Marks of A Mighty Church (Part 3)
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 8/23/2015
A pilot was flying over the South Pacific when he noticed smoke coming from one of the many deserted islands below. The pilot flew closer and, sure enough, there was a man there with a great huge beard and tattered clothes sending the smoke signals. When the pilot landed, the man was overjoyed. “I’ve been on this island all alone for eleven years and I was beginning to lose hope!”
The pilot noticed something odd, and then asked, “If you've been all alone on the island for eleven years why do you have three huts?" The man smiled. “This hut is my home. This one next to it is my church. I go there every Sunday to worship God.”
“That’s very touching,” said the pilot, “How about that third hut?”
With a bitter look on his face, the survivor replied, “Oh, that’s where I used to go to church.”
Committing to a church can be difficult. You like the preaching at one, but you aren’t so sure about the music. You love the people at another, but the preaching is not as solid. No church is perfect. But some churches are a little closer than others.
The church in Thessalonica fit that category. Unlike more problem-prone churches—such as Sardis or Laodicea—the church in Thessalonica was an exemplary church. In chapter 1, Paul praises them for being an energetic church, an elect church, an evangelistic church, and an expectant church. In chapters 2-3, he describes them as a scriptural church, a suffering church, and a strong church.
In short, the Thessalonian church was a mighty church that set an great example for churches like ours to follow. As we begin reading chapter four, Paul writes, “Brothers and sisters, we taught you how to live in a way that will please God, and you are living that way. Now we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live that way even more.” (1 Thessalonians 4:1 NCV).
As a young church—only about two years old—the Thessalonians where just learning how to live the Christian life. And, as Paul says, they were already doing a pretty good job, but he wanted to encourage them to keep up the good work. And, in so doing, Paul points out three more marks of a mighty church.
First, a mighty church avoids lust.
• AVOIDS LUST
In the following verses Paul writes, “God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor—not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways… God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 NLT).
The moral climate in the Roman Empire was not healthy. Immorality was a way of life and sexual standards, in particular, were very low. Prostitution was legal and widespread. Explicit, pornographic paintings populated public art galleries and private collections. It was socially acceptable for men to engage in sex with teenage boys, male prostitutes, or slaves of either gender.
It seems the more things change, the more things stay the same. Earlier this week I learned about Ashley Madison—a dating website that deals in adultery. A match-making website for married people looking to cheat on their spouse, their tag line is—“Life is Short. Have an affair.” The site, which prides itself on secrecy and security, made headlines when hackers stole and exposed the names, email addresses, credit card information and secret sexual fantasies of 37 million cheating spouse. It’s hard to sympathize with the “victims” in a case like this.
But this just demonstrates that adultery, fornication, pornography, homosexuality, and other sexual sins remain obstacles to holiness. To be holy means to be “set apart” or consecrated. In the Old Testament God implored Israel, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2 NIV).
At bottom, God's call to be holy is a radical, all-encompassing claim on our lives, our loves, and our very identities. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ requires nothing less than death to our fallen, egocentric selves in order that we might live in and for him. To be holy means that all we are and all we have belongs to God, not ourselves, and that every aspect of our lives is to be shaped and directed toward God.
Although holiness is much more than mere morality, as Paul points out, a life of holiness will find expression in our sexual relationships. As Christians, we dare to believe that sex is precious, and God created it to be fully experienced only in the most precious relationship—marriage. Sex isn’t casual. It wasn’t created for boyfriends and girlfriends. It wasn’t even meant for serious couples who intend to get married. It doesn’t matter whether its pornography, or premarital sex, or homosexuality, or adultery, if it falls short of God’s purpose and plan for sex, it’s un-holy. To be holy requires us surrender our lives—including our sexual relationships and desires—to God, because he is holy.
A mighty church avoids lust.
• ADOPTS LOVE
Furthermore, a mighty church advances love. Paul continues, “We don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God himself has taught you to love one another. Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers throughout Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more” (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 NLT).
Love. It’s the theme of a thousand songs, the topic of a million letters, and the subject of countless sermons. It’s also the defining mark of a mighty church.
Legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi, was once asked what it took to make a winning team. He answered, “There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don’t win the game. [They lack one ingredient:] if you’re going to play together as a team, you’ve got to care for one another. You’ve got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: If I don’t block that man, Paul is going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job well in order that he can do his. The difference between mediocrity and greatness,” Lombardi said, “is the feeling those guys have for each other.”
