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CHURCH IMPROVEMENT : BUILDING A CHURCH THAT HONORS GOD AND LOVES PEOPLE BY PRAYER2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5 INTRODUCTION The teaching ministry of Dr. John Piper was one of the key things that God used in saving me from falling away from Christ even while being engaged in full time Christian ministry back in 1990. Dr. Piper has been the preaching pastor at Bethlehem Baptist church in Minneapolis, MN for 27 years. He is also the author of numerous books. His first and most well-known book, “Desiring God,” was instrumental in preserving my spiritual life. The first time I heard of Dr. Piper was at a meeting with a number of leaders within Campus Crusade for Christ. One of those present had a tape of a sermon on prayer that Dr. Piper had preached at a missions conference which he played for us. The title of the sermon was “Prayer, the Work of Missions.” There were lots of things in that tape that intrigued me and challenged me. However, probably the main thing I got from that tape was this quote which has stuck with me since first hearing it: “You will not know what prayer is for unless you know that life is war.” At the time I had no idea that I was involved in a war. Except for fighting with my wife once and a while or with a co-worker on occasion, I was not aware of any conflict in my life. The reason I didn’t know I was in a war is because I had already lost the fight, without noticing it. The fight, as Dr. Piper described it, was the fight for faith. The war that rages in this world is the war over whether or not human beings will believe that Jesus Christ is the greatest and best of all beings and worth losing everything in order to have a relationship with or whether the pleasures of sin and of this world are better than he. The enemies arrayed against us are: Satan whose aim is to deceive us into believing that Jesus is a nothing and a nobody and that everything and anything is better than he is; the world of human beings which lives as if God is either irrelevant or the means for obtaining what we really love, health, wealth, power, a good family, a good job, etc.; and our own sin nature which delights in everything and anything but God himself. That sermon was the beginning of the awakening for me in understanding that life is about knowing, loving and trusting God as he has made himself known in and through Jesus. Each day I am in a war for faith and I must fight that fight if I am going to win. You cannot win a war without a fight. What I began to understand on the day I first heard that sermon and am continuing to learn in greater ways is that one of the primary ways that I am to fight that battle is through prayer. Because life is war I need to pray. Piper likens prayer to a war time walkie-talkie through which a soldier calls up HQ and asks for reinforcements or resources to fight the battle. I think that Piper’s metaphor is an apt one, especially as we look at Paul’s prayer in the middle of his second letter to the Thessalonians. This letter is full of the language of conflict. The local church to which he writes is being attacked on a number of fronts. The non-Christians among whom they are living are persecuting them because they are Christians. They are suffering from the normal trials of life. They are beset by false teachers who are seeking to lead them away from the gospel that Paul has taught them, which he received from the Lord Jesus. In fact, there were already some within the church who were following the false teachers. There are members of the church who have stopped working and are living off of the generosity of the rest of the church. They were not busy working but were busy prying into the business of others. They were living this way for “spiritual” reasons. So in the middle of this letter which deals with the variety of ways that this church is beset with conflict the apostle tells them how he is praying for them and he asks them to pray for him. He reveals by this that indeed, when you know that life is war then you do know what prayer is for. Paul prays for the church because he can see the battle that the church is engaged in. We find modeled here the kind of war-time praying to which our Captain delights to respond. This is the kind of praying that is the means to preserving the church as it is beset by all manner of trouble and conflict. MAIN POINT Prayer that preserves God’s people through many dangers, toils and snares…I. Recognizes and gives thanks for God’s gracious work (vv. 13-14) This prayer begins with thanksgiving. It begins by recognizing that God has already been at work in this church and thus he deserves thanks for what he has done. Notice that Paul views the giving of thanks as something that ought to be done. That word “ought” is referring to moral action. It is morally right to thank God for what he has done in the lives of others and thus it is immoral to not thank him for his gracious work in the lives of others. Before we look at what Paul thanks God for we need to answer this question, how did Paul know that God was at work in the lives of these people? If you walk through Woodmans how do you know which people you ought to thank God for working in their lives? Look back at 1:3. Paul says exactly the same thing there as he does here with an important difference. He again says it is morally correct to thank God for them but it is because their faith is growing more and more and the love they have for one another is increasing. How does he know that their faith is growing and that their love is increasing? The answer is in v. 4. In the midst of the persecution they continue to hold fast to Christ and they take care of each other in spite of the fact that identifying with those who are being persecuted will get you persecuted as well. He can see their faith in the fact that they believe having Jesus and being persecuted is better than not having Jesus and not being persecuted. He can see their love in their continual care for one another in the midst of the persecution. Don’t miss this very basic fact about giving thanks. He isn’t thanking them for having faith and love. He is thanking God for their growing faith and love. That means that the reason they have faith and love is because God is creating more and more faith and love in them. When Jordan and Joelle gave me a new pack for carrying my hunting gear for Christmas I didn’t thank Julia for giving it to me. When Jordan shoveled the driveway after that last snow storm I didn’t thank Jaimee and I didn’t pat myself on the back for a job well done. When Paul thanks God for the faith and love of people he isn’t just muttering religious mumbo jumbo he means that God caused them to have a growing faith and love and he alone deserves the credit, not the human beings who exercise the faith and love. It is because Paul has seen the visible marks of God's grace in the lives of this church that he goes on to thank God for doing an invisible work in their lives. Let me give you a quick summary of what he thanks God for: he thanks God for loving these people; for choosing them from the beginning of the universe; for choosing them for the purpose of saving them; for accomplishing that salvation by means of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and by means of their faith in the truth of the gospel (Again, don't miss that, he thanks God for their faith); for calling them to this salvation through the gospel; and for calling them to share in the eternal glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t miss how remarkable these statements are. Paul looks at a group of human beings and can with certainty say about them: "I know that God loves you and that, because he loves you, he decided before the world began to save you and he has saved you by sending the Holy Spirit to make you holy and to give you faith. I know that just like Jesus commanded 4 day dead Lazarus to walk out of his tomb and it happened, so God commanded you, when you were dead in your trespasses and sins, through the gospel I preached to you to arise from the deadness of your sins and to live and now you are spiritually alive. I know that he plans for you to share in the glory of Jesus Christ forever." This is either madness or arrogance or Paul knows something about God and his ways that most of us do not know. Paul knows that the reason they have faith in Christ, in spite of persecution and trouble and that they love other Christians in spite of the danger and of how annoying other Christians usually are, is because God loved them, chose them, sanctified them, called them and glorified them. What you have in these two verses is Paul's doctrine of salvation. These two verses answer the question: why and how does God save his people?. Knowing that this is how God saves people causes Paul to be full of gratitude to God when he sees that it has happened. Salvation is entirely a work of God's free and sovereign grace from beginning to end and is in no part the work of human beings so that God alone will get the credit. Therefore, when we see evidence of God's gracious work we ought to give him thanks. This ought to be a regular feature of every Christians thought life and then their prayer life. This last week I thought about the 6.2 billion people in the world and considered that out of all these people God chose to love me and to save me. I was simply struck by how shocking that is. I am no different than any other human being. I have nothing to recommend me to God. I am a sinner who deserves wrath, just like every other human being. Yet, miraculously, I am trusting in Jesus Christ. I find that I love other Christians and I don't want to sin anymore. I hate my sin and I want to flee from it. I want to love Jesus better. Why am I like this? Why am I confident that God loves me and will take me to heaven because of what Jesus has done and not because of anything I have done? This is all a work of God's grace. I did nothing. God did everything, beginning with his decision in eternity past to love me and to choose me for salvation. He sent his Holy Spirit to give me a new heart that trusts in Christ alone. So I praised God for his mercy towards me. But also, as I thought about that I began to praise God for his mercy to you and to members of my family and to others whom I can see have faith in Christ and love for other Christians, thereby demonstrating that God has done these things. Do you see God’s work in your life and in the lives of others and then do you thank God for what he has done? This is where war time prayer begins. Prayer that preserves God’s people through many dangers, toils and snares… Recognizes and gives thanks for God’s gracious workAnd…II. Asks for more grace to be given where it already exists (vv. 15-17) After thanking God for his eternal and specific work of salvation through which they have been given faith in Christ and love for others he exhorts them to continue to hold fast to the teachings about Jesus which he and his co-workers delivered to them both personally and through these two letters. Don't miss Paul's logic. He sees their faith and love and knows this is evidence of God's sovereign work in their lives and so he commands them to keep on believing what they have been told. Paul does not think that commanding people to believe is contrary to saying that God is the one who causes people to believe. He knows that the only reason anyone will heed his command and obey it is if God has worked. He sees that they are the recipients of grace and so he has confidence that they will continue to live by faith in Christ in response to his command. Part of the means by which they will persevere is his telling them to do so. When I walk into a dark room and I want the lights to come on I "command" them to come on by flipping a light switch. I know that my work of flipping the switch does not create the electricity and does not make the light function. The light comes on because of the electricity that has been generated at the power plant and because of the way the light bulb has been constructed. However, my flipping the switch is the means by which the light comes on. If I do not flip the switch it will not come on. In addition, I would be shocked if the light did not come on when I flipped the switch because I know that the light has been created to come on and the power is available to make it come on. My "command", that is, flipping the switch, does not create the light but it is the appointed means by which the light comes on. In a similar