Our text this evening is in 1st Thessalonians, and we'll be in chapter 2. The last few times I've been exhorting, we've begun going through 1st Thessalonians. You can find this on page 1172 and 1173. It's 1st Thessalonians, chapter 2. Our text, we're going to be focusing primarily on verses 13, 14, and a little bit into 15, but we're going to start at verse 1 and read all the way up to verse 16 for context purposes. Hear now the reading of God's Word. 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 have 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. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness. 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 were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also of our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil. We work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaim 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. And now our text for this evening. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive 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 opposed 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. And thus far the reading of God's word. It's really easy to spot the opposition and the hatred that exists towards the church these days. It seems like it comes up within a sermon every other Sunday, if not every Sunday to some extent, because again, we're dealing with this radical shift in the culture, something that we're just not as used to facing. But even in the midst of this, there's many that likely still feel a distance or have felt a distance from this opposition. That is, they haven't felt like this has hit home. It still feels like it goes on in other places. It doesn't go on in my life or in our lives. And so, as enraging as the Obergefell decision regarding same-sex marriage was a few years ago, as enraging as that was, as infuriating as the state of our culture is with regards to the things of God and as frustrating as it is for the little regard that anyone has outside of the church for Christ with all these things there's still this level of comfortability or comfortableness that seemed to still exist but for many the week of March 27th of this year it all changed it was during that week that things began to hit on a deeper level they began to hit home it was during this week that it finally set in that even here the church was indeed subject to persecution and opposition and it was during this time that many who call themselves believers began to experiencing suffering. They began to feel it, albeit indirectly. If you're not sure what happened that week, that was the week of the Nashville school shooting where children and adults lost their lives in part simply because of their relation to the biblical faith, to Christianity. But it wasn't just the violence that drove these things home. Rather, it was the fallout of what happened. For whatever reason, the reason being namely the opposition to God and His Word, the public made the shooter the victim. And somehow the church became the perpetrator, the cause of all of this. And not only that, the federal government then expressed unity and care for the trans community of which the shooter identified with, while having little to no regard for the church and God's people. Now, watching a godless culture and its antipathy and even violence and carelessness towards those who believe is undoubtedly shocking to us. And it can even lead to questions of whether God is really still at work. It can lead to discouragement. But remember the theme that we've been going with as we've been walking through 1 Thessalonians so far. The theme that the gospel is still at work, even in an anti-Christian age. And all of this, in part, is what the Thessalonians were feeling at the time of Paul writing to them. As a young church in Jesus Christ, they found themselves facing persecution and suffering. And this very well would have been causing many discouragement. And potentially, it could have caused many to consider abandoning the faith. But as Paul is writing to them, out of his thankfulness to what has been going on in the midst of this amongst them in the church, what he writes to them and what we find in our passage here this evening is encouragement. Surprisingly, in our passage, Paul reminds the Thessalonians, and by extension us, that the opposition that they were experiencing was proof that the gospel was at work in them. And not only that, that it united them with the church throughout time and space. So in light of that then, we come to realize that the true church has faced and will continue to face opposition for its belief in the word of God. But how do things get to that point? And these will be our three points we're working with this evening. It starts with the faithful ministry. The response to God's word. That's the second point. And then it results in uniting itself. That is, those who respond to it result in uniting themselves to the church throughout all of history. Now, Paul begins this section that we're working with here in verse 13. He begins by expressing thanks again. Now, if you recall, chapter 1 begins the same way. In fact, this is how Paul started all of his letters, generally. He started out with thankfulness in the name of God and thankfulness for what was going on in the lives of the believers. But this time, he's doing something different. He's building off of what had happened or what he said in the first 12 verses of this chapter. What he says in verse 13, though, is in light of this. And what he says is, and we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us. That's key. Pause right there. Which you heard from us. Now, what was he building off of? Well, in the first 12 verses of this chapter, he had been defending the ministry of he himself, Silas, and Timothy. And he was defending the conduct of their ministry, the purity of their ministry, the purity of the way that they proclaim the word. He was defending the fact that their ministry, it was not just evangelism, but it was also discipleship. And this was marked by the truth that is the gospel message, their truthful motives, and their genuine love for the people. For reminding purposes, the first important thing that he said was that their ministry was a proclamation of the truth. Specifically, they were taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations. Specifically, they landed here in Thessalonica to declare and proclaim this gospel. In defending their motives, he pointed out to a couple things, or several things. He pointed out first that they didn't seek to please any man. They were there to please God and God alone. They were not in it for money, and the proof of that was the fact that they supported