What God Wants the Church to Be

Selected Scriptures

     In thinking about what the Lord might say to us as we begin a new year, 1976, I was drawn to a very favorite passage of mine, one that I go back to many times.  In fact, it's a passage that we deal with in the packet that our first-time guests received tonight, and the very same principles that are there in that packet, and I guess it's been five years or so since I wrote out those little things, and I doubt whether anybody's even remembered what was there.  But I was thinking through those thoughts and realities, and I began to study the Book of 1 Thessalonians, and some new things came into my heart and my mind as I was looking through the meaning of the various texts in 1 Thessalonians.  And out of it I drew some conclusions about what God wants the church to be.  And I thought tonight we might look at the 1st chapter, particularly, and then on into the 3rd and the 4th chapter and draw out some basic principles for the life of Grace Community Church or, for that matter, any church.  If you're a visitor with us tonight, you can take these things back to your own congregation, to the...to the fellowship that you enjoy in Christ.  You can apply them in your own personal life, because they're universal principles belonging to the ideal church or the church that God especially blesses or the church that fulfills His intended design.

     And I suppose that it's particularly important as we begin a new year because of the fact that it's sort of in our minds as a fresh beginning.  There's something new about it.  There's something about the old that sort of fades after January 1st, and we can kinda look ahead with a...with a view toward maybe a new approach and a new insight and a new commitment.  And maybe this is a good time to look at what our church is and to look at what God wants it to be, and not just theologically, but to try to make it personal and then to try to make it very practical in terms of what God wants us to do.

     We could have studied the Book of Ephesians, because in the Book of Ephesians you have the doctrine of the church.  We could've studied Acts, because in Acts you have the history of the church.  But in 1 Thessalonians, you have the example of a church that was everything, basically, that God ever intended a church to be.  All of the basic ingredients that our Lord wanted in a church were in the Thessalonican congregation.  And it is a welcome refreshment to me to spend at least half a week studying Thessalonica after the rest of the week studying Corinth.  Because everything that could probably go wrong or possibly go wrong in a church went wrong in the Corinthian assembly, and it wasn't so in the Thessalonian assembly. 

     And 1 Thessalonians just lays out for us the pattern of the church that Christ really built.  Now, to begin with, let me hasten to say there is no reference to numbers in this particular epistle.  Doesn't tell us how big the church was or any of their numerical objectives or goals.  None of that is described.  It tells us absolutely nothing about their programming.  It doesn't tell us anything about the kind of sermons that were preached, the kind of music that was done.  It doesn't tell us how big their parking lot was.  Doesn't tell us about their Sunday School, their worship services.  Doesn't tell us about their high school camp.  It doesn't tell us about any of those things.  But it does tell us about internal things.  You know, whenever you're...whenever the Lord takes the temperature of the church, He always wants to know the internal temperature.  You know, somewhere along the line, the Lord puts the thermometer inside, and Thessalonica came out 98.6, normal.  And because of that it sets a tremendous pattern for us. 

     Paul, of course, had preached the Gospel to the Thessalonians, and he had sent Timothy back to kind of find out what was going on.  You know, he had a great desire to know what was going on in the congregation that he had left, and Timothy came back, and Timothy had a fantastic report.  Chapter 3 verse 6, "But now when Timothy came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and love, and that you have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us (as we also to see you), therefore brethren, we were comforted."  Paul says, "When I got the word about you from Timothy, boy, was I comforted.  Did I ever get good news."  And what Timothy told him prompted him to write this first letter to the Thessalonians.  To make it even more interesting by way of contrast, this was written from the city of Corinth, which must undoubtedly have been cause for extra joy to know that whatever Corinth may not have been, Thessalonica was.  And I trust as we look at some of these very simple and very basic principles, the Lord will help us to see what it is that He desires from us, and how it is that we can experience those things.

     How can Grace Community Church or any church or any believer be what God wants him to be?  All right, let's look at some things.  First of all, and we're gonna stick in chapter 1, at least through the first ten verses, which includes all of that chapter...and we're gonna see several patterns for the ideal church.  Number one, Thessalonica was a saved church...a saved church.  You say, "Well, that doesn't seem to be too abnormal.  Well, it is in our age.  There are many churches today that don't know the beginning of the meaning of salvation.  We've been studying in the last month or more the epistle of Jude.  In fact, we've just finished our series on Jude and we're between series.  People are asking me what the next one is, and I just tell 'em I'm praying about it, and the Lord hasn't given me any real clear insight yet.  But we'll just hang in there till He does.  But we studied Jude, and...and, as we looked at Jude, we found that there is going to be, in the last days, a tremendous amount of apostasy, and the church will abandon the true faith.  And we see this all around us.  Uniquely, in Thessalonica, we have a saved church, a church truly born again.

