Chapter 2

A missionary is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who is living a normal Christian life which is witnessing for Christ. In this chapter we discover once again why the Thessalonian church was falling into the pattern of its foundation, turning the world upside down. The world is turned upside down not by men who stand behind the pulpits but by believers who witness for Christ. As far as the Word of God is concerned the pattern for the believer is the pattern of witnessing, and every believer in Jesus Christ has that responsibility.

The pattern of personal work involves three factors in chapter two. In verses 1-12 we have the presentation of the gospel. In verses 13-16 we have the response to the gospel. In verses 17-19 we have the reward.

The first principle is that you must make contact with the unbeliever. If anyone is going to witness for Christ he must go where the unbelievers are located. If you are going fishing you have to go where the fish are located. When Paul says in verse 1, “For you yourselves know that our entrance into you was not in vain” it means that Paul went to them. The word “brethren” means that he addresses those who are believers in Jesus Christ. This gives us our first principle: We must make contact with unbelievers — “our entrance in unto you.”

“was not in vain” is literally, “it became not in vain,” the perfect tense. It was not in vain in the past with the result that it will never be in vain. Why? Because these people responded to the gospel and received Christ as saviour. The Greek word “vain” means hollow, empty, ineffective, fruitless or nonproductive. Paul’s contact with them was not nonproductive.

Verse 2 — a second principle. You can expect opposition, opposition from within and opposition from without. The gospel must be presented in spite of opposition. In this particular verse we have two aorist active participles, and then we have a main verb. The aorist active participle always precedes the main verb. The main verb will have a middle voice, an aorist middle indicative.

The first participle: “we have suffered before”; the second participle: “we were shamefully entreated.” These should be translated: “having suffered before, and having been shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi, we were bold.” Now, “we were bold” is the main verb, but we have two participles first. The participles should be recognised that their action precedes the action of the main verb. The action of both of these participles takes place at Philippi. Paul was in Philippi before he came to Thessalonica. Paul was faithful to the Lord and he moved right on. A lot of people have embarrassing experiences and are cut off at Philippi. That is exactly what the devil was doing, he was trying to cut Paul off. So the principle is, wherever you declare the gospel you are going to receive opposition. And because you’ve had a bad experience or two this should not cut you off, you should keep right on going. Satan tried to stop Paul from witnessing both at Philippi and, as a matter of fact, doing any more witnessing, and to keep him from going to Thessalonica. Paul received shameful treatment — passive voice. He received insolent treatment. In other words, the insolence of Satan’s crowd in Philippi tried to keep Paul from ever doing any more witnessing.

Now the main verb comes up, and the action of the main verb takes place at Thessalonica. So Paul was beaten up, also whipped, and was suffering terribly, and in spite of all this he picks himself up and moves right down the road to Thessalonica. We have two verbs to describe the action — “we were bold” is an aorist middle indicative. The aorist tense means all the time he was in Philippi. The middle voice means Paul was personally benefited by witnessing to others. The indicative mood means that this really happened. All of this is declared in boldness. Then we have the aorist active infinitive, “to speak.” The aorist tense refers to the same point of time — Thessalonica; the infinitive means it was Paul’s purpose while he was in the city and after he left the city to witness for Christ.

“with much contention” — literally, “in the sphere of much opposition. The devil was already there when Paul got there and was once again trying to stop this witnessing. So there was this tremendous amount of opposition. Principle: The gospel is presented in spite of opposition. Question: Do you keep on declaring the gospel to others in spite of opposition?

Verse 3 — The gospel must never be compromised or watered down. “For our exhortation” is a synonym for the gospel which he has called “our gospel” in chapter 1:5. The word “exhortation” here means “persuasive discourse.” A synonym for the gospel is persuasive discourse.

“was not” — literally, the word “was” is not here; “not of,” and then we have three things. The verb is removed because the emphasis is placed on the negative. Here are three things you cannot have and have an enthusiastic declaration of he gospel: “deceit” is literally “error.” In other words, the content is incorrect. If there is anything that will ruin the declaration of the gospel it is to be inaccurate in its declaration. Secondly, we have another negative, “nor of uncleanness.” This is carnality, being out of fellowship. Do not witness when you are out of fellowship. Then the third, “nor in guile.” The word “guile” is a Greek word for huxter. The word was used of a tavern keeper of the ancient world. They would serve up their wine until the customers became a little fuzzy he would start to water it down. He could get the same amount of money for that which was partially water. So the word huxter in the Greek language originated from the man who watered down his wine. And that is what many believers do, they huxter the gospel, they water it down with inaccuracies or the water it down with what is known as the social gospel. The gospel does not need any watering down.

