"...our gospel came not
unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy
Spirit, and in much assurance (1 Thess. 1:5).
"...having suffered before, and been shamefully
entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we waxed bold in our
God to speak unto you the gospel of God in much
conflict" (2:2).
"...we have been approved of God to be entrusted
with the gospel..." (2:4).
"...being affectionately desirous of you, we were
well pleased to impart unto you, not the gospel of God
only, but also our own souls... For ye remember,
brethren, our labour and travail: working night and day,
that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you
the gospel of God" (2:8,9).
"...we... sent Timothy, our brother and God's
minister in the gospel of Christ..." (3:1,2).
"...rendering vengeance to them that know not God,
and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus..." (2 Thess. 1:8).
"...whereunto he called you through our gospel, to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ"
(2:14).
We see
that the Gospel has quite a place in these letters. We
seek now to discover the real meaning of the gospel, that
is, the essential meaning of the good tidings, from the
standpoint of these letters and the Thessalonian
believers, and we shall be helped to that understanding
if we take a look at the spiritual history, life and
state of these believers in Thessalonica.
The
Thessalonian Christians an Example
You will at a glance
see what a special regard Paul had for them. He reputedly
uses words such as these: "We give thanks to God
always for you all". Both in the first and second
letters he speaks like that (1. 1:2; 2. 1:3, 2:13).
"We give thanks to God for you". And
then he says about them a very wonderful thing, which
gives us a definite lead in this consideration. He says
in the first letter, chapter 1, verse 7: "Ye became
an ensample to all that believe in Macedonia and in
Achaia". That is something to say about a company of
the Lord's people, and it leads us at once to ask the
question - How were they an ensample? It was evidently
not only to those immediately referred to, in all
Macedonia, and Achaia, for these letters remain unto this
day, and they therefore represented that which is an
example for all the Lord's people. If that was true of
them, then the gospel must have meant something very much
where they were concerned. It must have had a very
special form of expression in them, and so we seek to
answer the question: How were they "an ensample to
all that believe"?
A
Pure Spirit and a Clean Heart
We find the answer in
the first place here in this very first chapter. It was
in their realism in reception of the gospel.
"Our gospel came unto you not in word only, but also
in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much
assurance". And again: "when ye
received from us the word of the message, even the word
of God, ye accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it
is in truth, the word of God" (2:13). Now that
represents a very clean start; and if we are going to
come to the place of these Thessalonian believers, if the
gospel is to have that expression in us that it had in
them, if it is going to be true in our case that we are
an example to all them that believe, then it is very
important that we have a clean start.
For us, of course, if
we have advanced in the Christian life without becoming
such exemplary believers, that may mean retracing our
steps in order to start again somewhere where we have
gone wrong; clearing away a lot of rubbish and starting
at a certain point all over again. But I am thinking also
of young Christians who have recently made the start. You
are really at the beginning, and we are most concerned
about you, because you may meet many old Christians who
are not by any means an example to all that believe. I am
sorry to have to say that, but it is quite true, and we
do not want you to be like that. We want you to be
exemplary Christians; those of whom the Apostle Paul, if
he were present, could say, 'I thank God always for you'.
It would be a great thing, would it not, if that could be
said of us? 'Thank God for him! Thank God for her! Thank
God that ever we came into touch with this one, and that
one! I always thank God for them - they are an example of
what Christians ought to be!'
Now, that is the desire
of the Lord, that is our desire for you, and it should be
the desire of our hearts for ourselves. Although we may
not have succeeded, let us not give up hope that some may
yet give thanks for us, that we may be an example, that
in some things, at any rate, it may be true of us as it
was of these. Paul says here: "Ye became imitators
of us" (1 Thess. 1:6). The Lord help us to be such
an example that we could invite others, in some respects
at least, to imitate us, without any spiritual pride.
