Thessalonians Audio Teaching Series
Part 4
Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
Thessalonians: Session 4
Chapters 1-3 of 1 Thessalonians are more doctrinal or teaching. Chapters 3–5 are more practical instruction and practical application. There are three main subjects we are going to cover in this session.
| Sanctification | 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8 |
| Living the quiet life | 1 Thessalonians 4:9–12 |
| The gathering together | 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 |
1 Thessalonians 4:1–2 APNT:
1 Therefore, my brothers, we beg you and we entreat you in our Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you would increasingly do more.
2 For you know those commandments we gave to you in our Lord Jesus.
From the word “therefore” (New King James Version says “finally”), we get the idea that the rest of the letter will be practical instruction. It means something like, “As for the rest of the letter….” The New International Reader’s Version (NIrV) says, “Now I want to talk about some other matters, brothers and sisters….”
Earlier, Paul taught them how to please God (walk in believing, love, and hope). Trusting God in the midst of the idolatry around them. Turning from idols to serve the living God. He starts this verse by saying do it more.
Verse 2 is like military orders.
1 Thessalonians 4:3–6 APNT:
3 For this is the will of God, your holiness [sanctification], and that you should stay away from all fornication,
4 and [that] each one of you would know [how] to possess his vessel in holiness and in honor
5 and not with the passions of desire, as the rest of the Gentiles who do not know God.
6 And no one should dare to transgress against and oppress his brother in this matter, because our Lord is the avenger concerning all these [things], even as also we previously said and testified to you.
Sanctification
Sanctification is one of those words that can be hard to understand. When you read sanctification or to be holy, you can think, “to be set apart.”
Remember when Moses went up to the burning bush, and God told him to take off his sandals because the place where he stood was holy ground? It was just a piece of dirt on the mountain. What made it holy was God’s presence. God was there, and that is what made it holy.
God’s presence is in you! God placed Holy Spirit in us. We are holy (set apart) because God’s presence is in us. Wherever we go is holy because God is there. That is why we should abstain from any kind of sexual immorality. Our bodies should be set apart for God’s use. Because we are set apart (holy), we shouldn’t adopt the practices and customs of the world.
The Thessalonians were part of the Greek and Roman culture. Much like our culture today, there was pressure to conform.
The hardcover APNT shows the figure of speech hypocatastasis in verse 4. Hypocatastatis is a comparison by implication. The thing represented is used to show what is in it. For example, instead of saying a person’s life, you say a vessel. The vessel, our bodies, should magnify the good stuff on the inside. We hold Christ in our physical bodies, so we don’t want to do anything that would degrade God.
In verse 5, the second noun modifies the first, and it could be rendered as “passionate desire.” It’s talking about the kinds of lust that powerfully control or influence you.
Remember the utensils in the temple? The ash shovels, the cups, and so on. By themselves, they were nothing special. But because they were set apart for use in the temple, they were holy. Our physical bodies are like that. We are the temple of God, where His presence resides.
1 Corinthians 6:9–12 APNT:
9 Or do you not know that wicked [ones] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not err. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor corrupt [ones] nor homosexuals
10 nor wrong-doers nor thieves nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners, these will not inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And these [things] have been in some of you, but you are washed and you are made holy and you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
12 Everything is lawful to me, but everything is not profitable to me. Everything is lawful to me, but no one will have authority over me.
In verse 10, those things will not receive rewards. At the bema those actions will be burned up. Verse 11 tells those who have done such things in the past, they have been washed, made holy, and justified.
- Washed: your sins are forgiven, and you are cleansed. Now you are clean.
- Made holy: sanctified, set apart, dedicated to God’s service.
- Justified: Made free from blame (ongoing results).
Washed, sanctified, and justified work together closely.
Living the quiet life
1 Thessalonians 4:9–10 APNT:
9 Now concerning love of the brothers, you do not need me to write to you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
10 So also, you are serving all the brothers who are in all of Macedonia. But I beg you, my brothers, that you should increase in [love]
The bracket around love at the end of verse 10 is because of the figure of speech ellipses. It emphasizes what belongs in the ellipses: love.
1 Thessalonians 4:11–12 APNT:
11 and be diligent to be quiet and to be occupied with your business. And work with your hands as we commanded you,
12 so that you would walk in a proper manner toward outsiders and you should not be dependent on anyone.
Being quiet and diligent is actually part of living in love. If we are focused on what Father has for us to do, and we go about it with dedication and diligence, not worrying about what others are doing, then we’ll be blessing our brothers and sisters. When we are quiet enough to hear what God has for us, we will be continually taking care of others with love.
Quiet doesn’t mean being lazy and doing nothing. We go about our business doing what God has for us to do. And we keep on doing that.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 APNT:
But I want you to know [King James “I would not have you to be ignorant”], my brothers, that you should not have sorrow concerning those who are asleep, even as others who have no hope.
There are seven verses that use some variation of the phrase “I would not have you to be ignorant.” What are the topics that God does not want us to be ignorant about? While the King James Version uses “I would not have you to be ignorant,” the Aramaic translation reads “I want you to know,” which means the same thing.
Seven things that God does not want us ignorant of:
1. Preaching the gospel yields fruit:
Romans 1:13 APNT:
Now I want you to know, my brothers, that many times I wanted to come to you (yet I was hindered until now) that I would also have fruit among you, as among the rest of the Gentiles,
2. The mystery of the blindness of Israel (not the great mystery):
Romans 11:25 APNT:
For I want you to know this mystery, my brothers, so that you will not be wise in your own mind, that blindness of the heart in parthas happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in.
3. What happened to Israel in the Exodus pointed to Jesus Christ:
1 Corinthians 10:1–4 APNT:
1 But I want you to know, my brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea
2 and all were baptized by way of Moses in the cloud and in the sea
3 and all ate of the same food of the Spirit
4 and all drank of the same drink of the Spirit, for they were drinking from the rock of the Spirit that came with them and that rock was Christ.
