Would you open your Bible together with me please to the book of 1 Thessalonians in the New Testament. If you don't have a Bible with you, there may be one there in the pew right in front of you, and we encourage you to grab it and look up 1 Thessalonians in the table of contents if you don't have it, and follow along in the first chapter with us. I want to join the perfect church. The challenge is that all perfect churches have one thing in common. They don't exist. That makes it difficult.
And of course, that's because a church is made up of people, people who are redeemed by grace but who are not yet perfected in it. Someone wrote, if you should find a perfect church without one fault or smear, for goodness sake, don't join that church. You'd spoil the atmosphere. If you should find the perfect church where all anxieties cease, then pass it by. Less joining it, you mar the masterpiece. Since I can't find the perfect church, what kind of a church do I want to join?
Well, one answer to that question is the kind of a church that I hope to build together with you. I can't think of a group of people anywhere in the world that I would rather work together with than you, because I love you. You are a wonderful congregation. And the kind of a church that I want to be a part of is the kind of a church that I want to build together with you in the days ahead.
It is a church that reflects the energy, passion, and devotion to Jesus Christ that is shown by the first century Christians, like those in Thessalonica. Last week we talked about being a church where faith works, where faith works. That is where authentic faith powerfully transforms lives and brings God's desired outcome.
I want to be part of a church that worships and serves and prays to a big God, one who is infinite and glorious, and yet one who is also very present and real to the people of that church. When it comes to faith, there are a couple of realities that we have to keep in mind. The first is this. Just having faith is not enough in itself. Because you see everyone in the world has faith of some kind. It's possible to have the wrong kind of faith, a faith that is merely intellectual or theoretical.
It's the kind of faith that the demons have, says James, and which causes them to shudder, but it does not produce repentance and works, good works in their lives. It's a dead faith. Authentic faith produces changed lives. And so merely having faith is not enough. It has to be the right kind of faith, authentic faith. But secondly, faith is only as valid as the object of that faith.
In other words, it's possible to have a passionate faith, but to place it in the wrong God or in a false idea that will not bring me what I think it will bring me. Faith is only as valid as the object of that faith. The writer of Hebrews says, without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. I want to be part of a church where faith works.
The Thessalonian church was that kind of a faith, that kind of a church as we saw last week. The Thessalonian church was also remarkable for its love. A love that motivated them to good works. Let me go back and read verse two with you of chapter one. Paul says, we always thank God for all of you mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before God our Father your work produced by faith. See there's the faith. And he says, your labor prompted by love. Your labor prompted by love.
Love was so real in this congregation of people that it produced a labor that could only be described as an intensive labor that led them to weariness even. It was a labor that was prompted by deep love in their hearts. Love would not allow them to be self-focused or to be only half-hearted in serving others or to serve only when it was convenient. Love prompted them to serve wholeheartedly and self-sacrificially to the point of weariness.
Love like this is a love that steps forward at personal cost. It steps forward without any thought of compensation for itself. Convenience is not a consideration of this kind of love. The value of the one who is loved is all that matters to agape love. This is God's kind of love. Agape love is willing to pay any price and make any sacrifice for the welfare of its object. This is a challenging kind of love.
This is not a kind of love where people merely come together and like to see each other and enjoy one another's presence. This love is deeper than that. I want to be part of a church where God's love is potent and compelling. Potent that is powerful and where it brings a compelling force to those who are a part of it. That's the kind of a church I want to be a part of where God's love is potent and compelling.
And I invite you to think with me quickly about how powerfully God's love motivated Him. In Romans 5, 8, which was read from the message a few moments ago, it says, but God demonstrates His own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, are the next four words. Christ died for us. John says this is how we know what love is. Because Christ laid down His life for us. Do you find that to be a potent love, a compelling love?
In Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 and 5 it says, and read it together with me if you will, because of His great love for us, God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. And it goes on to say by grace you are saved. Because of His great love for us, God did this. There is nothing like this love. How great is the love of the Father that He has lavished upon us, writes John. How great is the love of the Father that we should be called children of God.
And that is what we are. God's love is potent and compelling. When you stop to think about it, there is no power that exceeds the transforming might of God's love. It revolutionizes every life that it touches. It cannot help but do that. And God has put that love into the hearts of His children. You see God's love changes your life and mine. And it motivates us to serve others selflessly. It did the Thessalonians. Paul says I thank God for the labor that has been prompted by love in your church.
