1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse
13 and we'll read through to verse 16. So the Apostle Paul is writing
to the church of the Thessalonians and he says, for this cause also
thank we God without ceasing. Because when ye received the
word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the
word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe. For ye, brethren,
became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in
Christ Jesus. For ye also have suffered like
things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews,
who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have
persecuted us. And they please not God, and
are contrary to all men. forbidding us to speak to the
Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always,
for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. There are several beautiful patterns
described in these few verses that we have before us today. Patterns that the Apostle Paul
discerned and mentions in connection with God's working in the gospel
amongst the Thessalonians. Patterns in the apostle's own
reaction to the gospel that are good for us to note and to replicate. Patterns for the way that the
gospel is to be preached. Patterns in the way it will be
received. and patterns that repeat in the
world's reaction to it. Let me show you what I mean by
that. One of the first things that
the Apostle Paul shows us here in these verses is his pattern
of gratitude. The first thing we note is Paul's
thanksgiving for the Lord's successful application of the Gospel. He gives thanks to the Lord for
the success of the Gospel ministry. The apostle gives thanks to God
for the effectual call of the gospel by the Holy Spirit in
the lives of the Thessalonians, just as he had previously in
chapter one thanked God, God the Father, for the evident election
of the Thessalonians. So here we see Paul's pattern
of gratitude. He doesn't thank the Thessalonians,
he thanks God. He thanked God for their election
and now he thanks the Lord for the effectual working of the
gospel amongst them. Why would anyone thank God? a believer for believing. That would be an absurd thing
to do. And even people who preach free
will don't thank the believer for believing. Although I'm not
altogether sure why they don't because it's the logical outcome
of their system. Obviously, it's not the lost
sheep that gets the honour and praise for being found and delivered,
but the good shepherd who goes forth to find the sheep that
was lost. And that's what Paul is telling
us here. Paul thanks the Lord for the
quickening word. The word of God, he says, which
effectually worketh in you that believe. And here the apostle
showed the Thessalonians the proper priority in gospel preaching,
that is to trace the effectual cause back to the goodness and
grace of God, to the love of God for his people, as he should
indeed. and thereby he instilled in the
understanding of the Thessalonians and he instills in the understanding
of all who read his words hereafter that it is by the grace of God
that we are what we are. There should be a constant sense
of the favour and the grace of God in believers that prompts
due gratitude, thankfulness and praise for what he has done in
our lives. Paul says he thanks God without
ceasing because that is to be our constant and general appreciation
of the case that it is God's goodness that makes us what we
are. And for us too, it's appropriate
that we should be thankful, both for one another and the Lord's
work in each of our lives and for his work in our own life. Not that we were wise enough
or smart enough to respond properly to the gospel, but rather, as
Paul tells Timothy, that God has saved us and called us with
an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. And we've learned, I think, that
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And here, Paul
very suitably calls the gospel the word of God, because God
is the author of the gospel. It comes from his. It's his gospel. It's the gospel of God. It bears
his authority. flows by his inspiration. It comes according to his purpose,
in power, and with the powerful effect. That's why we use the
word effectual. That's what that word means.
With the powerful effect of accomplishing his purpose. And it's His grace
that is seen in choosing and justifying and pardoning and
adopting and redeeming and regenerating and converting sinners to everlasting
life. So that preaching the word of
God is what we would call evangelical preaching. It is preaching what
is in the evangel, what is in the scriptures. Preaching and
declaring the accomplishments of Christ on the cross for the
saving of sinners according to the will and purpose and pleasure
of God. and it is elsewhere called the
gospel according to the scriptures by which God's elect people are
called both externally through the preaching of the gospel and
internally by the Holy Spirit being saved and cleansed and
healed and brought to experience forgiveness of sin and new life
in Christ. So this is what Paul speaks of
as the gratitude, and it's what I'm suggesting he is showing
us as the pattern of gratitude. He thanked God for election,
and now he thanks God for effectual calling. And that leads us on
to the next pattern that we can see here in Paul's words. He's
talking about a pattern of preaching. Paul tells the Thessalonians,
and he tells us as he tells them, that his entrance to them, or
his coming to them, his ministry among them, was not in vain because
God's grace effectually worked amongst them. And yet Paul tells
us about his own ministry, the characteristics of his ministry. And he speaks about his entrance
amongst them as being honest and humble and honouring to God
at all times, as becomes one entrusted with the gospel. We made reference to that last
week. Paul preached the truth truthfully and he gave us a pattern
in preaching that is to be followed and emulated by all would-be
gospel preachers. The gospel isn't about modern
days. It's not about innovation. It
isn't about sensationalism or entertainment. It isn't about
music or celebrity or drama. It's not to be amended. It's
not to be exaggerated. It's got not to be minimized.
It's not to be improved upon. The Gospel is the honest, straightforward
declaration of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross. The efficacy
of his blood to cleanse and the grace of God in our personal
and particular salvation. And we've not to seek a preacher
who is sensational in his delivery. but one who is honest with the
gospel with which he has been entrusted. And this was Paul's
pattern for preaching. So he's given us a pattern for
our gratitude and he gives us a pattern for our preaching.
