IN the last three sermons we have been considering how Paul describes the saints, that is the true believer in Jesus as sin-bearer and Saviour. These sermons covered verses 13 to 15 of this second chapter of Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians. In these last two verse of chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians Paul offers a prayer for the saints. In doing this Paul gives us helpful teaching on the ministry and exercise of prayer, and it is this we can profitably consider in this sermon. The prayer has three parts. Paul commences first of all with the one he is praying to. Then Paul describes our confidence in prayer. Lastly we have Paul's petition for the saints in Thessalonica. Meditating on such an example of prayer, we are given understanding and help in the precious business of prayer. Let us together seek to learn the secret of prayer more fully.

In the first place we learn from this example of prayer, to whom we pray. Paul's address is to our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father. The Bible revelation of God is one we believe through the testimony of the revelation. The Bible reveals God as one God, but in three persons. The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are revealed as the three persons, but revealed as one God. It is not the place in this sermon to discuss the doctrine of the holy Trinity, which is the way the church has always sought to describe this revelation of God, but when we pray this revelation of God as one God in three persons, presents difficulties. It is with regard to this difficulty that the way Paul commences his prayer, is so helpful.

The question which I have heard asked so often is whether we should pray to God the Father, or to God the Son, Jesus our Lord and Saviour, or even to the Holy Spirit. The question is as to how we address God as we come to prayer, and how do we speak of him. The way Paul commences this prayer, and how he addresses God in prayer, is so helpful. In this address of God in prayer Paul takes into consideration the whole of our privilege of access to God in prayer. Paul addresses our Lord Jesus Christ first and then God the Father second. There is no suggestion of inequality in the revelation of God as three persons. Paul is simply coming to God in the order by which we have access to him safely. So Paul addresses his prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by Jesus, which means Saviour, and Christ, the one anointed by God to save, that we come to God in prayer safely and assuredly. In Hebrews we are told that we have access into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, and this expresses the glorious truth that it is by Christ shedding his blood on the cross that we are cleansed from our sin that separates from God, and that frees us from condemnation from God on account of our sin and sinfulness being punished by Jesus taking that punishment in our place on the cross. This is why all prayer should be closed by a conscious recognition that it is through Jesus alone that we have access to God, and are able to come without fear.

From this and the work of Jesus for us we can come before God as our Father, our heavenly Father, and know and experience his Fatherly love and acceptance. It is through Christ and his work for us that we are given the Spirit of adoption whereby we are able to cry 'Abba, Father', that is to address God as our Father, and be assured that we are welcomed by God as his child.

So Paul indicates in his address to God here, that we come to God safely and confidently through the saving work of Christ for us, and so know God in this wonderful family name as Father, being assured that we are welcomed and loved by God.

So Paul then goes on to speak of the wonderful confidence we have in prayer, this tremendous privilege poured out upon us through the grace of God in Christ Jesus. We will pray with confidence when, like Paul here, we come in prayer remembering what is our blessing through faith in Christ.

Paul first remembers and acknowledges this wonderful truth that God loved us. All the action of God in our salvation is because God loved us. Paul makes it clear in his letters, and specially in his letter to the Ephesians, that the love of God for his saved ones, was a love which goes back to eternity before God created the world, when in pure sovereign grace, his unmerited favour, he chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. And that in love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons though Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1: 4,5).

God's love is a love that God by sovereign choice chose to do, and because it is a love from eternity, it is a love which endures for ever. It is made real and sure by the perfect all-sufficient work Jesus performed when, in obedience to his Father, God, Jesus Christ gave his life as a propitiation for our sins. This is expressed by John in 1 John 4: 9,10 where we read "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." This love will endure for ever for all God's chosen ones, because it was the sovereign choice of God before the world was created.

Then Paul goes on with this confidence we have in prayer by telling us that this love was poured out upon his believing people by his grace. Grace is the decision of God to show his favour, and makes his favour possible, and so pours out his favour, without any consideration of merit in us. This makes God's love eternally secure because it is on the foundation of God's grace, and does not depend in any, even the smallest way, upon any effort or work of ours, or any merit of ours, for if it did, God's love would be withdrawn, because there is no way that we are able to fulfil any requirement in order to merit the continuation of God's love.

By reminding us that it is by grace alone that we are accepted by God, we are assured that we never, never, need to fear of our acceptance by God, and that his heart is open to us when we pray, and his ears are open to listen to our prayer. We also are assured by God's grace, that our prayers will receive all God's attention and be attended to with his love to give us what is for our best.

Then Paul ends this encouragement and confidence in prayer by this glorious expression of the gift of God to all his believing people, his disciples through the sacrifice of Jesus for us. Paul expresses this in these words “gave us eternal encouragement and good hope.”

