2 Thessalonians 3

0:00 Good morning again. It is good to be here at Third Avenue. My family and I were traveling last week, as I'm sure many of you were, so it is always good to be back and gathered with our home church. Grateful for each and every one of you, and all the more so when we go to a different church. It seems like it's always sweeter to come back home. So this morning we're going to be in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. We're jumping back into a series that we started back near the end of the summer, be wrapping up the letter of 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. That's on page 990. If you are new with us here at Third Avenue, there should be a Bible in front of you, maybe there in the pew back or in the chair, underneath the chair in front of you.

0:38 Be certainly happy for you to use that and even take that with you if you don't have a Bible. And if you're not familiar with the Bible, just open up to page 990 and you'll be able to follow along with where we are headed this morning. So we are all known for something, right? We're all known for a thing or two maybe it's a handful of different things I mean think about it if you think of your best friend what immediately pops into your head don't say it right but there's there's something that characterizes your best friend and that that person what about your spouse again don't say it please but there's something that you know that person for there's something that you know about them that seems to kind of prevail, that when you think of them, this is immediately what pops into mind. They do such and such, or they like this or that, or they act like this all the time, or they're fans of this team. Surely not UofL at this point.

1:46 But as I get older and as I think more about the idea of, like, I'm just not going to get everything done in life that I thought I was once going to get done, or I'm not going to read all the books or accomplish all the things that I wanted to do, it begins to dawn more and more on me that I've got a limited amount of time, right? So what am I going to do with that limited amount of time? Well, you know, I don't know. I could pick up woodworking. I could read more books. I could look at my phone less, right? I could be more generous. I could be nicer. I could be on and on and on. The list kind of goes. What do I want to be known for? What do I want to devote myself to? What do I want people to think of about me at the end of the day? Well, this morning I think we're going to be looking at a text that really sheds light on what we as Christians should be devoting ourselves to. I think Paul has a few things in mind here that's saying, look, Christians, this is what I want you to devote yourselves to. This is what I want you to be known for.

2:47 Well, as I said, we're picking back up the letter of 2 Thessalonians, and, you know, this letter was written so long ago, all the way back in the AD 50s, right, thousands of years ago. Again, if you're new to us or new to Christianity, that maybe you're thinking, what in the world does this have to do with us? Well, I think there's actually quite a bit of important implications for us as a church. So this letter was written less than two decades into the life of the church, and as we'll find out, there are some serious problems going on in this church. They're struggling with weird beliefs.

3:19 They've got, they're facing persecution and suffering in so many different ways. And in fact, then they're pushed to do and believe and act in certain ways that are going to be fruitful for us to look into. So since it's been a few months now, since we opened up this letter, let's run really quickly back through what's already happened in this short letter. So it was written to a young church plant in a major city. Remember, it's called Thessaloniki. I say that because I promise you, if I try to say otherwise, it's going to get jumbled. It's not going to come out right. So if you weren't here for the first two sermons on that, don't worry about it.

3:50 I'm going to say Thessaloniki. It's in this major city, a young church plant, and they've all been persecuted, basically, from the very beginning. So new believers being persecuted. They've got weird beliefs. In fact, they were being persecuted so heavily that when Paul came there to establish the church, He was kicked out of the city, chased out, or he was threatened to be killed, went to another city, and then those people came and chased him out of that city as well. I mean, that's how bad this has been. So eventually, Paul sends Timothy, one of the other apostles, back to this church there in Thessaloniki to see how are they doing?

4:27 How are these new young Christians doing? And it turns out that by God's grace, they're doing okay. That's about it. They're doing okay. They're growing in the faith. they're still holding to the gospel, but they've got weird, strange beliefs about the coming return of Jesus. And they're being persecuted so heavily that it seems like maybe, maybe they're not going to make it. And so sometime shortly after Paul writes the letter of 1 Thessalonians, he pens this letter, this letter that we'll be looking at today. And he really begins it all by just pressing on their minds that King Jesus will one day return, and he's going to bring justice.

5:07 Thessalonians, the suffering that you endure will one day be rectified. There will be justice. So he wants them to keep trusting in Jesus until that day. He wants them to know that one day all those wrongs will be righted. All of the wrongs that they've faced, all of the evil that they've faced will be done away with. And King Jesus will bring justice. But he says as well that it hasn't happened yet. right? So apparently he needed to clear up some really important views and teachings that they were grasping onto in this church about that. So some within the church, not the whole church, but some within the church had started to believe apparently that they were in danger of having missed the day of the Lord. That somehow the day of the Lord, the day when the Messiah, the prophesied Messiah, would return for his people and take them back, right, and write everything had somehow happened, but they missed it. Well, of course that would be confusing, right? They looked around and everything was exactly the same. They still endured evil. They still endured suffering. How is this

6:12 possible that the Messiah had come and everything's still the same? Well, of course they hadn't. They'd just been duped, right? This had, in fact, as Paul says, it had shaken them. It had really stirred them all the way to the core of their being. More importantly, though, their confusion and their deception over this matter wasn't actually being seen for what it was. Namely, that this was a deception by their enemy, by their greatest enemy, Satan himself. They did not see that this was a spiritual issue. They simply thought they didn't understand what was going on.

