Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Okay, so you guys can go now to first Thessalonians 5.
[00:00:06] We're going to start in verse 12 and read and talk about the rest of the chapter.
[00:00:17] And we'll just read it all at the beginning here. First Thessalonians 5, 12, 28.
[00:00:24] 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.
[00:00:37] And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
[00:00:49] 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 under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
[00:01:33] While preparing for this sermon, I was watching something called the Masters.
[00:01:39] This is a yearly golf tournament that Katie and I enjoy, a lot of people enjoy, and you should try it out. The Masters is awesome, and there's a lot of reasons to like it, even above other golf tournaments, because the golf course itself is beautiful. The tradition of the tournament and the club is just magnificent. It's so fun to learn more facts about the course and the history of it all.
[00:02:09] And I really do think the popularity of it does come back ultimately to Augusta National Golf Club. See, they take such care of this course.
[00:02:19] They take care of. They say they just take care of the environment. And that alone is what helps the grass and the flowers to grow beautifully with vibrant colors. They mow each hole from tee box to green so that there isn't stripes, but it's just one solid, beautiful layer of green. Each hole also, while looking uniform this way is unique with its own signature flower.
[00:02:45] See, they also don't even clutter the course with needless advertisements. They really just cherish the beauty of this course. And if you watch it, it really is something to behold. And that's aside from the golf, which, you know, I understand may not be the most popular sport among you, but it is a fun sport if you get into it. And again, just the tradition and the beauty and the perfection of this really is amazing. What their crew does is incredible. They keep it up year round. Even now as the tournament's over, they're already preparing for next April because it has to be perfect. They care about perfection. And this got me thinking about this text that thinking about how God cares about your perfection even more than the crew at Augusta national cares about the perfection of their grass and their flowers and the environment.
[00:03:42] And we believe as Christians that every Christian will ultimately be perfected when they meet the Lord. But in this life we're ever climbing and pursuing such. So this is very central to what we do. If you're a Christian, every single day is this pursuit of perfection.
[00:04:01] We'll talk about how to think about this Biblically.
[00:04:04] We're finishing one Thessalonians. We'll continue in the second letter next week and I think we'll see a lot of actually continuity between the two letters. But let's recap one more time before we move on to the next letter. Paul, Silas, or Silvanus and Timothy writing this letter to their beloved church in Thessalonica after being chased out by an angry mom. The Thessalonians, even though they've endured intense persecution, they have stayed true to the faith. Through it all, they've been faithful to obey Jesus and the apostles every step of the way. They must continue to do that, though, and they need to continue to do it more and more as they continue to pursue sanctification, this perfection that we're talking about, this holiness that the Lord gives us the ability to pursue and ultimately GR grants to us when we meet him.
[00:05:00] And then the last couple of weeks we kind of turned into how Paul was addressing them and how they should live their lives. He's giving them more practical applications. So he's talking about how they must live pure lives, avoiding sexual immorality. He told them how they must be public Christians, being light in their community.
[00:05:19] He also told them they must look to the return of the Lord Jesus with hope. This should give them great hope. And then finally we get to this closing part of the letter, which we just read through. And I think if we're not careful, we're tempted to read this as kind of just a random conglomeration of commands. Here's just a bunch of Christiany commands that we've slapped on to the end of this letter because, hey, you know, they're Good. All Christians should do these things. You know, that's true. But Paul and the missionaries, they're not just closing off this letter with an insincere and an impersonal charge like you just sign something at the end of your email. Sincerely, best regards. But you're not really thinking much about it. It's not like that. They're also not trying to meet a word count or a page count on an essay. They're wrapping up this letter in a beautiful little bow that encapsulates and represents so many of the themes that we see all throughout. And I hope you guys will see that as we go. So I challenge you to look for some of these repeating themes like perseverance, church life, life in the local, church life in the public, in the community, with your neighbors. Look also for themes of awaiting the coming of the Lord. All four of these, I think, will be present in this passage.
[00:06:44] And remember, the Thessalonians had been taught this before. They're faithfully practicing it, and Paul is calling them to do it more and more. That's why the theme of these letters is Excel Still More in faithfulness, for this is God's will.
