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INTRODUCTION:
The early church was a dynamic, growing church that turned the world of its day upside down! In spite of incredible opposition and terrible persecution – first from the Jewish authorities and then from the might of the Roman Empire itself – the church began and grew so dynamically that within 300 years the Roman Empire had surrendered to the gospel of Christ and many turned to Christ.
I imagine the days where people from every walk of life come to church and worship Jesus Christ. I dream of days where common people, gang members, drug dealers, prisoners, politicians, and other influential leaders are transformed by the gospel. Well, it all happened in the pages of Acts. How was this possible? What was it about the early church believers that withstood strong opposition and conquered the hearts of the people around the globe?
Today we will see the qualities of the NT believers that made them the model church. We are going to see how we can be the model church of Bangalore city?
Two weeks back we started a series on 1 Thessalonians and we saw some qualities of the believers of the church at Thessalonica.
V1 – Union in Christ. The believers were rooted in God. They identified themselves in Christ.
V2-3 Their energy – Work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope.
3. THEIR ELECTION.
Paul is exhorting them that they were elected by God.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-5 2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, 4 knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. 5 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.
Paul is saying that God elected them. Paul is saying that when they preached the gospel to them, when they preached the Word of God – It was spoken in power, the Holy Spirit convicted them and they were saved. You see the ideal church is a saved church. How do people get saved? Salvation happens when the word is spoken in power, where the Holy Spirit convicts the people, people are transformed, and they give their heart to the Lord. The Thessalonian church was elected by God. Every saved believer is the elect of God.
I believe you are here at City Harvest not by chance but you are elected by God. God has chosen you. God is at work in your life. You are not an ordinary person; you are God’s elect, Amen. People may fail you, your family may fail you but God will never fail you, so don’t worry you are elected by Him.
Now the question is: Are we elected by God or did we choose God? Which is it? Is salvation predestination of God or decision by people? Is it that God elected some and only those who are elected are going to heaven or is it people’s own personal decision to follow Christ? Our answer is our election is both predestination and human decision. You see, salvation is open to all, but God in his wisdom knows who will eventually make the decision to follow Him.
God the Father says you were saved before the foundations of the world, God wants everyone to be saved. Jesus says you are saved at Calvary, Jesus died for all. The Holy Spirit says you are saved only in the moment we made the decision to trust in Christ’s sacrifice for our sins and accept Jesus as our personal saviour. The choice of salvation is open to all but the decision is made by man. Our election is 2 ways, God elects and we elect. Now God has foreknowledge of who will be saved but we do not or else we could evangelize the predestined and leave the rest.
Our election also gives us a responsibility, to share the gospel. How many people did we share the gospel to last week? Do we pray for lost souls? Do we share our testimony to others? We are the elect and we have a responsibly to share this message to others. The Thessalonian church was an elect of God. They participated in sharing the gospel message and we the elect at City Harvest have the responsibility to share the gospel.
4. THEIR TESTIMONY.
The believers of Thessalonica had great testimony. In Acts 17 we can find the worldly people testifying about this church. When Paul preached at Thessalonica, some Jews and many Greeks accepted the Lord. The non-believing Jews attacked the house of Br. Jason and brought him to the rulers of the city and see what they said: Acts 17:6 They dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” What a testimony the unbelievers are saying about the Christians – “These that have turned the world upside down.”
I really do not know what your neighbours are calling you. It will be great if people could look at us and tell, ‘You are a Christian, you are so loving, you are a different person altogether, I can trust you etc.” We need to safeguard our testimony.
1 Thessalonians 1:6-7 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe.
Paul is telling that as we followed the Lord, you too are following our example and now have become an example to others. The believers had great testimony among the nonbelievers and within the believers they were great examples. They followed the good examples of Paul and Silas and now their testimony went far and wide. We need to have great testimony and be good examples, to believers as well as nonbelievers. That will make us a model believer.
It is mandatory to safeguard our testimony. Young timothy was charged by Apostle Paul to be a good example. 1 Timothy 4:12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.
Speech:
How is our speech? People should look at the way we speak and see Christ in us.
