1 Thessalonians 2:1-12

0:24 It is always a reunion of sorts to be able to gather those of us who have a deep hunger to learn, to experience the scriptures together. We want to grow in grace and we want to grow in knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ. Like the Thessalonians, we are receiving your word as it really is. A word from God, a word from heaven.

0:57 And we pray that we would not only grow in knowledge and grace, but grow in our walk with you, grow in our obedience to you, and our effectiveness for your glory. We pray that through this simple act of obedience of listening to the... written word being spoken and being taught.

1:24 We pray, Father, that you would minister to our conditions, our questions, our issues, bring comfort, challenge, and maturity. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We are officially in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. though I did sort of rush through the end of it last time and we're going to be picking up some thoughts this time. But we are officially in chapter 2, 1 Thessalonians, verse 1 begins, For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. It was not a failure. It was worth the effort. now I'll jog your memory how did Paul come to them Paul came to them because he got a vision one night when he was on the other side of the sea in a place called Troas having trying to go to different places and not being allowed to he saw a vision from a man in Macedonia saying come over to Macedonia and help us. Now, I don't know how many visions you've received where God just speaks that plainly to you, but Paul was keen to pick up on that. He woke up the next day after that vision from God, and he said to his traveling companions, I'm figuring out that God wants us to go to Macedonia. So the gospel entered Europe for the first time in history as Paul left Troas and came into that area of Macedonia and came to the city of Philippi. But when he got to Philippi, my guess is he was looking for that man that he had seen in a vision. Wouldn't you think if

3:32 there's a man from Macedonia saying, come and help us, you land on the shore and you go to the city and you start looking for the man from Macedonia. He didn't find a man from Macedonia. He found a few women gathered at a river for prayer. And he joined that service, that little Jewish convocation at a riverside. Jewish law said if you have less than 10 men, you just meet by the river because the running water is a cleansing apparatus for being ritualistically clean. So he joined that. There was at the meeting a woman called Lydia. The Lord opened her heart to listen to what Paul had to preach. She came to know Christ. There was another girl, a servant girl, who was unsaved. She was a student of witchcraft, and she would follow Paul and his companions around and saying, this is the servant of the Most High God who proclaims to us the way of salvation, probably in a mocking kind of a tone.

4:46 Well, she kept doing this day after day, and Paul was annoyed and cast a demon out of her. Well, after she was freed from her demon, the people who had hired this slave and used her for financial purposes turned against Paul. Paul was beaten publicly in the crowd and then taken to the Philippian jail with Silas where he spent the night in stocks.

5:19 And he was still singing praises to God until he was finally released. Lesser men would have said, I don't know what that was back in Troas, that little vision from God, but I don't think I'm in the right place. I got a vision of a man from Macedonia. I come here, I get beat up, I'm in jail. I'm leaving. I'm going to Hawaii. I feel the Lord could use me there.

5:47 But he persists in Philippi. After he is released from prison, the leading men of the city come to Paul and Silas and they say, you're free to go, there are no charges, just move along, go to the next town. And Paul said, not so fast. you just beat a Roman citizen publicly which is against the law without a trial, without a hearing and now you just want me to go away into that good night, not going to happen so he made a kind of a stink about it well they found out he was a Roman citizen they get all paranoid they ask him nicely to leave so Paul left Philippi went through a couple of different towns and Epipholus and Apollonia and went from Philippi a hundred miles southwest to the principal city called Thessalonica, a city on the main drag, the Via Ignatia that connected Rome with the other parts of the world, an independent city, though tied to Rome, it had its own form of governance. And in Thessalonica, Paul spent three consecutive Sabbath days reasoning from the scripture in the Jewish synagogue.

7:16 explaining, it says in Acts chapter 17, and demonstrating that Jesus is the Christ, but that he first had to suffer, which was a big deal because you're saying Jesus is the Christ, but he got arrested by Rome and killed. And so to the Jews, that was a stumbling block. and so Paul had to convince them by reasoning through the scriptures Jesus is the Messiah but that he had to suffer first and die and then be raised from the dead and it says many were persuaded some of the Jews in the synagogue leading women some Gentiles were persuaded that Paul was preaching the truth that became the church at Thessalonica but not everybody was persuaded. In fact, some of the Jews in that synagogue hired thugs from the marketplace to go after Paul and Silas, create trouble for him, drag out a man by the name of Jason from his house, the guy who had lodged Paul, Silas, and Timothy, create trouble for them. Paul had to leave at night and go on to Berea. So with all that confusion and all of that opposition, anybody might scratch their head and go, was it worth it? Was it worth it? So he says in chapter two, verse one, we just read it, but with that background, for you yourselves know brethren that our coming to you was worth it. It was not in vain. It was worth the effort.

