1 Thessalonians 4:9-18

1 Thessalonians 4:9-18

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A Brotherly and Orderly Life

9 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; 10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; 11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

The Comfort of Christ’s Coming

13 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. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

15 For 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. 16 For 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. 17 Then 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. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1 Thess 4:9-18

• Transcript

  Okay, well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year 2022 Lord willing, I have no clue. We're hoping. No, I think we'll finish first Thessalonians we did not get nearly as far as we wanted to. We were supposed to get all the way through five Lehman and then schedule got messed up and then I got sick, and then everything's out the window. So First Thessalonians is where we're at. We're at First Thessalonians chapter four, beginning at first nine. Why don't we pray and we'll get into God's Word. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is to get to come to Your word. Lord, we thank you for your rich grace, your abundant mercy, Your unfailing love. Lord, we pray that you would please bless us. We pray that you will please teach us this morning. In Jesus's name, Amen. All right, first Thessalonians First Thessalonians chapter four. verses nine through 18 Book concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And indeed, you do so toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more, that you also aspire to lead. A quiet life, to mind your own business and a work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly towards those who are outside and that you may lack nothing. 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. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For 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, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then 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. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Well, we need to ask ourselves a What is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this and see, what are we called to do and responses. There's lots that we are called to do lots of commands here that God has given us. So let's go ahead and work through this together. Well, verses nine through 12 really talks about how we're to live an orderly life. What are we supposed to do as Christians? Well, concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you right. This sounds very first John ask. Write a new command. I give to you yet. It's not a new command, but an old command, right? That you ought to love one another. Right. And he says, You've been doing this, right and that whole area of Macedonia, north of Greece, where Thessalonica is he says, Everybody there knows that y'all are great at doing this. You're great at loving others, but we urge you brethren to increase more and more right he wants to abound in love and what does it look like to abound in love? Well, let's look backwards and let's think about how they were just commanded to love purity, right? One of the best ways to love our brethren is to control ourselves, and to make sure that we are honoring their marriages and honoring our marriage, but he also says that you also aspire, and we all are supposed to have goals right things that we are aspiring to things that we want to do, who we want to become and what type of impact we want to live in here. He says here you need to aspire to live a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands as we commanded you, that you that you may walk properly towards those who are outside and that you may lack nothing. live a quiet life. minding your own business, work with your hands sounds very much like Ecclesiastes, doesn't it? The point is, is that we're we're not supposed to be in everybody's business all the time. But the reality is, is that we're God's desire for us. Just to go back to Genesis, go back to the creation mandate to the Dominion mandate to go back to when he said takes subdue the earth, multiply it, or you were supposed to make stuff. We're supposed to work with our hands, we're supposed to live quiet lives. This is one of the ways in which the early Christians found a great deal of respectability because of their work ethic, because they weren't busy bodies going about everybody's business, you know, they weren't reading the latest Roman tabloid trying to figure out the Enquirer and who was married to who what was going on and being worried about everybody. else's affairs out there. Instead, they're worried about how do we live godly lives? How do I just work hard you want to one of the reasons why I think so many people love to romanticize about the Amish. Community is because they actually take this seriously. Be quiet. Do your work. Now, I'm gonna say romanticize because there's many problems within every Christian community and the Amish are just like every other Christian community in that sense they have their own problems and their own rankest Susan, their own people who are causing division within their church and they get theological differences that we're not going to get into. I'm not going to pick on them. But I want to point out though, that the rest of the world looks upon the Amish and many of the Mennonite communities and they go I don't know those people just work their tails off. Did you know the one of the groups that has the largest impact on the Christian groups that has the largest impact in North Korea? The Mennonites, because they'll go in and they'll just work and they'll just go show love. I don't remember where I remember hearing that. But the point is, is that what we aspire to, to live quiet lives, to work with our hands to not be busy bodies? Good, good. Command. It's not just advice. This is command from the Holy Spirit. Well, the second part here verses 13 through 19 is also a command. What are we to believe and feel and hope in the face of death? See Paul's writing in the first century? And he's been telling people that Jesus Christ was going to return again. So the question is, what happens when they die? And Jesus hasn't returned? what hope is there well, the hope is that there's going to be a resurrection from the dead, that those who have died in Christ will rise first. They get a front of the line pass. And so we don't need to be like the pagans who when their family members die, that we have no hope. I'm not saying that. There's not a place for Christian grieving. You ought to grieve Well, as a Christian, that is not what this is saying that we just, oh, let's just throw it into the life celebration party and and know there's a real grief that even Jesus wept when Lazarus died, knowing that he was going to raise him again from the dead. Yeah, he's still wept. I think there's a place for Christian grieving, but it's not a place that we go. And there's a pit of despair that we don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what's at the end, the other end of the tunnel, we don't know where they're going to end up. Here. What is he saying? For 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. Right when Jesus returns, they're going to rise again from the dead. And because of this, he says concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope their bodies are resting in the grave. But their souls are still or their bodies are still united to Christ. Their souls are have immediately passed into glory. Their bodies are just asleep. Waiting for the Day of Resurrection. Resting in the Lord waiting for the day when there's going to be the trumpet blast, the voice of the archangel when the dead will rise again and will be caught up in the air. That's what this is speaking about. Well, what's what's the best first to underline this? Well, I'm going to say verse 11. For the first part, that you may also aspire to lead a quiet life to mind your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. I think that's the verse I would underline for first part. I also think that verses 13 and 14, is what I would underline in the second part, but I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others you have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring him those who fall asleep in Jesus. I think those are what this is getting at. So see calling what are we called to do? Or what do you aspire to in your life? Do you aspire to live a quiet life? Do you work with your hands? What type of industry are you employed in? Whatever you find your hands to be doing whatever work you might be doing. I don't know for you if it's an intellectual work, I don't know if you're teaching children. I don't know Maybe for you it's that what you're doing is making furnaces or hauling rock or or farming or, or whatever. You might be working with your hands. Maybe you're a carpenter, maybe you work on an assembly line. Maybe you're a law enforcement officer, maybe your entire life is devoted to devoted to making children meals. You know you're a mother and it seems like all you do is work in the kitchen and educate your children. Do you do it unto the Lord? This is God's command for you all work is noble. He wants you to work as unto him it's a testimony to the world will also how do you grieve? Do you grieve in the pit of sorrow and despair where there seems to be no light or do you cling to the resurrection? Do you hope in that great day of glory when Jesus Christ will come again? Maybe for some of you, maybe you've lost a loved one. And you find yourself sometimes there. Would you remember that Jesus Christ is good that he's going to keep his word and he's going to return we might not see it in this life. But someday he's going to come again. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you have sent us Your holy spirit to instruct us to command us and also to encourage us. Lord, we pray that we would be those who would be filled with hope and that we would be filled with love. Lord, please, would you watch over us this day? Give us good work to do. May we bring you glory in Jesus's name, Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace that comes from resting in Jesus Christ alone, and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye. Transcribed by https://otter.ai