Living Life in Light of Jesus Return: A Gospel with Power

1 Thessalonians 1:4-6
If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to 1
Thessalonians chapter 1. Were going to be looking at verses 4 to 6
together this morning as we continue our way through this wonderful
letter of the apostle Paul - the first letter that he wrote; a letter that he
wrote to a congregation that he had planted in the course of just a
matter of weeks. And last week, even as we were looking at the
introduction, we were commenting on one of the themes of this little
letter is what a high view of the Word of God this congregation has.
Paul's going to congratulate them for that in 1 Thessalonians chapter
2 verse 13. He's going to say, When we came preaching the Word
of God to you, we thank God that you received it for what it is. You
didn't just accept it as the words of men; you understood that we
were preaching the Word of God to you. This wasn't a message we
made up. It was a message that God put in our mouths to give to
you and you accepted it for what it is.
And even there, I want to pause on this Mother's Day to say
something about that. Last month in Louisville, Kentucky, eight
thousand or so pastors and church leaders gathered at a conference
and during that conference one of the panel sessions was a panel on
Biblical inerrancy. And Dr. Al Mohler led that session and John Piper,
the pastor of BethlehemBaptistChurch in Minneapolis, St. Paul, was
one of the people on the panel. Now you may know Dr. Piper is a
very famous preacher but he's also a New Testament scholar. He's
studied New Testament at the University of Tubingen in Europe, he
taught Biblical Studies at college and has taught at the graduate

level as well; he's a powerful scholar. And at this panel, Dr. Mohler
began by saying, I want to ask each member on the panel why it is
that you believe in Biblical inerrancy. And he said, I want to start
with you, Dr. Piper. And so we were, I don't know what we were
expecting him to say, but when he got to Dr. Piper he said, Dr. Piper,
why do you believe in Biblical inerrancy? And he said, Because my
mama told me to.
Now that crowd of eight thousand pastors and church leaders did
just what you did when he said that; they laughed a little bit. And he
said, No, I'm totally serious. He said, First of all, that's a Biblical
argument. You know in 2 Timothy chapter 1 Paul says to Timothy,
You know from whom you have learned the faith, from your
grandmother and mother. Paul is pointing Timothy back to his
grandmother and to his mother and to the spiritual legacy that had
been bequeathed to Timothy from them. On his grandmother and
mother's knees he had learned the truth of Scripture. He had learned
about the Gospel of salvation. And Paul is saying, Timothy, that is
something to be profoundly thankful for. And on this day we want to
rise up and call blessed the mothers in Israel in this congregation
that have given us that kind of spiritual legacy.
Throughout those three days at that pastor's conference last month,
over and over men who are now renowned for their preaching of the
Gospel and their teaching of the Word of God here and around the
world gave testimony to how their mother's spiritual influence had
been formative in their conviction of these Gospel things. And I just
want to say to you, mothers in Israel here at First Presbyterian
Church, you are the most influential people in the world and there is
no telling how many millions of people have heard the Gospel

because of the mothers that ministered to those men who were

leading in that conference last month.
I can give testimony to that myself. When I was at the University of
Edinburgh starting out as a doctoral student, I was reading the works
of a man who did not believe in the Scriptures and was very, very
critical of Christianity. It was part of a project that I had to do while I
was there and I've got to tell you, it was about the six months of like
drinking poison. And it was a soul-killing time. But in God's kindness
to me while I was reading that material I was reading the biography
of J. Gresham Machen. Now J. Gresham Machen was one of the
great Presbyterian stalwarts of the early 20th century. He was a
professor at Princeton; he later founded Westminster Theological
Seminary. He was from southern Presbyterian roots. His family was
out of First Presbyterian Church in Macon, Georgia, though he had
grown up in Baltimore and went to Johns HopkinsUniversity.
Well Machen went to Europe as well to study and he went into the
circles of German theological liberalism in the early 1900's and even
was taught by the famous German liberal, Herrmann. And he went
through a wrestling with the Word of God and during that time he
was in correspondence with his godly mother who continued to
exhort him to hold fast to the view of the Scriptures that he had been
taught since he was a little boy. And she was his major theological
conversation partner, not only then but really throughout all her life.
When he wrote his famous defense of the doctrine of the virgin birth,
his book, The Virgin Birth of Christ, he dedicated it to his mother.
And I had that same experience because my mother was my
conversation partner during those times and I would have feared for
my life had I reverted from the sound doctrine of the Word of God

