WATCH AND PRAY #4 – How Do You Wait?
Good morning. How is everybody doing? I’m enjoying the study, this is my last series. I’ll be doing this until the Lord returns. Watch until He returns, that’s the theme. And we’re trying to figure out what the Bible teaches about watching until He returns.
As I began thinking about this theme of watching, I kind of had an itch in my feet to want to do the book of 1 Thessalonians and maybe also the 2 Thessalonians and I think that’s what I’m planning on doing this morning. So if you want to turn to 1 Thessalonians. I’m not going to do a really drawn out, in-depth study of 1 Thessalonians, but the reason why the Thessalonians are so appropriate for this discussion is because the teaching that Paul brings to them, gives a reflection, a pretty serious reflection about what it means to be watching until the Lord returns, and some of the reflection in their own lives and what that implicated. While you’re turning to 1 Thessalonians, I have a plan and this is my plan: First of all in Thessalonians, there’s a real small outline to the book that helps us understand the give and take and the flow of it. But the body of teaching that is directed at them for productive living while they’re watching and waiting, that body of teaching doesn’t really begin until chapter 4 and 5. And the first three chapters are spent in what may be a little unusual way for Paul but it’s kind of a reveling in fond affections. That is probably the best way to label the first three chapters. And we’ll take a look at that because there’s a real significant point of reference that we might really gain some benefit from in that context. So by way of introduction while you’re sitting there looking at 1 Thessalonians, I have two points of reference to draw out in the beginning here and maybe before we get started, why don’t we begin with prayer.
Let’s pray. Lord we come in the name of Your Son. We are blessed Lord to live in this day and we are blessed to have the privilege of knowing You. Lord it almost seems strange that 2,000 years of history has gone by and You have so faithfully kept Your Word whole and You have preserved it even unto our day and our generation. And Lord it is the delight and the desire of our heart and we thank You for that. Now as we open Your Word this morning Lord we ask for Your mercy on us; we ask that that which is in Your heart to minister to us by Your Word Lord that that might truly transpire in our hearts, that we as a body might find ourselves in close and intimate fellowship in Christ as is Your desire, that there would be fruit from our activities, fruit that remains, and Lord that all things would honor and glorify You. And we thank You and we pray in Christ’s name, amen.
By way of commentary, the Thessalonians are of course one of the Gentile churches that Paul started. In terms of the ministry to them of the Gospel, he had some rather brief ministry because of the nature of persecution and he did a little bit of distance pastoring to them. And the 1 Thessalonians epistle is one of those epistles kind of giving us a picture of Paul’s follow up ministry and his concern for this particular church. It’s important to notice before we begin reading and looking at the understandings of the context that the Thessalonians had known quite a bit of tribulation and persecution. And the whole issue of their persecution in their day was significant as Paul was seeking to address them about certain issues relating to their faith and what it means to tarry and wait until the Lord returns in this society where persecution is going to be coming our way. We also need to remember that they were a Gentile group of believers and in that sense of the word, we may assume that culturally there was some general understanding that there were Jews because there were Jews in every city and there were synagogues in every city for the most part. There was a cultural familiarity with the Jews, but the Gentiles and the Jews were separated by distinction. Perhaps the Gentiles didn’t really care because they were the ones that were reigning supreme so to speak in political affairs, but specifically the Jews had a mentality of keeping to themselves that which they consider salvation and the precious things of God. So they weren’t about proseyltizing in the greatest sense of the word, they were keeping to themselves that which was their faith. So the depth of which the Gentile churches struggled as it related to the Jews bringing the Gospel to them and then asking the questions, “Well what about the law?” and “How does the law fit into this process of teaching and nurturing these Gentile churches?” And in that particular context you might draw special note as we read through Thessalonians and really take close notice of the fact that the law is never mentioned persay, the word “commands” and “commands of Christ” are used on several occasions, but when Paul draws very particular attention to that which is ultimately of primary importance to the believer, you’ll notice that there is no instruction about anything as it would relate to keeping a law in some way shape or form. It’s rather an instruction about waiting for Christ until He returns. I think that’s one of the reasons why I like Thessalonians so much is because it’s this resounding simple theme to a Gentile church, how do you wait until the Lord returns and what’s the means and the manner of that waiting?
