Life in the Local Church (1 Thessalonians 5:12-28)

I've never lived through a war, but many of my friends in Dubai,

where my wife and I live for seven years, are currently doing

that very thing. They regularly get interrupted,

even in their gatherings. All their phones will go off

with warnings, loud buzzing noises and they've had to

announce that their service leader has to say at the start

of the service, hey, if the alarms goes off and you want to

seek shelter, you know you're welcome to do that.

Go out these doors and you can go down the stairs.

You're also welcome to stay in the building.

They regularly hear and and have to live through loud noises like

missiles being fired and debris falling, drones dropping from

the sky. I think some of them have gotten

used to it now. But Can you imagine living in a

war zone? Is there peace in your home?

Perhaps some of you don't need to imagine living through a war

zone. You live in one regularly.

Is there peace in your marriage? Constant fighting, bickering,

regular conflict, shouting, screaming.

Friend, if you're visiting this morning, do you have peace with

God? Peace is all about what our

passage is about in First Thessalonians 5.

Turn your Bible if you have it with with you to 1st

Thessalonians chapter 5. If you didn't bring a Bible,

maybe you don't even own one. Just raise your hand.

Somebody will bring you a Bible from the back table right now.

Be great to open God's Word this morning.

This is our last sermon in the Apostle Paul's letter to the

Thessalonian Church. Paul planted the church.

They were brand new believers, still wet from their baptismal

waters, only a few weeks into their life together as a church,

when suffering struck them. The Apostle Paul, their founding

father in the faith, was run out of town by persecution, Paul

says of their church. They were birthed in much

affliction, and months later when Paul wrote this letter,

they were still under pressure. They faced suffering and Satan.

So Paul was worried about their faith.

He wanted their faith to endure to the last day when they stood

before Jesus Christ. But he feared his labor would be

in vain. So that's why he sent Timothy to

them to check up on them to, to hear about their faith.

And that's why he wrote this letter to them to encourage them

in their new found faith. Listen, as I read First

1 Thessalonians 5:12–28

Thessalonians 5 verses 12 to 28, hear the word of the Lord.

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and

are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them

very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers,

admonish the idol, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be

patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone

evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to

everyone. Rejoice always.

Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all

circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

For you do not quench the Spirit.

Do not despise prophecies, but test everything.

Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

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. He who calls you is faithful.

He will surely do it. Brothers, pray for us.

Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

I put you underoath before the Lord to have this letter read.

To all the brothers, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with

you. Paul closes this letter to the

Thessalonians with a barrage of imperatives, 15 in total.

At first glance it seems like this is just Paul's laundry

list, a shotgun approach of random requests.

Each Saturday, Hannah and I, we make a list of to do's for the

day. Work out, make pizza dough, go

on a walk, go to the park, clean the kitchen, do some chores.

If you took our To Do List from yesterday and you studied it and

you tried to analyze it for themes, there would be no

connection, nothing. They're just a random things we

need to get done on Saturday. It is not so with Paul's list.

How do these 15 commands then fit together?

Did you hear Paul's prayer? Look at verse 23.

Paul prays that they'd be kept blameless at the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ. It is to this end, to this

purpose, that Paul exhorts them to peace.

Notice the word peace. It frames these final

exhortations, verse 13. Be at peace among yourselves.

Verse 23 now may the God of peace in order to stand

blameless before Jesus Christ on that day, they need to be at

peace with their pastors and with their church and most

importantly with their God Trinity Baptist Church.

We face our own pressures like the Thessalonians, don't we?

How can we weather our storms and stand blameless before

Christ on that day? Four ways. 4 points.

First, be at peace with your pastors.

Verses 12 and 13. Be at peace with your pastors.

Look down at verses 12 and 13. Paul addresses the Thessalonians

in verse 12. Brothers.

He does this three times in his final verses.

You could translate it as brothers and sisters.

Paul's talking to the whole church.

The church is a family, brothers and sisters following the Lord

together. And here's how the family of

God, the elders and the members should live together.

