Increasing & Abounding in Love
1 Thessalonians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Intro: A good love story in a world that seems driven by hate. Welcoming home the war veterans.
V.11
A prayer for direction
May - wish. A prayer of blessing
A better translation (Lenski) “Now may He, our God and father, and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.”
He = both the Father and Jesus. Two persons in one. Jesus is unified in person with the father
The two are directing. Jesus is unified with the Father in Divinely guiding the events of history.
song Same God
Paul loves the Thessalonians, misses them dearly, and is asking God to reunite them.
Pastors experience missing congregations
ryan
Me and my family
Having also experienced the Christian love of congregations
ruthfred ladies
jim helping me roadside
bruce diggin a hole with me
ben helping me move
My Pastor in the ER
gifts and notes for my kids after a tragedy
The Devil had been hindering them (1 Thess. 2:16 ) through persecution from the Jews
In contrast to Paul’s love for the Thessalonians, and the love he was calling them to share, was the hatred of their opponents.
The Thessalonians were being persecuted by their countrymen (1 Thess. 2:14)
The Jews, who were persecuting them had also killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets
they then drove out Paul & Silas
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
A prayer for love
The Word (and Spirit) of God produces the fruit as it is received in faith (1 Thess. 2:13 )
The Thessalonians were not loving by nature, but were made to be people of love as God transformed them. you are not by nature loving and cannot love God or your neighbor without the Lord transforming you and causing you to love.
The Word accomplishes it’s purposes (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,
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.
The fruit of the Spirit is love…
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Increasing and abounding
Spiritual, not primarily numerical increasing
but with spiritual growth comes health, strength, and through these fruits of God’s work there will also be increasing numbers of Saints
St. Paul’s church plant
A cup overflowing
“for one another and for all”
for your fellow congregation members and all Christians, your friends
for ALL. For those who hate you and persecute, your enemies, the lost
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
God loves the WORLD and desires for all men to be saved
We love because He first loved us
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
He even loved those who hatefully killed Him (Romans 5:10)
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
A prayer for Holiness
“Heart” - the seat of ones person(ality)
mind, will, & emotions
By nature man’s heart does not have a flicker of good in it.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
“… so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father”
“so that He may”
purpose/result of God causing you to increase and abound in love for one another and all people
this continues to be a gracious work of God, and not our own. He does the establishing of our hearts.
“blameless… before God”
to be able to stand before Him
“…in holiness”
set apart; pure; righteous
accomplished by means of His powerful Word and Sacraments
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
“At the coming of our Lord Jesus
the Parousia
“With all His Holy Ones”
Saints
Not people who are/were especially good, but
People who have been made holy by faith in Christ, having been declared just by God because of Jesus’ substitutionary atonement for sin; in other words, those who are forgiven and washed clean by God’s grace in Christ
Word and sacrament
Dead Saints
Angels
Saints and Angels
He wants to be with these Holy Ones for eternity
