1 Thessalonians 1:1- 10
We’re going to read from 1st Thessalonians chapter 1, verses 4 through 10. Words are on the screen, and you can follow along as I read what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica. Paul wrote, for we know, brothers and sisters, loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.
You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so, you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
The Lord’s message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell us how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.
All right, we’re going to start the book of 1st Thessalonians this morning. And it was about three weeks ago that we kind of gave an introductory message, and then we had a graduation Sunday, and we had a Father’s Day Sunday.
But we’re going to jump into 1st Thessalonians. And the theme of 1st Thessalonians is to be ready to live in light of Christ’s return. And it’s interesting, as you read through Paul’s letter to this church that he helped establish, and now he’s writing back to them to encourage them, at the end of every chapter, there’s five chapters, there’s a reference to the coming of Christ, a reference to the second coming of Christ in the end of every chapter.
The church at Thessalonica was composed of…
And so, 1st Thessalonians has a lot to do with the fact that Christ is coming again someday, and that we need to be ready for that. This morning we’re going to look at three characteristics of that first century church in Thessalonica, from chapter 1. And they’re characteristics that describe that group of people, those believers 2,000 years ago. But I also want to suggest these same three characteristics need to describe your life, my life, and our church.
i. An elect people
And so, we’re going to just jump into this, and let’s look at the first one here, that the church at Thessalonica was composed of an elect people, an elect people. Let me read the first three verses, or four verses of 1st Thessalonians, we read four through ten. Let me read the introductory verses here from chapter 1. Paul, Silas, and Timothy, to the church of Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, here’s Paul’s normal greeting, grace and peace to you.
We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, for we know, brothers and sisters, loved by God, that he has chosen you. God has chosen you.
Now, here’s the $64,000 question, and it’s been debated all through church history. Did God choose us, or did we choose him? And that’s been debated all through church history, and we’re not going to solve that equation this morning, but the doctrine of election is all through Scripture. In the Old Testament, God had, what, the chosen people.
He chose Abraham to be the father of, what, the Jewish nation, and the nation of Israel became God’s chosen people. Why did God choose Israel? Why didn’t he choose some other nation? We don’t know. That was in the heart of God.
In fact, Deuteronomy chapter 7 talks about this choosing, that God chose the nation of Israel, and here’s what Deuteronomy 7, beginning in verse 6, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God, the Lord your God has chosen you, the Israelites, out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people and his treasured possession. And so, God chose the nation of Israel to be his chosen people. Verse 7, the Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples.
It wasn’t that Israel was some great nation. No, you were the fewest of all peoples, but it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors, and he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from slavery. So, in the Old Testament, God chose the Israelites as God’s chosen people.
And when we come to the New Testament and this doctrine of election that God has chosen some to be part of God’s family, our immediate reaction might be, well, that doesn’t seem fair. One of the strongest verses on election in the New Testament is Acts chapter 13, verse 48. Pauls on a missionary journey.
He’s in Antioch, and here’s Acts 13:48, when the Gentiles heard this, the gospel, referring to the gospel, they were glad and honored the Lord, and all who were appointed to eternal life believed. When they heard the gospel, they were glad, and all who were appointed to eternal life believed. We read Paul’s epistles and Peter’s writings in Ephesians chapter 1, praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he’s blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing, for he chose us in him when before the creation of the world, the foundation of the world.
We go to 1st Peter chapter 1, and Peter writes to those believers who were scattered across Asia because of persecution to God’s elect who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God. And so, this doctrine is all through Scripture, and yet we read other verses, Romans 10:13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, John 3:16, for God so loved the world that whosoever believes in him will have eternal life. It seems like an oxymoron when you put those two together, but the Bible teaches that God has chosen an election, and yet the offer of salvation is to everyone.
