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1 Thessalonians 3:1-5, Therefore when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone, [2] and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, [3] so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. [4] For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know. [5] For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain.
If there is one thing God has assured us as believers in Christ, it’s opposition, afflictions, trials, sufferings, tribulations, and persecution. Jesus said, “If they hated Me, they’ll hate you.” On their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Peter said in 1 Peter 4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.” Isaac Watts’ hymn “Am I a soldier of the Cross” asks this question: “Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?”
In our verses this morning, Paul shows concern about this very thing. His heart was for those believers in Thessalonica who were facing afflictions. His heart nearly burst for them in verse 1, “when we could endure it no longer” and in verse 5, “when I could endure it no longer.” This is truly the heart of a discipler. Were they standing firm for Christ under these afflictions or had they wilted before the opposition? He had no email or cell phone to text them. He couldn’t stand the burden of concern, so he sent Timothy back up there to find out how they were doing and to strengthen them and encourage their faith. Timothy returned with great news in verse 6 and this blessed Paul to the gills. You see his discipling heart in verse 8, “Now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.” A discipler’s heart yearns for the spiritual growth and stability of other believers. This was Paul’s mission.
WHAT IS A DISCIPLE?
What we see here with Paul, Timothy, and the Thessalonian believers is discipleship in action. Jesus gave us the great commission to make disciples in Matthew 28:19-20.
Matthew 28:18-20, And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
This week and next week we are going to talk about a discipler’s heart. First above all, before you become a discipler you must be a disciple, a learner. When you come to Christ, you become a disciple, a follower and student of Christ and His Word. John 8:31, “If you continue in My Word, then you are truly my disciples.” You enter God’s University. The study guide is the Bible and your strength and ability to learn comes from God’s Holy Spirit.
TWO KINDS OF DISCIPLERS – PAUL AND TIMOTHY
One is a leader; the other is a learner. Both Paul and Timothy are disciplers. We need both kinds right here in Evansville Bible Church because discipling God’s people is what the ministry is all about. Jesus gave the order, “Go and make disciples.” And He promised He’d be with us. We can count on that promise. He gave the command and He keeps His promise. He’s always with His church. He’s right here, right now.
Paul is a discipling leader. Paul poured his heart into the Thessalonians. He loved them. He was concerned about their spiritual growth and longed to know how they were doing: “we could endure it no longer.” Paul is a model for spiritual leaders. He was more concerned about the sheep than about his own comfort and convenience. That’s a discipling leader. He knows his mission. He knows exactly what God’s called him to do and in God’s strength he’s busy doing it. Paul expressed it so well in Colossians.
Colossians 1:28-29, We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. [29] For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.
This is Paul’s life and mission. He loved Jesus Christ above all earthly loves. In Philippians 3:8 he declared, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” and verse 10, “That I may know Him.” This was the passion of his life: “To live is Christ; to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). He was looking forward to being with Christ, but while here on earth he is all about admonishing and teaching every man with all wisdom with the goal to present every man complete in Christ. Paul is a discipling leader. Paul is a great model for all of us.
Thank God for giving our church men who find their greatest joy in seeing others grow in Christ and become disciplers themselves. And we thank God for older women who are discipling leaders like Paul told us about in Titus 2:3-5. They encourage younger women to love their husbands and children, and to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, and subject to their own husbands. By the way, discipling isn’t necessarily formally teaching in a classroom, although it includes that. All of life is your classroom. Coffee at Donut Bank may be a classroom. Your kitchen table may be your classroom as you open your home to friends and neighbors. Parents disciple children daily right there in the home, when together in the car, or taking walks in God’s creation. The challenge is who will be the discipling leaders here in Evansville Bible Church ten years down the road in 2035-45? God knows. As we faithfully teach the Word, God will raise up spiritual men to lead and disciple others. Paul was a discipling leader.
Timothy is a discipling learner. Timothy will end up being a discipling leader in Ephesus, but for now Paul has brought him under his wing to train him and give him discipling opportunities. Paul calls him “our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ” (1 Thess. 3:2). What a beautiful commendation of this younger man. Paul recognized in him a heart to disciple others and to selflessly serve in giving the gospel. Paul wrote to the Philippians while in prison in Rome that he hoped to send Timothy to them soon.
Philippians 2:19-22, But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. [20] For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. [21] For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. [22] But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.
Isn’t that fantastic? “I have no one like him.” Why? Because Timothy was genuinely concerned for others. That’s a rare quality. Too often it is about “me.” Even pastors fall into the trap of being concerned about their own status, their own reputation. They want to be a spiritual celebrity. They want to make a big splash. Twice in Luke, verse 16:10 and verse 19:17, Jesus said he who is faithful in a little is faithful in much. In 1 Corinthians 4:17 Paul calls Timothy “my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.” Timothy loved Christ above all, and then God’s people.
Who are the Timothys among us? Who are the young men who are proving themselves faithful today in little things so that ten or fifteen years down the road they will be leaders and teachers? Men who aren’t after a position but rather whose hearts are on fire for Christ. Men more concerned about others than they are about themselves. Timothy was young but Paul considers him an equal, his brother in Christ, and a fellow worker with God in the gospel of Christ. He was always ready to assist in the ministry, whatever that looked like. I’ve told you that some of my best training in seminary was teaching a Sunday School class of junior age boys in a small country church outside Warsaw, Indiana. That was a learning experience for me and I grew to love those boys. Whatever the ministry, service, and work you do in the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are a disciple and discipler, a learner and a leader.
We don’t know Timothy’s age, but it’s amazing how God has used young men in the gospel discipling ministry. Like Timothy, they loved Christ and lived to preach the gospel. How sad for Charlie Kirk’s family and our country to see him be gunned down at just 31. But we know this – God is in control and who knows what impact this tragedy will have in individuals and on America. Jim Elliott was only 28 when he was killed by the Auca Indians when taking the gospel to them in the jungles of Ecuador. God mightily used Robert Murray M’Cheyne in Scotland before he died at 29. David Brainerd, missionary to Indians in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the 1740s, died of tuberculosis at 29. William Borden of Yale was born into a very wealthy family. At 16 he took a trip around the world and determined to be a missionary. He wrote his mother, “I have so much of everything in this life and there are so many millions who have nothing and live in darkness.” He graduated from seminary in 1912 and was ordained as a missionary at Moody Church in Chicago. He spoke in various colleges for the cause of foreign missions. Then he headed for China to work with Muslims and stopped in Egypt for training. While in Egypt he died of cerebral meningitis on April 9, 1913, at age 25. Some said his life was cut short, but a missionary friend said, “A life abandoned to Christ cannot be cut short.”
A DISCIPLER’S HEART
Here is Paul, a seasoned, mature, theologically advanced saint. And here is Timothy, a young man in training but sold out to serve the Lord. Paul saw Timothy as his equal and had complete trust in his heart’s commitment to Christ and God’s people. They were a team.
We’re a team in this church. We are laboring together in the gospel as a team. Robert Murray M’Cheyne tells about two people with leprosy in a leper colony. One had no arms; the other no legs. The one with the legs carried the one with arms. They planted a garden. The one with the arms and hands dropped the seed in the row. The one with legs and feet stepped on the seed and pushed it into the soil. That’s teamwork. Every discipler is a little different than others. Children use plastic forms to make different shapes with playdough. Some make stars, squares, circles, and triangles. Others form balls and ropes. It’s all the same dough, but different patterns. That’s God’s team at work. The same gospel message from the same inspired Word coming through different patterns of disciplers. All are on one team using the same Word to help others in their walk with Christ. What does a discipler’s heart look like?
First, discipler has a growing love for Christ.
