Jesus Glorified in You-2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Key Verse: 1:12
“We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (NIV)
Today we begin to study the book of 2 Thessalonians. It is the third letter written by the Apostle Paul following Galatians and 1 Thessalonians. Paul was only able to spend three weeks with the Thessalonian church, and then he had to leave quickly because of persecution. After writing the letter of 1 Thessalonians, Paul felt compelled to write them a second letter less than a year later to give them more guidance and encouragement. May God bless us as we study this passage.
First, Thanksgiving for growth (1-4)
Let’s read verses 1-2, “1Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul begins this letter with a joyful greeting. Accompanied by his companions, Silas and Timothy, Paul greets the Thessalonians with Grace and peace, and he points out that the source of these blessings is God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul greets them with a gospel-centered greeting, referring to God’s grace to send his Son Jesus to redeem us from our sins, and extending the peace that only the gospel of Christ can give because Jesus restores our relationship with God. Paul reminds us through his greeting that the basis for the things we talk about should be rooted in the gospel of Christ.
In his earlier letter, Paul prayed for the Thessalonians to grow in faith and increase in love. Paul rejoiced that they were doing both of these and that God had answered his prayer. Let’s read verses 3-4, “3We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. 4Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.” In these verses, Paul points out three things that characterize a living church: growing faith, increasing love, and perseverance in trial. As we go through life following Christ, we continually grow in faith. The faith that begins with theory and shaky efforts to cling to God’s promises develops into confident conviction. The emotional high which wears down after a while matures into the disciplines of Biblical attitudes. According to the parable of the sower in Matthew 4, the seed of faith could not grow on the hard path of ignorance, the shallow ground of superficiality, or the thorny soil of worry and greed. But the seed of faith could grow abundantly in the good soil, which represents a heart of one who knows Jesus. Next, Paul thanks God for their increasing love. John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus loved us to the point of shedding his blood on the cross. No one has more love than that. Before we knew Jesus, our selfishness severely limited our ability to love God and others. In fact, most human love has strings attached. But after we meet Jesus, his love grows in our hearts. As we meditate on Jesus’ love for us, our love increases. What was once a duty becomes a joy in the power of Jesus’ love. Next, Paul thanks God for their perseverance in trial. The word “perseverance” means more than just enduring, it also means overcoming. It is succeeding in trials, rather than just surviving in trials. The Thessalonians endured persecution for their faith. Those who were against the gospel of Jesus attacked them verbally, socially, even physically. It is easy to have a victim’s mentality when we are attacked or rejected by others; we are tempted to become bitter and cynical. But through perseverance, our struggles can be transformed into paths of victory. When we persevere, God uses our trials as a refining fire to mold us in his image. In these ways, Paul encouraged the Thessalonians and thanked God for their faith, love, and perseverance.
Second, Marveling at Jesus (5-10)
Let’s read verses 5-9,“5All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power”. Judgment is the part of the Bible that we don’t like to hear. It makes God seem cruel and controlling. Our culture likes to hear about the love of God but not the judgment of God. But both are tied together. Paul talks about God’s judgment in a way that cannot be ignored or skipped over. First of all, a sense of justice is inherent to our human nature. Even the liberal media expresses complaints, criticisms, and a sense of retribution towards those who hurt others. The Thessalonians were persecuted, not only emotionally, but also physically, sometimes even killed because of their faith in Christ. The enemies who persecuted the Thessalonians may have appeared to win and dominate over the Thessalonians, causing them to feel deeply discouraged. But Paul encouraged them that God’s judgment will settle the score. God’s judgment is a good thing. It means that all the injustices that have occurred in the world will not go unpunished. Those who reject God and persecute his people will be judged when Jesus comes again. If there were no judgment day, then those who are severely attacked and wounded would feel compelled to take judgment into their own hands. In the movie, “The End of the Spear”, the people of the Wodani tribe of Equador took judgment into their own hands. When someone was murdered, their family immediately retaliated by killing the murderer, and then that person’s family retaliated. Everyone who was offended killed their offenders, until there was almost no one left alive. God may seem to be inactive or slow to bring justice, but God’s delay is a chance for mercy. When Jesus came the first time, it was as a humble baby in a manger who brought mercy. But when Jesus comes the second time, it will be with blazing fire and powerful archangels bringing total justice. Faith in God’s justice at Jesus’ second coming enables us to persevere when we are persecuted, knowing that God will settle the score. But it is even better if we can say like Jesus, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk.23:24). Jim Elliot and his team of missionaries brought the message of Jesus’ forgiveness to Wodani tribe I mentioned earlier. Even after Jim Elliot was killed by them, his wife Elizabeth remained to teach them patiently about God’s love and grace until many from the tribe were transformed by the gospel. The ultimate good news about God’s judgment is that Jesus bore it for us on the cross. When we meditate on God’s judgment, we not only find peace and patience to endure trouble and persecution, we can also grow in the desire to share the forgiveness we have received from Jesus with our enemies.
