Route 66: 1 Thessalonians - Living as Citizens of Heaven in a Broken World

For those of you that are new or just coming in, we've been going book by book through the book of books, so one message for each book of the Bible.

We started way back in the book of Genesis and here we are, in 1 Thessalonians, and just want to make an announcement.

Through Mike Cernano's hard work in uploading these messages, we now have all of the sermons from Genesis up to today already up and available on our website or any of the major podcast portals that you might be a part of, so Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music or YouTube Music or Spotify or any of those.

If you go there and look for New Hyde Park Baptist Church, you'll find them.

You'll find not only the Sunday evening series that we're calling Route 66, you'll also discover some of the morning ones, and we're beginning to populate those as we go and hopefully, over the course of time, we'll have those not only available for all of us, but also out there.

So anybody who's looking to hear a message about the Word of God will be able to access it quite easily through some of these portals that they're already using for other purposes, as we're in 1 Thessalonians.

As I was thinking about this book over the past couple weeks I found myself considering again as I do very often, about what it means for believers to live faithfully in a world that is unraveling and we all, in all of our generations, think that we're on the very edge of uncertainty.

Every generation feels that way.

We feel like technological advances are going forward and that things are just spinning at a speed faster and faster and faster and kind of feel a bit out of control.

You can read some of the sermons of Spurgeon.

He talks about the great technological advances of his day as if it were some great thing that the world's finally discovered.

We look back in the 1800s and go what was that?

Well, the steam engine was huge and industrial revolution and some of the developments and changes that those things made were as earth shattering to that generation and the generations just earlier than that as what we're facing in our day.

It was something I did when we entered into the pandemic five years ago.

I took a deep dive into church history just to learn some lessons from experiences that believers had in the past in dealing with pandemics and pestilence.

And one of the things that I say to myself if there's anything that I'm going to experience that's absolutely new to me.

It's likely not new to someone, and so I can go to those people, wherever they might be, and learn how to respond to this.

That's new to me.

Well, early in the fifth century, as the Western Roman Empire was crumbling, romans were mourning what felt like the collapse of their world.

And it wasn't just secular Romans, it was also Christians in Rome also, and those who didn't know the Savior raised their voices quite strongly in that time that Christianity was to blame for destabilizing society.

They blamed Christians for rejecting the gods, and because the gods had been rejected by the Christians, therefore the gods were exhibiting their wrath upon society, and so the Christians were to blame for not being believers.

Well, in the midst of all of this, augustine challenged believers to see beyond the chaos that was around them in Rome and to not be shaken by the accusations that were thrown their way.

Augustine stepped in and he didn't get into the political discussions.

He brought theological clarity.

In one of his books and I think it's a landmark book of his, apart from Confessions the City of God.

He draws a contrast between two competing realities in the world.

And these two competing realities are still here the earthly city that's marked by pride and violence and is going to pass away, and the heavenly city that's built by God's love and that will endure forever.

And Augustine reminded believers in his generation, and anyone who's read the book since, not to give their ultimate allegiance to the city on earth, but rather to the city of God.

Not to find their allegiance in Rome, but to God's eternal kingdom.

And even though he was writing to people who were still walking the roads of Rome, he wanted them to help them understand that their home was not Rome anymore.

And that is the tension right there.

That's the tension that we feel in this world.

We plod the streets of well, new Hyde Park or wherever you might live, and yet we're also citizens of a different place and we feel the tension between these two cities.

The Thessalonians were feeling that as well.

They were new believers.

Paul had only been with them a very, very short time and had to leave the city.

They were awakened to a new life in Christ and they suddenly found themselves suspended between two worlds.

Also Very rapidly, they came to understand that they were citizens of a new creation, but they were also residents of a broken and fallen world.

One time they were at ease with all of that they walked in the rhythm of the disobedient age, belonging to the world's values without conflict.

But now they have a new allegiance.

Their names are now written in heaven.

They're part of the new creation.

They walked the same streets that they did before, but now they didn't, not as citizens of this city, but as foreigners of the world.

The Thessalonians believers were not told to remove themselves from their culture, but they were to be redefined within it, and their conversation and their conversion was not to create distance between themselves and their daily life that they lived before, but rather to live a distinct contrast of life among their friends and neighbors and family.

And so they continued to live in a world filled with persecution, filled with temptation, filled with false teaching and filled with suffering.

What kind of world do we live in?

A world filled with persecution, temptation, false teaching and suffering.

