He is one that knows the Lord Jesus Christ. The night before the accident, Christian had been memorizing a verse of Scripture for the school where he attends, and nearly every night his family gathered together for prayer. One can only imagine the heartbreak and the sense of loss as their nine-year-old son the next morning was taken out of this world through the accident. Sometimes we have the idea that Christian families shouldn't have trouble.
In fact, some people, some Christians, try to make their goal in life to be adversity free, to have no distress, no obstacles, no constraints. But the fact is that whether Christian or non-Christian, every person in the world faces difficulties. We are fellow travelers through this life, and trouble is like a shadow that dogs our steps. And so we must not try to wait until we have no more troubles to begin being serious about our purpose in life.
Troubles aren't going to get perfect so that then we can concentrate on doing the will of God. Indeed, it is while we are in the midst of troubles that God is perfecting His will in us. Now, as if the normal troubles of life weren't enough, those of us who are Christians can expect additional afflictions from Satan and his world system.
The apostle in this chapter speaks about the tempter who is always going about seeking to create temptation for those who are believers, trying to get them to fall. Christians become the target of the enemies. Paul himself, of course, was in the midst of persecution and trouble as he wrote this letter to the Thessalonian church. Yet he wrote to encourage these, his children, in the faith. I thought this morning the way to approach this chapter might be to talk about how we can be encouragers.
God knows that we need more encouragers in the world and in His family. We need people who are committed to help others even though they themselves may be in the midst of pain, for the fact that is that all of us are in some kind of pain. Yet in the midst of our own trouble, how can we be encouragers of others? It seems to me the apostle gives us an example here of four encouraging actions in this chapter.
As the apostle seeks to encourage these troubled believers, the first thing he did was to send them a friend, verses 1 through 5. These verses tell us how, though he was left alone at Athens because of it, Paul nonetheless sent Timothy to the Thessalonian church. He says in verse 2, We sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no man may be disturbed by these afflictions.
For you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. Indeed, when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction, and so it came to pass, as you know. The apostle sent them a friend, this man Timothy, whom they knew. He did this on the one hand for his own benefit, that he might ascertain their own spiritual condition. Paul to his own sacrifice sent Timothy to them.
But as he sent Timothy, he not only wanted to hear back how they were doing, he wanted to impart something to them, and he explains what he wanted to do in verse 2. There were two purposes to the mission of Timothy. First to strengthen them, and secondly to exhort or to encourage them. That tells us what friends are for. Friends are to strengthen and to encourage others. The idea behind the word strengthen here is an interesting one. It means to support or to buttress up.
It's the kind of thought that you see illustrated when people are sandbagging a dike in the midst of a flood. They are seeking to buttress that dike so that the flood might not cause it to be breached. The apostle Paul wanted to be sure that the faith of these Thessalonians would not be breached by the flood of persecution and trouble that they were experiencing. So he sent Timothy to buttress their faith, to confirm them in their faith.
The same word is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Exodus 17-12 where it says that the two men stood beside Moses and supported his hands. When his hands might have gotten heavy as he lifted up the rod of God in intercession, the two men stood beside him to hold up his hands in support. Friends are to hold up one another. Often our concern is, who is going to hold up me? But in the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus told us the real question ought to be, who can I hold up?
The fact is that when we hold up others, we find ourselves being held up. Friends are also to encourage. This is that word that means to call alongside of when the Holy Spirit is called our Comforter. It means he is the one who has called alongside of us to encourage and exhort us. You and I are to do the same thing as friends of others. This is the picture of the coach who calls over the quarterback in order that he might exhort him or instruct him or encourage him in the next play in the game.
You and I are to call others to our sides and put our arms around them as it were and to give them that word of encouragement that they need for the next play in the game of life. We are to be there to give them courage, a word of counsel, a note of direction. The first thing that the Apostle did to encourage these believers was to send them a friend.
