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Thessalonians vs Thessalonians
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Welcome today. I'm so glad to have you here. If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Jeremy. I'm part of the team here. And we have just finished up one series last week.
Speaker 1:Today, we're starting a new one and so it's a great place to jump in if you're new with us. But before we get to that, I do wanna take a second to remind you about the annual general meeting that is coming up on March 8. Now governance is not always the most exciting thing about church, but it is certainly one of the most important things. We are a congregational model here and that means that the community, you and I, all of us together, we chart our course as we follow Christ. Now, of course, I play a role in that on the vision side of things.
Speaker 1:Our staff play their role from a ministry side and our board plays an incredibly important part on the oversight of the church. All of that comes together in the congregation. Now, is welcome at the meeting, but if you'd like to become a member, there is another class coming up before the meeting. You can register online or simply email us membership at commons church and we will get you all the information and get you in there. Now, part of the reason that I mentioned that is that we are at the start of a new year, but that also means we are at the start of a new budget cycle.
Speaker 1:And we have some exciting things in mind this year. We have already started some of the long term planning to launch a second location here at the city in the next twelve months. But we also realize that we are in a season of economic uncertainty right now, particularly here in the city. Now, I know a lot of us are feeling that and we are as a church as well, and that is fine. We have planned well and so we are very thankful because we are in a very solid place financially.
Speaker 1:But if you're in a place where you're thinking about budget for the coming year, I'd like to ask that you at least consider where Commons fits into that. We run a very lean operation for a church that is now over 800 people every Sunday, And we wanna continue to operate that way so that we can be generous. 21¢ of every dollar that was spent last year by Commons Church went outside our doors to serve our neighborhood, our city, and our world, and we should be really proud of that. But we should also be really proud of what's happening inside these doors. People are encountering Jesus here, and small tightly knit communities are being formed here.
Speaker 1:People are stepping into each other's lives and caring for each other, and there's something really remarkable about what God is doing in and through this community. And when you donate, you help to continue all of those different stories. And so I wanna thank you to those who give regularly. But if you're in a position where you could, I'd love you to just consider it. Automatic contribution forms are available at the donation boxes.
Speaker 1:That is one of the easiest ways that you can budget to give systematically and regularly. And if you happen to be listening along on the podcast or the YouTube channel, then right now, then you can hit us up @commons.churchslashdonate and you can participate as well. So thank you for being part of the story. Now last week, we wrapped up the series Ashes. And once again, my sincere thanks to all of those or everyone actually for your openness and vulnerability that you showed during those conversations.
Speaker 1:There were so many stories that were shared with myself and the team and that impacted me personally very deeply. But as we worked through this conversation about forgiveness, we realized that there were a couple themes that kept coming up again. And so we've put together some new supplemental content so that we can keep that conversation going. And that has been posted on our website at commons.church/ashes. Now, some of us are ready to move on to a new topic today.
Speaker 1:That's fine. But for those of us who want to continue to do some of the work that we started last last month, then hopefully you'll find what we've been able to put together useful for you. So that's commons.church/ashes if you wanna access that. Alright. Today is a new series.
Speaker 1:And so first, we'll pray and then today we begin to find the balance in the letters to Thessalonica. God of grace and peace, who set the world in place and who governs the rhythms that define our lives. If we have work yet to do, when it comes to forgiveness and bitterness and the act of letting go, would you encourage and guide and heal and counsel us as we move forward? Remind us daily of your infinite grace and your open welcome. And as we respond to your invitation, might we find embrace in your arms, but might we also be healed and made whole in your presence.
Speaker 1:And then, might we find the courage to enter back into your world with new eyes and hearts and openness to those around us. As we speak today of balance, what it means and what it was never meant to. Would you help us to find peace in the rhythms of our lives and comfort within the person that you have created us to be? Would anxiety begin to slip away and fears fade so that passion might become the platform from which we operate. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen. Alright. New series And we've called this new series Thessalonians versus Thessalonians finding balance in Paul's letters to Thessalonica. And not only is that a tongue twister, that is more than I have said Thessalonians in probably the last ten years combined. But a couple of things to be aware of going into this series.
