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LSB  1 Thess. 3:4 - 9
4 For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction, just as it happened and as you know. 5 For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to know about your faith, lest somehow the tempter has tempted you, and our labor be in vain. 6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always remember us kindly, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith; 8 for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord. 9 For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God because of you,

Last week we talked about affliction, and we said that Paul teaches that affliction is normative for christians.  It kinda makes sense.  Suddenly we are transferred out of Satan's armies into God's armies and we have become enemy combatants in Satan's world.  Of course affliction should be normal in that scenario.

I don't want to belabor that point too much.  I don't want to sound like a broken record up here.  Don't want to wear you out.  But of course, Vs. 4 picks up right where vs. 3 left off.  I'll read vss 2,3 as a reminder of our context.  Paul says;

2b  we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, 3 so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this.

4 For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction, just as it happened and as you know.

Apparently Paul was a bit of a broken record with these folks.  He says I kept telling you in advance.  Trouble is normal.  Expect it.  Don't be knocked off course when it happens.

And sure enough, trouble T-boned them in the intersection at 100 miles per hour.  Just like Paul said.  Just as they know very well.  Told ya so.  Said it would happen and you got both barrels.  

Did you know affliction is actually a positive, not a negative.  It's difficult for us in our context of the ease and security and comfort of America that we've known for our whole lives to imagine real affliction and then think, that is something we should consider as positive.

That's something I want to explore just a little bit this morning.  The evidence that the affliction that we fear and dread, because we've never experienced it in our land, is actually something that God uses for His glory and our good.

In Acts chapter 5, just as the church is in it's first weeks of formation, Peter and John are imprisoned after they dis-obey the rulers demands that they stop preaching in the name of Jesus.  

In fact the intent of the ruling body of jews was to kill them.  But one man, Gamaliel told the Sanhedrin body that they shouldn't interfere because all of these types of little rebellions quickly fizzle out and go away,  Reading from Acts 5:40b - 42;  This is Peter and Johns' response to very real nearly deadly affliction.

So they (the rulers in Isreal) followed his (Gamaliel's) advice. And after calling the apostles in and beating them, they commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. 41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for the Name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

After being falsely imprisoned and then recieving a beating, lashes from a whip most likely in that culture, Peter and John went away rejoicing.  For them it was like a badge of honor to have been mis-treated as a direct effect of holding forth the name of Jesus.

50 years ago, I had the tiniest little taste of something like this.  Drafted into the military, at that time we had a few weeks to go join the branch of our choice before reporting to the Army.  So I joined the Naval Air Reserve and found myself in Boot Camp in Millington Tennesee.  

I read and understood the requirements of personal items in a boot camp setting and at that time it clearly stated that you could have a Bible.  Mine was in plain view on my designated cupboard space.

The drill chief in charge of making our lives miserable in order to toughen us up stood 6 inches away from my face and screamed at the top of his lungs, get rid of that thing.  I said, Sir, no sir.  The Navy gives me the right to have that book on my shelf, I won't remove it.

It stayed right where it was but guess who was singled out for lots of personal abuse.  That guy made sure I got a double share.  But on the other hand, what happened opened up many doors of opportunity to share my faith with the other guys in that company.  

That's simply how it works.  When faith is costly, people know it's something real, and want to know about it.  Nobody's impressed with christianity that is lukewarm, flavorless, secularism light, that mimic's what the world is already doing.  

The world takes notice and wants to know about a faith that withstands pressure.  The world is impressed when our faith is costly.  They may not join us, but at least they respect people willing to suffer loss in order to have their faith.

Last year, during Covid in Canada, a pastor there was imprisoned for 2 months because he refused to stop the church's meeting for worship together, as the Lord commands.  

When they released him from prison he got a standing ovation from the other prisoners.  People respect a faith that pays a price of affliction.  Even if they didn't accept Jesus as their own, those prisoners respected a man willing to go to prison for obeying scripture.

There's another positive of affliction.  Affliction purifies the church.  Affliction purifies the church.  It has an effect like fire has with gold.  The heat gets to a point where nothing but the real can come through to the other side.  The heat removes the dross.

In the letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor that Jesus sent via the apostle John, one church is found purer than all of the others, even more so than Philadelphia, it was the church at Smyrna.  From Revelation ch. 2;

8  “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: This is what the first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says: 9 ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will never be hurt by the second death.’

The only church that Jesus declares as rich, is the church that is under the most duress.  He says I know, I know.  I know of your tribulation and your poverty, but . . . you are rich.

Affliction caused that singular church to be poor by this world's standards but rich by God's.  That works two ways beloved.  The opposite is true also.  Ease and worldly riches render the church spiritually bankrupt.  Exhibit A;  American Evangelicalism.  Big Eva.  Jesus wrote a letter to them too;

14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: This is what the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says: 15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked. 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be manifested; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

The world's riches made this church;  wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked.  

Affliction brings purity.  The phonies won't hang around when real affliction comes.  Maybe Satan's not so dumb after all.  Costless christianity in America has become pointless lukewarm christianity that Christ will spew out of His mouth.  Laughable, mockable christianity.

