We’re continuing our series “Kingdom Called,” and we are working verse by verse through the book of 1 Thessalonians. And we finished last week’s passage with a bit of a cliff-hanger. The Apostle Paul sent young Timothy to Thessalonica to check on the new church. Paul was blocked by Satan. Paul was unable to go himself to Thessalonica, so he sent Timothy to make sure the church hadn’t fallen off the deep end. He wanted to make sure the church hadn’t, with Satan’s help, shipwrecked its faith. What kind of report did Timothy bring back? 

You know we’ve seen Paul already in this book describe himself as a mother, nursing and nourishing the church (2:7). We’ve seen Paul describe himself as a father, exhorting and encouraging the church (2:11). We saw last week that Paul felt “torn away” from the church, like an orphan torn away from parents (2:17). Paul has used all this familial language to describe his love for the church and his affection for the church. And like a good parent, he worries about the Thessalonian church. And he says in verse 5 [this is where we left off last week], “For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain” (3:5). “I had to know,” says Paul… “I had to know whether your faith had survived the attacks of the enemy.” “I had to know whether you were seed planted in rocky soil, as Jesus describes in his parable of the soils, which endures for a while, but then when tribulation or persecution arises, it immediately he falls away. Or whether you were the seed planted in good soil, bearing fruit that is thirty, sixty, and one hundred-fold” (Matt 13:20-23). 

And can’t you just see Paul agonizing in Corinth after he sent Timothy to Thessalonica waiting for a response? Can’t you see him aching with worry and fear and concern? Thessalonica is about 200 miles from Corinth. That’s about the distance from San Antonio to Houston. But unlike in our day where we could make that trip in a few hours. It would have taken Timothy weeks to get there and back and report on the church. So, for weeks, Paul agonized and fretted over the state of the church in Thessalonica.

But then, all of a sudden, the report came. And what does verse 6 say—it’s “good news”! I imagine that Paul wrote this letter, 1 Thessalonians, right after Timothy returned from Thessalonica. The report came and it was a good report! It was good news! Timothy tells Paul, “The church is doing good!” “They are holding fast to Jesus, even though their afflictions have been severe.” “They still love you, Paul, and they still love Jesus.” I can just see Paul in that moment shouting, “Whew. Hallelujah. Our labor is not in vain! Hallelujah, God has preserved his church and his faithful followers in Thessalonica!” 

Now let’s transition here. Let’s do a little thought experiment together here in San Antonio. Let’s say that the Apostle Paul had planted Verse By Verse Fellowship four years ago. Everyone with me? And let’s say he sent an emissary like Timothy to our church, because he was worried about us. Let’s say that Timothy came and observed us for a few weeks. What would he find here? What would he report back to the Apostle Paul? Would it be “good news”? Would it be a good report? Would it be the same kind of glowing report that we see here in verses 6-13? Would Paul say, “Hallelujah, our labor is not in vain! Praise God for their love and faithfulness in San Antonio!” Or would he say, “What is going on over there? What went wrong? What happened?”   

So, here’s what I want to do today, church. If you look at your notes, you can see the outline for this morning. And I want to frame this outline under the main heading “Let’s be a ‘Good News’ Church!” That’s the title of the message today. Timothy goes to Thessalonica, spies on them, and then brings back a report to Paul: Good News! But what does that good news look like? What constitutes a good report for a church? Well, I’ll give you four things in this message, and I want us to think through this practically for our church. What constitutes a “good news” church? So here we go… 

Four pursuits for a “good news” church: 

Write this down as #1. 

1) Let’s be a “Love one another” church (3:6) 

Here’s why that’s important. Look what Paul says in verse 6.

6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love 

Now that word for love here is the Greek word ἀγάπη. And that word ἀγάπη is the predominant word for “love” that is used in the NT, predominant but not exclusive. When the Apostle John says in 1 John 3:1, “Behold, what manner of love [ἀγάπη] the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the sons of God,” John uses this word ἀγάπη. When Jesus says in John 3:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,” the word used there is ἀγάπη. In 1 John 4:11, when John says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another,” the word that John uses is the verb ἀγαπάω, which is related to that noun ἀγάπη.

