Christ Church

A Cluster of Exhortations

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INTRODUCTION

Virtues, like vices, are like grapes—they come in clusters. Paul is following his usual pattern here, which is to conclude his letter with a burst of ethical exhortations, all of which should be arranged within the larger framework that he established earlier in the letter.

THE TEXT

“And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen” (1 Thess. 5:12–28).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The letter to the Thessalonians concludes with a cluster of rapid-fire exhortations. Remember this, and also that, and here is something else. The first thing Paul reminds them of is their duty to the leaders in their church. Know those who labor, who rule, and who admonish (v. 12). Paul says to esteem them highly, and to be at peace (v. 13). And being at peace with one another is actually a good way to esteem them. In the next verse, he says to be hard and to be soft, depending on who you are dealing with (v. 14). Don’t be the kind of person who retaliates, whether inside the church or outside (v. 15). Rejoice all the time (v. 16). Pray without ceasing (v. 17). Give thanks in every circumstance (v. 18). Don’t quench the Spirit (v. 19). Don’t treat prophecy with contempt (v. 20). Test everything, and cling to what passes the test (v. 21). Abstain from every form of evil (v. 22). Do these things and God will preserve you till the coming of Christ. He is faithful and He will do it (vv. 23-24). Paul then requests prayer for his work (v. 25). Greet one another with a kiss (v. 26). The letter is to be read to all (v. 27). And may the grace of Christ with be you (v. 28). Amen.

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP

There are a number of places where we quietly assume that certain practices are human traditions when they are actually profoundly biblical. One of those things is the biblical practice of church membership. We think that it is a human invention when it is actually a scriptural requirement. Set vv. 12-13 alongside Hebrews 13:7, 17 and see what happens.

“Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation” (Heb. 13:7).

“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you” (Heb. 13:17)

“And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves” (vv. 12-13).

What would you think of someone who argued that husbands did have to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25), but that this did not mean that they had to know who they were? Nonsense, right?

These exhortations absolutely require the leaders of the church to know the names of those they are responsible for, and it requires the members of the church to know the names of those they are responsible to.

Members have to remember their rulers. They have to remember their sermons. They must imitate their lives. They must render obedience, and they must be submissive. They must know those who labor in their midst. They must esteem them highly. And all this means that they must know their names.

And what must elders do? They must rule, speak, and live lives worthy of imitation. They must joyfully watch over souls, as men who will give a reckoning. They must work and work hard, and they must admonish those who are erring. And all of this requires them to know their parishioner’s names. What would you think of your tax accountant if he said you owed a couple thousand dollars, and you said, “you sure?” and he said, “more or less.” Accountants count. Shepherds count. Are they all here?

THE CRITICAL EYE

These exhortations require discernment. You have to discern who is lazy and who not. You have to discern who is unruly, and who is feeble. You have to discern the word of the Spirit, and you must have nothing to do with charlatans. God told you, eh? But there is a true balance that has to be struck, which we can see in v 21. Test everything, but do it with a certain spirit—a spirit that is eager to embrace what passes the test. In other words, you are to be a judge, but not a hanging judge. Be like the Ephesians in your hatred of the Nicolaitans, but do it without falling from your first love, the way the Ephesians did.

In the flesh, people who like to test tend to be ornery, and they like to see people crash and burn. In the flesh, people who are eager to hold fast to what is good tend to want everythingto be good. This is why everybody gets a participant ribbon. And these two errors feed off each other.

FINAL RECKONING

All of these traits are to be pursued and embraced in the light of the coming of Christ (vv. 23-24). And given how God has directed history, this means that you must pursue this lifestyle with your death in view, or with the Final Coming of Christ in view. Going back to the previous point, those who love to hold people accountable must remember that the day is coming when they will be held accountable. Those who are allergic to every form of accountability must remember that the day is coming when they will be held accountable.

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).

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Resistance, Revolution, Reformation, and Romans (13, that is)

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The last several years Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for the Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, they are accepting free will donations at https://www.graceagenda.com/donate.

