Thank God for His Church

God's word. The passage before us this morning, as Jed's already mentioned, comes from Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, the first letter, chapter one. I'm going to read the whole chapter. If you have a device or a Bible in front of you, please look it up now. Otherwise, the words will be behind me up on the screen.

And I'm reading from the ESV, the English Standard Version. One Thessalonians. Paul, Sylvanus, 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, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and the labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. So far, the reading from God's word.

Well, as we've just read, and do keep your Bibles open to that passage, the first verse begins with three names. Paul, Silvanus, or also known as Silas, and Timothy. These are the three coauthors who have recently established the church in Thessalonica. And we can read about how they established the church in the book of Acts. At the end of Acts 15, Paul set off from Jerusalem on his second missionary journey with Silas.

And if you know your geography, they've started down in Jerusalem, and they've headed north above the Mediterranean to Galatia, which is where Timothy joined them. And then they kept heading west to Asia. And as they're in Asia, they received a vision from God to go and preach the good news in the region of Macedonia. And so Paul, Silas, and Timothy continued west, first to the city of Philippi before journeying onwards to Thessalonica. Thessalonica was a loyal yet quite autonomous Roman colony.

It was the capital of Macedonia, and its ports and its trading routes made it a busy hub of activity. Many people would be coming and going through this city. And it was in this Greek and primarily pagan city that Paul, Silas, and Timothy entered the Jewish synagogue, which was their custom, and they began to reason with the crowds from the scriptures. And we read in Acts 17 that they did this for three Sabbath days. And remarkably, people were persuaded, and people joined them, and the church was established.

But as was frequent on their missionary journeys, well, this caused the Jews to be jealous. And so they gathered a mob. They caused an uproar, and the Thessalonians, wanting to keep them safe, Paul, Silas, and Timothy safe, seems like they gave them no choice as they sent them away at night down to Berea. But they weren't deterred. In Berea, they continued to preach the gospel, and people continued to be saved.

But the Thessalonian mob actually went down to Berea to stir up the crowds there. And we read at the end of Acts 17 that they immediately sent Paul off on his way. But Silas and Timothy remained there until Paul instructed them to join him in Athens. And that's what they did, joined him in Athens. But we actually learned from chapter three of this letter that they sent Timothy back from Athens to Thessalonica because they were desperate to know how this new, this brand new church, people who have just come to faith, how were they going?

How were they faring? Imagine you're out for dinner one night with your family when all of a sudden you hear panic and chaos going on out in the street. And so you walk out there and there's aggressive riots going on. Then you hear gunshots going off, and a bomb has just also exploded in the building you were just moments before in. The streets are filled with chaos.

Hostages are being captured. And in all of this, you get separated from your family. And in the coming days, you have no news, no update. You don't know where they are or whether they are safe. You'd be filled with anxiety and stress until you finally receive a report that your family is safe and in good spirits.

Well, this letter was written to the church in Thessalonica soon after Timothy rejoined Paul and Silas with the good news that this young church was safe, strong, and healthy in the Lord. And so that's why you can understand the opening of this letter. It is filled with thanksgiving, and especially today, thanksgiving to God for how He has transformed their lives and how He has powerfully built His church. And these are words that are a great encouragement to us, words that we need to hear as a church. How God is transforming our lives, has transformed our lives, continues to, and continues to build His church throughout the world.

And so these are the two things we're going to look at: how we can thank God for transforming lives and how we can thank God for powerfully building His church. So let's commence in verse two. We see this exuberant thanksgiving right from the start, and it's all directed to God. God was the one who has transformed the Thessalonians' lives. It was not Paul, Silas, and Timothy who had done this work.

It was not the Thessalonians' own effort. It was God working among them, and it's God who is working in us and who has worked in our lives, in my life, and in your lives to transform you from death to life, you may receive the gospel, the forgiveness of your sins, and be found in Christ. And their thanksgiving, well, it's not brief, is it? It's overflowing.

Verse two says, we give thanks to God always for all of you constantly. Can you imagine being on an aeroplane which has just had to perform an emergency crash landing? The relief and thanksgiving that will come upon you as you realise you are safe and on the ground. And the passengers would express their thanksgiving in a variety of ways, wouldn't they? Perhaps the passengers would give a round of applause to the pilots.

