Introduction
1.Pastor Mark Dever in his book, Nine Marks of a
Healthy Church, suggests that expositional preaching
is essential to a healthy church. I believe that is
clearly taught in the pages of the Bible,
particularly in Paul’s epistles. We considered a
little of that from 1 Thessalonians. Dever’s second
mark zeros in on a Biblical theology.
2.For some, the word theology is a frightening one.
I have heard church people and even pastors say that
they have no theology; they just believe the Bible.
Theology means a study of God. We all have a
theology. It might be a good one or a corrupt one,
but we have one. What we believe about God and
salvation and heaven and hell and Christ and the
cross – all of these issues are issues of theology.
Our theology may have come from our childhood
training by our parents or our teachers or our own
ideas or our traditions or from Joe’s Bar and Grill.
But wherever it came from, we have a personal
theology.
3.Churches also have a collective theology. Some try
to downplay theology because they do not wish to
divide or frustrate or anger people with what they
believe. It is true that in some sense theology
divides, but that is not all bad. Let me give you an
example. Most of us here would affirm the Bible
doctrine (teaching) that Jesus Christ is the only
way of salvation. (There is salvation in no other
than in Jesus. He is the way the truth and the life
and no one can come to the Father except through
Him) Agreed? In saying that this is our theology, we
have just drawn a line in the sand. We have shut out
the Muslims and the J.W.’s and the Mormons and the
Hindus and the Unitarians, etc. Some may think that
is harsh, but if we have no theology we can have no
Christianity – no forgiveness of sin – no salvation.
4.Even if we say we have no theology, our theology
is that we have no theology, but we do have a
theology that outlines what we believe even if we
don’t believe much! As one person said, “Our
inattention to belief fits our impatience with
detail.” Why can’t we just believe what we want and
not make it too complicated.
5.If we are to be a healthy church, we must have a
clear Biblical theology. We may not all agree on the
finer points of that theology, but we better be able
to defend what we believe from the Bible, and we
should be willing to adjust our theology if we
realize that what we believe is not supported by
Scripture. Before we get started, let me give you
one example. Acts 18:24-28. Apollos was eloquent and
“competent in the Scriptures.” He was fervent in
spirit. He spoke and taught accurately the things
concerning Jesus, but he did not have any
understanding of the baptism of the Spirit. A couple
of Paul’s new friends, Aquila and Priscilla took him
aside and helped him understand. He listened,
adjusted his theology, and went on preaching with
great power.
6.The question we need to grapple with today is what
does the theology of a healthy church look like? I
would suggest the following based much upon what we
can learn from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians
concerning the theology of God.
I. EVERYTHING BEGINS AND ENDS WITH GOD
(God as sovereign creator)
A.The Bible begins with the record of God’s
creation. The Bible is a long story about what goes
on with God and the world He has made. It is a book
about God. He is the main character both in relation
to attention and importance.
B.The Bible records the story of God making
something out of nothing. There is the Garden of
Eden, the fall, Cain to Noah, Noah to the tower of
Babel. God calls Abraham and he becomes a nation.
The nation falls into slavery. God leads them out,
gives them His law and takes them to the land of
Promise. There is confusion and rebellion and
judgment and captivity and dispersion and a return
to the land and a restoration of the temple. And
that is where the OT leaves off with a needy pitiful
people having been reduced to utter dependence. But
painted throughout this historical account is the
revelation of who God is and what He is like.
C.God as the creator, chose a nation on whom He
would bestow His favor. Some may see this as unfair.
However, unfair is not a category we should ever
apply to God. Further, even if we could apply it to
God, we are not the ones who have the capacity to do
so because we are too biased by our own
self-interest. To think that we would actually have
the capacity to determine when God was being unfair
is unbelievably arrogant, not to mention very bad
theology! As Paul speaks with the Thessalonians, he
is consistent with the Biblical message of
everything beginning and ending with a sovereign
God.
1. The church is presented as “in God” (1:2). God is
seen as the source, the first cause of their
salvation (“he has chosen you” 1:4, and “charged you
to walk in a manner worthy of God”). The Gospel is
the good news about Him (2:2,8,9 “the gospel of
God”)
2.The church is presented as turning to God (1:9
“you turned to God from idols to serve the living
and true God…”), responding to His Word (2:13
3.The reminder to the church and her leadership is
that they are “approved by God” and called to
“please God” (2:4).
D.The Bible makes clear that God is the sovereign
Savior and judge (1:10 “who delivers us from the
wrath to come”; 2:12 - who calls us to walk in a
manner worthy of God, “who calls us into his own
kingdom and glory.” He is a God who “has not
destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation
through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:9) He is also
revealed as one whose “wrath has come upon them at
last” (2:16).
E.The end of the Bible is presented as the
consummation of God’s plans to have a people in
right relationship to Him (Revelation 21:1-4;
21:22-22:5). Clearly Paul alludes to such to the
Thessalonians when he writes, “Now may the God of
peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your
whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls
you is faithful; he will surely do it” (5:23-24).
II. HOLINESS IS A
CERTAIN ATTRIBUTE OF GOD (God as wholly
holy)
A.God is not a morally indifferent God. He has a
passion for holiness.
1. The holiness Paul speaks about is that of
separation. God is holy separated from everything
tainted with sin. And He has called those who trust
Him to be holy. Paul’s prayer for them included
(3:13) “so that he may establish your hearts
blameless in holiness before our God and Father at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his
saints.”
2. In embracing God, they were separated from their
idols (1:9). They were called upon to be a holy
people in the midst of great wickedness (4:7 – “For
God had not called us for impurity, but in
holiness”)
3. Paul reminded the people that God’s ultimate goal
for them would be to present them completely
sanctified, “blameless at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ” 5:23.
B.God’s passion for holiness does bring to the
surface a problem, however, as He seeks a
relationship with us. For we are not holy, but
sinful, yet we are called to relate to a holy God.
We are separated from God but we need to be
reconciled to God. Since everyone is a sinner,
everyone has this problem. There is a need for
atonement in order to be spared the wrath of God,
which has been determined to fall on all who are
unholy!
C.Atonement is linked in the OT with sacrifice. This
is how God restores our relationship to Him. The
idea of sacrifice occurs early in Scripture and is
consistent throughout the Scripture. (The garden,
Cain and Abel, the Passover lamb “when I see the
blood”; the book of Leviticus, the Day of Atonement.
(The offerings had to be voluntary, costly,
belonging to the one offering the sacrifice;
accompanied by confession of sins, all according to
God’s prescriptions. (There was something quite
different in Biblical sacrifices as compared with
other ancient pagan ones. Sacrifices in the Bible
were brought not by the grateful, but by the guilty,
not by the ignorant, but by the instructed. Death
and atonement are inseparably connected). Paul makes
that known to the Thessalonians.
1. Though not unpacked here, Paul reminded the
Thessalonians (1:10) that they had turned to God
from idols and they were awaiting the coming of
Christ from heaven “whom he raised from the dead”,
that same one whose sacrifice “delivers us from the
wrath to come.”
2. The death of Christ is alluded to in relation to
the cost of following Jesus in 2:15. Again, the
reminder is that those who are perishing oppose the
Gospel even as they “fill up the measure of their
sins” not really knowing that “God’s wrath has come
upon them at last” (2:16).
D.All of this makes a huge impact on not only how we
view God, but also how we view ourselves. If we see
ourselves as basically good, our church will be a
place where we encourage each other and enhance our
self-esteem. If we understand that we are basically
sinful and before our faith in Christ we were
spiritually dead, then the church has a different
mission. How we see God and how we see ourselves
will drastically effect how we “do church.” Do we
have a Biblical theology concerning the holiness of
God? (Let’s consider two more attributes of God in
our consideration of a Biblical theology).
III. FAITHFULNESS AND
LOVE FURTHER DESCRIBE GOD (God as
faithful and loving)
A.“God is not only holy and just in His unwavering
commitment to oppose and punish sin; He is also
faithful to His promises.” How could the Lord
“forgive wickedness” and at the same time, “not
leave the guilty unpunished”? The answer is found in
God and His promise. There is a requirement for the
substitution of suffering and death on the part of
the innocent for the deserved punishment of the
guilty.
1. Paul taught the Thessalonians that God was both
loving and faithful to call them to salvation (1:4),
as well as loving and faithful to spare them from
the wrath to come – a wrath they deserved (1:10;
5:9).
2. God is faithful and loving to keep His promises
concerning our deliverance (4:13-18) and our
ultimate sanctification (5:23-24).
3. God continued to be faithful and loving to the
Thessalonians, working in them, establishing in them
blameless and holy hearts, turning their affection
toward Him and to those who have also been saved by
Him (3:12-13).
B.It is to this God who is both loving and faithful
that Paul commits the Thessalonian believers.
1. Paul correctly saw the ministry he had as having
been entrusted to him by God Himself (2:4). And this
same God who entrusted Paul with the Gospel also
gave loving encouragement to Paul as the
Thessalonians embraced both the Gospel and them as
the messengers of that Gospel (3:6-7).
2. It was because of the love and faithfulness of
God that Paul was able to continue to proclaim the
Gospel in the midst of much affliction (2:1-7). The
Thessalonians in turn imitated Paul and did the same
thing throughout Macedonia and beyond (1:6-8).
C.It is to this God who is both loving and faithful
that Paul hangs his hope.
1. “Loved by God” (1:4) – how else could we explain
His gracious work of salvation on our behalf?
2. “He who calls you is faithful” (5:24) – how else
could we keep going? Because He is faithful, “he
will surely do it – that is sanctify us completely
and keep us blameless at the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
1. A healthy church has a well-established and
clearly understood Biblical theology. Without that,
we are clueless as to where we are and where we are
going. We have only considered a small slice of the
doctrine of God as revealed in this one brief
letter, but it is enough to make the point.
2.In this brief letter Paul speaks of the theology
of God and of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. He
makes us aware of the theology of sin and salvation,
of Satan, of eschatology, of Bibliology. He gives a
little information concerning the theology of the
church. We are given a glimpse of the power of God
unto salvation both toward the Thessalonians and the
call to missions.
3.The Apostle addressed their questions, but he did
not speak of these theological matters in
introductory ways. There appears to be an assumed
level of competence to understand what Paul is
teaching them about God and their relationship to
Him.
4.This was a healthy church because they had a
Biblical theology and they practiced it. They had
not arrived. They had their issues, but they were in
process and they were making progress!
5.Dever, pp. 60-61
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