Here’s what Dr. Warren Wiersbe writes, we will never fully understand the total concept of election this side of heaven. Dr. Wiersbe is in heaven now, you’re familiar with Dr. Wiersbe, he wrote all those commentaries of the Bible, the B-series, and each book of the Bible is entitled B-something, be ready, be faithful, and he wrote one on every book of the Bible, and Dr. Wiersbe passed away about four or five years ago. So, this doctrine of election and the fact that the Bible offers salvation to all is hard for us to comprehend.
About a month ago, maybe five weeks ago, this was the topic of study in our adult Sunday school class, and we were trying to talk about this and kind of work through it, and April you gave an illustration that I’ve given many times, it just has helped me that when you get to heaven’s gates, and this just helps me put these two together, on the outside of the gate is for whosoever will may come, and on the inside of that gate of heaven is chosen in him before the foundation of the world. Well, Paul’s writing to these Thessalonian believers, he says, God has chosen you, you are part of God’s people by choice. This also brings up another question, well if God has chosen those to be saved, why should we witness? Why should we support missionaries? Why should we have a mission program? Because God’s already chosen.
Here’s the answer to that, the same God who ordains the end has also ordained the means. In other words, the same God who ordained salvation has also ordained the means by which people will hear the gospel, and that falls on our responsibility. We are ambassadors for Christ.
He who knew no sin became sin for us, that in him we might become the righteousness of God, and Paul says, we’re to be Christ’s ambassadors, we’re to be faithful in sharing the gospel. So, it was a week ago, Wednesday, and I’m so grateful for our Beyond Awana program, and I talked to Danielle Riethmiller, and said, you know, I always like to share one Wednesday a gospel message with the kids. And so, a week ago, Wednesday, we kind of carved out some time out of our closing, and the kids sang one song, and this entire side of the auditorium was filled with kids.
And I gave a very short gospel presentation. I said, sin has to be paid for, and either you’re going to pay for your sin, or Jesus already paid for your sin. And I kept that very short because there’s a wide age range of kids, so you got to keep it short and to the point, so five or six minutes long, and I’ve done this a few times in the past, I said, you know what, now we’re going to sing a song, and I’m going to go stand in the back by those double doors, and if anybody here has a question about salvation, or maybe you felt a little prompting in your heart as I was sharing that, while they sing, I want you to get up and come to the back and meet me.
I call it going backwards rather than going forward. And the song was sung, and I stood in the back there, and I’ll tell you what happened. And as soon as we were done, I was back in my office, my two oldest grandsons, Shane and Luke, that were here that night, they come dashing back to me, they said, Grandpa, Grandpa, did anybody come forward or come backward? They wanted to know.
I said, you know what, Shane and Luke, no one did this time, but that’s okay, because what’s our job? Our job is what? To be faithful in proclaiming the good news of the gospel.
ii. An exemplary people
Well, Paul’s writing to a group of believers, and Paul is writing to an elect people chosen by God. Secondly, he’s writing to an exemplary people, an exemplary people.
We already read verses two and three, but Paul’s like, hey, I’m so thankful for you, and I’m praying for you, and I remember before God, here’s the three phrases. They were, first of all, an example of hard work. Your work, produced by faith, your labor, prompted by love, your endurance, inspired by hope in Christ.
These are people who were busy working for the Lord, and their relationship with God wasn’t just to kind of sit and listen, but they were excited about the gospel, and they worked, and they were an example of hard work in doing the work of the ministry, the work of prayer, the work of sharing the gospel, the work of making disciples. They were an example of hard work, and notice they were an example of the three great virtues of the Christian faith. Paul writes, 1st Corinthians 13, now abide faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.
And here we are in verse two, or verse three rather, work produced by faith, labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope. Faith, hope. What motivated Paul in his missionary work? He writes about it in 2nd Corinthians 5, the love of Christ constrains me, the love of Christ constrains me to share and minister the truth and the gospel.