6:47 And he clears that up for them, showing that no, no, no, no, this is an attack of Satan on you. This is a deception by Satan against you, and you have fallen to it, some of you. And the way to battle that. It's not just to kind of, you know, point your guns at Satan and blow him back. The way to battle that is actually to hold on to the teaching and the traditions that you've received from me. That's what Paul tells them. And so that brings us to our text for today. So let's read 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 beginning in verse 1. We'll read the entire chapter together. Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our

7:50 Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with toil and labor, we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat for we hear that some among you walk in idleness not busy at work but busy bodies now such persons we command and encourage in the lord jesus christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living as for you brothers do not grow weary in doing good if anyone does not obey what we say in this letter take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

8:55 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine. It is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. So the structure of those kind of major sections of those two there's really two big chunks of text there that the ending not included it's really straightforward right if we were just to take each one of those sections you can kind of follow what's going on pretty easily but it's the connection between the two and maybe even felt that as we read it it's the connection between those two major sections that you go are these even really connected right is there really any connection at all between these chunks, or is it just one topic to the next topic to the next topic? Well, if you felt that way, honestly, you wouldn't be alone. There was at least one commentator who said the structure is just not altogether clear, right? They just kind of throw their hands up and go, I don't know.

9:54 There's probably not really a structure to this. It just is a little bit of a grab bag of stuff here at the end of the letter. Well, I actually think that's not the case. I think there's actually a really important clue that connects these sections together, and maybe you picked up on it as we read it right there. It's this repeated word and idea throughout much of the chapter. It's the word command, right? You see that in the first several verses of that section, verses 1 through 5, and in 6 through 15. And then it's related concept of obey, right? Paul's talking about commanding and obeying in both of those sections. So verses 1 through 5, that very first major section, just real brief summary of how these things kind of break apart. Paul spent his entire time in this letter up to this point talking about the Thessalonians issues and their crises and he's trying to help them and encourage them and all of a sudden for the very first time he's taking their eyes off of their own situation and said now look out here towards other Christians and do something to help them to encourage them right it's the first time he's taken their mind

10:56 off of themselves so to speak and their own issues and put it elsewhere so in that though he's asking for prayer. He's asking for prayer that others would obey the word of God, that he's going to command it. He wants others to obey it. And I think in part this first section is actually helping prepare for a command later on to come. That's part of what he's doing. He's saying, look, you want them to obey, right? That's good. We want others to obey. Y'all need to obey as well, right? That's what he goes on to do in the next section. So verses 6 through 15, that next section, it's not just the larger piece of the text. I think it's actually the most important piece of what Paul is trying to argue here, is that, look, there's a group of rebellious people, of people who've been commanded to do something, and they're not obeying. They're not honoring the word of the Lord. They need to do what they've been commanded to do. And he walks through what that particular situation is.

11:53 And then, finally there, verses 16 to 18, the very end of the chapter, the very end of the letter, you've got not just a closing, right? It would be customary to have a closing like this, but in God's providence, I think it's as well a word of comfort to these believers. A word of comfort in a really difficult situation. So what's the main idea for this text, for this sermon today? The main idea, I think, is this. Devote yourself to seeing others obey God's word and to obeying it more faithfully yourself. We as Christians are to devote ourselves to seeing others obey God's word and to obeying it more faithfully ourselves as well.

12:33 There's two points on the outline. I know, only two and not three. We're breaking custom this morning. Two different points for how the rest of the sermon will play out. Number one, an outward spread of the gospel. And number two, inward growth of the gospel. So outward spread, kind of an outward looking direction, as well as an inward growth of the gospel. And that's those two major sections, verses 1 through 5 and 6 through 18. So number one, outward spread of the gospel. The Schaffers are currently looking at buying a new van, so pray for us.

13:09 Man, purchasing a vehicle is just always a strange, weird process. There's just so much to consider and so much that makes it convoluted. And I'm not even talking about just the haggling of the price, though that in and of itself is a world I don't understand. And if you have advice, I'm all ears. But no, I'm talking more so about the descriptions of the different things on the van or that make up the van, right? They can't just use straightforward descriptions. Listen to this. So these are things we've seen on a van that we've looked at recently.

