We are waiting for a person, for His Son from Heaven. We are waiting for the Jesus who came once in humility to come again in glory.
I am going to say something scandalous, but I want you to be patient with me and let me explain myself. Here is the scandalous opinion: The Thessalonian letters are the most boring books of the New Testament. Now, let me justify myself and the statement. Let us start with myself. My observation is not an indictment, just a description. There is nothing bad about it. In fact, there is a glory in boring. I prefer boring to exciting (especially when I look back on the dramas that have pitted my skin with wrinkles, my brow with lines, and my head with grey or baldness). It is more to be desired than traffic accidents and tragedy, which is for sure. There is nothing inherently wrong with boring.
Now, let us consider the scandalous statement; the objective point about being “boring.” Here is my answer: There is nothing wrong with being at the extreme end of a scale. Something has to be, whenever and however we measure this stuff out. In my own church tradition, we use a hymnal that has a collection of a thousand hymns. There is a silliest one. Not an indictment, just a description. And I will sing Herbert Brokering’s “Earth and All Stars” with gusto and make a joyful noise. It is unique, catalogic, resonant with Psalms, and it teaches well the doctrine of vocation. But that does not mean it is not silly with its, “Loud boiling test tubes,” lol.
I love the Thessalonian correspondence. The Thessalonian letters are chock full of love and affection. Paul loves the Thessalonians. The Thessalonians love Paul. Love, love, love. That is about it. That is a lot, do not get me wrong. But it is just kind of, well, boring when you stack the content against the richness of the rest of the epistles, the history of Acts, the gospels, and the Revelation. To be sure, there are a couple of sparks in the Thessalonian letters, a few doctrinal gems (particularly those related to the second coming of Christ). But notice how, generally speaking, we do not go out of our way to teach doctrine from 1 or 2 Thessalonians, and we do not proof text an awful lot of things from the Thessalonian correspondence. These letters are kind of just there.
And they still ought to be proclaimed as God’s Word in Christ. That, preacher, is why blogs like this exist. Just getting cards on the table so you do not think folks like me are always equally excited about preaching every text that comes around in the lectionary. Honesty is the best policy (and a statement like that may risk tempting you to flame me with your honest assessment of my poor judgment, should you really, really like 1 and 2 Thessalonians - like a colleague of mine does - no accounting for taste and all that).
The fact that the Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist also falls on October 18 this year is no excuse to avoid 1 Thessalonians. Certainly, take your festival field trip if you like, preach Reformation Day the next week, and All Saints after that. But you will still have two weeks of 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 waiting for you before Advent. The best course of action, I think, is to seriously consider preaching 1 Thessalonians for all five of these weeks. Read it again. Study it. You do not need to “build a sermon series” or something like that. But consider what the Lord would have you deliver and deliver it to your church who needs to hear the Word, the whole Word, and nothing but the Word!
“Deliver” is a good segue to what your sermon on 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 should focus on, especially the last verse of the pericope: Wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come (1:10). Jesus is the deliverer in this lesson. The Thessalonians do not deliver themselves. Paul is full of praise for what they have done. This may well serve as fodder for your message, a move from the negative to the positive, a move from what works can afford to what Christ’s work has done. The Thessalonians have turned from idols to serve the living and true God (1:9). Yes, but the wise preacher will see in the opposition to works here that if anything is to be considered tangibly, we can enjoy the fruits of a good tree. It is the fruit of their deliverance, not the cause. They are waiting. They are waiting for a Son from Heaven. They are waiting for Jesus (1:10).
More than just fortuitous, this is still a good word for Christians in 2026, because Christians are still waiting. We are not waiting for some vague improvement in the human condition, or for history to get its act together finally (on some kind of premillennialist timeline), or for ourselves to become good enough that we can face whatever comes next (on some kind of postmillennialist fantasy). Nope, we are waiting for a person, for His Son from Heaven. We are waiting for the Jesus who came once in humility to come again in glory.
The real material body, the flesh that was nailed to the wood, the body that was buried, the body that lay in the tomb, that body was raised.
The text of 1 Thessalonians 1 is wonderfully concrete about who this Jesus is. He is the one whom He raised from the dead (1:10). In Paul’s letters, resurrection is no metaphor. It is material and it is real. Paul is not preaching new possibilities or a sentimental Easter message that pulls the punch by making it imagination, like, “I know that my redeemer lives, he lives within my heart” (*blech!*). No, in Paul’s proclamation, the Father raised Jesus from the dead. The real material body, the flesh that was nailed to the wood, the body that was buried, the body that lay in the tomb, that body was raised. The living, material Jesus is the Jesus who ascended into Heaven, and that is where He is coming from again as we wait for Him.
And Jesus is the one who delivers us from the wrath to come. It is kind of an uncomfortable place to end a pericope. You can almost hear an ominous “bumm, bumm, bumm” in the background. Preacher, do not domesticate the phrase. Let scripture stand and be the biblical preacher who truth tells. The wrath to come is the judgment of God that is coming upon sinners. There really is a judgment coming. There really is a day when every human being will stand before the living God. Christianity does not promise deliverance from a danger that exists only in our imaginations. There is something from which we need to be delivered. Preaching the Law in that prepares the ear and the heart to hear the message of the Gospel in this text: Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come.
That is what a deliverer does. He gets you out of the place you cannot get yourself out of. He rescues you from the danger you cannot overcome. But how does Jesus deliver? Listen to that word and overhear the possible valances, delivering from death, like the ambulance driver or the medic’s jeep, delivering gifts too, like the Postmates or UPS delivery driver.
Jesus does not deliver us by talking us out of God’s wrath, as though the Father were secretly mistaken about sin. He delivers us by taking the judgment upon Himself. The wrath sinners deserve falls upon the Son. The blood is real. The cross is real. The death is real. Jesus is really dead, and that is why His resurrection is really resurrection.
And that is also why this little phrase at the end of 1 Thessalonians 1 is more than just a little foreshadowing of the “more exciting stuff” in 1 Thessalonians, just a proleptic reference to the second coming. No, because we are resurrection people, we know the whole Christian life is lived between two appearances of Christ: The Christ who came and died and rose for us, and the Christ who is coming again to judge the living and the dead.
Understanding life as resurrection life cuts a rather different figure in thinking about all the love, joy, and steadfastness Paul praises in these first ten verses. The Thessalonians’ “work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope” (1:3) are not heroic achievements before God. They are just the shape Christian lives take while we wait for our deliverer. The Gospel changes what we do because the Gospel changes what we are waiting for, delivery instead of judgment. And until then, we focus on the delivery of God’s gifts. This is where you can turn on the vocabulary for a more sacramental finish.
As you remind folks this week that God delivers His gifts in Christ, also reinforce for them that they need not stress about delivering themselves from the wrath to come. We do not and we cannot. You do not need to make yourself safe before God. You cannot. You need the Deliverer. That real deliverer is the one who has already delivered Himself, delivered Himself to death, delivered Himself alive to His disciples, and delivered Himself to your hearers in His Word. The Son from Heaven came all the way down to Earth for you. He took your flesh. He bore your sin. He died your death. The Father raised Him from the dead. He ascended into Heaven. And now, you wait, not for an unknown future, but for Him, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