One of the best things that you and I can do to encourage someone else is to be a friend to them, someone who will hold them up and give them that word of encouragement in the hour of trial. Friendship, if it's meaningful, can be costly. Sometimes to be a friend you even have to risk the friendship itself. The writer of Proverbs says, faithful are the, do you know the next word? Some of you do. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. You mean a friend will wound me?
I thought a friend would kiss me. Well the writer goes on to say that you have to be careful of those who kiss you too quickly. He says the kisses of an enemy are deceitful, but the wounds of a friend, ah, those are faithful. There are times when you and I, because we are friends of another, must wound them. Just as when a person has suffered snake bites, someone has to cut that open in order for the poison to be drawn out.
So there are times when you and I have to come along someone whom we love dearly and give them a wound because we are friends. There are times when you and I interpret our friends doing that to us as being ugly, as being unthoughtful and unkind. But let's remember that if they've done it as a friend, they've done it to be faithful to us. The apostle sent Timothy to be a friend and thus to encourage these troubled believers.
In verses 6-8 I see the second action that the apostle took to encourage them. He assured them of his own love. You see Timothy had come from them already to Paul and had brought him some good news. Notice how he puts it in verse 6. Now Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us good news. Literally he says he has come and evangelized us. He has brought us good news of your faith and love and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you.
The apostle had received some good news from them. By the way, this is only one of two times in the New Testament when this word evangelize is used in another context than the gospel of Jesus Christ. Normally we think of the gospel as the death of Jesus Christ for our sins, his payment on our behalf before God of the price we could never pay, together with his resurrection from the dead so that he lives to save all of those who come to God by him, the gospel.
Here the apostle appropriates the very same idea of gospel, good news. He says Timothy brought us the good news that that gospel we preach to you is doing its work because there is faith and there is love that is proceeding from your lives. The apostle then says I want to tell you what you mean to us. He says in verse 7, in all our distress and affliction, we were comforted about you through your faith.
He says in verse 8, now we really live since, is the best interpretation there, since you stand firm in the Lord. The apostle here verbalizes the importance of the Thessalonians to him. Even as in verse 12 he explains to them how his love for them was increasing and growing. Paul says it's like a new lease on life to me, to get the word about your continuance in the faith.
You see these people were so loved by Paul that when he got this word of what was happening in them despite his absence, there was great joy and comfort that was brought to him. If you want to encourage somebody else, let them know how much they mean to you. Just be forthright and say it.
Sometimes we hint around about it and we think well surely they've gotten the message, but if you know someone who's troubled, let them know what they mean to you, how important they are and that will encourage them. Yesterday I had the opportunity to do this with Gene Jordan. I don't know how many of you know the Jordans. They've not attended here a great deal because of their ministry. Gene and Ruth have served the Lord Jesus Christ for almost 40 years together.
They serve with HCJB, the great missionary radio station in South America. In his early days, Gene had his own radio broadcast in Chicago over WMBI playing the marimba and the violin singing. When he and Ruth married and they moved to Ecuador to be a part of that ministry, they were there when the five missionaries were killed by the Auk Indians. You remember them, don't you? Nate Saint, Jim Elliott, Roger Eudarian and two others. They cared for the children of Nate Saint.
They held up Elizabeth Elliott during that time in prayer. In fact, two of Nate Saint's sons, one of whom lives here in Minnesota, dropped by on Friday just to see Uncle Gene. Ruth, Gene's wife, is a niece of two missionary martyrs that were well known in recent years. I don't know if they are today as much. John and Betty Stann, who gave their lives for Christ in China back in the mid-1930s. Quite a family.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to stand beside Gene's bed where he's dying of a brain tumor. And just to share with him how much he's meant to me through his ministry, including a ministry and a tape that Ruth gave me this last week. They just did a tape this last April down in Quito. On the tape, they did probably half of the numbers about heaven, not knowing, of course, that within a few months Gene would be there and shortly we believe God is going to call him home.
