"The Art of Expectant Living"

1 Thessalonians 5:12-24
Cascades Fellowship CRC
July 20, 2003

Expectation changes the way we live. Our behavior changes in response to an

expectation. When our body anticipates an impact muscles contract, drawing our body

into a protective position. Our hands move out in front our bodies – or heads if the

impact is coming in high. (mimic the movement). Not many of us walk around like this

on regular basis. Those that do don’t do so intentionally or willingly. There is normally

some disfunction that causes them to have this as their typical posture.

Our economic system – free enterprise – is driven by expectation. Economist

watch the economic indicators to forecast trends in manufacturing, spending, and growth.

Based upon the level of growth, employment, inflation and a host of other indicators the

Federal Reserve adjusts the prime rate. And based upon what the Fed does with the

prime rate, companies chart a course for their business and impact the stock market for

good or ill. All this based upon economic expectation. The business community expects

certain things to happen based upon emerging trends and responds to the expectation, not

the reality.

Possibly the clearest case of expectation changing behavior is Christmas. Children

we would normally define as wicked, who we would point at with utter confidence if

asked for a picture of total depravity, during the days leading up to Christmas become

absolute angels. Their behavior becomes exemplary, downright obedient. Children know

that he knows when they are sleeping, he knows when they’re awake, he knows when
they’ve been bad or good, so they are good and not for goodness sake. They expect loot

and will change their behavior to male sure that it materializes on Christmas morning!

The examples are seemingly endless to how expectation changes our behavior.

Our nervous system, our eating and sleeping habits, our moods, our skin, even our body

odor can be altered by a sense of expectation. Expectation changes the way we live.

If this is true, why does it seem so few Christians live expectantly? We should

after all have this continual sense of expectation. As we said over the past few weeks, no

one knows the day or hour of Christ’s return. But we do know he is coming again – that

is his promise and its fulfillment is as sure as the moment we are living in right now. He

is coming back and that expectation of his return should change our behavior.

The apostle Paul, after correcting the tunnel vision of the Thessalonians on this

matter, in our passage this morning instructs the church in Thessalonica on what it means

to live expectantly. And strangely enough, it is different than what you might think.

I remember during the first year of my life in Christ, I was asked in an interview

what I would do if somehow I became privy to knowledge that Jesus was returning in 24

hours. My answer at that time in my walk with Christ reflects what we typically think of

when we talk about living in the expectation of Christ’s return. I would become a frantic

evangelist – going from person to person trying to get them to receive Christ as Lord.

And typically, isn’t that what we think of as expectant living? We’d better start

evangelizing because Jesus could come back at any time. But Paul has a different idea of

what it means to live expectantly.

 The art of expectant living in Paul’s view has a different flavor than frantic

evangelism. Now, let me be clear – evangelism is a key element to expectant living. But

a church’s witness is only as genuine and compelling as the life they live. If God’s

people – that would be us, you and me – are going to be taken seriously in their

proclamation of the gospel, we must have the life to match. The violence-prone person

sounds a little silly talking about turning the other cheek and peace. The grudge-holder

appears ludicrous talking about grace. The promiscuous comes across as hypocritical

when calling for abstinence and moral purity. The liar seems foolish demanding truth.

In our passage this morning, Paul gives us a general outline for expectant living.

So let’s begin by looking at the first point of the outline in vv.13-15.

Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you,
who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the
highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each
other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage
the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that
nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each
other and to everyone else.

We will call this first point the art of expectant living: how to live together as

God’s people. In the English language, we have one word for the second person pronoun

– you. Whether you are talking about singular or plural, we have one word and depend

upon the context to differentiate the two. Our default value for “you” is singular. So we

tend, even when “you” is used in the plural, to apply it individually to each person in the

group. If I were to rewrite this passage in today’s vernacular, the way we hear it, I would

write, “Now we ask each one of you, brothers….” Not so in the Greek. If this passage is
read in today’s language to accurately reflect the original it would say something like

this, “Now we ask all of you together, brothers….” Do you see the difference? Certainly

Paul wants these instructions on expectant living to filter into the individual lives of

believers, but his major goal here is on instructing the Thessalonians on how to live

expectantly as a body of believers.

