Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Well, so now you can turn to Second Thessalonians, chapter three.
[00:00:11] This is the last chapter of first and second Thessalonians. Hope you guys have enjoyed our time in these two letters and hope you've kind of enjoyed studying them back to back and seeing how they're related. The similar themes helps us remember the context of what's happening at Thessalonica that we've gotten to study these together.
[00:00:30] And also I think, in my opinion, it is helpful to get to study these books in a relatively short amount of time. See, because we can hopefully, maybe with a little help, you can still remember the beginning, you can remember the context week by week and kind of the flow of what Paul has been trying to teach and remind these Christians of.
[00:00:50] So I hope that has been beneficial.
[00:00:53] You know, we've tried to go and take ourselves into 1st century Thessalonica so that we can see and imagine the persecution that these Christians actually would have felt from the fellow Jews and the other local Greeks in their city.
[00:01:09] This city of debauchery had then been infiltrated by the body of Jesus Christ.
[00:01:15] The devil sought to destroy this church by persecution and, and also by false teachings.
[00:01:21] Though we learned right away that these Thessalonican Christians were faithful. They had an authentic and genuine faith that was steadfast under persecution. Though despite their strong faith, because they were a new church, they were more susceptible to false teachings. I think that's why we see them kind of fall into some error when it comes to the day of the Lord, as they believed it had already come.
[00:01:50] So even as Paul, he then encourages them to increase in faith and love, acknowledging that they already were practicing faith and love. Something he saw because of these false teachings was he wanted them to grow in hope. So we've seen him encourage the three main Christian faith, hope and love, but particularly hope. As we focused last week, we want to bring up these past things we've talked about because these issues and different questions in the book are related as some sins lead to more sins. You probably know this personally, how one sin you commit might lead to another. And on and on it goes.
[00:02:29] And so there's a connection. A lack of hope in the day of the Lord, I think leads us right into the problem of chapter three, apathy and idleness with a lack of hope.
[00:02:41] These people or some of them did nothing and intentionally did nothing.
[00:02:47] And so this is not a new theme. I think we might remember this from First Thessalonians. In fact, in First Thessalonians 4, 11, 12, Paul wrote to them, to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and. And be dependent on no one.
[00:03:10] So we'll read in this final chapter a more detailed correspondence about that same issue that he hinted at there.
[00:03:18] And as we'll see, it's evident that the idleness and the apathy between first and second Thessalonians did not improve. It may have even gotten worse with the continuous spread of the erroneous teaching that the day of the Lord had already passed.
[00:03:34] As we do this again, I think we want to remember the theme of these letters so that in the future you can pick up these letters and remember what the theme is and read with that in mind, which is to excel still more in faithfulness.
[00:03:49] That is the theme. They had been faithful. It's not a stinging rebuke like we see in other letters, like Galatians, but at the same time, he's encouraging growth and sanctification, something we can appreciate that no matter who we are, no matter what Christian, no matter how apparently great a Christian is, he or she can still excel more, can grow more and more in different areas.
[00:04:15] And this is crucial because this is the life of each local church from beginning to end. We journey onward. We battle sin. We do all this together. We seek growth and sanctification and. And spiritual health.
[00:04:30] Whenever there's an issue, then that means we don't brush it aside or put it under the rug. We don't hide it, but we confront it. And so Paul refuses to let this congregation make that fatal error, saying, well, there's a few people that are idle and lazy. Let's just kind of ignore them and put it to the side.
[00:04:48] No, he says, we need to address this now.
[00:04:51] So the main idea of second Thessalonians 3, Christ is faithful.
[00:04:58] Christ is faithful.
[00:05:00] So the church must be faithful by avoiding idleness and disciplining one another. I think I may have timed discipling. It's not that bad of an error. They are very related. So you can put discipling, disciplining. So Christ is faithful. So the church must be faithful by avoiding idleness and disciplining one another.
[00:05:20] Point number one is the first kind of section. It's obey. Generally.
[00:05:26] Look at chapter three.
[00:05:29] Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you. Now we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and and will do the things that we command.
[00:05:51] May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
[00:05:57] So here we get some more general applications.
[00:06:00] Now you might recall from first Thessalonians when we got to chapter four, at that point Paul switched from some background, more foundational matters into application and a bunch of commands and exhortations.