We dread real affliction.  But actually we should embrace it as a positive thing.  No, we don't need a martyr complex and go looking for trouble, but if trouble comes, as a result of standing steadfast to the clear teachings of this book, we should embrace it as a positive.

Church attendance is down 45% after Covid.  We have to logically ask, were the 45% who vanished really Holy Spirit indwelt and quickened to spiritual life and regenerated christians?  

Remember in Jesus parable of the soils, of the 4 scanarios, only one of the four matures and bears fruit.  That's the standard of real vss. false.  Fruit.  Of the other 3 possibilities, 2 of the seeds actually sprout and become plants.  But affliction snuffs them out and they are gone.  Weedy soil chokes out any fruit.  Shallow soil cannot sustain the plant and it withers away in the heat and vanishes in the wind.  Affliction proves and separates the real from the false.

And so Paul says to the Thessalonians;  4 For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction, just as it happened and as you know.

Paul says, we told you ahead of time.  Trouble is the norm.  Trouble is normal.  Expect it.  Don't be surprised when proving of your faith by the fires of affliction comes.  That's normal.  

What is unusual in this case though is that Paul and the rest of the team is removed from the equation.  They don't have any way to know.  What's left at Thessalonica after the proving effect of affliction?  Are there any survivors?  Paul is completely in the dark.  It's killing him to know.

Jesus parable that only Mark reveals to us in his gospel, also about seeds and soils comes to mind.  Mark 4:26 - 29

26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and he sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows⁠—how, he himself does not know. 28 The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The farmer puts the seed in the soil and then he steps away.  What happens to the seed implanted in the soil is out of his hands.  After the seed is planted there's nothing for the farmer to do except wait.  He sleeps and rises and sleeps and rises.  Nothing he can do to make that seed grow.  That's out of his hands, out of the realm of his control.  The magic of growth happens, apart from the farmer.

Paul is removed to Athens and then finally he ends up at Corinth.  But what about the field he planted at Thessalonica.  What happened?  Did those plants grow.  Or did Satan come with a tractor and a tank of diesel oil and kill off that field.  

Paul's like the farmer in a way.  It's out of his hands whether the seeds germinate and become fruitful plants, or not.  But it's killing him to find out.  He knows there were sprouts.  His seedlings came up.  But he doesn't know if the ground is too shallow and the sun will burn them up.  He doesn't know whether Satan will come and sow weeds there to choke them out.

5 For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to know about your faith, lest somehow the tempter has tempted you, and our labor be in vain.

Paul says, We worked hard on that field.  Did it thrive in our absence, or did it perish.  He's totally in the dark.  And Satan is powerful to destroy.

As Paul visits with the elders of the church at Ephesus, the most solidly established church perhaps in Asia minor, this is what his final words to them are;

Acts 20:29 I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them

Satan is ruthless in his war on God's people.  He is a mighty foe.  Able to reek havoc on the church.  Paul is frustrated that he isn't present with the Thessalonians to help them in the affliction he knows will come.  What's left after the storms?  Did Satan wipe them out.  Are there survivors?

5 For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to know about your faith, lest somehow the tempter has tempted you, and our labor be in vain.

Finally when he can endure not knowing any longer, he sends Timothy to find out:  Has anyone survived the onslaught?  Did our field we planted there bear any fruit, or is it completely wiped out.

6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always remember us kindly, longing to see us just as we also long to see you,

This is the only time in the new testament when the term normally used for the good news, the gospel, is used to mean some good news besides the truths about what Jesus has done to purchase us out of this condemned world.  Paul uses that same word.  euangelisamenou  having brought to us good news.

Good news!  Our field survived and is fruitful, even in our absence!  There is faith and love there!  And they long for our company.  They long to see us.  They remember us with positiveness.  Their thoughts of us are kind.  They are like family.  They long to see us and we likewise have longed to see their faces.

7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith; 8 for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.

This is a comparative text.  This is a scale with weights on either side.  We speak of balances in our lives.  That's what Paul says here.  In this comparative statement, distress and affliction is on one side of the scale, and comfort about the positive nature of their real faith, and the oy that news brings, is offsetting it on the other side of the scale.

When we got the good news that you had survived, and not only survived but were in fact thriving, the weight of affliction is completely offset by the weight of good.  

Hearing that you've survived and thrived has replaced affliction with joy.  Real comfort comes when all of the trouble is replaced with life.  Having babies is painful work, but the pain is quickly replaced with the joy of life!

Paul says the same thing to the Corinthians in 2 Cor. 4:15 - 17

15 For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary, light affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,

This is also comparative.  We're wearing out.  Literally, our bodies are being worn out by all of the trouble and affliction.  But Paul says, we don't care because the inner man is being renewed and made better while the outer man is wearing down.

And then he completes the comparative.  Affliction is momentary, and light, but the eternal weight of glory that is being laid up for us in the treasurehouse of heaven is totally out of balance by comparison.

Affliction is temporary, momentary.  Glory is incomparable and eternal.  On the scale of eternity, momentary affliction is like a couple of grains of salt on one side of the scale compared to a trillion pounds on the other side.  

