Posts Tagged ‘1 Thessalonians’

He who calls you is faithful

Posted: July 18, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Thessalonians, Devotionals/Commentaries, July
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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 brothers.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. —1 Thessalonians 5:23-28

John Piper:

So let’s look at this in our text. Notice three things: the commandments, the prayer, and the promise.

1. The Commandments

Paul has just finished giving a string of commandments in verses 14–22 which comes to an end in verse 22, “Abstain from every form of evil.” So we know that God uses commandments and incentives in the way he sanctifies us. He does not say: “I am the one who sanctifies you, so I have nothing to tell you to do.” The way he sanctifies is not merely subconscious. He deals with our minds and our motives. That’s the first thing to notice.

2. The Prayer

Then in verse 23 Paul shifts from exhorting or commanding us to be holy to asking God to make us holy: “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.” So not only does God use commands and incentives in the way he makes us holy, he also uses the prayers of his people. He not only deals with your mind and motives in the way he makes you holy; he deals with the minds and motives of others so that they pray for you.

3. The Promise

Notice not only the commandments and the prayer, but most important the promise of God. After commanding us to pursue holy living in verses 14–22 and praying that God would sanctify us in verse 23, Paul says the decisive thing in verse 24: “He who called you is faithful, and he will do it.”

This is the way Paul handles the assurance problem. Let it shape your thinking this morning. It is mere human reasoning and not God that says: “Well, he is commanding us to abstain from evil, so it must be up to us to get holy, and therefore it’s not assured.” It is mere human reasoning and not God that says: “Well, he is praying for God to sanctify me, so it depends on Paul’s prayer and God may or may not answer, and so it is not assured.” All that is wrong thinking. It’s not what the text says. Right thinking moves on to verse 24 and says: God’s faithfulness combined with God’s call proves he WILL do it! “He who calls you is faithful, and he WILL do it.” What’s the IT? The “it” is what Paul’s been commanding and what he’s been praying for, namely, sanctification. God will do it.

That is the foundation for full assurance. Paul did not say that you have to make holy living unnecessary to have assurance. He said that God is faithful and he WILL do it. The issue of assurance is: will we trust him not only for the grace to forgive our sins, but also for the grace to make headway in overcoming our sins? Will we believe what verse 24 says: “God is faithful; he will do it”?

Read or listen to the rest of the sermon:

July 18 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Posted: July 18, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Thessalonians, Bible Passages, July Bible Readings
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July 18

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 (ESV)

Final Instructions and Benediction

12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, [1] encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

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

25 Brothers, pray for us.

26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

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

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

Father, help us to act like children of the day

Posted: July 17, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Thessalonians, Devotionals/Commentaries, July
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1 Thessalonians 5:4-8  But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.  For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.  So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 

John MacArthur, at the conclusion of a sermon on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, “Night People/Day People Part 1″

Father, this is an encouraging portion of Scripture for us. We realize that we are unworthy of such unimaginable goodness that You have bestowed upon us to make us day people, children of light, children of the day, to make us the very habitation of light as the light of Christ has come to dwell within us. We are overwhelmed that we’ve been taken out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. We’re overwhelmed that we shall never walk in darkness but always have the light of life. And we have hope in our hearts that some day we’ll enter into that eternal light where none of the deeds of the night life will ever exist. Father, help us to act like children of the day, particularly as we live in the world of darkness around us, that men may see the light like a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. And, Father, we also ask for those here who are night people and have heard this message and are in the night and it’s pitch black and they’re asleep in a drunken stupor, utterly insensitive to truth and virtue and to coming judgment, may the light dawn in their hearts, may the Spirit of God enlighten them, convict them of sin, draw them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, to turn from their sins and follow Him, to hate the darkness and love the light that they too might become day people, to look for the glorious day of heavenly joy. And these things we ask in the name of Christ. Amen.

To read the sermon, click here:

July 17 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Posted: July 17, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Thessalonians, Bible Passages, July Bible Readings
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July 17

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (ESV)

The Day of the Lord

5:1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, [1] you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children [2] of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Spurgeon: When death is gain

Posted: July 16, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Thessalonians, Devotionals/Commentaries, July
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“Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Charles H. Spurgeon on 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 

Even the sweetest visits from Christ, how short they are—and how transitory! One moment our eyes see him, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, but again a little time and we do not see him, for our beloved withdraws himself from us; like a roe or a young hart he leaps over the mountains of division; he is gone to the land of spices, and feeds no more among the lilies.

“If today he deigns to bless us

With a sense of pardoned sin,

He to-morrow may distress us,

Make us feel the plague within.”

Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold him at a distance, but see him face to face: when he shall not be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night, but shall eternally enfold us in the bosom of his glory. We shall not see him for a little season, but

“Millions of years our wondering eyes,

Shall o’er our Saviour’s beauties rove;

And myriad ages we’ll adore,

The wonders of his love.”

In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin; no weeping shall dim our eyes; no earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts; we shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing forever on the Sun of Righteousness with unwearied eyes. Oh, if it be so sweet to see him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face for aye, and never have a cloud rolling between, and never have to turn one’s eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe! Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun! The joys of sense may leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. If to die is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus, then death is indeed gain, and the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.

July 16 1 Thessalonians 4:11-18

Posted: July 16, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Thessalonians, Bible Passages, July Bible Readings
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July 16

1 Thessalonians 4:11-18 (ESV)

11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

The Coming of the Lord

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, [1] that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Knowing God is the Path to Purity

Posted: July 15, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Thessalonians, Devotionals/Commentaries, July
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John Piper, in a sermon on 1 Thessalonians 4, “This is the Will of God For You: That You Abstain From Sexual Immorality”

Start reading with me at [1Thessalonians 4] verse 4: “That each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God.” There it is: “like the gentiles who do not know God.” When you give way to lustful passion, you act like people “who do not know God.” Which means: knowing God is the path to sexual purity. If you are struggling with sexual impurity in mind or body, the immediate and long term strategy is know God, know God!

Be careful here! Don’t nullify 1 Thessalonians 4:5 by saying with a cynical tone: “Good grief, there are world-class theologians who are in bondage to lust and who leave their wives. So what good is all this knowledge about God?” Indeed there are. And I say with tremendous confidence: they don’t know God. To know ten thousand facts about God is not to know God.

Knowing God is the path to sexual purity. And if you are in bondage to pornography and fantasies or fornication or adultery the immediate and long-term strategy of this war is: Know God! Know God! Lustful passion is the mark of the Gentiles who do not know God. (See 1 Peter 1:14; Ephesians 4:22; Romans 1:23-28.)

Why would this be? Why would God ordain that the path to sexual purity is knowing God? The answer is given in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20,

“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” Or verse 13: “The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.”

We have bodies so that God might be gloried in them. That is why God gave you a body – whether it’s tall or short, pretty or plain, brawny or feeble. This is what Paul said in Philippians 1:20, “It is my eager expectation and hope that Christ will . . . be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” Our bodies are given to us so that in the way we use them Christ is made to look more valuable to us than anything.

Now we can see why it is that Paul would say that knowing God is so crucial in the war on lust and pornography and fornication and adultery. If, by some means you get rid of lustful thoughts and slavery to pornography and fornication and adultery – without any reference to the knowledge of God, he won’t get any glory for your new behavior. In other words, God is not just interested in what you do with your body, he is interested in – he is passionately concerned with – why you do it. If there is no connection between your knowing God, and your sexual purity, God gets no glory and you are in the grip of another idol.

Knowing God is the path to sexual purity because the purpose of sex and the purpose of the body is to magnify the supreme worth of God and the infinite value of Jesus Christ. And he will not be seen as supremely worthy and infinitely valuable if knowing him is not the key and the path of our liberation. “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). And Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Knowing God, knowing Christ, is the path to sexual purity.

But we should ask in closing: Knowing what about him? Knowing him in what way? Let me mention three things about God that he may use to set you free and keep you free.

Know the Patience of God

Look at verse 1: “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.” Do you see what this says about God? It says, these Christians have room for improvement – “excel still more and more.” And it says that they are pleasing God – “just as your actually do walk.” In Christ, God is not an all or nothing God. He knows our frame. He covers our sin. He is pleased with our successes through faith, and patient with our failures. So know him in his patience, all you struggling saints. Let this knowledge encourage you: You are walking in the way that pleases him – do so still more and more.

Know the Power of God

In the previous chapter, 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13, we read Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” Notice: he asked Christ to establish them blameless in holiness at his coming. In other words, holiness is the work of Christ. Yes, we must pray for it, and yes, we must fight for it. But in the end, be encouraged! You are not left to yourself to win this war. Know God’s power on your behalf through Jesus Christ.

Know the Preciousness of God and the Pleasure He Is to Us

I say this because that is simply what it means to be God in Christ. God is the most valuable person in the universe. He is the sum and source of all true pleasure (Psalm 16:11; 37:4). And knowing this in our experience is what triumphs over temptation. Knowing the preciousness of God and the pleasures of his fellowship will strip pornography of its power. We defeat the deceitful pleasures of lust with the superior pleasures of knowing God. Paul said it like this: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:7).

To read or listen to the rest of the sermon, click here:

July 15 1 Thessalonians 4:1-10

Posted: July 15, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Thessalonians, Bible Passages, July Bible Readings
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July 15

1 Thessalonians 4:1-10 (ESV)

A Life Pleasing to God

4:1 Finally, then, brothers, [1] we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: [2] that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body [3] in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,

Abound in love and be holy

Posted: July 14, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Thessalonians, Devotionals/Commentaries, July
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John Piper, in a sermon,” Advancing and Sustaining the Covenant Community”

Look at the connection between [1 Thessalonians] 3:12 and 3:13.

12) May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all men, just as we also do for you; 13) so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness . . .

If God causes them to abound in love, they will have the holiness they need to meet the Lord. I infer from this that love is the essence of holiness. And that means, then, that the covenant requirement of holiness is also a gift as well as a command, because the love that is the heart of holiness is a gift and a command. Paul wants the church to be holy and so he prays: Lord cause them to abound in love so that they will be holy. You have promised in the new covenant to write your holy law on our hearts. You have promised in the new covenant to give us the Spirit and cause us to walk in your holy statutes. So, Lord, do it now, and do it by making love increase and abound.

To read or listen to the rest of the sermon, click here:

July 14 1 Thessalonians 3:7-13

Posted: July 14, 2012 by Pam Larson in 1 Thessalonians, Bible Passages, July Bible Readings
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July 14

1 Thessalonians 3:7-13 (ESV)

7 for this reason, brothers, [1] in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

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