Studies in 1Thessalonians

Studies in 1Thessalonians Presentation 01

Leaving your Mark Behind Chapter 1v 1-10 Presentation 01

Introduction On the bark of quite a number of the trees in Public Parks young couples have carved their initials. GH loves SP or DM loves TC. Their aim is to leave a mark that tells a story of their love. For many, leaving a mark is important, ranging from telling people that you have been to a certain place, or achieved a certain goal or enjoyed a close relationship or suffered for a particular cause. One day we will be asked by God, “What mark did you leave behind you”. In these verses Paul describes the mark that he has left behind. Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica Paul left his mark in Thessalonica. He was there for three weeks and in that time a church was planted cf. Acts 17. His preaching involved reasoning with them. The gospel’s appeal is first to the mind and not to the emotions! Paul’s method is seen in the use of the word ‘explaining’ in Acts 17:3. The Greek carries the idea of ‘unravelling’; think of the messy ball of knitting wool when a kitten has finished with it, and the long patience needed to untangle it. When Paul opened the Scriptures, his aim was to untangle peoples’ confused thoughts! And as a result some were converted. Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica And when they came to faith something new became true of them. They were ‘in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ’. They now belonged to two different worlds. ‘In Thessalonica’, they were surrounded by ungodly pressures and temptations; but ‘in God’ they were also citizens of heaven with access to the limitless resources of the Godhead. They were equipped to leave their mark and to shine as a light in a dark and despairing world. Every Christian, who is conscious of the tremendous difficulty of living a consistent and faithful life, needs also to become conscious of the vast resources at their disposal! Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica But how had the Thessalonians gained access into this new realm? Paul’s gospel not only informed their minds, it stirred their hearts and challenged their wills. It had issued a summons to surrender! The gospel forces us to take sides. Christ is a divider of men. We either capitulate to Christ’s Lordship or we defy it. And strangely, when we choose to capitulate, we find it difficult to think that we could have done anything else. With good reason, those who have responded to the call of the gospel describe it as irresistible. Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica C.S. Lewis writes... “I was going up Headington Hill on the top of a bus. Without words and (I think) almost without images, a fact about myself was somehow presented to me. I became aware that I was holding something at bay or shutting something out. Or, If you like that I was wearing some stiff clothing, like corsets or even a suit of armour, as if I were a lobster. I felt myself being, then and there, given a free choice. I could open the door or keep it shut; I could unbuckle the armour or keep it on. Neither choice was presented as a duty; no threat or promise was attached to either, though I knew that to open the door or to take of the corset meant the incalculable. The choice appeared to be momentous, but it was also strangely unemotional. I was moved by no desires or fears. In a sense I was not moved by anything. I chose to open, to unbuckle, to loosen the rein. I say ''chose' yet it did not really seem possible to do the opposite”.

Ministry In Thessalonica This choice is no mere theoretical notion. Cfv3which describes the work in the Thessalonian’s faith, the labour in their love, the patience in their hope. Genuine faith results in definite action [cf. Hebrews 11 – which records men and women of faith who did exploits for God]. Note too the ‘wearisome toil in which love is spent’. Love is the great motivating force for all Christian work - love for Christ more than love for men, though in loving Him we will love others for His sake. This sacrificial love endures because it is, ‘inspired by hope’. What is the great Christian hope? The return of Jesus - a truth that motivated their Christian and which many in the church today have lost sight of. Note Matt. 25.1-3 and Matt. 25.14 – in this regard. Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica Now before the Thessalonians could leave their mark on the world, Paul reminds them that God has first left his mark on them cf ‘Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election’ v4 . Before they chose God, he chose them that he might leave his mark on them.cf Eph 1. Note that Paul’s assurance that they belonged to God also rested, upon the unmistakeable operation of the Spirit. When Paul preached in Thessalonica, he experienced an unusual degree of the Spirit’s empowering/unction and he was conscious that God was having his way in the hearts of his hearers. Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica The phrase ‘with deep conviction’ in v5 means ‘assurance’ rather than the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing more thrilling for the preacher than the assurance that God is at work. Paul’s assurance also rested in the content of the message he proclaimed. James Denny writes, ‘God cannot work through a man in whose soul there are misgivings about the truth’. This note of authority is so often missing in preaching today. Does this explain why there is a lack of spiritual vibrancy in some of our churches? Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica Would you buy a car from a salesman who told you that it might not start when you turned the ignition, and it had been built by welding together the halves of two cars that had been involved in an accident? Oh, and the tyres might blow out since they had been poorly repaired! No! of course not, that information would put you off ever wanting to own such a car. Well that same lack of confidence in the pulpit concerning the transforming power of the gospel will also turn people away. It was said of C.H. Spurgeon, under whose ministry many came to faith, that his abiding legacy was ‘his faith in the converting power of the gospel’. Sadly many today have lost that confidence in God’s word. Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica Now if the gospel is to make an impact, then it cannot be separated from the lives of those who proclaim and profess it cfv5. Our lives will either adorn the gospel making it attractive or detract from it, making it repulsive to others. So inter-dependent is this relationship between life and message that R. M. McCheyne wrote in the following manner to a young divinity student. “Remember you are God's sword - his instrument, I trust a chosen vessel unto him to bear his name. In great measure according to the purity and perfections of the instrument will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God”. Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica We read that the Thessalonians were model evangelists v7. The word translated ‘model’ originally meant ‘the mark or blow’ before it finally came to mean ‘example’. There is a useful association of ideas here. The quality of the Thessalonians’ testimony was such that they ‘left their mark’ when they made contact with others. Are we leaving our mark? Do others look at us and say, “I want to model my life on him/ on her?” Does the attractiveness of Jesus flow through us? Is that something we long for and pray for? Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica The imagery in Paul’s mind changes to that of the clarion call of a trumpet in v8. The news of what had happened to the Thessalonians was so striking that it travelled ahead of the apostle Paul. Every new town he visited had heard of the Thessalonians before his arrival, making it unnecessary for him to give them an account of the astonishing work that had taken place there! Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica What was the news that had stirred up such interest? Was it simply that they now believed different things? No their faith had become visible. We read that they ‘turned to God’. The direction of their lives and the affection of their hearts had spun around by 180o. Now that is a radical change. The N.T. word for that about turn is ‘repentance’. To turn one’s back on what was an established pattern of behaviour and thought and to turn one’s value system on its head made them the talk of the town! Presentation 01

Ministry In Thessalonica Some people say, “that kind of lifestyle change is beyond me”. I can understand that reaction, but pay careful attention to the word order here which is ‘to God from idols’ and not ‘from idols to God’. Thomas Chalmers describes this as, ‘the expulsive power of a new affection’. This new love relationship with Jesus pushes the love of sinning out of our lives! What happens at conversion is that Christ’s nature takes up residence in a person’s heart and “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” Rom.5.5. That is God’s love for us, which at times can be quite overwhelming. So much so that all that offends God and challenges his rule is pushed out of our lives. Presentation 01

Conclusion Any mark which we leave for God will always be as a result of his, having first left the mark of his grace in our lives. We cannot boast for it is all of God. How does the hymn-writer put it? And every virtue we possess… And every victory won… And every thought of holiness, are His alone’ Genuine effective Christian living which leaves its mark, does so, not from overwork, but from overflow - the overflow of Christ’s love. Does that describe your heart and mine? And if not are we willing to do anything about it? One day we will be asked, “What sort of mark did you leave behind”? Presentation 01

Studies in 1Thessalonians