Transcript
Just before I begin, I want to thank our summer choir for singing for us again today, and Sharon Acton, their director, she's from Cathedral Choir, and is directing our summer choir today. And thank them for that very tender and wonderful hymn, We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder. That was so, that was just very moving. This is now the third sermon in a series of messages my colleagues and I are preaching on Paul's first letters in the New
Testament, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. And today, if you want to open up to the 1st chapter of 1st Thessalonians, you can follow in the text today. As we read these two books, what will we find? I want to give you just a little thumbnail sketch of the overview of the two books. St. Paul's going to play the role of a counselor in these two letters to these Christian friends that live in Thessalonica, the capital city of
the Roman province of Macedonia. Paul writes from Corinth. He's going to give counsel, first of all, about how they can live their lives as Christians in a time of profound stress and persecution. You'll see that especially tomorrow in the 2nd chapter, but you'll see it also today in the 1st chapter. But he has more in mind than his concern just that they survive. He actually has a strategy that he wants to share with them of how
they can live their lives effectively and persuasively and as encouragers in a very difficult, stressful time. This theme alone makes the books of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians very contemporary to us today and helpful because we are living in a time of great stress, too, in many ways. We think of Egypt. We think of the Middle East today. We think of London. We think of our city of New York. We think of the fears that the whole
world is having to cope with now. Paul's letter, I think, is going to be very helpful. Secondly, he's going to give counsel on one theological issue that is causing trouble for the Thessalonian church. Maybe one of the reasons why he's writing a letter is because of this problem that some of them are facing. And that has to do with a theological question, and that is the timing and the details of the second coming of Christ. This
is causing them a lot of worry. Isn't it interesting that the first letter of the New Testament deals with the last theme, eschatology? It shouldn't surprise you, though, because people are wondering and even false teachings are out there about the return of Christ, the eschaton, the fulfillment of history. And so he speaks to that in both letters. And then third, he gives ethical advice, ethical counsel to these Christians about interpersonal issues that they're facing. And that's
going to be helpful to us as well. Let's pray as we start today in the 1st chapter. Lord, be our teacher. We also live in a time of stress, and we do think of brothers and sisters, folks that are living in Egypt right now, trying to make sense of a horrific attack on that resort town, and also the people in London. And we think of people in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and all places
that are facing a lot of stress right now, and lots of worries. And Lord, bless us and bless them and give us a greater hope that we can lay hold of. And so, Father, thank you for this letter that we get to open today. May it teach us and be an encouragement to us. In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Well, how does the book begin? It begins the way it should, it seems to me. It begins
with Paul reminding the Thessalonians of how they first became followers of Jesus Christ. He starts at the beginning, and he starts reminding them of how they first decided to believe. Let's listen as we're going to read now the 1st chapter. Remember last week we looked at the opening greeting. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. And then now, the prayer.
