Living Life in Light of Jesus Return: A Reason to be

Thankful
1 Thessalonians 1:1-4
The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III
If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to 1
Thessalonians chapter 1. Were going to be looking at the first four
verses together today as we begin a journey in this wonderful letter.
Do you remember what you were doing twenty years ago? I can
remember some of the things I was doing twenty years ago. I was in
my first year of marriage twenty years ago. I was working at the
seminary. I was calling a guy in Belfast, Northern Ireland about once
a month telling him that he really needed to move to Jackson and
teach at RTS. His name was Derek Thomas; you may have heard of
him. I can remember a lot of things I was doing twenty years ago.
This letter was written about twenty years after Jesus died and rose
again. It's one of the earliest letters of the New Testament. You are
very close to the events of the life and ministry and crucifixion and
death and burial and resurrection and ascension of Christ when
youre reading this letter. This is Paul's first letter. Only James vies
with it to be among the earliest letters of the New Testament. You are
very close to ground zero of early Christianity when youre reading
the letter of 1 Thessalonians.
And isn't it interesting, it's filled with references to the Second
Coming of Jesus Christ. It makes perfect sense. Every chapter in
this letter refers to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That should
not surprise us. You remember, as far as Paul is concerned, he's all

in on the resurrection. You know there are some people who think
that Christianity would be better off if we didn't believe in the Second
Coming and if we didn't believe in the resurrection. As far as the
apostle Paul's concerned, that's ridiculous. It's all about the
resurrection and the Second Coming. Without those things, he says
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, We are, of all people, most miserable.
And of course here he is in this first letter that he writes telling them
how important it is for them to hope in the resurrection. It makes
perfect sense in light of what Paul will later write to the Corinthians.
This letter is a letter filled with great doctrinal themes. The letter is
fundamentally about what we call sanctification how you grow in
godliness, how you grow in grace, how you become more like Jesus
Christ. Paul fills this letter with exhortations to us to grow in holiness;
but not just exhortations to be holy, he actually, in this letter, tells you
how you can get there. Paul not only gives us exhortations here
about what to do but he helps us with how to get there.
And this letter is filled with teaching about the communion of the
saints. It makes it clear that we can't live the Christian life without
one another. We need one another. We need the fellowship of the
saints. We need shared lives. We need communion with our brothers
and sisters if we're going to live this life.
And this letter has a wonderfully high view of Scripture. Think of it.
Twenty years after Christ, who came up with a high view of
Scripture? Did fundamentalists come up with it in the 20th century?
Did Presbyterians invent it at Princeton in the 19th century? This is
twenty years after Jesus died and was raised again from the dead
and in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 Paul says,
Thessalonians, I want to thank you, that when we came to you with

the Word of God you did not receive it as the words of men but for
what it really is the very Word of God. Twenty years after Jesus
was resurrected. And what do you find in Paul? What do you find in 1
Thessalonians? A high view of Scripture. It is the very Word of God.
Let's dive into this letter together and study it, and before we do, let's
pray and ask for God's help.
Lord, this is Your Word. We ask that You would open our eyes to
behold wonderful things in it, that You would speak to us by it, that
You would help us on the way to godliness with it, that You would
change us, convert us, comfort us, challenge us, grow us, all by Your
Word. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
This is the Word of God beginning in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1
verse 1:
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning
you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your
work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has
chosen you
Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and
inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone, an encounter with

someone, in which they said, You know, Christianity is all about
escape. It's all about pie in the sky, by and by. You Christians think
that what's here doesn't really matter. It's all about the then and
there; it's all about heaven. Youre so heavenly minded youre not
earthly good? Have you ever encountered that in conversation? Or
maybe you've read it. I've read it more recently than I used to hear it,
twenty or thirty years ago. There's a standing challenge, there's a
standing charge against Christianity that because we believe in the
new heavens and the new earth, because we believe in the life to
come, that we're really of no earthly good, and that until we jettison
our escapism, our thinking about the future, the promises of heaven,
the return of Christ, we're really not going to be able to live this life,
invest ourselves in this world, care for the needy and for the poor,
serve in such a way as to truly help our fellow man until we give up
our escapism, until we give up our pie in the sky by and by, we're
never ever really going to be any earthly good.
That charge misses the entire point of all of the teaching in the New
Testament and the Old Testament about the end. All of that teaching
explicitly in the Bible, in both the Old Testament and the New
Testament, is designed not to make us not care about this life, but in
fact that teaching is designed to enable us to live this life well. The
New Testament constantly says that believers are to live life in light
of Jesus return. In every chapter of 1 Thessalonians Paul will bring
to bear the truth of the return of Jesus Christ and show how it relates
to our daily lives. His point is, you cannot live this life well if youre
not living it in light of the resurrection, if youre not living it in light of
the Second Coming of Christ. That truth does not rob us of the
capacity to care now; it empowers us to live this life well, to serve

