Called to Glory (2 Thess. 2:13-15)

This sermon was preached on Sunday, 25 September, 2011

One of the sad aspects of modern life is the frequent disdain that people show for one another. We observe it, for example, in the world of politics, in the way politicians can dismiss the opinions of others, in the verbal abuse or taunts they can throw against one another. If that is the case at the top of the ladder, we sadly find it on all the other rungs as well. And we have to confess with embarrassment that verbal contempt can also be expressed in the church. How different it was with Paul when he thought about his fellow Christians in Thessalonica. Take his phrase, ‘brethren beloved by the Lord.’ In that phrase we can see how Paul regarded the Thessalonians as fellow-members of God’s family (the doctrine of adoption meant a great deal to Paul). He also saw them in how they were related to Jesus Christ – Jesus is the ‘Lord’ that is mentioned in verse 13. They were beloved by him, and I suspect that when they heard this description their minds would go to the place where Jesus, in a manner above all other ways, displayed his great love – the cross of Calvary. It is clear that if church members saw one another as God’s children and as Christ’s redeemed people, they would speak differently about one another.

So Paul and his colleagues had great affection for the church in Thessalonica. As he indicates in verse 13, they were obligated to engage in ongoing thankfulness for the church there. Fortunately he was guided by the Spirit to give some reasons for such thankfulness and I want us to focus on three of them. They are (1) the calling of God, (2) the means God used in calling them – the gospel, and (3) the destiny to which they were called, the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The calling of God

As we know, the phrase ‘the calling of God’ is a very rich one and it can have different meanings. Here Paul summarises it as ‘God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.’ This description can be approached, first, by noting the special place given by God to the Thessalonians in God’s plan of salvation. The special place is illustrated by the word ‘firstfruits’. Paul is alluding to one of the Jewish feasts, during which a sample of a crop was presented to God as a token of the coming harvest. By this illustration, Paul encouraged the Thessalonians, who were undergoing great persecution, that God had given them a privileged place in his purposes.

We can easily imagine how the church in Thessalonica could have become discouraged because of the oppression they were experiencing or because of the occasional periods when new converts might have been few. Perhaps even Paul thought they might be discouraged by what he had just written about the long development of what he called ‘the mystery of iniquity’ – after all, it was going to last until Jesus returned because he would destroy it when he arrived. Paul says to them, ‘Don’t think like that. Instead remind yourselves that you are the guarantee that there will be greater spiritual harvests in the future. If only you could see,’ says Paul, ‘the millions of converts who are going to follow on from you in Europe and elsewhere, you would rejoice to be part of what God is yet going to do.’

Of course, this illustration is a reminder that Christians should be an optimistic people. Their outlook should be positive because they know that God has a plan to save countless sinners. One of the ironies of the Christian church is that Calvinists, who profess to believe in the sovereignty of God, are often the most pessimistic members of the church. Their belief in the sovereign purposes of God has not taken on board the great things he intends to do. How did Paul have this vision? I suspect a crucial basis of it was the promises of God in the Old Testament regarding the growth of the church. We should fill our minds with these promises.

In addition to reminding the Thessalonians that God had called them to be the firstfruits of the great harvest of souls from the period between the two comings of Christ, Paul also mentioned what the Holy Spirit had done with them when they believed the truth that the apostle had declared to them. Paul summarises this action in the phrase, ‘the sanctification of the Spirit,’ and we may have read it without asking what is meant by it. Often we assume we know the meaning because the same word(s) is used elsewhere in Christian doctrine. The word ‘sanctification’ usually refers to the ongoing process in a believer’s experience through which the Holy Spirit makes him or her increasingly like Jesus.

Here, however, the sanctification of the Spirit means that each person is set apart to God when he or she believes in Jesus. They become God’s possession and the mark that they belong to him is the indwelling of the Spirit. Because they were indwelt by the Spirit, nothing that would happen could separate them from the calling they had received from God.

The means he uses

The next detail I want us to consider is the means that God used to bring the Thessalonians into this great privilege of being God’s firstfruits. Paul tells us that it was the gospel he preached, and he also says his gospel is the truth. Many volumes have been written about the contents of the gospel, but for now I want to highlight some of its features.

The first aspect to note is that the gospel contains propositions. We can see this feature from Paul’s description of it as truth. One aspect of the gospel is that it tells us the truth about ourselves, that we are sinners who have disobeyed God’s law inwardly as well as outwardly. We cannot dispute that the gospel is accurate when it tells us that we are sinners and it provides a logical, straightforward explanation of how we became sinners through our connection to Adam. The other details that I am going to mention are also propositions but we can only realise their truthfulness when we experience them.

