This is the Truth Network. Forever thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119, verse 89. I'm Stu Everson. Welcome to this special Wednesday in the Word Leader podcast, where we prepare and equip our leaders of this special Bible study outreach breakfast.
Every week to teach through the scriptures. Thirteen Dario locations. There's a men's group meeting and several of the Locations host the women on Thursday morning. Stay tuned. Be encouraged as we jump into this week's Wednesday in the Word.
Pray for your pastor. If you're anywhere in North Carolina and other parts of the country, you see this giant bus. with those words on it. by a ministry called Energize Ministry. Led by a fellow named Andy Bower Sox.
Now, there's a handle for you, there's a name. Andy's started this ministry to encourage and inspire people. to pray for their pastor and Paul At the end of this great book, He asks for prayer. From the people at Thessalonica, the baby church, the baby Christians. Why would the great?
Leader, lion of the church, the man. Who had planted all these churches wrote 13 epistles? Why would he ask for prayer?
Well, that's one of. Many of these punchy, encouraging exhortations. that really bring us to a climactic point. Chapter 5, the final verses of 1 Thessalonians. I can't believe we're here, Dr.
Horn. Chapter 5:23 through 28. And what an inning it is, hussar. Wow. Yeah, we have been making our way week after week through this really amazing letter.
To one of the earlier congregations outside of Jerusalem. Obviously, Paul. you know, comes to Thessalonica. on the second missionary journey. And he has an amazing opportunity.
Uh for the gospel's sake. And so here we are listening in to his conversation to these believers who we met way back in chapter one. He turned from idols. To worship and serve the living God and to wait for the coming of his son from heaven. And all through the book, those three big ideas have been showing up: you know, turning away from idols.
You know, abandoning our old life, our old structure, our old religious perspective. and turning completely. in complete devotion. And worship and service to God, the true and living God of heaven. That was a monumental moment for these people.
And no doubt it costs them dearly. as they turned away from everything that was known to them. And put themselves in a place where everything that went bad around them would be blamed on them. Uh, because they had turned away from the gods and had. become devotees and ardent disciples.
Of a God nobody knew. And the Jews in their town who did know that God were equally mad with them because they were, in their minds, blaspheming by calling this carpenter from Nazareth that the Romans had crucified the Messiah, the son of the living God. And so these people to whom Paul writes this letter. have had an amazing enlightenment by the Holy Spirit. And it's interesting that all through the book, Uh Paul is going to come back to these ideas.
And so, for example, in verse eight. of chapter five, he talks about putting on the breastplate of faith. And love, and as a helmet, the hope, the confidence. Of salvation, and it indicates just the battle context that these believers were in.
Okay. And these final verses really are a summary of the five chapters. Really, there's nothing new. He's just kind of bringing it to a climactic point and giving some really important admonitions. This is.
Arguably, we talked about this in the introduction. Folks want to go back to the very first chapter. Where Dr. Horn and I recorded. This, uh, you know, our first podcast on this book, setting the stage, kind of setting the table, Dr.
Horn. He you know, he really Uh, hits the coming of Christ a lot in this book. In each of the five chapters, there's a reference to the coming of the Lord, and then, yeah, yeah, you know, you have this young church. that is they're under fire For their faith, they're on fire for the faith. And this is really a this is really the closest to a thank you letter or a or a letter just Drenched in gratitude and grace and thankfulness all throughout it, you see.
He prays for them three times in the book, and then of course once he asked them to pray for him.
So Dr. Horne, you know, you set a little bit up on the on the the review or the the review before we preview the text for this week. But you talked about that. We really came out of this. This amazing, you know, these sticks of dynamite in chapter five, pray without ceasing, rejoice always.
And everything give thanks. I mean, Paul gives these. In lieu of Christ's coming, he gives these amazing. Exhortations, you know, some 12 imperatives that are all grounded in the indicatives of what Christ has done. Who died for us so that we will always, whether we sleep or whether we're awake, live with him.
So, by way of review, you know, it all. Leads nicely to this closing, and this isn't. that uh foreign to the other Pauline epistles, is it? No, in fact, it's interesting. You brought up a very interesting grammatical point.
