Category: 1 Thessalonians

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

Staying Confident and Hopeful in Christ: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Good morning family!

I know things are not looking great and we still don’t have any clue about when everything will return to normal. These are tough days and we do understand the struggles you are going through. But in these rough times our hope is that you are taking good care of yourselves especially spiritually.

This morning, I believe, our passage from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 gives us some really wise and practical life lessons for times like these.

After listening to Paul’s encouraging words to the church in Thessalonica, we know for sure that these bunch of people were genuine followers of Christ. This church was acclaimed for their undying Faith by Paul, Timothy and the reports they received from churches.

That is why, we picked out this letter and named our series “Abiding Faith”, because we want to learn and imitate these Christians whose Faith was strong as a rock.

But what we see in these recent passages is even though their lives were deeply rooted in Christ, they also had their moments of anxieties and fears about the future, about their present difficult circumstances, more so as there were many Christians tortured and put to death. In verse 1 Paul writes

1. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers

In this verse and the verses prior to these, we read how Paul is aware of what’s happening and his response to the church’s apprehension and that is why He opens up a dialogue where he is exhorting and teaching them how to live under these difficult circumstances.

I believe these words of Paul are equally relevant to us today as we encounter various challenges and anxiousness due to this pandemic.  I hope these verse shifts our focus to Christ and realigns our thoughts to Him.

There are 4 lessons we can learn from Paul dialogue with the Thessalian church

1. To Live in eager anticipation of the Lord’s coming.

The first lesson we learn is to “live in eager anticipation of the Lord’s coming’. Look at verse 2 with me

2. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

In saying this, Paul is also referring to what he already mentioned in 4:16 “For the Lord, Himself will descend from heaven with a shout”. You see, brothers & sisters, it’s the promise Christ gave them before he ascended to heaven in Matthew 24:44 when He said: “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may also be.”

These verses and many others clearly tell us that there will be a sudden, personally visible, bodily return of Christ.

Now, there is a lot of speculation among people with respect to the day of Christ’s coming. Some say Jesus will come anytime now. I remember when I was a kid we went to this church where the Pastor was a Muslim convert.

As far as I remember he was a radical preacher. He would always keep saying “Jesus is coming, are you ready?”, in every message he preached, His house was filled with verses and pictures of Jesus’s coming. I remember one particular picture of Jesus descending from heaven and people being lifted up to him.

And then there are others who believe that there is still time for the return of Christ since they claim that there are events mentioned in the scriptures that are yet to happen which are –

  1. Preaching of the Gospel to all nations (Mark 13:10)
  2. The Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:15-22)
  3. False Prophets working signs & wonders (Mark 13:22)
  4. Signs in heaven (Mark 13:24-25)
  5. Appearance of a Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:1-10)

I giving you references so you can read and study them.

Now, when we look back at history there are certain junctures that would seem like these events have already happened. Now, we won’t go into those details, but in some ways, it seems appropriate to conclude that the predictions of these events may have already been fulfilled. We are free to have our opinions and not quarrel over it. It’s secondary.

But what I want to lead our hearts into is, regardless of our conviction related to either of these views, scriptures clearly suggest that we should stay vigilant and live in eager anticipation of the Lord’s coming.

In Matthew 24:42-44 Jesus said “42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

In 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 3, Paul gives us a picture of how the world is living. He says “While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”

Brothers & sisters, as children of God, let us not be oblivious and unprepared. Whether you are a full-time worker, or running a business, or studying, volunteering for any kind of job, working from home or taking care of various needs of your family at home, whatever it may be, day in and day out we ought to be alert, ready and waiting expectantly for our Savior’s return because this will keep us hopeful.

My Dad coming home

In a similar way, regardless of the outcomes of the present crisis, we have hope that we will be with Jesus in heaven. It keeps our hearts and minds focused on the heavenly things, to desire and dream for the things that truly matter. And helps us to stay watchful from the deceptions (Fasav) of this world.

2. To live daily with an assurance that we are truly saved and redeemed.

The second important lesson we learn from this passage us “ To live daily with an assurance that we are truly saved and redeemed”.

We see that in Verse 4-5

4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.

5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

In verse 8-9 Paul goes on to remind them the Gospel saying …

8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

Brothers & sisters, what Christ has done for us is so precious. You see, while we were sinners and rebels, doing whatever our sinful hearts desired, the Bible says “Christ died fo us”.

As we process this truth, we need to have a deeper understanding of the gift of this Gospel that offered us freedom from slavery to Sin, a new identity in Christ, a relationship that was sealed by the Holy Spirit that confirms our unity with Christ.

Remember that moment when the scales fell off from our eyes when Jesus came into your heart and transformed our life. When we repented of our sins and turned our hearts to Christ, He showered His unconditional love upon us and welcomed us into his family.

Therefore brothers & sisters, do not let the deceiver deceive you and tell you otherwise. Don’t let any doubt linger in your heart but be confident and assured of your salvation in Christ.

We need to say with the same confidence like Paul said in Romans 8:31-35

If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? – Nothing can separate us from the love of God

A strong conviction and assurance in our Salvation give us courage, boldness and strength when we are weak. So, remind the gospel to your heart daily.

3. To live a Morally and Spiritually engaged lives.

The third lesson we learn from this passage is to live morally and spiritually engaged lives.

Here Paul writes in verse 6 & 7.

6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.

To sleep and to get drunk is to lose all consciousness. The context of the word ‘sleep’ in this passage means to be unengaged & unprepared. Paul says this is how the people of the night, people who live in darkness live their lives.

The world has no moral compass and therefore they live selfish and broken lives, but that is not who we are. We are children of the light, the salt of this world, and therefore our conduct and our behaviour matters to God. And through the same grace that enabled us to put our faith in Christ at the time of our salvation, and the same grace that will one day take us to heaven is also the very grace given to us now so that we can live a victorious life in Christ.

God’s expectation from us is to be Holy as He is Holy, not to live as a lazy and sluggard person and therefore He’s has provided his grace to overcome all kinds of temptations, what is required of us is to put our faith in Him, the same child-like faith that we displayed during our conversion, the same child-like faith that believes we will be taken up in heaven. We don’t need an increased faith to overcome sinful temptations, when Jesus’s disciples went to Jesus and asked Him to increase their faith He said “If you have a faith as small as a mustard seed you can move mountains”. What is this small little temptation we are talking about?

God is accomplishing a great thing in this world and he is accomplishing it through you and me, what God has done to us and what is doing in us is not a small thing, therefore, my brothers, my sisters, will you stay awake & engaged? I mean to desire to live morally and spiritually engaged lives for the Glory of God, with the strength and grace He provides. So that He can use us and save many more like us.

4. To live purposefully by encouraging and building one another

And finally the last lesson we learn from this passage is to live purposefully by encouraging and building one another.

11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

We are a family, and we need encouragement, we need support. We need our brothers and sisters to stand with us in hard times, to mourn with us in our sorrows, to rejoice in our victories. We find joy, encouragement and hope when brothers or sisters reminds us God’s love if my heart becomes weary, and warns us from falling into sins when our hearts draw us astray. We need leaders and elders to enlighten us from God’s word and give us the right perspective towards life and the challenges we go through. We need Godly friends to lighten our burdens when we feel lonely and depressed.

Church, let us be sensitive towards one another, what we need is what even others need. The  joy of giving is better than the joy of receiving. In hard times like these, people need encouragement and comfort just as we need it.

There is so much room & opportunity God has provided for us to be involved in serving others and find happiness in doing so.

I suggest that we make it a goal every day to reach out to atleast one person and encourage them in the Lord, remind the Gospel to each other, pray for each other, and give them the confidence that there is someone they can reach out to when in need.

This will definitely uplift our spirit and keep us alive and active.

Community is a beautiful gift from God and therefore let’s make every effort to benefit from it.

Finally, let me conclude by reminding the four lessons we learned today.

1. To Live in eager anticipation of the Lord’s coming.

2. To live daily with an assurance that we are truly saved and redeemed.

3. To live a Morally and Spiritually engaged lives.

4. To live purposefully by encouraging and building one another

Let me pray for us.

Hope you have have a great week ahead. Love you.

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

Striving Toward Higher and greater Responsibility: 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

Good morning beautiful people, I am super delighted to see all of you again.

I hope you guys are safe and taking good care of yourself.

I hope you all are spiritually and physically healthy and fit.

Take good care of your physical health by doing exercise regularly and spiritually keep growing in the Lord.

You know, Its tragedy to see many beloved brothers and sisters died in many part of the world, and many are dying because of corona pandemic.

Church let us keep praying for all brothers and sisters who are going through hard time.

Let us pray that many people will come back to our living God at this chaotic situation.

Ezekiel 18:23 Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

1 Timothy 2:4 4who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Beloved wherever we are, let us make use of every opportunity and every means and point the perishing soul to Christ.

Shall we look to God in Pray: Dear Lord we thank you for this time as we gonna spent some time together meditating your words, may you come and teach us and bless us in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Paul says, 1 Cor. 13:11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

          When we were baby we consume only liquid food right, but when we grow up we change our diet, we start eating hard food, we eat by our self, in the same way we can’t act and behave like a child all the time, it’s time for all of us to take higher and greater responsibilities as a follower of Christ.

Paul urge Thessalonians that you guys need to take higher and greater responsibility, you can’t be in the same position always you need to grow in the Lord, you need to work more.

Believers taking up higher and greater responsibility is the overall focus we gonna meditate now.

Would you please open your bible with me to 1 Thess. 4:9-12? Read it.

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

9Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

10And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, (go higher and higher, more and more)

11and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you,

12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

I would like to entitle my sermon as “Striving toward higher and greater Responsibility”

  1. 1.    Striving toward loving one another more and more. (9-10).

9Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

10And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more.

There are 4 kinds of love in the bible. In Greek language they are called:

(1) Agape Love- Unconditional love. (Love of God)

(2) Storgi love– Affection (love between Family)

(3) Eros Love– Eroticism (Love between couple)

(4) Philia- love – Friendship (love between friends) or Brotherly

Here in verse 9 and 10, Apostle Paul is using Philia love, friendship love or brotherly love

Thessalonians scoring mark in loving one another is A+, Paul was so proud of their testimony, they were leading church in spreading gospel in all over the places,

they were living exemplary life, but Paul urge them again, you can still do better than A+,

love one another more and more, it means you don’t need to be just good, but you need to be excellent, excel in your conduct toward loving one another.

The Thessalonians did not just feel love for one another—they did love for one another – “And indeed you DO it toward all the brethren…” (4:10) They did not merely profess brotherly love—they expressed brotherly love with their action. This is exactly the teaching of the Scriptures: 1 John 3:18 – Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

John 13:34-35, Jesus said,

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

35 By this everyone will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.”

Scripture remind us that if we love one another that will prove that we are Christ disciples.

On the other hand, Scripture says the absence of brotherly love is a prove that someone is not truly born again –

1 John 4: 20,21.

20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

If we are not loving one another you are not born again????, a genuine and true born-again believer will obey Christ command and life according to His will and purpose.

Illustration: Philippians Church collect money for Apostle Paul while he was having hard time in Rome Jail. (This is Philia love brotherly love).

I saw many of our church believers donating gift to the people who going through hard time at this moment. That is brotherly love.

Many people around the world are help each other and encouraging each other, sharing each other burden, praying for another, Caring for one another.

This act of loving one another will prove that we are Christ disciples.

The scripture is urging to do this good works more and more

Application: Friends,

Are we loving one another?

Do you think you can love people around you more and more?

There is great power and happiness and blessings in loving one another.

