1 Thessalonians 5:23–28

Christ's second coming is transformative. It gives every moment eternal significance and empowers Christians with profound hope, urgency, and purpose. Discover this compelling truth about Christ's second coming through this series in Thessalonians and see how this changes everything.

1 Thessalonians chapter 5 is where we are at today. So we get to wrap up the letter today, the ending of the book, the final notes in this song, the final play of the games, the last words, and I kind of liken the ending of this letter, we kind of are in this season, or at least we'll be in this season soon, some of you in this room, of a mom and dad sending their kid off to college. I don't mean to bring up those emotions, sorry parents who are sending kids off to college, but I kind of liken it to that.

It's a mom and her dad, mom and their dad just reminding them of all the things, like make sure you do your laundry, or know how to do laundry, you make sure to take showers, don't forget to call your mother, son, make sure you call your mother at least once a week. I didn't really do that very often, but it's okay, call your mother once a week, make sure you go to class, do your homework, be kind, don't do drugs, and we love you, see you later, okay? Like that's kind of how I see the ending of the book. If you were following along last week, you kind of got hit with that, right? I mean, how many different commands were there last week? There's so many things to do, and I think what could happen is it could be extremely overwhelming.

Like look at all these things to do, and if you are like me, you could look at those lists and just think simply, how? Like how am I going to do this? Maybe you feel that at times in your life, like how can I really accomplish what God is calling me to do? I look at the words on this page and I think, I'm not sure I can do this. And here's the truth, you can't. You simply cannot.

Maybe you've been standing in front of something and thinking, man, if a miracle doesn't happen, like this thing's not going to get accomplished, right? Can anybody spell parenting in the room? Can anybody spell marriage? How about IKEA? Like there's those moments in life where you're looking at something and think, if God doesn't show up, this is simply not going to happen. And I think one of the greatest pieces of good news that the Bible provides is that you cannot do it. Say, Adam, how is that good news? It's good news because what the Bible says emphatically is that you need the power of God in your life, and you cannot do it in your own strength.

And so what I think this last several verses that we shouldn't skip over, and what it's telling us, is a desperate need for God. Gives us this one piece that you have to have. Pastor Todd and Pastor Travis last week, last couple weeks, mentioned that we're sharing this one take-home truth.

It'll be on the screen, you can look at it. It's this one take-home truth that'll kind of anchor our time together that we've seen over the last several verses. Relationships have responsibilities, and results should be of climate of harmonious growth.

And I think what this ending does is that it gives those final words on growth and the final word on climate. So we're going to see in this text. Hope you have your Bibles open.

First Thessalonians 5, we're going to start in verse 23. Follow along as I read. This is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as Paul writes this.

Here's the Word of the Lord. Now may the God of peace sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful.

He will do it. Brothers and sisters, pray for us also. Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.

I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers and sisters, and may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Kind of like in the ending, too, if I were to describe it, it's a good eighth-grade English paper. This is a great good English paper, why do you say that? Because it follows the rule of English.

Here's what you do in papers. This is what you are kind of taught. You say it, or you tell them what you're going to say, you say it, and then you tell them what you said.

That's pretty much the book of First Thessalonians. Nothing new here, minus the whole kissing thing, which we'll get to in a minute. We'll address it.

Nothing is new. Nothing. Actually, if you go back to the end of chapter 3, pretty much everything that was said there is said again.

And so he's just reiterating. So my job this morning is not to present the crazy new realities that you've never heard before. All it is is to take the hammer and give that one final nail that I think the Holy Spirit has been pounding over the last several weeks in this book.

And so how I'm going to frame it is three practical prayers, three practical prayers of a holy, dependent person. Holy, like holistically, who is seeking the holiness of Christ. Three prayers where the soil is saturated with a desperate need of God.

That's what we're going to see this morning. Look at verse 23. Let's walk through the text.

Verse 23. He says this, So you see prayer language right away. Paul directs his attention straight to the Lord, directly to the Lord.

Like if we're going to do any of this, Paul is saying, like, God's got to show up. He's got to show up. And then he describes God as what? The God of peace.

Everybody say peace. One more time. There it is.

