I Thessalonians 4:13-18

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13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

NOTE the term for death is sleep. This is quite normal and leads me to believe that those who die are asleep and not running around heaven cooking for God or playing golf with the saints. And, then when Jesus returns and resurrects those who are dead, they will awake from what will seem like a nap. They are in the presence of the Lord, but asleep. This makes a whole lot of sense for me!

This is a message of hope concerning those who have already died. There is still hope for them and we will see how that will work.

14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

NOTE that someday Jesus will return to earth and will bring all those believers who have fallen asleep in Him. There will be a loud command, a shout, a trumpet and at that moment those who have already died will be resurrected first. (Some think this is because they have 6 feet farther to go!)

THEN, those believers who are still alive when Jesus returns will be caught up or snatched up together with Him and them in the clouds. There all will meet the Lord in the air. And, from then on, all believers will be with the Lord forever!

Some believe this will happen before we go through the Great Tribulation spoken by the prophets. Some believe it will happen just a few years after the Great Tribulation begins (about 3 1/2 years). Others believe this will happen at the end of the Great Tribulation. I have an unshakable position. I believe Jesus will come before the Tribulation, but if not I will move quickly to the 2nd position of waiting for 3 1/2 years. Then, after 3 1/2 years, if Jesus hasn't shown up yet, I move quickly to that final position of believing He will come at the very end of the Great Tribulation. AND THAT IS UNSHAKABLE! i call it the PAN-TRIBULATION THEORY. It will all pan out in the end, no matter what I believe.

18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. THEREFORE, since someday Jesus will return and take us to be with Him forever, we are to take comfort in this and encourage one another.

You know what's interesting? The Moslems are hoping Jesus returns to bring peace to the world. The Christians are looking for Jesus to come back and bring peace. And the Jews are looking for the Messiah, whoever He is, to come and bring peace to the world's struggles.

However it all works out, I have always liked that bumper sticker that says, "Jesus is coming back and boy, is He mad!"

I Thessalonians 4:9-12

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9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, dear friends, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

The trio continues with the "instructions". Here the topic is to love one another. Earlier the Thessalonians were told that they were being given instructions on how to live well for God and they acknowledged that they were living well, and they were urging them to do so more and more. Now, here with respect to love the same wording is used: we urge you to do so more and more.

NOTE that they were given the instructions to love one another more and more. FIRST--Make your ambition to lead a quiet life. Loving one another is a very simple thing. It has little to do with show and hype and hoopla.

SECOND--Mind your own business. Loving one another begins with you taking care of yourself. Interdependence in a loving relationship requires that each person has his/her own "business" to mind.

THIRD--Work with your hands, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. Pure dependence on another in a supportive relationship requires the ability to be independent.

I like this emphasis. You can love one another best, if you take care of yourself. Years ago I heard a teacher call this kind of thing a "value-for-value relationship." Here's what's interesting to me. We are "instructed" elsewhere in the Scripture that the Spirit of God places each believer in relationship with one another just as He desires us to be. The purpose for this dynamic is to build us all up together into a portrait of love. Now, the Thessalonians hadn't been taught this yet, however they were experiencing it in their walk with one another. I love this. They weren't loving one another because they were taught to do so. What they were experiencing together wasn't something that was "taught", but "caught." This is what is meant in the Bible as experiential knowledge. The love the Thessalonians were experiencing was not given to them by people, but they were "taught" by God to love each other. That's what I mean by "caught".

I have a question for you. Do you know what it means to really love one another or do you just know a lot about it? Have you learned it through books or teachings or have you been taught by God?

I Thessalonians 4:3-8

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3 It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.

In the day of the apostle Paul, the believers in Thessalonica, as well as in Corinth and Philippi, lived in the Greek/Roman culture which not only practiced every form of sexual immorality, but deified it, made it a God. You see, not only was fornication, pornography, and all uncleanness readily available in the city of Thessalonica, but, for the non-believers, it was considered a sacred duty, it was considered an act of worship for their gods. The Greek and Roman temples were staffed with prostitutes. Whenever they got a religious urge to worship, they went to the temples to have sex with these temple prostitutes. The trio instructs the Thessalonians not to go the way of the crowd of the Gentiles who don't know God. Imagine the temptation and the pressure upon the young followers of Jesus. The trio speaks bluntly to young people, to men and women of their day, and they say, "This is the will of God, not that you be conformed to this world, but that you be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Rom. 12:2). This is the will of God: your sexual purity.

"For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication" (v. 3). The will of God is clear here. We are to be HOLY, that's sanctification! To be holy is to be set apart unto God for His mission.

