Gospel Shaped Church (4) The Resounding Power of the Gospel 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10

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Merry Houston
5 years ago
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1 Gospel Shaped Church (4) The Resounding Power of the Gospel 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10 The Holy Spirit is never happier than when he is exalting Christ! The same should be true of us if we are truly Spirit-filled. There is no message more Spirit-filled than the gospel! There is no message more Christcentred than the gospel! We can t get too much of it because we can t get too much of him. A Spirit-filled church is a gospel believing, gospel receiving, gospel proclaiming, gospel celebrating, gospel reflecting & gospel shaped church. Nothing else is allowed to shape it! The more truly full of the Spirit a church is the more the gospel will sound forth from it & nothing else will be allowed to distract from it or drown it out. What is the gospel? The gospel is everything the Bible teaches us about Christ nothing more, nothing less. In one word the gospel is Christ. This is one reason 2 John 9 says; Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. We seen in the previous verses that these believers received welcomed - the word (or message) which Paul described as our gospel. So when Paul continues here with; For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you... he is still talking about what he called our gospel. Only this time he calls it the word (or message) of the Lord which is what these believers received it as (2:13) - which is what it really is. The gospel is the word of the Lord ; the gospel is the word of God, which is at work in believers. Emphasising yet again that because it is the word of God it is more than words, it is a power that works in us bringing deep assurance, because it always comes with the Holy Spirit & deep conviction. The gospel is always at work in those who welcome it into their lives. Also when the gospel is at work in a life it also works its way out. It made Christ-reflectors of these believers in a short space of time. Paul said in verse 6; you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word... It was the word of the gospel that that made imitators & examples out of them... Then we read hear in verse 8 that the same word, the same gospel, sounded forth from them. The phrase sounded forth or rang out means to ring out or boom. It was used of trumpets & thunder. Whatever exact picture Paul has in his mind he uses it to help us see the gospel lived & proclaimed by these believers thundered, trumpeted, reverberated, resounded through the hills & valleys of Greece. That is my prayer & vision for Mayo that the gospel thunders, trumpets, reverberates, resounds through the hills & valleys & around the coastlands of Mayo. This will only happen through lives & churches shaped by the gospel alone. 1. We need the solid fuel of the Gospel Over my years in church I have seen a lot of paper fires come & go... but it is the solid fuel of the gospel which keeps my heart burning for Jesus in the midst of a world which can be dark & cold. If we keep believing, living & preaching the gospel the fire & light will never go out, in fact it will spread just like it did

2 through this young church. I have come to view everything else as paper fire. It might cause a little excitement & look impressive for a moment or two but it will soon die down & it certainly should not be the first thing than comes into people s mind when they think of us. But the solid fuel of the gospel that s what keeps us going, that s what keeps reassuring our heart s, that s what encourages & strengthens us through all the ups & downs of life & church & ministry. It is also the greatest treasure we have to offer the world around us & the greatest legacy we can leave behind us. Don t run after the excitement of paper fire; get the solid fuel of the gospel into the stove of your heart. I say this not only for our own good but for the good of the community around us. And as Paul has taught us it comes with the fire lighter of the Spirit who is also the fire keeper & tender. He will throw in a little excitement & spark at times but never instead of the solid fuel of the gospel. In fact that is how you can really evaluate if it is him or not! If the solid fuel of the gospel is not evident then it is not God & it will not last. The vision I seen as I meditated on the centrality of the gospel in these verses was this. If we keep shovelling the solid fuel of the gospel into our lives & gatherings then people will be drawn out of the cold & darkness of this world by the warmth of Christ himself radiating from our lives. I can see it happening, but of course it all starts with our warmth towards one another & spreads from there. This is what will get the fire raging as Jesus taught us & only the gospel can produce it. More than anything else we need to put the solid fuel of the gospel in our own hearts & in the hearts of one another & others. That is what we are about more than anything else. That is what Paul, Silas & Timothy done with these believers so that when they were gone the fire keep burning & spreading & the storms of persecution could not put it out... Quite the contrary in fact, for this same city where the devil tried to blow out the gospel, was used to send it forth everywhere! God will use the very winds that come against his church to further the cause of the gospel. He has always done so from the earliest days of the church. So in verses 6-7 we learn that this church like their founders Paul, Silas & Timothy had the stamp of Christ, the stamp of the gospel all over their lives. Then here in verse 8 we learn that it is this same gospel which sounded forth. Their lives & their message were shaped by the gospel of Christ! This is what set them apart, this is what made them stand out, this is what made them exemplary. This alone will make us the same things! 2. Don t blow your own trumpet, blow the gospel trumpet The gospel must shape what happens here otherwise we forfeit our primary purpose. We are not called to put our own stamp on things. When God entrust us with a role or ministry it is not so we can put our own stamp on things. If we put our stamp on something it depends on us, but if we put the gospel stamp on something it depends on God.

3 We re not about stamping our own mark, our own authority, our own characteristics or preferences on something we re about leaving the imprint of Christ & only the gospel has the power to do that in a life or community. We do not find these Christians putting their own stamp on things or blowing their own trumpet. No we find them with the imprint of Christ on their lives & all they do & we find them blowing his trumpet. We find them radiating the gospel in word & life. That s what we are called to & that s what we should be known for more than anything else. When people ask; what is that church all about? The answer should be as clear as a trumpet blast the good news of Jesus Christ his imprint should have pre-eminence in all we are & do. Don t blow your own trumpet, blow the gospel trumpet. People don t need to hear about how great you or your church is, but how great Jesus is. If the ministry or church entrusted to you ever becomes great whatever great means you won t have to convince anyone. When you think things are going well for you blowing your own trumpet can discourage people & discourage other churches. Blowing the gospel trumpet always encourages others no matter what season of life or ministry they find themselves in. The gospel alone is the power of God unto salvation, not anything else that makes a church appear great. If we have only the gospel we have what it takes to see a great work of God in this part of Ireland. The gospel contains all that is essentially needed. A pastor s wife recently asked another pastor what his secret was & he actually said this: Lights & a smoke machine. The gospel is not the presentation of an idea, but the operation of a life-giving power. When it is preached the Holy Spirit s power & presence is guaranteed. You cannot say that about any other message or laser lights & a smoke machine so why take the risk preaching anything else. Your words are never words only they are never powerless when you preach (or share) the gospel. They never lack anointing because the gospel never does; it is the most anointed message in the world. To believe & preach the gospel alone is to rely completely on God s power alone to save you & others. The gospel inherently has the power to save, heal, deliver, give hope, bring freedom, change hearts & families & communities... Why? Because through it the Holy Spirit presents all we essentially need to know about Christ so we can cling to him, know him & the Father through him, love him, treasure him & tell others about him & what he has done! Think about the reality of what happened in Thessalonica. This young church through opposition was left to itself. It was only a few months old. Paul & his co-workers had been chased out of town after only a number of weeks, but the gospel was not chased out of town it remained with & worked in & then out of these believers & that is the powerful point. The gospel could not be chased of that town but amazingly it did spread from the town to the whole region to the point that Paul testified so that we need not say anything. The authorities tried to stamp out the gospel in Thessalonica but God used this new group of

4 Thessalonian believers as his top notch gospel amplification for the whole region. In the gospel we have a God given sound system more powerful than any we could buy & God wants to use each of our lives where we are as an amplifier of his grace & truth in Christ. The power to plant a church, establish a church, grow a church, spread the church, keep the church, guard the church, mature the church, encourage the church, or renew, revive or even reform the church if needs be is found in the Christ-centred, Christ-exalting, Christ revealing, Christ resounding power of the gospel alone. Not in the messenger, ministry or missionary... not in the articulation of the delivery or gifting but in the gospel itself... not in the time frame we have to work within... not in the material resources, equipment or facilities we have... but in the gospel itself. We need never feel we lack anything if we have a gospel. We re not a powerless little minority on the edge of Ireland or Westport if we have the gospel! No God has entrusted us with the unsearchable riches of Christ by entrusting us with the gospel. I remember reading a number of years ago about the church in China. I can t remember all the exact details but I remember hearing about missionaries being forced to leave China. In many cases they had only got started, had only just planted the gospel & feared for the young & new church they left behind with many odds stacked against it. Years later when China opened up to missionaries again some of them returned with little expectation & were surprised to find a large, vibrant, growing church. What a testimony to the inherent power of the gospel it is a God-breathed, God sealed message. 3. The gospel will not disappoint The chapter finishes with these words; 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. These closing words of the chapter give us a glimpse of what the gospel does & finish with one of the most central truths of the gospel. The gospel turns our lives in a new direction & gives us a new purpose & perspective. The gospel rescues us from the wrath to come. Themes Paul will pick up on from different angels in the remainder of this letter. Receiving the gospel turned these believers to God from idols. Tim Keller writes that we find our idols hiding behind our loftiest dreams, scariest nightmares & our most unyielding emotions. The gospel frees us from such things. If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness & self-worth, it is essentially an idol. An idol is anything good or bad - you would turn your back on God for. The gospel turns us away from idolatry, from putting anything above God, from trusting anything more than him. The gospel turns us away from the emptiness & empty promises of idols to serve the living & true God. Whether your idol is a person, object, position or dream, know this deeply; idol s are always disappointers... Christ is no disappointer... The gospel calls us to turn away from all that disappoints to

5 trust in the Son who is no disappointer. The gospel calls us away from wasting our lives on things that ultimately disappoint to serve the living & true God... It opens our eyes to the emptiness of everything else but Christ so that we willingly spend our lives on him. Waiting for his return from heaven, waiting of the fulfilment of every promise or every foretaste! to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (cf. Romans 5:6-9)

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for the persecuted church A guide for individual discovery of God s Truth Open in prayer conversation with the Author Purpose encourage you in studying the Bible. Through our teaching for you to see that