In verses 12 and 13, Paul teaches us what we should expect

from our pastors and what our pastors should expect from us.

What should you expect from your pastors?

Hard work and hard words. Paul describes pastors or elders

as those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord.

Your pastors should always work hard.

We know Paul's talking about pastors in these verses because

the same word in Greek for those who are over you in verse 12 is

used later in First Timothy to refer to elders in the elder

qualifications. An elder must manage.

There's the same word for our over you his own household.

Well, so he's talking about pastors, but what do pastors do,

have you ever wondered? That is pastoring?

The opposite of working at Chick-fil-A, which is always

closed on Sundays? Is pastoring a Sunday only

occupation if you're lazy? Is the pastor at the right

pursuit for you? The right career path in the New

Testament? The chief Shepherd, Jesus

Christ, delegates authority to under shepherds, pastors who are

recognized by churches. Pastors are both among you and

over you. In other words, pastors are both

sheep and shepherds, and the shepherds should smell like the

sheep because our job assigned by Jesus Christ is to keep watch

over your souls. That's it.

Pretty simple. Not a big deal, easy work.

The preacher on YouTube will not give an account for your soul.

That favorite podcaster of yours will not give an account for

your soul. Your pastor will.

How important are doctors responsible for caring for your

body? They diagnose your ailments and

offer treatments. You hope they know what they're

doing. What's at stake in a doctor's

work? It's just life and death.

What about your pastor responsible for caring for your

soul? They diagnose your problems.

They offer aid from God's Word. They better know what they're

doing. What's at stake is heaven and

hell. Brothers, do you aspire to be a

pastor? Paul says to Timothy.

If anyone aspires the office of overseer, he desires a noble

task. If God calls you to serve his

church as a pastor, here's your job description in a picture.

It's show and tell kids you know about show and tell.

You come to class with your stuffed animal or your pet

gerbil. You show it and you tell

everyone about it. Hi, here's my teddy bear, Billy.

My grandma gave him to me when she was on a trip to Florida on

vacation. This is her souvenir.

This is Billy the Clot. Hi, Billy.

That's show and tell. That's a pastor's job.

They teach God's word. Second Timothy 42.

Preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season.

Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching.

They live God's Word. First Timothy 412 set the

believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith

and purity. They tell they live, they

preach, they practice, they say they do.

Brother, if you aspire to be an elder, this means that you are

teaching others what it means to be a Christian, not just from

your sermons, but also from your life.

Your life is a sermon and church.

When we nominate men to serve as elders, listen to them preach

and then watch how they live. You have to use both your ears

and your eyes. And please, always, always,

always talk to any of the elders if you have concerns about

someone we've nominated to serve in this office.

The elders are currently reading a book on eldering by the

reformer Martin Bootzer called The Care of Souls.

Here's his description of the work of a pastor.

The pastoral office involves such a great and important work,

and one which, so long as we live here, is unending.

Unending. That is the work of a pastor.

No matter how much work you do as a pastor, there is always

more work that could be done. Your pastors are farmers, rising

early, planting, plowing, harvesting, hoping for you.

Your pastors are athletes, training and learning and

growing and playing by the rules for you.

Your pastors are soldiers, receiving orders, marching to

the front lines, warring for you.

Your pastors should always work hard.

In verse 12, Paul describes 1 aspect of their work.

Look at verse 12. They admonish you.

Your pastors should sometimes speak hard words to you.

Hard words. That's what admonishment is.

It's warning against sin and its consequences.

It's correcting and rebuking wrongdoing.

At times. Shepherds must warn sheep.

This does not mean that your shepherd should be harsh with

you. They cannot be domineering, but

they need to speak the truth in love.

If a man is not gentle, he cannot be a pastor.

If a man can't have a hard conversation, he can't be a

pastor. Brothers and sisters, this means

that you should expect sometimes for your pastors to rebuke you.