And then he tells us something about the pattern of true faith. The apostle told the Romans in
Romans chapter 10 verse 17, so then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. And Paul knew that preaching
was God's ordinary means of conversion. And he declared, I am not ashamed
of the gospel of God. And here, in this letter to the
Thessalonians, moving as he was into Europe and encountering
the strong opposition he did against the gospel that he was
preaching, it did not alter Paul's opinion of the power of the gospel. Actually, it reinforced the pattern
of faith that he had seen elsewhere. which was hearing, believing
and suffering as a result. And these are patterns or stages
in the experience of grace for the Lord's people everywhere.
The Thessalonians, he calls them his brethren or his brothers
and sisters in the family of God. And he says of them, they
became followers of the churches of God, which is in Judea. Let me read that again. They
became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in
Christ Jesus. For ye also, he says, have suffered
like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews. So here was a pattern repeating
itself again in the experience of faith and conversion amongst
the Thessalonians which the Apostle Paul discerned and he writes
down for us here in this passage. And I think that the reference
that the Apostle makes here to brethren his brethren amongst
the Thessalonians is significant because by it the Apostle is
identifying, he is showing that he is happy to identify with
these Gentile believers in a way that the Jews never would. And he's about to make a point
in that respect and we'll touch upon that in a moment. But first,
I just want to point out that Paul discerned that pattern in
the lives of these Thessalonians, these saints, after they had
the gospel preached amongst them. They believed it by the effectual
converting power of the Holy Spirit, and their faith brought
suffering at the hands of this present evil world. As surely
as night follows day, the gospel of sovereign grace will be opposed
by the religious people of every age. It was so in Jerusalem,
it was so in Judea, it was so in Antioch, it was so in Philippi,
and now it is so in Thessalonica. Everywhere Paul preached, The
Jews were stirred up. The local people were stirred
up. They caused a riot. They assaulted the preachers
as they did in Thessalonica in Acts chapter 17. They stormed
the house of Jason and dragged him before the town council. And so this is the pattern. The gospel doesn't bring ease
and comfort. but trouble and conflict. And
this takes us to our final pattern, our fourth pattern. Paul represents
this as a pattern of persecution. Such was the hatred of the religious
Jews for the gospel that they endeavoured to prevent it being
preached, both to Jew and Gentile alike. And I think that's very
interesting. Why, for example, we might ask,
if the Jews were so confident that Christ was merely a man
and not God, if the Jews were so sure that he needed to be
slain for blasphemy, having said the things that he did, if they
were right to have slain him, why were they so anxious to suppress
his message and kill his followers? If Christ were not God and were
not come back to life, then why bother about pursuing and persecuting
the deluded people that followed him? Of course, the truth is that
it wasn't simply the Jews or even the Jewish religion but
it's Satan and all false religion that hates and persecutes the
true gospel of grace. And I know that many of you here
today have encountered this. Nowadays, and it probably hasn't
changed much, nowadays people in churches can pretty much believe
whatever they like concerning whatever they like. But if they
preach free grace, if they speak about election, if they speak
about effectual calling and limited atonement, then you will be out
on your ear pretty quick. Or they will shut down whatever
means is available for you to communicate your understanding. There is a pattern to persecution
for the gospel's sake. as well as a pattern of suffering
amongst believers. I mentioned a moment or two ago
about the fact that Paul called these folk brethren and here
he tells us how the Jews in verse 15 and 16, please not God and
are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that
they might be saved. Not only did the Jews not believe,
but they forbade anyone speaking to the Gentiles about the gospel. Such was the prejudice, the bigotry,
the elitism of the Jews in their wrong view of being the chosen
nation, the chosen people, that they would not even allow that
a religion they hated and believed to be false be preached to the
Gentiles. And yet Paul calls these Gentile
believers his brethren and he shows that we are all united
in Christ to all and any who believe the gospel and receive
the truth. The wrath of God and the destruction
of Jerusalem was about to fall on the Jewish nation to the uttermost. And that's perhaps the reference
that the Apostle is making here. Just as we've been thinking about
Isaiah prophesying about this judgment that would come in the
last days. Well, now it had arrived, a new
dawn had broken. From now on, the Gentiles would
be called in their numbers and led from all nations into the
kingdom of Christ. But let us remember the pattern. Man-made religion will always
persecute free grace. Cain will always persecute Abel. Ishmael will always persecute
Isaac. Esau will always hate Jacob. The Jews killed Christ and Satan
will always oppose the children of light. There's a pattern in
persecution which is why we learn to lean upon the Lord Jesus Christ
for our protection and security. So let's remember that these
very patterns that the Apostle Paul highlights to the Thessalonians
are an evidence and a confirmation of the true gospel. Christ said,
if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. But
our peace is in Christ. Bless them that persecute you,
says the Apostle in Romans 12 verse 14. Bless and curse not. May the Lord take his blessing
or give blessing to these thoughts today. Amen.