Latest / Prodigal Hope / The Word No Man Can Silence (1 Thessalonians 1, Acts 17)

Transcript

The Word No Man Can Silence (1 Thessalonians 1, Acts 17) · Prodigal Hope

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: We are embarking this morning on a brand new series, sermon series.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: We got done with Exodus several weeks ago, spent some time hopping around.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And now we are ready, I think, to embark on a new study, a new series.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to go through both of these letters that Paul wrote to the church
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: at Thessalonica, both 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps some letters that you are not super...
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think especially these two letters,
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: if you read them all the way through and you find out what they're actually talking
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: about, you'll find out that these are very, very relevant to where we are.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Both of these letters I think serve as incredible examples of what happens,
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: of what can happen when the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached unapologetically.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: No amount of hedging,
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: no amount of reserve,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: no amount of sort of couching it in any sort of political correctness if you will
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: or anything like that.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: But just preached straight.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, what you're going to find is both of these letters are deeply pastoral.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think you see some of Paul's pastoral hearts here more than any other place.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: But they're also deeply practical.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I say that especially since what you're going to find,
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: if you read these letters,
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: you're not going to find really long discourses or sections that deal with
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: the finer points of what it means to be justified in the sight of God.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like you would find in Romans or like you would find in Galatians.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're not going to find that.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're also not going to find maybe like in places like Colossians or Philippians
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: where Paul is seeking to make sure that their doctrine of Christ,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: their Christology has all of the nuances that it needs to have.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't do that.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean, of course, that those things are unimportant.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, by no means.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: It just means that when Paul is writing both of these letters to this church,
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: to the elders and the congregation and all the members of these churches,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: he's addressing them very specifically.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: These were letters that were written with a specific aim and bend for a specific people.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Also, it's just the fact that Paul didn't need to include a systematic theology
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: in every letter that he ever wrote.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, these letters aren't theological essays in that sense.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul knew his audience.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he knew what they needed to hear.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at the whole scope of both 1 and 2 Thessalonians,
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: it's going to reveal a very hands-on focus for this church.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Case in point, I did the math.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you add up both of these letters,
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: what you're going to find is both of them are made up of roughly 136 verses.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, not roughly, 136 verses.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And, depending on how you interpret some of them,
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: but approximately one third of them,
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: around 30% of 136 verses,
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: deal with eschatology,
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: which is just the big fancy word for end of all things kind of stuff.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation,
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: John's revelation that you would find in the book of Revelation,
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: you kind of find some of those things dealt with here in both letters.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very strong emphasis.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Which is to say,
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: it's easy,
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: to get a picture of what was on the minds of the Thessalonians just by looking
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: at what Paul is talking about.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And indeed,
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: you could say,
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: you could find sort of these questions that seem to reach out from the text
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: and just grab you.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: What do we do when the end of the world comes?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: What's our job?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: What's our responsibility?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is that already here, Paul?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Did we miss it?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Did we miss the end of all things?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Did we miss that?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: What's our approach?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: When the end of the world approaches,
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: when it draws near,
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: what should the church's posture be when the end of
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: the world seems like it's right around the corner?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Those are,
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: some of the questions that seem to pervade both of these letters,
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: questions that Paul seeks to answer.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's very telling because I think the church is still asking those questions now.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're still in the midst of asking some of those same exact questions,
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: which again is why I think both of these letters are so incredibly relevant.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's also to say this,
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: that even despite seemingly Paul,
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: and some Bible scholars will try and draw a line sometimes in the midst
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: of Paul's writings as if this is quote unquote early Paul and then there's
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: a later Paul and Paul seems to change along the way.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really see that.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to do like sort of get into the nitty gritty,
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: this is probably Paul's second letter that he ever wrote.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think the first letter was Galatians.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote that right around,
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: right before,
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: right after the Jerusalem Council, Acts chapter 15, all that kind of stuff.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this one is probably right after that.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is meaning is this his second letter that he's written and mailed to a church.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul hasn't changed his message.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: He knows, again, what this church needs.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: He has not just suddenly set aside what he says in Corinth.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Remember what he says in Corinth?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I decided to know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: But he's not setting that aside in order to talk about other more important things
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: when he gets to Thessalonica.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Especially since he's writing this letter from Corinth, by the way.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact,
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: what I hope to show you this morning as we sort of wade
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: into this series is just this,
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: is that it's precisely that message that Paul says elsewhere.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: I just I know nothing among you except Christ being crucified.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's the message that undergirds everything that he's about to say.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's the underpinning of everything that Paul wants to convey and communicate.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's in the background, so to speak.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: The backdrop to Paul's admonition to hope and to strive
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: after godliness is exactly what he's just based everything on.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's the gospel of Christ dying and rising again.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: In the background, it's the foundation of everything he says.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you can actually find it, by the way, in the very opening verse of this letter.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 1 again.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, Silvanus, which is just the fancy word for Silas and Timothy.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: If we wanted to be fancy all the way through,
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: we would call him Timotheus, but we're not going to do that.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul and Silas and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Notice how he phrases this.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Grace to you and peace.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're often...