He describes this more in chapter 4. I invite you to turn over there to verse 9. And notice his somewhat brief comment here. Although he touches on this theme of love many times as he writes to the Thessalonians. Chapter 4 in verse 9. Now about brotherly love, we do not need to write you for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. And yet we urge you brothers to do so more and more.
The Thessalonians had this love of God put into their hearts and it caused them to love others in return. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 14 and 15 the apostle Paul says for Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for what? Themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.
What is it that compels us no longer to put ourselves into the center of our lives but Christ and His people? It is the love of Christ. So let me say it again that God's potent, compelling love motivates Him. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 in verse 16 it says, may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope. Notice there our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father loved us. God's love motivated Him to act.
In the first place His love motivated Him to initiate your salvation and mine. Notice the phrase of chapter 1 verse 4 where He calls the Thessalonians brothers loved by God. He has chosen you. And then turn in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 in verse 13 where Paul elaborates on this and says, we ought always to thank God for you brothers loved by the Lord because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of His Spirit and through belief in the truth.
It is God who initiates salvation. It is not us. We're not the ones who bring forth salvation. It is God who has brought it forth and it is God who initiates it in our lives. And the apostle Paul points out he actually initiated it from the beginning which is a New Testament concept that means that even before the creation of the world, before the time material world and space universe began, God in the beginning loved us. He loved us before He even created us. Why? Because He is love.
And He initiated our salvation. We don't initiate. We simply reciprocate. We respond to God. We love Him because what? He first loved us. He first loved us. But not only does God initiate your salvation, God intervenes in your rescue. In chapter one and verse 10, Paul writes to the Thessalonians about Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Now he doesn't get into detail about that wrath and what it means, but we know from what the New Testament teaches us that there is a judgment that is coming upon all of those who reject our Lord Jesus Christ, upon all of those who are hostile toward God and resist Him and rebel against Him. Wrath is coming from God upon them. But God has intervened on our behalf. He has rescued us from that wrath that is to come.
And again in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, it says, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, belief in the truth, He calls you to this through our gospel that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has rescued you from wrath and saved you for glory. That's how much His love compelled Him to act on your behalf. He rescued you. It's a wonderful feeling to be rescued. I had just a little sense of that in the last week.
I want to tell you about it because some others of you are aware of it. And by the time stories get told two or three or ten times, they can sometimes get stretched or whatever. A few weeks ago, I had some symptoms that led me to go to the doctor. And as a result of the tests that were taken, I went to a urologist who examined me. And he found that I had a growth in my bladder. And he said to me, look, this needs to come out. It's very small, but we have to take it out.
Now we can arrange for you to go into the hospital. That'll involve, you know, pre-op and anesthesia and it's a big deal. Or he says, we can take it out right now. I'm not going to go into detail about this, but it didn't take me but about a nanosecond to say, you're in there, take it out now. Take it out now. I want that thing out of there. And so he did. And then they sent that off to the laboratory. But of course, I asked him the inevitable question.
I said, you know, just from your observation of what you've seen, what do you think? And he said, well, most of the grows that are in the bladder are in fact malignant. And he said, by looking at what I saw, though it was very small, he said, it had all the characteristics of being a malignant growth. I said, well, if that's the case, then what's the treatment? He said, well, we just did it. We just did it. We took it out. We cauterized it.
But he said, you and I'll become the best of friends over the next few years. He said, you're going to need to come in every three months for one of these examinations. Oh, that thrilled me. Let me tell you. I mean, he's a nice man and all of that, but I'd rather pick my own friends. And in other circumstances, he would be one of them. So I waited the week, and knowing that if it came back malignant, it was going to be God's direction. I mean, my life is in His hands.
I knew that it appeared to be manageable. And so it wasn't life-threatening in that sense. But on Wednesday, my internist, whom I call the beloved physician who attends this church, called me and said, I've got good news. It was benign. Amen. Wonderful news. And you know what? Suddenly I felt rescued. Now, it wasn't as though I was just overwhelmed, but it felt so good not to have that label cancer on me. And you know when God rescued you and me, He delivered us from the label condemned.
He delivered me from certain death, eternal separation from Him in hell. God's love is so powerful and compelling that He initiated a rescue on my behalf and your behalf and He intervened and saved us from what we were doomed for and set us apart for glory. That's wonderful. That's God's love. Now, that same love of God, that same potent, compelling love of God is at work in His people. God has poured out this love into our hearts, writes the apostle Paul.
