The Work Of The Word Against Unbelievers

1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we are returning to the paragraph that we began last Sunday.

1 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

We'll finish it today.

And so let's read the whole paragraph together, though most of our focus is going to be on

verses 15 and 16.

Let's read the entire paragraph, beginning at verse 13.

1 Thessalonians chapter 2, 13 to 16.

1 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which

you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but as what it really is,

the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God and Christ Jesus that are in Judea.

For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who

killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased God and oppose

all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved.

So as or with the result that they are always to fill up the measure of their sins.

Wrath has come upon them at last.

Well, as we said last week, there's two groups of people that are presented to us in this text.

Both groups of people share an immense privilege that many people actually do not experience

in their lifetime.

And it's this, everyone to which and about which Paul was writing in 1 Thessalonians had

at some point received the word of God.

They'd received the word of God.

And in the context of the passage that we just read, received refers to hearing a particular

message.

And that message, what he calls the word of God, is the good news of salvation through Jesus

Christ as it is revealed to us in the scriptures.

We call it the gospel, right?

So everybody to which he's writing and about which he's writing has received this message,

this gospel message from the word of God.

However, not everyone who receives the gospel, who receives the word of God, responds in the

same way.

As we discovered in our study of verse 13, some people, like the Christians in Thessalonica,

upon receiving the gospel of Jesus, accept it as Paul's word.

If you'll just set your eyes on verse 13 again.

When you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it.

So this is in direct reference to the Christians in Thessalonica.

They accepted it.

That is, they welcomed it.

They believed it.

And so Paul offers his thanksgiving to God for this because he recognized that the conversion

of the Thessalonian believers ultimately was the result of God's work in them through the

preaching of the gospel message.

That's what he says, isn't it?

That you had accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of

God, the gospel, which is at work in you.

And we said that this work of God through the word of God continues in each believer so that

their faith that is established at their conversion then continues and perseveres even in the face

of serious suffering.

So in verses 13 and 14, we find that the word of God works.

It is at work to save sinners and to strengthen saints.

That was all last Sunday.

But there's another group that's represented and described in these verses as well.

Well, those who accept the gospel are represented in the text by the Thessalonian Christians.

Those who reject the gospel are portrayed here in these verses by the unbelieving Jews who

persecuted them.

That's the focus.

The end of verse 14 all the way to the end of the paragraph.

Just look at it with me once again.

He says at the end of verse 14, you became imitators of the churches of God and Christ Jesus

that are in Judea for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did

from the Jews.

Countrymen here in this case is directly correlating to Jews.

So that while the Thessalonian Christians certainly endured suffering at the hands of unbelieving

Gentiles, the opposition against them was initiated, it was instigated, and it was continued by the

Jews in their city in particular.

And in this way, their experience and their perseverance imitated the Lord Jesus.

It imitated the prophets.

It imitated Paul and his team.

And of course, it imitated the other congregations in Judea.

Now, let me just show you from Acts 17.

Once again, that's Luke's record of the beginnings of the church in Thessalonica.

In Acts 17, verse 5, and then again in verse 13, it tells us this,

Acts 17:5

but the Jews were jealous and taking some wicked men of the rabble.

They formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason,

seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

And then a little bit later in verse 13, it says,

But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also,

they came there too, agitating, stirring up the crowds there.

So Paul doesn't write to the Thessalonians, and he doesn't mean to say that all Christian persecution,

that every hardship that they faced came at the hands of the Jews.

He's just referencing in the beginnings of the church the historical reality of the fact

that what they were experiencing in their suffering was started and continued,

at least up to this point, specifically by unbelieving Jews,

who in Acts 17 were said to have been jealous over the conversion of some of the Thessalonican people.

And some people have looked at passages like this,

and they have used them to try to accuse Paul of being anti-Semitic.

But that's a weak argument when you really begin to understand what he means here,

and then of course, some of his other writings.

He wasn't putting the blame of all Christian persecution on the shoulders of the Jews.

He was using their historic involvement in such things as an example of those

who after hearing and receiving the Word of God even repeatedly,

continue to reject it, sometimes even vehemently, violently.

Their rejection of the gospel, their harm toward God's people,

led to greater and greater sin.

And Paul gives us an illustration here,

like a glass being continually filled with water.

Their rejection of God's Word eventually spills over.

And what does it spill over into?

The wrath of God.

So the Word of God that works to save sinners and strengthen saints in verses 13 and 14,

we're told in verses 15 and 16 is the same Word of God that works to condemn rebels.

