Everyone, it's a thrill to serve alongside some of our youth. They came eager and desiring to serve and it's neat to see them involved in that way. That's great. Maybe turn me down just a hair. I feel a little boomy here. This evening, if you come to the AGM, feel don't feel like we are stopping you from bringing snacks. Okay, I'm just throwing that out there. Like, you won't be barred at the door if you bring something with chocolate. So, that would be great. Also, this is the last week of our Thessalonians series.
We finish the book of Thessalonians of the book of 2 Thessalonians here this morning. We start a new series, a summer series, next Sunday, which is baptism Sunday. We're excited for that. And so, the new series comes out of the last verse of 1 Corinthians 13, which speaks about faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. Well, what we're going to do over the summer is we're going to take June to look at what faith is. We're going to take July to look at what hope is.
And we're going to take August to look at what biblical love is. So, that will be our summer series springing out of 1 Corinthians 13. So, that starts next Sunday and we're looking forward to that. But, we're going to finish off 2 Thessalonians. So, if you have a Bible, that's where we're going to be in chapter 3 today. I don't know if you've heard the story of the old mountaineer and his wife. They were sitting in front of a fireplace. There was a day much like today. They'd been sitting there for hours whiling away the time and it was it sounded like it was raining outside.
And so, the wife says to her mountaineer husband, "Jed, I think it's raining. Would you go up and look outside to make sure that's true?" Jed sits there in his rocking chair, takes some time, looks into the fire, and he sighs. He says, "Mama, why don't we just call the dog in and see if it's wet?" That's called being idle. He didn't want to leave his spot. How many of us have felt that at times?
And and there's a time for us to have rest. That's that's a good thing, but rest and being idle biblically are two different things. And the scriptures speak about idleness as a a non-commendable thing. It actually dishonors God, according to the scriptures. And so, we're going to look at that here today, starting in verse six, and I want to read through to the end of the book. So, here's what it says. "Now, we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness, and not in accord with the tradition that you have received from us.
For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle with when we were with you. Nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor, we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you are walking in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.
Now, such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. Now, may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and every way. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.
This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine. It is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Paul signs off his letter with I think I have a word as context of the next slide. Really, I'm just want to look at the conclusion before we get into the meat of what we're going to look at today. In these concluding verses here, verses 16 to 18, Paul gives his typical ending where he he gives a benediction there in verse 16. Really, 16 and 18 are both benedictory in in nature where he's giving to them a desire of his heart.
May the Lord of peace be with you and give you peace at all times. May he May he walk with you. May the grace of Christ be with you. That's a typical Pauline thing, but sandwiched in between that, we have Paul saying, "I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, which is the sign of the genuineness in every letter of mine. It is the way I write." That's an odd statement, isn't it? Almost certainly, Paul has had a scribe for these letters. And and so the scribes probably either Silas or Timothy.
They're probably writing the the letter, those two men that were with him. And now though at the very end, he writes this last part with his own hand. And that's why That's how they can validate that this wasn't someone knocking off the Apostle Paul, but no, it's actually the Apostle Paul himself that's penning this letter. That's That's giving the the meat of this letter. How would they know that? Because Paul had a very unique way of writing. If you go to Galatians chapter 6, it's an interesting little statement he makes here in verse 11.
Galatians 6:11, Paul says, "See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand." It's It's understood that Paul had extremely poor eyesight. And so, it's likely that when he was writing, he had to write unusually large so that he could see what he was writing. And so, probably what's happening here at the end of this letter, you have it So, if if you ever ever Is anyone ever seen Pastor Bryce's handwriting? Like it's beautiful. It It's very girly.
It's tremendous. Then have you seen my handwriting? It's awful. It's very manly. It's terrible. So Well, there is that. But so, it'd be like Pastor Bryce wrote the whole thing and then my scribbles at the end. You go, "Yeah, well, Matt was behind that cuz look at that. That's awful." And that's kind of what's going on here. He said, "I I'm signing off on this so you know this is coming from the Apostle Paul."
