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Ezra 3:6-13: Building God’s House

Read Ezra 3:6-13

At our most recent General Assembly I was excited to participate in a session where we were challenged to consider locations for planting at least twelve new churches in the next fifteen years (40 by 2040). Sometimes I field questions about why I am part of a smaller family of congregations instead of something down the road, but passion for mission and for the purity of preaching the Gospel of Grace are part of the answer (that and you are all fantastic folks to fellowship with that I love dearly). New Zealand needs faithful, multiplying churches preaching the Reformed Faith to all around.

The returnees from exile were also starting something new, rebuilding what had been destroyed and ruined. For them, it was a time of excitement and initial progress. A time of worship of God, who was making it happen and just because he deserves it. But also, for some, a time of mourning for what had been before. This passage encourages us to look forward with anticipation to God’s promises rather than back as we build God’s house, his church, in these days.

After rebuilding an altar and resuming the proper sacrifices and worship of God which the Law of Moses required, the Israelites also resumed the festivals like the Feast of Tabernacles, remembering God’s faithfulness and provision in their ancestors’ wilderness wanderings. It must have been a powerful reminder to them as they tented among ruins, relying on God to provide once again.

While offerings had recommenced, “the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid” (v.6). The needed wood was not easy to find in Jerusalem’s surroundings, but Lebanon produced fine cedars (it’s on Lebanon’s flag today). So using some of King Cyrus’ grant, they gave money to the masons and carpenters and provisions to the Tyrians and Sidonians in exchange for Lebanese Cedar logs (v.7), just as with Solomon’s Temple (2 Chronicles 2:16).

After six months, the timber arrived. Zerubbabel and Jeshua assigned the Levites aged 20 and older to take charge of the building project (v.8). But note that it was “all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity” who joined in their own ways in this work (v.8). This was a task which came with initial enthusiasm and unity, and participation from all the returnees.

This was no DIY project. It required organisation and supervision, and Jeshua the high priest, his family, and the Levites provided that oversight so the builders kept on task (v.9).

The progress brought with it a desire to praise God. “When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel” (v.10).

Here, God was fulfilling promises spoken through Jeremiah decades before. No wonder they started singing Psalm 100 (v.11, cf.Ps.100:5). They were remembering God’s goodness in the past, and seeing it again in their present day. God’s covenant promises were being fulfilled again so “all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid” (v.11).

But not all. “Many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy” (v.12) because they could remember the older, grander temple, and what had been lost.

While all were making a great noise heard far away (think of a stadium crowd), it was hard to distinguish between the joy and the tears (v.13). In front of the Temple foundations were good and bad remembrance. One that springs to opportunity, the other that sits still to remember what was lost.

Sitting in a nation which can no longer reasonably claim to be Christian and would not do so if pressed, we might be tempted to take the same posture. Especially those of us who remember what felt like better days in the past, when outward practice seemed closer to the Judeo-Christian ethic. We might mourn the loss of denominations that abandoned Biblical faithfulness for cultural acceptance. But that would be a wrong type of remembrance, and not from wisdom (Ecclesiastes 7:10).

Instead, we should look back with thankfulness for God’s past goodness and faithfulness, and step out in faith confidently expecting God to act again today and tomorrow. Has God built and preserved his church? Yes! Will he do so again today and tomorrow? Absolutely! Will God provide the means if we trust in him and ask? If it is his will to bless our labours, of course!

God is building the foundations of his house again today, in faithful churches across the world. He will build his kingdom, and multiply his congregations of praisers and worshipers, because he is a God who keeps his covenant promises.




Ezra 3:1-6: Prioritising Worship

Read Ezra 3:1-6

For many of us today there are many calls on our time and not as much time to fit it all in. Many parents will know that there are plenty of things between school, sports, instruments, church events, and more to prioritise. Some things have to come first. Some things are more important than others, and have to be treated that way.

For the Israelites who returned to the ruins of the Promised Land, you might think that rebuilding homes, building businesses, planting crops, and repairing public facilities would take top priority. But you would be wrong. Their priority was to restore the public worship of God. They had it right. We are made to bring glory to God, and we bring glory to God by worshiping him. Like the Israelites, prioritising worship over our own interests is a recognition of why we were made, and what really matters – eternity with Jesus.

After Cyrus’ decree allowing the return of the Jews to Judah to rebuild the Temple, tens of thousands of faithful Jews answered the call to return. They did not return to empty buildings, but to charred and blackened ruins. What little was left had spent decades exposed to the elements, and picked over by those who remained. There was no bustling local economy. There were no homes. Many had never lived there, or if they had, they were elderly and looking on lands from a child’s memories.

