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The Marvelous Works of Jesus, Part 8: The Marvels to Come (Luke 9:10–43)

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When you think about it, Jesus and His followers had almost no political power or influence. The ruling elites of the world had no interest or even knowledge of Him. What hope would they have had to see the kingdom of Jesus change the world?

One reason might have been the marvelous works that Jesus did. They represented a power far above that of the world, a power over all sickness, all evil, all demons, and all diseases. This would have given them hope.

But what about people who only read about Jesus’ marvelous works? People can read about the power of Jesus in the past and see that these things are marvelous works worthy of admiration. But, we might ask, does that have anything to do with today? Is there power available today for provision, for justice, for healing, for restoration, for deliverance? That’s what the first readers of the book of Luke might have asked, and that’s what we might ask as well.

And that’s what this passage is all about. Jesus was telling His disciples in these stories that they would experience His power not only on the day of the miracle but also in the future. This account can also give us hope that the power of Jesus is present now and will continue to be present in the future to heal, to deliver, and to save. We will consider this by looking at the following sections:

The Coming Provision (Luke 9:10–17)
The Coming Trial (Luke 9:18–27)
The Coming Glory (Luke 9:28–36)
The Coming Victory (Luke 9:37–43)

The Coming Provision (Luke 9:10–17)
Jesus had just sent the disciples out to preach and teach. He was preparing them for their future role. When they returned, they told Jesus all that they had done. To review what they had done and give them some rest, Jesus took them to a quiet area near a town called Bethsaida.

The plan for rest was quickly short-circuited. The crowds followed Jesus. Even though He had other things on His agenda, we read, “He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing” (Luke 9:11). Even though Jesus had other things on His mind, He gave a face of welcome to the people God brought on His way. Luke points out that Jesus often had an agenda of rest and retreat, but the Father had an agenda of outreach. Jesus trusted the Father’s leading and was willing to trust that the Father would provide what He needed for Him to do the work.

Then, the Twelve disciples got nervous. They realized that it was getting late, and the people needed to eat and needed lodging. Jesus responded with a surprising statement, “You give them something to eat.” Why would Jesus say this? Sometimes Jesus does not immediately relieve our crises when we go to Him. Instead, He sometimes aggravates them. Why? To cause us to look to our real resource in Him.

The disciples responded, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd” (Luke 9:13). They were really unsure of what to do. The text tells us that there were about 5,000 people there!

Continue reading “The Marvelous Works of Jesus, Part 8: The Marvels to Come (Luke 9:10–43)”
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Joyful Fellowship with God and Man, Part 9: How to Have Joyful Fellowship with God and Man

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The Need for Faith
Our society does a lot to ignore the reality of death. We want to look young. The cemeteries are somewhat hidden. You will see many commercials about preparing for retirement. Very few about preparing for after retirement.

In spite of all this, the truth is that this world is a tomb. It is a place of death. It is a place where the dead are buried. When you think about it, we have lost a lot of people close to us this year. Kelsey just lost her Grandfather this past week. I lost a Grandmother last month. Jackie Bain lost her grandfather. Diane lost her husband Bobby. Deb Bain lost her husband Steve, and we lost an elder and leader in our church. Lisa Suplee lost her Father and her Uncles. Penny Reeder lost her Mother. This world is a tomb.

In the Bible, death is not just physical death. It is spiritual death. The presence of physical death is the result of the death of our relationship with God. The separation of the body from the soul is rooted in our separation from God. Out of our separation from God flows a separation from other people. This separation from other people leads to war and to death like it did with Abel and Cain.

That’s why there cannot be joyful fellowship with God and man. There is death. This spiritual death manifests itself in physical death. This spiritual death has made this world a tomb.

Into this world of death, God sent His Son. His Son died the death we deserved to die and experienced the separation from God that we experienced when He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” However, He rose from the dead. He conquered death. He brought about new life and new hope.

If we have Jesus, then we have life. “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11–12). What does this mean? It means that instead of a sentence of death, we have life. This means we enjoy a restored relationship with God forever! That’s what we have when we have the Son.

Now, we might ask, why then do we have to die? For the believer, death is a liberation from the presence of sin. When we come to Christ, He breaks the dominion of sin. At death, He frees us from the presence of sin. When Jesus comes again, we will have our bodies restored but in a glorified way like Jesus. “But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2b).

