1 Thess-Tell the World

Tell the World

Intro: Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

This is the opening stanza from Henry Wadsworth longfellow as he immortalized the herald’s trip in his poem Paul Revere’s Ride.

Many of us learned that the phrase was The British are coming and it was yelled from horseback, but most historians think that the phrase was something like The Regulars are on the Move and it may have Ben done a bit quieter because many of the town’s people were still considered British and thus not friendly to the Rebels. According to some historians, this is most likely the phrase said by Paul Revere and his compatriots as they spread out across new England to warn the colonials about the Birtish coming.

Paul Revere and the others with him were brave to declare the message but they had to be bold because the fate of the nation depended on it.

What is more, at stake, is the freedom of people’s souls. And you are probably a little bit bolder to speak up if people ask for recommendations for a doctor if you trust Him and you have received good treatment or surgery.

It is the same with God. If we come to God, he heals us and then we are more apt to tell people about God, with boldness and excitement because He is the one who saves and that is what we are supposed to do. Tell People About God, to teach and make disciples.

Read verses: (ESV): But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.

MP: God Wants us to declare the Gospel with Boldness

I. God has Approved you to Spread the Gospel

Paul is recapping his journey from Philippi to Thessalonica and he is also refuting what people are saying about him. In verse three we see what Paul is refuting. He is saying, it safe to assume that some of the people were accusing Paul of trying to manipulate the people to giving money to this new religion or sect, or just belead people astray with some wrong message. He goes about defending himself to remind the church why they really came. To declare to you the gospel in the midst of much conflict.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians that he was treated shamefully at Philippi and some of the same things happened at Thessalonica. But through all of these difficulties, Paul preached the gospel boldly and he was encouraging the Thessalonians to do the same.

He reminds the Thessalonians that first they are approved by God to proclaim the message. There are caveats to this, you must preach or proclaim God’s message, not yours or your version of his message.

Paul tells Timothy to be an approved workman who is not ashamed

, ESV For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Christ’s work on the cross reconciles us with God and if you have been chosen by God, you have his approval. You have his stamp. You are sealed by His blood. And it does not matter what people think.

TS: Once we have that stamp, we now have this responsibility to use our faith and our talents that we have been given

II. God has Entrusted you to Spread the Gospel

Paul is telling the thessalonians that they have been entrusted with the Gospel as well. And that they should be bold with what they have been given.

, Jesus tells the parables of the talents where three men are given a certain portion of the master’s money with which they are entrusted with while the master goes away. Two are faithful and increase what they are entrusted with and one buries the money because he fears the master in case he loses the money. God rewards the people who take the risk and end up increasing the money.

Likewise,we need to be bold for God. Not foolish, or reckless, but so that we show our faith, do something that

John Piper defines Christian “Boldness is acting, by the power of the Holy Spirit, on an urgent conviction in the face of some threat.”

In Acts4 when Peter and John are arrested by the Jewish leadership, they are bold in front of the Leaders. Verse 13says when the leaders observed the boldness of peter and John, they were amazed. The church prayed to God and said And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.” . . . And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (, )

Conclusion

Paul is encouraging the Thessalonians that they are the next generation to keep the Gospel message going in their region.

Paul is encouraging the Thessalonians that they are the next generation to keep the Gospel message going in their region.

Wadsworth’s closing stanza is a nice way to close this sermon

So through the night rode Paul Revere;

And so through the night went his cry of alarm

To every Middlesex village and farm,—

A cry of defiance, and not of fear,

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,

And a word that shall echo forevermore!

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,

Through all our history, to the last,

In the hour of darkness and peril and need,

The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

God has approved you by including you into His family and just like Jesus Entrusted the Apostles with the Great Commission, that charge has extended through Time to us and beyond as we train up the next generation of Christians to carry on the Good News.

We are called and commanded to spread the Gospel message and God has equipped us to do this so we can shine a light in the dark world at midnight.

To wake the people from their slumber that the Enemy is coming.