Well, if this is to be
so, the start must be a clean one. You see, quite
evidently, as these Thessalonians listened to Paul
preaching the good tidings, their minds and hearts were
free from prejudice. They would not have come to the
conclusion to which they did come if there had been any
prejudice, if they had already closed down the matter in
their minds, or come to a set position. They were open in
heart from the outset, ready for whatever was of God, and
that created a capacity for discerning what was of God.
You will never know whether a thing is of God if you
entertain prejudice, if you have already judged it, if
already you have come to a fixed position. If you are
settled in your mind, closed in your heart, harbour
suspicions and fears, you have already sabotaged the work
of the Holy Spirit, and you will never know if the thing
is of God. You must be open-hearted, open-minded, free
from suspicions and prejudices, and ready in this
attitude - 'Now, if there is anything of the Lord,
anything of God, I am ready for that, no matter through
whom it comes, how it comes, where it comes. If it is of
God, I am ready for it'. That creates a disposition to
which the Holy Spirit can bear witness, and makes things
possible for the Lord.
Now, as we shall see,
that is exactly how these Thessalonians were. They
received the word, yes, in much affliction, but they
received it as the Word of God, not as the word of man.
Because of their purity of spirit, they had the sense -
'This thing is right, this is of God!' That was a good
start. As I said earlier, it may be that some of us will
have to get back somewhere to make that start again. To
any reading these words, who may be of advanced years in
the Christian life, I would say: Dear friend, if you have
anywhere on the road become in any way affected,
infected, by prejudice and suspicion, you have closed the
door to anything further of God. Let us clearly
understand that. It is true that -
'The Lord hath yet
more light and truth
To break forth from His Word'.
We have not yet
exhausted all that the Lord has to show us in His Word;
but He will only show it to the pure in heart. "The
pure in heart... shall see God" (Matt. 5:8).
These Thessalonians,
then, had a pure spirit from the start.
Mutuality
and Maturity
The next thing that we
notice about them, after their realism in reception, was
their mutuality and maturity - two things which always go
together. In both these letters, that which the Apostle
speaks about perhaps more than anything else is the
wonderful love between these believers. "The love
of each one of you all toward one another aboundeth"
(2 Thess. 1:3). He is speaking all the way through
about their mutual love. And going alongside of that was
their spiritual growth. You see, love always builds up (1
Cor. 8:1). This kind of love, mutual love, always means
spiritual increase. We can see how true that is if we
view it from the opposite standpoint. Little, personal,
petty, selfish, separated, individual Christians, or
companies or bodies of Christians who are exclusive and
closed, and have not a wide open heart of love to all
saints - how small they are, how cramped they are. It is
true. And it is in this mutual love one for another, and
growing and increasing love one for another, that
spiritual growth takes place. Do not forget that. If you
are concerned about the spiritual growth of your own
heart, your own life, and that of others, it will be
along the line of love, mutual love, and you are the one
to begin it. Mutuality and maturity always go together.
Suffering
and Service
And then, in the third
place, you will find that they were characterized by
suffering and service, and this is a wonderful
Divine combination. It is something that is not natural.
The Apostle had much to say about it, as you will see if
you underline the word 'suffering' in these letters, and
note his references to their sufferings and their
afflictions. They "received the word in much
affliction" (1 Thess. 1:6). He speaks about their
sufferings, and he describes those sufferings. They in
Thessalonica were suffering along the same lines and for
the same causes as their brethren in Judaea, he said
(2:14).
Now, in Judaea, that
is, in the country of the Jews, you know how the
Christians suffered. Christ Himself suffered at the hands
of the Jews; Stephen was martyred at the hands of the
Jews; the Church met its first persecutions in Judaea, in
Jerusalem, and they were scattered abroad by the
persecutions that arose there over Stephen; and Paul
says, 'Now you are suffering in that way'. Evidently
there was in Thessalonica much persecution, much
opposition; threats and all sorts of difficulties - the
kind of thing, perhaps, where it was very difficult for
them to do business and get jobs, all because the
business was in the hands of those who had no room for
this Christianity and for these Christians.