This is why we need faith in Jesus. “Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony” (1 John 5:10). When we believe in Jesus, we accept what God says about Him. We accept that it is true and that it is what we need. We are saying that Jesus can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. That is the power of faith. It is not the greatness of faith that saves. It is the Christ in the faith that saves.

The problem we face is that there is much pressure in the world to go in a different direction. It tells us, focus on what we see. Focus on what we can get. Make this world about you. This is what John calls the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (see 1 John 2:15–17).

So, how do we overcome the world and obtain life in Jesus? “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4b–5). Do we want to overcome the world? We need more faith! If we feel like the world is attacking us, we need the faith that enables us to overcome the world.

Continue reading “Joyful Fellowship with God and Man, Part 9: How to Have Joyful Fellowship with God and Man”
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Joyful Fellowship with God and Man, Part 7: Resources for a New Community (1 John 3:19–4:6)

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When we look out on our world, a joyful community is not what we see. Nations are at each other’s throats. Within the nation, there is severe polarization. The church often seems hopelessly divided and unable to work together. Churches themselves can be nasty places. People get hurt, and they don’t come back. Families are ripped apart. Those who should be the greatest support become alienated from one another or do terrible things to one another. What hope is there for such situations?

We have the answer in this verse. It is prayer. We can “receive from him anything we ask” (1 John 3:22). There are endless resources in prayer. We should not look upon any situation outside of us and think, this is hopeless. God is greater than our challenges and is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or even imagine.

So, we are not helpless victims in the face of the evils and divisions of this world. We can ask and “receive from him anything we ask” (1 John 3:22). In this passage, there are two conditions that need to be fulfilled in order to have confidence before God. One is a heart of love for other people. The other is faith in Jesus Christ. Each present their own unique challenge, and we will consider the internal challenge to love and then the external challenge to faith. Finally, we will consider the goal of having a clear conscience before God.

The Internal Challenge
The internal challenge is to have a clear conscience before God. As we approach God, we need to remember that He is holy and righteous and pure. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we are to go before God, then our heart needs to be one that flees the darkness and pursues the light.

Continue reading “Joyful Fellowship with God and Man, Part 7: Resources for a New Community (1 John 3:19–4:6)”
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The Amazing Benefits of the Cross: Justification (Rom. 3:19–26)

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All around the world, wherever you travel, you will find a rather surprising symbol on the skyline. It is the symbol of the cross.

It’s surprising because the cross was an instrument of a particularly brutal method of capital punishment in the Roman Empire. It does not seem like the sort of thing that you would put your hope in.

Yet there it is. Hundreds of millions of people around the world would say with the great preacher of the cross, the Apostle Paul, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). Astonishing words!

Why would so many people make their boast in this gruesome instrument of capital punishment? The reason is that it answers the basic questions of life that we all struggle with. In this big universe, am I significant? Do I matter? Am I accepted? Do I have value? Can I fulfill my destiny? What about life after death? In the cross we have all these questions answered.

As we consider the cross, I want you to think of the cross in terms of the benefits or blessings God gives to all who accept His message about the cross. All of these benefits answer some of the basic questions we have about our own life and about existence. These benefits are justification, adoption, sanctification, and preservation. We are going to look at these over the next few Sunday’s.

Today, we begin with justification. The question of justification arises for us when we start to ask, have I made of myself what I ought to have made of myself? What have I done with my existence? As soon as we seek to answer that question honestly, we face guilt. We have not become what we should have. We have not done what we should have. We have, in fact, done many things completely contrary to what we should have. We deal with this as individuals, and we deal with this as a society. We may think that guilt is not a big factor in human life, but, upon further reflection, it really is. As the theologian Paul Tillich noted, it is astonishing how much guilt comes out in psychoanalysis.

But the situation is actually worse than we think. The guilt we feel is sometimes misplaced. We feel guilty about things we should not and do not feel guilty about things we should.

Guilt is not a mere psychological phenomenon. We also have to give an account to God who judges justly and rightly and takes what we have done very seriously. We may not like this aspect of God, but, if we think about it, it’s quite important. Imagine a God who didn’t care about wrongs and injustices. Would we really want to worship such a God? Not at all. We also are opposed to injustices and wrongs but generally the ones that others commit. God is concerned about all of them, and He is no respecter of persons.

