"More and More"_I Thessalonians 4a_Oct 18 2020

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Walking closer and closer to Jesus is his ongoing will for us

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The Text

Continuing our series: "Becoming a Church of Faith, Hope, and Love"

Bibles: I Thess 4

My message today is called “More and More”

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Today, we’re going to look at I Thess 4:1-12

This is the first half of Chapter 4 (12 verses)

We’re going to look at sanctification - and what that means

God’s will for our life

We’re going to look at what is our identity in Christ

But the most important theme: Walking closer and closer to Jesus is his ongoing will for us

I Thess 4 - here’s the first 12 verses:

English Standard Version Chapter 4

A Life Pleasing to God

4 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. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 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. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

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, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Pray...

So far in I Thess -

Chapter 1:

Paul’s use of “gospel” - barely get through the 3rd sentence

Paul uses “gospel” eight times in I & II Thessalonians

How this church of former pagans are now spreading the gospel - and were a great influence on other churches

Paul stresses that it’s more than a doctrine - but that it came to them in the power of the Holy Spirit

And ultimately we need to just trust in Jesus

This church experienced suffering while serving Christ - and Paul suffered serving Christ

This church of faith hope and love is a great example for our church

I get that from what Paul said about them in 1:2 - “your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Chapter 2:

We looked at what true discipleship looks like

That Jesus not only wants to to make disciples, but to teach them to live godly lives in this world

And how Chapter 2 is Paul’s example to that church, and to us, how to engage in discipleship

Chapter 3:

The love chapter!

We learned to: Love unbelievers - Love with the right motives - Love, encourage, and instruct other believers

And now we come to Chapter 4

Look at verse 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.”

Paul is urging this church to take everything they’ve been taught - continue to walk with Jesus - but do it more and more

Don’t stop - keep pushing towards Jesus

Don’t change a thing - except do it more and more

Notice he even uses the phrase, “we ask and urge you” - he’s pleading with them to get this - for them to do “more and more”…strong request

The thing you’ve been doing well - the wonderful way you serve the Lord - the way we taught you…keep doing it

More and more

Don’t stop

He’s giving them great encouragement - he taught them how to obey - they’re doing the right thing - just keep doing a lot more of the same thing

This isn’t his way of saying, “Maybe one of these days you’ll get it right” - he’s saying. “You’re doing it right already - just keep on truckin’”

Keep walking closer and closer to Jesus - keep chasing after Jesus

And I love his use of “more and more”

ESV - he used it five times:

2 Cor 4:15

Phil 1:9 “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more”

I Thess 4:1 [this verse]

I Thess 4:10

2 Tim 2:16

When he says, “more and more” - it has nothing to do with “you’re not doing it right”...

Notice how he addressed them at the beginning of the verse - as brothers

Paul speaks to them as “brothers” or “brothers & sisters” over and over - 24 times in I Thessalonians!

Verse 9: “brotherly”

He even first calls himself like a mother - and then like a father (Chapter 2)

This is language that points to their identity - they’re now adopted children into God’s family

Not universal family - God’s family - the children God has called

We are God’s children through his adoption - God chose us

You gotta have faith to be part of this family

And then in verse 3 he mentions sanctification and abstaining from sexual immorality

In the church: two extremes on sexual immorality:

Christians are good people and would never get caught up with that stuff

[Story about youth pastor & hide-n-seek in the dark]

Sexual immorality is no big deal - we have grace

It’s not clear how much this sin was present in this church

All it says is for them to “abstain” from sexual immorality

Later, in Chapter 5 he says, “Abstain from every form of evil”

But it is clear that sexual immorality was a big deal in First Century Macedonia

And Paul was warning them to not be conformed by the world

Probably the most popular question a pastor will get: “How do I know God’s will for me?”

I usually ask, “Do you really want to know? Are you sure?” - Then I tell them to read the Bible

Look how verse 3 starts off: “For this is the will of God”

This is your sanctification

Stay away from sexual immorality

Rom 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

In other words -

You can’t even understand God’s will unless you’re allowing God to renew your mind

And you can’t allow God to renew your mind if you’re being conformed by the world

And if you’re engaged in sexual immorality, you’re conforming to the world - which means you’re mind is not being renewed by God - which means you can’t know his will

Let’s come back to all this in a moment

Back to verse 3 of I Thess - Paul says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification”

That’s a big, churchy word: sanctification

All it means is that the Holy Spirit sets you apart to be holy

I want to know - set apart for what?

When the Bible talks about being set apart - it often also uses the word consecrated - which refers to being set apart to serve the Lord

When you got saved, God justified you (as righteous) - he redeemed you (by giving you eternal value) - and he sanctified you

God made you holy in order to serve him

There’s a big debate with theologians:

Is sanctification instant?

Or is it an ongoing process?

