Our Commanding Officer - Our Lover - Our Friend: He Will Do It

He Will Surely Do It

(1 Thessalonians 5:12-28, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 24, 2013)

12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Welcome to this family gathering. It was ten years ago that our building burned down in the center of our town. It was seven years ago that Lyn Doran officially joined the family. It was three years ago that we started supporting Lyn's sister, Mackey Hooper, in her work in India with victims of the sex trade. I read Mackey's new book this week. What she is doing with those girls—that's First Thessalonians Christianity, and that's what this family is committed to.

The Lord reigns. He is spreading the good news of His resurrection kingdom even now. That Word is published through the preaching and teaching of those who are set apart to open the Scriptures to the family of God and to bring the claims of Almighty God to His people.

What does God want? He works faith in His beloved children, and He calls us to live in that faith and to obey His commandments. He is slow to anger, but He does discipline those whom He loves. When His judgment comes upon a society He begins with His own family—the church. It is the job of ministers to say uncomfortable things like this in the Name of God. Our refusal to take God's Word seriously brings trouble upon us all. We need to repent, and a passage like this concluding section of 1 Thessalonians is a good place to start.

Be at peace among yourselves.

Are you holding a grudge against your spouse, your children, your parents, your siblings, or someone else in this family? It is time to give it up. That's what Jesus would have you do.

14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle,

Are you unwilling to work hard, expecting everyone else to do the work that you have promised to do? You need to get to work. Jesus worked. He wants you to work.

encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

Are you ignoring everyone else in the family and using some excuse like the fact that you are an introvert or that you are just too busy with your own life. You need to learn people's names in the family here, find the ones that could use your help, and patiently start doing what God says.

15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

In this family, you need to be willing to take someone else's evil and turn it into your act of goodness. This is not a place for allowing yourself to get too easily insulted. This is a safe place to learn how to turn the other cheek. If we can't learn how to do that here in the family, how will we ever do it out there among those who are so misinformed about Jesus and His church.

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

In this house we are going to think about the resurrection King and His kingdom, and we are going to rejoice always. We are going to pray. If you are not praying, you are disobeying God and sinning against your family seated near you today. They need you to pray for them without ceasing. We are going to give thanks to God all the time no matter what. If He disciplines us, we are going to remember that He disciplines those He loves, and we are going to thank Him for it. This is not optional. If we do not do what He commands, we need to take His chastening children as good children of a great Father. This is God's will in Christ Jesus for you. Why would it be OK to ignore it? What kind of loving Father would just let His children ignore His explicit instruction forever without taking any action to show them that they need to change?

19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

This is a family that is expecting to love the plain presentation of the Word of God. You are going to need to ask God to fill you with His Spirit in order to do that well. If the preaching that you hear is accurate to the passage before us, and it should be, you are not allowed to hate it. If you hate it, you need to ask God why, and seek more of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. If you test the messages that Nathan and I preach and find them to be out of accord with the Bible, you should to come to church earlier on Sunday morning so that you can sit with us in prayer and discussion from 8:45 to 9:15 so that we will have the benefit of your godly insights and the Word that is preached will be better. If you know that we really are preaching the Bible, then it is time for you to hold fast to what is good, and abstain from every form of evil.

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

All of these instructions were given to the church in Thessalonica to follow, and I know of no reason why this would not be God's good plan for all the churches. May the God of peace, who made peace with us through the cross of Christ, make you holy. Do not be content with something less than holiness and a truly vibrant Christian life. May He who died for your sins sanctify you completely. Your whole born-again spirit. Your whole heart-mind-will soul. Your whole beautiful body created in the image of God with every part to be used according to His Law and not for sin. This is how you want to greet Him at His coming—with your whole self.

And now I have some very good news for you. All these inflexible demands come to you from the God who gave you faith and called you into this new life. He who calls you forward to resurrection living is faithful. He will surely do it.

