*scroll to 23:50 for beginning of sermon*
The Apostle Paul models 3 tools in ministering to those individuals we are separated from…
All right, if you remain standing for scripture reading this morning, we’re going to read from 1st Thessalonians chapter 3. I don’t know what you’re struggling with, what you’ve been praying about for weeks or months or years, but God’s got a timetable and God’s got a plan.
And it’s usually not according to our timetable, but God will make things beautiful in His time and He’s promised that and we can hang on to that. So, I hope that’s an encouragement to you. All right, 1st Thessalonians chapter 3. We’re in the book of 1st Thessalonians.
I’m going to read the first five verses from chapter 3. This is Paul writing to the church. Here’s what he has to say. So, when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens.
We sent Timothy, who was our brother and co-worker in God’s service and spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted.
And it turned out that way, as you well know. For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.
Let’s get into 1st Thessalonians chapter 3. And so, remember this book that Paul was in Thessalonica on his second missionary journey. And some people came to faith in Christ.
And then some were not happy of what was happening in people’s lives. And so, they created a riot, kind of a flash mob riot. And Paul and Silas, who had been in this synagogue and preaching for like three weeks and had some good results, had to make a nighttime escape out of Thessalonica, a very sudden escape.
And so now Paul’s writing this letter back to the church. And the theme of the letter and our theme is to be ready, because in every chapter, five chapters, at the end of every chapter, the apostle Paul talks about the second coming of Christ, that Christ is coming again. So, this morning, we’re going to look at 1st Thessalonians chapter 3, and think about the ministry of, I’m calling it, long distance encouragement, long distance ministry.
So, a hundred years ago or so, families kind of all lived together in one spot. And it was not uncommon that wherever you lived, you had extended family nearby, whether it was aunts and uncles or grandparents, and families were all together. My paternal grandmother lived in two houses her whole life, 35 Manhattan in Buffalo, New York, and then next door, 37 Manhattan in Buffalo, New York.
And that’s because they had families living next door to each other, and relatives and cousins playing back and forth. My paternal grandmother never got a driver’s license, and so she did not venture very far from Buffalo, New York. But all that’s changed today, hasn’t it? So, families do not live close by in many, many cases, and families are moving because of jobs or other circumstances, and so it’s not unusual that there’s no family close by, or they’re living on the other side of the country, or the other side of the globe.
Now, Paul faced that dilemma because here he is, he has ministered and started this church in Thessalonica, and now Paul is in Athens. He’s like 300 miles away, and he’s concerned about these new believers. They’re baby Christians, and are they still walking with God, and they face some trials? Are they still standing firm in their faith? He mentions it in chapter 2 verse 17, but brothers and sisters, we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time.
So, we felt like we left you without spiritual leadership because we had to leave in this nighttime escape. And so, Paul is looking to minister to these families and these believers in Thessalonica, even though he’s 300 miles away. And that’s going to be a little bit of a model for us.
How can we have a long-distance ministry when people that we know and love are separated from us? Maybe it’s a college student. Maybe it’s family that lives on the other side of the country. Maybe it’s some friends of ours that just need encouragement.
i. sending a representative
And so, we’ll see, how did the Apostle Paul do this, and what did he do? And then we’ll use that as our model. So, three ways in which we can have a long-distance ministry. Here’s the first one, and it’s the ministry of sending a representative.
The ministry of sending a representative. So, Paul wanted to go back and visit. He wanted to see how these new believers were doing.
He mentions that in verses 17 and 18. Let me read verse 18 of chapter 2. We wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul, did again and again, but Satan blocked our way.
So, Paul wanted to go back and visit these new believers and encourage them and establish them in their faith. But for some reason, Satan blocked the way, and Paul wasn’t able to go. And so, what does Paul do? He says he does the next best thing.
When we could stand it no longer, verse 1, we sent Timothy. So, Paul can’t go, but Paul’s right-hand man, Timothy, could go. And so, Paul sends Timothy back to Thessalonica to see how these believers are doing.
Notice the description of Timothy, and we’re introduced to him in Acts chapter 16. He was Paul’s right-hand man. He did missionary journeys with Paul.
So, we sent Timothy, who is our brother, so he’s a believer. He is our, what, co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ. So, this is not just anybody.
This is someone that Paul knows as a believer. This is somebody that Paul knows, has a track record of working with Paul and ministering, and he’s been faithful. And his purpose is to send him to, what, strengthen and encourage those new believers.
