Transformed by the Spirit

We'll turn your Bibles, please, to the book of 1 Thessalonians. Preaching this morning will be from the second half of verse 5, so verse 5b through verse 10.

But to begin, before we stand for the reading of God's Word for the preaching, just as a reminder,

I'm going to read the first half of this chapter, what we preached last week, where we saw the Thessalonians' conversion from the

Apostle Paul's perspective. What he saw that assured him that God had indeed done work in them and that they were saved, that they had been converted, that they had been transformed by God's Spirit.

So that passage from last week was the beginning of 1 Thessalonians 1, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the

Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our

God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our

Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the

Holy Spirit and with full conviction. And now please stand for the reading of God's Word that will be the text for this morning's preaching.

The Thessalonians will now see from the Apostle Paul their conversion from their own perspective, their own experiences that assure them or that can assure them that God had indeed done that work in them.

So beginning at the second half of verse 5, so verse 5b through verse 10, You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and you became imitators of us and of the

Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and in Achaia, but your faith has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the true and living

God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

May God bless the reading and now the preaching of His Word. You may be seated. Well, today's news report had an amazing story.

It appears that President Joe Biden, our new president, has repented of his sins and particularly repented of his advocacy of so many positions which the

Bible would call immoral and wrong. And he now stands opposed to such things as the

Bible would cause a man to be opposed to, such as abortion. And he has repented of his demand that conscience be ignored, especially regarding the sexual revolution.

As he repented of all this, Vice President Harris knelt beside him and he prayed for God to forgive him.

He prayed to God to grant him guidance by His Spirit. And he said at the end of his prayer, God is the one and only true living

God, and Jesus Christ is His only begotten and eternal Son, who as God became man and died for my sins.

I believe this, and I believe that God raised Him from the dead. And if you, yes, you would believe this, you too will be saved.

Well, of course, that did not really happen. I made that up. And that didn't happen, and nobody really expects such a thing to happen.

But it's not as if that little fiction that I just presented to you is something impossible, as though I claimed to have seen a unicorn or Bigfoot.

You see, God could as well have caused that, or could still cause that in a Joe Biden, a

Kamala Harris, or anyone else for that matter, as He did the

Thessalonians so many centuries ago, and as He did, God willing, yourself, when you came to faith in Jesus Christ.

You see, God has saved men entrenched in sin ever since sin entered into the world, which is why the

Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians and to us, and such were some of you.

You see, for the Thessalonians to have turned away from their idols and turned to the living and true

God was no less incredible for the people of that day to see than it would be for us today had my little fiction been reality.

It would be no less incredible. And the same God who converted the

Thessalonians, the same God who transformed you and me, could just as easily, and to His own glory, and to our jaw -dropping amazement, convert our current president.

Our subject this morning is transformation. It is transformation by the Holy Spirit, and the power that the

Holy Spirit gives you when He transforms you to be an example to others of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to broadcast

His fame as we live out what that transforming spirit, what that conversion by that transforming spirit means.

Transformation. The transforming power of God. Verse 9 speaks of how the Thessalonians turned to God and away from their idols, and this had an impact way beyond anything that they had intended or imagined or could have even possibly thought of.

You see, the power of a transformed life is a powerful testimony of what it means to have faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Your example, your life lived for Christ, is that powerful testimony.

Where will it go? You don't know. I don't know. God knows.

And the Scripture here this morning teaches us that your example of what it means to live faithfully for the

Lord Jesus Christ, to have turned once for all away from your idols, away from your worldly ways, away from what you were before Christ, and to the true and living

God, is that testimony. It is that example. God knows what

He will do with it. We know that we must live it out. You know that you must live it out.

Even as the Thessalonians saw an example in Paul and the men who came to Thessalonica to preach to them and saw the power of the

Spirit convert them, and even now, as you're hearing, how far that example went, and the power and the impact that it had.

Now, you and I could never have the impact of a president, could we? I mean, wouldn't the world be amazed if my little fiction wasn't a fiction?

You and I could never have that kind of influence, could we? Or could you? You see, the president has a

God -given sphere of influence, as do you and I. The question is not how vast that sphere is.

The question is what we do within the sphere where God has us. And that sphere, that influence may be wider than you think.

It was for the Thessalonians. Our task this morning is to know the power of our example, of what it means to live that transformed life, to be transformed by the

Spirit, and live it out. You see, the Thessalonians had become what they had seen.

