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Pastor Colin Smith: Whenever you see an authentic work of God in any time or place, and especially in the Scriptures, you want to learn everything about it that you possibly can, so that we may seek and pursue such a work being reproduced among us here today.

Steve: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. For everybody who caught what you just said, I think they’d all be nodding their heads in agreement. Yeah, we want to see that. Today, we actually begin to take a look at this in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 1.

Pastor Colin Smith: Yeah, there’s a great story behind this, Steve, which is the story of how the Gospel came to this little town of Thessalonica. Paul says in this letter that when the word of God came to this community, it came not in word only, but it came in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with great conviction. So that's something that immediately grasps the attention, I think, of any Christian who wants to see God at work in the world.

What can we learn about the word of God coming with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with great conviction? What does that look like then, and what can that look like now? Well, that's what's ahead of us as we launch into this letter of Thessalonians.

Steve: All right, as you just heard, we are in Thessalonians, we’re in the first book. So open your Bibles there and join us in Chapter 1 as we begin the message, “The Urgency of Multiplying Ministry.” Here is Pastor Colin.

Pastor Colin Smith: The title for our series is “Living Like There's No Tomorrow.” I've chosen that title because this letter of 1 Thessalonians really pulsates with a sense of urgency. In fact, the word “urge” is one that Paul uses four or five times in the letter. Altogether, he speaks about urging you to live lives that are worthy of God. You find this same urging in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5. So, we're going to keep picking this theme up: the importance of moving forward in the life and ministry that God has called us to and entrusted into our hands.

If you want to grasp the theme of Thessalonians at its heart, it is saying to us that we do not have forever to live the Christian life. We don't have forever to fulfill the work that God has given us to do. Every day, the coming of Jesus Christ draws nearer. We don't know when that will be, but it's drawing nearer every day. At the same time, millions of people are going into eternity every day, and every day, you and I draw nearer to the day when that great event, that great moment, will come for us.

A few months ago, someone said to me just in the course of ordinary conversation, "Colin, we really need to recapture the sense of urgency in this church." I agree with that. I think that is a right assessment and a true statement. It's with something of that in mind that I've come to 1 Thessalonians, where we're going to camp out over these next two months. I'm coming to this with the prayer, and I ask you to make this your prayer also, that through this letter, God will renew the sense of urgency among us with regards to living the Christian life and the work that He’s called us to do. I pray that through this letter, God would teach us to live like there is no tomorrow.

Having served as a pastor for 27 years, I honestly can hardly believe that it's been that, but I've been privileged to serve as a pastor for 27 years. I have never sensed in my own heart such a high degree of expectancy and anticipation of what God will do as I feel within my own heart at this time. I want you to know that God has been very, very gracious to us. I see Him birthing a new degree of confidence in the Gospel among us. That is a wonderful thing and is foundational to ministry. There is a new sense of dependence upon Him, and with that, a sense of anticipation that is being increasingly widely felt as to what He may do among us in these coming months and years.

So, I am praying that God will extend that sense of expectancy, anticipation, and urgency among us, and that it will be for His glory and for the advance of the Gospel. Before we launch into the letter, I want just to remind you of how the church in Thessalonica began, just so we've got a frame on this. You can read about the story in Acts Chapter 17. Luke tells us there that Paul came to Thessalonica and he spent three weeks teaching about Jesus in the synagogue. Luke tells us that he reasoned from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. He said, "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ."

So, the message that Paul preached in Thessalonica over these three weeks was the message of Jesus Christ. Beyond the time in the synagogue, he continued with ministry along the same lines. Many people came to Christ through this ministry, including a large number of God-fearing Greeks. It was in this way that the church at Thessalonica was born. As soon as the church was established, persecution and opposition arose. A mob of bad characters were roused up and caused a riot in the marketplace.

They rushed on the house where Paul and Silas were staying, which belonged to a man called Jason. When they couldn't find Paul, they grabbed Jason and brought him to the market square. He ended up through the intervention of the magistrate appearing in court. The result of all this was that Paul and Silas had to leave Thessalonica under cover of darkness, knowing that they would not be allowed by the authorities to return there. Paul went on to Corinth, and some months later, wrote this letter, 1 Thessalonians, to the new church established through the preaching of the Gospel in these extraordinarily dramatic circumstances to encourage them and strengthen them in the faith.

Now, let's get to the question of relevance. Why in all the world should we be interested in what happened in Thessalonica 2,000 years ago? We should be intensely interested in what we're going to learn today and in these coming weeks because what happened in Thessalonica was an authentic work of God. I think that is what we are interested in knowing more and more of among us in these days. Whenever you see an authentic work of God in any time or place, and especially in the Scriptures, you want to learn everything about it that you possibly can, so that we may seek and pursue such a work being reproduced among us here today.

You see the extent of this work of God clearly if you look at verse seven, where Paul says, "You became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia." This is the only time in the New Testament that Paul ever says anything like this. There is no other church in the New Testament that Paul describes as a model for other churches. But he does say to the Thessalonians, "You're a model, a template for other churches." He says, "I would like to see what God has done among you replicated, repeated, and amplified in other places."

The church in Corinth had wonderfully gifted people. Paul says they lacked no spiritual gift. But the church in Corinth was plagued by way too much self-interest for Paul ever to say that they were a model for other churches. The church at Ephesus had been blessed with remarkable ministry. They were particularly formed under the ministry of the Apostle John. But if you read in the Book of Revelation, you will find having lost their first love, the problem with the church of Ephesus was although they had been richly blessed, they were way too cold as a congregation to be a model for other churches to emulate.

