1Thessalonians 1:2-10
"2We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."
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My parents both grew up in a city in WV named Huntington. My mother’s father was a chemical engineer at a nearby nickel processing plant, and my father’s father owned a soda fountain and sundries store in downtown and never even owned a car. I blame these facts when it comes to light how little I know about cars. Growing up my dad’s family never even owned a car, and my mother was the girl in her family and in addition I’m not sure that my grandfather knew anything to teach her about cars regardless. So my brother and I grew up without the knowledge, though I remember many times my brother, dad, and I would go to car shows at the mall and goggle at the sleek designs. Cars were appreciated, but more for their aesthetics than their engines.
By the time I was 13 or 14, I took the fascination with the chasse to a different level. I started making model cars. Not running models mind you, but even those plastic ones had an engine you were required to assemble, to some degree, and I was able to come out of it with a rudimentary knowledge of the inner workings. At least enough not to embarrass myself in front of friends. At least enough to stand in front of a temperamental vehicle with the hood up and stare thoughtfully into it. “Well, you see ah, that’s the serpentine belt, and that looks ok. And that’s your oil filter down there, and the air filter. This is wear the sparkplugs are, alternator…” “So do you know why it won’t start?” “Nope. Not a clue.” I think that most men think that people will assume you know what you are doing if you stare thoughtfully at something long enough.
But, models are good at teaching us. We can perhaps remember some sort of physiology model from our classroom days, the human torso, or the human eye. In something of that same way, we can learn from this lesson that Paul has written about the church of Christ.
For a little background on the text let me tell you that Thessalonica was the capitol of Macedonia, which was one of the two Grecian provinces the Romans had established. The northern was Macedonia and the southern was Achaia. The church was fairly early in its time away from Paul, who has fled the city to avoid persecution, thinking that the church would be better off. What happened was much the opposite and the church there is one of the most persecuted. Yet, at the time of Paul’s writing the church is flourishing. In later passages Paul says that the church is our (meaning he and Silas and Timothy) “glory and joy,” and in several passages he seems just to be reminding them of things he knows that they knew. There is a point where he states, “on the teachings of brotherly love—you have no need of them!”
We are in luck to be studying the first part of this passage that basically outlines for us the point of pride that Paul feels in this church. According to Paul this is a model church, and he goes on to describe four (4) benchmarks that are part of what makes them such.
(1) It starts in earnest with verse 6. “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord.” This is the aspiration of every preacher, pastor, deacon, elder, and member—all Christians strive to become true imitators of the true source. Martin Luther dubbed believers ‘little Christs,’ the connotation in German being that we should basically be ‘chips off the old block.’ To me, and my warped science fiction loving brain, I think of it as a genetic sample. Every genetic sample of any person or living things keeps, in tact, the entire genetic code of the original. If we then, being creations of the living Christ, pieces of His makeup, we should retain the entire code of behavior and ethics. Of course in reality it is only through continuing study and the leading of the holy spirit that we can discern the nature of Christ, and often times this may involved heavy revision in our thinking from time to time. So in the first point Paul shares with us that the model church has ministers – a job for all believers’ not just ordained clergy – who preach the word, live it and dwell within the Holy Spirit, as we know Christ and Paul did.
(2) Immediately after that Paul hands us the second aspect of the model church. “…for you received the word, in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” The Bible in basic English states it “after the word had come to you in much trouble, with joy in the Holy Spirit.” What this boils down to is the persecution the church is suffering, as I said before. Christianity was not an easy religion in those times. I find it most difficult to imagine not only the theological and life changing implications of a life as a Christian but also to heap upon that the physical hardship or doing it behind the roman’s backs. I don’t know if anyone here has ever traveled to China or Russia before the fall of Communism, but there too is a taste of what the Thessalonians are dealing with daily. And yet, we find that they are not only receiving the text and embodiment of the Word of God , but are also finding in that their joy.
I am often shammed by the actions of people in countries much less prosperous than my own. When I first got out of college some of my family and I went to Palestine to see Bethlehem and some of the other Holy sites. While we were there we also visited an acquaintance of my uncle’s who was a Melkite priest in a town named Iblin. Over the past 10 years or so he had built a school there, during a time when the Israeli government was destroying not building. He went through channels and got the required permits and his school now thrives. While we were there I met a girl who was graduating with high honors and hoped to attend a college in Europe. Later the priest told us that she and her brothers walked 6 miles one way through 2 security checkpoints to get to school. It took them nearly 2 hours, 4 hours total a day. I was never more embarrassed of my “B” average than I was at that moment.
So it is with the early church. They are dealing with a strife and life of secrecy that we will never know, and yet they do it anyway, and more so meet it with joy. We in the church today know persecution as well, but to compare with my friend in Palestine, I too had to walk to school growing up as she did—it took me 6 minutes at the most.
(3) The third piece of our puzzle is that the members of the church in Thessalonica are a blessed example. Paul says that they “…became an example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” Remember that these are the two provinces of Greece. North and South. Paul then goes on to say that their “…faith in God has gone everywhere, so that we need not say anything, for they themselves report…” The word is out about the church in Thessalonica! Being the lamp on the lamp stand giving light to the whole household is a integral part of being the model church. Paul has internalized the truth of Christ’s teachings and knows that a healthy church of Christ is not complete, or whole, or righteous unless they are a beacon to the rest of the world of everything that God holds dear. As Paul describes it he doesn’t even need to pick up a newspaper or get an emailed report about the things that the church there in Greece is doing—he hears it from everyone.
For the span of Christ’s teachings, by that I mean the three years he was in ministry on earth, we have relatively little to go by. That can only mean that every word we have is precious and written and said with power and the spirit behind them. Christ makes not one but two separate examples of the Christians duty to the world. Illuminate it—Flavor it! When it’s pitch dark out and someone flicks on the light, you know it’s there you can zero in on it! When you are cooking and leave out the salt—you know that it is missing! These are the instructions for each Christian and the church then; be known in the world; make the world miss your presence when you are gone; be something that world yearns for.
(4) The final note is one concerning God’s sovereignty. Though I didn’t notice it was until I read from another author. Paul tells of how the church “…turn[s] to God from Idols to serve…”
John Walvoord in 1973 made the note that the order of the phrase in Greek dictates that Paul meant the people of the church turned to God first, and then turned from their idols.
This is the only way that we as individuals can come into the power of God. We must never wait on our own goodness. We cannot try and persevere to be better people before coming to God or the church. That is a reliance on our own power and I tell you a profanity to the nature of our faith. Instead, we must turn to God first, allowing His power to not only transform us but to strengthen us truly, from within, from the wellspring of His power, and then, with that in our spirits, turn from the daily idolatry with which we deal. To do any less would like taking a beautiful piece of cherry to a master cabinet maker and then, while he waits, picking away burs or nettles or sanding imperfections that you think you see in the wood. We will never have the Master’s eyes for the wood. Only His expertise can bring the truest beauty of the grain to the surface in a sturdy useful structure.
These four things then have earned the church of Thessalonica the praise of Paul. In his absence the church is still thriving, still holding to the precepts that he laid down for them, meeting in joy, receiving the Word of God, being examples to all others, and accepting God in the midst of their imperfect with truth and the want for a closer kinship with God.