There are times when they'll need to pull you aside and open

the Scriptures and admonish you if you're being foolish or

divisive, or you're believing lies or spreading lies, or

straying from the flock, or setting a bad example or leading

others astray. Pastors are over you, meaning

God's given them this job with authority over you for your good

and for your flourishing. Pastors are over you in the

Lord, Paul says, meaning their rebukes must always come from

Scripture. They must work to keep watch

over your soul, to present you blameless before Jesus Christ

Christ, the one whom they will then give an account to for

their shepherding of you. Expect hard work and hard works

from your pastors. Now flip the script.

What should your pastors expect from you?

Paul says two things, respect and love.

Look again at verses 12 and 13. Paul calls the church to respect

their pastors in verse 12 and to esteem them very highly in love

in verse 13. Why verse 13?

Because of their work, what should your pastors expect from

you when they admonish you? This is surprising.

Appreciation, honor, love. Does that not surprise you to

see that? Let a righteous man strike me,

the psalmist sings. It is a kindness.

Let him rebuke me. It is oil for my head.

That, brothers and sisters, should be your posture towards

your pastors. Or as Hebrews 1317 says, obey

your leaders and submit to them for their keeping.

Watch over your souls as those who will have to give an

account, Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for

that would be of no advantage to you.

Are you someone who is a joy to pastor, or are you someone who

makes your pastors groan? Make your pastors ministry to

you a joy. Don't despise them.

Delight in them. Don't ridicule them.

Respect them. Don't flatter them.

Encourage them. This is to your advantage, Paul

says. My aim to my fellow pastors,

Brandon Ashok, we're not here right now, is that when they

need to have a hard conversation with me and since they're not

here, you can tell them this when they need to have a hard

conversation with me and they will that they won't go, oh man,

got to talk to Michael today. I don't want them to groan

because of me. When we understand the work our

pastors do, which is often behind the scenes, our hearts

should swell up with love for them because of their labour of

love for us. I have so much respect and

admiration and affection and regard for Brandon and Ashok

Trinity Baptist Church. You are blessed to have these

brothers serving you as your pastors.

And when pastors work hard and members labor to love the fruit

that grows up in this greenhouse, look at verse 13 is

peace. Paul says be at peace among

yourselves. This is peace between the

shepherds and the sheep. To stand blameless before

Christ, you need to be at peace with your pastors.

Second, be at peace with your church.

Verses 14 and 15, Be at peace with your church.

Look at verses 14 and 15. Paul teaches us what we should

expect from one another. What should the members of

Trinity Baptist Church expect from you?

Verse 14? Whole person care verse 15

wholehearted forgiveness. Paul urges the church with six

commands which all relate to other members.

These commands require Christians to be in a committed

relationship with one another. In other words, the preliminary

step to being at peace with your church is to be a member of a

church. Look at the members job in verse

14. This verse, verse 14 is worth

you memorizing and meditating on regularly.

Three kinds of people are mentioned, the idol, the faint

hearted, the weak. 3 cures are required, admonish, encourage,

help, all circumstances. All members require patience.

Paul says be patient with them all.

This is whole person care. Members of Trinity Baptist

Church, verse 14 is every member's ministry.

Notice the first command Paul gives.

Admonish the idol. It is your pastor's job to have

hard words. It is also your job to have hard

words. Admonish the idol.

Idol is a military term for when soldiers were out of rank.

Picture of military battalion with undisciplined soldiers out

of order in 2nd Thessalonians 3. Actually, Paul addresses the

idol again, but it's not so much that they're not working.

That's what we often think of with idol.

We think of lazy. It's that they're working hard

on the wrong things. 2nd Thessalonians 3, they're working

hard at being busy. Bodies in the church.

The late billionaire owner of the Utah Jazz, Larry Miller,

reflected on the effort, the work he put in to achieve the

success that he reached. He said I worked nearly every

waking hour, 90 hours a week for 20 years.

I worked when other people were home watching TV or sleeping or

eating breakfast. I was getting the next day's

work done a day early. I was sleeping about 6 hours a

night. It made me successful, Larry

says. It made me a failure too, he

says. I miss most of my children's

youth. I miss ball games and science

fairs and back to school nights. I miss the first day of

kindergarten and playing catch in the yard.

