All right, brethren, let's be
turning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. This beginning here at verse
17 would probably have been a good place to make the chapter division
for chapter 3, and then all the way down to to verse 13 in the next chapter. But we'll just take verses 17
through 20 for now. Let's read it again. Paul said,
But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in
presence, not in heart, endeavored more abundantly to see your face
with great desire. Wherefore, we would have come
unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, But Satan hindered
us. For what is our hope, our joy,
our crown of rejoicing, are not even ye in the presence of our
Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. For ye are our glory and our
joy. The apostle was especially attached
to the brethren at Thessalonica. They were very dear to him. He
had said there in verse 8 that he was so affectionately desirous
of you, we were willing to impart it unto you, not the gospel of
God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. This is the love God puts in
the heart of his servant for those to whom we preach. It's not natural. It's not natural. This was not from Paul being
around the brethren for a long time. Scripture tells us he only
preached for them for three Sabbath services. He was in the temple
three Sabbath days preaching to them. You just imagine the
Lord sent a messenger to you. He preached to you for three
times and saved a multitude of people amongst you. And then
Then Paul was persecuted by the unbelieving Jews. They stirred
up the baser sort and persecuted him out of Thessalonica to Berea. Then they followed him to Berea
and persecuted him from there to Athens. So here these brethren
are by themselves, just called, just given faith in Christ. But they took Paul from them,
but they didn't take the love out of Paul's heart for them.
And this is the love of God. This is the love he had only
been with on three Sabbath days. This is of God. So our subject
here is the glory and joy of Christ's servants. Those Christ
calls to faith through the preaching of the gospel. Those he calls
to faith through the preaching of the gospel. They are the joy
and the glory of the ministers, the servants that he uses to
preach the gospel. Those he calls. The reason is because Christ
is the glory and the joy of his servants. And we're one. His people are one. His servants
are one. We're one with Christ. Our glory
and our joy are those that Christ calls. Now, I want to see this
in three parts. I want to just take each verse
here really as a part. And I want you to see, first
of all, I want you to see Christ's glory in Paul being taken from
them. We've heard Paul say this many
times in other scriptures. Paul saw this glory too, but
we can see it shadowed here in Paul. In verse 17, he said, but
we brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence,
not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face
with great desire. This was the spirit the Lord
Jesus put in Paul for these Thessalonian brethren, as well as for all
those that the Lord called through his preaching. Paul loved them. It's like the love of a father
for his children, but it's not that. That's natural love. This
is the love God gives in the heart of his children. It's spiritual. It was true of Paul because it's
true of the Lord Jesus. It's true of Paul because it's
true of the Lord Jesus. It's true in his messengers because
it's true of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the spirit of Christ
that he puts in his people. It's the spirit he He gives us
in a new heart. He says, brethren, we were taken
from you. Now these unbelieving Jews had
persecuted Paul. He had no choice in it. He didn't
want to be, he didn't want to leave there, but they riled up
the baser sort and they came to Jason's house and they were
going to pull Paul out, try to kill him, and he had to leave.
He was taken from them. Taken from them. But Paul's hope
and his joy and his rejoicing was that this had happened to
Christ. And he didn't stop Christ from
accomplishing salvation for his people. And when Christ was taken
and he was persecuted, Christ was in full control of everything.
