Guidance For Godliness

Thessalonians, I hear that it's been going very, very well and we look forward now to

Paul who's going to come and speak in just a moment, but we're going to read that first.

First Thessalonians chapter 5, which is on page 1188, on page 1188, First Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention 1 Thessalonians 5:12–28

chapter 5, verses 12 to 28, it's perhaps, probably reads a little bit higgledy-piggledy, it's

kind of like a whole load of things thrown together, but Paul's going to make sense of

it all, aren't you Paul?

Good man, we look forward to it.

So let's read from First Thessalonians chapter 5, starting at verse 12, it's on page 1188.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over

you in the Lord and who admonish you.

Hold them in the highest regard, in love, because of their work.

Live in peace with each other.

And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle.

Encourage the timid.

Help the weak.

Be patient with everyone.

Make sure that no one pays back wrong for wrong.

But always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

Be joyful always.

Pray continually.

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Do not put out the Spirit's fire.

Do not treat prophecies with contempt.

Test everything.

Hold on to the good.

Avoid every kind of evil.

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.

The one who called you is faithful.

And he will do it.

Brothers and sisters, pray for us.

Greet all the family with a holy kiss.

I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the family.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Paul, I'm going to come up and I'm going to pray for you.

I'm going to ask you a couple of questions first.

Some of you know Paul, some of you might not.

Paul McFarland?

That's correct.

That's right.

Tell us your relationship with the lady you've brought with you today.

This is my betrothed on the second row.

We'll be getting married at the end of September.

So I think Kate cooked at the Cargilline Church weekend before.

So you probably all know her.

Well, we're all still alive, so that was okay.

And just tell us what you're doing at the minute.

And as far as you can tell, what the next year will be for you.

Well, I've been down since September, I suppose, full time in Middleton Evangelical Church.

And I've been working as assistant and youth pastor there.

So it kind of varies.

I suppose there's different things to do in the role.

Some preaching, a lot of youth work.

Some evangelism work as well.

And for the next year, I suppose I'm going to be down for sure until September 2013.

The end of September 2013.

And then after that, I suppose, just see what God has in store.

And just take it from there.

And when you say down?

Down from the north.

Oh, right.

It just depends.

Well, if you hold the map, it looks kind of down, you see.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

All right.

You don't look down on us, though, do you?

Oh, the fancy is going.

Anyway, it's good to have you here today.

I'm going to pray for you and for us and then pass over.

Father, thanks so much for Paul and Kate being with us here today.

And just as we prayed for Graham and Justy, we pray the same for Paul and Kate later on in September.

Bless them, we pray.

Equip them as they seek to serve you together.

And we pray for Paul now as he speaks.

Fill him, fill us with your spirit.

Speak to us afresh through him that we may be encouraged, built up, and brought closer to the kind of people that you call us to be.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks very much, Paul.

Well, if you want to just keep your Bibles open there, as Johnny says, the passage has got lots of different things in it.

So it's really important that you're just following through as we go through it, because otherwise you probably will get lost.

It's most likely my fault, but I'll just blame it in the passage.

So anyway, it's 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 12 to 28.

1 Thessalonians 5:12–28

What page number was it?

1-188.

So if you keep that open.

Now, I think originally it was supposed to be someone else who was speaking today, but they made some sort of lame excuse about having a 50th wedding anniversary and all this kind of thing.

Even though I'll be peeling the spuds for his dinner.

But no, then I was told what the passage was on.

It was all about holy kisses and that kind of stuff.

So I think I maybe drew the short straw, but I'll give it a go anyway.

So anyway, whenever you look closer at this passage, you actually find out it's really full of important instructions and guidance.

The temptation as we read it is to just skim through and see as if it's just Paul trying to give some kind of a few things to wind down so that the ending isn't so abrupt.

But really suppose that you get so much here in such a short section because most of it doesn't really need much explaining.

It's just a series of statements one after the other.

Now, earlier Paul has talked about the day of the Lord and other topics, giving explanation and reassurance and encouragement where it was needed.

And here it's basically just like, this is how you should act.

I'm reminding you, you should know it, but now just do it.

