Excel Still More: 1 Thess Lesson 24

CTW Philippians 3

1 Thessalonians 4:1

Excel Still More

 When we started this study of 1 Thessalonians I had no idea what I was in for. I have told you that this study, at least up to this point, has been for me. As we have looked at the first three chapters of this amazing letter I have been so deeply challenged and encouraged and convicted. What we have seen from chapters 2 & 3 Paul’s commitment to the people to teach them the uncompromising truth of God’s word and to call them to accept that word and walk in a manner worthy of God. This has help confirm for me that we are focused on the right things if we are focused on preaching the word and caring for the people of God.

 This letter was written to a good church. We saw this in chapter 1. So I believe the letter has amazing relevance to this church because this is a good church. Our church is not a perfect church. There is no such thing. But the overall level of spiritual maturity and commitment to the lordship of Christ and obedience to the word of God and love for one another and ministry within the body and to those outside the body, your faithfulness in giving, and so many more things I could mention are all indicators of the overall spiritual well-being of Grace Bible Church.

 The health and strength and faithfulness of Grace Bible Church is an indication that we are doing many things right. Among those things I think we do right is in the way we approach the study of God’s Word. We teach the Bible in the way I believe God wants it taught to His people. This is why we go through it verse by verse. We have a high view of Scripture because it is the word of God and we have a high view of Scripture because we have a high view of God. After working our way through chapter 2 of this letter we came to see that what we do here is exactly what Paul was doing at Thessalonica. He was preaching the gospel of God and exhorting the people to walk in a manner worthy of God. Paul had a very high view of Scripture.

 Then, from 2:17 through the end of chapter 3 we saw the level of concern Paul had for the people of this church and his undying commitment to the progress of their faith. Paul did everything he could do to ensure that the faith of the Thessalonians did not fail because he was separated from them, or because of the affliction they endured, or the temptations they were faced with. After he had done everything he could do to complete what was lacking in their faith he prayed for their progress to continue until the time at which the faith of every believer will come to consummation, the return of our Lord.

 Let me pause here and share with you how this study has impacted me so far. We have been a church for a little over 33 ½ years. I have been standing in this pulpit doing what I am doing right now for a long time. While I watch those of you who have been here for a long time finish your professional careers and retire, I could find that prospect somewhat appealing, but I don’t want to do that. God has sovereignly ordained the circumstances in my life so that retirement will never be within reach for me financially. While I could sit back and remorsefully lament that fact, I think it a better option to simply acknowledge that He is sovereign and that He knows what He is doing and that He truly does cause all things to work together for good.

 I have been here this long and I have no plans to go anywhere else or do anything other than this. But, I don’t want to fall into the trap of complacency, contentment, and satisfaction with the progress that has been made and the things that have been accomplished. It would be easy to find a comfortable pace at which I could coast across the finish line. But I don’t find that in God’s script for the spiritual leader.

 At the end of Paul’s life, when he was certain that his life was about over and his ministry was finished, he wrote to Timothy and his testimony was this. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” Think about those words for a moment. The spiritual leader’s fight is a fight against evil and for truth. Therefore, it is a fight that continues until the spiritual leader dies, or evil is defeated and truth prevails. Because I am still on the top side of the grass, and evil still exists, and the truth must be preached in order to prevail, I must continue to fight the good fight.

 Should a spiritual leader get to decide where the finish line is on the course he is running? Do you think Paul would have considered retiring? I suspect that he would have argued that his course is finished when God decides it is finished. He kept running until God presented him with the finish line.

 I’ve said all that to say that what we have learned from the first three chapters of 1 Thessalonians has challenged me. It has convicted me. It has energized me. It has reminded me of the priorities of ministry. Preach the word and care for the people. I must remain faithful to the process – teaching and exhorting from God’s word, with teaching that is free from impurity or deceit, faithful to the gospel of God, never designed to impress men, and properly balancing truth with tenderness, working hard and living as the right kind of example to follow, exhorting and encouraging and imploring as a father would his own children, showing you how to walk in a manner worthy of the God who has called you into His own kingdom and glory.

 While remaining faithful to the process I must also remain committed to caring for the people God brings to this church. I will, as Hebrews 13:17 says, “watch over your souls” and I will do so knowing that I will give an account to the Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.” And as we saw last week, Paul’s commitment to the people included his ongoing concern for their spiritual progress. He prayed that God would cause them to increase and abound in love for one another and for all people. He prayed that God would establish their hearts without blame in holiness before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 The first three chapters of this letter have outlined those things to which we will remain committed. Teaching you the word and caring for your souls. I will be praying for the progress of your faith until the opportunity for growth of your faith is gone, either by death or the return of Jesus. Know this. I want your faith to grow. I want you to continue to mature in the faith. I want you to continue to grow in your understanding of God, and His great work of salvation, and how to walk in a manner worthy of Him. What I have learned from Paul is that the heart of the spiritual leader is a heart that wants nothing less than God’s best for those he leads. He is committed to helping them cross the finish line with a faith that is faultless and fail proof.

