Final Wisdom

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To be at Number 10 Downing Street, and I’m pleased to be at number 10 in a series of 10 sermons on 1 Thessalonians. And when I say I’m pleased to be at number 10, I’m pleased in a satisfied sort of way since we have attempted to cover the book. Now we come to the last section, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 12.

What page?

192. Now if you look at verse 27, you’ll notice there that the letter was to be read out to all the brethren. In other words, in a public gathering. I don’t know what would happen if we read 1 Thessalonians as our lesson, but it seems that that was what was meant to have happened. We’ve attempted to read this letter slowly over 10 weeks and we’ve only skimmed the surface and I feel we’ve hardly touched it.

But we have skimmed the surface and there’s enough riches in this letter to go back for the rest of our lives and explore. Now that’s the principle of Scripture, isn’t it? We’ve just done Ephesians. I say done loosely. We’ve done 2 terms of work on Ephesians in Read, Mark, Learn 2.

I feel as though we’ve only just read John Stott’s commentary and have not really gone deeply past that.

So Scripture is what we go on mining all our lives, and that’s how I feel with 1 Thessalonians. Now if you were listening when James read the lesson, you’ll realise that this passage is absolutely packed with instruction. In fact, there are 17 verses and there are 17 commands.

And because it’s packed with instruction, it’s just impossible to really take it all in properly. It reminds me a little of the last 30 seconds of some of the phone calls we get from Australia, where just as the pips are coming, you have 500 last instructions yelled through the phone. Say hello to, do this, don’t forget, make sure, and then you sign off. Well, it’s a little bit like that with the last part of this letter. And because it’s going to be impossible to do justice to the particulars, I have decided to take 2 headings which will be general headings, but I think will gather up the particulars underneath.

And also for those faithful few who write on the sermon notes on the back of the sheet. And these are the 2 headings: 1, spiritual relationships; 2, spiritual confidence. Now I’m amazed at the realism of this letter. When Paul gets to the very end of a letter which is full of fondness and affection, how do you think he finishes? He finishes with practical instruction on relationships.

Because he knows the church is a young church and they are going to need instruction if they are not to be marked by tension and error. And in fact, I found the same thing when I got to the end of Ephesians. We got to the end of Ephesians and you come to chapter 6, which is all about the battle. You spend 5 chapters exploring this tremendous plan of God and then you finish on the battle. And you think to yourself, well, why have we finished on such a sobering note?

The answer is obvious. It is for all those who are dreamers. It is for all those who are naive, who think things are going to be easy. And in many ways Paul comes right down to earth at the end of 1 Thessalonians on relationships. So the first spiritual relationships, verses 12 to 22, and the first of these relationships is leaders.

Verse 12: We beseech you, brethren, to respect those who labour 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. Now in these verses 12 to 28, he calls them brethren 5 times. But inside the brotherhood, inside the church family, there is an order. There is a gradation of relationships.

In exactly the same way, in a Christian home, there is an order of relationships. And actually, husbands that I have spoken to in wedding interviews are very surprised to realise that on the Day of Accountability, the husband is going to have primary accountability for the marriage. That’s the way God sees it. That because the husband has primary responsibility for the direction of the marriage, on the day of accountability, he will have primary accountability. Of course, there is equality, but there is a gradation of responsibility.

And you remember right at the very beginning in Genesis chapter 3 that when Adam and Eve are out of fellowship with God, the first thing that God says is, Adam, where are you? Because he has got primary responsibility. And in the church family, God has given leaders who are to have primary accountability to him for the direction of the church and the care of the people. And of course, this responsibility means privileges, and it also means obligations. And you know that there is a danger of allowing earthly privileges and applause and bowing and scraping and nodding and flattery to overshadow heavenly reward and accountability.

And that’s why we need to pray for leaders, that they won’t be sucked in by earthly privileges and honour. Now what Paul says in verse 12-13 is that those who are over us in the Lord, whatever the context, and of course that means at a diocesan level, and it means at a church level, and it means at a Read, Mark, Learn level, and it may mean at a fellowship group level or a Sunday school level, Whoever is over us in the Lord, these people are to labour hard. Verse 12: And they are to admonish us, that is, they are to warn us or direct us, so don’t be surprised if they do. Because if they don’t, they are not doing their duty. And our part, according to verse 12 and 13, is that we are to respect these leaders and to esteem them.

