Thessalonians gives us a wonderful
record of the promise of God in bearing His Gospel in this
world and bearing the fruit of His Gospel in this world and
bearing that fruit in the creation of a fellowship of believers.
It's interesting to think, isn't it, in 1 Thessalonians, do you
know of any of them? Do you know the names of any
of them? History doesn't record any of
their names. In Philippa we know the name
of Lydia. We don't know the names of any
of the others, do we? I think it's the lesson, I suppose
what I'm saying is that let's not despise the day of small
things and be mindful that Paul is writing this letter with just
the most extraordinary gratitude and thankfulness in his heart.
He keeps thanking God for these Thessalonian believers, as we've
said so often. He had to leave in a rush because
of the persecution, the stirrings of the enemies of the Gospel,
and now he's heard what's happening in their lives, their faith,
their love, their patience, the way they had received the Word
of God and their election of God was revealed in the Gospel
coming to them and in their response to it. And we looked last week
at 1 Thessalonians 2 He talks in verse 17 about being
taken from you for a short time in presence but not in heart. He carried these believers in
his heart and he endeavoured them more abundantly to see your
face with great desire. He was anxious to see them. And
he would have come to them, verse 18, even I Paul, once and again,
but Satan hindered us. Then in verse 19 and 20 we have
these remarkable statements. For what is our hope or joy or
crown of rejoicing? And that's the question that's
laid before all of God's children, isn't it? What is your hope,
your joy, what is your crown of rejoicing? Now, he's talking
about that as the one who brought the Gospel as an apostle to these
people, and no doubt it is the heartfelt desire of all of God's
sent and empowered preachers of the Gospel, but also it's
the heart desire of all of God's children, isn't it? What is your
hope? What is your joy? What is your
crown of rejoicing? He goes on to say, are not even
you, ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming. It's remarkable how often the
apostle looks to the end. He doesn't look at what's happening
around him except in light of what's happening At the end,
isn't it, he says, we are troubled on every side in 2 Corinthians
4, 8. Troubled on every side. Everywhere he looked, he saw
trouble. When he looked inside himself,
he saw nothing but sin. When he looked around, he saw
these churches being harassed again and again. We're troubled
on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. persecuted but not forsaken,
cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." So death works
in us, but life in you. This is what's happened in these
Thessalonians, isn't it? They've actually had new birth,
they've had new life, new life from God. So I thought, seeing
it's hot and humid and a tiring sort of a day, I'll just look
briefly at those three things. What is your hope? What is my
hope? What is our joy? What is our
crown of rejoicing? And of course, as God's children,
we always have to bear in mind that that which we are of the
coming of the Lord Jesus is that which we will do forever. There is a day coming, isn't
it, where all of this world, everything we see with our mortal
eyes will be gone, and what we see now dimly with the eyes of
faith will be the only reality that ever matters. Hope. Of course all of these things,
needless to say, are descriptions of the Lord Jesus and descriptions
of the Lord Jesus in His work in the lives of His people. Paul says, for the hope of Israel
is bound in the chains when He's chained in Rome. So the Lord
Jesus is the hope of Israel and He's the Saviour thereof. And
without looking to the Lord Jesus, there is no real hope. Australia
has been overwhelmed by a sense of grief at the loss of this
young cricketer in this past week. And it's just remarkable
to sort of hear the outpouring of it when I only caught a glimpse
of the last part of the funeral service yesterday. But all of
those people there with tears in their eyes, they still had
hope, didn't they? The hope is, what's their hope
for that young man? He's playing cricket now, isn't
he? What's the hope for the person who loved fishing here? His hope
is that he's still fishing, isn't it? What's the hope for the young
person who loves riding motorbikes or doing other things or just
having beers with his mates? What's their hope? It's extraordinary,
isn't it? The false gospel has invaded
our world, hasn't it? God loves everyone, Jesus died
for everyone, and all is going to be right in the end. And that's
their hope, isn't it? That's the hope that people have,
isn't it? That they're actually, not only
is he playing cricket, but nearly all of them who play cricket
are going to be playing cricket with him in the short. Is that
right? Am I misunderstanding? I don't
want to make light of the fact that our nation is grieving.
