Let's turn now, if you will,
in our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. 1 Thessalonians chapter
3. Wherefore, when we could no longer
forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and
sent Timotheus, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow
laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort
you concerning your faith. that no man should be moved by
these afflictions, for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For verily, when we were with
you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation,
even as it came to pass, and you know. For this cause, when
I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some
means the tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. But now, when Timotheus came
from you unto us and brought us good tidings of your faith
and charity, and that you have good remembrance of us always,
desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you. Therefore,
brethren, we were comforted over you and all our affliction and
distress by your faith. For now we live if you stand
fast in the Lord. For what thanks can we render
to God again for you? For all the joy wherewith we
joy for your sakes before our God. Night and day praying exceedingly
that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking
in your faith. Now God himself and our Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you. And the Lord
make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and
toward all men, even as we do toward you. To the end, he may
establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even
our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with his
saints. We may understand from what we
read in chapters two and three what had taken place since the
Apostle Paul, along with Silas and Timothy, had to leave Thessalonica. Remember, they were only there
for three Sabbath days, and then they were hurried away. They
were sent away. They were sent away because of
the Jews who did not believe. The Jews especially hated the
gospel as it was preached by the Apostle Paul. Lost men hate
God. Now that's just what the Word
of God tells us. That every person who does not
know God, who's never been saved by the grace of God, is enmity
with God. A person must be reconciled unto
God through the death, through the blood of Jesus Christ our
Lord to have peace with God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned or spiritually understood. And
the Jews in Thessalonica, they especially hated Paul because
they knew that he had been Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of the
Pharisees. He had been one of their number,
one of their men who had set at the feet of one of the greatest
doctors of the law. He had studied at his feet. He
was so zealous in defending the Jewish faith or understanding
of the Messiah and what he would do. And then God met him. God met him. Or I should say
he met God. He wasn't looking for God, not
the true God. He thought he knew God. He thought
he was serving God by doing everything he could to harm, to persecute
believers. But in God's purpose and God's
will, God had chosen him to be a vessel of grace, a vessel of
mercy. You know, every person who lives
is either a vessel of mercy or a vessel of wrath. That's what
the scripture says in Romans chapter 9. And Paul had been
chosen to be a vessel of mercy, to know God, and to be used of
God in preaching the gospel. Now, they hated all of the apostles,
the Jews did. They hated them all, but it seems
like they especially hated the apostle Paul. And I believe it
was because to them, he was a traitor. He'd been one of them. He'd been
highly respected among them. And all of a sudden now he's
preaching Christ. He's preaching the faith, which
once he had tried to destroy. What an amazing work of God's
grace. God's grace is always amazing. Only God's elect experience the
grace of God. His mercy, God's a merciful God. His mercy, we're told, is over
all his works. The just and the unjust he causes
his sun to shine upon. He sends rain. upon the just
and on the unjust. But His grace, His unmerited
favor is reserved for those of His chosen people. His grace
is eternal. His grace is free. And His grace is sovereign. That's
what the word of God teaches. Or by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. Every saved person in here this
morning, you are an object of God's sovereign grace. He's made you a vessel of mercy. He could have passed you by,
but he didn't. And you're thankful, aren't you?
And you're grateful. And you want to serve him. You
love him. Well, what had taken place after
Paul and Silas and Timotheus had left Thessalonica is what
usually took place when they had to leave. That is, false
teachers, they would come among them and they would accuse the
apostle Paul of being a false teacher, of not teaching the
truth, not teaching the law. And that in this case, most likely,
He has no concern for you, to the Thessalonians. He has no
concern. He came into this city and got
the whole city all stirred up, everybody filled with wrath and
anger, and then he left. He doesn't have any concern for
you. He doesn't have any love for you. He hasn't come back. He's gone. He's here and he's
gone. Well, I believe it's important.
It was important to the Apostle Paul to do, as we would say,
to set the record straight. And that's what we see in these
two chapters, chapters two and three. He's setting the record
straight. And especially in this chapter,
what I see is he shows four ways His great love and concern for
these believers in this church at Thessalonica. His great love
and His concern for them, and He shows it in these four ways. Let's look as we go through the
chapter. First of all, by sending Timothy to them. Wherefore, when we could no longer
forbear We thought it good to be left at Athens alone, and
sent Timotheus, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow
laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort
you concerning your faith. That no man should be moved by
these afflictions, for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that
we should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass, and
you know. For this cause, when I could
no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some
means the tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. This, the Apostle Paul showed
his great love for the believers in the church at Thessalonica.