But with all that
severe suffering, and with all their "much
affliction" they did not become introspective. That
is the peril of suffering. If you are suffering
frustration, opposition, persecution, or if the best jobs
are given to someone else, and so on, the natural thing
is to turn in upon yourself, to be very sorry for
yourself, to begin to nurse your trouble and be wholly
occupied with yourself. But here, suffering led to
service.
The Apostle says that
the Word went forth from them, not only through all the
region of Macedonia and Achaia, but throughout the whole
country (1:8). Their suffering - what did it do? It made
them turn outwards, and say, 'There are others everywhere
in need, in suffering, as we: let us see what we can do
for them'. That is the way to respond to the gospel, is
it not? That speaks of the glorious gospel! The gospel
had become to them such good news that it had the effect
upon them of delivering them entirely from all self-pity
in the deepest affliction. Let us take that to heart.
Patience
and Hope
Furthermore the Apostle
speaks of their "patience of hope" (1:3), and
that simply means that they did not easily give up. That
counts for something, you know. You are having a
difficult time; everything and everybody is against you.
It is so easy to give up - just to give up; to draw out
of the race, or drop your hands in the fight, and say,
'It is no use - better give it all up'. But no: these
Christians had patience and hope. They did not easily
give up, they 'stuck to it', and we shall see that they
had a hope that kept them sticking to it.
Such were these who
were 'an example to all that believe'. In them we see the
constituents of exemplary Christians, and they are the
true features of the gospel. You see, the gospel is for
Christians in difficulty! It is not only for the unsaved,
but for Christians when they are in difficulty or in
suffering. It is still good news. If we lose the 'good
news' element in the gospel, if it loses for us its keen
edge as 'good tidings', we become stale; we come to the
place where we 'know it all'. If we lose that sense, then
when trouble comes we give up, we let go; but if to have
come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus is still for
us the greatest thing in all the world and all the
universe, then we get through.
Difficulties
Because of Temperament
Now, because
difficulties always correspond to our dispositions, that
is, what we are always gives rise to the nature of our
trials, so it was with the Thessalonians. Nothing is a
trial to you unless you are made in a certain way.
Something that is a trial to you might never be a trial
to me at all. Or it might be the other way round. What
might be a terrible thing to me and knock me right off my
balance, other people could go through quite calmly, and
wonder what I am making such a fuss about. Our troubles
and our trials very largely take their rise from the way
we are made.
Now I want you to
follow this. The thoroughness of these Thessalonian
believers led them into peculiar testings. And that is
always the case. If you are not thorough-going, you will
not have thorough-going difficulties. You will get
through more or less easily. If you are thorough-going,
you are going to meet thorough-going testings. They arise
quite naturally out of your own attitude or your own
disposition.
Now, you know that
human nature and constitution is made in various ways.
You know in general that we are not all alike. That is
just as well! But we can to a very large extent classify
human nature into different categories - what we call
temperaments. In the main there are seven different
temperaments, or categories of human constitution. I am
not going to deal with that in detail, but there is a
very useful point here on this matter. These
Thessalonians were quite clearly of the 'practical'
temperament, and the keenness of their particular
sufferings was largely found because they were like that.
I do not, of course, mean that other people do not
suffer, but they suffer in other ways.
You see, the standard
of life of the practical temperament is quick and direct
returns. We must see something for our money very
quickly! It is the business temperament, the temperament
of commercial life. The things which govern this
temperament are quick successes. 'Success' is the great
word of the practical temperament. It is success that
succeeds. The successful are the idols of this particular
kind of make-up.
There is not much
sentiment here. These people cannot stop for sentiment.
Things that are not what they call practical are regarded
by them as just 'sentimental'. They are not so, of
course, but that is how Martha reacted to Mary. Mary was
not sentimental, but Martha thought she was, because
Martha was so pre-eminently practical. Again, there is
very little imagination in this make-up. It rides
roughshod over all sensibilities. It does not stop to
think how people feel about what is said; it just goes
right on.