But this one church in Thessalonica, Paul describes in this remarkable way, "You became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia." In verse eight, he says, "The Lord's message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has become known everywhere." What God did in this one church in a very short space of time had an influence far beyond their immediate community to the entire region in which they were placed, that is Macedonia and Achaia. From that region, the Gospel extended beyond everywhere, in terms of the missionary enterprise that came from that church.

What we're learning here is that an authentic work of God always spills over. It cannot be contained in one place. People learn from people and churches learn from churches. The work of God in Thessalonica was so striking that others wanted to learn from what had happened there. The result was that what God had done in this one place was reproduced through other people in other places. I hope that whets your appetite to say we want to know more then about what God did in this town of Thessalonica.

In what way then were these believers a model? What was it about these believers, what was it about what God did in this place that was so distinctive that Paul uniquely describes them as being an example, a model, a template for other believers and churches? Look at verse six, which reminds us that these believers became a model because they welcomed the message in spite of severe suffering. In other words, what you saw in Thessalonica was real people living in tough circumstances whose faith did not buckle under pressure.

I think that's the kind of faith that is desperately needed even in the church world today, where so many have a profession of faith but seem to cave in whenever pressure comes in the course of life. We are looking for an authentic work of God that creates a faith that will not buckle under pressure, and that's what was modeled right there in Thessalonica. Do you not feel with me today that what we desperately need in our time is to see a faith being reproduced in people that will be able to stand against the pressures of our culture and our environment?

So, I want to see a work of God that forms students with such a faith that will withstand the onslaught of unbelief and cynicism that will come through four years on a secular university campus. I want to see them formed with that kind of a faith. I want to see men and women who have got themselves into the grip of drugs, alcohol, and pornography so formed in a faith that strengthens them to gain victory through the power of Christ against the power of these prevailing temptations.

I want to see a work of God that will mobilize people who have been entrusted with money to use their resources for the advance of the Gospel in their lifetime, because this is the best thing that they see that they can do. I want to see a work of God that will raise up young adults, single and married, for whom the primary question is, "What does Jesus Christ want me to do with my life, and how can I be most effective in offering myself for the advance of the Gospel and for His kingdom?"

Now, what kind of ministry will produce this kind of person? What kind of church will produce this kind of fruit? That's a huge question for us. We're going to see the answer to it right here in Thessalonians and Chapter 1. We're going to look at the message that Paul brought, we're going to see something about him as the messenger, and then as we look at what happened when he communicated the Gospel, we're going to look at the work of the Spirit in those who heard his message.

We're going to see this morning that God works through believers as we communicate the Gospel, and in the same way, God works in unbelievers as they hear the message and imitate our way of life. Notice first then that God works through believers as we communicate the Gospel. Verse five says, "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." Let's look first at the message and then at the messenger. Our Gospel came to you.

The New Testament gives us in various places little cameos, condensations of the essence of the Christian message, little summaries of the Gospel in concentrated form, if you like. You have one of these right here in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 1 and verse 10. Look at verse 10 and you get the Gospel right there in concentrated form. This was Paul's Gospel that he's referring to in verse five, this was the message that he brought to this town.

He speaks about waiting for God's Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. You've got a condensation of the Gospel right there. What is the Gospel about? The Gospel is about Jesus, God's Son from heaven. Because at its essence, the Gospel is about a person, Jesus Christ the Son of God, who can do for you and for me what no one else who has ever lived can ever do. It is the uniqueness of Christ. We proclaim Him.

Then the Gospel is about Jesus whom God the Father raised from the dead. Now, this cut right into the religious debate in the ancient world even as it cuts into the debate today. Like our own time, the ancient world talked a great deal about religion, spirituality, ethics, and so forth. But the distinctive declaration of the Gospel is that God the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead. There is no parallel to this in human history.

Because He has conquered death, He uniquely is in a position to offer life to every person who will come to Him, so that when as a Christian believer you die, it will not be the end of your life. But rather, it will be an entrance into life through Jesus Christ who holds your life in His hands. That will be true whether you die as a young person, a middle-aged person, or an old person. The Gospel is about the Lord Jesus Christ, who was raised by the Father from the dead.

Then thirdly, notice that the Gospel is about Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath. You see that in verse 10 right at the end. You've got the whole Gospel right here in this one verse. Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath. The reason that we need Jesus Christ, the reason you need Him and the reason that I need Him, can be expressed in many ways, but here's how Paul puts it here, and it's the supreme way surely. It's that every person who has ever lived faces the horrendous scenario of what Paul calls here the coming wrath.

The coming wrath is God's judgment of every sin, His punishing of every iniquity, His writing of every wrong, His eradicating of all evil from the universe, and His destruction of all sinners in the lake of fire. The Bible both Old and New Testament bears witness to this horrendous reality. The coming wrath. There is no pain, no grief, no loss, no wound, no injury, no disappointment in this life that can possibly compare to the horrors of this coming wrath.

Notice where Paul places his emphasis. Jesus, he says, rescues us from the coming wrath. That's the good news of the Gospel. That is the passion that Paul has to declare this message. Jesus rescues us from this coming wrath. Without the coming wrath, the Gospel honestly makes no sense in America today. If you take that out, it's simply going to fall to the ground. What is the point of telling self-confident and self-satisfied people that Jesus can give them a wonderful life now when their lives now are already overstuffed? All that's going to get is the familiar response, "I'm already fine. I don't need that."

But Paul was convinced that there is a coming wrath from which every man and woman born into this world needs to be rescued, and that it is for this purpose that Jesus Christ died His horrendous death, taking our death for us, and then rising from the dead to become our living Savior and our coming King. The glory of the Gospel then is that at unfathomable cost to Himself, Jesus through His death has borne the wrath of God and now offers Himself to you, so that by Him you may be rescued from this coming wrath that otherwise would certainly come upon you.