Being busy for the Lord
An 80 year old lady called the police station on her cell phone and requested assistance. It seems someone had broken into her car when she was in the mall and totally destroyed the interior. They had ripped out both the steering wheel and the radio and she didn’t know how she was going to get home.
So, they sent a patrol car to the scene and the officer called the station and said, “The situation is all cleared up.” Apparently, she got in the back seat by mistake.
1 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.
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, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; 4 Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.
5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. 6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost. 7 So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
8 For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak anything. 9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye 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, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
I went to one of those restaurants where they tell you to sit at the bar until your table is ready. I think, it’s just a gimmick to get you to buy a drink or something and rather than spend any more than I intended, I decided I’d enjoy a free snack from their pretzel bowl on the counter. So, I took one and as I did a voice came from inside the bowl that said, ‘You are a very polite person.’
Well, needless to say, I was a little shaken and then I figured it had to be some kind of a promotional trick and rather than appear stupid, I just ignored it. A few minutes later, when I decided to have another pretzel I heard the voice a second time and it said, ‘You are a very kind individual.’
Well, I was so amazed I said to the guy behind the counter, ‘What’s with this pretzel bowl.” And he said, ‘Oh, it’s complimentary.’ (Some of you may have to think a while.)
In the study guide book they wanted me to remind you of the dangers involved in driving particularly for those who first get behind the wheel because most of us forget not only the power but the sheer weight of an automobile.
We have two kids, John who is now 26 and Caitlin who is 24 and when each of them were about fourteen or fifteen, I said, “Do you want to learn to drive and of course they both said, “sure.”
Back then, we lived about five or six miles from Sackville NB and we were on a road where the pavement ended and then a dirt road went up into the woods for about two miles and that’s where the kids learned to drive.
I’d let them drive as slow and then as fast as they wanted until they were comfortable with the car. And after a couple of months they took driver’s education and they got their license. And basically, what the government and I both wanted to know by both their written and driving test was, “Will they be responsible drivers.”
In this passage Paul was writing to the believers of Thessalonica to tell them they had passed the test as far as their faith was concerned because he saw a great deal of responsibility among them in terms of their being examples to everyone around them.
And there’s something you have to understand; these Thessalonians were Greek and since this book had been written long before the invention of the printing press; they really didn’t have too much to go on; except what they had heard from Paul’s visits and his two visits had only lasted two or three weeks. And keep in mind that very few had access to the Old Testament scriptures unless they attended the synagogue to hear them read or they had some of the scriptures written by hand.
So, this little book of Thessalonians may have been the only piece of scripture they actually had.
So, these two letters, first and second Thessalonians were written to a young church that was trying to survive but reach out to an extremely dangerous world. These believers were experiencing rejection by both the Jewish and Gentile world and within twenty years; the entire Middle East would be involved in warfare and rebellion. And the armies of Rome would surround the city of Jerusalem and following a bloody siege, the city would be overrun, the temple would be destroyed, and the Jews were all taken captive. And as far as the Romans were concerned, the Christians were nothing more than Jewish cult. So, needless to say, these new believers were facing very difficult days.
There are a number of reasons why First Thessalonians is of special interest to believers in Christ today and one of them is that this is the first New Testament letter that was written and it’s significant because of the rich doctrinal content of Pauline teaching.
And in it are many important truths pertaining to the Christian life and in every chapter the theme of the coming of the Lord is prominent.
And although this church was less than a year old; the believers of Thessalonica seemed to be familiar with the great truths of the Christian faith, such as salvation, sanctification, assurance, the Trinity, the nature of man, resurrection, and the Day of the Lord.
So, they were new believers with plenty of trials who were not only facing persecution from without but also some of their number had gone on to be with the Lord. And so, with this in mind; Paul is writing to comfort, exhort and instruct these new believers.
Someone once asked a seminary professor how many points should a good message have, and he said, at least one. I’m going to aim for three this morning and the first one is the introduction to the book which we’ll see in verse1 and the second is their response to the message in verses 2-5 and the third is the results of their response in verses 6-10.