It's so important that we tell others what they mean to us and not in the hour when they're dying only. But every day to express to our husbands, to our wives, to our children, our parents, to our friends, to brothers and sisters in Christ, what they mean to us. Christian's father, as quoted in the St. Paul paper, said, I'm so glad. I'm so glad, he said, I kissed him goodbye.
When he did that, he didn't know that as he expressed his love to his son, that within a half an hour or so he would be killed in an accident. We encourage others when we assure them of our love and express that love to them. Now the apostle goes on beyond this and he does something else to encourage these believers who were suffering. He prayed for their growth, verses 9 through 12. He expresses his gratitude to God for them. His praying was characterized always by joyful thanks.
A wellspring of memories produced a continuous flow of joyful praise to God. And so he says, what thanks can we render to God for you? He says we would do this in return for all the joy that you give us before God. But then he goes beyond the thanks and his praying is characterized by a powerful intensity because look at the phrases in verse 10. He says night and day, he says, we pray. Notice the emotion here. Notice the fervor, the commitment, the passion in his praying.
Night and day he says we keep on continually praying. Most earnestly, boy that's an interesting word, most earnestly. It's that same word that is used in Ephesians 3.20. That's used again in this very book, chapter 5 and verse 13. That means to overflow all boundaries. It's the picture of a flood that comes and just washes away every obstacle in its path. He says our praying to God knows no obstacles. Earnestly we come before God day and night on your behalf. He prays for them.
You can encourage others by praying for them. Let them know you're praying for them and then do it. That's why we made missionary commitments a couple of weeks ago to pray for our missionaries. And all that ought not to be something just routinely done but something that is done with passion. When we come before God and we intensely intercede with no boundaries to our praying. Notice that his praying was characterized by personal requests. He asked for them. It wasn't a general prayer.
But he says most earnestly this is what we're asking that we may see your face and may complete what is lacking. Two specific requests that Paul says we're praying about. The first one is he says that we may see your face. And so he says in verse 11, may God and our Father himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you. He says may God make the path straight. He's already told us as we saw last week that Satan has thrown in some obstacles.
Satan has cut up the road so that it's unsurpassable for the moment. He says we pray that God will direct our way that he'll clear out these obstacles so that we can come to you. And he says we're praying that God may allow us to complete what is lacking. And so he prays in verse 12, may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another for all men. Just like any of us, the Thessalonians had some things in their faith that lacked.
They needed some shoring up and some repair work done. And Paul says we're praying that we can come to do that. This word complete is the word used for mending of the nets in the gospels. It's a word that means in the medical field to set a bone so that it will grow correctly. Paul says we want to come to you and set the bone. Put things in order. We want to mend and repair your faith. And so we're praying that you might increase and abound in love.
In love toward one another, he says, and really toward all men, even toward unbelievers. Paul is here praying that there might be a visible connecting link between the God who is love and his people. And that this link would so fill them with what God is like that other people would see the difference, that here is genuine love in this church. You want to really encourage somebody else who's going through a time of trouble, pray for them. Pray for them intensely.
Pray for them personally and specifically. Pray for them with joyful thanks. And finally, as the apostle seeks to encourage these troubled believers, he reminded them of their destiny. Verse 13. What we encounter in life in terms of our troubles has a purpose. And that purpose is our holiness. God is calling out a people to belong to Jesus Christ, and he is working to conform and transform every one of us to be just like him.
God is not concerned with our comfort so much as he is concerned with our character. And so God is well enough pleased to allow us to experience troubles and discomfort so that in the midst of those trials that burn at us like a fire, he can purify what we are inside. We might wish there were another way that God could do this, and I suppose if he wanted to he could, just like that. But God has purpose to allow you and me to suffer so that we might be more like Jesus.
God's work will one day be consummated when Jesus comes with all of his saints. In that day, in every respect, we will be unblameable in holiness. The idea behind holiness is not only purity, but it's to be like Christ in every respect. Not to be God himself, not to be deity, but to be like him in character and to be like him in body in that day when he comes. So in light of that, in the midst of our suffering, we can be patient.
