AUDIO
I. Introduction
Paul's
closing words to the small, persecuted church at Thessalonica as he concludes
his first JOY-filled letter to support them in their trials and in the
imperfect conditions under which their church was born is all ... ALL ... about
relationships.
It sits
very consistently with the essence of the Gospel.
Christians
have got to be all about relationships and relating .. and we really should
have learned the importance of this through the set of lockdown restrictions we
have been contending with.
Here Paul
addresses the Thessalonian believers about how to DO the normal face to face
times relationship thing, and how to do it the way the Gospel indicates we
should in a range of different dimensions.
See it
this way.
What the
Lord did through His death on the Cross which paid the price of sin was to
restore His people's relationship with God in order to lead them to unity under
the headship of Christ and bring all things in Heaven and on earth together
again under Him.
What He'd
done as He brought the believers in Thessalonica to Himself was to redeem them
from a situation in which they lived in a society where standard practice in
relating to people was far from the Almighty's plan for humanity ... as Paul wrote
to Titus for the people on Crete (Titus 3:3-5):
" At one time we too were foolish, disobedient,
deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in
malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness
and love of God our Saviour appeared,
he
saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his
mercy."
What Paul now
gives the Thessalonians in these concluding verses is a bit of a Plumbers
Manual on how to be part of this cosmic revolution, at street level, against
the background of the savage world they lived in, and in the nitty gritty of
their relationships in Christ's Church .... God's New Society of the Saved.
Let's
build out the structure of the new relationships the Gospel creates in the
Church with Paul, brick by brick.
II. Leaders, vv. 12-13
“Now
we ask you, brothers and sisters,
to acknowledge those who work hard among you,
who care for 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.”
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13
Paul does show a general habit of concluding his letters
with a set of final short, pithy instructions and statements.
But they are NOT like the Book of Proverbs where you get
stand alone one liners … snippets, mottos … graphic-less memes!
They make MUCH more sense generally if you view them in
their context and against the background they are uttered for.
Neither are these little final instructions to be viewed as
generic … they DO have connection to specific concerns and considerations in
the churches Paul writes to … he is still doing ‘task theology’, as he has been
throughout the body of his letters.
Nonetheless Gupta reminds us that the whole letter is a
response to the report Timothy had brought back to Paul at Corinth about how
things were in the Thessalonian church … but the lessons needed there are at
least in part then applicable in other parallel situations in Christian life
and culture elsewhere.
So, the way Paul encourages the Thessalonians to relate as
Christians to their leaders has elements that apply to leader- congregations
elsewhere … and where the cap fits it should be worn.
A. Acknowledge, v. 12
“acknowledge
those who work hard among you”
Paul starts
by addressing how the church in Thessalonica should relate to its leadership
and showing proper acknowledgment respect for those who WORK HARD in the church’s service.
Paul doesn’t
address this issue very often in his letters at all … but here he has needed to
leave this church really early on because of the persecution that had rapidly
broken out there and it seems likely that the future viability of a church
depends so VERY much on the way it relates to those who lead it that it was
usually an early paert of the apostolic team’s foundation curriculum … they
taught it very early on as a fixed principle … so the subject only needed
addressing in the letters that came later EITHER when the lesson had been cut
short (as at Thessalonica) or when it had been forgotten.
It is a
subject that doesn’t crop up early in the letters, probably because it was a
foundation subject in the church planting curriculum.
Interestingly the apostolic team are then keen
to highlight two aspects in the hard work that characterises CHRISTIAN leaders …
two aspects that may have jarred with their previous experience either in the
synagogue at Thessalonica or in the Graeco-Roman voluntary associations that were present in the pagan world that we
discussed on a previous occasion.
The work of hard
working (and approved) Christian leaders is to “care for you in
the Lord and
who admonish you.”
Caring
None of the commentators I’ve looked at spend any time on
this issue because they’re rushing to get to the next one … possibly because
they think we all know leaders are to care for the flock of God but their desire to care for the flock leads them to rush way quickly soften what
they fear will be the more bitter pill … ‘admonition’!
But Biblically there is a great deal made about caring as opposed
to exploitative and self-serving leadership.
The issue has resurfaced in our context in recent months as
leading Evangelical Anglicans have been exposed as having supported and
defended a well-known Evangelical leader … the no longer reverend Jonathan
Fletcher … in the ex-public school
influential Anglican Evangelical connection.
Caring is a quality of leadership.
Not indulgence.
Not healing the wounds of God’s people lightly, but caring for
the flock of God of which the Holy Spirit has made them overseers … as Paul
puts it in Acts 20:28 ff., as he heads off towards
imprisonment and death in Rome and gives his last charge to the elders of the
strategically significant church at Ephesus:
“ Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which
he bought with his own blood.
I know that after I leave, savage wolves will
come in among you and will not spare the flock.
Even from your own number men will arise and
distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.
So be on your guard!”
That’s
what it means to care for the flock of God.
Paul seems to be referring at Ephesus to Old Testament teaching on
exploitative leadership in the major treatise on that subject in Ezekiel 34 …
but we need to get to admonition so I’ll just refer you to that in this link.
Admonition
Hard work, love and now admonition characterise
those leaders they should acknowledge and hold in high honour in love.
Admonition is (Gk.) nouthetountas.
It is a speaking ministry of verbal warning
away from bad actions.
The lexicon says counselling about
avoidance of or cessation from an improper or unhelpful course of conduct.
You are to acknowledge those who do this
and not let your sinful self – which is crossed by such a ministry – lead you
to resent or reject it … because it is for your care, strengthening and support
in your walk with God ... whenever it comes from the sort of leaders the
apostolic team is describing here rather than the sort in Ezekiel 34 (they’re
still about) ... the sort that is self-serving and does not seek first the welfare of the
flock of the Lord.
No – if THIS is what characterises your
leaders do NOT lash back at them on account of their faithful discharge of
their calling, but acknowledge them in their leadership and LOVE them.
B. Love, v. 13a
“Hold them in the highest
regard in love because of their work.”
If there was a tendency in the
Thessalonian church to only want the ears tickled with positive comment, and
there’s been a lot of that around during COVID times, Paul & co here make
it absolutely clear that the sort of ministry that should bring acknowledgement
is not the sort that tells you everything your itching ears are longing to
hear, but the sort that is also willing to admonish.
Now, how this is to be done gets spelled
out a bit in vv. 14-15 in terms of how everyone (leaders included) should
relate to those who are disheartened and weak as well as to those who would
break the church, but the point here is clear that the faithful hard-working,
caring and admonishing leaders are the ones that should be held in high regard
in LOVE on account of their work … because they’re the ones that do you any
good and because ear-pleasing charlatans will always abound … not least in
times when believers are going through challenging times and are feeling it.
There’s an important lesson there for
these young believers at Thessalonica and for all of us about the sort of
leadership that is needed for our spiritual well-being.
(And please notice, by the way, that this
leadership is plural: “Hold THEM in the highest
regard in love because of their work.”)
One more thing in this matter of relating
to leaders … Paul & co write (v. 13b) …
C. Live in peace, v. 13b
“Live in peace with each
other.”
Now this is not an easy thing, but I know
ministers in established churches who have been seeking to serve the Lord
faithfully in their churches being brought to a position where they get to
their front door to go and preach on Sunday mornings and are crippled by
anxiety attacks as they try to turn the door-knob.
Good men.
Men you’d find that hard to believe were
going through that sort of experience at all.
I’ve seen their lives blighted, their
families deeply harmed and their health broken by it.
There are wolves hiding amongst the flock
as pseudo-sheep as well.
No doubt.
But Paul & co seem to be suggesting
that there are apparent believers fulfilling the work of such wolves … perhaps
without realising it.
You need to live in peace with your leaders.
That means talking to them with listening
going on in both directions.
Being open with them and they with you.
Taking to heart their ministry and not just
their ministry but themselves.
Cultivating a situation in which you are
brothers and sisters together, working for the good of Christ’s church in your
lives together, and the forward movement of the Kingdom of God.
The church of God is made up of brothers
.. and that’s something that impacts the way ministry is done DEEPLY …as we’re about
to see from the next section of this concluding section of the letter.
