Living Life in Light of Jesus Return: A Turn to God from

Idols
1 Thessalonians 1:7-10
The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III
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 7 to 10
today but I want to pick up reading in verse 6 so that we're not
picking up in the middle of a sentence. And I also want us to connect
this passage with the passage we studied last Lord's Day. We looked
at verses 4 to 6 in which Paul is giving thanks to God and he's giving
encouragement to the Thessalonians for what he sees God doing in
their midst. And he's continuing that thought today. In fact, he's
specifying one of the things that he is thankful for.
You will remember last week when we talked about verse 6 we noted
that Paul thanked God and commended the Thessalonians that they
had imitated him, that they had imitated their Lord, especially in
receiving the Word even through suffering, and theyd done it with
joy. Well, he picks up on that thought of their imitation and verses 7
and 8 he shows us, he describes to us, the change that the Gospel
had worked in them and it's a change that had led them to having a
reputation amongst the other Christians and even the larger
community in Macedonia and Achaia and some of the other places
where Paul was going to preach. And he's thanking God for that.
They had a reputation that had preceded them and it was a good
reputation. And Paul would start to tell people about it and the
people would say, We've already heard about it. And Paul,

especially in verses 7 and 8 and a little bit in verse 9, will describe

that reputation, the change that God had worked in them by the Holy
Spirit that people had heard about. So be on the lookout for that.
Then also in verse 9 he will describe conversion. He gives a
sentence that's one of the best descriptions of conversion that youll
find in all of the New Testament. What happens when conversion
happens in a person's life? Well he describes it in verse 9, especially
in the final clause there in verse 9. Well look at that. And then finally
he describes how they are living. Youll see that in verse 10. So as
we read through this passage, well read from verses 6 all the way to
10, well focus on verses 7 and 10, but I hope youll allow me to go
back and pull just a couple of things out of verse 6 just for the flow of
Paul's thought. But be on the lookout for this description of the
change that God has worked in them, this description of conversion,
and then this description of how they are living.
Let's pray before we read God's Word.
Lord, this is Your Word. We live not by bread alone but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God. So like the Thessalonians of
old, help us, O God, not to receive this Word as merely the words of
men but for what it is, the very Word of God. This isn't just Paul
writing two thousand years ago, it's Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit
writing the Word of God to us, so help us to receive it that way. Open
our eyes by the Spirit to understand it and to believe and to embrace
it. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.
This is the Word of God beginning in verse 6:

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 Achaia, but your faith in God 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 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.
Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and
inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.
A couple of months ago, a group of about eight thousand pastors
and church leaders met in Louisville, Kentucky at a gathering called,
Together for the Gospel. The theme was The Underestimated
Gospel, and one of our concerns was to make sure that even those
who preach the Gospel don't fall into the trap of underestimating its
power. The Gospel has the power to change lives. To illustrate that,
many of the sessions were opened with testimonies of Christians
who had been dramatically converted and their lives had been
dramatically changed by the power of the Gospel. One of the ones
that struck me most was a young pastor's wife who, along with her
husband, were about to take up the charge in a small church in
Indiana. She grew up in Arkansas and she lived a life of promiscuity
and alcohol and drug abuse. She became pregnant out of wedlock
with the man who became her husband. They were involved in the
distribution of drugs and in fact on one occasion, they were having a
drug party at their house with their infant child present. That's the

kind of life they were living. And a Christian woman shared the
Gospel with her and got her to church and she came to faith in Christ
and he came to faith in Christ and their lives were dramatically
changed. And now theyre a Baptist pastor and Baptist pastor's wife,
ministering to a congregation of Bible-believing Christians in Indiana.
And we said there's the power of the Gospel at work in the lives of
people whose lives were a mess dramatically changed and
transformed.
And Paul's talking about that kind of power here, you understand.
Paul is saying to the Thessalonians, I thank God that I've seen the
power of the Gospel at work in your lives. And it's not just me; word
has gotten out! When I'm in Macedonia, when I'm in Achaia, even
when I'm in other places, Ill get ready to tell people, Let me tell you
the Gospel has power. Let me give you an illustration. There's this
church in Thessalonica and people will say, Oh no, we've already
heard about that, Paul. We've heard about what's happening among
those people. We've heard about how the Gospel has changed their
lives. So before he can even get the words out of his mouth people
are already saying, Oh, we've heard! And Paul is thanking God for
that and he's commending and encouraging the Thessalonians with
that and in the course of doing that, I want you to see three things in
this passage. First of all, I want you to see how the Gospel is made
visible in the church. Secondly, I want you to see what conversion
entails. And then third, I want you to see the life that converted
believers in the church live in light of the Gospel.
THE CHURCH MAKES THE GOSPEL VISIBLE
So the first thing I want you to see youll see especially in verses 7
and 8. But go ahead and dip back into verse 6 because what Paul is

