CEL091403
Ready series
1 Thessalonians 2
Ready to be entrusted with the gospel
This week past our church and community experienced two dramas that portrayed the pivot points of our belief system. One was a drama presented live by actors on the Evergreen stage. The other was a drama experienced in real time and real life by the untimely death of a young lady we loved and miss.
The theatrical presentation reminded us that there is a place called heaven which is the eternal home of the redeemed and there is a place called hell the eternal home of those who reject the saving work of Jesus. The death of Lindsey Murphy reminds us of the urgency of the Gospel.
As simply as it can be made the difference between the two is Jesus. Heaven in where he is Lord and Hell is where you are Lord. You become part of the Kingdom of heaven when you repent of sin and enthrone Jesus as Lord of your life. You are a member of the Kingdom of hell when you insist on being your own boss and fail to see the destructive nature of a sinful lifestyle.
Some people wonder how a loving God could separate families and friends by sending some to heaven and some to hell. God does not separate people and send some here and some there. He died to save all people. He wants all people with him in the Kingdom of God. It is not God that makes our final destination plans, it is us. We have two roads laid out before us. One is called the broad road and the other is the narrow. The broad road leads to hell. The narrow road leads to heaven. Which road we choose is up to us.
Others want to blunt the impact and importance of our choices by teaching that all people will eventually be in heaven. They teach that hell is not a literal place, but just a description of a life without Jesus. There is no doctrine that I would love to embrace more than this, but I have a problem to deal with before I can accept it. The problem is that Jesus taught that Hell was real and that Heaven is real and we are to do all we can to avoid the first and wind up in the latter.
Let us deal with the concept of the Gospel. The Gospel means the good news. What is the good news? The Good News is that The Father God was not willing that even one of us die without hope, so he became a man Angels called Jesus who died and rose again to offer us the hope of eternal life in the very presence of the God who made us.
Some people have taken the Good News and turned it into bad news because they have made it legalistic, fatalistic and negative with a focus on avoiding hell as the highest good. Hell is to be avoided at all costs, but heaven is more than just a final destination. Heaven is as well a way of living as is hell a way of living. Some people live hellish lives and some heavenly. The difference is the presence of Jesus. Where Jesus is-is heaven. Where Jesus is absent-is hell.
This message must be taken to the nations. The world needs some good news. Whose responsible to tell the good news story? At first it was nature’s job. The heavens declare the glory of God the Psalms tell us. Next the good news was handed to faithful men called Patriarchs. Their names are Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Next the message became the responsibility of the Jewish nation. Now, after the cross and resurrection the good news message is the responsibility of the church. You are part of the church if you are a born again and baptized follower of Christ. The good news is now your responsibility.
We have the burden and responsibility to encourage the old and feeble that if Jesus is their Lord heaven is waiting. We have the obligation to tell families that in Christ they can be together forever. We have the duty to tell people who refuse to bow before Jesus that they have no hope and are dead already in their sins. We have been entrusted with the Gospel. You have been entrusted with the Gospel.
God has no plan “b” by which he will spread the gospel. The church is the chosen vessel for this age.
Some were saying that Paul’s work in Thessalonica was a failure because they had to leave so soon. Their work was a success because their message was so powerful. They were not there to raise money, gain fame or kill time. They were on time with the most important message ever told. It took. It changed lives. It spread because of the power of God that went with it.
You have a huge choice to make with your life. What story will I tell? Will I spend my life telling people how great I am or will I spend it telling them how great God is?
You will gossip something. Gossip the good news.
What do I need to know if I am going to tell the good news?
Your are not on your own
1You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. 2We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition.
The missionary journey of Paul and his team was very difficult. They were strongly opposed. What they discovered was that when times got tough grace increased. The more difficult the road the greater the divine power was given to them.
There is a spiritual lesson that anyone will discover when you step up for Jesus. Your message will not be welcomed by everyone. Although the message offers hope and life it opposes the god of this earth. It opposes the “I” god of self and self does not want to be second.
Another lesson we need to learn to survive and succeed with the Gospel story presentation is that God is efficient with his strength. He gives it when it is needed. He doesn’t usually waste it on people who don’t plan on using it.
This week I was called upon to try to find words of comfort and hope for friends and family members of a 16 year old girl who was killed in a car accident. Lindsey Nicole Murphy was a member of Evergreen and her parents were part of our first few years of ministry under this church name. At the family home the night of the accident I found myself out of my league. I didn’t know what to say or how to help. The pain and grief was overwhelming. What I discovered was that God came to my aid. When I needed the right words he whispered them in my ear. When I needed the extra strength it came just in time. At her funeral I had the biggest audience and the most open audience to hear words of hope and comfort that I had spoken to in a long time. God was good and came to help me hold out hope.
When you decide to tell the gospel story you can count on God strong arm of help. He will never let you down or abandon you. You can count on it.
You will have help when you step up and tell the good news, but you need to know the right to be heard is costly.
It will cost you a lot
One thing it will cost you is your rights. You are an American with the Bill of Rights on your side. You have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but to effectively tell the Good News you will have to give up some of your rights.
You have to give up the right to be a burden. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, What Paul meant was they worked among the Thessalonians at second jobs to free the new believers from the responsibility of supporting the messengers. Immature believers can be sidelined by believers if we are not careful.
