Signs of a Great Church

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-3

Video link: https://www.facebook.com/gregory.dubois.547/videos/10158175862601195

You want to hear a good story? When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.

But other Jews were jealous. So, they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.

That’s in Acts 17:1-9, and it explains why there was a church in Thessalonica that would receive this letter to the Thessalonians. But isn’t it kind of amazing that a Church was born there, in the midst of such hostility, both from some of the Jews and also the Greeks. Who would want to risk joining up with Paul and getting into trouble like that? Despite this opposition, some of both Jews and Greeks did believe the gospel message. It changed their lives!

For the Jews, faith in Jesus as Messiah came as they faithfully read the Scriptures with Paul and found his understating to be sound and irrefutable. They had been waiting for Messiah! Now they knew he had come! For the Greeks it must have been the promise and assurance of forgiveness of sins, something that many of them might have been desperate for. The old gods sure didn’t hold out such hope. So, for true believers, faith in Jesus was worth risking everything, come hell or highwater as they say, these believers were no longer afraid of anything!

Partly, the hostility came from Jews who were jealous of Paul because not just Jews but also Greeks listened to his message and he gained a following that they never knew. But it was also because of mixing church and politics! It couldn’t be helped or avoided. Paul was telling people about King Jesus, right under Caesar’s nose! Paul was telling the Jews that the long-awaited Messiah had finally come. But he wasn’t a warrior to overthrow Rome as all the Jews had hoped. Instead, they heard that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead!

That meant that Jesus had come to conquer the greatest enemy of all and overthrow the power of death itself! But that requires faith in miracles. It is easier to believe in military might. Paul was telling the Greeks that there was an emperor even greater than Caesar, who was not just called a god, but really IS God come to earth! The idea that Jesus was greater and better and kinder and more merciful than any earthly ruler made allegiance to Him more like falling in love!

But devotion to Caesar was enforced by sword point. It was in that fiery furnace of hostility in Thessalonica that many new believers found that Jesus was there, walking with them, strengthening them in their new faith. And thus, a great church was born, purified by fire. Nevertheless, after Paul had moved on in his missionary journey, he got wind of some news and some issues that the church was wrestling with and so he wrote to them, wanting to help them know the truth.

I have found that many of their issues relate to our issues of the day. So, for the next several weeks I want to work through the book of 1 Thessalonians. I think it will take about ten messages. The New Testament book known as 1 Thessalonians is one of the earliest of Paul’s letters. The city of Thessalonica was located in northern Greece, along a great highway which linked the East and the West—the Egnatian Road. It extended all the way from Rome (over in Italy), to India and China (in the Orient). The road was kept in good repair by the Romans. Traffic was heavy. Thousands of people passed through the city every year. So it was quite a strategic place from which to spread the gospel. And it still exists today, now known as Salonika. It is still an important city in the country of Greece.

The opening of Paul’s letter is what tells us that he thought they were a great church. He gave thanks for their “work produced by faith, labor prompted by love, and endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” I call that three signs of a great Church. And I want to talk about those signs today and see if we can measure up, or else pray for help.

So, first of all, Paul gave thanks for their work produced by faith. Do you know what kind of work is produced by faith? Why, it’s the work of sharing God’s love and the good news of the gospel! The main mission of the church is to evangelize the world in which we live. We have to tell people the good news about salvation through faith in Jesus and even try to persuade them that we’re telling the truth.

That is incredibly important, and life saving work. We’re literally saving lives from endless torment in hell. If you think about it that way, your motivation to do evangelism ought to be roughly equivalent to how enthusiastically you would yell out, “Fire!” in a crowded theater if there really was fire to warn people about. And, I’m telling you, there really is a fire to warn people to avoid. It’s the fires of hell! But we’re not preaching condemnation. No! We’re telling them that God loves them so much that he made a way for them to escape that terrible fate. The gospel is Good news that saves people’s lives!! Evangelism is the work produce by faith in Jesus and the good news He brings.

But we do this work in a world that is much like the world of Thessalonica. People are focused on the here and now of their daily lives. They say things like, “If God is real and he loves us why is there so much evil and suffering? Why doesn’t he come and fix this place with a better government, etc.?” That’s a lot like the Jews who were hoping that Messiah would get rid of the Romans and establish a Jewish worldwide kingdom for the sake of peace and shalom. Or else, people are more focused on their personal lives and hope that God would love them the way they want to be loved. There would be no judgement of them. No mention of sin. God should be cool with their personal ideas about what is good for them. That’s a lot like the Greeks, who just wanted to live a good life and were not very concerned about eternal life.