Joke: One man said to his friend, “When my wife is angry she starts shouting at my, my children, and even our dogs and nobody answers her.” His friend asked, “What do you do when you are angry?” He said, “When I get angry I also shout angrily at the windows, doors, and the floor and none of them dare answer me back.”
Conduct:
Conduct means behaviour. How do we carry ourselves at our homes, offices, and neighbourhood? How is our dressing?
Love:
Love has to be practiced in our day-to-day life. The Bible says 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.
Faith:
When everything fails in human sight and human capacity that is when we can be great examples of faith. We will not be shaken because our security is not on earthly things, our security is in the Lord.
Purity:
Purity is the pureness of life. It is a great challenge to live holy in this corrupt generation. God is asking us to be examples of purity. Let pursuing holiness be the main motto of our life.
Set examples in speech, conduct, love, Faith, and purity of life. Be good examples.
Illustration: We have all seen the rope. You can pull a rope behind you, but you can’t push it! Lead the way, give people good steps to follow in!
If all in the leadership practice good example, the church, congregation will become great examples. Slowly the world outside will see Christ likeness in us. The believers at Thessalonica were doing just that. If each one of us can do that, our testimony and example can show Christ to the world. I am not telling that we can never make mistakes, no but striving to be good, striving to be sinless, striving to follow what we preach. Overall being a good example of blamelessness.
5. THEIR ENTHUSIASM.
1 Thessalonians 1:8 For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything.
Paul is telling everyone has heard about you, their enthusiasm said it all. There is no need for any advertisement for a good church. A model church automatically gets popular for the Gospel. The church at Thessalonica was “famous for the gospel.” We need to become famous for nothing but the gospel.
For from you the word of the Lord has sounded out: “Sounded out” is the idea of blowing a trumpet. Enthusiasm comes from the Greek words ‘en theos’ means in God! It is the enthusiasm about the word of God. We can have enthusiasm just by being in God.
Illustration: I once heard the story of a very enthusiastic fisherman. One evening he had only 1 fish left in his icy barrel. A lady asked for a big fish and he reached in and showed it to her. She wanted a bigger one so he reached in and grabbed it again and said with great enthusiasm, how about this one?! She wanted something bigger so he grabbed it again and jumped up and down with his fish and said, “How about this one?” She turned back to him and said, “They are all too small, I guess I will take all three.”
We cannot show too much enthusiasm, it should speak for itself. We can put up lots of hoardings, put up advertisements all over but we need not have to. Our enthusiasm should speak of itself and I appreciate your enthusiasm for the gospel here at City Harvest. Your participation in services, programs, prayers speaks for itself. The best advertisement is when people are enthusiastic about the church. God wants our enthusiasm to reach out to the city of Bangalore.
Illustration: We get calls from different advertising companies, mainly yellow pages to advertise our website and church, but we don’t have to. We have become famous for the word and famous of the gospel.
Today this city knows City Harvest AG Church Bangalore. All this could happen because of your enthusiasm. We need not speak anything; our enthusiasm in our ministry says it all. Praise God.
6. THEIR EXPECTANCY.
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 9 For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
The believers at Thessalonica faced persecution, difficulties, poverty, pain, and suffering but what kept them going in spite of all this was their expectancy that Christ is coming back again. They knew Jesus was coming and they lived in the light of that coming.
The coming of the Lord should motivate all believers to continue the good work. Even if we are not rewarded here, we have a reward time coming. We will be rewarded in full for our faith, our suffering, our sacrifices that we make for the Lord. This hope keeps a believer going.
A model believer expects the return of Christ every day. This is the great event that we are waiting for. The Bible is full of prophetic teachings about his coming. We preach Christ coming and our expectancy makes us the ideal church. In spite of all what is happening, the coming of the Lord enables us to continue the good work in us.
CONCLUSION:
Remember, you are a part of a great church. City Harvest is here to make a difference. We the staff, the ministerial team, and the members are labouring in the Lord to build a church that is rooted in the word and making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are striving to be a model church in this city. Let’s ask God to give us to grace to be model believers like the NT church. Amen.
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