2 Thessalonians 1:5-12 (part 2)

The Prayer God Always Answers

A sermon by Pastor Joe Haynes

Preached on May 10, 2020 at Beacon Church

Everyone expected her to win the gold medal in that Olympic race. No one ever thought she might fail to even finish the race. She had trained with the discipline and commitment Olympic athletes are famous for. She was the champion who had earned her way to the top of her sport. When I saw her fall I was horrified. Mary Decker set 17 world records; it took 32 years for someone to beat her time in the 1500 meter. But when her boyfriend carried her of the track that day in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, her tears broke the hearts of millions who had cheered for her. How sad—to work so hard and not even cross the finish line.

Last week we looked at verse 5, where Paul encouraged the Thessalonian church with the promise that God would “consider them worthy” of His Kingdom. Worthy of the coming Kingdom. That promise looks to the future; anticipating God’s approval, God’s acceptance. In verse 10, Paul showed us what we are looking forward to: the return of Jesus, “when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and marveled at among all who believe…” That’s the destination we need to reach; that’s our destiny; that’s our goal; that’s the beginning of glory, the first day of everlasting living, the party in the Promised Land, the great feast the angel in the Book of Revelation was talking about when he said, “happy are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev 19:9)! On this Christian journey, that’s the destination. In this race, that’s the award ceremony. But the fledgling church in Thessalonica faced violent opposition and persecution. They had lost people. Most of us haven’t had to go through that. But we know what it is to grow weary of the struggle. Nobody thinks of us as the spiritual equivalent of Olympic athletes. We’re the ones people expect to trip and fall and fail to finish the race. Isn’t it hard to focus on our final prize when we’re not sure if we can make it through this week? This morning, as we look to verses 11-12, there are three things about this prayer that show you how to make sure you make it to the finish line: When, what, and who.

When they prayed

“To this end we always pray for you…”  (2 Thess. 1:11 ESV). “We always pray for you”--These apostles prayed for the churches they planted, like Thessalonica--if it was like planting a tree, its enemies were damaging it, hurting it, trying to uproot it. But the tree had been planted. The church, if you will, had taken root--when they "believed the testimony" of these apostles, the Gospel they preached (v10). So they prayed that even in such hard times, through suffering, even still, these believers who had put their faith in Jesus when they heard His Good News, would keep on believing. That their faith would endure along with their love for one another (3). This wasn't a brand new prayer, it was what they always prayed for these struggling believers:

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,  12 and 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. (1 Thess. 3:11-13 ESV)

It was the prayer that they saw already being answered:

3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.  4 Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. (2 Thess. 1:3-4 ESV)

That’s the first thing we learn from this prayer: Always. It was the prayer they continued to pray (11a)--to this end... this is the second thing.

What they prayed for

“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power…” (2 Thess. 1:11 ESV). If the Christian life is like a race, the starting line was "when they believed the apostles' testimony" (v10b); the finish line will be when Jesus comes again (10a) and together with all His people, Jesus is glorified by them and in them. That’s the “calling” Paul talks about in verse 11—and the reason why they are suffering, the suffering Christ will avenge, which Paul details in verses 5-10. Elsewhere he described his own race saying, “…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14).  So when Paul says, "to this end we pray" he means they keep on praying these believers will reach the finish line. That’s what they prayed for. So now I have some good news, some bad news, and then really good news. Some GOOD NEWS: God will declare you worthy of His Kingdom (5)! We know this because when Jesus returns, He will be glorified in His Church (10). Some BAD NEWS. That future depends on you persevering.[i] THE REALLY GOOD NEWS. Your persevering depends on God.

So we need to take this to heart. Paul & Co. didn't look at the persecution this church faced and ask God to make it stop. They didn't pray their suffering would end. They knew that the Kingdom Jesus is building is already confronting the kingdoms of this world; they knew that the gates of Hell don’t stand a chance against the onslaught of what Jesus is already doing in His Church; they knew that for the will of God to be done on Earth means conflict with what the world wants. They knew that Jesus had said His followers will be hated because He was hated.

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. John 15:18-20

Maybe right now you really need to remember this: We follow Jesus. The suffering Servant.

Paul & Co. didn't pray the race would be easy; they didn't pray the road would be free of bumps and potholes and hazards: they prayed the Thessalonians would make it. They prayed for endurance; that these battered and bruised believers would persevere to the finish line. The glorious finish line. The future we glimpsed in verse 10 is like a gold-medal Olympic athlete taking his stand on the podium and inviting his little brother to come up and share the glory. But infinitely more amazing. Jesus invites His followers to share His triumph, receive His Kingdom, inherit His inheritance. So we run the race. Is it hard? Yes. Is it worth it? Your entire human existence, since your first lung-full of air, since you took your first step, spoke your first word--and everything God has brought you through since, is preparing for that day when Jesus will be glorified in you. This is the reason you exist. So these apostles prayed the Thessalonians would make it. But even better, did you know Jesus prayed you would make it too? He did: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24)

Paul, Timothy, and Sylvanus, were just praying for the Thessalonians like their Lord had prayed for all of His followers. Including you. But they didn't send positive thoughts. They prayed. First, they always prayed. And they prayed for this. The third thing we learn from their prayer is so obvious we might miss how important it is for us to always remember when we pray: notice who they prayed to: they prayed to God, for God to do something only God could do.

