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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.

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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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Good Friday Luke Sermon

What makes Good Friday good for us? – Luke 23:32-49

https://www.facebook.com/thegatheringcommunity/videos/541409313182647/

Good evening everyone!

My name is Jinson Thomas and I am one of the pastors at the Gathering Community Church. I’m humbled at the opportunity to share God’s Word with you all on this Good Friday.

One of the questions that many people including Christians are quite perplexed with is the question

“Why is it called Good Friday?”

How can it possibly be good if Jesus was murdered on this day? “It’s not good but bad Friday” some would say.

On top of that, some of you would say – how can this be Good Friday with all that is happening around the globe due to COVID-19?

How can it be Good Friday when I’m locked up at home? So this evening I’d like to give us 3 reasons for why Good Friday can be good for us!!

1. God’s forgiveness is available for all sins (v34)

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

What is astonishing is that Jesus is pleading before the Father for people who were responsible for putting Him on a cross!! And I think sometimes we are so used to seeing a cross on a church building or sporting it as a fashion accessory, that we forget what it meant in Jesus’ time to be crucified.

The cross wasn’t used to symbolize a religion or a fashion statement but instead, the cross symbolized condemnation and humiliation! It was a death row for the worst criminals who committed the most heinous crimes in the Roman world.

It was also done publicly to make an example of the criminal so that no one would even think of following the footsteps of the one who was killed. In fact it was so cruel and inhumane that even Roman speakers of the time would criticize it by calling it “the most cruel and disgusting punishment”.

The Son of God (Jesus) who committed no sin faced the horror of “the most cruel and disgusting punishment”.

Forgiveness isn’t cheap. It comes at a high cost.

Just to give you a picture of the pain that Jesus endured:

i) It involved immense Physical Pain: The pain was so unbearable, intense and agonizing that they made a word to describe it – “excruciating”. It wasn’t instant death but slow & painful death!

Victims would have to endure extreme pain for long periods of time before they eventually suffocated and died. We can never downplay or minimize the physical pain that Jesus experienced on the cross.

ii) Not only did it involve Physical pain but also Psychological Pain: That’s the last thing that you would want to face while already dealing with the immense physical pain.

The only voice that Jesus heard all around him were insults from the very people He came to save. V34 says that they cast lots to divide his garments which tells us how his garments were stripped off him making him vulnerable & adding to his humiliation.

iii) However, more than the Physical & Psychological Pain – what affected Jesus the most was the Spiritual Pain: AlthoughJesus was like us in every way, yet He was unlike us because he was without sin.

He was the only person to live a life of perfect purity and sinlessness. But on the cross for the first time, he experienced the massive weight & guilt of sin. “He who knew no sin became sin for us (2 Cor 5:21)”.

Not only did He experience the massive weight of sin but He was also being punished for our sins. No one like to be a scape goat for anyone and here we see Jesus becoming the scape goat for the entire world.

The passage from Isaiah that we just read earlier today is a reminder of the same thing:

Isa 53:5,6 – But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the punishment that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.

I want us to understand that Jesus wasn’t treated as a criminal merely due to wicked Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers of that time. He was treated as a criminal because you and I have committed numerous crimes against the One True God.

We are the very ones responsible for putting Jesus on the cross. Brothers and sisters, my intention is not to guilt us or over-emphasize on the gory details of Jesus’ agony and suffering but I want us to realize this truth that

Forgiveness isn’t cheap. It comes at a high cost.

God absolutely has the authority to forgive sins but because He is also a just judge, a payment has to be made. Someone has to pay.

I came across a beautiful story that spoke about forgiveness and justice being displayed in the courtrooms in UAE a few months back. An Asian couple found themselves in the middle of a huge legal problem because they overstayed their visa for a number of years.

They were asked to pay an enormous amount as a fine (around 12 Lakh rupees). When the judge asked them to pay the fine, they weren’t able to pay it. Now even though the judge had compassion on the family, he couldn’t write off the fine because it would cause an uproar and protest against the whole justice system of the UAE.

