Growing Faith & Love Under Pressure 2 Thess 1

Title: Growing Faith and Love Under Pressure
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

Growing Faith and Love Under Pressure

There are times in our lives when we resemble a little boy who is playing hard with his friends in a field, and then without warning, trips, and lands face down in mud. He feels terrible, can't see, and all his fun suddenly stops.

The Thessalonians were under great pressure.

ESV Acts 17:1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ." 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus." 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

The church in Thessalonica was birthed in persecution. The Jews were harassing them. People were having to fork over fines, and there was an organized effort to oppose the Church by the Jews in Thessalonica. In fact, they were so very zealous in their opposition, that the Jewish opposition traveled to Berea after hearing Paul went there to persecute him.


ESV Acts 17:10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

So after only having three weeks in Thessalonica, Paul writes to them not many months later, penning 1 Thessalonians. And after hearing of their response to 1 Thessalonians and seeing that they still had some questions, he writes 2 Thessalonians very early on in the life of that church. So we have in 1 & 2 Thessalonians the composite of what Paul was looking for in a church AND how he shored up those crucial qualities.

This is amazing to me because his concerns actually match exactly what Peter looked for in his final letter to Christians everywhere.

What are those qualities?

Paul is in essence looking for two things. Faith and Love.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Gal 5:6b NIV)

Peter used faith and love as book-ends for his final recipe for a healthy and fruitful Christian life.

ESV 2 Peter 1:5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

John Stott said:
This idea of spiritual growth is foreign to many people, not the least in the areas of faith and love. We tend to speak of faith in static terms as something we either have or have not. "I wish I had your faith." we say, like, "I wish I had your complexion." as if it were a genetic endowment. Or we complain, "I've lost my faith", like, "I've lost my spectacles, as if it were a commodity. But faith is a relationship of trust in God, and like all relationships is a living, dynamic, growing thing.

Overall Point: Thank God for a growing faith and love in the face of trials because it will lead to an ability to glorify God when Christ comes back. Adapted from Greg Beale on 2 Thessalonians.

ENCOURAGEMENT DURING PERSECUTION

A Solid Theology of trials in the N.T.
1) Suffering is not always the result of sin.
2) God provides hope and love in suffering
3) Problems can drive us to trust in God's sovereign purpose for our lives.
4) Suffering tends to rip away from our lives those things that don't really matter.
5) Suffering can reveal our true core belief, and help us re-focus our lives when otherwise we might meander meaninglessly on in life.
6) Suffering enables us to comfort others.
7) Our eternal reward outweighs our suffering.
8) Problems may be a confirmation that we are living for Christ-or they can cause us to return to Christ.
9) Trials help train us to be more fruitful.
10) Problems help us mature.
11) When we suffer, we share in the suffering of Christ.

1.3 Growing love

1.5 Counted worthy: It's paradoxical that God calls us both saints and those who need to be made worthy! Yet scripture does this repeatedly!

Learn to look upward and forward instead of inward

ESV Mark 13:35 Therefore stay awake--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning-- 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.

ESV Philippians 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Part of being counted worthy is the process of "Building Strong Character"

ESV Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom 5:1 ESV)

Look for opportunities to encourage others who are suffering
You are comforted by God during afflictions SO THAT you can comfort others

ESV 2 Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

Tips to bring comfort to others.

1) Recollect: Call to your memory how you felt the last time you were seriously afflicted or grieved by a situation.
2) Shift: Put your heart in gear to sympathize, encourage or comfort someone by letting your own feelings stir.
3) Connect: The greatest error we may make is by NOT connecting. It is unacceptable to 'feel bad' for someone and not let them know you care.
Remember that biblical love, agape, is demonstrated love. To fail to connect in any way when someone you know is struggling is a failure to obey the principle
command of the Kingdom of God...to love one another. So by all means extend yourself, but be loving and careful when bringing comfort to someone.

4) Express compassion sensitively: Say things like "I'm sorry" or "I care". Don't say "I know how you feel" unless you have truly been in
that persons shoes and they know it. It's not a time to talk a lot about your own problems or past difficulties much. It's alright to say a sentence or two, but
be sensitive to those who are overwhelmed with a loss or grieving situation. If someone grieving or under affliction starts to focus on your past pain or grief, acknowledge their
sensitive comment and then refocus the conversation on their situation.

5) Offer specific assistance. General statements like "If you need anything let me know" rarely turn into anything helpful and put the burden on the one in pain, or the grieving to figure out what you can or cannot do to assist them. It's better to offer something specific, like "would you like us to bring a meal by, or can I help with
picking up some groceries, etc..."
6) Notes of comfort and small gifts are rare and usually much appreciated. It doesn't take much to write a sympathy note and drop it in the mail.
7) The worse the difficulty, the more important it is to do something and to speak less. When words are many, sin is not absent, so when bringing comfort to someone, show restraint with your words. They will probably remember that you cared enough to connect. They will probably only remember what you said if it was exceptionally helpful, or if you said something really hurtful by accident.
8) Avoid theologizing or correcting someone in pain or someone in grief. (Tell the story about my Dad's false heart attack in the middle 1980's at Westbrook Church).

In these ways you build strong character because your suffering is turned into aid for others. It's really like turning lemonade out of life's lemons.

1.7 Payback

The bible teaches eternal punishment in this and several other passages. The idea of a final judgment has several positive effects on those who understand it correctly.

1) It satisfies the internal sense of justice in us all.
Many people believe that the idea of suffering eternally is unjust, and that this is a reason to refuse to believe in the God of the bible.
"Hell is too good for us" Hebredies revival
2) In can enable us to forgive others freely.
3) It can provide a motive for living right.
4) It can encourage us to share our faith with others.

Thank God because faithfulness in suffering now leads us to glorify him later (1:1-12 Beale)

When we see others suffering, it can drive us to pray for them!

There is a time and place to tell people that you are praying for them. That is when they are face down in the mud of their trials. It is when they are in pain. It is when they need it most. Be there for those in need.

The key to all of this is to identify and encourage genuine faith and demonstrated love in others. And to encourage the growth of these two qualities!!