Loving one another can change the world.

What if 7.8 billion people in this planet love one another? Stop hating each other?

And start caring for one another

The world will be a better place, you and I can bring the change.

You know folks, Apostle Paul knows the power of loving one another, and He is reminding us that we should love one another more and more as Christ has love us.

The world has experienced enough blood shed in history, in 1 world war 19 million people died, and in second world war 56 million people died,

We see humanitarian crisis in middle East, Europe and in many parts of the world, we see unending fight going on in middle east and in various part of the world

Why all these hates, killing and fight, it is because there is no love.

In 2003 an American band called Black Eyed Pies” released a hit song call

“where is the love” the song has 529 million view in YouTube.

 The song starts with the sentence “what’s wrong with the world,”

This song is all about Condemn war, terrorism, killing, using chemical gas, gangster, selfishness, Madness of all evils that is happening around the world,

the chorus goes like this.

People killin’, people dyin’
Children hurt and you hear them cryin’
Can you practice what you preach?
And would you turn the other cheek?

Father, father, father help us
Send us some guidance from above
‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’
Where is the love? (Love)

Where is the love? (The love)
Where is the love? (The love)

Beloved, the world is hungry for Christ love, they are searching for an answer, we know  Jesus is the answer for this dying world, we have Christ love in us, let us Spread the Love of Christ and Let us conquer our family, our friends, our society, our nation and the world with Christ love.

  1. Strive toward leading a peaceful life. (11a)

“And to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life”

We are to aim or strive for wuiet and peaceful life.

The word “quiet” here is a Greek verb that means to rest. hold peace, be quiet.

Paul reflects this thinking by saying that the goal of every Christian should be to lead a quiet, peaceful and tranquil life. we should seek a peaceful life without conflict with our community.

This quiet and peaceful life is not from the world this is from God,

John 14:27 Jesus said, peace I leave with you, my peace I gave to you.

Isaiah 9:6. Jesus is the price of peace.

So remember this quiet and peaceful life is fromGod.

I have beautiful hymn here written by Anne S Murphy. (1890).

There is a peace in my heart that the world never gave,
A peace it cannot take away;
Though the trials of life may surround like a cloud,
I’ve a peace that has come here to stay!

All the world seemed to sing of a Savior and King,
When peace sweetly came to my heart;
Troubles all fled away and my night turned today,
Blessed Jesus, how glorious Thou art!


Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine;
Constantly abiding, rapture divine;
He never leaves me lonely, whispers, O so kind:
“I will never leave thee,” Jesus is mine.

Why we should strive to live quiet and peaceful life?

Because peaceful living

  1. Peaceful living builds up good relationship with the people around us.

(Year ago we were living in Santacruz, we have very good Hindu neighbor, we share so many things together, but when we were about to leave the neighborhood, I remember the granny came over hug me and Phila and she was literally crying).

Because they don’t want us to leave.

And the other catholic neighbor they are sad too, they call me Father in their own catholic context, they told me to come back again, we had an emotional goodbye).

I learn a lesson that living peaceful life with people around is vital for every believer.

  • Living peaceful life Set a Christlike example for them.
  • Living peaceful life Show the world that we are peace loving and peaceful people.
  • To live peacefully with all people is a command from God. (Romans 12:18)
  • Most importantly, we can share good news to them.

In this hectic world, everyone is searching for quit and peaceful life,

Many people think if they have enough money, achieve their wildest dream,

their life will be peaceful, and

If they become famous and successful, they think they will have peaceful life.

But that’s not true materialistic things and fame and success that we see around is temporary and can’t give us the inner peace.

Perfect peace is found in Christ Jesus alone. 

Matthew 11: 28. Jesus said,

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Application:

Remember church, we are here to show the world that we have perfect peace given by our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us show the world our peaceful life in Christ, so that they will return to our Living God.

With that lets come to the 3rd points.

  1. Striving toward doing our own business and being productive (11b)

“You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you”, (b)

This verse is telling us to do our own work by Using God-given talents and gifts.

This is a practical advice, considering the church was under persecution from the civil authorities as well as the Jews.  By “laying low” and minding their business, they avoided an increase of persecution.

Illustration: Apostle PAUL.

Paul wrote, “Mind your own business and work with your hands.” Paul was an apostle, but he also had a real job. He was a tentmaker. He worked with his hands to make tents and sell them so he could have money to live on. He didn’t want to be a burden to anyone.

1 Thess.2:9. Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day, we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you.

Beloved Don’t let your life be a burden to someone else, may be your family, wife, husband, church, may be society, may be even nation.

Let us be like Paul and his team working day and night for living,

so that we won’t be burden to anyone but be a blessing to all people around us.

Paul says “Work with your hands” it means Living a productive life.

How can we live a productive life?

Illustration: I have short story of an Ant. (Proverb.6;6-11) Solomon the wise man said,

6.Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,  a little folding of the hands to rest—
11 and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

I do not mean you guys are lazy and squanderer but what I mean to say is we can learn a great life Lesson from this little ant and be productive.

(1) Work smart (the Ant know when to work and how to work and they know where the food is) that’s smart right.

 (2) work hard (they work day and night and never get tired)

(3) Never give up. (they work until they achieve their dream)

(4) Be persistence. (they keep working and working).

Wise man Solomon remind us to learn these important lessons from an Ant.

I Have a quotation here:

“Wise people plan for 3 generation, fool plan for Saturday night”.

Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men”

Remember whatever we do, we are doing for God, for His glory and not for ourselves.

Application:

Are we striving toward minding our own business? or living a messy and lazy life?

And, are we living a productive life?

Ephesian 5: 15-17

15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,

16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

17 Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is.

Our life on earth is short, we don’t have time to squander around and waste our life,

Let’s work hard and take good care of the task God has assign us and let us live a productive life.

Finally, we come to our last point:

  1. Striving toward gaining respect and self-support. (12)

“So that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” (12)

This last point striving toward gaining respect and self-support is the result of obeying point 1, 2, and 3.

If we strive toward loving one another more and more,

If we strive toward leading quiet and peaceful life,

If we strive toward working our own affairs and living productive life.

We will win the respect of outsiders; these outsiders are people outside the church (unbelievers) and

We will not live depending on others but living a sufficient satisfied life.

Remember Believers must always bear in mind the impact of their conduct on those who are without faith. we must give the impression that we are our Lord’s ambassadors,

and our conduct must show the beauty of Christ.

Illustration: Last month we were in Dubai, I heard a beautiful story, of the works done by Christian missionary Doctors, In a year 1964 missionaries open a hospital, This hospital has help the people UAE in an extraordinary way, some of their great leaders Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Sheikh Saif bin Zayed were born there in the hospital.

During their Country hard time Christian missionaries have done an amazing work, As a result, the Christian missionaries won a huge respect from Muslim friends. They have a high respect for each other.

The UAE government even donate a land to build churches. There is religion tolerance and freedom of religion in UAE.

It is Because of few faithful Christian missionaries; the younger generation are greatly blessed.

As a church we should win the respect of unbelievers around us so that we can build up good relationship with them and introduce them to Christ.

We should also take good care of our life, our life should not depend on others for daily needs, but like Paul and his team we should work hard and live a sufficient and satisfied life, our life should be an example to all people around us.

Conclusion:

We have meditated together 4 points under the

topic: “Striving Toward Higher Greater Responsibility”

I want to remind you that you are not a child anymore, you are responsible men and women, you are an ambassador of Christ, we can’t be like baby anymore.

We must “Strive toward Higher and greater Responsibility”.

Remember we are on a mission from the King of kings and Lord of Lords.

Let us fight the good fight, let us be strong and be courageous.

We are generation builders; and we are the world changer.

Let us strive toward loving one another more and more,

Let us strive toward leading quiet and peaceful life,

Let us strive toward working our own affairs and live productive life.

Let us Strive toward gaining respect and self-support.

Remember, the world is desperately in need of Christ love,

Let us love them more and more and more.

We must be a channel of peace for this broken world by introducing our Lord Jesus,

the prince of Peace.

Let us work hard like an ant and live a productive life for Gods glory.

Finally, we must win the respect of people around us by showing the beauty of Christ in our life.

May God bless you and keep you and make His face shine on you.

Let’s Look to God in prayer.

Amen.

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

Escaping Sexual Sin- 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

As a church we’ve been going through a series called “Abiding faith” from 1 Thessalonians. Today’s we are going to see how this kind of abiding, enduring, long lasting faith produces holiness.

“Escaping sexual sin” is the title of the message. But some of us may ask, “how relevant is a message on escaping sexual sin during this time of a pandemic and a lockdown? People can’t even go outside!”

Even in the letter to Thessalonians so far, Paul has spoken about suffering and love and concern, why suddenly shift gears and talk about holiness especially in the area of sexuality? One of the reasons could be due to the challenging context of the Thessalonian believers.

After all they were living in a trading centre, commercial hub, progressive city like Thessalonica. It had easy accessibility to a lot of stuff which also has its downside – sexual immorality was open and prevalent.

In the midst of severe suffering and isolation, the believers could be tempted to let their guard down by saying to themselves deceiving things like:


i) “I’m going through so much pain and loneliness right now. Sexual sin allows me to escape & forget what I’m going through now”.
ii) “Paul who is my spiritual father in the faith – he shared the good news about Jesus to me for the first time is not here right now. He’s far away in another city. So no one will even get to know if I mess with sexual sin”.
iii) “So far I think I’ve been doing great spiritually. In fact all over the Christian world, churches are talking about my faith and radical testimony. I probably can take it easy spiritually. Take a break from my spiritual life”.


And even as we’re hearing this, we realize that this is not too distant from our experience in this COVID-19 pandemic with social distancing and lockdown imposed in many parts of the globe.

We are in no way exempt from these thoughts and temptations. And it’s in the midst of this context, that Paul earnestly pleads the church & us to strive for holy living unto God all the more! It’s almost like he’s saying “It’s not the time to take it easy. It’s not the time to let your guards down.

Now more than ever you need to pay attention on how you’re living your life”.


Why should we do all the more?

V3 For this is God’s will for you -> your sanctification.

Sanctification means being purified to be used by God. God’s will for us is purification so that we can be used by Him. One of the key areas that requires purification in our lives is our “Sexuality”.

That’s why he follows that up with – that you abstain from sexual immorality. That word “sexual immorality” comes from the Greek word “pornea” which describes every kind of sexual sin that we engage in outside of the commitment of marriage – fornication (sex before marriage), adultery (sex outside of marriage), lustful thoughts, homosexuality, incest, bestiality etc. God’s will and command for us is that we abstain from sexual immorality!


I remember that this was one of the first bible passages that I read when I started following Jesus some years back. At the time I thought this area of sexual sin was only something I had to deal with only for a few years.

Little did I know and expect that this was going to be something to fought against throughout my lifetime. Brothers and sisters, if you can relate or if you’re experiencing despair or hopelessness in your fight with sexual sin, I’d invite you to look at the “help” that is made available for us in this passage.

We’ll look at the commands off course, but also spend some time trying to understand what is the “help” that God provided for us & I’ll close with 3 applications at the end.
The first help available for us:

  1. New Desires
    God’s given us “new desires for Him”. (v4, 5)

    4 that each one of you know how to control his own body[c] in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

    In these two verses, Paul is contrasting believers of Jesus with those don’t believe in Him. He is saying that believers “can and should control their body in holiness and reverence” while Gentiles/people who don’t believe in Jesus are incapable of doing that because they are controlled by their sinful desires.

