SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/2/2014 8:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Paul’s Confidence in God’s Power
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1
Thessalonians 2:3
Message of the
verses: I want to begin with a
preview of what we will be looking at in the first six verses in 1
Thessalonians chapter one, and even though we have already looked briefly at
verse we will be looking at the following items in verses three through
six. John MacArthur writes the following
as a preview of what we will be looking at:
“As he (Paul) continued the defends of ministry in this section of the
letter, Paul expressed five ingredients that opened his ministry to divine
power: his confidence in God’s power, is commitment to God’s truth, his
commissioning by God’s will, his motivation by God’s knowledge, and his
dedication to God’s glory.” We look at
the first one in today’s SD.
“2 You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi
just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us
the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great
opposition.” (1 Thessalonians 2:3)
As we look at this verse we can see that one of the
things that Paul was in his life was being fearless. Paul and Silas had just been beaten and
humiliated while in Philippi, they were thrown into the lowest part of the
prison where they were chained so that they would not escape, and what did they
do? They began a praise session to the
Lord by singing songs to the Lord, and those songs must truly have been
meaningful for after God sent and earthquake to the prison which lessened all
chains that were holding all of the prisoners none of them tried to
escape. I think that they wanted to hear
more of what Paul and Silas were talking and singing about. The jailor decided to try and kill himself
because he thought the prisoners had escaped, but Paul stopped him and
eventually lead him and his whole family to the Lord. I guess he was listening to Paul and Silas
too. This was the birth of the Philippian Church.
I mention Paul being fearless, and fear has been a
problem since the fall of man. Let us
look at what soon took place after Adam and Eve fell. “9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and
said to him, "Where are you?" 10 He said, "I heard the sound of
You in the garden, and I was
afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.’” (Genesis 3:9-10) We surely did not hear anything about fear
before they sinned, and we didn’t hear about them having any problems with
being naked before the fall either. When
sin entered the universe, fear also entered too.
Yesterday I went to pick up my wife at the airport and
got there a little bit early and then I get a phone call from her saying her
flight would be late, about two hours late which turned out to be three hours
late. I walked around the airport
looking for something to occupy myself for I had forgot to bring a book which
would have been a big help to pass the time.
I finally went into a book store where I could not find anything. Then later on I returned to the bookstore and
found a book on fear. I wanted to read
this book so I paid the “full” price for it and began to read it. I was disappointed that the book was written
by a Pastor from a part of Christendom that I have problems with, but decided
to read it anyway since I had nothing better to do. When I was a very young believer my pastor
said something that I never forgot. He
said that he liked to read and when he was reading a book that he did not agree
with, he equated it to eating fish. He
said that when you eat fish and come to a bone you through it out. I thought that I would be throwing out a lot
of bones from this book on fear, but surprisingly I found few bones so far in
this book. Fear is in the hearts of
everyone in some way or another as we all fear something. I suppose public speaking is number one on a
lot of people’s lists, and dying is close to the top too. When we look at movies about soldiers who
plunge headlong into battle we think that there is no fear in them, but there
is. The author writes “Always remember
that fearlessness is not the absence of fear; it’s the mastery of fear.” I think of a couple of verses that speak of
fear and how God can care for our fears:
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love,
and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).” There
is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves
punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love (1 John 4:18).” There was no fear before the fall, and so we
must believe that God can handle our fears if we allow him too and a good
example of God handling one’s fears can be seen in the Apostle Paul, for he had
much to fear, but he trusted the Lord.
If you or I would have gone through what he went through while in
Philippi we probably would not have left there and walked the 100 miles to
Thessalonica.
Our verse states that Paul and Silas suffered and were
mistreated in Philippi. MacArthur states
that the word suffer refers primarily to the physical abuse, however mistreated
refers to the public disgrace that they went through. After all Paul and Silas were both Roman
citizens and none of this should have happened to them, but if it didn’t then
the jailor would not have heart the good news of the Gospel.
After the walked the 100 miles to Thessalonica they were
also mistreated there as seen in Acts 17:5-6.
They were accused of treason and unfairly assaulted by a mob: “5 But
the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market
place, 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. 6 When they did not
find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city
authorities, shouting, "These men who have upset the world have come here
also (Acts 17:5-6).”
We mentioned that even though Paul and Silas were treated
badly at Philippi they came to Thessalonica and preached the Gospel there, and
Paul says that it was the Gospel of God.
We have also heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and also Paul states
that it was his gospel so what exactly does the Gospel of God mean? “The term gospel of God appears two more
times in chapter 2 (vv. 8, 9) as well as in Mark 1:14; Romans 1:1; 15:16; 2
Corinthians 11:7; and 1 Peter 4:17. It
describes the gospel from the perspective of God as the source. It is the good news designed by and revealed
from God about what He has done to redeem sinners through His grace and by His
Son Jesus Christ.” (John MacArthur)
In closing I want to quote both John MacArthur on how
they look at the word opposition and how it fits into this verse. MacArthur states that the word opposition
gives us our English word “agonize.” “It
referred to an agonizing life and death struggle. In the ministry, there is always pressure to
mitigate the message, to be inoffensive to sinners, to make the gospel
acceptable to them. But such compromise
had no place in Pauls’s strategy.
Instead, he had full confidence in God’s power to overcome all
opposition and achieve His redemptive purpose.
The servant of God preaches the true, unmitigated message God has laid
out in His Word, not some other message.”
Why does he do this? It is for
sure that he wants to please the Lord, and Paul stated in Philippians “for me
to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Warren Wiersbe states the following on the word
“contention.” “This is an athletic term
that means ‘a contest, a struggle.’ Te
Greed world was familiar with athletic contests, and Paul often used this idea
to illustrate spiritual truths (1 Cor. 9:24-27; Phil 3:13-14; 2 Tim. 4:7). He used this same word in Philippians 1:30
where he pictured the Christian life as an athletic contest that demanded dedication
and energy. It had not been easy to
start a church in Philippi, and it was not easy to start one in Thessalonica.”
No with was not easy, but Paul had complete confidence in God to accomplish
what God had planned form him to accomplish.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Continue to learn
about being fearless, trusting in the Lord to accomplish the things He desires
to accomplish in my life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Remember 1 John 4:18.
Memory verses for this
week: Philippians 2:5-10
5 Have this attitude in
yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form
of God, did not count regard with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied
Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness
of man. 8 Being found in appearance as a
man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death
on a cross. For this reason also, God
highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven,
and on earth, and under the earth
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Judaea” (Galatians 1:22).
Today’s Bible
question: “What did Jesus teach
regarding false prophets?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/2/2014 9:54 AM
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