And also why he puts these instructions at the end is because it's the ending really that leaves the flavor, isn't it?

That's why a dessert is sweet and not bitter.

You don't want to be walking out of the restaurant with your face all screwed up because it's not going to be the best advertisement to whoever's walking in.

Or that's why whenever you have a coffee, they usually leave a little sweet, just a little note for the kitchen.

They usually leave a little sweet or a little mint so that the fragrance afterwards is nice and sweet and not coffee breath.

Now, the flavor of the letter, as it finishes here, is almost rushed.

It's like, don't slow up. Keep going. Follow my instructions.

The day of the Lord is coming, so press on.

Now, it might be helpful to divide the section into three as we go through it and just look at it, you know, as we follow through the verses.

So, I just split it up like this.

Verses 12 to 15 is corporate life.

It's instructions for the church.

Verses 16 to 22, personal devotion.

And 23 to the 8 then is closing blessings.

Now, there's going to be a good bit of overlap.

Those aren't strictly all just what the verses are made of, but it's probably easier to divide them up that way just to look at it.

So, firstly then, verses 12 to 15, we'll look at that and call it corporate life.

Now, there's going to be a bit of overlap, but how believers act individually is going to have a huge effect on how the fellowship acts

acts and how the fellowship gets on the corporate health of the community.

But Paul's focus here is definitely to build up the church as a group.

It's a bit like a rally cry before a battle.

It's like he's rousing the troops to be united and to be strong under their leadership.

And that's how he starts.

He starts with the leadership.

Notice how, though, whenever we look at it, he doesn't actually say anything to the leaders themselves.

He just says it to the church.

Now, these Thessalonians, they didn't have any problem with Paul.

They clearly respected him and they held him in the highest regard.

Some commentators even think that the people maybe even have held Paul in too high a regard.

They were very dependent on him.

In chapter 3, verses 6 to 10, you probably looked at it another time.

We read of Timothy's report back to Paul and how they couldn't wait to see him.

They maybe even, some people say, they maybe even idolized him a little bit.

That's why he writes, whenever he writes, he writes the whole letter pretty much from the first person plural.

He writes we all the time.

Paul, Silas and Timothy.

And he only uses the word I three times in the letter.

Twice to assure them that he personally wanted to see them.

And then once at the end of the letter here, to hold them to an oath to read the letter to everyone.

But in other words, really, even though he personally longs to see them,

the reality is that the whole Christian church shouldn't be dependent on just one man.

Thessalonica had its own leaders and its own elders.

And Paul is saying that in the midst of idleness and some false teaching about end times,

these people, your leaders, continue to work hard among you.

Now, it's pretty typical, I suppose, whenever we think of, you know, maybe we've heard in the news or throughout history,

different doomsday cults and different cults.

Now, sometimes the leaders can be very lazy.

They just expect to live in everyone else's generosity and they just talk about what's going to come.

Now, Paul says your leaders work very hard.

And they make it their effort to admonish you.

Admonish means to give a pretty firm kind of instruction or a bit of a rebuke or a warning.

And they admonish them, and Paul says, to hold them in the highest regard because of their work.

Now, you can see how they might have found it kind of easy to love and respect Paul

because he's something of a hero to them.

You know, he's somewhere far off.

He's doing the missionary thing.

He's away in Corinth or traveling throughout the known world, preaching the good news.

But their own leaders were just very much like real, down-to-earth, normal people.

And they were the ones that had the hard part of working hard with the people

and rebuking them and counseling them and breaking their backs to try and get rid of this false teaching.

And Paul says it's all hard work.

So make it your effort to love them, he says.

Accept their admonition.

In other words, if your leaders tell some part of your life or your behavior or your attitude isn't what it should be,

then respect them for having the guts to say it, he said, because it isn't easy.

It can be an emotional as well as a physical drain and sometimes a spiritual drain also.

Leaders carry burdens.

They work hard, Paul says.

So hold them in high regard.

And at the end of verse 13 he says, live at peace with one another, if you just keep your eyes in the passage.

Live at peace with one another.