    What’s the difference here? Because believers in Jesus Christ “know God” and have a new relationship with God, they also have new desires for God.

    Some years back while having a conversation with a brother in Christ on this topic, and he said something that I thought has been immensely useful. He said what helped him was questioning his heart “do I love Jesus more or do I love this sin more?”

    That’s an important question we need to constantly ask ourselves because that determines our responses to temptations.

    In Genesis, we are told an account of Joseph while he was at Potiphar’s house. God had given Joseph favour in the eyes of his master and he became the overseer & in charge of everything he had.

    Now Potiphar’s wife had her eyes on him and Scripture says “day after day she tried to lure him by telling him to lie with her”. But he refused her repeatedly. Now to the world this might seem stupid.

    “She’s throwing herself at him day after day! Joseph is a fool & an idiot. Here’s an open opportunity that no one would’ve even come to know of”.

    But we know why he refused repeatedly in his response to her. Joseph said “how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” At the point of his vulnerability and utmost weakness, his desire for God is what kept him from falling.

    Many times we get into that thought process thinking that sexual desire is so strong that we have no option but to succumb to it. That’s an absolute lie and the deception of sin!

    John Piper has this saying “if the stakes are high like someone threatening to kill you at a moment of great sexual desire or the reward is great like someone giving you a $1 million cheque at a moment of great sexual desire, from somewhere or the other you will muster the strength to control yourself because of the greater emotion of fear or greed controls you”.

    And this is just an example at a physiological level. How much more will we be able to control our bodies in holiness and honor, because God has replaced our dead desires with new desires for Him!

  2. New name (v7)

    7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

    God “calling us” gives us the image of God the Father calling and inviting us into fellowship with Him – God calls us by a new name – a better name.

    Obviously, I’m not talking literally changing our human names. It’s not as though God literally puts the word “saint” in front of our name for ex. By putting St. in front of my name that I become “holy”!

    What I mean by God giving us a new name & better name is that he doesn’t look at us and refer to us as “unholy sinners” or “impure enemies” but instead He calls us His very own children who like Him reflect holiness!

    But how can we be considered as His holy children? We might assume – “Well it must be my best efforts and my good works. The sum of all the righteous things that I do in this life is what makes me holy.” Isaiah 64:6 tells us that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”!

    So if we were to put together the best of our works, they would at the most qualify as soiled and dirty rags. Why because? The standard of measurement of holiness is not among ourselves but with God.

    So how then does God give us a new name “calling us His holy children”? He does that by sending His perfect and pure Son into the world (Jesus).

    In the history of the world there has been only one person who by God’s standard has lived a 100% holy life and that is Jesus.

    Two weeks back we remembered Jesus’ suffering and death on Good Friday – why did the only person who lived a holy life then die brutally on a Roman cross? It’s because He willingly and lovingly took on the punishment by dying for our lust, our abuses and our immorality.

    Three days later he rose from the grave to give us a new name so that whoever who turn from their sins and themselves and would turn toward Jesus and what He did for them, they would now receive the gift of a new name as His holy children!

    John 1:12: Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

    And this name is a permanent name because it no longer based on my failing performance but on Jesus’ perfect performance. This new and permanent name is the key motivation to living holy lives.

    I once heard a pastor mention of how his parenting radically changed over the years as he grew in his understanding of God’s grace. Initially whenever he needed to discipline his son, he would tell him – “Don’t do this. You’ll be a bad boy if you do this”.

    Now for many of us this is a normal statement. But when you think about it – in essence what it communicates is that what the boy did (good or bad) defined who he was and defined his relationship with the parent.

    Over the years as the pastor understood God’s grace deeper, it started impacting his parenting as well. Now every time he disciplines his Son, he tells him “Son, I don’t want you to do this because you are my Son and because I love you”.

    Just think about it – this will actually motivate the boy to do what the father wanted him to do because he is so secure in the committed love of his father. Similarly, and in a much greater measure, is God’s committed love toward us.

    Through Jesus, He has given us the assurance that nothing will change the relationship equation – nothing will make God say to us “you are not my son or daughter” – “I’m taking your name of my name”. And that’s such a powerful motivator to help us live holy lives.

    And that’s a powerful motivator to helps us with repentance! When we realize that God has given us a permanent name, it allows us to run back to him and repent sincerely.

    This is not taking grace lightly. I’m not talking about regret where we feel guilty about the consequences of sin but genuine repentance where we grieve over what we’ve done against God and others & find healing because as His children we desire a relationship with God. We don’t want to live away from Him. He is our Father and He has given us a new name.

  3. His Spirit

    8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

    There is serious weight and authority in this instruction but also it provides us with help & hope by telling us that we’ve been given the Holy Spirit! In a sense, God is trying to tell us that He is so serious about making us holy that He has literally poured out His Spirit on us.

    Ezekiel 36:26,27 – 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.[a]

    The Holy Spirit that is placed within us will “cause us to walk in obedience to God in a manner that pleases Him”. Brothers and sisters –I want you guys to know that as I’m preaching on this topic, I’m not preaching from a standpoint of being a perfect believer who is preaching down on people.

    I’ll be honest to say that I’ve seen and experienced the brokenness of this sin struggle myself in my thoughts, my actions and the way I’ve related with people. But from being in a place where I thought I was always going to live a defeated Christian life, God through His Spirit has brought me to a place where I see myself fighting today.

    I’m by no means a finished product but I say this to testify on how the Spirit has been working especially in this arena of sexual sin and that’s why I’m passionate to help people who are struggling in this area.

    I want to close by sharing 3 final applications which I hope can encourage anyone who is currently in a place of struggle:

    • This temptation is not unique to us –

    No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. (1 Cor 10:13). For the longest time, I always thought I was alone in this struggle and that’s why I kept myself isolated and this sin hidden.

    But when the Spirit opened my eyes to see that it isn’t unique, it allowed me to open up and be vulnerable to my brothers and sisters in Christ who would actually call me to repentance and remind me of the gospel when I need to hear it the most.

    • Jesus faced every temptation that we’ve faced –

    For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:15,16)

    The Spirit opened my eyes to see that Jesus faced every temptation we’ve faced which includes sexual temptation yet without sin. And because He understands what I face, He can perfectly pray to the Father for me and also send the mercy and grace that I need.

    • Spiritual disciplines are means of grace –

    There was a season in my life when I erroneously assumed that if I practiced spiritual disciplines then I was a legalist and not living by grace.

    The Spirit opened my eyes so that I could see that reading Scripture, prayer, having someone keep my life accountable with other believers and paying attention to what I watch and read were not so that God can measure my good or bad performance.

    Rather these were gifts from God to know Him better and live in the freedom that He intended for me.

    During this lockdown situation especially where we are being and being socially distanced from others – lets remember it is a ripe field for temptation.

But the good news is that God hasn’t left you alone.

He has actually provided you with the help you need – he’s given you new desires, he’s given you a new name and he’s given you His own Spirit which can help you fight sexual sins and live in holiness unto God!

Categories
1 Thessalonians Sermon

An Exemplary believer- 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Good morning church,

I am delighted to see all of you this morning, I wanna say thank you so much for taking out your time, may the Lord bless all of us as we come together and listen to His living word.

I know we all our going through hard time, difficulties and challenges, I pray that we all will be encourage as we spend time together in God’s presence.

we shall continue with our book study from 1 Thessalonian.3.

Before we go ahead shall we look to God in prayer.

         Shall we open our bible to 1 Thessalonica 3:6-13.

6. But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you.

7 Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encourage about you because of your faith.

8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.

9. How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?

10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you.

12. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

13. May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones.

The text is about Paul sending Timothy to check out the condition of Thessalonian believers, as we know Paul didn’t spend much time with Them because of persecution. He was concern and curious about them. Timothy brings good news that they are growing in faith and growing in love.

I would like to entitle my sermon as “An Exemplary believer”

We shall see 4 very important points from the above text.

  1. An exemplary believer has a genuine faith that produces fruit. (6) (8) (10)

6. But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your FAITH and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you.

8. For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.

10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

Thessalonian believer’s faith was a genuine faith that bear much fruit, we see Christlike example that has spread everywhere.

When we read Thessalonica chapter 1, we know that they were idol worshipper but when Paul and his team brought good news they turn from idol and serve the true living God.

1 Thessalonian 1: 6,7,8.

6. you became imitators of us and of the Lord, in spite of severe suffering, you welcome the message with the joy given by the Holy spirit.

7. And so you became a Model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

8. The Lord message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we don’t need to say anything about it.

They became example for many people, they were bearing fruit, they received the gospel, they didn’t keep it, but they spread out and multiply in every part of the world, their Faith was a genuine and living faith.

How is our faith in God today?

You know church a faith that doesn’t produce fruit is a dead faith. we may know so many things about the bible but if we don’t put into action it is a dead faith.

James 2:26 says “Faith without work is dead.”

Jesus said, in Matthew 7:20, “By their fruit you will recognize them.”

It means the kind of fruit you are bearing will prove who you are, A real believer or fake believer.

Are we bearing fruit in our life? Are we putting our faith into action?

Illustration: Let’s see Abraham genuine faith .

God says to Abraham, leave your country, your people, your father household and go to the place where I have prepared. Abraham didn’t ask even 1 question why and where?

He doesn’t know how his future will look like,

By faith he obeys God and leave his country, that is genuine faith with action.

Abraham have faith in God, even though he doesn’t see it, He Obey God and he exercise his faith practically, as a result we see Abraham genuine faith produce fruit.

What if Abraham didn’t believe God or obey God, he will never see all the blessings and promises.

Illustration: You know, Jesus didn’t perform miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief,

Matthew 13:58. Let this thing shouldn’t happen to our family, our society or our nation.

Let’s have faith in God.

Application

Let’s have:

Faith in Gods healing – that He will heal this terrible corona pandemic.

Faith in God’s providence – that he will supply all our needs.

Faith in God’s Protection – that as He protect the nation Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, He will protect us from all disease, harm and evil.

Faith in God’s Character – that He is good and makes no mistakes.

Faith in God’s Word – that it is true no matter what happen.

Faith in God’s Plan – that He has the best plan for our life.

Faith in God’s presence – that he is with us in the darkest moments of life.

Faith in God’s power – that He can deliver us from every Temptation.

  • An exemplary believer has genuine love that leads to action. (6) (12)

(Genuine love leads to action because love is action)

(6) But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love.  12. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

Thessalonians believers have genuine love to God and to one another.

They have proved their love with their action.

Bible says the greatest commandment is

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second is love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Matthew 22:37-39.

We see Thessalonians believers love God and they are loving each other.

Illustration: Christ Display the perfect example of Genuine love that leads to action.

The dead of Christ on the cross was the greatest act of love,

His sacrifice brings the forgiveness of sins, Redemption from slavery of sin, reconciliation to the Father, it brings peace and joy to mankind, it brings eternal hope and it grant us eternal life.

Apostle Paul explain clearly in 1 Cor. 13:1-8. What genuine love look like?

1.If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

3. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6.Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8.Love never fails.

Application:

Church let our love for God and love for others be a genuine love with action.

The world is desperately in need of God’s love, let us shine Christlike example in our everyday life. Let us not forget that Christ Love is the greatest weapon.

With Christ Love we can change the world; we can bring peace in the world.

With Christ love we can bring forgiveness and reconciliation.

with Christ love we can build up broken family, broken relationship, broken society

 broken nation and broken world.

As the world is going through tough time, let us take this as an opportunity to spread God’s love to all people around us.

Together we can change the world with Christ love, together we can bring glory to God by loving Him and by loving one another.

