A Church To Be Thankful For - part 1

PASTORAL PRAYER

Oh Father, You are our God. We are here to seek You. We want to behold Your power and glory and to be fully satisfied by Your love. We want, like David, to thirst for You and earnestly seek You like a desert traveler yearns for water, to be fully confident that Your love is better than life, to sing praise and be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods even when our lives are in a desert place. But we know our own hearts enough to know that we are fickle and easily distracted. Too often we thirst for other things and refuse to be satisfied in You. Too often we lose sight of Your power and glory and forget to think about You through the night or cling to You in life’s challenges. Forgive us, Father. We need Your power to renew our desire for You. We rely on Your love to sustain us because ours is too weak. We rejoice because that’s exactly what You have promised to do. Father, many of us come today with heavy hearts or feeling like we’re walking in a desert place. Maybe it is the circumstances of our own lives that leave us dry and clinging to You. Or maybe it’s the evil we see in the world around us—in our own nation or as we watch events unfold on the other side of the world, the work of evil dictators and broken systems, of greed and power struggles and injustice. Of a world groaning because it has been subjected to frustration along with our bodies. Help us, Lord, to see Your power and glory and to trust You with the future of our lives and of our world. We know that You are making everything new. We know that everything sad will one day be done away, and that in the end we will see You reign upon this earth in perfect love and justice and goodness. Help us to live, even on desert days, out of the joy and peace You bring, so that the hurting and discouraged around us can see the hope You offer lived out in our lives. We ask this in the name of Your son and for Your glory, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

1 Thessalonians is most likely the earliest letter we have from Paul.

The back story can be found in Acts 17:1-9.

Paul and Silas went to the city of Thessalonica on Paul’s Second Missionary Journey.

After just one month of telling people the good news, a large number of both Jewish and Greek people repented and believed in Jesus.

Trouble was brewing as Paul’s announcement of the risen Jesus as the true Lord led to local opposition.

The Christians in Thessalonica were accused of defying Caesar, the Roman emperor, by “saying that there’s another king, Jesus” (Acts 17:7).

This led to persecution that became so intense that Paul and Silas were forced to flee from Thessalonica. This was a painful tragedy as they loved the people there.

This letter is Paul’s attempt to reconnect with them after rece­iving a report from Timothy that the Thessalonian Christians were doing more than okay—they were flourishing despite intense persecution.

Chapter 1 is an expression of Paul’s thankfulness for the church.

Read 1 Thessalonians 1

Today, we ware going to see that he was…

Thankful For Their Fruit

verses 2-4

Paul recognizes that the Thessalonians are among God’s elect because of the evidence of their transformation.

Read verse 4

The confidence someone has in the genuine conversion of an individual is through the examination of the fruit that they bear. Consider what Jesus reveals to His disciples in John 15:

John 15:16 ESV

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…

John 15:5 ESV

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:8 ESV

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

and what James reveals about saving faith in James 2:

James 2:14 ESV

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

James 2:18 ESV

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

The lasting righteous fruit of a believer is what gives other believers confidence in their conversion.

It is also what gives an individual confidence of their own conversion.

2 Peter 1:10 ESV

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these [seven] qualities you will never fall.

Beyond the confidence that lies with the saints, is the testimony it provides for non-believers.

1 Peter 2:12 ESV

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

2 Corinthians 8:21 ESV

for we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of man.

Titus 2:7–8 ESV

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Review: The fruit of righteousness that bears out in the life of a believer:

Gives assurance of salvation to the individual

Gives evidence of salvation to other believers

Gives a testimony of a changed life to non-believers

The Apostle Paul praises God for the evidence of the salvation of the Thessalonians, which is observed in three Christian virtues:

Work Of Faith

The saving work of God in the life of a believer will always shine through the work they do for His glory.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

To be clear, Paul is not contradicting the clear teaching of salvation by faith alone, apart from any human works.

Rather, he is emphasizing the New Testament proclamation that a genuine believer will exhibit a new reality as it relates to their desires and works.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 ESV

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Romans 6:1–4 ESV

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

That is not to say that a believer perfectly obeys the Lord.

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Rather, we will have a longing to obey, and a Godly sorrow that will produce repentance when we disobey.

Romans 7:18–20 ESV

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Labor Of Love

Unlike the non-believer in the world, a Christian’s motivation in serving is their love for Christ and their love for others, sometimes at the cost of their own comfort.

Many times in Scripture, it is clear that opposition and persecution will likely come on followers of Christ.

Matthew 5:11–12 ESV

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

1 Peter 4:12–14 ESV

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Walter J. Chantry, baptist pastor

Taking up the cross is the conscious choice of a painful alternative motivated by love for Christ.

The believer has at the core of their intention the same desire as Paul expressed in his letter to the church at Philippi:

Philippians 3:10–12 ESV

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

The labor of love is more than just the good deed that is done. It focuses on the effort expended in accomplishing those deeds.

Reflect:

How much effort is expended in loving other believers? How much effort is expended in loving your enemies?

Loving one’s enemies is an expression of the power of salvation, and it is a command given to us by Christ.

Read Matthew 5:43-48

Steadfastness Of Hope

All Christians have a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ

An anticipation of seeing His future glory

An anticipation of receiving their eternal inheritance

This hope is what enables the Christian to endure the trials experienced in this world.

It is what enables them to endure the increasing failure of their earthly abode (i.e. body).

The word steadfast conveys the idea of holding up under pressure.

Christians will hold fast to their hope until the end

There is nothing that should cause a true Christian to lose their trust in God’s promises.

1 John 5:4–5 ESV

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Our hope is firm and sure because it is anchored in the unchangeable Lord Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

Fellow believer,

I pray this section of Scripture will do the same for you as it has done for me.

I hope that you will take the opportunity to evaluate your life in light of the fruit you are bearing.

Ask yourself, “Am I living in such a way that others are thankful for my testimony for Christ?”

If not, will you repent and call on Jesus to help you?

May your prayer, and mine, be that of the psalmist. Lord,

Psalm 119:34–39 LSB

Cause me to understand, that I may observe Your law And keep it with all my heart. Cause me to walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. Cause my heart to incline to Your testimonies And not to dishonest gain. Cause my eyes to turn away from looking at worthlessness, And revive me in Your ways. Cause Your word to be established for Your slave, As that which produces fear for You. Cause my reproach which I dread to pass away, For Your judgments are good.

Amen.