And so, when Paul gets this “good news” report from Timothy about the love that the church has for one another, Paul realizes that their faith is for real. God’s ἀγάπη love has been planted in them, and now that ἀγάπη love is starting to spread around to others. In other words—it’s working! Their faith is sincere, and it’s being evidenced by their love for one another. And even their love for Paul! Look at the end of verse 6. 

6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— 

Paul loves them; they love Paul back. Paul longs to see them; they long to see Paul back! Love in action… that’s evidence of continuing in faith. 

And later in this passage, when Paul starts praying, what does Paul pray for? Look at verse 12. By the way, verses 11-13 are a prayer offered to God by Paul on behalf of the church in Thessalonica. And part of Paul’s prayer is verse 12.

12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 

Now back to our thought experiment. Let’s think about VBVF for a second. If Paul sent Timothy here, what’s Timothy going to report back? What’s he going to say after doing a few in-depth interviews with people here? I think, Timothy would give a good report on our church. But I don’t want to be naïve as the pastor. I love this church. And sometimes pastors can be blinded to a church’s weak spots. Would Timothy, if he did a little investigative reporting, find some harboring resentment among our people? Would he find some unforgivenesses and bitterness that have festered and become septic? Or would he find ἀγάπη love, “you before me” love, Christ-imitating love in our midst? 

Here’s my point, church. Let’s be a “Love one another” church! What do you say? Can we do that? Let’s keep doing that as the church of Jesus Christ. 

Here’s another worth-while pursuit for us as a church. Write this down as #2.

2) Let’s be a “Faith in the midst of affliction” church (3:7-8) 

My dad and I were talking a while back about some of the ways that Christians are being opposed in our country. That’s been on the rise in Austin, Texas, where he lives. And we were talking about Jack Phillips, the baker in Colorado who has been sued and harassed by LGBT activists and even the Colorado Civil 

Rights Commission [SHOW SLIDE]. Well, Phillips’ case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and he won. But the Supreme Court’s ruling on the case was kind of murky, and didn’t really settle the issue despite deliberating on it extensively and writing a 60-page brief. And even after that ruling there have been repeated lawsuits and harassment directed toward Philips and his business. All because he refused to bake a cake that celebrated same-sex marriage. 

Well interestingly, there’s a similar case with a similar situation in the UK. And the British high court ruled unanimously in favor of Christian owners of a Northern Ireland bakery. This is Daniel and Amy McArthur [SHOW SLIDE]. And the British high court ruled quickly and decisively for this couple and their business saying that it’s wrong to compel a person to bake a cake that promotes a message that goes against a baker’s religiously held beliefs. This seems so commonsensical. I don’t know why our country can’t seem to figure out that religious freedom is important and worth protecting. 

And my dad and I were talking about the irony of what happened, because our forefathers left England centuries ago because of religious intolerance. And they came to America in order to be a part of a country that prioritized religious freedom. They wrote it right into the constitution. But now, Mother England seems to have more clarity about what religious freedom should look like than we do! How did that happen?

I don’t know. And I don’t know if that’s going to change or not. I hope it does. I told my dad, “Thankfully we have the constitution on our side!” “The constitution was written to protect religious freedom; it doesn’t say anything about sexual freedom.” Honestly, I think that’s why there’s such a push to ignore the constitution in our day or twist it in order to force it to say something it never was intended to say in the first place. 

But all of this makes me wonder, how many [quote/un-quote] “Christians” out there in our country are going to be able to stand up to the social pressure of stigmatization for actually believing what this Book says? Set aside our constitution for a second. What about this Book? How many Christians in our country are committed to “faith in the midst of affliction”? If Timothy came to our church, would he say to Paul, “that church is full of robust, committed Christians, who could withstand the tide of persecution and affliction if it ever came”? Or would he say, “That church is soft! They’re just following Christ, because it’s culturally advantageous? And when they can’t stand the heat anymore, they’ll get out of the kitchen!” What would he say about us? What would he say about you, as a Christian? 

Here’s what Paul said about the church in Thessalonica. He said, verse 7.

