1 Thessalonians 3 Discussion

Comfort can be confusing. If following Jesus is supposed to be “good news,” why does Paul tell believers they are destined for affliction? We dig into 1 Thessalonians 3 and talk honestly about what Christian suffering looks like in real life, including the uncomfortable question: if I never face pushback, am I hiding my faith or just living in a culture shaped by the gospel? Either way, Paul refuses to let the Thessalonian church drift quietly. He expects faith to grow, and he expects obedience to create friction. 

We also get personal about pastoral concern. Paul says he “could bear it no longer,” so he sends Timothy to check on the church, strengthen them, and bring back a report. That hits on a timeless part of human nature: when you love people, you want to know they are okay, and you want their faith to last. When Timothy returns with good news of faith and love, the whole tone changes. Encouragement does that. It revives tired leaders and reminds all of us that perseverance is never just an individual project. 

From there we follow Paul into prayer: asking God the Father and the Lord Jesus to direct the way, asking for increasing love, and asking for hearts established blameless in holiness at the coming of Christ. We end with a challenge for modern Christians who live with lots of convenience: don’t settle for distant connection. Paul longs to see believers face to face because embodied fellowship supplies what is lacking in faith in a way texts and screens cannot. If this conversation helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. What part of 1 Thessalonians 3 challenged you most?

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Transcript

Welcome And Chapter Outline

Pastor Plek 0:10

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland. We're talking First Thessalonians chapter three. We are going to outline it. We are going to observe it, interpret, and then apply it so that you can take your truth with you today, wherever you live, work, and play, wherever you find yourself along the way. So now, 1 Thessalonians 3, verses 1 through 5 talks about Paul's concern for the church there in Thessalonica and the sending of Timothy. And then we got verses 6 through 10. Timothy

Destined To Suffer For Jesus

Pastor Plek 0:43

gives back the encouraging report of the good news of their faith and love and their joy and their renewed life and their faithfulness. Then in verse 11, 13, Paul's going to pray for their growth. Now, let's talk about what you observe here. What do you see?

Pastor Holland 0:58

Okay. I love that he tells us our destiny here in verse, what is it, three? Verse three. He said, For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

Pastor Plek 1:09

This is your destiny.

Pastor Holland 1:10

And what is this thing that we are destined for? What is it? Suffering for Jesus. Afflictions for following Jesus. That is the destiny of believers.

Pastor Plek 1:21

So, but what if you don't ever experience affliction?

Pastor Holland 1:25

That's a good question.

Pastor Plek 1:26

Because, you know, and do you think all Christians know they're being afflicted when they're being afflicted? No. Because it could be that you have an affliction, but you're like so hardcore, you're like, this momentary light affliction means nothing to me. But you still recognize it as a light affliction.

Pastor Holland 1:42

That's fair. That's fair. I think so. Like, what would spare someone from affliction for following Jesus? Either you hiding your faith, or living in a culture that has already been transformed pretty thoroughly by the gospel to where being a Christian is normal and you don't really get persecuted for it. Right. But I think even in that, there's no perfect culture. You know, like every even the most Christian cultures are going to have flaws and um doctrinal errors and stuff. There's a need to constantly be like reforming, reforming and corrected by the word until Jesus comes back and brings perfection in the new creation. And so even in a like very thoroughly Christianized kind of culture, there's going to be cultural um sins and things that you know people uh try to justify or excuse. And so I think the affliction

Paul Sends Timothy To Strengthen

Pastor Holland 2:34

comes when you draw attention to those and say, hey guys, you know, we really need to obey the word about this. And it's something that the rest of the culture doesn't want to hear, then you face some affliction for it.