So, that's that's how he ends the letter. But before he ends the letter, he we have this section from 6 to 15, this warning that he gives to conclude this letter to this church that he loves. Remember, we we've walked through 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. He has a a warm affection for these saints. And that's probably why this comes up. Because if you love someone, if you see something going wrong in their life, you're going to warn them. That's a sign of love. So, here's Paul giving them in love a stern warning.
And it has to do with idleness. So, it really as I was reading through and studying this text, there are some some questions that came out of the text that I thought we need to answer. And then the text does answer for us. The The question is this, what is idleness? Now, I'm using the English Standard Version, the ESV. It is one of the few versions that uses that word. If you are here with a Legacy Standard Bible, LSB, if you're here with the New American Standard Bible, NASB, you will not see that word.
The LSB uses terms like unruly manner. The New American Standard uses undisciplined life. It's the ESV almost exclusively that uses the term idleness. What is this word? The Greek word, when you drill down at the Greek word here, it's actually a military term. It speaks to a disorderly retreat. To withdraw from necessary engagement. So, think of Have you ever seen videos of soldiers when they're marching?
They're in lockstep with each other, right? Everything is pristine, it's perfect. Now, imagine one of the soldiers marching in a different way, out of order, out of line. That's what's being conveyed here. Or imagine, if you will, a soldier who's been commissioned to sit on the rooftop as a sniper, to look through his scope to ensure safe passage for his fellow men down below, and he his his job all day is the order he's been given, look through your scope to ensure there's no counter snipers on the other side, and to ensure that your men can pass by safely.
And imagine that man on the rooftop after a time saying, you know, man, whether it's the heat or maybe it's boredom, whatever, I'm just going to turn around and have a sandwich. I'm going to disengage. Well, that could have perilous results. That's the term that being used here is is speaking to that. Pu- pulling back from what God's called you to do. Disengaging. This is an unruly life. It's an undisciplined life that leads to this idleness that's spoken of in the passage.
Hence why the ESV uses that phrase. Now, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, I think it's actually in in your bulletin there's a verse in your bulletin that comes from 2 Timothy 2, but here I'll just read it for you from 2 Timothy 2:3 and 4 it says this, "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." And so here essentially what's happening is there are those obviously in Thessalonica if if you want to use the soldier analogy that are not pleasing the one who enlisted them.
They're living in a contrary manner. It is to shirk your God-given responsibility to live wholly unto the Lord. There is an undisciplined heart that belies this. There is It can lead to an entitlement attitude. It is to be altogether slothful. And that comes through in this text, doesn't it? There is There is a a laziness that comes from an undisciplined unordered life. Depending on everyone else to do the work that God called me to do.
I'll just I'll just shirk my responsibilities and instead I'll mooch off of everyone else. That's coming through in the text here. Idleness belies a disorderly heart. And this this person, the the idle-hearted person, does not feel motivated to work hard as unto the Lord. And and especially when the pressure comes, when it gets hard.
Did you know that stats show that approximately 87% of Americans own running shoes but don't run? That's a picture of what's happening here. God has given them every tool necessary to run the race he's called them to run, but they're not running it. They're living idle. Now clearly this has been a an issue in this church for a time because Paul even addressed it a little bit.
He hinted at it in the first letter he gave to them. In 1 Thessalonians 5:14 he says, "We urge you brothers, admonish the idle." Same Greek word used here. Admonish them. Spur them on. And now he's talking to them more directly and more thoroughly. Clearly those folks were in his midst. So what is idleness? This is what it is. This disorderly, undisciplined, slothful life. Disengaged from what God has called the believer to do.
And so he's concerned about that here in Thessalonica. So then the logical follow-up question is, "What is it then that idleness can lead to?" Well, it can lead to all kinds of things. And notice what he says here in verse six. He's He's calling them to observe those who are walking in idleness. That's the phrase there, walking. That is this habitual way of life. That doesn't That's not referring to taking rest from time to time. That's different.
Pastor Joe and has taken a week of holidays this past week. That's good. Good to be resting. Now in his holidays he had his wisdom teeth removed. So I I know how restful that ultimately will have been, but technically he took a week of rest. There's a There's biblical merit for us resting, taking a day of rest each week, taking a time a season to rest, absolutely. But this is talking about walking in idleness. The habitual, regular, ongoing characterization of your entire life.