They became what they saw in the Apostle Paul. This is what he says when he says, you became imitators of us and the

Lord. Transform lives, do something.

That example means something. And I would key in on the last few words of the second half of verse 5.

For your sake. You see, because transformed lives serve others. A transformed life, the example that is set, is serving others.

The message of the gospel validated in the lives of its carriers. Serving one another.

You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the

Lord. For you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

Those important words, for your sake. Paul's commitment to the gospel was his no -holds -barred commitment.

He denied himself anything that would get in the way of the gospel being communicated from him to whomever his audience was.

And he would deny himself his rights. He denied himself the right to bring a wife. We don't know if he was married or not.

But in 1 Corinthians 9 .5, he says, Do we not have the right to bring a wife, as does

Peter and the other apostles? But he denied himself that, maybe getting a wife or bringing a wife if he had one.

He put that aside. For your sake, he did that. For your sake, he surrendered his right to be supported.

He worked with his own hands. Though as he says in a couple of places in the New Testament, I have the right to be supported.

The missionary has a right to take from the church that which he needs for his own support.

But he denied himself that. In order to ensure that the gospel would be unbound, that there would be no chance for any ill repute of the gospel, that no one would be able to say,

Look, he's just coming in using you. So for your sake, he gave up that right.

He surrendered it willingly. I keep saying for your sake and for your sake.

Ultimately, we do things for the sake of others. And really, ultimately, it's for Jesus' sake that we do these things.

But to do for Jesus' sake means to work for others' sake. And this is one of the first signs of that transformed life, that example that we set, that we're willing to work and to live and be an example, no matter how hard it is for us, for your sake, for the sake of others, for the sake of the gospel, ultimately for Jesus' sake.

But to do things for Jesus' sake means to do things for others' sakes, as the Lord Jesus Christ himself did.

After services today, read through Philippians 2 and see what it means to have the mind of Christ and how

Christ served others even to go to the cross for others' sake. Read Matthew 20, verse 28, where Christ says,

Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

It's the power of a transformed life, living as an example to others of what it means to live for Christ Jesus.

What did the Thessalonians have in the example of the Apostle Paul and the others who came with him,

Silvanus and Timothy? They had a real -life demonstration of transformed life, a real -life demonstration of what it means to put aside all selfish ambition and ego and to do all for the sake of others.

Now, there's obviously a lot more to it than that. He spent three to four weeks there in Thessalonica.

But this is what we pick up just in Thessalonians, and this is enough for us this morning to grasp onto, is it not?

This real -life demonstration of transformation. They saw in action what it means to pick up your cross daily and follow the way of the

Master, Jesus Christ. This is what Paul means when he says,

You know, you know what kind of men we became among you or proved to be among you.

They saw it lived out. They saw the example matching up to the message. One of the ways

Paul, from last week's message, in the first part of verse 5 says that he knows that they were converted, was that he was preaching with full conviction.

He meant what he said. He was convinced that he was telling them the truth. And then he says,

You know that that truth that I gave you with full conviction, you know that I lived it out before you.

You know that you saw it. You experienced it. You can perceive it. You can put your hands on it, as it were.

An example, a lifestyle that matched the message. In Acts 17, verses 1 -9, we have the entire record in the

Bible of his stay over in Thessalonica. And there's only one direct quote there. And this is where Paul says to them,

This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. He had been in the temple.

He was showing them from the Scripture that the Christ had to die and be raised from the dead. In other words, die for sins, and God's going to raise him up.

He shows them that from the Scriptures. And he has this one direct quote. This Jesus, this one

I've been talking to you about, this one I've been proclaiming to you, he is that one.

And in the three or four weeks he spent there, they were able to see that the Christ he proclaimed is the same

Christ that he followed. That his life matched the proclamation.

They didn't just observe this example. They didn't just say, well, you know, this is really nice, and Paul's over here, and Paul's living it out, and isn't that great for Paul?

And Paul is holy, and he's sanctified. And boy, isn't that great of Paul to be like that for us.

All those would be true. But there's another step we have to take. There's another measure you need to go.

They didn't just observe the example they saw in Paul. As they saw Paul living out this gospel message he proclaimed to them, as he proclaimed faith in Christ, they saw him living for Christ, then they followed what they saw.

They assimilated his example as the pattern for their own lives. Do you know what one of your most powerful evangelical tools is?