As we look at this Gentile presentation of waiting and watching, Matthew 22 verse 35 to 40 has a particular doctrinal reference of Christ as it relates a little bit to the law and I’m going to read that and make a comment and then we’re going to go to Jeremiah 31 again. In Matthew 22:35 the Scripture says this, “One of them which was the lawyer asked Him a question tempting Him and saying, ‘Master, which is the great commandment in the law?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it:thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’.” In the context of this discussion that Christ was having, there was a contest going on and there was an attempt by the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the lawyers, the chief priests, there was a contest to see if they could somehow catch Jesus in His words in order to condemn Him. So their motives for asking the question was primarily to set at not Christ the person and bring forth a means of accusing Him that would justify their own displeasure and distaste for Him. In that particular context then, this lawyer tries asking a question, “What’s the greatest commandment? What’s the most significant commandment?” And he’s trying to make an appeal to some error that Christ might make in the process. And He answers of course with this passage that we’re familiar with. It’s perhaps partial rendition of Deuteronomy chapter 6, but He says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind, this is the first and great commandment.” Loving God with everything that we have potential and capacity of doing, loving God. And then He says, the second, He wasn’t asked about the second but He adds it, “The second is like it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” So with that He gives two platforms and then He makes this statement that basically identifies these two platforms as the foundation of the whole wall. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. So briefly He took the entire covenant of old, the Old Covenant, He took the entire thing and He said, everything contained in this covenant is hinged directly to two premises, loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. Loving God in entirety without any exception and loving your neighbor as yourself. It’s a fairly easy doctrine to love your neighbor as yourself because we pretty much know how we want ourselves to be loved. Self love is pretty easy, it comes quick, it comes early. But loving our neighbor as ourselves is a point of comparison and elevating the value of other people to our own value. Those are the premises for all the law. What I’m going to say here in terms of the Thessalonians and watching and waiting, I want you to pay attention real closely when we go through Thessalonians about the discussion on love. Because perhaps more than any other New Testament book, the Thessalonians is a good, it’s a good illustration. The first three chapters really illustrate love as God intended it and the second two chapters teach directly on this necessity of abounding in love. But you’ll sort of see the connection in terms of the New Covenant as love is the place of source for all life and all that pertains to godliness that the Lord has for us in the New Covenant. And I want to draw out Jeremiah 31:31 again which was shared with us last Sunday during the sharing of the Lord’s table. In Jeremiah 31:31, there’s this prophetic discussion of the New Covenant and it says here, “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. And my covenant which they break, although I was an husband to them, saith the Lord, but this shall be the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts and write it on,” listen carefully, write it on what? “The hearts.” There’s the source, the springboard of all that love and life that the Lord is calling us to. “I will write on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people, and,” I like this part, “they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me from the least of them to the greatest, saith the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more.” It’s important for us to understand that when Paul is writing to the Thessalonians he’s writing to a Gentile church who has no history in the law and as he’s bringing about that which is most essential for walking and waiting for the Lord’s return, as he brings that into focus, it’s important for us to understand that he brings in by the New Covenant that which develops the heart and no more. And it’s interesting to note that the commands of Paul and the Thessalonians are completely void of any focus on the Old Covenant at all. It’s all missing, that Old Covenant challenge is completely gone because there’s a new foundation, a new covenant is being established and that’s the covenant based on the blood of Christ, based on the forgiveness of God, but it’s a covenant of the changed heart. And what’s important to understand with Thessalonians is maybe more than any other book that I can recognize in its simplicity, the book of 1 Thessalonians in particular demonstrates New Covenant redemption. In that aspect of the heart being made vital and being changed. Outwardly speaking, when the inward heart is affected and changed there’s going to be much evidence. But the focus is on the heart, the focus isn’t on the outward. The outward benefits from the inward but the inward is not nurtured by the outward, you have to nurture the inward first. So in that particular context then as we move to Thessalonians, just by way of brief update, we’re going to take a brief look at Thessalonians as it relates to watching and waiting until the Lord returns.
Let me give you the outline of Thessalonians and I’m going to start the whole reading by reading this verse, verse 27 of chapter 5 says this, “I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.” Now holiness here is connected to those knowing redemption who are seeking after God. Now if you do not redemption or if you are not seeking after God, you may be excused from this reading. But for those of us who desire to be holy and walk after God, this reading is one of the commands of the New Testament that we would read this. And I think there’s an intended reading in public during the assembly that Paul had in mind. As we read 1 Thessalonians, let me give you a brief outline. When we go through chapter 1Paul is going to draw attention to how the Thessalonians came to Christ and their testimony and he’s going to pay close attention to the vibrancy of the testimony of the Thessalonians. That’s a really instructive section. And chapter 2 Paul is going to turn the corner slightly and he’s going to take a look at his own ministry to them. He’s going to say, “Look at how we’ve behaved among you, this was the means by which we ministered.” So he’s going to take a look at his own ministry and the apostolic team, so to speak, the ministries that they had. And then in chapter 3 you’re going to see an amazing thing. You’re going to see Paul just reveling and rejoicing in a report that he got back from Timothy because Timothy had been sent and had come back with a report and you see the affections of Paul just stirred up as a minister of the Gospel towards these people and it is out of that stirring up of this joy of Paul in his heart for these folks that chapter 4 and 5 come forth. And in chapter 4 and 5 basically are a series of exhortations of how to wait, how to watch and wait until the Lord returns. And he touches on issues that are of particular concern and interest to the Thessalonians. Now the chief interest to the Thessalonians was persecution. That was their chief interest. They were enduring heavy persecution and Paul’s concern for them why he sent Timothy in the first place we’ll find in chapter 3 is because he was wondering how they were managing and if they had believed in vain. But there’s a delight in their response and he gives some further instruction on persecution. And we’ll probably, if the Lord permits, consider 2 Thessalonians in context with 1 Thessalonians because it’s a followable epistle to this and it is based upon some further concerns about persecution.
So with that in mind let us begin. My goal is to spend a little bit more time in chapters 4 and 5, but because Paul thought it fitting to read the epistle to a holy people, I thought maybe that would be a fitting way for us to begin the study. Let’s begin with chapter one. I sometimes feel awkward when I do all of the reading but if you’ll permit me to read it, I’ve prepared a little bit in advance and maybe I can give the understanding at least that I have. And since I have to be the one speaking it’s probably better that I read from that perspective. Beginning in chapter 1 verse 1, 1 Thessalonians, “Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians [which is] in God the Father and [in] the Lord Jesus Christ:Grace [be] unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.” Now one of the benefits that we’re going to gain by reading Paul’s epistle here is to get a little glimpse into how one who is in position of leadership and responsibility to nurture and care for those under them, how he uses the affections that are ours as people to build his ministry on and maintain the substantive necessity of doing the work without getting caught up in perhaps some of the human confusion of it. But we see here, you’ll often see that Paul says these statements, “We give thanks for you always making mention of you in prayer, remembering without ceasing,” and those are common phrases that Paul uses in the beginning of most of his epistles. And it’s interesting to notice that as we get deep into Thessalonians one of the character traits of Paul was he had a strong affection for the people he served. He was caring for people. There were folks in the object of his concern and care and they were in his mind and in his heart. And he was not fulfilling some duty or obligation as just an assignment that had to be executed, but he was completely and fully engaged. And there’s an advantage, brothers and sisters, for you and I especially when you and I have an opportunity of ministry and when we have a duty of service to anyone, there’s an advantage for us. If we by God’s grace can begin to take hold in our hearts the people that we’re serving, that they can be dear to us, and if we can be concerned about them in the Lord as is fitting and is right because that is what brings the natural flow of ministry especially when we find ourselves busy and Paul certainly was a busy minister.