well, to care now. And that is one of the great themes of this book as
Paul shows that what we believe about the end, what we hope for
ultimately, actually fuels us to live day by day right here and now.
And we're going to study that together.
But today I want you to see three things. In verse 1 I want you to see
a greeting. In verses 2 and 3 I want you to see a prayer. And in verse
4 I want you to see a truth. A greeting, a prayer, and a truth - verse 1,
verses 2 and 3, and verse 4. Paul, in this greeting, is going to
manage to explain in a brief set of words and phrases to the
Thessalonians who they really are. In other words, in that greeting,
he is going to give them a life-defining salutation. He's going to greet
them in such a way as to define who they are. Then in verses 2 and
3 in his prayer, he is going to thank God for what God has made
them. In other words, he's going to thank God for a gracetransformed life. And then in the truth in verse 4 he's going to explain
how they got here, who they are, what they are now like by God's
grace, and how did they get there. How in the world did you get from
being polytheistic pagans to being living, breathing believers in the
one true God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Howd you get
there? And he's going to point them to a world proceeding love.
That's what I want to look with you at today, so let's begin.
A LIFE-DEFINING GREETING
In verse 1, notice what he says. After greeting them in his own name
and in the name of his partners, he says, To the church of the
Thessalonians. Now that's not too surprising. It's the gathering of
believers in the town of Thessalonica and so he calls them the
church of the Thessalonians, but then he says something really
interesting and really unique in God the Father and the Lord

Jesus Christ. This is a life-defining greeting that tells them who they
are. Do you pay much attention to greetings in letters that you get? I
normally don't, but my guess is that some of you can remember
greetings that you paid really close attention to. Can you remember
when you were writing love letters and oftentimes that greeting told
you where you stood? When a letter starts off with, Love of my life,
you have my full attention! It defines who you are and Paul begins
this greeting by not only saying, Youre in Thessalonica, Youre in
Jackson, but You are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
You are untied to God by the Spirit in Jesus Christ. You are in Him.
Youre under His protection. Youre close to His heart. Youre
underneath His gaze. Youre the apple of His eye. Youre in Him.
Youre connected to Him. Youre with Him. Youre His.
One of our colleagues at the seminary who recently retired, Ralph
Davis, used to sign his notes, In Christ in Jackson. That was how
he conceived of himself. That's who I am. I'm in Christ in Jackson.
Jackson is where the Lord has me and I'm in Christ. That's kind of
what Paul is saying to the Thessalonians here. Youre in
Thessalonica. Here's the big picture. Fundamentally, fundamentally
what's unique about you is that you are in God the Father and in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's unique about you, not what street
you grew up on, not who your daddy was, not what groups you were
a part of in high school and college, it's that you are in God the
Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Were in God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ and in Jackson.
And then Paul gives a blessing. Grace to you and peace
glorious, big words. Grace, not just unmerited favor, not just favor
from God special favor from God, saving favor from God that we