Paul begins every letter he writes with a prayer, and here's the prayer he has for the Thessalonians. We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your. Now I want you to listen for something. Paul is famous for his trilogy, Faith, Hope, and Love. The Faith, Hope, and Love trilogy in St. Paul. Here's where he first brings it up. In the very first
letter he writes, he uses that trilogy. Of course, the most famous place he uses it is in 1 Corinthians 13, where he says, now abide these three, Faith, Hope, and Love, and the greatest of these is Love. But he's the one who introduces that wonderful Pauline trilogy. We hear it now for the first time. So he says, I'm remembering before God the Father, your work of faith, your labor of love, and your steadfastness of hope in
our Lord Jesus Christ. He uses three interesting words there, your work of faith. It's one of Paul's favorite words, erg is the Greek word. Actually, that word has come right across into modern physics from Greek. It's used in modern physics as a unit of energy, an erg is called a unit of energy. And the word means event, work as an event, something can be measured as an event. He uses it that way in Philippians when he
says, work out your own salvation, for God is at work in you, both the willing to do his good pleasure. And that's the word erg that Paul uses here. Your faith is an event that happens. In other words, you didn't just believe as an idea. You did something with what you believed. You put your weight down on the downward ski. You decided to do something with what you trusted. And that's why he says, your work of
faith, your labor of love. Now, this is a different word. This is the word kopos in Greek, which means sweat. It means work as labor, hard work. And it's interesting that he would say that about love, that love is, you know, we sometimes hear the word tough love. But we should use that with love. Love is not just a sentiment in the New Testament. Love is something that happens over the long haul. Love is something that
happens that costs you something. It's sweat is something you give yourself to. I love the great saying I once saw in a sports magazine, that sweat is something money can't buy. And, you know, you can buy everything else. You can even buy t-shirts that have pre-imprinted sweat marks. But that's all unreal. You have to actually do something to get sweat. And that's the word Paul uses. You love is something you do over the long
haul with people. And it costs you something. So he uses the word kopos, the labor of love. That's why the Revised Standard translates it labor, your labor of love. And then those of you who've heard me preach very often know that one of Paul's favorite words, he uses right at the beginning of this letter and will use it over and over again in all of his letters. It's become one of my favorite words. I even carved
it on a piece of driftwood. Hupomeno is the next word he uses, your endurance of hope. Hupomeno is one of Paul's favorite words. Meno in Greek means to stay. Hupo means underneath. And so it means to hang in there, to hold on. When a lot of people don't hold on, you hold on. And it's not a triumphalist word, it's a survival word. And that's what we should be, after all, is survivors. We should last it up.
And so notice what he's saying. He says, I'm thankful when I remember you for your work of faith, your hard labor of love, you actually do something with people, and you're hanging in there with hope, you hold on with hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, is that a good sentence or is that a good sentence? That's how you became a Christian. But he has more to say. He's going to retrace how you became a Christian.
You became a Christian when faith became an event, when you decided to put your weight down on Jesus Christ, when you showed love and let His love flow through you, and when you held on to hope. So that's what he says at the beginning. And then he goes on to say, for we know, brothers and sisters, beloved by God, that He has chosen you because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction. He now gives you His Holy Spirit theology. All of this happened because the Holy Spirit validated. The Holy Spirit confirmed the faithfulness of God, that's why you trusted Him. His love through you, that's why you allowed it to happen in your life. And hope, that's why you held on, because the Holy Spirit confirmed it to you. And that's how you become a Christian. It's that there
is a mystery. It's the mystery of when the Holy Spirit convinces you that this love is also for me, it's also mine. And when you're able to say that, it's because the Holy Spirit has confirmed it. It may happen in different ways, in different people, but that happens, it makes sure you're a Christian. And that's what he says. The Holy Spirit did this. And you know what kind of persons we proved. Now he talks about himself when he
and Silas and Timothy and Luke came there. You know what kind of persons we were among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord. He uses this word mimeomao a lot with regard to his discipleship teaching. We get the English word mimic from this, but it's one of Paul's learning words. You learn by seeing a model. And anybody that knows anything about athletics knows this is the way it always works
in athletics. You learn how to ride a bicycle by watching Lance Armstrong and every bicyclist in the world is watching Lance Armstrong. Imagine seven times to win the Tour de France. And you're going to watch everything he does, and you're going to learn how to ride a bike by watching him. Divers learn how to dive by watching a great diver, Greg Louganis. You watch him, and that's how you learn to dive. Swimmers learn by watching swimmers.
