1Thessalonians: The Study of a Theme: Assembly Traits

Thank you again all for being here. And if any of you are Chinese, Happy New Year to you today. Those who are procrastinators, also Happy New Year as well.

Our goal this weekend is not just to give you truth from the epistle to the Thessalonians, but also especially for the sake of those who are younger, whose minds are not quite as deteriorated as some of us who are older, to help you to how to approach the Word of God, how to study an epistle, how to deal with a book. And our brother has laid a foundation already in the background that is vital in understanding an epistle, and looking at themes, and looking at the overview of the book. And we're going to be looking now at approaching an epistle and looking for traits of a local assembly testimony.

Now, we'll have to be very, very selective in our reading. And you'll bear with me, I trust, as we do some of this. And other verses could be read, will be alluded to, as we go along.

So chapter 1 again of the first epistle. Verse number 5 again. Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance.

Look at verse number 8. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that you need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from wrath to come. Now just chapter 2, verse 14.

For ye, brethren, became followers or imitators of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For you also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews. Chapter number 3, verse 4. For verily with you we told you before that you should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass.

And you know for this cause, when I can no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by any means, by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain. Chapter 4, verse number 3. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication. Verse 9, but as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you.

Verse number 11, that ye should be quiet to do your own business, work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that ye may walk honestly or becomingly consistent with the gospel toward them that are without, that ye may have lack of nothing. Then the section relative to the Lord's coming, look at chapter number 5, verse 11. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do.

We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you to esteem them very highly and love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble mind that support the weak, be patient toward all men, see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing.

Verse 20, despise not prophesyings. Verse number 25, brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.

I charge you by the Lord, a very, very serious charge. I charge you by the Lord, this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Amen. Now, if you're anything like I am, I'm sure you have had the occasion where someone, likely a Christian friend that you met at school or at work at university, they've asked you, well, where do you go to church? And what fellowship do you belong to? And as you begin to explain to them something about the local assembly, you almost wish there were a chapter of the Bible you could go to that would list everything out in nice, clear, simple terms. And it would say you should only be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus and not take a denominational name.

And you should have a plurality of elders, not a paid minister. And that the women should all be silent with their heads covered and their brethren the only ones taking part. And as you go through it, you just wish there were some concise rule book to which you could turn and it would give everything in clear, unequivocable, non-negotiable terms that everyone would have to agree to.

It's not that way. And so with everything you point to, they'll say yes, but, and yes, but, and you're left feeling like you wish there were just one little volume you could turn to that would just spell everything out in nice, clear, precise language that no one could argue with. But God in his wisdom has not given us a rule book.

He's given us the word of God. So how then do we discern God's plan for believers to gather, whether in the first century or the 21st century? First of all, why hasn't God given us this nice, concise set of rules and regulations all in one little place to which we can turn to and show everyone? Number one, just to avoid imitation. If there were a nice, clear rule book, handbook given us to local assembly testimony, we'd have all kinds of copycat groups around us and something of the distinctiveness of assembly testimony would be diluted or would be lost altogether.

So the first thing is, it is to avoid imitation. Secondly, as is typical of God in his ways, it's to reveal truth to those who have a genuine interest and not just a mere curiosity. Now I'm sure you have all had the experience and I remember years and years ago as a young believer, people would ask you and discuss with you the gospel and it would seem as though they would argue with you, whether they were atheists, whether they were agnostics, and they would argue back and forth with you.

I remember asking a man, not Peter Ramsey, but Peter Ramsey's father, Mr. Albert Ramsey, what do you do in cases like that? And he gave me a very, very helpful piece of advice and it is amazingly insightful. He said, ask them if you could prove to them without a shadow of a doubt that the word of God is true and that there is a God, would they be willing to bow to it? You know what people will tell you? No, because it is mere curiosity. It is the thrill of the chase, the thrill of the argument that they enjoy, not the discovery of truth.