[00:06:14] He did that by saying, finally, brothers. So we see the exact same thing here. So we can kind of see the form of these letters are so similar. So he has done this background and some important issues, but now he really wants to turn more application to them. He wants to give them some charges as a church to obey.
[00:06:34] And so he starts with these more general commands before he gets specific in the next section of chapter three, which will read in a bit.
[00:06:41] But first he asks for prayer. We've seen Paul pray for them and talk about how he prays for them a number of times, but here he's actually telling them to pray for us. That is the authors, the people I've been referring to as the missionaries, Paul, Sylvanus or Silas and Timothy, he's asking for prayer for them.
[00:07:02] And this is something we should understand because praying for missionaries is a good thing, easily applicable for us. In fact, we try to do that frequently here as a church because missionaries do such an important work for Jesus in helping take the gospel where it is not known.
[00:07:19] So see how Paul, when he asks for prayer, he kind of understands that there is great urgency to what we call the missionary task. There's a great urgency because related to what he was just talking about with the Day of the Lord, we do not know when Christ is returning.
[00:07:37] And we know that those who die not in Christ without faith in him, perish for eternity.
[00:07:44] And so the Word of the Lord must go out, but not just anyway, it must speed ahead.
[00:07:51] It must go out urgently, quickly.
[00:07:55] Let's quickly get the Gospel and God's Word to people that need it.
[00:08:01] But we should be careful. This doesn't mean we carelessly do it. And since anybody and everybody, we want to be careful, but we ought not delay.
[00:08:12] Maybe missions is something that some of you have considered before and thought about. Maybe that could be something in your future, maybe you haven't.
[00:08:21] Whatever the case, you should be preparing even now. And yeah, I do mean even if you have never thought that doing these things is not going to be harmful for you, but especially if you have considered that for yourself, you want to prepare. So you can prepare by growing in Christ and being spiritually disciplined. But also you can start by praying for missionaries and also praying for the nations that those missionaries are in. You know, there are a number of missionaries that we support as a church by going to them and praying for them. And so you can get to know stuff about them, about the countries and contexts they're in so that you can grow a heart for the nations and you can be praying and start to maybe personally have more buy in for those people that are abroad.
[00:09:10] They need prayer. And if you do go as a missionary, one day you too will need prayer, because no missionary can change a heathen's heart.
[00:09:21] Only God can do that. And so they need our prayers.
[00:09:26] Paul says not all have faith, but we can also know that not all will have faith, as any missionary can tell you.
[00:09:34] But remember that Christ is faithful to call to Himself those whom he has set apart.
[00:09:40] He is faithful to gather his people from all nations. He has said he will do as much. We know that there will be people of all nations who worshiping him in eternity.
[00:09:51] So even as missionaries share the gospel widely because not all have faith, Christians that are not missionaries should live in the same reality, right? So none of us in here, I don't think, or at least by maybe a narrow definition, are missionaries. But every born again Christian in the room, everybody that's in Christ is called to help the word of the Lord speed ahead.
[00:10:15] This is something we should be doing even here.
[00:10:18] But if you've shared the gospel, then you probably know that not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful.
[00:10:26] And when gospel ministry wears you out, you need what these Christians needed. What did these Christians need? They needed the Lord to, it says, establish and guard them against the evil one.
[00:10:41] See, Satan looks for a foothold.
[00:10:44] And when we're tired and worn out and discouraged from the Christian life or difficult ministry and ministering and missions contexts, that's when he wants to strike.
[00:10:56] That's another reason to pray for your missionaries as they're vulnerable to this, because when you're low, you're vulnerable. So when you are low, you must cling to Christ.
[00:11:07] You must even seek prayer, like the great apostle Paul is doing here, asking for prayer from these Christians for protection against the evil one.
[00:11:17] And also in this kind of general application section at the beginning of this chapter, we see again the heart of these two letters.
[00:11:27] We see him say, we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command.
[00:11:35] They're confident because the Thessalonians have been faithful. They are doing what they've been taught, and at the same time, they're expected to do it more and more and to progress in holiness from one degree of glory to another, to reflect the image of their Savior.
[00:11:53] That's why Paul prays for their hearts. He prays for their hearts to be directed to something so their obedience will be empty if their hearts are not filled by two things, namely, the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.
[00:12:11] Without these things, their obedience is just actions. He wants their hearts to be filled with the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.
[00:12:20] And we should maybe take a moment and understand what these phrases mean.