going to say here this is a little sentence but it's big with truth
what Paul is going to say here in verses 7 and 8 is that the church
makes the Gospel visible. The Gospel is made visible in the church.
Now the Gospel we stressed last week comes by hearing. Paul says
in Romans 10, Faith comes by hearing. The Gospel has to be
shared with words. You can't share the Gospel wordlessly because
the Gospel is an announcement. It's not something that we do. It's
about what God does and so you have to speak it; you can't do it.
We didn't do the Gospel; we don't do the Gospel. God did the
Gospel and we have to tell other people about what God did. That's
why you have to use words to share the Gospel. But the Gospel
does not merely come in words, it comes in power and it results in
transformed lives. And so in the church we are to see the glorious
effect of the Gospel at work in people's lives. And in that sense, the
church makes the Gospel visible. In the church, the power of the
Gospel in what it does, in how it transforms us and how it changes
us, is made visible to others, and that way they know these people
aren't just talking, what theyre talking about has validity and reality. It
has an impact - a dramatic change results from what the Gospel
says and brings. In the congregation, the glorious reality created by
the Holy Spirit in the Gospel is manifested to the watching world.
And Paul catalogues how that happened amongst the
Thessalonians. And he says five or six things. Look back at verse 6.
First of all, he said, here's one way that the Gospel was
manifested. You became imitators of us. You became imitators of
us, he says in verse 6. Have you ever been around a Christian and
you say, maybe you don't even say it out loud but you do say it to
yourself, you say, When I grow up, I want to be a Christian like that.
When I grow up I want to be a Christian like him; I want to be a

Christian like her. Have you ever been around a Christian like that? I
hope you have. That's one of the great encouragements of life to be
around people who so manifest the reality of the Gospel that it
motivates us to be more Christ-like. And Paul says that's exactly
what happened with the Thessalonians. After Paul and his church
planting team came in they were only there for three weeks
suddenly people who had been pagans are saying, I want to live like
that. I want to be like them. I want my life to look like their lives look.
They became imitators of Paul, but not only that, of the Lord. Look at
verse 6. You became imitators of us and of the Lord. You know,
Paul, throughout the New Testament, is constantly calling on
Christians to follow after Jesus example. Now Jesus is not just an
example to us. The Gospel is not, Jesus has set a good example
be good. If that's the Gospel we're all in trouble. The Gospel is
about what Jesus has done for us that we could not do and would
not do for ourselves. But having declared the glorious truth of Jesus
and His person and work, what He's done for us on the cross, so
often Paul and the other writers of the New Testament encourage us
to follow Jesus example. So for instance he will say to the
Philippians in Philippians chapter 2 verse 5, Have this attitude in
yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. So in that passage he's
encouraging the Philippians not to be selfish and prideful but to be
humble and giving like Jesus. Or, Paul will tell the Corinthians in 2
Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9, Though He was rich, yet He became
poor for your sakes that You might become rich in Him. And hell say
that in order to encourage the Corinthians to be generous in their
giving the way that Jesus had been generous in giving Himself. So
over and over in the New Testament you will see Paul and other
writers pointing to Jesus and encouraging believers to follow specific

