Excel Still More — 1 Thessalonians 4

0:00 We are in one Thessalonians four this week. Let's open with a word of prayer, shall we? Father, we come before you this morning again to lift up your name. We come here to remember you this morning. We come here to learn the things that your spirit would have for us to learn today.

0:24 I pray that you would be with me and my stumbling lips and tongue and pray that you would impart on our hearts what you would have us to hear and what you would have us to learn. We ask for your blessing on this time that you would open our hearts and that we would be receptive to your spirit. In his name we pray, amen. It's great to be up here again. I might have I don't know if I've said this before, but I'm sure all the other speakers, all of you who have been up here before, you're up here and you're staring out at all these people and you don't do it intentionally but you all have such a very stoic look on your face.

1:04 And, you know, they'll tell you if you ever hear someone coaching you about public speaking, it's that you're always supposed to do these things. You know, you're supposed to have this kind of look on your face. You're supposed to have this smile. You're supposed to do all these things, you know. But it's so much harder to do when the audience is there with this look on their face.

1:22 And I know for a lot of us, and I'm included, when I'm sitting in the audience is that if I'm trying to focus and I'm trying to think and I'm trying to comprehend, I just get this particular look on my face that's just this, And I look at those of you out there, especially some of the more mature men that I look up to and when they have that face, I worry that I may be saying something that I shouldn't or I start to panic up here. So, anyway, right. You know, it's tough. It's tough. So it's okay.

2:28 That's at the end of the chapter there. And Paul was setting this up for what he's about to talk to next. And we know from the past couple of weeks where we've been studying Thessalonians, the Thessalonians were doing a very good job in their new faith. Paul had been to Thessalonica, had established a church there, and he had sent Timothy back to see how they were doing. And Timothy comes back and brings this great report.

2:56 And Paul is very excited about it, that they're doing so well and they're facing some persecution. And he's just, this is just an encouraging letter to them. It's not that there's not, there's some teaching in there, but again, it's Paul trying to build them up and you know, he they're doing a great job and and they're really staying strong for the lord there and he's just here to to encourage them a bit and we start off in chapter four and I'll read the chapter here so we get a sense for the flow and the context here and then we'll break this up a little bit. 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 may excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

4:28 For indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia, but we urge you, brethren, to excel still more and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands just as we commanded you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. Verse 13, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

5:19 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. So, we'll just go, we'll go through this chapter verse by verse here. And I try to have less notes this time so that I would actually get through everything. But if I don't finish everything towards the end of the chapter, I know Don Morris is taking chapter five next week.

5:47 So, of that is tied in together. So, maybe I'll be saved by that. Okay. So, verse one. Paul is commending the believers there for their lives of practical holiness.

5:59 They're still... They're new Christians but they're really in it for the Lord and they are really working hard at living that holy life. Not the holy as in perfection, not that type of holy, but that holy in the sense of being set apart in following Christ's example. And finally, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us instruction as how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do, that you may excel still more. So, they're doing it and he's urging them to keep going.

6:35 Holiness, I think I've said this before up here too, holiness is a direction. It's not a line that we suddenly cross and say that we've achieved it. It's one of those parts, that aspect of the Christian life that we have to strive to keep going, to keep working at it. We never actually achieve it. It's not something that you're going to arrive at.

6:58 It's a process and it takes constant effort. And Paul's recognizing that, you know, he's recognizing that he's heard from Timothy that they're doing a great job but he's saying, I urge you, keep going, do it more. Whatever you're doing, keep it going. So he's encouraging them in that way. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

7:19 This is the first section here he talks about holiness in these couple of verses. He moves on to sanctification. We talked about sanctification here for a couple of verses. We get to love in verse nine and then the rest of chapter after verse 13 is about the coming. So, in verses two and three, he starts to dive into sanctification.

7:44 For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is that you abstain from sexual immorality that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. Sanctification, in just defining that word is set apart for divine use. We can define it that way. And let's not forget there are two different, I don't want say types of sanctification. There's two different kind of types.

8:15 There's our positional sanctification which is complete. So there's our sanctification that all believers, all regenerate born again believers have been set apart by God for the Lord's service. And this is perfect sanctification. It's complete sanctification. If we look at first Corinthians one and verse two, we see a reference to this.