I think it's a good thing that people are grieving over death. But I'm really troubled about
how that flood that was released upon the world by Satan pouring
out of his mouth a flood has flooded this world. Because those
feelings and those hopes that those people have are actually
founded in the Bible colleges and the denominations of this
land that we live in, aren't they? They're just being faithful,
in a sense, to the Gospel that they have heard. And that's their
hope, isn't it? And that's their joy, in a sense. In the midst of their tears,
their joy is that we're going to meet in the middle again,
I think Michael Clarke said. And the Chairman of Australian
Cricket talked about the fact that he's out there playing sweet
touch shots or something, anyway. So many people that we know and
so many people that we love have a hope that's built on nothing
more than the vain imaginations of men. And Satan's greatest
ploy in this world is what? What's his message to humanity? His number one message to humanity
all through time is peace. Peace. Peace. Everything will
be alright. Brothers and sisters, Paul keeps
looking to the coming of the Lord Jesus. He wants these Thessalonians
to have in mind that the Lord Jesus is coming back. In fact,
the false letters that were sent in his name probably played on
what was written in 1 Thessalonians and we read it. in 2 Thessalonians
that they'd actually written these letters that had disturbed
the Thessalonians and he wrote 2 Thessalonians to make clear
that the Lord Jesus is coming back, that the Lord Jesus' coming
is some time off and there are promises to be fulfilled. We
are 2,000 years closer to the fulfilment of those promises.
But real hope, real hope, real hope in the hope of Israel and
its Saviour is a hope that will go to the Day of Judgement, and
rather than being disappointed, we will say, why didn't we believe
how glorious He is? Isn't He amazing? He's more amazing
than we can possibly imagine Him to be. and the glory and
the joy and the crown of rejoicing for Paul and all of God's servants
is going to be that we will see the victory of the Lord Jesus
and we will see that great victory of our great Saviour, our great
Lord of hosts, the commander of the armies of heaven will
have triumphed. and your triumph in his believers. The pagan world which we're all
part of other than Cole. Cole can claim some Jewish heritage
I believe, the rest of us are pagans aren't we? How does Ephesians
describe us in 2.12? It says we were without God and
without hope in the world without God and without hope. And as
we know from what happened in Thessalonica, the Jews that thought
they had hope had to repent of the hope they had and leave that
Jewish religion. The Old Testament believers against
hope, but in hope they believed like Abraham. They saw his day
afar off and they were glad that there was hope in the end, that
the children of Christ, as Jeremiah 31, 17 says, they'll come to
His border, they'll come, they'll come, these prisoners of hope,
they will come and they'll be led there by the Lord Jesus and
they'll be triumphant. We have, our hope is an anchor
to the soul, Hebrews 6.19, an anchor to the soul. You see,
where's the anchor that was talked about at that funeral service
yesterday? Where is it? As far as you can find, the only
anchor is in the wisdom and the thoughts of vain men who reject
what God says in here. And that's what they do, isn't
it? It's just they thought, they think. we have, which hope we
have, we have God's children, we have as an anchor to the soul. And the idea is of course that
a boat is being buffeted around by the waves and moved by the
current, and just like our lives in this world, we are buffeted
and moved like Paul and these Thessalonian believers were and
the Hebrew believers, and yet there's a limit, isn't there?
