The Church and the Gospel
1Thess. 1:1-10

Introduction:
1.Implicit Realities of Life (Worldview Assumptions)

How did we get here? Why do we do what we do and think the way we think? The truth is that we do not think about what we do and why we do it very much, if at all. We simply make the assumption that we are right, we go about our lives with very little thought. In fact, the less thought the better.

If churches want to be healthy, a rethinking of why we are here, what are we to be, what we are to do, where are we going, and how do we get there is essential. Again and again, the church must return to the basics, to the fundamentals, to the essence of what it means to be the church.

Not individually but corporately, what are you, who are you, why do you do what you do, where are you going, and how are you going to get there? Has what you have been in the past gotten you to where you need to be?

2.Explicit Realities of Life (Worldview Behaviors)

For the church, the answers to these questions should never be unclear. We live, however, in a culture that has lost its moorings. We have been challenged to be progressive by leaving the foundational principles of what the church is to be. Being progressive was to make us relevant, and relevance was to make us successful. All of this nonsense was couched in the language of reaching our communities.

Rather than emphasizing church health, we embraced church growth. Rather than seeking the conversion of sinners, we sought to increase the church roll. Rather than preaching the gospel by pouring over Scripture, we endeavored to talk about topics of interest that actually impact daily life. Rather than being Christ exalting, we diluted the truth to attract seekers. Instead of being firm in our doctrine, we have become those carried about by every fad that blows through. The end result has been a weak, shallow, unstable, leaderless gatherings of the mostly unregenerate.

1 Thessalonians speaks to our situation. The gospel-centered foundational elements of from where the church comes, what it is to be, and where it is going are carefully presented in 1 and 2 Thessalonians.

A.The Planting of the Church

It is helpful to understand the setting of these two epistles as we interpret 1 Thessalonians 1. On his second missionary journey, Paul had taken the gospel to Europe as a result of the “Macedonian Call” vision. The church at Philippi was planted. After being jailed and beaten, Paul, Silas, and Timothy continue on the Egnatian Way to Thessalonica, modern day Thessalonikki.

Thessalonica was the capital of the free Roman province of Macedonia. It was a strategic city, a large city (200K pop), and had a large population of Jews. As an established part of Paul’s gospel strategy, he went to the Synagogue and waited to be asked to speak. Acts 17 gives the story.

1.The Preaching of the Gospel

The Thessalonian church was planted the only way any church can ever be planted in the context of gospel preaching.

a.He reasoned from Scripture.

Paul reasoned (dielezato) with them from the Scripture. The verb reasoned is in the middle voice, which means the subject does and receives the action of the verb. The idea is there was give and take. Rather than a monologue sermon, Paul dialogued with the Jews concerning the meaning of Messianic passages of Scripture.

b.He showed that the Christ must suffer and be raised from the dead.

The Jewish interpretation of Messianic passages of Scripture had no concept of a suffering Messiah. Passages that referred to suffering were applied to the nation of Israel. Passages that alluded to rising from the dead related to the Messiah exalting the nation of Israel after her suffering.

The disciples struggled with this also. Jesus rebuked Peter sharply because he denied the necessity of sufferings of the Christ (Matt. 16). On the road to Emmaus, the famous story at the end of Luke’s gospel (the first volume in the Luke/Acts corpus), Jesus rebuked the two disciples for their slowness of heart to believe the prophetic witness. Then beginning with Moses and the Prophets, He expounded all the OT had to say about the necessity of the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Christ (Lk. 24:25-27).

Paul does the same thing in the synagogue that Jesus did in opening the Scripture to show the correct view of the Messiah. Paul discussed the Messianic passages explaining (opening) and demonstrating (lit. to place along side). Paul explained the Scripture by placing it along side the life of Jesus.

c.He identified the Jesus of History with the Christ of Scripture.

Paul dialogued with the Jews concerning the Messianic prophecies and proved that the Scripture teaches the Christ must suffer, die, and be raised from the dead. Then He argued that the Jesus of history is that Christ of Scripture.

Once he made his point that the Scriptures teach that the Messiah must suffer and die and be raised, it was a short leap to Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is the only resurrected man in history.

If you believe Scripture and you believe that the Scripture teaches that the Messiah must suffer and die and be raised, look no further, Jesus is your man. The resurrection is proof positive. No further proof is needed.

