I want to read a real short devotion from John Piper's book, The Passion of Jesus Christ. The subtitle of this is 50 Reasons Why Christ Suffered and Died. And I recalled that we have these. So I put them on the back table. If you would like one of these, just take one with you. They've been in the church for a long time, and I'd rather have them with you than just sitting collecting dust. Maybe hand them out to somebody. But this is a devotion called for the forgiveness of our sins. When we forgive a debt or an offense or an injury, we don't require a payment for settlement. That would be the opposite of forgiveness. If repayment is made to us for what we lost, there's no need for forgiveness. We have our due. Forgiveness assumes grace. If I'm injured by you, grace lets it go. I don't sue you, I forgive you. Grace gives what someone doesn't deserve. That's why forgiveness has the word give in it. Forgiveness is not getting even, it is giving away the right to get even. That is what God does to us when we trust Christ. Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. If we believe in Christ, God no longer holds our sins against us. This is God's own testimony in the Bible. I, I am he who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. But this raises a problem. We all know that forgiveness is not enough. We may only see it clearly when the injury is great, like a murder or a rape. Neither society nor the universe can hold together if judges or God simply say to every murderer or every rapist, are you sorry? Okay, the state forgives you, you may go. In cases like these, we see that while a victim may be having a forgiving spirit, The state cannot forsake injustice. So it is with God's justice. All sin is serious because it is against God. He is the one whose glory is injured when we ignore or disobey or blaspheme him. His justice will no more allow him to simply set us free than a human judge can cancel all the debts the criminals owe to society. The injury done to God's glory by our sin must be repaid so that in justice his glory shines more brightly. And if we criminals are to go free and be forgiven, there must be dramatic demonstration that the honor of God is upheld, even though former blasphemers are set free. That is why Christ suffered and died In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Forgiveness costs us nothing. All our costly obedience is just the fruit and not the root of being forgiven. That's why we call it grace. But it cost Jesus his life. That is why we call it just. Oh, how precious is the news that God does not hold our sins against us, and how beautiful is Christ, whose blood made it right for God to do this. Well, if you're ready for some great truth, turn to 2 Thessalonians in the first chapter. It's just a great book. I enjoyed myself so much studying this, getting ready for this message. But let me pray, and then I'll kind of show you how we're gonna divide this up. Our Father and our God, we pray as we begin this new book, Lord, that you would give us direction, wisdom, Lord, understanding. Father, open our ears, our hearts, our minds to receive your word. And Lord, we thank you for that, in Jesus' name, amen. So I'm going to read you the greeting, and I have a few things to say about that. And then I'm going to divide the chapter into four parts. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to read the greeting, talk about that a little bit, read the rest of the chapter all at once, and then we'll come back and deal with that in four parts. So that's my plan anyway. So the greeting is 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, and just the first two verses. Paul, Silvanus, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So the only difference, this is almost exactly the way the first letter opens. If you go back, there's a little bit of difference in the original language. He says, God, our father, this is the Thessalonian church that's in God, our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. So he begins with what we wanna remember is that we're in intimate relationship with God. He's not just the God who is, the God who's there, the creator God. He has us to know him in a family sense, that he's our father in heaven. Jesus taught us that, right? It's Jesus's father and our father in heaven, which means we're in relation with anybody else who, has God as their Father. It makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. And I know I bring it up a lot, but I think, to me, one of the greatest joys of my life is the connection that we have because of the Holy Spirit, and because we are in the same family, the family of God, that no matter where I go in this world, when I meet family, and I've met them all over the world, it feels immediately like family. We all love the Lord. We love the Lord Jesus Christ. And blessings flow from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul here is really indicating the deity. of Jesus Christ. You remember in John, what was it, like chapter 10, where Jesus talks about how, you know, nobody can snatch you out of my hand if we come to him savingly. Nobody's going to snatch you, and nobody's going to snatch you out of my Father's hand. And then he says, I and my Father are one. And Paul picks up on the same theme here. And I think, just as a student of the Bible, that that's very important because this is such an early writing We don't know the exact dates of these books. Some we know better than others, but likely Paul probably wrote Galatians first. But right on the heels was 1 Thessalonians, and 2 Thessalonians was written just probably within a month or so after the first letter. And there's a reason why this letter is being written, because news obviously got back to Paul that there were some issues that needed to be dealt with immediately in the church. So we'll look at that as well. So he speaks to the church Grace to you, verse two, and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, right? The