aspects of His behavior as their example. And Paul's saying, You

did that, Thessalonians. You not only imitated us, you sought to
imitate Jesus.
And then third, look what else he says. Were still in verse 6. They
received the Word even through affliction. Even though becoming
Christians cost them dearly they were persecuted and afflicted
because they received the Word. In other words, because they
believed the Gospel they had a lot of trouble for it. It's very
interesting. These are pagans. These are polytheistic idolaters and
the Romans had no problem with you adding another god to your
personal pantheon. But when you started to say that all the other
gods were false and only this God that youre now worshiping is true,
you got in trouble. And that's what happened to these
Thessalonians. There were people that did not appreciate what it
was that they were now believing, having received that from the
apostle Paul. And they had a lot of affliction. And Paul said, You
believed anyway. You didn't believe the Gospel because it meant
Easy Street for you. You believed the Gospel even though affliction.
But he says something else as well. This is the fourth thing he says.
He says, You received the Word even through affliction but you did it
with joy, which is so like Paul and it's so like Jesus. You remember
the picture of Paul and Silas in the Philippians jail? They've been
beaten to a pulp and theyre awaiting arraignment and what are they
doing at midnight? They are singing hymns! Is that not a picture of
trusting God through affliction with joy? And who's that like? It's like
Jesus. What does the author of Hebrews say in Hebrews 12, the
very first verses? That our Lord Jesus Christ endured the cross,
despising the shame, for the joy set before Him. And Paul's saying,

You all are imitating us, and youre imitating your Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ in that way too, that even in your trials, even in your
afflictions there is joy.
And then he goes on to say, and here's the fifth thing. Look at verse
7 So that you became an example. So they imitated Paul and
Jesus and word got out about that - and guess what happened?
Other Christians started saying, We want to be like them! Isn't that
interesting? They see Paul and they say, We want to be like him.
They hear about Jesus and they say, We want to be like him. And
then other Christians see them and they say, We want to be like
them. They went from being imitators to being examples. So other
Christians now are saying, We want to imitate them.
And then, sixth, look at what Paul says, verse 8 For not only has
the Word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and
Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we
need not say anything. Paul's not saying that he doesn't need to
preach the Gospel anymore because they've been changed; he's
saying that, I can hardly go anywhere in this region and tell your
story without someone interrupting me and saying, I've already
heard about that, Paul. And what Paul is saying is that it's opened
the door for fruitful Gospel witness because now, When I go out,
people know that the Gospel comes with power. They know that the
Gospel comes with power. So theyre sitting on the edge of their seat
when I'm preaching the Gospel because they know the Word that I'm
preaching has resulted in a dramatic transformation in you. Your
reputation has gone forth. There are lots of people who know how
you've been changed by the Gospel.

So here's what I want to ask you, First Presbyterian Church I

wonder what they would say out there about what's going on in here.
How is the Gospel dramatically changing us? Paul's commending
and encouraging the Thessalonians and he's thanking God for the
change that has been manifested. How's the Gospel changing us?
Paul's describing here how the church makes the Gospel visible. In
the church, the power of the Gospel is manifested in the
transformation that it brings about in people's lives. How's that
showing for us?
A few years ago, our friend, Mark Dever, who's the pastor at the
Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., was talking with the
pastor of a small church here in the south. This man pastors I say
a small church; it's probably the largest church in his community but
he pastors in a small town four or five thousand people. And in
the course of the conversation the man said to Mark, We've had two
hundred baptisms at the church in this last year. Now understand
this is a Baptist church. It doesn't mean baptisms like this; it means
adult baptisms by profession of faith. That's supposed to mean that
people's lives have been changed and their coming to faith in Jesus
Christ and that there's a transformation there. And so Mark asked
that guy, when he says, We've had four hundred baptisms, he says,
You must have set your town on it's ear! And the brother says back
to him, I don't know what youre talking about. And Mark says, Wait
a second. You've got four or five thousand people in your town.
Youre telling me that two hundred people have been converted to
the Lord and not everybody is talking about it?
It was a very interesting conversation. We could go all sorts of
directions with that, but here's what I want you to understand. Mark

