12/03/23 1 Thess. 3:9-13 “Hope in a Hopeless World!”

30 Nov 12/03/23 1 Thess. 3:9-13 “Hope in a Hopeless World!”

12/03/23     1 Thess. 3:9-13       “Hope in a Hopeless World!”

I would like to begin by wishing you a happy new year.  Many may be thinking that I’m about a month ahead of time for this but that is for the worldly new year which will also be my birthday.  But the church new year begins today.  We also call it the first Sunday of Advent.  And just for your information, advent is the season where we look forward to the birth of Jesus Christ.  It is a time of much joy and happiness.  For those of you who are rather sticklers for accuracy, you will not find advent in the Bible.  The Bible is the recorded history of Jesus and how Jesus came to be.  The New Testament talks about the birth of Jesus but not Christmas.  We developed the concept of Christmas around 330 AD so that we could celebrate our Savior’s birth.  Many people have come to criticize this because it might not be the real birthday of Jesus.  We don’t know His real birthday because the records were not that good so many years ago.  Another criticism is that December 25 was a pagan holiday.  Plus, there are many other complaints about our holiday.  But please just ignore them because this is just Satan flinging arrows at us again.  There is nothing wrong with celebrating our Saviors birth as long as we do this for the right reasons.  Jesus Christ came to this earth to save sinners like you and me.  If we cannot take a little time off to celebrate His birth, then there is something wrong.   So don’t let these naysayers spoil your celebrations.  Today, we are going to take a little look at a prayer from Paul that will hopefully help you to always be in great thanksgiving to the Lord.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I would like to begin with a quick history lesson on the holiday of Thanksgiving in this country which we have just observed.  Much like the term Christians which didn’t come along until later, the Pilgrims would not have identified themselves as Pilgrims.  They called themselves saints or first comers.  They only made up of about half the passengers on the Mayflower with the rest being members of the Church of England.  They also thought that it was dangerous to wash their bodies so they didn’t for the whole 66-day journey.  They had a very hard time after they first landed but they did rebound a little and celebrated their first Thanksgiving in 1621.  They served wild turkey, duck, geese, cod, salmon, lobster, mussels, eels and clams.  After their ordeal this far, they were extremely thankful to God for all that He had provided for them.  We still celebrate Thanksgiving today as we are grateful to Jesus Christ for all that He has done in our lives.  I hope you all had a very good Thanksgiving.

Before we begin, I would just like to update you a little as to just what Thessalonica was.  It was a city located in northern Greece.  It was a pagan city that worshipped mainly Roman deities and Greek gods.  There were a few Jews in the area and they persecuted the Christians but they really weren’t that significant in Paul’s writing.  It was a city located on the major trade routes of the time and would have practiced whatever religion they felt like as was the custom in Greek cities.  This makes it hard to understand why Christians were being persecuted so much.  Paul talks about their persecution and how they had remained so faithful.  This church was doing fairly well in spite of all the detractions and hardships.

We pick this up in mid prayer as Paul says, “How can we thank God enough for you.”  Think about that for a moment.  This is about as nice as you can say anything.  Whan Paul started this church, he was only able to be there for about three weeks.  Then the Jews who lived there ran him out of town.  Please understand that the Jews hated the Christians as much if not more than the pagans, Romans and other religions.  When their old religion, Judaism, persecuted them it was harsh.  They lost all standing in the community.  People would not trade with them.  They would not speak to them.  They would have absolutely nothing to do with them. That was the existence of the early church in Thessalonica.  Things were tough.

Now Paul is writing to them through Timothy’s knowledge from nearby Corinth.  Paul never gives up on any church.  He tries to be just like God and never gives up.  He says to these oppressed people, “How can we thank God enough for you!”  These people had given Paul and the leaders great joy when they had visited.  We don’t know exactly what happened.  Paul and company were probably coming from being beat down in another community when they landed in Thessalonica.  That was kind of how things went for Paul.  He would come into a community and preach at the Jewish synagogue.  Then they would throw him out of the synagogue so he would retreat to the pagan people.  Many times, and this was no exception, the people he ended up with were already quite poor and persecuted because they were poor.

These were the places where Paul would shine.  It only took him 3 weeks to start a church here because the conditions were just right for it.  In turn, the people would just love him because he came to them with the great message of hope.  He brought rays of sunshine where there was no sun.  They were learning what many of you know all the time.  Jesus Christ is always there waiting for you to come to Him.  He is always wanting to help them in any way they need.  Jesus will never give up on you.

Now I want to fast forward a bit here and ask if you have ever watched a young child.  We are very lucking in that we have a young granddaughter who is just at the age where she is learning everything.  She sees it and she thinks that she has to try it.  There is nothing wrong with this as it is just part of the learning process.   Most children can do many things on their own after they have seen someone else do it.  What they really love is when you praise them for doing it right or even just trying something.  They will just beam when you do this.  This is why you should always be complimenting children.  They love it and they learn.  Right?

This is the same principal that Paul is using.  These people have been having a tough time it with everyone after them.  They have been beaten down quite a bit.  But they have not lost their faith in Jesus Christ.  They still have it and Paul sees it.  So, he is in the process of telling what a great job they are doing because they are a great people.  It is easy to follow Jesus when everything is going smooth but it is a lot harder to follow when the times are tough.  How can he thank God enough for these people?

