II Thessalonians 1: Waiting, Watching, Working

In this episode, Crystal moves into studying II Thessalonians. They were facing such persecutions and tribulations, they were misled to believe they were living in the midst of The Great Tribulation. Paul wrote to reassure them and to encourage them. Once again, he commends them because their, "...faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;" (II Thessalonians 1:3) and admired their "...patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations" (vs. 4).

Old Testament and New Testament Bible History Books by Richard Hester.

Next week, we will pause for a Ministry Mindset interview and then pick up our study of II Thessalonians chapter two in June! Here's the link to the study guide if you'd like one to accompany your study. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi there, welcome to Wisdom for Wednesday, your midweek pause for truth, encouragement, and practical faith. I'm your host, Crystal Ratcliffe, author, speaker, and fellow traveler on this journey of growing in God's Word. Each week we'll dive into Scripture together and have the opportunity to be encouraged in the truth that never changes. If you're able, grab your Bible, a cup of coffee, and let's seek God's wisdom together. Hi there, and welcome back to the podcast. We are continuing our study. This time we are going into 2 Thessalonians. So we finished up 1 Thessalonians last week, and I don't know about you, but it has been an amazing study. And I feel like I've gotten to know the Thessalonians and this church that Paul's writing to. And I feel this way every time I study one of these letters that Paul wrote to the churches. It's just a way of when you dig in and you really study, you just start to feel his heart for the people. And these people we know were known for. Hopefully, if you've been following along with me, they were known for their work of faith, their labor of love and patience of hope, and for sounding out and spreading forth the gospel. And what an example for us of how we should live as we wait for Christ's return. Now, I'm going to give you a little bit of background. And again, this comes from Brother Richard Hester's New Testament Bible history book. I have shared those before. I even shared them recently on a story in my Instagram because someone was asking how do I study, how do I go about studying and resources I like. I will link it again in the show notes. It is also linked in my profile, I believe, on Instagram. You can find it there. So he says this about the purpose of the letter, the 2nd Thessalonians letter. He said it was to correct a misunderstanding and perhaps a misrepresentation. We'll get into that a little bit more, concerning Paul's teaching of the second coming of Christ and the day of the Lord. Some were saying that the tribulation, the day of the Lord, had already come, even seemed to be a forged letter in the name of Paul promoting this idea. So we can see this in chapter two, verses one and two. It says, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not so sorry, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us. That's where we're talking about that forged letter, as that the day of Christ is at hand. And then it says in verse 3, let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except, and then there are some things listed there. And we will save that for chapter two. But that was kind of the point is Paul was correcting this confusion, and some believers were even quitting work in expectation of Christ's imminent return. And so that's going to be addressed in this letter. And it reminded me of it wasn't very long ago, there was this social media trend or something that I was seeing things about rapture preppers. And again, we talked about this how we don't know the day, we don't know when Jesus is coming back to rapture the believers out of this world. And it's foolish for us to try to determine that. But the rapture preppers were going around and leaving notes in their houses. They were filming themselves doing this, leaving notes in their houses and leaving things in their houses for the people who would come after them. And then in some really bizarre, twisted thinking and teaching and all of it. But I will say this the better example of how to be prepared for the rapture is right here with what we see in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and what these believers were known for. So Brother Hester also said this that it was to instruct them about the discipline of believers who were walking disorderly and that they needed to respect and follow their God-given leaders. And we talked a little bit about that back in two episodes ago, I believe it was, because in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, we addressed that. Let's see if I can read it real quick to you. Yeah, verse 12, it says, and we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. So we talked about how it was important to honor our spiritual leaders, to respect them, to follow them, to obey them. And in that episode, I shared quite a bit about the kind of spiritual leader we're going to follow, because that's important too. So I'm not going to get into all that, but all that to say, this is what Brother Hester says is the purpose of the letter for the 2nd Thessalonians. He also had this in his Bible history book. It's an outline by Baxter, which I really liked. Patient waiting, watching, and working, which I love that because that's what we're supposed to be doing, right? While we wait. But he said chapter one was comfort from the hope of Christ's return. Chapter two was caution on the time of Christ's return. And then chapter three, command in the light of Christ's return. And that is just an outline of 2 Thessalonians that I liked. I wanted to share that with you before we get into 2 Thessalonians chapter one. And again, remember what they were known for: work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope. They were known for sounding out and spreading forth the gospel. They were living as if Christ was returning at any moment. What a motivator! If we truly believe that Jesus could come back at any moment, it should change the way we're living. What would he find you doing or not doing? What would he find me doing or not doing? It's a good question to ask yourself. And my pastor, he often uses this illustration when he's talking about the rapture, and he uses the illustration of Velcro and how when the rapture takes place, will it sound like you are being ripped away from this world because you're too attached to it? Um, you think about even back in the Old Testament when Lot lingered when he was told to leave Sodom, he lingered. His wife looked behind and became a pillar of salt. And so is that how we're going to be taken out of this world? It's just something