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Sermon: True Conversion Date: January 17, 2021, Morning Text: 1 Thessalonians 1:1–5 Series: Awaiting Christ Preacher: Josh Sheldon Audio: https://storage.googleapis.com/pbc-ca-sermons/2021/210117-TrueConversion.mp3
But we're turning our Bibles, please, to 1 Thessalonians. I'm going to begin this morning a series that will last throughout this year, 2021, a series in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. And we've scheduled this, as I said, to last the entire year.
The idea in the weekly preaching and in the weekly home group studies is under the rubric of awaiting Christ. Christ's children have this great hope, which is Jesus' return, his second coming, which is going to usher in not just a new age, though a new age, but a time when our salvation will be final.
We will see Jesus as he is. We'll no longer hope for him, because there he will be in front of us. When he returns, he will bring us to himself, to the places he said himself he has prepared for us. The Thessalonians, as we will see as we go through this series, have gotten some wrong ideas about the Lord's return.
There are allusions in these letters to people claiming to have represented Paul and told the Thessalonians that they had missed the return, that the Lord had already returned. In this letter that we are going to delve into this morning, would assure them otherwise, and will assure us otherwise.
And we'll begin this series of what are his people to be doing? What are you to be found doing? How are we to live as we wait for this great hope for Jesus' return? So please stand in the honor of God's word.
I will read the entire chapter, which is only 10 verses. The preaching this morning will be the first five verses, but I'll read the entire chapter to get the context for it. First Thessalonians, beginning at chapter 1 and verse 1.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake, and you became the imitators of us and of the Lord.
For you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
May God be blessed, and may God bless now the reading of the word, excuse me, please be seated. So again, the series Awaiting Christ begins this morning, and this beginning message has to do with beginnings.
Paul has to correct some misunderstandings that has stirred up the Thessalonians, and as we go through this series, see the background of that, we won't get into it this morning, but they've been disturbed by some false teaching that had come in, particularly concerning the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, which had great effect on their understanding of what to do as we wait for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they've been stirred up to think that possibly Paul had misled them that the Lord had returned, and they had missed it, which has great impact, as you could see, on what it means to wait for it in the way that the scriptures say to wait for his return.
Why wait if he's already returned? Now, this group in Thessalonica, these Thessalonians have been under Paul's teaching, we read in Acts chapter 17, verses one through nine, for maybe three weeks, three, maybe four weeks, Paul reasoned with the Jews for three consecutive Sabbaths, so it was a pretty quick trip, and you could read the entire thing in chapter 17, verses one through nine of the book of Acts, and very soon after his departure, they get disturbed, they get stirred up about the Lord's return, something that today is still a great controversy, many different theories, many different millennial views that change how we can think of what it means to anticipate, and how we can know when he's going to return, and all these different things, and what does Paul deal with first?
If you've ever been stirred up about this, if you've ever wondered if we can determine the time of the Lord's return, if we can look for the signs, if we can go through the paper, if we can parse out the articles, read the headlines, and put them together with other things and other events, can we figure it out?
Have you been disturbed that way? Have you been stirred up that way? It takes your focus away from what the scriptures say we should be doing, which is living for the Lord now, in the hope of his return.
Where does Paul begin to straighten this thing out? Does he rebuke them for looking at the newspapers? Does he castigate them for having fallen under false teaching, for having been influenced by that?
Where does he begin? Where must you begin? Have you been stirred up about this? Have you found yourself wondering if he's going to return? I've waited so long, all these many decades, compared to the thousands of years since his ascension to the Father.
If it has stirred you up in that way, if it has taken your focus away from living now for Christ, in wholly sanctified lives, growing ever more into his image, if this has been the case for you, I want you to begin getting corrected where the Thessalonians were corrected by Paul.
Not with great doctrines, not with grand schemes of history and how they relate to Jesus' return, but this. True conversion. Go back to the basics. That God, by faith in Christ, truly did save you. And we need to begin there.