I Introduction
In verse 1 Paul introduces himself and his fellow believers by saying 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.
And he indicates that these people or this church were in God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son. In other words, these were children of God and what made them children of God was that they had been born again.
Now, when I say that I’m sure a few of you are thinking, not the same old thing. Why does every preacher feel he has to evangelize us? We’ve been listening to this since we were in diapers. And if you hang around long enough, you’ll be in diapers again but the message will never change. Everyone needs to be born again.
I used to feel that we were a little bit too evangelistic and yet, I remember preaching in Sackville one morning and I gave an altar call at the end of the message and a man came forward. And this man had not only been coming to the church long before I got there but he appeared in every way to be a Christian. He was very warm and very willing to help in any work around the church that needed to be done. And I assumed he was a Christian but he knew he wasn’t and so did his family and he came that morning and got saved.
And when you think about it; Judas listened to Jesus preach for three years and for three years, I’ll bet he thought to himself, ‘I’m just as saved as the rest of you’ but he ended up dying and going to hell. So, if you’re saved; that’s great; but remember the person beside you may not be, so be patient for the next guy.
And then Paul uses his customary greeting by saying, grace to you and peace. The word grace was a common Greek word that meant “rejoice” and “peace” is an expression of wishing them well particularly in spiritual matters. And we could say that God’s grace is what leads to our peace.
Now, I don’t want to beat this to death but God’s grace can also be interpreted as His unmerited favor and this means, we didn’t do anything to get it and we don’t do anything to keep it but He gives it to us because He loves us; and He loves us because He loves us and nothing and no one can ever take His love away from us.
Listen God saved and used a lot of people we might have questions about. I mean, stop and think about who some of the heroes of our faith were in the Bible.
Noah seemed to have a drinking problem which led to immorality; Abraham was too old to have kids and yet he did, Isaac was a daydreamer, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused and rejected by his brothers, Moses had a speech impediment of some kind or at least he said he did, Gideon was fearful, Samson was a womanizer, Rehab was a prostitute, Jeremiah and Timothy both complained that they were too young, David had an affair and then had the woman’s husband killed, Elijah was suicidal, Isaiah preached naked, Jonah ran away, Job went bankrupt, John the Baptist ate bugs, Peter denied Christ, the disciples all fell asleep when they were supposed to be praying, Martha worried about everything, the Samaritan woman was divorced at least four if not five times, Zaccheus was too short, Paul was too religious and Lazarus, well, he was dead. And yet, God used them all.
People have said to me, ‘You don’t know the things I’ve done’ and I always say ‘no’ but God knows all about it and He knew the things we’d do before He saved any of us.’
Listen, when Jesus hung on the cross, He saw all of our sin and our sin was the reason He was there. But listen, Satan knows about our sin too; and he keeps telling us that we aren’t worth saving and when we do get saved; he tell us we aren’t worth keeping; but Jesus doesn’t agree with him and given the choice I’d rather listen to Jesus than listen to the devil.
II Their response to the message
In verse 2 Paul mentions how he’s been praying for them and he says he thanks God ‘without ceasing’ and this doesn’t mean that he’s on his knees 24-7 but the phrase ‘without ceasing’ was also used in the Greek to describe a nagging cough. And when you have a nagging cough, there’s not much you can do to stop it and what Paul was saying was; he felt compelled to pray for them every time he thought of them which like a nagging cough, was quite often.
And he’s also very specific about the things he was praying for; in verse 3, he says, he was, ‘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.’
And there are three things he’s praying for: they are their work of faith, their labor of love and their patience of hope.
Their work of faith didn’t mean that their faith was the result of their works but that their works were the result of their faith. They weren’t working to get saved but they were working because they were saved.
And we also get the distinct impression that these believers weren’t just sitting around singing and praying but they were involved in outreach and he also mentions how these people had been reaching beyond the borders of their city. In verse 8 it says, ‘For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad.’
