Good Monday morning to you my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever watched a child imitating their parents or some other role model? Little girls wearing their mother’s jewelry and lipstick or little boys trying to walk in their daddy’s big shoes or work boots or maybe wearing his hat?
Perhaps you have seen copycat businesses trying to duplicate each other or what they call ‘copycat crimes’? There is a word for authors or speakers who try too much to imitate others, it’s called ‘plagiarism’. But what does it look like when adults try to imitate others?
Let’s rejoin Paul as he is writing about this to his friends in Thessalonica. Paul dictates as Timothy scribes: “You, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus Christ and the prophets and also drove us out.” (1 Thess. 2:14,15) Imitation is normally an intentional and subversive act, and sadly, especially in the world of commerce, it is a greedy attempt to steal business away from a successful business by producing their product in a way that appears identical but is a cheap imitation.
That’s not what Paul is talking about here, rather Paul is commending the Thessalonian Christians for their courage in the face of great persecution. The antagonism, the mockery and hatred they are experiencing from some of their fellow Thessalonians who reject the Gospel of Jesus, reminded Paul very much of what he had seen in Jerusalem and the surrounding area when Jews began trusting Jesus to be their Messiah and other Jews who rejected Jesus became violent against them.
Sadly, Paul had found himself not only involved in that Jerusalem persecution but according to Acts 8:1 Paul, then known as Saul, was the chief instigator of that persecution against new Christians.
Then when Paul trusted in Jesus and became an evangelist, carrying the message of the Gospel to cities and towns across Israel, Paul became the hunted one, the persecuted one. Paul wanted these Thessalonians to know that in their suffering they were bringing great glory to God, as they stood firm and resolute in their refusal to renounce their faith in Jesus as their Savior.
I imagine Timothy and Silas had assured those suffering Thessalonians that Jesus had warned the disciples of this when in the upper room on the night before His death, Jesus had said: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you…” (John 15:18,19) “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
My friends all around the world in 2023, what level of suffering are you experiencing because you have trusted your life to Jesus Christ and you are boldly following Him, living your life counterculture to the darkness culture all around you? Do you sense the Holy Spirit encouraging you to realize that Jesus is watching you closely and empowering you by His Spirit to stand firm and courageous in the face of persecution?
Paul wanted the Thessalonians not only to know God was watching and fully understanding their painful experience, but God is a Holy God, and every person will face accountability with God. Paul continues in his letter talking about those who had been persecuting his Christian friends in Thessalonica: “They displease God and are hostile to everyone 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.” (1 Thess. 2:15,16)
Do you hear Paul’s assurance that God is fully aware? Do you hear accountability and justice? While we appreciate ‘compound interest’ for our savings account in the bank, do we understand sin has ‘compound interest’ to be paid as well? Our sins are cumulative! God sees all and forgets nothing! Many Scriptures assure us there will be for every living human being a day of reckoning when we each stand before God to receive what God believes we are due for everything done during our lifetime, and He has seen it all! (Heb. 4:13; 2 Cor. 5:10)
That is why Paul used the phrase “…they heap up their sins…” that’s what I’m calling ‘compound interest of sin.’ And Paul’s closing statement “The wrath of God has come upon them” is the assurance of God’s holy justice!
Now I know what you are thinking, I can see you raising your hands, waving your arms, shouting my name and calling out ‘wait a minute, what about God’s mercy, God’s forgiveness of my sin when I trusted in Jesus’ death to pay my sin debt?’ Yes, my friends, that is a fair and important question.
Absolutely YES, in response to our confession of and repentance from our sin, God the Father accepts the sin death payment of Jesus Christ, God the Son, and applies that payment to our sin, declaring us ‘pardoned’, ‘forgiven’ and the Holy Spirit cleanses us from all unrighteousness. (Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:9)
But, what happens to all that sin? Every sinful word, every sinful attitude or action, they were all very real and most often they hurt other people and ourselves. Do those actions and words just somehow ‘disappear’ or ‘melt into oblivion’? NO my friends!
Psalm 103 makes this powerful statement: “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is God’s love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us.” (Ps. 103:11,12) What does it mean, my friends? It means God separates our sin from us, as far as east is from west, but there is no Scripture I know of which states that God destroys the history of those sinful actions.
The fact and the history of the event remains, but the wrath of God for that sin has already been poured out on Jesus, and therefore will not be poured out on me because I have confessed, repented and trusted that Jesus’ blood will be sufficient payment to God for my sin. But history is not erased, and on my day of accounting before God, therefore, I believe my history will be revealed as it truly is, and God will declare “PARDONED, the Blood of Jesus applied“ to my sin!
Now what would be the purpose for that reality when I stand in accountability? Why would God not simply ignore all my sin, make no mention of it as if it never happened, it is, after all, covered by the blood of Jesus, isn’t it? Because history cannot be ignored. It did happen and accountability justice must be served for what happened. Either justice wrath will be served on me for my sin, or it will be served on Jesus for my sin.
But my history being seen in all its truth, and then God declaring it all pardoned and forgiven because God accepts the payment of Jesus’ death for my sin, that is a great celebration of the central truth of the Gospel, the purpose for which Jesus came to earth.
Could there be any greater moment of celebration, any greater honor given to the resurrected Jesus, any greater moment of my worship of Holy God than this moment of absolute declaration by God that my sin debt is PAID IN FULL by Jesus!
Oh, my friends, I’m looking forward to that moment, are you? Not because I may be reminded of what I already know about me, but because there will be no greater moment of the full realization of the glory of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for me, no greater moment of my deepest gratitude to God, no greater moment of the outpouring of my worship than that moment of my final justification in God’s Presence!!
By the way my friends, that accountability is not a time of negotiations. Equally for those who will stand before God never having trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation, that moment will be the ultimate horror as they hear God pronounce them fully guilty and responsible for all their sin, and then His justice wrath sends them permanently out from His glorious presence into eternal suffering in hell! Is there any greater reality for us to consider today, my friends?
I have an old song that will help us consider this moment of accountability we each will experience before God…
Today’s Scripture is 1 Thess. 2:14-16.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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