WWUTT 521 Esteem Them Very Highly?

In Ephesians 4 .11, Paul said that God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ, when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of 1 Thessalonians, we have arrived at the closing section, where Paul gives his final instructions and also offers the

Thessalonian Christians a benediction, or wishing them well in the spirit. I'm going to read in 1

Thessalonians 5, verses 12 -14. The Apostle Paul writes, We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the

Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint -hearted, help the weak.

Be patient with them all. And then from there, he goes on to give some brief instructions that are kind of one after the other, and we'll talk more about that tomorrow.

But for today, we'll focus on specifically this section. And who is Paul talking about here when he says,

Respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, esteem them very highly in love because of their work?

Who is Paul talking about that these Thessalonian Christians should respect in this way? I heard one teacher speculate that Paul was talking about the governing authorities, because as we read in Romans 13, all governing authorities have been established by God, and the

Romans are instructed there, the Christians in the church in Rome are instructed to be subject to every human institution, for God has established those leaders in the positions that they have.

But that's not exactly the context here. We have that instruction in Romans 13. Peter also gives it in his letter, in his first letter.

But here, Paul is talking more specifically about the context of the church. So who would be those that are over the

Thessalonian Christians in the church? It would be the elders. It would be the overseers, the pastors, is the most common term that we use for that particular position.

Consider what the Thessalonians have been through here, what we've talked about that they have gone through over the course of our study of this letter.

So first they leave the worship of pagan idols and they worship the true

God. And this happening in a very brief period of time in which Paul was there in Thessalonica and preached the gospel to them.

Might have only been about six weeks, we could estimate. And then the Jews wanted to kill Paul, and so they had to smuggle him out in the cover of night.

Paul wasn't with them long enough to see the spirit really take hold and watch the transformation happen in these

Christians and verify that it was it was a genuine conversion. It's not just a moment that they experienced like most

Greeks had. They hear the guy preaching about this Jesus Christ and they're going, oh, hey, new knowledge, a new philosopher

I haven't heard of. And so then they flock around him and they want to hear this stuff, though they may not actually have a heart that turns from mute idols to worshiping the true and living

God. So Paul didn't get the chance to see that to get the confirmation of that conversion.

So then as he goes south into Corinth, he sends Timothy back up to Thessalonica and some of those some of those areas in Macedonia where churches were planted to check and see how those churches are doing.

So Timothy comes back to Paul with a good report of how the Thessalonians have been. But they're kind of disappointed that Paul wasn't the one that came.

And so they're they're worried that maybe Paul doesn't care about us, that he would send Timothy to come to us instead of coming himself.

And so part of Paul's apologetic in this letter is giving them reasons as to why he couldn't come back, how much he did love and care for them.

But Satan prevented him from getting to them. And so he sent Timothy and Silas instead.

And Timothy is his very dear servant in the Lord. He is his most trusted servant.

So it's actually quite an honor that Timothy ended up being the one that would come to the Thessalonians.

And they came back to Paul with a great report. These Thessalonians are being persecuted for their faith, but they remain steadfast.

However, there are some concerns related to certain doctrines, particularly as it pertains to the return of Christ.

The Thessalonians still had kind of a Greek understanding of death. So when a person died, their soul died with them.

There was no afterlife. And so did they miss out on the day of the Lord? And this prompted Paul to write to them that the dead in Christ will actually rise first.

And then those Christians that are left, the ones who are alive, will be caught up together with them.

And then we will forever be with the Lord. And then when we go into chapter five, which is what we were reading about last week, he ties that instruction about the dead in Christ will rise into all the other instructions that he had previously given them related to the teaching of the day of Christ's return.

So kind of connects all of that together to see how that flows with the teaching that he had already given them.

So you can see that there were some doctrinal distresses among the Thessalonians. There were some insecurities, how much they really belong to the church, if Paul really cared for them and some of these other things.

So as Paul gets to these final instructions in this letter, the first of these final instructions is to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the

Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Again, this is the elders, the pastors, the overseers who administer the

Bible teaching there in this church in Thessalonica. Of course, it wouldn't have been the Bible. The Bible wasn't completed yet, but they would have taught the

Old Testament scriptures and shown how Christ is the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets as far as scriptures go.

