Well, good morning. How do most
people say Happy Resurrection Day? And I think about that and
I ponder the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I'll tell
you that among us right now, just sort of talk to this issue
for a minute, all over the world, amongst congregations, people
are making much to do about the resurrection of Jesus. It's not
a bad thing. It's not a horrible thing. But
just for a moment, ask yourself some questions. What is your
experience? What is your remembrance of Easter
Sunday as a child, as an adult? What is it that sticks out in
your mind as that which is most emphasized? I pray, I pray. And maybe some
of our Presbyterian brothers and sisters in here who came
up a little lighter than we did in our evangelical Baptist circles
may have a different answer. But for me, it was a lot of pomp. It was a lot of programming,
a lot of pretty little kids singing sweet little songs, a lot of
much to do about many things except for Christ. And then even
in the teaching of the Word of God, it was always a celebration. These are not bad things. It's
always a celebration of the risen Lord. And it seemed like in that
day, That one Sunday of the year, we saw an extravagant display
of gospel power, a focus on the word in the sense that Jesus
was raised from the dead in the middle, sandwiched like an Oreo,
of all the pomp and the glare and the glorious things that
we could do as human beings. And I've been thinking about
that for many, many years. And I can say to you that once
we were out of the Bible Belt, we never did any Easter program
ever again on the Lord's Day. And there's a reason why. It's
because I believe not stealing away and defining the term Easter
and not getting into all that. It's not even a biblical word
at all. It's a festival of fertility. But let's just say that just
from the sense of Resurrection Day, I find that every Lord's
Day is a celebration of that very thing. and that if this
day is more powerful, more meaningful, more extravagant, more focused
than any other Lord's day, then all the other Lord's days have
been empty. The word that the Scripture uses
for that is vain. In this very moment, even in
Africa, I met a brother last night online that was looking
for a Reformed church and found one not miles from his home in
Africa, in the continent of Africa, the country of Nigeria. And he's
already worshipped. They're five hours ahead of us.
And I can't wait to hear the report of what he found after
three years of being in the doctrines of grace and having no church
to fellowship with. I'm anxious to hear what he has
to say. But all over the world, people are making much of the
resurrection of Christ to the detriment of every other day
together as the church. And sometimes to the detriment
of the gospel itself. And that the emphasis may be,
Jesus is alive, therefore let's have a good time. Jesus is alive,
therefore let us practice several months to put together a cantata.
Friends, I love Easter cantatas. I'm just going to be honest with
you. I love them. I used to collect them. I love to listen to them.
I love to conduct them. They are fun. I love to sing
and do things. It's just great. But it detracts,
it distracts from the glorious beauty of Christ who is revealed
perfectly through the Word of God. Friends, this is one of
the days, other than Mother's Day and Christmas, when people
will pack churches. These are the days, especially
in larger established properties that I've pastored in, where
you would see so many people cramming into the building that
it made me somewhat unpleasant in my stomach. Because I knew
that for some of these people, it would be the last opportunity
they ever had to hear the truth. And while I don't think that
that is going to be the case for any of us today, it very
well could be. And in my practice, when we're
going through a letter, you notice I don't really take a break in
the letter, but I do take some time out between letters and
between preaching series to deal with some doctrinal things. But
ultimately, as you'll see, every Lord's Day, if we preach the
text as it is written, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the center
of it all. And if it's not there in the
preaching, then the person teaching that which they say is the Word
of God has missed it. Or worse, has ignored it. Jesus as a martyr is the most
beautiful thing to the cults, is the most beautiful thing to
any American, to any atheist, even people who believe that
He was not even God. Jesus' life as a man and His
martyrdom on the cross for those whom we loved is a beautiful
picture. No one disagrees with that. Even in Paul's day. Oh yes, Jesus
died. How could He die for our sins,
they would ask. And Paul would say, because He's
been raised from the dead and He therefore is God. And God
can pay for His own debt that you owe Him. It is the resurrection of Jesus
Christ that sits at the center of opposition to this world.
