because you're mad at me. I received it because you're growing me. You're showing me the true value and everything else gets stripped away. The true value of what it means to be found in you. So that's the first principle he builds it on. 
   
   
  Now he moves to a promise. If you look in verses 6 to 10 and, um, it's a two fold promise, actually. The hope is in the return of Jesus Christ. That's in verse seven. Jesus will be revealed from heaven...His return. Just the return he talked about in Acts 1:9-11, when he left this earth and went up into heaven. And the disciples are standing around looking up. And as they were gazing in the sky, two men in white clothing stood beside them and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven. So he's going to come back the way he left. And that's the hope that the Christian has and that's the gaze he's directing them towards in this moment. It's a singular hope built on Christ being the judge. But there's two promises in it. It's a promise of relief to those who are being afflicted. And it's a promise of repayment for those who are doing the afflicting. So one hope for the Christian with two promises, and that's to encourage these saints. The bad guys aren't going to get away with it. And yes, in the end the good guys will win. So that's the hope he gives them. Now he goes back and forth talking about the afflicters and the afflicted. The afflicters going back to Acts 17, were those jealous Jews who were running Paul and his friends out of Thessalonica, and they were the afflicted. And these Thessalonians are the afflicted. But if you just look for that language, he kind of goes back and forth in these verses 6 to 10 between talking about the afflicters, the afflicted, the afflicted, the afflicters, back and forth between repayment to retribution, to relief. So I'm just going to simplify it here.  In these verses from 6 to 10, there's only two categories of people looking to the return of Jesus Christ. Those who should be excited for it, and those who should be terrified of it. Let's start with those who should be terrified of it...the afflicters. The first promise related to the return of Jesus is that the afflicters will be judged accordingly. Look at verse six. It is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you. So what's he saying there? Those who are doing the afflicting those who are persecuting the Christians in Thessalonica then, and Christians today, in God's justice he will repay, and the punishment will fit the crime. There is no injustice with God. We don't question his judgment. As Abraham was testing it, he wasn't questioning it, but he was testing God's judgment back in Genesis 18. Right. He was saying, well, let me just get this straight. How many good people have to be left there because he was getting down to the bottom line? Is there perfect justice with God? Yes there is. If there was imperfect justice with God, it's because he would show partiality. What is Romans two say? Verse 11. There is no partiality with God. All who sin without the law will perish without the law. All who sin under the law will be judged by the law. What's that mean? He is not personally prejudiced against anyone. He just repays the person exactly what's due to them...not any less, not any more. That same word repayment if you flip to Romans 12, Paul uses in the relation to us and why we don't seek to repay others for what they do to us. Paul says in Romans 12, if possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God as is written. Vengeance is mine, I will, and here's that word I will repay, says the Lord. What happens if we try to take justice into our hands? Verse 21, don't be overcome by evil. Overcome evil with good. You'll get pulled into it. You will. You don't have the perfect judgment of God, the perfect character of Christ. That if you were to go around and try to even the score on everybody. Thinking, the punishment is going to fit the crime.  You can't do it. And the moment you think you can you'd be in the worst spot to be enticed by the appetite for revenge and not be able to hold yourself back. That's why Paul gives this strong admonition it's not yours to repay. Leave room for God to make it right. Instead, verse 20, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he's thirsty, give him a drink. So we're to deal in redemption. God is to deal in retribution because you don't have that perfect, righteous judgment that only he has. And Paul's warning these Christians in Romans 12 against it don't pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. Go back to our text. Who's the one that's going to do the retribution? Look down to verse eight and nine. This is what those afflicters have to look forward to. And this brings a sense of justice to these suffering Thessalonians, as it should to us. If you've been mistreated or presently being mistreated, this is what's coming. This is the retribution. Here's how it's going to go. To those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. So God knows exactly who these people are. He's not confused. We might be confused. Who are the true believers today? Who are the unbelievers? There's people that say they know God. So in verse eight he says, here's who's going to be dealt with by Christ's judgment when he returns. One, they don't know God. They might know of him, but they don't know him. They're the ones in Matthew 7 that say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do these things in your name? And he says, I didn't know you. You may say, you know me. They don't know him