MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
TEXT: 1 Thessalonians 1:9b-2:16
Reader: Linda Adutwum
It is a rule of thumb that preachers should never speak when they are angry. Well, I am angry today. Mostly with myself but also with our society. Before we get to that, though, let’s pick up from last week…
Project map of Paul’s second missionary journey…
As we read last week, Paul and Silas were sent from the church in Antioch, Syria to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to the churches throughout modern-day Turkey. In Lystra they added up Timothy to their team and Luke joined them soon after. As they continued along the road, the Holy Spirit prevented them from going to certain regions of Turkiye and instead directed them across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia. There they went to Philippi and many people became Christians, a fact that enraged some in that city, which resulted in such severe persecution for Paul and his team that they had to flee for their lives. They arrived in Thessalonica, the capital city of Macedonia, located on the western side of the Aegean Sea where they were warmly welcomed and thus, they started a church there. But after seeing many Thessalonians, both Gentiles and Jews, commit their lives to following Jesus, leaders of the local Jewish synagogue were enraged and went to the local political authorities and frightened them by stating that Paul was preaching against the decrees of Caesar, the ruler, the king, of the Roman Empire, by claiming that Paul was preaching “that there is another king, one called Jesus”. The Thessalonian authorities were concerned that if Paul was really saying that Caesar would be threatened and enraged and that the full weight of the Roman military would come down upon their citizens and so they forced Paul to flee for his life.
Actually, though they couldn’t have understood it, those Thessalonian authorities had a valid reason to be concerned about Jesus being a king as was seen in the 1930’s, when the nation of Korea was invaded by Japan, certain Japanese military leaders had the leader of the Korean Baptist Association of Churches brought before them to stand trial. The Korean pastor was interrogated and asked about Jesus, who and what was He and what He was going to do in Korea. The Japanese military officers asked the Baptist pastor, “So, your Jesus is a king?” “Yes,” said the pastor, “He is a king.” “And what of this king?” “He is coming again,” said that Baptist pastor. “And when He comes again,” said the Japanese officials, “what shall He do?” “He shall establish the kingdom of God in earth.” “And then,” asked the Japanese officer, “then what?” “Then,” said the Baptist pastor, “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Christ, to the glory of God the Father”. The Japanese officer asked, “Does that include our emperor?” The pastor, knowing full well that the Japanese worshipped their emperor as a god, replied, “Yes. It includes your emperor, for every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Christ and Lord.” The Japanese officer asked, “Do you only you believe this, or do all of you pastors believe it?” In response, the Korean Baptist pastor replied, “Not only do I, but we all believe it.” Concerned, the Japanese military offices order him taken away and that every Baptist pastor in Korea should likewise be incarcerated. During that long occupation of Korea by Japan, which lasted through the 1930’s and into World War II, finally ending in 1945 many of those pastors died, but at the end of World War II when the occupation ended, those remaining pastors, including their leader, were liberated, though that lead pastor died shortly after due to the persecution he had received while imprisoned. But he never wavered in his commitment to Jesus, an example for us.
As for Paul, he never wavered, either. Eventually he landed in southern city of Corinth where he would remain for one-and-a-half years. Silas and Timothy, who had remained behind in Thessalonica, rejoined Paul in Corinth. They told him of the ongoings of the church there and, based upon their reports, Paul decided he had better write to them.
They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (1 Thessalonians 1:9b,10)
Think about that scene when Paul and his team first arrived in Thessalonica. The people there would have known nothing about what Paul and his team were speaking. The Gentile certainly would not have known about the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. They would have never heard before that God was loving and could bring them forgiveness and salvation through His Son Jesus. The New Testament had not been written at that point. All they had were Paul’s words about Jesus. As Paul later admitted in other New Testament letters, he knew that the Gospel message sounded like gibberish, nonsense, and foolishness to all of them but many Thessalonians, both Gentiles and Jews, accepted Paul’s words and gave their lives to becoming followers of Jesus. Those new Christians lost much, almost everything, on account of their new-found faith. Salvation they gained, certainly, but also gained intense persecution!
