Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: In fact, he says over in 1st Thessalonians 2 verse 13 that when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which performs its work in you who believe. When we welcome God's word into our life and we believe it, it performs a work in us. It changes us. God's word has that kind of life-giving power.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled Devotion. Let's listen in as JP gives us part one of God's Plan for Spiritual Growth.

JP Jones: God is a God of wonders, and he delights in demonstrating his wonders in the universe and especially in our lives. He changes our lives. That's what we are excited about, what we anticipate, and what we look forward to as we get into God's word this morning.

In fact, in 1st Thessalonians chapter one, which I invite you to turn to in your Bibles, it is a passage of how God, the God of wonders, changed the life of a group of people and how their changed life became a contagious witness of Christ to the then-known world. Paul in 1st Thessalonians 1 recounts the impact that the Gospel had in this group of believers.

If you have been with us the last couple of weeks, Acts chapter 17 describes Paul coming down to the city of Thessalonica, and for a period of three or four weeks, he engaged in a dialogue with people. He went into the synagogue and he began to share the message that Jesus was the Christ, and he used the scriptures. He explained and he gave evidence and he proved that Jesus was the Christ, and many people were persuaded and a church was established.

Paul continued on his journeys, went out of the city of Thessalonica in Macedonia, went down into Greece to the city of Berea, went over to the city of Athens, and continued on to the city of Corinth. And now at Corinth, having been there for several weeks, Paul writes a follow-up letter to these people in the city of Thessalonica. It is a letter of encouragement to a young church.

What it says here in chapter one is that there are certain characteristics of a growing Christian life. There is a litmus test that we can apply to our congregation and we can apply to ourselves to see whether or not we are experiencing real Christianity. Do you like Jeff Foxworthy? He is the blue collar comedy tour. I like him; he is known for the definitions of a redneck.

Here are a couple of the definitions that Jeff Foxworthy says. You know you're a redneck if you think Taco Bell is the Mexican phone company. You know you're a redneck if you've been divorced three times and you still have the same in-laws. You know you're a redneck if you can pull dog hair out of your belly button. You know you're a redneck if you think Sherlock Holmes is a housing project outside Tuscaloosa. And you know you're a redneck if you think possum is the other white meat.

Maybe we have some rednecks here. What Jeff Foxworthy does is he takes a humorous approach to giving a definition to what it means to be a redneck. In 1st Thessalonians chapter one, the Apostle Paul gives some definition to what it means to be a Christ-follower. You know you're a Christ-follower, according to the Apostle Paul, if you imitate the faith of godly people.

You know you're a Christ-follower if you welcome God's word into your life. You know you're a Christ-follower if you're a model to other believers. You know you're a Christ-follower if you share God's message as a way of life. You know you're a Christ-follower if you turn to God from idols. You know you're a Christ-follower if you serve the living and true God. And you know you're a Christ-follower if you wait for Jesus's second coming.

The Apostle Paul gives this definition as he describes the response of the Thessalonians to hearing the message of the Gospel. This is what he says in 1st Thessalonians 1, verses 6 to 10: "You became imitators of us and of the Lord in spite of severe suffering. You welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit and so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia; your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of a reception you gave us. They tell 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 rescues us from the coming wrath."

This passage gives us some characteristics to be able to measure our life and to encourage us to take next steps wherever we might be in our spiritual journey. I understand this morning we have people here from different places. There are some of us who have been followers of Jesus Christ for as long as we can remember, and there are some of us who are here because we're curious. We are seekers looking for answers. We are maybe not even yet convinced that Christianity is true and that Christ is real, but we're seeking.

What God wants to do is he wants to speak his word into our lives right now to lead us to take some next steps, and here are some characteristics that we can measure ourselves against. You may be a Christ-follower if you imitate the faith of godly people. Paul says in verse six, you became imitators of us and the Lord. Paul is affirming the fact that when they heard the message of the Gospel, they accepted it and they followed the example of Paul and others and they imitated their faith.

In fact, Paul uses the word mimetai; it is where we get our word mimic. They mimicked the faith of Paul and of that missionary band. There is an appropriate sense in our spiritual development that we imitate and we mimic the faith of others. It is like children learning by example from their parents how to talk and how to walk and certain life values. It is something that is caught, not taught.

In the Christian experience, there is a reality of embracing things; they're caught and they're not taught. We look at the example of others and we see how they experience authentic Christian life and we imitate it. We follow it. God affirms that. God says that is a necessary part of our spiritual development and you may be a Christ-follower if you are imitating the faith of godly people.

When I became a Christian, I was 16 years old. By myself, I read in the Four Spiritual Laws, a very simple presentation of the Gospel message and I invited Jesus Christ to come into my life. As a young Christian, the person who had the most influence on my life was my older brother and for a period of a couple of years, I imitated his faith. I followed his example and throughout the course of my Christian life, God has brought different people into my life that have mentored me and encouraged me and discipled me.

Some of them are people that I never actually met, but they are people that I have read about and I have been encouraged by their life and their biography. I read a biography when I was in college of a man named Jim Elliot called Shadow of the Almighty. I found myself re-reading that book many times. Jim Elliot was a missionary in Ecuador who was martyred for his faith. He was the one who said, "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Who are the people in your life that are mentoring you either personally and directly or even indirectly by their example? Who are the people that are encouraging you? Who are the people that you are imitating? Part of Christian growth and experience is the imitation of others, seeing Christ in the life of another person and following in their steps.

When my children were little and we used to take them to the beach, I would just be walking at the beach in my normal gait and my kids were small and they would try to step in the footprints that were left by me walking in front of them. To them, it was huge. They would have to jump to try to get their little feet into my footprints. We are to walk in the steps of those who have gone before us. We are to imitate the faith of godly people.

You may be a Christ-follower if you welcome God's word in your life. It says in verses 6 and 7, "You became imitators of us and of the Lord in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit." Paul says that when the folks at Thessalonica heard the message of the Gospel, they welcomed it, they opened up their lives to it, and they received it.

In fact, he says over in 1st Thessalonians 2 verse 13 that when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which performs its work in you who believe. When we welcome God's word into our life and we believe it, it performs a work in us. It changes us. God's word has that kind of life-giving power.

The writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 4, "The word of God is living and it's active, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It's piercing the division of soul and spirit and joint and marrow. It's able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." There is a life-imparting power in the scriptures. In fact, Paul says in 2nd Timothy 3:16 and 17, "All scripture is inspired by God and it's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God might be adequate, equipped for every good work."

Paul says in that passage that God's word teaches us and reproves us and corrects us and trains us and equips us for every good work. It changes our lives when we receive it and when we welcome it. Jesus gave this story in Mark chapter 4 that a farmer goes out and sows seed. Some lands on the road, and some lands on the rocky soil, and some lands among the weeds, and some lands in good soil.

The seed that lands on the road, the bird comes and eats it and takes it away. The seed that lands on the rocky soil just has a very shallow root and as soon as it rains it gets washed out. The seed that lands in the weeds starts to grow but it's choked out and doesn't bear any fruit because the weeds take all the nourishment. But the seed that is sown in the good soil grows up and bears fruit.

His disciples thought that was a good story but they didn't know what he was teaching on. So they said, "What does it mean?" And Jesus said, "Let me tell you the secrets of the kingdom. I am the Son of Man and I sow my word, God's word. Some people's hearts are hard and it is like the seed that lands on the road, and the evil one takes it away before it has any chance to do anything in their life.

Some people are like the rocky soil; they receive it but there is no real firm root. They don't have any conviction or perspective and as soon as there is any trial or difficulty, the seed is washed away. Some people have hearts like the soil filled with weeds. They receive the seed but the desires for riches and other things, their misplaced priority, chokes the seed so it never really is fruitful in their life.

But some people have hearts like the good soil. They welcome it, they hear it, they do what it says, and they bear fruit, 30, 60, and 100 fold." When we welcome God's word into our lives and we receive it, it changes our lives. That is why James says in James chapter 1, "Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. In humility, receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls."

