Sermon: The Fruit of the Word Received

Good evening. It's a joy to be with you this evening. Uh, as Jason said, if you don't know me, my name is Dave Hinkley. I'm a ruling held elder here at University Reformed, as well as the children and youth ministry director, uh, from the faithful proclamation and discipleship of this church. I heard the gospel and was brought to God by God to saving faith. And so the honor and the privilege of preaching the word from this pulpit is

never lost on me. Uh, it is truly a joy to be here. We are continuing a series through Paul's first letter to the church at Thessalonica this evening. Our text is Thessalonians first Thessalonians chapter two, verses 13 to 16. And before we read it, let's pray to our God, uh, together.

Oh Lord, as we come to our text tonight, we come as humble supplicants, knowing that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from your mouth. We need your word. We need it to work in us, to grow in us faith, hope and love to renew our minds and to conform us to the image of Christ. We ask that you would work just as you did in the Thessalonians and just as we know you have done in us before, we ask that you would work by your word

to bring about a persevering and life giving hope. We ask that you would give us ears to hear you and minds and wills to obey, but we hear and we pray it in the name of Christ. Amen. Verse Thessalonians two, starting in cha in verse 13. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of man, 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 both killed the Lord Jesus. And the prophets drove us out and displease 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.

Amen. You'll recall the context from Acts chapter 17. Paul and Silas traveled to Macedonia and then a city in Macedonia called Thessalonica. During Paul's second missionary journey, Paul preached the gospel in the synagogue there for weeks. And we are told in Acts 17 that some Jews, but a great many devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women turned to Christ. In faith, this new church immediately faced a public backlash.

The rest of the Jews, it seemed stirred up and joined with a mob of gentiles to violently bring Paul Silas. And the leaders of the converts before the city officials, Paul and Silas protected, were protected by the brothers and sent on to Berea. So Paul points out just like Christ before them and the churches in Judea before them, the church in Thessalonica was violently oppressed by those who should have been open to the message first by the Jews,

and then these gentile believers own countrymen. It is a satanic mockery of the divine missionary plan and God's plan, the good news of Christ, comes through the Jews and out to the Gentiles, but it with Satan's inciting these thessalonican Jews rallied the Gentiles around them to attack those who had placed their faith in Christ. Paul is Gladden and thanks God for the living faith that he can see in the lives of these new believers.

They accepted the gospel from him and and from Silas for what it truly was. He says the very word of God. He knows that they've accepted this because he can see the gospel at work in power among them as they suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. He concludes with strong words of rebuke for his own countrymen who would lead out in the persecution of the church, which is likely all the more meaningful and heartbreaking to Paul as he remembers his own past

of someone who did exactly the same thing.

As I look through this text, there are a few things that it brings to mind. Uh, one is, I am, I am put in mind of students that I have ministered to over the years who, uh, for whatever reason, when trials came upon them in their life, uh, usually shortly after high school, even during high school in some cases, uh, did not persevere in their faith and, and turned their back on the faith in which they were raised. Second, I see I'll say three things

that I think we should zero in on, uh, as we meditate upon this passage tonight. First, what does it mean when Paul says that the word is at work? Second, how it was that Paul perceived Paul saw the word at work. What, what was it that showed him that the word was at work? And third, what it means to accept the word of God. So these are gonna be the three things that we focus on tonight. So first I want you to note the active verb clause at the end of verse 13.

Specifically note the subject of that verb clause. When Paul talked about the gospel or synonymously, when he talks about the word of God, he regularly speak, spoke of it as being at work. It is odd is it not to, to speak of a message, uh, of, of a group of words arranged together in a certain order as being at work. We don't say that the tale of two cities or Harry Potter is at work. Theologian Leon Morris points out that the word

used here translated as at work, when it is used in the New Testament, almost always refers to some kind of supernatural activities. Supernatural work, God is at work when his word is proclaimed, when the gospel goes forth. So the work that we are talking about here is the work of the Holy Spirit of God. When the word is proclaimed, read, meditate, meditated upon believed both then and now. The Holy Spirit is doing a mysterious work.

It's not like a magic incantation or something. He is sovereign over all things and is not summoned by us, by any or anything like that. Rather, he has promised that he will work where his word is proclaimed. God says in Isaiah 55, for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout giving seeds to the sower and bred to the eater, so shall my word be

that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. So God is telling us that it is his intention to work among us by the proclamation and of, and meditation upon his word. Brothers and sisters, the best, the most effective strategy for spiritual growth in you, your friends, your children, your community is to go, is to bring them

where the Lord has promised that he will be. Paul is thanking God for the work that he's seeing in this church, and he says, I came to you, I shared the gospel with you, and Acts tells us that 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 to you is the Christ. And these brethren, these thessalonican brethren,

hear these words, heard his proclamation and recognized by the power of the Holy Spirit that God was speaking to them, the words of life at the proclamation of the Word, the sovereign Holy Spirit acted just as he promised that he would do in the hearts of the people at Thessalonica, he granted to them through this proclamation, through these simple words that Paul shared new life in Christ. He gave them hearts of flesh

and wrote his law upon their hearts. By the speaking of these words, new life was granted to these hearers and brothers and sisters. I want you to reflect upon the fact that this is exactly how faith came to you. Someone proclaimed it to you maybe every day for your whole childhood, maybe in a sermon, maybe in a Sunday school class, maybe over coffee. Someone shared these words with you and the spirit breathes life into you.