And so they're to observe them. And And here we have a couple of consequences that come out of idleness. One of them is burden. Look at verses 7 and 8. You yourselves know how you ought to imitate us. So Paul is saying, Paul, Silas, and Timothy when they were there they gave them an example to follow. And one of those examples is, we were not idle when we were with you. And then he goes on to say this, nor in verse 8, did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day that we may not be a burden to any of you.
Implication, those who are idle place burden on the family of God. Now, I want to be clear here. There is obviously a time when the church family in their generosity coming out of the grace of God comes alongside that person who's lost their job and they care for them in that season. Someone's in the hospital, they can't make their bills, they can't be The church should come alongside and help. Yes, this should be This should characterize a godly church where we're generous, we're caring for one another in those ways.
But this is talking about that one who's idle. This one who has no desire to serve, to to be involved in in the world in terms of providing for their family. They're They're drawing resources for no other reason than they just don't want to engage themselves. And they become a burden and can become quickly a burden on the church family. Not just in the financial way or in the resource way, but even spiritually speaking.
Go with me if you will to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians 12 starting at verse 12. Here's what we read. For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I'm not a hand and I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? And if the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members of the in in the body, each of them as he chose.
If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. We have all the different parts that are needed assembled here. Everything we need as a church family, God has wonderfully provided in you. But when one says, "I'm not going to engage," "I'm not going to put myself into the work of the Lord as he's called me to, I'm going to pull back. Now, the rest of the body has to has to make up for that.
And it can become a a load and a burden on the church, whereas the whole body is meant to engage in the work. We've all experienced that, right? So, if you've ever had an injury, you know what I'm talking about. I was in my first year at Bible College. I'll just wait. The church bells are ringing. That's awesome. Okay.
I was in my All right. I was in my first year Bible College and I was playing indoor soccer. Now, hot take, even though we're coming up to the World Cup, indoor soccer's so much better. Because it's so much faster. Everything is quick. It's a small court, and bang bang bang, everything's happening fast. Anyways, I was playing indoor soccer. I was playing defense, and I wrecked my knee, tore a bunch of ligaments and what tendons in my knee. It was a bad scene.
So, I had to go for arthroscopic surgery, but there was a long stretch before I went for the surgery and after. And your body begins to compensate, doesn't it? And so, your whole body My whole body was tired, and other parts of my body were sore. It was a difficult difficult thing to compensate. And anyone who's had an injury, you know exactly what I'm talking about. When one part of the body isn't doing the work it's supposed to do, the rest of the body feels it. And there's no doubt about it. When there is an idle one in our midst, not doing the work that God's called them to do, the rest of the body feels it.
And so, there's a burden that's placed. Not only that, though, idleness produces a busybody kind of thinking. Look if you will at verse 11. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness. Not busy at work, but busy bodies. That's a fascinating little phrase. A busybody is a meddler. They interject themselves in the affairs of others. In fact, in that passage that Eva read for us earlier from 1 Peter 4, we ought not be ever a meddler.
A busybody is not honoring to God. How many of you love, by show of hands, receiving unsolicited advice? Isn't that just a joy? Right, that's part of that busybody heart where we inject ourselves into the lives of others. Why? Because we got nothing going on ourselves. We're not concerning ourselves with what God's called me to do. Rather, so to make myself feel some measure of importance, I'm going to inject myself into other people's lives.
Because I am still looking for meaning. I am still looking for purpose, but I am not engaging with God's called me to, so I will find my meaning and I'll find my purpose in other people's lives. By injecting myself there. And it shows that this person has slothfully drifted away from the master's plans and purposes in their life. And it does nothing but harm the body of Christ. A busy busybodies are terrible for for unity. They're very divisive.
And so he's concerned about that in this church that he loves. He says, "We have heard verse 11, that there are some who are walking in this way." They're not idle here and there. They're walking in idleness. This is the habitual regular pattern of their life. And this is not good. So, that's what idleness is. It's some of the consequences that come out of idleness. How do we combat it? How do we combat idleness? While inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul gives a difficult teaching here.
