1 Thessalonians: Living Between the Ages
Thessalonians: Living Between the Ages • Sermon • Submitted
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Walking Backwards into the Future
Walking Backwards into the Future
Are you walking into the future with a disciplined focus on the faithfulness of God in the past? It is only by remembering God’s faithfulness and promises that we can walk successfully into the future with confidence and boldness.
The Anxiety of Leaving the Familiar
I remember when Taylor and Mikayla left home…how my heart sank and a part of me was torn away. The many trips back home leaving our girls behind was/is devestating for me. Every part of me wanted to turn around and never leave.
Part of it is because I still want to provide and protect them. Part I love them and their company. I cannot imagine a day going buy not seeing them, thinking about them, and/or talking with them. What you desire as a parent is that they will succeed, find love, joy, and happiness, and not have to deal with difficult people and situations. But then that is how we grow, we learn, and we become strong. Hopefully they remember...
What you taught them - how to handle money, cook, be street smart, avoid compromising situations, be a person of high integrity, and to value the right and wise things including/and always to love and follow Jesus.
On our rescent visit to BC, Lynnette and I were able to hold and love our first grandchild, our grandson Henry Walter. So exciting!!! And yet so sad…as we had to say goodbye and come back to Alberta. As our friend Connie says, “Those little ones get into your heart.”
Emotions take hold as you are driving back wondering will I see Henry again? Will mom and dad be able to make the adjustments? Do they have enough support? Will they be able to afford everything? Will they remember to take care of each other, as well as Henry? I already miss them…will they be okay LORD???
Will they remember the stuff they need to remember in order to live successfully with boldness and courage when the tough days and nights come?
The danger of stress and trial is that it can lead us to forget our training, our support, and even God. The danger of comfort, happiness, and fun is that it can lead us to forget our training, our support, and yes, our God.
Here are a few simple questions to ask ourselves to see what our remembering is like:
Do I give praise and thanks to God for what has happened?
How long does it take for me to give thanks and praise to God for what He has done?
Do I give praise and thanks to Him for everything because He has either allowed it, given it, and/or orchastrated it?
Do I continue living and being as I was before? Or have I changed? Have I changed toward God?
How have I acted following the favor of the LORD particularly something that I have been given, wanted, or needed?
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.
The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord;
Walking forward takes facing backward and remembering God’s goodness, promises, commands, and faithfulness.
Dennis Kinlaw, president of Asbury College, had this to say about the Hebrews of the Bible,
1 and 2 Thessalonians Focus on Remembering
“The Hebrew was called to walk, as it were, backwards into the future. Disciplined remembrance is institutionalized in biblical faith because we are called to interpret our present circumstance in light of God’s known faithfulness in the past.”
We are called to interpret our present circumstances in light of God’s known faithfulness in the past. This is what a disciple of Jesus does. How am I living today in light of Christ’s faithfulness? Has the fear of Covid gipped you? Has the fear of a recession invaded your financial affairs, your giving? Are you worried about your health or someone else’s? Are you remembering the faithfulness of God and walking backwards into tomorrow keeping your eye of God’s faithfulness?
This was the concern of the Apostle Paul as he wrote to the Thessalonian church in Thessolonika. He had escaped the city in the middle of night after having aroused the locals with the Gospel. We read in Acts 17:5-10 of the situation.
But the Jews became jealous, and they brought together some scoundrels from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly.
When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too,
and Jason has received them as guests! They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus!” The Jews stirred up the crowd and the city officials who heard these things.
So taking a security bond from Jason and the others, they released them. As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea. On arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Can you imagine! Preaching the Gospel in Leduc in such power and productivity that the city of 32000 riots? The opposing spiritual forces are so threatened that they cause extensive chaos. The pictures of the Arab spring in Egypt of 2011 come to mind.
Tahrir Square 11 & 18th 2011
Thessolonica was a city between 65000 and 80000 people with another 20000 to 35000 on the outskirts. It was a place of opportunity, being on a major trade route, that attracted laborers, trades people, orators, and philosophers. Thessolonica was a religious marketplace with many temples and many gods represented.
Dionysus, the Greco-Roman god of esctasy and wine. His devotees engaged in the “mysteries” of wine-drinking orgies and eating the raw flesh of animals in order to incorporate the god and his power within.
Sarapis, an Egyptian god of the underworld, was adopted by the Greeks in order to unite the Egyptian and Greek people after the conquest of Alexander the Great and his generals. A temple, festivals of autumn and spring, and dream answers to petitions were part of the activities devoted to Sarapis.
Cabirus, was a young man murdered by his two brothers, who became worshiped by the working class as a god. The ruling elite overtook the Cabirus cult in an effort to unify the Thessolonians. Cabirus was worshiped with confession of sins, water baptism, and symbolic immersion in the blood of the so called martyred god.
