The Marks of a Mighty Church

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Intro – This morning I would like us to take a peak into the early Christian church in Thessalonica. I think we all remember this as a child: “Here’s the church. Here’s the steeple. Open up the doors and look at all the people.” (PAUSE) Right now we’re looking at the outside of the building of the First Baptist Church of Thessalonica. (PAUSE) That probably wasn’t the name of it. But we would like to think it was a Baptist church. We want to move beyond the outside, and enter the doors of the church and into the lives of the people. We want to see the impact of Paul’s preaching of the Gospel in this city. Was his ministry there successful? Did Paul’s preaching stick? Would you please open your Bibles with me to 1 Thessalonians.

While you are doing that, I would like to sort of set the stage for what is going on in this chapter (and book). It is often our nature to open our Bibles and read what authors wrote without knowing the context of the writing. Obviously it is not always convenient or even possible to open our Bible Dictionaries and concordances as we sit down for a few moments of devotional study, or as we sit on our lunch break at work, or in our cars, (I don’t know) wherever we spend our time in the Word. But the more we do our homework into the background of any given book, our understanding of the passages will expand. (SLOW) Everything is written within a particular context.

So, as we look at this church, we want to know certain things about it. For example, where is this church or city located? Is this significant? What were the conditions where the Thessalonians heard and received the Gospel? There are a myriad of other questions we could introduce for our background, but for our time this morning the first few will do. I don’t want to turn this into a college course. Well, actually we are going to begin with Geography 101.

Thessalonica is located here in Macedonia. Macedonia and Achaia make up present day Greece. It is very interesting to trace Paul’s movement in his missionary journeys as he appears to target certain strategic areas. Thessalonica, for example, is the capital city of Macedonia and also stands on a major land and sea trade route. (SHOW ON MAP) Paul’s strategy was to take the Gospel to locations where it would spread faster. His practice was to enter the synagogues of major cities, preach the Good News of Jesus and allow the converts to pass on the message with others they encounter.

(You don’t need to turn there but I want to read the account of Paul’s visit to Thessalonica from Acts 17 for our background.) Read Acts 17:1-1-8. So it appears that Paul spent 3 weeks teaching in the synagogue – and with some great results. Both Jews and Greeks believed the Gospel. And then they were met by opposition – again! So when we open the Letter to the Thessalonians, we are aware that many were not thrilled with the spread of the Gospel. And yet Paul receives word back from Timothy and is encouraged. Well, lets look to this letter. And let’s look to the Marks of a Mighty Church. But before we do, let’s first turn to our Lord as we worship in the Word. (PRAY)

Read chapter. Verse 1 serves as our introduction and greeting of the book. Here, the authors identify themselves. Paul includes his associates Silas and Timothy, but the body of the letter is clearly from Paul. And Silvanus is just a more formal way of saying, “Silas.” We often tend to glaze right over the opening or greeting of these books. But there are a couple observations worth noting. First, Paul closely associates God the Father with the Lord Jesus Christ. He uses one preposition to link the two phrases together. And this is significant because this is perhaps the first epistle written from Paul – maybe only 20 years from the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It likely precedes even the Gospels. (Emphasize) This could possibly be the first inclusion of Jesus Christ into the New Testament. And Paul associates Christ this closely with the Father. In so doing he is highly exalting Him.

Also, he includes both a Greek and Jewish greeting at the outset (Grace and Peace) – appealing to the diversity within the church. It is interesting to note the order - you cannot enjoy “peace” (wholeness) without first experiencing “grace.”

Our first observation of this mighty church is that it was an Energetic Church. Paul writes, (Read vv. 2-3). He gives thanks to God for three things: their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. Hmm, have we heard these words before? Faith, hope, and love… Aren’t these words used repeatedly throughout the New Testament as Elements of the Christian life? Well, we have the famous “love” chapter from 1 Cor. 13 “the three that remain are faith, hope and love;, Col. 1.4-5 reads, “ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven…” And again in Hebrews, “let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith… 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering… 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds…” As Christians we demonstrate our faith in Christ through our love for God and others; and our hope in Christ – both for salvation and his return for the church.

Paul also mentions the Evidences of the Christian Life: Work, Labor, and Steadfastness. All of these words convey an active Christianity. Even steadfastness, which might be misunderstood as a patient and long-suffering endurance, is better understood as a courageous and successful determination.

