Watchman Radio Hour

Alex Dodson: Welcome to the Watchman Radio Hour. Coming to you from Portland, Oregon, here in the beautiful Northwest. This is David Shultier, announcer. The Watchman Radio Hour is a production of Watchman Radio Ministries International, an evangelistic ministry reaching out to the peoples of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now here's our speaker Alex Dodson to bring you this week's message from God's Word.

Alex Dodson: Our scripture reading today, let us turn to First Thessalonians, chapter two. And we're going to read verses 14 through 16. Let us hear the Word of God.

For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and also drove us out. They displeased God and are hostile to all men. In their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the Bible that you've given to us. We thank you that it's your infallible word, and that we can put our full confidence in everything that it says. And now, oh Father, as we come to study your word, we pray that you will send forth your Holy Spirit in great convicting power. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.

Laws are being passed already in this nation that hinder the gospel. Christians are being persecuted who seek to obey the Word of God. Christians are being put in a position of being forced to participate in activities against their conscience. Christians who stand up for biblical morality are being mocked and falsely accused. The gospel is being put out of the public square more and more and confined to within the walls of church buildings. Much is taking place in this nation that is and will hinder the gospel.

Does God see all of this? And will he allow such actions to continue without intervening in some way? Nations in the past who have hindered the gospel have come under great judgment. Such judgment could eventually come to this nation if we do not stop the repression of Christians and Christianity.

Paul experienced repression and persecution for preaching the gospel, especially at the hands of his own countrymen, and so did the Thessalonians. Our text today is First Thessalonians 2 and verses 14 through 16. And again I want to read these verses. First of all, verse 14 says, "For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen, the same things those churches suffered from the Jews."

And then verse 15 says, "who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and and also drove us out. They displeased God and are hostile to all men." And then verse 16, "In their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way, they always heap up their sins to the limit, and the wrath of God has come upon them at last."

Those nations that hinder the gospel will pay a price. The Jewish nation paid a price for hindering the gospel in their day. In our nation, if it continues to seek to repress Christians and Christianity, will certainly pay a price. Yet our prayer is that such repression will stop and that the gospel will flourish, flourish in this land as it has in the past.

Let us see in the first place that the Thessalonians were persecuted by their own countrymen. Verse 14 says, "For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen, the same things those churches suffered from the Jews." They were imitators of the churches in Judea. The Christians in Judea had been persecuted. And now, like them, the Thessalonians were being persecuted by their own countrymen.

The Geneva Bible in note one on verse 14 says, "He confirmeth them in their afflictions which they suffered of their own people because they were afflicted of their own countrymen, which came as well, saith he, to the churches of the Jews as to them, and therefore they ought to take it in good part." William Hendrikson in his commentary on this passage says, "Willingness to suffer for Christ is proof of discipleship. It shows that the Word of God is at work in the heart. It unites believers so that they constitute a true brotherhood to which no one belongs who is not willing thus to suffer."

William Hendrikson also says, "Now in Judea there were various assemblies, by no means all of them Christians. To indicate clearly that the assemblies here meant are Christian assemblies or churches, there is added of God in Christ Jesus. These Judean churches had suffered from the Jews. Paul knew all about it, for he himself was still unconverted, and taken part in it at the behest of the Jewish authorities." The persecution of the Thessalonians was like their brothers in Christ in Judea. They were sharing in the fellowship of Christ's sufferings.

Their own countrymen were persecuting them. This probably means that their own Thessalonian countrymen. Although it could include the Jews who were there, who lived there as well. Where it says in Acts 17, beginning in verse 5, concerning what happened in Thessalonica. It says, "But the Jews were jealous, so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city official, shouting, 'These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.' And when they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. And then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go. As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea."

In this episode, the Jews stirred up the Thessalonians to persecute Paul and Silas and the other Christians there. In the Geneva Bible in note three on verse 14, it says, "Even of them which are of the same country and the same town that you are of." John Calvin writes, "His statement that they suffered at the hands of their own countrymen may be explained as referring to others rather than to the Jews, or at least should not be restricted to the Jews alone. But since he presses the point in describing their obstinacy and ungodliness, it is clear that it is to these he is referring from the very beginning. It is likely that some of the Thessalonians had been converted to Christ. Yet from the account in Acts it is evident that there, no less than in Judea, the Jews were persecutors of the gospel. I therefore take this statement to apply both to the Jews and to the Gentiles, because both endured much opposition and bitter attacks from their own countrymen."

William Hendrickson writes, "Believers in Thessalonica had been similarly persecuted. However, the persecution which Paul has immediately in mind here in verse 14 is not, or at least not primarily, the one recorded in Acts 17:5-8, but the one which just now had been reported by Timothy. This later persecution had taken place after the departure of the missionaries, that the Gentiles had taken a prominent part in it is clear. On any different interpretation, the comparison, 'You suffered the same things from your fellow countrymen as they did from the Jews,' would make no sense."

