Thessalonians Episode 2: Paul's Loving Ministry to the Thessalonians

Paul writes the Thessalonians Christians to refute slanderous accusations made by his Jewish enemies. He reminds them of his loving ministry and holy life among them as proof of his pure motives. He does this to strengthen their commitment to the gospel since they are being attacked by the same Jewish enemies.

- Podcast Transcript - 

Wes

Welcome to the Two Journeys podcast. We're so thankful that you've taken the time to join us today and want you to know that this is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you're interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now, on to today's episode.

This is episode two in our Thessalonians Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled, Paul's Loving Ministry to the Thessalonians where we'll discuss 1 2:1-20. I'm Wes Treadway and I'm here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses we're looking at today?

Andy

So, First Thessalonians Two is a marvelous chapter in Paul's approach to ministry. He does this in a number of places - he does it in Acts 20 and other places - but here in 1 Thessalonians 2, he describes how he carried himself in Thessalonica. He describes his intimate care for them. He describes his love for them. He likens himself to a mother with her children, later to a father with his children. There's an intimate connection and a love relationship, and he does this for a number of reasons. We're going to find very plainly, and when we get to the end of this chapter, and then next time, God willing, in chapter three, how Paul was, it seems, anxious, very anxious, for the Thessalonian church. And he talks about this openly in 2 Corinthians 11, as he lists his sufferings, he said, on top of all the beatings and imprisonments and shipwrecks and all that, “…I faced daily, my constant concern for the churches I planted,” and he says, "Who is persecuted and I don't feel it? Who is led into sin and I don't inwardly burn" (Paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 11:28-29).

So, Paul has this deep concern for the churches he planted. They're like his children, and he left them in a cauldron of persecution. So, he's concerned whether they've even survived. He also knows that there's a strong link between their perception of him as a man - as the messenger and the message that he preached. There's a link between the messenger and the message that's incarnation ministry. You go and live among them, you set an example, and you deliver the truth. And so, the Holy Spirit in his wisdom has given us a pattern, a timeless 20 centuries long pattern in this perfect epistle here, 1 Thessalonians, of how to do gospel ministry: love the people, invest in their lives, let them love you, set an example, and in the midst of all that context, deliver the message, the gospel message.

Wes

Well, before we begin, let me go ahead and read 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20:

For you yourselves know, brothers, that are coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we have boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed - God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct towards you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

We also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displeased God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved - so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you - I, Paul again and again - but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.

Andy, what false idea is Paul refuting in verse one? And why is it important that the church know that Paul had a very clear purpose and goal in coming to them?

Andy

It's an interesting statement, “Our visit was not a failure,” (Paraphrase of 1 Thessalonians 2:1). So, here's the thing. I think we have to learn to look at the advancing kingdom of God with eyes of faith. It often looks like it's a failure. You think, here is almighty God sending his only begotten son into the world as savior of the world, and you go to some cell church in Shanghai, and there's like 13 people there, or 12, or 15 or something like that. And you're on the seventh story of an apartment building, and you look out over the sprawling city of, what, 25 million, and you're like, “This is it? This is the church?” It looks like this thing is a failure. It looks like there's just very few Christians in the world. It always appears that way. And so, we have to be able to look not at the outward appearance but at what God is doing.

And so, he says, "Look, I know it seems like it was a failure." What happened was, as we learned and we talked about last time, Paul had been there for what seemed like about three weeks before he got run out of town. A riot came, the Jews came, and as they had caused trouble in Philippi, they're causing trouble in Thessalonica. And so, in a very short time, a very small number of people repented and believed, both Jews and Gentiles. The little church gets started and Paul has to leave. Paul and Silas have to leave. And so, he said, "I want you to know that wasn't a failure. Don't look at it as a failure. This thing was a success." So, I think he's recasting or resetting their expectations. Don't look at it with human eyes. Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. We can't look at the external appearance of what's happening in the kingdom of God. He is building. Jesus said, "…I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). That's what's going on here.

