The Hope of the Gospel

Introduction

Last week we began working through the letter of 1 Thessalonians by examining Paul’s history with this church from Acts 17. We looked at the power of the Gospel message as the Gospel completely changed the lives of many in this city in the span of a few short weeks. While this was a positive thing, the power of the Gospel is something that even non-Christians are aware of. In Thessalonica, a mob arose in order to kick Paul and his companions out of town because the Gospel was not only changing where people went but also how they lived their lives! What a testimony of the power of the Gospel - right? The Gospel completely changes everything about us. It changes our actions, thoughts and it gives us hope!

The Gospel message impacts our lives today in many ways, but one of the greatest things about the message of the Gospel is that we can face whatever tomorrow holds because we know how the story ends - Jesus wins and if you are in Christ, you win too! How many of you enjoy reading books? Whenever you are about to begin a new book, especially a good fiction book, there is a temptation to look to the end of the book to see how the story concludes - this was certainly a temptation whenever I was in high school and there were books that we were required to read for tests and projects. If you could know the ending, it helps you figure out what happens in the middle, even though it can spoil the story at times. As Christians, we know the end of the story! This is good news because there are times where things in life are tough. There are times where we don’t know how things are going to work out! In such times and at all times, we have hope because of the truth of the Gospel. Jesus Christ came, lived a perfect life, died the death that we deserved to die, rose 3 days later, ascended back on high and promises to return again.

Because we have hope, how should we live our lives? This is what we will examine tonight. Because of the hope of the Gospel, we should live a changed life and share the Gospel - just as the church in Thessalonica were doing 2,000 years ago.

1 Thessalonians 1:2–10 CSB

2 We always thank God for all of you, making mention of you constantly in our prayers. 3 We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full assurance. You know how we lived among you for your benefit, 6 and you yourselves became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit. 7 As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 For the word of the Lord rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out. Therefore, we don’t need to say anything, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception we had from you: how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

The Gospel Changes Our Work (2-3)

Again, this letter is written likely a year or so after Paul had visited this city. Paul begins this passage by noting that they (Paul, Silvanus and Timothy), thank God for this church and they mention them constantly in their prayers. Before getting into this church, Paul notes that he prays for these people - what a great start and what a great model for us today! As 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says

1 Thessalonians 5:17 NASB95

17 pray without ceasing;

We should be people who are marked by our prayer life. Prayer is so important. In the Gospels we see Jesus spending large amounts of time in prayer. Paul spends large amounts of time praying for the churches that he loves dearly. We should be known by others as people who spend large amounts of time in prayer! According to a study conducted by Pew Research a few years ago, only 79% of Evangelicals pray on a daily basis. This is a large number, but still it means that 1 out of every 5 Evangelicals do not pray on a daily basis. As people who believe in the Gospel and in the power of prayer, we should pray too and give thanks to God for our brothers and sister in Christ!

Verse 3 tells us that Paul and his companions recall the various things that this church has done. They have worked due to faith, they have labored due to love and they have endured due to their hope in Jesus Christ. The hope of the Gospel had changed their work in this city that had all sorts of luxuries but many people in Thessalonica didn’t have Jesus. They were wealthy but they didn’t have the hope of the Gospel.

See, even though the people of Thessalonica had so much, they didn’t have the Gospel. God is not as interested in what we do for a living as He is in how we live in the midst of the work He is doing. Last Wednesday night we talked about the Gospel and our work and how we should use our work as an opportunity to share the Gospel with others. This is exactly what this church was all about. They had faith in God and they worked in their community. They didn’t have a silent, quiet, useless faith, rather they had a faith that was visible. Their faith worked! Not only did they work but they loved others. The word in the Greek in verse 3 for labor is the word kopus which can also mean toil, fatigue and difficulty. This was a church that was willing to go the extra mile to share the Gospel hope with their community. Love is vital within the church and this church loved others. What is our response to this? We should love others and we should work in our community to meet the needs of others physically, financially but most of all, spiritually! Why? Because of our hope and endurance in Jesus Christ.