So God is not about to reveal precious truth to idle curiosity. He reveals it where there is a desire to know truth and to bow to truth. You will never, never arrive at truth by a mere excursion of curious interest in the word of God.

The first thing necessary to discover truth is a spirit that wants to obey it and put it into practice. So he does not reveal it, he does not give us a nice, clear, concise chapter all about the assembly because of the danger of imitation, because he reveals it to where there is interest and spiritual desire and he gives it to us as well. Now think about this for just a moment.

He gives it to us to encourage insight into the meaning of what we are doing. A rule book and people do like rules. It makes life very secure, you have a great sense of accomplishment when you follow rules, but God has given us truth.

I'll use the word and I use it guardedly, scattered throughout the epistles to give us insight into the meaning of what we are doing, not just following traditions or following steps by rote, but understanding what and why a sister's head is covered and why there is a multiplicity of gifts and why there's a multiplicity of overseers in an assembly. All of that is to encourage insight into the meaning behind what we are doing. Please never, never think that the principles, the biblical principles and assembly follows are just meaningless rules that God thinks are good to follow.

Everything an assembly does of a spiritual nature, and I'm not speaking of the color of the seats or the carpet, everything an assembly does of a spiritual nature is linked with the person of Christ. Touch anything and you have detracted from the glory of Christ. So that is one of the reasons.

So discerning God's plan. How then do we determine God's pattern for an assembly? How do we determine that pattern for an assembly? Number one, by the consistent practices that we see in the book of the Acts. Now I stress, underline, bold letters, consistent.

For example, Acts chapter two, the believers sold everything they had and they distributed among them. Well, you say, should that be what we're doing today? Well, the difficulty with that is when you come further on in the book of the Acts, you read about Philip having a house and you read about the fact that when that couple sold the land, Peter said, you didn't have to sell it, it was yours. Well, you had it.

And we read elsewhere of Philemon having a house. So that was an emergency measure, not something that was found consistent throughout the book but when we come to something like the breaking of bread, we have that in chapter two. We have it again in chapter 20.

We have it in the epistles. So consistent pattern of behavior gives us some insight into how the pattern of an assembly should be. So we have the consistent pattern in the book of the Acts.

We have the corrective ministry in the epistles. Now, I would stop short of saying, thank God for the mistakes that the early Christians made. I would just maybe stop a bit short of that but we can be thankful that God took those errors, whether you're looking at the immorality, the division, the defilement, the disorder at Corinth, the legalism of Galatia, the philosophies and heresies of Colossae, the wrong teaching and whatever is wrong and God used all of those errors to give us corrective teaching that then helps us understand assembly practice today.

So we have the consistent pattern in the book of the Acts. We have the corrective ministry in the epistles and we do have clear instruction in the pastoral epistles, especially of Timothy and Titus. So you take all of that together and you begin to discern something of the determining God's pattern for assembly life today.

So come now to this epistle and I want you to think of how we can define some of the assembly practices that marked the church that was in Thessalonica. Now we will have to, unfortunately, someone has referred to unholy haste. Well, there'll be a bit of unholy haste going through what we have in the letter before us.

So you'll have to bear with us. Fortunately, and this may seem counterproductive to some of you, but fortunately, there'll be a lot of repetition and repetition is a vital thing for teaching. Just to impress it, coming from different directions will be impressing the same truths upon your mind as we go through it.

So I want you to think, first of all, it's been covered already so I can just deal with this very lightly. The assembly and the gospel. What is one of the great hallmarks of a local testimony? The gospel of God.

Number one, this assembly is the result of the gospel. And our brother has emphasized that already. I don't need to go any further.

It was the result of the gospel coming into a community and the gospel was the basis upon which this assembly was built. The gospel and the beginning of the assembly. Not only was the assembly the result of the gospel, but this assembly revealed the gospel in their lives.

Lives consistent with the gospel. The gospel came and it changed them from being idolaters to being those who are serving the living and true God. And everyone who is part of an assembly, you are not simply a member on a roll.