The “idols” that the Thessalonian Christians had been worshipping were certainly not what moderns try to read into the text, that they were merely “idols” of lust, or greed, or materialism, or whatever, “idols” that could be overcome by sheer force of will. But that was not the case. The idols of Thessalonica were man-made figurines and statues of the Greek pantheon of Olympian gods such as Zeus and the people lived in fear of them. Those idols and their corrupt priests controlled their lives. The province of Macedonia itself was named after Makedon, the son of Zeus. Amazingly, when the Thessalonians came to know through the preaching of Paul about the one true God, and that He loved and forgave them and saved them through His son Jesus, well those new believers abandoned their traditional and familial idolatry and lived and served the one true God, and specifically Jesus. By abandoning their idolatry, those new Christians were not just converting to Christianity, they were leaving behind their family and culture. Today, when someone in the West becomes a Christian, there is usually a leaving behind of individual sins that once marked that person – swearing, getting drunk, sleeping around, whatever. But, in the church, we/I have allowed Christians to leave things at that, instead of doing what the Thessalonian Christians did, striving to change society and to bring in the Kingdom of God. That is why the Thessalonians were persecuted. Their conversions put those new Christians into difficult social and political positions where they, as a result, experienced the same kind of persecution that the first Christians in Jerusalem had earlier faced, a persecution that caused those Christians to flee from that city. Just as that persecution had not broken the Jerusalem Christians, nor had it broken the Thessalonians.
In the Western church, we often thank God that we don’t face the kind of persecution and opposition that Christians in the early church faced, nor that of Christians in certain Muslim or Communist countries face today. But persecution happens here, as well, just in a different form. People call us Christians “Nazis”, “racists”, “transphobes”, “homophobes”, and on and on. We had a fellow here picketing outside one time because I am a Baptist pastor and therefore, in his words, a hateful bigot. We have allowed bigoted liars to shame us and silence us. But that day has come to an end. As one pastor posted online yesterday, “Attention pastors: preach the full gospel tomorrow. We cannot let this moment pass us by.” In response one person wrote, “I haven’t been in church for 15 years. I will be there this Sunday.” Another wrote, “I haven’t been in 40. I am going in this Sunday.” What was the trigger of this? The assassination of Christian speaker Charlie Kirk. Memorials have been set up in his honour in South Korea, England, and many other nations around the world. Campuses and churches in the USA have had overflow worship and prayer services since Wednesday. Angels Stadium in Los Angeles yesterday held a rally with an overflow crowd of 40,000 plus and there were so many people going forward in response to an altar call giving their lives to Jesus that the authorities, citing safety concerns, stepped in. Here is the “full gospel” message I have been asked to share today, just as was shared at Angels Stadium and other places this week: you are a sinner, but God is forgiving, and He will give you full forgiveness, meaning in this life, and salvation in the next, if you accept His son Jesus Christ and pledge to follow and serve him. When you do so, God will send His presence, the Holy Spirit, to be with you every day.
The fact is this: Charlie Kirk was murdered not because he was hateful or speaking untruths but because he was effective. Demons hated him for it. Compared to 13 years ago when Kirk began his university campus ministry, the number of young Americans professing faith in Jesus Christ had exploded down south. Of course, it hasn’t happened here in Canada because we Canadian Christians value being polite and getting along with people more than we do sharing our faith and changing our world. However, our reticence to speak out has led to freedom of speech ending for both Christians and conservative speakers in Canada, as is evidenced by Jordan Peterson being forced out of the University of Toronto and Frances Widdowson being banned from speaking at the University of Lethbridge, all because their truth-telling was not in line with what leftists elites want to have exposed.
