The Spiritual Leader & The People: Part 4 - 1 Thess Lesson 23

CTW Ephesians 3:14-21

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

The Spiritual Leader and the People – Part 4

Paul’s Prayer for Progress Toward the Consummation of the Follower’s Faith

 Let’s open our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians 3 again this morning. This is the last message in this section. This section began in 2:17 and goes through the end of chapter 3. Next week we will begin the exhortation portion of the letter. What I want to do once more today is read this section so that we get a sense for Paul’s commitment to the people and his description of how much he cared for them. Stand with me as we read 2:17-3:13.

 In this section Paul has described his connection to the people. This was what we saw in verses 17-20 of chapter 2. He had been separated from them in person but not in spirit. His connection to the people was the basis of his commitment to them. We saw in 3:1-5 Paul’s concern for the people. He was concerned because of the separation, because of the affliction, and because of the temptation these dear believers were facing. In his concern Paul sent Timothy to strengthen and encourage them as to their faith. 

 Last week Matthew taught us verses 6-10 of chapter 3. We saw that there was something needed to be completed in their faith. He received good news about their faith and love, but as Matthew pointed out, their hope was not mentioned. They were missing one of the three key components of sound biblical faith. As Matthew pointed out, these verses show us the deepest longings of Paul’s heart as he expressed his concern for them and his joy concerning their progress.

 This morning, as we look at the final paragraph of this section of this letter, we find Paul’s prayer for the progress of the faith of the Thessalonians that would result in the consummation of their faith. This is Paul’s prayer for these Christians that they would reach the perfection and the completion of their journey of faith and that it would culminate with them standing before God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ at the coming of our Lord with all His saints. As a spiritual leader, the Apostle Paul is concerned that those he leads all cross the finish line together. He wants no one to fall short. So he prays this prayer.

 The nature of Paul’s ministry compelled him to pray for the churches he started. Paul was a missionary on the move. He stayed considerable time in a few places, but for the most part he was planting churches, appointing spiritual leadership, then moving on to new places. This letter to the Thessalonians has been helpful as it has shown us the process he utilized in preaching the word of God. It has shown us how deeply he cared for the people of the churches he planted. But here we see that once the church was off the ground and he was on to the next city, his commitment to the people of that church was ongoing. Paul would pray, and he would send people to check on these churches, and he would write letters of encouragement and instruction.

 But Paul knew that of all the things he could do for the people once he had moved on, the most important was prayer. Why prayer? Because Paul knew that after he had done all he could do in the process of preaching the gospel of God, and demonstrated his loving attitude and commitment to the people who responded to that gospel, the things that had to happen for the consummation of the faith of the people in those churches was something only God could do.

 Let’s do a quick survey of the Scriptures so we can see that prayer was Paul’s strategy of choice when he was separated from the churches. Aside from the example we are studying today, we have Ephesians 1:15-19, Philippians 1:3-6, Colossian 1:9-12, 2 Thess. 2:16-17.

 Paul’s prayers always focus on the progress of faith until the consummation of the faith of those whom he led. He was always praying the people would understand more, see more clearly, be enlightened, be growing, be progressing in faith and love and hope, knowing the power of God in their lives, walking in a manner worthy, pleasing God, bearing fruit, to be strengthened to face affliction and persecution. The spiritual leader prays for these things because he knows that only God can make these things happen.

 Why is the spiritual leader committed to prayer for the progress until the consummation of the faith of those he leads? The spiritual leader prays for progress of faith until the consummation of the faith of followers because there is always the concern that the work of God is real in the lives of those followers. There are always some who are the cause for concern. Jesus told us that Satan would sow tares among the wheat. Only a foolish spiritual leader would think this could not happen among his followers. Sometimes the spiritual leader sees things in the lives of followers that are cause for concern. He shares the truth of God’s gospel, as Paul did, he connects with these people as best he can, he is concerned for them, and tries to provide what will complete what is lacking in their faith, and having done all he can do, he prays. Only God can open blind eyes and awaken those who are spiritually dead.

 Paul makes asks an important question in 2 Cor. 11:29. He asks, “Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?” The spiritual leader knows that until faith is consummated at the return of Jesus, followers will continue to struggle with sin. They will never be free from temptation, trials, persecution and trouble in this world. That all ends when Jesus comes back, but until then, its prayer time for the spiritual leader.

  Listen, the spiritual leader is never without concern, and reason to pray for followers, until either – his life ends, the follower’s life comes to an end, or the Lord comes back for His people. There is no such thing as retirement from spiritual leadership. We don’t get to stop being concerned. We don’t get to stop praying. The spiritual leader lives with the constant burden of concern for those who may be deceived about their spiritual condition, about those who do not show spiritual progress as they should, for those who will not open up and allow the spiritual leader into their lives, and for all who give evidence that something is still lacking in their faith.

 So the spiritual leader prays. Our text shows us some very important things about the prayer of the spiritual leader. The subject of the prayer, as we see in this passage, is the progress of the follower’s faith until the consummation of that faith. This prayer also reveals the source of this progress, the substance of this progress, and the setting where all the progress and the consummation take place.

