Insight for Living

Guest (Male): In recent years, the local church has been threatened by a changing tide of cultural forces. So how does a church survive when persecution sweeps through like a storm? The Apostle Paul wondered the same thing about younger Christians in Thessalonica, mere saplings in their Christian faith, left to weather the storm alone.

That's the context for Paul's first letter, in which he wondered, did they have the right stuff to make it? Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll launches a practical study called Contagious Christianity. In the coming days, we'll discover how local churches can foster grace, hope, and love.

Chuck Swindoll: The first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians. That's a rather daunting title, isn't it? Originally, though, it was just a heart-to-heart letter from a pastor named Paul to a struggling young church in the Greek city of Thessalonica.

About a year had passed since a storm of persecution had swept Paul away from the Thessalonians, leaving them as mere saplings in their faith. Paul had to wonder if they could weather the tumult alone. So much was at stake. These people, this city, the momentum of the faith, all of that was on the line.

According to commentator William Barclay, it is impossible to overstress the importance of the arrival of Christianity in Thessalonica. If Christianity was settled there, it was bound to spread east along the Ignatian Road until all Asia was conquered, and west until it stormed even the city of Rome.

He continues, the coming of Christianity to Thessalonica was crucial in the making of it into a world religion. Thessalonica was a test case, and Paul was torn with anxiety to know how it would turn out. Here's a question. Did the Thessalonian church have the right stuff to survive and grow?

Through our study of Paul's letter, we'll discover that answer. And we'll also discover what it takes to develop a stronger faith and a greater joy in our own lives. The kind of Christianity that not only lasts but endures and spreads. A contagious Christianity.

To get underway in our study, let's turn in our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 1. I'll read the chapter for you. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father. Knowing, brethren, beloved by God, his choice of you.

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction, just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

Bill Myers: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into 1 Thessalonians on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled this opening message in the series, A Church with the Right Stuff.

Chuck Swindoll: There's a fine line between healthy admiration and unhealthy exaltation. It's one thing to look upon a person or a place with real respect and delight, but it's another thing to exaggerate in your mind just how great that person or place might be.

Exaggeration really does foul things up. I read an old Chinese proverb this past week that I think says it very well. Exaggeration is to paint a snake and add legs. If the thing is made to crawl, it's not going to walk, it's just going to crawl.

If the thing is made to walk, it won't be able to walk on water. It may not even be able to swim. So easy for us to hold up certain individuals in our minds as though they have put life together so well they don't really know the world in which we live.

In fact, it's easy for us to have the mistaken idea that a person, because he or she may have achieved something great, knows little of needs as we know them. I chuckled to myself as I read some time ago about a 20-year reunion of the old AFL football owners and managers and some of the athletes that played in the American Football League.

They held it here in Los Angeles because apparently this is where things got started back in 1958, was it? 59? Al Davis was among them, the owner of the Raiders, and as you would expect, he along with many of those people that were there swapped stories about those days in which things were lean and tough and yet a lot of vision, a lot of hope for that budding football league.

Al Davis told a story that I thought illustrates so perfectly how exaggeration can cause things to be pushed out of the realm of reality. Sitting at his table was Nicky Hilton, a famous name around our world, and of course many people at that table looked upon Hilton with awe as Nicky was introduced.

Everyone sort of waited as they sucked in their breath, it was said. And now here is the man who just not long ago made $100,000 in Los Angeles in the baseball business. And he's introduced, and everyone applauds, and he walks up to the rostrum to speak and he chuckles and says, perhaps I should clarify that.

It wasn't me, it was my brother Barron. And it wasn't here in Los Angeles, it was San Diego. And it wasn't baseball, it was football. And it wasn't $100,000, it was a million dollars. And he didn't make it, he lost it. It's amazing when you look under the cover what you see.

What's really there is just another man with just another set of problems like yourself. Now, every time I open the scriptures, I have to do battle with idealism. Don't you? I mean, I read 1 Thessalonians and I think, oh, what it must have been like to be in the church at Thessalonica.