He's the God of peace. It's interesting, right? Like why peace? Like sometimes when you're reading your Bible, it's really good to ask questions. Like He could have used any attribute of the Lord and it would be true, correct? He could have said the God of mercy.

He could have said the God of strength, the God of power. How about the God of love, the God of perfection? Any attribute would be true. So why peace? I think it's two reasons.

I think it first fits the context of what we've been seeing. But maybe more importantly, it sits at the heart of the gospel. Let me address the heart of the gospel first.

In Colossians chapter 1, verse 20, it says this. Speaking of Jesus Himself, it says this, Listen, when Jesus goes to the cross, He's doing battle against your sin. He is nailed to the cross because He wasn't just simply a martyr that the nation-state of Rome and Israel and all this whole area just hated.

He wasn't this kind of mythical creature that people just didn't like, they just were indifferent towards. Listen, He went to the cross because you and I were in opposition, hatred, in total disagreement, an enemy of God. And He was nailed to that cross.

Does that sound like peace to anybody? No, it doesn't sound like peace at all. Listen, He was nailed to that cross because you and I were at odds with the God of peace. We had no peace.

And so what Jesus does at the cross is that He reconciles, rectifies, makes right, like, fixes that severed connection between us and God. Where there was no peace, what does He do? He makes peace. How? By the blood of His own flesh.

And church, listen to me closely. Look right in. Your greatest problem in your life is never your circumstances.

Humanity's greatest problem was they were an enemy. Your greatest problem that you ever have faced in your entire life is not some circumstance that you have found yourself in, but it is the circumstance of your spiritual condition. Your greatest problem was that you had no peace.

You were at war. You had zero peace with God, the God of peace, because you had a plague that was literally plaguing. It was destroying your heart.

And what Jesus does is He makes peace. He makes peace on your behalf, on my behalf, and gives those who believe, what? Peace with God. Listen, this is how I would explain it.

We experience peace in three ways. We experience it first salvifically. Like, what happens in our salvation is that God grants us peace when we had no peace.

First and foremost, it's salvific peace. But now that God now resides in you, we experience peace internally. Isaiah 26.3, a great passage that if you have never committed to memory, I would.

It says this of God, that God Himself, He keeps those children of God, those people, those children whose mind and eye, whose heart is fixed to God, it says that He keeps them in perfect peace. So, we experience it salvifically, but we also experience it internally. But watch this, we experience it externally in the body of Christ.

This is all throughout the New Testament. Because if you've experienced peace salvifically, if you're experiencing it internally, you should also live peaceably and peacefully among people. Listen, if you've been saved by grace, if I could say it another way, if you've been saved by grace, then you should be filled with grace and then want to give grace.

If the Holy Spirit resides in your heart, the Holy Spirit of peace, the God of peace resides in your soul, then peace should be that natural fruit of your life. So, that's why I think it's at the heart of the gospel. It's everything about the gospel.

But I think it also fits the context. What did we learn last week? Warn the idle, comfort the weak, help each other, live peacefully. Why? Why do we have to do that? Why? Because we follow the God of peace.

Listen, I want to be very clear. If there is no peace in the church, then the peace, the God of peace hasn't completely left the building. If we are not experiencing the peace of God in our church body, I am telling you, we have suppressed the God of peace.

Maybe that's your story, where you've grown up in a church that is tumultuous, and you've been filled with trauma in your heart, because I've never experienced all my experiences, just anger and frustration. Listen, the God of peace was not in that building, because we've suppressed, we've quenched the God of peace. And what we're called to do is to live out that peace.

Listen, if you and I follow the God of peace, then peace must be experienced, yes, salvifically, yes, internally, but it has to be experienced in this room. What does it say that this God of peace does? Look at the text. What does it say that He does? You say, okay, you convinced me that we should be someone who is filled with peace.

He is the God of peace. Now, what does He do? He says this, that He sanctifies you and I completely. Then He kind of modifies it, explains it a little bit more.

Look at the text. He says this, that your whole soul, spirit, and body would be blameless and sound at the coming of Jesus. So, kind of to dissect that for a second, the word sanctified, really big, fancy, churchy, Christian words, right? Sanctification, you sound really popular and cool when you say that in your small group, sanctification.