III. Fellow believers, vv. 14-15
“And we
urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive,
encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”
Please
notice right at the outset, Paul is NOT describing here the role of the Pastor ...
although the Pastor will be involved in this ... but the role of the body of
Christ - people together in the church ...
A. Warn Church-breakers, v. 14
“And we
urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive”
This
sounds pretty much like admonition to me, and please notice then that although
church leaders are to exemplify admonition … this is the role of THE CHURCH and
leaders take it up simply as part oof what church is there to do for one
another.
This is
what used to be called ‘body ministry’ in my younger days as a believer.
It is
done by the church, for the church … but leaders have particular responsibility
in this area to see that it happens when it is necessary.
Now, of
course, Galatians 6:1-2 applies:
“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who
live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.
But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
Carry
each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.”
But nonetheless those who lead the church
for the church and in acting as representing the church need to be ready to
WARN those who are
i.
Idle
ii.
Disruptive
There seems to be an age-old association
between those two things, and as people were laid off work or even just temporarily ‘furloughed’
found themselves with time to fill, there was a marked tendency in that
direction as the pandemic struck the UK church.
We need to be self-aware and church-aware
so that we do not fall into this trap.
Warn the idle and disruptive ... why is it so important?
Because the eternal plan and purpose of
God in Christ is to bring all things TOGETHER AGAIN under the headship of
Christ and that starts in His Church.
In their own situation of pressure and
dislocation under that wave of persecution and ostracization that broke over
the church at Thessalonica the apostolic team highlight this issue but then quickly
move to another theme that this church’s current hard experience gives importance
to …
B. Encourage disheartened, v.
14b
“encourage the disheartened”
The Greek word ‘oligopsychos’ is really ‘faint-hearted’.
Hard experience shows this up.
If you go back as far as Exodus 6 you see
an example of the harm this feature of human does when Moses goes to the people
of God with the message from the Lord which says that He is about to deliver
them from their slavery and hard labour in Egypt:
“Moses reported this to the
Israelites,
but they
did not listen to him
because
of their discouragement and harsh labour.”
Exodus 6:9
Hard experience shuts ears and even
hardens hearts.
There WILL be some believers in hard times
who do show up as faint-hearted and the right response is NOT to condemn that.
Now, on
this subject of encouraging the disheartened, I must say I have been really disappointed to see some Christian
leaders make a really robust response against the public health measures that were
brought in over the last year in the UK which were sometimes very condemnatory
of those who realised these were for the public good.
Certainly I have been characterised on
social media as faint-hearted (a new experience!) for being unfaithful in not
defying government regulations to continue to do what we would all have no
doubt loved to do … to carry on as previously normal with face to face church until our
sick, elderly and weak (and quite possibly our younger folks too) succumbed to
the virus and lost either the rest of, or a part of, their lives to COVID,
long-COVID a range of complications that the virus can throw up.
And now we’re seeing very robust comments
from frustrated church leaders and members about those who are reluctant to go
back to face-to-face worship.
Now, I’m frustrated too.
And I’m working pretty hard to get us back to safe enough face-to-face worship.
But let’s be absolutely clear about this
and nail these colours firmly to our mast:
The unity of Christ’s church is absolutely
fundamental, and anything that goes beyond the encouragement of those who are
faint-hearted is going to be taken as disruptive and dealt with accordingly. It Has to be.
The water is warm in face-to-face church
and the invitation to come on in should be enough!
Where it isn’t, then encouragement in
faith and walk is what the Apostle orders, and that is the way we need to go …
not into rebuke and condemnation, because the name of the game is to grow grass
… those who are part of the flock know what to do with that and will walk to get their lips
around the stuff!
Encourage the faint-hearted.
And the third admonition from the
apostolic team is very much like the second one and complements it … hear this:
C. Help the weak, v. 14c
“help
the weak”
The weak are asthenēs - a word with quite a broad meaning referring here perhaps to those who
are weak in conscience, in spirit or even physically weak.
Again, this seems to echo the teaching
about being a shepherd of God’s flock in Ezekiel 34 …
““This
is what the Sovereign Lord says:
woe to you
shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves!