  1. An exemplary believer are source of encouragement and source of joy to others.

(7) (9)

7 Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution we were encourage about you because of your faith.

9.How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?

Thessalonian believers were living a genuine Christian life, their faith in the Lord was a source of encouragement and source of joy to Paul and his teammate.

Illustration: (Christmas eve).

It was Christmas morning, A lady name Lily work at coffee shop in the Airport,

one guy was on his way home to celebrate Christmas eve with his family after his long tiresome work. Lily politely talk with the guy and wishes him. “saying “may you and your family have an extraordinary Christmas holiday, May you all have a wonderful time together.

And when you get back to airport, I would like to hear all the fun and love about your family

They didn’t know each other; he was surprise to see her kindness.

He left the coffee shop, after some time he return, Lily say, is there anything wrong with the coffee he says no, no, He ask, what make you connect so well.

Lily reply, I am not just serving coffee, I am pouring happiness in people’s lives.

We are living in a busy world, many people are living with work pressure, many people are having hard time, many people are struggling in different areas of life.

Even these days all people around the world are experiencing the pain of Covid-19.

As a believer we can be a source of encouragement and source of Joy to many people around the world. Let’s be like lily pouring happiness in the lives of others.

Application:

  • Let our life be a channel of blessing for all the people whom we meet.
  • Always look out for an opportunity to pour out your happiness in people lives.
  • Always be ready to encourage other with smile, with helping hand, with the word of God,
  • Always show your love and kindness to all the people.
  • A little love, a little kindness a little encouragement can bring great joy in the lives of people around us.
  1. An exemplary Believer live a holy life that pleases God. (13)

13. May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones.

This verse is a loving prayer of Paul for Thessalonians believers, Paul want them to be blameless and holy before God.

The root meaning of holy is to Set apart, to separate, to cut.

It means to set apart or separate from sins, from all evil or sinful activities in this world.

1 Peter 1:15,16 says

15.“But like the holy one who call you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.

16. Because it is written “You shall be holy for I am Holy.”

Illustration: You know Daniel and friends were offer Babylonian pleasure, but they said no

“we won’t defile our heart with the king choice food” they set apart themselves from all evil pagans’ activities. Let us be bold enough like Daniel and friends and say No to all sinful activities. They drew a line; a boundary and they never cross the boundary that is an example living a holy life.

Joseph was tempted by Potiphar wife to sleep with her, Joseph reply “how could I do this great evil and sin against God.” He ran from the temptation.

This is great example for all of us, we have to run like joseph.

2 Corinthians 6: 14-17.

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

15. What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

16. What agreement is there between the temple of God and Idols? For we are the temple of the Living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them and walk with them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

It means God does not want us to live like unbelievers, he didn’t want us to walk like them, they are wicked and unredeemed, and they are living in a Darkness.

He reminds us that we belong to Him, we are bought with a price, we are temple of God, and Holy Spirit dwell in us. As a result, we should keep our heart Holy and live a blameless life.

Application:

Church, are we maintaining our life holy before God?

If our every thought and every action done in secret and public are recorded and display in big TV screen how it will look like?

I think we will be ashamed to look our evil thought, our lustful thought our sinful thought and sinful action before God. We will be ashamed.

Remember church God has purchased us with His blood.

He didn’t want us to live the same old sinful life, He want us to be Holy and blameless before Him. For He is holy God.

Romans 12: 1-2 says.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God- this is your true and proper worship.

2. Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Conclusion:

Beloved church let our life be a living example like Thessalonian believers in this broken world,

Let our love for Jesus, our faith in Jesus be spread from here to all over the world like Thessalonian believers.

Let us be the light in the mountain where everyone can see.

Let our genuine faith produce many fruits,

Let our genuine love leads to action,

Let our life be a source of encouragement and source of joy to all people around us.

Let our life be holy and blameless before God, till we meet Christ.

Categories
1 Thessalonians Sermon

Because He is Risen : 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15

Good morning everyone!

My name is Saju Joseph and I am one of the Pastors at the Gathering Community Church.

This morning I’m extremely happy and humbled to share with you the Easter message. If you’ve visited us for the first time, or hearing the name Easter, or heard this word before but don’t really know what that means, it is the day when all the followers of Jesus around the world celebrate his Resurrection – The rising up of Jesus from the dead.

You see, 2020 years back Jesus, an innocent man was brutally killed and hanged on the cross because he was exposing the sinful hearts of men and women at that time and publicly calling out their sins, asking them to repent and believe in the Kingdom of God.  He questioned the authority of the so-called leaders, teachers & kings. He even claimed He was the Son of God, he displayed a power that no one could understand. And therefore he was put to death out of anger and jealousy, but what we know from the Scripture is in fact that Jesus willingly gave himself to die on the cross.

What happened to Jesus was the fulfilment of a prophecy that was made thousands of years back, that the Son of God will come down to earth as a pure and holy lamp, offering himself as a permanent sacrifice for all our sins so that we can be forgiven and united back into the loving relationship with the Heavenly Father who created us and loves us.

Brothers & sisters, the Resurrection of Jesus is the proof, the evidence that he was who he claimed to be, the Son of God who came to die and restore us.

This morning as we all are experiencing this threat of a plague called COVID-19, the Resurrection message of Jesus should fill our hearts with Joy.

Let me give two reasons from our passage today why the Resurrection message of Jesus should make you happy and joyful.

1. The Resurrection of Jesus gives us HOPE.

The passage that was read this morning is a small portion of a letter written by one of Jesus disciples Paul writing to a church in a place called Thessalonica. And as he is reminding the church of the Resurrection of Jesus he is urging them to live as people filled with hope and not sorrow.

Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15, he writes “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no HOPE. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this, we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep”

It was a time when people were thinking deeply about death, the death of their loved ones, maybe their friends, maybe their family members, maybe a friends and was wondering what must have happened to the souls who already died and what will happen to them when they die.

What Paul is telling them is that since we know and believe Jesus not only died but also rose again from the dead, we have a Hope that one day we will get to meet all those who have fallen asleep. What he also meaning to say, is that there is life after death, now whether you will be with God in heaven or whether you be with the Devil in Hell is decided while you are alive on this earth.

God has done and is doing everything today to draw our attention to Him so that we can know the truth, this morning if you are listening to me it is no coincidence but God has orchestrated this moment for you to hear this good news of Jesus. We are all sinners in our flesh, enemies of God, unholy people who’ve sinned against Him and have no hope in ourselves to make it right on our own. The condition of the world today is not because God has inflicted it upon us, but it is because of our own sinful choices we’ve made to harm ourselves.

God the righteous judge who proclaims death penalty over you and me for our sin and rebellion, which is what we deserve, he also loves us dearly and because he loves us he sent his only son Jesus to die in our place, giving us an opportunity to simply humble ourselves…

Brothers & sisters, God is asking you and me to humble ourselves before him, he is not asking us to do a task we are not capable of doing, he is not asking us to climb a high mountain to feel closer to him, in fact, he came down from his highest position to us so that he can be saved.

God is calling us to simply humble ourselves, repent of our sins and fall at the feet of Jesus in worship. And today, he gives you and me the opportunity to decide whether after a death we want to be on God’s side or on the Devil’s side.

Brothers & sisters, if you have never heard this message before, I believe its not a coincidence that you are hearing it, I believe he is calling us and giving us an opportunity once again to make it right while we are on this earth. Will you respond to God’s loving grace in faith. Will you.

It is only to those who’ve responded to Jesus in faith, Paul is writing “do not grieve and feel sorrowful, for yourself and for those who’ve been taken away, because we know Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep”.

You know what this truth should do in your heart right. It should wipe out all the fear and anxiety you are feeling because of what is happening all around the world. 

Even if this world has to end with this pandemic, we have a hope that we will be with Jesus and come back to a new earth and rule the earth with Him. That’s a promise from heaven.

2. Because Jesus rose from the dead we will get to witness and participate in one of the greatest events in history.

In verse 16-17 Pauls writes “16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

I want you to think of the excitement you experienced as a child when your parents told you that they are planning to take you an Amusement Park like Esselworld, Imagica or Disney.  For some us, even now as an adult this news will bring a huge amount of joy and excitement.

This event mentioned by Paul here, even though it is written in a very sober language if we could close our eyes and visualise it for a moment.

By the way, can I ask you to close your eye right now and just listen to me? I believe you’ve closed your eyes. –  “Now imagine our Lord Jesus descending from heaven, through the clouds, with the voice of an archangel (I’m sure it’s gonna be the most beautiful voice ever), with the sound of the trumpet of God” … keep your eyes closed, take a moment and let that thought capture you.

You may open your eyes now.

Do you remember the other day when the whole of India came out on their balcony and Terrace and on the roads with all their dubba, batli, tumbler, plates and spoons and made that horrible noise, for some it may have sounded like music but not for me.

Now can you imagine hearing the sound of the trumpet of God on the arrival of His Son Jesus on earth? – Wouldn’t that drive us crazy?

And even though the Amusement park has many rides, this ride to heaven in the clouds I believe will be the most thrilling ride of all. Wouldn’t that take our breath away to see this beautiful earth as we are flying towards heaven without any thread attached on us – Just like superman. Taken away forever to be with our Lord Jesus.

Brothers & sisters, this privilege is again only for those who have truly repented of their sins, any fake repentance said or made just to please men will not help you make it to heaven in this manner. Only repentance that evokes an undying faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Will you once again take some moments today and search your heart and be assured that you have truly repented and put your faith in Jesus.

All this made possible because Jesus didn’t just die a horrible death like humans do, but he rose again from the death and the scripture tells us that he is now sitting at the right hand of God the Father praying for our souls, to justify us and to sanctify us.

Meanwhile, for us to stay strong and know his will for our lives while we are on earth he gave us a gift, the gift of His presence, the Holy Spirit, who takes responsibility to lead us into all godliness and to transform us into the image of Son Jesus.

So, brothers & sisters, in the meantime here’s what we are asked to do.

Verse 18, Paul writes “Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

We are called to encourage one another, since we have found comfort from the Lord and from each other, now to bring comfort to others. Since we have found joy, now to bring joy to others. Since we have found hope, to bring hope to others.

And how do we do that? By pointing them to Jesus – our friends, our relatives, our neighbours, our loved ones – point them to Jesus in this tough times, tell them the good news of Jesus, tell them because,

Jesus is risen from the dead that they can have hope, they can live, there is no fear of death, only joy for eternity.

Let’s bow our heads and pray.

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

Our response during a Pandemic! : 1 Thessalonians 2:17 – 3:5

Good morning church! My name is Jinson Thomas and I’m one of the pastors at the Gathering Community Church.

We are going through a series titled “Abiding Faith” from the letter of 1 Thessalonians & I’m thankful to God for the opportunity to encourage you all through the Word this morning. The fear and uncertainty of Coronavirus has gripped the entire world & as a result many nations are being locked down to contain the spread of the virus.

In the midst of this lockdown situation where we are away from each other, what is God trying to tell us? Let’s turn to 1 Thess 2:17 – 3:5 because I believe there are some very relevant principles to address our situation and lives:

17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavoured the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face,

18 because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.

19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?

20 For you are our glory and joy.

Chapter 3

1Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone,

2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker[a] in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith,

3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.

5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

Social Distancing –

It’s the most heavily used and to an extent the trendiest phrase within the last 2 months. This means maintaining physical distance or avoiding contact with people during an outbreak to minimize the exposure and transmission of an infection.

This poses a tension for God’s people because we realize that God has created us to be social beings! So, pastors and church leaders all over the world are praying through and figuring out what it means to be the church in a time when social distancing is a necessity.

