Now We Really Live!

Can I invite you to turn, then, to the passage of Scripture that was read for us in 1 Thessalonians 3?

It’s always somewhat arbitrary to suggest that we know the way in which one of these New Testament letters breaks up. And when we finally get to heaven and meet the author, we will find out just how accurate we were. But it would appear that we have been in a section here that begins at 2:17, where Paul has begun to respond to the charge leveled against he and his colleagues that although they had been keen to see this church begun in Thessalonica, that they had pretty well bailed out and left them on their own. And from 2:17 through the end of chapter 3, he has been answering that charge. He’s been letting it be known that he has not neglected them, that he certainly has not forgotten them. And he’s explained to them in verse 17 and following of chapter 2 that he had left with great reluctance; also, that they had made unsuccessful, [repeated] attempts to return. Then, as we saw last time, he had, because of his great concern for them, dispatched Timothy to them. And then, as we’re going to discover this evening, he had been overjoyed by the news which Timothy brought. And then, finally, at the end of the chapter, he wanted them to know that he had been praying for them.

And before we begin the section which leads us to 4:1, in which we receive some very practical instructions concerning Christian behavior, we look for a final time at these verses, which allow us, we’ve said, to understand how it is that pastors should treat the gospel and treat the church and how, in turn, the church should look to those in leadership for guidance and for their care and for their prayer.

In studying these verses—the second half of chapter three—I was asking myself, “What are we able to learn from this?” It’s essentially a matter of practical instruction rather than doctrinal import, as we were considering this morning. And I want to suggest to you that there are three areas for our consideration: that here we’re going to learn about keeping in contact, about making an impact, and about learning to react.

Keeping in Contact

So, first of all, then, a lesson in keeping in contact. You may recall that last time, we noted how Paul, driven by what we said was an unbearable suspense and by a genuine affection, had sent Timothy to find out about the condition of the Thessalonian believers. And it was, as he said in 3:1, when they “could stand it no longer,” they decided that they would rather have the loneliness of life in Thessalonica for the prospect of the news which would come back to them concerning what was happening to these folks.

And his concern was about the things that really matter. He tells us that in sending Timothy, he was not simply concerned to find out how their lives in general were going, but expressly, he says in a phrase there in verse 5, “I sent to find out about your faith.” “I sent to find out about your faith.” Because this ought to be the great concern in pastoral ministry—not that other things are irrelevant, not that they’re ultimately unimportant, but that they are all finally subservient to the great issues of our Christian faith and testimony. And as he waits for the news of Timothy’s return and all that he will learn of the church in Thessalonica, he is concerned about the things that really matter. He keeps in contact, then, because of his concern regarding the issues of faith.

So much of our lives are spent focusing and thinking about and discussing issues with one another that, frankly, from the purpose and perspective of eternity, will really be seen to be rather futile. And it is a reminder here—at least to my own heart, as I observe Paul’s concern—to spend time in conversation with one another not neglecting, at least, the issues of faith. “Do you understand faith?” we might ask one another. “Are you growing in your faith? Are you making fresh discoveries of God’s goodness?” and so on. And yet when you think about so much time that is spent in casual time amongst the people of God, very often we neglect to encourage one another in these very same issues.

And Paul Simon years ago, in a song called “The Dangling Conversation,” writes somewhat cynically about the kind of high-sounding nonsense that passes for meaningful conversation amongst people writing in the late ʼ60s. And in his words, he says,

Yes, we speak [the] things that matter
With words that must be said:
“Can analysis be worthwhile?”
“Is the theater really dead?”[1]

And, of course, he’s pointing out that the whole notion of whether the theater’s dead or alive and the nature of analyzing conversation and syntax may be something for an academic institution, but it is not the real issues of life.

