Growing Through Adversity – Evansville Bible Church

Click here to view the entire service

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater; 4 therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.

Paul describes these Thessalonians believers as a healthy church, a church that is increasing in faith and love. We’ll be working our way through this great little epistle over the next several months. I’m using chapter 2, verse 14, as the theme of the letter: GAINING THE GLORY.

2 Thessalonians 2:14, It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote the letter from Corinth around AD 51, shortly after 1 Thessalonians, and he had good reasons. Things were going great up there in Thessalonica, but he did get word that they had gotten some things wrong and he needed to correct them. Don’t we all need correction?

REASONS FOR 2 THESSALONIANS

Paul wrote this letter for three major reasons: to encourage, to instruct, to correct.

Chapter 1 – to encourage them in view of their persevering through some heavy-duty opposition and trials. Paul gives us a peek into the second coming of Christ when He will come in judgment on unbelievers. He then assures believers they will gain the glory of Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1:7b, Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus…. 10 When He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day!

Chapter 2 – to instruct them in view of false teaching flying around that the Day of the Lord had already come. Paul zooms in for a close look at the Antichrist and how our Lord will blow him away when He returns.

2 Thessalonians 2:8, Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming.

Chapter 3 – to strongly correct some who had quit working while waiting for the Lord to come back. Christianity never honors sloth or laziness or, as Calvin notes, “those who lead an idle life at the expense of others.” In fact, Paul says if you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat.

2 Thessalonians 3:10, For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.

THE INTRODUCTION

Paul in verse 1 reminds us of three of God’s notable workers, or as one commentator called them, “The Big Three.” Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy worked together as a formidable gospel team who changed the course of history, bringing the truth of the gospel into the darkness of the Gentile world. In Philippi they brought the gospel to Lydia whose heart God opened to receive Christ. Both Paul and Silvanus had their share of persecution as they landed in jail, but then saw the jailor converted. They made their way to Thessalonica where Paul preached in the synagogue for three Sabbath days, resulting in some of the Jews, Greeks, and leading women being persuaded to trust Christ (Acts 17:4). But other Jews got jealous, rounded up some thugs to join their anti-Paul protest, and set the city in an uproar (sound familiar?). Paul and Silvanus went west to Berea where many Jews and Gentiles received the Word with great eagerness. But again Jewish protestors from Thessalonica followed them and stirred up the crowd there as well, and Paul ended up down in Athens and then Corinth. While there in Corinth, Paul sent his first letter back to the Thessalonian believers with a strong command to have the letter read to every believer (1 Thess. 5:27). A little later, after getting some troubling news, he sends this second letter to Thessalonica from all three: Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.

While the Thessalonian church was physically located in Thessalonica, spiritually her address was quite different. Paul in verse 1 addresses the church as located “in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Don’t overlook that little preposition “in” and where it places the church. And our church is no different. Evansville Bible Church is not only located at 2001 Bayard Park Drive, but our greater location is in the sphere of the triune God. That’s where we live – in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And right along with introducing themselves, Paul gives them a blessing that grace and peace from the Father and the Son would be with them. Nothing promotes the spiritual health, increasing faith, and deepening love of a church than the grace of the gospel that brings the peace of the gospel. Paul never tired of singing the praises of God’s grace. He was the Apostle of Grace. If John Newton had written Amazing Grace in his day, Paul would surely have whistled or hummed it all day long. We can never hear too much about God’s sovereign grace, the gospel of the grace of God. In Ephesians 1:6 Paul wrote, “To the praise of the glory of His grace which He poured out or lavished on us in Christ.” God’s grace is like the sun in the sky every day, brightening our path. We need to bathe our souls in the God’s rich grace. We are saved by grace alone.

Romans 3:24, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.

A CHURCH WORTHY OF GIVING THANKS TO GOD

2 Thessalonians 1:3, We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater; 4 therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.