Now in terms of remembering, I want to take note here. There’s a little skill here that I’m asking God to help me develop in my own life. But look what Paul does, “Remembering without ceasing, your work of faith, your labor of love and the patience of hope.” There’s two things that strike me in that statement by Paul. First of all, Paul was giving adequate consideration of the object of his ministry. He was paying close attention to what was taking place and he was observing for real what was the fruit in the lives of those that he was caring for. But he was very specific in his object; he was very specific in his evaluation. But the next thing that I see him doing, he was not only being specific in his object and his evaluation, he was also clinging to certain filters. In other words, when I look at somebody else’s life to evaluate how he’s doing in the Lord, what filters do I put in place to do that evaluation? What do I use? Notice the filters that Paul put in place here. This will not be the only time that you hear these three words used together in Thessalonians. He has three filters here: faith, love and hope. Those are the filters that Paul is evaluating the brethren in terms of their walk. He’s not looking at something different from that which we’re called to, he’s looking to that which is the primary aspect of our call. He’s looking at faith and at hope and at love. And at each one of those three, he makes a personal notation. How are they doing with faith? They have a work of faith. There’s a work of faith going on among the Thessalonians. In other words, they were maturing, they were suceeding in faith, but what happens when I’m succeeding in faith? Works fall out of my life. If I have faith I do something. Faith always leads me to some form of action. Faith in fact you might say is action. It’s an action of obedience to the clear promise and command of God. Someone that has faith has a work. Notice with love, labor of love. What’s the difference between work and labor. Well work of faith as he’s speaking of it there is very substantive in terms of it defines that which I must do and it puts me into the arena of that which must be done. If I am commanded, if the Lord commands me go to town and preach the Gospel in town, faith gets up and goes to town and preaches the Gospel in town. Now when we get to this aspect of labor of love, we suddenly uncover one of the secrets of the New Covenant. The labor of love, we begin to recognize that the human heart engages itself in service to other men. And it holds in its affections the object of his ministry and so that that which I do is not merely a rote completion of an assignment because God called me to do it and I went and did it because I had faith to do it but I become engaged, me, part of me goes into the process and I begin to labor in that which I’m called to do. My faith has a work but my love has a labor. And the word “labor” here signifies more substantially that simple idea that I am holding the welfare and the wellbeing of the one that is the object of my love. I’m holding that in my heart and in my concerns and in my work load if you please. That idea of labor there implies a work load. Then the third item here, that the third lens is hope and always connected to hope is patience, your patience of hope. I’m noticing your patience of hope. A person who properly has hope in place functioning well as a believer, they immediately have patience and rest because they recognize that whatever the thing they’re engaged in directly is, it doesn’t matter whatever it is, whatever they’re directly engaged in, that is not the end, that is not the absolute objective but rather that is part of the pursuit. That is part of the process. That is part of where God has called me, but in that engagement that I’m at, I’m not looking inside that to find my hope fulfilled. I’m looking to God to find my hope fulfilled. In this opportunity I am patient because my hope lies somewhere else. And the whole necessity of service as a believer needs to be built out of these three aspects, these three qualities. I don’t want to take time to go there but you’re familiar with 1 Corinthians 13 and you know all of the discussion about love in 1 Corinthians 13. And there’s a discussion about all kinds of Christian qualities that you can manifest by virtue of the Holy Spirit doing a work through you because the Holy Spirit resides in you. And yet all those gifts and all those things that you can manifest by the Holy Spirit have no personal benefit to you. They have no substantial value in your own personal spiritual life if you don’t have love. Why? Because those are empowerments outside of you by the Holy Spirit according to His will for His service. But what God is after, He’s not just after that you do service for God, He’s after your heart. And the whole issue of the New Covenant is what? “I’m going to put a heart in you.” I love that old passage, “I”m going to take out the stone heart and I’m going to give you an heart of flesh.” What a beautiful picture of the work of God in the New Covenant dealing with the heart. And so Paul summarized 1 Corinthians 13 in that grand statement, “Now abides faith, hope and charity,” or love, “but the greatest of these is love.” And we see here now in the present tense these three lenses of operational spiritual growth are at work in our lives, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these three is love. Why? Because love is only of the three that transcends. When you get to Heaven there’ll be no spiritual gifts. When you get to Heaven there’ll be no faith. When you get to Heaven there’ll be no hope. Why? All those things will have been realized and their purpose will have been set aside because no longer are we children living in the dark, but we’ll be arrived and in the presence of the Father, but love is unfailing, love is unceasing. It’s a continuum by which all eternity will spin on. What we find here then as Paul begins to evaluate these believers, we see him looking at the crux of the matter, “How’s your faith?” “How’s your love,” and “How’s your hope?” Are you working in faith? Are you laboring in love? and Are you having patience in hope? It’s interesting that those are the first three points that Paul brings out. Let’s continue reading.
I’m back in 1 Thessalonians still. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, picking up, I’ll just pick up at verse 3 again. “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.” What an impressive statement! Their faith is in the Lord and it’s in the sight of God. Do you realize what that means just in terms of simple rebuke? It just is a rebuke to man. You and I tend to work out things in the context. We work out things in the context of being approved by people, people pleasers. And the Thessalonians had a testimony simply this:they were at work in their faith, they were laboring in their love and they were patience in their hope, but all of that focus was before God. They were standing before God and that was the issue and that was the essence.
