Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20060326.htm

THE BIBLICAL SPIRITUAL CHRISTIAN LIFE
Part II: Relating Properly To God The Holy Spirit As Believers
B. Heeding God's Admonition To "Quench Not" The Holy Spirit
(1 Thessalonians 5:19)
  1. Introduction
    1. The permanent indwelling ministry of God the Holy Spirit, God's priceless, eternal Gift to us who trust in Christ as Savior, provides many wonderful ministries for our blessing as we learned in this lesson series.
    2. Thus motivated to want to relate properly to the Holy Spirit, we view 1 Thessalonians 5:19 where God calls us to "quench not" the Holy Spirit, a charge on relating well to the ministries of others around us:
  2. Heeding God's Admonition To "Quench Not" The Holy Spirit, 1 Thessalonians 5:19.
    1. Paul's call to "quench not" the Holy Spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 was made in reference to a defensive tendency for the Early Church to resist God's true prophetic utterances in an effort to resist false ones:
      1. Paul's "quench not" command was given in connection to a reference to prophetic utterances:
        1. Paul's 1 Thess. 5:16-18a orders are "typically rounded off in v. 18b," T.D.N.T., VI, p. 422, ftn. 597.
        2. Verse 23 is a closing segment so "the section between [5:19-22] is . . . a unity," Ibid. (brackets ours)
        3. Thus, Paul's "quench not" is shown in v. 20-22 to refer to the right handling of prophetic utterances.
      2. Then, the Greek verb for "quench" is often used in the N. T. for the quenching of fire (Ibid., vol. VII, p. 167-168), so 1 Thessalonians 5:19 recalls the "extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit" of the Day of Pentecost when believers spoke the Word as flames of the Spirit sat on them, Acts 2:1-11; Ibid., p. 168.
      3. Besides, in the New Testament, prophetic utterances by spiritually gifted believers in the Church could be termed as the Holy Spirit's utterances, cf. Acts 20:23 with Acts 21:10-12.
      4. Since the Early Church faced many false prophets (1 Jn. 4:1), it was tempted defensively to reject even good ones, a bias Paul wrote to check, 1 Thess. 5:19-22, Hendriksen, I-II Thess. (NTC), 1974, p. 139.
    2. Thus, in 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, Paul directed believers not to "quench" or wrongly reject true prophetic utterances while also not leaving themselves vulnerable to accepting errant utterances by false ministers:
      1. The Thessalonians were not to "quench the Spirit," not to despise the prophetic revelations of the Holy Spirit given by those in the Church equipped by the Spirit with the gift of prophecy, 1 Thess. 5:19-20.
      2. We know from Paul's comment at Romans 12:6 that the test of prophetic utterances for credibility was whether they aligned in content with "the body of truth already received" in the Old Testament and other thus approved New Testament utterances, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to Romans 12:6.
      3. Thus, not quenching the Spirit meant believers were to test all prophetic utterances for credibility, 1 Thess. 5:21a, consequently holding to the good but rejecting every "kind of evil," 5:21b-22 NIV.
      4. As the power for discernment lay in the believer's dependence on the indwelling Holy Spirit, Paul concluded this admonition with a wish that his readers be separate from evil by God's power, 5:23.
    3. From 2 Timothy 1:6-7, this admonition is applicable not only to prophecy, but to all the gifts of the Spirit:
      1. Alluding to the Holy Spirit's spiritual gifting in Timothy, Paul told him to "rekindle" ['anadzopureo, cf. Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Engl. Lex. of the N. T., p. 53] his spiritual gift, for God had given all us Christians the (Holy) Spirit of love, power and a sound mind, Hendriksen, I-II Tim.-Tit. (NTC), 229f.
      2. Thus, not only was the Church to test the alleged prophetic ministries of others, but to promote the true ministries of the Holy Spirit in the realm of all the other spiritual gifts He has given to all believers!
Lesson: (1) Paul urged his readers not to "quench" the Holy Spirit, meaning not to reject God's true prophetic utterances without first testing their credibility in light of known Bible truth. After the test, they were to hold to the good from God but abstain from every form of false utterances! (2) By way of application, Paul upheld promoting the exercise of ALL of God's spiritual gifts in EVERY believer!

Application: (1) As no alleged prophet has all his predictions come true (Deut. 18:21-22), the gift of prophecy does not exist today; thus, to APPLY Paul's "quench not" call, WE uphold and expound ALL the Bible (2 Timothy 4:1-2), both the Old (Rom. 15:4) and New Testaments (1 Tim. 5:18c that cites Lk. 10:7) while standing apart from those words that are unbiblical, 1 Thess. 5:23; Gal. 5:16; 1 Cor. 2:14-15! (3) We are also to promote the exercise and development of ALL TRUE spiritual gifts!