13:42 It has variable windshield wipers. Those are just wipers, right? Variable windshield, okay, whatever. Remote keyless entry system with lock, unlock, panic, and push button start. So it has keyless entry. I mean, it's redundant to say it has lock and unlock, right? It's just keyless entry. How about this? A black, roof-mounted, shark fin antenna. It has a radio antenna. That's great. Excellent.

14:13 Gets better. A color-keyed rear spoiler with LED center high-mount stoplight or brake lights. right? It has brake lights. This is good. We're going to get a van with brake lights. You start describing like the interior and the exterior and it's like this, a gray woven fabric. It's gray. It's gray on the inside, right? Or finally, the color of the vehicle, celestial silver metallic, also known as gray, right? So if we end up with this van, you guys can come check out our variable windshield wipers. You can see us driving around that celestial silver metallic looking really sleek in a minivan, right? I mean, it's funny though, right? We love word pictures and descriptive language. We love that. They engage our hearts, and marketers, after all, know that they sell things, right? When you see that, you go, well, it's not just gray. It's celestial silver metallic. Oh, I need that, right? Well, honestly,

15:15 the Bible does the very same thing. The Bible uses language that's word pictures. It's filled with different ways to describe important concepts that engage our hearts instead. And I think that's what we see here in our passage today as well. So right on the heels of speaking this pastoral word of comfort, Paul turns the attention of the Thessalonian believers to something beyond themselves, right? He's just comforted them there at the end of chapter two, and now he's bringing them into a different topic. And look, they're no longer with them. He acknowledges, obviously, he sent a letter to them that he's not there physically, geographically with them. They're off somewhere else doing ministry. And as they well know, and as the Thessalonians well know, there are many, many, many people around them who do not know Jesus, who are not Christians, who do not know or obey the gospel. So Paul asked them to pray. He says, hey, Christians, they're in that church, pray for us. But isn't it interesting how he frames that request? He doesn't just say, pray for us.

16:16 What does he say? He uses a word picture. It's that the word of the Lord would speed ahead, that it would run ahead. And he wants the word of the Lord to be honored or glorified by others. He's not content to just let those Christians there in Thessaloniki be the final Christians. He wants to keep moving forward. That's always been the trajectory of the gospel. It goes outward to others. Well, why does he use the expression, the word of the Lord, in the first place? I mean, why doesn't he just say gospel there, if that's what we think he's talking about?

16:47 Well, for one thing, he's already used it when writing to this church. So, if you were to go back to 1 Thessalonians 1, you'd see that he says that the word of the Lord had sounded forth from that church. You know, it's its image of echoing back and forth in between mountains and a valley, just a reverberation. As the word of the Lord had gone from them, as they had proclaimed the gospel through their witness, it's like a shockwave after a blast. It had just rapidly expanded. But Paul's also probably pulling in imagery from Psalm 147. Psalm 147 says that the word of the Lord runs swiftly, that it takes off. When his command is sent out to the earth, it runs out. God's very word has been sent. And notice how Paul then adds to that reverberating idea of it echoing back and forth and kind of building upon itself. He says, now the word of the Lord, it's running and it's taking off quickly. It's rapid. Friends, the spread of the gospel is

17:50 not just a slow quiet thing there are times when it's loud there's times when it's noticeable there's times when it quickly spreads like a wildfire taking over everything in front of it that's what Paul is asking them to pray for but you can see I'd be easy to object to that request right if I stood up here and said hey friends pray that the word of the Lord would get really loud and that the gospel would spread obviously and quickly among us? You'd say, well, that is maybe a little idealistic, isn't it, Brandon? That seems a little much to ask. Well, no more does that objection cross into your minds than Paul has already silenced it. What does he say? He says, this very thing happened among you. So yes, it can happen. Brothers and sisters, those Christians there in Thessaloniki, those Christians in that new church plant were no more obvious candidates

18:52 for the gospel to run ahead to them and to be honored among them than the next unbeliever. And yet, the Lord chose them. He chose them for himself, and he saved them, and he called them through the proclamation of the gospel. That's what Paul had just told them at the end of chapter 2. And that's what Paul is praying will happen again to others as well. Maybe that needs to happen to you this morning. Maybe you're in that category of someone who hasn't yet trusted Christ for salvation, where the word of the Lord has not sped ahead to you, where you do not honor the word of the Lord.