25 Brothers, pray for us.

26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

27 I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Brothers, pray for me. I want this for myself as much as I want it for you. Your elders want this. Your deacons and the leading men and women of the church want this life. Pray for us. Greet us by name in ways that people can appreciate and receive. Get to know us. Spread this Word to all the other churches you have any contact with.

And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Friends, we are waiting, but we are not idle. We are busy rejoicing, thanking Jesus, looking for every sign of His victory, and working alongside the family who hold to this way of love.

Yes, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

While waiting, we rejoice,

And thank the Lord above,

For He will bring His kingdom here

And build a world of love.

Eager for the baby...

Peace and Security for Children of the Day

(1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 17, 2013)

[5:1] Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. [2] For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. [3] While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

There are many who do not take seriously the promise of a coming resurrection age with the return of Christ and all of the heavenly host of people and angels. This question of the coming resurrection age is not some small matter that we can safely ignore. The announcement of a coming new world secured by the blood of Christ is the message of the Bible. The future resurrection age was the hope of Israel and the hope of the entire Old Testament. The message of the resurrection was what Paul preached when He went to Thessalonica. Many think that it is extreme or unstable to have daily thoughts about the Lord's return. Paul was not among them.

For those who live moment by moment in hope of that Day, it is natural for us to wonder when this will take place. The apostle provides us with important instruction on this question. He says that for the world in general, this expected day of the Lord will be a day of judgment that will take them very much by surprise, like a thief in the night. (See also Matthew 24:43) While people are living in what they consider to be peace and security, suddenly the signs of Christ's return will be felt by them like a woman feels serious labor pains and knows that she is ready to give birth. Imagine a situation where a woman has an unwanted pregnancy and she convinces herself that she is not pregnant at all. Then suddenly she has hard labor pains and is forced to admit her true situation in despair. That is the illustration used by both Paul and Jesus about the resurrection-challenged who seem to have a mental block about the coming Day of the Lord.

[4] But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. [5] For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. [6] So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. [7] For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. [8] But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

We who live in the light of the Lord are looking forward to the arrival of the new world like a mother is eager to greet the baby that has been moving within her. Yes, the onset of labor pains still signal trouble, but beyond the pain is the joy of new life. The children of the darkness imagine that they have peace and security without any need for a redeemer to solve the problem of sin for them. We are not deluding ourselves that way. We have received the Redeemer. We have a true basis for our eternal peace and security in Jesus.

Because of Jesus we live in joyful hope of the coming resurrection. Even now we are engaged in all kinds of works that will find their fulfillment in God's new creation. Others might receive the Day of the Lord as a shock, since they were trying to avoid something. We greet the day with hope as those who have heard the words of 1 Peter 4:7-8, “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

We are children of the Day. The Day of the Lord should not be a shocking thought to those who celebrate the Lord's Day every week by gathering together for worship. Let others drink or sleep away their lives. We are soldiers of the Lord who want to stay awake. We have a mission to accomplish. We have the armor of God, and we are working for the King.

The future day of salvation protects our thinking. The faith that we sing about together and that is expressed in our commitments of love guards our heart.

[9] For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, [10] who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. [11] Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.Our destiny together is not God's anger, but the salvation that will come to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. The world was made through Him, and He entered into the world to bring salvation through His blood. Through His resurrection a new world beyond sin and death has already begun. That new world has been planted in us by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we are eager to see the fullness come of what we have just begun to taste.

Jesus died for us, therefore we do not need to live in fear of death—our death or the death of others who die in the Lord. Whether we live or die, we live with Him. We are not trying to deny this pregnancy. We want to feel the baby move and we are looking toward the coming day of birth, trusting that God knows exactly the right time to bring that effectual pain that will signal the full birth of a new world.

We can be honest about our hopes. We can speak about these matters with each other. Yes, we wonder when this new baby will be born as any mother would, but we are not in a panic. Something new and strong is already alive within us and we are glad. We do not need to engage in escapist behavior in order to avoid the future.

Yet many are stuck in patterns of drinking, sleeping, and more. So many are filling their minds with what will never really work as a way of escape from the pain and boredom of daily life.

