Eternal Encouragement - 1&2 Thessalonians
Lanse Evangelical Free Church
September 28, 2025 :: 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
The Lord is faithful. The Apostle Paul tells us that straight out in verse 3.
“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”
“The Lord is faithful.”
We know that, right? We sang it last week on Celebration Sunday:
“Great is Thy Faithfulness!
Morning by morning, new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me.”
We sang it this morning in “Jesus, Strong and Kind.”
“For the Lord is good and faithful
He will keep us day and night.
We can always run to Jesus.
Jesus, strong and kind.”
The Lord is faithful. We know this, but we regularly need reminded of this, don’t we? The Lord is faithful, but we are forgetful. So we need reminded, and we need reminded how to live because of the Lord’s faithfulness, and I think that’s what this little paragraph really excels at doing for God’s people.
So let’s study it together.
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
Last time we were in 2 Thessalonians, we studied chapter 2, verses 1 through 15 where Paul instructed this beloved baby church to “stand firm.” They were in danger of being shaken by deception and false messages about the return of Jesus Christ, and Paul told them, instead, to hold tight to the truth of the Scriptures that he had taught them. Stand firm.
And between that passage and our passage for today, Paul writes out this prayer for the Thessalonians that we studied before, from which we get our series’ title, and that we are memorizing together these last few months. 2 Thessalonians 2:16&17. Say them with me once again:
“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”
I’ve been trying to pray those words for all of you every single day for at least the rest of this year. And I’m planning to pray this for every family in our church directory this Tuesday on my prayer retreat.
That our Lord Jesus Christ himself (not His representative but Himself) and God our Father (through the power of God Holy he Spirit, our Triune God) who loved us so much that God the Son was sent to die for our sins and to come back to life to give us eternal life–by His grace (not by our works but by His grace), we have eternal life which is eternal encouragement and all the hope we need for all eternity!
This prayer that that the God who has already given us eternal encouragement would give us encouragement today and strengthen us for whatever we have to do today. “In every good deed and word.”
That must have been so encouraging for the Thessalonians to read in this letter!
The Apostle Paul was praying this for them because the Lord is faithful. And because the Lord is faithful, the Apostle Paul is now going to ask them to pray for him. Look at verse 1.
“Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.”
I have three simple points of application for us this morning, and they are all things we already know to do but can easily forget to do. Here’s number one. The Lord is faithful:
#1. SO PRAY.
Paul is praying for them. He has peppered both of these letters to the Thessalonians with short little bursts of prayer like chapter 1, verses 11 and 12 and chapter 2, verses 16 and 17. And he’s going to do it again in verse 5 of this chapter!
But this is also a two-way street. The church is not the only people who need prayer. The missionaries need prayer, too.
Adam, amen? For the last five years Adam’s picture has been on that wall back there, and he has sent us regular prayer requests from Tokyo.
Missionaries need prayer. Adam’s picture may be coming down, but there are still a dozen other pictures hanging there with people begging for our prayers.
Paul asks for this church to pray that the gospel would race around the world. Did you see that in verse 1?
“[B]rothers [and sisters], pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.”
He pictures the gospel message as being like a runner racing around the track, maybe racing in different directions all over the globe because of Paul and his friends. And then the gospel finds a glorious reception. Like the runner runs across the finish line and everybody is cheering!
Yes, this gospel is true! Yes, this gospel changes everything!
Paul says that’s how it was with the Thessalonians. In his first letter, he said that the gospel had rung out all over their region (1 Th. 1:8) and that they had “accepted it not as [merely] a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13).
The gospel had taken root in them and was changing them. And Paul says, “Pray that that would happen everywhere we go!”
Are we praying for the rapid expanse of the gospel around the globe? There are many encouraging signs about that. Many discouraging signs, too. As Paul said in chapter 2, “...the secret power of lawlessness is already at work” (2:7). But the gospel has power to change things.
And the Lord is faithful! He uses the gospel and our prayers to do amazing things in the world! The Thessalonians are “exhibit A” for that. “...just as it was with you.”
Paul also asks for prayer that he and he team would be protected from their enemies. Look at verse 2.
“And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.”
The gospel has enemies. Not everybody loves Jesus. Everybody may love Raymond, but not everybody loves Jesus.
Everywhere Paul goes, he gets into trouble for sharing the truth of the gospel, and so he asks the church to pray that he is protected. They understand this in Thessalonica because they are experiencing persecution there, too. They are getting hounded and pounded by their neighbors.
But they keep loving them. And they keep trusting the Lord more and more. And now they are called keep praying for protection for Paul and his team.
What are your prayer practices when it comes to missionaries and church leaders? Do you pray for missionaries? For the last two years, Jenni has faithfully printed out the prayer letters that we get from our missionaries and put them on this board out in the foyer. You can take them off and read them and ask for a copy to take home with you. And you can pray verses 1 and 2 for them! Whenever you see those pictures on the back wall, do you pray that the message of the Lord would spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you? Do you get a fridge magnet for the missionaries we support and pray that they would be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith?
But (v.3) “...the Lord is faithful.” So we can pray and ask Him to do amazing things our missionaries’ lives! And we can trust Him to do amazing things in our lives. That’s point number two. The Lord is faithful...
#2. SO TRUST.
Look closely at verse 3. “...not everyone has faith...”
“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”
That’s a promise! And when you find a promise from God to you in the Scriptures, the right thing to do is trust it. “[T]he Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”
Paul reminds them that God is faithful. He always keeps His promises. He’s demonstrated that over and over again on every page of Scripture. He’s shown His faithfulness every single day of redemptive history. He’s kept or is keeping every single thing He’s ever promised. The Lord is faithful. And He’s going to be faithful to strengthen and to protect His children from evil.