To avoid any possibility of injuring the new faith the missionaries made tents by day and preached by night. They did not take up a love offering for their support not because they did not deserve it or that God would not bless it, but because it might harm a weaker brother.
You have to give up the right to be strong and forceful 7but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. Some people are like bulls in a china closet about they way they share their faith. They have a repent or perish mentality and offend as many as they infect with the good news. When one method of evangelism fails there are a thousand others to try. You will never force anyone into the Kingdom. Each person must come by their choice.
You have to give up the right to live your life any way you choose 8We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. To put it bluntly, you have to walk the walk before you can talk the talk. Some times our lives are speaking so loudly people can’t hear our words. One of the ancient evangelists of the early church said something to this effect: We are to tell the gospel story with everything we have and when all else fails use words. One selfish moment can erase years of gospel seed sowing.
You have to give up the right to be lazy and comfortable 9 Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. It will be the most labor intensive enterprise you have ever encountered. Effective gospel tellers study to show themselves approved. They are instant in season and out of season. They count time spent in front of the TV as time wasted. They consider any conversation that doesn’t move a sinner toward Jesus a misspent moment.
If you are going to sell you have to own it
Ownership means you are living the Christ life to the best of you ability. It means you are seeking holiness and righteousness, and truly engaging a blameless life. It means that God is pleased with your decisions and actions. 10You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed.
You have to own holiness. Holiness means to be undivided. One could be holy and wholly and fit in the definition. A heart divided is a heart that is ineffective at telling the good news.
You have to own righteousness. Righteousness is not something you bring to the equation. Righteousness is something we get from Jesus as a gift through his death.
To tell the good news you must have experienced redemption for yourself. Make sure you know Jesus personally. There is no personal righteousness apart from Jesus.
So if you are going to be a good news teller your in luck because God is going to help you, but remember the cost of telling is costly. It will cost you-you. All that aside the next issue we encounter is encouraging because it goes to the value of our mission. Being a Good News teller . . .
It is the most important thing you will ever do
we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God---- 16— In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.
Your mission is important because you are actually handling God work when you evangelize. God’s work is to relieve men of their sin and thereby help them avoid wrath that is the result of sin. When you help a sinner come to Jesus you have been part of the most important thing a human can be part of.
Your mission is important because those refuse the good news will receive the wrath of God. The wrath of God is a misunderstood concept. God’s wrath is passive not dynamic. In other words God does not arbitrarily burn sinners. He sets boundaries and when we stay within the bounds he sets our lives are joyful and abundant. When we push against his boundaries we experience his wrath. But, the wrath we experience is proportionate to the amount of push on our part. The harder we push the more wrath we experience.
So no matter what else you do with your life nothing will matter in eternity more than your mission of Gospel story telling. Be a butcher, baker or candle stick maker, but at the same time tell the good news. Telling the good news is vitally important. It is so important that God promises to help no matter how difficult the situation. We need His help because . . .
It will become a spiritual battle with a real enemy
17But, brothers, when we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. 18For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan stopped us. 19 For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? 20 Indeed, you are our glory and joy.
Like it not there is a spiritual power that will oppose you every time you step up to tell the good news. The bad news does not want the good news to be told. The enemy will. . .
Do all within his power to tear away your witness. Sometimes in spite of your best efforts an opportunity is taken away. I have observed this at work many times. A person or family comes under the influence of the gospel and are just steps away from turning to Jesus and one of a hundred things will come and snatch them away. It breaks my heart and drives me to my knees because an opportunity was snatched away.
I remember a young medical doctor and his wife who attended Evergreen for a short time. They were drinking deeply of the words of life and moving rapidly to receive Jesus. Satan swooped in at the last moment and through marital strife and infidelity
snatched them away. So close, but lost. I remember many other situations where people were running toward the Lord when Satan tripped them and they went away lost. In the book of St. John a rich, young leader came to Jesus by night. He was running toward the Lord. When he heard that he would have to give all he had away he went away lost.
How do we stand against the enemy? We stand best on our knees. When we pray we call to battle the forces of heaven. We stand best in faith. When we can’t or don’t understand we faith it. Faith is a verb in Greek and if you stand before the enemy you will do so in faith from time to time.
You have a job to do. Will you accept the challenge? It will demand your best, and will cost you dearly. It will demand your full attention and energy. It will be the most challenging assignment you will ever accept. It has the most potential of changing the world and making a difference of any thing else.
The good news must get out. It must get out to the families like the Murphy’s who have lost a daughter. They must realize she is not lost, she is in heaven. It must get out to the dysfunctional and functional families. They must know Jesus before their lives will ever work as they were intended. The good news must get out to your community to spread some hope where there is hopelessness - Help where there is helplessness - love where there is hate – Peace where there is only chaos and hurt and joy where there is none. The good news must get out to the world. It must go to Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, China, Korea and Russia. It must go to S. America and Canada, Europe, Australia and Africa.
How are we to get it to those places? We are supposed to take it there. We are to give our time, talent and tithe to see that it gets there. Any thing less is unacceptable. The good news must go to the entire world. God gave us a model of priority as we take on this assignment. We are to start right around our homes. Next we are to develop a strategy to take it to our state and nation. We must figure out ways to tell the good news to the emerging ethnic population and finally we must tell the good news to every man and woman on earth.
Have you heard the good news? What are you doing about it?
Have you accepted it and wondered how to spread it? It becomes your responsibility to figure out how to do it.