Paul, Peter, and Jesus all make a striking connection between drunkenness and denial of the return of the Master. Luke 21 is all about the Day of the Lord, and Jesus says in Luke 21:34, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.” We have already seen that Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:7 that “the end of all things is at hand.” Just prior to that in 1 Peter 4:3 he writes, “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.” This same connection between mindless escapism and the day of the Lord is in the Old Testament prophets.

Do you want to just escape? What is your behavior of choice to bring that about? Do you see that some forms of escape only lead to more pain? Why not give some serious consideration to the coming Day of the Lord instead?

It is not inherently unstable to think about heaven and Christ's return. The danger that the Bible warns us about is our self-medicating to avoid thinking forthrightly about the coming Day of the Lord. We should be seeking God for the arrival of that Day. We should join the Apostle John in the last words of the Bible from Revelation 22:20-21, “He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely I am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.”

But when will that Day dawn,

When will the faith be sight,

For soldiers of our risen Lord,

The children of the light?

So we will always be with the Lord...

Resurrection, Rapture, and Reunion
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Sunday, November 10; Preaching: Associate Pastor Nathan Snyder

[13] But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

Have you ever been separated from a loved one?  Maybe they moved away.  Maybe you moved away.  Maybe they went off to college.  Maybe they went off to serve with the military.  Or on a missions trip.  We feel some measure of grief in these separations.  As long as we expect to see our loved one again, however, our grief is mitigated.  The painful grief of losing someone to death is that we will not see them again in this life.  There will be no reunion.  They are simply gone.  Death is separation.  Body separated from soul.  Person separated from beloved person.  It is a tragic reality we all face.  Yet the gospel declares good news.  Through Jesus there will be resurrection and reunion.  Death’s separation will be obliterated.  Furthermore, the gospel holds out the hope of eternal fellowship with the Lord Jesus himself.  This is the very definition of life!

Paul is writing to the Thessalonian believers, who were relatively new converts since he had shared the gospel with them.  The return of Christ is a central theme of this letter (1:9-10; 2:19; 3:11-13; 4:13-18; 5:1-11, 23-24).  We would do well to think often of the coming return of our Lord.  In 3:11-4:12 Paul shows that our expectation of Christ’s return has implications for how we live.  We are to live holy lives, abstaining from fleshly lusts, loving one another, and working hard in this present world.  Now Paul shows that Christ’s return has implications for how we face the pain of death.  There seems to have been some confusion among the Thessalonian Christians about what would happen to those in their midst who had died before the return of Christ.  When Paul speaks of “those who have fallen asleep”, he is referring to those believers who have died.  What will happen to them?  Will they miss out when Christ returns?  Will we see them again?  Paul did not want them to grieve like others who have no hope.  He does not write simply, “We do not want you to grieve.”  It is good to grieve death because death is not good.  It is a blight upon God’s good creation.  God did not create body and soul to be torn asunder.  He did not create us to be ripped away from those whom we love.  Death came into the world through sin.  Yet the Christian’s grief need not become despair.  We grieve with hope.

[14] For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. [15] For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. [16] For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

The foundation for our hope is in Jesus who died and rose again.  Death is the penalty for sin.  Jesus paid for the sins of his people on the cross.  Death thus died in the death of Christ.  He rose victoriously from the dead.  His resurrection becomes the pattern for his people.  When he returns, he will resurrect those who are dead “in Christ” and bring them with him in his victorious descent to the earth.  I love this phrase “in Christ.”  Everyone who trusts Christ to be their Lord and Savior and source of life is brought into Christ.  We are united with him in life and death.  Death may separate us from our loved ones here, but death does not separate us from Christ.  In fact, our communion with Christ is more immediate after death as we await the resurrection (2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Philippians 1:23).  Death will never do us part from our Lord.  This itself should give us great hope as we face our own death.  And then we have the hope of resurrection.  We will receive a glorified body like our Lord’s (Philippians 3:20-21).  Paul makes the point in our text that believers who are living when Christ returns will not precede those who have died.  The dead in Christ will rise first.  Only then will those living also be caught up to meet the Lord (v. 17).  The Thessalonians were concerned about the destiny of those who had died.  Paul says that they will actually receive special honor as the first to rise and meet Christ.  We long for Christ to return for it will mean the end of evil and the beginning of Christ’s eternal kingdom on earth.  But if we should die before he returns, we will in no way miss out.

