Acts 15:36-18:22 (1, 2 Thessalonians)

Living Between the Cross and the Crown

Alright, church. Good to see you. Go ahead and turn to a couple of places in your Bibles this week. We have a lot of ground to cover. We are going to start in the book of Acts, specifically chapter 15, and you will also want to hold your place in First and Second Thessalonians. That is where we are going to drill down for most of our time together. If you have the chart that we put up on the website, grab that so you can follow along as we continue our series on Generations.

One of the foundational beliefs and hopes of Christianity revolves around two undeniable facts: Jesus Christ has come, and Jesus Christ will come again. We put our entire faith on those two truths. We believe that the Father sent the Son to Earth to suffer and die for us, laying down His life as a perfect substitute and sacrifice, redeeming us from sin, Satan, death, and the bondage that once held us. Christ has freed and redeemed us through His first coming.

Yet we also anchor our souls in the promise that He will come again. There is a day remaining when Christ will return. The eastern sky will part, the trumpet will sound, and Christ will descend. Judgment will fall upon wickedness, and for His followers, Christ will begin the restoration of all things—making everything new, wiping away every tear, every pain, every sorrow, and every fracture. That is the hope of glory anchoring our souls as we wait for our Bridegroom to return.

Where we find ourselves as the church right now is somewhere in the middle, between the cross and the crown. If you are anything like me, the hardest struggle is in the waiting. The amount of suffering, pain, and brokenness we walk through in this lifetime—in our homes, in our bodies, and in our culture—has our souls crying out for the day when Christ will return. In the midst of despair, our minds can begin to play tricks on us. We start wondering: Is He really coming back? Is this suffering ever going to end? Because it certainly doesn’t feel like it right now.

Walking Through the Valley of Death

Let me give you a window into my soul over the past two and a half years. It has been a season of deeply processing the Lord’s return and that future day when He makes all things new.

About two and a half years ago, my family and I left the Well and moved back to Texas. That decision came right on the heels of news around Christmas that my wife’s mother had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a terminal asbestos-related cancer. The doctors gave her about a year to live. We wrestled with whether we should walk through that from 1,500 miles away or up close. We made the call to move back to Texas, but before the moving trucks could even arrive, she passed away. From diagnosis to death was just two months. My wife lost her mom, our kids lost their grandmother, and we lost a pillar of our family.

We still felt the Lord was calling us back to Texas for unfinished ministry, so we went anyway. Little did we know that over the next two years, we would walk through another ten family funerals.

A few months after arriving in Texas, I received a phone call that my cousin had been found dead in a bathtub from an overdose, and I helped with that funeral. A couple of months after that, my aunt was checking her mailbox when a car struck and killed her, and I helped with that funeral. A few months later, while traveling on the East Coast for ministry, I received a call that my grandfather had passed away, so I flew back to officiate. A couple of months later, while on family vacation, my wife’s grandmother passed away, and we traveled down to officiate that funeral.

Then, exactly one year ago today, I was sitting in an elders’ meeting in my office. My wife and I have an agreement: if she calls during a meeting, I screen it, but if she calls back immediately, I know something is wrong. Sure enough, two consecutive calls came in. I stood up, walked toward the door, and answered. My wife was screaming hysterically. My heart dropped. Through her sobs, she was trying to tell me that her daddy had died. But over the broken phone connection, all I heard was that Abby—our youngest daughter—had died. The line went dead, and I couldn’t reach her back.

I lived half a mile from the church office. I made it home in point-one seconds. I burst through the front door in total panic. When she clarified through her tears that it was her dad, I had this surreal, guilty wave of relief—Oh, thank God, it’s her dad, not our child. But then the weight of the reality crashed in: in a span of eighteen months, my wife had lost both her mother and her father. We wept together in that devastating grief, and I officiated that funeral.

A few months later, on New Year’s Day, I was building puzzles with my family when my phone rang again. My dad was sick. Within a month, my dad was gone, and I officiated his funeral too.

It was trial after trial after trial. There were days I looked up and said, “Lord, did You rename me Job? What is happening here?” In those moments of grief and despair, my soul cried out: Lord, when is this going to stop? Not just this string of back-to-back losses, but when will the sting of death itself be eradicated once and for all? When will Jesus return to end all evil, suffering, and pain? Because in the middle of the ashes, it doesn’t feel like we are any closer.

I don’t know your specific story, but I know you have walked through tragedies of your own. What our hearts long for most in those seasons is hope—the assurance that the day coming will not be like the day that is. Chuck Swindoll once noted that the average human being can go forty days without food, about three days without water, but cannot go a single second without hope. We need hope. Our souls ache for the day when Christ will restore all things and we will never again feel the sting of death.

The Journey to Thessalonica

If you have ever felt that longing or wrestled with those questions, you can identify with the church in Thessalonica. In Acts, we read about Paul’s second missionary journey, where he encountered a young church wrestling deeply with the Lord’s return—when it would happen, what it would look like, and how they should live in the meantime.

To understand their mindset, we have to trace the journey. After the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 affirmed that salvation is a free gift of God’s grace through faith, Paul and Barnabas prepared to head back out. But a sharp disagreement arose over John Mark, who had deserted them on their first journey.

Acts 15:36-41 (NASB)

After some days Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, [and see] how they are.’ Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. And he was traveling through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Barnabas wanted to give Mark a second chance, but Paul refused to take a quitter. They separated in an ancient church split. Barnabas took Mark, and Paul chose Silas and Timothy. Eventually, Paul and Mark reconciled, and Mark went on to write the Gospel of Mark, but for now, they parted ways.

Paul and Silas tried to travel north and east, but the Holy Spirit prevented them. Then Paul received the Macedonian vision calling them west. They crossed over and landed in Philippi.

Acts 16:1-40 (NASB)

Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to observe. So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily. They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a [Roman] colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.’ And she prevailed upon us. It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.’ She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!’ And it came out at that very moment. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, ‘These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.’ The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order [them] to be beaten with rods. When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!’ And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that [very] hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his [household]. And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household. Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen, saying, ‘Release those men.’ And the jailer reported these words to Paul, [saying], ‘The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Therefore come out now and go in peace.’ But Paul said to them, ‘They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.’ The policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, and they came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. They went out of the prison and entered [the house of] Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.

In Philippi, Paul and Silas were severely beaten and thrown into prison for preaching the gospel. While they were praying and singing hymns at midnight, an earthquake shook the foundations. The prison doors flew open, but instead of fleeing, Paul stayed, preached the gospel to the terrified jailer, and the jailer and his whole household were saved.

After being released, they traveled to Thessalonica in Acts 17. Paul preached in the synagogue, and many believed, but an angry mob formed to attack them. When the mob couldn’t find Paul, they dragged a believer named Jason out of his house and beat him. Jason struck a deal, paying a bond and promising the authorities that Paul would leave and never return.

Acts 17:1-9 (NASB)

Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and [saying], ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.’ And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they [began] dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, ‘These men who have upset the world have come here also; and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.’ They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things. And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them.

Paul was forced out in the dead of night. He traveled to Berea, but the Thessalonian mob followed him there to stir up trouble. Paul had to flee again, eventually arriving in Athens, where he reasoned with the philosophers at Mars Hill. While in Athens, Silas and Timothy brought news that the Thessalonians were enduring severe persecution. Paul sent them back to strengthen the church while he moved on to Corinth.

In Corinth, Paul settled for eighteen months. Timothy and Silas eventually returned with an updated report. The Thessalonians were standing firm in faith, but four major problems had surfaced:

1. Attacks on Paul’s Integrity: False teachers claimed Paul was a fraud who abandoned them because he didn’t care.
2. Theological Despair: Suffering severe persecution, they feared they had missed Christ’s coming and were under God’s wrath in the Day of the Lord.
3. Confusion Over Deceased Believers: They worried that Christians who died before Christ’s return would miss out on the resurrection.
4. Moral Drift and Idleness: Losing eternal perspective, some believers drifted into sexual immorality and laziness, quitting their jobs to wait on rooftops.

From Corinth, Paul penned 1 Thessalonians to pastor their hearts and anchor their hope.

Grieving with Hope and Walking in Holiness

In the first three chapters of 1 Thessalonians, Paul pours out a pastor’s heart. He reminds them of his deep love, explaining that Satan had hindered his return through the legal bond placed on Jason. He reminds them of how he lived among them with pure motives, laboring like a nursing mother and an encouraging father.

Then, in chapters 4 and 5, Paul looks forward to the return of Christ and addresses their core anxieties. In chapter 5, he tackles the timing of the Day of the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (NASB)

Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of [the] day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

Paul tells them that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. There is no secret date to calculate. The world will be caught off guard, but believers are children of the light. For the follower of Jesus, the return of Christ brings salvation, not wrath. Our responsibility in the meantime is to stay sober, awake, and alert.