It was his will. It was the Father's will. when
he suffered it himself. The Lord Jesus suffered this
very same thing himself and in fact it's how he accomplished
our salvation. Being taken from us and nailed
to a cursed tree. This is how Christ accomplished
the salvation of his people. The unbelieving Jews persecuted
Christ just like they persecuted Paul. Christ was taken from us,
but that was Christ willingly laying down His life for His
people. Paul didn't have a choice. He had to go. But Christ didn't... He didn't
depart unwillingly. He departed willingly. He was
laying down His life for His people on Calvary's cross in
a room instead of His people. Paul knew that. He knew that. He knew that him and Silas, taken
from these brethren, was Christ ruling over them to send Paul
to another place. That wasn't Paul's choice, but
that was Christ's choice. That wasn't Paul's will, but
that was the will of God. Christ being taken from us was
according to the eternal purpose of God the Father, but by it
our substitute fulfilled the purpose of God. He saved his
people from our sin. Paul knew that. That's the gospel
he preached. So when he's taken from them,
he knows their salvation is the Lord Jesus. It's not Paul. It's
the Lord Jesus. He knows that. The Lord purged
the sin of His people on the cross. He made us righteous by
being taken away. So if He takes Paul away from
them, He had taken away their righteousness. He had taken away
their salvation. Christ is their salvation. He's
their righteousness. Paul knew that, and his brethren
now knew that too. But Paul had this hope in the
Lord Jesus that it was only for a short time. He said in verse
17, We, brethren, are being taken from you for a short time. His
confidence in Christ is our confidence. His hope is our hope. His joy
and His glory is our joy and our glory. He was taken from
them and Paul knew it was only for a short time. Whether he got to come back and
see them in person or whether Christ returned and they all
met at the feet of Christ in glory, it was just going to be
a short time. Paul knew that. It's just going
to be a short time. His hope was that he'd see Him
again. He knew that. That's the love
God puts in the heart of His servant. Christ has only parted
from us for a short time. He's only parted from us for
a short time. Either He'll bring us to Him
or He'll come back to us. But either way, our life's a
vapor. It's just a short time. Paul
knew if he didn't see them in this life, verse 19, he said,
I'll see you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming.
He knew that. This was Paul's heart. Here's his heart. They were only
separated in body. His bodily presence was the only
thing that was gone from him. His heart wasn't. He said there,
we brethren being taken from you for a short time in presence,
not in heart. Somebody can make your bodily presence be
removed, but they can't remove your heart from them. They can't do that. And they
could remove Paul's bodily presence, but they couldn't remove his
heart for these brethren. The Apostle Paul was with them
in spirit. He remembered them always. He prayed for them always. You can be away from somebody
in body. And you love them so in your heart, you pray for them
every time they come across your mind. That's what he said to the Colossians.
He said, Though I be absent in the flesh, yet I'm with you in
the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness
of your faith in Christ. I'm absent in the flesh, but
I'm with you in the spirit. This is the hope, it's the joy,
it's the glory of Christ's servant, because this is so of our Lord
Jesus Christ toward all his people right now. Our Lord is not here
in body, not bodily presence, but he's here in spirit. He never
has left us in spirit. He's with us in spirit. The Lord
Jesus is really and truly present with his people. The word Paul
used for taken from you is, if you ever look at this Greek word,
you'll see it's orphaned is what it is. It's a form of the word
orphaned. Paul felt like he was leaving
them as orphans. But do you remember what our
Lord told us? He said in John 14, 18, I will not leave you
comfortless. You look at that word, he's saying I'm not leaving
you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more, but you see me." Don't
you see him? Brother Art just read it, whom
having not seen you love. You see him by faith. You see
him by faith. Because I live, you shall live
also, he said, and at that day you shall know that I am in the
Father, my Father, and you in me, and I in you. That's oneness.
That's one. He's away from us in body, but
he's with his people in spirit. And that's so of His people.
When we're not with each other in body, we're with each other
in spirit. Our heart is for one another because of the love He's
put in the heart. So Christ is not with us in body,
but He's present in spirit, and He's with His people all over
the world in every age. That's one reason He sent Paul
away. Our Lord did that. Why? To show these new Thessalonian
believers that Paul wasn't our salvation, Christ was. It wasn't
Paul's bodily presence that was going to help them. It was Christ's
presence with them that was saving them. Do you believe that? It's
no man that's saving you. It's Christ. It's his bodily
presence, his spiritual presence with you that's going to save
you. Secondly, I want you to see this. It didn't stop Paul
from trying to visit them. But he knew why he couldn't.
Verse 17, he said, We brethren, being taken from you for a short
time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly
to see your face with great desire. Think of the love in that. Paul
knew if he went there, he's going to be persecuted more by those
who hated him. Why did he endeavor more abundantly
to go back there? Because he loved those the Lord
saved through his preaching. Their hearts were together, their
hearts were one. And it was no amount of persecution
going to stop him from going to them. But, wherefore we would
have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, I tried again
and again, but Satan hindered us. all endeavored more abundantly
to see their face. He had a great desire to see
their face. He longed for them. His heart
was for them. His affections were strong towards
them. And he endeavored to see them over and over. He tried
it again and again. But Satan hindered us, he said.