When we are dealing with justification, we are dealing with these questions. What does God do with evil and injustice? How does He evaluate it? And how does He evaluate me? This is the most central question of the cross and the most important doctrine of the Christian religion. As John Calvin said, “The subject of justification, therefore, must now be fully discussed, and discussed with the recollection that it is the principal hinge by which religion is supported, in order that we may apply to it with the greater attention and care.” So, with that in mind, let’s dive into this passage.

The Meaning of the Word “Justify”
The key to understanding this passage is to understand the meaning of the word “to justify.” Here is its most basic meaning, “to declare righteous.” It is not to turn someone into a righteous person or make them just. It is to declare someone righteous. When you justify someone, you say that they are a righteous person or have done what they were supposed to do. Got it?

Now, I’ll ask a question. Can you justify God? Think about it for a second. If you said, “no,” then go back to the definition. Can you declare God to be righteous? Of course you can. In fact, you not only can, but you should and must. In Luke 7:29 we read, “All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John” (Luke 7:29). The word translated here “acknowledged was right” is “to justify.” Same word as in our passage.

Now, here’s another question. Can you justify the wicked? Think about it for a second. Well, you can. You can declare them righteous, but you shouldn’t. God actually says that. The King James Version brings this out, “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.” To justify the guilty is to say that the guilty is righteous and to do that is to lie and bring about an injustice.

So, in light of all that, how can God justify the ungodly? Romans 4:5 says that He is the “God who justifies the ungodly.” He is the God who calls sinful, wicked, adulterous people perfectly righteous and completely innocent? How can He do that? It would seem to be a lie. It would seem to be a miscarriage of justice. It doesn’t make sense!

You can see that the weight of this question is evident in this passage. He presented Christ as “an atoning sacrifice” (Rom. 3:25) so that He might be “just and the justifier” of the one who has faith in Jesus. In other words, there was a question about whether God would be just in justifying a believer because that believer is not just. To declare him righteous would be wrong. So, how can we put these things together? Well, I’ve hinted at the answer here, but let’s take our understanding of the word “to justify” and plug it into this passage and see if we can resolve it.

Romans 3 & Justification
In Romans 3, we read that no one will be justified by the works of the law. We should read “works of the law” as doing of the law. Now, why would no one be declared righteous because they did the law. Is there something wrong with doing what the law says? Of course not! Normal justification would result from someone doing the law and being declared righteous on the basis of having done the law. They do what the law says, and then they are declared righteous.

So, why can’t anyone be righteous on the basis of doing what the law says? The answer is that we have not done what the law says. The law says to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. None of us have done this. In fact, we have done the opposite. So, when we hear the law, we do not hear it rightly, if we hear it saying, you have done all these things. Rather, “through the law we become conscious of sin.” That is, it tells us that we have not done these things.

We can’t be declared righteous on the basis of the law, because we’ve all broken the law. If God evaluates us on the basis of the law, then we will be condemned as guilty not justified as righteous.

So, what are we to do? There is another righteousness, a different sort. It couldn’t come from obeying the law. It came from God. Now note that the Law and the Prophets testify to it (Rom. 3:21). Here the word “law” does not refer to God’s commandments. It refers to the Old Testament. What Paul is saying is that the Old Testament showed that there was another way to be justified. Paul will elaborate on this method throughout the book. See especially chapter 4, where he shows how God justified ungodly Abraham and David.

Paul describes this righteousness by saying this righteousness is by faith. What this means is that it is a gift from God. Faith does not do for someone. Faith trusts what someone else will do. So, faith is a fitting virtue to be the recipient of another sort of righteousness.

This other righteousness is a gift from God that is given to anyone who believes. Being a Jew or Gentile gives no advantage in justification, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Everyone is condemned on the basis of the law. Everyone can be declared righteous on the basis of a righteousness from God, if they will only receive it by faith.

The question then becomes, how in the world can God simply declare people righteous who don’t deserve it? It would seem to be a lie. It would seem to be unjust. Imagine a professor giving a test. Some do not study and do badly. Others study hard and get an A. Then, the professor simply says, “I have decided to simply give everyone an A.” That would seem unjust.