Here's what it means, to make holy, to make something that is common or like basic, which is, listen, you're basic, you're basic, okay? You and I are basic. But to make them holy, perfect. But when you hear that, you think, man, I don't really feel that blameless.

Like the Bible actually uses this word quite a bit. Job is said to be blameless. Paul, even in the epistles, says that his conduct is blameless towards people.

And so, like, how can we, like, is that just them propping themselves up? What's that all about? Well, I don't think it's the idea that we are extremely, like, perfect, that there's no sin within us at all. Like, you've never done anything wrong. I don't think that's what he's meaning.

What I think it means is that that person who is blameless knows what to do with their imperfections. When you are considered blameless, you know that all your imperfections are laid at the foot of the cross and on the mercy and grace of Christ. I think that's what we see as the pattern of someone who's blameless in Scripture.

So, we are called to be eventually blameless and sound. And so, what God wants to do, He wants to sanctify you holistically. He wants to make you like Jesus completely.

That's why He mentions the three words, soul, spirit, and body. Now, for a second, the three nerds in the room, if you honestly want me to talk more about this, just come talk to me. Some people use this verse to describe the parts of a human.

This is what Bible nerds do, right? We kind of miss what the point is and we think, well, let's try to figure out the really deep things of the Lord. There's some cool things here. If you want to know, come talk to me, okay? I'm not going to dive into it because the point is simple.

God wants to sanctify you completely, like every single part of you, not just, like, your physical body, but your spirit, your soul that resides in you. Like, He wants to sanctify every single part. Listen, I love sports illustrations.

Anybody does? Not sports illustrated, sports illustrations, okay? Make sure I'm clear. One of the reasons I love them is because I think most people understand them. Even if you're not a sports person, hopefully the Lord empowers you to understand this.

Here's what we find in baseball. It's baseball season, and here's what we find the problem is with most baseball players, okay? Is that often you don't get, like, a five-tool player. You don't get a guy who's just, like, holistically great.

Like, there are some. Like, Shohei Otani is probably close, right? One of the greatest guys I've ever seen pitch and hit home is fantastic. My favorite is Bobby Witt Jr. For all the Kansas City Royals fans in here, we say amen, right? Someone who is, like, they're good at everything.

They're good at running the bases, they're good at hitting, they're good at fielding, they've got a winning smile. Like, they're just holistic in everything, right? Like, but often, here's what you find. Like, most baseball players are not like this.

Can you say Aaron Judge? He's got one trick and that's it. He's tall. That's it.

But listen, like, here's what happens. Like, he might be an incredible hitter, but he's slower than your 80-year-old grandma. Like, he might be an incredible pitcher and, like, pitch really hard, like, get 103 on the clock, but if you ask him to hit, he's, like, holding a pencil up there.

Like, it's incredible. Listen, oftentimes, this is what we see in Christianity. We say things like this.

Ah, love this book. I'm a Bible guy. Got six master's degrees.

I'm a really big Bible guy. Say, that's great. When was the last time you shared your faith? Ah, I don't do that.

That's not really where I'm great at. Or you might say, man, I show up to church every single week. I attend faithfully.

And I ask, well, when's the last time you shook someone's hand and talked to them? Ah, I don't do that. Listen, I think oftentimes what can happen in Christianity is that we kind of stay in the lane of the areas we think we're really good at and that maybe we're even really gifted in, and yet there's areas of our life that are completely falling apart and malnourished, and we don't even want to touch it. But I'm a good Bible guy.

I got that. I go to small group every week, but I don't really pray. Listen, where is it where God is pressing in your heart, where you're refusing his sanctifying touch? There is an area.

When we give messages like this, and when someone says, where's the area? It immediately comes to mind. Where's the area? I want to be vulnerable for a second. For most pastors and church leaders, we kind of hold a dangerous position.

This platform is very dangerous. For one, I could fall off in a minute. But it's extremely dangerous, and it's dangerous because it's extremely flattering to stand here.

I got the captive audience of tons of people, and so what pastors can do is they can get massive heads. You see this across the board. You look on your Instagram page, and you see the massive heads of your celebrity pastors who we continue just to stroke their ego.