8:45 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified, who have been past tense. So, it's done, it's over. Who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling. Another one we find in Hebrews ten ten, just to give you a couple references for these but there are more of them. Hebrews comes before James.

9:06 Hebrews ten ten, by this will we have been sanctified. It's the exact same that he uses in one Corinthians. It's the exact same words that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So that is our positional sanctification. It's done.

9:48 And this process, the process of sanctification is something that lasts for the rest of our lives. You know, till the believer's death or until Christ comes. That's the practical sanctification. That's what he's talking about here. So, the will of God that he says in verse three, your sanctification, and then he gives a specific area.

10:09 So, he starts talking about sexual sin. So, he's talking about our sanctification and working through our sanctification and working on our sanctification, specifically as it relates to sexual sin. Now, maybe he's writing this because this was a concern among the Thessalonian believers. I don't know for sure but we can possibly assume that based on the content of what Paul talks about in this letter, maybe those were the things that they needed a little bit of help on. And where are we here?

10:45 Okay. So, three and then into verse four, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification and honor. Now, the word vessel there is translated a couple different ways in the New Testament. One translation is wife. That's referred to in one Peter three:seven but that word is also used to describe the body, just the body in general.

11:10 Reference for that is two Corinthians four:seven. So, in the context, my personal standing is that it's just referring to your own body, not necessarily wife. That's just my take on it. You can go on both sides. But I think from the context here, he's saying that each of you know how to possess his own vessel, if it's your body, in sanctification and honor.

11:32 Not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. Inside the marriage relationship, lustful passion towards your spouse, it doesn't really mix with me. I don't think that's what he's talking about. We're supposed to have passion for our spouses. And the word that's used at the lustful passion is sort of a degrading, it's a negative sort of passion.

11:55 It's the one, the type of passion that you would have, what's the word? Infatuation with someone just who's not your spouse. So that's the kind of word this user. So I think he's just talking about your body. So he's talking about sexual sin and that we need to control our own bodies in that way.

12:20 So inside the marriage relationship then, if we're saying, if he's talking about sanctification and holiness and honor inside the marriage relationship, then he's talking about refraining from adultery, from sex outside the marriage and unfaithfulness. So, he's warning against that. And as it applies outside the marriage relationship, that would be any relations with anyone else outside when you're not married. So, he's indicating that sex is one of those things that's inside the marriage relationship. It's a beautiful thing created by God and it's for married couples.

13:02 And he gets a little bit even more specific here in verse six, And that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. So, not only is sexual impurity a sin against our own bodies, it's also a sin against the Holy Spirit. One Corinthians six eighteen, I'd like to turn there. Six eighteen, one Corinthians six eighteen, free, sorry, flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

13:50 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and that you are not your own? So sexual impurity is not against... It's not just our body, it's also sin against the Holy And as he's saying here in verse six, in committing adultery, if you had a sexual sin with someone who was married, so it's the sin against the other man or the sin against the other woman in that case. This applies to men and women. Of course, men are not the only ones as the media often portrays, that we're the only ones that cheat on their wives.

14:29 But women also, it's a prevailing thing in our culture. And so adultery, as it's sinning against another human being, is also, warned against. And we recognize that sexual sin is not usually persecuted in public courts. Today, it's not really a law that you can break. However, he says, for the Lord is the avenger in all these things.

14:56 So, the Lord will avenge those types of sin even if we aren't persecuted by the legal system. But we should control ourselves and abstain from sexual immorality, not only for our own sake and for God's sake, but for our own brother's sake. And verse seven, he says, why? For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So we're called to live lives of holiness, to live lives of sanctification, to live lives of purity.

15:33 When Paul says in one of his other letters, it's failing me now, but where he says that all things are permissible or all things are acceptable. I'm forgetting the word he uses there. But not all things are beneficial. So we are in this age of grace where we're not necessarily given a whole bunch of do's and don'ts. We're not supposed to, we don't have the law anymore.

15:55 And so we are under the age of grace. However, we have to remember that we're called to live a life of purity, a life of holiness, a life that is set apart from those that are in the world in the way that the world conducts themselves. We can remember Romans six :one. Paul says, So are we supposed to just go on sinning so that grace may increase even more? And he says, Absolutely not.

