Today we begin a short series, looking at the prayers of St Paul. What I hope we’ll discover over these 5 Sundays in January is a pattern of prayer that might help us in our own private praying as well as in our communal prayer times together.
The framework:
Today I want to look at Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians in 2 Thess 1. Here we find a two part framework of thought that forms the foundation for Paul’s prayer. He begins with thankfulness.
Thankfulness for signs of grace
But notice what it is that he gives thanks for. What do we regularly thank God for in our prayer times? How often is it thanks for material blessing? For good health, for the food on the table, for a promotion, for a new baby that’s just been born, for that new car we’ve just taken delivery of, or a new home we’ve just moved into. Perhaps we give thanks that some disaster has been avoided: a car accident where no-one was hurt, medical tests that gave the all clear, a safe arrival after a long trip somewhere.
Their faith is growing
But notice what Paul says he’s thankful for: "because your faith is growing abundantly." While it’s right to be thankful for God’s material provisions, how much more thankful should we be for the signs that God’s grace is being poured out on us as a church. So he thanks God that their faith is growing.
Growth is something we look for here at St Theo’s, I hope. But let me ask you, how do we define growth as a Church? We tend to think in terms of numerical growth, don’t we? And that’s reasonable. You’d hope that if we’re doing the right sorts of things as a church then the number of people coming would increase, converts would keep being added to our number and so the stats would be moving in the right direction. But still, that’s a limited measure of growth isn’t it? Just as important is the growth in the faith and faithfulness of the individual members of the church.
It’s particularly important in a year like we’ve just had when the numbers have dropped slightly, to stop and look around at the individuals in the congregation and see how they’ve been growing in their faith. I commented in my annual report on the way I’ve noticed certain individuals who’ve really grown over the past year, who’ve become more sure about their faith, about their ability to minister, about their commitment to Jesus Christ. And that sort of growth is worth thanking God for, because he’s the one who works in our hearts to produce growth in faith and faithfulness.
Their love is increasing
But secondly he thanks God that "the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing." Paul is addressing a church here that’s made up of a whole range of people of totally diverse backgrounds and interests. The church isn’t like a social club where everyone’s bound together by a common interest and social background. We’re an incredibly diverse group. We have all sorts of educational, cultural, political backgrounds, we represent the whole range of age groups in society. Yet the thing that characterises us, or should do at least, is the love we show to one another. "See how these Christians love one another" should be the catch cry of those looking in on the church. As Paul observes this church, as he hears reports on their progress, he’s struck by the love they’re showing to one another, perhaps highlighted by the difficulties they’re facing as Christians in a hostile society.
The grace of God is showing itself in their steadfast faithfulness under trial
Here his thankfulness to God is matched by his use of them as an example to others of steadfastness under trial. Not only does he thank God for them but he points out their behaviour to others so they too might be encouraged to persevere, so they too might give thanks to God for his graciousness to believers.
So the first foundation of Paul’s prayer is thankfulness for God’s grace. So let’s stop and think about what it is that we give thanks for. What is it that we treasure most highly? Jesus said that where our treasure is, there our hearts will be also. In this context we might add that the things we give thanks for may well indicate the things we treasure. If we’re to pray the way Paul prays, it might help to begin with the same things Paul begins with: with the signs of God’s grace in the lives of our fellow Christians. You’ll have noticed that over the past year we’ve been praying for the ministry of each member of the congregation week by week. The people we pray for each week are listed in the news sheet for that week. We also have a Parish prayer list that divides the members of the congregation into a daily prayer list. Well let me suggest that we could use one or both of those lists to pray not just for the needs of those people, but also to thank God for the signs of grace in their lives, for their growth in maturity, in conformity with Christ, in the fruit of the Spirit, for their perseverance in the face of trials, for their love for others, for the ministry they perform in God’s name.
The second foundational element in Paul’s praying is this:
Confidence in God’s vindication
When he says in v5 that "This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God," I think he’s talking about their perseverance under trial. He’s saying that it’s a sign that God is indeed working in them. That is, it’s a sign that their conversion, their faith, is genuine. It’s the sign that they truly belong to the kingdom of God.
Now we need to be careful here. There are some religions, perhaps even some Christian sects, who glorify suffering as being good for them. There have been times in history when Christians thought if they punished the body they could purify their souls. So they saw suffering as being a good thing. That’s not what Paul’s saying here. Suffering here is the inevitable result of standing up for Christ in a world that’s implacably opposed to him. It’s a sign that the Christian is standing in solidarity with Christ.
So when they persevere in the face of such opposition their perseverance is a sign that the forces of evil, those forces that are opposed to God, will not prevail. In fact the opposite is true: in the end, God’s judgement will fall on all those who oppose his purposes and God’s justice will prevail.
God’s justice for Christians
Justice for the downtrodden and oppressed is a theme that pervades the pages of the Bible. It’s also something that we as Australians claim to be big on. We get very upset when we see some injustice inflicted on those who are powerless, don’t we? It’s a common theme in courtroom dramas. A poor person is unjustly accused of some crime and their barrister has to prove their innocence against all the odds. But here it’s not just the poor and oppressed, it’s those who’ve decided to follow Jesus Christ, who have joined God’s kingdom that are being treated unjustly. And God says he’ll vindicate them in the end. He’ll "give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels."
There’s an immediacy in this view of the last days that perhaps we’ve lost over the last 2000 years. We’re more concerned today with the present, with the things of this world, rather than looking forward to the last day when Christ will return. But that means that we’ve lost something of the encouragement to persevere, to remain strong in the face of opposition that comes from a belief in the imminent return of Christ to bring us vindication.
God’s justice for those who oppose God’s work
Secondly the return of Christ promises judgement for those who oppose his followers. This is one of those passages that our modern liberal tendencies tend to react to. The temptation is to say that these notions of retribution don’t fit with a gospel of grace and mercy. We think, "How can this be reconciled with a Jesus who cries out on the cross, ’Father Forgive them for they know not what they do’"? But before we decide this shouldn’t have been left as part of God’s word, let’s take a deep breath and think about it.
The issue at point here is that these Christians have been persecuted and some even put to death for their faith. So there’s an issue of justice to be dealt with. Imagine if the judge in some high profile case, like the Falconio murder that’s awaiting judgement at the moment, decided that the guilty party had had such a terrible childhood that he wasn’t really responsible for his own actions and that he was now so remorseful and ashamed of what he’d done that he’d decided to give him a suspended sentence. There’d be an uproar wouldn’t there? How could such a judgement be considered just. What about those who were the victims of that crime, apart from the murdered man. How would their hurt be acknowledged, let alone redressed in a judgement like that? No, retribution is something that our hearts and minds actually approve of. Where evil is done we expect it to be punished if the world is to be a just place. In fact it’s the very fact that people get away with evil deeds that make us think that the world isn’t a just place. (Kerry Packer)
Retribution doesn’t go against the Christian gospel. The cross stands as a witness that God will judge evil in the world. It’s also a witness to his grace in providing the means by which we can be freed from that judgement. But the two must go hand in hand. God’s justice and grace meet at the cross. Forgiveness is never the product of a sentimental niceness. No, it’s the costly result of God’s love working in the context of his justice. What the gospel does say about retribution is that we mustn’t take it upon ourselves to avenge the wrongs done against us. Vengeance is for God to exact, not us. Only God can decide what’s just and fair and what isn’t and we can rely on him to do just that when the time is right.
But there’s another side to this persecution that, if anything, is more serious. That is, that the people who’ve been persecuting these Christians have been doing it because they’ve first rejected the God Christians represent. We see it in our own world so clearly don’t we? People think of themselves as totally self-sufficient, with no need for God. Those who have strong religious convictions are lampooned, written off as out of touch or irrelevant. I don’t know if any of you have seen ’Speaking in Tongues’ on SBS on Monday nights, with John Saffran and Father Bob Maguire. It’s a typical TV panel show. It can be quite amusing at times. The banter is quick. The two main characters are larger than life. But in the end, as Steve Webster comments in the latest Melbourne Anglican, they simply trivialise spirituality. Belief becomes something to laugh at, not to take seriously. The ’Speaking in Tongues’ of the title is portrayed as something unintelligible to intelligent people. The church is portrayed as more worried about catchy slogans on their notice boards than about the issues of real life. But of course John Saffran is simply echoing the attitude of the 90% of people who have no religious convictions, let alone any true faith in God.
You see, we live in a world where people would prefer not to know about God. In fact they’d prefer to think of themselves as God in their own little worlds. God has been rejected by this worldview but the end result of that sort of attitude is that when they finally appear in God’s presence they’ll want to escape it. John 3 says this: "This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed." On the last day God will give these people what they most desire. He’ll separate them from him and from his glory for eternity.
Well we could say a lot more about that, I’m sure, but we need to spend the last few minutes looking at the actual prayer that Paul prays for the believers in Thessalonica. He prays first:
The Prayer
That God might count them worthy of his calling
This isn’t a prayer that they might be saved in the end. In Paul’s thinking their calling means that they’re saved already. Rather it’s a prayer that the evidence of God’s grace might be seen in their lives. That is, that they might be growing in faith and service. That they might be exercising the gifts of the Spirit in their ministry in the church and beyond. That the fruit of the Spirit might be obvious in their lives
That God’s power might bring their good purposes to fruition
Secondly he prays that God’s power might bring about the good things that they’ve decided to pursue. The assumption here is that God is at work in them, moving them to want to do good things in his service. This is one of the signs of maturity. As we grow in faith we begin to look beyond ourselves, to think about what we might do to serve God in the wider world. You might decide to help with an Alpha course. It might be that you decide to invite the neighbours to a church service, or a dinner, or the service in Wattle Park. It might be that you decide to be more open about your faith in your work setting; perhaps making a stand on business ethics, or sexism or foul language. It might be that you decide to invite a friend (or a friend’s child) to youth group or kid’s club.
But the success of these sorts of endeavour will always depend on God working in the hearts of those we speak to or invite. So Paul prays that God’s power will bring their efforts to fruition.
That Jesus might be glorified in them
Thirdly he prays that Jesus might be glorified in them. The reason for the good deeds we do is not so that we might receive praise. It isn’t even just that others might come to faith. It’s also and primarily so that Jesus might be glorified. Those who serve God for their own glorification counterfeit the gospel. The ultimate aim of the Christian should be to glorify Christ and through him God the Father; to make God central not ourselves.
That they might be Glorified in Jesus
But ironically, when we glorify Christ by our lives the by-product is that we in turn are glorified. Not necessarily in this life mind you. Thessalonians in particular has a world view that stretches to eternity. In the end we’ll be glorified by Christ because we’ll be remade like him, made perfect, every taint and flaw removed, transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor 3:18).
And he finishes by reminding them that this will happen through the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Always that is our ground of hope. Not our own faith and maturity. Not the good works we’ve resolved to do. Not our perseverance in the face of opposition. No, it’s the grace of God that will see us through.
So how are we to pray for one another? With thankfulness for God’s grace being shown in our lives. With confidence that God is watching over us and will vindicate us in the end. What are we to pray? That God might see in us the fruit of his Spirit, that he might bring to fruition the good things we set out to do in his service, that Jesus Christ might be glorified in all that we do, and that in the end we too might share in that glory.
For more sermons from this source go to http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sttheos
