1 Thessalonians 1:2-10
A Remarkable Church
Introduction
In our first look at this letter to the Thessalonian church, we noted that Paul had established the work during his second missionary tour, and that Timothy and Silas had accompanied him in the work. We know that he preached at the synagogue on three Sabbath days, but what we don’t know is how long he actually stayed in the city of Thessalonica. I think that the time period was longer, but that is only a guess at best. What is obvious is that regardless of how long he preached, there were many who accepted the gospel and were saved, possibly hundreds of them, for we noted that in this city of about a quarter million people, had only a few of them been saved, no one would have cared, but from the account in Acts 17, so many were saved, and evidently so many influential people were saved that the city was moved with rage against the Apostle Paul, for as they said, he and the others were turning their world upside down.
As we look at the rest of chapter 1 tonight and put it together with what we’ve already seen in Acts 17, I want you to notice that the church at Thessalonica was really a remarkable church. I mean that when these folk came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, they didn’t just make him a part of their lives and fit His form of religion into their belief systems, accepting Christ meant a total life change, and the result of their changed lives was that they caught the attention of a watching world. Listen, when a church gets on fire for the Lord, people will take notice, but its not just people who take notice, the Lord takes notice as well.
The Lord God is still looking for His churches to come alive with a sense of purpose and direction for Him. He is still waiting and watching for a group of people who know Him to come alive with love and passion for Christ and for a lost and dying world, and when the Lord’s churches come alive, not only can a watching world claim that it is a remarkable thing, the Lord finds that church to be remarkable as well.
I want for Woodlawn Baptist Church to be found remarkable in the Lord’s eyes. I want for Him to be able to brag on us in the heavenlies because His name is being glorified and Christ is being exalted and people are being drawn to Him through us. What makes for a remarkable church? I think in the opening statements of 1 Thessalonians 1, we find some important traits that ought to be true of our church and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Their Lives Had Been Changed
I want you to notice particularly verses 4-6 & 9,
"Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were for your sake. And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost…For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God."
This change the Thessalonians experienced began in salvation, for Paul spoke of their election, or their election by God to salvation. The doctrine of election is undoubtedly one of the most difficult doctrines of the Bible to grasp, and like one preacher said, "If you try to explain election you may lose your mind, but if you try to explain away election you may lose your soul."1 Election certainly is one of the more difficult teaches of Scripture to understand, but thankfully we don’t have to understand everything about salvation in order to experience it.
The Bible teaches that those who have accepted Christ are the elect, and those who reject Him are not. J.R. Alexander, long-time Missionary Baptist preacher and Seminary instructor, explained election this way,
"God possesses the power and attribute of foreknowledge, which simply means to know beforehand. In eternity, before the time ages began, God foreknew how every responsible sinner of Adam’s race would respond to the convicting influence of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the gospel, though He did not determine nor decree the response of any individual. Those whom He foreknew would repent and believe on Christ, He elected to salvation, and predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. This election was made in eternity, it was an election of grace, and it was a sovereign choice."2
What does election really mean for you and me? It means most importantly that in no way can we ever take credit for our salvation. We can’t brag about a single part of it, because God in His own good will chose to save us before the world ever began, and He simply invited us to accept His offer of salvation. These Thessalonians had heard Paul reason from the Scriptures how Jesus had to suffer and die and be raised from the dead and in response they chose to accept what they heard. They repented of their sin and placed their faith in this Jesus and they were saved.
How did Paul know they were elect? How did he know they had been saved? He knew because they didn’t settle for some lip service religion. Verse 5 states that the gospel didn’t just come to them in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. When people get a hold of the Word of God and they in turn let the Word of God get a hold of them there is going to be a powerful work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They won’t be content living the same old way and they won’t be content with their sin. There’s going to be a change.
In verse 9 we find that when these folk came to know the Lord Jesus Christ they gave up dead idol worship and began to serve the true and living God. They realized that those chunks of wood and those pieces of gold and silver were no match for the eternal and all-powerful God and Creator of the universe. Why serve the creation when we can serve the Creator?
I was reading the other day in 2 Chronicles 25 about King Amaziah, who loved and served the Lord for a while in his young life, but one day after a victorious battle against the Edomites, he brought home the gods of the people that he had just defeated. In other words, he brought home their little handmade idols. Not only did he bring them home, but the Bible says that he set them up to be his gods and bowed himself down before them and burned incense to them. The Lord became angry with Amaziah and asked him this question, "Why have you sought after the gods of those people when those same gods failed to deliver them from your hands?" In other words, "those gods are worthless and powerless to do anything for you, why have you chosen them instead of me?"
