Chapter 2:10-20

“You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; ¹¹ as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, ¹² that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. ¹³, For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. ¹⁴ For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus.

“For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, ¹⁵ who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, ¹⁶ forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. ¹⁷ But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire. ¹⁸ Therefore we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us. ¹⁹ For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? ²⁰ For you are our glory and joy.”

Over the past few weeks, we have seen stark changes to the political and relationship landscape here in North America. As one of my dear friends put it, “Who would have imagined that we would be seeing the rise of communism in America in our lifetime?” He is right, and the fruit of this terrible philosophy is death, lots of death to those that stand for the truth and freedom. The Gospel, however, is still unchanged, and people’s need for the Gospel is unchanged. Jesus is still in charge, and the plan for the New Millennium is moving forward unabated. It is more and more important that we, God’s children, keep our focus on the promises and plans that the Lord has for us in His word, His Holy Bible. This is the only security that we have.

As we continue our look in Thessalonians, I pray that you are growing in Jesus and allowing Him to change you as the Holy Spirit forms Christ in us. Paul is encouraging this church to endure, last time we looked at the Gospel, and it is that Gospel that is the very foundation of all we have in Jesus. It does not need to be redone, redefined, or repackaged. It needs to be shared over and over again; Jesus is the only name whereby we must be saved. Don’t get off track, don’t get off message, and don’t get into arguments; state the truth in love and let the Holy Spirit do His work.

Today, we will look more into this letter, and we will see that one of the things that are associated with the Gospel is danger. We have been, well, at least I have been, spoiled here in North America to have been able to serve the Lord in relative comfort and without much risk to me, my family, or the life that I live, and I live a very good one. But that, it would appear, is changing right before our eyes. At times, I feel like a guy stuck on a train track; the train is coming, and I can’t get off. Maybe you feel the same way as well.

Let us take a look at Paul’s words to this church.

• Walk Worthy of the Lord, verse 12

Paul did not say to walk worthy if the circumstances are good and things are going your way. No, simply walk worthy of the Lord. The idea is this: what does your walk in this life say to others about how God is to you, and who He is in your life? The Lord is Holy; we should be. The Lord kind; we should be. The Lord is loving; we should be. The Lord is merciful; we should be. The Lord was, at times, brutally honest; we should be as well, at times. The Lord was faithful; we should be. On and on we can go, but you can see the picture clearly. Jesus put it this way: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in Heaven.”

No matter the circumstances, even when no one but God is looking, do what is right. In the time that Paul was speaking, the Roman government was still in charge, and they were a pagan government. They did not like Christians, and somewhere in the middle of the first century, Christianity would become illegal. Yet, these Thessalonians were called to walk, to live worthy of Jesus. We are now living in a time when Christianity in North America is coming under attack more and more. There are restrictions on free speech and on what we can say about certain people and actions. If one would be technical, there are some parts of the Bible that would be deemed as hate speech.

Do not let the way that you are treated determine how you live. Seek the Word of God, love the Word of God, read the Word of God, and allow the Holy Spirit to control you. God is still in control, and I know that it does not feel that way often, but He is.

The 4th Commandment tells us not to take the name of the Lord in vain. A few years ago, listening to a Jewish man talk about this, a better rendering should have been ‘don’t carry the name of the Lord in vain.’ Don’t use the name of the Lord to do evil and to do harm. This does not mean that you cannot stand for your rights as a citizen. Paul did; he was the first to point out that he was a Roman citizen when his rights as a citizen were impeded. But he did so with respect for the authority and in a godly way. But he stood nonetheless. We need to find these ways in our modern time, or our children will never know the freedoms that we all too often take for granted.

• Danger from our Countrymen, verse 14

I heard the Gospel freely as a child. I was saved as a young man via a Billy Graham-style crusade in my little Barbados. My mom was saved at a Billy Graham crusade many, many moons ago. Just a few years ago, I was part of a Franklin Graham crusade here in Toronto that saw the Gospel preached freely to thousands and thousands. The very church that I grew up in was started by the BIMI mission out of the US. I have countless friends that are missionaries all over the world, men and their wives most often, who left the US and went to parts far and wide to freely share the Gospel.

What I am trying to show you is that the Gospel has been freely exported from the US to the world for decades going back to when my mom was saved as a young lady in Barbados. She is about to turn 88 in a month. Yet, here we are, and the Gospel is under attack in the US. The free speech that fostered the growth and expansion of the Gospel is being taken away, and the very Bible that we hold dear is hated.

Paul told the people in Thessalonica that, like him, like Jesus, they would face dangers from their own countrymen. The very people that they loved – that they would pray for and endeavor to share the Gospel with – would be their mortal enemies. We should understand that today even more.

There are people, and the number is growing, that hate Christianity, hate the values of family and love that we hold to. Hate the fact that we refuse to budge on the fact that Jesus is the only way. We refuse to tolerate other religious beliefs as valid; we love the people but cannot condone or agree with their beliefs.

Today, someone pointed out that a ‘Faith Center’ was being built in Europe, and I had not heard of it. I did a bit of research and came across an article from February 2021. In it, the author said that on May 27th this year, there was a ceremony to lay a foundational stone in Berlin to a place called ‘The House of One,’ the fruit of TEN (10) years of planning to build a faith worship center for Muslims, Jews and Christians to worship together. The price tag is 47 billion Euros. Wow, that is a lot of money! But more importantly, how can Muslims and Jews worship the same God? How can Christians and Muslims worship together? The answer is that true Christians cannot. Thus, we will be the enemy. We will be the enemy of tolerance and the enemy of peace, and on and on.

Our own countrymen will be our greatest enemies; we are seeing that right now. The vaxxed versus the unvaxxed, two classes. One is for the people, they say, and the other is a danger to the people. The world is being conditioned to seeing the non-conformers as dangerous. We who defy the new One-World Religion will be the enemy. God help us. In verse 16 above, Paul tells us that they were forbidden to preach the Gospel, and we will be too one day. That day is coming sooner than you think. Can you imagine the greatest exporter of the Gospel in the last century, the USA, making the Gospel illegal? Once again, God help us.

• Satan hinders our face-to-face fellowship, verse 18

Man, this hit me. I have dear brothers and sisters in the US that I love dearly, and we have not had the privilege of face-to-face fellowship for 2 years or more. We have had limited face-to-face time here as well, even among our churches. We are just getting back to that, and I am sure that they will find a way to stop us once again. Satan hates the fellowship of true Christians. We talk about Jesus, we love one another, and we encourage one another to overcome the obstacles and trials of life. We pray for each other and carry each other, and we are able to comfort one another with a hug, or a hand on the back, or just to sit in silence and hope together.

Jesus warns us in Hebrews 10:25 not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together,” but He adds, “the more we see the day approaching.”

The Last Day, that day is in front of us. We see the One-World Religion HQ being built, the global laws that affect all people. Once free countries are locked down, and the unrest is loud and being heard. Sooner rather than later, the crackdown will come, and these voices will be silenced. The framework for a global vaccine is the foundation for the Mark that is coming. A mark that can be traced and followed to where you are, know with whom you associate, and allow or deny you access to places. Satan is working hard to bring about his last stand against Jesus. We are seeing it; we have front row seats, and we can have confidence that God is in control. He told us what would be happening, and it is.

Look up; our redemption is very, very close. Sadly, a lot of Christians are not blind per se but have a cloudy vision.

Do you know Jesus as your Saviour? Today is the day, that day to be saved. We can see the end clearer than any generation before us, and the time to take advantage of the Gospel is now.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

P.S. I will be away on vacation next week, and there won’t be any Bible study sent out.

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Chapter 2: 1-9

“For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. ² But even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. ³ For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit. ⁴ But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.

⁵ For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness—God is witness. ⁶ Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. ⁷ But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. ⁸ So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. ⁹ For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.”

Just this morning, I had a conversation with my older daughter; she is about to become a mom, and as we were discussing the events that are transpiring before us, she asked if there was anything we could do that would slow down Jesus’ return? Not that she wanted it to slow down, but in particular reference to the federal election we are having here in Canada, would voting for a super conservative candidate who would stop vaccine passports and the insurgence of the New World Order slow down Jesus’ return?

I assured her that God the Father was in complete control of when that would happen, but what we had to do was to make sure, to the best of our ability, that the world her daughter and my granddaughter was coming into would be a world where she could worship Jesus freely. I was thrilled to have that conversation with my daughter, to hear her live expecting Jesus’ return, and to have it on the front of her mind. This was what I encouraged you to do last week, live expecting Jesus to return anytime. Today we are going to explore how or what is needed as we wait for Jesus.

• The Gospel is Needed, verses 1-2

Paul tells us that he came to Thessalonica in the midst of much trouble; they were accosted at Philippi and were run out of the city. He hastily left Thessalonica as well; if you recall, he only preached there for three Sabbaths. There are some that think he was there for about 3 months, but even so, that is a short time to plant a church. Paul, to some degree, is defending himself and his work, but what he really wants them to focus on is the Gospel.

At the end of the day, the Gospel is all that matters. The purity of the Gospel is all that matters. There are a lot of churches that preach ‘another gospel’; they mix works and salvation; they teach about the election as if some are born for hell and a few are made for Heaven. Still, others preach the ‘Santa’ Jesus, all gifts and no wrath. All heaven and no hell. Others deny Jesus altogether and still call themselves a church. Others preach a Jesus that is foreign to the Bible, and some even call Him a sinner. Heretics.

Paul, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what happened to him, no matter what the cost, and no matter the crowd, preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ – that He is the only way whereby men and women must be saved and that His death, burial, and resurrection are the only means of salvation and redemption. All else are lies and offer no hope.

One of the hardest things to do is to stick to the purity and power of the Gospel. It is easy for us to add or take away from it. People need to be lost to need to be saved; they need to know how sinful they truly are before they can appreciate the price that was paid and humble themselves. The pure, simple, and powerful Gospel is our main focus; Jesus and Jesus alone can save. All else are lies.

