Real Christianity: Contagious as the flu

I Thessalonians 1:4-10

October 3, 1999

Introduction: The Cockings have an Asian pear tree that produces the finest little pears! If you take one, peel it, cool it overnight in the ‘fridge, slice it up on your Wheaties in the morning…. moma mia!! Your taste buds go flippity-flop!! Effects are the results of causes. Dancing taste buds are the results of Asian pears!
At a recent gathering of Wheaton alums, I listened to a number of stories of pranks done over the years on that campus. In one particular chapel service, cartons of marbles were placed on the floor at the back of the chapel. At an appointed time, they were all turned over, and because of the slope to the chapel floor, marbles rolled downhill all through the service. A marble might stop for a moment behind a shoe, but in time, it would be dislodged and roll further downhill. Effects are the results of causes. Marbles will always roll downhill.
How we act is always the result of how we think.
Consequences are always the result of actions.
Last week, we saw in the experience of the Thessalonian believers a certain effect, a certain impact. We could call it authentic, genuine Christianity. These believers had an awesome identity; they knew they were the beloved of God. Out of that identity came lives lived in the presence of God; lives that were empowered toward works of faith, labor of love, and enduring hope. Consequently, these Thessalonians lived well in two worlds; they had an impact in their city and they were a testimony to the kingdom of God!
When we think about that effect, that influence, those kinds of outcomes, we wonder, “What was the cause?” How did they come to live this way? What had happened to them? And maybe from the text last week, you are asking yourself, “How can I live that way?” What would it take for me to know I’m one of God’s beloved? What would I need to know and do to live in His presence? How can my life make an impact in this world for the other one?
Paul didn’t want to leave us wondering how those kinds of results came about. So in the rest of chapter 1, he writes about the three elements that make up the foundation of a fruitful, enjoyable, abundant life. Get your sermon supplement and follow along, and let’s see how he records the secret of a satisfying, purposeful experience of life.
Our text is I Thessalonians 1:4-10. “…knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth (You trumpet players, here’s your word in the original language, “trumpeted”) 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. For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come."
The three elements Paul reveals here in this passage are three concrete truths. These Thessalonians have been (1) chosen by God, (2) they were confronted by the Gospel, and (3) they have had a conversion-to-Christianity experience. Let’s consider them briefly, one-by-one.
(1) First then, this life these believers were enjoying began with a choice in the mind of God. Paul says they were chosen by God, vs. 4. Now don’t let this idea throw you. The God who reigns in heaven does just as He pleases, says the psalmist, and He has chosen these Thessalonians for Himself. Paul had written to the Ephesians that believers were chosen by God before the foundation of the world.
Eph. 1:3-6—“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
Romans 9 tells us God is God, He is sovereign, and He does the choosing. Verse 11 in part, says, “…so that Gods purpose according to His choice would stand…”
His choice was with salvation in mind.
Some of us may have a hard time with this idea. Some of us want to say that God looked down the hallways of time and saw those who would receive Him and thus He chose those for salvation. Doesn’t that make man God? Sure it does.
Perhaps someone would ask: what if I want to be saved but maybe I wasn’t chosen? The Scriptures make it very clear that whosoever will, may come! There is some tension here, and we just need to live with it. Look at Acts 13:48 with me: “And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed!” Both sides of the issue are here back-to-back. God did the choosing and appointing, these who wanted to believe, did!
The Thessalonians could experience the kind of life described here because God had chosen them to be His beloved. Our experience mirrors theirs. We can live this way because we have also been chosen by God to be His own.
(2) The second ingredient that makes up this foundation for these believers and their experience of life was their confrontation by the Gospel.
The Gospel came to them in words. Those words are familiar to many of us. God so loved the world…. But mankind had a huge problem: his sin put a chasm between himself and the goodness and blessings of God. God and man were separated. So God took the initiative to solve man’s problem: He sent His Son, perfect God and perfect Man to die and pay the penalty for the sins of mankind. Now the chasm has been bridged! The way to a relationship with God is wide open. Everyone who will accept the Lord Jesus as his savior can enter that relationship. When God looks at this individual, He doesn’t see a sinner; He sees the blood of Jesus covering over all the ugly and flawed elements of our character. When the Thessalonians heard this word, they knew they had been confronted by words of truth, the Gospel.
Our text also tells us that this good news also came with power. These Gospel words had something to them. There was a force at work behind the good words. Something vital and alive was in operation. This was more than simple exhortation. God was at work, as Paul had said to the Romans, (1:16) “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” When the Gospel is preached, God is in it and God is at work. If there are some among us today who are not yet saved, I’ll guarantee you that each one is feeling something in his/her own spirit and soul; and that is the power of God drawing that one to safety and release from sin.
The power of the Gospel is the power of the Holy Spirit. There are all kinds of powers at work in our world today, many of them evil and controlling and destructive. But the Gospel always comes with the distinctive power and authority and strength of the Spirit of God. He does not deceive; He assures. He does not coerce; He woos.
And finally, this good news came with conviction, “full conviction” according to verse 5. It came with words, with power, and with the Holy Spirit. This conviction or assurance was manifested in the hearts and lives of Paul and his team members. Paul and the other preachers knew with certainty that whenever the Gospel was preached, God was at work. Paul just knew that the Spirit of God was doing His grace thing behind the scenes and below the surface. No doubts lingered in his mind that this message of salvation would do its work in the hearts of many who heard.