Should not
shepherds take care of the flock?
You eat the
curds,
clothe yourselves with the wool and
slaughter the choice animals,
but you do not take care of the flock.
You have not
strengthened the weak or
healed those who are ill or
bound up the injured.
You have not brought back the strays or
searched for the lost.
You have ruled them harshly and brutally …”
Ezekiel
34:2-4
But this passage in 1 Thessalonians is NOT just about leaders, but of
the ministry of the church, to the church ad for the church …. Which tells us
something about the brotherhood of believers and the way ministry operates
since the sending of the Spirit that first Pentecost.
The key to recovery from crisis for any
church, and persistence through it too for that matter, is to consciously
embrace the patient grace of God and reflect that back into the fellowship.
D. Be patient with everyone, v.
14d
“be
patient with everyone.”
Patience
or long-suffering is often attributed to God Himself in the Old Testament.
And also in all of Paul’s letters (see
Romans 2:4 or 9:22)
And it is a fruit of the Spirit that all
believers are exhorted to cultivate: 1 Corinthians 13:4 and Galatians 5:22 come
to mind.
Ignatius encourages Polycarp m(and by
extension other church leaders) to embrace it consciously in the second century
in this way:
“bear with all people, erven as the Lord bears with you;
endure all in love, just as you now do … If you love [only the] good disciples,
it is no credit to you”
Now THERE’s a point!
And here’s the next of
Paul’s staccato injunctions to the body of Christ in Thessalonica, that really
puts the point on what the apostolic crew are trying to get across here ... v. 15 is all about showing grace.
E. Show GRACE, v. 15
Grace comes
here in negative and positive format …
i.
Negatively
“Make
sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong”
If the Lord, Who is entitled to do so, had pursued a path of
vengeance with us, where would we be?
It was His grace that took His justice to the Son, as the
Godhead bore the penalty of its wrath against US … who had no claim upon such
grace.
Paying back wrong for wrong is decisively by His grace to,
precluded for us.
Even under the harshest of experiences or persecutions,
paying back wrong for wrong is natural ... but precluded by the Gospel.
Now, positively, the letter comes to the flip side of the coin as
encouragement grows out of admonition … and here again the apostles seem to be
teaching the point about admonition and encouragement by their example:
ii.
Positively
“but
always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.”
There’s a really helpful pastoral way Paul
puts this in Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome
evil with good.”
Now I find that, personally, helpful - because
when you’re recently wronged you feel positively pumped and you need a channel
to direct that pumped up energy into rather than being told passively not to do
something (like, get even) …
This verse suggests instead of sitting and
seething we might want to consider how to get out there and positively direct
our energies into overcoming evil with good.
And now comes the bit … having addressed
all these other relationships … which is about how the Thessalonian church should take
care of their relationship directly with God.
Here it becomes absolutely punchy staccato stuff.
IV. The Triune God, vv. 16-22
“Rejoice always, 17 pray
continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
A. Do HIS will, v. 18b, which
means ...
Here’s the fundamental change that takes
place when any individual is given faith and repents … there’s a change in
whose will it is that takes charge of the life.
What happens when a person turns to Christ is that the will that is in charge becomes a different one.
That's repentance.
And again here, then, what the Apostles are calling for here for is the application of the Gospel to life ... the application of repentance: change your will.
If I were to say to a farmer ‘the public
wants you to do THIS on your farm’ the tendency is still to respond: ‘yes and
so what?’
It’s the same if I say to a neighbour ‘I
want you to do this in your garden’ – they are perfectly entitled to
tell me that I can sling my hook!
But what’s happened for the Christian is that
they’ve repented … had a change of mind and life … and their will is not the
primary force now in their life.
The Christian’s will hasn’t been
extracted, of course, which CAN cause trouble!
But the Christian’s will after the repentance
born of faith is to follow the will of the Master.
And in hard times the will of God can be
harder to embrace … just imagine how challenging what the apostolic team come
out with next would be in the Thessalonians grief-struck, question riddled
persecution context …
God for God's will for you (firstly) in your personal spiritual life.
a) In your personal spiritual life (vv. 16-18)
1. Rejoice always, v. 16
Grumbling comes easily to humans.
