1 Thessalonians 5

¹² We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, ¹³ and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. ¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. ¹⁵ See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies, ²¹ but test everything; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil. ²³ Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. ²⁵ Brothers, pray for us. ²⁶ Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. ²⁷ I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers. ²⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Have you ever heard those commercials that conclude with those rapid-fire, barely-intelligible, hyper-speed disclaimers that no mortal person could ever understand? What about the drug commercials that have the same, but you can make out just enough of what is being raced through at the end to pick up some truly terrible possible side effects from the advertised drug? Here is one example I found (and edited and altered and added to and subtracted from, I hasten to add!):

“If you have seasonal allergies, [this medicine] may be right for you. Side effects…are uncommon, and include headache, nausea, vomiting, death, dizziness…dysentery, cardiac arrhythmia, mild heart explosions, varicose veins, darkened [mood], darkened soul, [ennui], lycanthropy…more vomiting, arteriosclerosis…diabeetus…mild discomfort, vampirism…spontaneous dental hydroplosion, [Count Choculitis], sugar high, [vertigo], even more vomiting, total implosion [of any lingering sense of hope or purpose or meaning], [fear of dolphins, fear of chihuahuas, the growth of additional toes, the appearance of a Finnish accent in your daily speech, lowering math scores, random bouts of shouting the word “Huzzah” in crowded spaces, blurred vision, mohawks, purple freckles, Harry Potter-itis, MORE vomiting]…and [a] mild rash.”[1]

Have you heard these commercials? It is terrifying! It also proves a couple of things. First, nobody is apparently listening these rapid-fire horror stories tacked onto the end or else none of these medications would ever be purchased again. Secondly, we need to listen to the end of too-good-to-be-true commercials because oftentimes what is promised in the body of the commercial is negated at the end.

It is enough to make one nervous about conclusions with too much crammed into them. But this is not always fair. Take our book, 1 Thessalonians. Here in the final verses of chapter 5, Paul puts so much into this that it sounds like one of those commercials. Herschel Hobbs said of our text, “Into his closing remarks Paul crammed a world of ideas.”[2]Indeed!

But there is one major difference: The end of 1 Thessalonians does not negate the rest of the letter, is not trying to slip something frightening past you, is not stealing with the left hand what it promised with the right, and can be 100% trusted!

Yes, there is a lot here, but it is really beautiful and encouraging and challenging.

God’s word does not deceive, even if it sometimes seems to overwhelm! This would be one such example. Let us pull up a chair, slow down the speed a bit, and listen closely to what Paul says about life with Jesus in the body of Christ. You will find here not deception but confirmation of all he said before!

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Titus 3

¹ Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, ² to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. ³ For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. ⁴ But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. ⁸ The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. ⁹ But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. ¹⁰ As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, ¹¹ knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

I knew something was up, but I certainly did not know it was as bad as it was! Until I received the phone call.

“Hey, look, the staff and I just had a big fight…and it turned physical and spilled out onto the street.”

“Seriously? You guys were physically fighting in the street?”

We made arrangements for us all to meet and talk through what happened.

Before the meeting could happen, though, another phone call, this time from a member of our church.

“Pastor, I don’t quite know how to say this, but I just drove by the church plant we’re sponsoring…and it looked like some of the ministers there were fighting each other in the street in front of the building in broad daylight.”

My heart sank.

How did this happen?

A church staff…physically fighting each other…in broad daylight…downtown, in the street…in front of everybody and anybody who happened to be out or going by.

That church no longer exists. It never really recovered. I think of it now, when I think of it, as a tragedy.

Paul, in Titus 3, now turns to how the church behaves toward the watching world as well as with one another.

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1 Thessalonians 4

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵ For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 5

¹ Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. ² For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. ⁴ But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. ⁵ For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. ⁶ So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. ⁹ For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. ¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

A couple of weeks ago, Hal Lindsey died. I wonder if you recognize that name? Many of you will. And many of you who do not recognize that name will nonetheless have been impacted by Lindsey’s work in ways you may not know.

In 1970, Lindsey published The Late Great Planet Earth. This was a book on prophecy and it absolutely exploded in sales around the world. It is hard to get an updated number on how many copies of The Late Great Planet Earth were sold, but it appears that by 1999 it had sold thirty-five million copies. And that was twenty-five years ago.

I was born four years after that book appeared and I can honestly say that my eschatology was impacted by it. Lindsey wrote not only of Christ’s second coming, but also of how he thought the political realities of that time would come into play: The European Economic Community, Russia, China, and the like. Lindsey painted a vivid and memorable and specific picture of how all of this might play out. If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, this version of the events that would lead up to the second coming will sound familiar…until, that is, the fall of the U.S.S.R. and the rise of Islamic extremism. Now the specific political realities have changed and new books on the second coming with different names are being published.

Lindsey certainly made some mistakes, and his personal life was messy. The obituary that appeared in the Religion News Service, for instance, (entitled “The late great Hal Lindsey”), included this:

Lindsey offered a rough date for the Rapture based on Jesus’ promise that when certain signs appeared the “generation” that witnessed them would not “pass till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:33-34). The “rebirth of Israel,” the evangelist informed readers, marked the fulfillment of this prophecy. “A generation in the Bible,” Lindsey continued, “is something like forty years. If this is a correct deduction, then within forty years or so of 1948, all these things could take place.” Lindsey expected the Rapture to happen by 1988. “Late Great” is still in print and has not been updated or revised, although as Lindsey went through multiple marriages and divorces his author photo and acknowledgments changed accordingly.[1]

Yes, Lindsey had his issues, that is true. But, De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est (speak nothing but good of the dead), as they say, so let us give him this: Lindsey was absolutely correct that Jesus is coming again!

The New York Times obituary contained this: “Mr. Lindsey’s doomsday predictions did not come true, and his prophesies of imminent end-of-the-world events seem less credible with each passing day.”[2] If the writer means some of Lindsey’s specific predictions and theories did not come true, he is right. Some of Lindsey’s particular predictions were wrong and he likely should have shown more restraint! But if the New York Times writer means Lindsey’s belief that Jesus is coming again is no longer credible, then I stand with Lindsey! Jesus is coming again!

Paul now turns his attention to just this truth, and he does so to encourage and to challenge the Thessalonian Christians. The second coming of Jesus matters and it matters a lot!

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Titus 2

¹ But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. ² Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. ³ Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, ⁴ and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, ⁵ to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. ⁶ Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. ⁷ Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, ⁸ and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. ⁹ Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, ¹⁰ not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. ¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. ¹⁵ Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

In his invaluable background work on the New Testament world, Craig Keener makes a very interesting observation about the church and its place in Roman society.

Because the Romans suspected minority religions, especially religions from the East with ecstatic elements to their worship, of subverting traditional family values, minority religions often followed the philosophers in exhorting adherents to follow “household codes.” These codes instructed male heads of households how to treat each member of the household, especially wives, children and slaves. Under the broad topic of “household management,” such codes also extended to treatment of parents, duties to the state (3:1) and duties to the gods. Because the church met in homes and was viewed as a sort of extended family around the household of the patron in whose home the believers met, the instructions naturally quickly extended to categories of relationships in the church.

Early Christian adaptation of Roman social relations was valuable for the church’s witness to society and for diminishing preventable opposition to the gospel (2:5, 8, 10). Modern readers often recognize only the traditional values of their own culture, but one should recognize that Paul addresses instead the traditional Roman values of his day (including the household slavery of his day, which differed from many other societies’ models of slavery).[1]

In other words, in the book of Titus, Paul encourages the believers on Crete to order their households in such a way as to avoid unnecessary offense. The gospel itself was an offense (1 Corinthians 1:18–25) to Roman culture. Paul did not want the households and lives of the believers to be an offense through low living or a lack of integrity. In other words: To offend a skeptical culture with the gospel was inevitable. To offend through disordered homes and lives was not.