Because why? It's so flattering. When we hear the ums and the amens and the preach it guy, that feels good to our soul fleshly, does it not? It does. And so there's been moments in my life where maybe I felt overlooked.

Maybe I felt unseen and not heard, not valued. And so when I get in a setting like this and continue to stroke the plague that's in my own heart. Listen, strictly speaking, love and compliments are not the devil.

We all want compliments. You look nice today. You did a good job.

Thanks for doing the dishes, honey. We want compliments. The problem is when the desire and craving start to get in, that's the problem.

When you have to have those things. You can't function without those things. And then it just fuels the sin that's in your own heart.

And so what happened a couple years ago is God's sanctifying hand, his sanctifying touch, reached down, touched my soul, and said, Adam, you can't live like this. Adam, you can't live like this. You're depriving your soul of what you desperately need.

You're literally malnourished in this area. You think you want to be seen when I want to be seen. You're keeping yourself from full flourishing.

And when those moments of pride and arrogance and that praise of man would sink in deep in my heart, start to flood my mind's eye, the Lord would press me and say, Adam, this is not the way of life. This is not the way to life. I am.

Follow me. Follow my life. Follow my heart.

Follow my will. Like this is what we need from the Lord, his sanctifying touch. And so here's the first prayer that everybody needs to pray, which is this, Father, make every square inch of my life holy like Jesus.

Father, make every inch of who I am. As Peter would say to Jesus, he would say this, wash my whole body, like make me fully clean, head to toe, because God, I can't do it. Don't you find it frustrating when like you're following the Lord, but then that one sin just keeps coming back? You're like, I thought I got rid of you, man.

This is why we need God's sanctifying touch in every inch of our life. And so how does he do it? Here's three ways he does it. Here's three ways.

This is how God sanctifies. Number one, through his word. Number two, through his living body.

And thirdly, through his living spirit. Listen, the primary way that God is going to sanctify you is through his word. It's a primary way.

When you open this book in front of us, it's going to read you and sanctify you. It's going to cleanse you. But we also experience this through his living body.

I'm not going to belabor this because I think Travis already hit it so hard last week. God uses real people to bring about real sanctification in the real lives of his people. And then number three, he uses his living spirit.

Now, all these kind of functionally work together. But this is the moment when you're sitting down, you're watching TV, and the spirit convicts you in that moment. You should not be watching that.

It's that moment, students, when you have your phone out and something comes across and the spirit says, nope, not that. He uses his living word, his living body, and his living spirit to bring about sanctification. What God is trying to do is he's trying to tune that dial in your life, where when it's off kiltered, he's trying to tune it back to his grace and his love.

So listen, are you open to him? Are you open to what he's trying to do? Pray this prayer. Father, I need your power. I need your strength to smooth off those rough edges.

I need your power. Spirit, lean into me when I want to veer and you want to bring me back. Cry out to God in this moment.

You know that sin that's in your heart right now. You know where it's sitting. And you keep saying, God, would you do it? Would you rid me of my sexual temptation? Would you rid me of my anger? Would you give me eyes to see God sanctify me, make me holy like Jesus? Father, would you do it? Even in the areas that really hurt.

Father, would you do it? Make every inch of our heart holy so that, look at the text, at the coming of Jesus, you'll be two words, sound and blameless. And here's the promise in verse 24. He who calls you is faithful.

I love the ESV a little bit more. He will surely. Listen, church, you might be struggling through your sanctification.

It might be like hard, hard. Like some of you have those strong habits, those strong sins that seem to just continue to plague your life that just keep lingering. And you think, I don't know if I can do this.

Listen, church, like God can do that. God can do that, and He will do that. Why? It's not because you are anything good.

We're common. We're basic. We're full of this sin.

We were at odds with the Lord. So why is He going to do this? It's based upon His character. Like God is not going to look at the circumstances and think, well, this guy over here is doing good, so I'll make him holy.

He's doing good. I'll make him holy. He's saying, I'm making y'all holy because I'm faithful.

That's what God does. So based upon His character, God cannot fail. God will not fail because He is faithful and perfect.

Listen, church, He cannot do anything other than perfect. God the Father is going to bring your life to full completion when either Jesus returns, you know, we've talked about that the day of the Lord, when He returns, or when you meet Jesus face-to-face after you die. You are going to be made perfectly holy.