9:04 Now, I want you to go back to verse 5 of chapter 1 as we fill in the blank of why it was worth it. Why it was not in vain. So, refresh your memory. Verse 5. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance as you know what kind of men we were among you.

9:41 The gospel came to them, Paul says. How did it come to them? By Paul coming to them, and Timothy coming to them, and Silas coming to them. This little trio came to them in Thessalonica and shared the gospel to them. That's how the gospel came to them, not in word only, but in word initially.

10:07 They had to articulate truths of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, that is the gospel, but also in power by the Holy Spirit. So the gospel came to them, but now compare verse 5 with verse 8 of chapter 1. For from you the word of the Lord sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything. So notice once again the flow. The word came to you. The gospel came to you. Now the gospel came from you. that's how the gospel works we who are receivers of it must at some point grow up enough to be transmitters of it what comes to us must eventually come through us so it came to you the gospel was preached by Paul and his friends and now the word of the Lord sounded forth. Beautiful word. Let me explain that word to you. Sounded forth, two words, is the word in Greek, exeketai. We get from the word echo. Echo. Echos.

11:37 Exeketai. It echoed from you. It is the word that speaks of reverberation of a sound. So it's Paul's way of saying the gospel made a bang that reverberated from you to different places and different people. Beautiful word. It had a ripple effect. What happened to you has been happening from you to other places in the vicinity. I remember growing up hearing things, well, you know, religion is a private matter. We don't really discuss religion and politics. Well, you wouldn't fit in well with Paul because he spoke about Jesus everywhere he went. It wasn't private to him. And Jesus said, what you hear in secret, shout in public, shout from the rooftops. What you hear whispered in the air, shout from the rooftops. What is told you in darkness, speak in the light.

12:45 I just came back from Peru. I spent a few days there teaching 1,050 pastors from all over the country in a pastor's conference, a one-day conference where I taught five sessions back-to-back. And I was with Franklin Graham, who did two nights at the big stadium there with about 50,000 people each night hearing the gospel. It was a wow moment, but I want you to listen to this statistic. This was given to us by a group called Evangelism Explosion some years ago, and they still operate, but they gave an interesting example. Suppose you had the finances to rent a stadium that could sit 50,000 people. And you filled that stadium with 50,000 different people every night. every night for 35 straight years. So you're filling a stadium, 50,000 people every night of the week, every week of the year for 35 straight years. And every night in that gathering, 1,000 new people gave their lives to Jesus Christ. Wouldn't that be exciting?

14:06 Wouldn't the world be one to Christ? It would not. In fact, at the end of 35 years, after a thousand people every night, 365 days a year for 35 straight years, came to know Christ. At the end of 35 years, you would be further behind the task of world evangelization than the day you started. You're saying, I don't get it. How do you figure? the birth rate, the exponential rate at which people are being born who don't know Christ. Now you hear that statistic and you go, well, that's depressing.

14:41 So why bother? But let me finish the statistic. If you were the only Christian on the face of the earth, just you, you're the only person who knows Christ. Everybody else is unsaved. But you pray, Lord, within the next 12 months, by your grace, lead me to one unbeliever who will open his or her heart that I can share this truth with and lead them personally to Christ.

15:15 If after 12 months the Lord answered your prayer, how many Christians would there be after one year? There'd be two Christians on the earth. if you covenant together and say, okay, now that you're a Christian and I'm a Christian, there's two of us. Let's pray that in the next 12 months, each of us would lead one person to Christ. At the end of two years, there would be four. At the end of three years, now it exponentially increases with each year. Now that's provided that each person is praying and indeed witnessing and indeed leading another unbeliever to faith in Christ. At the end of that time, there would be over 35 billion people saved after the same amount of time. Now there's not 35 billion people on the earth. There's 8.3 billion people on the earth. We would be running out of pagans to evangelize if we all did it. Evangelism cannot be confined to, well, let's get a stadium and rent it and hire bands and hire an evangelist and let them do it. That's only one way to do it.

16:36 The best way to do it is the word of the Lord comes to you, transforms your life, then echoes through you, from you. It's called holy gossip. That's evangelism, holy gossip. Psst, let me tell you what the Lord did in my life. He could do it in your life too. So that's beautiful. The word came to them from Paul. It was not in vain, his coming, but it also came through them and sounded forth exeketai. It echoed through the canyons of Achaia and Macedonia. And so he says it's gone out in every place so we don't even need to say anything. Okay, back in chapter 1, continuing in verse 6. I didn't touch on this, so I'm just touching on it. You became followers of us and of the Lord.

17:35 having received the word of much affliction with joy in the Holy Spirit. Now, why did Paul put it that way? Why didn't he say you became followers of the Lord and of us? He put himself first. We became followers of us and of the Lord. Why did he put it that way? He is simply writing the experience of the Thessalonian church chronologically. way. Paul was their first point of contact. Paul was the first Christian they had ever seen or heard. And when they saw Paul and saw his lifestyle and heard his message, they became followers of Paul and in so doing became followers of the Lord. It's simply a chronological depiction. You follow me? in Corinthians, he said in chapter 11, verse 1, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

18:33 You can follow me, you can imitate me, but as you're doing it, because I'm imitating Christ, you're going to be following or imitating him. It's sobering to think, is it not, that we are many people's, most unbelievers, first point of contact. first experience with Christianity is you as a Christian. Heavy responsibility.

18:59 So you became followers of us and of the Lord. Verse 7, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia. You became reproducing Christians. The ripple effect was throughout the region. 4. From you, there it is again, the word of the Lord sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything. We should never become just containers of truth. we should not just be containers of blessing. We should be conduits of truth, conduits of blessing. if we just are the receptacle and it ends with us, that's a tragedy. Remember Jesus gave the principle, give and it will be given to you.

20:00 You want more? Give more. Share more. In the Gospel of John, chapter 7, the Feast of Tabernacles, the last day of the feast, Jesus stood up and he said, You who are thirsty, if anyone is thirsty, let him come into me and drink. for he who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. If you're thirsty, come to me and drink, but don't stop there. Out of your life will come rivers, torrents of living water. Don't become just a container to satisfy your own thirst. Just be a conduit. Turn on the hose. Get everybody wet.

20:54 splash the truth around. Don't become a container, become a conduit. So it came to you, came from you through all these places. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you. And I love this little phraseology, how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Now look at that again. You turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. In that verse are the three tenses of the Christian life. Past, present, future. You turned, past tense, to God from idols.

21:49 to serve, present tense, the living and true God, verse 10, and to wait for his son from heaven, future tense, past, present, future. There are the three tenses of the Christian life. To wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Now, I think this ties in beautifully with verse 3 of chapter 1, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope. faith looks back to a crucified Savior. Love looks up to a crown Savior. Hope looks forward to a coming Savior.

22:45 Faith, hope, love. Past, present, future. Verse 9, 10, past, present, future. You turn from God, past, work of faith, to serve the living and true God, labor of love, present tense, to wait for his son from heaven, patience of hope, future tense, to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. Now, there's an implication in that last verse, and that is of the imminent, spelled with an I, the soon, the upcoming, the imminent return of Jesus Christ for the church. There's a lot of that notion going on in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Paul speaks a lot about end time events, eschatological truth, end times, coming of Christ. He taught the Thessalonian church in a short period of time to wait for the soon return of Jesus Christ.

23:50 And so that is hinted at, to wait for a son from heaven whom he raised from the dead. he seems to indicate that Jesus could come at any time. That's the imminent return. I personally believe there is nothing left to be fulfilled. The next thing on the prophetic calendar is the catching away of the church, which will be described by Paul in more detail in chapter 4, the rapture of the church. Nothing has to happen for that. Paul seemed to indicate here and throughout this book that the Lord could come at any moment. And he taught the church to expect them. You remember in the first chapter of the book of Acts, the apostles were gazing up into heaven as Jesus, you know, left earth and went to heaven. And the angel said, you men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus who went up into heaven is going to come back in like manner as you've seen him go.

24:55 Ever since that moment, they have been looking for his return. And Paul says he's coming back and you're waiting for that event to happen. I find it unfortunate, I find it actually sad that many churches do not mention, nor teach, nor preach on the coming of Jesus Christ. Either they don't understand it, they purposely avoid it, they don't want to deal with the controversy, they don't want to go get through the weeds and explain it, so they just, or they deny it, depending on their doctrinal position, But if you were Paul the Apostle, wherever he went, he made sure that the church lived with what he called, mentioned in the book of Titus, the blessed hope and the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

25:54 To wait for a son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath that is to come. More on the wrath coming up. So, with all that said, you yourselves know, brethren, our coming to you is not in vain. The gospel went to you, came through you. It's echoing through the canyons and the highways and byways and villages through Macedonia and Achaia. But even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, remember I told you he was beaten publicly and put in stocks in a prison, As you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. So he left Philippi, went through Amphipolis, Apollonia, and finally to Thessalonica. He preached for three weeks in the synagogue.

26:50 Many were persuaded, some were not. those who were not, especially the Jews hired thugs who came after Paul and his party. That's what he's referring to. But even with all that, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. Here's what you need to know about conflict. I know you don't like it. I know nobody wants it. Nobody goes looking for a fight unless they're weird. And grant you, there are some weird people. They just are looking for it. But the average person, the godly Christian, is not looking for contention or conflict or strife, wants to live in peace. but conflict can be actually a sign from God that you're on the right track if it's the right kind of conflict. Blessed Jesus said, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, not for goofiness sake, not for weirdness sake, but for righteousness sake.

28:01 You can get persecuted for all the wrong reasons, or you can get persecuted for the right reason. Paul was persecuted for the right reason. And if you are opposed and have conflict for the right reason, it can be a sign that you're on the right track. You're hitting a nerve. you're sharing the truth that Satan has tried to keep from people. And when it hits a nerve, it's ouch. The light comes on. It's ah, it's not pleasant.

28:34 The message of the gospel, Paul said, is offensive to people. He says, and yet we were bold to speak the gospel of God in much conflict. For our exhortation did not come from deceit, nor uncleanness, nor was it in guile.

29:00 You know, Paul didn't like wake up one day and go, I choose a career path. I'm going to be a gospel preacher. My career path is to one day be an evangelist, travel the world, and preach about Jesus and start churches. Oh, and get beat up along the way. He didn't choose it. He was chosen for it.

29:27 God chose him, knocked him off his horse on the way to Damascus, interrupted his life. and he realized that he was chosen by God and entrusted with the stewardship. Entrusted with the stewardship. For we have, verse four, been approved by God, here's the word, the language, to be entrusted with the good news, the gospel. Even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests the hearts. Paul said, I didn't make this stuff up. You know, if you think about it, the gospel isn't something anybody would make up. People say, oh, you're making up Christianity because you want to have some philosophy to make you feel better in a meaningless and purposeless world. Really? That's what you think.

30:22 Well, you haven't studied the Bible then. because no one would make up the message that says the whole world is condemned and under the wrath of God. Nobody would make that up. And the other part to that is there's only one person you can believe in to get saved from all that. Not two, not 10, not many options, only one person, one name. That is the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody would make that up. That's offensive. Paul said, I didn't make this up. It wasn't in guile. It wasn't in deceit or uncleanness, but we have been entrusted. We have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. Even so we speak. that's the exhortation, that's the commission to us.

31:19 It's called the Great Commission. Go into all the world. Preach the gospel to every creature. And he who believes will be saved. He who does not believe, Jesus said, will be condemned. So the gospel, it's not a treasure to be hoarded. it's a truth to be heralded to be spread we don't just become containers we enjoy the blessing we get our thirst quenched but then we turn on the hose and we are conduits of the gospel and he says the only way to pull that off is say we speak not as pleasing men because it will not please anyone when you explain to them the gospel at first Not as pleasing men, but God who tests the hearts. This is the hard part.

32:18 Nobody likes to be unpopular. Nobody likes to be hated, marginalized. we like to be popular, we like to be liked, we like to be loved. And because that is the natural tendency of all of us, we are tempted to compromise on the message and the method of the message to please people, to please men. Remember in another text, Paul said, if I was the servant of men, I couldn't be the servant of Christ. If I tried to live my life just to please everybody, I couldn't really please God. So we speak what we have been given as a stewardship for the gospel, the good news. You say, it didn't sound like good news if the world is under the wrath of God.

33:13 The good news is that you can escape it through one person given, Jesus, believing in him. You can escape all that wrath and be ushered into glory. Have a meaningful and purposeful life. So we speak that. But the only way to do it is to live and speak it so as to please God rather than to please men. And there's always a temptation to please people. Even preachers are tempted to please people. Preachers get tempted to say things that would curry favor with people that are not controversial, that makes people like them. But Paul said to Timothy, I charge you therefore before God, who will judge the living and the dead at his coming, preach the word. At the end of the day, what my wife thinks about my sermon is not important.

34:10 What my staff thinks about my sermon is not important. What my board of directors, elders, or deacons think about my sermon is not important. What is important is what God thinks about it. Was I faithful to him? Was I faithful to the message that he entrusted me to speak? That's why we as pastors need to study and dig and understand context and language and everything else to get it right, to cut it straight. So we do so, not as pleasing men, but God who tests the hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness. God is witness. Nor do we see glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.

35:08 But we were gentle among you as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. Okay, here's something you need to know. In those days in the Roman Empire, there were traveling itinerant philosophers. rhetoricians, who would go from city to city and speak to crowds, seeking to win a following from people and hoping that they would make a living by doing that. Spouting a philosophical postulate or two or three or four, giving their philosophy or some clever speech oration. And people were used to these philosophers, rhetoricians, orators, speech makers, giving their spiel and then either becoming personal tutors, getting money from that, or getting money from the crowds that followed them.

36:10 And Paul knew that was a common thing, and he said, we're not like those people. We didn't do it for that reason. Neither at any time do we use flattering words as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness God is witness.

36:32 In the book of Proverbs, it says, he who flatters, I think it's chapter 29, Proverbs 29 says, he who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. You know, when somebody always pours on the compliments, I just, I shy away from that. Because I've noticed that people who are quick to flatter may also be quick later on to turn.

37:03 Paul said, we didn't use flattery. You know that. You heard our message. We were entrusted with the gospel, the stewardship. We gave it to you straight. you know that. And we didn't do it for improper motives, a cloak of covetousness to get finances. Now they didn't know that, but he says, God is my witness on that.

37:26 But flattery, our word in English, flattery, comes from a French word that speaks of the flat of one's hand. The flat of your hand. Flattery. And the idea is to stroke or to pet. To smoothly stroke or to pet. So the idea is stroking somebody's ego by nice words that make them feel all good and gooey and gushy inside. But you have an ulterior motive for that language. That's flattery. We didn't do that. We didn't use that.

38:06 Nor do we seek, verse 6, glory from men, either from you or from others, when, now notice this, we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. Okay, being an apostle of Christ, he could have expected his converts in Thessalonica to support him financially. He had that right. When he writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 5, he quotes Deuteronomy 25 and Matthew chapter 10. Paul does.

38:40 Deuteronomy 25 says, you shall not muzzle the ox that treads the grain. So if you, the principle is you have an ox and he's doing work for you, you know, stomping on the grain, he gets to put his face down there and eat some of it. You got to feed the ox that is treading the grain for you. You've got to support the ox. Jesus in Matthew 10 said the workman is worthy of his wage. He said when he sent out the 70 around Galilee, you know, the house that you go into should take care of you because the workman is worthy of his wage. And Paul wrote to the Corinthians and says those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. so he did have the right as an apostle leading people to a conversion experience in christ to even make demands that they financially support the ministry of paul but paul did not want to do that this was a young group in a new pagan environment and paul wanted to be above reproach here and he, though he could have made demands, he said he didn't want to do that.

39:52 We were gentle among you. Instead, we were gentle. And I love his description. Just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. I think one of the most self-sacrificing human beings on earth is a mother. Have you ever heard of a mother's union? I'm going to join a union. It's a mother's union. We want to make sure that we get the right amount of pay for the work. And we're only going to work eight hours.

40:32 We're going to clock in and we're going to clock out as part of union rules. No, they work 24-7. It is totally self-giving, self-sacrificing. Paul said, that's how we were among you. like a mother, a nursing mother, cherishing her own children. I often think back to my parents and the grief that I gave them as a teenager.

41:05 And I remember them saying, you know, you know, you live under our house and you eat our food, and I balked at that. But since then, I've done a little research. Do you realize that for parents in America to raise a child from infancy to 18, age 18, will end up costing them between $300,000 to $400,000 per child? $21,000 to $23,000 per child per year. $300,000 to $400,000 in a lifetime. When you consider food, clothing, shelter, education, sports, etc., etc.

42:00 You're breaking the bank. But mothers give, self-sacrificing. They don't think about that. we were as a nursing mother that cherishes her own child was so affectionately longing for you we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but our very own lives Paul wrote to the Romans and he said I want to spend and be spent for you I'm going to spend and be spent for you Thank you. because you had become dear to us. In verse 9, For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil, for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.

42:56 We preach to you the gospel of God. Paul was a tent maker. that's how he earned his living when he went to Corinth that's how he earned his living when he went to Thessalonica I'm guessing he worked during the day did bible studies in the evening and I think this is a good pattern for any church planter that is what my pastor taught me to do in planning a church I said I want to be a church planter what do I do he said get a job get a life basically get a job get a life instead of leaving from a big church asking people to support you as you go out raising your support to go i think this is the best model go work in a job and when you have any time left over from the job and family, that's when you do your Bible study. And let God bless it. That's what we did here.

43:58 We came here. I worked at a local hospital in radiology, did a Bible study on a Thursday night, worked full-time up until we had 300 or 400 people in the church. Then I went part-time, and part-time I worked at the hospital until the demands became so much I needed to go full-time. and the example was this example of Paul the apostle and his entourage remember our toil and labor laboring night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you we preach to you the gospel of God you are witnesses and God also how devoutly justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe. So Paul preached to them and lived before them. The best sermon is a well-lived life. As you know, he keeps saying that, as you know, as you know, as you know, as you know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you. Now notice this, change of metaphor, as a father does his own children. We were on one hand like a mother to you, comforting, encouraging, self-sacrificing, endearing, filled with love. On the other hand, we played the role of a father, instructing, charging. Moms are tender, dads are a little tougher. Paul played both roles, mother and father. As a father, we charge you as a father does his children. Dads different than moms. I love my mom. I love and respect my dad, but dad was tougher with me.

46:00 Dad would say things like, okay, son, it's now time for you to grow up. It's now time for you to do this. And mom said, oh, you know, it's a skipper. He's our little, you know, but no, you know, he was just different tone. And you need both. We need both. So he was both. He was both like that. And notice he uses the word children as a father does his own children. The word tekna means immature ones. So dads tell their kids, because they're immature, to get mature and how to get mature. So he was both tender and tough. That you, why? That you would have a walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. What does that mean, have a walk worthy of God?

47:01 It means live up to your calling. Live up to your calling. You're a child of God. Live like it. You're a son and daughter of the living God. Act like it. Your life has been transformed. Show it. the word here that is translated walk worthy, the idea of worthy is the idea of weight on a scale, axios. The idea is when you place something on one side of the scale, it equals what's going on on the other scale. It weighs as much. Let your life weigh as much as your profession. Let your walk, your lifestyle, weigh as much as your words. Let your life weigh as much as your lip.

47:56 So it's not lip service, it's life service along with lip service. That's the idea of walking worthy. Weigh as much. We say he's worthy of his wage or he's worthy or she's worthy of honor. The idea is to weigh as much, to correspond. John the Baptist preached at the Jordan River. Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. That weigh as much. That actually demonstrate and show that there's been life change and transformation. I always love what Irma Bombeck, that's a name from way back, used to say, used to write. She said, never trust a doctor whose office plants have died. It's good wisdom, right? You walk into the guy's lobby and all the plants are dead. It's like, yeah, I'm going somewhere else.

48:50 If he can't keep a plant alive, I might be a vegetable after I leave his office. So never trust a doctor whose office plants have died. Never trust a Christian who has no life around him to demonstrate. Right?

49:11 Nobody's going to come to you for advice on how to live if you don't demonstrate that you have a life worthy of living. So that's the idea of a worthy walk. And what's the stimulation for all of that? What's the motivation? Who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. Again, we're getting hints, and we're probably going to have to, I thought we were going to make it through chapter two, but you know that's good luck.

49:42 We'll just probably bring it to a close here. So. there's hints throughout this book and the next book of the coming of the Lord of waiting for the Lord of his kingdom and his glory now when we talk about the kingdom the kingdom of God there's always two senses of the kingdom there's the present idea of the kingdom and there's the future idea of the kingdom. The present kingdom of God is that we're enjoying it right now. Jesus said the kingdom of God is among you. What did he mean by that? He meant he's the king. The king has come to earth with a message of repentance and eventual salvation through the cross, burial, and resurrection. In the sense that the king has entered human history, the kingdom has come and those who believe in him are living under his kingship. So in one sense, the kingdom is already here. In another sense, in an ultimate eschatological sense, we're waiting for the kingdom. We're waiting for him to come back and establish his kingdom.

50:54 now when it comes to the eventual kingdom there are three positions this is why we need to end end it here the three positions are there's three different viewpoints of the future kingdom when it comes to the establishing of the kingdom on the earth i believe i am my belief system is I am premillennial. Premillennialism teaches that Jesus Christ is going to come for his church, rapture us to heaven. Then there'll be a seven-year tribulation of wrath upon the earth where he judges the earth for their unbelief fully and finally. At the culminating part of that, the battle of Armageddon, Jesus will come with his church from heaven to the earth, second coming and then it'll establish a kingdom on the earth for 1,000 years. The book of Revelation is laid out exactly like that in perfect chronological manner. It's very easy to understand the book of Revelation contrary to popular opinion.

52:06 First few chapters of the book of Revelation the church is on earth. There's seven postcards to seven churches, churches on earth. Chapter four, John is whisked to heaven, and he sees everything from the vantage point of heaven, but also the churches in heaven, chapter four and five. They're singing a song, worthy is the lamb who was slain, who has redeemed us out of every tribe, tongue, nation, and people, and made us priests to our God. Only the church can sing that. So the church is on earth in the first few chapters. The church is in heaven in chapter four and five. Then chapter 6 through 18, all hell breaks loose on earth. There's judgment after judgment after judgment as the wrath of God is poured out. Chapter 19, Jesus comes back to the earth. Chapter 20, he sets up his millennial kingdom. The word thousand years appears in chapter 20 about half a dozen times. So you'll finally figure out, okay, it really is a thousand years.

53:02 And then everything is uncreated. what is the present earth and heavens gets uncreated, destroyed, and God sets up new heaven and new earth. That's how the book ends. That's premillennialism. We believe Jesus will come back for his church, then come back with his church, and then set up a millennial kingdom on the earth from Jerusalem. That's premillennialism. A second belief of the kingdom is called amillennialism. awe the little awe the the alpha privative it's called is the negation for millennium so it's awe millennial means there is no millennium and awe millennialists principally those in the reformed churches believe that millennium is like a concept there really is no literal kingdom any more than what is already here the church on the earth that's just going to happen there's not going to be a literal kingdom. There's a kingdom concept, kingdom idea. They spiritualize every scripture about the end times away. That's all millennialism. The third is called post-millennialism.

54:14 And of all the viewpoints of the kingdom, this is the hardest sell. This is the hardest one to believe. They believe that we're going to set up the kingdom and we're going to take over institutions. We're going to take over political parties and we're going to bring change. So when they talk about culture wars, post-millennialists talk about culture wars, what they mean is we're going to win the culture war and we're going to impose our values on the body politic. And get this, get this, post-millennials believe that the world is going to get better and better and better.

55:00 And we're going to do it. And then Jesus comes back and effectively the church is going to hand him the kingdom that we brought in. Now I say that's a hard sell. There's not a lot of post-millennialists left, you say, what happened to them? World War I happened to them. World War II happened to them. And a lot of other conflicts have happened to them. So they kind of stood around scratching their heads going, oh, doesn't look like the world's getting better and better. Looks like it's getting worse and worse like Jesus said it would. So that's post-millennialism. that we're going to give the kingdom to Jesus. So the only biblically balanced, responsible, and exegetical way to look at the kingdom is a premillennial viewpoint.

55:54 Every other one has its merits, but not much merit. And it's theologically unsound, to be honest. so Paul taught that Jesus is coming back at any moment and we should be ready for him we should wait for him and we'll have more to say on that next time I think I have kind of given you a fire hose approach and so we're going to close with that I realize that getting this much scripture for some will give you spiritual indigestion. And I don't apologize for that. I hope you burp up scriptures all week long with that spiritual indigestion. But you can always go back and listen to it again or dig deeper on your own or have discussions with your connect groups or ask questions to any of us after the service.

56:59 Let's pray. Father, thank you for a group very similar to the Thessalonians. They've received the word of God. It has come to them and it goes through them so that people in this city, in this state, in this region have that echoing, rippling effect as truth goes into ears and lives and changes lives for your glory. We do look forward, Lord, to your coming, to your establishing your kingdom. Until then, we want to live under your kingship. And until then, we pray, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all stand.