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1 Thessalonians 1:1 - 10  a Verdict that demands some Evidence.  Vss. 2 - 4

Legacy Standard Bible
1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. 2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father, 4 knowing, brothers beloved by God, your election, 5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. 9 For they themselves report about us what kind of an entrance we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

Last week we made a good start in this letter to the Thessalonians.  We established some historic background for this church.  How they were born in pressure and persecution almost from day one.  

Paul spent 3 weeks teaching in the synagogue of the jews and after that, the fight was on.  Some of the jews and many of the Godly greeks believed, but the ones who did not believe doubled down on their disbelief to the point of persecution and attack.  

So much so that Paul had to get out of town quickly for his own safety.  This church was left to fend for itself in it's infant stages.  Just a very few weeks of instruction.  Some time goes by and Paul sends Timothy back to see what if anything has survived.

And Timothy comes back with great news.  The church is thriving.  It's growing.  And Paul writes these letters to answer some of the questions they have that he never got to address while he was with them so briefly.

How has that happened.  How has a baby church, we don't know what or who their leadership was, how have they been able to survive under pressure and even thrive and grow.  

Last week we made the distinction that the church, the real church, the called out of this world into the kingdom of God - church, is a church that perseveres.  You can't extinguish a fire, if God is the one who started it.  That was true then and it's true now.  The true church perseveres.

John the apostle makes this distinction with great clarity.  John comes at it from the negative perspective of a church splitting and fracturing into pieces, but by so doing we understand the concept of the bond that holds the true church together in trouble.

18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. 1 John 2:18 - 20

People leave.  All the time.  I never get too worked up about it.  John explains it.  They leave because they were not really of us.  I'm not talking about normal attrition, folks who move away.  I'm talking about people who come for a while and they don't like the clear message of this book, and they have a whole bunch of reasons why they didn't stay.  

Why is it that the folks at Thessalonica were enduring all kinds of hostility and pressure to disperse, but they held together and thrived?  Paul's going to talk about that in vss. 2 - 4.  It's the exact opposite of what John explained in the passage I read.  Folks leave because they aren't called out of this world into the kingdom of God.  But they stay, under duress to leave, because they are the called out ones.

The short answer is in vs. 4.  That's the main verse.  We'll begin there and then back track a little bit to vs. 2 and 3.

4 knowing, brothers beloved by God, your election

The elect continue under horrific pressure to the end, and the non-elect quit.  For a thousand reasons, they disappear. In the case of the folks who departed in John's epistle, they didn't just go down the street to a different church, they started a new religion with a different gospel, a non gospel.  The real christians stay and huddle together in trouble.

Timothy comes back to Paul with the report.  Those guys are doing great.  Under horrific conditions and impossible odds, they're doing just fine.  It's as if the called out of this world is gold and the non called out of this world are waste products.  The fire only serves to separate the gold and purify it apart from the dross, the waste.  

Pressure isn't fun for anyone, but it purifies and separates the true church from all of the dross.  We could argue that in our land, the reason the church is so weak and impure is because of the ease and lack of pressure.  The purifying process has been missing.  

Not in Thessalonica.  It was costly in the extreme to be a christian in that place, and the result is that when Timothy goes back to check for Paul, he finds these beautiful purified almost 100% pure real christians.  And Paul launches into this thanks to God.

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers;

Paul's immediate response is twofold.  Thankfulness to God, and prayers in behalf of the brothers God has called and blessed.  

Thanksgiving is the worshipful response of grace received.  God gives us what we do not deserve.  Forgiveness, life, removal of sin and guilt, a right standing with Him and fellowship with Him, all freely given to those who are deserving of death and hell, by a magnanimous loving God who gave His Son to purchase us.

Paul's heart is full of thankfulness because God has rescued a little group of people in Thessalonica from their fallen state and placed them in His kingdom.  They didn't deserve it, God graciously accomplished it, through the faithful preaching and message of Paul.