And Paul says, “We sent Timothy to you so that we might not only maintain contact with the right people but in order that we might establish and maintain our contact on the right level.” And he says now in verse 6, “Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and [your] love.” The word which he uses here for “good news” is the exact same source word as is used in the rest of the New Testament for the gospel, euangelizōmai. It’s the same word that is used of the good news of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his death for sinners. So clearly, this was good news. This was not a superficial issue for Paul. When Timothy came back with good news, it really stirred Paul. He was excited by it. It was an energizing thing to him. He was encouraged by the clear indication of God’s power and God’s faithfulness.

You will recall at the end of verse 5, he said that he was somehow afraid that perhaps the tempter might have robbed them of their efforts and that, in point of fact, it would have proved useless, the evangelism they had exercised in Thessalonica.

Now, with this good news that comes to him, he actually identifies three areas that are before us and are helpful for us to understand. He says, “He has told us,” first of all, “about your faith and [your] love.” What do we want to know about others in the Christian life? Well, we want to know, as we maintain contact with them, that they have a faith and that they are exercising a love towards one another.

This phrase is not unique to this letter of Paul’s. When he writes to the Galatians, in chapter 5, he says to them, talking about some of the externals and rigmaroles of religion, he says, “A lot of these things are frankly irrelevant.”[2] And then (quoting him) he says, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”[3] When he writes to the Colossians, in his opening statement, in the fourth verse, these same elements are uppermost in his thinking. He says to the Colossians, “We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and … the love you have for all the saints.”[4] Keeping in contact with them and learning of their faith and of their love.

Well, I wonder: As people keep in contact with Parkside Church, what do they learn of us? What do they learn from us? As people maintain contact with us as individuals and as Christian families, what do they know of us and what do they learn from us? It ought to be our earnest prayer that as people maintain contact with us, they may also hear the good news about our faith and our love.

He then mentions a second thing that is a great encouragement to him: he says, “[Timothy] has told us that you [all] have pleasant memories of us.” “Pleasant memories of us.” It’s interesting, is it not, that Paul would be concerned about how these people think about him? We often create a picture of Paul, and wrongly so, of some kind of stoic, almost heartless individual who is able just to get on with life irrespective of how others feel. We’ve been tempted, for example, to take his statement in 1 Corinthians 4 and to use that as something of a paradigm by which to judge all of his responses—where in 1 Corinthians 4:3 he says, “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.” And unless we understand exactly what he’s saying there, we may run the risk of assuming that Paul somehow or another has a cavalier attitude to the feelings of other people and to their response to him.

If we had nowhere else to which we might turn other than the letter to 1 Thessalonians, then we would explode that caricature immediately. He says, “We love you like a mother loves her children. We love you like a father loves his kids. We were gentle among you like a nursemaid.[5] And we were so thrilled to learn that you have pleasant memories of us.”

If we’re honest, we all care about how people view us. As we think about folks who have left our fellowship here, either as a result of a transfer or for some other reason, we do well to ask ourselves the question: As they reflect upon us, and as we maintain a measure of contact with them, whatever the source of their departure might have been, are they able to report back, “We always have pleasant memories of you”? We all have memories. Alas, some of us are better at making painful memories than we are at making pleasant memories.

Charles Simeon, whom we’ve been quoting with frequency in this letter, the vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge—he was the vicar there for fifty-four years in the first part of the nineteenth century—was marked, say the biographers, by “sweet, affectionate expression[s],” by a “welcoming tone of …voice,” by a “softness and [a] childlike simplicity.”[6] What a challenge, huh? Is that what your Sunday school class think about you? That you have a soft and gentle voice, that you have a welcoming spirit, and that when they see you, they remember your sweet, affectionate expressions? Is that the kind of memory we’re creating as people are welcomed into our church by those who greet at the doors?

We had a card from someone just the other Sunday, addressed to the pastoral team, which said, “It would be a great help if some of you would smile when you’re up there.” And the point is well made, and it’s well taken: that the only encouragement that I can derive from this character, Charles Simeon, is that he was there for fifty-four years—so that gives me another forty-two years in which to practice. And who knows, but if I were to last even half of that time, maybe God would enable me to make some pleasant memories.