Baseball players learn by watching other players. You watch, they model. And then you go off and beyond, but they model, and then you become the model for the next person. But that's the way you learn. That's Paul's discipleship language. You mimic. You follow, we gave you a model, and you followed it. And you learned from us. That's what he's saying. And so you became, you became imitators of us and of the Lord. And for in spite
of persecution, he now brings up persecution. We'll see it next week, especially. But in spite of persecution, you receive the word of joy inspired by the Holy Spirit. There he repeats that again. So that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia. That would be their province. And Achaia, that's the province where Corinth is. Remember, all the way down to Corinth, people know about them. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from
you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known. It spreads. People know what's happening in your life. It's one of the reasons that the Inn is going to be started at Washington State, is because people in Pullman actually put pressure on Mike and came over to us. A lot of our Washington State students that are there say, hey, you have an Inn here at UPC. Why not an
Inn at Washington State? It spreads. They watch and see, did you know that there are Inns all over America that have been modeled after our Inn here at UPC? Our university ministry Inn is being modeled in Memphis, Tennessee right now, in Atlanta, Georgia, and all these places, mainly through people who come to know Mike, have come to the Ascent Conference here, and now that's happening in Washington State. We get to play a part in that. And
that's what Paul is saying. It's known all over the Roman province of Macedonia and also Achaia what's happening to you folks. For the people of those regions report about us, what kind of welcome we had among you. See, remember when Paul came there and they welcomed him and he shared the gospel with him. And how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his Son. There's the
hope again, hang in there, from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the judgment that is to come. Well, there's Paul giving in that one wonderful paragraph, giving us an insight into how these Thessalonians became believers. I don't know whether it resonated with you in your own journey. It certainly does with me, but he tells how they became believers. One line has particularly gripped me. And it's this one line I want
us to now spend the rest of our time looking at. Here it is. It just almost can slip right by you unless you look at it closely. Paul says, the people of the regions report about you, what kind of a welcome we had among you. And how, here's the one line, you turned to God from idols. I have to tell you about the Greek word idol. eidólon actually is the Greek word and the English word idol
is a direct transliteration from the Greek. There aren't too many English words that are totally transliterated and that is idol. The Greek word idol, in the Hebrew, the word for idols is graven image. That's different. But in Greek, the word for idol is shadow. That's what it literally means in Greek, shadow. You turned from the shadows. See, an idol is a shadow. It isn't real. And that's the way the New Testament works with idols. Idols are
not real. I mean, they can't fulfill the promises they make. They can't support the grandiose promises that they make. So there's a sense in which there's an unreality about it. They're a shadow and yet they do harm. There's harm in the shadows. But you turned, notice the great line again, you turned to God and you left the idols behind. I want to reflect on that. I want to reflect on it, first of all, in terms of
how they became Christians, how you become a Christian. And then I also want to reflect on it in terms of what it says to us about what we should do in our ministry and how we should carry on a ministry. And maybe Paul will give us a lot of help there as well. It shows how they became believers. When Paul went to Thessalonica, just like when he was in Philippi and when he was down in Athens,
we see Paul, this is his strategy. Notice what Paul didn't do. He didn't, first of all, smash the idols. That's a hopeless job to smash their idols. He didn't go around the city smashing their idols, even though we're told when he went to Athens, he was distressed when he saw all the idols in the city of Athens. But when he starts his speech, he doesn't even hardly mention it. He says, oh, by the way, I see
you're very religious. By the way, that would be a compliment. They would feel that as a compliment. I saw all your idols. My, what a collection you have in Athens. As a matter of fact, one philosopher said there are more idols in Athens than people. And that's actually a Roman philosopher said that or a Greek philosopher said that. And so Paul said, oh, you've got idols. Wow. And I saw one to a shrine to the unknown
god. By the way, I'd like to talk about that. And then he told them about Jesus Christ. He didn't feel it was his job to destroy their idols. That's not what he did with the Thessalonians. Instead, he pointed them to Jesus Christ. And they left the idols. Remember, I told you last week, if you want to know what Paul preached at Thessalonica, you should read the book of Luke, because Luke traveled with Paul all over the
Mediterranean world, and he heard Paul preach over and over and over and over and over again. And when Paul preached, just like if you want to know what Peter said, read the book of Mark. If you want to know what Paul said, read the big book of Luke. He told them the life of Christ, starting with the birth, then the early childhood, and then the parables that Jesus taught, the Sermon on the Plain in Matthew, the
Sermon on the Mount, the miracles of Jesus, the journey from Galilee down to Jerusalem, his trial, his death on the cross in which he disarmed sin and death and the power of the devil, and then his vindication on Easter morning the third day when he conquered death. See, remember how Luke summarized all of that when he said he told them about Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who is Jesus of Nazareth, necessary that he die and rise again
from the dead. In other words, he narrated the life of Christ, and when the people heard that truth, they bought into it, the Holy Spirit confirmed it, they decided to make an event of their faith, they decided to let the love of that gospel go through their lives, and they decided to hold on to that hope, and they left the idols. And that's how you get rid of your idols. The shadows that are haunting your life,
I think you need to have a greater truth to conquer shadows. You need the light. You've heard the text in the Old Testament, Isaiah 9. Wasn't that great? The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. It's the great light that made the difference. Notice, the people who walked in darkness, the darkness was squashed, destroyed, and then you can go to the light. No, go to the light, the darkness will take care of itself.