way, Paul's command that they hold fast to the gospel he taught them does not cause them to obey. God, by choosing and calling and sanctifying them has done everything required so that they will "turn on" and so hold fast. The command is the means through which God causes them to shine with persevering faith. When a person who is loved by God and chosen by God and sanctified by the Spirit hears the command of God they love the command and seek to obey it. Hearing the word of God is the means by which the power of God is manifested in the life of the believer. Then notice immediately after commanding them to hold fast he prays that they would hold fast. This proves that Paul knows that only God's grace can accomplish what God commands. Prayer is another of God's appointed means for obtaining the grace that will perform what God commands. I want you to see the progression. God promises to be at work by the Spirit making us more like Christ. God uses the spoken and read word of God to perform that process. He commands us to ask him to do what he has promised through prayer. So we pray and ask God to do what he has said he wants to do, encourage and strengthen the hearts of his people as they speak and act in ways that accord with his life in us. He commands them and prays for them knowing that the God who loves them and by grace has given them eternal encouragement and good hope will encourage and strengthen their hearts. He sees that God has been gracious and so he asks God to keep on being gracious. Knowing that it is God alone who saves people is not a hindrance to prayer but a powerful motivation to pray. The idea that if God chooses and saves people according to his will then there is no point in praying is not a biblical thought. Rather, whenever we have seen evidence of God's grace in someone's life we ought to pray for God to give more grace because we know that is God's will. It is his will that his people hold fast to the gospel of Christ and so we should actively and earnestly ask God to continue doing what he has begun to do. You do not need to wait until people are in trouble before you pray for more grace. All of us need to have others asking our Father on our behalf to encourage and strengthen our hearts in every good deed and word. Here is a reason to take the tear off part of the program home with you every week and pray for those who are listed and here is what to pray for them. If you do not pray for more of God's grace to be given to those who have already received his grace then you are denying that God has been gracious and that he wants to continue to be gracious. Prayer that preserves God’s people through many dangers, toils and snares… Recognizes and gives thanks for God’s gracious work
And…III. Asks for God’s grace to be experienced by more people (vv. 1-2) After telling them how he is praying for them he then asks that they pray for himself and his co-workers in the gospel, Silas and Timothy. Notice however, that he is not concerned for his own well-being but for the well-being of the gospel. He wants them to pray that God's word runs and is glorified just as it ran and was glorified among them. Paul wants them to ask God to cause more and more people to hear the word of God and more and more people to treat the word of God, the gospel in the same way that the Thessalonians treated it. How did they receive it? Paul describes how they received the gospel back in his first letter to them. In 1 Thess. 1:6 he says that "in spite of severe suffering you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit." In vv. 9-10 Paul recounts how the word of God rang out from them and the news of their conversion from idolatry to Christ was so amazing that everyone throughout the Grecian peninsula was talking about it. Then in 2:13 Paul says that when they received the message about Jesus which he told them, they accepted it not as if it were the word of men but as it actually is, the word of God. They were amazed and delighted with this message that the God who had made them and who had every right to be eternally angry with them for their many sins was willing to forgive them and welcome them into his eternal kingdom not because of anything they did but because of what Jesus did for them in his living and dying. They treated this message as if it truly was good news from God. On May 7, 1945 the news spread rapidly around the world that Germany and Italy had surrendered to the Allied troops. Then on August 15, 1945 the word that Japan had surrendered spread rapidly around the globe. Everywhere this word spread it was glorified, right? People rejoiced in this word. When one person heard it they would run to their neighbors and tell them the good news. Work stopped. The streets were filled with people shouting and dancing and singing. The direction of the entire country changed as a result of this word from that of a country at war to that of a country at peace. This news changed everything, just like the news of Christ's coming and dying and rising changed everything for the Thessalonian Christians. Now Paul wants them to ask God that this same thing would happen to more and more people. Paul fully expects that they will want God's word to spread rapidly and be glorified among more and more people. Why should you and I care if God's word spreads rapidly and is glorified by more and more people? The primary reason is found in this idea of God's word being glorified. Paul is not saying here that the reason to care that the gospel goes forth is because you don't want people to go to hell. He gives that motivation in other places. Here the reason is because you want the word of God to be glorified. When you, by grace, see how awesome God is and how astonishing the person of Jesus Christ is and how stupendous is his work on our behalf your heart yearns that everyone sees and knows and honors and enjoys this great and merciful God. We long for God's fame to spread among the nations. We yearn for God's greatness to be known and worshipped everywhere. All of us have experienced this affection and this longing in relation to other persons and objects. Every grandparent in this room would love to show you pictures of their grandchildren and tell you numerous stories about how cute and talented and admirable they