You might even turn to the person next to you and give them a hug. And as soon as you could, you'd grab your phone out and call your loved ones. And in the same way, Paul, Silas, and Timothy, when they heard the good report, well, they expressed their thanksgiving in at least three ways. Firstly, by constantly mentioning them in their prayers. I imagine they would have constantly been pleading with God for this church.

God, keep them safe. God, strengthen them in their faith. And now when they hear that God has answered their prayers, will they respond, "God, thank you for what you have done"? And can this be said of us? Are we a praying people?

Are you a praying church? A people who is coming before the Lord regularly, bringing requests before Him, but then responding in thanksgiving, both collectively as a church and in your relationships as you interact with one another, as you hear the good news that someone shares with you, do you respond by praying for them? Prayer is the heartbeat of a church. The key sign of a healthy church will be their willingness to pray with and for each other and their desire to thank God for all that He is doing among them. Secondly, they express their thanksgiving by remembering God's transformational work in the Thessalonians' lives.

And particularly, the Lord has transformed their lives to produce three prominent Christian virtues: faith, love, and hope. These three virtues we see repeated throughout scripture as evidence of true, genuine faith, true belief. But it's worth noting how each of these three virtues is described in this passage. Firstly, faith is described as a work. Not because faith is achieved through works, but because faith is displayed in our works.

In the book of James, it says, "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." True faith is evident in our works. True faith bears fruit. The second virtue, love, is expressed through labour. The idea that love is simply emotional.

Well, that idea is absent here. Everyone can express love when it's easy. But true love here, it is hard. It's laboursome. That is when true love comes out in hard circumstances.

And finally, see that hope, the virtue of hope is shown through steadfastness. True hope does not dissipate in trials and temptations. A true hope is steadfast. It grows stronger in our trials and temptations. And the source of the Thessalonians' steadfast hope was in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so as the authors remember these virtues in the Thessalonians' lives, well, it leads them once again to thanksgiving. In the passage, notably, it says that they remember these things before our God and our Father because God is the one who has produced these virtues in their lives. So how often do we pause and reflect upon the faith, the love, and the hope that God has produced in our lives and in the lives of those around us, of those in this church? It's a healthy thing to do, to actually pause and remember what God has done among us, how He has transformed each believer and continues to sanctify and transform them. Well, third and finally, they express their thanksgiving to God by knowing that He has chosen the Thessalonians.

God has set His love upon these people, and so Paul calls them his brothers and sisters because he's so confident that God has chosen and loved them and that they are members of God's church, God's family. And so once again, they give thanksgiving to God because it is only by the grace of God that people are saved and welcomed into God's family. And so everywhere you look, God is at work in this church. He is saving people. He is transforming lives.

And so every time they pray, they give thanks to God. Every time they remember His transforming work, well, they give thanks to God. And every moment that they know that the Thessalonian church is loved and chosen, or they give thanks to God, for His mighty work among them. That's the first thing we see. We can thank God for transforming lives.

But secondly, we can thank God for powerfully building His church. If you were to picture a powerful, a successful church, what would it look like? If you were to envisage God's model church, what would it include? Picture that church. Because in this passage in verses 5 to 10, the Thessalonian church is esteemed as a model church.

And there are three reasons why. The first reason is because they are founded and grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of you might know that the word gospel simply means good news. And there are plenty of good news messages throughout our world, aren't there? The good news of a ceasefire, the good news of promotion at work, the good news of school holidays, the good news of successful surgery, the good news of a shopping sale.

But the good news of Jesus Christ is different to all of these other messages. Verse five says, our gospel came to you not only in word. So, yes, the gospel must include words, the words of a resurrected Saviour, a Saviour who bore our sins on the cross and rose again victorious. It must include these words. But this message, this good news of the gospel is distinct because it comes with power.

Romans 1:16 says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Carried in these simple yet amazing words is the power to transform someone from death to life, from eternal damnation into eternal glory. When the Holy Spirit powerfully moved in the life of Martin Luther to convince his heart that righteousness was not obtained by works, but through faith in Jesus Christ alone, this is what he writes: "Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates."