Verse 4 — the fourth principle: The believer in whom the gospel is deposited is tested by God. There are actually two principles here. First of all the concept that the gospel is deposited in you. You are a bank and God has deposited information in you and you to bear compound interest. The other concept found in verse 4 is that you as a believer are tested, and this testing is to help you give out the gospel to others.

“But as we were allowed of God” — “we were allowed is literally, “to be tested.” And it is to be tested for the purpose of approval. In this case to be approved by the unbeliever. God often permits trials, and difficulties to come our way because the unbeliever is watching us, and when he sees us amidst our trials and our adversities, our hard times; when he sees us with the perfect stability and the blessings that can be our portion, then immediately he pricks up his ears and he takes notice. He says to himself, “If this person can go through all of these things and still have inner happiness and peace and not fall apart, then there must be something to the gospel and I’m interested.” This testing is in the perfect tense, tested in the past with results that go on forever. What are the results? Having an open door for witnessing. The passive voice means that we receive these testings as a blessing. We do not test ourselves, we receive testing from God, this is a part of His grace. So you can count on it that many of the difficulties that come your way are blessings in disguise, disguised in the form of adversity. The indicative mood: these testings are reality to give us an open door with the gospel.

Then the phrase “to be put in trust” means to receive a deposit. We have received the deposit, passive voice. Aorist tense: in a point of time we received the deposit. This is the kind of an aorist tense which means every time you hear the gospel as a Christian all of those points of hearing are brought in together. The more you hear the gospel the clearer it should become. And so they are all pulled into a point of time, the gospel is entrusted to you. So the more you hear the gospel, the more facets of the gospel you take in, the clearer it should become, and therefore the greater should be your bearing of compound interest. The gospel is a deposit. God has personally made a deposit in you. You are a bank.

How do you make this gospel bear compound interest? — “we speak,” present tense, linear aktionsart, “we keep on speaking.” The active voice: we do the speaking ourselves. The indicative mood: our speaking must be a reality because we can bear compound interest. “But we have been tested for the purpose of approval in the past by God, because deposited in us is the gospel, therefore we speak.”

“not as pleasing men” — we do not do this to please people. This means we must do this as unto the Lord, because men do not like what they hear. The human viewpoint is to reject the gospel. The gospel is grace and is contrary to everything that the unbeliever’s human viewpoint has ever thought or said or heard. The word “pleasing” is a present active participle. We never try to please men. This means that we have something that is so important that we fire it in and let the chips fall where they may. The unbeliever isn’t going to like it because of his human viewpoint. He is going to try to put up barriers against it. Don’t worry about that, it is a phony front, the gospel will penetrate any barrier. Just keep in there with the gospel. Now, “not as pleasing men” has one other aspect, and this is one of the real pitfalls of witnessing. We all have an old sin nature and because of this we all like to be well thought of. This is perfectly normal. Some people want everyone to think well of them and because of that they go out to witness for Christ so that other members of the Christian herd will say, “Well, isn’t Charlie Brown a marvelous person.” So Charlie Brown witnesses because he finds it a wonderful way to make people think well of him. He is doing it to please men.

Verses 5 & 6 — the believer should never witness to flatter people or to receive human praise. In other words, it is possible to do a right thing in a wrong way.

Verse 5 — “For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know.” The flattering words imply that it is possible to witness for the Lord Jesus Christ in such a manner as to flatter people. Of course, the doctrinal part must be compromised in such a situation. Before the gospel can be presented man must be seen in the true perspective of divine viewpoint, which is that man is a hopeless creature. Therefore, the very heart and centre of the gospel is the good news that Christ died for sinners. This first of all implies that all men are sinners and therefore needed the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. One cannot at one time present the gospel and at the same time be very complimentary to man and to some of man’s pet viewpoints of life. The “flattering words” of this verse apply to building man up into something he is not. Part of the good news of the gospel is based upon the contrast between man’s condition and God’s provision.