So put aside all the intricacies, put aside all the sophisticated theories, and think on this. If you're a Christian who's concerned about the Lord's return, know this. It's terribly important that the Lord is going to return.
This is our hope, and we will get to that in the message. But remember this first. Remember where Paul started with the Thessalonians. Remember where we need to start, what we need to preach to ourselves and edify each other with, which is the basics of your salvation, that you truly were converted.
The Thessalonians were under great assaults. Their spiritual father, Paul's integrity had been maligned. And with that, his teaching about the Lord's return brought into question the very goal of their faith has been taken away.
And if I can't hope in Jesus' return any longer, why should I move now as if I'm hoping for it? And we'll get to the details of how this heresy crept in, but the issue this morning is how to respond. How do we help brothers or sisters in the Lord who become filled with doubt?
How do we help ourselves when our faith is shaken, especially in regards to this idea of the Lord's return? And we'll follow Paul in 1 Thessalonians 1 -5 and see how he gets us started, see how he gets us settled down.
Of first importance, again, not the intricacies, not the theories, but the faith, the faith through which you are called, the faith that God gave you to believe in Jesus Christ, that he died for your sins, gets centered there first.
What does Paul do? Well, he reminds them of who they are. In verse one, they're a church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're gonna spend a little time on verse one there so we understand who we are today in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
He tells them that this God and Father is the constant recipient of his and his fellow workers' prayers. That's in verse two. He tells them that their lives are solid evidence of their own conversion.
Verse three. And then in verse four, he tells them as an experienced, as a master builder, as he says to the Corinthians, I'm a master builder, he tells the Thessalonians that as an experienced master builder, he's seen this glorious working of the Holy Spirit before.
He has seen it several times. And so their response is real. Their conversion was true and valid and something to hold on to as they wait for Jesus' return. Finally, in verse five, he puts himself forward and says, I was with you and you saw my life, you know my integrity, these things I tell you are true.
So let's get re-centered. Let us remind ourselves of the salvation we have in Christ. Let us remind ourselves of that experience we had when faith first was given to us to believe. And let that be the starting point as we look for the hope of Jesus' return to live now in holy, sanctified lives and to begin that process to settle our spirits.
And if you haven't been stirred up by this, to keep you settled by this basics of reminding us, reminding ourselves of the faith that God gave us to believe and the response we've had to it. The first thing he tells them is who's writing the letter.
This is in verse one. And we will stay there for just a moment because it's fairly important. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are writing to the Thessalonians, that church there. Paul, the apostle, very well known.
Silvanus is the long formal name for Silas. So they're the same man. Silas, excuse me, the steady and committed one. Timothy, young and also steady and committed. We first meet Silas in Acts chapter 15.
He was one of the ones chosen to deliver to the decision of the church's first major council. When the believers in Antioch were disturbed and Paul and Barnabas came back to Jerusalem and James with the apostles discussed this idea of do you have to be circumcised?
There's a very important issue. Do you have to be circumcised to be saved? The council makes its decision and they send it back with trustworthy men, proven men, and Silvanus, this one mentioned in First Thessalonians is one of those men.
Timothy comes along in the next chapter of Acts. In chapter 16, verses one through three, we learn that his father was a Greek, that Timothy was well-spoken of by the brethren, and this young man was committed.
He was willing to be circumcised if that's what it meant to be able to introduce the gospel. He was with Paul in some very tough places. We learn some things about his personality. They may not have been very forceful, but we never read of him faltering.
He stayed true to the ministry throughout. The point is that all three of these, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, were men who had shown their mettle. And so when they talked to the Thessalonians through this letter, they're saying, we're men who've been through what you are going through yourselves.
We've been there, we've done that. You saw it in Thessalonica, and you know our reputation, most especially Paul's, from other places. These men have shown their mettle. As they encourage the Thessalonians to stay on track, they speak of those who have been where the Thessalonians were, suffering for the sake of the gospel.
And so, so early in this letter, we wanna talk about the first few words of the first verse. I want to tell you this morning that you have something to offer to others who are disturbed by these things.
