June 5, 2022
The Christian: Holy, Simple, Agape Ministers
1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

• Glenn R. Kreider, Professor of Theological Studies, Editor in Chief of DTS’s theological journal (ie. Bibliotheca Sacra)
• Kreider and U2 Concerts.
• Some of the art of lost people points to their longings of their Creator.
  • All people still have the broken, yet not completely, image of God in them. The lost long and cry out for for their Creator, although unwittingly most of the time.
• Lost people out worship saved people. >>> Video of the rock bank Linkin Park >>> “That’s what worship looks like!; That’s what love looks like!”

INTRO
The title of the sermon is “The Christian: Holy, Simple, Agape Ministers”

READ: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

PRAY

4:1 Finally, then, brothers, 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.

• We ask and urge [or implore] you in the Lord Jesus > COMMENT
• That as you received from us = how you ought to walk
  • Leadership should be lead.
  • walk = live life
    • Please God
    • Each step is important
    • Each step should be taking us where we should be going.
  • Just as they were doing
    • “More and more” 2x in 1 Thess…only 4x in NT regarding Christian growth
      • push push push
• [Our walk and tasks are endless in this life. Excell said, “Has he planted knowledge?–practice must be urged. Is the practice satisfactory?–perseverance must be pressed. Do they continue in well-doing?–they must be stimulated to further progress. The end of one task is the beginning of another.” (Excell)
  2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification:
• The will of God: your sanctification
• Instructions are the first steps in sanctification.
• Application is the walking: What did the church need to apply? They get rid of sexual immorality in the church**

3b that you abstain from sexual immorality;

• v.3b “That” 3x
• Abstain = to hold back, keep off, to be away, be distant
• Sexual immoralit in ESV et. al.
  • Definition of has expanded over time
• = immoral in matters of sex (CSB; Utley concurs)
• = fornication (KJV, et al.)
• I studied the word in depth and saw evidence of what 3 literal translations used: whoring (Hart; Literal Standard Version; Young’s Literal Translation)
• The longer I looked at the text, it became clear the church had a problem.
• The context—here at least—is a situation of adultery involving a wife or wives in the church. Proven in vv. 4-6
• Let’s look at the immediate context (vv. 4-6).

4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

• body = vessel, 23x NT
• 2 interpretations:
  1. own body = our vessels are the sanctuary of God
  2. less probable, sees the vessel as the husbands wife ¹
  • for body more common in Greek writings …
  • for wife, more common in Jewish writings. (Constable)
• One flesh = body and wife >>> holiness and honor
• Self control is a mark of a Spirit filled life (cf. Gal. 5:23).

5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

• No Gentiles at the Thessalonica church? COMMENT
• Christians vs. non-Christians
  • Romans 2:28-29, For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
• The church was not supposed to be like the pagan, passionate, people around them.

• In Greece … Demosthenes [phonic: Dee-moss-than-ees] wrote, “We keep prostitutes for pleasure; we keep mistresses for the day-to-day needs of the body; we keep wives for the begetting of children and for the faithful guardianship of our homes.” [Barclay commented,] So long as a man supported his wife and family there was no shame whatsoever in extra-marital relationships. ¶ … What may seem to many the merest commonplace of Christian living was to them startlingly new. (Barclay)

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.

• AA in Bible study.
• Apparently, there was a practice in the Thessalonica church that was rooted in the baseness of the human heart that had not yet been dealt with though their walk with the Lord. (cf. Wanamaker, 158 f.; 1 Corinthians 5)
• Paul had most likely the Bema Seat in mind where God would ultimately judge these matters in a universal way. (cf. Constable)

7 For [“for” gives us the reason] God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore [give us the conclusion or call to action] whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

• fig: means impurity = ἀκαθαρσίᾳ = uncleanness, foulness, of a wound or sore; sickness (infirmities); filthy dirt (see LSJ)
  • God does not call us to impurity
  • = fig.: ceremonially unclean in LXX (Septuagint)
  • APPLICATION
    • In holiness our worship is not hindered.
    • appl.: In sinfulness we become a metaphorical, stubborn sore.
• Holiness should describe all of us Christians. Devout should be our description.

  • God’s holiness is static; it never changes. By contrast, many Christians [continue to adopt] common ideas from [their] cultures for new definitions of holiness and … [thus deny God’s] standard for holiness [altogether] … ¶ Christians must take heart and submit to God’s standards of holiness/morality as defined by the Bible. (Robinson)

  • We as Christians will have to decide[—as all other Christians have before us—] … who we are going to follow: the world or God. (Robinson)

  • A.W. Tozer wrote, “The stiff and wooden qualities about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire.”
• “Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”
  • Disregard God umm.
  • James wrote, “Do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.” (James 4:4 b).

