Published: October 12, 2025 | Speaker: Tim Freitag | Series: The Law of Liberty - Part 6 | Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13
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0:03
Not moving quite as fast as I had intended to, but that's okay. We're learning. I'm going to try to finish up here in chapter two and move on to chapter 3. And oddly enough, we um we sort of
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stopped at a place I said at the outset, I wasn't particularly upset by any of the chapter divisions. There was a fair amount of ink spilled in the commentaries about
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where this chapter should have been divided. A lot of people feel like it should have been divided um at what is verse 17 of chapter 2, but it's Paul.
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Paul doesn't give us good chapter breaks. That was that was not in his mind at all when he was writing these things down. Um and frankly, I think the the thought as we saw a little bit last week, and we'll we'll conclude our
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section in chapter 2 here, but you know, from 13 really from from chapter one on down through 17 is is a thought that flows together. there are things that
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connect to one another. Even if it also then connects very seamlessly into chapter 3, so be it. Um I'm not particularly bothered by the the separation here. So, um just want to
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outline a little bit of what we've seen so far, which is as we've gotten through these first two chapters, and I think we're going to see it again here in chapter 3. The most important thing for Paul here and in some of the external
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references that we've looked at is that there is nothing in the way of the preaching of the gospel. That is his core value here. Um it has been noted
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and we've talked a little bit about it. There is some um discussion in the commentaries about whether or not this letter of Paul is written in response to a letter he had
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received from the Thessalonians or if he's uh writing it simply in response to the things that Timothy communicated when Timothy returned to him at Athens and explained um what he had seen there
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in Thessalonica. Um we can't answer that. there there's no knowing uh whether or not there was a letter, but he does certainly seem to be answering
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something, addressing something. In particular, he's answering his critics here in chapter 2. And it seems to be defending himself to the Thessalonians, though he does not apparently need to defend himself because he's holding them
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up as as being good and faithful here. and and he appeal appeals several times to the fact that they know by their own experience what they saw and heard and
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did with him. Um so I think the the right way to land there is that he is defending himself against external accusations not least of which as he highlights here the Jews from Thessalonica pursued him onto Berea and
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possibly as far as Athens trying to pro pre prevent him from spreading the gospel. And that is his main view that he has here is that nothing should be in
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the way of preaching the gospel. Nothing for him supersedes that. Um and I don't think this is a an ends justifies the means type of circumstance. But Paul is
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very clear with them here. Um he says in in the beginning sections of chapter 2 how he was with them. He speaks in very familiar terms. He says here um
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near the end of this sort of first paragraph, he says uh we we proved Yeah. We proved to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for
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her own children. Having so fond an affection of you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives because you had become very dear to us. Um, and
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later he says he uses the terms of a father. And we're actually going to see here in in verse 17, he speaks in in again very family terms as he describes their relationship. So he looks on them
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and treats them as a family. He says basically, you know, we were working night and day to provide for ourselves that we would not burden you. Again, in his mind, I think it's very clear he
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does not want to be a burden to them or to give them any pressure where they felt like they had to support him. It is all about removing any obstacle towards the furthering of the gospel and sharing
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with them. Um I do want to say here uh we didn't talk about it last week and I just highlight a couple of things out of the Greek um in particular because I think that's one
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of the the things I find useful as I read through here. It's not that we can't understand these things in the English, but sometimes we get a little deeper understanding because obviously choices have to be made for translators.