16:20 That is not the point. Of course, grace is going to increase. Grace, there's always sufficient grace. God always gives sufficient grace and the grace never ends. But that's no, that's not the reason that, you know, that's not to say that we just keep on sinning and it's going to be okay in the end.

16:36 That's not the point here. So we're called to live the lives of holiness, a life of holiness. Verse eight, keep this thing rolling here. Consequently, he who rejects this, this just meaning what's come before it. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

17:03 Paul's writing obviously with authority here. He's writing with the authority of an apostle and he's writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit as we understand it. And so, if those who reject this kind of teaching are not rejecting Paul, he's saying that you're not rejecting me, you're rejecting God Himself. You're rejecting the Holy Spirit and it's note that he uses the word Holy Spirit there. The spirit is not always the word holy does not always proceed spirit in the New Testament.

17:35 We understand it that way. But he's careful to say that as we're talking about holiness here in this life of holiness. He's pointing out it's the Holy Spirit. He who rejects this also rejects the spirit. Something else that we can note in these eight verses, as we're talking about sanctification, our progressive sanctification in our lives of holiness, that in these eight verses, actually seven if you don't count verse one, both God, not both, all three of the Trinity, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all referenced in these eight verses as they relate to our lives of holiness.

18:14 We have the Lord Jesus is in verse two, God the Father in verse three, and then He's talking about the Holy Spirit here. So, it could be He's trying to point out that all three of the Trinity are invested, are interested in, have a part in our sanctification process, in our lives. They all have a part. They've all been given to us. The Holy Spirit has been given to us and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have done their work and they're all invested in this.

18:46 So, we're not alone. And it's not just one of them. It's all three of the Trinity. It's the entire Godhead that is invested in this way. Interesting thing to note there.

19:22 So the life of love now that he gets to in verse nine. Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. So he says, we don't even need to talk about this, But I'll talk about it anyway. So, like he said at the beginning of the chapter, he's commending them on how well they're doing and how strong they are.

19:54 But that's not it. It's you've got to keep going. You've 've got to keep going. No, we don't have to talk about this. No, but you need some encouragement anyway.

20:03 That it's just we're the same way. We're such the same way. Nothing has changed from across cultures and how many couple thousand years. Nothing changes. As a Christian and you're working your way through life just because maybe you have a strength in this particular area as it relates to the Christian walk.

20:26 Maybe it is your love or your compassion for people just because you have it. It's just you've got to keep working at it. It's not something that you achieve. And maybe it does come easier to you, this particular thing, this particular fruit of the spirit maybe. But it doesn't mean that we can rest on our laurels there.

20:43 It's that you got to keep pushing on. You've got to keep trying, you got to keep trying, keep making it better. It's continuous effort. And he urges them to keep practicing in it. And let's see, to all the brethren who were in Macedonia, but we urge you brethren to excel still more, verse 11, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands just as we commanded you.

21:53 It can literally mean quiet a decibel level. It can literally mean that. It can also mean just as we can use the word quiet sometimes in English to not necessarily mean a decibel level, it can also mean a peaceful, a serenity sort of idea. So I don't think he's talking about a decibel level. So I think it's still okay to play loud music.

22:17 But he says to lead a quiet life and so if it's peaceable, you shouldn't play your loud music at 2AM with the windows open, okay? But I think the loud music's okay. So, I just saved myself. But we're supposed to live a life that is passionate towards other people, that is peaceable towards other people. You're not supposed to be egging people on.

22:43 We're not supposed to be the gossips and slanderers. You're living with neighbors on either side, unless you don't have neighbors on either side. But where we live in Parma, our neighbors are this far. That's it. My house and that's their house and it's about like that.

23:00 So, it's very, very close quarters and some of us in this room have the opposite of that. So, you have your own state there. But, we have neighbors near our homes. And how do we relate to those kind of neighbors? Those are the very closest ones, the ones that we interact with all the time.

23:20 Or it can also mean your coworkers. And so it's how you relate to those people. And you have to remember that we're on display for them. Whether or not those people know that we're a Christian, that we're a believer, they might just know that we're different or they might be totally oblivious. But it's to live that kind of peaceful life where you're not, don't be that annoying person.

