Advancing the Gospel, Part 1

2 Thessalonians 3: 1-4

On our broadcast today, we’re delving into the dynamic and rapid spread of the gospel. As Pastor Colin expounds on 2 Thessalonians 3, he focuses on the urgency and calling of the gospel messengers to let the word of God ‘run’ rather than walk, impacting and transforming lives along its course. But this calling isn’t just for the few – it’s a collective endeavour where each one of us plays a pivotal role.

Imagine if the gospel ran through your own life today. Picture the possibilities as the truth about Jesus is shared, perhaps in a conversation, through an act of kindness, or in the way we navigate life’s challenges. It’s this vibrant spread of the message, the essence of the ‘good news,’ that we wish to take to heart and practice as we engage with the world. Pastor Colin, drawing from the heartfelt prayers of Paul for the believers in Thessalonica, reminds us that the advance of the gospel should remain our number one priority, irrespective of the pressures we face.

The calling of these messengers is to give themselves fully to the work of the gospel so that the message may advance, how, quickly, not slowly. The word that is translated here by spread rapidly is literally the word for run. Pray for us that the gospel may run. Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick and Colin, I like that idea that the gospel should run. Yeah, and it comes straight out of 2 Thessalonians in chapter 3 where Paul talks about the gospel spreading rapidly and literally the word that he uses means run. I love that. When I shared this message with the congregation that we serve here at the Orchard, it really seemed to resonate with people. People got the idea. Yeah, that’s what we want. We want the gospel to run, not to walk. We want it to move quickly and for it to advance significantly. And what a great challenge that the gospel may run through you today. How is it going to be communicated? How is some truth about Jesus to be conveyed through your life in the course of today? What a wonderful opportunity you have and we all have. Let the gospel run through your life today. That’s a great challenge for us all and I want to challenge us now to go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 as we begin the message, Advancing the Gospel. Here’s Colin. The title of our series, as most of you know, is Staying the Course When You Are Tired of the Battle. And the first chapter of this letter we’ve seen is about strength for staying the course. Second chapter, as we followed it through, has been about wisdom for discerning the battle. Today we begin the third chapter, which is really all about priorities on the front lines. And the message today is really very simple. Whatever the pressures that we face in our lives, whatever difficulties the church may ever encounter, priority number one is the advance of the gospel. You see that in verse 1. Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you. Remember these believers are under enormous pressure, suffering, persecution. And the apostle is writing to them in this final chapter and he’s saying, whatever happens, whatever difficulties you’re facing, priority one for the church is the advance of the gospel. Now, you get a glimpse here into the wonderful bond of love that ties the apostle to these believers. They loved this man who had brought the gospel to them, had told them the good news of Jesus Christ by which they had been saved. And he loved them. And he says, pray for us. Now who’s the us? Well, the us, if you look back at chapter 1 and verse 1, the very beginning of the letter, you’ll see who the us is right there. The us is Paul, and it is Silas, and it is Timothy. So what Paul is saying here in chapter 3 and verse 1 is simply this, please pray for me and for my team. That’s what he’s saying. Now you say, why pray for them? Is this Paul making much of himself? Is there some self-interest that’s creeping into play here? Absolutely not. Notice what he says, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly. So here are these men, Paul, and Silas, and Timothy, and they have been called by God, and they have been recognized by the church to give themselves full time to the work of ministry so that the gospel may spread, how, rapidly, not slowly, rapidly. And so here, very simply, there is a message, the message of the Lord, verse 1, the word of the Lord, the gospel, and there are messengers, and the messengers in this case are Paul, and Silas, and Timothy, and the calling of these messengers is to give themselves fully to the work of the gospel so that the message may advance, how, quickly, not slowly. The word that is translated here by spread rapidly is literally the word for run, and I love that. So I’ll use that a little bit in the message today. What he’s saying is this, pray for us that the gospel may run, that it may move fast. Then he says something else, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly, that it may run, and be honored. Now, the gospel is honored when its power is evident in transformed lives. Listen to how James Denny puts this, he says it so well, a message from God, he says, that did nothing would not be honored. It would be discredited, it would be shamed, but it is the glory of the gospel to lay hold of men, to transfigure them, to transform them, to lift them out of evil and into the likeness of Jesus Christ. And Denny says, when the gospel brings the power of God to save those who receive it, it is clothed with glory. You see what he’s saying? Nobody would honor the gospel if it didn’t make any difference in people’s lives. And Paul is praying that the gospel will be honored. How is it honored? It is honored, it is lifted up when it is evident that it brings transformation in the lives of men and of women. And so when Paul says, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and that it may be honored, he is saying, pray that there will be many people who hear the gospel and that they will experience its power. Pray that the fruit of the gospel will be manifest through transformed lives. And then he adds this comment in verse 1, just as it was with you, just as it was with you. You see what he’s saying? He’s appealing to them. He’s saying, now you have seen how the gospel transforms your own life. You’ve experienced this. Now I’m asking you to pray that the fruit of this ministry will be manifest in the same way in the lives of others. Pray, in other words, not only that the gospel will be proclaimed to all people, but pray that it will bear fruit