Similarly, I think the difference between a mediocre church and a mighty church if the feel you all have for one another. Do you really love the person in the pew behind you or beside you? Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13:35 NLT).
In making this claim, Jesus did something the world had never seen before—He created a group identified by one thing: love. There are countless groups in the world, and they identify themselves in any number of ways: by skin color, by uniform, by shared interest, by alma mater, etc. One group has tattoos and piercings; another group abstains from meat; yet another group wears fezzes—the ways people categorize themselves are endless. But the church is unique. For the first and only time in history, Jesus created a group whose identifying factor is love. Skin color doesn’t matter. Native language doesn’t matter. There are no rules about diet or uniforms or wearing funny hats. Followers of Christ are identified by their love for each other.
Loving people isn’t always easy. People can be hard to get along with. How do you love people who are hard to love? Our typical strategy is to try harder, dig deeper, strain more. We’re going to love that person if it kills us! And it just might.
The Bible offers a different approach, which Paul hints at when he says, “for God himself has taught you to love one another” (vs. 9 NLT).
God’s love is amazing. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God's love encompasses us completely. He loves every one of us, even though we are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. When we accept and embrace God’s love for us, it fills us and empowers us to love one another.
That’s what I want for this church more than anything. I want to be able to come here, and I want you to be able to come here, and feel totally and completely loved. If we love each other as God has loved us, then we will become a church of love and harmony, drawing people who are starving for love into the presence of Jesus and the salvation that he offers. A mighty church embraces and adopts love.
Finally, a mighty church also applauds labor.
• APPLAUDS LABOR
Finally, Paul writes, “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 NLT).
For the most part, the Greeks despised manual labor. Slave labor was typically used for any work that might make you break a sweat. Thus, Paul reminded the Thessalonians hard work is an honorable thing. He encouraged them to work with their hands so that they could provide for themselves and win the respect of unbelievers.
Paul draws a connection between our personal work ethic and the way outsiders view the church. In other words, you can witness through your work. Your attitude and actions testify every day to unchurched co-workers, customers, and clients about Christ. Many of the people whom you work with will never come to a church service like this one. Few of them are going to turn on their television and hear a gospel message and fewer still are going to pick up a Bible and get to know God personally. But they will interact with you on daily basis. If you’re the kind of employee or employer who always does the bare minimum, gripes about everything, and does shoddy work, people won’t respect you and they won’t be interested in the God you worship or where you go to church. But if you’ll come into work with a positive attitude and strong work ethic, people will see that too.
God values honest work. In fact, God views work worthy of its own engraved commandment: “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest” (Exodus 34:21). We like the second half of that verse.
One time a preacher was preaching about the importance of work. He told the congregation that they should praise God for the opportunity of working for their daily bread. “But the Lord has seen to it,” he said, “that you don’t have to work every day. Because of Moses you have Saturday off, and thanks to Jesus you have Sunday off. Isn’t that wonderful?” he asked. A voice from the back pew piped up, “Sure is. Five more Jewish boys like that and we’d never have to work again!”
A friend recently shared this online:
“My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned because I couldn’t concentrate. Next I tried working in a muffler factory but that was too exhausting. I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work was just too draining. I attempted to be a deli worker, but any way I sliced it, I couldn’t cut the mustard. Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn’t hack it, so they gave me the ax. My last job was working at Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind.”
We’d love to work less and rest more, wouldn’t we? Most wage earners dread Monday, dream of Friday, and drag through every day in between. But I think if you start to view your job as an opportunity to share Christ with your co-workers or customers, it will totally change how you do your job and how you interact with the people around you. God honors honest work. Shouldn’t your work, honor God?
Conclusion:
So, how well do we measure up to these marks of a mighty church? Are you committed to holiness, avoid lust and sexual sin? Do you really love the person in the pew beside you? Does your actions and attitude at work, win the admiration of outsiders? You see, a church is only as mighty as its members. So if we’re going to be a mighty church, then we need to be mighty Christians, too.
Next week, we’ll continue through Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians and discover some more marks of a mighty church.
Invitation:
For now, maybe you’re not feeling so mighty. If you’ve been wrestling with sexual sin or just struggling to love the person in the pew beside you or maybe you realize that you haven’t been the best example to your co-workers or customers—I want to invite you to confess those struggles to God. While we stand and I sing you can stand and pray. Open your heart to God and if you’d like to you can also talk with me about it while we stand and sing.