That’s why when we preach the gospel, sometimes we are met with hostility. People think we’re judging them, or correcting them, or challenging their own ideas about God, and they find it hard to believe that there can only be one true way of life and salvation. There are so many other religions. How can you claim to know that yours is the only right one? Isn’t that arrogant? So, why even bother? Why should we stick our necks out to save people when they don’t appreciate it anyway and might even hate us for it? Just like the Thessalonians, our work produced by faith, is most fruitful when our labor is prompted by love for the lost.

That was Paul’s second point in giving thanks for the Thessalonian church. Another sign of a great church is “labor prompted by love.” How hard you work at the work produced by faith is motivated by how much you love the Lord, love your neighbors, and love the opportunity to see new souls come to saving faith. Think of the fire in the theater again. If you didn’t have any concern at all for the people around you, then when you saw the place on fire you could just quietly head for the exit and save yourself. After all, if you shout out about the fire you could start a stampede and maybe the crowd would block the exits so you can’t get out.

But love for God and neighbor is what prompts you to issue the warning so that many people get a chance to be saved. Love is why you bother to do the work of an evangelist. Strangely, when I start talking about evangelism, I am reminded me of the two guys that were holding signs by the roadside. One sign said, “Turn back now before it’s too late!” The other said, “The end is near!” But drivers kept on zooming by in their cars, honking and sometimes shouting out their insults against these religious fanatics. But off in the distance, down the road, you can hear crash after crash. The two guys wince at each crashing noise. One of them eventually says, “Maybe we should change our signs to “road closed.” “The bridge is out.”

We have to make sure our message connects with the understanding of the people we are trying to reach. Guess who is best equipped to do that? The people who love them enough to listen to their stories, backgrounds and interests. That could be you. Do you know someone who likes gardening? You might talk to them about how the word of God is like a seed. Do you know any fishermen or women? Jesus gave plenty of things to say about that right? What about talking about the great physician with Drs and nurses? The gospel message can be tailor made to fit the life and interests of anyone, if you know how to speak their language and if you love them enough to actually broach the subject.

There are statistics to show that loving personal connections are the most powerful means of evangelism. One chart reads: 

Of course, your friends, relatives and associates, the ones you love the most are the lost ones most likely to be saved by God working through your prayerful efforts. But it is hard work. It meets with much resistance and discouragement and often very little visible results. How do you keep going in the face of indifference or hostility?

The Jews for Jesus is an evangelistic association that has a unique door to door approach to evangelism. They knock in a door and hope to have a conversation but very often the door gets slammed in their face. That’s ok. Next month, back to the same door, just to see if it will open this time. Over and over again, and sometimes the door eventually opens! That’s endurance!

Paul gave thanks for this in the Thessalonian church, “endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” How long you last, or persevere in the work, is inspired by your hope. This is because no matter how hard you work at the works produced by faith, you might not see the results in your life time. We can’t let small numbers or limited responses deter us from the work. No, we must continue to the end. 

I heard from a pastor who recently reported that he had read many missionary stories. He said they all sound pretty much the same. Like this: “These guys sacrifice a great deal, have difficult lives, with limited success, and tend to die earlier than they would, or should, if they had lived a secular lifestyle. These missionaries changed many lives but often did not see the fruit of their labor. I am amazed at their faith and ability to see the 'big picture'. It is about the kingdom and not personal comfort.”

Ultimately a congregation brings glory to God if it fulfills His purpose of proclaiming the gospel so that others might be saved, even if it must endure persecution to do this.  So, what should characterize a church today that brings glory to God?  We get some important clues and even instructions in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian churches. That’s why I am going to keep talking about that for the next several weeks.

For today, my charge to you is this. Let us all do the work produced by faith. Evangelism is everybody’s job, not just the pastor. In fact, the statistics I read to you show that many of the things the pastor is busy with are not very effective for evangelism! My job is discipleship, of you and the ones you bring. Let your labor, be prompted by love for God, and neighbors just as the greatest commandment asks of us. And let our endurance be inspired, not by success, but by our hope in our Lord Jesus Christ! “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58.

Now God would like to encourage us and strengthen us by being with us in a special way as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. In this simple meal we remember all that God has done for us in Christ. We are moved by his love for us and inspired to love others and invite them into this fellowship with us. We are also reminded that our ministry as the church is all about saving lives, as our own lives have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.