PERSEVERING IN THE LORD 2 Thessalonians 1 Paul s second letter to the church in Thessalonica comes around year 52...and it s written to a church that is needing some encouragement. Thessalonica itself is a major crossroads city. Communication, trade, commercial products all come through and into Thessalonica. A major sea port north of Greece this city would be able to not only address the needs of trade from land but sea as well. And what s beautiful about an urban ministry like this, a church smack-dab in the middle of a trade mecca, is that it brings in people of all different backgrounds and places in life. A potpourri of cultures, faiths, beliefs, and lifestyles. This is important to understand because the church, while placed within the city, would have interacted WITH the city. Both of these, the church and the city, would have had an impact on one another. And this is what we see in our text. Paul s second letter to the church here is in direct response to the life of the church within the life of the city. In Paul s first letter he writes that they have been persecuted (1 Thess 2:14) and not only from outsiders but from their own people as well and because of all of this, because of the words hurled at them, the actions taken against them they were becoming unsettled (1 Thess 3:3). And so what Paul is doing here in his second letter is writing to encourage writing to build up. He states that they, Paul, Silas, and Timothy, thank God for them, that their faith is growing and that the love they have is increasing and that they (the 3 writers) boast about their perseverance and faith in the midst of persecutions and trials. Paul s words become aloe upon a sun-burnt skin. He s trying to build them up, pick them up. He s trying to encourage them because that s exactly what they need right now encouragement. Support. Love. Words of hope. Helping them see and understand that even in the midst of trials and persecutions one doesn t have to walk with their head down or lose hope. Peace CAN be present even during the worst of times. And this is important to understand because Paul is writing to a church that isn t unique in any way but a church being and doing exactly what she is called to be and do. One that is engaged in the world, being IN the world but not becoming the world. They were engaging in the kingdom of God and Paul is encouraging them to persevere through all its trials and temptations and hate and bigotry that was falling upon them.
But the church in Thessalonica was losing steam. It s interesting how times haven t changed. The church is still called to be the church in an ever-increasing non-church world. To be a light of the world. A town built on a hill that cannot be hidden. (Matthew 5:14) To be salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). To be in but not of the world. But what can happen, and what does frequently happen, is that the church can lose steam and even become cynical. Affected by outside forces the church can begin to break down and lose hope. And this can happen because of the world outside as well as the world within. People get tired of all the bombarding thoughts, ideas, hate, voices, and constant barrage of noise that is telling the church who she should be, what she should do, how she should change. It s tiring after a while. And what eventually can happen, what happened to the church in Thessalonica, is cynicism begins to creep its way in that s what verses 5-10 are all about! Almost half of this text is about Paul and his compadres addressing, reminding, the church to hold strong because ultimately it is God who will have the last say. That they are on the right course, they are loving correctly, their faith is strong and that God will punish those who work against his love, grace, truth, mercy and forgiveness so hold strong in the simple fact that God is just (vs 6). Text like these are really hard to work through though. Because you have, on the one hand, this enduring faith of believers. This continuous strength in Christ that we cling to when we are in deep and dark places. But on the other side we have this punishment for non-believers that takes place too. And what becomes difficult is we can fall into this stay strong Kelly because God will pour out his wrath upon those who persecute me kind of mentality. Which is not where we are to go. Yes, Paul is encouraging the church in Thessalonica to keep holding steadfastly in their faith and to continuously produce fruit in the kingdom of God and yes he s telling them that people WILL be punished who work against the kingdom of God and speak against the gospel of Jesus Christ but Paul is telling them to let God worry about it. Let God do his thing. You, me we are called to simply love and never judge. And that s what those verses, 5-11, are about judging, judgment FINAL judgment. A judgment that comes from God where his grace and mercy reigns and not ours where our grace and mercy does NOT reign. The Maker of Heaven and Earth has the say not us the makers of well, nothing.