personally. They don't know him through his Son, Jesus Christ. They haven't come by grace alone through faith, alone in Christ alone. They've tried to come some other way. They've tried to bring some works into it. And you see that in the next phrase that describes them, they haven't obeyed the gospel of our Lord Jesus which says nothing in your hands you bring. Those jealous Jews that were persecuting the Thessalonians in Acts 17. It was the jealous Jews doing it. It was the people that thought they were righteous by way of the law. So it could even be the religious people doing the persecuting. Not just those pagans, atheists, agnostics, humanists, hedonists. The most religious can do it. Why? Because they don't know God. Who says, you come only through the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ? It's right there in verse eight. When he comes back, this is how it's going to all go down. That verse seven gives us the picture of the scene. Jesus will come back. He'll be revealed from heaven. He's no longer concealed. We behold him by faith. We understand him through the word. Now the whole world is going to see them. He will be revealed. That word revealed is the same word for the revelation of Jesus Christ at the beginning of the Book of Revelation. What you're getting in verses seven through ten, right here is the sneak preview of the full length film of the Book of Revelation. That's how this connects over to revelation. If you want to watch the whole film. Go read revelation today if you want the sneak preview. Pay attention to this. It's short, but it gives you the scene just as it's going to take place. Jesus comes back from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. This is the fulfillment of what Jesus said about himself in Matthew 16:27. The Son of Man is going to come, and the glory of his father with his angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. So what will those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus expect to get? Matthew 25:34. The King will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Verse 41 Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. Unbeliever, if you're not in Christ today, when he comes again to repay and for retribution, you will for the first time obey his command. But it won't be the command for those who says to come. It will be the command for those he says to depart. And you won't have a chance or a choice at that point. Your fate will be sealed. It's over at that point. It's done. You heard the gospel. You heard the good news that it's what Jesus Christ did on the cross and rose from the grave that you couldn't do to defeat sin, to conquer death so that you could be forgiven. So the obedience to the gospel isn't something you work for, it's the obedience to the command that comes with the gospel, which is, repent of your sins and believe in me. Come to me. Follow me, abide in me. Those are invitations to trust in Christ, but they are commands. And to not obey the command means you've been disobedient to the very call that would save your life forever right now. So when he says, then depart from me. What's that going to look like? this is verse nine. This is the penalty. Eternal destruction. You will suffer a perpetual death. For all eternity. If you're not in Christ today. You will no sooner have paid any of that penalty 500 million years into eternity, as you did the first day. Can you fathom that? That's what eternal destruction means. It means there will be no end in sight. You will enter into a night where there is no dawn that will ever break. You will be lost in a sea where you will never see the shore. That's what's on the line with your eternity. That's what's on the line with your soul. If you do not know God today in Jesus Christ, and do not obey the gospel call, which is come to me, come to me now while you can, or you will depart from me, then when it's too late. So if you're not in Christ today, he offers you this good news. He offers you him. He offers you his life. He offers you his grace. He offers you his love. How could you possibly reject it? So you cry out, be merciful to me, the sinner. I don't want to play that game. But you have to call on him right now where you are. That he has gripped your heart this morning. However you thought you came in here, you realize that's not really who you are. You're not as righteous as you thought. Or if you came in with this overwhelming sense of despair. You're not as far gone as you think. Because he offers the grace and salvation of His Son, Jesus Christ, to you this morning, will you trust in him? Will you? Will you ask him to save you right now? Can you imagine that eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power? No offer of the gospel extended to you forever once it's over. But it's not over right now. What grace. What grace? That you're in here today to respond. Ask him to save. And Paul is evidence of this. Nobody would have been more unlikely to receive the goodness and kindness of the Lord than Paul, who, when he did it, was on his way to persecute. And now he's the persecuted here. Now he's the afflicted. And so then look what he says for those who are the afflicted. Here's the hope, here's the joy. First there's relief. Verse seven, there will be relief for you who are afflicted. A great sigh of relief in your soul this morning. If you're in Christ and you're feeling that persecution, whether from friends or family. It'll end. It'll be glorious. If you don't feel that sense of relief, you know it does beg the question, am I living in such