And here in Thessalonians, He gives us three facts about this love. Let me hit them quickly with you. The first is this. It mentors us. It mentors us. God's love teaches us how to love. It puts a new motive in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and then the Holy Spirit teaches us how to love others with God's love. In chapter 4 and verse 9, it says, you yourselves have been taught by God. That phrase taught by God is really one word in the original language. He says, you have been God taught.
God taught. God puts this value and this principle into the hearts of His forever family. And He Himself mentors us in how to love other people. We follow the example of our Father in whose likeness we have been newly created. And so the apostle Paul says, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live a life of love just as Christ has loved you. It mentors us. The second fact about this love is that it multiplies. In chapter 3 of 1 Thessalonians and verse 12, Paul has a brief prayer.
He says, may the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other, for everyone else and for everyone else just as ours does for you. Paul recognizes the fact that love can grow, that it can multiply in our lives and he prays for that in the Thessalonians. It's a fact. We can learn to love more deeply. It can flow and overflow in our lives with a greater capacity. When something gets hot, what happens? It expands. When God's love is hot in our lives, when it's fervent, it expands.
It super abounds. It overflows with an excess to touch the lives of others. And so Paul prays here, God increase the aperture of their hearts. And that's my prayer for me too and for you. That God would cause the aperture of our hearts to expand so that God's love can flow more freely through us. Again in chapter four and verse 10, he says, you do love, yet do so more and more. You see, we never really arrive. It's something that keeps multiplying in our lives.
And the more we give out, the more we... what? The more we receive, the more we get. There's a third fact and that is that it matters. The third fact about this glove that God has put in our hearts that it matters in chapter one and verse seven. He says, and so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. You see, the Thessalonians were not just saved, they were model Christians. He says, you have set a pattern for others by your love. It matters that you and I love.
It matters. And I'll tell you why, because God's love flowing through us is His most powerful witness in the world. There's nothing, nothing that is more powerful than a Christian who loves others with God's love. By this shall all men know you are my disciples, if you what? If you love one another. It also matters because this selfless love is the mark of genuineness. That is that we really belong to the family of God.
We know that we have passed from death to life, says John, because we love our brothers. The fact that we love others is an assurance to us that we really are God's people. He goes on to say, anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. What does this selfless love look like?
What does it look like? Well, it looks an awful lot like many of you in this congregation. When I hear some of the stories of people in this congregation, I thank God that God's love is flowing through you to others. I think of a team of men who right now are working on a project at a home for city team. I think of some of you who have opened up your home to be used for entertaining.
In some cases, those who are in need, and in other cases, for children who can come into your backyard and there spend a few hours and learn about Jesus. We could go on and on telling stories about people in this church. Selfless love looks an awful lot like many of you. I like what Augustine said, this love has hands to help others, feet to hasten to the poor and needy, eyes to see misery and want, ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.
This selfless love initiates action to demonstrate its selfless concern. It does not wait to be asked. It does not wait for somebody else to take the first step. This love of God compels us to initiate just like our Father does. We take the first step. We make the first move. You see, love isn't a feeling that we have for others. This love is action. It is action.
If anyone has material possession, says John, and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how does the love of God be in him? So it is a feeling. But he goes on to say, dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. This love has to go beyond emotion and sentiment. To motivate us to act in the best interests of somebody else, it initiates. This love not only initiates, it intervenes.
It causes us to intervene to assist those who are vulnerable and to do that with generosity and with wisdom. You see, love is accountability. It's not just enabling people to do things. God's love is especially for those who are most vulnerable. That's why we are told to watch for the care of widows and orphans. And if you look at the ministry of love incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ, you see Him going to the downcast. You see Him going to the rejected. You see Him going to the hurting.
He initiated that action and He intervened on their behalf, but Jesus never enabled them in any way. We have an example of that in Thessalonians, in the second letter to the Thessalonians. Paul has apparently told him to share with those who have needs and they're doing that. That's part of the love. But then he warns, he says, if there are those who are taking from you, but who are not willing to work, he says, don't feed them anymore. He says if a man won't work, he shouldn't eat.
That is off of others is the idea. So you see there is generosity, but there's wisdom as well in this love when it intervenes. It holds accountable those who are being helped. It doesn't just give and enable them to continue in whatever situation they're in. It loves with wisdom, a kind of wisdom that really brings them out of the circumstances which hold them captive. The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is self-centeredness.
The kind of love we're talking about is a love that is an active commitment to encouraging, supporting, helping, defending the vulnerable in particular. The challenge that I face and the challenge maybe that you face is to empty myself so that God can show Himself in me. Because of my sinfulness, I tend to be self-centered. And that self-centeredness, that self-focussedness has to be laid aside. I have to empty that out so that then God can fill me and show Himself through me.
