The Lord Will Strengthen and Protect You | 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18

Show Notes

Episode 816: 
In this episode, Chris and Jeff focus on 2 Thessalonians 3, particularly verse 3, which emphasizes that "the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one." Chris and Jeff discuss the context of this promise, highlighting that it was directed towards the church in Thessalonica, where believers faced opposition and danger while spreading the gospel. They emphasize that God's protection is not a blanket promise for all situations but is particularly relevant in the context of sharing the gospel.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Bible Guys. I'm Chris, this. Is Jeff and here we are ready and raring to go. Yes, and we're still in this temporary setting and the heritage room at our church because there's construction going on. So hopefully you'll enjoy this makeshift table. Super awesome, super awesome, super awesome. But we're excited about it. Nonetheless, we'll just work extra hard to bring it today. Yeah, we will. We will. And if you're watching on video, you know that if you're not, then nobody cares. It's a difficult life we live, Yes, such a hard thing. We're recording it a temporary space. Oh so bad. So we are in middle of a series called God's Promises and we're thinking about or we're not thinking. We are going through contemplating. No, no, I mean we're not contemplating. I mean we're discussing, discussing different promises, one for each week. They're themed and they're different context for the same promise. That's right, right, So we're talking this week about God's protection. But before we do that, we have our classic dad joke competition. Ooh classic, it is classic. Okay, so we're gonna just read all five. Each will take turns and then decide who has the better batch of jokes. Okay, all right, have you looked at yours yet? No? I did not look at mine either. So here it goes. Are you ready? Let me do it first? Okay? I get number one. I had to return the vacuum cleaner. It sucked. Oh that was That was pretty good because it was straight, straight forward. Yeah yeah, yeah, just right on the nose, right on the nose. There's a shock value to that one. Yeah, okay, I like it good. Okay, number number one for me. Why can't your nose be twelve inches long? I don't know, because then it would be a foot okay, clever? Yeah, okay, all right, what's an astronaut's favorite chocolate Mars bar? That's a rough one. Yeah, that's pretty rough? All right? Okay. Why don't eggs tell jokes? I don't know, they crack each other up? Oh no, is this the way today's going? I think? Oh boy, I think we're going downhill? Do you think? By the way, so you know you're a little bit of a conspiracy theorist. You'll go down the rabbit hole. Sure do you think does gives us bad dad jokes on Monday just to make Monday worse? Oh? Do you think what that is a theory? Do you think that's what she's doing? That is a theory? Right? Because I mean there's times we laugh, we laughed so hard, yes, and then you know Monday ones. You know what I think, really, mars. Bar, I think we may be giving her too much credit. I'm not sure she does. She's sitting right over there. I know she's like some evil you know, I don't know, sitting in her lair. She's plotting against us, sitting with bad dad jokes. Okay, anyway, sorry, sorry, does we didn't mean to go ahead? Number three my wife rearranged the labels on my spice rack. I haven't confronted her yet, but the time is cuman. Oh that was worse than. All of them. Okay, this one's not horrible. Okay, what do you get when you put a duck in a cement mixer? I don't know, quacks in the pavement, So this is not good. But the concept of a duck in this sent Max for funny Man. Yeahs, I'm so close to becoming a billionaire. I have all the zeros now I just need a one. There you go. Okay, that's good, that's pretty good. Yeah, I got all the zeros. Yeah, nine zeros. Baby, all right, here we go, ready, now this one. See they progressively get better. I like this one. Okay. Scientists recently managed to weigh a rainbow. Turns out it was pretty light. Pretty light. Yeah, he's pretty like, you get it. It's pretty it's pretty late. It is, it's it's life. It's pretty funny. Did you hear about the wig thief who escaped prison? At least are combing the area to find him. Oh yeah, see see this conspiracy theory holds up today. It holds up what I didn't understand. They're combing the area for the wig thief. A wig thief, wig thief. I didn't care. It's pretty complex. It's a lot of moving parts, a lot of. All right. Number five, the man that invented throat lodginges died last week. There was no coffin at his funeral. You got a couple of goes there. I like the rainbow one, the duck quack thing was not bad. The coffin one wasn't bad. Okay, I had the vacuum cleaner was the peak? Yeah, yeah you peaked. Everything else was down here? Okay, So I clearly. It was a plot against me, I'm telling you all right. Well, I mean I clearly had the better batch. So I went right, Hey, coffin quacks and uh and what what else? And ducks? No rainbows? Rainbows? If desiree Ye was an what what? What? Like a James Bond villain spy was an evil villain? What would her name be? Ooh, I wonder what does does chat GPT know enough about? I think it will. I think you'll know who Desiree is? So? Uh what does it say? So I did it in the wrong thing? Okay, you did the wrong check? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did the wrong one. If Desiree was an evil villain, what. Kind of villain would you be? You know? What would her name be? What would her name be? Okay, here we go, let's see what it says. Uh, despair way, despare ray instead of lady dreadoray, Desiree the devourer that tongues. No, it's it's yeah, okay, we're just sticking with Desiree. Yep. Yeah, all those were laying Desiree the conspirator. That's what it is anyway. Okay, well, hey, thanks Daz, and we're moving on to uh. They thank goodness, you're family moving on. You know what I think. I think when the people heard us making fun of Desiree, they had an instinct to protect her. I think so too. Yeah, and you know we're talking about the Lord protecting us today. Oh good one, good transition. Yeah, we all were talking about the protection of the Lord. That's right. The Lord will strengthen you and protect you. That's what it says, even from the onslaught of the show hosts Desiree. That's right. Okay. So we are in Second Thessalonians, chapter three today, and the highlight is verse three. Yes, but I'm just gonna read the whole chapter. Oh there's a lot of highlights. Yeah, I'm gonna read the whole chapter. It's only eighteen verses and he covers a lot of stuff here. Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. And when he says we and us, he's talking about him and his travel companions, Paul. Pray that the Lord's message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. Pray too that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people. For not everyone is a believer, but the Lord is faithful. He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. And we are confident in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do, the things we commanded you. May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ. And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Stay away from all believers will live idle lives, and don't follow the t eddition they received from us, For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you. We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. Even while we were with you. We gave you this command. Those unwilling to work will not eat. Yet we hear that same or that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people's business. We command such people and urge them, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to settle down and work to earn their own living. As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good. Take note of those who refuse to obey what we say in this letter. Stay away from them so they will be ashamed. Don't think of them as enemies, but warn them as you would a brother or sister. Now, May the Lord of Peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all. Here is my greeting in my own handwriting, Paul, I do this in all my letters to prove they are from me. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. There you go there it is. Yeah, well, Paul thinks you ought to get back to work and give back to work and not the idol. That's right. Yeah. I had to laugh when he said, uh, stay away from evil people because not everybody's a believer, which then implies that every believer is not wicked or evil. Right, yeah, so that's that's really funny. But think about think about the warning though that he is giving, because in his context, those who aren't believers, they were plotting to capture and kill him. Oh sure, right, So he's not saying, like a believer who maybe has malicious intentions of slandering reputations or you know, all all the all the things that maybe we deal with in America today where you're like, hey, these Christians they say and do things. But that's not what he's saying. He's saying, stay away from, you know, deliver us from the evil people who aren't believers because they're after them. And didn't he actually have people who pretended to be believers who tried to harm him? Well, there were there were people who claimed to be Christians that he had what Simon that wanted to buy, wasn't it? Was it Paul where Simon wanted to buy the Holy Spirit? Or was it Peter and John in the Book of Acts? Remember, Yeah, yeah, that guy caused him trouble. He complains about Alexander the copper smith who inside the church was still causing a lot of trouble. He he He talks about how Demus left him and you know, abandoned the enemy. Yeah. He has a lot of sad stories of people that claimed to be Christians or were around fringe, they were hanging around the Christians that just caused a lot of trouble. Yeah, so that's that's an interesting thing. But the main verse is, but the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. Right. So, and he's writing that too the Church of Thessalonica, right so, so dear brothers and sisters. Finally, dear brothers and sisters. That's right to the. Christians there, He's right to Christians absolutely. So the promise then is that the Lord is faithful, right, and he's going to guard you and strengthen you and keep you from the evil one. So. Uh So that promise then, even though it was given to that church, is you know, you could probably build a case and say that that is a general promise because it's not for a circumstance for them, it is a truth about who God is, right right, Yeah, And so whenever whenever there's a promise coming from God, uh, you know, you know, banking on who he is and his nature and his character. That holds true for today because God is the same yesterday, today and forever. So God's going to always, you know, bless us, keep us, protect us, watch over us, and certainly guard us from the evil one in our lives. Yeah. So the whole context here is pray that the Lord's message will spend rapidly and be honored wherever it goes. And then he says, because it turns out, not everybody's a believer, and not everybody likes it, That's what he's saying. Not everybody likes that the Gospel is coming to their village. He said, pray that it will be spreading everywhere, that it'll be received well honored wherever it goes. But then he says, and then also there's times we're going to be rescued because not everybody likes the fact that the Gospel is showing up there. And that's okay, And it's in that context, he says, but even though not everybody's a believer, the Lord is faithful and he'll strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. It's in the context of sharing the gospel that he that this promise comes, God will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. He's not saying when you're going to the grocery store, God's going to protect you and protect you from the evil. You know, deliver you and protect you from the evil. And that's not the context, you know, when you're out there arguing politics, it doesn't say that God's going to deliver you and protect you from the evil one. It's in the context of pray that the gospel will spread quickly and be well received, because not everybody likes to hear the gospel, right, And so then