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When Dr. James Leo Garrett Jr. passed away on February 5, 2020, Dr. Malcolm Yarnell proposed to Dr. Ed Stetzer that I write a tribute piece for a Christianity Today blog (since Malcolm had written a tribute for The Gospel Coalition, if I recall). I did so and the tribute was posted. Somehow I did not screenshot and save the actual CT post and, in time, that post cycled out and is no longer at CT. I did manage to find the posted article on another site that linked to it at the time (the link no longer works). I wanted to post that here since  it contains the original article in its entirety and since I did not post it at the time. The article is below.

Titus 1

⁹ He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. ¹⁰ For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. ¹¹ They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. ¹² One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” ¹³ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, ¹⁴ not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. ¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. ¹⁶ They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Some years back, a video was posted online that was simultaneously awkward and fascinating and moving. It set off a very interesting conversation among viewers concerning the rightness or wrongness of what happened. In the video, a self-proclaimed prophetess had set up her tent in an American city and was holding nightly meetings. One pastor realized that a number of his congregants were going to hear this lady speak. Some, he said, were going to evangelize but others were seemingly listening to her and possibly coming under her influence. The pastor said that her presence was divisive and, most importantly, that she was teaching false doctrine. So, the pastor went to the tent to hear her himself.

In the midst of her teaching, the pastor went forward and asked to speak. He proceeded to call the woman a false prophet and to confront her for her false teaching. He was not rude or belligerent, unless you consider the whole thing rude! But he seemed to be trying his best to state the truth in a way that was clear and bold without being overly combative.

It was, to use the word again, fascinating! In truth, having seen the video, I support the pastor’s actions. At the very least it must be acknowledged that Paul felt it was the responsibility of an elder to protect the flock from false teaching and to confront false teachers. This pastor did just that.

Titus 1:9–16 presents us with a biblical foundation for an elder’s watch care over what is taught to the church. It seems that false teachers were disrupting the life of the church on the island of Crete. Paul gives Titus instructions on how to respond.

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1 Thessalonians 4

⁹ Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, ¹⁰ for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, ¹¹ and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, ¹² so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Some years back Chuck Swindoll quoted Alfred Joyce Kilmer to this effect:

Whenever I walk through Asia,

Along the harbor blue,

I go by a great big church house

With its people strong and true.

I suppose I’ve passed it a hundred times,

But today I stopped for a minute

And looked at that church—

That tragic church,

The church with no love for me in it.[1]

There is a story behind that, and I wonder what it is, why it is that Kilmer felt that this particular church had no love for him in it. It is indeed, to use his word, “tragic.” Yet, it happens, does it not? Too much.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:9–12, Paul is going to paint a picture of a loving church, a good church, a healthy church. He is going to call upon the Thessalonian believers to be what they must be for the church to be the church that Jesus envisioned.

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1 Thessalonians 4

¹ Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. ² For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. ³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, ⁵ not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; ⁶ that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. ⁷ For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. ⁸ Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

I took a picture earlier this year standing in the ruins of the ancient city of Corinth. The picture is of a large hill in the distance, or a small mountain. In truth, it looks like a massive rock. Atop that hill was where the temple of Aphrodite stood two thousand years ago. The Corinth of that time was very much a pagan city. Immorality was rife.

I knew before we arrived at Corinth that, in Paul’s day, there was a temple atop that hill and that in that temple were temple prostitutes. I was unaware, until arriving there, of just how far away and high up that temple would have been!

Our tour guide told us two fascinating things about this. First, she told us that the temple prostitutes would come down twice a day to try to entice the people of Corinth and so, ultimately, to bring more money into the temple under the guise of allegedly sacred carnality. Second, she shared with us that the prostitutes who would come down would sometimes wear special sandals, on the bottoms of which was the Greek word which, translated, means, “Follow me.” So as these prostitutes walked, their feet would stamp the words “Follow me” into the ground for all possibly-interested people to see and obey.

A model of the sandals described.

Paul is writing to the Thessalonian Christians in our text today, yet this was still Greece and the shocking behavior of Corinth was repeated in many ways throughout the pagan world.

