1 Thessalonians 5:19-28 - Finish Faithfully
1 Thessalonians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 41:50
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· 623 viewsToday’s message describes how believers should finish faithfully unto the end.
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Frances Chan in his book, Halfway Herbert, describes a boy that can’t seem to finish anything.
As you can see from the cover, he only brushes half of his teeth. In the book we see that he only does half of his chores. He lives his whole life doing things halfway until he finally learns the consequences of his actions and changes his ways once he realizes God’s plan for his life isn’t a halfway plan.
Today’s sermon is on the final verses of 1 Thessalonians. In these verses, Paul admonishes the church to finish faithfully. He gives them a series of rapid-fire commands that encourages them to remain faithful to the Lord. They are to continue working until the work of God has been completed in them. And that work will not be complete until we go to be with the Lord. So in the meantime, may we be a people that finish what we started. May we be faithful to One and True God Who is always faithful to us. And may we be a people who do not go halfway in but a people that are are all in.
Join me as I read today’s Scripture:
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Brothers, pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Let us pray.
Prayer.
Today we will see three different ways that we should finish faithfully. The first is...
I. Believers Should Finish Faithfully By… Discerning with Fortitude (19-22)
I. Believers Should Finish Faithfully By… Discerning with Fortitude (19-22)
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
Paul continues his rapid fire commands into verse 19 with charging the church to not quench the Spirit.
If we look back a few verses we can see that Paul had just finished teaching about how to have a healthy church family in verses 12-15 and how to continue in the will of God in verses 16-18. And he is ending this book with a few more admonitions for the church.
But what does he mean when he charges the church to not quench the Spirit?
I’m sure most of us understand the Spirit (which is capitalized here) as referring to the Holy Spirit.
The key word that we need to get a handle on to further understand this verse is the word ‘quench’ which in Greek is sbennymi (spin-nee-me) which means to quench or to extinguish.
This word often referred to quenching a fire. In other words, we should not quench the fire of the Holy Spirit.
But what does this practically look like in our lives? What does it look like to quench the fire of the Holy Spirit? There are many ways that this can look but I have come up with 5 practice ways that we quench the Spirit:
We quench the fire of the Holy Spirit...
1. When We Resist Sanctification.
When we resist the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are quenching the work of the Holy Spirit in us. We are preventing Him from making us more like Christ. We will get into this concept more in our next point.
We quench the fire of the Holy Spirit...
2. When We Tolerate Impurity.
When we tolerate any impurity in our lives we quench the Spirit’s work in us. Whether this is sexual immorality, pride, greed or anything else sinful - we quench, or extinguish the Spirit’s work in us by continuing in sin. We are called to be holy as He is holy as seen in 1 Peter 1:16:
since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
We quench the fire of the Holy Spirit...
3. When We Are Disobedient.
We quench the work of the Spirit when we walk in disobedience. When God commands you to do something and you are disobedient to Him, you create a barrier between God and yourself. Sin creates this barrier and His work in you is quenched at that point.
We quench the fire of the Holy Spirit...
4. When We Neglect Prayer and Bible Reading.
Two of the most important ways that the Holy Spirit sanctifies us is through the Word of God and prayer. When we are not reading His Word and conversing with Him in prayer, we stunt our growth spiritually and we quench the work of the Spirit.
We quench the fire of the Holy Spirit...
5. When We Neglect His Church.
God has chosen to use His church to reach the world with the Gospel and to disciple believers. When we neglect meeting together as we see in Hebrews 10:25
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
...We stunt our spiritual growth as well. God has chosen to create us for community. If we are neglecting church attendance and not doing life with other believers, then our sanctification is also hindered. God has chosen to use the preached Word and the fellowship of the saints to help us grow in our sanctification.
Moving to verses 20 and 21:
Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.
In this context and our context today, the term prophecies refers to the preached Word of God.
Direct revelation from God ceased to to be revealed after the big ‘A’ Apostles died. But we see a charge to preach the Word of God and we see the Word of God called prophesy elsewhere in Scripture:
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
Here we see that pastors are to preach the Word. And in our next verse we will see that the Word of God is referred to as prophesy:
knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
We see even Paul refer to prophesy as the written Word of God in Romans 16:26
but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—
He understood that the words He was writing were to be compiled into the Word of God - or the Bible that we have today.
But why would people despise prophesies? Why would they despise the preached Word of God?
There are many reasons one might despise prophesies - meaning they consider them as nothing or they have contempt for them.
Some of these reasons might include a love for something more than the Word of God. Some people despise prophesies because of their love of music. I’ve been to church services that had an hour of music and the equivalent of a devotion. One service I went to on a Sunday morning years ago didn’t even involve a sermon at all! I must admit that was the last time I visited that church!
Others might despise preaching because it isn’t entertaining enough. They’d rather watch a movie.
Still others might despise the preaching of the Word because they don’t like feeling guilty in their conscience. They might not want to hear the truth proclaimed because it will shine light on the darkness in their life.
