A Church Worthy of Commendation - 1

Well, as I've already mentioned, today we begin our study of 2 Thessalonians, one of Paul's earliest epistles. Some scholars think it was the second earliest of all the 13 that are included in our New Testament, 1 Thessalonians being number one and 2 Thessalonians being number two. There are others, however, who think that perhaps the epistle to the Galatians was written first, which would make 1 and 2 Thessalonians number two and three.

And I don't suppose we'll know the answer to that question until we get to heaven, if the Lord thinks that's worthwhile to disclose to us then. But it is certainly one of the earliest of Paul's epistles and was written sometime around AD 51. A short epistle, three chapters, 47 verses, but very, very instructive. Paul wrote the epistle to the Galatians from the city of Corinth when Paul and his missionary team were there establishing that church.

They were in the city of Corinth for a period of 18 months. During that time, Paul wrote back to the church at Thessalonica. And Timothy, no doubt, carried that epistle to them, delivered it, gathered some information, and brought it back to Paul about how they were doing. So Paul now wrote the second epistle, which basically is a follow-up on the first. Many of the same themes are dealt with, but now in greater detail because Paul has more information, particularly as to how they responded to what he taught them in the first epistle. And so there are three things primarily that are dealt with in this short epistle. Number one, Paul deals with them once again about the real problem of persecution.

They better be fortified against it, and that comes up very much in chapter one, the verses I read to you a moment ago. Secondly, they still had questions about the timing of the second coming of Christ. They had problems with that that Paul addressed in the first epistle.

A lot of information in chapter four and chapter five, but still they don't understand that as thoroughly as they should. Number two, Paul talks about the second coming of Christ. And then number three, there were evidently some members of the church of Thessalonica who were not working, who were able to work, but they were idle.

Some have speculated that these two things go together, namely that because they thought the coming of Jesus Christ would be any moment, that wasn't exactly a wrong idea, but because they were expecting him to come any moment, unless there's no sense of my working now, I might as well just enjoy myself until the time comes. And Paul had dealt with that lightly in 1 Thessalonians, and that didn't do the job. And so he comes back and deals with that with a pretty heavy hand in 2 Thessalonians chapter three, as we will see when we get to that point. Number three and four, and each of these verses I have assigned a one-word label to. We see number one, identification, verse one. Number two, benediction, verse two. Third, obligation, verse three. And four, commendation, verse four.

Identification, verse one says Paul, sent Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians and God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse one coupled with verse two constitute what we call the salutation. And this was a customary form for epistles in that first century, namely to begin by first of all identifying the author of the letter. Secondly, identifying the recipients of the letter.

And then thirdly, extending a greeting, a polite greeting of some kind that generally included some well wishes of one kind or another. Paul followed that first century format. He identifies the author of the epistle and the recipients of the epistle. The greeting that any of us might enjoy comes from the grace and peace of God.

That's the only way that we can enjoy such blessings. So first of all, Paul identifies the author and he says Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians. So the question is who is the author? Is it Paul? Or is it Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy? Is the author one person or is the author three persons?

Well we've seen this before. Similar language where Paul includes others along with himself in the place where the author is identified in the format that epistles were written in in that day. In this particular case mentions Silvanus and Timothy because they were his partners in missionary work. They were with him when he wrote this in the city of Corinth laboring alongside him there.

And who are they? And we'll take a moment because working through this helps us to get our mind into the context of the epistle which will better help us to understand it as we move along. Dr. Luke always calls him Silvanus when he mentions him in his epistles. Dr. Luke always calls him Silas when he mentions him in the book of Acts.

Silas, of course, was a shortened form of Silvanus. Silas, you may recall, replaced Barnabas as Paul's main missionary partner. In Paul's first missionary journey it was Paul and Barnabas. In fact, actually, more technically it was Barnabas and Paul or Barnabas and Saul. And somewhere early in that journey two things happened. Number one, Saul's name got changed to Paul.

