Well, tonight I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, that's found on page 1255. And you may be wondering, well, why are you going to Thessalonians? Are you starting another series? No, I'm not doing that. We're halfway through the book in Corinthians, to the letter to the Corinthian church and our study, and I thought a break would be good from that. There's been a lot of challenging stuff in that, and I guess I never realized just how big of a problem that church had. So I thought it's good to pause tonight and look at a church that is commended so positively in the New Testament. And I think that's incredibly helpful for us to remember that the Lord is not just about saying this, this, this, this, and this, but that also he encourages his church when he sees wonderful things happening by his spirit and we need that encouragement too so that's my intention tonight on looking at this first section of first thessalonians to give you kind of a different perspective on a church that i think we should pattern and model a lot so this is first thessalonians chapter one i'll read the entirety of the chapter tonight just the first 10 verses paul sylvanus and timothy to the church of the thessalonians in god the father and the lord jesus christ grace to you in peace we give thanks to god always for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers remembering before our god and father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our lord jesus christ for we know brothers loved by god that he has chosen you 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 prove to be among you for your sake 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 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia 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 not we need not say anything or they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living God the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come may the Lord bless the hearing of his word it is remarkable when you study the New Testament how many problems come out of the first century in the church of Jesus Christ you wouldn't expect that really would you in the first century I mean this is when it all started this is in other words this is when christ rose and the gospel went out to all the nations you see churches coming up and you would think well in their infancy there it must have gone so well you know it's remarkable when you look at corinth you know how did it go in the first century if you were to survey the churches well this is what you come up with corinth i do i need to say anything more than the name tonight we've been studying that worldly. Ephesus, a church that had left its first love. There was all heat and no love. No love. They had forgotten why they were doing what they were doing so that the first works that had characterized them when they formed as a church, they were just, they were already gone 40 years later, gone. Philippi, a church that got caught up in all kinds of stupid disputes. And I mean that. It's exactly what it was. Members fighting with each other that Paul has to come along. And when I was a basketball player, if you ever got dunked on, they say you got postered. He posters two of them in Scripture. Yodia and Syntyche, you guys knock it off. Stop it. Fighting, fighting. And then, of course, hands down, the church that wins the award for worst church of the first century, Galatia. A church that defected from the gospel. A church that left the gospel and went back to confidence in the law. Paul said to them, you throw it away and you turn back to your works. I mean, what are we doing here? What do you think this is? This wrecks everything if you do that. and you go after this and you have church after church after church and you start to think well this is this is somewhat discouraging you know because did any of these churches even realize what they were doing and the lord's indictment against them and his great concern of of their ministries and how they were going forward did they have any concept of that did they even think about that you stand back from this then and you start to ask the question well i i really want to hear about a church that pleases the Lord. I really want to hear about a church that that he looks at and says ah there it is. That's the one. That one pleases me. What would you look for? What would you think a church is doing that really pleases him? How would you mark a faithful church what does the church look like when the lord looks down from heaven and says wow my lamp stand is burning bright there be interesting to see because we have a list of things that we'll fight for but it may not be what the lord ultimately is after and that's what makes the church in Thessalonica so remarkable when the church in Thessalonica comes to mind what do you think my guess is well probably not too sure because it's one of those tucked away in the New Testament that doesn't get treated very much and is sort of left alone and yet it's one of the most commended churches by our Lord a fascinating church to me that we're so used to often the negative we forget that he gives this very positive upbeat did you read the first chapter there did you listen to it positive upbeat encouragement to this church it is a powerful commendation right at the front end of this epistle and the church was actively going on and growing from grace to grace it was it was remarkable when you looked at them And all of it could be summed up tonight that when a church receives the gospel