[00:12:26] They might seem straightforward, but what is the love of God? Because the love of God, that phrase could mean God's love for the Thessalonians, or it could mean the Thessalonians love for God. You take a second, think about that. See what I'm saying? Love of God, God's love for them. Or it could be the Thessalonians, love of God.
[00:12:47] Well, there's a lot of ink that's been spilled debating stuff like this, but based on the context, I think that Paul is motivating the Thessalonians to obey by pointing them toward how God loves them and how Christ is steadfast and endures forever.
[00:13:06] So knowing that God loves them and that Christ will endure with them through anything, they are ready to be commanded. Something more specific. They are ready for a difficult Christian journey and life because they know they always will have the love of God, God's love for them, and they will have a steadfast Christ by their side, and so they can obey.
[00:13:31] So point number two, then, is obey. Specifically.
[00:13:36] Now look at verse six.
[00:13:38] Now, we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who's walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.
[00:13:49] For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we are not idle when we are with you. Nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you.
[00:14:04] It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate.
[00:14:11] For even when we are with you, we would give you this command.
[00:14:15] If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
[00:14:18] For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies.
[00:14:25] Now, such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
[00:14:32] As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.
[00:14:38] So the sin of idleness came up in the first letter. And so let's take a moment to think about and try to remember what was established there.
[00:14:48] Well, we remember that idleness, laziness, is not a passive sin. It's not the absence of just doing something good. It is active rebellion against God. And we can link this idleness probably to the faulty beliefs about the Day of the Lord. So to summarize, to explain that some in the Thessalonian church are not working at all, even for their own food, which is kind of hard for us to imagine because they think the Lord has already come.
[00:15:19] They're kind of checked out. It's like the end of the school year. They are. They're mentally checked out. You know, it's over now. There's nothing else left to do. We're finished.
[00:15:29] But this obviously contradicts the teachings that Paul and the other missionaries had taught them there and had written about in the first letter.
[00:15:36] It's not right. It contradicts those instructions. In fact, if they were to walk or. Which also means to live. So if they were to live in accord with the tradition, as we read, they would be waiting for the day of the Lord by diligently working, not by doing nothing.
[00:15:53] They would be public Christians in their communities and in society, in the city, if they're following in accord with the tradition.
[00:16:02] Now, when I say tradition, just to be clear, tradition doesn't always have to mean just something that you do year by year. As a tradition, tradition can also mean a long established belief that has been passed on from one generation to another.
[00:16:17] So the tradition he's talking about is the beliefs and teachings that he has received from the Lord and that the apostles are passing down to the churches, who will pass down to new Christians that are converted in those churches, and on and on and on as churches are planted and people are converted until even this very day. That is the tradition he's referring to. Now, I think it's interesting that Paul and the missionaries also, they, if you look, they literally molded their lifestyle to benefit the Thessalonians.
[00:16:49] So as an apostle and a minister of the Gospel, we see here and even in other texts in the New Testament, that he was entitled to payment.
[00:16:59] It's common for, you know, even today, pastors aren't typically paid by the church. So Paul certainly was entitled to some payment.
[00:17:09] But he thought it was more important to set an example for them rather than be paid. So he was not idle. It said he and Silas and Timothy worked as often as possible just so they could eat.
[00:17:27] He didn't want to burden them, and he wanted to set an example of what a diligent Christian life looks like.
[00:17:34] He did this with toil and labor, and this is, I think, a remarkable show of his love, how much he's willing to lay down his rights for the sake of others.
[00:17:45] Now, I think this is something important that seems obvious, but it's hard to live out. But Paul was modeling it for them.
[00:17:52] The Christian life is hard.
[00:17:56] It's hard.
[00:17:57] And we can say that without also saying you have to build your own way and construct your own stairs to heaven and earn up enough merits so that you can get your way all the way up to the gates of heaven or whatever. That's not what we're saying. But it is difficult.
[00:18:16] It is costly.
[00:18:18] It puts you under a spotlight.
[00:18:21] Everyone looks at you and you are now a representation of Christ. You are a light to a dark world. The lost look at you and for better or for worse, say, okay, Jesus must have been like that person.
[00:18:36] Your life really does represent him.
[00:18:40] And so when we are idle and lazy, we actually profane the work that Christ did.
[00:18:48] We are bad representatives when we're idle and lazy because Christ's works saved sinners. But our lack of work distracts from his perfect work.