 Clearly, Paul prays to God because God alone is the Source. God is the One who causes the progress to happen. God alone can produce the results of Paul’s petition. Paul had done the preaching of the gospel of God. Paul had demonstrated tremendous concern for the people. That is about where the work of the spiritual leader stops and the work of God begins. After we have preached the truth, and proven how much we care as spiritual leaders, then God must do the actual work of producing spiritual life and the spiritual progress that inevitably accompanies spiritual life. After we preach and prove we care, we pray.

 Look at the text. Paul’s plea is clearly to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 11, “Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord…” He says in verse 12, “and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love…” In verse 13, “so that He may establish your hearts…” Paul knows that God must do what needs to be done for His work to flourish in these believer’s lives.

 Our text suggests three things Paul understood about God as the Source. First, Paul knew God was the absolute Sovereign in the work of salvation. Satan had hindered Paul’s return to Thessalonica, but here he asks “our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord” to “direct our way to you.” Satan may have been granted a measure of success in hindering Paul, but Paul knew who was in control. Paul knew that God was sovereign. He appeals to God the Father because Paul knew that Satan could only do what God permitted him to do. Paul appeals to “Jesus our Lord” because he knew that anytime Jesus encountered Satan during His earthly ministry Jesus always prevailed.

 This is because these two members of the Godhead are equal. God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord are both absolutely sovereign. The fact that Paul prays to them both is an acknowledgment of the equality of these two members of the Trinity. God is sovereign in the work of salvation and God is sovereign in the progress of the faith of those who come to salvation. Paul recognizes God’s sovereignty. 

 Something else is revealed about God as the Source of this progress. Not only is God sovereign, but God is sufficient. God is sufficient to accomplish all that He purposes and plans to accomplish. Paul says in verse 12, “and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people…” The words “increase” and “abound” are close synonyms. They mean “to cause to have more than enough” and “having so much that it overflows.”

 The spiritual leader pleads with God as the Source of progress because God alone is sovereign in the work of salvation. Sovereign God takes those who were dead in trespasses and sins, who were walking according to the course of this world, who were under the domain of the prince of the power of the air, who walked according to the lusts of the flesh, who indulged the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, and He (but God) being rich in mercy, because of His great love, when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ. By grace we are saved through faith. Sovereign God did that.

 And God, the Sovereign Source is sufficient to take out hearts of stone and put in hearts of flesh that love to do His will and His will is that we love one another. He is sufficient to make our selfish hearts increase and abound in love. Sinful man will never be able to make this kind of love increase and abound for others. This must be the work of a Sovereign and Sufficient Source. The Source is sufficient, so the spiritual leader prays that the Lord would cause this to happen.

 The Source, God, is not only sovereign, and sufficient, but strong. He is infinite in His ability to affect His work in us. Paul prays in verse 13, “so that He may establish your hearts…” The word “establish” is translated “strengthen” in verse 2 of this chapter. Paul sent Timothy to “strengthen and encourage” the Thessalonians. God establishes our hearts with a strength that does not come from us. It comes from Him. Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they would know “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” (Eph. 1:19)

 The spiritual leader must go to the Source, the only One who can make these things happen. He must know that God, as that Source, is Sovereign in the work of salvation, sufficient to make that work of salvation complete, and strong enough to make sure that we continue to grow in the faith until the end.

 This is why the spiritual leader prays to the Source, to God. God is the source of salvation. God is the Source of our progress in salvation. God is the One who will see us through and make sure our faith continues to grow until the end. This is why the spiritual leader must pray for his followers.

  Can I be honest with you about something? These are things I know to be true, but if I am not praying for those whom I lead, and beseeching the Source to do His work in your hearts, there is a problem. And the problem isn’t that I don’t know these things to be true of God. The problem is that sometimes I think these things may be true enough of me. No, I don’t think I am sovereign, sufficient, and strong as God, but I fear that sometimes I might think I’m sufficient and strong enough to make spiritual progress happen apart from prayer.

 Could I be so foolish so as to think that there is another source which is sovereign, sufficient, and strong enough to make spiritual progress happen in the life of someone? I am that foolish if I fail to pray. If I am not praying, it must be that I think I can do it myself. In order to be able to do it myself I must be sovereign, sufficient, and strong enough to make it happen. That would be utterly foolish.

 If Paul couldn’t get it done without crying out to the Sovereign, Sufficient, and Strong Source of spiritual progress, who am I to think I could get it done on my own? That is exactly what prayerlessness in a spiritual leader amounts to. The spiritual leader who does not plead with God for His work in the lives of followers is not praying because he isn’t convinced he really needs God’s help in the work. He is a fool.