in a way that pleases Christ, there are all sorts of things happening. There are remarkable fruits. What fruits would you say? What fruits does the apostle highlight tonight? Conversely, when the gospel's not being received, all sorts of bad fruits fall. My goal tonight then is to encourage us in these good fruits that you would have a positive goal in looking at this church and saying, that is something that I want every member doing its share, the Escondido URC, to be and to become and to value and to treasure. The first thing that Paul does here in 1 Thessalonians 1, which is really the first thing that i'm i'm emphasizing tonight is that he rehearses with them the evidences among them that the gospel has had an effect the gospel has really broken through to that church and it has had an effect in the hearts and the minds of this corporate body of the people and he states powerful powerfully these surprising fruits you'll notice how he says it i suppose it's important here for a moment just to give a little background to this church and this city the church in Thessalonica The city of Thessalonica was really a fascinating place. It was a city full of major idolatry, just like the rest of them were. But particularly that this one, you'll notice, was mentioned there. Paul specifically mentions idolatry. It was really bad in Thessalonica. They say that every time Zeus shook his curls, Mount Olympus shook. Earthquakes. There was a lot of active hostility to the gospel in Thessalonica. There was real struggle in Thessalonica to do ministry. In fact, you'll remember in Acts chapter 17 that Paul himself was run out of the city and then there was this uproar in the city so that a man by the name of Jason and some of the members of the church were dragged out into the open and publicly humiliated. Can you imagine that? Paul's writing to this Gentile church, and what does he say? Well, he's overwhelmed by the evidences of what's happening here in the reception of the truth. And he is essentially saying, dear Christians in Thessalonica, we're overwhelmed right at the start. We're overwhelmed in gratitude for you as a church. We pray for you guys always. Why? Because we've seen things in you. Do you know what we're seeing? Verse 2, we give thanks to God always for you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and laborer of love and of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. That is such a wonderful opening to commend a church. Talk about an encouragement to the church. He rehearses things and he's saying, do you understand that we apostles, we missionaries are going out into the mission field and when we look at the church in Thessalonica, when we have our guys' nights as apostles, we're talking about you guys. We're overwhelmed with what's going on there. Your work of faith, your labor of love, and your steadfastness of hope. Notice that first one, your work of faith. We're impressed with this. You have faith and hope and love mentioned, but notice here that they're connected with actions. So he knows this church believes. He is taken by the fruits that are coming out. And he says, from what you believe, here's what we're seeing. We're standing back and we're seeing, and I'm using Calvin here because I really like how he captured it. We're seeing a rare energy in this church. We don't just readily see elsewhere. It's rare. And it's showing up powerfully in you. In other words, it's a strange heat. It's a powerful diffusing, you could use Paul in Corinthians, of an aroma of you that made us stop and say, what in the world is happening in Thessalonica? There was something from the good root of faith in the hearts of these people when paul's looking at the actions corporately at the of this body he says it's gripped us we're praying we see a labor of love there's this cultivation of love that's happening in the body a cultivation of love where members are are caring for one another we know that jesus said that that by mint by this all men will know you're my disciples it's your love that you have for one another you guys sacrificially love and it doesn't matter who's sitting next to you we see it and he says you're enduring in hope i'm going to come back to that paul now says something that i um i had to pause and think a bit about did you listen to verse 4 all of these things are happening in you work of faith work of faith labor of love patience of hope i want you to understand what this means it means verse four we know brothers loved by god i'm going to be a little more direct in the translation here your election that is um That's a remarkable thing to say. That's a remarkable thing to say. We know your election. And you say, where in the world did that come from? Can you say that? I see God's sovereign election of you. He's overwhelmed. What church gets that said of them? I can see your elect. As Reformed people, many of us have had that kind of beaten into us so coldly. abstractly that it seems sometimes to those on the outside like that's a great monster, that teaching. And sometimes it's been so coldly presented and so... I mean, the idea that you could have frozen chosen, that that could be said, what a terrible thing. Sometimes I think we think just the mere acceptance of election is what makes us elect. That we believe the doctrine is. Hear what Paul's saying? I see evidence. God chose you. I see a heart burning in labor to love. I see it. I see patience. I see this rare heat that we just don't readily see on the mission field. When we're out there, you know