Well let’s take our Bibles together and turn to 1 Thessalonians 1, as we continue our series, “Kingdom Called,” and look verse-by-verse through this book of the Bible.

You know I’m always struck at the difference in tone between Paul’s letter to the Galatians and Paul’s letter the Thessalonians. Many scholars believe that these are the first two letters Paul wrote in the NT. And if you read you read those books side by side, the difference in tone is quite stark. Paul is (can I say it?) angry as he writes his letter to the Galatians. He rebukes the church for their legalism and for their unfaithfulness and for their tolerance of false teaching. But Paul’s tone in 1 Thessalonians is totally different. Paul commends this church in Thessalonica. Paul is even complementary of them as he starts this letter. What great encouraging words from the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 1! What a resounding commendation for the Thessalonian church from the Apostle Paul!1

Wouldn’t you love for the Apostle Paul to say that about our church? Wouldn’t you love for these words spoken on behalf of the church in Thessalonica to be spoken of on behalf of Verse By Verse Fellowship? I would love that as the pastor here.

Could they be spoken of Verse By Verse Fellowship? Could they? If Paul were writing a letter to us, would he sit down and say these kinds of complimentary things about us that he does about the church in Thessalonica? Well you be the judge. Here’s what I want to do today. I want to give you three descriptions of a healthy church in 1 Thessalonians 1. Three things that Paul praises God for in Thessalonica. And let’s see if these three things apply to our church. And where they do, let’s praise God. Let’s praise God for what he’s doing here in our church. And where they don’t apply, let’s see if we can’t shore up some things to become a healthier and more God-honoring church.

So here we go. Three descriptions of a healthy, praiseworthy church from 1 Thessalonians 1. Here’s #1. 

1) A healthy church bears fruit (1:2-3)

You might say, “Ok, Pastor Tony. I’ve heard this terminology before: Fruit-bearing. Jesus even says that bearing fruit proves that we are disciples (John 15:8). But can you be more specific? What is the “fruit” that we are supposed to bear?”

Well let’s take a look at what Paul says here. Paul says,

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,

By the way, the two uses of “you” here are plural. So Paul is giving thanks for all of those individuals that make up the church.

3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul says, “I can’t stop praying for you.3 I can’t stop thinking about you in my prayer-time, because you are so memorable. You are so God-honoring in a few categories.”

I don’t know about you, but I would love to have the Apostle Paul or any righteous person say that about me and about this church in San Antonio, Texas. What a great compliment! “I can’t stop praying for you, because of how faithful you are!”

And here’s what Paul commends them for. Here’s their fruit: faith, love, and hope.

3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s actually pretty simple what they are commended for: 1) Faith 2) Love and 3) Hope. The British Commentator John Stott said this, “Every Christian without exception is a believer, a lover and a hoper.” It just so happens that the Thessalonian church is really good at these three things. Paul calls these three things the “greatest things” in this world in 1 Corinthians 13 (13:13). And Paul says here, “You excel at these, Thessalonians!” “You are a ‘1 Corinthians 13’ church!”

Let’s look at these one at a time. Paul commends them for their faith that produces work in verse 3. As part of their fruit-bearing, Paul says, you have a… a) faith that works

If you have an ESV Bible or an NAS Bible, it says “work of faith.” And just to clarify that doesn’t mean that faith is a work. Paul makes that crystal clear in the book of Romans and Galatians that faith is not a work. That’s a very important theological distinction. Faith is belief, faith is trust in the finished work of Christ.

But the Book of James is clear, and Paul is clear here that genuine faith in the life of a believer is never idle. It’s never devoid of works. The Great Reformer, Martin Luther said it this way: “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” Faith always produces fruit. Faith always produces works. Works are like the tail that wags behind the dog. The dog is always followed by the tail! Just make sure you don’t think that the tail wags the dog! Okay?

And speaking of works Paul also praises the Thessalonians for having a love that labors. 

You might say what’s the difference between “works” and “labors”? Well those words are very similar; even in Greek, they’re similar. And so, I think that the significance is one of repetition here. Paul says, “You got faith? Show me!” “You got love? Show me!” Show me by your work and your labor.

