A
final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Ephesians 6:10(NLT)
aul was very encouraging with his words to the
church at Thessalonica. However, most of
us have to admit that following Christ in really hard circumstances leaves a
temptation to question what God is up to.
Sometimes
it seems like life just can’t get any tougher.
I’m certain Ted Brooks felt that way.
Have you seen the movie Snow
Dogs? The movie tells the
story of a dentist named Ted Brooks who discovers he has inherited a rustic
cabin and a dogsled team in Alaska. His
efforts to master the new sport meet with bumps, bruises, and bears.
One
particular outing proves especially challenging. When the dogs suddenly go into high gear,
Brooks is thrown into the deep Alaskan snow.
He struggles to his feet, grumbling and dusting the snow off. Suddenly a large shadow covers his, and he
realizes he's not alone. A large grizzly
bear is only a few feet away. When the
bear roars, displaying a full set of sharp teeth, Brooks begins to run down the
mountainside.
Just
as it appears the bear is going to win the race, Brooks falls off a cliff and
lands on a precipice. As he shouts
victoriously, I'm alive! I'm alive!
the precipice gives way, dropping Brooks to a steep slope, where he rockets
down the mountain like a bobsled, narrowly missing tree after tree. He screams all the way down, until he finally
comes to a halt.
He
smiles, but his smile quickly fades when he realizes he is lying on a thin
layer of ice covering a lake. As the ice
begins to crack beneath him, he lunges forward, leaving a trail of ice water in
his wake, and finally makes it to what appears to be a solid piece of floating
ice. The ice supports him only
momentarily and Brooks begins to sink.
The
poor dentist reaches for his cell phone and dials 911, and hears a recorded
message: You’re outside of your coverage area.
Should you like to expand your service plan, please call back during our
business hours.[ii]
Sometimes
we start believing that a momentary realization that we are indeed alive is only a
sadistic pause until the next car breakdown, pipe breaking, kid-sickness, roof
leaking, job layoff or unexpected bill in the afternoon mail.
The
church at Thessalonica was full of people just like that. Paul writes his encouragement to people whose
faith has taken a beating; people whose lives seem to be on hold. Paul writes to faithful saints
hanging-in-there, even though they’re beginning to feel like Ted Brooks, the
dentist; they’re so oppressed by poverty and persecution from the Roman
government that they’re beginning to think if something doesn’t happen soon,
the rope to which they’re clinging is going to become the noose of life’s
hardships waiting to take them out!
What
could Paul, or God, say to such people?
The
message in Paul’s second letter to this small band of believers (and to
Christians throughout the last two millennia) is:
Be Strong in the Lord, who is your strength and your Anchor. That strength is being transferred to you,
not only in spite of your trials and persecutions, but by those trials
and persecutions.
Paul
says, Hold on – have patience for the long haul; Jesus isn’t about to let you
go now! And here are three reasons you
don’t have to be Superman to have the strength you need in this life:
1. He
is Strengthening Your Walk
Dear brothers and sisters, we can’t help
but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one
another is growing. We proudly tell God’s other churches about your
endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are
suffering. And God will use this persecution to show his justice and
to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-5(NLT)
Paul
mentioned faith, fellowship and faithfulness, three areas of growth that
believers were experiencing as a sign that God was strengthening their walk in
Christ.
· Faith is entrusting your care to God;
· fellowship is that sense of love
and bond that believers have with each other;
· faithfulness is what is produced
when faith and fellowship meet – a strength that stands-up in any
circumstances.
The
apostle could boast about what was happening at Thessalonica because he knew of
the persecutions and trials they faced; he knew about the faithfulness with
which they responded. The people at
Thessalonica knew instinctively to run to the Lord for rest and
protection.
E.
M. Bounds was a pastor who wrote a lot about prayer and trusting in Christ. He wrote:
Early one morning…
…I heard the barking of a
number of dogs chasing a deer. Looking
at a large open field in front of me, I saw a young fawn making its way across
the field and giving signs that its race was almost run. It leaped over the rails of the enclosed
place and crouched within ten feet of where I stood. A moment later two of the hounds came over,
and the fawn ran in my direction and pushed its head between my legs. I lifted the little thing to my breast, and,
swinging round and round, fought off the dogs.
Just then I felt that all the dogs in the West could not and would not
capture that fawn after its weakness had appealed to my strength. So is it when human helplessness appeals to
Almighty God. I remember well when the
hounds of sin were after my soul that at last I ran into the arms of Almighty
God.[1]
Christians
in the early church must have felt that way facing lions and gladiators in the
Coliseum. There was nowhere to run but
to trust in the Lord’s protection. God
used that kind of persecution to bring about the greatest growth of faith in
the history of the church.
Wide
roads are easy to travel; the narrow pathway requires effort and
attentiveness. When pressure comes in
your life, what do you allow that trial to produce? Do you run to the Lord? Do you allow Him to strengthen your walk?
Life
is like a fast-moving river, and in the Christian life we are called to swim
upstream. Indulging is floating along
downstream; denying oneself and picking up a cross to daily swim upstream is
hard.
Parties
are easy; Gethsemane is a war!
At
times we make little progress. Sometimes
it seems like we are forced to tread water, but Christ wants to strengthen our
walk with Him, and that doesn’t come cheaply.
Friends,
don’t be misled by the current fad of prosperity thinking that seeks the
richer, easier path – that kind of thinking is like a mirage. The truth is that life is hard, but you have
a Savior Who is strengthening your walk for your salvation and His glory.
2. He is Balancing Your Belief
In his justice he will pay
back those who persecute you. And God
will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord
Jesus appears from heaven. He will come
with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who
don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-8(NLT)
Just
when we begin to get resigned to trials and persecutions as a necessary evil in
our lives, meaning we just have to grin
and bear it, Paul puts a new light on it with his explanation. Paul says:
God is just. Justness has to do with setting everything
right. The word just has lots of meanings, but here fair is the appropriate
meaning; God is fair.
That fairness is seen in the fact that
everyone, both friends and enemies of God have to navigate the waters of life
under the same set of rules and conditions.
The rain falls on the just
and the unjust says
Matthew the Tax Collector (he should know!)[2]. There are no unfair advantages.
This
is how God is seen to be immutably just, or fair: He judges or condemns only sin…but He condemns
every sin.
The
problem (from a human standpoint) is
that we are all sinners[3]. There are some who would dispute that, but
not with any hope of winning the debate.
· Who
among us has not told even a little lie; ever?
· Who
has never – even once – taken something which didn’t belong to him?
· Name
the person who has never been angry unjustly, or jealous, or spiteful,
dishonest or lazy!
God
condemns all sin, and, like robbing banks it only takes one to be in the
category. One sin, even a little one makes you separated
from God as Adam was after one little bite of forbidden fruit.
Now,
that’s it – end of story, as far as justice is concerned. God will balance the scales in the end, and
He will do it because He is a just and fair God; you can count on everything He
has ever said. Every sin ever committed
has but one penalty – death, eternal separation from God!
For
the wages of sin is death…, Romans 6:23a(NIV)
Friends,
make no mistake here – it is not only physical death, it is eternal, spiritual
death – a living death where you cannot get away from it forever! That IS
a punishment!
Listen
once again to the words from our Thessalonian letter:
They will be punished with everlasting
destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of
his power
I
have known some pagans who treated the idea of eternal punishment with contempt
– as if it could never affect them. A
few have even told me, Hell won’t
be so bad – all my friends will be there…and, preacher, WE know how to party!
My
friend, it will not be
a party!
Despite
what some liberal thinkers have said and written about eternal punishment for
those who reject Jesus Christ being only a separation from God (which is what
they prefer by the way they exhibit a lack of respect and worship of God),
please understand that God’s Word doesn’t pull any punches – separation from God and being locked out of
heaven is only the beginning!
Listen
to God’s own description of hell and the unbeliever’s eternal state:
…he, too, will drink of the
wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his
wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy
angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of
their torment rises for ever and ever. There
is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for
anyone who receives the mark of his name.”
Revelation 14:10-11(NIV)
Friends,
this short life we live is, for the believer, sometimes filled with trials and
persecution. But the Great Balancer is sorting
things out.
You
can have your sin judged now by reaching-out to God in Jesus Christ in
faith. Your sins will be forgiven
because of the shed blood of Jesus on the cross – or you can have them judged
on your own merits later at the judgment seat at the Great White Throne of God. If you would like to have your sins forgiven,
run to Christ; repent of your sins and be forgiven.
The
cross made it possible, but God won’t force it on you. Only those who trust in Christ will be
saved. Trusting means you give
yourself to Him, totally, for eternity, having burned all your bridges of
self-trust, self-goodness and religion behind you.
Only
Jesus saves – nothing you can do will!
3. He
is Honoring Your Service
So we keep on praying for
you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all
the good things your faith prompts you to do.
Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you
live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace
of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12(NLT)
For
those who have trusted in Christ, He calls you to serve Him, and counts you
worthy or fit to do it! You see, serving
God isn’t for the Super-Christian;
serving God is for every Christian!
Being
worthy is not only a possibility, it is within the reach of every
believer. In fact, God expects you to be
worthy. He also knows that you can’t be
worthy in and of yourself – that’s why He has put His own Spirit in your life
and heart, to teach and help you with being worthy.
It’s
like going to a class in school for the first day. The teacher looks at you and says, Relax, there are no tests in this course,
and you all have an ‘A’ for a final grade. Well, if that didn’t get your attention, what
would?
God
is like that. He has called you to be
His, given you an A for
the course of salvation. Now, what are
you going to do with that situation?
What
God is looking for here is not success or competence, but simply
faithfulness. God measures our worth by
our love for Him. So many fear serving
God because they imagine they will not measure-up to God’s standard. Now, the fact is, they’re right.
No one can measure up to the standard of God’s omnipotence or
omniscience…He is God, we are simply humans.
That’s why God doesn’t set the standard based on His level; he sets it
on our love.
Beloved,
the way to fail God isn’t to be found in goofing-up, it is in failing to love
Him by refusing to serve Him. God is
never measuring your talents – He can give you whatever skill and supernatural
gifts you need to do whatever He wants done.
He’s not looking at how skilled you are…He wants to love you and be
loved in return; our service is a matter of response to being loved with the
greatest love ever.
When
God calls a person to love Him and serve Him, the Lord also empowers that
person for effective service. As it says
in our text, He wants us to fulfill
every good purpose….
Essentially
that means God wants to see the identifying marks of Christ-likeness growing in
you. He wants to bless you by
coordinating all the events of your life in such a divine, magnificent way as
to shape and mold you into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
That
is the blessing for you, and it will make you a blessing in His name to
others. This is how Jesus Christ is
glorified in and by your life.
But,
it will not happen if you throw up road blocks.
Just as Jesus surrendered Himself in Gethsemane to the Father’s will –
all His power, prestige and position as the only begotten Son of God, to become
the scapegoat for our sins – the Lamb slain for sinners (you and me); just as
He who knew no sin became sin for us,[4]
that is the way God desires for us to come to Him, fully trusting, holding back
nothing.
Imagine life is hard, and
you’re following Jesus:
· Layoffs
are happening again at the plant. They
have given out enough pink slips to wallpaper the men’s lounge. You already have enough on the credit cards
to finance a third-world country’s government, and they have already let
several people go with more seniority than you.
· You
are walking into your math final test and you have not studied – anyway you
didn’t understand those equations when you were awake in class.
· Your
plumber is looking at your heating system and shaking his head.
· Wartime
– You are a mother or father with a son or daughter in harm’s way, half-way
around the world. You haven’t heard from
him in a month.
· You
are a parent and your child is sick, very sick.
You sit by the hospital bed waiting for the doctor to come again. The tests yesterday were not good news, and
you wait.
· The
look in your wife’s eye was different this time when she told you it is getting
harder and harder to try to work this marriage out…
Select
any of those situations – some may have already happened to you. Are you at rest in these? Or is your boat rocking hard?
What
in the world is next…what else can go wrong?
Then he got into the boat
and his disciples followed him. Without
warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the
boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying,
“Lord, save us! We’re going to
drown!” He replied, “You of little
faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he
got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of
man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” Matthew 8:23-27[NIV]
When
the boat is rocking, the barn is burning…when the hounds have chased you to the
point where it looks like your number is up…just remember that Jesus is
· strengthening
your walk,
·
balancing your belief,
· and
honoring
your service
Your
part is to let Him do His part so you can be strong in the Lord!
Notes
A. C. Dixon, quoted in On Prayer by E. M. Bounds, (Whitaker
House, p. 107), David Slagle, PreachingToday.com
[ii]
David Slagle, PreachingToday.com, Snow Dogs (Walt
Disney, 2001)