Your life and mine is meant to reveal the gospel to the community around. How we live, how we conduct our business, how we manage our home, how we raise our children. God intends seamless lives.

Now, you know what I mean by a seamless life? Those of you that are computer literate. A seamless life, no chopping up and division. And so the assembly was not only the result of the gospel, the assembly revealed the gospel by the way they live.

Thirdly, the assembly reached out with the gospel. From you sampled out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place. Now, let me just pick up a thread from our brother Rogers and show you how significant it is for what is being said.

He mentioned in his background and the geographic location of this particular assembly that they occupied a strategic location, a seaport, a crossroads. They use their geography, if I can put it that way. They use their geography for the spread of the gospel.

People coming in and out, a crossroads. I mean, and the result of that was the gospel from there emanated to all the world at that time because of their geographic location. They used to their advantage where God had planted them.

So an assembly is responsible to reach out with the gospel, to use whatever means available in their geographic location, their contacts, all of that. The gospel is vital to assembly testimony. I don't know if there's any assembly represented here, but every assembly ought to have a gospel testimony, whether a Sunday night, series of meetings, whatever, keep the gospel to the fore.

And this marked the assembly at Thessalonica, the assembly and the gospel. Just a word about the assembly and their gatherings. There was a fellowship, wasn't there? He speaks of them actually in chapter two as a family.

Paul speaks of himself as being a nursing mother and a cherishing and a charging father. And the assembly was family-like. There was a fellowship that existed with these believers that was marked by all the warmth, all the care, all the love that would mark a family in its functioning together.

So there was a fellowship that was seen there. As well, there was a furthering of growth. Here is an assembly that is growing now.

We will see later some of the forces brought to bear upon them that actually led to their growth. But here was an assembly marked by growth, growth in their faith, growth in their love, growth in their character. So there was fellowship, there was furtherance.

And as far as the functioning of the assembly, now again here, you'll have to just read between some of the lines. Paul speaks in chapter four, or rather chapter three, about the fact that they were suffering and being able to be comforted. He speaks in chapter five, comforting one another, edifying one another.

Here was an assembly that were building up each other. So there was a ministry one to another. He speaks about prayer in chapter four, chapter five.

He speaks about the fact that the word of God was at the fore. In all of the gatherings of the assembly, the word of God was at the fore. Now, we'll deal with this more in the final meeting.

He speaks about despising, not prophesying. So let me just translate that into modern day usage or modern day experience. Prophets have been replaced by teachers.

So what he's saying is never despise, never look down on the word of God. Never think the word of God insignificant. And he ends the epistle with a tremendously solemn charge.

Make sure that what I have written to you is read. Make sure the word of God is read in the local assembly. Every meeting of the assembly ought to be a word of God meeting.

If we do not have the word of God, we have nothing. And so he makes clear as the assembly functions, as teachers, as gospel, whatever it is, make sure the word of God is at the fore and make sure that the assembly and its gatherings are marked by prayer, by edification. In fact, the three words, 1 Corinthians chapter 14, Paul speaks there in that confused state with the rivalry and the tongues and all that was going on.

He says, three things should mark local gatherings, edification, edification, and comfort. He says, make sure that those three things are present in every, and that is exactly what you have in Thessalonica. You've got comfort, you've got edification, and you've got exhortation throughout this epistle.

And he mentions those words here in this epistle as well. So those are the things that ought to mark our gatherings as we come together. And that is what marked the assembly at Thessalonica.

But let me mention just briefly the assembly and its growth and its grace. Now we're gonna deal with that more when we come to chapter three and look at their faith in chapter number three. But an assembly ought to be a place where believers individually are growing.

Now I know we're 28 days late, but we're 28 days into a new year. But just to ask yourself where you are right now compared to where you were last year. You remember, don't you, that, don't turn me off when I speak about the offerings.