And then it sometimes
makes terrible mistakes - it confuses things. For
instance, it mistakes inquisitiveness for depth, because
it has always to be asking endless questions. The
'practical' people are always asking questions,
questions, questions; they keep you going with questions
all the time, thinking that this is an evidence of
spiritual depth. They think that they are not just taking
things at their surface value, they are being very
practical, as well as deep. But there is a good deal of
difference between inquisitiveness and depth. It is very
possible to confuse things.
Now we want to get to
understand these Thessalonians and the effect of the
gospel. Can we not now picture them, in the light of what
I have said? They responded quickly, and in a very
practical way, and in a very thorough-going way. One of
the major themes to which they responded was the coming
of the Lord. Right at the beginning Paul says: "Ye
turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true
God, and to wait for his Son from heaven" (1:9,10).
It was a big thing with them, this coming of the Lord,
and they had concluded that the Lord's coming would take
place, at latest, in their own lifetime. That was their
practical reaction to the gospel, and it was good in its
way. But you know that these two letters of Paul are
almost entirely occupied with correcting a false element
in that reaction.
Now you find them in
trouble - trouble springing out of their own make-up - in
this matter. They had been saying to themselves something
like this. 'The Lord is coming - we have been told the
Lord is coming, we have accepted that "the coming of
the Lord draweth nigh" and we have accepted that to
happen any day; and we were told that, when the Lord
came, all His own would be caught up to meet Him. We
concluded that all believers would be caught up, be
raptured, and enter into the glory like that, together.
Oh, what a wonderful thing - all going together into the
presence of the Lord! But some of our friends died,
yesterday, last week, and people are still dying. It
seems to upset this whole matter of all being caught up
together.' They were thrown into confusion and
consternation because, instead of the Lord coming and
gathering them all up to Himself, there were people
amongst them going into the grave. It was a setback for
their practical make-up, you see.
Now, the Apostle writes
to them. He writes to them the gospel, the good news, for
people who are in perplexity and in sorrow because of
disappointment in this way, and he says: 'I want you to
know, dear brethren, I want you to understand, that that
makes no difference in the final issue. When the Lord
comes, they will not have gone before us; and when He
comes, we shall not go before them. It just does not make
any difference. They that are asleep in Jesus and we who
are alive and remain shall all be caught up together. You
need not allow this thing to trouble you any more. You
must not sorrow as those who have no hope, or who have
lost their great hope - as those whose great hope of the
coming of the Lord has been struck at by the deaths of
these believers. There is really no place for any element
of disappointment over this. It is good news for those
who have lost loved ones - it is good news concerning the
issue of life and death - that we shall all together go
up "to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we
ever be with the Lord." It is just wonderful.'
So we see that here
Paul was able to bring in the gospel - the good news, the
good tidings - in order to get over a certain difficulty
that had arisen because of their make-up, their
disposition.
A
Help to Know One's Own Disposition
Let us pause there for
a minute. You know, we should get over a great many of
our troubles if we knew what our temperaments were. If
only we would sit down for a minute - and this is not
introspection at all - sit down for a minute and say:
'Now, what is my peculiar disposition and make-up? What
is the thing to which, by reason of my constitution, I am
most prone? What are the factors, the elements, that make
up my temperament?' If you can put your finger on that,
you have the key to many of your troubles. Asaph, the
psalmist, was having a very bad time on one occasion. He
looked at the wicked and saw them prospering. He saw the
righteous having a difficult time - himself included -
and he got very downhearted about all this. But then he
pulled himself together, he recollected, and he said:
"This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years
of the right hand of the Most High" (Ps. 127:10).
'"This is my infirmity"! This is not the Lord,
this is not the truth - this is just me, this is my
proneness to go down in times of difficulty. It is how I
am made; it is my reaction to trouble.'
Now, perhaps that
sounds a very naturalistic way of dealing with things.
