Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION:

Context:

Last week we finished up the second chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church.

Having heard of their vibrant witness throughout the region for Christ, he has been encouraging the church members to keep at it.

Paul was excited to hear that the gospel message was not only secure in their young lives of faith, but that the gospel life cycle was ongoing as they reproduced their spiritual life in others through the spread of the gospel message.

He has reminded them that they are the gospel messengers and as such, they will face opposition from God’s enemy—Satan.

Yet, their task is to persevere in doing their sacred gospel duty of telling others about salvation in Jesus Christ for, as has been explained several times already in our series through this letter, salvation is only through faith in Jesus Christ…<insert full gospel as needed>.

Preview:

This morning, we are going to begin looking at chapter 3. The chapter division really is in a bit of an unfortunate location here because Paul really isn’t beginning a new thought.

In fact, the first word of our text today is the word “therefore,” a word that closely links this passage with the preceding verses in chapter 2.

I have mentioned many times in this series that Paul had sent young Timothy, one of the two men traveling with him on this missionary trip, back to Thessalonica to check on them.

As you know by now, Paul wrote this letter in response to the report that Timothy brought back to him.

Our verses today provide Paul’s explanation as to why he took this step of sending Timothy.

This morning our passage is primarily a narrative account of why Paul did what he did.

I think the easiest way for us to approach it will be to make sure we understand what was going on and then to step back and think about what we should learn from what was going on in these verses.

Transition from introduction to body:

Let’s begin by reading the verses that we are going to consider this morning…<read>

BODY:

Paul is clearly explaining the immediate backdrop of this letter, but I think it might help us to understand better if we back up a bit further and conduct a quick travel review.

The Thessalonians would have remembered how Paul, Silas (or Silvanus), and Timothy had come to them originally, but some of us may have forgotten since I reviewed in our first sermon at the beginning of August.

Let me have a map pulled up on the screen that shows Paul’s first and second missionary journeys.

It may be a bit hard to see the colors, but his second journey is indicated in purple.

Now, when I showed this map in August I tried to use the laser pointer to indicate the places that I was talking about but several of you told me afterwards that you had not been able to see the pointer from your seats…the red dot wasn’t large enough to notice in the clutter of the map.

In addition, since August we have started recording our messages along with the presentations so that you can watch it through Faithlife sermons or on Faithlife TV.

Furthermore, over the past couple of weeks, Steve Hobson has been working out the technical challenges to allow us to stream our services over Facebook Live so that those of our church who are absent because they are providentially unable to be with us on Sunday mornings can watch the service live through our Facebook group.

For sure anyone watching through any of these recording or streaming options would not see a laser pointer on the screen.

So, this morning I have tried to mark out the places on the map itself that I will refer to as we review Paul’s and the other men’s travels.

Paul’s second missionary trip started out from his home church in Antioch…that’s the city circled on the right side of the map.

Paul left Antioch with Silas, traveling back west through the region of Galatia that he had visited on his first trip with Barnabas, planting churches.

When Paul and Silas made it to Lystra…there roughly in the middle of the map…they encountered young Timothy who was already a believer.

Timothy decided to join the duo and make it a trio at this point.

He apparently wanted to help Paul share the gospel message further and Paul obviously saw some unique potential in this young man.

Eventually the three men made it to Troas where, as I mentioned last week, we are told in Acts that the “Spirit of Jesus” prevented them from circling north into the area of Bithynia and instead, instructed Paul to sail over to the region of Macedonia…what is now modern day Greece.

Paul and company pretty soon found themselves at Philippi…there on the top left of the map.

It was at Philippi that Paul and Silas experienced a serious beating and overnight prison stay before being released and leaving town.

No mention is made in Acts of Timothy who must have somehow avoided being arrested…maybe at this early stage the young man was not doing any of the preaching; we don’t know.

At this point, let’s zoom in a bit to get a better look.

From Philippi they quickly made it to Thessalonica.

They were likely still recovering from their beating in Philippi, but they immediately began sharing the message of Jesus Christ again.

Gloriously, they saw people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus and a church was started in this city.

As you should also recall by now, though, the missionary team soon encountered serious opposition again, primarily generated by some Jews in the city.

This opposition caused them to have to leave Thessalonica much sooner than they would have wished, before the church was well established.

The book of Acts tells us that the team traveled to Berea, but very quickly the Jewish opponents tracked them there.

Paul left Silas and Timothy behind in Berea as he was quickly hustled out of town.

He was ushered by some of the new believers down to Athens from where he sent back word for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

It is about this general timeframe after leaving Thessalonica that our verses this morning are speaking, but the exact sequence of events is a bit murky since we only have sketchy details in Acts to combine with what is written in our verses.

