A Transformed Church

Introduction

Well, Good morning!

Listen, it feels so good to have everyone here this morning, together. It feels good to be one body, one church as we come together to worship. I’m actually really excited as we enter into this season here at FBC. I know it’s different, I know it’s not what many of you are use to, I know it’s probably not the best time for some of you…I get all that, but trust me when I say that God’s gonna use this time, right here, to grow us…He’s gonna use this to build us up together as one body and to grow us closer to Him.

And listen, if you’re upset about us coming together, if you don’t desire being one with your brothers and your sisters, then I challenge you…go back, read everything we’ve been walking through together as a church. Read some of Paul’s letters…because this right here, this is what we’ve been called to…And guys, it just excites me…It excites me because I love you guys… and its just always felt like we were two separate churches…and it broke my heart as your pastor…it broke my heart because that’s not what the church is about. We’re meant to be a family…we’re meant to be one…we’re meant to come together to worship as one people…all with the purpose of building each other up in love. And I really think, some of you guys, if you allow the Spirit to move, you’re gonna see a void filled in your life that you didn’t even realize you were missing.

And so, I’m just excited…I’m humbled in the privilege that I have to pastor you…I’m thankful that God’s called me to you…and I just can’t wait to see how God continues to work through FBC.

Alright, before we jump back into 1 Thessalonians…let’s recite our mission verse together. Matthew chapter 28, verses 19 & 20. I hope you’ve been putting this command on your heart…I hope you grasp what it is Jesus is commanding you…what’s He’s commanding us as a church to. I hope this verse, I hope it’s changing how you look at things like purpose and fulfillment…because this is our mission…this is our responsibility…this is how we live a life worthy of the gospel…it’s to care about Jesus’s glory by advancing His kingdom through the church. And that’s what we wanna be and that’s what we wanna do. We wanna be a church without walls…a church that lives out this command to deliver, disciple, deploy.

And so, hopefully you’re ready…I’ll get us started, you finish us up.

Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

[Prayer]

Alright, if you have your Bibles and I hope that you do, open ‘em up with me 1 Thessalonians chapter 2…1 Thessalonians chapter 2.

As you turn there, I’ll give you a quick recap of where we’ve been. This is our fourth sermon in our series through these two letters…and so far, we’ve learned who these Thessalonians were…they were “in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.” They’ve been reborn, they were believers…they heard the gospel message from Paul and his companions and through the power of the Holy Spirit, they repented from their idolatry, from their pagan upbringing and they turned to Jesus. They were a people and now a church that had been impacted by the gospel.

And as we continued through chapter one, we saw that through that gospel impact, they had become contagious to those around them. Their desire was to proclaim the gospel and their lives made the gospel visible…and it was impacting other people. Paul says they went from being imitators to being the one’s others imitated. Everywhere Paul traveled, he said the people had heard about the gospel because these Thessalonians had made it known. They were contagious.

And then last week, we started chapter two where Paul wrote about his own example in coming to Thessalonica. And course, because these Thessalonians were imitators of Paul, this is the way they also acted with others. And as we explored that, we saw how important it was to be authentic…how we’re to be bold for the gospel, and honest about the gospel…honest in the message we proclaim…honest about our motives, and honest about our methods. And then we saw this really challenging example of Paul’s vulnerability with the Thessalonians. We saw that vulnerability, vulnerability with others, that’s what leads to authenticity. They were an authentic church.

And so, this week, we’re gonna continue on into chapter two…and we’re gonna talk a little about being a transformed church. Now, I need you to listen to me…I’m not talking about being supernaturally transformed at salvation…I’m not talking about what the Holy Spirit does in us when we come to faith in Jesus…Listen, what we’re gonna talk about this morning, it’s about what Jesus wants to continue doing in you…about the sanctifying work that He promises. The beauty of the gospel, it’s that you don’t need to know everything there is to know about Jesus when you’re saved…you just need to repent and believe…but after you’re saved, the Spirit…He gives you this desire to wanna know the One who gave you some much. And the means by which we do that…the tool that God gives us…its Scripture…it’s His spoken Word. Listen, the main idea this morning…it’s that God’s Word transforms the lives of those who welcome it.

I heard Ken say in his sermon, not too long ago…you get out, what you put in, right? If you wanna grow…if you wanna mature as a Christian…you gotta go to the source by which that can happen. If you seek this desired growth in all these other places…you’re not gonna receive the desired result. If the extent of your spiritual discipline is to come to church, listen to a sermon, not take notes, not have your Bibles open, not listening to the Word intently, if you don’t go home and study the Word for yourself, you’re not gonna grow as Jesus intends for you.

Listen, if I wanna lose weight or if I wanna get into shape, I can’t eat McDonald’s everyday. I can’t take in garbage constantly and not replenish my body with healthy things…and it’s the same idea for us as Christians…it’s recognizing the means by which we grow and recognizing exactly what it is and the privilege we’ve been given in having it. Listen, most us here, we have a pretty high of Scripture, which is great, but its of little value to us if we don’t enthusiastically embrace the Scripture’s authority in our own lives.

Guys, as we dig into this passage, we’re gonna see these Thessalonians begin to grow and be transformed…and the reason for that…it’s because they welcomed God’s Word. They saw it for what it was and they allowed it to shape their lives.

And so, if you’re there with me this morning, let’s stand together as we read…starting in verse 13. It says this:

1 Thessalonians 2:13–16 (ESV)

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

Thank you, you can be seated.

Listen, as we dig into these verses this morning…there’s a few things I really want you to think about…number 1, have you heard God?…number 2, have you responded to God?…and then finally, number 3…have you been transformed by God?

And so, with that, let’s look at this first question.

I. Have You Heard God? (V. 13a)

Have you heard God?

Look back at verse 13 with me again. Paul says, “13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

And so, Paul and his companions, they come, they preach the gospel…it says these Thessalonians, they heard it and accepted it, but not as their words…not Paul’s words or some human’s words, but instead the word of God.

And listen, there’s a couple of things that Paul emphasizes here…first, he says that he’s thankful that they heard God’s word. The emphasis here, it’s really on the hearing piece…meaning Paul and his companions they were preaching it to them. These Thessalonians, they didn’t have a Bible like we do. And so, what they knew about Jesus, it came from hearing Paul…it came from his preaching.

Guys, let me ask you a question this morning…why do we spend so much time each Sunday morning devoted to the preaching of God’s word? Why’s this such an instrumental piece of our growth as Christians?

Well, J.I. Packer, he said that preaching is “the event of God bringing to an audience a Bible-based, Christ-related, life-impacting message of instruction from himself through the words of a spokesperson.”

Listen, Packer, he didn’t say that a preacher brings you a word about God…you understand? I don’t bring you a word about God every Sunday morning. He said that God brings a message through a preacher. And that’s exactly what we see laid out in our verses with Paul and his companions.

We have to understand that every time a church gathers under God’s Word, the people, the congregation, they’re gathered there to experience a word-mediated encounter between their souls and the living God. God himself, He’s using the preacher as His instrument, as a tool, so that He can speak into each life. That’s why its impossible for us to have too high a view of preaching.

And Paul’s saying here that these Thessalonians, they grasped this idea. They understood that when he preached the gospel, he didn’t invent it but instead he received it. It was a message received to him by God. And it was a message being preaching through him. And Paul was thanking God that they understood this…that these weren’t his words… but God’s words.

Listen, it’s always awesome when you see someone in a church service that gets it for the first time…when they realize, “Wow, its not Pastor Steven’s words but it’s God’s. Steven was talking about an issue that I dealt with this week…or I felt like he was talking straight to my heart and my issues.” Guys, that’s God…I’m simply a man. I don’t know what’s in your heart…I don’t always know the issues you’re walking through. Only God can do those things. And when you grasp that…you begin to understand what it is we’ve been called to, why it is we do certain things like preach.

Preaching, its meant for us to hear the voice of God. It’s a means for God to speak to us as a church and as individuals. It’s why we place so much emphasis on this aspect of a service, more so than any other…because we want God to speak to us. It’s why I carry such a huge burden each week, why I’ve built this team of expositors around me, it’s the purpose of me going back to school to study preaching, I wanna make sure that I’m staying true to this responsibility so that you and I can continue to hear God.

And so, what’s this mean for us? Well, understanding exactly what God’s given us through the practice of preaching and through the Scriptures…understanding that its not the words of man, but the words of God....then we listen intently…we come ready…we come prepared to hear God…we’re ready to take notes because it’s so important that the God of the universe, He’s speaking to us. It means we come with our Bibles open…following along. We come with hearts ready and minds rested. Because if God’s speaking, there has to be a purpose, right?

And so, that’s the first thing…do you hear God? When you leave this place this morning…when you’re all sitting around a table eating lunch, do you ask each other what they heard from God?…How God spoke to them?…Listen, You should make that a regular habit…we even do it with our kids...because when we come on Sunday mornings…God speaks and we want those we love to hear his voice.

And not just on Sunday mornings either, but through Scripture, we’ve been given the ability to go to God’s Word on our own, constantly. Do you do that? Do you have a quiet time? Do you understand that through Scripture, He’s made Himself known to you…that’s exactly why John refers to Jesus as the Word in John chapter 1…through your own study of it, He speaks to you…He reveals Himself to you…The Bible, it’s living, it’s active…and if you devote yourself to it, He’ll speak to you.

That’s exactly what our Knot groups are all about here at FBC…it’s what we do…we ask each other what the other’s heard from God, through their own study…and we devote ourselves to it…that’s the source of our growth…and the source of our continued transformation.

And so, do you hear God? Do you hear Him here on Sunday mornings? And do you hear Him through the week as you go to God’s Word on your own?

II. Do You Respond to God? (v. 13b)

The second question…do you respond to God?

If you look at that last part of verse 13…Paul says, “which is at work in you believers.” If you underline in your Bibles, underline that word, believers.

This is actually the first time that Paul calls these Thessalonians believers…which is interesting because obviously they’re believers after everything else that Paul’s said about them. But the emphasis here, its on how they responded to God’s word when they heard it. And what Paul’s saying here…its that they believed…they were believers. They weren’t just believers of Jesus…they were believers of God’s Word…which for the record, they go hand-in-hand…You can’t believe in Jesus if you don’t believe in His Word.

Another translation actually says, “the Word is at work in you who believe.” And so, the action, its in the believing of these Thessalonians. When they heard God’s Word, they believed it.

Listen, there’s really only two ways a person can respond when God speaks to them…either they believe in the words communicated to them…or they don’t. It’s that simple. But how you respond, it determines what follows.

If you remember, back in verse 3, Paul said that the Word…this same Word they believed in…it was at work in them…he mentioned faith and love and hope and how all those things were evidence that God’s Word was at work in them.

And listen, you’re sitting there thinking, “Pastor Steven, get to the point…of course I believe in God’s Word.” Listen, how you respond to God’s Word…whether that’s to believe or to reject it…something inside of you, it gives evidence to that response.

I mean think about some of your own beliefs…things you believe in. If you believe in the platform of a certain political party…then you’re typically gonna vote in a certain way. It impacts you…it causes you to do something about your beliefs, to stand on your beliefs. If you believe home school’s the only way to educate your children…guess what it’s gonna cause you to do? It’s gonna cause you to home school your kids, right? If you believe Ford’s the only company that actually produces solid vehicles, you’re probably only gonna buy Ford vehicles. Listen, I can go on and on about this. What you believe in…it impacts everything else about you and it causes you to respond in a favorable way towards those things. And listen, if you don’t believe in those things…it doesn’t impact you at all…you have no mind about it…you couldn’t care less.

And so, the question…do you respond to God? Or better put…because we all respond to God in some way…how do you respond to God? Do you hear God and then as a result, believe His Words? Are you believers of His Word?

And if so, what’s the evidence of that? Has your belief in His Word, has it caused you to respond to that belief in a favorable way? Because how you respond, it dictates whether or not you’re shaped by that belief…which leads straight into our last question.

III. Are You Transformed by God? (vv. 14-16)

Are you transformed by God?

Again, as Paul’s already shown us here…transformation…it’s the result of believing in God’s Word. And so, these Thessalonians, they heard the Word of God…they recognized it was His Words…and they believed those words…that belief it impacted them…it transformed them.

Look at verse 14 with me again…Paul says these Thessalonians they were believers in God’s Word and then he says, “14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins.”

And so, their belief in God’s Word, it caused some things to happen, right? First, it caused them to become imitators of other churches…now they weren’t an exact mold of those other churches. Paul says they were imitators in how they responded to this world. They began to suffer like these other churches…and they began to endure all kinds of persecution. The preaching they heard from Paul, it produced a work in the lives of these believers. In other words, the preaching of Paul, it produced fruit in these Thessalonians. And the reason was because they viewed it as God’s words and not Paul’s…and then they believed those words, right?

And as we’ve already talked about in this series at one point, this transformation, it impacted two areas of their lives. It impacted their affections…and it impacted their direction.

I mean just look at their affections now. They’re willing to suffer…willing to be persecuted and martyred…and not just for the gospel…but ultimately for their countrymen…their willingness to suffer, it was because they began imitating Paul, and his companions, and all these other churches, and they began caring more about those around them that didn’t know the name of Jesus…they began to care most about the broken and the hopeless…they began to devote themselves to the people around them all because of the gospel impact in their lives…because they believed the words they heard…and they believed that without Jesus, people would actually spend an eternity in a fiery pit. Their belief in God’s Word, it changed their affections…what they were affectionate toward.

But it also changed their direction…look at what Paul says in the last couple of verses. He’s talking about the Jews here…and his purposes, its not to speak poorly of them…Jesus was a Jew, right? But his purpose, it was to give them a vivid picture of what it looked like to not actually believe the words they heard. Not believing in God’s Word, it was like being a Jew…who constantly heard the truth…they had the prophets and they had all these words from God…God Himself, He came to them…and they killed ‘em all…they drove ‘em out…God might love these Jews, but their response to His Word, it displeased Him…they try to hinder the church from speaking to others about salvation…but look at that last line…Paul says, “But wrath has come upon them at last!” That was their direction…wrath.

