The Word: The power that changes me

I Thessalonians 2: 13-20

October 17, 1999

Introduction:
In Judges 13, we read a true-life story of a man and his wife who did not know many happy days. In fact, we could say their lives were pretty sad. As we read their story, we see two particular reasons for their misery. Outwardly, Manoah and his wife are living in a time of severe oppression. The nation of Israel has once again fallen into a cycle of sin that has brought on the judgement of God. God has allowed the Philistines to subjugate them, to oppress them, to rule over them. As if that weren’t bad enough, paying heavy taxes to foreigners, being jerked around at the whim of proud taskmasters, and all the other things that go with slavery, Manoah and his wife also are having to deal with an internal oppression. Manoah’s wife is barren, unable to have children. For a Jewish family, that was a heavy burden to bear indeed. All of their culture and all of their history highlighted the importance of having children. So on top of their difficult outward circumstances of living under foreign rulers, they lived each day with personal feelings of inadequacies—barrenness for sure, impotence perhaps, and surely some feelings of guilt for their own sin which had contributed to the judgement of God upon their nation.
Not a very happy picture, is it? Not a situation any of us would choose if we had any choices in the matter. But this is a portrait that some of us today can easily identify with. In a congregation this size, there are no doubt a number of us who find ourselves this day suffering under a ton of outward circumstances we’d love to change. “Goodness, if only my spouse could be more attentive to my needs.” “Boy, if the institution would just give me a $100 a month raise.” “Heavens, why can’t the pastor be more sensitive to my situation and offer more help?” If my kids were just more responsive to my leadership, if the tax bills weren’t so high, if the professor didn’t have such an ego—his assignments take up most of my time, why doesn’t the government do something more about the price of corn? Lord, don’t you know we need rain, etc., etc., etc.
And then on the other hand, how about the internal pressures! I’m sure there are some of us here today who are acutely aware of the defeats we have experienced because of our own inadequacies. Our feelings have beat us up and we feel pretty rotten. We didn’t see what was happening with our children. Nothing we do seems to please the boss. We can’t think fast enough in tense situations; only afterward do we think about all the things we should have said. My guess is that every one of us could add a statement here that we could all understand. All of us can identify with the man Manoah and his wife.
And so we find ourselves today suffering without much joy, without much peace, without much hope because of circumstances beyond our control AND/OR because of our own acute sense of inadequacies and their consequences.
We wonder if there is any hope. So what might be powerful enough to change us? What could give us hope in the midst of difficult circumstances? What could lead us into grace that would cover all our inadequacies? What could anchor our souls while the storms blow? What could surround us with a hurricane-proof hedge of inner joy until the sun shines again?
The story of Manoah and his wife reveals the rescuer that we are all looking for. The same thing that rescued this Israelite couple is what can rescue us! The same thing that reversed their fortunes can reverse ours! We find that “thing” in our text for today from I Thessalonians 2. I’ll encourage you to read Judges 13 for yourself this afternoon and learn the rest of that story. For us this morning, we will be reading verses 13-20 of chapter 2 of I Thessalonians. (We are on page 1169 of the pew Bible is you want to follow from there, or you can read with me from the screen behind me.)
“For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.
For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sin. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.
But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while—in person, not in spirit—were all the more eager with great desire to see your face.
For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, more than once—and yet Satan hindered us.
For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.”
The key to our passage this morning, the hiding place of “that thing” that is the secret of our hope, is verse 13. “…when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” The “thing” that burst into Manoah’s world was a word from God! It changed everything! And the word of God that came into the Thessalonian’s world did the same thing! It changed everything!
You all at the university are so blessed to have your new dean of the chapel. I was blessed to sit in on chapel this past Friday and be ministered to by Richard Alan Farmer and his exposition of John 5. I wrote down this line from his message, where he paraphrased Jesus saying, “When I show up, circumstances change!” When the living Word of God arrives on the scene, things change. When the written word of God bursts forth upon a set of circumstances, things change!
