Thinking Our Way Home

About this sermon

Introduction: In the 17th verse the Spirit of God informs us that the children of God must suffer on their way to glory. There is no glorification with Christ apart from suffering with Christ. It is not that our suffering somehow earns our glorification. It is that God has taken His people out of the world and therefore the world no longer loves them. The hatred this world has for Christ, it has for His people. The treatment this world gives to Christ, it gives to His people. That means that suffering is something the child of God is destined for. ESV 1 Thessalonians 3:1 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. The question then becomes, how does a child of God deal with that suffering? How has God ordained that His children navigate their way through the trials and tribulations that must precede their entrance into the kingdom? We saw, last week, that God’s plan for our perseverance is a THINKING PLAN. We saw Paul as our model. He takes us into his thinking processes. We see what he considers when he thinks about the sufferings of this NOW SEASON. As we noted, this is not theoretical for Paul. This is a man who was told from the very beginning that he must suffer much for the sake of the name — and suffer he did. Nor is this approach exclusive to Paul. Paul’s way to process the suffering is OUR WAY to process the suffering, because it is the way God MEANS FOR US to process the suffering. And, we saw that this is not a mind over matter approach. We are not talking about positive thoughts that are not truthful thoughts. The believer’s courage is not found in positive thinking, it is found in truthful thinking. We know an appropriate courage when our minds are ANCHORED IN TRUTH. That is what God is calling us to here. He is calling us to think TRUTHFUL thoughts. And He does this by putting the creation (by personification) into the witness box. He allows the creation to testify regarding Paul’s declaration in the 18th verse. Paul declared that he considered the present sufferings not worth comparing with the glory that awaits the child of God. The creation climbs into the witness box and affirms his words. It stands on its tip toes looking forward to the day of the freedom of God’s sons and daughters because that will be ITS DAY. On the day when we see our Savior ushering in our everlasting future, EVERYTHING IN ALL CREATION WILL BE NEW. That is precisely what we are told from the very throne of God. ESV Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." Now, when we come to verses 22-25, we see that there are two bedrock elements upon which this thinking process relies. Two things necessary for this kind of thinking to function. KNOWLEDGE AND FAITH. I want you to mark this down in your thinking today. Christian sanctification (and that includes perseverance through suffering) requires right thinking. But there is no right thinking without the right knowledge. You cannot think rightly when you don’t have the right knowledge. BUT (and don’t miss this) RIGHT KNOWLEDGE will do you no good if you don’t BELIEVE IT. This, then, is the process by which we navigate our present sufferings. We think about them rightly, because we know what God has revealed, and we believe what God has revealed. The fruit of this will then show up in our attitudes, our words, and our actions. What we are learning about this morning is how to think our way home. We are not yet to the end. What we are learning, here, is how to think as we persevere to the end. Two main points today, (1) The believer’s knowledge (2) The believer’s hope. THE BELIEVER’S KNOWLEDGE (vs.22-23) Paul now moves from how he thinks to the basis for it. And he makes this a matter of Christian doctrine. This is not some sort of private knowledge. This is not a mindset based on personal intuition. This is something that WE ALL KNOW. And what we know is described in two categories. .

Topics

• Spiritual Growth