Closing Remarks
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
This morning, we’re going to go through the closing remarks of Paul’s first letter to the church at Thessalonica.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed preaching 1 Thessalonians and have been, once again, personally confronted by this letter I was already familiar with.
God’s Word is like that. It’s a multi-faceted jewel; turn it this way and that and you see something new with each angle.
What Paul writes here, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are some final thoughts, his closing remarks to his brothers and sisters.
There is some deep teaching here; these aren’t throw-away verses. This for the church, then and now. For the Thessalonians then. For Rich Hillians today.
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5. If you are able and willing, please stand with me as we finish out this letter.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
25 Brothers and sisters, pray for us. 26 Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss. 27 I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.
28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Meghann asked what I was preaching this Sunday, I said I was finishing up 1 Thessalonians. She said, “Oh, I thought you’d preach something Christmas-y.”
Believe it or not, I’m going to be able to connect this to Christmas. I can get to Easter or Christmas—that is, I can get to Jesus and the gospel from any place in the Bible.
It’s like 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, only easier.
So, we’ll have gobs of Christmas between now and the 25th, I promise.
By the way, I mentioned it a year or so ago, but it bears repeating: Christmas falls on a Sunday this year. December 25 is 3 Sundays from today.
We will gather together here to worship the Lord, as we do every other Sunday. Adjust your plans to be here Christmas Sunday.
Set aside time on Christmas Day to gather with your brothers and sisters in Christ to worship Christ together.
Back to 1 Thessalonians.
Paul, wrapping up this letter, includes some teaching and some encouragements. He adds a couple of commands, some important to-dos, and ends with grace.
Paul begins his closing remarks with
A Word about Assurance
A Word about Assurance
Verses 23-24 are a good reminder of what only God can do, what God Himself will do.
Paul frames this as a prayer, these two verses. Look at them with me.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul is praying for the Thessalonians. He’s praying what he knows to be true about God and about God’s work.
This is phrased as a prayer—May God Himself…May your whole spirit, soul, and body...
Paul knows God will do these things and is asking Him to do this work. In the process of praying, he’s teaching the Thessalonians (and us) important doctrine.
The verse begins with the emphatic “God Himself” which underlines God’s action. “God Himself,” that is this something only God could do.
God Himself, the God of peace. Bringing peace is something only God can do. God initiated the reconciliation of sinners with Himself and is now at peace with them.
No sinner seeks out God. No sinner could begin to reconcile themselves with God.
Romans 3 states it plain: There is no one who seeks God.
But God seeks out His own.
God comes after those who were once His enemies. God pursues those who are dead in their sins. God seeks and God makes peace. It’s God who does the reconciling.
He breaks down the barrier. God Himself deals with our sin through the death of His own Son. God brings people to Himself. It’s what He does. He’s the God of peace.
May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify.
To sanctify means “to make holy.” It’s a very churchy word. And sometimes churchy words get swallowed up because they’re churchy words said by churchy people and lose all real meaning, even among the chuchy.
So, we’re going to use R.C. Sproul’s beautiful definition of sanctify: “the complete mending of all human imperfection.”
“The complete mending of human imperfection.” This is what sanctification is; this is what God does.
This is our confidence. This is the hope that sustains our present pursuit of holiness. We strive and strive and strive to do what God would have us, and we fail. We struggle with temptation. We succumb to temptation. We sin.
But God’s doing something in us. And will continue to work in us until we are fully like Him. He will completely mend our human imperfection.
God Himself will sanctify us, mend us, through and through. Entirely.
Part of Paul’s prayer—what God Himself will do for us—is that our entire being, our whole being—[our] whole spirit, soul, and body—would be kept blameless at the coming of Jesus Christ.
We don’t have to worry about whether or not we’re good enough (we don’t have it in us to make us good enough), but God can and will.
Will we be sufficiently holy and blameless at the coming of Jesus?
Don’t worry your pretty little head, Christian. Verse 24:
24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
We need not worry about being “good enough” when all is said and done. We, on our own, could never be “good enough”—whatever that means.
But God Himself, the One who calls you, the One who calls you, the One who calls you is faithful, and HE WILL DO IT!
What assurance! What God requires, He provides. What He calls us to, He gives in abundance and perfection.
Positionally, we stand in Christ. We, by faith in Jesus, are perfect, thanks to the imputation of His righteousness. He took our sins, and gifted us His perfect, spotless, sinless righteousness.
It’s why Jesus came to us and died for us.
Practically, we still sin. We still give into temptation. We struggle and fail. We fumble and fall. Practically, we’re all major works-in-progress.