People are stirred up by intricate doctrines, and things which are really Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong to the Lord, our God. But those things which have been revealed belong to us and to our children forever.
You have something to offer to people who are looking and are disturbed and are getting knocked off the rails by these other intricate theories that have little to do with what it means to live now for God.
And you have something to offer. All true believers have suffered for the gospel. Most of you have in many ways. Now, it may not have been the floggings and the stonings and the imprisonments that these men, especially Paul, endured, but they don't need to be that.
They don't need to be that. Your life in Christ is giving you something that can help struggling believers, each one of you. Rejection by your family is suffering for the gospel. Loss of friends is suffering for the gospel.
Rejection by your family, rejecting their job or being rejected from a job because of its environment that will compromise your walk with Christ, that is suffering for the gospel's sake. And that gives you some ability to settle other people's spirits.
And you can open up by saying Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy or Joe, Frank, and Mary, whatever the name is, because you've been there. And again, it doesn't have to be the big dramatic martyr type of things.
Just your life in Christ. My wife suffered for many years with an unsaved husband. That she's not suffering now, you would have to ask her yourself. But living with an unsaved spouse, this part is suffering for the sake of the gospel.
And I always slow down and stop on just these first three names, the first three words of the first verse in this first chapter, to know these are men of integrity, these are men of experience, these are men who when they say to the Thessalonians, you can do this, God has done a work in you.
These are people who've been there, have done that, as have all of you. If you know Jesus Christ, you have an experience. You have something to bring to others, to help them through this world in which we pilgrim now.
In 1 Corinthians 12, all of us were placed here as God intended, with something to offer to each other. Your experiences in Christ are meaningful. And it could put you at the head of a letter like this that you would need to speak to someone who is stirred up and disturbed and needs to be settled back down.
And where do we go? We go to the gospel. And we go to who you are in Christ. Through the one of the first verse, who is Paul writing to? The church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Incredible theology packed into this one phrase. The church exists in the sphere, if you will, of God the Father. And this means that who and what we are is based on who and what God is. It means that because we have our existence in him, our works and our labors need to reflect him.
They should reflect him, they must reflect him. And this makes perfect sense, doesn't it? In Romans chapter eight, verse 29, Paul says that we are predestined to come to Jesus' image. In other words, we're going to be like him.
And we're going to become more and more like him in this life. Completely like him? No, not completely like him. It couldn't happen, it never will be. But more and more like him in this life. We become like him in whom we are.
We become like him in whom we have our existence. We become more and more in Jesus' image. And what is Jesus' image? Colossians 115 says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. So he says to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, that's a mouthful.
It means that we were going to be like him. As we become like Jesus, we become like the Father. As we become more like the Father, we become more like Jesus. We are in God the Father, we are in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This also means that we owe our existence to him. Our origin is in him. The Father sent the Son to die for us and to establish us as a church, to establish the Thessalonians. Jesus accomplished his Father's will.
Hebrews chapter 10 verse nine, quoting one of the Psalms, Psalm 40 verse eight, he says, I have come to do your will. God sent his Son to die for our sins. God sent his Son to establish this, his church.
God sent his Son and his Son Jesus Christ did accomplish the Father's will. I've come to do your will. And so we're in this Son who accomplished the Father's will and being in the Son, we are doing, accomplishing, fulfilling the Father's will for us as a church.
Perfectly? Of course not. But being in Christ, being in the Father, we're becoming more like him. And we should be like him if we're in him. We exist within the Father, within the Son. We live in him and have our being in him.
All creatures really have their being in him. All creatures have life because God breathed the breath of life into them from the smallest mosquito to the largest whale. But we are in the realm of God.
All other creatures, including our unsaved fellow beings, have a different kind of relationship with God. They owe their breath to him. If they don't acknowledge it, as most don't, but we exist in that realm.
We have union, we have relationship with God. You read John chapter 17. You read Ephesians 1, three through 14, especially chapter, verse four of Ephesians 1, where it says that God chose us to be in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Existing within him and his presence, his union, his relationship, and his presence. We exist in the presence of God. As of now, this very moment, we are in the presence of God. Jesus says in John chapter 14, verse 17, he speaks of the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.
