Search for
Spiritual Healing
1 Thessalonians
1:1-10
James R. Davis
A little boy was visiting a large
museum. The father
thought it was a way to entertain the boy for a couple of hours. But the
little boy sighed and moaned the entire visit, and finally in his
desperation he said to his father, “Dad, let’s go someplace where things
are real!” In our contrived world people are searching for something
real. The contrived reality shows on television point up this.
Christianity is about discovering
a real life—discovering life as it was really meant to be—discovering
the life God intends for you.
Few experience this quality of life. Too many are confused thinking that
Christianity is about getting God to give us the life of our man-made
dreams. Most end up very confused and frustrated.
We make the same foolish mistakes
of Solomon who used his God given resources of wisdom and riches to
pursue his own selfish agenda.
Yet, in every selfish pursuit he discovered the vanity of a life built
upon the contrived dreams of the world. Each success gave him only
temporary fulfillment. Then he was in hot pursuit of his next dream.
Enough was never enough. He was always thinking of his next big dream
until one day he sat down and discovered sad nature of his pursuits
without God.
Many look at the Bible as an
ancient book failing to understand its relevance to reality.
The Bible stories are real stories about human nature. There is a
deep hungering and restlessness within the vast majority to experience
life as it was meant to be. Sadly, we spend our lives seeking to
live up to the expectations of others, and seeking to move others into
living up to our expectations. We build our lives around getting others
to accept us, to love us, to praise us, as we sweat and sacrifice our
lives for their expectations of us. We spend our lives seeking to prove
ourselves to others as we seek their dream for our lives.
When we meet one another’s
expectations it is never enough.
Yet, we continue our never-ending struggle seeking to realize these
false expectations. Sadly, we fail to turn to God. Instead, we labor
under the false assumption that we are what others say we are. We strive
to discover a meaningful life in how others value us and expect of us.
It is evident the world is lost in
its search for meaning.
This is the kind of loss Jesus came to save us from. The idea of being
lost goes beyond the question, “If you died today, are you 100 percent
sure that you would go to heaven?” But this question may seem
meaningless to those who are looking for a life in the real world here
on planet earth. God certainly wants you to spend eternity with him, but
he also desires to give you a life now.
God Has Chosen Us
Our earthly dreams are always
built around our need for love, acceptance and forgiveness.
These are legitimate God given desires. Ultimately, only God can meet
these needs. If we seek to fill these needs on the fickle approval of
the world, our behavior will reflect insecurity, fear and anger.
If we base our pursuits in life on
God’s truths, our lives will experience his love, acceptance, and
forgiveness. It is not
that the dreams we are chasing are always wrong. It’s that God is not in
them. God promised Solomon wisdom and riches far beyond anything the
world had ever seen. He kept his promise, but Solomon lost sight of God.
When God meets your god-given
needs, you become filled with his grace and power.
We fail when our dreams become the source of our love, acceptance and
forgiveness. The Thessalonians to whom Paul wrote serve as living
examples of people who found a life in God through Christ.
1 Thessalonians
1:1-10
1:1 Paul, Silas and
Timothy,
To the church of the
Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace to
you.
2 We always thank God
for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3 We continually remember
before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor
prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus
Christ.
4 For we know,
brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came
to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit
and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.
6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe
suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy
Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia
and Achaia. 8 The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia
and Achaia — your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we
do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what
kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from
idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from
heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the
coming wrath. NIV
Paul writes, “For we know,
brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came
to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit
and with deep conviction.” These verses state that God has
chosen us because of his love for us. Included in being loved and chosen
is forgiveness and acceptance. God not only created us with the need for
love, acceptance and forgiveness, he has chosen to fill these needs.
This means he loves us, accepts us and forgives us.
They challenged the world’s
expectations. The church
in Thessalonica had a powerful impact upon their world. Paul writes,
“And so you became a model to all the believers in
Macedonia and Achaia.” Fortunately
the apostles were living models of Christ. Paul writes, “You became
imitators of us and of the Lord. . .”
They were not only taught the good news, they also had someone to show
them how to live the good news.
The Thessalonians had a tremendous
impact upon their world when they understood they had been chosen by
God. They had been
separated from God, but now they are reunited with God. Now their lives
reached far beyond their abilities and the opinion of others. They are
no longer controlled by their circumstances and how they feel about
themselves. They have discovered God’s grace and power.
Christ only becomes real for a
lost world as they see Christ living in us.
The world needs to know Christ motivates every dream we pursue. They
need to see him in every step we take. Have you ever been to a funeral
and heard a person speak of the departed loved one saying, “I am sure he
believed in God even though he never expressed it. His faith was very
personal.”