And so Paul, like a loving shepherd that he was, is writing to them with deep pastoral concern for them, in order to help them navigate life in the overlap of these two ages, to help them understand what the fading rules of darkness and how distinct their new life as part of the new creation is, and how to live in the middle of those two competing kingdoms.

And so Paul invites them, and he invites us, not to escape the world, but to be equipped in order to live in it, to look forward, to stand firm and to shine bright until the day Christ returns.

Well, how does Paul do that?

Well, the way he does that is he reminds the Thessalonians of who they are, and maybe, as early believers as they were, many of them would have heard this for the first time.

Perhaps Paul only had a few short weeks with them, but he wanted to give them an understanding of their identity so that they might be able to conduct themselves within the understanding of that identity in the world that they were in.

And this is what we need to do as well Now.

I spoke about identity a few weeks ago, when we were looking at the book of Ephesians, and Paul brings this argument to the front again because it's that important.

Even in popular culture today, we understand the value and the importance that an identity brings.

Three days ago, hulk Hogan died of cardiac arrest at the age of 71.

For decades, hulk Hogan was just a wrestler.

But he was not just a wrestler, was he?

He was a persona, he was a walking persona, and you can picture him in your mind right now, I'm sure Bleached mustache, red bandana and a larger than life charisma about him that he established as his brand.

A couple of days ago, I think it was in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine, read an article about him and said that even outside of the ring and outside of the arena, even in his own environment, he stayed in character and they said that made him a rather difficult person to live with.

So just imagine your biggest, boldest, brashest self being something that everybody in your family and your friends had to live with all the time.

So it made it rather difficult, but yesterday I was happy to discover that a pastor said a year ago Hulk Hogan came to Jesus Christ and was baptized in a part of the church.

There's a glorious, glorious testimony about that.

But Hulk Hogan understood something about identity and persona.

He understood that in order to be remembered, in order to be, he needed to be distinct, and so he came up with this persona and he lived within this public identity that he had crafted and he stayed within it unwaveringly and he reinforced it every chance he had.

Now, on a far different scale and I use this not as comparison but as contrast Paul is offering something profoundly different here Not just a projection of a persona, but an anchoring in real identity of who we are in Jesus Christ.

And these things are not for public acclaim or cultural longevity or for a paycheck.

These things are not for public acclaim or cultural longevity or for a paycheck.

These things are grounded in grace and they're forged by God's love and they're meant to root us in order to be able to endure this conflicting war between the old and new age that we live within.

So let's go through, thessalonians.

I'm not going to go from chapter 1 to chapter 5.

I'm going to bring us through these different themes of identity and help us root ourselves in our generation within them.

And the first is found in chapter 1,.

After all, our first identity is that we are chosen by God's love.

We are chosen by God's love.

We are chosen by God's love.

The Apostle Paul tells the Thessalonians in verse 4 of chapter 1, we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you.

So Paul here brings foundationally to them them in the midst of their difficulties something that is solid and that they can rest their lives upon.

They're chosen by God.

He opens with this assurance that their identity isn't built on popularity, is not built on comfort.

It's founded on God's divine love and election of them.

And this is the believer's starting point God's initiation by his love to secure their salvation, apart from their efforts, that God has chosen them.

And so, before Paul gets into discussions about how to behave in this culture that they're in, how to endure the hardships that they're facing, he wants to root them in this understanding of belonging belonging to God because God has chosen them.

All of it rests on God's initiative.

And so, whenever there are moments of uncertainty, knowing that they're chosen by God will tell them that they're not alone.

Whenever they're thinking about how brief their Christian life has been, they need to recognize that they're not defined by how many weeks or years that they've been a believer.

They're chosen by God.

And they also need to know that they're not defined by how many weeks or years that they've been a believer.

They're chosen by God.

And they also need to know that they're not shaped by the Thessalonian value system, the world that they were in, but by the grace of the one who's called them to life.

And so, whenever these circumstances are facing them and us, that might divert us, that might grab our attention might shrink our perspective.

We need to stay within the scope of this foundational point that God has chosen us, and Paul points to some very concrete ways that they might be assured that this has actually happened, and he reminds them of these anchor points.

Take a look at the following verses.

In verse 5, he says we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he's chosen you.

Why?

Because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power, in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance.

God moved and conquered their evil hearts.

God brought His Spirit to quicken them into new life Verse 9, which brought out a radical reorientation of themselves.

They turned away from dead idols to serve the living and true God.

They went from polytheist to monotheist in a heartbeat when God brought them to himself.

