1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:Grace to you and peace.2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,  3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of  love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  4 For we know, brothers loved by God,  that he has chosen you,5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.  6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the  joy of the Holy Spirit,  7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.  8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.  9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among 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, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Watch first 3:45 minutes of Bible Project video.

This morning I’m starting a new series through first and second Thessalonians. But Rich—why aren’t you finishing the gospel of John? I’m glad you asked. I will finish it. If you recall, I started John and then we took a long break to work our way through Ephesians. We jumped back into John for a bit, but now we are at the passion section or betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection. I decided to save those until next Spring. So we’re starting 1 Thessalonians this morning. Heads up—I am doing a three week prophetic psalms series in the weeks leading up to Christmas. But before and after that, we will dive into these wonderful letters from Paul.

When I looked back, it’s remarkable to me that in my eighteen years here, I have preached through fourteen New Testament books and seven Old Testament books1, not to mention covering other passages in multiple books and a smattering of topics and biographies. In all, I have preached about 800 sermons at Grace. That blows my mind and I feel like I’m just getting started. 😉

I would estimate that about 75-80% of those 800 sermons were working through entire books of the Bible. That has been very intentional for several reasons. First, let me tell you why I haven’t done this. I have not covered twenty books in eighteen years just to be academic. A sermon is not Sunday School. A sermon is not a Bible school, although there is teaching and vital information about the Bible and our faith in a sermon. This Is not just an information dump. I have not done this just to be like someone else, like a MacArthur, J. Vernon McGee or John Piper. We can certainly learn from one another, but I have never been about imitation. That’s just fawning after celebrities and it’s silly and bad for all of us.

The most important reason to primarily preach through whole books of the Bible is to make sure that we are preaching the whole counsel of God. The Bible is a big book and unless you’re John MacArthur—who has been preaching at the same church for fifty years—most will never work their way all through the Bible. I’ll never get there but I have made a good start. When I landed in Viroqua, my number one goal has always been to help to make Grace Church a Biblically healthy church. I have seen far too many churches that become out of balance. They emphasize one part of the Bible, one theological hobby horse or the latest and greatest church growth model.

There is value in what these other churches do, but it’s far too easy to get really imbalanced and entangled in what I might call, “weird churchy stuff.” But if I mostly preach through books of the Bible, this will help steer me away from imbalance and excess and stay on track. The whole counsel of God will better lead to a Biblically healthy church. Of course I will have my own imbalance, mu own opinion and my own mistakes mixed into all of this.

But it’s very much about the steady diet of the Word of God. You are what you eat, right? Every year we learn more about the importance of our diet. You all know two of my favorite foods, right? Karen was out of town for the day this summer and she texted me to make sure I had enough to eat. So I texted this phot back to her of the lunch I had just made. A good steak, broccoli cooked and seasoned just the right way and tomatoes from the garden. That’s hard to beat

I just read a book called The Good Gut which is about the ten trillion bacteria in your gut and a healthy body means feeding your gut bacteria good food. It is a bit

like how an expectant mother needs to eat good food for her growing baby and any nursing mom knows that what she eats is what her child is eating. That’s how the gut works. It’s like ten trillion little babies in your tummy and if you feed them right, you will be much better off in every way. But if you feed them junk food, they will cry and throw temper tantrums. It just “so happens” that the food that is good for your gut is also good for you. It is a synergistic harmony held together by a good diet. In the same way, we all need a good diet in the Word of God. This expository method of preaching does not guarantee a Biblically healthy church, but I think it does gives the best shot at attaining that lofty goal. It helps keep me on the straight and narrow and I pray it will be better for all of us in the long run.

This is not MY church. I don’t think I have ever said this is my church, but I always try to emphasize that it is our church. But that’s not even quite right, is it? Peter commanded elders to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you.” This is God’s church and we get to share in what he is doing.