It isn’t clear if Silas and Timothy joined Paul at some point in Athens and it is a decision at that time that Paul is referring to in verse 1 when he says that they decided he should be left alone in Athens or did the three of them have that conversation before he left Berea.

It also isn’t clear where Silas is in all of the movements.

We know at some point Silas goes on a trip back to Macedonia…maybe back to Berea at the same time that Timothy heads back to Thessalonica if the three of them had a quick meeting in Athens, but the details are not clear.

What we do know is that through some sequence of events, Paul eventually finds himself alone in Athens from where he soon makes his way to Corinth.

It is in Corinth that the three men again find themselves together and from where Paul pens this letter.

Yet, this is, as we can see in our verses, after Timothy has returned from his trip to Thessalonica to check up on the church, bringing along his glowing report.

As we have said all along, Paul knew that the opposition that he and the others encountered in Thessalonica would be directed toward the new believers in this young church after he had left the city.

It is clear from our verses that for Paul to be left alone in Athens was a hardship on him…although we don’t know exactly why that might have been the case.

Still, because Paul knew what the young church would be facing he sent Timothy to check on them while he was left behind.

Not knowing what was happening…and not being in a position to personally encourage the young believers…that was harder for Paul than being left on his own in a very strange city.

Illustration

Being in a foreign place can be disorienting.

I have experienced this several times in my travels.

For example, last year when I went to China my overseas flight was delayed causing me to miss my in-country connection in China.

The airline put me up in a hotel overnight since all flights were finished for the day, but it was very confusing to figure out how to get to and from the hotel as language was a challenge.

Once I got back to the airport very early in the morning, I discovered that the bus had dropped me at the wrong terminal…I needed the domestic terminal now, not the international one.

I walked to the correct terminal and found that: 1) all the ticket agents were still closed…it was too early still, and 2) the English translations in this terminal were somewhat sparse.

I knew that I had one of the first flights out in the morning and stood in line waiting for the agent to arrive.

Eventually, after the agent arrived and I got to the counter, I discovered that I was in the wrong line.

I moved to the instructed line and got my ticket, but found out I needed to get it stamped to show that my passport and visa had been checked…another line.

I got that done and found my way to their security screening.

The agent there would not let me through security…my passport included my middle name, but the ticket only had my first and last name; I had to go back and get the ticket reissued.

I hurried back to the line for the ticket agent…at least this time I knew the correct line but the clock was ticking away.

I got the ticket reissued…went and had it stamped again to show I had a matching visa and when back to security.

This time, I managed to get through and hustled to find my gate.

As I got close to the gate, I found it rather empty…I had missed that flight.

I had to once more exit the gate area, go through the ticketing process again to find a flight later in the day, get the magic stamp on my ticket, and once more pass through security…and I had to do all of this while half-guessing at where I was to go and what exactly I was to do.

My experience was disorienting, but I am sure it is nothing compared to Paul’s.

He was possibly still recovering from his beating combined with significant travel under stressful conditions and was now in a completely foreign city…Athens would have been nothing at all like Jerusalem or Antioch.

Furthermore, Paul needed to find a way to provide for his own livelihood and was going to be left in this city all alone for an unknown length of time into the future while he sent his companion on a dangerous assignment.

Being alone represented a real hardship for him.

Still, the Gospel had formed a bond between Paul and these new Christians in Thessalonica… they had a Gospel link.

And that link left Paul with a burning need to find a way to encourage them in their Christian life.

We too should feel such a need for those with whom we have a Gospel link.

The Gospel, as we talked about last week, creates an eternal bond between us and others…a bond that produces everlasting joy.

But that bond also naturally creates concern for the well-being of others.

The overall point that we should take away from Paul’s, along with Silas’ and Timothy’s, concern for the Thessalonian believers is that We must encourage others with whom we have a Gospel-link.

We must encourage others with whom we have a Gospel-link.

That is our main idea today.

What I would like to do for the remainder of our time, is to step back a bit now that we have the background of our verses in our minds and ask ourselves what we can learn that will help us fulfill this task of encouraging others with whom we have a Gospel-link.

Transition:

Asking our passage what we can learn that will help us encourage others reveals three things.

First of all, we can see in our verses…

I.

The reason for encouragement: Affliction

Why do we need to provide encouragement?

What is the reason that it is needed?

The answer is “affliction.”

Affliction.

Paul faced affliction.

The new believers in Thessalonica faced affliction.

We face affliction.

And those we have a gospel-link to face affliction.

Affliction is part of the Christian life and for that reason encouragement is needed.