If there is a significant difference between these words, it’s the kind of word that Paul uses for “labor” here. The word in Greek is κόπος. And that word indicates toil and even difficulty! “Do you love people?” Paul says, “Okay are you willing to toil for others? Are you willing to be bothered and inconvenienced for another person as a show of that love?”

You know, let me just brag on our church for a little bit. Paul brags on the church of Thessalonica here. I want to brag about VBVF for a second. Sanja and I have been so blessed by the outpouring of love towards us this last week. We are so grateful. We have received help with our move. We’ve received help with our meals. We’ve been the recipient of so much love and kindness. Thank you for that.

And let me brag on this too. Alastair went with a group of people yesterday to feed the homeless in San Antonio. That’s an amazing demonstration of love in our community. Bravo, Verse By Verse Fellowship! Let’s keep doing those kinds of things. The church is good at those kinds of things.

You know I often like to comment on the fact that there are no Atheist organizations out there running homeless ministries. Have you noticed that? There’s no Atheist Memorial Hospital in San Antonio. Atheists don’t do benevolence or labor in love. You know who does that? You know who’s been doing that for 2,000 years? Christians have been doing that. The church has been doing that. Let’s keep doing that as an aspect of our fruit-bearing.

And then one more example of fruit-bearing… there’s also a hope that perseveres. c. hope that perseveres

“Every Christian without exception is a believer, a lover and a hoper.” Are you a hoper, Christian? Are you a hopeful person, church member? Are you hope-filled or are you filled with dread and negativity and cynicism? Paul calls this a “steadfastness of hope in our LORD Jesus Christ.” What does that mean? It means that you know Jesus, you trust Jesus, and you are hopeful for his return.

And by the way, that word “hope” (ἐλπίς in Greek), that Biblical concept isn’t misty-eyed optimism! It’s not a wish or a pipe-dream, like “man I hope the Spurs win the NBA Finals this years! Man, I hope that my kids don’t need braces when they get older. Man, I hope I can squeeze another 100,000 miles out of this car!” Biblical hope is not like that. Biblical hope is rock-solid assurance that God will do what he says he’ll do. 

We don’t hope in a hypothetical, because God doesn’t do hypotheticals. God has promised us that he will return, and we wait with eager anticipation for that future reality. And that’s what builds perseverance into our lives. It’s what build steadfastness and grit in our lives. “Jesus is coming back for me. So what, if life gets a little hard! So what if we go through a little bit of affliction in this life!” That was the attitude of the Thessalonians. Is that your attitude in life? In challenges? In difficulties? Do you have a hope that perseveres?

Go ahead and write this down as #2. A healthy church bears fruit; they have evidence of faith, hope, and love. But here’s a second thing a healthy church does. 2) A healthy church shows the Spirit (1:4-7)

I remember a few years back I met with a good friend who started sharing some struggles with me that he was going through. And it was really difficult stuff too. And I didn’t have any easy answers for him. There were no easy answers for what he was going through. But I remember telling him that even through the trials that he’s going through, I can see the Holy Spirit radiating in his life. I could see it in his countenance. I could see it in his love for people. I could see it in his commitment to the LORD. And that’s the way it should be for Christians. There should be this effervescent emission of Holy Spirit presence coming from our lives, coming from our church. A healthy church shows the Spirit.

Here’s how Paul describes this starting in verse 4. Paul says.

4 For we know, brothers loved by God,18 that he has chosen you,

How do you know, Paul? How can you tell that someone is chosen, that someone is elect? Is it like “eeny, meeny, miny, moe”! Aha! You’re the one! Is that how it works? No. Paul says, “We know that God has chosen you,” verse 5,

5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit…

Let me just say that Paul is not down on “words.” The gospel is communicated from one person to another in words. In other words, we’ve got to talk. We’ve got to tell people that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and he was raised from the dead, and if they confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead, they will be saved (Rom 10:9). That’s the gospel according to words that we speak. But Paul says, it wasn’t just words. There was evidence of the Holy Spirit.

5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

You might say, “Yes, power!” “The Holy Spirit comes with power.” I believe that! I believe that! But it might not be the power that you think.

