WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.320 Okay, we're going to look back for a few minutes this morning at Thessalonians, if you've 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:11.519 got it in your Bibles in front of you, then it's great. 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:16.359 If not, maybe you can put it up on the screens for some of the time, because we're kind of 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:19.000 looking at the passages anyway. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:25.440 So it's 1 Thessalonians 2 from verse 17 through to chapter 3. 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:27.440 Oh, you can't actually put it on the screen. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:29.960 Well, you can, but we'll get rid of my face, which is a good thing. 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:33.679 Anyway, yeah, see it's there as well. 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:41.000 So just to go back to what we have looked at, so if I remember, this is a church, a 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:47.799 new church in Thessalonica, and it was set up by three church planters, Paul, the Apostle 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:53.560 Paul Timothy and Sylvainus or Silas, and they went and preached the gospel there, and there 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:58.679 was a small church, it was formed, people from all kinds of different backgrounds. 00:00:58.679 --> 00:01:04.840 But there was also quite a lot of opposition, and the opposition really drove Paul, the 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:08.439 three church planters out of Thessalonica, they couldn't stay anymore. 00:01:08.439 --> 00:01:16.200 So Paul wrote this letter, as we'll see, he was desperate to find out how they were getting 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:21.680 on, and so he wrote this letter because he'd sent Timothy back, and Timothy had come with 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:22.680 a good report. 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:25.079 We're not going to look at the good report today, that's for next week. 00:01:25.079 --> 00:01:30.879 So there'll be a bit of anticipation for next week to hear what Timothy said. 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:37.200 But Paul wrote this letter in response to Timothy's report, and as part of God's living 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:41.359 word, because remember we saw that in chapter one, that it's not just the word of Paul, 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:42.680 it's the living word of God. 00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:48.120 So it remains absolutely relevant and vital for our lives, so God's breathed it and God's 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:53.640 given it, so it's not just for Thessalonica, it's not just a kind of important piece of 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:59.200 history, which it is, but it's a living word, God is breathed into it, so it still speaks 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:01.239 to us in our lives today. 00:02:01.239 --> 00:02:06.960 And we've been looking very much at the foundations, the apostolic foundations of the church, that 00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:12.920 the church is founded on Jesus and the apostles, their teaching and the prophets, the teaching 00:02:12.920 --> 00:02:20.639 of the Old Testament, basically telling us that the Bible is the foundation, and Jesus 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:26.159 as the Bible, as it were, in the flesh, Jesus, the person of Jesus, that's the foundation 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:28.000 of our faith as Christians. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:35.359 Still is, nothing changes, and that's why it's so important for us. 00:02:35.359 --> 00:02:41.439 So many of you will have read over the last few days, and some of you may, because of 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:49.359 your connections with the States, many of you may have closer connections with the tragic 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:55.320 building collapse in Miami, and that was in the press here quite a lot, and rightly so. 00:02:55.320 --> 00:03:03.280 It was hugely tragic that people in an ordinary, what we would call a set of flat, set of apartments, 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:07.440 went to their beds at night and they died. 00:03:07.440 --> 00:03:14.640 They didn't see the morning because the building catastrophically collapsed. 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:21.479 And as with all these things, once the immediate urgency of the situation has gone, and questions 00:03:21.479 --> 00:03:27.199 are asked, and of course it seems to have been the case that the foundations were never 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:30.119 right in that building. 00:03:30.119 --> 00:03:34.119 And that is ultimately what caused it, and that was brought to people's attention, but 00:03:34.119 --> 00:03:40.560 people didn't act on it at the time, never thinking of course that anything as brutal 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:43.639 as what happened did. 00:03:43.639 --> 00:03:49.879 But that reality that's been in our newspapers and our social media over the last number 00:03:49.879 --> 00:03:58.639 of weeks is a really strong illustration of the importance of good foundations in building 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:00.639 work, obviously. 