1 Thessalonians 3:1, Therefore when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone,
Paul and Timothy loved Christ above all. They wanted Christ to be glorified in His people. That included these Thessalonians. Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:14, “The love of Christ controls or constrains us.” They loved the Thessalonians so much because they loved Christ above all.
How do you deepen your love for Christ? You remind yourself of the gospel every day. As Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “Christ loved me and gave Himself for me.” Paul told Timothy to be nourished in sound doctrine (1 Timothy 4:6). Paul’s prayer for the churches was that they would increase in the knowledge of God. Love for Christ and knowledge of His truth go together. Deepen yourself in the knowledge of God. Sink those doctrinal pilings deep down into the subsoil of your heart. Learn what God is like – His attributes, His sovereignty over this world and the entire universe, His glory. Be mindful of His great faithfulness and mercies that are new every morning, and especially those great doctrines of salvation. A discipler has a growing love for Christ and all of His truth. Delight in the Lord and all His ways. Paul and Timothy loved Christ and therefore loved His people. They decided something needed to be done for the Thessalonians. They could endure it no longer.
Second, a discipler has a concern for the spiritual growth of others.
1 Thessalonians 3:2, And we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith.
This time wasn’t easy for Paul. He didn’t want to be left at Athens alone, but they decided to send Timothy to Thessalonica (vs.1). A discipler sets aside his own conveniences and self-centered pursuits in exchange for the good of others.
Paul sent Timothy to do two things for the Thessalonians – to strengthen them in their faith and to encourage them in their faith. That’s what discipling is. Strengthen means to buttress up, to stabilize. For the Thessalonians that meant to stand firm in the face of the afflictions they were experiencing and to be strong in all those great truths about Jesus Christ Paul had taught them. Encouraging means to pour courage into their hearts. It’s that word parakaleo, called alongside. It’s the coach telling you, “You can do it! Stand strong!” I think of two movies: Queen Elizabeth and the Golden Age and Braveheart. Both Elizabeth and Braveheart marched their horses back and forth in front of their troops, pouring courage into their hearts by calling out to them to be courageous. What did they say? They reminded them of who they were and the great freedom for which they were fighting. That’s exactly what encourages believers in the face of afflictions – remember who you are in Christ and that you are fighting for Christ’s glory.
Polycarp, overseer of the early church in Smyrna 155 AD, was dragged before the Roman magistrate and commanded to deny Christ or be burned. He responded with great courage and strength and declared, “Eighty-six years I have been His servant, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” Luther, when commanded to recant his writings before the entire religious and political powers of his day there at Worms, declared strongly and courageously with God’s inner strength and courage, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, so help me God” Strength and courage. A discipler has strength and courage and a concern for the spiritual growth of God’s peoples.
Third, a discipler is very aware of the pressures, temptations, and afflictions facing other believers.
1 Thessalonians 3:3-4, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. [4] For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know.
What does the discipler tell believers facing afflictions of every kind? Afflictions can be physical, emotional, relational, from the government, neighbors, family members. What would you tell them? Afflictions are life pressures. The word is thlipsis, meaning to apply pressure, to squeeze the juice out of grapes or olives or oranges. Joni Eareckson in her painful afflictions thinks on 2 Corinthians 4:3, “We are afflicted, pressed, but not crushed.” Paul had told the Thessalonians in no uncertain terms that coming to Christ would not be a ticket for a cakewalk. God will forgive all your sins and give you the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He’ll justify you, declare you righteous. But Christ never promised easy street.
Paul warned them ahead of time, “We’re going to suffer affliction.” Sure enough, it came to pass. God even plans and destines afflictions for us. Don’t be surprised, as Peter said in1 Peter 4. Don’t think God has let you down or doesn’t love you. God uses afflictions for your good and His glory. Paul said, “I glory in afflictions knowing God uses them to help me grow strong and stand firm” (Romans 5:3ff). And even if the afflictions include persecution and martyrdom, we must remember we are in enemy territory. This world will never come to terms with Christ. They scourged, mocked, spat on, hit, beat, and crucified our Savior. Our great and final hope is the Lord’s return, but in the meantime God uses the enemies’ afflictions to deepen and strengthen our faith, produce courage, and for some the privilege of being martyred for Christ’s sake.