Now when leadership, I suppose this follows all naturally, because when leadership doesn't exist,

or where it gets undermined, people just get lost, don't they?

Now this is a, maybe can be seen as a very negative view of humanity, but it's biblical.

In the world system, different ideologists like Noam Chomsky, if you read about politics or anything else,

they promote views like anarchy.

I see somebody chuckling now.

So anarchy.

Now anarchy is defined as the absence of government or authority and the absolute freedom of the individual

regarded as a political ideal.

Now perhaps your understanding of anarchy, a little bit like mine,

was just to think that it's another word for disorder or chaos,

but it's actually a view that people hold,

and many people think it's a nice way that the human race can operate.

Without authority, we can just have freedom, and we can all get along together.

But in reality, it doesn't work.

It doesn't work, because humans are sinful,

and when there is no state authority, there is state chaos, isn't there?

And where there is no church authority, there is also chaos and disorder.

Now the way to have freedom and peace isn't to throw off the yoke of leadership.

It's the opposite.

It's submission and respect and love for leadership.

There was people in the church in Thessalonica,

I'm sure you read about it and heard about it in the different sermons,

but they were very much anti-authority.

They weren't respecting the views.

And Paul deals with these people even more strongly in the next letter,

these anti-authority people.

But what they were demonstrating,

they were demonstrating that they didn't just want to get rid of the church authority,

they were actually rejecting God's authority.

Verse 12 says,

Paul describes them as these leaders who are over you in the Lord.

The concept of church humanity without church authority isn't a Christian concept.

Now healthy relationships in church can happen

unless people have a healthy view of church itself, including its leadership.

So in verses 14 to 15 then,

Paul moves on in the passage very naturally from relationships with the leaderships

to relationships with one another.

Now the first group Paul mentions is the idol.

They're in deliberate contrast to the leaders who are hardworking.

The idol in the church here,

we know that they had a bad theology.

Their different end times view was causing them to give up their jobs

and be sponging off the more generous and wealthy believers in the church.

But Paul says here,

he says,

that the church is to warn them.

Final chance.

We get the impression here even from the last few verses

that the leaders had already been warning these people

and admonishing them.

They had been admonishing them and warning them in the church

from the leadership perspective.

But Paul says here,

part of your respect for your leaders

and part of your holding them in a high regard

is to basically,

you to warn them as well.

Is to repeat

what the leaders teach

among the fellowship.

To teach it

and repeat it

to each other.

To warn what the leaders warn

and to teach

what the leaders teach.

a really cute story

was

one of the youth

was telling me one time

that they were thinking of

downloading a film

without paying for the copyright

and one of the other ones said to them,

they said,

remember what Paul said

because a week or two ago

before that

I had just given a talk on music

and mentioned very briefly

about copyright and piracy

and that kind of thing.

And so

the challenge for me,

I suppose,

was that sometimes people actually take

some of the things I say seriously.

But it's also nice to see that

in their context

they were respecting

what their youth leader was telling them

and they were teaching it to each other.

They were teaching what their leaders taught.

Now Paul says here,

you,

as a church member,

following the teaching of your teachers,

teach it to one another.

Repeat it to one another.

You see,

I actually got to the point

in the next letter,

chapter 3,

that Paul says,

don't even eat with these people.

But you see,

if they had have been

rebuking each other

and warning each other

in the community,

it might not have got to that stage.

You see,

I suppose

whenever we think of authority,

in the state context,

political authority,

they use this force

to respect the law.

The church authority,

there is no police,

there is no force.

But it's basically,

it's our responsibility

as church members

to encourage one another

and rebuke one another

and make sure,

just as we were doing

before the prayer time,

to see each other,

how each other is doing

in our own walks

and in our own fellowship

and make sure that we

encourage one another

from week to week.

Now that doesn't mean

that we're being judgmental.

It's about being sensitive

to each other's weaknesses

and building each other up

for the growth

of Christ's church.

Because right after

this very warning

to the idol,

what does he say next?

Paul says,

encourage the timid,

help the weak,

be patient with everyone.

Now it's a difficult balance.