In the last two years, we have been trying to give more emphasis to making disciples. In the process, I have occasionally expressed that I would love for us to do a better job at making disciples—that we’ve come a long way but we also have a long ways to go. In response to this, many have expressed to me that we’re already doing it and have been doing it! We are making disciples and many have said that our church has helped you immensely over the years. I appreciate that a great deal, so please understand what I mean. I am happy as a clam to be doing what I am doing. I agree that we have made disciples in many ways, and I don’t for a second want to diminish what we have done as a church or the spiritual growth that you have seen in your own life. Nothing excites me more than that.

When I say things like. “we need to do a better job at making disciples,” please understand two key things about this. One, I am mostly pointing back at myself when I say this. As I have said dozens of times, “As go the leaders, so goes the church.” We have a new director of church health in our district and this past Thursday I met with him and a few other pastors in Sparta. He emphasized this exact same point. In his forty years of pastoral ministry, he has seen the lion’s share of problems come from poor leadership from the leaders in the church and especially from the lead pastor. So I want you to know that I see that, I get that and so when I say we want to do a better job ta making disciples, I am primarily pointing the finger at myself. What I mean is that I want to help lead our church to being better at making disciples.

The other thing that is happening when I say this is that I am falling back on one of the core values of my life: “I am content in that I owe everything to God alone, but I am not complacent because there is so much growing and working to be accomplished.” That’s an enormous core value of mine and I believe it’s thoroughly Biblical. I am content. I am saved, justified, secure in Christ. No complaints. No lack. All I need is Christ. I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. I don’t need to work harder to earn my way. I don’t need to help us be better at making disciples to justify anything to myself or anyone. That’s what I mean by content. But I also believe that complacency is a sin. Ephesians 4 says that we do this “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” That goal does not end in this life. We can’t be complacent because Jesus placed his mantle of disciple making on every believer. Make disciples. Grow in maturity and help others do the same. That’s for me. That’s for you and I will not be complacent with that glorious calling resting upon us. Content, but never complacent.

In the early days of this church—when we were struggling and small—I used to say that we have nothing but potential. I meant that we have very limited resources. I meant that we had no idea if we would make it. Most church plants don’t make it and Viroqua is a graveyard for churches, so why should we be any different. Nothing but potential. But now I say that our church has nothing but potential. The emphasis is no longer on the great lack but on what God has already built us to be and do. We are imperfect, but we are healthy and the potential for what we could do in our

body, in our families and in our community is overwhelming to me. I can see it. I can taste it. It’s what keeps me going and also keeps me content but not complacent.

This leads us to the church in Thessalonica. When Paul was boots on the ground on day one, they had nothing but potential. The gospel had never reached them before. The city was filled with stubborn Jews and pagan Greeks. Not a single believer in the entire city but in about one year, they went from nothing but potential to nothing but potential. There was incredible gospel power and growth in one year.

Here are the two extremes.“But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd” (Acts 17:5).

It’s amazing how the truths of the Bible repeat themselves over and over in real life. What they did was not unlike what the mob did at Fox News announcer Tucker Carlson’s house this past week. They gathered outside his house and yelled “racist scum!” at him. They broke the front door and his wife was so scared she hid in the pantry while she called the police.2 Why? Because they disagree with what he said. They don’t like what he said so they gathered a mob to harass and scare him. There may have been a bigger mob in Thessalonica but it was the same idea—protesting ideas and words.

Shortly after this, Paul left Thessalonica and went to down to Berea. That’s where we get this famous verse. “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Right? This is the well-known passage that tells us all to be good Bereans and study the Scriptures for ourselves. We read that and think, Well good for them! They went home and cracked open their Bibles and did a little digging.” But it was not that simple at all. No one had a Bible because they didn’t exist. All they had were the Old Testament scrolls in the synagogues and it is doubtful they had all of the scrolls. So think about their effort involved here. They had to carefully find the scrolls they needed, lay them out on a long table and gently unroll it and read through it until they found the areas about which Paul referenced. They may have had to do that multiple times. And they did this on a daily basis. Whenever Paul finished speaking, they went back tot eh synagogue and repeated the process all over again. They expended tremendous effort to search for truth and their diligence was starkly contrasted with the Jews in Thessalonica who started a mob.