For some reason, the judge asked them the name of their son. The parents replied that they’ve named him “Zayed”. Now Zayed also happened to be the name of the founder of the country. On learning this, the judge said Zayed shouldn’t have to pay the fine. But justice requires someone to pay. To everyone’s amazement the judge himself paid off the entire amount (12 Lakh rupees) to close their case.  Forgiveness isn’t cheap. It comes at a high cost.   

When God saw that we weren’t able to pay the enormous mountain of a debt due to our sins, He provided a way for us to be forgiven through the perfect sacrifice of His Son Jesus so that the payment is made for people who cannot pay for themselves.

Maybe some of us as we are hearing this are finding it hard to believe. You’ll say “brother, I know what you’re saying but you have no idea what I’ve said and done in the past few weeks. You have no idea how ugly my past is. I’ve done so many things that I’m ashamed to even talk about”.

The amazing truth is that because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross, if you come to Him and surrender yourself to Him because of His perfect sacrifice, forgiveness is available for all your sins no matter how many they are & how worse they are.

That’s amazing news for us even in a time of lockdown and uncertainty – to know that irrespective of what happens tomorrow that God can forgive all my sins. He can look at me and say “You are not guilty”. That’s great news.

But not only is Good Friday good because God’s is able to forgive all my sins but also that :

2. God’s grace is extended to the lost, the last and the least (v43)

And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Within the event of Jesus suffering on the cross, there is a mention of a small incident of two criminals who are hung on either side of Jesus. One of them dishonours Jesus just like the crowd beneath, but the other one honours Jesus as King.

The first one doesn’t even acknowledge his sin while the other one confesses his sin – he acknowledges “we are receiving the due reward of our deeds”. The first one didn’t have any hope of being saved, while the other one even at the last moments of his life trusted that Jesus could save Him.

And Jesus does save him in v43 – “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Wait a minute! First of all, this is a guilty criminal out here. He’s done some really bad things and messed up his life. Upon his own admission, he knows that he deserves the punishment he is receiving.

And plus he lived his whole life in wickedness and now at the final moments of life, he is asking Jesus to save him? I mean there are the other “not so bad” people that need to be saved first, right? This guy is the least likeable guy. He is the back-bencher in morality.

No one expects him to be saved. Why fill up God’s kingdom with people who don’t appear to be cut out for it? Why should Jesus even bother?

In our judgmental hearts, this is a crazy thing to digest mainly because we don’t understand God’s passion for those that are the lost, the last and the least. In Luke 15, Jesus talks about the parable of the Lost Son.

God is pictured as the loving Father who when he sees his lost son returning from a distance, runs and embraces him who wasted all of his father’s inheritance on his selfish pleasures.

Time and time again throughout Scripture we are told of this storyline – it’s not the powerful, the rich, the super talented, the influential that God choses and saves. It’s none of those but the total opposite.

Why? Because people who understand their sickness and infection are the ones who will go to a doctor and ask for help. People who understand their weakness and brokenness in sin are the one who will turn to Jesus desperately for help.

Sometimes people who have known me for just a few years presume that I’ve been a religious, pious, nice guy all my life. But the truth is quite far from that. In my teenage years I remember thinking that God & religion wasn’t something I was cut out for mainly due my increasing sin patterns. Even when I did go to church, I went for all the wrong reasons.

I was that guy sitting at the last bench because I didn’t think I was worthy of sitting right in front. For a person like me who had continuous evil thoughts running through my mind, I had mouth filled with cuss words and lifestyle of being an enemy of God, I knew I couldn’t reach God so I stopped trying.

I was so lost in my sin that I thought I was beyond help. But I thank God that He didn’t give up on me but rather pulled me out a deep pit through Jesus’s sacrifice. The amazing truth is that Jesus came looking for me even when I wasn’t thinking about being found.

I was lost, the last and the least among those that people expected to be saved and yet that happened by God’s grace.