Anytime Satan loses and God wins, and especially if we've had the privilege to be used in some way by God in that transaction, our hearts burst forth with praise and worship in thanks.

We exult in worship and thankfulness when we see the providence of God at work rescuing people out of this fallen world and brought safely into His ownership.  Remember,  Paul was on his way somewhere else.  And God kept closing doors and blocking his movements.  And then Paul had a dream that the people in Macedonia were saying come up here and help us.

So Paul went to Thessalonica and preached Jesus, and a whole group of people came out of Satan's armies and joined God's forces.  Win for God.  Loss for Satan.  And the response is worship which exhibits itself in prayers of thanksgiving.

Anytime God providentially makes inroads into Satan's territory and holdings and rescues people, calls them out of that to be His own possession, our hearts burst with praise and thanksgiving.  We've witnessed that.  We've been there, done that.  Not often enough, for sure.  But we understand why Paul is bursting out in prayer and worship because of what God has accomplished.

Satan stole this planet from God.  God created all of it to reflect His glory and Satan robbed God of that when sin entered the equation.  Satan caused the glory that is due God to be diverted everywhere but God.  So when God providentially uses people who belong to Him to go and rescue other people, call them out of Satan's world and into God's kingdom, retaking what is rightfully His, our hearts can't help but burst forth in praise and worship.

Think about this though.  Percentage wise, the numbers are pretty small.  The numbers in any given place who are really called out of this world christians compared to the numbers held by Satan, are a tiny percentage.  In a community of 3500 people, 15 people come to church.  That's way less than 1%.  And getting smaller.

You say, well, there's other churches.  Perhaps.  But to that I would say, even of the church goers a portion are tares.  They aren't real.  In Tonopah, Satan isn't getting much heartburn over people leaving his armies and joining God's authority to reign.  Tiny percentage.

Paul addresses that also.  It's in verse 10, and it's almost forgotten in the modern church.  No one even considers these things any more.  See it there?  10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

We exult and worship God over a tiny percentage that He rescues out of Satan's grasp.  But ultimately we are waiting for the day when Jesus returns and finishes the job.  We're happy over the 1% because God wins, Satan loses, and we are created to be worshippers and so we exult whenever those tiny gains for God are made.

But beloved, a day is coming when Jesus is going to return and take it all.  Satan will be deposed.  Evil will be crushed and judged and punished.  And a kingdom will be set up in this world, on this planet, Satan will be deposed and  imprisoned, and God will own it all.  Try to imagine the worship and joy and praise and exultation when that day that we wait for, finally comes.  We get happy over the tiniest gains.  Think about when ALL of it is regained for the glory of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The first century church was built upon this hope.  The twentyfirst century church would for the most part have their eyes glazed over listening to what I just said because they have no concept at all of any of it.  It isn't taught.  And yet it's the single most vital truth of this church at Thessalonica and by default, for us as well.  It's the very reason Paul had to write the letters to them.

Paul's whole premise of his gospel to the Thessalonians was, the world is condemned because of Satan and sin and the fall, but God has made a provision to be rescued out of that condemnation.  Jesus who died, in our place, shed His blood to pay our debt, offers reconciliation with God through the forgiveness of sins and you can step out of this world and into His kingdom.  You can join us, and we are the called out of this world ones.

And not only that, that's great, but there's more.  Jesus is returning to retake the whole thing.  Soon.  He's coming.  He's calling out a people to be His own, and then He's coming in judgement and retribution to retake this world and depose Satan to prison for a thousand years.  He will reign here in an Eden like world on David's throne, physically, in Jerusalem.  That's our future.

And these folks at Thessalonica as well as all of the first generation first century churches thought that would happen in their lifetimes.  The mystery of the church would unfold over centuries.  No one saw that the church age would last for 2000 years while God patiently calls people out of this world to be His own possession.

We have good reasons to believe that the actual time of Jesus return is approaching and is very near.  We now have the 20-20 hindsight that says, all of the prophecies are staged and ready, all of the props are set and in their right places, everything is in readiness, at any moment, the curtain can be opened and the play can unfold.  It's all ready.  We're just waiting for that moment.

