I Thessalonians 3- Affection and Affliction

This happened to be a joint talk with my good friend and someone I've learned a ton from, Stanford Gibson.

blue = my words

black = his words

Intro:

On October 15^th, 2001 the Oakland A’s lost to the New York Yankees in the playoffs. The problem was not so much the loss - it was that the A’s had no money to keep their best players. In fact their payroll was 1/3 of the Yankees’ and it was only getting worse.

The film Money Ball depicts this time of the Oakland A’s brilliantly.

Brad Pitt, who plays a very good looking A’s General manager Billy Beane, does something really controversial…

First he describes the team’s situation in a striking way say “there are rich teams, poor teams, 50 ft of crap – and then there’s us.”

Second, he hires a statistician as his personal assistant and starts finding undervalued low cost players to join the team. No one had ever tried anything like this before. Most baseball people thought he was crazy.  And early on, it looked like he was.

Because when these players got to camp they were old, slow, and could not play.

The A’s started 20-26 that next year. And this is when ‘money ball’ was put to the test because at this point everyone except Billy Beane doubted that ‘money ball’ could work.

At a pivotal point in the story, Billy Beane’s statistician begins to get worried 

and tells Brad Pitt’s character “This is the kind of decision that could get us fired.”

I love how Beane responds ”In which case I'm a 44 year old guy with a high-school diploma 

and a daughter who I'd like to be able to put through college one day. 

You're 25 years old with a degree from Yale and a pretty impressive apprenticeship.

But, I don't think we're asking the right question. 

I think the question we're supposed to be asking is, 

do you believe in what we're doing or not?

It's a problem that you think we need to explain ourselves. 

Don't... to anyone. 

I'm going to see this through, for better or for worse.”

The A’s eventually went on to win a record 20 games in a row as they made an improbable playoff run with a roster that cost ¼ the price of the evil Yankees.

…But in that moment, they were trying something totally new…something that no one had done before…something that no one believed would work. And it wasn’t going well.  It was gut check time. 

And the question became: Do you believe in what we’re doing or not?

Well this same thing happened to Paul with his calling to plant churches.  He had a moment just like this. He had to formulate an answer to that question – and he did. Paul was going to see this through for better or for worse. And eventually, it was the Thessalonians who turned it around for him and made this whole thing worth it.  And that is what you have to understand in order to make sense of tonight’s passage.

Stanford: You see, we are used to thinking of Paul as this great, successful, church planter.  But you have to remember.  Thessalonians is probably his first writing.  His resume is not very impressive yet.  After his conversion, he disappears from the story for years…and then is sent out from Antioch and starts a couple churches in Turkey.  But then he gets back and decides he’s going to plant churches in Greece, which was a crazy crazy idea.  You have to understand that planting churches in Greece was such a phenomenally ‘out of the box’ idea that  just two chapters before Paul walks into Thesselonica in Acts, the church had gathered in Jerusalem and has its first counsil ever to decide whether or not it was ok?  Paul and Timmothy were trying something totally new…something that no one had done before…something that no one believed would work. And it wasn’t going well.  It is easy for us to find the emotion in today’s passage puzzeling if we pass over the drama of the story.

You see, Thessalonica was their second stop in Greece.  In Philippi, they got beaten and jailed and had 2 converts.  In Thessalonica, things were going much better until some opponents rose up, attacked the leaders of the church and chased Paul and co out of town.  Then in Barea, the initial response is promising until his Thessalonian opponents find him and chase him out of that town to.  So goes to Athens, where he is mostly met with academic skepticism and a handful of people believe.  So in Athens he leaves behind a church about the size of a small family.  And now he is in Corinth…Corinth.  That would be like going to Oakland, Berkely, Merced, Fresno and then ending up in Vegas.  He has essentially gone 0 for Greece.  To his knowledge, he has no substantial churches to show for his efforts.  And now he’s in Corinth, which is populated mainly with sailors and hookers…and he’s asking himself ‘Really?’  ‘I’m going to plant a church in Corinth.  And he had to ask himself “do you believe in this thing?’  It was a legitimate question.  He’d been at it for a while and has no churches in Greece to show for it…unless…UNLESS, the fledgling church in Thessalonica had improbably survived the public violence and pressure the local, economic and political leaders brought against it.  So he sends Timothy to Thessalonica, to see if, by God’s grace, there was still a tenuous, improbable church there.  To provide you some of the drama surrounding this passage, we thought we’d try to reenact that conversation between Paul and Timothy…with puppets.  I didn’t have people puppets (besides a Kierkegaard puppet that was just too small and too ironic), so for this reenactment T will be a duck and P will be a dinosaur.

Video of the Puppet Show

Timothy: So… this sucks…is this the way church planting goes?

Paul: Gotta be honest, it was easier in Turkey than it has been in Greece.