You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. The spirit of God is in us. The spirit of God is with us. He goes on in verse 20. And he says there, in that day you will know that I am in my father and you in me and I in you.
So to the Church of the Thessalonians, to Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church, we can say to both in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He pronounces then grace and peace. Grace and peace. This is first importance.
First things first. Who are they? Well, they're the Thessalonians. What are they? They are the church. Why are they the church? Because they're in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, all the same for us, all the same to us.
And he finishes that verse. This is the introduction. He says, grace to you and peace. This is the Aaronic blessing. This is how we end our service every Sunday with the Aaronic blessing on most Sundays.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Grace to you and peace. Not just a wish. Paul says in the next verse, he prays before God to himself.
For them, he stands before Christ and he returns with more than a platitude. He confers God's grace and peace to them and upon them. Not just a wish. Actual grace and peace to them. It's as if Paul is right before Jesus Christ, literally before him, as if he was.
And he's praying to him and he says amen. He says, was there anything you'd like me to bring back to them? And Jesus says to him, yes. Confer to them my peace and my grace. Grace and peace to them. Well, the connection that Paul had as an inspired apostle of the Lord wasn't exactly like I just framed it, but it was like that.
This is a conferral of grace and peace to those who are in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. A peace that is so different than the peace that the world knew then or knows now. Peace to the Greeks and the Romans of the day, as it does for many of us today that there's no open hostilities.
In other words, if we're not at each other's throat, we're at peace. Well, this peace of God is, of course, different. It surpasses all understanding. Peace accomplished by God through the cross of his son, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, Romans 5 .1. A peace that we desperately needed, but we wanted no part of. A peace that no one imposed upon God or talked him into. The nearest puff of his breath and we'd be gone forever, which would be deserved.
An infinitely holy God, infinitely offended by our sins, has made peace with sinners whose sins necessitated his son Jesus' suffering and death on the cross. Does not that peace surpass all understanding?
As Paul says to the Philippians, this is the peace conferred to the church. Grace and peace to you. Surpassing peace passed on to the Thessalonians by letter and to us in this scripture. Excuse me. We exist in the presence of God.
The Thessalonians need you to remember they exist in the presence of God. Verse two, we give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers. He remembers them all. You get the sense of his prayers named names.
Not a checklist that streamlines my prayer time so I can get through it efficiently. Not just a daily duty prayer as an approach to God the Father in the name of God the Son, empowered by God the Holy Spirit so we don't try to blast through our prayers.
We consider him who we approach. We let thoughts of his person permeate us before we pray. We begin with adoration of God, our Heavenly Father, our Holy Heavenly Father, our powerful sovereign Lord. Think about who it is we approach.
And we want to say with Paul that we give thanks to God for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers. To the Thessalonians, what an encouragement this would have been. To know that this apostle who had suffered so much for the sake of Christ, who had seen suffer and heard of his suffering elsewhere.
To say, rather than putting balm on my bruises or complaining about the stocks in which my feet are locked, rather than that, I give thanks to God for all of you, constantly before God our Father, mentioning you in our prayers so we don't blast through our prayers.
Prayer time is not meant to be a model of efficient use of our time. Consider him who we approach. Let thoughts of his person permeate you. And then, Lord, thank you for your blessings. Lord, please remember this or that person.
We stand before God. Stand before God. What do we remember before God? What do we tell somebody who needs to be settled down, who needs to be re-centered on the faith that they have? Or maybe it's yourself or myself.
Who needs to settle yourself or myself down? There's a continuing response to God. There's really proof of your conversion. The Thessalonians need to remember that they really had been converted. This thing really happened to them.
Not that they went and got it. We know that. I said it in the past voice. It's something that happened to them and they need to remember it and they've had a response to it, as have you. You have something in your life if you're in Christ.
You have a response that gives credibility to your profession and makes you one who, like Paul, can help settle people down when they're going off the rails. Your continuing response is proof of your conversion.