Because you know how it is in the Book of Acts. Sometimes the Holy Spirit shows up amidst a lot of show-stopping miracles. People speaking in tongues. People getting healed. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit comes as visible flames of fire that rested on each person in the upper room. And I think we can be tempted to think, “O Yeah, that’s the power. When people receive the gospel, that’s the power of the Holy Spirit that comes!”

But here’s the problem with that. None of that happened, as far as we can tell, in Thessalonica. We looked at that passage last week, Acts 17:1-9. There wasn’t any healing. There wasn’t any speaking in tongues. There weren’t any awesome demonstrations of the Holy Spirit’s power. Actually, their conversion was pretty, I don’t know, mundane. Look at Acts 17:2 with me again for a second. “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.” 

You might say, that’s kind of exciting I guess, Paul persuading people passionately in the synagogue. But look what happens next. “And 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.” You might say, “That’s it!” “That’s all.” “Paul preached the gospel and people got saved.” “Where’s the fireworks, man? Where’s the awesome demonstrations of power and the Holy Spirit?” It’s not really that remarkable, is it? It’s probably not that different from how some of you maybe got saved. Which is fine, I guess.

But why would Paul say in 1 Thessalonians 1, “our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction”? You might say, “Well Paul’s an old man. He’s got a lot on his mind. He must have gotten Thessalonica mixed up with one of the other places he went to where some real Holy Spirit power was on display… like in Lystra when Paul healed a man who was crippled from birth! Now that’s some Holy Spirit power, right there!” Is that what happened? Paul just got confused.

No, I think we need to re-think Holy Spirit power. Because the power of the Holy Spirit isn’t just demonstrated through show-stopping miracles. There were no show-stopping miracles in Thessalonica that we can see. You know what there was, though. There was boldness. There was courage. There was, even, joy in the midst of great persecution! Because what happened in Thessalonica? Do you remember? A group of blood-thirsty rioters dragged Jason and this group of new believers before the city. And what happened? The responsible thing to do would be to disown this guy Paul and his Jesus and walk away. But they didn’t. They took it! They held fast! And Paul even says in verse 6,

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,

That’s the power of the Holy Spirit right there, folks! We need a broader understanding of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives. It’s not always crazy miracles and fireworks. Courageous faith in the midst of persecution is a show of the Holy Spirit’s power! Perseverance in faith is the power of the Holy Spirit. Joy in the midst of hardship is the power of the Holy Spirit!

Let me ask you a question, church. Is the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrated in your life with joy in the LORD? And when you are going through a difficulty, when you are going through a trial, does the Holy Spirit, pulsating inside of you, produce this joy that is counterintuitive to what you are going through? You shouldn’t be joyful by the world’s standards of what produces joy; but you are anyway. The world says you should be miserable, but you’re not. Because the Holy Spirit is powerfully producing joy in your life.

Go ahead and write these down. Let me give you three ways that a healthy church shows the Spirit, like the Thessalonian church showed the Spirit. First they do it by… a. embracing the gospel

4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you in word [and power]

And that gospel stuck. You didn’t abandon it when life got hard.

Let me ask you, Verse By Verse Fellowship. Do you believe the gospel? Do you believe it? Do you believe it even when it’s inconvenient and unpopular and not culturally acceptable? Do you believe it when life is hard? When people mock you for your faith or when the media in this country scorns Christianity? Does that anchor hold? Do you courageously hold on to your faith even when others maybe walk away?

If so, then that’s evidence of the Holy Spirit’s power in your life. That’s evidence of genuine faith according to Paul. And churches made up of those kinds of Christians are healthy churches.

Also, here’s another sign of the Spirit. There’s the imitation of Christ. b. imitating Christ

Paul says at the end of verse 5,

You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 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, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” The Thessalonian church imitated Paul, and in so doing, they imitated Christ. And notice too in verse 7 that they eventually became the type of believers that others could imitate. They became “an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia” says Paul.