In verse 6, it tells us that they were able to face sufferings with joy, sufferings with joy.

You yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.

Whatever the peer pressure was for them to reject the message of the apostles, the Spirit of God was active, so much so that, despite what people said in derision, with joy they received the message of Christ Verse 7 and 8,.

Their gospel witness spread abroad and beyond their city.

As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia, for the word of the Lord rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out.

But in every place that your faith in God has gone out.

And then another demonstration of their being saved and chosen by God and his love is found in verse 10.

To wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath, paul wanted them to understand that all of these things in verses 5 to 10, didn't flow out of the fruit of self-effort.

It was found in the fountain spring of God's loving choice of them.

And so Paul here wants to tell the Thessalonians.

And so Paul here wants to tell the Thessalonians, just like he wants to tell us.

Whenever grief weighs heavy upon our hearts, whenever the world rejects our witness, whenever we get shaky in our identity and it becomes unclear because of the voices that are ringing in our ears, whether we're facing that rejection or that loss or that crisis.

Our identity is not self-made like Hulk Hogan's was.

Our identity is shaped by God's loving choice of us, and when we grasp that and we see afresh how that word is working in our life, our souls will be steadied and our grace will be fueled by obedience as we'll see in a moment and God's initiating love will be an anchor for us not an argument, but an anchor.

And that brings us to a second identity.

Not only are we chosen by God, but we're also children of light.

Children of light.

I'd like you to turn to the last chapter of Thessalonians 1 Thessalonians 5, because Paul brings in this second identity.

Not only we're chosen by God's love, but we're also children of light.

We're chosen by God's love, but we're also children of light.

And he wants to remind us that we are not shaped by things that we could fear, or things that we are fighting, or we're not even shaped by the things that we fail at, but we're shaped by what God has done and how he has made us.

And so in 1 Thessalonians 5, he tells us this 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 5, he tells us this For you are all children of light and children of the day.

1 Thessalonians 5:5

We do not belong to the night or the darkness.

Paul here is anchoring us in something that we're not only longing for the coming day, we have been claimed by the coming day that that future kingdom that's ahead is already here.

We haven't seen the full realization of it yet, but its existence is already here.

We have been made children of this kingdom.

Take a look at verse 8.

Since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love and a helmet of the hope of salvation.

For the Thessalonians, like many of us, darkness was once familiar, but now they are children of a kingdom of light and everything is being reoriented.

And Paul doesn't use this light imagery just for simple decoration.

He's using it because it truly is transformational and he's calling us away from spiritual passivity into spiritual activity and a vigilance of life, because his intention for us is to see as children of light.

We're children of truth and we're children of holiness because of that, and so Paul lays this out in real terms.

And again, follow the logic of Paul as he expresses this in chapter 5.

Being children of light develops within us clarity and conviction and hope.

In verse 6, we stay awake and alert, not sleepwalking through life, but alert to the spiritual realities.

Let us not sleep like the rest.

Let us stay awake and be self-controlled.

In verse 7 and 8, he reminds us to be sober-minded, not dulled by distraction or indulgence, but to live distinctly from the surrounding culture.

Since we belong to the day, let's be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love and helmet of the hope of salvation.

And there we wear the armor of faith and hope and love, because the grace is going to prepare us for the battle of obedience Again, identity flowing into daily life.

If you want a good example of that, you can go to chapter four.

I'm not going to spend time tonight to talk about it.

But Paul brings up a perfect example of our sanctification when he talks about our sexual purity in this world.

That it's not burdensome or restrictive, or God is just trying to rain down negativity upon your happy parade of sexual indulgence, but rather that our bodies, our relationships and our choices all speak about the new life that we have been given and the dignity of human creation that we live in honor of who God is as creator and who we are as designed by him.

And so any of those of us who might reject that we're not rejecting the commands of men but, as chapter four and verse eight says, the very spirit of God.

Paul tells us that being children of light means we're also children of that truthful holiness in how we conduct ourselves in this world.

This identity is not abstract.

It reaches into our schedules, it reaches into our relationships, it reaches into our thought life, it reaches into our habits, because we're children of this new age that's going to unfold.

And so he calls us to reject the compromise of whispers in the dark but to live visibly and honorably and faithfully as the kind of children that we are.

That leads us to a third identity that Paul lays out here in this book Not only are we chosen in God's love and children of light, but, third, we're a redeemed family.

A redeemed family that we are loved and known and growing together in grace.