• The Gospel is not popular, verse 3-4

Paul and his companions did not preach to please men; they preached in obedience to God. This is why they got into trouble in just about every town they went into. They refused to water down the Gospel, they refused to be tolerant of other religions, and they refused to be diplomatic about the need to be saved. Were they gracious? Always. Were they loving? Always. Were they honorable men? Always. On we can go, but they never, ever watered down the Gospel for the sake of not offending the listener.

The Jews of Jesus’ days hated Him because He told the truth. When we tell the truth today, in the day of ‘tolerance,’ we will be branded as hateful and maybe even as arrogant to think that we have the only answer. We simply repeat what the Bible says. It is not our own message; it is the message from God to all men everywhere, and we should not tamper with it, just speak the truth. Sadly, we have a world that is founded on lies, and the truth has become offensive. As we get closer and closer to Jesus’ return, the truth will be more and more offensive, and we, the carriers of it, hated the more.

• The Gospel is not to be a means of wealth, verse 5-6

I pastor one church and help with another. I receive an income from this, and there is nothing wrong with that. The Old Testament priests lived off the offerings and were given land in each tribe in lieu of their service. It would appear that some became wealthy, and most seemed to be comfortable financially. In contrast, the New Testament preachers, even Jesus himself, were all quite poor as far as the world is concerned. Jesus’ ministry needs were met by the generosity of women who gave to the ministry. These ladies are listed in Luke 8:1-3.

But Paul wanted to make it clear to these new Christians at Thessalonica that just as he did not come there asking for money, nor expecting money for preaching the Gospel, neither should they as the Gospel is sent out and exported by them. Once again, I have no problem with men and women making a living preaching the Gospel, and more importantly, the Bible is good with it as well. But the main goal, and not even the second or third goal, should not be to make money. The mark of a growing and maturing church is that of financial maturity; they should be able to pay a pastor, cover the ministry expenses, and give to a mission, as well as meet the needs of the members when they arise. The goal is not to be wealthy.

The Laodicean church in Revelation 3, was wealthy, but her wealth clouded her vision, and she lost sight of her need for Jesus.

• The Gospel is not for our own glory, verse 6

You and I are not the focus of the Gospel. Paul did not save anyone in Thessalonica. You and I cannot save anyone we talk to. It is okay if they forget who we are as long as when we leave, they know the name of Jesus, the one and only Saviour. Do not interject yourself; talk about Jesus. You may speak of how He saved you, but He must be the star and the focus of the message.

All too often, we want to fancy up the message and make it more attractive. Don’t!!! Tell the truth as plainly and as carefully as possible. Memorize the scriptures, carry a tract, use a Gideon’s New Testament, and walk them through the pure, simple Gospel. Remember, do not get into arguments, and listen to the Holy Spirit. There are many times that I have begun to witness, and the door was closed right before my eyes. Then a few days or weeks later, the door opened, and they asked me questions. Listen to Jesus; listen to the Holy Spirit; it is His Gospel, not yours.

• The Gospel is not a club to beat them into Heaven, verses 7-8

You cannot cajole people into Heaven. You will not debate them into Heaven. Many Christians win the debate but lose the soul. The Holy Spirit takes the truth that you speak from the Bible, not your opinion, then He uses that to convict the lost soul about their sin, the need to be saved, and the reality is judgment (John 16:8). No one will be saved forcefully. They must choose of their own free volition to submit to Jesus. They must choose for themselves to be humble before Jesus.

This also means that you need to listen to the Holy Spirit as to when to shut up. I work in the car sales business, and sometimes you can talk a customer into a sale, but if you keep talking, you can talk them right out of it as well. Listen to the Holy Spirit, and He will tell you when to shut up. It may be according to 1 Corinthians that this is a team effort; your job is to plant the seed, another’s is to water, and God reaps the harvest. Sometimes we want to do it all, but God just wants us to do the part He has for us. Listen. Remember, it is Jesus’ Gospel, not yours, nor mine.

• The Gospel is just the beginning, verse 9

Paul preached the Gospel, but he also labored so as not to be a burden financially to them. He worked another job. Many preachers like myself are like that today, and that was a common practice for many years among the Lord’s churches. Paul set an example of diligence and hard work for the men and the leaders that would emerge after he was gone. What kind of Gospel legacy are you leaving?

In addition to preaching the Gospel and working to support himself and the other ministers he brought, Paul was training and disciplining Silvanus and Timotheus; he was setting the example of discipleship and mentoring young men in the ministry. The Gospel does not stop at salvation. Truthfully, it is just the beginning, and there is a labor that comes with the Gospel, a labor of love like a spiritual father to those that hear and trust the Gospel of Jesus. Now, there are times when you will have a short window of opportunity to share the Gospel, and a person that you may never see again will be saved. But make no mistake, God has a person who will take them on as a labor of love the help them mature and become productive citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Are you invested wholly in the Gospel? All too often, we ‘get them saved’ and leave them on the pew to wait for Jesus. No, no; we should have people actively involved as soon as possible in sharing the Gospel themselves and mentor them to be a mentor to others. Let us tell others about Jesus as often as we can, and so much more as we see the day of His return approaching.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

P.S. I will be away on vacation next week, and there won’t be any Bible study sent out.

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca