The sermon this evening comes from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 9 through 12. This is found on page 879 of your pre-Bibles. Begin in verse 1 for context. Hear now the word of God. He will learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know God, and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. Now about brotherly love, we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. The word of God thus far. Congregation of Christ and friends. You may remember an edition of a Bible that came out years ago, the cover of which said, Blueprint for Revolution. This cover, as well as other literature that expresses a certain theology, suggests that the Christian life is an exciting adventure, that the Christian life is extraordinary and special. Now, this idea stems in part from the belief that Jesus himself was a revolutionary. After all, he did knock over tables and he told the Pharisees off, as the idea goes. But the idea of Jesus as a revolutionary and the Christian life as some sort of extraordinary special thing is wrong. Jesus was not a revolutionary. He was a suffering servant. and he was submissive to his Father in heaven. Christians, in solidarity with Christ, are also called to suffer and be submissive to their Father in heaven. In short, Christians are called to live ordinary lives, as Christ was called to live an ordinary life. Now, what does this mean, and why is the word ordinary an apt description of the Christian life? Well, the unusual circumstances under which the church in Thessalonica was started provides an answer and provides an example for us adventure-seeking folks to follow. First, then, we'll observe the circumstances under which the church in Thessalonica was started. Second, we'll see what Paul says to do in order to maintain community under such circumstances. And third, we'll understand the theological basis compelling us to stay true to our callings. So first of all, how the community was formed, the circumstances of the church. Well, according to Acts chapter 17, Paul and Silas came to the Jewish synagogue, as was their custom, in Thessalonica, which is this bustling seaport town in Macedonia. Paul preached about the work of Christ, and some of the Jews were persuaded to believe, and many of the Greeks were persuaded. There were many Jews, however, that didn't like Paul's preaching at all. These Jews caused a riot in the city. They also dragged one of the followers of Christ, who's called Jason, and some of his friends before the city authorities and said, these guys are turning the world upside down. Things got out of hand so badly that Paul and Silas had to leave Thessalonica and go to Berea, where Jews were called more noble. Paul and Silas, however, left faithful Christians in Thessalonica who constituted a church. Paul commends them at the beginning of his first letter to them when he says, You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit. Their affliction, specifically, was the threat of persecution from the Jews who found the cross to be a stumbling block. Now, there was another kind of affliction which constituted a threat to their community from the pagan society in which they lived. The first part of chapter 4 spells out problems with sexual immorality. Now, the Greeks and Romans in the first century AD were hardly paragons of purity. I mean, they were out of control, extremely promiscuous and free in their sexual expression. I suppose in many ways, our culture is the same way. Well, Paul is very direct and tells the Thessalonians to abstain from this and not to participate in any way. But why does he say this? Does he just want them to be morally good, good boys and girls? Well, that's not it entirely. Paul understood that these sins would destroy the church. In verse 1, Paul calls the members of the church brothers, and then in verse 9, the equivalent for Philadelphia is used, which means brotherly and sisterly love. So they're family. Sexual sin in any form, including sexual thoughts and fantasies, were inimical to the integrity of the church. Paul knows this and says, don't do it. Therefore, there were two major threats to the church in Thessalonica. One was the threat from the Jews who were persecuting Christians because of the cross. And second, there was the threat from pagan sex-crazed Greco-Roman people. And this was the environment in which they lived. Both of these things were in danger of destroying the community of faith. So the community of faith might either disperse like sheep from the persecution from these Jews or perhaps they would stay together, but they were always in danger of imbibing this terrible pagan culture. But now look what Paul says to do in the face of this situation. Notice, he doesn't say, well, you know what you need to do? You need to go out and be revolutionaries for Jesus. Why don't you go ahead and fight the Jews and pagans and then retreat back to your Christian ghetto? He doesn't say that. He doesn't say go out and protest with Packards and make a stand for Jesus. No, he says, make it your ambition. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. Mind your own business or affairs and work with your hands, just as we told you. In other words, live ordinary lives to the end that you might maintain community. Now, in terms of the maintenance of community, What does it mean to live lives as ordinary people? Well, it means a couple of things that aren't so easy to do. First, they were to love one another, including those outside of their city. Now, Paul already commends them for their love for those throughout Macedonia. Most likely, this meant that when other brothers and sisters were traveling from churches into their area, they were very hospitable to them. And since they had done this, they already were on the road for understanding what true love was. True love isn't just sentimental, as our culture likes to think. It is concrete. So James says, A brother or sister is ill-clad and lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body. What does that profit? Nothing. But the Thessalonians at least were on the road to understanding that they had to love one another, and those outside the church in order to maintain community. Second, they were to stay true to their callings as church members and citizens of the state. This comes in the form of our three-part command. First, be ambitious to lead a quiet life. Second, mind your own business or affairs. And three, work with your hands. Now, why is it so hard to be ordinary in a sense? Well, remember the environment. I mean, the Jews were very upset about this new Christian religion thing, right? It talks about a persecuted man, an exclusive man who they were supposed to believe in. They're talking about a crucified man on a Christ. This new religion subverted comfortable religious and cultural mores to which they had grown accustomed. So the Jews don't like this at all. So while Christians were to continue to believe in the crucified and risen Christ, they were also to stay true to their respective callings to be fathers and husbands, mothers and wives, sons and daughters and workers within the city. All of this in the face of persecution and rampant sexual immorality. Now it's hard enough to stay true to one's calling without persecution. It's not like anybody loves to be responsible like that's some exciting thing. but all the harder if you have this sort of external pressure to do just the opposite. Well, in addition to these external threats were the internal threats of that theology. Later on in this letter, and in Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, we hear about those who were caught up in the excitement of the last days. Some thought that Christ might return at any moment, which was true, but they had become remiss in their responsibilities to carry out their callings, to do their work. So they're just sort of hanging out, waiting for Christ to come again. And Paul says, look, you don't know the time or the hour of Christ's return, but you do know that you are to stay true to your callings to remain awake and sober. The way Paul describes it in our passage is that the Thessalonians should live a quiet life. The word for quiet life carries a sense of inner peace and this peace must provide the context in which one seeks to be true to one's calling. Christ had created peace, after all, between his people and God through his work on the cross. Therefore, Christians in Thessalonica were to believe this and allow this redemptive peace to pervade their lives even in the face of uncertainties, whether it was persecution or cultural challenges. Of course, there's no difference today. We live in a time of mind-boggling uncertainty, whether it's the economy, home defense realities, or wildfires. The state of your bodies and your souls and the state of the church's community is at stake. But you confess that you belong, body and soul, to Jesus Christ, that you've been redeemed by the blood of Christ. You are God's precious remnant people, protected by God in his ark. That's the church. These redemptive truths provide the basis for living quietly and not in the state of fear. This is what's behind Paul's command here. Note, however, that all of these commands to be quiet and mind your own business are coming from the Apostle Paul, who's one of these guys who's turning the whole world upside down through his missionary activity. But it is the preaching of the gospel as it penetrates this dark world that causes upheaval, not necessarily the lives of people. No, the redeemed community of the church is first to maintain their community through obedience to the law. And as they do this, the result will be that they are salt and light. As Paul says in Galatians 6.10, Let us do good to all, especially to those who are in the household of faith. And again, in 1 Thessalonians 3, verse 12, May the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men. Well, this is Paul's point in verse 12 of our passage. As they carried out their duties and responsibilities, the Thessalonians, as a consequence, live properly before outsiders, outsiders being non-Christians, and they're dependent on no one. In other words, the focus isn't to change the world. The result of their obedience would affect the world through ordinary avenues of providence. So let's think of it this way. In many respects, the church is somewhat like a ship. A ship necessarily causes waves as it steams through the ocean. In other words, it makes an impact. In the same way, people will recognize the church by its preaching and its actions. Both things impact them. People will hear about their sin and the gospel of grace, which will cause upheaval. But they will also experience firsthand the love of neighbors, common neighbors. And the gospel somehow makes more sense when it is lived out in the lives of people. This is the reason Paul says the things he does in Titus. Be a model of good deeds. Adorn the doctrine of God. Be obedient and gentle, showing perfect courtesy to all men. And carefully apply yourselves to good deeds, which are excellent and