Lent 2
1
Thess 4:1-7
3/16/25
The movie “Anora” won five Oscars
this month, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Director. It tells the story of a woman who works at a
strip club. She becomes involved with a rich
man, before ultimately his family forces him to abandon her.
Now, I have not seen “Anora,” nor do
I have any intention of doing so. But
multiple reliable sources have described how much of “Anora” is soft-core porn.
The movie begins with the scene of topless women as they drape themselves all
over male buyers.
In accepting her award for Best
Actress, Mikey Madison said, “I just want to recognize and honor the sex worker
community. Yes, I will continue to support and be an ally. All of the incredible people, the women that
I’ve had the privilege of meeting from that community has been one of the
highlights of this incredible experience.”
I doubt that any of you have seen
“Anora” – very few people have. In fact, it is one of the lowest grossing Best
Picture winners in history, having only made sixteen million dollars in the
U.S. But the very fact that it was nominated, much less won an Oscar, shows
what our culture is promoting.
We live in a world that has almost
no limits in the use of sex. People
believe they are free to have sex with whomever they choose. It is considered
laughable that it should limited to marriage. Sex is for hook ups. Sex is part
of dating. Sex is part of people living together. Sex is for two men. Sex is
for two women. Television and movies are
awash in sexual imagery that was once unthinkable. And the unlimited access to pornography online
has made it a significant part of our culture.
This situation is something that is
new – it has arisen in the last seventy five years. But on the other hand, it is nothing new. It
is very similar to the first century world in which the apostle Paul
lived. In our text this morning, he
provides us with instruction from the Lord about how we are to live in this
world.
Paul had preached the Gospel to the
Thessalonians on his second missionary journey. We learn from Acts that Jewish
opposition to the Gospel forced Paul to leave Thessalonica much sooner than he
had wished. The apostle was concerned about how this young church was
doing.
Paul had sent Timothy to visit them. Now his assistant had returned
and brought good news. Paul says in the
previous chapter: “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.”
Paul had preached the Gospel to the Thessalonians, and it had
changed their lives. The apostle describes in the first chapter, “how you
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.” In the next chapter Paul writes: “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.”
In both chapters Paul refers to God’s wrath. The wrath of God is
not something our world – and even many Christians – want to talk about. Instead, the world only wants to know about
God’s love – a “love” that really ends up being an affirmation to be and do what
they want.
But God’s Word is clear in teaching that our life and world has
been ordered according to God’s will – a will that is expressed in his
law. To transgress this will – to break
this law – is sin.
God is the holy God in whose presence sinners cannot exist. Sin evokes God’s wrath – his judgement. Paul told the Colossians, “Put to death
therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On
account of these the wrath of God is coming.”
The wrath of God is coming. It
will be revealed in the judgment of the Last Day. The apostle told the Romans,
“But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing
up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment
will be revealed.”
We know that we are sinners who sin. But by his death on the cross,
Jesus rescued us from God’s wrath. He has given us salvation in the forgiveness
of sins. And this salvation includes rescue from death, because God raised
Jesus from the dead. The risen Lord has
ascended, and as Paul told the Thessalonians, we await God’s Son from
heaven. Jesus Christ will return in
glory on the Last Day to raise our bodies from the dead. For us, the Last Day will not be a day of
wrath and judgment. Instead, it will be the
day when God will declare us justified – not guilty – because of Christ.
In our text, Paul talks about how we live because of this. He begins our text by saying: “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. For you know what instructions
we gave you through the Lord Jesus.”
Paul had passed on to the Thessalonians instruction about how they
were to live in a way that pleased God.
He reminded them that he had given this instruction through the Lord
Jesus – that this teaching was authoritative for the Church. The apostle says that they should seek to
live in this way more and more.
What is this way? The apostle writes: “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.”
God’s will for us is that we live in holy ways – ways that are true
to his will. His will is that we keep
away from sexual immorality – that we control our bodies in holiness and honor. Paul contrasts this with the “Gentiles” –
those who don’t know God. They live in lustful passion that rejects God.
In our text, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that this is a matter
of great importance. He adds that this
is so, “because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you
beforehand and solemnly warned you.” Paul reminds them that, “God has not
called us for impurity, but in holiness Therefore whoever disregards
this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” To
reject the apostle’s teaching is to reject God – the One who gives the Holy
Spirit. It is to reject the life of faith, and to return to the life of
unbelief – the life of those who don’t know God.
Paul judged that there was a need to write these words to the
Thessalonians. It is likely a subject in
which they were having struggles. It’s
not surprising that they did. The first
century Greco-Roman world assumed that men had sex with their slaves. The use of prostitutes was considered
entirely normal and ordinary. In fact,
the Roman government provided brothels for the poor. Older men had sex with young men and boys,
and there was the practice of homosexuality.
Pornography – graphic depiction of sex acts – was common in the
decorations on walls and objects.
The apostle had taught the Thessalonians the truth about sex that
God had revealed to Israel, and now, to his Church. God had created man as male and female. A husband was joined to his wife in the one
flesh union of marriage. This sexual
union of husband and wife was intended to produce children. Sexual intercourse
was only to take place within marriage.
Any form of sex outside of marriage was porneia – from which we
get the word pornography. It was sexual
immorality. And as Jesus had taught, to
look upon a person other than one’s spouse with lustful intent was sinful.
The Thessalonians were learning what it meant to live in a way that
was completely different from the world around them. Paul was encouraging them to live in this way
that pleased God more and more. This way
of living is nothing new to you. It is the teaching of the Sixth
Commandment. It is what you have been
taught in the Church. But now you are
being called to live in ways that are completely different from the world
around you.
We do this in the recognition that God’s ways are good for us
– they are a blessing. God is the one
who created sex. His will – his law – tells us how he ordered it. When we use it in his ways, it is a
blessing. Within marriage it binds
husband and wife together in true intimacy.
In the giving of one to another it produces life – a child that will
then be cared for as God intended it in the setting of family.
And if you reject God’s ordering and use sex outside marriage you
bring hardship and difficulties to your life.
Sex hinders a person’s ability to evaluate whether the other person is a
good choice for a mate. Add in living together and it becomes worse still, with
an increased likelihood of divorce. It
leads to children born outside of marriage, and all the challenges that entails
for parents and child. Adultery destroys
marriages and families. The use of
pornography rewires the brain in ways that prevent individuals from being able to
function sexually in the way for which they were created.
God has called you as his own. He has made you holy through faith
in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
You have been born again of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism, and so
are a new creation in Christ. The Spirit
who has given us this life now leads and enables us to walk in God’s ways.
In our text, the apostle Paul gives us words that we need to
hear. He calls us back to the teaching
of the Lord that we have already heard as he says, “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. For you know what instructions
we gave you through the Lord Jesus.”
The will of God for us is our
sanctification – that we live in holy ways – in his ways. This is true for all areas of life, but in
our text Paul focuses on one area that is foundational for the way God created
us. He created us a male and female. He
created us for sexual union in marriage.
He created us to have children and to raise them in the setting of family.
This now runs counter to almost everything the world has to say
about the use of sex. But the world’s
way is a perversion of God’s gift that leads to harm and hardship. God’s way yields blessings as we live in
Christ.
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