They will ultimately be held accountable to God for their rejection of His Word.

So in contrast to the Thessalonians who accepted the gospel are the Jews who rejected it.

Now do you understand what I'm getting at there?

Why is it that Paul is writing this?

Why is he focused so much on the Jewish involvement in this persecution?

Well, one, because that was the reality of the persecution.

He's just being honest about what was happening.

There's more to it than that.

This is a picture here.

On one hand, we have those who receive the gospel and accept it.

They believe it.

They welcome it.

That's the Gentile believers there in Thessalonica.

But then on the other hand, we have those who receive the gospel.

They hear the Word of God preached over and over and over and over and over and over.

They reject it.

They're filling up their sins.

It's going to spill over eventually into wrath.

Paul is describing for us two groups of people.

Those who accept.

Those who reject.

And the fact of the matter is that each of us shares in the same exact privilege as they did.

So as we come to this text again for the second week in a row, the overarching question is very simple.

To which group do you belong?

We already know that you share in the privilege.

You've heard the gospel.

Most of us have heard it probably hundreds, maybe thousands of times in our lifetime.

You've heard the gospel.

Now what are you going to do with it?

Will you accept it?

You believe it.

You welcome it.

Or will you reject it?

Turn away from it.

And what I want to do this morning is actually quite simple with the end of this paragraph.

I just want to look at the scriptures to show the pattern and the result of hearing the gospel and yet continuing to reject it.

And then at the end I just want to draw three simple but important applications.

Okay?

You're going to look specifically at the pattern of the scripture with the Jews in particular.

Of hearing the gospel and rejecting it again and again.

What the result of that is.

And then at the very end we'll come back and we'll just make three simple and essential applications about it.

Okay?

So let's think about the word condemns the rebel.

The word condemns the rebel.

Look with me again at verses 15 and 16.

The Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved.

So as always to fill up the measure of their sins.

That's that illustration.

And when it spills over what is it?

The wrath of God has come upon them.

The wrath of God has come upon them.

The progression of Paul's argument is simple enough to see.

First he recounts a series of hateful responses by unbelieving Jews beginning with Jesus' crucifixion.

He could have gone earlier than that.

Jesus goes earlier than that.

And we'll get to that in just a moment.

But in the case of this text Paul goes as far back as Jesus.

And he says they killed the Lord Jesus.

The crucifixion of Jesus.

And then he continues through a series of hateful violent responses to the gospel message and to God's people.

That culminates in this context in Thessalonica.

Leading all the way up to what they were experiencing even then.

That's the first thing he does in verse 15.

And then after he illustrates those incidents as I said as a glass being filled up.

You know what's the illustration about?

It's about anticipation.

I should have brought a pitcher of water and a glass with me this morning.

If you were to just slowly begin pouring water and glass or if you're ever watching your waiter refill your drink at the table and they get distracted while they're pouring your drink.

And you're just anticipating that any moment now is going to get to the top and it's going to spill over.

That's the point of the illustration.

That they are filling up in their rejection of the gospel.

In their sin.

They are filling up like a pitcher that's just pouring water in a glass.

It's getting fuller and fuller and fuller and fuller and eventually what's going to happen, the final thing, is it's going to spill over.

So he declares that the filling up of Israel's sins results in the pouring out of God's wrath against them.

And that final statement there in verse 16 when he says that God's wrath has come upon them at last.

It's a bit tricky, isn't it?

Until you remember that Paul is speaking prophetically.

There's a type of statement that can be unveiled in the original languages here.

We would call it a prophetic perfect, which essentially means Paul's speaking prophetically here.

Essentially what he means here is that the condemnation of the Jews as a people, right, for the rejection of the Messiah has already been inaugurated.

And it is going to be fulfilled ultimately at the final judgment.

That's what he means when he says the wrath has come upon them at last.

It's been inaugurated now as the gospel is going throughout the world.

God has turned his focus away from Israel and he's focused now on the world and the salvation of the world.

And this judgment from God will be made final.

It will come to its completion at the return of Christ.

So when Paul says this at the end of the passage, what he means is it's been inaugurated, but it's certain.

There's no question they will be condemned for their rejection.

So Israel in this illustration receives the word,

rejects the word,

and is ultimately judged by God according to the word that they have rejected.

Okay, you follow me?

With me.

That's the flow of argument here in verses 15 and 16.

Now let's think about the scandal of it.

The scandal of Israel's rejection of the gospel is magnified by the fact

that no group in history, in the history of humanity,

no group was more privileged and prepared to rejoice in God's Messiah than Israel.