was expecting that if those two hundred baptisms represented

conversions to Christ in a town of four or five thousand, there are
going to be a few people who hear about that and theyre going to be
saying, Boy, the Lord's doing something in that church! People's
lives are being changed! Well look, Presbyterians believe in
conversion too and we believe in lives being changed, so I wonder
what theyd say about us out there? What's the Lord up to in that
congregation? How's the Gospel being made visible in that
congregation? Now I understand that ultimately we can't project or
perception or our reputation to the community. In fact, I'm sure that if
we went to Thessalonica we would have met some people in
Thessalonica who would have looked over at that group of
Thessalonians Christians and said, Those people are a bunch of
nuts! I'm sure we would have found those. So the question I'm
asking you is not ultimately about public relations or marketing. It's
about the perception of the reality of what's going on here. Do we
see the Gospel being manifested in changed lives, and if we don't,
we need to ask why not.
THE ESSENCE OF CONVERSION IS TURNING
FROM IDOLATRY TO TRUE WORSHIP
Here's the second thing I want you to see. Youll see this especially
in verse 9. I love how Paul describes conversion here. 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. Now the New Testament has all sorts of ways that it
summarizes what conversion is. It can talk about our going from
death to life. Think about Ephesians 1. You were dead in your
trespasses and sins but God made you alive together in Christ. You

get the same kind of language when Jesus is talking to Nicodemus

in John chapter 3. So there is images like from darkness to light
from death to life from being dead to being born anew or from
above or born again. Therere all these summaries and pictures of
what conversion involves. Well here's one of them You turned
from idolatry to serve the living and true God. Isn't that a glorious
description of conversion?
Now in this context, of course, these people really were pagan
idolaters, and by the way, this phrase probably indicates that most of
this congregation was Gentile. You wouldn't have said this about a
Jewish congregation. They weren't idol worshipers in Paul's day, as it
were. But these pagan Gentile Thessalonians were. They were idol
worshipers. And they turned from those idols to the living and the
true God. But idol worship is not restricted to people who are pagan
polytheists. All of us struggle with idolatry. Idolatry is a universal and
perennial sin. It is a fundamental sin. It's a foundational sin that all of
us fight against. And I wonder if this could be said of us, that we
have turned from our idols to serve the living and true God? Would
that be one thing that people could say about us? You know,
Something's going on at First Presbyterian Church because they've
turned from their idols to serve the living and the true God. Theyre
not just following like lemmings over the cliff, the culture around them
in Jackson, Mississippi, going after the things that everybody else is
going after. They've turned from those idols to serve the living and
the true God. Would they say that about us?
Now I thought about listing some of those idols, you know, list six of
them or nine of them or twelve of them that we might be going after
without even realizing that we're going after. But I figured if I did that,

even if I listed twelve, you might come away from that saying,
Whew, none of those twelve were mine so maybe I don't have a
problem with idolatry. So I think what I'm going to do instead is ask
you three questions you can ask yourself to identify what your idols
are because we all have them. And here are my three questions.
The first one is this: What do you think about? Derek used to ask this
question to us in this way: What do you think about when youre not
thinking about anything else? And what I mean by that is, you know,
in those moments when you are frustrated and disappointed by
something and you seek escape in your thoughts, typically what
youre thinking about is designed to give you relief from whatever
your frustration and your disappointment is. It gives you pleasure, it
gives you satisfaction, it gives you security. What do you think about
in those moments? It might be right before you fall asleep at night.
You know, youre trying to escape from the problems of the day and
in your mind youre dreaming, youre wishing, youre fantasying about
something, about someone, about some desire. What do you think
about? What are the things in those quiet moments when youre
away from the press of the immediate demand and the fight of the
day, what is that thing that you think about that gives you hope and
delight? When you begin to identify that thing or those things, youre
coming close to identifying your idols.
Here's a second question: How do you spend your time, your
resources, and your energy? How do you spend your time, your
resources, and your energy? Because when you look at those three
things and you ask that question, youre going to see the things that
you really care about. You know twenty years ago I can remember
sociologists saying that a day is going to come when people value
time, their time, more than they value money, and I thought that was