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um this section here where he says, "We prove to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for his own children or for her own children." Um that gentle among you could actually
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um be translated as babes. We were like babes among you. We were we were so innocent and soft and uh effectively non uh threatening is is a way that you
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could read that. Apparently there's only one letter difference between gentle and babes in the Greek. Um, and uh, because they didn't leave spaces between their words, if you take the N from the
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preceding word and it slides over onto the epio on the other side, that becomes nepio, which becomes baby instead of gentle. So, there was a lot of discussion there. Most of the
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commentators I was reading said probably it should be rendered babes, but gentle gets the right idea. What he's saying is we were not we were not lording it over you. We were not as a as
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a berating father. We were gentle with you. We treated you with kindness and with respect and with with hope for you. And we talked about that also with these words he uses here where he says um you
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know we we in verse 11 you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring you as a father what his own children. Yes. Okay. Some of some people want to
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make things out of exhorting and so on. It's clear as a father, he's treating them here to say as was appropriate to the conversation or the time or the moment we were in, we did what was
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necessary to steer you into the right path, the good directions here. Um, we talked also in this chapter about the fact that he's not lording it over them with his authority. Um, we'll see this
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also in Phileiman. Uh, I think you can see it in a number of places in Paul where he he hints in several places. I could have just straight up ordered you to do something as an apostle. I have
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the authority to do that. But rather, I appeal to you on the grounds of how we ought to behave as Christians. I don't I should not have to do this out of my authority. And here in Thessalonians, he
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he actually says straight up, I didn't have to. You heard it. You received it as what it was, the word of God. um so familiar in his his uh
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communication to here. And then the other piece I want to point out here before I leave that little section where it says um having such a fond affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but
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also our own lives. Some of your translations may say our own souls. Um the Greek word is one of the words for souls, but apparently contextwise it
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didn't mean like I'm giving you my soul. It it meant sort of like it the English phrase might be more like burying my soul. I didn't withhold any part of
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myself from you. I didn't I didn't hold anything back. I gave you every bit of my person and personality was was evident and revealed to you. Um and so
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here it's my my translation says our own lives um because you had become so dear to us. to us. Any questions on that section?
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Okay. So, moving on down then we did we did get a good bit of discussion out of this last week um where he says you know they have become imitators um and imitators in what? Well, imitators in
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the fact that they were being persecuted which was an interesting discussion we had there. Um as we come on down then I'm going to pick up in verse 17 and then we'll read into chapter 3 and talk
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about some of these things. So I'm going to read from verse 17 of chapter 2 on through the end of chapter 3. Says, "But we, brethren, having been
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taken away from you for a short while in person, not in spirit, were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. For we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, more than once, and yet Satan
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hindered us. For who is our joy or our hope or our crown of exaltation? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? for you are our glory and joy. Therefore, when we could
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endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind in Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to
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your faith, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. For indeed, when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer
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affliction. And so it came to pass, as you know. For this reason, when I can endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you and our
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labor would have been in vain. But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us,
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just as we also long to see you. For this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction, we were comforted about you through your faith. For now we really live if you stand firm
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in the Lord. For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy which we rejoice with which we rejoice before our God on your account as we night and day keep praying most
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earnestly that we might see your face and may complete what is lacking in your faith. Now may our God and Father himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you. And may the Lord cause you
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to increase and abound in love for one another and for all people just as we also do for you so that he may establish your hearts without blame and holiness before our God and father at the coming
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of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. So several things we note right off the top here um is a sort of outline of this. There's a number of things that
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come up here. Again, he seems to be answering something. He's answering uh in one respect his own puzzlement, his own uh worries, his own
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fears for them. He he uses the term fear here. And we talked about the fact that he was with the Thessalonians for just a short time before he had to go away. And he was afraid effectively that he would find out that that church had been wiped
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out. And yet he finds out that it is thriving, that they are standing firm. He rejoices. He is encouraged here. He says effectively, "Now we really live." As if to say, "I can carry on. I'm not
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distracted now by my fear of this body. I can carry on with the work moving forward in this way. Um he also speaks here of uh again at the end of this
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chapter of this the second coming. This is another time that we're seeing an esqueologgical use of terminology here as we saw at the end of uh chapter 1 where he he
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describes of they're waiting for the Lord's return. So the esqueologgical hope here is is alive here in Paul. Um one of the commentaries pointed out that
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in the eight chapters that make up first and first and second Thessalonians he uses the phrase Lord Jesus 24 times. Whereas in things like Romans it only
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gets up to six uh 16 times I think out of all of the writing that makes up Romans and I forget what the other one was they compared to. So, it occurs a
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lot here. He's obviously speaking to them um making it very clear that it is God's work, that it is the Lord's work among them. And we see that here um
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picking up in verse 17, there's a couple of distinctives here. He says uh we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while in person, not in spirit. Does anybody have a different translation there?