I'll make it very simple. So please don't turn off that switch. You remember that when a priest took a handful of meal and put it on the altar, called the meal offering, and that was given to God along with the burn offering.

So what God got on the altar depended on the size of the hand of the priest who was putting it on the altar. Is your hand any bigger this year than last year? You say, what do you mean? Well, you see, what he was grasping was what spoke of the perfections of Christ. And he could put that on the altar for God along with that burn offering.

My hand should be growing every year. And I'm not speaking just to brethren who do it publicly. The remembrance meeting, every sister should come as well.

Every sister should come as well with a heart that offers worship to God. And our hands should be growing bigger every year. I have to confess, sometimes I think my hand is shriveling.

Not getting bigger. Being able to give God something more of Christ, the assembly and its growth. Have to leave that.

Let me just speak about the assembly and godliness of life. Now, I don't wanna take away from what our brother's gonna bring us to in chapter four, but in chapter number four, living holy, loving heartily, laboring honestly, looking heavenward. Now, again, the background of an epistle is so vital to understand what is being taught in that epistle.

He read together for us in Acts chapter 17, that they brought together certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. Now, that sounds almost obscene at first, but if you have a Newbery margin or a Darby or a revised, it tells you very simply what they were, were market loungers. Market, you know what that means? Guys that like to hang out.

You know, live off somebody else, live off the welfare system, and just kind of cool. You know, don't get too upset about work. This nine to five thing is not for us.

And so they were just market loungers. You know the problem? Some of those men got saved, and they didn't change. So it was dinner time, and along would come brother so-and-so, thought I'd come along for a bit of fellowship.

Well, come in and have dinner. And he would come back the next night and the next night, and they were living off the others. Now, that is more clear when you come to 2 Thessalonians.

What happened is they took their natural trait, and they kind of gave it a spiritual veneer. The Lord's coming, so we're living on the tiptoe of expectation. Why bother working? I'll live off the Christians.

Now, he says, wait a minute. Make sure you're living holy, and you're laboring honestly. Work with your own hands.

Do your own business. So the background of the epistle adds a tremendous insight into what he's saying in chapter number four. And he's reminding them that every believer ought to be marked by holy living.

Now, there is a confusion, and I think sometimes it prohibits some of our young believers from thinking about assembly fellowship. That confusion is this, that God has two standards for Christians to live. You can live a certain way if you're not in the assembly yet, but once you come into the assembly, you really have to get your act together and ratchet up a bit.

God has only one standard for all believers, holiness of life, from the moment of conversion on. Now, that's seen in the Old Testament. You remember, don't you, that Passover redemption began the Feast of Unleavened Bread at the very same time.

God intended holiness to begin the moment of conversion, not when you come into assembly fellowship. Having said that, it is mandatory for those who are in assembly fellowship. Now, I'm not going back on what I said.

God expects holiness in every believer from the moment of conversion. But Paul here is addressing those in assembly fellowship, bowing to claims of lordship. And it's mandatory, not optional.

So more of that from our brother later on, but the standard there, loving one another heartily, laboring honestly, looking heavenward. We'll have to look at that again as we have time in future meetings. Something about the assembly and its government.

Those who would guide the assembly. Now we learned from chapter five, we read together there, that they are in the plurality. That's the first thing.

Them, not he. They're in the plurality. So we learn here, and this is reinforced by other portions of the word of God, that an assembly is guided, governed by a plurality of individuals raised up of God who guide the assembly and who carry out the assembly's government.

Now they are not the authority. The word of God is the authority in a local testimony. The word of God is what gives authority to the men that teach the word of God and that carry out what it teaches.

But they are seen here as in the plurality and they are perceptive. They are men who are perceptive. They can distinguish differences.

They can tell who is unruly and who is small of soul and who is weak and who needs support and who needs rebuke. And they're able to apply the word of God in careful, sensitive, intelligent ways. One stroke doesn't fit all believers.