peace be with you. Now you're going to find out as we get into this letter that this is a church that's being persecuted. They're under tribulation. It seems like the persecution that the apostle went through when he was there and all the trouble that stirred up that we looked at when we opened the first book of Thessalonians, it seems like it's increased. Things are getting pretty tough. The word in the Greek that's used over and over is pressure. They're being pressed in on. Oppressed would be a good English translation of what the church is going through. And so he immediately speaks peace to a church that's going through tribulation because of their faith. In verse 16 of the second chapter, it says, Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation, and good hope by grace. The consolation is the idea of a father consoling a child. It's somebody giving you a hug when you have tears going down your cheeks because of what you're going through that day. That's the idea that God will console you in your tribulation. When you get to chapter 3, In verse 16, he writes, Now may the Lord of peace... You see how it's bookended at both ends of this letter? Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always, in every way. The Lord be with you all. So that's the crux of what's being dealt with. There's other issues here, but the God of peace is with us, bringing us peace and consolation amidst tribulation and trial. And God still does that for us in our day. So let me read the chapter. I'll pick it up in verse 3 and read it to 12, and then we'll come back and I'll divide it into four parts. We're bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you abounds towards each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure. which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. Therefore, we also 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 you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. So why did Paul write this letter? Because the persecuted church needed encouragement. That's one of the main reasons why we have Second Thessalonians. The church that's being persecuted and going through tribulation needed to be encouraged. You're going to find it's also a confused church that needs to be corrected here. They are confused about Jesus' coming. And you'll see that as we move through chapter 2, chapter 3. Just a verse to give you a foretaste of it. It says in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 2, that they should not be shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter. That's an epistle, one of the epistles, that you wouldn't be troubled of mind or spirit here by word or by letter as if from us. as though the day of Christ has come. And the idea is that somebody circulated a letter with Paul's signature, and it was full of errors. And so he says, if you got a letter, it didn't come from us. As a matter of fact, when you get to chapter 3, verse 17, Paul probably was dictating this letter to maybe Timothy or Silas. and they're writing it down. And when you get to verse 17 of the third chapter, he says, the salutation of Paul with my own hand. It's like he took the papyrus and he grabbed the quill or whatever they wrote with, and he wrote Paul in his own hand. He says, which is a sign in every epistle, so I write. In other words, you know it's from me when you see my signature on this. I do this as my seal and sign that this is an authentic writing from the Apostle Paul. So that's part of what's going on here. It's a confused church. They think that Jesus has already caught up the church in the air to meet him in the clouds, to be with the Lord forever, and they missed the boat. It's part of what's going on with the church. And I'm comforted a little bit But from the very beginning, the church has always been confused about eschatological things, because the church still has a lot of confusion about eschatological things. The third thing that he's writing this letter for is the idol in the church, the disorderly. They needed to be corrected about this, and you'll see that in chapter 3. So my four-point outline here. about this chapter is that chapter one, this chapter is a thankful chapter. Second, it's a boastful chapter. Third, it's a hopeful chapter. And fourth, it's a prayerful chapter. So let's begin with it's a thankful chapter. He says, verse three, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren. We're bound always to give thanks to God. for you, right? Not only is the object of the prayer God, he directs his thanksgiving where it should be directed, is to God. And he's letting them know that, you know what? Every time I pray, I thank God for you guys. I thank God because I can see him at work in you. You ever have anybody tell you that? I mean, what an encouraging thing to say to somebody. And he uses this word that is obligatory. It's an obligation. Opheloman. is the Greek. It's a financial term. It means to owe a debt. And Paul says here he's morally obligated to thank God for you, is what he's saying there. He says in my translation, we're bound to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, the brethren. as it is fitting." In other words, it's only right that we do so because, and he names a couple things, your faith grows exceedingly. And the love of every one of you abounds towards each other. Those signs, I see your faith growing, and I hear of the great love with which you love the brethren. And for that, I thank God. I think that's beautiful. Andrea Upmore in a website called Taking Charge. It's a website for the University of Minnesota. And I don't know where this woman's at spiritually. I just like the quote. So she was doing research, and this is the quote I got from that university. She writes, For years, researchers have been publishing studies about the effectiveness of an intervention that produces positive outcomes in nearly every arena of health and well-being. They've