In chapter 4, Paul comforts them regarding loved ones who had already died.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NASB)

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of [the] archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Paul tells them not to grieve like those who have no hope. When a believer dies, their spirit is immediately present with the Lord. When Christ returns, He will bring them with Him. Their bodies will rise first, and those who are alive will be caught up together in the air. We grieve the pain of separation, but we do not grieve hopelessly. We know the grave is not the end.

Finally, Paul addresses their daily conduct. When believers lose sight of eternity, moral compromise quickly follows.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-5 (NASB)

Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us [instruction] as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by [the authority of] the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; [that is], that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

When you forget that Christ is returning to judge wickedness and restore righteousness, the temptation is to live for temporal pleasures. The Thessalonians were sliding into the sexual immorality of the surrounding pagan culture. Paul calls them back to holiness, self-control, and purity. He echoes this same warning in his letter to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 5:15-17 (NASB)

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

When the mission fades, gravity pulls us downward into our flesh. A clear picture of this appears in the miniseries Band of Brothers. Throughout the war, the soldiers are fiercely unified, enduring brutal combat and sacrificing for a cause greater than themselves. But toward the end, they enter a quiet European town where the fighting stops. With no active mission in front of them, their discipline unravels. Men begin breaking into bars, getting drunk, and engaging in shameful behavior.

Then, a patrol walks over a nearby hill and discovers a concentration camp. Staring through the barbed wire at starving, emaciated human beings, the reality of the war crashes back into their souls. They are instantly sobered. They remember why they are there.

We cannot afford peacetime complacency. We are living in a wartime reality. A kingdom work has been entrusted to us, and the moment we lose sight of Christ’s return, we drift into self-indulgence.

Don’t Check Out: Stand Firm and Work

A few months after writing his first letter, Paul received word that confusion was escalating in Thessalonica. False reports and forged letters had convinced some believers that the Day of the Lord had already arrived. As a result, fear gripped the congregation, and many members quit their jobs, becoming idle busybodies living off others.

Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians to set the record straight. In chapter 1, he assures them that their suffering is not the wrath of God.

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 (NASB)

[This is] a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all it is [only] just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and [to give] relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed– for our testimony to you was believed.

Their trials were evidence of God refining their faith, not condemning them. God’s righteous judgment will be poured out on their persecutors when Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.

In chapter 2, Paul clarifies the events that must precede the Day of the Lord.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 (NASB)

Let no one in any way deceive you, for [it will not come] unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 (NASB)

[that is], the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

Paul explains that the Day of the Lord will not occur until the great rebellion takes place and the man of lawlessness—the Antichrist—is revealed. This figure will perform satanic signs and seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Paul tells the Thessalonians: You have not missed the Day of the Lord. These events have not happened. Rest in your salvation.

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 (NASB)

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word [of mouth] or by letter from us. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.

It is easy for Christians to obsess over end-times charts, identifying world leaders with the Antichrist, and arguing over dates. But Scripture never calls us to sensationalism. Right before His ascension, Jesus’ disciples asked Him when He would restore the kingdom to Israel.

Acts 1:7-8 (NASB)

He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’

Jesus redirected them from speculative curiosity to active obedience. We do not know the day or the hour, but we know the mission: be His witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Because the Thessalonians thought the end was imminent, some went into full survivalist mode—abandoning their responsibilities, climbing onto rooftops, or hiding in spiritual bunkers. Paul confronts this laziness head-on in chapter 3.

2 Thessalonians 3:13 (NASB)

But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.

Paul tells them that if anyone will not work, neither shall they eat. Hope in Christ’s return should never cause us to check out of culture; it should compel us to engage culture with urgency. When Jesus returns, may He find us laboring in the harvest, not hiding underground.

Live in Light of His Return

As we consider Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, this message speaks to two specific groups today.

First, if you are walking through deep suffering, heartache, and loss—if you are standing in the ashes of broken dreams and asking how much longer this broken world can go on—hear the word of the Lord: Do not give up hope. This broken world is not your final home. A day is fixed when the sky will open, the trumpet will sound, and Jesus will descend. He will wipe away every tear. Cancer, death, addiction, and sorrow will be destroyed forever. Fix your eyes on that horizon and hold on.

Second, if you have grown comfortable in this world—if you have drifted into apathy, putting your hope in your career, your 401(k), your family, or your comfort—hear the warning of the Lord: This world is passing away. Do not build your identity on temporal things. Lay aside sexual sin, put away spiritual laziness, pick up your tools, and get to work for the kingdom of God.

Our hope is not in the stock market. Our hope is not in politics. Our hope is in Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain and the reigning King who will return. May we be found faithful, living every single day in the light of His coming.