The Making of a Good Church: 1 Thessalonians Lesson 3

The Making of a Good Church

1 Thessalonians 1:4-5

 Go with me again today to the first chapter of First Thessalonians. I gave you an outline for this chapter in the introduction to the message last week. Following the opening salutation in verse 1 Paul describes the marks of a good church in verses 2-3, the making of a good church in verses 4-6, and the manifestation of a good church in verses 7-10. Let’s read chapter 1 together again this morning.

 I also made the point last week that a good church is nothing more than an assembly of genuinely converted individuals whose lives give reliable and consistent evidence of the work of salvation. A gathering of unconverted individuals will not be a good church. A gathering of unconverted individuals might make a good civic organization, but never a church. As we saw last week, the marks of a good church are the marks of a good Christian. As we will see today, the making of a good church requires the making of a group of good Christians. When God saves a group of individuals He assembles them into a gathering that we call the church. You find nothing in the New Testament of genuine Christians who live in isolation, separated from other Christians. The Christian life is to be lived in community with other Christians. This is the biblical pattern.

 We saw last week the marks of a good church. The first mark was implied in the first part of verse 2. Paul said, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers…” One mark of a good church is a good relationship between the leadership of the church and the laity. This use of the superlatives “always” and “all” is somewhat unique in Paul’s letters to the churches. His commitment to prayer for them and his words of thankfulness reflect on the nature of Paul’s relationship to this church. As we work our way through this letter we are going to see more insight into the relationship between Paul and this church than perhaps any other.

 The second mark was the work of faith. James gave us a lot of insight into the good works that flow from the one who is truly born again. James told us that faith without works is a dead faith. Life transforming faith will produce good works. There are some works that might be considered good, and often found among those within the church, that might not necessarily be the product of a genuine salvation. The good works of religious involvement, even active involvement in ministry, are not necessarily evidences of genuine salvation. Remember what Jesus said to the imposters in Matthew 7 who were prophesying in His name and casting out demons and performing miracles.

 But there is a “work of faith” that provides reliable evidence of genuine conversion. This “work of faith” is the work produced within the person who becomes a new creature in Christ when he or she receives the gift of faith. Faith does its work in those to whom it is gifted. The work of faith produces a deep and abiding love for God the Father and Christ, love for the word of God, genuine repentance, humility, devotion to God’s glory no matter the circumstances, devotion to prayer, separation from the world, consistent and obvious spiritual growth, and the progressive transformation of one as a new creation in Christ Jesus.

 The third mark was the labor of love. That word “labor” described difficult, arduous, wearying toil that brings one to the point of utter exhaustion. The motivation for this kind of labor is the selfless, sacrificial love, or the love of Christ that controls us. When the true Christian abides in the love of Christ, this level of labor is produced by that love. Just like the faith gifted to the true convert produces the works of faith, the love of the true converts produces the labor as a product of that love.

 The fourth mark we saw was the steadfastness of hope. Real hope is not a “hope so” kind of hope, but rather a desire for something coupled with the confident expectation of receiving that with is desired. This is the hope that all true Christians have for all that God has promised. We know these promises are a future reality. What God has promised He will bring to fruition. This is why we remain steadfast in hope.

 The fifth mark of a good church we saw was that this church’s nearness to God. We didn’t spend much time on this but what Paul speaks of in the end of verse 3 is an understanding of the omniscience of God. The words “in the presence of our God and Father” literally mean to be in the sight of God. It is to live with an understanding and awareness of the reality of God’s omniscience. He sees all and knows all and we should live in light of the fact that He knows every thought, every word, and every deed. 

 So these five qualities mark a good church. As I said, they also mark a good Christian. This begs the question, “How does all this come about?” What had happened to make the Thessalonian church a church marked by these characteristics? What Paul described in verse 2 and 3 were the things that were a present reality in them. Something had to have happened to produce this. So Paul transitions from what he sees in them presently, to what he knows had happened to them previously to make these things true. Paul now moves on from the marks of a good church to the making of a good church. Verses 4-6 give us the description of the making of a good church.