Whatever the reason - Paul tells us to not despise prophesies. We should love hearing the preached Word of God because it points us to Him and helps us learn more about Him. It charges us to be more like Him as well.
However, Paul does give us a qualifier in verses 21-22.
but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
When we hear the preached Word, we need to exercise discernment. This is where I developed our first point from. We need to discern with fortitude. We need to discern with determination.
We are to listen to the preached Word of God with a discerning heart. I dare not say that we are to listen with a critical heart as that can quickly lead to pride and sin. I see far too many people these days with their access to platforms like Twitter and Facebook post like they are theologians when they are strikingly ignorant of God’s Word. We can quickly become unteachable if we do not remain humble under the Word of God.
But I must reassert that we should listen with a Spirit-led discernment.
Sadly, today there is a growing number of preachers that should be despised in their preaching because it is not from the Word of God. Some preachers are not of God and instead of their father the Devil. We get good advice from John regarding these false teachers who teach from a spirit of rebellion instead of love for God.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
We need to recognize those who are not of God. We need to exercise good discernment when listening to preaching.
And this discernment is done through the power of the Holy Spirit and from a good understanding of the Word of God.
Those things that are discerned as right - we are to hold fast to.
Those things that are good - we are to hold fast to.
But we are to hate and not partake in anything that is evil.
We see this summarized in Romans 12:9
Romans 12:9b (ESV)
...Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Next we see that in order to finish faithfully, we need to be...
Scripture References: 1 Peter 1:16, Hebrews 10:25, 2 Timothy 4:2, 2 Peter 1:20-21, Romans 16:26, 1 John 4:1, Romans 12:9
II. Believers Should Finish Faithfully By… Desiring Finality (23-24)
II. Believers Should Finish Faithfully By… Desiring Finality (23-24)
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Verse 23 is the climax of admonition in this section. May God sanctify you completely. May all of your being be blameless - your whole spirit and soul and body. And may you be blameless until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a charge! Paul admonishes us to be be completely sanctified or perfected until Christ comes.
It is important to understand that we cannot actually be perfectly sanctified on this side of eternity - Just like we are not able to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances. The fight against the flesh continues raging. But that doesn’t change the command. We are to continue striving for the Lord. And we should see continual growth as the Holy Spirit continues to conform us to the likeness of Christ. This is referred to as progressive sanctification and is done through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as we read His Word and obey His commands.
However, verse 23 has led to an erroneous teaching in the Nazarene and Methodist churches that originated during the holiness movement with John Wesley often referred to as entire sanctification.
Entire sanctification is a false teaching that asserts that a Christian can reach such a state of holiness on this side of eternity that he or she ceases to sin in this life.
The Nazarene and Methodist churches grasp this particular verse for the anchor for their false teaching (1). Although we are entirely sanctified in eternity, this does not occur until we either die or are raptured.
This is a dangerous teaching as we still have much growth and sanctification needed as a believer in Christ. The real danger of this false teaching is seen most clearly in the book of 1 John:
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
None of us may say that we have no sin or that we are entirely sanctified on this side of eternity. To do so is to call God a liar. We are completely justified upon salvation. Our sins are forgiven. And God begins and progressively works His sanctifying grace in our lives. But we can never say that we are without sin. This is John writing to the church and he is even including himself with the word ‘we!’ If we say we are not sinners then we make Him out to be a liar. The truth is not in us if we say we have no sin.
Praise God, He will bring His work of sanctification to completion. We see this in the book of Philippians:
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
But that work will be not completed until we are on the other side of eternity. When we go to meet the Lord in the air or we are separated from our body through death. Only then will His work on us be completed. In the view of eternity, it has already happened. God is not limited by time. He has completed the work in the view of eternity. But at the here and now - we are still being progressively sanctified. We are being made more like Christ day by day.
I have included a definition of both progressive sanctification and entire sanctification in your handouts to help you more clearly understand the big differences between these to teachings. We hold to progressive sanctification at CrossPointe as this is the most congruent understanding that we get from Scripture.
Progressive Sanctification verses Entire Sanctification
Progressive Sanctification is the work that God does in our lives through the Holy Spirit indwelling us to make us more like Jesus Christ. Our sanctification is both passive and active - meaning that God does this work Himself while also sovereignly using our actions of obedience directed by Himself in order to make this change occur.
Entire Sanctification is a false teaching that asserts that a Christian can reach such a state of holiness on this side of eternity that he or she ceases to sin in this life.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One other thing I want us to notice from this great verse in verse 23 is that there are three parts of a person mentioned here. The spirit, soul, and body. There are a couple of differing views of whether the soul and spirit are separate but it is most clear in Scripture that we are made up of two parts - the body and the soul/spirit. The soul and spirit are often used interchangeably in the Scriptures. We are made up of the material and the immaterial. Our material body will pass away - although it will be raised anew and made eternal at the resurrection of the dead when we receive our glorified bodies! But our immaterial soul/spirit will be with the Lord after we die and is eternal in nature. Paul’s emphasis in using this tripartite wording is to emphasize the completeness of sanctification in eternity - Not to create a distinction between the soul and spirit. His statement here is meant to show that God will sanctify all of us.