[00:19:01] So when you have to do something, maybe it's around the house like a chore, you should do it with all your effort and with a joyful heart, just as Christ did His works.
[00:19:12] When you have to do anything you don't want to, whether it's an assignment or something else, do it with all your effort and with a joyful heart, just as Christ did His works.
[00:19:24] For those of you that work, when you clock in at your job, do your job, even if it's stacking boxes or something that feels meaningless. And do that with all your heart and with a joyful heart, just as Christ did His works.
[00:19:40] He didn't give half effort in what he did. No, he was perfect in what he did. His works were complete.
[00:19:49] And in the case then, of blatant and willful sin in this area, Paul tells the church exactly what they should do.
[00:19:57] He says, the folks who are unwilling to work shall not eat.
[00:20:03] So now, difficult circumstances are not the same as idleness. He's not saying, don't, you know, be charitable to anybody who is in Need.
[00:20:11] There were people here intentionally not working, not looking for work, that were just freeloading and accepting charity and gifts from wealthier people, which is terrible. You know, you could imagine if you were to offer a beggar a job, maybe you own a business, you offer him a job and he says, no, I'd rather do this and just take. You know, you think that's ridiculous. That is not right. You should want to work for what you have.
[00:20:40] So Paul is saying, these busy bodies, these idle people, the freeloaders, quit feeding them.
[00:20:50] Stop. Give your money to and your possessions and your food to people who actually need it.
[00:20:58] Now, some of you have jobs, like we said a minute ago, do your job with good effort.
[00:21:05] Consider your work again to be a visible representation of your character and work ethic and the God you claim to serve.
[00:21:13] These idle people were not living and working to honor Christ.
[00:21:19] They weren't working at all.
[00:21:22] And God values hard work done with a joyful heart because again, all of Christ's work was done with joy. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus, he's the founder and perfecter of the faith, and that for the joy that was set before him, He. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He joyfully and obediently went to the cross and died for the sake of sinners.
[00:21:51] How then can a Christian who is saved by that very work, not work?
[00:21:58] And then more than just not doing anything? You know, we're talking about idleness. We see they were actually busy bodies.
[00:22:06] A 17th century theologian named Matthew Henry said the same persons who were idle were busybodies also.
[00:22:13] Most commonly, those persons who have no business of their own to do, or who neglect it, busy themselves in other men's matters.
[00:22:21] If we are idle, the devil will soon find us something to do.
[00:22:27] The mind of man is a busy thing. If it be not employed in doing good, it will be doing evil.
[00:22:34] I want to focus in on that phrase. If we are idle, the devil will soon find us something to do.
[00:22:42] I would write that down. If we are idle, the devil will soon find us something to do. I pray that we are all haunted by this phrase when we are being sinfully idle.
[00:22:56] If we are idle, the devil will find us something to do. This is why Proverbs 24:33 34 says, A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man.
[00:23:14] For those of you who have a smartphone like I have since I was young. I'd be willing to bet that when you find yourself bored or feeling lazy or not really doing anything, maybe you feel pulled to that device quite strongly.
[00:23:28] The more you sit there and stare and scroll, the stronger various temptations might appear.
[00:23:35] Now, the temptations often are temptations for sexual sin, but could also be temptations to judge others or to think poorly of yourself or any other number of possibilities that I cannot even imagine.
[00:23:50] But maybe you might not be drawn to your phone in those times, but what sin? I want you to reflect what sin draws you, what temptation calls to you in your idleness?
[00:24:01] And if you don't know, next time you find yourself sinning, think about it.
[00:24:06] What sin do you struggle with? And how often was that the result of you doing nothing?
[00:24:14] You know, you could be drawn by a number of things. It might be to pick back up that a bit too steamy book. Or you could be being called in temptation to get back on Xbox or PlayStation and play with those friends that drag you into ungodly conversations. Or maybe you're tempted to enter into inappropriate fantasies or other ungodly thoughts when you are idle and still.
[00:24:42] When we are idle and still. The devil's arsenal is vast.
[00:24:46] His bag is deep with a lot of tricks.
[00:24:50] So guard yourself with healthy activity and company, good company.
[00:24:56] See, the people in Thessalonica, in their idleness, were busybodies that pestered and bothered everybody.
[00:25:05] So, students, what temptations call to you in your idleness?
[00:25:10] Do not grow weary in doing good. As we read in verse 13. Do not grow weary in doing good. Yet another reason that the Church is so helpful. Because when we do grow weary, we can have brothers and sisters that can pick us up and energize us and help us to rest and to press on.