One flashlight in the cave will conquer darkness that's been there for 30,000 years. The light is stronger than the darkness. Go toward the light. Go toward the truth. Go toward the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Discover Him. And that's what Paul did. He focused his message on the center. I made that big point last week. That's what won the Greeks, it won the Romans, and it won the Jews. The focus upon Jesus Christ Himself.
And then when they moved toward Him, they left the shadows behind. Did you hear the hymn we sang this morning, written in 1825? When morning gilds the sky, my heart awakening cries, may Jesus Christ be praised. Did you notice this wonderful line? The night becomes day, when from the heart we say, may Jesus Christ be praised. The powers of darkness fear, when this sweet chant they hear, may Jesus Christ be praised. 1825. It's still true. The
secret to the conquering of darkness is to see the light, to point to the greater truth. This is even true interpersonally. I always say to people that have had interpersonal hurtful experiences, the key to the resolution of interpersonal hurtful experiences is a series of positive experiences. If you've been hurt by people, you need some positive experience with people to disarm the hurtful experiences. Don't get focused on the hurtful experiences. Don't go back and rehearse them, and
re-rehearse them, and relive them, and indulge in them. Find positive experiences to move toward. And I pray for that for people. When I have every chance to meet a person that's been through a lot of stress, has had a lot of hurt, I always pray, Lord, give them some signs of encouragement this week, of some positive experiences that will replace the negative ones, that will disarm the negative ones. That doesn't mean that sometimes negative things
don't have to be faced for what they are. But Paul's approach is to point to the center, to point to the truth. The sequence, it seems to me, is important to us. That's his strategy. Go for the greater truth and trust its life-changing power. It's life-changing power. Bruce Metzger once wrote an article on how to relate to people who are caught up in cults. And he made an interesting comment. He said, if you try
to enter their territory where they're involved with the darkness, involved with false teaching, they've got that too well rehearsed to work with. No, he had a great line. He said, instead, invite them into a larger hope. Invite a person that's caught up in trivial things. Invite a person that's caught up in false gods to meet the true God. That doesn't mean that you ignore the fact that they've got a lot of material they've been thinking about
that's in the shadows. But you can't really resolve that. The Holy Spirit can. Your job is to invite them to the truth and let Jesus Christ help to resolve all those parts. And that's how most people become Christians. I've watched it. I've been a pastor long enough that I've watched people become Christians. And the way youth become Christians, the way families become Christians, is they see something good. They see the health and the wholeness of the
gospel. And they move toward it. And then it's funny that that move toward the light begins to resolve so many of the things that were in the shadows. Start at the center and then move toward the edges. Now, I realize that there are some people who have to have the crash of shadows first. And there are some people that have that experience. I don't maintain that we can really arrange that very often. There are a few
times when families have interventions where they feel they have to crash the shadows. Somebody has got this terrible drinking problem that's destroying the whole family. And the family decides for an intervention and says, hey, dad, mom, or an uncle, or a brother, or sister, you've got a huge crisis and we're not going to let it go any further without an intervention. Those take a lot of skill to do. And once in a while, they're really great. But
usually we can't really do those very well. The Holy Spirit can, but we can't really do those too well. But it is true that some people start their journey of faith with the idols all collapsed. My hero, Karl Barth, certainly that's the story of his life. He was a young German idealist. And he studied at Marburg University. And he was caught up in German idealism. His hero was Adolf Harnack. And then that hero, Adolf Harnack, sided
with the Kaiser in World War I. And that German idealism went toxic. And he saw it's become a kind of toxic nationalism. And Karl Barth was totally overwhelmed by it. He was so discouraged. And his friend, Eduard Thurneysen, both of them had studied at Marburg. They were both in that tradition, that German idealistic tradition, which produced Nazism, by the way. And they saw this is pure toxic. And their world collapsed. And one day in a very
famous meeting that Thurneysen and Barth had as young men, both of them about 23 years old, they sat there at a pub having a beer each. And they said, what shall we do? Our heroes have collapsed. And they said, well, shall we study Karl Marx? It was a close call. Shall we study him? At least he's different. And then, thank God, Eduard Thurneysen, Karl Barth's best friend, said, no, I'm going to study the book of John.
