The Gospel Duty

INTRODUCTION:

Interest:

This morning do you feel like you need encouragement? Do you feel down? Do you feel like your spiritual life is perpetually in dog-paddle mode? Or maybe you feel like you are not even dog-paddling spiritually, that you have a heavy weight around you and you are sinking quickly.

The truth of the matter is that we all will feel this way at various times. The Christian life is a life of struggle: struggle against our flesh and struggle against God’s enemy. That constant struggle can become exhausting and, when we slip and fall, discouraging. Sometimes what we need is others to come along and give us a push.

Illustration

It is a bit like my struggle with cholesterol issues. Over the past few years my numbers have been slightly higher than they should be. I know that the solution is to eat the right kinds of food and exercise more…but neither of those things line up with what I want to do most of the time. I like a lot of unhealthy foods and exercise isn’t generally in my top-10 favorite pastimes. Yet, I overall I do eat more carefully and exercise more often than I would choose because next week I once again have my annual doctor’s visit. I know that at that visit I will be brought face to face with reality again as far as my cholesterol numbers go. The constant knowledge that this visit is approaching every year serves to give me a push to do things that I’m not naturally inclined to do.

Involvement:

As we will see this morning, in the Christian life we are to serve as a similar kind of push in each other’s lives.

Context:

This morning, as you can see behind me on the screen, we are returning to our series through the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church. We broke off this series at the mid-point in this letter in November so that we could focus on the wonder Christmas holiday season. Last week we followed our annual tradition of starting the year out around the Lord’s Table, but this week we are coming back to this series. My intention, Lord willing, is for this to be the first of 10 sermons covering the final two chapters of this letter.

I know that it has been a almost 2 months, but hopefully you recall that we have been observing the Gospel Life Cycle as it has played out in the lives of the new-in-the-faith believers in Thessalonica. Maybe pulling up what is probably a somewhat familiar a map will help to jog your memory. Hopefully you are beginning to recall that during his second missionary journey, Paul, along with Silas and Timothy, had proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ in Thessalonica and been blessed to see a small group of new believers form a church in that city. Before that church could get very well established, though, Paul and the other men were forced to flee from the city under severe threat by a number of hostile Jews. Those Jews actually went on and followed the Paul and his fellow missionaries to Berea. This forced Paul to flee on to Athens. In Athens Paul eventually decided to send Timothy back to Thessalonica to check on the young believers they had left behind while he made his way on to Corinth. After some time, Timothy rejoined Paul in Athens and reported that the believers in Thessalonica were doing well, they were persevering in their young faith.

In the first three chapters Paul discussed his joy in Timothy’s report as well as his desire to see the Thessalonians again himself at some point. As we enter the second half letter today, we will begin to see that Paul will address some areas in which the young believers required further clarification. Since Paul was unable to return to Thessalonica at that time, this letter was to stand in his stead to instruct them in these areas.

As we have seen throughout our study of this book, we can be very grateful that Paul was hindered from going immediately to the Thessalonians. Paul observed in chapter 2 that Satan was behind the barriers that had prevented his desired return. We, though, can look deeper and appreciate the fact that God used Satan’s opposition to create the circumstances that resulted in this letter which has been so valuable to the church of Jesus Christ for the past two millennia. Satan may oppose God, but God ultimately rules over all and accomplishes His good purposes even through Satan’s opposition.

Preview:

This morning we are going to look at the first 2 verses of chapter 4. If you have your Bibles open to our verses already you can see that Paul begins with the words “finally then.” “Finally” may not be the best word to use to translate the original at this point…after all, there are still two chapters to go in a five chapter letter; we are really close to the end even though this is the final section in the letter. The words used in the original language have the meaning of moving on to what further needs to be said. Paul is not implying that he is coming to the end of his letter, but he is certainly shifting gears to talk about different things. The two verses we are going to look at this morning make this shift to the various topics that Paul will touch on in the remainder of the letter. I want to take these two verses separately though because there is a valuable lesson for us to learn from the way in which we see how Paul shift gears here, the lesson that It is our gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth.

Because the believers in Thessalonica are in the middle of the Gospel Life Cycle that we talked about in the first three chapters, Paul recognizes that he has a duty to them—a duty to push them to further spiritual growth. As I look around this room the same thing is true for all of us as well…we too are involved in the gospel life cycle. There are a few of you whose involvement is at the entry point to the cycle—you need to enter the cycle by accepting Jesus as your personal Savior which will bring spiritual life into your life. Until you place your faith in the finished work of Jesus, until you accept that Jesus died in your place for your sins as we have talked about many times over the past few weeks; you will not have any spiritual life…thus you will not be able to have spiritual growth. Still, your presence here this morning involves you in the gospel life cycle. And of course, you can change your status by accepting Jesus as your Savior today and I would once again urge you with all sincerity to do that very thing before you leave today…talk to me after the service about your need for Christ as Savior; I would love to share with you what the Bible teaches about salvation.

The vast majority of us, though, are somewhere in the middle of this gospel life cycle which means that we are in the midst of spiritual growth—the Bible likens us to babies when we first come to faith in Christ and we are instructed through its pages to continually grow spiritually. Yet, what is clear in the particular verses that we will look at in just a moment is that sometimes we all need a push in the spiritual growth department; we need someone to come alongside of us and give us a push. Friends, that is one of the primary roles we have toward one another within a local church…we have a gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth.

We will see in our verses, though, that coming alongside and giving each other pushes in spiritual growth does not necessarily mean that we should be what our culture would call pushy people. In fact, we should be far from that kind of characterization. We can extract three principles from our two verses that serve to clarify what kind of pushing we are to do in each other’s lives.

Transition from introduction to body:

Let’s take just a moment and read our verses together…<read 1 Thess 4:1-2>.

It is our gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth. If we have gospel life, then it is our gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth. But in what manner? Well, the first principle that we can take from this verses is that…

BODY:

I. Principle 1: We are to push each other spiritually with persistence

Push with persistence. Now that sounds kind of pushy, doesn’t it? But let’s see if we can’t clarify what persistence means by looking closely at what Paul says.

Notice that Paul begins by once again referring to the Thessalonians as brethren. This is a family term. Some modern English versions like the NIV try to make this aspect clear by translating the original word with the combination “brothers and sisters.” Paul has used this term several times already in this letter to remind the Thessalonians that he has tender affections for them. If you look throughout Paul’s letters you will find that Paul frequently uses it when is going to approach sensitive matters. Why is this?

Illustration

Well, let me use Grace as an example. Grace is able to point things out to me and criticize me about things without offending me when there is a good chance I would be offended if some other people said the same things. Why is that? Because I know that Grace loves me unconditionally and fully. When she criticizes me, I understand that she is doing it because she cares for me; she says things because she wants me to do well and to improve, not because she is trying to tear me down.

This word, this word “brethren” reminds the Thessalonians that everything that Paul is about to say is said out of live and is said because he wants the best for them.

Application

We need to remember that too. So, yes, we are to be persistent in pushing each other spiritually, but our persistence will be wrapped in an embrace of love. If we are not motivated by and communicating genuine affection in our efforts to push each other in further spiritual growth, then our efforts are worse than useless, they are sinful. We need to see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow-recipients of His blood-bought salvation and fellow-heirs of an eternal inheritance.

At the same time, notice also that Paul writes, “we request and exhort you.” These are words of persistence. The combination of them is rather interesting to think about. The two words can be used as somewhat synonymous in that both describe verbal efforts to extract actions from others, but there does seem to be a general difference in their common usage.

The first word, “request” is a gentle word. Many of the versions translate it as “ask.” It was a word that was generally used between people of equal rank and conveyed a friendly request. It would describe the kind of request that we might make around the dinner table when we ask someone to pass the potatoes.

The second word, “exhort,” is a must stronger term. It is frequently found to describe requests made by a person of higher rank to one of lower rank…think of teacher to a student. When a teacher asks a student if she would take a note down to the school office, it is not quite an order…the teacher doesn’t expect a response of, “Yes, sir.” But the teacher does expect that the student will undertake the action requested. When Paul uses this word “exhort,” it seems that he is bringing his apostolic authority into his plea.

The combination of these two words seems to suggest that Paul is using verbal persistence with the Thessalonians. He is not going to ignore the sensitive matters to follow. He even reminds that that he is doing this “in the Lord. Paul is using every tool in his verbal toolbox to try to get the Thessalonians to take the following matters seriously.

