Opposition

We are in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 again this morning - if you’re new to scripture, start at the very back of the book, find the maps, then head to the left. Past the letters called Revelation, John, Peter, James, Hebrews, and you’ll get to Thessalonians.

The apostle Paul and his traveling companions are writing to a very new Church they helped start just a few months earlier. They had established the church in Thessalonica, but due to mob violence, Paul was forced to leave the city after just a few weeks. After leaving, Paul went to Athens and sent one of his coworkers Timothy back to Thessalonica to check on the new church while Paul moved on to Corinth. Timothy eventually came back and brought Paul up-to-date information about the church, which led to the main purpose of writing this letter back to the church. We’ll hear more about that next week.

But for now, Paul has opened up the letter with a very gracious and loving opening in chapter 1, and now in chapter 2, he’s been more or less saying, Hey, I know I had to leave quickly, but I just want to reaffirm my love for you all, and as we’ll see today, Paul has been trying to make plans to get back to visit.

And I think this is an important message for us today, especially as we’re growing in our own understanding of what it means to follow Jesus – both as leaders who disciple others, and as people who are being discipled. So if you’re a small group leader and you’re wondering, man, how do I know if my guys or my ladies are getting this? Are they growing in the Lord? Or if you’re wondering, man, am I growing in my own walk with the Lord? The text today might be able to give some clarity to those questions.

We’ll dive into this in a minute, but let me go to the Lord first and invite him to speak to us through his word.

PRAYER – Lord we confess today that on our own, there is no way we would ever be able to understand your word. These verses we’re looking at this morning were breathed out by you, written down by the apostle Paul who was carried along by your Holy Spirit as he put words on paper. God give us eyes to see and ears to hear this morning. Let your word do the work that you intended it to do when it was written, convicting those that need convicted, teaching those who need instruction, rebuking those who need rebuked, and training for all of us who need to be trained in righteous living that pleases you and loves others. You are the God who calls us into your own kingdom and glory, so help us to walk worthy of you Lord God. Come Lord Jesus, even here and now..

We ended on verse 12 of chapter 2 last week without spending a whole lot of time on it, but I want to start here in verse 12 this morning for two reasons: 1) because verse 13 starts with the words “This is why…”, so basic Bible reading would say we can’t just start with the words “this is why…” without going back to see what “this” means. And 2) because this can help us start to answer the question of what leadership in the church could look like. Here is verse 12 again – like a father with his own children, 12 we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Like a father with his own children, we encouraged, comforted, and implored each of you – As I was looking over this, I think these three words carry the full weight of discipleship like a three legged stool.

So let’s take a closer look at those three values:

That starts with encouragement. That word “encourage” literally means, “pull to one’s side.” Or like you and I might be more likely to say, “take someone under his wing” or “her wing.” When I was a kid, I was at my friends house playing baseball with him, and I hit the ball through the neighbor’s window. All the other kids ran home, and left me and my friend to face, first his mom, and then the grumpy neighbor lady. My friend’s mom pulled us close, knelt with us on the living room floor and prayed that we would have the courage to do the right thing, and then said, I can’t apologize for you, but I will walk with you next door and be right there with you the whole time. That’s encouragement. It’s the picture of a good dad saying, “Come here, let me show you what I’m doing so you can learn to do it on your own.” Encouragement. Paul was doing that in Thessalonica – “Hey guys, come here, let’s study this together, let me make an intentional effort to help you grow.”

Then, there is comfort. This is not the “misery loves company” kind of comfort. Sometimes I think we can be guilty of over-empathizing with someone, even to the point where the sinner who should be repenting now becomes a victim. Commiserating makes a person feel seen and understood, but it’s like eating a breath mint. It’s a kind of comfort that works for a bit, but as soon as the conversation is over, you need another one. That’s not the kind of comfort Paul is referring to. This word “comfort” carries an emphasis on restorative action, especially for someone who has sinned. It says, you’re feeling some guilt and shame right now because of your sin. But comfort then reminds people of how the gospel both meets you and frees you! Comfort would be a person saying, Jesus sees you and understands, and he doesn’t hate you because of your sin. In fact, he willingly carried your sin AND your shame with him to the cross when he died for you. So you can repent of this sin, believe that his grace is yours – not because you deserve it or have to earn it, but because Jesus earned it for you. Resist the devil, and draw near to God! Trust his forgiveness and that he’ll be with you to help you make better choices this week…starting with asking for forgiveness from those you’ve hurt. 2 Corinthians 1:4 “He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

And the last word is imploring. Not the greatest translation, because we think of this word as “begging” or “pleading.” But originally this word meant “giving testimony” or “bearing witness”. This is where you share your own story of what God has done with you as a way of pleading with them. This is where you open the Bible and point to God’s promises, and which verses carried you through hard times and your own repentance, with the desire that they will also lean into the truth.

So if you’ve ever heard me or another pastor talk about the Great Commission – go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, and you thought, oh man, I don’t know what that means, or how to do that – don’t you go to seminary or something to make disciples? If I’m just a normal person, can I even do that…. look at what Paul is saying:

Find someone to take under your wing. One person you’re willing to invest in, and start encouraging them to follow Jesus. They can be younger than you, older than you, doesn’t matter. You’re not there to be smarter or have all the answers. You’re just saying, come with me, and let’s follow Jesus together.

Comfort them when things don’t go well. Inevitably they will mess up. You will mess up. It won’t always be neat and tidy. But don’t leave them hanging when things get tough.

Tell them your own stories of grace. Which means you just need to stay one page ahead of them. You can’t walk with someone toward Jesus if you’re not also headed there. So love Jesus yourself, and tell them about how wonderful he’s been to you.

It’s really not that complicated. Teenagers – you can do this! You don’t have to be an adult to do it. Adults, you can do this! The first person to ever do this for me, that I remembered, was a guy at my church who went off to Bible college, and when he came back, he sat me down and taught me everything he had learned about leading worship. I was probably 14 or 15, and he was the first of many who invested in me over the years – some intentionally, some accidentally. Another big one was my pastor in Kalona – I’d walk into his office, we’d chat, he’d hand me a book and say read this and let’s talk about it. Another pastor I shared an office with would read the scathing emails to me that people would send him. Then he would say, but you know, there’s some truth to what they’re saying, and he would teach me how to respond to them in truth and grace.

People pulling me under their wing, saying let’s follow Jesus together, encouraging, comforting, and telling me their own stories of following and failure and grace and failure again and grace, and how the word of God was fuel for their lives. That’s what Paul is recalling as he writes to the Thessalonians. 12 we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God. That’s the desired outcome, right? That we live lives that are honorable and worthy of God.

There are a couple of places in the NT that use this language of being “worthy” of God, and the two that I think spell it out the most clearly are:

Philippians 1:27 “… As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel,”

Notice the order of the language here – AS CITIZENS OF HEAVEN, (this is what you already are) live your life worthy of the gospel.

Colossians 1:9–10 “We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,”

Notice the order again – We want you to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom, and all spiritual understanding (this is what we want him to give you) so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, bearing fruit, etc.

So, in both situations, you don’t walk worthy BEFORE the Lord intervenes in your life – you walk worthy of him, because he already has!

I’ve told some of you this story already, but I was listening to the radio a few weeks ago, had my window down, it was a beautiful sunny afternoon. And the DJ on Life 101.9 was talking about being worthy, and she said, “some of you think of yourself as not worthy, and you live with a lot of shame.” And she said, “Can I just encourage you today – you are worthy of the grace of Jesus.” And I shouted out the open window THAT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE! How can that even be? If you deserve the gift of grace, then it’s no longer grace. It’s obligation.

If you feel like you’re not worthy of what Jesus did for you on the cross, or that you’re not good enough to deserve his love, you’re right on track, Jack. Grace means that God has intervened in our lives in a way that we didn’t deserve, couldn’t earn, and as spiritually dead people, had no way of ever awakening to. That’s what makes it grace!

If you still think you’re going to be able to be good enough for God to cut you some slack, or that you somehow have to be worthy of his love, Romans 3 takes you out at the knees. It says the problem with humanity is that “There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

That’s the seriousness of what sin has done to us. Under sin, we have all become spiritually worthless, like salt that has lost it’s saltiness, or lamp that has been put under a basket. On our own, we have no idea where the way to peace is, and we hurt people we are supposed to care for. So feeling like you’re not good enough or worthy of God’s love is not a bad thing that you need to go to therapy to fix – it’s actually step one in believing the gospel!

