The Power of the Gospel

The Power of the Gospel Uncommon Sense Tuesday, October 23, 2018 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 1 Thessalonians 1:4–10 4 Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. 5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. 6 And you became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: 7 So that you were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 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. 9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Our series is called “Uncommon Sense” because First Thessalonians contains a lot of common-sense teaching that was very uncommon for the culture of their day. As we will see throughout this series, First Thessalonians still contains a lot of common-sense teaching that is very uncommon for our culture—both the culture of the world and, unfortunately, the culture of the church. My prayer is that God will “turn the light” on in our minds and let us see the truth and apply the truth so the truth will cause us to grow as followers of Jesus. As we grow as followers of Jesus, God will allow us to lead more people to connect and commit to Jesus. The uncommon sense we are going to see today is a simple truth, the gospel still has the power to change lives. I say this is an uncommon truth because it seems as if Christianity at large is looking to anything and everything but the gospel to do what the gospel itself was designed to do. Now, before we go any further I probably need to clarify what I mean by the word, “gospel”. The base definition of “gospel” is good-news. Many times, you will hear that the gospel is the good news of Jesus’ virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death (Jesus died for you—in your place—for your sin), and bodily resurrection. What I just said was what Paul called the most important thing he taught the people when he arrived to plant a church in Corinth. But many times, we think those four points are the entire gospel—the complete story. While it is true that I just gave you enough information for someone to believe and be saved—we need to know that the gospel is more than a door to a fire escape. The gospel is not only intended to allow people to avoid God’s judgment. The gospel is intended to transform lives. So, Tim Keller was right when he said, “The gospel is not just the ABC of the Christian life but the A to Z of the Christian life.” The gospel is about more than getting people “saved”. The gospel is about giving people life. The gospel is the good news that faith in Jesus alone gives life, transforms life, and promises life. Yet, it seems that there is less-and-less reliance on the proclamation of the gospel to show people how they can have life. Let me just say this—and I want to be careful because I do not want to be critical or unkind—but any message that is nothing more than a Christian spin on pop-psychology or a motivational talk illustrated by a Bible verse or two cannot give the life and hope so many people are desperate for today. Gospel-deprived messages are very much like Cotton Candy—its sweet and satisfying, but it cannot sustain anyone for any length of time and eventually you get sick of it. This is why the apostle Paul preached the gospel everywhere he went. When Paul went into a new area, he shared the gospel. After people were saved, he continued to preach the gospel. When he left and moved on to new cities to plant new churches, he wrote the gospel in letters and sent them to the churches he started. Paul preached the gospel to unbelievers and he preached the gospel to believers. Paul’s dedication to the gospel explains why he wrote… Romans 1:16 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what all this has to do with 1 Thessalonians—let me show you. When Paul arrived in Thessalonica, he preached the gospel to anyone in that city who would listen. Verse five tells us that the gospel was proclaimed, and it was demonstrated through the life and conduct of Paul, Silas, and Timothy—meaning the people saw what kind of men they were. In other words, Paul and his team did not preach and teach one thing and live contrary to their message. A few years ago, the Super Bowl was going to be played in Detroit. We happened to be in town visiting my In-Laws the week before the game and a friend of mine called and asked if I wanted to go downtown to see all the festivities—I said yes, and he said he would stop by to pick me up early the next morning. Well, I overslept and didn’t have enough time to get ready—so I grabbed a hat off my father-in-law’s hat-rack and ran out the door. We got to the media center and saw lots of famous athletes and people from ESPN—and we watched few broadcast segments—it was pretty incredible to be around all the hype. After some time, we decided to leave and as we were walking out the door, a very large and imposing guy came up to us and asked if we were Michigan fans. My friend was decked out in the Maize and Blue—and he proudly stated his allegiance to the team up north. I told the man I was a Buckeye and he looked at me like I had a third eyeball planted squarely in the middle of my forehead. Then he asked if I knew who he was—but I did not recognize him. He went to shake my hand and introduced himself, “I’m Randy Gradishar”. I recognized the name and before I could say anything else he said he didn’t believe that I was a Buckeye—I was confused and tried to assure him that I bleed Scarlet and Gray but he would believe me and then he told me why—because no true OSU fan would ever wear a Michigan hat! I completely forgot that I had that nasty thing on my head. I tried one more time to convince him that I REALLY was a Buckeye—but he wouldn’t believe me. Here is what happened that day—my conduct and my words didn’t line up. As a result, Randy Gradishar had no confidence that what I was saying was true. Brothers and sisters, we can know the gospel and we can know the answer to every question anyone can ask, but if our character and our conduct is not consistent with our message, then people will never have the confidence to believe anything we say is true. So, it is vital for us to see that when Paul and his team came to Thessalonica, their actions were consistent with their words—which allowed the Holy Spirit to work and gave the people of the city complete confidence that the gospel was true. Now, look at what happened—the gospel was proclaimed with their words, it was proven by their works, it was empowered by the Spirit and, as a result, it was effective (power). Here’s the point, the people who believed in that city were changed by the gospel. Thankfully, the gospel wasn’t only powerful to change them, but the gospel still has the power to change lives today. So, today I want to use the testimony of the believers in Thessalonica to show you that… 1. The gospel has the power to redirect your life. Do you see the word, “became” in verse six? It means to experience a change of direction—to move from one course to pursue a new course. You see, when Paul found these people most of them were pagan idol worshippers who desperately needed to experience a complete change of course in their life. Let me show you what I’m talking about—look at verse 9: “you turned (a change of mind that results in a change of direction or course of action) to God FROM IDOLS to serve the living and true God.” These people did not know God and they