But such tactics are backfiring, at least on college campuses in the United States. There, Generation Z is now a more religious generation than that of either their parents or grandparents, the first time ever that a younger generation is more Christian than an older one. Baptisms of 7,000 people at a time in California, 4,000 in Florida and 3,000 in Texas are happening because Generation Z is turning to Christ. That has happened in the USA because Christians there such as Charlie Kirk decided they would no longer be cowed into silence by bigoted, hateful, persecutors. Kirk and others like him decided that their generation could be brought to Jesus only if they personally went to university campuses and peacefully debated students on their home turfs. Of course, that brought much pushback from those who hadn’t before been challenged for their anti-biblical views. Kirk was effective because he was kind and truthful. He did not spew hate, contrary to the lies spread about him by those who, without ever citing sources, claimed. Listen, here’s the truth: I didn’t agree with everything he said, but I don’t agree with what a lot of you say, either, and you don’t agree with a lot of what I say. But that shouldn’t stop us from dialoging. As Charlie Kirk prophetically said, “When discourse ends, violence begins.”
On Friday, liberal comic Bill Maher said on his show that people need to stop claiming that anyone who holds a different opinion is a “Nazi”. Sports celebrities Aaron Judge of baseball’s New York Yankees and basketball’s Lebron James, as well as entertainers Celine Dion of Canada, Chris Martin of Coldplay, and, last night in Calgary, country singer Keith Urban, have among scores of influential personalities who have condemned the murder of Charlie Kirk. Major League baseball games and National Football games have held one minute of silence before their games in silent tribute to Charlie. Memorials to Kirk have been set up in South Korea and France, while in England, during a massive parade of 100,000 people yesterday, cheers of “Charlie, Charlie, Charlie” rang out. And, yet there are some of you sitting here today who have no idea what I am speaking about or are offended that I am doing so.
On Thursday, one online writer penned these profound words: “If you are crying and grieving over the loss of Charlie Kirk and feel a bit odd or silly because you aren’t understanding why you feel so devastated, I will tell you why you are crying. Yesterday we lost an anointed man. (King) David didn’t even dare kill Saul because he (Saul) was God’s anointed. You are feeling the spiritual weight of a martyr. It is heavy. It is dark. We are witnessing the evil together and it hurts. You aren’t being silly or dramatic. Your spirit is grieved.” Now, if you have no clue who or what I am speaking about, I don’t know what to say other than to beg you to start reading from and viewing Christian and conservative websites and media sources. Get away from those opposed to the church and Christianity.
Persecution of Christians is here. Why do you think we have instituted a security team in our weekly worship services? It is because pastors in Canada, the USA, and other countries have been attacked, and many killed, for speaking out on social issues that the Bible, the Word of God, has plenty to say about. My son Matthew has threats made about him for speaking God’s Truth. We had a person picket outside our church building one Sunday evening because we are “hateful Baptists”, in that man’s words. Not just me, you, as well. We are all “hateful” according to many in our city. American media personality Michael Noles says that he has come to realize how much in danger his life is. That if they felt justified in killing Charlie Kirk, they will feel the same about him. Death threats are daily occurrences for those Christian speakers but I saw Charlie Kirk being mocked last year for stating that he had murder threats every day. By the way, the financial cost for Christian speakers at universities has become so prohibitive due to the heavy security they have been forced to hire by the universities that many have been forced to back out of their speaking engagements. And now they have killed Charlie, a truly nice guy who simply wanted to get discussion happening on topics. As Kirk said, “When discourse ends, violence begins.” Milo Yiannopoulos, a fiery homosexual speaker who truly is, unlike Charlie Kirk, a provocateur, but who after his conversion to Christianity, was forced to step back from public speaking for doing so, announced yesterday that he is “unretiring” and will resume speaking at universities. In his words, “You killed the nice guy. So, I guess you get me.” Good for him!
This week’s assassination of the 31-year old Kirk, a husband, and the father of two young girls, will prove to be the final straw that broke the dam of Christians cowering in silence, afraid to insult people by defending the truth. By the way, Kirk’s children and wife were in the crowd near the stage and saw Kirk get shot. His three-year old daughter immediately called out to her father for safety and comfort because the gunshot had scared her so. Gut-wrenching! Kirk’s murder was horrific, but it was made even worse by the 20,000 plus social media messages posted by elitists celebrating his murder, including many here in Canada. Anti-Christian bigots have become so used to getting away with smearing Christians that they believed they had what seemed to be a “right” to say whatever they wanted. Thankfully, people have fought back this week and demanded retractions. Many of those hateful bigots – to their amazement – been fired. Author Stephen King has had his horrible books pulled from shelves by publishing companies, leading him to weakly apologize and retract what he had falsely said about Charlie Kirk. King is now facing a lawsuit for millions of dollars by Erika Kirk – and she will win and King knows she will win – over the horrible, influential lies he told about her husband.