Speaker 1:This is not going to be a systematic walk through these letters. Now, we do that from time to time. We're actually going to pick up where we left off in Romans after Easter and continue to do exactly that going verse by verse. This series on the other hand is really meant just to pull out a couple ideas or a couple conversations that revolve around this idea of balance. And I think Thessalonians is an interesting text to help us do that because one of the really interesting parts of the backstory to these letters is that they're often put at odds with each other because they often seem to contradict each other.
Speaker 1:So a little background here. First Thessalonians is widely considered to be very possibly the earliest of Paul's letters contained in the New Testament. And that is quite a distinction because Paul's letters actually predate the gospels. And so if that's true, what it would make it mean is that first Thessalonians is the oldest book in the entire New Testament. And generally, we date it to somewhere around fifty two CE.
Speaker 1:And of course, that date is somewhat speculative. But the way we come up with that is by looking at the second half of the book of Acts. Because there, you get a pretty good rundown of Paul's travels, all the different cities he goes to, and where he plants all of these different churches. And so from that, we can construct a reasonably good timeline of his life which then based on the content of his letters that he writes, we try to place into that timeline. And so the story of Thessalonica and the church that gets planted there actually starts in chapter 16 of the book of Acts.
Speaker 1:And this is where we get the story of Paul and how he goes to Philippi. Now, we'll get to Thessalonica, but just hang with me here for a moment. Because Paul goes to Philippi and he starts a church in the house of a prominent woman, a business woman named Lydia. Things go really well and the church grows and so Paul decides to stay for a while. One day he's out and he's walking down the street and this slave girl who tells fortunes makes her owners a lot of money doing this, she starts following Paul and Silas around and yelling at them, these men are servants of the most high God.
Speaker 1:They are telling you the way to be saved. Now, you would think that this is a good thing. The problem is that she keeps doing this for days. And Sapal gets really annoyed by this. And this is probably one of those good little reminders that being surrounded by your own cheerleaders is nice for a while.
Speaker 1:Eventually it gets unhelpful. You need people to encourage you, and you need people to tell you how great you are. But if that's all you have, that gets a little tiring. And so eventually, Paul gets so irritated that he stops and he turns around and he says to the spirit that this girl has, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. At that moment, the spirit leaves her.
Speaker 1:She can't tell fortunes anymore and her owners, remember she's a slave, they are absolutely furious about this because they're out a lot of money. And so they drag Paul and Silas into the market, they have them beaten and thrown into jail. Now eventually what happens is that it's found out that Paul is actually a Roman citizen. And so the jailers realized they have made a huge mistake by not following due process with an official Roman citizen. And so Paul and Silas are released and kinda rushed out of town to brush this situation under the carpet.
Speaker 1:From there, they decide, okay, well we have to leave Philippi, let's go to the next town, that's Thessalonica. And they start yet another church. Now, here's why we need the backstory from Philippi. Because again, an angry mob gets upset. At this time, their issue is that a number of Jews are converting to this new Christian story and so the people riot and the city officials get involved and Pilates, Paul and Silas end up arrested again and thrown in jail again.
Speaker 1:But this time, not wanting to fall into the same mess as Philippi, the city officials know who Paul is and they basically demand that the Christians in Thessalonica post a bond to get Paul and out of jail and then they rush them out of the city as quickly as possible. And so what happens is that you have this church that's been started, but Paul and Sais have literally spent just days in Thessalonica before they're forced to leave. Now, remember, there's no New Testament at this point. There are no bibles other than the Hebrew scriptures to read. These are brand new converts to the way of Jesus and there is no one with any sort of discipleship or training or experience of Christianity under their belt in the entire city.
Speaker 1:This is the functional equivalent if if we had started Commons Church two and a half years ago, 300 people showed up on our first Sunday like they did but then by Wednesday, Joel and I and the rest of the team were like, you know what, this has been great so long. Thanks for all the fish. Let us know how things go. Hope you have a great time. Of course, none of this was Paul's plan.
Speaker 1:It's not like he hung them out to dry on purpose. That's why the background in Philippi is important to know why they get rushed out so quickly. But nonetheless, here we are. A brand new church, brand new Christians, no leadership, no theological background, not even any bible to read. That's the context for these Thessalonian letters.