 The first thing to notice is the unwavering confidence Paul expresses in his understanding of what had happened. The first word in verse 4 is “knowing.” This is a form of the Greek word “eido” which means “to see.” In this usage it means to perceive, to be aware of and understand. This is an intuitive understanding Paul has. This word is different that the common Greek words translated “know” or “knowing.” Those words speak of knowledge of truth. This word speaks of things that are intuitively understood.

 To show you the depth of the meaning of what Paul knows I want to show you a few other places this form of this verb is used. Its prominent use is in two places by Paul. One is in the book of Romans, and the other is in the letters to the Thessalonians. Look at Romans 2:2, 3:19, 6:9, 8:26-28. Paul did not just know the information about God’s work to make a church. Paul had the full understanding of this work. He had seen enough in the Thessalonians to know that these things were true of them.

 Who would have known more, or had a better understanding of how God works to make a church, than the Apostle Paul? Apart from the Lord Himself, who had infinite understanding of all things, there would have been no other man in the history of the church with a better understanding of how God works to make a church. Paul was the premier missionary of the New Testament era. No other man had been involved in planting more churches than Paul. Paul had witnessed the making of many churches. He knows of what he speaks in these verses. 

 Because the making of a church first requires the making of Christians, we can be sure that what I just said of Paul’s understanding of the making of a church, is also true of his understanding of the making of the Christians who were called together to form this church. Who knew more about God’s work of salvation than the Apostle Paul? Is there another man in the New Testament era who had a better grasp on the work of salvation than Paul?

 Throughout most of the history of the church there has been debate about how salvation works. In fact, the first debate is recorded for us in Acts 15. Some of the Pharisees who had believed were contending that it was necessary to be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses to be saved. This debate was settled quickly and decisively because those with apostolic authority were there to decide the issue. This heresy was rejected and the decision was passed along to the church.

 Other debates about the work of salvation have not been decided so readily. The debates have been legion. The Catholics have their view of how salvation works. The Arminians have their view. The Calvinists have their view.

 Let me tell you what view I am interested in. I am interested in the Pauline view. I want the view of the work of salvation that Paul had. No one had a better understanding than the one to whom this plan of salvation had been revealed personally by the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul understood the work of salvation. He explained the work of salvation. I want to know the Pauline view of salvation.

 Listen to what Paul wrote about the gospel he preached in Galatians 1:11-12. Paul received the gospel he preached directly from Jesus Christ. There isn’t a better source. Jesus Christ understood the work of salvation and He explained it directly to the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Paul preached that message and wrote about its distinctives in his writings to the church. Not only did Paul how salvation worked, he also understood the work of salvation in the work it did when it worked among those to whom it was preached. In other words, he didn’t just know how a person came to salvation, or salvation came to a person, he also understood what impact the work of salvation was going to have on those to whom it came.

 So we have here a description of what Paul knew, of what he intuitively understood to be factually true. He knew that the Thessalonian Christians were “brethren beloved by God.” Paul knew they were brethren, or “adelphos.” The word describes a fellowship of life based on a common origin. The members of the same Christian community are often called brethren in the Scriptures because we all participate in a fellowship of life based on a common origin. We are all born into the family of God through faith. We have been adopted as sons and daughters of God. By virtue of that adoption we are all called the sons of God. Romans 8:15-17 says, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” Because true Christians are the adopted sons and daughters of God, they are brethren. The making of the church starts with the making of brethren. 

 Why does this happen? Because brethren are beloved by God. Ephesians 2 has become one of my favorite passages. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, walking according to the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience. We were living according to the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and mind. We were by nature children of wrath…but God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together with Him, in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

 This work of salvation begins because God loves. Brethren become brethren because John 3:16 is true. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Paul starts with this because salvation starts with God and salvation starts with the love of God and the loving intention God has to save undeserving sinners. 1 John 4:19 makes it clear, “We love God because He first loved us.” Listen to the words from Titus 3:4-5. Note the emphasis on which came first. “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy.” The work of salvation starts with the love of God. The beloved of God become the brethren who are the called out ones who make the church.