that she had taught me from the time that I was a child. So I want to
pause and I want us to thank God for godly mothers and
grandmothers who are mothers in Israel who have taught us to
respect the Word of God and to hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul's going to congratulate the Thessalonians for that kind of
attitude to the Word of God, he's going to point Timothy to the
remembrance of where he heard the Word of God from first, and we
ought to thank God as well.
Now as we look at this passage today and as we read verses 4 to 6,
I want you to be on the lookout for three things. In verse 4 I want you
to see how Paul shows us that the doctrine of election is vital to
helping us understand the love of God. Now that's a sentence that
maybe you have never thought of all those parts going together. The
doctrine of election is vital for us understanding and experiencing the
love of God. Youll see that in verse 4. In verse 5, Paul draws
attention to how the Gospel is powerful. It's not just words, it comes
with power. And he explains how in verse 5. And then in verse 6 he
talks about the evidences of God's grace in you, what the Holy Spirit
does in you as you receive the Gospel. Now why is Paul saying this?
He's saying this, first of all, to thank God. This whole section is a
portion of the letter in which he's thanking God for the Thessalonians
but he's thanking God for these things also as an encouragement to
them and the reality of their faith and to prepare them for an
exhortation that he's about to give them. So let's pray before we read
God's Word.
Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. We need every word of it
because all Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for
reproof and correction and training in righteousness that the man

and women of God might be equipped for every good work. So

speak, Lord, Your servants listen. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.
This is God's Word. Hear it:
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. 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
Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and
inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.
Paul loves this congregation and he wants to encourage them and
challenge them. In this book he puts those two things together
encouragement and exhortation. He encourages them and then
challenges them. And before he exhorts them, before he challenges
them, before he calls them to faithfulness, before he calls them to
live light in light of Jesus return, he pauses to thank God for things
that he has seen God doing in the lives of the Thessalonians. And
he does this precisely to prepare them for the exhortation that he is
going to give them. The way he is preparing the Thessalonians to
hear and to respond affirmatively to the challenges, to the
exhortations, is to point them to the very obvious and objective
encouragements that God has done through the ministry of the Word
in their midst.
THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION HELPS US UNDERSTAND THE
LOVE OF GOD

And in this passage I want to draw your attention to three of them.

The first thing that he says, as he addresses them, is Brothers loved
by God, we know that He has chosen you. Paul draws their attention
to the truth that God has chosen them, to the fact that God has
chosen them. He roots their understanding of their relationship to
God in what we call the doctrine of election. Now I understand that
that is a doctrine that a lot of people struggle with, a lot of people
reject, a lot of people are confused by even in a Presbyterian
church, even in a conservative Presbyterian church where we
like The Westminster Confession of Faith. There are people who are
really confused by and struggle with the doctrine of election, but
understand this, in verse 4, Paul is making it clear that our
experience of the love of God is rooted in an understanding that His
love is an electing love. One of the ways that the Bible tells us our
experience of God's love for us is rooted and grounded is in
understanding election. It's very simple. Paul is saying here to the
Thessalonians the reason they love God is because God set His love
on them from before the foundation of the world.
It's very similar to John. Remember what John says? We love
because He first loved us. That is, our love for God, our love for one
another, flows from what? His prior love. He loved us first,
therefore we love Him. It is not that God loves us because we first
loved Him; it is that we love because He first loved us. And He set
His love on us before we existed, before the foundation of this world.
God's love is from eternity and we noted last week how often Paul
pulls together two ideas God's love and God's choosing the
doctrine of the love of God and the doctrine of election. He does it in
Ephesians 1 verses 4 and 5, doesn't it? In love, He predestined us
to the adoption as sons. There's Paul saying God's choosing,

