Saved from Wrath

Let's try and shift gears if we can.

That was so moving. I've heard some of those stories before, but being reminded of them, again, is a blessing. I have a brief communion meditation that I have entitled, Saved from Wrath. And let me read these three verses again from 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 9. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. So here are words that are given, and we have the authority of God's Word, why these words are given.

They are given to comfort the church, and given as a means to edify the church. The salvation that God has provided for His elect is to be a source of comfort and a source of mutual edification. You know, you've been around here a long time, that when we hear the word salvation and we encounter that word, that salvation is a broad umbrella.

Many things fall underneath that. So salvation in this 1 Thessalonians 5 context is to be understood as rescue from divine wrath. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. John 3 verse 36, He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him.

Ephesians 5 verse 6, Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, and these things are a long list of sins that are enumerated there in chapter 5 of Ephesians, because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. It is the just wrath of God. Verse 9 tells us, God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. So the just wrath of God is satisfied, or we use that theological term, propitiation. The just wrath of God is satisfied or propitiated in the salvation that God provides through the substitutionary death of Christ for His own. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 says, For He that is God made Him that is Christ, who knew no sin, but to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Romans 5, we're talking about rescue from divine wrath. Romans 5 verse 6 says, For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, much more than, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Saved from wrath. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 2 says, He is the propitiation for our sins. Romans 3 verse 25 tells us, God set forth Christ as a propitiation by His blood through faith. Propitiation addresses the issue of the wrath of God, something we must be rescued from or we will suffer under that wrath for all eternity. So propitiation addresses the wrath of God. What does propitiation mean? It means the removal of wrath through the offering of a sacrifice.

Pretty straightforward. The removal of wrath through the offering of a sacrifice. Now when you look up the word wrath, they're not wrath but propitiate in a modern dictionary, you will find this definition, to appease, to placate. I don't know how that strikes you, but that strikes me as being rather unsatisfactory. To placate, to appease, it suggests a soothing or a softening of the wrath of an offended deity. It to me carries a negative connotation. It implies an attempt to buy off or make concessions.

So we're not satisfied with appeasement or to placate. When you look over in other translations, there's translations that seem to use words that are less than satisfactory as well. The New International Version substitutes the words atoning sacrifice for propitiation in 1 John 2.2. And again 1 John 2.2 and the New King James says he is the propitiation for our sins. The removal of wrath by means of a sacrifice. And again the NIV says, it substitutes the words atoning sacrifice for propitiation. And then adds this footnote, as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away sin. And again I'm thinking, okay, as the one who would turn aside his wrath. Somehow that again does not fully get to the heart of what Christ has done in offering himself as a propitiatory sacrifice. To turn away wrath communicates the idea of deflecting.

Like a boxer would deflect a punch and not fully take the punch, but he would deflect it. Now that does not define what Christ has done for us. Jesus did more than placate, he did more than appease, he did more than deflect the wrath of God from us. There is a word that I think gets to the heart of what Christ did and brings the richness of what Christ has done for us. And it is the word exhausted.

Exhausted. Jesus exhausted the wrath of God. Jesus bore the full unmitigated wrath of God against sin.

And when we talk about that we don't mean just in a general way. When we talk about Christ propitiating wrath away, we mean every sin. Every sin, every individual sin that I've ever committed, you've ever committed, are committing, ever will commit. Christ bore the unmitigated full brunt of the wrath of God so that, so that you and I never would. It says here, Paul says, for God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, that's substitutionary atonement, that or so that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. So, the salvation that Paul is talking about rescues us from divine wrath.

One other thing in our consideration tonight. When we come to the Lord's table, there's a sense in which it's a very individual matter. It's us in the Lord. And we're searching our hearts, we're reflecting upon Christ, what he means to us, what he's done for us.

We're partaking of him. We are being refreshed in our faith. We are affirming afresh again our allegiance to Jesus Christ.

It's a very personal thing. You can't repent for someone else, someone else can't repent for you, it's a very personal thing. But, what I want you to see in this context, in chapter 5, there are 12 references in verses 1 through 11 that have a corporate or a community meaning to them. So, as much as we personalize our participation at the Lord's table, Paul would want us to, I think the Lord would want us to tonight to think beyond our personal engagement in that and to see ourselves as part of the bride of Christ.

We are a community of faith. In Paul's writing, he says, but concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, not brother, but brethren, you, that is plural, have no need that I should write to you, plural, for you yourselves, plural, know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. Verse 4, but you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief.

You are all sons, plural, of light and sons of the day. Verse 6, therefore let us not sleep as others do. Verse 8, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

Verse 9, for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together. We should live together with Him. That's why the community of faith is so critical, that we need to cultivate that.

We need to develop that. We need to grow in our appreciation of it, that God has made us brothers and sisters in Christ. And this salvation that has been obtained for us by the Lord Jesus Christ provides fellowship, communion.

We should live together with Him. So as we gather around the Lord's table, may God deepen our appreciation for this corporate element, that we should live together with Him. When you get a mental picture of what heaven will be like, don't entertain you and the Lord alone. It'll be you and a multitude of believers who've been redeemed throughout the ages.

We will lose our individuality there. We will be a part of a tapestry that is beyond our imagination. God, I am so thankful for this, God did not appoint us to wrath. We deserve wrath. We deserved because of our sin to be under the judgment and wrath of Almighty God, but God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.

It's interesting to have conversations with unchurched people. You get into a conversation, why did Jesus die? Well, he must have been a criminal, he must have done something wrong. No, the Bible says he was without sin, blameless, but he did die for sin. And then they look at you and, wait a minute now, you just said he didn't have any sin, but he died for sin.

And then you can enter and bring in the issue of substitutionary atonement. He died for us. He took our place. He exhausted the wrath of God that was due to us. Some of us have had unhealthy relationships with our father.

Some have lived their whole life to gain the approval of a father and have not yet heard words of approval, or at least since they haven't. And somehow that has an effect on how we view our Heavenly Father. We've been forgiven, but somehow we think God's still looking at us with a frown on his face. He's still not happy with us.

We just still aren't living up to the standard that the bar that he set for us. We need to banish those thoughts. Those are unbiblical thoughts.

They're unhealthy thoughts. Because if God satisfied our sin debt in the death of his son, there is no wrath for you or for me. God is not frowning on us. We are accepted in the Beloved. There's a smile on God's face. God has accepted us.

I'll tell you, that is one freeing story right there. And it doesn't matter whether you can find acceptance in this world. What matters is have you found acceptance with Almighty God? And acceptance is found through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he's secured for his people.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your son. Thank you for his willingness to go to the cross of Calvary. And not just offer a sacrifice, but to offer himself. To offer himself as a once for all, never to be repeated sacrifice. And to satisfy your justice.

And to exhaust your wrath that was directed toward those who believe upon you. Father, bless our time around the table this evening. Draw from our hearts faith and worship and praise and a renewed appreciation that we will be together with you. And if we're believers in Jesus Christ, we are together now and we will be forever and ever and ever. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.