to think about. And of course, he can make the sound, the velcro sound. I cannot. But are we waiting expectantly? Are we waiting excitedly for the day when Jesus comes for us? Or are we just too caught up in what this world has to offer to focus on what awaits us in eternity? Some things to think about. So let's go ahead. We're gonna get started and read the first few verses here. It says Paul and Sylvanus and Timotheus unto the Church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth. So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure, which is a manifest manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which ye also suffer, seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. I'm going to stop right there. So we see here in these first few verses, the faith groweth exceedingly and the charity aboundeth. And so faith and charity, we see that again. Uh, one commentator noted that hope is not mentioned here and thought that that was because of their misunderstanding about Christ's return. And as Brother Hester pointed out, they thought they had missed the rapture. So I want you to think about that for a moment. They were in the midst of such persecutions and tribulations that they actually believed they were in the midst of the great tribulation. And when I think about that, I think about how so we are so weak. We are so weak in our faith and um just unfaithful. Our faith is not tested like these believers' faith was tested. Persecution means infliction of pain, punishment, or death upon others unjustly for adhering to a particular religious creed or mode of worship. So, yes, Christians around the world are actually being persecuted and killed for their faith. But here in America, that's not really happening. Now, I believe Charlie Kirk was killed for his beliefs. Don't get me wrong, but most of us, we're here living out our faith freely with little to no opposition. And then so they were suffering persecutions, they were suffering tribulations, which is severe affliction, distresses of life. And so I notice here that phrase, your faith groweth exceedingly. Trials will either make us stumble and fall, or grow and mature spiritually. And trials will come. Tribulations will come. Jesus said that in John 16, 33. He says, These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So Jesus never promised that we would have an easy life here on this earth, free of tribulation and trials. And I think we as believers need to be careful with how we present the gospel to new believers and when we try to disciple them to help them understand that. This is not an easy believism thing where you accept Christ and then everything is going to go your way and all of your prayers are going to be answered in just the way you want because that is not real life. So we are going to face trials, we are going to face tribulations, but what we do with those or how we come out of those really is up to us. We can choose how we respond. And I love this from Warren Wearsby. I shared this in the It's Time Bible study when we were talking about uh Ruth and Naomi. Is that when we're facing trials, when we're facing tribulations, we can choose to escape them, which means we're going to try and run away and we're going to miss out on what God has for us and what we could learn through them. We're going to endure them, which means we're going to maybe white knuckle our way through it and we become bitter and angry, or we can enlist them. And when I say enlist, that means they can help us to draw closer to the Lord and we can grow and mature spiritually through our trials. And then we see that phrase, your charity. Sorry, let me read it so I don't mess it up. The charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth. So we're back to loving like Him. We talked about this in the last episode. We talked about 1 Corinthians 13 and really loving others in the body of Christ and having a heart for the lost. So remember, they were known for sounding out and spreading the gospel. And that is the ultimate display of love because we should love others enough to tell them the wonderful good news that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day so that we could be saved. Warren Wearsby said this when Christians suffer, their faith reaches upward to God and their love reaches outward to their fellow believers. And I just love that. When you think about it, when we have everything going our way, we tend to not reach upward to God because we don't think we need Him. And we don't reach out to others, but when we are suffering, it causes us to look up toward the Lord and also to see others and to try and reach out to them as well. So I want to mention some of the things that we have discussed just in our study of First Thessalonians, ways that they could love one another, ways that their charity aboundeth. We have seen the word comfort, comfort one another with these words, comfort the feeble-minded. We talked about that in our episode from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 was the quitters, the ones that are likely to give up on their faith, were to comfort them, come alongside them and help them. They were to warn the unruly. We can't deny that speaking the truth and trying to help people who are making the wrong choices is a way of loving them. Okay. And then they were to charge one another, exhort, edify one another, build one another up, help them become established in the faith. And then we even had this one we need to be quiet and mind our own business. Sometimes we can be so hurtful with our words or being nosy. And that is a way we can love others is to be quiet and mind our own business. It told us to support the weak. So the weak in faith. They need support, they need help. We learned about defrauding not and walking honestly toward them that are without. And then we ourselves have been challenged to live holy lives and possess our vessel in sanctification and honor. So our own body, possess our vessel in sanctification and honor is a way of loving others. And then just because my pastor, he's preaching through Luke right now, and we came across these verses, and so I have to share them because loving others isn't always easy. We talked about that, but it says in Luke chapter 6, verse 27 But I say unto you, which hear, love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other, and him that taketh away thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. As ye would, sorry, and as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? For sinners also love those that love them, and if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? For sinners also do even the same, and if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again, but love ye your enemies and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your father also is merciful. So