Wes

Now, how did Paul display purposeful boldness in proclaiming the gospel? And why does faithfulness in evangelism require courage and purposeful boldness?

Andy

Well, everywhere that Paul went, he had human enemies, dedicated human enemies. I don't actually know anyone in church history that had enemies as dedicated as the Apostle Paul. Remember those Jews in Judea, that had taken a vow not to eat or drink anything until they had assassinated Paul? That's dedication. And there were others that would travel from town to town, just wherever he went to make trouble for him. So, he had dedicated enemies. He had just left, as he mentions, a time of severe persecution and humiliation, public humiliation in Philippi. They go to the nearby Greek community or city of Thessalonica. The same thing happens again. They're there just a very short time, three Sabbath days preaching the word. And again, the Jews stir up a mob and false accusations are made, and they have to go leave in the night. So, it looks like this whole thing's a little sketchy, a little shady. No, it's not.

So, there is opposition, there's persecution. But Paul himself required a staggering level of boldness and confidence to not give up, to not grow weary and getting beaten up. And so, he shows that boldness. He said, "We preached boldly in spite of strong opposition" (Paraphrase of 1 Thessalonians 2:2). Now, he's doing this because the Thessalonians are facing the same opposers, the same people. They didn't travel with Paul. They stayed right there. And so, this fledgling church, this flickering little spark of a church is facing the same opposition, and they've got to be bold and courageous too.

Wes

Yeah, you think about examples of that even today when there's perhaps a missionary who goes in and is able to share the gospel and then is perhaps kicked out by the country that they're in, but those local believers are still there, still dealing with the persecution.

Andy

Yeah, all over the world, there's different kinds of persecution. In Muslim communities, the man or woman's own family will become the most bitterest enemies, even pretty much assassins, perhaps. Depending on the level of seriousness to which they take fundamentalist Islam, they'll hunt them down and kill them, an uncle, a cousin, a brother, a father, because they've converted to Christ. And so, it takes incredible courage. In a communist country or a nationalist country, like India, different places, there's just tremendous opposition. It takes boldness.

Wes

Now, in verses 3-16, Paul turns to, really, a defense of his ministry to the Thessalonians, his method - his love for them. How does seeing ourselves as stewards of God's words and God's people help to free us from concern about human opinion?

Andy

Yeah, it's very important for us not to care what people think. And yet from a very young age, we do care and, we need to care. Somebody who literally doesn't care what anyone else thinks about his actions is a sociopath. Think of Adolf Hitler, people like that, just weird sociopaths or serial murderers, things like that. So, there's got to be a healthy concern of socialization and what people think - a feedback loop. But the Lord calls on us to not make that an idol, to not worship that. It's funny, just on a Sunday, just yesterday, we were at a meal together, and this little 1-year-old was being held by her dad. And everyone was looking at this cute little girl, and she was looking at us. And she would do something, we'd all laugh, and she would get energy from that. And she was excited about that and would start doing even more silly things to get more of that feedback loop.

Wes

Sure.

Andy

That's one year old. So, from infancy, you care what people think. And then the Lord calls you to not care; he calls on you to be willing to anger people, to frustrate people, to make enemies because the gospel is going to be opposed. So, to care more what God thinks. As he says in verse six, “We are not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.” We're not seeking to please men. And he says this in Galatians. He says it multiple times, if we were trying to please men, we would change our doctrine because it's very unpopular. And so, the idea of loving people, caring about their response to the gospel for their own sake, not for ours, but then not being enslaved by fear of man, that's vital.

Wes

Now, maybe to even dig a little deeper on this, what's the difference between flattery and encouragement? It's one thing to encourage someone. It's a whole other thing to flatter them. Why would flattery be such a poisonous tool for evangelists and pastors to use?