I miss dinner at home with my wife and kids.

Perhaps this is a temptation for us.

Working hard at the wrong things, winning at work, losing

at home. This is also a picture of an

idle life. Disordered members who are

living disordered lives need your help to bring them back

into order. A healthy church is 1 where

verbal critique admonishment happens.

It's not the dominant note, but it's not absent.

When you bring a critique to another member, bring a scalpel,

cut to heel. Let your critiques be

occasional. Do not critique someone every

time you see them. Let your encouragements be

frequent. Let your critiques be specific.

Don't leave them wondering what in the world you're critiquing

them of. Let your critique be

constructive. Pray for them before you

critique them, and pray for yourself also that this critique

would be for their good. Take the log out of your own

eye. Jesus says in Matthew 7 that you

wouldn't be a hypocrite. Give them hope for change.

They are a Christian. They have the Spirit of God.

What about when another member brings a critique to you?

Lower your defenses. Learn to listen.

Listen, don't speak, don't defend yourself.

Ask questions to understand. Look for the needle in the

haystack. They may be wrong about 99%.

Is there a kernel of truth? Thank them for critiquing you,

because surely they must love you and care for you.

Pray for your own heart to be humble.

Share the critique with a trusted friend.

Somebody who knows you will ask them to help assess the

critique. Is this fair?

Help them help you see yourself. We need to learn to admonish one

another. But admonishment is not the only

play. Look at Paul's next command in

verse 14. Encourage the faint hearted.

Some of the Thessalonians were faint hearted.

Paul left them. The pressures of persecution

pressed in on them. Some of their own members

recently died. They did not need hard words.

They needed wind in their sails, strength for their souls.

They needed encouragement. Encourage the faint hearted by

listening. Find out what's troubling them.

Try to put yourself in their shoes.

Encourage them with scripture. Share a specific, timely verse

with them. Encourage them with your

prayers. Tell them you're praying for

them like Paul does. Tell them what you're praying

for. Encourage them, as Paul does,

over and over again with Christ's return.

Remind them regularly, like Paul does, of heaven and the coming

of Jesus Christ with all his Saints.

Encourage the faint hearted whole person.

Care, Paul says, also includes help.

Help the weak. Paul likely means the physically

weak, those who are sick or suffering.

The church is the place where the weak should be strengthened,

a people where the strong offer their strength to the weak.

The weak do not need a lecture, they need a helping hand.

But whether you're administering to someone who is idle or faint

hearted or weak, Paul says be patient with them all.

Every member of this church, including you, requires

patience. Be patient with them all.

Members of Trinity Baptist Church, can you tell the

difference between someone who is idle and someone who is faint

hearted? Between someone who needs a hard

word and someone who just needs help?

Can you administer the right medicine for each member?

Some of your one trick ponies? You are great at encouragement.

You need to grow an admonishment.

You are an incredible helper. You need to be ready to give a

hard word. Hammers are great.

Have you ever tried a screwdriver?

Screwdriver is not working. Pick up the wrench.

The health of this church depends on you knowing how to

pick up the appropriate tool for the appropriate person.

And the peace of this church is contingent upon verse 15.

Wholehearted forgiveness. Look at verse 15.

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek

to do good to one another and to everyone.

Paul says do good when someone does evil to you, do good to one

another and to everyone. We you might be able to quickly

understand everyone. I mean, the Thessalonians had

enemies, they were being persecuted, but what about one

another? Aren't these Christians?

And yet they're being evil to one another.

They're sitting against one another.

The Thessalonian Church was made-up of three kinds of

people, Saints, sufferers, and sinners.

Those three kinds of people actually all made-up a single

member. Each member was a St. and a

sufferer and a Sinner. So not only were the

Thessalonians to respond to persecution from the outside

with goodness and with forgiveness, as Jesus taught

love your enemies, the Thessalonians were also to

respond to their fellow members who sinned against them with

goodness and in with mercy. Jesus taught his disciples,

Blessed are the peacemakers. You will be sinned against in

this church we're a year and a half in.

