I should probably start by apologizing to those who are visiting with us this morning. I began pastoring here about eight years ago, and it’s been a blessed time. Then, in an unprecedented act of kindness and love the church voted a year ago to allow me to begin a sabbatical that will lead me to be away from Jackson for parts of two years as my family and I spend time in Louisville, KY pursuing a Ph.D. So this is the last time I will preach at this church for a while.

Because of that, I want to address this morning the members of this church who have become so precious to me. I hope that if you are visiting this morning that this sermon will help you see how amazing this congregation is and how gracious God has been to us as a church.

As I thought about this morning, I began to search for a text that I felt reflected my heart for you, and I think that text is found in 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13. As I’ve read and meditated on this text over the last couple of weeks, I’ve found myself feeling what I believe Paul felt as he wrote this letter to the believers in Thessalonica. Therefore, what I want to do this morning is look at this text, see what Paul is saying, and then I want to apply these realities to us as a church.

However, before we look at what Paul is saying in these verses that make up our sermon text this morning, we need to understand what has gone on in the verses leading up to these. As Paul opens the letter, he recounts his joyous time with the Thessalonians. He had preached the gospel there and had seen their lives transformed as they believed. As he preached, the gospel had an obviously powerful effect in their lives as they received the word despite great affliction. And even early on in their Christian lives they became examples to other believers as news of their faith spread out from Thessalonica through the world.

It had been a precious time Paul had experienced with these new believers. He tells them that when he was there among them, he was not only anxious to share the gospel with them but even his life itself because they had become so dear to him. He encouraged them continually, instructed them in the Word, and watched their lives shaped as they realized that what Paul taught them was the very Word of God.

However, according to Acts 17, persecution began to get severe. In fact, Paul was sent on from Thessalonica because of these sufferings, but those opposing Paul followed him there so that he was eventually sent on to Athens. Again, the people were so precious to Paul that he doesn’t look at this time simply as a period when he was forced to leave them, but as a time when he was “torn away” from them (2:17). And since that time he has longed to see them; he has longed to get back to them. But Satan has hindered him from getting to them.

So as Paul longed to see them and was hindered by Satan from doing so, he grew distressed, wondering and fearing that somehow Satan might have tempted them so that they shrank back from the faith they once professed in Paul’s presence. But Paul couldn’t let this building distress continue, so when he “could bear it no longer” he sent Timothy to them to find out about their faith, encourage and exhort them, and ensure that they would not be shaken by the afflictions that had come to them.

Then, to the relief of Paul, Timothy came back with great news. He came and reported to Paul that their faith was strong, their love was deep, and that they longed to see Paul as much as he longed to see them. And it is there that we pick up our text: 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13. And what we see in this text is a pastor’s heart for his people. First, we see that Paul’s life was clearly bound to the lives of the Thessalonians.

Paul’s life was inextricably bound to the lives of the Thessalonian believers (3:6-8)

We read in verses 6-7 that when Timothy brought news of the Thessalonians’ faith, love, fond memories of, and desire to see Paul (as Paul longed to see them), it brought Paul great comfort. He writes, “But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you – for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.”

When Paul received Timothy’s report, he was comforted. By saying that he was comforted “about you through your faith,” Paul means that he was comforted through the news that their faith was holding firm in the midst of their afflictions.¹ But why? Why was Paul so comforted about the faith of this people? Why had he been so distressed on their behalf in the first place? Why had he not been able to bear no word on their faith so that he had to send Timothy? Paul tells us that it is because his life was inextricably bound up with theirs. He writes in verse 8, “For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.”

The Thessalonians were believers in whom Paul had invested himself. He had brought the gospel to them, exhorted them in their early days, and walked alongside of them as he watched them grow in Christ and honor their Lord through their holiness. He saw them as a picture of the very reason why he was laboring. Their lives were the goal he was laboring for. In fact, Paul saw them as evidence of the fact that he had faithfully fulfilled his calling and that his labors were not in vain. That’s what he means when he writes in 2:19-20, “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.”

When Paul considered standing before the Lord and giving an account for the duties that the Lord had commissioned him to do, Paul did not envision pointing to education he had obtained, recommendations that had been written on his behalf, or praise that men had given him. He envisioned pointing to the lives of the Thessalonian believers, of saying, “Look at them. That’s why I’ve labored. They are my glory and joy.” Paul believed that when the Lord brought forth evidence to vindicate that Paul had labored well, that the Lord would be pointing to the Thessalonian believers. His life, his hope, and his joy was wrapped up in them. His life was bound to theirs. That’s why he had been so burdened by not knowing about their faith, why he was so overjoyed to find out they were standing firm, and why he was able to say, “Now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord” (3:8).

