This morning we begin a message series for the summer that will take us through the New Testament book called I Thessalonians. My reasons for doing this are to help us simply connect with the flow and message of one book of the Bible. Also, I believe that our connection with the truth found in this particular book will excite us as to our own vision for God’s purpose for our church. Finally, there is much that is contained in this letter from the 1^st century that will show us how we, as believers, should live in the 21^st century. The magnificent witness of this church for Jesus Christ, both in example and spoken word, is a model for us to imitate today.

It is difficult to admit that as Christians in Jonesboro, Arkansas in 2007 we live fairly insulated from the culture that makes up the vast majority of the United States and the rest of the world. We can go to virtually any business or institution in our community and find persons who will say with their words and their life that they are Christian or have some relationship to church or religion. However, in the United States the number of people who do not attend church has nearly doubled since 1991 to 75 million people. There are 29,000 of those who live in our community. (Breaking the Missional Code, p. 8-9) But we don’t see them because we are "insulated," protected by our traditions, relationships and lifestyle. It is this insulation that can lead to isolation and the result is an anemic influence in our culture.

Can you imagine what it would be like if all the insulation that protects us from our culture were stripped away? Would we survive? Would we have influence without our comfortable insulation? Erwin McManus said, "I want to live in a world that if the church is not the revolution that Jesus died to establish two thousand years ago it ceases to exist. I want to live in a world where the church has no more crutches or buffers to guard her from injury. I want a church where a culture no longer protects her whenever the gospel enters an environment, it prevails" (ibid, p. 221). Can you fathom what that is like to have influence on a culture opposed to everything you believe to be true without the insulation of our Christian culture? If you can, then welcome to the church of the Thessalonians in 51 A.D., for they were a church that had unmatched influence for Christ in a culture stripped of all Christian insulation.

Eugene Peterson, author of The Message translation of the Bible, believes that every verse in Scripture has a context. In other words, it wasn’t placed there randomly or in isolation but there is a reason or purpose for its placement in Holy Scripture. When you read the first verse of 1 Thessalonians it seems to be nothing more than a very warm greeting to a church from a man named Paul along with two other friends. Yet to discover the story or the context of this one verse we need to go back to Acts 17:1-10. The reason we need to understand the story behind this very simple, general greeting is to help us identify with the people to whom the letter was written and to see the connection that their life and circumstances have with our own.

Anyone can easily see that a man named Paul wrote this New Testament book to a church located in a city called Thessalonica. Since we are not all New Testament scholars, let me bring everyone "up to speed" on the "who" and "what" we are talking about. The man who wrote the letter was a very influential Christian named Paul who was alive during the time of Jesus ministry and death. Paul was a Jew who spent the early part of his adult life trying to destroy the message of Jesus Christ until he was dramatically converted to become a Christian. Paul’s main purpose for the rest of his life was to tell everyone he possibly could about Jesus.

A few years after his conversion Paul and some other Christians traveled into what we know as Turkey today and preached about Jesus’ love and forgiveness. They started several churches and Paul would later write letters to them, many of which we have in the Bible today. After finishing that missionary trip he later felt God leading him to go back and check on these churches. He traveled to the west until he got to the Aegean Sea that separates modern day Turkey and modern day Greece. While he was there he wanted to go northeast but God would not let him. One night Paul had a dream and in that dream he saw a man dressed like the people in an area of Northern Greece called Macedonia. In his dream the man said, "Come over into Macedonia and help us" (Acts 16:8-10). The next day that is exactly what Paul and his friends did. They sailed across the Aegean Sea to a very important city called Philippi in order to tell them about Jesus.

You and I might imagine that since God was the one who directed Paul to go to this new area that God would make things easy for him. Yet Paul had been told by one of God’s special messengers that he must suffer much for the name of Jesus. That had been true and that would be true in this city called Philippi. After experiencing some success among persons who weren’t Jews, Paul and his friends were beaten and imprisoned. In the night God sent a powerful earthquake to set them free and they in turn led their jail keeper to Christ. The next morning they were released and they traveled south, finally arriving in Thessalonica.

The city of Thessalonica was a very modern and urban city by today’s standards. It had a population of around 100,000 and was the largest city in the area. The city was on a vital trade route to the west in Rome and had the best harbor in northern Greece. Thessalonica was heavily influenced by Rome in its government, economy and its religion. There were, no doubt, multiple spiritual influences but by Paul’s day there had been established a cult or spiritual group that worshipped the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, who had died many years before, as well as a goddess called "Roma." While it was a city with great influence, it was as well a city of great corruption, immorality and devotion to cultural spirituality.

Like most of the prominent cities of the region, Thessalonica had a strong Jewish population with one or more synagogues for worship. In the passage read earlier from Acts 17:1-10 we know that Paul and his friends spent about three weeks teaching in the synagogue that Jesus was the one who came to suffer for the sins of all people and rule their hearts and lives as well, but especially of the Jews. Acts 17:4 tells us that some of the Jews were saved along with a large number of spiritually sensitive Greek men and many important women.

Obviously this didn’t go well with the traditional minded Jews so they stirred up a riot by claiming that Paul was advocating treason against the Roman government. The mob went to the home of a man named Jason where Paul and his friends had been staying hoping to bring them before the city council charging them with insurrection. They didn’t find Paul so they seized Jason and some other members of the church and brought them before the city council. They say, "Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are disturbing our city" (Acts 17:6). Fearful that Rome would punish everyone for the actions of a few; the city council decided that there was a sufficient threat to the peace of the city and require that Jason and other believers post bail before they would be released. In the night, the believers of this brand new church send Paul, Silas and Timothy on their way with Paul finally ending up in Athens alone.

Paul was with the Thessalonians approximately a month or more. He had to leave before he could finish what he felt needed to be done. While in Athens he is filled with anxiety about how the church is doing and if it was survived at all. So after a period of time he sends Timothy back to the city to find out about their spiritual status. Timothy goes to Thessalonica and discovers that they have not only survived but have thrived due to the work of God’s Spirit among them. Paul is, naturally, thrilled and after he and his companions have set up their ministry in Corinth, he writes this letter, which we call 1 Thessalonians.

The New Testament letter we begin examining is the first letter to a church that we have any record of Paul writing. Some scholars believe it is the oldest piece of Christian literature known, written some 20 years after the death of Jesus and some 15 years after the conversion of Paul. So Paul writes, "This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy. It is written to the church in Thessalonica, you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May his grace and peace be yours." (I Thess. 1:1)

What were the factors that made this church that was able to influence its culture without the insulation of a Christian community? How could a church in such a short time, maybe only existing for six months, have such an impact that we are studying this book 2000 years later? I believe that we will see that they are the same things that we need to reclaim today if we are to influence our community. I want us to see first, the types of leaders that must be present to provide influence for a church that truly impacts its culture. Next, I want us to discover the influence that a church itself must have on those around it. Finally, we’ll find here the message that a church must proclaim if it will make a difference on its culture and community.

As Paul begins he lists the names of those persons who were not merely the authors of this letter but of the key leaders that influenced the Thessalonian church. They are representative of the types of leaders needed for any church seeking to create a climate of change for the kingdom of God.

The first group of leaders that are needed are those who are willing to take risks to follow God’s direction into an uncertain future. We might call them a visionary, a person who sees something that isn’t there and yet knows that this is where God is leading. This is Paul. Remember I said that Paul had a dream that is recorded in Acts 16 where he saw a person who looked like a man from the area called Macedonia begging for help. Acts 16:10 says, "And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia." Paul had the dream. Paul saw the vision but the others followed the vision that Paul had. Paul "cast the vision" in corporate language and others joined him in that. What is amazing is that this church and this letter that we are examining in the summer of 2007 is the result of one person who was willing to invite others to take risks to follow God’s direction into an uncertain future.

Your pastor must be a leader who is willing to take risks to follow God’s direction into an uncertain future. Recently God has awakened in me a fresh desire to lead us to penetrate our community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have begun to share that desire with our ministerial leaders as well as our deacons. I do not know yet what that looks like or how to do that but I believe that God is directing us take the necessary risks following him into an uncertain future. Following that direction is essential if we are going to thrive in these last years of this decade. Yet it is not just that I must be a person willing to take risks but so must we all! Churches that impact their culture and community are filled with people who are sensitive enough to God’s voice and are willing to take the risks needed to follow God’s direction.

Another type of leader that is needed are people who are what I call "anchors". An "anchor" leader is someone who keeps things steady yet is able to move forward when necessary. This is Silas. As best we know, Silvanus or Silas was a member of the Jerusalem church before Paul became a Christian. He was called in Acts 15:22 a "leading man among the brethren." He has served with Paul through it all, the highs and the lows. While not the visionary Paul was, he was essential to Paul’s ministry. He had the experience and stability of the years of faith to develop the churches they started together.

Our church needs "anchors", persons who will bring stability, direction and strength as we move into places of uncertainty. For a ship an anchor makes things steady when things are stormy but an anchor is able to move when needed. For our church to reach its full potential and effectiveness we need people who are risk takers but we as well must have persons long familiar with Christian life to help root and ground us with their experience. We cannot move forward without the visionaries but we can never be established without the anchors giving us their stability and strength.

There is a third type of leader that is essential for our church and that is a person who is a willing servant. That is who Timothy was: a willing servant. Timothy had not been a Christian for more than a few years when he begins to serve with Paul. It is obvious from the pastoral letter to Timothy that he is not a very dynamic person but willing to serve in any capacity called upon. Paul wrote about him in the Philippian correspondence, "I have no one like him, who will be genuinely anxious for your welfare…But Timothy’s worth you know, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel." (Phil. 2:20-22).

