Marks Of A Mighty Church (Part 2) Series

Marks of A Mighty Church (Part 2)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 8/16/2015

In the Greek Islands, you can visit the home of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. In the area, you can also find an olive tree that he supposedly planted, which would make the tree some 2400 years old. The trunk of this tree is very large but completely hollow. The tree is little more than thick bark. There are a few long, straggling branches, but they are supported by sturdy wooden poles every few feet. It has an occasional leaf here and there and might produce a few olives each year. In the fields around, however, are olive groves in many directions. The strong, healthy, young trees with narrow trunks are covered with a thick canopy of leaves, under which masses of olives can be found each year. The tree of Hippocrates can still be called an olive by nature, in that it still shows the essential unique characteristics, but it has long since ceased to fulfill an olive tree's function. Tourists file up to inspect this ancient relic, having some link to a dim history, but the job of the olive tree passed long ago to many successions of replanted trees.

Similarly, there exist many churches just like the tree of Hippocrates? They have stopped bearing fruit and are satisfied just being big, or having a noble history. The form is there, but the function is not.

Thankfully, that was not the case with the church in Thessalonica. Last Sunday we began a series through the book of 1 Thessalonians. Unlike problem prone churches such as Corinth, the church in Thessalonica was a glowing example of what the church should be. In chapter one, Paul praises them for being an energetic church, an elect church, an evangelistic church and expectant church. In other words, the Thessalonian church was a mighty church!

And as we continue through chapters 2 and 3 of 1 Thessalonians we discover three more marks of a mighty church! First, we find that a mighty church is a Scriptural church.

• A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH

I’m reminded a story. The new minister was asked to teach a boys’ class in the absence of the regular teacher. He decided to see what they knew, so he asked who knocked down the walls of Jericho. All the boys denied having done it, and the preacher was appalled by their ignorance. At the next deacons’ meeting he told about the experience. “Not one of them knows who knocked down the walls of Jericho,” he lamented. The group was silent until finally one seasoned veteran of disputes spoke up. “Preacher, this appears to be bothering you a lot. But I’ve known all those boys since they were born and they’re good boys. If they said they didn’t know, I believe them. Let’s just take some money out of the maintenance fund, fix the walls, and let it go at that.” Now, there’s a church that needs to spend a little more time in their Bibles!

On the other hand, Paul praises the Christians in Thessalonica, saying, “We never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13 NLT).

The church in Thessalonica was built on God’s Word. They accepted the apostle’s teaching as the very word of God and it became the foundation of their faith and practices. In other words, they were a Scriptural church.

As Bible-believing Christians, we continue to follow in their footsteps. On our website (bloominggrove.org) you can read our statement of faith, which says, among other things, “We believe the Bible is God’s Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the final authority in faith, morality, and holiness. We choose to speak where the Bible speaks and to use our Spirit-guided judgment where the Bible is silent.”

If we want to be a mighty church, our beliefs, our worship, our traditions must all be tethered to Scripture. But you’ll notice the Thessalonians didn’t just accept God’s Word; they applied it to their lives. Paul said that the “word continues to work” in the lives of believers. Paul knew that God’s words are not mere sermons or documents, but a real source of transforming power.

Some of you may be familiar with the story of mutiny on the Bounty. The English ship Bounty, commanded by Lt. William Bligh, journeyed to the South Pacific in 1787. Many sailors signed on considering the voyage a trip to paradise. The Bounty stayed in Tahiti for 6 months and the crew enjoyed paradise to the fullest. When the time came to return home however, the crew staged the most famous mutiny in history. The mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, set Bligh and his supporters adrift in an overloaded lifeboat.