What to look for in a Church
1 Thess 1:4-10 WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A CHURCH
Introduction:
A. Illus.: Some of you remember Milton and Laura Acosta who were part of our church while Milton
earned his Ph.D. in Old Testament at Trinity. They returned to Columbia about 2 ½ years ago. In one email
he wrote about their church building their in Medellin, Columbia: “We are attending a Baptist
church in Medellín. We are using what used to be one of the houses owned by a prominent drug dealer.
The guy was shot dead by the police a few years ago. Now all of his properties are in the hands of the
government. Some of them are rented out to people. This particular ‘house’ where the church meets has
a discotheque, movie theater, soccer field, basketball court, swimming pool, fitness room, bar and
kitchen, stable for ten horses and a huge house with a fountain at the entrance. The ‘sanctuary’ is what
used to be the discotheque.” Now that’s a transformation to thank God for! A drug dealer’s compound
now a church building.
B. Churches—not the buildings, but the people—are supposed to be miracles of transformation. Like a
drug-dealer’s playground becoming a home for the holy. It should be, that the only explanation for a
church is that God worked miracles in the lives of ordinary people. If the presence of a church can be
chalked up to vision and hard work and gifted people, something vital is missing.
C. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he began by thanking God: “We always thank God for all of
you,” he wrote. Turn to 1 Thess. Our English translations may
obscure Paul’s logic here. Three phrases modify that statement...
Thank God when your church can only be explained by the
impact of God’s sovereign love.
To put it another way: “We thank God because we have proof
positive that he chose you for salvation.” What Paul knew about
them is the very thing we still look for in a church today. Here’s the
point: Thank God when your church can only be explained by the
impact of God’s sovereign love. In these verses Paul gives two
undeniable evidences of God’s sovereign love at work in a church.
I. THE GOSPEL IMPACTS PEOPLE WITH POWER BEYOND WORDS (1:4-5a)
A. Not even the best news in the world—that Jesus died to restore our
relationship with God—could produce the changes we see in new believers.
Good news (which is what the word ‘gospel’ means) can change a lot of things
in life. “The money was found.” “The tests were negative.” “Your son will be
coming home.” Good news can change your life. But Paul says here, “Our
gospel came to you not simply with words.” I’ve seen the gospel come “simply with words.” You
explain the gospel to someone—the free gift of God that covers all your sins and gives you eternal life—
and they can be excited to hear it; glad that it is true; and even decide to be a Christian. They turn over a
new leaf in life. Go to church, read the Bible, act nicely—but then they run out of steam. The gospel—as
wonderful as it is—only came to them in words. If the gospel is to change lives, something more must
happen.
Illus.: Last year I was sitting at a table with Dr. Erwin Lutzer of
Moody Memorial Church and I asked him if it was true that he had his
Trinity students preach in a graveyard. “Yes,” he said, “I take them to a
little cemetery in Deerfield, and I have them all gather around a certain
gravesite. I point out the name, and then I tell one of the students,
‘Preach the gospel to Mr. Smith here.’ They look at me like I’m nuts. So I preach to Mr. Smith. ‘Sir,
Jesus died for your sin, and you must put your faith in him.’ Then I look at the students and tell them,
‘This is no different than preaching the gospel to unsaved people. The Bible says that they are dead in
their sins. You can preach your heart out, but nothing will happen unless God does a miracle to give
them the life to listen.’” That is the miracle that Paul is thanking God for here.
? mentioning you in our prayers,
? remembering... your work produced by
faith, your labor prompted by love, and
your endurance inspired by hope...
? knowing, brothers loved by God,
your election (choosing, calling)
We always thank God for all of you,
Thank God when your church can only be
explained by the impact of God’s sovereign love
Thank God when your church can only be
explained by the impact of God’s sovereign love
This text identifies two undeniable evidences of
God’s sovereign love at work in a church
2
Thank God when your church can only be
explained by the impact of God’s sovereign love
B. Salvation comes when God chooses you. Paul says the same thing in his second letter to this church: 2
Thess. 2:13-14... You know, of course, that Christians argue over the role of free will in accepting
Christ, but make no mistake: no one is trusts Christ without God choosing them first. We don’t say,
“God, I want you to come into my life,” and then he responds, “Great, then I’ll choose you.” The Bible
says, “We love him because he first loved us.” Do you see the connection in v.4 between God’s love and
God’s choosing: loved by God and he has chosen you. Why did God choose you?
C. When God chooses someone for salvation the proof is the impact of the gospel message. Look at v.5...
These three effects—power, the Holy Spirit, and deep conviction-- marked both the gospel tellers and
the gospel hearers. The gospel exchange between them was spiritually electric and supernatural, that is
was far more than a communication of good news; more than “simple words.”
When people hear and respond to the gospel, it isn’t always deeply emotional, but these three effects
are there if a real conversion happens. First, there is power in the message—energy, a kind of inward
explosion, like when they use those paddles to start a heart (“Clear!” Pow! beep...beep...beep.) Dead people
rise. Furthermore, God himself was in the exchange by his Holy Spirit. This wasn’t an impersonal
experience; it was alive with God himself. They met God as Paul explained the gospel. And it came with
deep conviction. As Paul and his companions preached there was a supernatural urgency in their words,
and when these Thessalonians heard, the words cut them to the quick. They knew they had to believe.
They knew it was true. They knew they could be saved through Jesus Christ.
SUMMARY: Thank God when your church can only be explained by the impact of God’s sovereign
love. Thank him because you have seen that the gospel impacts people with power beyond words. Thank
God that when the gospel was preached to the dead, the dead came to life!
According to Acts 17, Paul and Silas weren’t in Thessalonica very long. It says they
only preached in the synagogue on three Sabbaths. Then there was an outcry against
them and they were sneaked out of town at night. It appears they were only there for a
month—make it six weeks if you want. That’s how long it took for this church to get
started, and then they were left on their own. Other Christian teachers may have come
and gone, but it is no wonder that Paul worried about them after he left. Yet here he
remembers a second evidence of God’s miraculous work in their hearts. The second undeniable evidence of
God’s sovereign love in any true church is this:
II. THE CHURCH BEARS A REMARKABLE RESEMBLANCE TO JESUS (1:5b-10)
A. When people begin to imitate Jesus it is a miracle of God (v.6 –“You
became imitators of us and of the Lord.”) At first glance, we might
think that these people got nicer; that they cleaned up their act. Sort
of the spiritual equivalent of bums dressing up. People quite
commonly think that Jesus can be imitated. You can care about poor
people like he did, hate hypocrisy, do selfless, kind things. But even
those things people can’t actually imitate Jesus. Illus.: Think of actors trying to portray Jesus in a movie.
If you ask me, they just never quite get it—in spite of wearing his clothes and speaking his words.
Imitating Jesus is harder than it looks. The only way to imitate Jesus is to have Jesus in you. So Paul
is saying, “When I saw how quickly you folks began to imitate us and Jesus I knew that God had
transformed your lives.”
B. Christians have a joy only God can give (v.6b – “in spite of severe suffering you welcomed the message
with joy given by the Holy Spirit.”) Teilhard de Chardin said, “Joy is the most infallible sign of the
presence of God.” “Joy given by the Holy Spirit” is different than other kinds of joy. It is a joy with its
finger pointing to God, with God on its mind. It is a joy that is clean and fresh on the inside, like new
snow. It is a joy that feels like a you got your heart back; that says, “This is the way I’m supposed to
be.” It is a joy with heaven in it, like a kind of déjà vu of what is yet to come.
What really made their joy so obvious was that it wasn’t affected by “severe suffering.” The whole
city was in an uproar over these people. One month they’re ordinary citizens; the next everybody is
angry with them. They’re getting attacked. The jobs, children and lives are on the line. And yet what
Thank God when your church can only be
explained by the impact of God’s sovereign love
The second undeniable evidence of God’s sovereign
love at work in a church
3
Paul remembered about those tumultuous days was how joyful those young Christians were in spite of it
all. “Only God could give that kind of joy!” he says here. That is still the mark of Christians. We have
joy, and suffering only makes it shine more brightly.
Illus.: We had quite a scare in our family this week. My younger sister, Linda, was diagnosed with
pneumonia, and then on Thursday evening my mom called to say that the doctors thought she had stage
4 lung cancer, as well as another tumor. Surgery was expected on Friday. Friday evening it all changed.
When I called mom, she said they had drained Linda’s lungs and there was no cancer. The tumor she
does have is very treatable. My mom is a very godly woman. She said, “I did my crying on Thursday
evening.” But she trusted God. Not necessarily to heal Linda; in fact, mom was braced for bad news.
But she talked about her Christian friends who came by to sit with her. They offered help, they prayed,
they brought food. “Lorena came over,” she said, “and we just visited and laughed.” Laughed! She
said, “God’s peace was almost like a cushion.” One reason I know God my mom is saved is because
only a God-saved person could respond to such suffering with such joy.
C. Even a few, young, suffering believers can become a model church (v.7-10). “So you became a model to
all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” Notice two things. First, they together were a model. Not
their pastor, or their worship band, or their visitation program. They as a group of believers. What we
are as a church, we are together. Whether you’re deeply involved or sitting on the sidelines, you are
making us what we are, for better or worse. What we are as a church, we are together.
Secondly, this word “model”. It means a pattern, like a mold or a cookie cutter. “Churches in other
places are modeling themselves after you.” You’re the template. Now this is a church that was small,
young and suffering. In our day, the model churches are the ones that have some great program. They
put on seminars to help other churches be like them—to worship like them, or have small groups like
them, or a missions program like them. This little church became a model for other churches without
having seminars. Christians in other towns simply heard about them and said, “We want our church to
be like that.”
Such a model church thunders the Lord’s message (v.8a). See that phrase there: “rang out”? It’s a
Greek word used elsewhere of trumpet blasts and thunder claps. Their quiet faith was thundering in far
away places. Thessalonica was a city situated for influence. It was on a major Roman trade route, plus it
was a major harbor. So when something happened there, the word spread. God used that when he
birthed a church there. Word about their church spread easily. There’s an old hymn that says:
Where cross the crowded ways of life,
Where sound the cries of race and clan
Above the noise of selfish strife,
We hear your voice, O Son of man.
Our church is like that. That first line is how I think about this area where we live: “Where cross the
crowded ways of life.” People from all over the world, who go all over the world. Our church is
positioned for influence. And we don’t need a seminar to do it. We need to love Jesus, be filled with his
Spirit, and deal with even the harshest things in life out of our position of “joy given by the Holy Spirit.”
What did people talk about when they told about the Thessalonian church? V.8 says, “Your faith in
God has become known everywhere,” and vv.9b-10 says, “They tell how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—
Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” You mean it wasn’t about their great programs, or their
big building, or their preachers? No, it was the way the trusted and served God, and the way they lived
for Jesus to come back.
Brothers and sisters, God has positioned us for influence. Last year about 25 people left our church,
many for far away places—Atlanta, Kansas, St. Louis, Texas, Pennsylvania, Ukraine, Japan. Many who
left are now active in new churches; some are pastors or missionaries. Wherever they go, we want them
to say, “Let me tell you about our church back in Illinois.” Not our preaching or worship services or
small groups, but our faith that is bent to the service of the living and true God, faith that joyfully
waits for Jesus to come back, and that believes he will rescue us from the coming wrath when he
4
receives us to himself. This year, it’s likely that that many people will again move away from our
church. May it be that what they take with them when they leave is that they were part of a church that
bore a remarkable resemblance to Christ.
Conclusion
Churches are supposed to be miracles of transformation. Thank God when your church can only be
explained by the impact of God’s sovereign love. I suggest we focus on that kind of thanksgiving during
Communion this morning. Thank God for those things you see here at VCL that only God could have done. (1
Cor. 10:16-17)
Sermon text with italics and bold and John 3:16 and v. 20.
Heading 2
Text with an outline.
- Level 1
- Level 2
- Level 2
- Level 3