are. Every person who has a favorite vacation spot or who has been able to travel to really cool places would love to show you their slides for several hours and talk to you about the greatness of the landscapes and the restaurants and the people and the culture and everything else that makes these places attractive to them. Everyone who is a connoisseur of food or wine or art or theatre or movies or whatever is delighted to tell you about the object of their affection and to have you join them in experiencing the delight they find. Why do we do these things? We want others to admire what we admire. It is only right that we who have experienced the only person who is truly worthy of all praise and honor and glory and delight would want others to be impressed with what has impressed us. So we pray that God's word spread rapidly and be glorified among more and more people. Paul's request that he be protected from wicked and evil men is not a concern for his personal safety but is his concern for the progress of the gospel. Paul said about himself in Acts 20:23-24, " …in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the gospel of his grace." Then in 21:13 in response to the pleading of his friends not to go to Jerusalem he says, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." So when Paul asks to be rescued he is not doing so because he is afraid or being harmed. Rather, this prayer must be understood in light of v. 1. The word can only spread rapidly through someone going and preaching. God has called him to go and preach and so he wants to be protected so that nothing will hinder the word of God from being spread. The really cool thing to see is this: Paul wrote this letter while in Corinth. Both the Jews and the Gentiles in Corinth opposed Paul and his preaching. They tried several times to get him to stop. However, the Lord appeared to him in a vision and said to him, "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you and no one is going to attack and harm you because I have many people in this city." In other words God has promised to rescue him from wicked and evil men and so he asks them to ask God to rescue him from wicked and evil men. God's promise to deliver him does not stop him from asking others to ask God to rescue him. Rather, God's promise encourages him to ask others to ask God. John Calvin was right when he said, "God promises us nothing that he does not also command us to ask of him in prayer." The basic point is that our prayers are not to be limited to just the church as it currently exists but we are to be asking God to cause his word to spread rapidly and be honored in other places and among those who do not yet know Christ. We are in a war for the souls of men and so we are to ask our commander to do whatever is necessary to make sure that the word goes out and is honored. This means that we are to pray for missionaries and pastors and parents and for all those who are engaged in the preaching of this gospel so that the word of God may run and be glorified. Prayer that preserves God’s people through many dangers, toils and snares… Recognizes and gives thanks for God’s gracious work
And…IV. Is confident God will continue to be gracious where he has begun to be gracious (vv. 3-5) Verse 3 is in contrast to v. 2. Humans who do not trust God cannot be trusted but God is always faithful and can be trusted to do what he has promised. Because God is faithful Paul is confident that he will strengthen them and protect them from the evil one. Paul knows, as he just said in v. 2, that the world is a dangerous place for those who have faith. Yet he is absolutely confident that God will strengthen the faith of all his people and protect them from the assaults of Satan. Satan's assaults us through false teaching and persecution. Satan aims to get us to believe lies or to forsake Christ in order to escape trouble. Yet Paul knows that God will not let that happen. He is also confident that God will enable them to do and keep on doing everything that Paul has commanded them to do. In these two verses he is simply saying in a different way what he said in his letter to the Philippians that he was confident "that he who began a good work in them would carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Paul expects that God will completely save all those whom he has begun to save. Salvation is not a work of man but a work of God and therefore, all who belong to Christ by the Spirit through faith can be confident that they will persevere to the end. But notice, perseverance is marked by obedience to the commands of Jesus. Continuing in faith and love is the evidence that God has indeed saved you. You don't know you are a Christian because of something that happened to you in the past but because of what is happening to you in the present: you are trusting Jesus and loving other Christians. What does Paul do in light of the fact that he is 100% confident that they will persevere and continue to obey? He asks God to direct their hearts into the love of God and the perseverance of Christ. Knowing God will do what he has promised motivates Paul to ask God to do what he has promised. To have your heart directed into God's love is be a person who is utterly amazed that God loves you and as a result you love him back. To have your heart directed into Christ's perseverance is to be a person who is utterly amazed at what Christ endured to purchase your salvation and as a result to joyfully endure the loss of all things for the sake of Christ. My friends, we are in a war. We will not survive this war without God's assistance. He has promised to do everything for us so that we will win the war and share in the glory of Christ at the end. Therefore, we should pray and ask God to do what he has promised to do. I want to encourage you to be sure to come to the church at least on one evening this week as we join together in thanking God for his gracious work in the life of our church and praying that he continue to be gracious and that he cause more and more people to know the wonder of his grace. Prayer that preserves God’s people through many dangers, toils and snares… Recognizes and gives thanks for God’s gracious work
© Copyright 2008 John Swanson.
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