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just ready to get into perhaps the body of the letter.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we skip over these greetings and we're all guilty of that to some degree or another.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: But even right here.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is using every single word specifically.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And even here he's being very pointed about how this church is gathering.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: They, these Thessalonians,
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: they were an assembly that gathered, as he says, in the name of the Lord.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: In God the Father, in the name of the Lord.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And specifically he says, the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's using all of the titles and names that he can muster for the Son of God.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, if you remember in that day and age, he is referencing who?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: The teacher of Nazareth,
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: who very lately had been brutally executed and murdered on a Roman cross.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: When you say that name,
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus Christ,
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: you are of course identifying where you belong and who you belong to.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're also saying something quite scandalous,
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: which is that that man that was nailed to a tree not too long ago
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: when Paul was writing, that that man was the Messiah.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we are an assembly of people.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, you are an assembly of people who gather.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: The reason for their gathering is that.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus is the Christ, the crucified Christ at that.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: See, even here,
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is setting the stage for what he wants to talk about by positioning them in
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: a certain and specific and indeed critical truth.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: That this is why we gather.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just something to skip over.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just something that we can move past.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, this is the underpinning.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's the foundation of everything that happens in the church.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: All of the church life,
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: it happens because Jesus died on a cross and rose again on the third day.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's why.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: You want to ask our why?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's our why.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: As he says later on in the first chapter.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: That they are a church, as he says, verse number nine, of the living and true God.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Any church that strives to have that said of them,
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: that they are a church of the living and true God,
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: also understands that they are a church that has put their trust in a Messiah
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: that was brutally nailed to a tree.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, that's what Jesus' name was so often associated with.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to play a game of name recognition, right?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say a name and you say the first thing that pops in your name.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you played that with Jesus in that day, in the first century, what would you think of?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't think of what we think of.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Savior, King.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, most often, if we were to ask some random citizen...
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: What did you think of that Jesus from Nazareth who hailed from Galilee?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Blasphemer?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Insurrectionist?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Those were the rumors that were surrounding Jesus' name.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he was put on a cross in a charge of blasphemy and a charge
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: of insurrection and scandal followed his name.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what his name was associated with.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, despite all of that, what do we find?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: As elsewhere Paul talks to Timothy,
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: in the letter to Timothy, he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of what he means.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because Paul doesn't let any of those things allow him to be unafraid or unashamed
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: of what he is preaching,
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: of what he is living for, of what he has been put on this planet to do.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, as we find out, the Thessalonians, they were unashamed of it either.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, For we,
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: that we,
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: is Silas and Timothy along with Paul,
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: we know,
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: we are confident of this,
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: we know, brothers loved by God, that he, God, has chosen you.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because our gospel.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Came to you not only in word, but also in power.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good word.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Circle that for later.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And in the Holy Spirit with full conviction, namely full assurance.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: We are fully assured that when you receive the gospel, you received it for real.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was a genuine reception and acceptance and embrace of faith of what we preached.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: We don't doubt that.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: We saw it.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: We saw it firsthand.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: We know, he says.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are confident.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: We can see in your lives the Holy Spirit at work.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: We can see what he's doing in you in the wholehearted reception that you gave to the gospel.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: When it sounded forth from Paul's lips,
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: it resulted in this church that was quickly assured of its standing in Christ
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: and its calling because of Christ.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And namely we can say this, that this wasn't because of Paul.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: This wasn't because of something that he did.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't because he was so witty and charismatic and eloquent
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: that he had everything going for him.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Nor was this a credit to Silas or Timothy.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: No, as we find out, this just seismic outpouring.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And repentance that happened in this church,
