“Have you been eating cookies without my permission again?” one man asks his son. As the child shakes his head, “No.” the telltale signs of the chocolate around his mouth betray his answer. Many people who claim to be Christians betray their answer by the telltale signs of their lifestyle.
As we look at the second source of Paul’s unceasing thankfulness today we will see that its basis is found in how the Thessalonians lived. Are you shaking your head “yes” to being a Christian while your life loudly declares, “No?”
2. Knowing Their Election
We looked at Paul’s first source of unceasing thankfulness last week found in verse 3. That was Paul remembering their Christian virtue. The second source of Paul’s unceasing thankfulness for the Thessalonians is found in verse 4-10. It is found in his knowing their election.
Now here Paul doesn’t discuss election per se but he notes that God’s choice of them was evident and worthy of thanksgiving. He doesn’t describe this election from God’s point of view as he does in Ephesians chapter 1. But here from a practical point of view he answers the question, “How do I know that you are one of God’s elect.” Now I am not going to delve into election this morning. The reason is because I have only grasped a small bit of its significance. Maybe I will cover it more fully in 15 years as I have studied it more. If anyone asks about it tonight in the evening service I might discuss my own musings about the grand teaching and paradox of election. But I will not discuss it this morning.
Paul says that there were three characteristics in which the election of God showed itself in the life of the Thessalonian church. And I think that it is instructive to us to recognize that we should be seeing those characteristics in our own lives.
A. The gospel was effective
The first characteristic by which Paul says the election of God showed itself among the Thessalonians was that the Gospel was effective. We see this in verse 5. In this verse, Paul describes four ways in which the Gospel was effective in the lives of the Thessalonians
i. It came with the word
The first way in which the Gospel was effective is that it came with the word. Paul and his companions of necessity spoke the message of the Gospel to them. The work of God wasn’t communicated without the words of truth imparted by Paul. This may seem to be an obvious statement. You may say, “Of course they had to speak, of course they had to use words, to communicate to them the truth of the Gospel.”
And though this may seem basic to you, yet there are certain circles of “Christianity” (if I might use that word loosely) that claim to receive the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives apart from the preaching of the Word.
This is most evident in some vineyard churches where, supposedly, the work of the Holy Spirit is conveyed via experience apart from the preaching of the Word of God. The so-called “laughing revival” is an example of this. The people are instructed to simply open themselves up to the Holy Spirit to impart to them a great spirit of laughter, which is alleged to be the way the Spirit is working in the church of God. Without the Word of God being preached, hundreds and thousands of people in these churches are being compelled to laugh continuously and uproariously causing chaos and confusion to reign in these churches. This is absurd to anyone remotely acquainted with the Bible because the Scripture says that the Spirit of God works in conjunction with the Word of God to bring about change in the life of an individual. Therefore it is ridiculous to think that this laughing revival is a work of the Spirit of God. Its associated offshoots show of what spirit it truly is. There is the barking revival and the vomiting revival, the latter of which its leaders say shows the work of the Spirit as causing people to disgorge the contents of their stomachs. This is disgraceful and dishonors God to say that this is His work. The Bible declares that God is a God of order and not chaos.
Yes these Thessalonians received the Word of God first. The truth of the message had to first impact their minds so that they would know the reality of it. Then it could affect their wills. They could act on it. There are other so-called Christian groups that will say God speaks to them but not necessarily only through the Word of God. They will point to dreams or intuition as means that God uses to speak to them. Again these people are denying what God has written into the Bible and have become their own interpreters of they think God has said by their experience. But if a person is not willing to submit themselves to the Word of God (the Bible) then they are merely chasing their own desires wrapped up in a cloak of spirituality. But let me say that not all that is “spiritual” is from God.
The Gospel (good news) message that came to these people came through the Word of God (by the hand of the Apostles). The Gospel didn’t come with Word only but it did come with the Word. And apart from the Word, there is no Gospel.
ii. It came in power
Secondly, the Gospel came with power. This is what Paul says next. “For our Gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power.” God’s Gospel (what is the Gospel? The good news of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ) has great power. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” The Gospel is the power of God to expose sin, reveal attitudes of the heart, to bring righteousness and to change lives.
