Holiness and Hope in a Broken World
Blameless at His Coming: A Sanctified Church Awaiting a Promised Savior • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 18 views(Main point: Sanctification helps us resist the way of the world, as we wait to inherit the world to come.) The Thessalonians were surrounded by unbelievers who gave their bodies over to “the passion of lust.” They lived their lives in the darkness. But Paul told the Christians that God’s will for them was their “sanctification,” telling them to “control [their] own body in holiness and honor.” They were to live as, “children of light, children of day.” Even though the world around us is in darkness, we are to be living and walking in the light of Jesus’ second coming. When he comes, we will welcome him with joy, because we are anxiously awaiting his arrival.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
If you had a million dollars and I had a quarter, how many of you would trade me?
- the quarter is so much lighter / easier to carry
- it’s made out of metal
- it’s shiny
No takers? But it’s that what we do every time we sin?
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with…[the pleasures of the world]…when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
- C.S. Lewis
“We are far too easily pleased.” - C.S. Lewis
“We are far too easily pleased.” - C.S. Lewis
We are settling for mud pies in a slum when we could have a holiday at the sea
we lack the spiritual imagination
we are satisfied and pleased with far too little
God is offering the entire world to come
and we are settling for the fleeting pleasures of sin
because we can’t imagine the infinite joy of what he is offering us
Biblical Text:
Biblical Text:
What are we waiting for…
What will that Day be like?
What will that Day be like?
“The Day of the Lord”
“The Day of Wrath”
“The resurrection of the dead”
All of God’s enemies are subdued/defeated (placed under the Messiah’s feet)
The day when God is “all in all”
“The new heavens and the new earth”
“The renewal of all things”
There are 5 sections we call “chapters” in 1 Thessalonians; they all end with a word about Jesus coming again…
to serve…God and to “wait for his Son from heaven” (1:10)
9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Paul’s hope, joy, and crown of boasting “before our Lord Jesus at his coming” (2 :19)
19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 For you are our glory and joy.
having hearts that are blameless in holiness…“at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (3:13)
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.
The HOPE and ANTICIPATION of the second coming is the backdrop for Paul’s practical teaching…
1 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.
“how to walk and to please God”
We’re pleased with
pleasing PEOPLE and pleasing OURSELVES
When we could be pleasing GOD!!!
Do you believe that, that you can live a life that is pleasing to God?
you can!
you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to be faithful!
2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;
“your sanctification” / holiness
God wants to rescue you from the corruption of the world
God wants to rescue you for a life of service
You are continually being PURIFIED and SET APART for God’s service
One of the things that sets us apart for God’s service is abstaining from sexual immorality.
4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;
know how to control his own “vessel”
probably refers to the the body
our body is meant for HOLINESS and HONOR
know God
the world doesn’t know God, so they don’t know how to control their bodies
you know God, so you should know how to control your bodies
6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.
When you…
look at someone
are with someone
…who is not your spouse…
you wrong that person
you wrong their spouse and/or their family
YOU ARE TAKING SOMETHING THAT DOSN’T BELONG TO YOU
7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
God’s Spirit
makes you holy
empowers you to resist temptation
you have everything you need for life and godliness
9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,
11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
We will come back to this next week, when we talk about 2 Thessalonians
what about the people that walked in holiness, but died before Jesus came? did they miss it?
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
asleep = dead
We grieve, but not like the world
they have no hope
We have HOPE…
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
“the coming of the Lord”
they are NOT going to miss out
in fact, they will even get priority
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
descend
obviously a metaphor
heaven isn’t literally “above” us
it is a different dimension
usually Paul simply says, “appear”
caught up together…to meet the Lord in the air
meet = welcome a dignitary
like the triumphal entry
only this time he isn’t entering in on a road
he is entering in on a cloud
the point is, we will all be together: the Lord, alive, dead
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Is this…
the source of your “encouragement”?
the way you encourage others?
Or is the source of your encouragement what you have and what people think of you?
near the end of the letter…
23 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. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 (MSG) “May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!”
Work of God - His Faithfulness
Blameless
Sanctified
Holy
We must
surrender to him
participate in his work
Application:
Application:
We are far too easily pleased
We trade a holiday at the sea
For mud pies in a slum
God gives us HOPE and HOLINESS and we SQUANDER them…
Our HOLINESS and HOPE are worth more than anything the world has to offer.
Our HOLINESS and HOPE are worth more than anything the world has to offer.
Jesus is saving you for a life of HOLINESS right now
a life of purity
serving God
If we KNEW how valuable that was, we would never throw it away for the fleeting pleasures of sin.
Invitation:
Invitation:
He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it.
You can live a life of pleasing God. Settle for nothing less than that.