It is hard for us to imagine just how openly brazen the immorality of the ancient world was…but, then again, it is not, is it? H.A. Ironside wrote in 1946:

We might say, “Well, we live in a civilized land where men have learned the difference between clean and unclean living; we do not need such an exhortation as this.” But a little acquaintance with conditions in and out of the professing church will emphasize the importance of the admonition given here. There is always the temptation to lower the Christian standard in regard to things that are immoral and unclean. We need to be constantly reminded of the importance of living pure lives.[1]

Paul turns in chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians to an encouragement and to a warning. He encourages the Thessalonian believers to look and act more and more like Jesus. And he warns them not to follow in the way of immorality.

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1 Thessalonians 3

¹ Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, ² and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, ³ that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. ⁴ For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. ⁵ For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. ⁶ But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— ⁷ for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. ⁸ For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. ⁹ For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 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? ¹¹ 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 blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Some years ago I read a fascinating and troubling interview with John Derbyshire, at that time at National Review. Derbyshire was talking about his own lack of faith and reported this anecdote form his own family.

I have the depressing example, in my own family, of an uncle who lost his faith at the very end of life. He’d been a staunch Methodist…Fred was, in fact, the only close relative of mine to be religious in a busy, dedicated way helping with church functions, lay reading, that sort of thing…Then in his late 70s he got esophagal cancer, and spent several months dying slowly. It’s an awful way to go: slow starvation and slow choking, simultaneously. At some point he lost his lifelong faith, and died an atheist, railing at the folly of religion…Anyway, the example of Uncle Fred has been lurking there in the back of my mind ever since. You hear a lot about deathbed conversions, but not much about deathbed apostasies. Well, let me tell you, it happens.[1]

“Deathbed apostasy.” Derbyshire is right: You do not hear a lot about that. But it does happen.

In many ways, life seems to assault our faith. Some stand strong like unmoved citadels. Some collapse. But many are in the middle: They continue to believe, but their faith is buffeted and in need of strengthening.

The young Thessalonian church was suffering. They were undergoing persecution. And Paul (who himself had had to flee Thessalonica earlier) was worried. Would the church there hold on to their faith in Jesus? Would the devil use their sufferings to tempt them to abandon the faith? Or would they stand firm?

As it turns out, these are the same questions that confront us today.

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Titus 1

⁵ This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— ⁶ if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. ⁷ For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, ⁸ but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. ⁹ He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

It was recently revealed that yet another high-profile pastor has fallen. This pastor is in his 70s. He is a conservative stalwart, theologically, and is active on the speaking circuit. One or two of the books in my library have his name on the cover. I have heard him speak more than once at conferences. The “other woman,” as they say, is in her 20s. The issue of “power dynamics” has been raised, not without reason. The entire situation is utterly tragic.

As this scandal unfolded, many began to wonder about the strange silence surrounding it, particularly from the church he pastored. Why had they not brought church discipline against him? Why were the elders of the church not addressing this public scandal in a sufficient way?

Then it became clear: Apparently this man—well-known and heretofore well-respected as a pastor—was not actually the pastor of the church he appeared to pastor. He was not the undershepherd of the church, though seemingly everybody thought he was. He was not even a member of the church. As it turns out, he allegedly had an agreement with the church that he would be paid to preach on Sunday mornings. That is it. One insider said that he would drive up, preach, then drive away.

One wonders: Was this arrangement so that the man in question could sidestep the clear biblical requirements for an elder? In other words, by not technically being an elder (but, instead, a weekly speaker), could he perhaps be exempted from the high standards of the office? To which I think we should say that one ought not play games with the church and, more importantly, with God. God sees the heart and God knows our characters…and God is never fooled by technicalities. In fact, this man presented himself as a shepherd and, as a proclaimer of the word, he has a responsibility to make sure that his life matches his profession.

There was a time earlier in my life when I used to hear this mantra during a particular presidential campaign: “Character counts!” Indeed, it does! Which is why Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives the qualifications for elders in the church.

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