Paul was able to attest with great zeal to the life changing power of the Gospel when he came to put His trust in Jesus Christ as His Savior. When Paul met Christ the Lord on the Damascus road, he became a changed man. He humbled himself and acknowledged Christ’s Lordship over him. He left everything that was dear to him and he said what he formerly loved was now rubbish. The praise of men for which he so longed now meant nothing to him. He was changed by the power of the Gospel.
The Gospel is to be life transforming. It is not to be a take it or leave it affair. We don’t tell God how much we are going to obey Him. When we come to place our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior we acknowledge that He is to be our Lord and we are to be His servants. The life surrendered to Christ’s authority is the only one worth living. A pathetic half-hearted Christianity is devoid of real power because God wont’ pour out His power into half surrendered hearts.
I have read this from D. A. Carson before, but I think it is so powerful it bears repeating. It is a scathing rebuke to the lukewarm Christianity so prevalent in the west today. Carson says this about such half-hearted commitment to Christ.
I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of gospel please.
If the gospel has power to change our lives then why is it making so little difference in the lives of many who call themselves Christians? We have to ask ourselves, “If the Gospel has not come in power has come it at all?” “If the Gospel is not the good news of the victory over our sin and not merely the forgiveness of our sin then has it really come in power? If we do not want to change or cling to Him in dependence to live for Him then can we say we have understood how much He has really loved us?
God continues to call every Christian to live by His power in the Gospel. Every day He reminds us that apart from Him we can do nothing but that in Christ we can do all things. Whether we are going to live by God’s power in the Gospel is solely dependent upon whether we are going to humble ourselves before Him or not. This is the defining point of Christianity. Will we attempt to live in our strength or in His perfect strength? Will we submit to the will of God through Jesus Christ in everything or will we seek to run our own life?
Is the power of God through the Gospel working through you?
iii. It came through the Holy Spirit
The third way that we see the Gospel was effective in the lives of the Thessalonians was that it came through the Holy Spirit. When Paul and his companions had preached the Gospel to those in Thessalonica they recognized it as the truth of God because of the Holy Spirit of God. They recognized that their sinful lifestyle was an affront to a holy God who had created them with the express purpose to glorify Him and not to deny Him.
The conviction of sin is an evident work of the Holy Spirit. I believe this is what Paul notes in this passage. Jesus describes this work of the Spirit of God in John 16. There He says, “The Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, and righteousness, and judgment.”
The Word of God that they preached became effective in the lives of the Thessalonians through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Apart from the Spirit of God there is no conviction from the Word of God. He must be working in a person’s life for the Word of God to do its work. And this work occurs in the lives of believers and unbelievers.
I can remember one instance of the Spirit of God working in my life very clearly. In 1986, after I had recently become a Christian, I was not living the way I should have been. I was attempting to overcome sin in my life by my own effort and failing miserably. I was just that – miserable. I knew how God wanted me to live and yet I was not calling out to God for His grace to do so. One Sunday morning I was sitting right over there (front right of auditorium) listening to the Word of God being preached. The Holy Spirit was using the Word of God so pointedly in my life that it felt as if the pastor was speaking directly about me and was surely pointing in my direction. The Spirit of God used that time to bring me to fix my trust in Christ to overcome my sin. I had been saved by this trust or faith in Christ but I was still trying to order my life by my own effort. The Spirit of God applied the Word of God to my life so that I understood how I was to live my life as a Christian. It was as if God turned on a light to a passage of Scripture I had not understood. I still remember the passage of Scripture that God used to illumine my understanding of how to live like Christ. It was Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
It was the Holy Spirit of God who illumined my understanding to apply that passage of Scripture to my life. It was then that I learned that not only are we saved by calling out to Christ to save us from our sin but also we find the strength to overcome sin by humbling ourselves and calling out to Christ to give us victory in the midst of our temptations.
