1 Thessalonians 5:20-21

Handle God's word with care

Well, good evening, Church. It's a blessing to be with you all tonight. Over the past few weeks, we've been looking at 1 Thessalonians 5, some instructions that Paul gives to the Church. Last week, in verse 19, we learned about what it means to not grieve the Holy Spirit. And tonight, in verses 20 and 21, we are going to see a specific application of verse 19. We are not to grieve the Holy Spirit by not despising prophecies. So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, 20 to 21. And here we read,

do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good.

We're given instructions here on how to handle revelation. God's revealed word is a treasure that is more precious than gold. and sweeter than honey. It's the most valuable commodity that we have, and we are not to handle it flippantly. So our main idea for tonight is simply this, handle God's word with care. Handle God's word with care. Our passage gives us three ways to carefully handle God's word. First, it tells us to not despise prophecy, to accept revelation. Second, It tells us to test everything, to test revelation. Three, it tells us to hold fast to what is good, to hold fast to true revelation. So point one, the first way that God tells us to carefully handle his word is to accept revelation. We are not to despise prophecy. And what are we talking about here when we say prophecies? True prophecies are God's inerrant and infallible revealed word. So tonight I'm gonna be saying that we're using the words prophecy. I'm gonna be using the word revelation. I'm gonna be using God's word. I'll be using all of that interchangeably. Prophets served as the mouthpieces of God, inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit. They served as the authoritative proclamation of God's promises, his commands, and his judgments. Sometimes they spoke to us new revelation. Other times they reminded God's people of what had been revealed in the past. In the first century, when Paul is writing this letter, the prophets are still prophesying. They're working alongside the apostles to lay the foundation of the church. These prophecies were a gift from God for building up the church, for encouraging God's people and for consoling them. Prophecies were the way that the church came to know God and to understand the mysteries of God. The prophets equipped the saints for the work of ministry and for building up the body of Christ. And the end goal of prophecies were unity, knowledge, and maturity. In all this, we see that God's word is absolutely essential for the church. His word creates the church, it builds the church, and it sustains the church. A church that accepts God's word is a church that is not quenching the Holy Spirit. It's a church that is doing the will of God. So on Sundays, we can be confident that the Holy Spirit is guiding us in all truth because God's word is being read. It's being preached. It's being sung. It's being prayed. And it's being seen in the ordinances. Throughout the week, you can be confident that you're not quenching the Spirit if you're reading God's word. if you're meditating on it, and if you're striving to apply it to your life. I recognize that this isn't necessarily easy. This is tough work. We're told to not despise prophecies because our sinful hearts are inclined to reject God's word. On the one hand, God's word confronts us in our sin. Many of the Old Testament prophecies, they were judgments on sin and calls to repentance. And God's word still does the same thing with us today. So if God's word is convicting you of sin, if his word feels judgmental to you, if it's calling you back to a right relationship with God, recognize that this revelation is a gift. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. It's an encouragement from God himself for your upbuilding, for your maturity. Don't despise it. Don't reject it. Don't ignore it. Accept it. embrace it, and repent. Another reason that accepting God's word is tough work is because there are a lot of contradicting voices claiming to speak for God. Islam, for example, claims that Muhammad was God's true prophet. Mormonism claims that Joseph Smith saw a prophetic vision and wrote it down in the Book of Mormon. The United Church of Christ claims that God is still speaking. And therefore, churches should be more inclusive, accepting, and tolerant. All throughout human history, people have claimed to speak for God. But God has been gracious enough to equip his people with the tools to discern true revelation from false prophecies. And so that leads us to our second point. The second way to handle God's word with care is to test revelation, to test everything. How do we do this? The Bible gives us two tests that every prophecy needs to pass. The first test is the scriptures test. Does this revelation align with what God has already inerrantly revealed? Now I find it interesting that Paul is giving this charge to the Thessalonians in light of what happened during his first visit to Thessalonica. Acts 17, Paul comes to Thessalonica. He reveals the truth about Christ in the synagogues and some believed. hence this church that Paul is writing to. But most of the Jews rejected the gospel and ended up starting a mob. And the believers then quickly sent Paul and Silas off to Berea for their safety. And then in Berea, Paul does the exact same thing that he does in Thessalonica. But in Berea, it says

these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them, therefore, believed.

In Acts 17, we essentially have a case study for how to handle revelation. Paul is essentially telling the church in Thessalonica, don't be like the Jews in your town, be like the Jews in Berea. So what happens when we examine revelation against the scriptures? For one, we learn that God doesn't change. God's character doesn't change. His ways don't change. His plans don't change. He has no reason to change because he's perfect. And we should have no reason to want him to change. If he were to change, he'd be less than perfect. He would also not be trustworthy. If God were different today than he was yesterday, who's to say that he's not going to change again tomorrow? And how can we trust that we're going to end up in his good graces once he changes? No, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So if we run across revelation, if we run across a prophecy, an interpretation of the scriptures that makes God seem to be different than what he has already inerrantly revealed about himself, we can be confident that what's being revealed about God is false. So first test, the scriptures test. Second test, the Jesus test. What does this revelation say about Jesus? 1 Corinthians 12.3, Paul writes,