Some commentators note that Satan would have known the threat of this church and he was doing everything possible to stop it from thriving. Yet, this was a successful church plant that was growing and spreading the Gospel within the city and surrounding regions. As Mark Howell notes, “When you declare your allegiance to Jesus Christ, you declare was on hell. When you declare war on hell, hell puts up a fight!” Just as Satan wasn’t a fan of the church in Thessalonica growing and sharing the Gospel, Satan can’t stand churches growing and sharing the Gospel today either.

As a church we must believe the Gospel, first and foremost, but we must also share the Gospel hope in everything we do as individuals and as a corporate body of Christ. The Gospel changes our work as we love those around us and have hope in Christ.

The Gospel Changes Our Lives (4-6, 9-10)

Verses 4-6 continue this idea by talking about how God has chosen these people and has given them the power of the Holy Spirit. Did you know that whenever you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you immediately? You don’t have to wait a week later or until you can get baptized under some magical water for this to happen. No. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside you right away. Likewise, whenever you are saved and given the Holy Spirit, you are also given a spiritual gift and it doesn’t matter if you’re 7 or 97, you are saved in order to serve. Many wrongly think that our children and youth are the church of tomorrow - that’s garbage. If you’re saved then that means the Gospel has changed you and that means that there’s a role for you to play today! Once we are saved, we’re to live on mission and to do the work that He has in store for us to do.

Verse 4 shares with us that Paul believes that these brothers and sisters have been chosen by God. This can be confusing for some because we don’t always like the idea of someone being chosen.

The word chosen in verse 4 is the word “ekloge” which only appears 7 times in the New Testament, several times in the book of Romans, once in Acts, here and once in 2 Peter. I want to read the reference in Acts 9 to see what this term looks like

Acts 9:15 CSB

15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites.

What do we see in this verse? We see that God chose Paul to go out and proclaim the Gospel to the gentiles, kings and Israelites! Was Paul obedient in this call? Of course he was, but he was called by God. Paul says in verse 4 that these Christians were chosen by God - some interpret this to mean that each individual is chosen while others interpret it to be that all Christians are chosen corporately. Regardless of how you interpret the word “ekloge”, it is in the Bible. There are people who, as the word notes, are chosen/elected. You can’t read the Bible and deny the existence of that word - we can debate the extent of the word as people have for thousands of years, but the word is there.

These Christians live a completely different life as a result of what God has done! I love how one pastor put it, “Genuine conversion produces visible results.” One question my dad always asked the youth group at FBC Ozark was this, “If someone put you on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence for you to be deemed guilty?” I pray that there is, friends, because the Gospel changes our lives from the inside out! We live with the power of the Holy Spirit and we are imitators of those who have gone on before us as we talked about this morning in Hebrews 11 in the Hall of Faith. Those people proclaimed the Gospel and followed Christ even when it was difficult. This is our call as well as this is the dominant teaching throughout the whole New Testament. Even though there is persecution, the Gospel message continues to be shared because we live with joy and we receive this message and we know that there are thousands of others in our local community still yet to hear and respond to this Gospel message.

If you look down to verses 9-10 you see that this idea continues as these people, who at one time were lost and following Greek/Roman gods, turned from their idols and embraced the Gospel. Turning from idols isn’t an easy thing, is it? While watching the Chiefs play this afternoon, I saw commercial after commercial advertising, essentially, idols. All sorts of things that are promised to solve all your problems. Rather than turning to what society says we should to solve our problems, what should we turn to? We have to turn to something better. We can’t turn from one idol to another. This is what our world says - if this doesn’t work then try this instead. If this car doesn’t satisfy your itch, try this new truck instead! If this vacation isn’t what you were dreaming of, try this one instead and it’ll surely satisfy! If one idol doesn’t do the trick, try another… this is the message of our world and it has been consistent for thousands of years and it’s captivated billions of people.