Nobody was better prepared for it.

Nobody was more privileged to be ready for it, to receive it, to accept it than they were.

It was Israel that God called out to be the people through which he would display his glory in the fallen world,

beginning with Abraham and continuing on through the patriarchs to David and ultimately to Jesus.

It was to Israel that God gave his law and his very presence.

It was Israel that God preserved as a people over and over and over in spite of their sin and rebellion.

And supremely it was to Israel that God gave his very son, the Messiah, the Christ,

the serpent crusher from Genesis 3, 15,

the perfect lamb, spotless lamb pictured for Israel in the sacrifices that they would make at the temple

and the tabernacle all throughout their history.

The one that the prophets continually preached to them was coming,

all the promises, the covenants, everything God had promised.

He was sending this Messiah to and through Israel

in order that he might bring salvation to the world.

And yet despite this immense privilege on the whole as a group,

they routinely rejected God,

rejected his covenants,

and ultimately rejected his Messiah.

Isn't that what John means in John chapter 1 in that great prologue?

John 1 · chapter mention

What is it that he says?

He came into his own,

his own in the Jews.

He came to his own,

and his own did not receive him.

They would not receive him.

Now, I want to read just a few verses from Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

They're on the screen for you.

Notice what Paul says about it here.

And this is another thing that works against this claim that Paul was anti-Semitic.

He says,

I'm speaking the truth in Christ.

I'm not lying.

My conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit

that I have great sorrow

and unceasing anguish in my heart.

For I could wish that I myself were accursed

and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,

my kinsmen according to the flesh.

They are Israelites.

And notice what he says.

To them belong the adoption.

God made them his own people.

The glory.

He gave them his presence.

The covenants.

He spoke to them his promises.

The giving of the law.

The worship.

The promises.

To them belongs the patriarchs.

From their race, according to the flesh,

is the Christ,

who is God over all,

blessed forever.

That's their privilege.

Over and over and over.

Israel heard the word of God.

Over and over and over.

They heard the promises of the Messiah.

And then they saw the Messiah.

And they killed him.

Then he rose from the dead.

And they rejected him still.

Because of Israel's privilege,

yet hardness of heart,

Jesus routinely warned them

of the future wrath of God

if they would not repent and believe.

Even a cursory reading of the Gospels

will show that much of Jesus' interaction

with his own people,

especially in the days leading up

to his crucifixion and resurrection,

was on this very topic.

And I want to show you just one example

that I think Paul is drawing from

when he writes this

in 1 Thessalonians 2.

In fact, why don't you turn with me there

to Matthew 23.

Matthew 23, verses 29 to 36.

Matthew 23:29–36

Matthew 23, verse 29.

Matthew 23:29

Jesus said, this is Jesus speaking,

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you build the tombs of the prophets

and decorate the monuments of the righteous,

saying this,

If we had lived in the days of our fathers,

we would not have taken part with them

in shedding the blood of the prophets.

So they recognized that their forefathers

killed the men that God sent to warn them.

And Jesus says,

You build these tombs for them

and you decorate them

and you make these festivals around them

and you acknowledge them, special days.

And then you say pridefully

that if we had lived at the time

that our fathers did,

we would have never done what they did.

And notice what Jesus says next.

Thus you witness against yourselves

that you are the sons of those

who murdered the prophets.

Now notice what he says.

This is what Paul's drawing from.

Fill up then, he says,

the measure of your fathers.

You serpents,

brood of vipers,

how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

Now notice what Jesus says.

Therefore, I am sending you prophets

and wise men and scribes.

And here's what you're gonna do.

Some of them you will kill and crucify.

Some you will flog in your synagogues

and persecute from town to town

so that on you may come

all the righteous bloodshed on earth

from the blood of the righteous Abel

to the blood of Zechariah,

the son of Berechiah,

whom you murdered

between the sanctuary and the altar.

Truly I say to you,

all these things will come upon this generation.

So what is it that Jesus does?

First he looks back

and he says,

look, this is what your forefathers did.

This is what Israel has always done, he says.

He says, God sends you his people.

He sends you his messengers.

They preach the gospel to you.

They preach the word to you

and they killed them.

And now today you say

that you would never do that.

So let me tell you what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna send to you prophets

and wise men and scribes

and you're gonna do to them

the same thing that your forefathers did

to the ones that God sent to them.

That's what he says.

He is going to,

they are going to fill up to the brim

the measure of their father's sins.