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:06.000 But that's the same picture that Jesus has used, particularly in Ephesians 2, where he 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:12.560 speaks about our faith being founded on the apostles and the prophets, and also the Lord 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:16.199 Jesus Christ as the foundation stone. 00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:23.120 And that remains really significant for us, that we recognize that the apostles are unique 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:27.360 because they were witnesses, eyewitnesses of Jesus. 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:33.920 They received teaching from Jesus, and Paul as one untimely born was the one who was ushered 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:39.360 into the presence of Jesus and received the teaching of Jesus for the church, with Jesus 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:42.279 as the foundation of truth in the flesh. 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:46.719 And that remains our foundation, it's really important that we remember that because it 00:04:46.719 --> 00:04:51.399 heightens the significance of knowing and understanding Jesus as He's revealed in the 00:04:51.399 --> 00:04:57.319 Word and the teaching that we follow because we've been transformed in our hearts. 00:04:57.319 --> 00:05:00.559 And so the question we ask today is how, again, is how do we live? 00:05:00.559 --> 00:05:02.639 How do we live our lives? 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:04.479 In whom is it that we put our trust? 00:05:04.479 --> 00:05:05.599 Who do we imitate? 00:05:05.599 --> 00:05:10.359 Because Paul speaks a lot about imitating Him as He imitated Christ. 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:15.759 What is, if you took a moment just to think about your own life, what is the foundation 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:16.759 of your life? 00:05:16.759 --> 00:05:20.080 And I know if you're Christians here, you'll say, well, of course Jesus is the foundation 00:05:20.080 --> 00:05:21.080 of my life. 00:05:21.080 --> 00:05:22.080 And that's great. 00:05:22.080 --> 00:05:26.520 But what does that mean, and what does that look like, and how do we model that? 00:05:26.520 --> 00:05:30.360 And if you're not a Christian, then that is an important question as well, because we 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:36.680 all found, we all base our lives on certain things, on certain truths, on certain ways 00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:38.879 of thinking. 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:45.519 And God is saying that how we've, the foundation of our life impacts the whole building of 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:50.680 our life as long as we live for all of its existence. 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:56.120 So you know, for me as a preacher, the most important thing for me and for the congregation 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:58.839 is that we have the foundations right. 00:05:58.839 --> 00:06:05.439 And that's kind of a lifelong experience as well, which sounds a bit paradoxical, I know. 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:10.399 But as the family of God, we're always wanting to assure ourselves that our foundations are 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:11.399 in the right place. 00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:12.920 We're thinking in the right way. 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:15.480 We're trusting in the right person. 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:20.920 We're imitating our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that's how we live our lives. 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:24.639 And within that, there's that huge principle that we've mentioned before last couple of 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:25.639 weeks. 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:33.639 With Christ as the cornerstone of our lives as Christians, as those who follow Jesus, 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:36.000 we recognize that He is the truth. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.519 But He is the truth become flesh. 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:42.719 He's the truth in a body. 00:06:42.719 --> 00:06:44.639 He's the truth in a person. 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:50.519 It's not just an academic ascent in our brains to things. 00:06:50.519 --> 00:07:00.039 We recognize Jesus who walked on the earth and who exemplified divine love for us. 00:07:00.039 --> 00:07:02.719 Love is not a theoretical concept. 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:10.440 It is made clear in the person of Jesus Christ who came, who lived, who died on our behalf, 00:07:10.440 --> 00:07:18.480 who rose again on the third day to eternally restore a relationship to Him as we put our 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:22.920 trust in Him because we were lost and separated. 00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:30.400 And so as that same truth is one that we, is the foundation of our lives as Christians. 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:34.719 It's not just that, oh, I'm a Christian because I believe A, B and C. 00:07:34.719 --> 00:07:38.839 I read it in the Bible here, or I ascent to this truth. 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:42.159 Being a Christian is saying, I live A, B and C. 00:07:42.159 --> 00:07:47.199 I, I example of what it is to imitate Jesus Christ. 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:51.679 The truth that you hear today, and you know, I think sometimes it's still very cerebral 00:07:51.679 --> 00:07:55.159 the way we do it, the way that I speak and you listen. 