Divine Blessing for a Faithful Church, Part 2
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
This morning I am going to take the liberty to change what I had anticipated to speak to you on. I'm having a hard time getting started in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. It's not that I haven't done the preparation, I've been working on it for a couple of weeks. But, I just feel prompted in my spirit to continue the direction of things that I said to you two weeks ago. You remember a couple of weeks ago I wanted to express my gratitude to you and to the Lord for the church. I'm so grateful, and I likened our church to the church at Philadelphia, which was the church with an open door, a church that the Lord did not condemn but only commended, and I tried to draw the parallels between the church at Philadelphia in the book of Revelation and our church.
And, I've been thinking about what a blessing this church is and what a wonderful church it is. And after spending time last week with the dear friends from Russia, and having them affirm to me how much this church means to them and how many of you came to me and thanked me for that message which was so encouraging, I decided that maybe I oughta give another one on the same subject. I haven't by any means exhausted my gratitude to God or to you. And a couple of weeks ago, I did mention that another church that is a parallel to Grace, aside from the church at Philadelphia, was the church at Thessalonica. And so, I really found myself unable to escape the fact that I probably need to follow up on that and take you to that church at Thessalonica and show you the parallels.
So, if you'll open your bible to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, I want to give you part two this morning on encouraging the church, a church to be thankful for. And you know, I really do feel mandated by the Lord to do this, because I know that the preacher spends a lot of his time confronting the congregation, a lot of time pointing out sin, a lot of time correcting and training and all of that, and perhaps not an adequate amount of time expressing gratitude to God and gratitude to you for your faithfulness. It has been a remarkable, remarkable life to be a part of this church, for me and for many, many of you. God has singularly and greatly blessed us because of Grace Community Church and what He has chosen to do here. We take no credit for it whatsoever, but are merely the recipients of God's grace and mercy, and the recipients of the kind of blessing that comes to the faithful proclamation and the faithful obedience of the word of God that has characterized this church from its beginning. And, it is right for us to thank God. In everything we are to give thanks, and sometimes thanks is on the - sort of the last of the list. And, because in the church there are so many problems and so many needs, very often we're done praying before we get to the category of being grateful.
But, I can honestly confess to you, most of my prayers through the years for this church have been prayers of thanksgiving. And certainly, there is much to be grateful for, and we would be unfaithful to the command of Scripture to give thanks if we were not to stop and thank God for our church. This is a beloved church ,not only to the Lord, but to me and to all of us, and we need to express gratitude for what God is doing here.
The best way to do that is to look at parallels in scripture, and certainly, the church at Thessalonica is such a parallel. Let me describe this church to you by simply reading the first chapter. It's just 10 verses. Listen to how the Apostle Paul describes this church. "Paul and Silvanus" or Silus "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, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come."
The European theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once said cynically, "The church is like Noah's Ark. If it weren't for the storm outside, we couldn't stand the stink inside." Well, such a comment indicates that he never attended the church at Thessalonica. There wasn't really any stink inside there. And I certainly would say it's obvious he never attended Grace Church, either.
This church at Thessalonica was a remarkable church. One of the most notable omissions at the outset in the salutation is that Paul does not identify himself as an Apostle. He just says, "Paul." In all of his letters, he identifies himself as an Apostle, a servant of God, a messenger of Jesus Christ, in order to enforce his authority, because it is intended in the letter that he will bring to bear upon that church some authoritative correction. Not here. He never even identifies himself as an Apostle. This is not a letter that needs any authority. He doesn't have to bring his great apostolic bearing upon them. There are no issues to confront, really, the call for such authority. This is a letter of gratitude. It is a letter of encouragement to a church of believers who were living holy lives, who were loving each other in a Christ-like way, and who were enduring suffering faithfully. This was a noble church. And this first chapter is the initial outburst of gratitude from the heart of the Apostle, which he unpacks in more detail through the remaining chapters of the Epistle. But, when you read this first chapter, you really catch the passion of this letter, and you catch the character of this church.
