1 Thessalonians 3:6-13 - Persistent Faith
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Introduction:
Faith is an extremely misunderstood subject in our world today. People have the erroneous idea that faith is believing in something that is unlikely, outlandish, and more like a fairy tale. And the church as a whole hasn’t helped this misunderstanding in our culture as it has traversed into mysticism and experientialism.
Yet faith is more than just believing in something that you cannot see. Hebrews 11:1 states:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Note that the author of Hebrews states that it is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. There is substance to faith. Faith is not blind. Faith just doesn’t see everything.
But our faith is based on a real man who lived on this earth some 2000 years ago. A man named Jesus Christ. A man in whom there is much evidence that shows that He was born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit thereby making him fully God and fully man, lived a sinless life, was crucified on a cross, and resurrected 3 days later. Our faith is based on a God who performed countless miracles that were seen by His chosen people of Israel and even by the enemies of His people. Our faith is based on a book that was written by God Himself through the hands of men. A book that is inerrant. A book that is consistent and flawless despite being written by more than 40 men.
Today we are going to see the faith of a new church growing through the power of the Holy Spirit working in them and through the prayers and interactions of ministers of the Gospel. And we will use these verses to further understand how Christ helps us persist in our faith.
Lets look at our text for today:
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—
for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.
For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.
For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God,
as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,
and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,
so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Let us pray.
Prayer.
Today we are going to discuss two ways that Christ strengthens the faith of believers. The first is...
I. Christ Strengthens Your Faith… Through Persistent Interaction (6-9)
I. Christ Strengthens Your Faith… Through Persistent Interaction (6-9)
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—
Last week we saw Paul send Timothy to the church in Thessalonica. If you can recall, he was quite broken-hearted to send Timothy, his beloved adopted spiritual son, away. He knew the dangers that Timothy could face. But now we see that Timothy does return back to Paul and Silas safely.
And he brings news with him as well. It is good news of the faith of the church in Thessalonica. The word used here for good news is extremely unique in this situation. Paul chooses the word, euangelizō (e-van-gal-eezo), which is the word used for the good news of the Gospel. This word is where we get the word evangelize in modern English - meaning sharing the Gospel with others. It is interesting that this is the only time in Scripture where this word is not used in regards to the Gospel or something related to the Gospel. Paul uses this word to show the extreme joy that he had with the news that Timothy brought.
What is this good news? It is that the church has remained faithful and loving and remembers Paul and his companions fondly.
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown in their commentary expound that faith was the solid foundation in which the church was built and that love was the cement that held together the superstructure. They were founded in faith on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. And it was love that held together the church.
The short time that Paul, Timothy, and Silas spent there was not in vain. The believers have continued in the faith and in love.
I can only imagine how excited Paul would have been to hear this news. We could hear the anxiety in his voice in verse 5. He was seriously concerned about this infant church. Paul knew that the seed of the Word of God - the Gospel - could be recieved gladly one day but then be stolen by the enemy the next. He knew that true believers needed to be rooted and established in Christ and that this took time through discipleship to confirm that true salvation had occured. Paul wouldn’t be fooled by a one time decision. He knew that although a decision to follow Christ was extremely important, true believers were known by their perseverance in the faith. And now he was getting confirmation of the true salvation of this group of believers.
This is why we must make the best use of our time with new believers and even our children. We do not know how long that we have on earth. We do not know how long we will be able to be there for those people in our lives that God has called us to teach and mentor.
Take Paul’s example here and follow it. He was super-intentional. He was driven to make the most of every opportunity and teach the Gospel at every turn. See what he writes to Ephesus:
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Paul wrote this in his letter to the Ephesians. And we should be teachable to this. Friends, disciple your children and grandchildren well. Disciple your nephews, nieces, or other children in your life well also.
If you have been given a voice in someone’s life to disciple and teach them - make the best use of the time that you have with them.
You don’t know when the Lord may call you home or move you away from them. Paul and his companions took advantage of the short time with this young church and their time was not wasted. God used it for His glory well.
Moving forward in verses 7-9:
for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.
Paul had his anxieties and concerns about this church removed as he heard this great news of the faithfulness of the new church plant. He sees all of the distresses and afflictions and persecutions that he experienced as worth it in light of seeing the Gospel confirmed in their lives. He is now comforted by their faith in Christ.
Have you ever been concerned about someone? Maybe it was a friend or family member. You hadn’t seen them for a while and were concerned that maybe they weren’t going in the right direction. And then you see them again and they are thriving and growing and doing well. What a comfort that it is to see someone walking in faithfulness!