And just so you know, geographically that is a wide region in ancient Rome. You can see Macedonia and Achaia on the map I showed you last week. Macedonia and Achaia, That’s like thousands of square miles. That’s most of modern-day Greece and Bulgaria! And Paul says the faith of the Thessalonians and the Holy Spirit’s presence in their lives was so strong that it impacted thousands of miles around them. That’s how the Spirit was so demonstrated in their lives.

You might say, “Pastor Tony! I want to show the Spirit in my life. I want to exude the Holy Spirit’s presence in such a way that it impacts all of Texas!” Okay, well are you committed to imitating Christ? Are you living like him, loving like him, representing him before the world as a Christ-follower? Putting up with trials and difficulties like him? Remember the theme for this series. We are “Kingdom Called”! We are called into Christ’s kingdom to represent King Jesus!

And who are the men and women, like Paul, who you are imitating as they imitate Christ? Who are those that are further along in the discipleship process than you? Imitate them as they imitate Christ. Some of you have been walking with the LORD for 10, 20, 50 years. Other people in this church should be able to imitate you as you imitate Christ.

And here’s the third sign of the Spirit. There’s joy. The demonstration of joy.

There’s joy even in the midst of affliction says Paul.

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,

About 200 years after the church in Thessalonica, there as another church in Carthage, in North Africa. And the pastor of that church named Cyprian, an early church father, dealt with similar persecution and trials. He actually died a martyr’s death under the persecutions of the Roman Emperor, Valerian. And shortly before his death, Cyprian wrote a letter to a friend of his, a friend named Donatus. And he said this… “It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and good people who have learned the great secret of life. They have found a joy and wisdom which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians. . . and I am one of them.” That’s a man who died a martyr’s death.

Where’s your joy in the midst of affliction, Christian? Where’s that evidence of the Spirit? Is it there? You know what, I love coming to church on Sunday morning. Because even before I get here I can sense the joy of the LORD that pulsates out of this building when we all get together. And that’s the way it should be! The Holy Spirit’s presence is in this place!

You might say, “I don’t feel very joyful, Pastor Tony. That doesn’t describe me! Why not?” Well I don’t know. Let’s talk about that. Maybe there’s something we need to pray through after the service. Maybe some of you were forced to come here by your spouse or by your parents, and there’s no joy in being here. I get that. When I was a kid, I had a “drug problem.” My parents drug me to church every Sunday. And yet, as I grew in the LORD, I began to love church and love worshipping the LORD and studying his Word.

Maybe for some of you there’s a sin-pattern that is robbing your joy from you. If that’s the case… if a sin-pattern is robbing you of joy (lust, anxiety, bitterness, hate, envy), listen we’re here to help with that. We’re a church. We can help each other with these things. Paul wrote this book to the “church in Thessalonica!” He wrote it to a group of people, not an individual. Because we don’t live isolated lives as Christians on an island. We live together in community. And we can help each other.

Finally write this down under 3: 3) A healthy church fixes her eyes on the Lord (1:8-10)

Let’s finish this passage up. “What does fixes one’s eyes on the Lord, look like?” “Help me understand that, Pastor Tony. Put some meat on those bones for me!”

Okay. Three things. It means… a. turning from idols

Paul says in verse 8.

8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth30 from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.

This is on the heels of what Paul says in verse 7, where the church in Thessalonica is told that she is “an example all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.” So much so that Paul doesn’t even need to preach the gospel in those places anymore because word has already gotten around through the church in Thessalonica. That’s pretty high praise there.

And here’s the report that people have gotten about the church in Thessalonica.

9 For they themselves [the people in Macedonia and Achaia] 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,

Now there’s an issue here that I need to bring up. Hold on just for a second. Do you remember what we read last week in Acts 17? Who got saved in Thessalonica? Who became part of the church? It wasn’t idol-worshipers. It wasn’t pagans, not at first. Paul went into the synagogue to preach the gospel. The first Christians were Jews and God-fearing Greeks. They didn’t turn from idol-worshipping. They turned from Judaism to faith in Christ. And Jewish people hated idols. The OT made fun of idols and how stupid it was to carve a “god” out of wood or worship a rock! What is Paul talking about? Is he mistaken again about Thessalonica? Did he get that city confused with another place?

