1 Thessalonians 5:15-24
Through and Through: Made Entirely Holy
I. Introduction
-Thessalonians could be the oldest book of the NT.
-It was written by the hand of a man who encountered Christ on a road to Damascus.
-Within the NT is the roots of all that we are as Christians
-When we step away from who we are, why do we think the results would be the same as those in the NT?
II. Scripture
III. Background
-This is not just some other doctrine, this is the Word of God.
1. Has it made a difference in your life?
2. Is it a reality in your life?
-Let's get the context.
-1 Thess. 1:1 "Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"
1. From Paul, Silas, & Timothy
2. To the church (called out... assembly) of Thessalonica.
3. "in God" (not ‘of God')
4. He is speaking to those who don't simply come to church, but those who are the church.
5. Paul is saying: "I want to talk to you who are really in God!"
-1 Thess 1:4 "For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,"
1. "chosen you" = not a verb, but a noun.
2. It is not talking about what God did, but what you have become.
3. Paul: "I want to talk to you about your election."
4. Not about ‘the act' but about the ‘state of being.'
-I'm not making a doctrinal statement here.
-I'm trying to point out who Paul is writing to...
1. Not people who simply attend church or perform religious duties, but ppl who have become the possession of God.
2. Ppl in whom God exists.
3. Not to people who have declared that God has elected them w/out basis.
4. Those who become the chosen of God, by His son's sacrifice.
-1 Thess 3:9 "For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God"
1. Different from Corinthians, these are good people!
2. No need for rebuke, b/c they are good Christians!
3. This is a good church, where God is working!
-1 Thess 3:10 "...as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?"
1. What!?
2. "lacking in your faith?"
3. Paul is saying: "You are such a blessing! And I am losing sleep at night praying for what you are lacking in your faith."
4. These people are in God, salvation is sure, farther along than most churches today, but they are lacking something in their faith.
-This church had a reputation b/c of what God had done in their midst.
-1 Thess 1:8-9 "For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. [9] For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God"
1. People w/ a real born-again experience.
2. A testimony of what God had done.
3. People serving the Lord.
4. They were exemplary Christians.
IV. What is Lacking?
-1 Thess 3:11-13 "Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, [12] and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, [13] so that he may establish your hearts faultless [blameless] in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints."
1. May God do a work in your heart that cleanses everything that might be between you & Him.
2. May He establish your heart so that you will have an absolute cleansing.
-Ill. Car Wash Options
1. First few are only partial.
2. Number five is a full body wash, waxing, & detailing.
-What are we lacking?
1. Forgiveness of our sins.
2. We've "cleaned up our act."
3. We're living for God.
-1 Thess 4:7-8 "For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. [8]There-fore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit [in]to you."
1. Not impurity, but in holiness.
2. You are not disregarding a man (preacher, etc.), but God.
-Ill. What is God doing in Salvation?
1. Ill. Your life = a room.
2. Born again = God coming in and cleaning out the room.
3. He chases the Devil out of the room.
4. Then you take over managing the room & keeping the Devil out.
5. And it is a pushing match w/ the Devil on one side of the door & you on the other.
6. You're just trying to repress sin, to manage/ control it.
7. So as you fight the Devil, you don't get to vacuum or dust or clean up the clutter.
8. What we need is to remove "me" from the room so that the Spirit of God can fill it completely & thus make it completely holy.
-The Church of the Nazarene has gotten away from preaching the holiness that God calls us to.
1. If in the name of church growth & relativity we, as a church, we will fail to prepare ppl for eternity.
2. God's work in ppls lives doesn't change!
3. The problem that has always existed still is the problem today (sin).
4. And the solution is much deeper than forgiveness (the 1st step), it is a cleansing of the heart.
-The day you seek Him w/ your whole heart, He will be found.
-1 Thess 4:3 "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality."
1. "will of God, that you would be made holy"
2. And abstain from the filth of this world.
3. That regardless of what goes on in this present age w/ it's trends & fads & sinfulness, you would maintain a holy purity.
-Point: I want to speak to those who are in God and are the church.
1. ...about the God you serve, who is holy,
2. ...and about the faith you have embraced, that is not complete.