Paul encourages us in verse 16 to anticipate and feel something of the weight of glory surrounding our Lord’s return.  Jesus will return from heaven, and all of heaven’s glory will shine upon the world as he does.  He will come “with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.”  Jesus says in John 5:28-29 that at his command all the dead shall rise.  I don’t know if the phrase “with the voice of an archangel” is describing the sound of Jesus’ voice, or whether an archangel will add his voice to Jesus’ command.  Either way, the sound will echo across the earth, as will the mighty call of God’s trumpet, announcing the final victory of Christ over every enemy, including death itself.  No one will miss the sound.  It will drown out every other.  Ipods and iphones, TV’s, conference calls, political speeches and debates, the cheers of sports events, car horns, jet engines, gunfire and exploding RPG’s, all sounds on earth will be drowned out and silenced by the sound of heaven and heaven’s King.  This ought to put all activities in this present life in perspective.  And it ought to put death in perspective.  Death does not have the final word.  Christ has the final word, and he will overturn death forever.

[17] Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. [18] Therefore encourage one another with these words.

The Lord’s return will mean resurrection for those who are in him.  It will also mean a permanent reunion for all his people.  We will all be caught up to meet our returning Lord, and so we will always be with him.  You may have heard the term “rapture” connected with the end times.  The word refers to being caught up, and it comes from verse 17.  Christ will descend in clouds of glory and all who belong to him will be caught up to meet him in the air.  Paul is using an image that would have been understood by people during his time.  If a high-ranking officer came to a city, especially if it was the emperor himself, people would come out of the city to meet him.  Then they would all return into the city with him.  We who belong to Jesus, likewise, will get to join him, the true Emperor, in the air to welcome him to earth as he comes in glory.  That is the rapture.  (See also Matthew 24:29-31).

I think the most glorious words of this entire passage are these: “And so we will always be with the Lord.”  This is better than any family reunion in this present life.  All the family of God will be together and death will never again come between us.  When death separates us now, it is only temporary.  Our greatest joy will be that we are together with our Lord.  This is the heart’s desire of every child of God: to be with Jesus, and to be with our brothers and sisters.  Jesus too desires to be with us.  Remember his prayer in John 17:24, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”  Paul is saying that God will grant exactly this desire.  So, yes, we grieve the separation of death, but we grieve with hope.  Our Lord will return, he will raise the dead, we will join him in his glory, and we will be home with him forever.  So encourage one another with these words.

The last thing I would like to say is to those who are not yet in Christ.  If you are outside of Christ and his family, please don’t stay on the outside looking in!  Come on in!  Embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior, as the Source of life, as the Resurrection Son of God.  Do not spend eternity separated from him.

Living Quiet Lives of Holiness

More and More Sanctified

(1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, November 3, 2013)

[4:1] Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.

In the remainder of this brief letter, the Apostle Paul is urging the young church in Thessalonica to devote themselves to pleasing God in light of the approaching Day of the Lord. The details of that day are discussed in some of the passages that we will read in coming weeks.

Today, God wants us to do something “more and more,” just as he wanted the Thessalonians to do more and more. They were already living life as followers of Jesus, but they needed to keep on going further in that way. The world that they lived in was in many ways different than our modern world. Yet in some ways, life in the Greek and Roman culture of the 1^st century was similar to what life all over the world has become in our generation. They lived in a society that had embraced a freedom of sexual life and a liberty of recreation and ease that was against God's Law and was ripping apart the fabric of their societies.

Their immorality and laziness had led to instability as will always be the case. The church is supposed to know this, to see it, and then to respond to it. When people do not live to please God, the judgment of the Lord is very near. The church is uniquely equipped by God to understand this, and to act in accord with the Lord's will. The very first response that we need to have to impending societal destruction according to what Paul says here, is for each of us individually and together as a church to devote ourselves more and more to pleasing God.