Andy

Yeah, it's not sincere. So, flattery and praise or encouragement both have a common feature, which is saying words that the other person likes to hear about themselves, that make them happy about themselves. So, if you're encouraging somebody, you say, "I want you to know, brother or sister, when you use your spiritual gift or when you do this thing, I'm very blessed by that." So healthy churches do that. We need to praise people so that people feel encouraged about their spiritual gifts. Conversely, you shouldn't not do your gift if you don't get that feedback loop. That's a bad thing. But healthy churches encourage faithful servants. They try to notice what people do and say something good about it.  Flatterers say good things, say what the people want to hear, but their motive is selfish. They are not trying to build the other person up. They're trying to get something out of them. So, it's a selfish motive. That's what flattery is. It could be the exact same words, but it's self-serving. And so I think we should be encouraging people.

And I think about this verse a lot. When I'm beginning a relationship with a non-Christian, I frequently find myself saying kind things to them, like, "This is a great coffee shop. This is one of my favorite coffee shops. You make the best..." whatever. And I worry about this verse sometimes. Am I flattering them, trying to get in? And it's like I don't always know. My ultimate goal though is not to puff up their ego. I would like to build a friendship and a connection with them, and I think you do that through kindness. So, I think about this a lot. So, I'm not always sure I'm doing the right thing. But Paul is saying, “Look, there's some people that just simply, as a rhetorical technique, use flattery and try to ingratiate themselves, and it's ultimately manipulative and selfish.”

Wes

Yeah, that's a helpful distinction. Now, in verse six, Paul stresses how little he sought praise from men. How might being overly concerned about human praise cause someone to change his message? So, we were just talking about how it's not good for us to flatter perhaps those we're ministering to. But how would seeking the praise of those that we're serving cause us perhaps to be in danger of changing the message?

Andy

If you think about what we're trying to do, we are preaching the good news. The good news is incomprehensible, apart from the bad news. So, at some point, you have to move from let's say an initial good news - there is a God in heaven, he created the earth, he's marvelous, he's wonderful - actually, start with good news, but then you got to go to bad news soon after that - but we have violated his laws, we have sinned, we have broken his commandments, he has a very lively, aggressive, wrath against lawbreakers like us, we are in danger of being condemned to hell. No one wants to hear that. Jesus said, "The reason the world hates me is that I testify that what it does is evil" (Paraphrase of John 7:7). That's why they hated Jesus. He spoke directly to them about their sins. If we don't do that, the good news won't mean anything. Jesus died under the wrath of God to free us from God's condemnation and from the danger of hell. God's condemnation, what's that. Wrath? I don't feel it. Hell, I don't even think it exists. If you don't tell the bad news, they won't see the good news.

Well, there you are telling the bad news. They're going to give you a feedback loop pretty quickly. They do not like what they're hearing from you. They'll be angry. So, either they're elected, God is working in their hearts, and he breaks them and gives them a sense of brokenness and a sorrow over sin and they flee to Christ, or they're going to be very angry at you. And Martin Luther put it pretty boldly. He said to other preachers, he said, "You should always preach in such a way that when you get done, the people who have heard you will either hate their sins or they will hate you."

Wes

Well, there you go.

Andy

Thank you. It's like fork in the road. It's one of the other. It's like, well, that was Luther, and he was that bold. And I think there's other ways to approach it, but the point is, don't shrink back from telling the truth. Yeah.

Wes

And Paul was not one to shrink back. And before we move on from verse six, he also says that he could have been a burden to the Thessalonians. How did he choose not to do this? And what's he talking about here?

Andy

I think he's talking about financial support. He's talking about ministry support. And Paul talks about this openly in the Corinthian epistle. He says, "Look, you owed it to us to pay for us to preach the gospel to you because the Lord has ordained that those who preach the gospel should make their living from the gospel, but," he said, "I desire to be in a special case. Even though I could have demanded financial support and that you give me food, clothing, shelter, and all that” (Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 9: 10-15). “I actually," he used a weird expression, "robbed other churches so that I could preach the gospel to you free of charge" (Paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 11:7-8) I think he does the same thing with the Thessalonians here. He's got some external support. He doesn't burden them. He doesn't make any demands on them. He says in Acts 20, he said, "You know that my own hands have supplied my needs and the needs of my companion" (Acts 20:34). So, sometimes Paul worked as a tent maker so that he would not need any money from the people he was evangelizing.

