1 Thess. 1:1-10 “Marks of the Chosen”

1:09And you didn't hear from him for a long time. What would you start to wonder about the things that he taught you? What would you start to think about him, his character? On his second missionary journey, Paul. Was traveling and received a vision from the Lord with a man from Macedonia saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. And so Paul and his companions made their way over to Macedonia, which is in modern-day northern Greece, and they went to the city of Philippi, and they saw good fruit from preaching the gospel. But they were also beaten and jailed for preaching Christ.

1:59And so they, after that, go down south to Thessalonica. And I want you to look at Acts 17 on the screen. This is what Luke records. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.

2:34And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. In terms of numbers alone, their trip to Thessalonica was the most successful missionary endeavor yet. They saw Jews and a great many Greeks and many leading women come to faith in Christ. But they also encountered immediate opposition and immediate persecution. Take a look at what happens next in Acts 17.

3:10But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them. And they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.

3:40And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. So we learn here that out of jealousy, the Jews attacked Jason's house where Paul and Silas were staying, and they dragged him and some other Christians into court where they were fined, basically had money taken from them that they would no longer participate with these missionaries, and then they were released.

4:15And so you see that immediately after they had just preached the gospel for three weeks on three consecutive Sabbath days, already persecution has ramped up and believers are having their homes attacked and they're being fined for simply participating in. The mission of Christ. Things were so bad that the believers decided to smuggle Paul and Silas out of town in the middle of the night. So they go down to Berea and they see more conversions, but the Jews follow them there and drive them out of that city as well. So Paul goes down to Athens and preaches the gospel there. Then he goes over to Corinth and South Greece, and he stays there for a year and a half ministering to the growing church. But at the same time, he's getting increasingly anxious about these Christians who came to faith under his ministry during that brief three-week period that he was in Thessalonica. And he gets so anxious that he decides to send Timothy on a mission to see how they're doing. Well, Timothy comes back to Corinth with some good news. Persecution had not stamped out the church. In fact, the church in Thessalonica was healthy and it was growing. And so there was much encouragement, but there was also a lot of challenges because Timothy informed Paul that there was a group of critics in Thessalonica that were going around telling the Christians that Paul was essentially like every other traveling teacher that came through that trade city. He was hungry for money.

5:44He was hungry for fame. And so as soon as things got tough, what did he do? He ran away in the middle of the night. So these critics are saying these things about Paul and his companions. And on top of that, the Christians were dealing with. Intense persecution for their faith, and some had died. So you can imagine among these young Christians that are experiencing this kind of persecution, there's a lot of questions that are rising up in their minds.

6:15If the gospel is true and God loves us, why are we being persecuted like this? If Jesus really is coming back like Paul said that he was, where is he? And where is Paul? We haven't seen him in months and months. All of these questions are swirling around in their heads. And so after Timothy came back and reported these things to Paul, he sat down and wrote the letter that we know as 1 Thessalonians. You see there in verse 1 that it comes from Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy. Sylvanus is the Latin spelling of Silas. And so all of these men are participating in the teaching to the Thessalonians, but Paul is the primary author, as becomes clear throughout the letter.

7:07All three of these men have ministered well to the Thessalonians, and their teaching and their way of life is in agreement. And so, church, we're going to be spending the rest of the summer in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. We've called this series Awake, Asleep, Alive in Christ. And that's because 1 Thessalonians 5, 9, and 10 uses that language to get Paul's. Central message across. Look what it says. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him.

7:49Friends, that is the good news of the gospel and the hope of Christianity: is that whether we live or die, we will be with Christ. We will live with Christ for eternity. We live with him now because eternal life begins the moment you believe in Jesus. But we will live with him for all eternity. So whether we are awake or asleep, we are alive in Christ. Today we're going to be covering all of chapter one, where Paul is going to encourage the Thessalonians that God has chosen them and that they can know that God has chosen them because they receive the true gospel. So what we're going to learn this morning through these first 10 verses is that God's chosen people are marked by repentant faith and persevering hope.

