1 Thessalonians 5
A People of Growth; Conclusion

The church as it is supposed to be is:

1) a people of encouragement (1:2–10);

2) a people of self-sacrifice (2:1–12);

3) a people of controversy (2:13–16);

4) a people of joy (2:17–3:13);

5) a people of purity (4:1–8);

6) a people of work (4:9–12);

7) a people of clarity (4:13–5:11);

8) a people of unity (5:12–15); 

9) a people of growth (5:16–22).

1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies. ²¹ Test all things; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil. ²³ Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify^[g] you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. ²⁵ Brethren, pray for us. ²⁶ Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. ²⁷ I charge you by the Lord that this ^[h]epistle be read to all the ^[i]holy brethren. ²⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

A people of growth

Growing in attitude,

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks;

knowledge,

²⁰ Do not despise prophecies. ²¹ Test all things; 

and action

¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil.

Last time; Do not Quench the Spirit

One thing I learned from the book of 1^st Thessalonians; the life of the Church, the life of a Christian, is not complicated, it’s simple.  Notice that I didn’t say easy.  It’s simple.  Sometimes we get the impression that we’re missing something.  It’s more than just teaching the Word and being obedient.  Books come out that tell us that we’re missing something in our church, or personal Christian walk.

Say the right words; bind this or that, release this or that, positive confession, Remember the book, “The Prayer of Jabez” a few years back.  92 million copies sold.  That was a big deal for about 28 seconds, one year.  Why was it a big deal?  Because the author, Bruce Wilkinson, purported to have found a secret in the Bible, to God’s power in your life.

The publisher’s promotion on the back cover and the author’s preface to the book… “Do you want to be extravagantly blessed by God? Are you ready to reach for the extraordinary? To ask God for the abundant blessings he longs to give you? Join Bruce Wilkinson to discover how the remarkable prayer of a little-known Bible hero can release God’s favor, power, and protection. You’ll see how one daily prayer can help you leave the past behind—and break through to the life you were meant to live” (from the back cover).

Wow, one prayer, and I’ve overlooked it all these years.  The author chimes in…

“I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always answers. It is brief—only one sentence with four parts—and tucked away in the Bible, but I believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God. This petition has radically changed what I expect from God and what I experience every day by his power. In fact, thousands of believers who are applying its truths are seeing miracles happen on a regular basis” (from the author’s preface).

What is this prayer?

It’s in 1 Chronicles 4:10, it’s tucked into the genealogy of Judah, when 1 Chronicles lists the descendants of Judah.  It comes to a man, the ancestor of Judah, and it says about him,

⁹ Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name ^[c]Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” ¹⁰ And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my ^[d]territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.

Here’s the prayer of Jabez,

“Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my ^[d]territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”

Another author summarized Wilkinson’s proposition in the book, “The Prayer of Jabez.”

Wilkinson advocates praying the prayer of Jabez verbatim, word-for-word, for a month in order to see the power of God released in our lives. For Wilkinson, the prayer has become the secret to success in every endeavor. God is viewed as a butler who responds in a mechanical manner when certain words are recited. One critique of this book stated that it is so easy for individuals to “read this book and come away thinking that prayer is a series of inputs and outputs.” What seems to matter to the author is finding the right formula to pray and then repeating the formula until the desired results occur. His is a gimmicky approach to prayer. He asserts that the formula he has discovered, if followed diligently according to his instructions, guarantees successful praying. “I challenge you to make the Jabez prayer for blessing part of the daily fabric of your life. To do that, I encourage you to follow unwaveringly the plan outlined here for the next thirty days. By the end of that time, you’ll be noticing significant changes in your life, and the prayer will be on its way to becoming a treasured, lifelong habit” (p. 86).

Wilkinson found the secret to God’s power in your life; it’s not obedience, it’s not in the Beattitudes, or the Lord’s prayer.  It’s in an obscure little prayer in the book of 1^st Chronicles. 

We’ve been made to feel like Church and Christian life are complicated, mysterious, full of secrets.  But it’s not.  The Church as it’s supposed to be is relatively simple.  Look at these commands that Paul concludes the book with;

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies. ²¹ Test all things; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil.

Attitudes, knowledge, and actions

We were concluding last time with actions, specifically “quenching the Spirit.”

Main questions we answered about quenching the Spirit

What does the phrase “Quench the Spirit mean? How do I quench the Spirit?  What is the ultimate goal of God’s Spirit in my life?

What does the phrase “Quench the Spirit” mean?

4 truths from “Don’t Quench the Spirit” that tell us it’s meaning;

1.     Every believer has the Holy Spirit. 2. The Holy Spirit is powerful. 3. The Holy Spirit is active in the life of all believers.  4. It is possible to quench the Spirit.

1.     Every believer has the Holy Spirit. 

And this passage, “Don’t quench the Spirit,” by silence, implies the same truth.  Paul didn’t say, “If you have received the Holy Spirit, don’t quench the Spirit.”  He simply says, “Don’t quench the Spirit.”

2.     The Holy Spirit is powerful.

The Holy Spirit is often symbolized as a flame/fire in Scripture. “Don’t quench the Holy Spirit.”

Matthew 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire, He is all powerful

3.    The Holy Spirit is active in every believer.

Again, the impression you might get if you began to peruse the Christian book store on the topic of “The Spirit led life,” is that you’ve got to do something special to be led by the Spirit.  You need a second blessing.  You need to speak something into the universe.  You need to find some secret knowledge.  You need a new revelation.

But the truth we can glean from “Don’t Quench the Spirit” is, first, that the Spirit is already active in every believer.  You don’t have to quench a flame that isn’t burning.  You can’t quench the Spirit, if He isn’t present or already active in your life.  And the converse is also true,  if we don’t quench the Spirit, His work in us will proceed unhindered. 

So, Paul is telling the Thessalonians, “Don’t extinguish the fire of the Holy Spirit.”  This is an exciting truth. 

But the Holy Spirit is a blazing fire, He is already in you.  God is a “consuming fire.”  You don’t have to activate God, He’s already on fire inside of you.

And there is a fourth truth we can gather from “Don’t Quench the Spirit.”  First-all believers have the Spirit, second- the Spirit is powerful, an all consuming flame, third- the Spirit is already active, in all believers, but believe it or not

4.     It is possible for a believer to suppress the Spirit’s work in their life.

“Do not quench the Spirit.”  The very fact that Paul has to say it, tells us that quenching the Spirit is possible. Isn’t that amazing?  We can quench the work of God’s Spirit in us.

As remarkable as it sounds, I can throw a wet towel on the Spirit’s work in me.  How do I do that? How do you turn down the burners?  Is this some secret knowledge? No, this is the second of the three parts to this section