It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God to understand and apply His Word that shows that the Gospel is effective. Clearly, if you truly have believed then the Holy Spirit will be working to separate you from sin.
iv. It came with full conviction
The last way that we see the gospel was effective in the lives of the Thessalonians is that it came with full conviction. Here the Thessalonians had confidence in the message that was proclaimed by Paul. There was no doubt as to its veracity but they had full conviction. There is a certainty concerning the truthfulness of the Word of God when the Gospel impacts a person’s life. They are convinced and willing to stake their life upon the truth that what God said in the Bible is true.
I can remember in the life of one person with whom I had been sharing the Gospel. As he began to read the Bible, he declared that it was simply myths or stories made up by men. Then as he continued to read it he thought that most of it was true except for the stories in the early parts of Genesis. One day I received a phone call from him and he said to me, “It’s all true. It says it right here in 2 Timothy 3, “All Scripture is inspired by God.” Everything God put in this book is true. That was full conviction of the trustworthiness of the Word of God. There was no longer any hedging in this person about where they stood in accepting the message of the Bible. It was all true.
So what took place at Thessalonica? The believers heard the Word of God that impacted their lives so as to show God’s power, His Holy Spirit and the fullness of conviction that only He can bring to a person’s life through the good news of Jesus Christ.
B. Their lives became reflective
The second characteristic by which Paul says the election of God showed itself among the Thessalonians was that their lives became reflective. We see this in verses 6-8. These believers had the characteristic of a being a reflector. Now a reflector receives light and redirects it. The moon is a beautiful example of a reflector. It bears the glory of the sun and shines it onto the earth where we see its light. It produces no light of its own but shows the light of something else. How were the lives of the Thessalonians reflective?
i. They imitated the apostles and Jesus
First, they imitated the apostles and Jesus. Paul says this in verse 6. “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” They followed the example of Jesus and the apostles who in standing for the Word of truth underwent severe persecution. And not only did they endure such persecution but they did so with the joy of the Spirit of God. Again here was an evidence of their own election. When they were persecuted for the sake of the Gospel, when they were despised, or made fun of, or physically accosted they were able to rejoice.
We see this conduct from the apostles throughout the book of Acts. When persecution first began to break out against the church, the apostles, having been beaten for their testimony of Jesus, go on their way rejoicing having been counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus. How could this be? How can people act this way? It’s not natural. They were able to respond in joy because of the Holy Spirit working in their lives to recognize the truth of the message of the resurrection. They were able to respond in joy because they understood that it added to their reward in heaven.
Jesus said, “Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake and for the Gospel. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven.”
These believers had heard of the Apostle’s persecution in Philippi and had seen first hand Paul’s persecution in Thessalonica. They were able to see how they handled such persecution and then were able to imitate the apostles.
What about you? Are you able and willing to stand for the truth of Christ’s death and resurrection? Are you going to allow yourself to be persecuted for the sake of Christ or will you become angry and bitter at what others say about you because of your Christianity? Will you become another silent member of the army of Christ? Not willing nor able to say a word for Him? Oh by the power of the Spirit of God let Him fill you with His joy in speaking His message of truth to liberate people from their sin. Will you be a conduit for His grace to speak His Word with all boldness?
ii. They became examples to all those around them
Secondly, not only were their lives reflective because they imitated the apostles and Jesus. But their lives were reflective because they became examples to all those around them. This is what verses 7 & 8 say. “So that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For the Word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth so that we have no need to say anything.”
The believers in Thessalonica were so moved by the message of the Gospel that they were sharing it wherever they went. They were so excited about God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ that they couldn’t stop telling others about it.
Think about it for a moment. If we truly see our need of being saved from our sin in every aspect. And if we understand that God has given us this salvation then shouldn’t this cause us great excitement that we have been rescued from the punishment of hell and given the blessing of being forever with God?
And it was just this response that caused the Thessalonians to go from place to place speaking holy gossip. They couldn’t stop talking about God’s Son Jesus. This is what Paul said, “We have no need to say anything throughout this region for wherever we go they have already spoken about Jesus Christ.