That’s not what the Thessalonians did. Verse 9 says that they turned to God from idols! We must turn from idolatry to the One, True, Living God! As we do this, as we see in verse 10, we wait for Christ to return. This doesn’t mean that we do nothing while we wait, rather it means that we live every day with the idea that Christ is coming back. This gives us our ultimate hope as Christians because He rescues us and gives us purpose and hope and life. The Gospel gives us hope and is something that must be shared. There is an idea that the Gospel helps us but it doesn’t change us because many of us resist change. Think of the song Come Just as You Are - yes, we come to Jesus as we are whenever we come under conviction of the Holy Spirit as the song says. But we must resist the lie that says this, “Come Just as You Are… Stay Just as You Were.” That’s a lie and the only way we can stand against that lie is to know what the Word says. Whenever God saves us, He changes us.

The Gospel is to Be Shared (7-9)

Some change is unavoidable. Think of our age, looks, and interests. As you get older, things change! Lots of things change for the better and other things change a little for the worse if we’re being honest… but we change nonetheless. You go from a child who looks to your parents to literally do everything to a child who wants nothing more than independence! You go from a person who looks up to others to a person who other people look up to. That is the situation this church finds themselves in in verse 7. They were a young church as Paul came to them in Acts 17 and proclaimed the Gospel to them, but as they grew in their faith, they became an example to all believers around them! They were a model church for other churches! The region talked about in verse 7 was a lot of space - one commentator noted that this would have included cities such as Philippi, Corinth, Athens and Berea. They were a model for others. We can see other examples of these churches in Acts 17 and following as Paul visited those places too and this small, poor, and young church grew into a model congregation for those around them, including the Bereans who rightly checked Paul with the Word of God as every congregation should do with their pastor and any person who stands before them in this pulpit and does anything - we always evaluate others with Scripture.

How can we be a model for other churches? Not in a prideful way but in a practical way. How can we help others? In an honest way, I think that this is a strength of being a Southern Baptist Church as we are a part of an association of other SBC churches and we help one another out. Not only do we help out churches in our association, but we also help other churches in our community out - We’ve done this recently with things like Love Thy Neighbor as we help people in need. We’ve done this with other churches as we’ve been able to help meet needs that they have. We’ve been able to give financially to help ministries and pastors all around the world! There are many ways that we can help other churches but there is always more that we can do. There are more people who need to hear the good news of the Gospel. Not only were these Christians models but they were also messengers who went out and shared the Gospel.

These people likely supported the ministry of Paul and other missionaries just as we are able to partner with our missionaries all around the world through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Cooperative Program. Every dollar you give, a part of that dollar goes to fund overseas missions as well as missions here in the United States! As we reflect on our church and our churches budget, we’re reminded that everything we do is ministry and Gospel centered as everything we do is for the purpose of glorifying God and proclaiming the good news of Jesus with others in Salem and throughout the rest of the world!

This church shared the Gospel and the story of their repentance was known by many other churches and Christians in the world. Thessalonica was a popular trade city, many people went through Thessalonica when traveling from Europe to Asia and vice versa. The fact that many people in this city were no longer participating in the Imperial cult and worshiping false idols and instead they were worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This report traveled around the Roman world.

Likewise, we are to go and tell what Christ has done. Regardless of when you became a Christian, and what your past looked like, you have a testimony that needs to be told. The Great Commission doesn’t apply just to pastors and missionaries, rather it’s for all of us as followers of Jesus Christ! We are to go and make disciples of all nations. As we do this, we pray that people will come to know Christ as Lord and experience the hope of the Gospel.

Conclusion

This was a passionate church that loved Jesus Christ. They were hopeful about the future because they knew that they had repented from false idols to the one true living God. Because of this, they wanted others to experience this same resurrection power and hope! Friends, we will face challenges and opposition as followers of Jesus. We know that Satan cannot stand it when people repent of their sinful ways and follow Jesus. We know that our world cannot stand the message that we are sinners and need a Savior. We know that many other religions teach that there are many ways to salvation but we know that the Bible shares that there is 1 way - Jesus Christ.

So, what must we do as a result of this message?

Work and Wait.

We must work as Christians and share the truth of the Gospel with others. We should strive to be a model for other churches and we should help others out however we can! We know that we cannot save anyone by ourselves, but we also know that we are commanded to tell the good news. While we work, we also wait for Christ to return. True hope is not found in a platform, theory, freedom or idea, rather hope is found in Jesus Christ. Let’s encourage others to repent and turn to Him this week!