So, they were an example, the church at Thessalonica, they were an example of hard work, they were an example of the three great virtues, faith, hope, and love. They were an example of following godly leadership. Look at verse five, I’ll go back to verse four, for we know brothers and sisters loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not simply with words but with power, with the Holy Spirit, deep conviction, you know how we lived among you for your sake, you became imitators of us and the Lord.
So, Paul says you believers came to faith in Christ and then you became a follower of the apostle Paul and of Christ. This is all through Paul’s writings, he encourages people, follow me as I follow Christ. He writes to the Philippians, the things that you have learned and heard and received and seen in me, this is what I want you to do.
And so, these believers became followers of godly leadership, of spiritual leadership. That’s found in Hebrews 13:17, the author of Hebrews says have confidence in your leadership and your leaders and submit to their authority because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden.
And so, these Thessalonian believers were following godly leadership and leadership of the apostle Paul. And so, verse seven goes on to say, so you became a model to all the believers as they followed Paul, as they followed the Lord, they became a model. The word here in the Greek is charagma, it’s the mark or imprint left by a die that strikes metal to make a coin or a seal that leaves an imprint on wax.
Those new believers became a model for other churches and other believers around them as they followed Christ. Goes on to say verse eight, the Lord’s message rang out from you, the word there literally is like trumpeted out, the gospel rang out from you, these new believers as they shared the gospel, it rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, your faith in God has become known everywhere, therefore we do not need to say anything about it for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave. The Thessalonian church was sharing the gospel and it was echoing out to the surrounding areas and so that everybody became aware of this wonderful church in Thessalonica that worked hard, faith, hope, and love and shared God’s truth.
And the church at Thessalonica became the talk of the town. Everybody heard about it. About six or seven years ago, just a little personal antidote, our oldest grandson, Shane, was sliding down some carpeted basement steps and there was a nail about that long that was kind of somehow was sticking out the reverse way and it had a small head on it and as he slid down those steps with his bare feet, that nail like pierced his foot and went all the way into his foot except for that little round head there.
And so, they took his shoe off but they didn’t want to take, mom and dad did, they didn’t want to take the sock off because it was literally nailed to his foot. So, they take him to University of Michigan Hospital and he’s in the ER there and they got him all fixed up but Shane’s rather stoic when it comes to injuries. His brother is just the opposite and he didn’t cry.
He was like six years old and he just like, they took that nail out and the doctors and nurses were kind of amazed. And so, when he got back from that experience, he told me, he says, yeah, grandpa, he says, that was the talk of the town. He says, everybody was talking about me.
How brave I was. Well, that’s what the Thessalonians were. Not for being brave in an injury but because of their faith in Christ and because of their faithful sharing of the good news of the gospel.
iii. An expectant people
So, the Church of Thessalonica was composed of an elect people and they were an example of hard work, of perseverance, of following leaders, of sharing the gospel. But here’s our third and last point we’ll camp on for a little bit. They were an expectant people.
They were an expectant people. So, I mentioned every chapter in Thessalonians finishes with a reference to what? The second coming, the return of Christ. And here it is in verse nine of chapter one.
Let me read it. For the surrounding areas, they tell how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. So, here’s the order of this.
We’ll look at verse 10 in just a little bit. But what happened in the lives of these Thessalonians? They were serving idols and the transforming power of the gospel totally changed their lives and now they’re serving what? They’re serving the living and true God. Their lives have been totally changed.
You remember Paul in Acts chapter 17, Paul’s in Athens and he says he’s walking around the city and he’s grieved because everywhere he looks there are idols all around. He goes up to Mars Hill and he’s talking to the intellectual elite in Athens and he says, I see you have altars to all these idols. I want to tell you about the unknown God.
And he uses that opportunity to share the truth of God and the truth of salvation. These Thessalonian believers have had a life transformation. They used to serve idols.
Now they serve the living and true God. A pastor by the name of Brad Bigney has written a book entitled Gospel Treason. And in it he quotes 1st John 5:21. This is how the book of 1st John closes.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. You might think, well, I don’t have any idols in my house. I don’t have any wooden statues that I bow down to.
