Following our month and week of prayer, I now want to spend a
few weeks in providing some biblical focus and perspective for our life and ministry together as a church. I trust that you do
see yourself as an indispensable part of the church (1
Corinthians 12). One of the
hardest things to do is to
keep focused on being a God
centered church! We start the year in a focused way
only to find that we run
out of steam about half way through the
year.
Why is this, we may ask? The
answer is that we tend
to lose focus as we run the race. Runners
know what I am talking about.
There comes a time in a marathon
when you begin to wonder, why am I doing this? We get lost in the pain and the effort and
the commitment, and so we forget
the goal. It is important to
keep the goal in sight to complete the
race and so to receive the satisfaction and acknowledgement of having completed the race. The goal of our ministry together is to do
the will of God in our generation, as it is revealed in Scripture. Our goal
is to finish this earthly race and to
enter into our heavenly reward, [1]
that is, to be with God our Father in heaven.
The supreme focus is on God. He
is the center of our lives. “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). “For from Him
and through Him and to Him are all
things...” (Rom 11:36). From Him
we receive our natural life (i.e. we are
born) and our spiritual life (i.e. we are born again) through Jesus Christ who died to save
us. We are made for heaven (John
14:1-3). That is our ultimate
destination. Therefore we remember that we are strangers or exiles in the world (1 Peter 1:1, 17, 2:11) and so
we “look forward to the city that
has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10). That is our essential
biblical perspective. It is important to keep our ministry constantly in focus. This
is my work and my call as a pastor - to keep you focused on God , and live in the light of that fact with faith, hope and love.
To help us at this
time, I have chosen Paul’s first letter
to the Thessalonians. Here we find a wonderful example of
a God centered congregation. This church was started by Paul
on his second missionary journey (Acts
17:1-9). In chapter two we see
how Paul had nurtured this
congregation, like a mother (2:7) and like a father
(2: 11). It was by no means a perfect congregation,
but there can be no doubt that this was
a God- centered church.
What does a
God-centered church look like? Chapter 1 provides us with
the
most essential characteristic of a
God- centered church.
IT WAS A CHURCH
OF CONVERTED PEOPLE !
These people (i.e. some Jews and a great many
of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women - Acts
17:4) were converted when Paul had preached the Gospel
about Jesus the Christ to them (Acts 17:3). When they had heard this
gospel they were persuaded, they
believed and they had trusted in Christ.
As a result they
became “the
church of the Thessalonians (the ‘ekklesia’
– lit. the called out ones) - in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ“. That little word (i.e. a preposition) “in”,
is
a word with huge consequences. They
were in God and in Christ(1:1).
Once they were “out” and now they were “in”.[2] This happened when they had turned “ to God from idols “ (1:9). They had entered into a union with the Triune God. They were in God
the Father and in the Lord
Jesus Christ The joy of the Holy Spirit was in them (1:6).
Now why is this such
an important point? It is important
because the church is a society
of converted people – marked by the fact that they were a people in Christ !
The essential marks of the
converted person are found in verses 2 &3. In his
prayer for them the apostle Paul remembers
that they possessed the
three vital marks of a Christian person: faith, love and hope [3]. They were possessed by a genuine faith
in God; they were characterized by a
love that is described in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 and
they had their hope in eternal realities
i.e. not in things seen, but
in things unseen (Hebrews 11:1) Faith
is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen).
This is the stuff that a God centered Christian
is made of.
Next, observe that these three marks are there as a result of the inner workings
of the Holy Spirit in the soul of
the Christian believer (see vv. 4 &5).
Why are they Christians at all? They are Christians because God
had made them Christians ! Please take careful note of the language of
the Bible. They were loved
by God and chosen by God (v.4 – see also 2 Thess. 2:13). Their
conversion begins not with the fact that they had
made a decision for Jesus but because
God had chosen them. This is true for every real
Christian. Our choice of Him is ultimately the result of His choice of us. Jesus told His disciples , “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you to bear fruit
” (John 15:16). Likewise Paul reminds the Ephesian
Christians that “He chose
us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and
blameless before Him” (Eph. 1:4).
The entire 9th chapter to
the Roman Christians is an exposition of this
mysterious truth!