That you personally as a follower, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ have in your arsenal of evangelical weapons?

It's right here. It's your example. It's simply your example of what it means to live for Christ.

Francis of Assisi famously said, preach the gospel often.

Use words when necessary. There's some problems with that. There's some doctrinal deficiencies in that because we are to use words when we proclaim the gospel.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Paul even says here that our gospel came to you not only in word, which means it did come in word.

So Francis' little saying there has some problems to it, but it has some real strong points that we need to look at.

We need to think about here as we look at the Thessalonians, as we think of ourselves. What did he mean by that?

Preach the gospel often. Use words when necessary. He meant live it out. He's speaking of that example of life that could draw others to Christ.

As they see the beauty of Christ, when they see the beauty of your lifestyle in Him. Does that mean perfect lifestyle?

Of course not. We can't do that. It does mean to live it out. It does mean to follow what the

Scripture says. It does mean to walk in the way of our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. It does mean as you see others around you who follow that way, and you can look and see their holiness of life, and see their faith in Christ, and see it played out in their decisions, in their attitudes, in their words, to grasp on to and to follow that example, even as the

Thessalonians did Paul's example. If you were a carrier of COVID, it would manifest in you somehow.

Something would happen from severe to light symptoms. We'd be able to see it.

God has protected us that we know people who've had COVID, but we haven't had it directly amongst us here.

We pray that that continues. But if you did have it, and you somehow spread it to someone, let's say to me,

I in that sense would become like you. You have the virus through the droplets or whatever, if I got a hold of them and it came out in me,

I'd become in that sense like you. I would in that way be following your example.

If you're a Christian who's been transformed by the Spirit of God, you're also a carrier of something.

You're a carrier of something that you spread, not by moisture necessarily with COVID, but by word, by lifestyle.

You're a carrier of the gospel. Not a life -disrupting or a life -destroying virus.

You're a carrier of a life -giving, a life -enhancing gospel, a life -giving message.

And in that sense, when your example spreads to others, those others to whom it spreads become like you, as you are like, shall we say, the

Apostle Paul, as he is like Christ. There's a direct line. It's one of your most powerful evangelical weapons.

In your arsenal, it's to simply live out what the gospel says.

I'm not saying don't speak the gospel. Francis of Assisi, we can take that the wrong way.

Do speak the gospel. Do say in words what the gospel means, that Jesus Christ died for me, who is the chief of all sinners, the

Son of God, who gave himself up for me, who loved me, gave himself up for me.

But the lifestyle has to match the words. And if all we tell people is the gospel, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and if you believe in him, you too will be saved, there's more to it than that.

There is a life, an ethic, a worldview behind it that flavors your decisions and your words and your attitudes and your demeanors.

And this is the other part of it. And in Thessalonians, you see the power of that example.

He says, you became imitators of us, you mimicked us. Though mimic doesn't have some of the negative connotations it does today for us, so we use it as it is.

You became imitators of us and the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the

Holy Spirit. Here's an evidence that they had. Paul saw it, but he's saying, this is something you know, this is something you yourself experienced, because I'm speaking of your own experience in the gospel.

This is what you did that I saw. There's an Irish poet who said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

But you see, imitating Jesus is not flattery, it is duty.

It's a joyous duty, but it is duty. Paul cites only one evidence of how they imitated him.

I'm sure there were more if we could have been there for those three or four weeks. But he cites just this one evidence of their imitation of him as he followed and imitated the

Lord Jesus Christ. Their joy in the Holy Spirit was not diminished by the afflictions or the severe trials they endured for the faith.

He says, you received the word, meaning the word of God, this gospel by which they were converted, in much affliction, much persecution, much tribulation, specifically because they came to the

Lord Jesus Christ. Specific persecution. They received it in much affliction, with the joy of the

Holy Spirit, with this transforming power of the Spirit of God. They became imitators of Paul.

They saw what Paul went through. Undoubtedly, they heard what he had gone through in Philippi just before he had come to them in Thessalonica.

We learn by example. We do learn by example. Examples here, we're going to talk about the influence that their example had beyond anything they had imagined.

Examples don't necessarily convert people. We're not saying that. But they do draw people to the fragrance of life in Christ Jesus.

They do show something attractive. And even if it's not attractive to some people, they look and say,

I don't want to live like those holy rollers. Fine, let them say that. You know in your integrity before God that your words of the gospel, your words of profession, as we will hear this afternoon, are matched by your lifestyle.