In that context, we might expect the returnees to focus on the essentials for survival, and then rebuild their lives in a new (old) land. But not long after they arrived, perhaps mere weeks, the seventh month of the year ticked over, and “the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem” from the towns in which they had settled (v.1, cf. 2:70). This seventh month was the most important month in the Hebrew worship calendar, the month of Tishri.

In this month there were several important festivals. It was the Jewish New Year, then the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. All not long after they returned home. What a Godincidence!

But there was nowhere central for them to gather and worship, as generations of faithful Israelites had done before. The Temple was a ruin. It had to be rebuilt. You have to start somewhere. So Jeshua with his fellow priests and Zerubbabel rebuilt an altar to offer burnt offerings, just as God had commanded Moses to do a thousand years earlier (v.2). 

They carefully placed it in the exact spot its predecessor had stood, demolishing the previous one placed there (cf. Jeremiah 41:5) which helped kindle the annoyance of the older inhabitants of the country who were already indulging in blended worship practices (v.3; these people probably became the Samaritans of Jesus’ day). With the altar properly rebuilt, they offered the morning and evening burnt offerings which God’s Law required. 

These returnees recognised the importance of obedience, and the importance of God’s forgiveness, symbolised in the sacrifices which pointed forward to their coming Messiah. They knew that in the face of opposition, their strength was not in numbers but in God.

After this, they kept the Feast of Booths, and offered all the required sacrifices “as it is written … according to the rule” (v.4). Whatever the day, whatever the festival, whatever the time (v.5). Whatever the cost, the hundreds of animals and kilograms of precious food and oils were sacrificed to God, because God came first. 

They even abandoned their half-rebuilt structures for tents (booths), to remember God’s provision for them in the wilderness. They were just as dependent on God on that day.

“From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid” (v.6). Worship of God had been restored, but the work was only beginning. There was more to restore the right place of God in that land.

The faithfulness of the returning Israelites is a reminder to us to prioritise worship. There are plenty of things that could distract us, whether urgent or pleasurable, but we must place worshiping God first. We might even worship while fearing the possible attack of those around us, but worshiping God still comes first. Indeed, the worship of God is the best thing to do in those times.

Secondly this passage reminds us to worship God as he desires. Our worship of God through singing and prayer, the reading of his Word and hearing it taught, and participating in The Lord’s Supper and Baptism, are what God desires of us. We should not add or subtract from it.

When we worship God, when we place God first in priority, and when we worship God as he has asked us to, we bring glory to God which is what we were made to do. We surrender our own aims and strength, to depend on Jesus our Messiah, and to place him in top priority in our lives.




Ezra 2: God Keeps His Promises

Read Ezra 2

Some parts of the Bible are exciting. Some parts inform or draw us to praise. Some are convicting. Some read like the White Pages we used to have before we abandoned phonelines. Ezra 2 sits very much in that last category. What relevance does it have to a busy modern parent, a stressed worker, a fearful soul?

Ezra 2 is all about God keeping his promises. Yes, it is a long list of names. But they were the faces that went with the fulfilment of God’s promises to bring his people back to the land. Those names, listed one after the other, remind us of how God works to bring about salvation. He does so in the lives of real people, who have names and faces like we do.

In chapter 1 of Ezra, we saw God is in control. God caused Cyrus, the king of Persia, to order the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and provided for the returnees who would go to do this. God also caused Cyrus to return various items taken from the Temple by the Babylonians (who the Persians had in turn conquered) so these could be returned to God’s use.

Chapter 2 provides a long list of returnees to the land of Judah. “These were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town” (v.1). While many Jews remained behind, the group listed in chapter 2 are the families who returned to the province to reoccupy it.

The first group listed are the leaders of the returnees. There are eleven names listed (v.2), plus Sheshbazzar at the end of chapter 1. Included in this list is Zerubabbel, who was later a governor of Judah, a descendant of David, and an ancestor of Jesus (Matt. 1:12-13). Twelve returnees. Twelve tribes. Twelve apostles. Here was the core of phase 1 of regathering God’s People.

The second group listed in verses two to thirty-five are the common folk! Some are listed by name and family ties, others by location. Those by location may have been poor, while the named folk are the notable and quotable. Either way, everyone had a place in the return. God called people, rich and poor, to leave behind what they had for the uncertainty and hope of serving God in a new beginning in Judah.