Verse 2 sets the tone for everything. "We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers." Paul's prayers for the Thessalonian church were prayers of gratitude. He was giving thanks to God always. In other words, it was exclusively thanks, and it was extensively thanks for all of you. This congregation brought him nothing but joy, nothing but gratitude. In chapter 2, he was thankful to God for the way they received the gospel, as it was the word of God, and not the word of men. He was thankful, verse 14, that they had become imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus. He was thankful, that same verse, that they had endured suffering. Over in verse 17, it says he was longing with great desire to see their face, for they were, according to verse 19, his hope, his joy, his crown of rejoicing. Verse 20, "You are our glory and our joy."
Chapter 3 verse 5, he says he could not endure it any longer, finding out about their faith "for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor should be in vain. But, now that Timothy has come to see us, he's come from you, he's brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you." He was so glad when Timothy came and told him everything was as it ought to be, very different from the Corinthian situation, which was a wrenching, heartbreaking experience of a church in disaffection, disobedience and mutiny against the beloved Apostle. In fact, in verse 9, he says, "I am speechless. What thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account? You have brought us so much joy, I am speechless to know how to return that joy."
Chapter 4, essentially the same thing, verse 9 he says, "As to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia." Here was a church that was faithful; here was a church that practiced the love of the brethren in its fullness; here was a church that brought Paul tremendous joy. Chapter 5, verse 11, "Encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing." I mean, they were a church that was in every sense a church to be thankful for, and that's why the first chapter is sort of an outburst as he launches the Epistle, it's an outburst of reasons for that thanksgiving.
And there are many parallels, I believe, here to our own church, to the goodness and grace of God toward us through all these many 40 years of life as a church. This church has always been a church to be thankful for, a church to rejoice over.
And so Paul writes, along with his friend, Silus, who was a Jewish coworker, and Timothy who was his son in the faith, and he writes to the church of the Thessalonians, and he identifies this church - and this is very important - as "in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ." In other words, this is a true church. They're in vital union with Jesus Christ. He is expressing living union with the very person of God and Christ. They were a church to whom he could say, "Grace to you in peace," because they had a right to receive God's grace and peace. They were a genuinely redeemed church. They were a beloved church. Verse 4, "Knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you." They were an elect church. In other words, all of that is to say they were genuine. They were real. They were a saved group. He says, "You are in God the Father. You are in the Lord Jesus Christ," that is in vital saving union with Him. "You are the recipients of grace and peace. We thank God for all of you." That means as far as we can tell, he didn't know of any tears among the weak, of any disaffection, of any mutiny, of any false teachers, of any false prophets, of any insurrectionists, any heretics. He was thankful for all of them. They were the beloved of God. They were sovereignty loved by God. They were chosen. They were the elect of God. And all of that is to emphasize that the reality was this is a saved community of believers, genuinely redeemed people. And so Paul is so grateful for the fact that this is genuinely the church of Jesus Christ. And in verse 2 he expresses that gratitude to God for all of them, and how he continually thanked God in his prayers.
Now, as the passage unfolds, starting in verse 3 there, it unfolds with a list of the characteristics of this church, and I listed 10 of them that we'll work our way through, touching on them only briefly, because there are many of them. These are the 10 things that made Paul thankful for this church. And as I worked through those in thinking about this this week, I was struck by the fact that they're all characteristic of our own fellowship as well. And I'm so grateful that this is not a Corinthian church, but that this is a Thessalonian church, and we're gonna see that as we see the unfolding of the characteristics of that church. And again, I remind you, this is not a testimony to our greatness, this is a testimony to the grace of God. This is not some kind of tribute to our cleverness or our ability to grit our teeth and hang on. This is a testimony to the power of the Spirit of God, faithfully serving the purposes of God in the work of this church through these years, in spite of our weakness, in spite of our failure. But, if we are to give honor to whom honor is due, certainly we are to give honor to God for what he has done in this place.