There is no mistake about the
ancient world’s belief in gods.
When they fought it was out of the belief that their god or gods would
win the battle for them. When they prospered, for whatever reason, they
believed they had been favored by the gods. It reflected the strength
and wisdom of the gods they worshipped. Today it is much different we
have become the masters of our own lives. We see people doing pretty
good for themselves, or pretty bad for themselves.
There was not mistake that the
lives Thessalonians were living were attributed to the God they
worshipped.
1 Thessalonians
1:8-10
The Lord's message
rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia — your faith in
God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say
anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of
reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the coming
wrath. NIV
The first Christians modeled how
to live for God. They
weren’t people who changed careers for Christ; they were probably losing
their jobs because they became Christians. Yet, they were willing to
take the hit where it often hurts the most—in the pocket book. They
trusted in the Lord.
I remember when I was learning how
to weld. The theory of
welding in the United States Air Force involved understanding the atomic
structure and make up of the metal. To weld you have to understand the
nature of the different metals. You have to understand what can be
welded and what can’t. You have to understand how each particular metal
responds to heat and stress. That seemed easy enough, but actually
fusing two pieces of metal together was another matter. The instructors
taught us how to weld as we watched them weld various kinds of metal. We
would then try to imitate the instructors. We would seek to run a more
uniform welding bead than the instructors. That was usually difficult.
Often they would literally take hold of our hands to steady them or to
demonstrate how to make correct movements with our hands to improve our
performance. Modeling and demonstrating what they wanted us to do was
extremely important. It would have much more difficult to pick up a
torch and do it without being shown.
It would be hard to pick up living
for Christ without the association of Christians.
We learn more through association than any other way. In fact, it often
takes a life time to unlearn what we have learned through our
association with others.
Salvation for a
World Lost
Paul sums up what it is to model
the life of Christ in one sentence:
“We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by
faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope
in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
When Paul thought of the
Thessalonians he remembered their “work produced by faith.”
Nothing sounds out the message of Christ more than Christians who
exemplify the life of Christ. This church became a model church. It is
amazing that the apostles had to flee Thessalonica because of the
persecution of those who refused to listen. They also persecuted those
who did listen. Yet, it was their lives that overpowered their enemies
and silenced the world.
My wife told me of Christian where
she worked. One of the kitchen staff was a Christian.
There was another woman working in the kitchen who had a fowl mouth. The
Christian ask her why she wanted to use language like that in front of
the young men she worked with. The lady using fowl language threw a bowl
of cabbage at the Christian. She didn’t turn her in to the management.
She was asked why she didn’t turn her in. She simply said, “I am going
to let the Lord take of her!”
The world needs this kind of model
for faith in Christ.
There is no way the world will take us serious until we are so
overwhelmed with what we believe that we spend our lives pursuing our
faith. The apostles had not merely preached the word they exemplified
their message.
1 Thessalonians 1:4-5
4 For we know,
brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came
to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit
and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your
sake.
Life is not about persuading God
to give you the life of your dreams, life is about helping others
discover God’s dream for themselves.
Spiritual healing is not about building
our self-image; it is about allowing the world to see the image of
Christ through us as we labor out of his love for us.
Behavior often changes what we
believe about ourselves.
Have you ever sought to perform a task you really believed you couldn’t
do and succeeded? It increases your confidence and changes what you
believed about yourself. Often, this confidence begins to grow and lead
us into other areas of growth. We begin to realize our feelings,
behavior and beliefs interact to shape our lives. Yet, life goes beyond
what we feel, believe and experience.
It shouldn’t surprise us that the
epistles of the Bible deal mostly with how to live a godly life in an
ungodly world. These were
the topics of discussion within the first fellowships of Christians. The
topics were very controversial. Topics ranged from how to manage their
sex lives to how to spend their money; from how to live with their mates
to the treatment of masters and slaves. Many of their discussions
revolved around how to tolerate one another’s diverseness. Their
discussions challenged the social fabric of society and religion.
Yet, the conclusions for their
arguments were always the same.
The conclusion was always about how to
live to glorify God. They didn’t always have the freedom they desired,
but they were always free to serve Christ in every thought, word and
deed. They held on to their faith
as they worked through the problems they faced.
The problems the first century
world faced revealed the sincerity of their faith in the midst of their
pain, rejection and failures.
Faith in Christ gave them direction in their crisis. The apostles not
only preached about the suffering Christ, they shared in his sufferings
for the sake of the lost. They became all things to all men. They not
only ask Christians to be content in their circumstances. They also
enslaved themselves to Christians in those circumstances. Spiritual
healing came to Thessalonica as they beheld those who were being healed
in the midst of their pain, rejection and failures.
