Marks of A Mighty Church (Part 2)
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 8/16/2015
In the Greek Islands, you can visit the home of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. In the area, you can also find an olive tree that he supposedly planted, which would make the tree some 2400 years old. The trunk of this tree is very large but completely hollow. The tree is little more than thick bark. There are a few long, straggling branches, but they are supported by sturdy wooden poles every few feet. It has an occasional leaf here and there and might produce a few olives each year. In the fields around, however, are olive groves in many directions. The strong, healthy, young trees with narrow trunks are covered with a thick canopy of leaves, under which masses of olives can be found each year. The tree of Hippocrates can still be called an olive by nature, in that it still shows the essential unique characteristics, but it has long since ceased to fulfill an olive tree's function. Tourists file up to inspect this ancient relic, having some link to a dim history, but the job of the olive tree passed long ago to many successions of replanted trees.
Similarly, there exist many churches just like the tree of Hippocrates? They have stopped bearing fruit and are satisfied just being big, or having a noble history. The form is there, but the function is not.
Thankfully, that was not the case with the church in Thessalonica. Last Sunday we began a series through the book of 1 Thessalonians. Unlike problem prone churches such as Corinth, the church in Thessalonica was a glowing example of what the church should be. In chapter one, Paul praises them for being an energetic church, an elect church, an evangelistic church and expectant church. In other words, the Thessalonian church was a mighty church!
And as we continue through chapters 2 and 3 of 1 Thessalonians we discover three more marks of a mighty church! First, we find that a mighty church is a Scriptural church.
• A SCRIPTURAL CHURCH
I’m reminded a story. The new minister was asked to teach a boys’ class in the absence of the regular teacher. He decided to see what they knew, so he asked who knocked down the walls of Jericho. All the boys denied having done it, and the preacher was appalled by their ignorance. At the next deacons’ meeting he told about the experience. “Not one of them knows who knocked down the walls of Jericho,” he lamented. The group was silent until finally one seasoned veteran of disputes spoke up. “Preacher, this appears to be bothering you a lot. But I’ve known all those boys since they were born and they’re good boys. If they said they didn’t know, I believe them. Let’s just take some money out of the maintenance fund, fix the walls, and let it go at that.” Now, there’s a church that needs to spend a little more time in their Bibles!
On the other hand, Paul praises the Christians in Thessalonica, saying, “We never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13 NLT).
The church in Thessalonica was built on God’s Word. They accepted the apostle’s teaching as the very word of God and it became the foundation of their faith and practices. In other words, they were a Scriptural church.
As Bible-believing Christians, we continue to follow in their footsteps. On our website (bloominggrove.org) you can read our statement of faith, which says, among other things, “We believe the Bible is God’s Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the final authority in faith, morality, and holiness. We choose to speak where the Bible speaks and to use our Spirit-guided judgment where the Bible is silent.”
If we want to be a mighty church, our beliefs, our worship, our traditions must all be tethered to Scripture. But you’ll notice the Thessalonians didn’t just accept God’s Word; they applied it to their lives. Paul said that the “word continues to work” in the lives of believers. Paul knew that God’s words are not mere sermons or documents, but a real source of transforming power.
Some of you may be familiar with the story of mutiny on the Bounty. The English ship Bounty, commanded by Lt. William Bligh, journeyed to the South Pacific in 1787. Many sailors signed on considering the voyage a trip to paradise. The Bounty stayed in Tahiti for 6 months and the crew enjoyed paradise to the fullest. When the time came to return home however, the crew staged the most famous mutiny in history. The mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian, set Bligh and his supporters adrift in an overloaded lifeboat.
The mutineers aboard the Bounty immediately began quarreling about what to do next. Some returned to Tahiti, kidnapped some women, took some slaves, and then traveled a thousand miles to the uninhabited Pitcairn Island. There the little group unraveled. They distilled whiskey from a native plant. Drunkenness, disease, and murder took the lives of all men except for one—Alexander Smith, who found himself as the only man on the island surrounded by an assortment of women and children.
Then an amazing change occurred. Smith found the Bounty’s neglected Bible. As he read it, he took its message to heart, then began instructing the little community. He taught the colonists the scriptures and helped them obey its instructions. The message of Christ so transformed their lives that twenty years later, in 1808, when the ship Topaz landed on the island, it found a happy society of Christians living in prosperity and peace, free from crime, disease, murder --- and mutiny. The Bounty’s Bible now resides on display in the church in Pitcairn as a monument to its transforming message.
The Bible you hold in your hands is full of real living power. Its words are transforming lives all over the world every day. That’s why it’s so important for us to read our Bibles. The more we get into God’s Word, the more God’s Word gets into us.
So first, the church in Thessalonica was a Scriptural church. Furthermore, they were a suffering church.
• A SUFFERING CHURCH
As Paul continues through chapter two, he writes, “And then, dear brothers and sisters, you suffered persecution from your own countrymen. In this way, you imitated the believers in God’s churches in Judea who, because of their belief in Christ Jesus, suffered from their own people, the Jews. For some of the Jews killed the prophets, and some even killed the Lord Jesus. Now they have persecuted us, too” (1 Thessalonians 2:14-15 NLT).