We tend to think in weirdly limiting categories about the proclamation of the word. We act like every conversion isn't a miracle and and equally unlikely. We pretend that only that we pretend that certain people, well, they obviously would embrace the faith. I they're, you know, they're, they're that way and these other people, oh no, they could never, I, I can't imagine There we pretend like it matters the circumstances of their life,

But our God is not bound by either human unfaithfulness or faithfulness in any way. In fact, he delights to show his glory by redeeming the ones who are too far gone, quote unquote. I know that each of us in our hearts have this feeling about someone, well, I don't know how they would ever confess their sins and seek forgiveness from Christ. I can't see how humanly speaking they could come out of their hardened state and place their hope in and faith in Christ.

And that's exactly the point. Humanly speaking, they will not but the Holy Spirit working through his word intends to bring himself glory by bringing exactly those people to faith in Him.

Hear this on the authority of the word of God. Tonight, the word of God works in power and accomplishes that which God purposes for it to accomplish. You have every reason to hope in the gospel shared with the darkest of hearts, because the spirit works in power through his word. He has mercy and hope for the wickedest among us, for the person who seems farthest away. And if I could offer a special word to those of us

who have a loved one, who was raised in the faith and has now walked away from the faith in which they were raised, nothing is more grievous to a parent, to a grandparent, to a sibling. Few things are more discouraging. Allow me to encourage you with the words that God said to Moses in in numbers chapter 11. He said, is the arm of the Lord somehow shortened? Is he, is God somehow less able to work by prayer and his word because of the choices of your loved one,

is God somehow limited by unfaithfulness?

He has promised to work by these means? And you may say, well, I did those things and it has not worked yet. It has not worked yet. It's good. And right that you have done that, it's good. That and right that you did that who told you to stop? Keep going. Love hopes all things, endures all things and never fails. Keep at this love without fail and trust in the power of the word to work. Second, how did Paul know that the word was at work?

This, this level of resistance to the gospel is an abstraction to most of us. As uncomfortable as we may feel speaking to others that we know about our faith, none of us in this room has faced mob violence for doing so. And we should pause to reflect on this, the re this reality, the emotional strain and the fear that these new believers faced. They found hope in Christ and then they found that hope immediately put to the test.

It would be very easy in their place, whether they were Jewish or Greek, to simply back out, to simply walk away to deny Christ as Peter had done before, before them. I don't need this kind of heat. What's more, when faced with affliction of any kind, the believer is put in mind of the purpose of God. In this such circumstances, particularly new believers can have their entire faith challenged by unexpected hardship. Why would a good God allow affliction like this?

Am I being punished? Is God really there? I think of a young student, uh, to whom I ministered a long time ago. Uh, her parents prayed fervently for her and and counseled her. She, she received the, the one two punch of a beloved, the death of a beloved pet, and then the death of her best friend's father from brain cancer. Uh, we prayed for her, we counseled her, uh, and she could not reconcile these things and walked away from her profession.

Many popular preachers with huge media influence feed off the fear of the immature by trying to claim the opposite of what I think our text is showing us today. And that is if you, if you really follow Christ the right way, this is what they say. If you really follow Christ the right way, uh, then trial will not come to you. Your earthly life will become sunshine and roses. And if the trial comes, it's because of a deficiency in your faith.

But let me quote the rapper, shy Lynn, uh, referring to a bestselling book by prosperity Gospel preacher Joel Osteen. He said, if you are living your best life now, you are headed for hell. The Christian's best life is to come. The Christian's best life is not now. And these light and momentary afflictions are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. I wanna suggest to you tonight that testing affliction

is not an exception to the Christian's life on earth. It is the rule. It is the road on which the Christian walk occurs. It is the means by which we fall out of love with the world and in love with the world to come. It is the, it is the tuning fork, bringing our voices into accord with the eschatological choir. It is the weight by which your spiritual and eternal body earns its muscle tone. It is the means by which you grow in capacity

to love one another and to love the Lord. Peter says that we are grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of our faith, more precious than gold, that perishes, though it is tested in fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This, this tested genuineness of our faith that is brought about by affliction is more precious to us than all the gold in the world.