In verses 36 to 39, Ezra’s list turned to the priesthood. Four clans of priests are mentioned, who total 4,289 people. That is ten percent of those who returned. We should not be surprised. The priestly families would be those most likely to want to restore the worship of God as it had been previously, and kept the hoped-for dream alive during long years of exile.

With the priests came a smaller group of Levites (vv.40-42). Without a Temple, they would have had little work to do, and become disillusioned. But a small group returned to take up their God-given role of assisting the priests with keeping the Temple grounds.

With them came a band of temple servants, and servants of Solomon (vv.43-58). Many were originally slaves captured in wars, but their descendants were true believers, who answered God’s call to return. No longer slaves, but servants of the Living God.

Finally were a group who lacked a family record to prove they were Israelites (vv.59-63). Their status was uncertain until God could demonstrate whether they belonged to him, or were attaching themselves for other reasons.

More than 42,000 returned, plus male and female servants (vv.64-67). They faced uncertain times. Jerusalem and the Temple were rubble.

Despite this, there was a sense of optimism. “Some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, made freewill offerings for the house of God, to erect it on its site” (v.68) providing funding and garments to start the work of rebuilding God’s place, amongst God’s people, in the land God gave them (vv.69-70).

This return demonstrated God keeping his promises. Jeremiah (25:11) prophesied that the exile would last 70 years, and now God’s people returned to rebuild. But God’s people had faces and names behind them, they were not just a concept. God works in real time, with real people. Like us.

Further, God uses all sorts of people to achieve his ends. Priests and Levites and leaders make sense in this list. The priests form a massive part of the rebuilding team, as we would expect. But God also called ordinary people, and even those descended from slaves to the high calling of rebuilding his presence. We too, whatever our place in the church, and whatever our role might be, have a part in the worship and witness of God in the world around us.

Ezra 2 could have simply listed numbers, not names. But it doesn’t, because God uses people, not numbers, to serve in his kingdom.




Ezra 1: God is still in control

Read Ezra 1

Sometimes things go terribly wrong. Economic uncertainty. Job security. Family strife. Questionable leadership in business, government, and church. When that happens, we start to wonder if God is still in control, and still making things happen according to his plan.

Things had gone terribly wrong for God’s People in the Old Testament. They had lost their independence, been taken into exile, the temple destroyed. There was not much to sing joyfully about. And yet, God was still in control. In Ezra 1, God’s control over all things is shown by the great and small ways in which he caused a remnant to return to the land, and begin rebuilding the temple. God was still working to fulfil his promises to save sinners through Jesus Christ, the Messiah. God was, and is, still in control.

By around 600BC, the Kingdom of Judah was under the sway of the Babylonians, due to their increasing sinfulness and failure to worship God. Finally, the Babylonians captured Jerusalem, ended the monarchy, destroyed the temple and city, and took the remaining people into exile. For decades, just as God said would happen through the prophet Jeremiah, God’s people lived in foreign lands with no say over their destiny.

But “in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia” (v.1). The Persians had defeated the Babylonians and inherited their territory. While themselves worshipers of pagan deities, the Persians were (relatively) religiously tolerant, and Cyrus showed God’s People mercy which the Babylonians had not.

Whatever the motives of Cyrus, God provided a very clear direction to Cyrus: “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” (v.2).

God was going to have his temple rebuilt in Jerusalem to point forward with hope, again, to the true dwelling of God with his people (John 1:14). God had not forgotten his people. The enforced exile was over, and they were now free to return to the land. So God made Cyrus put the plan in action, which occurred with a royal decree recorded in Ezra (vv.2-4).

God raised up returnees among the exiles to return (v.5), despite their return to a place with no houses, no defenses, just ruins. Among these, God had kept the faith alive. They responded in faith to return and rebuild.

Not everyone wanted to return though. From these, voluntary gifts were given, along with others who lived around the returning Jews (v.6), a massive reversal of fortune and an echo of the Exodus.

In addition, the various tools and implements which King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple back to Babylon were removed from storage by King Cyrus’ command, and provided to those returning (vv.7-8). These were not just any pots and pans, but thousands of items which were ritually holy and used for the service and worship of God in the temple (vv.9-11). 

Israel did not have images of God to restore (or for the Babylonians to plunder), so the goods had been taken instead. Now God was restoring them to himself, even though, in the scheme of things, this was a relatively minor start to what was an uncertain journey, walked by faith.

No doubt, though, the presence of gifts, and especially the stolen and returned implements from God’s Temple, were a sign of encouragement that God was in control “when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem” (v.11).

