I don’t know about you, but the spreading of the Gospel and the growth of the church from the day Jesus said: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church” amazes me. It amazes me because of how the Gospel and the church spread from that little area of the Mediterranean to the world…There has been many discussions and wrestling over the Scriptures from the time of Christ till now.
Our Church Fathers have had many “council meetings” to discuss the Scriptures. There was the Nicene Council, the Council of Constantinople, council of Ephesus, four Lateran Councils, and the council of Lyons 1 and 2. There have been great controversies and separations.
There was the split in the Catholic church in 1054 were there became two sides…the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox churches. There was further splitting within the Orthodox faction and eventually also in the Catholic Church. In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis on church doors at Wittenberg Castle, Germany. He was a Priest in the Roman Catholic Church that started to question the churches power and miss interpretation of Scripture and thus began the Protestant church.
Since that time we have further developed as people continued to study the Scriptures. Some have interpreted some of the things differently and so we have the many denominations. Most of these differences within the protestant church do not have to do with the essentials of salvation, but may have to do with understanding the Scriptures on the different ways to baptise, understanding the difference between man’s free will and God’s sovereignty and on other fundamentals and not so fundamental…
- Luther was the beginning of the Lutheran church
- There was a Roman Catholic Priest named Menno Simmons who questioned the Catholic church also and the Anabaptist movement was started from where the Mennonite Church was came from
- The Church of England (Anglican) was formed in 1530 when the King of England split ways with the Pope because the Pope would not grant him a divorce
- John Smyth an Church of England priest broke ranks to form the first Baptist Church
- John Wesley, a Church of England priest started seeing the scriptures in a different way and Methodism was born
- And our own bit of history was the church of the Nazarene came out of the Methodist movement as our forefathers and mothers got back to the root teachings of John Wesley.
And during the reformation and beginning of Protestantism the New world was being discovered…North America….And… it became a new place where people could have a new life. Many who were experiencing their new Protestant faith found a new life in North America and that is how Christianity came to North America…And we are still making history today…
Since that time we have continued to see new denominations form…There have even been cults that distort the Scriptures pop up everywhere…So why the history lesson? Other than that I am a history nerd!!!!
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 North 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 we share our faith?” 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 Paul, Silas, and Timothy shared the Gospel effectively. And it was a success for God! Let us be a success for God as well!
Let’s read 1 Thessalonians 2:1-13:
You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results.2 We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition.
3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. 4 On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.
5 You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. 6 We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. 7 Instead, we were like young children[a]among you.
Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, 8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. 9 Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.
10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children,12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.
I. How was the Gospel Shared?
The first question I want to ask is: How was the Gospel shared? Paul, Silas and Timothy had come to them knowing that there could be consequences because of their past experiences and the opposition that they faced along the way. In Acts 16 we have the account of how the missionaries were in Phillipi before coming to Thessalonica and how were stripped, beaten, and imprisoned because of the Gospel. We get a sense from verse 2 that this did not stop them. Here in verse 2 we see 2 very significant things.
1. God helped them
2. And they did this in spite of strong opposition
“but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition.”
This was not an easy task and the Scripture is not saying that, but what it is saying is God did help them and they did it in spite strong opposition. You may think about your own life as a believer. Are there reasons that you have come up with that stop you from sharing your faith or your story with others?
There is often the fear of man…what will my friends think? Will they put me down for trying? What if I stumble over my words? What about if they talk behind my back? I am Canadian…It is not polite to impose my ideals on someone else…
The fear of man often stops us from doing what God called us to do. Do you think you’re alone in this dilemma? Some have said that in our culture sharing our faith is more difficult than ever before, but when you see what Paul, Silas and Timothy went through…maybe we need to rethink that.
What was the driving force behind Paul, Silas and Timothy? Well we see that in verses 3-6. Paul says:
- Their motives are pure
- They are approved by God and entrusted with the Gospel
- But here is the key in verse 4… “We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”
There is no greater motive to sharing our faith than pleasing God. And that is what drove the missionaries. They had pure motives. It was not about how many they could lead to Christ, it was not about filling the seats of the church and it was not about their own prestige and accomplishments…It was about pleasing God. That is the only right motive.