I.                    How do you suppress the work of the Holy Spirit; disobedience

1.     Abstain from all forms of evil.

2.     Hold to what is good.

It comes down to simple disobedience.  When the Spirit of God speaks to the believer, by the Word of God in preaching or teaching, or that still small voice that calls to mind what God wants, based on His Word, and you ignore it, put it off, deny it, set it aside for later, or in any way step back from being obedient to the Spirit; you grieve and quench the power of the Spirit in your life.  And it really is that simple, Abstain from evil, and hold to what is good.   Obedience can be summarized with 2 commands; abstain from every form of evil, and hold fast to what is good. What does Abstain from evil mean? Abstain means—to keep something far away from you.  In regard to certain foods, the Jews “abstained” for example, from eating pork.  And that meant that not only did they not eat any meat from a pig, they wouldn’t use any product that came from a pig, whether it be in oils, or a purse made from a sow’s ear, or even if they needed a heart transplant, they wouldn’t allow a pig’s heart to be used. In other words, they stayed far away from pork of any sort.   And that’s what it means to abstain from evil.  It doesn’t just mean avoiding the sin, it means avoiding anything that is tainted with the sin.  It means staying away from even those things that are found on the path to the  evil. For example, we all know that the 10 commandments say, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”  So, we know that we aren’t to do that.  But on the pathway to adultery are the thoughts and desires for another woman or man. Abstaining from evil means staying away from even those thoughts, or things that lead you to those thoughts. Remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount; Matthew 5: ²⁷ “You have heard that it was said ^[i]to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  We know that murder is evil, but Jesus said to stay away from violent words and angry thoughts. ²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those ^[d]of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother ^[e]without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’^[f] shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ^[g]‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of ^[h]hell fire.  Abstain from evil means to stay far away from evil, not even entertaining the thoughts of evil, or the attitudes associated with evil.  And frankly, as Christians, we can do a good job of staying away from the worst sins, but can often play around the edges.  We have a culture that allows and encourages that.  We can indulge in sin vicariously.  We can be entertained by someone else’s evil on a T.V. show.  I didn’t commit adultery, but I enjoyed the saga, the drama of someone else’s affair on T.V.  You say, well which evils should I stay away from?Well, the literal Greek says; “From every form of evil abstain.”  That’s quite a bit more all-encompassing than “Abstain from evil.”   The word “form” is translated appearance, sight, shape or fashion. Just put those words in the verse. Abstain from every sight of evil. Abstain from every appearance of evil.Abstain from every shape of evil.Abstain from every fashion of evil. In other words, when you see any thing that has the form, or appearance of anything, or any type of anything that God calls sin, you choose not to participate in any fashion, even in thought.  Why?  Because participation in evil, even in thinking about it, contemplating it, or being entertained by it, grieves the Holy Spirit, and quenches His power in your life.   It, among other things, silences His voice of conviction and direction.    How else to you quench the Spirit?By not “Holding to what is good.”  Pretty simple directions; stay away from every kind of evil, and hold tight to every kind of good thing. The Greek literally says, “To the good, hold fast.”  “The good.”   This is not talking about things that are good, in my opinion.  My mom thinks that beets are good, I know they are not.  This is not my opinion, this is “the good.”  That which is defined as good by God, in His Word.   Now we could go through the Word and tell you everything that God calls good; 

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

 But as I looked at the passages with this Greek word for good I noticed how often in the gospels the word good is associated with fruit, or seed.   Matthew 12:33

³³ “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.

²⁴ Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;

So “good” here, in regard to fruit and seed, means seeds that are whole, and healthy, perfectly capable of producing wholesome fruit. “Good” fruit is fruit that is whole, not rotten, nutritious. 

So, in regard to what is good, that we are to hold to, it is all those things designed by our Creator for our ultimate spiritual, physical, social, and mental good.

“Hold to” means to hold firmly.  The picture is of grabbing something and holding it as though your life depended on it.

You find that spiritually nutritious fruit, and you grab it, hoard it, wrap your arms around it, ingest it. 

Why, because if you don’t, you grieve and quench the Spirit. 

Quenching the Spirit is to disregard and continue in evil, or to ignore the good things for your spiritual enrichment.  

Not quenching the Spirit is simple; obedience, it’s not easy, but it’s simple.

Those are the commands concerning actions in this list.  So, in conclusion, why should I strive to live up to these commands? 

 ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies. ²¹ Test all things; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil.

Why should our church try to be what we are supposed to be?

a people of encouragement, self-sacrifice, controversy, joy, purity, work,  clarity, unity, growth?

 Where is this taking us?  The last question about the Spirit;

Phillips Brooks, former minister of Boston's Trinity Episcopal Church, is perhaps best known as the author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem." He was a very busy pastor, yet he always seemed relaxed and unburdened, willing to take time for anyone in need. Shortly before Brooks died, a young friend wrote to him and asked the secret of his strength and serenity. In a heartfelt response, Brooks credited his still-growing relationship with Christ.

He wrote, "The more I have thought it over, the more sure it has seemed to me that these last years have had a peace and fullness which there did not used to be. It is a deeper knowledge and truer love of Christ.....I cannot tell you how personal this grows to me. He is here. He knows me and I know Him. It is the most real thing in the world. And every day makes it more real. And one wonders with delight what it will grow to as the years go on."

Our Daily Bread, October 14, 1994.