Friends, it is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that Paul is
arguing explicitly throughout this letter to the Thessalonians,
evidenced by the fact that He is coming again. How does the
one who is dead return? He does not. So if we are to
see the theme continually in this letter, every single chapter
of this letter, every single chapter has a reference to the
second coming of Jesus Christ, which is a reference to His resurrection,
has a reference to the gospel and its power, which is a reference
to the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The gospel includes that reality. And there are a lot of things
that we oftentimes look over as Christians. We love the cross
and we should. But friends, the only reason
the cross is lovely is because the resurrection of Jesus won
victory. Without the resurrection, the
cross is not lovely. Jesus' sacrifice was accepted,
ergo he raised to life. If Jesus' sacrifice had not been
worthy, he would still remain dead and there'd be no hope. But he is alive today and he
was alive yesterday and he was alive three weeks ago. He'll
be alive on April Fool's and he'll be alive on May 4th. He'll be alive this afternoon
and tomorrow. He'll be alive at 3 a.m. when you're sleeping
or preparing to wake up. So as the church of Jesus Christ,
we rest, we rally, we resolve to be who we are because Jesus
is resurrected. It is the power of God unto salvation. This is the good news of Jesus
Christ. It's not just about His death.
It is about His death and His life. that is now promised to
us. Let's look at this letter, 1
Thessalonians chapter 1. Starting in verse 2, I'll read
down through verse 10. We give thanks to God always
for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering
before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love
and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we
know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because
our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, and
in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. You know what
kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and you became
imitators of us and the Lord, for you received the word in
much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. so that you
became an example to all the believers of Macedonia and Achaia. For not only has the word of
the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but
your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not
say anything. For they themselves report concerning
us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait
for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus,
who delivers us from the wrath to come. Let's pray. Lord, please, in your infinite
mercy, please. Wrestle with our spirits today,
wrestle with our hearts, wrestle with our minds, wrestle with
our thinking. And break us into that place of submission. Put us into a mindset of surrendering
our thoughts and our focus this moment, this hour, as we seek
Your face in a mighty way. Turn our hearts not to the matters
of this life, nor to those who may not be able to be with us
this day, nor to the problems of this world, But Lord, fade
those things away rapidly and powerfully that we may attend
to Your face as Your Word gives us that great picture. And Father,
as Your Word fills us with Your great power, help us to be attentive
in all of our attributes, all of our senses, that we might
sit and stand and lay in all of you, worshiping you, glorying
in you, being satisfied in you because you alone are God. You alone are worthy. You alone
sent your son to pay for our sins and you have raised him
to life and promised us the same. It is in His powerful, precious
name that we pray. Amen. Over the last three weeks, we've
seen some significant teaching here in the first part of this
letter. And I pray for you daily that you would continually remember
these things. that you would sense the reality
of the Word of God as it has been given you, as you have received
it, as it sits in your heart and mind, that it is recalled
so that you are powerfully able to live out your faith with success. That you're powerfully able to
live as Christians in this dark world. That you're powerfully
able to have the fullness of God and the fullness of joy without
any hesitation of your worship. Because the Word rests in you
deeply. If you're looking for the supernatural
power of God, I pray that you understand it is only through
His Word that you will receive it. It is only by the Word of
God, given through the Spirit of God, in your heart, in your
mind, and in your soul, that you will ever see God's power
at work. Ever. I had a moment this week where
I began to really think about the idea of what it must have been like to
be in the days of the apostles and to see the miraculous. What
it must have been like to see Lazarus come out of the grave. What it must have been like to
see people who were blind see. To see people undo the Babel
incident, the curse of the nations. To speak to the ears of those
who could not hear the gospel in their own tongue at Pentecost. What it must have been like to
be able to experience the healing of limbs, of ears. What it must have been like,
even in the days of old, to see the glory of God surround the
Mount Sinai. To hear the thunderous voice
of Yahweh as He commanded His people to be holy for He is holy. What it must have been like to
experience that morning, that first day, that third day rather,
when they saw the empty tomb and heard the report from the
angel of God, He is not here. What it must have been like in
the upper room when Jesus appeared to them through locked doors.
What it must have been like for Thomas who went on a whim just
to shut them up. I will not believe lest I stick
my hand in his side and in the nail scars of his wrists, I will
not believe. But I'll fancy you. I'll go. How cynical Thomas must have
been as they latched the bolt, the doors, as Jesus walked through
the wall of that place before him. And Thomas said, the Lord of me and the
God of me. And he believed. And I thought
about that, and I said, oh Lord, where is that power this day? That would move people. And the
Lord's Word, when I say the Lord said, the Lord's Word reminded
me that people seek signs and wonders, but they are blinded
even though they see them. And that if anyone wants to hear
and believe, they must be giving hearing through the words of
Christ. so that all the miraculous that could ever, if I were to
levitate above this city with thunder and lightning from my
hands and proclaim that Jesus is the God of heaven, people
would cower in awe and cower in fear, but they would not believe
salvificly, except they hear the Word of God. And that which
God does through the written word is more powerful, more miraculous,
more stupendous, more awful, and more tremendous than any
miracle that's ever been performed. For though we could not see Christ
being raised from the dead, we see the fullness of His glory
when we see His words. When He tells His disciples,
in just a moment I will go away, but I will send one who will
be with you. God is forever present with His people and His Word
solidifies His presence with us and empowers us to see, feel,
know, experience Him forever and ever and ever. And even when
they take these written copies from our hands, beloved, if we
have hidden it in our hearts, we will forever know the power
of God within us. The power of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ is that which produced the reality of the church
who were called out in Thessalonica, the church who is called out
this day. It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ through which
Paul had the authority and the courage and the resolve to say,
you are the beloved in God the Father and in Jesus Christ who
is the Lord. It is by the resurrection power
of Christ that Paul is able to give thanks for these people
in Thessalonica. It is by the resurrection power
that he is able to pray continually. It is by the resurrection power
that he remembers them in their prayers and that he is thankful
to God for his work in their lives. It is because Christ has
been raised from the dead that they are able to labor in love
and in faith. And that they have a steadfastness
of hope It is because Christ is raised from the dead that
He knows they are the elect of God. It is because Christ is
alive that they have been given the gospel and it came to them
not just in the hearing of their flesh, but in the hearing of
their hearts and their minds and their souls. power of the
Holy Spirit, they were brought alive because Christ is alive. The business of the gospel is
the power of God because Christ is alive. That is good news. The gospel is not to meditate
on that which is history. The gospel is to see presently
that which is reality, who is Jesus, who died and who raised
to life. He is God. And He is man. And the power of the resurrection
calls these Christians. The power of the resurrection
causes us to imitate those who are in Christ. Paul says, to
follow me as I follow Christ. And he is thankful that the Thessalonians
imitated Christ by imitating him. Friends, that is a tall
responsibility. And it is not by our resolve.
It is not by our will. It is not by our ability. It
is by continually believing on the person and the power of Christ
who lives within us. It is Christ who lives, not us. We are not able to overcome idols.
We are not able to walk holy before the Lord. We are not able
to worship. Christ works in us in power. He is alive, therefore we are
alive. And these Christians became an
example to all. And church, my prayer is that
we as a fellowship would become an example to all. Not just in
the words we preach, which must be true. But in the lives we
live that are sold out Sacrificed, broken, given away for the sake
of the gospel. We stop caring about what people
think of us, what people do to us, what people say of us, that
we do that which we do because Christ is alive within us. We
do not love the glory that comes from man, about the stature of
our church, about the acceptance of our fellowship, about the
reality of our gospel. We do not worry about these things,
but yet we suffer and count it all as loss for the priceless
gain of knowing Christ as Lord. If we are ever tempted to walk
away from the reality of the gospel, living as a people by
the power of the resurrection, then we have failed to believe
in the gospel. Don't fall prey to thinking that
a church is what a church is based on what you experienced
in the past. The church is a people and a
people alone. And most of the time, the true
church of Jesus Christ have no place to lay their head. No place
to set up shop. No place to call their own. No
opportunity to invest in anything but the Word and each other.
And friends, that is what we're supposed to do. That is what
gave the Thessalonians the power to live in the midst of great
suffering. You receive the Word in much
affliction, beloved, with the joy of the Holy Spirit. And I
know most of you and what many of you are going through in your
life. And I know that there's probably a very small few that
I may not know the reality, but I'm willing to say that you are
in much affliction in some way. Is the joy of the Spirit of God
giving you joy in the midst of affliction? Paul is expressly thankful to
God that he has worked in these infant children in the absence
of any apostolic oversight. Hardly any shepherds. I'm willing
to say that if, I'm sure there were elders, Paul wouldn't have
left town without saying, okay, you and you, please. Just be
an ad hoc elder board or elder group or pastors. Shepherd these
people for just, do whatever. I'm sure there were elders. But
they were babies. They had not gone through a couple
of years of training. They had not been tested and tried. They
were thrown to the wolves. And the Lord was faithful. That's
not the norm. Paul commands that someone be
slow to lay hands on one. That one must study to show thyself
an approved worker. But there are circumstances too
when sometimes you just have to be a paramedic. And Thessalonica
was one of those days. And the Lord worked it out as
He always does. And last week I gave some thought.
I think I did. I should have. If I didn't, let
me reiterate it or say it for the first time. And that sometimes
we try to compare ourselves to these New Testament churches.
And I pray that you would see that you and I are in the same
way empowered to be just like they were. Don't look at Thessalonica
and say, that was just then, will never be that. Friends,
we must be this way. If Christ is alive, we will be
this way. If I am teaching you truth, you
will be this way. You will be empowered to change.
You will be empowered to think and have joy that comes from
Christ alone. And everything in this world
that occupies your time, one day you will throw away for the
gospel. You will sit down and say, and that doesn't mean that
you do without it, but you just won't care anymore. You just won't care. It won't
be important in the context of grace. And Paul says in verse eight,
look at where he is now. You became an example for. You are able, I'm able to praise
God for you, I'm able to rejoice in your example because for not
only has the Word of the Lord sounded forth from you, but your
faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything. This is powerful. And there is no practical expression
of doing here. Paul has not commanded them to
do anything. Paul has not established a pattern
for them to follow. Paul is expressing that which
is obvious, and they have gone out of Thessalonica, into Macedonia,
into Achaia, into other parts of Asia Minor, and everywhere
they go, Thessalonians are on the lips of men. Who are y'all? Oh, you're the
apostles? Yeah, what's going on in Thessalonica? Something
crazy's going on in Thessalonica. Those people are transformed.
I've been seeing them here teaching us about Jesus. This is what's
been happening. Thessalonica was a center point
of this day. It's like a hub that went out
into a lot of directions. It was a central strategic shipping
area, a port if you will, and everything connected there. And when the Thessalonians received
the Gospel, they did not stay confined to their city. They
did not receive the Gospel in power and have joy and just let
the suffering stay isolated. They did not tend to themselves
and their suffering. They were compelled by the power
of God to go out into the world, not just their city, and to proclaim
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For not only has the word of
the Lord sounded forth from you, Paul's not being funny. He's
not being sarcastic. That's not a metaphor. Paul is
saying, you have sounded forth the word of the Lord. You have
come to Macedonia. There are Thessalonians who are
infants in Christ who got Paul and Silas out of town for the
sake of their own physical lives, and now they put themselves in
danger by going to these other cities and preaching the gospel
of Jesus. And they're saying that Jesus
Christ, the God of heaven, born of a virgin, came to this earth,
lived holy, preached the good news to the lost, was crucified,
paid the penalty of our sins, and was raised from the dead
and is alive today, ascended to the right hand of the Father.
You must believe on Him. They didn't go into these other
places and just kick up their heels and smile and dance. They
didn't go into these other cities and set up shop doing some bait
and switch type evangelism. They boldly proclaimed the truth
of Jesus Christ because they knew that the word that they
had received dynamically transformed them into new creatures. And they could not contain it
within themselves. And so they went out. They went out. They preached. But they didn't just preach.
What does he say? For not only has the word sounded
forth from you, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere. Now, I think that's a little
hyperbolic. Because everywhere means everywhere. Okay? But what
Paul is saying is, in our region, there's not a city that I've
been to that I have not heard of you. We give thanks to God
always for all of you, constantly mentioning our prayers, remembering
you before the Lord. We know. We know. You've become imitators
of us. You are the children of God.
We know. you are in Christ because your transformation, your message,
your gospel, your faith has reached everywhere. How does that work in our day?
