Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Thessalonians 1:4-10

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Known by Our Actions

 

We know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.

You know how we lived among you for your sake.

You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.

Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us.

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.

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owever much we inveigh against the practise, those around us watch ever so carefully our lives.

They gauge the depth of our faith and the degree of our faithfulness by the manner in which we conduct ourselves in the world.

What outsiders may think of Christ, how they view the fellowship of believers, or what may be their opinion of the Faith, is dependent in no small measure upon us as individuals – our attitudes and our actions.

What do those about you think of Christ?

The answer may be as simple as asking what their opinion is of your life.

In exploring this thought, I invite you to consider the lives of a group of saints commended by the Apostle to the Gentiles.

I am speaking, of course, about the Thessalonian believers.

Paul carefully reflected to them the impact they were having on the world about them.

In effect, he held up to them the mirror of public opinion that they might see the reflection of their actions and be thus encouraged.

If we would honour God and influence mankind for God's sake, what do you suppose would be found in our lives?

Let's compare our life as a congregation to what was commendable in the life of the Thessalonians that we might be instructed and encouraged.

*The Saved Demonstrate A New Attitude Concerning God* [*vv 4-7*].

Few things appear less exciting to the natural mind than imitating Christ.

The prevailing perception among the inhabitants of this world seems to be that Christianity is defined by negatives.

Christians don’t dance, don’t drink, don’t smoke – don’t do much of anything in fact.

I am not implying that these are necessarily healthy endeavours; I only observe that the world defines us by what we eschew and not by who we are.

There is no question but that drunkenness is of questionable health benefit.

Neither should anyone imagine that smoking is a pleasure.

How many other activities can you name that requires you first to get used to being ill before you can participate?

Did ever you attempt smoking?

Do you remember your first smoke?

Have any of you ever tried drinking Scotch neat?

It would be easier to down a glass of motor oil than to drain the last few drops of a Scotch and water.

*Good to the last drop* takes on a new meaning for the drinker.

It is wrong to imagine that a Christian is identified solely by the negative.

Jesus lived a life of infectious joy among those about Him.

That is the one basis for the charge against Him that because /the Son of Man came eating and drinking/, He was thus /a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and 'sinners/ [*Luke 7:34*].

I see the Lord Jesus as a joyous personality whose very presence encouraged spontaneous and infectious joy among those about Him.

The disciples rejoiced in His presence.

I could not expect the natural mind to readily embrace this truth!

Indeed, among those whose minds have been blinded by the god of this age, the joy of Christ's presence *cannot* be recognised.

The thought of His mastery translates in their mind as slavery.

They construe their present thraldom as freedom and twist His freedom into slavery.

They cannot see any prospect of joy in knowing and serving Christ, having confused joy with happiness.

Yet among believers, and especially among those believers who are newly entered into the Faith, there is an evident sense of patient endurance of hard situations which cannot obscure the joy of Christ within.

The presence of Christ ensures great joy among His disciples as noted in a previous message [cf.

*Acts 8:8*, *39*; *13:52*; *16.34*].

He was born with an announcement of joy [*Luke 2:10*] and there was joy when He conquered death [*Matthew 28:8*].

You need but recall the promise which Jesus gave all disciples in *John 16:20-24*.

/I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.

You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

In that day you will no longer ask me anything.

I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.

Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete/.

In His High Priestly prayer, Jesus asked for joy for those who would follow Him.

/I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them/ [*John 17:13*].

The Thessalonians became a model of godliness, and the expressions which Paul noted were devotion to a lifestyle which honoured God and which revealed indefatigable joy.

Do not imagine that how you live is unimportant to the cause of Christ.

Sinners observe the professing Christian to determine if what is professed is real.

The Thessalonians, as observed in a previous message, were marked by work … labour … and … endurance.

The outward expressions were but evidence of the operation of the Spirit of God, for work arose from faith, labour was rooted in love, and hope inspired endurance.

How will anyone know if *Jasper Park Baptist Church* is a godly congregation?

They need but observe whether we work at what we claim is important.

Do we tell the Good News?

Do we endeavour to win the lost?

Do we teach the Word?

Do we worship together?

Are we working to maintain the unity of the Spirit?

More than that, do we actually labour, working to the point of exhaustion, in demonstration of the issues which are important to us?  Work and labour are important marks of spirituality among the saints of the Lord … *if they find their origins in faith and love*.

Furthermore, work and labour are continually seen where hope reigns among the people, for such people await the return of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

In spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message *with the joy* given by the Holy Spirit.

It is somewhat misleading that our translation employs the definite article.

Paul is not claiming that there exists a specific joy separate from what we would commonly recognise as joy; he is pointing to the fact that the presence of the Spirit of God is marked by joy independent of all circumstances.

Despite many pressures, you welcomed the word with joy from the Holy Spirit.

So often people will tell me they are doing well, "under the circumstances."

In such instances I fairly want to shout out, "Get out from under the circumstances!"

While it may be true that happiness is dependent upon the situation in which we find ourselves, joy is not dependent upon our particular situation.

Underscore in your mind this truth: *happiness is dependent upon external conditions*; *joy is derived internally*.

What a strange creature is this Christian!

He works diligently at menial tasks which are disdained by the world and is eager to serve others.

He finds pleasure in humbling himself to care for the needs of the least within society.

This strange creature often engages in prayer speaking with evident love to One he has never seen.

This strange being lives in expectation of an imminent return of that One he professes to love.

He rests confidently in promises written millennia past in a language he cannot himself read without help.

All this is reflected in a sense of joy independent of his situation.

What would you do to dissuade this one from worship of the unseen God?

If you threaten him with loss of property, he would insist that he has riches stored up in heaven where neither moth nor rust can corrupt.

If you threaten him with injury, he would say, My times are in His hands.

If you threaten to take his life, he would say it is better to depart and be with Christ.

What can you do to one who has hidden his life in God?

More than that, freed from the chains of this world, his life is marked by the joy of the Lord.

Let me press this point in practical fashion.

When you were an outsider, God seemed to you to be a cosmic ogre intent on stealing your happiness.

But there is nothing in this world which will give permanent happiness; that commodity is a phantom, it is ephemeral, transitory, vacuous, vain, hollow.

Though you suspected that happiness was fleeting you nevertheless pursued that phantasm vigorously assuming that power or position or popularity or possessions or pleasures would somehow bring happiness.

Power demands that you resist those aspiring to use you like you once used others.

Position is always threatened by hungry people bent on displacing you from the top of the heap.