I'll protect you in that way, so you know, and we're confident in the Lord that you're you are doing and will continue to do the things we commanded you, which is go tell everybody which is honor or live right all. So let me play devil's advocate on this promise. So what was the name? I know you know this already because we had mentioned it literally, I think on HC Daily this is how far back they go. But I think I mentioned what's the name of the tribe where the men go and then they're killed and the women go back and then they lead the tribe to career. It was the Akka tribe and they were in Ecuador, and yeah, in the fifties. According to anthropologists, they were the most violent group of people that had ever been studied. And they were basically an un reached people as far as like nobody had actually been able to get into that village and teach them English or teach them how to read or anything. They were just hunter gatherers in the in the junk and they had a seventy five or eighty percent homicide rate. The majority is like seventy five or eighty percent of every person who died inside the tribe was murdered. Wow, yeah, it's pretty crazy. So and so then it was Nate Saint and Jim Elliott and all those guys and their families, all these young couples from was it Wheaton isn't where they were from. They went down and with a plane and started trying to reach these people. And finally, so where was this promise for them? There's the Devil's advocate, right yeah, So so God to protect you until he's. Done with you, that's correct, right, yeah, Okay, And. Maybe God's purpose for them was martyrdom, right, martyrdom to make a lasting impact well beyond oh yeah, lifetime. Man alive, you know. So for most people, they're so terrified of death that they can't imagine anything worse. Most people think, my own death is worse than the idea of an entire trib going to hell for eternity. Right, that's what most people think, most people, And it's and this is why Paul so frustrated. He said, death, where's your sting? There's no sting. But for most people, the devil has gotten us so afraid of the idea of dying. We're really afraid more of the idea because we don't know what it's gonna be, like, what about pain, what about whatever? We're just afraid of that. That's what we're afraid of. Whereas on occasion God will allow. John Fox wrote Fox's Book of Martyrs back in the Middle Ages or something, maybe a little after Reader on the Reformation, something like that. Anyways, he wrote that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Is the phrase. Yeah, that's a great sat phrase. So oftentimes those first people pushing in, like Stephen in Jerusalem was martyred, then the church explodes, right, this happens all throughout history that sometimes having something willing that you're willing you'd rather die for than to give up on, is inspiring to all the other moderate and good people in that group, go, I can't believe they're willing to die for that, right, And that's what happened with Jim Elliott, Nate Saint and all them, and then their wives went back. A couple of them, Elizabeth Elliott and Nate Saint's wife both went back and began sharing the gospel. And Nate Saint's sister actually moved in with that tribe and wound up leading them all to Christ, almost all of them, and they turned into a very aggressive evangelists, traveling all throughout the jungle to all the other because they were the fearsome warrior tribe and they would come in early on. They would come in dressed as warriors into village and then lay down their weapons, take off their their warrior garb, and then say, Jesus changed us, and He'll change you too. That was their evangelism strategy. Did you know that? Oh? No? I? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. So min Kai was the guy who killed Nate Saint and was one who killed Jim Elliott, and later on he became the leader of all the Christian preachers all throughout that that part of Ecuador in the jungle. Wow, and so a lot of time. So this promise, but the Lord is faithful. Hey, that promise is always true. God is always faithful. He will strengthen you. I believe he strengthened Nate. He strengthened Jim Elliott. Jim Elliott is the one. Before they left, people were like, why would you go to the auchatribe. They're the most dangerous people in the world. And Jim Elliott said, he is no fool who is willing to give what he cannot lose, or give what he cannot keep, in order to gain what he cannot lose, right, right, which is like, I can't I can't keep my life. I'm willing to give that in order to gain say it again, he is no fool who is willing to lose what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose. It's great quote, right, great quest, and the idea being, I'm willing to give my life if that's all it takes, because the devil can never take away my martyr's crown. The devil can never take away the opportunity leading these people to Jesus, right, and that's what happened. So in this situation, then the Lord was faithful even to Jim Elliot and Nate Saint and the other three guests. And he did strengthen them, right, and he did guard them from the evil one. It doesn't say he guarded them from evil right, right, from the evil one, right. And you know, so where Satan would love to just destroy them and keep them separated from God for eternity, they you know, they had the strength to face it. And there's worse things than dying, you know. So anyways, that's that and I love it. So God is faithful and he will strengthen you, and he will guard you, and and those are all true. I believe they're true. They're particularly true in the context of spreading the gospel, right, and then you are invincible until God's done, and then that's gonna be okay, Right, That's gonna be okay. But then I love it where he pivots and he's like, hey, and I love Paul if you read any of his books. So from from the Book of Romans on he gets to the last chapter, and he's like, cramming a bunch of stuff in at the end. Oh, and by the way, don't forget this, And a lot of times it's stuff that's not doesn't have anything to do with the whole rest of the book. And here he pivots and he goes, hey, by the way, keep back to work. What are you people