That already was his name but he was more commonly called Saul and now he's being called Paul, a more Christianized name, Christianized form of his name. That happened early in the first journey. But even more significantly, early in that first journey the leadership of the team changed. It started out with Barnabas taking the lead and Saul going along to support and help him. But it became very clear early on that the hand of God was on Saul, now Paul, in an unusual way. And Paul, not by pushing himself to the forefront, but nevertheless when the need arose, was more or less pushed to the forefront by the spirit of the living God. And Paul began to preach with power and Paul began to take leadership in this team and so it became Paul and Barnabas and they had a very fruitful ministry. But there was also a third member of that team, you remember, when they started out. It was Barnabas and Saul and Mark, John Mark, remember him? Who, we learn later, was a nephew to Barnabas, which no doubt figured in to all of the difficulties that happened later.

Sometimes those human ties, those blood ties can be awful thick. And John Mark didn't last. He started out and he bailed out. He didn't stick to it. He didn't persevere. He wasn't willing to take the hardships. He headed back home to Mama in the city of Jerusalem where he had grown up in a place of comfort and wealth.

He was from a well-to-do family. And so he left Barnabas and Paul to continue on by themselves without his aid and he was needed. And so when the time for the second journey came, Paul and Barnabas had finished their first journey, went back home, reported on their work to the church at Jerusalem and to the church in Antioch, stayed a few months and then Paul said, it's time to go again.

And Barnabas said, that's a good idea. I'll round up John Mark and we'll go again. And Paul said, oh, no, not John Mark. We can't count on him. We can't trust him. He didn't stick by the stuff.

He's not reliable. We can't take him again. And Barnabas said, he's a good boy and he's learned his lesson and he'll stick to it this time and we need to take him again. And Paul said, no. And Barnabas said, yes.

And Paul said, no. And Barnabas said, yes. And Barnabas took John Mark and went to Cyprus and Paul took Silas, Silvanus. And he headed out toward Galatia and on his second missionary journey and Silas turned out to be a very worthy partner as Barnabas had been. And so that's who Paul is including in this salutation, Paul and Silvanus. Some think that Silvanus was serving as Paul's amanuensis.

You've heard me say that word often enough by now that I think you understand what that is. That he was serving as Paul's secretary as Paul was dictating this letter. There's no certainty about that because the Bible doesn't tell us, but that certainly is a possibility. So Paul and Silas and then who else? Timothy. Who was Timothy? Well, we're pretty familiar with Timothy, but Timothy was collected, you might say, enlisted by Paul on that second missionary journey when he and now Silas returned to the site of their first labors in Galatia where there were four churches established.

And in the area of the Twin Cities of Lystra and Derby, and we don't know which of these two cities Timothy was actually from, it mentions both of them together. But there in one of those churches, there was a young man named Timothy that was highly commended by the church and Paul got to know him and he said he would make a really good helper. He'd make a really good partner.

He would make, and this is not exactly mentioned, but you can almost hear it underneath the surface here, he would make a good replacement for John Mark. We really need somebody to replace him and Timothy would be a good replacement. So Timothy, how about you going along? And Timothy said, I would be delighted.

That would be my greatest joy in life would be to serve the Lord in that way. And so Timothy came along and in time became Paul's most trusted ministry partner. And probably, I think I mentioned this earlier, delivered the first Thessalonian Epistle to the city of Thessalonica and stayed there long enough to get some report of how things were going and then joined Paul and Silas back in Corinth.

So back to the question, who's the author? It's Paul. Paul is being kind. He's being courteous. He's honoring his partners. They're with him.

He's including them. He wants the church at Thessalonica to know that they are valued and they're part of this. No doubt they read the epistle that Paul wrote and they gave their stamp of hearty agreement to what was said. And Paul kindly includes them along with himself as the author. But just between you and me, we know it was Paul. And not really Silas and Timothy, who were the author of this epistle, it was Paul led by the Holy Spirit of God. So who was the author? Paul. Who were the recipients? Well, the church at Thessalonica.

Now, just quickly to remind you, because this is important for our understanding to get everything in context. The church at Thessalonica was founded by Paul on that second missionary journey after he and Silas left the city of Philippi where they had a good ministry until they were jailed, were beaten and jailed and were invited to leave, which they did. They complied with that desire for the magistrates to have them leave town to avoid any further disruption and embarrassment to the magistrates. So they headed down the road from Philippi and they traveled 100 miles before they stopped again in Thessalonica. Now, they went through a couple of other cities and a lot of small towns along that road, but they didn't stop at any of those.