There's a limit. There's a limit to how far you
can go. You can go 360 degrees around
the anchor, and you might go up and down a little bit at a
time, but you cannot go any further. There's a limit. And of course,
the anchor is only as secure as the rock upon which it is
founded, isn't it? So the anchor just set on sand
will drift along with enough wave and enough current. We have
as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast and where
is our anchor? Hebrews 6 says, which entereth
into that within the vial. Our anchor has gone into the
holy of holies in heaven. with His own blood, with the
names of all of His people written on His breastplate, with the
names of all of His people carried on His shoulder. That's where
our anchor is. Our anchor is not here. Our anchor
is in what the Lord Jesus has done, who He is and what He is
doing for His people. What a remarkable gospel we have
to declare. He went there 2,000 years ago
and he took all of his people there with him, and they're all
in there. Where are we now? We're seated
in heaven. This earth can toss us around
like a boat on the waves, but we have, says Hebrews 6, we have
an anchor. We're looking for the blessed
hope. We're looking for that hope that
brings blessing, but actually blessing means happiness. We're
looking for a happy hope. We're looking for a blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ. We have, says Romans 5, a hope
that does not disappoint. You see, Paul knew by the inspiration
of God, by the coming of the Gospel and the reception of the
Gospel, and by the impact of the Gospel in the lives of these
believers, he knew their election of God. And we went through some
weeks ago all of those evidences of that election of God. They
were anchored, weren't they? They were placed on a rock that
was higher than themselves. We have a hope, a hope that does
not disappoint. Why? Hope makes us not ashamed. We are buffeted like Paul and
like these believers. We will be tested, but the testing
is a growing activity in the hands of a sovereign God. We
also glory, glory in tribulations, also knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope,
and hope maketh not ashamed." Why? Romans 5.5, because the
love of God is shed abroad where? It's shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." That's the blessing
of the New Covenant, isn't it? It's the Holy Spirit taking up
residence, revealing the Lord Jesus. It's shed abroad. It means
it's poured out, poured out as blood was poured out. For when
we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. We have a hope, brothers and
sisters, we have a hope that will not make us ashamed, it
will not disappoint us. Millions have a hope. Millions, billions have had a
hope. and that hope has been so profoundly
disappointed. You read Matthew 7.21 and those
people who live morally righteous lives, held to doctrine generally
which was sound in so many ways and yet they come to God on that
Day of Judgement. They go through this life and
they get to that day and they say, look what we have done.
They call Him Lord and they call Him Lord again And they get there
and he says, I never knew you. I never knew you. They had a
hope. They had a hope that created
boldness. They had a hope that brought
all sorts of work and they had a hope that on that day, that
day brings them completely undone. What does Job say? He says, the
hope of the hypocrite shall be cut off And his trust shall be
as a spider's web. It looks as if it has some strength
in it. It will be as a spider's web.
That's how quickly and easily it will be broken. What Paul
talks about so often, isn't he? He talks about this Church which
is in God the Father, this Church which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Colossians, he says, it's
Christ in you is the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope
of glory. And there's a remarkable verse,
I'd like you to just turn over a page in your Bible to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, I'm right. One of those remarkable
verses that the more you ponder it I would imagine the more amazing
it becomes. He's praying for them. He's praying
always, verse 11, for you that our God would count you worthy
of this calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of His, all
the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power. And this is the result, isn't
it? That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified
in you, in you, and you In Him. One half of that equation is
probably fairly easy to understand. The second half of that equation
is absolutely astounding, isn't it? The name of our Lord Jesus
may be glorified in you, in you. Isn't that remarkable? What an
amazing thing it is that God has taken the chief of sinners
and a bunch of pagan idolaters and He's come to those people
and He's come in such a way that He's going to be glorified in
them and you in Him. Paul had a real hope. Paul had
a hope that was based on something that was finished. He had a hope
that was based on what was in heaven, kept in heaven, reserved. Paul is a man of joy. He says, he says, what is our hope or
joy? We've done Some studies in Nehemiah
just recently, there's a remarkable verse in that great celebration
they have in Nehemiah chapter 8 where they finally come and
there is the wall and there is the temple and all of this picturing
the Lord Jesus and His great victory. He's gathering His people
together, He's separating them, He's providing a sacrifice, a
place where they can meet with God. and on that day there is
weeping. There's only ever real weeping
because people have come to know the goodness of God. It's the Gospel that brings repentance. You can preach the terrors of
hell, until people are almost singed by the flames of hell. Hell makes no difference to them. It's the goodness of God that
leads to repentance. Real repentance is a repentance
that is brought in the hearts of God's people in light of the
Gospel and the glory of the Lord Jesus. The joy of the Lord is
your strength. You don't need to weep any longer.
You don't need to weep. This isn't a day for weeping,
Nehemiah says. This is a day for celebrating
joy. And how do they come to have
joy? In chapter 12, He says, for God
had made them rejoice with great joy. You know that verse probably
well in Habakkuk when he looks around and like so many of us,
and David in his dying days, he sees nothing around. He sees
nothing. He says, the fig trees shall
not blossom, there's neither fruit in the vines, nor labour
of the olives shall fail. The field shall yield no meat,
the flock shall be cut off from the fold, there shall be no herd
in the stalls. And what does the bucket say? It says, Yet I will rejoice in
the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. It's not about
the circumstances, it's about who you are sovereign over the
circumstances. There's a great picture of the
coming of the Lord Jesus and gathering his people to himself.