Let me put it to you this way. How many of you have ever received
a text message or a Facebook update about some horrific event
that happened before you saw it on the news? And it's amazing that an accident
can take place, or stabbing can take place, or a bomb can go
off, and everybody knows it before the authorities even know. That's what we do. Nothing's changed. Except there wasn't calamity
that spread, it was Christ. Why is it that calamity spreads
greater than the gospel in our day? Why is it that gossip goes
forth quicker and with more push and authority than the faith
of Christ? How is it that we know the dirt
on politicians more than we know what we are thinking about the
Lord? Because our words that come from
our hands and our faces and our mouths and our lives are just
an absolute, perfectly parallel reflection of our hearts. And the vast majority of people
who claim to be in Christ this day, in our culture, in our community,
are lost. They have, as John Owen would
say, an historical faith. and that they live amongst the
church, to which he would point and say Hebrews chapter 6 are
speaking of them. Taste of the power of the Spirit,
power of the Word, power of the age to come, and yet fall away.
There remains no sacrifice for sin. We are to be known for our faith
in Christ above all things. And when we purvey a message
that is not that or contrary to that, we have hidden what
we say that we confess. Friends, I pray that many of
us are just in bad habits and not lost. Many people Love, as I said before,
the Jesus of the cross. Think about this for just a moment.
What does the scripture say? Not many would die for even a
good person. Very few times do you see people
giving their lives up for somebody else. But if they did, it probably
would be for someone for good, for a good cause. We're going
to die for a baby. We'll sacrifice our lives for
a group of children. We'll do that. But oh, who would
ever die for a bad person? Who would ever die for their
enemies? The question is asked. Jesus the Christ died for His
enemies. Christ died so that He could
purchase His enemies as brothers, sisters. The Father adopted them
as children, making them co-heirs of glory. People love the Jesus who died. People love the Jesus that would
die to promote a passion for the cause. Oh, Jesus died for
my sins. I'm so glad. Nobody hates that. Jesus died in my place. Hallelujah. Nobody hates that. Jesus paid my debt. I love having
somebody else pay my bills. I love that Jesus. Even recognizing that He should
not have died and that He did not have to die and that He was
not worthy of death. But a Jesus who died and has
not raised a life has no authority over us. And when we see the risen Christ
through the Word of the Lord, we then are subject to His rule. When the king dies, his edicts
die. Friends, in America, we are kings. We choose our government and
we remove them. at will. It may not work the
way it should be, but that's the point. American Christianity is no gospel
because Christ is so often just the martyr who paid to set passion
on fire. But we as the church are Absolutely
joy filled because He is the King who is raised to life, who
rules over us. That's not a Jesus that many
people want. Skip down to the bottom here. Verse 9. For they themselves
report concerning the kind of reception we had among you, how
you, look at this, turned to God from idols to serve the living
and true God and to wait, here it is, for His Son from heaven
whom He raised from the dead. That is Jesus who delivers us
from the wrath to come. Delivered us from the wrath to
come. Isn't that the point of it being
good news? Isn't that the reality of what
the gospel is, why it's called gospel? That we are delivered
from the wrath that is to come. Ironically, many people see this
and they go, oh yeah, you know, because God's going to bring
wrath. God's going to bring judgment. Jesus is bringing judgment. When
He comes back, He is coming to bring judgment. is alive and rules and has authority
to judge, has authority to cast us where we belong, into hell,
has authority to suppress our will, has authority to bring
us into reprobation. He says to Nicodemus that those
who are not believing are condemned already. Jesus has the authority
to come and settle that which is. To call the debt due. And it takes place. But we are delivered from that. And because we're delivered from
that, many things happen. How does Paul express it in Philippians?