 That is where we left Paul at the end of chapter 3. And as we turn the chapter and come to chapter 4 we find that Paul’s challenge is to the people to look at themselves and make sure that their own concern and commitment to their spiritual progress was equal to his. As concerned as Paul was, he understood that in order for them to progress as they should, they too would need to share the same level of concern for their own spiritual progress. So Paul, as he comes to chapter 4, writes in verse 1, “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.”

 I sometimes wonder if we take a different approach to our spiritual development than we would to other areas of life. How long has Caleb been practicing law? Is Caleb as good as he needs to be as an attorney? Caleb recognizes his need to continue to grow and develop and hone his legal skills. And I know Caleb well enough to know he will do just that. And Ryan will do the same thing regarding his skills as an optometrist, and Brent will do the same thing in regards to his practice as an internal medicine doctor, and Tristan will continue to hone his skills as a machinist. And I will continue to hone my skills as a teacher of Scripture and a spiritual leader of this church.

 While we all recognize the need to keep growing and improving in our work, do we see the same need in our spiritual lives? Is there anyone here who can honest say that there isn’t anything area of their spiritual lives, or their walk with God, where they do not need to grow? I know how you will answer that question. We all have areas of our Christian walk where we need to excel still more. The better question and maybe the more important question is this. Are you really concerned about excelling still more? Are you unwaveringly committed to excelling still more? Or, are you in danger of growing, or having grown complacent, content, and unconcerned with a walk that pleases God?

 Turn to 2 Peter 1:1-15. Here is another spiritual leader whose concern was that the faith of his followers keep progressing and proving itself to be worthy of entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Here is a challenge to excel still more, even though Peter doesn’t use those words exactly. Peter echoed this challenge in 2 Peter 3:18. He says, “but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The context of this admonition is that Peter offers this growth as the best protection against being carried away by the error of unprincipled men causing the believers to fall away from steadfastness of faith.

 With our physical life, once we reach about 25 and full maturity it is “ok” to stop growing. In fact, most of us would be better off if we had stopped growing when we were about 25. But this is not the design of our spiritual life. Listen to this principle taught in Proverbs 4:18. “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” That is a vivid and “enlightening” statement, pun intended. The path of the righteous continues to shine brighter and brighter, just like the light of dawn continues to shine brighter and brighter until the sun is fully up and its light exposes everything. This happens as the light of God’s truth shows up brighter and brighter the longer we are influenced by it. Is God’s truth shining brighter in your life now that it was five years ago?

 Job declared, “Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way, and he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.” Psalm 92:12-15, “The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green, to declare that the Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”

 God intends that His truth will shine brighter and brighter from our lives, that we will grow stronger and stronger, and that as we mature we are more and more fruitful.

 So Paul says, “Finally then, brethren…” It is as if he has finally gotten the introduction to his letter out of the way and he is now ready to give the instruction he wants to give. From here to the end of the letter Paul gives a lot of practical instruction on things like moral purity, loving one another, disciplined living, on death and the Rapture, on holy living and the day of the Lord, and by the time he gets to the last part of chapter 5 the imperatives on Christian conduct come in rapid fire succession.

 The words used at the beginning of this verse to call the Thessalonians to excel still more are not strong imperative commands. These are the words of a loving spiritual leader. The word “request” is “erotao” (erow-ta-ow). It simply means to ask, entreat, or beseech. The word “exhort” is “parakaleo” The literal meaning is “to call alongside.” Paul was calling the Thessalonians to come along side and follow the pattern he had lived before them. These aren’t the strong commanding words of a superior officer, or the directives of a master over those who were under his charge. They are the words that indicate the desire of the spiritual leader for what is in the best interest of his followers.

 Paul doesn’t even indicate that the authority is from himself. It is from the Lord. He says, “we request and exhort you in the Lord.” This could mean “you who are in the Lord” with “in the Lord” describing our standing “in Christ.” Paul describes what it means to be “in Christ” or “in the Lord” in Romans 6. The men have been looking at Romans 8 in our Bible study time on Wednesday nights and we have been learning the details and implications of the great statement at the beginning of chapter 8 that says, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are ‘in Christ Jesus.’”

 Paul could also mean that his request and exhortation is from the Lord Jesus. This would mean that Jesus was the One who was directing Paul with this request and exhortation. Jesus has that authority. He is Lord.

 Here is the request. Here is what Paul is exhorting them to do. “That as you received from us ‘instruction’ as to how you ought to walk and please God, let’s skip the parenthetical insertion for a moment, that you excel still more.” 

 The Thessalonians “received” from Paul the necessary instruction for a walk that pleases God. We learned from chapter 2 that when they received the word of God from Paul, they received it, not as the word of men, but for what it really was, the word of God. As Paul acknowledges in the parenthetical part of this verse, the Thessalonians were actually walking in that instruction.

