Faith: Not blind but believing

I Thessalonians 3

November 7, 1999

Introduction: The Indiana Jones movies were very popular just several years ago, well, ten years ago in fact as the copyright shows on the video jacket. One particular scene from the third film in the series makes a great illustration for the primary topic we find today in I Thessalonians 3. To set the context for some of us and to jog the memories of the rest of us, I need to tell you that Indiana Jones is on a trek in search of the ‘holy grail’. He has a guide book with him, and he has just overcome several major obstacles in arriving at the point where we see him. Jones’ father (Sean Connery) has been wounded and is lying on the floor back behind his son, thinking through the process his son is actually walking through. See if you remember this portion of the movie, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”. (Video clip here.)
In order to continue his search, Harrison Ford has to take a step into what looks like a vast chasm. It is an impossible step. It can’t be done. But all is not what it appears to be. There is actually a pathway across the gorge that is not visible to the naked eye. The script for Indiana Jones has him saying something about ‘blind faith’, but as we all saw, his guide book instructed him in exactly what had to be done. So as he obeyed, he found his foot being supported by a bridge across the gorge. The bridge, though not seen, was really there, just as his guide book intimated.
Now as we read the text of I Thessalonians 3 today, watch for the references to faith; there are five in the version I’m reading from. Also watch for how faith is described and make a mental note of the benefits faith brings to those who will exercise it.
I Thess 3—“Therefore when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to you faith, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this.
For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know.
For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain.
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 think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith; for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.
For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account, as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see you face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith?
Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you; so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”
Now to just review a moment; we’ve been away from I Thessalonians for a couple of weeks: Chapter 3 is really an outgrowth of something we read in chapter 2. In 2:13, we read about the word of God “which performs its work in you who believe.” To believe is to exercise faith. Our two English words, believe and faith, come from the same root in the original text of the Bible. And so we see Paul continuing to develop the theme of his letter to these precious souls that he is separated from. He had started in chapter one with a description of their godly life which had grown out of the good news of the Gospel. He had written about Gospel messengers in chapter 2 and had described the kind of person God uses to be one of those messengers. Then he had finished chapter two with encouraging words about the power of the Word of God, how God’s word can change us and empower us for all that life throws our way.
Paul continues in chapter three with the role that faith plays in the life of those who know God. The Word works in those who believe it! Without faith, without belief, the Word doesn’t work and doesn’t accomplish its purposes.
I want to state for us this morning five lessons found in this short chapter that unlock for us secrets of faith. For surely there is not a one of us here today who does not want a stronger faith. I’d be surprised if there is even one among us who would say, “My faith is as strong as I want it to be!” I can’t imagine anyone saying, “I know all there is to know about faith, and I feel good about where I am in this matter of believing.” To understand faith better is to live better. To exercise faith more is to experience life more fully.
Then I want us to think of ways that this faith we understand actually works in life from day-to-day.
Lesson One: Faith will keep afflictions from disturbing us. Paul makes this point in verses 2 and 3. Timothy was sent to encourage them and strengthen them as to their faith SO THAT no one would be disturbed by these afflictions… Pain and heartache have their ways of disturbing us, don’t they! Circumstances and failed expectations have their way of sending us down the emotional tubes, don’t they. Social and economic pressures placed upon our shoulders are not pleasant visitors that we welcome. A faith that can see beyond the afflictions keeps the heart stable, steadfast, and unmoved. Paul would later write to the Corinthians, “…for momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison…” This passage is famous for its contrasts. Did you see them there? Momentary vs. eternal, light vs. weight, affliction vs. glory…
Faith will keep affliction from disturbing us. A lack of faith allows affliction to send us spiraling off course. When we were recently in Dallas, we heard Prof Hendricks speak about his friend, Tom Landry. Hendricks was the chaplain of the Cowboys for many years and he commented that he knows no one who walks more in the presence of God than Tom Landry. That’s quite a statement when one considers where Hendricks works (Dallas Seminary) and who his other friends are!
The Prof commented further that the sports writers of Dallas are tough, no-nonsense pagans of the nth degree. They watched Tom Landry over the years he coached the Cowboys; they saw how he was treated when he was replaced by the new owner, and it was easy for them to see a huge difference between the life of this coach and their own lives. The Prof went on to say, “One best not criticize Tom Landry in this city these days, for the Dallas sports writers will crucify any critic of his in their newspapers.” Hendricks concluded with this remark, “The biggest pagan in this city once said to me, while pointing at Tom Landry, ‘There goes the genuine article.’” It is faith that enables us to keep our balance in the midst of afflictions, and those outside know there is something unique in that kind of life.
Lesson Two: Faith is potentially fragile in the face of the Tempter. In verse five, Paul hints that the devil might have destroyed the faith of these Thessalonians. “I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain.”
