Rejoicing in Faith

Scripture Reading

You may be seated. Will you turn in your Bibles with me now to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, keep going, four more books, you'll start at the Thessalonians. Get to Timothy and Titus, you're too far, scroll back a few pages. 1 Timothy chapter 3. If you're using the Pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 1049. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. Brothers and sisters, this is God's word. Don't let it become familiar to you. Don't harden your hearts towards it. Pay careful attention.

Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone. and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, that no one should be shaken by these afflictions.

For you yourselves know that we were appointed to this. For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened, and you know. For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you and our labor might be in vain. But now that Timothy has come to us for you and brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always have good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see you as we also to see you. Therefore brethren, in all our affliction and distress, we were comforted concerning you by your faith.

Prayer for Illumination

For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God for you? For all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and we pray that your Holy Spirit would teach us, strengthen us, establish us, encourage us.

Sermon

In Jesus's name, amen. Well, I was raised in the church. I was raised going every single Sunday. You didn't have a choice about it, mom and dad, even if it took a little bit of arm twisting and yelling, everyone was getting in the van and we were going to church.

And recently I was looking over my my friends list on Facebook, and I was going through out of curiosity, just kind of looking, and then disheartened. After friend, after friend, after friend, no longer following Christ. We went to the same Sunday school classes, we sat under the same teachers, we received the same teaching, In the world, of the world, no love for Christ.

That's what Paul fears here. That's what the missionary team is distressed by here. They're worried about, are their brothers and sisters, are their friends, are the people they love in Thessalonica still holding on to Jesus? Or has it just fallen through the cracks? Have they caved to pressure? Have their hearts become hard? Have they thought to themselves, I got this, I can do it, I can do it on my own, and in reality, they couldn't.

This is the fear that kept the missionary team of Paul, Silas, and Timothy awake at night. Were the people apathetic to Jesus, or did they still believe? And they get good news. They get good news. The people in Thessalonica still believe. They have endured in their faith. And they rejoice in that faith. And so your call today is to also, likewise, rejoice in faith. Rejoice in faith. Normally I save the applications for throughout the sermon, but I'm gonna give you three practical purpose statements here or things you can do here as you're invested in one another's faith. It's not just your own, but rejoicing in others' faith.

First Point

First, pray for one another. If you walk out of here today and you are encouraged that you should be praying for other Christians, you'll have gotten part of the point. The second, continue to meet with one another, continue to show hospitality and enjoy one another's company. If you walk out of here and you think, I just want to be with God's people, you've gotten part of it.

And encourage one another, encourage one another, be there for one another, supporting each other, encouraging one another. Where do we find these things in the passage for us today? Well, first we see that the missionary team has a loving heart. Look with me at the first five verses of 1 Thessalonians 3.

And therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone. And then in verse five. For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith. But there's this reality that I couldn't endure it.

First in verse one, it's the missionary team, right? Of Paul, Silas, and Timothy all together. Notice it's we, right? When we could no longer endure it, we sent Timothy to you. But then in verse five, the primary author of the letter, Paul, steps forward and he says, I could no longer endure it. And so even though they had already sent Timothy, now Paul wants to hear it himself. It's great that Timothy is there, but he wants to hear word of it himself also. So he can't endure it anymore while he's alone. He has a heart for the people. He loves the people. They love the people in Thessalonica. And so they don't just keep them in prayer, but they wanna do something about it, so they send Timothy. But who is Timothy? Who is Timothy?

Well, he's this convert to the faith who joined in this missionary journey, but how does it describe him in verse two? He's our brother and he's a minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ. Timothy is first, he's a brother. He's part of the believing family. There's a family relationship, a family tie that's deeper than blood. And this is why we call each other brother and sister. It's this family of faith, and Timothy is a brother, but he's more than just a brother, he's also a minister, or he's a servant of Christ.

He's a servant, he's one who goes out and he's about doing the work of God. He's a brother, he's a servant of God, he's a fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ. He's one who will put his hands to the plow and he'll work for the Lord. He's one who will not think it below him to get his boots dirty, roll up his sleeves and doing the work of God.

This is what Paul or who Timothy is like and they give him a charge. He's not just to go and to do nothing, right? He's not just to go and be a busybody, but he's got work to do. They send Timothy there because they need him to do work. And so what's the charge they give him in verse two?

To establish you and encourage your faith. To establish and encourage. Sometimes in your faith, do you feel like you're tottering? Sometimes in your faith do you feel like you're just, you feel weak. And you just wish somebody else would come up beside you and just hold you up.