And Paul here is reminding these Thessalonians that they will never walk their Christian life alone, nor should they, that they were meant to walk together as a people and God was calling them together in communion with one another.

Five chapters, 20 times.

Does Paul use the phrase brothers and sisters Twenty times?

That's four times a chapter.

Do you think he's trying to make a point about who we are and our identity, brothers and sisters.

Brothers and sisters, multiply it by ten more times and you have the number of times.

Paul says it in 15 minutes worth of reading.

But there's more than that.

Go to chapter 2 of 1, thessalonians.

Here Paul, in defending his apostolic office and position and ministry, couches it within a relational setting that he was with the Thessalonian people, with gentleness, that he was personal, that he was affectionate, and his metaphors speak volumes about how he thought of himself and how he thought of others.

Chapter 2 and verse 7.

Although we could have been a burden as Christ's apostles, instead we were gentle among you.

How, like a nursing mother nurtures her own children A family context, verse 9.

For you, remember our labor and hardship, brothers and sisters, working night and day so that we would not burden any of you.

We preach God's gospel to you A sacrificial family member who's taking on the burden for the benefit of others.

Verses 11 and 12.

Verses 11 and 12.

As you know, like a father with his own children, we encouraged and comforted and implored each of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

And then verse 17.

But as for us, brothers and sisters.

After we were forced to leave you for a short time in person, but not in heart, we greatly desired and made every effort to return to see you face to face.

All throughout this chapter, family images mother and father and brother and friend.

In every way he tries to bring us into this understanding, through these metaphors, that we're to think of one another in a family context.

He talks about it in detail here in chapter two.

He talks about the mutual suffering that we endure, in verses 14 to 16.

He said you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God's churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, since you've also suffered the same things from people of your own country, just as they did from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus.

A family context even though we're dealing with our problems, we recognize there's brothers and sisters who are dealing with difficulties also in the place that they are.

In chapter 4 and verse 18 and 511, he calls the believers to give mutual encouragement to one another, encourage one another with this truth, with this truth.

And so here he is.

He's telling us that being family means that we speak truth to one another, we bear one another's burdens together, we serve sacrificially and we grow side by side.

This is something we need to understand, because there are a lot of voices out there that are treating the church like it's a business or a corporation, that are dealing with it with a completely different metaphor, which is meaning that they're driving the life of the church in a way that's actually contrary to the context and dimensions and images that God intends.

And so, when we think about Paul's family-oriented perspective, this identity that we have not only chosen by God's love and children of light, but as brothers and sisters in a family together, may it help us to deepen our love for the church, because we are the family of God together, that Paul's tenderness as a loving mother and father might shape how the leadership of our church interacts with the body of Christ.

And may we deepen our love for one another, like the Thessalonians did when Paul would say to them you don't need me to tell you to love one another, because you're already taught by God to do so.

This leads us to a fourth identity that we're an expectant people anchored in the promise of Christ's return.

Expectant people anchored in the promise of Christ's return, chosen in his love, children of light, a family of God, but also an expectant people who are anchored in the promise of Christ's return.

In chapter 4, the Thessalonians had a lot of questions, a lot of questions about life and death and the coming of the Lord, and Paul wanted them to know that they should be comforted in this realization that the day was going to come when, whether they died sooner than their family or their family died before they did, that, if they all died in Christ, they would one day all be with them, together in the presence of God.

And so their comfort would come not from avoiding sorrow, because in this world we never will, but our comfort comes in the realization of the resurrection and the return of Christ.

So Paul tells us, because of that, yes, we feel the ache of separation from our loved ones and we sorrow, but we sorrow in a different way, a different way than those who have no hope.

So verse 14 of chapter four, he says that we, as expectant people, anchor ourselves in this truth.

We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and in the same way, through Jesus, god will bring with him those who have fallen asleep, and the day will come when those who are alive at the return of Christ will join them, and together we'll meet the Lord.

And in verse 18, he says this is meant to be a great encouragement to one another.

He said the day will come like a thief in the night, suddenly, unexpectedly, but it won't surprise us, because we've already fitted ourselves for eternity, we've already put our hearts there.

And so this hope is not passive, it's not withdrawing, it's not hiding in a castle.

It's active hope, it's a steadying confidence, it's looking death in the face and recognizing that it's already defeated through the resurrection of christ.

It's a recognition that our death too will be lost in the victory of god in this new kingdom.

And so, whatever we go through, whether it's confusing times, our loss of family, our hardship in this world, we're not detached from God's love, but anchored in it, and we're not forgotten.