00:07:55.159 --> 00:07:59.479 But I think we can still be very active in that through the Spirit of God and be taking 00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:03.040 it and applying it into our own lives. 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:07.680 What I don't see is you as Christians, you're taking that word that you hear and that is 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:12.280 in your brain from the Bible, and you're soaking it down into your body and it's moving into 00:08:12.280 --> 00:08:18.160 your hands and into your feet and into your eyes and into your mouth so that it transforms 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:19.160 who we are. 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:21.520 We are incarnating ourselves. 00:08:21.520 --> 00:08:23.720 We're making flesh the truth. 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:27.040 That's the foundation of our Christian lives. 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:32.279 And that's the foundation of our church, is that we live the truth. 00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:37.600 We live the truth not just loving Jesus but loving one another. 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:46.240 You know the worst thing in the world possibly is an orthodox but cold church that believes 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:52.159 intellectual truth about Jesus, doctrine, but never takes that doctrine and allows it 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:57.919 to break their heart and have their heart remolded because that's what the gospel does 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:00.719 and that's what the gospel is, the code of our faith. 00:09:00.719 --> 00:09:05.559 It's never a lifeless dogma or a disembodied doctrine. 00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:12.519 It is the word living in us, divine love transforming us and changing us and we let him breathe 00:09:12.519 --> 00:09:13.519 into our lives. 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:20.000 That's why it's been so good to sing because it's an expression. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:27.320 And it just reminds me of how inadequate it's been to sit and watch it and how good it is 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:28.320 that we... 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:32.799 And even as we worship that you're listening and you're drawing the truth from me because 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:38.399 you've prayed and you've asked God to speak to you today, the living word from His truth, 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:40.080 the Bible. 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:44.159 So what's the truth particularly that I want to share with you from this passage today? 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:48.240 This is a very important foundational truth and you'll not be happy that I'm going to 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:55.080 share this one today, but it is that following Jesus is a hard road. 00:09:55.080 --> 00:09:56.360 That's a foundational truth. 00:09:56.360 --> 00:09:57.680 It was for Paul. 00:09:57.680 --> 00:10:06.039 It obviously was for Jesus who is our Savior and Lord and we follow and recognize that to 00:10:06.039 --> 00:10:09.759 a degree we imitate Him. 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:11.799 It's the best life, isn't it? 00:10:11.799 --> 00:10:16.240 It's the right road to walk on, but it's not easy. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:22.840 We are healed by Jesus Christ, but we are still being healed. 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:27.680 It's a spiritual war zone where the victory is assured because of what Jesus has done, 00:10:27.680 --> 00:10:35.879 but we're still called to fight because Christ has come to dwell in bodies that still have 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:37.399 sinning in them. 00:10:37.399 --> 00:10:43.879 We're still in recovery as it were, and we live in a broken world with fractured relationships. 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:46.320 We see that in the church, don't we? 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:47.320 Fractured relationships. 00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:51.919 See in our family, difficult, sometimes in our marriage, sometimes in just in our work, 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:57.600 there's fractured relationships and it's hard to follow Christ in that relationship. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:02.080 And what we often do is we find it really easy then to just accuse God and question 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.919 Him, question His goodness, question that He doesn't care for me. 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:07.360 Well, we have God loves me. 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:11.759 Surely it would be like a really great life now if I'm following Him and serving Him. 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:13.480 Isn't that what blessing means? 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:16.720 Is He not going to give me a kind of sense of heaven today? 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:20.240 Life, if I'm following Jesus, shouldn't it be easy? 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:26.840 Can I not be happy if I'm following Jesus at least my standard pain-free, full of my 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:33.519 kind of pleasures because the living God has come to dwell in me? 