Now, picking it up then verse 4, “Knowing brethren your election of God, for our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord having received the Word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost.” At this particular point, Paul is just bringing the simply glimpse to them about how the Gospel came tothem and what their response was to it. And as he’s bringing that picture of the Gospel coming to them, he prefaces it with this, “We know your election of God,” it is evident that God has desired you to be in His family. That’s very evident from the manifestation ofthe work of the Gospel. And what was that manifestation of the election? He has several things that he points out. The Gospel came not in word only but in power. That is a very interesting statement for you and I to take note of when we’re doing any kind of ministry, whether we’re ministering to our children, whether we’re ministering to a stranger on the street. The question is, do you know how to bring the Gospel not in word only but also in power? Not in word only but also in power. I realize that the power is that which God brings about, is that which God is a part of the engagment. But I want to just say something here in terms of plain English, this Scripture is in its recorded form, in its capacity to be engaged in by the mind of man, this Scripture is without power in and of itself. In other words what I’m trying to say is this, the natural man cannot take a hold of a natural copy of the Scripture and that man cannot come to a knowledge of the Truth. He can come to an academic study of material and he can have that content assimilated and associated according to a logical process that he may impose upon it by his own understanding, but that man cannot come to a knowledge of the Truth. The Word only without power has no avail to natural man and it’s important for you and I to understand that this isn’t voodoo. Christianity is not a voodoo religion where you just have this word and you just kind of smear it around a little bit and it’s going to do a trick, it’s going to work something out. It’s not a voodoo religion. It has to do with the person of God engaging that which is His promise. This is like a note that says from God, “I’ve promised something,” but when I read the note I don’t even understand what He’s promised until His Spirit quickens me and the evidence of election, Paul says, is that the Word of God has connected to it the power of God and the power of God unleashes the Word and makes it do a transforming job. I refer you just for reference back to 1 Corinthians, I think it’s in chapter 2, but in chapter 2 Paul discusses the issue of how the Word comes to us and it has this little statement which has long been a hallmark for me in terms of understanding the Scripture, he says, “Eye has not seen, the ear has not heard and neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.” And they are what? Revealed to him by the Spirit. So this process of the Word going forth is a spiritual process and the leading edge of this work is the work of God, God’s love towards me, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” God is in a love relationship with us. This Gospel message is a love relationship to man. And when I receive this message, I’m receiving the love of God. I’m not just receiving a doctrine about some work Christ did and accepting it on a check off box and say, “Yea I take that and so I’m saved and it has nothing to do with me at all.” No, I’m engaged in the changing of a heart. It’s the heart of God reaching out in love to me to grab my heart and transform me by love. And as love, as my love is stirred up by the redemption of God, I begin receiving from God that which He has for me. And all I can say to you is this, if you are going to pursue holiness by pursuing an exterior form of godliness, in other words, you’re going to put on your Christianity from the outside, you’re going to get things looking right on the outside, you’re going to do the things, you’re going to get back to this Old Covenant law, if that’s the path that you pursue, you’re going to be without power. You’re going to have what Paul said to Timothy, “have a form of godliness, but you are going to be denying, not just without it, you’re going to be denying the power of it because that’s what happens to religious people. When religious people have stature they establish form and they force other people into form. And when other people are forced into form by the stature of those in authority, then all we have is copy cat association, men with men, but we have no power and we have no Gospel and we have no changed lives. And so we find that it’s necessary that the Gospel come not in word only but in power and there is where the living and loving personal God is a part of the situation. And all I can say is that’s God’s call. The Thessalonians are just going to keep redounding this principle repeatedly as Paul speaks to them.
So picking it up then, “The Gospel came not only in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance.” I didn’t mean to exclude the Holy Ghost in my comment about power but obviously the power comes from God but the person of the Holy Spirit is the vehicle for power as I mentioned from 1 Corinthians 2 and then you see we have here this much assurance. Where is the assurance? Who’s assurance is it? Is it the assurance of the speaker? I think perhaps by God’s grace the speaker had assurance when he got there. He came in assurance, he came in obedience of assurance and he’s ministering the Word of God. It’s those who receive the Word that have assurance. When you talk about having faith, faith is that which I am assured of. It’s an assurance of something that’s been promised. And when the Holy Spirit brings something by power, the transforming nature of the Word of God in my heart is when the Holy Spirit transforms my heart in assurance and I begin having a kind of confidence that was never there before. Here’s where I want to stop for a moment and just rebuke you and I who tend to fight doctrinal battles in words, who tend to set up paper tigers of false teaching and tear them down with our tremendous exegesis. God is changing hearts, God is changing the soul of man and it is the soul of man that needs to be reached. And therefore in that process of changing hearts and changing the soul of man, He deals in the bosom of man, He deals right in our most intimate parts. And assurance is that which I am given by God by which my confidence reaches out and I am free from doubt and fear and I lay a hold of that which God has promised. And if God doesn’t give me assurance, His promises mean nothing to me because His promises can’t reach me on the mere package alone. It has to be the work of the Holy Spirit reaching me. So don’t beat down those who are blind and have no assurance with your doctrinal prowess. Try perhaps, in the mercy of God, discovering how to love them and to present the truth faithfully to them and to seek that ministry to them on the perhaps basis; perhaps God will grant them repentance to the coming of the knowledge of the Truth. Gary – (?) Actually what you’re very true, Paul reflects that all the time. He demonstrates his concern and he says, “I pray night and day. You’re always on my mind.” It’s a burden of ministry. Please understand that when I say, “You don’t beat somebody over the head with doctrine,” I’m not trying to say that doctrine has no value. The accurate, proper presentation of the Truth cannot at all hurt anyone. There’s nothing wrong with it and it’s absolutely necessary and valuable. What I’m trying to point out though is that the ministry of the Gospel is not merely in getting words accross correctly, but the ministry of the Gospel is reaching heart and it’s a transforming heart and it has to be a ministry done by the power of God through the Holy Spirit changing the inner heart of man to assurance of that which he had no assurance of before. And that’s a spiritual work and you and I can’t do it. That’s only what God can do and I ask you a question, has it happened to you? Are you a believer that has assurance? Do you have assurance? Do you know that you know that you know? Or are you a tag-along? It’s so easy to have tag-alongs in a group like this. I believe for the most part, most of the families in this room are first generation Christians, in one way shape or another. And we have a lot of second and third generation believers in the room and it’s easy to be a second generation Christian who thinks you are because you’ve participated in the outward form but you never connected; you’ve never experienced the transforming power of God. God has never gotten a hold of your heart and your person and you become a different person by the assurance of the Holy Ghost in your own heart. And if that hasn’t happened to you, I don’t care what your doctrine is and I don’t care what you believe about Jesus, you haven’t believed Jesus, you haven’t come to Him in personal and living faith. Let’s go on.