8:43You see here in verse 1, Paul begins the letter with a customary greeting, but given that one of his main goals is to reassure the Thessalonians that God has chosen them and that he loves them and that he's going to see them through to the end, it is significant that he addresses this letter. To whom. Look at what he says. To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, just think of all the prepositions that Paul could have used in that sentence.

9:18He could have said, to the church of the Thessalonians, from God, or by God, or through God, or under God. Any and all of those words would be true. We all live from and through and by and under God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. All of those are true in some sense. But keeping in mind what's going on in Thessalonica, it is significant that he calls them the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

9:54And that is because through faith in Christ, Christians are in the Father and in the Son in a mysterious but true sense. Look on the screen at Colossians chapter 3. Paul writes, For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. What a comfort that is if you are part of a young church that is experiencing persecution. That is going through intense trial and suffering and difficulty of all kinds to be reminded that you are in God.

10:41You are not only from Him or under Him or by Him or anything else, you are in Him. Look what Paul writes in Romans 8. He says, For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Christians, this is true of every one of us here today who have put their faith in Christ alone. That through faith in Christ, we have died and our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from His love because we are in Him.

11:37Paul then blesses them with grace and peace. And then He offers this word of thanksgiving. Look at verse 2. He says, 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. So remember, Paul has not been able, for various reasons, to go back to Thessalonica in about a year and a half or two years. It's been a long time. But that has not kept him or Silas or Timothy from remembering the believers constantly in their prayers. They have not been forgotten. And so Paul wants to remind them that when they prayed, they gave thanks for the Thessalonians because they remembered before God their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

12:42Friends, consider that when Paul and Silas and Timothy think about these believers, what comes to mind is the marks of all Christians. And that is faith and love and hope. And these things, faith, love, and hope, are not just undefined, vague terms, things that you might hear from a politician or an activist or a famous athlete of some kind just throwing around the words faith, love, and hope. No, these are defined characteristics that mark every Christian. Faith that works, love that serves, hope that perseveres, because they are rooted and grounded. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

13:34These are not wishful thinking. And so, what Paul is doing here is he is reminding them that God had unmistakably, obviously transformed their lives because they were marked by the same traits that mark all Christians. And after suffering non-stop persecution ever since they first heard the gospel, having their faith constantly mocked, constantly questioned, I have no doubt that they desperately needed these words of affirmation from the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul. Brothers and sisters, sometimes we have trouble seeing where God is at work in our lives.

14:22We have trouble sometimes even seeing that God is at work in our lives because we live with ourselves every day. And so for most of us, we are very well acquainted with our sins, with our failures, with our shortcomings. We know those things very well. And for many of us, we live in a kind of constant low-grade discouragement. Faith, love, and hope are sometimes not the things that we think of when we think about ourselves. And so it is very Important for us to practice building each other up in love as Paul does for the Thessalonians here.

15:09Has anyone ever said, I am too encouraged, I have too many people pointing out the evidences of God's grace in my life. I need less people building me up. No one has ever said these things. And so, friends, we need to develop the holy habit of pointing out the evidence of God's grace in each other's lives where we see faith working, where we see love serving, where we see hope persevering, because often it's very hard for us to see those things in ourselves. So they prayed constantly for the Thessalonians, giving thanks for them, remembering their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. Now let's pick up in verse 4.

16:01Paul says, For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you. For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you. Now that is a very bold claim that Paul knows for a fact that God loves and has chosen these men and women. Maybe that language makes you uncomfortable, that language of God choosing. Well, friends, it should not. The doctrine of election refers to the truth that God chooses to save many undeserving sinners from the wrath that they do deserve. It is taught with clarity and without apology from Genesis to Revelation.

17:01And every time election is mentioned in Scripture, the act of God choosing us, the intended effect is comfort. Every time we are reminded of God choosing us, we are intended to be comforted. Because what the scripture teaches is that in Adam, we were all born dead in sin. We were unable and unwilling to choose God. And so, before the foundation of the world, before any one of us had done anything good or evil, God in his mercy chose to save us.

