Sermon: Sunday, 28th December, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
Can the body survive without food? We all know the answer. I suspect most of us have eaten enough food over the Christmas season to survive. We know we need food, and we make sure we get enough. Can a car run without petrol? Again, we know the answer. If we have been visiting relatives over the holidays, perhaps we’ve filled up the tank a few times in recent days. Can a Christian live without prayer? We know the expected answer is no! However, if we are honest, most of us struggle or have struggled with this basic Christian task. Perhaps it’s because we think of it as another ‘task’, rather than a privilege of being able to talk to the Creator of the universe. We urgently need to change the way we think about prayer. Think of it as spending time with our loving heavenly Father. Think of it as coming before his throne of grace to receive grace and mercy in our time of need. Think of it as an action which really changes things and makes a difference. Even though it is a mystery to us as to how God uses our prayers. He does. Prayer, talking to God, honours God, as it demonstrates that thanking him and confessing our sin to him is important to us.
We need to depend on God in order to grow strong in the Christian life. The apostle Paul was one of the greatest Christians who ever lived. He was powerfully used by God to plant church after church and through God’s Spirit wrote so much of the New Testament. What was the secret of his spiritual success? Was it just raw talent? Paul’s greatness stemmed from his dependence upon God. Again and again, we find him asking for others to pray for him.
Leon Morris: ‘He valued their intercessions and sought their prayers.’
Paul was a man of prayer and a man who knew he needed the prayers of others. As we are about to enter a new year, may 2026 be marked by our dependence on God, demonstrated by growth in our prayer lives.
Instead of just feeling guilty that we don’t pray enough, a better way forward is to learn from the prayers in the Bible. How does Paul pray? What does he pray for? What are his priorities in prayer? Does he focus on his health and wealth, or something else? What we pray for is a window into our hearts, showing what we value. But we all need to regularly keep on aligning our prayer requests with the contours of Scripture. We model our prayers on the great examples of prayer in the Bible. Let’s do that now as we focus on 2 Thessalonians 3 verses 1-5.
1. Paul’s prayer request: that the gospel would spread rapidly
‘… pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured, just as it was with you.’ (2 Thessalonians 3:1) Pray for us! Paul was not proud. He did not think he could manage without the prayers of other Christians. Have you realised that? We all need the prayers of one another. Even the great apostle Paul needed them. When Paul says, ‘Pray for us’ it is actually a command and it’s in the continuous tense. He is saying, keep on praying for me. This is not a once-in-a-blue-moon prayer Paul wants. He is asking for them to be regularly praying for him. ‘And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.’ (Ephesians 6:18)
What does he ask for? He asks that the gospel would spread rapidly. He wants the message of Jesus to speed ahead, like an Olympic athlete. Think of Usain Bolt gliding down his lane to the finishing line and winning gold. That’s what Paul wants for the gospel message. Notice that he doesn’t just want the gospel to be heard by many people; he wants it to be ‘honoured’. In other words, he wants people to believe the gospel, just as the Thessalonians did when he visited them in that short 3-week visit. In Thessalonica, the message did spread rapidly.
In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians we read; ‘You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia – your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.’ (1 Thessalonians 1:6-10)
There was a wonderful response to the gospel in Thessalonica. Many heard the truth of Jesus and loved and believed the message. Their lives were transformed, leaving their idols and getting to know the one living and true God. Paul is asking them (and us) to pray – ‘Do it again Lord.’
We pray for the church plant in Leven, not that the gospel preaching would have some kind of impact, but rather that it would spread rapidly! Is that how you pray? Learn from Paul. I need to learn to pray more like that. This is our prayer for Kirkcaldy Free Church too. We believe that God has the power to do this. In fact, another place in the Bible we read of God’s message ‘spreading rapidly’ is in Psalm 147: ‘He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.’ (Psalm 147:15-16) This Psalm reminds us that God’s Word runs swiftly as he controls the weather. God speaks and it happens swiftly: the ground is covered in frost. May it be the same with many believing in and being changed by the gospel. If we believe God’s powerful Word brings the weather, then we should also believe his Word can bring conversions.
Paul did not see the same level of gospel success in Athens or Corinth that he had enjoyed in Thessalonica. But he kept asking for prayer. Will you join Paul in praying this prayer in the coming year? Will you keep on praying it in faith? Will you pray for the sceptics you know and those whose hearts are hardened to the gospel? Will you ask God to soften their hearts? In any city, town or village in Scotland, this is the most important thing to pray about. It is more important than the economy or education or health care, albeit these things are important! So, pray! Pray for the preaching in our pulpits and the camps and the café- that the Lord’s Word would run swiftly and be honoured. Pray this for GBC and Newcraigs and Connect Church. This is not asking for 1 or 2 conversions. This is a bigger prayer!
2. Paul prayer requests: protection for the messengers
Paul prayed that they would be ‘… delivered from wicked and evil people…’ (2 Thessalonians 3:2)
Whenever the gospel is preached, proclaimed and discussed there is always opposition. Paul is praying for protection from these evil people, not to save his own skin, but that the gospel will not be silenced. Satan wants the gospel to be silenced and so he intimidates ordinary Christians and opposes them often through family and friends. You try to say a few words about Jesus and all of a sudden you are mocked or looked down on at work- it would be so easy just to retreat into silence and keep your Christian faith private. And in most countries in the world, there is a high price to pay for sharing Jesus with others. This sharing never goes unnoticed by the forces of evil. We will experience opposition. We need to pray for the protection of those preaching and sharing the gospel.
Paul probably has a specific situation in mind here. He is sharing the gospel in Corinth but wicked men are making life very difficult for him. Paul hands all of this over to the Lord in prayer.
Steadfast Global: ‘Following the coordinated raids across the Zion Church network that started on 9 October and led to the arrest of around 30 leaders and members, 18 of whom remain in detention, sources Radio Taiwan International and China Aid have reported that a number of other Christians and some family members of those in detention, have fled China to avoid arrest.’
Let’s pray that these Christians would be delivered from evil men and that the gospel would not be stopped. God will use our prayers. ‘But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.’ (2 Thessalonians 3:3)
3. Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians: obedience rooted in love
When Paul prays for the church in Thessalonica, he prays that they would be obedient to the Word of God. We should pray this prayer for one another. We do not value obeying the Lord as much as we ought to. In the great commission, Jesus instructed us to make disciples of all nations and teaching these disciples ‘… to obey everything I have commanded you…’ (Matthew 28:20)
Here’s a simple question – do you think you have become a more obedient Christian during 2025.
♫ Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. ♫
Let’s imagine that we have not grown much in 2025. Let’s imagine that we have stagnated and made little progress. What is the secret of developing a heart more inclined to obey God than to go in our own direction? There are two secrets given: ‘May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.’ (2 Thessalonians 5:5) We must appreciate more just how much God already loves us and we must be inspired by the example of Christ’s obedience in the face of suffering.
If we want to grow in obedience it will not happen out of guilt. It must come from the heart and from a place of love. ‘What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me?’ (Psalm 116:12)
Bob Dylan sang: ‘You have laid down Your life for me. What can I do for You?
You have explained every mystery. What can I do for You?
You have given all there is to give. What can I do for You?
You have given me life to live. How can I live for You?’
Discipleship is not just about our obedience but our motivation for obedience. Why do we obey God? It is out of fear that if we don’t then he won’t love us? Or is it out of pleasure because we know how much he has done for us. Think of two children asked to tidy their bedroom. One does so because he is afraid of being punished or shouted at. The other knows she is loved and secure in that loved and tidies her room because she delights in pleasing her parents. Outwardly, the rooms may look the same — but the motivation is completely different.
Obedience also comes to us, not as we focus on our own failures, but as we focus on Christ’s example of perseverance. Actively spend time thinking about how Jesus obeyed his Father even when it was costly. Sometimes we wrongly think it must have been easy for Jesus to obey because he was perfect. We need to ask, was it easier for Jesus to trust in his Father as he was spat upon and nailed to a cross. Obedience is never easy. But it is the life of love and God’s commands teach us how to love him and love one another. Make Jesus your main role model in life.
‘And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.’ (Hebrews 12:1-2)
‘When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.’ (Luke 9:51)
These verses remind us of Jesus’ determination to obey, even when it would mean times of great suffering.
Friends, Satan is real and active and wants us to think God’s rules are restrictive. Paul does not pray that the Thessalonians would try harder. Instead, he prays that the Lord would direct their hearts, again and again, to the love of God and to the steadfast obedience of Christ. This is a simple prayer we can pray for one another in our church. May the Lord direct your heart into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. Will you pray that prayer for others?