did not earn or deserve, but in fact, favor that we demerited. We

positively did not deserve that merit, that favor to be shown to us. We
rebelled against God. We did not believe in His Word. In our pride
we raised up against Him and worshiped idols. We went after our
own wills and ways and yet in His love and mercy and grace He
saved us. And Paul's just saying to the church of the Thessalonians,
That grace defines you. It defines who you are. You are
fundamentally recipients of grace and of peace, the peace that
comes from that grace, not just a cessation of hostility, but total
wellbeing. God's grace has its design of your experience of total
wellbeing. That's who you are, Thessalonians.
Isn't it amazing, twenty years before Paul got there and Paul was
only there for what, three weeks? Three weeks it took him to plant
this church. Twenty years beforehand these people were pagan
polytheists and now theyre worshiping the one, true God. They've
embraced the Gospel! And Paul says, Let me tell you who you are.
Youre not a bunch of Greeks from Thessalonica who are pagan
polytheists. You are in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ
and you are under His grace and He has as His purpose your peace.
That is who you are. Does that hit you every once in a while? I
mean, this is us! Most of us here are Gentiles just like those
Thessalonians, and here the Jewish apostle Paul and he was
reading his Bible twenty years before! They didn't know what a Bible
was twenty years before! And here he is saying, You and I, we are
fellow worshipers of the living God. That's who you are. In other
words, this greeting is life defining. It shows who they really are.
A PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING TO GOD

And then I want you to see the prayer that he prays in verses 2 and 3
because the prayer is a thanksgiving to God. It is an expression of
gratitude to God for the grace transformed lives of the
Thessalonians. He's not only telling them who they are, he's
thanking God for what God has made them to be like. Look at what
he says. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly
mentioning you in our prayers. What does he pray? He tells you in
verse 3. When we're mentioning you in our prayers, we are
remembering before our God and Father - and don't you love the
way he says, our God and Father? You know, this Jewish apostle to
the Gentiles, Were us. We belong to one another. Were on the
same team. It's you and me. This Jewish ex-Pharisee, expersecutor of Jewish Christians, now the apostle to the Gentiles and,
It's you and me - Thessalonian, Greek, Christians! It's us. It's our
God. It's our Father. I remember you before our Father and what do I
remember? I remember your work of faith and labor of love and
steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, Paul
says, I see the evidence of God's grace in your life and I see it in
three ways. Because of your faith, because you believe the Gospel,
because you believe the Word of God, because you believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, you work!
Now by the way, right there, already there, already there, you have
the undermining truth to respond to the serious challenge of the
world that Christianity makes you no earthly good. What did their
faith result in? Work! It moved them to care actually all the things
that were in the anthem that were just sung to us moves us to care
for one another, for those in need, moves us to serve one another in
times of trial and difficulty, moves us to share the Gospel. Paul's
going to emphasize that in verses 6 to 10. His mind is going to be

blown about how these Thessalonians, among whom he was for

three weeks, are now out sharing the Gospel despite the fact that
that sharing of the Gospel is getting for them persecution and trials.
And he says, That's what your faith did. The faith that God planted
in you led you to work.
And, labor of love. There's a beautiful phrase that comes right out
of the King James. It's repeated here in the ESV. What does that
mean? The hard work that results from the love of God that is
implanted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Love moves us to that kind
of hard work obedience, toil for the Savior.
And your hope. These folks hoped in Jesus Christ. They hoped in
His return. They hoped in the resurrection. It gave them endurance
and Paul is saying, I see those qualities in you. I've heard the
reports of your faith and your love and your hope. Your lives have
been changed by the Gospel. Your lives have been changed by
Christ. Your lives have been changed by the God that I came and
preached to you. I see it; it's reality. Think of what your life leads me
to give thanks to God for you! Now every minister wants to see
God's grace at work in the hearts of people. And here's the apostle
Paul saying, You know, I've had some tough congregations, but I
see, I see the work of God's grace abundantly evident in you in your
faith and love and hope and it gives me joy and so I thank God. Now
later in this book he's going to explain to us how that faith and love
and hope become for us the weapons that we can use to fight the
Christian life. Well get there when we get to 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. But for right now he just wants to say, Thessalonian Christians, I
see your faith and your love and your hope and it just makes we
want to thank God because that's Him at work in you!