When he could forbear it no longer, he just had to know about those
believers. What had happened? What was taking
place there? He could forbear no longer, and
I thought to myself, well, he's kind of like us. Paul was just
like us. We get anxious about things,
don't we? And sometimes we've just got
to call and find out. Well, Paul, he had stood it as
long as he could without hearing and without knowing what had
taken place among these believers. And he said, when I could forbear
it no longer, I just couldn't take it any longer. I sent Timothy
to you. Now, I want us to think about
that. When you read that, you might
think, well, how does that show his love? How did that show his
love, him sending Timothy to them? Well, let's think about
what he says about Timothy, first of all. Notice this in verse
two. And sent to Maltheus. Now, we
don't read as much about Timothy. He's not mentioned as much in
this journey, as you read through the Acts, as Paul and Silas are. And I imagine that is because
Timothy was the youngest of them. And so he's not mentioned by
Luke every time that Paul and Silas are mentioned. Like in
Philippi, When Paul and Silas were put into the stocks, put
into prison, we don't read of Timothy, but he was with them.
And I assume it was because he was the youngest of them. But
notice what Paul says about him here. First of all, our brother. When Paul wrote his two inspired
letters to Timothy himself, He addressed it to Timothy, my son. Timothy, the second one, Timothy,
my beloved son. Now, Timothy was not Paul's natural
son, not his son in the flesh, but he was his son in the gospel
ministry. He had been converted, been saved
under the ministry of Paul. And Paul looked upon him as his
son, showing his love and affection for Timothy. But notice he says
here, our brother. I didn't just send anybody to
you. I sent Timothy, our brother. Here as his brother, speaking
of Timothy as their brother, our brother, He shows that in
the household of God, in the family of God, we are all equals. Our Lord Jesus spoke to some
people one day, some religious people, and he said, you are
of your father the devil. Now, we live in a time, and I
guess it's been like this for a long time, but most people
think, well, everybody's the son of God. Everybody is a creature
of God. Everybody has been created by
God. He is our creator. He's the creator
of all men. That's for sure. But he's not
the father of all men. He's not the father of anyone
who has not been born again. The reason the Lord, or at least
the Lord Jesus Christ told Nicodemus, he was a religious man. Religion
isn't the issue. If you don't get anything else
out of this message, please hear me now. Religion isn't the issue. Everyone is religious. Everyone's
got some religion that they're trusting in. Christ is the issue,
knowing him. That's the only way you may know
God is through His Son, Jesus Christ. He said, I'm the way,
the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Yes. And all of us who are born
of the Spirit of God, we're all equal in the family of God. We
all have the same Father. God, our Father. We all are loved
with the same everlasting love. His love is eternal. We are all
cared for by the providence of God. Not a hair can fall from
a person's head without our Lord. Not a bird can fall to the ground.
All of God's children are overseen by the providence of God, all
of His family. And Timothy was a brother, our
brother, he says. What a blessing to be a part
of the family of God. Some people have been raised
in some awful family situations. No question about it. Some little
babies are cast away at birth. Some are shuffled from one place
to another, used, misused. But oh, the family of God, to
be a member of the family of God. What a blessing, right? What a blessing to have God as
our Father. That's the grace of God, His
wonderful grace. That's not the only thing he
says about Tim Lee, our brother, but he also says a minister of
God. I didn't just send anybody to
you when I could forbear it no longer. I had to know about your
welfare. I sent Timothy. I didn't just
send anybody. I sent Timothy, our brother,
a minister of God. A minister of God. We know the resurrected Christ,
we're told in Ephesians chapter 4, gave gifts unto his church,
and those gifts are ministers. They're named apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastor-teachers. And there's different levels,
no doubt, of the work of the ministry, but The work of all
the apostles, the prophets, the missionaries, evangelists, and
pastor-teachers, it's all, we're told, therefore, the perfecting
of the saints. Yes, there's different degrees
of ministry, no doubt. And the apostles were first,
the prophets before them. But they laid the foundation.
Christ is the foundation, right, upon which this church is built.
men who are called like Timothy. He was a minister, minister of
God. He served as a pastor at one
time, the pastor of the church at Ephesus. He was a missionary.