17:42And what that means is we don't have to live our lives day to day worried that we are going to lose our salvation, that we're going to forfeit it through something that we do or leave undone, because God has chosen us. He's chosen us before the foundation of the world. He chose us before we did anything good or evil. He chose us out of his mercy and grace alone. And so this is intended to comfort the Thessalonians going through all of this persecution. Paul says, We know that God has chosen you. And he can say that because they received the true gospel with repentant faith and persevering hope, which are the marks of God's chosen people. So let's look again at verse 4 and then get into verse 5.

18:32He says, For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you, not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake. So in these verses, Paul reminds them how the gospel came to them. It came to them in word, in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. The first thing that he reminds them is that the gospel came to them in word. Look again at Acts 17.

19:13Luke says, And Paul went in as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, Is the Christ. So, what Paul did when he came into the synagogue was he preached the word. He explained and proved that Jesus is the Christ from the scriptures. Friends, the gospel is a word that must be preached and must be heard in order to be believed. Take a look at Romans 10.

19:58For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Unless someone preaches the gospel, it cannot be heard. And until it is heard, it cannot be believed. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

20:33But look what Paul says in verse 5: because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power. The gospel came in word because it has to come in word. No one can become a Christian. No one can be saved apart from hearing the gospel word. It had to come in word, but it didn't only come in word, it also came in power. And that word power might be referred to in the word. To miracles that Paul performed in Thessalonica. But if that's the case, Luke does not record any of them in the book of Acts. So I'm inclined to think that the power that he's referring to is God's power of regeneration. Remember what we were just talking about? Because of Adam and Eve's sin, every single person is born dead spiritually. And so what we need is we need God to breathe new life into us. We need to be regenerated. We need to be made alive. That is what the gospel does. That is the power of God that the Jews experienced, and many Greeks and many of the leading women in Thessalonica. Look at this well-known verse, Romans 1:16.

21:49For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. The Thessalonians experienced this power when Paul preached the word to them. This was not just another teaching, it wasn't just another competing worldview or a philosophy. This was a word about a man who claimed and proved to be the Son of God. This was a word that came with power.

22:24Next, Paul says the gospel came in the Holy Spirit. Without the Word of God and the Spirit of God, preaching is devoid of power. In fact, in Ephesians chapter 6, the Apostle Paul says that the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Look what John Stott wrote. The Spirit without the Word is weaponless. The Word without the Spirit is powerless. Look what Jesus taught about the Spirit in John 15. But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

23:20Then in the next chapter, John 16. And when he comes, that is the Holy Spirit, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father. And you will see me no longer, concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. You see, according to Jesus, he sent the Holy Spirit to bear witness about him. And when the Spirit came, he convicted the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. So it's important to remember that Paul. Preached the same gospel everywhere he went.

24:04But that preaching did not have the same effect everywhere he went because the word without the Spirit is powerless. Paul's job and our job is to be faithful to proclaim the true gospel. But it is up to God's Holy Spirit to give new life to the hearers. And then finally, Paul notes that the gospel came to them with full conviction. And then he adds this: you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake.

24:42Now, if you remember in John 16, just a minute ago, we saw that one of the Holy Spirit's jobs is to convict the world. And so maybe that's what Paul is talking about here, the Holy Spirit's conviction. But in light of what he adds about their own conduct, you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake, I'm inclined to believe that Paul is talking about the fact that he and his companions preached the gospel with full conviction.

25:13The Greek word that he's using there means something like transparent integrity that brings certainty to the minds of the hearers. Transparent integrity that brings certainty to the minds of the hearers. Now, I think we've all had the experience of listening to somebody on TV, a politician, a salesman, a saleswoman, whoever. We've all had the experience of listening to someone and thinking to ourselves, I just don't trust this person. That is not the case with Paul, Silas, and Timothy. They not only preached with the full conviction that what they were saying about Jesus was absolutely true, friends, they lived lives that backed up their claim. And that is absolutely crucial.

26:09Brothers and sisters, do we believe that the gospel really is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes? If so, we must proclaim the word of God with full conviction, living holy lives that reveal the life-transforming power of the gospel, trusting the Holy Spirit to bear witness and bring conviction through the word. Let's pick up now in verse 6. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded Forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we 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.