19:32 So what Paul is talking about here and what the Bible throughout makes clear is that you, if that's your situation, is that you're a sinner. That's where every single one of us have been. That's where you are as well, that you're one who's rebelled against God and you've not kept his commands. And in fact, you don't have faith. That's what Paul is talking about here. There are several who don't have faith. That would be you. But friend, you're in the best spot you could be today. So glad you're here if that's you, in fact. You're hearing the best news in the entire universe.

20:04 You can be saved. So at Christmas, maybe you've heard, and I'm sure if you've been around church at all, you've heard that this is a time when Christians celebrate that Jesus has come. Well, what did he come to do? Jesus came to save all of his people who would believe in him. And he came to save them from their sins. He came to live a perfect life, die on a cross, be raised a few days later, defeating death, so that those who believe in him can have life. That's what Christians believe, and that's what you need to believe as well. That would be the word of the Lord speeding ahead to you and you honoring it, you turning from your sin and believing that incredible news.

20:47 But Christians in the room, I think we so often hesitate to ask that the word of the Lord would speed ahead and would be honored for there to be a radical outpouring of the spirit on the lost and bringing them to faith and I think one of the main reasons we hesitate is because we actually don't believe it will happen I get it we don't see evidence of that happening every day and in fact when we do hear stories like that we're we tend to not believe them we tend to question them and wonder, was it really the gospel? Were they just kind of caught up in some sort of revivalistic fervor that wasn't true conversion in that moment? Yeah, this just must never happen. That must be the case. This just never happens. But as we've already seen, Paul shoots that objection out of the sky. He says, no, no, this happened to you so it can happen to others as well.

21:48 Brothers and sisters, do you see your own salvation in that way? The very fact that you have been saved, that salvation has come to you today in this little corner of the world at this time in history, that salvation has come to you, does that offer enough proof that God saves sinners? Like when you were dead in your sins, when you had zero hope, and you were facing an eternity of wrath for your rebellion against God, God and God alone saved you.

22:27 That means he can, and he does indeed do this. He sends forth his word. It runs ahead to the lost, and they hear it, and they believe, and they are converted. May this continue to be the case among us. May we pray that he'll keep doing that work through us as a church. Pray that he'll do that through our church's witness when we gather, when we come together in these meetings like this. Pray that he'll do it on the university campuses throughout the city through our campus ministries. Pray that he'll do it in neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood through evangelistic relationships that each and every one of you have.

23:02 Pray that he'll do it through the missionaries that we send out from this church, those who are going to closed countries or difficult to get into countries, countries that are spiritually dark. Pray that he'll even do it through other sister churches here in this town and their ministries. Friends, pray that just as you once heard and you were plucked out of darkness and you were brought into light, that that same thing would happen to those who hear the good news, that they would be delivered from darkness and brought into eternal life. Look, the reason Paul even asked for the prayer in the first place is obvious.

23:38 There's those who don't yet believe, right? You only have to look around a little bit to see, yeah, there's Christians and then there's not Christians. And there's a ton of unbelievers there in Paul's world. But it's not just a pragmatic thing. It's not just, well, there's some Christians and there's some that are not Christians. And if I just walk over here and tell them, boom, they're converted. No, this is also a cosmic spiritual battle that he's engaged in, right? The Lord of darkness, Satan himself, the one who's desperately trying to deceive the Thessalonians, He will do everything he can to disrupt and to destroy plans, even to send wickedness and pain and suffering the way of believers so that they would not continue with this work.

24:23 That's why Paul asked for prayers of protection and deliverance. It's not just for his own comfort and so that he'd be happy. It's so that the gospel would continue to go forth. So I wonder if you took an honest assessment of your own prayer life, of your own prayer requests, of the types of things when people say, hey, how can I pray for you? Or maybe in home group, prayer requests that come up. What would make up the largest portion of your requests? Would it be prayers for your health, prayers for your finances, for your relationships, for your own comfort in various ways? What do you ask prayer for?

25:02 Is it for yourself only? Look, all of those things are legitimate. All of those things would be fine things for Christians to ask prayer for. That's not the point. The point here is that we must also ask for prayers that the gospel would go forth. This text makes it clear that a huge portion of our prayers as a church should necessarily be devoted to the spread of the gospel. That's just one of the most consistent ways that that's been done from the beginning.

25:34 From the very beginning, Christians have prayed that the gospel would go forth. And one of the ways that we do that here at 3rd, perhaps the biggest way that we do that here at 3rd, is by praying for, on a regular basis, our different missionaries. That's a huge piece of what Paul is trying to press in on these new Christians and then on us, is that being a part of God's people necessarily means that we will be a part of a push for the gospel to go forth. Look, these were new believers. These were new believers in not a very Christianized world.

