1 Thessalonians 4:3 - Your Sanctification - a Christmas Perspective

J Patrick McDonald

1 Thessalonians • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

1 Thessalonians 4:3

Sanctification

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Transcript

For this is the will of God, your sanctification

Target Date: Sunday, 25 December 2022

NOTES:

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Thoughts on the Passage:

Lightfoot suggests that the article is omitted because the will of God is wider than “your sanctification”

But the will of God for his people is not wider than their sanctification; his will is precisely that they should be holy, as he himself is holy

‘Thus you shall be holy to Me, for I Yahweh am holy; and I have separated you from the peoples to be Mine. - Leviticus 20:26

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:22-23

But you are A CHOSEN FAMILY, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. 11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul, 12 by keeping your conduct excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good works, as they observe them, glorify God in the DAY OF VISITATION. – 1 Peter 2:9-12

Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless - Ephesians 5:25-27

Sanctification – separation, yes. But more than that: It is to be set apart for GOD’S USE.

Sermon Text:

We are gathered together, church, on this Christmas morning.

For some of us, it may have already been a struggle to separate the kids from the gifts they have received.

For some of us, it may be a current struggle to separate our minds from the celebrations and needs of the remainder of the day to worship God in this short hour.

Something to the effect of “I hope the preacher doesn’t go long this morning” has probably been recited from many homes around the world today.

And many have, perhaps reluctantly, been urged by spouse, parent, or friend to worship God with His church this morning rather than staying home to work on Christmas dinner.

Martha did something like that –

Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the preparations alone? Then tell her to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, 42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” - Luke 10:40-42

So for those who are here this morning, I applaud you for overcoming the temptation to let the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ eclipse the worship of the Risen Christ.

I still remember when I first heard the Christmas slogan “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.”

It was the title of a Christian rock song released in 1985;

I was working as a DJ for the campus radio station, and we were encouraged to play it on the air.

By the next Christmas, the merchandising of the phrase had made it appear everywhere.

For some, it is a good and timely reminder to avoid being pulled into the spectacle and materialism of the Christmas holiday.

We often need reminders like that.

Reminders not to get too bent out of shape when the sweet potato casserole is undercooked in the middle.

Reminders to cherish the children even when they are being REALLY loud, playing with their outside toys in the house because it is so cold outside.

But for all the good reminders, it is not enough to simply remember this holiday to adore the baby in the manger.

The most important thing about Christmas is to ask WHY God sent Jesus into the world in the first place.

It is that answer that leads us to God’s grace and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We can see it succinctly put in our passage for today, the first half of 1 Thessalonians 4:3:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification

We might be apt to read over this; it seems so familiar.

And in the rest of the chapter, Paul and Silas go back over some of the commands of Jesus they had delivered to this young church.

But in our short time together this morning, let’s look just at this remarkable statement:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification

First, let’s all remember what the word “sanctification” means.

It means to be set apart, made holy, to be separated from the common or the vulgar.

But even more than what we are set apart FROM, it tells us what we are set apart TO: God’s use.

You see how that distinction makes all the difference?

If you see your sanctification as only separating you from the fallen things of this world, it can lead us to be haughty.

Like the Pharisee in Luke 18 who prayed and thanked God he was not like the “sinners” around him: he had been set apart from them.

If we see ourselves as simply separated FROM the world, we might begin to judge them, thinking that their sin is worse than ours.

Seeing their “big” sins as something foreign to us.

But sanctification is not just separating you from the evil of the fallen world, that is PART of it:

it is setting you apart for God’s use in the service of His gospel.

If you have some time this holiday, go back and read Leviticus and notice how the sanctified items in the tabernacle were to be kept.

The lamps, the priests, their garments, even the bread for the table in the tabernacle – everything was ALREADY separated from the common use of the world.

But God gave very specific instructions how those items and men were to be used in His service.

Sanctification is not ONLY about removing, killing, mortifying sin in your life;

It is also, perhaps even primarily, about being useful to Him in the progress of the gospel.