23:48 Where are we? And attend to your own business and work with your hands just as we commanded you so that you may behave properly towards outsiders and not be in any need. So we're supposed to mind our own business. It doesn't mean that you're not supposed to be interested in other people's lives. It's not to mean that you're supposed to ignore everyone else.

24:06 It just means to not be, maybe don't be nosy. It's be invited. Don't invite yourself. It's be invited into someone else's life. Maybe there's someone who's going through something.

24:24 It could be anything, the death of a loved one or marital issues or issues with kids or... You don't know. I don't think we should be nosy into it. But if the Lord opens that door and said person invites you in, that's when we can take advantage of it. So, it's not to be ignorant or to ignore people, but we have to be sensitive to that and don't be the nosy and probe type.

24:52 Where are we here? Oh, and work with your hands just as we commanded you. So, we're supposed to be diligent there. Maybe he's... Paul is writing this in reference to what he talks about for the rest of the chapter, which is the second coming.

25:45 Maybe they had that kind of thinking and he's encouraging them to keep working with your hands. Do your work, work diligently and not be any need that you may behave properly towards outsiders and not be in any need. Provide for yourself, keep working as the Lord provides you with work. Sometimes the Lord puts us in places where we're out of employment and sometimes He puts you there for a reason, but I don't think He's talking about that. As far as is in your control, keep working, go to work, make a living, earn your money, earn your keep and support your family.

26:21 And what we can take out of that, like I said before, is that others are watching. So we're supposed to stay busy, supposed to work hard, be peaceable and be responsible. That's how it kind of worked its way out so that we may behave properly towards outsiders. How is the world perceiving us? Christians have a lot of negative rap for a variety of reasons.

26:45 And so we should strive to not give them something to encourage that idea. Give them something to make them think that yes, we're different, but it's a good kind of different and make them want what it is that we have. Verse 13, we changed subjects again and the rest of the chapter here is about the second coming, the Lord's coming here. So we'll get through as much as I've got and Brother Morris here will talk some more about this next week, I believe. Our hope.

27:50 Yeah. The believers that had believers that had died would not get to partake of the rapture and the second coming. Maybe that was part of their misunderstanding there. As we understand that Thessalonians was perhaps one of Paul's first letters, Maybe there wasn't a whole lot of talk about this previously. And so they knew that the Lord was coming again but you're a bit hazy on all the details.

28:22 Sleep of course only refers to the body and not to the soul. The soul does not sleep and we can reference the story in Luke six, it's six right, about the Lazarus and the dead man. Wow, Lazarus and the dead man. Lazarus and the other guy who both died, rich man, thank you, who both died. But then we read the story about them and their souls being in heaven and talking with Abraham and all this stuff.

28:52 So, you know, our bodies die but our souls do not. We can also look at two Corinthians five:eight when Paul says, when the believer dies he is with the Lord. He refers to that. He's present with the Lord. So your body is dead but the soul isn't.

29:10 Paul also talks about in Philippians one that to die is to be with Christ which is gain or better. However, he puts it there depending on a translation. But... So our bodies die but our souls do not and our souls go to be with the Lord, those of the believers. So there is no need for a hopeless grief or sorrow that those who do not have Christ can only have.

29:37 You can only have sorrow because there is nothing for them. Verse 14, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. I've got a quote here. The basis of our hope is in Christ's resurrection. Just as surely as He died and rose, so those who have died in Him will be raised to be with Him at His coming.

30:13 And as far as we get into some order of events here, and I think there's a couple of different ways to interpret some of this. When Paul says, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. I think there's two predominant ways that tends to get looked at. One is that at the rapture, God will raise the bodies of believers, and bring them back to heaven. That's the way I typically look at that verse.

30:46 But we can also, look at that as the bodies of believers are taken to heaven and then when Christ comes for His reign on earth, He will bring those bodies back with Him. So I think we can look at that a couple different ways. I don't think it matters a whole lot, but it's interesting to note that. Secondly, we get to verse 15, For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. So, Paul was given this information directly through the revelation of the Holy Spirit directly by God.

31:34 This isn't... If this is the first letter that was written, this isn't written anywhere before that. We don't have a lot of reference to this. Jesus talks about the end times a little bit in Mark, I believe. But I don't think we had this quite order of events.

