2020 Vision: Build Up the Church (1 Thess. 5:8-11)

2020 Vision:
“Building Up the Church”
1 Thessalonians 5:8-11

INTRODUCTION:
As of this date, the Swartz Creek church of Christ has not assembled in our full capacity in three weeks, three Sundays. The first Sunday we had this coronavirus issue, we had many of our members who stayed home out of health concerns and that’s understandable. Now we all have been placed under quarantine for the immediate future. We do not know how long this quarantine will last and that ignorance, the “I don’t know”, part is about as scary and frustrating as anything. If the government could give us some time frame - “After three weeks, we’ll be back to normal,” or “After three months, we’ll be back to normal” - it would be easier to handle. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel. As it is, we just have to be patient and see what happens. Of course we know there’s an end to it; we just don’t know when.

So we are all impacted. Most businesses are closed. Some of us are working from home; some of us are laid off. Some are not getting paid. Many are concerned about getting the virus; some are worried they will get the virus. But, as I mentioned last week, when I call our own members, I am encouraging by our congregations’ faith. “God is going to get us through this,” many of you have said. I am encouraged by our congregations’ love. You are checking on each other and I am sure you are checking on your neighbors and friends, especially the elderly and the shut-ins. I am encouraged by your works. You are providing supplies for others; you are delivering supplies for others. You are sharing supplies with others.

A crisis like this will bring out the bad in some people but it brings out the good in many, if not most, people. Many of you have said, “I miss my church family. I can’t wait to see my church family again.” How is life going to be like when we do get back together again? Will we go back to normal? Back to the way we were before? Or, will we be closer? Have we missed fellowship enough that we will do more to have more fellowship when we get back together? Are potluck meals going to mean more to us? Are we going to get more involved in the work of the church, like Vacation Bible School, because working together in the church means more to us?

This all ties in with the lesson I want to present this morning, which is a part of my 2020 series: 2020 Vision. Who is the Swartz Creek church of Christ and what are we about? What is our vision for ourselves? What do we want to look like over the next two decades, the next twenty years?

I have given you a definition of the Swartz Creek church of Christ that I wrote myself, based on what Scriptures teach. “The Swartz Creek church of Christ exists, by the blood of Jesus, to share the gospel with the lost, strengthen the weak, encourage the members, and worship God, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

For the first three months of this year, we have taken a theological look at “Vision 2020.” That is, we have seen that we need to focus on:

We should honor God.
We should glorify Jesus Christ.
We should follow the Holy Spirit.

This morning, I want us to turn our attention to the practical side of Christianity, how we are to live as individuals and as members of the local congregation. Today’s vision will be focused on that statement underlined in my definition: We are to encourage each other.

In this study, I want to “camp out” in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Let’s take a look at Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians…

Let me give you some background, first. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were preaching the Gospel and they cast a demon out of a slave girl. Her owners had some political influence and had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown in jail. When they got out of jail, they were begged to leave the city, so the men went down to Thessalonica where they preached the gospel there as well, in Acts 17. After a month or so, Jewish opposition again forced Paul and Silas to leave. They went to the village of Berea but Paul was very concerned about the Christians in Thessalonica so he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to see about the Christians there, while Paul went on down to Athens. By the time Paul left Athens, Timothy was able to catch up with Paul in Corinth and Timothy told Paul what was going on with the Christians in Thessalonica so Paul sat down and wrote this letter to the Christians there.

And Paul illustrates for us what it means to “build up the church.”

ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER:
First, Paul tells the church that he prayed for them on a frequent basis (1:2). In 2:13, Paul alludes to his prayers for the Christians a second time, saying he was thankful that the people of Thessalonica received his preaching, not as being from men, but as being from Jehovah God.

Second, Paul encourages them by praising their “work of faith,” their “labor of love,” and their “steadfastness of hope” (1:3). In 3:6, after Timothy returns to Paul and Silas in Corinth, Timothy tells Paul what is happening in Thessalonica; he tells about their faith and love, and that they “think kindly of” Paul and Silas. Paul tells them in 3:7 that he and Silas were “comforted about them through their faith.”