So the first point of the art of expectant living is how to live together as God’s

people. And what is the first thing that Paul wants the Thessalonians to get right? How

to live together with the leaders of the church. Now, let me assure you that I did not

bring in specially printed Bibles. Nor in ages past was there a conspiracy among pastors

to sneak this passage in. This is what Paul actually wrote to the Thessalonians. It is

legitimately past of the Word of God and therefore authoritative.

But I’m not going to call for a new Ford F350 Diesel 4X4 Super Cab, with air,

CD, and towing package as the means of properly honoring the pastor of the church. In

fact, I am not going to say anything about honoring the pastor – this church does a

tremendous job of that already. Though traditionally this passage is used to talk

specifically about how pastors are worthy of honor, respect, and love, I believe this

passage extends beyond just the pastor. In my view, it includes the council members,

Sunday school teachers, and any in the church who strive to lead in the ministries of the

church.

People of God, there is a crisis in the church today – not just our church, but the

church in general. In my journey with Christ I have yet to come to a church where this is

not a problem. People don’t want to lead. Ministries flounder for lack of leadership.
The pastor cannot do it all and most churches cannot afford to hire a new minister every

time they want to start a new ministry. Just coming up with names to fill positions on

council in some churches is a mind-bending, spirit-wrenching process. Why? Because

many exclude themselves immediately because of bad previous experiences. What leads

to the bad experiences? Let me offer two sources.

The first is that often leadership in the church is a thankless job. People take on

mantle of leadership, they pour themselves into it and often no one stops to thank them,

writes them and encouraging note or offers any form of support whatsoever. In some

churches the pastor fails to train them and just allows new council members, Sunday

school teachers, whatever to flounder around. The authority invested in the office is

questioned, the office-bearer lives under the scrutiny of those who prefer to criticize, hard

work in preparation for congregational meetings, events, and services go unnoticed

because the people of the church don’t show. The whole experience is a mental,

emotional and spiritual drain – the church literally sucks the life out of the person.

Let me just pause a moment here and ask all of you to turn your bulletin over.

Look at the names there – only one of the names there receives payment for their

services. Me. (Thank each person by name) Now look at the front of the bulleting. See

the names of the band members? Not a one them receives payment for the creativity and

energy they put into our worship. Now look over here and her and here (point to

banners). There is no name attached to them, but the love of Christ is in every single

stitch. (Thank Cheryl)

 Here is my point. As a congregation we must honor those who take leadership

among us – who put their gifts to work for our spiritual edification. How? First, thank

them in person or with an encouraging card. Let them know that the work they are doing

is valuable. Second, show up. It is disheartening when leaders in the church pour their

energy into the life of the church and church wants to act like its on life support. Third,

pray daily for your leaders. Use the back of the bulletin for prayer fodder.

Serving Christ is reward enough for faithful service, but it is far less tedious and

more existentially fulfilling when service is recognized on a human level as well.

Encourage your leaders – respect and love them because of the work they do among you.

The second source that leads people to withdraw from leadership is conflict. The

sources of conflict in a church are too numerous to mention. Internal conflict on council,

external conflict between council and members of the church have tainted the experience

of many who have served Christ in leadership. But the remedy is rather simple in theory,

difficult in practice.

Live at peace with one another. This doesn’t mean that we just play nice with

others. It means that where there is a genuine break in fellowship, we must be

reconciled. Where there is anger and hurt, we must strive to forgive one another. Where

we have charge against each other, we follow the guidelines of Matthew 18:15 and go to

the person to clear the matter up. We must respect and love our leaders enough to

confront them when we find fault in his or her service.

The second part of living together as Gods people deals with how we treat other

people – inside and out of the body of Christ. People of God, this matters. It matters
tremendously. It is said of the Christian church that it is the only institution, organization

– the only people – who shoot their wounded. This should not be. We are to be a people

marked by grace. God’s presence in us is to be evidenced by love. In 1 John 4:7-8 says

that the children of God are recognized by their love for one another. Where there is no

love, there can be no certainty of belonging to God. John says those who do not love do

not belong to God because God is love.

When we genuinely love we deal with our “problem children,” not simply let them

slip away to become some other church’s problem. Those who absent themselves from

the assembly – who are idle in their faith, satisfied to ride into eternity with only their

confession of Christ – we go after them. We encourage them, we beseech them, we warn

them of the shipwreck threatening their faith.

The ones who are timid and weak among us, we come alongside to encourage, to

teach, to prod into acts of faith so that they can see the hand of God for themselves and

trust him as we do. In other words, we practice the command given to us in Philippians

4:5 – we strive to make our gentleness – our patient, tenderheartedness which makes

allowance for failure – evident all. We renounce the tyranny of our own desires, our own

wants, our own agendas in preference of encouraging and building their faith.

This is a hard thing for us – to renounce our own agendas. Who will look out for

our needs? Who will support us, encourage us? Let us first look to our own needs, then

we can look after others. Isn’t interesting that the Bible never puts it in that order? That

is straight out of modern, Western thought – reflecting the philosophy of rugged

individualism into Christianity. The Scriptures never tell us to shore up our own defenses
first and then march on to help others. The Scriptures call us to give ourselves away –

self-giving love – even as Christ gave himself away on the cross. He did that for you and

for me. He died – gave up his life, suffered horrible torment in the process – for you and

for me. He gave himself away because that is what genuine love is. It risks everything

for the beloved.

I got to see that love up close and personal throughout this week. Some of the

men in the church gave up a morning, a morning and afternoon, even a morning,

afternoon and evening to help Rach and I get our bathroom in. It sounds like such a

mundane thing, really. Is God so concerned about bathrooms? Is that really a display of

divine love? You bet your boots. Without regard to their own agendas, these men cleared

their calendars and sacrificed one of the most valuable commodities we have – time. And

you can be sure that my neighbors were watching – and amazed – by such sacrifice. A

witness for Christ went out in my neighborhood because a bunch of guys decided to give

up a day and come work on my bathroom.

And because we are called to give ourselves away – to love as Christ loves – we

can never return wrong for wrong, evil for evil. You know that guy that just cut you off –

don’t you dare think about returning the favor. Pray for that man instead. Bless him,

instead. Or how about that coworker that just took credit for your idea or stole your

customer? Repay good for evil. It may not be as much fun – nor in the short term as

existentially pleasing, but it is what we are commanded to do in v.15. That is the way

God dealt with us when we were still his enemies – he gave up everything to make us

friends.
 The second point of our outline from this passage on the art of expectant living

(and this point will be much quicker the previous one – I promise) is living as God’s

people before God. This point has two parts as well. The first is our communicating with

God.

I use the term communication deliberately here because talking to God or

communicating with God is more than simply praying. Note, however, that we are to

pray continually. That is, have that attitude of prayer – that awareness that we are before

God and constantly in his presence (remember he promised to never leave or forsake us)

– always in the forefront of our hearts and minds. God has indwelt us with his Holy

Spirit, he abides in us and so is present for all we engage in. So be in a constant attitude

of prayer, hone your awareness of the persistent presence of God.

But Paul tells us to rejoice always. This is not a command to put on a happy face

and smile, smile, smile. Rejoicing always means that we are so aware of God’s abiding

presence, that our outlook is changed. Despite sorrow, despite strife, despite pain and

suffering, we know that the Lord is Knig and we rest in that truth. Our conviction that

God will work out even the crummiest of circumstances to our salvific good allows us to

give thanks to God.

What does this communicate? Our trust and faith in God. It tells God that we

believe him when he says he uses all things for the good of those who love him. It tells

God that we believe him when he says he will never leave us or forsake us.

The second part of this second point in the art of expectant living deals with God’s

communication with us. Now, I am not going to debate whether the gift of prophecy has
translated into modern day preaching or a spontaneous gift of the Spirit. I am simply

going to say whether listening to a preacher expound upon the word of God or hearing a

prophecy uttered in the midst of the assembly – test all things by the only rule of life and

faith, the Scriptures. If it does not match up with the Scriptures or if a prophet claims his

utterances are new revelation, discard it. Even the preaching from this pulpit. As Paul

says, test everything and keep only the good stuff – the stuff that finds warrant in the

Scriptures. Everything else is to be disregarded.

Expectation. It changes the way we behave. How has the expectation of Christ’s

return changed the way you live? Are you living expectantly? If you haven’t been,

now’s the time to start. Give yourself away – renounce your own agenda. Let your

gentleness be evident to all – the Lord is near. Hone your perception of his presence – he

never leaves you nor forsakes you. Let the conviction of his abiding presence fill your

heart with thanksgiving and give you the strength to be thankful even in the crummiest of

circumstances. Test the spirits, trusting in the One who indwells you – the Comforter and

Counselor, the Blessed Holy Spirit – to lead you into all truth. Then you will be

practicing the art of expectant living.