Satan is real. The devil is real. He hates the
preaching of the gospel. He hates what we're doing right
here, right now. And his desire is to separate
the brethren because he hates the fellowship that the Lord
gives his people in spirit and in truth. The devil hates it.
Spurgeon said this, I thought it was really good. He said,
Satan attaches far more importance to godly communion than we do.
He knows how vital that is. And he don't want to see it happen.
Satan didn't want Paul strengthening his brethren in the gospel of
Christ. Satan's devices are to make his people hold grudges
and be unforgiving. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth
concerning those the Lord had chastened and granted repentance,
telling them to forgive and comfort and confirm one another in their
love, even as Paul did in the person of Christ. Why did he
tell them that? Lest Satan should get an advantage
of us, for we're not ignorant of his devices. We're no match
for him. The only one that can defeat
the devil is the Lord, and the only way to resist him is steadfast
in the faith, and you do that by casting all your care on Christ. He's the refuge. He'll deal with
the devil on behalf of his people. The devil hindered Paul, but
the devil can't hinder the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
and the devil are not in competition. The world speaks as if sometimes
the devil wins and sometimes the Lord wins. That's not how
it is. They're not in competition. You
know, there was an old saying when I was coming up that the
devil cast his vote, the Lord's cast his vote, now it's up for
you to cast the deciding vote. That ain't how it is. God determined
the end from the beginning. And the devil and Christ aren't
in competition. On the cross, the devil bruised
our Lord's heel. But that was only by God's decree.
He was only fulfilling God's purpose, doing what God determined
before to be done. But when he did that, Christ
bruised his head. He took all the ammunition from
the devil because he took all the sin away from his people
and made us the righteousness of God in him. He took all the
devil's ammunition away. That was his only power, was
to accuse. Satan only hit Paul by the permission
of our sovereign savior, and the devil can only do what Christ
permits him to do. He said, Peter called him your
adversary the devil as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom
he may devour. He's got to have permission.
The devil had to have the Lord's permission to afflict Job. Well,
why did the Lord give him permission to afflict Job? The Lord permitted
it to show that Job's strength was the Lord, not Job. He did
it to show me and you that, that the Lord's strength, that Job's
strength was the Lord, not Job. And he brought him through that,
the Lord brought him through that, and the Lord blessed him
more in the latter end. He did that on purpose for that
reason. Well, why did the Lord permit
Paul to be taken from these Thessalonian brethren just immediately once
the Lord called them, and then hinder Paul from being able to
come back and preach the gospel to them. Why would the Lord permit
the devil to do that? Same reason. To show these brethren
Christ is their strength, He's their consolation, He's their
hope, He's their glory, He's their all. To show them that. The Lord did this for Paul. Paul
said the Lord gave him a thorn in the flesh, and what did Paul
call it? A messenger of Satan to buffet me, to keep him from
being puffed up and all the abundance of revelation the Lord had given
him. That was what the Lord was doing to these Thessalonian brethren. He permitted Paul to be taken
and hindered him, let the devil hinder him from coming back so
that the Lord could show these brethren it's Him that's preserving
His people. He's saved His people by His
righteousness. He is the glory of His people.
He's the refuge. He's the stronghold. He's the
one protecting His people. And He's teaching them this.
This is a vital lesson that His people will learn because Christ
will teach it. He'll put us in an unsavable
place, paint us in a corner where there's nothing we can do to
get out of it. Why? To show you there's nothing you
can do to get out of it. To save you and show you that
Christ is your salvation. It wasn't Paul's will. Paul wanted
to come back to them, but it was God's will for Paul not to
return to Thessalonica, else God would have brought him there.
It was God's will, Paul preaching Athens. That's why God put him
there and used the devil to do it. See, they're not in competition.
The devil and Christ aren't in competition. You look to Christ. The scripture says, resist the
devil and he shall flee from you. Don't think that that's
how the world preaches it, that you boy, you stand up to the
devil and he'll resist you. No, you stand up to the devil
like that, he's got you. The only way you can resist him
is you turn and you run straight to Christ and you trust Christ
to save you. That's the only way. The only
way. Now lastly, I want you to see
how in all of this, our Lord only increased the love and hope
in the heart of Paul for these brethren and he did it in them
for him. Verse 19, he said, here's why
he was saying he loved them so and he wanted to see them so.