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Boldness When It Counts

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INTRODUCTION

One of our generation’s hackneyed cliches is the one about “speaking truth to power.” The problem with it is that we almost always get everything backwards, and use the phrase to describe anyone who says something that you agree with. But despite our misapplication of it, there really is an important truth there, and it is one we need to learn. What is boldness when it counts?

THE TEXT

“And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Eph. 6:19–20)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

When the apostle Paul wrote the book of Ephesians, he was an experienced minister. He had been converted in the early to mid-thirties, and he wrote this book in the early sixties (c. 62 A.D.). This means that when he was wrapping up this letter to the Ephesians, and he asks them (twice) to pray that he might speak boldly, to speak as he ought to, and to make the mystery of the gospel known, he is not asking for prayer because he gets butterflies or stage fright. The context of his request is that he is an “ambassador in bonds.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF BIBLE STORIES

When those who have the physical power to harm or imprison you, and you don’t flinch

Nathan the prophet rebuked David, and did so after David had already committed one murder in order to cover up his adultery. Nathan, without any weapons, came into the court and told David a story that made David pass a severe judgment on an unnamed man. Nathan then told him that he was that man. That was speaking truth to power.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego told Nebuchadnezzar that their God could deliver them, but whether He delivered them or not, they were not going to bow down to his statue. The king in his fury commanded that the furnace be heated up seven times hotter than usual, and the three “rebels” to be thrown in. This happened, and the only things that burned were the guards who threw them in, and the bonds which had bound them. That was speaking truth to power.

When Ahab allowed his wife to murder Naboth for his vineyard, he was the king, holding all the power, and Elijah, an unarmed prophet, pronounced that a famine was going to strike Israel. Jezebel had brought in her fertility worship in order to help Israel “go green,” and Elijah spoke the word of judgment that was guaranteed to turn Israel into a crispy brown. That was speaking truth to power.

IMITATIVE COURAGE

One of the more important episodes in church history was the showdown between Ambrose of Milan and the Emperor Theodosius (reigned from 379 to 395 A.D). Theodosius was a professing Christian, but he was the emperor, and he also had a temper. Once there was an uprising in Thessalonica where a few of his officials were killed. The emperor responded by inviting the citizens of the city to the theater, as though he were going to show them a play, and then sent in his soldiers, who killed about 7,000 people without distinguishing the guilty and the innocent. After this, he came to Milan, and was going to come to church and partake of the Lord’s Supper. He was met by Ambrose, in the sight of all, who excommunicated him, and required him to do penance for his awful crime. This status lasted for eight months, after which the emperor was required to come to church with other penitents, prostrate himself on the ground, and publicly confess his sin. The whole thing resulted in important legal reforms, and that was speaking truth to power.

HOW TYRANNY WORKS

Many assume that the reason we need courage is simply because a tyrant can threaten to pull out our fingernails, and we wouldn’t like that very much. But that is not the place where tyrants draw the fullness of their power. Their threats have real potency when the people they threaten believe that they deserve to be mistreated. This is a function of guilt. A reservoir of guilt is a despot’s dream.

“For you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face” (2 Corinthians 11:20, NKJV)

And this is why a gospel of free grace is such a threat. It proclaims a message that results in no condemnation (Rom. 8:1), and when people are set free from their fear of condemnation and death, they are set free indeed.

SO BOLDNESS IS A FUNCTION OF FORGIVENESS

Boldness before men must begin with boldness before God. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19). Or: “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” (Eph. 3:12).

When God is in fellowship with a man, and the Holy Spirit has filled that man, then that man and God together outnumber everybody.

“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
Would you stand boldly in the courts of human opinion? It might be your family, or your neighbors, or your town, or your nation. Will you stand boldly there? You must receive the grace of God in Christ first.

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

Notice that grace—unmerited favor—is mentioned here twice. And mercy is mentioned once, and mercy is demerited favor. And so what is to be our demeanor as we approach the throne of grace? We are to come boldly.

Now how does that work? How can that work? The answer, the only answer, is the perfection of Jesus Christ. He is the grace we need. He is the mercy we need. He is the boldness we need. All that belongs to Him is now ours.

“For the Lord GOD will help me; Therefore shall I not be confounded: Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Is. 50:7).

“And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).

“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Cor. 1:20).

The Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect man, is your boldness.

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The Day of the Lord

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INTRODUCTION

As we work through this next portion of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, we want to continue to hold the various elements of “the last things” loosely, and in the palm of our hand. After we have all the pieces on the workbench before us (e.g. after 2 Thess. 2), we will then look at how they relate to one another. For the moment, to help keep things clear in our minds, I am going to begin referring to the end of all things as the Final Coming, and not the Second Coming.

We should work through all of this in humility, remembering that Augustine, one of the greatest minds in the history of the church, once said of 2 Thess. 2: “I frankly confess I do not know what he means.”

THE TEXT

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do” (1 Thess. 5:1–11).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul had not had the opportunity to teach the Thessalonians everything he had wanted to, but he had already covered this. You know the “times and seasons,” he said (v. 1). The day of the Lord would be sudden and unexpected, like a thief in the night (v. 2). Be aware that throughout Scripture, “the day of the Lord” is commonly used for any number of historical judgments. The day of the Lord is not necessarily the Final Coming. When they are expecting peace and safety, they will suddenly give birth to “sudden destruction” (v. 3). But their complacency was a moral darkness, not an intellectual one (v. 4). The believers in Thessalonica were children of the day, children of light, which would prevent the day from overtaking them like a thief (vv. 4-5). So his exhortation is that they remain awake and sober (v. 6). Sleep and drunkenness belong the night, not the day (v. 7). Those who are of the day should be sober, putting on the helmet of the hope of salvation, and the breastplate of faith and love (v. 8). The reason for this preventative behavior is that God has not appointed them to wrath (as He did the others), but rather to obtain salvation through Christ (v. 9). Christ died for those believers who were already dead, and for those who remained alive, so that all would live through Him (v. 10). These were to be words of comfort and edification, which Paul assumed the Thessalonians would continue in (v. 11).

THE SOMEWHAT OBVIOUS

Paul obviously has the Thessalonians of the first century living in a state of high alert. They are to be awake, and with their armor on. If they could read his words to them, and not be looking out the window at what might be happening in their day, then it would the result of not paying close attention. That tone of urgency is very clear in this passage. Just as I have argued that the presence of the general resurrection is an indication we are talking about the Final Coming, so also the presence of an “any minute now” vibe is an indication that we are talking the events that run up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. In the two letters of Thessalonians, we have both elements weaving in and out with each other.

And looking ahead to 2 Thess. 2:6-7, we see something similar, in that Paul tells the Thessalonians that “he that restrains” is currently restraining, and that is why the man of lawlessness has not yet appeared.

A BASIC TAKE

As the first century Christians were navigating their way through a very dark pagan century, they were warned by Paul against some very real perils in their day. Formal emperor worship had begun under Augustus, and Thessalonica had a temple to the emperor. In 41 A.D. Caligula had ordered a statue of himself to be set up in the Temple at Jerusalem, which was only forestalled because Caligula was murdered. To give you a sense of the atmosphere of the times, in the forecourt of one of his homes, Nero had a bronze statue of himself built, a statue that was 120 feet tall—like a twelve-story building.

There were certain signs that indicated the pending destruction of Jerusalem (the day of the Lord), and that destruction was something that had to occur before there could be a Final Coming. That Final Coming was in Paul’s view, but it was like a very high and distant mountain range behind the mountain range that they were about to cross.

The Jewish War would “fill up” the sins of Israel (Matt. 23:32). That time would begin the “times of the Gentiles,” a period of time that would eventually be completed. I take that completion as being marked by the conversion of Jews, an event that has not yet happened (Rom. 11:15).

REMAINING ON HIGH ALERT

Once the judgment begins, that is no time to begin to prepare. The judgment might be temporal and historical (a day of the Lord), or it might be the Final Coming. In either case, the daylight is coming, and so Paul’s charge to us is to act as though the day has already come. We are not to be ethically groggy for whatever reason. You don’t want to be among those who were appointed to wrath—because that appointment will be kept. Rather, we should yearn to be among those who will “obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us.”

And this is what brings us back to the everlasting center—Christ, our Lord. Because He was not overcome by the night, it becomes possible for all those who have trusted in Him to follow Him and to do the same.

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