When we think of this work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope, we may miss something of significance in the English text. All of these phrases are in the singular. The pronoun “your” is plural. In our English language both the singular and plural take the same form. So we need to determine which it is from context. Well, if you’re from the Southern states you might say “y’all” to communicate the plural. Or if in New York you could say “youz”. In the Greek language the singular and plural take different forms. The part that I find interesting is that he doesn’t say your works of faith, or labors of love, etc. Apparently they were unified in their task at hand. They were laboring together as the Body of Christ. That makes all the difference in the world. This is the foundation of a successful church.

An article by Mike Wilkins reads, “I was at a conference a few years ago where they told the story of a church that looked as though they were really thriving: they had about 500 people attending, and had many outreach ministries reaching their community, and many people were coming to Christ and to church through their ministry.
The problem was that the church was not growing in numbers – people were leaving as quickly as they were coming in. They began to do some research on the people who were leaving and they found that the majority who left were not attending another church, they just stopped going to church all together. They realized that although the church was great at evangelism, because of their inability to hold people, they were actually de-evangelizing their neighborhood. Those who were leaving were almost impossible to bring back into any community of faith.
The senior pastor realized that something had to be done, so he called up that last 12 people to be baptized and invited them to supper at his house. These were all new Christians and very excited to be invited to the Pastor’s house. (Wouldn’t we all be excited to be invited to Pastor Doug’s house ??). After supper he sat them down and asked if they wanted to know the future. They all said “yes!” So he said, ‘statistically speaking in the next 2-3 years… two of your marriages will have broken up and the shame will cause you to leave the church, three of you will have a conflict with someone in the church and you will leave the church, one will have a tragedy and lose faith and leave, two will have a moral failing and leave, and two will lose interest and drift away. In two to three years, out of this group only two of you will be attending church, and only one of you at this church.’ There was dead silence in the room. All these wide eyed Christians were about to say “surely not I, Lord.” When one of them spoke up and said “What can we do to change the statistics?” The pastor said, you can get together and as a group decide that you are not going to let anyone go.
That is exactly what they did – these strangers formed a small group and supported each other through the tragedies, divorces, conflicts and failings and in four years, only one had left the church never to come back. The church went from losing 10 out of every 12 converts to losing only one.

This is what faith, love, and hope produce - action! James reminds us that “Faith without works is dead”. He is not saying faith plus works equals salvation. He is saying that genuine faith produces good works. For as Paul reminds us in Ephesians, we are created for good works.

(I’ve heard stories of how Squamish Baptist has invested in the neighboring community as the community of faith..)

Not only were they an Energetic Church, the Mighty Church is an Elect Church. READ v. 4. It is not my intent this morning to delve deep into the theology of predestination. But Paul does indicate here that salvation comes from God and this is because He loves us. How do we know that this was a divine calling? Paul tells us why in the following verses.

Read v. 5. “For” indicates the reason. It wasn’t merely the words in the message but the evidence of power and conviction that the Holy Spirit brought. Romans 1.16 reads, “16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Perhaps you can recall the time when you heard the Gospel and responded to it with deep conviction. You can attest to its power, can’t you? I am certain that the most powerful way that God speaks to people is through His Word and His Holy Spirit. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes, “Nothing is more dangerous than to put a wedge between the Word and the Spirit, to emphasize either one at the expense of the other. It is the Spirit and the Word, the Spirit upon the Word, and the Spirit in us as we read the Word.”

Paul compares their conversion to his visit with them. REREAD v. 5b. One commentator rephrases it like this: “we know what kind of people you turned out to be when you received the gospel as you know what kind of people we were when we brought it to you.” The spiritual power and conviction with which the message was received matched the spiritual power and conviction with which it was delivered. REREAD.

The Thessalonians were an Energetic Church, an Elect Church and they were also an Exemplary Church. Read vv. 6-7. Do you see the different levels of discipleship and mentoring occurring here? As Paul and the others became imitators of the Lord Jesus, the Thessalonians were imitating them, so that they became an example to the believers throughout Macedonia and Achaia. My question to you is, “Do we have these relationships in our lives? Do we have a Paul or Timothy?” We need to be mentored by those further down the spiritual path than we are – a Paul. We also need to be passing spiritual truths and experiences to those a little younger in the Lord – a Timothy. We need each other to grow.