It is natural, it is often what we really
feel like.
This verse directs us to seize the
initiative and set about the business of rejoicing.
It’s a discipline – a spiritual discipline
– not a natural habit, to rejoice always.
It’s not faking to set about doing something you should do.
It's not faking to set about fulfilling what the Bible tells us is the will
of God for us.
Rejoicing is not for air headed
lightweights … it is a thing God wants these pressurised believers at Thessalonica
to bash on with … to go and do!
How about it?
Put it firmly on your inner life agenda!
2. Pray continually, v. 17
God WANTS this - this is hte will of God for you!
A good translation might be:
“pray without fail” (Gk) adialeiptōs proseuchesthe
When the pressure comes on, do you ever
find your mind running too fast or your response to the crisis making you go
out and do things … to react?
Don’t let the pressures cause your
prayer-life to fail!
3. Give
thanks in all circumstances v. 18a
That phrase ‘in all circumstances’ is a
tough one and doesn’t give itself to being easily diluted.
It DOES say give thanks in ALL circumstances.
But circumstances do not rule Christians’
lives.
God does, and that makes all the
difference.
Think on this:
What you did in the Thessalonians previous
pagan life when things were tough and you
wanted to know what to do or what was going on was to consult an oracle, a
diviner or a sooth-sayer for guidance.
In their Christian lives now the contrast is stark!
You rejoice in His goodness, you pray over
your troubles and the troubles of others and give thanks for the good He has
shown you … all the while trusting in God to work out the hardships in your
life and the consequences of living for Him by faith.
Nijay Gupta (coming from a very different non-Western
experience) writes: “A prayerful disposition places God at the centre of
life and knowing His sovereignty (i.e. that He reigns over all things) and His
presence (through the Spirit of Jesus) can and should produce joy and inspire
thanksgiving.”
THAT is the difference that Christ makes.
And that all seems to lead
into a consideration of the corporate aspects of life in the Spirit as Paul
turns to negative and blunt direct injunctions …
b) In your life in the Spirit in Church (vv. 19-22)
Here is God’s will now for
your shared life together in church, say Paul and his team
“Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not treat prophecies with contempt
but test them all;
hold on to what is good,
reject every kind of evil.”
1 Thessalonians 5:19-22
If it is by the Spirit you
live and are strengthened to deal with and live your lives, if it is the Holy
Spirit Who is now the One Who mediates your ongoing relationship with God (the
Lord Jesus having returned physically to Glory) … then you REALLY mustn’t
stifle the Spirit and His communication with you on the part of the One Triune
God.
Neither by taking on board what purports to be speaking to the Church through propcies when HE ISN'T, nor on the other hand stifling the Spirit's genuine direct communication with you when that comes.
So do not stifle the Spirit by either taking onboard thoughtlessly what
purports to be the Spirit addressing the church when it isn’t, nor stifle the
Spirit’s genuine direct communication when that comes to you as a Church.
Tantalisingly the apostolic
team gives us absolutely no more detail here … it’s just the principle they are
stating … and that has to be filled in from other passages of Scripture: how to work out whether this is actually God speaking to you or not.
And then they go straight to
the conclusion of their injunctions by reprising the big picture of what God
wants for His church in the exemplary prayer they now pray over the Thessalonians
…
V. Conclusion: What God wants for
His Church, vv. 23-24
“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. 24 The one who calls you
is faithful, and he will do it.”
Do you know … I think that’s SO important we will need to look at those
verses next time but for the moment, please notice this.
The apostolic team have set these priorities for the Thessalonians
relationships so that their church – which is what practically feds and
sustains their spiritual lives – will itself be resilient and thrive in the
hostile environment it finds itself in.
But at the end of the day the team acknowledges that the church will
itself be strong and resilient and thrive … and as a result the Thessalonians
will be strong and resilient and thrive when God Himself is active in them
sanctifying them through and through.
And so they pray … CONFIDENT that God will use the means the Apostles
have called the Thessalonians adopt to this end … because “The one
who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”
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