Marks of a Mighty Church (Part 5)
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 9/6/2015
For the past several weeks, we’ve explored the book of 1 Thessalonians together. As I said in the beginning of this series, every local church is made up of sinners saved by God’s grace, so there’s no such thing as a perfect church. But I do think some churches are closer than others. The church at Thessalonica was in that category. All throughout his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul praises the church for their faithful work, their loving deeds, and their commitment to Christ. You might say the church in Thessalonica was a mighty church. In reading Paul’s letter, we’ve discovered several characteristics or marks of a mighty church.
Now, as Paul brings this letter to a close, he offers some final thoughts that describe a few more marks of a mighty church. Let’s read this last passage together:
“Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. 13 Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other. 14 Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone. 15 See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people. 16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 19 Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 20 Do not scoff at prophecies, 21 but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. 22 Stay away from every kind of evil…May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (1Thessalonians 5:12-22, 28)
Paul packs quite a bit into this final paragraph. It almost wears you out just hoping from verb to verb—no less than 17 in just 10 verses. In fact, this pint-sized passage is packed with at least 12 different commands or instructions—each one representing another mark of a mighty church. Rather than hitting the highlights or grouping them into broader categories, I’d like to touch briefly on all twelve of these instructions; each of them codified in a single word. The first is respect.
• RESPECT
Paul starts of by reminding the Thessalonians, “honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work… Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work.” (vs. 12-13). Here at the Grove we’re blessed to have good and godly spiritual leaders including our elders, deacons, committee leaders and staff (and if you don’t know who they are, you can find a list on the back of your bulletin). They pray continually for God’s guidance in leading the church. Many of them—especially among our elders—are teachers in the church. They truly deserve our love and respect. So I would encourage you to express your appreciation for them, tell them how you’ve been blessed by their leadership or teaching and let them know that you support them.
• REPRIMAND
The next instruction Paul gives is to reprimand those who are not living right. The NASB puts it this way: “admonish the unruly” (vs. 14 NASB). The word translated “unruly” here can have a variety of meanings, including: idle, lazy, divisive, irresponsible, etc. Whatever meaning Paul had in mind, it’s clear that he wanted the Christians in Thessalonica to correct each other whenever one of them wasn’t living right. Sometimes Christians need a swift kick in the behind. We lose focus, our priorities get out of whack, we make bad decisions, or just act like jerks; and at those times, we need our brother and sister in Christ to lovingly reprimand us—to remind us of who we’re supposed to be and how we’re supposed to live.
• REASSURE
Next Paul tells us to reassure the discouraged or, as the NIV puts it, “encourage the disheartened” (vs. 14 NIV). Jackie Robinson was the first black person to play major league baseball. Breaking baseball’s color barrier, he faced jeering crowds in every stadium. Players would stomp on his feet and kick him. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he made an error. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.
We all get discouraged and disheartened at times. We need someone to stand beside us and put and arm around our shoulder. That’s why God gave us the church.
• RELIEVE
On a related note, as Paul continues, he tells us that mighty churches relieve one another’s burdens: “Help the weak” (vs. 14 NIV). Several times throughout the New Testament believers are told to help the weak. This can mean physically, spiritually, financially, etc. Jesus’s mission on earth was to save souls, but in the process he helped those in need. He feed the hungry and healed the sick. He listened and cared. Let’s follow in his footsteps. Relieve each other’s burdens. Help one another out, especially those who can’t help themselves.
• RELAX
And while we’re at it, Paul tells us to relax: “be patient with everyone” (vs. 14 NIV). Church families—like natural families—have their share of conflict. People may rub you the wrong way or get on your nerves. I’m reminded of a man that was walking through a supermarket with a screaming baby in the shopping cart. A woman nearby noticed that time and again the man would calmly say: “Keep calm, Ethan. Keep calm, Ethan.” Finally, in admiration for the man’s patience as the child continued to wail, the woman walked up to him and said: “Sir, I must commend you for your patience with baby Ethan.” To which the father replied, “Actually, his name is Logan. I am Ethan!”
The Greek word used here for patience is a descriptive one. It figuratively means “taking a long time to boil.” Think about a pot of boiling water. The water boils quickly when the flame is high. It boils slowly when the flame is low. Patience keeps the burner low. That’s a helpful clarification, don’t you think? Patience isn’t naïve. It doesn’t ignore misbehavior. It just keeps the flame low. It waits. It listens. It’s slow to boil. So the next time someone tries your patience, just relax and keep the burner low.
• REPAY
That leads right into Paul’s next instruction, don’t repay evil for evil. He writes, “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else” (vs. 15 NIV).
The desire to "get even" seems to be a part of the human psyche. It is like the story of a mother who heard her seven-year-old son screaming. She runs into the next room to see what is wrong, and discovers her one-year-old daughter is pulling her brother’s hair. The mother gets the baby’s hand unclenched and says, “I’m sorry, honey. Your sister doesn't know what it feels like to have her hair pulled.” The mother goes back into the kitchen when she hears the daughter screaming. She runs back into the room and says, “What happened?” The boy answered, “She knows what it feels like now.”
As Christians we can’t succumb to the desire to get even. The problem with an eye for an eye is that everybody ends up blind. Rather, we ought to repay evil with good. Be kind even when other aren’t kind to you.
• REJOICE
When we do that, Paul’s next instruction comes more easily. Rejoice! “Rejoice always,” he says (vs. 16 NIV). God wants you to be happy! Joy is meant to be a hallmark of the Christian life. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and a gift of God. All too often, though, we let our circumstances dictate our happiness. Statistically, the average adult laughs about 15 times a day, while the average four-year-old laughs 400 times a day. You know what that tells me? That tells me that when God makes us, he makes us happy. The hearts of little children are filled with joy, but as we get older we let the worries and concerns of life choke the joy right out of us. When bills are piling up, or the kids are acting crazy, or the car breaks down it’s difficult to feel joyful.
If we’re going to “rejoice always” as Paul says, then we need to look beyond our circumstances. True joy comes from an ever-growing awareness of God’s presence and experiencing his love and grace even in the midst of our struggles and stress.
• RECONNECT
And one way of doing that is to regularly reconnect with God. Next Paul instructs, “pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances” (vs. 17-18 NIV). Never stop praying. I’m reminded of a little boy who was kneeling by his bed with his mom to say his bedtime prayers. About half way through, he began to shout to the top of his lungs, “Dear God, I’ve been real good this year so please let me get a new bicycle for my birthday.” His mom said, “Son, God’s not deaf; you don’t need to yell.” He said, “God’s not deaf, but Grandma is and she’s in the next room.” Now, there’s a little boy who knew how to get his prayers heard!
Mature Christians know, however, that prayer is about much more than getting things from God. If that’s all it was Paul would have said, “Pray whenever you need something,” rather than “pray without ceasing.” Prayer is—at its heart—about deepening our relationship with the God who made us. That’s why Paul says to give thanks in all circumstances. When our most passionate prayer is not for the things of God, or a favor from God, but God himself, we cross a threshold. That’s the kind of prayer God wants to answer.
• REPRESS
That brings us to Paul’s next instruction—do not repress the Holy Spirit: “Do not quench the Spirit” (vs. 19 NIV). There is a God-shaped hole in our lives and when we pray, God fills that inner vacuum with his Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, we can sometimes be guilty or quenching or repressing the Holy Spirit’s influence in our lives. When we’re filled with the Holy Spirit he helps us to understand spiritual truths, he empowers us with special gifts, talents, and abilities, and he produces the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, etc.—in our lives. But when we ignore what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach us, or fail to use the gifts he gives us, or squash the fruit he produces—we repress the Holy Spirit and prevent him from doing what God wants done in our lives. So rather than repress God’s Spirit, let’s release his Spirt. Let’s be sensitive to the Spirit’s prompting and soften our hearts so that Spirt is free to work within us.
• RIDICULE
Next, Paul offers a warning against ridiculing God’s Word: “Do not scoff at prophecies” (vs. 20 NLT). Believers in Paul’s day didn’t have Bibles like we do. Much of the New Testament hadn’t been written yet, and it wouldn’t be collected into a single volume like we have for another 300 years. Instead, they had prophets whom God spoke through, revealing his Word in bits rather than books. By telling the Thessalonians not to ridicule the prophecies, he’s reminding them to take God’s Word seriously!
Whenever we read the Bible or listen to a sermon that comes from God’s word, God speaks to us personally through his Word. If we’ll really listen to what he’s saying and take it to heart—it will transform our lives.
• REVIEW
Going right along with that, Paul then says to review what you hear: “test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good” (vs. 21 NLT). In other words, be discerning. Don’t accept something as true just because the person who said it stands behind a pulpit or has their face on the cover of a book. Check their teachings against the Bible. If what they say doesn’t line up with Scripture, toss it out. But if it does, then hold on to it.
• REJECT
Lastly, Paul cautions the Thessalonians to reject evil in every form. He writes, “reject every kind of evil” (vs. 22 NIV). The word translated “reject” here means “shrink from and keep aloof from.” In other words, we shouldn’t be hanging out around evil influences. Several decades ago, around the turn of the century, musicians noticed that all the errand boys in a certain part of London all whistled out of tune as they rode around on their bicycles making their deliveries. After a while, they discovered that the reason for their poor pitch was that the bells of Westminster were slightly out of tune. The errand boys had unconsciously copied their pitch.
In the same way, we tend to copy the people with whom we associate—our worldview is constantly being shaped by the books we read, the music to which we listen, and the TV shows we watch, often without us even noticing it. If we want to keep joyfully walking with the Lord, then we need to be careful about the company we keep and influences we allow into our lives.
Conclusion:
These twelve instructions comprise Paul’s final words of advice and encouragement to the church in Thessalonica. They’re also twelve marks of a mighty church. I hope you got all of them, because there’ll be a quiz next Sunday.
Let me just close by sharing poem with you by Mavis Williams entitled The Perfect Church. I’ve shared this before, but it’s quickly becoming one of my favorites:
If you should find the perfect church Without one fault or smear,
For goodness sake! Don’t join that church; You’d spoil the atmosphere.
If you should find the perfect church Where all anxieties cease
Then pass it by, lest joining it You’d mar the masterpiece.
If you should find the perfect church Then don’t you ever dare,
To tread upon such holy ground; You’d be a misfit there.
But since no perfect church exists Made of imperfect men,
Then let’s cease looking for that church And love the church we’re in.
Like the church in Thessalonica, Blooming Grove may never be a perfect church—at least not on this side of eternity. But I think our church, like theirs, is more than capable of being a mighty church when we practice and employ all the marks of a mighty church we’ve discovered here 1 Thessalonians.
Invitation:
I want to encourage you today, if you’ve never been born again into God’s family, you can to do that today. On the other hand, maybe you’re already a born-again believer and you’ve been hanging out here at the Grove for a while, just sort of testing the waters—I want to invite you to become a part of our church family. We’re looking for mighty members that will help us continue to be a mighty church. If I can help you walk through either of those decisions, then please come talk with me while we stand and sing.
