Transcript Document

Presentation 01
Presentation 01
Introduction
On the bark of quite a number of the trees in
Public Parks young couples have carved their
initials. GH loves SP or DM loves TC. Their aim
is to leave a mark that tells a story of their
love. For many, leaving a mark is important,
ranging from telling people that you have
been to a certain place, or achieved a certain
goal or enjoyed a close relationship or
suffered for a particular cause.
One day we will be asked by God, “What
mark did you leave behind you”. In these
verses Paul describes the mark that he has
left behind.
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Ministry In Thessalonica
Paul left his mark in Thessalonica. He was there for three weeks and in that
time a church was planted cf. Acts 17. His preaching involved reasoning
with them. The gospel’s appeal is first to the mind and not to the emotions!
Paul’s method is seen in the use of the word ‘explaining’ in Acts 17:3. The
Greek carries the idea of ‘unravelling’; think of the messy ball of knitting
wool when a kitten has finished with it,
and the long patience needed to
untangle it.
When Paul opened the
Scriptures, his aim was to
untangle peoples’ confused
thoughts! And as a result
some were converted.
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Ministry In Thessalonica
And when they came to faith something new
became true of them. They were ‘in God the
Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ’. They now
belonged to two different worlds. ‘In
Thessalonica’, they were surrounded by ungodly
pressures and temptations; but ‘in God’ they
were also citizens of heaven with access to the
limitless resources of the Godhead.
They were equipped to leave their mark and to
shine as a light in a dark and despairing world.
Every Christian, who is conscious of the
tremendous difficulty of living a consistent and
faithful life, needs also to become conscious of
the vast resources at their disposal!
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Ministry In Thessalonica
But how had the Thessalonians gained access
into this new realm? Paul’s gospel not only
informed their minds, it stirred their hearts
and challenged their wills. It had issued a
summons to surrender! The gospel forces us
to take sides. Christ is a divider of men.
We either capitulate to Christ’s Lordship or
we defy it. And strangely, when we choose to
capitulate, we find it difficult to think that we
could have done anything else. With good
reason, those who have responded to the call
of the gospel describe it as irresistible.
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Ministry In Thessalonica
C.S. Lewis writes...
“I was going up Headington Hill on the top of a bus. Without words and (I
think) almost without images, a fact about myself was somehow
presented to me. I became aware that I was holding something at bay or
shutting something out. Or, If you like that I was wearing some stiff
clothing, like corsets or even a suit of armour, as if I were a lobster. I felt
myself being, then and there, given a free choice. I could open the door or
keep it shut; I could unbuckle the armour or keep it on. Neither choice
was presented as a duty; no threat or promise was attached to either,
though I knew that to open the door or to take of the corset meant the
incalculable. The choice appeared to be momentous, but it was also
strangely unemotional. I was moved by no desires or fears. In a sense I
was not moved by anything. I chose to open, to unbuckle, to loosen the
rein. I say ''chose' yet it did not really seem possible to do the opposite”.
Ministry In Thessalonica
This choice is no mere theoretical notion. Cf v3 which describes the work in
the Thessalonian’s faith, the labour in their love, the patience in their hope.
Genuine faith results in definite action [cf. Hebrews 11 – which records men
and women of faith who did exploits for God]. Note too the ‘wearisome toil
in which love is spent’. Love is the great motivating force for all Christian
work - love for Christ more than love for men, though
in loving Him we will love others for His sake.
This sacrificial love endures because it
is, ‘inspired by hope’. What is the great
Christian hope? The return of Jesus - a
truth that motivated their Christian
and which many in the church today
have lost sight of. Note Matt. 25.1-3
and Matt. 25.14 – in this regard.
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Ministry In Thessalonica
Now before the Thessalonians could leave
their mark on the world, Paul reminds them
that God has first left his mark on them cf
‘Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your
election’ v4 . Before they chose God, he
chose them that he might leave his mark on
them.cf Eph 1. Note that Paul’s assurance
that they belonged to God also rested, upon
the unmistakeable operation of the Spirit.
When Paul preached in Thessalonica, he
experienced an unusual degree of the Spirit’s
empowering/unction and he was conscious
that God was having his way in the hearts of
his hearers.
