I had a great conversation with my 4 year old son, Kasen, this week. He was noticing all of the cars parked at the neighbors house next door. Everyone was dressed up and he wondered why. I explained to him that our neighbor...an old man died. I told him that’s what happens to all of us someday. He just starred out the window...I could tell that he was thinking pretty hard. To be honest, I was sort of hoping the conversation was done. Of course it wasn’t. No parent gets off that easy! Eventually the inevitable happened and he asked me if I was going to die someday too! I said yes, and he went back to thinking...he’s a processor! That’s when he turned and said something that about made me fall out of my chair. He said, "Well, that’s why we have God!!!"
The simplicity of a child’s mind is unbelievable. So dad now joined his son in thinking...
Is it really that simple? Could this kid be smarter than me? It’s a sad day for a parent when you realize that answer is ’yes’! Jesus loved kids. In Mark 10:15 Jesus Himself urged us to have faith like a child. Jesus...God...Creator...the ultimate theologian tells us of something very basic. Simple even. That elementary faith that my 4 year old son has is greater than mine most of the time.
Welcome Whitehouse, Internet as we start this series about a church that persevered and grew in their faith against all odds.
Faith is a popular word. It made George Michael a lot of money. We talk of faith a lot in churches. What does it look like when a church is truly growing in their faith together? Paul talks of such a church in 1 Thessalonians. For the next 5 weeks we are going to be studying the church in Thessalonica...their hardships, their ability to persevere, and their unwavering faith in God amidst seemingly impossible circumstances.
This is widely regarded as Paul’s very first writing, and quite possibly the oldest Christian writing of the New Testament! It was written around 50 AD, on Paul’s second missionary journey. Much of the NT is written by Paul while on these missionary journeys.
Pauls journey took him some 100 miles on foot to Thessalonica. Thessalonica was founded in 316 BC and was named after one of the sisters of Alexander the Great. It was a busy and important town with a mixed population of Romans Greeks and Jews.
Thessalonica linked Rome with the whole region to the North of the Aegean Sea. It was a big deal.
I think Paul saw the value of starting a church on such a well-traveled interstate like Thessalonica! Paul was strategic! While there, Paul preached both outside and inside the local synagogue. We learn while at Thessalonica, Paul received financial assistance form the church at Philippi according to Phillipians 4:16. Churches were starting to network all their assets, this idea started even back then!
This idea of giving to a local church and in turn, having them give back to the community and to the world is very much a biblical one. The Jewish religious authorities were getting their feathers ruffled by Paul. You have to understand...Paul was a little behind the eight ball. He was not one of the original disciples and the Jewish leaders knew this. They couldn’t understand how this ’one time Christian killer’ could be used by God. They didn’t understand grace did they?
The Jewish leaders started stirring up trouble for Paul. Paul was proclaiming another King...Jesus...not Caesar. This obviously made them very nervous! As they feared the Roman government and probably feared for their own lives. They feared the Romans more than they feared God!
Paul had to leave Thessalonica quickly, much to his own dismay. He didn’t like leaving behind such a young church with brand new believers. Paul continued on his journey preaching of Jesus, but his heart weighed heavily for the church in Thessalonica! Satan himself was trying to hold Paul back from getting back to Thessalonica (ch 2:18). These Christians there must have been special!
Eventually Timothy caught back up with Paul and gave him news of the Thessalonican church.
Thessalonica was a pagan land, they didn’t have much knowledge of the True God there, and Paul knew they were probably disbanded and disheartened by all of the adversity surrounding them....persecution... I’m sure Paul didn’t expect much, Christianity was so new...these believers were just babies in the faith, to say the least!
In the winter of AD 52 Paul wrote a letter to the Thessalonican church, following Timothy’s report that they were not only existing as a church, but thriving in their faith!!!! Paul must have been completely floored!!!! So he jumps on his pen and starts writing.