Picking up at verse 6 he says, “You became followers of us and of the Lord having received the Word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost.” Now it’s interesting to note here that he begins the first mention of their personal persecution they were experiencing and he mentions that the very time that the Gospel was being delivered, during the very delivery of the Gospel persecution was breaking out upon these people. And so they received the Word in affliction. And notice, “with joy in the Holy Ghost.” Joy in the Holy Ghost always connects to patience in our hope. We’re patient in tribulation and the love of God sheds abroad in our heart and we have a joy in tribulation that comes from the Holy Ghost. And it’s an unusual joy but it comes from the assurance that we have that what we believe is true and that we have a hold of the right thing. You know when it really comes down to it, the most eloquent and the most convincing argument that the Gospel is true is when those people who believe it can endure mockery and persecution for it and give evidence of it by their endurance. And there’s a significant need for you and I to give evidence of the Gospel being true by our ability and our victory in patient endurance in tribulation. That’s what we’re called to and we’re called to it all of us, no one being exempted.\par Verse 7, “So then you were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.” I want you to understand something. As Paul goes on here, he’s going to talk about these Thessalonians as if they had conducted a vast evangelism campaign and had reached all of Achaia. But I want you to hear what’s happening. “You were examples to all that believe.” Their response to the Gospel was so genuine that it was their response that became the evidence that others picked up. And it perhaps, it appears that even those who knew not the Lord carried the Word of the faith of these Thessalonians into the far reaching out places of Achaia as their testimony abounded in the sight of their persecution. Verse 8 says this, “For from you sounded out the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place your faith towards God is spread abroad so that we need not speak anything.” That’s an interesting picture. The spreading abroad of the Gospel by people who haven’t left their home. That’s an amazing testimony. How many times do we send people all around with the Gospel and in all their going the Gospel doesn’t get anywhere. We’ve got people attempting to spead the Gospel and noone’s hearing it. This is pretty tough. This is the reality of the living God getting a hold of people in a living way. They had a testimony that spead abroad into every place because of how God transformed them. He said, “We didn’t need to speak anything.” He didn’t have to say, “You should see those Thessalonians.” Before Paul could get a word out they said, “Have you heard of the Thessalonians? I heard about them. They’re like you Paul.” They hadn’t heard of Paul yet but they heard of the Thessalonians, interesting. (Where’s Achaia?) I believe that Achaia is the general region. Macedonia is an associated group of cities states and then Achaia was another little bit larger overspread region. Paul was writing from Athens in Greece at the time and the testimony was reaching Athens.
Verse 9, “For they themselves show us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” That’s an interesting phrase first of all because if you’re thinking of it as a minister of the Gospel and you’re thinking of it, “How effective was my ministry in that town I visited?” Paul takes a look at the Thessalonians and he says, “These people in Athens here are telling us about our ministry to you.” That’s pretty impressive. How many times do you want to tell a testimony of your ministry to someone. Paul was hearing about his own ministry. That’s pretty substantial, that’s pretty encouraging. “And how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” Notice the substance. We talked earlier about repentance. And what is repentance primarily? It’s turning. And here is the picture of the Thessalonians. The Thessalonians had a testimony of repentance. They had a substantial testimony of repentance and they turned simply from idols to God. What were the idols? Well perhaps they were literally the idols and gods of that day because it’s most likely true that every Gentile was caught up in some form of idolatry. So literally there were idols involved. But specifically the idols were those things that the whole Gentile community as a whole participated in and longed after. (tape turned here)….their repentance was against the cultural pride of their day and it was separating themselves from that which was common and that which was dear from that which was well loved and well received. And they rose up and they said, “No more.” And it’s interesting to note that when repentance truly strikes the heart of a believer, those who still are walking in the error, feel the sting of that person’s repentance because they shake off and disconnect themselves entirely from that old manner of living. And just the very nature of repentance, turning away from and turning to, that very nature stands out as a mark and testimony. And these people, these other Gentile people, in Athens, in Achaia, everywhere else in Macedonia, they were all talking about the Thesslonicans, they were all talking about them. If you had happened upon one of their conversations it might not have been a very pleasant talk that you overcame. You might have heard them moaning and groaning, “Did you hear about those ungrateful people? They gave up all they had, they just piled it up in a pile and burned them and,” on and on and on. They were all up in a tizzy because somebody took a stand and went against the grain. How often do we in our American culture have no clue left? We have no clue left. We are so politicized as it comes to means of affecting society, we think the only means of affecting society is getting a bill passed, sending notes to your congressman, hollaring at the President, “Fix these laws, change these things, do better,” when we forget that all the time the Christian has in their power absolutely the most substantial means of impacting the world because through our own repentance what do we do? We just say, “I’m not going to go that way anymore and I’m going to live in a way that’s different and I’m going to do it and I don’t care what you say.” And I have nothing more to do and I rise up and I turn from that which is the idols of my day and I lay a hold of God with all my might. I tell you what, when you repent and you turn away from the idols of your day and lay a hold of God with all your might, it’ll be seen, it’ll be evident. It’s the door opener for persecution, absolutely.