people. You know what people are like. You know that we rarely, we just don't see this kind of sacrificial love in the way that we're seeing it. And if that's the case, then you start to pause and you say, well, then, what would be the evidence of a church whose candlestick has been ripped out and that the Lord has departed? You would see no service. You would see no heart. You would see no love. You would see no patience. You would see infighting. You would see bickering. You would see anger. You would see hatred. You'd see division. Ultimately, separation of a church. That's the bad fruits of a church where the lampstand has been removed. And it invites the question, how did that happen? I mean, that's where I want to get tonight. How do you get there for somebody to say, I see God's election of you? Verse 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. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord for you received the word. Stop. You received the word. Our gospel came to you in power and you received it. the ESV captures this well other translations some have used you became followers of us but I really want to accent that's why you say that because the ESV really captures tonight it well when it says you became imitators of us and of the Lord you ever thought what does that mean what is it what's he talking about what does he mean about becoming imitators of them and of the lord how so this is so crucial tonight what was god's disposition to them what was god like to them i want you to think of this morning we really emphasized in the sermon the question of god's intention toward his people and remember that in the midst of all of what the brothers had done to joseph he there is giving us an early pronouncing of the blessing of the lord the lord bless you my son and i said well you know the lord does that in worship this is why his servant is commanded to um to give the benediction and say the lord bless you and the lord keep you the lord turn his smiling shining face upon you at the end of of romans you had this very sort of thing emphasize where Paul breaks into a doxology and he says, now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. You don't realize this. I don't realize this like I should, but the imagery we get in the Bible is that of a God, and I use this respectfully, excited to bring you the gospel. I want you to ponder that. Remember what was said of Christ? We look unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. You say, what? Joy? All that was on his mind was you in that joy. That's why he's doing it. You ever thought about it? He's a God so beneficent, So wonderful, so gracious. When he devised and he came up with his gospel program before you were even born, and this covenant agreement, this pact was made, and the Father and the Son, the Lord was full of joy to come fulfill it. And then when the angels came down and they heralded it at the beginning, do you remember what they said? fear not for behold i bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people for unto you is born this day in the city of david a savior who is christ the lord in fact then what he did is and this is why we love seminary students we don't ever say oh seminary student we love seminary students because god is filling seminary students with this joy to go out. And so that's the imagery you get in the New Testament. He raises up preachers and they're excited about this. They want to go out. They want to tell. In fact, what does Isaiah say about them? Their feet are beautiful. They run to you. They don't walk. Trust me, there's a lot of things sometimes you feel like it'd be easier to do. But God has put this joy in our hearts to tell you. And they come running to you. How beautiful are the feet of those. And the imagery of that was from Isaiah when the runner would come and they would bring forth gospel. Now, come back to verse 6. You became imitators of us and of the Lord for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Whoa. What he just said was, If God was excited and published his gospel with joy and filled his servants with joy, his son having joy to announce to you a way of escape and a way of gospel love in good tidings, in good news to the world. He just said to this church, you imitated your God and your reception of it with joy. You get it? You were so excited to receive it, you imitated your God. And you imitated us, apostles, who were sent to go do this. You say, well, how did they receive it? In what way? Turn to the next chapter, and if you look over at verse 13, this is what you get. For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing. Here it is. Because when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it. You welcomed it. You accepted it. I like welcomed better. Not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work and you believers. They were saying, give me that word. We love that word. When the servant preached, they understood that God had sent a runner. And when they went to church on Sunday, the spirit of coming up to the house of the Lord was they were eager to come. Their Bibles were in hand. In fact, if I had a choice, I'd take all the Bibles out of the pew. I'd just put them back there for the visitors to grab when they come in so that everyone would see you holding your Bibles. And they didn't waste Saturday night. They prepared. They understood what was happening. They believed that. And they would hear the Lord send a servant who would say, the Lord bless you. And then they would hear the word read and this eager, anticipating heart to receive the gospel. When the people received it, they looked upon it with joy because God was preaching it to them in their view. And that's what he just said. It wasn't your word. You received it as it was in truth, the word of God. When the word was unshackled in the days of the Reformation, they would have reading services. Imagine, I know it's been bumper-stickered everywhere, and I know it's been pasted on every billboard wherever we go, but imagine for the first time hearing in your own tongue, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The mouth of the soul was open. You imitated God. There has been something that I've been particularly concerned about in our own tradition. I've long time worried about generational lethargy. Generational lethargy. Where it's just the sense of we're here, we're doing this, we've always done it. And it's just an entirely different thing when you get people coming to church out of just mere duty with the mindset of feeling like this is the thing we have to do. And as they sit there, God raises up a servant and publishes the Gospel. And what is the reception of that? That's the challenge of this tonight. Can you imagine if all the times we've nitpicked, if God nitpicked us, nitpicked about this and nitpicked about that, He'd nitpick us right into hell. What pleased God about Thessalonica was they received the word in all readiness. But I'm not even to the thing that amazes me most about this church tonight. That's up there. That's up there. It all goes together. But one of those fruits that Paul witnessed that I haven't touched on is the patience of hope, steadfastness of hope. What was that? You understand, the gospel can't be received without a joyful heart. I quote Calvin right there. You can't receive the gospel without a joyful heart. You can't. Now, the joy of the Lord is our strength. Most here tonight, some may say I'm under some trial and affliction, but we don't have the kind of suffering that we have going on in this particular church. Aren't knives put to our necks? They're not losing material wealth for being a Christian like they were. Really, there's no reason. If you're measuring joy by those things, well, it would be quite a bit harder to receive the gospel when you're under severe trial, we think. And what would be the worst kind of circumstance that would challenge joy in reception and hearing the gospel? Well, undoubtedly no one in Escondido is being threatened with their life. You just haven't known that. Well, I have never known that. And here's where I believe this church really challenges us. At verse 6, notice what it says. You became imitators of us and the Lord for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. This church was under severe persecution for the Gospel. Many of them had their wealth taken. Many of them were fugitives. Many of them were heavily assaulted, dragged out into the street. many of them false teachers were plaguing them all ideas were all around them and paul is observing through this all they're receiving the word like no other church with joy and power of the spirit well i'm not overlooking there's nothing more we think in conflict with joy than our trials and afflictions that's how we think and here's where the power shows here's where i believe we see the Lord's great power put on display to uphold. Did you notice he mentions real power in the church of Thessalonica? He mentions who? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was showing up in power in Thessalonica. When God published his gospel, his people were in the midst of hardship, his people were in the midst of trial, and all of a sudden they're receiving it all with great joy. Listen to Calvin. There's nothing more in conflict with our natural disposition than to rejoice in afflictions. Amen. We don't do that. What is the one thing we're all trying to beat in life? Hardship and trial. And the one thing that affliction does is assault our hearing. This is what Jesus said in the parable of the sower. He who received the word on stony places is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself and endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he's gone. He stumbles. It's not happening at Thessalonica. When you have a church full of joy in the midst of trial, when you have love going on in the midst of trial, when you have steadfastness of hope in the midst of trial and not people running out, you have a church where the Holy Spirit is in that place with power. And you see, the greatest consequence and the greatest thing happened because of that. What was the greatest consequence of that? Verse 7, as you received the Word readily with joy in your hardships, I want you to look at what he says there, so that you became examples. You became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia 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 don't need to say a thing. Two things resulted. There was this report coming. And then he goes on to say here in verse 9 that they turned to serve the living God from idols. In a culture that was persecuting them, in a culture full of idolatry they took a stand for something and what does that look like you know this is the beauty of this they fought against it all and can you you would only think that that the persecution the hardship would would minimize you as a church it would make you stand alone as a church it would make you hate it as a church and the one thing that paul is telling us is this has always been the truth in the history of the church is that when the church is tried and tested in this kind of way, it comes out strong. And the thing that happened here as this church was being faced with it, notice what he says, the members of this church, as they received the word with joy, they went out and they couldn't help but speak it to others. It sounded out from them. Don't you love that? From this church, from the members in the heart of affliction, it's sounding out. And when a church is overtaken with the gospel this way, when the Spirit empowers the members to receive it with this kind of power, they will be the strongest church in witness to their community and to other Christians. Conversely, when it's all internalized and there's no joy and it's just merely done for the sake of doing it, it internalizes and it's a witness to no one. I just love this church. members are excited it's infectious everyone's talking about it everyone's going out and in the heart of their afflictions they're strengthened the holy spirit is there strengthening them and it says in verse verse 10 they're eagerly waiting they're anticipating the lord to come from heaven whom he raised from the dead jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come now here's my question then tonight the church in thessalonica had that kind of reputation it pleased Christ maybe that would have been the best title tonight the church in the new testament that pleased Christ when the Lord looks at us start with the fruits what does he see does he see a rare energy among us of faith working itself out and then you see this in the works of faith flowing from that good root where the members are sacrificially loving and there's patience and in the tribulations that people see do they see the joy in us do they know that we belong most of all do you come up to the house of the lord eager to receive the Word of the Lord. I can promise you this tonight. The church in the community that will make the biggest difference in reaching people is not the church with the best program. It's not the church with the hottest music. It's not the church with the most outward pomp, all the things you think are going to win, people. It will be a church that is full of members of which it could be said this. Now these were more noble than even those in Thessalonica. These are the Bereans. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if the things were so. They were daily in the Scriptures. They were daily immersed in them. And they were eager to come and receive. I've seen these things in you. It's an encouragement to you tonight. I have no doubt of God's election. And it's good for any church at any time, however, to stop and evaluate. Where it's going. Where it's moving. Whether forward or backwards. And to be reoriented as to where the true power lies. I'm convinced in closing that a church that understands this is a church that the Holy Spirit is particularly giving His power to. And so I want to challenge the members this week. You know, we have prayer time on Wednesdays. I want to challenge the members to pray this week for the Escondido URC. And I want you to pray that when you come up and all the members come up to this house for worship on next Sunday. There's an eager readiness to be here. There's an excitement to be here. Not looking over the fence thinking, oh, you know, maybe that's a better... You get the Word. You get what's most important. I promise you as I'm pastor here, I will preach it. God willing. But pray that. And pray for me that I deliver it faithfully. And pray that there would be a hunger that develops so much so that it's infectious in this community pray that everyone would see that there's something happening in that escondido urc when they go up to the house of the lord there's great joy they're not murmuring or bickering or complaining they're full of joy of the holy spirit and if trial and affliction comes well then i want you to think of that as a golden opportunity of the holy spirit's power to give you even more joy in the reception of the word a church that has this will sound out its faith in the life affecting those around inviting those to come who are their neighbors because they know that power and have tasted that joy may you continue to show forth at the escondido urc your work of faith your labor of love and your patience and steadfastness of hope as you eagerly wait for the coming of the lord jesus christ on the clouds of heaven to take you home. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're thankful that you encourage us greatly with a church like this. It's remarkable. And encouragement is, yes, what we need. So I start tonight by praying even more so than what's already demonstrated here, that there would be eagerness for what is most important, receiving your gospel, receiving Your Word, and that in receiving that Word, these kinds of fruits would spill out so that people would see and that people would come and that people would believe in Jesus and be saved from the wrath to come. We fully confess tonight this is a work of Your Holy Spirit. And we're so content to say that. And so, Holy Spirit, strengthen the preaching. Strengthen Your sheep. Give them the greatest joy that they've ever known. The kind of joy that when the gospel was published and the angels came and were excited to tell us, the joy that Jesus had in enduring the cross, that we would imitate you, O God, and your servants in our reception of your word with the same kind of joy of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.