We're not wandering aimlessly, we're not defined by today's pains, we're marked by tomorrow's glory.

So when grief comes, it'll go, and the resurrection will be certain.

The suffering, yes, it may linger, but the eternal joy is approaching and it will never be mitigated.

Cyprian of Carthage wrote to his church in the middle of the third century when a plague swept through the Roman Empire.

It was a time of widespread panic and fear, and a lot of people fled the cities.

You can imagine deconstructing a city by everybody vacating it and some just staying behind to try to sweep up the pieces of all the holes that were there At its height.

These mostly pagans fled, left behind even their loved ones to fend for themselves.

And so Cyprian of Carthage wrote a short little treatise called De Mortalitate, and this is what he said in it, no-transcript.

And so he encouraged the believers to stay in the city instead of retreating, to tend to the sick, to bury the dead and to walk as long as they could in this world, with embodying the hope that the resurrection brings, and they did.

Direction brings, and they did.

And like Cyprian's church, we are people in the midst of a world that's full of anxieties, and our witness will not be measured by our ability to pinpoint and predict the day when the Lord will return, but whether our life demonstrates the realization that it is happening.

And so we comfort, we endure and we love, because, no matter what happens, we will always be with Him.

And that leads us to our last identity that we are not only chosen by God's love and children of light.

We're also brothers and sisters, a glorious family of the church and a people living in expectancy of the return of Christ, but we're also a band marching in step with harmonious motion, driven by a gospel life.

Let's go to the end of chapter five.

The end of chapter five.

As Paul closes his letter, the tempo of the letter just speeds up and rapidly shifts.

And after all this depth of encouragement and theology, he gives this rapid fire succession of exhortations, almost like the beats of a drum, and this band marching to this rapid step and tempo.

And it's not random or even rushed.

It's rhythmic and purposeful and collective.

But it does give us this rapid fire succession.

Take a look at verse 12.

Fire succession Take a look at verse 12.

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you and regard them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves.

We exhort you, brothers and sisters warn those who are idle, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

See to it that no one repays evil for evil to anyone.

Always pursue what is good for one another and for all.

Rejoice, always, pray, constantly, give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you.

In Christ Jesus, don't stifle the Spirit, don't despise prophecies, test all things, hold on to what is good, stay away from every kind of evil.

How many commands are wrapped up in those few verses?

Right Together, as a band, marching in step, respecting leaders, pursuing peace, admonishing, encouraging, helping and always being patient with everyone, rejoicing, always praying, constantly giving.

These aren't isolated commands.

This is gospel rhythm, in step, as a band, marching forward.

And in verse 24, he ends with a great deal of encouragement he who called you is faithful, he will do it.

What uncertainties are you dealing with?

What challenges are you facing?

What hardships are coming your way?

What opposition is being pushed against you?

What seducing spirits are crying in your ear?

Faithful is he who called you.

He will do it.

These are the final words of a loving apostle trying to shape new believers and how to conduct themselves as people of a new kingdom in the middle of one that was all too familiar to them just a few weeks before.

And that identity will drive their obedience, step by step, until they come into the presence of God, and it can do the exact same for us.

So my encouragement for all of us is to spend some time here and just sort of letting these markers of identity just move more deeply and more fully into our hearts and then to understand how they get expressed in the way we live our lives.

Let's pray, father.

We thank you that we were chosen by your love, a choice of us that was activated by the work of your Spirit to awaken us into a new kind of life, to turn from dead idols to serve the living and true God, to be awakened to new loves, to receive the gospel even in the midst of trouble, that we're children of light and therefore we live in ways that are sober, in ways that are controlled, that are not given to the passing passions of this world.

We thank you that we're members of your redeemed family and to care for each other in that kind of family way.

We thank you that we're marked by an expectancy that fills our hearts with hope, even when we have to bury our loved ones.

And we thank you that we can march in step with one another in the ways that you called us to live out the rhythm of Christian life in day-to-day activity.

And here we are, lord.

We live in the tension of these two comings the crucified and risen Christ, broken the power of darkness, and a returning King who's going to bring everything to complete renewal.

As we live in the midst of this, we pray that you'd help us to have our hearts anchored in hope, to be active in holiness and to be assured, in the middle of suffering, to be faithful, to walk as citizens of the city of God, while our feet continue to plod the streets of New York City and Long Island.

So, lord, watch over us.

We pray and cement in us an understanding of who we are and whose we are, and we pray this in Christ's name, amen.