Thirdly, he says, “In maintaining contact with you, not only do we learn by your faith and your love and by the fact that you have pleasant memories of us, but we’re also greatly encouraged to know that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you again.” Epipotheō is the word—an intense, passionate, agonizing, longing; the same word that he uses in 2 Corinthians 5, where he speaks about the nature of death for the Christian, and he says, in thinking of departing and being with Christ, he says, “we … [long] to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.”[7] We long to be set free from all the limitations and sickness and sin of this earthly body, and it is a great longing and an earnest longing within our hearts. That is the exact same word which he employs here. The yearning for reunion is absolutely mutual.

Christians of all people ought to be contact keepers rather that contact breakers.

I can’t remember the song—it was a love song—but it had the lines,

When will I see you again?
When will we share precious moments? …
When will I see you again?
When will our hearts beat together?[8]

That’s the concern here as he keeps contact.

Loved ones, let us just learn from this that here is a relationship essentially between a pastor disengaged from his congregation and his congregation. He longs that he might know about how they’re doing. His great concern is about their faith. Therefore, in maintaining contact, he’s delighted to know about their faith and their love, he’s delighted to know that they have pleasant memories of him, and he’s delighted to learn that they long to see him the way he in turn longs to see them.

Keeping in contact with people is important. Do you keep in contact with people? Do you still have contacts with people that go back to your school? Your elementary school? Your high school? People you met on vacation twenty-five years ago? Do you still maintain contact with them? Maintaining contact is demanding. Maintaining contact is rewarding. Maintaining contact is unspectacular. Maintaining contact is easily neglected. And simple pleasures and great joys are wrapped up in this element of genuine affection within the framework of the church and within the context of interpersonal relationships.

Christians of all people ought to be contact keepers rather that contact breakers. And church families ought to be the kind of places where there is a magnetic dimension that longs to maintain contact.

So, we learn something about making contact, keeping contact.

Making an Impact

Secondly, we learn something about making an impact. Making an impact. Because the result of the contact was impact. That’s the key that is opened up in verse 7, beginning with the word “Therefore”: “Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution,” something happened as a result of maintaining contact. There was an impact as a result of the contact: “Our lives were pressed. We were distressed. We were crushed by trouble. We were experiencing situations which were far from happy, and the news of you really jazzed us, really picked us up.”

The impact was threefold, you will note. First of all, he says, “We can breathe again now.” Verse 8: “For now we really live.” “Now we really live! We’ve been existing all the time we didn’t know about you. We’ve been holding our breath all the time, waiting to hear from you, to hear of you. Our lives are bound up with yours,” he says. “And we’ve discovered now that you are standing firm in the Lord, and consequently, we’ve been given a new lease on life.”

Isn’t this the great longing of Christian parents for their children? Isn’t this the great passionate concern of leaders for those under their care? Therefore, it should be no surprise to us that in maintaining contact and discovering good news, the impact would be, “Now we really live,” or—and I take it from Phillips’s paraphrase—“Now we can breathe again.”[9] You know that picture of holding your breath as you watch one of your youngsters struggle through some procedure, and you feel as though you’ve been holding your breath forever, and then, when it is finally and successfully completed, there’s a great sigh of relief. That’s the experience here.

Secondly, the impact is seen in the fact that he says, “We just cannot say thank you enough.” Verse 9: “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of … God because of you?” And back in 2:19, Paul had told them of their place in his heart. He told them there, he said, “What is our hope, our joy, or [our] crown in which we will glory in the presence of [the] Lord Jesus when he comes?” He says, “Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and [our] joy.”[10] And he returns to it here: “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy [that] we have …?”

You know, there’s not a lot better than the children’s definition of joy: Joy is Jesus first, others next, and yourself last. Jesus first, others second, and yourself last. Whenever we reverse that and put ourselves first, others second, and Jesus last, we live in the realm of misery.