But as we seek to live

in love with one another

and grow as a church

or as local churches,

it can't be ignored

that our relationships

with each other

as believers

are incredibly important.

We're to look out

for each other's health

out of genuine concern

and genuine kindness

for each other

and the other person.

It is like a family.

It might sound like

a bit of a cliche sometimes,

but we have to see each other

as brothers and sisters

and as part of the family

who all need our help

and encouragement

and most of all,

lots and lots

and lots of patience.

When we're patient

with each other,

what we're saying is

that basically,

in spite of all our faults

and all of our feelings,

I'm not giving up on you

because I love you.

That's what we're saying

when we're patient.

And that means

when we get hurt,

whether it's when we're insulted

or ignored

or sidelined

or we just think

that someone's being

a little intrusive

or disrespectful

or doesn't understand it,

then give them the benefit

of the doubt

and instead of trying

to vindicate ourselves

like we like to do

as human beings,

Paul says in verse 15,

always try to be kind

to one another

inside the church

and even outside the church

and work

or whatever environment

we find ourselves in.

That's the instructions

that he leaves

the church community with

as he finishes his letter.

So then,

verses 16 to 22.

Now the second section

in verses 16 to 22,

you could say,

concerns personal devotion

or the individual's

relationship with God.

Now it's going to have

a huge effect

on the community

or the church life

as well, obviously.

How we are

in our personal walk

with Christ

is going to affect

the church community.

Now just previously

in verse 14,

Paul has said

that the weak and timid

aren't to be abandoned.

I suppose in a work context

sometimes

or in a teamwork,

sometimes it's all about

trying to get

the strongest group forward

or whatever else.

The church is completely different.

You look at it

more like a family.

The weaker to be encouraged,

they're to be helped.

And I suppose

but really,

as we try to encourage

one another

and try to help one another

in the church context,

ultimately,

to some degree,

it still comes down

to the individual,

doesn't it?

You see,

someone could try

and encourage you

all day long

but they can't force you

to be joyful,

can they?

If you don't cheer up,

you'll just force

whoever it is

that's caring for you

to just be

completely exhausted.

Eventually,

they're going to run

out of encouragements

or helpful comments

or even

Paddy the Irishman jokes

and they're going to give up

trying to cheer you up

because they'll be exhausted.

Paul says,

be joyful.

It's a decision.

It's a decision

when you get up in the morning

that you're not going to focus

on all the consequences

of sin

in your life

and in the world around us

but instead,

going to focus on God,

on Jesus,

on the forgiveness

and the redemption

that we've had

through Jesus,

the adoption,

the acceptance,

the eternal life

and everything else

that we have received

because of trusting

in Jesus' death

for us.

Be joyful always.

All the time,

Paul says.

It's a decision.

Now,

you might think

it's easy to say that.

It's easy to just

turn out the words

be joyful,

be happy.

Especially for me,

I suppose,

as a stand at the front

but,

you know,

I don't know

what people are going through.

Maybe I get it easy

but ultimately,

it's God that's saying it.

Just as Jesus says,

don't worry.

Don't let your hearts

be troubled.

Even though he knew

he was going to be crucified,

go to the cross

and suffer

and die for the sins,

our sins,

he could say,

don't worry.

Don't let your hearts

be troubled.

Now,

Paul,

he certainly didn't get it easy either.

He suffered so much

and he didn't just think

it was just some kind of ideal

that people should aspire to

try and be joyful.

He's telling them

it's the way it should be.

Make a decision

to be joyful always

because it is a decision.

Now,

it's the same as the decision

which he says

in the very next breath.

He says,

pray continually.

Now,

God knows where we're headed.

He knows where we're going.

He knows what we need

for the journey.

He knows it all.

Now,

without constant communication

communication with him,

we just get lost

in our own personal lives.

Now,

the church body

is going in a direction.

God knows the future

of each local church.

He knows the future

of his universal church.

But just as he knows

the future of that

and the church prays

as a body,

so we also have to pray

individually.

We have to make it

our habit

to pray continually

in our own lives

so that we can be sure

that our own personal

and private lives

aren't going further

and further away

from where they should be

and aren't going further

and further away

from the way

it should be in church.

