Thanks, Bill. Tonight I want to share with you some of the things that I've done over the last few weeks, just to fill you in a little bit about the sabbatical. For this morning, let's open our Bibles together to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. We find this letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Thessalonica. Paul was a people person. It's difficult to be effective in ministry or in any kind of public work for that matter, without being a people person and having some human skills.
Perhaps the number one human skill that we can have is the ability to say, I love you. Perhaps skill number two when it comes to human skills is the skill to be able to say, I hear you. The Apostle Paul both loved and heard the Thessalonians. And in response to that, he wrote them two letters.
Paul was a team person. You will notice the letter begins by saying, Paul in Silvanus or Silas and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father.
Paul was a team person. The team that Paul traveled with shared the same heart of commitment that he had. They bought into the same goals. They served the same master, Jesus Christ. Silas or Silvanus was a respected Christian of the Jerusalem church. He had been sent by that church to the church at Antioch as a delegate to help mediate some of the sensitive issues between Gentile and Jewish Christians.
Later when Paul left from the Antioch church on this second missionary journey, Silas was appointed to accompany him. And Timothy. Timothy was Paul's son in the faith. Timothy joined the team as they came through Lystra in Asia Minor. He was the son of a mixed marriage. He was converted two years before this during Paul's first missionary journey. They went through that same area. He had been discipled by the elders of the church in Lystra and had been recommended by them to Paul.
And so Paul had him join the team. And so that was Paul's team, at least for this time. One of the things you notice about Paul is that his team changed from time to time. And maybe that's a good thing for us just to note in passing this morning as we see some of the team here changing. That that is not an unusual thing. That that in fact is a healthy dynamic in ministry relationships that occurs from time to time.
A critical moment in world history had actually just passed a few months before this letter was written. That was when the apostolic team was directed to cross the Aegean Sea to the European continent. Up to that point, it was an Asian ministry. But now Paul is in the continent of Europe and the whole of world history has been changed because of the direction that God led him. He ministered in Thessalonica for about a month.
There were a number of people who were converted, but things did not go well with the Jewish population. They stirred up the city and ran Paul out of town. In the course of time, over a few weeks or months, Paul went on to the city of Corinth. And it is from the city of Corinth that he writes back now to the church in Thessalonica to express his love and concern. Precious memories fill the heart of the apostle Paul as he took up his pen to write to them.
His heart overflowed with gratitude to God. He and his team gave thanks to God for the genuine evidence of spiritual life which was in them. Without fail, folks, genuine life from God shows itself. Without fail, genuine life from God shows itself in the life of the Christian. You and I can give thanks to God today for that evidence of his life that is in us. Paul recalls here for us three visible evidences of genuine spiritual life in the Thessalonians. They are found in verse 3.
He titles them the work of faith, the labor of love, and the steadfastness of hope. You will notice those words faith, love, and hope. This is the first chronological occurrence of that triad of graces to be found in Paul's writings. Faith, hope, and love are mentioned a number of times in the New Testament together. For they come together as sort of a package. Paul is saying that of the Thessalonians there was faith that produced work. He says there was love that prompted them to labor.
And there was a hope that inspired endurance in them. Three evidences of God's genuine life in them. The work of faith undoubtedly looks back initially to that point of their conversion. In fact, I believe that this is confirmed in the context of chapter 1. You will find in verse 9 a reference to the work of faith in their lives. For it says in the last part of the verse, Paul remembers how you turned to God from idols. That, my friend, is the work of faith.
At the point of their conversion there was a turning. When faith was placed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, they found themselves turning to God and away from the idols or the false religion that they had been a part of in the past. Now it is true that salvation is not by works. There is no merit that we can earn. There is no effort that we can produce that will earn us salvation. For by grace you have been saved through faith.
Ephesians 2, 8. And he says, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God not as a result of works, lest any man should boast. So salvation comes as a gift. It comes to us in response to our faith placed in Jesus Christ. But salvation is a work, believing in fact is a work in the sense that it is a definite act. We do not inherit a relationship with God from our parents. We do not gain a relationship with God by osmosis, by rubbing up against people who are Christians.
We gain salvation by the work of faith, by the definite act of our placing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the work of faith involves three aspects. The first aspect of the work of faith is responding to what the Holy Spirit has already begun in the heart. The point I'm making is that it begins with God. The first aspect of the work of faith is that it is a response to what God has already initiated in us.
The second aspect is that it involves choosing to place trust or reliance in Jesus Christ and his work at the cross on our behalf. It is a responding to what God initiates and then it's a choosing on our part to place our faith in Jesus Christ and what he did at Calvary for our sins. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians, the second chapter, and you see these two aspects linked together in verse 13. 2 Thessalonians 2.
