This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Ignite the Light Ministries radio and podcast. It is our mission to help listeners develop a deeper relationship with Jesus by sharing what the Bible says and what it means. We aim to encourage and equip you to serve others, share the gospel, and reflect Christ in every aspect of your life. I'm Pastor Wyatt Cudd.
Thank you for tuning in.
Okay, so today we're going to be continuing with our first Thessalonian Series. We're going to be going through today 1 Thessalonians. Chapter 2, verses 13 to 20. Chapter 2 13 to 20. You got your Bibles?
Go ahead and turn there now.
So, as always, I'm just going to do a clean read-through and let the scripture speak for itself. and then we're going to talk about it.
So starting here. At verse 13. And we also thank God continually because When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, You accepted it not as human word, but as it actually is the word of God. which is indeed at work in you who believe. For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God's churches in Judea.
which are in Christ Jesus. You suffer from your own people the same things that those churches suffered from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out They displease God and are hostile to everyone in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so they may be saved. In this way, they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them. At last.
Verse 17, but brothers and sisters When we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time, in person, not in thought. Out of our intense longing, we made every effort to see you, but we wanted to come back to you. Certainly I, Paul, did, again and again, but Satan blocked our way. For what is our hope? Our joy.
or the crown in which we will glory. in the presence of the Lord. Jesus when he comes Is it not you? You indeed, you are our glory. Enjoyable.
So in this sermon series, we have been looking at the Thessalonian church, and they are very much a model church. We've been looking to them as what makes for a strong church, what makes for a strong confession. Last week we looked at what makes for a strong leader.
Something we talked about before. The church It's not a building. The church is not what types of songs we sing. The church is not how we structure the bulletin or what programs we offer. The church is none of these things.
Because God can take all of these things away. And we would still have a church. That's because the church is people. And a strong church is a church of strong people. Thessalonians They are a model church.
Means there's a lot of things they're doing that we can learn from. They are no pushover. They are strong people, and they are strong in their faith.
So, as we look at this passage, We ask, what are the traits here in the Thessalonian people that make them strong? Starting here at verse 13. We also thank God continually because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as human word, but as it actually is the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. They received The word of God, and they believed. Simply put, God spoke to them and they believed it.
Not only this, but they put their belief into action.
Well, What does it mean to believe? Self-fair. Means we think it's true, right? If we believe something, if I believe something, I think it's true, and if I think something's true, That should inform my actions, how I act, how I interact with the world. If I believe it's true, And Chick-fil-A's closed this Sunday.
I might go somewhere else to eat.
Something I can remember. Um You know, if I'm in a dark room and I believe turning the light switch on might help the situation, that's gonna inform my actions. I'm gonna go and turn the light on. Easy, right? You know, I believe something and it informs my actions.
My actions are a reflection of what I believe.
Okay great, so I believe the word of God to be true. You know, then I always act accordingly, right? I'll always witness. I'll always spend time with God. I will always love people.
I'll always volunteer when help is needed, right? Yeah. It doesn't play out that way. Not always, no! And it's for a million reasons, like with witnessing.
There's the fear of rejection, persecution, or a fear of pushback. And man, that's a valid concern. It's valid because Jesus promises it. Jesus promises we will be persecuted. But do we believe God is worth it?
Do we believe that the reward of eternity with him is worth all the promised pain? of today? Do we believe that? If you truly believe God can do all things, And why aren't you praying to have a war? If you truly believe that Jesus is our rest, Why keep picking up the bottle?
Why keep going to weed or running to cigarettes or whatever the thing is? Why keep going to that instead of God? If you truly believe Jesus is the only way to heaven and everywhere else leads to eternal damnation, why aren't you telling people? If you truly believe God will provide for all of your needs, why are we not more generous? I'm stepping on someone's toes this morning.
And if it's not clear, I want to make it very clear: I'm preaching to myself here, too. I'm preaching to myself. When our actions do not match our professed beliefs, often it's not a problem with our actions. That's a symptom. It's a problem with our belief that we do not see.