You can't take the same two by four to everybody's head. Sorry, it doesn't work. It may knock them all out equally, but it doesn't do the same, doesn't accomplish the same thing.

There are those who are easily discouraged and need encouragement. There are those who are so forward they need to be held back. There are those who are so backward they need to be pushed forward.

Well, you push forward the forward end, you've got problems. And you hold back the backward and you've got more problems. So you need discernment.

There are men who are perceptive. There are men who are prudent. There are men who are skillful in their handling of the word of God.

And we have the responsibility of the assembly to them. We're told in chapter five to recognize them, to respect them, and to remember them in prayer so that the assembly has a responsibility to its guides and the guides have a responsibility to the assembly. So an assembly then has a multiple, a plurality of leaders raised up of God who are given the responsibility to feed, to care for.

In fact, as our brother was speaking about the value of a local testimony, my mind went to Acts chapter 20. Feed the flock of God which is among you, purchased with the blood of his own. Now we take that individually, but that's not what it means.

It means that every local testimony, there could not be a local testimony in Marion, Garnevilla, Heightsville, or Baccarat. There could not be a local testimony apart from the blood of his own. So every local assembly is precious to God because it cost him the blood of his own son.

That's how precious every local assembly is to God. Wonderful that, now I take no pleasure in smallness, but wonderful to God that you never, never find God linking value with size. It's not God's way.

It's not in God's mentality. Value is not linked with size. Never linked with quantity, always linked with quality.

So that in a small assembly faithfully bearing witness to God is a far, far more value to God than a large, large assembly that has compromised for the sake of numbers or whatever it may be. So the assembly then and its guides. Let me mention a bit, and I'm repeating what our brother said, the assembly and what guards it.

What guards it? Now, he already mentioned to you what I was going to mention in chapter one and verse number one, this unique expression, the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the father. So let me just stop for a minute. And for the sake of those who are younger, every word of God is vital.

We're going to come to that further in chapter one and in one of the other sessions, but learn the power of prepositions. Learn the value of verbs. Learn the truth contained in tenses.

Learn the advantage of the adverb. Every single word of God has meaning and is there for a purpose. And I know you may say, well, we have translations.

These are not the originals. We can have confidence. Now you can take other versions.

You can take a Newberry, a Darby, a revised and work together to make sure you have the most accurate. But when you have arrived at the most accurate rendering of a verse, recognize that every single word is there, weighed, measured, calculated in God's balance to convey truth as no other word could possibly convey it. They are in.

Here's a church persecuted, a church that is being besieged. What is going to, well, we've got some pretty gifted men here. We've got some great preachers.

That's what's gonna preserve us in persecution, right? No. We have some really good Christians amongst us. They are sterling.

That's gonna preserve us right amidst the persecution? No. What is gonna guard this church is that they are in God the Father and in our Lord Jesus Christ, the assembly and its guarding. Let me mention, because this I know is frequently not brought up and understandably so by our brethren, the assembly in giving, giving.

You may say, you didn't read a single verse about giving. No, I didn't. So turn with me to 2 Corinthians in chapter 11.

It mentions this in chapter eight, but I think this is a better reference. Paul is speaking about his days in Corinth, and I'll just mention some of that in a moment. Verse number nine of chapter 11.

When I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no man. Remember that he worked with his hands, making tents when he first came to Corinth. Acts chapter 18.

For that which was lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied. And in all things, I kept myself from being burdensome to you. So while I keep myself and so on.

Now, just a little background. Paul came in Acts chapter 18, chapter 17. He left Thessalonica, Berea, went to Athens, left Athens, came down into Corinth.

And in Corinth, he worked with his own hands, making tents. And he would work during the week. And on the Sabbath, he would go into the synagogue.

And preach the gospel. Then it says, when Silas and Timothy came from Thessalonica, Paul was pressed in spirit and preached. Now the word pressed in spirit is perhaps a bit misleading.

