Pastor
Steve Geiger Saints Triumphant
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5
13 But we ought always to thank God for you,
brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be
saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the
truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to
the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our
Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good
hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
1 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the
message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.
2 And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone
has faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you
from the evil one. 4 We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will
continue to do the things we command. 5 May the Lord direct your hearts into
God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.
You
Are Saints Triumphant 2 Thessalonians 2:13 – 3:5
1.
Protected in your faith
2.
Protected in your witness
All
appeared lost.
We
can only imagine what was going through the minds of George Bush’s closest
advisors. On November 2, Election Day,
early information suggested that the President was going to lose. Exit polls from key precincts across the
country indicated that votes were going significantly against the man who had
directed the affairs of our nation for the last four years.
Loser. The President may very well have wondered
whether he was the loser.
Of
course, you know how it turned out.
Exit polls proved wrong. The
first guesses of many were in error.
The one who on a Tuesday afternoon may have thought he was the loser was
in fact, by a bunch, a winner.
Just
because it looks like you’re losing in no way means that you are.
Especially
as a Christian. Do you feel like you’re
losing? Are you frustrated because you
keep discovering yourself falling short, failing to do the godly things you
long to accomplish? Are you discouraged
when it seems like so many you know, even those who may identify themselves as
Christian, having little interest in being guided by the Word? Are you fearful when, in a congregation, you
hear of financial challenges or friends in spiritual trouble?
Does
it feel like God’s people are losing?
Hear
the Lord speak to Thessalonian Christians, men and woman experiencing persecution
after persecution and trial after trial.
Hear the Lord speak to Christians who may have seemed to many to be
losing. Hear the Lord speak to
struggling Christians and hear him call them winners.
You
are winning. You are saints, declared
innocent through the blood of Jesus Christ.
You are triumphant. Victory is
certain. You are saints triumphant.
But
I don’t feel triumphant.
So
easy it is to look at our faith from an earthly perspective. “I feel weak, so I must have less reason to
be certain. I feel afraid, so I must
have good reason to be afraid.”
Or
when you’re struggling, someone tries to encourage you from an earthly
perspective, as if your faith is your own production: “Believe more. Just trust.”
That’s
not the direction God takes you to give you confidence when your faith is
struggling and doubts are raging. God
says, “From the beginning God chose you to be saved.”
But
that’s no answer to my doubt. Now I’m
just wondering whether he chose me or not.
But
it is the answer to our doubt, and if we think it’s not, something is wrong
with our thinking. In our thinking we
can assume that faith or confidence in the face of trouble or doubt depends in
some way on something we can feel or force.
To know that salvation is not my choice of God, but his choice of me, is
to show me that the whole cause for doubt is found in my insistence on focusing
on myself instead of on God.
Whatever
salvation is, whatever faith is, whatever confidence in the face of trouble is,
it is all God’s doing.
Salvation
is God’s choice of you. This choice is
brought to reality in your life through the “setting apart” work of the
Spirit. God the Holy Spirit, setting
you apart from the spiritually dead by making you alive. This resurrection work of the Spirit is
connected to trust in the truth. Trust
in the truth is what he called you to through the good news.
The
good news is that you, one with doubts and fears and struggles . . . the good
news is that you have been loved by Jesus.
He has loved the world. He has
suffered already for your sins of doubt, fear and despair. Good news.
Good news that is shared that you might share in the very best part of
Jesus, his glory, the eternal home ready for you and all his children.
God’s
choice. Resurrection work by the
Spirit. Faith in the truth. Good news shared. Glory in the future. All
of this, God’s work.
Do
you see why Paul thanked God for the Thessalonians? He didn’t thank the Thessalonians for being so strong and driving
away their own doubts. He thanked God
for loving them and choosing them and making them strong.
Then,
when he talks to the Thessalonians, who are suffering, being persecuted and are
in danger of doubt . . . when he talks to the Thessalonians and invites them to
be strong, it’s a strength that again is connected to God. Be strong in respect to “the teachings we
passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter” (2 Thessalonians
2:15).
“Be
strong as you recall the rock-solid promises and guidance of God, which you
heard as I spoke to you and which you read in my letters.” Be strong in God’s word, which you have
heard and read. Through his word you
know that in Jesus you are a winner, no matter how tough life gets.
Do
you sometimes feel and act like you’re losing?
You may hear about the financial challenges that our church body is
facing. Do you feel, “This is
amazing. I am headed for heaven when I
die, and all things earthly that I own are mine to use to God’s glory. My gifts can be used to share Jesus with
others? A few challenges were
facing? I’m a winner. I’d like to consider making an extra gift,
Lord, for the winning team. Or do we
imagine that financial difficulty is evidence that God is losing, that maybe
the devil is right, that perhaps my support for God’s work is like money poured
down the drain? Do your actions reflect
confidence in victory or the questionings of one expecting defeat?
Do
you sometimes feel and act like you’re losing?
A spouse or other family member doesn’t seem to love the Lord as you
do. You’ve tried so hard to share with
them your joy in coming to worship and serving the Lord. They don’t listen. Do you rejoice that your name is written in the book of life and,
while sad at rejection, continue to smile as you patiently rebuke and
encourage, because you know the Lord is right, and you are on his winning
team? Or do you take rejection as a
sign that maybe you’re not right.