We learn by example. When the example we see is different than what someone says we should do, when the example that we give, when we say others should do, there's few, if any of us, are going to follow them.

Now you kids need to know that this is not a perfect rule. Your parents do many things that you cannot do.

And they do have some things that they do that they say, do as I say and not as I do. And someday you'll be able to follow this example.

But in general, we have to do as we say.

And we preach the gospel, we live the gospel. It has to match up to the gospel itself, to the ethical, to the moral standards behind it.

We learn by example, do we not? We follow good examples, we try to. No one would pick a bad example.

I mean if I wanted to invest and I found a man who had a great scheme for riches, and I found out that he was not only poor and destitute, but he was in jail for a long time for some kind of fraud, well

I wouldn't follow him. I wouldn't follow that example and neither would you. We choose our model more carefully than that.

We follow, we imitate those things we think or that we hope are going to bring beneficial results.

You parents, you model for your children a pattern that you hope will bring good to them, hard work, faithful marriages, worship, gospel, obedience, faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ, all for the sake of our children. We do it for your sake.

What Paul demonstrated, the joy of the Spirit that he says, is this one evidence they had here, this example that they followed.

In Acts chapter 17, verses 5 -8, in the middle of this only record we have of his stay in Thessalonica, and he tells of the way that the gospel was generally received by them.

Acts 17 beginning at verse 5 says, And they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king,

Jesus. And the people in the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

In the midst of all this, the Thessalonians who received the word in much affliction and joy, before they received the word in that affliction and with that joy, what did they see?

They saw the apostle Paul in affliction, maintain his joy.

We need to stop and talk about joy for just a moment, and we can go and have a whole year of preaching about joy itself, there's so much in the scriptures about it, and we're not going to do that, obviously.

One thing I want to point out, is that Paul was not joyful to see this happen.

When he writes in 1 Thessalonians 5 -18, give thanks in all circumstances, he doesn't mean necessarily for the circumstance, as when he was in Philippi, and was beaten with the lictor's rods,

I don't know if you've ever seen those described, but they were like these long clubs, these long flat clubs, and you were clubbed with them, and it was painful, and you were left with deep bruises.

Well, he wasn't joyful for the pain and the bruises, and then he was thrown in jail, and set with that bruised back against the concrete wall, and his feet were put in stocks, and he wasn't joyful for that extra pain and agony, nor was he joyful for the bracelets on his ankle, that was digging in, and causing cuts and abrasions, undoubtedly.

He was still joyful in the Lord, though. This is when the jailer found them, singing their hymns after the earthquake, and he thought that they were going to escape, and everything, all the chains had fallen off.

My chains fell off, my heart was free, as the hymn goes. It's a joy in the Holy Spirit that is greater than the circumstance, and this is the example the

Thessalonians saw in them, and this is what Paul says he saw them imitating, that you receive the word in much affliction, and with the joy of the

Holy Spirit. What a way to follow the example of the apostles, and the

Lord Jesus Christ, this example of life that we have, this joy in our life, because the joy of our salvation in Christ Jesus is bigger than the things that happen, bigger than the economy, bigger than politics.

In Acts chapter 5 verse 41, we find Peter and John, and when they were flogged by the

Sanhedrin, by the Jewish authorities, for not being willing to stop preaching Christ, what do we find?

Acts 5 verse 41, they rejoiced that they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus' name.

They didn't rejoice for the flogging itself. That hurt. That was rugged.

They rejoiced that they were able to stand for Jesus.

They themselves dishonored for the honor of Christ. They rejoiced in it. A life of joy imitates the apostles.

A life of joy believes Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, when he says,

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

A life of joy in the Holy Spirit, that transformed life that knows this joy, even in affliction, believes

Jesus when he says, When you suffer for my account, you are blessed.

Not will be, though you will be. You are blessed. A life of joy imitates the apostles, and it imitates

Jesus Christ himself in Luke 9 verse 53, that Jesus rejoiced in the

Holy Spirit. The joy of the Holy Spirit is something that cannot be defeated or deflected by circumstance.

Your personal joy can. My personal joy can. But not the joy that the

Holy Spirit gives you. We can stop and ask ourselves, as we think of the example that we set in this joy that we have in Christ, in all circumstances, even in much affliction, what would it take?

Or what does it take? What did it take the last time for your joy to be overcome?

