Sermon Tone Analysis

2 Thessalonians 3 Verses 1 to 5 Praying for Others October 9, 2022

Class Presentation Notes AAAA

Background Scripture:

· Hebrews 7:25 (NASB)

25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

· 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 (NASB)

11 Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you;

12 and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you;

13 so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.

Main Idea: There is great power in prayer intercession for our pastors and others.

Study Aim: We need to pray for God’s will for those that God places in our lives.

Create Interest:

· Any mariner will tell you that the best way to keep from getting seasick is to keep your eyes on the horizon.

When everything is shifting around you, you must find something stable on which to fix your eyes.

The same principle applies when living out our faith.

If there is anything certain about our lives, it is that our lives are uncertain.

In the midst of our uncertain world, we need something certain on which to fix our eyes.

As Paul demonstrates in his prayer for the Thessalonians, our certainty comes from the grace and love of “our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father” (2:16).

· Because Paul recognized the impossibility for the Thessalonians to live out their faith in their own strength, he prays for their ongoing encouragement and increasing stability.

He identifies both the Lord Jesus and God the Father as the source of this encouragement and stability.

Noticeably absent from his prayer are requests for God to lift their burdens or to judge their detractors.

He instead prays specifically for God to “encourage” their hearts and “strengthen” them in “every good work and word.”

In 3:5 Paul adds to this request by praying specifically for God to “direct [their] hearts to God’s love and Christ’s endurance.”

· Paul basically had two specific prayer requests for the Thessalonians.

o First, he prayed for their ongoing spiritual productivity.

In this regard he asked for God’s intervention in their lives, not to remove any of their burdens, but to bring them encouragement.

o Second, he prayed for their ongoing spiritual growth.

Such growth would be evident by their increasing love for God and their ability to endure suffering by following in Jesus’ footsteps (3:5).

· Hence, Paul’s desire for this young church was for them to be diligent in their service for God and deepening in their walk with God.

o For those in spiritual leadership, we can find no more appropriate example of how to pray for your people.[1]

o As believers under the leadership of our staff, I pray we will learn a valuable lesson from Paul here that we can apply to our prayer life.

Lesson in Historical Context:

· Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians from the city of Corinth in AD 52.

This dating makes the letters of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, likely written just a few months apart, among the earliest writings of the New Testament.

· Paul had been in Thessalonica earlier, but he didn’t stay long due to Jewish opposition (Acts 17:1–10).

The intent of his letters was to help the infant congregation understand his teachings more accurately in his absence.

The church in Thessalonica would then be more resistant to heresy.

· False teachings in the first century had many faces, some more dangerous than others.

One particularly dangerous heresy that threatened the church’s survival was Judaizing.

It was related to the church’s emergence from Judaism and separation from the synagogue.

Many early Christians were Jews, and some of them saw Christianity as the next step of the Jewish faith—a sort of super-Judaism.

Such teachers believed that all aspects of the Jewish law applied to the church, even to believers of Gentile background.

This included circumcision for the males and adherence to Jewish food laws for every Christian.

The error of Judaizing was a belief that salvation required keeping such laws.[2]

· When Paul wrote his letters to the New Testament churches, he invariably asked the recipients to pray for him.

The saints at Corinth were reminded that their prayers helped him through times of difficulty (‘you also helping together in prayer for us’, 2 Cor.

1:11), and were asked to exercise a ministry which would be invaluable to Paul as he served his Master, the value of which would only be truly revealed in eternity.

The church in Rome was asked to pray with the apostle (‘that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me’) that he would be free from persecution and that his ministry would be a blessing to the Christians in Jerusalem (Rom.

15:30–31).

The Thessalonian believers were also encouraged to pray for Paul.

As he ended his first epistle, he requested, ‘Brethren, pray for us’ (1 Thes.

5:25).

· Now in 2 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul again asks for prayer for himself, feeling conscious of his need of help in the ministry and in facing dangers while engaged in the Lord’s work.

We can see that he knew the value of believing prayer.

In fact, he longed for such prayer, and asked for it.

Paul was Christ’s servant fulfilling his calling, but he was still only a man saved by grace and therefore unable to achieve anything for God without the aid of the Holy Spirit.

He made this plain to the Corinthians when he wrote to them, ‘God has chosen the foolish things … the weak things … the base things of the world and the things which are despised’ (1 Cor.

1:27–28).

Paul requested much prayer that God’s anointing would rest upon him.[3]

· The main section of the letter of 2 Thessalonians has been completed.

This passage, so far as we know, begins the final words ever written to the church by Paul.

In the final words, two subjects jump to the forefront immediately: prayer and the Lord’s faithfulness.

o The request for prayer (vv.

1–2).

o The Lord’s faithfulness to the believer (vv.

3–5).

· There was the request for prayer.

The believers at Thessalonica were suffering severe persecution and all kinds of trouble.

This was one of the reasons Paul was writing to the church: to comfort and encourage them to continue on for Christ.

But remember: Paul was in Corinth, and he too was suffering all kinds of trouble, including persecution.

He needed the presence and power of the Lord as much as anyone.

As John Walvoord says:

o Paul, too, was having his difficulties.

The task committed to Paul was a very lonely one: to go from place to place, frequently coming into a strange city where not one person would welcome him.

He was not entertained in the best hotel, nor was there any honorarium for him in recognition of his services.

He had to find his own way, arrange for his public meetings, and somehow try to bear a testimony for Christ.

Apart from fellowship with the Lord, it was a very difficult and solitary task and one in which there were many discouragements.

§ John F. Walvoord (May 1, 1910 – December 20, 2002) was a Christian theologian, pastor, and president of Dallas Theological Seminary from 1952 to 1986., one of evangelicalism’s most prominent 20th century leaders, was a man of remarkable depth and breadth.

Though best known for his encyclopedic grasp of Bible prophecy, he was also a man who understood and taught the core of Christian theology with unusual clarity and conviction.

· The specific trouble at Corinth was persecution.

The Jewish religionists attacked Paul and dragged him before the civil authorities.

However, the case was dismissed because it was a religious matter.

Paul was allowed to continue his preaching mission, but apparently the Jewish religionists continued their opposition, stirring up whatever trouble they could.

· The apostle set forth four fundamental and obvious desires he had of the Thessalonians:

o that they would pray for him,

o that they would trust the Lord,

o that they would obey his divinely revealed teaching,

o that they would grow spiritually.[4]

Bible Study:

2 Thessalonians 3:1 (NASB)

1 Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you;

· The “finally” in 2 Thessalonians 3:1 indicates that Paul is now transitioning to some concluding remarks—and in Paul’s letters this usually means he’s ending the letter with some practical exhortations that flow from his doctrinal instruction.

Before launching into some specific, timely admonitions in 3:6–15, Paul deals with some timeless principles that govern the vital relationship between shepherds and their flocks (3:1–5).

· Now, you don’t need to be a minister or a church member for long to recognize that relationships between pastors and flocks aren’t always as serene as the typical pastoral scene of a lush, green countryside dotted with fluffy, white sheep and a vast blue sky painted with puffy, white clouds.

The truth is, sheep sometimes stray, nip at each other, wander from the fold, and make life miserable for the shepherd.

And shepherds sometimes neglect their duties, leaving the sheep unprotected, failing to feed and nurture them.

· In 3:1–5, Paul shares some ways to address the sometimes-trying shepherd-sheep relationships.

Some of these relate to the shepherd’s responsibilities (3:1–3), some to the flock’s (3:3–5).

When all of these cords are woven together, they form a strong cable that binds a congregation in unity.[5]

· Finally, brethren, pray for us.

That is, for Paul, Silas, and Timothy, then engaged in arduous labors at Corinth.

This request for the prayers of Christians is one which Paul often makes; 1 Thess.

5:25.

· That the word of the Lord will spread rapidly.

That is, the Gospel.

o In figurative language the word of the Lord is pictured as a runner speeding on to success and triumph (cf.