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: which as Paul says, remember he says in verse number eight, he says, where is it?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: For not only has this word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then he adds this sort of really,
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: we could say tongue in cheek remark so that we need not say anything.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: We don't even need to preach because you guys are our sermons everywhere.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, Paul's not going to start preaching, but you can see what he's saying.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's emphasizing this church's reputation that because of the gospel,
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: the gospel is going forth out of them from them.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: What was that owed to?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's the word and the spirit of God.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Again, verse four.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: For we know,
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: brothers loved by God,
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you,
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And with full conviction,
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: the word and spirit of God just poured,
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: it surged through that congregation in such a profound and true way.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: They heard the preaching of the gospel.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: They heard it and they received it.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it led to this amazing transformation as we find out at the end of the chapter
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: that they're turning from idols.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: They are turning from their old former selves, their old lives.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they're turning to, as he says, the living and the true God.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what makes this all the more remarkable,
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: is that this reception of the gospel came in the midst
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: of very horrible circumstances.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Again, Paul alludes to this, verse number six.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you became imitators,
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: you became followers of us and the Lord,
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Their faith...
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: As Paul is saying.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Was forged amid intense pressure.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's what that word much affliction sort of conveys.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like being put in a vice grip.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Things are just cramping down on you.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Pressure is increasing.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: It is intensifying.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: They are under scrutiny.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can indeed say that this church was baptized by fire.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Considering what was going on around them.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jump ahead.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 1.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says the same thing basically.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't by happenstance.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't by accident, he's saying.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi,
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: as you know,
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: of much conflict.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Conflict.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Affliction, pressure.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: So he begs the question, what in the world was going on at Thessalonica?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: What was happening?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, for that,
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: keep your finger in Thessalonians,
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: but also now turn to the book of Acts, chapter number 17.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: You may know this,
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: many of the letters that you find in the New Testament written
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: by Paul also have backstories in the book of Acts that Luke records
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And here we find the back story in chapter number 17, the first ten odd verses.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just as a way of segueing into this,
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: you don't have to go there,
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: but chapter 15 of Acts records the Jerusalem Council,
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: which is where many of the early church leaders had to make a decision in terms of
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: the controversies regarding justification, especially from the Gentiles.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do they have to follow all these rights and rituals that the Jews do?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And of course they came to the answer of no.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: We are justified by faith alone.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, there was this little disagreement between Paul and Barnabas.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not really little, but it seismically changed the course of the church.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Paul and Barnabas had a falling out.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Paul then took Silas with him,
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: and they went on a second missionary journey right after the Jerusalem Council.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And where did they go?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, of course, they went to the same churches that they went on the first missionary journey.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Again, to reemphasize what the council had just decreed.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Things were going well.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you read chapter 16, there's lots of movement and ministry happening in those churches.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: They end up picking up Timothy with them, this man who was well regarded by those around him.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: And ministry, we could say, was going swimmingly.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Things were going quite well.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul has a mind to go further into Asia and bring this news everywhere he goes.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And of course if you read that chapter you know that he is prevented from doing so.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: It says that he was stopped by the Holy Spirit.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: He was stopped from going into that region.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he's diverted into what we would know as Eastern Europe.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Through what of course is called the Macedonian call or the Macedonian vision.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: He gets this vision of this man needing help.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they end up in Philippi.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: A church gets established despite Paul and Silas spending a good deal of time in prison.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's Acts chapter 16.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: And now they arrive here because they leave Philippi
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: and they end up venturing further into Macedonia where they arrive at Thessalonica,
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: verse 1.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia,
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thessalonica...