4. Spiritual matters, things of the Spirit:
1 Corinthians 12:1 APNT:
Now about spiritual [things], my brothers, I want you to know that you were heathens and were led to idols that have no distinct voice.
5. If you want to live for God, there will be pressures:
2 Corinthians 1:8 APNT:
Now we want you to know, our brothers, about the pressure that we had in Asia. We were greatly pressured beyond our strength, to the point that our lives were about to end.
6. What happens to those who have died:
1 Thessalonians 4:13 APNT:
But I want you to know, my brothers, that you should not have sorrow concerning those who are asleep, even as others who have no hope.
7. God has patience because he wants everyone possible to believe:
2 Peter 3:8–9 APNT:
8 Now this one [thing] do not forget, my beloved [ones], that one day to the lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
9 The lord does not delay in his promises as men consider delay, but he is long-suffering because of you, in that he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but rather [that] everyone should come to repentance.
What happens to those who have died?
What is death, and how should we think about it?
1 Thessalonians 4:13 APNT:
But I want you to know, my brothers, that you should not have sorrow concerning those who are asleep, even as others who have no hope.
The phrase “those who are asleep” is a figure of speech (euphamism) referring to those who have died. It’s like using something softer to refer to a painful idea.
The Greek word translated “sleep” is koimōmenōn (lemma koimaō) and a related word was used to refer to a cemetery. It is unintentional “sleep.”
A person who has died knows nothing. It’s not painful for that person, but is painful for those who are left.
Ecclesiastes 9:3–6 KJV:
3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
The dead can no longer do anything; they have no potential to serve God, no potential for rewards, and they don’t know anything. The New Living Translation says, “Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NLT).
The sorrow comes to those who are left (still alive).
In the Greek culture, there was a huge production of wailing and cutting themselves to show their sorrow. Believers, instead, should have hope.
Believers should not adopt the attitude that they should eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow they die. Nor should they descend into spiritualism (reincarnation, seances, etc.).
Death is like (unintentional) sleep; while sleeping, you know nothing. The next thing you will know is when Jesus Christ returns. Death is not something to fear or to scream about (like the ancient Greeks did).
1 Thessalonians 4:14 APNT:
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so also God will bring with him, by Jesus, those who are asleep.
You could think of this as, “Since we believe….” Because we believe in the resurrection, we know that they (and we) will be resurrected too. God gave us Holy Spirit as a guarantee of that future inheritance—we will have a new, resurrected body.
Death is not a blessing; it is an enemy. Since we know that Christ was resurrected, we know that we will be resurrected too.
The phrase “so also” (King James says “even so”) means “in the same manner!”
What will happen after we die? Wherever the head (Christ) is, there will the body be. Most Christians believe that when you die you go straight to heaven. Why would Christ have to resurrect people back to life if they are already up there? Why would they need a new body if there were doing fine without one?
The Word is so simple and beautiful. The dead are dead, asleep, and when Christ comes back, the dead will be raised from the dead, and we who are still alive will be caught up together with them.
Is it better to be alive or dead when Christ returns?
1 Thessalonians 4:15 APNT:
Now this we say to you, by the word of our Lord, that we who remain at the coming of our Lord who are living will not overtake those who are asleep,
People were thinking they had to last (stay alive) until Christ returned. But verse 16 tells us that the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 APNT:
because our Lord, with a command and with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven and the dead who are in Christ will rise up first.
The dead have an advantage (but no longer than the twinkling of an eye): the dead rise first, and then we who remain alive will be caught up with them.
1 Thessalonians 4:17 APNT:
And then we who remain who are living will be caught up with them as one in the clouds for the meeting of our Lord in the air and so we will always be with our Lord.
There are three things mentioned here: the shout, the voice, and the trumpet.
Shout, Greek keleusma, is like an oarsman on a ship commanding rowers or a military commander giving orders to charge. The shout is like an alarm clock.
Voice, the voice of the archangel (Michael).
The Trumpet is not the same trumpet as in the Book of Revelation. The mystery of the one body was hidden in God from before the foundation of the world: it’s not in the Old Testament (past), it’s not in the Book of Revelation (future), it’s not in the gospel. Trumpets in any of those places do not have to do with the body of Christ.
Here in 1 Thessalonians and in 1 Corinthians 15, is talking about the trumpet that calls the dead in Christ to wake up and us to be gathered together.
The word “caught up” comes from the Greek word harpazō. The Latin word is raptura, from which we get the English word “rapture.”
Three definitions of “caught up” (from harpazō):
- Carry off by force, or snatch.
- Rescue from the danger of destruction.
- To claim for oneself eagerly (God will claim the body that belongs to Christ, for Himself).
Caught up in the clouds means caught up in the air. What else do we know about the air? Whose domain is the air? The prince of the power of the air is Satan. The Lord comes down to the air into Satan’s dominion, and we are caught up with him, straight through Satan’s domain with our new bodies.
Verse 17 then says, “for the meeting.” We previously talked about the cultural practice of meeting an important person outside of the city and then escorting him back to the city. But there’s another aspect. Jesus Christ is the bridegroom. The church is the body of Christ, so the church is part of the bridegroom. When we come back with Him to the earth, that is when He has His marriage to Israel. In that culture, people would go out and meet the bridegroom and then escort the bridegroom to the bride.
1 Thessalonians 4:18 APNT:
Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
It wouldn’t be comforting if we had to go through the tribulation and wrath. Love one another more and live a quiet life; we don’t have to sorrow like others who have no hope. We will have new bodies and be forever with the Lord. That is comfort that we can hold onto for a lifetime.
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