Next, the
apostle Paul answers the question as to
how and when it came about that these
Thessalonian Christians were converted. It happened when the gospel was preached to them! Foundational to anyone being converted is the
preaching of the gospel [4],
and notice how Paul puts it: “and 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 in full
conviction (v.5). The
gospel did it! But what exactly is this gospel?
The word “gospel”(Gr. euangelion)
literally means “ an announcement of good news” . The good news is contained
in a person called Jesus
Christ. Paul literally preached Christ! The Bible introduces Him as the
eternal Son of God, and God come in
the flesh (John 1:1ff).
It is a high mystery that the
eternal Christ should, by God’s decree become
a man by a miraculous birth.
He lived a sinless life and in the 33 years in which He lived, He clarified the teachings of the OT
prophets with mighty works of power and authority , and he showed
us that in Himself all the
promises of God were fulfilled. Most notably He would
become the Passover lamb – the sacrificial Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of sinners , by His death on a cross,
and by His burial and by His resurrection. This is the gospel word about Jesus. But Paul is not content to leave
it there. Secondly, he tells us that this
gospel word about Jesus must
be preached with power (Gr. dunamis)
and in the Holy Spirit and with full
conviction. In addition note also
that the gospel must be reflected
in the own consistent
testimony of the preacher … There
must be a consistency between what he preaches and how he lives. This is what
Paul meant when he wrote, “ you know what
kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.” (v.5).
The combination
of these things - the
gospel facts spoken about Jesus,
by the power of the Holy Spirit and
with full conviction of the preacher (and mirrored in his own life) – THAT , brothers and sisters is
what biblical gospel
preaching is made of!
Next, we take note of
the result in verses 6- 8: The preacher
so embodies the message that to follow him is, in fact to follow the Lord, “… and you became imitators [5]of
us and the Lord” (v.6a).
The goal of
every true Christian must be to become like Christ. “Whoever
says He abides in him ought
to walk in the same way in which He walked” (1 John 2:6). The goal of preaching the gospel is THAT
people might become followers and imitators of Christ.
Now, notice also that
receiving God’s Word always involves conflict, but Paul immediately makes the
point the joy of the Holy Spirit is given
in the midst of suffering. Knowing
Christ always involves a
sharing in His suffering (Phil 3:10). “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution”
(2 Tim 3:12). In the midst of suffering, God gives greater grace, leading to
a deeper experience of joy in the Lord. The God-centered church will always be resented by the world. She
will suffer because she is different from the world, but all those in the world
that are called by God will receive this
God centered message gladly , and
so we read in vv. 7,8: “They became
an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth (Gr. exechetai
lit. to blow a trumpet) from
you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere".
They not only received the
Word of God , the gospel of Jesus Christ … they trumpeted
it in their area! The God-centered church
desires to share Christ with the world!
A Note on
Repentance (vv 9-10 )
One of the great marks of
saving faith is genuine
repentance. Wherever there is a turning
to Christ, there will be a turning away from idols: “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 (v. 9). This repentance was
so dramatic that everyone knew about it, far and wide. They abandoned their false gods and they embraced
God and the Lord Jesus Christ. In any true conversion,
there must be a renouncing of idols – those things or people which we put in the place of God.
Believing always involves repentance. You must turn from your
idols and you must turn to Christ. Repentance includes three aspects: a change of mind, a change of
heart, and a change of will. This
leads us not only
to a change of life but also
to a change of eternal destiny-
heaven (v.10). I want to speak more about
this, God willing, next week.
Conclusion
The God centered church
is a church in which God is
loved because of what Christ
has done for us, as the Holy Spirit applies
these truths to our hearts in
convicting and converting power. Everything else fades in the light of this principle.
My prayer is that we may be such a church –
a God centered church, marked by converted hearts and changed lives,
with
clear convictions and convicting preaching. May we be a church with courageous commitment, as well as
contagious faith, with complete repentance, and a confident hope.
[1] 2 Timothy 4:7,8
[2] See also Col
1:21 : “And you who once were alienated
and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body
of flesh by his death…” and 1
Peter 2:10 “Once
you were not a people, but now you are God’s people…”
[3] See also 1 Corinthians
13:13
[4] See also Romans 10:14-17
[5]
See also 1 Cor. 11:1
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