[00:07:00] In all these commands, I hope to show you how they relate to one another and the purpose for which these missionaries are writing. Now, the main idea for this particular passage is Christians must be sanctified in every way. Christians must be sanctified in every way, for it is God who sanctifies them.
[00:07:22] Christians must be sanctified in every way, for it is God who sanctifies them.
[00:07:27] Now, twice in this main idea, we have the word sanctify. I believe we defined this maybe even last week, but we want to remember. This is one of those big churchy words. It's easy to think I kind of know what it means, but really forget.
[00:07:41] So if you don't remember or if you're wrong, write it down. To be sanctified means to be made holy. To be made holy, to be made perfect, to be without sin, blameless. That is what it means to be sanctified.
[00:07:56] And the four points of the sermon are really ways that they, and therefore us. So the Thessalonians and us can be completely sanctified.
[00:08:07] That's point number one. The church respects her leaders, so we should respect our church leaders as well.
[00:08:15] The church respects her leaders. Look again, verse 12. 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. So first, we want to respect our leaders. Now, who I'm calling leaders, the missionaries, the authors are calling laborers, admonishers, and people who are over them, some sort of authority.
[00:08:42] And I'm calling them church leaders because all three of these descriptors refer to the same group of people.
[00:08:48] And I'm not just making this up, but grammatically, that's how it works. There's. There's one relative pronoun. We see those who this who. Who is the who. Well, then there are these three. These are called participles. Maybe you guys remember this from your grammar classes or English classes. These need to be attached to something, and they're all attached to this who. So those who labor among you are over you and admonish you are all one group of people. They're not three different types of people. They are one group group of people, because they're all coming back to that same word.
[00:09:22] Now, who are these people? Well, first we see that they labor among them. So in this context, since these are people who are also over them, and not just over them generally, but over them in the Lord, we can know Paul doesn't mean just to respect people who are hard workers. Now, yeah, we can respect people who are hard workers, but that's not what he's saying, to respect hard laborers.
[00:09:46] He's talking about a specific kind of work, really a spiritual work that we see elsewhere in Scripture. This labor is often used in reference to the labor that's required of pastor elders, those that preach and teach the word of God. And I think this is who he's referring to, at least partly because in first Timothy 5:17, so first Timothy 5:17, when Paul, one of the authors, is writing to Timothy, another one of the authors of this letter, he says, let the elders. So this is also pastors. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. So often we see this word labor being associated with the work of pastors.
[00:10:31] So I think that's who we're talking about. Therefore, the Thessalonian church members, and even today church members in general, should honor their pastors. They should honor their elders, and they should especially honor and respect those who labor in preaching and teaching the Word.
[00:10:49] Next, this group of people are over them in the Lord. So they. They have an authority in the church. So again, this is helping us understand that he is talking about the. The pastors or the elders of this church, the same people in charge of teaching them naturally have an authority.
[00:11:07] And that makes sense because if you teach the Bible, you are being authoritative. We don't always connect those. But if, you know, for example, if I'm standing up here and I'm saying, this is what this means, this is what God's word is telling you, and this is what it means for your life, then I'm exercising a type of authority, especially if a pastor who really has an authority. I have as much of an authority in the church. The elders and pastors have a biblical authority. They're telling you, this is what it means. This is what it means for your life. That is an authority that's important. They're interpreting the word for you.
[00:11:44] So again, it makes sense that these people are together. And then third, this group admonishes the church.
[00:11:50] Admonishes, kind of know what this means? Probably, but you don't use it often. I'm guessing.
[00:11:56] A Greek scholar named A.T. robertson. He points out that admonishes is a combination of two Greek words which combine to communicate this. He says it means putting sense into the heads of people. Putting sense into the heads of people. And he goes on saying, a thankless but a necessary task. I think that's, well, putting sense into the heads of people. Again, our pastors and elders should be the prime examples of doing this. Yes, we kind of do this for each other. And people older in the faith do this for us. They admonish us. But ultimately, those who are teaching the Word to us do this. And so we should esteem them highly. Think of how a young child esteems his or her parents, you know, really young children, you know, before they grow up and they're too cool for their parents. They really love their parents. They laugh and play with their mom. They run to the door when dad comes home. They esteem their parents so highly. Now, we don't want to be immature and kind of like run to Brian when he walks in the door, but we should esteem them very highly because they pray for us, they teach us, they think around the clock about how to make church life biblical and healthier for our sake. So we should love and esteem them highly. So even now, this is something you should do right now. Write down one or two ways that you can pray for or serve at least one of our pastors right now. One or two ways you can pray for or serve one of our pastors.