Why? Because of the blood-bought work of Jesus Christ. Nothing else. Nothing we stand on, no good works that were produced in us, no priest that made us this way, no family that made us this way.

I will stand, you will stand, blameless and sound because the blood was poured out for you. Church, be encouraged. Be encouraged that your salvation is not what you've accomplished, but what He has already accomplished.

Be encouraged that you're not alone and you're not struggling this just by yourself. You have the body of Christ, but more importantly, you have the God of heaven raining down on you. Church, He is faithful and He will surely do it.

Okay, that was point number one, and I'm like 30 minutes in. So the next two are going to go quick, I promise, I promise, okay? Don't worry, don't worry. Here's the second prayer that we need to be praying.

These go fast because I think they're extremely intuitive. As a wholly dependent person, holistically dependent, like every inch of me is dependent upon you, Father, work your power and strength in the lives of people. Look at verse 25, so simple and so short.

Brothers and sisters, pray for us also. This is the apostle Paul. Can we just be honest? He's more holy than you.

If we were to rank holiness, he's got you beat. And so yet he prays and asks them, pray for me. So make sure you get the flow.

God works our salvation out, working in you to make you holy, and then Paul says right after that, pray for that for us too. We're not exempt from this. You might put people in your life like top tier, right? Like, man, that guy's holy.

Maybe it's your pastors in the past, maybe it's your grandma, like that guy's just like on a pedestal holy. But listen, he ain't any more holy technically speaking than you are because at the foot of Jesus, we're all rotten sinners and needing of grace. And so Paul says, pray for me, I need this.

Like I need God's help, I need his power. Like I want to see more souls saved. Like encourage us by praying for us.

Church, pray for us. Listen, this is a statement. When I see this from the apostle Paul, this is a statement of somebody whose faith isn't just on a box, in a box, on a shelf.

It's a statement from somebody whose faith in Christ is powerfully working itself out. Church, are you praying to God for God to move mightily in somebody else? Listen, I think it's fantastic to pray for yourself. Can we get an amen? It's good to pray for yourself.

Sometimes we get convicted in like sermons about prayer and think, don't pray for yourself, pray for other people. It's good to pray. Why is it good? Look at the text.

There's a You should pray for yourself. He wants you to. God sanctify.

He just prayed that over you. God sanctify. You pray that for yourself.

But listen, when you look around this room, can you count how many times you've prayed for somebody in this room this week? Like look to your right, look to your left. Have you prayed for your church members? Listen, if you want a church that's full of peace, full of love, like when you read the book of Acts, like you say, I want that church. I've experienced some bad church.

Give me this church. If you want that church, listen, you must pray for each other. You must pray earnestly for God to move in the lives of your people.

God, would you do it? Would you give us that urge and that instinct to want to pray? Because listen, this is what's going to happen. God is going to use your prayers to bring about His will. Sometimes we forget that.

Christianity is super fun. Like it is. Here's why it's fun.

God's going to do a work and He's going to use your mouth to pray it back to Him so He can do it. That ain't no power in you. Trust me, it's not.

Like you just moved your mouth. This is all power to the Lord because He's going to use you to accomplish something that nobody else could. That is a great privilege, church.

Simple application, pray. Pray because you have no idea what God wants to do through you for somebody else. So church, pray.

Father, would you do it? Father, would you do it? Look at verse 26. Here we go. Verse 26, "'Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.'" Okay, so listen, I'm going to do some more on the podcast this week, on the Extra Point podcast, specifically about this verse.

Because when we get to this verse, we kind of just say, well, that's interesting. I know the single guys in the room are like, can we start applying this today? Listen, I'm going to do some work this week, and we'll give a little bit more context to this. But here's application number one for this.

Don't do not kiss me. That's application number one. Don't kiss me.

Only one person in this room can kiss me, and it's not probably you. Listen, I think what's happening here is that Paul is trying to describe a very familial and loving act. Listen, there's a lot of cultures in our world who kiss, not romantically, but because of an act of love and affection.

Like, we Americans are just weird for that. We shake hands and fist bump. Like, our brothers and sisters in the Middle East would be like, what? What is that? So listen, I'm not sure, like, I'm not settled.