But just as we camp on this concept of idols, here’s the definition of an idol. An idol is anything or anyone that captures our hearts, minds, and affections more than God. Anything or anyone that takes first place in our life before God is an idol.
Exodus 23, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Matthew 22:37, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. So, as John Calvin said, the human heart is a perpetual idol factory.
The human heart is a perpetual idol factory. I’m going to just quote a little bit here from Brad Bigney. He says, how do you recognize the idols of our heart? He says, follow the trail of your time, your money, and your affections.
He goes on to say, idolatry is false worship, misplaced, misdirected worship. We’re made to relate to God, but when we don’t give him the ultimate priority in our lives, we inflate things in this world to religious proportions to fill the vacuum left by God’s exclusion. You can’t exclude God from your thinking and priorities and do well.
You’ll need the alcohol industry, or the pharmaceutical industry, or the sporting industry, or the entertainment industry, or some other industry to sustain you once you’ve abandoned God as your first love. Why? Because you need something in your life to compensate for the absence of God and the absence of a robust love for your Savior. And the alcohol, the drugs, the entertainment, the sports can never do it.
They always fall short and leave you wanting more. Whether you cross a church doorway or not, you worship before an altar. Maybe your neighbors don’t go to church, but they worship in front of the television, or at the grill, or out on the lake.
They’re just not worshiping the God of the Bible. So, we need to be very, very careful. It’s very easy to make things that are good in our lives, that God created for our good and our enjoyment, and to raise them to a level where they’re ahead of the priority of God.
I grew up loving sports as a young person. And I’ll have to admit, at one point in my life, sports was probably an idol above God.
Our looks can be an idol. Our family can be an idol. God demands first place in our life.
And so here are these Thessalonians, and they turned from idol worshiper. Now they’re serving a living God. Well, we need to inspect our lives, don’t we? Make sure that God has first place in our life and in our worship, that we’re worshiping Him and Him alone.
Well, the text goes on to say that they turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. What else were they doing? Here’s the second coming. And to wait for His Son, Jesus from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.
So, you’ve turned to God from idols, and you’re serving Him. You’re sharing the gospel. And what else are you doing? You’re waiting.
And it’s an act of waiting. Not like the Millerites, if you’re familiar with the Millerites in history. They knew about the second coming of Christ, and there was a group called the Millerites.
And they said, okay, Christ is coming again, so we’re going to sell all our possessions. We think He’s coming soon. And they went up on a mountain, and they were waiting for Christ’s return.
That’s not what this verse means. But they were living expectant lives. Remember the promise in Acts 1? The ascension, 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus, or 40 days.
Men of Galilee, the angel said to the disciples that were standing on that mount, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you’ve seen Him go into heaven. What did they say? Jesus is coming again. Just as you’ve seen Him levitate up to heaven, someday He is coming back.
I said, well, why hasn’t He come back yet? It’s been 2,000 years. I think 2nd Peter gives us a little bit of a hint in 2nd Peter chapter 3. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise. He promised to come back, and He will.
Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. And so maybe the reason that Jesus hasn’t come back yet is He’s long-suffering. He’s waiting for people to come to Him and receive Him as personal Savior.
And so, these Thessalonian believers were an elect group chosen by God. They were an example to other believers and to other churches. But they lived their lives with an expectant heart.
Three application questions
They were an expectant people, living in light of God’s return. And so very quickly as we close, and then we’re going to listen to a song about the second coming, a couple application questions to be ready for Christ’s return.
1. Am I ready?
And so, here’s the first question, are you ready? Are you ready? By that I mean, have you been born again? There are many people that sit in churches Sunday after Sunday and they’re trusting in religion, they’re trusting in good deeds, they’re trusting in good works to get them to heaven. We know that Ephesians 2:8-9 says that we’re not saved by works, but we’re saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
And so, Paul writes to the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians chapter 13, the end of the book, verse 5, and he says this, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Examine your life, because if there’s one question you don’t want to be wrong on, it’s the question of where you are going to spend your eternal destiny. So, you need to examine yourself to see whether you’re in the faith.