If you've not been sinned against yet, just wait.

Don't be surprised. You will sin against other

people too. You are a Sinner.

If you're slandered by a member of this church.

Don't seek revenge. Don't even dream about it.

If you're mistreated by a member of this church, don't retaliate.

Don't even rehearse it in your mind.

Return curses with blessings for bear, and forgive, for you have

been forgiven much. Now, just a brief caveat.

If someone breaks the law in sinning against you in this

church, the appropriate authority should be involved.

Forgiveness does not mean foregoing justice.

But Paul's focus here is more on interrelational conflict.

That's what he's talking about. You can actually see a snapshot

of a church at peace by how they greet one another.

Skip down briefly to Paul's greetings, verse 26.

Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

What's interesting is here in First Thessalonians, and also in

Romans 16 and 2nd Corinthians 3 and First Peter 5, the New

Testament authors all link greeting with a holy kiss, with

being at peace with one another. Meaning this kiss, which was a

cultural greeting, was actually an expression of the peace that

they had in their church. If you're visiting, you may be

worried. Are we going to apply this

passage today? We do plan on it, but don't

worry, we will not go around kissing one another after the

service. But however, you should be able

to observe our interactions with one another and sense an

affection and a warmth in our church.

Simply by how we greet one another, you should be able to

see peace through our affection in our greeting.

Third, be at peace with God, verses 16 to 22.

In verses 16 to 22, Paul's already covered their

relationship with their pastors and to their church.

Now he turns to their relationship with God,

specifically their corporate relationship with God.

There's 8 commands in these verses, all 8:00, every single

one are plural, meaning they're to be obeyed together as a

church. The first 3 commands, verses 16

and 18, are about prayer. The last five commands, verses

19 to 22, are about prophecy, prayer, then prophecy.

Paul tells this persecuted church to pray.

Verse 16 Rejoice always pray without ceasing.

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the

will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

How should they pray always without ceasing in all

circumstances? When they gathered as a church,

rain or shine, in seasons of plenty or in one, they were to

pray. Meaning they weren't just to

praise God for His goodness when they received good things.

They were also to praise God for His goodness when he sent them

sorrows. And he had sent this church a

few of those. Paul himself modelled what he's

teaching here. He modelled what he tells them

to pray. He modelled joy in the midst of

suffering. He could even say of himself in

Second Indian Six that he was always sorrowful, yet always

rejoicing. We faced our own sorrows as a

church. You could say.

Like the Thessalonians, our honeymoon period has come to an

end, but we have reason to rejoice.

The same God who served the Thessalonians serves us.

He is good to us yesterday. Today He'll be good to us

forever. That is our God, and as we pray

to God, as we bring him everything in prayer with

Thanksgiving, as we let our request be made known to God, He

promises that his peace, which surpasses all understanding,

will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

Prayer produces peace. Prayer is a remedy for grief and

sorrow and anxiety. We cast our anxieties on God

because he cares for us. We thank God in all

circumstances because God is the giver of every good gift to us.

When we pray together as a church, we're having a corporate

conversation with the God who created us.

In prayer, we call upon the name of the Lord.

Together. We must never let our trials and

our troubles push pause on our prayers.

In our services, we often prepare our prayers in advance.

Maybe you've noticed that this is not required by Scripture.

Just so you know, we do this for the sake of clarity and care.

Recently, I celebrated our 10th anniversary.

My wife wrote me a letter. She spent time thinking through

her thoughts. She put them on a piece of

paper. When she handed that to me and I

read over it, I did not think well.

This is disingenuous. You prepare this beforehand.

It's similar for us. We can use preparation as a tool

for clear and careful communication to our Creator.

Brothers, sisters, do you need help praying?

Learn how to pray by praying with Paul.

Look through Paul's epistles and learn Paul's priorities.

Learn how to pray by praying the Psalms.

There's a whole book 150 prayers to God in every season of life.