2008. When we had that great downturn in the economy and so many houses went under water.

If yours was one of them, did that overcome your joy? That would be a tough one. I'm not trying to minimize that.

I'm not trying to say that that would have been easy. But was there an overarching joy greater than your home being worth less than your loan?

How about a lost job? I've never actually lost a job. So in that sense,

I don't know what it's like. But I do know that the joy that we have in the Holy Spirit is bigger than that.

And I ask you, if you've been through that, was it for you? How about an election that portends hardship for the church?

Can that diminish our joy? Can that make us to stop following the example of the apostles who are following the examples of Christ Himself?

See, the idea is not to pretend that these things don't matter or even that they don't bother us.

In fact, to care about these things is to imitate our Heavenly Father who knows what we need and provides it for us.

That's what Jesus says in Matthew 6, 32. And He goes on to say, Seek first the kingdom of heaven.

Can we say, Maintain your joy and your salvation. Have that be your great example to others.

So seek first the kingdom of heaven and all these things will be added to you. Not that we don't care about these things.

Caring about these things is actually imitating God our Father. And we can easily expand this into the social issues of our day.

We don't ignore them. We don't pretend that they don't matter. We don't pretend that we shouldn't stop and think about them and have a gospel response to them.

We just keep things in our proper order. And we remember that the example that they followed, the one thing that Paul cites for the

Thessalonians is their joy in the Spirit in the midst of severe afflictions because of the gospel.

Joy can easily be taken away if it's our joy, if it's your joy. And all of us can remember a time when we were just sad, we were just depressed, we were stirred up, we didn't know which way to go because of whatever the issue is.

Some of the examples I just gave, maybe one for you, might be different. But that's a personal joy.

That's a self -generated joy. That's a joy I would argue is not a very good example to show to others.

Jesus says in Matthew 13, 20 and 21 when He's explaining the parable of the seeds to the disciples,

He says, As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

Well, the Thessalonians obviously were not in that camp. They had a root that was not in themselves. It was a root that was in Jesus Christ.

Their joy was not this immediate low, this immediate joy that didn't have much earth because the root was in Christ.

As in John chapter 15, where He says, I am the true vine and you are the branches. And to be a branch in the true vine and to receive life from Him is to have that true and undefeatable joy.

This is twofold effect. There was the tribulations, the affliction, the cares of the world, and then there was joy.

And the gospel had to be bigger than the affliction and the tribulations and the cares of the world.

It's a joy that stands aloof, a joy that is unaffected, a joy impervious to the outside influences.

Again, the Thessalonians received the word in affliction and with joy, imitating the apostles, as I said, imitating

Jesus Christ again, who Hebrews 12, 2 tells us, for the joy set before Him endured the cross.

The cross. And yet, joy in doing God's will, joy in bringing salvation to the people that God had chosen before the foundation of the world, the joy to honor

God the Father, that joy endured the cross.

And even the cross could not diminish or take away that joy.

Divine, enduring, steady joy that God gives you by His Spirit to pretend that things around us don't hurt or don't matter.

It actually sort of denigrates this joy. It makes it lesser. It makes it unrealistic. It makes it sort of a clap -happy, feel -good thing that almost any self -help book would help you to find in yourself.

This joy is based on the once -for -all work of Jesus Christ on the cross, the unshakable confidence that your eternity has been settled by faith in Him.

And by faith in Him, you will know eternal pleasure and joys forevermore. Transforming joy that flavors all else.

If you have this joy, if you're setting this example, if you're living for Christ, you could have influence far beyond anything you could imagine.

We don't have the bully pulpit of a president of the United States, but we do have a

God who's God over all the world, over all the universe. You think of the fragrance of life in Christ Jesus.

I was trying to picture what is this like? What is this fragrance like? What is this example like?

What if we're in a great big ballroom and somebody, some lady had on this wonderful perfume that just sort of wafted over to you and you're in the far opposite corner.

I've got to get closer to that. I've just got to find out what brand it is. I need to buy some of that for my wife. That is so special.

That is so attractive. And you work your way around all the tables and work your way through the dancers in the ballroom until you get closer to it.

That attractiveness of it, that's what that joy should be like.

Something people see and say, I've just got to get closer to that. Where is that from? Tell them it's from the

Lord Jesus Christ. It's my joy in His salvation. And they say, I don't want any more to do with that.