Speaker 1:Here's your Cole's notes to the content of what these letters are about. Paul has taught these new believers all about Jesus and his imminent return. But now a few months have gone by and a few of the community members have passed away, they've died. This has got everyone worried. Because they were under the impression that Christ would return in their lifetimes.
Speaker 1:Now, side note here, in certain circles we still hear a lot about this today. Right? The end times and the imminent return of Christ. Here's the thing, every generation for the last two thousand years has been convinced that Jesus was just around the corner. Now, I'm not saying he's not.
Speaker 1:I'm saying we tend to be a little chronocentric. We seem to always think that our time is the center of time. And perhaps a little eschatological humility would go a long way here. I will just throw this out there, but it is possible that the creator of the universe has a larger perspective than simply the seventy some odd years I happen to be alive on the planet. Well, the question behind first Thessalonians is this, if people are dying, what does that mean?
Speaker 1:Was Paul wrong about Christ? Does anyone who died, do they just miss out on Jesus? And what should we do here? And so Paul who has been following along as best he can, he writes a letter. Now Paul is overjoyed to hear that the church is doing well and it's growing despite the fact that they are still being picked on and and persecuted by local officials.
Speaker 1:Next week, we're gonna talk about the balance between joy and pain in our lives. Paul is concerned about the fact that he hears people are coming and they're flattering the Thessalonians telling them how great they are, but then telling them that Paul is not someone worth listening to. They shouldn't trust Paul anymore. We're gonna talk in this series about the balance between people who tell us what we want to hear and the people who tell us what we need to hear. Paul wants to teach these new Christians about living a Christ honoring life, but also being alive in the spirit.
Speaker 1:And so how do we balance doing the right thing with not getting caught up on following rules? That's that's not what Christianity is about. But the overriding agenda for Paul in first Thessalonians is teaching this brand new community of Christians that even though Jesus hasn't appeared yet, they can still trust him. This is what he wants them to know. Even if it's not on their timeline God is still invested in them.
Speaker 1:Christ is still coming to them. And so in first Thessalonians he writes, brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who've fallen asleep in him. In other words, Paul saying, it's okay if people have died, don't panic. They didn't miss out on anything.
Speaker 1:God is bigger than that. The story of salvation is bigger than that. A little later he writes about times and dates. We don't need to write you about this. For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
Speaker 1:The point isn't when Jesus and his kingdom will arrive, it's that. It's trusting that Jesus and his kingdom will come. Now, this is also where we get some of that language about Christ coming in the clouds and people being caught up in his arrival. About two hundred years ago, there was a preacher named John Darby and he put together a framework that we sometimes call the rapture today. This is the idea that when Christ returns, he will literally come from the sky and people will literally flow up in the air to meet him.
Speaker 1:Now, that's one way of approaching these texts, but it is very important to realize that up until the mid eighteen hundreds, no one had thought about it that way. The church had always understood this language figuratively. So for most of church history, the emphasis was not on the floating in the rapture, rapture. It was on the idea of being caught up in the experience or the moment of Christ returning. Either way, the thing is Paul is such a revered figure in this community.
Speaker 1:And his teaching and rhetoric are so powerful when he writes that what happens is not only do the Thessalonians take his word to heart and continue to trust that Christ will come despite the fact they haven't seen him yet. They double down and they double down hard. They actually start quitting their jobs, they stop looking after themselves, they stop bathing. I don't know if that one's true. Some members of the community come completely fixated on just waiting for Christ's return.
Speaker 1:And so they end up becoming a burden on the rest of the community because other people now have to start looking after them because they're not doing their jobs anymore. And so what happens is Paul writes a second letter to Thessalonica. And this time, it's all about telling them, listen, Jesus is coming back but that doesn't mean life is somehow now insignificant. Go back to work. Look after your family.
Speaker 1:Start planning for your retirement. He actually writes, follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you nor did we eat anyone else's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked day and night laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden on you or anyone. He goes on to say, some of you are idle and disruptive.