This is before worrying about all the events and all the signs of Jesus' return. This is so much more important at this point. What does he say before God when he's praying? He's remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We need to go through these things briefly just so we get some understanding of what Paul means because they're not all the same. They're not simply parallels, each one kind of building on the next. They're different.
Your work of faith. Paul gives no specifics as to the activities themselves. What he's noting is that they're doing things, they're doing stuff in their life, they're doing works, if you will, that are inspired by their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith is the all-of-life response to the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The activities here, we don't need to overburden them with some sanctified language.
What is he speaking of here in his work of faith? It's the ordinary, everyday activities of life now given over to God. Whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. This is your job. This is your household duties.
This is your finances. This is how you rear your children. Your neighbor may well do some of these things the same as you do. Maybe does it even better than you do. But these same works done in the framework of faith in Christ are remembered before him.
They're sanctified by the Word of God and by prayer. It's just your everyday, whole-of-life response to Jesus Christ. That you think of him, that when you brush your teeth in the morning, you wonder, how can I bring glory to God this day?
It's praying. It's simply being a Christian and having that permeate and infuse and be part of everything that you do. And his work of faith is proof of your salvation. The evangelist John puts it this way, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and whoever loves the Father, excuse me, loves whoever has been born of him.
By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. Just simply as you're walking by the way, as you're going along in your activities, God, his son Jesus Christ, is number one in your thoughts.
Don't let people or circumstances throw you off track. Remember that your whole life has now lived before God that is sanctified to God, is pleasing to him because of your faith in his son. He speaks of your labor of love.
Now labor is now, this is the straining effort. This is the sweat, this is the cost, this is the exertion of discipleship. It causes fatigue, it causes exhaustion. William Hendrickson puts it this way, Paul is thinking especially of the work of making propaganda for the gospel and doing this even in the midst of bitter persecution.
This is hanging in there as we might say today. No matter what the issue is, no matter what the persecution is, no matter what resistance we're up against, be it from co-workers, family members, whoever.
This is staying true, this is shoulder to the plow. Particularly for the gospel. If work of faith is the whole of life infused and flavored by the gospel, this is more specifically gospel work, gospel labor.
This is the exertion, this is the sweat, this is the hard stuff. Most of us have passions that drive us to some kind of labor. We have hobbies, we have pursuits. Sometimes it's athletics, sometimes it's professional.
They consume our time, they consume our money. And we work hard in order to get a certain heart rate, to be able to run a half marathon or a whole marathon. We want to become an expert in a particular subject.
We want career advancement so we study things. We work very hard at it, we stay up late at night. In essence, it's a labor of love. And it's something hard to attain. It takes work, it takes practice, it takes perseverance.
And how do we stay at them? Because we have a goal. Because we have an endgame, if you will, that we hope will be worthwhile. And it's the same with the labor of love here, for the Thessalonians. Why is it worthwhile to work so hard to endure such afflictions, as they were enduring, for Paul to continually put himself in positions where he's going to endure more and more affliction?
Why? Ultimately because the goal, which is Jesus Christ, our hope in Him, is worth it. That in Him, in His presence, is joy forevermore. As I said before, all the promises of God, your salvation, is yes and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The labor of love for the Thessalonians was those things done specifically in Christ's name for His honor. This is how 2 Thessalonians 3 .13, which says, Do not be weary in doing good, is accomplished.
How do you keep from being weary in doing good? What keeps you going? Love for the Lord Jesus Christ is the labor of love. And Jesus Christ is worth it. And our great hope in Him, in His return, we know by faith in Him, we'll make it all worthwhile, make it that light and momentary affliction.
It's the labor of love. And finally it speaks of the steadfastness of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. The expectation of something. It can be negative, like all we can hope for now is more antagonism against the church.
It can be wistful, like Shirley Temple, always wistfully hoping that her father would return from whatever war he was in. But our hope is different. The Christian hope is in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all the Father's promises to save His people.
