A Word in Season: Bold in our God (1 Thessalonians 2:2)

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There are many discouragements in making known the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Paul and his companions like Silas knew many of those at first hand.

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For example, when they were in Philippi, having preached the gospel, first of all at the riverside, then the confrontation with the slave girl, then the jailer as well, their whole experience there was summarized by the

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Apostle Paul in writing to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 2 as suffering and spiteful treatment.

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They went through physical agonies, being beaten with rods and then put into the inner prison with their feet fastened in stocks.

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They had contended against the authorities there in Philippi. They'd been abused publicly by the owners of that poor slave girl who they delivered from the spirit of divination.

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And everything that they had gone through, you might have imagined, would have stopped them from ever trying the same thing again.

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And you would appreciate that, you would understand that. But what Paul says to the

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Thessalonians, and bear in mind that Thessalonica is the next place to which they went after Philippi, that even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our guard to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict.

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Paul and Silas arrived in Thessalonica with the bruises and the wounds on their bodies not even fully healed.

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They might have had the marks of the stocks still in their flesh. They would have been not just physically brutalized, but I think probably to some extent they would have found that a very challenging situation spiritually and mentally and emotionally as well.

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We read about them singing psalms there in a prison and it's very easy to assume that they were singing whatever would be the equivalent of onward

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Christian soldiers or something like that. Perhaps one of these martial psalms of praise of God and confidence in his saving work.

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But it's worth bearing in mind that the psalms are equally full of laments and it may have been expressions of sorrow and distress under affliction that came from the souls and the mouths of Paul and Silas.

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And yet what happened when they arrived in Thessalonica? They were bold in their guard to speak to the people there the gospel of God in much conflict.

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Now that conflict may refer to the opposition that they faced outwardly. It may refer to the battles that they had to fight inwardly.

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The warfare of Christian ministry. But despite everything that had gone on before, these men were bold in their guard to speak to others the gospel of God in much conflict.

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Now most of us will not face beatings with rods. We're not going to be put in the inner prison in the stocks.

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But if we're going to be faithful witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ, whether that's among our own friends and even our own family, or whether that's going out onto the streets, whether or not that's preaching the good news from the pulpits of churches, as we seek to make

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Christ known, there will be in measure suffering and spiteful and shameful treatment.

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People will hate what they hear and will hate those from whom they hear it.

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And the temptation will always be to silence ourselves, to shackle our souls, to stop up our mouths so that we no longer speak the truth as it is in Jesus.

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And the only thing that we can actually do is to seek the courage that comes from standing in and with Jesus Christ to obtain the boldness that comes from God himself.

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Not now to back down. Not to say this is too hard or too difficult. This is too painful, it's too dangerous, it's too risky.

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But rather to overcome in the strength of Jesus Christ the obstacles that we face, the difficulties that we see.

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We must remain bold in our guard to speak the gospel of God even though there may be torments and troubles within and opposition and antagonism without.

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That is the reality of gospel ministry. Suffering and spiteful treatment will come.

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There will be many discouragements, but there is boldness from God. There is courage that comes from knowing that you are

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God's man doing God's work, that you are God's child serving in the place where he has put you.

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And with that boldness, despite those difficulties and obstacles you will be able to go on speaking the gospel.

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And in Thessalonica as in Philippi there were people who heard the word and were saved.