crazy. And I'm really understanding that more and more now. Maybe
it's because I'm older, maybe it's because of the rush of the culture
that we're in, but time and resources and energy, those are precious
things. We have a finite amount of those, no matter how much we
have. And how you use those things indicates what you really value
because typically you spend your time and your resources and your
energy on the things that you care about the most. And so if youll
ask that question youll probably be able to identify some of your
idols. What do I spend my time on? What do I spend my money on?
What do I spend my energy on?
And then third, ask yourself the question: What disappoints me?
What are my disappointments? What absolutely crushes me with
disappointment? And chances are, if you answer that question
honestly of yourself youre going to find an idol. There's going to be
something that you think that you need to have or something that you
desperately want to have that you don't have and youre disappointed
by it. It may be a situation that you have in your life that you don't
want. It may be a situation that you do not have in your life that you
do want. And you are crushingly disappointed by it. It may have to do
with your family life. It may have to do with your vocation. It may have
to do with your children or your parents, but you are disappointed by
it. And if youll think about it for a while, you may well be able to
identify your idols.
Those are three ways to identify your idols, but every it is true of
every converted believer, of every Christian, that we have turned
from our idols to serve the living and true God. It doesn't mean that
our battle with idolatry ends, but it should mean, it should mean that
people can tell that we are worshipers of God ultimately rather than

worshipers of anything else. An idol is anything, anything in which we

think we can get ultimate security and satisfaction apart from God, or
from better than God. We are setting that up as our ultimate source
of satisfaction and security and we all struggle with that idolatry. You
know, when people around looked at the Thessalonian Christians
they could tell, Youre no longer idol worshipers. You really believe
that God alone is to be worshiped and He is the source of your
security and satisfaction. Now we may not have statues in our
homes or in our cars or in our purses to put away like pagan
idolaters but we've all got idols to put away. So would people look
and say, Yep, those Christians at First Presbyterian Church
Jackson, they've turned from idols to serve the living and the true
God?
LIVING LIFE IN LIGHT OF JESUS RETURN
Third, in this passage, Paul makes it clear that the Thessalonians
were living life in light of Jesus return. Listen to the language that he
used. They turned to God from idols to serve the living and true
God, verse 10, and to wait for His Son from heaven whom He
raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to
come. Did you hear what he said? One of the ways that people saw
that the Thessalonians lives had been changed by the Gospel is that
they were now living life in light of Jesus return. They were waiting
expectantly for the return of the Lord. This does not mean that they
were pie in the sky by and by. What it means is that their life now
was changed because of their confident expectation that Jesus is
going to come again.
And look at what it says that Jesus was going to do when He came.
It's very interesting. Now see if you can remember the last verse that

Josh read from Revelation 6. No peeking yet! And then listen to this
phrase in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 10. Jesus who delivers us from
the wrath to come. Now what was the last verse that Josh read?
When Jesus comes, what is the world going to face? Revelation
6 says, The wrath of the Lamb. But these Thessalonians are
confident that they will not face the wrath of the Lamb because
Jesus has delivered them from the wrath of the Lamb. How? By
bearing that wrath for them, and thus, though they look for a day
when God is going to come and set everything right and punish
every sin and bring about a just judgment of all wickedness, yet they
are not going to face that wrath because Jesus has died for them.
And they long for Jesus to return because they know that He will
deliver them in that day and they live their lives in that light. It's
changed their ambitions, it's changed their desires, it's changed their
behaviors, it's changed their worship.
Would people say that about us? About you? About me? It would kill
me if you did not think that the Gospel made a difference in the way
that I lived. It hugely encourages me when I see people in the
congregation for whom the Gospel has made an enormous
difference in the way that you live. One of the great ways that we
bear witness to the watching world that the Gospel is true is in the
way that the Gospel transforms our lives and sets us free from
idolatry to serve the living and true God. So even as Paul
encourages the Thessalonians and thanks God for them, we're
learning something that ought to be our aspiration. Lord, we want to
be freed from idolatry to serve You because Youre the only living
and true God and we want people around us, our loved ones, our
friends, our neighbors, our colleagues at work, to know that the
Gospel has changed us so that theyre saying, Something's going

on over there among the saints at First Presbyterian Church. God is

doing something there.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Gospel. We ask, O Lord, that
You would be at work in us in such a way as to change us and that
that would make the Gospel visible in our congregation in such a
way that other Christians and even unbelievers would know that the
Gospel is not merely words but it comes with power. It is the power
of God unto salvation for all who believe. We ask this in Jesus'
name, amen.
Psalm 1 is about a person whose life has been changed by God and
who now loves the Word. Let's sing from our hymnals, number 558.
It's a version of Psalm 1, That Man is Blest Who Fearing God.
Receive now the Lord's blessing. Grace, mercy, and peace to you
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.