He traveled with the apostle Paul and Silas. Yes. But the work of every one of
these men in these ministries is the same. If you read there
in Ephesians chapter four, What is it? For the perfecting of
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of
the body of Christ. So Paul said, we sent Timothy,
our brother, a minister of God. But notice this last thing he
said, our fellow laborer. Timothy had proven himself to
Paul. Remember on Paul's first missionary
journey, he had Barnabas with him. And Barnabas had a nephew
by the name of John Mark. And Barnabas was determined or
wanted to take John Mark, and Paul agreed. But the work, he
didn't realize that this preaching isn't all it's cracked up to
be. This going from city to city and country to country, preaching
and having stones thrown at us and being left for dead and all
of that, this isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'm going home. And so he went home. But thank
God we read later, Paul commended him, didn't he? You know, all
of us, we've made mistakes. But I'm thankful God forgives
us and we start over, aren't you? Yeah, but Timothy wasn't
like John Mark. No, Paul said this about Timothy. Not only a fellow laborer, but
he hath served with me in the gospel. Now, this is one of the
reasons I wanted to read that passage in Acts. Let's get the picture. Let me
go over it again. We've got Paul, Silas, and Timothy. They come to Thessalonica. They
go into the synagogue on three separate Sabbath days and reason
with the people. And some people believed, a great
number believed, in fact. But then those who didn't believe
stirred up the whole city. And they accused these men to
the authorities, the Roman officials, that they were teaching against
Caesar. Now that was a serious charge,
to teach against Caesar, while they're saying there's another
king. And they did say that. There is another king. There's
a king above Caesar. The Lord Jesus Christ, King of
kings and Lord of lords. But they stirred up the whole
city. And so the brethren there, in fear for Paul's life, Silas
and Timothy, in fear for their lives, they sent them away in
the night, got them out of town before they could be hurt. And
they go to the next city, Berea, and they began to preach there.
And Luke tells us in Acts there that these people in Berea, they
were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they listened
They heard Paul preach, but then they went home, and they got
the scriptures, and they looked up. They started looking in the
scriptures. Is what he's saying true? Is this true? Well, those
Jews from Thessalonica that stirred up such a rout when they heard
they were preaching in Berea, they come there and stir the
city up. And so this time, only Paul is
sent away. And again, it's for fear of his
life. He's sent to Athens. And whoever
carried him to Athens, he went by ship. He told them, tell Silas
and Timothy to come to me immediately. Well, we're not told this in
Acts. You have to compare 1 Corinthians,
but Timothy did come to Paul in Athens. but then Paul sent
him back. That's what he's saying here.
When I could forbear no longer, I sent Timothy back to you. Now what this meant, what this
meant to Paul is I'm here in this great city now alone. I think as I've prepared the
message, I remember times when I was a missionary preaching
in a village or Pueblo, and I was the only one preaching there.
As far as I knew, there was no believers there. I've been in
some experiences here in the States at funerals, something
like that also. Now Paul, the scripture says
he was all alone there to go into the synagogue. Now, remember
this, Paul had been beaten. At Lystra, he had been left for
dead, dragged, his body dragged out of the city thinking they
had killed him. Now he's alone. He's by himself
in Athens. What I'm pointing out is Paul
is showing his love, that this was a sacrifice on his part to
be left alone in this great city, to preach in the synagogue, to
reason in the markets, and then eventually, by himself to stand
on Mars Hill and proclaim everything your philosophers have told you? It's all foolishness. It's all
a lie. There's only one Savior and God
has appointed a day in the which he's going to judge the world
by this man. Do you see how this was a show
of love and concern by Paul sending Timothy to them? It comes across
to me. I hope it does to you. But that's
the first way. The first way he would show his
love and concern for them is telling them, listen, I sent
someone to you. that I dearly loved, that I dearly
needed, a minister, a laborer with me in the gospel, and it
meant that I was left alone. I was left, but we know he was
not alone. Don't we? We know that. He didn't have any men standing
up with him, but he did have God the Holy Spirit. The Lord
Jesus Christ said, I, I, I, by His Spirit, speaking to His church,
His believers, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. What
a promise. What a promise, right? All right,
here's the second thing. And I'll just have to be brief
on these other three. His response to Timothy's good
tidings, notice in verse six. Now when Timotheus came from
you unto us and brought us good tidings, now that word good tidings
is the same word that the angels use when they announce the birth
of Christ to the shepherds. We bring you great tidings, good
tidings of great joy rather, same word. And Paul looked at
this report that Timothy brought to him as good news, great news, just
like the gospel is good news. This was so good news that Timothy
brought because he spoke to us of your faith and your love. Now when Timotheus came from
you unto us and brought us good tidings of your faith and love.