The good news of the gospel is that our being worthy or being good enough has nothing to do with it! Our inner potential has nothing to do with why God would love us or rescue us. One of my favorite verses from Ephesians 2 says, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!”

Write these verses down and look them up later. In Christ, we’ve been set free from the bondage of sin (Romans 6:18). Because of Christ’s resurrection, death doesn’t get the final say on your life (1 Cor 15:54-55). If you have been born again, the world may be under the sway of the evil one, but the evil one can’t touch you (1 John 5:18). You have been filled with the very Spirit of God, who intercedes for you every moment of every day (Romans 8:9). The world might hate you, but that’s okay. You don’t belong to the world anymore. You don’t answer to the world for how you live (John 15:18-20), because our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await for a Savior from there - the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil 3:20).

You have been called into his own kingdom and glory! You have been rescued by the grace of a glorious and wonderful God, you’ve been called to participate in his rule and reign here in the world, and because you have such a glorious future ahead of you…… walk now in a such a way as to give honor and thanks and praise to the God who has saved you. Grow in the knowledge of God. Stand firm in one spirit. Contend for the faith with other brothers and sisters. THAT’S WHAT IT MEANS TO LIVE WORTHY OF GOD.

And as Paul looks at the lives of the believers in Thessalonica, and he says, oh, you guys, that’s what I’m seeing, and 13 This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe.

When we started to preach, you showed up hungry, ready to eat. You received the word of God that you heard from us. And you didn’t just HEAR the word, you welcomed it!

There’s a story in Matthew of a young politician who came to Jesus with abundant wealth and huge gaping hole in his soul. He was loaded on the outside, but hollow on the inside. So he asked Jesus, What must I do to inherit eternal life? What laws do I need to keep to get me there? I’ve kept all the important ones – don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t covet – and yet the internal hollowness is drowning out my prosperity. Jesus said, oh, you’re looking to be perfect. In that case, sell your possessions, don’t even keep the money you make – give that away too – and then come and follow me. In other words – whatever gives you your sense of identity, your sense of value, your sense of worth and place in this world… empty it out. Shake it till the last penny falls out on the floor, give it away, and then come follow me. I’m the only place you’ll find eternal life.

That wealthy young man did the opposite of welcome it. He walked away sorrowful with tears rolling down his face because his own identity was too hard to part with. His prosperity had too tight of a grip on him and he couldn’t let it go. That’s the opposite of welcoming the message.

Welcoming the message means more than just an hearing the word with your ears – it’s hearing the word with your heart. So many people in churches around the world hear the gospel preached week in and week out; they say “great sermon” or “great worship” today; they maybe even take some notes, and say amen, but there’s no desire to really know God.

That’s why, back in chapter 1:4, Paul says we know that God has chosen you because you didn’t just hear the word with your ears, verse 6, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit, even though it meant severe persecution for you! Back to verse 13 of chapter 2, the word of God works effectively in you! Faith is happening. Joy is happening!

Paul is simply saying, we thank God every day that the gospel didn’t just fall on deaf ears when we came to you. We praise God every day that you didn’t just say, “great sermon”, to us, and then walk away. But we praise God because we can see the evidence that God’s word is at work in you as you make it part of your lives every day. We can see it’s ongoing effect in how it shapes you. We see, verse 9 of chapter 1, that you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven. We can see you walking out your faith, even though it meant you would face opposition and hostility from people in your city.

And if you think that’s rough, verse 17, while you were facing physical persecution from your own community, when we tried to get back to you for a visit, Satan himself hindered us.

We have no idea what Paul meant by saying “Satan hindered us”, he never explained it. Anything we come up with would be just guessing. But Satan is always opposed to the work of Christ. Always. So when he sees the word of God working effectively in people, where they are hearing with their hearts, and faith is being born – when we start to treasure Jesus as our ultimate good – the enemy will be there, trying to hinder that growth, either through physical persecution and hostility or by spiritual opposition.

Paul recognizes that, and in verses 19-20, he says no wonder Satan kept us from you – he didn’t want us to be encouraged by your faith, and he didn’t want you to be encouraged by ours! We want to be able to stand in the presence of Jesus when he returns, and say, “Lord – LOOK, the Thessalonians have believed in you!” But Satan obviously doesn’t want that, so he kept us from coming back to see you.

