Sermon Tone Analysis
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2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Stephen Caswell © 2000
Encouragement: Livingstone's Encourager
I think about David Livingstone when he climbed into the pulpit of a little church in Scotland.
He'd honed his sermon.
He'd prepared it so very well.
He wanted to be a great preacher.
He wanted to go give his life on the mission field.
And when he got up to preach that night, he flapped his wings, but he couldn't get off the runway.
He tried, but finally he forgot his sermon altogether; so he apologized to the people and left in great shame.
But Robert Moffat, the famous missionary, was there.
And Moffat came up to him after the service and said, "You can be a great and wonderful servant of God.
Why don't you go to medical school?"
Today you can't mention Africa without thinking about David Livingstone.
But what would have happened to David Livingstone without Robert Moffat?
Introduction
The Thessalonians were helped by Paul's first letter.
However it didn't solve all their problems.
Satan was working overtime in an attempt to stifle this fruitful Church.
Things heated up as their persecution increased.
Then a letter arrived supposedly from Paul stating that the Day of the Lord was actually present.
Needless to say the assembly was confused and frightened.
Some of the believers stopped working since Christ's return was so near.
They placed an extra burden upon the rest of the fellowship.
So Paul wrote to encourage them and correct these misconceptions.
He began by dealing with their most urgent need, an explanation for their trials and suffering.
Paul encouraged them three ways.
*/He gave them: /*
I.
Praise For Past Progress
II.
Promises Of Future Peace
III.
Prayer For Present Purity
*/Firstly/* Praise For Past Progress
/ /
After Paul's customary greeting, he praised the Thessalonians for their spiritual growth./
/He emphasized 4 areas, /Enlarged Faith, Exuberant Love/, /Excellent Testimony, Enduring Faith/
/a.
Enlarged Faith/
*2Thess 1:3* /We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other,/
/ /
*/Firstly/* Paul praises them for their /enlarged faith/.
The words */grows exceedingly/* u&perauxanw mean just that, */to increase above ordinary degree/*.
In spite of severe affliction the Thessalonians had greatly increased their faith.
/A faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted./
God uses trials to prove whether our faith is genuine.
Paul commended them for their /work of faith/ in his first epistle.
Now he thanked God for the exceeding growth of their faith.
Often when we make progress in the Christian life we are tempted to rest on our laurels or slow down.
This can be especially true of believers who are persecuted.
They want to escape the heat for a while.
The Thessalonians didn't do this.
They persevered in their Christian walk.
They kept growing.
Their faith in God grew in the midst of suffering.
/How did they do this?/
Because they saw Paul, Timothy and Silas do it.
The they imitated them.
A true Christian who is growing will be faithful, come what may.
Faith: Walk the Talk --/ A.W. Tozer/
To many Christians, Christ is little more than an idea, or at best an ideal -- He is not a fact.
Millions of professed believers talk as if He were real and act as if He were not.
Our actual position is always to be discovered by the way we act, not by the way we talk.
/ /
/b.
Exuberant Love/
/ /
The*/ second/*/ /thing Paul praised them for was */exuberant/* or */abounding love/*.
Their love was abounding more and more.
The word */abounds/* pleonazw means */to increase, have over, make abundant./*
It is like a glass that is filled to overflowing.
Paul had commended them for their /labor of love/ in his first letter.
In the same letter he asked them to /let their love increase more and more/.
They had heeded Paul's instruction and */were abounding/* in love.
/Suffering can make us selfish if we become absorbed with our own problems.
But when suffering is mixed with grace and faith it produces love./
When the pagan world beheld the miracle of Christian Fellowship they said, " Behold how they love one another.
Love is contagious.
Jesus said, /by this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another.
/Love working together with truth touches the lives of people like nothing else.
Love: Seasoned Salt
Sodium is an extremely active element found naturally only in combined form; it always links itself to another element.
Chlorine, on the other hand, is the poisonous gas that gives bleach its offensive odor.
When sodium and chlorine are combined, the result is sodium chloride--common table salt--the substance we use to preserve meat and bring out its flavor.
Love and truth can be like sodium and chlorine.
Love without truth is flighty, sometimes blind, willing to combine with various doctrines.
On the other hand, truth by itself can be offensive, some times even poisonous.
Spoken without love, truth can turn people away from the gospel.
When truth and love are combined in an individual or a church, however, then we have what Jesus called "the salt of the earth," and we're able to preserve and bring out the beauty of our faith.
-- /David H. Johnson/
/c.
Excellent Testimony/
/ /
*2 Thessalonians 1:4* /so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure,/
/ /
Paul's/ *third* /point of praise was their /faithful testimony/.
Everyone knew about their faith in Christ.
They witnessed continually.
Paul was able to use them as an example for other churches to follow.
He */boasted/* kaucaomai about them.
*/Boast/* is the word we looked at this morning in Philippians 3:3 where true worshippers */rejoice/* or*/ boast/* in Christ Jesus.
When a person in difficulty forsakes the Lord and the Church, they show that they have never been born again, or that their spiritual life is very weak.
The Thessalonians didn't do this.
During World War II, when enemy armies invaded North Africa, the missionaries had to flee; and there was great concern over the churches left behind.
But when the war ended and the missionaries returned, they discovered strong, thriving churches.
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