Let us take our Bibles now and open up to 1st
Thessalonians. 1st Thessalonians, we're going
to be in chapter 2, looking at verses 13 through
16. This is our summer series through this wonderful
book. We've seen some great things so far. Today,
we're really going to focus upon the Word of
God. That's what the passage is really talking
about. The Word of God, not the Word of men.
This, friends, is what we need. We need God's
Word. And so, would you pay close attention to
the reading of God's holy and inspired, inerrant,
and infallible Word? And 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,
they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord
Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased
God and opposed 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 faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ
Let us pray. Father we praise you and we thank
you for your word and I ask now that as we look
at this that you would hide this word in our
hearts and help the truth of it to sink down
into our souls and that we would really wholeheartedly
trust your word that is true in everything it
teaches. But Lord we need your help. We need
the help of the Holy Spirit. Grant us understanding
through Him. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
If I told you that God speaks to me, how would
you feel about that? That God talks to me? You'd
say, that's not very Presbyterian of you, right?
But God does. God does speak to me, and He does
speak to you. He speaks through His perfect Word.
He speaks through the 66 books that make up the
Bible. This Word is truth. God's Word is sufficient.
God is no wordless idol. His Word is just as
active as He is. Perhaps you know the text from
Hebrews 412 that says, is living and active,
sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing to
the division of soul and of spirit, of joints
and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and
intentions of the heart. God's word is authoritative
because it comes from him, and this authoritative
word preached to us, taught to us here, it demands
a response, and within our text today, we see
two drastically different responses. We see reception
of the word, and we see rejection of the word.
Friends, because the word of God is the word
of God, we must receive it in faith. Last Sunday,
we looked at gospel characteristics of Paul and
Silas and Timothy. We looked at their boldness,
we looked at their gentleness, we looked at their
diligence, but I have one more characteristic
to add. Paul was a thankful man. Paul was a thankful
man. Look at it here in verse 13. Paul thanks
God about the Thessalonians. And notice I said,
Paul thanks God about the Thessalonians. Here
in the text he doesn't thank God for the Thessalonians.
He thanks God for the work that he is doing in
the midst of the Thessalonians. Paul does this
a lot though. You can see this kind of thing
in Philippians. You can see it in Colossians.
He is thanking God for the Thessalonian positive
response of the gospel message. And he does so
with two synonymous terms there in verse 13.
He talks about receiving the word and he talks
about accepting the word. When he talks about
the word receiving, this is a verb stressing
the hearing, the reception of the word preached
by Paul and preached by others. He's saying the
Thessalonians listened to him when he preached.
They didn't plug up their ears. They took it
in. And again, these are synonymous terms, the
receiving and the accepting. And so when it says
accepting there, this is that they absorb the
word. This is that they believed the Word of
God taught to them by Paul. And so because these
are synonymous terms, the contrast that we need
to look at is not between those words, but it's
between what comes next further into the verse,
the source of the Word. Is it the Word of God
or is it the Word of men? What's the source?
Now, it's clear here. the sources from God, but
yet God does work through human writers. He works
through Paul. He works through Peter. He works
through Moses. He works through David, but the
ultimate author of scripture is the Holy Spirit.
He's the one who divinely inspires the words
from the biblical writers. And so that's how
the Bible comes to us, from the Holy Spirit through
these men. who are inspired with what they write.
It's not that the Bible just comes down, you
know this, the Bible doesn't just come down from
heaven in your favorite English translation with
your favorite fake leather cover. No, the Word
comes from the Holy Father and His Spirit through
the Gospel writers. And so because the Holy Spirit
does this, because the Holy Spirit breathes out
Scripture, we can say there's no difference between
Paul's word in Scripture and God's word. The
gospel proclaimed is not merely human word. It's
the divine word. And so for this reason, Paul
gives thanks. His point is that the Thessalonians
not only accepted the gospel at their conversion,
the Thessalonians continued to accept the gospel.
We don't just believe in this once. We believe
in it every single day. Again. The word is living
and active. And you can see within towards the
end of that verse, the word at work in you believers.
And that's an important point. It's an important
point for the word to work in a positive way
in our lives. We have to believe it. We have
to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so it's at work in their lives. Now, Paul doesn't
spell out here how the word is at work. But we've
already seen it. We've already seen the Thessalonians
and their work of faith, their labor of love,
and their steadfastness of hope, not to mention
other things that we'll see later in this letter.
And so I want you to understand this today, that
the Word works. The Word works as you are being
sanctified in the truth. The Word works as you
seek to follow after Jesus. The Word works as
you share it with other people. The Word will
not return void. And so the question I have for
you is, have you believed this message? Have
you believed in the gospel? Children, have you
believed in Jesus? Do you know that he is called
the Word in John chapter 1? You might say, well,
I'm not sure. How do I accept the word? You might
remember Augustine. Augustine in the 300s was
brought up by a mother who loved him, and Augustine's
mother prayed for him all the time, and it took
a while. But one day, Augustine was in a courtyard,
and he heard some children singing and playing,
and they had this This phrase that they were
singing over and over and over again, the children
were singing tolle legge, tolle legge, which
is Latin for take up and read. And so what did
Augustine do? He took the Bible up and he read
it. And he was converted because the word works.
Friends, as you look at this text, you could
see. There's really two types of people in the
text, aren't there? There are people who believe
the gospel, who receive it and accept it, and
there are people who do not. But regardless,
the word has dramatic effect on these groups
here. I want to show you this from Acts chapter
17. I've referenced this several times within
the sermon series, but I don't think we've read
the text yet. So Acts chapter 17, one through
nine. Acts 17, one through nine, reads, now,
when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia,
they came to Thessalonica, where there was a
synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was
his custom. And on three Sabbath days, he reasoned
with them from the scriptures, explaining and
proving that it was necessary for the Christ
to suffer. and to rise from the dead and saying,
this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.
And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul
and Silas as did a great many of the devout Greeks
and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews
were jealous and taking some wicked men of the
rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an
uproar and attacked the house of Jason. Seeking
to bring them out to the crowd and when they
could not find them They dragged Jason and some
of the brothers before the city authorities shouting
these men who have turned the world upside down
have come here also in Jason has received them
and They're all acting against the decrees of
Caesar saying that there is another King Jesus
and The people in the city authorities were disturbed
when they heard these things And when they had
taken money as security from Jason and the rest,
they let them go. It's a dramatic effect. The
reception of the word or the rejection of the
word. Some of the Jews in the city believed.
Some did not. A great many of the Gentiles believed.
Some did not. The Jews were jealous. and they
set the city in an uproar and look at the accusation
against the leaders of the city, the accusation
against Paul and Silas and Timothy. The text
says that they were saying that the Christians
have turned the world upside down. They're talking
about the previous cities that Paul had been
in and the reception and the rejection in those
cities. But this is an ironic statement, isn't
it? Because while Paul and his crew, are accused
of disturbing the peace in Thessalonica, what
do the non -believing Thessalonians do? They're
the ones who form the mob. They're the ones who
set the city in an uproar. They're the ones who
attack Jason's house. The Christians in the city
suffer because others reject the gospel. Friends,
the gospel is the dividing line. Luke 12 51 through
52 listen to these words from Jesus Do you think
that I have come to give peace on earth No No,
I tell you but rather division from now on in
one house there will be five divided three against
two two against three They will be divided father
against son, son against father, mother against
daughter, and daughter against mother, mother
-in -law against her daughter -in -law, and daughter
-in -law against mother -in -law. Friends, if
anything is true in this world that's free for
observation, this is it. Because the gospel is
what divides. People have fought over this, and
they continue to do so. We fight, though, for
the truth, the truth of the gospel. And it's
this, that Christ died for your sins according
to the Scriptures. But the gospel in this city,
you can see what it did. People believed and
people rejected. The gospel is the river. The
gospel is the boundary. When it comes to the
Word, nobody is neutral with it. And with this
persecution, the Thessalonians, even as they're
being persecuted, they're imitating the churches
of God and Christ Jesus that were in Judea. In
Judea, people who were Christians were persecuted,
and Paul is saying that's happening to you too
here by your own countrymen. The Jews in Thessalonica
stir up the non -believing Gentiles to prevent
the message of salvation from going out. Again,
the gospel has tremendous effect It has a tremendous
effect because it's affected you, hasn't it?
At one point, the playing field was completely
level because Romans 3 .23 says that all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We
were all dead in our trespasses, in our sin,
in our disobedience. We reject the Word of God.
The dividing line there is the righteousness
of God. And there was a time when we were on
the wrong side of righteousness, when we didn't
have it. but because of the mercy of God he has
sent Christ to us and Christ lived for us and
he died for us and then he sent his spirit who
changes the affections of our hearts to care
about God and to love him and to love others.
The gospel makes a way for us back to God. That's
what the gospel does. It saves us. It saves us
because of the sacrifice of Christ. Look in verse
15. They killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets.
Friends, when it says the prophets here, I believe
this is referring to the prophets of the Old
Testament. It's talking about those who paved
the way, if you will, for Jesus to come. And
Jesus did and he fulfilled scripture and he died
for our salvation. And this text points out that
there is wrath for those who don't believe this
message. Commentators look at this passage and
they're kind of divided here on whether this
is talking about a historical event, this wrath.
Is this talking about something that people actually
went through for their disobedience? or is this
looking ahead to the final judgment? Is this
looking ahead to the final wrath? To be honest
with you, I'm not sure. But we do know that there's
a final judgment. We do know that there is wrath
to come. As James Grant says, a commentator,
when you reject grace, the only thing that is
left is wrath. Friends, the only cover for the
wrath The only cover for the judgment of God
is in Christ, Christ who suffered the penalty
for our sin, Christ who laid his life down so
you would have the gospel and life everlasting,
but you need to receive it in faith. Friends,
you have received the word. You've heard it.
You've not stopped up your ears. Now accept it
in faith, not as the word of men, but of God.
And ultimately, of the Holy Spirit who illumines
truth for us. Let us thank God for Christ who
saves us and for the Holy Spirit who breathes
out scripture and opens our hearts and our minds
to accept.