[00:13:40] So write that down and do it. You could even just approach one and say, thank you for what you do. I think that goes a long way. This is the first way that they and we can be sanctified by respecting our church leaders.
[00:13:55] Number 2.2. The church loves one another.
[00:13:59] The church loves one another.
[00:14:02] 13 part. Halfway through 13 we see. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak and be patient with all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
[00:14:20] So just like the first point, all of the points in this passage are directed at the church. That's why the way I've worded the four main points involves the church doing something.
[00:14:33] Because this is written to a local church. It's written to a group of people that should do these things together.
[00:14:40] So a local church. Just to be clear, we often don't know how to define church, but we should if we are members of 1. A local church is a group of Christians who have intentionally joined together. Sorry, there's an intentional joining together. We're not just randomly. We ran into each other and now we're a church. They've intentionally joined together and gather every Sunday or the Lord's Day for the preaching of the Word and the correct practice of baptism in the Lord's Supper. That's the, you know, a traditional way of saying it. What that really means is that there's a membership. Baptism is an entrance into church membership. And we renew and understand and see this when we take the supper together and when someone is disciplined or the Word is excommunicated there taken the supper. So it's really marking off who is in the church or not. That's what a church is. And so we should remember this and remember that all these commands are directed at that an intentional group of people coming together to practice these means of grace, preaching and praying and singing regularly.
[00:15:49] And so all of these commands are in the church. So first we should seek peace in the church. Specifically, the grace of Jesus Christ should breed peacefulness and unity.
[00:16:04] Peace is part of the fruit of the Spirit. We see this attested through Scripture. While writing to the Philippians to be unified and humble, Paul tells them to count others more significant than themselves. Here he is saying to seek peace.
[00:16:21] And in Philippians he points us to an example of this. He shows us how Jesus does this perfectly.
[00:16:28] Jesus emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.
[00:16:42] Now this can be really difficult, but in the local church, even if we may not particularly be buddy, buddy or like everyone, the same we're called to love everyone and love them with the love that Jesus has for his people, the love that had the Son of God put on flesh and become the form of a servant.
[00:17:06] This is the type of love we should have.
[00:17:09] And one way to love others and to keep peace and to pursue peace.
[00:17:15] Verse 15. Obey it.
[00:17:18] See that no one repays evil for evil, that is vengeance. Don't seek revenge. Don't try to get somebody back. That's a selfish way to think of conflict. Instantly thinking I gotta even the score or one up them or get back at them. This is an immature and childish way for us to deal with others.
[00:17:38] Life in the church should be totally others focused, not self centered. Focusing on others. So instead of thinking about yourself, how you feel, what you think, what you want, you should think of how others feel.
[00:17:54] Seek to do them good.
[00:17:57] It's quite simple.
[00:17:59] You know the concept. But isn't it so difficult? We need God's help with this. And it also takes just intentional thinking. You will have to intentionally decide, I'm going to consider others and stop thinking about myself. The default is to think of yourself, but we should think of others.
[00:18:22] In verse 14, it's helpful in reminding us that loving other members of the church is also going to come in different forms. We can love people differently. Not everyone needs the same thing. So here's some examples that he gives. First, Christians should admonish the idol, right? We, we see that in verse 14. Admonish the idol. Now some of you might read that differently. So look at your. If you have a different translation, you might want to look down. Maybe it says admonish the undisciplined or warn those who are irresponsible.
[00:18:56] Some translations say admonish the unruly.
[00:19:00] So these are kind of. I don't know if you're noticing, these are pretty different words. So are we supposed to admonish or warn lazy people or unruly people or disorderly people? What is it?
[00:19:14] Well, I'll tell you, a lot of ink has been spilled debating this very topic.
[00:19:20] And in summary, it's referring to a rebellious laziness.
[00:19:26] A rebellious laziness. The church is supposed to be active in the faith, right? That's been a theme. We've seen this constantly. They need to be active in the faith, growing and pursuing holiness more and more. But some of them are not.