Let’s read verse 10,”on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.” Many impressions about the return of Christ and the end of the world create a sense of fear and disaster. That’s true for the enemies of God who have rejected him. But for those of us who love Jesus and have received his forgiveness, the second coming of Jesus will be marvelous. Marveling exceeds our desires and expectations. Marveling is more than admiring or celebrating, it is also to be awestruck by wonder. Marveling overflows our minds and hearts. When Jesus comes again, those who believe in him will marvel at his glory. It will be more exciting than a visit from your favorite Hollywood actor or actress. It will be more expressive than HD television. It will be more majestic than the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. It will be more meaningful than a college degree and a good job with benefits. It will be the conclusion of not only our lives but of all world history. Most of all, we will marvel at the reality of what Jesus did for us through his death and resurrection. We had offended God, but he forgave us, suffered for us, restores us, and comes to be with us and bless us. The Apostle Peter said that even the angels long to experience and understand the gospel of Jesus’ grace. A famous hymn reads, “How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior’s love for me”. Marveling in Jesus is emotional, intellectual, experiential, and practical. It inspires us to sing praises to God. It inspires us to get excited about the deep truths of God’s word and their application in the culture around us. It is a genuine and powerful reality beyond our thoughts and feelings. It produces the practical growing faith, increasing love, and perseverance in trials that Paul talked about earlier. When we do not marvel at Jesus and the amazing grace that he provided us through his death and resurrection, then we cannot experience his transforming power and glory, and our Christian duty becomes joyless and burdensome. Our practical problems of fear, sorrow, and sinful desires can only be displaced when marveling at Jesus pushes them out of our hearts. Let’s ask God to inspire us to marvel at Jesus. The more we marvel at Jesus, the more God’s transforming power enables us to grow in our faith and overcome sinful temptations of bitterness and revenge.
Third, Fit for God’s Call (11-12)
Let’s read verse 11, “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.” Paul prays for the Thessalonians to become worthy of God’s call as they carry out good purposes and acts of faith. At first glance, this may seem like a message of salvation by works. But if we look carefully, we can see that it is all by God’s power. The Message translation puts it this way: “Because we know that this extraordinary day is just ahead, we pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he’s called you to be, pray that he’ll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something.” Because of our sins, we don’t have any worthiness of our own to earn God’s blessing. But through his substitutionary life and death on our behalf, Jesus made us worthy of God’s call. But beyond this, there is a sense in which God actually makes us fit for what he’s called us to be. This is called sanctification. God enables us to grow in the likeness of Jesus until we get in good shape. Our heavenly work-out program involves good purposes and acts of faith. Good purposes include spontaneous ideas to please God and also carefully determined plans and goals based on His principles in the Bible. Acts of faith are the results of these good purposes when God empowers them. Some good purposes include clinging to God’ promises when we study the Bible, giving to others for God’s glory rather than just for mutual benefit, and witnessing the gospel of Jesus to those around us. May God inspire us with many good purposes, and may he empower us to carry them out as acts of faith.
Let’s read verse 12, “We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” According to this verse, Jesus will not only be glorified in himself but he will also be glorified in us. This glory will be revealed fully when He comes again, but it also starts to work in us now. When we believe in Christ, we begin to taste his glory through the Holy Spirit. The same marveling which we look forward to when Jesus comes again begins to work in our hearts even today. Paul closes this chapter by reminding us that this glory is only possible because of the grace of Jesus.
In today’s passage, we learned that the Christian life is characterized by growing faith, increasing love, and perseverance in trials. We also thought about the goodness of God’s judgment and the marvel of Jesus’ second coming. As we wait for Jesus to come again, God is in the process of making us fit for his call by empowering us to follow through with good purposes and acts of faith. Through all of these things, Jesus is glorified in us.
