Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent - Reminiscere - 1 Th 4:1-7

                                                                                                            Lent 2

                                                                                                            1 Th 4:1-7

                                                                                                            3/8/20

            We had all of our food out for the Surburg Super Bowl event. The kitchen counter was filled with great snack finger food, and I was enjoying all of it.  I was actually interested in this year’s Super Bowl, since I was rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs. First of all, they hadn’t been to the Super Bowl in fifty years, and I was hoping their loyal and long suffering fans would finally have a winner.  And second, I liked Andy Reid their coach who had done everything one could do in a successful career, except win the Super Bowl.

            It was a close game – tied up 10 to 10 as the first half ended.  And at that point we had to be subjected to that dreadful Super Bowl tradition – the half time show. This year the performers were Shakira and Jennifer Lopez – Latina singers chosen as a nod to the Miami location of the game.
            I am sure that most of you saw it, so I hardly need to describe in much detail what happened. Scantily clad women gyrated in sexually suggestive ways.  In particular, Jennifer Lopez wore a barely there outfit as she kept grabbing her crotch, and then at one point in the performance mounted a stripper pole.

            There was a strong backlash on social media, as people on Facebook and Twitter expressed their disgust that something like this was shown in the midst of an event that is family viewing.  There were even more than 1300 complaints about it filed with the Federal Communications Commission.

            But it’s not as if anyone was really surprised.  After all, since the 1960’s a tremendous shift has occurred in our culture. Our world today is permeated with sex.  TV shows and movies depict what most people believe – that having sex is just part of hooking up or dating.  Sex is assumed to be part of any ongoing relationship, and it is nothing for couples who are not married to live together. Our entertainment and music is drenched with sexual imagery and references.  And of course, the elephant in the room is pornography – especially as it available through the internet.  Conservatively estimated to be 10 billion dollar industry, pornography is now available any place you have phone or tablet. And it is available to anyone who has a phone or table, no matter how young he or she is.

            I mention this, because our text this morning is talking about sex.  Paul takes this issue head on, and so in this sermon we will too.  It is an appropriate topic to consider during this season of Lent, because this is a time of the church year that focuses our attention both on repentance from sin, and also on the spiritual and physical discipline that enable to live ways that are true to God’s will.

            Paul begins our text by writing, “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.”  Paul makes it clear that he is not saying anything new – something the Thessalonians haven’t heard before. Instead, it is teaching that he had already handed on to them.

            The apostle has already praised the Thessalonians as being people who are serious about the Christian faith.  In the opening to this letter he said, “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.”

            In particular, Paul thanked God for how the Thessalonians had received the word of the Gospel.  He says, “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

            Paul evangelized the Thessalonians on his second missionary journey.  Because of opposition from the Jews, he had to leave Thessalonica and head to southern Greece.  However, Paul was very concerned about this young church and how they were doing.  Now, Timothy had come from Thessalonica to Athens with an encouraging report.  Paul says, “But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you-- for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.”

            However, while there was much good news, this section of the letter indicates that things were by no means perfect.  Paul says, “For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 

not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.”

            It’s very likely that the teaching about how Christians are to live in relation to God’s gift of sex was presenting challenges for the Thessalonians. And that’s not really surprising, because what Paul had delivered as the Lord Jesus’ instruction was radically different from what they had known.  The Greco-Roman world assumed that masters had sex with their slaves.  Sex with prostitutes was considered normal, and the Roman government actually ran brothels to serve the poor who didn’t own their own slaves.  None of this was considered to be adultery or an offense to marriage. Sexual imagery, pornography, could be found everywhere – even on the wall of someone’s dining room.

            To this world the apostle brought the Lord’s word that sex was only to take place in the one flesh relationship of a husband and wife.  Sex between individuals of any other relationship was sin. It is sin the brings the wrath of God on the Last Day.

            To use sex in the way of the world – to live in lustful passion like all of the people around them - was to live like the Gentiles who do not know God.  The Thessalonians used to be that – pagans who did not know God.  But that all changed when Paul preached the Gospel to them.   At the beginning of this letter Paul refers to how they “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

            Because of the Gospel, they knew that Jesus Christ had died for the forgiveness of their sins. They knew that God had raised him from the dead. They knew the good news that Paul says in the later chapter of this letter, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”

            God had called the Thessalonians to faith through the word. The Holy Spirit had worked faith and their sins had been washed away in baptism. But in our text, Paul says that this calling to be God’s people means that Christians now live in ways that are true to God’s will – in ways that are holy.  The apostle says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.”  This was the case because as the apostle says in the last verse of our text, “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.”

            Paul’s words are, of course, just as true for us as we live in a culture that more and more resembles that of first century Thessalonica.  You have been sanctified by God. You have been made holy in his sight because of Jesus.  As Paul told the Corinthians, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

            In Holy Baptism you received the washing of regeneration by the Holy Spirit.  You are a new creation in Christ and God’s calling is to live in ways that are holy – ways that are true to God’s will and ordering of his creation.

            Sadly, we know that we live in the now and the not yet. While all I have said is true, it is also true that sin still clings to us. The old Adam is still present. And the greater and more important the gift, the more sin has the opportunity to cause great problems.

            God created man as male and female.  He created Eve from Adam as the perfect compliment for him – the one who was intended to be one flesh with him in sexual union.  In his original creation God made us to have sex and commanded this to be part our lives when he said: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”

            Warped and twisted by sin, this powerful life creating gift that defines marriage has become one of the greatest sources of temptation.  And sexual sin is not only a physical thing, for our Lord had told us, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

            Paul’s words – the instruction that he says has given through the Lord Jesus – says that is this is the will of God, our sanctification: that we abstain from sexual immorality and that each one of us know how to control our body in holiness and honor.

            What does this mean for us?  It means that where we have had sex outside of marriage, or lusted after one who is not our spouse, or looked at pornography in order promote lustful thoughts and reactions that can be acted upon by ourselves – we need to repent.  We need to confess this as sin that brings the wrath of God. We confess this sin and turn to God for the forgiveness won by Jesus Christ and now delivered by his Means of Grace.

            It means that we reject the lie of our culture, and instead only engage in sexual intercourse with the one who is our spouse. And at the same time, where outside of marriage the command is “you shall not,” within marriage it is “you shall.”  It is something that spouses should seek to give to one another because this is God’s intent for marriage.

            And it means that we avoid those things that are intended to arouse us sexually and create lustful thoughts.  In particular we must view pornography as a sin inducing drug. It is something that actually alters the brain so that once a person begins viewing it, larger and larger quantities are required, along with more and more explicit content in order to achieve the original experience. And it is something that then harms the body’s ability to respond in the ways God intended when a person is with his or her spouse.

            In Christ God has sanctified us.  He has made us holy through faith and baptism as we live in Christ. Because this is so, his will is also for our sanctification – that we live in ways that please God and are true to his will. This means that we abstain from sexual immorality and instead control our bodies and minds in honor and holiness. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.