The Gospel Bond

INTRODUCTION:

Interest:

One of our missionaries in Germany, Jeff Brown, closed out his email update yesterday with the following story:

We want to close with a note about an old friend from a supporting church. When we presented our work at First Baptist, Sterling Hts., MI, in 1987, our Janet, then a little girl got poison ivy, then an infection, including fever. A kind doctor attended to her, free of charge. Glenn and Irene Killius especially took an interest in our sick girl. Glenn was likewise interested in our work, because he was in Germany in WWII, having survived the destruction of his bomber in 1944. From time to time in our travels, we would get to meet together. Glenn and Irene kept up with us by mail, by e-mail, and by facebook through the years. When Irene passed away, Glenn continued to write. He went to be with the Lord in 2018.

Jeff went on to express his appreciation for Glenn and so many others who sacrificed to preserve, not only our freedoms in America, but also provided the opportunity for him and others to take the Gospel back into Germany through the Allied victory of World War II. He concluded with a picture of his visit to Glenn’s graveside this summer.

Involvement:

What is especially clear in Jeff’s letter is the deep personal bond that he had to Glenn. And yet, if you add up the total amount of time that they spent together during Glenn’s life, it would not have been that long. How can we explain such deep bond that can form so quickly between people?

Context:

This morning we are going to complete the second chapter of 1 Thessalonians in this series looking at the Gospel life cycle. Paul, as you know by now, wrote this letter back to the members of the church in Thessalonica after having been driven out of town by enemies of the gospel. As soon as he could he had sent Timothy, the youngest member of his missionary group, back to check on the church because he knew that the violent opposition that had driven him, Silas, and Timothy from the city would be redirected toward these new believers. He knew that it was a spiritual battle rather than a personal battle. Therefore, it would not end with the three of them being chased out of town. As long as there was a gospel presence in the city, the battle would continue.

Remember, prior to the arrival of the missionary band the Thessalonians had never heard the gospel message; they didn’t know about Jesus, the Son of God, who died for their sins. The message of Jesus arrived with these three missionaries. That means that all of the members of this young church were people who had very recently accepted Jesus as their Savior; they were new converts to Christianity. Paul had been worried that the persecution might cause them to walk away from the gospel. Yet, rather than that happening, Timothy had returned from his trip and reported that they were growing in their faith and reproducing their gospel life in others throughout the region.

This was great news. The gospel message was secure in the lives of these young believers. The gospel messengers were growing and continuing their sacred duty of communicating it to others. The believers were persevering in the midst of persecution. Paul has great reason to rejoice. So in this chapter, rather than having to deal with any defection from the gospel, Paul has been reminding them of the manner in which he and the other men had brought the gospel to them and encouraging them to continue the gospel life cycle through growing and reproducing their faith.

Preview:

Paul is filled with great joy. In the short time that he had been with the Thessalonians their hearts were knit together. But it was not the suffering that had bound them so tightly together; it was the gospel. It was not the common experience of suffering that united Paul to this young church; it was the transforming spiritual work of the gospel in all of their lives. They were united by what I have entitled this sermon: the gospel bond. This gospel bond has generated lasting joy for Paul and the other missionaries, Silas and Timothy, by connecting them to the transforming work that is occurring in these young believers.

This morning we will only look at four short verses but they are exciting verses, fun verses. They are verses that focus our attention upon the joy that comes through the personal bonds formed through the gospel.

Illustration

I expect that we have all had occasions to be connected to someone through a common experience. I remember a couple of years ago when we took a cruise vacation riding a bus with some strangers for a day of excursions to a cave and waterfall. On the way out from the ship the bus was pretty quiet overall…most of the noise came from the back row where we were sitting with the Fiebigs because we were people who knew each other. By contrast, though, on the way back to the ship in the afternoon, there was a lot of conversation. The four of us were also talking to others on the bus and not just each other because we all now had something in common. Everyone on the bus had enjoyed the same experiences that day; we had enjoyed the cave and the waterfall together.

Well, the gospel has the ability to unite us with people in a way that nothing else we experience in life ever can. It is powerful in a way that surpasses every other common experience in life. This is what makes the verses we are going to look at today so exciting. The main idea that we should take away from these passage this morning is that The personal bonds formed with others through the gospel create lasting joy.

