Sermon Tone Analysis

I Thessalonians 4:1-8

 

! Introduction

            One summer, we were enjoying ourselves at the lake.

Someone said, let’s go for a walk down the beach.

So we got up, headed for the shoreline and started walking down the beach.

Where were we headed?

No where in particular.

How did we prepare for this walk, did we break in a pair of hiking boots or carefully put on socks and shoes?

We didn’t, we just walked barefoot.

The adventure was unplanned and aimless.

Recently, a friend of ours hiked the Pacific Rim Trail in BC.

He planned and prepared.

He examined the starting point and the destination on a map.

He prepared footwear, clothing, food and all other gear.

He knew where he was going and was careful in how he hiked the trail.

If, in your life, you are taking a walk down the beach without any destination in mind, it doesn’t really matter how you go, but if you have decided that you are going to heaven, how you walk, or live your life now is very important.

Last week, we noted the wish prayer of Paul in which he prayed for the Thessalonians that they would increase in love for each other and that they would be strengthened to be blameless and holy.

To summarize, he wants them to learn, “how to live in order to please God” as he says in 4:1.

He goes on to expands on the two themes mentioned in the wish prayer.

In 4:3-8, he expands on the call to be holy and in verses 9-12 he expands on the call to love one another.

There is a transition that takes place in 4:1.

Up to this point, he has reflected on his relationship to them, on the relationship they have to the Lord and on his concern for them.

Now he becomes specific as he begins to teach so that he can fulfill what he mentioned in 3:10 and that is to “supply what is lacking in your faith.”

It isn’t that they haven’t been doing these things.

He recognizes that they have been living in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, but with the teaching that is now coming up in the rest of the book, he is simply encouraging them to, as he says in 4:1, “do so more and more.”

As he instructs them, he does not demand anything, but uses two words to urgently encourage them to do what is the best thing to do.

He continues his role as a parent, lovingly encouraging his children to obedience.

As he does so, he assures them that his instructions are not human instructions, but they come to them, and to us, by the authority of the Lord.

!

I. Living To Please The Lord.

!! A. God’s Will

            Have you ever asked yourself, “I wish I knew what God’s will was.”

The implication is that if we know it, we will do it.

I suspect that most of us have wished that we could have a revelation that was as clear as God’s will revealed to Moses at the burning bush or to Gideon.

In this passage, we are told what God’s will is in clear and simple terms.

There is a concept in mathematics that deals with sets and subsets.

It can be illustrated like this.

Overhead on sets and subsets.

All the people in the church building on Sunday morning during the Sunday School hour is the set.

The subsets of all those people are each class.

If we apply that mathematical concept to this text of scripture, we begin with the set of what is God’s will.

There are a lot of things that are God’s will - it is God’s will that people accept his gift of salvation, it is God’s will that his church be built and do on.

These are all subsets of the set that defines God’s will.

Another subset of God’s will is that which is defined here.

Verse 3 says, “it is God’s will that you should be holy.”

Verse 7 reiterates, “God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.”

!! B. Be Holy

            Three times in this passage, we are told to be holy.

In verse 3, 4 & 7.

The word holy means “set apart.”

It means that we are not like other people.

How did we come to be different?

Because God has forgiven our sins, we are made holy.

Even though that is true, we still need to put in an effort to be holy.

How do we understand holiness in our lives?

Holiness means to be set apart in every part of our being.

First and foremost, we need to be holy in our hearts.

Holiness of heart means that we worship God alone.

Holiness singleness of direction.

That one direction, once we have chosen to follow God is towards God.

In Exodus 20:1-5, this kind of holiness is described: “I am the LORD your God, …You shall have no other gods before me….You shall not bow down to them or worship them.”

I Peter 3:15 says, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.”

If there is anything we worship other than God, we are not holy in our hearts.

Holiness also means that we have a pure mind.

Any thought which is not conformed to Christ is a thought which violates the holiness of God in us.

Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Furthermore, holiness means being pure in our physical bodies.

Our physical bodies are not irrelevant.

Jesus was raised up physically and so will we be.

To separate what happens in our bodies and think that it doesn’t matter is a violation of God’s holiness in us.

To be holy in our body means that we do nothing to violate the purity of our body.

This would include overindulgence in anything and harmful habits like smoking and so on.

!! C. Avoid Sexual Immorality

            The large set is God’s will.

A subset of God’s will is that he calls his people to be holy.

But this passage goes one step further in presenting a subset of holiness.

It calls for the Thessalonians to “avoid sexual immorality” in 4:3.

We do not know exactly why Paul focuses specifically on this aspect of holiness.

We already know that he did not have much opportunity to finish teaching them everything Jesus commanded.

Furthermore, there were values in their culture and in their background related to sexuality that needed to be reformed into the image of Christ.

One writer describes the culture in which they had grown up: “The professional “friend” became a common figure in Greek society, and since intercourse was regarded as just as natural as eating and drinking, extramarital affairs were permitted for husbands.

Yet excess was censured, and Plato defended intercourse with harlots only as long as it is secret and causes no offense.

Demosthenes apparently said, “We keep mistresses for pleasure, concubines for our day-to-day bodily needs, but we have wives to produce legitimate children and serve as trustworthy guardians of our homes.”

This was not the view of all people in the Greek nation at that time.

Stoicism condemned and resisted extramarital intercourse, even with female slaves.

They believed that by unclean acts a person defiled the deity within.

Chastity was extolled and adultery regarded as unlawful and infamous.

Yet the view held by Plato and Demosthenes was common enough that we can surmise that sexual morals were quite loose and that may be why Paul had to teach these Gentile believers what it meant to live in holiness.

When the Jerusalem counsel, in Acts 15, dealt with how the Gentiles were to behave now that it had been demonstrated that they were also welcome in the kingdom of God, the letter they sent to the Gentile churches dealt with this issue and counseled in Acts 15:20, “…we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, and so on.”

Paul was simply carrying out this instruction from the home church in Jerusalem when he called them to this aspect of holiness.

When we look at the values of our society, it is clear that we need to make comments about this aspect of holiness again today.

Our society does not frown on sex before marriage and is quite tolerant of pornography.

When we realize that, and understand that we are to be different, it is important to be reminded once again that we are called to holiness.

!

II.

How Can We Be Holy?

It is God’s will that we be holy.

But, the temptations to unholiness around us answer so readily to the desires of our heart, mind and body.

How is it possible to be holy?

Although I Thessalonians 4:4 is translated in different ways, I believe that the NIV translation is probably best considering the context and provides us with direction in answering the question of how.

Paul says, “each one should learn to control his own body”

!! A. Know Yourself