The Thessalonian believers had so changed their lives that all of Thessalonica was in an uproar and the leaders of the city were determined to drive them out. They had to put a stop to this gospel preaching because people were accepting it and their lives were being radically changed. How pleased God must have been with such a profound acceptance of the Word of God, that in the face of such opposition and persecution, and in the face of economic and social rejection, and in spite of how much they must have given up, like Moses in the book of Hebrews, they "chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in [this world]: for [they] had respect unto the recompense of the reward." Verse 6 says that they "received the word in much affliction…" There’s no telling what that word "much" entails. Maybe it means they couldn’t eat or shop. Maybe it means they couldn’t marry or live in the city peacefully. It could mean they were beaten and robbed and murdered for their faith. It doesn’t really matter too much what exactly they went through, because the important fact of the matter is that the verse goes on to say that they endured it with "joy of the Holy Ghost." Suffering for Jesus was better than anything else the world had to offer.
Imagine a people that were so dramatically changed by the Word of God that the people of our town got in an uproar over it. Imagine a people who were so impacted by the gospel that people began to say that we were turning their world upside down and folk all over Denison were taking notice of the change. I daresay that not only should we imagine it, but we ought to desire it. We need to get a hold of the Word of God and let it get a hold of us. May God find in us such changed lives that other can see that we are the elect of God, that we have been chosen by Him and that our lives are different because of Him, and not only are we saved and changed, but we have willingly and joyfully chosen that change.
They Were Willing To Work
Verse 3 says,
"Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father…"
Now a willingness to work is certainly the result of a changed life. When we recognize Jesus Christ as the Lord of our lives, then we’ll be willing to work for Him. Paul broke their service down into three categories.
Their work of faith
All the work we do for the Lord ought to be done by faith. I don’t know what work they had done for the Lord between the time Paul labored in Thessalonica and the time he wrote this letter to them, but I do know that whatever it was they did it because of their faith in the Lord God. They risked their lives, the lives of their families and friends, gave up their money and worked by faith, trusting God to protect them and provide for them all their needs. What a remarkable group of people! While most Christians talk about their faith, these believers were putting theirs to the test.
James said,
"What good is it, my brethren, for you to say you have faith if you don’t have works? Can that kind of faith save you? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."
You can talk about your faith in God till Jesus comes back, but if you don’t ever do anything to show it, then what good has it been. You say you’ve got faith in God, then prove it!
Their labor of love
The word labor here is a very strong word. It means to toil, to labor or work to the point of exhaustion. Paul says that these believers loved the Lord so much that they were literally wearing themselves out for Him. If we really love the Lord like we say we do, then we’ll gladly labor for Him. We are familiar with Jesus’ statement to the disciples, "If you love me, keep my commandments."
John 6:27 says,
"Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed."
1 Corinthians 15:58 says,
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
I read about a missionary who had come home on furlough. Some friends were talking with him and one of them said, "I think it is just wonderful that you love those people over there enough to go over and tell them about Jesus." The missionary quickly replied, "Well, I didn’t go over there because I love the people. In fact, the truth of the matter was, I really didn’t love the people." "But," he said, "I went over there because I loved Jesus and He wanted me to go over there and when I got over there Jesus taught me to love the people."
Their patience of hope
Without belaboring the point, let me just say that this statement means they were an enduring people. Their hope was in Christ and they patiently continued in their service for Him. They kept on keeping on when it wasn’t immediately beneficial to them to do so, when they were being persecuted, when they were mocked and it was costing them everything. They knew that one day Christ would return and it would be worth it all!
I wonder after considering their work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope just how willing we are to labor for the Lord. Are we so ready to joyfully endure and labor to the point of exhaustion? Are we willing to lay aside our needs for the needs of others? Have you noticed yet the three key words here concerning their work? They are faith, love and hope. Those are all fruit of the Spirit. We don’t produce faith, love or hope, but the Spirit of God produces those things in our lives as we surrender ourselves to the Him daily.
So what am I saying? I’m simply saying this, that if we will surrender our hearts and minds and bodies to the Spirit of God with an attitude that says God, do with me as you please no matter what it costs me, then He will equip us with the necessary things we need to continue in that state of surrenderedness, no matter what it costs us.
If we want to be a church that catches the eye of God and others, then not only will must we give evidence of changed lives, we must also be willing to work for our Master, doing His will His way.
Evangelism and Missions Were High Priority
Now read verses 7 and 8,
"So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing."
Now some might disagree, but I believe that evangelism and missions go hand in hand. The Great Commission found in the gospels and the charge found in Acts 1:8 indicate that Jesus expected His people to take the gospel to all people everywhere. That command is to be carried out first at home and then everywhere else it can be taken. We believe and declare that missions is the heartbeat of God and it ought to be the heartbeat of our church, but at the heart of missions is evangelism. We have said before that when we quit caring about missions our church will die, but I declare unto you that when we quit caring about evangelism and getting the gospel into the hearts of men then it won’t matter how much money we pour into missions, our church will be found to be lacking already.
Notice that these folks got saved, they went to work, and they began sounding out the word of the Lord all over the place. They didn’t preach themselves. They didn’t preach Paul and Silas and Timothy. They preached the word of the Lord. They preached Jesus. The Bible says that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." It was the Word of God that they sounded out, and it is the Word of God that we must faithfully proclaim today.
I don’t know what it will take for those of us in the Lord’s churches to begin to take more seriously our responsibility to evangelize our world and to desire to do more for the Lord in terms of missions, but we need to. Woodlawn Baptist Church ought to labor in this endeavor as though we were the only church on the face of the earth. We ought to labor as though today were our last day, knowing that the gospel we preach is the lost person’s last chance.
When the Thessalonians realized how empty and dead their former lives had been and how alive they were now as they were filled and sealed with the Spirit of promise, they couldn’t help but be motivated to share it with others. Perhaps one of the greatest tests of our love and devotion to Christ is our willingness to share Him with others. This was certainly one of the stand out characteristics of this truly remarkable church, and it ought to be one of ours.
They Were Anxious For The Return Of Christ
Verse 10 concludes the chapter with the statement…
"…ye 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, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come."
One of the greatest differences between Christianity and all the other religions of the world is this idea of the return of Christ. I don’t really know what keeps other people going when all they have to trust in is themselves and their own ability to be good or to save themselves. I don’t know what keeps a man or woman going when all hope is gone, but I know what keeps me going and what ought to keep every child of God going when all the odds in this life are stacked against him, and that is the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
No matter what the skeptics may say, one of these days the Lord Jesus is going to part the clouds of heaven to receive the saved into His glorious presence for all eternity and establish His earthly physical kingdom and I know that there is a place reserved there for me. The same Jesus that God raised from the dead some 2000 years ago is that Jesus who now sits at the right hand of the throne of God. He is the same Jesus that daily makes intercession for me. He is the same Jesus that knows my every hurt and sorrow because He gave up the riches of heaven to live the life that I would live and to die the death that I should have died. He is the same Jesus that said, "No man takes my life from me. I have the power to take my life and I have the power to take it again."
Because He lives I live. Because He was victorious I am victorious. Because He overcame death and hell and the grave I am an overcomer, and because of the sacrifice He made I am already delivered from the wrath to come. There is a day coming when the wrath of God will be poured out on all those who refuse to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, and that day is just as sure as the fact that you and I are here today.
Now, what made this church a remarkable church was that they lived with a great expectancy of the bodily return of Jesus during their own lifetime, and their lives were a reflection of that expectancy. I would daresay that most churches, and perhaps even ours, operate as though Jesus won’t be coming back for a very long time, but we don’t have that guarantee. The fact is we don’t know when He’ll return, so we need to be ready today. The people in Noah’s day thought they had all the time in the world, until God’s wrath was poured out in the form of a flood. The people in Egypt thought they had plenty of time, until the wrath of God came upon them in the form of a death angel. People in our day live the same way.
Are we really looking? Are we really anxious for the return of Christ, or will His return only interfere with our comfortable plans for our lives? Will His return find us waiting and watching and working, or loafing and lazy and lacking? Do you know how He will find this church? Just the way He finds you.
Conclusion
Listen, most of us here would readily say that we have a remarkable church. There are many things about it that we like, and probably some things that we don’t, but overall, it is a great church. But more importantly, what would God say? If He were to weigh the evidence, would He find a people whose lives were being dramatically and radically changed? Would He find people who were laboring? People who were evangelistic and missions minded? Would He find His people watching anxiously for His return?
Have you made personal preparations for the return of Christ? If you haven’t, you can do so right now, and you need to. That may mean accepting Christ or repenting of known sin and returning to the Lord’s sweet fellowship.
"What kind of church would this church be if every member were just like me?" In faithfulness? In love? In service?
1. Vines, Dr. Jerry, The Master’s Sermon Library; 1 Thess. 1:1-10, pg. 5
2. Alexander, J.R., Calvinism Versus the Scriptures, Texas Baptist Institute & Seminary, Henderson, TX. 1979. pg. 2
