Christians Basics 101
Christian Basics - 101
1 Thessalonians 5:25-28
Brothers, pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Let’s get back to basics is a common refrain heard in the face of failure. In team sports, the players are drilled incessantly in the basics of the sport before ever the plays are studied. Musicians invest countless hours in basic musical exercises. Foundations are vital for any endeavour, and the foundations are basic to any activity. What is true in the broad scope of life is equally true in the Christian Faith. Whenever we discover that spiritual fervour is flagging, or whenever we find that we are becoming ineffective in Christian service, it is likely that we have neglected basics. At such time we need to get back to basics.
The message today is a review of Christian Basics 101. These are foundational activities necessary for success in one’s Christian life. We are grounded in Christ as Lord for basic doctrine, but that truth must of necessity result in a lifestyle which reflects our relationship to Him. The fundamentals of the Faith are established and unchanging: an inerrant and infallible Word from God; Christ as God; the completed sacrifice of Jesus Christ; His resurrection and promised return; salvation by faith in Him. However certain activities are necessary for successful Christian living, for implementation of these truths in Christian life, and in his closing words Paul reminded the Thessalonians of these basic activities. Read the words with me.
Brothers, pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Having read the words, consider their application to life and service.
Prayer Is Essential For A Successful Christian Life. Brothers, pray for us. Do you ever wonder why the Apostle arranged his requests in a particular order? I suppose it is inherent in the preacher’s make-up to wonder about matters which must appear unimportant, or even frivolous, to others. Why would Paul, closing this intensely personal and loving letter, conclude with these particular entreaties? Why would these pleas be arranged in this particular order? Of course I cannot know the final answer any more than you can, but I can speculate; and should my speculation be founded upon clearly revealed principles of the Word of God I can rest assured that I have likely discovered the reason for the order of the appeals.
I doubt that any one of these matters is of greater importance than another, but Paul revealed something of his own personality and of his own priorities in arranging his entreaties. Why do you suppose he pleaded first: Brothers, pray for us? I imagine that it was precisely because the Apostle sensed that he and the other missionaries were in need of prayer from others.
Paul knew that a foundational principle of the Faith is that God permits us to be His fellow workers. Through prayer we are invited to join Him in work. Again, Paul realised that the advance of the Christian Faith is not dependent upon one individual. The Faith advances through united effort and each of us can participate through prayer. Again, Paul knew his own limitations and recognised his own weakness. He willingly confessed his need to draw strength from others. Let’s explore these reasons for prayer.
The first principle to note is that God permits us to be workers together with Him. Perhaps you will recall any number of passages which make this fact clear to you. I think of Paul’s affirmation in 1 Corinthians 3:9 which presents Christian workers, in fact all who labour for Christ, as God’s fellow workers. It is akin to Paul’s view of his labour in 2 Corinthians 6:1 where he bases his appeal to the Corinthians as God’s fellow workers. In short, the Apostle viewed the service we present to God as being that in which God has graciously consented to include us together with Him. When you greet a guest and set them at ease with us, you are working together with Christ. When you encourage another in the Name of Jesus, you are working together with God. Just so, when you pray, you are entering into God’s work.
Do you suppose God needs us? Do you suppose God requires us to pray in order that He may work? Who prayed when He called all things into being? Who prayed when He called the morning stars by name? Who prayed when He brought judgement upon the wicked inhabitants of the ancient world that perished in the flood? God is not limited by our lack of prayer, but instead He graciously invites us to share in the work He is performing through inviting us to seek Him. We need to pray. This is the reason God appeals through Jeremiah: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know [Jeremiah 33:3]. Likewise, through Isaiah, God says:
Before they call I will answer
while they are still speaking I will hear
[Isaiah 65:24].
God ever bends His ear toward the seeking heart to hear prayer, inviting us to join Him in His great work. What great blessings we lose because we do not pray. Is this not the word of God through James? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures [James 4:2,3].
The second reason for Paul’s request for the Thessalonians’ prayers is related to the fact that Christian advance is too great a cause to ever be dependent upon a single individual. Who is the most important person to the growth of this congregation? The Pastor can be ever so great a speaker, but without a congregation his messages are destined to fall on mere wooden pews. The church board may be ever so adept at administering the work of the assembly, but if the people fail to support that work their plans are mere pipe dreams. The most important person to the advance of the church is you. It is only together that we advance the Kingdom of God and promote the cause of Christ.
Think about that fact for a moment. None of us know the president of Air Canada, I should suppose, though perhaps we are able to recall his name with thought. How do we decide whether to choose the services of Air Canada over the services of a competitor airline? What is of immediate importance to our decision to choose Air Canada for a second flight is not who the CEO might be, but it is the people representing the airline—the stewardesses, the ticket sellers, the baggage handlers. These individuals shape our choice of whether we would ever fly that airline after an initial flight.
In the same way it is not likely the administrative abilities of the church board nor even the rhetorical skills of the preacher which will determine whether a guest will attend our services again. It is those meeting guests and those sharing the service with the guests who make the guest welcome. These are the most important people to our services and to the work of the church.
As your pastor I am pledged to work hard to insure that a message of value will be presented from this pulpit so long as I am present with you. As your pastor I labour to care for the needs of the flock which falls under my responsibility. As your pastor I invest my best efforts in discerning the mind of God and directing the flock to follow His leading. As your pastor I struggle in prayer for you, remembering you before the throne of God asking Him to reveal His love to you. Yet the work of God is too great to commit solely into the hands of the pastor, or even to entrust responsibility to an oligarchy of individuals removed from daily spiritual warfare. The work of God requires each member together working in concert with one another and with the Spirit of God.
Just so, we need to unite in prayer for specific ends. Among the ends I urge us to set before our eyes is the need for a united church, the need to work together to make our church a warm and welcoming place where guests feel at ease and at home, the need to honour Christ through our daily lives, the need to live transparently and honestly before the watching world, the need to realise that we occupy this place at this specific time for the particular purpose of honouring God through presenting the Good News of Jesus’ sacrifice and of God’s forgiveness. This is the work we share; and it all begins through our united prayers.
The third reason I gave for Paul’s request for prayer from the Thessalonians was that Paul knew his own limitations and recognised his own weaknesses. We have the tendency to elevate Paul in our minds to a status equivalent to a virtual demigod. He was a man with the same temptations, with the same weaknesses, with the same failures each of us have. What makes Paul great in our estimate was his willing confession that he was weak and his utter reliance on the grace of God for success.
You will no doubt recall this encouraging passage: To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me [2 Corinthians 12:7-9]. Recall as well the encouragement of these words: I can do everything through Him who gives me strength [Philippians 4:13].
When we confess our lack of strength we cast ourselves on the mercy of those stronger than ourselves. Confessing our weakness before God invites Him to display His strength through us; and confessing our lack of strength to fellow saints invites them to intercede, asking that God’s strength be given to us. I confess that I am becoming ever more aware of my weaknesses in the face of trials. Consequently, I desperately need the prayers of the people of God, and the more so if I am to provide spiritual direction so that the church will prosper. Pray for me, asking that God will make me strong in these final days of service to you. Pray for me that I may act with wisdom as we prepare for the eventual transition to a new pastor among us. Pray for me asking the God will enable me to think clearly and asking that God will be glorified through the instruction I provide you the people of God.
I conclude the point with two passages from Luke’s Gospel as encouragement to pray. Jesus told His disciples … that they should always pray and not give up [Luke 18:1]. The message of the Master is that we should pray. Pray, child of God. Pray and don’t give up. Keep on praying just as the Master has taught His disciples.
Again you will no doubt recall Jesus’ words which may be found in Luke 11:9,10: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Here, then, is the rich promise of the infinite God who offers us wonderful gifts from an inexhaustible supply. We need but ask. We need but seek. We need but knock. God Himself is pledged to hear our requests and to grant what is necessary. Whether we witness answer to prayer depends entirely upon us, for we are responsible to pray and He is pledged to answer.
Fellowship Is Essential For A Successful Christian Life. In our refresher course in Christian Basics we come to the second issue. This issue reminds us that fellowship is essential to successful Christian living. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss, writes the Apostle. God willing, I intend to speak to this topic in greater detail this coming Lord’s Day. However I must take note of the instruction for the moment. Someone has stated that should he be greeted by the brothers with a holy kiss he will respond with a holy punch to the kisser. In some cultures it is acceptable to greet one another with a kiss, but in our North American culture it is not a commonly acceptable form of greeting. The issue of importance for our study is that we are to seek to fellowship with one another and we are to be warmly accepting of one another.
Jesus taught His disciples that they were to love one another. Love for one another is so much more than mere tolerance of one another. Love is something more than simply mouthing platitudes about our deep appreciation for a brother. Love dares to dirty its hands. Love dares intervene when a loved one is stumbling toward danger. Love dares invest itself in the life of another without consideration of the cost. Of all expressions of love, none should be warmer or more encouraging than that love found among the members of the church of the Living God. A synonym for that Christian love found wherever saints gather is fellowship, koinwniva, a true sharing of life, companionship, deep compassion and concern for one another.
I simply state the obvious when I say fellowship is impossible when we fail to meet together. Fellowship demands that we spend time together. You will no doubt recall those probing words: Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching [Hebrews 10:25]. Consider the implications. If we find we enjoy the company of sinners more than the company of saints, if we treat the assembly of the saints as optional instead of necessary, we are failing our course of study in Christian Basics. Fellowship is essential to Christian growth. Without fellowship there can be no growth in Christ.
It is not without significance that following Pentecost it was said of the disciples that [t]hey devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship [Acts 2:42]. Having believed and having been baptised they gave evidence of their new life by devoting themselves to that which is eternal. The instruction of the Word was essential to a healthy church as was worship and prayer; but have you ever noticed that fellowship was counted at least as important as the other elements deemed essential to Christian growth? The New Testament church was a church which practised sharing of their lives with one another.
I state the obvious when I observe that changes have taken place, and are yet taking place, at our church. The future appears at times rather uncertain and we are almost fearful of committing ourselves to one another. One result of these changes is that there is a growing tendency to avoid fellowship. We meet at church and perhaps we have our small group with whom we interact, but we fail to fellowship. We hesitate to open ourselves to one another because we fear being hurt or we have become so disheartened. Such tendencies must be resisted.
We can yet fellowship, but it requires discipline on the part of all the membership and it means that we must be convinced of the value of personal interaction. It means that we must discover the needs of each other and then seek the best for one another as fellow members of the Body of Christ. I suggest that the issue of fellowship is more an issue of our own attitude than it is an issue of choice. I suggest that if we are warm and genuine to all who enter the doors of this building we will find fellowship to be the natural outgrowth of such attitudes. I suggest that we will soon find that we require a specific time for fellowship over refreshments following each morning service or after each evening worship and that we will look for multiplication of opportunities.
Instruction Is Essential For A Successful Christian Life. In the twenty-seventh verse, the Apostle issued a command which is not often followed in this day: I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. Only once have I known of this command being observed in a service. It stunned the worshipers when the pastor began to read and continued to do so until the entire book had been read in their presence. I wonder what would happen if we really took literally the commands of the Word, such as this charge. This particular charge is similar to that given the Colossian church in Colossians 4:16: After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
The reading of the Word was important to early congregations, in part because copies of God’s Word were rare. When Paul wrote to Timothy, he charged, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching [1 Timothy 4:13]. The Apostle’s charge is consistent with this fact of scarcity of copies of the Word of God and the need for people to hear the revealed mind of God in their services. There can be no Christian growth without the Word of God, and reading of the Word together with exposition applying it to contemporary life is essential for Christian growth.
As an aside of some interest, it was the need of churches which brought about the creation of books as we now know them. In that ancient day the writings were preserved in the form of scrolls written either on animal skins for important or momentous works, or such writings were preserved on papyrus for works of less importance. The scrolls were large and it was impossible to move through multiple passages in a short time. You can imagine how cumbersome such a system would be for finding various passages in a hurry. Your pastor would be restricted to only a few references in a message other than a few citations from memory. Perhaps you would enjoy that, but you would be forced to rely upon his memory, and that could be disastrous for your spiritual health.
Christians, because their preachers made many and varied references to related passages of the Word, made an innovation by cutting the scrolls into leaves and stitching the leaves into what they called a biblivon—a book. You will have no doubt deduced that we obtain our word Bible from this innovation. The first appearance of what we would recognise as a modern book was the Bible, created to facilitate study of the Word and to facilitate the preaching of that same Word in the churches.
In all likelihood the Apostle is referring in our text to the matter of instruction even more than encouraging simply the reading of the words of this letter or any other letter. Referring to the account of those brought into the Body following Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, we read that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching [Acts 2:42]. From the first days of the church, the apostle’s teaching, the doctrine of the apostles, has held a position of central importance to the health of the Body. Such commitment to preaching should not be surprising as this is consistent with the command Jesus issued in what we call the Great Commission in Matthew’s account: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age [Matthew 28:19-20].
Worship fails to be worship without the teaching of the Word, without instruction in the apostle’s doctrine, without training in practical theology from the pulpit. For this reason, the pastor of the church is to be able to teach [1 Timothy 3:2] and the pastor must be one who hold[s] firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught [Titus 1:9]. Practically speaking, Christians are responsible to hold pastors accountable for what they teach. Compare the teaching from this pulpit, or from any pulpit, with the Word of God. Hold the preacher accountable for sound doctrinal instruction. Insure that the preacher adheres to the clear revelation of the Word of God. Make certain that your preacher is a teacher of the Word.
Reliance On Grace Is Essential For A Successful Christian Life. These are the concluding words of the Apostle: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Whatever is accomplished in our life, whatever goals we achieve, whatever growth we witness in our individual lives, all alike ultimately finds its roots in the grace of Christ the Lord. Do I have a ministry of prayer? Christ is graciously inviting me to participate with Him in advancing the Kingdom He established. Am I enriched through the fellowship of the believers? Christ has established the church and given me the whole of this Body as a present benefit and as a present reminder of His grace. Am I made strong in the instruction of the Word and am I equipped for righteousness through the teaching of the Word? Christ has given me the messenger and has given the messenger the message. All is of grace and none can lay claim to native intelligence or to native ability. All is of grace.
We are saved by grace, and not through our own efforts nor even because we had the desire to be saved from sin. The Word reminds us that It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast [Ephesians 2:8,9]. John 1:12,13 says: to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. We are kept by grace, preserved for God’s purposes, and not because we are capable of maintaining ourselves in righteousness. This is the essence of Paul’s prayer and revelation given us in 1 Thessalonians 5:23: 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. It is by grace that we grow and advance in the cause of Christ and not because we have obtained wisdom or knowledge. Peter concludes his second missive written to Jewish saints of the Diaspora with a beautiful and singular admonition that Christians must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ [2 Peter 3:18]. You will have begun to understand the reason I insist that it is all of grace when we think of our standing before God and of our growth in the Faith.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you is more than a prayer, it is an affirmation of God’s commitment to bring to completion what He has begun in His own. When Paul writes the Philippians, he makes a marvellous statement about this matter in Philippians 1:4-6: In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Christ, by His grace, will complete what He has begun!
And that is our invitation to you: to trust Christ as Lord and Saviour; to renew your dedication to Him as Master of life; to follow Him as He taught and as He commanded in open confession of that faith through baptism; to unite with Him people in open commitment to the Body of Christ. We invite you to come today as we stand and as we sing. Amen.