Good morning my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
As you think back in history, what have been some of the most powerful speeches ever made and how did they impact the people who heard those speeches or even read them years later? In America many would say President Lincoln’s Gettysburg address is one of the most significant and powerful speeches ever made. President Lincoln was not the keynote speaker that day. His brief comments, lasting only two minutes, spoken on the site of one of the costliest battles of the civil war, was a defining moment in American history. https://education.
These days I’m inviting you to join me as we witness the apostle Paul in another defining moment in history. The year is 50ad and Paul is in the great city of Corinth, Greece. He is dictating a letter and his young apprentice Timothy is his scribe. Timothy and Silas have come to Corinth from Berea and Thessalonica and have given their report to Paul and Paul is responding with this powerful letter we know as 1 Thessalonians in our Bible. Paul is commending the Thessalonian Christians for their response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its power.
Paul is dictating: “…our Gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.“ Do you see why I began my comments today referring to very powerful speeches? Paul continued: “You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” (1 Thess. 1:4,5)
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is only words, the story of Jesus, God the Son, incarnate here on earth, living a sinless life and dying an atonement death so sinful human beings can be forgiven of their sin and transformed by the power of the resurrected Jesus Christ. But do you see Paul commended the Thessalonian Christians because they received the Gospel as Paul proclaimed it, not simply as words, but as the power of God applied to our lives by the Holy Spirit of God, for life transformation!
Paul declared the Gospel with deep personal conviction because he, himself, had been powerfully changed by his encounter with the resurrected Jesus and his understanding of the life changing truths of Jesus! That is why Paul was willing to be beaten, imprisoned, stoned, and even run out of town when he proclaimed the Gospel. Paul knew that for those people who would believe the Gospel of Jesus to be true and trust God to apply it powerfully to their lives, they would be changed forever!
So, I have a question to ask you… have you experienced the life transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in your life, my friends? If the Holy Spirit has unleashed God’s power in you, can you see the dramatic difference between who you were BEFORE God’s work in you and who you are now after God’s work? If you see no difference in yourself, then it’s safe for us to say you have not yet encountered the power of the Gospel unleashed in your life by the Holy Spirit of God!
Do you see Paul commending the Thessalonians for embracing the Gospel DESPITE the outpouring of severe criticism and even persecution which came upon them from those in Thessalonica who did NOT receive Paul’s Gospel? (Acts 17:1-10) That is a strange reality in every city in the world. Very often those people who hear but reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ, turn critical and even violent toward those who hear and accept the Gospel. Why is that my friends?
The reason is Spiritual warfare! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a political statement or political movement. It is not an educational treatise, the Gospel is not a philosophical theory, the Gospel is not a business proposition. The Gospel is a spiritual truth, a life transforming, powerful reality, and the dark kingdom of Satan must and always will oppose the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and anyone who embraces the Gospel.
Why? Because Satan must always oppose God and any truth of God that is at work in the life of a person who is experiencing the touch of God! Now ponder that a moment as you consider the opposition to the Gospel, or those who proclaim or are living the Gospel, in your city! What do you see? What have you personally experienced?
Do you see Paul commended the Thessalonian Christians because “you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so, you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” Do you see Paul connecting two opposing experiences: severe suffering and joy? Is it really possible for a person to experience both of those strong emotions simultaneously? YES, my friends, YES!
I’ve spoken with people in Africa and Asia who showed me the scars on their bodies from beatings or electrocution or other severe persecution, while at the same time they told me about how the Holy Spirit of God filled them with a strong sense of privilege that they were being persecuted because they represented Jesus Christ and their persecutors were determined to eradicate any evidence of Jesus from their country! While the persecution was extremely painful physically, their hearts were overflowing with the joy, the privilege, of representing Jesus Christ, their Savior and Lord.
I’ve stood at the gravestones of martyrs and listened to the eyewitnesses tell me how these people sang great hymns of the Christian faith, or loudly proclaimed their allegiance to Jesus Christ, or even prayed out loud for their executioners while they were being executed! And what crime had they committed which warranted their execution? Their allegiance to and representation of Jesus Christ the Savior of the world!!
This type of outrageous spiritual strength and joy in the face of persecution is evidently what happened in Thessalonica after Paul had left, and Timothy came and reported it to Paul. Evidently while Paul had been presenting the Gospel in Thessalonica, he had also told of his personal experiences of great suffering. But also, Paul had reported that he had experienced the Holy Spirit given joy in the privilege he had of representing Jesus.
On his first missionary journey Paul had been stoned and left for dead in Lystra (Acts 14) and on his second missionary journey Paul had been beaten with rods and imprisoned in Philippi (Acts 16). Yet do you remember friends, Paul and Silas were singing praise to God, deep in the Philippian dungeon, the night of their beating, when an earthquake broke open the prison!
I’m sure Paul warned his listeners in Thessalonica that if they trusted in the truth of the Gospel, they would both experience the life transforming power of the Holy Spirit and the antagonism, the rejection, possibly the persecution of their fellow Thessalonians and maybe even their own family members! Then as now, my friends, there is a price to be paid when a person authentically embraces the Gospel and experiences life transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit, simply because the dark evil of our world hates the Presence of God!
So, let’s pause right here and consider these remarkable things we’ve discussed today. Are you experiencing BOTH the painful reality of living a God honoring life in a wickedness filled world AND the Holy Spirit given JOY of representing Jesus in your world? Let’s thank Jesus for that right now and here’s a great song to help us celebrate these truths today…
Today’s Scripture is 1 Thess. 1:4-7.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
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)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.