I Thessalonians Chapter 5 verses 16 –
24 Advent 4 2014
I love these
verses from Paul’s letter to the Christians at Thessalonika; they, like the
whole letter, are so encouraging and reflect Paul’s love and concern for the
church family there. True, he admonishes them, he begs them to stand firm, he
urges them to deepen their faith and to rejoice in it; but his love for them is
everywhere apparent. The letter addresses them, yes, as individuals but, much
more importantly, as the local church family.
He reminds them – as we must keep reminding ourselves here in Brenchley – that the Church is central to the historical
saving purposes of God; that we are not here just for own spiritual interest
or well-being but for the spiritual interest and well-being of those who are
not yet members. Indeed the integrity of the former (our own spiritual state)
is wholly dependent upon our genuineness in making the latter (the spiritual
state of others) the priority of our church’s life. How different this is from
the very worldly attitude that ‘the beliefs of others are no concern of mine!’
Little could be further from Christian truth.
Both of Paul’s
letters to the Thessalonian church throw immensely valuable light on the whys
and the wherefores of the need for continuous evangelism, for genuine
fellowship, for the maintaining of ethical standards, for faithfulness to the
Gospel, and for sound and healthful ingredients in public worship. Paul leaves
the readers in no doubt that it must be the
Gospel that shapes the Church and its life; not the other way round: and it
is the Church, we, who are called to spread that Gospel. The three essential
ingredients or truths of that Gospel we shall proclaim together a little later on
in this service. I won’t be offering any prizes but I would be very much
encouraged by anyone who can tell me before they leave what those three
essential ingredients are.
We first
learned about the Thessalonian Church in Acts 17 when Paul visited them
sometime in AD 49 or 50. Perhaps you
remember that eventually Paul had to be smuggled out of the town because he was
being faithful to the Gospel and thereby upsetting some of the religious and
political leaders. How often has this been the case when the Gospel has been faithfully
proclaimed, and still is today, when powerful political, commercial, or
religious interests are threatened by it! But the verses we have here in the
reading set for this Sunday are actually, in the context of the letter,
concerned with public worship, especially worship as practised in the belief
and hope of the second coming of Jesus to judge the earth.
These verses
do of course apply to us as individuals: but Paul wants us never to forget –
indeed the thought would have been quite strange to the first believers! – the
corporate nature of the Church, the theological fact that we are to be a
family, God’s family, in the place where we are, and primarily for the benefit
of others.
Paul issues
four instructions here with regard to public worship, which lay down four of
worship’s essential ingredients.
The first is
this. ‘Rejoice always!’ v 16. Paul
is not saying here ‘You must be joyful or feel happy at all times’; nor is he
suggesting that our emotional state or our feelings are to be a reliable
indicator of our faith or faithfulness. True joy is a gift of God: happiness is
ephemeral. What Paul is saying here, commanding in fact, is that our services of worship must be a true and
faithful celebration of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ: it is in this
that we are always to rejoice. Paul is not at all concerned about the need in
public worship to satisfy individuals’ spiritualities or emotional states: trying
to engineer these through music or whatever else is divisive since we are all
very different. That’s one reason why I pay little if any attention to
complaints about the choices of old hymns or new songs. We all of us, no matter
our ages or our tastes in these, have a responsibility to lend the hymn or the
song in question our best voice. We are to rejoice in word and song in what God
has done for us in Jesus Christ: and the person who has not yet attempted to
broaden his or her taste in or experience of rejoicing with other members of
the Body of Christ badly needs to read this letter and to revisit the Second
Commandment. Let me let you into a vital secret for your own spiritual health
and well-being. If you decide, before
you start praising God, that the hymn or chorus or whatever is not your cup of
tea and that you are not going to give it your best shot, then God cannot do a
lot for you because it is primarily Him you are offending. If on the other
hand you are prepared to broaden your ways and styles of rejoicing in public
worship, then not only will God be able to meet with you, He will also be able
to bless you and broaden your experience of Him and of His Church. That’s how
He works: it is always best to work with Him and not to insist on telling Him or
others what kind of music He prefers!