 His love becomes the motivation for His choice of those who are saved. Paul not only knows they are brethren beloved by God. He also knows they are chosen by God. He knows they are God’s elect. “Choice” is the Greek word “ekloge” (ek-log-ay). It is the word used in the New Testament to speak of election, choice, or selection. It is used occasionally to speak of a chosen vessel, or an instrument of usefulness. It was used in this way to describe Paul in Acts 15:9. You remember the story of Paul’s conversion. God told Ananias to go to the place where Paul was to lay hands on him so that Paul would regain his sight. Ananias protested thinking he would be the one getting hands laid on him by Paul. God assured Ananias by saying, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before Gentiles, and kings and the sons of Israel.”

 The most common use of the word “ekloge” is to speak of election. Quoting Spiros Zodhiates, the Greek scholar who is actually a Greek, he writes, “Election, the benevolent purpose of God by which any are chosen unto salvation so that they are led to embrace and persevere in Christ’s bestowed grace and the enjoyment of its privileges and blessings here and hereafter.” Love is the motivation, grace is the reason for God’s choice. Zodhiates continues, “God does not choose unto salvation and bestow His grace because of the worth of any person, but only because of and for the sake of Jesus Christ.”

 The argument against such an act of God is that if He chose some and not others, then He is unfair. Paul answered this in Romans 9:14. “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God is there? May it never be!” Paul clearly answers this challenge to God’s elective choice. Free election by God must never be considered as a demonstration of injustice by God. How can this be? Because man is a fallen creature and deserves God’s punishment. Whenever God makes a choice, it is always a choice unto salvation energizing those whom He calls to believe without forbidding those who do not believe to do so. Those who are lost are not lost because Christ discriminated against them, but because they did not respond to Christ offer of grace and salvation. Everywhere the Bible speaks of man being condemned, he is condemned because he did not believe on the name of Christ. 

 On the other hand, no one could be saved without the effective calling of God and His election. God’s choice results in God’s calling. Romans 8:30 is pretty clear. Those whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. Again quoting Zodhiates, “No one can be saved on his own, generating his own faith and in his own power approaching God. Man, having fallen in Adam, cannot approach God. God had to approach man in Christ.

 Zodhiates also notes that in the Greek text of the New Testament we never find any of the words translated “to choose” or “chosen” or “choice” used with man as the subject and God as the object. The subject is always God and the object is always man when it comes to choice and salvation. Man cannot choose God but God chooses man and makes His eternal purpose to redeem and save mankind.

 How does the work of salvation come about? It starts with a loving God’s choice of those who will be saved. That has been God’s way throughout. He chose Abraham. He chose Isaac over Esau. He chose the nation of Israel out of all the nations of the world. His elective choice is always in accordance with His sovereign plan of redemption. I can’t fully grasp something that theologians have debated for centuries. All I can do is read and interpret what the Scriptures teach.

 Let’s just begin in Romans 8:28-30. If we had time we could walk all the way through Romans 11 looking at this topic. Our next stop needs to be Ephesians 1:4-6.  We could stop at Colossians 3:12 but for the sake of time move on to 2 Thess. 2:13.  

 This salvation happened because God had ordained it from before the foundation of the world. But it wasn’t going to happen apart from the faithful ministry of Paul and his missionary companions. The work of salvation starts with God, but then invariably man gets involved. God has chosen to involve those whom He has redeemed to bring about the work of redemption in others whom He has chosen. Look at verse 5. “For our gospel did not come to you in word only…” You can stop there for a moment.

 Man does not get saved apart from the gospel. Churches are not formed if the gospel is not preached. The gospel is the greatest treasure given to the church to proclaim to doomed sinners. The gospel is not a message among many possible ways to salvation. The gospel is the message above them all, the only one that is able to produce salvation. The gospel is, as Paul wrote to the Romans, the power of God for salvation to those who believe. The gospel is the greatest revelation of the manifold wisdom of God to men. This is why Paul gave the gospel first place in his preaching and devoted his life to its clear and concise proclamation, and why he pronounced a curse on any who would pervert its truth.

