This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Ignite the Light Ministry's radio and podcast. It is our mission to help listeners develop a deeper relationship with Jesus by sharing what the Bible says and what it means. We aim to encourage and equip you to serve others, share the gospel, and reflect Christ in every aspect of your life. I'm Pastor White Cudd.
Thank you for tuning in.
Alright.
So we are continuing here with our First Thessalonians series strong. Looking at them is the model church.
So it says in your bulletin here.
Well, don't read that, that's wrong. It's chapter 3, verses 1 through 10. Chapter 3, verses 1 through 10.
Alright, so we're just going to jump right into the passage. I'll do a clean read-through of it. And then we're going to go through, we're going to talk about it. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, verses 1. through ten.
Starting here at verse one.
So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. 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.
so that no one would 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. For this reason When I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you.
and that our labors might have been in vain. 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 long to see you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you.
because of your faith. For now we really live Since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you? In return for all the joy that we have in the presence of our God because of you. Night and day, we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking.
in your face. Lord Jesus, get me out of the way right now. I need to preach this word, God. You need to speak to somebody in here, Lord. And I just ask you, you just get Wyatt out of the way.
and you preached this morning. I had to set in Jesus' name. I'm out in So, some preliminary stuff for 1 Thessalonians. It's an epistle by Paul.
Now it was written on his second missionary journey. We see in Acts 15 to 18. Paul was likely in Corinth when he wrote this letter around 52 AD.
So Jesus had been crucified, resurrected, and ascended to his rightful place as king of the universe on that day of Pentecost, around 32 AD. 37 AD, Jesus speaks to Paul on the road to Damascus. And so this is 15 years later from that. And he's already on his second missionary journey. Paul's wasting no time.
I think that's so cool.
Now, the Thessalonian church did a lot of things right. There's a lot of things we can learn. from them. But something important for us to recognize as Paul speaks to these people is. They're the first.
There's no church before them. There's no previous pastor to call when things are confusing. It's all up to them to figure out what to do and to lean on God. There's no track record of what the church has done in the past. It's all brand new.
They don't even have a complete Bible to read yet.
So we see in this letter, Paul does a good bit of reassuring to this church. You know, what I told you was true. I was not trying to trick or deceive you. You see it through my actions that what I told you was genuine. There's a good chance the Jewish people in this community were spreading rumors and lies about Paul to stifle the spreading of the gospel.
Very good possibility of that. And Paul's trying to clarify what is true in this letter, but this brand new church. With no parent church before them, There's a good chance throughout all this persecution they're wondering. What the heck is happening? Let's put ourselves in their shoes for a second.
You heard the gospel. You heard the promise, Jesus is coming back. You said, Yes, Lord, I'm going to take that step of faith. And you see, He changes your life. Awesome!
Praise God.
So when's it coming back?
So you can wait a couple days? A week?
Now no longer than a month at least. Are you here? A year at most. Certainly, I know I'm going to see him come back in my lifetime. I have a good feeling of it.
Yeah. Oh You know, time goes by.
Alright, maybe it's taken a little longer than we thought for Jesus to come back, no worries. Uh oh, but now we have persecution.
Now our community hates us. Our communities ripping us from our homes and arresting us. The people that were my friends, the people that were my family, now have become my enemies. Wait a minute, wasn't Jesus supposed to be coming back? Doesn't he see me?
Why hasn't he come back yet? Was any of it real? Doubt. There's a very good possibility that Thessalonians was dealing with deep doubt. Lacking a generation before them to show them like this stuff, this happens.
Lacking a complete Bible with an idea of what the end times are going to look like. Any kind of tradition is just non-existent in this church. There's no historical track record. They might have been going through doubt. They're in brand new territory.
Uncharted waters here. They might be thinking, we're being persecuted. What on earth are we supposed to do? And where's Jesus? Thought he was supposed to be coming back, has he left me in this mess?
So, Paul's doing a good bit of reassuring. This could be one of the reasons maybe the church is doubting, or at the very least, Paul saw they have really good reason to feel that way.
So Paul reassures and clarifies.
Now Paul is anxious. over this church. He's anxious for that. But he learns from Timothy's report their faith. is strong despite all of this.
Verse 1 to 2, it says, So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. We sent Timothy, who was our brother and co-worker, In the spreading of the gospel to strengthen and encourage you in your faith. Paul was anxious. for the well-being of this church. And rightfully so.
Their community has become hostile. They chased Paul out. It's not smooth sailing for them. He's deeply concerned. for this church.
A lot of parents will feel anxious when they send their kids off to college. You know, it's um You lose that daily connection. You're worried about their ability to just. There's certainly the fear of the unknown. You know, it's a major life transition for you and for your kid.
It's very understandable to feel anxious. But imagine you're the one leaving. Many miles away. You can't come home, you can't call, and suddenly everyone in your community, friends, and family, now turn against your kid, and they're all alone. I mean, would you be anxious?
You'd be paralyzed, you know, pacing the floor, unable to sleep. Are they okay? I hope so. I don't know. They must be scared or traumatized.
I have to get to them. I can't wait to see them. What am I going to do? Uh that's what Paul is feeling. for this church.
He can't go back. It would make things worse. It would increase their persecution.
So he sends Timothy to strengthen and encourage them.
Now, as we've talked about, this church was certainly a strong. Church. They had a strong faith of being brand new to this environment. Paul took it as his personal responsibility to shepherd them and to make sure that their faith remains strong. And over these ten verses, we see Paul stresses the Thessalonian.
Faith. Five times. A strong faith is the theme of this. Section.
So let's talk about strong faith. What is What is strong faith? We see verse 3 through 5. Timothy sent to strengthen and encourage their faith.
So that no one would be unsettled by these trials, verse 3. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we told you that we would be persecuted. For this reason, I could stand it no longer. I sinned to find out about your faith.
I was afraid the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain. A strong faith. stands firm. Strong faith stands Firm. The word in verse 3 for uh unsettled by these trials.
In the Greek, it's unsettled to move or to disturb, but it can also mean to deceitfully flatter. The way that a dog would like to wag its tail at you. Does anybody have dogs here? Just by show of hands, we all got dogs. Oh, I love.
Me, a dog. Oh. I dogs just they're they're they're cute, they're excited to see you, you know. Cats just think they run the place. Dogs want to be there.
Um Sorry if you guys have cats.
So, dogs get excited to see you. They wag their tail so hard, sometimes their whole rear end is shaking back and forth. It's cute, you know. And interestingly enough, a dog can shake, they can wag their tail so hard that they will sprain or fracture their tail from wagging it too hard. Because they just love you so much, they will sprain their tail for you.
It's called happy tail syndrome. It's the dumbest reason to go to the vet ever. You know, like, calm down. You see me every day. Um You know, but this image of a dog wagging its tail at you, it was a known Greek metaphor for a person trying to flatter you to get something out of you.
A person pretending to dote over you like an excited dog.
So it says, don't let these trials unsettle you or flatter you out of your faith. That's the connotation that we see in the Greek there. The Thessalonians were dealing with rumors and lies being spread, this mockery, ridicule, verbal attacks against them, dealing with direct confrontation. How? How is a believer supposed to be unmoved by all of this?
How is a believer supposed to be unsettled, unshaken? by this persecution that they're going through. How does doubt not Creep in.
Well, there's several things we must know. First, we are appointed persecution. The believer will suffer persecution. Paul told the Thessalonians this. Jesus tells us this.
We will be persecuted. Don't think because we're in America we are an exception. We will face persecution if we are following Jesus. We will be persecuted. That is because we are not of this world.
We are called out of the world. Believers are in the world, but not of the world.
So, I use this analogy in Wednesday night Bible study. If you think of a boat, You put a boat in water. It is in the water. Uh and you know it's floating on top. It's a boat.
It's doing what it's supposed to do. You ain't got any problems. The boat's floating in the water. That's what it was built to do.
Now, you might have problems if you try to drive the boat down the highway. In all of us, it's not meant to do that. That's not the purpose of it.
So, if you try to do that, you're going to have problems. It's not doing what it was designed to do. But you're also going to have problems if that boat is full of holes. And the water from the steep sea starts sinking in, and that boat starts sinking. Man, you got some problems now.
That boat ain't floating no more. It's the same thing with us. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. There's a level of separation. From the world.
Believers are persecuted because we demonstrate A life of righteousness. Being in the world, and it exposes the sins of the world to it. And a world the world doesn't know Christ. They're immersed in worldliness. They want no God other than themselves, only want to do what they desire.
God's not even in the picture.
So we will be persecuted for our difference. on this account. Lastly, we're persecuted because the world is deceived uh by their belief and conception of who God is. John 16, 1 through 4, it says, All this I told you so that you would not fall away. They would put you out of the synagogue.
In fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.
So the unbelieving world has God completely backwards. thinking he's the one that's gonna fulfill their Earthly desires, their lusts. The unbelieving world thinks God is a genie in the bottle or a distant grandfather in the clouds who's going to protect, provide, no matter what our behavior is. You know, God's going to work it all out in the end. We can sin, do as we please privately.
As long as you ask for forgiveness and just be vaguely nice to each other, you know, that's what Jesus taught: love, peace, prosperity, man. And it's like no. God does love you, but He will let you get burned so that you learn not to play with fire. And if you do it again, you're going to get burned again. How many times is it going to take to learn?
Yes, there's forgiveness. But forgiveness and freedom from consequences are not the same. You know? All sin has consequences. We play with fire, we get burned.
Sin is fire, it will burn and scar you, the people that you love.
So love God, love yourself, love people enough to put it down, you know, put the anger down, put the lust down. down, put the jealousy down and pursue righteousness. We are appointed persecution. The next thing we must know is that temptation comes from the tempter. Satan launches persecution against us to strike fear and to silence us.
He wants you to be quiet. He wants you to desert Jesus.
Now maybe that's by scaring us. with persecution. Maybe that's getting us to take the bait. To sin. Desert to desert willingly.
We must know that the temptation comes from the tempter. We also must know that the labor and message that comes from the minister is not empty. In the case of this letter, the minister is Paul. I guess in the case of this morning, I suppose I'm the minister. Crazy how that works.
Our message is the same. Jesus is the one and only Son of God who died for our sins so that we might not perish. Jesus purchased the right for us to have eternal life, to be reconciled to our Creator, and to be in the new heaven and new earth with God forever. But if we desert Jesus If we give up and leave, then this message ain't used to us. We must not give in to temptation, we must not be moved by afflictions.
No matter how severe.
Now, of course. There is forgiveness when we fail. There's forgiveness when we fall short. But forgiveness is not a crutch to hobble through life. Forgiveness is like training wheels.
We're supposed to learn how to ride righteously. Strong faith stands. Firm. It's not moved by afflictions, it's not moved by persecution. and it withstands temptation.
Verse six. 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.
So a strong faith A strong faith is loud and clear.
Now, that doesn't mean that you have to hoot and holler. It just means that a strong faith gives an excellent testimony. It's clear, it's understood. And Timothy returned to Paul with this glowing report of the Thessalonians' faith. They were standing fast in their faith.
They hadn't buckled under persecution, given into temptation. They were standing fast in love, ministering to the needs of those who would receive it spiritually and physically, the needs of their community. The Thessalonians remembered their minister Paul, and as much as Paul longed to see this church, they longed to see him back. A strong faith is Loud and clear. the strength of the faith will be obvious.
Verse 7 to 10. It says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live. Since you are standing firm in the Lord, how can we thank God enough for you? and return for all the joy that we have in the presence of our God.
Night and day, we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking. In your faith. A strong faith. will stir the hearts of the people. It stirs the heart of the pastor.
It stirs the heart of the believers alike. We see verse 7, the faith of the Of the testimony of believers, it was comforting to Paul who needed comforting.
Now, Paul was in Corinth when Timothy came back with this glowing report of their faith, and he had been going through. Fierce persecution. himself He had been dragged to stand before Roman court and he was brutally beaten, even though the court was, you know, he was released.
So, Paul, you know, he says, in all our distress and all our persecution, this is very likely what he's referring to. Paul was undergoing his own persecution, he was undergoing his own discouragement. But the testimony of the Thessalonians Strengthened and encouraged him. You know, their faith in Christ was helping Paul in his time of doubt. Man, if they can deal with this, if they can go through persecution and they have faith in God that way, man, I can do it too.
If they can do it, I can do it too.
Now there's a lesson in that. Our faith Is used by God to strengthen and encourage others. It gives others hope.
Now, we can't always schedule when that's going to happen, so it's best that we stand firm in our faith at all times.
So it says verse 8: For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. The strong faith of the Thessalonians. you know, had stirred this sense of renewed life. and purpose in Paul. He had not been defeated but deeply discouraged in this time, and their faith: man, if they can do it, I can bear this too.
Oh no!
Now they had no way of knowing their faith would be an encouragement to him in this way, they're just being obedient. We really never know how our strength of faith is going to be an encouragement to others either.
So it's best to always stand firm. And face.
So just imagine having this privilege that the Thessalonians had. Like they got to be an encouragement. To Paul. in one of his most stressful times. I mean, I guess that would be like bumping into Billy Graham at a gas station.
You know, and he's all discouraged, down on his luck, and you remind him: hey, God's in control, and he's got this.
Now, of course, Billy Graham's time has passed, but every church believer has the privilege. of encouraging their pastor. They're elders, and let me just tell you guys: I certainly am not perfect, I am not invincible, and I do need your encouragement. Verse 9: How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we have in the presence of God because of you? The testimony of the church's faith stirred up this great joy in Paul.
And of course it did. Paul loved this church like his own child. And to see his child grow strong and the faith out of such the greatest joy. Then we see verse 10 that the strong faith of the Thessalonians stirred Paul to prayer. for them.
Prayer for fellowship and for their personal growth. In Christ.
Now Paul deeply longed to be with this church so he could continue to grow with them. He wanted to see them continue to grow strong and work out whatever weaknesses they had. And this is the ultimate heart of the shepherd to proclaim and teach Christ. until the flock is perfected into the image of Christ. Strong faith.
will stir the heart. of the people.
So in conclusion. The Thessalonian church, they are the model church. It means there's a bunch of things they're getting right that we can learn from. This week we've been looking at how the Thessalonians had a strong faith.
Now there's several markers to having a strong faith in this passage. And those are A strong faith. stands firm. It is not swayed by temptation or persecution. Strong faith is loud and clear.
It gives an excellent testimony. It speaks for itself. A strong faith stirs the heart of the people. It stirs us to comfort. Joy.
and pray. That's pretty much it. Hey there. I hope this sermon has enriched your day. If you like this message, I want to personally invite you to join us for Sunday worship.
We have two locations in Virginia, Trinity Methodist Church in Concord and Mount Comfort Methodist Church in Appomattox. Come join us Sunday morning at 9.45 and we will help you get connected. As always, I'm Pastor Wyatt Hudd. Thank you for tuning in.