Why? Why? Because it is the evidence of the saving work of the Holy Spirit within you. Why would you want gold compared to eternal blessedness? Why would you want the fleeting comforts of this world when you can have eternal comfort and security in Christ who can be against us when he is for us? The test reveals your life. The test proves your calling an election. The test shows you and the watching world where lasting hope can be found.

Paul says to the Thessalonians, I know the word does it work in you because of the fruit that it has produced among you. I know the Holy Spirit is doing something by how you are living. The word was at work and how these believers were living in the face of persecution. You, you can see the wind by the effect the wind has on the trees, and you can see a living faith by how a believer responds to affliction and persecution.

When the Thessalonians heard the gospel, they by the power of the Holy Spirit heard God speaking the seed of the word planted, took deep root and sustained them in the face of immediate and violent persecution. The proof of the word at work was their perseverance. In the face of this affliction, the genuineness of faith is only shown as it becomes costly to continue to profess that faith. Paul saw that the Thessalonians were standing firm

and knew that they were genuinely holding on to the hope of the gospel.

The presence of the spirit sustaining you through the hardest of times, preserving your faith, pushing you to cry out for help shows something to those who watch. And it should say something, show something to you. It shows that a divine labor is underway, brothers and sisters, if God has undertaken a work, he will accomplish it. Do you see the comfort in that? If God has begun a good work in you, he will be faithful to complete it in the day

of the Lord Jesus again. Peter says, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Oh, that we could, that we could sink this truth into our minds, into our hearts, that we could look at the circumstances of our lives through this lens.

That those who belong, those of us who belong to Jesus Christ by faith, our present trial means our future glory,

what great hope and, uh, rejoicing that we can have as we are in the face of the hardest of situations, knowing that it is the Lord working within us. Finally, I've, I've seen, as I said before, I've seen more times than I wish that I did. Uh, a person, a young person or an older person who, who will let go of their professed faith when their life heats up real hardships, uh, naturally produce questions and doubts, and every one of us has faced a time

or will face a time when we ask the Lord why he has allowed something to happen in our lives. Thus, as we, as we consider Paul's affirmation to these believers, I see the word at work in you and the way that you have persevered. We, we can clearly hear the calling of the word upon us, persevere, brothers and sisters persevere and affliction. We can, we can clearly hear the, the, the, the exhortation believe in the work

of the word, right? Uh, but there's a third and vital thing that the Thessalonians believe believers did, I think first, and we should take an exhortation to emulate them here as well. And here to begin, before all of that, in verse 13, the Thessalonians accepted the gospel call upon them as the very words of God. Verse 13, delineates two levels of hearing the proclaimed gospel. There is mere reception and there's acceptance.

Paul's words were received by all the people at the synagogue, but only accepted by some. Those who hear the gospel recognize with joy, their divine shepherd's voice are those in whom true faith lives and are those who prove to persevere in persecution in affliction. So allow me to ask a very basic question, and that is, what does it mean to accept these words as the word of God? What do we Christians mean when we say

that the Bible is the word of God? When the Thessalonians recognize that God was speaking in Paul's gospel, what did that mean to them? Well, logic requires that if God speaks to us, his words have authority and are true, God is the sovereign creator of all things for whose glory. All things have been created including us, and he has all power and all things owe their existence to him. What is more? He's perfect in all ways perfectly,

just perfectly merciful, perfectly good in him. There is no unrighteousness, no iniquity, no darkness, no variation or shadow of change. The words of such a being are by definition, true and trustworthy. They are by definition authoritative and they must be trusted and followed. So what the Thessalonians did was to recognize who was speaking to them and they trusted the words that were being spoken. It's as simple and as difficult as that generally speaking.

We in this room, we presbyterians, we, we affirm in our head the word of God is true and has authority.

And as these trials come, we probably, uh, begin to recognize more fully and more completely how difficult it can be to accept these words. Accept that the promises of the word will prove true. Trust that the prohibitions of the word are for our good trust, that the commands of the word will lead to our joy. Trust that these light and momentary afflictions are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed. So what specifically did they hear from Paul Acts says

that he explained and proved from the scripture that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and rise from the dead, and that Jesus is the Christ. This is the message that angered everyone so much. He demonstrated from the scripture the suffering, dying and rising. Jesus is the Christ. Or to put it another way, what the Thessalonians did was believe that the scripture is true and that the Lord has accomplished the salvation of his people.

Think about that. Let's start from there. That's our confession, isn't it? That is the summary of what sets us apart from the watching world, at least in terms of belief. These are the things that what that other religions in the secular world don't like about us. These are the claims that we make that they don't like. These are the central truths. And without them, Christianity is not Christianity. The Bible is true.