Pastor Plek 2:45

Okay. So I love the fact that, and this gives context to like the story in Acts. Uh, remember, they spent three weeks in Thessalonica preaching on successive Sabbaths, and then they finally get run out of town. They head down south to uh Athens, right? And then they were willing to be left behind to Athens alone and sent Timothy, our brother and God's co-work in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort your union of faith. So he sends back Timothy to take care of the Thessalonians, uh, which I thought was sort of an interesting thing. And I love that he's like, we could bear it no longer. They were so worried about the church, yeah. And we find that for this reason, I could bear it no longer. That's verse so verse one and verse five, he definitely could bear it no longer. I sent to learn about your faith for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. Like he was like worried so much that he was like, Hey, listen, don't worry about me. Just go back and strengthen the churches. It'd probably be too much for Paul to go back because he would draw too much attention. But Timothy can probably sneak in and and do some pastoral things. Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. Um, yeah, now that Timothy came, he he gets fired up and he get gets into a long, awesome prayer uh and he gets excited. It's like, God, our Father Himself, our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, which is like cool. Like, I want to get my way back to you. I want to be with you, and I gotta pray that the Lord allows that, directs that to happen, which I thought was kind of on fun.

Pastor Holland 4:11

It's a little bit of a traveling mercy prayer.

Pastor Plek 4:14

It is a traveling mercy prayer, which I always get nervous about traveling mercy prayers, but there it is.

Pastor Holland 4:18

May he direct us to you. Yeah. You know, it's basic, basic, general traveling mercy. Like, we want to arrive there. Maybe open the door and get us there safely.

Pastor Plek 4:27

Yeah. Very good. Very good. Now, he doesn't pray for safety. I just want to point that out, but he does pray to get there.

Pastor Holland 4:33

Yeah. Well, direct our way to you means that you do get there. That's true.

Pastor Plek 4:38

Maybe you lost a limb on the way, but you do get there. Fair enough, fair enough. Yeah, yeah. Like he wants to be bold and he wants to be able to establish, you know, he at least has to have a voice or at least ability to write or communicate in some way. So he wants to establish their hearts, blameless in holiness, before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Okay, I I get excited about that. I'm pumped for that. What are some nature of man things you see here?

Pastor Holland 5:02

Just the fact that he could bear it no longer. Yeah, that we have something about our human nature where we feel concern for the people that we love. And he's like, I had to know how you're doing. And that's um, yeah, it's it's interesting.

Pastor Plek 5:18

Do you think this is unique to Paul? No. Um, oh gosh, now I feel like a real bad sinner.

Pastor Holland 5:25

Like, I I don't like you don't feel this? Like, I don't you never wonder how anyone's doing.

Pastor Plek 5:30

Well, I do, but I'm not like to a point where I could bear it no longer.

Pastor Holland 5:33

I mean, I that's like we live in a totally different world where you can just text someone and be like, hey, you okay?

Pastor Plek 5:38

Okay, fair enough. But he spent three weeks there. Like, I can't. There are places I spent three weeks and I don't even remember being there.

Pastor Holland 5:44

Yeah. But imagine, okay, so like this is, you know, he sees himself as like a spiritual father to them. He started this church. It's not like they have the New Testament written yet. It's not like they have the internet where they can't, you know, like he just started and left them. And so, you know, it's like they really, what do they have to establish themselves unless he keeps going back or sending

Good News That Revives Discouraged Leaders

Pastor Holland 6:10

letters or sending Timothy?

Pastor Plek 6:11

Do you remember the the tribe that you reached in Tanzania? Of course. Like you were the only guy, the first one there, you set up, they believed in Christ, turned to Jesus. Could you bear it no longer to go back?

Pastor Holland 6:25

Well, so we had someone there. We had a local guy there who spoke the language and we worked with him. And uh, and so there was something I was comforted by the fact of like, I know there's local guys here who are helping get this thing going. And I you sent back Timothy. Essentially, this I had a I had a Timothy on the ground over there, and this guy, you know, you're out in the middle of nowhere, but everybody has a cell phone. And so one of the this guy's got a cell phone and he's sending me text messages like, hey, you know, we uh the church is doing well, they started a children's ministry, Pastor So and so is doing great. So I get the pastoral concern. Okay, well, you are far superior.

Pastor Plek 7:05

I I mean I just can't thank you. Thank you. You know, you are I just I've been saying it, but yeah, it feels nice to although you know when ECC uh was struggling. I had concern for ECC. I told you. Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah, I did care. You're kind of soft. I am a softie. All right, all right, I do care a little bit. Okay, okay, let's talk about uh one of their nature of man things here. Um like I love how like it's the like normal things that haven't changed. A good report changes the mood of everybody. Yeah. Uh look, for in this reason, in all our distress and affliction, we've been comforted. So like they've been having a hard time down there in Athens. There, they had a it wasn't exactly great time in Thessalonica. They're they're undergoing a time when you know a couple people came to the Lord and they're like, and then we got word that things got better. Man, praise God.

Pastor Holland 7:54

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he says, like, it's so extreme in verse 8. For now, we live if you're standing fast in the Lord. Meaning, like, if you guys had walked away, it would have killed me. Yeah, it would have killed me, you know. Like it might have been a little bit hyperbole, but I I I get what he means. Yeah, exactly. Um I I I really do get that. Like, imagine so again, ECC. Imagine um you come to find out we had drifted from the Lord or closed down or become some kind of you know cynical off the shoot or whatever. Like that would have that would you would have died inside a little bit.

Pastor Plek 8:26

Okay, I that yeah, absolutely. I would totally have been like, it was all for nothing. So I okay, I get that. All right, what about um let's talk about God, character God here?

Pastor Holland 8:37

He the benediction at the end, um, he says, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness. Um I love that. Uh just that God is holy and he wants us to be holy.

Pastor Plek 8:52

Yeah, I like that. I like that. And I also like, is this is this interesting? May our God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. So I love that. There obviously we know that Jesus and the Father are one, there's but there is a complete distinctiveness here that he's asking for both of them to direct him, so distinct person, one God, right? Yep. And I think that's that that's I sometimes when people go, I want God and Jesus to help me. And I think some people got iron, well, they're all one in the same. No, that there's that is that is a great way to speak, God and Jesus. Um and I just thought that was just a sweet way to kind of just like, hey, I'm I'm asking God the Father Himself and our Lord Jesus to direct us to you. But get the triune God involved with our movements.

Pastor Holland 9:45

Yeah, why not ask the spirit too? Yeah, why not? What he just kind of stops short. Man, what do you think about that?

Pastor Plek 9:51

I I feel like the spirit felt snubbed right there. No, remember the spirit was uh by the he was writing this under the influence of the Holy Spirit, so the spirit didn't want to, you know, take too much credit here.

Pastor Holland 10:03

Oh, interesting. This is like the spirit being humble and being like, I'm just not gonna mention me that's right as I'm giving Paul the words to write. That's that's interesting.

Pastor Plek 10:13

Yeah, all right. Uh let's get into some application here. What do you got?

Pastor Holland 10:17

Um I love that he gives them a benediction. And I think you know, this is one of his big purposes in writing this is to encourage them, right? Yeah. And so just the use of a benediction, like uh praying God's goodness over someone. Um, and I I think that's just a very encouraging thing that you can do for somebody.

Pastor Plek 10:41

Yeah. How about just simply uh send to confess, uh, confess fear? Like, like I and I I don't know if this is the wrong kind of fear. Like I feared that you somehow my my work would have been in vain. Uh there's nothing that

Holiness Prayer And Triune Language

Pastor Plek 10:55

you do for the Lord is in vain, uh, but there is a fear there. But he's confessing that, and he's getting and the Lord meets him right there to remind him, No, no, I got you, your work wasn't in vain.

