Sorry for my sins... Am I just useless?

You Became an Example

(1 Thessalonians 1, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, October 6, 2013)

[1:1] Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.The Lord brought Paul and his gospel companions to Thessalonica where they taught those who were willing to listen to them about the momentous developments that had taken place in Jerusalem. The long-expected Messiah had come. He had achieved for Jews and Gentiles deliverance from God's judgment. Now, through faith in His Name, people from all over the world could be a part of God's eternal kingdom.

Some received that message gladly, but others did not. Paul was only able to serve there for a few weeks before the persecution was so intense that the brothers sent him on to the less-populous and wealthier country town of Berea. From there he went to Athens and then to Corinth where he labored for a considerable time. But how were the brothers and sisters in Thessalonica doing? Paul needed to know. He sent Timothy, who returned with a good report. Now the apostle sent this brief letter to the assembly “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He spoke words to them of grace 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.

He told the church of his prayers to God concerning them. He could not get this church out of his mind, so he was constantly talking to the Lord about them. Now he could be doubly thankful because of the good report from Timothy. He thanked God for them. They had faith that was busy with good works. They had love that was proven in their labor. They had hope in Christ and the coming resurrection kingdom that would not quit. These were gifts from heaven. They were children of God their Father. They had come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

I wonder how they felt about themselves? Did they think that they were going to make it? They were facing intense opposition. Did they consider their lives pitiful and their work together wasted? That would not be surprising.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer thought his Christian life in prison was very unimpressive, an embarrassment. Yet his daily offering to the Lord under the most trying conditions has inspired millions.

What were Jim Elliot's last thoughts as the passionate young missionary lost his life before he had a chance to communicate the gospel to any of the Auca Indians that he came to love? He could not know what his wife and daughter would do when they returned to the same place where their husband and father had been martyred. He did not know the books that Elizabeth would write.

We need to thank God for one another. We need to thank Him when we see anything of resurrection life in our feeble efforts or achievements. We need to believe that when we give a cup of cold water to a child in Jesus' name, that it makes a difference to our coming King.

[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.

We have been chosen by God, and sometimes we just can't see it. The evidence of God's gifts to the church in Thessalonica was everywhere. They heard the good news of Jesus and the kingdom and they received it. Talk is cheep, and nothing dries faster than a tear. They did more than talk and cry. They had the power of a life changed by the Creator of the universe.

They were fully convinced. There was evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit among them. This kind of change requires adversity in order to be proven to be the work of God that it really is.

Think of the first disciples of Jesus. A small group of unknown men spent three years with the Lord before his death alone on a cross. Three days after He died His tomb was empty. Even after He had appeared to them for forty days and taught them about the resurrection kingdom, they still did not understand their mission. Could these unimportant and confused people change the world? But when they faced adversity and were willing to die for their testimony of Jesus' resurrection, their simple lives made a big difference. They had a gift from heaven. That makes all the difference. They were examples. But more than the disciples, think of Jesus, our example.

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.What about Paul and his companions? They proved the reality of God's work in their lives through suffering. Paul and Silas singing hymns in the inner prison in Philippi... That's where they were before they came to Thessalonica. When the city fathers found out that Paul was a Roman citizen, they led him out of the city by the hand as a show of late respect. What a bizarre life we Christians lead. Beaten up and then sort of honored. We live to sing another day. We seem to barely persevere, and someone is impressed.

True faith, true hope, true love... God gives these gifts. He makes them shine through adversity. Just when we think that we are all failures, he makes us an example to others of something that could only have come from heaven.

Paul writes to the Ephesians about what we all were by nature: “children of wrath.” But God loved us. The church in Thessalonica was made up of former idol worshipers. Now they served the living and true God. Now they were waiting for Jesus to come again. They were waiting for the trumpet to sound, and for Judgment Day to come. They knew that they would be safe because of Jesus.

Are you tempted to give up on your church and even your own testimony? Do not give up. Keep on believing that Jesus is with you now, and that He is coming again. Pray for your own obedience to His Word. Pray that you will be the example that you already are. Thank God for each other. Trust God, and trust God's work in one another. This is the way to glorify the Lord.

Give thanks unto the Lord

For brothers whom He loves,

Examples of the way of life,

A gift from God above.