That is the condition of the heart that allows God's word to change us, when we receive it with humility. But it is hard to be humble. "Lord, it's hard to be humble when you're as good looking as me." You might want to buy my new book, Humility and How I Got It. The follow-up is The Ten Most Humble Men in the World and How I Picked the Other Nine.

I am obviously joking, but think about it. Don't we struggle every day with this whole idea of humility? When we live lives independent of God's truth, when we face challenges and difficulties and relationships without a dependence upon God and what he says in his word, in effect we are filled with pride because we're trusting in our own sufficiency rather than in God's resources.

That attitude prevents the message of God's word from changing our lives. It is when we humbly receive the word, when we read it and study it and memorize it and seek to do what it says, that humbled attitude of dependence upon it literally will change us. And that's what Paul observed in the folks at Thessalonica, and he says you welcomed the message of God's word with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

You may be a Christ-follower if you're a model to other believers. It says here: "You became imitators of us and of the Lord in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit." Verse 7: "And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia." Here they were, young Christians, just followers of Jesus for a few months, and yet they served as models to other believers.

The word model here is the Greek word typon. It is an interesting word that has a history behind it. Originally, the word meant to strike something, and the impression that was left from striking it was the typon. Then it became a word that got carried over into metallurgy when they would have a stamp or an imprint that they would strike something with. It would leave that mark and that mark became like a prototype for other objects that were to be designated with that same kind of impression.

A couple of years ago, I took a group of men down to Mexico. We were in Tijuana on the outskirts building houses over Memorial Day weekend. A couple of guys here went with us. In the course of that weekend, we built three or four houses completely for people. It was just a great experience. My son was there, he was putting on roofs and we were pouring concrete.

I am not a great construction worker. I can dig ditches and I can haul things. The fine work is where I get into problems. We had a guy who was a finish carpenter showing us how to frame, and he was saying, "This is what you do, you put all these nails in here between your fingers like here and you take a hammer and you just go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom."

I had a big roofing hammer and I attempted to do it. The first one fine, bam, all the way through. The second one, bam, I hit this finger so hard. It was excruciating. I think I said shoot or darn, something like that. But you know what was left on my finger? The front of that roofing hammer wasn't smooth; it had a cross, it was grooved. My finger had grooves on it, the exact pattern of the front of that roofing hammer. It was a typon, a model of what not to do when you frame a building.

God wants to put his mark on your life, the mark of Jesus Christ, the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, so there is in you a prototype of Jesus Christ and what he can do to change your life. That is a model to other people to say that's what Christ can do in their life. That is what God did in the lives of these first century believers at Thessalonica. That is what God continues to do and what God would like to do in your life. If you're experiencing that reality, then your life is a model to other believers and you may be a Christ-follower.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653.

Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of 25 dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9 or 11 a.m. at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653.

Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: I do, Greg, thanks. In this passage in 1st Thessalonians chapter one, the Apostle Paul is describing the characteristics of a follower of Jesus Christ. One of the most convicting things to consider is this: If you were on trial on charge of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? You see the Bible says that there is a fruit and evidence, a characteristic of the life of Jesus Christ within us.

In 1st Thessalonians chapter one, Paul is describing what the Holy Spirit produces in the life of the dedicated follower of Jesus. He says this about the folks at Thessalonica in 1st Thessalonians 1:6: "You became imitators of us and of the Lord. In spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia; your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it." Paul is commending these people for the fact that when they received God's word, it changed their lives. Not only did it change their lives, but they shared that message with everyone else around them.

Paul is describing almost stages of spiritual growth. He's saying there's an imitation phase, there's a modeling phase, and there's a reproduction phase. Where are you in your spiritual life? If you were to step away and look at your life in Jesus Christ, where are you in your following of Jesus Christ? We are called to be imitators. An imitator is someone who follows the example of someone else.

When my children were little, there was a real role that I played as a parent in terms of teaching them many things about life and they actually imitated what I would do. I remember with my son Taylor, we were trying to help him learn how to stop when we said "don't go into the street" or how to come back when we said "come back."

