Today is Good Friday, the day that Christians remember Jesus was nailed to the cross.
It seems like a strange thing to celebrate. We celebrate that an innocent man was murdered, hung on a cross to die.
But that killing, that sacrifice, is what allows us to come to God. It is our faith in innocent blood that allows us to live forever. Based on God’s plan that was foretold centuries before Jesus’s time, and based on God’s consistent character of being a God that requires both justice as well as mercy and love, and based on God’s consistent nature and actions that required a blood sacrifice as the payment for our sins, Christ willingly took upon himself the punishment for our sins as he hung there on the cross.
It wasn’t that he wanted to be killed, of course. He even prayed to the Father that, if there was another way, that God would use this other way to bring all people back to himself, reconciling them with himself.
But there wasn’t. There was no other way. Only in this way could all of humanity find shelter, find salvation, in Christ with God. Jesus went to the cross to redeem people away from the kingdom of darkness so that they could enter into the kingdom of God, bringing glory to the Father due to his love, his grace, and his mercy toward his people.
This is the message that Paul brought to the Thessalonian people and to all of the cities where he traveled: Christ crucified.
That is the message.
It was the message that animated Paul, that had him traveling all across modern-day Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Malta, Italy, and more…on foot. And it was the same message that made Silas and Timothy, Barnabas, John Mark, and several others, join Paul on these travels, suffering greatly as they went:
Christ was crucified so that we can live forever.
I was reminded of this today as I was reading Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. He knew that the Thessalonians would face strong persecution for their faith and he continued in prayer for these new believers. Paul was with his companions – Silas, Timothy, and possibly even Luke – in Athens, probably just before heading over to Achaia, to the city of Corinth, and Paul reaches a point where he just has to know. He has to find out. Are the Thessalonians remaining steadfast in their faith in the crucified Christ?
So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them.
1 Thessalonians 3:1-3
Here we have Paul from Tarsus. Silas, who is a Roman citizen, possibly from Rome. Timothy from Lystra. And seemingly also Luke from Troas. They are all traveling together, men from different places and different backgrounds, but motivated and moved by one specific idea: that Christ was crucified, and they must glorify God by telling other people this amazing news, bringing as many to know Christ as they possibly can. Their lives would count, not just for today, not just for next twenty, thirty, or forty years, but for eternity because they took ahold of that which was the most important news and called people to know Jesus, the Messiah who had been slain on the cross and yet was now resurrected, alive, and the Way to come to the Father.
Because of this one simple, historical fact that changed everything – the fact of Jesus Christ crucified, fulfilling prophecies, and redeeming people to the kingdom of God across all time – they allowed themselves to be sent out by the Holy Spirit and by the church, putting themselves in great danger, ruining their financial futures, and wrecking their reputation with everyone except those who believed.
And in the same way, they sent Timothy back into one of the most dangerous cities that they had ever visited. This is the same city where a mob had been formed that even entered into a man’s house and literally dragged him out and before the city officials. Maybe only Lystra and Jerusalem could be considered more dangerous given what we know happened. And yet, the stakes were too high to not go. Were the Thessalonians persevering in their faith? Paul had to know, so while he was continuing on with his work there in Athens, then on his way to Corinth, he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to learn about how they had fared in persevering through the persecution that had come as a result of their faith.
This is the same message that moves us even today. It is the same reason that we moved to another country where we could meet people who are flowing into Europe from across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. It is the same reason that our team has sent out men who will take the Gospel back to their own people. This one central message is the message that everyone must hear: Christ was crucified for the forgiveness of sins, to usher people into the kingdom of God, for the glory of God and his Christ, king Jesus.