Let’s go on. “So from you,” verse 8, “sound out the Word not only in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place, your faith in God is spread abroad so that we need not speak anything; for they themselves show us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” Verse 10, “And to wait for His Son from Heaven whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who has delivered us from the wrath to come.” That little last verse there you could take as the primary theme verse for chapter 1 for the Thessalonians. But it’s this picture of people who were busily occupied in the commotion of Gentile living in their communities and in their towns. And by the power and the love and the grace of God the Gospel reaches into them and lays a hold of them and they are starkly startled and they turn away from idols and they turn to the living God. And what do they do? They repent in such a manner that they completely disinvest themselves from the world and its pursuits, from its hopes and its dreams, from its politics and its pleasures. They disconnect, they’ve had it, they’re through. But what do they do? They move into this incredible stage which I call the actual stage of an obedient believer since Christ died until He returns, they’re in the waiting mode. Now they’re waiting. What are they waiting for? They’re waiting for God’s Son to come from Heaven. That’s what we’re waiting for. We’re waiting for Jesus to return. What are you waiting for? We’re waiting for Jesus. So this picture of testimony of faith from the Thessalonians, it’s a real simple pattern here that’s absolutely incredible, by the love of God and the power of the Spirit, they are transformed and they turn from idols to the living God and they wait and they rest and they say, “Jesus is coming, what do I do while I’m waiting?” And it clarifies this Jesus because there’s this twinge of hope there and hope is a part of the package of course, “even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come.” I like the tenses that are used sometimes in Paul’s writings. “Jesus delivered us,” past tense, “from the wrath to come,” future tense. I tell you that’s assurance and that’s the Thessalonians, they had assurance – much assurance. Jesus Christ did a work on Calvary, finished, sealed, done, absolutely nothing can be ever added to it, He’s just waiting for one thing and that’s the command from the Father to come and He’s coming. He comes when the command goes. And that finished past work is done and my anticipation of the future is, “The wrath to come, I’m exempt from. I’m exempt from the wrath to come.” And there’s where the hope is and there’s where the transfer is. I want to tell you something, this is a simple point of the Gospel but it’s absolutely imperative that we walk in it, today I can only walk in repentance and disassociation from the world’s system, I can only do that today to the degree and to the means by which what? By the means which I have actually laid a hold of that hope that I am waiting for Jesus and Jesus when He comes I’m not going to be ashamed, I’m not going to be afraid when He comes because He’s coming for me. He’s coming for me with all the promises ever written down in the Bible, these promises which He has woven into my heart deeply with the fabric of emotion and assurance and He’s coming for me and I can’t wait and I’m looking forward to that and that’s the testimony that I have as a believer. I’m a waiter, I’m waiting on God and I’m waiting for my redemption and I have no fear of that day but the rest of the world has fear.
There’s quite a bit talked about in Thessalonians on the second coming of the Lord’s return and it’s all talked about in a practical context. I have a little bit of time let’s try chapter 2. Picking up chapter 2 verse 1, “For yourselves brethren know our entrance unto you that it was not in vain, but even after we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated as you know at Philipi, we were bold in our God to speak unto the Gospel of God with much contention.” What Paul’s referring to here you can go back in the book of Acts and you can read the passings of Paul. He went to Philipi and was treated terribly, came the next day to Thessalonians and was treated terribly and then he went to Berea. And you all are familiar with, I think it’s Acts 10:15 or 15:10, but those of Berea were more noble than those of Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind and they searched the Scripture daily to see if those things were true, therefore also many believed. But this picture of the Thessalonicans, the general climate of those in Thessalonica, the Jews and the larger population, they had a bad testimony, they were not noble minded, they did not care about really finding the Truth. So this little flock, this little tiny flock of believers that were established were isolated and were all alone and Paul is reminding of this picture of the entrance. But he says one thing, it wasn’t in vain. Why does Paul so frequently use that word, “in vain?” You’ll find it in most of his epistles when he’s talking to believers. He wonders and he worries about him having preached to them in vain. He said, “our work among you was in vain,” and sometimes it takes a very personal note. It takes a personal note like, “I nearly died in your town and that’s fine I don’t have a problem unless you don’t continue in Christ because if it was a labor in vain, then why did I bother?” It’s sort of like Paul doesn’t mind investing his life for eternal fruit but he’s really careful that something really takes place and that it really reaches the heart. And you know what’s interesting to notice that in that care that Paul has for eternal fruit, he’s not so much depending on himself to bring the eternal fruit in, what is he depending on? He’s depending on the genuineness of their belief, why? Because when a man genuinely believes God, what happens? The Holy Spirit gets a hold of that person and the Holy Spirit does the work. And Paul said to the Philipians that another group that he was there a short time, He that began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And Paul’s question was really the question of, “Did the work really begin? Did you really believe? Did you really lay a hold of that or were you just one of those gainsayers, you stood there for the time and tagged along while it was convenient but it was all in vain and there was no fruit left in it.” But it was not in vain and he was rejoicing in that and so they were bold to speak the Gospel, right in the middle of contention, verse 3, “For our exhortation was not of deceit or uncleanness nor in guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men but which tries the hearts.” By the way if you want a model for speaking the Gospel, there’s a model for you. What a simple picture. He kind of compares two motivations and evidently it is possible for men to want this occupation of preaching the Gospel even though perhaps they’re not even saved and don’t even know the Lord. It’s possible for people to enjoy this occupation. I dare say that this has happened much throughout many years in history and the fact of the matter is the Scripture warns about those who are teachers and have led many astray, themselves preventing others from entering the Kingdom. But here’s this comparative model. Let’s compare the two models. What’s the nature of a wordly preacher? Their exhortations are out of deceit or uncleanness or with guile. They have motives that are not pure, they’re in it for themselves, they’re after the gain. But when Paul sites his own testimony notice the words he chooses. First of all he says, “As we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel.” He first sees it as the fact that it’s not something that he could call himself to. It’s not a ministry that he could just engage in because he wants to. He just can’t sit there and say, “I think I need to do this,” Paul had to be called. You might remember the calling. He was busy, occupied in Antioch, fasting and ministering with the elders