profitable to all men. Heidelberg question 86 asks why we must do good works. The answer essentially says we do so to demonstrate gratitude for what God has done for us in Christ and that by our godly walk of life, we may win our neighbors for Christ. But notice that the direct conviction of sin and the offense of the cross is left to the Spirit of God working through his word. That's what God does. The people of God are to be content working in the ordinary world of providence, working side by side with neighbors and co-workers. God will cause the upheaval, the scriptures say, not you. In summary, the Thessalonians and Christians of all times live ordinary lives to the glory of God when they stay true to their calling within the home, in the neighborhood, and on the job. This is indeed ordinary. But given the upheaval and discord of our present world, the dis-ease, this is a very powerful thing. Therefore, the community of the church will grow in love, and those outside of the church will surely take notice when people within the church are true to their calling to love one another and live ordinary lives. So now the theological basis. What is the theology that drives us to even care about callings in this life? But first, let's be honest. Nobody wants to be ordinary. you're probably thinking anything but ordinary just sounds so boring. Maybe you thought that the Christian life is an exciting adventure, that when you signed up, as it were, you thought you were in for this great, exciting, extraordinary thing. Maybe you thought that the church, if it was really doing its job, would be growing at breakneck speeds. Maybe you're a business person and think, well, if I come to Christ and I'm faithful, I'll have these wonderful adventures or marvelous traveling opportunities. And you say, after all, I'm not an ordinary person. I'm an extraordinary person. Well, tell that to the hundreds, even the thousands of people that have been persecuted throughout the centuries. To the hundreds, the thousands of people that were burning on poles under Nero's reign in Rome. A less dramatic example is ordinary people throughout Christian history. People like poor housewives that have been scrubbing floors and changing diapers and cooking and providing for their home. Or how about metal workers or carpenters or ditch diggers or doctors or lawyers? Factory workers, accountants, what have you. According to the exciting Christian life theology, these are poor, old-fashioned people that have really missed it. Faithful Christians for hundreds of years who've come to church and have catechized their kids on a weekly basis. They're just boring, ordinary people, as the theology goes. Listen, relatively speaking, you may have exciting adventures in this life. You may see many people profess faith. But this is just icing on the cake. The point here is if you think the ordinary things in this life are boring, you're in error. If you think that raising a family, working as a mail clerk, and serving one another is boring, then you've been duped by the devil himself. You also might have bought into the pervasive advertising of this world system, which says marital infidelity, sexual adventures, drugs, double agents, and big bank accounts are really exciting. No, it's just the opposite. These things are superficially exciting. But in view of the long haul, these things are boring and potentially destructive. It's because sin is ultimately boring. It gives us our base longings while instead we were created for the heights of true human activity in the creation itself. Furthermore, there's been this false excitement generated by different churches and groups that say, you know, you need to go out there and change the world in a false sort of way. But while they say, get out there and do it, they're taking people away from their callings to be mothers and fathers and husbands and wives and workers. They're taking them away from their ordinary avenues of providence within the realm of the family and the state. So how sad it is, for example, that the mother is felt to be a second-class citizen because she's not out doing what she should be according to this false theology. Well, since we are sinful and live in a fallen world, we naturally twist God's original design. The scriptures tell us that we were created to live in a real world, in real community. The scriptures also tell us that our chief end as image bearers of God is to glorify God by living in peace with one another, working with our hands and raising our children. So all of the dimensions of the physical creation are really important and are really fulfilling. We fulfill our destiny and our desires when we care about the creation in which we live. Furthermore, you can't really understand salvation unless you understand creation. I mean, the Bible begins with creation. I mean, God just didn't slap the whole redemptive plan on top of creation. No, He works within the creation. He brought His eternal Son into this world and He took a true soul and body to Himself. We don't think the human body is sinful. We don't think the creation is inherently sinful. We just think it's fallen. And so the incarnation is a great place to remember this, isn't it? Christ, as he sums up the scriptures, is our focus. So what's extraordinary about your salvation is the fact that your Savior was an ordinary man who lived in this ordinary, fallen, twisted world. When Christ appeared 2,000 years ago, he was fully God and fully human. He had already existed with the Father and the Spirit into eternity. He