Gospel Comes To Us In Four Ways

I. EXORDIUM:

How did the gospel came to us?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To enumerate the four ways the gospel came to us.

IV. TEXT:

1 Thessalonians 1:5 (Amplified Bible)

For our [preaching of the] glad tidings (the Gospel) came to you not only in word, but also in [its own inherent] power and in the Holy Spirit and with great conviction and absolute certainty [on our part]. You know what kind of men we proved [ourselves] to be among you for your good.

V. THESIS:

Four ways the gospel came to us.

VI. TITLE:

Gospel comes to us in four ways

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Author: Apostle Paul

B. Date written: 49 to 54 B.C. but uncertain

C. Purpose: to comfort believers and encourage them to a life of purity

D. To whom written: Thessalonica church

E. Main themes: Most personal of all of Paul's epistles

F. Keyword: Sanctification

1 Thessalonians 4:3 (Amplified Bible)

For this is the will of God, that you should be consecrated (separated and set apart for pure and holy living): that you should abstain and shrink from all sexual vice,

G. Key verses:

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 (Amplified Bible)

And may the Lord make you to increase and excel and overflow in love for one another and for all people, just as we also do for you,

So that He may strengthen and confirm and establish your hearts faultlessly pure and unblamable in holiness in the sight of our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) with all His saints (the holy and glorified people of God)! Amen, (so be it)!

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (Amplified Bible)

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God. And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first.

Then we, the living ones who remain [on the earth], shall simultaneously be caught up along with [the resurrected dead] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so always (through the eternity of the eternities) we shall be with the Lord!

Therefore comfort and encourage one another with these words.

VIII. MAIN BODY:

A. Not simply with words

"For our [preaching of the] glad tidings (the Gospel) came to you not only in word"

Word came from the Greek word: "logos" meaning word, "a word is that which is uttered or thrown out", "a combination of articulate and vocal sounds uttered by the human voice and by custom expressing an idea" or "a single component part of human speech or language"

Isaiah 50:4 (Amplified Bible)

[The Servant of God says] The Lord God has given Me the tongue of a disciple and of one who is taught, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He wakens Me morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as a disciple [as one who is taught].

Proverbs 16:24 (Amplified Bible)

Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the mind and healing to the body.

Ecclesiastes 9:17 (Amplified Bible)

The words of wise men heard in quiet are better than the shouts of him who rules among fools.

B. With power

"but also in [its own inherent] power"

Power is dunamis in Greek, meaning "miraculous power", "ability, abundance, meaning, might"

Romans 1:16 (Amplified Bible)

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (good news) of Christ, for it is God’s power working unto salvation [for deliverance from eternal death] to everyone who believes with a personal trust and a confident surrender and firm reliance, to the Jew first and also to the Greek,

Hebrews 4:12 (Amplified Bible)

For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.

Ephesians 6:17 (Amplified Bible)

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God.

C. With the HOLY SPIRIT

"and in the Holy Spirit"

Micah 3:8 (Amplified Bible)

But truly I [Micah] am full of power, of the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

Zechariah 4:6 (Amplified Bible)

Then he said to me, This [addition of the bowl to the candlestick, causing it to yield a ceaseless supply of oil from the olive trees] is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit [of Whom the oil is a symbol], says the Lord of hosts.