And so I share my story to let you know that if you feel like you’re far away from God, if you don’t see yourself as a typical religious churchgoer, maybe you look at yourself and think you’re the last person that God would think of…let me encourage you to know that Jesus is nearer to you than you think. The scope of God’s grace isn’t limited to people who are at a certain level of good. God’s grace extends to those that are lost, the last ones and the least ones.   

But not only is God’s forgiveness available for all, not only is God’s grace extended to the lost, the last and least but also

3. God’s presence is accessible by all who believe (v44-46)

It was now about the sixth hour,[d] and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Jesus’ commitment to complete His work on the cross has ensured that we now have full access to God as our Father. And this was highlighted by the curtain or the veil of the temple tearing in two.

The curtain in the temple separated the Most Holy Place from every other place in the temple. The Most Holy Place is where God would dwell in. No one was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place except for the High Priest and that also once a year on the Day of Atonement.

On the Day of Atonement he couldn’t enter it in any manner he wanted. He needed to wear special priestly garments, offer a sacrifice for his own sins and then burn an incense to cover the whole room – and only then would his life be spared! That’s a big deal! God’s presence is a serious thing.

By ourselves if we went into the presence of God, we would be totally consumed. We would die. And now the amazing news is that Jesus has opened the way for us to freely and directly access God’s presence! It’s not limited to one day a year. It’s not limited to only the High Priest.

It’s not limited to going to a single location. God can reveal His presence to us no matter where we are.

Even in a season like COVID-19 where we are locked up at home & quarantined– the amazing truth for believers in Jesus is that we can experience God’s presence in a very scriptural and personal way.

I was encouraged by the interview of a woman who recently recovered from COVID-19 where she testified to being all alone in a hospital room.

Even the medical professionals had kept their distance to avoid receiving the infection. In a room which no one could enter, Jesus was there with her. While she was reading Scripture on her bed, in a very personal way Jesus reminded her of His presence – “Never will I leave you.

Never will I forsake you (Heb 13:5)”. Wait a minute! But I thought Jesus died and was buried? How can Jesus still be with her 2000 years later? If Jesus’ story ended with him being buried in a tomb, it wouldn’t give us any assurance of His everlasting presence.

Instead we know that Sunday is coming. Sunday is coming when Jesus would rise victoriously from the dead & that’s why He can make the most audacious promise to never leave us nor forsake us and still keep it!

Brothers and sisters, let me encourage you to know that Jesus Christ can be present with you right now through His Spirit. Jesus Christ cannot be locked up. No lockdown can stop Jesus from meeting you in your loneliest of times.

Would you come to Him and cry out to Him today? 

That’s what makes this and every Good Friday good! Because of Jesus, God’s forgiveness is available for all sins (every bit of them), God’s grace is extended to the lost, the last and the least. God’s presence is accessible to all who believe.

Would you join me to respond to God in prayer?

Categories
Matthew Palm Sunday Sermon

Palm Sunday – Matthew 21:1-13

https://www.facebook.com/thegatheringcommunity/videos/1021820548281268/

Good morning Church, It’s a beautiful Sunday and I am super excited to connect you through Facebook, I believe you all are spending quality time with your family and friends and I hope you all are doing great and I am sure you all are taking good care of yourself.

As we know, the world is going through excruciate pain and suffering because of Covid-19 Pandemic, people are living in fear, anxiety and uncertainty,

This pandemic disease is out of control, many people are dead and many people are fighting for life in a sickbed, many people are jobless, many people are living in hunger and thirst.

In these chaotic circumstances, the church can play a vital role by showing Christ love to the people around us, by showing Christ care and kindness to all the people and most importantly let us point the people around us to Christ, showing them that Christ is the saviour of the world and He is the answer for all our life problems.

Last week I came across an encouraging quote from the scripture,

I want to read out for all of us.

“If God could Close the lion’s mouth for Daniel,

Part the Red seas for Moses

Make the sun stand still for Joshua

Open the prison for Peter

Put a Baby in the arm of Sarah

And Raise Lazarus from the dead

Then, He can certainly take care of you

Nothing you are facing today is too hard for Him to Handle.”

Shall we look to God in prayer: pray….. Amen

As we enter passion week, we shall look to the passage related to each occasion, since today is Palm Sunday we shall meditate from Palm Sunday passage`

Our book study from Thessalonian will continue in the following week.

Would you open your bible with me to Matthew 21:1-13?

1. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,

2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.

3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

4 This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet:

5 “Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”[a]

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.

7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.

8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna  to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[c]

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves.

13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.

Before we see the main 3 points let’s see

What is Palm Sunday?

Palm Sunday marked the start of what is called “passion week” the final days of Jesus earthly ministry, it is the day we remember and celebrate the triumph entry of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem as Saviour and king.

Palm leaves: Signifies victory / Triumph

Jesus riding on a donkey: When a king rides on a Donkey it symbolises peace. And we know from the scripture that Christ is the prince of peace.

Hosanna: Save us now/ Deliver/ Rescue us.

Crowd: The crowd shout hosanna because they saw Jesus performing lots of miracles, heal the lame and blind, turn the water into wine, feeding 5000 people with 2 fish and 5 loaves, raise Lazarus from the dead and because of this great

They expect that He can rescue them politically and free them from Roman rule.

But Jesus mission was to save mankind from the slavery of sin and gave mankind eternal life. When the crowd expectation was not met, it was the same crowd who shout crucify Him on Good Friday.

These are a few things I would like to remind before we enter our main points.

I would like to entitle my sermon as

       “Your King is coming”

I would like to bring 3 very important points from the above passage.

1. Jesus Enter Jerusalem as a king, who will save mankind from the bondage of sin.

Matthew 21:5. “Say to Daughter of Zion,

 ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Matthew quote this verse from Old testament Zacharias 9:9.

Prophet Zacharias prophesy 500 years prior to the Jesus arrival in Jerusalem.

As Jesus enter Jerusalem the crowd threw their cloaks on the road, they took the palm leaves and began joyfully praising God in the Loud voices for all the miracles they have seen.

And they were shouting

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the LORD,

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

Purpose of Christ coming to this world: before that let’s see the condition of mankind.

1. Christ our king came to this world as a Passover lamb. (Exodus 16).

(Moses told Israelites to pain their door with the blood of a lamb so that the spirit will Passover your house and your family,

In the same way if we wash our heart with the blood of Jesus, His blood will cleanse us from all sins.)  he came as a Passover lamb.

2. Christ our king came to this world to give us Eternal life. (John 3:16)

3. Christ our king came to reconcile our broken relationship with the Father. (Rom.5:1}

(Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.)

4. Christ our king came to show us the Way, the Truth and the Life. (John 14:6).

5. Christ our king came to this world to free us from condemnation of sins. (Rom.8:1).

(There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.)

5. Christ our king came to take us to heaven. (John 14:1-3.)

(1.Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God,  believe in me also.

2. In my fathers house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you,  I will go and prepare a place for you.

3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and recieve you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.)

Application:

Beloved church

Christ has redempt us, His love has captured us,

Even though if we go through this corona virus pandemic, facing all kinds of life difficulties and challenges, He promised us He will never leave us nor forsake us,

His everlasting love is with us.

Roman’s 8: 35.

35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or perils,  or sword.

38. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,  nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,

39. Nor height nor depth,  nor any other created things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is our bless hope and our Assurance in Christ Jesus.

He is our beautiful saviour our Lord and our King.

2. Jesus enter and cleanse the Jerusalem temple.

 Matthew 21: 12-13.

12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers

Jerusalem temple was like thieves’ market, all kinds of cheating and lying and betraying business was going on in the house of the LORD.

Jesus enter and chase them out and remind them that this house is the house of prayer.

Paul also Remind us in 1 Cor. 6:19-20.

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

20 you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies.

The scripture clearly taught us that our Heart is a Temple of Holy Spirit.

But sadly, many people entertain their heart with sin like those people in Jerusalem temple.

From this passage we know that God and sin can’t dwell together.

God hate sin but He loves sinners, he like to clean all our sins as He clean up the Jerusalem temple.