Wes

Now, as we look at verses seven and eight, why is gentle, tender, caring, nurture so vital for ministering to new disciples? And why is it vital in ministry to share life and not merely the word of God?

Andy

Yeah. Well, it all starts with Christ. Christ, “The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” (partial quote of John 1:14) literally pitched his tent among us, tabernacled with us. He's Emmanuel, God with us, living with us, immersed in our situation. Then his followers need to do the same thing. And so, what they call incarnational ministry - you're kind of living amongst them, learning their language, feeling their pain, et cetera. So, there's that connection.  He said, "We loved you so much that we're delighted to share with you not only the gospel but our lives" (1 Thessalonians 2:8).

But also, that's because once they come to faith in Christ, they're going to want to know how to live. How should we pray? How should we handle money? How should we interact with people? If they're married - Peter had a wife to bring along, a believing wife - what does Christian marriage look like? There's role modeling, and that's a big theme here in this chapter, role modeling, imitation. So, there is that example.

Now, it is vital for the evangelized to feel that the evangelist really genuinely loves them, that there's a commitment there. And so he uses this analogy of a mother caring for her own children. It's just like Isaiah said, or the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, "Can a mother forget the baby nursing at her breast or the child, the children that she has born? Though she may forget, I will never forget you" (Isaiah 49:15-17). Anyway, in other words, God chooses a mother's committed love for her nursing infant or for all of our children as the pinnacle example of committed love there is on earth. And he says, "Mine's better. Mine's greater." And so, Paul uses that same analogy here. "We were like a mother caring for her little children. That's what we thought about you. We were committed to you want to be sure you were fine and cared for."

"God chooses a mother's committed love for her nursing infant or for all of our children as the pinnacle example of committed love there is on earth."

Wes

What does verse nine teach us about that role modeling that you mentioned in Paul's life toward his disciples?

Andy

Well, he mentions how diligently he worked, and he does the same thing in Corinthians and other places, in Acts 20, as I mentioned, in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders. He was a straight-out hard worker. And I've mentioned before, I feel like there was a three-legged stool to Paul's life when he was tent-making. So, you would have him reasoning in the marketplace during the day with unsaved pagans, and then you would have him meeting with the disciples in some lecture hall of Tyrannus or some other place in that location in the evenings until it was time to go to bed. And then he'd get to work. Then he'd start making tents, his own hands supplying his own needs, and then he'd do it all again the next day. “We worked night and day…” so, there's a labor to Paul - he was a hard worker - and so, we see that here, “We work night and day in order to not be a burden” (1 Thessalonians 2:9). There's that burden language. I think he's talking financially, that he would make sense and sell them.

Wes

Now, in verse 10, Paul says, "You are witnesses. And God, also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers?" Why is such an example essential to fruitful Christian ministry?

Andy

Yeah, it reminds me of Samuel - his farewell address to the nation of Israel. And he says, "I never took a donkey from any of you people" (partial quote of 1 Samuel 12:3). He is pretty aggressive with them because they said his sons weren't walking with the Lord and they wanted a king, and they demanded a king and all this sort of stuff, but he gives his track record.

And I think the thing is what Samuel's saying there, Paul's saying even more. "We didn't take anything from you. We didn't take money from you, though we could have. We just walked in holiness with you. We didn't take advantage of your wives. We didn't steal anything. We didn't impinge on your hospitality. We tried to make things as easy as possible for you physically while you heard the gospel from us. And so, we were walking in a holy manner. Our conversation, our language was holy, our demeanor was holy. We were holy, righteous, and blameless among you who believe, we carried ourselves that way."

