Word of Salvation – Vol. 43 No. 25 – July 1998

Eternal Encouragement And Good Hope

A Sermon by Rev. A. Esselbrugge on 2Thessalonians 2:16-17

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 55; 2Thessalonians 2:16-17

Suggested Hymns: BoW 198; 429; 417:1, 4, 5; 217; 522

Brothers and sisters, young people, boys and girls,

Prayer... praying to the Almighty God in the Name of Jesus Christ... talking with God, we often find it tough to get down to prayer.  And yet, when we read the Bible, we find that prayer should be as easy as sighing... as second nature as sitting down for a chat over coffee with friends.

Prayer can be relatively easy when we come fresh from exhilarating experiences... or when we find ourselves in a crisis with serious problems which make us aware of our need for God's help.  But day by day prayer, month in month out, often becomes something very hard.  When we read the letters of the apostle Paul in the New Testament, he often slides into prayer, even as he teaches great doctrinal truths.  How come he prayed so much?  Was it because he was an extra special servant of the Lord?  Was it because he was closer to God in Christ than we are?  Was he just, in other words, a better Christian?

I believe Paul prayed as easily as breathing, not for any of these reasons, but because the flames of prayer were leaping in his heart, feeding on the fuel of truth.

Prayer is a fire which needs fuel to burn and a match to light it.  If the fire burns low, we can fan it so that the flame may burn more fiercely.  But all the fanning in the world cannot create a bonfire from a single match, nor from a pile of dead, cold fuel.

Fire must come from above.  The Holy Spirit burns quietly in the heart of the Christian ready to light the fuel of Scripture's truth.  But the fuel must be there.  In Paul's case, he was soaked in God's truth.  He was so soaked and impregnated with the truth that it served as the fuel by which his prayers caught on fire.  He had a total, all consuming pre-occupation with the truth about Christ... and in expressing these glorious truths, he gives away his secret... the truths about Christ are the fuel which burns so fiercely in his prayers.

When we read Paul writing to Christians of the New Testament time, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, we see him so often explode into flame with his love and concern for them and his total pre-occupation with bringing the truth of Jesus Christ to them.  Read Paul and you will discover that the fuel of truth came alive and prayer was born.  If the fuel of Christ's truth hadn't been there, he wouldn't have had the wherewithal to pray!

You see, the Holy Spirit doesn't set an empty heart on fire... but rather an instructed mind.

If we are to pray... then we must soak our minds in God's Word so that the Holy Spirit may have fuel to light within us.  There must be plenty of fuel, not just isolated texts chosen at random.  Promises may catch fire quickly, but for a lasting fire we will need some solid knowledge about the nature and the character of God and of Christ and how Christ was sent by God the Father to intervene in human history.  Straw may produce a brilliant flash... but we need logs for a good long burning fire.  Let me put it another way.  We can't pray with depth without faith and hope.  If we approach a door expecting that no one will be at home, or afraid that whoever is at home will receive us coldly, we may not be inclined to knock more than once.  On the other hand, the fact that in the past we have been received with frequent kindness will give us the faith and hope to knock hard a second time.  In the same way, faith and hope in God, bring prayer to life and make it persistent.

If we want to know what it means to have prayers that burn with hope... if we want to knock at the door of heaven expectantly... then we need to fill ourselves with the truth of the Bible, affirm our confidence before God in the truth, praise Him for what He has given us here... and ask Him how those truths apply to us.

In 2Thessalonians 2:16-17, we find Paul in prayer... and just look at the fuel on which his prayer burns as a sweet smelling incense which carries his praise, thanksgiving and requests into the nostrils of God.  He prays for encouragement and strength...  but where does he begin?

"May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father...!"  He is very much aware of being in the presence of the Almighty... and then he moves into thanksgiving and praise... "who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope"... and only then does he briefly present his request to God.

The first and striking thing about his prayer is its emphatic recognition of Jesus Christ as being God.  Paul doesn't merely say. "May Jesus the man" ...he doesn't say, "May Christ the Son of God" ....and he doesn't say, "May Jesus Christ, God and man"... BUT he prays, "May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself".  And then he immediately links the "Our Lord Jesus Christ" with "God the Father."

Who is it that hears prayer... who is it, but our Saviour and Lord and our Father in heaven?  Paul with a mighty confidence and assurance of the truth of Jesus Christ enters into the presence of God.

Notice too, the order Paul puts things... Jesus first, God the Father second.  In the previous verses he's been talking about Christ... but the reason for this order is that while Paul wrote, he realises the importance of Christ to the Christian.  Congregation, we can't come to our Father in heaven without Christ!  It is in Christ, through Christ, by Christ that the Father comes to us... and we can go to the Father.  Anyone who thinks they can come to God by merely going to church...  who recites a form of words over and over...  or who thinks that by a mystical meditation of emptying the mind so that God can come in, will never meet God.  All of our faith and hope and strength and peace is in Christ, by Christ, and through Christ.

Notice something else about how Paul expresses things... "May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father... He who loved us and gave us eternal encouragement and good hope... may He encourage and strengthen you."

"He"... not them... but "He"... and the "He" is in reference not to Jesus alone, not to the Father alone but to the two united as one.  And here's a mystery which is expressed elsewhere in the Bible like this, "Whatever the Father does, so does the Son"... "I and the Father are One," says Jesus.  And here in these words shines the unity of action and yet distinction of persons between Father and Son in the infinite and mysterious Godhead.

So Paul prays for the Thessalonian Christians... and he presents his prayer directly through the Saviour and the Lord Jesus to God the Father in heaven.

But before he can present his requests, there springs up before him the implication of what he has just said.  "Our Lord and our Father"... how can He be ours... ah, but He loved us and gave us eternal life.  All the time Paul comes back to his foundations...  to the starting point of glory for all Christians... all the time he is drawn into the shadow of the cross and the mouth of an empty tomb.  The greatest truth of the gospel... the truth that is the fuel for his prayers.  He loves us... He gave eternal life... and in a few words Paul has painted again that grand event in history.

Christ came.  Christ died.  Christ rose again.  And all our sins have been laid on His head... and God the Father has declared to you and all who believe... in My Son I declare you to be clean, and I accept you as My child... no longer will I punish you for all that you have done or will do wrong... I have poured out My anger on My only Son.  I loved you before, so I sent Him into the world so that you would have eternal life.  At the expense of My Son I pour out My riches and eternal encouragement on you who believe.

Congregation, if you can't pray like Paul... if you're down and need lifting up... if you're feeling like things are hopeless and you're on the road to despair, if you experience moments of unexplained fear... or cry often for no reason at all... listen to me now... I pray that the love of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God the Father will pierce your heart so that you will come to know the truth of the Bible so that you, too, will be set on fire... that you will see and receive the grace of God and receive the eternal encouragement and good hope of knowing that you, too, are forever blessed and safe with God in Christ.

Congregation, the gift of Jesus Christ is the only way to receive eternal encouragement and good hope.  He is offered freely to all... simply repent and believe and you shall be saved.

There is only one source of comfort and encouragement.  There is only one person from whom we can have peace that will last through this life and forever after.  Because that source and person is an unchanging Christ who communicates unfailing gifts of patience and insight... and because it leads to an eternal blessedness... it is called "eternal encouragement.'

Because the Cross and Christ are the foundation of all that is good and eternal... and is the only promise of good in the future and in eternity, we have a good hope in Christ when we are fixed with Christ by faith.  Good, because God is good.  Good, because God's love sent Jesus Christ.  Good because Christ's work was, and is, perfect and complete.  And good because Christ's work has purchased eternal glory for all who trust and obey.

And congregation, because God 'gave', God will give.  Because God is infinite and eternal, unchanging, almighty and omnipotent, He has inexhaustible resources, unchangeable purposes of kindness and patience that can't be turned away by sin.

For all these... and because of these Paul bowed before God in prayer and asked that God would encourage and strengthen the Christians to whom he wrote.

It's not enough for us to meet together and be calmed and encouraged by each other's company... the moment we part and go out the door it's gone again.  It's not enough for us to sing rousing songs and hear a nice message from the pulpit.  We need a God who will live in us by the Holy Spirit who is the Encourager, the Comforter... who will make the eternal comfort of knowing we are with God through Jesus Christ, our individual possession.

We all know how unstable we are as people.  We swing through the whole spectrum of emotions and feelings as easily as the Australian dollar changes in value.

The secret of stability in a very unstable world is to have Christ in our hearts first... He will then be our encouragement and our stability next.  With Christ we can face tomorrow and our hearts will be like some land- locked lake that never experiences a tide.

With the goodness of God the Father, and Jesus Christ fixing our trust in Him, we will also be able to do good work and say good words... encouraging each other.

All our hopes will be like a child's castle built on a sandy beach, unless our hope is fixed in Him.

You can have eternal encouragement.  You can have a hope that will enable you to look over the problems of life.  You can have a calm and stable heart.  You can have an all-round goodness... you can have all that... but there's only one way to get these blessings, and that is to grasp by a simple faith, the great gift, Jesus Christ.

Amen.