So, how can God do it? Well, He satisfies the demands of the law on behalf of sinners. How? “All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). The word “redemption” means a payment. The law demanded that we “pay” righteousness and “pay” the penalty of death, if we did not give that righteousness. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Jesus paid the righteousness we owe and paid the punishment due to sin on the cross. That is what redemption is all about. The cross is payment for sin and the fulfillment of the righteousness we owed to God. So, we get declared righteous freely because Christ pays for us! He pays everything, and we get everything! That is an amazing deal. All we have to do is accept it. It’s a gift!

Paul drives this point home in verses 25–26. He says that there was a problem in the past. God declared people righteous, but no payment had been given. “In his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished” (Rom. 3:25). The Old Testament is full of sinful people, but God justified them freely by His grace, even though payment had not been given.

How could God do that? He knew that in the fullness of time, the Son would come and would redeem them through the cross. God presented the Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (Rom. 3:25).

In doing this, God demonstrated that He was and is righteous. Because Christ pays the just penalty of the law, we can be declared righteous. It is not our righteousness, it is Christ’s. As a result, God is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

If we believe in Jesus, then God declares us perfectly righteous, just as if we had been as righteous as Jesus and suffered all that He had suffered. That is the amazing benefit of the cross. We are justified, declared righteous, because of what Jesus has done.

Conclusion
Justification by faith alone is the foundation of our faith and of our faith in the cross in particular. I think you can now see why John Calvin said that this doctrine is the “principle hinge by which religion is supported.” It’s really essential. Martin Luther said that the church stands or falls based on this doctrine.

For us, as individual Christians, it is a foundation for unspeakable joy and peace, a refuge in the midst of the storms of life. It’s easy to see why Paul concludes his letter with a blessing of joy and peace by the power of the Holy Spirit. Justification by faith alone provides us a basis for that joy and peace (see Romans 15:13).

This is the amazing benefit of the cross. God takes sinful people, people who have ignored Him and flaunted His laws, people who have hated each other, and have misused all the gifts He has given us, and He declares them to be perfectly righteous forever because of what Jesus has done for them. That is an amazing benefit indeed. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.

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Power to Grow in Suffering (1 Thessalonians 3:6–4:12)

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Our goal should always be to become people who trust more, love more, and hope more. We want our hearts and minds to be oriented toward God so that our feet rest firm on the rock of His promises even when storms are blowing all around us. This foundation of connection with God enables us to love others, even when everyone around us is trapped in the vicious cycle of their own anxieties.

It’s easy to think we’re doing well at faith, hope, and love when times are good, when things are prosperous, when anxiety is low. What happens, though, when people oppose us, when life unravels, and when our earthly securities collapse? Then, we find out what we are made of.

That’s how we need to reinterpret suffering. Suffering is a revelation. It tells us where we really stand. It reveals the depths of our thoughts. It shows our lack of training. It points us forward to areas of growth.

However, suffering can seem so daunting. How can we stand against so many temptations? The answer: we don’t have to do it alone. The power of God is available to help us. We need to trust Him!

I want to draw your attention to the blessing that Paul pronounces over the church in Thessalonika in 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13. In particular, he asks God to “make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you” (v. 12) and to “strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy.” In this benediction, God teaches us that the power for growth comes from Him. In this passage of Scripture, I want to consider how God gives us power to grow in faith, to grow in holiness, and to grow in love, even in the face of suffering. There is hope that we can do this because God is our Father and has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ with power to live a new life and die to sin.

Growth in Faith
The question that Paul introduces in this book is the question of whether or not the Thessalonians would remain unmoved in their faith in the face of suffering. He was concerned about them because he could not be with them. He knew they were facing trials. He had prepared them, but he was still concerned about how they would do.

Anyone who has loved and cared for children can understand this. Inevitably, there comes a time in which we must let them go out on their own, and they will have to stand for themselves. How will they do when they meet the shocks of life? We are anxious to know. Will they be OK? That is what Paul was feeling before he wrote this letter.

Paul wrote this letter, though, after having received a wonderful report. “But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you” (1 Thess. 3:6). They were encouraged “because of their faith.”

