Sermon Series: The Return of the King: The Gospel and the Future
Sermon Text: 2 Thessalonians 3:1-15
Sermon Title: “The Right & Wrong Way to Wait on Christ’s Return”
Sermon Slides:
SLIDE 1 – Sermon Title Slide
SLIDE 2 – Today’s Big Idea: Waiting on Christ, Should Sanctify Us in Christ.So, We Wait Well … When We Fervently Pray and We Faithfully Work.
SLIDE 3 – Point 1: We Wait for Christ Well … by Fervently Praying to God for His Church (vv. 1-5)
SLIDE 4 – Gordon Fee (1934-2022) – “The word ‘finally’ has been suggested … [to be] a movement toward secondary matters, it is much more likely, in light of Paul’s later habits … he has saved the final word for the matter that concerns him [most].”
SLIDE 5 – Ephesians 2:19-21 – “So then … you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”
SLIDE 6 – Matthew 13:1-9 – “Jesus … told them many things in parables, saying: ‘A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up … but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”
SLIDE 7 – 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 – “For we know, brothers … that [God] has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction … you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia … your faith in God has gone forth everywhere … how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God … and to wait for his Son from heaven.”
SLIDE 8 – Insert Copy of Point #1 of Sermon
SLIDE 9 – Isaiah 55:10-11 – “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
SLIDE 10 – Luke 18:2-8 – “[Jesus] said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice …’’ And the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? … Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
SLIDE 11 – Insert Copy of Point #1 of Sermon
SLIDE 12 – Point 2: We Wait for Christ Well … by Faithfully Working with God in His Church (vv. 6-15)
SLIDE 13 – John 14:6 – “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
SLIDE 14 – Matthew 11:28-29 – “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
SLIDE 14 – Matthew 28:19-20 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
SLIDE 15 – Insert Copy of Point #2 of Sermon
SLIDE 16 – Proverbs 14:23 – “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.”
SLIDE 17 – Insert Copy of Point #2 of Sermon
SLIDE 18 – Four Uses of This Sermon for Our Church and Lives.
SLIDE 19 – When We Don’t Wait Well on Christ … What Shows is a Wrong Mentality.
SLIDE 20 – When We Don’t Wait Well on Christ … What Shows is a Deficient Theology.
SLIDE 21 – James 2:17 – “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
SLIDE 22 – 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 – “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”
SLIDE 23 – Spiritual Rest and Spiritual Idleness … Are Different Things.
SLIDE 24 – When We Wait Well on Christ … What Grows is a Steadfast, Confident, Expectant Love for Jesus!
