NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
› Engagement
As we all know this last year has been quite challenging for most of us as individuals. And it has also been a struggle for many churches. A lot of them have had to completely change the way that they “do church”. Many have seen their giving decrease dramatically, leading to staff layoffs and/or the need to apply for PPP loans just to keep operating. And almost every church I know of has experienced at least some division because of differing opinions about how the church should respond to the COVID pandemic.
Here at TFC we haven’t been immune to those challenges, but I certainly want to commend all of you for remaining faithful to support the ministry of our church, both by being steadfast in your attendance, whether that has been in person or online and through your continued giving that has kept us very close to our budget throughout this period.
› Tension
But there is no doubt that there is a certain amount of what we might call “pandemic fatigue” has set in for all of us. We’re tired of wearing masks and using hand sanitizer and we just want to be able to shake hands or hug someone.
And there is a danger that fatigue could easily spill over into our life together as the body of Christ. So I do sometimes worry that the fatigue could very easily cause us to be distracted from our mission.
That’s why I am really excited about the new sermon series that we begin this morning. Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica was written to a group of disciples who also were experiencing a similar kind of fatigue. They had been eagerly awaiting the return of Jesus, but now some of them were getting impatient and even doubting whether He was coming back at all. So Paul writes a letter to encourage them to persevere through that fatigue in order to continue to carry out the mission that Jesus had given them.
› Truth
So for the next 8 weeks, we’ll be studying what we know as the book of 1 Thessalonians. We’ve titled this sermon series Living in Light of Eternity because we’re going to find that is the key to persevering through difficult times as we await the return of Jesus.
The theme of Paul’s letter is summed up quite well near the end, when he writes these words that will serve as our benediction throughout this series:
1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 ESV
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Before we read chapter 1 this morning, let’s briefly consider the context of Paul’s letter, which can be found in Acts chapters 17 and 18. After miraculously being released from a prison in Philippi, Paul traveled to Thessalonica along with Silas and Timothy. There, he preached the gospel in the synagogue for three Sabbaths. Some Jews were persuaded to become disciples of Jesus, but Paul had more success among the Gentiles. But a group of jealous Jews created an insurrection and Paul and Silas were sent away to Berea for their safety. Eventually, Paul was also driven out of Berea and made his way to Athens, where he continued to preach the gospel with mixed results.
After his time in Athens, Paul made his way to Corinth, where he was joined again by Silas and Timothy. It was from there that Paul, along with his companions, wrote the letter we will study. 1 Thessalonians may very well be the earliest written book in the New Testament. It was likely penned in AD 50 or 51 only a few months after Paul had planted the church in Thessalonica. This young church is making a tremendous impact for the kingdom of Jesus all throughout the area and Paul wants to encourage them to continue those efforts.
One of the reasons this letter is so relevant to us is that it was written to a church during some very perilous times. Within 20 years of the writing of this letter, the entire Roman Empire would be engulfed in warfare and rebellion. The Roman army, under the leadership of Titus, would surround the city of Jerusalem, and overrun it following a bloody siege. The Temple would be destroyed and many Jews and Christians would be taken captive. The underlying conditions that would lead to those events were already playing out as Paul wrote his letter. So the Thessalonian Christians were facing perilous times that were not altogether different than those we face today. So in addition to encouraging the disciples there, his letter also provides some very practical instruction about how to persevere in their faith and not give into fatigue.
With that background in mind, lets’ read chapter 1:
1 Thessalonians 1:1–10 ESV
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
This letter has a very similar form to most of Paul’s other letters. He begins with a salutation where he identifies himself as the author along with Timothy and Silas - who is identified here by his Latin name - Silvanus. He then gives his familiar greeting of grace and peace.
The rest of the first chapter contains Paul’s commendation to the church in Thessalonica. They are making a tremendous impact for the gospel in the entire Macedonian region and Paul tells us why. Here is how I would summarize Paul’s teaching here:
Churches make an impact for the gospel when the testimony of their lips is backed up by the testimony of their lives
And since churches are made up of people, that means that for a church to make an impact for the gospel, it needs to be full of people whose are testifying to the gospel with both their lips and their lives. You’ll notice here that Paul is writing to the entire church and not just to its elders or leaders and it is clear based on all the plural pronouns that he uses here that each and every person in the church is participating in that process.
This just confirms what we learn elsewhere in the Bible - that every church member is a minister. We see this most clearly in Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus:
Ephesians 4:11–12 ESV
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Paul uses the word “saints” here to identify every disciple of Jesus and it is clear here that every disciple is to be doing the work of ministry. The primary role of the church leaders is to equip every disciple for that task. That is what Paul, Silas and Timothy had done in their short time in Thessalonica. And based on the influence the church there was having in the entire region, they must have done a pretty good job of that.