Now what does that mean? Well, to respect a leader means that you recognise his responsibility. And his accountability. And you say, this poor man has a very difficult job. He’s got the care of the sheep.

He is an undershepherd. He is accountable primarily to the Good Shepherd. And then we’re to value their responsibility, and Paul says we’re to value them most exceedingly. Now, the word that’s translated there, very highly, that’s a pathetic translation in the RSV. It really means we’re to esteem them super, hyper abundantly, as highly as possible.

Why? We say to ourselves, how could that be possible? The leaders that I have to follow have no respectability at all. I do not esteem them. I do not like them.

They don’t inspire in me any confidence or respect. Now of course we are not talking about St. Helen’s.

But it just may be that you think that way about your Read, Mark, Learn leader and you say, I can’t possibly respect them or esteem them. I know what they are like. I’ve seen them on holidays.

Now this is what Paul says. This is the way to do it. First of all, it is not personal honour that you give them, but honour in the Lord. Verse 12. Second, it’s not because of their life that you esteem them, but because of their work that you esteem them.

You see, it’s their position in the Lord and it’s their labour in the kingdom. That is to be esteemed and respected. So you see, if there is a Christian worker here this morning who thinks that he has personal honour or quality of life above any other, he has missed the point.

Any honour which is due to him is because he is in the Lord and works for the Lord. Spiritual leadership is a responsibility and it has got status because the Lord calls and it has got honour Because it’s the Lord’s work. And that’s where the honour lies and nowhere else. And if there is a Christian follower here this morning, and I use that word to describe anybody who may be underneath anybody in the order of the church, if there is a Christian follower here this morning who fails to respect their leader, who fails to esteem their leader on personal grounds because you don’t like their hairdo or you don’t like their manner or you don’t like their smell or whatever, then that is to fail to see that spiritual leadership demands respect and esteem because it is in the name of Christ and it is the work of Christ. You see the point.

If we get a bad perspective on this, we will have lack of peace, which is exactly what Paul asks for in verse 13. What is the great temptation on a Christian leader? It is to elevate himself above and beyond his position. And think that he has personal inherent value. What is the danger for the Christian follower?

It’s to elevate a leader beyond their position or to shoot holes in them to shoot them down below their position. And that will be the temptations on us as Christians. And all of those attitudes are ignorant and all of those attitudes are dangerous and destructive. I remember when we were in Moore College, you’ll forgive these references to Moore College, but I remember that a speaker came and said to us as students that when we left we had to be careful that we did not fall into the greatest clergy occupation, which was what he called bishop bashing.

And it rang true because bishop bashing is a very easy and satisfying pastime.

And we all need to be careful about bishop bashing. Paul says, let us respect them and let us esteem them. I heard an American say once that in his opinion the reason why so few Christians, Christian homes produced Christian children, he said it’s often because over Sunday lunch the main meal is roast preacher. Now that is true. Roast preacher is one of the real dangers of Sunday lunch.

Now I am not saying this in panicked defence, but I, I just want to say, be very careful. You are to respect, I am to respect and esteem those who are over us in the Lord. Now happy the congregation that is at peace, who sees past personal issues and sees the Lord behind all leadership. You may say to yourself, look, I don’t think that my Read, Mark, Learn 1 leader really ought to be there. I personally think they just pushed for position and they paid Steve James £10 for the job.

And that may actually be true. But, but if they have the position, take great care because in the Lord’s ordering of the family, They have got accountability to Him. And therefore, with such a serious job, respect them and esteem them and pray for them and support them. The people, it seems to me, who are most often criticising leaders are usually those who are either arrogant, they fail to see the Lord’s order, or they are lazy, they fail to do the Lord’s work. And in my very best moments, I have learned that there is such a battle going on outside this church that we do not have time to shoot our guns inside it.

So that’s the first of spiritual relationships. The second, verse 14, the needy.