Paul would later make reference to those whose faith had been shipwrecked. He mentions in I Timothy 1:20 the names of Hymenaeus and Alexander as two who had suffered this disaster. By the time Paul wrote this letter, James had already written that faith could become useless, lifeless and dead.
We have an enemy who fully delights in tempting us to not trust God, to not believe what God has said, to put off taking steps of faith and trust. Too much giving in to his devices and schemes renders our faith ineffective, useless, and empty.
I remember in our early days at the seminary in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a young man that had lots of potential as a church planter and pastor. One day he was sent to a church with some funds that were to be used for the church’s building program. He never arrived. We learned later that he had left his family, picked up his girlfriend, and high tailed it to some far off island where he planned to live the good life with the church’s building funds.
It is safe to conclude that the tempter claimed victory in the life of one of God’s servants. Some of our labor was in vain; my toil in communicating the Word of God to him was apparently for naught.
I am reminded of Peter’s words in I Peter 5:8-10—“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”
Please, friends, let’s not kid ourselves. Our faith has a fragile side to it, and we dare not be careless in our exercise of it. Paul knew this to be true, and he was concerned for the Thessalonian believers. Peter knew this to be true, and he was concerned for his readers.
May I meddle a moment? How would we answer the following question today? “In what, for what, have I been trusting God in this past week?” If something doesn’t immediately pop to mind, we need to ask ourselves, “Why?” I still literally shudder every time I’m reminded of Proverbs 24:10—“If you fall apart in your day of crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place.” (That’s Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase from The Message.) If faith isn’t used, its fragile side will show up in temptation and in crisis, and we will suffer loss.
Lesson Three: Faith is always found in the context of love. It is in verse 6 that Paul relates how Timothy has come with good news about their faith and their love. It doesn’t surprise me, and it probably doesn’t surprise you, that these two elements of life go hand-in-hand.
The reference here to love is the kind of love that God shows. It’s not the erotic kind, it’s not the brotherly kind. It’s God’s kind-- the concern for the unlovely, the reaching out to the one who doesn’t deserve it, the giving that grows out of a burden of care for someone else’s need. It takes faith to draw us out of ourselves in order to act on behalf of someone else. No one loves in this manner without trusting God to empower him or her to act in this way. Faith and love are a pair of gloves. They always go together.
Has God placed someone in your sphere of influence that needs love? Trust God to show you how to get involved. Left to our own schedules and desires, we won’t naturally move in that direction.
Lesson Four: God will use our faith to energize others. Verses 7-8 are the foundation for this idea. Paul shares how he felt when he heard that the Thessalonians were still walking by faith. Their faith energized his! “For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord!” “We were comforted in our affliction and distress… by your faith!” “What we are enduring is worth it because you are still trusting God!”
How many people have gone to the mission field because of the testimony of Marilyn Laszlo? Chuck Moore shared with me this week of a friend who was headed into the pastorate, and then he saw Marilyn Laszlo’s film, “Mountain of Light”, and then he felt God wanted him on the mission field. The faith of one energized the faith of another. Whose faith is not stronger today because of what we heard and saw last Sunday?
I read this week a brief bio of the inventor, Thomas Alva Edison. The author of this article, J. Barnes, writes: “Edison tried to learn everything he could about any subject. As a child, Al, as he was called, swamped school teachers with questions in order to satisfy his growing curiosity. He set fires just to see how the flames traveled and consumed different materials. Once he accidentally burned down the family’s barn! He tried to hatch eggs himself by sitting on them.
Although teachers concluded that his questioning showed a lack of intelligence, Al’s mother had faith in him. When he was 8, she started teaching him at home, giving him books on physical science and letting him conduct experiments with chemicals in the cellar.
‘My mother was the making of me,’ Edison wrote later. ‘She let me follow my bent.’”
Where would the world today be without the inventions of Thomas Edison? His mother’s faith in him energized him to become what he became!
Who has been emboldened to start giving a tithe because of the faith of someone else a bit further down that road? On the last Sunday of Marion Williams life, he stood here with Yetive and told how God had always provided for him and his family and how important it was for him to be a faithful giver. Rick Seaman died on a Sunday afternoon after coming forward with his family that morning to deposit their Christmas gift in the special container we use for that occasion. Both of these men were acting out their faith when neither knew he was close to glory.
Who has shared the gospel because he watched someone else lay out the plan of salvation and saw how it could be done, and then tried it himself?
When you and I have a word from God, and when we act upon that direction that He gives, our faith becomes an example that emboldens others to also trust the Heavenly Father. Take some steps of faith this week in a direction that is clear to you from God’s word, and then share that experience with someone else!
Finally, Lesson Five: Faith is an element that grows for a lifetime. Do you see this lesson in verse 10? Paul’s prayer was that he might see their faces and complete what was lacking in their faith.
