The First Persecution of Christians
1 Thessalonians 2v15-16
10th September 2021
Over the last two weeks we've studied:
1 Thessalonians 2v14
For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in
Christ Jesus:
you suffered from your own countrymen the same things those
churches suffered from the Jews.
The first century Jewish church, the church in Thessalonica, and many other churches, both in those days and for 2,000 years, have been persecuted. Paul continues to write about the first persecution of Christ and of Christians:
1 Thessalonians 2v15-16
[the Jews]
who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease
God and are hostile to all men
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 at last [or to the
uttermost].
Paul is quite severe in his criticism of the first-century Jews here. It makes uncomfortable reading, but we must face up to it. Every word of the Bible is God-breathed and true. Here, in God's holy and inspired word, we're told that the Jews killed Jesus. Some want to point out that it was the Romans who killed Jesus. Literally speaking, that's true. It was a Roman governor who announced the death sentence, and Roman soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross. But Paul is right. The Jews killed Jesus, in that they were the ones who demanded his death. Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, wanted to let Jesus go.
Matthew 27:22-27
"What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" Pilate asked.
They all answered, "Crucify him!"
"Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!"
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was
starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am
innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!"
All the people answered, "Let his blood be on us and on our children!"
And St Matthew, who wrote that, was Jewish.
The person or people who cause a crime to be committed are just as guilty as the people who actually do it. Peter said to the men of Israel:
Acts 3:13-15
"The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his
servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before
Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.
You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to
you.
You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are
witnesses of this."
There's no way the Jewish nation can avoid responsibility for killing Jesus. But there is absolutely no excuse for any antisemitism. We must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44) and we must pray for those who persecuted and killed our Lord. And if they hadn't killed Jesus, we couldn't have been saved. It could be said that you and I killed Jesus. It was our sin that made His death necessary.
The Jews killed God's prophets, they killed Jesus Christ, and they persecuted the early church. But many have followed their terrible example. They were the first to do so, but the history of the church is full of stories of persecution, as we saw last time.
Paul continues speaking about the first-century Jews:
1 Thessalonians 2v15b-16a
They displease God and are hostile to all men
in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be
saved.
Just as the early church is a sort of template for all churches, so the early Jewish persecution is a kind of model for all persecutions of the church.
The Jews thought of themselves as the good guys. They still thought of themselves as God's chosen people. But they were under God's judgement. As Jesus also said in Matthew 23:37, they killed the prophets. They killed Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, and they persecuted the church.
Most persecutors today think of themselves as the good guys, stamping out evil. The Spanish Inquisition, which tortured Jews and Protestants, even managed to persuade itself that they were being kind, by torturing sinners into repentance. The Soviet Union and East Germany believed, or at least claimed to believe, they were introducing pure socialism by driving the church underground.
Like the first-century Jews, persecutors are hostile to all people who disagree with them. Does that find an echo in the way the "Woke" establishment today, which seeks to no-platform, defund and cancel anybody who holds a contrary view?
Persecutors, including the early Jews, and especially in communist and Muslim-majority countries, try to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Increasingly, the people of this country do the same. Many people here hate the Bible, because it embodies a world-view different from their own. And so they hate us. Our street preachers are often arrested. So far, they've only been imprisoned overnight, but we don't know how much worse things will get.
As Paul says, In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. How much sin did the terminal generation of the Jewish state commit? The persecution of Jesus and the church was the culmination of their sin, not the beginning of it. And how much sin do the communists, and the Muslims, and the Indian Hindus, commit? And how much sin will the woke commit before they're finished?
The church is always persecuted. The church is always triumphant. The ancient Jewish state is no more. The modern Jewish state is a very different thing altogether. The Soviet Union is gone. The earthly power of the Pope, who once effectively ruled most of Europe, is reduced to a suburb of the city of Rome. The Spanish Inquisition is no more. Islam will fall. "Woke" will be revealed for the evil, divisive fraud that it is. The church will continue to grow.
Luke 12:32
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give
you the kingdom."
Paul wrote about the Jews:
1 Thessalonians 2v16b
The wrath of God has come upon them at last.[ or to the uttermost]
40 years before Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, Jesus's disciples called attention to the beautiful temple buildings. He replied:
Matthew 24:2
"Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one
stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."
When Paul wrote this letter, 22 years later, just 18 years before Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, he was saying the same thing.
God's judgement will come upon every person and every society which opposes God and persecutes His church, including those who falsely claim not to oppose God. Jerusalem fell. The Roman Empire fell. The Soviet Union fell. Every empire – every political empire, every intellectual empire, and every spiritual empire - will fall, except one. The kingdom of God will last for eternity. Jesus promised:
Matthew 16:18b
I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
And Isaiah predicted:
Isaiah 9:7
Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and
upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
You and I are frail humans beings, bewildered by the unkindness and hatred around us. There's so little we can do about it. But Jesus is our shield and our fortress. Jesus is the Lord of history. Jesus has promised to build His church, and He will keep His promise. And:
Romans 8:28
We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…
And "all things" includes persecution.