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:39.440 But we need to remember that this life and the way we live today is not how it's meant 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:42.360 to be and it's not how it's going to be in the future. 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:44.480 It's temporary. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:51.320 And remember in this life, now this is very important, when has true love, when has true 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:53.720 love ever run smooth? 00:11:53.720 --> 00:11:55.800 When has true love ever been easy? 00:11:55.800 --> 00:11:57.279 You know that, don't you? 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:04.039 And I know that, that when we love, it's costly and it's sacrificial. 00:12:04.039 --> 00:12:06.480 It never runs smooth. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:10.120 In this life, in our relationships, you know, we find that, don't we? 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:16.200 How much more then, when we are loved with a perfect love, a divine love, how much more 00:12:16.200 --> 00:12:24.120 is that love and the cost of that love going to make life difficult for us because of our 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:26.120 own imperfections? 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:29.840 If your Christianity today, if you've come to church and your Christianity up to now 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:36.560 has been really easy, if it's been a walk in the park, then I would have to ask the 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:42.039 question of you, have you allowed the gospel to sink into your heart? 00:12:42.039 --> 00:12:49.959 Because if the gospel is sunk into our hearts, then that's going to be costly because true 00:12:49.959 --> 00:12:53.799 love always is costly. 00:12:53.799 --> 00:13:00.159 And we're faced with recognizing this Christ who, in the light of the cross and his commitment 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:07.079 to us, how can we doubt the depth of his love? 00:13:07.079 --> 00:13:10.879 How can we doubt his good purposes for us? 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:15.719 So I'm going to mention a couple of things. 00:13:15.719 --> 00:13:18.000 Well, actually, three things. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:22.519 Now, I try not to do three things because you all think that sermons are always three 00:13:22.519 --> 00:13:23.519 points. 00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:24.519 But I can't help it. 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:27.559 It's just the three things that come out of this short passage. 00:13:27.559 --> 00:13:30.959 Three things that make life hard for a Christian. 00:13:30.959 --> 00:13:32.599 First is anxiety. 00:13:32.599 --> 00:13:34.119 The second is spiritual attack. 00:13:34.119 --> 00:13:35.119 And the third is persecution. 00:13:35.119 --> 00:13:36.559 I'm going to look at these briefly. 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:37.559 The first is anxiety. 00:13:37.559 --> 00:13:41.679 Look at Paul here in chapter 17 and verse 3. 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:46.559 For since we were torn away from you brothers in a short time and not in person, we endeavored 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:50.879 all the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face. 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:58.799 And then in verse 1 of chapter 3, therefore, when we couldn't bear it any longer, we were 00:13:58.799 --> 00:13:59.960 willing to be left behind. 00:13:59.960 --> 00:14:03.360 And then verse 5 he says, I couldn't bear it any longer. 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:05.080 So I sent to find out about your faith. 00:14:05.080 --> 00:14:09.559 And the whole tone of that passage, which I try to get across when we were reading, was 00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:14.639 that Paul is really kind of anxious about the fact that he's had to leave this young 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:16.399 church behind. 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:18.759 And he can't do anything for them. 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:19.960 And he longs to be with them. 00:14:19.960 --> 00:14:22.879 He's unhappy about that and he's frustrated. 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:24.200 And it's eating away at him. 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:26.000 It's kind of gnawing away at him. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:27.519 He couldn't bear it any longer. 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:31.879 He's worrying about this young church, worrying that he can't be there to teach them and 00:14:31.879 --> 00:14:33.879 to protect them and help them. 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:35.519 And he's anxious. 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:36.519 I think that comes across. 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:37.519 He's really anxious. 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:38.519 He's an apostle. 00:14:38.519 --> 00:14:44.879 He's an apostle anxious, surely not. 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:46.800 But it's perfectly natural, isn't it? 00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:50.159 When he became an apostle, he didn't cease to be human. 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:53.079 He didn't stop being anxious in his life. 00:14:53.079 --> 00:14:57.719 He recognized because he cared that anxieties would come. 00:14:57.719 --> 00:15:03.559 And he recognized that he was in a battle and that there was things he couldn't control 00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:06.719 and there were circumstances that fed his anxiety. 