John Murray in his excellent booklet, Behind a Frowning Providence, says, “The Bible leaves us in no doubt that suffering is a normal part of the true Christian life. The whole emphasis in the teaching of the early church was on ‘rejoicing in the midst of suffering.’”
Fourth, a discipler knows God’s people are facing a tempter.
1 Thessalonians 3:5, For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain.
Last week we looked at the works of Satan. Verse 5 tells us Paul knows the devil would be busy figuring out ways to lure these new believers to deny Christ. He’s a master seducer. One of the first things new believers need is protection from false teaching. Leroy Eims in The Lost Art of Disciple Making speaks of new believers, “New babies need protection. New life is tender and fragile and must be protected from disease…. People spreading the disease of false religion will show up at their door. The convert’s old buddies will try to entice him back into the old paths. A former girlfriend will want to renew the relationship.” The early church father Augustine lived an immoral life before coming to Christ. One time after his conversion his old girlfriend came after him. “Augustine, it’s me.” As Augustine ran away he cried, “Yes, but it isn’t me!” Paul sent his first-rate discipler Timothy to the Thessalonian believers to strengthen and encourage them and prepare them for dealing with afflictions and devilish temptations.
Fifth, a discipler doesn’t want to labor in vain.
1 Thessalonians 3:5b, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor would be in vain.
Have you ever spent time and effort planting a tree or ornamental shrub only to have it die in a few weeks? That’s laboring in vain. This is a very real concern of disciplers. Even in the greatest revivals of the Great Awakening there were false professions. First John 2:19 says, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.” Jesus said there would be people who appear to be genuine believers for a while, but then persecutions or troubles or the pleasures of this world come along and they wilt and melt away. Paul had Demas who deserted him because he loved this present world.
William Hendriksen in his commentary clarifies this verse, “In no sense whatsoever is it true that this verse teaches that God’s truly chosen ones can, after all, perish everlastingly.” God uses warning passages in the Scripture to convict His people to be careful in their walk with Christ. Just because someone prays a prayer or joins up with Christians in church or gets baptized doesn’t guarantee they are genuine born-again believers. You may pour your heart, time, and energy into a soul and after a year or so the tempter may lure him in like a dead fish, and as Paul says, your labor may have been in vain.
Do you have something of this discipler’s heart? Have you gotten to the place where instead of thinking of yourself most of the time, you’ve begun thinking about and praying for others. Discipling isn’t a big mystery reserved for an elite group of special experts. As John MacArthur said somewhere, “Discipling is simply a true friendship with a spiritual basis.” Pray about someone you may be able to disciple. You can encourage someone to read a book that’s been helpful to you or agree to search out a book of the Bible. Don’t be offended if your efforts are rejected or neglected. And maybe you need to be discipled. Actually, remember all disciplers are also disciples. We never stop being a learners. We are always God’s students searching out His truth in the Bible.
Every believer to some degree should be a disciple and a discipler. You may be discipling those little ones running around your house as you try to teach them the Scriptures. Or you may be a grandparent wanting to guide those grandkids with God’s truth. Or you may be a dad studying the Word to answer your children’s questions as they go through middle school. Or you may be a high school student eating with a group in the cafeteria when someone asks what happens after death or a college student ready with God’s answers when a roommate asks questions.
Maybe the question for you is, “Am I even a true Christian?” You’re not a disciple until you see yourself as a sinner in need of a Savior and submit your heart to Jesus Christ. You must recognize He died in your place for your sin and rose again as Lord of all. Has God drawn you to His Son as your Savior? “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved!” (Romans10:9).