We exhort you, brethren, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Now there are some great balances in these words in 1 Thessalonians 5, and you will see straight away that in verse 12 we are meant to get ready to be admonished. And verse 14, we are meant to get ready to admonish.

It seems to me that in this church we all ought to be expecting and giving admonition at the right time. This is very important, brethren. Do you consider yourself to have the responsibility of an admonisher? Because according to Paul, you have it. We exhort you, brethren, admonish the idlers.

The word literally means the indisciplined. Now indisciplined is such a killer in the Christian life, we really can’t survive without discipline as Christians, that we need to keep on admonishing indiscipline, slackness, laziness, shoddiness. So take it upon yourself. Don’t leave it to the pastors to do all the admonishing. Otherwise, there will be very little done.

We have all got the responsibility to admonish the idlers. Second, we have all got the responsibility to encourage the fainthearted. And it is a very interesting word in the original. It literally means we are to speak beside the small-spirited. We are to speak beside the small-spirited.

And the reason is that in every Christian family there are always Christians who despair easily. In every Christian congregation there is always a Sad Sue and a Gloomy George and a Melancholy Mary and an Anxious Alan. And these are the people who need to be spoken beside and encouraged in love and with the truth. And possibly he is speaking of those who are grieving. Then thirdly, he says we are to help the weak.

Now that doesn’t mean that we are to become somebody’s prop so they lean on us and depend on us and cannot do without us. It means that we are to be available to help the weak. We are to come alongside the person in their need. And the final appeal he says is that we are to be patient with everybody. And that is a very good word because relationships in any family are always dodgy.

And they are dodgy in Christian churches, and that is why we need to be patient with one another, at the same time asserting a ministry as our responsibility.

Now the key word to this whole section is the word brethren. And the reason is that the world will not care about leaders. The world does not really care for their leaders. The world demands from their leaders. The world expects leaders to care about them, but in the church we are to care for leaders.

In the same way, the world doesn’t care for the weak, but we Christians are to care for the weak and the needy and the unhappy and the fainthearted and the indisciplined. And that is why the gospel brings an obligation to us to care for everybody, whatever their colour or their temperament or their personality or their potential or their wealth or their suntan or whatever. Everybody is to be cared for. So to summarise these 2, how do we look, as it were, up to our leaders? We are to look respectfully, carefully.

How do we look around to our brethren? We are to look patiently, helpfully.

We need perseverance in the Christian church. And if you live in the real church and you don’t have the church at arm’s length, it will be hard to miss the practical emphases of these verses. Because you see, inside a church a great deal of talk goes on about peace. We sing about it, we declare it, we preach it, we discuss it. But it is possible on a practical level to practise tension, rivalries, clashes, dislikes, Envy, bitterness, resentment, all these sorts of things creep in.

But if we have got a true perspective, we will see our leaders in their right position from the Lord and we will see one another in right position in the Lord. And a lot more pastoral work would be exercised in this church if everybody assumed and listened to this exhortation To admonish the indisciplined, to encourage the fainthearted, to help the weak and be patient with all, as many of you are doing.

Now, as Paul speaks of patience in verse 14, he goes on in verse 15 to speak of another kind of patience. Verse 15: Don’t repay evil for evil. It’s one thing to be patient with those who take up your time and energy. It’s another thing to be patient with those who hurt you or put you down. And this is good, positive teaching.

And in every sense, this is the finest Christian instruction and the finest Christian psychology. What is the best way to deal with somebody who drives you crazy? It is to start praying for them and to pursue their good. That’s what it says here. As soon as there is somebody who is on your mind for revenge, Drop it and take up this verse 15.

Don’t repay evil for evil, no matter how clever the plans are, but seek to do good to one another. And the word literally means pursue good. Pursue the other one’s good. Think about them, pray for them, think intelligently, think carefully, think lovingly and seek their good. Very good wisdom.

Now if we are to preserve that sort of attitude always, verse 15, We’re going to need to be in fellowship with Christ. And that’s why when we come to verses 16, 17, 18, verses which have often been taken out of their context and set up on the bedroom wall as an impossible series of commands, we’re going to need to be always rejoicing, always praying, always giving thanks in all circumstances because we wouldn’t expect anything less.

And I want to say to you that these 3 commands of rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks are 3 aspects of being in fellowship with Christ. Let me say that again. These 3 commands are 3 aspects of being in fellowship with Christ. Because when we are in fellowship with Christ, it means that whatever the circumstances, nothing affects the joy of knowing that Christ is in control. Nothing prevents recurring conversation with him.

Nothing prevents an attitude of thankfulness which rises up to thank him for his faithfulness. And if you’re a Christian, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You know what it is to live in fellowship with Christ where you’re able to plough through circumstances and nothing diminishes the joy or the recurring prayer or the thankfulness. And it’s that high level of fellowship which is demanded for responsible living inside the family. Now, as I say, these verses— rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances— have often been isolated from this context and elevated to a position which has made them impossible.

And it has led to dishonest smiles amongst Christians or desperate guilt.

But what Paul says is that in the context of relationships, spiritual relationships, It is important for us to be in fellowship with Christ that we are rejoicing, in prayer and thankful. And if we are going to help the needy, that is going to be most important. Let me tell you the greatest discovery I made in this passage as I was looking at it yesterday, and that is the number of times the fruits of the Spirit appear in these verses. You notice the first fruit of the Spirit, verse 13, is love. And then in the same verse, peace.

And then a little further on in verse 15, goodness. And then 16, joy. And back a bit, patience. Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness. They are the first 5 fruits of the Spirit.

So you see, these are spiritual relationships for people who are living life in the Spirit.

Well, we come now to the 3rd group which is the lively. Verse 19. I use this word carefully because I don’t know how to describe these people, but I think that they are the lively. He says, do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil. Now the lively are in every church and the lively are God’s gift to the dull.

And we presume, if we read between these lines, that this church in Thessalonica was the opposite to the Corinthian church.

Church. The Corinthian church was so lively they need to be told to dull up a bit. This church may be so dull they are told not to be too dull. Not to quench the Spirit. Not to despise the prophesying.

And it is perhaps true that this group also were a noisy group. I have not read to you this week from the Philippian Fragment, but there is a delightful segment in the Philippian Fragment where he speaks of of a lady in his church called Dolores from Delphos who has received the gift. And Dolores is so noisy that she stands on her chair and yells in his sermons, for which he says many in the congregation wish that her gift was still wrapped.

Now, that may be the case here. It may well be the case here. We don’t really know. This is what Paul says. Please concentrate while I try and get the gist of this.

This is what Paul says. In the New Testament early church, God spoke to the people immediately. He spoke through the prophets and he spoke through the apostles. But when the New Testament church’s foundation had been laid and when the canon of Scripture had been collected, he spoke mediately via the Scriptures, via the teachers.

And because this early church lives in the period where God speaks immediately via apostles and prophets, and because this church of Thessalonica is young and is not removed from the forces of evil and error, Paul advises them to steer a careful course between cynicism, where you say every prophecy is a waste of time, and credulity, where you say every prophecy is fantastic. And he advises a course to steer straight through between this cynicism and this credulity. They were rather not to despise everything, they were not to swallow everything, they were to test everything. Verse 21.

Now how do you test messages? Well, the way to test messages is by Scripture. And by the way in which they edify. That’s the way to test. Do they edify?

Do they build up the congregation? Do they lead to godliness? Do they lead to righteousness? That’s the test. Now some of you may be saying to yourself, well, if we are going to bring this verse into the 20th century and apply it, then we must also not despise prophecy.

But let me qualify that. If we say to ourselves, the application for this verse is for us not to despise prophecy, that is to bring a first-century problem into the 20th century. That is historical ignorance. In fact, it is biblical ignorance. What we have got to draw from these verses is the principle of testing.

Because if prophecy authentically remains in the first century, we must leave it there. But what we must draw from these verses by way of application is that we must test messages. And notice how we test them. We are to hold on to what is good. Notice we are not to hold on to what is fascinating, what is interesting, what is new, what tickles the ears, what is humorous, what is brilliant communication, but what is good.