Paul not only thanks God for His grace so evident in these believers, but he even boasts of these believers. He is proud of them. John said in 3 John 4, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in truth.” That’s how Paul felt about these Thessalonian believers. “I thank God for you!” Like a father whose children are away at college and he hears they are doing well by studying hard, honoring Christ and serving in the local Bible-believing church, and being a blessing to others. And so he writes a letter to them, maybe with tears. He begins with these words: “I am so proud of you. I thank God for His work in your heart.” That’s Paul’s heart here. He’s not praising the programs or budgets or buildings or activities or numbers of people. He’s thankful for how this church is reflecting the glory of God in this world. They are growing in grace and proclaiming the excellencies of God by their joy and delight in Christ. Surely there is nothing more beautiful on earth than the testimony of a healthy, strong, humble, loving, God-centered, gospel-focused church singing the praises of Christ and that old rugged cross.

Don’t you want to keep growing this way? I do. Life is so purposeful and rich when we are vigorously deepening and expanding and multiplying and glorifying Christ. Is this your heart? Surely it is. Let’s be deepening our knowledge and enlarging our love and learning what it means to take up our cross and follow Christ. Let’s continue preaching the gospel to ourselves every day!

Let’s pause briefly. What is the gospel, anyway? Can you verbalize it? It’s not that we’re okay and Jesus is cool and gets us. It’s not that God loves everyone just as they are and tries to help people with their problems. The gospel isn’t that we should try to do what Jesus does. Paul gives us the best brief summary of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4, For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

The gospel is Christ and Him crucified. The gospel centers on the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross proclaims the love and holiness of God, the grace and wrath of God. The cross demolishes all human righteousness and religious pride. It cries out the horrible cost of our sin. Sin demands death, eternal separation from God. The cross says there is only one way to God. The cross proclaims the love of God for wrath-deserving rebels against God. Christ dying on that cross was none less than the incarnate Son of God paying the price for our sins as a substitutionary sacrifice. God’s fiery wrath against our sins was satisfied, propitiated, as Christ endured that wrath in full, every last drop of wrath, against those God would call to Himself. The good news is repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, submit to His rule over your life, and you will be saved. Saved means your sins are all forgiven and you’ve got an inheritance in glory!

That’s what happened there in Thessalonica. The gospel message was the best news they had ever heard. They were a great contrast to that greedy farmer who built bigger barns to hold all his grain but had no spiritual inheritance and faced his Creator that very night. His earthly treasures were worthless. What you treasure is where your heart will be. Where your heart is, shows what you treasure. The gospel of Jesus Christ should be the treasure of our hearts, the most glorious news we’ve ever heard. The Thessalonian believers treasured the gospel and that’s why Paul was bound to give thanks to God for them.

A CHURCH GROWING THROUGH ADVERSITY

Here’s where the grace of God was so evident in these believers and why Paul is so determined to give thanks and even speak proudly about them. They were going through persecution and afflictions and yet continued to persevere and endure. They were facing intense opposition from the pagan society in which they lived. There were always those jealous Jews and those thugs from the marketplace eager for hire to make life hard for these believers. But how did they handle adversity? They were growing through adversity. Adversity has a positive side; it is a God-given opportunity to grow.

Is Your Faith Greatly Enlarged? Paul loves the preposition “hyper” and attaches it to verbs like enlarged. Their faith is “hyper-enlarged,” or as KJV says, “grows exceedingly.” Faith isn’t static. We live by faith, not by sight, and it’s a faith that grows, especially through adversity. Faith keeps its eye on God and His promises, especially when we face adversity. You may remember in Pilgrim’s Progress when Christian and Hopeful in Doubting Castle were whipped and bludgeoned by Giant Despair. How did they escape? It happened when Christian remembered he had the key of promise in his pocket. That key unlocked every door out of Doubting Castle. Faith lives on God’s promises.

Faith sees God in the trial, even in the persecution. Faith sees God’s sovereign hand in all the adversity that comes our way, whether from other people or simply the difficulties of life. When adversity comes, which God assures us it will come, cast your burdens on the Lord because He says in 1 Peter 5:7 He cares for us. Through Romans 8:28 we know He uses adversity for our good and His glory! God uses adversity in our lives to develop our muscles of faith. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “God never wastes suffering. Trials work for us, not against us.”

What did Job say in Job 23:10? “He knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” What did Abraham do? “By faith when he was called he went out not knowing where he was going!” Then there’s Goliath, trash-talking Israel and Israel’s God. David despises His God being trashed, so he steps up boldly by faith in his mighty God, slinging that deadly stone in the name of the Lord! Growing through adversity, opposition.