Notice Paul’s description, and you don’t have to turn there, but Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 19, Paul describes Timothy like this, and now he’s writing to the Philippian believers, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I may be cheered when I receive news about you. Here it is, I have no one else like him who will show genuine concern for your welfare. For everyone, this describes our culture today, doesn’t it? Everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
But Timothy, you know, has proved himself. He’s a son in the faith with his father. As a father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel.
And so, here’s Paul’s description of Timothy, he goes, I’ve got nobody else like him. He’s my number one guy, he’s my right-hand guy, and everyone else is kind of living for themselves, looking out for big number one. No, Timothy has a heart for ministry in the gospel.
And so, while I cannot come because of circumstances beyond my control, what I’m going to do is I’m going to send somebody else that can. One of the great blessings of being a Christian is that there’s not only a local church that you can fellowship with and encourage, but there is a worldwide network of believers that’s called the family of God. And what a blessing the network of the family of God is.
And so sometimes while we cannot do something personally, maybe we know somebody or some connection to know somebody who lives in that same town who can make an impact, who can go and perhaps make a personal visit to somebody that is struggling or needs encouragement. Years ago, probably 20 years ago, my dad was serving with our daily bread ministries in Grand Rapids, and he served in the church ministries department. And one of the things that the church ministries department did for our daily bread out of Grand Rapids is they would travel all over the country and they hold pastor’s meetings.
They’d hold a pastor’s breakfast and feed the pastors and then they knew how to get pastors to come. They gave them a bunch of free books and then they’d have a message and just to try to encourage pastors, let them know of all the resources that our daily bread ministries has to encourage people in their walk with God. And so probably this is 20 years ago, my dad is traveling with our daily bread team and they’re in Lincoln, Nebraska, and they’re putting on this pastor seminar and my dad gets sick.
He gets very sick and incredible pain that he’s never had before. And so, they take him to the hospital and he was diagnosed with pancreatitis. Anybody knows anything about that? That’s very, very painful.
He ends up in the hospital, I think for 10 days in Lincoln, Nebraska. So somebody knew my dad needed encouragement and had a connection and if you know anything about Back to the Bible Ministries out of Lincoln, Nebraska, for a while Dr. Warren Wiersbe was the head of Back to the Bible Ministries and somebody called Dr. Warren Wiersbe and said, hey, would you have any time to go visit a pastor that’s far away from home, that’s been in the hospital for a week, away from family? Dr. Warren Wiersbe, who’s now with the Lord and wrote that whole commentary on the Bible, the B series, if you’re familiar with that, that’s where we got our title from First Thessalonians, his commentary on First Thessalonians is Be Ready. And Dr. Warren Wiersbe came and visited my dad.
I cannot tell you how much that meant just to encourage his spirits. Well, when you can’t be there personally, sometimes you send a representative. We have a friend that Richard Stone lived in, they lived in Brooklyn for a number of years, went to Michigan Center Bible Church, a very faithful couple that love the Lord.
They eventually moved to the other side of the state and actually have a property on Maranatha’s campus and we’ve known the Stones for like 30 years. And so, Richard’s gone through all sort of health problems in the last number of years and he passed away about four months ago. But a lot of his medical stuff was on this side of the state and at Chelsea Hospital and University of Michigan Hospital.
And so, his wife, Becky, in the last couple of years, two or three times would text me and say, hey, just let you know, Richard’s in Chelsea Hospital. And I kind of knew, kind of reading between the lines, that means like, would you go encourage him? So, I would go to Chelsea Hospital and, you know, his pastors on the other side of the state, but I went and encouraged Richard and was able to pray with Richard and Becky. Last time I did that, he was up at U of M Hospital going to go through some very, very serious surgery.
And I got a call the night before from Becky. She left me a voicemail and said, can you call me? And I called her back and it’s about 9:30 pm at night and I call her back and says, well, Richard’s at U of M Hospital and he’s going to have some serious surgery tomorrow. Is there any way you could pray with him before the surgery? And I said, I’d be glad to do that.
He says, well, you’d have to be there really early. Not a problem. I can be there. Just tell me what time should I be there? She says, 4:30 am. I’m like, oh, okay. I can do that. So usually, you know, you got to go up to the top ramp, but when you can’t be there yourselves, what can we do? We can send a representative and that’s what Paul did. He sends Timothy.
ii. words of encouragement and admonition
Here’s a second way of encouragement. Not only sending a representative, but simply words of encouragement and admonition. Verses six through nine from 1st Thessalonians chapter three.
But Timothy has now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us just as we long to see you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our disgrace and persecution, we were encouraged about you because of your faith.