Just as Jewish Christians in Jerusalem were persecuted by their fellow Jews, the Greek and Roman Christians in Thessalonica were being persecuted by their fellow Romans. From verbal harassment to hanging, persecution for professing faith in Christ is as old as Christianity itself. Jesus often warned his disciples that persecution would come.
As Paul points out, it did. As Christianity spread a tide of resentment, hatred, and open opposition rose. Apostate Jews aligned themselves with Romans officials in an attempt to completely wipe out Christianity. Under the authority of emperors like Nero and Domitian, Christians were hunted, killed by the sword, thrown to the lions, crucified, and even burned alive to give light to Roman revelries. Unfortunately, modern martyrdom is no less frequent.
Today, Christians are the single most persecuted religious group in the world. Worldwide each month 322 Christians are killed for their faith, 214 churches and Christian properties are destroyed, and 744 forms of violence (such as beatings, abductions, rapes, and arrests) are committed against Christians. According to the United States Department of State, Christians in more than 60 countries face persecution from their governments or surrounding neighbors simply because of their belief in Jesus Christ.
A few years ago, an angry mob of Muslim extremists attacked a Bible camp at the Station Field Complex of Pattimura University in Indonesia. They terrorized the group of children and teenagers and dragged a fifteen-year-old boy, Roy Pontoh, before the mob. “Renounce your Jesus, or we’ll kill you,” they shouted. Terrified and trembling, Roy answered, “I am a soldier of Christ!” At that, one of the Islamic assailants swung a sword across Roy’s stomach, tearing into the Bible in Roy’s hands and ripping it to shreds. The next swing took his head and ended his life. The last word to fall from his lips was Jesus.
Amazingly, despite violent opposition the church isn’t losing ground in these nations. It continues to grow even in the most hostile environments. The same was true in Thessalonica. Even in the face of persecution, the church thrived. While I praise God that we don’t face this kind of persecution here in the United States, it begs the question: Would you be willing to suffer for you faith in Jesus? Would you go to prison before you quit going to church? Would you be burned at the stake before you burned your Bible? C.S. Lewis once said, “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”
Regardless of their suffering, the Thessalonians remained firm in their faith. That brings us to the last mark of a mighty church. A mighty church is a strong church.
• A STRONG CHURCH
Finally, despite suffering for their faith, the church in Thessalonica was a strong church—a steadfast church. In the following chapter, Paul writes, “Even while we were with you, we warned you that troubles would soon come—and they did, as you well know. That is why, when I could bear it no longer, I sent Timothy to find out whether your faith was still strong” (1 Thessalonians 3:4-5 NLT).
Paul was worried that the Christians in Thessalonica would lose their faith under pressure. He adds, “We sent him to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through” (vs. 2-3 NLT). Finally, he concludes, “But now Timothy has just returned, bringing us good news about your faith and love… because you have remained strong in your faith. It gives us new life to know that you are standing firm in the Lord” (vs. 6-8 NLT).
Lord willing, our church will never face the kind of persecution the Thessalonians faced. But every Christian faces trouble. Jesus reminded his disciples, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows” (John 16:33 NLT). This is as true for us today as it was for them. Maybe everything is going your way right now. Maybe life couldn’t be better. But in an hour or a day or a week or month, maybe next year or the year after that, the bottom is going to fall out and trouble is going to come your way. Someone once said, “Trouble is like home. Either you’re there, going to it, or coming from it.”
Sometimes, when trouble comes our way, our faith is shaken. That’s why Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica. And that’s why we have each other! When we stand together, we stand stronger. A strong church is one that strengthens and encourages each other.
In an old Peanuts comic-strip, Lucy strolls into the room and demands that her brother Linus change TV channels. “What makes you think you can just walk right in here and take over?” asked Linus. “These five fingers,” said Lucy. “Individually they are nothing, but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they become a force to be reckoned with.” Linus sighed, “What channel do you want?” Then turning away, he looked at his own fingers and asked, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”
A mighty church is a church that stands together, that supports one another during life’s difficulties, so that when trouble comes our way our faith won’t be shaken. Like the Thessalonians we can help each other remain strong in the faith and stand firm in the Lord.
Conclusion:
As I said in the beginning, many churches today bear a resemblance to Hippocrates’s olive tree. They may be big or have a noble history, but on the inside they’re hollow and they no longer bear fruit—they no longer bear the marks of a mighty church. My prayer is that that will never be true of Blooming Grove. May we always continue to bloom and may we always follow in the footsteps of Thessalonica—a Scriptural church, that was willing to suffer for Christ, and ultimately proved to be a strong church—standing firm in the Lord.
Next week, we’ll continue through Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians and discover some more marks of a mighty church.
Invitation:
For now, if you’re looking for a church family that bases their beliefs and practices on Scripture, that’s willing to suffer if need be, and that stands together supporting one another and encouraging each other through life’s trials and trouble—I want to invite you to become a part of Blooming Grove. We’re looking for mighty members that will help us become a mighty church. If that’s something you’d like to be a part of then I want to invite you to talk with me while we stand and sing.