Illustration

Let’s go back to my relationship with Grace. I can assure you that she can be very persistent at times in some of the matters she brings to my attention. Because she loves me, she cares about getting me to see the things that I need to see so that I can change the things that I need to change. Sometimes she will express matters in very gentle terms. Sometimes, she will pull out the big verbal guns, strongly appealing to me as my wife. If she believes that a particular thing is going to harm me or hinder my goals, she will be very persistent.

Application

I’m pretty sure that you understand what I am saying; so let me ask you, how are we doing being persistent in pushing each other spiritually? From my observations, I would say our persistence is lacking. We often fail to move beyond the gentle request mode…we try to get someone to conclude that they should make spiritual changes by making very subtle statements…after all, we don’t want to offend, right? The problem is that frequently we are so subtle that we fail to communicate at all. There are times we need to lovingly exhort if we are going to be persistent.

I think we also tend to mention something once or twice and then throw up our hands and say, “Well, I’ve done my part.” Folks, if someone is not growing spiritually…then we have not done our part. We need to be persistent pushing each other in further spiritual growth.

Transition:

It is our gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth. Principle 1: We are to push each other spiritually with persistence. I would suggest that we need to work on our persistence as part of our gospel duty to one another.

Moving on to principle 2,…

II. Principle 2: We are to push each other spiritually with praise

We don’t see it so much in our English translations because our translators have done a good job at smoothing out verse 1 in English, but Paul makes a royal mess of his original grammar. He does that because he breaks off his sentence right after he states that he is going to tell them how they ought to walk and inserts the idea that he recognizes that they actually already living largely in ways that please God. In fact, this break was so messy that if you have a KJV or NKJV on your laps you don’t even see what I’m talking about because the phrase “just as you actually do walk” was removed. The reason that is was removed is a bit convoluted, but the fact is unfortunate because that phrase contains a valuable insight for us when it comes to our interaction with each other as we push one another to grow spiritually.

Paul is about to go into a number of things that at least some of the people in the church of Thessalonica need to change. There are problems in the church and these problems come because there are problems in the spiritual lives of some of the people. Remember, this is after all, a very young church. It is very unlikely that there was a single person in the church who had been a Christian for an entire year at this point; these were all babes in the faith. And yet, Paul stops himself before launching into the areas that needed addressing to give credit where credit was due—these people were in many, many ways striving to live lives that pleased God; they were taking the things that they had learned from Paul and Timothy and Silas and already making changes in their lives. They were not where they needed to be on some items, but they were progressing. Paul’s goal was to encourage them to press on, “to excel still more,” through what he writes…so before he makes any correcting statements, he praises them for their progress to date.

Application

We need to learn this principle. In our western culture we tend to be critical people; it comes very naturally to us to observe shortfalls in others…we may not necessarily point every one of them all out, but we certainly observe them…in fact, we tend to inwardly praise ourselves for our “restraint” when we don’t point out the shortfalls we see in others. And dare I say, we frequently make the shortfalls of others the object of our gossip. It really is not hard for us to observe when other people do not measure up to the level that we think they should be at spiritually.

At the same time, we are much less stellar when it comes to observing positive progress. How much time to we spend thinking about the work of grace that God has already done in the other people sitting around us at this very moment. How much praise to we give each other…and God…for the progress in the faith that others demonstrate.

Let’s be really clear about this point. None of us are where we need to be spiritually—not me and not you. There are things that we “ought” to do to please God…that word “ought” indicates that these things are our moral necessity as believers. And we all need to excel in them still more…and we will have this need until we reach glory and we will need the other people in this room to keep pushing us to do so. We have blind spots that we need pointed out. We have times of discouragement that we need pulled past. We have disappointments that need to be picked up from and carried forward. We need others to push us along the way so that we will continue the process of excelling still more.

At the same time, though, every single one of us who has genuine faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior has begun the process of changing to please God with our lives—we have begun the process of progressive sanctification. There can be no doubt about that because God promises that this process begins at the moment of our salvation; God promises that this process is done through the infinite power of the Holy Spirit; and God promises that He will not stop this process of sanctification until we receive our glorified bodies after this present life. We don’t need to wonder if spiritual progress is happening. What we need to do is to open our eyes to see it…and then to praise others for the progress already made as we draw alongside to push for continued progress.