26:08 And Paul tells them to be a part of this. This is not next level spirituality. This is for Christians. These believers were also suffering believers. And Paul still pushes them in this direction. This isn't for a better time when things have calmed down and life is a little easier. Friends, there are just no circumstances in our lives that should prevent us from being involved in the work to take the gospel to the nations and to those who do not yet know it or believe it.

26:43 Maybe you don't go. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying all of us pack up our bags and go. Look, after all, we have zero evidence that these Christians uprooted and went with Paul to different places. They stayed there in Thessaloniki, so it seems. But you must pray. You must pray and ask that the Lord would give fruit in these efforts. You must partner with those who do go to take the gospel to other places. We've sent out several missionaries from this church, even some recently, and we'll be sending out more in the next few months.

27:15 Stay connected to them. Pray for them. Reach out to them. You've got different various ways to try and stay in touch with them and make sure that you receive their email communications, their newsletters, and all that. Make sure that those things don't go unread. Make sure that those things don't go simply to your junk mail. This is a part of the way that we take the gospel as a church to the nations. By this point, you can already imagine how the Thessalonian church might have felt.

27:46 In fact, it may be how you're feeling right now as well. That this is just another thing that we have to do. That this is just another item on my spiritual checklist for the day. I guess I'll just add pray for the missionaries, you know, to the bottom of my list and make sure I do that every day. But notice, especially if that's you right now, notice what Paul pins all of his confidence on. What does he pin all of his confidence on in asking them to pray? It's on the Lord and his faithfulness. You see that?

28:16 He says the Lord is faithful. As he goes to proclaim the gospel, his confidence is not in his preaching style, his intellect, his own righteousness, and certainly none of his ability to keep himself safe physically, and likewise not in anything the Thessalonians might have or be able to do for him. No, all of his hope and confidence is on the Lord and on the Lord's faithfulness. That's what mattered to Paul, and that's what will ensure the expansion of the gospel, as well as protect him.

28:48 That's what Paul wants them to remember. Not that they have another thing to do, but that the Lord is faithful. The Lord is the one who will cause this to happen. Yes, they should labor hard. Yes, they should work at this. Yes, perhaps they should add it to their to-do list for the day. But they don't do this in their own power. They do this with the knowledge that the Lord is faithful. They do this with the knowledge that the Lord will be the one who is faithful to save others. And as the word goes forth, it will be honored among those who have not yet honored it.

29:22 Brothers and sisters, that's what we need to hear. That same thing is true for us. The Lord is not just faithful to save you. He's faithful to save others as well. And just as Paul wraps up that little section by pointing them to the love of God and the endurance that Christ has, he's faithful to bring us into the love of God and into the endurance of Christ in this endeavor of taking the gospel to people who do not yet have it, of devoting ourselves to seeing others obey God's word. But he doesn't just stop there, right? He does not finish his whole argument or his letter there. He now turns back to the Thessalonian Christians and kind of turns it on them. And so our second point, the inward growth of the gospel.

30:10 So this is an interesting turn. I think if you and I were writing the letter of 2 Thessalonians, we probably would have just stopped it at verse 5, right? That all the verses or all the other chapters up to this point, all of everything else Paul said is kind of about the Thessalonians' issues. He's dealt with them. Now he said, all right, pray for us that the gospel will go forth and may the Lord. Yep, all right, good. Let's finish right there. That's a great conclusion. But that's not what he does. He adds this whole other issue in here. What in the world? Why does he do this?

30:42 Why does he keep going after he's already ended? It's like the preacher who says, in conclusion, and then, you know, five minutes later, in conclusion again. He just keeps concluding, right? Finish your letter, Paul. Well, I think there's a few different reasons. First, I think he's just prepping them. It's a little bit of a rhetorical thing. He's prepping them to hear a harder word. So he's getting them to see something and agree with him, and then he kind of turns it on them a little bit, right? He's softening them up. And more importantly, secondly, more importantly, he's making the connection between, hey, don't you want them to obey the word of the Lord? See how they don't obey, you want them to? You all need to obey as well, right? Here's an issue that you're not obeying, you need to do what you want them to do as well. So he's making even a logical connection there. But what is that hard word?

31:31 What is the hard thing that he had to soften them up to hear? Well, verse 6, they need to keep away from a brother or sister, someone else in their church. They need to keep away from a brother who's not obeying what Paul's commanded them to do. And then all the way down at the end of that section, verse 14, they even need to do this so that that person will be ashamed of what they're doing and hopefully will repent of what they're doing. That's a strong command, right? That is not easy language that Paul throws out there. That's not easy even to hear. It's as severe as it sounds on the face of it. I think it's a step even on what we might call a spectrum of church discipline.