Imagine a church of people who share that vision. Imagine a whole church of people who are committed before God to empty themselves so that God can show Himself in their own community but beyond it into the world around them. What does a church like that look like? I want you to think about that for a minute. What phrase or word comes to your mind as you imagine a church that shares this vision? I'd like you just to tell me.
I'm going to walk up the center aisle here and I'd like you to tell me what word comes to your mind? Compassion. Okay. What other word or phrase would come to your mind of a church that has the same vision for this selfless love? Forgiveness. That's really a key word. Sensitivity. Holiness. It ties together with Ephesians 5. Caring. Wholeness as well as holiness. Wholeness. What is it? Acceptance. Reaching out. Sacrifice. United. Obedient. Peace. That's an interesting concept.
Glory to God. What does a church look like? A merciful church? Joy. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Joy. Joy comes right after love. It flows out of love. I was hoping somebody would say that and I don't know who did. But the word is safe. Will it come this direction? Safe. A safe church. Powerful. God's potent, compelling love flowing through us. That's going to be powerful. Unconditional love. Compassion. What was this? Christ's love. Of course, you'll see Christ in a church like this.
What other words or phrases come to mind? Healthy. Humble. Generous. I'm repeating them all so we can get them on tape. I don't want your wisdom to be lost to those who couldn't be here this morning. Multiplying. Oh, these are great answers. When you begin to think about what a church could be if all of its people were committed together to this kind of love, it is an amazing vision. This kind of love produces a sweet spirit of cooperation where everyone works in some way to bless others.
There are no freeloaders in a church like this. It produces a respect for others, creating trust, giving others benefit of the doubt, using the tongue to bless and to lift up. It creates an atmosphere of forgiveness. It deflates anger and destroys resentment. It makes for patience with others and kindness toward them and protection of their best interests and gentleness in dealing with them. I like what George Sweeting wrote, love is optimistic. It looks at people in the best light.
Love thinks constructively as it senses the grand possibilities in other people. All of this flows out of this idea of love. Do you want to have that kind of a church? You want to join that kind of a church? Me too. Linus told Lucy that his life goal was to be a doctor, but she reproved him saying, you can't be a doctor, you hate mankind. To which Linus responded, oh no, I love mankind, it's people I can't stand. Mankind is sort of this generic, we love others, love everyone, love people.
The people that God brings into my life. Love is only love when it's expressed, when it's acted on, when it's given away. Oscar Hammerstein of all people wrote this wonderful statement, a bell's not a bell till you ring it. A song's not a song till you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to stay. Love isn't love till you give it away.
The church I want to be a part of, that I want to join, that I want to help build together with you is a church that is absolutely committed to love of the people. And sometimes we feel really good about ourselves. We like to go to church, we like the people who are there, and we get along well with a group of people, and we love each other. But that's not what I'm talking about this morning. All that's good in its place.
What we're talking about today is a love that reaches those who are hurting, those who are rejected. It goes to the outcast. It's a love that acts. It's the kind of love, for example, that goes to an AIDS hospice, and it serves the men and the women who are dying there. You say, yes, but some of those people are our enemies. Isn't that just the point? That as while we were enemies of God, that Christ died for us, that He loved us.
It's the people that we may see as our opponents, that God calls us to love, and when we love them, it demonstrates the reality of God. They may or they may not see it. That isn't the point. They may or may not appreciate it. Love just has to be expressed. It doesn't expect any compensation in return.
When you and I stand in the presence of Jesus Christ, and we think about how He has loved us, the amazing, awesome love of Christ, the only thing our hearts can do is to say, Lord, cause that love to be seen in my life, mentor me in it, multiply it through me. Let it increase more and more. I take my eyes off of myself and doing what pleases me. I turn away from what's convenient for me in my schedule and my lifestyle, and Lord, I ask you to love through me at my cost and whatever the cost.
Lord, love others through me. I'm going to tell you when there's that kind of a church, hell itself will shudder because it can't deal with it. It cannot deal with that kind of love. Let's pray. Lord, we are humbled at the potent, compelling love that you have demonstrated in the sacrifice of Jesus for us. A love that initiated our salvation, a love that intervened that we might be rescued when we did not deserve it and we were your enemies. You loved us. Lord, thank you for the love of friends.
But help us to love those who are not our friends and to serve them for Jesus' sake selflessly. To seek out those who are most rejected and most hurting and most desperate and go to them first. Amen.