Look at verse 6 and 14. Now, we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness. Verse 14. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. That's That's hard. There's a sense here of disfellowshipping that is being talked about.
For the purpose, Lord willing, of awakening the sleeper. We see the similar language in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians 5 is a very difficult chapter. There Paul is confronting a horrific situation where a young man has been adulterous with his stepmother. And the whole church appears to know about it, and no one's done anything about it. They've just condoned it, essentially. And so, he confronts that in 1 Corinthians 5, and he talks about this person as a so-called brother.
Anyone can call himself a Christian. Anyone. Anyone Adolf Hitler could walk in here and call himself a Christian. Doesn't mean he is. The proof's in the pudding. You'll know it by the life. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, listen to what he says here in verses 4 and 5. This is what they should do. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of the Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Implying he's not saved right now.
He's And later on he calls him a so-called brother, but turn him over that by God's grace he might be awoken and realize the folly of his ways and turn to the Lord. And we have a similar language here. If you look at back in our Oops, back in our our text here in verse 14 there have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed. That's not so that we can we we don't want him to live in shame, but that rather his shame over his sin would lead to repentance and a turning to the Lord.
That's what's being conveyed here. This is important for us to understand. That person who's habitual life is to thumb their nose at what God has for them, come to church and milk off of the church, but really want nothing to do with serving God, living for his glory. That person needs to be disciplined. Now, Thessalonians is if you've been with us through the series, you will know that the book of First and Second Thessalonians were written prior to the Gospels.
Isn't that interesting? Now, obviously what Jesus did that's recorded for us in the Gospels happened before Thessalonians, but the actual writing of the Gospel accounts happened after First Thessalonians was already and and Second Thessalonians was in circulation. So, they didn't have access yet to Matthew 18. But we do. And this consistency here, which shows again how God is the author weaving all these things together. In Matthew 18 it says this, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have gained your brother." Praise God for that. And I would I would advocate we as elders would advocate in in that in that situation if if a brother finds out of of a sin of another and and that sin needs to be addressed, that that should be a not a one-time thing. There's an ongoing pleading that happens. This is This is a long-haul kind of thing where we're in love saying, "Hey, brother, you're in sin. Here's what the word says. Let me help you repent and turn from that." And we we do this over and over.
We go to them in love. But should they remain hardened of heart? But by the way, if they repent, praise God it says you've gained your brother. That's an awesome thing when someone repents and sees their sin and turns and asks for the forgiveness of the Lord, which is available in Christ. But what they don't, if he does not listen, verse 16, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. So now, this brother is remaining hardened in their sin. Well, I'm going to bring a couple of witnesses along so they can A, validate that what that that that the sin being talked about is in fact going on and Lord willing to give a little extra weight to this person to help them understand, "Boy, there This is a serious thing."
And should they repent, praise God we've gained our brother or our sister. But if they remain hardened of heart even after that, even after that pleading that goes on over time, verse 17, "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church." There's different ways to look at that. Some would say that take that to the church of leadership as representative of the church. Some would take that directly to the membership of the church as a whole. However, we understand that, take it to the church. If he refuses listen to listen even to the church, what?
Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. There's a disfellowshipping that happens here. For their good. Lord willing, this will awaken them. But we understand at this point now that the text is saying Jesus is saying at this point, if they remain that hardened to their sin and unrepentant through this whole process, we can rightly assume that they're not saved. And that's when he goes on to say, "Truly, I say to you." Verse 18, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
So, that is to say, God is observing this. And again, I say to you, "If two or three agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them for my by my father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." Remember, this verse has nothing to do with a prayer meeting. That verse is gives one of the most misapplied verses. This is about church discipline. And so, here we have spiritual leadership making a judgment that God is observing.
And the judgment in that case in Matthew 18, if that brother remains hardened all the way through, is that he is not saved and the father sees that and recognizes that. And their life is showing that. And so, all of this to say, this person who's idle, who's living a disorderly, unruly, undisciplined life, walking out of step with what God would have them walk, that person must be disciplined for their good. Discipline's always for good. We should always try to discipline for good.