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Was a sprawling city.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: A city that sat strategically along what is called the Ignatian Way or the Via Ignatia.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Which was this ancient highway of sorts that connected Rome basically to the rest of the world.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: The known world at that time.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was strategically situated there but also along the Aegean Sea.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Which means it was a city that was full of business and busyness.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it makes sense why Paul would pick a spot like this to start a church
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: because it had multiple opportunities for the word that is there to be spread all
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: over the known world.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thessalonica was also a very proud city,
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: a very prosperous city with deep, deep roots and allegiances to Caesar.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was a city that was full of merchants who were traveling here, there, and yon.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was full of ideas about religion and spirituality and busy lives.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can think like a good proxy for Thessalonica would be New York City.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just full of life and busyness.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And yet Paul was determined to bring the gospel there.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so, of course, what does he do?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: His habit was to go into a town and to start preaching the gospel by going to the synagogue.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what he does.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: For three straight weeks, he starts preaching a series of sermons.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And notice, what is he preaching about?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Verse number two.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul went in,
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: as was his custom,
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: and on three Sabbath days he reasoned,
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he reasoned with them from the scriptures explaining and proving
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: the dead saying this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: What a great summary of what Paul is known for.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because again,
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: he doesn't have Romans,
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: he doesn't have the Gospels,
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: he doesn't have any of what we would call the New Testament.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: To say, hey, let me show you about Jesus.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, where is he going?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to the Old Testament books.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Psalms.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to them and from them showing this church, hey,
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: that Jesus that you heard rumored about who had some followers and
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: then he was betrayed by one of his followers and he was put on a cross.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus, he is the Christ.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: He is the Messiah.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: He is not in a grave anymore.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was there for three days and then he rose and he is in heaven reigning.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: That was Paul's message.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he shows them, as he says, how it was, did you notice that word?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: How it was necessary that all of this unfold in this manner.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: All of the atrocities of the cross.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: All of that was leading to the resurrection from which we derive our hope of salvation.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Our life forevermore.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is the incredible news that Paul is preaching today.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: The necessity of the cross and the resurrection.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: What a great theme.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, he's not making this up.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, keep your finger there really quick.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: But go to Luke chapter 9.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to come back to Luke chapter 9 at the end in a little bit.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: But go to Luke chapter 9 and notice this phrase.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because of course, Paul is getting all this because this is the truth of the gospel.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Luke 9, chapter 9.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse number 22.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Look what Jesus says.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: It says the son of man,
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is talking to his disciples, must,
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: circle that word,
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Flip over to chapter number 17.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Luke 17, look at verse 25.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find the same thing reiterated.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus speaking again.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: But first, he,
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: referring to himself, must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then culminating all the way at the end of the book,
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: look at chapter number 24 and look at verse 46.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Luke 24, 46, one of my favorite chapters and favorite scenes in all of scripture.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what does he say to his disciples?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is after his resurrection, after the Emmaus Road.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's with his apostles.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're in this room.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what does he say to them?
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 45, he says, Then he opened their minds.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Light bulb went off.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: He opened their minds so that they could finally understand what the Bible is about.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: So they could understand the scriptures.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to them,
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: the dead.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: A.K.A.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is preaching to the Thessalonians what is the message of Christ.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: The necessity of the cross and the hope of the resurrection which is the hope of our salvation.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Christ crucified and risen again.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he's preaching.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is the word.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is the word that the Thessalonians,
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: as I said,
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: remember chapter 1 verse 5 of Thessalonians,
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: this is the word that they receive in power precisely because the word of God,
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: the gospel, is the power of God unto salvation.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Did you circle that word in 1 Thessalonians 1?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Power.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know what that word is?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: In the Greek it's dunamis, dunamis.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Which is where we get our word dynamic or dynamism.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: That word conveys energy and life.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: The word of God is the dynamic word that does what it says.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And those who hear it, what a great hope that is.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: That they received this word with all the dynamic quality of that message.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus rising again for our hope of eternity.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the message.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: It creates faith in the hearts of these people.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: It does what it says and it changes lives.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Back in Acts chapter 17, look at what happens.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Three weeks, he's preaching.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Look at what happens as a result of that message, of that dynamic word that he's preaching.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, and some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: As did a great many of the devout Greeks.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I love how Luke says this.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not a few, so a lot, of the leading women.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: This message is just changing lives less than right.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is bringing souls out of darkness and into light.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is causing them to have a complete change.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're hearing these incredible discourses as Paul is preaching them and saying,
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the Christ.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: And wouldn't you know that through all of this success and through everything
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: that is occurring in this town,
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: that there were some who didn't like what Paul was doing
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: and they got incredibly jealous.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: A contingent of Jews in Thessalonica,
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: in fact,
