If you could, turn in your Bibles
to Acts chapter 17. We will be looking at 1 Thessalonians
as well, but I want to set the background again. And if you
can't tell, there's a little bit of shuffling going on. I
warned Eric if I didn't make it up here, if he lost my notes,
he'd be preaching. So he was very diligent to make
sure everything worked out. But Acts chapter 17. And I want to read starting,
beginning in verse one. When they had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there
was a Jewish synagogue. And as his custom was, Paul went
into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days, He reasoned with
them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had
to suffer and rise from the dead. This Jesus I am proclaiming to
you is the Christ, he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded
and joined Paul and Silas as did a large number of God-fearing
Greeks and not a few prominent women. So we've been in First Thessalonians,
if you've been here, or if you recall some of the things that
have gone on, we've talked about this situation and alluded to
some of the things that went on, but I would say so far, so
good, right? We're looking at this and the, Apostle is able to, according
to the calling of God, fulfill his mission of going and preaching
the gospel, preaching Christ. And people are believing. It's a great thing. And yes,
we know from later on that Paul said, I warned you. That isn't
all there is to the Christian life. And in fact, it talks about,
he talks about here, Luke records for us here in Acts 17, that
the Christ had to suffer. And so we see and we know, we
read on in chapter 17, the Jews were jealous and they rounded
up, verse five, some bad characters from the marketplace, formed
a mob and started a riot. And then on from there, we read
that they rushed Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in
order to bring them out to the crowd. They couldn't find them. They drag Jason and some other
brothers before the city officials shouting, these men who have
caused trouble all over the world have now come here. So what was
an idyllic situation of a gospel preacher reasoning sabbath after
sabbath in the synagogue because that's what the early church
did that's what paul had a habit to do he had a audience as it
were when he would go into a town and he would reason from the
scriptures showing the lord jesus christ his the necessity of his
death, the importance of his suffering, the reality of his
resurrection, and the new life that could be found in him. He
explained that from the Old Testament scriptures, and everything was
fine, and then something happened. And that is really what Paul
is doing here. In time, To think about it, we
had Paul and Silas in Thessalonica. We have these events that happen
here in chapter 17, and you have Paul run out of town. And then what we read from in
chapter three, Verse two, Paul sends Timothy. So these events
in chapter 17 have transpired. Paul sends Timothy. Timothy is
given some sort of explanation of the situation. Paul talks,
certainly, probably advises Timothy, here's the things I want you
to check. And Timothy has already come
back, and that is, that report is part of what Paul is considering
when he's writing back to the Thessalonian church. So all that
has transpired, but Paul, thankful as he is about what has happened,
finds the need to talk about some things and to emphasize
a subject that quite honestly is not a favorite subject of
mine, and that is of trials. I think as we look at this section
of scripture, there's a number of things we could consider here,
but I think one of the main points that Paul wants us to consider
here is the reality of trials, suffering, and persecution in
the life of believers. But he also wants us to consider
God's gracious work in those trials and suffering and persecution. And then he wants to model for
the Thessalonian church, and because the Holy Spirit inspired
and preserved his word, he wanted to give us a look at what it
means to pray, what our desires should be when we pray about
suffering, trials, and persecution. Now, I highly doubt I will get
through all three of those points, but it's important for you to
see how this section is all one section. The chapter divisions
that we have in our Bibles and verses are not inspired. They were added afterwards, and
many people have pointed out this should have been all one
chapter. Probably like our day, in Paul's
day, what I've read, is there was an understanding, a misunderstanding,
that religion, if you did it the right way, would bring good
results. We have the your best life now
sort of mentality, or variations on it within broader Christianity,
I think we always fight the mentality in our lives that somehow if
we do good, good things will happen to us.
We have kind of a Christian karma. Do good things, good things are
gonna happen. And then we sometimes have the
opposite. When it comes to bad things happening,
we always assume that this is God getting us for that. There
was a country western song, I've lost track of the singers, but
it's God's Gonna Get You For That. If you're old enough to
remember that song, if you're not, don't go out and looking
for it, it's bad theology. But this idea that all of our
troubles are God's gonna get you for that is a misunderstanding. Paul, in seeking to comfort the
Thessalonian church and really to express his relief and gratitude
to God for how things ended up, gives us a good introduction
on how to deal with these trials. Now, of course, some trials are
just As Ecclesiastes says, time and chance happen to everyone.
