Message 4 - 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4 – Walk To Please God And The Rapture Teaching – Part 1 Series

MESSAGE 4 - 1 THESSALONIANS CHAPTER 4 – WALK TO PLEASE GOD AND THE RAPTURE TEACHING – PART 1

PART 1

[1]. WALKING TO PLEASE

{{1Thessalonians 4:1 “Finally then, brethren, we REQUEST AND EXHORT you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received instruction from us as to how you ought to WALK AND PLEASE God, (just as you actually do walk), that you MAY EXCEL still more. 1Thess 4:2 You know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.”}}

This passage may seem a bit hard to take in at first reading and I think that is the way the NASB translates it. What Paul is saying is that he is insisting that these Thessalonians walk to please God as he instructed them, and not just do that but try to excel in doing it. After all they know the commandments given to them from God through Paul.

The first 12 verses of this chapter are about walking to please our heavenly Father. Some people please no one. Some only please their selfish selves. Some work hard to please a young woman (until married, then may not try so hard after that). Some walk to please their employer, or parents, and some live to please for a personal advantage, but the instruction for all Christians is clear – we “ought to walk and please God”. However it is more than that, for we need to excel still more – see those words at the end of verse 1. Paul desires in God that we do not be just mediocre Christians, or go with the flow Christians, for there is too much nominal Christianity out there, those who give God a bit of their time to feel some satisfaction. That is not what a true Christian is about. His and her walk must be in the first class category, the category that would get an A+ on a school awards’ night.

In his desire for them, Paul uses two words in Greek, which are translated as “ask and urge” (ESV), (NIV) “request and exhort” (NASB) and “ask and encourage” (Holman). The first word Paul uses means “to make an earnest request”. The second word means “summon, entreat, admonish”.

The first of these words is also translated in other verses as “ask, beg, implore, make request, question, urge.” The second is translated in other verses as “appeal, beg, beseech, comfort, encourage, entreat, exhort, implore, invite, plead, request, urge”. That might be a lot of words to take in but can you see what God is doing? He is pleading with you, urging you, appealing to you, to walk and please Him as one worthy of the calling in our Lord Jesus Christ.

You will notice the wording Paul uses in verse 1 - “how you OUGHT to walk and please God” = it is necessary, it is a duty, it is what is proper. (NASB, ESV). The NIV translates that as “how to live” which is a bit weak.

In verse 2, Paul draws their attention to the authority of Jesus Christ in what was passed on to them about their Christian life. We are to be persons of faith and devotion and live a life pleasing to God. A careless Christian is a contradiction.

I am supposing that in a lovely society such as in a Christian community where most are devoted Christians, it could be easier to walk and please God as there is encouragement on all sides. In a hostile society a walk for the Lord becomes a lot more difficult because of rejection, scorn, lack of support and many other factors. Well the believers in Thessalonica lived in a hostile society and our world is now progressing downward at a rapid rate and the Christian faith is the most persecuted in the world. There is no place for pretense. We must be genuine. We must count for God, and as we don’t have Paul in person to instruct us, how do we do it? That is simple. We have the whole writings of God in the bible. Do not neglect the Old Testament as that was the inspired writings of the early church.

[2]. SANCTIFICATION IS GOD’S WILL FOR YOU

{{1Thessalonians 4:3-8 “For your sanctification is the will of God, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you knows how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”}}