was perfect and lived a perfect existence. You have been redeemed from the power of sin, death, and hell because this Christ chose to lower himself to the status of an ordinary man walking around in this fallen world. Jesus Christ was called to be ordinary. He fulfilled three offices simultaneously. He was a prophet, priest, and king. He was obedient to the callings of each one of these offices. Now let's ask the question, did he have the opportunity to break the boundaries of these callings? Did he have the opportunity to become great in the world's eyes? Well, you bet he did. And this is precisely what the devil tried to make Jesus do. Satan tempted Jesus to be a king of glory by taking control of the kingdoms of this world. He tempted Christ to do things, signs and wonders say, that were beyond his calling at the time. For instance, he asked if he could turn stones into bread. So Satan's plan for Christ's life was for him to become extraordinary at the wrong time. Well, how about the disciples? Were they so upright and clear about Jesus being ordinary and respecting his callings to restraint, simplicity, and submissiveness? No. I mean, in some ways, the disciples and certainly the crowds were some of the worst. Jesus even calls Peter the devil when Peter tries to dissuade him from his calling to suffer and die. So the disciples in the crowds, when they see Jesus heal the sick, when they see him calm the sea, when they see him cast out demons, when they see him raise people from the dead, they are so excited about Jesus' potential to be great. They say, Jesus, you're the man. I mean, you could really be somebody. We could take the world by storm right now. And the disciples and the crowds are set to make Jesus king right there and then. To be this king of glory. To be extraordinary. But how does Jesus respond? Well, he'll have nothing to do with this. So he says to the disciples and others, Haven't you read the scriptures? Haven't you heard how the Messiah is to suffer? Haven't you been listening to me? Haven't you heard me saying that the Son of Man must suffer, die, and rise again on the third day? No, you haven't heard these things because you're all about a theology of glory. You're about a theology that says you must be extraordinary right now. And I, Jesus says to them, have been teaching you a theology of the cross. The whole Old Testament is about this. No, Jesus says, I must be ordinary and must suffer as an ordinary man for you to become sons and daughters of God. There's no other way. But this is hard to hear because the cross is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. It's stupidity to the world. It's ridiculous. it's because salvation that comes from the cross is hard to understand. It is simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary because we see the Son of God bleeding to death as the Son of Man. But the Son of God and the Son of Man is also the creator and lawgiver who instructs us how to live in community and for what purpose. In our passage, Paul says that the Thessalonians knew to love one another because they had been taught by God. That is, God the Holy Spirit had been working through the scriptures to instruct the church about the cross. The great news for the church is that the prophet Isaiah had said that this would be the case in the age of salvation, which would begin when Christ was raised from the dead. So for the Thessalonians and for the church this evening, you as sons and daughters of God are being taught by the Lord because this is the age of salvation. In conclusion, you may ask this question. Why is all of this good news? Because even in the face of affliction and the reality of being ordinary, the church is becoming extraordinary. One day the church will no longer be the church militant, but it will be the church triumphant. After all, the community of the church is called the Bride of Christ who's being sanctified by the washing of the Word. Therefore, the means to the end of the church's glorification is extraordinary. The kingdom of God intrudes into your existence each Lord's Day when the Word is preached. In preaching, God speaks knocking you off your pedestals of self-justification. He also speaks raising you from the slumbers of death to life at His right hand where Christ is seated and you are seated. Likewise, in the Lord's Supper, the body and blood of Christ nourish and strengthen you for the forthcoming week. We say these are means of grace, real means of grace. Now, are these ordinary? No. The means of grace are extraordinary. They are miraculous. therefore because of these theological realities you can be very content to be ordinary you identify with Christ when you carry out the ordinary dimensions of your calling furthermore carrying out these callings is satisfying because you were created to do so and at the same time you are following Christ denying yourself and bearing your own cross you know the book of Revelation describes the church at the culmination of the age of salvation in glowing terms then it will be extraordinary the old Jerusalem with its crumbling Herodian stones is gone and the new Jerusalem stands made of precious stones there will be no more oppression there will be no more terror there will be no more fear there will be no more boredom. There will only be unending fulfillment and joy. There will be no more distinctions of those within and without the community because all will be gathered around the Lord God, the Almighty, and His Lamb. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.