See, they hadn't been serious about the Bible before. They were liberal, abstract theologians. They didn't need the Bible. They had their abstract ideas, the German idealistic ideas to work with. And so Thurneysen said, I'm going to read the Bible. I'm going to read John. And then Karl Barth, thank God, all of history changed because of this one decision he made. Because of this one decision, we had the Barman Declaration. Karl Barth sat there that day and
I'm going to read the book of Romans. And he started writing a commentary in Romans, the Roman brief. He wrote seven different editions of the famous Roman brief. It was the beginning of the change of his whole life. I owe so much to that. Well, in his case, there needed to be the collapse. All these idols had to collapse and then they could start moving toward the light. That isn't the way it is with most people.
It wasn't that way with C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis had a sort of just step by step by step. Most people, it's pieces of a puzzle, sort of come together, but they move toward the light and then they leave the shadows behind and the shadows go. Wow. This is what Jesus did. Jesus takes us to grace first. And then from grace, we discover how we need to repent and how we need to repent of our
sins and get rid of the and let the idols fall away. Remember the woman caught in adultery that was thrown at his feet, John 8, the 8th chapter, and the people said, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. Leviticus says stone her. Of course, they hadn't been stoning people ever. In Romans, that's against the law. So they're really putting Jesus in a tough spot. So what do you say? And he didn't answer them. Instead, he just
wrote in the sand. We don't know what he wrote. But then they finally kept asking him, what do you say? What do you say? What do you say? And so he said, well, he is without sin. Let him throw the first stone. And then he knelt down and started writing in the sand again. But he didn't move away from the lady. If they're going to stone her, they're going to have to be extremely accurate because Jesus
is right there next to her. So he doesn't move away. And you know, a beautiful thing happens. He rescued that crowd from doing a malicious and terrible terrorist act one by one from the oldest to the youngest they left. And the woman is all alone. It's interesting. The word of our Lord, the first word of our Lord to her is not, you're a miserable sinner, aren't you? You've got some idols that really got to be taken
care of, lady. No, the first thing he says to her is, where are your accusers? And she says, they're gone. And then he says the most beautiful words in any language. Neither do I accuse you. I don't accuse you. That's sheer grace. Then he calls her to the way of righteousness. He says, now go and sin no more. He calls her to righteousness. Do you know what the next line is? Some people don't know the next
line in John 8, John 8:12. Here it is. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. You've just experienced the light of the world. It's grace. It's the grace of God that breaks through. It's the grace of God that Paul preached to the Thessalonians when he told them about Jesus Christ. And you know what happened? They left their idols.
So will you. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you that we leave the idols behind when we meet the Lord of love, the Lord of truth, the Lord of faithfulness. And then the Holy Spirit confirms all of that. And we're then a Christian and we begin to grow. So Lord, help us. Help us to grow in grace as we grow in age. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.