At the same time the world and culture around us says things like “This is the one time for you to save the world by sitting at home and watching TV, don’t mess it up!” Is Netflix the solution for this season? Or does God intend something much deeper in purpose?

On the basis of today’s passage, I would argue that God’s intention during this time is to show His concern for us believers through the church & to show His concern for the world through the church.

After all, when we look at the situation and crisis when Paul wrote this letter, he wrote it to brand new believers who were probably just weeks or months old in the faith.

Paul and Silas barely spent a few weeks with them before they were driven out of the city due to severe persecution. That left these brand-new believers with their newfound faith, alone in a very hostile environment. You can imagine how pressurized they felt as new believers to undergo suffering each day.

And in the midst of this, God shows how concerned and present He is with them through the concern of believers like Paul, Silas and Timothy. But how can we develop that genuine concern for people? Does it happen merely by us making a list to contact 15 people everyday?

Planning is good but if it’s not fueled by genuine concern, it’ll not stick. If you’re at that place today where you desire true concern for the believers and unbelievers in your life, know that you’re not alone.

Like you I’m also figuring it out and I want to know how to do that biblically. So 4 Important Steps that we learn from this text:

1. We need to Understand that Identity precedes Concern

17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart (v17)

Right throughout this passage, we see a lot of familial language being used. Sometimes he refers to his relationship with the church like a parent is with the child. But sometimes he refers to them as “brothers”.

I think it’s important because he recognizes although they heard the gospel through Paul (he is their spiritual father) but yet just like them he is also “a sinner saved by grace” and “a child of God”. That is his first and primary identity.

Angela my wife and I have been reading a parenting book which spoke about this concept of identity. Many a times parents seek validation and acceptance from their children.

They derive their identity through the approval of their children. They spend 20-25 years of their lives trying to do that and then suddenly when the son or daughter leaves home for college or gets married, their world turns upside down & they lose their sense of purpose in life because God never designed them to find their identity in their children.

I think the same thing could be said about finding our identity in the church as well. If we’ve been looking for validation and acceptance from the believers in the church, then the moment something like this lockdown situation comes about, we feel this sense of losing our purpose in life & our faith seems weak and fragile.

And that’s when we resort to spending hours in entertainment, social media and many other sinful indulgences as an escape route.

And the hard truth is that whenever we find our identity in the believers instead of Christ, we don’t really end up loving them. Rather we see the believers in the church as a means to an end.

That’s primarily the main reason why we fail to show concern to our brothers and sisters in Christ. A lack of concern is primarily an identity issue NOT a feeling issue.

So I want to encourage you all this morning, if you’re at a place where you want to be concerned for people, it doesn’t start from you making a long list and a set of plans…it starts from you understanding your identity as a child of God first and not as a member of the Gathering.

It starts with understanding that you are loved and accepted infinitely through Christ Jesus. Only when your heart rests in that identity, will you be able to love & show concern to people not seeking to get anything back from them but with a genuine concern to care for them.

2. We need to Express our Concern

Another thing we notice in this passage, it is filled with affectionate language for the Thessalonian church. Paul says “You are in our hearts (v17)”, “We endeavoured the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face (v18)” & “You are our glory and joy (v20)”.

In our predominantly male-dominated Indian culture, it’s looked down upon if people especially men express their heart and feelings. What’s promoted is the alpha male, tough guy persona who has no emotions. And that also somehow translates within the church.

I understand that personality types can differ from person to person. Some people will be able to express themselves at length but others might find it hard to do. But I think it’s good and important for us as God’s church to be able to express our affections and concern for each other.

I’m not saying that we need to be sentimental and over-emotional but in a way that is natural to us, we should be able to verbally express our concern and affections because it communicates care especially when people are going through a very difficult time.

Look at the way our God expresses Himself in Jeremiah 31:3-4:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt”

And let me tell you my own experience has been that even the most rough and tough person (although they won’t show it) seeks and appreciates concern. During this season of COVID-19, the impact is such where even the spiritually mature would struggle with fear, uncertainty and loneliness.

Assured with your identity in Christ, I would encourage you especially in your conversations with your brothers and sisters, please don’t shy away from expressing your pure affection and concern for each other. They need to hear those words of concern being expressed.

3. We need to Respond to the Concern

Being assured of our identity in Christ, and having expressed our concern, we need to now do whatever is necessary according to our ability to help meet the need/concern.

2:18 – We see how that concern has driven them to make several attempts to go back to Thessalonica despite being kicked out of the city. because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.

3:1-3 – Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker[a] in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions.

When there was no option left, Paul and Silas decided to stay back and instead send their beloved coworker Timothy to check on the believers and also encourage them in the faith. Paul didn’t say “I’m the main church planter and only I need to be the one to go back there.”

He didn’t say “Timothy is my dear Son in the faith, one of my best and most faithful disciples and a super encouraging dude so let me keep him with me for my personal edification”. No, when it reached that point where Paul couldn’t go back, he was willing to send his best resource and his best friend to encourage a suffering church who needed him the most at that time.

And we see how Paul’s concern was not just for their physical well-being. Yes, persecution was also real & physical at that time. But Paul’s deeper concern is how this persecution was going to affect their spiritual well-being.

Will they still continue to love, trust and obey Jesus or will they abandon Him? I really appreciate the calls that I was able to have with some brothers this week where they asked me about my spiritual walk. It just brought so much of refreshment to my soul.

One of the questions that I always appreciate being asked is “how is your heart?” Not that always my heart is doing great but I think it somehow is able to sift through my intellectual faith and dig deep into my heart.

And I really believe true believers in Christ want to be asked those questions, they want to be challenged with those questions even in seasons when things aren’t going great spiritually.

In those in whom the Spirit dwells, there is a deep unrest with their spiritual life and they are waiting for a Christian brother or sister to challenge them and also point them back to Christ. I want to encourage you all even though this is a season of social distancing, please make use of technology to respond to the concern for your brothers and sisters.

And remember that our desire is not in just making sure that the brother or sister is doing physically well during this pandemic, but that their heart is still responding to Christ. That is true Christian response of concern.

4. Impact of concern

There is an impact that this concern generates. I find it interesting that in spite of the encouragement & concern that was expressed and shown to them with the sending of Timothy, Paul doesn’t tell them that the suffering will go away.

Rather in chapter 3:3 he says: For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

I think sometimes many of us do have a romanticized view of the Christian life. We don’t believe in prosperity theology of health and wealth – we know that’s wrong, unbiblical and harmful to the church of God. But yet in practice we don’t see suffering or anticipate suffering as essential to being a follower of Christ.

Think about it – if God was only about health, wealth and prosperity, then it means that He is absent and distant from me in times when I’m going through suffering, pain and poverty.

Instead in the Bible we see our God who understands our suffering, is present in our time of suffering, very near us during our moments of suffering and moreover uses suffering as a tool to redeem people from every tongue, tribe and nation to Himself.

We see this clearly displayed in the suffering of Christ on the cross through which we are redeemed and set free from our slavery to sin to live for Him eternally. And if God can redeem sinners like us through the suffering of His Son, then He can most certainly also use COVID-19 as a tool to redeem people to Himself.

I want to end with a true story of a doctor treating COVID-19 patients in Italy – the new epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic which is recording almost 1000 deaths every day.

“Never in my darkest nightmares did I imagine that I would’ve seen and lived through what has been happening here in the hospital for the last three weeks. Right now we are no longer doctors but mere sorters who decide who should live and who should die.

Up until 2 weeks ago, my colleagues and I were atheists; this was normal because we are doctors and we have learned that science proves that God doesn’t exist. I always laughed at my parents when they went to church.

9 days ago, a 75-year-old pastor came to us with respiratory problems. He had a bible with him and it impressed us that he was reading the Bible to the people who were dying and holding their hands. We were all tired and discouraged doctors – physically and psychologically spent and so we found that we were listening to him.

We realized that we have reached our limits of what man can do. We need God, and we have begun to ask for his help, when we have a few moments free. We cannot believe that we who were once fierce atheists are now seeking for interior peace by asking the Lord to help us resist so that we can take care of the sick. Yesterday the pastor died.

Despite the fact that in the last 3 weeks we have had over 120 people die in our unit and we are all exhausted and feel destroyed, he succeeded, despite his own condition and our own difficulties to bring us PEACE that we no longer hoped to find.”

A COVID-19 infected 75-year-old pastor was able to bring peace through the gospel to atheist doctors. One thing I can say is that the people I’ve been speaking to over the last couple of weeks are genuinely open to God at this juncture. They are all looking for PEACE.

We know the PRINCE OF PEACE!

So to close let it not be Netflix, television or anything else that defines how we respond to this time of lockdown. Being assured in our identity in Christ, expressing & responding to the concern to our brothers and sisters, can we now look outside of our churches to impact the city with this story of PEACE?

God has divinely ordained the church to show His concern for the people within and also the people outside the church.

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

Mark of a Healthy Church – 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

We are currently doing a sermon series called ‘Abiding Faith’ as we are going through Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. The passage we will be looking at today is 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16, and if you have your bible or an app you can open and read with me.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved-so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

Being part of a Sunday worship is not enough
Being part of a community group is not enough
Having being born in a Christian family is not enough
Having being called Christian, a follower of Jesus by others is not enough

It takes a lot more than these to be called a true & faithful follower of Jesus. 

The mark of a strong and healthy church is not in the strength of its numbers, not in its well-organised services and bible studies and community groups, it is not in its electrifying singing time, and it is not even in its online presence.

The mark of a strong and healthy church is in the quality of its people.

In our passage today Paul is calling out and thanking God for the church, the people of God. He is highlighting some of the great qualities these men possessed that made them different. So, let’s listen carefully to what he has to say about the Church in Thessalonica.

And as we hear and learn from these verses let us come with an open heart, examine ourselves before God and allow the Holy Spirit to bring conviction and lead us into repentance and faith making us a strong and healthy Christian and a healthy church.

There are three qualities of the church that Paul is thanking God for, the first one is that …

•  They received the word not as the word of man but as word from God

In verse 13 he writes “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

When Paul and his associates went preaching the gospel in Thessalonica and teaching from the scriptures, the people didn’t just hear the word as its coming from the mouth of Paul or other men, they heard and accepted it as if it were the words of God himself. And Paul says that which you believed to be the words from God is at work in you. What an encouraging thing to say.

Their attentive ears and their attitude towards the word of God brought the Gospel alive in their hearts and is now at work in them.

In hard times like these, when we are going through a threat like Coronavirus – where people, news channels, neighbours, office colleagues are constantly talking to us – where everyone’s giving their views and opinions about the current situation and how to react to it, what is our source of truth? Where do we draw our strength from? What is at work in our heart?

Brothers & sisters, it is only the word of God that can be our source of truth, the only hope for our heart in such difficult times.

The scriptures, preaching of the word and others devotionals are how God communicates to us, giving words of instruction, rebuking us of our sin patterns, encouraging our hearts in difficult times, provoking us to live a Holy life, worthy of His calling. As Pastors and leaders when we prepare our sermons we pay very careful attention not to speak or present to you anything that is not in the purview of the scripture and we even hold each other accountable to it.

The transforming word of God was at work in the life of the believers in Thessalonians, but for the word to produce transformational results in their hearts, they needed to trust God’s word with the right attitude and a desire to walk in unconditional obedience.