C. Their repentance was directive
The final characteristic by which Paul says the election of God showed itself among the Thessalonians was that their repentance was directive. Verse 9 describes this kind of directive repentance. Paul says, “For they themselves report about you what kind of an entrance we had with you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.”
i. It was a turning to God
The first sense in which this repentance is seen as directive is that it was a turning to God (a turning toward God). Paul says that the Thessalonians turned to a living and true God. God is not a power He is a person. He is living. He loves, He hates, He grieves, He cares. This is not an inanimate force to which we give ourselves. He has personality and can communicate with us. He is not a god of our own making. We don’t decide what He accepts and doesn’t. I remember my roommate in my senior year in college. As we were talking about God he said, “I’m comfortable with my concept of god. If god would want me to think differently about him then he would show me.” I asked, “Well don’t you think he put me here so that you could know?” He replied, “I hadn’t thought of that.”
But repentance is a calling for us to come to Him. To change our thoughts about what we think about God and what is true about God. People may think that they know much about God but where are they getting their information? Is it derived from their own desires and thoughts? What tends to happen to people who are not repentant is that the image of their god is shaped to conform to their sin. Their God is usually not that upset about their kinds of sin but is about other kinds of sin of which this person is not struggling.
Now repentance is changing our mind to align it with the Word of God. And the repentant person is one who sees who God is through the Word of God and changes their minds about their sin. Instead of justifying their sin they now hate it and seek to put it off.
So repentance is coming to God as He is and not making Him a god in our own image. It is coming to God on His terms not ours. It is recognizing that our attempts to come in our goodness (or righteousness) are no good. We will end up like Cain, who was rejected by God, when God told Him to bring a lamb but he offered what he grew from the ground because he wanted his own effort to pay for his sin instead of a sinless substitute.
These Thessalonians came to God and sought the living and true God. Not the god of their own image. They weren’t syncretistic in their view of God (That is they didn’t combine their view of God with who Paul said was God). They scrapped their image of God and received the true and living God. They believed that Jesus Christ was God come in the flesh.
You see this is what we need to do also. We need to scrap our false ideas of who God is and seek the real view of God. And the only way that we are going to discover the truth about who God is, is if we get into God’s Word. It is the SOLE source for knowing God in a way that will bring us salvation.
ii. It was a turning from idols
So we see the second sense in which their repentance was directive was that it was a turning from idols. Paul says here, “You turned to God FROM IDOLS. The repentance that leads to eternal life not only causes us to turn to God through Jesus Christ but it causes us to turn away from idols. Idolatry is not something that occurred only in the ancient world. Idolatry isn’t just praying to some statue. We commit idolatry whenever we give something or someone the place that belongs only to God. The Thessalonians had given their lives over to idolatry. And when they heard the message of salvation through Jesus Christ they turned from it. What is taking God’s place in your life? What is it that is causing you to neglect God and His Word? These are idols that adorn your life. Are there things that you say you cannot or will not do without? These are idols. They have replaced God as the one who controls your life.
As believers in Christ God’s goal for us is that we are conformed into His image. When we are following idols, money, power, immorality, anger; these things that control our lives we are not being shaped into the image of God. We are following the perverted image of Satan. Satan from the very beginning told Adam and Eve that if they followed him they would be like God. The sad thing is that they were more like God before they disobeyed Him (But they didn’t realize it). Satan is seeking to continually draw us away from conforming to God’s image. And it is from these idols in our lives that we must turn away.
What was the evidence that these people in Thessalonica had been chosen by God for His purposes? We saw that the Gospel was effective. It came through the Word of God, in power and the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. We saw that their lives were reflective. They imitated the apostles and Jesus and then became examples to those around them (They were conduits of God’s grace). And we saw that their repentance was directive. They turned to God from idols.
How is God working in your life? Is the power of the Gospel evident in you? Are you imitating the example of Jesus and other godly believers? Are you embracing the truth about God in His Word and turning from those things that have gripped your life to control it?