Beloved church how are you all maintaining your heart?

Illustration: Garbage story

You know there are times I forgot to dispose kitchen garbage, when the garbage keeps for so long it smells horrible and the garbage smell the whole room.

In the same way, if we didn’t confess our sin and didn’t dispose them, this stinking sin will poison your whole life and even killed you.

The garbage we store in our heart can be.

(Laziness, cheating, lying, selfishness, bribing, sexual immorality, drunkenness, pornography,

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eye and the pride of life)

We should not let these things rule and control our heart.

Romans 6:23 says. For the wages of sin is Dead but the gift of God is eternal life.

Application:

How are you maintaining your heart and your life?

Is it God please with the lifestyle you are living today?

Beloved Let us examine ourselves right now and if there is any sin in our life and if there is anything hindering us to love Jesus. Let us confess our sin and make right with Him.

 1 John 1: 9. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I strongly believe that the solution for this corona pandemic is in the hand of God,

The world need to turn to God and repent for the forgiveness of sins.

May God have mercy on us.

2 Chronicle 7:14.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

3. Jesus enter and wept for Jerusalem. Luke 19: 41-44.

41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it

42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.

44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Jesus foresee the heart of the people; he sees their miserable future;

He knows their hopelessness; He know that these people will never make it to His kingdom. Knowing all these Jesus cry for them.

In Noah days before the flood people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, they all miss the  opportunity to be to be in the ark. Everyone perish in their sin.

In the same way people of Jerusalem lose the golden opportunity.

Jesus was weeping over the tragedy of lost opportunity,

the Israelites that assembled in Jerusalem for Passover miss the opportunity to be saved from both earthly and eternal destruction.

They were visited by their saviour but they didn’t know it,

instead of receiving Him they killed Him.

Illustration:

I would like remind with the familiar story from the bible, the rich man and Lazarus

 (Luke 16:19-31).

Rich man.

God bless him with riches: He misuse his wealth in a wrong way. (partying)

God gave him beautiful life: He waste his beautiful life.

God gave him enough time to live on earth: He misuse his opportunity

He never remembers God in his entire life but he remembers God in hell fire

but it was too late for him.

Whereas

Poor Lazarus Know the true living God, he makes use of every opportunity and he ends up his life in eternal heaven.

 God gave time to all of us to come to him before iti is too late.

Application

How Jesus may be thinking of you right now?

Is he weeping of you? Like He weep for Jerusalem?

Or Is he celebrating because you are his child?

  • Our life on earth is short let us make use of every opportunity.
  • God is an omniscience God He know the pain and suffering we are going through right now.
  • He know our financial struggles, he knows our life challenges and life struggles.
  • The cool part is we are not facing all these complications alone. He promised he will take care of us. If He takes care of the birds in the air and Lily in the field, he will surely take care of us.

Matthew 11:28-30.

28 “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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Finally I wanna close with this beautiful song lyrics.

“In Christ alone”

Categories
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.

Categories
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

Categories
1 Thessalonians Sermon

Faith Unpacked: 1 Thessalonians 1:1

Good morning church! I’m humbled & it’s a great pleasure for me to have the opportunity to preach the Word this morning. We just completed a topical series last week titled “The church”. And we get back to our book study as we begin 1 Thessalonians.

I think this is a continuation on the topic of “the church” because it talks about the “abiding” or the “continuing faith” of the church.  

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace. (v1)

“Christianity is at risk”! This was the title of a news report in a UK newspaper Daily Express in 2019. They saw a dramatic decline in the number of people that call themselves as Christians in Great Britain. From 66% in 1983 to 38% in 2019. And this is a similar declining trend that is seen all over Europe where thousands of churches have been closing due to lack of attendees (Wikipedia).