Despite every set-back, despite the many long years removed from their homeland and the Temple which served as a centrepiece of their worship of God, God was still in control and fulfilling his plans.

The same is true today. God is in control of all things. Just as God called the shots in the days of Cyrus, so too God calls the shots today. No defeat by the world, or by its idols, is ever truly complete. God always prevails, just as God prevailed over the Babylonian gods when he caused Cyrus to set his people and his goods free.

It does not make life easier, but it does make life more manageable. Nothing that happens can stop God from achieving his plans to save us from our sins and deliver us from the power of death.

Like the returning exiles, we too are on a pilgrimage to God’s holy city. Only it is not a physical one, but “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

Those returning pilgrims had no homes to return to, only ruins. We too have no permanent home here, but seek a city which is to come. Like them, we walk daily by faith, trusting in God’s provision to deliver us from evil and bring us safely to enjoy presence with him.

Our faith is not in vain, because God is still in control.




2 Thessalonians 3:16-18: Final Blessings

Read 2 Thessalonians 3:16-18

Every few years the Reserve Bank introduces new bank notes with new technology that makes it harder for counterfeiters to copy. The reason is simple; if anyone can photocopy a few $100 bank notes, people would lose trust in the value of our money. The ability to prove that your bank note is genuine means you can buy from sellers who may not otherwise trust you, and be concerned that you are committing theft. They know the currency is genuine.

Paul’s letter closes with an encouragement of final blessings to the Thessalonian congregation. To prove that his letter, containing many blessings and also some strong messages, was the genuine article, Paul also included a personal note from himself to them. After all, if Paul’s message was a fake, then the promises and blessings (including those of the closing address) would be fake as well. As counterfeit and valueless to them, as it would be to us.

In the previous section of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, the final meaty part of the letter, Paul took a clear stance against those in the congregation who were unwilling to work but preferred idleness and meddling. The congregation were to rebuke and distance themselves from these people, until they repented and were willing to labour in whatever task they were given.

This attitude among some in the congregation undoubtedly caused division, but to that Paul offered a blessing and hope that this division would be healed. “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way” (v.16). 

The Thessalonians had experienced peace and reconciliation with God. Even those with a questionable attitude to work. They were no longer God’s enemies, but his children. Paul wished that they would know and experience this blessing, and that it would also be reflected in reconciliation within their congregation. Ultimately true peace is not cessation of hostility, but reconciliation with God, others, and Creation.

Paul also prayed that “the Lord be with you all” (v.16). Paul wanted the Thessalonians to know and experience the presence of Christ supporting and encouraging them in their daily lives, through the presence of his spirit (the Holy Spirit).

Next, Paul took up the pen personally and wrote “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write” (v.17). It was common for a scribe to write a message dictated to them. Paul was no stranger to this practice. We see this in other letters Paul wrote, or where sometimes the scribe adds their own greetings to a letter. 

But the other reason for Paul to take up the pen himself and write was to prove that the letter was genuinely from him. It seems a letter, potentially a counterfeit letter, had gone to the Thessalonian church and caused issues. Paul wanted to provide personal proof of his authorship, which the church could check by comparing his handwriting to other texts they knew were his writing, perhaps notes he had left with them previously. Just like a bank checking a signature for authenticity against their own copy of that signature, before accepting instructions.

Since Paul’s letter was genuine, not counterfeit, the teaching, encouragement, and commands were genuinely from Paul. And genuinely from God, therefore, since Paul was an apostle specially called to reveal God’s truths.

Paul had prayed for their peace and their experience of Christ’s presence. Now, finally, he prayed that they may experience the means by which this was possible. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” (v.18). There was only one way by which they could experience peace with God and Christ’s presence, and that was by receiving the undeserved favour of their Lord Jesus. 

It was through grace that they experienced these realities, and it is by grace that we do so too. Even though there are sometimes disputes and disagreements within congregations, we ultimately find reconciliation with each other at the foot of the Cross. The same place where we are reconciled, and experience peace, with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the same way, we too are able to experience the Lord’s presence with us because of the grace of Christ. The presence and experience of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit’s presence with us, is a source of encouragement for the ups and downs of daily life. We have not been left alone to fend for ourselves, but our Saviour is present with us truly in Spirit even as he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for us all.

Thankfully Paul’s letter was genuine, as indeed all of Scripture is. It truly is God’s Word revealed to us, so that we may know the truth and be set free. If it were not, we would be much to be pitied. But because it is true, and because we have believed, we experience the peace, presence, and grace of Jesus in our lives too. Not just today, but every day.




2 Thessalonians 3:6-15: The Blessing of Work

Read 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

While I do not watch television, no doubt there are Lotto ads that offer the possibility of a massive jackpot prize, allowing the winner to stop working and live a life of luxury on a tropical island, or something similar. The idea of not having to work certainly has appeal, especially in the West where we do not live hand to mouth. But work is a blessing and an ordinance from God, even if cursed by the Fall, and something that we should embrace.

Sadly some in the Thessalonian church were not pulling their weight, and relying on others for their welfare. Paul had strong words for those that remained idle, warning them to get back to work and that their fellow church members should discipline them if not. This passage reminds us of the importance and blessing of work in all its forms. It also reminds us of the importance of Jesus’ work for us, because we cannot live on bread alone.

After seeking the prayers of the Thessalonians for the advance of the gospel, Paul turned to one final topic in his letter. Idleness. Paul commanded the Thessalonians to keep away from any brother “who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us” (v.6).

That was not how Paul worked in their midst. They knew that Paul was “not idle when we were with you” (v.7) and did not rely on others for his meals but toiled long hours to avoid being a burden (v.8). They knew that example was Paul’s example to them of Godly living.

They should have known that, because Paul had every right to their support as a minister in their midst, but he lived that way as an example to them (v.9). With this reminder, Paul commanded that “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (v.10). Note the emphasis on willingness, not ability. 

Not everyone is able to work, for one reason or another. But most people can work, in whatever quantity or nature that work takes. If you have the ability but not the desire, you are relying on others’ goodwill to support you. And that is sloth. Perhaps, Paul felt, hunger might serve as sufficient motivation.

The command to work is doubly important because idleness often leads to the wrong type of busyness – getting involved in other people’s affairs (v.11). Gossip and meddling is like acid on the stone of relationships, and relationships are vitally important to fellowship in the church. Perhaps, some commentators suggest, these busybodies were so busy being “rapture ready” (as we might say today) that they were constantly annoying their fellow believers with new and novel teachings they had concocted from the Scriptures.

Such persons had a Paul clearly commanded and encouraged “in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living” (v.12). Leave your fellow believers alone, and pay your own way until the Lord returns in other words.

For everyone in the Thessalonian church, the command was simple; “do not grow weary in doing good” (v.13). There were so many opportunities at home, at work, in the church, in the public space, to do good.

For those who were not willing, the message was starker. “If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother” (vv.14-15).

Those who still refused to listen to Paul were to face discipline, and distancing by others in the church. Ultimately the goal was their restoration to fellowship, and to the tradition of work that they received from Paul.

While work sometimes gets in the way of things we would like to do, it is also in itself a blessing and ordinance from God. In the beginning, God put Adam “in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). It is a fundamental part of being human. While the curse means work brings toil and frustration (Gen. 3:17-19), work is not fundamentally wrong. It brings blessing to the world (Galatians 6:10).

Ultimately, our work is not just for our employer, our household, our children, or our community. It is for God. One day, when our work is done, if we are faithful in our labours God will say “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21). It is a witness to unbelievers as well, when they understand that we labour for God as well.

Finally, while this passage emphasises the good of work and commands us to work as we are able, we must remember our best works are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). But Jesus’ work was accepted by God and is counted to us as our righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:14-21).




2 Thessalonians 3:1-5: Pray with Confidence

Read 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5

Confidence is an important part of doing things which may have an element of uncertainty or challenge about them. A child with confidence on a bike will attempt far more than one who lacks confidence. Sometimes confidence comes with experience, and sometimes there is an element of trust in someone more experienced that is the kicker to try.

Paul’s letter encourages the Thessalonian church to pray with confidence. Despite Paul’s exciting life, and the ups and downs the Thessalonians faced, Paul was still confident that God answered prayer, and so he asked the Thessalonians to pray for his gospel ministry. He did so because he was confident in God’s faithfulness, God’s work in their lives, and God’s work to mature them spiritually.

As Paul began to close out the body of his second letter to the Thessalonians, he asked “finally, brothers, pray for us” (v.1). While the logical assumption might be that Paul wanted prayer for some personal need or difficulty, Paul was actually focused on something different, “that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honoured, as happened among you” (v.1).

Paul at the time of writing was in Corinth and having a rough time. But Paul was less concerned about himself, and more concerned that the gospel would flourish there and receive the honour it deserves, bringing glory to God, as had happened in his stay in Thessalonica. By doing this, Paul was not only teaching that prayer partners gospel ministry, but that prayer is important to the success of gospel ministry.

The second reason that Paul desired the Thessalonians to pray for his ministry was opposition to it – “that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith” (v.2). Paul faced not only resistance to the gospel message, but outright hostility from some that he called wicked and evil. This opposition arose because “not all have faith”. Some rejected the message, and not having hearts awakened by the Holy Spirit, set themselves against Paul as God’s messenger.

Yet despite this opposition, Paul was confident in God to answer prayer. Why? “The Lord is faithful” (v.3). Paul was confident in prayer because of the character of the recipient. Faithless men might be wicked, but God is faithful. God is faithful to his promises, and has kept them by Jesus coming to save Paul, the Thessalonians, and us from our sins.

This faithfulness could be seen by the Thessalonians in the way God acted in their midst already. God was faithful to “establish you and guard you against the evil one” (v.3). God did not just leave them swinging in the wind, but established them in the faith and stopped the evil one from snatching them out of his hand (John 6:39).

Secondly, God’s faithfulness could be seen in their obedience to God’s word. Paul stated “we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command” (v.4). Their life of growing obedience to God’s commands, as Christ’s disciples, was evidence of their faith and the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Thirdly, Paul expressed confidence that this would continue and bring the Thessalonians to spiritual maturity. Expressed in the form of a wish, Paul stated “may the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” (v.5). By growing in their knowledge of God’s love, they grow in their love for God. Trusting in Christ’s steadfastness, they would become more steadfast in their faith too. In this way, they would grow in spiritual maturity.

If Paul was not confident in God’s character, or in God’s work in the lives of the Thessalonians, he would not have directed them to him. But Paul did, and so we too can benefit from Paul’s confidence in God to answer prayer.

Paul’s words remind us of the importance of soaking gospel ministry in prayer. The preaching of the Gospel, the outreach of us as individuals, and the ways in which we as a congregation connect individuals with Christ’s gospel are all things God invites us to pray about. Whatever our part, it is all our privilege to pray that the gospel speedily advances and brings glory to God.

Paul’s words also remind us that we can pray with confidence because of who God is, and the evidence of God’s work in our lives. God is faithful, even when we are not. All of Scripture shows how God has been faithful and merciful to us. Even our own increase over time in obedience to God’s commands is evidence of his work in us, and that he is working in us to grow us in maturity.

As we reflect on these examples of God’s works in our lives, and God’s character, it encourages us to come to God in prayer as Paul desires.

So pray with confidence. Pray because God listens. Pray because God is faithful. Pray because God is at work in our lives. Pray because the Gospel is advancing.




2 Thessalonians 2:16-17: Comforted and Established

Read 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

If you think back on your life about who has made the most positive impact on you, the chances are you will remember people who comforted and encouraged you through difficult times or to embrace your gifts. We remember them fondly because they saw through our faults, and saw through our own troubles, to see what we could achieve through persevering.

Paul also wanted to see the Thessalonian church comforted and encouraged. Therefore, after all Paul’s discussion of end time drama, Paul prayed for the Thessalonians that they would be comforted and established in God. In doing so, Paul importantly demonstrates the divinity of Jesus, God’s saving love which ensures that blessing, and his wish that they were comforted and encouraged to stand firm because of these realities.

Firstly, note who Paul prays to in this passage. “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father” (v.16). Praying to God our Father is not terribly scandalous. But Paul places “our Lord Jesus Christ” in first place in this prayer.

While some pop-fiction and nonsense scholarship suggests that the idea of Jesus being God with us was a later invention of the church, Paul’s emphasis on Jesus as both an object of prayer along with God the Father, and Jesus’ particular emphasis as first listed in the prayer say otherwise. 

Further, the use of the term “Lord” with Jesus is a direct reference to the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which Paul frequently quoted in his letters, and used the same word in place of God’s covenantal name. Paul’s use of “Lord” in relation to Jesus made clear that he viewed Jesus as divine, within twenty years of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Also, Paul spoke of “God our Father” not just “God the Father”. So while Paul was speaking of two of the three persons of the Triune God, he was also making a point. The Thessalonian believers were adopted sons and daughters of God the Father, and so he was their heavenly father too.

Secondly, notice the foundation that Paul places for his comfort and confidence expressed towards the Thessalonians. He prayed for God’s future help on the basis of God’s past help: “who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace” (v.16).

Paul reminded the Thessalonian church of God’s character and past dealings. Rather than solely emphasising God’s potential to help in the present and future, Paul pointed to God’s saving love expressed to them in the past. If God fulfilled his promises in the past, he will keep them in the present and future too.