I believe, in a sense, it’s both instant & an ongoing process

Most instances in the Bible: it’s instant at the time you become a Christian:

I Cor 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God

Acts 20:32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

I Cor 1:30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption

But there is also a sense in which we grow into sanctification - which is really spiritual growth

God has called us to holiness - our life in him should be spent growing into who we already are

Sanctification says: “You’re holy - start living like it”

Let me give you an example:

(Story about my kids being born - not breathing to forever breathing)

It’s like our life before Christ - our life in sin - imagine that it was like living as a fish

Before you were saved: You swam in the murky waters - only able to breathe through your gills

When you got saved - you became a new creature in Christ - imagine as a new creature, you now have air-breathing lungs

You were instantly given lungs to breathe - you were instantly changed from gills to lungs - you were sanctified

But you struggle with that change all your life

You know that God has called you to live on dry land - but sometimes you’re tempted to go swim in the murky waters

After all - everyone else is swimming in those waters

So you go swim in the waters - trying to breathe oxygen through your non-existent gills

But that doesn’t work very well - so you feel bad and sit in shallow water, feeling like a failure

All the time, the Lord is encouraging you to get out of the dark waters and live freely as a land creature because he’s given you lungs

But you struggle with God and don’t allow him to renew your mind - so you live your life more as an amphibian - half in the water, half on dry land

You swim in the dark waters all week - and then dry yourself off before going to church

You’re already a land creature - you’ve been sanctified - but the “process” is living like an amphibian but living more and more like Jesus

The process is realizing more and more that you are a new creature in Christ

The process is knowing that there’s nothing there for you in those murky waters

There’s a chilling verse in Acts 7

Stephen’s speech…before the Jews…laying out the history of the Jews

And he comes to the part in Exodus where the people rebel against Moses and against God (golden calf)

And it says in verse 39 “…and in their hearts, they turned to Egypt”

Don’t turn to Egypt - don’t turn to the murky waters again - there’s nothing there for you!

Start serving Jesus

Every Christian is perfectly sanctified in God’s eyes - we’re also perfectly justified in his eyes (he sees us as perfectly righteous)

So if you’re sanctified - then you’re set apart to serve the Lord

There’s no waiting period

I love the story of the woman at the well in John 4

She encounters Jesus and has a conversation with him

In the course of the conversation, the woman realizes that Jesus is the coming Messiah

She believes in Jesus - and immediately drops her water jar and becomes Billy Graham in her hometown

And the Bible says that “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony” [John 4:39]

If you’re a Christian - what are you waiting for?

Serve God! Now!

And don’t be conformed to the world

If you got major sin in your life - you can’t serve God

But let me say this - if you’re a Christian who is walking with sin -

The goal is not for you to step away from your ministry because you’re in sin

The goal is go back to walking with the Lord

I understand there’s a time for a person to step down from ministry

But sometimes in the church, we focus too much on that

When we should all just focus on Jesus - that’s God’s will for us...

Stay away from that junk in the first place

Spurgeon: “You cannot become a great Christian—you may be a babe in grace, but you never can be a perfect man in Christ Jesus while you yield yourself to the worldly maxims and modes of business of men of the world. It is ill for an heir of heaven to be a great friend with the heirs of hell. Even small inconsistencies are dangerous.”

The Thessalonian church was in a tough spot

These folks used to be pagans - they didn’t know the first thing about serving Jesus

But then they believed the gospel - they became air breathers for Jesus

They became strong in the Lord and they were a great influence to others

But there were two things they faced:

Persecution from the Roman government

Temptation from the sensuality of the day

We’re in a similar situation today

Christians don’t have time to mess around - we’re here on Earth to serve Jesus - and to bring other “murky-water fish” to also serve Jesus

This is what Romans 13 says, starting in verse 11: This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

I know there are some who are listening to this and thinking, “I’ve been trying hard for years to kick this habit”

All I can say is stop trying hard

Pas Willie - Set Free in CA: “I’ve seen many chase after sobriety and lose it - I’ve seen many more chase after Jesus and keep him”

We don’t have any time left - we need to chase after Jesus

Realize your new identity

Realize God’s love for you

That he loves you as he loves Jesus

That he loves you the same when you’re in the middle of sinning - as when you’re singing hymns in church

There’s no freedom in trying hard to dazzle God - there should never be a struggle to make God love you more

I became a Christian…8 years old…when I was a teenager, I thought God punished me and loved me less when I sinned

The freedom comes from resting in his love - and allowing him to increase your love

Chapter 4 comes on the heels of, what I think, is the most important verse in this book:

I Thess 3:12-13 may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

As I close - notice verse 5 - Paul is telling us to not hang out in the “passion of lust like the Gentiles”

These folks were Gentiles! But not according to Paul - they were new creatures in Christ - they were adopted brothers & sisters in God’s family

That’s who you are! That’s your new identity

But notice in verse 6 - that all this impurity leads to harming your brother - which is really what sexual immorality does

I want to close with these last verses of this section - as I read it, keep in mind how it relates to the last part of Chapter 3: may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all

I Thess 4:9-12 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, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

If I’m chasing after Jesus - if I understand I’m a new creature in Christ - and if I’m busy loving others more and more - I aint got no time for other junk in my life!

Allow God to sanctify you fully - stop thinking it’s up to you - rest in Jesus and allow him to do his work in you

Isaiah 66:17 Those who ‘consecrate’ and ‘purify’ themselves in a sacred garden with its idol in the center—feasting on pork and rats and other detestable meats—will come to a terrible end,” says the LORD.