Be
Encouraged… to live the “Good Life”!
I Thessalonians 5:19-22
Introduction: The current Corona-virus crisis has brought not only
sickness and death to many areas of our country and the world, but it has also
caused another crisis that has shaken our economy, and threatened our lifestyle,
if not our lives. So far, thankfully, we’ve had no community spread of the
virus in our county, but unless things change quickly, this could be a tough
year here on the peninsula. I entitled the message today, “Be encouraged… to
live the Good life!” What do I mean by that? What does it mean to live “the good life”?
I’m glad you asked! As 21st century Americans we tend to think in
terms of our comfort and security, and maybe having the health and financial
resources to do the things we enjoy. In other parts of the world comfort and
security might be a simple shelter over the head, enough food to not go to bed
hungry. The global disruption caused by this pandemic has shaken some of our expectations.
The Bible says that no matter what is
happening around us, if we have true life in Christ, we can live the “good
life,” as a child of God and as a kingdom citizen. We’ve looked before at
the Hebrew word, tov, “good,” which was used repeatedly to describe the
pre-fall creation in Genesis 1. However, human sin was evil (ra) and brought
the curse, and so sin, suffering, hardship, and death spread to all (see Gen 3;
Rom 5:12 ff). That was the first pandemic, and its effects were devastating! Jesus came as the One who was truly “good,” in His undiminished
deity and in His sinless humanity, to give His life, to make it possible for
all who will believe to be rescued from wrath, and to have true life, the good
life, the abundant life for which we were created. Jesus said, “I have come
that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.”
This section of
First Thessalonians really began back in 4:1 which initiated a series of
practical admonitions for Christian living. As you read it, note a few of the
key words and ideas that are repeated right here in our passage…
Finally, then,
brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from
us how you ought to live 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.
In this series of admonitions at the end of this letter we
come today to First Thessalonians 5:19-22 which says,
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast
what is good. 22 Abstain from
every form of evil.
The parallels seem clear enough: So, don’t quench the
Spirit, because that would be disregarding not man but God. And don’t
despise prophecies. Why? Because you know what instructions we gave you
through the Lord Jesus. And hold fast to what is good… abstain from
every form of evil, because God has not called us for impurity, but in
holiness. The intervening teaching in chapters 4 and 5 flesh out those same
ideas in terms of the challenges being faced by the Thessalonian believers. The
application to the Thessalonians and to us can be summarized in…
The Maine* Idea: God has given us His Word to guide us, and His Spirit to
empower us to live the “good” life!
I. Submit to the Holy Spirit (19). “Do not quench the Spirit…”
Someone mentioned in our Wednesday night meeting that this statement in First
Thessalonians, Paul’s first letter, is basically the same idea that is stated
positively in Paul’s last letter, in 2 Timothy 1:6,7, “For this reason I remind
you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of
my hands, 7 for God gave us a
spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” So we see those
admonitions through the years of Paul’s ministry, from his first letter to his
last, stated negatively, “Do not quench the Spirit…” and stated
positively, “Fan into flame the gift of God…” Who is the Holy Spirit? If
he is omnipotent, sovereign God, how can we possibly “quench” the Spirit? A
helpful passage in response to both of those questions is Acts 5:1-10. Let’s
read what happened…
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he
kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and
laid it at the apostles' feet. 3
But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the
Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the
land? 4 While it remained
unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your
disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You
have not lied to men but to God."
5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed
his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped
him up and carried him out and buried him.
7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in,
not knowing what had happened. 8
And Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so
much." And she said, "Yes, for so much." 9 But Peter said to her, "How
is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold,
the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will
carry you out." 10
Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men
came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her
husband.
The first thing we see is that the Spirit is a person. He can be lied to. We sometimes talk
about the Spirit in Star Wars terms, “the force be with you” or something like
that. No, the Spirit is God, the third person of the Trinity. The Bible teaches
that God is triune, Father, Son, and Spirit, co-equal in power, sharing fully
in the same divine essence. Is that a hard thing to grasp? It is for me! But I
believe it, God is so much greater than us it should not be surprising that
aspects of His nature are more than we can understand! The Spirit is God, to
lie to Him is to lie to God.
Notice also,
that Ananias and Sapphira chose to agree together in this deception. Whatever
their motives, perhaps because they coveted the response to the generosity of
Barnabas in the preceding context, they conspired together to misrepresent
their gift. But God is not mocked. Did their action “grieve the Holy Spirit”?
