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Peached on January 27, 2008 at Longview Missionary Baptist Church. The is the first of a series of sermons on 1 & 2 Thessalonians.
In 1964 Sam Cooke recorded A Change Is Gonna Come. The song eventually came to symbolize the hopes and dreams of the Civil Rights movement– a change that would see all people respected and treated decently and fairly no matter what color your skin is.
Change is a common theme for many who feel disenfranchised and abused. Change is longed for by anyone who is not happy with the way things are.
John Mayer wistfully sings Waiting on the World to Change. It could almost be the theme song for this generation– a generation that is frustrated with what they see as injustice and a desire to make it different, but realizing they don’t have the power to do anything about it. Their answer- wait and bide their time until they have the power and then change the world. The song ends, “…one day our generation is gonna rule the population so we keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change…”
What will it take to change the world?
In the middle of the first century, a scruffy, weathered, rough-yet-gentle man walked into the city of Thessalonika in the region of Macedonia determined to change the world.
He wasn’t going to do it through education, economics, politics, or military might. Not democracy or dictatorship; capitalism or communism; Marxism or Humanism.
Paul’s aim was to change the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Of all the methods, theories, and devices in the world people try to use to change the world, only the Gospel can change the world. In fact, the Gospel Changes Everything.
● Map– 2nd Missionary Journey. Departed Phillipi and arrived in Thessalonica.
● Free City in the Roman Empire that served as the capital city for the region of Macedonia. It was known as the key to Macedonia.
○ Via Egnatia ran through it. Best harbor for Aegean sea, a center for commerce.
● City was full of artisans, manual laborers, sailors, orators, and business people. But, it was not an educational or philosophical center like Athens. More like Detroit or Pittsburgh– A blue collar town.
● Allowed various religions to practice their faiths,They were very syncretistic. The city and its residence unified in worshiped Caesar.
● Paul goes to the synagogue (Reading of OT, lesson on Jewish tradition, and prayers). Paul as a visiting Rabbi gets to teach. From OT, he preached the Gospel. Some were converted!
● Some were not converted, and they attacked. The believers were afraid for Paul, so they got him out of town.
● Went to Berea, and does the same thing. Thessalonian antagonizers follow and stir up more trouble. Paul heads to Athens.
● What did Paul do and why did it cause so much trouble?
1. Paul preached the Gospel. What is the Gospel? (Acts 17:3) There are three components to the Gospel message Paul preached.
a. Jesus suffered. He died on the cross because of our sins. He took our punishment and the wrath of God that should have been pour out on us. He died for us.
b. Jesus rose. He didn’t stay dead. He rose three days later on Sunday Morning. The very first Easter Day. The resurrection is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Everything hinges on it. If Jesus did not rise, then our faith is meaningless and empty. But Jesus rose from the dead and brings new life.
c. Jesus is Christ. This means he is Messiah. Or we could say He is Savior. He alone is the one who brings new life to us. When we come to him by faith alone, turning away from our sin and giving up our religious efforts to make God happy with us and simply surrender to him, and giving him our whole lives, he forgives us and gives us peace with God the Father and gives us eternal life and meaning in life.
d. Notice four facts about this Gospel.
2. The Gospel is Reasonable. (Acts 17:2, 11)
a. Paul reasoned from the Scriptures. The whole Bible bears out the truth that Jesus is the savior, that he suffered and rose and alone is the Christ.
b. The Bereans would listen to Paul and then go home and study the Scriptures for themselves to “find out if these things were so.”
c. They were fair-minded. If you will come to Scripture and listen to the Gospel with an open mind, and not be close minded and resistant to it, you will find that it is reasonable. Not that it is natural and ordinary. But as you study it you will find that it is TRUE and BELIEVABLE.
d. Bill Maher, comedian, pundit, and atheist is co-producing a documentary this year called RELIGULOUS (Religion + Ridiculous). Recently appearing on the Conan O’Brien Show, Maher said this:
“You can’t be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think you’re drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn’t make you a person of faith…That makes you a schizophrenic.”
e. Maher mocking Christ and Christianity though simply shows what happens when someone who is hardened and resistant to the Gospel speaks. Maher is caricaturing the Christian faith and making it sound crazy. But true Christian faith is nothing like Mr. Maher wants to describe it as.
f. Yet time and time again, when atheists and agnostics who honestly look at the evidence, without an agenda or without a desire to attack, but honestly trying to discover the truth, they see the Gospel as reasonable and possible.
g. If you have a closed mind and a hard heart, you will join the ranks of Bill Maher and the Thessalonian Jews who were not persuaded.
3. The Gospel is Revolutionary. (Acts 17:6-8)
a. Here is the reason Bill Maher and the Thessalonian Jews and the Roman authorities were and are so opposed to the Christian faith.
b. The Gospel “turns the world upside down.” Because Jesus is King. We are either allied with King Jesus or opposed to him.
c. New way of living and new priorities in life. That threatens those who want to rule their own lives.
4. The Gospel is Reviled. (Acts 17:5, 13)
a. Hated and opposed. The truth is Bill Maher reviles Jesus Christ. He is not more intellectual. He just hates Jesus.
b. The Gospel is opposed and reviled because it is exclusive. You can’t worship self, Caesar, or anything else and worship Jesus.
c. The true Gospel will always be hated.
5. The Gospel is Radical. (1 Thessalonians 1:1)
a. Despite the animosity and hatred toward the Gospel, it is unstoppable.
b. Despite severe persecution, the Thessalonian believers banded together and formed a church. And as a church, they were devoted to changing the world– with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
c. Radical new life– new walk, new community
The Gospel changes everything. If you want your life, your home, your world to change, only the Gospel will do it because:
The Gospel of Jesus Christ changes the direction of our lives.
When we encounter the cross of Jesus, either:
We draw near to God
OR
we turn away from God.