And the moment that sets the end time events into motion is the finality of the church age.  The rapture of the church.  We will meet Jesus in the air.  And we're studying the book that explains that event the most clearly of anything ever written for us.  

Thankfulness and prayer.  Anytime God takes ground and Satan loses ground, we exult in worship and prayerful thankfulness.  We do that now over the tiniest gains.  A couple new folks, we rejoice.  A couple of young future men want to be baptised in obedience to Jesus and our hearts are full.  Over the tiniest of gains.

Think about the joy and worship when Jesus comes and retakes it all!  You're happy over a couple of little fellows.  Think about Jesus retaking the whole thing!  That thought, that HOPE is designed to sustain the true church until He comes.  And almost nobody is thinking it.  The evangelical church has largely lost this.

The whole point of everything is that Jesus is coming to crush Satan's head and retake this planet as His own possession for the glory of His Father.  

Find me a church that's preaching that!  Because that was what Paul preached.  And that was why a little group of people in Thessalonica were holding on for dear life, and not just holding on, they were growing and expanding.

OK, we opened this study last week thinking about the ramifications of the word translated church.  Ekklesia.  ekklēsía(from 1537 /ek, "out from and to" and 2564 /kaléō, "to call") – properly, people called out from the world and transferred to God, the outcome being the Church (the mystical body of Christ)

The very word Paul uses to identify these folks speaks of them being removed from something, called out of something and placed into something else.  We are the called out ones.  We are called out of this world and placed in another world.  The kingdom of God.

Removed from the authority to reign of Satan and placed into the authority to reign of God.  That's the very meaning of the word church.  And Paul not only identifies them as the real thing in vs. 1, he alludes to that truth again in vs. 4
4 knowing, brothers beloved by God, your election

And here the word is almost the same.  The word translated elect or election is eklogēn.  Also a compound word.  Same beginning root.  ek.  out from and displaced into.  Something is taken out of one spot and replaced into a new place.  Out from and to.  And logen.  And this time the event of the taking out of and being placed into is by choice.  

Someone is doing the selecting and displacing.  And that someone is God.  We are a group selected by God to be removed from this world and placed into a different world.  Called out of condemnation and imminent destruction, placed into God's kingdom instead.

Election makes a lot of christians nervous.  They get panicky and their minds tell them, if that's true, God is an evil monster who destines some for glory and others for destruction.  And then they try to save God from himself by making these words mean something else.

My advice is to instead believe God who has told you already that He is perfectly righteous and perfectly just in all of His doings, and not try to understand things your brain is too small to understand.  

But verse 4 is the reason for verses 2 and 3.  Election is the premise of a group of called out of this world ones who have been placed into God's kingdom and who have survived impossible odds.  

Of course they did!  God chose them and God removed them from this condemned world and God placed them safely in His own possession in heaven.  Of course they survived.

And in verse 3 Paul is going to give us the evidence of their election.  When God does that, when He calls a group of people out of this world to be His possession, there is irrefutable evidence.  Always.  No exceptions.  It was true for the christians in Thessalonica, and it is equally true for us.  And that visible evidence is catalogued for us in vs. 3.

Let's consider the entire context again before we launch into vs. 3.  We'll read the full complete thought from vs. 2 to vs. 4.  

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father, 4 knowing, brothers beloved by God, your election,

If a group is elect.  If a group is called out of this world to belong to God, then without fail, you will find three things present that give unarguable evidence to that truth.  Three evidences.

If a church is real, these three evidences of God's choice and calling will be present.  Without fail.  Let's unpack them in vs. 3.

3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father,

Real christians have a faith that produces works.
Real christians labor for the kingdom in love.
Real christians are steadfast in the hope of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If those three things are not present, I have no reason to believe the church corporate or the individuals in it are actually called out ones.  They may be, I suppose, but these things are the evidence that is proof of our calling out of this world.

James writes something similar.  James 2;
14 What use is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead by itself. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; and I have works. Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Real faith produces real works.  The two are inseparable.  I run into people all the time who claim to be christians but there's no evidence.  At all!  Nothing.  Why would I believe them?  Real christians who are called out of this world into God's possession, His kingdom authority, will without fail, have some visible evidence.  

Missouri is the "show me" state.  Well, I'm a show me christian.  I don't buy into all these great christians that don't ever need to be in church.  Show me your faith.  Otherwise, I have every reason to assume, your faith is dead faith.  
James finishes that section logically by saying Faith without works is dead.

Paul is rejoicing over the Thessalonians because he's received a report from Timothy, full of evidence that they are the real deal.  Real christians.  Real called out of this world into God's possession christians.  And the evidence is in vs. 3

3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father,

They have a faith that is visible.  A faith that is working.  And they have a love that constrains them to labor.  And they are driven by a hope to see Jesus face when He returns and comes to receive them unto Himself.

We have a job to do as called out believers.  Careers and vacations and leisure and everything else we do, including necessary sleep, is secondary to our first priority.  "You had one job!"  The love for Jesus that we have constrains us to work for the advancement of His kingdom.

What is it that you're doing that is causing God's kingdom to gain ground and Satan's kingdom loss?  That's priority one.  So what is it that you're doing that aligns with that.  Job one.  

That's a hard question for American christians, isn't it.  Do we really approach our lives constrained by a love for Jesus that means job one is the advancement of His kingdom, and everything else is second, third, fourth after that.  Driven by love.  That's part of a faith that works.  That's the evidence that we're real.  

Finally in this trilogy of visible evidence of our calling that we're claiming applies to us as well as the Thessalonians is that we are steadfast.  Immovable.  And our foundation that makes us immovable is our hope in the coming of Jesus to retake this planet for His glory and Satan's defeat.

Are we living every day as though Jesus might show up.  Today!  That was the foundation of Paul's gospel.  Jesus rescues us out of a perishing condemned world into His kingdom.  But there's more.  Jesus will return and retake this world in a great cataclysm of judgement.  Evil will be crushed.  Satan will be locked up in prison waiting for the lake of fire.  Jesus will reign.  Here.  

Paul was literal about that reality, and it was the hope of that promise that drives the other evidences.  Today could be the day that we see our redeemer's face.  Meanwhile we work tirelessly driven by love, for the advancement of our Lord's kingdom.  
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I want to be part of a church that is a real irritation to Satan.  I want to be a tack in his shoe that pokes through and causes him pain.  We want to be a church that has these evidences visible for the whole onlooking world to easily see.

Faith, Hope, and love.  These three, but the greatest of these, is love.  1 Cor. 13:13  These three evidences appear over and over in Paul's teaching.  Listen to Paul later in this same letter to the Thessalonians;  1 Thess. 5:

8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not appointed us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

A living working faith and a love that labors are the breastplate of the armor that sustains us in the day of battle with the evil one.  And we have a helmet too.  Our helmet is our hope of salvation.

You say, why am I hoping for salvation.  I'm already saved.  Why would I hope for salvation?  

Beloved, all we have so far is just the downpayment.  The Holy Spirit is the pledge of future salvation.  The Holy Spirit is just the engagement ring promise of the future joining of us in reality, with Christ.  That's our hope.  And that hope is our helmet.  Faith.  Hope.  Love.  The three evidences of real called out ones.  Real christians.

Listen to Paul's opening words in his letter to the Colossians.  Ch. 1:

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. 3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel 6 which has come to you,

It's like a broken record.  Paul keeps saying the same thing over and over.  The evidence of true salvation, real christians is 3 things.  Faith.  Love.  Hope.

How do you stack up?  If a report of what you're currently doing reached Paul would he break out in worshipful prayers of thanksgiving?  If not, why not.  Those things are normative for true called out of this world christians.