doing? Why are you being so lazy? Right? And he's like, oh, I forgot I got to address that. They got a bunch of bums over there in thessal Andika, and you guys need to quit quit just looking for handouts and being lazy. And you know, he says, those unwilling to work won't get to eat. Yeah, he's stay away from those who are believers who live idle lives. Yeah, stay away from him. Yeah, and he says, he goes, just you know, you should imitate us. He goes, we worked hard, Yeah, and we we actually worked hard to be an example for you, right, follow me as I follow. Christ right right? Yeah. And by the way, that's a that's a great sermon hidden right in there by itself, isn't that? So you know, if we're leading somebody, because we always say everybody leads somebody. Right, So whether you're leading your kids or leading at work, and you have influence pretty much wherever you go and your friendships and anything else. It's always imitate me, is imitate Christ. And I heard a speaker one time he titled a series the Life that leads to Why? Have you ever mentioned at you? Yeah? The life that leads to why? Where you know, obviously we need to be bold in our faith and we need to tell people plainly about the gospel, but we should also live our lives in such a way to where people just observe it from afar and then they just eventually ask us, like, why is it that you didn't get angry in that situation? Why is it that you didn't you know, do this or do that? Or how can you forgive? And what's going on? You know? And people ask us, And so it's the life that leads to why, which is then again, is a perfect opportunity for us then give the gospel. It was interesting there were a number of early American preachers. I can remember. I used to have a book it may still be in my office from the eighteen hundreds, and one of the preachers there is referencing the fact that the old preachers, so this book is from the eighteen hundred. In the message, he's referencing the fact that the old American preachers used to talk, used to use this passage all the time to remind people God blesses hard work, right, And that was kind of at the core of the founding of America. One of those things that the early American work ethic kind of thing, right, sure was a big issue, and they would base it. On this something that we've somehow lost a little bit. Well, it's because we'd rather live in mom and dad's. Basement, yeah, and make money through TikTok. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. We don't want to work. So this working thing is a big deal. And I think that, you know, God blesses work, and then I love it. You know, he says if they don't work, they shouldn't eat. And I've told this before, but I came into a village and it was the whole village was fighting. And it turns out that the women had just heard in church if a man doesn't work, he doesn't eat, And so all the women and children were mad at all the men because the men just watched their cows and drink and provide security. And so the men after all the women were threatened to beat them up, and you're not allowed to come home anymore. It's the whole village of women against the whole village of men. And I get a chair and I'm sitting in front of my truck and I got my translator. I'm like, tell me what was going on? He said, I don't want to get involved. I said, I time, I want to get involved. I just haven't seen the TV in like ten days. Tell me what's Here's a drama? Unveilab It's a village wide domestic dispute. Right. They're yelling and throwing bricks and it was crazy. So the men leave and they go out in the bush and then they come back, and I promise you they lock arms. There's probably you know, they have multiple wives out in the bushes in that area. So there's probably forty or fifty women, and probably another fifty or sixty children and young people, and then there's maybe fifteen or twenty men. Rightly Christmas and the men are locked arms and the chief steps up and he says, you know, we thought about it. We've talked about it for the last hour out in the bush, and we feel like you're right. The Bible does say if we don't work, we don't eat. So here's what we're going to promise you. We're going to do a better job watching the cows and providing security. Basically, they're saying, we're not changing anything. The women haull the water, they carry, the chop the wood, they start the fires, they cook the food, they build the houses, they raise the kids, they do everything. The women are like and you don't do anything except watch the cows and provide security. And so they you know what, you're right, we're going to do a better job watching the cows on a better job or right security. And so if you're listening and you and you live in especially in the United States of America, be grateful. Oh, because that's a horrible culture. It's terrible. It was terrible. So did you know Pastor Job in Kenya. He's in heaven now. But Pastor Job said, well, I've got some work to do. We got to teach these men how to treat their families right. And yeah, that was a big part of his ministry until he died, was trying to teach these guys that because In their culture, women and children were property right, and so so as they became Christians, God began changing their life. And so the women weren't arguing over we think you should work harder. That women were saying the Bible says it right right, which puts so much more authority, which then opened up the opportunity. Pastor Job was actually the one who came and began brokering peace between the families, put everything back together, and then he began teaching them, hey, you treat them with with love, you treat them with you know, delicately is as Peter says, and all these things, and cooperate with them, help them. It was really amazing. But it was all built around this verse. I loved it. So all right, well we're not talking about a hundredyears ago, you talking about like this. Yeah, this was a decade ago. Okay, yeah, which is pretty recent. So okay, well, hey you have you've heard it right here, So get to work, get to work, get to work, no idle hands. That's right. So that's a great passage and hopefully we will see you for another one tomorrow. On the Bible, guys,