32:18 He's not asking them to remove someone. He's not asking them to go quite that far, but he is calling on them to no longer tolerate someone's disobedience and to openly act against someone's disobedience in their church. Let's walk back through that then. I think there's some important things we need to see. So we know from 1 Thessalonians that Paul's already addressed this issue, that some of the people there in the church in Thessaloniki were, for whatever reason, walking in idleness. In 1 Thessalonians 5, he tells the church there to admonish the idol, right? So he's already calling them out, and apparently here in 2 Thessalonians, they're still being idle. They're still needing admonishment? Well, the main issue that he's admonishing them for seems to be that some within the church are just not working. For whatever reason, they're not working, and they were expecting some sort of handout from others instead. Their support was they were looking for others to support them, even just for a living. Well, this goes against both the spoken command of Paul and

33:21 what he also even did in an example for them. So not only did he tell them, hey, guys, don't do that. But when he was with them, he didn't do that. And he even said, I'm not doing this because I'm trying to set an example for you of what not to do or what you should do. So verse 7, you should imitate us. And how when we were with you, we weren't idle, right? Verse 8, we didn't eat someone else's bread. That is, we didn't live by handouts, but instead we worked night and day. And we did this to set an example for you. Verse 10, we even told you, hey, if you don't eat or if you don't work, you don't eat. All right, so he's told them many, many times. But notice, right, we've read ahead, so we know what's coming, but if you're reading through it for the first time, up to this point, he hasn't actually leveled a charge against anyone. He's just trying to get them to agree with him. It would be like if I told you, hey, you know how frustrating it is when Louisville drivers do what Louisville drivers do, and they just drive like crazy, right? Someone just cut you off, and

34:24 then they slam on their brake, no blinker, and you're just, whoa, what in the world, right? You know, yes, right? Well, you know how it's against the law to run that red light, right, and how that person who does that deserves a ticket? Yeah, yeah, some of you shaking your heads, maybe you did on the way here. Yes, you know how bad that is. You know how I showed you the proper way to drive, right? Showed you the legal proper way to drive, and you go, yeah, yeah, I haven't actually done that, but yeah, I probably ran that red light myself. Well, don't you agree that people who drive like that over there, like they should be punished? You're like, yes, they should be punished.

35:00 Right? The tension's there. It's been built all the way. They're going, yes, Paul, why? Why are you telling all this? We agree with you. Well, verse 11, he finally tells them why. He delivers the charge. He says, some of you are that bad driver, right? Some of you are being idle. Some of you are doing the very thing that I told you to not do. And to them, he commands them to stop, to stop being busybodies, kind of doing things that were none of your business, that you had no business doing, and that were actually taking away from your contributions to the community, and instead do your work quietly, earn your own living, eat your own bread as it actually says in the Greek underneath it. But he makes an important distinction as well because he knows, well not everyone's being idle, so what about those, right? Maybe you're in this boat and it's like, well that's not me, right? Well if the shoe fits you wear it, right? But if you're not being idle, what is supposed to happen? Well then you're supposed to keep on doing the right thing. Don't let those who

36:03 are being idle, Paul tells them, discourage you from doing what's right. And in this case, that gets amped up even further. The doing what's right here means that you should refuse to mingle with those who aren't obeying the word of the Lord. That's what he means by verse 14, have nothing to do with him. It's not putting them out of the church. It's not excommunication, but it is something in that direction. It's something designed to make that person feel shame and feel the seriousness of their refusal to obey Paul's commands.

36:42 There are a few things we have to kind of unpack even in that summary of it to understand it, because I don't know that any of us particularly struggle with being, quote, idle. I don't know that that's the biggest issue we face here as a church. So what are we going to do with this text? How do we relate this to ourselves today? Well, the first issue we have to figure out is what is meant by idleness? What is meant with being idle? Well, at its base level, the word doesn't just mean lazy, right? That's perhaps a little bit of an over-translation. It doesn't mean lazy or just, you know, kind of standing, like, you know, I'm being idle now and now I'm moving, right? It's not like that. At its base level, it means something like disorderly or unruly or even insubordinate. So that better, I think, captures what's going on with some of these Christians there in that church. They're resisting the leadership of Paul and the other apostles.