And remember, it says here in verse 15, do not don't regard him as an enemy, warn him as a brother. Now, if he remains hardened of heart, hardened of heart, hardened of heart after warning him as a as a brother, as what you assume is a brother, there may come a point like Matthew 18 speaks of, where we may have to understand them that they're not a brother. But at this point here, warn him as a brother. We should go to great lengths to awaken that heart that's sleeping. In love, we should go to our erring brother and sister and seek with them to turn to the Lord and his goodness, turn to the mercy and forgiveness that's available in Christ Jesus, and return to a holy life.
This is This is incumbent upon us. But praise be to God, when we talk about combating idleness, we're not doing it on our own. The Lord Jesus combated all sin at the cross. And that's important for us to always remember. Rome was celebrating a victory over Alaric the Goth. I'm not I'm probably not I'm pronouncing his name right. But they did it in an unusual manner. They went to the Colosseum to watch gladiators fight to the death.
This is how they celebrated victory. Well, as these two gladiators were in the in the ring that day, kind of a shabby clad individual jumped over the the edge into the ring and ran toward them. His name is Telemachus. Telemachus was part of a hermit group that lived almost like a like monks. They lived very holy lives. And they were known throughout the area as living holy lives, and while no one really paid them much attention, everyone generally respected them.
And Telemachus from this group came and grabbed one of the gladiators by the shoulder and he said, "Stop shedding blood." In fact, I want to I want to quote him directly. "Do not repay God's mercy in turning away the swords of your enemies by murdering each other." To which the the crowd apparently said, "There's This is no place for preaching. On with the combat." And so they pushed Telemachus aside, but he was passionate about this that they ought not kill each other. And so he tried to interject himself again and the gladiators in their anger at him trying to stop them took their swords and they both ran him through.
And they killed him. And a hush came over the crowd. And that ended the day. And they slowly filed out and from what we understand, that was the last match to ever happen at the Coliseum. His bloodshed was not in vain. It ended the conflict in a far far greater way. Christ entered the arena and by his bloodshed destroyed the enemy.
He ended the war. The power of sin in the believer is no longer there. The penalty of sin for the believer is no longer there. The presence of sin still remains, but that one day when the Lord returns, even the presence of sin will be gone. So for that one who is a believer, if we bring about discipline because of their eye and life, they will show themselves to be a believer in that they will repent. Because they are now powered not by sin anymore, they are powered by the spirit of God because of what Christ has done.
And the proof that they are truly in Christ, that they are our brother, is that they will repent when confronted. This is what we ought to do. This is the heart of our Lord Jesus. It's the the heart of the Apostle Paul. And friends, I would just say to us, for those of us who are here as believers, let us never drift into idleness. Let us be a Bible people. A 66-book people. That we understand this and that we go, "Man, there's some hard things in here, but God calls me to walk in this.
He calls me to walk in holiness, and he's given his whole He's given his life for me to live in victory. I can By his enabling power, I can do this because he is empowering me. I can live holy because he is holy. I can live set apart because he is set apart. His Spirit abides in me. I can live this way by his enabling power. Let us not drift into idleness. And if you're here today and this talk of idleness has pricked your heart and you would say, "That That actually describes me."
Then I would say to you, this day you can repent this day and know the forgiveness of God. This is the amazing grace of God that when we sin, he is he stands ready to forgive. He loves to forgive. And so, if you're a brother or a sister who's been living in this way, battling and and waging war against what God would have you do, and walking out of step with him, repent this day and know his forgiveness and know that you can walk in full assurance of faith again. That's my prayer for you.
So, let me pray and then we'll sing to close. Father, we we thank you for your word. We thank you that you give us these instructions that we might not live lives of sin and and live unholy and undisciplined, but rather that you give us what we need for all life and for godliness. And so, Father, I pray that that would be the pursuit in the aim of our heart, that we would live in that way. Help us, Lord, those who are in Christ, that we would not drift away into idleness as this text speaks of but rather that we would live lives that please you.
That honor you, that glorify and exalt you. And if there be those here who are perhaps walking in that. Father, we pray that they would know the amazing grace of our God. That they would walk in step with your spirit again. That they would repent and turn and know his forgiveness. And so Father, we entrust ourselves to your care as we go from this place in Jesus' name. Amen.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
