Will faith keep going?

When the Peoples’ Republic of China was declared in 1949, all Christian missionaries were expelled, and Christian nationals were given the choice either to declare that their loyalty to Communism was above their loyalty to Christ, or to go to prison or labour camp. And those expelled missionaries, unable to get back in and help, questioned whether the church in China (which some say is 100 million strong today) would survive. And 1 Thessalonians, which we’re in a series on, comes from a similar situation, because Paul had taken the gospel to Thessalonica, people had believed in Jesus, but Paul had then been forced out of town by opposition to the gospel. And, unable to get back in and help, he questioned whether the Thessalonian believers would survive the difficulties, or whether their profession of faith would fizzle out.

It’s the same question I’ve heard pastors asking this year: “Will I have a church left after lockdown?” It’s the same question Christian parents ask as children move up to secondary school, or away to uni: “How will the faith they’ve so far professed fare now?” And it’s the same question we ask when Christian brothers and sisters are hit by serious suffering – or when we are. Will their faith cope? Will mine? So you could call this, ‘Will faith keep going?’ And at this point, let’s pray:

Father,Please use this part of your written Word to keep us believing and living out your will. In Jesus’ name. Amen

So would you turn in the Bible to page 987. That will get you to 1 Thessalonians 3. And look down to 1 Thessalonians 3.5 to see how last week’s passage ended:

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 labour would be in vain.

Which Paul did by sending Timothy to see how they were. And this week’s passage begins (1 Thessalonians 3.6-7):

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— for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.

So they were Exhibit A for Paul’s first point – which is that:

1. God keeps believers going

So, Timothy reported back that these believers were still going. And Paul wrote, 1 Thessalonians 3.8-9:

For now we live [in other words, that’s made my day], if you are standing fast in the Lord. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God

Which shows that Paul believed the reason they’d kept going was that God had kept them going. That’s why he said, ‘Thank you’ to God, rather than, ‘Well done’ to them. And that reflects the truth, which we’ve already seen in 1 Thessalonians, that people only come to faith in Jesus and keep believing if God works in them.

The evangelist John Chapman told the story of how he taught RE to a class of really hard lads who spent the year trying to pick holes in Christianity. And they came to the bit in John’s Gospel where Jesus says, ‘No one can come to me unless my Father draws him.’ And this lad said, “What does that mean?” And John said, “It means you can’t become a Christian whenever you want. You can only become a Christian when God wants.” And this lad said, “Rubbish – I could become a Christian if I wanted.” So John said. “OK. You’re always trying to make me look a fool. Here’s your golden opportunity to prove me wrong. Go on. Do it now.” And this lad said, “Do what?” And John said, “Become a Christian.” And he said, “I don’t want to.” And John said, “Well, want to want to.” And he said, “But I don’t.” And John said, “And you won’t – unless God does something in you first.”

God, by his Spirit, has to overcome our natural distrust of him. And he does that by enabling us to see in the gospel that he gave his Son Jesus to die for our forgiveness – and to realise that, if he did that for us, we can trust him with the running of our lives. So if we’ve come to faith, it’s because God has worked in us by his Spirit. And it’s his Spirit who’s kept us believing ever since – even through times when, humanly speaking, you’d have thought we’d have packed in following Jesus. So, like Paul, we need to believe that God keeps believers going, and thank him for keeping believers going. So I thank God for the fifty or more people who’ve done Christianity Explored with us online since lockdown 1, and for the number of them who’ve come to faith and kept going in new small groups. But equally, I thank God for all of you, and others online, for keeping you going through lockdowns and isolation, through furloughs or work manic-ness, and all the rest of it. Because it’s been difficult, especially for those living on their own. But once again, God has shown: he keeps believers going. Then the second point is that:

2. God keeps believers growing

Look at 1 Thessalonsians 3.9-12 again:

For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? [And what they lacked was a full, Bible-based knowledge of the Lord, so they could trust and obey him better. And Paul wanted that to grow] Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you [So he also wanted their love to grow].

