The Healthy Church

1 Thessalonians 1:1–5 NASB95

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. We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

INTRO: A picture of perfect health. That’s what the pediatrician told us when we last took our son in for a check up. He’s growing, he’s learning, he’s social… by all accounts, we have a healthy 7 year old boy. Of course, this was not a surprise to us- we knew that he was growing (all of his clothes were getting smaller!), playing, learning, and such before we even took him! But, we took him so that we could have a trained and objective analysis of our child’s health.

How many of you would say that you are healthy? Do you know your weaknesses? (Back, knees, head…)

What would you say about your spiritual health? Are you healthy?

How about the church? Is LRBC a healthy church?

While we aren’t going to a doctor this morning, I am going to ask you to examine your spiritual health and the spiritual health of the church today in light of God’s Word as we begin a new series through the book of 1 Thessalonians.

Now I want to give you a little background- This letter is written by the Apostle Paul, who writes on behalf of Timothy and Silas to the church of Thessalonica. (If you have a map…)

The church here was started on Paul’s 2nd missionary journey- you can read about it in Acts 17. This is a young church- less than a year old at the time of this writing. Paul and his companions were only there for a few weeks before persecution arose, spurred on by some of those who had heavily persecuted Paul in Philippi. This prompted Paul and Silas to leave under the cover of night and head to Berea. But, there were a handful of Jews and a number of Gentiles who accepted Christ and a church was born!

Now, you might ask, “What constitutes a church anyway?”

A church is an assembly of people who, having been called out by God to believe in the Gospel, covenant together in the name of Jesus Christ in order to live out the Gospel faith and mission.

Well, after a few months, Paul commissioned Timothy to go to Thessalonica and do a check-up on this church, for he feared that they might have some serious challenges. Timothy brought back a largely positive report, and it is from this report that Paul pens this letter, guided by the Holy Spirit, to the church in Thessalonica.

So, today we begin to get a glimpse of the health of this church, and through our study, we can examine our lives and our church and attempt to measure our own health. So, grab your sermon guide, and let’s dive in together as we look at 3 Indicators of a Healthy Church.

First of all:

A Healthy Church Demonstrates the Gospel

We see this here in v.3 (read)

Here Paul uses 3 terms to illustrate how the Thessalonian Church demonstrated the Gospel:

Through their “Work of Faith”

This is to say that their faith was demonstrated through their deeds. We often find ourselves in that conversation where we are separating faith and works. Paul echos here what James said, Faith without works is dead.

In other words, their faith in the Gospel produced works of obedience.

Through their “Labor of Love”

This word for labor can also be “toil”- it gives the idea of difficult things. The church in Thessalonica would do even the difficult things because of their love- love for God and for neighbor.

They did not look at ministry and say, “well, that’s gonna be too hard or that’s gonna take too many volunteers” No, they toiled because they loved.

ILL- I want to just remind you that it is only through this kind of motivation that we can do the hard ministries. If you are in it for recognition or to feel better about yourself, you’ll drop out. You’ll quit teaching that SS class or quit serving on that ministry team. Imagine if Jesus said something like, “Well, I’d really like to take the penalty for mankind’s sin, but it’s hard… Thank God that we are told that God DEMONSTRATES His love for us through the toil and labor of the cross.

If you love God and love your neighbor, you will be spurred along though the toil and through the difficulties in order to demonstrate the Gospel.

Through “Steadfastness of Hope”

This is where we find perspective. This word, steadfastness, could better be translated ‘Perseverance”

Because this world is not our home… because we are looking to the day when Jesus returns, we gain the perspective necessary to be about God’s work.

This life is a vapor, James 4:14 says.

Galatians 6:9 NASB95

Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

Discuss: In what specific ways do you demonstrate the gospel?

Friends, a healthy church demonstrates the gospel- These same verbs of “work, labor, and steadfastness” are repeated by Christ in speaking to the church of Ephesus in

Revelation 2:2 NASB95

‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;

We are standing right now in the presence of Almighty God and He knows our deeds, toil and perseverance… are we demonstrating the gospel?

Next, we look on and see that another indication of a healthy church is that:

A Healthy Church is Confident in Their Calling

Look down to v. 4 (read).