“used we” is an aorist tense, and it doesn’t mean to use at all, it means to become flatterers. “Neither at any time did we become flatterers,” literally. The word to become is in the aorist tense — in a point of time when we were witnessing. This is also passive voice, and in the passive voice the subject receives the action of the verb, and it means that people receive the inspiration to flatter under certain conditions.

“nor a cloak of covetousness” — he did not present the gospel as a gimmick for enriching himself, he didn’t use it as a means of making money. Paul never made an issue out of money.

“God is witness” — the word “is” does not appear in the original. It means simply that God is a witness to our modus operandi and when it is honouring to Him we do not make an issue out of money. Paul never made an issue out of money because as soon as you do you no longer make an issue out of the gospel, and this leads to a criticism that is often heard, that “they’re in it just for the money.”

Verse 6 — there is another problem in presenting the gospel, and that is the problem of glory-seeking. The words “sought we” is present linear aktionsart, it is a present participle; and at the end of “neither of you, nor yet of others” is a period. The rest of this verse belongs to verse seven in the Greek. So we have seen three pitfalls which are covered under a principle: Believers should not witness from human motivation. They should not witness to flatter, to enrich themselves personally, and they should not witness to receive glory from other people.

Next we have verse 7 as it would appear in the original — “When we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ, we were not, but were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishing her child.” Being burdensome means that Paul might have used gimmicks to raise money, he is going back to that cloak of covetousness for a moment. He did not ask any money of them. Another principle: When Paul first went to Thessalonica the main push was evangelism. After evangelism comes the teaching of new believers, training them to go out and witness to others. Therefore, whether Paul was there three weeks or possibly three months the short time that he was there he made it a point at every time not to take any money from the local people there, even after they were saved, though he had a perfect right to do so. Instead, he went back to making some tents in order that he would not be burdensome to them. Why? There were only two issues in Thessalonica when Paul first went there, the gospel and, to new believers, doctrine. And he didn’t want them to confuse doctrine with money. Therefore, during his first visit never once did Paul make any reference to taking up an offering. Apparently, after the local church was in operation offerings were taken up because they sent out missionaries, but Paul himself was not a burden to them because he wanted only two issues before the people. The first issue to the unbeliever: What think ye of Christ? The issue to the believer: Get doctrine, don’t get confused. Consequently he was not a burden to them.

Verse 7 — but instead he was gentle “as a nurse cherishing a child.” The word “nurse” is literally a nursing mother. The word “cherisheth” is present tense and it means to keep a child warm, or to provide food for a child. It means that just as a nursing mother keeps on caring for her child, so Paul kept on caring for the new believers. Paul evangelised up to a point. After he had a few believers he started training them and he taught them to go out and do the evangelising from that point on. He simply was a nursing mother, then, and he began to provide milk for the new babies. He was tender to them and he was loving to them and in this concept of the new believer he was not burdensome to them in the sense of making an issue out of money. The result was that once the Thessalonian church got cranked up and organised they gave very generously because it was based upon doctrine, not upon gimmicks and not upon pressure. The result was that they were sending missionaries out all over the world. Money is a normal result of understanding doctrine. Doctrine must come first. There must be no gimmicks and no pressure. The gimmicks and the pressure apply in two directions to the unbeliever — “cloak of covetousness,” and finally to the believer, “we were not a burden to you.” Paul handled new believers very carefully.

Verse 8 — an expression of Paul’s love. Instead of taking some thing from them the idea in this situation is to be giving. Fist of all, to be giving the gospel, and then “our own souls.” When Paul says his soul here he is referring to what he has in his frontal lobe. We should think of witnessing and then of helping other believers in terms of giving, as it were, our soul. Our soul in the sense of what we have in the frontal lobe. This verse challenges us to a tremendous issue: a) Where the unbeliever is concerned do I have in my frontal lobe a clear enough understanding of the gospel to make the issue clear to someone else? b) Do I have enough doctrine in my frontal lobe to be helpful to other believers along the way. So this verse is a challenge to express our love through the impartation of information we have in the frontal lobe. This is, after all, completely compatible with the whole concept of love.