The goddess Roma, personified Rome and the Empire. She was worshiped as the protector of Rome and came to be worshiped by the known world because the world was ruled by Rome. If you wanted to curry favor with Rome you would establish a shrine to Roma. She came to personify “peace and safety”, the Pax Romana. Thessonika had a shrine dedicated to the goddess Roma.
Even though Thessalonica had earned the status as “free city”, which meant they were not under any obligation to have Roman troops stationed there, nor having to absorb retired Romans soldiers; they were also allowed to mint their own coins, given special tax concessions, and a large degree of autonomy because they supported the right side of the Roman civil war.
To retain their status as a “favored city”, the Thessalonians also embraced the Emperor Cult, the worship of the ceasars as “lord” and “savior”. The pairing of the worship of Roma and the emperors, made it very difficult to worship anyone else, publically. Therefore, the presence of a formal Jewish synagogue was not likely, but more likely a house church. But we do know their was a Jewish religious synagogue in Thessalonica because they caused the riot as we already read in Acts 17:5.
Paul’s Concern - 1 Thess. 1-2:17
The Apostle Paul’s concern for the infant Thessalonian church is legitimate. Paul, having to leave in the middle of the night, like a snakeoil salesman, whose elexir is just colored water, was concerned that his work and God’s word did not take hold. That in the face of persecution, the church may have folded. That they may have viewed his departure as that of a false teacher.
To Paul’s joy, upon the report and return of Timothy, he finds this Gentile band of God-fearers, not just surviving, but living the way of Christ, by the power of the word, AND the conviction of the Holy Spirit. 1 Thess. 1:3
remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
To move forward, walking backwards, one needs to remember that the gospel we were shared was not just a word, but the Word of God with power and Holy Spirit conviction. Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The gospel of Jesus has power because the Spirit uses the Gospel to divide those of Christ and those of anti-christ, or anti-God.
Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.
They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
John 7:40-43; 9:16; 10:19 also speak of the division that Jesus, the Word of God, brings upon men and women.
So a division occurred among the crowd because of Him.
Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He doesn’t keep the Sabbath!” But others were saying, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.
When we refuse to walk backwards into the future, division will occur, between God and us. When we walk backwards into the future, division will occur between the world and us. Why?
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
That which is anti-Christ desires the things of the world. That which desires that of the Spirit, is opposed to the things of the world. The two shall never meet. That is why one who professes to be a follower of Christ and walks with the world is no follower of Christ, because he/she walks with and in the ways of the flesh, the world.
Are you living a divided life, based on the faithfulness of God, or on the fallacies of the world? Jesus came to bring division from the world, not unity with the world. And this is achieved through affliction, struggle, and persecution, but with Holy Spirit joy!
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,
Remember...there will be no victory parades thrown when you bring the Gospel into enemy territory. When you walk in Jesus’ ways in foreign territory you are more than likely to receive trash and turnips, than treasure and tomatoes. Just what are we expecting when we walk and live in enemy territory? Are we seeking the worlds approval or God’s? As the Apostle Paul encourages the Thessalonians to remember,
but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
Are we walking into the future looking backwards to God’s faithfulness? To His promises? To His person? To Christ and His sacrifice?
The Thessalonians Faithfulness, Our Faithfulness
Paul sends Timothy to establish and exhort the Thessalonians to be faithful (1 Thess 3:1-3), just as each brother and sister in Christ should be to one another. The Thessalonians faithfulness becomes a comfort to Paul and Silas in their distress and affliction (1 Thess 3:7). The apostle Paul makes the statement
For now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord.
The Thessalonians firm faithfulness in the face of attack has given life to Paul and Silas. Just as a report from your own kids that they are doing well on their own sets ones heart at ease for a mother or father. You thank God for His faithfulness and that lessons of faith have not been forgotten.
Because your kids are standing fast in the face of discrimination…you give thanks to God.
Because they stand firm to their faith in God during Covid…you give thanks to God.
Because they stand firm in the face of progressive agendas in the classroom…you give thanks to God.
Because you stand firm in the face of spiritual attack…your spouse, your children, your brothers and sisters in the LORD Jesus stand firm and give thanks to the LORD!
Faithfulness breeds faithfulness. One lives because one stands firm. One walking backwards into the future, remembering God’s faithfulness , breeds faithfulness in others to walk backwards into the future, remembering the faithfulness of God.
Do you stand fast in the LORD? Are we living? Are we walking backwards into the final days of this age, remembering the faithfulness of God? Stand firm, walking backwards in faithfulness to God, remembering His faithfulness, in a world that attacks you because you follow in the footsteps of Christ Jesus. Because you follow in the footsteps of Christ, the hope of Christ is established in the lives of others.
In the words of the apostle Paul, 1 Thess 3:11-12
Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you. And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone, just as we also do for you.
May He make your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.
Sermon in a Sentence:
Walking backwards in life, remembering the faithfulness of God, causes the hope of Christ in others, to walk backwards, in a world of blind front-walkers.