We can be sure that sin always does. Did they “quench the Spirit” who no
doubt was convicting them of their sin? Do not quench the Spirit, but
rather, as Paul told the Ephesians, “…be filled with the Spirit…” Yield
to His presence and power! That points to… the Maine* Idea: God has
given us His Word to guide us, and His Spirit to empower us to live the “good”
life!
II. Discern God’s Truth and Submit joyfully to it (20-21 a). “Do
not despise prophecies, but test everything…” This is one of those
passages where we need to do our best to determine what it meant, to the
original readers, in the apostolic age, when perhaps the very first of the New
Testament documents was just being written, and then ask, what it means to
us in our current situation, at this moment in redemptive history.
In the apostolic
age, the apostles had unique authority as the authorized representatives of
Christ. As an ambassador represents the will of the government to foreign governments,
so the apostles were the inspired spokesman of Jesus. They were “sent ones,”
but sent with authority to speak in the name of Jesus, proclaiming the Good
News of His death and resurrection, in fulfillment of the Scriptures, to Jews
and to gentiles. And they spoke by the inspiration of God, as Peter said in 2 Peter
1:21, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men
spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” So, as God’s
spokesmen, as the representatives of Christ, they traveled, they preached and
taught, they appointed elders in the churches, and eventually, they started
writing down their message to the churches. First Thessalonians may have
been the very first apostolic writing (though by this time, one of the Gospels
may* have been written). During that period, since churches did not have the
complete written New Testament, God gave direct revelation as he gifted
prophets along with the Apostles. We read in Ephesians 4:11-14,
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, 13 until we all
attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to
mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be
children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of
doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
F.F. Bruce defined prophecy as “…the declaration of the
mind of God in the power of the Spirit…” These spokesmen for God were gifts
to the church to supernaturally provide the revelation and stability that was
needed to grow to maturity. It was one means by which Jesus was building His
church. When Paul ministered among the Thessalonians, they received his message
on those terms. Paul said as much in 1 Thessalonians 2:13,
13 And we also thank God constantly for
this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you
accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God,
which is at work in you believers.
It may be that in the absence of Paul and the missionary
team, some who were questioning, or even rejecting, this special revelation. Paul’s
warning is paraphrased by J.B. Philips: “Never despise what is spoken in the
name of the Lord.” Is that to say we blindly accept whatever claims to be
from God? V.21a says you don’t despise
it, by you “test everything.”
This one place
where we need to carefully discern what is different between then and now. Most
obviously, today, we have the completed canon of Scripture, the entire Bible,
66 books, Old and New Testament. That is the sufficient and complete revelation
from God. Our job is to study it, to discern the teaching, and to apply it in
our hearts and lives. By the way, that is why I am committed to the systematic
exposition of the Bible. I am not a comedian or an entertainer, I need to let
the Bible speak, because that is the Word of God.
Therefore “do
not despise prophecies… “…but test everything…” Remember Paul’s
experience when he left Thessalonica. We read about it in Acts 17:10-11…
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul
and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the
Jewish synagogue. 11 Now
these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word
with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were
so.
The missionary team left Thessalonica under duress and
traveled south to Berea. As was their practice, they went first to the
synagogue and began preaching Jesus as the fulfillment of the Messianic hope.
These “noble minded” Jews listened, and daily examined the Scriptures,
testing what Paul was preaching, to see if these things were so. Now as
Paul writes to the Thessalonians, where the Jews were not so noble minded, he
is essentially telling them to do the same thing, to test the messages that
purport to come from God against what they know, what is written in the Scripture
and what had been given them through the apostolic teaching.
Therefore,
the first and most obvious “test” is conformity to the revealed Word of God.
Does this teaching agree with what we know God has said in the rest of the
Bible? God will not contradict Himself. He does not change. Truth is truth. Though
the Bible was written by many different people over 1600 years or so, God is
the ultimate Author of it all. This is also why it is usually not a good idea
to take a verse isolated from the rest of Scripture and to build a doctrine or
practice around it. It needs to be interpreted in the light of the whole Bible.
By the way, that means we need to be reading the whole Bible! Be a Berean, test
what you hear against the rest of Scripture.
Another test
is what the teaching says about the person and work of Jesus. Does it deny His
deity? Does it diminish His humanity? Does it distort the Gospel? These are
fundamentals that must be guarded.
It seems to
me that there is a subjective element as well. Remember when Jesus said, in
John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me.” Believers “hear” the voice of Jesus, that is, they recognize it and
respond to it. I put this third because
it is most easily misapplied. If someone is not attuned to God’s word, if they have
grown cold spiritually, they can start to get dull of hearing.