[00:25:32] Point number three now is obey the word.
[00:25:35] Obey the word.
[00:25:39] Picking up, reading in verse 14.
[00:25:42] If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed.
[00:25:49] Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Now, may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times, in every way. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine. It is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
[00:26:12] Sometimes people say that the Church imposes too much authority to the Bible.
[00:26:19] We assume that it's a bit. We take it too literally, apply it too closely to Our context.
[00:26:26] Now, these would be what are called theological liberals. And they'll say that the authors of the Bible, they didn't really intend for this, or the context is so different, we should really just focus on Jesus, focus on what Jesus said, not the rest of the Bible. Some of that's helpful, some of it not.
[00:26:42] Now, clearly, passages like this disprove such arguments.
[00:26:48] Flat out, Paul and the missionaries believed that this specific letter, Second Thessalonians, is the authoritative word of God.
[00:26:57] He is expecting them to listen and obey it, for it to be binding on them as a church.
[00:27:04] Now, in a similar vein, you also might hear Roman Catholics like to take credit for giving us the Bible. They say we gave you the Bible, but the Church did not really create the Bible. More than the Church just recognized the books that belonged in the Bible. And the Church that recognized the books that already belonged in the Bible was very different than the Roman Catholic Church of today.
[00:27:28] So no, they didn't give us the Bible. The Church recognized what books were being used and passed around and seen and viewed as the authoritative word of God. It was well understood that books like this very book, Second Thessalonians and the other 65 books were the word of God. And they were understood that way from the beginning of the Church.
[00:27:50] And so it's clear that both the authors and the recipients of these letters knew that they were handling God's word.
[00:27:59] Even First Thessalonians declares that Paul taught them not the word of man, but the word of God. And so again, he's saying that whatever we say in this letter, take note of the people that do not obey it and have nothing to do with them, because it is totally binding for Christians.
[00:28:18] If the Bible really is God's word like we say it is, then all of it is completely binding and authoritative to you in your life, even today.
[00:28:30] And that is crucial for us to know. It's crucial for the Thessalonians to know this early on in church history, if it wasn't this authoritative, then the Thessalonians would then have a choice whether to ignore this or obey it. And of course, that's ridiculous.
[00:28:45] Paul does not allow for that. If anyone disobeys this letter, the Church must have nothing to do with him. Now, this phrase had nothing to do with him. What is that? This is referring to the word that you may have heard called excommunication.
[00:28:59] Excommunication means to ex. No more have communion with somebody, to kick someone out of the communion of the Church.
[00:29:08] Excommunication. It is also the final straw of church discipline, or, as often called here, church accountability.
[00:29:16] Churches have always been called to discipline one another because the membership of the church, to the best of our ability, should only be Christians.
[00:29:25] Only Christians should be members of the church. So if someone's sins cause people to doubt his or her conversion, then the church should discipline that Christian. And this makes sense, because when we do sin, whenever any of you sin, myself included, what we're doing is we're calling into question, at least physically, to anyone looking onward, the genuineness of our heart and our faith.
[00:29:51] Now, it's not going away every time you sin, and then you need to regain your faith. That's not what's happening.
[00:29:57] But the way we live our lives proves our faith. The living and active faith proves a genuine faith, like the faith of the Thessalonians that stood fast through persecution.
[00:30:08] When we live in sin, habitual sin that we do not repent of, return from, or have remorse over, then we're showing that something is off in the heart. Now, when this happens, usually one member might start by approaching another member. So, for example, if I hear you gossiping about another member, then I should say that, hey, that is sin, and you should repent and confess to God and also confess to the person that you're harming.
[00:30:37] And if that's done, all is well. Because that's what Christians fall. We sin, we fail often. And so we must have a heart of repentance that turns from these sins and seeks to live closer to Christ.
[00:30:49] But sometimes, as is in this case in Second Thessalonians, someone is committing or has committed a grievous public sin. In this case, it's being busy bodies and divisive and lazy.
[00:31:02] Well, public sin like this, with a refusal to repent and follow Christ should help make us conclude that the Holy Spirit must not be convicting this person, helps us to see that perhaps the Holy Spirit is not in this person to convict him in the first place.
[00:31:18] So this is what Paul is saying. Look at the people. Read this letter to the Church, and if they repent, accept them. But if they don't have nothing to do with them because there's no evidence that the Holy Spirit is in them.