I don't want to hear about this Jesus. Well, that's their business. That's between them and God. Yours is to be that example.

Do you have this joy? Paul says that one evidence of the conversion was that in imitation of the apostles who imitated

Christ, they had a joy that was greater than the circumstance. We might just say that circumstances that had once been permanently to the top now sunk below and were subservient to this joyous example.

Others saw what they had become. Now Paul says you became imitators of us. You became what you saw in us and others saw what the

Thessalonians had become. Transformed lives are spurring others on. As Paul did theirs, so theirs did others.

This is verse 7. So that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

Not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything.

This example, the word for example is actually a word for mark and it was a die that strikes a coin and leaves its mark.

And in this context, the image of the emperor. In the New Testament, this word is often used for that pattern of life that's consistent with the gospel standards.

Moral and ethical excellence. So how did they become so worthy an example?

By imitating the example of others. In this case, Paul and his missionary partners. Now their example is being broadcast even further.

We said in the beginning we wouldn't think that we would have the impact of a president of the

United States repenting as that little fantasy I made up. That's a false limitation, brethren.

Do you have the Holy Spirit of God in you? Because if you've been transformed by Him, He doesn't just transform you and make you a

Christian and then go somewhere else and make someone else a Christian. He resides within you. You have

God within. We have God within each of us and amongst all of us.

What will He do with that example? Where will He broadcast it? I would argue to you that for one sinner to repent because you lived a life that attracted them to Christ Jesus and God used that to bring them salvation, that has more impact than all the presidents who've ever stood before a microphone.

And we could add to that all the leaders in all of history who've influenced people towards a political movement, towards a social good, fill in the blank.

Because all heaven stops for that moment, do they not, Jesus says, and rejoices before God when one sinner repents.

And what a blessing that would be, would it not? To find out in heaven that well -done, good, and faithful servant is because your example

God used to draw one to himself. You have to notice how far their faith had spread.

Far beyond anything they thought and far beyond anything you might think. You can't limit God with this.

You don't know the secret things belong to God. He hasn't told you where it will go. I have no verse to look to and say this is what

I know God will do. If you do this, I do know that we must live the example.

That is our duty. But notice how far their faith had spread. Thessalonica was in the region called

Macedonia, which sort of swayed from north and went east, away from Greece.

That's where Thessalonica was. You remember just a little bit north and east of that was Philippi. Down south, further south,

Athens and Corinth and all that, which is where Paul wrote this letter from in Corinth, that's

Achaia. That's a large area. So here's this town, the

Thessalonikans, living for Christ. And you became an example.

You became a type. You became that image for others to follow, to believers, to the encouragement of other believers, people you don't even know, throughout this region of Macedonia and Achaia.

They had no idea. Did they do it in order that they might be able to say that look how far our influence went?

We went from here all the way down to there? No. That's God's business. But notice that they lived this way and had to be told by Paul the influence they had.

So here's Paul who says we need not say anything. Here's Paul in Corinth.

He's in the marketplace. He's looking for a soapbox to get on and declare Christ. And somebody comes up to him and says, hey,

I know you. You're Paul, right? Aren't you the guy who preached about this Jesus guy up north in Thessalonica?

He says, well, yes, yes, I am that one. Why do you ask? He says, well, it's those Thessalonians. I've heard that nothing get in the way of their faith.

They're being persecuted but they're still joyous. And Paul might say, oh really? I hadn't heard. Well, tell me more about them, those

Thessalonians. You tell me more about them and I'll tell you about the Jesus behind it. But the idea here is that the

Thessalonian example had had this positive effect throughout the whole region beyond anything that they ever even knew was possible, much less expected.

When you live for Christ, there's no telling where His fame is going to spread. When you show joy in the

Holy Spirit, which is that steady faith and belief and recourse to Him in all matters, no matter what it is, and your neighbors are stood up, and your coworkers are stood up, and everybody's running around as we say like a chicken with the head cut off.

And you say, yes, but I have Jesus. Oh, so you don't care about the economy crashing.

Well, certainly I care about the economy crashing. I care for your sake as much as for my sake. But it can't overcome my joy.

When you live for Christ in that way, you don't know where His fame, not your fame, His fame will spread.

Will it be the workplace where people are going to be unable to deny that something outside of you has invaded you like a virus, but this one has no cure?

Will it be a family member? Will it be a family member even in another state, a neighbor, a neighborhood, a town, a city?