31:49 And so those of us who are living, the Christians who are living at the time of the rapture will not have precedence over the believers who have already passed into glory. In verse 16, we get even more specific. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Like I said previously, maybe the Thessalonians were concerned about those believers who had died before the rapture that they were going to miss out on all of this in some way. They were going to miss something.

32:29 And so it's not, know, those of us that are alive, we're not going to get any preferential treatment over those who had died. The saints who have already died are a part of this too. So, first we have what happens first at the rapture is that there's... The Lord Himself will descend. He doesn't send an angel.

32:50 I mean, there's an angel that comes with Him, but the Lord Himself comes. And with the shout, and we can maybe think there's a couple of different ways of looking at these and interpreting these. The shout, is that the shout of Jesus which awakens the dead? I don't know. But there's the shout.

33:11 Is it the shout of the archangel? Does the archangel do the shouting? Don't really know it. I don't think it really matters that much. But the archangel there, which we can understand is Michael.

33:22 Michael is we read about in Jude, also in Daniel, the archangel being the chief angel. I think it's safe to assume here that he's talking about Michael. But Michael is significant here because Michael has very close connection with the Old Testament and the Old Testament saints. So the fact that Michael is here could indicate that the voice of the archangel is also awakening the Old Testament saints. And so you get into this, you know, whether the rapture includes the Old Testament, you know, all of the saints who died before Christ, whether or not they rise.

34:18 I think they do. That's my own personal take on it. But there's arguments on both sides of that fence. But what we should take from this is that it's not a general resurrection. It's not that everyone's going to be raised from the dead at this time.

34:38 Just the believers are. You can also look at the fact that he says that the dead in Christ shall rise first. So the dead in Christ, the Old Testament believers weren't technically in Christ the way we usually interpret it and understand it. So maybe those that are rising are really just the New Testament believers. Those that are post Christ, those of us who have been justified.

35:10 Verse 17, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. That the the verb there caught up is the the Greek word there that's used is it's a it's a sort of forceful snatching. It's not we're not we're not just kind of caught up. We just kind of float somewhere. It's kind of conveying this thought that Christ comes and and and he takes all the believers and and pulls them up.

35:45 I mean, it's it's it's not a really a gentle thing. It's it's come on, let's go. That's what it's kind of conveying here. Paul also references, and I think in Corinthians, that this happens in the twinkling of an eye or something like that. So this is kind of a quick rapid thing.

36:01 The Lord comes down, there's shouts, there's trumpets that go on and the believers that have died are caught up and then those that are alive are, let's go. They're snatched up. It's forcefully taken. And he says that we will ever be with the Lord. And 18, verse 18, Therefore comfort one another with these words.

36:27 So there was nothing for them to worry about. This rapture, the rapture that's taking place here is before the tribulation, I believe as we understand it. So those are the believers that are caught up. And then the Lord will of course return for His millennial reign on earth. That's afterwards.

37:13 In connection with Christ's coming, there is a sound to hear, a sight to see, a miracle to feel, a meeting to enjoy, and a comfort to experience. In connection with Christ coming, there is a sound to hear, a sight to see, a miracle to feel, a meeting to enjoy, and a comfort to experience. So I hadn't actually thought about what do I really take away from Chapter four. And I was asked that question in between meetings. And I have to say that what Paul's getting at here in Chapter four is that we need to keep going.

38:02 It's that it's you keep pushing on as it refers to our sanctification and our holiness, as it refers to our love, refers to our lives, as we relate to other believers, as it refers to the second coming of the Lord's coming again. It's that we need to keep working. We need to keep going. You keep pushing on. Could the Lord come back today?

38:25 Yes, I believe it could. Could it be a thousand years from now or more? Yep, I believe it could. But we need to we can't worry about the second coming, but neither should we put off other things in the name of saying, we have all this time here or nope, Lord's coming anyway, so none of this matters. Shouldn't have that kind of thinking.

38:48 It's push on, it's strive on. It's you keep doing it. What you're doing, you need to do it more. What you're doing okay, you need to do it better. What you're doing really well, need to make sure you're maintaining that and keep practicing it, keep doing it, keep pushing and keep following after the prize.

39:04 Let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time that we've had today to open your word and examine your scriptures. We ask that you would impart on us, that we would remember the things that the important things that you would have us to remember, that we would, apply these to our lives. We ask that you would bless us as we go today. In your son's name, amen.