 God is the Source. We need to move on and talk about the substance. When I use the word substance I am speaking of the stuff of which spiritual progress is made. What will be the evidence of spiritual growth? The Christian who is making progress toward the consummation of faith will manifest two important transformative elements. First, he or she will be increasing and abounding in love for one another and for all people. There will be a growing and overflowing love that characterizes this person’s life. We see this in verse 12. Secondly, there will be progress toward holiness. We see this in verse 13. 

 God will be causing us to increase and abound in love for one another and for all people, just as He did in Paul for the Thessalonians. And God will be establishing your hearts without blame in holiness. These are what make up the substance of progress of faith as it moves toward consummation.

 We can make it a little simpler if you want. We could just call it progress toward Christlikeness. Spiritual progress is to simply become more like Jesus. As we become more like Christ we will love like He loved and we will become holy like He was holy.

 If our faith is real, and it is the result of God’s work to transform us, then it will be growing and it will be producing evidence. The evidence of a growing faith is a growing love for others and a growing desire to live a righteous life.

 Listen, every true spiritual leader will be concerned about the faith of his followers. It is just part of spiritual leadership. It goes with the territory. The job description includes the requirement to lay down ones life for the sheep. The spiritual leader must be concerned. There are things that cause greater concern for some. The lack of evidence of a growing love, and the lack of progress toward a righteous life, these are cause for concern.

 There are some things that will not put those concerns to rest. You can faithfully attend church, give your money, quote Scripture, get involved in every ministry activity there is to be involved in, but none of that will put the spiritual leader’s concern to rest. None of those things is evidence of true progress of your faith. If the spiritual leader sees consistent evidence of your love increasing and abounding for one another and for all people, and he sees that God is establishing your heart without blame in holiness before Him, he knows you are progressing toward a joyful consummation of faith.

 This love is the “agape” love. This is the love of God. This is love that gives to meet needs without expecting anything in return. This is the love that sacrifices. This is love that is selfless. Understand please the connection between this kind of love and holiness. Our hearts will not be established without blame in holiness unless the Lord is causing us to increase and abound in love for others.

 This love is selfless. Love is concern for others. Love is sacrificing self for the needs of others. All sin is the product of selfishness. Sinful behaviors are nothing more than selfishness on display. Holiness is, by its very nature, the absence of sin. To live a holy life one must love selflessly. If we love selflessly, it is the result of the Lord causing us to increase and abound in love. This love will show up in holy living. This is why I say this is the substance of the progress of our faith toward consummation.

 If we look at the text we can see that this prayer is that God would establish your hearts without blame in holiness “before our God and Father.” Some might like to argue that this is a reference to our positional standing before God. It is true that we will not be perfectly holy until we are free from sin’s presence in this world. But it is also true that the Scripture clearly declares that we are to be walking more and more in victory over sin and being transformed into the likeness of Christ even in this life.

 Let me show you an important indication of this even in this text. Notice that verse 13 says, “so that He may establish…” There is a subtle, but important change in the Greek. Back in verse 11 Paul says, “Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you…” This word “may” is in the optative mood. The optative mood is the mood of desire or possibility. The word “may” in verse 13 is an infinitive. It expresses not a desire or a possibility but rather a purpose or result.

 God will establish our hearts without blame in holiness when we stand before Him in glory. This will be the outcome for those whose lives are showing progress in that direction in this life. What Paul is saying is that he is praying that the Thessalonians would be progressing in their faith, and that progress would be evident in the way they love and the way they live as a holy people of God.

 Look, there is no doubt that God will bring His great work of salvation to completion. Paul was simply praying that there would not be any reason for doubt in the lives of these believers because the evidence of their progress was showing up everywhere.

 God is the Source of progress in our faith, and He brings us all the way to the consummation of faith. Love and holiness are the substance of that progress. Finally, we see the setting where the progress of our faith will be fully revealed. It will be “at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.” This will be the culmination. This will be the time and place where our faith is consummated. This is when the struggles end and the victory is finally fully realized. This is where we will stand before the Bema seat and receive the reward.

 I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this today because Paul is going to teach a great deal in chapters 4 and 5 on this very subject. You will remember from last week’s message that Matthew pointed out that Timothy returned to Paul after having gone back to Thessalonica and he brought good news to Timothy about the faith and love of the Thessalonians. The good news lacked a report about the hope of these believers. This was one of the things lacking in their faith that needed to be completed. Paul wanted to get back to them so he could encourage them with hope. 

 The hope of our Lord’s return is a powerful motivator. Why should we be increasing and abounding in love for one another and for all people, just as Paul had loved the Thessalonians? Because Jesus is coming back. Why should we long for our hearts to be established without blame in holiness before God? Because Jesus is coming back.

 The truth about our faith will be revealed when Jesus comes. The spiritual leader knows that at that time it will be too late to do anything about it. If our faith is real, it will be progressing toward the consummation. God will be causing this progress of faith. He is the Source of that progress. The substance will be a growing love for others and a greater likeness to the holy life of Christ. If this is the substance of the progress of your faith, then in that setting, when Jesus comes with all His saints, your faith will complete.

 I want to close by looking at 1 Peter 5:10-11.