Now those are two twin graces, aren't they? Every child of God
has faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. It's a gift. God gifts us faith,
but we do the believing. And not only does every child
of God have faith, but every child of God has love. Love. Love for God, first of all. Love for Christ. Love for the
gospel. Love. Paul wrote in another place,
if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. Maranatha. Let him be cursed. That's what that word anathema
means. Let him be cursed of God. Who
wouldn't love the Lord Jesus Christ? If anything shows man's depravity
any more than the fact that men do not love Christ, I don't know
what it could be. I don't know what it could be. Who wouldn't love Christ, who
is altogether lovely? Only a wicked individual, only
a sinful individual would not love Him, the gift of His Father. Well, You'd think after as long as
I've been preaching, or trying to preach, I should say, that
I would know many times I have way too much for the time I have
to speak. But the third way he proved his
love, his continued desire to visit them, he says in verses
9 and 11, For what thanks can we render
to God again for you for all the joy wherewith we joy for
your sakes before our God night and day praying exceedingly that
we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking
in your faith. And I did want to say a word,
I don't want to pass over this, but notice that to perfect that
which is lacking in your faith, faith, Faith is a grace that
God gives. The Holy Spirit works in the
heart of His people, and we believe in Christ. But faith grows. It grows. And it is, as Paul
says here, it is perfected. And God has given means by which
our faith is to grow. And one means When I use means,
the word means the methods that causes us to grow, of course,
is his word. If a believer, if a child of
God neglects the word of God, he's not going to grow. He's
not going to grow. He's given us the preaching of
the gospel. You know, sometimes I hate to
say things like this, because it sounds like I'm bragging on
myself. But I don't mean it that way. But folks, I know from the
scriptures, from the word of God, that people who neglect
hearing the gospel preached and taught will not grow. And God
has raised up men, and I just happen to be one of them. And
you're talking about mercy. God calling me and putting me
into the ministry, yes. But God's given you an opportunity
to hear. And if you neglect it, don't
expect to grow. Prayer is another means of growing. Communion with one another. We need one another. I need you
and you need me. We need each other. As God's
children, we need fellowship. We need communion with one another. We need love of each other. And
when we neglect this, we only harm ourselves. We're not going
to grow, not like we could, if we neglect these things. And you notice in that prayer
there, If you look in that verse I read, verse 11, now God himself
and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer is there directed
to our Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, listen
carefully. Nowhere from Genesis to Revelation
in this book of God, nowhere are men told to pray to anyone
other than God. To pray to the Virgin Mary is
idolatry. To pray to the so-called saints
is idolatry. No, our prayer must be directed
to the only one who is able to hear our prayers and to answer
our prayers. And that is God. It's so sad sometimes to see
people being taught to pray to so-called saints, and especially
the Virgin Mary. So sad to see that, knowing it's
such a denial of the word of God. So
clear, so plain, and yet men stand up and claim to be men
of God and teach people to do such things. You say, are you
mad? I'm mad at the error. Yes, I
hate the error that is taught. I really do. It's not worthy
of God. And it's so damning error. Yes. I love the people. I'm not saying I hate the people. No. We're to love even our enemies. But I do hate that false teaching,
my friends. No question about it. The fourth way, his prayer for
them in verses 12 and 13. And the Lord make you to increase
and abound in love, one toward another. Here's a prayer that
we could all pray for ourselves and for each other, that our
love would increase and abound for each other. And not only
towards each other, but towards all men, all men. James said,
or John did rather in his epistle, if you hate your brother, And
then you say you love God? You're a liar. You're a liar. How can you love God, who you've
never seen, and hate your brother that you see? Only way you can
say that is to be a liar. Now, God's people, we're to love
God, we're to love Christ, we're to love the Holy Spirit, we're
to love the gospel, we're to love God's people, and we're
to love everyone. Right? Yes. Well, may the Lord bless His
word.