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: they see this overwhelming response to what Paul is preaching,
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: to his messages and to his sermons and to this incredible outpouring of faith
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: and repentance.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they are swiftly overcome with just bitterness.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it prompts them to just set the whole city in an uproar.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, but the Jews were jealous of Luke just puts it bluntly.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't sort of try and make it better.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, they're just flat out jealous.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And taking some of the wicked men of the rabble,
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: they formed a mob,
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: set the city in an uproar,
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And when they could not find them,
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities,
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: shouting,
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: and Jason has received them.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying, There is another king, Jesus.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: These high and mighty men,
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Jewish authorities,
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: they are just seething with envy and hatred at what Paul is preaching.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Remember what he says to the Corinthians?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Remember what he says in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: That people are going to hate this message.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like foolishness.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a stumbling block, he says, when he preaches about the cross.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Here, you're seeing it acted out in real life.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: They can't get over what he's saying.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: A Messiah crucified?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's our Messiah?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's not our Messiah.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: They hate him for what he's preaching.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so they head to the city square and they find a bunch of guys that can be easily riled up.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, this guy is saying something.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do we want to go attack his house?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, let's go attack his house.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Wicked men of the rabble.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're just there waiting to get riled up.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they do.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: They get riled up and they march on the home of Jason,
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: which happens to be where Paul and Silas and his team were being hosted.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: But they're not there.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so what do they do?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Spur of the moment, well, let's just take Jason with us.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's drag him with us.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's got an answer for this too.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: So they drag him to the courthouse, so to speak.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: They accused Jason of aiding and abetting that rabble-rousing preacher Paul.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: That good-for-nothing Paul who had just so disturbed the peace of this city with his preaching.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Which is hilarious, of course.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Their claim is that he had been turning the world...
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Upside down.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: By what?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: What was he doing exactly?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: What was Paul doing to earn this claim?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Preaching that Jesus was the Christ.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that because of his resurrection, sinners have hope.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the world is guaranteed that there's a King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he's preaching.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: They couldn't grapple with that.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And remember what we preached on a couple weeks ago,
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: the riot of Ephesus, which is just a few chapters after this.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: As with that riot,
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: this same riot at Thessalonica,
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: we note that it was prompted, it was precipitated by nothing but preaching.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Preaching the gospel.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: You want to make a stir in people's lives, tell them about Jesus.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: The only name under heaven by which men and women are saved.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: We can indeed say that the only thing being disturbed in Thessalonica wasn't
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: the peace of Thessalonica.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, it was men's consciences.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: What's being disturbed?
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: What's being upset?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: These men are coming under conviction.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's what's happening.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is convicting them and they are stiff army.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: No,
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: They're resisting.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're resisting.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is what happens when the gospel sounds forth, when preaching Sounds forth.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: It is dynamic.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: The gospel is a word of power.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's dynamic.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not because of us.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's not because we're so eloquent and smart and so polished with what we're saying.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, the dynamism is not with me or anyone.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's not with the messenger.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's because of God's word and it is communicated to God's people through God's spirit.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Who, as we know from scripture, ensures that the word of God never returns void.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's because of him.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's not me.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not Paul.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Paul wouldn't seek credit for this, by the way.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: No, whatever is achieved as a result of the gospel has nothing to do with us.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's God's spirit.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: He is the one that's accomplishing this.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: It is always an accomplishment of God's spirit doing what he has promised to do.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Namely what?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Bring the word of the gospel into the ears and the hearts of sinners.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he does.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what changes them as we find out.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Verse number 9 of 1 Thessalonians.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have to get there.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: The word of the gospel not only turned them around, it turned them upside down.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is what the gospel does.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is what preaching Jesus and all of the fullness of the cross does.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the Thessalonian authorities,
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: back in Acts chapter 17, really quick, they can't really do anything about it.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Remember at Ephesus, we preached this a couple weeks ago.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Remember at Ephesus,
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: that riot just kind of like fizzles out because they don't have anything really
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: to like charge the people with.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing here.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is Acts 17 verse 8.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the people in the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: They basically make Jason post bail.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Give us some bail money.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: We'll let you go.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Jason does that.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: He posts Baal and then he goes and he finds Paul and Silas and he sneaks them out of the city.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: Verse number 10.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue and Paul starts preaching again.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: So they go away by night.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Not what had been planned.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, Paul conveys this in the book of 1 Thessalonians.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: He conveys that this was not his idea.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: He did not want this.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: He did not want to be ripped out of that city because it was premature.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: There was still much to do.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Thessalonians,
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: if you're back there, 2 verse 17, he says, But since we were torn away from you.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: When he says that, that's what he's conveying.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: That this...