Last Thursday, I actually attended two funerals. I wasn’t physically present at the first one, but my dad’s youngest brother’s wife, Nedra, and thank you, some of you prayed for her, went through a surgery and spent 135 days in the hospital until God called her home. And so, they had her memorial service Thursday at 10:30am Charlotte, North Carolina.
My younger brother drove down from Northern Ohio to attend the funeral and it was live streamed Thursday at 10:30. I’d just finished teaching a Bible lesson at Maranatha, got in my car, and there was an 11 o’clock funeral for a good friend of mine who passed away a week ago, and I wanted to be at his funeral service. So, I sat in the parking lot of Sistema Funeral Home in Muskegon and watched the first 30 minutes of my aunt’s funeral, watched the rest of its last night.
It was a very touching service. She loved God with all of her heart. And then after I watched the first 20 minutes, I went in and was at a funeral service for my good friend Richard Stone, and Barb, you know, you’ve known the Stones for a long, long time.
They lived in Jackson area, Brooklyn for many years. They owned a place on Maranatha’s property. One of the things that my cousin’s husband, and he’s a chaplain with Motor Racing Sports, travels all over with NASCAR and runs chapel services.
He works for Hendricks Motorsports in Charlotte, North Carolina. Every Wednesday they have a luncheon for all their employees, and my cousin’s husband gets up and shares. They have a lunch, and then they have like a church service at Hendricks Motorsports.
He says, I don’t know why death surprises us. Why are we surprised? My wife says, someday we’re all going to die. The most important thing is to be ready.
2. Is my life and our church worthy of imitating?
Are you ready? Have you been born again? Are you concerned about your family members, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers? Do they know the gospel? Secondly, is your life worthy of being a role model? We’re all role models in one sense, but are you comfortable saying in your Christian Walk, would you follow me as I follow Christ? Well, not that anybody’s perfect, but let’s journey together. Are we a role model in how we love one another? Are we a role model in helping meet the needs of others? Are we a role model in studying God’s word and having a hunger for God’s word? Getting the gospel out is our life and collectively is our church worthy of imitating. Probably about three months ago, I had Diane order 50 tracts of steps to peace with God.
She orders it on Amazon. I’ve never ordered anything in my life on Amazon, so I don’t even know how to do it, but my wife does more often than I would care to. I say, hey, let’s order 50 tracts of steps to peace with God.
And here’s what I’ve noticed, because I put them out there on that ministry table, about four or five at a time. I’m always encouraged when I come in and say, hey man, there’s only one left. It happens frequently.
I’m down to my last two or three, we’re going to order some more. That tells me that I don’t know who, but somebody is picking those up and reading it, and it’s just a simple gospel presentation. Is our life and our church worthy of imitating? Here’s the last one.
3. Am I living in eager anticipation of the second coming?
Am I living in eager expectation of the any moment return of Christ? The book of Titus calls it the blessed hope. And this is what Thessalonians is all about, that Jesus is coming again someday, and we need to live our lives in expectancy of his return. Now, we don’t know when it’s going to be, but we know that he’s coming back, and we know that it could be soon.
So, here’s what Corrie ten Boom said, if you look at the world, you will be distressed. We could all say amen to that. If you look within, if you just keep looking at yourself, you will be depressed.
She says, if you look at God, turn your eyes on him, you will be at rest. So, here’s what Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse, and he’s talking about the fact that there’s going to be some signs that will precede the return of Christ. And Jesus said in Luke 21:28, when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
Don’t focus on looking at yourself within, don’t put your focus on what’s going on in the world, and Jesus says, I want you to keep your eyes fixed on the prize and on my promise, because our redemption is drawing near.