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1 Thessalonians 5:24, Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 25 Brethren, pray for us. 26 Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. 27 I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren. 28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
On September 18, 1870, explorers first spotted a geyser spouting boiling water high into the air in what’s now called Yellowstone National Park. It repeated this phenomenon every 90 minutes, blowing hot water about 145 feet into the air. Since it was discovered more than one million eruptions have been recorded. Those first explorers were so amazed at this phenomenon they called it Old Faithful (Wikipedia).
I’ve never seen Old Faithful, but I’ve read repeatedly in the Bible about our God being a faithful God. We’ve just sung one of the great hymns of the faith written by a preacher from Kentucky in 1923, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” There’s a chapter and verse for that.
Lamentations 3:22, It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness (KJV).
As Paul comes to the end of his first letter to the Thessalonians he doesn’t waste his words. He has loaded these last verses with five rich spiritual truths for us to feed on and apply to our own lives, beginning with God’s faithfulness.
GOD IS FAITHFUL
1 Thessalonians 5:24, Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
Paul just prayed in verse 23 that God would sanctify us entirely, completely, and blamelessly when Jesus comes for us. How do we know God will do this? Because He is faithful. He called you to His Son for your salvation and you can count on it; He will bring it to pass. That’s what faithfulness means. If you are faithful, you will keep your word. A faithful person carries out his commitments. Jesus said in Luke 16:10, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much.”
That’s our God. Faithfulness is His character. A. W. Tozer in his book on God’s attributes wrote, “Upon God’s faithfulness rests our whole hope of future blessedness…. Only as we have complete assurance that He is faithful may we live in peace and look forward with assurance to the life to come.” Moses sang of God’s faithfulness in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 32:4, The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.
Isaiah praises God for His faithfulness.
Isaiah 25:1, O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
Our God is faithful. He will never disappoint you. He has declared and proven His faithfulness from the beginning to the end of the Bible.
Deuteronomy 7:9, Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
When Christ returns at the second coming, guess what His twin names are?
Revelation 19:11, “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True.”
God is faithful. He faithfully keeps His appointments. In Genesis 6 He promised man’s days would be 120 years until He would send a world-wide flood. Guess what happened 120 years later? God sent that flood. God told Abraham his descendants would be in Egypt for 400 years. In Exodus 12:41, guess what? He brought them out, right on schedule. He told Jeremiah that Judah would go into captivity for 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10). Right on schedule after the seventy years, God had Cyrus send back a band of Jews to Jerusalem. God told Daniel in 483 years the Messiah would come and be cut off (Daniel 9:25-26). Guess what? That’s exactly what happened. In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son. He hasn’t told us how long it will be before He comes back for His people, but He did promise, “I will come again and receive you to Myself” (John 14:3). We live in the church age when God hasn’t given us a timetable. But when Christ comes for His church there will be a seven-year tribulation period followed by a 1000-year kingdom on earth. God is faithful.
God is faithful to you. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it. Remember, God set His love on you in eternity past, predestined you to become just like His Son, then sent His Son as our Lord and Savior. Jesus faithfully fulfilled the Father’s plan by dying for sinners like us. Then God called you through the gospel message, faithfully opening your heart to receive His Son. We don’t call God first; God calls us first. Then we call on Him as our Lord and Savior and He faithfully completes what He started, verse 24, “He will bring it to pass.” Paul said the same thing in Philippians.
Philippians 1:6, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
A. W. Pink wrote, “He never forgets, never fails, never falters, never forfeits His word.” Jesus never fails. Heaven and earth may pass away, but Jesus never fails. He is faithful to us every day.
He is faithful to protect you from Satan.
2 Thessalonians 3:3, “The Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”
He is faithful to provide what you need to flee temptations and handle trials.
1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
He is faithful to you when you suffer.
1 Peter 4:19, Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.
He is faithful to forgive you when you confess your sins.
1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He is faithful in judgment.
Psalm 96:13b, He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness And the peoples in His faithfulness.
God will judge all people in absolute justice and faithfulness to His holy character. God has plainly commanded us to repent and believe in His Son. Once an unrepentant sinner dies, there’ll be no more opportunity to repent. God is not a man who changes His mind. Achan tried to hide his sin but God faithfully found him out. Now is the time to bow your heart before Him and receive Him as your Lord and Savior.
God has been faithful to us in every way we need a faithful God. And He calls us to faithfully serve Him. First Corinthians 4:2 says, “It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful.”
BE FAITHFUL TO PRAY FOR YOUR LEADERS
1 Thessalonians 5:25, Brethren, pray for us.
How important is this little gem! Spurgeon said to his congregation, “If I were allowed to offer only one request to you, it would be this: ‘Brethren, pray for us.’” Here is Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, the great pray-er himself who prayed for these Thessalonians unceasingly, asking all the believers to pray for him and his missionary team in Corinth. And this isn’t the only place he asks for prayer.
Romans 15:30-32, Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, [31] that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints; [32] so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.
My dear church, we as your leaders need your prayers. Nothing is so encouraging than to hear that people are praying for us. Pray for grace, strength, wisdom, endurance, effectiveness in ministry, boldness to proclaim the truth of the gospel, and ever-increasing love for the flock, for each of you. Pray for us. And note a little grammatical truth from this prayer request. The Greek word translated “for” is “peri,” which has the idea of around. So pray around us. Surround us with your prayers.
Exodus 17:8-12 gives a great picture of this. Joshua and his army were out fighting the Amalekites while Moses with his staff and Aaron and Hur were up on top of the hill. As long as Moses held his hand up, Joshua prevailed. When he let his hand down, the enemy prevailed. His hands got heavy, so what did Aaron and Hur do? They set up a stone for Moses to sit on and Aaron and Hur supported his hands. What a picture of prayer for God’s people. Be faithful to pray for us. We need your support in prayer.
BE FAITHFUL TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER
1 Thessalonians 5:26, Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.
Peter commands us to greet one another with the kiss of love (1 Peter 5:14). One commentator explained this as, “Give a hearty handshake all around.” Most interpreters say this expression of love for believers should be a culturally appropriate gesture of fellowship of love, of family acceptance. It might be a handshake, a hug, sideways hug, arm around the shoulder. A loving fist bump might suffice.
For various reasons the kiss was left behind in view of sensuality, plagues, and abuse, although some churches still practice it in various ways. Clement of Alexandria in the second century had to command the believers to kiss with a chaste and closed mouth. My Uncle Curtis was a Mennonite pastor. When he found out I had become a believer, he extended his hand and gave me a holy kiss on the cheek, which was the accepted practice in the Mennonite church at the time. The major point is that believers are in the same family, and all true believers should be welcomed with love.
BE FAITHFUL TO HEAR GOD’S WORD
1 Thessalonians 5:27, I adjure you by the Lord to have this letter read to all the brethren.
Paul couldn’t be stronger when he adjures them to be sure all the believers hear this letter. Adjure means, “I put you under oath.” There may have been some who thought the common believers didn’t need to hear what Paul had to say, or that somehow his letter would be suppressed. Paul knew he was writing God’s Word and that it had authority in the churches. It wasn’t just for the leaders – everyone needed to hear it!
There was a time when it was illegal for the common people to read the Bible. People were actually executed for reading the Bible. The “church” said only the priests can read the Bible and then they had to interpret it according to the dictates of the church. William Tyndale was the brilliant English young man who told a priest at a dinner, “If God spares my life, I will cause the boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost.” Tyndale was a scholar who knew Hebrew and Greek. He was determined to give England a translation that even a ploughboy could understand. Since translating the Bible was illegal in England, he went to Germany and produced an English translation of the New Testament (Wycliffe translated into English from the Latin Vulgate; Tyndale translated from the Greek). He had about 6000 copies smuggled into England in bales of linen and sacks of grain (William Tyndale: Life and Death of the Father of the English Bible – Topical Studies | Bible Study Tools).
Eventually he was betrayed by a fellow Englishman who posed as a friend, and on October 6, 1536, he was strangled and burned at the stake for translating the Bible and rejecting the false teachings of the Roman Catholic church. His last words were, “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.” King Henry VIII eventually required a Bible be chained in every church so people could go in and read it (and not steal it). The problem was when the people went to church, instead of listening to the preacher, they read the Bible. So King Henry later flip-flopped and made it illegal for the common people to read the Bible. These are the beginnings of our English Bible. Eighty to ninety percent of the King James Version reflects Tyndale’s translation.
Paul strongly insisted that everyone hear what he had written in this letter. One commentator said the letter “throbs with thankfulness…an outburst of confidence and love and tenderness, and a series of practical instructions.” Paul had assured them in chapter one they were an example for all the churches in the entire area. In chapter two he thanked God for how they had received the Word as the very Word of God. In chapter three Paul overflows with thanksgiving for the joy they brought him before God. In chapter four he strongly counseled them to pursue purity – this was God’s will for them. They were also to work hard, mind their own business, and to look for Christ’s return when the dead would rise first and all the living believers would be caught up to meet Christ in the air. Finally, in chapter five he explained how the Lord would come like a thief in the night, unbelievers will be caught off guard on the day of the Lord, and then he closes the main body with a series of directions on how to live for Christ in the church by appreciating their leaders, rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks all the time for everything. Now in verse 27 he closes by strongly instructing them and adjuring them (I put you under oath) to read this letter to the whole church. All God’s Word is for all God’s people. This is why we are committed to reading Scripture and expository preaching. We all need to hear all of God’s Word.
BE FAITHFUL TO WALK IN THE GRACE OF CHRIST
1 Thessalonians 5:28, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Remember Bunyan’s house of the Interpreter and that fire on the wall the devil was trying to put out? Here is the fuel the Man behind the wall was pouring on the fire – this is Christ’s daily grace, keeping grace, restoring grace, strengthening grace, God-focusing grace, Christ-exalting grace, cross-glorying grace. “My grace is sufficient for you,” promised Christ to Paul and to all of us. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” This is the grace John Newton wrote about.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
I want to finish with this good word from John MacArthur.
Grace: That’s the heart of our theology. It’s a theology of grace, God’s unmerited favor toward undeserving sinners because of His own great love. Paul began and ended his letter with “grace.” It was the first and last word. All that God provides in Christ is summed up in the word “grace.”
Grace is:
- God’s
- Riches
- At
- Christ’s
- Expense.