And Paul’s great encouragement here is in learning of the well-being of those who are under his care. They had come through these various tests. They had performed, as it were, with success. They had come through, with flying colors, the concerns of verse 3, earlier in the chapter. And Paul recognizes how this happens. And so he doesn’t strut his stuff. He doesn’t preen his feathers. He doesn’t say to them, “You know, I want you to know what a fabulous job I’ve been doing in praying for you, and how grateful you should be that I sent Timothy, and how wonderful the leadership is.” No, he recognizes that while one can plant and another can water, that only God can make things grow;[11] that “he who began a good work in you will [bring] it … to completion [in] the day of [Jesus Christ].”[12] And when we ever see progress in those who are under our spiritual care, we ought to be humble enough to bow down on our knees and say, “How can I thank God for all the joy that I have in his presence because I see your progress in the faith?”

And thirdly, in terms of impact, the impact upon them is to allow them to breathe again, to overflow with thankfulness, and to pray with purpose. Notice there, verse 10: “Night and day we pray most earnestly.” Now, remember that this all stems from the “Therefore” in verse 7. The contact has had an impact: “Because we found this and this and this out, therefore, this is what has happened to us: we’re breathing again, we thanking God, and we’re praying all the time.” His prayer is continual; it’s not spasmodic. His prayer is personal; it’s not generic. His prayer is purposeful; it’s not vague.

He says, “We would like to see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.” His job is not over. The word which is used here is again a familiar word in the New Testament, katartizō. It’s the same word that you find in Ephesians 4 in terms of the responsibilities of pastors and teachers, who would be building and restoring and equipping the saints for the works of service.[13] And he says, “This is our responsibility now. We want to see you again. We recognize that there are gaps in your doctrine and there are gaps in your discipleship. There are things that are lacking here in your faith. And we know that God has given us the privilege and responsibility of ministering to you, and so we want to be able to come and to take the tears, as it were, in your nets as fisherman on the sea of life and to bring this restoring element to them—to take, as it were, the dislocations in your frame and to see them reset.” For the word that would be used of the work of the orthopedic surgeon or the work of the fisherman on shore repairing his nets for a further voyage is this same word, katartizō—to equip, to restore, to enable, to help.

John Calvin says of this, “From this it is clear how much we must devote ourselves to teaching. For teachers were not ordained only that in one day or in one month they should bring men to faith in Christ, but that they should bring to completion the faith that has just begun.”[14] And that’s why, you see, the ministry of God’s Word in teaching little ones in a Sunday school—in working with any area of life, frankly—demands painstaking devotion and a prolonged period of time. And that’s why your best teachers have usually been at it for a wheen of years. Because they’re humble enough to recognize that when they look back on the early years, as zealous as they may have been and as committed as they might have been, unfortunately, they were not as skilled and enabled as they have now become. And fortunately, they have been able to labor over a period of time so that those under their tutelage may eventually be well-formed. And one of the great challenges of being a teacher is having the patience to say the same thing again and again and again until finally the penny begins to drop—which is… You understand “the penny begins to drop,” don’t you? Doesn’t matter. I’m sure you do.

In other words, in the words of another song—this time the Carpenters just come to mind—you remember in the love song between them, as she sings, “Let’s take a lifetime to say, ‘I knew you well.’”[15] And that is exactly what it will take: a lifetime. It will take a generation to affect a generation for Jesus Christ. That’s why, barring some great intervention from without or some dreadful disruption from within, you dear folks are stuck with me. Because in twelve years, what have we really accomplished? Maybe laid a foundation. Maybe built a base. Let’s take a lifetime to say, “I knew you well.”

Learning to React

Thirdly, keeping contact, making an impact, and learning to react. We’re not responsible for the actions of others, but we are responsible for our own reactions. And Paul’s reaction here has been to rejoice, has been to thank, and has been to pray. And then, in verse 11, he breaks out into prayer. He’s mentioned in verse 10 the fact that they’ve been praying “most earnestly.” And he then all of a sudden expresses himself in prayer: he says, “Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you.”