27:29If you think back to verse 4, Paul said that they knew that God had chosen them. In verse 5, he recounted how they shared the true gospel with them. And then in these last four verses, he's reminding them how they received the true gospel with repentant faith and persevering hope. First, they received the gospel with repentant faith. If you look at verse 8, Paul mentions their faith in God has become known everywhere. And then in verse 9, if you look there, he recounts how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

28:14Now, friends, turning to God from idols is a really, really big deal. And I think for most of us in the room, we are Americans. And the reality is that from the founding of our country, most people People who have lived in America have professed to be Christians. Obviously, not all of us have been Christians, but the majority of people who have lived in this country since its founding have professed to be Christians. And what that means is that when the gospel is preached in America and someone hears about Jesus' sinless and miraculous life, his death and resurrection, and their need to repent and believe, when someone turns to Christ in faith, there is some segment of the population that celebrates because they are Christians. And some other segment of the population shrugs their shoulders because they don't really care. But the reality is, if most people in America profess faith in Christ, they're not going to be persecuted because at the very least, Christianity is accepted.

29:22But friends, that was not the case in Thessalonica. Not even close. For the Jewish people there, leaving the Jewish faith was not just kind of making a choice and changing a couple things about their life. It was turning their back on their heritage, their ethnicity, their tradition. That's how they felt. It was going to cost them family members, friends, maybe their lives. For the Gentiles, things were maybe worse. For their whole life, they had been. Worshiping the Greco-Roman pantheon of gods and goddesses. And they had been worshiping the emperor himself.

30:08And these people were frightened, legitimately frightened, that if they stopped sacrificing to those gods and goddesses, that they might be struck dead. Or if they stopped worshiping the emperor, that they might be thrown in prison or killed. So turning to God from idols for these men and women was a huge deal. But that is exactly what they did, because that is what receiving the gospel requires. It requires not just people who are accustomed to bowing down to idols of wood and stone, but it requires every one of us to turn away from the things and the people and the objects that we worship to worship and serve the living and true God alone. That is what is required.

30:58Tim Keller, who had a long and fruitful ministry and passed away last week, wrote a great book called Counterfeit Gods that I would strongly encourage you to read at some point. But in that book, Counterfeit Gods, Keller defined an idol as anything that is more important to us than God, anything that absorbs our heart, our mind, our imagination more than God. Anything that we ask to give us, what only God can give. It's a very common. Comprehensive definition. And I want you to think, if you're familiar with the story, back to the rich young ruler in Mark chapter 10.

31:38This young man ran to Jesus. He did not walk. He ran. And he said, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said, You know the commandments. And the guy says, Oh, I've kept all those. I don't know how Jesus didn't laugh at him, but he didn't. He said, Okay. Well, here's what I want you to do: I want you to go and I want you to sell all of your possessions and come and follow me.

32:04And the man went away sad. It wasn't that the man didn't want eternal life. He did. He just wanted his money and his stuff more. That is idolatry. Friends, is there anything more important to you than God? Is there anything that captures your heart and your mind and your imagination more than God? Is there anything that you daydream about and think about more than you think about God? Is there anything that you turn to to ask to give you what only God can give? Peace, love, joy, hope, fulfillment, promise, a future, salvation, whatever it might be. If so, that thing, that person, that object is an idol. And to receive the gospel, We must turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Idols are false and dead. They cannot hear or speak. But, friends, that is their appeal.

33:14You see, we can serve idols on our own terms. They don't ask anything of us except what we pretend that they do. But that is not how the living and true God operates. He asks everything of us, our entire life, to pick up our cross and to follow him. Have you received the gospel with repentant faith? Second, the Thessalonians received the gospel with persevering hope. I want you to look again at verse 6. Paul says, 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 Achaea.

34:14Just a few weeks after Paul and his companions arrived and began preaching, persecution began. But you have to realize that the whole time they were preaching, they were preparing the Thessalonians for persecution. Look at 1 Thessalonians 3, 4 on the screen. Paul says, 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. See, Paul, Silas, and Timothy did not mislead the Thessalonians, promising them health and wealth if they just turned to Jesus and began following him. They did not lie to them. They told them the truth, that if you began following Jesus as they did, they were going to suffer.