But right now, I'm settled that we should not necessarily apply greeting each other with a holy kiss. Maybe I'll be convinced this week, but here's what I am convinced of. If you are not somehow affectionately showing your love and admiration for other people, you're not applying this passage well.

Like, you know how you grab your son or your daughter, you pick them up, you give them a hug, you kiss them, you say, I love you. Why do you do that? Because you love them. If you don't have those feelings towards the people in this room, then you're not going to do that.

So I think the best way to apply this is to take that familial principle and say, how can I obey this principle this week? How can I love people better and physically show that? It's okay to do that. Somehow, somewhere, we've gotten wrong on this whole, like, we can't show any sort of affection. Men in the room, I'm looking right at you.

Just because you're manly and tough and can bench press 400 pounds and you're a woodworker, you've got the whole thing, you can say to another man, I love you. Okay, more on the kissing later. We cool with that? Okay.

Number three, Father, pour out your grace and your peace on your church. Here's verse 27. He says this, I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers and sisters and that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ would be with you.

That's the end. So Paul commands that this letter circulate. Why does he do that? Like, does he just want to be arrogant again and think, like, I really want to be popular, want to get the book deal? It's because he knows it's exactly what their heart needs.

So read it, pursue peace, love each other, stay away from sexual immorality, follow Christ. He's so passionate about the gospel that he wants everybody to get this book. But then he gives one final word of grace.

Paul ends pretty much every single letter with that word, grace. Why? Once again, this is at the heart of the gospel. This is at the heart of the Christian church.

I've already hit on this already, but listen, church, if you want more grace, if you want to experience that grace, you must ask God to really work itself out in your heart. Like, do you want more grace? Do you want more grace? Yes, church. Yes and amen to that.

Listen, grace is not just something we get just at salvation. Like, we get that. We experience it.

God has given grace. But it's something that you need every single day, continually through your lives. Do you want the grace and peace of God? I do.

Listen, this life is really hard. It really is. There are days.

I know these young families in this room. I am a young family who got young kids. There are days that are hard and they seem like they're never going to end.

There's been days, older adults, where those days seem really long because this ailment, this sickness, whatever it is, it's draining my soul. And this is when you get before the Father and say, God, would you pour out your grace and your enoughness in my heart? We were at the splash pad. Anybody like splash pads in here? Okay, all five of us.

Okay, great. I don't either. I don't get wet.

I stand on this side, okay? We're at the splash pad the other day, and you've probably seen these Great Wolf Lodge where you got a big bucket. Anybody seen these big buckets before? And you stand under them and, right? You will never find me under that, right? You experience it. You know, Brooke's kind of like timid about it, but eventually she goes all in and gets soaked, right? And it's fantastic.

Listen, here's what we need to do as the church. There are some of us who need to stand right under the bucket of God's grace and let him pour out on you. And yet what you're doing is your sin is telling you a different story, and you're going further and further and further away of the bucket of God's grace.

When you need to say, God, I desperately need you. I can't do this on my own. Parenting's hard.

Marriage is hard. My life is really hard. God, I need to stay square underneath the bucket of God's grace.

Some of us think we just need a sprinkle. We just need a little dribble. You're just gonna get a dribble if all your Christianity is is here in this room, and that's it.

It's just a dribble. It's just a sprinkler of his grace. You need to have God pour out a full-on, full hose, right-in-your-face moment.

Church, listen. Listen close here. If you would do this, if you would walk tightly and step with the Spirit, communing with him every single step of the way, participating in the sanctifying body of Christ, if you would do those basic Christian things, I guarantee you, God will pour out his grace on you.

You don't need a special prayer or a blessing from the Pope. You need none of it. You need an open Bible, a humble heart, your arms around each other, your voice tuned to the ear of a God who loves you.

And guess what will happen? He will pour out your grace upon your life. He will do it. Maybe not the way you think will happen, but he will pour out his blessing of grace, pour out his blessing of peace, and you will actually start experiencing this book.

God, would you do it? Some of us need a fresh encounter with the God of peace this morning, and the way to do it is to pray these practical prayers of a mind who is wholly dependent upon the God of peace. God, would you do it? God, would you do it?