7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 

Paul and his fellow missionaries have experienced distress and affliction; some of that was probably psychological as they worried about the churches in Macedonia. At the time of this writing, Paul was in Corinth, and he had encountered distress and affliction there just like he did in other places (cf. Acts 18:6, 12-13). And the Macedonians were suffering affliction too. We saw that last week in verse 3. Paul sent Timothy to encourage the Thessalonians in the midst of their afflictions. Paul tells them, “For you yourselves know that we are destined for this” (3:3), that is affliction and hardship. And yet Paul says in verse 8,

8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.

Not literally “live” here, but figuratively. Let me paraphrase it this way. Paul is saying, “For now, we are energized, if you are standing fast in the Lord!” “For now, we are invigorated, if you are standing fast in the Lord.” 

The Greek word for “standing fast” here is στήκω (stēkō). It has a military nuance to it. It means to stand fast in battle and refuse to retreat. It’s the same word that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 16:13: “Be watchful, stand firm [στήκω] in the faith, act like men, be strong.” Notice too, in verse 8, that Paul says that they aren’t just “standing fast”… He says they are “standing fast in the Lord.” That is a very important prepositional phrase—“in the Lord.” 

The Croatian Reformer, Matthias Flacius said that “To stand in the Lord is to persevere and to flourish in true faith in Christ, wherefore the best fruit of all virtue is brought forth.” Paul tells the Thessalonians here, “You’re doing that.” “You are standing firm, standing fast in the LORD, and bearing fruit. And that invigorates us.” What more could an apostle (or a pastor!) ask for of a church? 

Look, I get this as a pastor. When the church is doing great, I feel alive. When the church is doing great, our elders meetings are great. We feel invigorated as elders. “It’s working! Our church is healthy. People are getting along. People are committed to the LORD, committed to the church.” But when things aren’t going well, it’s discouraging to us as elders. We feel the weight of that as shepherds. And we should. Charles Spurgeon told his church once, “I live by your spiritual joy. I suffocate on your spiritual indifference… I’m tied to you. I can’t help it.” 

You might say, “O you’re too emotional, Pastor Tony. Your emotions shouldn’t be so dependent on the ups and downs of the church. You should be more steady than that.” Yeah, maybe so. Some days I wish that was the case. But shepherds agonize over the state of their sheep. They fret and they fuss over the state of their flock. I don’t think there’s any way around that. I get what Paul saying here. He gets a good report about the health of the church despite the afflictions they endured and he says, 

8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.

“We are invigorated by the news of your faithfulness to Christ!” When people are demonstrating faith in the midst of affliction and standing fast in the Lord, that’s a sign of spiritual health. And that encourages us as elders. 

Write this down in your notes as #3:

3) Let’s be a “Pray with fervency” church (3:9-11)

Now Paul changes gears in verse 9 of this passage, and he stops talking about the good report that he received from Timothy. And he just starts praying for them. And there’s a lot of things that we can learn from this prayer. There’s a lot of things that we can learn about a “good news” church in light of this prayer. But there’s also a lot of things that we can learn about prayer from this prayer. Because Paul prays with fervency. And also, thankfulness.

9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 

Paul’s excited here. He’s filled with joy thanks to the good report he got from Timothy. And he asks, “How can we thank God enough for the joy that we feel?” “How could we possibly express the depths of our joy to God in the midst of our prayers?” “As we…” look at verse 10…

10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? 

So Paul is basically saying, “I’m praying to God that he might allow me to come to you and address your shortcomings!” That’s an interesting prayer, right there! The Thessalonians have come a long way, and Paul is proud of them. But they still have some areas for growth. Chapters 4-5 will tell us all about that!

Look at verse 11. Paul prays…

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 

Paul is praying for them in this letter, but he’s also modelling something for them. He’s praying for them, but he’s also showing them implicitly what they should be doing for each other and for him. He’s praying continuously, night and day. He’s praying for the opportunity to break through Satan’s blockade and supply what is lacking in their faith. 

By the way, Paul made it back to Thessalonica. He did. God answered this prayer of his. Do you know when that happened? Approximately five years later! It was during Paul’s Third Missionary Journey, five years later, that he was finally able to travel back to Macedonia to see the church in Thessalonica. Five years! That’s how long Paul prayed before God granted that request. 

