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All right. Well, I think two weeks of introduction is enough. Turn to First Thessalonians this
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I did say at the outset the uh the chapter divisions are somewhat arbitrary in most of scripture. Very rarely is there a strong stopping point, especially when you're in the middle of one of Paul's letters. Um it's very rare
0:40
that one thought is not continuing into the next thought. Uh but I'm going to go ahead and just use the chapter division that we have here in First Thessalonians and read 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 this
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morning. and we're going to mostly confine our our conversation to that first chapter this morning. Um but certainly not hermetically sealed. So again, I welcome comments, thoughts,
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questions uh as we move through. I'm going to read um I'm reading from the New American Standard Version. If you're uh particularly into versions,
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I'm reading the New American Standard Version this morning. Paul and Sylvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
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to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of
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love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren, beloved by God, his choice of you. For
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our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction, just as you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake. You also
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became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in
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Aaya. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Aaya, but also in every place. Your faith towards God has gone forth so that we have no need to say
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anything. For they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had from you and how you turned from go to God from idols to serve a living and
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true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead. That is Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come.
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So, I don't want to do a long uh commentary style introduction to Thessalonians, but we do have to talk a little bit about the context. Um, as far as the we talked about this really briefly in our introduction, as
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far as the order that we have in scripture of Paul's letters, the ones we're looking at here, the four Pauline letters plus Jude are almost in order of
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their chronology. As far as we know, there's some debate about where Titus lands in there, but um most scholars think that 1 and 2 Thessalonians is the first letter to the
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churches that Paul wrote. There's a possibility that Galatians was in there before that. All the same, it is among his earliest writings, if not the first of his writings that we have. Um, and
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we've talked a little bit about how these books, these five books we're we're planning to take together give us a worldview of behavior. Um, and I I'm going to sort of softly hold out to you
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the idea of ethics versus laws. Okay? The idea that you have a pattern of thinking about how to behave versus thou shalt and thou shalt not. Um, which is
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not to say that those cannot both be held at the same time. Okay? people who live ethically ought also to live lawfully. But I guess I'm trying to encourage us to think about these things as we will read Paul's uh statements on
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them that it is a pattern of thinking. It is an orientation of spirit that he is encouraging here more than it is a this is what we do and this is what we don't do. There is certainly some of
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that in here. We will see. Um so he is talking to um this church here in in Thessalonica. And I do want to read a
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little bit this morning out of Acts 17 where we see um Luke's record of that um founding of that church. But I did want
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to highlight an element here that I I think is is useful to us in consideration the context, which is that Thessalonians was very much an infant
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church. Um, church. Um, and I guess it hadn't occurred to me that much until I was sitting down to study these. study these. Think about the circumstances that they were in. You'll sometimes hear people
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these days say, "Oh, I'm a first generation Christian." Meaning my parents were not Christians. They were first generation Christians as in there was no generation of Christians before them. Okay? They did not have the sort
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of long record of faith that we have in some respects. And this is not me disparaging by any means reference back to those in the history of the church who were good and upright and righteous.
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Um certainly you can have pitfalls the Roman Catholic Church venerating folks as saints and holding them up as examples. Um, but really if you think about what's going on with the
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Thessalonian church, um, and we'll read in in Acts 17, a large portion of them were Greek. Okay? So, they did not even have the same reference necessarily that
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the Jewish believers did in many of the other places where Paul planted churches. There were many Jews in the Thessalonian church. Um, he he started preaching in the synagogue there, but we're told that a large portion of them
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were Greek. And so they did not have this sort of long uh record of of example that we have that in our context and where we live. Um and I it I guess I
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say that to help frame our thinking as we read Paul's expectations of them and Paul's joy in seeing them continuing to walk faithfully for multiple reasons. One of which is they didn't have a a
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whole long record apart from the scriptures of those who walked uprightly. Um, I connect it, I guess, in my head to to Hebrews, you know, the the quote unquote hall of faith. Um, where
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he goes through the figures of of scripture of note who were uh examples, great examples of faithfulness and of
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God's uh work through their faith. And yet here he's talking to these Thessalonians, these infant believers, this fledgling church, and he he commends them saying, um, we we bear in
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mind your work of faith and your labor of love and steadfastness of hope. Okay, so these folks who did not have such sterling examples or such I I guess I
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will say they did not have a wealth of examples because he holds up what they did have, what examples they did have. He says, "You have become imitators of us and of the Lord.
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And I suppose that's the point there is that they had Paul and they had Christ. Uh well also Sylvanas and Timothy who he I'll be careful to include here as part
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of that missionary core. He had they had them as examples of what it was to be upright in the face of the world. What it is to walk according to faith.
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Um, I do want to flip over here for a moment to uh, Acts chapter 17 just to give us again the sort of context where we're landing here because
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I think it does impact what we're talking about. Chapter 17 of Acts um, is a split here where it does does begin with uh,
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Thessalonica in verse one. I'm not going to read all of chapter 17. It says now when they had traveled through bless you Amphipilus and aalonia they
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came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews and according to Paul's custom he went to them and for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the scriptures explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to
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suffer and rise again from the dead and saying this Jesus who I proclaimed to you is the Christ and some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas along with a large number of the
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god-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar, attacking the
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house of Jason. They were seeking to bring them out to the people. And when they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside
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down have come here also. And Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there's another king, Jesus." They stirred up the crowd and the city
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authorities who heard these things. And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them. The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when
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they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these
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things were so. Therefore, many of them believed along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been
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proclaimed by Paul and Bria, also they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds. And then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea and Silas and
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Timothy remained there. So we have here a very mixed reaction in
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Some of them believed and a number of the Greeks it says who were God-fearing meaning they already had contact with the scriptures. They had contact with the Jews in that place, but they came to faith and yet a large contingent of them
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were more versifous in their opposition than we have seen in a few of the other places. Um the Jews here particularly felt it necessary not only to run him out of the city but when they found out
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that he was having success in another city to go there and run him out of that one as well. So in terms of the demographics here, there was a large portion of the Greeks. And another significant aspect for our reading of
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First Thessalonians here is that Paul was only with them for a short time. Um they were not told exactly how long. We are told that he was only able to preach in the synagogue for three Sabbaths
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before they were upset. We don't know if that means he was only there for three weeks. Um, we are told that he stayed there in the house of Jason for some time. So, it may have been three weeks,
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it may have been as long as a couple of months, but it was certainly not the years that he spent in some places. Okay? So, a short time that he was with them. And in fact, we can tell that this
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bothered Paul a great deal. Um, because he says here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 that he could endure it no longer. He thought it best to be left behind in
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Athens alone and sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions. Then he tells us when
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Timothy returns with his report, he says, "Now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us good news of your faith and love that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you." So
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Paul couldn't stand to continue on without having some report of what had happened to this church here. He he sent Timothy back to encourage them, to strengthen them, and also to receive a
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report. So Paul was very anxious for their well-being. Um sometimes you read things in a commentary and you furrow your brow is kind of well, yeah. Um, one of them felt
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it necessary to point out from the greeting here that this greeting is not simply a formal greeting but a very loving greeting as though Paul himself was the one who founded this church. Yes. Yes. That's what happened. Yes.
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Absolutely. That's why he has a very personal greeting here. Okay. So, I do want to touch on the greeting uh for a few moments because Thessalonians is is no different from
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any of the other letters of Paul. There is no idle word here. Um there's no filler. So filler. So he says to them
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to the church of Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. Um all of the epistles that we have except Titus and 1
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Timothy have some kind of blessing or thanksgiving as part of their greeting. Um, one commentator argues that uh we have many extent examples even from the
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uh unbelievers of the period that this was a sort of form of greeting the way we would write uh dear sir or sincerely yours. Um there was an existing formula
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for these things um that Paul has has sort of co-opted here. Okay, I suppose it's possible. But the the point of what he's doing here, I don't think most
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greetings of the time began with uh in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. Um so grace and peace here are the two things
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encouragement and he begins with grace and follows with peace. Yes.
