Intro:
1. Spurgeon, “I bear willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord’s workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my schoolroom is darkened, I see the most.”
2. We may prefer a painless life, but it’s in the fiery trials of life that we grow and learn the most.
3. God’s Best Teacher – Professor Pain!
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 (NKJV)
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We are bound 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,
4 so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure,
5 which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer;
6 since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you,
7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,
8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,
10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
11 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power,
12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I. First, Congratulations for their Progress. 1:3-5
A. The Expressions of their progress. 1-4a
1. Godward – faith.
2. Manward – love.
3. Onward – perseverance.
This is an answer to prayer. I Thess. 3:10,12
Hiebert, “Your faith, denotes the personal confidence and absolute trust Godward…The present tense records that their love is continually increasing, overflowing its normal limits like a river…The growing faith and increasing love of the Thessalonians was a direct answer to the prayers of the missionaries. In the first epistle both were mentioned as a matter that needed improvement and were receiving attention in their prayers for the readers. Now they record their thanksgiving to God that the prayers have been answered.”
B. The Environment of this progress. 4b
1. Persecution – “to be pursued.”
2. Pressure – that’s what affliction means.
This shows us that we can grow spiritually no matter how much pressure we are under.
Hudson Taylor, “It doesn’t matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is where the pressure lies, whether it comes between you and God or whether it presses you nearer His heart.
If we just keep God between us and our pressure we will grow, but if we focus on the pressure and keep it between us and God we will become discouraged.
C. The Evidence of God’s righteous judgment. 5
1. The Witness of God’s righteous judgment should be plain in our persecution. How does it work?
Morris, “To us the fact of suffering seems to deny rather than to prove that God is working out His righteous purpose. But the NT does not look on suffering in quite the same way as do most modern people. To us it is in itself an evil but in the good providence of God suffering is often the means of working out God’s eternal purpose.
It develops in the sufferer qualities of character. It teaches us valuable lessons.”
1 Peter 1:6-7 (NKJV)
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,
7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
Romans 5:3-4 (NKJV)
3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
When I was going through Basic Training in the Military I thought the drill sergeant was mean, unreasonable and unfair. Push-ups, running, Sir yes sir this and that, and no need to ask questions.
But suppose I had ended up in a combat situation, and then I would have seen the righteous judgment of all that suffering. We are in a war! Suffering prepares us to be a good soldier in the battle.
2. The Worth – are we really made worthy by suffering? No…and yes.
No – “Endurance in trials does not make one worthy of heaven; one does not earn heaven by suffering. But endurance in trials does demonstrate one’s worthiness. A Christian is made worthy by God’s grace, his trial simply expose what is there already and continually develops character.” [Constable]
Yes – Imagine Sam Walton, who by his hard work and endurance built Wall Mart from scratch, now let’s say that he has a son and he decides to make him president of Wall Mart. He is worthy by way of relationship not by personal merit.
Ok, now suppose that instead of just giving him the position, Sam puts him to work sweeping floors at Wall Mart. Even though he has the promise of one day being President, he is told to work his way from the bottom up. Thus he would be worthy not only by relationship but by endurance.
But keep in mind without the relationship all the work in the world would be worthless.
II. Next, the Consolation for Persecution. 6-10
A. There will be Vindication. 6-10
God is going to settle the score one of these days! Deut. 32:35/Psa.73/Rom.12:19
2 Thessalonians 1:5-9 (MSG)
5 All this trouble is a clear sign that God has decided to make you fit for the kingdom. You're suffering now,
6 but justice is on the way. When the Master Jesus appears out of heaven in a blaze of fire with his strong angels, he'll even up the score by settling accounts with those who gave you such a bad time.
7 His coming will be the break we've been waiting for.
8 Those who refuse to know God and refuse to obey the Message will pay for what they've done.
9 Eternal exile from the presence of the Master and his splendid power is their sentence.
B. There will be Glorification. 10
1. When? At the Second Coming of Christ.
2. Who? Christ will be glorified.
3. Where? In His saints.
4. What? What will people admire or marvel at? God’s grace! We are going to be trophies of grace not of goodness.
Spurgeon, “He is glorified in them now but as yet that glory is perceptible to Himself rather than to the outer world. In that Day, Christ will be glorified in the saints and admired. Who will see this glory? First, His people will see it, every believer will admire Christ Himself. He will say, “What a wonder that such a poor creature as I am should be thus perfected.
Furthermore, you shall see your brother and sister and be filled with wonderment, gratitude, and delight. You will be free from all envy then, and thus admire the Lords handiwork in others as in ourselves.
Next, the holy angels will stand by and look and wonder. Finally, Satan and his defeated legions, and the lost will bite their lips with envy and rage and marvel at Gods handiwork”
III. Finally, the Continuation of the Pressure. 11-12
His prayer is not for the suffering to cease, it is not a name it and clam it, or a prayer for health and wealth.
At Moody Bible Institute a preacher shared a story from his youth. He use to consider himself the greatest checker player in the world. But once he was playing an old man who had a reputation for being unbeatable.
As they began the young man saw one opportunity after another to take another checker. He thought, “Doesn’t this old man know he can’t win by losing!” Then suddenly the old man leaned over and…click, click, click, five pieces are gone and the dreaded words, “Crown me!”
He said, “I learned that day the value of losing something now, so as to be crowned later!
Con:
1. Perhaps you have done business with Professor Pain this very week. Just remember this; he is by far the greatest teacher on the planet.
William F. Buckley in an interview was told, “As an old man, Bill, looking back on one’s life, its one of the things that strikes you most forcibly – that the only thing that’s taught one anything is suffering. Not success, not happiness, not anything like that. The only thing that really teaches one what life’s about – the joy of understanding, the joy of coming in contact with what life really signifies – is suffering affliction.”
Johnny Palmer Jr
www.strugglingthruscriptures.ning.com
www.blogtalkradio.com/strugglingthruscriptures