You can read about it in the first chapter of 1 Kings. And David brings that ark into
Jerusalem. And there is just the most amazing
rejoicing and joy. Paul wrote this gospel. He wrote this gospel of a sovereign
God and a successful saviour, and he calls it sound doctrine,
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God. The glorious
gospel of a God who for the joy set before him endured the cross
and spawned the shame of all of that. The glorious gospel,
it can be translated of a happy God. Do we think upon God as
a being who is troubled and struggling, or do we think upon God who is
someone who is joyful? The scriptures will have us know
how profoundly joyful He is. satisfied. This is another word
for it, isn't it? The Lord Jesus will see the travail
of His soul, or the Father will see the travail of His soul,
and He'll be satisfied. When we think of our God ruling
and reigning, we must think of Him being satisfied. When the first apostles in Luke
10 go out, and the Seventy go out, and they come back, and
even the demons submit to them, And the Lord Jesus says to him,
in that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, He says, I thank
you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden
these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them
unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in his sight. Good. Satisfied. You told them not to rejoice
that the demons submitted to them, but you rejoiced. You rejoiced
that your names were written in heaven. Come a little closer.
I'm rejoicing. As a farmer, I'm rejoicing over
the rain. An ex-farmer. I'm rejoicing. I think I'm right in saying,
I have to go and check my notes, but anyway, I think the first
sermon I ever spoke in our church all those years ago was from
Psalm 16, is that correct? There's some amazing verses in
Psalm 16. Let me read the whole, there's only a few verses here.
He says, Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. O my soul, thou hast said unto
the Lord, Thou art my Lord. My goodness, extendeth not unto
thee, and I can't go into explaining what that means, but it's saying
that God is perfectly satisfied. He always was, from eternity,
perfectly satisfied. He, in fellowship with his Son
and the Holy Spirit, was perfectly satisfied. Nothing that is being
done is going to add to his satisfaction. But then he says, but to the
saints on the earth, the saints that are in the earth, and to
the excellent. And what does he describe? How
does he describe them? Next verse, in whom is all my
delight. Isn't that remarkable? Five looks down at a little group
of believers in Thessalonica, pounded and harassed. Their apostle, driven from them. Those that could have taught
them, driven from them. There they are, this little group
left. Who's going to look after that little group? Who's going
to care for them? They're in the hands of a great
God. They're all His delight. They
don't think there's going to be one thing missing from their
activities. One thing missing that they will
need, they'll be perfectly careful. And those who hasten after other
gods, their sorrows will be multiplied. Their drink offerings of blood
will I not offer, nor will I take up their names into my lips.
The Lord is the portion of my inheritance in my cup. Thou maintainest
my lot." And then this is a lovely word, isn't it? The lines, the
boundary lines, it is. have fallen unto me in pleasant
places, and I have a goodly heritage, I have an inheritance, an inheritance
incorruptible, kept. I will bless the Lord who has
given me counsel, my reigns, also instruct me in the night
season. I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my
right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and
my glory rejoices. My flesh shall rest in hope. for thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer like Holy One to see corruption."