themselves. They worked their own jobs. They weren't begging for money. They weren't relying on others to fund their living. But not only that, they weren't there to get attention. They weren't there for glory or fame. That wasn't at all what was going on. But along with that, he also expresses that they had a deep love for them. And in recalling their genuine love for them, he talks about how they love them the way that a mother, a nursing mother, is tender towards her children as she nurses them. How a father exhorts his children and teaches them to grow up. even more he stresses the fact that they invested themselves in the lives of the people there they shared their lives with them that's how genuine their care was for them they didn't see them as just another number they didn't see them as a project they truly cared about them so in light of all this coming to verse 13 paul is stressing that it was he silas and timothy and they alone who had brought the word of God to the people in Thessalonica. And this is to further serve the purpose of showing the validity of their ministry. Now recall also that the church at Thessalonica at this time was a very young church. In fact, that the writing of this letter, it was within a year of paul's ministry there going back to act 17 and the story of the ministry that went on there if you recall paul and company they had to leave abruptly they couldn't stay there necessarily as long as they wanted to they had to leave due to persecution due to pushback for the gospel message, and because of this abruptness, it would have created a void in the midst of what was going on in the church at Thessalonica. The founders of their church suddenly were gone. That created a vacuum, an emptiness, an opening for others to potentially have stepped in and so the fact that paul's stressing that they heard the word of god that is the gospel that they heard that from them and them alone is important because he understood and we don't know for sure if others crept in but he understood of what the possibilities were that could have happened. He understood the danger that was going on there. One of the possibilities, it could have been the Jews themselves that would have crept in. And remember, Paul's practice when he went from city to city was he started out in the synagogues. He started out there proclaiming the gospel in the midst of the Jews, and inevitably what happened in every city was while some would convert, ultimately they would be rejected and they would be forced out. So then he would go to the Gentiles and the people in the city. With this in mind, it was clear to the Jews in Thessalonica that the gospel, the Christian message, was now alive in their city. It was present. Maybe they had heard it through the grapevine this is some years after christ's death and resurrection but up until this point there was no church there in thessalonica now what would have been the main point of contention between paul and the jews in thessalonica while he was there who had the word of god one of the contentions that the jews had against the christians was the very fact that they were the true possessors of god's word that this christian stuff was not god's word it was not within god's will and so the jews knowing that some people had converted and followed paul silas and timothy they would have likely been trying to win those people back and those people that were around them expressing to them that no this gospel message that's all wrong we have the word of god still another possibility or another scenario that could have been going on would have been the fact that there were itinerant preachers and teachers at the time going from city to city place to place selling their bag of goods if you will they'd go and they'd share what wisdom they had what teachings they had in some cases they might have even said that they had the word of God themselves. And so this door was wide open. And again, we don't know the specifics of who exactly was coming in, but we know that that danger was there, and potentially there were those that could have been coming in. And Paul was well aware of this. He had seen it in other places. He would see it in other places as well later on in his ministry. But whatever the specifics were, he reminded them that they really brought the word of god to them now in the same vein of thought though there's another aspect to this because implicitly what is made clear by paul is that they weren't speaking as god themselves they weren't speaking as if they were gods they weren't speaking as if they were a demigod or an angel of some sort. They were speaking as ambassadors, telling people about the word of God, pointing away from themselves. And this is important because in the cultural context, the Roman emperor at this time often set himself up as a god. He would claim to be the embodiment of a greek god or whatever god they chose to be or a god themselves these kind of things going on in the background it was very easy for people to make these kinds of claims and the thessalonians would have been vulnerable to those things but in contrast paul is stressing that they're ambassadors carrying god's message on his behalf It's the word of god not the word of paul not the word of timothy not the word of the jerusalem church It's the word of god He's stressing that their ministry was about god and it was to faithfully proclaim his word to them And this was so central to the validity not only of their ministry, but the validity of the message and this is a timeless principle for us in this day and age because a faithful ministry will always preach god's word it will always preach god's word with full obedience with an eye to pleasing god as the most important thing that's what's at the forefront of secondary importance would be their own welfare regard for themselves they are not concerned about what people think of them they're concerned of what people think about the word of god but because this is the word of god and because there's an exclusivity in that message inevitably opposition was going to be close by now history has been filled with false churches and ministries we know even in our day and age there's false churches and ministries that exist and some of those ministries they face opposition but they face opposition for all the wrong reasons they face opposition not for the truth of the word of god but because they have impure motives they lack genuine love for god's people they have greed lust maybe it's even fame and the unbelieving world sees right through that message they see how counterfeit it is and how detrimental it is to the average person and they oppose it now in other cases there's false ministries that may simply be