So Paul wanted them to grow, and he believed it’s God who makes believers grow but he also clearly believed that God uses means. Which is why he didn’t just pray, ‘Lord, give them more knowledge of you…Just zap’em with it.’ Look at 1 Thessalonsians 3.10 again:

…we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith

So the means that Paul assumes God is going to use is his own ministry because God works through the likes of Paul and you and me. Now of course there are exceptions to that. You may remember Mark Summers, who served on the church staff. And Mark was converted with no other Christian involved - he just picked up the Bible, read it, and was converted. And he once said to me, “People can’t cope with that. They always say, ‘Surely there was a Christian who gave you the Bible, or told you to read it’ – when there wasn’t”. But that’s the exception that proves the rule, because Jesus didn’t say, “Wait for people to come and say, ‘I’ve just come to faith by reading the Bible on my own – what do I do now?’” He said, Go and make disciples. So will you pray regularly that God will use you as a means to other people coming to faith or growing? Look at 1 Thessalonsians 3.10 again:

…we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith

So will you pray that kind of thing for any ministry you do? It’s a great small group leader’s prayer or children’s leader’s prayer or Christianity Explored group leader’s prayer. But will you also pray that kind of thing for coming on Sundays? ‘Lord, please use me to welcome a newcomer, or encourage someone, or whatever.’ Or for going to your small group? ‘Lord, please use me to listen well, and pick up on needs, or whatever.’ Look on to 1 Thessalonsians 3.11:

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you

So there again is his belief that God uses means – like us. But then in verses 1 Thessalonsians 3.12-13 you see his belief that there’s work that only God can do, in the heart – which we must pray for:

and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 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.

So whatever ministry you do, don’t forget to pray regularly for God’s work in peoples’ hearts. In fact, next time you pray for your home group or CYFA group or whatever, why not open these verses and pray along these lines? So, God keeps believers going and growing. Then into 1 Thessalonsians 4, we see that:

3. God wants believers holy

1 Thessalonsians 4.1-23:

Finally, then, brothers [and sisters], we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God [ using ‘walk’ metaphorically for ‘going God’s way’], just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification.

Now Paul wrote this in Greek, and he used one word which has been translated into two different-looking English words – sanctification and holiness. So glance down to 1 Thessalonsians 4.7 and he says:

For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

And you just need to know that behind the English words holy and holiness and sanctifed and sanctification, there’s one Greek word that means ‘set apart’. So if something is holy or sanctified, the idea is that it’s set apart – from other things, for a particular purpose. So for example, we have an ancient, heirloom dinner service which we use once a year for Christmas lunch. So you could say it’s sanctified – ie, holy, because it’s set apart from all the other crockery in the house (which would be far more sensible to use, because you can re-heat it in the microwave and bung it in the dishwasher). It’s set apart from all that, for the particular purpose of making Christmas lunch more special. Well the Bible says: if you’re trusting and following the Lord Jesus, you’ve been sanctified, i.e, made holy, i.e, set apart from the rest of the world, for the purpose of living for God and showing the rest of the world (albeit imperfectly) how he meant life to be. So 1 Thessalonsians 4.3 again:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification

That means it’s God’s will that you live out that sanctification (ie, holiness or set-apartness) day by day. We’ll never do that perfectly – there will always be a ‘holiness shortfall’ that needs forgiving through Jesus’ death on the cross. But God wants to grow us in holiness. And Paul then focusses on one area of holiness which Timothy must have reported back to him as being a problem for the Thessalonians – the area of sex. Which I don’t jump at speaking about. Partly because I know there’s a perception that it’s mentioned too much and too negatively. And partly because it’s so sensitive – in one way or another, it’s an area of failure for us all but for different ones of us, it’s also an area of frustration or difficulty or disappointment or sadness. So what does Paul say? Well first look at the end, 1 Thessalonsians 4.8:

Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God

That suggests some of the Thessalonians were simply disregarding what Paul had taught them about sex. You can imagine them saying, “That’s just Paul’s line.” So then look at the beginning, 1 Thessalonsians 4.1-2 again, and listen to the emphasis:

Finally, then, brothers and sisters, 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. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

So he’s emphasising that this isn’t his line but the Lord Jesus’s. Paul is saying, “I’m just summing up the teaching of the Lord Jesus” (which you can find in Mark 10, Matthew 5 and 19, and so on). And Jesus taught from Genesis 1 and 2 in a way that makes clear that sex is for heterosexual marriage only. And Paul is reminding us: if we accept Jesus as Lord, then we have to accept his teaching on this as the wisdom of our Creator and Saviour. And Paul sums up Jesus’ teaching from 1 Thessalonsians 4.3:

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: [which in this area means] that you abstain from sexual immorality

And the Greek word translated sexual immorality covered all heterosexual and homosexual activity before and outside marriage. And your heart may be sinking at such a negative verse. But Paul was originally writing to Christians who’d gone right back to their pre-conversion behaviour, so he had to be negative here. The positive is elsewhere (in Genesis 1-2 and Song of Songs and so on). And putting it positively, sex is for heterosexual marriage only because it’s the body-language of married love. One Christian writer puts it like this:

To be naked with another person is a symbolic demonstration of perfect honesty, perfect trust, perfect giving and commitment, and if the heart is not naked along with the body, then the whole action becomes a lie…the giving of the body but the withholding of the self. [The Mystery of Marriage, Mike Mason]

So it’s meant to be a giving and receiving of married love. But in our culture, it so easily becomes a using and being used – the most un-relational extreme of that being pornography. And if that’s what sex has meant to us from experience before marriage, it can take a long time to reclaim what it’s supposed to mean within marriage. So onto 1 Thessalonsians 4.4–5 sanctification in this area also means:

that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honour, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do notknow God

Many people would say, “Surely abstaining from our natural desires is unhealthy; surely you should be yourself”, but the Bible says we’re more complicated than that. It says, we’re not just created people, which means sex is fundamentally good; we’re also fallen people, which means our sexual natures are fundamentally flawed, which means we can also desire the wrong things, or the right things in the wrong ways. Then onto 1 Thessalonsians 3.6, sanctification in this area also means:

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.

So that suggests some of the Thessalonian Christians were committing adultery with fellow-Christians’ spouses. Which is a reminder of how self-focussed sexual sin is – blinkered to the cost to others. So the warning in 1 Thessalonsians 3.6 is not to Christians who are sincerely aiming to be holy in this area but failing, as we all do. The warning is to professing Christians who, remember 1 Thessalonsians 3.8, are disregarding the Lord Jesus’ teaching, and living in settled, unrepented patterns of sin. And the warning is that they’re giving evidence of still belonging with the world, still saying to Jesus, ‘I don’t want you to be Lord over me,’ and therefore of still being on a collision course with him as Judge. So don’t misapply that warning. Remember in his Word, the Lord is out to disturb those who are comfortable in their sin, and to comfort those who are disturbed by their sin. Look at 1 Thessalonsians 3.8 again, to close:

Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, [and listen to this encouragement – God…] who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

If you’re like me, this has reminded you how much you need the Lord Jesus’ forgiveness in this area. And it’s left you thinking, ‘How can I change?’ And the answer is, we can, because moment by moment God gives his Holy Spirit to us. And his work is the reason we want to be holy in the first place – he’s given us those new desires. And his work is the reason we’re sensitive to our sin in this area, and want to change more. And he can make that happen because God hasn’t just reminded us of his will this morning. He’s reminded us, as Augustine said, that:

God enables what he wills.

And, along with the truth that every sin we confess is forgivable, that’s one of the hardest things to believe. But let’s believe it from this part of his Word.