The Thessalonians were eager for the Word of God. Paul includes further evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives for they received the word in much tribulation – and yet with joy. Seems somewhat paradoxical. But isn’t that the way God often operates? It had to be a supernatural occurrence in this situation. If their conversion did not include the persecution, their testimony may not have been as powerful. It had to be God; for they were joyful! One commentator adds, “just as it is true that the Christian will find trouble in the world, so it is true that he will have a joy that the world never gave and can never take away, a joy brought by the Holy Spirit.”

Just as the missionaries that came to them, the Thessalonians became imitators and an example by their steadfastness through persecution and their proclamation of the message that was brought to them. We are familiar with the many persecutions that Paul encountered through his missionary journeys. I believe that is what he is referring to here. The Thessalonians were experiencing opposition and yet proclaiming the Gospel!

Read v. 8. So we see that they became an Evangelistic Church. Given the context of this verse, I believe that Paul is referring both to the actions of the church as well as their preaching of Jesus Christ. The language here is quite picturesque. This “sounding forth” is likened to the call of a trumpet or the roll of thunder – to reverberate like an echo. This verb is also in the perfect tense. The perfect tense not only indicates a completed action but one with continuing results. This suggests that this “sounding forth” was not just a passing whim, but a continuing action.

Just for kicks, I wanted to see the geographical equivalent to the church here in Squamish, BC. The area of Macedonia and Achaia (or Greece) is approximately 375-400 miles north to south. This map of the Pacific Northwest is much less – maybe 250-300 miles. Wouldn’t it be great to hear that Kamloops or Sullivan Bay or Olympia has heard of the great things that God is doing in and through this church. That would be amazing, wouldn’t it?

So, the region was buzzing about this visit that Paul, Silas, and Timothy had with the Thessalonians. The report highlighted the transformation that took place in lives. They turned from idols to serve God. The Greeks were so saturated with idol worship that it was again evidence of a supernatural event. The contrast implied here is fantastic. The dead and false idols they previously worshipped were now supplanted by the true and living God. Isn’t it good to know that the God we serve is both true and alive? No other religion can claim this.

As I pondered this verse, I concluded that this may not be so different from our own conversions. Those of us who know Christ – didn’t we also turn from dead and false idols? Now they may not be physical idols made of gold or silver, but perhaps attitudes (selfishness or pride) or other vain pursuits (amassing great wealth, power, or notoriety). There are a myriad of other things that we might list that we have put before the true and living God. These may not only be identified at our conversion. Maybe there are some here today that claim Jesus as their Savior, but are still placing some of these things before him. The good news – you can confess these at any time and you will be forgiven. The Bible assures us of this in 1 John. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Lastly, the Thessalonians were an Expectant Church. Read v. 10. Throughout this letter you will find that Paul refers to the Second Coming of Christ frequently. In fact every chapter of the book includes the return of Christ. This was to serve as encouragement for them to press on. Someday their persecution would be vindicated. Someday they would be rescued from this wrath in the future. Paul includes the fact of the resurrection as the basis for the future return. Insofar as the Thessalonians believed the resurrection of Christ, so they could have confidence that He would return to rescue them. What about us? Do we live our lives in anticipation of His return? I know I can get so wrapped up in the present circumstances in life, that I forget the great hope we possess as believers. We may not be under the same form of persecution that the early church was. But I know (at least in the States) that Christianity is becoming more and more offensive to those who view our beliefs as intolerant and exclusive. I sense that this will be a continuing trend that we will have to confront and endure (steadfastness). But our hope is in Christ – in his saving work in our lives and his future return for us when we will see him face to face forever! Now that is something to look forward to and to live our lives according to.

As I face adversity in my life (not at all to the extent of Paul or the others), I cannot fathom going through life without Christ. There is no hope apart from Him. He gives us strength. He gives us wisdom and perspective. He gives a reason and purpose to endure suffering. Now we may not see it immediately. But when we look in hindsight we can often see God’s hand in our circumstances.

But that may not be true for all of you. Some may not see the return of Christ in such a positive light. Perhaps you are fearful, unprepared to meet Him. Well I would encourage you this morning that our God is a forgiving God. He wants you to be prepared and to find hope in His return. I would also encourage you to not delay in turning to Him. He may return at any time. Give your life over to Him today. In so doing you will inherit eternal life and joy and hope in this life.

Let’s close in prayer.