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translation there? Taken away from you. Does it show up as anything else in your copies? What did you say, Abio? Torn. Torn away. Who said orphaned?
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Yeah. So, the actual Greek is orphaned. Um, or bererieved is not a bad translation of it, but the the literal translation would be orphaned. That we have been orphaned from you. So, again, speaking in very strong terms, very
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familiar terms uh of how he has been torn away. Uh, additionally here at the beginning of chapter 3 when he speaks of sending Timothy back to bring this
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report where it says uh, I was left at Athens alone, the Greek here is literally I was abandoned. Even though he says I sent Timothy, his term alone is I was at Athens abandoned. Um, making
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it clear that he was in he was in a lot of emotional distress over this and over his his um, mission here. And I think that's the thing that I I'm trying to highlight
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here is this is the word of God and it is 100% inspired in this way. And yet you see the humanity of Paul bleeding through here. At least I hope you do that he was concerned for his reputation
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as he's answering them. But further you see here the distress he was under to make sure that this church was standing firm, that they were enduring, that they were here. And the encouragement that he
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receives from that is the main thing I'm trying to highlight here in chapter three is how encouraged uh Paul was to hear that they were walking according to faith that they
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were standing firm that that effectively they didn't even really need Timothy to come back to them and to to firm them up as he said I sent him I sent him to encourage you and to strengthen your
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faith um so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions and they and he gets there and he finds out they're doing great despite the afflictions they are doing great. Um and
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so Paul is is deeply encouraged here. And so I had entitled this one previously. Um,
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the sort of irony of this particular section, the encouragement of the teacher that Paul sends Timothy to encourage them. And what happens is that Timothy comes back and encourages Paul by telling them how well they're doing.
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That the faith, the obedience, the uprightness of the Thessalonians is of great encouragement to him to continue his ministry. And uh my goal here is not
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primarily to find application for us in every place. But I do think there is an application for us here of obedience and faith and frankly joy in believing is of
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great encouragement to those who spend their time teaching. Those who open the word, those who spend the time studying to prepare these things. There is nothing more encouraging than seeing
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their people walk faithfully, walk uh with joy in in God. Um the the number of times here he talks of joy despite the
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fact that we've read in Acts all the things he was going through here. Um that he is just absolutely joyful. Uh, one of the commentaries pointed out, I thought helpfully. He says here at the
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end of of chapter 2, our joy or hope or crown or exaltation is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming, you are our glory and joy. He said, you could
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think of this effectively glory as outward. They are they are glory to Paul because he can hold them up as look at what these people have done. He even says at the beginning of chapter 2, I
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don't even have to people come up to me talking about how great the church in Thessalonian Thessalonica is. And then joy as internal, external and internal. He is rewarded both uh aspects but by
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the faith of the Thessalonians and the the visibility of that before the nations around them.
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So he says, "We can endure it no longer. We thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone or left abandoned at at Athens and sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you
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as to your faith so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions. You know that we have been destined for this. We were when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction. And so it
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came to pass as you know. So, um, he has a couple of things here that people have puzzled over at the end of chapter 2. And here he makes reference,
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um, at the end of chapter 2 he says, "Satan hindered us." And here he says, "Lest the tempter had come um and tempted you so that our labor would
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have been in vain or our labor would be in vain." Uh we're not given any more specifics than that, but that did not stop various people from writing pages and pages about what that might have been. Um what it was that Satan did to
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hinder them and what it was that the tempter might have. I mean, I don't think that there's any need for us to understand this in more than the general sense. Otherwise, we would have been given more specifics here. Again,
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helpful accompanying reading to this would be to read through the missionary journeys in Acts. um was curious actually I had set out to do this long ahead and and the children in their
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Sunday school are doing Paul's missionary journeys and acts and I keep helping them with their homework going home all right this helps me remember some of the things that are going on Erin Chuck reminded this numerous times in
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his studies how Paul saw his work as being as as carrying forward the Lord's triumph over the powers and authorities but the hope obvious
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that they still exist. Yes. Yeah. And so, um, again, I don't necessarily I don't necessarily hold up lots of the the ink that was spilled in
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the commentaries over this as being super helpful, but there is no doubt that Paul was preeminent among God's servants at the time in spreading the gospel. And of the people that Satan
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would want to hinder, he's going to be right on up there. We're just seeing our work and the Lord is being in that. Exactly. Right. And so that's this is
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why and I am trying to link these things. So I appreciate that because he's he says here Satan hindered us unless the tempter had come to you. He's aware that there are opposition to them by the spiritual forces of this world.