What the church is confident of is that they are chosen by God, called out from the world. The church in Thessalonica knew that God had set them apart for salvation and for the work of the Gospel.

How did they know that? Well, quite simply because they were able to hear and accept the Gospel message. Jesus taught that no one could come to Him unless the Father drew him or called him. The very reality that we can respond to the Gospel message is evidence of our being chosen by God!

You see, in this, we need to understand the purpose that this church exists. So many people look at church as something we do- we come together once or twice a week and sit and listen to some music and then listen to a guy go on about a 2000+ year old book.

But a healthy church KNOWS and is CONFIDENT that we are set apart for a NEW LIFE. Nowhere in the NT do we see that God sets His church apart for the mere attendance of a preaching service.

Listen, this is our identity, people called by the living God to receive His salvation and to worship Him and live out the Gospel in faith, love, and hope.

It is in this confidence that we can demonstrate the Gospel as we saw just a few minutes ago in v.3.

Jesus also taught about this confidence in the call when he spoke of the Kingdom in

Luke 9:62 NASB95

But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Folks, when we are confident in our call, we don’t look back at the things the world has to offer as if we need to weigh out the pluses and minuses… we KNOW!

And so we don’t come together on Sundays, go out on mission, share the gospel with our neighbors all because we have some sort of obligation or innate desire. Rather, we are confident that we are God’s- that we are ambassadors of His Kingdom, messengers of hope to the world, worshippers and stewards of God’s grace. We are who God says we are.

I want to ask you this morning, are you confident in God’s call upon your life? Is your involvement with this body filled with confidence that we are set apart for the work of the kingdom?

Discuss: What does it mean to be confident in my calling?

A healthy church demonstrates the gospel and is confident in their calling. Finally, as we look at v. 5, we see that

A Healthy Church Lives Under the Conviction of the Holy Spirit

Now, you might be wondering what I mean by “conviction”

Perhaps your mind immediately goes to our criminal justice system and you are thinking about a “convicted felon”

Well, conviction is another word for certainty. IN other words, when a person is convicted, it means that we are certain they committed said crime.

For the church, it means that we are certain of the Gospel because of the power of the Holy Spirit to convince us of its truth and meaning.

Look, we have to recognize that we did not enter into God’s kingdom by our own intellect. We did not reason our way into salvation. No, Scripture reminds us that it is by GRACE we are saved through faith.

By God’s grace, He sent the Holy Spirit to convince us of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is by the Holy Spirit that we are able to see our depravity- that we are helpless and hopeless on our own; that we need a Savior and that it is God Himself who provided the sacrifice and solution that we so desperately need.

A healthy church does not look at the Gospel as merely an argument to be won, but rather we have been brought from blindness to sight, from darkness to light because of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.

We don’t get to take credit for this and it’s why we cannot expect to argue the lost world into the Kingdom of God.

You see, there are a lot of churches that gather each week who are simply acting out religion. But a healthy church is one that has been baptized in the Holy Spirit and thus sees the power and significance of the Gospel. You don’t walk in a healthy church and wonder whether or not the people there are convinced of the Gospel!

A healthy church is so convinced of the Gospel that their lives are marked by confession, repentance, and authentic gratitude. A healthy church is one that the Good News is not only proclaimed in word, but with a passion because we have tasted the freedom from sin, we have experienced the forgiveness of God! A healthy church prays fervently because they know that without the Holy Spirit convincing our neighbors and family, they will remain in the darkness of sin.

Hopefully you’ve seen how each of these indicators of a healthy church build upon one another. We begin with CONVICTION by the Holy Spirit, live in CONFIDENCE of our calling, and DEMONSTRATE the Gospel in faith, love, and hope.

Church, I want us to make this personal. If we expect to see people come to Christ- to experience the Gospel of Jesus, we must be healthy.

Are we a healthy church?

Are you a healthy Christian?

Have you received the Gospel in power of the Holy Spirit?

Are you living in confidence that you are chosen by God?

Is your life a reflection and demonstration of the Gospel?

Discuss: How convinced are you of the truth and relevancy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?