These wise men and prophets and scribes

verse 34,

they're the apostles.

The prophets,

the churches that Christ would use

to spread his gospel around the world

and Jesus prophesied

that the Jews of his day

would continue filling up

the sins of their fathers

who killed the prophets

God sent to them

and they will do it

by crucifixion,

by flogging,

by persecuting those he sins.

And what did Jesus say

would be the result

of this continued rejection

of his gospel

and of his people?

They will not, quote,

escape being sentenced to hell.

This is what I think Paul is drawing from.

They receive the word,

Christ sends it to them.

They reject the word,

they reject the prophets,

wrath.

And the end is,

the result,

is hell.

Eternal hell.

Wrath.

Now it's not very long after this

that there was a man in Jerusalem

named Stephen

who preached this very gospel

in Jerusalem

after Jesus rose from the den

and he was using the same themes

as Jesus did.

And at the very end of his sermon,

notice what Stephen says

in Acts chapter 7.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

You stiff-necked

people.

He didn't mince words,

did he?

Now he's not just being a jerk.

That's Old Testament language

that God used

to condemn Israel

when they rebelled against them.

And what Stephen's doing here

is he's not just,

not just trying to be a jerk

to them.

What he's doing

is he's drawing on

the parallels

from the Old Testament

from the sins

of their fathers.

And he says,

you stiff-necked people,

uncircumcised

in heart and ears.

You always resist

the Holy Spirit.

You keep doing it.

As your fathers did,

so do you.

And which of the prophets

did your fathers

not persecute?

They killed those

who announced beforehand

the coming of the righteous one

whom you have now

betrayed and murdered.

Now notice what he says.

You who received the law

as delivered by angels

and did not keep it.

Now notice that last part again.

They received the law,

the word of God,

but they did not keep it.

Or in the language

of 1 Thessalonians 2,

they did not accept it.

That sermon itself

by Stephen,

it was another

gracious opportunity

for the Jews present

to turn from their sin

and unbelief

to trust Christ.

But do you know

what they did?

They murdered Stephen instead.

Doing just as Jesus

prophesied they would do.

He said,

I'm going to send you prophets.

You're going to have

more opportunities

to respond to the gospel message.

And God sends them

and they hear the message

and they remain hardened

in their heart

to the message.

And they kill God's prophet.

But just as an aside here,

if you need a ray of hope,

there was another present

who is said to have been

consenting to Stephen's murder

in that moment.

later he would repent

and believe.

His name was Saul.

We know him as Paul,

the author of 1 Thessalonians.

Now can we just say,

if you were to look

at that crowd,

based on what we understand

the scriptures to say,

if you were to look

at that crowd that day,

of the people

that were stoning Stephen

and consenting to this murder,

and you were to point out one

and say there's no way

that person will ever

turn to Christ,

Saul's probably the one

you'd point to.

He was a murderer.

He thought on behalf of God

he was doing God a favor

by actually putting to death

and imprisoning Christians

who believed

like Stephen believed.

And all of us probably

would look at him

and say there's no way.

There's no way

he'd ever turn.

And yet he's the one

who turns.

And here in 1 Thessalonians 2

he's reflecting on all of this.

But of course being underscored

by the gospel.

And so maybe there's somebody

in your life

and you've proclaimed

to the gospel

to them hundreds of times maybe.

And they keep rejecting

and they keep rejecting

and they keep rejecting.

Don't stop proclaiming.

Don't stop.

If Paul will turn,

if God can transform him,

surely he can transform

your kids and your parents

and your co-workers

and your friends

and the people that you love

that are so hardened

to the gospel now,

just keep giving them the word.

Isn't that what we learned

last week in 13 and 14?

That God works through the word.

So what is it

that is our responsibility?

Give the word.

Give the word.

Give the gospel.

That's what God uses.

Just keep doing it.

Just keep praying.

Perhaps what you have

is a song

and God is prepared

to transform them soon enough.

Now back to 1 Thessalonians 2.

What's Paul's point

in saying all of this

to the Thessalonians?

What's the point

in us taking so much time

to think about it now?

Again,

it's to show Israel

as the supreme example

of receiving the gospel,

the word of God,

yet continually rejecting

that truth

through willful hardness of heart.

it's a warning for us

not to be like them.

Now give me your attention.

If you don't listen

to anything else,

listen to this.

Give me your eyes.

Old and young,

teenagers,

listen to what I'm telling you.

This is a warning

not to be like Israel.

Some of you

are dangerously close

to being like Israel.