As a result of the preaching of the gospel, the Thessalonian church was born in the middle of a violent rupture of the Synagogue. Some Jews and a lot of Greeks and women believed.
2.The Persecution of the Church

The Thessalonian church was birthed in the travail of persecution. The Jews became so enraged that they rounded up a bunch of thugs, caused a riot in the city, and attacked Jason’s house looking for Paul and Silas. When they couldn’t find Paul and Silas, they dragged Jason and other believers before the authorities shouting, These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. Since they couldn’t produce the people they were accusing, they added, And Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.

Here is the picture: The preaching of the gospel has called the church into being in the context big trouble.

B.The Purpose of the Epistle

Paul, Silas, and Timothy escape to Berea. The Jews are so angry that they follow them there. Paul has to flee to Athens, but leaves Silas and Timothy behind. After arriving in Athens, Paul sent for Timothy and Silas. He was so concerned about the situation in Thessalonica and Philippi that he sent them back (c.f. 3:1ff). When Silas and Timothy caught up with Paul at Corinth, they brought news of the Thessalonians perseverance in the gospel and of the issues that plagued the church.

As a result of Silas and Timothy’s report, Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians to encourage the church in the gospel. The epistle is about the church and the gospel. Whatever issues Paul deals with in the epistle, he does so from a gospel oriented perspective. Paul encourages the Thessalonians in their perseverance in the advance of the gospel. He answers accusations of insincerity and ulterior motives from a gospel perspective. He deals with immorality, ethics, and future hope through the lens of the gospel.

1 Thessalonians is about the church and the gospel, that is, how the church and the gospel interact. The gospel creates the church. The church spreads the gospel. While the gospel is creating the church and the church is spreading the gospel, the gospel shapes the church’s evangelism, leadership, behavior, hope, and community.
The pattern that is here presented is remarkable. In 1:5, Paul says, Our gospel came to you; in 1:6, You received the Word; in 1:8, The Word sounded forth from you; then, we heard about you from others and this convinced us that you are authentic.

In 1 Thessalonians 1, Paul is encouraging the church by reminding them of basics of who they are and what they are to do. Because of the pressures of life and culture, the church gets off track. We need to be reminded of the most basic truth of who we are and what we are to do in the world as the church.

I.Who We Are: The Church is Created by the Word of God vv1-5

Until the gospel came to Thessalonica, no church was there, and no believers were there. Paul preached in the Synagogue, and “boom” a church is there. How and why does that happen?

There was a time when there was no church here. Somebody who knew the gospel and understood what I am talking about this morning, preached the gospel, and here you are.

Paul talks about the how and why of God’s purpose in creating, spreading, and sustaining the church through the gospel.

A.The church is the clearest representation of God and the Gospel in the world. V1

Paul wrote, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul wanted to remind the young Thessalonian church in the throes of violent persecution and public abuse that her hope, strength, stability, and life are in God not this world.

1.The Church is in God and Christ

The corporate life of the church derives from the life of God. We have been brought to share in the life of God through faith. Our union with His life is through faith by grace and brings the peace and benediction of God upon our lives through Christ.

Paul wrote to the Colossians, For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:3-4).

We need to learn about the corporate aspect of the church and faith. Churches today emphasize the personal aspect of faith. Yes, we all personally believe, but we corporately believe as well. Yes, I know Paul said of Christ, [He] loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal. 2:20). I never want to minimize that. In fact, I revel in it and thank God for it. Yet, the Scripture knows nothing of a personal church. Today believers act as if each one is his or her own personal church.

We emphasize the eternal life of the believer, and we keep trying to convince each other that we have it. The Scripture emphasizes the life of the Church, and it corporately is in God and Christ.

We deduce that when the Scripture speaks of the faith or life of the church, the church is made up of individuals. Therefore what is important is my faith and my life. It is true that individually we have faith and life, but that is not the emphasis of Scripture.

The emphasis of Scripture is on the corporate life the church. We need to major on what Scripture majors on. The “yous” and “yours” of Scripture are plural. The corporate life of the church is in view.

The church, not as individuals but corporately, is the clearest representation of God and Christ that the world has. Notice in this text the local Thessalonian church is in view. We are CCC in God and Christ. It matters what we do and how we live and how we conduct our affairs. All reflects on the character of God.