Even in a country like the US that has been the source of a lot of good resources and writings, they’ve seen 10-15% churches shut down. People are turning to atheism or modern spiritualism where they take what they like from each religion to create their own version of a religion that suits them. And in the face of these real facts, I’m sure the question that the church asks is: Is faith in Jesus temporary like a trend or can there be genuine, abiding faith? Will my faith last till the end? Not just me – but will the faith of my brothers and sisters in Christ abide and survive till the end?  The theme of the letter to the Thessalonians is like an answer given to us to help us navigate and find help to these critical questions.

3 points of observations:

1) Christian faith is validated by perseverance

When Paul starts out mentioning “the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” & as he continues throughout the letter – he actually remembers the context in which the church was formed.

In Acts 17, Paul arrives in the cosmopolitan, business capital city of Thessalonica (similar to a city like Mumbai). And he arrives to Thessalonica after being beaten & imprisoned in Philippi. One would think that Paul, Silas and Timothy would’ve been intimidated by that previous experience but they were instead fearless because they immediately go to a Jewish synagogue (sort of like a gospel community or a small group) over 3 Sabbath days & they have open discussions with the people gathered out there on what the Scriptures tell about the necessity for the Messiah to suffer & rise from the dead.

Paul tells them that Jesus whom He proclaims is the Christ! Some Jews believed, a lot of Greek worshippers believed & many prominent women also believed!

Isn’t this is awesome? To have new believers in this amazing, fast paced, influential city. They were at the tipping point of a vibrant church expansion movement. But unexpectedly even before Paul could make the most of this new discipling opportunity, some of the unbelieving Jews who were jealous got together some people who were experienced in stirring up riots and a crowd and started attacking the house of Jason (probably the church met at his house).

They couldn’t find Paul and his companions so they dragged Jason and some of the new believers in front of the city authorities & accused them of being international troublemakers & more severely saying there is another King called Jesus apart from Caesar!

The only way in which they released Jason and the others was with a money security – to guarantee that Paul wouldn’t cause any more disruptions by continuing to preach in that city. That same night Paul and his companions were sent away from the city. All of this all tells us that the Thessalonian church wasn’t born out of a marketing strategy or a pastor’s big vision. This church was born in the midst of humiliation, pain and suffering!

The fact that they were standing in the midst of severe suffering showed that their faith was genuine! I find that a stark contrast to how we evaluate the genuineness of our faith. We say our faith is genuine because we know all the worship songs at church, we are fairly regular at church, and also we have a good relationship with the pastor and other church members – so we assume that’s what certifies our faith.

Instead the bible tells us that “Count it all joy, my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness”. (James 1:1)

Losing our job, sudden loss of a family member or a loved one, a broken relationship, an unexpected illness, long wait on God to answer a prayer for a good thing like a spouse for marriage or a job, taunts and insults being hurled at you because you’ve chosen to follow Jesus – these are all very real and painful.

But at the same time suffering exposes our heart idols. Those idols of inconvenience, comfort, self-love, self-reliance, pride, anger, impatience suddenly come to the fore when we are met with unexpected suffering. And it’s not as though someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus will not undergo suffering. But here’s the difference – Genuine Christian faith will be displayed through repentance & faith in God.

Even though there might be seasons when believers doubt, are confused and might even look to sin for comfort but true believers will eventually come back to God in repentance and faith. Why? Because they can’t abandon the Lord who gave them a new heart to love Him. They can’t abandon the Lord who has placed His Spirit within them. They will indeed return back to him.

Maybe some of us have been frustrated or discouraged by the season of suffering that you’re going through. If you’re in that place today, could you ask God to reveal those areas in your heart that need repentance & faith in God? Could you ask God to use your current situation to display His mercy? Genuine Christian faith is validated by perseverance.

2) Christian faith is personal & yet inter-connected

Our Christian faith is personal in the sense where God has a unique and direct relationship with every person who believes in Jesus. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12)

But at the same time Christian discipleship happens in community – with other brothers and sisters. Throughout the whole letter it’s filled with language that mentions the presence & necessity for deep relationships within the church.