Have you ever seen those marathon races before where somebody is about to cross the finish line and another runner will come by and pick them up off the ground and put their arm over their neck and will run the race with them, will strengthen them to get it done?

Have you ever seen the movie Cars before? It's a beautiful thing about having kids, you get to watch all these movies. In the movie Cars, there's an older car and he gets pushed off the track and Lightning McQueen realizes, the hero of the story, Lightning McQueen, who is this hot rod of a racer and didn't care about anybody, realizes at the end of the race he's about to win the race and he stops just before the finish line.

And he backs up and he goes to get the older car And he pushes him past the finish line. And the commentators are saying, that's racing right there. He lost the cup, but he won the race. Timothy's job was to go and to strengthen them, to encourage them, to keep pushing. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it to be an encouragement and an establisher for them. He has to do the ministry of following up. This is the danger.

I'm gonna step back for a second and tell you, I almost didn't become a pastor. I got out of undergrad and I was thinking about going to seminary and I realized I didn't like doing evangelism. I didn't like doing evangelism. And Paul tells Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. And I thought, well, that's not for me, cuz I don't like knocking on doors, handing a Bible tract to someone and walking away. And then when I went to my grad school and I was doing my church history degree, I remember telling my friend about how we had our neighbors to our house and we had them for lunch and we were talking to them about the things of God. And then we were doing this with this other family over here and he said, I think you have a really small view of what evangelism looks like. Paul and Timothy and Silas weren't about doing hit and run evangelism.

Biblical evangelism isn't going and handing someone a gospel track and beating them over the head with the gospel and then walking away and saying, okay, figure it out on your own. But it's sharing your lives with one another, it's encouraging one another, it's being there with one another, praying for one another, text messaging, calling, having people to your house, following up with them and asking the hard questions. encouraging and establishing one another in the faith. This was what Timothy was sent to do. And what was the purpose of this? Verse three, that no one should be shaken by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we were appointed to this.

Affliction is hard. It's easy for Jesus to say to his disciples, if they hated me, they're going to also hate you. It's easy to hear that and for Peter to be like, oh yeah, okay, got it, Jesus. But then when affliction actually comes and Peter is there at the trial of Jesus and he denies Jesus and he feels the weight and the pressure of possible affliction, it's easy to flee. And even if you hadn't fled, there could be depression, anxiety, fear, oh no, what's going to happen?

Brothers and sisters, we have siblings in the faith who are in China right now and they don't know if they'll have their house next week because the communist government keeps pushing their landlords, pressing down on their landlords to try to get them evicted out of their houses. This is the type of stuff that's going on in Paul's day, in the lives of the Thessalonians as they're under this heavy hand of affliction.

They warn them about this ahead of time. They told them about this ahead of time. For in fact, verse four, for in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulations just as it happened and you know. They send Timothy to support them, to encourage them.

Don't give up. We know it's hard. Don't let your heart be consumed with anger because somehow this isn't fair, but be gracious to one another. Continue to love. Continue to turn the cheek towards those who are persecuting you. Pray for those who are against you. Again, in verse five, Paul here specifically reveals his heart. For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means a tempter had tempted you and our labor might be in vain."

Paul wants to know what type of soil did he sow in. It was Jesus himself who told his disciples that the seed was broadcasted. The gospel was spread far and wide and nobody knows what type of ground it's going to land on. It might land on the gravel road where not much grows and it gets trampled over easy. That's the gospel that goes and is quickly just gone. But then there's others that's thrown and it's in rocky soil and it sprouts up real quick. But what does Jesus teach the disciples? He says, but when trial and tribulation comes, It's burnt up, it shrivels away because it has no root. Paul is worried. Paul is anxious and in a godly way concerned.

Was this just rocky soil? Did I see initial fruit, initial willingness to hold on to the gospel? Or do they truly believe? Has the tempter come and given them the deceitfulness of wealth and the cares of this life, the thorns and the thistles that might choke out the plants? Or did I plant in good soil?

I can't endure it anymore. I need to hear from you. I need to know with my labor and vein that we live out our lives that I worked for long hours and months and continue to teach and continue to care for you. And are you still there? Are you still believing? I love you and I need to know what's going on in your lives.

This is Paul's heart. This is the missionaries team's heart as they want to know, do they truly have faith? Because there is a tempter, there is Satan who wants to pinch out, snuff out, crush their faith. At every turn, at every turn your faith can get worn down. Day in and day out under the hand of affliction. Can you imagine the peer pressure that they must have been feeling? The pressure from their friends. Why are you doing this to yourself?