But I have not finished yet. If you and I will understand
this thing - that a lot of our trouble comes because we
are made in a certain way; it is really in our own
constitution - we shall have a ground upon which to go to
the Lord. We shall be able to go to the Lord and say:
'Lord, You know how I am made; You know how I naturally
react to things. You know how, because I am made that
way, I am always being caught in certain ways; You know
how it is that I behave under certain strains. You know
me, Lord. Now, Lord, You are different from what I am:
where I am weak, You are strong; where I am faulty, You
are perfect.'
Do you not see that the
Lord Jesus, the perfect Man, is the perfect balance of
all the good qualities in all the temperaments, that in
Him are none of the bad qualities of any temperament, and
that the Holy Spirit can make Christ to be unto us that
which we are not in ourselves? That is the great wonder,
the great mystery, the great glory, of the meaning of
Christ as mediated to us by the Holy Spirit. It is the
wonder of His humanity: a perfect manhood without any of
all this that troubles us. Look at Him under duress: He
does not go down. Look at Him from any standpoint of
testing and trial: He goes through. But He is man. He is
not going through on the basis of His Deity. He is going
through on the basis of His perfect humanity, and that is
to be mediated to us.
Spiritual growth means
this, that we are becoming something other than what we
are naturally. Is it not so? Naturally, we may be
inclined to be rather miserable people - always taking a
miserable view, always going down in the dumps. Now, when
the Holy Spirit takes charge of us, the miserably
inclined people become joyful, although it is not natural
for them to be joyful. That is the miracle of the
Christian life. We become something that we are not
naturally. Naturally, we would very quickly go down under
some kinds of criticism or persecution, and nurse our
troubles, but when the Lord Jesus is in us, we can take
it and go on. We do not go down, we go on. He makes us
other than what we are. That is the work of grace in the
life of the believer.
These Thessalonians
suffered very much because of their practical
temperament. They expected that that of which they had
been told at the first would come about immediately. They
were saying to themselves: 'The Lord will come - He may
come today, any day - and that will be the end of all our
troubles. But time is going on, and people are dying, and
things are getting more and more difficult. It does not
look very much as though the Lord is coming...' They may
have been almost at the point of breaking and scattering.
And at that point a new presentation of the gospel of the
Lord Jesus came in, bringing the hope of something
different from what they were naturally.
What is true in the
case of the practical temperament is true in all other
temperaments. We may take this as a principle. If we only
understood it, the Lord is dealing with every one of us
like that. He is dealing with us according to what we
are. It is no use trying to stereotype or standardise the
dealings of God with people. God's dealings with me would
perhaps not be very troublesome to you, but God's
dealings with you might very well throw me right off my
feet. He deals with us according to ourselves, in order
that there may be that of Christ in us which is not of
ourselves. I say again, that is the work of grace. That
is the mediation of Christ - that is the very meaning of
being conformed to the image of Christ. It is partaking
of His nature - something utterly different. But it is a
terrible process. Now we have got to get through as these
people got through.
Is that good news? I
think it is. I think that is the gospel, 'good tidings'.
It is good tidings for the man who is always too ready to
drop out and give up and be miserable. It is good tidings
to those who, because of their own natural expectations
and reactions, are disappointed in what is actually
happening. It is good tidings that Christ is something
other than we are, and that we can be saved from what we
are by Christ. It is very practical, you see. How are we
saved from what we are? By Christ! Not by Christ just
coming and putting out His hands and pulling us up. That
is what we are all wanting Him to do. We are appealing to
the Lord to come and do something like that, literally
lift us right out of where we are. What He is doing is
displacing us, and putting Himself in our place in an
inward way. It is a process, a deep process, and it is
perhaps only over years that you can see more of Christ.
That person used to be such-and-such a one, but there is
a difference now, you can see Christ now; they are no
longer what they used to be, they are getting over that.
They are being "changed into the same image".
That is good news: good news for the Thessalonians, and
good news for us.