And so, what it shows is there's a very strong connection, as we've been saying in this chapter, very strong between the messenger and the message. A holy messenger brings a holy message. If you have basically someone saying, "Do as I say, not as I do," that just doesn't work. All right? We're talking about whole life transformation: justification leading to sanctification, leading to heaven, leading to glorification. And so, Paul lived that out.

Wes

Now, we've talked about Paul's care being compared to that of a mother. How was Paul's fatherly care manifested in his relationship with the Thessalonian church?

Andy

Yeah, it's interesting how he uses the mother image and then the father image. So, with the mother image, he uses this language, “We were gentle among you like a mother caring for her little children.” So not just women are gentle, but mothers are gentle. They know that their children are weak. They're fragile. They have to be dealt with tenderly. You see a mother giving a newborn a bath, something like that, just gently rubbing their skin and protecting their weak neck muscles - they can't lift up their heads. They got to just make certain that the water doesn't go over their nose or mouth, and they're just so gentle. So that's a picture of a mother. And again, fathers can be gentle too, but get that idea of a mother being gentle, caring for her little children.

But then with the father here, he says, “you know that we dealt with you as a father, deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God…” (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12). So now you get a picture of maybe a father of a preteen, or even a teenager. And so, the father's doing more exhortation, more instruction, maybe some rebuking - that kind of thing – so, maybe this is further on. The mother's an image with maybe a little baby, or a toddler, or something like that, and there's so much of this gentle teaching, all that. When they get older, it's not all gentleness. Sometimes you got to be strong and say, "What you did was wrong, and I'm disappointed in you." And then there's some pain that comes from that. What godly son or daughter doesn't want to please their godly father? And he's going to use some stronger techniques, not in any way abusive, but just manly.

And so here, Paul is saying, "I dealt with you as a father, and I encourage, and I comfort, and urge." And I look at those words just literally as a biological father. These are good words from me toward my five children, encourage, comfort, and urge them to live a life worthy of the Lord. So, there's going to be that exhortation going on. What are the verbs you have there, the three verbs?

Wes

Yeah, exhorted, and encouraged, and charged.

Andy

Charged.

Wes

“…charged you to walk in a manner…” (Partial quote of 1 Thessalonians 2:12).

Andy

What does that word mean to you, Wes, charge, I'm charging you to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord?

Wes

We just came through a season of graduations - I myself just graduated - and there was a charge given by the president of the institution. And there's this sense of a stern exhortation to live a life worthy of what's being conferred on you. So here, for them, to receive the gospel, but then live in such a way that it would be reflected in their lives.

Andy

Well, a godly father has that role and that right? And he says, "I'm charging you. Don't waste your life. I'm charging you to please the Lord. I'm charging you to be holy. I'm charging you to share the gospel. I'm charging you to do hard things, to be willing to face persecution, et cetera." So, he says, "We're like a father dealing with you."

Wes

Yeah, I love that. 1 Thessalonians 2:13 is an incredible verse as well. It says, "We also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers." How is this verse key to us being a healthy disciple and church member?

Andy

Yeah, this is a mark of regeneration. The difference between a lost person and someone who's born again is how they respond to the gospel. That's how Paul knew in chapter one of this epistle, that they were elect, how they responded, but it continues to be the case. All right? How you respond to the word of God and, fundamentally, do you consider the Bible to be, I would put it this way, not merely a human word, but also the word of God. The Bible really is like Jesus and incarnation. The Bible really is 100% human, 100% divine, like Jesus. That's why John calls him the word, “In the beginning was the word,” (John 1:1) et cetera.