We were there a while back. What does he say? I pray that
I may know Him. And what? The power of His resurrection. Now what's the reality of Paul's
circumstances? Paul is facing imminent death. Paul was saying, take my head,
take my life, take everything I've got, take it. You can't
take the Gospel. You can't take Christ from me,
nor me from Christ. Christ is alive. Kill me. Woo! I'm fearful. Not. That's how he would say
it if he were alive today. I do not fear death. Why would I fear death when the
Lord over death has been raised alive? I'm raised alive. For
Paul, the power to say, I am satisfied, I give it all away,
I count it all as garbage, for Paul to be able to say, I can
do all things in Christ, is because Paul knew the power of the risen
Lord that He ruled Paul. Every fiber of his being was
governed and was subject to the authority of the kingship of
Christ who was alive, not just in reality, but inside of him. as he is alive inside of us today. And not just inside, physically
alive this very moment in his body. Paul says the power of the resurrection
is a lot of things I'd like to show you, but I just don't have
time this morning. The power of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ includes many things, just so that we understand this
moving forward. The primary power of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ is His righteousness. Did you hear that? His righteousness. We are not righteous, but Christ
has been raised from the dead, and that power gives us His righteousness. We are justified before God because
Christ has been raised from the dead. Had Christ not been raised
from the dead, it would give no warrant to His sacrifice,
which would not cleanse us of any sin. We would not propitiate
before God. It would not do anything. So
the power of the resurrection is the reality of the entire
gospel. Paul tells the church of Corinth,
he says, if Christ has not been raised, then we preach worthlessly. We preach in vain. And we believe
in vain. Our faith is in vain. Our faith
is empty. Our faith is worthless. But He
has been raised to life. Paul's letter to Timothy, the
second letter, chapter 2, Paul says, remember that Christ is
the seed of David and was raised from the dead according to the
good news, according to the evangel. Christ's death and resurrection,
specifically the power of God that we are raised to life, gives
us the hope. Not just that we escape the wrath
to come. but that we have righteousness,
that we live as examples, that we can give glory to God and
praise to Him. As He said to the Ephesian church,
we exist for the praise, to the praise of His glorious grace.
That's why we're here today. To be empowered by the hearing
of His Word, to be encouraged by the fellowship with each other,
to pray, to worship, to sing, to elaborate, to just expose
our affection for Christ. The power of the resurrection
produces the fruitfulness of the gospel of grace. And as we've
seen, we become examples, we follow after Christ, we herald
the Word of God, verse 8, because Christ is alive. The resurrection, I was thinking
of this yesterday or Friday, guarantees evangelism. guarantees it. The Christian
faith is not trying to get people to agree to a, I don't know,
what's the word? To a philosophy. The Christian
faith is to expose God's face through the Word, who is Jesus
Christ. And show Him not a philosopher
or a martyr or a teacher, but to show Him God come to earth
as man. Paul says the resurrection of
Jesus has empowered you to preach the Gospel as it sounded forth
in Macedonia and Achaia. And all of these things are true
because Christ is alive and your faith has gone forth everywhere. What does that mean? The power
of the resurrection of Christ produces not just a verbal proclamation
of Christ, but a visible representation of Christ. We are the body, we
produce that which is visible in this life, in our suffering
first and foremost, in our belief in that suffering, in our joy
in that suffering, in our hope in that suffering. And even when
things are good, we do not place our hope and our joy in those
things as they are good, but we look to them as passing away,
so no matter what, whether it be good or whether it be bad,
it's all good. And that is visible. The old legend that Saint Francis
of Assisi said that pre-preaching the gospel at all times and if
necessary use words is a fallacious theological garbage. I don't say things and I thought,
where do I go? It's just garbage. You can't
preach the gospel without explicitly saying it. But oh, can your life
produce the reflection of that truth? And it should. No one
can get saved by watching us live. They must hear the gospel
of Jesus explicitly. They must hear it precisely.
