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1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 3

By Pastor Doug
Concern for their faith
Encouraged by Timothy
Prayer for the church

Chapter Introduction

At the end of chapter 2, Paul answered the charge that he had abandoned the people there.  The Jews essentially ran Paul and Silas out of town.  Then, they went to the Christians and made an issue of their absence.  You can imagine them saying, "If Paul really cared for you, he would have stayed or at least returned." 

At the end of chapter two, Paul said he and Silas had been taken away from them.  They may have been absent physically, but their heart was among the believers there in Thessalonica.  Paul and Silas wanted to come back, but Satan had hindered them.

The key to the believers in Thessalonica was understanding the more critical issues.  It wasn't having Paul present among them but having Christ among them.  It was the hope of standing together before Jesus when the church was called home.  That was what they needed to look forward to and long for, not a visitation from Paul.  Paul was resetting their focus, putting their eyes back on Jesus, not men.

These Christians there weren't at the mercy of Satan and his roadblocks.  Yes, there was persecution and suffering and pain, and there always will be in the Christian life.  We didn't come to Christ for a carefree ride.  That's another gospel; that's not the gospel of Christ.

The hope of every Christian isn't in escaping the plots and plans of evil men who bring persecution and affliction.  Life in Christ isn't about a better life with Jesus.  It's about salvation and forgiveness of sin.  It's about acknowledging God, the creator of all, and His holiness, and how we can't stand in that holy place without Christ.  Jesus made a way for us to return to our creator.

The hope of every Christian is found in getting our eyes off the temporal, the stuff of here and now, and getting them on the eternal.  Even though we haven't entered eternity, we must think eternally.  Every Christian is in the firm grip of our Mighty God.  We were bought at a price.  Every believer knows and accepts that when they come to Christ.  But that attitude is easier said than done, especially for baby Christians facing persecution or affliction as those in Thessalonica were.

Persecution and affliction can result in a couple of things.  It can grow your faith as you learn to trust the Lord in difficult circumstances.  Or, it can cause you to falter and doubt; if you don't recognize it, it will lead to unbelief.  Whether you grow or falter seems to be determined by the direction you are facing when times are good. We all see people who live godless lives in every way until something happens, and then they cry out to God and don't understand why he doesn't just make everything right again.

There was some indication these new believers in Thessalonica thought God would deliver them from their persecution.  At least some thought that by becoming a believer, God would make their life easy and trouble-free.  They were starting to understand the life that Paul and Silas were living.  They were feeling the affliction and persecution and wondering what was going on.

That's a typical question for any of us.  What's going on?  Is God here in this?  In Thessalonica, He was right there doing His work.  It was all according to His plan and no one else's.  Every Christian needs to know that.  We need to be able to stand fast under challenging circumstances, waiting and watching to see how God glorifies Himself.

God was right in the middle of every detail of life in Thessalonica.  From Paul and Silas coming there, every detail and timing of their stay and getting run out of town.  God's hand was in it all.  Even when Paul said Satan hindered their return, that was God.  Our sovereign God allowed Satan to do that.  Satan intended it as a means of defeating Christianity.  God used it to build them up.

So Paul wanted them to know he hadn't abandoned them and was thinking about them.  But more importantly, God was with them.  He hadn't abandoned them.  They needed to stand fast and keep their eyes on Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 3:1-3

Paul started verse 1 with “therefore.”  Therefore, since they were suffering such persecution and affliction and feeling abandoned and in need of support, Paul sent Timothy to them.  Remember, Paul is probably not healed from the beating he took in Philippi.  This may be why he couldn’t endure it and had to move on.  He couldn't return, so he did the next best thing, sending Timothy to Thessalonica as he and Silas had gone on to Athens.  Timothy wasn't a second-rate replacement; he was a brother and a minister.  This word for 'minister' doesn't mean Timothy went to them as a pastor.  He went to them to be a servant.  The word implies he was a servant who executes the commands of another.

Timothy went there with two goals in mind:

  • To establish them
    • To be established was to get your foundation strengthened.  It was to have your feet under you, standing on firm, solid rock and facing the right way.  An established ship was on the water, facing the right direction.  It wasn't taking on water.  It was strong and healthy and ready to sail.  Being established was the first priority.  This is learning how to live your faith.  It's figuring out how God and your system of beliefs fit into every aspect of your life.  This is getting your spiritual feet under you and learning to stand.  It's standing on the path set before you, aimed in the direction the Lord would have you walk.
  • To encourage them in their faith. 
    • The word for encourage is to exhort, urge along, encourage them, teach them, and stand alongside them.  For that ship that was established on the waters ready to sail, the encouragement would be to set sail, send it on its way, and have good control of the rudder with a good understanding of where it was going and how it would get there.

Since this was such a young church, the more fitting analogy of being ‘established and encouraged’ might be the child learning to walk.  Before they could go anywhere, they had to learn to stand.  They needed footing and balance.  They needed confidence in their footing.  Every child learns to trust their feet and balance.  The child with footing, balance, and trust is now established and ready for that first step.

For that first step, you need direction and strength.  You need purpose and the desire to attain that goal.  Paul sent Timothy to the Thessalonians so they could lean on him as they took their first steps.  When they had doubts or fell, he renewed their confidence and encouraged and strengthened them.  He reminded them of their purpose, goal, and hope.

Timothy went to establish and encourage them so the afflictions wouldn't shake them.  Once the Thessalonians were established and encouraged, they could stand up to the afflictions without being shaken.  It was a given, in the mind of Paul, that if you weren't established and encouraged, you would be shaken.  To be shaken was to be moved away from what you knew to be the truth.  It is to be tempted into taking some path that appears easier or more comfortable.

You can imagine the young child who knows he will fall when he tries to stand or run into something when he tries to walk.  The child might be overwhelmed with the fear of failure and pain.  With no one to establish, encourage, and pick him up, he might abandon his effort.  He may be an Olympic runner at heart but never moves off the start line.  That child who wasn't established and encouraged was shaken by the threat of afflictions.

That's exactly why Paul sent Timothy to the Thessalonians.  The Christians had been set on the road or the path of a life with Christ.  Now, all they were seeing was pain and suffering and affliction.  The affliction made the Thessalonian Christians think that things weren’t going according to God’s plan or that God was displeased with them.  They said, "Wow, what did I do to deserve this?  Why is God made at me?"  And Satan would constantly put another way before them, a wide path, the path everyone else seemed to be on; that path looked comfortable and, pain-free and friendly.

Timothy put them on firm footing and then walked alongside them until they were confident in their walk.  In time, they matured and were able to maintain their life, inclined toward the Lord, and found encouragement among themselves.  This is why Christian maturity and being in fellowship are important because, in some form or fashion, we all face afflictions.  Paul said at the end of verse 3, “For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.”  This is a normal part of a Christian life.

When the bottom drops out of your life, and it seems like God is allowing Satan to pick on you, and it just seems relentless, you can praise God.  You're normal.  Affliction, persecution, suffering, work contrary to men, and the hindrance from Satan will fall on each person in Christ.  These things will cause us to be shaken if we aren't established and encouraged in our faith.  This takes constant care of our spiritual life and the lives of those around us.

Satan was tempting the Thessalonians to give up God.  He was trying to shake them.  He was trying to scare them away from the narrow path to a wide, easy road that leads to destruction.  The Christians in Thessalonica were in a season of suffering, and Paul and Silas weren't there to guide them.  They only had a few weeks of teaching from Paul.  At that time, Paul told them there would be suffering, and now they understood what he was talking about.  Satan was wearing them out.  Could they possibly hold on through this season of suffering as Satan tempted them?  If they all turned away because the way seemed too narrow and painful, then Paul and Silas had labored in vain.

The Holy Spirit was there and doing His work among the believers.  Paul didn’t doubt that.  However, having other believers help you keep your eyes on Christ is important.  Satan will work to break down that support structure.  He’ll work every angle to discourage you, to keep you away from those who encourage and exhort.  He’ll give you something to worry about and plenty of time to bring it to a boil.  Then he’ll show you an easy way out, a way to confirm your doubt, a place to turn and run or feel like you are again in control of the circumstances. 

1 Thessalonians 3:6-8

Timothy went to Thessalonica and served these baby Christians, and he helped them through this time they were in.  He ran alongside them while they were in this time of affliction.  You can imagine how important this was.  They had felt somewhat abandoned, and Paul’s critics were fanning that fire, accusing him of running out on them.  So, when Timothy showed up to stand with them, it was like a commanding officer willing to stand with his troops on the battlefield.   It gave them the encouragement they needed.  It helped them resist the tempter and not be shaken.

And while the Thessalonians were being encouraged, news of their faith and perseverance brought comfort to Paul as he suffered through his own affliction and distress in Corinth.  When the Thessalonians stood fast, Paul was encouraged.  This is the church being a church, even across the miles between Thessalonica and Corinth.

Here, these people were thinking they had it bad.  They were concerned about their own affliction, yet they comforted others by standing firm in their faith.  In our affliction, we have to be so careful.  Our response affects those around us.  You are part of the body of Christ, part of the church.  Don’t ever think your suffering or trials are so big that God can’t move and work.  And don’t think your life, suffering, or afflictions are so deep and painful that God can’t use you for the work He does in others.

These folks in Thessalonica were new believers just trying to survive, and God brought comfort to the apostle Paul through them.  Paul's encouragement wasn't a testimony to how unique, spiritual, or religious the Thessalonians were.  It was a testimony of how awesome God is.  This is God bestowing His grace on His people, even in the midst of affliction.  Paul told these people we live if you stand fast in the Lord.  He felt alive again in the Lord, knowing his Christian family in Thessalonica was standing fast. 

"Standing fast” is a military term for refusing to retreat.  Standing fast means I'm standing because Jesus Christ gave me new life.  I'm born again, and here I stand because Christ raised me up when I was as good as dead.  My feet are on the solid rock.  It's the only solid thing I know.  He alone is my source of hope.