“being affectionately desirous” is a present active participle which means to have a love for someone, to have a love for someone which is a longing for someone. It is a love where parents love an absent child. it means to miss someone who is absent.

“we were willing” — this word “willing” applies to all phases of love. Where there is no willingness there is no love, where there is no giving there is no love. This does not mean giving in the sense of materialistic things and should never be construed as the sugar daddy concept. That isn’t love at all. But this refers to the mental attitude. Paul says “we were willing to have imparted unto you our very souls.” Why? “Because you were dear unto us.” The word “dear” means “you were beloved by us.” The true concept of witnessing for Christ: “I have something which is so important that I can’t afford to keep quiet about it. This is for members of the human race. Christ died for all members of the human race, I love all members of the human race, therefore I cannot hold back what Christ has provided for them,. therefore the impartation of the gospel. Furthermore, I love believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has provided things for them, I have this information, I pass it on. Love is giving. Love is willingness to impart.

“imparted” is an aorist active infinitive. The infinitive denotes our purpose in life. The word to impart here means to share, and the true expression of love is the willingness to share the gospel and doctrine with other members of the human race. This involves labour, so in verse 9 we have the concept of labour in this connection.

Verse 9 — the word “travail” is a noun referring to a woman who is giving birth to a child. It is not only the experience of pain but it is the experience of pain while you work, and that is the word travail. The other word, “labour,” is for the males. It means to be hard at work at something which is painful. In other words, when Paul was preaching the gospel it was work. Passing on doctrine was work. And it was work which involved pain, intensity, discomfort, and other things which could stop people very easily if they started looking at life from the human viewpoint. Paul had to work, he had to make tents to keep body and soul together, and at the same time teach the Word of God. This, of course, put him under intense pressure while he was in Thessalonica. The principle of verse 9 is that there is always work in connection with imparting these things to others. There is the motivation of love, the impartation of vital information, but in this impartation there is a tremendous amount of work. There is the labour of study, there is the labour of giving it out, and so on.

The seventh principle, verses 10-12, the gospel must be followed up.

Verse 10 — behaviour follow-up. “We behaved ourselves” .The word “behave” is not behave at all, the Greek word simply means “we became among you that believe, holy, just, and unblameable.” So it amounts to behaviour, but the Greek word is to become something.

First of all “we became holy", an adverb which means separation. It means separation as a state of mind. In other words, our behaviour follow-up was a state of mind divine viewpoint. If you are going to help new believers you must look at life from the divine viewpoint. The second word, “justly,” is an adverb which declares the filling of the Spirit. If you are going to help other believers you must log a maximum amount of time in the filling of the Spirit. The third adverb is “unblameable” which means not sinless but it means to rebound — 1 John 1:9. Notice something else: “among you that believe.” “You” is dative of advantage, it is to the advantage of these people to believe in Jesus Christ. “Believe” is also a present active participle in the dative case, again emphasising the fact it is to the advantage of any member of the human race to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice the things that are emphasised in behaviour follow-up — a state of mind, mental attitude. The second adverb, something that happens on the inside, the filling of the Spirit. The third attitude is rebound, the importance of rebound if you’re going to help others.

Verse 11 — a verbal follow-up. There must be preparation on the inside of you and there must also be the willingness to talk or to communicate with others. You can talk about all of the various things that people talk about to day, or you can talk about things from the divine viewpoint, doctrine and its application to experience. In the realm of follow-up notice that the realm of conversation must be based upon rebound, the filling of the Spirit, and mental attitude divine viewpoint which means doctrine. With doctrine in the frontal lobe you can, therefore, communicate. You cannot communicate to someone else what is absent from your own frontal lobe. You must have doctrine in the frontal lobe, you must be controlled by the Holy Spirit, if you are going to help and edify other believers.

The father-son relationship is a very excellent relationship to indicate verbal follow-up. Any father must tell his son certain facts of life. He must explain how life operates to his son. He must explain as he goes along into each stage how you can expect certain things in life, how you can expect sour grapes, etc. And he must explain the disciplines of life, the problems of life, the situations which arise. He must interpret to his son various things which his son cannot understand. For example, many children cannot understand why adults frown at them, and why adults apparently go out of their way to be unkind to them, and why adults have a kind of holier-than-thou attitude toward them as if we never did these things, now don’t you. Many times we need to be a little more gracious toward young people, a little more understanding. So the father-son relationship is a very apt analogy.