I would stand out on my driveway and I'd hold his hand and we'd start to walk out into the street and then I would say "stop" and each of us would freeze at that moment. We'd walk back up into the driveway and we'd walk out into the street and I would say "stop" and we'd freeze at that moment. And then I would stand in the driveway and let him walk out by himself and I'd say "stop" and he would stop.

I was trying to help him learn to follow my instructions, but to help him learn, he first had to imitate what I was doing. There is a real way in the Christian life that we imitate the faith of others. We look to the example of other Christians, we see their relationship with Jesus Christ, we see their values, we see their lifestyle, and we imitate what we see. That's a good phase, and you might be in that imitation phase.

In this passage the Apostle Paul encourages and commends the Thessalonians for the fact that they imitated the faith of others, and in particular they imitated the fact that other believers were receiving God's word. They saw in the life of the Apostle Paul an openness to God's message and an actual receiving of God's word into their life, and then they imitated that.

Let me ask you, are you imitating the intake of God's word as you see it in the life of other people? Are you studying God's word? Are you applying God's word? Are you looking at the examples of more mature believers and saying, "I want to be like that, I want to be a man or a woman who's putting God's word into practice in my life"? Am I imitating that kind of faith?

There is a real characteristic in the Christian experience that we imitate the faith of others. But then the Apostle Paul says as we grow in our relationship with Christ and as we become imitators, we move on to become even examples. He says in verse 7: "And so you became models to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia." A model is an example. A model is someone whose life serves as an example for other people.

Not only are we to follow the example of others, but we are to become examples ourselves. Our relationship with Jesus Christ is to be an example and a model for other people to imitate. That's why Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, in the Sermon on the Mount: "Let your light shine before men, that others may see your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven."

Our lives are to actually represent the very truth and reality of Jesus Christ. We're to represent that not only to the watching world who is curious about a relationship with Jesus Christ, but we're to represent that to other believers in the body of Christ. As we grow spiritually, we are to become examples to other believers to follow as they pursue their relationship with Christ.

That's what Paul's talking about here in 1st Thessalonians and he's saying you are doing that; you're doing a good job because you're growing spiritually and the characteristic of Jesus Christ is evident in your life. You're imitators and you are examples. Well, what kind of an example are you to other believers? Can other Christians look at your life and see the reality of Jesus Christ within us?

Can other Christians look at your life and see the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Can other Christians look at your life and see a dedication to Christ, to see a holiness of life, to see a surrender to God's kingdom purpose and a living for eternal realities?

The folks at Thessalonica were moving towards God's call on their life. There was evidence that Christ was real; they truly were Christ-followers because they were not only imitators, but they were also models, they were examples. That's God's will for each one of us. God wants each of us to be growing in our relationship with Christ.

God wants us to be so in love with Jesus and so surrendered to his purposes that we're imitating the faith of others and we ourselves are becoming examples to others of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus said this: "If anyone would follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and come after me." Are you doing that? Is that a reality for you?

Are you denying yourself daily? Are you taking up your cross daily? Are you following Jesus Christ daily? The Christian life is a 24/7 experience. It's experiencing Jesus. It's living the reality of following Christ. It's allowing Christ to live his life in and through us so that we are imitators and so that we're also examples to other people. If that's the desire of your heart, I'd like to pray for you, and I'd like you to pray with me and ask God to make that true for you.

Lord, we thank you for your grace in Christ, your grace that covers all of our sin, your grace that transforms us. And we thank you for your truth that sets us free. Lord Jesus, we invite you to live your supernatural life in us and through us. We want to imitate you and we want to imitate the example of others. We want to receive your word and apply it and do what it says.

And we want to grow in our faith, Lord. We want to grow so that we ourselves are examples, we're models to other people. Only you can make that a reality, but we surrender our heart to you so that'll happen. I pray, Lord, that we would be growing in Christ and the evidence of our life would show that we are in love with you, we're following you, and we're dedicated to your purposes. We ask for that in Jesus' name, Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.