Mark IX. A man in a crowd, he says to Jesus, I brought you my son. He has a demon in him. It's taken away his speech. It's throwing him on the ground.
He's foaming at the mouth, going into fits of seizures. I asked your followers, please drive him out. But they couldn't. And Jesus says, Oh, you unbelieving generation, Bring it to me. And when the demon saw Jesus, immediately the boy was thrown into convulsions, rolling around the ground, foaming at the mouth.
Jesus asked the boy's father, How long has he been like this? And he said, well, he's been like this since childhood. This monster inside of my boy has tried to throw him in fire, has tried to throw him into the sea and drown him. Please heal him if you can. And Jesus says If you can.
Everything is possible. for one who believes. And then the father immediately corrects himself. I do, I do believe. Lord, please help.
My unbelief. I believe Jesus. Help me with my Unbelief. I love that prayer. That's such a good prayer for us to say.
Help my unbelief, Lord. Help me pray more. Help me put down this thing that I'm going to instead of you. Help me witness more. Help me be more generous.
I believe, God. Please help me believe. More. Verse 13. When you received the Word of God, you accepted it not as human word, but as it actually is the Word of God.
So the Thessalonians received the Word of God, they believed the Word of God. And we know they believed the Word of God. by their actions. the outside world will know us, Trinity, by our actions.
So this is us reevaluating. Do I actually believe what I profess to believe.
Now this isn't behavior modification I'm talking about. You know, we don't come to church for behavior modification. No, we come to church because Jesus, the great physician, I come and I say, Jesus, I need heart surgery. I'm not loving the way I should. I'm not living the way I should.
I'm not believing the way I should. Jesus, help my unbelief. I need surgery. I need you, Jesus. That's humility, you know.
We can't be good Christians or producing fruit. We can't be loving people the way we ought to. unless we're leaning on Jesus for everything. And it's in our complete and utter weakness that we go before God, that He gives us His strength. Our strength is God's strength.
So we must be going to God. A strong people believe. The promises. of God.
So let me just tell you guys something. There is not going to be any change. And your life There's not going to be earth-shattering change in this church. There's not going to be fixing of broken relationships as a result of what I preach. from this pulpit.
If you want life change, If you want church to grow and to revitalize, if we want to have the best relationships possible, it's going to be directly correlated with how much time we spend on our knees. How much time we spend face on the carpet. God, help me. God, strengthen me. God, I love my church and we want to be in alignment with you.
God, help us. Be our North Star. That's where change is going to come from. That's where growth is going to come from. If you want to see change, growth in your life, You gotta make the prayer closet your favorite room of the house.
And if it's not, it's back to what we talked about. God help my unbelief. Prayer's got to be our favorite thing, spending time. with our Creator. That's where our source of strength is.
First Thessalonians five seventeen. Jump into chapter five because, you know, this. This epistle's been out for a while. Spoiler alert, you know. 5.17, it says, pray without ceasing.
John 15, 5. Jesus, apart from me, you can do nothing.
Okay.
Well, you know, I'm busy with the kids. My job is very demanding. I can't really afford to set aside time to pray. Homie, you can't afford not to pray. Yeah, you know, the two-minute prayer while we're driving between events, it counts.
God hears us. We gotta be serious about prayer. We gotta put our game faces on. We gotta be intentional. It's gotta be our favorite point of the day.
Verse 14: For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God's church in Judea. Which is in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own people the same things that those churches suffered from the Jews.
So Thessalonians imitated other churches that displayed strength in the issues that they were going through. A strong people Imitate strong people. The Thessalonians, man, they're brand new to this whole dealing with persecution thing.
So they go and they find people, they've dealt with it already, they got through it. When they learn a thing or two, from this church. You know, their own family, their own friends had become persecutors. They were being ripped out of their house and arrested. That is opposition.
And one of the strongest helps when we're facing something like that is to find an example. to follow. It's the same way of if you want to be a strong guitarist, Go find a strong guitarist. Go find somebody who's really good at guitar and can teach you. If you want to learn how to box, you know?