All of us who preach and teach the Word of God know of its power. Even when I have felt that the message did not go well, I know that God is at work. On some of my worst days, I hear the most amazing things about the sermon. Over the years, I’ve come to the same full assurance that Paul had. I work hard to communicate well biblical interpretations of this Book, but no matter how I feel at the end of the hour, there are never doubts that God’s word was powerless or unable to accomplish its purpose. It is a great blessing, and sometimes a surprise, to hear how the word impacted various ones in these services!
The Gospel confronts with words, with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with the convictions of the messengers.
(3) The third element in the foundation of these Thessalonians’ experience was their conversion to the faith. God had chosen them; they had been confronted with the Gospel by Paul and his missionary team, and they were converted.
Paul tells us that they turned to God from idols. With the reference to ‘the living and true’ God, Paul is subtlely saying that their idols were dead, not living. Another important thing to notice here is that these people made a complete break with their old life. The old ways of living, the old habits, the old attitudes were dramatically changed. Their whole lives were reoriented by a single act of their will. They chose to leave behind the shadowy and the unreal for the true and the living.
When I went to India with Ray Eicher several years ago, we stopped one morning in Bombay at a soft drink vendor’s little shop. It was morning and the shop owner was washing his idol. It was a carved figurine, mounted on a pedestal, unable to speak, move, hear, or anything else except to get dirty from the dust and pollution of the streets. Throughout our conversation, the idol worshipper just kept splashing water on the statue, over and over.
Of course, we Americans are too sophisticated to have idols like those! But in reality our idols are just as dead… oh, they may be energized by electricity, or we may never miss one of their games, or we may be hoarding its bills and coins, but life is not in them.
So the Thessalonians turned away from their lifeless devotions and turned to God. Our text tells us they set out to serve the living and true God. We have some clues from this passage as to what that meant, to serve the living and true God. Vs. 8 says they served the Lord by sharing His Word. Vs. 8 also states they served the Lord by sharing their faith. Vs. 7 tells us they served the Lord by becoming an example to other believers in the region.
I read in my personal devotions this past week of an old prophet by the name of Ahijah. His story is found in I Kings 14. He is blind now because of his old age, the text tells us. But his dim eyes do not keep him from being the servant of the Lord. According to the text, King Jeroboam sends his wife to the old prophet to find out whether their sick son will recover from his illness. Foolishly, the king sends his wife in a disguise so the prophet will not know who she is. Isn’t that amazing? Did the king really think that the man who served God could be deceived by a disguise? Did he really think that the God who sees everything could not see through his ploy? And isn’t it really amazing that God would use an old, blind prophet to do His work? What does it matter if we can see or not if the God Who sees everything communicates to us what He sees? And so when the wife of the king knocks on the door of the prophet’s house, he invites her in as the wife of the king because the Lord Himself had forewarned Ahijah of exactly what would take place. (I Kings 14, if you want to read the story for yourself this afternoon.) Here is a man who was serving the living and true God with all the limitations of age and blindness.
Speaking of age, we know some missionaries who are faithfully serving the Lord at the age of 89, 84, and 81. Homer Payne is 89 and is planning a trip to India to serve the Lord. Rader and Ann Hawkins, 81 and 84, have been serving the Lord in Brazil for over 50 years. Their mission board has tried to get them to come home, but to no avail. Rader and Ann will probably die there in the boonies serving the Lord. How does one serve Christ that faithfully over the years unless he/she started early on and served with faithfulness? The Thessalonians turned from lifeless idols to serve the living and true God.
The final aspect of the Thessalonians’ conversion was their commitment to the return of the Lord. Verse 10 tells us of their waiting for the Son from heaven Who would rescue them from the wrath to come.
They had turned from their idols.
They set about to serve God.
They were looking forward to His return.
Their conversion came about from a confrontation with the Gospel. God had chosen them, and they believed.
Conclusion: What does all this mean for us, for me? The offer of salvation is the greatest offer in all of life. And to choose Christ, to accept Him as one’s savior, is the biggest no-brainer in the world! Who in his right mind would choose to spend eternity in hell to pay for his sins when Christ offers to make the payment Himself?
Coming to Christ opens the door to a life of purpose, satisfaction, joy, and peace.
Being converted opens the door to living everyday in the presence of God.
Being saved empowers one to works of faith, to experiences of love, to assurances of hope.
Being one of God’s, beloved of Him, is an identity beyond compare. To be a truck driver is fine. To be a professor is great. To be a salesman is good. To be an athlete, pilot, housewife, even a lawyer, is fine. But to be a child of God’s—that is the very best identity anyone can own.
The Thessalonians had come face-to-face with the claims of Christ by way of the Gospel. Their acceptance of it changed their lives!
That is what we are about here at this church. We offer, in Jesus’ Name, the Gospel, the opportunity to live differently, better, with satisfaction, with strength, and with eternal impact.
Anyone want to accept God’s offer today? As I pray this morning, join me, if you want, in praying the sinner’s prayer.
And for those of us who have already accepted God’s offer of eternal life, we can be challenged by these Thessalonians. Their faith was more contagious than the flu! Everywhere they went, they made an impact. They shared the words of the Gospel; they shared their faith experiences; they served God. And so ought we! Take note of those around you who are living this way and follow their example (vs.6). Watch as they share their faith and imitate them. And keep on serving God through the trials and tribulations, through the limitations of age, through the sorrows of disappointments. He is worthy!

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