My father-in-law once told me that even an old chicken can get good food from a tip. And I have always remembered that and thought that that is a good principle. It doesn’t matter what sermon you are listening to, you can take the good from it, even if it’s what not to do next time. And that’s what Paul says. Hold what’s good, grip it, grasp it, and abstain from every form of evil, throw out what isn’t good.

In other words, he says, I want you as listeners to be discerning. I want you to sit there with respect for those who labour over you and yet be discerning enough to listen carefully and take what is right and hold it and throw out what is wrong. Now that is a great need in the church, isn’t it, for more discernment by Scripture. So those are the 3 relationships. You may be totally muddled at this stage, so let me rephrase.

Your memory. First of those spiritual relationships: leaders. How do we respond to leaders? We value them. Second, how do we respond to the needy?

We are to be patient. How do we respond to the lively? We are to test them. And now he comes very briefly to spiritual confidence, the second point. Spiritual confidence.

Now if you were here right at the start of this series, you may remember that I said that Paul had to be ushered out of Thessalonica by the opposition. He was only able to stay there perhaps weeks or months and he didn’t have time to do all that he could have done. And so he was concerned about this church and he sent Timothy to the church and he said, find out how they are. And Timothy came back with a glowing report and said, the church is thriving. They are not only growing but they are witnessing.

And so Paul penned a letter and the very first thing he says in verse 1 is, to the church of the Thessalonians in God.

And that was the first confidence of the letter, that this church, like branches in a vine, belong in God. They lived in Thessalonica, but they also lived in God. They had 2 destinations. And it is this confidence which begins the letter, and it is this confidence which ends the letter.

And Paul finishes with a prayer. Verse 23: May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. Now, the greatest privilege of any pastor, whatever group you lead, whether it’s Sunday school, Read, Mark, Learn, or a church or a diocese, the greatest privilege of any pastor is to speak of Jesus Christ so that people are drawn to Jesus Christ, are won for Jesus Christ, live for Jesus Christ, and are kept by Jesus Christ. We might look back at 1 Thessalonians and despair if we had this church to pastor.

They are young. They don’t know very much. There are idlers in it. There are weak. There are grieving.

There are vengeful. There are despondent, etc. And we might say, who is possibly going to look after this church? How is this church possibly going to survive opposition, error, and evil? And the answer, verse 24: God who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

Now notice the balance. There are lots of balances in these verses. We are to work hard, verse 12. We are to labour. We are to sweat.

We are to speak. We are to press on. We are to test everything and then God will do it. A beautiful balance. Hard work.

You can’t lead a church or a Bible study on personality. It takes hard work. And it would be better as we collect leaders for Read, Mark, Learn 1 and 2 to have those who are in their early 20s and will work hard than to have those who are in their 30s and think they know it all. Work hard. And then the pastor is able to turn around and say, this is all God’s work.

He will do it. He is faithful. I don’t know if you remember the storey in Pilgrim’s Progress where Christian is on his journey to the Promised Land and he meets Interpreter. And Interpreter shows him a fire burning in a grate. And there is a man there throwing bucket of water after bucket of water on the fire.

But the fire is rising higher and higher.

And Interpreter takes Christian round behind the wall and there is a man secretly tipping oil onto the fire. And Interpreter explains that as with that fire, so with the Christian. That where there are buckets of water being thrown on, so God is sanctifying with the good oil, so to speak, and building up in secret. And so it is God, we see in verse 23, who sanctifies and who will prepare for the final day. Beautiful balances.

Paul then says, verse 25, pray for us. We have been praying for you. You pray for us. He says, you are to be admonished and to admonish. He says, you are to respect your leaders and test your leaders.

He says, you are to work hard and God will work hard. It is a wonderful cooperation in the family of God. And then he says, greet the brethren with a kiss. And J.B. Phillips translates, give a handshake all round among the brotherhood. Which is very helpful for some of you.

And he finishes in verse 28, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Exactly as he began, so he finishes. Let’s pray.

O Lord, we ask you to bless our spiritual relationships in this church. And in all Christian circles. We ask that you would give us a deep respect for those who labour over us, great patience for all in the family, a discerning mind for those who speak, and then we give you glory and honour and praise and thanksgiving for the confidence that you, the faithful God, will finish the work that you have begun in this church and in every church. And this we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.