37:38 He's already exhorted them when he came to establish the church, and then in the first letter, 1 Thessalonians, he wrote and told them to do their work, that they should work, but they're refusing. A clear command's given, and they simply won't do it. For some reason, they're just not willing to work, and that appears to be a deliberate choice, not a choice, you know, that they've kind of ignorantly, subconsciously made. But why? Why would they do that? Well, there's a few different theories kind of thrown out there, a few different hypotheses that have been given for why maybe they're not working. First one is that maybe it's because of the end times issue. If you remember in chapter 2, they've got this weird notion and belief that maybe Jesus has already come, so they seem to be very focused on the end times, so maybe they think that the return of Jesus is so imminent, it could happen at any point, what's the point in me going to work today, right, I'll just wait for Jesus to come back, yeah, I don't know, maybe, probably not, or maybe, another thing that's

38:38 thrown out there is that maybe some of them were caught up in a patron-client relationship that was common in the ancient world so you had a client someone from the lower class who had a patron or a benefactor from a higher class who would support them and in turn they would give them honor right these are honor shame cultures so I would give you much honor that's good for you you give me food right and I don't do anything I just kind of depend on you and we both benefit from this maybe but there just doesn't seem to be any other evidence for that here or maybe others have even thrown out that it could just be Christians within the church who are emulating Paul and the other apostles. Paul and the other apostles have come and evangelized and shared the gospel, and they've said, well, that's what they did. That's what we should go do as well. But unlike them, they've decided, well, if we do that, we don't have time to go make a living, so we're going to ask the churches to support us, which is exactly what Paul and the other apostles did not do. Well, the reality is, we just don't really know exactly why they were being disorderly, why they were being idle.

39:43 But we do know this much, and that's why this is important. We do know that they were being disorderly, that others in the community knew they were being disorderly, that they'd been commanded to stop being disorderly, and yet they refused to obey. This disorderliness, it turns out in this case. It's just that there was a command to work, and they were not going to do it. They were breaking ranks. They were breaking the order, and that's what Paul goes after. He tells the church, this is how you deal with the disorderly in this case especially. Now, to be fair, the thing that jumps out at us, especially at a quick reading, is the issue of work, right? They're not working.

40:26 They need to go to work. Well, why are we not talking about work? Well, we can address it here for just a few seconds. Work is right and good. Work is ordained by the Lord. Even all the way back into the garden, Adam works the garden. Christians are to be orderly. They're to be quiet. They're to be good workers. That much is clear from Scripture. And yet, we all live in a world that says many different things about work, right? I mean, you could come up with several different things that the world kind of teaches you, catechizes you about work, that it's just a necessary evil. It's a grind. It's the rat race, right? It's just something to be endured. Or maybe you work to play, right? You get through the week so you can have the weekend so that that's when real life happens. Or maybe more nuanced, I would imagine in this room, more nuanced.

41:17 It's not that we hate the idea of work or we object to the idea of work. It's just that you don't understand my specific work, right? Like I get that work is something we should do, but my specific job? Nah, that's different. I can't really get behind this specific job. I'm looking for a different job that will make me happy, a different job that will provide better for me, a different job that will bring me more joy. It's not that I hate work. I hate my specific work. Well, the biblical view of work, even if it's not the major focus here in this text, is that we as Christians are to be a people who work, that we work in order to contribute to our community, in order to provide for our family in order to support the ongoing gospel work of our church and other churches as well. Work is something that's given to us as a good thing. But I'm not even convinced that that's even the overarching principle here in this text at all, that that's not really what's driving Paul here. Well, what then is driving Paul? What then is Paul going after? What's his focus?

42:26 And I think his focus is the increasing faithfulness of the believers there to obey what they've been commanded to do. He wants them simply to hear a command and to obey it as God's people. Remember, he's just pressed onto their minds that they would pray for others to do the same thing, right? That others would hear the word of the Lord and that they would then obey it, that they would then honor it. And it's like he's turning the mirror on them and saying, You guys look into the mirror and do that same thing.

42:57 When you're told to do something from the Lord, you should do it. And what does he want them to do specifically then in this case? What should they do to be honoring the Lord, to be obeying his word? Well, it's that hard word. It's to distance themselves from those who openly rebel against the commands of the Lord and who don't live as Christians should. Paul's saying something about their corporate devotion to God's Word. He's pointing out that among them, there are those who are openly not following the traditions, openly not following the commands given to them, and now it's become an issue where they collectively, corporately, have to address it.

43:37 Their devotion corporately to God's Word demands that they deal with this situation. Friends, church discipline, and not just that final step of excommunication, But all the way from, you know, kind of encouraging a new brother, a new sister, all the way, yes, to excommunication. All of that is a corporate matter. All of that is a church issue. Let me say it this way. Your behavior, your obedience, your discipleship in life as an individual Christian within this church should be something that every other member, in one way or another, is interested in.