[2] For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. [3] For this is the will of God, your sanctification:

God's will for our lives can be summed up in one word: “sanctification.” This word has to do not only with an inner holiness of heart but also with an outward reformation of behavior which is called “righteousness,” not to be confused with self-righteousness. It is so important that we who know the Lord and who have the Scriptures dedicate our lives to God's will, which is our sanctification. It is not being legalistic or ingrown to concern ourselves with sanctification, it is a prerequisite for our usefulness in a confused, needy, and rebellious world.

that you abstain from sexual immorality; [4] that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, [5] not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; [6] that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

Sanctification is not just general, it is very specific. Paul focuses on two very important specifics in the verses that remain in this passage. The first of the two topics is sexuality.

One of the best passages in the Bible to correct our confusion about sexuality comes from the lips of Jesus in Matthew 19:4-6. The church needs to recover these three verses and the wonderful Christian tradition that was birthed by them, culminating in the customs by which we celebrate weddings. Our Lord was responding to a question regarding divorce, but rather than addressing only that plague, he gave the positive general teaching that shows us the right way of sanctification in all matters of intimate sexuality: “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'? What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” If the church would take this passage more seriously, we would have the answer to the sexual confusion that is troubling us so much at present. Combine that with what the Bible teaches about singleness in places like 1 Corinthians 7 and we have a compassionate and holy word for a dark age. But we lose the right to offer that compassionate clarity if we are not pursuing sexuality purity more and more ourselves.

We do need to speak. We have something clear and good to say about sexual ethics. Confusion about the plain Word of Jesus about sexuality is not compassion, it is just more confusion in a sea of cloudiness that is all around us. The Gentiles all around the church in Thessalonica had their own ways of pursuing the satisfaction of their desires. The church was not to follow them but Jesus. How did Jesus pursue His bride? With self-control, holiness, and the honor of the cross. We will see with our own eyes how right He was when He comes with His beautiful bride on the Day of the Lord. We who have believed in Him and who follow His lead are part of that bride. We are vessels of His good seed from heaven. We need to repent of all sexual immorality, and we need to recover the substance behind our good marriage ceremonies, respecting individuals, families, communities, and the church. This is our sanctification.

[7] For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. [8] Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.We cannot claim to love Christ and His cross and then surrender to personal impurity without a fight. Jesus calls us to holiness. That is not harsh. It is part of the good news. If we disregard the ethical elements of the gospel then we disregard not man but God. God considers our progress in sanctification more than a good idea. That is one of the reasons He has given us His Holy Spirit.

[9] Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, [10] for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, [11] and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, [12] so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.The general word of sanctification is this: “Love like Jesus loved, and do so more and more.” That love is expressed in the specifics of sanctification. The second specific in this passage has to do with honest and quiet work. Here again the Roman and Greek world had given into their increasing desires for ease, entertainment, and fame. Sanctification required a new work ethic.

Jesus was a worker, and He calls us to the joy of meaningful labor in a world where everything is falling apart. Work here is a training ground for more joyful work in the new world of the resurrection, where good work lasts forever. We can make it our ambition to live a quiet life of service, minding our own business, and working with our hands in what God has called us to do.

Work is what Jesus did in His great ministry and look at what He accomplished! He calls us to follow Him in this simple detail of life. Do we need to be celebrities in order to feel like people of value? Isn't it enough to be children of God? If it is enough to have the unstoppable love of God, then we can do the tasks that our Lord has appointed for us with joy. This is your first step of evangelism. Walk properly before outsiders, working hard in what the Lord has for you every day, and being dependent on no one. And when someone does need help, we should care for one another as Christ has cared for us. This is the will of God for us—the specifics of sanctification. With Christ, specific personal change is possible. Let us pursue what is holy more and more.

We live to please our God

And serve Him more and more,

In quiet lives of holiness

For Him whom we adore.