Secondly, the gospel that Paul preached is about a person, Jesus Christ. In the gospel, he is said to be the eternal Son of God who became a man and lived in Israel. A crucial and unique feature of his humanity is that he was sinless, that he lived a holy life inwardly and outwardly. So although he was like us in his humanity, he was unlike us in that he had a sinless humanity. We might wonder where the good news is in that piece of information. The good news is that as a man he is the representative of those who trust in him. He did not merely live for himself, he also lived on behalf of others, and they were all sinners. He lived on their behalf in order to provide what they had failed to do, that is, to live a perfect life.

Thirdly, the gospel tells us that this perfect man was punished by God on the cross. He was not punished for his own sins; instead he paid the penalty that God required from those who had disobeyed him. Each of us has that bill to pay and none of us can pay it. The good news is that we do not have to pay it because Jesus has already provided such a payment. He took the place of sinners. Although he died at Calvary, he was raised from the dead three days later, achieving a great victory over death.

So the gospel is told to sinners and it says that for them Jesus has (1) provided a perfect life, (2) paid the penalty of the sins of his people, and (3) overcome the power of death so that they can experience his blessings. What blessings does the gospel provide? There is pardon of our sins, there is peace with God, and there is the prospect of glory. How do we get those blessings? They come to us when we believe in Jesus, when we trust in him and depend on him alone.

The Father had sent Paul and his friends to Thessalonica with this straightforward message and many there had believed in Jesus. They were so thrilled by what they had received from Jesus that they took the gospel all around the country we now call Greece. They had discovered for themselves that it was the truth. The Father has sent the same gospel to us. How we discovered for ourselves that it is true? True in what it says about us as sinners, true in what it says about Jesus and his death and resurrection, and true in what it provides for sinners (pardon, peace, and prospect of heaven)?

The destiny of the called

Paul stresses on of the three provisions I have just mentioned – he says that the Father called us to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does he mean by this destiny? He does not mean that we will become divine and become able to perform all the actions that Jesus as God is capable of doing. For example, Jesus will bring into existence the new heavens and new earth but we will never be able to create a universe. In fact, we will never be able to create a fly.

What other glory of Jesus will we obtain? We will be given a place with him in his inheritance, the new heavens and new earth. That will be a great privilege. It will involve many things. One of them is perfection of soul and body. Our minds are sinful and our bodies are decaying. But those who trust in Jesus will yet have sinless minds and defect-less bodies. Our souls become sinless when we die and our bodies become perfect at the future resurrection. We will be conformed to the perfect likeness of Jesus. God the Father wants every sinner who believes in Jesus to be like Jesus for ever.

Sharing the glory of Jesus will involve progress. Think of it in this way. When God made Adam, he gave him a world to discover and one of his roles would have been to pass on his discoveries to his descendants. Life would have involved progress in discovering what God had hidden in the world. The new heavens and new earth will be a universe to discover, but we will explore it in the company of Jesus, the one who will have placed within it an endless supply of ways by which each of his redeemed people will continually find out how kind and rich he is.

The Puritan Thomas Manton asked, ‘Why is it called the glory of Christ?’ He proceeded to give several answers to his question. First, it was purchased by Christ (Eph. 1:7); second, it is promised by Christ (John 10:28); third, it is prayed for by Christ (John 17:4); fourth, it is provided by Christ (John 14:3); and fifth, it involves the presence of Christ – ‘We shall have the same glory Christ now hath, but in our measure; the same glory in kind whereunto Christ's humanity is advanced, referring to him only his privilege in the degree…. We share with him in his own blessedness, so far as we are capable.’

Some applications

Paul knew that the awareness of this glorious destiny would encourage his readers to remain firm in their faith. An obvious lesson for us is to remind one another that sharing the glory of Christ is our destiny. We should speak often about what is ahead of us.

Another lesson is that we should not be absorbed by the things of this life. Living for them is like a person about to inherit a vast estate spending his time playing with sandcastles. There is nothing in life that can compare with the glory of Christ.

A third effect is that thinking about one’s destiny makes it easier to cope with the troubles of life. This is what Jesus told his disciples in John 14:1ff., when he urged them not to have troubled hearts and reminded them of their heavenly home.

Fourthly, value the gospel that tells us about this great future. Politicians are often making great promises about the future, even although they don’t have the power to guarantee them. In contrast, God has called his people to a wonderful future that is 100% guaranteed. They have this future because they responded to his call in the gospel.