Speaker 1:You're not busy, you're busy bodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down, eat the food they earn. And as for you brothers and sisters, now these are the ones who've been working really hard to take care of everyone. He says, never tire of what is doing good. Thank you for looking after everyone even if they're a little off course.
Speaker 1:So, here's the issue for a lot of people in these letters. In one letter you have Paul saying, don't lose hope. Christ is coming anytime now like a thief in the night, get ready. And in the second, you have Paul saying, yeah, sure Christ is coming but let's not get crazy about this. I mean life goes on, right?
Speaker 1:And so in the eighteen hundreds when source criticism took off what you had was a lot of scholars looking at this and wondering about even outright declaring these could not have been written by the same person. Maybe Paul wrote the first one and maybe somebody else, maybe one of his disciples wrote the second one from a different perspective. Now, one of the things we have to realize with that line of thought is that pseudo epigraphy and the practice of writing in your teacher's name. This was a very common thing in the ancient world. And so it wouldn't have been seen as a forgery the way we might see that today.
Speaker 1:It was actually a way of honoring where your ideas came from like we would use a footnote almost. And so this conversation doesn't need to be threatening for us as people who have confidence in the bible, but I think there's a much simpler explanation at play here. And that is, what we see in the letters of Thessalonians is exactly what good pastoral work looks like. Because balance is a myth. And I know we've called this series finding balance in Paul's letters to Thessalonica, but here's the beauty of what we're seeing when these two letters are read together.
Speaker 1:It reminds us that life is dynamic and that balance isn't about finding the perfect line that threads the needle between two extremes. Often, balance is really about our ability to lean into something with everything we have and yet still remain open to course correction from people we trust down the line. See the beauty of the scriptures is that they don't exist in a vacuum. These are real people living real lives struggling to make sense of this incredible story they had encountered in Jesus. And if you put yourself in the shoes of the Thessalonians and they hear about Jesus, they hear he's returning then all of a sudden Paul has to leave, they're on their own, they don't have much to go on and so what do they do?
Speaker 1:They throw themselves with everything they have into the one thing they're sure of. And so when Paul sits down to write second Thessalonians, yes, of course he wants to help guide these people back towards something more healthy. Of course he wants to bring a little more balance into the conversation. But I'm not sure I get the sense he was all that disappointed he had to write again. In fact, I imagine he was just at least a little bit proud to see this kind of passion in Thessalonica.
Speaker 1:Because here's the thing, in the grandest story of our lives, most of us don't suffer for having too much passion. What we regret is when we waited too long Or we were too afraid to make a decision. What we regret is when we sat on the fence for too long instead of diving into something. When we get too worried about the cost instead of thinking about the reward of making a choice. And so when I imagine Paul sitting down to write second Thessalonians, I imagine him thinking, you know, I would rather mold passion than fight indifference any day.
Speaker 1:And when we talk about balancing our lives, we're not talking about making sure that everything is even and safe and well mannered and predictable. That's not balanced. That's boring. We're talking about full, vibrant, passionate lives that lean into something but are open to course correction and feedback when it comes to us. Trust me.
Speaker 1:You don't want to give 50% of yourself to your work and then 50% of yourself to your family because nobody is going to be excited about that. And the people around you and the people invested in you, they deserve more than that. Here's the thing, so do you. You deserve to be 100% passionate about something right now in this moment. But to do that well and to be that passionate about something in a really healthy way, it takes incredible self awareness.
Speaker 1:Now, your issue may not be quitting your job to prepare for the imminent return of Christ. Hopefully, no one here is doing that. If you have, it's a good time. Pull out your phone, text your boss, just kidding, smiley face emoji. You and I, we have the benefit of being on the far side of a lot of history.
Speaker 1:And that allows us to see at least that one with more clarity than the Thessalonians could. But what I love about the interaction of these two letters is that it shows us what passionate all in spirituality looks like when it's paired with the self awareness to invite and then listen to trusted mentors in our lives. Now, in this series, we're gonna look at this idea of balance in a few different ways, in a couple of different areas of our lives. But the underlying premise is going to be that balance is not about finding the perfect line down the middle. It's actually about leaning in, then listening and learning, and then inviting course correction when necessary just like we see in these letters to Thessalonica.
