The Effects of the Word (1 Thessalonians 2:13-16) - Pastor Kenneth Collins Maple

Let us take our Bibles now and open up to 1st

Thessalonians. 1st Thessalonians, we're going

to be in chapter 2, looking at verses 13 through

16. This is our summer series through this wonderful

book. We've seen some great things so far. Today,

we're really going to focus upon the Word of

God. That's what the passage is really talking

about. The Word of God, not the Word of men.

This, friends, is what we need. We need God's

Word. And so, would you pay close attention to

the reading of God's holy and inspired, inerrant,

and infallible Word? 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 in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For

you suffered the same things from your own countrymen,

they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord

Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased

God and opposed 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 but wrath has come upon them at last faith

comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ

Let us pray. Father we praise you and we thank

you for your word and I ask now that as we look

at this that you would hide this word in our

hearts and help the truth of it to sink down

into our souls and that we would really wholeheartedly

trust your word that is true in everything it

teaches. But Lord we need your help. We need

the help of the Holy Spirit. Grant us understanding

through Him. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

If I told you that God speaks to me, how would

you feel about that? That God talks to me? You'd

say, that's not very Presbyterian of you, right?

But God does. God does speak to me, and He does

speak to you. He speaks through His perfect Word.

He speaks through the 66 books that make up the

Bible. This Word is truth. God's Word is sufficient.

God is no wordless idol. His Word is just as

active as He is. Perhaps you know the text from

Hebrews 412 that says, is living and active,

sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing to

the division of soul and of spirit, of joints

and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and

intentions of the heart. God's word is authoritative

because it comes from him, and this authoritative

word preached to us, taught to us here, it demands

a response, and within our text today, we see

two drastically different responses. We see reception

of the word, and we see rejection of the word.

Friends, because the word of God is the word

of God, we must receive it in faith. Last Sunday,

we looked at gospel characteristics of Paul and

Silas and Timothy. We looked at their boldness,

we looked at their gentleness, we looked at their

diligence, but I have one more characteristic

to add. Paul was a thankful man. Paul was a thankful

man. Look at it here in verse 13. Paul thanks

God about the Thessalonians. And notice I said,

Paul thanks God about the Thessalonians. Here

in the text he doesn't thank God for the Thessalonians.

He thanks God for the work that he is doing in

the midst of the Thessalonians. Paul does this

a lot though. You can see this kind of thing

in Philippians. You can see it in Colossians.

He is thanking God for the Thessalonian positive

response of the gospel message. And he does so

with two synonymous terms there in verse 13.

He talks about receiving the word and he talks

about accepting the word. When he talks about

the word receiving, this is a verb stressing

the hearing, the reception of the word preached

by Paul and preached by others. He's saying the

Thessalonians listened to him when he preached.

They didn't plug up their ears. They took it

in. And again, these are synonymous terms, the

receiving and the accepting. And so when it says

accepting there, this is that they absorb the

word. This is that they believed the Word of

God taught to them by Paul. And so because these

are synonymous terms, the contrast that we need

to look at is not between those words, but it's

between what comes next further into the verse,

the source of the Word. Is it the Word of God

or is it the Word of men? What's the source?

Now, it's clear here. the sources from God, but

yet God does work through human writers. He works

through Paul. He works through Peter. He works

through Moses. He works through David, but the

ultimate author of scripture is the Holy Spirit.

He's the one who divinely inspires the words

from the biblical writers. And so that's how

the Bible comes to us, from the Holy Spirit through

these men. who are inspired with what they write.

It's not that the Bible just comes down, you

know this, the Bible doesn't just come down from

heaven in your favorite English translation with

your favorite fake leather cover. No, the Word

comes from the Holy Father and His Spirit through

the Gospel writers. And so because the Holy Spirit

does this, because the Holy Spirit breathes out

Scripture, we can say there's no difference between

Paul's word in Scripture and God's word. The

gospel proclaimed is not merely human word. It's

the divine word. And so for this reason, Paul

gives thanks. His point is that the Thessalonians

not only accepted the gospel at their conversion,

the Thessalonians continued to accept the gospel.

We don't just believe in this once. We believe

in it every single day. Again. The word is living

and active. And you can see within towards the

end of that verse, the word at work in you believers.

And that's an important point. It's an important

point for the word to work in a positive way

in our lives. We have to believe it. We have

to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And

so it's at work in their lives. Now, Paul doesn't

spell out here how the word is at work. But we've

already seen it. We've already seen the Thessalonians

and their work of faith, their labor of love,

and their steadfastness of hope, not to mention

other things that we'll see later in this letter.

And so I want you to understand this today, that

the Word works. The Word works as you are being

sanctified in the truth. The Word works as you

seek to follow after Jesus. The Word works as

you share it with other people. The Word will

not return void. And so the question I have for

you is, have you believed this message? Have

you believed in the gospel? Children, have you

believed in Jesus? Do you know that he is called

the Word in John chapter 1? You might say, well,

John 1 · chapter mention

I'm not sure. How do I accept the word? You might

remember Augustine. Augustine in the 300s was

brought up by a mother who loved him, and Augustine's

mother prayed for him all the time, and it took

a while. But one day, Augustine was in a courtyard,

and he heard some children singing and playing,

and they had this This phrase that they were

singing over and over and over again, the children

were singing tolle legge, tolle legge, which

is Latin for take up and read. And so what did

Augustine do? He took the Bible up and he read

it. And he was converted because the word works.