Lasting joy. That is what the personal bonds formed with others through the gospel create. The personal bonds formed with others through the gospel create lasting joy. Let’s go ahead and read our verses…<read>.

Lasting joy is what we should expect to result from the personal bonds formed with others through the gospel. When I look at the verses we just read I see this idea emerging as the overall expectation that we should have. I also, though, see steps that we should take to ensure that we experience this lasting joy; steps we should take that will allow us to form lasting bonds with others through the gospel.

Transition from introduction to body:

The personal bonds formed with others through the gospel create lasting joy. The first step that we should take to generate these lasting bonds is found in verse 17,…

BODY:

I. Step 1: Invest spiritually in people while you can, v. 17

Invest spiritually in people while you can. As we have been observing throughout the entire study of this letter, Paul and the others had only been able to spend a short time with the Thessalonians before they had to leave town. Yet, clearly a deep personal bond had formed between them. How can we account for such a bond forming in such a short time? Well, it is from this first step; Paul and Silas and Timothy had invested spiritually in the people in Thessalonica while they could.

Let’s pull verse 17 back up so we can see exactly what Paul wrote…<reread>

Notice, Paul once again uses the word “brethren” to address them. If you skim back through the chapter you will see that Paul has addressed them several times this way. He is emphasizing that while he may have not been with them very long they had nonetheless taken a place in his heart to where he now views them as family. This is a heartfelt word. This is why he is able to assure them that even though he is not with them physically, he is most certainly tied to them spiritually. And for that reason, he is eager to see them again. He longs to be with them.

Application

You know, looking at this verse describing Paul’s experience with the Thessalonian believers should cause us to think a couple of things. First of all, we should expect that people will come and go in our lives. We will have people continually circulating into our lives for a period of time and then providentially being removed. This should not cause us to put up walls around ourselves and not invest in people because we anticipate that they will be gone soon. Rather, it means that we need to invest spiritually in them while we can, never knowing how long that opportunity will remain.

Think about the history of this church. While this church has never been a large mega-church, over its 50+ years there have been a very large number of people who have been part of it for a time. During that time those people attended Sunday school, learning biblical truth; they sat under the preaching of various pastors, again learning biblical truth. There were meetings for prayer, times of coffee spent discussing family situations, meals shared and days spent together; connections which went much deeper than having children on the same soccer team because they were spiritual connections. People in this church invested in the lives of others who came through these doors while they were here and now we truly have people serving God all over the world who were at one time part of this local church body. We have families restored, lives transformed, and gospel being proclaimed; all because of the spiritual investment made in their lives while they were part of this church family. Sure, they came and went, but the investment that was made continues to bear fruit, bringing joy to many who are still here through the spiritual bonds that were formed.

So yes, we can expect that people will come and go in our lives, but we should also recognize from the verse we have on the screen behind me that the spiritual connections made will remain—the personal bonds will last. The feelings that develop for people do not stop when we are physically separated from those in whom we have invested spiritually.

Illustration

Allow me to use Ruth Boyce as an example, our oldest founding member. I looked up her FaceBook account yesterday so that I would have the number correct. Ruth has 641 FaceBook friends. Now, that number really doesn’t surprise me because we all know that Ruth is an extremely social person and most of us know how diligent she is at staying connected to people. But that is just my point. I am sure that the vast majority of those 641 people are people that she connected to through her years in this building. There is a reason that whenever people happen to come back to FBC for a visit from wherever that the Lord has taken them that Ruth is one of the people most frequently asked about. The personal bonds that she has made in people’s lives by praying for them and serving alongside them over the years last even after people providentially are moved on to other places.

This is why we must invest spiritually in people while we can. Sure it takes time. It takes energy. It takes intentionality to make our investment in people a spiritual investment. But it really is the first step to forming personal bonds while we can. People we come and go into our lives, but any bonds formed will last. When we invest in people spiritually we will be able to say alongside Paul that while we are not together in person we are in spirit and we have a great desire to see you again.

Transition:

The personal bonds formed with others through the gospel create lasting joy. The first step to form personal bonds is to invest spiritually in people while you can.

What is step 2? Step 2 comes from the next verse,…

II. Step 2: Absorb spiritual opposition as part of the task, v. 18

If you recall, our verses last week focused our attention upon the spiritual opposition that underlay the persecution that the church faced in Thessalonica. The gospel requires that that we and others engage in a spiritual battle so we need to be mentally prepared for such. We have to be prepared to absorb spiritual opposition as part of the task that we have been called to as gospel messengers.

Let’s look at verse 18 again…<reread>.

This is one of those verses that leaves practically everyone who reads it wanting to know more. Paul makes it clear that He has attempted to return to Thessalonica more than once, but has been hindered. That statement leaves us asking, when did he try to return? All we have recounted in Acts is his travel from Thessalonica through Berea and Athens until he ends up on Corinth…where he was when he wrote these letters. So when did he try to return? How many attempts did he make? The phrase that he uses seems to be an idiom that means a number of times. Apparently there had been multiple thwarted attempts made before he wrote this letter.

So then, of course, we want to know what happened. Paul states that Satan hindered him from returning. How? How did he know that whatever happened was sourced in Satan? After all, in Acts 16 Paul attributed his inability to go into the region of Bithynia to the Spirit of Jesus, not to Satan. What makes the opposition that he faced in these attempts to return different from the limitations God placed on him in Acts 16? Somehow he knew that God was directing him then, but that Satan was opposing him now? How did he know that? As I said, “What happened?”

These are the questions that we want to ask, but they are not the questions that our text answers. Paul’s focus is elsewhere; he is focused on the personal bond that he has with this young church. He simply mentions that Satan has prevented him from returning to them even though he wishes that he would have been able to do so by this point in time.

Application

Still, even though Paul does not answer the questions we might have, he does give us some important insight in this verse that we need to consider. Spiritual opposition will come; we need to be prepared to absorb it as part of the task we have been given by God.

Remember, we are gospel messengers who have been given a sacred duty to communicate the gospel message. The gospel message is the means by which God is redemptively rescuing image bearers from the destruction that sin causes to that image…<insert gospel as needed>. Satan is God’s arch foe; he opposes God at every turn. Central to Satan’s goals is the destruction of the image of God in men and women. But in Christ, believers are new creations. The image of God is progressively restored as we are recreated into the image of Christ. Saving faith in Jesus Christ is the way in which one of Satan’s primary goals is completely frustrated. We should not be surprised in the least that Satan is going to consistently oppose gospel progress.

You will be amazed at the number of challenges that can suddenly pop up in your life when you set out to bring the gospel message to others. The kids might start crying. The car might break down. The boss might ask for extra hours at work. A strange accusation might be hurled at you from unknown an unknown source. Not to mention the fact that you might suddenly find yourself coming down with a cold or extra tired from lack of sleep or countless other distractions. Nothing is more likely to bring random distractions into your life than to actually begin efforts to proclaim the gospel message because Satan is going to consistently oppose gospel progress. When we are not proclaiming the gospel, Satan doesn’t even pay us much attention…we are really a minimal threat to his goals. But do something that has a potential to make a gospel impact and we will pop onto his attention screen like an incoming Scud missile to a Patriot Missile Defense system. We will find ourselves the center of immediate unwelcome spiritual opposition.

This is something that as a church we should be aware of. After all, I am consciously asking us to take bold steps as a church family to proclaim the gospel more aggressively within our community. We have the Exchange Seminar coming up next month. We can expect that attending this seminar to learn how to proclaim the gospel message more effectively will generate spiritual opposition. Asking someone to do an evangelistic bible study will generate spiritual opposition. Beginning to actually go through the lessons…same thing. Frankly, the things I am most challenging you to join me in doing as a church are things that we can expect to generate spiritual opposition.

So, in light of this, what should we do? We should persevere in the gospel work anyway. That’s the only answer I have…persevere anyway. Absorb the spiritual opposition as part of the task that God has given us. If we persevere, God will carry us through. We may, like Paul, not manage to do things exactly has we would like—he didn’t get to return to Thessalonica when he wanted to do so, but we can be confident that God will enable His gospel to progress for His glory as long as we are persevering in the face of the spiritual opposition that comes along.

Transition:

The personal bonds formed with others through the gospel create lasting joy. Absorb spiritual opposition as part of the task. That is the second step that I would suggest for forming personal bonds through the gospel.

Step 1: Invest in people spiritually while you can. Step 2: Absorb spiritual opposition as part of the task. And then, in the last two verses, verses 19 and 20, there is one further step,…

III. Step 3: Focus on coming eternal rewards, vv. 19–20

Time and time again, when Paul deals with the issue of spiritual opposition in his letters, he does so by turning his thoughts to the culmination of human history—the glorious return of the Lord Jesus. That is what he does here as well and since this is one of his earliest letters, this is actually the first time chronologically that Paul uses this approach.

Look at these verses again…<reread>.

Paul asks a couple of rhetorical questions here that are designed to reinforce the deep love that he has for the young believers in their minds. “Who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation?” Well, you are of course is answer. They will be all of these things when the Lord Jesus comes.

As I said, historically this is the first time that Paul uses this approach in his letters because this is one of his earliest writings. That means that this is the first time that the word that we have translated here as “coming” is used in a distinctive Christian sense. This is the Greek word parousia that eventually became a word used regularly in Christian writings for the second coming of Christ. Yet here, the image that would have come into the Thessalonian minds when they heard this word would have been its regular use in the Greek of the day. The word was commonly used to refer to an official visit by a ruler. The city of Thessalonica had enjoyed the visit of the Roman emperor in its past, his arrival was a big deal.

Well, Paul says, the Lord Jesus will come in a big way as well, and when He does, the joy that he and Silas and Timothy will have will be the Thessalonians themselves. Paul will be able to have confidence on this day; he will be able verbalize his joy at the Lord’s coming; he will even have a crown of victory…the word he used invoked the image of the crown a victor received at one of the Olympian games…he would have all of this because the Thessalonians would be there as well. In the midst of the current afflictions and discouragement, Paul and the other men have joy because the Thessalonian believers had accepted the gospel message in faith and would be received by the Lord alongside him in that future day. They were his hope and joy and crown. Whatever glory or honor he might receive had its source in the salvation of these young believers.

Application

Friends, the Lord is coming. That should be our focus. That should drive how we approach every day of our lives. There will be a grand reception when he comes. Think about it; it will be the most exciting day in the history of the universe. But what will be your source of joy when He comes? Who will be standing there with you that will be your hope and joy and crown; your glory? Will there be men and women with you on that great day because you have invested in their lives now; men and women with whom you have deep personal bonds because you have invested in their spiritual lives?

Illustration

I remember being confronted with this kind of a thought in 1998 when I was in Brazil with a team from this church. We had gone down to Brazil to help the Alexanders and Jewells construct a new church building in the city of Sorocaba. I had taken a couple weeks of vacation from my job in the corporate world to be part of this trip. We had laid cement block and attended services and assisted with a few visits. In other words, we had helped with the work of the ministry that they were doing there in Brazil. But there I was, sitting in the middle of the front seat next to our missionary as he took our team back to the airport in Sao Paulo, when I started thinking, “Why am I going back?” Sure, I knew that I was going back to my family and my home. I knew why I was leaving Brazil. But why was I returning to expend my life’s energy in the pursuit of the corporate vision to make more money? Was I going back simply so that I could collect a regular paycheck from the company that I worked for? Where was the eternal value in that? What eternal rewards would accumulate from spending my life that way?

Those were the questions that haunted me all the way back on that return fight. Those were the questions that ultimately led to the change of my vocation because God changed my focus from the comfort of now to the hope of the coming eternity. I want my life to be spent investing in people who will be standing beside me when my Lord returns, rejoicing at His coming.

Transition from body to conclusion:.

The personal bonds formed with others through the gospel create lasting joy. Step 3 of this process is to focus on eternal rewards.

CONCLUSION

I want you to think back to the deep bond that Jeff Brown and Glenn Killius had that I mentioned at the outset of this sermon. There bond was one formed through the gospel. Neither of them had introduced the other to the gospel, but they shared a desire to see the gospel progress for the glory of Jesus Christ. And when Jeff, a gospel worker, and his family needed help back in 1987 Glenn and Irene were there to help. Theirs truly is a bond that has lasting joy because it will stand for all eternity. The only bond that is stronger will be between Jeff and those whom he introduced to the gospel message itself.

The personal bonds formed with others through the gospel create lasting joy. We should all desire such lasting joy. This morning we have seen three steps in our passage that together can develop such personal bonds.

Step 1: Invest spiritually in people while you can.

Step 2: Absorb spiritual opposition as part of the task.

Step 3: Focus on eternal rewards.

This morning, allow me to challenge each of us to commit ourselves to these three simple steps so that we can create personal bonds with others through the gospel…bonds of lasting joy.

The personal bonds formed with others through the gospel create lasting joy