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Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.
first Thessalonians
41-12 finally then Brothers 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 for this is the
will of God your
sanctification that you abstain from
sexual immorality that each one of you
know how to control his own body and
Holiness and honor not in the passion of
lust like the Gentiles who do not know
God 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 for God has not called us for
impurity but in holiness therefore
whoever disregards this disregards not
man but God who gives his holy spirit to
you now concerning brotherly love you
have no need for anyone to write to you
for you yourselves have been taught by
God to love one another for that indeed
is what you are doing to all the
brothers throughout Macedonia but we
urge you Brothers to do this more and
more and to aspire to live quietly and
to mind your own affairs
and to work with your hands as we
instructed you so that you may walk
properly before Outsiders and be
dependent on no
one hey everybody Welcome to Christ
Community Chapel I am uh I'm really glad
you're here so thanks for coming uh
before I get started I I just want to
tell you that I feel like uh God is uh
doing something uh special right now
here at CCC and I I tell you that
because uh I don't want you to to miss
it you know the the Bible is full of
examples of where God uh shows up in a
special way at a particular time in a
particular place and I really feel like
uh that could be happening uh right here
right now and I just want to just
encourage you don't miss it whatever
that means uh don't miss the opportunity
means that if you're on the fringes take
a step deeper in wherever you are uh
lean into all that's going on here so
that you don't uh Miss what God's doing
in the church or what God may want to do
inside of you all
right okay uh let's get into the message
today we are in our 10we Series where
we're looking at first and 2
Thessalonians those are two letters that
the Apostle Paul uh wrote to a church uh
in a city called
thessalonica the church was doing
extraordinarily well and that uh Paul is
encouraging them uh about how well
they're doing and so we are calling this
series the church God calls good the
church God calls good and we want to be
that kind of church we want to be a
church that God calls good so we're
trying to learn all that we can from the
Thessalonians
uh Christianity swept across the Roman
Empire and it swept across the Roman
Empire not just because of what
Christians believed but how they lived
their lives the way Christians lived was
completely different than the way the
people around them thought and lived I
mean if you uh lived in a neighborhood
in thessalonica and you had a couple of
Christians in your neighborhood you knew
it uh they stood out
they could not blend in it was such a
contrast there was like a contrast
between light and darkness Jesus came
saying that he was light and life and
that life and light was shining out of
the Thessalonians and of course the
darker someplace is the more the
stronger the contrast is when light
comes to that
darkness and what I'm saying to all of
us is as our world gets darker as our
nation gets darker it's on us as
Christians to shine bright it's on us as
a
church to shine bright the question of
course is how how do we do that the
Thessalonians did it by connecting the
gospel to their everyday lives they
connected the gospel to their everyday
lives there were actually four areas
where they were radically different than
the previl culture four ways that people
had never seen other people a group of
people approach these four areas the way
Christians did and the four areas are
these sex money work and
death sex money work and death no one
had ever seen
anyone who uh approached sex the way
Christians approached sex
no one had ever talked to
anyone who handled their money the way a
Christian handled their money no one had
ever seen anyone talk about work the way
Christians talked about work and no one
had ever seen anyone approach death the
way a Christian approach death now I
don't want to steal Zach's Thunder Zach
preaches next week and he's going to
preach on the the passage that covers
how Christians approach death but I I
will tell you this I mean it was pretty
astounding uh and Christians got this
reputation of how they approach death
with with a peace and a joy that people
had didn't really understand there's a
quote attributed to a centurion uh whose
Duty was in the Coliseum he was one of
the ones that led Christians into the
center of the Coliseum where they would
be eaten by lions or attacked by other
animals and after a couple of months of
doing that this is the quote that was
attributed to this Centurion he said
behold these Christians die well behold
these Christians thy well Christians
were known to sing hymns when they
approached death and we still do I've