in them just as it did in you. This is very simple. Let’s begin already to make some applications. Here’s the first. Pray that the gospel may spread rapidly and bear fruit. I want to ask that of you today. To pray. If you have a prayer list, write this down in your prayer list. Build this into the request that you bring of the Lord. It’s a biblical prayer. Pray that the gospel may spread rapidly and bear fruit. Now folks, this is a wonderful text for us to embrace in our life and in our ministry here at the Orchard. This is who we are, isn’t it? We are people who want the gospel to run. And we want to see the gospel run in the greater Chicago area and around the world. And we look out there in a day when many churches are declining. And many other churches have abandoned the gospel. You see that. We know that that is a reality. And in that day when that is happening in so many ways and in so many places, we want to see the gospel run. We want to see it spread rapidly. We don’t want to see it go slowly or incrementally. We want to see the gospel move and to see its fruit in the transformation of many lives. Pray for this. That’s what Paul’s saying. And he’s a great apostle. Think of his mighty prayers he’s saying to ordinary Christians like us. Please pray for this. Please pray. Second, let’s learn this principle by way of application. We are learning here from the Bible this important fact that the gospel spreads rapidly through people. The gospel spreads rapidly through people. Now notice this. It’s really a huge point. And once you see it, it will really help you. Pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored. Notice the combination. That’s really the key point for us to grasp today. It is not just pray for us. It is not just pray that the gospel will spread rapidly. The key to understanding this text is the combination, the conjunction of these two things. It is pray for us that the gospel may run. In other words, the message is of no value to people without messengers to bring it. Which is the whole point, of course, of Romans in chapter 10, isn’t it? How can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? So the key point here, and it is very clear, is that the gospel spreads through people. It advances rapidly through people who are called by God and recognized by the church to lead this work. That is why Paul asks for prayer for himself and for his team. Why? So that the gospel may move forward with speed. Because this is how it happens. Now, I want to make a third application at this point, and it is particularly an application for all of us who are privileged to serve as pastors or as missionaries, all of us who have the privilege of working vocationally in some Christian ministry. Because it seems to me here that we have a reality check for all of us who have the great privilege of serving in vocational ministry. In fact, I want to suggest that this verse yields a definition of vocational ministry. I find this helpful just to ponder. If you take what is said in this verse, I would derive from it this definition. That a pastor or a missionary, a person in any full-time form of Christian vocation, is a person called by God and recognized by the church to give their life so that the gospel may run. You see how I get that definition from this text? For all of us who have the great privilege of serving as pastors or missionaries, understand this. Our calling, your calling, whatever part you have into the big picture, here is what you are called to do, here is why you have that privilege, here is why I have that privilege. Our calling is to live so that the gospel may run, that the word of God may spread rapidly and bear fruit in transformed lives in our lifetime. Just Paul says, as it did with you. So this has been good for me, again, a reality check as one who is so privileged, as many others listening to this message today are, to serve in vocational ministry. To ask this question, am I living today in such a way that the gospel will run? And is there anything about me that is in any way hindering that rapid progress of the gospel? Every time I go into a meeting, every time I write a sermon, every time I sit down to deal with some difficulty, I need to be clear that all of this is for one purpose, that the gospel may run, nothing else. And if I no longer see that, I have lost touch with my calling. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and our message, Advancing the Gospel. Maybe there’s someone in your life who is asking questions about what it’s like to know Jesus, or they’re wondering if they can trust the Bible. We’d love to send you two copies of a book by Josh McDowell called More Than a Carpenter. Josh McDowell started out trying to disprove Christianity, and as he went further into the claims of Christ, he came to the conclusion that the Bible is trustworthy and Jesus is who he says he is. He writes about this in More Than a Carpenter, and we’d love to send you two copies of the book to say thank you for setting up a new monthly donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of £5 per month or more. That’s one copy of the book for you, and one copy to give away to someone who is questioning the claims of Christianity. You can find details of this offer on our website. Come to openthebible.org.uk. Back to the message now, here’s Colin. Now let me make another application to all of us, whether in vocational ministry or not, every one of us, and it’s this. Pray for those who are called by God and trusted by the church with the privilege and with the responsibility of proclaiming the gospel. That’s what Paul’s asking for here, and so I ask this of you. Pray for those who are called by God and those who are trusted by the church with the great privilege and the tremendous responsibility of proclaiming the gospel. In other words, I’m saying pray for our pastors, pray for our missionaries, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly. There’s a strategy here for everyone who has the gospel in their heart. If you want to see the gospel spread, not slowly but rapidly, if that is in your heart, here’s what you should do. Pray for those who have been called by God and have been recognized by the church to lead that advance, the strategic. Never get anywhere without it. So I simply say to you today, our pastors need your prayers, our missionaries need your prayers, I need your prayers. There’s one more thing that I want us to see here. You see that Paul asks something of these people as I’ve asked something of you. Pray for us. But I want you