My mentor, Pastor Kenny Stidham, and I discussed this verse this past week and he had a wise statement. Our tendency as humans is to analyze things by breaking them down. However, Paul’s focus in this Scripture is to synthesize the data by combining it to form the whole person. His emphasis is on the fact that God will completely sanctify every part us of.
This idea reminds me of what Jesus told us Luke 10:27
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Here we see a four-fold division of the person. But again - what Jesus is emphasizing here is that we are to love God with all of us - material and immaterial.
Moving forward to verse 24 we see the following:
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Just like we read earlier in Philippians 1:6, God will bring His work to completion. He is faithful and He will surely do it. I love the future active tense of this last verb at the end of verse 24 along with an emphatic adverb. He will surely do it. In other words, God’s complete sanctification of you in eternity is guaranteed. It is a sure thing.
How wonderful is it, my friends, to have a God who is in such sovereign control that He can make statements like that! His promises are sure. What He says He will do, He will always do. Or as stated here - he will surely do.
Brothers and sisters, if we want to finish faithfully, we should live as those who are desiring finality. We should be living as those who are not of this world but as those who are looking heavenward to our final resting place with Christ. Our desires should be heavenly in nature and not earthly.
As believers who desire finality and are living with hope for our future home with Christ, we should also be...
Scripture References: 1 John 1:8-10, Philippians 1:6, Luke 10:27
III. Believers Should Finish Faithfully By… Decisively Following (25-28)
III. Believers Should Finish Faithfully By… Decisively Following (25-28)
Brothers, pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Paul ends this section of Scripture with a charge to decisively follow through prayer, fellowship, the reading of the Word, and grace. Let’s break these last few verses down one by one.
We Are to Decisively Follow Through Being a People of Prayer
Brothers, pray for us.
I do not think it is necessary to stress any further the necessity of prayer after last week’s sermon which addressed how we need to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17). Prayer is an extremely important aspect of us following Christ. Our faithfulness to Christ requires us to be in constant relationship with Him through prayer.
We Are to Decisively Follow Through Being a People of Fellowship
Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
Obviously, in our culture this is a more uncomfortable verse. But the main emphasis in this verse is that we need to be a people of fellowship. We need to love one another as a family of believers. And we are to greet all of the brothers - meaning that we are to avoid favoritism. We are to love the entire church family.
The main command in this verse is not the act of kissing. The emphasis here is that we are to greet one another in love. That form of greeting and love needs to be appropriate in the cultural context and needs to be a welcomed form of affection from both persons. Many commentators assert that during Paul’s cultural context here, men and women were segregated in meetings and that men greeted one another and women greeted one another. And this kiss was on the cheek as well and was already a customary practice in that particular society.
In our culture today, we need to be wise with how we greet one another. Our greetings need to always be pure and holy as seen here and we need to be sensitive to how others feel and respond to our greetings. Church, if someone greets you in a way that makes you uncomfortable, be loving enough and bold enough to let them know in a gentle way that you do not prefer to greet that way. We need to be a church that loves one another by respecting boundaries.
We Are to Decisively Follow Through Being a People of the Word
I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.
I love Paul’s fire when he puts them under oath before the Lord to have this letter read. He was zealous for the Word of God. He understood that this letter that he had written was from the hand of God. God had given Paul these words and inspired him through the Holy Spirit to write each word down.
May we have such a zeal for God’s Word!
And finally,
We Are to Decisively Follow Through Being a People of Grace
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Without grace, none of us can be saved. As we mention time and time again, we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Our entire lives should be marked by an understanding of the importance of grace. We must continue to live as people who understand the grace that we needed for salvation. We must be decisively following Christ by remembering the cross in which Christ paid our debt. He came and lived a sinless life and was crucified and buried for our sins. The punishment that we deserved was placed upon him. And three days later, He rose from the dead and defeated sin and death! And by grace we have been saved.
My friends, I pray that each of you can say that! That by God’s glorious grace that was poured out through His Son Jesus Christ - fully God and fully man - you have been saved.
If not, I would love to talk with you about what it means to be saved by grace through faith.
There is no more important decision in this life!
Scripture References: 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Ephesians 2:8-9
Conclusion:
As we come to a close, I pray that each of us finishes faithfully. True believers remain faithful until the end. And we can finish faithfully by being discerning, by desiring heavenly things, and by being decisive in our following of Christ. May God strengthen you as you run this race of life with determination and perseverance.
Let us pray.
Prayer
If you would like to learn more about salvation through Jesus Christ or want to obey Jesus by obeying the first commandment of a believer in going through the waters of baptism - please let me know.
Have a blessed week.