been privileged to be in hospital rooms
or hospice rooms where
a a group of Christians are gathered
around a family member who's also a
Christian and they're holding hands and
singing as their loved one passes into
the presence of
Jesus it's astounding it's moving it
reminds me of uh there's a story in the
book of Acts where Paul and Silas have
been thrown in jail after being beaten
and it says that they were singing hymns
and then it says that all the other
prisoners were listening
and I wrote in the margin of my Bible no
kidding of course they were listening
because no one had ever encountered
anyone who'd been beaten unjustly thrown
into prison and responded by singing
right but I'll leave that to Zach that's
all the Thunder I'm going to steal from
him uh I want to concentrate on the
other three
areas because the way Christians
approached these three things sex money
and work uh created an an
alternative that was so attractive to
people that it actually changed the
world for these Christians children and
grandchildren and great-grandchildren
and that's what we want to do all right
so let's take a look if you have your
Bibles go ahead and turn to first
Thessalonians chapter
4 we're looking at verses 1-2 if you're
going to use one of our Bibles in the
Hughes or if you're over in East Hall in
the back of East Hall those Bibles it's
on page
928 page 928 or you can just wait for
the verses to come up on the screen all
right let's start with sex this is uh
let me read the first three verses he
says F finally then Brothers we ask and
urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you
receive 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 for this is the
will of God your sanctification that you
abstain from sexual immorality let me
stop
there uh he's talking he's about to talk
about how they're going to live and he's
saying you need to keep living the way
you're living in a way that is pleasing
to God and then he he talks about the
result of that the purpose of that is
your sanctification that's the word he
uses that's a great word
sanctification it means the you you have
always wanted to be the you that you
were created to be and I know I use
those two phrases a lot uh but I want
you to know that I'm not talking about
the you you want to be like you you want
to be a little thinner or a little bit
nicer or a little bit Kinder that's not
it uh it is to be radically different
than you the way you were created to be
you you and I aren't even close to what
we were created to be I still remember a
professor in college saying that if if
Adam and Eve walked into the room we
would have to fight the urge to fall
down and worship them and what my
professor was saying was that Adam and
Eve were created in the image of God and
before sin entered the world they
reflected that image very
clearly that Adam and Eve that you were
created to be radiant to be glorious to
be joyful to be
beautiful I mean you you were created to
be
stunning right and that's what Adam and
Eve were and what what sin does and and
Adam and Eve were like a mirror that
reflected the image of God in a very
clear way I think uh I am more like one
of those Funhouse mirrors that you go in
and and your head's really big or you're
super wide or you're super but you're
all distorted see I I used to think that
I was like a mirror that had dirt and
smudges on it and that that's not it's
deeper than that I mean there's dirt
smudges and all that but there's a
distortion that goes on and so we do not
reflect the image of God the way we're
intended what Paul says is what when God
gives us
instructions about sex and money and
work and any any of those instructions
is for our sanctification it's the it's
to help pound out those
distortions in your soul
so that you reflect his
image because you were made to be
radiant to be glorious to be joyful to
be
beautiful so that's the first thing all
right then he says uh verses
3-8 he says for this is the will of God
your
sanctification that you abstain from
sexual
immorality that each one of you know how
to control his own body and holiness and
honor not in the passion of lust like
the Gentiles who do not know God that no
one transgress and wrong his brother in
this manner because the Lord is an Aven
Avenger of all these things as we told
you beforehand and solemnly warned you
for God has not called us for impurity
but in
Holiness therefore whoever disregards
this disregards not man but God who
gives his holy spirit to you all right
for me to talk about this first point of
how Christians were different in regards
to sex it's probably easiest for me to
break it into three sub points like how
the Greeks viewed sex how Christians
viewed sex and then kind of the
difference that it made first how Greeks
viewed
sex uh Greeks were very casual with sex
uh uh the average uh Greek man uh was
expected to have uh three relationships
with three different women the average
Greek man uh had a wife and the wife uh