Speaker 1:Because what we're seeing in this contrast between these letters is not the problem. It's the normative way that humans learn. So before we end today, I wanna leave you with a couple practical things that you can keep in the back of your mind as we begin to move through these new conversations. First of all, multitasking is not your friend. Now, part of what I love about Thessalonians is that when they're in, they are in.
Speaker 1:And there's a lot of research that backs this up and tells us that as human beings we actually can't multitask. What we're pretty good at is switching back and forth between two things. But our brains actually can't do two things at once. And so what happens is when you try, your brain keeps moving back and forth and it feels like you're multitasking but what's actually happening is you're burning mental energy with every flip flop. So part of finding a healthy balance I think is actually thinking more in terms of rhythms in life.
Speaker 1:When you pray, pray. When you work, work. When you play, play. And don't try to even those things out and do them all at the same time as much as know what you're doing and then do it fully. Which brings me to a second point, make sure you've defined your boundaries.
Speaker 1:Now, we talked about boundaries last week and that was in the context of forgiveness and relationships, but they are just as important here. Because if you want to be passionate about your spirituality, then you need to intentionally create space for that and then you need to protect it. Now, if you wanna be passionate about your family, but you keep letting work encroach a little bit farther and farther into the evening, then you will find yourself with a problem. And trust me, I am talking to myself on that one too. At the same time, maybe you are studying a business or you've just jumped into a new role and you know it is gonna take a lot of effort to make this work.
Speaker 1:That's okay. You need to be able to adjust your boundaries based on the season of life that you find yourself in. But if you don't consciously choose to create those boundaries for yourself, you will find yourself constantly getting run over by commitments you didn't choose for yourself. And the things that you want to be passionate about will end up getting pushed aside for things that someone else wants you to be passionate about. And so part of being all in and passionate is saying, this is my space and I'm gonna protect that.
Speaker 1:But this is also why finally, and perhaps most clearly what we see in Thessalonians, is that passion needs to be paired with a very conscious effort to look for people that we trust to give us feedback. Now, passion is one of the most powerful incredible things that God has given you. It's what makes getting up in the morning worth it. It's what will help you push through the really difficult moments to reach your goals. Our passion is what will move you from just existing to actually participating in the story of God.
Speaker 1:But passion can also be this incredibly intoxicating thing. And sometimes, like the Thessalonians, once we get rolling with something we tend to lose sight of everything else. Now, goal is not to be less passionate or to wear our interesting edges off. The goal isn't to be normal. Now that's not a balance that will serve you well but every single one of us what we need is a Paul in our life who's earned the right to say, listen I love your passion but can we talk about where it's pointed right now?
Speaker 1:You see, when you develop the self awareness to know what you're passionate about, but then to invite and hear and listen to feedback from people you trust the way the Thessalonians do, what you find is that passion and balance are not at the opposite edges of the room. They're actually these incredible dance partners for us. And so my advice from Thessalonica to you is to lean into what's in front of you with everything that you have. Be passionate about that, 100% present but be ready to course correct when you need to. Because really, that's what life giving balance is about.
Speaker 1:It's not finding an even steadiness across our life. It's about allowing ourselves to be passionate about this for a time, this for a time, this for a time, and choosing rhythms that are healthy for us. Let's pray. God, help us as we begin this conversation That he is quite abstracted from the context of Thessalonians. And we don't struggle with the same things that they did and yet at the same time, we find ourselves in this dilemma all the time.
Speaker 1:What are we passionate about? What will we lean into with everything that we have? But then, who are the people who can speak and correct and guide us back when we've lost sight of the larger picture? And God help us to be present to our work when we're there. And passionate and excited about what we're doing.
Speaker 1:But then to be present and excited about our families and our friends and our relationships when we're there. And to know that we can actually be 100% present in our marriage, with our kids, at our work, but that takes work and it takes commitment and it takes people that speak into our lives when we get off course. And so God, rather than see at the disconnect in these letters, would you help us to begin to see how it works together and how you bring people into our lives who will help us do the same things. God may we find a balance not that smooths off our rough edges and makes us uninteresting, but allows us to be passionate in the moment wherever we are. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen.