The Good Shepherd Cares

1 Thessalonians 3:1-5  - The Good Shepherd Cares

Sorry I missed yesterday. We left the house early and didn’t stop all day, but praise the Lord, He is at work doing miraculous things. Now on to Thessalonians.

Jesus tells us the difference between a good shepherd and a bad one. The bad one runs for his life and never looks back when the wolves attack. The good one risks life and limb to rescue the sheep and keep them safe. Paul was a good shepherd because even when he was forced to leave the flock in Thessalonica, he couldn’t rest. He longed to be with them, and when he could stand it no longer, he sent Timothy to check on them. When he could stand it no longer, he chose to be left alone. No one to help him. He sent Timothy to continue to nurture the Christians there. His concern was not for himself but for these new converts because it was so easy to become discouraged when they faced this persecution and when they knew what Paul was going through.

Then Paul reminded them of a truth that we must understand: we are appointed to this. Christians need to remember that we are not promised an absence of conflict in this life – only peace in the midst of the storms. That’s what we get. It’s like the song says. Sometimes God calms the storms. Other times He calms His child. We often find ourselves lulled into a false sense of security when things go well, but we need to realize that we are at war. Satan will use every weapon at his disposal to discourage or destroy God’s people. Too many times, we go down in the battle because we aren’t ready to fight. We are not trained, and we fail to equip ourselves with our weapons of warfare: prayer and Bible study are key, but according to Ephesians 6, our weapons are truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, and salvation.

Look at those weapons in reverse order for just a second. We are saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith means that we are totally dependent on Him. The gospel is what we heard that leads us to faith, but Paul says that we are to use it as a weapon to attack the enemy. We will never win the battle by huddling together in our sanctuaries. We must become the pursuers with the gospel of Jesus. Then, while we are pursuing the enemy, while we are storming the gates of hell snatching lost people from the grasp of the devil, we must live righteous lives and ALWAYS speak truth.