When Your Life Matches the Message

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

When Your Life Matches the Message

Would you consider yourself to be a good person?

I’ve never conducted my own poll on this though anecdotally it’s likely that most people would say they are.

I read an article by someone who wrote a book about what it means to be good. She lists a number of definitions and then says that these are wrong, here is the definition of goodness.

One poll I looked at revealed that half of those polled believed that they were nicer than everyone else in their social circle.

Obviously this can’t be the case, the math just doesn’t work.

And it must be asked, by what standard are we measuring goodness? Is this even a question that we as Christians should ask of ourselves?

What is the appropriate question?

Let’s pray.

Pastor Daniel led us through chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians last week. Today we will be moving to the second chapter.

We can read about Paul’s time in Thessalonica in Acts 17, and we find that he was only able to spend a very short period of time there due to the unrest that developed due to his message.

There was a great response in this city

1 Thessalonians was written to this new church as a way to encourage them, defend his ministry, and provide some theological truths.

Read 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16.

So let’s examine this passage by first picking out what is emphasized.

Read v. 1-2

It strikes me that the emphasis at the beginning of the passage, just as it’s the emphasis in this letter and Paul’s ministry, is the gospel.

Paul’s mission, his focus, his purpose, all centred around the gospel.

It means “good news” and we can see Paul outline what he preached concerning this gospel in 1 Cor. 15:1-10

The Gospel - Jesus was the promised Messiah described in the Old Testament. He was born, died and rose from the grave. He stands at the right hand of the father ready to extend grace and forgiveness to all those who freely fall before him in repentance and worship.

This is what Paul preached then and this is the same hope we have today.

Paul comes back again and again to this idea that what he’s doing is not in vain.

There is a lot of vanity in the world today.

In 1986, the Challenger space shuttle mission was scheduled.

This was called a tragedy.

There is a far greater tragedy that goes on every day, all around us.

The greatest tragedy, is the one that we see all around us. A life lived in vain is one where we recognize that God asks much of us and in response we seek out the vain things of this world and give God the leftovers.

God doesn’t want our leftovers. He’s called us to a great adventure. An adventure where success and failure are not determined by human standards but by his standards.

The only antidote to vanity is the gospel. And the people of Thessolonica recognized this too. Paul, when he preached the gospel understood that when the gospel is preached it necessitates a response. Either you reject the truth of the gospel and go on living as you had before, or you accept the truth of the gospel, you receive hope and salvation through Jesus your life is radically changed.

A look at Paul’s ministry to the Thessalonians in Acts reveals that a great number of people reacted positively to the truth of the gospel, and in verses 3-6, Paul reminds them of the many reasons they have to recognize the truth of the gospel.

Read v. 3-6

How can they know it’s true?

There was not an attempt in anything the apostles did to be deceptive

They spoke not to please men but only to please God, they did not seek glory or flattery from the people listening to them.

They made no financial demands of the people.

The fact that they were set apart from other teachers and philosophers would have been quite obvious. The persecution of Paul was well known. They had just come from Philippi.

They were not like other teachers.

Read v. 7-8

Again, he shows how they were different, however here he is not focusing on their motives but rather how they conducted themselves amongst these new believers.

Uses the analogy of a nursing mother.

They were gentle and compassionate.

They recognized the spiritual infancy of these believers and he says that they shared themselves with these believers. They build meaningful relationships with this church. Again, this would have set them apart from other teachers. The people recognized that Paul and his companions had a deep affection for these people.

Following this analogy, and expanding on the conduct of both himself and the other apostles with him, Paul writes something that should jump off the page at us. He writes something incredibly bold, something I would dare not say.

Read v. 9-10

He says that both the believers at Thessalonica and God himself bear witness to the fact that he worked day and night. That in his conduct he was holy, righteous and blameless.

He must have meant it

Points to the importance of living a life that matches the message that you're preaching. The message you’re preaching needs to be the gospel. Both in your words and your conduct must match what your teaching.

In his letter to the Ephesians, in Ephesians 4:1 Paul writes, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

The Greek word for ‘worthy’ is axios, which refers to weights or worth. It gives us a picture of scales where on one side you have the Gospel message that we are called to preach, and the other side, balanced is the life we live in light of that message.

When I was in my first year of university I knew that if I conducted myself in a way that was honoring to God, it was likely that I would stand out, and I did, though maybe not in the way that I assumed. I knew, going into that first year, that I wasn’t going to drink, and we could have a whole sermon about the Christian life and alcohol use, but that’s for another day. I felt convicted that I shouldn’t drink. I had no idea the doors this would open.

What began to trouble me is that so much of what defined me, and what defined me was supposed to be Christ, the power of the gospel, so much of what defined me was those things which I didn’t do. This really bothered me. I felt like as a Christian I should be defined first by what I do, not those things I choose not to do.

We should stand out if we want to preach the gospel, because we preach both with our words but also our actions. But let us ensure that we don’t only stand out because of what we choose not to do. Let others see Christ also by what we do.

Paul gives some great advice related to exactly this in 1 Timothy 4:12.

Be an example in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.

How? No doubt this is a challenge.

And this is where Paul connects is analogy of a nursing mother with another analogy.

Read v. 11-12

Paul describes how in their spiritual infancy the Thessalonians needed comfort, patience, and compassion, but like a father he also encouraged them and challenged them to step forward and present the gospel as he was doing.

He do we ensure that we conduct ourselves in a way that matches the message of Jesus, we lean on each other. We encourage one another, challenge one another, and when needed, also comfort one another.

It’s still not going to be easy, and Paul recognizes this.

Read v. 13-16

Paul recognizes that this young church was facing persecution. But this persecution should give them hope and encouragement because this persecution they were enduring proved first that the message had power and it also showed that they were now united with the first churches in Judea and their christian brothers and sisters there, and also it united them in Christ, who faced persecution himself.

We too will face persecution. It may not look exactly like what Paul endured, or the Thesselonian church endured, but we will face persecution.

Canon White was the chapel speaker at Wheaton college

Anglican priest in Baghdad, Iraq

In the last 10 years he’s had 1200 members of his church killed. When he returns people tell him to take care, be careful. He ended his message with this: don’t take care, take risks.

A heart for sharing Christ no matter what.

Living here is not like living in Iraq.

But sharing the gospel is still a risky affair

Our battle is not against flesh and blood.

If we take a spiritual risk to share the gospel both in word and in conduct there will be spiritual ramifications that will create trouble in your life.

But don’t fear, we are not without hope, for that’s what the gospel is. It’s trusting in a future hope with Jesus.

So, what is the appropriate question to ask ourselves as believers? Do we need to determine if we are good? I think not, no one is good but God. When we examine ourselves we must understand that what we must examine in ourselves is are we living worthy of the calling to which God has called us?

What we are called to do is preach the gospel. Our actions must match the message that we are preaching. If we do this, we are fulfilling God’s calling. If we do this we will stand out, we will be set apart.

In Acts 17, when the authorities are looking for Paul and Silas, they drag Jason and some of the other Christians before the magistrates, and say: these are the men that are turning the world upside down.

Not Paul, the new believers.

We need to follow the example of Paul. That the gospel must be at the centre of everything we do, wherever God has placed us. In preaching the Gospel we must not seek to flatter or please others, but please God alone. We must lead lives that match what we are preaching, for this is a testimony that can be far more powerful than words alone. And we must recognize that when we stand up for the truth of the Gospel, there will be persecution. But just as Paul encourages the Thessalonians to remain strong in their devotion, even through the most intense hardships, so that message rings true even today.

This is difficult and it’s not done in isolation.