APPLICATION

• We don’t have time to cover American church problems regarding sex today.
• Cover common problems I have seen in the conservative churches I have been around.
• Our culture has been working against a biblical worldview regarding sex for a full century.
• Christians can be and are constantly goofed up regarding sex—through ignorance—literal ignorance or calculated “ignorance.”
• God wants to keep us from death.
  • Ask any devout Christian about the world sexual past and they will tell you one thing: regret it.
• CLEAR WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES
  • One man one woman for life. That’s the standard.
  • Anything less is a lesser life experience.
• Three problems I want to discuss that happen in the circles we run in.
  1. Another problem: young people don’t want to grow up.
     • Puberty until 25.
     • 1 Corinthians 13:11, When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
     • This started at 13 in the Hebrew culture.
  2. Christian divorce at the same rate of the world.
  3. Wait, wait, wait on marriage. Wait for the perfect circumstances. BUT DON’T MESS UP!
     • Counsel in many Christian circles:
     • … wait until you graduate college.
     • … wait until your established in your career.
     • … even worst >>> test drive mentality.
  • 11 yrs-old — 28 yrs-old (17 years ! WAIT! 10 years as an adult!).

Counsel of God:

• Matthew 19:3-6, And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
• 1 Corinthians 7:8-9, To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

1. One man, one woman for life.
2. Get divorce as an option out of your mind.
3. Unmarried and burning with passion? Marry

TRANSITION
Plan >>> Holiness not impurity. Let’s look at what the ministry team pointing them to >>> love.

Sanctification: Love

“Love is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.” —Plato, Symposium

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,
  • “brotherly love” = Exact and only def. of φιλαδελφία = transliterated: philadelphia
  • The church was exercising philadelphia love
  • “taught by God” = perfect teacher = educated fully
  • “to love,” = ἀγαπᾶν = transliterated: agapan
    • agape = higher love >>> summed up = unconditional love
    • to feel and exhibit esteem and goodwill to a person, to prize and delight in a thing. (Abbott-Smith)
• “Higher Love” by Steve Winwood in 1986

ILLUSTRATION

“Higher Love” | Steve Winwood

It reads in part,
Think about it, there must be higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is a wasted time
Look inside your heart, I’ll look inside mine
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be

I could light the night up with my soul on fire
I could make the sun shine from pure desire
Let me feel that love come over me
Let me feel how strong it could be

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring be a higher love
I could rise above on a higher love

^{Source: AZLyrics, https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/stevewinwood/higherlove.html.}

• APPLICATION
  • Church needs to be a place where people feel agape and more importantly–experience it.
  • We have been taught AND EQUIPPED by God to agapa people.
  • How we treat other people, we are treating God (see Matthew 24-25).
• Application is about action: How are we going to get there?
  • You are minsters
    • Ministers tasks are endless ones. Since he has God planted agape–practice must be urged. Excell wrote, “Is the practice satisfactory?–perseverance must be pressed. Do they continue in well-doing?–they must be stimulated to further progress. The end of one task is the beginning of another. Lessons: The believer is called to the attainment of a higher sanctity…”
    • We need to live by what Barlow called, "the aspirations of the life divinely planted within [us]. (G. Barlow.) (Excell)
  • What change to your life have you been thinking in response to the word of God regarding agape? A change you could act on?

TRANSITION
We see the ministry team wrote to the church to press for more and more philadelphia with a view towards agape. Now let’s look at the simple life they told them to live.

11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs,

• aspire
  • to live quietly COMMENT
  • mind your own business COMMENT

and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,

• “Greek culture degraded manual labor, but Christianity, as well as Judaism, viewed it as an honorable pursuit …” (Constable; he cited Thomas, p. 274)
• 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

ILLUSTRATION | APPLICATION
“Simple Man” | Lynyrd Skynyrd
It reads in part,
“Oh, take your time, don’t live too fast
Troubles will come and they will pass
You’ll find a woman and you’ll find love
And don’t forget, son, there is someone up above”

“Forget your lust for the rich man’s gold
All that you need is in your soul
And you can do this, if you try …”

“And be a simple kind of man
Be something you love and understand
Be a simple kind of man
Won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”

Oh, yes, I will

Note

¹ Constable cited Frame, p. 149; James Moffatt, “The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians,” in The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 4:34; Lenski, p. 310; Jamieson, et al., p. 1335; Thomas, p. 271. As quoted in Thomas Constable, "Notes on 1 Thessalonians.” 2022 ed., https://planobiblechapel.org/tcon/notes/pdf/1thessalonians.pdf.

Bibliography | Works Cited

Please see this web-page for the (or additional) works cited: https://insidecrosspoint.org/bibliography.html.

Ryrie, Charles Caldwell. First and Second Thessalonians. Moody Colportage Library series (Chicago: Moody Press), 1959.

Thomas, Robert L. “1 Thessalonians.” In Ephesians-Philemon, Vol. 11 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 12 vols., ed. by Frank E. Gaebelein and J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House), 1978.

Walvoord, John F. The Thessalonian Epistles. Study Guide series (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House) 1979. As quoted in Constable.