Erika Kirk, by the way, speaking just two days after her husband’s murder, said, “The evil doers responsible for my husband’s assassination have no idea what they have done. They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith, and of God’s merciful love. They should all know this: if you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country, and this world—you have no idea. You have no idea the fire that you have ignited…The movement my husband built will not die. It won’t. I refuse to let that happen. All of us will refuse to let that happen. No one will ever forget my husband’s name, and I will make sure of it.”
A whole new world of persecution and Christians living in the midst of it is upon us. How will we respond? That is the question. Hopefully in the way God would want us to: with forgiveness, love, and kindness. The Apostle Paul was so impressed by the resilience and faithfulness of the Thessalonian Christians in the face persecution they were experiencing that he felt he had to write to them to encourage them in their fight.
You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:1-12)
Paul says that he and his team were like wide-eyed, innocent “young children” in their enthusiasm for sharing the truth about Jesus Christ, like “nursing mothers” who cared for and supplied provision to them, like a “father” who was encouraging, comforting, and urging them to live their best lives possible. Paul was so thankful for their faith.
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
Remember, that while the Gentile new Christians in Thessalonica knew nothing about the “Word of God” when they first heard Paul’s words, the Jewish Christians among them did know of the Old Testament, the Word of God preserved in the Hebrew scriptures. Paul was impressing upon all of those new Christians that the words he and his colleagues had spoken were also the “Word of God” and that accepting those words would change them. A proof of how the Word of God changes people is that with Charlie Kirk being in heaven, if his murderer were to somehow come to faith in Jesus, that person would be welcomed to heaven and Charlie would be in his welcoming committee, hugging him. Why was understanding that Paul’s words were the Word of God so important to the Thessalonian Christians? Because if they believed that, the Holy Spirit would transform them and help them change their world. But, if they didn’t believe it, they would fall for lies and be led astray into living lives not helpful for them and not pleasing to God. The New Testament says this:
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12,13)
If a person allows it to, the Word of God will change them for it divides good from bad, and truth from falsehood. That applies to everyone. Before we come to our own day of judgement before God, we need to get our lives aligned with His Word. The apostle Peter, knowing that Paul had written various letters, commented thus:
So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. (2 Peter 3:14-18)
Paul’s words were the Word of God, Scripture, according to both Paul and Peter. Paul warned in the first chapter of his letter to the Romans that there were many who, though they knew God chose to not follow His word or glorify His name in their lifestyles and thus, a terrible tribulation and judgement would come upon them. Concluding today:
For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last. (2:14-16).
You know that I always stress the importance of reading the words of Scripture from their context, otherwise you will come to false conclusions, as have those who claim was being anti-Semitic in this passage. But, Paul was not writing against all Jews here. He was not anti-Semitic. He was Jewish himself, after all. Instead, when reading Paul’s words in the context of him writing to the Thessalonian Christians who have been persecuted by the Jewish religious leaders in Thessalonica, we can know that those were the Jews he was writing about. The “wrath of God” that had come upon them was in the sense of having no peace from God. As a result, they were angry and untruthful. The “wrath of God” upon them was the same “wrath of God” that Paul wrote about in Romans 1 where he said that because people had rejected God’s Word they were handed over by God to their own desires. He said to them, “You don’t want me in your lives. Very well, you are on your own.” Those people thus came to experience wickedness, evil, greed, depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice – and had themselves become gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, etc. The good news, though, as Paul told the Thessalonians Christians, was that none of those bad things had fallen upon them. Why not? Because they believed Paul’s words as being the very Word of God and had been changed as a result, which allowed them to persevere through the persecution they faced and live as faithful, Spirit-filled, servants of Jesus and worshippers of God.
More next week! Let’s pray…