And that is that in verses twelve Really down to verse 21. you have sort of this preponderance of commands. Imperatives was the word you used, and it's the right word. I mean, Paul is looking at believers on the basis of what he's taught them, and on the basis of what the Spirit of God is doing in them and has done for them, he is calling them to live intentionally. in a certain way, and hence the commandments that we see there.
But when you get to verse 23, it changes. He's not using imperatives. He's actually using a verb form. that we would say it's stronger than a wish. We wish this for you.
This is our deep desire for you. But it's stronger than that. It's language that Paul usually uses. for certain kinds of praying. Where he is asking God to do something substantial, something significant, something that is humanly impossible.
And that's what we find here in verse 23. There's going to be. this prayer where Paul pours out his heart to God. for them. And he expresses it to them as a wish.
But it's not like the kind of wish. uh that you and your wife Make when you're out walking one night and you look up in the sky, and there's a shooting star, and your wife says, Oh, there's a shooting star. Quick, make a wish. that that's not the idea of the grammar when we use the word wish That's not what we mean. We mean this deep-seated deep longing that Paul is crying out to God to do.
And that's what happens in verses 23, in verse 23. And then in verse 24, Paul anchors the surety of that wish. in something that is true about God. In other words, he can say and talk. The way he does in verse 23, because of what he is convinced of in verse 24.
And so I would say, what you have here is this prayer. for the full sanctification of the whole believer. And then there's a context in which this happens. How does this full sanctification of the whole believer happen? And then finally, and you see that in verses 25, 26, and verse 27.
And then finally, there is what sustains it. What is the energy that will sustain this? And so that's sort of the roadmap. um that that leads into where we're headed today yeah And I'm so glad that you're enunciating each of these things, Dr. Horne.
It's so important, people listening. that you take, you don't just. I understand if you're doing a survey lesson of the Bible and you're kind of doing a breeze by, a blow-by, and there's all kinds of YouTube videos and teachings out there, podcast. Even on the radio network, when you listen to programs, they'll say, Okay, we're doing one hour in Revelation. And there's a place for that because you do need an overview.
It's like when you're on a lake, there's a place. There's a place for a speedboat. You got to get from point A to point B, and you got to see things. You got to kind of get there. That's why it's called a speedboat.
But then there's also. When you're going over, when you're in Maui going over the nicest coral reef in the world, there's a place for a glass bottom boat. And a glass bottom boat's not going to go 25, 30, 40, 50 miles an hour. A glass bottom boat is going to say, in fact, Dr. Horn, there are sermons.
And I found one of your sermons in Sermon Audio, one of the apps I have. just on verse 23. There are dozens of sermons on 23. There are pastors who preach entire sermons on 24 and And when I say that, I mean they go they go word for word. through this verse.
They don't take, read the verse and then. Do a A systematic theology lesson. Genesis or Revelation, not that you don't tie the whole scripture. And of course, scripture interprets scripture, and you've got to go through the whole word. But I mean, you take and you understand by the time you get through the verse what the verse says, what it means by what it says, and then what its basic application is.
In first, you do the application in the Oriental, which is the culture written to by Paul in Thessaloniki, then the Occidental, which is the Western culture.
Sometimes we just read a verse and say, okay, what's this mean to me?
Okay, like, which is why someone could hear the language of wish and say, well, that means when I wish upon a star.
Well, they don't see. You got to go into the language, which is why, Dr. Horn, what you're sharing, your insights and your studies, and as a Bible professor at all different levels, from the seminary level all the way down to Bible college, to when you led Bible studies with me in the living room of Tom and Pat's house. You know, I just break it down so well. And I'd like for you to do that.
You know, some folks. I mean, there are some pastors who I referenced, I referenced who have... have uh chapter five alone. One packer, I think, had 12 or 15. individual messages and these are 45 minutes to 60 minute messages.
On just chapter five.
Well, we've done three. We did the first section, which is so important on the return of Christ. Right. The second section, which is all these amazing Imperatives knowing crisis coming back. Hey.
You know, you've got to do these things. You've got to exhort, you know, we exhort you that you, you know, you. You warn the unruly, you comfort the faint-hearted, you uphold the weak, and then all these beautiful, uh, you know, pray without ceasing, rejoice always. And then you get into these final verses, Dr. Horn, break them down for us.
Will you take us through real quick, real quickly? You, you, I think you told me you have about three different. Three big ideas.