predestining love happened before the foundation of the world and it

was designed to bring us into His family. So our being a part of His
family is the result of His predestining love. He links those ideas
together constantly.
Many Christians that I meet, many wonderful Christians that I meet,
godly Christians, for a whole variety of reasons struggle with
believing the doctrine of God's love. It may be it may be that there is
some sin in the past or in the present which has undermined your
confidence and your assurance of His love. You just think, There is
no way that God could love me because of what I did. Even though I
trust Him, even though I believe the Gospel, because of what I've
done there's just no way He could love me. It may be that human
relationships have deeply impacted your ability to feel and to receive
love, to know that you are loved. And one of the divine truths of
Scripture is how much time God gives attention to this issue of His
people knowing how much He loves them. And here Paul is, before
he even gets out of the block in his exhortation to the Thessalonians,
he's pausing to say, I just want you to know, brothers, that you are
loved by God and you are loved by God in a way that began before
you existed. Before the foundation of this world you were chosen by
God. And so there's the first thing that Paul points them to. It's a
thanksgiving to God and it's an encouragement to them that God's
electing love had been set on them from before the foundation of the
world and that's meant to be a comfort, an encouragement. It's
meant to strengthen them.
THE GOSPEL COMES IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
And then Paul says something else in verse 5. Look at what he says
in those words. Our Gospel came to you not only in word, but also

in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Now the
Gospel has to come in words you understand. Sometimes we hear
people talk about sharing the Gospel wordlessly. It can't be done
because the Gospel is an announcement about something that God
has done. It's not about something that we do. Sometimes you may
hear Christian leaders say things like, Be the Gospel. You can't be
the Gospel; Jesus is the Gospel. The work of Christ on the cross is
the Gospel. God is the Gospel. Youre not the Gospel. And so the
only way that that Gospel can be conveyed is with words because
we're having to tell about what God has done. The Gospel is not
something we do; it's something that God did.
Now it is of course true that we want to practice what we preach. It is
of course true that we want to demonstrate the results and the
effects of the Gospel in our lives so that people understand that
we're not hypocrites, that we're not saying one thing and living
another way. Or we want to show them and prepare them to hear the
Word of God by the way that we love them. Those are all good things
but you can't share the Gospel wordlessly. But here's Paul emphasis
in this passage. He said, When the Gospel came to you,
Thessalonians, I want to thank God - that's what he's doing here,
he's thanking God I want to thank you that it didn't just come in
words; it came with power and the Holy Spirit and with your full
conviction or assurance of its truth. In other words, Paul is saying, I
thank God, Thessalonians, that when the Word of God came it came
with converting, saving power. You were saved out of darkness and
into God's marvelous light.
Paul is pointing to the fact that the Word of God is powerful and
active and sharper than any two-edged sword and it's not unlike

what he will later write in the first chapter of the book of Romans.
Remember what he says there? The Gospel is the power of God
unto salvation - the announcement that God, in His love, has given
His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die in the place of sinners,
enemies. While we were yet in our sin and ungodliness, in order that
we might be forgiven, in order that the dominion of sin might be
broken in our lives, in order that we might be accepted back into His
family and dwell with Him forever, that announcement came with
power to the Thessalonians so that Thessalonians who were
struggling with guilt realized that in the Gospel the struggle of their
guilt was answered. And Thessalonians that were struggling with the
fear of death realized that in the Gospel their fear of death was
answered because, Since by man came death, by man came also
the resurrection of the dead.
And those Thessalonians who were struggling with meaning found
an answer in the Gospel. They understood that this world makes
sense, that from creation to fall to redemption to consummation God
is working His purpose out and He's building a people for Himself
men and women and boys and girls from every tribe, tongue, people,
and nation He's bringing into His body, into His family. And there's a
purpose, there's a meaning in this life. This life makes sense. And
when they heard the Gospel preached, the Holy Spirit opened their
eyes and the Gospel came with power. And those Thessalonians
that were struggling with a sense of the love of God heard in the
Gospel the truth that God demonstrates His love in that while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. And the Gospel came
with power. It changed lives. People believed it and they were
transformed. In fact, they had full conviction. That's not conviction of