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>> Yeah, I I appreciate that. I think that's a very good point because often times I think we have a Well, I'll speak for myself. Maybe sometimes I have a a a view of Paul of a little bit of the sort of icon with the halo of the here I am
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the apostle. But he he speaks to them on on equal terms. He speaks to them as as true believers, as those who are walking uprightly and are of encouragement to
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him. Um, and that's really part of what I I want to drive through this whole session because I think that's the throughine that I have seen most of all is not just the worldview of Paul and of
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Jude of how people ought to believe but als ought to behave sorry but also through all of them the
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incredible value of their faith to those who were preaching and teaching to them. Um, you consider here this is Paul's second missionary journey. Paul has effectively been driven out of Thessalonica. He's
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not got social media to catch up on their Instagram page and see how they're doing. He's anxious to know how they're doing because as far as he knows, they have completely collapsed or been driven
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out of the city or otherwise destroyed by these Jews who oppose them. And then here comes Timothy back saying, "No, they're doing great." Um, I also find it very interesting here, um,
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jumping ahead a little bit, but um, the the diligence of faith here, it's it's funny to me to read this in a way because Paul is obviously on this
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missionary journey. Paul is obviously anxious to see the outworking of the spirit in these things. He's blessed in Berea to see many of them affirming what he's saying out of the scriptures. And
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yet, he's sort of hounded out. He's pursued or chased out by the Jews of Thessalonica and and the witness of faith of the Thessalonians basically outruns him. He says, "I don't even have
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to say anything in some of these places. They've already heard of your faith and how you responded to it." Um, it's it's a it's a manifest blessing of the work of the spirit that the witness of
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faithfulness has outpaced him on his missionary journey. Uh, and I imagine that it must have been of of enormous blessing to Paul, enormous encouragement
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to him to see that. Um, but when he says this here, it's not just sort of an idol. Yeah, you're doing a great job. Uh, a lot of people have heard of you and heard of how you believed. He's literally headed out into Asia as a
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missionary trying to to go to these places and to well I suppose he didn't make it quite there but you know in Macedonia and in these places that he's trying to make uh headway and spread the
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gospel and he finds that the witness of faith their imitation of him their their works frankly are showing their faith their response to the word is showing as
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a witness to these places before he even gets there to preach. I mean, I think that's worth dwelling on as we consider what it is to be upright in the face of the world. Um, again, the
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time, the context is different from our own, but I would argue that the fundamental substance of what it is to be an imitator of Christ is no
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different. that it's outworking would be no different because okay we live in a context in which there is a lot of
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lot of how do I say this a lot of uh lip service paid to Christianity a lot of people who will tell you you are Christians um just as there were many in that synagogue where Paul was preaching
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I would hazard that uh if we actually are imitating Christ and we are walking uprightly, we will find ourselves with some violent opposition from those who claim they understand the scriptures
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just as Paul did here in Thessalonica. So, thank you. I appreciate that, Abe. I think it's a good point the um that he's
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talking to them on on as brethren. He's talking to them and and he includes Paul and S or he includes Timothy and Sylvanas here who were with him on this journey. because
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he wants to to indicate. I mean, we're not told very much here. Acts is relatively concise. Um, but we're not given to understand that Timothy and
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Sylvanas were sort of sitting in the back twiddling their thumbs while Paul was preaching. Um, they were they were missionaries alongside him. They were doing the work of the ministry,
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>> right? >> Yeah. No, I I appreciate that. And again, I I don't want to hermetically seal any chapter of the letter off from itself. Um, my copy of the scripture has definitely chosen to make sure that's a
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lowercase a for apostle. Um, as apostles. Um, I don't know that I I have a lot to speak to that at this point. Probably more when we when we get there in
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chapter 2. But you're right. He he does say um though as apostles of Christ, we might have asserted our authority. I I do think it's probably more in the sense of messenger, but yes, he is he is
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certainly not lording it over. I guess I'll go there with this. He is not building himself up to be uh greater than any of his fellows. He's saying we
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were diligent in these things. You are imitators of us. Yes,
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Paul and Peter were very much concerned about how things would go after their interest for themselves. They were very much
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>> Churches after my departure. >> Yeah. >> I think the church throughout the far too many
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behind legacy. >> Yeah. What you see with Timothy
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generational passing on that's what >> I appreciate that very much and I would I would tie that back to what I said earlier for the for the Thessalonians being first generation Christians for
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Paul and for for the all the apostles being first generation of teachers. ers that that they are diligent to assure that this is not where it ends that it
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doesn't end with one generation. Um there is I think a lot to be said for the grace that we have living in the day that we do. For us as believers to have
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such a long history to look back on and also for the teachers to look back on and see the testimony of God to have endured for thousands of years that his
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ministry, his action of the spirit continues and has continued and shows no sign of stopping. Um I imagine that yeah that that was very very difficult for
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for all of the apostles in that first generation to go are we it does it all come apart when we're gone. Um but I do also think we
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will see here that Paul had he had an assurance for many of these folks that he was talking to that know the the word is richly planted there.
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And I I would say here um one of the things I want to draw out of First Thessalonians here is his almost it's not exactly amazement but his
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response to the fact that well he was only with them for a short time. There's very much a reinforcement of the fact that this is God's work that happened there in Thessalonian in Thessalonica that that it was evidently
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not solely on Paul and Sylvanus and Timothy because they all got driven out and when we came back some months later, y'all were doing great. Not only you
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doing great, you're literally outpacing us in the witness of the gospel. Um, and so it's it's manifestly evident that the spirit is there. and he says this is
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very um triune greeting that he gives here. So he his his actual greeting here he uses both God the father and the lord Jesus Christ uh twice here in this heading and then a
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little bit later on uh in verse five and then um then um missed one of them here. He mentions the Holy Spirit. Yeah. And again in verse six he mentions the Holy Spirit with
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them. So he has a very trinitarian address to them here at the beginning that they are they are in God the father and in the Lord Jesus Christ that they received these things in the joy of the
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Holy Spirit. Um so he has all of this here and and he states to them um he says that you you received this in
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yeah verse six you became imitators of us and of the Lord having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit such that you became an example to all the believers. So they
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have this this was not an easy uh you know come to our tent revival meetings and have the barbecue afterwards kind of receipt of the word. This was receipt under distress, receipt under
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persecution. And yet they received it with joy because they understood what it meant. They understood the the glory of uh of being among those who received the
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message of the Christ. The Christ has come. Um come. Um so to back up so I don't miss uh a couple of things here that I think are
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significant. Like I said, I doubt if I'm going to be able to extract every bit of meaning out of every one of these chapters as we go, but his greeting here, grace and peace.
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Um, I appreciated what one of the commentators said, Leon Morris in his commentary said, "For us, peace is a negative aspect. Peace is the absence of
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strife." He said, "But in Hebrew, and I'm sure you've heard this before, the shalom is not an absence. It is an assertion of wholeness of soundness.
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It's effectively the idea of soundness of body but for your spirit. It is it is a an assertive a positive. It is not the absence of
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>> Yeah. >> I find that one of the most >> absolutely something you can possess. He says not as the world gives something.
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>> Sorry. Say what was the question? >> Oh. Oh. When Jesus says that It's >> gonna be later on.