Okay. And pegs. I look at them as pegs. that as a pastor or as a Bible teacher. And we, you know, our podcast is for everybody, but obviously it's going to be targeted to help our Bible teachers know how to break this passage down when they teach it on Wednesdays.
And so I would say there are three big ideas here. And the first of those is this prayer that Paul utters. For the whole sanctification, the full, I'm going to say it this way: the full sanctification of the whole believer. And so when you see that in verses 23 and 24, there are four big ideas or five big ideas tied to that.
So let's talk about that for a minute. Let's read the text and then I want to show you the ideas.
Okay. So we're talking about this prayer. For the full sanctification of the whole believer.
Now, may the God of peace. himself Sanctify you completely. There's the statement, right? And may your whole spirit, and soul, and body be kept blameless. There's the prayer.
There's the explanation of the statement. What does Paul mean when he says sanctify you completely? And he just told you, may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless. at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then there is this assurance.
Confidence that he lays out in verse 24: he who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it.
So the five things I would point out under this idea of this prayer for the full sanctification of the whole believer is that it is the God of peace himself who does this. This is this is not Just Paul saying to the believers, now work hard at your sanctification. Get with it. Clean up your light. Get your act together.
Don't you know you have been brought into the kingdom of light? Don't you know what Jesus did on the cross for you? No, no. Clean up, get up. and stay up.
That's not how Paul addresses this. He realizes that the work. that he wants, not the outer conformity, the deep inner transformation. can only happen when the God of peace himself does it. And so that's the first thing I think we all have to help people understand is that.
There is a work of sanctification. that has to happen. We play a part in it. Just like we played a part in our salvation, right? But it is God who saves us.
God architected our salvation. God called us to salvation. God energized our salvation. God opened our eyes. He quickened our heart, but we had to respond in faith.
So, here is another aspect of something only God can do. Just like He is the only one who could save us, He is the only one who could sanctify us. Moses can't sanctify us. Our church can't sanctify us. Religious ritual can't sanctify us.
Good works can't sanctify us. There's only one source. of sanctification and it is the god who made peace for us and with us. And that's why I think the word peace. comes into play here.
May the God of peace himself So there is this. uh recognition That what? Paul is desiring cannot be done on a human level alone.
Now, what he wants the God who made peace to do is to entirely sanctify. the believer may he sanctify you completely The the word Uh completely there. is a word that means thoroughly or through and through with no part excluded. In other words, this is not just a surface painting. Let's paint a little holiness.
on the walls of your life. This is a thorough renovation. And no part of you escapes. whether it's your body or your soul or your spirit. And I know we get hung up on trichotomy and dichotomy.
And I used to love those debates as a younger theologian and used to always get in sort of charged up by them. Um I I'm I'm I'm not as charged up now as I used to be. Because what I think Paul is doing here is he's not trying to make a statement. about how many parts we have. He's he's trying to say.
However many there are, they need to be holy, thoroughly through and through, nothing excluded, nothing missing. sanctified. They've got to be set apart. By God for himself, right? May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.
It reminds me of the word that you've heard, you've probably said, you know, and it's probably attributed to Spurgeon or somebody, but when God saves a man, he saves the whole man.
So Paul's not trying to lay down a marker, okay. This is a proof text for the trichotomy of man or To cause a debate between those who are, you know, die, who just believe it's body-soul only, or this and that, or the three. This is to say, God, His sanctifying work. is is a head to toe, heart and soul affair. Dr.
Horn. So, not a rabbit we want to necessarily want to chase or get distracted by. even though both sides uh Cert certainly enjoy going at it, but I just It's just a beautiful picture of his complete sanctification. He will not rest. And he is working in and through us to do His good pleasure.
Yeah, and so there is, you know, this desire, full sanctification. And and what Paul wants to be fully sanctified is the full believer. every part of him. Um you know, we've all had sort of projects we've done. Where we've gone into clean up something or remake something or paint something.
And we get into the project. And we start making little decisions.
Well, nobody will see that. You know, nobody's going to look at the roof of the pantry closet. And I'm really not wanting to go buy a whole nother gallon of paint. Just to paint that little pantry closet roof that nobody looks at. Even when they open the door, they don't look up there because there's no light.
