After all, who is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting, if it is not you yourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glorying? Are not even ye, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?
6 sermons cite this verse
… Because the Thessalonians were walking in a manner worthy of their calling, Paul writes this, For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at His coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and our joy. Paul was over the moon that the Thessalonians were doing so well. Pastors love it when the saints are walking in truth and love. If you just do that, you could put Derek out of a job. you won't need the counseling. In the parable of the lost coin, Jesus said, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I lost. Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Jesus gets to hear the angels sing or shout for joy when a sinner repents. Let's don't be that older son who's a little bit jealous when the younger brother repents and does so well. Zephaniah 3, The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. …
… endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire. Therefore, we wanted to come to you even I, Paul, time and again, but Satan hindered us. Here it is, verse 19. For what is our hope, our joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? Verse 20, for you are our glory and joy. He's already told them in chapter one that Christ is coming to spare you from the wrath. So what you want to do is live in such a way that you are looking to persevere because you constantly have this hope before you that the crown of rejoicing is all of us coming together at some point where this journey terminates and that is when Christ appears. You will see that 1 Thessalonians is all about Christ coming for his church and 2 Thessalonians is about the second thing and that is Christ's second coming to the earth itself in his kingly return. …
Then notice the end of chapter 2, verse 19. For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? Mentioned again. At the end of chapter 3, verse 13. that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. In chapter 4, a good chunk of it deals with that, but just notice in verse 17, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord. and then chapter 5 I had to find the verse verse 23 now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely may your whole spirit soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ this frequent mentioning of the coming of Jesus Christ and the idea that they were waiting for him to arrive at seemingly any moment. …
… The Bible calls it a crown. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 19 says this. Now I want you to think about what is the ultimate prize? Okay, we know heaven is the ultimate. And next Sunday, I'm beginning a teaching series on heaven. It's funny, we talk a lot about it, but we don't know about it. And most of what we say about it is folklore and it's not biblical fact. The Bible talks a lot about heaven. And I'm going to spend more time in heaven than I am here. So I'd better know what the other side is like and what it's about. And it's going to be exciting and thrilling and it will build some serious faith. So I'm not talking about heaven right now, okay? I'm talking about I'm running this race. And then I finish the race. And again, God knows I'm not going to be perfect. He knows you're not perfect. But by his grace at his pace, then we receive this crown. What is that crown like? …
… Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter two. 1 Thessalonians chapter two, verse 19, 20. Listen to this. I referenced it last week. I want you to read it, maybe underline it there. 1 Thessalonians 2, 19 to 20. Paul's speaking again. He says, what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and our joy. Did you catch that? Paul says, when the Lord Jesus comes back and I'm held accountable for what I've done with the gospel, he has entrusted to me and the mission he's entrusted to me, my joy will be you. your lives, living for the glory of Christ. He says later in chapter 3, verse 8, and this is the summation of the whole thing. Chapter 3, verse 8, he says, now we really live since you are standing firm in the Lord. The emphasis being on you. Did you catch that? …
… That's what Paul says. You get to 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 19 through 20. He's telling the church there, he says, you are my crown. You are my joy. I live for you. If you succeed with the gospel, then that is a picture in my life. I glory in you. You're my crown. You're my joy. What happens when an entire faith family of believers begins to see others in our community like that? We begin to live for others' sake. That's why. That's why I told you last week that I don't live for the institutional survival of the church at Brook Hills. My dream is not for bigger buildings and bigger programs. My dream is the lives that are represented in this room. You are. You are life. You are the life of Christ being made known throughout this community. You are my dreams. and what happens we begin to live like that for each other we begin to live so that christ is receiving glory and all the people around us then the gospel is starting to multiply and the message of redemption is advancing rapidly through reproduction god may it be so jesus had take staked his whole life and ministry on these guys the entire success of this plan depended on their faithfulness to follow his example and to begin doing that by sharing the word so what do we do what does this mean for us two questions I want to ask you very very simply number one …