Israel isn't the only privileged people

in this sense.

Every Sunday,

there are people

who sit in worship services

like this one

where the gospel of Jesus

is proclaimed

through preaching,

it's praised through song,

it's displayed

through ordinances,

ordinances,

yet they continue

to reject

what they've been

so privileged to receive

so many times.

And it's real easy

to look at the Bible

and say,

how could Israel

be so stupid

after all of that

and over and over,

after all that privilege

to still reject it

and yet there's people

who sit in churches

like this every Sunday

and they hear the gospel

every Sunday

over and over

and over and over

and they continue

to reject it.

They will not respond

in repentance and faith.

And here's the question.

Is that you?

Is it you?

Because if it is,

you can appropriately

read yourself

into this text here.

You are filling up

the measure of your sins

and unbelief

which will eventually

spill over

resulting in the eternal wrath

of the Almighty God.

The Word of God

that you now reject

that can save your soul

is the same Word

that will condemn you

in the end.

And what a shame

it will have been

to have heard

the gospel message

so often

and still be condemned

in the end.

But it's a faith

that you don't have

to accept.

There is hope for you

now.

Can I just read

to you Romans 3?

In fact,

why don't you turn

with me there?

Turn with me

to Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Romans 3.

Maybe you know

this passage well.

Romans chapter 3

Romans 3:19

verse 19.

Now we know

that whatever

the law says

it speaks to those

who are under the law

so that every mouth

may be stopped

and the whole world

may be held accountable

to God.

Now what's Paul saying?

He's saying nobody's

without excuse.

He's saying if you're

a Jew

or you have received

the law

or you've had opportunity

you'll be condemned

by that very law.

It's the point

that we're making

from 1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 as well.

That you will be held by it.

You'll be held accountable

to it.

And every mouth

will be stopped.

Every mouth will be

accountable to God.

Verse 20.

He acknowledges

by works of the law

no human being

will be justified

since it's through

the law

that comes the knowledge

of sin.

In other words

if Israel

couldn't do it

through the law

what hope do we have?

What hope do we have?

And the answer is

before you get to verse 20

you don't have any hope.

You don't have any.

On your own

you have no hope.

Oh but verse 20

or 21

it comes into play

for us so helpfully

doesn't it?

But now

the righteousness

of God

has been revealed

apart from the law.

Even though the law

and the prophets

testify to it

it's the righteousness

of God

through faith

in Jesus Christ

for all who believe.

For there's no distinction.

All have sinned

and fall short

of the glory of God

and all are justified

by His grace

as a gift

through the redemption

that is in Christ Jesus

whom God put forward

as a propitiation

by His blood

to be received

by faith.

This was to show

God's righteousness

because in His divine

forbearance

He passed over

former sins.

It was to show

His righteousness

at this present time

so that He might be just

in that He has condemned sin

through Christ

and He might be

the justifier

of the one

who has faith

in Jesus Christ.

Now this is where

your hope comes in.

This is the gospel message

that we're all broken

we're all sinners

we're all rebels

that deserve to be condemned

by the very word

that we have rejected

and yet Christ

in the fullness of time

as we're thinking

about all month

Christ in the fullness

of time

was sent by the Father

born under the law

to redeem those of us

who are under the law.

Why?

So that He might make us

adopted

so that we might receive

the adoption

and how do we receive that?

Well it's not because

you go to church

it's not because you give

it's not because you do

the charitable work

that you do

it's not because you go Friday

to Operation Christmas Child

and fill out

fill out Christmas boxes

it's not that

it's all about

faith in Christ.

Christ has done it

He's done it for you

this is the message

that the Jews rejected

this is the message

that you must accept

you must accept it

and why wouldn't you?

Why wouldn't you?

Come to Christ

trust in Him

what He's done for us

on the cross

Romans 3 is said

to be a propitiation

it has appeased

the wrath of God

that 1 Thessalonians 2 says

has come upon the Jews

who continue to reject

the Christ

but in Romans 3

whether you're a Jew or not

it has appeased

the wrath of God

if you will just

come to Christ

and believe it

isn't that amazing?