And I think of the man that founded the church and I once again I want to paint the snake with legs on it. I think of Paul as almost walking on water. I think of him as the great founder of the churches and the Apostle of Apostles and this great teacher of grace.

In fact, I'm of the maverick opinion that if Paul could somehow come back from beyond and would be willing to appear on Christian television, which is in itself a question, I imagine he would be introduced as the expert in church growth, the man who was the beloved evangelist whom everyone longed to hear.

He spoke in a day when people were starving for the truth. Family man, popular writer, dynamic speaker, the Apostle Paul. And I think this dear gentleman would shuffle up to the rostrum and just in his appearance surprise us.

And I think he would begin by clarifying, I am no expert in church growth. I probably broke more rules than I made and kept. I am not a beloved evangelist. I have been stoned and I have the scars to show you of when I was scourged.

I have been shipwrecked. I have been misunderstood. I am not a family man. There's not a word in scripture of a wife or children. I am not a popular writer and I am not a dynamic speaker. And if you want my story, you can read it in 2 Corinthians 10:10.

His letters are too strong, his presence is unimpressive, and his speech is contemptible. In an ancient work I have come across entitled The Acts of Paul and Thecla by Onesiphorus of Iconium, I find this description of the apostle.

Paul is a man of moderate stature with thin hair, crooked legs, large eyebrows, and a long protruding nose. Now you're talking. There is a guy I can identify with. That's our man. That's the Apostle Paul. That's our guy. And if he's any other kind of man, he's too much.

You see, we forget that strength is in weakness. That greatness is in humility. That significance is in a true authentic walk with God, not in being able to sway the masses in your own strength, which Paul could not do.

One of the most unlikely candidates for worldwide evangelist is this man. And one of the most unlikely places for a letter to be written from his pen is Thessalonica. You see, these places and these people are just places and people.

They're significant because they have been touched upon by the spirit of God. Almost like a coin you own that was once held by the Queen of England. It's just a coin until the Queen holds it, and now it's a coin of nobility. And you preserve it, you don't spend it. You frame it, you don't forget it.

My commitment to you in ministry is reality. I will not allow you to skate on the frozen ponds of idealism very long. You do, you hit thin ice. And you tumble and you get frozen in your faith. It loses its zest and it's all theory. It's stuff for another century and it's applauding great historical people, but it's not for you.

I don't buy that. In fact, that helps nobody. The founder is Paul. He lived in Thessalonica not more than five weeks, if that, probably more like three. He writes to affirm and to exhort and to inform and that's it. That's the letter in a nutshell.

The city is Thessalonica, called today Thessaloniki or Salonika. If you travel Greece, it's the second largest city in that country. It's a city of about 200,000 people. It was located along the earliest freeway, the Via Ignatia.

It could have been a letter written to the Californians according to verse one. To the church of the Californians, to the people of Fullerton in fact. We're located along the freeway. It's just a place like this place.

It's a place where dirt was dirt and people were people and chariots were driven too fast and it was just an ordinary garden variety town. Happened to be a great place to live economically if you were into the free thinking of the day.

It was along that freeway that connected people to the heartbeat of the capital of the world, but it was just a place. And the reason he wrote is because he missed them. He was now in Corinth. And when you lived in Corinth, you were full of nostalgia about those quiet places.

Those places where life seemed to be a little easier, a little more pure, where relationships were deeper. Thessalonica. And so he sits down to write them a letter. He's not into writing letters. If he was, we don't have any of them before this.

So it doesn't have the aura of Rome, the Roman letter. It certainly doesn't have the emotion of the Timothy letters. Remember those first letters you wrote? They were simple letters. Especially if you were homesick.

I may speak to some college and university students today who are away from home and you've found yourself feeling things you never thought you'd feel, like love for home. And you're realizing that it's a lot of months between now and when you see Mom and Dad again.