It's premised on faith. Faith looks back to the sacrificial death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Faith apprehends and believes that He died for my sins and that for my justification God raised Him up from the dead.
Faith looks to the past. Steadfastness of hope, which is based upon our faith, looks to the future as the sure and unshakable confidence that Christ will return and bring us to Himself. So hope in that sense is temporary, isn't it?
We will not have hope forever. Because one day, if you believe in Jesus Christ, if you have repented of your sins and put your faith in Him, one day you will see Him as He is. And when you see Him, when we see Him, we can stop hoping to see Him, can't we?
But this hope, it sustains us now in this life. This hope is what keeps us going. This hope is based upon the sure promises of God in Christ's return. We'll see Him as He is. There's steadfastness of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's endurance. I wonder sometimes what kept the apostles going. Why did Peter and the rest, why were they able to endure what they endured? This is before Paul came around to become the apostle born out of due time.
I think of Matthew 17 when Peter, James, and John went to Jesus up on that high hill and they saw Him transfigured before them. What did they see? They saw Jesus in all His glory. They saw Jesus as He truly is.
They saw that great hope that one day they would have forever. That great hope which one day we would have forever. You have this hope, this real hope, this something more than a wish, a final promise set before you by God in Christ.
Jesus came as the hope of Israel. All they hoped for, He was and is. And in the same way, your hope is in this same Jesus. The saints of old hoped for one who would come and deal with their sins, which He did.
That hope was fulfilled. You and I have that and we have another trajectory. The hope of His return. The hope of our resurrection to be with Him forever. To John, once more, he says in 1 John 3, Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. The steadfastness of hope. The hope keeps us steadfast, the hope keeps us going and it keeps us sanctified. It sanctifies us.
It's a pure hope. It's a right hope. It's a good hope. If you're ever stirred up by the predictions of His return, by wondering if I can understand from the times and from the headlines and from all the different events happening, can I figure out when He's going to come?
I ask you for a moment. Does this not put it in perspective? Does this not, while we are in this life, in these bodies, awaiting this great hope, awaiting His return, doesn't this put it in perspective?
And tell us that for now, because we can't know the time of His return, Jesus said not even the Son knows, only the Father has kept that under His authority. Deuteronomy 29 .29 says the secret things belong to God.
For those that have been revealed belong to us and our children forever. I don't say don't wonder about it. I don't say we shouldn't study it. We're going to study it this year. For the whole year. As a church, we're going to study this very thing.
Eschatology as we call it. But the important thing is while we are living and breathing now and still have this hope because the hope is yet to be fulfilled by His return, our lives now must take precedence.
Our lives live to God's glory. Growing ever more in His Son's image must take importance over that. I don't say don't study it. I don't say set it aside. It's terribly important. But let's keep it in perspective.
This is where Paul went first. This is where we must go first. And how do we continue to encourage them to stay the course, to believe that they truly were saved, that the Lord is going to return, that their hope is a real hope.
He says in verse 4,. For we know, brothers, loved by God, that He has chosen you. It's an incredible statement. Did God reach down from heaven and say to Paul, I just saved Mary Beth and Joe Blackwell over there.
Of course not. God didn't say anything like that. How can Paul say I know, as an inspired apostle, this confidence that God has chosen you? Well, the word for know that he uses here is something perceived, something understood by experience.
Again, we can ask, how could this be? How can He say so confidently to them and to us, I would argue? If you're chosen before the foundation of the world, so is Paul. And if the Lord asks, where were you when I put my mark on this person or that person, how could you know that?
The only answer would be we weren't there. And Paul even says in Galatians 1 .15 that he was set apart by God before he was born. How can Paul say for we know by perception, by experience, by observation, we know, brothers, loved by God, that He has chosen you.
Because election comes before the foundation of the world. Paul knew what conversion looked like. From the moment of conversion to the fruit of the Spirit manifested in new life. He speaks as a master builder, as I said before.
What he saw in the Thessalonians, he'd seen before in other places. He knew in enduring faith what true faith looked like. You know, if you were a soldier about to enter into a desperate battle, think of standing side by side, lined up before your general.