Pastor Holland 11:05

Hmm. Interesting. Um, I think about that, you know, for fear that um somehow the tempter had tempted you. So I I don't see that as like a confession of sin, but as a what do you think that is? As a just a legitimate concern. But is that anxiousness? Maybe do not be anxious. But he he says, you know, for for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you, I think it so again, I I've said this a few times, I feel like. Um to me, it seems just like he's saying, I have a legitimate loving concern for you. And even though, like you said, nothing we do for the Lord is ever in vain, right? That's true in a like um God's sovereignty kind of way. But it would be like if you um, you know, shared the gospel with um, you know, people for 10 years and all they ended up doing is rejecting you and killing you. Let's take that example. There is a sense in which that was in vain. Uh nobody came to faith, a church was never planted, but now the Lord might use that that like your death might embolden other believers. Yeah, exactly. Might embolden other believers. That's what I'm saying. Like, I think But there is there is a sense that it is in vain, it could be legitimately in vain. Okay, all right in a short, like temporal, earthly kind of way.

Pastor Plek 12:28

Yeah, but are you giving up on God's sovereignty there when you're like, well, all right.

Pastor Holland 12:32

I'm just I'm just wondering. Okay. I'm just saying, like, um I think he's speaking in a temporal, a legitimate temporal kind of way of like In a fatherly sense.

Pastor Plek 12:41

I don't want this thing to go down bad.

Pastor Holland 12:43

Yeah, I spent three weeks here, and man, I'm I'm just worried in a in a godly way that this whole thing might have shut down while I'm gone, and I feel bad about that. I want you guys to keep going. I don't know.

Pastor Plek 12:54

Does that make sense? No, uh, it does make sense. I think that's fair. Um, what about uh how about I love the fact he's praying? So I think the thing that we could probably say to the example following is pray. Like pray. Like when you're when you're in uh feeling fearful, um, pray. And he's now he said, Hey, God, please get us to them. May the Lord make you increase and like bless them. So, like, hey, get us to them, bless them, uh, and help help them to multiply and increase uh in love for one another and for all, uh, and that he may establish your hearts is blameless. I I love that prayer, and I think one of the things that's a great example to follow is pray for the saints.

Pastor Holland 13:35

Yeah, and see them face to face. That's one of the things he things he prays for night and day, he said, that we may see you face to face. Wow. And supply what is lacking in your faith. Okay, what were they lacking in their faith? Something. I mean were they not Christians? I th I think when he's when he says that, I mean

Pray More And Seek Face To Face

Pastor Holland 13:58

he he believes they're Christians. Yeah, he calls them Christians. Oh, I mean, clearly, right? But so it has it means something. But you know, your faith can increase. So he he prays that you know that their faith would increase. Um and so that means if before it increases, there's a lack, you know, compared to what it will be increased to. Yeah, fair. So meaning like that we might build up your faith. Um, and the the idea is that for our faith to be built up, we need community with other believers.

Pastor Plek 14:31

How about what they lacked was maturity? Would that be a good way to put that?

Pastor Holland 14:34

Maturity or encouragement or confidence.

Pastor Plek 14:37

Yeah, there's like there's you can have like, hey, you're you're sufficient for salvation. What you lack is maturity of understanding God's sovereignty, understanding of the Trinity, understanding of some theological or some fellowship uh aspect or just pure discipleship maturity.

Pastor Holland 14:52

Anyway, and he really believed that that there was a face-to-face aspect of that. Yeah. So obviously he believed that his letter would supply something of spiritual value. Are video calls counting as face-to-face?

unknown 15:04

Man.

Pastor Plek 15:06

What would Jesus do?

Pastor Holland 15:10

I feel like while may there's some benefits for video call to video call. You know, it's closer, but there's something about legitimately being in person that nothing else can be. What about hologram calls? I think at some point we're gonna need to face that. That's gonna be soon. Our grandkids will be talking about this on their podcasts.

Pastor Plek 15:31

Yes. Like, do you remember when they didn't have hologram calls? All right. So, hey, listen, I think the big thing I want you to get in fellowship where you love people enough that it just hurts your soul when you don't see them. And I think that's a dangerous place for American Christians that live in comfort to be at a place of longing for someone, and then go and see them face to face. And what a beautiful thing that is. All right. Hey, thanks so much for watching. We'll see you next time on Chapter Day.