They didn't stop till they came to Thessalonica. Because, and we can only learn this by observing the pattern of the Apostle Paul because we're not told this specifically, but it's clear that Paul centered his ministry in cities that had potential to spread the message of the gospel far and wide. It wasn't that he wasn't concerned about the souls in the smaller towns, but it was that he was strategizing.

How do I get the gospel out the most effectively? Philippi was such a city. It had a lot of commerce, a lot of people traveling there from other places, and so Paul spent time there and established a church. Thessalonica was another such city, one of the largest in the Roman Empire, and that day had a population of 200,000 people, which was large in that day and time.

It became the capital of Macedonia, northern Greece. It was a port city, one of the three major port cities around the Aegean Sea. Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus were the three port cities. All cities were Paul established churches.

We can see this pattern. Ephesus, large bustling port. Corinth, large bustling port. Thessalonica, large bustling port, as well as situated on the Ignatian Way, one of the major roads that Rome built across their empire. And so you had people traveling through on foot and horseback and carriage and other ways, traveling through that town regularly.

You had ships coming in and unloading and reloading and sailing off again, bustling, bustling town with a lot of people coming and going. It had a synagogue, which means there was a sizable Jewish population. And Paul preached there in the synagogue. And by the blessing of God, a church was established in Thessalonica, which Paul was forced to leave there before he would have chosen to, but God has ways of making his will known and persecution drove him out there. From there he went to Berea, established another church, was driven out there. From there he went to Athens and preached, and a church was not established there. From there he went to Corinth and spent a year and a half, and a church was established there.

And from Corinth he's riding back to Thessalonica and to this church established in that town. So the recipients are, and it depends on whether you want to think in terms of singular or plural, in the question of the author, is it singular or plural? Is it singular Paul or is it plural? Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

In a similar vein, who are the recipients? Is it singular church or is it plural? Christians.

And of course it's both. But to the church, singular, of the Thessalonians, plural. And so sometimes we have to think of Paul focusing upon a church, a local church in its entirety.

And other times we have to think of the individual members who make up that church because all churches are made up of individual people. But the church at Thessalonica who are, and this is a little bit unusual, who are in the Father, in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now for those who want to take the time to do it, you will see that this benediction, no the benediction comes next, this identification of the recipients is identical to the one in 1 Thessalonians except for the addition of that little word our in front of Father. In 1 Thessalonians it is to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and here it is to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of the commentaries make quite a bit of that distinction. It is a wonderful reminder that for Christians God is not some distant God, but He has by grace become our Father.

What a wonderful relationship. However, the most interesting thing to me is that Christians are described as being in God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm accustomed to thinking of Christians as being in Christ.

I don't know too many places in the New Testament where they are described as being in God, the Father. When we talk about Christians being in Christ I have a pretty clear understanding of what that means. We are placed in a mysterious way into Christ, inside of Christ. We are in union with Christ and we are viewed by God as being part of Christ in what He did, so that when Jesus died on the cross we died in Him. And when Jesus rose from the grave we rose in Him. And when Jesus is presented perfect and righteous before the throne of God as He is, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, we who are in Jesus are just as righteous as He is. The key is these are wonderful truths to be in Christ, in this vital union with Christ. What does it mean to be in God the Father?

I would have to think it means something similar. We are in union with God the Father. We somehow share the divine life that is in the Father. And of course when you are in Christ you are in the Father because of the mystery of the Trinity.

It's not three gods, it's one God. But to be in God means to be in His favor. To be in God means to be in His family, our Father. To be in God means to be in His protecting shelter. Nothing can harm us who are in God.

We know who God is, we know His power, His invincibility. Nothing can harm Him. If we are in God, what can harm us? Nothing.

Nothing. So we are in, or they were in, you are in if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that is the identification of the author and the recipients, but now the benediction, verse 2.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. In secular letters of that first century, there would be something like a benediction. It wouldn't be quite like this, but there would be a general statement of wishes of goodwill and prosperity and well-being. After identifying the author and the recipient, there would be some statement, may the gods be with you, may your life prosper, may you be in good health, something like that before going on. It was just customary to include something like that.