Maybe you've already written one of these little simple letters. You'll understand this letter. You'll understand why he says some of the things he says. He begins as we ought to begin our letters. I have a thing on the way we write letters and you've heard me so I don't know why we sign them at the end.

You write a person a five-page letter, the first thing he does is go to the fifth page and see who wrote the letter. Then he goes back and he reads it. If you don't know who wrote it, you can't interpret and enjoy how it's written.

You've got to know the writer. They did it right then. Paul, Silas, and Timothy. Why these three? Well, they were the traveling companions at that time. They were with him in Corinth and Timothy has just come back from Thessalonica with a report as to how things have been.

Paul can't wait to write and say I've gotten word and mmm, I'm anxious for what God's going to do among you. But he hasn't been with them very long. He was only there about a month, then he went on his way to Athens and then Corinth. So he misses them.

Notice something in verse one. It is to the church of the Thessalonians. To the church. It is truth for the church, not from the church. Since the church has become institutionalized, we get a lot of things from the church, don't we?

What does your church teach on, and then you fill in the blank. Or what's the teaching of the church on? What's the church policy on? You know that there is not a time in the New Testament when the church had a policy on things?

Or did you know that the church didn't teach? The church was taught. In the first century, the church was the recipient of truth, not the dictator of truth. The church had open arms when the spirit of God opened his mouth.

But now the church seems to have a long bony finger pushing at people's chest saying get this straight. This is truth to the church. The church is a learner, the church is a discoverer, the church accepts, the church receives, the church doesn't dictate.

If it is indeed listening to the scriptures. The scriptures dictate. The scriptures teach. When the scriptures are open, we stay quiet and we listen. Because the scriptures coming from the very pen of the spirit of God is pushing at us.

The scriptures are saying, thus saith the Lord, and we listen. It's to the church. I thought about it as I first read this letter again. Information for me. I'm to stay quiet and take it in. And for all of us.

It's the church of the Thessalonians. That's their earthly address, but their heavenly address is that they are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And aren't you glad? Aren't you glad your heavenly home is not Fullerton?

Aren't you glad your heavenly home is not California? And all God's people said amen. That's right. I mean, it may be fine, but it is no place to spend eternity. Your eternal home is in God the Father and in Jesus Christ, and that's a double-lock security.

Double-lock. Question: how can I get out of Christ? I am in. Well, if he ever gets out of God, we're out of him. But I'll tell you that's never going to happen. We are in the Lord Jesus who is in the Father and the Father is over all, in all, and through all. You're safe. You've got it.

Now, since that's true, there's a way to live and it's marked by grace and peace. His favorite words. A lifestyle of grace flooded with peace. Is that your lifestyle? Is that your environment? It's for you.

It's for you to claim, it's for you to live, and there are all kinds of people around you that will try to take it away from you. Don't let them do it. It's yours. Live it. Enjoy it. If I could start a heresy, it sounds like a heresy, it's really truth. It's God's easy to live with.

He was hard on sin at the cross, but he took out all of his wrath on sin and took his son. He paid the penalty for our sins and the blood came and the blood washed us clean and now in Christ I am free.

God's anger is assuaged. His wrath has been poured out on the cross, not on his children. Isn't that wonderful news? Every time I think of it, I laugh. I said to a man on the plane the other day, Jesus makes me laugh.

I thought you were a preacher, he said. I said yeah, but he makes me laugh. What do you mean? It was the most wonderful moment of witness. I think the guy's still leaving the plane thinking, Jesus makes him laugh, man.

No, I meant that in the right way. I laugh at him, I laugh with him, I laugh at life, I laugh at my tomorrow because he has freed me from that thing that plagued me called sin and its awful twin, guilt. That's a wonderful way to live. Grace and peace to you people in Thessalonica.