[00:31:33] And this is important because this is true of any person living in a grievous public sin without repentance. But specifically in the case of these idle busybodies, they are hurting the church and they're hurting the witness of Christ through the Church, and so they should be put out from them.
[00:31:54] Typically, this is said to sound mean, but it's not. It's obedient now.
[00:32:04] It makes them feel shame. Right? Paul says the purpose of this is so that they may feel ashamed.
[00:32:11] I think this is also interesting because we typically want to avoid shame. We don't want to shame people all the time. We say, I'm not trying to shame you, but I'm telling you this. Paul is saying, do this so that they might feel ashamed. How do we reconcile this? How do we understand this in our context? I think we should understand that not all shame is necessarily bad.
[00:32:32] Shame is a natural response that we feel when we are guilty of something.
[00:32:39] So shame can be an emotion you feel that triggers your mind to say, I'm doing something wrong and I should turn from it. I should seek Christ so it can be good. Now there can be misplaced shame, which is bad. But that's not what Paul's talking about. He's talking about well placed, accurately placed shame. But at the same time, he's not saying, keep all the shame on them. You want them to absolutely hate their lives for a moment so that they'll turn. No. He tells them to treat them like brothers.
[00:33:09] In other words, treat them with love.
[00:33:12] Love that does not break. As you cannot unbrother somebody, you can't unsister somebody.
[00:33:19] A love that perseveres is also going to rebuke. A loving rebuke can actually go a long way in leading someone to repentance.
[00:33:29] So ultimately this is practiced then, because The Lord, verse 16, is the Lord of Peace.
[00:33:37] It's not unrelated. There's probably a subtitle in your Bible there, but it's not unrelated. From the verses above, God is a God of peace.
[00:33:46] He wants peace for his churches for a very specific reason. So this confrontational thing, church discipline and excommunication, actually preserves peace in the Church by keeping the Church pure.
[00:34:02] We can have peace because our God has first granted us peace. So while we were all once enemies of God, before you are in Christ, you are an enemy of God.
[00:34:12] He then, through Christ, can bring you into a peaceful relationship.
[00:34:19] Do you want peace?
[00:34:21] Do you want peace in your life? Specifically, do you want peace between you and God?
[00:34:27] I hope the answer is yes.
[00:34:29] If so, you must trust in Christ and love God.
[00:34:32] If you love Jesus more than your sins, then there will be perfect and eternal peace between you and God.
[00:34:41] And because the Church is a physical depiction of heavenly realities, since there's perfect peace among God and His people in heaven, the Church then should seek to have perfect peace among its people because we are a reflection of the kingdom. In that way, Jesus is the Lord of peace. And so we should lean on him as we pursue it, even here.
[00:35:05] Now, lastly, notice that Paul indicates a clear marker that he truly wrote this letter. I didn't want to skip over this. Sometimes we are tempted to skip over things at the end. But it's a clear marker that he wrote this letter. These are the words of the apostle. And he affirms that in these letters we have his words are God's word.
[00:35:27] Therefore his words that he has written are binding on all of you. But the good news is that through the Word the grace of Christ is revealed.
[00:35:37] We can see the Gospel pouring all throughout these two letters pointing us to union with Christ. If we are in Christ, we can be preserved, we can be faithful, and we can do it more and more as His Spirit changes us into his image gradually as we live and are sanctified.
[00:36:00] But we must stop loving our sins and we must put our love and faith in Christ. He can save you and he can bring you peace. And he's faithful also to walk with you as you walk to please God.
[00:36:13] He will not forsake you as you seek to excel more in faithfulness. Christ is faithful, so the church must be faithful by avoiding idleness and disciplining one another.
[00:36:28] So all of you who are professing, believers who say you are in Christ, then lean on Jesus and pursue him more and more and more and more.
[00:36:39] Don't quit or lay your faith aside. Don't grow weary in doing good. Lean on the church, on your brothers and sisters.
[00:36:46] Press on in faith. Let's pray.
[00:36:50] Father, thank you for the word that you have so graciously given us to study God. We pray that it would transform lives.
[00:36:59] God, lead us by your spirit. Make us sensitive to the leadings of the Spirit.
[00:37:05] Lord, we pray that those who are not in Christ would be called to you this evening. That you would give them faith that they may repent and follow you, that we may all link arms as a church and pursue you more and more and more. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.