Jesus is challenging us to love differently than the world, because the world will love someone who loves them. That's easy. The hard part is loving someone who is unloving. The hard part is loving someone and praying for someone who is doing you wrong or hurting you, and so that's the mark of a true Christian, a true believer is someone who can love others like Christ did. And of course, verse 31 and as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. It's that golden rule that we teach children: treat others the way you want to be treated. And if we truly lived that way, it would solve a lot of problems. But I don't think we truly live that way most of the time. So I'm just putting that out there because it came up this week, and I knew I was talking about love again on the podcast. So I wanted to share that section of scripture with you. Now let's get back to our text over in 2 Thessalonians, and you see that phrase there patience and faith in the midst of persecutions and tribulations. So that is having endurance and steadfastness and constancy. They were found faithful, and it even tells us they were counted worthy. And we talked about that back in our first Thessalonians chapter 2 study, that word being counted worthy. So notice in verse 7, though, what it says, it says, And to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day. Paul was reassuring them that they could rest, and we can rest. The reason is our sins were judged at Calvary. When Jesus comes to judge the earth, and he's going to judge those who did not accept him as Savior, those that rejected him, he's going to be the righteous judge here. Understand this vengeance for God is not revenge or a personal grudge, it is to satisfy God's holy law. And sometimes, especially in our culture today, people don't want to talk about the fact that God is going to judge this earth and he is going to judge those who have rejected him. And so it's something that doesn't get talked about much anymore because it's not very popular. It's not a popular message. We think about those itching ears. We talked about that last week, I believe it was, where people want a message that's soft and they want to believe God is love. And truly, God is love. He is love. He's not sending people to hell. They are choosing it when they reject him, when they refuse to admit their need for a savior. So notice that phrase: everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. We do not, we should not want anyone to face that. And that should cause us to be bold witnesses for Christ. Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. That's eternal judgment. Now, some people attempt to deny that this is the case. Weirsby said this: some cultists have tried to dilute the meaning of everlasting destruction, saying it means either temporary suffering or total annihilation. But both of these ideas are false. The phrase means eternal judgment, no matter how men try to twist and avoid it. And I would say this if we're going to twist it, if we're going to avoid it, then what's eternal life? That's our promise, our hope. We've been given the gift of eternal life when we accept Jesus as our Savior. But if we're going to say, Well, there's no eternal judgment, is there also no eternal life? Romans 5 12 says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Verse 8, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And then if we look at chapter 6, verse 22, I'm going to start there. But now, being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death. That's eternal separation from God. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that is what we are promised. And we know that God's word comes to pass. His word will come to pass. We don't have to understand it. We don't have to like it, but you can count on it because we can read over and over again of the prophecies that have already been fulfilled in God's word that have already come to pass. And so that should give you confidence to believe that his word will come to pass. And so when it says everlasting destruction and eternal judgment, that's what it means. But praise the Lord, it also, when it says everlasting life and eternal life and the promise of heaven, that's what it means. And we can trust that. Let's look at those last two verses in our chapter. It says, Wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of This calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And one thing that we miss is that the Bible, from cover to cover, is about the Lord Jesus Christ and Him being glorified, is Him receiving the honor and the glory that He is due. And that is going to come in the end times. That is going to come when He returns to this earth and establishes the millennial kingdom when every knee will bow. That is when Jesus is going to get the glory that he deserves. And so sometimes we miss the point of the Bible. We think it's all about us, but truly, it's all about our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, like the Thessalonians, let's live in such a way that we're expecting it, that we're excitedly awaiting it. And that means we're going to have a labor of love, a work of faith, and a hope in what's to come that causes us to sound out and spread forth the gospel. So I'm just going to ask you, because the Lord had it on my heart when I was going through this study, is how are you doing with all that? Does the knowledge of his imminent return cause you to be a bold witness for him? Are you loving others even when they're difficult to love? Is your is your love abounding toward others? Is your faith growing in the midst of trials? Or are you trying to escape them or just white knuckle your way through them? Are you enlisting the trials and using them to help you grow and mature spiritually? Are you committed to staying faithful until the very end? And so, man, there's a lot in this book. There's a lot in this chapter. And I hope that you're enjoying the study as much as I am. I am going to have a ministry mindset interview next week. I'm excited about that one. You're going to want to tune in. And then we will pick up Second Thessalonians again in June. Thank you for listening. As always, if you enjoy the episode, please share it with a friend. Leave a rating, leave a review, all the things I've told you before how much that helps not only the podcast to reach more Christian women, but also the books. If you have not left a review yet on Amazon for the Bible studies and the study guides, please do that as well. Oh, and I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you the devotional book. I have the at the time of this recording, I've got proof copies in my hands. So I'm going to be making edits. I'm going to get those all uploaded, and hopefully, that devotional book will be available very soon. I can't wait to share it with you.