a way where anybody would even know that I belong to Christ? And we're not again, trying to develop a martyr complex and go out looking for it. It's just the reality of it. So pray for more courage that you're not just trying to duck and weave and dodge people that you know would disagree with you, but you bring them the gospel and you say, come what may. I want those people to know the goodness and kindness of the Lord. But here's the rejoicing. Look at verse ten. When Jesus comes to be glorified on that day, and the glory of his power to be marveled at among all who believe. And then he says, this is our testimony to you who has believed it's still true. He gave them that testimony when he wrote First Thessalonians and talked about the return of the Lord, and that those who die are with the Lord immediately, and you'll meet him in the air one day. That's the testimony they believed. And he's saying, look, don't lose hope just because things are hard, but keep your hope in Christ and it'll be a glorious day. You'll be glorified with them. He'll be glorified in you. That's hard for us to fathom. What does it mean that Christ will be glorified in us when he returns? Well, for one, 1 John 3:2 says, we'll see him for who he is. When he appears, we'll be like him. So that's part of the glory that we'll share in. I think we'll share in the glory of the victory, won't we? That it's over, that we made it and that we were part of it, that we weren't just, you know, spectators. This is the morning. You're a spectator. Kind of. I hope you're engaged, believer. But it's the race that you run out there that you don't give up, that you'll say it was worth it. Every effort I made to live a godly life in Christ, it was worth it in my home, with my kids and my marriage, at my job, with my neighbors. It was worth it, because the glory that's going to be shared that I did it, I lasted, I ran, I finished. You're going to share in that glory. And it's hard to comprehend something that amazing and unbelievable. But it's true. It's the longing of our heart. Romans 8 tells us that we who we have this longing that's been there since the beginning of creation. Romans 8:19. The anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. See, it's not just the revealing of Jesus for the first time that we'll see him by sight and not just by faith. It's faith. It's the revealing of the sons of God. We will be set free from the corruption we still have, and to the freedom of the glory of the children of God. That's what's coming to you. So whatever corrupting influences you still feel it might be in your physical body. It just might be that sin that you just so easily entangles you still that just burdens you down. You'll be free from it. But the point is, don't lose the hope. Keep running, keep going. There's a story of Douglas MacArthur. He was the, you know, the supreme commander general of World War II for the allies. And it was at the surrender on the USS Missouri, where Japan had to come and sign that it was done. And MacArthur was known as as a general, he didn't mind the attention. So it would have seemed fitting for him that day, as he came out to let the Japanese sign over their surrender. September 2nd, 1945. With all the cadets, all the troops on the Missouri watching. And he could have really reveled in that victory just for himself. But what he did was he invited two other generals. Who had been in captivity since 1942. One from Britain and one from the US. Just a few weeks earlier they had finally been freed. And they were, you know, emaciated, as you would imagine, treated harshly, you know, and MacArthur could have kept that time for himself. But he's sitting there on the deck and he's going to sign the victory, but he gets a couple of extra pens and he gives him to the other guys, and he brings them into it with him because his victory was their victory, and their victory was his. And so in all the pomp and circumstance of this wonderful moment of victory, he shares it with these guys who hadn't been able to do a thing for it the last three years. That'll be us times a million, but we'll be there with him. His victory will be ours because we're in Christ, and that's the hope he wants us to have. And then this ends with a prayer. Because to not seek God's power for us to persevere this way would be a fool's errand. So he ends with a prayer.  He says, to this end, we pray for you always, and don't just throw that away. I know we always hear Paul saying, I pray for you guys always. We say it to people, I'm praying for you always. But it really means something. Something, you know, if you're this afflicted church who daily are facing persecution daily, your life's on the line to know Paul remembers you every day. And it's a good call for us to remember the people we know who are suffering every day. So he says, we pray for you always. And he prays three things. First, he prays for their integrity. Look that he says, God will count you worthy of your calling. Do you want to know how to pray for your faith to grow through affliction? How to pray for somebody else? First, pray for the thing that matters most, that they would live with integrity, that they wouldn't drop the ball there. They may not get the supplies you're praying that they get. The money might not be coming in the deliverance from the affliction, But for them to stand strong in the faith and to be counted worthy of their calling is the highest honor, isn't it? So he teaches us that the first thing he prays for, that you'd be worthy of the calling