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Mob.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: They forced my hand.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: I did not want to leave.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to stay with you.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: My hand was forced, though, because of circumstances.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, what do we find?
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: As we're going to get into in later chapters,
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: Paul gets a report from Timothy, and this church was flourishing anyways.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Despite the circumstances.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Pressure,
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: intensity,
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: distress, being put in a vice grip of affliction and conflict despite that.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Despite Paul not being there physically,
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: present in order to shepherd them further,
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: in order to mature them and bring them deeper into the gospel.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: He got maybe a rough good estimate, maybe two months with them.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Three weeks of preaching, maybe a little less than two months.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's all he got.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Before he was ripped away.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: So how?
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: How did this church flourish?
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: How did they become a church that was known throughout the region and that
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: the reputation was going before them as a church that sounds forth the gospel?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: How?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Was it because they were just so smart and intellectual and eloquent?
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Was it because their faith was so sturdy and strong?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: The faith of the Thessalonians sounded forth precisely because it's God's word
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: that creates and preserves his church.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happens.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's preserving his church here.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's preserving the Thessalonians despite the circumstances.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so we could say this,
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: whatever influence,
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: whatever power,
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: whatever dynamic quality the church thinks that it has,
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: it's always downstream of the gospel of the crucified Savior.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: It always comes from that.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Contrary to what we naturally assume,
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: what makes a church powerful isn't It's an enormous building with illustrious sort
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: of all of these features.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a six-figure budget or seven-figure budget.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: Charismatic leaders with expensive visions and grand plans.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what makes a church powerful.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, what makes a church powerful is the word that sounds forth.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know what that word means in verse number eight?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: For it not only has The word of the Lord sounded forth.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: It literally means echoed.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or reverberated.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: It almost has this association with like a trumpet.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: When you play a trumpet, one of the things, of course, I grew up playing the trumpet.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I learned it when I was in sixth grade.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't played it in a while, so don't ask me to play it.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: It would be really bad.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: But we could make it work.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: But...
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: What you learn about it, this is a thing that always is associated with trumpets.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: What's the thing associated with trumpets?
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: That we're always loud.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are always on forte.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're always on a certain pitch and volume.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: All the trombone players, they get mad at us.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're always just the loudest ones.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: We only know one decibel.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's fine, you know.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: We like to be the stars.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm rambling about trumpet players now.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: But trumpet players are like divas.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: We always have to be the stars of the song.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: But that's kind of what this is associated with.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a trumpet blast.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: When you hear it, you know.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's a reason why, by the way, there's trumpets on battlefields.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't take out a tuba.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't be able to hear it.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, you take out a trumpet because everyone's going to hear it.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: The same thing kind of here.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: The trumpet blast of the church is the word of the gospel which echoes off the walls
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: and reverberates out of the church into the lives of those who belong to the church.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is the same gospel that called them together and it's the one that's calling them out.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: Same word.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Or it gets the power of the church.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: The energy, the dynamic quality that was shaking all of Macedonia and Achaia and beyond.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't originate with them.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't come from them.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't their power that was making the difference.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was the power of the word of God.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's what was making the difference.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what alone what makes a church and keeps a church despite the circumstances.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: We, as the church of Stonington Baptist Church in Paxinus,
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Pennsylvania,
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: we are not sustained by our ministry successes,
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: by our elaborate programs,
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: or by our very expensive building projects, or how many followers we have online.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: No, the longevity of the church and every church that is in God the Father and in
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: the Lord Jesus Christ isn't so often tied to the three B's that we often associate
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: with, which is what?
