How did Evangelical Christianity come to America??
Evangelical Christianity came to America mainly from England in the 17th Century!
Now look at this map; we can note the spread of Christianity from the 4th to the 7th Century.
We are currently studying the First Letter to the Thessalonian Church. This church was north of Greece and Christianity grew from there to Europe and England! Our Christianity here in America, likely had roots to the Thessalonian Church of 2000 years ago!
How did Christianity grow from Thessalonica? How can Christianity grow from us? This is the topic for us this morning, “How should the Gospel be effectively shared?” Although the main purpose of the First Letter to the Thessalonians was to encourage the Christians in spite of persecution, we will note from Chapter 2 how the Missionaries Paul, Silas, and Timothy shared the Gospel effectively. And as we will note in v1 of 1 Thessalonians 2, the work was a success for God! Let us be a success for God as well!
Read along with me 1 Thessalonians 2:1-13………
How was the Gospel shared to the Thessalonians?
From v2 we can actually note 3 significant things:
We can read in Acts 16 that Paul and Silas were in Philippi before coming to Thessalonica; In Philippi the Missionaries were stripped, beaten, and imprisoned because of the Gospel;
- In spite of a recent bad experience, the missionaries shared the Gospel anyway!
We also note their confidence in God; they shared the Gospel not just on their own; they affirmed that
- God helped
And the end of v2 tells us that the missionaries shared the Gospel,
- in spite of strong opposition, right where they were
And what can we note from v3-6? They shared the Gospel
- to please God, not man, or even themselves!
And we note in v7-9, the missionaries shared the Gospel with love in action (they cared, loved, and labored)
v10: missionaries lived holy, righteous, and blameless lives!
And what can we note from v11-12?
The missionaries were godly fathers who patiently guided the Thessalonians to live for God;
v11-12: we can say that the Gospel was shared with the teachings of repentance from sin
And in v13, we can note 2 more things of significance in sharing the Gospel:
- with an attitude of gratitude to God
- shared the Word of God not word of men!
Let us conclude for today from this passage. Again, the main purpose of this letter was to encourage the Thessalonian Christians; but we can also learn how effective the missionaries were in sharing the Gospel, the Good News, of Jesus Christ!
The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ calls all His Followers to go and make other disciples!
We as individual Christians and as a church must share the Gospel and do it effectively!
As we had noted, the Gospel is simple but making it effective takes effort! Let us all be reminded of how the Missionaries to the Thessalonians did it and follow those principles!
Let us note our own weaknesses, ask God for help, confess our sins and be renewed, yield to the Holy Spirit within us, watch for opportunities to share the Gospel, pray, and proclaim God’s Word with confidence!
As the Gospel impacted the Thessalonians, who in turn impacted the world and us, we have an opportunity to impact our community and beyond for God! Let’s do it!! Shine Jesus Shine; fill our land with the Father’s Glory!!