Perhaps you've experienced the power of the Holy Spirit convicting you of the gospel message and opening your heart to receive it, the power of God's word. Perhaps you've experienced that. Perhaps you've seen that in other people's lives, or perhaps you are experiencing that right now, the power of the gospel to convict you of your sins, to convince you of your need for a Saviour, and to drive you to surrender your life to Jesus. Brothers and sisters, do not underestimate the power of the gospel to save. Sadly, some churches abandon it, thinking other gospel messages are more powerful.

The prosperity gospel, the social justice gospel, the good works gospel, the self-help gospel. But all of these are weak, powerless, hollow, shallow messages that cannot save a single soul. They cannot provide forgiveness of sins. But we must also be aware of the temptation to weaken the power of the gospel. Whilst we might not abandon the gospel message completely, we can begin to drift and rely on other methods and means as well.

Sure, the power of the gospel, but also the power of emotional music to save. The power of a gifted, charismatic pastor to save. The power of being a modern and relevant church to save. The power of a strategy, a vision, certain programmes and methods to save. Now, none of these things that I've just mentioned are bad.

In fact, I think they're wonderful blessings to a church. But the problem arises when a church begins to put its confidence in those things and not in the power of the simple gospel to save. When we begin to put our confidence in other things, that's a sign that we are beginning to drift and abandon the gospel. For the true, simple, powerful message of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, must remain the foundation of God's church, and a model church will never move beyond or above the gospel message. That is the first reason.

The second reason they are esteemed as a model church is because they have faithful heralds of Jesus Christ. In verse five, Paul, Silas, and Timothy declare that they were faithful in proclaiming the gospel message. But notably, the kind of men they proved to be was equally important to their witness. The godly character of the messengers is a part of the gospel message. And this is important for our own witness as a church and as Christians.

Our actions can either underline the gospel that we share, or it can put a line through the gospel message that we share. Let me give you an example. If I was to tell my non-Christian friends that they need to repent and believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, but then when they look at my life, they see me living in sin, making excuses for my sin, no signs of repentance, no signs of trust in Jesus Christ. Well, that means that the gospel message that I share is quickly losing credibility. Or if a parent tries to teach their child that the most important thing in their life is their walk and relationship with Jesus Christ.

But then the parents rarely open their Bible and rarely pray with their kids. And when they are at home, they're often on their screens or doing overtime work. Well, that sends a very powerful message. The gospel is taught with our ears. We hear the gospel, but we also see the gospel with our eyes.

The gospel is taught, but it is also caught. And so, specifically, I want to encourage you as you continue and possibly approach calling a pastor in the coming weeks to look for a man who is absolutely a sound teacher, but also look for a man with godly character. Too many failings have occurred within churches when an outwardly gifted man but an inwardly shallow man is put into leadership. There's a reason why Paul urges Timothy to watch his life and his doctrine closely. Because if he did, he would save both himself and his hearers.

Life and doctrine, the message and the messengers. God builds His church through faithful heralds. And then third and finally, the third and final reason. Yes, the church must be grounded and founded in the gospel.

It must have faithful heralds, but thirdly, it must also have a faithful congregation who receive the gospel and become imitators of Christ. Do you know how to tell the difference between a true and a fake sports fan? A true fan will continue to follow their team even when they are losing every week, whilst a fake fan will only appear when their team is on the top of the ladder and winning every game. And the same is true for Christians. This is how the Thessalonians prove the genuineness of their faith.

Verse six says, "And you became imitators of us and of the Lord Jesus, of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit." True faith contains a joy from the Holy Spirit that outweighs the troubles and afflictions. It doesn't remove the troubles and affliction, but it outweighs them. And this joy enabled Paul, Silas, and Timothy to go from city to city facing persecution, imprisonment, and trials, yet still proclaim the gospel. That same joy enabled Jesus Christ to go to the cross.

