Thessalonians - Part 8

I Thessalonians 3:1-10 - The Pastor and the Flock

The Pastor’s Affection For His People 

The Pastor’s Sacrifice For His People 

The Pastor’s Compassion For His People 

Timothy’s Assignment • To strengthen and encourage; • To consult as to their spiritual welfare; • To enhance Timothy’s authority to represent Paul as a fellow-laborer; • And to animate them to constancy such that tribulation and persecution is found to strengthen them rather than deter them. 

The Pastor’s Protectiveness Toward His People 

Paul’s Protective Concern • Repeating that he could endure it no longer, he adds an additional reason for sending Timothy to find out about their faith, • For fear the tempter might have tempted them, nullifying the work of the apostle thereby. • Paul was not suggesting that they could lose their salvation when he feared that his labor would be in vain, nor did he think that God’s Word would prove to be “in vain.” • He was concerned that some who had made a profession would be proven to be “false brethren,” and that they would give up their professed faith because of persecution. 

The Pastor’s Delight In His People 

The Pastor’s Gratitude For His People 

The Pastor’s Intercession For His People 

• Paul’s praying was constant and fervent. • Its ultimate goal was to complete whatever may be still lacking in their faith, • And to see them faced-to-face again to do so. • Chapters 4 and 5 provide some of this truth they were lacking. 

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 A Pastoral Prayer 

Everything Came From God

• He prays to God to open a way for him to return to Thessalonica.

• He prays to God that He will enable them to fulfill the law of love in their daily

lives.

• And he prays to God for their ultimate safety at Christ’s imminent second

coming.

Application

“It is told that once a servant girl became a member of a church. She was asked what Christian work she did. She said that she did not have the opportunity to do much because her duties were so constant; but, she said, ‘When I go to bed I take the morning newspaper to my bed with me; and I read the notices of the births and I pray for all the little babies; and I read the notices of marriage and I pray that those who have been married may be happy; and I read the announcements of death and I pray that the sorrowing may be comforted.’ No one can ever know what tides of grace flowed from her attic bedroom. When we can serve people in no other way; when, like Paul, we are unwillingly separated from them, there is one thing we can still do — we can pray for them.” 

William Barclay, The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians