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The universal church of God is losing its sheen in the society because the church is everything but spirituality. Survey says that only 10% of the churches are genuine churches that teach the Word and make Disciples of Christ. Other churches focus on an entertainment concept. For them, church is more about programs, events, fund raising, growth etc. which usually ends up in politics, mismanagement, and favouritism. Is it not ironic that many today are been hurt by churches than healed by churches? Therefore, many Christians see themselves as part of the universal church of Christ, but do not participate in a local body.
Listen, while many have given up on the church, Jesus has not. Ephesians 5:25 Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. The church is still the centre of God’s work in this world. If you are a child of God, you must have a good relationship and participation in the local church of God.
Today is church membership Sunday and I appreciate and welcome all who are seeking a membership at City Harvest AG Church, Bangalore.
Today we are going to see the qualities expected of us to be the ideal NT church based on 1 Thessalonians 1.
Brief background of this epistle: 1 Thessalonians is Paul’s first writing of at least 13 books of the NT that he wrote. Even though it may have been a first letter, it is as powerful as any writings in the Bible because Paul wasn’t the real author. God is the inspiration who perfected the Bible from the very beginning to the end.
This city had originally been called “Therma” because there were hot springs there. Alexander the Great conquered this area and he changed the name to “Thessalonica” after his half-sister.
This church was founded when Apostle Paul had a vision of a Macedonian man in Acts 17. The vision of the Macedonian man brought him to Philippi where Lydia, a demon possessed girl, and the jailer were saved. Being forced out of town, Paul, Silas, and Timothy came to Thessalonica, the capital of Macedonia. Their ministry was primarily to slaves and the working class people of Thessalonica. Paul preached there for 3 weeks and formed a church. Soon, unbelievers started a revolt against Paul and he had to leave town. Paul is now in Corinth and is writing back to the believers in the church at Thessalonica to encourage them.
The believers at Thessalonica are facing trials and persecution, so Paul is exhorting them to continue to be a model church. If you carefully study, the doctrine of coming of the Lord is mentioned in every chapter of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Paul knew that people are looking for direction, hope in times of difficulties, and comfort in pain. Paul knew that doctrine regarding Christ’s coming will motivate people to serve the Lord and be a model church. Listen, He is not giving them a motivational speech, he is giving them sound doctrine – in this case the doctrine of the church and the second coming.
Doctrine gives direction. Our church is founded on the Assembly of God doctrine derived from the word of God. When we understand our doctrine, it gives us direction to go together as a church. Then we have the Word. The word is a lamp unto our feet. When we read the word, it directs our personal lives. When we have the right doctrine, right word, it changes our outlook to life, it moulds our faith and slowly it will result in change of character, change in behaviour. When there is character reformation in believers, the world will see Christ in us.
So our aim at City Harvest is to win souls, make disciples, and work in them to build a Christ-like behaviour. For this to happen, we need to have the right doctrine, the right word, and the right faith; and that is my primary responsibility as a pastor. Based on this letter we are going to see some characteristics of model believers which in turn make a great church.
7 QUALITIES OF A MODEL CHURCH.
1. UNION IN CHRIST.
We can also call it identity with Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the word ‘in.’ this church was in the Father, in Jesus Christ. An ideal church is a church when the believers are rooted in Christ.
God expects us to remain in Christ, to be one with Christ. See the relationship between Jesus and the church: The church is the body and Christ as the head. The church is the bride and Jesus is the groom. It is an inseparable union and both have to work toward it as a husband and wife work out their oneness. Now, Christ has done his part and it is up to us believers to identify ourselves with Him. The believers of the church at Thessalonica identified themselves with Christ, they were in God.
How can we have unity in Christ? Baptism is the first step. Baptism is the external work of identification with Christ.Romans 6:3-4 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Baptism is our identification with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. After baptism we are to walk the new walk of life. When we deny our self and walk in the newness of life, it is our internal identification with Christ. When we walk in the newness of life, not only we identify with Christ, we become one with Christ, Christ in us.
Colossians 3:3 For you died (baptised), and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:23 Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Paul said to the church at Thessalonica, “You are in Christ and Christ is in you; that make you the model church.” This is my prayer that we be the model church by walking in the newness of life.
2. THEIR ENERGY.
See their passion to serve the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 2We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, 3remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father. They had high energy level as they carried out the mission of the church.
What was their energy? Their work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope.
a. Work of faith.
Which is more important: faith or work? Some say faith is what is important and they quote: phesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. We say it is by faith that we are saved then why should we have works? James 2:17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. So we need to have faith and we need to have work also. Just faith and no work is as good as dead.