You may not have noticed, but I'm getting a little bit older,
and when I get up quickly, it's not like it was when I was 15
or even 30 years old. Time and chance, the where of this fallen world does bring
some troubles to us. And then of course, if we do
things, nothing I've said to this point should rule out the
fact that if I hit my thumb with a hammer, there's gonna be a
consequence to that, there's gonna be a negative impact to
that, and there's variations on that as well. But Paul, I
think primarily here, Not exclusively, but I think primarily here, he's
talking about trials related to the gospel of Christ, related
to adhering to the gospel of Christ. So for my first point,
I just want to point out to you the realities here of that. Our translation in verse 17 obscures
this a little bit. But in verse 17, he says, when
we were torn away from you for a short time, literally, the
word Paul uses here is a word that means to be orphaned. When
you're orphaned, an orphan doesn't choose that situation, right? They don't choose to lose their
parents, to be ripped away from them. And Paul is saying those
events that I just read from Acts 17, it was as if God permitted
us to be torn away from you, to be orphaned from you. And one of the realities of trials
and tribulation and suffering in life is we can undergo pain
or separation that is not normal or natural. We can be torn away
from people we love, not due to any wrongdoing on
our part, but because of circumstances
beyond our control, we're torn away. Another type of trial or example
of a trial or suffering here is Paul wanted them to know,
certainly Timothy would have related this to him, but he wanted
to know in his own words, perhaps in relationship to or response
to what he had heard back from Timothy, but in either event,
he wanted them to know, we wanted to go see you. Verse 18, we wanted
to come to you. And then he emphasizes it even
more. Certainly I, Paul, did again
and again. I wanted to come see you. You know, a trial in life is
knowing the things that you want to do and being hindered from
them. Paul made plans. Paul made effort
again and again, and yet it was frustrated. Paul wanted them
to know it wasn't a lack of concern or lack of zeal on his part. And I think sometimes in the
Christian life, we think, well, if we just would have worked
a little bit harder, if I just would have pushed a little bit
harder, it would have happened. And I'm ignoring the second part
of the verse, we'll talk about that here a little bit, in a
little bit, but I just wanna show to you in the life of a
believer, in this sinful world, not only can we be torn away
from the ones we love, we can be hindered from doing what we
think is needed. Well, it didn't end there. I know for a lot of us, for me
in particular, I guess I'll point to myself, maybe none of you
have this same problem. But if you're the type of person,
if you happen to be like me, and you're the type of person
that you watch somebody else do something and you just go,
I guess I'm gonna have to do it myself, right? The worst thing
that can happen to you is to be dependent on somebody else
doing something that you think you have the capacity to do.
Think about it, the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul given a commission
by God, given a direct calling to the Macedonian churches, run
out of town, and they didn't send the backup quarterback in,
And I haven't watched any football this year, or last year, or for
a while. But the backup quarterback, you
want to have a strong person come in. And that would have
been Silas. But for some reason, Silas wasn't
able to come in. Here comes Timothy, and if you
remember or if you read the epistles to Timothy, Paul says, don't
let anybody despise your youth. So pretty much, the bench, I'm
thinking about it this morning, the bench was pretty low, right?
We had to rely on the third stringer, the red shirt, to come in, and
we sent him, Well, that was Paul, chapter three. When we could
stand it no longer, and we thought it best to be left by ourselves
to be on the bench, off to the side, unable to come, we sent
Timothy. We sent Timothy. Paul was forced
to rely on others and wait. You know, they say that trials
work patience. And my joke, and Joe would always
laugh at it, was, you know, Lord, give me patience and give it
to me now. I really kind of feel that here. So here's Paul, three
weeks in town. A work seems to have started
by the grace of God. He's run out of town. He can't
go back. Silas can't go back. He asked
to send in Timothy. And he's sitting there waiting. And you see that in the words
that are written here. When we could stand it no longer,
verse one, of chapter three. I couldn't take it. I needed
to know, was there anything left of that work that was there? Well, in trials and tribulations
and suffering, not only are you torn away and hindered from doing
what you think needs to be done and forced to rely on others,
you can be made very unsettled by what is going on in the midst
of that trial. Now, Paul, of course, sent Timothy
to relay some truths to them, verse three of chapter three,
so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. But if you read
What Paul has said, and you read how he talks in this passage, I was afraid, verse five, end
of verse five, that in some way the tempter may have tempted
you and our efforts might have been useless. It wasn't just
that Paul was worried about them, he was unsettled by what had
happened. Now, Paul said, we told you. You know quite well we were destined.
