Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19981115.htm

1 THESSALONIANS: HELPING CONVERTS FROM PAGANISM
Part III: Experiential Indicators For Discerning Right Stands While Facing Strong Opponents
(1 Thessalonians 2:13-16)
  1. Introduction
    1. "Post-Christian" Americans are tainted with paganistic values that leave to individuals the role of discovering and defining what is true. Yet, this fact makes us susceptible to adopting as true the view put forth by that party which puts up the greatest pressure on his view, regardless if the view is really right!
    2. Similarly, Paul's evangelizing pagans in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 1:9) produced a need for him to impress these converts on the validity of their faith though they faced great pressures by Judaizers to doubt Christ.
    3. Paul thus relayed several experiential reasons for his new converts to see that their faith was true regardless how fanatic were the Judaizers in opposing the Gospel. For today, we can view Paul's word to define indicators for help in discerning right stands in facing strong opponents to those stands as follows:
  2. Experiential Indicators For Discerning Right Stands While Facing Strong Opponents.
    1. When Paul evangelized the Thessalonians, some in paganism turned from idols to serve God, 1 Thess. 1:9.
    2. In the process, religious Judaizers opposed Paul's view, powerfully persecuting his new converts, 17:1-10.
    3. Since Paul had to leave Thessalonica quickly (Acts 17:10), his converts were left vulnerable to being deceived by the strength of their persecutors that standing for Christ was errant. Paul's letter then gives some experiential indicators to expose who was right on the two sides in the issue: (1 Thess. 2:13-16)
      1. Experiential Indicator One - The Thessalonians accepted Paul's Gospel as God's truth independent of human persuasiveness on Paul's part, an indication that the Holy Spirit persuaded these converts, 1 Thess. 2:13. The Gospel has its own power to convince hearers (Rom. 1:16). As the Bible Knowledge Commentary puts it, "...the gospel is not the kind of message that man would invent if he could, nor is it a message that he could invent if he would." (B.K.C., N.T., p. 695)
      2. Experiential Indicator Two - The Thessalonians had unintentionally mimicked former believers in Judaea when the Judeans had believed in Christ: they suffered similar persecution with similar responses, meaning God was at work in them as He had been before in other believers, 2:14.
      3. Experiential Indicator Three - The persecuting opponents revealed a consistent tendency to do what was wrong in ALL OTHER issues, a tell-tale sign that these persecutors were wrong on the Gospel, 1 Thess. 2:15. These persecutors opposed Jesus (v. 15a), the Old Testament prophets (v. 15b), the apostles (v. 15c) and even disobeyed God's Word in their lives (v. 15d) along with rejecting the Gospel (v. 15e-16). This consistent pattern of wrong revealed that something was deeply wrong in the Judaizers, including their opposition to Christ. This truth fits Paul's word in Galatians 5:17 where he stated that one is either TOTALLY controlled by his sin nature with its telltale signals or he is TOTALLY controlled by the Holy Spirit with its demonstrative fruits of the Spirit!
Lesson: Paul taught the new Thessalonian converts out of paganism that THOUGH their persecutors were strongly opposed to their new stand, they should STILL HOLD to Christ and not change their minds due to contrary pressures from opposing Judaizers. His REASONS were: (a) the Holy Spirit ALONE had caused these believers to accept the Gospel independent of Paul's ability to persuade, and that fact indicated the validity of their new faith. (b) The EXPERIENCE of these converts to SUFFER for their stand happened to mimic what other believers elsewhere had known, indicating GOD had led the Thessalonians in their INITIAL commitment to Christ. (c) Also, that the persecutors ALWAYS did what was UNBIBLICAL signaled their STAND erred.

Application: Today if a stand we have on a belief is strongly opposed, making us think twice about KEEPING that stand, some EXPERIENTIAL indicators of WHO is RIGHT will be: (a) Which party came to its view the most independent of HUMAN influence factors? (b) Which party functions in ways that MOST mimic what OTHER credible believers in history have experienced? (c) Which party most obeys God on OTHER matters not a ssociated with the disputed issue itself?