No. If you have a really narrow view of idols, then this verse doesn’t make any sense to you. But if you have a really broad view of idols, like John Calvin does, then this makes perfect sense. Calvin called the human heart, “an idol-making factory.” From our mother’s womb, we are all experts in inventing idols. And John Wesley said this: “Whatever takes our heart from [God], or shares it with him, is an idol.” In his book Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller asks, “What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” So, I don’t know what “idols” Paul was referring to with the Thessalonians. But we all got idols in our hearts that we trust more than God. For the God-fearers in Thessalonica it could have been their religiosity or their own sense of morality. Whatever it was, Paul says you turned from them. You turned from them and fixed your eyes on the LORD.

A healthy church turns from its idols, but it also serves the true God. 

That word “serve” is the Greek word δουλεύω. It means “to serve” or more directly, “to be a slave.” It’s related to the word δοῦλος, “a slave.” Just so we are clear, we are slaves of Christ Jesus. We serve him. We worship him. We are joyfully subservient to him.

By the way, do you notice a pattern here in 1 Thessalonians. “Work of Faith!” “Labor of love!” “Serve the living and true God!” You might say, “O my Christianity is just an intellectual thing for me, Pastor Tony.” Oh? Is it now? “It’s not really something that’s lived out in my life, Tony. I don’t really have to do anything with it in my life.” 

O yes you do! Try telling that to the Apostle Paul. Paul says, “Work! Labor! Serve!” This is what healthy churches do, and that’s the practical outworking of your faith proving you a disciple of Jesus Christ. In my previous church, we said it this way: disciples worship, walk and work for Christ.

Work is a beautiful thing, by the way! Work is ordained by God, and it’s good. And there’s no better person to work for than the LORD Jesus Christ. There’s no better foreman or supervisor than Jesus.

So, the Thessalonian church turns away from their idols. They are also serving (δουλεύω) Christ. What else are they doing as a healthy church? What else are they doing to fix their eyes on the LORD. Well, look at verse 10.

you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Here’s the last thing that a healthy church does. They wait anticipatingly for Christ’s return!

Let me let you in on a little secret, Verse By Verse. Can I share something with you? Jesus is coming back. He’s coming back. And he’s going to claim us as his own. And also, here’s the bad news. The righteous wrath of God is coming too upon those who don’t belong to Jesus. That’s clear at the end of that verse. Paul says, “Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” is coming from heaven. And if Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come, that means that there is a “wrath to come.” And if we are delivered from it, that means, that there are some who won’t be delivered from it.47 Like the Apostle’s Creed states, “He ascended into Heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.” 

Here’s the question. Here’s the question I want to leave you with. When Christ returns, is he coming for you? Is he going to deliver you from the wrath to come? If you belong to him, if you believe the gospel like these Thessalonians believe the gospel, Christ’s return is not something to dread, it’s something to anticipate.48 It’s something to wait anxiously for. Do you believe the gospel? Do you belong to Christ?

Three Characteristics of a Healthy, Praiseworthy Church: 1) A healthy church bears fruit (1:2-3) 2) A healthy church shows the Spirit (1:4-7) 3) A healthy church fixes her eyes on the Lord (1:8-10) a. turning from idols b. serving the true God c. anticipating Christ’s return

That’s a healthy church, right there. That’s a praiseworthy church, right there. 1 Thessalonians 1. And you might say, “Boy, Tony. What a church, this church in Thessalonica? They are a perfect church. They don’t have anything wrong with them. They don’t have any problems. They don’t have any sin-patterns at all that need to be addressed. 

How could we ever be like that church?” Well hold on now! This church has problems. And we’ll learn all about that in the coming weeks. This church is not a perfect church, just like Verse by Verse Fellowship isn’t a perfect church. In fact, there’s no such thing as a perfect church. Maybe you’ve heard that old adage before: “If you ever find the perfect church, please don’t join it. If you do, it won’t be perfect anymore!” But they are a healthy church. They are a church that bears fruit, shows the Spirit, and fixes her eyes on the LORD. Let’s be that kind of church. What do you say? 

Let’s pursue these things together.