accepted by the world or they might simply be ignored because there's nothing worth opposing and in those cases the truth is also not there because the counsel of God is likely not being preached. In fact, it definitely is not being preached. But the faithful ministry, a responsible ministry such as Paul's, it's going to evoke opposition because the whole gospel, because all of God's word is being preached. And it's done so out of a fear of God, with a true heart and out of a love for God's people. And this faithful ministry will always yield fruit. And this brings us to our second point this evening. That is the response to the pure preaching and teaching of the word of God. Now, if we look again at verse 13, we find Paul, again, he's thankful. He's thankful in response to the Thessalonian church and what's going on there. And specifically he says, 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. Now the Greek word translated as received in our text, it's a word that was typically used or associated with the idea of what a student received from a teacher, what they learned from a teacher. accepted now then paul shifts and he uses a different word and he uses the word accepted and the greek word that is translated as accepted was a word that carried with it the idea of the appropriation of what was received so in other words paul point paul's point was not that they had just received this word considered it tolerated it thought you know this is useful but his point is that they truly believed because they applied it to their life they were enabled by the spirit to receive this word hear this word come to faith and their lives began to be transformed now proof of their belief was obviously you could say well the fact that this church existed okay that's proof that they believed paul what are you getting at why are you talking about this or hey paul you already told us earlier in this letter that we had forsaken idols to serve the true and living god you told us you know that we're going and evangelizing throughout macedonia we're serving the brothers and sisters there later in the letter he talks about how they had great love for each other all these things are there but paul's stressing something else what he's stressing to them is there's another proof and it's a surprising proof because while on their end hey we're doing these things appropriately responding to the word we still have persecution that's happening we're still facing opposition we're still suffering and paul tells them that the surprising proof that the gospel is at work in them is because of these very things in verse 14 he says 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 now the gospel it's offensive in and of itself it proclaims it absolute truth it's exclusive. There's one way, one way to salvation, and that's through Christ Jesus alone. There's not many ways. That's going to bring opposition, because that means people have to submit to something. They have to submit to a will other than their own. And this opposition was going to bring persecution. And the Thessalonian church, they were quick to find all of this out. But again, the reason that Paul, that he could say that the word of God was at work in them, was that this persecution and the conflict that was going on was because of all of this. And not only that, they had somehow, really it's because of the power of the Spirit, but that they remained steadfast and faithful in their belief and in their Christian life. They had not collapsed. They had not given in. And that's where his thankfulness was really rooted. Because he saw the power of the gospel that was continuing to be at work. Now the negative side of this for many of us. We might call to mind situations or people we know where they profess to have a belief in Christ. They profess that they come to know him. Many of us have experienced this. But what inevitably happens in those situations are the circumstances of life overtake them. In some cases, they love the world and what it has to offer, and they just chase after that. But in other cases, they face the hardships of life. They face the opposition, things because of the name of Christ that they face these things. And they just give up on the faith. For me, serving in youth ministry, I experienced it far too many times than I'd like to count. Inevitably, we'd be at a conference, we'd be at a retreat, a summer camp, a missions trip, and someone would come up and make these bold declarations that they were going to live their life for Christ. But sadly, and sometimes as a little, as a few weeks, that had all vanished. It had all gone by the wayside, and they were back to doing what they were doing before. And now you may say, those are teenagers. They're immature. But we have examples in history of that happening with adults. The Burned Over District, or the so-called Burned Over District in New York, which is a district where after the so-called Second Great Revival, or the Second Great Awakening, that is, it turned to a place where there was godlessness and apathy towards the church. Now, in these negative examples, why did that happen? Well, they didn't accept the gospel as the word of God. They didn't believe that it was God's word that they were truly following. Believing and knowing it's God's word enables steadfastness. For Christians, that's been at the root of things. Now, these examples are examples of what could have happened to the Thessalonians, but they didn't. In the face of persecution and trials, they remained steadfast in their commitment. They continued on in the faith. In fact, they understood that opposition that they were facing and the suffering that they were going to endure, well, yes, they might have questioned it. they knew on some level it was to be expected. And this is, again, because it's God's Word. And indeed, Paul in his ministry, he never shied away from teaching these things. He never shied away from saying that opposition and suffering come with the Christian life. In this letter alone, he mentions multiple times the words affliction or conflict in combination with the proclamation and reception of this gospel. Now, in theory, this idea, it seems easy. In theory, okay, these are going to happen. I believe I'm going to be opposed. But what about when the times get tough? Inevitably, in those moments, it's going to shake the core of the foundation. And Paul understood this. He understood that people were going to have questions like, is this really worth it? Is this really God's will? Is it God's will that I'll be subject to society's jokes? That I would be hated? That I'm going to lose relationships? I'm going to lose my family? I'm going to lose my job? Is that really God's will? These