That doesn’t means that we won’t encounter evil. They were encountering it every day!
And it doesn’t that we don’t have to pray for this protection. Paul just asked them to pray for it for him!
And I think this building off of the last petition of the prayer the Lord taught His disciples. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Same exact phrase in Greek. “From the evil one.” (See Matthew 6:13).
But does mean that as we pray it in faith, we can expect the Lord to do just that!
He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
From his temptations. So you don’t have to give in.
From his accusations. So you don’t have to believe what he says about you.
From his attacks all kinds.
The Bible say that we have an enemy who “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” But it doesn’t say to be scared of him. It says, “Resist him, standing firm in the faith...” (1 Pet. 5:8-9).
Stand firm. Trust in the Lord and stand firm. Because the Lord is faithful.
I love how it says that the Lord will strengthen us. Paul just prayed for that, too, in chapter 2, verse 17, didn’t he?
“May the Lord...who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”
And then what does Paul say in verse 3? He will! He will strengthen you! The Lord is faithful.
That must have been so encouraging for the Thessalonians to read in this letter!
Do you need to hear it this morning. I know I do.
“The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”
“The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”
“The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”
Trust Him!
Who could you encourage with that promise today?
Tell the person next to you. Write it one of those encouragement cards. Who was the last person you sent an encouragement card to? Drop these words in a text message to a fellow Christian.
This is a promise for Christians. If they are not yet a real Christian, then it’s not yet for them. But this was true for the Thessalonians because they had received the message of the gospel and were changed forever.
They had eternal encouragement and good hope. And so they knew that “The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.” Trust Him.
“Jesus said if I am weak, I should come to Him.
No one else can be my strength. I should come to Him.
For the Lord is good and faithful.
He will keep us day and night.
We can always run to Jesus.
Jesus, strong and kind.”
Paul knew that better than just about anybody and believed that God was at work not just FOR the Thessalonians but IN the Thessalonians. Look what he says in verse 4.
“We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command.”
Now, that’s going to become the theme of the rest of the letter. Paul has some commands for the Thessalonians to follow, and we’ll get more into them next week, Lord-willing (see vv.6,10, & 12). But the main thing to see here is that Paul fully expects them to keep these commands. He thinks they are doing it and will continue to do them. Because the Lord is at work in them. And the Lord’s work will work!
Notice that Paul doesn’t say, “We have confidence in you...” though it amounts to it. He says, “We have confidence in the Lord that you...”
Paul knows that the Lord is faithful, so he knows that these Christians will be faithful, too. Which is point number three and last. The Lord is faithful...
#3. SO OBEY.
Paul fully believes that these Christians will obey and so they should.
In another letter to the churches at nearby Phillipi, Paul wrote that he was “confident...he who began a good work in [them] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phillippians 1:6).
It’s the same basic idea. How encouraging it must have been for the Thessalonians to read this and hear just how confident the Apostle Paul was that they were going to obey Jesus and follow His commands! I’m sure it was a motivation for them to do just that. We don’t have to obey on our own. We obey because the Lord is at work in us, and His work will work. The Lord is faithful, so obey.
Where is this hard for you right now? What commands are you, perhaps, struggling to obey today? Because it’s not always easy to obey, is it?
Colossians 3:13. “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
Ephesians 5:3-4. “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.”
Luke 6:35. “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”
Philippians 4:4-6. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Obey!
Not out of your own strength, but in the strength that God supplies. “We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command.” Which includes working hard and not being a busybody as we will see next week.
Are you struggling to obey our Lord’s commands? Paul knows that it won’t always be easy, and that’s, I think, why he up and prays for them again in verse 5.
“May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance.”
What a beautiful thought! That the Lord would guide, lead, and direct their very hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. Some of your versions have “steadfastness” there. Like the front of your bulletin.
What a beautiful prayer! Lord, do that in us here at Lanse Free Church! Direct our hearts into Your love and the steadfastness of Jesus!
But what exactly does it mean? It could be translated like this:
“May the Lord direct your hearts to love FOR God and perseverance FOR Christ.”
So that would emphasize, God working in our hearts so that we obey. So that we love God and hang on for Jesus while we wait for His return.
And that’s quite possible. It fits with rest of the theology of the letters. And I’m sure that this truth has that effect either way.
But I tend think that Paul is praying that God would give this church a vision in their hearts of just how much God has loved them and is loving them and will love them and just how much Jesus endured for them. How He persevered for them. How He was steadfast for them. How He endured the Cross, scorning its shame for them.
“Lord, direct their hearts to see that! Strengthen their hearts once again with their eternal encouragement and good hope with Your love and by your grace.”
And if our hearts are full of that then of course we will obey.
Show us, Lord, just how faithful you are.
Again! We know it, but we lose sight of it. The Lord is faithful, but we are forgetful. So we ask the Lord to remind us again and again. So that we pray for missionaries and for each other that the gospel would race around the world and change lives like it has ours. So that missionaries and churches are delivered from wicked and evil men. So that we trust in the promises of God to strengthen and protect us from the evil one. And so that we obey, because God is at work in us, and His work will work.
Because the Lord is faithful.
***
1 Thessalonians
01. "To the Church of the Thessalonians" - 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
02. "We Loved You So Much" - 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16
03. "You Are Our Glory and Joy" - 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13
04. "Do This More and More" - 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
05. "Encourage Each Other With These Words" - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
06. “We Belong to the Day” - 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
07. "To Each Other and To Everyone Else" - 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15
08. "This Is God's Will For You" - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28
2 Thessalonians
09. "In Every Good Deed and Word" - 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
[Bonus Historical Message: "Forever: Hell" - 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, October 30, 2005]
10. "God's Judgment Is Right" - 2 Thessalonians 1:1-10
11. "We Constantly Pray for You" - 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