I would like to add one more thing to this as I look at all the people who watch this broadcast in one form or another.  I don’t know how I can thank God enough for you people out there in cyberland and all those people we visit on Sunday mornings.  You don’t know how much this means to me and I praise God for it.  I also cannot thank God enough for each and every one of you.  You are that important to this ministry.  Plus, you are even more important to any ministry that you are a part of.

Now in addition to all the joy these people bring to Paul and how pleasing they are to Jesus; Paul and his people want to see them again.  They want to do more than just write a letter.  But it was a little harder to get around in those days because, for the most part, they had to walk everywhere.  They wanted to come back so that they could supply anything they might be lacking in their faith.  Please remember that the Thessalonians were new to Christianity.  They were infant followers who happen to be doing a great job.

I know a little about this from experience.  I remember when I was a baby Christian.  Just about everything I did was a new learning event.  I didn’t know a lot of role models at that time so this is what I did.  I would listen on the radio to some of the great Christian pastors of our time.  I ordered 400 sermons by Billy Graham, which were great, by the way.  I listened to Charles Stanley and Chuck Swindoll.  These people taught me a lot.  I also read every book I could get my hands on about being a better Christian or anything to do with our Christian lives.  I also joined Bible studies and adult Sunday school.  Do you see the pattern here?

This is exactly what Paul is trying to do.  He wants to come back and shepherd these people some more as they are starting out in a new and wonderful way of life.  It will be a great life if they can keep on following the right ideas and people.  Paul was thrown out of many towns by the Jewish leaders of the day.  But that doesn’t mean that the people who started these churches didn’t still love him.  They wanted him to come back and many times he did come back to various places only to reinforce what they had already planted.  Paul is a wonderful source for church planting, preaching and modeling the Word of God, even to this day.  So, if you are faltering a bit, then turn to the books written by Paul.

As Paul brings this prayer to an end, he asks God for clearing the way so they could come back and visit.  He asks that their love increase and overflow for each other and everyone else.  Finally, he asks that God strengthen their hearts so they would always be blameless when they came before the Lord.  Paul has learned to pray with confidence that what he asks for will happen.

Speaking of confidence, once there was a fellow named George Mueller in England who had 2 cents in his pocket when he saw 100’s of homeless children.  He decided something had to be done about this so he started an orphanage with next to nothing.  It just grew and he helped and estimated 10,000 children because of this.  This was answered prayer.  George prayed a lot and he kept track of his prayers.  Records show that he had about 3000 pages of prayers of which his notes show, 30,000 were answered.

Once the children of this orphanage had not food for the next day.  A baker friend of his couldn’t sleep and he asked if he could bring the orphans some bread.  Answered prayer.  Another time the milk truck broke down in front of the orphanage on a day when they didn’t have any milk.  The driver gave the milk in the truck to the orphans because it would spoil if he didn’t.  Answered prayer.  Time and time again, 30,000 times in 60 years, God answered George Mueller’s prayers.  I think that we can all learn a little from this.  You would be very wise to begin a prayer journal.

Finally, he closes this with a most wonderful language as he calls for more love, he wants them to see the path, and increased strength.  These are things that they not only needed but we all need.  Usually, Paul opens and closes his letters with a lot of love and kindness.

Now this is the first Sunday of Advent and from what I can gather it is the Sunday of hope.  The reason that I chose this passage is because it has so much hope in it.  We have to remember that what we call hope in our world is not really hope at all.  Hope is not hoping about something.  This is what we do all the time.  We hope it doesn’t rain.  We hope my sermon isn’t too long.  If we look at all our worldly hope, we will find that all this hoping is doubt about the outcome of something in the future.

The Biblical term of hope means just the opposite.  Having hope is having the assurance that what God has promised will surely happen.  Now we have talked about this many times.  Has God ever gone back on His word?  Has He ever broken a promise?  God has never done any of these things and He is not about to start now.  His word is better than any promise of this world.  One of the things that is so very hard to understand for us is that you cannot have hope, or love, or faith if you don’t know Jesus Christ.  He is all of these things and much, much more.  You can trust Jesus with anything and everything.  So, today, I’m asking that you give up your worldly ways and join with Jesus.  If you have never done this, then confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him to live in your heart.  You will never be the same and you will be a far better person than you were before.

Paul was the master at motivating people for Jesus Christ.  If you look up some of his sermons, you will see this motivation front and center.  It is the same way with his prayers.  The world we live in is very harsh to say the least.  I could stand here for an hour trying to describe some of our problems and I still would not cover most of them.  So, why don’t I cover the solution.  As Paul states, Jesus is proud of you folks.  He is happy to help you in whatever you may want to do.  Please remember that there is nothing, nothing that Jesus can’t handle.  So, please, quit trying to solve things on your own when you have the very maker of the universe at your fingertips, waiting to help you in whatever you try to do.  Try to expand your prayer life to the point where you cannot wait to talk to Jesus.  Jesus will give you hope in all things.   He loves you and will answer you all the time.  Your job is just to go to Him in a prayer like Paul prayed today.  It will be that good.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.