Because while we were still sinners, God showed his love for us through Jesus dying for us (Romans 5:8) we now receive God’s eternal comfort. We do not enjoy forgiveness for our past sin but not our current sins; but forgiveness, comfort, welcome, and embrace for all our sins. Past, present and future.

This forgiveness is not based on anything that the Thessalonians could or had done, but on God’s eternal undeserved favour. Where once, they had no hope of salvation and peace with God, now they experienced the loving comfort of God, and hope of eternal blessings through Jesus. 

It was on this basis that Paul prayed that their Lord Jesus Christ and God their Father would “comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (v.17). He wanted the external encouragements and comforts he had spoken of in verse sixteen applied in their inner lives.

Paul desired that God would encourage them through whatever difficulties they faced at that time, especially on the basis of God’s previous goodness to them expressed in their salvation. He also desired that God would encourage them in every work they did and word they spoke, in both good times and bad times.

This comfort and encouragement is available to us as believers today as well. God does not change, and nor does his goodness towards his people. As adopted children of God the Father, we too can call on God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is just as much God as he is also man, in good times and bad.

God’s goodness to us is the outpouring of his covenant love, his love which saves us. It is a love which is always shown to us, no matter how much we continue to sin. A love which God showed us by sending Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins, while we were still sinners. A love for us that never changes, but is always present, with the accompanying hope for the future.

That love is a comfort for us, because it is a constant no matter what change goes on around us, good or bad. We can rest in God’s salvation, which promises us that no matter how tough things get, things will get better. It gives us a basis to stand firm and continue in good works and good deeds, living for Christ in the face of trouble and uncertainty.

Because God’s love ensures we are comforted and established.




2 Thessalonians 2:13-15: Secure Salvation

Read 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15

Adults who have spent time in Wellington know the discussion of trampolines and their security. Strong gusts lift insecure trampolines and send them on unwanted trips across backyard and street, and too often into the side of buildings, street lamps, or power poles. Only those trampolines safely secured against the elements, either through pegging or weight, survive the stormy gales.

The buffeting winds of life and of the culture similarly play their part in human lives. Those which are not anchored in the truth are tossed about, will one day succumb to strong delusion, and face destruction. But for those of us who trust in Jesus, our salvation is secure, founded in the ultimate grounding peg of the truth. In that truth, we can stand firm against the stormy gales of life.

Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians introduced discussion of the Antichrist, who will appear to deceive and draw away any who do not believe in the truth of Jesus immediately before Christ’s return. The passage is sobering and frightening reading for anyone, no matter what our views about “the end times”.

Thankfully, while God sends a strong delusion to seduce the unbeliever into revealing their true colours, we have a stronger Saviour. Our secure salvation, and that encouragement, is the focus of the immediately following verses.

Paul clearly states he did not include the Thessalonians in the previous verses because he states “but we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (v.13). The “but” is a give-away that the negatives of verses prior do not apply to believers.

Paul’s ground for thanks in the Thessalonian believers, who are “beloved by the Lord” is firstly because “God chose you … to be saved”. Here, Paul is referring to God’s election, which the Bible teaches elsewhere such as in Romans 8:30, Ephesians 1, John 6, and onwards. He also refers to God’s everlasting, never-failing love, expressed to us through Jesus Christ.

Secondly, Paul’s ground for thanks describes the Thessalonians “as the firstfruits” (v.13). By this reading, the Thessalonians are the start of a great harvest that continues. An alternate translation “from the beginning” speaks of God’s eternal choice occurring before Creation. Since God’s will cannot be defeated, their salvation is secure.

Thirdly, Paul refers to the application of salvation to us in “real time” noting we are saved “through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (v.13). Sanctification is the process where the Holy Spirit makes us holy and set apart for God’s service, so we become what, in Christ, we are.

Finally, Paul also refers to the end-goal of our eternal calling and “real time” sanctification – our glorification. “To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v.14). The Thessalonians were effectually called to salvation through the Gospel, with the end goal of eternal glory.

Because of this certain and secure salvation, established before Creation, experienced in the current time, and destined for eternal glory, the Thessalonians could respond with endurance. “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (v.15).

In the face of a terrible coming evil, and the restrained foretaste of it already lashing their lives even then, it could be tempting to give up and give in. Instead, Paul encouraged them to stand firm and to continue to hold to the teaching which Paul had given them, both when he was with them in person and in his letters to them.