Paul spoke of the Thessalonians’
“labor prompted by love.”
When faithfulness becomes a labor of
love our neighbors are impacted. Discovering the joy in living is
wrapped in loving what you are called upon to do. I believe this is what
we call enthusiasm.
A waiter served my wife and me at
a restaurant a few days ago.
We asked the waiter to bring us something. We knew he was very busy, but
we emphasized he should not make a special trip. He could bring what we
ask for when he was coming our way again. We told him we didn’t want to
create more work for him. He said, “What I am doing is not work, I enjoy
what I am doing.” His work was a labor of love. That’s the way he served
us the entire meal. He seemed to enjoy it.
When our faithfulness becomes a
labor of love we discover spiritual healing in the midst of our pain,
rejection and failures.
This is what turned the persecution of the first century Christians into
a means of spiritual healing and growth for themselves and their world.
Enduring and overcoming the hardships of living out our faith reveals
the power of God to a lost world.
Paul writes, “For we know,
brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came
to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit
and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your
sake.”
Paul says, “our gospel came to you
not simply with words—but in power.”
The healing power of God is discovered when we live our lives for
others. It brings healing to us, and to those witnessing our healing.
Paul says, “You know how we lived among you for your sake.” We are not
only seeking to obey Christ for ourselves, but for the sake of others.
The power of the Holy Spirit
through the apostles preaching was made possible because they chose to
obey the word they preached.
They didn’t just simply preach the word;
their deep conviction led them to obey the word. The Holy
Spirit strengthens and empowers us as we respond to the word. The Spirit
makes us living witness for Christ. There is nothing more powerful than
a living example. Obedience out of deep convictions creates an
opportunity for the Holy Spirit to lead others to Christ.
Endurance in difficult times
reveals our passion. In
turning from their idols to God many of their friends and relatives were
angered. The Jewish unbelievers persecuted the Jews who became
Christians. The idolaters here in Thessalonica persecuted those giving
up idols. Yet, they were overwhelmed in their passion for the Lord.
Faith always tests our willingness
to endure. Our endurance
reveals our sincerity. The first Christians discovered a fulfilling life
in Christ not by using their skills to avoid problems, but they sought
the ability to apply God’s specific solutions to those problems.
Persecution has a way of allowing
the sincerity of our labor to shine.
Life is not about how we act when things
are going great; it is about how we live against seemingly
insurmountable odds. Paul was moved by the Thessalonians “. . .
endurance inspired by their hope in Jesus Christ.” The church in
Thessalonica grew because they saw the suffering the apostles were
willing to endure to bring them the message.
1 Thessalonians
1:6-10
6You became imitators
of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the
message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a
model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord's
message rang out from you not only in
Macedonia and Achaia
— your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not
need to say anything about it, 9
for they themselves report
what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from
idols to serve the living and true God,
10 and to wait for
his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues
us from the coming wrath.
Reality isn’t discovered in living
up to the expectations of our world.
It isn’t discovered in getting the world to live up our expectations.
Reality begins when we begin to live up to our own expectations of
others. The apostles lived what they taught. They made the life of
Christ real to those they taught as they suffered for the Thessalonians
just as Christ suffered for them. We can’t ask the world to do something
we aren’t unwilling to do.
Conclusion:
We are fortunate that Christ came
to give us a model of a meaningful life.
The world says, “You need to get a life!” Jesus says, “I came to give
you a life.” Christ came challenging the expectations of others as he
sought to reveal himself. Christ challenged the expectations of the
religious as he challenged their teaching and traditions. In those days
there was an aggressive religious climate that compassed land and sea to
make one proselyte. The proselytes were coerced into meeting the
expectations of the religious teachers. But it left the proselytes
lost—a two-fold child of the devil. Christ’s life challenged a religious
world failing to live up to its own expectations of others.
Bible Study
Questions
1.
What is the purpose of Christianity?
2.
In what ways do we seek to live up to the expectations of others?
3.
Why do we seek to live up to the expectations of others?
4.
What does it mean to be lost?
5.
What basic God given needs are our earthly dreams built around?
6.
How can we know that God has met these needs? (1 Thessalonians
1:4)
7.
How should we challenge the world’s expectation of us?
8.
How do we make Christ real to a lost world?
9.
What part does Christian fellowship play in living for Christ?
10.
What prompted the Thessalonians labor for the Lord?
11.
What affect does behavior have on us?
12.
What did the problems of the first Christians becomes a means to
spreading Christianity?
13.
What was the conclusion always reached as they sought to solve
their problems?
14.
What does endurance in difficult times reveal?
