The Gospel Changes Everything

Introduction

Several years ago, comedian Stephen Colbert was giving the commencement address at Princeton University to their graduating class and said this, “You can change the world! But please, don’t do that, ok? Some of us like the way that things are now.” What a true statement concerning how we typically view change. We know that we can change, but so often the reason that we don’t change is because we like the way that things currently are. Think about things that have changed in your lifetime.

Communication has changed. Very few people have rotary phones and party lines anymore as people now have either office phones or cell phones.

Technology has changed. No longer do we just have 4 channels on our big box TV, now we have streaming services and thousands of TV channels on our phones, computers, and smart TVs.

Medicine has changed. We’re able to treat cancers and diseases that used to be death sentences - I’m reminded of this on a regular basis as a T1D who uses an insulin pump.

Change is scary, but at times it’s necessary, and we know that our world is always changing. In this world of change, what do we need to be reminded of? 2 things:

God never changes

The Gospel still changes lives

Tonight we’re going to begin a study through the book of 1 Thessalonians to remind ourselves of these Gospel truths and see how the Gospel not only changes us a little bit, but that the Gospel changes everything about us! Past, present, and future. As we do this, it’s important for us to see the background of 1 Thessalonians, and this requires us to go to the book of Acts as Acts 17 tells us a little bit about the people of this city and why Paul went there in the first place. In a world of change, the Gospel has the power to change even the hardest of hearts and this was the truth that Paul proclaimed to these people 2,000 years ago - as we study this text, let’s remind ourselves that this is the same Gospel message that people need today… and the same one that we need tonight!

Acts 17:1–9 CSB

1 After they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As usual, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and rise from the dead: “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah.” 4 Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a large number of God-fearing Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women. 5 But the Jews became jealous, and they brought together some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly. 6 When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too, 7 and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus.” 8 The crowd and city officials who heard these things were upset. 9 After taking a security bond from Jason and the others, they released them.

1 Thessalonians 1:1 CSB

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy: To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace.

Paul presented the Gospel to these people. Some repented, some rejected, all responded, though. This is the same today - as we present the Gospel, some will repent and believe, others will reject and deny, but every person who hears the Gospel will in fact respond. Think of how you have responded to the Gospel of Jesus Christ today - let’s pray.

We Present the Gospel to All and Rely on God’s Power (2-3)

The book of Acts chronicles the early church and its growth under persecution of both the Jewish people and the Roman Empire. Paul was not foreign to experiencing persecution. He was kicked out of cities, beaten up, imprisoned, and stoned. Yet, he continued to move from city to city in order to share the Gospel hope and truth with the lost because the Gospel had changed his life. If the Gospel has changed you, you should desire to see the Gospel change others as well. This was Paul’s desire and this marked his Gospel ministry from Acts 9 onward. In Acts 16 we see what eventually led he and Timothy to Thessalonica as Luke notes this

Acts 16:9–10 CSB

9 During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Acts 15 is the Jerusalem Council and after this council we see Paul embark on a missionary journey. Paul was called by God to go and share the Gospel and the Lord called him to go to Macedonia of which Thessalonica was the capital city in the region. Scholars say that Thessalonica was like the Boston of the area. It was the religious and economic hub of Macedonia and likely had a population north of 200,000 people - even by today’s standards that’s a good size city. It had cultural significance, financial significance, it was located on a major trade route. This was an important city… but despite all that it had going for it, Thessalonica was a lost city. It was confused city. The citizens of Thessalonica trusted in philosophy and believed in the various Greek and Roman gods and the people worshipped the Roman Emperor. God called his servant, Paul, into this city to go and proclaim the Gospel because the Gospel message changes everything! Paul believed that the Gospel could change lives in Thessalonica, Athens, and Rome - and we know that the Gospel can still change lives in Salem, Rolla, Springfield, and throughout the world today!

Just because the Gospel can change lives, though, it doesn’t mean that sharing it is always easy work… Sharing the Gospel often requires us to get out of our comfort zones, and that usually requires us to change… which can be easier said than done. I’m reminded of our SBC missionaries who have left the comforts of our 1st world country in order to go to the jungles, deserts, mountains, and islands of our world and proclaim the same Gospel message. At the SBC meeting in New Orleans back in June, we heard from missionary after missionary that God had called them to go to this place and that place and that their response was simply, “Here am I, Lord. Send me!” This is what Paul’s response was as well! He was willing and able to go and share the Gospel message to all that he came into contact with. He would usually go into the Jewish synagogues and begin to preach and teach about Christ. Look at what verse 2 tells us about his ministry in the city

Paul spent 3 weeks proclaiming the Gospel from the “Scriptures” - which is in reference to the Old Testament. He shares 3 key things with these people.

Jesus is the Messiah as promised in Old Testament

Jesus had to suffer and die in order to fulfill Isaiah 53 (suffering servant)

Jesus had to rise from the dead

Paul was convinced that he had to present the Gospel to these people because earlier on in Acts (Acts 16), he was called to do this by God to these people. Paul’s method was to go to a place in which he had a connection and to preach Christ crucified to those people and call on them to respond. This is our call as well! For some of us, that means that we proclaim the Gospel to those in our homes. For others, that means that we proclaim the Gospel to those in our schools. For others, it’s hosting a neighborhood cookout with friends and proclaiming the Gospel and inviting our neighbors to church. For others, it’s getting plugged in with an existing ministry and making it a point to proclaim the Gospel wherever God plants us. This is the model given to us in Scripture - to bloom where we are planted and call on those around us to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ.