Sometimes we can find

ourselves going to church

but we're in a completely

different place

in our own personal lives

from where we should be

or where we feel

we're kind of putting on

where we are

in the church community.

Within the church community,

sometimes it can seem

all very good.

Privately,

in our own hearts,

we know the reality is

that we can get cold,

can't we?

And really then

when it comes to it,

when it comes to contributing

to what other people need

to helping them,

to trying to build them up,

we don't have so much

to contribute.

We don't have so much

that we can say

to help them

because inside

we're not the place

where we should be either.

Now our prayer lives

form the heart

of our spiritual lives.

Now the very most

fundamental thing

that shows someone

believes in God

is that they pray to him.

Isn't that right?

Now if you're not praying

it's either because

we don't believe

that God is really there

or else underneath it all

we believe that

there's no point in praying

because God is powerless

to do anything about it.

We say that there's no point.

Well without giving

an in-depth discussion

or explanation

about how or why

prayer works

or why we should pray,

Paul just says here,

he says,

pray

and don't stop praying.

Keep on praying

all the time.

And if you can't think

of what you can pray for,

Paul even gives us

an example

in the next statement.

He says,

to give thanks

in all circumstances.

We don't need

a lot of wisdom for that.

Sometimes we complain even.

We even make a complaint

that we don't know

what we should pray for.

Well instead of complaining

we should just be giving thanks

for everything

that comes into our heads.

Every good gift

that comes down from God

we can give thanks to him for.

Every conceivable thing

that's good in life

is worth giving thanks for.

Sometimes we try

and make it our purpose

to try and seek out

some kind of magic plan

that God has for us

or somehow somewhere

in the future

that's going to be

the consummation

of all our dreams

and it's going to be

the answer to all our problems.

But really

what we should be just doing

is giving thanks

for the way things

really are

right now.

And we can do that

because we pray to a God

that we really believe in.

A God who is in control.

A God who knows

what his will is for us.

That's not someplace

somewhere down the line

where somehow

we'll get fulfillment.

It's knowing that God

has us

where he wants us

and he has placed us

in churches

where we can love him

and serve one another.

God's will for us

is to live lives

of devotion to him

to be living worshippers.

And the next statement

actually

it just follows on

from that.

It's a statement

about having a heart

of devotion and worship.

Do not put out

the spirit's fire

or do not quench

the spirit.

And this relates back

to the image

of God's presence

in the Old Testament

just as at Pentecost

to God's presence

being represented

by fire.

Now in the Old Testament

in the tabernacle

or in the temple

the fire

on the altar

just burns

continually

24 hours a day

7 days a week

all year round.

Leviticus 6

Leviticus 6:13

verse 13

says

God says this

he says

the fire

must be kept burning

continually

on the altar.

It must not

go out.

What does verse 16

to 18 say?

Be joyful always

pray continually

give thanks

in all circumstances

for this is God's will

for you

in Christ Jesus.

Whenever we refuse

to be joyful

when we ignore

to pray

when we're ungrateful

to God

it has a smothering

effect.

It's smothering

to other people

and it's definitely

smothering

the reality

of God's spirit

in our lives

God's presence

in our lives.

Don't put out

the spirit's fire

in your life.

Don't refuse God

the worship

that he is due.

Verse 20 then

do not treat

prophecies

with contempt.

Now it seems

kind of strange

in the context

of false teaching

but a common

in a lot of the churches

particularly here

in the New Testament

was this idea

that I suppose

tongues was a superior gift

and prophesying

and plain old

boring teaching

from the Bible

could get a little

bit drab.

