Introduction:
A. How many of you had growing pains when you were growing up?
1. I remember going to my mom as a little boy and I would describe some pain I was having in my leg or my side.
2. Usually, she would look it over, ask a few questions about it, then say, “Well, it’s probably just growing pains.”
3. I’m sure that if the pains persisted she would have had it looked into by a doctor.
4. But the pains usually went away quickly and so I guess they were just growing pains.
B. In truth, growth is painful.
1. It is amazing to think about how much change has to take place for us to grow from a newborn to a full-grown adult.
2. We start out at about 20 inches tall and then the average American adult grows to 5 feet 4 ½ inches tall (that’s 64 ½ inches). And that’s over three times bigger than we started.
3. A 7 foot tall man is 84 inches tall, which is four times bigger than he started.
C. Growing spiritually can also be painful.
1. When we first become Christians, we are like newborns, and there is a lot of growth that must take place before we will be full-grown spiritual adults.
2. Unfortunately, spiritual growth can be stunted.
3. Spiritual growth often comes in spurts, but is best when it happens over the long haul.
D. In the hot tropical rain forests, huge plants and trees grow quickly, sometimes almost overnight.
1. But these trees have soft wood, and they fall prey to insects and diseases and live only a short time.
2. In the rugged mountains, however, growth is slow.
3. Plants and trees must endure high winds, and intense cold, but they grow strong and tough with knotty, hard wood.
4. Spiritual hardships and lessons have value we often can’t appreciate at the time, but they can make us grow strong over the course of time.
E. As we turn our attention to our text from 1 Thessalonians and our sermon series from the letters to the Thessalonians, let’s be reminded of what we have learned so far.
1. Paul went to Thessalonica on his second missionary journey and helped plant the church in that city.
2. Unfortunately, because of persecution, Paul was forced to leave after only a few weeks.
3. Nevertheless, the Thessalonians quickly became a model church because of their faithful service, their open receptivity, and their evangelistic influence.
4. In our last sermon, we learned that the Thessalonians had become a model church because Paul had conducted a model ministry while he was with him.
5. That model ministry included Paul ministering as a faithful steward, a loving mother, and a concerned father.
F. Today we want to notice how this model church and model ministry had to face growing pains.
1. It was not easy to be a Christian in Thessalonica, and it was not easy for Paul to minister in those first century cities.
2. Those early Christians and missionaries faced persecution and suffering.
3. Yet in the midst of what they faced, they also experienced growth and joy.
4. Let’s spend some time exploring and applying the text to see what we can learn about the spiritual growing pains we face.
I. Exploring the Text
A. I Thessalonians 2:13 - 13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
1. Paul had already expressed his appreciation for the Thessalonians when he opened his letter saying, “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.” (1:2)
2. Here Paul wants to share the reason he had to constantly thank God for them.
3. What was that reason? It was the way that the Thessalonians had received the word of God.
4. When Paul, Silas and Timothy had brought them the word of God, the Thessalonians could clearly see that what they preached was not the word of man, but was indeed the word of God.
5. The word that Paul used when he said they “accepted it” implies an inward welcome and embracing, not just a surface acceptance.
6. Unlike the words of men, the Word of God is not empty, nor powerless.
7. So Paul pointed out that this Word of God was at work in those who believed.
B. 1 Thessalonians 2:14 - 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews,
1. Paul had already commended them for imitating him and his co-workers, and now he expands his commendation by saying that they also imitated the believers in Judea.
2. How could these Christians be imitators of Christians in Judea whom they have never seen or known?
a. First of all, Paul had probably told them about the churches in Judea, and the suffering they faced at his own hands.
b. Second, the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying and empowering work was making the Thessalonian church a duplicate of His work in Judea, in the way that both churches dealt with the persecution they faced.
3. So those in Judea faced persecution yet grew through it, and the Thessalonians followed their example and did the same.
C. 1 Thessalonians 2:15 - 16 - 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men 16 in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.
1. This is a very interesting couple of verses as Paul draws up kind of a catalogue of the errors and sins of the Jews.
2. Some people have been so uncomfortable with these verses that they have tried to reject them or somehow tone them down so as not to create anti-semitism.
3. Certainly there is no place in the Christian faith for anti-Semitism.
4. Certainly Paul was not anti-Semitic. He loved his fellow Jews and sought to help them.
a. In Romans 9, Paul described his anguish of heart over the people of Israel and expressed his willingness to be cursed and cut off from Christ if it would lead to Israel’s salvation.
5. Ultimately, Paul was not expressing any kind of religious bigotry toward the Jews, but was just being truthful.
a. The Jews had a long history of rejecting anyone who brought God’s Word to them.
b. 2 Chronicles 24:19 says: “Although the LORD sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.”
6. Take a look at the list of their sins that Paul gives:
a. They killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets.
b. They persecuted Christians.
c. They did not try to please God.
d. They were hostile to all men.
7. The result of all of that was that their sins stacked up to the limit.
a. There is a well-defined point at which people reach the limit of their sins.
b. The world reached that limit in Genesis 6 when the Lord sent the flood to rid the earth of sinful humankind and started over with Noah and his family.
c. The same limit was reached in Genesis 18 with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
d. When Jesus assessed the state of the Pharisees of His day in Matthew 23, the said: “So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!” (vs. 31-32)
8. Paul was so certain that divine wrath would come that he expressed the notion as if it had already occurred.
a. Historically, it had occurred at least partially in the Babylonian exile.
b. It was about to occur again in the destruction of Jerusalem that would take place in 70 A.D. about 20 years in the future at the time of this letter.
c. But primarily the expression points to the condemnation that will take place at the final judgment for those who have rejected God and His Son, Jesus.
D. I Thessalonians 2:17-18: 17 But, brothers, when we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. 18 For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan stopped us.
1. In his letters, Paul often described his strong love for his fellow believers.
2. In this passage we see Paul’s deep affection breathed into every word, and even across the centuries, we can still feel the throb of his love in these sentences.
3. The phrase “when we were torn away from you” employs a powerful image – one of a parent bereft of a deceased child, or a child who is orphaned from its deceased parents.
a. That’s how Paul felt about his premature separation from the Thessalonians.
4. But even though Paul was not able to go back, he never really left them in his thoughts.
a. He thought about them and prayed for them all the time.
b. And he took the time to write them the two letters that are a part of the Bible.
5. Paul wanted them to know that he tried to come to them numerous times, but that Satan stopped him.
a. Here Paul used a military metaphor to describe Satan’s activity.
b. The term he used literally describes an army that sets up a roadblock in order to impede the enemy, or who breaks up the road to make it impossible to travel on.
c. We don’t know specifically what Satan did to keep Paul from going back.
d. It could have been opposition, or legal difficulties, or illness, or travel complications, or just direct spiritual attack.
e. Whatever it was, Paul attributed the blockade it to Satan, rather than to God like when God kept him from going in certain directions earlier in that missionary journey.
E. Paul finished up this section with these words: 19 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? 20 Indeed, you are our glory and joy.
1. Paul spoke of the Thessalonians as being his crown.
a. In the Greek there are two words used for crown.
b. One word is diadema which is used almost exclusively for the royal crown.
c. The other word is stephanos which is used almost exclusively for the victor’s crown awarded to someone who is victorious in some contest.
d. Which word do you think Paul used here? The second – the victor’s crown.
2. Paul’s greatest hope, his most joyful aspiration, and his crowning achievement was to see men, women and children in the presence of the Lord Jesus when He comes in His glory and to know that he played a part in leading them to salvation.
II. Applying the Text
A. Let’s spend a few moments drawing four important lessons out of the text about how to grow spiritually through our growing pains.
B. First, It is critical that we allow the Word of God to be at work in us.
1. Look again at verse 13: 13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
2. Allowing the Word of God to be at work in us begins with believing that the Bible is what it is – the very Word of God.
3. One of mankind’s biggest temptations has always been the temptation to redefine and reinterpret the clear Word of God.
a. The first sin in the history of the world was the sin of calling into question what God actually said.
b. The question we must continually ask is “What does God say?” Not “What do I think?”
c. It is not our puny logic that matters. What matters is God’s revelation!
4. I’m guessing that every one of us in this room have at one time or another, has tried to wiggle our way out from under the authority of Scripture in order to do what we wanted to do, or to get out of doing what we didn’t want to do.
5. There is nothing more important to our growth and life as Christians that to properly handle the Word of God.
a. We must believe it and accept it as the Word of God.
b. We must treasure it and value it.
c. We must devour and ingest it so that the Word is in our hearts and minds.
d. And we must obey it and put it into practice.
6. I was convicted when I read about a young blind girl from France who was given the Gospel of Mark in braille.
a. She was so excited and read it so much that the tips of her fingers became very calloused and she could no longer feel the raised characters.
b. In an effort to deal with this problem she attempted to cut off the callouses from the tips of her fingers, but that only made the problem worse.
c. She started crying because now she couldn’t read the Bible at all.
d. As she wept, she pressed the Scriptures to her lips, and to her surprise she realized that her lips were more sensitive than her fingers, and she realized that she could read with her lips.
e. She spent the night moving her lips along the raised letters of her Bible.