Now, even though the Thessalonians had to exercise their faith, that did not mean that God was not the ultimate source of their faith. Recall that earlier on, Paul gave thanks that the Word had come not only in words but in power and in the Spirit (see 1 Thess. 1:5). This meant that it was God’s power that enabled them to believe. Here he gives thanks again. He gives thanks to God not only that they became believers but that they remained believers. “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?” (1 Thess. 3:9). Who they were was ultimately rooted in God’s power working in them. As Paul put it elsewhere, “what do you have that you did not receive?”

And so, how can we get the power to continue unmoved in our faith in the face of all the trials and suffering in the world? The Holy Spirit. The power of the Father. The life of the resurrected Christ. That is our hope.

Growth in Holiness
There is a second area of growth mentioned in the benediction. It is growth in holiness. To be holy means to have wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do His will. It is to be devoted to the highest good.

There are many good things we can do in the world, but holiness leads us to seek the best, communion with God and service to God. There are many evil things we can do as well. Holiness enables us to separate ourselves from these evil activities and devote ourselves to God.

Paul encourages the Thessalonian Christians to lean into holiness. “As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more” (1 Thess. 4:1). They were not to rest with where they were. They needed to grow to become more and more devoted to God and His service finding their joy in Him and in His will. “Do so more and more” is how Paul talks about growth in this letter.

One area that Paul addresses in particular is sexuality. He says:

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister (1 Thess. 4:3–6).

In spite of what our culture may say, sex is a gift from God to be enjoyed in the context of a loving, lifelong commitment between a man and woman. Anything beyond this is contrary to our own nature, an injustice to the other person, and against God’s will for human beings. The Apostle Paul recognized that this would be controversial, even in his day, and so he added, “Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 4:8).

Sexuality is a powerful thing and, because of that, we readily turn it into an idol. The patterns of idolatry also become wired into our brain in ways that are very hard to change. That’s why we need God’s power. American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr says,

[Sexuality’s] force reaches up into the highest pinnacle of human spirituality. . . . sex reveals sensuality to be first another and final form of self-love, secondly an effort to escape self-love by the deification of another and finally as an escape from the futilities of both forms of idolatry by a plunge into unconsciousness (The Nature and Destiny of Man, 1:236, 239).

We are dealing with powerful stuff when we deal with sexuality, not because we are so animal-like but because we are so spiritual.

So, as we seek after holiness, remember a couple of things. We need to develop holiness by finding our delight in God. That is the angle at which to attack the problems of sexual sin. Second, the power of God is available to live a life devoted to God. Third, and this is very important, God works through His church. Don’t try to do this alone. If you are struggling with sexual sin, come talk to me or a trusted person. I’ve talked to a lot of people about this issue. It’s scary to bring it up, but I’ve never found a person to regret enlisting help.

In our day, we can enjoy sexuality in private through the internet, and so we’ve got to have accountability here. I use Covenant Eyes to keep myself accountable. It reports on any questionable behavior to my wife and friends so that I’m always using the internet, as it were, before the eyes of others as well as God. This is part of God’s grace: to give me friends who will help me in areas of temptation and help me seek after holiness. We all need them.

Growth in Love
Paul also wanted the Thessalonians to experience growth in love, but this was the area where he had the least concern. This was the area where they were doing the best. “Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other” (1 Thess. 4:9). Once again, he says that it was God who was teaching them. He saw the evidence of God’s work in their lives.

This did not mean that they did not need to grow. He writes, “And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more . . .” (1 Thess. 4:10). “More and more.”

However, he was concerned about one area, which comes up in his second letter as well. He wanted to make sure that they were doing productive labor that would glorify God and bless themselves and others. He says, “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you” (1 Thess. 4:11).

When God created the world, He wanted human beings to be active in the world. He did not want them simply to enjoy it passively. He wanted them to do things that would glorify Him and bless themselves and others. Wherever you are today, faith can give you the margin to have space to serve others. Use that space not simply for yourself but for others. Whether you’re working for a paycheck or not, you should be working for the Lord. That is our duty while we are here: to love and to use our strength, our minds, our hearts, and our hands to bless others with useful labor. God Himself will teach you the way.

