And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another, and to all, just as we do to you, (3) 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. (4:1)  Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and please God; (2) for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

The Apostle Paul wrote the first letter to the Thessalonians.  Paul successfully established the church there on his second missionary journey.  As he would do, Paul first attended the synagogue there and preached the gospel, using the Old Testament – familiar to the Jews – to show that Jesus was the Messiah. He achieved some success as after three sabbaths  was denied  the synagogue to preach. I believe that he remained in Thessalonica for some time after, teaching in another location – eventually he was driven from that city. 

Paul went to Athens but, thwarted in his attempt to return, he sent his disciple, Timothy, to the Christians in Thessalonica to establish and encourage them – and Timothy reported that the church there remained strong. At this point Paul wrote this first letter directed to the Thessalonians, and also as a prayer to God, that they remain strong Christians – that their faith in the gospel would grow and that they increase in love for one another and to all.  Paul is praying that they will grow in knowledge and discernment and that they remain steadfast in the grace of God whatever the future holds

The new commandment of Christ and the mark of a Christian was to love one another. This love Paul speaks of is not a mindless sentimentality but a result of the will to  love.  The heart must be made holy first – the Holy Spirit will work in the faithful when the Word is established.  The heart is considered to be the place of knowledge and understanding in the New Testament.

Every chapter in this letter ends with reference to the return of Jesus Christ and this certain hope is used to motivate daily living – an encouragement, comfort and Stimuli. Paul wanted to put that teaching in the context of daily living and conduct.

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.  To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, (6) and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen.  (7) Behold, He is coming with clouds and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him.  And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him.  Even so, Amen. (8) “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

The translation of the Latin word revelation to Greek is Apokalypsis.  This last book of the Bible is intended to be a revelation of things not yet revealed by God. The foundational theme of Scripture is that man is wholly dependent on God and the revelation of God to man in the Bible is solely Gods initiative.

The purpose of Revelation is to tell the reader who Jesus is – that Jesus is critical to everything.  If we believe right about Jesus we will think right about everything.  In the Old Testament,  Israel was Gods witness to the world – in this age the Church is Gods witness. but neither are faithful witnesses.  Because Jesus Christ is true God (and also true man) He is not a reflection of God but is God and He is the “faithful witness”.  Jesus is the first begotten – this is not chronological, but positional. He is the pattern for all His brethren who will arise from the dead. Jesus is ruler over all men today but many/most do not realize this. But they will when He comes again.

The grammar used here – that He is coming and every eye will see Him – is present tense and future tense.  It is immanent  – He is in the process of coming and will arrive.  We are told that the invisible God will become visible. in this case seeing is a literal visibility, not an understanding and “every eye will see Him” tells us of  global nature of the manifestation of Christ.  We are given the promise of the one who will come again. The first time He came He redeemed us and He is certain to come to this earth again in power and glory and every eye shall see Him and every knee will bow.  There will be judgment and this will also be the culmination of all things.

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.  (12) But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, (13) from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.  (14) For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.  (18) Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

The author of Hebrews – who is unknown – is warning his intended audience of Hebrew Christians that if they reverted to Judaism with its sacrificial system, they would forfeit what Jesus secured for them – total forgiveness for their sins.  The Christian faithful receive what those under the Old Testament could not from their high priest.

Christians, at the moment of belief, assume the position of justification through Christ’s sacrifice.  Christ bore our penalty and in Jesus we receive complete pardon for our sins.  The faithful are to find growth in holiness – we believe and that means we are to act as we believe.  This is sanctification through grace.

All our verses today tell us the incredible news that in Christ Jesus we received complete pardon for sins and this is hammered home in verse 18, chapter 10.  There is complete forgiveness for those who love Him and there is no longer any need for further offering for sin.  Jesus is sitting as far as saving work is concerned – He is finished there.  But one day He will stand and judge those who rejected Him.  Wow.

For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; (25) not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – (26) He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages.  He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.  (27) And, as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, (28) so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.  To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

The writer of this letter is unknown.  It was written to Jewish Christians who were tempted to turn from Christ to their former Jewish religion.  The author has been making the point that Christ Jesus was superior, supreme and all sufficient for the salvation of His elect – and if trust is put in anything else – another religious system, our own good works, our heritage etc. – we will not escape God’s judgment.   The writer compares the better sacrifice of Christ to the annual perpetual sacrifice of the High Priest under the Jewish religion.  Christ was perfect sinless man – as well as undiminished deity –  and His sacrifice was perfect and acceptable to God.  His sacrifice for our salvation was made once and for all because if was perfect.  The second coming of Christ, referred to in verse 28, will not be to do with sin as His first perfect sacrifice completely resolved that issue.  At the second coming all men will be resurrected to live forever – some in eternal happiness and others in eternal damnation.

In verse 27 we are told that men are appointed to die once and after this comes judgment.  We are not reincarnated.  Death is final and any belief system which denies that is a lie.    The text makes it clear that our faith in Christ is a matter of life and death – eternal life or eternal death.  This straightforward warning reminds us that our appointed time is unknown to us but it is not negotiable.  The only opportunity we have to get right with God is now and what happens at the moment of death depends on what happens before we die.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.  Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  (2) Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.  (3) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

The verses we study today address the present and future status of believing Christians.  The author tells us in verse one that we are now children of God – he repeats this in verse two.  This essential truth  should dominate our lives – being born again in faith means that we are now members of Gods family.  Our future state is not yet completely revealed or known – right now we are in the flesh and  In time and space. We may be reborn but our nature is still a sinful nature and subject to the temptations of this world. We know, based on the testimony of the New Testament –  the gospel – that our faith is based on historical fact concerning the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

John tells us that in our future we (the faithful) will be like Jesus because we will see Him just as He is and that will conclude our transformation. This Christian hope does not imply uncertainty.  Because of this hope the faithful cannot live comfortably with sin – this is progressive sanctification.  Christ is the standard  for living,  not other men or the ways of this world.  If we are Gods children it is a continuing intimate relationship.  C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity tells us that “When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less.”