The Jewish people had such a great privilege but yet they rathered sit in darkness than to investigate the small ray of light peeking through the crack on the other side. And it’s the same for people today who reject the gospel. That’s what Paul’s saying here. Whether we’ve been raised in godly homes, or attend a church only once a year, or live in a remote jungle, we’re all without excuse if we fail to put our trust and belief in Jesus and His Word…Guys, the light of the gospel, it shines so brightly, but those who refuse to walk in its light, they’ll face their just judgement…that’s our direction without belief in God’s Word.

And Paul’s words, they might seem harsh here…but it’s truth…its the outcome for those that don’t believe in God’s Word…and its the outcome of those that aren’t transformed by God’s Word. They will receive wrath.

But unlike the Jews, these Thessalonians, they saw the light of the gospel…they saw that glimmer of hope…and unlike the Jews, they walked toward that light. They welcomed the Word into their life…and they allowed that belief in His Word to transform them and begin to define them. For these Thessalonians, this wasn’t just some ordinary word. This was the Word made flesh…what they couldn’t do for themselves, God did for them. Jesus gave His life to save them. And listen, it’s the same for us as well. That’s the beauty of the gospel.

And listen, when we as a church truly place our full confidence in the Word of God…when we believe it with every ounce of our being…we’ll become a transformed church…because it’ll begin to shape us and mold us into to the heart of Christ.

Closing

And so listen, as we close this morning…I want you to think about our main idea…has your life been transformed because you’ve truly welcomed every part of God’s Word?

Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me?

I wanna speak to those who call themselves believers first this morning? What is it that you believe in? How does that belief transform you? What does your belief cause you to do?

If you truly believe I’m speaking God’s words this morning…and if you believe in what it is we’ve read…then the next response should be some kind of reaction…you should have a new found desire to dig into God’s Word, right? You should wanna find ways to apply what we’ve talked about this morning or any morning for that matter…Your belief in God’s Word, it should cause you to respond in a favorable way towards it…especially if you truly believe it’s God’s words. Again, you can’t believe in something and not be shaped by that belief.

We’re about to take the Lord’s Supper together as a church family…and Paul warns us to not take that with an unclean heart…he warns us in 2 Corinthians to get our hearts right. Do you believe that? Is that belief in God’s Word, is it gonna cause you to respond in the way it suggests…which is to repent from your wrongdoings against God…If you believe in God’s Word, it says we all fall short of God’s glory…that if we believe there’s no sin in us, the truth doesn’t live inside us…do you believe that? Because if you do, then you’ll understand that even now we’re all sinful and we all have things to repent from this morning. Do you believe that? Does it shape you?

Do you believe in our mission verse that we recite every single Sunday morning? Do you believe that’s our mission as followers of Jesus? If so, how’s it shaped your week or your plans or your ambitions?

And as you’re thinking through that, this same Word, it speaks about the beauty of the gospel…the grace of God’s love toward us…even as we were still sinners. Do you believe in that grace? That we deserved death because of our rebellion toward Him…and that He alone gave Himself as a substitute for us through Jesus? Do you believe that? Because your belief in those things, you can’t simply be the same person and do all the same things and have all the same desires you once did and yet see the grace of God’s love for you. Your belief…just as it did for Paul…just as it did for these Thessalonians…your belief in God’s Word, it transforms you…it transforms your affections…and it transforms your direction.

And so listen, here’s how I want you to respond to that this morning…if you’re here…you’re a believer…I just want you to seek the Spirit. Ask Him to convict of places where you’ve fallen short…repent from those things…ask for His forgiveness and strength in those areas. Ask Him to give you the ability to apply some of the things we’re talking about here…to give you the desire to wanna dig into His word and to be transformed by it.

And if you’re here this morning and you realize you’ve never really placed your trust and faith in Jesus…then I just want you to repent and believe…turn from yourself and turn to Jesus…Have a conversation with Him…He’s knows your heart…tell Him that you trust Him…that you believe in these words…that they’re His and that He’s God…ask for forgiveness…ask Him to fill you and lead you…you can do that right where you’re at this morning… or I’ll be down front…you can come down and talk with me…let me pray with you, encourage you.

And so listen, whatever it is…you respond to the Spirit of God as our deacons come and prepare the Lord’s Supper this morning…and I’ll close us in just a moment. You come…

[Prayer]

Matthew 26:26 (ESV)

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

Matthew 26:27–29 (ESV)

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”