Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

In order to introduce our scripture today I want to read a clipping from a newspaper called The New Yorker.

This article is called Dealing with Olympic Failure and was written in 2012 by Reeves Wiedeman.

“Running down the list of twenty-six sports in London, none requires less athleticism, as we typically define it, than the shooting events.

(Archery demands at least one muscular arm.)

Yet there is no sport that requires more mental precision.

Rifle shooters are trained to fire between heartbeats.

Medals are won by millimetres.

It’s a sport whose top competitors are expected to be so accurate that we have a hard time believing that they could actually miss.

The London Olympics will feature ten thousand five hundred athletes, give or take a few rhythmic gymnasts, but it’s possible that none are more compelling than American air-rifle shooter Matt Emmons.

At the 2004 Games, Emmons competed in the three-position event, in which participants shoot from their stomachs, knees, and feet at a target fifty metres away.

Going into his final shot, Emmons was in first place and needed only a mediocre score for gold.

Instead, he shot at the wrong target, one lane over, and got no score at all.

He finished eighth.”

Dealing With Olympic Failure | The New Yorker

When it comes to our faith and practice, what should we aim for?

What should we strive for?

Paul identifies the target in 1 Thessalonians 3:6-8.

1 Thessalonians 3:6-8: Paul is encouraged by their faith

1 Thess.

3:6-8 “But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.

For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.”

Let me take some time to remind you of the historical context (Acts 17 is where you can find the story).

Paul, Silas, and Timothy are going from city to city on a missionary journey to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

While they are in Thessalonica, riots force them to leave the city early.

Christianity is viewed with extreme jealousy by the Jews and suspicion by the population at large.

The Christians are accused of being the “men who turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).

Think about that for a moment.

This small group of Jewish men who went into hiding after their Messiah was killed as a criminal are being led by a Jew who was previously tying to kill them.

These men are “turning the world upside down” not because of their great intellect, or their political prowess, or their economic philosophy, or their righteous judgment, but because Jesus died and rose from the grave and empowered them with the Holy Spirit.

The disruptions to the pagan social order is not a testimony of how great Paul is, but it is a testimony to the power of the gospel.

Do you want to turn our world upside down?

It does not depend on politics, it does not depend on the education system, it does not depend on our social activism.

Are all these things good and important?

Sure.

But if we don’t first bow our knee to Jesus, all these things are in vain.

Our job is not to win people to a system or a political party or a mere philosophy, but to a person, Jesus Christ.

That will turn the world upside down.

Paul, being torn from these people too early, or as he put it in the previous passage, being “orphaned” from them, desired to see them.

He has a great concern for them.

Why?

Because he knows they can place their faith in so many different things, so many different idols.

The city itself placed its trust in Caesar.

That’s reflected in the mob’s accusation against the apostles, “they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, Jesus.”

(Acts 17:7) The Thessalonian mob was uncomfortable with the fact these Christians were pledging a higher allegiance to Jesus than anything else.

They were going to use any means at their disposal to convince this Christians to get back in line.

The mob rioted, appealed to their governing authorities, and kicked their leaders out of the city.

Paul had good reason to worry for these Thessalonians who claimed to believe in Jesus.

Their friends, family, and city officials were all turning up the pressure, causing them affliction to turn away from Jesus and get back to “normal” life.

So while Paul was unable to come visit them himself, he sent Timothy in his place.

And when Timothy returned, Paul was greatly encouraged by Timothy’s report about these Thessalonians.

These believers did not deny their master who bought them; rather, they continued in faith and love and remembered the apostles fondly.

The Thessalonian’s “faith” refers to the fact that they kept Jesus first and did not trust anything else to bring them their ultimate hope.

This faith was constantly being tested in the face of the cultural pressure to conform (and sometimes physical affliction as well).

This faith in God has a direct impact on how they treat one another.

And Timothy proclaims that their behavior is marked by love.

Just as James tells us that faith without works is dead, we could say the same thing about faith without love.

Paul tells us in the great love chapters, 1 Cor.

13:13 “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

And in 1 Cor.

13:2 “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

Genuine faith results in love.

Paul commends the Thessalonians for remaining faithful.

Let’s consider a point of application here:

We must remain faithful to Christ first in the face of cultural pressure.

The Thessalonians faced constant pressure and affliction to conform to their culture.

We too face constant pressure to conform to our culture.

In new, radical ways we face cultural pressure to conform.

Now, it is the month of June, the month that many of us have come to dread.

You open your phone, you now have rainbow colored apps.

You drive down the road, and various business fly the LGBTQ+ flag.

You turn on your TV and your immediately bombarded with various LGBTQ characters.

The culture is screaming at you, “bow the knee!

bow the knee!”

Several Christian denominations have already fallen.

They’ve said this behavior is okay, there’s nothing wrong.

Denominations are operating in clear violation of scripture.

And I’ll tell you, the issue did not start now, the issue started when these denominations decided God’s word was not really God’s word.

Of course, we all face pressure in many ways from our culture.

We face the pressure to believe there’s no such thing as sin, that God does not exist, that we can solve all our problems through government, that the education system can teach “neutral” facts, that the church is just a building or an event, that the gospel is not powerful, and on and on the list grows.

Don’t be thrown by every wind of doctrine, but remain faithful to Christ.

He is our anchor, our solid ground in the midst of these immense cultural currents.

Secondly, Paul commends the Thessalonians because of their love.

We must love one another as Christ loved us.

The world is constantly trying to redefine love.

The world wants you to define love as agreeing and celebrating other people’s life decisions no matter what they are.

If you shame someone or disagree with him, then you can’t really love him.

Or, the world redefines love as a romantic feeling in your belly that you cannot control.

We use phrases like “swept off our feet” and “fell in love.”

Jesus didn’t just “fall in love” with us.

He wasn’t “blinded” by love for us.

No. Jesus knew exactly what he was getting into.

He know everything.

He knew exactly how messed up we are, but chose to come anyway.

When he saw people in their affliction, we was moved with compassion.

When it took sacrifice by excruciating death, he went all the way for the joy that was set before him.

Love involves what we believe

about someone.

We don’t believe lies about them.

We don’t believe sin is ever good for anyone no matter what the culture has to sat about that sin.