Illustration

I remember when I worked in the business world being pushed one time by a supervisor when I was behind on a project. My supervisor began the conversation by saying, “You are one of my most valuable team members because you have delivered for me many times. You are also behind on this project. I need you to get it back on track. You need to put in the extra effort to make it happen.” I can assure you I found it much easier to work the extra hours for that supervisor than for other supervisors that I had who never gave me a word of praise of any kind.

The spiritual growth of the people sitting around us is far more important than any business-world project. We need to push each other with praise.

Transition:

Principle 2: We are to push each other spiritually with praise. We do this because It is our gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth.

One final principle this morning…principle number 3,…

III. Principle 3: We are to push each other spiritually with precepts

I almost feel like I should apologize for using the word “precepts” in this final point. Most of you have probably observed over the past 9 years that I am not an alliterating preacher…but occasionally I can’t help myself. When the first two points were “persistence” and “praise,” I just couldn’t help myself. I wouldn’t normally use a word like “precepts in my points, but I couldn’t bring myself to use the word “commandments” when another p-word was available. I trust you will forgive me for my alliteration lapse this morning.

For this final point we need to notice what Paul says in verse 2. Do you see that first word, the word, “for”? That word connects this verse with the previous verse; it tells us that this verse gives the reason for the previous verse…in other words; this is the reason that Paul is pushing the Thessalonians to excel still more. He is pushing them because the Thessalonians are receiving are commandments given by Paul with the authority of the Lord Jesus. These are not Paul’s or the other men’s personal views and opinions. These are commandments from Christ—they carry divine authority.

Of course, I have no doubt that the Thessalonians would recognize that commandments of Christ are binding upon them…and frankly on us as well. Because we have been purchased by the blood of Christ, we are under obligation to do as Christ says; we are, as Paul says in several other letters, now slaves of Christ. For that reason, the instructions that Paul is about to give are binding, he is writing as an apostle under divine inspiration.

Application

We need to observe this important distinction, though. The only things that we should be pushing each other on our the things that we can find in this book…things that either are directly stated here or are clear applications of the things stated here.

Illustration

What I mean by that is that we will not find any statement in the book that says we are to not watch internet pornography. But we are told to abstain from sexual immorality (in the very next verse, btw, which, Lord willing, we will look at next week) and a clear application of that command is that we are to not watch internet pornography which is modern manifestation of sexual immorality.

But let’s get back to the distinction that I am making. The things that we are to be pushing each other on are the things that God commands us to do and not do. This means that we must discipline ourselves to not do two things which we are sometimes prone to do. First of all, we are not to be pushing each other about our personal opinions. Let’s be honest, for many of us it is easier to get worked up over things that we have personal opinions on than it is over things that we ourselves are struggling to do that we know we ought to do. Secondly, we are not to push each other about the things that we think this book says; we need to really know what is in it for us to be able to do our duty of pushing each other spiritually.

Transition from body to conclusion:.

It is our gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth. We are to push each other spiritually with precepts—precepts from our Savior, Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

It is our gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth. Let’s go back to where we started out this morning; do you feel discouraged spiritually? If so, you need one of the people sitting around you to come alongside you and give you a spiritual push.

Look around. Do you know people well enough to know if they might be discouraged? You should. Do you know someone who needs spiritual encouragement? As we have seen, you have the responsibility to give them a spiritual push. Do you see others who seem to be doing ok spiritually? Well, those people too need you to come alongside and push them in further spiritual growth. This is our gospel duty toward each other.

Of course, as we have seen this morning, we must provide our spiritual pushing in the right way. We have seen observed three principles that should guide us as we come alongside each other:

Principle 1: We are to push each other spiritually with persistence. Don’t give up on each other.

Principle 2: We are to push each other spiritually with praise. God’s grace is at work in all of us.

Principle 3: We are to push each other spiritually with precepts. God’s word provides the framework for our spiritual interaction with each other.

It is our gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth. Let’s allow God to use us in His gospel life-cycle. Let’s be involved in each other’s lives as part of our gospel duty.

It is our gospel duty to push each other in further spiritual growth.