It is great to have risk takers and anchors in a church but without willing servants we are finished. Why? The reason is that a church finds direction in its risk takers, stability in its anchors but its heart is found in its servants. Are you a "willing servant"? We need you to be! We need persons who can say, "I don’t know how, where or what but I am willing to serve if it will bring persons to faith in Christ. To try, to experience! I want to be used." We need risk takers and anchors but we need persons who say, "I’m not here for the ride but to share in the labor!"

Leaders have an influence upon a church but that congregation itself has an influence that will be used by God to create change in its culture and community. Paul addressed this letter "…to the church in Thessalonica…" How can it have an influence? How does it have an influence upon those around it? When you think that in a city of 100,000 people this small band of believers, this church, would have such an influence that Paul would say later in Chapter 1, "…you yourselves became an example to all the Christians in Greece. And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Greece, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God." (I Thess. 1:7-8) How could something like this happen in just over a few months?

I believe that Paul through God’s Spirit encoded into the DNA of this group of Christ followers a true sense of what it meant to be the church. They understood that they had a unique identity that separated them from the culture around them. The word "church" meant "assembly" to the Thessalonians. It was a combination of two words meaning "the called out ones". The Jewish synagogue and the political groups in town were called "assemblies." Yet Paul takes the word and uses it to identify those who have been called out by God for salvation and witness to the life of Jesus Christ. They are the "called out" ones!

This had two applications for the Thessalonians: They were people who were spiritually separated—they were born again. Paul would say that they were known for having "turned away from idols to serve the true and living God." (I Thess. 1:9) They had walked away from what were the accepted practices of their culture to serve God and God alone. They had a spiritual identity that separated them from their culture. We as well have a spiritual identity that separates us from our culture as well. The only ones qualified to be a member of the body of Christ are those who have been reborn, saved, redeemed—who have had an experience with Christ whereby they recognized their lostness and His ability to forgive them and they, by his power and grace were changed! This separation also emphasizes a lifestyle that was different. To be a part of the church is to say, "I’m living a different life!" It’s by these two things we can influence our world—spiritually. The church had a definite separation.

But is also had a definite location—physically and spiritually. The physical location was in Thessalonica. It was in a place where the Christian truth had never before been heard. Where Christian values had never been presented. Yet there with everything against them they thrived-in that place! It was not a group without a designation to identify them in a place. Their location was vital to their witness! We have a physical location as well. We are a church located in a city of 60,000 plus people with all of its positives and negatives. We are a church that is located in an area that except for Main Street is declining and changing. We are a church in a city where 29,000 people have no serious relationship to a church. We are a 155-year old church that is located in a city that has changing rapidly for the rest of the 21^st century. We have a physical location that must be understood and accepted if we will influence our culture and community.

Yet there was a spiritual location that this church held also. The NASV says, "…in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…" That little preposition "in," in the original language, referred to a location with set boundaries. It implied location as well as security. That is where the church of the Thessalonians was and it is where we are today. Our boundaries are set: We are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This church is not the result of humans who have preserved it like an artifact for history. God has kept it for a purpose and a reason. This understanding of our location spiritually sets our limits but yet points that our position is limitless! We can never go beyond His limits or His love. We are eternally secure in His care and His love. All that we are or will ever need is found in Him! Our ability to grasp our separation and our location spiritually and physically determines the level of our impact on our culture and community.

There are leaders who influence a church, the church’s spiritual and physical location is used to influence their world, but, finally, they had a message that influenced all who heard its truth. That message is grace and peace. Paul said, "May his grace and peace be yours."

There is an eternity to be found in these two small words. These words were the message that changed the lives of the Thessalonians, have changed our lives and will be the message we carry into a world needing something that will transform them. The first word is "grace". Grace is a word that means the giving, forgiving, unchanging, unmotivated, unconditional love of God found in Jesus Christ. It was "grace" that touched Paul and it was the message of grace that caused him to suffer the scorn and abuse of Jews and Gentiles to tell the Thessalonians of that grace! Wherever this message of God’s unconditional love is preached there springs new life! I believe that we are people who have experienced grace and live in a world longing to know grace but we are the ones who must share that message of the unconditional love of God found only in Jesus Christ. My friends, people need to hear that there is a God who loves them unconditionally!

The next word is "peace". Peace is a consistent realization of grace. Peace is not the absence of difficulty but the result of "grace" in difficulty! The word meant wholeness or completeness. These believers had come to know that wholeness and they had taken that message and announced it to their world! We are people who have come to know peace in our relationship with God and life. We have a message to share that there is peace to be found in Jesus Christ. That because of the grace that God gives we can rest secured in the midst of our turmoil and struggles! Can you envision a church whose message was fully focused on telling people that through Jesus Christ "his grace and peace" can be yours?

The church at Thessalonica was a church that had influence without the insulation of a Christian community. They did that because of the influence of leadership that established the church, the influence of the church itself and the message that they had to share. The challenge for us is to ask: have we let our insulation restrict our influence to such a point that we are not merely insulated but isolated from those without Christ around us? Can we do more than merely survive but thrive without the crutches of our Christian community? The answers will be found in our leadership, our influence and our message. Can we dare to risk influence without insulation?

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org