44:19 how you're living reflects back on us, and how you're living then reflects back finally and ultimately on our Savior, Jesus. Notice the steps of discipline here, the charges given here, include directions to the entire church, right? Paul doesn't just call out the leaders of that church. He doesn't even just kind of drop in himself and say, you guys step aside, let me and the apostles take care of this, and we'll do this. No, he addresses the whole church and directs the church to do something about this. So, our growth then in obeying God's Word more faithfully is not just an individual matter. It's not just an individual matter. Sure, as Christians, we have individual obligations to obey the Lord more faithfully. We don't have to go far to find that in the Scriptures, of course, but there's also a corporate sense in which we should be growing in our obedience. So, for instance, when we see, if we see and tolerate sin among us and we don't do anything about it, that's to our shame. It's not a good thing. That's not us being tolerant and

45:23 loving and compassionate. That's something to be repented of as a church. But on the other hand, if we see sin among us, we address it even publicly, corporately, if the situation demands, then we're growing in our faithfulness corporately to the Lord. That's fruit of His work in our hearts as a church when we do that. So how do we do that? How does that actually work out in daily living here? Well, some examples. You should make yourself available to others here.

45:56 That can be done in a multitude of ways. Being a part of your home group consistently, hanging out after the services over, getting to know people, whatever it is, but making yourself available to other friendships and relationships here, and then actively inviting people into your life. It's good to have other eyes on your life. Christian life is not meant to be lived over in the corner, you and your Bible alone. It's you with brothers and sisters in a church. And then on the other side of that, you seek to know others and to see their lives. So maybe you see that brother or sister kind of over in the corner, just them and their Bible. It's your job, remember, to go after them, to seek them to say, hey, what's going on in your life? Let's go grab lunch. Let's grab coffee. How are you? It's actually seeking to know someone, not to be nosy, and this is important, right? The objection that you're already lobbing out there in your mind, some of you, is that, well, I'm not going to, you know, go after the speck in their eye when I've got the log in mind. That's not what this is about. It's about encouraging one another to live according to the word of the Lord. Look,

47:02 It's not as if these Christians here in Thessaloniki didn't know what they were supposed to be doing. They were told time and time again, stop being idle. And here's an example of how you should not be idle. This is what it looks like to not be idle. So the question of should we be idle or not was not even on the table for them. So brothers and sisters, this is not an issue of, well, this is a new Christian who's just kind of learning some things. We should be very slow and compassionate with them. of course, yes, that's not what's happening here in this text. This is clear and blatant refusal to obey God's word. When we see that among us, we have an obligation to encourage one another to stop going down that path of rebellion. And if we finally see people not stopping, we have to do as Paul says they should do here. We have to take action against them.

48:02 We have to take action that shows them we, we won't go with you down that path of rebellion. Friends, that's costly. That's very difficult. That kind of action, that kind of even heart posture by a church won't always earn you friends. And that's why Paul ends then the way that he does in this chapter. Those new believers in that young church plant, they knew times of great suffering and severe difficulty, perhaps even more than any of us will know in this life.

48:40 Their lives as Christians were not easy, were not clean, were not simple. So to add more to it by telling them to treat some of their own in this way would have surely felt like a weight that was just too much, like a burden they could not bear. Paul, why are you telling us to do this of all things? So how does Paul end? He blesses them and he prays for them that the Lord of peace himself would grant them peace, that God himself would be with them, that the very grace of the Lord would be their everything in this.

49:23 Friends, that's exactly what we need to hear this morning as well. As we contemplate, what does it look like for us to devote ourselves to obeying God's word more faithfully as a church. Heaven forbid it should come to instances like this, but if it does, it will be costly. It will be difficult. And yet we have the promise of the Lord that he will be with us, that he will strengthen us as we devote ourselves to him. So what will we be known for? What will you be known for?

49:57 What will you devote yourself to? Make no mistake, you're devoting yourself to something. You're giving your life over to something. Your life is being marked by something. Let's be people who are devoted to seeing others come to obey God's word and to obeying it more faithfully ourselves. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are a God of grace, That even when you give us hard words like this, challenging words at times like this, you always remind us of your grace.

50:37 You always remind us of your presence with us. And that's the hope that we have, that we can obey what you've commanded us to do. God, we pray that your word would indeed speed ahead, that it would run to those who have not heard it, that it would run to those who do not currently honor it, and that you would save lost among us. We pray that you would bless our evangelistic efforts, cause them to be fruitful, cause there to be many new brothers and sisters because of the work we do and because ultimately of your faithfulness. God, thank you for your word this morning. Encourage us and remind us of the goodness that you've shown us in Jesus.

51:12 We pray in his name. Amen.