Paul and Silas spent only three weeks in Thessalonica but he later wrote them at least these two letters. They must have been quite a group of people.

The pattern is familiar. Look at Acts 17 for the context. Paul enters a city and heads for the local synagogue to present the Gospel to the Jews. Some Jews believe as do a large number of Greeks – including prominent women. But the Jews who have been hounding Paul along his journey round up some bad characters, form a mob and start a riot accusing Paul of causing trouble all over the world by defying Caesar. It is one of the earliest examples of war by lies, disinformation, promoting conspiracy and stirring up the gullible and easily fooled. They had it down to an art. What’s important to notice is these men were not simply rabble rousers or disruptors. They did not merely shout down Paul. They were exceptionally adept at stirring up and motivating crowds of people who were confused in their own minds and turning them into a lethal mob. It’s a timeless art. The only thing that changes is the hats and banners.

There was a method to the way they exploited grievance, ignorance and frustration. They stirred up without losing control. They stirred up but knew how to direct what they created. Think of it as the difference between a bullet and a bomb. The bullet is the product of a highly controlled explosion and it is directed at a target with great accuracy. That is what Luke is describing here. Paul’s enemies were experts at creating an explosion and then controlling it for their purposes.

And then Paul and Silas are smuggled out of town and headed for Berea where they are received with great eagerness and many are converted.

That’s the background.

There are four phrases I want to look at this morning and then give ourselves time with our guest, Todd Hendricks.

First, “work produced by faith.” Work is motivated by a number of reasons. Some work only out of necessity. They would rather not work and it shows in what they produce. Some work out of ambition for recognition, money or achievement and they find that there is never enough time to finish their work. Some work, like great craftsmen, out of the challenge of becoming masters of their craft. Some work because it never occurs to them not to work.

But then there is work that is produced by faith.  It is the faith that something larger happens as a result of our work. We are drawn and not driven. There is a larger purpose to it and not just ambition, habit or necessity. We cannot know the final results of our work but work that comes from faith and trust produces a different kind of work. It is work that means more than putting in our time and getting paid. It is work that allows us to rest knowing that it is not all up to us.

Second, “labor prompted by love.” What does prompt mean? It is not the same as poking or nagging, is it? It means labor that is motivated by love – love of the work or love of the people with whom we are working. It is work that binds people together. Labor prompted by love builds great teams. It values people with whom we work. It does not make work the main thing. There are no workaholics when labor is prompted by love. We need reminders of this. Otherwise, we value productivity and accomplishment more than people. It means we remember the burdens people are carrying and our need to encourage the people with whom we work. It is more than prizes for making goals but knowing what is going on in their lives. We need to be reminded by love.

Third, “endurance inspired by hope.”  This is not blind optimism or denying the facts. It is the word “hupomones” meaning “that which remains after everything else has been removed, eroded or burned away.  It is the irreducible core.” That is different from optimism or a positive mental attitude. It is the ability of a rare leader to inspire people to endure in the face of impossible odds. That kind of leadership only surfaces in shared suffering and the leader is able to give the suffering and hardship a meaning. I love so many Winston Churchill quotes – especially this one.

“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”

 It’s that ability to inspire in people the belief that their suffering is, in fact, their finest hour.

Finally, Paul’s description of how their small congregation has inspired the whole world, “The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaea – your faith in God has become known everywhere.”

There is a particular kind of faith that rings out and gives others courage. It gives an example to follow. That is what we are experiencing from the example of the people – Christians, Jew, and non-believers – in Ukraine. We have become so accustomed to leadership that runs for cover that we have forgotten – until now – what courage looks like.

David Brooks this week:

“Over the last several years, that famous poem has been quoted countless times: “The centre cannot hold,” William Butler Yeats wrote, before adding, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” People cited it so often because it was true.

But it was not so true this past week. The events in Ukraine have been a moral atrocity and a political tragedy, but for people around the world, a cultural revelation. It’s not that people around the world believe new things, but many of us have been reminded what we believe, and we believe them with more fervor, with more conviction. This has been a convicting week.

The Ukrainians have been our instructors and inspirers. They’ve been the ordinary men and women .. lining up to get weapons to defend their homeland. They’ve been the lady telling a Russian invader to put sunflower seeds in his pocket. They’ve been the thousands of Ukrainians who had been living comfortably abroad, who surged back into the country to risk death to defend their people and way of life.

We owe them such a debt. They have reminded us not only what it looks like to believe in democracy, the liberal order and national honor but also to act bravely on behalf of these things.

They’ve reminded us that you can believe things with greater and lesser intensity, faintly, with words, or deeply and fervently, with a conviction in your bones. They’ve reminded us how much the events of the past few years have conspired to weaken our faith in ourselves. They’ve reminded us how the setbacks and humiliations have caused us to doubt and be passive about the gospel of democracy. But despite all our failings the gospel is still glowingly true.

This has been a week of restored faith. In what exactly? Well, in the first place, in leadership. We’ve seen so many leadership failures of late, but over the past week Volodymyr Zelensky emerged as the everyman leader — the guy in the T-shirt, the Jewish comedian, the guy who didn’t flee but knew what to say: “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

There’s been restored faith in true patriotism. Over the past few years, we’ve seen so much sour ethnonationalism from the right, an angry and xenophobic form of patriotism. From the left we’ve seen a disdain of patriotism, from people who vaguely support abstract national ideals while showing limited gratitude toward one’s own inheritance; people who rightly focus on national crimes but while slighting national achievements. Some elites, meanwhile, have drifted into a soulless globalism, an effort to rise above nations into an ethereal multilateral stratosphere.

But the Ukrainians have shown us how the right kind of patriotism is ennobling, a source of meaning and a reason to risk life. They’ve shown us that the love of a particular place, their own land and people, warts and all, can be part and parcel of a love for universal ideals, like democracy, liberalism and freedom.”

Their faith and endurance is, like the Thessalonians, ringing out across the whole world. It is reminding us that courage, character and a greater purpose still exist and are worth fighting for. It is reminding us that endurance in the face of overwhelming odds is still noble and that we are part of something greater than ourselves.

Faith, love and hope together is always the message of Paul.