Sermon 3. A Church centered upon God...

Our text this morning is going to be focusing upon vv6-7. Which has to do with being “imitators” in v6 and then becoming “examples” in v7.

Of being a disciple and being a disciple maker.

And we’re looking at 1 Thessalonians from the perspective of: This is the kind of church that God builds.

We’ve got to follow the flow of the passage ok?

All who are converted (v1), they are changed (v3, they work, love, and endure), they are the chosen ones.

And all begin to imitate others in the body that are more mature than they.

Are there people RESEMBLING OTHERS in our gatherings?

The evidence of your being chosen in Christ isn’t just how the gospel was proclaimed (v5), but how it was received.

Once the power of the gospel was unleashed

“and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord...”

The word “imitators” in the CSB is where we get our English word “mimic”.

They began to imitate the apostles.

Now I want to detour for a moment and thing very practically for our church.

If we are going to find a strategy to make disciples (which we know we’re commanded to do),

we’ve got to see what Paul strategy was and imitate it right?

What about Paul should we RESEMBLE? I try and think of this from a pastoral point of view.

What of Paul should I be resembling? We look right at chapter 2 and we find some answers.

Here’s Paul’s MODEL to be resembled.

a. Paul exhibited courage in the Lord

— On the contrary, after we had previously suffered and were treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, we were emboldened by our God to speak the gospel of God to you in spite of great opposition.

Paul proclaimed the gospel in spite of the opposition he received in Philippi ().

Paul and Silas were cast into jail because Paul had cast an evil spirit from a woman who could divine the future.

They demonstrated trust in God’s deliverance through prayer and singing hymns during a desperate situation.

When their resources were spent, God made his resources available.

b. Paul’s message and motive were true:

— For our exhortation didn’t come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive.

Ogden, G. (2007). Discipleship Essentials: A Guide to Building Your Life in Christ (Expanded edition, p. 217). Downers Grove, IL: IVP Connect.

To the Greeks his message of incarnation and resurrection was madness, a foolishness that did not accord with reality.

The thought was, that Paul was a fraud, a wandering impostor and propagandist.

But Paul claims the source of his message to be from God and the foolishness is really God’s means of salvation.

He had no intention to deceive. He was open and honest, convinced of the truth of his message.

c. Paul spoke to please God, not people.

— Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please people, but rather God, who examines our hearts.

Paul lived with a sense of obligation because he had been entrusted with a message from God.

He therefore had no right to change its content or blunt its thrust.

Paul refused to be swayed by the need for human acceptance.

d. Paul was not out for personal gain (v. 5).

Paul never tried to derive financial gain from his preaching.

Paul worked as a tentmaker, so the accusation of greed could not be leveled at him.

This is Paul’s MODEL. Brothers and sisters,

be courageous,

have pure motives,

seek to please God as you serve your brothers and sisters and

do so, not for what you can get out of them. (slow)

Then his METHOD.

Paul’s method was personal investment. The only way to make disciples is to get involved intimately in the lives of the people you are trying to influence.

God got involved with us in Jesus Christ,

Jesus got involved with the 12.

and He uses us to the extent that we give ourselves to others personally.

Let’s look as the way Paul gave himself to the Thessalonians.

1. “Like a mother caring for her little children” (v. 7).

Paul knew the people under his care, focused on their needs and carried them along a path of growth.

He was gentle because his disciples were like babies—tender and undeveloped.

He is like a mother who acts in the role of a nurse to bring each child to health.

2. “We … share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (v. 8).

Paul was not an untouchable authority figure who kept himself at a distance.

He got involved in the lives of the Thessalonians to the extent that his humanity was showing.

Paul gave his whole self. He shared his life with them.

The people knew that their welfare had become his welfare.

Discipling is a process of investing one’s self in someone else for an extended period of time.

3. “As a father deals with his children” (v. 11).

Again we see the emphasis on the uniqueness of the individual.

No human being is the same, and no one is at the same point of growth and need.

A father must foster the unique character of his children, and so must a discipler.

A discipler encourages, comforts and urges his or her pupil toward more mature godliness.

This is his METHOD.

Paul’s method is the flip opposite of how the modern church does it.

Most of us think that making disciples must be done through programs, defined here as a spectator-performer relationship.

In other words, a few people plan the activities that are spoon-fed to the many.

Ogden, G. (2007). Discipleship Essentials: A Guide to Building Your Life in Christ (Expanded edition, p. 218). Downers Grove, IL: IVP Connect.

So often what occurs is that the bureaucrats (committees, or church councils, etc.) devise a system that people are herded through,

and disciples are expected to be mass produced.

But programs by their nature are task-centered and not people-centered.

They cannot respond to the unique character of the individuals involved.

Programs, committee's, and council’s, are the quick-fix approach to disciplemaking.

What we find in Paul, was the fact that he focused on individuals.

In the opening line of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians he writes, “Paul, Silas and Timothy …”

Paul’s mention of two companions gives us insight into his strategy.

He was very conscious of his responsibility to pass on the faith.

He chose people to be with him so that faith could be imparted in the context of real life.

And the investment in people’s lives was over a long period.

Paul was faithful to Christ.

He knew the character of God and the content of the gospel, which he painstakingly transmitted to his people.

Coupled with this focus on individuals was the self-assurance that his life was worthy of copying.

Ogden, G. (2007). Discipleship Essentials: A Guide to Building Your Life in Christ (Expanded edition, pp. 217–218). Downers Grove, IL: IVP Connect.

Because of this, Paul can sound arrogant.

Without apology he says (in our text this morning), “You became imitators of us and of the Lord” ().

Also, — You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers.

Paul’s attitude was “I represent Christ, and you should follow in my footsteps.”

Paul knew he had something to offer and did not drum up false humility to apologize for it.

A discipler must feel he or she has something to give.

It’s impossible to make statements like that if you’re only living for Jesus on Sunday’s and Wednesday’s.

We need to see ourselves as a link between two generations.

So the first thing that happens when the gospel comes in power, and in the Holy Spirit is it makes followers.

— because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full assurance. You know how we lived among you for your benefit, and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.

The first thing that saving grace produces is to make men into disciples.

He produces a bunch of learners. This is someone who looks into God’s Word and sees what his life and conduct should be and then looking around him,

he sees some of whom God has blessed him with (by His grace) whose life and conduct is according to the Word.

He learns from and follows others in the body so long as they are following Christ.

This is what grace produces.

Let’s note “when” they recieved it.

— and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.

So, in spite of severe persecution they had joy. This is what makes them great examples.

Moving from Are there people RESEMBLING OTHERS in our gatherings?

Leading to our final point. Are their people REPRESENTING in our gatherings.

Ogden, G. (2007). Discipleship Essentials: A Guide to Building Your Life in Christ (Expanded edition, p. 217). Downers Grove, IL: IVP Connect.

REPRESENTING

REPRESENTING

Not just followers but people of whom others can follow.

So they receive Christ and His gospel with joy in the midst of severe persecution.

Then — As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

They go from imitating Paul, Silas, and Timothy to being the examples.

They went from Resembling other leaders to being leaders.

Specifically this happened under great sufferings.

The ultimate goal in discipleship is the glory of God through Jesus Christ and if sufferings must come (and they must)

and those sufferings will threaten people being totally satisfied with God,

then we should talk and listen so as to help others say with the psalmist, from their heart,

— My lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life.

Piper, J. (2003). Counseling with Suffering People. The Journal of Biblical Counseling, Number 2, Winter 2003, 21, 20.

And to say with Paul — ...I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ

Disciple-makers must have a passion to produce people whose satisfaction in God is

so solid,

so deep, and

so unshakable

that suffering and death—losing everything this world can give—

will not make people murmur or curse God, but rest in the promise, — You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.

But how are the men and women of this church going to disciple like that?

Piper, J. (2003). Counseling with Suffering People. The Journal of Biblical Counseling, Number 2, Winter 2003, 21, 20.

The answer is that we must suffer and in that suffering, we must rejoice.

We will be hurt and then we must be happy in God.

Who are we all following? Listen to what’s at the heart of Jesus’ mission:

— Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—

He was given a human flesh so that there would be a body to torture and kill.

— For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

He came to give His life.

— For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

— He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day,

— Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days.

Suffering was at the heart of His mission which makes it part of our mission.

When others wanted to follow Him, listen to what He says...

— A scribe approached him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

If you’re going to follow Christ, then this is what you’re in for!

But that doesn’t fit our modern, American dream of health, wealth, and success!

So some people changed the gospel!!

— Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

— It is enough for a disciple to become like his teacher and a slave like his master. If they called the head of the house ‘Beelzebul,’ how much more the members of his household!

— Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.”

— Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.”

Specifically concerning the Apostle Paul, the risen Christ said,

— I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

Why? — We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia. We were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.

Did you hear the reason or the purpose for his sufferings?

Paul’s enemies don’t have that purpose when they’re afflicting Paul with sufferings.

That’s not Satan’s purpose for Paul when he’s afflicting Paul with sufferings.

Satan’s desire isn’t “Believe in me!” no! It’s “Believe in yourself!”

We must communicate with a passion to produce people whose satisfaction in God is so solid, so deep, and so unshakable that suffering and death will not make us murmur or curse God, but will help us count it all joy () and say with Paul, “To live is Christ and to die is gain” ().

How will that happen? I said that disciple-makers must suffer.

That is what I have tried to show thus far.

And then disciple-makers must rejoice.

You must be hurt in the ministry, and you must be happy in God.

Of course Paul commands this of all of us. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice” ().

“We exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations” ().

It is crucial to see how Paul speaks of his own experience in suffering in the ministry of the Word.

He does not just say to the Colossians, “I suffer for your sake.”

He says, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.”

He doesn’t just say to the Corinthians, “I boast about my weaknesses.”

He says, “Most gladly, therefore, will I boast about my weaknesses” ().

Yes, there is sorrow, sometimes almost unbearable sorrow.

But even here he says, “as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” ().

And when he writes to the Thessalonians to commend them for their faith, he says,

— and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit.

Why this stress on

joy in the Lord,

joy in the hope of the glory of God,

joy from the Holy Spirit, and

all in the midst of suffering?

The reason is this: The aim of all ministry is the glory of God through Jesus Christ.

But suffering threatens to quench our satisfaction in God.

We are tempted to murmur, complain, blame, and even to curse and quit the ministry.

Therefore, joy in God in the midst of suffering makes the worth of God

—the all-satisfying glory of God—

shine more brightly than it would through our joy at any other time.

Sunshine happiness signals the value of sunshine.

But happiness in suffering signals the value of God.

Suffering and hardship joyfully accepted in the path of obedience to Christ show the

supremacy of Christ more than all our faithfulness in fair days.

This is the call of God on all our lives as followers of Christ.

Every follower of Christ is either resembling someone in the body as they resemble the Lord. Imitating others...

Others are the rep

Others are the representatives. They are the examples of joy in the midst of sufferings.

Again. These are the hallmarks of a God-glorifying, God-driven church.

Piper, J. (2003). Counseling with Suffering People. The Journal of Biblical Counseling, Number 2, Winter 2003, 21, 23.