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Whether it takes the form of the Jews at Thessalonica running us out of town or whether it takes the the form of a a whirlwind setting us off course or
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whatever those things are, there are there are oppositions to the spread of the gospel and to walking uprightly. So he says here that Satan hindered us um
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wanting to come back and to see you. But he also says here in the middle of of chapter 3 in verse uh five, you know, le un lest the tempter had tempted you. He was worried that they had been drawn
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away from the faith or that they had been um derailed. And so he's obviously thinking in those terms of the powers. Yes. There we go.
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Yeah. No, those are those are both very good references. You know, the parables there. Obviously, we see immediate fulfillment of several of them in the New Testament record. Um, and Chuck has pointed out a number of times the
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contrast between Thessalonians and First and Second Corinthians. Um, it's very interesting here that he has very little that he corrects.
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um the Thessalonians about there's a few things, you know, he he's going to say in chapter 4, we don't want you to be uninformed. Whether or not that's a correction or simply saying, "Hey, here's a piece of information you need
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to know." We'll talk about that when we get there. But he there's very little corrective happening in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Whereas a significant portion of first and second Corinthians is corrective in in its instruction. Um,
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so it it is remarkable and I and I think you can actually if you read it closely, you can sort of hear Paul's sigh of relief or or almost astonishment
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at the fact that that he doesn't have to correct a lot of things that he doesn't have to to shore these he you can you can sort of hear the Timothy came back and he told me and and I'm just excited
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and thanking God because you're not full of tears. The word has not dried up. It's it's rooted. It's living. It's active. And the encouragement that that is to him as teacher and preacher and
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pastor, frankly, is is the thing I think is is core here in this chapter of Thessalonians. James.
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Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. I think that's exactly the right way to read it
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is it is effectively a benediction and and I appreciate that both you and I our inclination is to say doxology because it it it reads almost like where you see him breaking out into doxology where he
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can't contain himself because of the glory of God. He's effectively broken out in benediction because he can't contain his joy at these people.
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I mean that's that's what we're getting at with this section here. Again, you can tie together the the um end of verse uh five uh whether our labor would be in
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vain. But he says, of course, at the beginning of chapter 2, you yourselves know that our coming to you was not in vain. So, he's he's already highlighted that, but he's basically communicating
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to them. And I think there is a distinct note in Thessalonians um that he is communicating to them as a friend. He is communicating to them.
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How do I say it? He he's certainly not lording it over. And I don't think that we ever find Paul lording it over anyone, but he's communicating to them in a very sort of emotionally vulnerable way. He's he's describing to them very
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frankly how worried he was and how excited and and joyful he is, how thankful he is after the fact. Um there's an interesting mix here of
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I think there's a lot here. It's odd that Titus is the book that often um aspiring or uh training pastors get pointed to. Go read Titus and find out
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all the things that you're supposed to be and do. There's a lot actually of pastoral theology right here in Thessalonians of the the heart of concern he has and also the mix of
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things that he knows of certainty and the things that he had to verify for himself. He says here that he talked to them and he he himself was aware. We know there are a few times in in the
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missionary journeys where people told Paul in no uncertain terms as prophets. Acts tells us a prophet would come and tell him this affliction is coming to you. Paul was aware. But I do think
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actually here where he says that you would not be disturbed by these afflictions for we told you certainly these things were come to you. This is more a fulfillment of what Jesus says that if you love me the world will hate
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you. Right? That if you are walking uprightly you will face opposition in some form. Okay? Whether that's active persecution like we've been praying for Octave about or if it's the more sort of
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passive um negative opposition that you will find around here with the sort of like yeah yeah yeah everybody's a Christian and and culturally it's all generally just fine and so getting any
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kind of foothold to have a meaningful discussion about uh holiness or uprightness is a really difficult actually this slope has been greased um by the the snares of the devil. I mean
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it's it's it is a form of opposition. So he's telling them you have become imitators in this way of suffering these kind of active persecutions and he's saying I wanted to make sure
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you wouldn't be disturbed. We we already told you. So on the one hand he can say with certainty I told you and I knew that this was true. On the other hand he apparently had no particular
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communication or assurance from the Holy Spirit that everything was great in Thessalonica. He had to verify for himself. I think there's something of the sort of pastoral experience in the balance of those two things in immediate
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juxosition here in Thessalonians. You say on the one hand I can say with certainty on the other hand I had to
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Yeah. No, you're exactly right. And and I I thank you for bringing up those parables. I think that's that's an excellent point that his assurance is you have you have endured. You are imitators who have endured. And the
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endurance is his assurance his his stamp of their genuine faith.
