BUILT TO LAST: THE MARKS OF THE MISSION

Pastor Jonathan Falwell 

Last week, we discussed the mission of the believer is LIVING, LOVING, STANDING in the power of the Gospel. Today, we look at the marks of the mission. What should mark us as believers in an unbelieving world. While there are many standards we could discuss in this text, today I’d like to focus on just a few from these two chapters. They are PURITY, PASSION, PERSPECTIVE and PREPARATION.

1. Purity

1 Thess. 4:1-8 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; 4that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. 7For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

• “how you ought to walk and to please God” is a clear statement we are to live differently than the world
• Verse 3 clearly states that God’s will for you is be set apart, to be pure. This is not a suggestion, it is a commandment.
• Verse 7 teaches us that unless we live in purity, we are rejecting God in our lives
• Vernon McGee – “A child of God cannot continue in sin. The Prodigal Son may get in the pigpen for a time, but he won’t live in the pigpen.”[i]

2. Passion

Vss 9-12 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; 11that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

• The Thessalonian church had figured this out and were truly had love on display for the world to see. This love wasn’t reserved for those within church it was for “all the brethren who are in all Macedonia.”
• Timothy George said, “The result of the transforming, sanctifying ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives is just this: that we are enabled to love one another with the same kind of love that God loves us.”[ii]
• Leon Morris – “Two things in particular marked off the Christians of New Testament days from contemporary society: the purity of their lives and the love that they practiced so fully…It is to be exercised by the Christian towards all people, irrespective of their merit or the reverse.”[iii]
• Why? Because God loved us first! (1 John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.

1 Thess. 5:9-10 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

• Thus, a mark of the believer today should be a passion to love others with the Gospel

3. Perspective

Vss 13-18 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18Therefore comfort one another with these words.

• This is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. It is a direct promise from God to each of us that Heaven is ahead and we will see those who’ve gone before!
• The key word for me in these set of verses is the word “them”
• “The reference to “the trumpet call of God” has a rich Old Testament background. At Sinai the trumpets blew and Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God (Exod. 19:17). Similarly at the Parousia (Greek word meaning “coming or presence”) the trumpet will sound and God’s people will go out to meet the Lord.”[iv] – Walter Elwell
• Paul goes to explain in light of this blessed promise, we must be ready!

4. Preparation

1 Thess. 5:2-6 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

• John MacArthur said, “Being spiritually prepared for the return of Christ does not involve date setting, clock watching, or sign seeking. God has chosen not to reveal the specific time of end-time events so that all believers will live in constant anticipation of them.”[v]
• This is a call to action and a call to faithfulness. We have never been closer to the sudden taking up of the church than we are right now!

Vss 14-23 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. 15See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. 16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise prophecies. 21Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22Abstain from every form of evil. 23Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A checklist for the waiting:

• Do good
• Live with joy
• Pray about everything
• Be thankful
• Let the Holy Spirit guide your steps
• Seek truth
• Be holy

Vs 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.

[i] J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary: The Epistles (1 and 2 Thessalonians), electronic ed., vol. 49 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 66.

[ii] Timothy George, Galatians, vol. 30, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 401.

[iii] Leon Morris, 1 and 2 Thessalonians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 13, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1984), 84.

[iv] David Ewert, “1-2 Thessalonians,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, vol. 3, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 1081.

[v] Mark Howell et al., Exalting Jesus in 1 & 2 Thessalonians (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2015), 131.