So, you Thessalonians, you accepted the word of God as what it really is, the word of God. It's not merely a human word. Unbelievers, liberals, as they look at the scripture, it's fundamentally a human word, like the evolution of religion, and this is what the Jews thought about God as they were evolving and they understand, that kind of thing. That's all human, it's a human word. We know better. We know that “All scriptures, God breathed and useful for teaching rebuking correcting training” (2 Timothy 3:16). God breathed out the scripture. And so, you Thessalonians, that's how you thought about God's word. You accepted it as the word of God, not merely a human word.

Wes

And what was the fruit that was born out of that? Obviously, he elaborates on some of that here. But what was the result of the seriousness with which the Thessalonians accepted this teaching?

Andy

Yeah. So as a result, they obeyed Paul. As Paul says in Philippians, "As you've always obeyed, not only my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:12-13). Well, what I think he means here. They accepted the doctrine that Paul gave as the word of God. Keep in mind, the New Testament hadn't been written yet. Paul was kind of the New Testament right now for them. So, as he would speak, his oracles, his sermons, now this letter, that was the word of God. And they imitated Paul's life, they imitated his holiness, they imitated his pattern of life, and, in that way, showed that they were genuine disciples of Christ. They imitated the churches of God and Judea. They weren't on their own, but they became imitators of that pattern of holiness that Paul was exemplifying.

Wes

Now, Paul has some strong things to say about the Jews in verses 14 through 16. How should we answer people who say such ideas are perhaps antisemitic?

Andy

Yeah. Well, I understand that, and there's a terrible history of antisemitism, and it's terrible. It's been going on for centuries and centuries - it is no new thing. You think about the Inquisition, it was aggressively antisemitic. The crusades, some of the features were antisemitic. They would hunt down and kill Jews. Jews would frequently be expelled from England or other places. I don't know how to say it - pogrom in Russia. The Fiddler on the Roof gives you a sense of what life was like for Jews. Everywhere they've gone, they've been hated and persecuted.

But here, honestly, as we believe the inspiration authority of the New Testament, in this case, they were the persecutors, persecuted persecutors. So, let's be honest, same thing with racism, every single person, even those that have been victims of severe racism, can themselves be racist. So also, the persecuted can at other times be the persecutors. And that's the case. The fact of the matter is the most vicious, aggressive opponents of Christ and his early followers were Jews. And that's what Paul's linking, and he says, "You suffered from your own countrymen the same things..." meaning Gentiles. "You suffered from your [gentile] countrymen, the same things those churches in Judea suffered from the Jews” (1 Thessalonians 2:14) who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out, and they displeased God.

So that's just a fact. And let's be honest, this is a consistent charge that godly messengers have brought against the Jews. This is what Jesus said with the parable of the vineyard: And he sends messengers, and they beat them up, and he sends more messengers, and they beat them up, and he sends more messengers, and they kill them, and he sends his son, and they kill him. What's that about? It's about the consistent pattern of the Jews of persecuting prophets. And the same thing with Steven's message in Acts 7:51, “You always resist the Holy Spirit,” and kill the ones God sends to you. Well, they were doing the same thing here. It's a consistent pattern. Jesus said, "Was there ever a..." - or Steven said this - "Was there ever a prophet [you] didn't persecute?" (partial quote of Acts 7:52). “Jesus said, ‘No prophet can die outside of Jerusalem’” (Luke 13:33). A little bit sarcastic - it's like they all got to come here to die, and now he's come here to die; Jesus was killed in Jerusalem too.

So, this is just true history. So, for us as Christians, we should be respectful of the sufferings of the Jews who went through the Holocaust, Nazi Germany and all that, but we need to tell the truth too. And the fact is that even now perhaps, some Jews use their positions of power to resist the gospel, so do some communists, so do some Indian nationalists. So, they're not exempt. So, the fact of the matter is if they, as unbelievers in Jesus as the Messiah, then use their positions of power to shut down Christians or stop them or humiliate them, they're persecuting.

Wes

Yeah. Now, in the final four verses of this chapter, Paul turns to his longing for the Thessalonians. How could Paul's Jewish enemies in Thessalonica use the fact that Paul fled from them and never returned to them as proof that he didn't really care for these disciples? And how does Paul seek to address that in verses 17 through 20?

