A Church With The Right Stuff
A CHURCH WITH THE RIGHT STUFF
I Thessalonians 1
It’s been suggested that discouragement is Satan’s most effective weapon. Indeed, it is very easy for Christian people to get discouraged today. We have personal problems, family problems, and job pressures. Today I want to begin a study of the N.T. book of I Thessalonians because it is a book of encouragement. I Thessalonians 4:18 reads, “therefore, encourage each other with these words.”
According to Acts 17, Paul established this church in Thessalonica on his second missionary journey. Paul was preaching in the synagogue and a number of Jewish people believed in Christ and responded to the Gospel. But opposition to Paul’s message because so intense that he had to flee the city under the over of darkness because of potential persecution. He left behind some very inexperienced believers. He was later delighted to learn that the church in Thessalonica was doing well in his absence. About 51 A.D. Paul sat down and penned this letter to the Thessalonians. He wrote this letter to encourage them to be faithful in spite of probable persecution. I Thessalonians 5:11 reads, “Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are already doing.” So for the next several weeks I want us to study together several sources of encouragement for believers today.
The first chapter introduces us to a primary source of encouragement and that is the church. Listen to Paul’s positive attitude in verses 2 and 3, “We always thank God for all of you mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul was obviously inspired by the example of the Christians in the church at Thessalonica. He appreciated their faith based on the truth of the past, their labor based on the love of the present, and their hope based on the promise of Christ’s coming in the future.
It can be a tremendous source of encouragement to participate in a dynamic church. A bad church can be damaging to our spirits, but a good church can be so inspirational. The church at Thessalonica was church with the right stuff. This church in Thessalonica encouraged Paul. Let’s see why and seek to produce those same qualities continuously in our fellowship.
I. THE GOSPEL IS PREACHED WITH POWER
Notice first, that an encouraging church is one where the Gospel is preached with power. Verse 4 and 5, “For 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.” The word gospel means good news. And the Gospel is good news and bad news, and good news and great news. The good news is that we were created by a loving God. Man is not an evolutionary accident here without any identity or destiny. We are here by design. We were chosen deliberately in God’s plan to live on this planet. An every individual life is known by and loved by the Creator. But the bad news is that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. And that sin of ours has severed our perfect relationship with God. He is perfect and we are sinful.
But the good news is that God loved us in spite of our sins and he reached out to us in the person of Jesus Christ to restore us to himself. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Now, that means that God loved us too much to allow us to drift into a meaningless eternity. He visited this planet. He paid the price for our sins by dying on the cross. And he came back from the grave. When we accept him as our Savior, He forgives our sins and promises us that we are going to live again after we die.
And the great news is that it is absolutely free. We don’t have to earn it or deserve it, we just have to accept it through Jesus Christ. Romans 6:23 reads, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our lord.” So you don’t earn this salvation by going to church, and keeping the 10 commandments, and giving your money, and doing the right things. You receive it as a free gift offered to you by a loving and gracious God. The very first gospel sermon ever preached ended like this, Peter said, “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” So an encouraging church is one where this Gospel is preached as a priority over and over again. Paul said to the Corinthians in I Corinthians 15, “I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you have received and upon which you have taken your stand. By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the Word that was preached to you. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and was raised again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.”