Leon Morris writes, "The persecution came from your own countrymen." This expression may be in part geographical and include Thessalonian Jews. But it points to a large Gentile element in the opposition. We are probably not far wrong in seeing the opposition as rooted in the hostility of the Jews, but the Greeks were so stirred up by them that they took action on their own account. Incidentally, the expression reveals that the church was predominantly Gentile.

Now let us see in the second place that the Jews persecuted the apostles and the early church. Verse 15 says this, "who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and also drove us out. They displeased God and are hostile to all men." They persecuted the prophets and the Lord Jesus. Jesus cried out to the Jewish nation, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." The first great persecution of the church was at the hands of the Jews. They had persecuted the Old Testament prophets and now had killed the Lord Jesus.

At Pentecost, Peter addressed the Jews there and said, "Many of his many men of Israel, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross."

John Calvin writes, "They have killed their own prophets and finally the Son of God. The question is asked why he says that these same people had killed Christ and the prophets. My answer is that the reference is to the whole body. Paul means that there is nothing strange or unusual in their opposition to God, but that in so, that in so opposing him they are filling up the measure of their fathers, as Christ says in Matthew 23:32."

William Hendrickson writes, "Note how Paul, having mentioned Jesus, reaches back in time to the Old Testament prophets and then forward to the New Testament apostles, particularly to himself, Silas and Timothy." And then he writes, "It is probable that the apostle was thinking of the actual words of Jesus with respect to the Jews. For example, such words as those which are recorded in Matthew 23, verses 37 through 39. If this is correct, it is also it also becomes evident that the prophets are not those of the New Testament, but those of the Old."

Leon Morris writes, "They had killed the heavenly man, the Lord, and they had killed one who was of their flesh, the human Jesus. Paul emphasizes the heinousness of this crime and proceeds to bring out the point that it was no isolated act. 'Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute?' asked Stephen in Acts 7:52. This is Paul's thought too. The slaying of the Lord was the outworking of the same essential attitude as that displayed so often to the prophets."

And then let us see that they also persecuted the apostles and the early Christians. Not only had the Jews persecuted the Old Testament prophets and killed the Lord Jesus himself, they persecuted his followers. Geneva Bible, note 15, on verse 15, note one, it says, "He preventeth an offense which might be taken for that the Jews especially above all others persecuted the gospel. That is no new thing, saith he, seeing they slew Christ himself and his prophets and banished me also."

Matthew Henry writes, "The apostle mentions the sufferings of the churches of God which in Judea were in Christ Jesus. Those in Judea first heard the gospel and they first suffered for it, for the Jews were the most bitter enemies of Christianity, had and were especially enraged against their countrymen who embraced Christianity. In every city where the apostles went to preach the gospel, the Jews stirred up the inhabitants against them. They were the ringleaders of persecution in all places. And so in particular it was at Thessalonica. In Acts 17:5, it says, 'The Jews that believed not moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort and gathered a company and set all the city in an uproar.'"

"Upon this occasion, the apostle gives a character of the unbelieving Jews, enough to justify their final rejection and the ruin of their place and church and nation, which was now approaching. They killed the Lord Jesus and impudently and presumptuously wished that his blood might be on them and their children. And then they killed their own prophets, so they had done all along. Their fathers had done so, they had been a persecuting generation. And then they hated the apostles and did them all the mischief they could. They persecuted them and drove and chased them from place to place. No marvel if they killed the Lord Jesus that they persecuted his followers."

And then he writes, "They had an implacable enmity to the Gentiles, and envied them the offers of the gospel, forbidding the apostles to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved. They were envious against the Gentiles and angry that they should be admitted to share in the means of salvation."

Let us see in the third place that a nation that hinders the gospel will be judged. Verse 16 of our passage says, "In their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way, they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last." Judgment came on the Jews for hindering the gospel. They had persecuted the prophets, they had killed the Lord Jesus, and persecuted the early Christians. They didn't get away with it. Judgment on them did come and it came in a great way.

Geneva Bible, note two on verse 16 says, "The judgments of God being angry, which indeed appeared shortly after in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, with a many resorted even out of divers provinces when it was besieged." John Calvin writes, "The apostle, however, makes this statement about the entire body of the people. But in such a way as not to deprive the elect of hope, since the greater part of them were opposed to Christ. He speaks in general terms of the whole nation. We must remember, however, the exception which he himself makes in Romans 11:5, that the Lord will always have some seed remaining. Though the Jewish nation as a whole had persecuted the early Christians, there was a remnant who believed and followed the Lord Jesus. It was these Jewish followers of Christ who were being persecuted by the other Jews."

