Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever been part of something that seemed bigger than you, bigger than all those involved, bigger than the coordinators or planners of the event had anticipated? Some of you may remember the “Promise Keepers” movement of the 1980’s in America. That is an example of a movement which began small but then mushroomed quickly by the anointing and empowerment of the Holy Spirit of God. I personally attended two of those events with about 80,000 men each time. It was remarkable.
Today let’s join Paul and Timothy again as they are writing a wonderful letter of encouragement from Corinth to the Christians in the city of Thessalonica in the year 50ad. The Jesus movement, which had turned Jerusalem upside down, was now reaching across the Roman Empire, all the way to Macedonia and Greece!
Paul was being led by the Holy Spirit to choose his words carefully, and of course I’m looking at an English Bible translation of the Greek language, in which Paul was speaking and Timothy was writing. Wherever you are in the world today, my friends, you might have a Bible written in French or Spanish or Tagalog or Portuguese or Creole or Swahili or Thai or Mandarin or Japanese or Italian, but they all have been translated from the original which Paul dictated and Timothy scribed!
Timothy has the parchments rolled out and his stylus ready, and Paul is speaking: “For we know brothers and sisters loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our Gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.” (1 Thess. 1:4,5)
You’ll recall we spent some time the other day looking at how Paul was delighted to use the word “Church” in his opening sentence. That word, ‘Ekklesia” celebrated the deliverance of Christians from their enslavement to sin; and brought them into freedom in Christ; and their being led by God to accomplish God’s purposes in their city.
Now did you notice Paul uses the words ‘brothers and sisters loved by God’ to emphasize another miraculous aspect of this great movement of Jesus… the Family of God! In the first century Roman empire bigotry and prejudice were widespread. There was great animosity between the wealthy and slaves; between Jews and Gentiles; between Roman citizens and those who were not citizens; even between educated and non educated.
While people lived together in cities like Thessalonica, tensions were often running high as prejudices affected attitudes, words spoken, prices in the marketplace, even the manner in which people were treated with their basic human needs.
But Paul was celebrating the miracle that in Thessalonica, among these Christians there was unity, mutual respect, and God’s love was breaking down all the walls of separation and prejudice as they considered themselves ‘brothers and sisters’, all adopted by God into HIS ‘family’!
May I invite you to take a look at your church and your city. Do you see a contrast between how people treat each other in your city, and how people treat each other in your church? Does your church feel like a spiritual family? Do you see love and mutual care and compassion for each other in your church?
Do you see Paul’s reminder to the Thessalonian Christians that they are “loved by God”? How do you describe God’s love for YOU and the people of your city? What is the tangible evidence that you see of God’s love in your city? And how is God’s love impacting people where you live?
While Thessalonica was one of several ‘free cities’ in the Roman empire, so it did not have a garrison of Roman soldiers, nor did it have the dominant oversight of a Rome assigned procurator or Governor, still tensions were often high in Thessalonica as in any city, and these, the first believers in the Gospel of Jesus, discovered many people in their city were not tolerant of a new spiritual movement, especially when these Christians claimed their Jesus was raised from the dead.
That concept stirred up mockery and persecution against these Christians, so Paul wanted them to be reminded that God loved them with His powerful, protecting love!
Do you also see Paul wanted these new Christians to understand God was accomplishing HIS purposes in Thessalonica and they had been CHOSEN by God to be the first Christians in this great city! In Paul’s letter to the Christians in Ephesus Paul used this same concept of being “chosen by God” and he wrote it this way: “He [God the Father] chose us in Him Jesus Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His [God the Father’s] sight. In love He [God the Father] predestined us to be adopted as His [God the Father] sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His [God the Father] pleasure and will…” (Ephesians 1:4,5) There are two major theological concepts here which Paul introduces in his letters several times: “Predestination” and “Election”.
Some Bible scholars see Paul’s use of the phrase “Chosen by God” as meaning God has selected or ‘elected’ those people whom God wants to experience Salvation and God will work the circumstances of that elected person’s life journey so they will hear, understand and respond affirmatively to the Gospel.
Some who hold to this position believe those who are ‘elected’ by God really have no choice in the matter, they are ‘predestined’ by God, even before they are born, to become Christians. Some of these folks also believe the opposite is true, that because God elects some to be saved, He also elects others to NOT be saved.
In those verses Paul wrote to the Ephesians, we also see the word “predestined“ and in that verse Paul seems to be saying some people in Ephesus were selected and predestined by God to be adopted by God according to God’s pleasure and will for that city and those fortunate people.
Some people believe that this concept of “predestination” applies not only to salvation but to every detail of their life. These people would believe God predestined their spouse choice or their selection of automobile they purchase or the road on which they travel on any given day or even the tragedies in their life like accidents or illnesses.
Now friends, I am not advocating either the doctrine of ‘election’ or the doctrine of ‘predestination’, I’m simply alerting you to the fact that both these spiritual positions are held by many people and find their roots in verses like the ones I’ve quoted today.
Of course, the opposite spiritual perspective is held by many people and that simply is this: while God is all knowing and all powerful, therefore God knows WHO will respond to the Gospel and trust Him for their salvation, God does not exercise His power to manipulate circumstances so that person WILL come to faith in Christ. Neither has God selected some to come to Salvation and some to NOT come to Salvation.
Rather, God has given all humanity both the ability and the freedom to think and reason, and also the freedom to exercise our WILL in making decisions. For these people such verses which use words like “Whosoever” or “Whoever” as in John 3:16 or 3:36 or 5:24, suggest every person is both free and responsible to make their own decision about the Gospel offer of God for salvation.
Also, these people hold firmly to God’s desire for all to be saved, as Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” The people holding this position would say while God’s deep desire is for every person to come to salvation, and every person who does not grieves God who has sent His Son to pay the death penalty so they could be saved, however God will not intervene in the free will He has designed uniquely into the human race.
Now as I close today, what do you suppose Paul was saying to the Thessalonian Christians when he said, “We know, brothers and sisters, loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our Gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.” Tomorrow we’ll look more closely at the second part of that statement and then we’ll move on into what Paul wrote next. For today, let’s just thank God for the privilege you and I have of being saved by God’s grace, and here’s a worship song to help us do that…
Today’s Scripture is 1 Thess. 1:4,5.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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