In 3:10, Paul tells them that he prayed to see them again soon so he could complete what may be lacking in their faith. I believe Paul is referring to what may be lacking in their knowledge which is the foundation of their faith. In other words, they needed more teaching on certain subjects that would strengthen their faith. Faith is based on knowledge; faith comes by hearing the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17) so they needed more knowledge in order to strengthen their faith.

In the next paragraph, 3:11-13, Paul prays for their love for each other, that it will “increase and abound,” but not just for each other, but for all the lost in their community. Paul also prayed that God will “establish their hearts without blame in holiness” (3:13) when Jesus Christ returns.

Speaking of their love for one another, that love is the subject of Paul’s paragraph in 4:9-12. Paul tells them they don’t need Paul to tell them to love one another. First, God has taught them already to love one another. Secondly, they were already loving one another! So, Paul says, “excel still more.” Keep doing what you are doing!

Paul also rejoices that God has “chosen” them to be His children (1:4). We are God’s children. God cares for us and God is working to do for us what is in our best interests.

Life was not easy for the Christians in Thessalonica. In 1:6, Paul says they had received the Gospel message “in much tribulation.” But they had also received it “with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” The Thessalonian Christians were persecuted by their own countrymen (2:14), that is Jews, in Thessalonica just like Christians in and around Jerusalem.

Paul and Silas had been persecuted for preaching the Gospel in Philippi, before they came to Thessalonica (Acts 16) and Paul refers to that persecution in 2:2. But, Paul and Silas still preached the word with “boldness in our God… amid much opposition.”

Despite the persecution the Christians were experiencing, they still did what they could do to share the Gospel with the lost, including their own persecutors! Paul writes in 1:8 that the “word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth!”

Because of the persecution that Paul had experienced and the persecution the Thessalonian Christians were experiencing, Paul writes in 2:7, that he and Silas were “gentle” with the Thessalonians, “as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.” Paul loved the Thessalonians, even if he had not met them yet, so that he shared the gospel with them, but not the gospel only, but Paul, Silas, and Timothy offered their lives in service to the Thessalonian Christians (2:8).

The attitude and spirit of Paul’s preaching and teaching are also found in 2:11-12, where Paul says that the missionaries were “exhorting and encouraging and imploring each of them as a father would his own children, so that they would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls them into His own kingdom and glory.”

WALK AS CHRIST WALKED:
The Christian “walk” is the subject of Paul’s discussion in chapter 4. He says they “request and exhort” the Thessalonians to “walk and please God (just as you actually do walk),” and that they “excel still more” (4:1). In other words, keep on keeping on! Specifically, Paul tells the Christians to stay away from sexual immorality (4:3-8). It was just as difficult to stay sexually pure in the first century as it is today.

A second key practical item that Paul encourages the Christians to keep doing is in 4:11-12. They need to “lead a quiet life, and attend to their own business, working with their own hands.” In that way, they would behaving properly towards non-Christians and no one would be in any need.

In 2:17, Paul tells the Christians that he was eager to see their faces again, disappointed that he had been driven out of Thessalonica so quickly. In 2:19, Paul also encourages them by pointing out that they are his “hope, joy, and crown of exultation,” and his “glory and joy” (2:20). When Timothy returns to Paul, part of his message is that the Christians in Thessalonica were longing to see Paul and Silas again also (3:6). Hearing about the faith of the Christians gave Paul such joy (3:9) that he went back to God in prayer, asking to see the Thessalonian Christians again real soon (3:10).

When Paul could not be with the Thessalonians personally, he sent his young protégée, Timothy, back to Thessalonica (3:2), to “strengthen and encourage” them in their faith. Paul did not want the Christians to be “disturbed” by the afflictions they were experiencing (3:3). Why? Because Christians, who follow Christ and don’t walk like the world walks, have been “destined” for this. The world, who loves to serve self and live in sin, does not appreciate Christians telling them they are wrong or implying they are wrong because we choose to live differently. Paul tells them in 3:4 that when Paul and Silas were with them, they frequently told them they would suffer affliction when they became Christians and now they are seeing it happen. That’s why Paul sent Timothy back to them, to “find out about their faith” (3:5). He feared that in the middle of their crisis, the “tempter might have tempted” them.