Imagine you’ve been given a new responsibility at work, a new project to handle. And while your manager was training you for the job, explaining the process and instructions as per the guidelines given by the company CEO – instead of paying attention you were distracted on your phone or some other things, you said: “chod na, yeh manager bak bak karat rehta hai”. What do you think the result will be? We will make a wreck of the job and even ruin the company and the CEO’s reputation. 

Now, when we ignore reading the Bible, not giving heed to the preaching of God’s word. If that’s the attitude we carry, then aren’t we risking our lives? God who made the world, God who knows the end from the beginning expects us to give Him a listening year and trust His word and not what the world has to say.

When we read or hear Gods word, do we see them as man-made fables written to entertain our itching ears or do we see them as from God, the Holy one. If we believe these words are from God we will pay full attention, protect it, guard it, set reminders for our heart.

While we are in Sunday gatherings, in bible study groups, in GC’s we will make every effort to align our heart and mind to make sure we get it right, that we are not missing the point. And even if for any reason we sometimes fail to make it for these gatherings, we will still make an effort to get hold of God’s word by other means.

Brother & sisters, if you are in a place where you feel fearful with the spread of this deadly disease, you don’t have hope in your heart, or you feel depressed and lonely while you are isolated in your home…. my encouragement to you is pick up your bible and hear God, I promise you will see your faith increasing, your hope growing and sense the arm of protection of our loving Father.

The second quality Paul mentions in that …

• They became imitators of the Churches of God in Christ

In verse 14 Paul writes “For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea”

They didn’t just heed to Gods word but to grow healthy they started imitating other churches and other believers. It doesn’t mean that they started imitating each other’s dressing style, worship style, talking style etc. But I believe they imitated each other’s Faith, [Pause] imitated each other’s responses to the call of God over their lives, [Pause] their response to sufferings and most importantly imitate them in preaching and spreading the good news of Jesus wherever they went.

Imitating each other is a good thing, that’s the primary way in which we learn and grow. Children imitate their parents and family members, younger ones imitate their older ones. Jairus sometimes finds it annoying when Amaze imitates whatever he does, but isn’t that how are programmed to grow. Paul writes to the Corinthian church saying “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ”

As Christians it is healthy to imitate each other, apart from all how we imitate each other as mentioned earlier, we can imitate healthy marriages, imitate servanthood, imitate prayer life, we also imitate faith-filled responses of other strong believers when we go through troubled times.

But beware, the greatest hindrance that keeps us from imitating each other’s Godly life is Pride, don’t let your pride tell you that you know it better and that you don’t need to learn from others.

As a church and as your leaders, we actively fellowship with other churches in our network to learn from them, to find encouragement from them and to imitate their godly pursuits. I can’t express the number of ways in which I have benefited from such Godly imitations, helping me grow stronger in the Lord.

Beloved, don’t sulk in your pain, sorrow and fear, but identify the areas in which you are struggling and find a godly role-model whom you can imitate so you can grow as a follower of Christ.

If you are not able to meet a brother and sister physically, pick up your phone and call them. As your pastors and leaders, we and our wives are always available to speak to you. Pls, do not hesitate to do so especially in times like this.

Don’t let these circumstances to draw us apart from each other, rather let it bring us, even more, closer to each other.

And the final quality Paul mentions is that …

• They suffered for the sake of the Gospel

For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose al mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved-so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

Their faith in Jesus was not just a decorative badge they carried around but it invited trouble and persecution from their fellow men. Jesus said in John 16:33 “In this world, you will have tribulation”, and especially when you are a follower of Jesus.

Often we desire that our suffering would end, but please believe me when I say to you that suffering is good and you ought to be rejoicing when you suffer for the sake of Christ. You know why? Because in our sufferings on earth for Christ we get to share in the sufferings of Christ. Isn’t that a wonderful experience.

Peter writes in 1 Peter 4:13 “to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”

Paul writes in Corinthians 1: 5 “For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.”

I don’t know what kind of sufferings you are experiencing at this moment, maybe suffering because of your faith in Jesus, or maybe suffering because of the responses of this broken world in your office, in your society. When we go through such sufferings its a reminder that Christ endured the same suffering and much more for our sake, dying for sinners like us and mending our broken relationship with our Heavenly Father. Let our sufferings draw us closer to Jesus in repentance and faith in Him and his saving grace

The believers in the early church when faced with trials and testings, instead of breaking down and giving up, endured it with joy knowing that the experiences were drawing them closer to Christ. Let us also, therefore, embrace such sufferings with joy.

Brothers and sisters, my hope and prayer for us all this morning is that our hearts would be inclined to grow as quality Christians, not cold or lukewarm but hot, super hot for Christ. And that will happen as we take God’s word seriously, use our free time to dive deep into scriptures and engage with it in a meaningful way. Remember Psalm 1:2-3 “those who delight in the word of the Lord, who meditates on his law day and night, are like a tree planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.

We will also grow super strong when we are together, connected in love, encouraging each other, imitating each other in the Lord and when we endure suffering with joy.

Let’s pray!

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

Love in Action: 1 Thessalonians 2:5-12

Good morning, Church.

How are you all doing today?

At a time when the world is crippled with fear and every conversation when people meet is about the corona-virus, isn’t it wonderful to see God’s people gather together in love – to worship God and to fellowship with one another.

It’s good to re-iterate what Saju has been reminding us on the group that we have a Sovereign God and nothing surprises Him. Rather, God has allowed the situations that we are in – to show forth His glory and His mercy.

Church, I wish to remind you of an incident in the Bible in which Jesus and His disciples get on a boat to cross over from one place to another. Jesus makes Himself comfortable by taking a pillow and going for a good sleep.

Co-incidently, there is a great storm and the boat is about to give in. The disciples were fretting for their lives. In their desperation, they cried out to the Lord (who was apparently sleeping through all this). He got up and silenced the storm and looked at the disciples and said in Mark 4:40, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Beloved, in times like these, fear is common to find all around us – including our own hearts.

But fear does show a lack of faith – lack of faith in an-all sovereign God – right in the midst of our situations. When the world goes through fear and despair – let us the people of God – stand boldly without fear – showing forth the love of Christ through our responses – even with one another, in the family of God.

To be honest, I went through the motions of fear in the last week but a reminder of the hope that a Christian has lifted my spirit. Let us encourage one another and build each other up – in love. Because “Perfect love casts out fear.” “I am no longer a slave to fear – I am a child of God.” But love is also careful and responsible.

 Our elders and few brothers were travelling last week and they decided to skip today’s service – in love – so that none of us would panic. Let us keep them and their families in prayer. Let us turn to our passage for today –

1 Thessalonians 2:5-12

5 For we never came with words of flattery,[b] as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 

6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 

7 But we were gentle[c] among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 

8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 

10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. 

11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 

12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Pray.

We had talked about “Passion for the Gospel” last Sunday and as I meditated on the text for today – I realized – Paul was talking about the major reason behind his passion. His passion and craziness was fueled by something so great that He could boldly stand for the Gospel in the midst of conflict. And what was that? “Love”!


So, I would like to title my sermon today as “Love in action” and it is my prayer this morning that we may be stirred up by the Love of God and love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

In these last days, the Bible says that the love of many will grow cold. In an age of social media and television and lust – the word ‘love’ has lost its purity and depth.

Covenant relationship in marriage has been substituted for just an agreement paper. Family love has been substituted for whatsapp groups.

Brotherly love in churches have been substituted for a ‘hi and bye’ relationship. Inspite of all that – isn’t it wonderful that God has a remnant which still builds their relationships on “Die together and live together”.

Isn’t it a wonder that the Gospel still binds broken hearts and wounded relationships? Don’t we keep seeing the love of God displayed in the lives of His children in difficult times as this?

Beloved, I wish to bring your attention this morning to this agape love which is pure, willful and sacrificial – given to us freely through the Gospel. What is this love that goes the second mile?

This passage gives a small glimpse of the love displayed in the lives of Paul and his friends. As we begin, let us first understand what agape love is not.. and then we go on to understand what it really is..

What agape love is not?

  • Agape love is not in speaking words of flattery (vs 5)

Paul and his fellow workers showed not their love to the Thessalonians by speaking flattering words as he mentions in verse 5 – “For we never came with words of flattery”.

‘Love’ in today’s age means to flatter someone and gain something in return.

Doesn’t that happen when we flatter our bosses to gain a good bonus or a promotion in return? Doesn’t that happen when we try to flatter our friends for some favour in return? Don’t we flatter people sometimes to get them to church? Don’t we flatter our pastors and brothers and sisters sometimes to gain a good standing before them? Don’t we flatter our brethren sometimes when we know that what they do is a sin?

The human nature loves to be flattered but that is not love. Imagine a doctor examining you and flattering you that you have a normal flu when you could be having corona virus. That’s making your case even worser for you and others around you.

Paul and the apostles did not use flattering speech while planting the church nor while discipling them. They did not flatter them with a good opinion of themselves: they did not preach that they were good people who just needed Jesus to go to heaven. No! but they were blunt in saying that they were sinners in a desperate need of a Saviour.

Nor did they flatter them by talking about the power of their self-will but they declared just the reverse: they were weak, impotent and strengthless and couldn’t think even a single good thought if not for the Grace and power of God – who works in them both to will and to do.

They also did not flatter them when they were enjoying their sin and being friends of the World. When a man from the Corinthian church was caught in adultery, Paul wrote to them to count him as an unbeliever and deliver him into the hands of Satan – Why? Why didn’t he flatter them?

Because he loved them!

Love does not flatter but looks at their eternal welfare and speaks the truth in love. That does not mean we always find faults and sins in our brethren. Rather love covers a multitude of sins. It does not keep an account of evil but is lavish in forgiving others.

But when we do see someone going in a direction towards hell, let us take care not to flatter them but show them their sin through the Gospel and point them to a Saviour who loves them unconditionally and died for them.

Going on to my next point. –

– Agape love is not greedy (vs 5)

Paul and his friends did not preach the Gospel out of greed or covetousness as said in verse 5.. “nor with a pretext for greed – God is my witness.” He calls upon God as His witness when he says that yes – we loved you – but we had no desire for money or position.

They trusted in an all-providing God for their needs and went all out for the Thessalonians in love. A love which expects nothing in return? That’s agape love. When Paul was old, he advises an younger elder – Timothy that “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10). He also adds, “Godliness with contentment is great gain”. (1 Tim 6:6).

Beloved, I know God is calling many from amongst us – from the Gathering community – to show forth the love of Christ to our fellow brothers and sisters sitting next to us – to the community of broken people in our neighbourhood and colleges and offices.

But when you do that, remember that your God is an all-sufficient God and He takes care of all your needs and you need not look at any man for anything in return for the Gospel. Freely you have received, freely give! The love that the Gospel pours into our hearts does not look for monetary gain or riches or gifts from people.

Also, our expectations when we come to Jesus is not for riches or money or prosperity. God has promised to supply all our needs but not all our greeds. This attitude should not be just amongst our church members but also in our own respective families.

Many of us come from families who do not know Jesus and they by nature have money as their God. But what is our Christian response? I serve Jehovah Jireh – God is my provider. I need not act like the gentiles but show forth Agape love – which does not run after money.

Have God as your witness this morning – there may be failures – but let us draw near to God confessing our greed to Him and ask Him to fill us with a love which is selfless.

  • Agape love seeks not for glory from people (vs 6)

Paul goes on to say in verse 6 that he did not seek glory from people. That convicts me. I would be wrong to say that I do not seek glory from people. People must say nice things about me. “Isn’t he a great guy?”, “Doesn’t he have a great zeal for God?”,

Beloved, most of us want God to do His work indeed but we also wish that if He does work, It must be only through us. Like the mother of James and John, we wish that we get to sit at the right hand and the left hand of Jesus – when He is glorified. That is not agape love.

Agape love seeks the Glory of God even if I am abased and crushed in the process. Agape love seeks God’s Glory in the salvation of sinners and in the sanctification of the saints. I do not love you in order to gain your approval – I love you because I am already approved and beloved in His Son – Jesus Christ.

I am passionate to preach the Gospel and live the Gospel because I live in the presence of an all-knowing God who knows my sitting down and my rising up and my thoughts afar off. I must hurry on, brethren.

  • Agape love doesn’t make demands and burden others (vs 6 & 9)

I will not spend much time in this point but I must say that Paul and the apostles worked very hard for their bread and butter in-spite of their commitment to the Gospel. Living out the Gospel in our lives does not make us lazy men.

“God is our provider – so let us sleep?” “God cares for me – so, I need not look after my family?” That’s not agape love, brethren. In verse 6, Paul says, I could have made demands as an apostle but I did not.

In verse 9, He says – “you remember our toil – we worked night and day” – that we might not be a burden to any of you. Beloved, we as children of God – with agape love – need to bear one another’s burdens but we are not called to be a burden to one another.

Paul in another place writes – “If a man will not work, let him not eat.” Don’t we get sometimes very demanding with our brothers and sisters? Am I not his brother? Shouldn’t he take care of me? Rather, you are called to take care of him without expecting it in return. Agape love is not demanding but giving!

Ok, so we saw what Agape love is not. But what then is Agape love:

Agape love is –

  • Affectionate and gentle as a nursing mother

Let me read to you something written by Max Lucado:

“Moms, I have a question: Why do you love your newborn? I know, I know, it’s a silly question.. (but still) Why do you?


For months this baby has brought you pain. She (or he) made you break out in pimples and waddle like a duck. Because of her you craved sardines (wada pavs) and crackers (chocolates) and threw up in the morning. She punched you in the tummy.

She occupied space that wasn’t hers and ate food she didn’t fix.

You kept her warm. You kept her safe. You kept her fed. But did she say thank you?

Are you kidding?

She’s no more out of the womb than she starts to cry! The room is too cold, the blanket is too rough, the nurse (papa) is too mean. And who does she want? Mom.

She didn’t even tell you she was coming. She just came. And what a coming!

She rendered you a barbarian. You screamed. You swore. You bite bullets and tore the sheets. And now look at you. Your back aches. Your head pounds. Your body is drenched in sweat.

Every muscle strained and stretched. You should be angry, but are you?

Far from it. On your face is a for-longer-than-forever love. She has done nothing for you, yet all you can talk about are her good looks and bright future. She’s going to wake you up every night for the next six weeks, but that doesn’t matter. I can see it on your face. You’re crazy about her.

Why?”

I sometimes watch Abiah nursing our son, Nathan day and night – without much sleep – tired, exhausted, weary – but still so affectionate and so gentle with him – and I see a small glimpse of agape love there.

Look at how Paul describes his love for the Thessalonians – “You had become so dear to us. We were gentle among you like a nursing mother. We were so affectionately desirous of you. We were ready to share with you – not just the Gospel – but ourselves.” T

hat’s agape love. Loving God’s children as a nursing mother loves her own children. Oh that God would pour into our hearts such love for one another – for each other’s spiritual welfare. Oh that we would be gentle and patient with one another – forgive each other just as God in Christ forgave us.

Is there something that you have against your brother or sister this morning? Make sure you forgive him/her and show some love to that person before you leave. Oh God, pour out heavenly love into our hearts! Love that cares for others. Love that goes a second mile for others.

Love that covers a multitude of sins. Love that is ready to give ourselves for others. Is that possible? I leave that for you to ponder. Let me go on… a mother’s love is great but a father’s love is equally important too.

  • A strong pillar of encouragement and role-model as a loving Father


Fathers have a huge role in a child’s life which the world fails to adore and admire. With all his failures as a human being, a father is a child’s strength and role-model. A bad father leaves behind a broken home and a forever distorted child – unless the child experiences God’s love.

Paul says, “Like a father, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God.” He also adds, “How holy and righteous and blameless we were amongst you”.

Is there a role that God is calling you to play, dear brother, dear sister – similar to a loving Father – who exhorts others and encourages others and charges others to live in a manner worthy of God. When you lift up a fallen brother, when you correct a brother’s sin in love, when you go out during the week to your brother’s house and ask him how he is faring – you show forth Fatherly love.

When we live out the Gospel as a role-model to our brothers and sisters, we show forth love as a father to those around us. Beloved, God is calling us to live lives like an open book – not a compartmentalized life. A holy life in church and a sinner elsewhere – sets forth a standard of hypocrisy and double-standard to the world around us.

This is not a father that a child looks for – says something but practices something else. Let me be honest and vulnerable here – I have failed in many areas to have a heart like a loving father but I pray that God would instill in me and in all of us – such a heart of love – which stands up as pillars of encouragement and role-models in this generation – in this city – those who will point many to the Father – the Holy God – the loving Father but as we see agape love being displayed in the roles of a mother and a father, it would be incomplete for me to end this sermon without pointing you to the only perfect Agape love displayed till date until now.

  • A love which can be seen perfectly only in the Gospel

The man – Paul – with all his love and affections and holiness – still would go on to say that amongst all the apostles – he was the least of them and so, when we would look for a perfect example of Agape love – you wouldn’t find it anywhere else except on the cross – in the Gospel – where God so loved you and me that He would give His only Begotten Son for you and me – wretched sinners and imperfect lovers!


If you admit that agape love is not what you display many a times – you have good company – you need the Gospel as much as any of us would do. God –

I have a question – Why do you love us so? Why do you tolerate us? Only heaven knows how much pain we’ve brought you. How we kicked against you and rejected you. How we disobeyed you. How we mistreated the bodies you gave us. We ignored the Word you sent us. And we killed the Son you sent us.

 Ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. You have every reason to abandon us. But here comes an answer from God – Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. I have a million reasons to abandon you. But I HAVE LOVED YOU WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE! I am Agape Love! My love does not change based on your actions – My love is much much greater than a mother’s love – “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I WILL NOT FORGET YOU!”

Is there someone out here who hasn’t experienced that love until now – I plead with you right now by faith to look unto Him that was pierced on the cross for you – Jesus Christ – He loves you! He loves you! He loves you!

There is no greater love than this – that a man lay down His life for his friends! And HE did! As we close, I want you to meditate on this never-ending agape love which loved His elect from before the foundation of the World!

As we respond by taking the Lord Supper, if you haven’t experienced the love of God in your life, we ask you to let it pass by and you can reach out to us after this service and we will be willing to help you.

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

Ignited by a Passion for the Gospel: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-3

Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, reflects on his missionary trip to Thessalonica

Good morning, church! How are you all doing today?

What a privilege and an honour to preach the Word of God this morning and indeed I am so humbled to be filling the gap in the absence of our elders.

To begin, I wish to remind you of an incident in the Bible. Two people were on a journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus – walking frustrated and de-motivated after the crucifixion of Jesus. On the way, a stranger joined them and began to expound the Scriptures to them and their hearts burned within them.

He was none other than our Blessed Lord. As we dive into the passage for today morning, may the Lord open our hearts to see wonderful things from the Word and be ignited, encouraged, comforted, corrected and lifted up.

Let us turn to our text for this morning – 1 Thessalonians 2:1-3

For you yourselves know, brothers,[a] that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive

Let us turn to the Lord in prayer.

PRAYER …

On January 8, 1956, a 28-year old American missionary Jim Elliot was speared to death as a martyr on a sandbar called Palm beach in the Curaray river of Ecuador along with four missionary partners and friends.

They were trying to reach the Auca tribe for the first time in history with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elisabeth Elliot – his wife – wrote down his story in her book – “Shadow of the Almighty”. This is where Jim Elliot was slain – in the shadow of the Almighty.

She had not forgotten the heartbreaking account of her husband’s death when she began writing 2 years later. When he was killed, they had been married for 3 years and had a 10-month old daughter.

The mission seemed to have ended even before it just began. Jim and his partners were preparing for this since months – trying to learn the language of the Aucas and circling their village with a plane and trying to make contact with them in some way or the other.

Finally, when the day came to meet them personally – due to a misunderstanding – the villagers speared them to death. Seemed like an open and shut case until Jim’s wife – Elisabeth, decided to go to the same tribe which murdered her husband – to give them the love of Christ. Seriously? The same uneducated, unloving murderers? They who had destroyed her family and home – left her alone with a 10-month old kid? Why did she do that? How could she do that?

In this passage, Paul seems to describe on her behalf and on the behalf of many who threw their lives for the sake of the Gospel. They were bitten by the Gospel virus – as Jeff described last week. They were ignited with a passion for the Gospel. No one infected by the Gospel virus could stay the same.

The man who penned down this passage – Paul – who was responsible for the killing of many of the followers of Jesus Christ – when the Lord encountered him on the road to Damascus – you remember what happened to him? “He who once persecuted the people of God was now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”

The man who speared down Jim Elliot once bitten by the Gospel bug went to the US and preached the story of God’s love which came after him even though he tried to destroy it. Beloved, the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes us radical Christians – empowered by the Holy Spirit.

As I attempt to describe the passion that was ignited in Paul’s heart for the Gospel’s sake – in his message and his life – let us examine our own hearts – cause honestly, all of us – having been bitten by the Gospel bug years ago need a reminder again and again – week after week – daily – of what Jesus did for us in laying down His life for us and redeeming us and making us his own.

So, here in this passage – we see Paul – being ignited by a passion through and for the Gospel – how he ministered to the Thessalonians – through the message of the Gospel and through a life saturated by the Gospel. I would like to title my sermon – “Ignited by a passion for the Gospel” and drive home these following truths from the passage:

Passion for the Gospel is:

  1. Characterized by boldness in conflict and
  2. Enriched by the purity of the Gospel

Characterized by boldness in conflict and

A guy bitten by the Gospel bug is characterized by boldness in conflict as mentioned in verse 2 and I quote – “But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.”

Paul had just come out of a great conflict – beaten at Phillipi, thrown into prison, wrongly charged, shamefully treated – for the Gospel’s sake. He could have packed his bags and gone off for a vacation or a recovery break. He had enough of reasons not to go on for his next challenge.

If it was me, I can imagine myself trying to find out which is the next flight home – I have a wife and a kid to take care of. But not so with Paul. Sufferings made him rely on God for more boldness to stand as a messenger of the Gospel.

Paul in himself was a weak man and when we think about any of the saints of old, let us not have a notion that they had a strength which was different from ours. Inspite of all his weaknesses, he says, “We had boldness in our God”.

Beloved, the Bible and our rich Christian heritage is filled with people who were weak, helpless, weary in themselves yet who were extremely bold in their God. Think about a Moses who killed a man and ran away from Egypt and was feeding his father-in-law Jethro’s sheep for 40 years.

When God asked him to go to Pharaoh, he had so many questions – “Who am I to go? I smell of sheep”, “What if they will not believe me or listen to me?”, “I cannot speak. I am a man of stammering lips” and finally – “Please send someone else”.

Don’t we resonate with the same objections and questions in our lives? What about Gideon – He was hiding in a winepress when the angel of the Lord said to him, “O mighty man of valor?” – “What? Who? Me?” Jeremiah said, “I am just a child”; Isaiah – “I am a man of unclean lips”. The apostles when they were beaten and were commanded not to speak in the name of Jesus, they went back and prayed for what? – Boldness!

