Sermon preached on Sunday, February 5, 2012 at Garden Valley Chapel; 1 Thessalonians 5:12a.

Take your Bible if you will and open it to the fifth chapter of Paul´s first epistle to the Thessalonians where we begin our study on verses 12 & 13.

The church at Thessalonica was a healthy church, moving in the right spiritual direction, but still needed to "excel still more."

Paul commended the church back in 4:1 -

1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.

It was a healthy church actually doing what it was supposed to be doing, but Paul encouraged the believers that there was still a sanctification process to follow and much room for additional growth-they needed to "excel still more."

Down in v. 9 Paul writes -

9 Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
10 for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more,

The church was doing well, but they could do better. They were moving in the right direction, but they could even go farther.

There was room for growth at Thessalonica, just like in any church.

And so Paul instructs them beginning with verse 12 as to how they are to live within the church here and now.

In fact from verses 12 down through verse 22, you have a long series of exhortations, commands that deal with the practical life in the church.

And the very first instruction he gives to them relates to the responsibility of both the shepherd and the sheep (vv. 11-12).

I want to take the time to go through this short series that highlights each of these responsibilities because I believe it is what we need to hear as a church body.

We are about to embark on a study that aims to look at the relationship between the sheep and the shepherd - a vital one.

If we are going to be a healthy church, my beloved, this is where we begin. We must begin with the relationship between the shepherds and the sheep.

A right relationship = a healthy church.
A wrong relationship = a sick church (i.e. unhealthy).

You cannot go anywhere without each fulfilling their God-given spiritual responsibility. If shepherds are not fulfilling their proper spiritual responsibility to the sheep and if the sheep are not fulfilling their proper spiritual responsibility to the shepherd, the church can never be what God intends it to be.

The relationship that we have with you and you have with us as leaders is crucial in the church.

So much so that a church stands or falls at this point. It is either healthy or sick based on this relationship between the shepherds and the sheep.

Churches are really hurting when there is a breakdown of confidence, trust, love, affection between shepherds and sheep.

It is a huge blow to the church when this relationship is not in order.

*I cannot emphasize it enough, my beloved, this relationship is crucial!

It is for this reason that I want to sit under the instruction of our Lord through the Apostle on this important relationship.

In all, it will take us at least 3 weeks to discuss these two verses at length.
Now the church at Thessalonica was a very young church. It was less than a year old and contained primarily new converts, many of whom were common people, some were slaves.

You had very few, if any, mature believers who could articulate the truth and direct the church with discernment.

Nevertheless Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, identifies certain qualified men, and started training them to become elders - elders in process.

Though being identified and qualified men, they had to learn how to grow spiritually and develop as leaders of the church.

Perhaps it is for this reason that Paul admonishes them to "live at peace with one another" (v. 13b) since there were unruly, fainthearted, weak people in the church.

It is for this reason that Paul wants to address this important relationship between the shepherds and the sheep.

I invite you to stand for the reading of God´s Word.

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13. [You may take a seat.]

In discussing the responsibility of the shepherds, I want to ask two simple questions:
1. Who are these men?
2. What do these men do?

It may come to no surprise that I want to look at this one verse, v. 12, both this Lord´s Day and next.