For what is our hope, our joy, or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.
– 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20
These are some of my favorite verses, I would say in all the New Testament, although there’s a lot of verses that fall into that category, but specifically here in 1 Thessalonians. Really when I think about disciple-making, what it means for you and I to make disciples of all the nations, the heart here. Paul says, what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before the Lord Jesus at his coming?
1 Thessalonians 2:19–20 Emphasizes the Joy of Leading People to Jesus
Thinking about when Jesus comes back, what’s our hope on that day? What’s going to be our joy on that day? What’s going to be our crown of boasting in our lives when Jesus comes back? He says, is it not you? He’s talking about the church of the Thessalonians. He says you are our glory and joy.
The picture here is Paul saying, I’ve lived for you to know Jesus, to love Jesus, to experience the love of Jesus in your life and when Jesus comes back, your lives are going to be my joy. Your lives, they’re my hope, my crown of boasting. What I’m going to be most proud of in a good gospel-saturated kind of way. When Jesus comes back, you will be my glory. You will be my joy. You the people that I’ve had an opportunity to lead to Jesus and help grow in Jesus.
I just want to encourage you today and in my own life today, live for this. Let’s live for this joy. The joy of leading people to Jesus and helping people grow in Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 2:19–20 Encourages Us to Look Forward to Christ’s Coming as We Share the Gospel
Imagine Jesus was to come back a year from now. Let’s just picture it. Obviously, he can come back at any single moment and we pray that he would. But imagine he comes back one year from now. On that day when Jesus just comes back, what do you want to present to him with your life? Don’t you want to present to him people who you’ve loved and you’ve led to him? Don’t you want to present people who you’ve helped grow in him? This is what it means to make disciples, to live, to lead others to know and experience and love Jesus, and to enjoy the love of Jesus in their lives so that they look forward to his coming as a result of your life.
So God, we pray. Help us to live for people like this. We pray in our homes, our families, with roommates, you would help us to live, to build up others in Jesus. To lead those around us to Jesus in our homes, in our workplaces, our schools, our neighborhoods, just in the communities where we live, in the cities where we live.
God, we pray, help us to be active in sharing the gospel and use us to lead people to Jesus. We pray to see other people in this way is our hope and our joy and a crown of boasting it. You’re coming knowing it’s not because of us, ultimately it’s because of your grace and us, because of your power of your Spirit in us. The people’s lives are transformed for eternity. But God, we want to be a part of that and so we pray that that would be the fruit of our lives. Disciples made and disciples who’ve grown in you.
God, help us to live for this today and not just right around us. We think about when we pray for unreached people.
Prayer for the Belitung People
We pray today for the Belitung people, oh, God, of the small island of Belitung in Indonesia located in the South China Sea, on the east of Sumatra and the few believers who are there.
God, we pray for their strength, for your help for them. That you would give them everything they need to spread the gospel among their people. That you would send laborers from other parts of Indonesia, brothers and sisters from in and outside of Indonesia, to spread the gospel among the Belitung so that when you return, Lord Jesus, there would be a multitude of Belitung men and women who know you and are walking with you as a result of our prayers and our giving, and our working together with the body of Christ to get the gospel to the Belitung and 7,000 other unreached people, groups like them.
God, we want unreached people groups being reached with the gospel. Be the fruit of our lives at your coming. Help us, God, to live for this today. For the sake of other people to be ready at your coming, to know you at your coming. As a result of how you use our lives in their lives. May it be so we pray according to your Word in 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20. In Jesus’ name, and we pray, Jesus, come quickly. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