Prophesying

now whenever we

think of prophesying

prophesying

has two elements

there's forth telling

and there's foretelling

now prophesying

always has the first aspect

every prophet

throughout the Old Testament

throughout them all

always forth tells

now that's the primary

meaning of what it is

to be a prophet

or to prophecy

now foretelling

is to tell

God's truth

to the people

who are present

that hear it

they're saying

this is what God's saying

they're prophesying

or they're preaching

now foretelling

on the other hand

is more about the future

for example

whenever I say

Jesus is coming again

I'm foretelling

I'm not saying

that whenever Paul

talks about prophesying

here

he's simply

just talking about this

but certainly

in the context

this is certainly

what he has in mind

the prophecies

of Christ's return

he has been talking about

and prophesying about

through the entire letter

both in foretelling

about the future

and foretelling

about how God

wants the believers

to live

this is what he's

talking about

he says

don't treat it

with contempt

these false teachers

were ignoring

the teaching

and the prophecies

about Christ's return

Paul says

instead

hold on to what is good

and reject

what is evil

likewise

we should be

continually reminding

ourselves

of the reality

of the prophecy

that Jesus

is going to return

and we must live

in light of that

now moving on then

finally

and briefly

just to the last few verses

verses 23 to 28

now Paul ends his letter

thinking about

that prophecy

that we're just talking about

of Jesus' return

and he adds a final prayer

for the Thessalonians

that they would be ready

for that day

and then whenever we think

of prophecy

one of the biggest tragedies

is that people get so caught up

in what will happen

or what might happen

is that they ignore

or they reject

the whole purpose

why the prophecy was given

the prophecy was given

so that we might be prepared

individually

and as a church community

not by buying

tin beans

and dried fruit

and gold and guns

and storing it up

in a basement somewhere

that's well off

but that we might be holy

Paul says

so that we might be sanctified

made holy

through and through

thoroughly holy

basically he's saying

and that our whole spirit

soul

and body

would be kept blameless

for when he comes

that every aspect

of our being

would be focused

on being ready

and not be ashamed

when Jesus Christ returns

may seem like a big ask

but the encouraging thing is

that we're not on our own

verse 24

the one who calls you

is faithful

and he will do it

we began the journey

with grace

and we're going to finish

with grace

Jesus is the alpha

and the omega

the beginning

and the end

the author

and the completer

of our faith

so just as we keep reading

and praying

and seeking to have

an attitude like Jesus

one that gives the father

the glory that he has due

by living lives of worship

we can be certain

that he'll bring us

to the end

and we'll be ready

to meet him

whenever he comes

we all need grace

none of us

will ever get to the point

in our lives

where we don't need grace

that's why in the next breath

Paul says

brothers pray for us

he's no specific

and the reason is

probably that he has

all the same problems

and all the same concerns

that everyone else has

with a few more added in

as well we know

but he needs grace too

earlier in the chapter

he expressed his concern for them

and his desire

to see them

to come and to see them

and he's not above loneliness either

and this is where

the most awkward bit

of the passage comes in

verse 26

greet all the brothers

with a holy kiss

no I'm joking

for us really

I suppose

whenever we're missing folk

we might even write

say at the end of the letter

or something

give so and so a hug for me

or something like that

it's the same thing really

he misses them

and he cares for them

and the holy kiss

doesn't mean a kiss

that's not sleazy

or a kiss that's not impure

or that kind of thing

he's not saying

give them a pure kiss

like the one on the forehead

or something

he's basically just saying

give them a kiss

for me

and make it a holy one

because they're my brothers

in Christ

who I love very much

J.B. Phillips

he comes up with

some nice paraphrases

and he translates this one

as he says

give a handshake all round

to all the brotherhood

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

or to all the families

sorry I've got

I think I've got

the 1984 edition

no one is to be left out

either by sparing them

the difficulty

of hearing the hard parts

of the letter

or by denying them

the encouragement

that it would be

to hear a letter

from their dear friend Paul

but the way he says it

is just really affectionate

promise me

that you'll have this letter

read to everyone

won't you

would you promise me that

and then he closes

his letter by saying

the grace of our Lord

Jesus Christ

be with you

and can I just take

the liberty of saying

then as 1 Thessalonians

comes to a close

the grace of the Lord

Jesus Christ

be with you too

Amen

Thanks Johnny

Thanks very much Paul

and please do talk

to him afterwards

if there's anything

you want to follow up

with him

but that's encouraging

our final song

of the time

and really

to beめ

the way

entrust

the way

it gets

and I'll

adjust

our Auft

it's Christmas

and finishes

when you lean up

your father

and

it

män

like