[00:19:40] This is a reminder that laziness is not a passive sin.
[00:19:45] Laziness is not the absence of doing something good. You are actively rebellion against. We're rebelling against God's command to do the good works he's appointed for us to do. You might remember this, we talked about this in Proverbs 24, 33, 34. You can look that up at a later time. But we see how there, how laziness can be a trap, it can be destructive, it is an active evil. It's not just the absence of doing something. And what Paul does here by using this word is he's beautifully communicating this idea that this is laziness, but it is serious and it's an active sin that we need to admonish and rid ourselves from.
[00:20:32] So Christians should admonish the idols. Second, we see that Christians should encourage the faint hearted.
[00:20:39] This would have been especially needed in this church, right? This church that has endured such difficulties and persecutions, many of them still very weary and tired in their hearts in church. Now, the Thessalonians, they, they for the most part knew they were all dealing with persecution in various forms. But in the church, we don't always know what others are going through. Especially a church of our size. Frankly, it's impossible to know intimately what everyone is going through at every given moment.
[00:21:12] But whatever the case, students, be aware that when you sing with others and when you sit with others, when you speak with others, when you make eye contact with others, when you pass them in the aisle or in the hallway, you have the opportunity to be an encouragement to them.
[00:21:30] Small little gestures and conversations and words and looks do matter. We always have the opportunity to encourage the faint hearted. You don't know always who the faint hearted is.
[00:21:45] Third, Christians should help the weak.
[00:21:48] As you grow in the faith, you should look for those who are younger or weaker in the faith and seek to build them up to pass on some of what you have learned. You don't have to be an expert in everything, but if you know a little more, you can pass that on and help others grow in Christ in this way of discipleship.
[00:22:09] So offer to do this with someone, and if you're not comfortable, ask someone older than you to help you prepare for such discipleship. Again, the Thessalonians needed this, as all churches really need this encouragement. Then fourth, and finally, Christians should be patient with all, be patient with all, be patient and love others.
[00:22:34] The church survives and thrives when we love others well. And being patient is one of those ways.
[00:22:42] Point number three.
[00:22:44] Third way that the church can be sanctified together is the church worships rightly. We want to make sure we are worshiping rightly. It's not a free for all. When we come together for worship, we want to do what's right. So we see some interesting things about worship here. So starting in verse 16, 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, and abstain from every form of evil, our sanctification individually, so that is how we grow towards Christ. How we grow in holiness as an individual person affects what we do when we come together for worship.
[00:23:33] As every member of the body, if we want to be in good health, so the body as a whole is in good health. I believe that's the context of these verses. He's pointing out some things that they can do individually and together well, that they should grow.
[00:23:50] So the authors put three consecutive actions that they need to do always, because it's always good to do them right. I think it can be tempting for us to, you know, just read these. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. But I want us to slow down and think about them.
[00:24:07] Now. These are great verses to memorize. If you're trying to memorize a lot of verses, they're very short and very applicable. But let's think about them.
[00:24:17] Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.
[00:24:24] Do any of those as you hear them stick out to you as maybe something you're struggling in somewhere you are lacking?
[00:24:35] Maybe you feel convicted that while you are gloomy, you never rejoice, or you never pray, or maybe you complain all the time you don't give thanks.
[00:24:48] It's probably all the above to some extent. But you know what particularly sticks out and pursue Christ's help in obeying that further. And if you notice, I am pointing us as individuals to do this. Though I do think this pertains to when the church comes together for worship.
[00:25:08] Because what we do individually affects the body as a whole. But we can do these together as a church, we too should rejoice always. We can't forget to always be rejoicing.
[00:25:21] So when we come together, are you seeking joy? Are you seeking to rejoice all the time?
[00:25:30] You should be looking for reasons to rejoice. I think that's what he's telling us to do. As a church, we should be praying always, pray without ceasing. Now, when we come together as a church for worship, we have at least two substantial prayers in every service.
[00:25:48] I think we could even have more. That's not the point, really. The point is, how are you using them? What are you doing when someone's praying in church?
[00:25:59] How quickly does your mind go somewhere else when the prayer begins?
[00:26:05] How long are you actually engaged praying with that guy that's leading?