You see, it's a psalm about the Lord Jesus. It's quoted in the
New Testament. But it's also whatever is a description
of our Saviour is a description of His people who are one with
Him. Thou wilt show me the path of life and in Thy presence is
fullness of joy. In His presence is fullness of
joy, and at Thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. If that's where they all are,
they aren't anywhere else, brothers and sisters. So what Paul is
saying, that in this world there is one place where you can find
those things. You find them where the Lord
has gathered his people together. Paul says there is hope, there
is joy. I don't like quoting C.S. Lewis because he was so dodgy
in so many ways, but one thing he said that was right. He says,
joy is the serious business of heaven. They marched up to Jerusalem
and they went up there singing those songs of praise and they
talked about the joy that they had in the presence of God. The
joy that they will have when they meet Him. The Paul goes
on to say, he talks about this crown of rejoicing. Our crown of rejoicing. You are
our joy. Our crown of rejoicing. That which fills and adorns us
in our rejoicing is these Thessalonian believers. Why it was now his
season. I have stood firm. The gospel
has come. The Lord Jesus has come. come
into their hearts, captured their hearts and led them in His way. The great work of salvation,
this great work of our Lord Jesus, that joy that was set before
Him was in bringing many sons to glory. What was the joy that
was set before Him, and what a remarkable thing that He entrusts
that joy into the hands of people like us. Remarkable, isn't it? That God is so confident of the
sureness of His victory that He can leave it in the hands
of people like us, that He might get more glory for Himself. and he will say of his servants,
he said, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast
been faithful over a few things, and I will make you ruler over
many things. And what did he say to these
people? He said, Enter into the joy of the Lord. And Paul, as we've seen, looks
at these Thessalonican believers and holds them in his heart,
prays for them continually, and he's thanking God again and again. He thanks God for them. He thanks
God because of the remarkable encouragement it is. He thanks
God for them with joy. You can read about it in 1 Thessalonians
1, verse 2, and then in each chapter, 2, verse 13, and 3,
verse 9, In 5.18 he says, I just give
thanks in everything. I'm just going to be thankful. I'm thankful, but I'm thankful
especially for you Thessalonican believers. So they with joy,
as Isaiah says, they with joy, they draw water out of the wells
of salvation, fall through that water out of the wells of salvation,
and these people have come to drink at that fountain. There's a lot said about crowns.
We don't need to go into a whole lot of it now. Time won't permit,
but there are in the New Testament five crowns, aren't there, that
Paul and other writers speak of. There's an incorruptible
crown, which is the reward of perseverance in 1 Corinthians
9. There's the crown of life, which
is the reward of faithfulness in Revelation 2.10. There's the
crown of righteousness, the reward of those who love Christ at His
appearing. There's this crown of rejoicing
we have here, and then 1 Peter talks about a crown of glory. All of them are referenced. to
the Lord Jesus and this idea that somehow you by some diligence
are going to get some extra jewels in your crown and have it more
polished, that we might gaze upon you in heaven and think
how wonderful you are because of all your activities. is rubbish. It's just rubbish. We get to
heaven by grace. We get to heaven hidden in the
Lord Jesus. There is certainly going to be
rewards of punishment in hell, but in heaven all is by grace. We all sit round the throne,
all equidistant. You see what Paul says of this
crown of righteousness? in 2 Timothy 4, 6 and 8. He says it's a crown of righteousness. He says he's fought the good
fight, he's finished my course, I've kept the faith. Henceforth
it is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. There he is.
Paul will have his crown. which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me on that day." So Paul's going to get
a crown, and it's a crown that will be given to him by a righteous
judge. And then he says, to make sure
that people don't get it wrong, and don't carry on with the nonsense
that we hear so much of, not only to me, but unto all them
that also love his appearing. All of God's children love his
appearing. All of God's children are longing
for Him to return. They're longing for that day
when we will see Him as He is, because we will be like Him.
Great God. Paul is talking about a crown
of rejoicing. He's not saying that He's glorying
and rejoicing because He was the instrument of the conversion
of these people. He's saying, I glory and rejoice
in the salvation of God's elect because the salvation of His
elect sinners is the glory and joy of Christ. You see, Paul
found his hope. Paul found his joy. Paul found
his crown of rejoicing in the things that caused the Lord Jesus
to be glorified. in the things that the Lord Jesus
rejoices in. That's where he finds his joy,
in promises fulfilled, those amazing promises that the Lord
Jesus made as a prayer to his father in John chapter 17, and
we might finish with them there. He says, He says in John chapter 17, in
these last few verses, this amazing prayer. He says, and the glory
which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one even
as we are one. I in them and you in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and has loved them as thou hast loved me. He asks the Father. Our great
God and Saviour asks His Father. He says, I will that they also
whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am and that they may
behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou hast loved
Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the
world has not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these
have known that Thou hast sent Me. and I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." This is Paul's crown. This is where he
finds his joy. This is where he has his hope. And he sees it as the fruit of
the Gospel because he sees the work of the Lord Jesus in the
declaration of the Gospel and in the response to the Gospel. This is a hope. This is a hope
that's founded on God's promises. God's promises made yes and amen
in the Lord Jesus. Promises signed and sealed with
the blood of our great Saviour. Promises that will never disappoint. Hope that will never make us
ashamed. It only gets better, brothers
and sisters. Let's pray.