Now compare the mob reaction in Acts 17 to what we read in 1 Thessalonians.

“For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.” (1 Thes. 1:8)

How did they get from the gathering mob in Acts 17 to this vibrant, young church in 1 Thessalonians chapter one? Our task is to understand how that happened and what we can learn form it. But first, I want us to see how God supernaturally guided Paul and his companions to this lost city.

Let’s pinpoint the city for all of us geographically challenged people. Thessalonica is in northeast Greece. The red line traces modern day Greece and the green line is Albania, where missionaries Blair and sue Alvidrez are serving. We were blessed by their presence this summer. This is a cool map. It shows the size of Greece when it is superimposed over Wisconsin. In this example, Thessalonica is close to Green Bay.

The supernatural story of how Paul and company got there is found in Acts 16.

“And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.” From the map below, notice how they were guided at every step. They tried to stay oj the same trajectory and head due west but the Holy spirit did not allow it. Naturally, they tried to go north but once again, they were supernaturally prevented from doing so. At that point, the obvious pat seemed to be to travel along the north edge of Asia and they finally landed in Troas. Then things got even more interesting.

9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

How’s that for supernatural guidance? Based on his dream, Paul and company set sail for Macedonia. Even though they landed first in Philippi, Thessalonica was also included in this vision about the man from Macedonia.

1. God will give supernatural guidance for divine appointments.This principle does not mean that you will led with the same level of clarity or that God will sue dreams, but does want to guide us into divine appointments. Two weeks ago I had the most wonderful day. At least every other week I drive Ethan up to WTC for the day. He’s so busy it gives us an chance to talk. We listened to as sermon in the car that day. Then while I was sitting at WTC working on my sermon, Brent Madison, a friend of Ethan’s who is also new to our church, stopped by and we talked for a while. Then he invited me to their CRU Bible study, si I went there and met one of the CRU leaders and a few other guys. I was going to take Ethan to lunch that day so we invited two guys from the study and we had an awesome spiritual conversation at lunch. It just felt like God had these divine appointments laid out for me all day long. I have more flexibility for this sort of thing and my days don’t usually go like this, but they can. Can we start each day and pray a simple prayer—Lord, take this day and direct me wherever you want me to go.

Now we’re still answering the question about hos they got from a raging mob to an exciting new church, and for that we need to look at Acts 16.

“Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But

the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.”

There’s what happened. The Jews did not receive the word, but the Greeks did—many of them. And they became the foundation of this new church. So here’s the principle.

2. Share CHRIST from the WORD in the power of the SPIRIT and leave the results to God.That was Paul’s regular habit. Nothing fancy. He didn’t water down the message or create an overly emotional appeal. He just let the word of God and the Spirit of God do their work. These are the God-ordained means to accomplish supernatural results. But we don’t have to worry about the results. That is God’s part. If we get concerned about results, we will change the message.

3. New converts and entire churches can grow very quickly.And God did grant results. In a year or less, this city filled with hardened Jews and pagan Greeks, birthed a healthy new church. This ought to be very exciting to us that this can happen so quickly. Now I realize that missionaries can labor for years or decades with little fruit. You and I can witness to our families each year at Thanksgiving and Christmas and nothing ever changes. I get that, but we also need to be reminded that the “gospel is the power of God for salvation, for everyone who believes. And it doesn’t have to take 20 or 30 years to grow into reasonable spiritual maturity.

Rich MaurerNovember 11, 2018

1 Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 1 John, Genesis, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Nehemiah, Daniel, Jonah2 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/08/mob-tucker-carlsons-home-antifa-break-door-chant-fox-host/1927868002/