Now in verse 11 there is threefold verbal follow-up. In each case it is present active a participle. This is called syntactical parallelism. In the behaviour follow-up we had three adverbs in the Greek, now we have three participles in the verbal follow-up. The first is “we exhorted.” This means to call someone to your side in order to help them or to aid them. You may help them by a kind word and you may help them by censor or criticism, but the general principle is to be helpful. The second word is “comfort” which in the Greek means to cheer up someone, to soothe someone, or to orient someone to a set of very confusing circumstances. This means to orient doctrine to new believers. The third word is to “charge” which mean to pass on to them the concept of going out to witness to others, the concept of serving the Lord. These are the three participles in verbal follow-up.

Verse 12 — purpose follow-up. The verse is introduced by the word “that” which introduces a purpose clause. “That ye would walk worthy of God” — all behaviour follow-up, all verbal follow-up has the purpose of causing the believer to walk worthy of God. We are here to serve the Lord. Every believer is here for a purpose and in that service we should be worthy of Him. The word “walk” is a present active infinitive which indicates our purpose, and the present tense means that we should keep on walking worthy.

There are six ways in which we can walk worthy of God or live in phase two.

a) Galatians 5:16 is the first one — “Walk by means of the Spirit.” You cannot walk worthy unless you are filled with the Spirit.

b) Secondly, we are to walk in the sphere of the faith-rest technique — 2 Corinthians 5:7. If we are going to walk worthy of God then we must use, day by day, moment by moment, the faith-rest technique.

c) Thirdly, we must walk in the sphere of love (Ephesians 5:2) which is the production of the filling of the Spirit.

d) Fourth, we are told to walk in wisdom — Colossians 4:5. Wisdom is the application of doctrine to experience and means we must first of all know it, then apply it. You cannot work worthy of God unless you are applying doctrine to experience.

e) The fifth, “walk in the light” — 1 John 1:7. This refers to fellowship and believers cannot walk worthy of God unless they walk in fellowship — again the need for rebound.

f) Finally in the sixth place, “walk worthy of the vocation” — Ephesians 4:1. Our vocation is ambassador for Christ and we are to walk worthy of that vocation. Every believer has a purpose and we must walk in the terms of this purpose.

“who hath called you” — the calling has to do with our election, our election implies purpose.

Verse 13 — the response is given. “For this cause” — because of good follow-up in Thessalonica. Because there was behaviour pattern follow-up, because there was verbal follow-up.

“thank we God without ceasing” — Paul can now be thankful for the good follow-up. “Thank we God” is present linear aktionsart, “we keep on thanking God”; the two words “without ceasing” ought to be the basis of the life of the minister. The minister ought to be able to thank God without ceasing because of what follows.

“because, when ye received the word of God” — Paul is thankful because the Thessalonian believers responded to God’s Word. ye received” is an aorist active participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, and the main verb is given, “ye received.” The word “ye received” is literally, “you welcomed it.” When you received or heard the Word of God you welcomed it, or made it at home. First of all they received it and then said, “Doctrine, be at home.” Doctrine was at home in the frontal lobe. Both of these participles precede effective production.

“ye received it not as the word of men [human viewpoint], but as it is in truth, the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

The word “receive” is mentioned twice here. The first time it means to welcome and the second time it means to welcome. When they welcomed the Word of God they welcomed it not as the word of men. So the Word of God is at home not as human viewpoint of life but as divine viewpoint. The result is, “it effectually worketh in you that believe.” Who does the work in the believer? The phrase, “effectually worketh.” Notice four things: It means to be actively operational. It is a present tense, it keeps on being actively operational — linear aktionsart. The voice is middle voice. When the Word of God works in us it works for our benefit. The Word of God is the worker, the energiser. The mood is indicative, the mood of reality. This is a reality in the devil’s world, the Word of God is actively operational “in those who believe.”