Paul was always the strategizer. He would use what was useful, but sentiments like that, if that's as far as they go, aren't particularly useful. But if you can take those and Christianize them, if I can use that term, and turn them into real solid meat, real solid understanding of what's going on here, and turn it into a benediction, grace and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. A benediction. And in this benediction, we notice the blessings bestowed and the source of these blessings. The blessings bestowed are grace and peace.

You know what they are. Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is divine enablement. Grace is God coming and doing within us and for us that which we could never do for ourselves. Without grace, we would be forever lost. Without grace, we would never make it safely home to heaven. But it's God's grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. And through many toils and snares, I have already come. Tis grace has brought me safe thus far.

Tis grace will lead me home. Peace means well-being. Peace has the idea of prosperity. This has a little bit of the secular emphasis to it. But Paul is telling them and us, reminding them that to have real peace, you must first of all have peace with God. And then secondly, you can enjoy the peace of God. Do you understand that distinction? Peace with God.

What's that? Well, what are we apart from Christ? What are we apart from the new birth? What are we apart from salvation? The Bible tells us we are enemies of God. We are at enmity with God, which makes us enemies of God. That's not peace.

That's war. It helps us understand why in this world, though there's so much talk about peace, so much strategizing for peace, so much emphasis upon peace, so many efforts made to achieve peace, so much money expended to bring those efforts about, so many organizations that are founded, so many treaties that are made, so many conferences that are conducted in order to bring about peace. It never happens and never can happen until the people who are making these efforts are at peace with God. We can't enjoy the peace of God, the peace that flows from God, until first of all, we ourselves are rightly related to God. If we are at war with God, how can we be at peace with anyone else? But upon those who are trusting the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says grace and peace, you have peace. Peace with God, which then enables you to enjoy the peace of God. That means the practical peace which God gives to the souls of his people to enable them to sense peace, enjoy peace, to experience peace, even in the midst of the most difficult circumstances. Now, sometimes our peace of God lags behind our peace with God. When we are justified, we are at peace with God.

That's settled. Now, for the rest of our lives, we're working out the details of enjoying and cultivating and implementing the peace of God in our life and in our relationships. And we don't ever get that completely perfect, but we can work on it, we can enjoy it to a degree and to a growing degree. Everyone desires peace, but only God's children can truly enjoy peace. But when we know God, when we have the peace of God, how wonderful it is to then be able to develop peace with others around us. Remember that song, peace, perfect peace in this dark world of sin, the blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

We'll have to sing that again sometime. So the blessings bestowed are grace and peace. The source of these blessings is from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. These blessings come from God our Father for God alone can bestow divine grace that must precede peace.

God alone can impart true peace. But when we are trusting Jesus, then God is our Father. We are his children. And so he continues to bestow grace and peace upon us. It comes from God our Father and equally as much from the Lord Jesus Christ as from God the Father. God the Father bestows grace and peace, but God the Son does too. God the Son, the only one who could satisfy the Father's justice to make peace possible.

The one who bestows divine blessing, and this is maybe more to the point, equally with God the Father. Which then leads us to the inevitable conclusion that he must be God too. People who don't believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, the triunity of God, can't find evidence for that truth anywhere in the Bible. But like so many things, once you do understand it, you just keep bumping into it all over the place.

It just leaps out and grabs you. Even though you never find the word Trinity anywhere in the Bible, you still will find the truth about the triunity of God, or at least in this case the plurality of the Godhead. The Spirit isn't mentioned here, but God the Father and God the Son are.

And here it is very plain. You've got God the Father, the only one who can dispense divine grace and true peace. And he does bestow that upon his children. But that same divine grace and peace is equally bestowed by God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, what other conclusion can you draw except Jesus Christ is God?

He is. Jesus Christ is God. Our Savior who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead is Almighty God.

What a glorious truth. But we move from benediction to obligation, verse 3. We are bound, writes Paul, to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other. Paul talks here about the obligation of giving thanks.