Learn how to pray by praying with us in our corporate prayers

each Sunday. We rejoice always.

We praise God for His character as we did this morning.

When you pray, meditate and marvel at your Maker.

We pray as a church without ceasing.

We pray morning and evening. When you pray, set aside time in

your day for prayer and be prayerful throughout your day.

We pray as a church, prayers of Thanksgiving, thanking God even

in trials. When you pray, trace every gift

back to the giver in verse 25. If you look down to the greeting

again, you find that even apostles need prayer.

Paul asked the Thessalonians, Brothers, pray for us.

Paul the Apostle needed prayer. Pray also for your pastors.

As Charles Spurgeon said, if you would find my ministry more

profitable to your souls, pray for me still more.

And let it not be said of your minister that you do not profit

by his preaching, and that you have not, because you ask not

pray for your pastures. From prayer Paul turns to

prophecy with five quick commands.

Look at verse 19. Do not quench the Spirit.

My son Shepard and I went camping a few weeks ago.

At night time. We had a nice fire.

He was enthralled by it. But when it was time for bed, we

had to put the fire out. We separated the coals.

We quenched the fire. We extinguished it.

The Spirit is often associated with fire in the New Testament.

To quench the Spirit is to put out the fire, to disregard the

Spirit's work. And Paul's specific focus of the

Spirit's work in these verses is prophecy.

Throughout acts of the Spirit spoke to God's people through

prophets like Agabus. You could think also Philip's

four daughters. So Paul says verse 20, don't

despise prophecies, but alongside God's prophets in the

New Testament, there were also false prophets who were

deceiving God's people, trying to lead them astray.

So Paul says verse 21, but test everything, hold fast what is

good, abstain from every form of evil.

The Thessalonians needed to be careful.

They needed to weigh what was said, to test it against

Scripture, and to determine if it was from God.

Everything needed examination. They needed discernment.

But notice again in the greeting verse 27, Paul tells them, test

the prophets, but not his word as an apostle.

That word he says he puts them underoath before the Lord to

read it aloud to all the brothers, to the whole church.

Test the prophets, he says, not to test an apostle.

His authority as an apostle was over the authority of the

prophets. Now as we seek to heed these

exhortations, there's one important difference between the

Thessalonians and US today. It has to do with the role of

prophecy. Today.

Prophecy in the Scriptures is a direct, infallible revelation by

the Spirit. All three direct infallible

revelation, the prophets in the Old Testament said.

Thus says the Lord, they spoke on behalf of God, and if someone

delivered a false prophecy, they were a false prophet.

The prophecy in the New Testament, I would argue, is the

same as prophecy in the Old Testament.

The church, Paul says in Ephesians 3/22/20 excuse me, was

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

And now that we have the sufficient scriptures, the

foundation of the church is set. The cement is no longer wet.

So just as the gift of the apostles ceased in the 1st

century, I would argue that the gift of prophets also came to an

end. Therefore, there are no new

utterances and no more prophets. It's interesting.

We have qualifications for the offices that continue with the

church, deacons and elders. There are no offices

qualifications list for prophets in the New Testament.

Now, just to be clear, there is a whole lot of debate about

everything I just said, and you actually don't need to believe.

Anything of what I just said, you can disagree with me and

still be a member of this church.

None of what I just said is in our statement of faith.

There's actually nothing in our statement of faith about the

continuation or cessation of prophetic gifts, just to be

clear. But you still need to obey this

passage. How can we as a church not

quench the Spirit? Two ways.

Obey the scriptures and test every teaching.

All you need, brothers and sisters for life and godliness

is found in the sufficient scriptures.

Obey them. If you want to grow in your

capacity for understanding the Scripture, start with how you're

obeying the Scriptures. If you want to conform your mind

and your will and affection to Holy Scripture, you need to heed

the Script, the Spirit's voice in Scripture, by obeying the

Scripture. The 17th century poet and pastor

George Herbert gave a beautiful little picture of Holy

Scripture. He called it the well that

washes what it shows. Scripture shows you who you

really are, so receive its rebuke.