One essential element of our holiness is to “abstain from fornication.” The Greek word translated “fornication” is porneia from which we get “pornography.” It’s narrowest meaning is “prostitution,” although it has a broader meaning of sexual impurity in general. It was not considered wrong, for example, for a Greek husband to see a prostitute for sexual pleasure, as long as he didn't parade this fact in front of his wife. So, when it came to sexual practices, the Thessalonians needed very clear instruction so that they might live according to God's desires. Followers of Jesus are to be set apart from this sort of behavior and not indulge in these lustful passions.

NOTE that no one is to wrong or exploit a brother or sister in this matter, by being selfish enough to satisfy your own lusts. This is underlined by, “For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness.” We are to stand apart from the crowd in these matters in order to be attractive.

This is painfully relevant to us today. We are living in a sexually impure world on nearly every level of life. Pornography may be the greatest and most destructive epidemic we have ever experienced in the world. Sexual purity is not an option for those who follow Jesus.

According to this paragraph, if you want to do the will of God, you can begin right here. Don’t go along with the spirit of the culture. You are not only violating your relationship with your significant others; you are rejecting God Himself. Sexual purity begins with a choice—to be holy.

I Thessalonians 4:1-2

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1 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

This is an interesting peek into the relational dynamic between the leadership trio and the Thessalonians. After they have affirmed their work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope, they turn the corner a bit. They start out with "as for other matters, brothers and sisters", then they refer to a certain set of instructions they had given the Thessalonians.

What are these instructions? Well, we'll see some of them set forth specifically in the next paragraph. So, what kind of instructions might they be?

FIRST--These instructions are practical. They have to do with how to live their lives.

SECOND--These instructions are relevant. They have to do with their specific life situation. We'll see this next as a couple of instructions are given that are most appropriate to the Thessalonian situation and circumstances.

THIRD--These instructions are a work in progress. This is why they say that we beg you and urge you to do these things more and more.

FOURTH--These instructions rest in the authority of the Lord Jesus.

In fact, as you will see, not only in the letters to the Thessalonians, that all instructions can be boiled down being Jesus--living, loving, talking, thinking and walking like Jesus. Being Jesus is a lifestyle that we are continually work on.

You see, this is right at the core of what making disciples is all about. It is not simply a body of knowledge to be remembered, but an experiential knowledge to be lived. I like the statement: Your faith in Jesus doesn't need proof; it needs practice. It's so much easier to demonstrate for Jesus through some outward show or activity rather than to simply demonstrate Jesus in your life.

NOTE one more thing here: Jesus is most effectively demonstrated in community with others. It's very difficult to see Jesus clearly in and through just one person, all alone. Jesus shows up when two or three are gathered together in His name. This is why I keep saying that these New Testament writers seem to be southerners, because they keep using terms like "Ya'll do this!" or "Ya'll do that!" "Let the word of Christ dwell among ya'll." So, what are you doing standing there all by yourself? Ya'll need to get together!

I Thessalonians 3

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1 So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God's service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.

6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Who is a brother and co-worker in God's service in spreading the gospel of Christ? I want to point out to you that brothers and sisters, who are co-workers, could apply to any and all disciples. It seems that each of us has a different walk with Jesus and others as we stand before the world in which we live.

Then, NOTE their anticipation of trials. They warned the Thessalonians that they would be persecuted and this actually happened. Again, what kind of trials were these and where were they coming from? As we have pointed out frequently, the trials and persecution spoken of here is pressure from the religious community. It is not from the "secular" world. It is from the spiritual or religious community. Even in the 8th Beatitude Jesus speaks of being persecuted as primarily a verbal offense. Although the verbal attacks did grow into some physical persecution, the vast majority of it is all verbal pressure--either talking badly toward you or about you.

I've experienced this a bit since we have been stubbornly following Jesus more closely. The rejection comes in the forms of saying, "Well, that's fine, but living this kind of lifestyle just can't be practiced within the structure of the church." Or, "It all sounds too simple." "You're ignoring the doctrinal teachings and even much of the Bible." At one point, when I mentioned JESUS PLUS NOTHING, a comment was made, "You've got to be kidding. You can't live like that. There's more to Christianity than Jesus plus nothing."

I'm reminded once again of the words in the 11th chapter of II Corinthians: But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. In another translation this is "to be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ."

Every time we feel the need to add-on something to Jesus, then we have added too much. In fact, add-ons too easily become the primary focus. And then the add-ons are received as "the truth" that is equal to or greater than Christ or instead of Christ. This is precisely what is meant by the biblical term, ANTI-CHRIST--all that is "instead of" Christ. The spirit of anti-Christ or "instead of" Christ is not something we're waiting for; it is already here. I beg you...hang on to JESUS PLUS NOTHING. He is the only One Who can get you out of this world alive!