Conclusion
And so, what is our hope for growth? “That the Lord would make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you and strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father.”

That’s a powerful hope. We don’t have to remain stuck in the past. There is new life. There is the Holy Spirit. There is the power of God. Christ is risen! We can grow. We can become more and more of what God has destined us to be, really and truly in this life, and then perfectly in the world to come. Amen.

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We Told You Life Would Be Hard (1 Thessalonians 2:14–3:5)

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The Inevitability of Suffering
Jordan Peterson is an interesting modern thinker. His book 12 Rules for Life has sold 3 million copies. He has toured the world speaking about these rules, giving long academic-style lectures to large audiences. As Jordan Peterson spoke around the world, one thing really surprised him. When he spoke about the inevitability of suffering and how hard life is, people were really encouraged. Why? Because everyone experiences hardships, and it can feel some like something unique to us. It’s good to know that it’s not something strange just happening to us. Suffering is part of life. Life is hard.

Modern life can deceive us on this point. Our industrial might has enabled us to overcome so many problems that our ancestors over the centuries and millennia struggled with such as basic clothing, shelter, and food. Because of this, we begin to think that life will be easy. The trouble is that industrialization simply solves some problems to reveal further problems on a higher level. We may have food in abundance, but we can’t solve our anxiety, loneliness, death, or need for meaning. For all our scientific know-how, we can’t achieve social cohesion.

So, everyone is going to suffer. Everyone will experience pain. The question is, what will we do with it? Will we rise to the occasion, or we will be crushed under its weight? Will we take the blows, get back up, and keep moving forward; or, will we retreat from the challenges of life and try to build a suffering-free bubble?

All of life has challenges, but Christianity has additional challenges. Much that is in this world is hostile to our faith. There will be attacks. How do we process this? How can we think about this in a way that will help us move forward?

The first thing to do is accept the truth: we will face opposition and suffering. When someone comes to Christ, we should tell them, get ready for trials. Get ready for suffering. Prepare for battle. Start training. This will be no cake walk. Prepare to get punched in the mouth.

The Apostle Paul says this very plainly. He did not want them to be be “unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know” (1 Thess. 3:3–4). He kept telling them, Christianity is not going to be easy. You will be persecuted.

There are two basic difficulties that we face here. The first is from outside. This was a significant factor in Thessalonika. “For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews” (1 Thess. 2:14). When we seek to do something good, we should expect to face opposition from people. This is inevitable. So, don’t be surprised.

The resistance goes beyond people, though. It also comes from Satan. Beyond the world that we see, there is a real spiritual world of evil with real personalities that are attacking us. “I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain” (1 Thess. 3:5).

But the most important struggle we have is the struggle within. Our own brain, spirit, and body conspire against us to keep us from doing what is right. It’s a battle to move in the right direction. It’s a battle to get ourselves thinking and moving in God’s direction.

The novelist Steven Pressfield wrote a book describing his struggle to write successful novels called The War of Art. He said the biggest challenge was his own “resistance.” So, producing something good was like a war. He had to fight every day the urge to give up and just go off to the beach instead of writing the novel. The struggle against the flesh in the case of our faith is a war of even greater intensity.

Faith Built by Suffering
So, how can we find encouragement in this struggle? The first thing is to accept that suffering and opposition are a part of the Christian life. But that’s just the first thing. The second thing is to re-interpret suffering to see the good in it.

Many people hear the fact that suffering is inevitable and think that this is an unmitigated disaster, but the Bible has a very different perspective. Paul says elsewhere, “we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Rom. 5:3–4).

James says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance” (James 1:2–3).

Peter says that we greatly rejoice even though we suffer a variety of trials. There is even something good in them: “These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Pet. 1:7).

The point is that as we experience suffering and then exercise our faith, we grow into what we are supposed to be. There is no higher goal that we can have than to become people who trust God. It’s what the Apostle Paul said in Romans. He prayed that the God of hope would fill them with all joy and peace as they trusted Him.

Faith fills us with joy and peace, but the trials and opposition we experience can knock us off our game. They keep us from joy and peace and dim our faith.

In the case of the Thessalonians, however, they did not have a lot of experience. They were just getting started. They seemed to be doing well, but they had not yet felt the rattle of their teeth from blows in the midst of battle. That’s why the Apostle Paul was concerned that they would “be unsettled by these trials.”