This requires us to do a few things:

We have to see people the way that God does

Every life matters! There are only saved people and non-saved people, no such thing as a good person without Jesus.

We have to be intentional with our words and actions

There are some who use the statement to preach the Gospel and if necessary use words - I mean this as lovingly as possible, but that’s just about the most absurd statement in the history of statements. The Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is a message that can only help people if it is vocalized and communicated through words. We can love on people and we can help people and we can minister to the needs of people through actions, and we must do those things! But we have to use our words intentionally because if all we do is meet needs with a smile on our face and call it good, people will go to hell thinking that the people of FBC Salem are kind and welcoming. I want people to feel welcomed here, but I pray that they hear the Gospel and that the Gospel convicts them and calls on them to respond.

As this chapter unfolds, we see several responses to the Gospel and these are the same responses we see today as well. First we see,

Some Respond to the Gospel with Repentance (1-4)

In the opening 4 verses to Acts 17 we see that Paul came into the synagogue and reasoned with them from the Scriptures. Which Scripture does Luke (the author of Acts) mean here? Does he mean the Gospels? This is not likely. Rather, Paul, as the expert Jew he was before being converted, was reasoning with them about the Old Testament and how Jesus Christ was the Messiah who was prophesied in the Old Testament and how He offers them eternal life and salvation right now! One line we see many times in Acts is found in Acts 17:3 as Paul says, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” Paul broke it all down for these people that Jesus Christ came, lived, suffered, died and rose from the dead. This was prophesied in the Old Testament. Think about how Paul would share the Gospel, he would often go to the synagogue and share with the Jews. Why would Paul do this? In part, because the Jews had knowledge of the Scriptures and they had common ground. Paul would argue, if you will, that the Old Testament points to Jesus Christ. At this point, Paul would show what Jesus Christ did and how He fulfilled the role that the Messiah was supposed to. He reasoned with them for how long in verse 2? Roughly 3 weeks! This takes some time, doesn’t it?

Isaiah is just over 3 weeks old - I’ll be the first to tell you, and you know this as well, that 3 weeks can both fly by and feel like a drag. Whenever you’re a senior in high school and you have 3 weeks left until you graduate, those 3 weeks are about as fast as molasses sliding off a roll from Lamberts Cafe - it doesn’t happen to fast! On the flip side, I’ve been in some situations where you’re doing mission work and 3 weeks goes by in the blink of an eye.

Sharing the Gospel with people for 3 weeks could go either way! You begin to develop relationships with people and have some great Gospel conversations and by the time you establish a friendship it’s time to leave! This situation in Acts 17:1-4 shows us that Paul devotes time in order to explain what the Scriptures say. What a great model for us, right? Sometimes we want immediate results and fruit, but that’s not always what happens whenever we share the Gospel. Most times, in fact, we see that it takes time. It takes building a friendship and establishing some common ground before people really respond to the good news that we try and tell them.

What do we see in verse 4 regarding the reaction of these people to the Gospel? We see that many people/a great number of people respond positively. It connected with some of the Thessalonians! It doesn’t say that it responded to all of the Jews or Greeks or men or women, but it does say that it responded to some of them and a great number of them. The Bible shares with us that God’s Word will never return void. It will always do something! We can take that to the bank. This is ultimately why we labor and share the Gospel, isn’t it? We go to lengths to share the Gospel in hopes that people will respond positively and repent and follow Jesus Christ! We do this because we are called to go therefore and make disciples! This is exactly what Paul lived out during his ministry and missionary journeys. How can we live this out? 3 ways:

We can physically go and have these conversations with family, friends and co-workers.

We have Gospel conversations wherever we find ourselves at - work, the grocery store, restaurants, etc...

We pray for those who are doing this on a daily basis around the world - our missionaries, especially!

As we do this, we pray that people will react positively to the Gospel just as these people did in Thessalonica whenever Paul reasoned with them and presented the Gospel to them. Remember, though, this will likely take time and not be overnight. Do not be discouraged if it takes weeks, months or even years. Continue to pray for people to respond positively to the Gospel. We know that God’s Word doesn’t return to him void and that He accomplishes His plans through the preaching of His Word

Romans 10:14 CSB

14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?

Romans 10:17 CSB

17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

Through the preaching of the Word, we see that people respond to the Gospel in faith. Not always in our time, but always in God’s time. He’s never ahead or behind, but always on time! Sometimes this means that we wait decades for the person to respond with repentance. My dad has been a pastor my entire life, 35 years at 2 churches, insane! He prayed for his own father to be saved for decade after decade and it seemed as though nothing was changing. Same old person year after year who was obsessed with work, watching TV, playing cards, and going to the casino in Oklahoma City. All the while, his wife continued going to church and my dad continued to preach and teach the Word and pray for his soul… Eventually my grandfather got sick and one of the pastors (I believe the senior adult pastor) from my grandmother’s church showed up. He knew the story. He knew of my grandfather’s spiritual condition. He had prayed for his salvation too… and he came to the hospital several times and even came to their home to check on him and read Scripture with him. Fast forward a few months with this going on and he eventually asked the pastor to come back and asked him some questions and said that he wasn’t a Christian and needed to repent and ask Jesus to forgive him.