00:15:06.719 --> 00:15:09.719 And he was surely, presumably he was praying really good prayers. 00:15:09.719 --> 00:15:14.399 You know, he was praying, let me go back to that people that the church that I planted 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:15.399 that you saved. 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:20.480 I mean, it wasn't like he was selfish, but he was anxious. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:25.000 And isn't that the same for us in our lives that there's so much anxiety in our lives? 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:31.159 Because we're out of control of circumstances, unwanted circumstances, frustrations that 00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:35.600 our plans don't work out as we want them to do, even good plans, even spiritual plans 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:37.720 that we've committed to God in prayer. 00:15:37.720 --> 00:15:40.120 And we think our prayers aren't getting answered. 00:15:40.120 --> 00:15:42.279 What's God playing at? 00:15:42.279 --> 00:15:44.840 My prayers aren't getting answered. 00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:49.000 We care about other people and we see them being hurt or we see them struggling and we're 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:51.720 praying that they will be released and things will be easier. 00:15:51.720 --> 00:15:58.320 But we're anxious because nothing is happening the way we want that to do, want it to happen. 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:02.920 And anxiety makes the Christian life difficult. 00:16:02.920 --> 00:16:07.879 But what's happening, I think what's happening here is that Paul is, as he goes through this, 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:11.840 he's learning dependence and you'll see more about that next week. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:18.879 Because in answer to this cry that he makes both to the church and to God, Timothy brought 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:21.320 good news, but I'm not going to speak about that today. 00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:26.879 But he was learning through this because he was an apostle, but he was still a learner. 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:28.759 He was learning dependence on God. 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:32.920 God was saying to him through this, Paul, it's okay. 00:16:32.920 --> 00:16:34.440 They're my people. 00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:37.080 I'll look after them when you can't. 00:16:37.080 --> 00:16:39.720 And he was learning to rely on others. 00:16:39.720 --> 00:16:42.920 Ah, Paul, you're going to have to send Timothy. 00:16:42.920 --> 00:16:43.920 You can't go yourself. 00:16:43.920 --> 00:16:46.960 You're going to have to send someone else and rely on someone else. 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:52.759 He had to learn delegation and he had to learn the great truth which he then articulated 00:16:52.759 --> 00:16:58.120 in Philippians 4-6, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition 00:16:58.120 --> 00:16:59.960 with thanksgiving. 00:16:59.960 --> 00:17:04.200 Make your requests known to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding 00:17:04.200 --> 00:17:07.559 will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:15.960 He was learning that, that he could be anxious but take that anxiety to God in prayer. 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:17.799 Wasn't always about Paul. 00:17:17.799 --> 00:17:24.159 He had to learn about the reality of God and the reality of other people with gifts doing 00:17:24.159 --> 00:17:25.839 the work that he couldn't do. 00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:30.960 Now that is a great lesson for us in terms of the battle of the Christian life. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:34.720 I'm sure many of you are faced, as many of us have been faced with anxious thoughts over 00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:40.079 these last months, years and months and the difficulties and the challenges, whatever they 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:42.600 might be. 00:17:42.600 --> 00:17:47.600 And yet there's a battle in that that we are to take our anxiety to the living God and 00:17:47.600 --> 00:17:56.680 depend on Him and learn of Him and seek to know Him better and recognize that there is 00:17:56.680 --> 00:17:58.839 a battle within that. 00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:03.720 And maybe today, for example, not only are you having to learn to lean on God, maybe 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:09.079 within the church, God's saying to you, I want you to be a timity. 00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:14.759 I want you to be someone who goes out to help and support and look after others. 00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:22.120 I want you to be an encourager, to ease other people's anxiety, to help the Paul who sent 00:18:22.120 --> 00:18:28.839 you and to help the church that you're going to and recognize that we are here for one 00:18:28.839 --> 00:18:35.079 another and that sometimes our anxiety is eased when we lean on someone else, when we 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:38.759 can't do what we think we're being asked to do. 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:41.159 Lean on God and lean on one another. 