God’s Kind of Church
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
* If you have ever built a house for your family, then you know a little about decisions, frustrations, and more. In the process, you may well discover that ‘what you want is beyond your ability to provide. We lived in Yazoo City, Mississippi, for a couple of years in the 1970’s & I loved hearing Jerry Clower say, “I built my house as big as First Federal would let me.”
* What if you were building your place and the money-resource thing was not an issue? What would your place look like? Candidly, it would be everything YOU wanted & quite likely, you would not settle for less.
* The very basis of this series of messages is that our Lord has a great plan, an architectural drawing, for HIS church. He has all the resources that are needed and has spared no expense to build HIS church, yet (at least it seems to me), the local church in the USA today, doesn’t measure up to the standard which the Father’s had in mind when He designed it.
* The natural defense heard from many of us is; ‘well we are only humans so, it will never be what He desired.” For those who offer this defense I ask, “So you don’t believe God knows that we are human? Do you think creator God expects more of us than we are capable of being?”
* Let’s take a look at a church in the Bible which seems to be the “model’ church,” it is the church at Thessalonica. (TEXT)
* Many call the church at Thessalonica ‘the model church’ and we all know what the term model means. It is the example, the standard, & even the pattern. Let’s discern some reasons they are considered God’s church.
1) Established the Right way – In Acts 17 Paul spent 3 weeks preaching & teaching. Scripture tells us that ‘some of them’ were saved. We are also told that those who were saved were so radically change that it started a riot. People became jealous & caused trouble for the church. Not to worry, they were not seeking popular opinion, but a powerful outpouring.
a) Salvation was their foundation – To begin with, Paul sensed these members were, in fact, SAVED. This makes a huge difference. Reading Dr. John MacArthur one hears these words, “Part of the problem within the modern day church is that we have too many “tares among the wheat”. He goes on to say, ‘that when unregenerated people are in leadership in the church, spiritually alive work does not happen.” The member of the church at Thessalonica had been proven by the first of resistance and proved to be authentic. Because of this, Paul referred to them, multiple times, as “IN CHRIST”. This is the symbolism which Paul uses over 100 times in the Pauline Epistles. Watch how this concept is sprinkled through this chapter. In verse 3 Paul speaks of the “Work of Faith” (salvation), verse 5 speaks of the gospel coming in power, and verse 9 speaks of ‘turning to God from Idols”. There were all about salvation.
b) Service was their function – To get this picture let’s join verse 3 and verse 9 like this; ‘labor of love’ and ‘serving the true & living God.’ The church that is God kind of church is the one willing to ‘labor’ in God vineyard. The word “labor” in the Greek language means ‘until exhaustion’ & should convict us in the modern day church. God is looking for men & women who will serve Him in all things. Scripture tells us to ‘Serve the Lord with gladness” and ‘based on the gift we have received, let us serve others.’ Here was their secret of success, they served the Lord and they served other people. It would serve us well to learn from the first century churches & believers about service. Jesus came to serve not to be served and then He said, “As the Father sent me so send I you” which means we should become His hands. Believers, in service, create the kind of church which pleases God. Watch how this works together; the church begun right has salvation as her foundation, service as her function, and
c) Sharing was their focus – They share together in prayer as they remember each other in their prayer. Marry this text to Acts 2 and discover that sharing extends to praying, need, study, and much more. Isn’t it interesting that the Bible message about God’s church has little to do with numbers, budgets, building, and even ‘named’ ministries. In fact, most of what the modern day believer thinks to be important for the church does not even register on God’s scale.