Faith is a spiritual muscle that grows as we use it. There are the disciples in the middle of the storm filled with fear. What did they do? They panicked! They cried out to Jesus, “Master, Master, we’re perishing!” Jesus got up, calmed the storm, and then asked them, “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:22-25). Faith is a gift from God. All believers have it, but we must use it to make it effective. We are called to live by it, to walk by faith not by sight, to trust in God’s promises. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in Spiritual Depression, chapter 10, says a believer should never be in a panic or lose control. How often are we just like those disciples? We get anxious, worried, not using our faith, sometimes panicking, forgetting the key of promises. Where is God when you’re going through adversity? He’s right there, the same place He was yesterday. He never changes. One of the beautiful things about the disciples’ storm story is this: The storm sent them to Jesus. They went to Him. If your storms send you to Christ, claiming His promises, that’s good. That’s how we know our faith is increasing. We walk by faith, not by sight. We don’t see Him, but we know He is with us. We use the faith God has given us. We cast our cares on Him, knowing He cares for us.

Verse 4 speaks of persecutions and afflictions. Afflictions (thlipsis) are anything that test your confidence in God – suffering, loss, pain, disease, inner turmoil, marriages, children, stuff we experience in this fallen world in fallen bodies. Persecutions describe God’s enemies coming after us. Paul knew all about this.

Acts 17:5, But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people.

For the Thessalonians, the persecution hadn’t stopped. But God assures us that through many tribulations we’ll enter the kingdom. We all know persecution has been the appointed experience of believers from the beginning of the church age. Nero would pin the blame for Rome’s burning on Christians and feed them to lions and burn them as torches for his garden parties. He had Paul beheaded. There were ten waves of persecution throughout the Roman empire. The Catholic church hounded and persecuted God’s people throughout the Middle Ages, the Reformation times, and since. Whether our persecutions are burning at the stake, beheading, being shot, tortured, mocked – Paul says our faith is greatly enlarged, hyper-enlarged, as we persevere and endure. Which takes us to the second part of verse 3.

Is Your Love Growing Ever Greater?

Paul prayed in 1 Thessalonians 3:12, “May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people.” He urged them in 1 Thessalonians 4:10 to excel still more in their love for others. And look what happened. God answered his prayer. “Your love is growing ever greater!” Isn’t that beautiful? But how do you know if your love is growing ever greater? There are two indicators of increasing love.

The first is humility. There is no true love without heart humility. The more you grow in love the less you’ll be all about yourself or feeling you’re better than others and the more you’ll want God to use you to bless others. Here’s a description of God’s kind of love: Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; (Philippians 2:3).

The second is a servant’s heart. You see it in Philippians 2:20 when Paul says Timothy was genuinely concerned for their welfare. You see it in the upper room when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet:

John 13:15, For I [Jesus] gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.

Christ many times illustrated what servant love really is:

John 13:34, Jesus said, ‘As I have loved you, that you also love one another.’

And the author of Hebrews wrote:

Hebrews 10:24, Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

I’ve read that the sequoia trees of California tower are as high as 300 feet and weigh over two million pounds (1,000 tons). These giants have unusually shallow root systems, six to twelve feet below the surface. But their roots stretch out in all directions to capture the greatest amount of surface moisture. Now here is how they illustrate the love of God’s people for one another. Their roots intertwine densely with each other which provides support for each other so they can withstand wind, fire, earthquakes, and storms. That’s God’s people’s love for one another growing ever greater, enabling them to provide needed support one for another. Or as Warren Wiersbe wrote, “When Christians suffer, their faith reaches upward to God and their love reaches outward to their fellow believers.”

Paul was proud of this Thessalonian church in the region of Macedonia, north of Greece. He thanked God for them and even boasted of them to other churches! I’m thankful and blessed to be a part of this church that is increasing in faith and growing ever greater in love. Let’s pray that God will make Evansville Bible Church an ever growing, powerful witness of His grace. May each of us have a hyper-increase in our faith and grow ever greater in our love for others. May we all persevere and endure through whatever adversity God brings into our lives.