As a dad, I have never come up against anything quite as difficult as trying to lead family devotions with young children. This is not to throw my children under the bus, because sometimes the problem was their mother. And a lot of the time, the problem was me. But family devotions is where every distraction you can imagine happens. The dog does something, someone comes to the door, someone forgot they need to pack a lunch, someone is trying to eat breakfast and some spills on the floor. I mean, it’s anything and everything, while you’re trying to lead your family.

It’s not even leading my family all the time – when I’m trying to have my own time with the Lord, that’s when everything sometimes seems to need my attention. It’s uncanny.

And I’m not blaming all of that on spiritual warfare, but if we are going to be serious about taking someone under our wing, encouraging them in their walk with Jesus, telling them our own stories of grace, and comforting and upholding them when they blow it – we’re going to face opposition. If we are going to see the word of God work effectively in us, where as we read it and believe it and digest it and hear with our heart and not just our ears, we start turning from the idols of comfort, or religion, or the idols of entertainment, or sports, or work, or family – even the idol of worship – and start to treasure Jesus… we’re going to face opposition – spiritual or otherwise.

But let me encourage you in this: Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4).

Continue to encourage, comfort, and implore each other to live worthy of God. He’s called us into his kingdom and glory. He’s rescued us from the coming wrath. And he is coming again.

SOURCES

Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996)

Knute Larson, I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000)

The questions we need to ask are: How much does culture or personal pleasure determine my workload, my dedication to Christ and his church, the time I give? Are my struggles concerned with personal ambition or the welfares of God’s people? Do I love people with the same devotion as a mother? Do I guide them with the tenderness of a father? Am I willing to sacrifice for the sake of others if that is called for?

Knute Larson, I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 9:30.

First of all, what is God’s kingdom and glory that he calls us into? We looked at this last week, but it’s worth looking at again. First of all, according to scripture, there are two kingdoms.

One is the kingdom of this world, and it is ruled by the prince of the power of the air, as Ephesians calls him. The devil. Satan. The accuser. The Father of lies. 1 John 5:19 tells us “… the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.” In this kingdom, no one bows to Yahweh – the triune God. No one is interested in doing his will, no one seeks him, as Romans 3 says. No one does good or treasures God as the ultimate source of joy and peace and meaning in life. This is the default kingdom we’re born into, thanks to Adam’s sin.

The other is the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom isn’t only in some far off dimension or realm where God lives, although it is certainly there in it’s fullness. In Jesus’ showing up on earth, he brought us glimpses of the kingdom of heaven. Every miracle, every healing, every demon cast out was an indication that the kingdom was close. The only way into this kingdom is to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. You can’t work your way into it, give your way into it, or serve your way into it. It is a narrow door that leads to life, and few find it. So how does a person find this kingdom?

Look at the beginning part of the verse: God calls you into the kingdom. What does it mean that God calls you into his kingdom? That word “calls” is more than just “invites.” It doesn’t say he “invites” you into his own kingdom and glory – He commands that you enter the kingdom! This carries the picture of walking into someone’s room while they are fast asleep, and saying “wake up!” The command also does the action. You commanding them to wake up is also the action that causes them to wake up. Does that make sense? Another illustration is that of Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb. He stands at the door of the tomb and says, “Lazarus, come out!” That command is not just an invitation. An invitation assumes the man in the tomb is coherent enough to hear and respond to the call. But he’s not. The man is dead. A simple invitation doesn’t go anywhere. Jesus’ command “Come out!” is also the power that causes Lazarus to come back to life and come out of the grave.

Secondly, what’s the benefit of being called into his kingdom? Look back at chapter 1:9 – we are rescued from the coming wrath. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. 13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. -- Ephesians 6:12-13 (CSB)

On the matter of evil and demons, we can go about life nonchalantly without prayer or without trusting Christ in his strength, not recognizing the spiritual battle which rages around us. We can also become obsessed about fighting spirits and become influenced by extra-biblical books which promote specific formulas to battle the unseen.

The more balanced view is to see that all of life is an issue of the spirit and spiritual warfare—that we are called to walk in Christ day by day, moment by moment. Then we can give God credit for all that is good, knowing that he can work to bring glory to himself through us. We can see obstacles as something which Satan throws at us, calling us to greater faith and reliance upon Christ. This is the biblical pattern.

Knute Larson, I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 9:27–28.