usually brought money and Status into
the relationship so you'd marry for
status then uh your wife kind of managed
your Affairs and was responsible to Bear
your legitimate children and heirs
that's the wife's responsibility
then the average Greek man had a
mistress uh and the mistress was this is
interesting the mistress was his
intellectual equal and uh that would be
the woman that he would have
conversations with that he would uh have
Recreation with and that he would also
have sex with right that was his
mistress and then the average uh Greek
man also had what was called a pacus
which was like a concubine usually a
female slave or servant and she was only
for sex so that's the average Greek man
now Paul comes along and he says oh no
listen for Christians it's different God
has given the gift of sex to be enjoyed
in the midst and this is what's
interesting in in the midst of a single
relationship between a husband and a
wife a committed relationship called
marriage inside of that sex can work for
your sanctification can work to help you
get less distorted more clearly image
God inside outside of it Christianity is
very very simple when it comes to sex
inside of that yes outside in no matter
in any way outside of that Covenant no
it will distort you further it will do
more damage to you and here In this
passage and also in other passages what
what Paul especially in Ephesians 5 Paul
ends up saying to husbands husbands to a
Christian husband love your wife as
Christ loved the church and gave himself
for it and what Christian husbands would
do is that they would wrap all three of
those women into
one and that one would be their their
wife was their friend their conversation
partner the one they recreated with
their lover all of that into one now I
want you to
imagine what it would be
like to be a Greek woman in a
neighborhood and meet a Christian woman
in that neighborhood and begin to talk
about your husbands and the Greek woman
finds out from the Christian woman the
Christian woman says oh no my my husband
doesn't have a pacus my husband doesn't
have a mistress I am all those things
for my husband he he loves being with me
he loves loves me and the Greek woman
was just going are you kidding me one of
the reasons that Christianity swept
across the Roman Empire is because women
because the way Christian husbands
treated their
wives it should still be like that for
us the word that Paul uses for immoral
sexual immorality is the word
pornea which is where we get the word
pornography one of the reasons that
pornography is so
destructive is because of the flow of
the human
heart the way a Greek man approached
women is he used different women for
different things he used his wife to
bear his legitimate Hees he used his
mistress for conversation and sex and he
used his pacus for sex he used women for
himself Jesus comes along and says no no
no no no that's not the way I created
human being to work I didn't create a
human being to use people I created a
human being to love people because I
created you in my image and I came not
to be served but to serve and to give my
life a ransom for many what happened was
that Jesus gave birth to a group of
people where their the flow of their
lives became From the Inside Out In Love
that's why Paul says husbands love your
wives
what Paul is saying what God is saying
is you are much more in my image when
you love somebody and not when you use
somebody with pornography it changes
that every time you look at an image you
are using somebody you are changing the
flow you know I know that Zach if you
were here last week Zack talked about
rewire and I was thinking about that
like if uh if one of them man who is now
going to rewire is out mowing his lawn
in a rewire shirt and a neighbor comes
over to that wife and says what what is
rewire and the wife goes oh yeah that's
my husband's commitment to stay away
from
pornography it's
amazing and that woman that neighbor
would go are you kidding me I know my
husband's into porn he we just you talk
about that we still have the opportunity
to be so different in a
neighborhood that we cannot hide that
everybody in that neighborhood knows
oh they're
Christian and that's one of the ways we
know the way the husband treats his wife
the way the wife treats her husband and
the way they treat the gift of sex that
God has given okay that's one way uh the
second way is uh the way they handled
money uh this is what he says verse 99
and
10 now concerning brotherly love you
have no need for anyone to write to you
for you yourselves have been taught by
God to love one another for that indeed
is what you're doing to all the brothers
throughout Macedonia but we urge you
Brothers to do this more and
more one of the things that Christians
were known for from the very beginning
was they were very quick to share uh
anything they had
with other people very
open-handed uh and that started right at
the beginning in Acts chapter 2 Peter