35:10But they also told them that all of the suffering was worth it, which, of course, is exactly what Jesus said. Look at Matthew chapter 5. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Now, I want you to look at those words on the screen.

35:48When we are persecuted for following Jesus, we are supposed to rejoice and be glad. Why? Because persecution is fun. No. Jesus says, because your reward in heaven is great. That's why we're supposed to rejoice and be glad. Friends, this is the reason that the Thessalonians were able to persevere through their suffering with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Hard as it was, they were able to count all their suffering as joy as they looked to that heavenly reward.

36:28And if you're familiar with the book of Acts, you know that right before they came to Thessalonica, when Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison in chains, they were singing to God in the jail cell hymns of praise and thanksgiving. How could they do that? Hebrews chapter 12 says that for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross, despising its shame. How could he do that? The Thessalonians received the gospel with persevering hope that carried them through intense suffering and persecution because they were waiting for their eternal reward. Look at verse 10.

37:16Paul says, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Our hope is based on the promise. That Jesus is coming back. And that promise is based on the fact that God raised him from the dead. Brothers and sisters, what kinds of suffering, what kinds of affliction, what kinds of persecution are you experiencing in your life? We are promised that if we follow Jesus, we are going to suffer, we are going to experience trials, we are going to be persecuted. So it's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when.

38:03It's a matter of how much. But the good news is that our glorious future gives us a persevering hope. We are waiting for Jesus to return and to deliver us from the wrath to come, the wrath that we deserve because of our sins. We are waiting for Jesus to return and to give us new bodies that will never wear out, that are not subject to cancer, that are not subject to our brains failing as we age, that are not subject to tears or crying or pain anymore.

38:43We are waiting for Jesus to return and reward us as he promised to do, saying, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. And we are waiting for Jesus to come and make a new heaven and a new earth. Where he will be our God and we will be his people forever. What good news? Christians, we have a hope that perseveres through suffering and long waiting for Jesus to return because we have a glorious future based on his promise and his resurrection from the dead.

39:21Perhaps today you've come to realize that your life isn't marked by a repentant faith or a persevering hope. Instead of serving the living and true God, you are serving various idols in your life. Instead of persevering in trials and suffering with joy, you are anxious and fearful about the future because you're not sure what it holds. My friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ holds out a hope that is not based on your circumstances, your feelings, or the choices of other people. The gospel of Jesus Christ holds out a hope to us that is based on his promise and his resurrection from the dead after living a sinless life and dying in our place for our sins to rise again.

40:14That is what our hope is based upon. So, if that's you today and you've not exercised that repentant faith, it is critical that you identify your idols, the things and people and objects that you are. Turning to and putting your hope and trust in, and asking to give you what only the living and true God can give you, so that you can consciously turn away from those things and put your hope in Christ. And when you do that, you will be given a persevering hope. Your faith may cost you your family or friends, it may cost you a job opportunity, a promotion at work. It may cost you opportunities in your academic career. It may even cost you your life.

41:06But it will be worth it. Because, based on the promise and the fact of His resurrection, Jesus has guaranteed that we have a secure and beautiful future with God the Father in eternity forever. So, we urge you this morning, if you haven't, repent, place your faith in Christ, and receive Him today. Let's pray, Our Father, we thank you for the Apostles. And the men and women of the early church who received the true gospel and who carried it out all through the world so that one day we could hear it.

42:21And because that preaching of the word came with power and the Holy Spirit and full conviction, you brought us to faith in Christ. You gave us a repentant faith and a persevering hope. So, Lord, we pray that we would be like Paul and Silas and Timothy, eager to carry the true gospel to our friends and neighbors and co-workers and classmates. And we ask that you would do a great work through us. We know we must be faithful to preach, but God, you, through your Holy Spirit, must bring the power.

43:08Only you can bring the dead to life. And so we pray that through our ministry, that would happen. We pray even here this morning that some who are here today would repent of their sins, turning from their idols and receiving Jesus, his love. Life, death, and resurrection on their behalf. God, we thank you for the Thessalonians, our brothers and sisters who lived so long ago and for their faith amidst persecution. May we imitate them as they sought to imitate Christ.

43:47In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.