Now, let's look at the characteristics that mark the church to be grateful for, and I think mark our church by God's grace to us. Number 1, they had a faith that works. They had a faith that works. Look at verse 3. Paul says, "We are thankful, always mentioning that gratitude toward God in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind, constantly remembering, first of all, your work of faith." The first thing that comes to mind in Paul's thinking, as he looks at this Thessalonian church, is that their salvation was real and it manifest itself in works. "Work" refers to "the deed done." It refers to an act, a deed. It refers to an achievement, argon. And he is saying, "Your faith, your saving faith, the genuineness of your salvation is evidenced in the work that you have done."
Now, Paul makes it very clear that you can't be saved by works. Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter 4, Romans chapter 5, etcetera, etcetera, all through the New Testament - Ephesians chapter 2, Galatians - everywhere in Galatians that is emphasized. Paul makes it very clear he is adamant on the fact that a faith without works saves. Okay? We just want to affirm that. A faith without works saves. You are saved by grace through faith alone. It is apart from works. But, though we are saved by a faith without works, Paul is also clear and adamant that the faith that saves produces works. Ephesians 2:10, "We are his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them." And James even goes so far as to say, "Faith without those works is dead faith, non-saving faith. It is an illusion." James says, "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, because that's a condition of self-deception."
I can't see the new birth. I can't feel regeneration. I can't touch the new creation. I cannot hear God declare a person righteous. So, how do I know who's saved? You know it by their work. "By their fruit you shall," what? "Know them." Matthew 7 says. What distinguishes counterfeit faith from the real thing is righteous deeds. Righteous behavior will be inevitably produced in those who have authentic saving faith. Faith is, by nature, turned and toned toward obedience. So, good works are inevitable, showing the work of God in the heart, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the evidence of real salvation. Yes, we fail, yes, we fall, but never cease from having the disposition to obey and do what pleases God.
This church produced works. These people were saved, and it was evident because they worked. They labored - made their salvation manifest in spiritual works. They were productive. I look at our church and I - through the years have been really overwhelmed at the amount of spiritual work that is done in this church - the deeds of love and kindness; the deeds of mercy; the exercise of spiritual gifts; the teaching; the nurturing; the training; the building up; the serving; the helping; the ministering has been manifest through all the years. Jesus emphasized this in Matthew 7, when He said, "It's not the people who say 'Lord, Lord,' it's the people who do the will of My Father who belonged to Me." And certainly, through the years, this has been a serving, working church.
As you know, early on in our ministry, this church was known as the church with 900 ministers, because they came and looked at us and said, "Everybody is serving. Everybody is working. Everybody is doing things to make this church productive." And, that's the way it has always been. I never cease to be amazed at what comes by way of spiritual production out of this congregation. And even through the years recently, our pastoral staff has shrunken smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and smaller, as more and more of the ministry is taken on by you. You have a faith that works as well, and it's always been that way. This is a working church, people serving relentlessly in this church - here, on our campus, out in the community, and many of you all over the world, in many, many ways. I can't even begin to recite all the myriad of ways that you serve. This has been a serving church since the very, very start. I come here on a Sunday and I'm prepared to preach; but, everything else that goes on here is carried on by you - by faithful folk who do so many, many tasks. This is a church that demonstrates its faith in its work.
Sometimes, people can't believe how active this church is. People always ask me why the parking lot in this church is always full, every day of the week and every night of the week; how these people stay so involved. Sometimes pastors say to me, "How do you do this?" And my answer is, "I don't do this. I just come and do what I do, and they've always been moved to do what God has prompted them to do," and that's so commendable.
Secondly, Paul addresses not only their work of faith, but their labor of love. They had a faith that works, they had a love that labors. The word "labor" is a little different than "work." Work looks at the deed done; labor looks, rather, at the effort expended. Labor is a term that has to do with arduous wearying toil to the point of exhaustion. Khapas. And it looks at the effort expended to yield the work done. Why is it that your faith produces such works? Because you arduously labor. And what motivates you? It's your love that motivates you. It's not me up here browbeating you. It's not me putting some legalistic trip on you. It's not me manipulating you to do these kinds of things. It's not a group of people straining and working and pulling and tugging at you to try to force you to do these things under threats. It is rather you motivated internally by the love of Christ and the love of God and the love of the church, laboring out of that love, and it's always been that way. We have avoided legalism, we have avoided manipulation, we have avoided the kind of intimidation that forces people to do things apart from a God-honoring Christ-exalting loving motive. And yet, through all the years, people have strained with all their energy to the maximum to serve the purposes of God and do the work of faith in this church out of the love of Christ that is in their hearts, and the love of the people of God around them. Serving the Lord out of love. Agape. That self-sacrificing willful love has always characterized this congregation.
And that is true of the Thessalonian church, and Paul is so grateful for it. As I read earlier, he says to them, in chapter 4, verse 9, "As to the love of the brethren, I don't even have to write to you. I don't even have to bring it up. It's not a subject that needs to be addressed, because you have it. You love Christ, and you love those that are Christs, and it's manifest." All of this - the church's ministries -- all of this church's ministries, from one end to the other, are dependent on people who do the work of faith because they love enough to labor to do those things.
As I said, we cut down our staff, we trimmed back our staff, and yet we have this almost endless ministry going on that comes from the love of your heart. I love that concept - the labor of love. And it should be true in my life as well. I mean, all of us should be in the labor of love. I know I get paid to preach and to pastor, and that's okay, too; because the bible says that those who preach the gospel should live of the gospel - be paid to do that, and those who work hard in the word and doctrine are worthy of double honor or double support or pay, and you care for the pastors of this church well to do that. But, the amazing thing to me is you're all uncompensated, and this church is full of thousands of people who work, who toil to the point of weariness - from elders right on down to people who help in the simplest task - and do this without any earthly compensation at all. This is a labor of love. This is certainly - this is certainly the greatest uncompensated work force in the state of California, and I thank God for that. I want in my own life for it to be laboring where I have no earthly reward as well, and that's one of the reasons that I many, many years ago gave myself to the ministry of Grace to You and didn't wanna take any money for any tapes or any broadcasts or anything at all that's produced and distributed through Grace to You. That -- I wanted to have a labor of love. I wanted to join you and serve the Lord purely and only for that which is eternal.
But, you have been faithful through the years, and that was true of Thessalonica. Their hearts were filled with love toward Christ and toward those who were Christ, to the point that they were willing to work exhaustively and make great effort to do the work for which they would never be compensated, except in the life to come, which was evidence of the real condition of their hearts -- true faith, evidenced by affection for Christ and for Christ's own people.
Thirdly, Paul commends this church not only for faith a that works and a love that labors, but a hope that endures. A hope that endures. He says in verse 3, "I am constantly reminded of the steadfastness of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father." And he's talking about eternity there. You work in the light of eternity. You labor in the light of eternity. You labor for future glory. Steadfastness is Hupamone, it means "to remain under." It has the idea of endurance under difficulty, endurance under literally thelipsus, pressure, tribulation. You don't defect. You don't go into a stall. You have spiritual staying power. You stay with it. You are, in the language of Revelation 2 and 3, overcomers. You are the seed that is planted in the soil and when tribulation comes you don't die. You overcome the trouble. You flourish. You are not like those who defect. 1 John 2:19, we've been talking about them, those who went out from us because they were not of us. You persevere. You continue.
The Thessalonians were under persecution from the Jews, they were under persecution from their own countrymen. Those things are mentioned in chapter 2 verse 14. It wasn't that they were in a bed of roses. It wasn't that they weren't suffering persecution. It wasn't that there weren't attacks upon them, because in fact there were. But, trouble didn't kill them, because they had their eyes fixed on what was eternal.
You've had struggles. Life isn't the way you want it to be. It doesn't come out all the way you would like to script it. We struggle through things as a church. We've struggled through some grave difficulties through the years as a church. You in your own life have struggled through relationships within the family of God, within your own family at home, in the areas of ministries here. There may have been prices to pay for you from unconverted family members, who knows what. Life is not gonna be the way we would like it to be. But, we're not questioning God, we're not assaulting God. We don't expect a world of comfort, and we are willing to endure whatever comes in this life because we look to the life which is ahead. We are willing to suffer anything in this life because we anticipate the things that God has prepared for them that love Him, and we believe with the Apostle Paul that the sufferings of this life are not to be compared with the glory which shall be ours.