In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would
be persecuted. Our Lord said in John chapter
16, in this world you'll have troubled. 1633 of John. And Peter says, don't be surprised
when you face fiery trials. And if you read scripture, it's
there. It's there over and over again that there will be trials
and there will be suffering. But even though we know these
things, I don't know about you, but the last year or so has been
pretty unsettling for me. It's one thing to know in your
head that bad things can happen. It's another thing to live through
it. It's another thing to be made unsettled and fearful by
it. And don't worry, well, Go ahead
and worry, but hopefully I'll get to some good news here. But
I wanna set the stage here because I want you to understand how
deeply the apostle felt these things and how concerned he was
for the people he had left there. It's not just that, and I'm switching
back here to Paul, verse seven. Brothers, in all our distress
and persecution, we were encouraged. He's not saying his distress
and persecution encouraged him. We'll get to the encouragement
here in a minute. But there were other things transpiring. In fact, if the commentators
on this are correct, Paul had a number of things, a number
of irons in the fire it's very possible that some of the the
disputations with the church in galatia were happening at
the same time and if you remember um we had talked about the thanksgiving
that paul gave and there's one epistle where paul doesn't give
thanks which one was that again oh yeah that's right galatians
and he just starts out in galatians chapter one and verse six and
says, he's astonished that they're deserting the one who called
you by grace. And maybe it wasn't that. Paul
talks elsewhere in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 28, about the concerns
that he had for all the churches, because Paul had this habit of
going into towns, reasoning in the synagogues, and sharing the
gospel of Christ, and then he would leave. And then he would
get feedback for what's going on. Something's good and something's
bad, and that weighed upon him. In spite of the fact that when
we're in the midst of a trial of a particular thing, we think,
it's bad enough, Lord, that this one thing happened. I can't handle
another thing. Well, Again, not to relate all
that had happened, and some of you have had other things other
than what's happened in conjunction with the church, but this year
we got to see just in the church that God doesn't have to limit
us to one trial or one suffering at a time. He can bring on multiple
trials. And then to go a bit further
on the reality of trials, yes, while we will say and we will
certainly defend the sovereignty of God in all actions, Paul makes
it clear here the source the proximate cause, just like in
Job, of their suffering, and that was, it was satanic. Chapter two, verse 18, Satan
stopped us. And then he goes on to say in chapter three, verse five, I was afraid in some way the tempter
might have tempted you and that is used in that way, that word
tempter, that phrase is used in Matthew chapter four and Mark
chapter one and first Corinthians 10 to speak explicitly about
Satan. So our warfare isn't against
only flesh and blood. It's bad enough when the tire
goes flat When the heat doesn't turn on, when there are situations that
are physical, Paul is saying here, understand that there is
a malicious, demonic, satanic opposition that is sometimes
the cause of trials. so we can experience all these
things. And a lot of times we don't know,
if you think about it. I had sent a message to Drew
and he said he was gonna be in Job. If you read the book of
Job, we get to see behind the scenes. Job didn't know any of
that, right? He didn't know what was going
on ahead of time, he was just reacting to what had happened.
And we don't know in particular circumstances what is going on,
but we can be sure that in some cases that the trials that we
experience are, yes, permitted by God, but they're satanic in
nature. Well, thankfully, that isn't
the final word. So in this situation, which could
have gone bad, God graciously provided. First of all, how does God provide? Well, Paul couldn't go, Silas
couldn't go, but God did provide a man a gospel preaching, gospel
preacher, seems like I'm being redundant there, but I wanted
to make it clear. We sent Timothy. And yeah, I talked about he's
young, third string or whatever, but Paul wants to make it clear.
He's our brother. He's our fellow worker. What
did he do? He wasn't just sitting around
folding the bulletins. He was a fellow worker in spreading
the gospel of Christ. And in fact, his work there,
the work that Paul sent Timothy to do, was not to give them platitudes, but to strengthen
and encourage them in the faith. And I'll say this, when you're
in the midst of trials, you need a preacher to give you good news. You need a word to help you to
understand and put into perspective all that's going on so you can
be strengthened and encouraged in your faith. So Paul, is letting
them know, I sent Timothy, but he was there as one who was
bringing you good news, the good news of the gospel. And he says, Timothy not only went to them,
and brought them good news, but he comes back to Paul and he
brings good news, verse six. Timothy has just now come to
us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. And if you think about it, it
makes perfectly good sense. The good news of the gospel is
you can't do it. Christ has done it for you. Rejoice
and be glad that God has provided everything that you need. But
the other part of that good news is that in everyone that God
determines to elect and save to himself, He brings about faith
and love. So that good news is a reflection
of the good news of the gospel. And this really comports with
what he said in chapter one when he talked about their work produced
by faith and their labor prompted by love and their endurance inspired
by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. God gave them new life and that
new life was manifest back in a trust and faith and love for
the truth. So faith and love were shown
to be God's work of grace in the midst of these trials. The
trials were still real. There were still Jewish persecutors
of the church. Paul and Silas were still, and
Timothy still had all been run out of town, and Paul and the
people had to deal with that dislocation that had happened.