Andy

Yeah, I think if you read Acts 17, it seems like he and Silas left in the night. So, like I said, it just seems sketchy. And yet Jesus himself said in Matthew 10:23, "When you're persecuted in one place, flee to the next." So, you don't have to stand there and take a beating. So, the problem was they couldn't move. That was where their homes were. And so, he left the fledgling Thessalonians church surrounded by haters and by persecutors. And so, he was intensely concerned about them. And so, he was very concerned, having intense longing, because they love them like a mother, like a father. They love them, but they're worried about whether Satan had deceived them, and through persecution, had crushed them, so that they were forsaken Christ. So, he's very, very concerned about that. And so, he sends Timothy as a messenger to try to find out what's going on.

Wes

Yeah. What's the significance of the fact that Paul says Satan had hindered them from visiting? How do we harmonize that with the sovereign power of God over events on Earth?

Andy

It's complex because you see in Acts 16 where Paul and Silas are trying to find out where to go next, and they're trying to go to Frisia and Asia and other places, and the Holy Spirit doesn't let him go. So, the Holy Spirit stops them. He says the Holy Spirit. And then he “…had a vision of the man of Macedonia…, ‘Come over [to Macedonia] and help us,’” (Acts 16:9). They go over to Philippi.

So now, here is Satan. He's saying Satan stopped them. I think it could be both the same. It's just like the book of Job. So, was it God who took all of Job's, possessions and killed his children, or was it Satan? Yes, and yes. Was it God who killed Jesus or was it Satan? Both. Or was it Pilate? Yes. How about Anis? Yes. All of the above. Judas, yes. So, all of them were complicit and involved, Satan too. So, Satan is in the active business of trying to shut down the gospel and the church of Jesus Christ all over the world. It's what he does all the time. Every single day, the story on Earth is the story of the advancing kingdom of God by the power of the third person of the Trinity versus the resistance to that by the God of this age, the God of this world, Satan and his demons. And it's beautiful because the Holy Spirit wins.

"Every single day, the story on Earth is the story of the advancing kingdom of God by the power of the third person of the Trinity versus …Satan and his demons. And it's beautiful because the Holy Spirit wins."

Wes

Yeah. What an encouragement to us to know that even that activity of the God of this world is under the sovereign reign of God.

Andy

It's true, but the Spirit lets Satan have some local victories.

Wes

Sure.

Andy

Jesus drives out demons and doesn't send them into the pit or into the lake of fire. He lets them roam around and cause trouble. And so, he lets them do their work because serving his ultimate ends. They're creating the friction and the opposition needed for heroism, for other aspects, martyrdom, different things. He is using Satan.

Wes

Well, Andy, one final question, and then any last thoughts you have for us on this chapter. How are people that we've led to Christ and/or disciple our crown at the second coming of Christ? And how should Paul's words here motivate Christians to be active in evangelism and discipleship?

Andy

Yeah, the word crown is that of reward. Paul had sacrificially planted that church. They will be to his honor. He says the same thing about the Philippians. They are his crown in which he will glory. And so, the idea is that we get rewarded. Jesus said, "Blessed to you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven" (Matthew 5:11-12). I don't know if I can remember the C's, but rewards have to do with commendation, capacity for God's glory, capacity and crowns. And the crowns have to do with trappings or symbols of honor that will set some above others in heaven. Some just deserve greater honor than others. And so, Paul's saying, you folks are my crown. And so, the people we lead to Christ, they will be our crown on judgment day.

Wes

Wow, what an encouragement, and encouraging to us that we would be active in faithfully proclaiming the gospel, and then discipling those who come to faith to maturity. Well, this has been episode two in our Thessalonians Bible study podcast. We would invite you to join us next time for episode three, where we'll discuss 1 Thessalonians 3: 1-13. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.