Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

In the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament, we see Nehemiah and some of the Israelites starting to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem.

The task is arduous and unrelenting just at face value.

There is a huge task to be done and not a ton of men to get it done.

Yet, it gets even harder when opposition starts to come.

Sanballat the Samaritan governor, Tobiah the Ammonite, and other enemies of Israel start to heckle and threaten Nehemiah and the Jews.

So while the Jews are building the walls, they have to split up into two groups - one holding weapons and the other working on the wall.

Even those who are working on the wall end up carrying a weapon in one hand as they work.

This opposition continues until the wall is finished.

The enemies of Israel eventually fail in thwarting the plan of God.

You see, Satan is always working to hinder the workers of God.

He seeks to steal, kill and destroy.

He hates anything that brings God glory.

He hates anyone who brings God glory.

Yes, Satan is allowed to hinder the work of God’s servants while we are on earth.

However, the work is not hampered.

The work may be stalled at times, but it is never completely impeded or arrested.

The plans of God are fulfilled no matter what opposition comes from the evil one.

Our sovereign God does what He wills in the face of any and all opposition.

And with that, let’s jump in and read our text for today:

Let us pray.

Prayer.

Today we are going to see three aspects of a believer’s work for Christ.

The first is:

I.

When Living for Christ… Your Work Will Be Hindered (2:17-18)

As many of you may recall from our previous sermons, in Acts 17 we see Paul and his companions thrown out of town from Thessalonica.

They weren’t able to stay nearly as long as they wanted to.

Paul uses the phrase torn away to express how they did not desire to go but yet had to.

This phrase, ‘torn away’ is actually one Greek word - aporphanizō (a-poor-a-pha-nee-zo).

This word presses in on Paul and his companions’ sadness of being removed from the city.

The word literally means to be made orphans.

He compared their being ripped from Thessalonica to the pain that a child has who has had his or her parents taken away.

This is quite a statement.

It shows the love and dedication that Paul and his companions had for this new church plant.

As the the great 4th century theologian John Chrysostom once said, “He did not say, separated from you,’ nor ‘left behind,’ but orphaned from you.’

He sought a word that might sufficiently show the pain of his soul.”

It was this pain in his soul that made him yearn to be back with these new believers.

He states that his heart was still with them despite the fact that his body was far removed.

And it is this desire that brings us into the main thrust of these two verses and our first point today.

Despite the longing that Paul and his companions have for the people in Thessalonica, there is a hindrance that is keeping them from going back.

And this hindrance is Satan himself.

This word hindrance is actually a military word.

Soldiers would tear up and destroy a passage to hinder the movement of the enemy forces.

That is the imagery that Paul uses here regarding Satan.

He is seeking to prevent passage back to the believers in Thessalonica.

He wants to keep them from hearing any more about the Gospel.

He wants to rob them of the truth of God’s commands and Word.

In 2 Corinthians 4:4 we see how the enemy works:

He blinds the minds of unbelievers.

He hinders their ability to hear and understand the Gospel.

Satan and his demons work tirelessly to prevent the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But he does not only work on unbelievers.

We have just seen him work against believers as well.

In fact, the Scriptures speak of Satan this way:

He is your adversary.

Note a very important distinction here.

Unbelievers aren’t our adversaries.

The Bible is clear that it is not unbelievers who are directly hindering the moving of the Gospel.

It is actually Satan and his demons.

Yes, they use human beings to do their bidding.

Yet, these people are nothing more than pawns in the spiritual battle raging around us.

Ephesians 6:12 says:

We do not fight against liberal theologians, pro-abortion groups, sexually perverse individuals, or other people doing evil things.

Yes, we must oppose anyone, anything, or any idea that sets itself up against the will and knowledge of God as seen in 2 Corinthians 10:5, but we must remember that our real battle is invisible.

Our real battle is spiritual and not physical.

Our real labor is done on our knees in prayer.

Our real labor is done sharing the good news of the Gospel to our family, neighbors, coworkers, and friends.

There is most certainly a time for activism - voting, public service, rallies, and other ways to positively influence our culture.

But the real fight that believers fight is spiritual in nature.

We must grasp the fact that Satan is seeking to destroy our lives and hinder our sharing of the Gospel.

How does Satan’s work of hindrance look practically in our lives today?

I think that the most common way Satan works to hinder the work of the believers today is busyness.

The old quote still rings true.

If Satan can’t make you bad then he will make you busy.

Some of us have so much going on that we don’t have margin in our lives to do the will of God.

We don’t have time to serve Christ because we are too busy doing what we want to do.

There are definitely legitimate seasons of busyness that come to our lives.

Sometimes we have to work hard to provide for our family and lose margin.

Sometimes we have training for our career and lose margin for a season.

When we have young children and babies we may not have the margin to share the Gospel as often as we would like.

During these naturally busy times we still need to stay focused on the Lord and what He has for us.

He will still give us opportunities to share the Gospel in the rhythms of even our busiest seasons of life.

We just have to keep our eyes on Him and not ourselves or our tasks.

I remember being in residency and working 80+ hours a week and really struggling with focusing on myself.

I was fatigued and was fighting to survive.

It became quite difficult to focus on anyone other than myself and my family.

I was in survival mode.

Yet, God used a man gifted in evangelism to encourage me to look beyond myself and see the people who were hurting, sick, and struggling in front of me.

He encouraged me to see that their eternity was at stake.

Although he acknowledged that my life was very difficult at the time - he reminded me that I had the hope of Jesus Christ while many under my care did not.

This was very convicting for me and helped me change my attitude and focus.

Although there are legitimate seasons of busyness that we have mentioned, I must say that sadly these seasons of busyness that we have discussed thus far aren’t normally the reasons for margin issues in most people’s lives today.

Many spend so much time on their hobbies that they don’t have margin.

Satan is using these hobbies to hinder the spread of the Gospel and hinder our spiritual growth.

Movies and television as well as other forms of entertainment dominate our culture.

Sports are one such hobby that quickly becomes an idol for many in our culture.

It used to be something that was more entertainment driven - but now it has become a way of life even for families of young children.

Travel sports have started sucking up time and money from American families and have stolen them from the church many Sundays.

Childhood sports is now an annual 17 billion dollar industry as of 2019 - which is more than the NFL brings in each year!