They tell us, the Thessalonians were on what was known as the Appian Way which would be the equivalent of the 401 in their day. So everyone who passed through this region seemed to hear the gospel from this new bunch of believers.
So, he mentions their work of faith and then their labor of love and he calls what they were doing a labor of love because they weren’t trying to gain any sort of appreciation or some kind of brownie points but they were simply preaching for the love of Jesus Christ.
I remember when I was at the Word of Life Bible Institute in New York; I had nothing to do in the summer, so I volunteered to work in the kitchen at the Inn, and because of my food service experience they made me the food service supervisor or the second to the chef. And that meant I was in charge of about forty-five teen-agers cooking and serving food and most of these kids had never worked anywhere before let alone in a kitchen where they were expected to serve hundreds of meals a day. They had two or three days training and were paid ten or fifteen dollars a week and they worked like I’ve never seen anyone work before. They weren’t working for money but they were serving the Lord. And that was a labor of love.
And then third, he mentions their patience of hope. And listen, they just kept on going, no matter what happened because they expected Jesus to return any day and they wanted to be found faithful when He came.
So, Paul was confident of their salvation because of their work of faith, their labor of love and their patience of hope.
And then he said something that’s caused more fights and church splits than anyone can imagine when he said, ‘Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.’
And one of the biggest arguments in the history of the church is the doctrine of election. And the argument goes like this: are we saved because we’ve seen our sinfulness and came to our senses and received the Lord or has God miraculously reached down and saved us of His own will simply because He wanted to? So, whose idea was it to save me, was it mine or God’s?
There are two main theological camps in this argument and the first one is known as Armenianism and it’s based on the teachings of a Dutch preacher by the name of Jacob Arminius and the denominations that followed his teaching are the Wesleyans, the Methodists, the Salvation Army, several Pentecostal groups and many others. And these people basically believe that man has a total free will and because of his freedom to choose; then his salvation is up to him but the down side is, that he is also responsible to keep it.
So, he can be saved in the morning, lost in the afternoon and saved again at night. And that’s why many of these people are so faithful at church because if they stayed home they just might lose their salvation. One guy told me, if someone got divorced, they could stay away until they were married again and then they could come back and get saved and start all over again.
The other group are known as the Calvinists and their doctrine is based on the teaching of John Calvin. They would include many Baptists, Presbyterians and a few others as well. There are a few variations of Calvinism but those who are really strong and known as five point Calvinists.
These are people who claim that God makes the ultimate decision as to who is going to heaven and who is going to hell.
Calvinism is known by the acronym: T.U.L.I.P.
The T stands for Total Depravity: which means man is absolutely evil and he couldn’t reach out to God even if he wanted to because he’s too wicked. They say we’re not as sinful as we could be, but given time, all of us are capable of the worst sin imaginable.
The U stands for Unconditional Election: and that means God chose you and you had nothing to do it.
The L stands for Limited Atonement: and this means that Jesus only died for the sins of the elect; so, none of His blood was wasted on those who go to hell.
The I stands for Irresistible Grace: which means those who are called to salvation have to come. There is no choice. The writer C.S. Lewis agreed with this position and he said, “He was dragged kicking and screaming unto salvation.”
And then the P stands for the Perseverance of the Saints: and this means that those who are saved will persevere through trials and tribulations and their perseverance is proof of their salvation.
The biggest problem with these systems of theology is; you can prove anything if you only use certain verses of scripture. My personal opinion is; both are right on some points and both are wrong on others and neither is completely right.
As far as election is concerned, we believe God chose us from the foundation of the world (because the scripture says He did) and we also believe we need to personally accept Jesus in order to be saved.
This is not a contradiction but it’s what’s known as an antinomy and an antinomy is a seeming contradiction between two valid points but God understands them and some day we might as well. The bottom line is; if we’re saved it’s totally of God and if we’re lost it’s our fault, so, we pray like everything depends on God and work like it all depends on us.
So, how do all these things work together? Well, do you understand how a brown cow can eat green grass and give white milk and yellow butter? No, but we still enjoy the food and in the same way, even though we can’t completely understand election, we accept that the Bible teaches it.
Now, if you need any further explanation of these issues, please see our youth pastor.
And then Paul goes from talking about their election in verse 4 to the effectiveness of the gospel in verse 5 and he says, ‘For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. 6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.”
O.K, so far, we’ve seen; the introduction and then the response to his message and now we come to the results of their response in verses 6-10.
III Results of their response
And notice that Paul said; the gospel didn’t just come in words only, but in the power of the Holy Ghost. Now, what does the power of the Holy Ghost mean?
When I was first saved I was involved in the charismatic movement and I attended quite a few miracle services conducted by people like Benny Hinn and a few others and even though I found them quite entertaining I really didn’t believe there were any miracles or displays of the Holy Spirit’s power but for the most part these were simply religious people getting together hoping to see the impossible.
However, in my own life, I can say there were and are several ways the power of the Holy Spirit has been and is evident.
First, there was a desire to know and study the word of God and like a new born baby I had a hunger for spiritual things that I never had before. I started reading the Bible when I got saved and I haven’t stopped. I remember being at a Bible Conference in Detroit and the teacher called us to make a commitment to read the Bible for five minutes every day. I said to myself, ‘I’ll do better than that, and I promised God I would read His Bible every day for ten minutes. And you know, for about forty years, God has kept me faithful to this promise and there have only been a few days I missed reading the Bible because of extreme sickness.
People ask me, ‘What’s the best translation’ and I always say, ‘It’s the one you’re reading.’
I remember when I was first saved I had a real problem with my mind because of the amount of drugs I had taken and my mind had a tendency to just go blank and the guy who led me to the Lord said this was probably the result of the amount of drugs I had taken; they had been motivating my thoughts and now there was nothing going on. So, he told me I needed to memorize scripture in order to build my mind back up again.
So, I said, ‘Sure, where do I start’ and he suggested Romans chapter 6. And so, for the next couple of weeks I memorized the entire chapter; all 23 verses and when I was finished, he said, move on and do chapter seven and when I had done that, he said, good, do chapter 8. And in the next couple of years I had memorized 11 chapters of scripture. And I believe God used His word to fix what the drugs had broken.
So, first, the Holy Spirit gave me the desire to know the word of God and second, He also gave me a desire to fellowship with God’s people.
And back in the seventies, none of our crowd went to normal churches but we lived in a Christian commune where we had regular Bible studies and were also part of the Catacombs movement which was a large charismatic fellowship that brought in Christian speakers from all over the world. It had grown from a home Bible study to over two thousand in attendance and then it turned into a local church and practically dissolved. Eventually I met my wife and started attending a Baptist church.
So, besides being in the word and fellowshipping with other believers, the Holy Spirit also give me the desire to share the gospel with the unsaved and several of us would go out on the streets of Toronto and share the gospel with anyone who’d listen and we’d hand out what look like newspapers but were actually peoples testimonies and other teachings from the Bible.
And then the Holy Spirit also gives us the desire to know and do the will of God and sometimes that means doing - what He wants, rather than what I want.
For instance, I have pastored two different churches and I’ve got to admit that I wouldn’t have chosen either of them but they were exactly what I needed.
The Lord indicated to Sally and I through several means to pack up our house, quit our jobs and move to New York, where I attended the Word of Life Bible Institute while she worked in the office and following that we came back to Canada where I attended the London Baptist Bible College and Sally worked for London Life.
During the second week I was at London Baptist; one of the Bible school teachers asked me if I was interested in being a Youth Pastor. And I simply said, ‘No thanks, I hate kids.’ Then he said, “There’s this pastor at Crestwicke Baptist in Guelph and he called and said he needs someone to teach a group of teenagers and I thought maybe you could go there for a week or two and help him out. Apparently, this pastor had just moved here from the Maritimes and this teacher thought that he and I might hit it off.