Verse 19, for what is our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing? For not even ye in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming, for you are our glory
and our joy. Read that, read that again, read
that again. Paul is saying to them, He says to them, you're our hope,
you're our joy, you're our crown of rejoicing in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ that is coming. You're our glory and
our joy. How's that? Well, it's certain
that Christ was Paul's hope of salvation. And that was true
of these brethren. We're waiting for the hope of
righteousness by faith. Christ is going to return. He's
going to conform us perfectly to His image and His righteousness
when He comes and we're in His presence. That's their hope and
that's ours. It's through the blood and righteousness
of Christ we've been redeemed and He's going to keep us to
the end. Our hope is a confident expectation
that Christ is our righteousness and He will bring us to glory
with Him. And that's true of our joy. He's our joy. He's all
our consolation. What we call joy in this world
and the happy things we have in this world, that's not really
joy. That is not the joy. Christ said,
my joy I give to you and no man will take it from you. That's
totally different from the happiness we call happiness in this world.
It's the joy Christ gives you of knowing he's your salvation
and it'll never be taken from you. Soon our Lord's going to return
and we're going to be in the presence of our Lord bodily and
we're going to behold Him face to face at His coming. He said
this in John 16, 19, a little while and you shall not see me
and again a little while and you shall see me. Oh, what he
was talking to the apostles about when he came back from the resurrection.
Yes, but he's talking to me and you too. You now therefore have sorrow,
but I'll see you again. And your heart shall rejoice
in your joy, and no man taketh from you." What is your joy? This is it. You're going to see
Him face to face. Nobody can take that from you.
No man can take that from you. Paul's hope and joy was that
he expected to see them again. He expected to see these brethren
again. He might not see them in this
life, but he expected to see them at the coming of the Lord.
He said, our hope and our joy and our crown of rejoicing are
you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming. You're
our glory and our joy. The hope and the joy and the
glory of God's preacher is to see those called through His
preaching in the presence of our Lord at His coming. To know
the Lord truly saved them. To know Christ preserved them
until the end. They were Paul's joy and they
were his rejoicing. Four things that rejoiced Paul
about them. Number one, he rejoiced his heart
to see the power and glory of God manifest in saving them. That's the first thing. That's
why those the Lord calls are the
joy of his servants. They rejoice to see the glory
of God manifest in them. Number two, to see Christ exalted
in His person and work. That's what we see as we see
the Lord saving us. We see Christ's person and work.
We see His righteousness. We see His wisdom and His power
and His glory in saving His people. He's exalted. He's glorified.
That's the second reason for the rejoicing of all His servants.
And three, it's to see sinners actually saved. To see that he
saved some sinners. He gave them eternal life. They'll
never perish. They'll never be plucked out
of Christ's hand. That's the joy when the Lord calls somebody
to faith in Christ. And then, this was Paul's joy. This was evidence to Paul, directly
to Paul from the Lord, that he was the servant of God and the
apostle of Jesus Christ. The Lord was assuring him he
had not labored in vain. He said that in the next chapter. He knew he hadn't labored in
vain. He said it to the Philippians, that I may rejoice in the day
of Christ that I've not run in vain, neither labored in vain.
This encouraged him. This encouraged him. This strengthened
him. This filled him with joy. This increased him in his hope
in Christ for what the Lord had done. And then by Christ making them
continue steadfast in faith when they were persecuted. We don't
know much about persecution. We get dirty looks and people
might say something mean, but I mean, where you're having to
hide in a barn so you don't be killed by the civil authorities. They were persecuted, but they
still believed the Lord. And they continued steadfast
in the faith. And to see this happen, and that convinced Paul
that he would see them with Christ when Christ returned. They hadn't
given up. Even though they were persecuted,
they hadn't given up. They would be Paul's crown of
rejoicing when they were gathered at Christ's feet together with
him. Just what the Lord had done for
them, what He had done in them, what He had done for them, He
was glorying in the fact that Christ saved him. Now, he wasn't
glorying in himself. He wasn't rejoicing in himself.