In verse 8, Paul goes on to even use an extreme statement that he can finally live more fully because he knows they are standing fast in the Lord. You see, Paul didn’t always receive good news in regards to how a church was doing. In fact, the church he was working to plant in Corinth as he is writing this letter to the Thessalonian church was one such church that had some major struggles. We see Paul even verge on depression in 2 Corinthians 7:6
But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
and he even loses interest in sharing to Gospel because of the bad news he hears about this same church in 2 Corinthians 2:12-13
When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
It is helpful for us to realize that we are made to be a community of believers. Even the Apostle Paul struggled with being affected by the ups and downs of ministry. Although we should do everything for the glory of Christ and in His power, we are weak people. And there are going to be times in our lives where we may struggle more than others because of being let down by fellow believers. However, like Paul, we must persevere and get back to working with Christ Jesus.
We must always remember that we are working with Christ and not just for Christ.
He will restore our hearts when they are broken by the sinful acts of others. And He will strengthen us to continue on in the works He has prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).
But praise be to God, Paul had gotten good news regarding the church of Thessalonica. And he goes on giving thanksgiving in verse 9:
For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God,
Paul does not even know how to express his thankfulness to God for the joy that he has now. It is inexpressible. He feels like any praise and thanks to God that he would give would not measure up to how wonderful God has been in protecting this infant church.
As I read this verse of thanksgiving, I could not help but relate to the joy and thankfulness Paul had for the church of Thessalonica.
As a pastor, it is such a joy to see people I have ministered to growing in the faith. As I look around at our congregation and reflect back on the past months or longer that many of you have come to CrossPointe, I have great joy in seeing you all walking in the truth.
Each of you are an encouragement to me, church. I consider it a privileged to get to walk with you all through good times and bad. I consider it a privilege to get to stand up here week after week and proclaim the Word of God to you. And I consider it a joy to watch you all receive the Word of God with gladness and joy and appreciation. This church is a special church friends. I have stood up here and preached some very difficult sermons over our 1 and half years of existence. Many of my sermons may have gotten me removed from pulpits around our country because of the counter-cultural content. Preaching verse-by-verse and book-by-book prevents me from cherry-picking the easy to preach sermons.
Yet, you all have hung in there and continued to receive the Word of God - not as my Word - but as the Word of God.
I can relate to Paul here who has such great thanksgiving and joy for the church of Thessalonica. Thank you, church, for hungering and thirsting after the Word of God. Because it is through persistent interaction of the body of Christ - through teachers, preachers, and fellow church members - that we have our faith strengthened.
And moving forward, we see that Christ also strengthens...
Scripture References: Hebrews 11:1, Ephesians 5:15-16, 2 Corinthians 7:6, 2 Corinthians 2:12-13, Ephesians 2:10
II. Christ Strengthens Your Faith… Through Persistent Intercession (10-13)
II. Christ Strengthens Your Faith… Through Persistent Intercession (10-13)
as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
Intercession means a prayer on behalf of another. It is entreating God on behalf of another. Paul is doing just that for this church.
He continues to pray for this church night and day. He will go on to let them know that they should pray continually as well (1 Thess 5:17) . He is doing just that regarding them.
He also lets them know that not only is he praying often for them, he is praying most earnestly for them. This Greek word is an extreme word that means beyond all measure or super-abundantly. It carries the prefix -hyper to show the exceeding nature of their prayers.
My friends, I think we can take some notes from Paul here. His heart for others is to be modeled. We are also called to intercede on behalf of fellow believers. See Paul command such prayer in 1 Timothy 2:1:
1 Timothy 2:1 (ESV)
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,
The actual Greek noun for intercession only occurs twice (1 Timothy 2:1 and 1 Timothy 4:5 - although a verb with the same Greek root is more common in Scripture). Yet, the concept of intercession is exemplified throughout Scripture.
Jesus gives us the greatest example of intercessory prayer in John 17 where he prays for his disciples and even all believers everywhere. He actually even prays for us today in this chapter! You would do well to read John 17 this week.
We need to follow Jesus’ example in the way we intercede for one another.
as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
And he hopes to be able to visit them again to help them continue to grow in their understanding of the Gospel - to supply what is lacking in their faith as we see him mention in verse 10. This word supply here means to restore or make complete. He realizes that there are going to be some gaps in their theology - especially because of the short time that he and his companions were able to be with them. He wants to help them grow in this. We will see later in this letter that one such gap was eschatology - or the study of the end times - which he will address some later.
In the next three verses Paul ends with an intercessory prayer on behalf of the church of Thessalonica. It is a beautiful prayer that signals a transition in this letter. It is a transition from personal writings of thanksgiving, love, and concern to one of teaching, admonition, and charges to act. But before he gets into some of the deeper theological and practical teachings of this letter, he prays the following prayer:
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
As we study these last three verses, lets break down this prayer by seeing the four distinct things Paul prayed for the growing church in Thessalonica in his intercessory prayer. The first is for:
1. Leadership and Teaching (11)
His prayer started by asking that God would direct his friends and him back to them so that they could teach them more about Christ and righteous living. The following three aspects of this prayer summarize his desire for them to live righteously. The first is that he wants them to be:
2. Increasing in Faith (12)
He wanted to be able to supply what was lacking and complete what was incomplete in their faith as we saw in verse 10. They were also to increase in their knowledge of God. Through the leadership and teaching of Paul and his companions, they could grow in their knowledge of God’s Word and will which would deepen their faith. Next, he wanted to see them...