discovered that it boosts your immune system, It lowers your blood pressure. It makes you feel more optimistic. It decreases depression. It improves your love life and helps you cope with even the most life-threatening crises. Plus, it's available to everyone with no physical effort, and it's totally free. Are you interested? Well, you should be. The magic therapy is gratitude, and you can start collecting its benefits today. I was really moved by that. I told my wife yesterday. She got back home and I said, I want to be a more grateful person. I'm not as grateful as I should be. I have so much to be thankful for. And we're not thanking God for each other and for the goodness in our lives and just all the beauty around us. I was reading her article. She was even saying, you know, next time you pick up your cup of coffee in the morning, just thank God for the warmness of the mug. I never do that. I never think that way. And I think it'll really change our outlook on life. It's so easy to get into these downward spirals and not be a thankful people. I probably told you this story before, but it jumped into my mind when I was studying. But years ago, I used to be a field adjuster. So I'd go to people's houses all day long. And I had a claim in Crescent Town, Maryland, if anybody knows where Crescent Town, Maryland is. And I got there, and it was an older lady. She lived by herself. And she was the most bitter woman I had ever met in my life. And I finally called her out, because I was taking care of her. I was doing my thing. I was doing what I do for a living. And I finally said, ma'am. I said, forgive me, but you're the most bitter woman I've ever met in my life. I actually said that to her. And she said to me, she said, well, you don't know what I've been through in my life. I said, no, ma'am, I don't. I don't know what you've been through. I really don't. I mean, maybe I'd even be more bitter than you. I don't know. But you can positively, willfully change that. And that weekend, I was up in Cumberland, and I had my wife and my kids were little. I said, let's stop by this lady's house. So I stopped by her house. Probably could have got fired for that. But I stopped by her house, knocked on her door. She's like, oh, did you forget something? I said, yeah. I said, when I was here, I said, I noticed that your gutters are all full of leaves. I said, I want to clean your gutters. Can I do that? And she said, well, yeah, OK. So I got her ladder out. I got up on her roof, and I cleaned all of her gutters. And I came down. I knocked on the door. I said, they're all cleaned out. I said, now you've got something to be thankful for. I did say that to her. And she goes, well, I do. That was very nice of you. And she thanked me for that. I never saw that lady again in my life. But I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be, as I age, somebody that has something critical to say about everything. And that's just a bad place to be. And in my flesh, that's where I go. I don't want to be that guy. I want to be thankful. I want to be bound. It's my duty. I owe it like a debt to be thankful. That's what Paul's saying here, right? Secondly, it's a boastful chapter. He says that in verse 4 and 5. So, that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God, for your patience and faith, in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer. Here he sees in this church that's holding up, it's enduring amidst all this tribulation and trial and persecutions, they are an example to us in scripture of a picture of endurance. We believe in the perseverance of the saints, and I certainly do believe that. God's at work in us. But you see here, what does it look like? It looks like people that have their faith intact, and even growing in love and faith, in the midst of all the trials and tribulations of a society that are opposed to the things of God, and are opposed to the Church of Jesus Christ. It's evidence, he says here, of salvation, because they endure. They're an enduring church, even under all this pressure, I told you that word in the Greek, to really press in on them, to be oppressed. And yet there they are, thriving in the Lord. Now, this isn't proudful boasting. You say, well, I thought boasting was sinful. Well, we're not to be boasting about ourselves. I don't walk into a room and tell you, let me tell you about me. We're not to be those people. We're to be a humble people, right? But to boast in another church. And Paul does it all the time. If you're a student of the Bible, you know he would go to the Corinthian church and tell them about the other churches and the Philippian church. He talks about the churches of Macedonia. So he's always... Well, Philippi wasn't Macedonia, but you know what I'm saying. He's always boasting about these other churches. And here's an example, 2 Corinthians 8. And he says in verse 1, Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. He's talking about a different region. "...that in great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality." In other words, they gave. He's going to say they gave them beyond what they could give, which is kind of an interesting thought. But he's boasting to the Corinthian church about maybe this church in Macedonia is what he's doing. So, notice that Paul attributes all of this to the grace of God. He knows that it's the grace of God at work in the church, and the individuals of that church, that is causing them to endure. It's the grace of God Almighty, right? That they could be counted worthy of the kingdom of God. And that's why they're suffering. In Jeremiah, a good example of how to boast in the Lord, this is a Thus Saith the Lord passage, Jeremiah 9.23-24. It says, Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, And let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me." God says, you want to glory in something? Glory in that you know me savingly. You understand who I am because you understand my word, as much as