Praying for The Church
September 18, 2024
Pastor Bernard Ibrahim
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5,
Sprinkled throughout the apostles’ epistles to us, both primarily Paul, but also in Peter and John, is the emphasis that they pray and they instruct the church to pray. And here we have multiple examples in just a few verses of the Apostle Paul's prayers for the people in Thessalonica, for the church there, and his request for their prayers for him. And you'll see it sprinkled throughout these few verses several times.
This should be instructive. It was instructive to me, and should be instructive to all of us in how to pray for one another, how to pray for other churches. How to pray for the gospel as it goes out, whether at our church or through other pastors or missionaries. So we're just going to touch on the few phrases that you see here that are prayers or blessings, which are a form of prayers by the apostle Paul upon those who receive this letter and then his request to have prayers made for him.
Verse 13, “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you.” Notice that he's already talking about his prayers. His prayer, when in relation to this church is giving thanks to God. This was instructive to me. It's like, what do we pray for for a church? They give us four, five, six prayer requests in their letters to us. But this should be regular for us. We should always, as foundational, give thanks to God. He put us in fellowship with true believers. We hear that God is working amongst them. We give thanks to God that we have relationships with them, we know them and that God is blessing them, preserving them, caring for them, working through them his will and bringing to himself glory. So it's good for us to give thanks, it’s a great example, “give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord.” Because you see here that he's actually giving thanks because the gospel was effective there, and they (the word is first fruits), were some of the first believers to hear the gospel - definitely there in Thessalonica, but in the early church - and were established through the belief in the truth, or faith in the truth.
And then go to verse 17, notice it starts in verse 16, “Now may the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father…” What does he want for them? What is he desiring for them? Notice it's “comfort your hearts,” verse 17, “and establish them in every good work and word.” And this is a blessing and a prayer for them, his desire for them. And ours for our brethren is that their hearts would be comforted. There are many trials before the believers in this life. He knows that and his desire is that their hearts would be comforted in the light of eternity, in the light of the love of God, you saw that, and gave us eternal comfort and good hope. That means for the Christian we know our future unseen is secure in Christ by grace.
And then for the here and now, that we would be established or founded. We would be established, our hearts would be resolute in every good work and word. That we would persevere in the faith, living according to the light God has given us and what he has called us and saved us to. And we would be sanctified and that we would be an example and we would continue in that even as we are going through trials and our heart is being comforted. We have a duty to live as Christ.
Then verse one at the next chapter, the very next verse, (and he's closing the letter) “Finally, brothers, pray for us.” Notice that the Apostle Paul, even though he has had all kinds of success with him and his small band of missionaries, of impacting whole cities, churches were being formed and growing everywhere he went. It seemed that one, two or three churches grew up out of just a short visit, maybe a few months, a few weeks, maybe a couple of years. And churches were being established, the Lord was with him in great success. It was extraordinary throughout the Mediterranean Roman Empire. But notice what he's asking for, “Pray for us.” He took nothing for granted. He assumed nothing in the past was going to be able to carry him into the future; that the Word of God, the word of the Lord may speed ahead.
Notice that this term, ‘speed ahead’ is to spread, to move forward or race ahead, to accelerate, and that the Word of God would be honored. Or alternatively I think that another interpretation would be ‘glorified’, God would glorify his word when people are saved and hearts are changed and people are changed and you realize there is something supernatural about the change in this person and this person, and something supernatural going on with that group of people. They gather together every Lord's Day, something is extraordinary and extraterrestrial, it's not what you normally see here on earth. And that's how the Lord is glorified and his word is glorified so that the gospel will spread and be effective to the point where the gospel is glorified, and God is glorified in his Word.
Then he asked for a third thing, verse 2, “That we may be delivered from wicked and evil men.” Notice he's asking for the positive, that the Lord would go before them; that the spread of the gospel would accelerate; people would hear and have faith and receive and that it would be effective. And that the Word of God would be glorified and that they themselves, (as they are doing this work that the Lord assigned to them), would be protected from the opposition, from wickedness and evil men. He takes nothing for granted, and neither should we when we're praying for our pastors, or praying for other pastors sharing with us, or we're praying for our missionaries. These are fundamental that the gospel would spread, it would be effective, God would be glorified, his word would be glorified, and that they would be protected from evil men as they are spreading the gospel. Because once the gospel goes out, and is going out and being effective, that gets the devil's attention. Remember he has no foreknowledge. But as he scans, going back and forth across the earth, and he sees changes in humankind, a city here, a city there, a town here, a heart here, he becomes envious, angry, he is a liar and a murderer. And so the apostle Paul is saying, “We need protection from God, and we design that you pray for them.”
And then notice how he closes this section, another prayer for them, verse 5, “May the Lord direct your hearts.” Notice that he's asking that their hearts would be guided or directed to two things: the love of God, reminding them of God's love for them, it is fundamental for us to pray for our brothers and sisters and the steadfastness of Christ; their perseverance, their constancy, their faithfulness. He is praying for them to have their hearts guided by God's love. We need to constantly be reminded because the devil with his lies is constantly trying to separate us and cause us to doubt the love of God, just like he did Eve in Genesis 3, doubting his goodness and his love for her (the devil does the same thing to us). And he's praying that for them that they would be guided or directed in their hearts. For by the ‘into’, (I think it's a better translation) into the love of God, and into the steadfastness or perseverance or the constancy of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ.
My hope is that this would be instructive for you, brothers and sisters, it was for me. How do I pray for other churches? How do I pray for people I've never met before? You might think, Paul didn't know all of them even though he knew many of them. And how do I pray for other pastors? How do I pray for our missionaries? These are fundamentally good things to pray for when we're praying for others.