didn’t want to know God. They were separated from God and headed the opposite direction from God. And they were content to continue moving away from God and worshipping and serving the idols of their ancestors—the idols that were deified by their culture. But then Paul came, and he began to preach the gospel. He told them there is one God—the creator of all things. He told them that they were separated from God by their sin, but God loved them, so He sent His Son Jesus—the promised Messiah of Israel to live, to suffer death on the cross for their sin, and to rise from the dead so they could be saved. Acts 17 tells us what happened as a result of Paul’s teaching… Acts 17:4 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. There was a group, small at first, but growing over time, that believed the gospel and when they believed, the course of their life was altered. The gospel redirected them from living for themselves and serving the idols of their day to living for and serving the one and only living God. Because they believed the gospel, they became followers of Paul, Silas and Timothy. They began to mimic them—to imitate them. In other words, they behaved like Paul behaved, they believed what Paul believed, they taught what Paul taught. Because they were imitating Paul and the others, Paul said they were following the Lord. Let me explain how this works. If your boss gives you specific directions and you begin to follow those directions—while, at the same time you tell those who work under you to begin doing things the way you’re doing them, the people following you are, in reality, following the directions of your boss. So, the people of Thessalonica experienced a radical redirection as they started serving and following God. Now, that’s pretty impressive—but you also need to consider that they changed course even though the change of direction caused them to experience a great deal of affliction. I’m sure their family and friends were troubled by their decision to follow Jesus, so much so that a mob formed in the city and believers were attacked. One man, named Jason, and some other believers were dragged out of Jason’s home and brought before the city leaders and accused of treason against the Roman government. My point is, following Jesus did not make their lives better, following Jesus made their lives more difficult because following Jesus brought intense pressure and severe persecution. But in the midst of all that turmoil, Paul said they experienced a supernatural joy that they had never experienced before. All of this happened because they believed the gospel. Listen, you can believe many different messages that can and will redirect your life. But what other message can change the direction of your life and give you joy in the midst of suffering, chaos, upheaval, and persecution? What other message promises and delivers a peace that cannot be explained? What other message promises the presence of God to stand guard over your heart and mind to help keep you from being anxious? You see, we must believe the gospel and continue to believe the gospel—because the gospel will redirect our lives away from living for and serving self. The gospel will redirect us to trust God, to love God, to serve God, to have joy in God, and to enjoy the peace of God—even when the pressure is on. We need to understand that the gospel is the message that has the power to redirect your life and… 2. The gospel has the power to impact others through your life. Ralph Waldo Emmerson espoused the idea of people “leaving the world a bit better…”. I think that is a common desire of most people. The reality is, those who follow Jesus have been used to improve the lives of others around the globe. Christians have established feeding centers, dug wells and built water-treatment facilities, built clinics and hospitals, given huge amounts of money to combat global poverty, and more. But if we are only feeding people or providing health care, we may help improve the quality of life for people now—but we are not giving them the message that will lead them to possessing everlasting life. The believers in Thessalonica understood this—look what Paul said about them—they became examples (pattern to follow, a model or a standard) to all who follow Jesus. How were they examples? They proclaimed the gospel everywhere they could. They knew how their lives were affected by the gospel and they knew they had a responsibility to let others know about the life they received. The word “sounded out” has the idea of a blaring trumpet of loud thunder. In other words, they didn’t spread the gospel quietly—they were continually and boldly sharing the truth that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ. They were so committed to this task that Paul didn’t need to tell anyone what happened in Thessalonica because the transformation of people in that city was commonly known. Their reputation was well known. How cool would it be for everyone in our community to know that God is working at CrossPointe? They continually served God. They did not live for self but dedicated their lives to serve God by making God known and by serving others. Let me give you an example, the people of Thessalonica were very poor—but Paul commended their lavish generosity to the believers in Corinth because they gave to help relieve the suffering of Christians in Jerusalem. Life wasn’t about them—life was for God and His purpose, so they dedicated themselves and anything they had to God’s purpose and mission. They anticipated the return of Jesus. They loved their Savior and could not wait to see Him. I don’t think they were anxious to meet Jesus, so their suffering would end—Jesus was not their escape plan. I believe they wanted to see Jesus because they were thankful that He redirected their lives through the gospel. You see, they were headed to judgment and wrath—but the gospel changed their path and now they could look forward to seeing the One who delivered them and gave them life and hope. Do you see how the gospel has the power to impact others through your life—we’re still talking about the believers in Thessalonica today. Their example is still impacting the lives of Christians from every nation. So, you’re listening to this message and maybe you’ve been thinking about making a change in your life—but you didn’t know what to change or how to change. The message to you is the same message the people in Thessalonica heard—believe the gospel—trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior—follow Him and He will change the course of your life. Maybe you’ve already made the decision to follow Jesus—my question to you is simple—are you still allowing the gospel to direct and redirect your life? Are you still following Jesus? Are you still imitating Him? Husbands, are you imitating Jesus by loving your wife as Jesus loves the church? Wives, are you imitating Jesus by submitting to your husband’s leadership as Jesus submitted to the Father? Children, are you imitating Jesus by obeying and honoring your parents as Jesus honored and obeyed His Father? Christian, are you living for Jesus and looking forward to His return? Your life can have the same kind of effect the lives of the Thessalonian believers had. But the gospel must change the course of your life, so the gospel can impact others through your life. The gospel still has power to change lives—has it changed your life?