God has revealed it to us to know him. God says, you glory in that. Don't be glorying in what you do and your wisdom and your money. You glory in the fact that you know the living God. Remember when Jesus gave that frightful talk, where he said, many in that day will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, we did this in your name, we did that in your name, we did all these things. And Jesus says, I never knew you. I never had that intimate knowing of each other with you. Away from me, you workers of iniquity, you workers of lawlessness, he says. So we wanna know God in this way, and we wanna make sure God knows us as well, right? There's that intimate relationship we have with God, who's our father. Third, it's a hopeful chapter. And this is where I get kind of excited when I read this stuff, but this is really good. Verses six to 10. since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thee shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes in that day, capital D in my Bible, in that day, the day, the day of the Lord, when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who believe because our testimony among you was believed. I love the end there. It's because when we preach the gospel, you believed. And you're now among the number of those people that are not gonna see God in his vengeance, but God coming to really reap vengeance on those that oppose the church of Jesus Christ. You'll be gathered to him in peace and tranquility, to be with the Lord forever, is what he's saying. It's really floating out of his teaching in the first letter to the Thessalonian church. So, recompense, to pay back. That's the language in the Greek. He says that he's going to come and pay back and give in return. And that word in the Greek is used in a positive way in the Bible. It depends on the context. Here it's in a negative way. But for instance, in Luke 14, in a positive way, in verse 13 of chapter 14 of Luke, Jesus teaches and says, But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you shall be repaid. That's the word. You shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. The Lord will reward you for those things. Because you're helping people that are helpless. You can't get anything out of what you're doing for them. You just, out of benevolence and goodness, you're just helping people. And God will repay you. And that's in a positive way. In the negative way, God is just, this is the NIV, He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you. And that's our word for hard-pressed or oppressed. They're oppressing you, God will oppress them. God will press down on them, those that are pressing down on you now. And the tables will be turned. That's the language that's being used. The great reversal. It won't be the world pressing in on the church. It'll be God dealing with the unbelieving world, and finally and fully redeeming his people, is the idea there. In Romans 12.19, same idea. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, the written vengeance is mine. I will repay. That's language. I will repay, says the Lord. So God will give the oppressed rest. That's what he says. It's really the word in the Greek is to relief from that pressure. So he's basically telling the church, I know you're under tribulation. I know you're under pressure from the society around you. And God is going to come at the coming of Jesus Christ, that release and relief will come to you. And God will be pressing down on the unbelieving world. That's the language, that's the idea. Gene Green in his commentary says, in the end, God's guarantee is that the injustices they presently endure will reach their conclusion. Hope sends its roots deep into the soil. And beloved, we have to have an eschatological understanding of reality. Maybe we're going through a tough day. Maybe we're going through a tough year. Maybe we have family problems. Maybe we have problems at work. Who knows? That's not going to go on forever. We have to understand. We'll be pulled out of this when we go to be with Him after our death. Or he will return and will be changed with the twinkling of an eye, and all of that will be reversed. And the relief will come. It's coming in God's timing. And the message of the gospel is, hold your place there. Hang in there. Help is coming. This won't go on forever with all the chaos that we see in the world. So the coming of the Lord is described in verse seven. It says that he's gonna be accompanied by his mighty angels, right? In Matthew 26 verse 53, Jesus has said, or do you not think I cannot pray to my father and he will provide me with more than 12 legions of angels? Well, a Roman legion was 6,000 men, right? 6,000 times 12 is 72,000. And he says more than 12 legions, right? We don't know how many. I think it's interesting, when you look at Matthew 25.31, and Jesus is teaching about His coming, He says, "...when the Son of Man..." That's Jesus. "...when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him..." All of them. None are left back in heaven. He's bringing them all. And I don't know what that's going to look like, but can you imagine in your mind's eye, Jesus coming, it says also, in flaming fire, with all the angels, as He comes to bring and gather us to Himself. I mean, it's probably more vivid than we really take time to consider. It's an incredible future event. Why inflaming fire? Well, one, the Bible paints God's presence as fiery, the pillar of fire. Moses sees a bush on fire, but it's not consumed. Then he says, what is this thing? And the angel of the Lord speaks to him from the burning bush. It's the presence of God. But it's also in the Bible, a picture of God's vengeance. God taking out his vengeance on his enemies. And on whom does he take out his vengeance? Well, the passage says, on those who do not know God. Now, Romans tells us very clearly that everybody knows God. They don't know Him intimately, like Christians do, but they know there's a God. Romans 