[00:26:11] This command is for you to pay attention and pray alongside whoever is leading. We can do this and pray together every opportunity. And we can also apply this by finding time to pray when we get together with other church members throughout the week.
[00:26:29] Our fellowship and friendship can be normal, like normal people, but it should still be peppered with prayer. Prayer is so important to the Christian life and also as a church, we should give thanks. The church is a great opportunity for us to remember reasons that we can give thanks as we hear the good news of the Gospel week after week after week.
[00:26:55] And then verses 19 through 22 are also giving us, I think, one major command for church life and especially for the Thessalonians. See, at the time, there were Christians in those days prophesying and many also doing it falsely.
[00:27:13] So hearing a prophecy during a church meeting was very regular, very common at that time.
[00:27:21] And even today, I can affirm there are false prophets, people who prophesy falsely.
[00:27:28] But Paul's encouragement to the Thessalonians is to not quench the Spirit.
[00:27:34] What he is saying is, don't ignore the Spirit. The Spirit gifts people and does miraculous things. And what we don't want to do is push anything that could be the Spirit out. That's what he's telling them.
[00:27:50] The Holy Spirit is a gift to Christians, a gift to the church. The indwelling of God himself to help us be sanctified and to help us find our way in church life. This is. It's so important.
[00:28:05] He equips Christians also with gifts in order to better serve and love one another in the church.
[00:28:12] So the Thessalonians shouldn't quench the Spirit and just deny everybody? He's saying they should what?
[00:28:19] Test everything.
[00:28:22] Test it.
[00:28:23] Don't just throw it all aside, but to test it.
[00:28:28] They shouldn't disregard anyone who offers a prophecy, but they should evaluate them. So how should they evaluate them? From what we understand scripturally, there are basically three ways. Three tests, three questions.
[00:28:41] First, does the prophecy build up and encourage the church?
[00:28:46] Is it helpful or the word is edifying? Is it a helpful prophecy?
[00:28:53] If it's not, this is a false prophet.
[00:28:56] Does the prophecy contradict the Scripture in any way? This one seems obvious. If it contradicts the Scripture in any way, False prophet.
[00:29:05] Does the prophecy come from a person of good character? Yes, this really does matter. It must.
[00:29:12] If the prophet's life is a giveaway, he's a false prophet.
[00:29:18] Now we don't see this every day, right? I haven't been at this church that long. When's the last time you guys had someone come in and offer a prophecy during a worship service?
[00:29:27] Probably not seen one. And that's normal.
[00:29:31] I don't think we necessarily see people walking around and carrying this gift with them day to day. Although this is debatable topic. The point is I think we can more appropriately apply these same tests to preaching to our teachers.
[00:29:48] Is this preaching building up the church or is it causing division?
[00:29:54] Does this preaching contradict the scripture? It better not.
[00:29:59] Does the preaching come from a man of good character? I hope so. We don't want people in the pulpit, especially our pastors, to not be qualified as pastors so we can do this. And this preaching really is more of a modern day prophesying as preachers are opening the word and explaining what God's word means, much as a prophecy is trying to do to explain what God is saying.
[00:30:25] So this is how we can do this and have a rightly ordered worship filled with rejoicing and thanksgiving and prayer.
[00:30:34] Point number four that Paul gives us is that the church is sanctified together.
[00:30:39] The final way we can be sanctified is to be sanctified together.
[00:30:45] Let's look again and remind ourselves of these last several verses. 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.
[00:30:59] 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 under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. The grace of the Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
[00:31:15] Everything we've gone through so far are specific ways that the Thessalonians and we should be sanctified, made holy or perfect.
[00:31:25] We discussed this actually, I think a few weeks and specifically in my small group, we discussed that Christians should really be thinking about sanctification all the time.
[00:31:41] But do, I mean, do you really? Who thinks about sanctification all the time? Nobody. Maybe you, maybe you do, but we should be. John MacArthur said this and this is how we came on the idea. John MacArthur said, Now sanctification should be your preoccupation. You should be preoccupied with it all the time. As a believer so this is for Christians, if you're a believer, the election is done, justification is done, and glorification is coming, and you're living in the middle between justification, that means when you're declared innocent, and glorification, which is heaven. And the preoccupation of every believer must be sanctification, that is the separation from sin becoming increasingly holy. The kind of evangelicalism or Christianity that we see so popular today has, in MacArthur's judgment, a very low view of sanctification. It doesn't seem to be particularly preoccupied. No one seems to be particularly preoccupied with sanctification at all. It's perfectly content to accept divine sovereign election. It's very happy to accept the doctrine of justification. It looks forward to glorification in heaven, but it has a very minimal, nominal, indifferent attitude towards sanctification. I think he's right.