And, interestingly, Paul saw this as working both ways. When he wrote something similar to the Corinthian believers, saying that they themselves were his recommendation, he wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:14, “On the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.” Just as Paul pictured the church as a community of people who took responsibility for the eternal blessing of one another, so he pictured the church as being blessed for those labors. That is to say, just as the Bible expects us as church members to take responsibility for the salvation of one another, so the Bible teaches us that we will receive blessing for the products of those labors.

So Paul took responsibility to see them grow, and he knew that he would be blessed by God because of what they became. And he thought the church itself would be blessed by their labors in his life because of what he became by the grace of God.

Therefore, what we find in 1 Thessalonians 3:6-8 is a picture of Paul loving the Thessalonians deeply, being loved by then, and their relationship binding them so tightly that they knew that their present and eternal joy was wrapped up in their another. His livelihood was wrapped up in their persevering in the faith.

And I feel like I know what Paul is talking about and want you to know that. I want you all to know this morning, especially as my family and I are about to be gone from you for a while, that I love you deeply, and I see my life as wrapped up in yours. In God’s grace he has so fused my heart to you that your lives affect my present joy. When you are burdened, I am burdened. When you are overjoyed and growing in Christ, so I am overjoyed. And in the eternal perspective I understand this church to be the very evidence before God that I have discharged faithfully the duty which the Lord has given me.

Like Paul with regard to the Thessalonians, I believe that if I am to hear, “Well done’’ by the Lord it will only be because of the God-honoring lives of the members of Cornerstone Community Church. In fact, right before I finally settled in my heart that the Lord was leading me to go pursue a Ph.D. I had a conversation with my wife, wrote a meditation for myself based on 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, and sent it to Ray and Nathan. I meditated and wrote on this text because in those verses Paul writes that he does not seek letters of recommendations in this world but simply point to the lives of the Corinthians in whom he has invested his life. He writes that they themselves are his letters of recommendation.

Those verses are framed and hanging on the wall in my office. My precious wife had that made for me so that I would not forget it, and I want you to know this morning that I realize that my life is bound up in yours and yours in mine. And it has produced in me a love for you deeper than I ever anticipated.

I had a seminary class in my master’s program where the professor was urging us not to get too close to our people so that it wouldn’t hurt as deeply if we had to leave. I think if Paul had heard that professor, he would have been livid. He would have said that such a man who intentionally distances his heart from his people is no pastor. And I have not followed that professor’s advice. I love you, and it does hurt to leave. I think this is the road we’re to take right now, but it hurts even to think of being gone for part of two years because God has graciously united my life with yours.

As Paul moves on through the text, he notes that he can’t find thanksgiving fitting for the joy they give him before the Lord.

Paul can’t find thanksgiving fitting for the joy they give him before the Lord (v. 9)

Paul writes in verse 9, “For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God?” What Paul expresses here is that as he sits before God in prayer, he feels great joy on account of the Thessalonians, and he doesn’t know how to thank them. He can’t imagine how to thank them. They’ve provided him such a blessing that it is overwhelming to consider trying to thank him.

When I was growing up, I played soccer with a friend named Jeremy Bodager. Jeremy was an exceptional soccer player. At that time I was not really someone who was a great soccer player. I just ran fast and tried to be in a good place to score. But throughout that season the same thing seemed to happen every game. Jeremy would take the ball down the sideline, draw all the defenders to himself, weave through them, pass the ball to me, and leave me an easy shot so that I could score. And I did score a lot that season. In fact, there was one game where I scored several goals, and all my teammates kept talking about how great of a game I was having. My friends continued to talk about that game for days. My mom would probably even tell you about that game if you got her talking about my soccer-playing days. But what nobody seemed to realize is that I was being blessed because of Jeremy.

Jeremy was the one working the ball down the field. Jeremy was the one who would draw the defense to himself. Jeremy was the one that was making it so easy for me to score. And I remember thinking even at that time that I wanted to recognize him and thank him for the joy he’d brought me in playing soccer.

I think Paul’s situation parallels this a bit. As Paul thought of the Thessalonians, how their lives were examples to believers everywhere, and how they were the ones that stood before the Lord as evidence of his labors, he was overwhelmed. Their growth and holiness brought him so much joy as he sat before the Lord in prayer that he could not imagine how to begin to thank them for the eternal blessings they brought him through their lives of obedience to Christ.