The second
essential ingredient of public worship is prayer (‘Pray without ceasing’ verse 17). I trust that all of us would
agree with this command. Prayer, especially intercessory prayer (prayer for the
needs of others) is commanded of us by Jesus. It is to be one of the most
prominent marks of the local church and of the highest priority.
And it cannot
be something that happens only on a Sunday. It is quite obvious from the
teaching and example of Jesus that Christians need to meet together at other
and regular times to pray for the many, many needs - locally, nationally,
internationally, and especially for the spread of the Gospel where there is
resistance to it. Whether or not we can understand why we need to pray is not
the issue. Whether or not we fully appreciate that prayer is very much about
being joined in spiritual war with forces that we do not fully understand is
not the issue. Indeed, it is only when the local church really starts to make the
effort to pray together at inconvenient and not just convenient times that, to
use Jesus’ phrase, the mountains can start to be moved. In addition to Sundays
we meet once a month to pray for these needs just for three quarters of an hour
on a Monday evening. Our next one is on 5th January in the New Room,
hot drinks provided!
The third
ingredient is ‘thankfulness in all circumstances’ (verse 18). It does not matter where we are, what state we are in,
what pressures or troubles face us, we are to give thanks. Thankfulness ought
always to characterize the people of God as we say to ourselves, to quote Psalm 103, ‘Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits.’ Indeed, continually thanking God helps us not
only to get a true perspective about our own situation, it also inspires us to trust
that, whatever happens, we are eternally safe in God’s hands and, moreover,
even able to see pressures and troubles as opportunities
to be faithful and to glorify God in order that others may come to a
knowledge of His saving truth and love. We may not always feel like praising,
praying, or giving God thanks but, as the second half of verse 18 reminds us, ‘it is the will of God in Christ Jesus for
you’. What Paul means by this is just what I have explained; that our continual
thankfulness of God in all circumstances enables us to get a clearer
perspective on life, on our priorities, and on the opportunities life offers us
to glorify Him.
And the
fourth essential ingredient for healthful public worship is listening to the word of God and the
promptings of the Holy Spirit, who always works in tandem with and never
against the word of God. This is what verses
19 – 23 are all about.
When anyone, whether in the congregation or from the
pulpit, claims to say anything on behalf of or from God, we need to test it.
There is much that could be said about this but what Paul wants his readers to
understand is this; that those who ‘prophecy’ – and by this he means those who
speak of God and for God - are to be respected and listened to. Of course, what
they have to say must be ‘tested’ in
order to discern whether or not what they say is true: it must not contradict
what God has already revealed about Himself, it must deepen peoples’ knowledge
and love of God, making them more faithful and trusting, building up rather
than dividing a faithful church.
And why should we not ‘quench the Spirit’ verse 19? Well, because it is God’s Holy Spirit
who works not only in the speaker but also in the hearer. He can be quenched at
both ends! It is the Holy Spirit who guides the faithful speaker of God’s word and
who works in the heart of the faithful hearer of God’s word. In the local church
there is an equal responsibility for the speaker to speak faithfully and for
the hearer to listen very carefully, trusting that the Holy Spirit will confirm
what is of God and what is not.
Paul now prays
for his readers, that they may v23
stay faithful and seek to be the holy people God called them to be – again,
like taking the word of God seriously, a reciprocal relationship in which both
parties need to play their part. But once again
Paul reminds them, v24, that God can be trusted completely
to keep safe and help grow to Christian
maturity those who open themselves to Him, trusting not refusing the authority of His word and the presence
and help of His Holy Spirit in their lives.
God is faithful. He loves us and wants us to become
more like His Son Jesus Christ; and He has given and will continue to give to humble
and willing hearts all that we need, in the family of the local church, to
become the people He created us to be so that we may effectively fulfil our
calling. How can we not rejoice
always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, and listen to the
word of God, which means in practice to make it our guide for life in order
that the Holy Spirit may work in us God’s perfect will. Let us really rejoice
then in such love; and may our love of God,
His word and His Spirit, be
something that people always meet and experience here!
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