The word there really means he devoted himself now just to preaching. So something enabled him to leave tent making in Corinth and begin preaching seven days a week. I think we just read it in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

When Timothy and Silas came down from Thessalonica, now Paul had sent them back because he had heard of the persecution they were going through, had a deep concern for the church there. And he sent them back, went on to Athens alone. And from Athens came down to Corinth.

And when they finally came back from Thessalonica, they brought him word. The assembly was standing amidst the persecution. And they had not succumbed to the lies and libel that had been labeled against Paul.

And they must have sent a gift, Paul says. The gifts that came from Macedonia. The very same time that Timothy and Silas came.

So here was an assembly that was marked by giving. Now I know that Macedonia included Philippi. And it appears that Paul had a very, very special relationship with the assemblies in Macedonia.

Maybe Philippi more so than Thessalonica. But Macedonia seemed to be a very, very special place to Paul. And it may well be the influence of Dr. Luke that kept these assemblies abreast of all of Paul's movements and of Paul's exercise in the gospel.

But the assembly had sent a gift. And it enabled Paul to preach the gospel in Corinth. And it enabled Paul to see people saved.

So the giving of one assembly led to the planting of another assembly. So when you send off to a missionary or to a preacher, when you have an exercise to support a work in another country or a new work in this country or someone who's laboring in the gospel, just think of what the potential, the potential of your giving may result in. There's a puzzling scripture, at least to me, maybe not to you, in Luke chapter 16, where the Lord Jesus is speaking about mammon and use of our stewardship with financial things.

And he says to make for yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. Be interesting to get your take on what that verse means. But let me just give you a very, very simplistic view of it.

And it's just this. You decide, rather than getting a Mercedes, you decide, you know, I think I'll settle for a small Beamer. And the couple of thousand dollars that I'm saving, I think I'll send off to somebody doing a new work in a new part of the world, somebody laboring for the Lord in some isolated place.

Your money enables them to stay there, preach the gospel and see people saved. I think when you get to heaven and they get to heaven, I think they're gonna thank you. I think you've made friends with what you've given.

Or you may say, you mean people are, I hope people aren't gonna be more stupid in heaven than they are on earth, okay? I mean, I'm hoping I'm gonna be a bit more intelligent. Okay? And people are gonna be able to thank you. You know, thanks for supporting the work in such and such a place.

Thanks for supporting so-and-so as he brought the gospel to us. Apart from that, we would have never heard the message thanks. You know, was it Rutherford said, my heaven will be two heavens if I meet you in Emmanuel's land.

People thanking you for the sacrifice you made and what you sent as an assembly or individually. Here's an assembly marked by giving. And their gift, likely among other gifts, but at least their gift is the one that's mentioned.

Their gift led to the gospel being able to be preached in Corinth and an assembly planted in that city to the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ. An assembly and its giving. Haven't said a word about assembly and its gifts, but I think again, we are, as we read through the epistle, we would learn, here is an assembly that did have spiritual gift that was functioning.

They were able to edify, exhort, there was prophecy. Now, again, we're gonna notice later on that prophecy has been replaced by teaching in our age, but here was an assembly that was functioning with spiritual gifts in the plural, all laboring together for the blessing and edification of the assembly. So the ground of the assembly was the gospel and all that the gospel taught.

The growth of the assembly, we see it here in the epistle. They were edifying, they were exhorting, they were admonishing, they were comforting. Here was an assembly marked by growth.

Here was an assembly and its gatherings and all that marked it as fellowship and its functioning together. An assembly and the grace that marked it in its trial, the godliness that marked it in their individual personal lives of believers, the guarding of the assembly by the God in whom they were found, the giving of the assembly, the gifts of the assembly and guides that marked and guided the assembly. May the Lord bless His word.

And as we go through this epistle together, bringing together different lines of truth, bringing together different aspects of the teaching of the apostle, learning how we can discern the mind, the truth, the teaching of a particular letter in keeping with the spirit of God and His intention in instructing us and in teaching us His word.