[00:33:08] If you're a Christian, then your whole life until you die, or until the Lord comes, like we talked about last week, which with the shout of the archangel and the trumpets of heaven, your whole life is sanctification. That's all it is. That should be our preoccupation.
[00:33:28] In fact, it's really not even proper to say, oh, I was saved, or I was saved on such and such a day. Yes, you can say that. But technically, salvation is referring to this entire process from the time when God foreknew and predestined you before the foundation of the earth, all the way until he comes again to glorify you. That is redemption. That's salvation. And where we're at, there are different points. But if you've come to Christ, you are at this sanctification point. Once you're converted to Christ, the rest of your life is pursuing him, but you're called to pursue him your whole life, because God cannot dwell with anyone who is not perfect.
[00:34:18] He cannot dwell with imperfection and with sin.
[00:34:23] But now that leads us to ask, in the end, if God cannot dwell with impurity, and we cannot ever fully grasp that sanctification in this life, what happens?
[00:34:39] It's a problem. We can never attain it, but he requires it.
[00:34:44] Paul says in verse 23, the God of peace himself sanctifies you completely.
[00:34:50] He ultimately completes the work. And he, the Spirit, walks and works alongside you as you seek it in this life, so he accomplishes it for you and and then helps you to pursue it.
[00:35:05] But either when you die or when Christ returns, God finishes up the process totally. He will make you truly blameless, something that is only able to be accomplished because Christ himself was blameless his death on the cross is a sacrifice that takes the place of everyone who believes in Jesus. So if you only trust him, his blamelessness is credited to you. It becomes yours. You're credited with it now. And God will make it true of you then.
[00:35:43] You have it now. It'll be true of you then. And how can we trust this? He who calls you, that is, he who calls you to faith in Christ. He is faithful. He will surely do it.
[00:35:57] He will do it. He does it. Students, you can trust him to do that. He can sanctify you and sanctify you completely, something that you can never do. And in this life of being preoccupied with sanctification, we're constantly reminded of this reality that we've been saved by Christ. And it is not our ability that's ever going to get us there, but it's only going to be his work. It's only his work that saves us. But nonetheless, we must not quit. We can't stop and be idle and lazy. We shouldn't be faint hearted against sin. We should take heart and continue and persevere.
[00:36:37] Now, as we close this letter, this first letter to the Thessalonians, notice how he closes this. I don't want to skip over these last few verses.
[00:36:46] He says, if you know, of course we should pray for others. But he's saying he specifically is asking for prayer for them, for the missionaries. We too should pray for our missionaries. We should know who the missionaries connected with our church are if we don't. And we should pray for them probably on a routine basis.
[00:37:07] He says, well, he says they should kiss each other. But really what this is I talking about is greeting one another with love, loving each other, being kind to one another.
[00:37:21] Do you love others in the church? Really?
[00:37:25] Paul wanted to make sure also that the whole church heard this letter. Now, this is the common practice, but he wants to emphasize, make sure everyone hears this. And then finally, Paul wishes them grace from Jesus.
[00:37:41] The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And if you notice just a few verses earlier, he's talking about the God of peace.
[00:37:50] So in these last few verses, we can remember the beginning of this letter when he wished to them grace and peace, Grace and peace. These two significant realities of the Christian life that we only can have through the grace of God. We can only have peace with him through grace. It has come completely through the letter and is the beginning and the end point of it all.
[00:38:15] Grace from God that gives us peace with God. Let's reflect on that as we pray and get into our groups. Father God, we thank you for your word.
[00:38:26] And we pray that in these groups you would help us to understand the text better and to apply it to our own lives so that we can honor you, God. For those who don't know you, God, we ask that you would change their hearts. You would grant them faith and repentance that they too can be rescued and they can be sanctified and eventually sanctified completely at your coming. And, Lord, we pray this all in Christ Jesus name, Amen.
