PROOF FROM PERSECUTION

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 13, 2018 under PM Bible Study |

PM Bible Study Group; June 13, 2018 – Introduction; 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

Theme: The way in which those who receive the gospel are willing to suffer for doing so is something that shows forth its truth as a message from God.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Paul had been writing to the Thessalonian believers about how grateful he was for them. He delighted in how their reception of the gospel of Jesus Christ had been an example to all those around them. This was so much so, in fact, that Paul didn’t have to say much in order to declare the power of the gospel. All he had to do was mention the amazing transformation that occurred in the lives of the Thessalonians through faith in the message of Jesus Christ, and their story was sufficient proof—all on its own—of the gospel’s power.

We now turn to consider 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16; and Paul begins this passage with these words; “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing …” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). It would seem that the ‘reason’ he spoke of in the phrase “for this reason” pointed back to what he said in the first verse of the second chapter; “For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain.” Paul went on from there, in 2:1-12, to talk about the effort that he and his fellow missionaries extended in bringing the gospel to the Thessalonians. Paul felt very rewarded for his efforts.

But it wasn’t an easy effort. In 1:6, he told them, “And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction …” And as the passage before us shows, this “much affliction” that the Thessalonian believers endured ended up being further proof of the life-transforming power of the gospel. In 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16, Paul reminded them of what they suffered as he told them;

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost (1 Thessalonians 2:13-16).

What a lesson this gives us of what suffering for the gospel proves. It shows to those who receive it—and to those who watch those who suffer for it—that it is the real thing. It truly is a message from God; for no mere man-made message would be received so joyfully—and clung to so gladly—that would have caused those who receive it to suffer so much.

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Now; it seems that a good way to approach this passage would be to walk through what it tells us in reverse order—allowing the story of their experience to build up to the climax of the way the gospel proved itself in them. But a word of explanation is in order.

Paul talks about the Judeans in this passage; and he speaks rather harshly about them. It would be important to understand that he is not engaging (as some have thought) in a kind of antisemitism. Anyone who would suspect Paul of such a thing would be very seriously mistaken; because he had nothing but the greatest possible love for his own kinsmen in the flesh—the Jewish people. In Romans 11:1, he said, “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” Throughout his missionary ministry, his practice was the same: to present the gospel of Jesus Christ as “for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16). And even in the passage before us, he makes clear that there were churches of God in Jerusalem—made up of Jewish believers—who suffered from their own countrymen.

When Paul uses the word “Judeans”—and particularly when he speaks very strongly about their conduct—he is not speaking of Jewish people in general. Rather, he is speaking of those from among the Jewish people who—from out of a supposed-Jewish zeal for the religion of Judaism—were openly hostile to the message of the gospel of Jesus as the Messiah. It was from this strong opposition-movement that the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem had suffered so much.

So; let’s begin by considering verses 15-16; and seeing …

I. WHAT THE JUDEANS DID TO THEIR COUNTRYMEN.

In these two verses, we see Paul describing them through seven characteristics. First, he says that they acted in violence. He says of them that they were those “who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets” (v. 15). Not only did they crucify the Lord Jesus, but they also had a long history of killing those who promised his coming. As Stephen the martyr said to them,

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers …” (Acts 7:51-53);

and as our Lord Himself also said to them;

Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation (Matthew 23:34-36).

Paul says that they also persecuted the apostles who were appointed by Jesus to declare Him to the world; saying that in addition to killing the Lord and His prophets “have persecuted us” (v. 15). The Book of Acts often chronicles these acts of persecution for us. He says further that they resisted God’s will; writing “and they do not please God” (v. 15). They had thought that, because of their strict obedience to the law given through Moses (and through their elaborate expansions of that law through their traditions and rituals) that they were completely pleasing to God. That was why—ostensibly, anyway—they protested so fiercely against the gospel and fought so consistently against those who preached it. They thought they were fulfilling God’s will by protecting His law. But in the end, they were refusing to do the very thing that God truly wanted them to do; and that was to believe on His Son. As Jesus told them;

“… you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:38-40).