The Thessalonians' fame, well, Jesus' fame through the Thessalonians, spread throughout this whole region.

What have they done? F .F. Bruce says, by word and life they made it known to others, made the gospel known to others by word and life.

Our word came to you not only in word, but also in power. Specifics are kind of sparse.

What did the apostle remember? For what work was he so proud as to call them, in chapter 2, verse 19, his hope and joy and crown of boasting?

That they received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so much so that Paul could cite them as an example for others to follow.

We want to be evangelistic, do we not? We want our church to grow, do we not?

So here's how to grow your ministry. Be like Jesus. When I was in seminary, my homiletics professor said, you know, we're going to teach you how to preach as best we can.

I don't know how well I learned it. Maybe some of you will tell me afterwards, after all these years. But he said,

I can tell you in a moment how to grow a church. It's easy. Just make people feel good.

Just ignore sin, repentance. Just don't preach too much about the cross.

Preach to felt needs and make them feel good about themselves, and you will fill your pews with all kinds of anxious hearers.

He said, the problem, of course, is pretty big. You're not preaching the gospel.

Here's how to grow a ministry. Harder work than proclaiming felt needs.

For you as well as for the preacher, be like Jesus. And someone will come along and say, yeah, that sounds good, but what we need to do also is let's turbocharge the worship.

Let's get peppy music. Let's have dynamic worship. Let's get preaching that deals with things that really, really matter.

And you listen to all this and say, well, how about we portray before your eyes Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And you get the answer, yeah, that sounds okay, but only to a point. Just don't make it so depressing. Just don't make people feel so bad about their sin, about themselves.

They need to feel good about themselves. Why don't we make them feel good about Jesus, even by the example that we set?

Okay, but let's get self -esteem enhanced. They need a boost. You see where this goes.

Notice that imitation of Jesus Christ. The Thessalonians were responsible in the human sense for souls coming to Lord Jesus Christ by the example that they set.

Imitators of the Lord. Their faith sounded forth because they simply followed the Master's ways.

And so can you. As that example, trusting God to use it as He will to bring others to Christ.

We'll finish with verse 9. I'll read verse 10 also. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and 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 delivers us from the wrath to come.

You see, salvation is a reception of something. It's something that you have. That's the word in the original language for received is echo which means to hold on to something, to have it.

They held on to the apostle, more his message than his person. But the person confirmed the message.

The Thessalonians understood the message. And they had this immediate effect. Remember, Paul was only there for a few weeks.

And like the magicians that we read of in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19 verse 19, the ones who took their very expensive magic books and burned them as a sign of their repentance.

They wanted no more to do this. They turned to the living God. Have you turned? Have you turned away from fill in the blank and to the living

God? It's a positive movement. It's away from this and positively to Him.

It's away from all pillars of confidence other than Christ Jesus. Away from the shrines where our ego is kept on display.

Away from everything that we trust in beyond what God gives us by His Spirit and through His Word.

What might God do with your turning? Have you turned? Have you turned away from self?

Have you turned away from nothingness and to the living God? I tell you this morning, not to make you an example for others to follow, though I pray for that, that you need to turn, that you need to repent and by faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ find forgiveness for your sins. This is the work of the

Holy Spirit. This is the transforming power of God.

This is Ephesians 1 .19, that the power that God exerted in Christ when

He raised Him from the dead is the same power He works toward you who believe. This is the power of your example of Christ should you come to Him or if you have come to Him.

What might God do with your turning? How far will word of your example go?

Will it go viral? Will the evening news capture it? Would somebody look in shock and awe like the little news clip

I put together at the very beginning? Say, oh my goodness, this person has changed.

This person has repented. But then what happened? Where would that example go?

We don't know. We do know that the Thessalonians, their example went further than they ever imagined.

They never knew it could and so can yours. We might have to wait for heaven to meet that man, that woman, that child whose path to Christ was praved by your example, who saw that joy in the midst of all the afflictions that this world has for us.

It might wait till heaven. You might find out right away. But all we can do is be that example worth following and leave the rest to God.

Amen? Let's pray. Lord God, our

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us this day once again and for the example we have in the Bible that records the works of the

Apostles and most especially the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray, Father, that as we go on about this life, as we meet the issues and the afflictions of this day, that our joy would not be diminished and that You, Lord, would use that example that we have in ourselves as You might for the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray.