The Power of the Gospel

Introduction

Tonight we are going to begin a new study of the book of 1 Thessalonians. We’re going to do something a little different, though, as we’re only going to look at 1 verse in 1 Thessalonians! We’re going to spend the majority of our time looking at the background to this book and seeing what Paul did before writing this letter.

I studied in preparation for this message a few reasons why people do not share the Gospel with others.

I’m afraid I’ll be asked questions that I can’t answer

I struggle with my faith

I don’t know how

I don’t know where to start

I pray that by the time we get done tonight that we realize that sharing the Gospel is crucial and a command for all of us to do as followers of Jesus Christ. Let’s follow Paul’s example of spending time building relationships with others and share the Gospel with them as we go along in our life.

1 Thessalonians 1:1 NASB95

1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

Acts 17:1–9 CSB

1 After they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As usual, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and rise from the dead: “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah.” 4 Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a large number of God-fearing Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women. 5 But the Jews became jealous, and they brought together some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly. 6 When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too, 7 and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus.” 8 The crowd and city officials who heard these things were upset. 9 After taking a security bond from Jason and the others, they released them.

Background of Thessalonica (1)

In Bible times, Thessalonica was located north of Greece in Macedonia. This was a large city of over 200,000 - roughly the size of Springfield and the surrounding cities of Ozark, Nixa, and Willard. This was a large city! Not only was it large but it was powerful as there were many people who visited Thessalonica because of its strategic location as a port city and being on a popular Roman road. One commentator put it like this, “Thessalonica was the New York or Boston of its day… yet for all its assets, Thessalonica was a lost city.” This was a confused city. They believed in philosophy and the Greek pantheon of Gods in addition to worshiping the Roman emperor. Just as Paul did in Athens at Mars Hill, he helps combat this confusion by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Just as the Gospel transforms lives today, Paul believed that the Gospel was the only hope for this confused city.

Do you believe that the Gospel can and does change lives? Think of our SBC missionaries all around the world right now. Would they be doing what they are doing unless they believed beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Gospel changes lives? Of course not. Who would choose to give up the comforts of living in the United States to instead go and live in the jungle or in an apartment complex with 50,000 other people? They do so because they are called by God to go and proclaim what Jesus Christ has done. If the Gospel completely changes lives, we must ask ourselves has the Gospel changed our life? It’s impossible to share the hope of the Gospel without first having experienced that hope. If the Gospel has changed your life, ask yourself, “Am I, like Paul, sharing the Gospel with people who are confused around me?” This should be our response. In Acts 16, Paul was called to go to Macedonia and share the Gospel

Acts 16:9–10 CSB

9 During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Paul obeyed and went to Macedonia and eventually to Thessalonica where he shared what Christ had done and how Christ offers them hope and eternal life.

Paul was obedient to God’s calling on his life even though it wasn’t necessarily easy. Thessalonica was a long ways away but it was where God was calling Paul to go. Where are you supposed to go? Who are you supposed to tell? Let’s spend some time this evening examining 2 different responses to the Gospel message.

Positive Reactions to the Gospel (1-4)

In Acts 17 we see Paul visiting Thessalonica. Maybe you’re wondering why on earth we’re spending tonight in Acts 17 whenever we’re starting our study of 1 Thessalonians? Acts 17 shows Paul physically being in Thessalonica and helping to plant a church there - Acts 17 is an incredible passage of Scripture if you just want to look at the spread of the Gospel and Paul’s 2nd missionary journey. Anyways, Paul shares the Gospel with these people in Acts 17 in person. Scholars note that this likely was around 50 AD and he wrote the 1st letter to the Thessalonians shortly thereafter while he was in Corinth which you see in Acts 18.

In the opening 4 verses to Acts 17 we see that Paul came into the synagogue and reasoned with them from the Scriptures. Which Scripture does Luke (the author of Acts) mean here? Does he mean the Gospels? This is not likely. Rather, Paul, as the expert Jew he was before being converted, was reasoning with them about the Old Testament and how Jesus Christ was the Messiah who was prophesied in the Old Testament and how He offers them eternal life and salvation right now! One line we see many times in Acts is found in Acts 17:3 as Paul says, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” Paul broke it all down for these people that Jesus Christ came, lived, suffered, died and rose from the dead. This was prophesied in the Old Testament. Think about how Paul would share the Gospel, he would often go to the synagogue and share with the Jews. Why would Paul do this? In part, because the Jews had knowledge of the Scriptures and they had common ground. Paul would argue, if you will, that the Old Testament points to Jesus Christ. At this point, Paul would show what Jesus Christ did and how He fulfilled the role that the Messiah was supposed to. He reasoned with them for how long in verse 2? Roughly 3 weeks! This takes some time, doesn’t it?

I’m not sure about you but 3 weeks can either fly by or it can really drag along. Sharing the Gospel with people for 3 weeks could go either way! I’ve had the opportunity to go on several week-long mission trips and they always seem to fly by. You begin to develop relationships with people and have some great Gospel conversations and by the time you establish a friendship it’s time to leave! Time can fly by. Other times, though, time goes by slowly. Sometimes people ask the “why” question all the time and it can wear on you. Either which way, this situation in Acts 17:1-4 shows us that Paul devotes time in order to explain what the Scriptures say. What a great model for us, right? Sometimes we want immediate results and fruit, but that’s not always what happens whenever we share the Gospel. Most times, in fact, we see that it takes time. It takes building a friendship and establishing some common ground before people really respond to the good news that we try and tell them.

What do we see in verse 4 regarding the reaction of these people to the Gospel? We see that many people/a great number of people respond positively. It connected with some of the Thessalonians! It doesn’t say that it responded to all of the Jews or Greeks or women, but it does say that it responded to some of them and a great number of them. The Bible shares with us that God’s Word will never return void. It will always do something! We can take that to the bank. This is ultimately why we labor and share the Gospel, isn’t it? We go to lengths to share the Gospel in hopes that people will respond positively and repent and follow Jesus Christ! We do this because we are called to go therefore and make disciples! This is exactly what Paul lived out during his ministry and missionary journeys. How can we live this out? 3 ways:

We can physically go and have these conversations with family, friends and co-workers.

We have Gospel conversations wherever we find ourselves at - work, the grocery store, restaurants, etc...

We pray for those who are doing this on a daily basis around the world - our missionaries, especially!

As we do this, we pray that people will react positively to the Gospel just as these people did in Thessalonica whenever Paul reasoned with them and presented the Gospel to them. Remember, though, this will likely take time and not be overnight. Do not be discouraged if it takes weeks, months or even years. Continue to pray for people to respond positively to the Gospel.

Negative Reactions to the Gospel (5-9)

As we know in our life and as we see in Acts 17, not everyone responds positively to the Gospel message. Some people will embrace the message and accept it, but others will become upset and others even will become hostile to the point of anger. We see this going on in our world right now as millions of missionaries and Christians face persecution on a daily basis simply because they believe and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and many people hate the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We see an example of this in Acts 17 as a crowd arose to threaten Paul and run him out of town!

Why did this crowd hate Paul and the Gospel message that he was proclaiming? Because it threatened their way of life - it challenged their way of doing things and it even threatened Caesar by claiming that there was another king. This charge, that Jesus is King, brought about a serious consequence. This was a counter-cultural message. Friends, the Gospel goes straight against our way of doing things as humans. The Gospel says that Jesus is King and that Caesar is not. The Gospel says that only Jesus can save and that all the other statues and worship centers were a waste of space because they were built to false gods and goddesses. Do you see how this message would not have been very popular with the masses who were used to something different? As Mark Howell puts it in his commentary on 1 Thessalonians, “When Jesus Christ is faithfully preached, you don’t have to go looking for trouble; trouble will often come looking for you!”

This doesn’t mean that we openly seek trouble out. Rather, it means that whenever we preach the Gospel, there will be opposition. We see in Ephesians 6 that we are in a battle spiritually speaking and that battle is a spiritual one. Whenever we declare the Gospel message to others, people will oppose it sure, but we know that Satan cannot stand it and he will do whatever he can to stop us. Thankfully, the church keeps on going despite adversity and the church continues to grow through adversity! Have you experienced this to be true? I’ve read stories from pastors around the country that have noted that due to COVID-19, there have been more guests attending services than there have been in recent memory. People are searching for something and need hope. This doesn’t mean that everyone will accept Christ, but we know that some will. Often times adversity, whether its a global pandemic or the threat of death, the church grows in such times. Tertullian, the early church father, noted this, “Persecution quite often leads to a stronger church because the blood of the martyrs becomes the seed of the church.”

This doesn’t mean that everyone reacts positively to the Gospel - in history we see that some people react violently to the Gospel. This is what happens here in Acts 17. These people kick Paul and Silas out and stir up a crowd. Back in the Roman world, the Roman governors tried to be peaceful with the cities and people groups that they had conquered. They had a military force in these regions but they tried to not intervene so long as the local government and rulers stepped up. In Acts 17 the threat of a crowd raising up would have been very concerning for the local governors because they would not want the Roman soldiers to come in because it could mean that they would be removed from power! This was part of the problem in Jesus’ day in Jerusalem because the rulers did not want there to be a revolt in the city because that would mean that the Romans would come in and lock things down and possibly kill innocent civilians.

All of that to say that this was a tricky situation. Some people responded faithfully and others responded violently. Yet, Paul was not upset or depressed. Rather, Paul kept on going on his journey and proclaiming the Gospel message to others! Paul knew the power of the Gospel and that the Gospel transforms lives. It transformed lives in Thessalonica, it would transform lives in Berea, Athens, Corinth, Rome and beyond! The Gospel continues to transform lives today. As one pastor put it this morning, “The church is not built upon platforms and fancy strategies, it is built upon Jesus Christ and proclaims the message of the Gospel, nothing more and nothing less.”

Conclusion

The Gospel is powerful. We see the response from people who reacted positively and negatively from Acts 17 whenever Paul visited Thessalonica in person. We will see in future weeks what Paul says to these Believers while he writes to them from Corinth. The theme of 1 Thessalonians is that Jesus Christ will return. Because Christ is coming back, Christians are supposed to be holy and to share the hope of the Gospel with others.

Even in the most troubling of times, God is at work. God had a plan for Paul in going to Thessalonica and even though it involved a near riot forming, it also resulted in many souls being saved for eternity. Regardless of the things going on in your life, remember that God is at work and that nothing is wasted by God. He uses broken pieces and broken people to advance the Gospel hope. Again, He works all things together for our good and for His glory. We continue to share the Gospel because it is the power of God - we are not ashamed of the Gospel, we believe it and we celebrate it.