What is this encouragement? It is the encouragement which is expressed in the way Paul addresses God in the opening of this example of prayer. The encouragement is the certainty in Christ, and through his death and resurrection, whereby we are sure that all that separates from the love of God, our sin and sinfulness, is fully dealt with, and we are justified in the sight of God, sanctified by God's Spirit, and completely redeemed. This is assured to us by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1: 30 where we are told by the apostle Paul that Jesus is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

Then Paul speaks of this encouragement as eternal, that is that is an everlasting encouragement, because the salvation we have in Christ is an eternal salvation, carrying us through time into eternity. Christ's work for God's chosen ones is an eternal work as is expressed in 1 Corinthians 1: 30, and so this brings us to the final confidence in prayer that Paul reminds us of, which gives us certainty in prayer. Grace brought us into eternal encouragement and good hope.

The hope which Paul expresses here is the hope of eternal life; the hope of eternal glory; the hope that Christ expressed when he tells us in John 14 that he returned to heaven to prepare a place in his eternal glory for all his believing people. It is a good hope because it is a sure and certain hope, based on the perfect work of Christ, and sovereign choice of God. Christ won eternal life for all who believe on him, and his work was and is perfect. God gave his Son to die for sinners and so make this perfect atonement. Because of this, this hope is sure and certain, and eternally sure.

However there is more to this good hope for this hope is the most blessed hope possible. It is the hope of glory. It is the assurance that all who believe in Jesus will be brought at last to an eternal life of perfect quality and satisfaction. It is not only the reinstating of the bliss Adam and Eve enjoyed in the paradise of the garden of Eden, but a bliss and a quality of life and joy which surpasses this. As far as words can express this, and earthly concepts reveal, we have this glory expressed in the last two chapters of Revelation. This good hope is the creation of a new heaven and earth wherein dwells perfect righteousness. This means perfect holy love poured out from God, and in the hearts of all who are blessed with this good hope. All the things which destroy happiness and true satisfaction in this earthly life due to the sin of Adam, will be no more, and only the glory of God will fill this place, and we shall be raised to dwell there with God and Jesus for all eternity, being filled with love and life by the sight of our beloved Saviour, who will greet us with the words - come you blessed of my Father, received the kingdom prepared for you before the beginning of the world.

Then we read of the petition that Paul expressed in this prayer, may God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Having raised us up in expressing our confidence in prayer with a sight of the heavenly places we are raised to in Christ, and the glory we are destined for, Paul brings us down to earth with the consideration of the life and pilgrimage which is ours as Christians in this earthly life. There are two petitions. The first is that God may encourage our hearts. The second is that God may strengthen us in every good deed and word. Let us consider the meaning of these petitions.

What is Paul expressing by asking that we may be encouraged in our hearts? Surely this is a petition that God may so build us up deep in our hearts with the glory of his grace and love in salvation that we are able to face all that life throws at us with joy and confidence. This encouragement of heart is found when our assurance of God's love for us in Christ, and our assurance that that we are saved, is strong in our lives. Such assurance is given by the Holy Spirit's indwelling, but it is made stronger as we feed ourselves on the truths of Scripture. It is one thing to believe and know that we are saved, and quite another to have this knowledge based on the strong foundation of the deep things concerning all that Christ is and has done to make our calling and election sure. Paul urges believers to make our calling and election sure. We do this by study of the Bible with prayer, so that we are well taught in all the doctrines of salvation and grace.

The Christian who is continually being built up with the teaching of Christ in the Gospels, and the activity of the early church recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and the teaching of Paul and Peter and James in their letters, will be the ones who find themselves becoming more and more strong in the Lord, and able to face all the discouragement and temptations of Satan.

How is this achieved? It is achieved by continual and constant study of God's word with prayer, but it is also achieved by reading and studying books where the teaching of the Bible is expounded. It is achieved by the blessing of being able to attend a house of God where the Bible is expounded faithfully Sunday by Sunday, and in the week. This blessing is hard to find in the United Kingdom today, but when it can be found thank God for it.

We are built up when we hold fast to the truth we have been taught from God's word when our faith is challenged, and we are despised because of our faithfulness to the plain and obvious meaning of the text of the Bible. We shall find our faith faltering if we are ever argued out of the truth, and made to feel that to hold fast to the Bible as the total and infallible word of God.

Paul is concerned that the Thessalonian believers may be strengthened in every good deed and word. It is when our hearts are encouraged by serious learning of the truth as it is proclaimed in the Bible, that this blessing will follow in our lives. Every good deed is to show in our living the image of Christ in all our actions and be ordering our lives according to the way of life which the Bible teaches us is to be Christ-like. This includes our actions in upholding the truth, and not being ashamed of the truth as we have learnt in God's word.

Our actions and our words, that is speech, talking and conversation, must be good with the love and purity of Christ. This is what God has called us to as expressed in the first chapter of Ephesians, where we are told by Paul that we are chosen in Christ to be holy and blameless in God's sight. The bottom line in this prayer is that Paul is praying that our actions and our speech adorn the doctrine of Christ our Saviour, and bring glory to God.

CONCLUSION.