I think often we can get wrapped up in what is happening in our lives in regards to other people. What are THEY doing? How are THEY acting? And what happens is that we can begin to become distracted of what WE are called to be doing. And what we re called to do is BE the church be the bride that Christ died for. Love the unloved. Serve the forgotten. Lift up the broken. Heal the wounded. Give hope to the hopeless and forgive the unforgiveables. Share life to the dying and food to the hungry. In essence: be Christ to the least of these. And Paul s letter is spot on, the church gets tired and needs help. Encouragement, love, reminders of hope. Reminders that in all things, all situations, God is not stagnate that he is working. God is at work in the way we love and serve, in the way we hold fast and get picked up when we stumble and fall. He is at work in the now and the time to come when we stand before him when ALL people stand before him. And we are to understand that discouragement happens but keep trucking on. A couple of weeks ago at Bible Camp I gave the Friday talk as we worked through Jude 1:21, and if you recall from a few months ago when we worked through Jude here, we are encouraged by his words to keep in God s love while we wait for him to come or you to die and go to him whichever comes first. And it s this understanding that while keeping in God s love is going to wax and wane we are called to persevere. We are called to do what Dory does in Finding Nemo just keep swimming. Paul says in verse 4 that there is boasting being done due to the perseverance of this church this group of believers. What does that mean? To persevere. To persevere means to continue in a course of action even when faced with great difficulty or with the prospect of little or no success. It means that in life we will have ups and downs but that we simply keep swimming keep persevering until the day of the Lord DOES come. It means to just keep swimming. Texts like ours today remind me that life is a long journey. And with any journey it s about the whole time not just a moment and yet those moments can define us if we allow them to. Moments can impact us to the point where we can begin to lose steam,
lose faith, lose hope. And sometimes, most times, all the time, we need some type of encouragement to keep moving, keep swimming, keep treading water keep going until the finish line. I remember a friend of mine in middle school running the longest race there was for our age group. This alone should be daunting I know it was for me which is why I didn t run any long distance track events. On top of that simple fact was the one that he, by no means, was a runner! And it was proven when it came down to the meet. He was deadlast and last by a LONG SHOT. Easily lapped all the other contestants finished long before him. But he kept going. Never did he walk. Never did he stop. He slowed but what was beautiful and encouraging was that LAST lap when all the other runners had finished they, and the crowd began to stand and clap, and yell and cheer for him. THEY became his encouragers. THEY became motivators for him. You me we re in this together. And I know I ve said this countless times but it holds true we were created as relational beings. We were created to be in community with each other. Which means we were created to love and serve and encourage and build up and simply LIVE life with each other. Paul s letter should be a quick reminder that we need each other to encourage and support one another and that includes the church herself. That life has hills and valleys and ebbs and flows with its moments in the wilderness as well as the desert. Times where we feel abundantly blessed and yet times when we feel utterly cast aside. And through all of those moments we simply need others. Words of encouragement, words of hope, words of love, words, not like Job s friends but words like Paul s. Reminders from people of who we are, the love we have, the hope that is given, the prize that awaits because of the love, grace, and mercy of the one who died upon the cross for our sins. Reminders when times are good that it feels good to bask in the love of God. To continue to love God and others as you are soaking in God s love. But reminders are also needed when times are rough. Reminders that God never abandons nor forsakes (Deut 31:6). That God hem s you in from behind and in front as well as from the sides (Psalm 139:5). That God loves you (Rom 5:8), that Jesus died for you (Rom 8:28,32) that regardless of how you feel you are or look or what you have done God sees you as being made holy in his eyes (Heb 10:14; 2 Cor 5:21) that there is this thing called the Perseverance of the Saints which means that you are held by God. That is, you are eternally secure in the loving hands of God and that there truly is nothing you can do to
lose that salvation so whether you run out of steam and find yourself stuck, or your pace is streaky or sputtering it doesn t matter. God s hold is tight, secure, and gentle. Paul writes in Romans 8:38-39 that, I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus says in John 10:27-30 that in him is eternal life and that there is nothing that will snatch us out of his loving hands. And that no matter what happens, no matter what people try to do they are no match God. There is no one stronger, there is no one mightier than the Father and his grip on your life. That s what s so wonderful about this attribute we see at the end of our text today. If you look at your Bibles at the end of verse 12 maybe 9 words from the final period we see an attribute of God s that closes this thanksgiving and prayer text. It s an attribute of God s that cannot be neutralized. It cannot be overcome. It will never lose its power, it will never wax and wane like your faith and my faith. It will be steadfast till the end and even then some. Do you see it? Can someone shout it out for me nice and loud? Grace. I titled this sermon persevering in the Lord and it must be said that while this is true, while this is what we must do we must understand that persevering has nothing to do with what YOU can do and has everything to do with what GOD has done. Grace. It s the understanding that through it all, our waxing and waning, our wanderings, our ups and downs, our lean and fruitful times and even lean years all of it is understood, by God, through his grace. That persevering in the Lord is not about what YOU can do, it s not about what is being done to you by forces outside of you and of this world but it s about what God has already done. He has persevered FOR you. And in his perseverance we too persevere. In his strength we are strengthened. So the people of Trinity CRC of Ames, IA I thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another and to your neighbors and your God, is increasing with each new day. And I pray that with each new day God will make you worthy of his calling for you, and
that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness, hope, love, truth, and mercy and grace prompted by faith. Let s pray.