For now, we really live since you are standing firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? So, here’s Timothy now. He comes back to Paul and he’s visited the Thessalonian believers and he’s telling Paul, you know, just like you were missing them and want to see them, they want to see you.
And they appreciate you and your ministry and they’re encouraged about our time together when we ministered there. And so, there’s a mutual encouragement and Paul here is relieved now. You know, he had to leave these believers very suddenly.
He’s wondering, are they still walking with God? Are they still being faithful? Are they still true to God and His word? And he gets the report back. Even though they’ve gone through distress, even though they’ve gone through persecution, we were encouraged about you because of your faith because what you are standing firm. And nothing would encourage a pastor’s heart to know somebody that comes to know Christ and then maybe you’re separated and years later you’re wondering, are they still walking with God? Are they still faithful to God and His word? And when you hear the report back, they’re still walking with God.
Even though life is hard, even though there’s challenges, they’re standing firm. And so, what an encouragement that was to Paul’s heart. So, what does he do? He writes this letter.
In fact, he wrote two letters to them. We have the first one. He writes this letter back and he is encouraging the Thessalonian believers with the spoken word and the written word.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue. We need to realize the impact of our words. And the book of Ephesians says that as believers, we’re to use our words to what? Build up and encourage one another.
And so, Paul writes this letter and his goal is to encourage them. Chapter 1 verse 2, we always thank God for all of you continually mentioning you in our prayers. We remember before God our Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, your endurance inspired by hope in Jesus Christ.
So, what’s the second way we can encourage somebody long distance? Well, we can write a letter. Now, do people write letters anymore? Very few. I still occasionally write some letters, but it’s not the mode of communication today.
My grandmother, the one I mentioned that lived in Buffalo, New York, she would write a lot of letters to her family and we got many of those letters, handwritten letters that she wrote. She lived in Buffalo her whole life and in the upper right-hand corner, she always put the temperature, you know, what the temperature was that day. So, if it’s in January, it was like minus five degrees, but she wrote a letter.
And that’s the way we can encourage one another as well, because we have a lot of options today. We can write letters, this whole thing called email. We got these cell phones.
I heard one of the speakers a couple weeks ago said, don’t let your smartphone outsmart you. Those cell phones can be used for good or they can be distractions. The cell phones give us access to the world, but it also gives the world access to us.
So, we have to be very careful with those, don’t we? But cell phones, texting, FaceTime, these are all ways in our technological age that we can, what, impact and connect with people and give them words of encouragement. And Paul writes a letter. Maybe for us it’s going to be a text.
Maybe for us it’s going to be an email to someone that we want to bless and encourage. I’ve shared many times a story of my pen pal, Steve, who’s in Jackson prison and he’s got a life sentence in Jackson prison and came to know the Lord 30 years ago, been in prison for 31 years. He’s 71 years old and for 30 years we’ve been pen-pals.
And I mentioned that every quarter he sends a check to our church. I get the mail from Michigan Department of Corrections and I know that that’s, here comes Steve’s check to support our ministry in a small way. And so, I’ve shared his story in, I do a Bible study class at Maranatha, just kind of a small group study of 15-20 people.
And one of the lessons I just share about Steve. And so, week number one, I had a couple come up to me and said, would it be okay if we wrote a letter to Steve and if I gave it to you, would you mail it to him? And I said, yeah, that would be fine. I thank you for putting that out there and for God putting that on your heart.
And so, here’s this couple, Kevin and Carol, they’re from Illinois. And they gave me this, they’ve never met Steve, they just heard about him and they thought, well, we can encourage somebody that we don’t know that’s in prison. And I won’t read the whole letter, but I’ll read a couple paragraphs here.
Here’s Steve, we had the pleasure of getting to know your friend Ron at Maranatha this week. I’m sure he’s told you lots and lots about this wonderful place over the years. He mentioned that you’re his pen pal and of how he rejoiced that you placed your faith in Christ.
And she talks about one of the things that they enjoy about Maranatha. This is, Pastor Ron has likely described Maranatha to you many times and in many ways. We wanted to share some of the special Maranatha’s joys and encouragement with you, Steve.
And they done that in the bulk of the letter. With you, Steve, our brother in Christ, we hope this has blessed you until we meet in heaven, Kevin and Carol. I thought, wow, what an encouragement that Steve received when he received that letter.
Now, she also included some pictures of Maranatha and I photocopied them and tried to send them and the pictures came back. You cannot send pictures through the mail to somebody in prison. But he got the letter, not the pictures.