Now friends, when the word of God bursts upon a scene, it is so important to see the context of that explosion. There are three concepts here, three ideas here in chapter 2, that we want to explore that form the context for our study of the power of the word of God. Power is a relative term and must always be see in a context for it to be properly understood. Then, out of these three concepts we want to make personal application as we come to the end of our hour together.
Idea number 1, starting from the end of our text, is simply this: Satan, within the will of God, has the power to defeat us. It is a real possibility that our external circumstances and our internal feelings have been influenced by the devil himself! He does have the power to defeat us. Idea number 2 rhymes with #1: Pagans have the power to mistreat us. It is a real possibility that our external circumstances and our internal feelings are the result of painful mistreatment by the opponents of God. Pagans have the power to mistreat us. But our salvation is in idea #3: The word of God has the power to complete us! The power of God to change us, the power of God to complete us, to make us whole, to fill us with joy and peace, that power is beyond compare! It trumps all others.
So let’s look deeper. We see Paul defeated by the power of Satan in verse 18. " For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, more than once—and yet Satan hindered us.” The word “hindered” here is being repeated. It had first shown up in our text in verse 16, so its repetition catches our eye. It is a term that conveys in the original language of the Bible the idea of breaking up a road so that it is unusable and impassable. Floods this year on the east coast have even made some of the interstate highways impassable and thus have hindered travel. We who have journeyed to other parts of the world have been on what is called a road by the local people, but with our Western eyes, we can’t see it as such. Paul wanted to travel the road again to Thessalonica, but the enemy made it impossible to do so.
Now friends, it is not hard to imagine Paul’s feelings at this point. He surely knew some anxiety about how those new believers were doing. He surely felt some frustration at being blocked from returning. He must have felt some disappointment and even some confusion at being prevented from doing what was surely the will of God.
What Paul didn’t know, and perhaps what he learned from this experience of defeat, was that in his absence, the new believers were turning to the risen Christ for what they needed. (This becomes clear to us in chapter three, that we will see on another Sunday.) God was at work drawing these new believers to Himself, using the devil to move forward His own purposes. I can’t help but imagine that the Thessalonians wanted to have Paul in their midst, to answer their questions, to encourage them.
But in Paul’s absence, they found all that in their relationship with Christ Himself! We conclude that Satan may indeed defeat us, may hinder our plans, may prevent our desires from being fulfilled, but he cannot keep God from doing His thing!
There’s a lesson for us here, friends. Our restraint in offering aid and comfort to someone who is broken and hurting may move that one closer to Christ. I know the Scripture’s admonition to bear one another’s burden, and that we must do. But as God would lead, it is far better a suffering saint become dependent upon the Lord Jesus than it is he become dependent upon us! It has been good for our children to be far away for their college experiences. By being far away, unable to intervene, I have watched both kids being stretched in the matter of their faith. But why trust Christ if Dad can handle it?
It is important for us to see and grasp here that the power of the enemy is great. In the will of God, we will know defeat at his hands. How do we learn apart from hard experiences? How do we mature except through being broken? And regardless of how that makes us feel, we can be confident that God is accomplishing His purposes anyway!
My friends, our hope when we find ourselves hindered by the devil, blocked by his devices, frustrated by his schemes, ambushed by his forces.. our hope is found in the power of the word of God to complete us, to bring us to exactly the place God wants us to be.
The second concept that makes up the context for the word of God here is this: Pagans have the power to mistreat us. Verse 14 says, in part, “…for you became imitators of the churches… that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews…” When these Thessalonians turned from their idols to serve the living and true God, they became the objects of persecution and affliction at the hands of those they had formerly worshipped with.
The price of their now living in the presence of God was physical pain and abuse.
The price of their now standing for truth was affliction and suffering.
When these believers became something new and different, when they stood out in their city and in their culture, they became the objects of hostility and persecution.
Now friends, the Thessalonian believers were normal people. They wanted to be liked by their peers. They wanted to be appreciated as good neighbors. They didn’t wish to be persecuted. They didn’t have a death wish. It was just that now they saw things differently! They had a new world view. They saw themselves as servants of God. They had a new calling and purpose in life. They wanted others to receive the same gift of eternal life that they had received.
But being transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light meant that there was trouble ahead. The enemy wouldn’t take that sitting down! And so the devil marshaled his forces to afflict and hinder and persecute and abuse.
God has always allowed pagans to mistreat His people. Paul will say even that in 3:4 as explicitly as it can be stated. God’s purposes in giving this permission to Satan are always glorious and redemptive.
And friends, it’s the same in our day. We’ve heard the stories of believers in other parts of the world. We see more and more of that persecution happening here even in our country. The charges leveled at Christians today are the very same ones that were leveled in that day: intolerance, bigotry, self-righteousness…
That context of mistreatment is always a context for the word of God to have an impact, to demonstrate the power of God.
Finally, we come to our third point. The word of God has the power to complete us! Our text tells us (vs. 13) “…the word of God… also performs its work in you who believe.” The proof in Paul’s mind is seen in what he says about these believers in verse 14. “For you became imitators of the churches in Judea…” The word of God changed them! They had been one thing; now they became something else! They became imitators of other believers. It is interesting to note that those they were imitating were those they had never met. The Thessalonians had not gone to Judea to visit the believers there to see how they were supposed to live. They certainly hadn’t seen any home videos from Judea!
What is at work is the Word of God that is doing its fundamental thing, and it always does the same thing in people everywhere! It calls them to faith; it gives peace; it imbues confidence; it reveals glory; it empowers love; it grants forgiveness; it showers grace; it establishes truth; it shows the will of God; it gives endurance in pain; it gives perseverance in anguish.
And so believers everywhere in the world have the same approach to life: they are known for love (though love may take many different forms); they have a reputation for mercy; they are bound in fellowship, etc., etc., etc. We are not surprised that the Thessalonian believers are imitators of the Judean believers. And we are not surprised that Indonesian believers are amazingly like Zimbabwean Christians. The word of God is conforming believers to the image of the Son of God.
But specifically in our text today, it is most clear that the work of the word of God is giving believers the ability to endure suffering. “For you brethren… also endured the same sufferings as they did from the Jews…” No believer ever became complete and mature without suffering! No one can be like Jesus without pain and sorrow.
When Satan defeats us, and when pagans mistreat us, we know full well that we are one the road to being complete in Jesus!
Conclusion: Ernie Pyle is one of Indiana’s most famous sons and millions of newspaper readers knew him as the “Hoosier Vagabond”. According to an article by Sonja Carberry, Pyle’s daily columns from the war zones he covered as a reporter brought into American homes the intimate details of what life was really like for the typical soldier at war. To get those details, he had to live like a foot soldier. We could say he imitated them!
One GI wrote to his family back home the following: “Pyle was sweating out the Jerry shells alongside of me for two nights, during which we had a suite of rooms in the only establishment open for business at that time—a remodeled pig shed. Old Ernie is a regular guy and all of us foot soldiers have a lot of respect for him.” The readers of Pyle’s columns also gained respect for the infantrymen who were ‘over there’. For 29 months he wrote articles from England, Africa, Italy, and France, earning for himself the title from Time magazine, “America’s most widely read war correspondent”. The subtitle for Carberry’s article is, “His Dedication to the Truth Helped America See Things as They Really Were.”
It seems to me that is exactly the impact the apostle Paul’s words had upon the Thessalonians. His proclamation of God’s Word, the truth, helped them see things as they really were. And that truth made a difference in the way they lived. It became the power that changed them from pagans to believers, from babes to maturity, from confusion in pain to joy and steadfastness in that same pain.
That word became the power that changed them. And that word came in the context of Satan’s ability to defeat and pagans’ ability to mistreat

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