There’s a word picture being used here that portrays a fishing net in need of mending. For the net to work like it was designed to, there could not be gaping holes left for fish to escape through. The Thessalonians had a faith that was not “perfect”, not complete. There were still ‘holes’, there were deficiencies that needed shoring up, that needed mending and completing. Paul’s fervent prayer was that he might get back to them and help them plug the holes in their faith.
Paul would also write later to the Romans what we find in 1:11—“For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established-- that is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.” The Romans would be blessed by Paul’s exercise of his spiritual gifts in their presence, and their faith would be more complete.
It seems to me, friends, that we ought to be thinking about how our faith is maturing. Could we say today that we are trusting God for bigger things than we were last year? Would it be possible that some of us could bear testimony that we have seen God as bigger than we knew Him to be last year? Or is it true that we still worry like we did 10 years ago? Are we still prone to being anxious like we were 20 years ago?
Bruce Wilkinson shared with those of us who went to Dallas several weeks ago that he is currently working on his fourth vision. The beginning of Walk-Thru-The-Bible as an organization was his first. The pulling together of multiple mission groups to float CoMission was his second. I don’t know what the third was. But I’d guess that the fourth ministry plan is much bigger and much more demanding than the first was. It seems to me that his faith is growing. He told us he wishes he was in his mid-70’s instead of his mid-fifties because he is convinced that he will be more complete than he is now.
Faith is an element that should be growing for a lifetime.
Conclusion: So if these five lessons are important for us…
that faith keeps afflictions from disturbing us,
that faith has a fragileness to it,
that faith is love’s companion,
that faith has a way of energizing others,
and that faith can just keep on growing,
what is to be the outcome? What is the goal and objective? Paul clues us in by way of verse 13, the last verse in the chapter. He says, “…so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”
Paul’s concern is not primarily faith per se; he has spent the chapter talking about their faith, but he has another goal in mind; he is saying that faith is a means to a beneficial end, a glorious outcome, i.e., that at Christ’s coming, they may be found holy because of stable hearts! The idea of a stable heart brings us back to where we started this morning—that faith will keep us from being disturbed by afflictions! The heart that is anchored, that is not tossed to and fro, is an established, stable, solid heart that chooses holiness day after day in all the ups and downs of life. The life that is lived with this kind of heart will know great glory when the Lord Jesus returns. Paul wanted those kinds of hearts in these Thessalonians and I want those kinds of hearts in us who are the Upland Community Church.
So if faith has all these benefits, how do we get it? The answer is the simplest thing you will hear all day: We read the word of God and ask God to help us believe it. Paul would write to the Romans, 10:17 – “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Though this verse is in a context of salvation, the application goes on for a lifetime! If we evaluate that our faith is lacking, we ought to ask ourselves how much time we spend in reading the Word of God. And then we must ask, Do I believe this that I’m reading?
When you last read Matthew 25, you know, the story of the 3 servants who were entrusted with the master’s resources, the 5 talents, the 3 talents, and the one talent… what did you do by way of believing what is being said there about stewardship? I want to tell you one of these days what I did several years ago when those verses spoke to me.
In anticipation of the coming Christmas season, I was reading Luke 1&2 this past Tuesday. I read again Elizabeth’s words to Mary, the soon-to-be mother of Jesus: "You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what He said!” Where would salvation’s plan be if Mary had not believed what God had said? Where will God’s plan for this world be if we do not keep on believing what He has said?
The Final Conclusion: Well, friends, Indiana Jones had it partly right, but he was wrong when he muttered, “Faith is blind, faith is blind!” Faith is not blind; faith sees and believes! Faith is not blind; it sees! It sees God’s Word as more real than what our eyes see of this world! Faith sees even when our eyes look and don’t!
In Randy Alcorn’s book, Dominion, we read the following account of a conversation between Dani, Clarence’s sister who is now in heaven, and C.S. Lewis: Speaking of her brother Clarence, still alive here in this world, Dani says,
“He’s totally disillusioned. I wish I could go tell him there’s so much more happening that he can’t see.” C.S. Lewis replies, “Elyon has told him that already, in His Word. He must find it there himself, learn to believe and trust what the Sovereign One has said to him.”
For some of us, we need to make a decision today to be saved. God has said that we may be saved by grace through faith. If we are separated from God by our sin, if that separation can be imagined as a gorge between two cliffs, then the way across the chasm is a boat called Grace. There are other boats at the dock: Good Deeds, Baptism, Church Attendance, Gifts to Charity, etc. but none will take us completely over to the other side. Faith is the act of getting in the boat! If you’ve never made that decision, today would be a good day to begin a relationship with God.
Some of us already have that relationship. But perhaps we’ve grown careless. If we were asked what we are trusting God for today, we’d be stuttering and hesitating and finally speechless. Let’s leave here today with a new commitment to read the Word and ask God to help us believe it. Then, when the crisis comes, we’ll be strong enough to weather it!


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