HOME VISIT THEME 2011-2012 1 THESSALONIANS 5:14 Beloved brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, guests, it is a good practice in Reformed churches that elders visit the homes. Historically speaking, home visits are the Protestant version of the sacrament of confession. The Reformers distanced themselves from the Roman Catholic practice of confession, in which the priest was positioned as mediator between God and the believer. But the Reformers did not throw out the baby with the bath water. For they recognized that elders do have the duty to supervise the faith life of God s children. This duty is not beholden to elders, we are all called upon to look out for one another. But within the structures of the church, it is the elders who have been called to give account for their work of supervision. For that reason, home visits used to be made in the week prior to the celebration of the Lord s Supper. In a small church that is quite viable, home visit once every three months. But in larger churches this did not work. And hence the practice arose of annual home visits. As our church order states, elders are to faithfully visit the members of the congregation in their homes to comfort, instruct, and admonish them with the Word of God, reproving those who behave improperly (CO art. 22). Thus the annual home visits have a special place in our scheme of things. Almost two weeks ago the elders reflected on what matters should require attention during the coming season of home-visitation. The range was very wide. A common thread in all the comments that were made was, how we as brothers and sisters relate to each other. The Form for the Lord s Supper quotes the apostle John when it says that we are to show love to one another, not just in words, but also with our deeds. How is that among us, this love which is to be shown in both word and deed? Paul had run into this matter too, what does it mean in concrete terms to show love in deeds. Together with Silvanus and Timothy he gave instructions to the recently formed congregation in Thessalonica on this matter. Those instructions form our text this morning and this sermon will serve as a spring board for the home visits to be brought this coming year. We listen to God s Word, summarized with this theme: God is looking for us to paraclete. The text divides into five parts, and hence this sermon has five points. (1) The urging of the Spirit; (2) warning the disorderly; (3) encouraging the timid; (4) holding on to the weak; and (5) being patient with all. (1) The urging of the Spirit. There s a word in the theme you may very well not know. God seeks paracleting children. What is paracleting? It s actually a word I ve made up. Well, not quite. It s an English form of a Greek word, parakaleo. It s a word that is central to the New Testament where interpersonal relations are concerned. The verb, in English, would be to paraclete. The activity, the noun that goes with is, would be paraclesis. And the person doing it is called a paraclete. And there s a word you may know. For in the old Book of Praise, the word paraclete could be found in hymn 38. The Spirit knowing all our needs, Perfects our prayers and intercedes As Paraclete before God s throne; Our cause He makes His very own. In the new Book of Praise, the last two lines of this stanza have been changed into something else. But there you go, the term Paraclete need not be so strange to you. The Holy Spirit is called a Paraclete. It s the term Jesus used for the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John. We usually find it translated
with Comforter or Counsellor. And since Jesus referred to the Spirit as "another counselor", Jesus himself is a Paraclete as well. Translated very literally, the word means one called alongside and thus came to have the meaning of one who gives assistance to. The verb as found in our text is translated as urge. As I ve indicated in the write up in the bulletin, the verb can actually be variously translated. To comfort, to encourage, to admonish, they are all possible translations. The thing is, it is very difficult to translate the term paraclete in such a way that you catch all its flavours. As a verb, it means to call alongside. With respect to words it means to say something that achieves something. And the context in which the words were spoken would then determine how the verb is to be translated. Was it an encouraging word, or an admonishing word, or a comforting word? The problem is, though, that the same expression in different contexts can be different things, or more than one thing. Let me illustrate this. Imagine you are visiting with a fellow believer and you say to that person But hasn t Christ died for us? Is that an admonition, an encouragement, or a word of comfort? It all depends. If the person you are speaking with figures he is a good human being, and surely God won t reject him, then this expression is an admonition. I think God likes me, he s pretty happy with me. But hasn t Christ died for us? you admonish him. But if the person you are speaking with is the opposite. I m such an evil person. Nothing I do is good. I m sure God hates me and will send me to hell. But hasn t Christ died for us? That s a word of comfort. And if the person you are speaking with is still different, struggling with sin and not seeming to make headway, but willing to give it another go. I just can t seem to stop spending money. I wish I could. I keep trying but I keep failing. But hasn t Christ died for us? is then a word of encouragement. The power of sin is broken. Admonition, comfort, encouragement. In Greek, it can all be the same word. Paraclesis. And it s not all cut and dried, either admonition, or encouragement, or comfort. In 1 Thessalonians 5:11 the word is used as well. There, the NIV translates with encourage, and in verse 14 with urge. The New King James Version uses comfort in verse 11, exhort in verse 14, and for both instances has encourage in the footnote. What we actually need to do is try to roll the flavours of admonish, comfort, and encourage into one expression. There s no English word for that. Hence I anglicised the Greek word. In 1 Thessalonians 5:11 the congregation receives the instruction to paraclete each other and build one another up. Paraclesis is a mutual activity. But in verse 14 we have the elders Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy paracleting the congregation. Paraclesis is core business for an elder. And we need to take it one step further yet. For the Paraclete is none other than the Spirit of God. Paraclesis in the church happens with the authority of the Spirit. And the Spirit speaks the words of the Christ of God, who is the first Paraclete (cf. John 14:16). When the elders paraclete, when they admonish, comfort, encourage, God s people ought to sit up and take note. And the admonition, comfort, encouragement of the Spirit sounds as follows: admonish the disorderly, encourage the faint hearted, hold on to the weak, have patience with all.
A first question for the home visits this season: are you prepared to be paracleted by the elders, given by God? Are we receptive to their admonition, comfort, and encouragement? Or do we endure it, and shrug it off when the home visit is done? Let s pay attention to the four exhortations we are given by the Spirit. 2) The first of these, and thus the second point of this sermon, is admonish the disorderly. The NIV here speaks of the idle, as do the ESV and NKJV. But, as both the ESV and NKJV make clear in the footnote, the word can also be translated with disorderly or undisciplined or unruly. And that translation makes more sense. Boys and girls, picture for a moment a whole regiment of soldiers marching. Or a marching band. Onetwo-three-four, one-two-three-four. Left-right, left-right. Can you imagine that? That s orderly. Everybody lifts their right knee at the same time. And then the left knee. Now imagine a soldier, or somebody playing the tuba in the marching band, not being in step. Everybody lifts their left leg, he lifts his right. They put their foot down, he lifts his foot up. Very soon, it will be a big mess. And not just that one soldier will be out of line, those around him will be too. And that s the word Paul uses here, the word for a soldier not marching in order. Who are these people in the church? Well, they are the people who are lax and indifferent in their worship of God, or maybe even rebellious. They re only in church when they feel like it. They are not faithful in reading from the Bible and in praying. They re only interested in themselves and not in other people. They are people who live in sin, and don t care. Admonish the disorderly. The disorderly have to be called to order. They have to be put straight. They have to be told to march to the beat, left-right means left-right and not right-left or a hop-skip-jump. Admonish the disorderly. That s not easily done. There s tension when admonitions have to be spoken. Admonition often hurts, it hurts a person s pride. Admonition can lead to tense situations, even violence. In society, people prefer to leave admonition to law enforcement officers. Think back to the Stanley Cup riots this past year, would you have called looters to order, the way some people did? Leave it to the police. There s the same line of thought in church. Leave it to the elders. Leave it to the minister. But we all need to do it. We all need to do it. For the sake of God. This is God s world, not our world. God s Name is to be honoured and glorified. For the sake of God, we need to call each other to order. And to do that well, as one elder commented during our consistory meeting, we need to know each other. Now in a congregation our size, it s hard to know everyone. But this should not mean that we leave off admonition altogether. Admonitions work in the context of a good relationship, so use your relationships to admonish one another. I d like to point to two types of disorderly people in particular. The first are the disorderly who don t care that they are not sticking to the beat. They figure that God s march can be a stroll in the forest, with one person chasing a butterfly, the second in discussion with the third, and a fourth falling behind because of the flower she was looking at. These are the disorderly who are fine with everybody doing what is good in their own eyes. I wouldn't be surprised if we re all thinking of those. But there are also other disorderly people. They are people who don t stick to the beat, because they figure their beat is the beat we should be marching too. They ll often admonish others, but they
themselves need admonition. In the time of Jesus, such disorderly people were the Pharisees. While Jesus has good things to say about them, most of it is not so good. Indeed, most of the admonitions ever spoken by Jesus were aimed at the Pharisees. These admonishers required admonition themselves. Do we call the disorderly to order? Do you do that, brothers and sisters? Boys and girls, do you talk with someone when you see them do something wrong? When they don't put their garbage in the garbage can? Or do you simply run off to tell an adult? Brothers and sisters, do you admonish the brother or sister who is negligent in their church attendance? Or do you only talk about it among yourself and maybe report it to the elders. It is the calling of each one of us, to admonish the disorderly. 3) Next we read, encourage the timid. The timid. When I think of the timid, the faint hearted, I see a little pink piglet. Yes, Piglet from Winnie the Pooh. Boys and girls, I m sure you know whom I m talking about. Piglet is always afraid of everything, right? There are many Piglets so to speak, in a congregation. They are people who don t know much, don t dare much, are rather weak in their faith. In the setting of Thessalonica they were probably people who were afraid that their relatives who had passed away, who had died, would miss the Kingdom of Christ. They had not understood the teachings on the resurrection well. The timid are those who lack courage. Partaking of the Lord s Supper becomes a big issue for them. Am I good enough? Am I doing my best? Is God happy with me? They are in our midst as well, people who avoid partaking of the Lord s Supper because they are afraid to. Some will take it a step further. They won t come to church. They don t feel comfortable among all those super-believers. They re ashamed, because of the way they raised their children, because of the way they were raised by their parents. They re in the depths of sadness. They are depressed, heavy of heart. Encourage them. No, that s not the word paraclete again. It s a different word here. It s a word with the flavor of pull them up. Lift them out of the depths. Present them with the Word of God, which can be so comforting, so encouraging. Give them advice, instruct them so that they gain a right of understanding of how things are. Stimulate such people to attend worship services and to take part in the Lord s Supper. Pray with those who have difficulties praying. Read God s Word to them and with them. Take them along to a Bible study. Be a willing instrument in God s hand to lift each other up and take each other along. Do you know someone who is timid, faint hearted? Do you know a Piglet in the church? Then speak encouraging and comforting words. Be a hand and a foot to one another. 4) We ve come to the fourth phrase in our text, hold on to the weak. The weak, who are they? Bible scholars are not agreed. There are basically two camps. Some say the weak are those who struggle with difficulties in life. In many ways they are like the timed. The difference is, the timid do not dare while the weak are not able. Others say the weak are those who struggle with something that drives a wedge between them and God, between them and fellow believers. They constantly threaten to stray away.