We pick it up in 1 Thessalonians ch 1 v 1-3 READ
You can imagine the joy these people had in their hearts when the church leaders proclaimed they had received a letter from Paul!!!
Right away we see something special about this church. Paul introduces himself as....PAUL! Paul was writing to them as a friend! When he wrote Galatians and Ephesians we see him write as Paul, an apostle. This is because some people in those churches doubted him. He didn’t need to prove his apostolic authority to the Thessalonians, they accepted him completely for who he was.
Paul starts out by thanking God for them. He lets them know they are in his prayers. This is so very important. Don’t look past this. For Paul, it was as natural to pray as it was to breathe!
When I get letters, emails from people that say they are praying for me, I’m in their prayers...what can they pray for, for me? I can’t tell you how comforting that is as a Christian. Prayer has everything to do with a deep faith in God.
Paul knows this! Paul is truly thankful here. Are you a grateful person? Do you thank God daily for what He has done in your life?
My kids at night...on my blog...favorite thing today, thank Jesus for...
A truly grateful, thankful person...understands faith in a way that the ungrateful and self absorbed person simply cannot. Are you thankful, are you grateful? We should be...with all that we have.
V 3 Tells us they had a faith that was working! Their faith was actively producing good works! This is the kind of faith that we should desire. Where our good deeds are prompted by love, not obligation! We use this word faith all the time. "I’ve got a lot of faith in God". "I have faith that God will get me through this".
It seems like we have sort of made faith and trust to be the same thing, though they’re closely related. Faith here, didn’t just stop with trust...it produced Godly living, it was changing peoples character and mindset! It was changing their actions!
Great definition of faith -- Hebrews 11:1 Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
We have faith in a lot of things don’t we? Faith is not foreign to our everyday living.
You have faith the chair you are sitting in will hold you. You have faith that the seal on your microwave at home is actually doing its job.
You have faith that we’re not going to let the doctrine and theology of this church fall away from Biblical standards. You have faith your car is going to start when you turn the key (some of you)!
Look, you could name a million things here in our lives that we have effortless, brainless unwavering faith in. Yet many of us make faith in God out to be something complicated. Something burdensome even...we make faith in God out to be something that needs to be proven without a shadow of a doubt before our very eyes, over and over again in order to have faith in God.
Now this is ridiculous. Many people have more faith in a chair, than they do in the God that created every single micro-organism in the universe. This is unacceptable!!!!
Let your faith show to the world around you. Let it be evident that you can forgive, because Jesus first forgave. Tuck away your jealousy, don’t let your pride get the best of you, start telling the world about Jesus Christ, in a relevant way.
Let your faith produce action, not just trust. I have known people who claim to be ’mature Christians’ in their knowledge of God and scripture, yet their lives are void of action for God. This is not a sign of maturity, and this is not the way I see faith played out in 1 Thessalonians.
The church at Thessalonica became imitators of Christ. Their faith drove them to the pursuit of becoming more like Jesus. In the face of great adversity! Think of all these people had to deal with.
They had to confront raw paganism, (worship of other gods), Greek intellectualism, Roman totalitarianism, and Jewish intolerance! They abandoned their ’idol’ gods and other ’first loves’ for God. What do you put before God?
This young church became a model to all Christians Paul says in verse 7
Everyone knew of this church and it’s people’s faith. A church in the middle of a pagan land who worshiped gods like Zeus, Neptune and Aphrodite. The church was full of new believers with a passion for God.
Do we have that much passion for God? Does everyone around you (at work, at home) see the love of Christ in you? Does everyone in your life know what Christ has done for you?
These people were imitators of Christ...examples in the truest sense of the word. Examples here is translated TYPOI -- stamps. They had themselves, received good impressions from Pauls preaching and the Holy Spirit...and in turn, they made good impressions on the world around them....their conversations, their reputations. Stamps.
I always used to think of the red letters (Jesus’ words) in scripture as a stamp (my kids always play with stamps). The words of scripture get stamped on me, they’re not meant to stay there. They’ve got to rub off on everyone else, that’s the whole point! If you’re faith is the best kept secret in your life, you’re not getting it???!!!
The Lords message ’rang out from them’ v 8
This is the only time this word ’rang out’ is used in this way! It refers to the sounding of a heralds trumpet! These people did not hide behind the doors of their churches!! They shouted the news of Jesus Christ and His saving grace from the rooftops!
Previously the scriptures and their truths were kept in the synagogues, the churches. Things were starting to change, lives were starting to change. People other than Jews were becoming Christians, this was so very hard on the Jewish leaders ideas of inclusiveness.
But that’s why Jesus came...to offer grace to all of us!! It doesn’t come with a promise of a perfect, painless life. It doesn’t come with a guarantee of a struggle-free existence!
The church in Thessalonica was a group of people who said YES to God, no matter what! The gospel wasn’t just words to them, it wasn’t just a message preached or a church service attended...it was life changing! It lead to DEEP CONVICTION Paul said in verse 5.
I think we have made it more confusing than it is. We have complicated the gospel. We have over-thought it. We have made every excuse under the sun as to why it’s so hard to constantly say YES to God and His will. We’re busy right? We have our own agendas. We’ve complicated it, when it all comes down to this...
People often laugh when they ask for my favorite verse.
The simplest verse in the Bible.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not parish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16, I guess it means less now that some dude with rainbow hair and a sign made the front row of every major sporting event in the late 70s and 80s!!
My parents always tell me how proud they are of me. My dad always finds ways to slip in advise. That’s a good thing...he always tells me to just keep preaching it RAW. Don’t ever compromise for the sake of people not liking you or the worry of people sending you nasty emails. My dad has always told me the gospel is simple. Profound? YES! But simple.
Listen...God is not simple!!! Don’t get all bent out of shape here! I love to study theology and the deep context of ideas in scripture. Our minds cannot wrap themselves around the complexity of His creation and being. God is infinitely bigger than the word ’simple’!!! I’m not suggesting you make God simple and surface level. I’m not suggesting you check your brains in at the door!
What He calls us to do however...is simple. The only complexity in giving our lives in full devotion to Him comes from our own minds and hearts.
You either believe God, you have faith in God to transform your life and your actions as a result of that transformation...or you don’t. There’s no room for ’I sort of believe’ here. The Bible doesn’t leave that open to us!
You must not only trust, but you must also obey. WRITE THIS DOWN! Faith should produce action. Working Faith. It all starts with trusting Him with your life. Giving your heart. But there should be results of that decision working itself out in your everyday living. Who you are in this place, at church...be that person outside these walls!
Have a faith that generates love for those you can’t stand. Faith that isn’t ashamed of the good news of Jesus Christ (gospel) -- faith that isn’t scared of ridicule and persecution. Living faith, breathing faith. Not just a word to describe salvation.
The church in Thessalonica was made up of brand new Christians. They should have caved in, the odds were certainly against them. Yet they found their passion through scripture, through a relationship with Jesus Christ. They found the ability to not only endure, but to thrive in Christ. They found a way to change other people’s lives through Christ, His death and resurrection.
They found that a church was made up of the people in the pursuit of becoming more like Christ, not a building. We model CedarCreek after churches in the New Testament like this one. A place where people can come to hear the gospel preached unapologetically through song, media and teaching, a place where you are given the opportunity to grow in your relationship with Christ.
Don’t hide your faith, obey like the church in Thessalonica did...let your faith in Almighty God shine the light of Christ into the world around you.
Don’t compromise, don’t water it down, don’t make exceptions for it and excuses for what scripture says.
Don’t add to it, don’t cave in to peer pressure. Don’t make it harder than it is. Make your faith visible in love to the world around you.
Trust, AND obey...for there’s no better way.