And so; more as a favor to this teacher Sally and I went to Guelph the following Sunday. There only had about twelve kids in the class and they all came from Christian homes and for the most part; they were rude. They’d ask ignorant questions; make fun of my clothes, my car and my haircut, they’d light stink bombs in the back of the Sunday school class and needless to say, they were only there because their parents made them.
After two weeks, we weren’t interested, but after the service the pastor called me into his office and all the deacons were there and they offered me a job. Well, we weren’t sure what to do; and we accepted and a few weeks later we sensed this was exactly where the Lord wanted us and we stayed part-time for the next two and a half years and when I graduated spent another two and a half years.
After five years, we were running around fifty kids and the age group we started with were all moving into college and careers and we felt it was time to move on but it didn’t seem like we had anywhere to go. We had almost decided to stay in Guelph when we got a call from Main Street Baptist in Sackville and I remembered that the one thing I promised my wife when we got married was, ‘We’ll never move to the East Coast.” She had met a few of my relatives and a couple of my former friends and felt she had had her fill of that crowd.
So, we decided to go and have a look anyway and I’ve got to say, these people were desperate. The church was in a small town and they had gone through a split and there were only 115 in the morning and 50 at night and they had contacted about 25 candidates and nobody was interested.
So, we went and after I preached, we met with the pulpit committee of 22 members and they called me and we had 9 great years there and then I had to resign because I had kidney failure and spent the next nine and a half years on dialysis.
But listen, doing God’s will doesn’t always mean you get to do what you want to do; but you do get to do what He created you to do. We didn’t always get to go where we wanted but we did go where we were needed and in the end God met our needs as well.
So, the Holy Spirit is still working in us but not always in signs and wonders but He does feed us, guide us and provide for our needs as well as for many of our wants.
And then, I want you to notice also in verse 6 where Paul spoke about their faith and he said, ‘you became followers of us.’ The word follow is the same Greek word from which we get the word ‘mimic.’ In other words, they were following Paul the way Paul followed the Lord. And they were learning from watching him how to handle the persecution that came their way.
And then Paul said, ‘they received the word in much affliction.’ And the word "affliction," comes from a Greek term that suggests the idea of pressure. The word ‘affliction’ is a very strong word meaning trouble, anguish, burden, oppression, and distress. This is the kind of stress that’s brought on by difficult circumstances or antagonistic people. So, what he’s saying is, their faith drove a wedge between them and the world.
Listen, Satan doesn’t want anybody to get saved and when they do; he and all of his demons do everything they can to make sure none of us tries to influence anybody else in the matter of salvation. We’ve changed sides in a spiritual war; even though we didn’t even know there was one going on.
So, like these believers; we receive the word with both with affliction and joy of the Holy Spirit and this joy come from knowing how much God loves us and how He has a home in heaven for us when this world is over. Listen, even though we’ll get from the devil and rejection from the people of this world; we’ll always have the hope of heaven before us.
Pick it up in verse 8. ‘
8 For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak anything. 9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye 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, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Sounded out and means ‘sound forth very intensely’ and Paul was commending these believers for their faithful preaching and then he mentions how effective their preaching was; when he mentions the regions around them because everywhere Paul travelled he was hearing good reports about the efforts of this young church.
And then he goes on to describe the evidence of their conversion when he says, ‘they turned to God from idols.’ And notice the order of words here. We would normally think in terms of turning from idols to God but Paul says they first turned to God and then away from idols. In other words, the Thessalonians didn’t leave their idols and then go out to find God. They turned to God and then left their idols.
And then finally, we see in verse 10 where it says, “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
Listen, one of the marks that a person is truly born again is that they’re excited about Jesus return. And that’s a fundamental theme that runs through the New Testament epistles; that Jesus is coming back!
Listen, we have every reason in the world to be excited about our faith. Our past has been forgiven; we have the Holy Spirit to help us in the present and the Lord’s return to look forward; combined with the fact that we’re not going to face the wrath to come. And this is a reference to the tribulation period that will come on the earth after the Lord comes back and takes His children home.