7. How much do you love and desire God’s Word?
8. Oh that we would love and desire God’s Word that much! Amen!
9. Our spiritual growth is directly linked to allowing God’s Word to work in us.
B. Second, It is critical that we take seriously the sin that is within us.
1. In the text today, Paul described the sins of the Jews and how they had reached a limit and that the wrath of God had come upon them.
2. How many of us today lack a proper fear of the wrath of God?
a. How many of us today treat our sin casually?
b. How many of us are concerned about the sins we keep on committing?
c. How many of us are concerned about the sins that result from the things we are omitting.
3. This takes us back again to the issue of the Word of God – What does it say?
4. Are God’s commands just some nice holy suggestions – to be taken or left at our discretion?
5. Or are God commands and our breaking of them a serious problem that must be addressed?
6. Certainly we must praise and thank God for His forgiveness and for salvation by grace, but these are not an excuse from repentance – from real change.
7. Satan is working hard to destroy us by tempting us to minimize and rationalize our sin.
8. If he can keep us from taking our sin seriously enough to do something about it, then he has won an important victory.
9. The last thing we want is for our sins to reach the limit and to face the wrath of God.
C. Third, It is critical that we overcome the obstacles Satan puts before us.
1. While Satan has the power to hinder and frustrate the work of God’s servants, he can only operate within the confines of what God permits him to do.
a. We must trust that God somehow uses the devil to accomplish His own purposes.
2. God continues to allow Satan to oppose the kingdom of God in a variety of ways.
a. He is allowed to tempt us, and to oppose us.
b. Satan is allowed to perform counterfeit miracles.
c. He is allowed to deceive, and perpetuate lies.
d. His most important targets are often the leaders of God’s church.
3. Ultimately, Satan wants to thwart the progress of God’s kingdom as much as an army seeks to disrupt the advance of an opposing army.
4. Do you realize that we are at war? Do you take seriously the fact that a spiritual war is being battled every day in your life?
5. It is helpful to realize that we are not alone in the battle.
a. God’s people have always faced Satan’s destructive obstacles.
b. Persecution and struggle simply go with the territory.
6. We must be armed for battle and not let anything stop us.
7. If it is Satan’s work to throw obstacles in our way, then it is our work to surmount them and we grow through the process.
D. Finally, It is critical that we keep our eyes on the prize that is ahead of us.
1. I told you when we started this series that this would be a reoccurring theme, because it is one that Paul keeps bringing up.
2. Even though the adversary is against us, we have something to look forward to - the rewards of heaven.
3. For the Christian, the best is yet to come.
4. Paul looked ahead by faith and saw his friends in the presence of God in glory.
5. In times of trouble and testing, it is so important that we take the long view of things.
6. Paul’s hopes involved a future tense even though he lived in the present.
a. He knew that one day Jesus would return and reward him for his faithful ministry, and that on that day, the saints from Thessalonica would bring glory to God and joy to Paul’s heart.
7. The day of Judgment is coming for all of us, and when it comes, what will we have to show for our Christian lives?
a. A good job? A college degree? A nice family? Lots of friends? A good reputation? All these things are good things, certainly.
b. But it was Howard Hendricks who said: “Only two things in this world are eternal – the Word of God and people. It only makes sense to build your life around those things that will last forever.”
8. If that’s the case, then we better make sure the Bible is in us and that we’re investing our lives in people.
9. Our goal in life should be to go to heaven and take as many people as possible with us.
10. How wonderful it will be to be with God in heaven and to share eternity with those we helped get there!
E. If we are serious about growing through our growing pains, then we will work on these four things:
1. We will allow the Word of God to be at work in us.
2. We will take seriously the sin that is within us.
3. We will overcome the obstacles Satan puts before us.
4. We will keep our eyes on the prize that is ahead of us.
F. Do you feel like you are going through some growing pains right now? If so, then…
1. Don’t be discouraged – we all go through it at one time or another.
2. Don’t be afraid – God is with you always, and so are we.
3. Don’t give up – It will all be worth it in the end. God guarantees it!
Resources:
The NIV Application Commentary, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Michael W. Holmes, Zondervan, 1998.
The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, John MacArthur, Moody, 2002.
The Bible Exposition Commentary, 1 Thessalonians, Warren W. Wiersbe, Victor Books, 1989.
The Daily Study Bible Series, 1 Thessalonians, William Barclay, Westminster Press, 1975.
Growing Pains, Sermon by Brian Bill, SermonCentral.com
The Life Changing Word of God, Sermon by Marc Axelrod, SermonCentral.com