but our lives should be such that it shines brightly. Have
you ever been shown in the face by a bright light? You know what
it does? It blinds everything around you,
even in the daylight. These new headlights, as I was
driving down the highway yesterday and going to turn, all of a sudden
I felt like I could not see and my eyes were watering because
this car that was coming in front of me had on his big bright LED,
whatever those things were called, like a lighthouse. And even though it did not blind
me to the world because it was light everywhere, it bothered
my vision. I could not see. But in the context
of how God says and Jesus says that we are in darkness, that
the world is in a domain of darkness, we live in darkness, but rather
we walk in life. And when I say live, I mean we
live amongst the darkness. The darkness is present. And
when there's darkness, we can adjust our eyes to see that which
we need to see to get around and to move and to operate. But
when someone shines a light in our eyes, the only thing we can
see is the point of that light. Friends, when we live our lives
in the power of the resurrection of Jesus, we live in such a way
that the world, when it shines on the world and God gives them
eyes to actually see, it blinds them to see the righteousness
of God through the face of Christ and His body who is the church. That's why it's important we
understand that. God's power in the resurrection
of Jesus Christ produces a faith that is visible, that is living,
that is active. in so much that these Thessalonians
influenced others. How did they do that? They preached
the gospel. They lived the gospel. And there's
something about their living, about the reflection of the power
of the resurrection in their lives that changed them radically. What was it? Look at it. You
turned from idols and you served the living and
true God. You turned from idols. People know that you received
us when we came and you received the Word that we gave with power
and it changed you. And they know that it changed
you because you used to walk amongst this region talking about
your gods, living out your lives for yourselves, doing all that
was necessary to fit in with society. Friends, let me tell
you something. We use the name of Jesus, who was a false god,
who was an idol in our culture, to fit in into a Christian circle. And I'm not talking about the
cults, I'm talking about Baptists. Most people who talk Jesus do not
know Him. That is a fact of Scripture.
Jesus Himself said it. Broad is the path. Lord, Lord
doesn't get you anywhere. We've got to turn from idols
to serve the living. See that? The living. God. Because serving a false God is
an idol. What is a false God? A false
God is anything that's not Christ. A watch, shoes, a particular
type of Bible, an iPad, a child, a marriage, money, success, ministry,
podiums, doctrine, programs, Easter services, anything
that is not Christ is another God and it is dead. It's dead. If I could just have,
if I could just be, if I could just go, if I could just learn,
if I could just achieve, if I could just be with, I'd find my hope. If my pain
would just go away. If I wouldn't feel so down. Friends,
we're supposed to feel down. We're supposed to have blue days. We're supposed to feel the depression
of this world as we look at it. And then we resolve to see the
joy of Christ when nothing's going to change. We'd be weird,
if not insane, if it didn't bother us when we look at our lives
in this world. Psychopathic or sociopathic.
It should bother us. It should burden us. Much like
the histories of a lot of the great men of old, a lot of the
expositors like Spurgeon. After the fire at the tabernacle
and so many people died and he was grief stricken to the point
he never came out of depression. that service would be belabored
for him. Preaching was hard. Praying was
even more difficult. And his elders of his church
would have to go down and drag him up to the pulpit. Today,
all that pastor just needs to wash it up, needs to go on. And
by the strength of God's grace, he would stand and preach and
call men to repentance and then sulk back into his depression. to never make public appearances
and never write again, never get involved in anything publicly. There was joy for him, just like
there's joy for you. But in that season, God chose
that the only joy he had was when he preached the word. The apostles did not need to
say anything because the transformation of this idolatry being flushed
away was obvious. People gave in Thessalonica,
people's time was different. What they longed to do, if they
had one free day, it was not for themselves. Listen to this
church. When do you think they shared
the gospel? Any moment they had free. This is going to be convicting
for every one of us in the room. We are selfish. And we love to manipulate our
selfishness and pretend like it is for Christ when it is not
for Christ. It is not for Christ if Christ
is not learned, loved, lived for, shared, proclaimed, and
suffered because of it. At minimum, we can pray. At minimum,
foundationally, we can pray. First and foremost, we can pray. But we love to just escape. Escape
the life that God gave us through His resurrection. Escape the
power of Christ through His resurrection to go do something that is boring
or less efficient. We just need time, we'd say.