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Ministry In Thessalonica
The phrase ‘with deep conviction’ in v5 means
‘assurance’ rather than the convicting work of the
Holy Spirit. There is nothing more thrilling for the
preacher than the assurance that God is at work.
Paul’s assurance also rested in the content of the
message he proclaimed. James Denny writes,
‘God cannot work through a man in whose soul
there are misgivings about the truth’.
This note of authority is so often missing in
preaching today. Does this explain why there is a
lack of spiritual vibrancy in some of our churches?
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Ministry In Thessalonica
Would you buy a car from a salesman who told you
that it might not start when you turned the ignition,
and it had been built by welding together the halves
of two cars that had been involved in an accident?
Oh, and the tyres might blow out since they had
been poorly repaired! No! of course not, that
information would put you off ever wanting to own
such a car. Well that same lack of confidence in the
pulpit concerning the transforming power of the
gospel will also turn people away. It was said of C.H.
Spurgeon, under whose ministry many came to
faith, that his abiding legacy was ‘his faith in the
converting power of the gospel’. Sadly many today
have lost that confidence in God’s word.
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Ministry In Thessalonica
Now if the gospel is to make an impact, then it cannot
be separated from the lives of those who proclaim and
profess it cf v5. Our lives will either adorn the gospel
making it attractive or detract from it, making it
repulsive to others. So inter-dependent is this
relationship between life and message that R. M.
McCheyne wrote in the following manner to a young
divinity student.
“Remember you are God's sword - his instrument, I
trust a chosen vessel unto him to bear his name. In
great measure according to the purity and perfections
of the instrument will be the success. It is not great
talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus.
A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God”.
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Ministry In Thessalonica
We read that the Thessalonians were model evangelists v7. The word
translated ‘model’ originally meant ‘the mark or blow’ before it finally
came to mean ‘example’. There is a useful association of ideas here. The
quality of the Thessalonians’ testimony was such that they ‘left their
mark’ when they made contact with others.
Are we leaving our mark? Do others look
at us and say, “I want to model my life on
him/ on her?” Does the attractiveness of
Jesus flow through us? Is that something
we long for and pray for?
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Ministry In Thessalonica
The imagery in Paul’s mind changes to that of the clarion call
of a trumpet in v8. The news of what had happened to the
Thessalonians was so striking that it travelled ahead of the
apostle Paul. Every new town he visited had heard of the
Thessalonians before his arrival, making it unnecessary for
him to give them an account of the astonishing work that had
taken place there!
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Ministry In Thessalonica
What was the news that had stirred up such
interest? Was it simply that they now believed
different things? No their faith had become
visible. We read that they ‘turned to God’. The
direction of their lives and the affection of their
hearts had spun around by 180o.
Now that is a radical change. The N.T. word for
that about turn is ‘repentance’. To turn one’s
back on what was an established pattern
of behaviour and thought and to turn
one’s value system on its head made
them the talk of the town!
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Ministry In Thessalonica
Some people say, “that kind of lifestyle change is beyond me”. I can
understand that reaction, but pay careful attention to the word order here
which is ‘to God from idols’ and not ‘from idols to God’.
Thomas Chalmers describes this as,
‘the expulsive power of a new affection’.
This new love relationship with Jesus
pushes the love of sinning out of our lives!
What happens at conversion is that Christ’s
nature takes up residence in a person’s heart
and “the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Spirit” Rom.5.5. That is God’s
love for us, which at times can be quite
overwhelming. So much so that all that offends God
and challenges his rule is pushed out of our lives.
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Conclusion
Any mark which we leave for God will always be as a result of his,
having first left the mark of his grace in our lives. We cannot boast
for it is all of God. How does the hymn-writer put it?
And every virtue we possess…
And every victory won…
And every thought of holiness,
are His alone’
Genuine effective Christian living which leaves
its mark, does so, not from overwork, but from
overflow - the overflow of Christ’s love. Does
that describe your heart and mine? And if not
are we willing to do anything about it? One
day we will be asked, “What sort of mark did
you leave behind”?
Presentation 01