Paul encouraged them to stand firm in their faith in the Lord Jesus (3:6). In fact, Paul says that he and Silas “live,” because the Thessalonians were standing firm in the Lord.

LIVE IN LIGHT OF THE SECOND COMING:
Paul reminded the Christians that we all are waiting “for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come” (1:10). Paul will make reference to the second coming of Christ again in 2:19; 3:13. Paul has a long discussion about the second coming of Christ in 4:13-18. He says in 4:16 that “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 will rise first. Then, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” In verse 18, Paul says we ought to comfort one another with these words. Christ is coming again. He will put an end to all this trouble that we experience in this world. Amen!

Relative to that second coming, Paul encourages us that it will happen as unexpectedly as when a thief breaks into our houses (5:4). But you and I know it is going to happen because we are “sons of light” (5:5). We have been informed, both that Jesus will come again and how to live to be prepared for that second coming. We need to stay spiritually alert and spiritually sober (5:6). We can do that by wearing the so-called Christian armor. Paul gives a longer list in Ephesians 6; here he mentions “faith, love, and hope:” the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

The wrath of God is coming against evil, sin, wickedness. Paul said back in 1:10 that the wrath of God is coming but that Jesus has rescued us from that wrath. Here in 5:9, Paul says God has not destined us for that wrath, but to receive salvation through Jesus Christ.

Just as Paul did in 4:18, telling us to comfort one another in light of Christ’s second coming, here in 5:11, he tells us to “encourage one another and build up one another,” just as we are already doing.

In 5:12-23, Paul gives a final list of things we need to do to keep each one encouraged until the Lord Jesus Christ comes again. Notice these:

Verse 12 - “Appreciate those who diligently labor among you, have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction.” Esteem them very highly in love because of their work (vs 13).

Verse 13 - “Live in peace with one another.” Whatever you have to do to live in peace with each other, do it.

Verse 14 - Admonish the unruly - these are Christians who are not living the Christian life as they should. Encourage the fainthearted. Help the weak. Be patient. With every one.

Verse 15 - Don’t seek revenge. That was my point from the study of Abimelech a couple of Sundays ago. Don’t seek revenge. Seek what is good for one another and for non-Christians as well.

Verse 16 - Look on the positive side of things whenever you can. Rejoice always. Change your thinking so that you are looking for the silver lining behind the cloud. That’s not to say we are ignoring the clouds. We have clouds. “Into each life some rain must fall.” But, you can still look for the good, the positive in which to rejoice.

Verse 17 - Pray. Pray without ceasing.

Verse 18 - Give thanks.

Verse 19 - Don’t stop the Spirit from changing your mind and your behavior when He teaches you what is right and wrong.

Verse 20 - Don’t despise Bible study, the prophetic utterances. The whole Bible is God’s whole plan for saving man. It’s there for a reason. Read it. Study it. Don’t rob yourself of rich Bible study because you think that some things in the Bible have nothing to teach you. God put it there and left it there for a reason. We don’t have the book of Jashar (Joshua 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18) anymore because there was nothing in it that we needed. But we do have 66 books in our Bible. Don’t despise prophetic utterances.

Verse 21 - Examine everything and hold tightly to what proves to be true and good.

Verse 22 - Avoid every form of evil and avoid the appearance of engaging in evil.

CONCLUSION:
Why do we want to “build up the church”? Why does it need to be a focus of the Swartz Creek church of Christ? The reason is given in this next paragraph - We want each other to stay sanctified, in spirit, soul, and body; to be preserved complete, without blame when Jesus comes again (5:23). God is faithful; He’ll make it happen. But we’ve got to do our part by staying faithful and building up the church so that each of us stays faithful.

Take home message: We will greet one another soon “with a holy kiss.” Now, and then, let’s build each other up.