But God be praised, if God begins a good work, he's faithful to
complete it. And he showed to Paul as a consolation, as a source
of encouragement in the midst of all the trials that Paul had
gone through, that he was able and willing to honor his word
and to bring forth new life. Another evident sign of the work
of grace in the midst of these trials and possibly a source
of concern that Paul had, we see here in chapter three, verse
six, Not only does Timothy come back
and bring 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 also long to see you. What an encouragement to know
they didn't take what had happened and go, well, And it was said
in Acts chapter 17, these men come everywhere stirring up trouble.
They're troublemakers. And maybe they didn't know before
all this had happened. They looked at it just theoretically. They went through this persecution.
Paul thought, man, they're never gonna wanna see me again. They
want nothing to do with me after all the trouble that I brought
them. Well, the reality is if God works
a work of grace in your heart, you're gonna want to be among
the people of God. You're gonna long for that encouragement. You're gonna miss fellowship
and you're gonna be strengthened by the thought of it and the
hope of it in the future. That desire to be with God's
people is a sign of God's gracious work in the midst of trials. Now I'd said and read from verse
seven of chapter three about all the distress and impersecution
and the weight of all that Paul had to do, but he said, we were
encouraged because of your faith. And verse eight is really striking. For now we really live. Paul said, in a sense, I was
dead at the thought that Satan and opposition came in and wiped
out this work. That thought just brought me,
spiritually speaking, to death. But when Timothy came back and
told me the state of this church, when he came back, now I live,
now I live. It's such an encouragement to
him. And then lastly, Paul doesn't lose track of who
it is that is able to bring this about. And this is really, sorry,
just too much air coming out, drying
me out, but This is really, I think, the key to understanding this. And the key, I think, the difference
between a lot of churches that would call themselves evangelical,
which is kind of ironic because evangelical should be about the
gospel. But a lot of times there'll be
a lot of things, you know, try to be like the Thessalonian church. Try to be somebody that the apostle
could have been proud of. I don't have it in me. I don't
know about you. I don't have it in me. Paul writes here that they, he
couldn't live because they're standing firm in the Lord. And if that's not clear enough
for you, Paul says in verse 19 and 20
of chapter two, what is our hope and our joy or the crown in which
we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are
our glory and joy. And then back to verse nine of
chapter three, how can we thank God enough for you in return
for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of
you? Night and day, night and day. Paul was encouraged because
he saw God at work. Yes, these trials were real.
Yes, these trials were multiplied. Yes, these trials were demonic
and satanic. Yes, these trials pressed him
to the edge of his emotional and physical and spiritual well-being,
and yet, God graciously worked through these trials. Paul was
able to rejoice, not because the Thessalonians were smarter. In fact, I find this ironic,
and maybe I'm overusing the word ironic. Well, not maybe, but
anyway. If you remember, normally if
you know a few verses per chapter, Prior to this, I'm pretty sure
that I would have said Acts 17 verse 11. The Bereans were of
more noble character than the Thessalonians. Find that interesting. Because
Luke could write that and that could be true and yet you can
see this marvelous work of grace, it's of God. The Bereans may
have been quicker to understand what the apostle taught. They
may have been more diligent to read scripture, but the Thessalonian
church was not lacking in a work of God. God be praised because
God was the one who made them regenerated them, brought them
to faith, brought them through the trials, and gave this joy
to the apostle, gave him some hope in what was going on. God worked graciously in this
church. And I pray that God will work
graciously in our church There's a lot up in the air. I don't have a crystal ball of
what's gonna happen next. Eric doesn't have one. We don't
know. But what I do know is God will
redeem his people for himself and God will show himself gracious. And he already has in so many
ways. We've been blessed. We've had some wonderful fellowship. Some gospel preachers, some Timothy's
sent to us to preach to us. God has allowed us to continue
to meet. But what's next? We don't know,
but we can say, and we can hope in the same hope that Paul had
here that Christ is sufficient. Christ is sufficient. While looking at the time, I'm
gonna cut it short here, but I will say this, and the rule
is if somebody says one more thing, there's three or four
more things, but I try not to do too much with this. Lord willing
next time we'll look at his prayer, but I want you to consider it
again in light of what's going on. So everything that's happened
so far in this small work Paul doesn't say, now get it
together, Thessalonians, you guys need to step it up at this
point, you need to work harder. No, Paul's prayer for them here
at the end of chapter three is all centered on the work of God. Now may God and our Father himself
clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your
love and increase and an overflow for each other. And may he strengthen
your hearts. It's what we need. It's what
I need. When suffering and trials happen,
we need God to do his gracious work in us. May he do so this
week and until the Lord come or until we go to see him. Eric.