But God put it on their heart to write a letter to somebody that they didn’t even know that’s a brother in Christ just to encourage them. And we too can use our words, whether spoken or written, to encourage one another. Well, long distance ministry, you can send a representative if you can’t go personally.
iii. prayer
You can share words of encouragement and admonition through letters, through computer, email, through texting. But here’s maybe the biggest thing that we can do. And number three, we underestimate this one is prayer.
Prayer. So, Paul concludes this section by thinking about prayer. How can we thank, verse 9, God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Here’s what he has to say.
Night and day, we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith. Now, may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
May God strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father. Here’s the reference to the second coming of Christ, when our Lord Jesus comes with all of His holy ones. And so, what’s the third way that we can minister and encourage long distance? We can reach out and touch somebody through prayer.
And Paul says, I’m praying for you. 1st Samuel 12:23 talks about the sin of prayerlessness. James 4 says, to him who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, sin. So, there’s two types of sins.
There’s a sin of commission, lying, stealing, doing something proactive, but we can sin by not doing something. And so, the Scriptures encourage us to pray, and so to not pray, that is a sin. And so, we underestimate the power of prayer.
James 5:16, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person is what? Powerful and effective. It tells the story of Elijah, and you know that story from the Old Testament, and there was this drought for three years or three and a half years, and finally Elijah prayed and prayed and prayed, and what? God answered that prayer, and the rain came. And so, we can pray.
3 characteristics of Paul’s prayers…
1. persistent
The ministry of prayer can make a huge impact in the lives of those we know and love and we’re separated from. So, notice three characteristics now of Paul’s prayers here in the last part of our section here this morning. First of all, Paul’s prayer was persistent, persistent.
He says, night and day. Now we say day and night, but in the Jewish mind, they think about night and day. We say day and night, but the Jewish mind thinks night and day.
Paul says, we pray what? Night and day for you. We are praying persistently for you. Later on, in the letter in chapter 5, verse 17, one of the shortest verses in the Bible, 1st Thessalonians 5:17, pray without ceasing.
It doesn’t mean that we’re praying 24-7. It means pray continually. Make prayer your first response.
Make prayer a priority. And so, Paul is praying persistently, and that’s all through the Bible. Matthew chapter 7, verse 7, Jesus says, keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.
Ephesians 6:18 talks about praying always with all prayers and supplication. And Jesus told a story in Luke chapter 11 about somebody that shows up at your front door at midnight and they’re hungry, and they’re knocking at the door. And let me just read this short section here.
It’s Luke chapter 11, verse 5. Suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, friend, lend me three loaves of bread. I need some food. A friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have no food to offer him.
So Middle Eastern hospitality is huge. This person has need of food, doesn’t have any, goes to his friend. And suppose the one inside answers, this is what I would answer, don’t bother me, the door is already locked.
I reposted something on Facebook. It was a welcome mat and it said, don’t stop, be leaving, L-E-A-V-I-N-G. A little play on that song, Don’t Stop Believing.
He says, hey, it’s midnight, I’m in bed, the doors are locked, I can’t get up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of your friendship, this is the NIV, yet because of your shameless audacity, it means because you just keep on knocking and keep on knocking and keep on asking, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. So, I say to you, ask and it will be given.
Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened unto you. For everyone who asks, receives.
The one who seeks, finds. And the one who knocks, the door will be opened. And so, the whole meaning of the story is don’t give up, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, keep praying.
The story is told of George Müller who had a burden for five of his friends that didn’t know Christ. And so, he had this list of five friends and he was praying for them regularly that they’d come to faith in Christ. And the story is told that after five years, friend number one came to know Christ.
Ten years after praying for somebody for ten years, friend number two came to know Christ. Friend number three came to know Christ after 25 years of praying. And friend number four came to know Christ after 35 years of praying.
Friend number five came to faith in Christ after George Mueller had passed away. So don’t get discouraged about prayer because you may not live to see the answer to those prayers. God may answer that prayer sometime after we’re been promoted to glory.
2. passionate
Paul says, I am praying night and day for you. But his prayer life was also passionate, passionate. Night and day we pray most earnestly.
He’s saying we’re praying passionately. We quoted James 5:16, the effectual, what fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Nothing increases the fervency of our prayer life like a crisis.
Sometimes our prayer life can get very boring and lackadaisical and routine. But then crisis hits. And God wants to hear the cry of our hearts and he’s near to the broken hearted.
And we need to pray earnestly, fervently. I mentioned about a month or so ago at our first church in Strongsville, Ohio. One of my friends came up to me, we hadn’t been at the church very long.
And Dan was his name. And he came up to me and he says, hey, would you like to be a part of the wrestling team? I’m like, this church has a wrestling team? That seems odd to me. And so, I kind of inquired a little further and he was kind of playing with me.
He says, well, no, read Colossians chapter four, verse 12, Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus sends greetings. He’s always wrestling for you in prayer. Like, oh, okay, that’s what you want.
You want me to be a part of this prayer team? And meeting together and praying. And we did that with about four or five guys for nine months on a Saturday morning. And every Saturday we’d just get together and pray and encourage one another.
3. precise
A passionate prayer. Paul’s prayers was persistent. They were passionate, but they were also purposeful.
three specific requests
And by that we mean specific. God wants to hear the specific requests and needs of our heart. And so, Paul has three specific requests that he prays about, precise.
1. an open door to personally visit the Thessalonians
And here is the first one, an open door for him to visit the Thessalonian believers. That’s what he says in verse 10, night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you.
So, he’s praying for an opportunity for him to what? Visit them personally. And some commentators believe that Paul did make a return visit on his third missionary journey. So, he’s praying for an open door to visit.
2. increasing and overflowing love
What else is he praying for? Well, he’s praying that their love would increase and overflow. Verse 12, may the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. So, Paul’s praying for these new believers.
He says, I’m praying that you will grow in love, not only for one another, believers, but for everyone else, for unbelievers. What is the defining mark, Jesus said, that’s to define a Christian? Not theological doctrine, knowing all the main doctrines of the Scriptures. It’s not how many times you come and attend church.
It’s not how often you read the Bible or even how often you pray. But Jesus said in John 13:34 and 35, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another as I have loved you. And so, the defining mark that is going to tell the world that there’s something different about us is that we love one another and we love unbelievers as well.
First Peter chapter 1 verse 22, now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply from the heart. This is over and over and over again in Scripture, and this is what Paul’s praying. May they love each other.
That’s what we want as parents for our kids, don’t we? We want our grown kids, and even when they’re young, we want them to get along and love one another. Nothing breaks a parent’s heart more, especially adult children, when you have adult children that don’t like each other or don’t talk into each other, and there’s a barrier between them. And as God’s children, as part of the family of God, he wants us to love one another deeply, and Paul’s praying for that.
3. holiness
Lord, make their love increase and overflow for each other. Lastly, he’s praying for an open door to visit them that their love would increase, but he’s praying for holiness. He’s praying that they’ll walk with God.
Look at verse 13. May God strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all of His holy ones. So, he’s, again, referencing, what? The second coming of Christ.
And he says, when Christ comes back, I want them to find you walking with God. And 1st John chapter 3 talks about the fact that Christ could come at any time, should motivate us, what? To live for Him. 1st John chapter 3, verses 2 and 3. Dear friends, now we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.
But we know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, or we shall see Him as He is. We’re going to have a new glorified body. All who have this hope in Him purifies themselves just as He is pure.
So, John’s saying that as we look forward to the second coming of Christ, one of the things it should do is should make us live a life for Him, a holy life. And so, Paul says, I pray that the fact that Christ is coming again someday will motivate you to live for Him. Well, how do we minister to people that are far away? Paul gives us three models here.
3 application questions
He says, if we can’t come, we can network, find somebody that can and send a representative. If we can encourage with our words, spoken or written, we could encourage through prayer. Well, three quick questions just as we wrap this up, application questions.
i. Am I available to minister and encourage others?
Here’s the first one. Am I available to minister and encourage others like Timothy? Am I one who, if there’s a need, would I be available if somebody called me up and said, hey, here’s this believer over here, and they are hurting. Would you be willing to go and encourage them in their faith? Am I willing to go like Timothy did? And Timothy went the extra mile because he traveled a long distance to go encourage those Thessalonian believers.
ii. What person would God bring to my mind that needs encouragement?
Secondly, what person would God bring to my mind this morning that might not be geographically in close proximity, but maybe it’s a relative, maybe it’s a friend. What person would God bring to my mind that needs encouragement? I see there’s one phrase that I’ve never heard people say to me. It’s like, Pastor Ron, I’m just way too encouraged.
The people are just over-encouraging me. No, we all desperately need encouragement. The longer that I journey and live and talk to people, everybody, we look at everybody on the outside and they look, everybody’s got it all together.
iii. what’s my prayer life like?
No, everybody’s got stuff. Every family has stuff. And so, who is it that God would bring to my mind that I could encourage, that I can pray for, that maybe as God brings them to my mind, I can send a quick email or text to? And lastly, what’s your prayer life like? Mine’s like this.
You can relate to that. And what we need to do is we need to make our prayer life persistent and passionate and purposeful. And as we do that, God will bless and you will see God at.