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Introduction:
How do we know that something is actually at work in us?
Let’s consider a blood pressure medicine for example.
In medical research, we have learned that uncontrolled high blood pressure over time can lead to heart attacks, strokes, kidney damage, eye issues, and brain issues among other things.
We see high blood pressure at work in our bodies by seeing the results that it brings over time.
Yet, when someone takes a blood pressure medicine, we see these negative outcomes decrease.
We can measure how well the blood pressure medicine is working by checking blood pressure measurements over time.
It becomes obvious over time whether a particular blood pressure medicine is effective based on the results of these readings.
And over time we can see that the blood pressure is working in our bodies by positive outcomes as well.
In a similar way, how do we know that the Word of God is at work in our lives?
How do we know there is any benefit from reading and studying regularly?
How do we know that there is any benefit in regularly coming to church and hearing it preached and taught?
Today we are going to see some examples of how we can see and even measure the Word at work in the lives of believers.
Let’s jump in and read our text for today:
Let us pray.
Prayer.
There are three different ways that we see the Word working in the lives of believers in these four verses.
The first is...
I.
You Can Know That the Word is at Work… When it is Accepted (13)
Interestingly, although Paul spent the entire first chapter with a greeting and thankfulness section of his letter, he goes back to giving thanks for this church yet again in verse 13!
Paul and his companions are thankful constantly for one thing above all.
They are thankful that the church in Thessalonica received the Word of God as what it really is.
They did not receive it as the word of man.
They understood the message of the Gospel and the teachings that were brought by Paul and his companions as divinely inspired and authoritative.
Let’s go through a couple of verses that show us how to view the authoritative Word of God:
Hebrews 4:12 shows the power of the Word:
And finally we see that the Word of God stands forever:
As we have seen from these few verses here -
The Word of God is from God personally, useful and relevant, inerrant and full of truth, powerful and active, and eternal.
It is this Word of God that Paul praises the church in Thessalonica for embracing.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (ESV)
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
We actually see two different verbs used here when we consider how the Thessalonian church responded to the Word of God.
First we see that they received it.
The Greek word for this is paralambanō (par-a-lom-bano) which is a positive word in which it means recieved in a technical term as in a tradition that can be recieved.
This is a very positive word and is used in other parts of Scriptures in a similar way.
However, Paul doesn’t stop with this word.
He goes on to say that...
Secondly, they accepted it.
The Greek word here is dechomai (theck-o-may) which is extremely close in meaning to the word recieved.
Yet, it places more emphasis on a personal application of the word.
This word can mean welcomed personally.
In other words, the Word of God was warmly welcomed which is a good understanding of this.
And it was not just warmly welcomed by the church as the word of man with a few good ideas on holy living from Paul and his companions.
It was warmly welcomed as God’s own Word.
When someone is warmly welcomed into a home, there is hospitality and attention given to them.
The host spends time and energy discerning what the needs of the guest are.
They spend time serving and expressing love to their guest.
The guest is the focus for the host.
We can learn a lot from this analogy.
The Word of God should be our primary focus because it points us to Christ.
We read it to learn about Christ.
We study it and apply it to our lives to become more like Christ and closer to Him.
I know that I encourage each of you to read the Bible regularly just about every Sunday.
It very well might seem repetitive and it might sound like something that you already know and don’t need to hear.
However, I think we all need reminded just how important the Word of God is daily.
I started the message off with an illustration of blood pressure medicine.
As we all know, that medicine is not going to have any effect at all if it is not taken.
There will be no working of the blood pressure medicine if there is not a medication ingested.
In the same way, we will not see the Word of God working in the lives of believers if it is not regularly consumed.
The Word is also not something that we are to take sporadically.
A blood pressure medicine isn’t at its most effective state if it isn’t taken as prescribed.
Taking it once or twice a week won’t get the desired results.
It must be consumed daily.
The Word of God is no different.
It is to be our daily bread my friends.
Job 23:12 shows us how much more important the Word of God is than even our food:
If we want to see change through the Word of God in our lives and see it working in our lives, we must be taking it in daily and regularly.
Please don’t just toss this admonition to read the Bible as another good idea.
But instead - make Bible reading a priority today.
Get a daily reading plan.
Start in a certain book and read a chapter or two or more each day until it is done and then start another.
Make it a priority.
If you don’t schedule it - it probably won’t happen.
My friends, you can know that the Word is at work when it is accepted and warmly welcomed into your lives.
You can also...
Scripture References: 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:20-21, Hebrews 4:12, Isaiah 40:8, Job 23:12
II.
You Can Know That the Word is at Work… When it is Applied (14a)
1 Thessalonians 2:14a (ESV)
For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea.
This is an important verse in this section.
We will see in the following couple of verses that there is a judgment coming for unbelieving Jews throughout the ages.
That is the focus of Paul although we know that there is judgment coming on all unbelievers.
However, unfortunately people can misunderstand this next section as anti-Semitic.
Yet, here we see Paul mention that the church in Thessalonica has become imitators of the churches in Judea.
Note, that these churches in Judea were predominately churches made up of people of Jewish decent.
So keep that in mind as we study the rest of this passage in the following point.
We also see that God still has a plan for the Jewish people even to this day as we see the 144,000 sealed in Revelation who will go and tell the world about Christ after the rapture of believers.
It will be revealed that they have erred by rejecting Jesus Christ, and these 144,000 (12,000 from each tribe of Israel) will become Messianic Jews during the tribulation (Revelation 7).
Somewhat of a spoiler alert - We will get into more about eschatology (or the study of end time) later in this great book!
And we see that God promises that Israel will return to God in verses such as Romans 11:25-27
We can trust that God still has a plan for the people of Israel.
Yet, at the present moment, most of them continue hardened against the truth of Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 2:14a (ESV)
For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea.
Getting back to verse 14, we see that this church in Thessalonica had become imitators of those in Judea.
And the churches in Judea were called the churches of God in Christ Jesus.
This reference emphasized that these churches were set up by God, Himself - through the working of the Holy Spirit.
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