Who they prayed to

11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,  12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thess. 1:11-12 ESV)

Did you know that whenever you prayed, if, even for a split second, you were able to see even a fraction of the truth of who you are praying to, when you pray to God, your prayers would be transformed. When we pray, we pray to God. Full stop. Just think of what that means! So look back at verse 11, “that our God may make you worthy of his calling…” -- the subject of the verb "make worthy" is "our God"--He has to do it because only He can. Now before we get to more of the specific requests they prayed for, notice two more things about this prayer that will make all the difference and transform your prayers; two more ways this prayer keeps God at the centre, so that this prayer draws on the all-powerful sovereignty and love of God Most High: first, at the end of verse 11, they it says, “by his power”; then near the end of verse 12, it says, “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ”. Tell me, just how much power does this prayer rely on? And how much grace does this prayer depend on? The power of God. The grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. If you take hold of hold onto what this means, your prayer life will never be the same again. So drawing on all the power of God and counting on all the grace of God through Jesus Christ the Lord, they pray “that God may make you worthy…”; that He will do that “by fulfilling every resolve for good and work of faith”; that He will do all of that “so that” (v12) Jesus will be glorified in the Thessalonian believers. So first, let’s look at what it means for God to make you worthy of His call.

Do you think you are worthy? I think this is hard for most of us to answer. Has anyone ever asked you “what is your net worth?” For the last three years the founder of Amazon and the founder of Microsoft, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, have been the #1 and #2 richest people in the world. But what are they worth? Are you worth more if you can buy your own island? If someone “looks like a million bucks” does it affect what they are worth if they couldn’t actually afford the clothes they bought? If you try to impress by how you dress does that make you feel like you are worthy? Does your bank balance make you worthy? The word translated “worthy” here and in verse 5 has the basic idea of bringing a set of scales into balance.[ii] So one one side is “the call”—what every believer in Christ is called to; and on the other side of the scale is you. Matthew Henry points out that, “We are called with a high and holy calling; we are called to God’s kingdom and glory; and no less than the inheritance of the saints is the hope of our calling, nothing less than the enjoyment of that glory and happiness which shall be revealed when Christ Jesus shall be revealed from heaven.”[iii] How on Earth could we ever hope to become equal to the weight of that calling? The answer is that we can’t. But God can. As Henry adds, “Now, if this be our calling, our great concern should be to be worthy of it… and because we have no worthiness of our own, but what is owing purely to the grace of God, we should pray that he would make us worthy…”[iv]

We are only called by God’s grace; we are made worthy by God’s grace; when He has finished making us worthy—on that last day when we stand beside Jesus resurrected and transformed, ready to begin our new lives of immortal, everlasting, joy—it will only be thanks to grace. But grace does tip the scales. It puts an obligation on us, to live differently now: In Philippians 1:27, Paul used the same word here, “worthy”, and told those believers to “let their manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ”—he wanted them to stand together, to stand firm, because, “it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for his sake” (Phil 1:29). This means that when we pray for God to make us worthy of the call, we are asking for God to give us grace to endure anything for the sake of Jesus. Jesus is worth whatever we are called to endure. He is worth it, right? Living for Him is worthiness.

The way God makes these believer worthy of His call is by “fulfilling” two things at the end of verse 11: every resolve for good and work of faith. God must fulfill these things. He must accomplish them. He must bring them to completion. And it must be done by His power and according to His grace through Jesus. He must “fulfill”. That’s why we have to pray. Always pray. Every resolve for good. The word “resolve” is that same word often translated “well-pleasing”. Like when Jesus said it was “well-pleasing” to God to reveal Gospel truths to little children (Mat 11:25), or when the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is well-pleased!” (Lk 2:14) Or when Paul told the Philippians, “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13 ESV) We could ask if Paul is praying here that God will fulfill what is well-pleasing to Him or what is well-pleasing to the Thessalonians. But what really helps us know what Paul means here is that word “goodness”. It’s only used three other times in the NT: In Rom 15:14, this “goodness” comes from God by the power of the Holy Spirit working in believers; in Gal 5:22, this “goodness” is the fruit of the Holy Spirit working in the lives of believers; in Eph 5:9, it is “the fruit of light”—walking in the light as children of light. This “goodness” is a God-given love of what is right and good. In short, it is a God-given love of God. Like in Psalm 23, when David thinks about all the dangers and difficulties God had brought Him through in his life, that God had always been His Shepherd, and concludes therefore, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Because God. And so it’s the same with every “work of faith”. When we love the Lord, He puts resolves in our minds and prepares work for us to do; resolves and good desires He teaches us; works He gives us to do because of our faith in Him. This is not a promise, it’s a prayer: that God would do for these believers what only God can do—by his power and according to His grace—make them worthy of His Kingdom, fulfilling their resolves that seek His goodness; fulfilling the work they do in faith. Is this what you pray for?

If you learn to pray like this, God will make you worthy of His Kingdom, because God will fulfill this prayer, so that the name of Jesus will be glorified in you and you in Him. The end of this prayer comes back to Paul’s vision of the last day in verse 10: When Jesus comes on that day to be glorified in His saints! If you learn to pray like this, praying always, praying for this, praying to God, you can know that by the power of God almighty, and the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ, He will do it. You will be with Jesus on that day, and He will be glorified in you, and you will be glorified in Him. One commentator explained it like this: "The community of believers is God’s masterpiece…; the wisdom and skill of the artist are displayed in the quality of his masterpiece, which wins him the admiration of those who appreciate it..."[v]

You won't be the guy standing just behind the president in the photo op. You won't be the new girlfriend hanging onto the arm of the world's richest man. You won't be the person seen having lunch with a movie star. All these are futile and empty ways always fail to make you feel like you matter, like you're important, that you have worth, that somebody wants you. But if you pray like this—praying always, to finish the race and stand with Jesus on that day, praying to God! Then you will be one of the redeemed, standing with your Lord; you will be the Bride of Jesus Christ; there is no higher place any creature could ever wish to be than at the side of the Creator; there is no greater honour any sinner could ever hope for, than to be honoured by our Saviour; there is no greater love any longing heart could ever know, than to bask in the glorious affection of the Lord.