However, Paul knew that if they could exercise their faith in the midst of the trials, then the virtue of faith would grow within them. It would produce perseverance, an ability to keep doing good in the face of opposition. This perseverance would build their character. This character would make them complete.

So, the stakes were very high for the Thessalonians. Would they rise to the occasion and become the people of faith, hope, joy, and peace that God designed them to be, or would they be thrown into turmoil by the trials? Would the tempter successfully induce them to abandon their destiny, or would they remain faithful to the Word of God?

Support in the Midst of Suffering
The stakes are high in the battle we face, but we are not without support. Even though we undergo sufferings, we should not think we have to do it alone. We have resources. We have the Holy Spirit, we have the new nature, and we have the people of God. If you are struggling with your faith today, come back to the community! We can help. If you are here and struggling, share it with one of these friends.

The whole context here is Paul’s support and concern for the Thessalonians. He wanted them to know that he left unwillingly and was kept from helping them in person unwillingly, but he was still a resource for them. He said, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy” (1 Thess. 2:19–20). He wanted them to know that his failure to come back did not indicate any lack of affection for them.

In fact, he was so concerned about them that he did not want to leave them without a face-to-face support. So, he says, “we sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith . . .” (1 Thess. 3:2). Each of us have Timothy’s and Paul’s and Silas’ that we can turn to when we need support in the battle.

As a Pastor, a colleague of Pastors, and a friend, I have spoken to many about their struggles. They come sometimes with great trepidation, but they are almost always glad that they shared their struggle. They find that they are not alone and that people still accept them in spite of their failings and sins. There is support in suffering!

Conclusion
Let me speak to three groups of people here today. You may be experiencing some severe suffering today. You may want simply to be rid of it, but can I encourage you to look at in a different way? Can I encourage you to see that this as part of life and as part of the life of faith? Can I encourage you to see it as walking the path of Christ who first suffered and then entered into His glory? Can I encourage you to see it as an opportunity to trust God and so develop the most important characteristic that you can have as a human being?

Maybe you are not experiencing a large degree of suffering today. Maybe you’re just experiencing the small challenges that we all face in living day to day life. Can I encourage you to not let those things go to waste? Use them as an opportunity for training. Commit yourself to trusting God whatever the day brings at you.

What does this look like? First, make it a goal. Make it a goal to trust God throughout your day. Ask for His help. Ask for strength to face the day with trust that leads to love and peace. This means that you keep trusting even when it’s hard and keep showing respect to the people around you no matter what.

Second, if you fail, then analyze what happened and consider how you might have viewed the situation differently. How did you respond when you didn’t get all the work done you needed to? Did you trust God with your status and security? Or did you start to panic?

How did you respond to a broken relationship? Did you repent for what you needed to repent of and leave that person in God’s hand? Or did you let yourself get frustrated as if the relationship was ultimately up to you?

How did you respond to ongoing health problems? Did you fall into despair as if you were abandoned? Or, did you trust that God would be with you and help you every step of the way? These are just a few examples of the way we can dedicate our lives to God and continue to develop trust, even in life’s hard circumstances.

Third, keep doing it. Keep making it a goal. There is nothing more important than becoming a person who trust God. This is the sole rock and sure foundation for human life, human serenity, and human creativity.

Now, some of you don’t experience suffering because you have insulated yourself from it. This is not faith. God calls us out into the world to exercise our faith in the midst of all its blistering and bruising. Put yourself out there. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations where you know you’ll be challenged. Seek for bigger things. Push out in relationships. Stretch your abilities. Try the heavier weight! Reach out to your neighbor. Invite that person over. Do something! Move into a bigger world. Let’s see your work motivated by your faith and your labor prompted by love.

Yes, it’ll hurt! but it will get you closer to where you want to be. You can’t become your true self by closing yourself off to the world. You become your true self by extending yourself into the world. You learn to meet the world with serenity after you have learned to experience its harshness. You learn to keep loving and serving after you’ve been hurt by others. This is how God develops faith and love within you. This is where God is leading you. So, let’s lean into it . . . together!

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Photo by Edward Howell on Unsplash