sin, that's full assurance of the truth and authority and power of
God's Word. They were fully on board with what Paul was preaching.
And then there's this interesting phrase, and in the Holy Spirit. The
Gospel came to you in the Holy Spirit. Let's pause to think about
that for just a second because it's so glorious and important. Turn
back with me in your Bibles to Luke. I want to take you to Luke, Acts
1, Acts 2, and Galatians 3, just real quick. Turn to Luke 24:49. It's the
very last chapter of the gospel of Luke. We just finished three years
in Luke and I know some of you are thinking, Oh no, not back there
again, please! But no, it's just one sentence I want you to see. In
Luke 24 verse 49, right before Jesus ascends into heaven, He says
this to His disciples: I am sending the promise of My Father upon
you. Now just hold that thought the promise of My Father. If
youre like me, the first question youre asking is, What is that? What
is the promise of your Father?
Okay, turn forward with me to the sequel, Acts chapter 1, and look at
verse 8. Now this is the same scene, understand. Luke is picking
right up where he left off in the Gospel and telling you about the
conversation that Jesus had with His disciples before they ascend
and He says in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, You will receive power when
the Holy Spirit has come upon you. So just hold those two thoughts
together. I am going to send the promise of My FatherYou will
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
Now turn forward one page to Acts chapter 2. After Peter has
preached at Pentecost and the people of God have cried out, or the
people that are gathered there, the men of Israel he calls them in
Acts 2, they cry out, Okay Peter, we believe everything you say! We
are guilty of our sin but we don't know what to do. What should we

do? What does Peter say? Look at verse 38. Peter said to them,
Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you and for your children and for
all who are afar off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to
Himself. Did you hear that phrase? You will receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit for the promise is for you. I will send the promise of My
Father Luke 24:49. You will receive the Holy Spirit Acts
1:8. Acts 2:38 You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the
promise is for you. What promise? The promise of My Father that I
will send the Holy Spirit.
Now just quickly, notice how, throughout the book of Acts, wherever
the Gospel goes, what does Luke tell us? The Holy Spirit comes.
Where the Gospel goes and it is accepted, the Holy Spirit comes. He
comes to convert and He comes to sanctify and He manifests
Himself. Over and over that happens throughout the book of Acts.
It's Luke's way of showing you that Jesus words are being fulfilled
over and over and over again. I will send the promise of My Father.
What is that promise? It is the Holy Spirit.

Now one more component. It's just beautiful to see. Turn with me
to Galatians 3:13. In Galatians 3:13 Paul says this Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree - so
that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the
Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Now three things are all together in verse 14 the promise, the
Spirit, and God's blessing to Abraham. Ah-ha! The promise of My

Father is the sending of the Holy Spirit. And what is the sending of
the Holy Spirit? It is the fulfillment of God's blessing to Abraham in
the covenant of grace all the way back in Genesis 12and 15 and 17!
And Luke is telling us that when the Gospel comes and the Holy
Spirit changes our hearts and we receive it, we become recipients
all of us, Jews and Gentiles of what? The blessing that God
promised to give to Abraham thousands of years ago. And Paul's
saying to the Thessalonians, I saw that happen when I preached the
Word of God. I saw it happen. The Holy Spirit opened your eyes to
see that the Gospel was true. You believed and you received the
promise that God had made to Abraham thousands of years ago
the promised Holy Spirit.
JOY IN AFFLICTION: AN EVIDENCE OF GRACE
And how was that manifested? Well, that's our third point. Look at
verse 6. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 6 You became
imitators of us and of the Lord. In other words, Paul said, You
started to live our lives like we live you believe the things we
believe; you live the way we live; you have the same priorities we
have. But isn't it interesting, the second half of verse 6, the big thing
that he wants to draw attention to is this You received the Word in
much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. In other words, Paul is
saying, Here's the thing I saw the Holy Spirit most dramatically do in
you - in much affliction, you had joy. In much outward tribulation and
opposition and even persecution, there was joy in the Holy Spirit in
you and it said to me, it was like a neon sign flashing, The Holy
Spirit has changed these people! because even though theyre
experiencing affliction, there is joy! Wouldn't that be a great motto
for life? Look at verse 6. In much affliction joy!

Isn't it interesting, at the very outset of the Christian ministry, Paul

does not say, If you become a Christian no more affliction. You
know there are some people that teach that If you just become a
Christian, no more affliction, and if you have affliction it's because
you don't have enough faith. At the very outset, Paul says, No,
when the Holy Spirit comes with power it does not mean no affliction.
What it means is affliction with joy! Martin Luther once said,
Christ was crowned with thorns. Were you expecting roses? Christ
was crowned with thorns. Were you expecting roses? You see,
Paul's saying, We apostles, we followed Jesus Christ in that we
have our own afflictions. Paul will use that provocative language
elsewhere We were filling up that which was lacking in Christ's
afflictions and so are you. Afflictions ought to be the last thing that
surprises us. Everybody in this life has afflictions; not everybody has
joy. And this is a specific kind of joy. Notice what he calls it the
joy of the Holy Spirit. This is the kind of joy that only the Holy Spirit
can give you. And Paul says, This made it so evident to me that you
had really been converted, that God had really come in power with
the Gospel, because in your afflictions you continued to display an
evident, manifest joy that could only have come from the Holy
Ghost.
Just a few days ago, the brother of one of our ruling elders was
diagnosed with an aggressive, inoperable cancer. He's a young man
and he's only going to be with us for weeks. And I called up our elder
just to check on him and fifteen minutes after he picked up the
phone, I had just received from him fifteen minutes of more
encouragement than I can ever remember. And I just said to him,
Friend, when I get that diagnosis one day, I want you to remember
every word you just said to me because I'm calling you up. And what

he had done is, in the midst of losing a brother he loves, he had

articulated for me joy in the Holy Spirit. And that's what Paul is
saying. He looked into the hearts and lives of the Thessalonians - in
the midst of all their afflictions, there was an inextinguishable joy that
only the Holy Spirit could have put there. I know there are a lot of
afflictions here today of all manner of variety, but the way that we
testify to the power of the Gospel is our joy in those afflictions - not
because of those afflictions we're not masochists, but joy because
of the Holy Spirit even in those afflictions. Paul said, That's one of
the reasons Thessalonians that I can say unshakably that you are
chosen of God, because even in your afflictions you have joy,
inexpressible and full of glory and it comes from the Holy Spirit.
All of these things Paul is giving thanks to God for, all of these things
he is giving encouragement with in order that he could exhort the
Thessalonians and you and me to live life in light of Jesus return.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You, thank You. By Your Spirit, give us this
joy. It's a Gospel joy and we can only have it if we trust in Jesus
Christ. It's a Holy Spirit joy. It's applied by the work of the Spirit in us,
so we ask, Lord, even if our world has been turned inside out and
upside down, give us this joy, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well let's sing and let's take our bulletins in hand and sing of the
power of the cross.
Our God supplies all our needs. Receive His blessing. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God our Father and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all both now and
forevermore.