to notice in these last few minutes here that the relationship is not a one-way street. It never is. On either side of Paul asking these people to pray for him, we see that he is praying for them. And I want you to see how beautiful this is. Last week we looked at chapter 2 and verse 16. Do you remember these words? Paul’s praying for the people just before he makes this request, as I’ve been praying before making this request today. He prays like this, may the Lord Jesus Christ himself encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. This is the man who’s brought the gospel to these people. Their eternity has been transformed by his ministry, and he’s praying for them. Wonderful, beautiful. The next week, God willing, we’ll look at the verse that follows the passage that we’ve just looked at, chapter 3 and verse 5, and he’s back to praying for them again. Look at its prayer, may the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love. I’m praying for you to experience God’s love, and I’m praying for you to experience Christ’s perseverance. You see that the love that Paul has for these people, it’s written all over these verses. There is absolutely nothing professional or contractual about his relationship with this congregation. He loves them. And his request for prayer from them is sandwiched between the outpouring of his own heart in prayer for them. It’s beautiful. Don’t undervalue this, friends. It is a wonderful thing to have godly pastors who pray for you. It’s a wonderful thing. One of our pastors came to tell me this week about a dearly loved member of our church who went to be with the Lord just a few days ago, and I was touched by the news that he brought me. And I was struck by something else, the tears running down the pastor’s face as he told me the news. That is how it was with Paul. He asks for prayer for himself and for his team so that the gospel may advance, and at the same time his own mind and his own heart are pledged to these people. Did you notice how he turns from us to you, by the way? Look at it. It’s beautiful. Pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly, verse 1, and pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, verse 2. That the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one, verse 3. And we have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things that we command. So let me end on this wonderful note today. Do you see these beautiful six words in verse 4? We have confidence in the Lord. Say it with me, will you? We have confidence in the Lord. What a beautiful statement. I cannot tell you how much that has helped me this week. And this is the word that I leave with you today, whatever you are facing. And the reason that we can have confidence in the Lord, verse 4, is stated for us there in verse 3, and it’s in these four words, the Lord is faithful. That’s why we have confidence in him. John Stott says beautifully and simply, God will not allow either his word or his church to fail. And the Lord is faithful to his people, he’s faithful to his church. And that is why Paul says, we have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will do, and will continue to do what we command. He knows that God is at work in these dearly loved people. And he knows that God’s faithfulness is seen not only in what he does through his word, but God’s faithfulness is seen in what he does through his people. Friends, the bond of love between faithful pastors and a faithful congregation is a beautiful thing. The partnership between pastors and missionaries, called, sent, and people so that the gospel may run and be honored, it’s a beautiful thing, it’s a beautiful thing. Let me ask you then, has the gospel borne fruit in your life that has brought you to the place where you are driven by a passion to see the gospel run and bear fruit in the lives of others? Is that, does that pulsate in your heart? Have you felt the wonder of the redeeming love of Jesus Christ in your own soul to the extent that you would feel that it is worth great sacrifice to bring this love to others? Has the grace of God become so amazing to you that your heart burns to see the gospel not walk but run, not spread slowly but rapidly, and do it in your lifetime? I pray that God would light that flame in every one of our hearts for the sake of Jesus and for the advance of the gospel. What a great challenge for us today to see the gospel run. I’m sure if you’re a follower of Jesus, this resonates with you as well. It’s what we’re passionate about at Open the Bible. We want to bring the gospel to as many people as possible and to encourage them to read the Bible for themselves and learn what God’s word has for us today. You can help us do that as you give a gift to support the work of Open the Bible. And if you’re able to commit to a gift of five pounds per month or more, we’d love to send you two copies of Josh McDowell’s book, More Than a Carpenter. Colin, why is this book so important? Well, I’m always drawn to books that are tried and tested. God has used this book, More Than a Carpenter, for more than 40 years, and it has been a means of God’s work in many, many people’s lives. But I think it’s perhaps a book that many today are not aware of. And so I’m just delighted that we’re making it available. More Than a Carpenter deals with real questions that a skeptic might have in regards to the Christian faith. So Josh McDowell deals with questions like, what about science? And what about the new atheism? And how do we know that the Bible is reliable? So this is a really helpful book for believers to help us be clearer and more confident in our witness to Jesus. And it’s also a marvelous book to give to anyone who’s asking honest questions about the Christian faith. And that’s why we’d like to send you two copies, one for you and one to give away. In return for setting up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible for five pounds per month or more. Details on our website, openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick, and I hope you’ll be able to join us again soon. You’re tired of this battle and you know you need more love and more patience. God has good news for you. Find out what it is next time on Open the Bible.

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Colin Smith

Trustee / Founder and Teaching Pastor

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near – So Far. Colin is the Founder and Teaching Pastor for Open the Bible. Follow him on X formerly Twitter.

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