These truths are unchanging. They are as sure for us today, as they were for the Thessalonian believers nearly two thousand years ago. They are as sure and unchanging because God is sure and unchanging, and God’s mercy and compassion never fail.

Because of that, despite the buffeting winds and gales of this life, despite the temptations from within us and outside us to sin, our salvation is secure. Nothing can take it from us. It does not depend on us. It is a work of our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We have received the teaching of the Apostles through the Scriptures, and so we have them as an encouragement to us and a guy rope of truth against the lies of the world around us, and the deceitful whispers of the devil. We can stand firm in the truth, and even if all the world lines up against us to call us a liar, we will not be like those deceived.

We do not need to give in to temptation. We do not need to fear that we will be picked up and thrown against a streetlamp of destruction by the stormy winds of life and culture. We are securely pegged into the ground, not by our own labours, but by God’s salvation work. Our salvation is secure.




2 Thessalonians 2:9-12: Strong Delusion, Stronger Saviour

Read 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

In the thick of trouble or temptation we often feel that we are outmatched, like a child taking on a professional boxer. The strength of opposition causes us to fear we will fail and fall short. But as strong as any temptation or trouble is, our saviour is stronger. In Christ, we will prevail.

Reading of a great apostasy immediately preceding Christ’s return can place us in the same mental place as feeling outmatched by trouble or temptation. If God will send a strong delusion that will draw unbelievers to the Antichrist, how will Christians stand? But as strong as this delusion is, this passage in 2 Thessalonians assures us that this is all in God’s control, and directed at those who have rejected the truth, not embraced their Saviour.

In previous verses, Paul has revealed that the Antichrist or Man of Lawlessness, who is currently restrained in some way, will one day be unloosed only to be swept aside by the Lord Jesus with an effortless flick of the wrist on the day of Christ’s return.

The unloosing of the Man of Lawlessness will ramp up the rebellion (or apostasy) of this present evil age against God to a fever pitch. It will seem like a dam has broken, and even a great many who claim to be Christians and attend church will flock away after the Man of Lawlessness and his false claims and teaching as he “opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” (v.4).

All this at the “coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan” (v.9) to deceive anyone who he can. It will be accompanied by “all power and false signs and wonders” (v.9) to make the lie particularly convincing. It will deceive those who do not test the spirits to see if they are from God (1 John 4:1), just as Jesus himself predicted (Matt. 24:24). Great signs and miracles will cause the unwary to follow the Antichrist and worship him as God.

These signs are directed “with all wicked deception for those who are perishing” (v.10). The foolish and unwary will think they are following a wonder worker, only to find themselves deceived. How often has this played out throughout history, with false healers and religious leaders or political figures claiming to usher in new glorious ages? Satan has been busy practicing his technique to finally unleash it fully one last time.

But the deceived are deceived “because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (v.10). Like Pharaoh who brought the judgement of God upon himself and Egypt because of his hard heart, the deceived bring their deception on themselves because they refuse to embrace the good news of forgiveness from our sins through Jesus Christ. Since they have rejected the truth, they cannot do anything except be deceived into following the lie to their own final destruction.

All this is to accomplish God’s will, which is to bring judgement on those who reject his mercy. “Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (vv.11-12). 

Satan is not God’s equal, like some yin and yang. Satan does God’s bidding, leading the deluded into strong delusion to believe what is untrue, and by their acts proving they truly are unrepentant and deserving of punishment. This event is like a police sting, revealing the true intent hidden behind clever words and acts to fool the general public.

Those who are deceived are those who do not believe the truth, but prefer to live in unrighteousness. For them, a strong delusion will come to flush them out into the open, and reveal their inner unrighteousness, because God wants it so.

The strong delusion that accompanies the unloosing of the Man of Lawlessness, and the corruption and apostasy of the Church which accompanies it, raises a legitimate question about the fate of Christians. But the way in which Paul talks should encourage us, not concern us.

Those who embrace the lie are those who have rejected the truth. They are those who prefer the pleasures of sin to worshiping God and delighting in him. They are deceived by Satan’s power and false signs, but only because God allows it to happen, for God’s own purposes.

Strong delusion yes, but Jesus is a stronger Saviour. Those who have embraced the truth are not deceived. Those whom Jesus saves are not perishing, but have eternal life (John 3:16). Those who believe the truth are in Christ Jesus, and are no longer under condemnation (Romans 8:1).

The coming of the Antichrist will bring a strong delusion, seducing away those who reject the truth. But Jesus is more powerful. For all of us who embrace the truth, we need not fear the strong delusion; we have a stronger saviour.