Friends, as you look at this text, you could

see. There's really two types of people in the

text, aren't there? There are people who believe

the gospel, who receive it and accept it, and

there are people who do not. But regardless,

the word has dramatic effect on these groups

here. I want to show you this from Acts chapter

Acts 17 · chapter mention

17. I've referenced this several times within

the sermon series, but I don't think we've read

the text yet. So Acts chapter 17, one through

Acts 17 · chapter mention

nine. Acts 17, one through nine, reads, now,

when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia,

they came to Thessalonica, where there was a

synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was

his custom. And on three Sabbath days, he reasoned

with them from the scriptures, explaining and

proving that it was necessary for the Christ

to suffer. and to rise from the dead and saying,

this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.

And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul

and Silas as did a great many of the devout Greeks

and not a few of the leading women. 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 when they

could not find them They dragged Jason and some

of the brothers before the city authorities shouting

these men who have turned the world upside down

have come here also in Jason has received them

and They're all acting against the decrees of

Caesar saying that there is another King Jesus

and The people in the city authorities were disturbed

when they heard these things And when they had

taken money as security from Jason and the rest,

they let them go. It's a dramatic effect. The

reception of the word or the rejection of the

word. Some of the Jews in the city believed.

Some did not. A great many of the Gentiles believed.

Some did not. The Jews were jealous. and they

set the city in an uproar and look at the accusation

against the leaders of the city, the accusation

against Paul and Silas and Timothy. The text

says that they were saying that the Christians

have turned the world upside down. They're talking

about the previous cities that Paul had been

in and the reception and the rejection in those

cities. But this is an ironic statement, isn't

it? Because while Paul and his crew, are accused

of disturbing the peace in Thessalonica, what

do the non -believing Thessalonians do? They're

the ones who form the mob. They're the ones who

set the city in an uproar. They're the ones who

attack Jason's house. The Christians in the city

suffer because others reject the gospel. Friends,

the gospel is the dividing line. Luke 12 51 through

52 listen to these words from Jesus Do you think

that I have come to give peace on earth No No,

I tell you but rather division from now on in

one house there will be five divided three against

two two against three They will be divided father

against son, son against father, mother against

daughter, and daughter against mother, mother

-in -law against her daughter -in -law, and daughter

-in -law against mother -in -law. Friends, if

anything is true in this world that's free for

observation, this is it. Because the gospel is

what divides. People have fought over this, and

they continue to do so. We fight, though, for

the truth, the truth of the gospel. And it's

this, that Christ died for your sins according

to the Scriptures. But the gospel in this city,

you can see what it did. People believed and

people rejected. The gospel is the river. The

gospel is the boundary. When it comes to the

Word, nobody is neutral with it. And with this

persecution, the Thessalonians, even as they're

being persecuted, they're imitating the churches

of God and Christ Jesus that were in Judea. In

Judea, people who were Christians were persecuted,

and Paul is saying that's happening to you too

here by your own countrymen. The Jews in Thessalonica

stir up the non -believing Gentiles to prevent

the message of salvation from going out. Again,

the gospel has tremendous effect It has a tremendous

effect because it's affected you, hasn't it?

At one point, the playing field was completely

level because Romans 3 .23 says that all have

sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We

were all dead in our trespasses, in our sin,

in our disobedience. We reject the Word of God.

The dividing line there is the righteousness

of God. And there was a time when we were on

the wrong side of righteousness, when we didn't

have it. but because of the mercy of God he has

sent Christ to us and Christ lived for us and

he died for us and then he sent his spirit who

changes the affections of our hearts to care

about God and to love him and to love others.

The gospel makes a way for us back to God. That's

what the gospel does. It saves us. It saves us

because of the sacrifice of Christ. Look in verse

15. They killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets.

Friends, when it says the prophets here, I believe

this is referring to the prophets of the Old

Testament. It's talking about those who paved

the way, if you will, for Jesus to come. And

Jesus did and he fulfilled scripture and he died

for our salvation. And this text points out that

there is wrath for those who don't believe this

message. Commentators look at this passage and

they're kind of divided here on whether this

is talking about a historical event, this wrath.

Is this talking about something that people actually

went through for their disobedience? or is this

looking ahead to the final judgment? Is this

looking ahead to the final wrath? To be honest

with you, I'm not sure. But we do know that there's

a final judgment. We do know that there is wrath

to come. As James Grant says, a commentator,

when you reject grace, the only thing that is

left is wrath. Friends, the only cover for the

wrath The only cover for the judgment of God

is in Christ, Christ who suffered the penalty

for our sin, Christ who laid his life down so

you would have the gospel and life everlasting,

but you need to receive it in faith. Friends,

you have received the word. You've heard it.

You've not stopped up your ears. Now accept it

in faith, not as the word of men, but of God.

And ultimately, of the Holy Spirit who illumines

truth for us. Let us thank God for Christ who

saves us and for the Holy Spirit who breathes

out scripture and opens our hearts and our minds

to accept.