Glorying in Christ, what Christ had done. Through the simple
preaching of the gospel of Christ, the Lord delivered these lawful
captives and set them free. Paul wasn't saying he expected
Christ to reward him for preaching the gospel. Christ was Paul's
joy and his glory. Paul, Christ was his only reward.
That's our only reward, is Christ. Christ was his only righteousness.
Paul didn't even have anything in the glory in. We saw that
Sunday. He said, I watered, I planted another water. It was God that
gave the increase. He knew he didn't have anything
in glory in himself. That's not what he's saying.
But it was an honor given to Paul by Christ to serve Christ
by serving them. By serving them. By preaching
Christ to them. That was a great honor. Paul
received from Christ, and that's the honor Christ's messengers
stand amazed at. And Paul looked forward to giving
Christ an account of them, which all God's ministers will. We'll
have to give an account to Christ of everybody we preach to. And
Paul looked forward, concerning these Thessalonian brethren,
to do it with joy and not with grief. That's what he looked
forward to. That's the glory and joy of Christ's
servants. To behold Christ save those to
whom they minister and gather them up at the last day. And
this is another thing. Paul would even rejoice in those. The Lord's going to take these
Thessalonian brethren that the Lord called through Paul's preaching.
And they're going to send forth the gospel. And the Lord's going
to call others through them. And Paul's going to even rejoice
that day in those others that were called out through the Thessalonians. That's the true meaning, the
preeminent meaning of Proverbs 17.6. Children's children are
the crown of old men. The glory of children are their
fathers. That's the preeminent meaning of that. The brethren,
and this was not only Paul's heart toward them, the brethren
felt the same way toward Paul. Listen to this, from 2 Corinthians
1.14. He said, also you have acknowledged
us in part that we are your rejoicing, even as you also are ours in
the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's only so between the hearts
of those God has saved. That's it. And knit together
through the gospel. Nobody else. The reason it's
so is because we're one in Christ with Christ in us. We're one
in Christ with Christ in us. Paul's joy, his rejoicing, his
glory was Christ in whom they would have boldness in the day
of judgment. He would and they would. Isn't that amazing that
the Lord says we will have boldness in the day of judgment? How so? Because being found in Christ,
With His righteousness alone, we will be found of Him without
spot or blemish. We will be found blameless in
Him. As He is, so are we in this world.
That's the only way you can have boldness in the Day of Judgment.
Some people think that that's them having boldness from their
works. My boldness is not my works.
My boldness is Christ's works. The only way I can come into
His throne room right now in the presence of God is because
Christ, my High Priest, is there. And I can enter through that
veil because He has created a new and living way through His flesh,
laying down His life, so I can enter into God's presence. That's
the only way I can even have boldness to pray to God. Can
you imagine trying to come to God? Just think about the day
God is a light no man can approach unto. He's so holy, you and I
have never even, it has never entered our mind what true holiness
really is. And we're going to see Him in
that day. Do you really think a man's going to have boldness
to come and approach Him because of something he did? No. Our boldness in that day, we're
going to be, we're going to be behind Christ and trust Christ
to present us to the Father and Him alone. And Paul knew that's
how they felt, and that's how he felt. And he knew that he
had seen this because he saw what the Lord worked in them
through this persecution. And he knew, he felt like he
had rejoiced in his heart that that's where he'd see them that
day, at Christ's feet. He said in Philippians 4.1, Therefore,
my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown,
So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Stand fast in
the Lord. Amen. Our Father, we thank You for
this Word. We need You to bless it. We need You to give us faith
in Christ. And Lord, we pray you give us
this heart just like you gave Paul and our Thessalonian brethren.
Give us this heart for Christ and give us this heart for one
another. Lord, we thank you for your mercy.
We thank you that you've worked this in your people. Lord, we
thank you that Christ has saved us, is saving us, and shall save
us. He has delivered. He is delivering. He shall deliver. Lord, don't
let us forget this. Keep it in our hearts. Keep us
steadfast in Christ. Trust in Him alone. Lord, we thank you for brethren.
Thank you for your power working through your gospel. And we pray,
Lord, you continue to bless it. We pray for our brethren everywhere.
This is the same heart in your people here and other places
all over the world in every age. You made us one by your spirit.
Lord, help us to help each other look to Christ. Thank you for
your mercy. Thank you for your grace. In
his name we ask it. Amen.