The
Test at the End
But there is one other
thing with these Thessalonians. Things in the world were
becoming increasingly difficult; they were going from bad
to worse. These dear people saw things happening, they
saw forces at work, and they thought: 'This does not look
as though the Lord is coming, as though His Kingdom is
coming. It looks as though Satan is having it all his own
way. Things are going from bad to worse; and as to things
being changed, as to there being "a new heaven and a
new earth" and a new world state, all this that we
have thought would come with the coming of Christ and His
Kingdom, we do not see any sign of it at all. Rather is
it going the other way: the world is getting worse, evil
men are waxing worse and worse. There seems to be more
and more of the Devil than ever there was.'
Now, the Apostle wrote
his letters on that, and he said: 'Look here, that does
not mean things going wrong; that does not mean
disappointment for your expectations. The Lord will not
come until those things have happened and come to
fulness. "The mystery of lawlessness does already
work". Before He comes, two things must happen.
'First of all, there
must take place a great failing away.' A great falling
away? Christians falling away? Professing Christians
falling away, going away from the Lord, turning back?
That is not very practical for these people! Yes, that is
exactly what will happen toward the end. The nearer the
coming of the Lord is, the more the test will be finding
people out. The sieve will be at work. There will be a
falling away; there will be many people - professors -
who say, 'We are not going with this, we cannot go on
with this any longer'. They will go back from following
the Lord. It always was so. It was so in the days of our
Lord's flesh. At the end it will be like that. 'Oh, how
disappointing!' Ah, yes, but understand that that is how
it will be, and that it does not mean that everything has
gone wrong. It is just going to be like that. When the
Lord does take away a people, it will be a people who
have gone on with Him to the end; and He is testing,
testing. 'Now, you Thessalonians, understand that what He
is doing is testing you as to whether you will go right
on to the end.' It has to be made manifest whether the
root of the matter is in believers, or if it is only
profession. So do not misunderstand the signs of the
times.
And then the second
thing. Antichrist, that man of sin, the Devil, seems to
be getting more and more of his own way, they thought.
And it was so. 'But', said the Apostle, 'the Lord's day
will not come until that man of sin, the Antichrist, has
been revealed.' 'Oh, we thought Christ was coming, not
Antichrist!' Ah, but Christ will not come until
Antichrist has come. Do not misunderstand things. If
there is a mighty movement in this world by Satan, the
Devil seemingly incarnate, a great incarnation of him -
it may be in man form or system form, whatever it is -
that is dead set upon obliterating everything that
belongs to Christ, that is not a bad sign. That is a good
sign - the Lord is about to come! That is the good news
in the day when the Devil seems to be carrying everything
away. That is portentous. The Lord is at hand.
"But when these
things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your
heads; because your redemption draweth nigh", said
Jesus (Luke 21:28). So if suffering increases, if
patience is tested; if Satan seems to be having it his
way, and getting the power into his hands, do not be
deceived - do not allow that to say to you, 'Well, our
hope is not being realised.' Turn it round the other way,
and say, 'These are the very things that say that our
hope is about to be realised.' This is good news for the
day of adversity, good news for Christians in suffering,
good news when Satan is doing his worst. The Lord is at
hand!
The
Summing up of the Whole Matter
But where shall we sum
it all up? We have always sought to find a little
fragment in which it can be all concluded, and I think we
have it here:
"Faithful is
he that calleth you, who will also do it" (1 Thess.
5:24).
Here is the conclusion
and summing up of the whole matter. Yes, beloved ones are
dying, going to the Lord. Time is dragging on. The Devil
is apparently gaining power and doing his worst. We, the
Lord's people, are in suffering: nevertheless, God is
able to see us through. "Who will also do it."
What more do we want? Over against everything else - 'He
will also do it.' That is good news! After all, and in
the final summing up, the good news is that it is not
left with us. It is the Lord's matter. What is left to us
is to believe God, to seek to understand His ways, to be
steadfast, to hope unto the end, and then the Lord takes
over. "Faithful is he that calleth you, who will
also do it" Good news!