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Buildings, bodies, and bucks.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not that.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need gimmicks.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to bless your animals.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: Natalie told me about that.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: There was a church she saw there.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not picking on churches, but If you want to bless your animal, you can bless your animal.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can pray over your animal.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it will help it.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it will.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: If we had a blessing of an animal service, is that going to be what sustains us?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'd hasten to say no.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: The strength and the power of the church comes from living and preaching the cross.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's what changed Thessalonica.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about the words that Jesus says in Luke 9, by the way?
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: Go back to Luke 9 really quick.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to end here.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm almost done.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Luke 9.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: If I can get there too.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Luke 9.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever thought about these words though?
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually the words that come after the verse we read earlier.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's the verse where he talks about taking up your cross.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse number 23.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to all, so Jesus is speaking to all his followers...
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a betting man,
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: but I would wager that you've heard a sermon or two or more on those words.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: And yet I think the gist of what Jesus is saying is often lost.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: In our affinity for spiritual self-improvement and discipleship programs.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: As if taking up your cross is a program designed to weed out the haves from the have-nots.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Where only the ones who are strong enough can do this.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly we ought to easily twist these words into some sort of statement of pietistic bravado.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: But when Jesus says this, if you want to follow me, take up your cross.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's not summoning us to be spiritually heroic.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: What is he doing?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's inviting us to die.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he's doing.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's inviting you to follow him.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: Where?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Through the grave and into weakness.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: Since that's where he raises the dead.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: This comes on the heels of what he had just said.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: What did he just say in verse number 22?
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: That he has to, he must, it is necessary for the Son of Man to suffer these things.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: To be rejected, to be betrayed, to suffer weakness and death.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you want to follow me, that's where you have to follow me.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Weakness and death.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we mean when we talk about our faith being upside down.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't follow the logic of man.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't follow our natural gut instincts.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: It follows God's logic.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Remember what Paul says?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Again, he's writing this letter from Corinth.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: What does he say to the Corinthians?
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: That the wisdom of God is wiser than man's.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, he says the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it upsets man's wisdom.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the cross.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's where we see what?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: That weakness is strength and the cross is actually a throne.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the one who is being crucified there,
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: he is actually the king and he is going to come again.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: The king is coming again.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: That is the word that upends all of our lives and upends our priorities
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: and our values and how we live.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: What prompts us as we're going to get into in both of these letters,
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: what prompts the church to give itself away,
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: to give of what it has,
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: to live truly selflessly and to walk humbly and to help the weak and to seek
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: to do good.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: What prompts the church to do that?
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't come from us mustering up enough energy.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: We could probably do that in the short term, but that's going to fizzle out.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a flash in the pan.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: But what actually changes lives to truly live in light of that living under
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: the cross comes from that.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: The word and spirit of the crucified and risen Christ.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's the message that sounds forth.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: The word that's still sounding forth.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: See, what's amazing about all of this is that the word that turned
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: the Thessalonians upside down is the same word that's speaking to us today.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: It hasn't changed.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's speaking in the present tense.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: My friends, your sins are forgiven.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Your Savior has defeated death.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: And through his death and resurrection,
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: you are, as Paul says, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: You are brought into vital union with him.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you are loved by him.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you are chosen by him.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: That is not a word that a mob can silence.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or a riot can derail.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: No, this is the word that Lord willing, till...
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: I die that we will keep sounding forth until Jesus comes back and delivers us from
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: the wrath to come.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that's what he says in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 10.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: At the very end he says, well I'll read verse 9.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: And how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: And to wait for his son from heaven.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: Whom he raised, whom he resurrected from the dead.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's coming again.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's coming to carry us home.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we preach this word and our posture is what?
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is the word that steadies and stabilizes the church.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's the word that we sound forth.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: May we never silence that word.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.