are questions you've likely heard people say in our day and age. And as our world around us is becoming even more anti-christian it's easy to be discouraged it's easy to fall into this trap this way of thinking and yet there is an encouragement there's an encouragement that paul offers beyond simply saying look proof that this is real and that this is true is in what you're experiencing these hardships he gives them a step further an extra encouragement and that extra encouragement is the fact that what they're experiencing is what all believers are experiencing namely in this case he ref he refers to the churches in judea and this brings us to our final point this evening that when a church is opposed due to its commitment of biblical faith, it shows that it's united with the church throughout history. Now, the way that Paul identifies the church in Thessalonica and the Judean churches shows unity beyond even what he says here. If you look at the greeting, he addresses them as to the church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when he refers to the churches in Judea, he says that they are the churches of God in Jesus Christ. They have the same name. They might be in different places, but they're united. They're one body. They're under one head. That is Jesus Christ. But that they, that is the Thessalonians, were compared with the Judean churches and identified together with them it would have undoubtedly been a great encouragement to them why well the judean churches even though they had no greater standing before god in comparison to them they were still seen as a little superior that's where everything started those churches carried the names of people like John, Peter, James, the apostles. It's where the home base was for the missionaries. Those churches would have had people that physically saw Jesus before the crucifixion. They would have seen his earthly mission or ministry. Those churches would have had people in this time frame that in their lifetime they may have even seen the risen Lord themselves. those were that was the church that if any church wanted to claim that they had the full truth and proof of the gospel that was the church there were more people there that could speak to the facts of these things but if these churches filled with these people that are experiencing these things if these churches were experiencing suffering from persecution that certainly meant that other churches were going to experience it and indeed Paul tells the Thessalonians that's what happened you became imitators now he's not saying they went out and they were starting to provoke the people that's not at all what he was saying it was a passive thing it's simply by their faith and turning to Christ that they were facing this opposition but picking up in verse 14 Paul tells the Thessalonians that they suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews now what did this look like well Paul gives us a little bit of a hint when you look at verse 15 first he talks about how throughout all of history there's been opposition to the truth of God first and foremost he says that the Jews were the ones that killed jesus they killed the prophets then he talks about how they drove him out showing all this opposition has existed and for them they experienced some of these same things now generally speaking they were facing betrayal from friends family those that they had of religious communion with expulsion from that religious communion verbal abuses maybe even physical persecutions they were experiencing the same things and that was where the encouragement lied because it was it would have been easy to feel isolated suffering often brings feelings of isolation but he's reminding them you're not alone in fact you're a part of something even bigger than yourselves and that would have caused great encouragement now step back and look at our own situation we're living in right now now yes we're not facing necessarily the types of persecutions that are the worst certainly not even some of the persecutions that our brothers and sisters elsewhere in this world experience i have no delusions of saying that or thinking that but we are facing opposition and hostility we are subject to verbal abuse social pressures relational pressures there's some element of suffering that is indeed going on but the fact that this is going on the fact that we find ourselves opposed for holding to the biblical truth and obeying it is but another proof for us that what we believe is true and not only that that the gospel is still alive and well but even more encouraging for us is that in our fidelity we're united to our brothers and sisters around the world who are going through the same things but not only that we're reunited we're united to our brothers and sisters who came before us in the faith that suffered for the faith that dealt with these things now as we draw to a close this proof and encouragement it calls to mind another person who suffered namely the one we're united under our Lord Jesus Christ the one who was rejected on our behalf that we may have life through him who called us to be a part of the churches of God in his rejection to his ministry he offered encouragement himself as he says in john 15 if the world hates you know that it has hated me before it hated you if you were of the world the world would love you as its own but because you are not of the world but i chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you and a little later in that same in that same passage he says if they persecuted me they will persecute you beloved opposition and suffering are to be expected for believers in this life and while it's easy to see this as a failure of the gospel's continuing power the surprising reality is that this opposition and persecution and the suffering that comes from it are evidence that the word of god is still at work in the lives of believers it's still at work in the lives of the church and for that we can be encouraged and we can carry on in the faith let's pray father god we confess that we often wrestle with wondering just what on what in the world is going on we see sin abound we're beginning to suffer at times more and more for our faith than we've been accustomed to and it's easy for us to forget that this is the way that has always been so lord in our times of discouragement and despair in our times of suffering for the faith that we may experience would you please help us to remember that this is just further evidence of your work in our lives and in this world would you help us to remain steadfast in our faith remembering that everything is subject to your sovereign rule be with us as we go forth this week we pray this in christ's name amen Thank you.