So that means that this passage is 100% relevant to every single one of us here today.
I think we can get the most out of this passage by looking at it from 2 different perspectives and then I’m going to close by showing how this passage lines up with our own Discipleship Path and how every single one of us can take our next step toward becoming people who testify to the gospel with our lives and our lips.
THREE TENSES OF BEING A DISCIPLE OF JESUS
This is laid out for us very clearly in verses 9 and 10:
• Past - turned to God
“…you turned to God from idols...”
The Thessalonians had been idol worshipers before coming to Jesus. But suddenly their lives were turned upside down and completely transformed. This is what we often call “repentance”.
That process has both a divine element and a human element.
• We see the divine element in verse 4 when Paul writes that God had chosen the Thessalonians. This is what we often call the doctrine of “election”. Completely apart from anything we do to earn God’s favor, God initiates the process of salvation by choosing us. So we can’t take any credit for that. We also see here in verse 5 that the Holy Spirit is the one who takes human words and empowers them and brings conviction.
• The human element is that a person must make the decision to put their faith in Jesus. And when that faith is genuine, it will be evidenced by a transformation in the way that that person lives his or her life.
So, as we’ve said before, if I am a disciple of Jesus, I can’t take credit for it because it is all God’s work. Even the faith to believe is a gift from God. On the other hand, if I’m not a disciple of Jesus, I can’t blame God because I am the one who has chosen not to put my faith in Jesus.
• Present - serving God
“…to serve the living and true God...”
Becoming a disciple of Jesus is essentially a matter of changing Gods. Before I became a disciple, I served sin and self. Now I serve the true and living God.
I don’t do that in order to achieve my salvation or earn the position of a disciple. I do that out of gratitude for what Jesus has done for me. I serve Him day by day, moment by moment, desiring to do His bidding and further His kingdom and bring glory to Him.
• Future - Waiting for Jesus
“…to wait for his Son from heaven...”
We tend to think of the word “wait” as being passive. But as we’re going to see in this letter, the kind of waiting that Paul is writing about here is actually very active. The word he uses here means “eagerly looking forward to one whose coming is expected”. It was used in classical Greek to describe an army waiting for the enemy to attack. That would hardly be a time of passivity.
We see here that the Second Coming of Jesus is not merely some esoteric doctrine, but rather it is to be the fundamental motivation for our lives. It is that waiting that gives us the sense of urgency for testifying to the gospel, knowing that once Jesus returns, those who have not placed their faith in Him will face eternal judgment.
So it’s no wonder that each of the five chapters in Paul’s letter ends with a reference to the future coming of Jesus.
› Application
HOW TO BE PART OF A CHURCH THAT MAKES AN IMPACT
• Receive the gospel
“…our gospel came to you...”
“you received the word in much affliction...”
The Thessalonians became disciples of Jesus when Paul and his companions brought the gospel to them and they received it into their lives by placing their faith in Jesus. They did that even in spite of the persecution that Paul had faced for sharing the gospel in their city and the persecution that they faced as a result of their decision to follow Jesus. And Paul writes that they did that “with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”
Becoming a disciple of Jesus does not mean that all your problems will go away. And even in today’s culture, you may very well face opposition and even persecution for your faith. But the good news is that the joy of being a disciple of Jesus is not dependent on your circumstances. And it will far surpass whatever difficulties you might face as His disciple.
• Live the gospel
“…you became imitators…of the Lord...”
“…you became an example...”
We see this idea expressed throughout this passage. We’ve already talked about how these disciples had turned away from their idols and were serving God. Paul also describes here how they had become imitators of Jesus and of he and his companions. Not only that, they had also become examples to other believers in the entire region. So they were testifying to the gospel with their lives.
• Speak the gospel
“…the word of the Lord sounded forth from you...”
These disciples also testified to the gospel with their words. Throughout this chapter, Paul equates the “gospel” with the “word”. He reinforces the main idea we’ve been developing this morning:
Churches make an impact for the gospel when the testimony of their lips is backed up by the testimony of their lives
I absolutely love how Pastor Skip Heitzig reaffirms the necessity of witnessing with both our lips and our lives:
If you just witness with your lips, but not your lives, you're a hypocrite. That's hypocrisy. But if you just witness with your life and not your lips, that's cruelty. That's like being a person who had a disease cured by medicine and you're not going to tell the rest of the patients how to get better.
› Action
Many of you are familiar with our Discipleship Path. For those of you attending in person, hopefully you have noticed it on the back wall as you enter and exit each week. This morning seems like an appropriate time for us to review that again since it lines up so well with today’s passage.