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Right. Yeah. No, I Yeah. No, that's exactly right. There it is an
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element I think almost of the now and the not yet as you pointed out in the justification of like we we have an assurance we have a faith and yet there are times where you need to see it solidified and and I think that's what
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I'm trying to say. I appreciate you pointing that out because I think for Paul that's that's effectively what we're getting here in this section is the I have faith that you received the word as it was and yet I'm so glad to
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have the assurance of visual evidence that it it is there and that the fruit is there. Aaron That's in hisology, too. He's he's saying, "Now may our now may
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God direct our way to you." Right? But you read most of his letters where he talks about his journey. He's anything but certain that he's actually going to get there time. Yeah. But he's speaking of the certainty that
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God will bring his people together and that it will be for the for their showing forth to the world his power. So the certainty is not in the seem to be
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in the details, right? But as to the purposes of God, he will see to your building up that when we are used, we will be used for your building that we will all of us
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abound and faithfulness and leaves the timing of that general. Yeah. Yeah. I I I appreciate that he he does leave the timing of that general.
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He's not he doesn't seem to have a particular vision in mind there. And I do want to talk about that a little bit and we may do it next week in terms of his esquetological communication that
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he's done a couple of times here, the the specific and the general. Um there is also I think that um I want to connect it back to a little
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bit of what we talked about in chapter 2, which is you know again he has the utmost assurance and faith that the word of God is the word of God. He says clearly in chapter 2, I delivered it to
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you as the word of God. I gave no artifice. I put no dressing on this. It was raw and and unencumbered. And yet he also is very clear that I made sure of
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myself not to encumber it. Right? I made sure of my own conduct. So he's saying that the word of God doesn't need any extra from me, but I'm also being really careful of myself to make sure that I'm
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not blocking it. That both of those things are true. Abe, you had your hand up. What was he worried? What was he worried about?
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I think a couple of things. Um, again, I would I would bring up what we've talked about a couple of times already in the study, which is compare this to a few of the places that he's already been where the churches were apparently fairly
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feeble and some of them very small. Um, some of them like Philippi apparently have a lot that happens after he's gone, a lot of growth and various things that
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happen because if you read the actual missionary journey to Philippi was not super fruitful, at least as far as we can tell in how many people he spoke to were reached at that point. Um, just
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sort of the jailer and and the immediate, you know, folks that were there. Um, if I'm remembering correctly. So to see it that there's like a Philippian church that he's writing to later is kind of amazing in some ways.