preaches the very first sermon after the
resurrection 5,000 people uh become
Believers in Jesus and then it says and
they had all things in common and no
everyone who had a need had that need
met right it was astounding what one of
the things that's uh interesting is
there are three uh archaeological
discovery
uh that kind of give an Insight uh into
the way Christians handled money uh the
first is a letter uh from a man named
diones diones was a Christian and uh he
wrote this he said uh we share our table
with all but not our bed with all we
share our table with
anyone but we don't share our bed with
anyone that was the exact opposite of
the way the Greeks lived the Greeks were
very casual about sex they were very
casual with their bed anyone in their
bed but their money was sacred they were
very very careful with their money
Christians come along and go oh no no
we're stingy with sex because that is
sacred but we let anyone have our money
all right
the second uh archaeological Discovery
is a letter uh from a guy uh an emperor
named Julian who's actually called
Julian the apostate but Julian hated
Christians and he was afraid that
Christians were gaining more and more
kind of uh momentum and he was writing
some Pagan priests and he was saying
listen these Christians they uh care for
strangers they take care of their own
poor they even take care of our poor
those blasted Christians he's really mad
and then he says to them you need to
teach to the Pagan priest you need to
teach people to imitate Christians or
they're going to take over the
world right and that's what ends up
happening right the last letter uh I
really like because it seems like the
last letter that was discovered was from
a con man uh who was just giving a tip
and he was saying listen if you want an
easy Mark go to Christians all you have
to do is present any need and they give
to you right which is a crackup I think
uh which is good because Christians have
always been easy to take advantage of I
was actually rebuked one time in India
uh I was on a mission trip to India and
had a team there uh we were in the city
and every time we would get out of our
vans uh in the city you know Beggars
would come and flock to us and uh there
was one woman and she had an obviously
deformed uh baby and so uh a lot of
people a lot of our team gave her money
and we went someplace else and uh
somehow she uh found out where we were
and she showed up again and then we went
to a third PL and got more money and
then we went to a third place and I saw
her again and I saw her walking up to
one of our team members and I said I
stepped in and I said hey hey she's had
she's gotten enough and this guy looked
at me and he goes she's about to get
more right I thought good an you yeah
who am I to say oh we have been generous
enough to her right that that's not what
Jesus would want that's
crazy you know one of the things you
need to know if you if you struggle
strle with giving if you struggle with
generosity generosity is one of those
things the the the act of giving is one
of those things that will actually help
uh remove some of the
Distortion in your soul it will make
them you able to reflect the image of
God better because God is a giver God is
generous the the generosity of
Christians can hardly be
overstated because as the Roman Empire
declined economically and the need grew
greater Christians filled that need and
that's what happened if you were in need
in the Roman Empire and somebody reached
out to help you in that need they were
almost
undoubtedly a
Christian and no one had ever seen
people hand Le money quite like
Christians did and the final area is
work this is what it
says let me uh well I'll read verses 11
and 12 he says and to aspire to live
quietly and to mind your own Affairs and
to work with your hands as we instructed
you so you may walk properly before
Outsiders and be dependent on no one uh
that sounds like a really a kind of
churchy thing to say to me it's like uh
mind your own business work keep your
head down work be quiet right uh
actually Paul is saying quite a bit here
about
work uh the way the Greeks approached
work was um they worked as little as
possible made to make as much as
possible to retire as early as possible
which kind of sounds like our
culture they wanted to work as little as
possible to make as much as possible to
retire as early as
possible but Christians came with a
different attitude toward work what Paul
says here he he actually says three
things about work here that became uh
what Christians were known for one is he
connects work uh to love like it's
really a runon sentence when Paul says
for that indeed is what you're doing to
all the brothers throughout Macedonia
but we urge you Brothers to do this more
and more and he's talking about loving
them and to aspire to live quietly and
to mind your own Affairs and to work
with your own hands as we instructed
you work for a Christian was a way to
serve people to show your your love for