Paul goes on to say that they opposed humanity; declaring of them that they are “contrary to all men” (v. 15). If it is truth that in Jesus was life, and if it is true that this life was the light of men (John 1:4), then to have fought against the gospel and to shut people out from hearing it was an aggressive act of hostility to humanity. That is always true of every nation or government on earth that seeks to suppress the message of the gospel. It is engaging in an attack on humanity. Jesus said of those Jewish leaders in His day who were doing this,

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13).

Paul goes on to say they did this by the fact that they hindered the good news. He said of them that they were “forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved” (v. 16). It was not enough for them to have rejected the gospel for themselves. They also would not let others hear what they themselves rejected. What a dreadful thing for which to have to give an account on the day of judgment!

Paul goes on to speak of how this resistance impacted their own standing before God. He wrote of them that they behaved in unrepentance; saying that they acted “so as always to fill up the measure of their sins” (v. 16). They didn’t stop; but continued to carry their sins on to the limit by eventually crucifying the Lord of glory. Jesus said of them that they piously declared,

“‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt” (Matthew 23:30-32);

probably meaning that they would complete their guilt by putting Him to death. And then Paul said finally that, for all this, they experienced just judgment; writing, “but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost” (v. 16). Some have thought that this was a prediction on Paul’s part of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.; but most likely, it is a reflection of the promise of Jesus:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Matthew 23:37-39).

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So; this is the dreadful treatment that the Christians in Jerusalem—both Jews and Gentiles—experienced from their own countrymen, the Judeans. And moving backward in our passage, that leads us next to consider …

II. WHAT THE THESSALONIANS DID IN RESPONSE TO OPPOSITION (v. 14).

Paul was meaning for the Thessalonians to think of what had happened to the churches of God in Jerusalem when he wrote; “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans …” (v. 14).

What was it that these Thessalonian believers suffered from their own countrymen? The story is told to us in Acts 17—where we read of how the gospel first came to them. And as it turns out, they suffered opposition from the Judeans who were also from among their own countrymen. Luke tells us of Paul’s and Silvanus’ and Timothy’s coming to them in these words:

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas (Acts 17:1-4).

What an exciting response. Note that among those who were ‘persuaded’ were Jewish people from the synagogue. Already, we can see something of the kind of welcome in the hearts of the Thessalonians that thrilled Paul at the beginning of his letter to them. And it’s then that we’re told;

But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.” And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go (vv. 5-9).

The resistance of these Jewish ‘Judeans’ in their midst was powerful—so powerful, in fact, that the Judeans left from Thessalonica to follow the missionaries into Berea; and to even there oppose them. As it says in Acts 17:13; “But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds” (v. 13). They just wouldn’t let up in their opposition to the preaching of the gospel and of their persecution of those who received it!

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But all of this underscores the greatness of the message that the Thessalonians believed and embraced. Again moving backward in this passage, we come to verse 13 and see …

III. WHAT THIS PROVED WITH REGARD TO THE GOSPEL (v. 13).

Paul had been recounting to them the amazing transformation that the gospel had in them. And with the story of all these persecutions in view, he writes, “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (v. 13).

If it were a word from man, why would there be any value in suffering for it so much? There were plenty of other ‘words from men’ that could be received that would have made life much easier. But their willingness to suffer so much for the gospel of Jesus Christ—and to cling to it in spite of the attacks they received for it—proved that it truly was what they received it to be. It was the word of God; the word which effectively transforms the lives of those who embrace it.

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Before he came to the Thessalonian believers, Paul had come to Philippi. He had suffered a great deal while there—and so did those who believed. He and Silus were even thrown into prison for preaching the gospel in Philippi. But Paul was likewise encouraged by the resolute faith of the Philippians. Their willingness to receive the gospel—in spite of such suffering—also testified of its truthfulness. He told them;

Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me (Philippians 1:27-30).

Suffering for the gospel—embracing its life-changing power in spite of opposition—provides proof, both to the saints and to the world, of its validity. It is, in truth, “the word of God which effectively works in you who believe.”

May our joyful embrace of the gospel also prove its truth to a hostile world!

EA