You became imitators of us and the Lord (1 Thes 1:6)

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 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. (1 Thes 2:7-8)

I remember a time during my first-year in college when this truth hit home for me. Now I had been a believer for about 2 years or so but Christian life for me was just Sunday. I was the most spiritual and most committed on a Sunday but the rest of the week I lived a double life – isolated from the rest of the church & world and joyless.

I assumed that was what Christian life was for most people. About that time, I was introduced to a brother who came to India on a two-week trip during his college break to share the good news about Jesus. I accompanied him throughout those two weeks, watching his life closely, paying attention to his words and I was amazed to see the joy & purpose with which he lived his life.

In every conversation I saw him have, he would somehow bring every conversation back to Jesus because it looked like he truly loved Jesus. For him time with the Word wasn’t a duty or a Sunday activity, he enjoyed reading the Bible and telling people about what he learnt. Plus, I was amazed to see a young college student come to India on a trip to tell people about Jesus during his summer break when he could’ve spent it with his friends.

Just imagine what this did to a young believer like me. This brother didn’t sit down and preach “discipleship” to me – but I saw him live it out during those 2 weeks. God used that brother to rejuvenate my relationship with God.

And I really want to challenge you brothers and sisters today. Maybe just like my experience, you see yourself as a Sunday Christian and desire to change. Let me encourage you to find a brother or sister in the Lord whom you know is living for Jesus & just go and spend time with them.

Observe how they are loving Jesus and allow them to speak into the insecurities & fears & doubts of your heart. That is God’s design for us to experience full joy. Christian faith is personal & yet inter-connected.

3)  Christian faith is based on God’s faithfulness

As we are reading through chapter 4 & 5 in 1 Thessalonians, if we read it without any context, we might be mistaken to think that it is simply a bunch of rules: abstain from sexual immorality, help the weak, admonish the idle, pray without ceasing.

We may assume that Paul is telling us that “Jesus has done half the work of saving you, now it’s up to you to perform and make sure that Christ receives you as perfect in the end”. Although we may say that we theologically don’t agree with that but practically we might believe it’s true.

What I mean is this – there is a reason why we feel super happy and assured on days when we read our bibles early in the morning, are able to have a productive day at work, manage to minimize our sinful behaviors & even share the gospel with one person.

At the same time, we struggle with immense guilt and condemnation on days when we aren’t able to do any of the above. On those days we don’t “feel” like God’s child. We instead “feel” like we are orphans.

If we are absolutely honest, all of us will confess that even on our best days – even our best efforts aren’t good enough before a Holy and Perfect God. There’s nothing we can do to make ourselves a loved child or an accepted child of God. So then what does that mean? Can our faith survive with this kind of failed record?

1 Thessalonians is a reminder for our hearts that when we fail – and fail we will, God still remains faithful. Even when we feel like we’ve let go, God continues to hold on those whom He has chosen. Think about it – Paul and his companions thought they lost these new believers.

They were anxious and thought that these believers may have gone astray in the midst of severe suffering and persecution. Instead when Timothy meets them, he is overjoyed to find them loving Jesus no matter what it may cost them. How come? The Lord Jesus remains faithful. He doesn’t let go.

No one can snatch them out of my hand – says Jesus in John 10:28

At the end of the letter in chapter 5 – Paul says some remarkable things – read with me in v23, 24:  Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Who sanctifies or makes us Holy? God does. Who will keep us – people who fail and sin blameless? He will. Because He who calls me is “FAITHFUL”. He will surely do it. Does this cause us to be lazy in our faith? No, in fact it makes us zealous to serve him because of His faithfulness.

For some of us who are feeling like they’re orphans this morning in spite of believing in Jesus, I believe we should be reminded that our faith, our identity, us being the child of God is not based on our performance.

It is based on God’s faithfulness – His faithful Son who lived a perfect life and died the death that we deserved so that through His resurrection our faith is firmly anchored in His faithfulness. For some others, it’s probably the first time where God has opened your eyes to His faithfulness.

Till now you’ve been living a life against God, apart from Him but today God’s moving your heart to trust Him. And God is true to His Word – if you believe in what Jesus has done for you, you will be saved. He will surely do it according to His promise.