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So he says here specifically his own phrasing is um you know less the tempter had tempted you uh he says here uh in
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what is it four? Yeah five chap verse five of chapter 3 um to find out that the tempter might have tempted you in our labor would be in vain. And I think it goes back to what Abigail was talking
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about out of the parable that maybe you sprung up and I saw that immediate uh joy or excitement about the word when I was with you and I will find out now
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however many months later that it's all died in the face of persecution. You know that you had that initial blush of excitement. Um, excitement. Um, I don't know how familiar everybody is with Pilgrim's Progress, and I'm not
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going to remember the guy's word name properly, but there's the guy who shows up early on, and of course, he's named exactly appropriately, and I can't remember his name. It's uh uh it's not
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compliant. It's pliable. Pliable. Pliable goes with Christian early on. He's like, "This sounds great. I'm going to go to the heavenly city. Let's go." And immediately when they step in the mud and he starts to drown, he's like, "Forget this. I'm out." I mean, I think
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that's part of what we're talking about here is that that initial this sounds great. Jesus has a wonderful plan for your life. Everything is going to be fixed. And when you find out that it isn't fixed, I mean, that's the danger of that kind of uh evang quote unquote
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evangelism, is it not? Um, and and that's what Paul is saying here is, I know that you received that word. I saw that evidence. But also he's saying here in the rest of this chapter,
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even with all that he saw and experienced spiritually with them, to know for certain because Timothy saw it that it is rooted means the world to Paul. I just thought that I think he was
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So I I don't think that's an entirely unreasonable thing to think about it. Um I I do think that the way he uses the phrase that our labor would have been in vain. I do connect that back to the the beginning of chapter 2. I think there's
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there's also possibly an element here of which Paul is writing the letter not necessarily in chronological order. having received the communication from Timothy, he can say part of what he can
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say in chapter two, right? That that part of what he can write in chapter 2 of saying, "I know you receive the word of God as the word of God is because Timothy has come back and said, "Yeah, they're still there. It's rooted. It's
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it's true faith showing the evidence of faith." However, I will also say I don't I don't know that it's unreasonable by any means to assume that Paul as a pastor would be concerned because read his quote unquote benediction in in 11
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here. He says, "May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and all people just as we also do." Um, do." Um, as much as he's held them up and he's
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he's he's saying this is this is this wonderful faithful church, he recognizes there's always room for them to grow in love. Uh, and I would be astonished if
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the church at Thessalonica had not won itself more converts in that city in his Abigail, sorry. No, it's fine. We're here to
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Right. Well, and I appreciate you pointing out that that he indicated I think you can absolutely read this section as as his indication that that okay, you have endured in the face of uh
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persecution. Therefore, I am I have utmost confidence. Um there are also the oddities of a couple of pe I mean the parable for sure.
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There's also the oddities of at least two uh and one of them is Simon Magis, right? who who apparently believes and does some miraculous or some powerful
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type. He he has some interaction with them while they're they're healing people and and interacting in the city. And then later they Peter curses him, right? Um and says, you know,
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effectively, you were with us. you said you believed and and and so we have to deal with the fact that there are people who will who will join who will walk who seem and sometimes even
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endure some things and then later go I mean that's that to me is the thing about what both Paul says of running not the sprint race but the marathon and
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Hebrews we have the utmost assurance of all of these things and you have to keep sweating it you have to keep putting your back into it. You have to keep laboring. Mom, you had your hand up.
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Right. Yeah. And and again, I'll say what I I appreciate that. I I'll I'll point out what I pointed out before, which is, you know, you you obviously have the letter to the Corinthians, for example, where
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he writes to a body and says, "You guys have fruits of the spirit and yet you are not behaving with love towards one another." Okay, he doesn't apparently have to say very much in that way to the
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Thessalonians here. He simply asks here that that God increased them in love. So, how much infighting, I don't know. Um certainly it would have been easy as
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we already looked at when we read that section of Acts. The the experience in Thessalonica as far as we can tell was that the majority of those who believed there were Greek and their main opposition were the Jews.
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But I'm sure because he was preaching in the synagogues that at least some of the Jewish members of that city joined that church. Well, now you have a a real easy
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opportunity for fleshly grudges against one another to spring up, don't you? And yet he doesn't have to address that here. So, so I I appreciate that because there are there are so many pitfalls
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that a church could fall into. And I I appreciate your point, Abe. I do think that he was worried in particular that it would have been effectively a flash in the pan of that that springing up with joy and then getting wilted in the
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face of opposition. Again, I I say not least of all because of the relatively short time he was there. Probably not more than a few weeks. Um Yeah.