And Jesus, the Lord Ro died and rose again, and whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. That there is one way to redemption. The word says, and there is one way to the solution of mankind's problems and is the atoning work of Jesus Christ. This is what the Thessalonians became convicted of. So if a person trusts in Jesus trusts that what the word says about him is true, that person inherits the E, the security

and hope of eternal life. I can you see how these simple truths change everything about how you live, change everything about what you can withstand change everything about the trial that you are facing right now. Believing in the atoning death of Christ means that you believe that the human faces an unparalleled crisis. Namely the wrath of God against the sinfulness of man. Nothing, not hunger, not sickness, not social injustice, not racism, not slavery, not anything,

any earthly or temporal suffering can be compared to the just wrath of God against sin. To believe the word is to believe that God's forbearance with mankind's brutality and wickedness toward one another has an end.

But believing in the atoning death of Christ also means that Christ has expressed his mercy to mankind. That the perfectly good and holy second person of the Trinity condescended out of sheer unfathomable love to pay the penalty that we deserve and that whosoever calls upon his name will be saved.

These paramount Christian truths put violent mobs in perspective. Nobody wants to deal with the violent mob, but you've gotta take him a hundred times out of a hundred over the wrath of the living God. And that's not even the end of this good news. The resurrection of Jesus proves that every enemy of your life and of your soul, and of your peace has been defeated by this Jesus who loves you. He appeased the wrath of God that we deserves

and now he stands in victory over every enemy. Thessalonians your Lord, rose in victory. What is a mob? Brothers and sisters, your Lord rose in victory. What is illness? What is depression? What is persecution? What is death come? Disaster, scorn and pain. The Lord who loved us will surely still remain.

The head of mankind's most ancient enemy has been crushed. Death has been thrown into the lake of fire. Christian, this message from God that we have believed and is at work in us, produces in us perseverance and hope in the midst of every trial, not merely that we have escaped our just penalty, but that the God who created us, whom we have rejected, whose holy character we insult with every sin has loved us in spite of our idolatry,

has loved us with a perfect love, not because of anything we have done or any way that we are, but only because of his glorious love. He has shown mercy to you because he wanted to because of who he is. He loves us because of who he is to close. I wanna offer a word to those who may hear this. And for whatever reason, your faith has not persevered. Maybe someone dragged you here tonight and you are remembering the trial that you faced

have proved too much for your belief to in Christ to continue. Perhaps you lost someone very dear to you, even though you prayed for them to be healed. Perhaps you struggled with depression and anxiety and following the Lord did not seem to remove them. Perhaps you've been angered or even hurt by the plain things that the Bible teaches about how humans should understand gender and sexuality. Perhaps you've been wounded by words or actions of members

or even leaders of a church. Perhaps there's some sin that was simply more attractive to you than ongoing discipleship to Christ, whatever it was. I hope that you'll hear just two more things from me. First, I want to ask if you can see that following Jesus as Lord requires the believer to regard the word as authoritative in his or her life. That having a Lord means that His word is the law for my life, even when I don't like it.

And when I run contrary to that word, which is hear me more often than I wish it was, it is I that must turn back. The word doesn't change. I have to turn back. This is what it means to accept a word as coming from the Lord. This is what it means to believe in the Word of God. I'm not free like Thomas Jefferson to take scissors to the parts of the Bible that I don't like. If I place my trust in him alone, that means I think

of his views of these things and I know that they are right. I trust that they are right and ultimately good for me and good for the world and I rejoice in them. Second thing, I want to ask. If any part of you listening to what I've said tonight about the peace that is offered to the believer in Christ and the joy that we can have, those of us who are connected to him by faith, I I wanna offer, ask if any part of your heart longs for that peace

and joy and safety. I expect that it does. If my, my experience has taught me anything, it's that the reality of sin in our world causes nothing but grief and sorrow. And I would lay odds that you unbeliever are weary from that burden. Our Lord, the Lord, that we rejoice in the Lord, that we love the Lord that has loved us because of who he is has said this, come to me, you who are heavy, laden and weary, and I will give you rest for my yoke is easy

and my burden is light. And you in your previous experience may never have F found that rest. But I assure you that it is there and that the Lord offers it to you. Jesus is the Lord. And though everyone else might be untrustworthy, he is trustworthy. He is more trustworthy than the fickle desires of your heart, than the the changeable reasoning of your mind. Trust him with your doubts. Turn to him for he's worthy of your worship and your allegiance.

Let's pray together.

Lord, I do ask that everyone within the sound of my voice would know the peace of reconciliation with the Father through Jesus Christ. Lord, we know that even our faith is a gift that is given by your sovereign hands. We ask that you would grant that gift to those who do not yet have it. We ask that you would work in us by your word, by our trust in the authority and goodness of your word to ch grant to us. Strength to persevere in the trials that we are facing,

strength to obey where it is hard to do so, strength to forgive, where it's hard to do so, strength, to not allow depression or anxiety, to rule strength, to resist temptation. Oh Lord, where else would we go? For you have the words of life. It is in the strong name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.