A Word in Season: When the Gospel Comes (1 Thessalonians 1:5)

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How do you want the gospel to come? How do you want it to come to you? How do you want it to come to other people?

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How do you want it to come from the pulpit of a church building? How do you want it to come on the streets of a town or in the marketplace?

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How do you want it to come on the doors or in conversations with strangers? How do you want it to come in family worship as it proceeds from the hearts and lips of fathers and mothers to their children?

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How do you want it to come over a cup of coffee in a cafe or restaurant or chatting with a friend?

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The apostle Paul, when he wrote to the Thessalonians, talked about the way that the gospel had come to them.

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And his testimony was that the manner of its coming was a demonstration of the fact that they had been chosen by God.

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He says that the word of God came, the gospel came, not only in word, but also in power and in the

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Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

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Here is that evidence of the election of certain ones of the Thessalonians, those who are now the

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Church of Christ at Thessalonica. The word of God came, the good news of salvation came not in word only.

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Now notice it did come in word. These men of God spoke the word of God.

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The gospel was communicated plainly and sincerely and openly and accurately.

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The truth as it is in Jesus was made known, proclaimed, declared, preached to these

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Thessalonians. But it was not only in word. It was not simply a lecture.

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It was not simply instruction. They did not merely give intellectual assent to certain doctrines that they found more palatable or preferable than some of the other things that they had heard.

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Rather that truth that was proclaimed, that word which was spoken to them, that word came also in power and in the

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Holy Spirit and in much assurance. The word came with force.

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The word did not simply bounce off them. The gospel didn't just flow past them.

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It struck into their souls and it had an effect upon them. There was an impact of the truth of the gospel in their hearts.

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They could no longer continue in the course of idolatry in which they had once been engaged.

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They could no longer go on living the lives that they had lived, attached to the sins which once they had delighted in.

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No, from this point on, they would be different men and women. That gospel came not in word only, but also in power and in the

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Holy Spirit. This was the true source of its power. The Holy Spirit was at work so that when the word of God was preached, it did not fall upon deaf ears.

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It did not reach cold and barren and lifeless hearts.

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It did not placard Christ before them as crucified while they still had only blind eyes.

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Rather, the Holy Spirit was at work in and with the word and in the hearts of those who were hearing it so that those hearts were made tender.

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Those eyes were open to the truth as it is in Jesus. And those ears which had once been deaf to truth were now ready to receive the word of life.

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And it came also in much assurance. Now, this probably refers perhaps even primarily to the response of the

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Thessalonians when they heard the word with this power and in the Holy Spirit.

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But it may also have some reference to the manner in which it was preached to the

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Thessalonians, that it came by men who were fully persuaded of the truth of the gospel.

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And earnestly and eagerly and readily and boldly, they made that truth known.

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And as they did that, and as the Holy Spirit helped them so to preach, so the word struck home in the hearts and consciences of those who heard it.

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And they too became persuaded that the things that they were hearing were true. Now, is that not how we want the gospel to come?

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If we're preachers, is that not how we wish to preach it? And if we're God's people, is that not how we want ourselves and others to receive it?

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Have you received it like that? Have you heard the gospel of God?

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Has it come to you, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance?