Sermon Tone Analysis

Football player analogy?

He starts with “Finally”.

have you ever noticed how far from the end of his letters Paul says this? - with chapters to go sometimes - “finally” is a bad translation.”

It really means “the rest” - it usually signals the start of the primary application

Paul has in this letter commended this church in Thessalonica on what a great example they are to the rest of the believers around them.

He compliments them for how readily they received his preaching and how they accepted it as the Word of God and not of man.

He tells them how highly Timothy speaks of them - how he had visited them and they were exemplary in both faith and love.

They were a good church, full of good Christians, who had great faith, who showed forth Christ’s love, and who really responded to the preaching of the Word.

And then we get to this “finally.”

He says: here’s what is still left to say, here’s the rest of what I want to say.

And he says: we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus.

The rest of what He wants to say, he both asks and urges the Thessalonians to do.

Ask and urge - make a request and beg you (entreat)

And he says “as you received from us” - who is the “us”?

Who is the “we” that are requesting and begging something of the Thessalonians?

Well, we find that out in the opening verse of the letter:

Paul had many co-writers who for some reason we tend to ignore - this was not uncommon

Here, three men are writing to this church.

Three men, who are preachers of the Gospel.

Paul is an Apostle and Silvanus and Timothy are preachers of the Apostolic message.

It is this message that this church had received so gladly and lived out so wonderfully.

So it is they who are asking and urging the church here.

And they are not just preachers of the Gospel.

They are preachers of the Gospel, who preach with a purpose.

Their purpose is for the hearers to hear from God how they ought to walk.

Their purpose - their reason for preaching - is so the church would hear from God how to please Him.

And note that this is what Paul says the Thessalonians already received from these men.

They have heard them preach.

They have read the first half of this letter and know they are doing this all really well.

So, they know what God is exhorting them to through what these men have already said.

You received from us, Paul says, how you ought to walk and to please God.

And Paul, I’m sure with great joy in his heart, is able to say that they are doing this They are walking in a manner pleasing to God.

He says “just as you are doing.”

You heard from us what God wants, and your doing it.

So that means, the doing it isn’t what these men are asking and begging the church to do.

No!

They’re already doing it.

instead, the request and the begging here - the rest of what Paul has to say - is that the hearers of this message - those who are already living it out - would do so more and more.

He says “just as you are doing.”

He says “you are all walking in a manner pleasing to God.”

They have heeded what these preachers of the Gospel have preached.

What they preached is what these men and women were doing.

And I say with great joy in my heart: so many of you are walking in a manner so pleasing to God.

So many of you engage your minds and your hearts in His Word and in the messages preached from this pulpit, and you turn the light of Scripture on yourselves so God can bring to light any hidden sins or any resistance to His will.

And you live out the love of Christ, and you live out lives of faith.

You are already doing this.

You genuinely seek to do what God calls you to, and to be what He calls you to be, so you can be pleasing to Him.

Because you realize that what we who preach from this pulpit preach is not ourselves.

But what we ask and urge of you, we do in the name of the Lord Jesus.

We preach His Word.

We preach how He says you ought to walk.

We preach what He says pleases Him.

Like how the teaching team has preached this summer about what it means to be the church.

About our responsibility as the “all of us” that is Montclair Community Church.

About our responsibility as the “each of us” who are all a part of the church.

Since the beginning of June, this has been our focus.

We’ve covered:

The Great Commission - how we the church are to bring people into the community of faith and make them disciples of Christ, and how we each have to ourselves first be disciples of Christ.

The Cost of discipleship - how cheap grace is all too common and we - each of us and all of us - have to be willing to sacrifice for Christ Who has called us if we are to be disciples - that we each need to take responsibility for ourselves.

We spent two weeks on spiritual gifts and how every member of the church is gifted and called to use their gifts so the whole can be the church.

We spoke of how we each find our purpose in Christ - how we discover why God has us here and how we live that out… by looking at where He has already placed each of us - and at what we are already doing.

And we each need to do what we d unto the Lord.

We then saw the mission of the church to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

How God’s plan from eternity past was to send His church in the power of the Holy Spirit to fill the earth with disciples.

This is God’s work.

And if we are submitted to His will and listening to the Holy Spirit, we know what we need to do.

We saw how God gives us His authority and power to do all of this - to carry out the Great Commission, and preach the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins to the end of the earth.

And how He does this for those who are of a humble and contrite heart, Who worship Him and Him alone instead of opposing Him and His will.

And we saw that we have to carry out our calling in the world, all by not being of the world.

That we all show forth Christ in the world by each being obviously different from the world.

Then we discussed faith - how true faith will always lead to faithfulness.

How our faith is trust in God that inevitably leads to action for God.

And how in order to trust God that way, we need to learn to trust ourselves and our ways less and less.

We saw how worship is a lifestyle, not something we do at a particular time or a particular place.

Our worship is each of us exalting God in our lives by pushing ourselves - our wants, our ways - further down in our lives.

And we saw repeatedly how knowing God from His Word, and being on our knees before Him in prayer, and humbly serving His people and His church so together we can bring the Gospel to the world - this is how we worship, this is how we learn to trust, this is how we grow our faith, this is how we carry out our calling and fulfill our mission, and this is how we become disciples so we can make disciples.

And so many of you are doing all of this.

You are taking very seriously your responsibility for your discipleship and are doing all those things - learning your Bible, serving, praying, and trusting God.

Praise God!

This is why our church is so great!

We’re already doing it!

But now we all have to do it more.

AS you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, do so more and more.

I ask this of you.

And I beg you.

Paul says to the Thessalonian church who are already doing these things, to do so more and more.

Literally “abound in this more”.

The verb for abound can be translated a bunch of ways, including “excel” “increase” and “overflow”

Paul says you already know how to walk and how to please God - you heard it from us - and you’re doing it.

Now excel at it.

Now increase what you’re doing.

Overflow with acts pleasing to God.

And then do it more.

Why?

1 Thessalonians 4:2–3 (ESV)

For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification:

Note that Paul is sure to clarify that what He and Timothy and Silvanus preached was not of themselves.

They were not the source.

They didn’t have an agenda.