We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation. How is that going to be accomplished? He says, through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. Those two things go together. It is an acknowledgement that salvation begins by a work of the Spirit within us to which we respond. And it involves on our part faith or choosing to trust Jesus Christ.
Then the third aspect of the work of faith is what Paul mentions at the end of verse 9 of chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians, that turning, the turning to God alone and away from all else as a basis for our faith. What is the evidence of genuine spiritual life? What is the evidence that God is truly working? It is the work of faith. Has there been that work of faith in your life? Has there been that definite act on your part whereby you responded to the Holy Spirit's wooing of you?
You responded to the conviction of the Spirit of God when he showed you your sins? And you placed your faith in Jesus Christ and you turned to God away from what you've trusted in the past? Has there been that work of faith? The apostle Paul may also have in mind here the work that came forth from them because of their faith. Their lives were changed, you see. The good works came out of their lives as a fruit. But we must not mistake the fruit for the root.
The root is that act of receiving Jesus Christ and because of that root there are good works that are produced. The work of faith. Now there's a second genuine evidence of spiritual life in the labor of love. Remember that only three months had passed since Paul had been there. Yet a radical change had taken place in these Thessalonians. A whole new dynamic was at work in their lives. It's the dynamic of agape, the Greek word for love. God's kind of love.
This love originates with the Holy Spirit. Romans 5 and verse 5 says, The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Paul remarks with gratitude about the love that he saw in the Thessalonians. Before there was that innate selfishness. There was that kind of love that exists for the benefit of the lover, not the one who's loved. A selfish kind of love. But now there's a whole new dimension in their lives.
It's the kind of love that flows out of self-sacrifice. The kind of love that gives to others whatever the response may be. It makes no difference. It's the kind of love that is more than a feeling. It's a kind of love that is known for its labor. And that's what Paul saw in the Thessalonians. The labor of love. The word labor is not totally unrelated to the word work. But it adds a new thought to the word work. Labor refers to extraordinary effort connected with the work.
It means to toil until fatigue or exhaustion. There is strenuous exertion in this word labor. He thanks God for the labor of love. And once more the apostle comments about this later in verse 9 when he says, How you turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God. They were serving God. The living and true one. This is the labor of love. They loved God. And out of that love for God they were willing to labor to exhaustion for his sake.
We periodically need to remind ourselves that we are not saved to sit. But we are saved to serve. And an evidence of genuine spiritual vitality is a willingness on our part to be devoted and faithful in our service for Jesus Christ. The idea that salvation is a gift merely to be consumed upon satisfying our own desires is a twisted idea. We are saved in order that we might give to others. That we might minister and serve others.
What an opportunity we have as a church today to find out how to do that. For out here in the hallway are scores of ideas as to how you can labor out of love for Jesus Christ. I recognize that there are many of you who are already involved in ministry. But I'm talking to not a few who are sitting and not serving. And today is a great opportunity for you if you've been wondering what to do. To find out what's available. There are opportunities for various kinds of time commitments.
There are opportunities for various gifts and abilities. I encourage you to investigate the ministry fair to find out what you can do in laboring for Jesus Christ. Chuck Colson in his book Against the Night reminds us that God calls his people to, quote, duties beyond themselves, close quote. Colson is contrasting the current notion of merely living for self interest.
And he says that we as God's people in this age of barbarism and darkness need to come to the point of doing duties beyond ourselves. According to others in the love of Jesus Christ, Paul says, I thank God for this precious memory that I have of you Thessalonians. That not only was there the work of faith, but there is the labor of love that evidences genuine spiritual life in your church.
The poet has written, I would not work my soul to save that work God hath done, but I will work like any slave for love of God's dear Son. The labor of love. There's a third evidence of genuine spiritual life and that is the patience of hope. These Thessalonians had come to faith in Christ in the face of very intimidating circumstances. Paul talks about that in verse 6 and we'll look at that next week. They received the word with much tribulation.
He talks again in chapter 2 and verse 14 about the fact that they were persecuted by their own fellow citizens, their fellow countrymen. Great pressure was placed upon them to return to the traditional ancestral worship of idols. But they were steadfast. They were steadfast in their hope. There was an unswerving loyalty about them. They were determined. They were deliberate. The foundation of their patience or their endurance was their hope in Jesus Christ.
In chapter 2 and verse 15, Paul reminds them that the Lord Jesus likewise was persecuted by his fellow countrymen and ultimately killed by them. The one in whom their hope had been placed experienced the same persecution that they endured. And it is the same Lord that he tells us in verse 10 of chapter 1 who is coming again. And in fact he gives us here the secret to their patience of hope. He says that they had turned to God, to serve God, and in verse 10 to wait for his Son from heaven.