T: No kidding, Paul. This…uhh.. sucks.  Philippi- bombed-, Barea –bombed-, Athens-bombed, bombed, bombed… So what’s the plan? 

P: Corinth. We’re going to Corinth (dramatic puppet body language)

T: (…Long pause and confused puppetness…including conspicuous head scratch) Corinth?

P: That’s right, to Corinth.  (repeat dramatic puppet body language)

T: Cause a town full of sailors and prostitutes is going to turn things around…How is that a good idea?

P: I think you’re asking the wrong question Timothy.  The question you ought to be asking, is ‘do you believe in this thing or not?’ 

T: I’d feel a lot better tackling Corinth if we had just one successful church in Greece.  What about Thessalonica?  Do you think the church survived there?

P: I’m dying to know. I think you need to go check it out. 

T: PAUSE: So you want ME to go back to a place that we snuck out of in the middle of the night…ME…your young friend Timothy…Should I take Silas (Paul shakes his head, Timothy drops the rodent)

P: Tell each one I say good game and give them a butt-slap.

T: OK, I’ll see you in Corinth. Fist bump, Butt slap

Stanford: You see, commentators agree, that the most remarkable thing about Thess 3 the text you are going to look at today is how emotional Paul is.  And it only makes sense if you see it in context of the story.  Paul was alone staring down the pit of debauchery that was Corinth. But then Timothy returns with the report that they are ‘standing firm’ and Paul recognizes that the gospel is going global.  God was going to establish his church in Greece.  This encourages him to plant the second big Greek urban church, in Corinth, where he is when he writes this letter.  You can see Paul thinking ‘If God will establish a gospel community in Thess, where they are just getting thrashed, then he can do it in Corinth, where they are over indulged.”  And so Paul writes this letter.  And then he turns around and plants the improbable church in Corinth that will cause him pain and disappointment the rest of his life, but will also be one of the great churches of the ancient world.  This story will help make a lot more sense of Paul’s effusive language as you tackle today’s passage. 

Discussion Groups:

Context:

Read the section of Acts 17 before reading I Thess 2:17-3:13

Acts 17:¹Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ²And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” ⁴And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. ⁵But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. ⁶And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, ⁷and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” ⁸And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. ⁹And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. ¹²Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. ¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. ¹⁴Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. ¹⁵Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed….³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead (in Athens), some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” ³³So Paul went out from their midst. ³⁴But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. 18:1 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

When did Paul write this letter?

Try to put together a rough timeline of events that led up to Paul writing this letter.

How does Paul describe the emotional impact of these events in 2:17?  What do you think was going through his head while he sat alone in Athens after being chased out of multiple towns by the Thessalonian opponents?

1.    The Soil of Christian Growth

What two words (including synonyms) are repeated most often in 1 Thess 3:1-10?   (Note: I’m talking about ‘big’ words…’the’ doesn’t count.) ____________      ____________

What is the nature of their affliction?

What is Paul’s hope for the Thessalonian church?  V3a, 8

How is this similar to how Paul defines maturity in Eph 4:13-14? How is this similar or different from your picture of Christian maturity?

On the whole, this is a very encouraging letter.  But we get clues in this passage that Paul has a concern and does want to instruct them.  What does Paul commend them on in the first half of verse 6?  What is conspicuously absent?  Why do you think this might be?

What theme does Paul take up in the last 2 verses of chapter 2 and in the final verse of chapter 3?  Why might he tackle this theme in the context of the ‘affliction’ and ‘distress’ that the new church is experiencing?  How is this related to what you just noticed about ‘the absent word’ in v 6?

2.    Paul’s Effusive Affection

Read through the passage together and mark every instance where Paul expresses some sort of affection for the Thessalonians. How does understanding where this letter fits into the New Testament story make sense of this?

What sorts of things do Paul and the Thessalonians to do maintain affection in their partnership?  (v. 6-10)

In verse 6 Paul says they ‘remember us kindly?’  Does memory have a moral component?  Can our memories be kind?  If so, what might that look like?  (See also 1:3)

So if the two big themes of this passage could be summarized as ‘affliction’ and ‘affection’, how are these things connected?

Think about your closest friendships.  Can you think of examples of how shared affliction has grown these relationships?

Bonus Questions:

In v 12 who does Paul pray that the Thessalonians will grow to love more?  What are the implications of this for our community?

The phrase that Paul uses in 3:2 to describe Timothy ‘God’s coworker’ has been controversial in Church history?  Why might that be?  What does it mean that we can be ‘coworkers’ of God?

____________________________

Wrap Up: One Truth From Each Group to start Wrap Up

The question for us is: How can we stand firm within our destined affliction?

1.      Find Hope in Affliction

Look with me to v. 6 “Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love…”

It’s clear that something is lacking in the Thessalonian faith. Look at v. 10 where Paul continues on the topic saying “We pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith”

Then, in v.13 we finally see exactly what  the Thessalonians lacked: Hope. V. 13 says “so that Jesus may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

The Thessalonians have trust in Jesus and they let their love abound in him and with each other. But they don’t have hope.

Hope is the primary resource Paul offers the Thess church. And not just hope in abstract.  But cosmic, eschatological hope of a world made right…remade just.  Where wicked dictators and confused democratic attempts at self rule are replaced by a wise and benevolent king.

Suffering without a proper understanding of hope can break us. This is why Paul was so afraid for the Thessalonians. He wanted them to understand this future hope because it’s foundational to how we stand in our affliction. And in the future, things will be how they always should have been.

The point is that hope is what gives us the energy to push through all the difficult or even seemingly impossible situations we are destined to encounter in this life.

So, How can we stand firm within our destined affliction?

1. Find hope in affliction… Scripture, community, a fuller understanding of Jesus…and our second big idea…

2.      Cultivate Affection in Affliction (or two types of hard)

Now we’ll read the entirety of v. 6 “But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you.”

What’s this saying?

In addition to offering ‘hope in affliction’ Paul also demonstrates a positive side effect of affliction.  He tells us that affliction is fertile soil for affection…it can be the soil of true, substantial, trustworthy relationships.

Affliction is an amplifier of relationship: both with God and other people.

Generally we dodge affliction whenever we can, but if we know it is coming, which it is – Paul was being practical in v. 3-4, and if we are prepared for it, it can unlock more depth in our faith and friendships than we could have imagined.

Do you see what Paul is saying? This passage tells us that there is in fact a way to make the most of affliction so that out of it comes something worthwhile and lasting…even here and even now.

Stanford: We should be a people who don’t run from something hard.  A lot of the very best things are hard.  But there are two types of hard: there is a sweet kind of hard and kind of hard that is just hard.  And here’s the difference.  If you believe in the value of what you are working at and if you trust and not only love, but have cultivated affection for the people you are doing it with, that is a sweet and sustainable kind of hard.  But if the task lacks one or both of those, its hard hard.   It may still need to be done, but it is probably not a sustainable long term thing.

So the more I got into the story that surrounded this letter the more it reminded me of a story…so let me wrap up with that story.  I graduated undergrad a semester early and had to decide what to do until I went to Engineering Grad School in the Fall.  So I got on a plane to an orphanage in Nepal.  The woman who ran the orphanage had gone over to Calcutta the same year as M Teresa they used to ‘swap kids’ depending on who had space.  But she was 80, and needed help running the place.  So that’s what I did.  While I was there I heard one of the missionaries describe another one as  2/3 wild adventure 2/3 sold out for Christ.  And that turned out to be a pretty good description of most missionaries in the Himalayan kingdom…including me.  So when I had a free weekend…a couple buddies and I went trekking in the Annapurna range for fun.  But as it happened, while we were hiking in the mountains, we found a small church of a couple dozen people.  They had been Christians for a few months, and their pastor had been a Christian for 2 weeks longer.  He had gotten a hold of a Bible, become a Christian, and led half of the village and a few people from neighboring villages to faith…and they met secretly in a basement and all shared one Bible.  And their new faith was not popular.   They had an impromptu worship service that night in order to worship with us and while they were singing someone banged on the door and cursed them for abandoning the local gods.  They kept singing but you could see the concern in their eyes as they gave each other knowing looks.

After we’d been back for a while we started to be concerned for them.  The church struck us as really precarious.  They had no churches or organizations supporting them.  They were under pressure to abandon this Jesus experiment.  What would happen to them?  So a couple months later, we scraped together some money and a bunch of Nepali Bibles, and we hoofed it all the way back up to the village.  I have a memory at one point of puking off a mountain at 8000 ft with 60 lbs of Bibles on my back.  Good times. 

But when we got there, they were doing great.  They had grown, they were building a public building for their meetings, and they had invited every village within walking distance to come see the Jesus video when their building was done.  Their faith flourished in affliction.  But their allfliction wasn’t just fertile ground for their faith to grow and for them to find hope…it was also a source of affection and hope for me.

You see, I’d been in Asia for a while.  I was lonely and discouraged and re-evaluating all of my life goals.  And when we saw how their faith was flourishing without human intervention…I feel like I experienced something like Paul expresses in this passage.  You see, faith and hope in the midst of affliction…its contagious.  I remembered, this thing we’re doing, it’s not just an ideology we are trying to spread around.  It’s a kingdom with a King that will advance it and is happy to involve us but doesn’t need it.  Reminded of that, I had new energy to take on my own small part.  And I think that this is what the passage is fundamentally teaching.  Hold on to the hope you have in Jesus.  If you do, affliction is a fertile ground for your faith, and the faith of others to grow.  And it will knit you together in a unique way with those you experience it with.