It looks okay. I'm just going to leave it alone. Or, you know, whatever, whatever it is, they're little, little choices we make. You know, I'm not going to do the laundry room. I'm really not going to crawl way up under the sink.
Uh, under the vanity, and make sure I get the wall. Uh, or you know, I'm just not going to pull the vanity off and do all of it. I'm just I'm going to do the best I can, but I'm just going to make choices where some parts of my house. that hardly ever get seen by anybody are just not going to get touched. That is the exact opposite of what Paul is asking for here.
When God does this sanctifying work, Paul says, I want the full job. And I want it to go to every part of me. I don't want there to be one part of me. Where God is not at work sanctifying, whether it's my mind, whether it's my relationships. Whether it's how I live my life.
And even my physical body, there is this interesting thing. Where he talks about the body, right? I want God to sanctify my body. And so that's going to play into the next. thing because obviously in this life Our body isn't being sanctified.
It's decaying. Paul's going to actually make this statement, isn't he? In Corinthians, where he talks about our outer man is decaying. while our inner man is becoming more and more glorious. That doesn't mean that we should be okay with our outer man, our body sinning.
Obviously, we need to put the deeds of the flesh to death. But he's actually talking about the full sanctification of the body. And the only time that's going to happen. At the coming of our Lord Jesus. And that's the next thing you read, right?
When will this fully happen?
So that even my body is blameless. There is. Absolutely nothing to reproach. About me, about my mind, about my soul, about my body. When will I be fully sanctified like this?
And the answer is that the coming. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Um, you talked earlier about how in every chapter there is a reference to the coming.
Well, here is this one. And this one is an important one. Uh because what what happens In our lives, as we sort of make this uncomfortable peace. with imperfection. Because after all, we're only human.
And Paul is not going there. He is like, no, I want the God of peace to be at working, to be working in you, in every part of you, sanctifying you, knowing that when you stand before God. On the day of the coming of his son, who you're waiting for, remember 1 Thessalonians 1, 9? turn from idols. To worship and serve the living God and to wait.
For the coming of his son. And we talked way back then about the word wait, not being this passive, sitting around idly wondering, is it going to be today? But this active, aggressive, pursuing the will of God. uh until he comes And that involves the sanctification of our body. He's already told us.
What that looks like on our part. This is the will of God. This is in chapter four, verse two, verse three, rather. This is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that every one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in possession of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know Christ. And so here are believers whose whole lives have been given over to that kind of living.
And now Paul is saying to them, you need to engage with God, who is at work sanctifying you fully. in every part of your body.
So that when you stand before him. At the coming of the Lord, you will be blameless. That word is the word for without reproach. Right. The idea that there is no There is no dimension.
of your life. There is no area of your life Um uh where there is room for for blame or shame. And thankfully, no matter what sin we've committed. That sin has been covered by the grace of God. You know, there are certain sins that have ongoing consequences in this life.
and may affect our opportunity to serve in certain capacities. But wow, what an incredible statement. The God of peace is doing this. The God who's already made peace. Is at work bringing your whole life.
Who you are in every aspect into conformity with who he is. And so, and then and and the final thing is in verse 24, all of this is grounded in God's faithfulness. It's God doing it.
So now I want to know, will he do it? I hear you, Paul. But man, it doesn't seem like there's a lot going on right now. In fact, it seems like I'm going the other way. And Paul says, the one who calls you.
And he's speaking there about salvation, right? The word call. is is the word for summit. The one who summons you is faithful. He will surely do it.
Right? This is the idea that Paul talks about in Philippians, right? It is God who both causes you to will and to do. of his good pleasure. And so I just love this.
I love this text.
So that's the first big idea. When you look at this idea, Dr. Hornig is a great word.
Sorry to jump in. You have. A couple of questions should accompany our exegesis, our study of God's word. One great question is, what do we learn about God from the text? There's so much in this one verse that you brought out.
Well, he's the God of peace.
Well, just deep dive peace. Oh, my soul. Philippians 4, 7. You know, and the peace of God which passes understanding. Philippians 4, 9.
And the God of peace will be with you. Just this idea. There's no other God. There's no other God, period. They're all false, dead, you know, idols.
But the true God, you know him by his peace and those who he calls, you know, we're justified by faith, therefore we have peace with God. Romans 5:1.
So you learn about his peace. You learn about his amazing sanctifying work, which I encourage people just. Look through scripture. Paul talks about it in 4:3 that it has to do with sexual purity, with God purifying us there. His sanctifying work, Jesus prayed, sanctify them through thy word.
Thy word is truth, and in the great high priestly prayer in John 17.
So there's this. idea of God working in us You have the nature of God and his fidelity, his faithfulness. He is faithful, even though we are not, right? And when we are not, it says in 1:9 of 1 John, he's faithful and just. to forgive us our sins.
So you have this. These, you know, what do we learn about God in here? Of course, what do you learn about us? What do we learn about? Our relationship to him.
So Dr. Horn, this is uh this is one just Powder keg right here. This, just this verse 23 and then verse 24. I'm going to let you keep going because you've got some other big ideas to bring out as we wrap this up and look at these final verses. Yeah, so the first big idea is this prayer for the full sanctification of the whole believer.
And then the second big idea is there are means by which this happens.
So how does God bring about, we know it's God that does it. We know he does it on the basis of the piece that he has made. And we know that he is going to do it because he's faithful. And he's committed. To our full sanctification.
So that's not in question. We've already settled that. That's the first big idea. But how does the God of peace do this? What are the means?
That God is made available by which He does this in the life of a believer.
Well, one of those means is in verse 26, and it is prayer. That's why Paul goes back to the imperative. uh language that he used earlier and he says brothers pray for us Uh that this request Isn't just the idea that Paul is saying, hey, I got a big trip coming. Uh I'm tired. You know, I'm healing up from the beatings I took up at.
Philippi, that's not the idea here. This is in the context of sanctification. The God of peace. who is sanctifying us holy. Has given a means by which that happens, and it is through the prayer.
Of the body for one another, Paul says, as God is at work in me. Fully sanctifying every part of me, pray. for me in this process. And the idea is there's this reciprocity. You know, one of the things we do as elders is we pray for our people.
We pray that God would do this in their lives. And from time to time, I solicit this same prayer from them. Pray for your pastors. Let's pray that God would sanctify us holy in our whole spirit and our soul and our body so that we would be blameless at the coming of the Lord. And so there is the means of prayer, right?
And we can go back to many, many examples of it is not by power nor by might, by my spirit, saith the Lord. You have not. Because you ask not, right? Philippians 4, where we're told to lift up our requests to the Lord. And so one of the means, by which God does this is prayer.
Then there's the second thing, and that is the unity of the body, the relational unity of the body. And you see that in verse 25. Greet all the brothers. with a holy kiss. The idea here isn't just uh that you you do some physical action to show welcoming You know, if you've traveled, I've had the privilege of traveling all over the world.
And every culture. has a way of greeting you right some cultures use a handshake Some cultures hug.
Some cultures kiss you on the cheek. You know, if you go to some of the places I've been and you land, people start kissing you on both sides of the cheek.
Sometimes I went to one place and the guy that was taking me there said, Now, now, when you get there, you just need to know that it is customary here for men to kiss each other in greeting on the mouth. And I'm thinking, uh-oh. I'm not doing that. And I had a pair of Bubba teeth that I quickly put in, and I got a fake pair of Bubba teeth that I actually got a hug.
So, but the point I'm making is, don't walk around with Bubba teeth. My point is, there is this relational unity in which this happened. Yeah, people can have some fun with this verse, you know, when they don't really, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, you know, I think, Dr. Horn, I think the really key thing is holy kiss, and I think.
you know, wha while it yes, there's cultural mores and cultural different customs and whatnot. You know, I think we've lost the power. of sanctified Godly touch. The power of just a holy hug, the power of just You know, dads need to be hugging their kids, their daughters, their sons. There needs to be hugging, and there needs to be.
you know uh within the family Those are beautiful embraces. And a lot of times, you know, even secular sociology. Secular Here you Studies have indicated that a lot of folks go off and do sexual. deviant lifestyles Because they weren't really loved and nurtured. They weren't cradled.
They weren't cuddled. You know, they weren't in the appropriate kind of physical touch. And so. Uh you know, maybe the modern equivalent of that is a good handshake. You know, shaking hands.