We are bound to give thanks for you. Now it's common for Paul to talk about giving thanks to God for believers and for the churches, but it's unusual for Paul to describe that giving of thanks as an obligation. In fact, I think this may be the only place where he says it in that way.

Many times he describes giving thanks to God the Father for this church, for that church, for these people, for those people, for this blessing, for that blessing. But here he places it in terms of an obligation. It's not just that I do it, and it's wonderful to do it, it's that I must do it. I'm obligated to do it.

I am bound. It's a word that means to owe as a debt. I am indebted to this, to do this always. It's a continuous obligation.

I'll never be free from it for the rest of my life. I will always be under obligation to give thanks to God. We understand this concept of being under obligation to God. Surely we understand that we owe our service, our devotion, our life, our good works in the cause of Jesus Christ because He redeemed us. We were prisoners, we were slaves, we were bound, and Jesus Christ came and paid the redemption price. He freed us, He bought us, and in buying us He freed us, but in another sense, in buying us, He made us now His servants. We were servants to sin, servants to Satan, we were bound, we were doomed. Christ came along and said, I will redeem you, I will purchase you out of that condition. And so like buying slaves out of the slave market, Jesus Christ bought us unto Himself.

Now, He's not a cruel taskmaster and He doesn't go around and whip us. And He just tells us what we ought to do as an act of gratitude for what He has done, but He doesn't drive us to do it. But surely we understand our obligation to do it, it is a debt. It's a debt.

Well, Paul speaks in similar language here. Thanksgiving is a debt, just like serving Christ is a debt. In fact, giving of thanks may be one area of service to discharge our debt, which can never be fully discharged. Thanksgiving is a debt for those who have received such marvelous grace. Thanksgiving is a debt for those who have enjoyed answered prayer. And Paul, the things that he mentions here in a moment, as we'll see, that were the reasons for his Thanksgiving, at least one of them is a direct answer to a prayer that he mentioned in the first epistle of the Thessalonians. And so God has answered that prayer and Paul now feels an obligation, an obligation to give thanks to God for answered prayer, for being so gracious unto Him. Do you feel that debt? Do you feel a debt of expressing thanksgiving to the God who has saved you? Do you feel a debt, an obligation to give thanks when God answers prayer? Oh, how tongue-tied we can become sometimes.

Shame on us. We ought to recognize this as an obligation and gladly render to Him the thanks which He deserves. And particularly, one of the reasons for thanksgiving in this case, he tells us in verse three, we are bound to give thanks always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because. And here's the reason. Because, number one, your faith grows exceedingly. And number two, the love of every one of you also abounds toward each other.

Two reasons. It's fitting to give thanks because your faith grows exceedingly and your love abounds exceedingly. Your faith grows exceedingly.

This indicates that our faith is something that is not set in concrete. It's not static. It's alive. It is always either growing or shrinking.

It can't just stand still. And if it's not growing, it's shrinking. And their faith was growing. It was growing amazingly. It was growing exceedingly. A word that means it grows beyond measure, beyond expectation. Super growth in their case. Super growth.

As a pastor, I have, of course, the joy of watching people who come to faith in Christ and seeing their growth and development. Some people grow so fast it makes your head spin. Other people grow so slow, you wonder sometimes, are they really saved at all? And yet, even in that case, so many times, slowly, slowly, slowly, over a period of years.

There are people in this auditorium today that in the early years of your Christian faith, I wondered, have they really been born again? I don't see much growth. I don't see much development. And now I see an abundance. It's so evident. It's so clear. Oh, yes.

Oh, yes. You've been growing. But slowly, it wasn't exactly this kind of growth. It wasn't beyond measure, beyond expectation. It wasn't super growth, but it was growth.

It was growth. The God who saved you, sanctified you and is sanctifying you. The God who saved you has enabled you to understand Scripture a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. Your faith has been growing, growing, growing.

That's wonderful. Sometimes people's faith grows so fast, you say, is it possible that they've only been saved six months? They're walking, talking, serving like a Christian that's been saved for 15 or 20 years. Their understanding of Scripture mirrors that of someone who's gone to seminary. Where did they get all that? Where did they learn all that so quickly?

Sometimes it just explodes. And that's what Paul saw here among the Thessalonians. And he's amazed and he's giving God thanks for it. Your faith has exploded beyond expectation, way beyond the usual and the ordinary. And I give God thanks for that.

And number two, every one of you all in your love, the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other. Now, that's what Paul had prayed for. If you turn back to chapter three, verse 16, which is pretty hard since there's only 13 verses in chapter three.

I don't know what I should have written down in my notes and wrote the wrong reference. Some of you can be looking for it while I keep preaching. But in First Thessalonians, Paul prayed that their love would grow. Now he gives thanks that their love has grown amazingly. Again, like their faith, it just super abounds. There must be a relationship between growing faith and growing love.

It abounds. Each member, each member of the church expressing overflowing love to all the other members of the church. No member, no member excluded from both giving and receiving love. What a church. What a fellowship of believers.

What a wonderful place to be. And no wonder Paul is giving thanks to God for these evidences of God's working in their lives. Would Paul have reason to give similar thanks for us, for our church? Super abounding, growing faith, super abounding manifestations of love. Would Paul have reason to give similar thanks for you? Is that kind of faith growing within you?

Is that kind of love being expressed by you? But finally, commendation, verse 4. So that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure.

Commendation. What is Paul doing? He's boasting. We speak proudly of you is another way this could be rendered. Who's doing the boasting? Paul and his team are.

We ourselves are doing this. Not the Thessalonians, and this is important. They're not boasting about who they are, what they've done. They're not boasting about their church and their accomplishments.

But Paul is boasting to others about them. Remember Proverbs 27 2? Let another man praise you and not your own mouth, a stranger and not your own lips. The world says if you don't toot your own horn, it won't be tooted. The Bible says if you don't toot your own horn and nobody else toots it, then let it go untooted.

Because, yeah, and if you're doing well, no doubt God will have someone else to toot your horn, which is a godly form of boasting, right? So Paul and the other team members were boasting about the Thessalonian church among the churches, other churches to encourage them and to stimulate them to do likewise. In chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians, Paul said that other people were reporting on the work and the great spread of the gospel that was going out from the Thessalonian church. Other people were doing that. Now Paul says, and so are we. Other people were doing this.

You can check it out. Chapter 1 verses 8 through 10. But we are too. We're boasting about you to the other churches. We're proud of you and we want others to know what God is doing in your midst.

And why was he boasting particularly? There are three things. Because of their patience, their faith, and their endurance.

You see it? For your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure. All of these things go together. The word patience actually could be translated perseverance. Their steadfast endurance under trials was why Paul was boasting about them. And their faith, which we've already mentioned, their growing faith was why Paul was boasting about them. And of course it was their faith that enabled them to patiently endure. In the face of persecutions and tribulations. Persecutions are the hostile actions of the enemies of the gospel.

And they were experiencing that. We haven't had much of that in America. If somebody speaks unkindly to us, we feel like we've been persecuted.

Oh, poor me. I've been persecuted. We haven't had much of that yet, but it very well may be coming.

It looks like it on the horizon. But they were experiencing that. Hostile actions by enemies of the gospel, but also tribulations. That's just the trials of life. That's the sicknesses that we all endure. That's the loss of jobs and incomes that we all endure from time to time. That's the death of a loved one that we all endure.

That's the difficulties of life. And whether it was hostile actions of enemies of the gospel coming at them, or whether it was the normal trials of life, what was their response? Faithful, patient, endurance. They didn't flinch. They didn't falter.

They didn't complain. They just kept steadily onward, trusting God. And Paul said, that's what I am boasting about to others.

That's what I want to see in all the churches. Most of you know that there were different philosophies abroad in the Roman world that were primarily inherited from the Greek world before it. And one of those philosophies was called Stoicism. Stoics were the people who tried to steel themselves against emotions, basically. They're just going to be unmoved by the difficulties of life. If you show too much joy, then you'll also end up experiencing a lot of sorrow.

So just reign it in. Just be stoical about everything. The Stoics had a statement about trials, just a very short phrase, that was endure and abstain. When it comes to trials, just endure them and abstain from getting worked up, abstain from complaining. Because their philosophy was, what good does it do to complain about things that are outside your control?

Hey, yeah, that's right, isn't it? What good does it do to complain about things that are outside your control? But Christians are not Stoics. What do Christians say? Christians endure because we belong to God and we know that He is in perfect control and He has a wise and gracious purpose for every trial. So we endure, but not stoically. We can sorrow as others, not like others who have no hope, but we can sorrow at the difficulties of life and we can rejoice in the joys of life. We do have emotions, God-given emotions. We can utilize them, we can express them, we can enjoy them, as it were, and let them operate in their lives freely. We don't have to steel ourselves against an emotional response to things, but we don't let our emotions control us.

They're not in the driver's seat. Our faith is. Our knowledge of God's Word is in the driver's seat. Truth is what directs us. Truth is what guides our emotions. Truth is what tells our emotions to get in line with the Word of God.

And that's what it means to endure patiently. So what we have here is an exemplary church. In fact, I didn't give you my title, but the title of my sermon is A Church Worthy of Commendation.

And that's what Paul is doing. He's commending an exemplary church. So in closing, let me ask the question, what made them exemplary?

And of course, I've already given it to you, but let's review. What made this church exemplary so that Paul commended them? Was it their large numbers, their large size?

No, that's not mentioned anywhere. Was it their beautiful buildings? No, they didn't even have a building.

None of the churches had buildings in the first century. It wasn't that. Was it their great music? Oh, we've got great music at our church.

No, that's not mentioned either. Nor was it their perfection, because as the epistle unfolds, we find out that, yes, like every church, they had problems. Like every church, they had areas that needed to be improved.

Like every church, they had some members who needed to be reined in and brought back into line. So it wasn't perfection that Paul was commending, but what was it? Growing faith, growing love, and perseverance in the face of trials.

That's what Paul commended. So I ask, what will make our church exemplary? Same thing, growing faith, growing love, and God-honoring perseverance in the face of trials.

What will make churches all across America exemplary and effective in this world? Same thing, growing faith, growing love, and Christ-honoring perseverance under trials. Where does growing faith come from? It comes from a growing understanding and application of God's word. We can't expect to grow in faith unless we're growing in knowledge, the knowledge of God's word. How about love? Well, love is an outflow of the application of God's word. It is more Christ-likeness toward others, less pride, less selfishness, less carnal ambition, and perseverance. Well, it is determining by God's help and grace I'm not going to get indignant in the face of trials.

It's easy to do that. Our sinful hearts tend to want to feel and express indignation. I ran into that again the other day, I don't know if I want to go into the details, but talking to a man on Friday who came by my house and was looking at all the trees they're cutting around around me. Have any of you been by there lately? Things are really changing around the Barkman house. We used to live in 100 acres of woods and now they're cutting down 77 acres of woods around us and it is a mess. He wanted to talk about that and he wanted to express his indignation. Oh, how indignant he was. And I said, hey, for 29 years we've enjoyed somebody else's trees.

They didn't belong to us. That was a blessing. And I kept coming back to him that way. He wanted to be indignant about everything. No reason to be indignant, come on now. Not indignation in the face of trials. Not, listen to me now, battling viciously for our freedoms. Not confusing American patriotism for Christianity.

Now this is a tough one and I struggle with it like you do. I'm an American citizen. I have citizenship rights. I have a constitution that I want to uphold and I want to defend and I want to fight for. That's what I have and that's what I have a right to as an American citizen.

But you know what? My identity as a Christian is more important even than my American identity. And my citizenship in heaven is more important than my American citizenship. And when these two things conflict, as sometimes they do, if when my Americanism would lead me to respond in an un-Christ-like way, I've got to say, wait a minute, I'm not an American first, I'm an American second, I'm a Christian first and I can't respond that way.

Now I know I have responded wrongly many times over the years, but I've got to keep reminding myself I can't respond that way. I'm a Christian. I've got to show Christ-like endurance and patience in the face of trials with love and humility. That will make me an exemplary and commendable Christian, shall we pray. Father, help us to learn from your word. It is light. May we receive the light and welcome the light, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.