1 Thessalonians 1:6-10

1 Thessalonians 1:6-10 – Spreading Christianity faster than Covid

Over the last year, the world has seen something unprecedented. A microscopic virus traveling the entire globe, infecting a countless number of people. Many of you like myself contracted Covid, and we understood its effects, some others were fortunate and you were able to get around it and never got sick.

But the way this virus spread and as quickly as it spread, made me think, what if our faith spread as quickly as COVID? What would the world look like today, if people were coming down with a case of Jesus in their life?

Oh, there would be some who would try to avoid it, there would be some who would isolate themselves from others, but just think about it, how wonderful would it be, knowing that the world was following Christ?

Sadly, the spread of Christianity is slowing. People seem to be putting up all the barriers to protect themselves from understanding who Christ is. Much like the masks we have to wear in stores, so many have put a mask around their life, trying to hide themselves from Jesus.

Listen, Jesus isn’t a plague, Jesus is hope. Jesus is not someone we should avoid and be afraid of, Jesus is who we should be running too. Oh, I truly believe if people would just let down our guard, and open up their hearts, that they would see that Jesus isn’t the plague but that he is the cure.

Read Scripture

The Thessaloniki Church was a congregation that Paul commended because of their faith. A group of people, that just didn’t come to church, they were the church. A congregation that demonstrated their faith in tribulation, that worked hard for God, and remained patient in Christ.

You know, if we as Christians today, would just look at this church example, our churches would not be struggling like they are. I truly believe the reason why so many churches are not growing, is because we fail to live like a Christian outside the church.

I don’t know about you, but it is my desire to see Christ shared more than ever. That we reach people outside of these four walls. That we not forget the great commission that Christ shared with the church before his assent into heaven.

This passage demonstrates that, it shows us a group of people that were serious about Jesus. Now if you are here today and listening to the sound of my voice, I want you to examine yourself and ask, am I serious about Jesus? Are you? Is Jesus someone you know you have or think you have?

That if the test was given, it would be confirm that yes you are a Christian. Brothers and sisters, lets make it certain today. Do you know, if we get our hearts and our heads wrapped around Jesus, the faith in our life would begin to spread? That’s right, people would become affected and infected by our faith. Now we see that here as an example to us in this passage. And I like to draw your attention to the first thing we see in this passage.

1. The Joy that we Show (vs 6)

· Psalm 32:11 KJV “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.”

· Do you remember the day that you got saved? There ought to be a moment in every person’s life, that they can recall, that the Lord saved them.

· Listen you are not born into this world already saved, one of the most dangerous things is a person who has been indoctrinated thinking that they are saved, but have never confessed with their mouth and believed in their heart, that Jesus Christ is Lord.

· Now when Jesus saves you, the Holy Spirit comes onto your life, and its through the Holy Spirit that a person finds joy!

· A person cannot have real joy in their life, until they allow Jesus to sit on the throne of their life.

· It is hard for a Christian to spread joy when they are not living for the Lord.

· When we neglect our relationship with Christ, we find our thoughts going to wrong things, we find that we don’t want to come to church, we don’t want to pray or read the Bible. In fact, we start to drift to more worldly things. We become miserable.

· You know, I hate being sick. When I’m sick I’m miserable. My body doesn’t feel right, and my spirit gets down, I start thinking negatively. But when my body starts feeling better, my attitude begins to change.

· You know a person that is not right in their heart with God is the most miserable person there is?

· You know, there was a man in the Old Testament who got away from God and his life began to start falling apart. It was Saul. He got jealous of David, he started dabbling in worldly things, he got his eyes off of God, and before you know it, he was out of the will of God, couldn’t sleep, tormented by life. He was miserable folks. He was sin sick, and he didn’t have any joy.

· Now let me ask you, when you see a miserable person, do you want to get around them? They may be over in the corner, they are coughing, sniffling, sneezing, their face looks pale, they look sweaty. You see a person like that, you don’t want to get around them.

· Then why would a person want to come to know Christ, if all they see from us is misery, negativity, backbiting, controversy, and stress?

· Listen, we need to get the joy back in our life, and that only happens when we put Jesus in our life first.

· When Paul wrote Galatians, he gave us in chapter 5:22-23 the fruit of the spirit. When you love Jesus like you should, joy follows!

Now for Christianity to really spread, there needs to be joy in our lives and that joy comes from Jesus. But notice the second thing we see in this passage.

2. The Example that we Share (vs 7-9)

· Now for people to come to know Christ, they got to hear it and see it. And here was a group of people that sounded out the word.

· You know how I came to know the Lord? Somebody told me about him. How does anybody come to know the Lord? It comes when we get out there and spread it to those in the community.