You see they not only realized that Jesus had suffered for them and that they could suffer for him, but they realized that Jesus was coming again from heaven. That he was their refuge. And whatever they experienced in terms of suffering and persecution for his name now would be worth it then when he comes again. The validation of their steadfastness was found in the fact that they bore up under intense pressure to pitch over their faith and to succumb to the pagan majority around them.
It's not unlike what you face and what I face in our world today. It is the pressure to accommodate our faith to fit a pluralistic so-called culture. It is the pressure to compromise our faith in a world that is turning increasingly pagan. It is the temptation not to go all in all out for Jesus Christ, but to hold back so we're not seen as some kind of a radical or a fanatic. To the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul writes, I thank God for this evidence of his life in you.
You are steadfast in your hope. You do not allow your loyalty to Jesus Christ to be changed. You do not swerve from the faith when you meet an obstacle. When persecution comes, you are determined. You are loyal to Jesus Christ because of the hope of his return from heaven. Some of you who are students face this kind of pressure intensely in the classroom. You face pressure to deny what you have been taught to believe.
I want to encourage you today in particular to endure in your hope in Jesus Christ and not to allow yourself to be compromised in your witness and in your testimony for him. The memories that Paul had were precious memories. They assured Paul that the profession of the Thessalonians was a genuine one. It was authentic. Chuck Swindoll writes, these first century Christians did not hide their Christianity or try to live in isolation from one another.
Instead they worked together to incarnate their faith in a disbelieving antagonistic world. I like that phrase. They worked together to incarnate their faith. To bring it down into flesh and blood where people can see it. It is one thing to have an ethereal creed that one professes, but it is another thing to bring it down to Monday morning schedule. To Tuesday afternoon's meeting to incarnate our faith. That is what our world today desperately needs more than anything else.
A clear demonstration of authentic Christianity. Lived out in the school hallways and locker rooms, in offices and shops and backyards and in business deals. Authentic Christianity that is evidenced by work of faith, labor of love, and patience or steadfastness of hope. One of the difficulties we face today in general in Christianity, especially in our country, is the profusion of church members and professing Christians who give no evidence of God's life in them.
The Gallup poll recently found that 81% of Americans identify themselves as Christians. If that were true, what a difference it would make in our culture. But there is little evidence to back up the fact that 81% are Christians. Those who are Christians will give evidence of the genuineness of their profession in things like a work of faith, laboring to exhaustion out of love for Christ, being devoted and swerving in loyalty and steadfastness because of the hope that they have in the Savior.
But many Americans are apparently like Sheila, who is mentioned in Robert Bella's book, Habits of the Heart, who said, I believe in God. I can't remember the last time I went to church, but my faith has carried me a long way. It's Sheilaism, just my own little voice. Sheilaism. And that's the kind of so-called Christianity many have adopted. The genuine Christianity shows itself, it must, and it does, in the evidence of the life. We claim today to be Christians. I trust that we claim well.
And that if Paul were writing to our church in Roseville and addressing a letter to us about precious memories that he would have of his visit with us, he could say, oh you people in Roseville, you saints of God, every time I think of you, I mention you in my prayers, giving thanks to God for that work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope that I saw in you. Let's pray. Friend, let me ask you something quite honestly that you can answer before God.
What evidence is there in your life? You say, but pastor, I really am saved. I really have trusted Christ as Savior. Then why is there perhaps so little evidence? Perhaps it's because we have, though genuinely been saved, we have adopted a me-ism kind of Christianity. Oh God, help us today that we might turn away from that. And with a fresh commitment to Jesus Christ, say, Lord, I want your life. I want your life to be made vital in mine, to make a difference in the way I live.
God, I pray that the evidence of your life will be seen in me. Dear friend who is here, perhaps without Christ, you've never had that act of faith in your life whereby you trusted the Savior. Would you do it today? Would you respond to the Holy Spirit and trust in Jesus Christ alone and turn to God from your idols to serve him? Father, thank you for the miracle of the new birth, the miracle of salvation, the miracle of your life in us.
And today we pray that there would be this evidence that we are genuinely yours, that in the world we live in today and this week, people might see in us the genuineness of our faith, the depth and sincerity of our love, the loyalty of our hope in Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen. I'd like for us to sing together in closing number 536, which encapsulates our gratitude to God. How can I say thanks for all the things you've given me? And notice the phrase of commitment to be found in here.
Just let me live my life, let it be pleasing, Lord, to thee. Should I gain any praise, let it go to Calvary. Let us stand together as we sing number 536.