Verse 14 — the crisis. “For ye, brethren.” “Brethren” means a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ; “became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.” Or, “you became imitators.” The churches in Judea were the first ones to receive the wave of persecution. They found themselves subjected to many things. First of all, the got the name-calling treatment. Then when that didn’t work the religious crowd got mad and started killing some, took away their business, ostracised them, and other things. The result was that they took quite a beating along the way.

“for ye also have suffered” — in other words, the Thessalonian believers were suffering in the same manner that believers had earlier suffered in Judea; “like things of your own countrymen, even as they [suffered at the hands] of the Jews.” The religious crowd were giving them a hard time and now you have suffered similar things.

Verse 15 — these people, the religious Jews, “killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets.”

“and they have persecuted us” — Paul and his converts; “and they please not God, and are in opposition to all men.” They are hostile to all men, and they do this in the name of religion.

Verse 16 — “Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, and they keep filling up their sins always.” The word “fill up” here means to fill up a cup, and they fill up the cup of their sins and keep drinking it. They are drunken with their own sins and persecution and torture and destruction. This is a very apt analogy, for any group of people, any organisation, that seeks to gain control of other people through intimidation, through torture, through death, through any system of name-calling, any vicious system, there people are drunk on the systems that that they use. They can become mad with the lust to torture, to kill, to maim, to hurt, to destroy.

“for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” — they’ll get their come-uppance.

After Paul has declared to us how to start a church properly, how to get it cranked up, and how to send out missionaries, he tells us some of the reward that comes to him personally — verses 17-20.

Verse 17 — “But we, brethren, being taken from you.” He says literally, “having been bereaved.” This tells us that Paul hated to leave Thessalonica. They responded so beautifully to the Word of God. They took in doctrine in such a wonderful manner. They started sending out missionaries and getting the gospel out throughout Thessalonica, throughout Macedonia, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, and Paul just loved to be there. It is a wonderful place to be when people receive the Word of God. He doesn’t say anything about being taken away, he says, “I was bereaved of you.” First of all he was bereaved, he left them, and then he endeavoured the more abundantly to come back to them. This is the way people should leave you in Christian fellowship. Every time they leave you, whether it is just to leave your house or to leave you at church, or to leave you and go to another country, another place, they should always be wanting to come back all the time they are gone away. That is Christian fellowship. That is the way Paul felt about the Thessalonians. He taught them the Word, they responded to the Word.

“to see your face with great desire” — “your face” means to be face to face with, to be in their presence. All the time he is away he keeps thinking how wonderful it would be to be with them again.

Verse 18 — “Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again” — Paul is the leader of the churches, he is an apostle, so he way up high on the totem pole. Perhaps at this time he is a little lonely, and this makes him appreciate all the more the fact of Christian fellowship. He wants all the more to come back to Thessalonica.

“but Satan hindered us” — Satan, of course, doesn’t want Paul to have any encouragement from Christian fellowship, he wants Paul to fall apart.

This leads him to his final point on the subject of witnessing. What, then, is one of the rewards in time for witnessing? There are rewards in the future, the crown of rejoicing. What is the reward for leading people to Christ in time? — verses 19-20.

Verse 19 — there are three kinds of reward. The first is hope. Hope has to do with the eternal future. The people that you lead to the Lord today are people you will see in all eternity. You do not know when you sow the Word how many people you are going to meet in eternity who received Christ as a result. So there is the anticipation of meeting people in eternity that you have had the pleasure of leading to the Lord. “Our hope” in this case is not simply the Rapture of the Church, the resurrection body, the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, the home in heaven, absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. This is all a part of our hope, but there is some thing else — the faces we are going to meet of the people we have led to the Lord.

“or joy” — joy is in time, hope is the future. You are going to have happiness for all eternity over people whom you have had the privilege of giving the gospel. And, furthermore, you can have joy, inner happiness in life as a result of seeing people come to know Christ as saviour.

“Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming” — there is the answer, there is the joy, there is the happiness.

Verse 20 — “You all are our glory and joy.” The great source of happiness emphasised here is one of the greatest joys in life. It is the joy and the privilege of seeing members of the human race who are lost, who are spiritually dead, respond to the gospel so that they will live forever in the presence of Jesus Christ where is no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more death, behold, the old things have passed away.