Just give up this whole Christianity thing and just come back to the temple and it will be just like the good old days. You don't need to do this stuff. Can you imagine the family tensions as a wife believes but her husband doesn't, as a child believes but her parents don't believe and the friction and the tension that has in their family relationships and they might even have had someone like Job's wonderful wife go curse God and die. You know, if you're gonna hold on to this, I just don't want any part of you.

Would their faith endure that type of persecution, that type of pressure? Is Jesus worth it? Is there a financial strain? Some of them might have lost social status. I mean, you went to the temple, you went to the pagan temples, and that's where you were known. That was the heart of the community. Some of these Christians have given up all their social status. Cares of life, they've given up. Enjoyments they once enjoyed, gone. Brothers and sisters, there's a manifold area of temptation in which Satan would love to sift you out.

That's why Jesus tells us in the Lord's Prayer. What does the Sixth Petition teach us in the Lord's Prayer? and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Satan desires to take you out of the family. Satan does not want you to be in the family. Satan does not want your faith to persevere. Satan does not want you to have a vibrant belief. Satan does not want this church to be a gospel church. Satan wants you to be consumed with the things of this life. Satan wants to bring on either, you know, just come and enjoy the good things of life and don't worry about getting too religious. Or on the other hand, if you are too religious, trying to pressure you to snuff it out. Do you pray? Father, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one. But notice what the Lord's prayer is. Is it me? Is it I? Lead us. Lead us not into temptation. It's an honest question.

Might be a heart check for some of you. When's the last time you've prayed for someone else, either in your family or in the church, that God would protect them from temptation and from Satan? When's the last time we've thought about others in the church needing the protection of God and been willing to pray with them and for them, that God would protect them? This is their heart.

This is the ministry team's heart, but there's good news that comes back. Look at me at verse 6 through 8. There's good news that comes back. But now that Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always have good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see us as we also to see you. Therefore, brethren, in all our affliction and distress, we were comforted concerning you by your faith. For now we live if you stand fast in the Lord.

There's good news. As I was translating this, I was kind of like. You know, I translated the sentence out of the Greek the first time, and the problem is it says, we would normally translate this as, he evangelized us. But I was like, well, that doesn't work, hold on. Timothy's not evangelizing Paul and Silas.

It's because it's being used in the general sense of, he's bringing good news to us. Blessed are those who bring good news. The good news that the faith of the saints in Thessalonica is enduring, that they're still believing, that against all odds and pressures of Satan, they still believe. They still have a heart for Christ, they still love his people. They have faith, they have love, and more than that, they remember and even want to see the apostle Paul and Silas again. Right, they haven't been stolen away by some false teacher. There isn't some heretic coming into the church and turning them away from the apostle, like what would happen to some in churches like Galatia. But here, people still remember the apostolic message.

They remember the foundation of their faith. And it's good news. Notice, this is amazing. Look at verse six. Or verse seven. Therefore, brethren, in all our affliction and distress, we were comforted concerning you by your faith. For now we live, if you stand fast, And the Lord, Paul, Silas and Timothy, in their affliction, are encouraged by the Thessalonians' affliction. It's always nice to have a brother in arms, a sister in combat, somebody who you're able to look to.

This isn't nearly as warfare aggressive, but when I was in college, I did swimming. In swimming, there's always more swimmers and there are lanes, and so you always have at least one lane buddy, one other person you're swimming with. But the problem with having a lane buddy is that means you have to swim as fast as that other person is going, or else they're going to run into you, or you're going to run into them. And the result of that is, even though both of you are swimming, you are continually pushing one another.

And it's amazing. Sometimes in swimming, they have these silly things where they give you a set. And they'll say, the coach knows it takes you 27 seconds to swim there and back. And so I'm only going to give you 30 seconds to do it. which means you only get three seconds of rest after it. And so you sit there at the end and you just look at your buddy and you go, and he goes, and you both go, and you dive back in and you keep going.

But you know that there's somebody else and he's going to keep pushing you and they're going to keep encouraging you. Likewise, we've joined this gym, and I always say to the guys at coffee, I eat a big piece of humble pie every morning I go in there. But you know what's encouraging to me at the gym?

When I see people who are bigger and stronger and faster than I are, and they look like they're about to start crying because it's so hard, and I think, oh good, it's not just me. It's not just you. Faith is hard. It's not just you. But it comforts us when we see one another enduring in the faith. Isn't it a comfort when we see someone else and they come out of a trial or out of a tribulation when there's a death in their family or a specific sin that's pressing heavy on their lives and the Lord brings them through it. It's a huge encouragement. It's an encouragement to them to know that the Thessalonians are enduring in their affliction and the result of it is two different prayers.