We can’t do it, but He’s faithful and He will do it. Bank your life on it!
Our assurance can’t be based on our ability or goodness or performance or religious activity.
Our only assurance is God Himself, the God of peace, the One who called us and sanctifies us will see to it that we are blameless when Jesus returns, when all our human imperfection will be completely mended.
Our God is faithful. He will do it. That’s our sure, steady, unshakable assurance.
Paul writes about our assurance and pens
A Word about The Body
A Word about The Body
This letter was written to a local church (the new Christian community in Thessalonica), and has been preserved for churches down throughout the ages to read.
What Paul has written, he has written to the Church—to the body of Christ, the gathering of believers.
No one is more fully aware of the many challenges in ministry than Paul is. Fella’s been kicked out of town, arrested, a whole mess of people would like to see Paul dead.
To many, Paul is a traitor, a blasphemer. Ministry is no picnic.
So Paul asks for prayer from the body of believers in Thessalonica.
Paul has mentioned three times in this short letter that he is praying for them, and now invites them to pray for him and Timothy and Silas.
25 Brothers and sisters, pray for us.
This is one of the responsibilities of the body. Paul has this and one more instruction to give to the church there. It’s important. Brothers and sisters, pray for us.
Every part of this is important. I’ve pointed out every single occurence of brothers and sisters in 1 Thessalonians because it’s absolutely crucial to our understanding of what the Church is.
It’s not a Country Club. It’s not a civic organization. It’s not a nice not-for-profit we donate some money toward.
The Church is a family, purchased with the body and blood of Jesus, here to worship and glorify the Lord, to serve one another, to share to Good News with all people, until Jesus returns.
Brothers and sisters is possibly the most significant theme in this letter. That word—adelphoi—pops up 14 times—brothers and sisters—and orients the whole letter around the understanding that those who belong to Christ belong to one another.
We have responsibilities toward one another.
One responsibility being prayer. Pray for one another. Pray for us, Paul writes.
Paul invites the church to pray for him and his team’s mission.
To the Corinthians, the Colossians, the Philippians, and Philemon, Paul writes acknowledging the churches’ prayers and prayers of the individuals.
It seems fairly clear that the church, the gathering, the body of believers is to be praying. Paul already instructed the Thessalonians to pray continually (1 Thess. 5:17). Now, he’s asking for prayer for himself and his friends.
This is part of the reciprocity of Christian fellowship. I pray for you, you pray for me.
Paul tells the church (then and now) to pray for one another and greet one another.
This is a fun one.
26 Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss.
When I was in Junior High and High School and reading through my Bible, I thought, “Hmmm...” when I read this and similar exhortations in Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, and 1 Peter.
I thought, “What would happen if I greeted the girls my age at church and youth group with a ‘holy kiss’?”
I didn’t have any game and I was incredibly shy, so I didn’t try it, but I think I could have made a biblical case for kissing my classmates on the cheek.
Alas, I never worked up the courage, and I realized it was a cultural thing.
Kisses in the ANE were performed regularly as greetings between close friends and family. Similar greetings remain common in Middle Eastern cultures today.
I grew up in a largely Mennonite community in western Kansas and it wasn’t uncommon at all to see people greet one another at church with a kiss on the cheek.
In Mexico, I was routinely greeted by a kiss on the cheek from my brothers in the churches there.
It’s a little outside our normal custom, though not completely unheard of.
Perhaps more common is a hug. Or a handshake.
The action itself is less important than the importance of greeting one another, and greeting ALL God’s people.
You are meant to avoid discrimination and favoritism. If you only greet some of the church, only a select group of God’s people, and avoid others, that’s a major problem.
The body, the gathering, the community of worshippers ought to be marked by a warmness, an affection, a visible/tangible love.
It meant enough to Paul to include this in his closing thoughts and remarks.
We can’t be legalistic about the means and method, but we can’t neglect the necessity of love and fellowship.
Warren Wiersbe writes, “I’ve been in churches where the congregation escapes after the sermon like rats from a sinking ship.”
Far more healthy are the congregations where members mill around after worship and spend time with one another; churches whose members want to spend time with one another, where love and affection is palpable, where hugs and handshakes and warm greeting is the norm.
Take a moment to evaluate how often you pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Set a specific time during the day to pray for your church family.
The address of this building is 300 E. Walnut. Why not pray for your church family at 3:00 every day? For you night owls, you might see both 3 o’clocks—and that’d be a good thing.
Think about your love and affection for those in the body.