Pastor Bernard Ibrahim
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5,
“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and believe in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who loved us, and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
Sprinkled throughout the apostles’ epistles to us, both primarily Paul, but also in Peter and John, is the emphasis that they pray and they instruct the church to pray. And here we have multiple examples in just a few verses of the Apostle Paul's prayers for the people in Thessalonica, for the church there, and his request for their prayers for him. And you'll see it sprinkled throughout these few verses several times.
This should be instructive. It was instructive to me, and should be instructive to all of us in how to pray for one another, how to pray for other churches. How to pray for the gospel as it goes out, whether at our church or through other pastors or missionaries. So we're just going to touch on the few phrases that you see here that are prayers or blessings, which are a form of prayers by the apostle Paul upon those who receive this letter and then his request to have prayers made for him.
Verse 13, “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you.” Notice that he's already talking about his prayers. His prayer, when in relation to this church is giving thanks to God. This was instructive to me. It's like, what do we pray for for a church? They give us four, five, six prayer requests in their letters to us. But this should be regular for us. We should always, as foundational, give thanks to God. He put us in fellowship with true believers. We hear that God is working amongst them. We give thanks to God that we have relationships with them, we know them and that God is blessing them, preserving them, caring for them, working through them his will and bringing to himself glory. So it's good for us to give thanks, it’s a great example, “give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord.” Because you see here that he's actually giving thanks because the gospel was effective there, and they (the word is first fruits), were some of the first believers to hear the gospel - definitely there in Thessalonica, but in the early church - and were established through the belief in the truth, or faith in the truth.
And then go to verse 17, notice it starts in verse 16, “Now may the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father…” What does he want for them? What is he desiring for them? Notice it's “comfort your hearts,” verse 17, “and establish them in every good work and word.” And this is a blessing and a prayer for them, his desire for them. And ours for our brethren is that their hearts would be comforted. There are many trials before the believers in this life. He knows that and his desire is that their hearts would be comforted in the light of eternity, in the light of the love of God, you saw that, and gave us eternal comfort and good hope. That means for the Christian we know our future unseen is secure in Christ by grace.
And then for the here and now, that we would be established or founded. We would be established, our hearts would be resolute in every good work and word. That we would persevere in the faith, living according to the light God has given us and what he has called us and saved us to. And we would be sanctified and that we would be an example and we would continue in that even as we are going through trials and our heart is being comforted. We have a duty to live as Christ.
Then verse one at the next chapter, the very next verse, (and he's closing the letter) “Finally, brothers, pray for us.” Notice that the Apostle Paul, even though he has had all kinds of success with him and his small band of missionaries, of impacting whole cities, churches were being formed and growing everywhere he went. It seemed that one, two or three churches grew up out of just a short visit, maybe a few months, a few weeks, maybe a couple of years. And churches were being established, the Lord was with him in great success. It was extraordinary throughout the Mediterranean Roman Empire. But notice what he's asking for, “Pray for us.” He took nothing for granted. He assumed nothing in the past was going to be able to carry him into the future; that the Word of God, the word of the Lord may speed ahead.
Notice that this term, ‘speed ahead’ is to spread, to move forward or race ahead, to accelerate, and that the Word of God would be honored. Or alternatively I think that another interpretation would be ‘glorified’, God would glorify his word when people are saved and hearts are changed and people are changed and you realize there is something supernatural about the change in this person and this person, and something supernatural going on with that group of people. They gather together every Lord's Day, something is extraordinary and extraterrestrial, it's not what you normally see here on earth. And that's how the Lord is glorified and his word is glorified so that the gospel will spread and be effective to the point where the gospel is glorified, and God is glorified in his Word.
Then he asked for a third thing, verse 2, “That we may be delivered from wicked and evil men.” Notice he's asking for the positive, that the Lord would go before them; that the spread of the gospel would accelerate; people would hear and have faith and receive and that it would be effective. And that the Word of God would be glorified and that they themselves, (as they are doing this work that the Lord assigned to them), would be protected from the opposition, from wickedness and evil men. He takes nothing for granted, and neither should we when we're praying for our pastors, or praying for other pastors sharing with us, or we're praying for our missionaries. These are fundamental that the gospel would spread, it would be effective, God would be glorified, his word would be glorified, and that they would be protected from evil men as they are spreading the gospel. Because once the gospel goes out, and is going out and being effective, that gets the devil's attention. Remember he has no foreknowledge. But as he scans, going back and forth across the earth, and he sees changes in humankind, a city here, a city there, a town here, a heart here, he becomes envious, angry, he is a liar and a murderer. And so the apostle Paul is saying, “We need protection from God, and we design that you pray for them.”
And then notice how he closes this section, another prayer for them, verse 5, “May the Lord direct your hearts.” Notice that he's asking that their hearts would be guided or directed to two things: the love of God, reminding them of God's love for them, it is fundamental for us to pray for our brothers and sisters and the steadfastness of Christ; their perseverance, their constancy, their faithfulness. He is praying for them to have their hearts guided by God's love. We need to constantly be reminded because the devil with his lies is constantly trying to separate us and cause us to doubt the love of God, just like he did Eve in Genesis 3, doubting his goodness and his love for her (the devil does the same thing to us). And he's praying that for them that they would be guided or directed in their hearts. For by the ‘into’, (I think it's a better translation) into the love of God, and into the steadfastness or perseverance or the constancy of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ.
My hope is that this would be instructive for you, brothers and sisters, it was for me. How do I pray for other churches? How do I pray for people I've never met before? You might think, Paul didn't know all of them even though he knew many of them. And how do I pray for other pastors? How do I pray for our missionaries? These are fundamentally good things to pray for when we're praying for others.
Posted in Pastor Devotional