THE TRUTH OF GODS ELECTING LOVE

And then he says one more thing. He says, But I want you to
understand, I want you to understand how you got here. How did you
go from being pagan polytheists who hadn't even read a Hebrew
Bible to being worshipers of the one, true, and living God through the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ who believe the Scriptures, every
one of them, every word of them, as the very Word of God? How did
that happen? How did you go from being idolaters to being people
whose lives were transformed by grace and evidencing faith and love
and hope? How did that happen? And he explains in verse 4. For
we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you Did you
hear that? Paul knows that the Thessalonians are elect! He knows
that they are chosen by God! How does he know that? Through
some apostolic word of knowledge? No, because he sees their faith
and love and hope and because he sees their faith and love and
hope he knows that they are the elect.
You know, missionaries share the Gospel with thousands upon
thousands of people and many, maybe most, do not respond in trust
in Jesus Christ. But when some do and when those missionaries see
the evidences of God's grace in faith and love and hope, those
missionaries can come back to you and me and say, I have met
some of God's elect. I've met them! I know them! They came to faith
in Christ and I know them. I know people that God has set His love
on from before the foundation of the world. You understand the
background to this language of elect or chosen. It's the language
first and foremost which was used of Israel in the Old Testament. Out
of all of the nations God chose Israel to be His own people, His
peculiar people, His unique people, the people who were to bear

witness to His name. But of course in the Old Testament there are
some individuals that are spoken of as being chosen by God.
Aaron's priesthood is spoken of as being specially chosen by God.
God chose Aaron to be His priest. No one can be a priest in the Old
Testament who is not of Aaron's line because God chose Aaron.
That's why Saul ended up being judged when he dared to take the
priesthood to himself. God had given that to Aaron and his line; he
was the chosen. And of course the king of Israel, and especially
David and his descendants were the chosen king, the chosen
monarch for God's people. God had specially set His love on David
and said, David, your descendant will never lack - you will never
lack a man to sit on this throne.
And in the New Testament all of that glorious language about God
choosing Israel, God choosing David, is applied to believers in our
Lord Jesus Christ whether they are Jew or Greek, slave or free, male
or female. You are the chosen of God. What it means is trillions of
years ago before there was an earth, before there was this solar
system, before there was this expanse of space 13.8 billion lightyears across, before there was time, God set His love on you. He
chose you. Paul is saying, Thessalonians, I just want you to take
that in. You are loved of God. He chose you. It's just like Ephesians,
isn't it? In love, Ephesians 1:4, last two words, In love He
predestined us to the adoption as sons. Brothers loved by God, He
has chosen you. It's the same thing - Ephesians 1:4and 5, go look it
up.
Why? Why does he say this? Because he wants them to understand
that their salvation began with the love of God. It didn't begin with
them being better than other people. It didn't begin with them being

more deserving than other people. It began with the love of God. He
wants them to know that. He wants them to be awash in that reality.
Does that every strike you? I love it when we sing Isaac Watts hymn,
How Sweet and Awesome is the Place and I love it when we get to
the stanza where it says, With all our hearts and all our songs tuned
to admire the feast, each of us cries with thankful voice, Lord, why
was I a guest?
You know the picture. The picture is from Jesus parable of the
wedding banquet, the wedding feast, and the invited guests don't
come and so he goes out and he gathers folks from the highways
and the byways to come in and sit down at the marriage feast of the
Lamb. That's what the song is based on. And then he goes on to
say, Lord, why was I a guest? Why was I made to hear Your voice
and enter while there's room, when thousands make a wretched
choice and rather starve than come? And you remember his
answer? His answer is, It was that same love that spread the feast
remember Romans 5:8? God demonstrates His love in that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. It was that same
love that spread the feast that sweetly drew us in, else we would
have still refused to taste and perished in our sin. And Paul wants
the Thessalonians to know, Let me tell you why youre not pagan
polytheists anymore, because trillions of years ago God set His love
on you. He has been pursuing you before time, before the world,
before you were. He is telling them about a world-preceding love,
because, he says, it is that love, and hell explain this in
Ephesians 3 it's that love that matures us.
You know, I know a lot of godly Christians that struggle to really
believe that God loves them in that way. And if youre one of those,

before Paul even gets out of his greeting and his opening prayer he
wants you to go back and realize how much the Father loves you
because that world-preceding love is life defining. Oh, I can't wait to
study this book with you because we need it. We need its teaching
for the living of this day. Let's pray.
Our heavenly Father, as we move today and week by week under
Your guidance and watch care through the pages of this letter, grant
by Your Spirit that its truth would be brought home to our hearts in
such a way that we are transformed now and forevermore. We ask it
in Jesus name, amen.
Receive now God's blessing. Grace and peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord, Jesus the Messiah. Amen.