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>> Yeah. Um, no, I appreciate that. So, uh, it was indicated here obviously again Paul Paul doesn't do these things idally. Someone uh made the argument that that there was a sort of traditional Greek uh
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greeting of of that has, you know, caris as its base. Um, and that Paul is using that sort of formula here, but saying actually grace
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here. I don't know. Um, I think we're probably overblowing the the example there, but I do appreciate the fact that he says here, grace to you and peace. Um, as one pointed out that the grace
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comes first because there is no true peace until the grace of God has addressed the sin within your soul. And so, grace to you first and peace, soundness, wholeness of body. You found
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the reference there, Erin? >> Yeah. Matthew 10. >> 10:10. Um, all right. So, to carry on here,
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grace and peace. Um, I also want to point out before we we leave chapter one in the in the time that we have together here, a couple of other critical things that he's doing
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here with the word. Um this um so again peace as as sort of positive um flourishing of the soul. Um
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it it's almost a sort of active rest or active uh solidity here. And so this is this is encouraged here. In fact, grace and peace are hardly unique to this
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section of Thessalonians. You'll see it um many other places in scripture. You will have heard it many a time in the benedictions that we have at the end of the sermon. Grace to you and peace. Um
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it that word order is invariably in that order by the way. Always grace to you and peace. Um so the grace of God extends first and then the peace follows
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after. Um next little section here he says um I I'm always giving thanks to God for you for you all or for all of you making mention of you in our prayers. Um so
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again including Sylvanas and Timothy in this that they are all thankful. They are all bearing in mind the the Thessalonians here. It is not singular in this way. Um but bearing in mind your
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work of faith and your labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and father. Um father. Um he he has these uh sort of three virtues
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held together here. faith uh love and hope um that he includes here as as sort of exemplary out of them. Their faith, their love, their hope,
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um their work of faith. Again, we spoke a little bit in our introduction and I don't want to spend a long time here because I don't think it's anything that anybody here is hung up about, but I neither do I want to leave it behind
30:37
were >> Yeah, we're not told the exact >> We're not told the exact split, but yeah, a lot a large portion for sure.
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>> Yeah. All of them. I love this word here. Not just hope. >> Yeah. >> Absolutely. The adjectives that he uses here are significant. Steadfastness of
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hope I want to spend a couple of minutes talking about, but you're absolutely right. He makes no distinction between the Jews or the Greeks of that church. He makes no distinction of them in their degree. He makes no He actually doesn't
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even, you know, you see some of the other letters, he calls out specific people. um he might have given a specific mention to Jason who let us stay in your house and um sorry it got trashed by the mob that doesn't come up
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here. He says uh for you all all of you he's he's um we don't even have the what we have in some of the later and I don't I'll be careful to say this. I don't
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support as some have asserted not many commentaries but a few commentaries have asserted a sort of well you can watch the the jading of Paul over the course of his letters as here in Thessalonians
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we don't have anybody that we have to you know correct but later you know we're going to get to Corinthians and we got all these people we got to call out for being terrible it's not what's happening here in this specific instance
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he hasn't as far as I know as far as I can follow the timeline he's not been away for them for a super long time. Um, this is following relatively closely
32:12
after that. So, probably within a year or so, but he's including them without distinction among them. He's saying all of you, the whole church, the whole
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body, the whole community there. Chuck, >> you mentioned I think it would be an interesting
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Yes. No, the problem is not Paul. Um the problem is not Paul, but I it's um you know there's there's a sense here in which the he he's including that whole body, that whole community together.
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Yeah. So, uh, that's a good point. There's not nothing addressed in Thessalonica. Um, he doesn't he doesn't write um to to say nothing to them, but he you're you're right that he doesn't have a particular non-deing with sin
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thing that he's got to tackle for sure. Um, and actually one of the things I think is great about reading First and Second Thessalonians is is how much of it is encouragement. Um, and I guess
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that's one of the reasons why I want to walk us through here I don't want to set up divisions in scripture and I don't want to pit any of scripture against itself.