Look with me at the two different prayers in verses nine and 10. For what thanks can we render to God for you? For all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God. Night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith. How can we repay the first prayer as a psalm of thanksgiving? The apostolic team finds themselves at a loss for words. How can we thank God for you?

We're at lack of words, our hearts are overwhelmed rejoicing in your faith. And this is where the Holy Spirit comes in. They're praying with words beyond groaning. So rejoicing in God for what he has done in their lives that all they can say is thank you.

Thank you, Lord, for these children who are still believing. Thank you for these women who are still believing. Thank you for these fathers who are still believing. Thank you, Lord, that though they are under affliction, they're still believing and their hearts are overwhelmed with rejoicing because they're still believing. How can they repay God for that? The rhetorical question is they can't. They can't repay God. It's a gift that they are still enduring in the faith. but they still have another prayer request to the Lord.

Verse 10. This was a pretty urgent prayer request. They're pushing it pretty hard here. Notice verse 10, night and day, praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith. Night and day, exceedingly, waking up in the morning, God, please let us see them. going to bed at night and praying, God, please let us see our brothers and sisters. Exceedingly, over and over, not just like casually, like, hey God, it'd be cool if we can see those people again. It'd be nice to go on a trip. We know it's only like 200 miles away, but it'd be kind of nice to reunite and kind of encourage each other.

No, they are exceedingly prayerful. They're saying, God, please, please, Lord, let us go see them. Please, Lord, let us go see the saints. Let us encourage them, let us establish them. Let us see their faith and let us see how it's working out in their lives.

We don't just want to hear about it in letters, but we want to see them face to face. Isn't this true in our own lives? This is why we do Missionary Sundays. This is why in 35 minutes we're going to have Vince Ward on Google and he's going to tell us about what's going on in South Sudan. Because we want to see the faces of the people that we pray for week in and week out.

Because it's an encouragement to us when we hear from the saints at Anangraha of people coming out of Hinduism and embracing the one true and living God. It encourages our hearts when we hear of saints coming out of Shintoism in Japan and holding on to the one true living God. It's an encouragement when we pray for closed countries and we get to talk to those missionaries and they tell us of the clandestine things that I can't say right now because we're online. And we hear that their faith is enduring even though it's being pushed down. It encourages us. But we still want to see them face to face. Paul wants to see them. He loves them. He cares for them. But they want to see them that they might be propelled in their faith.

Look with me at the very last part of verse 10. And perfect what is lacking in your faith. That's an interesting conundrum that I was scratching my head at, and literally last night at family worship, I was praying, God, I don't understand this verse, please let me understand this before tomorrow. And thank the Lord for Bible software that had ancient literature connected to it, because come to find out the word here, katarizo, is an educational word. So the translation here, New King James is fine, and perfect what is lacking in your faith. But this is an educational word. And to fill up, to finish up, to tie up all the loose ends in what you don't know about.

So when somebody would talk about somebody being done with their first steps in education, do they have an education? Yeah, they have their education. But are they done with their education? Do they still need to wrap things up? Yeah, they're still in the process of that. Remember that in Acts 17, they were forced to leave. Paul, Timothy, and Silas were evicted out of the city. And so yeah, they had taught them the fundamentals of the faith, but there was still so much more to teach them, to encourage them in. And so he wants to go back and finish the work that they had started there. They wanted to go and to continue to encourage them to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. Do you love God's people? That was last week's full message. Do you love God's people? Are you encouraged when you see your brothers and sisters growing in the faith? Do you desire to see one another face to face? Will you pray for one another?

Closing Prayer

Oh, it would make nothing, I mean, nothing more happy for me To hear you all say, how can I pray for you this week? As you talk to one another, as you care for one another, as you encourage one another, as you exhort one another, as you see each other face to face. This is our desire that we might be established and encouraged in our faith. that our love might grow for Christ and for his people. So pray with and for one another. Encourage one another. Be involved in each other's lives and rejoice in the Lord together. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you. We thank you for the saints in our midst who have endured and run a long race We thank you for the encouragement they are to us. We thank you for the children in our midst who are just starting their race and how encouraged we are to see them learn and love you. We thank you for encouraging us. Lord, we pray. Lord, we pray that we would love you and love your people. Please, Lord, apply these words to our hearts.