And that kind of enduring hope sustains people through the long haul. It's been so wonderful to see this church through all these years from its beginning never wavering, enduring under all the varying pressures with a faith that works, a love that labors, and a hope that perseveres. And here we are all these years later, and you have still been faithful.
Having established those three things as the primary issues reminding us that the three great virtues are faith, love and hope. Paul identifies them as such in 1 Corinthians 13. He says, "You have the three most important things: faith that works, love that labors, and hope that endures." And he's really referring to their present condition. You have those. You exhibit those.
In verse 5, he looks back to their past conversion, and this is an important thing as well. This was true of their church and I think of ours also. He says in verse 5, "Our gospel didn't come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction, just as you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake."
They had powerful preachers. They had powerful preachers. They had a faith that works, they had a love that labors, they had a hope that endures, and they had preachers that were powerful. This is a most interesting point to me. One of the things that made that church what it was was the power of the preachers that came to them. They had Paul, they had Silus, they had Timothy. This is most interesting. And Paul says, "Our gospel didn't come to you in word only." It has to come in word, but not word only. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word. How shall they hear without a preacher? It has to be in language. God is revealing Himself in words that can be understood in human language. So, they had to hear the words. But, the gospel came to them not just in word. It was, according to 2:13, the word of God's message, the word of the gospel, and it has to be that. But, he says, "Our gospel came not in word only." And, by the way, I wanna just mention, he says, "Our gospel." He doesn't say, "We came not in word only," because he really wants to set the messenger aside and emphasize the message. Instead of saying, "We came to you, not in word only, but in power," he says, "Our gospel came, therefore emphasizing the messenger - the message rather than the messenger." The message is the issue to him, not the speaker. The good news of salvation which these preachers brought came and it wasn't just talk. He says, "It came in power, it came in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction." You know what you had? You had powerful preachers, you had Holy Spirit filled preachers, and you had preachers with strong convictions.
You know, beloved, I really believe that is an absolute essential to building a strong church. And you just didn't have people who could make speeches, who could speak with polished rhetoric, who were clever communicators or, you know, trained orators. You didn't just hear some truthful discourse. You got more than that. You got men who came to you not just in word, but they came with power, and they came with the Holy Spirit, and they came with strong conviction - so critical. This divine power was woven into the fabric of Paul's life. This divine power was woven into the fabric of Silus' life. This divine power was woven into the very warp and woof of Timothy's life, and Paul is saying, "We were preachers possessing the power of God."
The message itself had power. "I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation," Romans 1:16. But the preacher had power, too, because he was devoted and dedicated to Godly living and to holiness. He has here in mind the inward reality of spiritual power in the preacher, making him a mighty preacher, and making the people aware that they were hearing something more than a speech, and they came in power because they came in the Holy Spirit. The two go together. They're utterly inseparable. I mean, totally inseparable. The person behind the power is the Holy Spirit. You could perhaps translate it that he is saying, "Also in power, even in the Holy Spirit."
Those people in Thessalonica, those idolatrous pagans in that city, just goin' along with their damning life, had some preachers come to town who were not just ordinary men. When they stood up to preach, they were Holy Spirit empowered men, and the preached - I love this - with full conviction. Strongly confident of the truth of the gospel, strongly confident of the reality of Jesus Christ, strongly confident of the saving message, strongly confident of God's divine revelation in scripture, they came and they preached powerfully under the energy of the Holy Spirit with great conviction. They were confident that the word would not return void but that Isaiah 55:11 would be fulfilled. And you, you have to ask yourself the question, really: what would you be like - some of you can answer this, because maybe this has been your experience in other places - but, what would you be like if you were exposed to polished rhetoric, fine speech making, even truthful discussions, but, all you ever heard was a