2.The Gospel is the only issue of the church

Because the church is the clearest representation of God in the world, the only issue the church has in the world is the gospel. Churches do not have preacher problems, member problems, personality conflicts, and power struggles. These are all gospel problems and must be treated as such.

How is our church health? How have you looked after the corporate life of the church? Most churches are fragmented. They have big membership rolls and small attendance. They are plagued by all the sins that plague the community, and they do nothing to help brothers and sisters who fall into sin. How is our church health?

B.Three Virtues that Must Characterize the Church in the Reflection of the Character of God. VV2-3

Paul thanks God for the Thessalonians work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness (patience) of hope.

Faith, love, and hope are three virtues through which the church reflects the life of God in the world. What characterizes us as a church? We have faith because God is faithful. We love because God is love. We have hope because God will right every wrong. These are not optional virtues of the church; they are the virtues of the church. The graces are evidences of the regenerating work of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit turns us in Faith to God, in love to the world and each other, and in hope to the appearing of Jesus. By these graces, the Spirit moves us from our sinful, self-centered tendencies outward into the purpose of God in the world. It is the nature of faith to work, love to labor, and hope to endure.

I will never forget Ben. At 2, he diagnosed with brain tumors. For 8 years he suffered until God mercifully called Him home. He parents care for him illustrated what work of faith, labor of love, and endurance of hope means. They believed God for healing, and they believed God dieing. They labored so lovingly with Ben. Finally, they hoped in the resurrection of the dead.

A young persecuted church would tend to disband or withdraw, pull back, and not fulfill her mission. In this world, faith bids us trust in God; love to labor no matter what, and hope to endure all things because of the coming of Christ when all things will be set right.
Someone may reply, “Steve and Ann didn’t have a choice with Ben. The Thessalonians circumstances were what they were. That is not our situation. Our situation is different.”

People whom the Spirit has regenerated are characterized by the work of faith, labor of love, and endurance of hope in whatever circumstances God providentially places them. Particularly, in this arena of the church and the gospel, God compels us to work in faith, labor in love, and persevere in hope.

Faith, hope, and love characterized the life of Christ, and they characterize the life of the church in the world. You will see the outworking of faith, hope, and love throughout this epistle. We can do the task of global evangelism in a hostile world only by working in faith, laboring in love, and enduring in hope.

C.The preaching of the gospel accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit calls God’s loved and chosen community into being. Vv4-5

Not everybody hears and responds to the gospel in the same way. Everybody in the synagogue in Thessalonica heard the gospel. Some were converted, and some grew violent and opposed both the gospel and those who believed it.

The gospel was preached widely in Thessalonica. Many gentiles and a host of women came to faith. Not everybody believed.

Paul is telling the believers that Silas, Timothy, and he knew that God had set His love on them and chosen them to believe because of the way the gospel came to them.

The Thessalonians knew what kind of people Paul, Silas, and Timothy were. There was no gimmickry, no door prizes, and no manipulation. Paul was not in it for himself. For the sake of the Thessalonians, he preached the gospel. For whose sake did Paul preach the gospel with the bleeding wounds of Philippi on his back? For the sake of every person in Thessalonica? No. He preached the gospel for the sake of the church that God was calling into being. The meaning here is, You know that we were bruised, beaten, and bleeding preachers of the gospel for the sake of the church for whom Christ died that He was calling into being through our preaching.

Paul makes clear that there is no difference between preaching the gospel for the glory of Christ and the sake of the church. In the context of preaching the gospel in Christ-hating world suffering is to be expect and embraced. He trumpets this point repeatedly. This I think, in a sense, is Paul’s missionary manifesto. You hear it in 2 Timothy 2:10: Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. You hear it again in Colossians 1:24: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the church….

There was no doubt about what the Thessalonians were responding to. Today, it is hard to tell what people are responding to because so much manipulation is present in evangelism. It almost seems as if some evangelists don’t think God can save people simply with the gospel.

Paul is here talking of the subjective experience of the preacher in preaching the gospel. As Paul, Silas, and Timothy were preaching, they knew the gospel was going out in power, in the Holy Spirit, and full assurance. They knew that God was accomplishing His saving purpose in the Thessalonians.

That God has set His love on and chosen sinners to salvation is the greatest impetus to preach the gospel. God’s word will accomplish the purpose for which He sends it. It is one thing to preach. It is altogether another thing to preach in the full assurance that they Holy Spirit is moving in power to convert sinners.