But Thessalonians' faith in God was so obvious because no longer
did they give any time to their lives except to proclaim the
greatness of the glory of Christ. That's what they did. And that
is the normal reaction, the normal response, the normal, absolute
power of God in the life of His people. Friends, please hear
me. And they didn't sit down and
say, I'm not saying we don't schedule our days, but they didn't
say, OK, you know what? On Tuesdays I'm going to do some ministry
stuff. Jesus did not command us to go preach the gospel and
to make disciples on schedules. Jesus commanded us, no He didn't,
He did, but He declared that we would make disciples as we
go in all the world. No matter what we have planned
to do, God will railroad those plans that the gospel would be
first and foremost. That's the point. And when things, especially as
the church, get in the way of living our life in that way,
those things are idols and we are serving them. But we are not that way. We are
not bound to that type of service. We are alive because Christ is
alive and in this we are empowered to preach and proclaim the gospel
and to live before men in such a way that God is glorified because
of it. In verse 9, they themselves,
who everywhere we went reported concerning us, the kind of reception
we had among you, and how you turned from idols to serve the
living and true God, and finally, and as you wait for His Son from
heaven, the lost of the world are reporting
your witness, and the church who has come to life, it's like
Paul is saying, y'all beat us here. You realize people were saved
before Paul and Silas and Timothy got there. Because the Thessalonians,
when Paul left town to save his life, they went on out and preached. Their life was changed in an
instant. They didn't have to pack up this
idol today and this idol tomorrow. It's over. And the resurrection of Jesus
Christ is the reason that was possible and present. Do you hear that? Because Christ
is alive, they preached. Because Christ is alive, they
lived. Because Christ is alive, they
proclaimed. They presented the truth in their
own lives. And they resolved, and with peace,
their whole point of life was to wait for His return. Not on
their hands and their holy huddles, but from hillside to valley,
preaching and living the gospel. Let us never forget that things
will quickly get in the way of this, if we do not remember God's
Word. You receive the Word, you turn
from idols, you serve the God, serve the living God and true
God, and you await Christ with all passion. Because Christ is
risen, He is returning. Because He's risen, He is our
glory. Because He is risen, He is our
wisdom, He is our hope, He is our life, He is our love, He
is our Lord, He is raised from the dead, and He is actively
working continually sustaining by the Word of His power, by
the sealing of the Spirit. He holds us, prepares us to be
the righteousness of God. Christ is alive, therefore we
are alive. Friends, the gospel is not inspirational. The gospel is not there for us
to be inspired. We cannot be inspired by the
martyrdom of Christ, by the story of legends. We must be awed by
His power. We must be in awe of His holiness.
We must be in awe that He has been raised from the dead. And
the Gospel saves us and the Gospel satisfies us. And the Gospel
is Jesus who is our truth and who is our treasure. I guess ultimately it comes down
to this question. What receives your glory? What receives your worship? To whom is it given? We as the church glory only in
Jesus Christ. We glory only in His power. And beloved, there are every
moment, there are things in our life that want to fight and war
for our affection. Fight and war for for our time
and our service, fight and war. And friends, Christ is risen
and He is victorious over these idols. And we can put them to
death by the power of His grace, through the truth of His Word,
together as a people. When we are not together, when
one of us is away, we miss We miss not just their presence,
but their prayers, not just their prayers, but the possibility
and the opportunity to serve one another. And I pray above
all things, church, that you would never forget that we have
not come to church, but we have come as the church. And we need
to be forever reminded that we stay and stand in this life because
Christ is our risen Lord. And there is nothing else but
that. No other hope to look forward
to months down the road, but that. No other strategy. No other glorious happenings
other than that day in history where He walked from the tomb. One of the most prophetic phrases
in the New Testament to my soul is when Jesus proved that He
would be raised from the dead, when He walked in John 11 to
the tomb of Lazarus and He commanded this rotting corpse to come out. And he says, after Lazarus waddled
out in his grave clothes, unbind him and let him go. Jesus meant just cut those grave
clothes from him. But I received that extremely
prophetic because that's what Christ has done for us. He's cut the clothes of death
from our bodies. because he's commanded us to
be alive by faith. And we've heard the voice of
our shepherd and we've believed. Do you believe? That Christ is
the only way to life. Let's pray. God, we thank you so. For your power. for your grace,
for your mercy. We thank you, Lord, that Jesus,
the Christ, your only begotten son, was sent by you before eternity
began. Before the world began in eternity,
your purpose to send Christ. that you would save your people
from certain and just wrath. Father, we look forward to that
day when we will be raised to life with Christ forever. And until that day, we wait as
we work and as we worship. We look forward to that moment
when We see you face to face. Help us to be busy in our believing,
exposing your power to the nations through proclamation and striving
for holiness. Lord, as we pray for each other,
as we present offerings of gratitude to you, And as we prepare each day to
live for Your glory, Lord, we thank You for Your grace
and salvation. In Jesus Christ's name we pray,
Amen.