I was at a funeral yesterday and I shook a lot of hands. And guess what? I started getting into it. And I knew, I didn't know. The the family of the deceased.
But I just had a love for them.
Well, how do I express that?
Well, you know, maybe we're not at the hugging level yet with them. And if they came in to me for a hug, I would, of course, reciprocate. But. but not knowing where they're coming from. I extended my hand.
And there was a flesh-on-flesh connection. And what I was saying is, I love you in Jesus' name. I'm praying for you. And I think we've lost that. We've got to get back to that.
And of course, in an appropriate way. And there's dozens of jokes, and there's dozens of ways that you could take it. This is a teenager's favorite verse. That's right. Don't run off now and go, you know, go start kissing on the girl in the youth group because you read this verse.
So let me let me make a couple of let me make an observation here that's always been interesting to me. This is the only time. in all of Paul's writings where he talks this way.
Okay. He he has In every letter, greetings and salutations, and closings and salutations. But this is the only time where he tells believers to greet one another with a holy kiss.
So this is very interesting to me. I don't deny for a moment. That it was a way of greeting in the ancient world because we see it today. But I've often wondered: okay, is there more here? If this is in the context, of the means by which we're sanctified.
Prayer. then what's the deal with the kiss?
So why a kiss? You know, why does he bring this up? And here's the point. He is talking about the God of peace doing this. It is really significant.
The idea of a holy kiss here. Is it just the idea of a culturally appropriate greeting for the day? It is this warm-heartedness. That is implied when you. You you see somebody.
And you are at peace with that person. There's no anger. There's no bitterness. There's no unresolved conflict. There is this openness in the relationship.
And it's easy to greet that person warmly with a holy kiss. But if you're angry with that person. or you have sinned against that person. Or you are bitter against that person, or you intend to do harm to that person. and you go up and kiss them, that's not a holy kiss.
That that's a Judas kiss.
So you have an example. In the life of Jesus. of how an unholy kiss was used, right? Cultural greeting in the day. Um, you know, the guards want to know how are we going to know which one to arrest?
And Judas says, easy, just watch who I greet. Whoever I greet first, that's the one. And he goes and gives Jesus a customary greeting, right? He kisses him. Um Here.
I don't want to make too much of that, right? I'm just giving a little bit of my own personal opinion. I think the means. for sanctification in this particular context is prayer. And unfeigned.
community affection one for another. You will not grow in grace with unresolved conflicts in your life. Amen. You will not grow in sanctification. You will not be fully sanctified if you say to the Lord, I'm not going to let you heal the hurt that Sister so-and-so.
Get to me. Or that brother so-and-so did to me. I'm going to harbor that hurt. I'll let you sanctify other parts of my life, but I'm not letting you touch that. I want the full sanctification of your whole self, including that.
And so he puts this command out there: kiss one another with a holy kiss. And the word holy there is a set apart kind of kiss. The same idea of sanctification. We're sanctified. Not only in how we pray and how we're in the word, we're not only sanctified in how we worship, we're sanctified in how we How we touch, how we love others and we're we're touching In a giving, gracious way, not in a taking selfish way Where we're, as it were, objectifying the other person.
You know, 1 John says, to your point, Dr. Horn, if I say, I love God, but hate my brother. I'm a liar. I mean, you know, John doesn't, he doesn't mince words with it. And so, one way to show that, I can't get out of my mind, Dr.
Horne. You know, I know we got to jump ahead and we got to get out of here and close in prayer, but I can't get out of my mind. The Dozens and dozens and hundreds of times I've been on the basketball court. And I've seen two guys nearly kill each other just angry and hateful. And I had to get and get involved.
I didn't want to get involved, but I had to get involved. And I had to get some other coaches, and in some cases, some of other my YMCA chaplains. And we had to pray it out. And we had to have a very serious conversation. And by the time we were through, Those two men, there's nothing more powerful than to see those two men who are swinging at each other.
And try to kill each other, hugging. and embracing. Yeah. And saying I'm sorry. And I know guys today who were very close.
But you wouldn't think that at one time. But see, that's the power of the gospel. That's the power of in this Thessalonica church. Think about it. There were Jews who were Jews who were completed, who trusted Jesus as Messiah.