if you're alive

and breathing right now

it's not too late

to repent

and accept the good news

of Jesus

it's not too late

how long

you've rejected Him

or even harmed His people

or prevented others

from hearing the gospel

doesn't matter

doesn't matter

if you come to Him

in faith

at this moment

now

you will receive

nothing

but mercy

mercy

through Christ

this is why

we call it a gospel

because it really is

good news

it's the best news

oh don't reject it

come to Him for it

now

let's just finish

with three

essential applications

from 1 Thessalonians 2

it's really just a summary

of what we've already said

first thing is this

the opportunity

to respond to the gospel

is now

it's now

we live in a time

of God's patience

and grace

don't we

the fact that you're here

today

is a testament

of God's

gracious

merciful work

in your life

you're here

you hear the gospel again

oh that's His goodness

at work

in your life

now is the opportunity

to respond

don't be like Israel

don't refuse

every opportunity

to be saved

the time of judgment

has not yet come

now is the time

to receive mercy

and grace

that's what Paul writes

to the church in Corinth

behold now is the favorable time

now is the day of salvation

don't wait

second

there is an end

to God's patience

toward those

who reject His word

there's an end

it's a determined end

decisive end

you may feel at ease

in the moment

but judgment really is coming

the glass just keeps filling up

eventually

it will spill over

and all who refuse the gospel

will face God's wrath

and no one

who's in this room

this morning

will be able to stand

before God

and say

well nobody told me

you'll be held accountable

to the very word

that you hear now

so

now's the time

to respond

don't wait

because judgment

does eventually come

now

for those of you

who are Christians

let's not forget

that this whole

section

in this paragraph

that flows out

of the Thessalonians

suffering for the gospel

that's the context

isn't it

Paul goes on

this little digression

here as he's presenting

to us the differences

between the two groups

we have those

who accept the word

and those who reject it

so let's return

to that first thought

for those who accept it

what was their experience

suffering

suffering

hardship

which is a reminder

to us

that to be a Christian

what it means

is to see

the supreme

value

of Christ

over everything else

even your very life

isn't that the testimony

of the Thessalonians

they willingly

endured

the suffering

why

because they saw

Christ

and his gospel

as far more valuable

than even their own lives

and their own comfort

isn't this what Jesus

says

in the parables

of the kingdom

when he says

that the kingdom

is like

a man

who's walking

through the field

and he finds a treasure

that's of incalculable value

and he goes

and he sells

everything that he has

to buy that land

in order that he can

have that treasure

Jesus says

that's what I'm like

I'm the treasure

in the field

I'm more valuable

than anything else

what I offer you

is more valuable

than anything

you might try

to hold on to

in this life

we understand that

as believers

don't we

that's the work

of the word

at work in us

not only at conversion

but that's why

we keep coming back

to the gospel

isn't it

because when things

are hard

whether it be

through persecution

and suffering

at the hands

of unbelievers

or maybe it's just

the result of life

in a fallen world

we get sick

and we have pain

and we lose people

we love

death awaits

all of us

this life is hard

every day is hard

in some way

and some of you

know that

even more than

than others

you experience

it every day

why do we keep

coming back

to the gospel

as God's people

because in the pain

and in the suffering

and in the persecution

we're reminded

that Christ

is far more valuable

than any comfort

I might receive now

he's just better

and I can endure it

because he's good

and he's gracious

and he's gonna bring me home

and when it brings me home

I'll never have this pain again

I'm never gonna have

the sorrow again

I'll never have to face

death again

I'll never be broken again

he really is better

Christians know that

which is why

when we do face suffering

the word of God

keeps working in us

to do what?

Causes us to persevere

isn't that the point

for the Thessalonians?

Isn't that why

Paul's thanking God?

I thank God

that you've done this work

in the Thessalonian Christians

God

through your word

what work?

Persevering work

that is based on the gospel

so what do we learn

from that as Christians?

Oh Christian

we need the gospel

every day

every day

you need the gospel

can you just close

with reading a section

from Romans 8

take this as an encouragement

Christian

that those whom he predestined

he also called

those whom he called

he also justified

those whom he justified

he also glorified

and what then shall we say

to these things?

if God is for us

who can be against us?

He who did not spare

his own son

but gave him up

for us all

how will he not also

with him graciously

give us all things?

Who shall bring a charge

against God's elect?

It's God who justifies

who is to condemn us?

Christ Jesus is the one

who died

more than that

who was raised

who is at the right hand of God

who indeed is interceding for us

and who shall separate us

from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation

or distress

or persecution

or famine

or nakedness

or danger

or sword?

No

in all of these things

we are more than conquerors

through him who loves us

for I am sure

that neither death

nor life

nor angels

nor rulers

nor things present

nor things to come

nor powers

nor height

nor depth

nor anything else

in all creation

none of it

will be able to separate us

from the love of God

in Christ Jesus

our Lord

into that we say

Amen

Amen