of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what you pray for, the persecuted above everything else. Yeah. You want them to be released? Yeah. You want it to end. But don't forget the most important thing. Our lives and those people's lives. Second, he prays that they would fulfill every desire for goodness in the work of faith with power. That's a prayer for abundance. As in, it's not just that you're grinning and bearing it and barely surviving it. He's praying that God would fulfill those desires in these Christians for goodness, and to work their faith out with power. Because he says, Jesus does, that i have come to give life and give it to the full, that my joy would be in you and your joy would be made full. It's an ever increasing fullness that we have in the Christian experience, even in the midst of affliction. So it's not just praying for somebody to hang on by the thread of faith that they have. It's to say, Lord, give them some more strength. Keep them going. Help them to see that this affliction that they're suffering is actually a testimony to the world around them. So pray for abundance. I think that's the kind of prayer you see the result of in people who are full of zeal for the Lord. Take an action that's a reflection of that integrity on the inside. And then the third thing he prays for was, was really what it all leads out to in verse 12, he prays for God to be glorified. He prays for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be glorified in them. And we understand that, you know, even just in our own lives, um, maybe you're raised by parents who raised you to live the right way and said, hey, when you go out, you represent who? You represent me. You represent that last name you have. I remember in third grade, got kicked out of art class. Yeah, Randy, I know it wasn't a great painter. My dad was also a teacher in that elementary school, and he had a good reputation as a fourth grade teacher and of all days to get kicked out of art, walk out of class with my head down, look down the hallway, who just so happens to walk out of his fourth grade classroom at the same time, my dad and the disappointment I felt because I let down the name, you know, his reputation that I would be such a knucklehead. Some things never change, but that's what he's saying here. You want to live in such a way, with that integrity, with that zeal, with that practical piety, that the name of the Lord Jesus is glorified in you, and then who gets all the glory? Ultimately God does. And who gives you the power to do it? He does. When I think about somebody living this out, living for him, and loving people through a life of affliction, it makes me think about our brother Dwight Stone, who went to be with the Lord this past Thursday. One of the longest supported missionaries of our church. If you're new here, you've maybe heard us talk about them. If it's your first Sunday here, well, he's with the Lord now, but he served the Lord with his life for the last couple of decades, and it wasn't an easy service. He lost his wife to cancer about 30 years ago. Didn't stop him on his mission. Was over in Poland, then was in Romania. And the mission we have to Romania now is carried on by those he raised up and discipled over there. First time I ever had to meet him, I took this picture. We were in the German. Well, it was the German restaurant, like all things in Hickory, where the German restaurant used to be, is now on 70 across from Substation two, I think another car dealership, and it was actually a really good German restaurant. Dwight picked it. And so we're sitting there having, um, some brats, potato pancakes. They were fantastic. And I was just getting his life story. I was just eager to get to know him. I hadn't met him, had only heard about him, and I was going that year to Romania to minister with him. And then he told me everything he suffered, everything he went through. And all I could think to ask at the end was, what kept you going? And there was his answer. What keeps me going is knowing that I've been forgiven much. That's it. That's it. Christian. Going through affliction. That's your motivation. How much you've been forgiven. It goes back to the gospel. You ever lose sight of that? You're done. I mean, not for good, but until you get your eyes fixed back on the gospel, you won't figure it out because you'll think you're owed something else. And you won't finish your days out like Dwight did, right to the very end. I was with him Thursday. He died Thursday night. You know what he wanted to talk about? The mission. That's all he wanted to talk about. What's happening over in Romania. We went over. Chris and I talked about the trip that just went. He said, as he always would say, Adam, I'm praying for you. Keep going. I mean, that was his life. He is the embodiment of this prayer at the end. Encouragement to keep going. Dependence in prayer. Constantly praying but wanting to give God all the glory for it. Because when we endure affliction, it does not prove our self-sufficiency. It proves his. 
  Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace in our lives, in Christ. Help us to live for your glory, for the glory of your Son's name. Help us not to think we're self-sufficient in any way, but our sufficiency is in you. And it's worth it because of what you did for us in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that your son came and died and rose again, now victorious, coming back, and will be part of that victory when he does so. Help us to live that out today, by your grace and for your glory we pray. Amen.