 The word “gospel” comes from the Greek word “euaggelion.” The word literally means “good news.” Here, it refers to a very specific message – the message of salvation accomplished for a fallen people, through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In a plan which God devised before the creation of the world, and in accordance with His good pleasure, the eternal Son, who is equal with the Father, and is the exact representation of His nature, willingly left heavens glory, was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin, and was born the God-Man. His name was Jesus of Nazareth. As a man, He walked in perfect obedience to the law of God. In the fullness of time, man rejected Him and crucified Him on a Cross. There, the sinless One bore the sins of man, suffered God’s infinite wrath, and died in man’s place. On the third day, God raised Him from the dead. The resurrection is the divine declaration that God the Father had accepted the Son’s death as an adequate sacrifice for the sins of man. Jesus paid the penalty for man’s disobedience, satisfied the demands of Holy God’s justice, and appeased the wrath of God. All who acknowledge their sinfulness and helpless and hopeless state of separation from Holy God, who reject the notion of any capacity within themselves to satisfy God’s righteous demands by efforts of their own, who throw themselves upon Christ and trust in His finished work on the Cross in their place, and repent, turning from their sin and following Christ, God will fully pardon, declare righteous, and reconcile to Himself. This is the gospel of God and Jesus and the Apostle Paul.

 Here is the truth concerning the gospel. Many more hear the truth of the gospel than are genuinely converted. Even Paul’s own experience was that most who heard would not believe and be saved. There was never a more effective evangelist than was the Apostle Paul, yet most rejected his perfect gospel presentation. Why? Because the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Who will believe? Those in whom the Holy Spirit of God works to convict and convert.

 Look again at verse 5. “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…” The word “full conviction” is translated “assurance” in the KJV and NKJV. This does not describe assurance in the lives of the Thessalonian Christians. Salvation, when it is genuine, produces assurance. However, assurance is never a sign of genuine salvation. There is really not a lot of reason to worry about the true Christian who from time to time lacks assurance. There is a lot of reason to worry about the false convert who stubbornly asserts assurance in a work of salvation in his or her own life, especially when the evidence of this work of salvation is clearly missing.

 The full conviction of which Paul speaks here is his own assurance that the Holy Spirit had done the work of salvation in these people. Paul was fully assured that the Holy Spirit had done the same kind of work in these people as he had seen the Holy Spirit do in other places. Acts 16:14 records this incident. “A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken of by Paul.” When the Apostle Paul preached the gospel, and the Holy Spirit did His work of regeneration, there was full conviction that salvation had come.

 I’m so thankful that God takes full responsibility for the work of salvation. He tells us to share the gospel. He takes responsibility for whether or not the work of salvation results from our efforts. When He is working, the words of the gospel do not fall on the hearer in word only. When God makes genuine converts through the message of the gospel, He does that as the Holy Spirit works in “power.” The word is “dunamis” or the word from which we get our word dynamite.” It is achieving power. It is power that accomplishes. The gospel has intrinsic power and when it is preached and the Holy Spirit brings His power to bear on the lives of those who hear, salvation results.

 Titus 3:4-7 describes how this works. Turn to this passage with me. Read.

 What goes into the making of a church? The same thing that goes into the making of a Christian. Brethren, because they are beloved by God, are chosen by God. They are elect. We may not all agree on how or when this election happens, but we must agree that they are chosen, or elect. Their election becomes evident because God sends someone across their path to preach the gospel. The gospel does not go forth in word only, but in the power of the Holy Spirit who regenerates and saves the hopelessly lost sinner. Salvation begins with God, involves men as messengers of the gospel, and ends with God doing the work of regeneration.

 But, there is one more aspect to this work of salvation and the making of the Christians who are called together to make the church. It starts with God, loving and choosing. Then man gets involved in the preaching of the gospel. Then the Holy Spirit takes over and does the work of regeneration. Then, here in the last part of verse 5 we see that there seems to be some role of man again. Paul said, “just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.” Paul called the gospel “our gospel” in the first part of this verse. He claimed it not just because it was the gospel he preached. He claimed it because he himself had been transformed by it. He lived in such a way as to make the gospel compelling and believable before those to whom he preached it. There is no point in sharing the truth of the gospel if you are living a lie. The most compelling evidence of the transforming power of the gospel is a transformed life. Most people are saved because of the influence of genuinely saved people whom they observe as living examples of the transformation that salvation produces.

 This isn’t the best place to stop with this message but it an appropriate place to stop and turn our attention to the elements of the Lord’s table.