Hebrews 12 says, "For the joy that was set before Him, Jesus endured the cross." And remarkably, by imitating Christ, this young Thessalonian church in verse seven became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. This is the only time in the New Testament that a whole congregation is viewed as an example for us to follow. Verse eight says, "For not only is the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere." Like a loud thunderclap, their faith has sounded forth, and like a lightning strike, it has been seen by everyone who encounters them.

Once again, there's that dual aspect of the message and the messenger on display again. And their faith causes the author to say at the end of verse eight that we need not say anything because their example is a living testimony of the gospel. Have you ever watched one of those extremely cringeworthy infomercials? They're advertising some slick new diet, some fancy new exercise machine, which supposedly guarantees immediate results. And as you're watching this, yep, you're not buying a word of what they're saying.

But compare that to a friend who is in incredible shape and they've lost a remarkable amount of weight. Well, their method, their approach, it immediately gains credibility as you listen to them. And everyone who encountered the Thessalonian church was confronted with a powerful testimony of the gospel. Verse nine speaks of how they turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. There's this abrupt abandonment in their life and a full surrender to serve and worship the living and true God.

They've thrown out the fake idols from their houses. They've stopped visiting the pagan temples and performing these superstitious rituals. And in verse 10, their faith is even evident in the way they eagerly wait for Jesus' return. There's such a strong conviction in the gospel that Jesus has died and that He has been resurrected and ascended into heaven, that they are waiting for Him to come again, to return and to deliver them from the wrath that is to come. And so for everyone who watches their lives live out, well, it's obvious.

These people are worshipping the true and living God. And can the same be said of us? When people encounter Open House church, are they confronted with a powerful testimony of the gospel message? What do people think when they see you? Do they see people who have abandoned worldly idols to serve the living and true God?

Do we look identical to the world or do we look different? Do we search in the same places for wisdom and insight? Where do we go for our security, for our purpose in life? Is it the same as the world, or are we worshipping and serving the true and living God? Can people see that this church is founded and grounded on the gospel message, the power of Jesus Christ?

Here we are being powerfully transformed by the Holy Spirit and fully convicted of His work. People who express works of faith, labours of love, and have a steadfastness of hope? Will people encounter a message that is faithfully proclaimed from the pulpit, but equally and just as much so faithfully received and lived out from the pews? Open House church is a walking and talking billboard, but what will it be advertising? Everywhere you looked in the Thessalonian church, God was at work.

They were a simple church, yet they were a model church in God's eyes. And so as we close, I want to ask you, do you believe that the same God can powerfully work here amongst you? Perhaps you might think, oh, we're only a church of fifty, sixty. God will choose another church to powerfully work through. I haven't even had a pastor for a year or so.

God will pick another church to work through. Now, those things do not disqualify our awesome and incredible God from working through this church and its people. God is not limited by the things that we might want to restrict Him with. And so I encourage you, strive together to be that humble, simple, yet powerful church that is an active testimony of the living and true God that we worship. May you be dependent on Him, knowing that it is He who transforms lives, knowing that He is the Head of His church and He powerfully builds it.

He can transform lives among you. He can powerfully build His church. And as He does, may you turn back in thanks, thanking Him for all that He has done, all that He is doing, and all that He will do. Amen. Let us pray.

God and heavenly Father, we thank you that you have saved us, that we are people who have encountered the living and true God, and that you have chosen and loved us, that you have worked in our hearts to convict us of our sin, to bring us to our knees, to surrender our lives to you. We thank you, Lord, that you have saved us, that you have transformed our lives, and we ask that you may continue to transform our lives that we may live more and more like Christ in this world. Lord, we thank you that you powerfully work not through the means that the world often sees as powerful, but through your gospel message of a Saviour who was crucified, mocked, and scorned, yet risen from the dead. Lord, we serve a God who holds death and life in His hands, and through the power of the Holy Spirit can soften even the hardest hearts in a moment.

And so, Lord, we ask, may you mightily and powerfully work here in this church to see people come to know you for the first time, God's grace poured out, God's Holy Spirit mightily at work. And, Lord, as we see you work in the small ways and in the big ways, may we turn back and give you thanks, for you are an awesome and incredible God who loves your people and who's continuing to be at work and build your church. We thank you, Jesus, and we pray it all in your name. Amen.