Now there are some churches today that are not preaching that good news of salvation. There are some legalistic churches that are preaching a salvation by works; you will be saved if you obey the right rules and believe the right doctrines. But people in legalistic churches are joyless and they are discouraged because nobody can keep all the rules, and nobody can be certain that all of their doctrine is 100% pure. Other churches are preaching a gospel of liberalism. They don’t want to believe the Bible is the Word of God. They don’t want to believe that Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. So they preach that maybe man can save himself, and they focus on social issues like the environment, or the changing of the seasons, or nuclear disarmament. But people in liberal churches are discouraged because they know deep down inside that man cannot save himself. Amos 8:11 reads, “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will send a famine thorough the land. Not a famine of food, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander north to east searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.” But we can be thankful that there are a number of churches in this area that are faithfully preaching the gospel. It has nothing to do with the size or location of the church. It has everything to do with the beliefs of the people and the conviction of the leaders. And there is something about the truth of the bible, when it is preached we are encouraged and we are fed. Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
But Paul says that this gospel has to be preached with power, not simply with words. Let’s be honest. We’ve all been to churches where the gospel has been preached, but it’s not encouraging; it’s irrelevant and it’s boring. Paul gives three qualifiers that make the difference between mouthing the words and preaching with power. He says it is preached with the Holy Spirit. Now that’s really an intangible quality of preaching. It’s somewhat hard to define. But you don’t have to be at a church very long before you can tell if the preacher’s messages are anointed by the Holy Spirit or if he is just mouthing the words, do you? When a man preaches in the Holy Spirit’s power, his words connect and they bring conviction in your heart. Have you ever been in a church service and felt like the preacher is talking right to you. And you wonder to yourself, “Did he have my house bugged this week? How does he know what‘s going on in my thinking?” He doesn’t. I don’t. But if the Holy Spirit is at work in a preacher and in you, God’s Spirit will bring that message right down where you live. Listen to what Paul wrote in I Corinthians 2:1, “When I came to you bothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
And powerful preaching is done with deep convictions as well, Paul says. Someone said, “It’s passion that makes someone listen to another.” And if the speaker doesn’t believe in what he is saying, we’re not going to be convicted by it. It has to be done with conviction. And, powerful preaching is done with integrity. Paul says, “You know how we lived among you for your sake.” Sometimes the better we get to know some people, the more disappointed we are. But the Thessalonians were not disappointed with Paul. He lived and worked among them and they found there was no discrepancy between what he preached and how he lived. And the integrity of his life added impact to the gospel whenever he preached it. William Barclay said, “A man’s testimony for the Lord will always be heard in the context of his character.” And if we’re going to preach the message with power it has to be done with Holy Spirit, with conviction, and it has to be backed up by a life of integrity.
II. THE GOSPEL IS RECEIVED WITH JOY
But an encouraging church is not just one where the Gospel is preached with power, it is also a church where the gospel is received with great joy. Look at verse 6, “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.” You know there are churches that don’t receive the message with great joy. I can remember a couple of years ago when I preached a sermon here on Sunday morning and I told a joke that was semi-funny and you chuckled kindly at the end. A few weeks later I was asked to speak at another church and I decided to use that same sermon. I started with the same joke that I used here and when I was finished there was not one snicker. I looked at those people and I realized I was in trouble. I realized I was preaching to some of God’s frozen chosen! They just sat there. Not a nod, not an Amen, not a chuckle. They just sat there with their arms folded. I knew they were out there because I could hear them breath every once in awhile. And the thought crossed my mind, “You know, when the Lord comes back, this is where I want to be because the bible says the dead in Christ will rise first!”
Overall, you’re a pretty good audience to preach to. But in some churches the people have adopted the mindset of a spiritual Siskel or Ebert ready to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to a message. And that not only makes life difficult for the preacher, it also makes life difficult for the listener. When an outsider comes in hungry for a word from the Lord and they sit down beside others in the pew who are whispering to each other, fumbling with candy wrappers, clipping their fingernails, or asleep, they get the impression that it’s not very important. But the Thessalonians were an encouraging church because they received the message with joy. In fact, Paul said in I Thessalonians 2, “When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God.” And their interest in spiritual matters was an encouragement to everyone around them and to everyone in the church.
J. Wallace Hamilton tells of a college boy who grew up in the church, but while he went to the university, he began to lose his faith. Then one Sunday morning he decided that he would go to a local church. That morning, his faith was renewed. It had nothing to do with the sermon, though. It was during the morning prayer that the college boy opened his eyes and noticed across the aisle, three rows back, was his chemistry professor with his head bowed in earnest prayer. And he saw him mumble, “amen.” And he left that Sunday with his faith renewed saying to himself, “If that man, in all his brilliance, can believe, so can I.” Now that professor probably had no idea what an impression he left just by being in church that morning. In fact, he may have said, “I didn’t get anything out of the sermon today.” But he encouraged somebody just by being present. That’s why Hebrews 10:25 says, “Don’t give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Now let me give you some tangible suggestions on how you can receive the message with joy and be an encouragement to other people.