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There's a tendency though in more recent including the last 150 years of more recent of of reformed
33:59
scholarship to to dwell on those really meaty theological passages, right? We want to go to Romans or we want to go to Corinthians or we want to go to the places that we can build our systematics
34:10
out of. Um, and also sometimes we want to go to those places like Corinth where we have a do this, don't do that. Um, I actually want to bring our thinking around a little bit again following on
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from Aaron's study that so much of Thessalonians does not involve a do this, don't do that because it involves an encouragement in the you are correctly imitating the Lord. Continue on in that because here's what's
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happening as you do that. Okay, so we're moving beyond the um, you know, house training slapped with the rolled up newspaper. Stop that. Okay. Into what
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does it mean? What does he see? What is what is the encouragement of a young church to Paul? You did you have your hand? >> Yeah. If you look at whatever might
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Yeah. >> God's grace. >> Well, I appreciate that very much because if we consider again these sort of five books together as a whole, um
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the the first thing that Jude highlights in his epistle is those who set up divisions. That's who he's targeting with his excoration there is those who come in
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and set up divisions. And so as Paul here is treating them as a unified whole, as a unified community, it is exactly in contrast to that of of division. Um so that's an important
35:47
thing to remember as we look at these. So yes, absolutely he's he's encouraged here. I want to say just a couple of other things here. Um their work of faith, I started to say I don't think anybody here has a a has a real hangup
35:59
on works versus faith. But here we see Paul using them together. Your work of faith. Okay? He's holding those together. Uh and I appreciate it again Morris in his commentary. He said, um,
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you know, there's a lot of different things that we can say here, but the one thing that Paul is always clear on is that true faith is busy. Okay? True faith is active. It is
36:23
exerting itself. Um, I was talking with Jenny about this and she said, 'Well, yeah, I mean, you think about it in in terms of a human body because Paul uses this example many times, the body of
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Christ. If a body has no cellular activity, it's dead. So Paul is looking here at the work, the the activity, the hum of life among them, the work of
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faith that he sees there. Labor of love. Um, again, it's uh the the the Greek word there where it says labor is is capos, literally toil. Um, it's almost
36:57
like you're you're in the you're in the coal mines of love. You're diligently hammering away, exerting yourself with with hard activity. It's not the way we use the phrase now because it's a phrase
37:09
in English. Oh, your labor of love, meaning you don't expect a reward. Well, right. kind of pointless or or or um without expectation of of any, you know, sort of recognition. That's not what he
37:19
means. I don't think the Thessalonians are doing this because they intend to be recognized, but he's saying literally your toil, your hard labor. It's like being sentenced to hard labor in love.
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I think that's a great point. And let's be honest here. We're talking about Samson, right? >> How'd this guy get in here? But really,
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>> Exactly. And and actually I think you can go in you can go in a whole bunch of of examples in his life of things that he did he did out of faith that God was was would
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deliver Israel. I mean it you put him among the judges. It is a it is in some respects a quicksotic endeavor under the understanding that God has promised something to these people and he's going
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to make it happen. Um, so yes, absolutely. I I I appreciate that very much that we do actually sometimes have a hang-up of faith of like that, well, it means I just have to believe. Well, it means that you believe to a purpose.
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>> um I appreciate the thought there. I don't know if I I don't know if I would put it quite so inextricably linked at all times because I think we can look we can look
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throughout many of the examples and we'll see as we go through there are there are various modifiers he uses but I will ascent to the fact that yes we are always expected to be at work in these things. Um, I I always hold up
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Hebrews is one of my favorite. You're not supposed to have favorite books, but Hebrews is one of my favorite books. Um, because the writer of Hebrews there is never ever ever ever ambiguous about the
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fact that this is the work of God and that you ought to be sweating your butt off in it. Okay? That you ought to be laboring diligently in these things.
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There is no excuse uh again to to to invert what Morris said there. True faith is not lazy. Okay. Um Chuck first and then Eric.
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>> I was just gonna say that one of the most profound things I've heard in a long time and I hope to work some I think there's a lot
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I think we all agree it's not it's not me who's doing it's God in me. those modifiers those modifiers modifiers like steadfastness and labor
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and perseverance. >> Yeah, >> that's that's really I don't know. I just think that was a great insight. I appreciate it. appreciate it. >> I I do I do appreciate it. And I I guess I'll do this. I'll challenge you because
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I had in my notes here from one of the other commentaries that that actually often in scripture you can find faith, hope, love closely associated in phrases. Go look for the modifiers as
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you're reading through here and let me know what we come up with. Go find the adjectives that are attached to these. Um I did again furrow my brow a little bit because he said, "Oh, faith, hope, and love are often together." And it was
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obviously common to the early Christians and not something we owe to Paul. Okay? But it is something we owe to Christ. Okay? We have faith, hope, and love in that order together often
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because of God's imparting them to us, God's effort of giving them to us. And yet we are active in them. You had your hand up before.
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Christian. Um but I mean I I can fully appreciate that that we in time and in our varying state of limitation
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require virgin require virgin >> to to this work of faith to this labor of love to this steadfastness of hope. But the ideal the way the way that we
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have it I think in its ideal form in its best form is Not that of requiring urging, get to work, but catching the
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>> Yeah. >> Read his his more glowing words toward some of the churches toward the Philippians and even what he says about the Galatians when he's urging them that that you wouldn't stop trying to do
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things. What happened to you? You were just urgent to He never had to urge them while he was with them. And now he's shocked that he's having to to urge them
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harshly in his absence. So the the ideal and the best seems to be not you you mean urging and pushing but but rather catching the fever of what God is doing.
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God is doing a workah. >> Well, I think that's that's borne out by scripture for sure. I appreciate that because um you know I I often enjoy sort
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of as landmarks the the places where Paul in writing can't restrain himself from bursting into doxology about the work that he's writing about. um that kind of joy and excitement. And he says
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here, he uses that that phrase um and I didn't go too far into the Greek here, but you you received it in the power in the Holy Spirit and full conviction and also you received it in the joy or with the joy of the Holy Spirit. power, joy,
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and not to go all Pentecostal and, you know, you got to feel some type of way about it, but really the excitement of being part of the work that God is doing, the excitement of of the fact
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that God is living in active and saving men. Um, you know, he says there, uh, what we read in Acts, um, you know, that that
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that they were receiving the the good news and the joy of of the fact that the Christ has come. Um, I guess we'll we'll save it for next week because it's not going to happen in the next three
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minutes. Um but what he has to say here about the the joy of receiving these things and the joy of of um
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message, that whole Yeah, I'm going to have to leave it to next week because my words are failing me at this point. that his his um his encouragement in seeing this from them and his encouragement in them receiving
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in this way being active being steadfast being hopeful that it that all of this pours out into this um it's not passive in any way. Um both their excitement
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about the work and their their anticipation of the second coming um is the other part I'm trying to say here and I I certainly don't have time to mention it right now. um
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where he he finishes here the what we have as our division of the chapter verse 10 um to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead that they're waiting it's anticipation and we
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heard from the sermon recently um you know were they misplaced in having that kind of expectation or are we deeply misplaced by effectively saying yeah it's probably not happening in my lifetime so I'm just going to you know
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live to a ripe old age um that all of that eager anticipation waiting on God is a hallmark of these people that he is encouraged by and
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delighted to speak to. So, I'm going to stop there because we're out of time for this morning, but I appreciate everybody's thoughts as we as we work through this. Uh let's pray and we'll go
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Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the encouragement of faith. And we please ask uh that that you would be with us in this way. That you would stir us up to love and good
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works. That we would be anxious for your household, for your your name's sake in the world, no less than Moses was, no less than Paul was,
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that our hearts would be full. That your name should be glorified by all who come into contact with us. that nothing should stain your name, but everything
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should be added to your glory. That you alone are worthy of this praise and honor because of what you have done and what you are doing. You are indeed active now upon the earth in bringing in
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your kingdom. So, Father, we ask that you would please dwell among us this morning and encourage us as we sing and pray and hear the word preached that we would indeed unite together as one in
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the absence of division, united by faith and with hope and love. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.
