Do you have a problem with idol worship? Most of us do in some way. But what about idle worship? If you are like most Americans you probably don’t know how to rest well. Maybe resting is all you think about all day, but when it comes time to rest, resting just becomes mindless scrolling on your phone and just leaves you more tired and unsatisfied. Maybe resting and leisure are taking precedence over other important things in your life. Or maybe it’s that feeling that you always busy but don’t have much to show for it. We are a culture who has tried to replace real rest with just idleness. So how do we know the difference? 2 Thessalonians 3, the final chapter in our series, helps us understand the problem we can have with idleness. Let’s see what God’s Word has to say to us this morning.

In 2 Thessalonians 1, Paul talks about what will happen when Jesus returns. Evil will be judged once and for all, and all those with faith in Jesus will be in His presence for eternity. Paul now must go back to what will come before Jesus returns. And he needs to write because there was confusion about that, even after his last letter. Someone, and Paul doesn’t know exactly who or how, is disturbing the church by taking his teaching in his first letter and misapplying it by saying that the entire church has missed the return of Jesus. Paul says, whether by a false prophecy, by a word or by a letter, someone is disturbing you and alarming you with false information. And so in chapter two, Paul writes back saying, "It is impossible for you to miss Jesus coming back for you because something has to take place first that you will not miss!" The good news is that you won’t miss it; the bad news is that things will get pretty bad and pretty desperate before they get better. So Paul aims to tell the Thessalonians about the 'Man of Lawlessness' and the rebellion he will launch against Christ and His church, while also encouraging them with the comforting power and love of God for His fearful sheep.

If you look up the word “judgement” you get almost exclusively positive results. The ability to decide between two things; the ability to make a good decision after considering all the facts. But if you add two small letters onto the end of the word judgement, things go the other way. If you look up the word “judgmental,” it is all negative. We should exercise good judgement, but somehow not be judgmental. If you ask the typical American what they think of Christians, it is often that they are judgmental. Judgment is good if it comes from our financial advisor, a judge or a referee, but never good when it comes from God or His people. And yet, over and over again, the Bible celebrates God’s judgement as a blessing, as part of his goodness. We are in a series going through the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. And today we begin looking at Paul, Silas and Timothy’s 2nd letter to the church in Thessalonica—the book of 2nd Thessalonians.

Have you ever experienced a dysfunctional relationship? According to recent statistics, more and more American families consider themselves dysfunctional, and around 80% of Americans agree that our country has long operated like a dysfunctional family. What about the church in America? Have you ever been in a difficult or dysfunctional church family? For better or for worse, family is one of the main metaphors the New Testament uses for the church. In fact, Paul addresses the church in Thessalonica as brothers and sisters over seventeen times in just his first letter. 1 Thessalonians 5 also happens to end with a series of seventeen short, rapid-fire commands that make the church a loving, functioning, welcoming and healthy family for those both inside and outside of it. We are related to our church family not legally as with our natural family but related through our union with Christ—as brothers and sisters. And so we are bound together not by a courtroom but by fellowship with one another in Christ. Let’s look at how the Bible says we should live out our identity as a church family, united in Christ and related to one another through our Father in Heaven.

If you have ever missed your stop on a train or bus, it can be a sinking feeling to think you missed your destination, that you will never get home. That is 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5. Scripture tells us that Jesus came to make a way for us to get home; to get back into the presence of our heavenly Father. And in order to do that, Jesus had to die and to rise again and return to heaven for a time. But Scripture also says that He will return for those who are His, and we will be with Him for eternity. Initially, with all the suffering they were going through, the Thessalonian Christians thought the return of Christ must be coming soon. But eventually they began to wonder, “what if He already came and we missed it?” Join us as we continue in 1 Thessalonians this morning.

Have you ever wondered what the will of God is for your life? Usually when we talk about God’s will, we are talking about God’s secret or unrevealed will for our life. But when Scripture speaks about the will of God, it most often talks about His already-revealed will. 1 Thessalonians 4 tells us that God’s revealed will for our lives is that we would be sanctified and made to be holy. Join us this morning as we discover our need to see what it means that God’s will for us is that we are to be sanctified—to be holy.

Pain often makes us give up and give it the last word and authority in our life. That was Paul’s fear in 1 Thessalonians 3 as the Roman Empire and the Jewish leaders turned up the pain and suffering for the new believers in Thessalonica. Paul was eventually forced to leave the city and flee to Athens. He would have gladly gone back and suffered the consequences on behalf of the little church, but the unrest was actually centered around Paul himself so going back would not be the right thing to do. It seemed as if the Thessalonians’ church would have to go through their pain alone, which is the worst way to go through pain. How would they be able to endure amidst all the persecution and suffering inflicted against them? Join us this morning in 1 Thessalonians 3 as we examine their resolve in tribulation.

It’s hard to be the bearer of bad news. When Paul, Silas and Timothy went to Thessalonica, their hearts were broken over the lies people believed about idols and false god being able to save them. So they shared the good news about the living and true God sending His Son to save us, and the Thessalonians believed the message and were saved. But initially, the message of the gospel, the message that Christians have to tell to a world that worships all kinds of idols, the message that Christians have to tell if they love the world they live in, is that the wrath of God is coming on all who put their faith in something other than Jesus to save them. Christians have to tell the world that their greatest enemy is not poverty or sickness or a foreign power; their greatest enemy is not themselves or another person, but is God Himself. The bad news for those who have not put their hope in Jesus alone as their righteousness is that they are still enemies of God. You are in grave danger if you are not clinging to Jesus on whom the wrath of God was poured out in your place on the cross. The struggle for Christians is that we are called to bear witness to the warning that the wrath of God is coming to set everything right on the earth, and it’s hard to preach that message faithfully and still be liked. This morning in 1 Thessalonians 2, we see that Paul, Silas and Timothy faithfully delivered the bad news to the Thessalonians, and yet somehow remained in a relationship of love and friendship. How did they do it? How do we faithfully deliver the bad news to a world so loathe to hear that they are under the wrath of God unless they trust in Jesus?

Most likely you have heard some version of the saying, “You are what you…(fill in the blank).” The idea behind many of these sayings is that it’s foolish to assume that there is no connection between our behavior and our being; that we can’t eat, think, read or do something over and over, and not expect it to affect who we are in some way. But somehow when it comes to the gospel—the good news that God can once again dwell with us because Jesus paid for our sin on the cross and rose again on the third day bringing resurrection life with Him—we often think of it as something we merely believe without it somehow affecting our being and behavior, who we are in our nature. We are starting a new series this morning going through the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians in the New Testament. And what strikes Paul and his companions when they are writing these letters to the church in Thessalonica is that they not only believed the gospel, but upon believing it they so allowed the Holy Spirit to work in them that they started to become the gospel as well—embodying the love of Jesus in their very life as a church. They began to live out the gospel message in power and conviction so much that it wasn’t just their belief in a dying and rising Savior that identified them as followers of Jesus to the Roman world around them, but the power of God flowing through their very lives in how they worked, labored, lived, loved and suffered. Throughout these two letters, we will see that believing the gospel is just the beginning of God’s plan to shape us into becoming the message of the gospel itself. And that happens not through positive thinking, but through a person; through the Spirit of the living God willing and working in all those who believe.