Dear brothers and sisters, do we find our passion for the Gospel running out due to fear and struggles and sufferings? I exhort you this morning to seek for boldness in our God inspite of conflicts, sufferings, struggles and weaknesses.

When Jim Elliot was killed, Elizabeth found boldness in her God to go out to her husband’s killers and preach the Love of God through the Gospel. Conflicts do not kill passion, rather they only serve to increase it even more. Conflicts do not end Gospel stories – they only begin another new chapter.

Beloved, the Gospel welcomes you this morning to find boldness in God to stand firm in the midst of much conflict and not be bogged down by sufferings and taunts from unbelieving family members and friends. Paul says – “We have a treasure in our earthen vessels.

We are hard-pressed on all sides, yet not crushed. Perplexed – yet not driven to despair.” He says elsewhere in Galatians 6:17 – “We carry in our bodies the brand marks of the Lord Jesus Christ”. Conflicts and sufferings are going to be an integral part and brand of a Christian’s life yet his boldness in his God will enable him to carry out great exploits.

But our boldness in God must stem from a deeper understanding of the Gospel which brings me to point 2.

Enriched by the purity of the Gospel

Let me read to you what Paul says from verse 3 – “For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive”. Beloved, Paul has a Gospel message – free from impurity and error – which makes him appeal to the Gentiles in boldness.

He is so passionately caught up with the Gospel message that it burns like fire in his bones – He knows that the Gospel is the power of God to those who are being saved. He need not add or subtract to the Gospel that he received.

He warns as well in the epistle to the Galatians that ‘let anyone who preaches to you any other Gospel than that which you received from me – let him be accursed.’

He knows that the Gospel is sufficient to save – both himself and his hearers and so he preaches it. He knows that nothing else other than the Gospel can ever save and so he preaches it even more.

What is the Gospel? “I am a great sinner. Jesus Christ is a great Saviour”. The purity of the Gospel makes a man go passionately crazy such that they are termed as “fools for Christ’s sake”. Let me take an example here – Martin Luther – the leader of the reformation – when he was moved by the purity of the Gospel in the doctrine of justification – he turned the world upside down.

How else can you explain a person being willing to defy every authority structure of this world and to stand utterly alone as a young priest against all of the authorities of the church—against the pope, against church counsels, against the finest theologians in the land?

Martin Luther had a high and holy view of God. He trembled before a Holy God. He kept evaluating himself, not by comparing himself to other human beings, but by looking at the standard of the character of God—the righteousness of God.

As he saw himself so awful in comparison to the righteousness of God, after a while he began to hate any idea of the righteousness of God.

He had such a fear of the wrath of God that, early on in his ministry, somebody put this question to him: “Brother Martin, do you love God?” You know what he said? “Love God? You ask me if I love God? Sometimes I hate God. I see Christ as a consuming judge who is simply looking at me to evaluate me and to visit affliction upon me.”

Imagine a young man preparing for the ministry declaring that he goes through periods of hating God. Luther’s hatred was inseparably related to this paralyzing fear which he expressed that he had about God.

Then one night he was preparing his lectures as a doctor in theology to teach his students at the University of Wittenberg in the doctrines and teachings of the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans.

He then came to these words: “For the righteousness of God is revealed by faith, and the just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). And suddenly the concept burst upon his mind that this passage in Romans was not describing that righteousness of God by which God Himself is righteous, but the righteousness of God that He graciously and freely provides for you, me, and anyone who puts their trust in Christ.

Anyone who puts their trust in Christ receives the covering and the cloak of the righteousness of Christ.

Luther said: “It broke into my mind, and I realized for the first time that my justification, my station before God, is not established on the basis of my own naked righteousness, which will always fall short of the demands of God. Rather, it instead rests solely and completely on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which I must hold on to by a trusting faith.

And when I understood that, for the first time in my life I understood the gospel. And I looked and beheld the doors of Paradise swung open, and I walked through.”

It’s like Luther said to the world, from that day forward, to popes and to counsels, and to kings: “The just shall live by faith; justification by faith alone. ‘God is holy and I am not’ is the article upon which the church stands or falls, and I negotiate it with no one because it is the gospel.” Is that crazy?

Brothers and sisters, if that’s crazy then I pray that God would send an army of insane people like that into this world so that the gospel may not be eclipsed.

So that we might understand that, in the presence of a holy God, we who are unjust may be justified by the fact that God in His holiness—without negotiating His holiness—has offered us the holiness of His Son as a covering for our sin. This is the Gospel for which Luther was ready to die!

Beloved, maybe there is someone here who has never experienced what this passion and craziness is all about. And it is our prayer that you would be ignited today with a fiery passion through and for the Gospel.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose” – Jim Elliot wrote this down in his diary.

Jim threw his life for the Gospel as he was ignited by a passion through the Gospel and Elisabeth continued the good work seeking boldness in an all-Sovereign God who entrusted them with the Gospel.

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1 Thessalonians Sermon

The Viral Gospel: 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10

Good morning Gathering

It’s such an honor to be with you this morning and it really is a gift to gather as God’s people in His presence like this.

We are continuing in a study that began last weekend of 1 Thessalonians. So, if you have a Bible with you, I’d invite you to turn there with me.

We’ll be looking specifically at 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 this morning.

I think that all of us have a tendency to come into a church gathering and sort of go through the motions. To take this time for granted. I want to encourage you to recognize how sacred this time is for us this morning.

We get to approach The Word of God — which is God’s revelation to us about who He is & what He’s done & what that means for our lives.

We approach this living, active, breathing love letter from God. The thing that shapes us & molds us & corrects us & trains up. The thing that leads us into righteous.

We get to do that together as God’s people and see God move in our midst. As He changes us for His glory.

Brother & Sisters, this really is a sacred opportunity this morning

Let’s READ 1 THESSALONIANS 1:2-10

I want to spend some time this morning talking about THE VIRAL NATURE OF THE GOSPEL.

The concept of a virus that spreads rapidly should be one that we all understand pretty clearly right now given the dominant news around the world.

If you turn on any news outlet a lot of what you see is coverage of the Coronavirus.

The point for us is that the entire world is talking about this epidemic that could likely become a pandemic that’s spreading fear throughout the world. It’s almost like we’re conditioned toward fear whenever a new virus emerges.

As the virus spreads there’s fear, There’s uncertainty, There’s death. Well, this is how God designed the gospel to spread to the ends of the earth, But with a disease you have fear & death the gospel brings HOPE & LIFE.

The Apostle Paul gives us a picture of the viral nature of the gospel and how it spreads. He shows, how you and I are meant to be carriers of the gospel who infect people around us with our actions & with our words.

That’s what I want to look at today

I’d like you to hold onto this principle as we work our way through the text

Principle:  The gospel comes to us in power, it transforms us and then causes us to live radically transformed lives as it moves through us to people around us

In other words when the gospel invades the human heart, we’ll see is a movement of God upon us.

Which, He initiates with us, When that happens, it never leaves us alone it never leaves us the same. It radically transforms us at the core level of our nature and then radically transforms what comes out of our lives over time

To the point where it moves through us to infect & impact the people around us. That’s the principle that we talk about so often.

That’s what we’re talking about this morning and I want to flesh that out for you in 3 movements that we can observe in the text.

1) We have been chosen by God as objects of gospel renewal

Look again at verses 2-5… .“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.”

Please understand what Paul is driving us toward here: 
We are objects of gospel renewal. God acted upon us, He initiated with us, This renewal wasn’t our idea, Our idea was rebellion going our way instead of God’s way.

This is a common theme that we see in all of Paul’s writing.

In Titus chapter 3 Paul explains what life outside of Christ looks like. It’s a life that’s defined by selfishness & self-gratification. It’s marked by malice & envy & relational conflict. And then he describes how all of that changes, when God moves upon us

He says, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,”

Please don’t miss this,

You didn’t find God, He found you.
You didn’t choose God, He chose you.
You didn’t stumble upon the gospel, the gospel came to you IN POWER

You are an object of God’s love & mercy & grace. When He targets you, The gospel comes in Word & in Power, Meaning — it’s not just intellectual, it’s not just something that we hear & understand, It moves in our hearts in power to radically change us.

This is what Paul means when he says that it brings conviction. It awakens the heart to the truth of our sin & rebellion and convicts us while simultaneously allowing for repentance & faith.

This is what salvation looks like And that salvation belongs to God

It creates relational intimacy with each other — that’s marked by love. Paul says, “We’re thankful for you, we’re praying for you, we constantly remember you.” And — it’s all because of what God has done to radically transform them.

You can think about it like this, Reconciliation with God — is the only thing that allows for reconciliation with one another.

God moves on us as objects of renewal .That moves in us in power — as it changes us, Which shapes how we interact with other people.

And — that’s our 2nd point: 

2) We have been chosen by God as agents of gospel renewal

Look again at verses 5-7:  “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 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.”

God’s work in us — isn’t really about us. It’s the way that He’s chosen to glorify His name in the world — THROUGH US.

Paul is reminding the Thessalonian believers that he, who was once far from God — lived out his gospel transformation among them. He was with them — and they were able to see the power of the gospel at work in Paul Which is what God used to bring the gospel to them — as Paul proclaimed the truth…

All of this means that we are called to IMITATE & MODEL.

 Remember the viral nature of the gospel?
God’s design is to work through the infectious nature of the gospel at work in us. We catch transformation from His work in others and we spread transformation as we model it for others.

And — let me point out 2 important things as it relates to this: 

This requires proximity. Notice the words “AMONG YOU”.

This only works if you’re in close proximity with people. The same way a virus will only spread if you’re with people.

The 2nd important thing to note here is that:  Imitating & Modeling happens best when we’re suffering for the gospel. You want to see what someone really believes — see what they do when they begin to face affliction.

** God glorifies Himself in a unique way through us — when He allows us the privilege of suffering for the gospel. This shouldn’t surprise us when we look at Jesus, The disciples, The early church, The historical church & the current persecuted church throughout the world.

** Peter — there Spirit rests upon you when you suffer.

So — get this We’re OBJECTS of gospel renewal as God moves in and changes us. That leads us to be AGENTS of renewal. Where God uses us to model the gospel to others.

3) We have been chosen by God as carriers of gospel proclamation to the whole world

Look again at verses 8-10:  “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 need not say anything. 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, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

The gospel will not let you sit still. It will necessarily propel you out into the world as an agent of renewal — a gospel proclaimer — wherever you go.

And — there’s nowhere you can’t go.

You and I — are carriers of the gospel — are charged with speaking the gospel into a culture that is riddled with IDOLATRY. I’m not just talking about outward — visible idolatry that we see so pervasively in India. I’m talking about the idolatry of the heart.

Idolatry is slavery. The gospel brings freedom!

Here’s the thing: The church becomes a viral movement — when you see the ruthless dethroning of idols in people’s lives. The gospel brings that freedom in our hearts and then we get the privilege of being able to speak that into the lives of other people

So, 

We have been chosen by God as objects of gospel renewal
We have been chosen by God as agents of gospel renewal &
We have been chosen by God as carriers of gospel proclamation to the whole world

This is the vision that we must have as the church if we’re going to be viral in how we live out the gospel.

Here’s the hard truth: 

The longer that someone is a Christian the greater the tendency to quarantine themselves to just hang out with other infected people.

We must push back against this,

++ Be reminded of the gospel at work in your life — God’s Sovereign rescue of you

++ Be reminded of your calling to live that out & proclaim it in the lives of people within the family of God

++ Be reminded of the calling on your life to take that gospel near & far