From my days of
operating heavy equipment, I have had some damage to my hearing, most annoying
is a condition known as tinnitus, which for me, is a constant buzzing sound. I
used to liken it to the sound in the summer, when you are out near the woods,
and can hear the sounds of the forest. I say “used to,” since I can hardly hear
the sounds of the forest now because of the tinnitus! I tried to describe it to
my doctor and she said, “So now you have your own personal rain forest!” Such
compassion! I think we can get spiritual tinnitus as well, the “noise” of the
world, “…the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in
possessions…” (I John 2:16) can begin to drown out the still, small, voice
of God. We don’t hear Him like we did when we were walking more closely. God’s Word is still true, and His Spirit is
still there, convicting us and drawing us. Do we hear Him? We need to open our
hearts and our ears to His voice. That points us to the Maine* Idea: God
has given us His Word to guide us, and His Spirit to empower us to live the “good”
life!
III. Live in the light of the truth, embracing the good will
of God (21b-22). “…hold
fast what is good. 22 Abstain
from every form of evil.” This is essentially the application of doctrine
that Paul encouraged in Romans 12:2 when he said, “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.” As God does His work in us, we discern and embrace His good
will.
In our series in
Jonah we noted the contrast between the Hebrew idea of “good” and “evil.” The
irony in that story was that Jonah, God’s prophet, seemed to struggle to
discern good from evil, but the pagan sailors on the boat with Jonah, and then later
the Ninevites, who heard and believed the Word, turned from evil and held fast
to what was good!
“…hold fast what
is good…” That is, cling to the things that conform to God’s revealed
truth, the things that are consistent with His character and His will for us. Remember,
God is the measure of “good,” He is good and all that He does is good. Most
people think they are “good” because they feel like they are better than some
other people, but that is the wrong standard of measurement. I like the story Rick
Warren told,
"Goodness
can only be measured by God. God is the standard of goodness. If we compare
ourselves to others we’re using the wrong measurement. If we determine goodness
by what other people call good, we’re using the wrong standard. It’s like the
little boy who came to his mother and said, “Mommy, I’m eight feet tall.” She
said, “You are?” “Yes,” he insisted, “I am eight feet tall.” His mother asked
what he measured himself with, and he pulled out a six-inch ruler."
What measure are we using? Only God is intrinsically
good, we do good to the degree that we reflect God’s will in our lives and
actions. I think “holding fast to what is good” refers back to the
prophecies, the proclamations, that are discerned to be from God. It seems to
extend as well to the proceeding verses (rejoice, pray, give thanks!),
in fact to this entire epistle, to lay hold of the positive admonitions for
Christian living.
“…abstain
from every form of evil…” Or in the language of Romans, “…don’t be conformed
to the world…” There is such as a thing as absolute truth,
there are absolutes of right and wrong. It is not simply what the majority says
or what is culturally acceptable. Those things change. But God is good, and
He is immutable, Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Sin
is choosing my will over God’s will. It is going the way of Jonah, who knew
what God asked, what he required of him, but choosing to do a “180” and go in
the opposite direction, to choose what I want to do instead of obeying God. Paul
says, “Say no to sin! Abstain from evil!”
What is God saying to me in this passage? The Maine* Idea: God has given
us His Word to guide us, and His Spirit to empower us to live the “good” life!
What would God have me to do in response to this
passage? Do not
quench the Spirit. 20 Do not
despise prophecies, 21 but
test everything; hold fast what is good.
22 Abstain from every form of evil. Do you hear the Shepherd’s voice in those
words? Will you follow Him?
When Jesus was
preparing the disciples for His departure, he said in the Upper Room that when
He left, He would send the Comforter, the Parakletos, the Holy Spirit. He
was with them for 40 days after the resurrection, before His ascension. Before
they could begin the mission He was entrusting to them, He told them in, Acts
1:4-5, “…not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the
Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water,
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
Why the delay between His departure that day, and the sending of the Spirit ten
days later? They needed to understand that this mission could not be carried
out in their strength and ingenuity. They need the presence and the power of
the Spirit. Friends, that is still true today. The Christian life and the
Mission of God are not difficult to carry out, they are impossible in our
strength. But with God nothing is impossible! So, do not
quench the Spirit, but be filled with the Spirit, walk in the
Spirit. Do not despise
prophecies, but let the Word of Christ dwell richly within you. Be
Bereans, hear the Word and but test everything; hold fast what is
good. Abstain from every form of evil. God’s way is best, that is why Jesus came, so
that we could have life, and have it more abundantly! AMEN.
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