He's giving you a talk before you man your position. And he tells you that success is at hand, that his preparations, his strategy has all been tested over and over again. We're ready to go. And you note to the guy next to you, you say where was this tested?
The guy next to you says, well I know, I happen to know this. He had a very sophisticated computer model, and it over and over again said his tactics are going to work. And you say, okay, well has he ever used these in battle?
He says, well, no. And you note to him again, you say, well has he ever actually been in a battle himself, or led men in battle? Well, no, he just sort of flew through the ranks. His father was somebody influential.
This is his first combat. I wonder how confident you would then be. How would you then feel about rushing into that battle? Well, Paul was no novice. He knew what he was doing. He knew what it looked like when God by his Spirit had done a work in sinners hearts.
That's why you can say, for we know that he's chosen you. Was he inspired by the Holy Spirit? Yes. Every word of scripture is breathed out by God through the hands of the apostles, through the hands of the prophets.
Yes, inspired word for word. And yet we say, how did Paul know? Because he observed in them what he had seen before. How do you know that you're saved? God gives you faith to believe. Chosen before the foundation of the world.
Chosen before you could do good or evil. For we know, brothers, loved by God that he's chosen you. He's chosen you to be here in this life and to wait for the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And while we wait to live the life that would bring us closer and closer to him. A very real conversion. He goes on to say, because our Gospel came to you, not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
This is from his perspective. He preached with power. He felt the working of the Holy Spirit in the words he was speaking to them. It's somewhat subjective, yes. But he'd been there before. He knew the Spirit was working.
He saw their conversion. But speaking from his perspective, he said, I preached to you in power. Not just words that you understand, but in power and in the Holy Spirit. God the Spirit working through me and with full conviction.
His own conviction. Speaking what he knew to be true. Let it never be that we encourage someone with words that we don't believe. Especially when we're representing Christ Jesus. Let it never be that from this pulpit words that the preacher does not believe himself are ever preached.
One of the few things I would disagree with the great preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He said that a preacher cannot preach unless he's personally grabbed by a scripture. Or it has to mean something to him personally.
It has to apply to his life right then. I don't agree with that because every scripture doesn't have to mean something in my life at that time before I can preach it with conviction to you. If I preach to you in the beginning God created, I need to believe it.
As must every man who preaches the word to you. Paul preached with full conviction. He puts himself forward as one who they know. He says, you know the life we led. You saw us. And so his conviction is backed up by his own life before them.
He knew from experience that God's spirit had been working in him and through him and to them. He'd seen this before. A man of integrity assures them of this. You know what kind of man we proved to be among you for your sake.
Now this verse looks two ways. That was verse five, just the first part of verse five. It looks up to tell them why when I tell you I preached to you with full conviction. I know the power of the spirit.
I know what I'm talking about. I know the things I've seen in you. This assures them that those things are true. Because they saw him in his life. It also is going to work for the part of the chapter that follows this.
We'll come to that next week. The Net Bible puts it this way as a parenthetical. Surely you recall the character we displayed when we came among you to help you. Awaiting Christ is not looking for the signs.
Awaiting Christ is not parsing out headlines and trying to determine the time and predict the actual coming. We'll see him on the clouds. Awaiting Christ is living now in the faith that he has given us.
He is living holy, sanctified lives we'll get to as we go through these letters. We all have something that can help settle ourselves down. Help settle others down. You have a faith. You have a life. You have experiences.
We all need to await Christ here, living for him in this here and now, in this rough and tumble world. He writes to Titus and says, for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age.
That's our life now. This is first things first but we don't forget the other part. Waiting for our blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all unlawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
This is what it is to wait for Christ. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you that you brought us together once more. Thank you for the sure and certain hope we have in Jesus Christ that he will return. He will come for us.
In the meantime will we really find faith on the earth when he comes? I pray that he will find us still doing. That he will find us living for him as we wait for that appearing for we ask it all in Jesus name.
Amen.