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Okay. So, let me let me answer it this way. Um, I appreciate the point you're making. I I do think that Paul had a a knowledge and an assurance. He was a He was a skillful workman, right? He was not unaware when he says, "You receive
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the word as the word of God." He can tell to some respect how well people are responding to the word, whether or not this is just some sort of uh cognitive acceptance or whether it's having some
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kind of work. He says it had its work in you. He saw that. I don't think Paul would have ever laid the blame at the foot of of the word of not being effective. He might have had
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some thought in in this hypothetical. He might have had some thought that either it was dispersed or that it was it was eliminated by like death. Those are all possibilities. But uh what was Paul's
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aim? Let's let's let's look at that part while we close this morning. What was Paul's aim in going around the missionary journeys? And frankly, I think the key that sometimes gets missed
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in all of these letters, what is the point? Paul is writing letters to the churches. He's not writing, he's not writing letters for the most part. We're going to look at Phileiman, but he's not for
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the most part writing letters to individual people. He's writing letters to the churches. His concern is that there should be a church, and there is a church. There is a thriving, active,
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joyful church there. That is why he is so excited. That is why he is thanking God. So, yeah, I appreciate what you're getting at. Uh, and I and I don't know that I can rule
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all of that out other than to say, yeah, I mean, Paul has Paul was a skillful workman and aware of the word. And he says in chapter 2, I saw that it had its work. But he's also,
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and I guess I'm I'm I'm parsing maybe more than is strictly allowable from the word, but I think frankly here in chapter three, we read that human side of it of him going,
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"Boy, am I glad to see that the church is there and that you all are still walking in it." I mean, just the the the personal emotional joy of seeing that it was not in vain because the church is
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still there. John Luke, you had your hand up. hand up. Yeah. The Thessalonians were persecuted
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No one to love one another. Yeah. Right. So, he's saying, "I don't even I don't even really have to speak to you very much on this." I appreciate that point. Yeah. He's saying
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Yeah. But, you know, again, if it was if it was dispersed in some way, what would Paul have thought? I appreciate your point. I don't think that Paul would have looked on that as a failure of the
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word. But he is concerned here. He says frankly whether our work would be in vain. His point his goal his purpose his
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his message with which he was sent out as he as he clarifies at the beginning of chapter 2 was to establish the church of Christ in these lands. And now there is a church of Christ there.
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Right. Right. So, so he he was sure and and and his defense again, who is he defending himself against? probably those unbelieving Jews who had pursued him. But his defense there is I
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you want to sum it up. My conscience is clear before God that I put no obstacle in the way of the word.
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Yeah. I mean, there there is a what's the right word? There's a teaching that goes around sometimes of sort of patterning your prayers off of the Psalms, which I think is not unwise or unreasonable, but I would second uh
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add on to that, go around and and make a note for yourself all of the the sort of the benedictions and model some of your prayers off of those, too. Um because I think you there's a lot to learn in what
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he prays for the churches as he as he puts out these messages. John
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Things could always improve and and and there's always room for growth because none of us are pure and holy as our father in heaven is holy. I I do need to close, but I guess I'll I'll close by saying one of the reasons why I looked
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at these books in particular, I think, is because uh I've done a lot of reading of systematic theologies. And these books don't come up as much as you would hope they do because these
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books are pretty obviously not systematic in what he's saying. They're full of theology, but it isn't systematized. So, I want to walk through this the way Paul has gone through this
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and see what what is here. Again, I'll say I think there's pastoral theology in here. I think there is theology for us who sit in in the assembly of what was it? What was their responsibility? What
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was it that encouraged their teachers so much? What are the things that we see that are held up as as good and right and and necessary for the church? But let's close in prayer and we'll go
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upstairs to uh join together in song. Father, we again thank you for the word that you have given us and we do pray that it would build up this church. We
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do pray for the body here that we would increase in love, that we would have no one, no need of anyone to teach us of brotherly love, but that we might indeed model it before this city and the uh the
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church in this land. But Lord, I do ask please that you would work in the church uh across this country, frankly across the world, Lord, that your word would
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have its prime place, that it would be the thing that we are enriched and digging into, that our eyes would be fixed on our Lord Jesus, and
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that in so doing, we would rise above these uh petty human conflicts. the things that the tempter uses to draw us
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away. That we would be built up in the faith that the church would be established firm and sure by the way that you are knitting and fitting these living stones together into that holy edifice. Please
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Lord, do the work that you have promised in your word to establish your church. We ask that you might be glorified by the way that we interact, the way we pray and praise and indeed even the way
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that we receive the word preached this morning would be of glory to you. We ask in Jesus name.