· During the Covid pandemic, there were a lot of words that became associated with describing the sickness, such as outbreak, social distancing, and shelter in place. And there were a few others that came to be known such as transmission, community spread and super spreader.

· Now don’t get the wrong idea, Christ is not a sickness, he’s the cure! But there does need to be some transmission, some community spreading of Jesus Christ and that means its time for us to unmask our mouths.

· It’s time for us to not only live it, but to preach it.

· Do you realize it, you are a preacher of the word? You may think that you are not, but you are. The great commission wasn’t meant just for ministers on Sunday, it was meant for every believer of the church.

· Now we have more ways to be heard, than ever before. We have more opportunity to share the message of Christ than we did 10-20 years ago.

· Social media, do you realize, that if all of us got on Facebook and starting proclaiming Christ, that there would be well over 10,000 people who would hear the gospel?

· What the Bible is saying here, is here was a group of people in a church that got the word of the Lord out, without the conveniences that we have today to two other cities!

· Listen we are living in a day and age, where people all over should hear the Gospel, but yet, we are too busy instead of sharing Christ, we are sharing Criticism, instead of sharing the Gospel, we’re sharing Gossip, instead of sharing hope, people are sharing hatred.

· We need to start preaching the Gospel again folks! We need to start sharing Jesus like we should!

· We need to be proclaiming the message of Christ so far and so wide, that when another minister comes, they don’t have to say anything, because we are already doing it.

· Now you might be asking, how am I to be an example? Well, let me share this passage with you.

· 1 Timothy 4:12 “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

· Listen you need to be an example in the word. Quit making excuses why you don’t read the Bible. If you can’t read the KJV, get a MEV, get a commentary to go along with it, but don’t be an example to your family that the Bible is not important, that it is not important for you to read.

· You need to be an example in your conversation, are you conversations worldly? Are they conversations that take your mind off of God or on God? That’s the difference.

· Are you example with love and giving? Listen, if you are not willing to use what the Lord has given you for his glory, what’s to say that the Lord wont take it away?

· Listen we need to be an example with our spirit, quit having a spirit and start living by the Spirit.

· We need to be an example with our faith, that we believe what the Bible has said, as fact, without doubt.

· We need to be an example in purity. That we don’t choose the filth of this world, but that we choose to stand undefiled for the Lord.

· The ermine is a prized animal sought after its white fur, legend has it that hunters seeking the highly prized fur of the small animal would smear the entrance of its lair with mud, then begin the hunt. Tired and exhausted after a long chase, the ermine would flee to its home, only to find the mud on the entranceway. Rather than sully its coats by running through the filth, it would turn to face the dogs, and fight to its death.

· Listen, we need to be that kind of example, that we would rather turn and face our enemies, rather than give in to the sin of the world.

· That we are so committed, that people all around hear how we stand for Christ.

· Listen, for the message to go out, it needs to be shared by men and women who are not afraid of what is to come, that they are not afraid of affliction, that they are not afraid if it means that their business may go under, that they are not afraid to share it because they love Jesus more than anything else.

Now we have talked about the joy we show, and the example we share, but there is a third part to this message and that is…

3. The God we Serve (vs 10)

· Here was a congregation that was alive for the Lord. They had suffered, but there was success. The message and the work that they had done for the Lord had gone out. But it was not for their glory.

· Listen, we share the message of Christ, not for our name and our popularity, but we share it for the world to see Christ!

· We serve a great God! And that means we must wait on the Lord.

· You know people were becoming impatient for the vaccine to come out for Covid. And when it was offered, it started with certain groups and it worked its way down.

· People wanted it because they were afraid to live during the covid pandemic because of fear. You know what, some of them still got sick.

· We don’t put hope in a vaccine, we put it in Christ. Listen, there is something far worse coming to this world than what we experienced in 2020.

· Notice what the end of verse 10 says – the wrath to come. Listen this is referring to the great tribulation period. You know the reason this world needs to hear and accept Jesus? Because this world is going to be judged.

· There is going to be horridous things to come on this world, there is going to even more sickness, you thought it was tough to find toilet paper and cleaning supplies, imagine not being able to find food?

· Listen, life is going to become very hard, and its important that we get the message out now!

· Listen the pandemic is not over! There has been a sickness that has been out there a lot longer than Covid, it is called sin.

· But praise the Lord, there is a cure. There is no waiting, it is available right now. And all you have to do is come and freely receive it.

Let me ask you, if you had the cure for cancer, would you share it? How about Aids? What about diabetes? Heart disease? Would you not share it?

Listen, you have the cure for all of this, and it is Jesus. Want you share him today? Will you let him in to your life, will you start being who God called you to be?