You’re less enthusiastic about coming to church yourself. Maybe it is pointless. Maybe my service to the Lord makes me the
bigger fool. Do your thoughts reflect
confidence that you are a winner or the questionings of one expecting defeat?
Do
you sometimes feel and act like you’re losing?
When your sinful flesh has gotten the best of you again. You wasted your time. You had made a commitment to do Bible study,
but it didn’t happen. You lied. You lost your temper. You made another purchase with money you
don’t have. You lusted, manipulated,
thought first of yourself. And you just
don’t understand it. You so love the
Lord. You’ve tried so hard to be a
better person. Do you remember that you
are a winner? Do you say, when guilt
assaults, “What a wretched man I am, but thanks be to God, who gives me victory
over my flesh through the forgiving blood of Jesus and gives me confidence to
move forward and grow and make my life a living sacrifice today? Or do you think so deeply about all you’ve
done wrong and refuse to be comforted?
There’s no way God could love me.
I’ve ruined it. His promise of
unlimited patience? He’s got to be
lying. Do your thoughts reflect
confidence that you are a winner or the questionings of one expecting defeat?
Instead
of finding the promises of forgiveness and reassurance and certain victory in
the teachings handed down to us, we look into ourselves and see what we feel
and look around ourselves and see all that seems to be going wrong. We grow discouraged. We actually think that God has let us down. That to be a Christian is to be a loser.
To
be on a winning team yet to act like all is lost and to give up is to deserve
to be kicked off the winning team.
But
the coach doesn’t have a quick boot.
The coach comes to your drooping chin, lifts your eyes, and invites you
to look to the scoreboard. When you’re
discouraged, listen: “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who
loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
encourage your hearts.”
The
coach lifts your eyes to the scoreboard and shows you that you’re winning. God the Father loved you. He so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only,
but for the sins of the entire world.
Is guilt your reason for despair and a sense of defeat? A cross smashed the power of guilt. A cross smashed the power of Satan. A cross smashed the power of you or the
devil to point an accusing finger, as if there is some sin that is too great to
be paid for. The blood that dripped
from the crowned head of a carpenter is blood that covered the greatest debt
you’ve ever owed. You are a winner.
The
coach lifts your eyes to the scoreboard and shows you that you’re
winning—eternal encouragement.
Discouraged because your godly rebukes and encouragements have fallen on
deaf ears? God’s arm around your
sagging shoulder is an eternal arm. God
doesn’t hug you and tell you everything’s OK only when times are good. His encouragement is “forever”
encouragement. There is never a time
when you need to be discouraged.
Ever. You can cry. You can be sad. But never need you feel that your march forward to the serve the
Lord is for nothing. You are a winner.
The
coach lifts your eyes to the scoreboard and shows you that you are winning—good
hope. Life on this earth tough? Even within the visible church? Pulling back missionaries? Reducing faculty at our schools? Your personal contributions, as if maybe
they’re all for nothing? In this world
we will have trouble. Take heart. The Lord has overcome the world. Your light and momentary troubles are not
worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed. Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and
character, expectation. We don’t live
expecting the score to seem in our favor while we walk this planet. We live not being able to wait for the Lord
to return and show that even though life may be tough, never is a Christian
losing. The score is in our favor. You are a winner!
These
are God’s encouragements to you. As he encourages your hearts, he strengthens
you for godly words and works. When God
helps you grow to know that you have every reason to be spiritually positive,
miraculously upbeat, then you’re ready to get to work. To play on your winning team. To be a witness.
You
have a purpose. You are here for a
reason. Here is your prayer: Dear Lord,
please make your word run, and please lead your word to be valued as the best
thing. Dear Lord, let my lips be the
instruments through which the beautiful melody of your truth is played.
That
was Paul’s prayer. Thessalonians, ask
God to use me.
Is
that your prayer? Make it your
prayer. Then, don’t just ask that God’s
word move at some reasonable pace to more hearts. Ask God to make it run.
Ask that your witness is not, “Here a step, there a step, maybe someday
another step.” Your prayer is, “Let
your Word your fly.”
Let’s
get out there, winners . . . even though sometimes as a witness you’ll feel
like a loser. Jason may have felt like
a loser. On Paul’s first visit to
Thessalonica, his friend Jason got ripped from his home and dragged to
court. They made him pay money to go
free though he had done nothing wrong, other than, apparently, committing the
great crime of letting the Apostle Paul hang out at his house. Treated like a
loser. Maybe you’ll be treated the
same. Maybe people will make fun of
you. Maybe they’ll listen and say,
“Well, I guess we’re each entitled to our opinion.” Maybe they’ll ignore.
Whatever they do, you’re not a fool, it’s not just an opinion, and God’s
word shouldn’t be ignored. But when
that happens, “Lord, rescue me from bad people. Not everyone believes.
But that doesn’t mean that my certain confidence is silly. I am a winner.
Sometimes
it may feel to you like you’re losing.
Remember, just because it looks like you’re losing in no way means that
you are. In challenge, in
discouragement, in guilt, may the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and
Christ’s perseverance.
Remember
that you are, in Christ, saints triumphant.
Amen.