of the church and it was the Holy Spirit that said, “Separate unto me Paul and Barnabus,” it was God Himself that chose Paul for the work. So Paul was very sensitive to that fact that the opportunity was given to him by God. This was a special privilege and he calls it a trust. God put me in trust. I had something that now I’m bound to give an account for and I have an obligation to be certain that this Gospel that I’ve been entrusted with has been passed on vigorously and carefully and with great care. Dean – ( .. What’s the difference?) Thank you that’s a great question. That’s an excellent question. What’s the difference between the Great Commission when Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel,” and Paul here talking about it as a trust and a call, a very particular and very unique and something you don’t take on to yourself. What’s the difference between the two? Well I think, well can I answer that? I think you’re right and I think to make it really simple perhaps, Dean, I can say it like this, if you look at the Great Commission in the Greek, I believe that the Greek says something to this effect that “as you go, preach the Gospel.” In other words, you and I are to filled with as the Thessalonians were the genuine reality of a faith transformed. We’re walking around in assurance of faith and I tell you what when I was a new believer, until somebody messed with my mind and tried to get me in some kind of a doctrinal escapade of some sort that was ridiculous and unprofitable, until that happened you just didn’t want to get around me because I didn’t have anything to say but I was just bubbling out. I would walk up to any stranger and I didn’t even plan on it, it wasn’t something I ever thought of it was just, Jesus. It just came out and so the first question Dean is the responsibility of the heart. I’m a genuine soul and I’m headed for a Kingdom, I’m not looking around here, my hope is not planted here and so I have a testimony and who I am is a constant testimony that reaches out. It seems to me that personal mininstry is what we’re all called to. One hundred percent of us are called to personal ministry wherever God has put us. That’s a very distinct opportunity. But it also seems to me that if you look at the Scripture carefully, personal ministry happens to occur outside of my testimony preceeding me so that Peter said in his little epistle chapter 3 he said, “Be ready to give an answer to him that asks you for the hope that lies within you and do it with meekness and fear.” That’s an interesting challenge by Peter because Peter was obviously aware that if you have a hold of the Spirit of God and if your obedience to God is whole and real and you are turning like these Thessalonians from idols to God, the evidence that you have a different hope is spilling out of you and that evidence is going to cause the people out there who don’t have your hope to be quizzical of you. I know I’ve told this before but I remember that one time that I was in a real estate office and I’m in the middle of the room and doing business with one lady, doing punch lists or something as a carpenter and we were expecting Abby our fourth born and I made some comment to that effect of expecting the fourthborn and she was shocked and asked me if I was Catholic and then asked me if I was Mormon. I said, “No,” and she said, “What are you?” And I at that moment I remembered 1 Peter chapter 3, “Be ready to give an answer to him that asks the hope that lies within you.” And I realized I have children because of what God did in my heart. There is repentance that happened in me and I turned away from the idols of the world and their view of life and things and I turned to God and I said, “This is something that God has ordained and I’m going to lay a hold of God with all my heart,” and I had a testimony. So all I did at that moment when I was asked was give a testimony and I said, “I’m a good business man.” Of course I was in a business office and that was the occasion. They said, “Well what do you mean?” I said, “Well I have long term investments and I’m sending it all, everything I’ve got I’m putting into stuff I can take with me.” And she just looked at me in this kind of dazed amazement. And then the result was I spent an hour witnessing in that room with all the ladies hearing, then the chief lady in the office privately besought me. She had a boy that had trouble, I witnessed to her, she accepted Christ, her son ended up in a Christian school and he accepted Christ and then this lady that I originally spoke to, she brought me home and wanted me to do a deck on her house. But that was the facade, what she really wanted was she wanted me in her house because she wanted me to witness to her husband. She had me witnessing to her husband for about two hours as a part of a bid.
There’s the explosion of personal ministry. As you go you witness and you mess up everything you do by speaking the Gospel. So there is that side of it. Then the other side of it is the fact that there needs to be a call, there needs to be a particular calling to a particular place to a particular people at a particular time and we really have to deal in the sense of the call. You might say, there’s not much teaching in the Scripture about call. If you look at Paul’s life you’ll get a pretty good instruction on the issue of what the Bible teaches about the call because the first call is to repentance. So you do that. “Faithful is He that called you who will also do it.” As I begin to respond to God and I begin this personal walk, then God begins to what? He begins to be my God and I’m no longer mine, I don’t own myself I’m bought with a price and I have an obligation to glorify God in the deeds of my body. So I begin to be what? A faithful servant and he that’s faithful in little things God will set over much. So the appointment to higher and more specific opportunities of ministry, that comes from the Master looking at your faithfulness. So God is about the business of developing faithfulness in His children, all of us, and He wants to appoint us all to greater works of faithfulness if we’ll be faithful servants in the little work we have. The fact of the matter is there needs to be a call and Paul saw himself as called before the foundation of the world. He was called to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles and he saw the call specific and it was specific in development and specific in actuality and you know what? No one else had the substantial ministry that Paul had either because that was what God had called him to. If God’s calling me to do something, He’s also infusing in me both the vision and the ability and the provisions so all those things come together. He’s going to infuse in me both the vision and the resources and the capacity. He’s going to put it all together. I’m going to have a vision for the work, He’s going to give me training for it, I’m going to have the skills, and He’s going to provide for it. Practically is real easy. Learn to be faithful in the little things you’ve already got. What are you doing right now? Today measure your life. Today, where I am I? What am I doing? What has God called me to? Am I faithful in it? If you can’t answer today that you were faithful in today’s call then you don’t have any worry about tomorrow because you haven’t learned to be faithful today. God is in the process of appointing. You fill up your faithfulness as a servant. When today is over if you did a good job you sit down and say, “Lord, I’m an unfaithful servant, I’ve only done what I should have done,” and you have no sense of building up ego and pride that you’re some great servant. You just do what God calls you to and you do it faithfully. And it’s in that faithfulness of this execution that God is training me and building me. Promotion doesn’t come from the east or from the west, promotion comes from the Lord. Some of this aspect of call that we’re talking about here is the aspect of God promoting us, promoting us to a different work, a larger work, a specific work.