Now, he's giving thanks for them. Verse two. We give thanks to God always for all of you. Wait a minute. Sounds like one of those always and nevers. Remember having arguments with your mate? Don't say always and quit saying never.

There are some times when you can say always and you can say never. Paul does. We give thanks to God always for all of you. So it isn't idealism. This is real. Here I am in Corinth and I'm thinking back on my days a year, 15 months ago when I was in Thessalonica and I smile and I thank God for all of you.

And he says, we make mention of you in our prayers. Why? Before I ask that, let me ask you, do you give people reason to be grateful? Do you give folks reasons to be thankful that they're alive?

I think that one of our goals in life is to spread a little cheer germ here and there. Give them reason to be glad they woke up that morning. Now, second question I was at a while ago, what is it that makes us grateful for some people?

Isn't it interesting? Some people you can't wait to forget. Other people you can't forget if you tried. Why is it that you want to forget some people and others every time you, you know, have spare moment it seems like they flash in your mind and you're praying for them and you're thankful for them?

I walked up and down the hallway of our pastors' floor this week and I just talked to different ones of the people there and I stopped off with my secretary and asked her the question and I bumped into Doug Haig, who has just brought back from Colombia 21 of our high school college kids.

He took 23. No, I'm teasing. He brought back all that he took. And I said, man, you must have had a terrific relationship with that family over there. He says, yeah, it was great. The Dyes over in Colombia. And I said, makes you grateful for them, doesn't he?

He says, oh, every time I think about them I just smile. He says, I remember when Mrs. Dye would come out on the runway that we were building and she'd bring a big jug of ice water or ice tea. And no one had hinted and no one had left a little note, nobody even expected it, but we looked up and there she stood smiling with this frosty jug of iced cold water ready to pour it out.

And he says, every time I think back, I remember those things. And I said to Doug, tell me the things that cause you to remember and give thanks and pray for certain people. I had already typed in my notes some of the things and you could have, you would have thought we did a Xerox.

The things he told me and the things I'd already put down. Here's a few of them. People who accept us as we are. Second, people who affirm. I don't mean that they agree with us across the board. That's not real. But who regularly affirm us. They give us energy to go on. Third, people who are real. We like real people.

Bill Myers: We're just getting started in Chuck Swindoll's study of 1 Thessalonians. Chuck titled his opening message, A Church with the Right Stuff. It's from the 12-part series called Contagious Christianity.

Here at Insight for Living, one of our most popular resources is the Bible study workbook we prepare for each one of Chuck's sermon series. And we have one ready on 1 Thessalonians right now called Contagious Christianity.

In your personal quiet times or in a small group Bible study, you'll benefit from this interactive spiral-bound workbook. You can search the scriptures with Chuck Swindoll, and in particular the letter of 1 Thessalonians, by calling us at 800-772-8888. Or you can purchase the Bible study workbook at insight.org/offer.

Chuck has written a best-selling book on a similar theme. It's called Laugh Again: Experience Outrageous Joy. And we'd be happy to send you a copy when you make a gift to support the ministry of Insight for Living.

Look, life is tough. You know it, we know it. But here's the thing. You don't have to let circumstances steal your joy. Chuck's book, Laugh Again, is all about experiencing outrageous joy, even when life feels heavy.

Based on Paul's letter to the Philippians, this book will remind you that joy isn't about your circumstances. It's about your Savior. You can request your copy today and discover what it means to truly laugh again.

It's yours when you give a gift to support the ministry of Insight for Living. Call us at 800-772-8888. Or you can send your donation and request the book Laugh Again by writing to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas 75034.

Just a reminder that Chuck's teaching on your station and on the internet is fully supported by friends like you. Our address again is Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas 75034. Or go online to insight.org/offer.

I'm Bill Myers. Chuck Swindoll continues to describe what he calls a church with the right stuff tomorrow on Insight for Living.

Guest (Male): The preceding message, A Church with the Right Stuff, was copyrighted in 1984, 1985, 1993, 2003, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.