00:18:41.159 --> 00:18:47.039 That's the foundational model of the kind of church we want to be and continue to be 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:49.399 and look to be. 00:18:49.399 --> 00:18:50.599 So the first thing is anxiety. 00:18:50.599 --> 00:18:53.919 The second thing is spiritual attack. 00:18:53.920 --> 00:19:04.440 In chapter 2 verse 18, Paul says, as he's speaking to them, sorry, yep, verse 18, because 00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:09.000 I wanted to come to you, I, Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us. 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:15.480 And then in chapter 3 and verse 5, he says, for this reason I could bear it no longer, 00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:19.360 I sent to you, learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted 00:19:19.360 --> 00:19:22.880 you out and our labor would have been in vain. 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:26.320 So don't you believe in a personal devil? 00:19:26.320 --> 00:19:29.200 Paul does here, he speaks about it. 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:31.720 Is your world only naturalistic, materialistic? 00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:35.760 Do you think about the devil in mythical terms? 00:19:35.760 --> 00:19:42.680 Yeah, that's for, you know, unsophisticated thinkers, unscientific thinkers. 00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:46.680 If you're a Christian and think like that, then that's a serious problem. 00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:51.720 I don't doubt there's lots of people who are not Christians who don't believe in God 00:19:51.720 --> 00:19:54.559 or the devil, needless to say. 00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:58.600 But if you're a Christian and don't realize the depth of spiritual opposition and the 00:19:58.600 --> 00:20:05.759 personal reality of a devil, then you know what the thing is, you're making Jesus out 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:14.480 to be a liar, because Jesus absolutely believed in a personal Satan and devil. 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:23.360 And you're doing the exact opposite of what Jesus is who is truth incarnate, and Satan 00:20:23.360 --> 00:20:25.360 is the author of lies. 00:20:25.360 --> 00:20:32.440 And we're attributing, as some of the religious leaders in Jesus' day did, the attributed 00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:38.160 satanic and dark work to Jesus, clearly the complete opposite of who He was and what He 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:40.160 was. 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:49.759 And Satan, as Paul speaks of here, the Bible makes clear is a fallen angelic being who 00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:55.560 set himself against God and his death and sin personified. 00:20:55.560 --> 00:21:00.840 He was defeated by Jesus on the cross where Jesus took the wrath of God and defeated the 00:21:00.840 --> 00:21:06.680 power of the grave and of sin and of guilt for all who put their trust in Him, but He 00:21:06.680 --> 00:21:10.560 is yet to be destroyed, He will be. 00:21:10.560 --> 00:21:14.600 He's defeated but not destroyed. 00:21:14.600 --> 00:21:18.840 Exists to tempt and to deceive and create havoc in the life of every believer. 00:21:18.840 --> 00:21:22.120 Now Paul accepted Him as real. 00:21:22.120 --> 00:21:26.600 Absolute matter of fact, Paul speaks here, and he says that Satan stopped him going 00:21:26.600 --> 00:21:28.880 back to the people of Thessalonica. 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:31.400 Now, we don't have any details about that. 00:21:31.400 --> 00:21:34.880 We don't know how that transpired or the circumstances. 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:40.040 But it was clear enough to Paul that it was a malevolent force that kept him from going 00:21:40.040 --> 00:21:41.520 back to these people. 00:21:41.520 --> 00:21:43.960 He was spiritually sensitive enough. 00:21:43.960 --> 00:21:49.080 And he knew that the same Satan was tempting the early church in Thessalonica to give up 00:21:49.080 --> 00:21:50.080 their faith. 00:21:50.080 --> 00:21:51.920 That was what he was worried about. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:56.560 He was worried because they were going through hard times that they would just be tempted 00:21:56.560 --> 00:21:57.560 to give up. 00:21:57.560 --> 00:21:58.760 Oh, what have we become believers for? 00:21:58.760 --> 00:21:59.760 This is a nightmare. 00:21:59.760 --> 00:22:00.760 We're being persecuted. 00:22:00.760 --> 00:22:02.440 There's never going to be anything. 00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:07.039 And he thought they might give up because they were tempted to do. 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:09.640 And that becomes our temptation as well. 00:22:09.640 --> 00:22:13.960 He wants to tempt us to give up being Christians, following Jesus. 00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:14.960 Life's rubbish. 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:16.720 It's difficult. 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:17.720 He isn't good. 00:22:17.720 --> 00:22:19.880 I'm better on my own. 00:22:19.880 --> 00:22:22.519 And sometimes when you go on your own, things are easy. 00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:27.559 And so you think, okay, it must be right to go on my own. 00:22:27.559 --> 00:22:28.559 You feed. 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:32.960 You can feed that sense of injustice and we just want to have fun. 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:36.159 And, you know, we're only young once. 00:22:36.159 --> 00:22:39.879 So we drift from Jesus. 00:22:39.879 --> 00:22:45.279 But the foundational truth that Paul wants to get across here is that we are in a battle. 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:49.679 Ephesians 6.12 speaks about the battle that we're in, that we need protection. 00:22:49.679 --> 00:22:54.440 And can I say if you're a new Christian, particularly if you're a new Christian, don't 00:22:54.440 --> 00:22:59.400 be surprised if life seems to go belly up for a while. 00:22:59.400 --> 00:23:00.880 Because that often happens, isn't it? 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:04.279 There may be sometimes a little bit of a honeymoon period, but then sometimes things seem to go 00:23:04.279 --> 00:23:05.279 very badly. 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:07.279 And you say, well, what's going on here? 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:10.960 My life was never like that before. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:15.580 And if you're a Christian and life has gone belly up and you're tempted to stop praying 00:23:15.580 --> 00:23:20.279 or stop following Jesus or stop depending on Him, because you're finding that life is 00:23:20.279 --> 00:23:27.319 much easier and Jesus becomes that nagging conscience in your head, I think that's just, 00:23:27.319 --> 00:23:28.680 it's too simplistic, isn't it? 00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:30.960 Because that's exactly what the devil wants us to do. 00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:32.440 He's suckered us into it. 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:38.119 Without blinking, He's suckered us into thinking that God somehow doesn't exist. 00:23:38.119 --> 00:23:43.720 Second Corinthians 11.14 speaks of Him as an angel of light. 00:23:43.720 --> 00:23:46.160 You know, masquerading as an angel of light. 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:48.680 And that's because He was one. 00:23:48.680 --> 00:23:52.519 And don't you see He knows the truth much better than we know it? 00:23:52.519 --> 00:23:53.759 He knows the Bible much better. 00:23:53.759 --> 00:23:57.640 He knows Jesus and God much better than we do. 00:23:57.640 --> 00:24:00.640 And so He knows how to trip us up. 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:05.759 And we need to be aware and protected and guarded and covered in God's love and protected 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:07.519 by Jesus. 00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:13.039 So in St. Columba's, the times were together in worship, the preaching, the sacrament that 00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:16.120 we'll enjoy tonight, the Lord's Supper, the prayer times. 00:24:16.119 --> 00:24:22.519 If we choose to drift from them and not prioritize them and maybe leave them to others, inevitably 00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:24.719 we'll struggle. 00:24:24.719 --> 00:24:26.159 Inevitably our hearts will go cold. 00:24:26.159 --> 00:24:31.719 And then we'll want to give up because we're keeping ourselves from the very source of 00:24:31.719 --> 00:24:36.399 help and hope that enables us to be protected and overcome. 00:24:36.399 --> 00:24:42.119 The means of grace, the Bible, we traditionally sometimes call church, the Bible and prayer, 00:24:42.119 --> 00:24:43.119 the means of grace. 00:24:43.119 --> 00:24:49.799 That's a good word because it helps us, it teaches us, and we are to do it together. 00:24:49.799 --> 00:24:51.279 You know what war is like? 00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:54.039 Well, we don't really, many of us. 00:24:54.039 --> 00:24:56.519 But in a war, you need allies. 00:24:56.519 --> 00:24:59.599 In the trenches, you need companions. 00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:05.439 A predator always singles out people who are on their own. 00:25:05.439 --> 00:25:07.079 And Satan's no different. 00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:13.960 So we have this battle that we're in with spiritual attack, and if we keep ourselves 00:25:13.960 --> 00:25:20.480 from the body of Christ and from Christ Himself, who is our love and our hope, we will open 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:21.919 ourselves to danger. 00:25:21.919 --> 00:25:26.879 Last thing, and very briefly, he speaks about spiritual attack, and he also speaks about 00:25:26.879 --> 00:25:29.159 persecution. 00:25:29.159 --> 00:25:34.879 And that's really the reason he wrote the letter because this young fledgling church 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:39.000 was beaten up and persecuted basically by everyone around them. 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:40.000 They were facing afflictions. 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.720 We were told that in verse 3 and verse 4 of chapter 3. 00:25:44.720 --> 00:25:50.640 And that word just, it can be variously translated, trials or persecutions or afflictions. 00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:52.040 And it's the same word. 00:25:52.040 --> 00:25:58.440 Remember that story in the New Testament where Jesus, women with an issue of blood, touched 00:25:58.440 --> 00:26:03.400 Jesus, but he was being pressed by a whole big crowd. 00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:04.920 And so, you know, he said, who touched me? 00:26:04.920 --> 00:26:07.080 And the whole laugh, he said, what do you mean who touched you? 00:26:07.080 --> 00:26:09.800 There's a massive crowd here and all pressing in on you. 00:26:09.800 --> 00:26:10.800 And you're asking that question? 00:26:10.800 --> 00:26:13.800 Well, it's the same word that's used here of affliction. 00:26:13.800 --> 00:26:20.840 It's being pressed in and being oppressed as it were. 00:26:20.840 --> 00:26:24.960 Sort of opposition from outside, a crushing, a feeling of being crushed. 00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:31.160 And for the Thessalonian church, it was, you know, people from outside, the authorities 00:26:31.160 --> 00:26:37.840 and the mob and the jealous, devious people in the Sanhedrin and the unjust accusations 00:26:37.840 --> 00:26:39.560 being made against them. 00:26:39.560 --> 00:26:47.560 They became the focus for many of opposition and mockery and circumstances seemed to militia 00:26:47.560 --> 00:26:52.080 against them so that even their founding members, Paul and Timothy and Silas, were taken away 00:26:52.080 --> 00:26:54.400 from them. 00:26:54.400 --> 00:27:00.480 Now you may be coming to church today just feeling crushed. 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:03.039 Being pressed in, difficult. 00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:10.200 You know, whether it's issues and troubles with family or you feel you're being singled 00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:16.319 out as a Christian and you can't take it anymore, you're living out your life and there's just 00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:28.519 this whole struggle of being opposed in the workplace, maybe, sometimes in your neighborhood. 00:27:28.519 --> 00:27:34.599 But he reminds us that that is always going to happen. 00:27:34.599 --> 00:27:40.079 It's the pressure of not conforming, compromising, having a different ethic, a different standard, 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:45.759 a different truth, a different value, a different love, whether it's sexually, morally, philosophically, 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:52.359 spiritually, wherever we are, we find that we're going to be opposed. 00:27:52.359 --> 00:28:00.919 And yet, and next week, you'll see that God strengthens and helps and protects and shows 00:28:00.919 --> 00:28:05.679 them something that enables them to keep going. 00:28:05.679 --> 00:28:13.519 And so we need to remember that it is a difficult road we're on as Christians. 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:17.079 We remember who we are and we need to remember our foundations. 00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:22.879 And I just finished by reading these verses, what Paul says in 19 and 20, I, Paul, verse 00:28:22.879 --> 00:28:29.399 19, for what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before the Lord Jesus that is coming, 00:28:29.399 --> 00:28:30.639 is it not you? 00:28:30.639 --> 00:28:34.879 For you are our glory and our joy. 00:28:34.879 --> 00:28:40.639 And we need to remember that as Christians, that we are part of something much greater, 00:28:40.639 --> 00:28:45.679 something that will be significant when Jesus comes back, that we will be called to be with 00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:50.080 Him, and we are to do that together. 00:28:50.080 --> 00:28:57.560 And it's to be, it's a glorious and a joyful walk that we are on together, and that Jesus 00:28:57.560 --> 00:29:01.759 is our Lord and Savior and our friend. 00:29:01.759 --> 00:29:03.480 It's a great message. 00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:06.440 It's a great truth that we have as Christians. 00:29:06.440 --> 00:29:15.660 And we need to remember the foundations which are both realistic and also visionary for us. 00:29:15.660 --> 00:29:22.240 We have great reason for hope and for joy because we are Jesus' fruit, and Jesus will 00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:23.759 come and take us home. 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:30.080 We are asked to rely on Him and know the foundation of our life. 00:29:30.080 --> 00:29:38.759 If Jesus and the truth of God is not the foundation of your life, then when the storms come in 00:29:38.759 --> 00:29:49.000 life, you may stagger on, but you will never stagger on successfully and with life beyond 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:51.079 death. 00:29:51.079 --> 00:29:56.359 Death is that the edifice of your life will come crashing down, and it's an unspeakable 00:29:56.359 --> 00:30:03.879 separation from Jesus, from life, and from love, who pours out His grace to you even 00:30:03.879 --> 00:30:07.400 when you don't recognize it. 00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:14.060 He comes with open arms, and He says, look, I'm the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life. 00:30:14.060 --> 00:30:18.519 No one comes to the Father but by me, but His arms are open, and He promises to be with 00:30:18.519 --> 00:30:21.680 us and promises to take us through the difficulties as well. 00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:24.160 It's a great message to Thessalonians. 00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:30.200 It's so realistic, it's so honest, and yet it's so hopeful because it tells us where 00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:33.360 our power and where our truth and where our love lies. 00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:41.559 And remember that true love never runs smooth, but in Him it will always run and keep going. 00:30:41.559 --> 00:30:42.559 Amen. 00:30:42.559 --> 00:30:43.559 Let's pray. 00:30:43.559 --> 00:30:46.799 Father God, help us to know You and love You and serve You. 00:30:46.799 --> 00:30:52.159 Help us to be honest and know that the Word of God is honest to us, but is also full of 00:30:52.159 --> 00:30:53.559 hope and full of joy. 00:30:53.559 --> 00:30:58.000 We'll go on to see in the next number of weeks as well. 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:05.960 I pray that Your Word would encourage and challenge and comfort us as well as we remember 00:31:05.960 --> 00:31:09.480 who You are and that You speak to us today. 00:31:09.480 --> 00:31:29.160 We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.