¨ Come with a spirit of anticipation. The bible says, “Blessed are you when you hunger and thirst after righteousness.” When you get out of the car in the parking lot say, “Lord, I’m hungry today, fill me up.” Bring your bibles and open them to the passage. Just be ready to look at God’s Word. Listen attentively. Some of you say you listen better with your eyes closed . . . but I really doubt it. Maybe I should do like the preacher in a church cartoon I saw this week who was standing at the door after church and offering one of his members a manuscript of that morning’s sermon so the church member could read it during his waking hours! Listen, if you’ve got your eyes closed, or your face buried in your hands, or you’re staring off into space, people around you are not encouraged by your inattentiveness. Develop your listening skills. Focus your attention on what God may be trying to say to you each Lord’s Day.
¨ Then, respond to the message when it’s being delivered. People used to say, “Amen” during the message as it was being delivered. That’s somewhat old-fashioned for some of us or unfamiliar to others and we don’t feel comfortable doing that. But your posture, your countenance, your willingness to take notes, the nod of your head, your smile, and your laughter communicates involvement and agreement. And all of those positive signals, if they encourage no one else in the room, they really encourage your preacher!
¨ And then, pray when the message is over. Now I know some of you have gone to church all of your lives and you’ve participated in hundreds or maybe thousands of invitation hymns. And for you that time of the service has become routine. So when the preacher says, “Now we’re going to sing the hymn of invitation”, you take it as a signal that church is almost over and you grab your purse or your belongings and you get ready to leave. But I want to encourage you to be sensitive to the fact that there are people in every service who are under conviction of the Holy Spirit about responding, and they need to see intensity on your part as you sing, or better still, they need to see intensity on your part as you bow your head and pray. David said, “I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord.” And Paul said, “I thank God for all of you because you welcomed the message of the gospel with joy in the Holy Spirit.”
III. THE GOSPEL IS SHARED WITH SUCCESS
So an encouraging church is one where the gospel is preached with power. An encouraging church is one in which the message is received with joy. And there’s one other thing about the Thessalonian church that made it a church with the right stuff; it was a church where the message was shared with success. Look at verse 7, “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 don’t need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us.” You see, this church was not just a recipient of the gospel, it was a transmitter of it. When a church just focuses on itself, it’s discouraging; no additions, no visitors, no vision, no growth. But this church in Thessalonica was effectively sharing the gospel with others. They were reaching out and growing. And when you and I hear reports of how the gospel is getting out beyond these walls that’s encouraging. Later, in the next hour, John and Madonna Spratt are going to update us on the mission work they are involved in taking the gospel to the people of Honduras. I hope you'll stay for their report and be encouraged.
But the one factor that made this church in Thessalonica so successful in their effort to share the gospel with others is that the gospel first changed their lives. Paul said, “I don’t have to say anything about it. Because it’s known everywhere. Everyone is talking about how you turned from serving idols to serve the living and true God.” The most effective evangelistic program is what John Stott calls, “rumor evangelism”. The world starts talking and spreading rumors wondering, “What’s going on in that church? People’s lives are being changed. What are they staying for?” Now, the rumors are not always positive, but they are talking, paving the way for the gospel.
In Acts 17 when Paul went to Thessalonica, the enemy said, “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have come here.” So the world doesn’t always talk positively about the church. But if something is happening, you can be sure the word will get out and the community will take notice that people’s lives are truly being changed for the good. You see, a church with the right stuff is filled with people who look like what we’re talking about. And when we turn from the idols of materialism, and sex, and the power of this world to serve the Living God, the world begins to see that difference and the word gets spread that Jesus Christ is making a difference in our lives.
Today you’ve heard the gospel good news; that God loves you and has already paid the price to free you from your sin. The great news is that if you have never initiated a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, confessing him as your Lord and Savior, you can do that today . . . right now as we come to the close of this service. If you’re already an immersed believer and you are looking for a church with the right stuff, we may not have it all right, but that’s where we’re headed and we’d love to have you help us become the church God meant for us to be. As we stand together and sing our hymn of invitation, we invite you who are ready to make a decision to come forward, right now. . .