Verse 6 states: 6 We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority.
Not trying to please people, but trying to please God… They were apostles of Christ…they had the clout, they had the notoriety, but they chose not to assert that authority. When we share our story let’s always make Christ the focus. How was the Gospel shared? Their motives were pure, the message was true and they were trying to please God not man.
II. Sharing Faith that came out of Love
Secondly, the missionaries shared their faith out of love…It was love in action. In verses 7-8 Paul draws this picture for us…Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, 8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
To share their faith effectively and in love, they worked tirelessly. There was hardship, there were trials and we know Paul to be a tent maker missionary which means he worked to fund the ministry. It says in verse 9 that they worked night and day in order to be able to share the Gospel with these people and not be a burden.
Many years ago there was a lonely woman walking home in a cold snow storm. The storm became so intense that the woman decided to lie down in the hollow of a rock. There she covered her tiny baby boy with every ounce of clothing she had on. When the rescuers found the naked mother she had died from exposure to the cold. However, when the men uncovered the garments, the tiny baby boy was still alive!
The mother, realizing that she would die, gave everything she had to see that the warmth of her body and her clothing would save her son. Joy filled the hearts of the rescuers to see the little boy shivering, but alive.
Years later, that child, David Lloyd George, grew to become the Prime Minister of Great Britain, one of the greatest statesmen of all time. What are you willing to sacrifice for those God had told you to love? Paul wrote, "as a nursing mother cares for her children, 8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. ."
This ministry of the missionaries truly came out of love in action. When we share our faith with others it will only be effective if it is done out of love.
III. Pure Hearts
Well verses 10-12 focus on our attitudes and our heart. Paul notes in verse 10 that they led blameless lives before the people and they needed to do this to lead by example. Our testimony will not be strong if we are living defeated lives…lives full of sin. Our heart and attitude needs to be pure before God.
Paul gives us another word picture in verses 11 and 12 with. “As a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God.”
In order to have this fatherly influence that Paul is talking about here we must come at it with a pure heart and Godly mindset. When we share our story of faith with others we must take the time to make sure we are walking with the Lord in a true and right way. How? We need to be bathing ourselves in the Word of God…spending time in prayer and meditation on Him. We must prepare ourselves before we can be effective.
IV. Two Final Notes
In verse 13 we have 2 final notes regarding sharing our faith that we need to see. First, Paul says we must thank God continually for the Word received from Him. It may seem simple, but we need to be grateful.
Secondly, Paul notes that this Word is from God and not made up by humans. And this is something to be thankful for. They are sharing the Word of God not that of man. If they were in marketing they have the real thing that they promoting. There is no greater and true source for our message than from the Word of God. When we share our story we need to share how God’s Word impacted us.
Conclusion: Let us conclude for today 1 Thessalonians. Again, the main purpose of this letter was to encourage the Thessalonian Christians in the face of persecution; but we can also learn from…. how effective the missionaries were in sharing the Gospel, the Good News, of Jesus Christ!
As Christ Followers we are called to go and make other disciples! We as individual Christians and as a church must share the Gospel and do it effectively!
The message is the world needs Jesus but making this message effective takes effort! Let us all be reminded of the principles of Paul, Timothy and Silas. We need to know God will help us; we may face resistance; we must labour out of love for others; we must do so from a pure heart and we must be thankful because the message of the Gospel comes from God not from us.
We must know our own weaknesses…we must ask God for help…we need to confess our sins and be renewed…we need to yield to the Holy Spirit within us…we must watch for opportunities to share the Gospel… pray… and proclaim God’s Word with confidence!
Be thankful that the Gospel impacted the Thessalonians. From there, the Gospel spread to other parts of Asia and Europe…and from there is spread to North America and the world. And it does not stop there…we are all apart of church history… we have an opportunity to impact our community, country and world for God! Today’s church will be the history for tomorrow…let’s impact the world… Let’s do it!!