And not even on OUR terms:

God declares what the use of His servants will be, not the servant himself or herself.

We are subject to His sovereign will.

And if we balk at His will, how are we any better than the pagan who rejects Him outright?

There are many who would say they want to be sanctified, set apart for God, but who then add HOW they will be useful to Him.

Who is the more faithful servant: the one who teaches in front of people or the one who quietly cultivates a relationship with God in prayer without a mortal person ever hearing them?

The answer: it is impossible to tell who is more faithful.

The servant is faithful, sanctified, when they are being put to the use God has for them NO MATTER WHAT it is.

Leave behind the desire for others to NOTICE your holiness or your faithfulness, even for the “best reasons”;

Be willing to be entirely used by God in ANY WAY HE DESIRES.

Only in that way does sanctification progress.

Where it is as if we have written on our foreheads “Holy to the LORD”.

Because that is God’s will for us – a holy people.

A people dedicated completely to Him.

Peter describes believers in that very way:

You see that Peter calls on believers not only to abstain from the sins of the pagans around us,

But to also “keep our conduct excellent”, that is, to be used by God in a holy way among the Gentiles.

Why do we turn the other cheek? Because it will teach the other person a lesson better than opposing them with force?

No. We turn the other cheek because the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but are mighty through God.

We turn the other cheek because we don’t do things the way the Gentiles do them; we do them God’s way.

Just because we LIVE in a fallen world does not mean we are OF the fallen world.

We are sojourners; we are exiles.

If we are in Christ, we are foreigners in this world.

We are ambassadors, emissaries, of God through Jesus Christ, declaring the word of His good news:

God is declaring that all people everywhere should repent and turn to Jesus Christ for their salvation.

We are God’s holy people; a people set apart to do things God’s way.

That is what God has always desired: people set apart to Him.

He could love them, fellowship with them.

He would be their God, and they would be His people.

But sin disastrously ripped us away from God, making us unworthy and unable to be in His presence.

He could have given up on us, writing us off and judging us guilty, condemning us to His eternal punishment.

He would have been perfectly right to do so.

We deserve every punishment God could hand out.

We are sinful;

First in our very nature, we are born in sin as children of fallen parents.

But then each one of us has turned away from God in our own will.

Corrupting even the good things we might do by doing them for our own reasons and by our own will.

You see how that is different from the holy vessels God made us to be?

Doing His work for His purposes?

So, from the very beginning, God, in His love and mercy, began His redemption of His people.

He gave the Law through Moses, but it was just a first step.

Yes, the Law tells us what God requires.

But by doing so, it proves to us one thing: we are incapable of doing it.

Were it not for God’s mercy, we would all break to pieces upon His good Law.

He sent the prophets, who called the people at specific times back to obedience to God.

And even the ones who were listened to were not listened to long.

Because we loved our will, we loved our sin.

We loved to be the ones who were worshiped.

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. – Hebrews 1:1-2

So this baby born in the stable, laid in a manger, declared by angels, magi, shepherds, priests, and saints to be the Son of God in the flesh, meaning He was God in the flesh,

This baby, when He was grown, completed the promise of salvation God had given from the beginning of time.

Although Jesus was born, He was not CREATED:

John 3:17 – God did not SEND His Son into the world to condemn the world…

Jesus was SENT into the world, existing eternally prior to becoming flesh and being born in Bethlehem.

And when He had come into the world, he came to SAVE His people from sin.

Not just to wipe out the guilt of your sin, but to deliver you from it.

Put another way, as we have seen this morning:

If you are in Christ,

Jesus Christ retrieved you from your uselessness to God, your base vulgarity, your fleshly pollution,

And He made you into someone who is holy to God,

The filth removed.

Your substance made clean.

And He made you useful to God in His work.

He paid the debt, took the punishment for your sin,

And gave you His righteousness.

For the first time in history, it is, through faith in Jesus Christ, possible to please God.

Possible to be holy people in His hands.