V. To the Original Scripture
-1 Thessalonians 5:15
1. Jesus said: "Turn the other cheek."
2. How is the world going to change if we act the same way it does?
3. Ill. "Nazarene Nazi"
4. All of our human order, government, civility comes from punishment.
5. Lawsuits, wars, courts, punishments, prisons, fines, etc.
6. Jesus died for something different.
7. He wants a ppl who will live differently.
8. Doing good to everyone; always!
-v. 16
1. Sorrow, depression, misery of our world.
2. Ever told about the reason for your joy?
3. Ever showed your joy?
-v. 17
1. Live in the Spirit.
2. Cannot physically/mentally pray always.
3. This is possible.
-v. 18
-v. 19
1. That happens more in the sanctuary than anywhere else.
2. It could happen anywhere.
-v. 20
1. Do not reject anointed preaching.
-v. 21
1. Test for spiritual falsehood
2. So many false prophets, b/c no one tests the Spirit.
3. Hold fast to the good.
-v. 22
1. Abstain from every form of evil!
2. There is a right & wrong.
3. Stay away from the wrong.
VI. The Main Point
-v. 23 "Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy; and may your spirit, soul, & body be kept [preserved] faultless when our Lord Jesus Christ comes."
1. Preserved sounds like jars of fruit preservatives.
2. There may be Christians like that... or pickled.
-Body - Soma
1. Physical- Carnal- fleshly
2. Jesus in the flesh = incarnate
3. Baby ultrasounds = view of the Soma (physical)
4. Ultrasound look like weather report (partly cloudy)
5. Sometimes we have twins.
6. Identical twins = genetically the same.
7. When they are born they have the same Soma
8. Hard to tell apart, but not for the mother.
9. Why? B/c they are not alike.
10. B/c inside the Soma is the psyche.
-Psyche - Soul
1. Soul; not a good translation
2. Psyche = personality.
3. Psyche is expressed through the Soma/flesh.
4. Talk w/ your hands, way you move, way you dress is all expression of your Psyche through your Soma
5. Soma limits pysche at times
6. Jesus died not to save your Soma, but your Psyche.
7. Soma made holy so that your flesh will glorify God, by being His ambassador.
8. Flesh is a tool, given temporarily for us to use.
9. But he also wants to make holy our psyche.
10. The unmeasurable, unseen essence of who we are.
11. Our thoughts, our imagination, our desires, our priorities, all brought into a singular focus upon Christ.
-Pneuma - Spirit
1. Paul, in the Spirit, goes further.
2. W/in your pyche is the pneuma, where the breath of God is.
3. There is no way for us to articulate/communicate this part of us so we use physical lanugage.
4. "I feel God." "I hear God."
5. Not true, b/c God is way beyond the flesh.
6. That God's Holy Spirit would breathe upon me.
7. That the Spirit given to me when I was born-again would shape my psyche and ultimately my soma.
8. That God's Will would govern all of me, flesh, soul, spirit.
-What would it be called if this were true in my life?
1. That my spirit, soul, & body be made completely holy.
2. It would be called peace that passes all understanding.
-The conflict between soul & spirit, spirit & body, body & soul,... would be over!
VII. Soma in the Way of Pneuma!
-That's why Paul said it this way: "Now may the God of peace himself..."
-"Preacher, that's impossible."
1. Now we're on the same page
2. It is humanely impossible.
-Ill. How do we defend our beliefs?
1. Like 6 day creation- we fight like crazy!
2. The ESV is the best translation of the Bible- b/c you're stupid & unspiritual. (I did that in the Spirit of Jesus.)
3. How do we defend what we believe about God... fight, destroy, punish.
4. Why? B/c we are still living in the Soma/ flesh.
5. But it is totally out of line w/ the pneuma/ Spirit.
D. We do it b/c we really love God
-How can we be so in love with God yet so out of step with His Spirit?
-And why is it when we're trying our best to stand for/with God that we are so guilty!
VIII. Conclusion
-v. 23
-What if we just allowed God to make us holy?
1. Not through your effort.
2. Not through what you do.
-Just surrendering the conflict between Soma/flesh & Pneuma/spirit and allowing Him to make them all holy.
-"Preacher, I cannot do that."
1. That's why v. 24 says: "He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it."
2. Zechariah 4:6b "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts."
-That takes the struggle out of the church.
-Nazarene Nazis... it's the way we do everything... even in the church (force, punish...)
-But God's Word says: He just wants us to open up to His Holy Spirit.
-So that He might adopt not only the title of Savior in your life, but also of Lord. (Spirit, Soul, & Body)
-I talk w/ Christians every week who are in love with Jesus, but have never come into the peace of God.
-The real sign of holiness is something like peace, not something like 'speaking in tongues'.
-This peace, is worth dying for...
-Could you lay all of the things that make you, you on the altar? (Spirit, soul, & body)
-Could you allow God to make you completely holy?
Response