 It should be clear that the reason we become followers of Christ is for the purpose of living to please God, or living for His glory. A huge problem in the modern church is a certain level of confusion over the purpose for becoming a follower of Christ. Those who crafted the Westminster Confession of Faith understood it perfectly. Remember question one from that Confession? What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy His presence forever. 

 Man’s purpose is to glorify God and we glorify Him as we walk as we ought to walk to please Him. We cannot glorify God if we are not walking in a way that pleases Him. Fulfilling our purpose depends on a walk with which God is pleased. The Thessalonians church was a good church. They were actually walking as they should have walked. They were pleasing to God. They were glorifying God.

 Likewise, Grace Bible Church is a good church. Most of you are committed to walking according to the instruction you receive. You know how you ought to walk and please God and like the Thessalonians, many of you actually do walk that walk.

 But Paul didn’t end this verse with an acknowledgment that they were doing well. And they were doing well. He ended it with a challenge that these faithful followers of Christ, who were walking as they ought to walk, who were walking in a way the pleased God, to excel still more. This was written to the Thessalonians, but it is intended for all of us.

 The word “excel” means to abound, to be abundantly supplied, to overflow, to exist in full quantity. This would have to indicate that we should never be content to leave anything that does not please God as part of our lives. Excelling still more means a growing and more intense desire to rid our lives of all that is not pleasing to the Lord. Paul is about to deal with one of those things, moral purity, in the next verses. To excel still more the Thessalonians would have to continue to walk away from those things that did not please God.

Excelling still more would also have to mean that we eagerly and earnestly pursue the things that are pleasing to the Lord. Paul will move on to an example of this in verse 9 and following. He will address the love of the brethren. Excelling still more means an earnest and intentional pursuit of those things that please God.

Paul’s experience with the Thessalonians brought him to the conclusion that this was a church eager to excel still more. The fact that they had received his instruction as to how to walk and please God and that they were in fact walking according to that instruction, led Paul to this conclusion.

But to excel still more the Thessalonians needed further instruction. They needed to more fully understand the word of God, the will of God, and what it takes to glorify God. As we will see going forward, they were newly converted out of a culture that was vile. But what Paul saw was that when he gave them instruction, they received it, and they began to walk according to it, and they were serious about pleasing God.

I am convinced that Grace Bible Church wants to excel still more. So I want to ask each of you individually to put your finger on your wrist and find your pulse. Do you feel your pulse? That’s good. That means your heart is beating. That is the very best indicator of physical life. Now, I don’t know where to tell you to touch yourself to check your spiritual pulse. I suppose that exact spot doesn’t matter. Here is how you check your spiritual pulse. Ask yourself, “Am I receiving the instruction I am given as to how to walk and please God, and am I walking according to that instruction?” You have to answer that question honestly. Don’t give me the answer you think I want to hear. In fact, don’t give me the answer at all. Give the answer to God. You know you can’t lie to Him. He sees the truth about each and every one of us.

If you are receiving the instruction as to how to walk and please God, and you are walking according to that instruction, congratulations, you have a spiritual pulse. If you are not receiving the instruction, and you are not walking to please God, I don’t have good news for you. You are at risk of being spiritually dead. If you have the spiritual pulse, and there are signs of spiritual life, and you have a desire to walk and please God, then maybe you need to listen to Paul and excel still more.

When I was a high school student I only put enough effort into my education to keep from having to take the semester and final exams. If you had a “B” average and had not missed more than so many days of school, you were exempt from semester exams and the final exam. As I recall, I think you didn’t have to even go to school on the days of those exams if you were exempt. I was capable of making an “A” in every class. But I was not interested in putting in the effort required to make an “A” in every class. I was only interested in getting out of the exams.

I cannot deny that I could have done much better because when I grew up a little and started to college, I went through college and grad school and only made one “B.” I missed an “A” in one class and only by a couple of points. I was more committed as an adult student to the process because I thought it might mean something. I don’t share that to brag about what a good student I was as a college student. I share it to point out that there was a point in my life where I needed to excel more and could have excelled more, but I didn’t.

Are there eternal consequences to my commitment to mediocrity as a high school student? Probably not many. Are there eternal consequences to a commitment to “good enough” as a Christian? I think there are. I don’t think we have the option of doing anything other than to strive to excel still more. 

Grace Bible Church is a good church. But we can excel still more. Many of you are faithful followers of Christ. You can excel still more. Some of you are not as faithful. You must decide to start living to please God and then decide to excel still more.

What is our motivation to excel still more? Our motivation is before us on this table in front of the pulpit. God gave His best to die on the Cross to pay the penalty for our sins. God could not have excelled more. He gave His best. As we partake of the elements of the Lord’s Table, we are receiving those elements that represent God’s Best. If we partake of God’s Best, should we not be committed to returning to God our best?