Even though Paul said that we are saved by faith in v8, read verse 10: Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We are created for good works; we are saved for good work. The faith what we profess should be backed up with good works. Jesus said: Matthew 5:16 Let your life so shine before men, that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. We as a church need to let that light shine and show the work of faith, not to show our work but our faith.
Here Paul commends the church at Thessalonica for their good work of faith. What was their work of faith? 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 For they themselves declare (show) concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Here is their work of faith: Repentance, taking out the idols, and turning to God. When they received the gospel, when they accepted the Lord they had had work to do based on their faith; getting rid of the idols and turning to God. When we accept Christ and come out of the idols, backgrounds, traditions and leave it all behind to follow Christ, it takes work and that is the initial work of faith. Are we totally 100% on God’s side? Is all our work complete or are some of us still 50:50 when it comes to faith and world?
Many of you may tell, “Pastor I have done it 20 years ago.” So then let me ask you, “Is our work of faith complete?” No, we still have work to do. We have to stand for the principles of the word of God until the end. That is our work of faith now. So what exactly is it? Titus 2:11-12 11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. (So what is our work of faith after salvation? What does salvation do? 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.
So how do we fight the good fight of faith now? Say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, live in self-control. I believe almost all of us are out of idol worship, but are there any other idols that we bound to? Real idol is what comes between you and God. Things that take priority over God become the idol of your life. The present day idols are no longer moulded images. Satan has craftily put worldly passions that steal away our time from God.
What are worldly passions? Undue desire (or to be obsessed with) for gadgets, wealth, money, success, fame, passion of flesh etc., are the new idols that we need to get away with. We need to continue to work our faith in Jesus Christ.
b. Labour of love.
Look at the term ‘labour’ – This is work too. As much we continue to work to keep up to our faith and belief, we should be involved in good works to the community. That is the labour of love: To love the lost; love the unlovable, serve people, serve one another whether they are pleasant or not. Most of us are doing labour of love at church, serving in different ministries, and we are getting there to be a model church. But it is my prayer that 100% of us do the labour of love both inside and outside of the church.
I praise God for many of our sisters ministering at leprosy home; praise God for their labour of love. I praise God for the missions we undertake. Our church went for a mission trip to Belgaum 2 weeks back. It is the labour of love. We are sending our believers to conduct a VBS in a village 60 KM form Bangalore, we are supporting them. This is labour of love. We as a church are taking up a big project based on love. We are starting an aftercare home for sexually trafficked minor girls, bring them home, do inner healing, teach them, counsel them and reintegrate them to the society. Many of you have volunteered to help us. It is a labour of love that we plan to do for the Lord. I hope you will catch up with the vision of the church.
It is not that we get anything from our labour of love. It is giving without expecting anything back. When you do something out of Christ’s love without expecting anything back, that is our labour of love. Matthew 25:30 Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me. That is the labour of love.
Now, we are not trusting in good works for our salvation. Our salvation is by faith but our faith ends up in good work. Good work is the result of salvation. I pray that we will be a model church by our labour of love.
c. Patience of hope.
The patience mentioned here is endurance, patient endurance in faith in the midst of trials until the end. It is a quality to carry on.
I do not know how many of you are getting impatient in your Christian life. You are praying for a breakthrough but yet it is getting delayed, you are doing your best but your life is far from your dreams. God is telling be patient. Be patient and hope in the Lord, which is the quality of a model believer.
Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. The author of Hebrews is telling look at Jesus, he endured the cross and God glorified Jesus, so endure your hardships in hope that God will lift you up.
James 5:11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
From these examples we understand that if you are patient with the Lord, He is merciful and he will lift you up. So we have the hope when we face trials that God is going to lift us up. Don’t give up, be patient in trials, be patient when all is not well. That is the quality of a model believer.
Now, come with me to 1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. That is what we are talking about: Work of faith, labour of love, patience of hope.
Faith works – A faith directed towards the Lord. The work of faith.
Love labours – Love directed towards others. The labour of love.
Hope endures – Hope directed to the future in the Lord. The patience of hope.
The church at Thessalonica had all three, they had great energy for God’s work. That made them the model church.
CONCLUSION:
Today we saw two qualities of a model believer: Union with Christ and the great enthusiasm to serve the Lord. Let’s introspect ourselves if we are the ideal church. How is my unity with Christ, how much do I deny myself and follow Jesus? How is my energy? How is my faith, love, and patience in hope? Let us individually commit ourselves to be model believers and thus become a model church making a difference in the land. Amen
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