Men see things by appearance. As men look at things, men look at things like this: one day I want to be Bill Gothard. We find some great servant of God that the Lord has used and raised up and done mighty things with and we set that as the object of our affection and we say, “Wow.” It’s easy for men to look at a position and aspire to it like the Gentiles do. Gentiles are always aspiring to positional authority, to positional importance. And Christ said, “No, you’re called to Me not as the Gentiles lording it over, basking in the grandness of the goodness and the greatness of who you are, no you’re called to be a servant of everybody. That’s the call of a servant. I’m calling you to be a servant.” Paul said, “You know what, I found out that we apostles, we’re the offscouring of the earth. We’re the bottom line of dredge because we just pour out ourselves in ministry to those who need the Gospel.” When I’m looking at it, it’s looking at its faithfulness. If God calls me to minister to a youth group and that’s His calling at that time, that’s still temporal temporary flat surface today I need to be faithful in that thing and if I am faithful in this thing, He’s going to use that and that is going to be a training ground and I’m going to grow from there to the next level and to the next purpose and focus. There always is training. I will admit, young people listen to this because this is exciting for you guys, I will admit this that if you young people will lay a hold of God young, you’ll get serious if you’ll have true repentance and let the transforming motivation of God be yours when you’re little, guess what’s going to happen to you? Well when you get to be our age, you’re going to already be having a track record of faithfulness of service to God and God’s going to be able to tap you on the shoulder and He’s going to be able to put you in Dohnavur over in India and minister and rescue and impact Christians for ages and ages. The reality is, there’s no limit to the possibilities of what God may have for us and our point of entrance is not necessarily a point of positional entrance, it’s a point of obedient entrance. And the question is, do I know how to be a faithful servant? There are many people, don’t ever forget this, there are many people who are in lofty positions that appear to be great servants and ministers of God who perhaps don’t even know God, who Christ Himself isn’t even going to own when it comes to judgment day and Christ is going to say, “Depart from Me ye workers of iniquity for I never knew you.” That’s going to be true of many people who appear today to have somewhat of a significant ministry before men. So faithfulness is a stewardship.
Mark – (One aspect that I thought of too is that passage about “you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth,” was the idea that the context of that was going back to verse 4 where Jesus says just to wait because you don’t have the Holy Spirit. The aspect of this whole conversation that until they received the Holy Spirit just stay put. Stay where you’re at and once they received the Holy Spirit then they were sent out and then Peter, we think of denying Christ, but once he had the Holy Spirit he was a powerful man of God.)
Number one: That’s right and that is a good model, Acts 1 is a good model of this picture of going out with the Gospel because first the Holy Spirit has to change me and I have to be empowered and there’s no sense of you going off somewhere if you don’t have the power of the Holy Spirit to try do something with the Gospel,.
Number two: notice the second part of the pattern. It starts local, right where I am. I’m here in Jerusalem. That’s the first place of obedience and then the expansion occurs by my faithfulness in the first place, Judea gets hit. And then the expansion occurs when that faithfulness gets displaced, Samaria gets hit and then through persecution or whatever, God expands it again and it goes on to Antioch and the uttermost parts of the earth. That process of advancement and promotion that comes from the Lord. That’s part of the call and of course that’s God’s game plan, but the issue is you only reach it ever by faithfulness today in the little things and I guarantee you, this is the way I’ve been. I’m one of these guys that are slower, I’m these 20 year guys sitting back here taking forever to figure something out, but part of my problem is I struggle with the desire to be someone, to be a leader, to be a minister or whatever. From the time I was a little boy I’ve always wanted to be important. I’ve always wanted to be important to God. Those are not the motives that make up a servant of the Gospel. Look at the motive. Paul’s motive is pretty clear, it’s real simple. It’s not sweeping. Look what he says here, “Not pleasing men but God who tries the hearts” – a simple model, not pleasing men but God who tries the heart. And God’s in the business of trying hearts. God’s in the business of trying hearts.
I remember when I was in Bible college, I so desperately wanted to be in ministry. I had to always be in ministry. I applied to a certain ministry position and I felt personnally that I was well qualified for the position. What are you laughing at me for? So in my well qualification I go and I make this appointment and I have to meet with a godless, wordly psychiatrist for the post because it was a state home for boys, it was a Christian home for boys with state money, or whatever. Part of the interview was this state guy. I started trying to plot and be a men pleaser, “What does it take to please this guy so that he’ll give me a good checkoff?” And I’m measuring everything trying to be pleasing. I figured it all out and I felt like I aced this thing, if they don’t call me they’re stupid. I remember waiting a while and I didn’t get the call and I finally called back and they said, “We chose somebody else.” And I remember getting hit with a ton of bricks, “Chose somebody else?!” At the time I was a janitor of this little building in Silver Spring and I was in the stairway painting these metal stairs, you know the cement stairs with the metal trim and I’m painting these stairs and I’m mad and I start saying this to God. I said, “God I’ll show you, I’ll show you that I can minister. I’m going to go out there and I’m going to do a ministry and You’re going to have to smile because it’s going to be good.” I was so angry about being rejected for ministry. In the mercy of God and the victory of the Holy Spirit, the Lord permitted my motives to be so clear so that His Holy Spirit could convict me of my sin and He broke me and He showed me, “You just want is ministry, it’s all you want. You just want to be, and I don’t want you to want to be. I want you to want Me. I want you to be nothing for me.” So at that moment I confessed and said, “O.k. Lord, I’ll only go where You send me.” And I broke and I surrendered and you know the amazing thing happened was I got home that very day and the pastor and his wife were at my house and they said this to me, this is the Holy Spirit’s work of course in His timing, they said, “You know the elders and I have been praying and we really feel that God’s calling you to service and we’d like to come along side you and help you in the ministry. Would you be interested in working with us, walking with us?” Deep down in side there was this little sense of “Oh Lord You’re so awesome, Your ways are perfect.” He crushed my wrong motive and then when I was crushed in repentance, He gave me a ligitimate opportunity. And that effort of that church is what placed me in Frederick county. I’ve been here 21 years in June. And obedience to that call and there have been ups and downs and what have you, but I think I know what it means a little bit to have a call and to obey God in that call and be faithful there and not be looking somewhere else in the process. It’s not that I don’t have something more to learn at all, don’t get me wrong, but ambitions for men are always inadequate for serving God and God wants us to be those who hold in trust the precious privilege of sharing the Gospel message. May that be our trust.