Don't take lessons from a toddler Go find a professional boxer who can teach you how to box. If you want to be a good witness, If you want to love people, if you want to learn what does it mean to be hospitable, go find a believer who is doing it well. If we want to be strong people, we must find strong people. Tomorrow. That's the principle.
There's not any room in pride for this because finding people to imitate is admitting, I don't have this figured out, I need help. I need to learn. Frankly, the smartest thing to do is to look at everybody as a potential teacher. You know, everybody has a different life experience, and when you really spend enough time talking to somebody, People are incredibly complicated and it's just fascinating, you know? People are fascinating.
So strong people imitate strong people. Verse 15 to 16. The Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone. In this way, they heap up their sins to the limit the wrath of God has come upon them.
So it took me a minute looking through this part to pull out the principle And I think I got a A strong people. move towards God. In doing so, They escape the wrath of God. The Jews are functioning as the bad guys, the primary antagonists here. But why?
If the Jews are certain of their own beliefs, if they're secure what they believe is absolutely true, then why would they be threatened by a different belief system? Surely, if Judaism is true, surely any rational person would look at Christianity, Judaism, and be like, ah, this is true. Truth makes itself evident.
So what are they worried about? Unless they aren't secure. in their beliefs. There's many cults out there today. You've got Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness.
There's the Baha'i Faith Unitarian Church. I'm sure you guys have heard of Scientology, you know, Tom Cruise. But there's one thing in particular that they all have in common. You are not allowed to ask questions. Accept it, just blindly follow it, or be excommunicated, lose your friends, lose your family.
It's kinda disgusting. Yeah. But if what we believe about God is true, brothers and sisters, we don't need to fear any lie, we need not fear any other way of thinking, we need not fear disagreements, we don't have to worry about not having all the answers because we believe it's true that Jesus sits on the throne. If Jesus sits on the throne, it's not dependent on us to defend that. Jesus sits there regardless, he doesn't need us to defend them.
And what is true will make itself true. Evident.
So In this church? Ask questions. Ask questions. That's how we grow. And I assure you, God is not threatened.
Ask questions. So we're always in this state of Either moving towards God. or away from God. I kind of think of this upward spiral towards God, and if we're not going in that direction, it is this downward spiral. We never stay stagnant.
We're either moving towards God or we're moving away from Him. This image of an upward spiral to God. It goes on to the next generation too. The parent is going to teach the child what they believe to be true, and that's either going to be an upward aim or a downward aim. In biblical terms, we call this a generational blessing.
Or a generational curse, the sins the fodder.
So, the Jews, the death of Jesus was on their head. They persecuted him. They killed their own prophets. They foolishly tried to stamp out the word of God, lest anyone believe. Again, what are they afraid of?
I think it's more than fear. I think it's the spirit of Cain that we see here. Cain hates his brother for doing good. Better split his head open rather than him. caused me to look at my own failures like a mirror.
The Thessalonians escaped this wrath. Because they believe and confess in the Lordship of Jesus. They are aiming upward towards God, no matter the cost. a strong people move Towards God. Verse 17 to 18.
Brothers and sisters, When we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time, out of our intense longing, we made every effort to see you. A strong people Have a strong Fellowship. Strong people have strong Fellowship. Fellowship with the Thessalonians. It was great.
These people were awesome. Paul loved these people. They were great to hang out with. They were life-giving. Paul wanted to spend all this time with the Thessalonians.
And when he had to go away, it's like. I don't know if you've ever had a close friend of yours move away. It's almost like they take a piece of your heart with them. And that's just because, like, we love them. And the fellowship is so joyful and we miss it.
when they're gone. And Paul had been separated, but continues to think about them all the time. He longs for the Thessalonian people. It's a stark difference from what we see in the Corinthian church. You know, we've talked about the Corinthian church a little bit.
They can't get their stuff together. Thessalonians are a strong model church. We see it here at the end in the Thessalonian close. You know, it's like Paul, it's like on the phone. It's like Paul's with his friend and he just can't hang up the phone.