Let me ask you a question, church. Have you been praying earnestly for something for years? Have you maybe been praying for somebody’s salvation? A family member or a friend? Have you been earnestly praying for that? Don’t quit! Don’t give up! 

Have you been praying for God to break a sin-pattern in your life? Have you been crying out to him earnestly night and day? If you haven’t, maybe you should start. And don’t give up! Don’t quit! Keep praying. And keep praying with fervency. 

If Timothy came to Verse By Verse Fellowship right now, would he find a fervently praying church? Would he find people who persevere in prayer, like Jesus taught us to persevere in prayer? 

Corrie Ten Boom asked the question once: “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” In other words, are you praying and asking God to drive your car, or are you just praying when you get into trouble? 

William Temple, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said once, “When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don’t, they don’t.” 

The great 19th Century missionary to China, Hudson Taylor said once, “Do not work so hard for Christ that you have no strength to pray, for prayer requires strength.” 

Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th Century preacher said this: “We should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a proper mood, for it would be dangerous to remain in so unhealthy a condition.”  

How’s your prayer life, church? How’s that going? Let’s be a “Pray with fervency” church! You might say in response to that, “How’s your prayer life, Pastor Tony?” Good question. It’s okay. It could be better. It could be more fervent. More earnest. Like what I hear Paul saying here in verse 10. 

10 we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith[!]

So, four pursuits for a “good news” church: 

1) Let’s be a “Love one another” church (3:6) 

2) Let’s be a “Faith in the midst of affliction” church (3:7-8) 

3) Let’s be a “Pray with fervency” church (3:9-11)

And finally. Write this down as #4. 

4) Let’s be a “Holy, waiting for Jesus” church (3:12-13) 

Paul continues praying in verse 12.

12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 

Now stay with me for a moment, because I want to share something technical with you. Paul uses a rare verbal conjugation in verses 11-12. He uses something in Greek called the “optative mood.” And the optative mood is used often to convey a wish or a prayer. Paul uses three optative mood verbs in this prayer: 1) κατευθύνω (“direct”), 2) πλεονάζω (“increase”), and 3) περισσεύω (“abound”). Paul uses this mood as a means of intercessory prayer. He just breaks out in this prayer before God and he lets the Thessalonians, in this letter, listen in on his prayer! 

And check this out. Here’s an amazing thing about this prayer. Paul makes reference in verse 11 to 

our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, 

Paul makes reference to two persons, God the Father and the Lord Jesus. But he uses a singular verb in Greek. … may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you

The verb “direct” is singular. So Paul sees God the Father and the Lord Jesus as acting in such concert as one God, that he uses a singular form of the verb. What we have here is an overt understanding of the Trinity, where Paul sees the first and the second person of the Trinity as working in such concert with one another, that he prays and uses a singular person verb to describe their activity together. 

And then in verse 12, he says, 

may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,

Paul directs his prayer in verse 12 to the Lord Jesus. Some of you might ask, “Can we pray to Jesus, or should we only pray to the Father?” The answer is, “You can pray to both. Paul prays to both. And you can pray to both with confidence that they are acting always as one God!” Because our God is one God who manifests himself in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. This uniquely Christian doctrine, the Trinity, separates us from all other religions of the world. 

And what I think is remarkable about verse 12 is not just Paul’s prayer that they love one another; we covered that already with the first point. But also, that they abound in love “for all.” My understanding of this is that the church should abound in love for all, for those both inside and outside of the church. Paul wants us to increase in love for unbelievers as well as believers! In the Thessalonian context, that would include even enemies of the church and those who oppose and persecute the church. 

Paul continues his prayer by saying…

may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. 

What an amazing prayer offered on behalf of this church. This is the kind of prayer that we should be offering on behalf of our church. You might have thought to yourself, “Wow this church in Thessalonica is great! They’re a perfect church.” Actually, no! There are some issues there. Paul is going to spend about half of Chapter 4 talking about sexual purity, which leads me to believe that the church maybe had some issues in that area. Maybe that’s why he prays here for them to have hearts that are blameless in holiness? 

If they were struggling with sexual purity, that would be understandable in their context… understandable but not excusable. It’s understandable because they came out of the world. Many of them were Gentiles that came out of the pagan Roman Empire that had sexual sin galore, so that probably leaked into the church.

Paul also spends some time talking about the return of Christ in Chapter 4. And there seems to be some theological confusion and maybe even some theological error that has crept into the church in Thessalonica. Paul tells the church in Chapter 5 to admonish the idle among them (5:14). Paul tells them to respect their leaders (5:12), so maybe there was a power struggle going on in the church. Paul tells them encourage the fainthearted (5:14), rejoice always (5:16), pray without ceasing (5:17), do not despise prophecies (5:20), and abstain from every form of evil (5:22). So, no, the church in Thessalonica wasn’t a perfect church. As I said earlier, they had “shortcomings.” Paul says, “I pray earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and address your shortcomings” (3:10). 

I’m sure the Thessalonians reading this were like, “Uh, thanks Paul, but could you pray for something else?” Yes, the church in Thessalonica had shortcomings; they had room for growth. But they were a “good news” church. They made Paul smile and praise God for their faithfulness and their love for one another. And Paul prays for them here to be a “Holy, waiting for Jesus” church. How about us, Verse By Verse Fellowship? How about us? Are we a ‘holy, waiting for Jesus” church?

Paul got a good report from Timothy regarding the church in Thessalonica. Paul praised God for Timothy’s report and breathed a sigh of relief. But if Paul sent Timothy here to San Antonio, what kind of report would Timothy bring back to Paul? What kind of church would Timothy find here? Would he find a “Love one another” church? Would he find a “Faith in the midst of affliction” church? Would he find a “Pray with fervency” church? Would he find a “Holy, waiting for Jesus” church? Would he find a “good news” church here?

By the way, some of you may have found that description of a “good news” church intriguing. And you might wonder to yourself, “What does Pastor Tony mean by that?” “Does he mean ‘good news’ like a church that produces a good report like Timothy’s report to Paul about the church in Thessalonica? Or does he mean “good news” like you know, the gospel. In other words the “good news” meaning the gospel has taken such root in their hearts that it’s produced gospel results and gospel activities in the lives of the people in the church. Well, actually I am using that term in both ways, as a double meaning. And I’m not so sure Paul’s not doing that too. 

You see that word that is translated “good news” or more technically “brought us the good news” in 1 Thessalonians 3:6, that’s one word in Greek. It’s the word εὐαγγελίζω. We get our English words evangelism and evangelical from this word. And typically, when that word shows up in the Greek New Testament, it’s a reference to the preaching of the gospel. Paul preached the gospel—εὐαγγελίζω. Paul preached the good news—εὐαγγελίζω. In the Book of Acts, Luke says repeatedly that the disciples shared the good news of Jesus with boldness—εὐαγγελίζω. And 1 Thessalonians 3:6 is the only place in Paul’s epistles where that word is used, εὐαγγελίζω, to refer to something other than the preaching of the gospel. Timothy brought the good news about the church in Thessalonica—εὐαγγελίζω.

So why did Paul use that word? Why didn’t he say what he had to say differently? Timothy brought to us a “good accounting” of what was going on in Thessalonica? Timothy brought to us “some good information” about what was going on in the church? I think Paul used that word intentionally. I think Paul was using that word to indicate a double meaning. I think Paul used εὐαγγελίζω to say, “Timothy brought to us the ‘gospel report’ of your faith and your love.” In other words, it’s not just that they loved each other. It’s not just that the church in Thessalonica was pressing on through afflictions. It’s that the church in Thessalonica still embraced the gospel and were living out the gospel in their lives. That’s the good report. They were a good news church. They were a gospel-believing and a gospel-enacting church. 

And to that you might say, “What’s the gospel again, Pastor Tony?” “Can you remind us what that is again?” Sure! I’d love to remind you. The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners, and according to the Bible, by faith in his death and resurrection, you can have your sins removed. And you can be freed from the penalty of sin and live with God for all of eternity. That’s the gospel. That’s the good news that the Thessalonians believed, really believed, and lived out. Do you believe that, church?