There were Greeks went from having orgies in the temple and worshiping all the gods at Mount Olympus, 50 miles away, and in that Thessalonica temple and that whole mess there. They went to following Jesus. There were other ethnicities in this body from all over the place: Syrians and other people with different backgrounds and loyalties, and here they are, one in Jesus. And here they are showing love and the world says, what is wrong with these people? You know, they're cannibals because they're eating Jesus' body and blood, or that, you know, this and that.
They say, oh, they're sexually perverted because they're kissing each other. And, you know, and they're. getting accused for all these things when in fact They are showing the supernatural sanctifying grace of God. And so I think it's important to note. I think in our study of Peter, 1 Peter 5, I think Peter makes this same kind of statement.
So you have Paul making it once, Peter making it once. And so we don't want to make more of it than it is, but it is important to have. biblically Godly, sanctifying affection toward one another. And so, Dr. Horn, there's this, I guess, there's this really important charge.
Following this with reading the scriptures aloud, which is what a precedent, especially in Paul's first epistle, to get this in the air here for these folks. Yeah, so that's the second, we're still in the second main idea, right? The first main idea is sanctification. The full sanctification of the whole believer. Second big idea are the means.
So, how does God do that? Prayer. Unhindered relationships, peace, right? Greet one another with a sanctified kiss or set-apart kiss, a holy kiss. And thirdly, the word, right?
And so that's what he says: I put you under oath. I mean, this is strong. I put you under oath before the Lord to read this letter to all the brothers. The word read there is the word for proclaim. It's not just sort of like get up and read it and sit down.
It's the idea of exhort through the letter. It would be our form of preaching almost. Although we don't really have any dynamic examples outside of Peter and maybe one addressed by Paul of what apostolic preaching looked like. You know, in Acts 2:42, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching.
So here is this. Part of the teaching now. There is inspired teaching that God has given to the church through Paul. And Paul is saying, He's saying, I'm putting you under oath. to exhort people to this.
This is binding authority on the church.
So there's prayer, there is holy fellowship. And there is the word. How does God sanctify us? in our lives as believers today. Prayer.
Holy uh community, right? uh sanctified fellowship And the word, those three things. And that brings us into the very last thing in the text. What sustains all of this? What energizes and sustains all of it?
And that's the third big idea. There's the prayer for the full sanctification of the whole believer, there's the means by which God does this: prayer, sanctified fellowship. And the word. And now there is. Uh, the sustaining of it, what energizes and sustains it, and here it is in verse 208: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
All right, the grace. Of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at that, those three titles: Lord, his role in my life. He's my master, he's my sovereign. He, not Rome, but Jesus, right?
Jesus, his historical identity, Christ, his missional title. This person. Who is now the Lord of all? is the one who is going to strengthen me the word grace Is the word for strengthen. There's an enablement that comes from grace.
And by the way, Stuart, it's interesting that. Uh Paul ends where he began. He ends with grace in verse 28. And he began with grace in chapter one, verse one. Remember how we started the letter to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So now we're back. To God the Father sanctifying us through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, grace to you and peace. The God of all peace. And the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So those ideas. that are in chapter one, verse one are now repeated again. In chapter five, verse 28. It's like a parentheses. That brings everything together in the book around these identities.
The God. Of all grace, right, or the God of all peace, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That started the letter are the ones that are going to sustain you as the Spirit of God works in you, all the things that we've talked about inside the letter.
So Rich, and so Pauline, and you have thirteen epistles. of Paul, you have a very similar opening. And a similar closing to all of them, Dr. Horne. And it just, you have these bookends of God's grace.
And, you know, God's grace isn't just the beginning and the end. It's that thing which sustains us, right? Twas grace that brought me safe thus far. And grace brings me home. Yep.
You know, you know, John Newton said it well. And, you know, Dr. Horn. I find it fascinating in all 13 of Paul's books, just about all of them, I mean, in different ways and variations, he. Praise for His, you know, his, his, his recipients.
He prays for those people he loved that he sweated and labored among and ministered to and shepherded. He prays for them in his books, in some cases, multiple times. In 1 Thessalonians, he prays for them in verse 2. He prays for them in, I believe it's chapter 3, verses 12, you know, 11 and 12, right in there. He prays for them in chapter 5, right here, and you know, the start of our passage in verse 23, and then.