You know, he just can't stop talking. to these people. It it makes me think of like When I'm on the phone with my mother, it's kind of like, all right, we'll talk to you later. Oh, one last thing: you know, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, okay. Bye.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. Make sure, you know, in all circumstances, God is willing for you. Don't quench the spirit. Test the prophecies. Make sure you're at the grandparents' house by 6 p.m.
tonight.
Okay, love you. Grace and peace. Tell your brothers and sisters. That's the close of Thessalonians. But we look at the Corinthian clothes, it's like Paul's on the phone with Social Security Office.
He can't wait to get off the phone with the Corinthians. You know, it's uh he say he says If any one of your coworkers doesn't love the Lord, let them be cursed. Yes, this is Paul. I wrote this with my own hand. Tell your brothers and sisters.
Click. It's a stark difference. And that's because Paul loves the Thessalonians. lot. They're great to spend time with.
So church. When was the last time you Invited friends over. When was the last time you had fellowship? with the people around you. When was the last time you had a fellowship?
Someone knew it. A strong people have strong. Fellowship.
So, Paul also acknowledges here Satan as someone preventing him from meeting the Thessalonians. When a church is as strong as the Thessalonians were, Satan is bound by his hatred to God to intervene. He has to do something.
Now we don't know exactly what Paul did or Satan did to block Paul. Likewise, we always don't know the extent of Satan's intervention in our own lives. You know, if we stumble, often it's a combination of spiritual forces. Our own choice and our own sinful proclivities, our own sinful nature. It's hard to know the exact involvement of spiritual forces.
But They are very much involved. They very much hate us. And when we are becoming strong in God, moving towards Him, they are bound by their hatred to intervene. Moving on to verse 19 through 20. For what is our hope?
Our joy. Or the crown of which we will glory in the presence of the Lord Jesus when He comes. Is it not you?
Okay.
Indeed, you are our glory. Enjoy. Strong people. are destined. to brain.
Glory. Enjoy. Now, it's true in our obedience we will bring glory and joy to God, but Paul is referring to something different here. A strong people will bring glory and joy. Two other believers.
Paul is saying the Thessalonians, they're his hope, his joy, his crowd of rejoicing.
So what does that mean?
Well, you know, we've seen Paul describe himself like a mother or father that loves this church, and a mother and father. Invest in their children. A mother and father pour themselves out for their children in such a way their kid can't pay them back. There's nothing the kid can do to compensate the parents, but that's... Not the point.
My parents certainly did this. For me, and when somebody gives you a gift that you can't pay back, sometimes you feel guilty. It's like, well, how am I ever supposed to pay this person back? And maybe I shouldn't accept a gift that I can't pay them back for. Let me just say Jesus gave us the ultimate gift.
Eternal life, forgiveness, relationship with our Creator. There ain't no way any of us can pay that gift back. And it's not the point. The point is that we pay it. Forwarding.
Let me go and share this good news with anyone who will listen. Same way with our parrots. Our parents have given us a gift we can never pay back. Young people, I want you to hear me on this. Do not feel guilty for accepting the love God gives you through others.
The best way you can love your parents. Is by becoming the most godly version of yourself you can possibly be. That is your parents' hope. That will be your parents' joy. That will be your parents' crown of rejoicing.
I invested in my boy. And they became a godly man. I invested in my daughter, and she became a godly woman.
Now I rejoice. It's the same thing with Paul. Paul invested in the Thessalonian church, brought them a gospel they could never find on their own, and they're growing strong. I rejoice. Strong people.
Brand glory. Enjoy. In conclusion. Thessalonian church They are the model church. There's a lot of stuff they did that we can learn from.
Today we've been looking at What are some of the markers of a strong People. These are A strong people believe the promises of God. The strong people imitate other strong people. Strong people move towards God. A strong people have strong fellowship.
And a strong people will bring glory. Enjoy. Hey there, I hope this sermon has enriched your day. If you like this message, I want to personally invite you to join us for Sunday worship. We have two locations in Virginia, Trinity Methodist Church in Concord and Mount Comfort Methodist Church in Appomattox.
Come join us Sunday morning at 9.45 and we will help you get connected. As always, I'm Pastor Wyatt Hudd. Thank you for tuning in.