Then Scripture washes you clean. Scripture reveals your need,

then it provides what you need. It opens your heart and then it

heals your heart. It unmasks you, and then it

comforts you. Every single time you're

convicted by the spirit. As you encounter the scriptures,

receive the diagnosis. Then walk in Deliverance, walk

in obedience, and when you hear the Scriptures taught, like

what's happening right now, test every teaching.

Scripture itself gives us many tests.

Here's four. First, is the teaching

consistent with all of Scripture?

Don't just read a verse in isolation.

Read Scripture in light of other Scripture.

Is the teaching in line? Does it submit to Christ's full

humanity and divinity? If anyone tells you otherwise,

they are a false teacher. Is the teaching in accordance

with the gospel of grace? Is the teachers character and

conduct godly? Paul aims these 8 exhortations

so that our church would be at peace with God. 4th And finally,

rest in the God of peace. Rest in the God of peace verses

23 and 24. After the barrage of

exhortations and before final greetings, Paul turns to the

Lord one more time in prayer. Paul prays to God for the

Thessalonians, and Paul encourages the Thessalonians by

his prayer. Listen to Paul pray 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. Notice who Paul prays to.

He prays to the God of peace. God is the source of the peace

that must flow through and into the church.

God is an ocean of peace. Each tributary of peace in the

church, between the elders, in the church, between the members

and one another, ultimately finds its source in God.

And Paul prays for the Thessalonians because as much as

this passage is filled with commands for them to obey, and

they must obey, their obedience is impossible apart from God's

gracious work in them. Paul praise for their

sanctification. Each command obeyed one step

further in sanctification. Each step in sanctification

builds towards the culmination on the final day when

sanctification will be complete and it will give way to

glorification. Paul praise for their whole

spirit and soul and body. Think of yourself when you're

cooking a a burger on the grill. It is not enough to cook the

outside. You can get the grill Marks and

the inside still raw. Nobody wants a raw burger and if

you do that is that's problematic.

You need to cook the burger all the way through.

That's the picture Paul paints. Spirit, soul, body, every

thought, deed, desire, all of you, all of us holy.

Paul prays that they would be kept blameless by God at the

coming of Jesus Christ. This church was just a few

months old when Paul left town. He constantly reminds them of

the second coming of Christ, the most important day on their

calendar, the second coming of Jesus Christ amidst all their

troubles and trials, their persecution, the temptations

from Satan, even strife amidst the church, the second coming of

Jesus Christ. That's where all of history is

heading. It's where you and I and

everyone is heading, standing before the Lord Jesus Christ on

the last day. That's what it's all about.

Imagine a great line. You're standing there waiting to

meet the Maker of heaven and earth to give an account.

If you're not a believer, how can you stand blameless before

Christ, our judge on the last day?

It's by receiving Christ as Savior today.

Jesus Christ came truly God and truly man, to die on the cross,

the death that sinners deserved, to bear judgement that we all

accrued for our sins. And he rose from the grave, and

he's seated at the right hand of God, and he will come again to

judge the living and the dead. That's what this day is talking

about, the day when Christ Jesus, who once came as a baby,

will return as the judge of all the earth.

Friend, the only way you can stand blameless on that day as

if you've been washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ, turn

from your sins and trust in Jesus Christ and find

forgiveness in him. And it can be said of you that

you will be blameless on that day.

Brothers and sisters, Paul has no doubt that we will be holy on

that day. He assures US, verse 24, He who

calls you is faithful, He will surely do it.

Has God called us to Himself? He will keep us to the end.

Has God been faithful to His people?

He will be faithful to our church.

Has God ever broken a promise? He will not break His promise to

us. He who calls you is faithful, He

will surely do it. Let's pray.

Father, as we consider that day when we'll stand before Jesus

Christ, Lord, we thank you that we can be comforted even as

you've called us to be holy, that you will make sure of it

yourself that we will be holy on that day.

Lord, we pray that you would continue to produce the peace we

need with one another and with you in our church.

We pray in Jesus name, Amen.