We should not expect the perfection from ourselves or from others that will only come later when we're with Christ. We need to be patient with one another, recognizing that God is still at work in every one of us. We need to learn to overlook the mistakes of others, to forgive the slights of others, to give them the benefit of the doubt, to let them have the opportunity to learn through their experiences just as we did, perhaps earlier in our own lives. That's hard to do.
Because there's something about us that tends to want to judge others the more mature we get, but the more loving we get, the more we realize we need to give them room, give others space to let God work in their lives at His pace and in His way. I heard about a pastor who had to get up before his congregation a couple of weeks ago and say, folks, we just lost $40,000, and it was primarily my fault. I admire the way that he did it. He said, I blew it.
I wonder how hard it's going to be for the congregation to forgive him for losing $40,000 when they're already deeply in trouble financially. Well, there may be some things that need to be done there to better administrate the church. I don't know. I can't judge that. But I just know this, that when someone, whether in leadership or someone who is serving us, says to us, I blew it, we need to try to be understanding and be patient with them. God is still working with all of us.
Not only do we need to be patient, but we need to be pliable. When trouble comes, we need to be careful not to harden our hearts in bitterness against God. We need to be sure that our hearts are supple, that we are teachable, that we are willing to listen to the voice of God in that trouble. The apostle reminded the Thessalonians of their destiny, and thus he encouraged them. We need a whole army of encouragers in our church, in our community, in our world.
We don't have to be gifted or brilliant or articulate or extraordinary to serve God as encouragers. Nor do we ourselves have to be free of personal battles and perplexing problems in order to be encouragers. We just have to be willing and looking for opportunities. We can encourage others by being a friend, by affirming and listening, by counseling and healing. We can be an encourager by assuring of our love and expressing it, taking time to tell others how we feel.
We can be a friend by praying for the growth of others, asking God to do what is necessary to complete them and to mature them.
We can be encouragers by reminding others of our destiny as the children of God, to be forgiving and patient and pliable ourselves, and to point ourselves as well as them to the fact that God is still at work in our lives, but that for all of us the glory awaits, and that the suffering that we are now enduring is not even worthy to be compared to the glory that we shall know. As I close, I want to again underscore the fact that God has a design in our troubles.
God does not waste any experience that he allows in our lives, not one. Whatever it is that you are passing through today, God is desirous of using that for a wonderful purpose. Chuck Swindoll in writing on this text says, In our comfort-at-any-cost society, things like affliction, pain, persecution, hardship, and other forms of suffering are viewed as enemies. Many of us who are Christians are frequently surprised, even angered, when we have to endure such difficulties.
Unlike the message conveyed by Isaac Watts in his hymn, Am I a Soldier of the Cross?, numerous believers hope to be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease. But Swindoll continues, That is an unrealistic and unbiblical expectation. Repeatedly throughout Scripture we are informed that there is no escape from life's brutal blows. We are also told that we should not view all of them as unfair attacks against us. Indeed, our All-Good Lord has included suffering in His plan for each of us.
On the road to glory there must be some barriers to confront and some mountains to scale. Whether we like it or not, the path to the crown is by way of the cross we must bear. On this Thanksgiving Sunday, I want to encourage all of us to thank God for our trials, to give praise to Him for the troubles, to express our gratitude for the problems. And let that be the first step towards seeing them in the context of the road to glory that God has paved for us. Let's pray.
Just where you're seated, I wonder if you would quietly, within your own heart, give thanks to God for that which is your affliction today. Be pliable in your troubles. Let the Lord have His way in them. Teach you what He would. Let Him bless you in the way that He wants to. And be patient with your spouse or with that someone else in your life that now you're tempted to be impatient with. Father I thank you that you are the God of all encouragement and comfort.
That what you encourage us with, we can use to encourage others. Thank you today for our pain. Thank you for our problems, ones that we would not choose, ones that you have brought sovereignly into our lives. And we say have thine own way, Lord. Thou art the potter, we are the clay. And this week, even this day, make us encouragers of others. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.