1 says that. It says that even though they knew God, they wouldn't acknowledge Him as God. They wouldn't acknowledge His authority, in other words, as God. And they were not thankful to Him. They wouldn't thank Him. And they wouldn't come under His authority. And that's why the vengeance of God Almighty will come down on them because of these things. But that's what it means when it says, they do not know God. They don't know Him savingly. They don't know Him as Father. And secondly, it says, and this can be on those who do not obey the gospel. Now, does that sound a little strange to you? Like, obey the gospel? I thought the gospel was God's free gift by grace. Well, it certainly is. But there's an obligation that comes with us following Jesus. Jesus says, you have to die. You have to die to self, pick up your cross and follow me. There's a walk of obedience that flows out of the fact that we receive by God's grace the free gift of salvation. There's an obedience to it. Over and over again in the Bible, you'll see that somebody that's converted in scripture, it'll say in the New Testament that they obeyed the gospel. There was an obedience that came, right? 1 Peter 4.17 talks about those who do not obey the gospel of God. Hebrews 5.9, having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him, the Bible says. It flows out of our salvation, right? The final separation, that's verses 9 and 10, these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, from the glory of his power, when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints. So the disobedient, these truth suppressors that Romans talks about, they will be everlastingly destroyed. I personally believe in a a conscious existence in hell for eternity, and eternal separation from the God who is the source of all that's good. Completely separated from these things. And those obedient to the gospel call, Jesus is glorified in his saints. And I want to read you this quote. I think it's really good. It's John Stott, who I like so much. And he's talking about the fact that the Bible says that he will be glorified in his people. And Stott says this. Not only will the Lord Jesus be revealed objectively in his own splendor so that we see it, but his splendor will be revealed in us, his redeemed people, so that we will be transformed by it and will become means by which it is displayed. The exact meaning of this depends on how we understand the repeated preposition en, and that's in the Greek, en, en. Which the NIV translates, first in His holy people and second among all believers. And could also be translated by or through. So how will the coming of the Lord Jesus be glorified in relation to His people? not among them, as if they will be the theater or the stadium in which he appears, nor by them, as if they will be spectators, the audience, who watch and worship, nor through or by means of them, as if they will be mirrors which reflect the image and the glory, but rather in them. as if they will be a filament which itself glows with light and heat when the electric current passes through it. And then he goes back and unpacks what he just said. And he says, the distinction between these models is important. A theater is not changed by the play which is performed in it. An audience is not necessarily moved by the drama that's enacted before it. A mirror is certainly not affected by the image that it reflects, but a filament is changed. For when the current is switched on, it glows. So when Jesus is revealed in His glory, He will be glorified in His people. We will not only see, but share His glory. We'll be more than a filament which glows temporarily, only to become dark and cold again when the current is switched off. We will be radically and permanently changed. being transformed into His likeness. And in our transformation, His glory will be seen in us. For we will glow forever with the glory of Christ, as indeed He glowed with the glory of the Father." And he quotes Scripture here. Beloved, Now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. I thought, what a tremendous thought that is. And I'll be the first to tell you, I don't understand every little thing that's going to happen when Jesus returns. We have some things revealed, some things we don't have revealed to us. But I think he's touching on some truth with what he's saying there. That when we see Jesus face to face, we're going to be like him. Because we're going to see him as he really is. And it's going to be a transformative vision, the beatific vision will transform us forever. And fourth and final, It's a prayerful chapter. Paul has a prayer for him. Therefore, he says, we also 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 you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Hendrickson says, in other words, that in the estimation of God, you may live and act as it becomes those who have received the call which you have received. But since in their own power, men are unable to live in such a manner that God can count them worthy of the call, it is immediately added that He, by His power, may bring to fulfillment your every resolve prompted by goodness, and your every work resulting from faith." In other words, it's a work of God's grace in us, is what Paul's saying here. Let me end with that. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word, for your word is truth, and Lord, we get sanctified by your truth. And Lord, we pray that you would take these deep things, and Lord, make them simple to us, that we can understand them, we can carry them about in our minds throughout the week, that we would have a hope and an encouragement as we go through our times of trial and tribulation. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. The Lord bless you and keep you, The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Go in the peace of Christ Jesus to a world that desperately needs to hear the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.