Paul’s Advent prayer. 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Today is the first Sunday in the Church’s year,
the 1st Sunday in Advent, when we look forward to Christmas,
but also look back on the year which is coming to an end.
Hopefully we can look back on happy times, and praise God,
and hopefully when we look back on sad times,
we can still praise God for bringing us through them.
Paul had gone through many trials with the Thessalonians,
and Paul and the congregation at Thessalonica had grown together
and suffered together,
which is why he prayed the prayer that he prayed in our text for today.
It is not just a prayer for the Thessalonian Christians; it is a prayer for us too
His prayer is a prayer of thanks as we can see in verse 9:
he not only thanks God for them but says he cannot thank God enough for them,
because of all the joy that they had given him.
He was thankful that the Thessalonians had responded so well
to the message of the Gospel.
They very easily could have given up the faith in the face of persecution
or got angry with Paul for getting them into trouble with the Jews in the first place.
They could have accused Paul of being uncaring
for not having returned to them in the midst of their trials,
but instead, they held to the faith and even grew closer to Paul
through the trials they were facing.
They had told Timothy that they looked forward to seeing Paul again,
and that’s what made Paul so thankful;
the response of love and faith that this young congregation had
in the face of adversity and trial.
Every relationship in this world will go through these kinds of times.
and from experience I am sure we all know how much a relationship is strengthened
when all involved pull together and support each other.
The ultimate example, of course, is found in Christ.
He saw that we were helplessly drowning in our sins.
He saw that we needed help.
He could have ignored our situation, because we were getting what we deserved - God’s wrath for rebellion,
but instead, he came down into our world of sin through Mary’s womb
into a cattle stall.
He lived in a sinful world and resisted the devil’s temptations,
and He allowed the sins of the world to be smeared on Him at the cross,
but it was this love, this compassion,
that saved us from being condemned
and raised us out of our guilt and shame.
So, Paul’s prayer first of all reflected thankfulness for the Thessalonians,
but notice who he was thankful to, not just the Thessalonians, who he proud of,
but God.
He realized that the Christians who made up the church in Thessalonia
weren’t the result of his eloquence or his personality,
but were products of the mercy and power of God.
This is a similar response to when the apostles reported to the Council in Antioch
how things were going on their missionary journeys.
On arriving there, they gathered the church together
and reported all that God had done through them
and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
(Acts 14:27).
The congregation in Thessalonia was very much Paul’s ‘baby’.
This congregation is in a way Dr Pearce’s and Pastor Fanning’s ‘baby’.
We know from 1st and 2nd Thessalonians what Paul thought about his work in Greece,
and I imagine that Dr Pearce and Pastor Fanning would feel the same
about their work in Scotland.
I hope, like Paul about the Thessalonians,
Dr Pearce would say that he was encouraged by the work that he started here;
thank he thanked God for everyone here;
and that he wished he could be here to encourage us.
All of us are here by a miracle of God,
and all of us remain here by the work of the Holy Spirit.
That’s the attitude that Paul had throughout this letter.
One of thankfulness that God had worked faithfulness in the congregation.
His prayer is a prayer that those in the church would love each other,
and that that love would overflow out of the church to the people outside of it,
which would be a witness to what was happening inside God’s congregation.
In verse 12 Paul prayed:
May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other
and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
Paul wanted them to love each other so much
that they would have no where left to put their love,
except to share it with those who do not come through our doors,
and hopefully if we do this,
then one day they WILL come in through our doors.
I put hours and hours into writing my sermons.
I consult Concordance, my 4 Study Bibles
and my Dictionary of key Hebrew and Greek words.
I look up stories and anecdotes on Sermon websites.
I think about how to write the proper introduction and conclusion,
and I try to make them as interesting as possible,
but they are for nothing unless the Lord blesses the work.
We all make all sorts of plans, and hopefully they all have good intentions,
but in all of our plans and workings, unless we pray to the Lord about them
we will miss out on countless blessings from God.
Paul recognized it all had to come from God,
so he prayed to God for spiritual strength and sanctification,
for himself and the other apostles, and for those in the congregations they had planted.
In verse 13 he asked God to strengthen their hearts so that they would be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and father when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his holy ones.
Paul didn’t want the Thessalonians just to be good enough to get by,
he wanted them to have such strong hearts
that they would be HOLY and BLAMELESS
not because they could ever be holy or blameless through their own efforts,
but holy and blameless through the grace of God,
which is the portion every believer is given by faith in Jesus Christ.
That’s what Paul wanted for the Thessalonians, that’s what he prayed for,
and that’s what Paul wants for us as well.
He didn’t want scared Christians, fearful of God’s wrath at every corner.
We should not cower fearfully frightened of one day facing the wrath of God
and doing things only out of fear of God’s punishment.
We should be confident Christians, people who know that God loves us.
As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians,
so the Holy Spirit says to us:
I want you to be confident of your position in God’s sight.
I want you to know that Jesus Christ has made you blameless
because he lived and died for you.
I want you to know that if you were to die tonight,
you know that you would go to heaven.”
This confidence - this strong heart –
can only come from having a relationship with the Lord.
It was important to Paul that the Thessalonians would be blameless and holy
in the presence of our God and Father
when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones,
because they, and we, will one day stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
We need to be in a personal relationship with the Saviour to be ready for that Day.
It won’t do to only be “good” on Judgment Day, we have to be perfect,
and we can only be perfect, holy and blameless,
through the righteousness of Christ.,
which he gave us when he took our sins away when he died on the cross
Paul wanted his people to be ready for the coming of Christ - to look forward to it,
so he prayed that God would bless his efforts to come to the Thessalonians
and give them the strength they needed to be ready for Christ’s 2nd coming.
Paul wanted his congregation to win the prize.
He grounded them in the Word of God,
as different pastors have grounded us,
and he prayed for them,
as many people have prayed for us.
The Thessalonians were running a good race,
and their faith was being reported throughout the world,
but their work wasn’t done yet.
He didn’t want them to quit in the middle of the race before Jesus Christ came.
Paul realized that the success of the church didn’t depend on their determination
or their hard work or his training, but on the work of God,
which is why he thanked God for them,
and prayed for them.
Every day that we live, we are growing closer to the end of the race.
Jesus Christ could come any day.
Now is not the time to give up, as so many have done.
May our love for each other increase,
and may our love overflow to those outside this church,
and may God strengthen our hearts and make us blameless and holy in His sight.
If this prayer is answered, when Jesus Christ comes,
we will receive something much greater than a New Year’s Honour from the Queen.
We will receive the crown of life.
Amen.