*
2) Exhibited the Right witness – One of the truths which was drilled into us, as teenagers, was this; ‘guard your witness.’ Guarding your witness is like guarding your reputation; it takes a lifetime to build & only a few seconds to destroy. When you read about the model church, you come to understand that their reputation was being widespread by word of mouth. They took seriously their call from God & kept their right things in view.
a) They had the right ’models’ – A model is something or someone that we desire to be “LIKE” or pattern ourselves after. Verse 6 says, “You became imitators of us.” That word imitator comes from the word which we get “MIMIC”. Can you imagine how different things would be ‘if’ the local congregations would try to mimic the dedication, ministry, & commitment of Paul. Sad to say, too often we try to be like the ‘latest, greatest, and seemingly most successful congregation (Preachers are guilty too). We will never rise above our model. They had it right.
b) The had the right ’message’ – Verse 8 tells us that the “Lord’s Message” rang out, trumpeted out, and sounded out. No other message but the Lord’s should be given. The message of Jesus Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension, and soon return permeated their everyday life. Every person & church gives an ongoing message of some kind.
* The question is, “What kind of message do we give?” Candidly, if we give the right message, scripture tells us “His word will not return void.”
c) The had the right ’motives’ – To read Chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians and couple this with Acts 17 – you come to understand that Paul was confident that he had seen enough to know the heart of the church at Thessalonica was simply to reclaim lost people from the darkness. Honestly, we probably don’t talk enough about ‘motives’ (that is, the reason we do what we do). Motives MATTER! Proverbs 21 says, “All the way of a man seem right to him, but the Lord evaluates motives. What if our motives were plastered by God across these projection screens? Wonder what those words would read?
3) Embraced the Right wisdom – Intelligence, knowledge, experience, and wisdom are entirely different things but they all work together to define a person and a church. You can be the greatest intellect around, not be developed, & be seen as a dummy. You can have the knowledge without any practical lesson and make horrible decisions. Experience can be the great molder of your character, but it can also be ignored & wasted. Generally, put those three together and they create who you are. God gives you those to establish wisdom in your life. Yes, He simply endowed Solomon with wisdom, but most of us must develop it. The Thessalonians had learned well from their hard knocks & they embraced God’s gift.
a) To preserve their reputation – Some may say, “I don’t see any mention of this church being concerned about their reputation” to which I respond, “The best way to preserve your reputation is to stay on task with the Lord’s work. When a church is fulfilling the ministry and mission given by the Lord Himself, they don’t have to worry about their reputation, it is only when we become distracted and begin to drift in man’s philosophy that we have to concern ourselves with our reputation. Acts 5 is the prime example. You know the story, Ananias & Sapphire lied to the church, God executed punishment of death, and what happened? Did everyone run from the church? Does it say, “No one went to Peter’s church because they kill people for lying?” No it says, “Great fear came on the whole church & all who heard,” and “the people highly praised them” & “Believers were added to the Lord in increasing numbers.” As a result of God working among a Spirit-filled people, lost people were touched, changed, and saved. Every church has a reputation for something, what is this church’s reputation?
b) To persist in the face of resistance – It is not an easy thing to ‘stay on point’ with God’s purpose. Do you know why? Because there are always going to be some ‘naysayers.’ If you carry the football someone is going to try to tackle you. Acts 17 tells us of the persecution in Thessalonica.
* When they reached people, the Jews became jealous and began to lie about the church. Should we be surprise that Satan puts up resistance when we are emptying out his personal kingdom? Think about it, we will never run into anyone ‘face to face’ “IF” we are going the same direction! Satan is not concerned about those who are concerned about trivial stuff. He only gives his attention to those who threaten his kingdom. Too often God’s church retreats at the first hint of struggle & leaves the victory to Satan. The church which is God’s kind of church has the wisdom to discern where the struggle comes from & then stand on God’s word.
c) To prepare for the return – To read verse 10 is to remind us of the wisdom which God’s people demonstrate when they are looking, longing for, and hoping for the second coming of Jesus. God’s church is the one who keeps focused on the truth that “This world is not my home.” My King is NOT of this world. Because of this, I keep one eye on my daily path and the other on the eastern sky. God’s type of church is one who teaches & believes and anxiously is waiting for Jesus to return.