We don’t need to be able to explain the affliction we’re in.  I can't explain why one man gets cancer, and another doesn't.  I don't know why children die of leukemia.  I don't know why a country is devastated by a Tsunami, another hurricane, and yet another flood.  What I do know is we live in a fallen world.  And the darker this world gets, it provides an even more stunning contrast for the marvelous light of our Lord.  With the contrast before us, light and darkness, we see our only hope is in the only one that could and did die for our sin.  And whatever happens, happens for His glory.  Whatever happens, He is sovereign to have caused it or allowed it.

Whatever afflictions, pain, and misery life dishes out, God is right in the middle of it.  Every person in Christ must say I will stand fast.  I won't retreat.  I won't give up.  I will not let my doubts guide my life.  I won't allow doubt to lead me to the edge of the cliff of unbelief.  I won't step off into the godless abyss.  Doubts will sneak into every life because we are weak.  But in time, we'll get better at recognizing Satan bringing doubt and fear before us when we are in affliction or persecution.  And we'll grow in our faith and get better at making our way back to the sanctuary of God, even when we don't feel like it.  And every time we overcome those doubts, our faith is grown.

As a church family, it's our job to recognize the affliction of our brothers and sisters.  We are all good at expecting and accepting encouragement when needed.  We must be equally good at recognizing and responding to our family's needs by offering that encouragement to others.  It's our job to run alongside each other, to lead each other back to the sanctuary of God, away from doubt and unbelief.  Then, together, we stand, unshaken and unwavering in Christ Jesus, before God because we know that's where we belong.  That's where truth is found.  Until that day, I won't give up, ever, and I won't allow my brothers and sisters to give up.

1 Thessalonians 3:9-10

Paul asked how he could thank them enough, and then he answered his own question by saying he would keep praying for them.  That's what each of us should do for each other.  It's not just our right and privilege, it's the responsibility of each person here to hold the others up in prayer. 

It would have been easy for the Thessalonians and Paul to see these afflictions and sorrows as somehow being in some spiritually low place, a bottomless dark pit or valley.  But Paul was giving thanks to God.  They were right where God wanted them to be, doing what they were called to.  This is what the Thessalonians needed to see.  This is what we need to see and remember. 

Paul wanted to return to the Thessalonians, minister to them, and build them up in their faith.  Although they were doing well, they were still lacking, as we all are.  We never stop learning.   This is what we should be doing here: building each other up in our faith and using our gifts to minister to each other.  It would be easy to retreat when the going gets tough.  Any human is tempted to kick back and wait out the storm.  That's what Satan wants you to do.  What would it look like if we all pulled back, to wait out the storm until circumstances were better, looking for a day when we get it all together, thinking that's when I'll stand firm and have an unwavering commitment?  Until then, I'll just lay back.

The problem is that if you are in Christ, you were bought with a price.  The precious blood of Jesus Christ purchased you.  The Lord determined your circumstances.  To say your circumstances are too hard, to determine in your mind the Lord can’t use you is to deny His sovereignty.  It's to say He doesn't know what's best for me.  If being established is facing the Lord and being encouraged is walking with him, then opening the door of doubt is to invite your world to be shaken.  Affliction will come into your life.  That's a given.

The life you live in that affliction is determined by the direction you face when the dark clouds roll in.  Do you face the Lord and stand fast?  Or do you run to the cliff of unbelief at every sign of trouble? 

"When pondering the mysteries of life, hold on to what you know for sure, and never doubt in the darkness what God has taught you in the light." (Warren Weirsbe)

It doesn’t matter where you are, the nature of your affliction, or what dark hole you are in; God can and will use it to His glory.  But, you have to yield to that work in your life.  Each of us must answer the question, "Do you trust Him in your circumstances?"  As we step up into that place the Lord called us to, things will happen.  Despite what our eyes see, we must keep on with an unwavering commitment every day until the Lord returns.

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

This is a call for each person in Christ to ensure that God is leading them and that Jesus is the Lord of their life.  We must have that unwavering commitment.  That doesn't mean doubts never come, but as we grow, the doubts should come less and less because we are getting further from that place of unbelief. 

Paul said these folks would be grown in love for the Lord and each other.  As a church, they would experience these things together.  We can't be a group of individuals who meet here once or twice a week.  We're a family, loving, growing, praying, crying, and suffering through afflictions.  And sometimes, we have to drag one of our own away from the cliff of unbelief.  Then, we need to run alongside them and bring them back to the Sanctuary of God.  We set them back on their path to their adventure in the Lord.

He will establish our hearts.  It's not our work.  It's not by our power.  Our hearts can only be blameless when we stand with Jesus.  He will grow us in holiness.  We will bear His righteousness.  We simply have to yield to what He desires to do in our life, and then we hold on to the end.  In the end, Jesus is the one who establishes our hearts in Holiness before God.  What a fantastic thing that will be.

©2017, 2024 Doug Ford