3. Abounding in Love (12)
The word abounding here refers to above and beyond. He wanted them to outdo one another in showing love and honor. We see him say this to the church in Rome in Romans 12:10:
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
We are not to be competitive with other believers when it comes to ministry success measures, blessings, and praise. But we are to compete in loving and honoring one another. Now that is a competition that would greatly change our churches across the world wouldn’t it? How can we make more of others than ourselves? How can we exalt others above ourselves? But this is exactly what Paul wants to see from the Thessalonian church. He wants to so see them abounding in love for one another.
But he doesn’t just stop there. We see that we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the Scriptures. Paul speaks of it constantly. John speaks of it constantly in the Scriptures as well. Look at verse 12 again:
1 Thessalonians 3:12 (ESV)
and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,
But Paul goes even further here. He models Jesus when he states that we are to love all. Remember what Jesus said:
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Paul reminds the church that he and his companions came in and loved them when most of them were pagans worshiping idols. He calls them, like Jesus calls us, to love their enemies. He calls them to abound in love for their enemies and love them enough to share God’s Word with them.
We are called to do the same my friends. It is easy to love people who love you. But it is really hard to love people who are hostile toward you. Yet, that is exactly what God calls us to do. We are to love the unlovable and share the Gospel even with those who we would prefer not to share it with. Because God shows no partiality. He can save even the worst of sinners as Paul so often referred to himself as.
Finally, Paul calls them to be...
4. Living Blameless and Holy Lives (13)
so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
This is quite a charge. They were to be blameless - which means above reproach or above any accusation. And they were to be holy - or set apart. We are all called to be holy unto the Lord. This term refers to one who is consecrated and sanctified as God’s special possession. We are to be dedicated for God’s service. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 shows the truth of this for believers:
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
We are not on earth for our own pleasures and wants. We are here as God’s special possessions. We are where He dwells friends! The God who created the heavens and the earth. The God who created even you - dwells inside of you if you have put your faith in Christ and repented of your sins.
Brothers and sisters - hear Paul when he speaks on behalf of God - He calls out that you were bought with a price - and you can hear him practically yell the phrase - SO ACT LIKE IT!
So many people today do not live above reproach. They take the name of Christ and slander it by living lives in front of the world that do not show that they are set apart by God. Do not be like the hypocrites who sit at church on Sunday but don’t give God a second thought throughout the week.
I pray that each of us here understands the high calling of being a believer in Christ and a follower of Him. We are called to live holy and righteous lives. Yes we will sin time and time again. But we should be humble and quick to repent. We must live righteously through the power of the One Who dwells within us. It is by His power that we can live an abundant life.
Paul ends this prayer with the following words:
1 Thessalonians 3:13 (ESV)
so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
I find it interesting that Paul ends with an eschatological tone. As we have just mentioned, he desires this young church to be holy and blameless before God. And now he tells us why he wants them to be prepared. Jesus is coming back.
We are going to discuss much more about the Day of the Lord and Jesus’ second coming in the upcoming weeks. However, let us end this sermon with the fact that Christ’s return is imminent. It is near at hand. And it will be a blessing for us who are in Christ. But it will be a time of terror and peril for those who are not His.
If you have not placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ - friend I implore you - I entreat you - I practically beg of you to consider how great a peril will befall you. Yet, do not come to Christ out of fear alone - not just out of a fear of eternal burning in the lake of fire called Hell. But respond to God’s kindness and grace. He has taken the punishment that you deserved on the cross. You deserved death and He has offered you eternal life through His work on the cross. He took your sins on the cross and bore the punishment that you deserved. And He rose three days later and defeated death and the grave. You must only repent - or turn away from your sins - and place your faith and trust in Him alone for salvation.
If you have not done this, please do not go another moment without making this decision to follow. This is the single most important decision you will ever make.
The Bible teaches us that God draws people to Himself. It teaches us that we do not seek Him but He seeks us. If you feel His drawing - do not harden your heart. Respond to His free gift of grace.
Scripture References: 1 Thessalonians 5:17, 1 Timothy 2:1, 1 Timothy 4:5, John 17, Romans 12:10, Matthew 5:44, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Conclusion:
For those of who are believers - persist in the faith through the power of Christ. He will lead you day after day and never forsake you. Share the good news of the Gospel with those around you and intercede on behalf of your brothers and sisters throughout our world. And intercede even on behalf of unbelievers. Pray for God to draw more and more people to Himself and pray that more and more people respond to His gracious love and mercy.
Let us pray.
Prayer
If you would like to learn more about salvation through Jesus Christ or want to obey Jesus by obeying the first commandment of a believer in going through the waters of baptism - please let me know.
Have a blessed week.