That's how they would have taught. But then they also would have been teaching the apostolic teaching.

And there was a movement of the Holy Spirit in this as well, giving them prophetic vision to be able to share with members of their own congregation.

This is not something that is active in the church now, but it was during this apostolic era, particularly when we consider that this letter,

First Thessalonians, is one of Paul's earliest, if not his first. There are some that have argued that this is

Paul's earliest letter, First Thessalonians. Some have said Galatians was before it.

We don't know for sure, but we know this was an early work of Paul's because he wrote it while he was in Corinth.

So because there are so few writings from the apostles and this would be one of the earliest, then those elders that are over the church in Thessalonica may have had prophetic visions themselves in which they were able to prophesy according to apostolic teaching, that which pertained to what the apostles witnessed and saw and taught and shared concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This wasn't new revelation in the sense that it would go beyond what we even have in the Bible. But just because of limited resources and other things, this would have been a spiritual gifting that may have been upon some of the elders within this church in Thessalonica.

So this was part of their teaching, though it all came back to the Old Testament scriptures showing how

Christ fulfilled what was written in the law and the prophets and tying that in with the gospel message that had been proclaimed by the apostles who witnessed these things.

Peter says in Second Peter, chapter one, we did not follow any cleverly devised myths, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

And Paul says or I'm sorry, John says something similar at the start of First John. We witnessed these things.

We are and we testify to what it is that we have seen. So all of this that comes from the apostolic teaching, the apostles were the first commission by Christ to take the gospel to the world.

And this church here in Thessalonica, one of those churches that were that was planted because of the teaching of an apostle, in this case, the

Apostle Paul, who came to this particular port city. But what Paul is telling them here by encouraging them to respect those who are over you in the

Lord and admonish you, he's saying to them, you don't have to have an apostle with you for you to be a thriving church and growing in the

Lord and maturing and being encouraged and not be in despair.

You don't actually have to have me come to you. You have your elders.

You have your teachers, these men who have been gifted in knowledge and wisdom and who shepherd your soul according to what has been written down by the prophets and what has been taught by the apostles, those who will call you out for your sin and lead you in righteousness.

These men are guiding you and maturing you. So don't don't be in despair when there's something that you don't understand.

You have teachers who are laboring for you. That's what Paul is encouraging them in.

We ask you, brothers, very affectionate appeal that he makes as he begins these closing instructions.

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the

Lord and admonish you. They're right there with you. So they are suffering with you.

They know exactly what it is that you are going through. Paul is in Corinth, and it's not as though he's saying,

I can't relate to you. I don't know what it is that you're going through because he can. He's actually suffered more greatly than the

Thessalonians have. However, he's not he can't be physically with them to encourage them every time they struggle with the trials that they might be going through.

But they have these elders, these pastors, these laborers, fellow laborers with them in the work that they do in that particular city.

So respect those men and look to those men. Respect those who labor among you.

They work with you. And I believe that some of that is physical labor. And we know this just because of the nature of the men there in Thessalonica.

We're going to get to a more specific instruction when we get to second Thessalonians, where Paul rebukes those who have been lazy and they have been kind of surviving off of the charity of the rich.

That'll be more direct in the next letter. He's made one he's made a couple of mentions of it here, but it gets more specific even in the next and goes as far as saying that if they don't work, they don't get to eat and have nothing to do with them.

Unless they obey the instructions that we have given to them in this letter. So it gets a little bit more harsh there.

But here where he says, respect those who labor among you, there's a double meaning there.

There's physical labor. They actually work with you side by side. They go through the same things in your city that you are going through.

But also there's a spiritual labor that they do. So they labor among you.

They are the overseers of your soul. That is a term that Peter uses in first Peter two twenty five, where he's quoting from Isaiah and he says, you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Of course, that's a reference to Christ. But then in chapter five, he talks about how the elder is an under shepherd and he is accountable to the chief shepherd.

So the elder himself is caring for the soul of those who are in his care.

The church, the flock of God. But there's a particular flock that God has entrusted that elder to care for.

And that is this church in Thessalonica for those for those Thessalonian elders.

Respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, which is one of my favorite

New Testament words admonish. It means to correct with goodwill.

Paul uses it also with the Colossians, Colossians chapter three, where he says to be filled with the word of Christ and encourage and admonish one another.

So with the word of Christ, we can be an encouragement. We can also admonish, correct those who are straying from righteousness, convicting them of their sins so that they will repent and continue to grow in sanctification.

We look after one another. I saw Denny Burke on Twitter this weekend, might have just been yesterday, as a matter of fact.

He says the answer to the question, am I my brother's keeper? The answer is yes. It's always yes.

This is the question that Cain asked when God had said, where is your brother Abel?

And Cain said, am I my brother's keeper? There is an answer to that question. The answer is yes, you are.

You are are the keeper of your brother, your brother or your sister in Christ, making sure as we're growing together in maturity and as we are being sanctified by Christ, something that I've heard

Tim Challey's refer to as a community project. Sanctification is a community project.

You don't do that by yourself. You do it with the body of Christ. So as we are doing these things together, we do have a responsibility to look out for one another.

The elder does that for the whole congregation. But then there's an instruction that comes here that has to do with everyone's responsibility in this work that's coming up.

I'm kind of jumping ahead a little bit because he goes on to say, we urge you, brothers, admonish the idol, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

So that's the work that everybody should be doing with one another, not just what the elders do for the congregation.

So here in this in this case. That you respect those who labor among you, be subject to their care, let them fill the role that they have been given with the spiritual gifts that they have, with the maturity that they have, because they are an example to the rest of the body.

The writer of Hebrews also talks about that in Hebrews chapter 13, to recognize those who taught you the word of God and imitate their faith.

That's kind of the same instruction that Paul is giving to them here. Respect those who labor among you and are over you in the

Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Paul talks to Timothy about the elder who is worthy of double honor because he has dedicated his entire life to the ministry.

And so that is esteeming them, take care of them, provide for them. There are some of those elders that have committed themselves so much to the work that they do, that they need to have their livelihoods provided for.

And so that would be esteeming them very highly in love because of the work that they are committed to make sure that they and their families are taken care of.

Be at peace among yourselves. So, again, let there be a peace in your heart because of the fact that you've got people there in your church who are caring for you and looking out for you.

You will not always have me. I can't always come and get to you, Paul is saying. But you have elders that are looking out for the care of your souls and so esteem them.

Be at peace. Know that there is somebody that will help you answer your questions, that will struggle with you in the persecution that you are experiencing there in Thessalonica.

They go through this with you and they are laboring over you in this ministry that they have been called to do.

And so I hope you've been making this connection as I've been going through this. But just as Paul has given this instruction to the

Thessalonians, so you also must submit to the authority that your pastor has been given.

Now, a pastor is a role of a servant. And if he is a good example to the congregation, to the flock that he has been instructed to oversee, he will serve that people.

He will be an example of service to one another. Jesus saying to his own disciples, if you want to be great in God's kingdom, you must learn to be a servant of all.

The son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to lay his life down as a ransom for many.

Christ is our ultimate example. So as the elder, the pastor is supposed to be an example of Christian maturity.

He should also be an example of that kind of service, that kind of labor that we must be doing for one another.

And so respect that work and let him do that work. And don't make that work difficult for him to do where you're the kind of person who's just always critical or you're always needy.

You you need to have all the other all of the attention of this pastor. And if he's not giving you the kind of tension that you think that you deserve, well, he must just not be showing attention to anybody because he's actually got several people in his congregation that he needs to be looking out for.

Hebrews 1317, I'd already quoted from Hebrews 13 about how it says to remember those who spoke to you, the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

There's another verse that comes up 10 verses later, Hebrews 1317, obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you.

So if you become a kind of a person that makes that job difficult on the pastor, it's no advantage to you either.

If if he has to end up doing that begrudgingly because of the the stress that that particular member of his congregation has been putting on him.

Yes. Let me just go ahead and address the elephant in the room. I have experienced this, but I have a great congregation.

My church has always taken good care of me in the seven years that I have been there. And it has been a labor of love.

It's been difficult, but it has certainly been rewarding as well.

And so esteem him very highly in love because of the work that he does over the flock of God that he has been entrusted to care for.

James three one says that not every one of you should aspire to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that teachers will be judged more strictly.

So he knows that he must entrust himself to Christ, who is the chief shepherd.

And and he will be held accountable by God for the work that he did.

That is not something that you necessarily are going to be held accountable for because you are not in the position of a teacher or an elder.

However, having said that, we all have a responsibility to one another. And that's what we get to next.

As Paul says, we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

Admonish the idle. So just as we had the instruction earlier that the elders admonish you, they correct you with goodwill.

So as you have those among you who are not working as they should, you need to admonish them.

You need to correct them. And this, like I said before, when it came to the the mention of labor, this might have to do with labor with their hands, actual physical work.

And it may also have to do with something spiritual. A person who has become idle in their walk of faith, that they're not growing spiritually because they've they've kind of become complacent.

They must be admonished. You need to be growing and maturing in your faith. Encourage the faint hearted, those who have become discouraged or maybe a little insecure in their faith, as we've seen among the

Thessalonians. That would be that instruction there. As you have those among you who are faint hearted, encourage one another.

Your elder will do this for you, but you also must do this for each other. Help the weak.

So I think of the instruction that's given in Romans 15, verse one, that we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves, but for his, for our neighbor, for his good, to build him up.

So there are those of us who are a little more mature in the faith than others. And yet we need to help the weak knots, not beat them over the head and say,

Hey, why don't you know this by now? Although in the case of those who are idle, they may need a whack in the head, a spiritual whack in the head.

But, uh, but for those who are weak in their faith, there are things they just struggle to comprehend or understand more so than others.

We need to serve them. We need to help them and not, uh, not kind of put them down because they don't know as much as we do or, or make them think that they're insignificant because they don't know as much as us.

Every church needs to have mature members and immature members, because this is that process of sanctification.

The, those who are mature, get more mature as they help those who are not as mature. And then likewise, those who are not as mature, get more mature because of the help of the mature.

Makes sense. All right. So we are helping and growing one another within the body of Christ.

You have the elders that oversee this work, but then we also must do this for one another. Help the week, be patient with them all.

I've been going through with my church congregation, first Corinthians, the study that we've been doing all year long.

And right now just happened to be in first Corinthians 13, the sermon that I just most recently did, which wasn't yesterday.

I didn't preach yesterday, but the week before first Corinthians 13, four love is what love is patient.

So as we're loving one another, be patient with everyone. And then that's where we're going to stop.

We get to the next instruction where Paul says, see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

And it's a further instruction about looking out for each other. And so we must do that.

We must, we must see to it that one another is pursuing the righteousness of Christ.

When we see sin, we call it out, doing this gently, following the instructions that Jesus gave on confronting these kinds of conflicts in the body of Christ.

In Matthew chapter 18, we follow the guidelines, the rules, the instructions that have been given to us in the pages of scripture for the benefit of our neighbor, to build him up for his good, to the praise and to the glory of God.

Let us pray. Our Lord God, as we wrap up what it is that we've been studying here, I pray that we would be submissive to those who labor over us and esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

You have called them to such a position that they would be overseers of our souls, that they would care for us to teach us the deep things of Christ, the mysteries and the oracles of God that have been written down in the pages of scripture by your prophets and your apostles.

Some of these things weighty and difficult. The apostle Peter said that of the apostle Paul, that he writes about things that are sometimes difficult, which the ignorant and unstable will twist to their own destruction.

But let us not be those who do not understand the scriptures for we have good and faithful teachers to guide us in the right way.

And our, our participation in the church is a safety. We are, we are being protected from the schemes of the devil out there in the world.

When we're with the body of Christ, our brothers and sisters looking out for one another, as we also need to look out for each other, protecting one another from false teaching, from temptation and all the other things in this world that might attempt to woo us away from this saving grace that we have in Jesus Christ.

Keep us steadfast and keep us immovable and help us be that strength that one another needs to stand up in this walk of faith that we are on.

Lead us and guide us according to your word. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. This is a protection of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.