Here, in then, there's a couple places, several places in particular. I think of Ephesians 6:19, where Paul says, Pray for me. And then here he says in chapter 5, you know, pray. Pray for us. You know, we need prayer.
We all need prayer. We need to pray for our shepherds. We need to really take that seriously. And I want to comment on the. When he says, read the scriptures aloud, I think it's so important.
I have some good friends in New York that. have a ministry called the public reading of scripture. And they are on a mission. I mean, these folks are crusading to have people. Just gather around.
And listen to the Bible being read professionally and articulately. As a group, and there's just something powerful just to hear God's word, and every week. At our location of Wednesday in the Word, this is the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Stu Everson. With me is Dr.
Horn. And if you just joined us, we just are so glad you're here. We hope you'll listen to all of the lessons on Thessalonians. We've done this now for Daniel, we've done this for Thessalonians. For 1st and 2 Peter.
And we've done it for Ruth, which was wonderful.
Now we're wrapping up 1 Thessalonians and Dr. Horne. What happens is, we get up to open our study every week. We have a little prayer to open and pray for the food at breakfast at Dario. They're so gracious to host us, wonderful folks.
And then some places have a little song. And then, before we start going through the discussion questions and going through the text together. I have all of our men. Read the scriptures together out loud. Everybody.
together out out loud, just like you used to do in class. and I can guarantee in that moment not one mind is wandering Not one person's looking at their watch or or jabbing their neighbor. Or checking their phone because they're reading from the same sheet. I passed these handouts out, and they're reading from the same version. They're reading the scriptures together out loud.
And there's something very powerful about that because at that moment, We are all directly listening to the voice of Almighty God.
So I think it's. Critical. I think each one of these. These pithy, punchy words of exhortation and comfort and prayer. From Paul are just worthy of just study and meditation.
I've been meditating them already. And I just love it, don't even take, don't take the closing for granted. That's something that. We could say to any, say that to someone today when you say goodbye. Say, grace be with you.
I mean, is there any other greeting, Dr. Horne, or is there any other departing word we give that is better than saying, God's grace be with you. Don't we need God's grace? Don't we need more of God's grace? All of us.
And I'm at the front of the line. That is so good. Yes, sir. I tell you, thank you for taking us through this and for the outline, Dr. Horn.
I hope this is encouraging to pastors. We've got a lot of ladies that meet. One group meets on Tuesday. All the rest of the ladies' groups meet. On Thursday mornings.
And we're doing this, it's the last week in Thessalonians, and then we are going to. We're going to go to 2 Thessalonians. Probably in a few months. Because before we do, we're going to take a little. Oh, take a little detour.
It's going to be a powerful detour because we're going to talk about vision, we're going to talk about. Beating the impossible odds by God's grace. And having a great dream. And we're going to talk about war and battle when we go to Nehemiah. And Dr.
Horn, I know you're excited about that book because you've talked to that many times. Um Absolutely. Nehemiah is one of those uh you know, Nehemiah and Ezra. One of the most powerful tag team duos in the entire Old Testament, restoring the people of God to the glory of God. And that's really a crying need for today, right?
To restore God's people. to the glory of God. Yes, sir. So it's so much more about building, it's so much more about building walls and temples and tools and swords and shovels. It's going deeper.
And it's a great prefiguring of the grace that we would see in Jesus Christ coming.
So, Dr. Horn, anything else you want to say, please pray us out here and pray for so many listening. Pray for our pastors. A lot of pastors are leaving this Wednesday in the Word. We've got a bunch of pastors leaving this group.
That is so true. Get ready to preach on Sunday as well. Let's pray. Lord, we do love you. We are so excited.
at the power of your word in our own life. And we pray that you would just continue. to grow that in us. Lord, we love you. We thank you.
And we ask that you would continue to bless us as we think about the impact of this powerful letter. Wow, Lord, we just pray you would continue to use it over and over and over. And then also, Lord, we pray that. It would be used in the lives of your people. And we think of the beauty of what we're about to do in Nehemiah.
Give us wisdom to know how to go with that. Ways that would honor you and bless your people. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Dr. Horn, and thank you for joining us for this Wednesday in the Word podcast.
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Meditate on God's Word. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him. Proverbs 30 verse 5. Uh