I say this story to say this: Don’t give up on proclaiming the Gospel and praying for loved ones to respond to the Gospel… also, don’t get mad when the Lord uses someone else to be present when the light bulb comes on. Keep on planting seeds and watering seeds and pray that the Lord would bring the harvest in His time! Some will hear the Gospel dozens of times and reject it, but in God’s time they will respond and repent.

Some Respond to the Gospel with Rejection (5-9)

As we know in our life and as we see in Acts 17, not everyone responds positively to the Gospel message. Some people will embrace the message and accept it, but others will become upset and others even will become hostile to the point of anger. We see this going on in our world right now as millions of missionaries and Christians face persecution on a daily basis simply because they believe and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and many people hate the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We see an example of this in Acts 17 as a crowd arose to threaten Paul and run him out of town!

Why did this crowd hate Paul and the Gospel message that he was proclaiming? Because it threatened their way of life - it challenged their way of doing things and it even threatened Caesar by claiming that there was another king. This charge, that Jesus is King, brought about a serious consequence. This was a counter-cultural message. Friends, the Gospel goes straight against our way of doing things as humans. The Gospel says that Jesus is King and that Caesar is not. The Gospel says that only Jesus can save and that all the other statues and worship centers were a waste of space because they were built to false gods and goddesses. Do you see how this message would not have been very popular with the masses who were used to something different? As Mark Howell puts it in his commentary on 1 Thessalonians, “When Jesus Christ is faithfully preached, you don’t have to go looking for trouble; trouble will often come looking for you!”

This doesn’t mean that we openly seek trouble out. Rather, it means that whenever we preach the Gospel, there will be opposition. We see in Ephesians 6 that we are in a battle spiritually speaking and that battle is a spiritual one. Whenever we declare the Gospel message to others, people will oppose it sure, but we know that Satan cannot stand it and he will do whatever he can to stop us. Thankfully, the church keeps on going despite adversity and the church continues to grow through adversity! Have you experienced this to be true? People are searching for something and need hope. This doesn’t mean that everyone will accept Christ, but we know that some will. Often times adversity, whether its a global pandemic or the threat of death, the church grows in such times. Tertullian, the early church father, noted this, “Persecution quite often leads to a stronger church because the blood of the martyrs becomes the seed of the church.”

Some wanted Paul and Silas kicked out of town and the Roman government would do everything necessary to avoid a revolt… The religious leaders attacked Christians often and that’s what we see in our text - this was their charge against them in verse 6

Acts 17:6–7 CSB

6 When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too, 7 and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus.”

These people had a reputation for being those who turned the world upside down… how? Through weapons? Through warfare? Through sheer power? Nope. Through faithful Gospel proclamation and calling on people to respond. Everywhere Paul went, problems arose because some responded to the Gospel and others rejected it. People detested him so much that they didn’t even want him coming into their towns because they were afraid that problems would arise. James Boice, though, rightly notes this, “Paul and Silas were not turning the world upside down… they were setting the world right side up.”

Paul knew the power of the Gospel and that the Gospel transforms lives. It transformed lives in Thessalonica, it would transform lives in Berea, Athens, Corinth, Rome and beyond! The Gospel continues to transform lives today. As one pastor put it, “The church is not built upon platforms and fancy strategies, it is built upon Jesus Christ and proclaims the message of the Gospel, nothing more and nothing less.”

Conclusion

The Gospel is powerful. We know that not everyone responds to it positively, largely because of pride and the blinder that sin puts in our lives… but we know that the Gospel is powerful enough to save sinners. We don’t need to dress it up. We don’t need giveaways, entertainment, and flashing lights to make the Gospel look better than it does. The Gospel is sufficient. It is powerful enough. That’s why Paul will tell Timothy later to simply

2 Timothy 4:2 CSB

2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching.

Through the preaching of the Word, God does the work. As we continue looking at 1 Thessalonians in the weeks to come on Sunday nights, we’ll discover the work that does whenever His Word is preached as people believe rightly about God and about the things of God. Whenever we believe rightly about God, we will naturally want others to come to know the God that we know and to be saved and changed by Him. We’re in a county where most people are yet to have been changed by the Gospel. We have the best news of all to share, and we must pray for God to give us boldness to share it well.

As you reflect on that truth, I want to close with 2 questions

Has the Gospel changed you?

Who do you know that needs to be changed by the Gospel?

Regardless of the things going on in your life, remember that God is at work and that nothing is wasted by God. He uses broken pieces and broken people to advance the Gospel hope. Again, He works all things together for our good and for His glory. We continue to share the Gospel because it is the power of God - we are not ashamed of the Gospel, we believe it and we celebrate it.