people there was something Noble about
work um not all work serves people
but a lot of work does now when I say
serve people with work I don't want you
to confuse that and think that the way
to serve people if you're if you want to
work and you want to really serve people
you got to move to the inner city and uh
and build homes or uh be go into
ministry that's not it serving others or
doing any kind of work for the benefit
of someone else was something that was
esteemed and that's what Christians
thought it was a way to love people you
know I I drove here today in a car I did
not make I could not begin to make any
part of a car you know I'm not handy to
begin with I I drove on roads that I
have no idea uh how to do I'm in a
building where I couldn't fix a thing
I'm enjoying air conditioning that I
don't even understand how it works right
all those things are serving me
Christians looked at their work like
that and thought this is why I'm doing
it I'm not doing this just for a
paycheck I'm doing this because it makes
the world better because it makes life
easier because it's a way to serve
someone else always they were thinking
that so one of the things that you have
to know is that if you're working a job
just for money that's not the way a
Christian approached work and if you're
working a job that does not benefit
people or does not help them then that's
not the way Christians worked right that
was one way one thing that Paul was
teaching is that the way Christians
approach work was it was a way to love
people the second thing is he says work
with your own hands which was
interesting in that culture because uh
for Greeks they look down on any kind of
manual labor they were there were
prestigious jobs just like there are now
but but Christians looked at Manuel
labor differently you know
why because Jesus worked with his
hands because Jesus was a
carpenter you know I think if Jesus
lived today might be an iron worker
might be a Plummer I just think it'd be
funny I mean it' be it'd be interesting
uh how we would esteem PL plers if if we
said Jesus was a
plumber but Christians never look down
on manual labor or any kind of Labor
like that because if you were working
with your hands you were in very very
good company
right Christians looked at work so
completely different than anyone else
because for a
Christian working meant something else
working was an act of love working was a
way you were to work with your hands and
then finally he says uh work quietly
that's it was commentators struggle with
what Paul meant by that but one
commentator I read said that what Paul
was saying was do work that quiets
you that do work you are wired a certain
way find work that aligns with your
talents don't work a job that makes you
a lot of money but puts you in terrible
turmoil every night that what Christians
did they looked for jobs where they
could where it quieted their soul and
didn't always rile them
up one of the things that as we read uh
Thessalonians this church that God calls
good we' got to realize that
Christianity swe swept across the Roman
Empire not just because of what
Christians believed but because of how
they lived and how the gospel connected
with their everyday lives no one knew
anyone that looked at sex the way a
Christian looked at sex that's true now
that's true now no one knew anyone that
was more free with their money more
generous with their money than
Christians were that should be true
now and no one knew
anyone who approached work the way a
Christian approached
work my hope thing I've been praying
since I started kind of working on this
message was I've been praying every
morning God
today make me just a little less
distorted just a little
bit rub off a smudge on my soul let me
reflect you a little bit better do not
forget if you forget everything else do
not forget you were created to be
radiant to be
glorious to be full of joy to be
beautiful and every time God calls you
to obey him he is calling you to be
that what you always always really
wanted to be what you were created to be
let's do that together and be the church
God calls good would you pray with
me Father in Heaven thank you for uh
your uh love for
us
uh it's amazing you know I and I have uh
looked I've read uh your word for years
and years and so many times I read
things and I think think that it's a uh
it's a demand it's hard to do whatever
but I I don't know right now I just feel
like whatever you tell me to do I want
to
do because I know you created me to be
better than what I am right now I pray
for all of us that you would give us a a
deep desire to obey you I pray that you
would make us through our obedience uh
to be radiant and glorious to be
beautiful and joyful and I pray that we
will be able to stand in start contrast
to the the culture around us and create
an alternative that is so
attractive that we can actually change
the world starting with Northeast Ohio
we pray this in Jesus name amen