The Jewish nation as a whole had rejected the gospel and were seeking to hinder it spreading to others. In Matthew 23:13, Jesus said, "Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those who enter who are trying to. Nor will you let those enter who are trying to." It was this hindering of the gospel that great judgment came on the Jewish nation.

Henrikson writes, "Paul was well acquainted with the words which Jesus had spoken while still on earth. In very emphatic language, the Lord had revealed that as a punishment for the sin of rejecting him, God's displeasure, his vengeance, was now resting upon the Jewish people, and that this wrath would manifest itself in woes to be visited upon them." Leon Morris says, "The effect of the Jewish attitude is given in the latter part of the verse. Grammatically, to fill up their sins always expresses the purpose of the Jews. But the sense of it is that God's purpose is worked out in this way. Their continual hostility to his plan inevitably brings his wrath upon them."

"The idea behind the phrase is that they piled sins upon sin. Phillips translates, 'I fear they are completing the full tail of their sins,' and the inevitable consequence of this continuance in sin is that the wrath will be vented upon them. 'Is come' in the Greek is in the aorist tense. This tense often denotes past action, but here the wrath is surely eschatological and therefore future. The aorist here stresses the completeness and certainty of the coming of the wrath."

Judgment will come on the would come on the Jewish nation, and it already began, and would culminate in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Judgment will come on this nation for its repression of the gospel. Laws are already being passed that hinder the gospel and repress Christians. We are seeking as a nation to push Christianity out of the public square. We as a nation are even forcing Christians to compromise their faith by participating in things they consider immoral. We have taken the Bible and prayer out of the public schools long ago, and we hide the Ten Commandments from our young people. We have hindered our young people from hearing the gospel. Even in the workplace, the sharing of the gospel is looked down upon and forbidden in many places.

Yet our forefathers favored Christianity and wanted it in the public square. On April 30th, 1789, George Washington in an address to Congress said, "We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained." When we take the Ten Commandments out of public view, are we not disregarding the eternal rules of order and right which God has given us?

On October 3rd, 1789, George Washington in his national day of Thanksgiving proclamation said, "And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and ruler of nations, and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations, especially such as have shown kindness unto us, and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord, and to promote the knowledge and practice of the true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us, and generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best."

In his proclamation, Washington asked the Lord to promote the knowledge and practice of the true religion among the nations and us. To Washington, the true religion was Christianity. He asked that the knowledge and practice of Christianity might be promoted in this country. And yet today we are doing the opposite as a nation. We are passing laws that make it more difficult for the knowledge and practice of Christianity to be promoted among us. We are kicking Christianity out of the public square and repressing Christians who for conscience's sake refuse to go along with the country in approving of unbiblical lifestyles and changing the definition of marriage. We are seeking to force Christians and Christian institutions to go along with the killing of the unborn, as if everyone has the right to do so.

Things are being done today that our forefathers could not even imagine. Are we as a nation now hindering the spread of the gospel in this country? Are Christians beginning to be persecuted for standing up to what they believe in in this country? Are our educational institutions purposely repressing Christianity and Christian thought and morality? Is this if this country continues to pass laws and promote policy that represses Christianity and Christian thought and morals, then judgment will surely come. As it has to other nations in the past, such as the Jewish nation in the early days of the Christian church.

Yet let us pray that the repression of Christianity by this nation will cease and that Christianity will be encouraged and allowed to flourish and influence our nation as never before. God's moral law hangs over our nation and finds it wanting. Are you ready to face the consequences of our sins as a nation? Are you ready to face the consequences of your own sin and unbelief? Then you must repent at once and believe the gospel. For as the Lord Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is at hand." The time has come, repent and believe the gospel. Now is the time to repent and turn to the Lord before it's too late.

Our Father in heaven, we do come upon you, recognizing that our sins are piled on top of each other and that that pile is growing higher and higher and higher. We recognize that we have sinned against you. And we ask your forgiveness and we ask for your mercy upon us. And yet we recognize that you are a holy God and that you're going to bring great judgment upon this nation if we don't repent. And I pray, oh Lord, that you would have mercy and that you'd send the Holy Spirit, that you'd send the Holy Spirit in great power to bring great conviction of sin to this nation. And I pray that the nation as a whole will mourn and that the nation as a whole repent and turn back to you before it's too late. In Christ's name, I pray. Amen.

Alex Dodson: We hope this week's broadcast has been a blessing to you. If you have any questions about Mr. Dodson's message, please write us. You may email us at info@watchmanradio.org. Our mailing address is Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251, Portland, Oregon, 97213. That's Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251, Portland, Oregon, 97213. You may listen to this broadcast at any time on the internet at www.oneplace.com. In the list of ministries, just select the Watchman Radio Hour. This week's program and previous programs are always available there for listening. Our web address is www.watchmanradio.org. That's W-A-T-C-H-M-A-N radio.org. www.watchmanradio.org.