Here too I believe I know what Paul felt. If my present and eternal joy and blessing are wrapped up in the holiness and perseverance of a group of people, I want it to be you. Now, I want you to feel the weight of what I’m saying because this is to me even bigger than saying to someone, “If I’m in war I want to be in the bunker with you.” What I’m saying is that if my hearing “Well done” from the mouth of my Lord is dependent upon the holiness and perseverance of a community of people, I want it to be you. There’s no other group in all the world I’d rather be pastoring because I can’t imagine a people whose lives have been shaped by God’s grace more than you.

I find myself often overwhelmed before God and even brought to tears because I cannot believe who he’s made you. It is because I love you and believe that my joy before God is wrapped up in the obedience of the people whom I oversee that I want to labor here the rest of my life. O that God would grant that. As I consider that my obedience to the Lord’s calling on my life could be vindicated in pointing to your lives I want to say, “That’s not fair. I have it too good.” Ray, Nathan, Chad, and I are the most blessed pastors in all the world.

And, like Paul, I don’t know how to thank you adequately for allowing your lives to be shaped by God’s grace through his gospel. I don’t know how to thank you enough for the joy you give me before God. This reality is no doubt why Paul begins this letter saying that he gives thanks to God always for tem as he remembers their “work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:3).

The result for Paul is that he wants to labor more for them so that they might grow in the faith (v. 10)

As we continue Paul’s thought from verse 9 into verse 10, he writes, “For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see your face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?” (vv. 9-10).

This joy before God he feels for them and this deep love he has for them leads him long to be with them face to face so that he himself might personally supply whatever might be lacking in their faith. He wants to be the one to get to invest in them. This is the product of this kind of love and unity that God puts in his people.

In the same way, I read this and think, “Yes, this is why I want to get back to this church when I finish my course work in Louisville.” Because of my love for you and my life being bound to yours, I want to have the privilege of laboring personally in your lives so that you grow in holiness and faith. I not only want you to learn the Word, I want to be the one who gets to teach it to you. And I want you to know that longing in my heart. Just as I don’t think of myself as a professional dad who can go and parent any kids anywhere but specifically Michael, Marie, and Luke’s dad, so I do not see myself as some professional pastor who could just as easily labor anywhere else. God has bound my heart to you, and by God’s rich grace I am a pastor of Cornerstone Community Church. I wish each of you could know the joy that reality gives me. I think it’s the joy Paul writes in this letter.

But Paul continues, finally praying for them.

Paul prays that God would bring him to the Thessalonians and would increase their love for one another (vv. 11-13)

As Paul concludes this section he prays, writing in verses 11-13, “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”

Paul had longed to see the Thessalonians, and Satan had hindered him from coming to them to this point. Therefore, Paul prays God himself and his Lord Jesus Christ would direct him to them. Though Paul knew that Satan was hindering him, he also knew that God was greater, and so he appeals to his great God to bring him to the Thessalonians.

Then, he prays for their love to increase. Now, why would he pray for this? Why would he choose this? I believe it’s because Paul knew that believers’ love for one another in the church is the basis for holiness. You see, he knew that perseverance in obedience and faith was demanded and that this would happen only as the believers exhorted one another every day so that they might not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:12-14). Therefore, if persevering holiness is dependent upon the community investing in one another’s lives, then their love for one another was crucial. Their love for one another was the key basis for their holiness.

This is why Paul prays that their love would abound “so that God might establish their hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (v. 13). Love among believers is the basis for holiness among believers.

Therefore, I want to end with a pledge and request. My pledge is that I will indeed pray that God will bring us back together. I will pray that God would allow nothing to stand in the way of my return here. I want to spend the rest of my life laboring among you and will pray that God will grant that desire. And I ask you to pray the same.

I tell you I will pray to assure your hearts and ask you to pray to assure mine. Pray that you will still want me to return in two years, please! Let us pray together that nothing would hinder our reunion. And, second, I pledge to pray that your love for one another will grow and be expressed continually among this body, and I ask you to do the same. I’ve known and seen your love for me and one another. And I want to assure you of my deep love for you, but I also urge us to pray that this love might increase even through this trying time.

This morning it has been my desire to make clear to you my love for you, commitment to you, joy on account of you, thanks for you, longing to be with you, and my commitment to pray for you. I hope you have heard it. And if you have, then there is no more fitting way to celebrate our unity together than by coming to the table. After all, why would a ragtag group of people like us love each other to the point that we would tie our eternal hopes to one another? The only answer is that we have believed the same gospel and have been united to the one Christ. Therefore, let us celebrate our fellowship in Christ as we come to the table. Amen.

¹F. F. Bruce, 1-2 Thessalonians: Word Biblical Commentary, 67.

SINCERE LOVE, SUPPLICATION, AND A SABBATICAL