God has set his love on and chosen people of every tongue, tribe, and ethnic group. He set His love on and chose some of you. Where you live, who you are, and the circumstances of your life are no accident. God has done it. He caused the gospel to come to you. He gave you faith and repentance. It is not your doing.

God marked out and chose this church and called it into being by His Word in the power of the Holy Spirit for His own glory.

II.What the Church is to do: The Church Spreads the Gospel.

It is by the gospel that the church exists, and the church spreads the gospel. The church at Thessalonica spread the gospel the same way they received it. They took it to others how it came to them.

A. The sincere preaching of the word in the power of the Holy Spirit and in suffering vv5b-7

The gospel had come to the Thessalonians by the sincere preaching of the word without gimmicks in the power of the Holy Spirit. They used that as their model to spread the gospel. The Thessalonians needed to be reminded of the violent context in which Paul preached the gospel to them. We need to be reminded and think often of the cost to bring the gospel to us.

We should never open our English Bibles without seeing the strangling rope around the neck of Tyndale and smell the stench of burning flesh as his body was consumed. We need to realize that what kind of man Tyndale was for our sake—died at 42, never married, and never buried. You don’t know what preaching the gospel to you may have cost others (Piper, Filling up the Afflictions, p 51.).

The Thessalonians received the gospel in the fire of persecution and suffering. In their spreading of the gospel and their resulting persecution, they identified themselves with Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Jesus. Paul and Silas brought the gospel to them with the stripes of Philippi on their backs. They had to flee Thessalonica and Berea.

No one has ever preached and suffered for the gospel like Jesus. He endured the wrath of God, which makes the wrath of men seem like a Sunday School picnic.

Preaching the gospel and suffering and the joy of the Spirit go hand in hand. This is what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Colossians, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the church…(1:24).

We can preach the gospel to the world. We have the funds; we have the people; we just can’t do it without suffering. We can preach the gospel anywhere; we just may not get to come back. Christ has suffered and died and risen. What is lacking is the striped backs of disciple looking for the next town in which to preach the gospel.

There is so much misery in the church today. We have bought and spent and played and indulged all on the presupposition that we would be happy. The Thessalonians had joy and bruises. They became examples to all the believers from Macedonia to Corinth.

How did Paul know that? Thessalonica was situated on the Egnatian Way and by a good harbor. Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica and Silas to Philippi. The Philippians were talking about the faith of the church in Thessalonica. When Paul arrived in Achaia, people were talking about the faith of the Thessalonians. It is possible that when Aquilla and Pricilla came out of Rome to Corinth that they had heard of the faith of the Thessalonians.

The church spreads the gospel by the sincere preaching of the Word in the power and joy of the Holy Spirit and in suffering.

C.The Confirmation that the gospel has been received in truth vv8-10

The clearest confirmation that we know the gospel and have communicated the gospel is the quality of our converts. When Paul heard what people said who had been in contact with the church in Thessalonica, he knew that what he was hearing was the same gospel that he had preached to the Thessalonians.

Paul says that we don’t tell people what happened in Thessalonica, they tell us. Their telling of the faith of the Thessalonians was confirmation of their conversion. It seems that Paul applied to the Thessalonians a common saying describing conversion. It has three points that well illustrate the outworking of faith, hope and love.
1.They turned to God from idols

Christian conversion is a radical reorientation of life and thought. Turning to God of necessity means turning from idols. Idolatry is not just for pagans. Self is the American idol.

2.They Served the Living and True God.

First century Christians rejected the pluralism of their day and engaged it unashamedly with the gospel. We must turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. You can’t serve idols and God. Something’s got to give. The nature and character of God are diametrically opposed to idolatry. God is living and True. Idols are vain imaginations and fantasies.

3.They were waiting for His Son from heaven v10

They were serving and waiting. There is no contradiction or conflict between the two. In Sedona, AZ, on September 17 each year, people from around the world go to the Bell Rock to wait for the mother ship.

It is impossible to mistake the Jesus they were waiting for. The One raised from the dead. Jesus. The One who delivers us from the wrath to come. This text literally reads coming wrath. That is wrath is on its way.

Many people who claim to be Christians dread and do not want to think about the coming of Christ. We are too attached to this world.

Conclusion: The church and the gospel—we have been called into being by the word and we are to trumpet the word.