I’m not saying you have to start kissin’ everyone, but maybe work on expressing your greeting with a deeper measure of Christian love and appreciation for your brothers and sisters.
Be thankful for the brothers and sisters the Lord has gifted you.
In his final thoughts, Paul has:
A Word about The Word
A Word about The Word
Paul desired that all in the church would hear his letter. Paul assumes a formal gathering, likely something connected with a time of worship where this letter would read aloud.
Paul is laying a solemn weight upon the whole congregation:
27 I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.
The Greek verb is unusually strong: I charge you before the Lord. This is the language of an oath. Paul’s putting them under oath that they would read and learn the contents of this letter.
Paul was the human author of the letter, but its message was divinely inspired. The message came from God to the church. This letter was divine truth. The church there in Thessalonica needed to hear what God was saying to them.
The Church today—this local congregation and every other part of Jesus’ Church—needs to hear God’s Word.
We set aside time every Sunday for the body, the gathering of Christians, to hear from God’s Word. The most important thing in the life of the local church is what it does with the Word of God.
Some toss it aside in favor of other things.
Some merely make casual reference to it.
Some avoid parts they don’t like or dismiss sections they disagree with.
Some sit and listen and submit to the authority and proper place of the Word of God.
“[Verse 27] is another reminder that the Word of God is the important thing in the local church. The Word must govern our conduct and guide our lives. We are to read the Word personally, but we also need to hear the Word in the fellowship of the local church—the one experience helps balance the other.” - Warren Wiersbe
I’m afraid, at a show of hands, how few hands might be raised if we were asked, “Did you spend time reading your Bible this week?
I spent very little time reading my Bible this week for my own devotion. I spent a lot of time reading for funerals and Wednesday Night Bible Study and Sunday School and a sermon. But not for my own relationship with the Lord.
I have this quote pinned to a bulletin board in my office. It’s a gentle and piercing reminder:
“It is unlikely that we will deepen our relationship with God in a casual or haphazard manner. There will be a need for some intentional commitment and some reorganization in our own lives.” -William Paulsell
With a casual, haphazard relationship to the Bible, we’re becoming, even in the church, largely illiterate.
Biblical illiteracy is a real thing. This is from Barna Research Group:
Fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels.
Many Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples.
60 percent of Americans can't name even five of the Ten Commandments.
Multiple surveys reveal the problem in stark terms. According to 82 percent of Americans, "God helps those who help themselves," is a Bible verse. Those identified as born-again Christians did better--by one percent.
A majority of adults think the Bible teaches that the most important purpose in life is taking care of one's family.
Some of the statistics are enough to perplex even those aware of the problem.
A Barna poll indicated that at least 12 percent of adults believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.
Another survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50 percent thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.
A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham. We are in big trouble.
Spending time in the Word of God yourself, reading, asking the Holy Spirit to give you understanding, reading and studying your Bible with others (Sunday School, Bible Study) is probably the most significantly important disciplines for Christians to develop.
We must spend more time with and in the Bible. This is how we come to know the Lord more deeply. This is how He speaks to His people. The Bible is our guide for faith and practice.
It’s a gift; we must treat it as such.
Finally, Paul has
A Word about Grace
A Word about Grace
Grace. The hallmark of Christianity. The note Paul sounds again and again.
He opened this letter by writing: Grace and peace to you.
And now, here, he takes pen in hand and concludes his letter:
28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Grace is almost Paul’s signature, so central it is to his whole theology. Grace is the heart of the gospel, indeed the heart of God.
We are objects of grace. The undeserved favor of God has been lavished upon us.
For the church to be the church, it must depend on grace. Nothing but the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ can accomplish the task before us.
Oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be.
For all the closing remarks, we can’t neglect the mention of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In every chapter of 1 Thessalonians, there’s at least one mention of Jesus’ return.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the event to which the Church looks forward. We know Jesus is coming again. He told us. God’s Word makes this clear.
We know Jesus is coming again. For now, we’re stuck here in the middle.
The season of Advent is the time in which we look forward to the Second Coming of Christ by reflecting on His first coming.
Jesus has already come in the most incredible, humble, earthy, and significant manner.
Jesus, the eternal, eternally-existing second person of the Trinity, took on flesh and made His dwelling here among us.
He wrapped our injured flesh around Him, breathed our air and walked our sod, robbed our sins and made us holy, perfect Son of God.
We celebrate this and we anticipate His Return—to gather His Church, to make everything sad come untrue, to judge the living and the dead, to make all things new.
We’re living now in the middle of the two advents, and we’re longing for the return we know is near.
Take heart, Church! Our God is faithful; He will do just as He has said.