It seems to me the second camp makes most sense. That s the way the weak are described in other letters written by Paul. Take the letters written to the Romans and Corinthians, where the weak are those who refuse to eat meat offered to idols, because they figure they are then worshiping an idol and will be pulled back into idolatry. The weak are those who, if they don t watch themselves and tread carefully, quickly stray from the faith. By way of illustration, think of someone addicted to alcohol or gambling, someone addicted to pornography, or infatuated with money, his body, or mental abilities. The weak would then be those who are threatened by sin and are not able to offer resistance. Both NIV and ESV translate help the weak. I find help a little bland. The Greek word has the flavour of holding on to someone. Boys and girls, think of someone out in a swamp. Sinking. Help, they cry. And someone throws them a line. And then holds on, and pulls them out. That kind of holding on. Brothers and sisters, it s the kind of holding on that gets its form especially through forgiveness and undemanding love. Think here of someone addicted to alcohol. Pulled out of alcoholism, and then he falls back into it. Sometimes you wonder, why bother with this person? The answer is, because God does. Look at his patience with Israel. How he held on, even when Israel, time and time again walked out on God, chasing after other gods. Holding on to the weak is not easy. For the weak, it means that they have to admit to their sins. And no one likes to air their dirty laundry. For the strong, it means they have to be forgiving and bring up the courage and energy to continue. How often shall I forgive my brother? asked Peter. Seventy times seven times, our Lord replied. Hold on to the weak. Be merciful to those who struggle in their life of faith. There s a question, then. Do the strong among us hold on to the weak? Are we touched by those who want the best, and yet threaten to fall beyond the reach of the church? Do they matter to our hearts? Are the weak among us willing to admit to their weaknesses? And are they open to being helped? Admonish the disorderly. Encourage the timid. Hold on to the weak. One more. The last phrase. 5) Have patience with all. With all. The disorderly, including both the indifferent and the opinionated. The timid, however, depressed they are. The weak, forgiving them seventy times seven times. All. Doesn t this include us all? For on one score we ll be disorderly, on another timid, on yet another weak. Who among us will dare to say there is no sin in their lives, that they are perfectly orderly, of good courage, super strong? Have patience with all. Faith is a process. There s not a point in your life which you reach and there, that s it. The faith diploma is in the bag. No, faith is a process. It s a process of ups and downs. God has patience with us. Did you know that God even delays the return of Christ because of his patience with us, not wanting to lose any of those who are his? When Peter writes this (2 Peter 3:9), he uses that same word patient. Patient, older translations used the term long suffering, which catches the flavour well. It is to suffer for a very long time. It is God s patience that allows us to exist. If it hadn t been for God s patience, the Christ would have never come and we would have never had access to eternal life. And because God is patient, we, his image bearers, are to be patient. We are to reflect God, we are to be the image of the Christ, recreated by the Spirit of God. Think again of Peter, the disciple Peter, sitting
on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Picture the Lord Jesus looking at him. There s the man who had denied him. Who had said, may God condemn me to hell if I know him. There sat the Christ, who knew Peter through and through, the man who, as he is God as well, could indeed condemn Peter. But his words were Do you love me? Feed my sheep. There s patience for you. Have patience with all. Would our patience last as long as God's? God is looking for us to paraclete. We are called upon by God to look out for one another, assist each other. This means calling each other to order. Helping each other along. Holding on to one another. Blood is thicker than water, people say. Faith should be as well. In fact, faith should be thicker yet. Let the bond you have with God, with the Christ of God, let it be number one in your life. It is in the Word of God that we read: We urge you, brothers, warn those who are disorderly, encourage the timid, hold on to the weak, be patient with everybody. Let s speak about this, this coming year. Not just that one time in the year when the elders come to visit. But throughout the year, maybe during a Bible study when the discussion dies down. Or during a coffee visit, a barbecue, or even during a road trip. And if you want to know how paracleting works in practice, just look to the Christ. Behold him admonishing the indifferent in Nazareth and the opinionated Pharisees. Watch him closely as he encourages Martha and Mary when Lazarus has died. Take note of how he holds on to prostitutes and tax collectors. The perfect example. Let us be imitators of the Christ, the most perfect Paraclete. Amen.