The news that the Thessalonians are standing firm in their faith has totally overcome the cost of constant affliction Paul always experienced.  No comparison.  The news that they are standing has replaced affliction with comfort and life.  The joy of the news that they are thriving in their faith far offsets the afflictions of their birth.

9 For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God because of you,

Did you ever notice how quickly you can talk a mom into having another kid.  I have some personal experience here.  I've been in the room when the woman is cursing the day you were born and swearing that if she survives she'll never go through this ordeal again.

But then the joy comes.  I guess it's all worth it, because another one comes, and another one after that.  The pain and sorrow is quickly forgotten.  But the joy remains.

Paul says; There are no words to sufficiently thank God for the Thessalonians because of all of the joy that has come because of them.  Again it's comparative.  There is no amount of thanks to God to begin to offset the weight of the joy that God has given to Paul, because the Thessalonian christians are standing firm in their faith.

Affliction is always on one side of the scale.  Ever present.  Avoidable.  Avoidable.  

Which begs the question.  If we avoid affliction, what happens to all of the benefits that Paul compiles on the other side of the scale.  Joy.  Life.  Glory.  Spiritual children standing firm glorifying God.  Gospel increase.  Treasure in heaven.  I think perhaps we know the answer to that question.

In 1959 the Billy Graham Crusades Organization began to use a song in their crusades which you may recognize.  I have decided to follow Jesus.

The words were simple and that organization was big into decision.  Remember Decision Magazine.  You would get it if you signed a card at a Billy Graham Crusade.  Their brand was all about Decisions for Jesus, and this little song seemed to fit perfectly with that brand.

The words are incredibly simple.

I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.

The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
No turning back, no turning back.

Though none go with me, still I will follow;
Though none go with me, still I will follow;
Though none go with me, still I will follow;
No turning back, no turning back.

These days the reformed community questions the ultimate lasting value of the extremely Arminian Billy Graham Organization.  We're not here to decide that issue, only to say that the little song has a great depth in it's origins that most people don't know about.

After the Welsh revival of 1859 a great missionary movement broke out and some American Baptist Missionaries came to a place in north eastern India called Assam.  There were hundreds of primitive and aggressive tribes there who were head hunters.  Literally.  The missionaries were not welcome.  

One missionary did however succeed in winning a single convert, a man and his wife and two sons.  This mans faith proved contagious and many villagers began to accept Jesus as their saviour.  

Angry, the village chief summoned all the villagers. He then called the family who had first converted to renounce their faith in public or face execution. Moved by the Holy Spirit, the man said:

“I have decided to follow Jesus.”

Enraged at the refusal of the man, the chief ordered his archers to arrow down the two children. As both boys lay twitching on the floor, the chief asked, “Will you deny your faith? You have lost both your children. You will lose your wife too.”

But the man replied:

“Though no one joins me, still I will follow.”
The chief was beside himself with fury and ordered his wife to be arrowed down. In a moment she joined her two children in death. Now he asked for the last time, “I will give you one more opportunity to deny your faith and live.”  In the face of death the man said the final memorable lines:

“The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back.”

He was shot dead like the rest of his family. But with their deaths, a miracle took place. The chief who had ordered the killings was moved by the faith of the man. He wondered, “Why should this man, his wife and two children die for a Man who lived in a far-away land on another continent some 2,000 years ago? There must be some remarkable power behind the family’s faith, and I too want to taste that faith.”

In a spontaneous confession of faith, he declared, “I too belong to Jesus Christ!” When the crowd heard this from the mouth of their chief, the whole village accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

The song is based on the last words of Nokseng, a man from Garo tribe of Assam (now Meghalaya and some in Assam), India. It is today the song of the Garo people.

Beloved, we could build an argument that ease and non affliction is actually far more dangerous than affliction.  The church has been making bargains with the world, which are bargains with the ruler of this world, in order to stave off afflictions.  Avoid afflictions.

What is the point of contention?  What is the single scandal to this world that is at the root of contentions.  What must we give up in order to have peace with this world?  

It is the crystal clear words of this book.  The belief that the words of this book are the very Words from God's mouth.  The belief that the words of this book are authoritative and demand obedience.  That's the scandal that will bring afflictions.

On May 2nd, just a few days earlier this week, I was rather shocked to learn that quietly, indeed secretly, in some back room without any fanfare, our government set up an office in the Department of Homeland Security called the Disinformation Governance Board.  *

That's right, our government has set up an office, a board of authorities who will decide for our own good, what is truth and what is not.  The Disinformation Governance Board, Dept. of Homeland Security. *  I'll just leave that thought with you.  OK, no I won't.

Christians and Jews for 6000 years have had a Disinformation Governance Board.  We have a standard of truth given to us in the revealed Words of God in this book we hold in our hands.  Somehow I fear, the Governments Disinformation Governance Board is not going to agree that our truth is their truth.  Interesting that they set that office up and didn't tell any one.

2b  we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, 3 so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. 4 For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction, just as it happened and as you know.

*  https://albertmohler.com/2022/05/02/briefing-5-2-22