The first thing you will notice about this path is that it is in the form of a circle. There are two reasons for that:
• First, it reminds us that discipleship is a life long process. Unlike our school system, no one ever “graduates”. So, for the most part, the steps on this path are steps that we are to take over and over in our walk with Jesus.
• Secondly, it reminds us that we are to reproduce this same process in the lives of others. As we’ll see in a moment, that is particularly true when it comes to the “share” step.
So as we close this morning, I want to quickly remind you of the steps in this process. And as I do so, I want to encourage everyone joining us today to write down one specific thing that you are going to do this week to take your next step on this path.
Come
When Paul made his first visit to Thessalonica, this is exactly what he did. He introduced the people there to Jesus.
If you’re joining us this morning, you’ve already taken this first step. Congratulations! Some of you may have been disciples of Jesus for a long time, but it is likely that some of you are just here to be introduced to Jesus. If so, welcome! We’re glad you’ve taken than important first step.
Commit
At some point, the people who were part of the church there in Thessalonica had made some commitments and perhaps some of you here today need to do the same:
• They had all made a commitment to put their faith in Jesus and to trust in Him alone for their salvation.
• Although it’s not mentioned specifically it is safe to assume that all the believers had been baptized by immersion. That was the consistent practice in the early church so there is no reason to think these disciples would not have done that. That baptism did not save them, but it was a public testimony of the decision they had made to put their faith in Jesus,
• Although we have no evidence that the early church had membership rolls, there is little doubt that these disciples had made a commitment to the local church there, not by signing some piece of paper or going through a class, but by their active involvement in the ministry of the church.
If you haven’t already made those commitments in your life, then we invite you to do that today.
Grow
As we have talked about this morning, those in the church there in Thessalonica gave evidence to the fact that they were growing in their relationship with Jesus by the way that they lived their lives.
There are so many ways that we can continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus that I can’t possibly begin to list them all. But let me mention just a few of the most important:
• Read your Bible. I’m so encouraged by how many of you have joined our Bible reading plans this year. If you haven’t already done that I want to encourage you to just jump in and join us right where we are. Or if that doesn’t work for you, make sure you find some plan that takes you through the entire Bible in some kind of systematic way.
• Attend regularly. The one thing I can guarantee you is that if you attend our worship gatherings, you are going to hear the Bible explained in a way that makes it relevant in your life. So the more you attend, the better you will be able to apply the Bible to your daily life.
• Bible Study. We have a number of Bible studies available right here at TFC. So find one that works for you. And if none of those works for you, just plan to get together with some other disciples and study the Bible together. Those of us who regularly participate in a group Bible study know the value of studying the Word of God together with other disciples.
• Apply what you’re learning. This is the most important step. If we only study the Bible for information rather than application, we aren’t going to grow.
Serve
We already saw how the people in the Thessalonian church were serving the true and living God. We should follow their example.
Again, it’s impossible to list all the ways we can do that, but there are two broad categories of service that I want to mention briefly:
• Within the body. There are all kinds of ways that you can serve here at TFC. If you’re not sure where God might be leading you to serve, I want to encourage you to just jump in and start serving. We’d love to help you find a place of service here.
• Outside the body. Frankly this is where most of the work of ministry occurs. Every one of you have the ability to serve others that I’ll never meet. Anything you do to serve the needs of others in the name of Jesus is serving Him.
Share
If you are a disciple of Jesus you have been given a precious gift that is not to be hoarded just for your own benefit. It is to be shared with the world around us. Like the Thessalonians, we are to testify to the gospel with both or lips and our lives. As we’ve seen this morning, both are required.
As I’ve talked about before, we’ve often made this much more complicated that it ought to be. And so many of us are afraid to share Jesus with others. If that describes you then I want to encourage you to pray about that. Pray for the people in your life that are not yet disciples of Jesus. Ask God to draw them to Him and for the Holy Spirit to bring power and conviction. Pray that God would give you opportunities to share how Jesus has changed your life and that He would give you both boldness and the right words when those opportunities arise. And then just share Jesus with you lips and your lives.
What is the next step that God wants for you to take today? That will be different for each of us, but I’m convinced that every one of us needs to take some next step today. And the good news is that you don’t have to do that alone. We’re here to help. But we can’t do that unless you let us know how we can do that. At the end of the message, I’ll share several ways that you can share your next step with us today so that we can walk alongside you as you take that step.
Churches make an impact for the gospel when the testimony of their lips is backed up by the testimony of their lives
› Inspiration
I don’t know when Jesus is going to return. What I can tell you is that it is certain He will do that and that that day is almost 2,000 years closer today than it was when Paul wrote his letter to the church in Thessalonica. That means that the task of testifying to the gospel with our lips and our lives is urgent. There is no time to waste. The eternal destiny of your family, friends, co-workers and neighbors is at stake.