When we overflow in prayer, we do well to pray specifically.

Again, he has three specific requests. Just note them and we’re through.

First of all, he says in his prayer that the way may be cleared “for us to come [and see] you.” Remember back in 2:18, he said, “We wanted to come and see you. I wanted to come and see you, again and again. But Satan put stumbling blocks in our way. Satan busted up the road. Satan messed it up.”[16] And so now he prays, precise in his request, specific in coming before God, “May God the Father himself and our Lord Jesus, may he clear the way for us to come and see you”—reminding us that when we overflow in prayer, we do well to pray specifically. “O Lord, we’ve been trying to get there. We’ve been trying to say this. We’ve been trying to see them. There have been myriad obstacles to prevent us. Now, Lord Jesus, heavenly Father, clear the way, would you please?”

Secondly, praying specifically that their love will overflow: “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else.” In other words, “May your love be that which emanates in ever-expanding circles and descends to ever-deepening levels. May it increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else in the same way,” as he says, “as we are finding that our love does for you.”

And thirdly, “May he give you inner strength so that you may be blameless and holy when Jesus comes back.” This great and pressing motivation of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ runs in one in twenty-five verses throughout the whole of the New Testament. The New Testament writers lived with a sense of the imminence of the return of Jesus Christ, and it was a compelling factor for them. And we’re going see that as we proceed in this letter. And as Paul thinks of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of the joy that is wrapped up in that, it is also an impetus to him, and he says, “Listen, we’re also praying that you might be strengthened in your hearts and, as a result of being strengthened in your hearts, that you may be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”

Well, there we have it: simple and yet important verses. A lesson about keeping in contact with the right people and on the right subjects—the kind of contact that makes an impact, and the kind of impact that teaches us to react, praying expressly and specifically for the well-being of one another, for those in our care, and for ever-expanding circles and ever-deepening levels.

Let us pray together:

Our God and our Father, we thank you tonight for your Word. We thank you for the heart and compassion of the apostle Paul. We thank you for the simplicity and wonder of his concerns, and we want to learn from them. We want you to help us, in an ever-individualistic world, to be better at keeping in contact. Some of us don’t do well even keeping in contact with our own physical family. Some of us are poor in relationship to our church family and to the family of faith. Help us.

Thank you, Lord, for the impact upon our lives of the contact that others have made. Thank you that we can really live, that we can be overflowing with thanksgiving, that we can learn how to pray. And Lord, we ask that you will write your Word in our hearts tonight. Speak to us as individuals and as a church, for your glory and for our well-being, for the salvation of those who do not know you, and for the strengthening of those who do. Thank you for loving us in the way a mother loves her newborn child. And in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

[1] Paul Simon, “The Dangling Conversation” (1966).

[2] Galatians 5:6 (paraphrased).

[3] Galatians 5:6 (NIV 1984).

[4] Colossians 1:4 (NIV 1984).

[5] 1 Thessalonians 2:7 (paraphrased).

[6] Hugh Evans Thomas, Charles Simeon of Cambridge (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977), 209, quoted in John R. W. Stott, The Message of 1 and 2 Thessalonians: The Gospel and the End of Time, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1994), 70.

[7] 2 Corinthians 5:2 (NIV 1984).

[8] Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, “When Will I See You Again?” (1973).

[9] 1 Thessalonians 3:8 (paraphrased from Phillips).

[10] 1 Thessalonians 19–20 (NIV 1984).

[11] See 1 Corinthians 3:7.

[12] Philippians 1:6 (NIV 1984).

[13] See Ephesians 4:11–12.

[14] John Calvin, quoted in William Neil, The Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, The Moffatt New Testament Commentary (New York: Harper, 1950), 70.

[15] James Griffin and Robb Wilson, “For All We Know” (1970).

[16] 1 Thessalonians 2:18 (paraphrased).