     Now, that is illustrated to us in the first four verses by the very terms that Paul uses.  Let's look at verse 1, and we can't cover everything, but just highlighting the feature that we're kind of after.  "Paul and Silvanus...which is another name for Silas who was his good friend accompanying him on the second journey...Paul and Silas and Timothy, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and...the implication...in the Lord Jesus Christ:  Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father the Lord Jesus Christ.  We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers." 

     Now, the reason he can thank God for all of them is because all of them are in Christ.  This was a totally regenerated congregation.  "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father, knowing, brethren beloved...because of all of these evidences...your election of God."  Now, in those four verse, Paul says, "It is obvious that you're a regenerated group.  It is obviously that the tares have not yet infiltrated the wheat.  It is apparent by the kind of life you live that you really do know the Lord Jesus Christ."  And therein lies the beginning of an effective church.  The reason so many churches are ineffective is because there's a mixture of wheat and tares.  Very often, even at leadership levels, unregenerate people in places of responsibility only confuse the issue, because that puts God alongside Satan, and that makes it difficult for God and confusing for the people. 

     Let's go back to Acts 17 and see how all of this began in Thessalonica, and that'll help us.  It's says in verse 1, "And when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollinia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews."  And, you know, as we've studied the Book of Acts that we learned that Paul always went to the synagogue first, because there he would find the...the widest open door, because he himself was Jewish.  And so he could speak to those people.  And he also realized that if he went to the Gentiles first, the Jews would never accept him after that.  So he had to go there first.  Hopefully, he could win some Jews to Christ, and he could attack the city, not alone, but with some help.  So he went to the synagogue and, as his manner was, went in and three Sabbath days he dialogued with them out of the Scriptures.  Now, he was only there for three Sabbaths, probably two weeks with a...with a Sabbath on each end.  So he spent three Sabbaths teaching them the Scripture, opening and alleging that Christ must needs to have suffered.

     Of course, the difficulty that Jews had was accepting Jesus as the Messiah because He died.  They had not really understood the meaning of Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22, and that is of the suffering Messiah.  They couldn't understand how their Messiah would have to die.  And, consequently, they had a hard time accepting Jesus as their Messiah.  And so Paul spent time showing them that the "Messiah must have suffered in order to fulfill His place in God's plan and risen from the dead and then that this Jesus, whom I preach, is indeed the Messiah.  And some of them believed and consorted or worked together with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks, a great multitude, and even some very important women."  From the very beginning, there was a tremendous response.  Only three times did he reason out of the Scripture.  Now, that's a short beginning, isn't it?  Three Sabbaths, and he was gone.  You say, "Boy, I don't know about that church.  I don't know if they'll make it off the ground.  I mean what do they know about organization?  I mean have they been to any seminars?  They're really handicapped.  I mean they've only had teaching for three weeks.  They're in bad shape."

     Well, they would be apart from the Holy Spirit, right?  So Paul writes back, and he probably, if he was human like I am, would say to himself, "Now, Timothy, you...you...you find out.  I'm a little concerned."  And Timothy comes back and says, "That place is really knocking everybody dead.  That is fantastic what's going in Thessalonica."  And he writes back this letter and says, "Praise the Lord.  This is exciting."  And it all begins, you see, because it is a regenerated church.  You'll notice that in verse 1 it says they were in God the Father.  And the implication they were in Jesus Christ.  And verse 3 says in our Lord Jesus Christ.  And verse 5 says in the Holy Spirit.  We do not just follow the precepts of Jesus.  We do not just follow the teachings of Christ.  We are in Christ.  A tremendous concept. 

     In 1 Corinthians 6:17, Paul said, "He that is joined to the Lord is...what?...one spirit."  In Romans chapter 6, the Apostle Paul lays out that marvelous passage regarding the identity of a believer in his union with Christ.  Look with me for a moment at Romans 6, and I...I just wanna point out a couple of things to you there.  Romans 6 verse 3, "Don't you know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ."  That is, as many of us as were placed in Christ, as were put into union with Christ.  And the baptism there is not water, but it's being placed into Christ.  "As many of us as were being placed into Christ were placed into His death?  We were buried with Him by that baptism into death?  As Christ is raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection."

     Verse 8, "If we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him."  Now, what is Paul saying?  He's saying nothing about water.  Water symbolizes this, and water pictures this.  But the act of baptism is not that saving act.  But what Paul is saying is that when you became a Christian, by a divine miracle, you were placed into Jesus Christ.  And by a divine miracle that supersedes time, you died with Christ.  You were buried.  The old life died, and you rose to walk in newness of life in His resurrection.  You are inextricably linked in union with Jesus Christ.  Paul even went so far as to say this, "Nevertheless, I live...what?...yet not I, but Christ lives...where?...in me."  And the Christian experience is not simply following the moral precepts of a man.  It is not simply believing in a historical figure.  It is experiencing union with the living God through Jesus Christ.  True believers are in Christ. 

     What are the results of being in Christ?  Listen to this.  "If any man be...what?...in Christ, he is a new creation."  That's the thing that happens.  When you come into that union with Christ, you know why you become a new creation?  Because the old one dies...and you're made new.  And Paul says in Romans 6, "You walk in...what kind of life?...newness of life."  Why, you're a new creation.  An exciting reality.  And so what is Paul saying here as he writes the Thessalonians?  "You know why I thank God always for all of you?  Because all of you are in Christ.  All of you are in God.  All of you are in the Holy Spirit."  And by those terms he means they are all in union with common life in the Trinity.  Now, get ahold of it, people, because to be a Christian is a pretty exciting reality, isn't it?  You know, all you have to do is really think about that, and you find yourself shouting, "Hallelujah."  Realize that the very life of God is yours.  Peter said it this way.  He said, "You have become partakers of...what?...the divine nature."  Incredible. 

     He says, "Hey, I thank God for you Thessalonians, because you have become partakers of the divine nature.  Grace be unto you...he says in verse 1...and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ."  And you know why he can wish that to them?  Because they can receive that.  But, you know, you can't receive the grace of God, you can't receive the peace of God unless you're the child of God.  So all the way through that opening, you see, Paul is acknowledging the true salvation of these people. 

     Look at verse 3, and this is a beautiful reality.  He says, "You know how I know you're all for real?  Because I remember without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope."  You know, you see there the triad of Christian virtues.  Faith, hope, and love...All of those belong only to the redeemed, beloved.  And he says, "By virtue of what I see in your life, I know you're redeemed.  How exciting it is to thank God without ceasing, remembering to God your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope.  You give evidence of regeneration.  And because of all of this, I know, brethren... verse 4...you're elect.  I know God has truly redeemed you.  I know you're the chosen of God.  There aren't any phonies in Thessalonica."  That's a pure congregation. 

     And, beloved, this is really where everything begins in terms of really serving God.  The church has to be a peer church.  The church has to be a saved church.  If that is true, if it is true that God blesses the church that is regenerate, then what do we know Satan would wanna do?  Make sure that unbelievers get in the church, right?  That unregenerate people begin to infiltrate the church, and...and that they move to as high a level as they possibly can, because that just corrupts the purity of the church.  Say, "How do you keep it out?  How do you keep unbelievers out of the church?"  Well, I don't know that you really always can, because we don't know the wheat from the tares.  And in Matthew 13, Jesus said, "Don't you try to do the separating, or you're gonna create havoc.  You wait till the Lord does it in the end time." 

     But I know one good way illustrated in the Bible to keep out the unbelievers.  You know how?  That's to discipline sin in the church.  You remember what happened with Ananias and Sapphira?  Ananias and Sapphira were looking around in the church, and everybody was getting a lot of...a lot of praise for giving to people who had needs.  And Barnabas came along, you know, and he made a great gift.  And Ananias and Sapphira went home, and they said to each other, "You know, we oughta do that.  You know, if we do that, everybody's gonna think we're really spiritual."  So they say, "You know, that piece of property we got?  We're gonna give that to the...to the Lord."  So they said, "We will give our piece of property when we sell it, all the money to the Lord."  Everybody went, "Mmmmmm, be terrific.  Wonderful people, Ananias and Sapphira.  Hum."  You see.  So they went and sold it.  You know what happened?  "Well, let's keep a little.  They'll never know."  So they kept a little, but under the pretense they were giving all.  You know what the Lord did?  The Lord made 'em drop dead in front of the congregation.  They fell over dead.

     Now, that had a profound effect...You can imagine how everybody in the congregation immediately adjusted anything that wasn't right...But you know what Acts chapter 5 says?  It really is a tremendous truth.  Acts chapter 5 says, "And none dared join himself to them."  You know what the word was in the city?  Don't join that organization.  One false move and you're dead...You see, the recognition that you're dealing with sin and that you're dealing honestly with the purity of the church is a deterrent to too many tares getting in on the action. 

     To begin with, the church has to be a regenerated church.  This church was.  Look at chapter 2 verse 13.  By the time he gets in chapter 2, he's still thank God for them.  Verse 13, "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing."  He's just going on and on thanking God.  When..."We thank Him because when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men...you didn't receive it like it like it was some kind of philosophy, like it was some new theology, but...as it is the truth, the Word of God, which effectually works in you that believe." 

     "Boy," what I'm glad for he says, "is that when you heard the Word, it wasn't something to tickle your intellect.  It wasn't just something that would be a new religious experience.  You didn't just have a religious revolution.  What you had was a regeneration, and it got inside of you, because you believed it, and you received it."  And, again, he's acknowledging that this is a regenerated church.  Any church that's gonna be effective has to be redeemed.  Now, I believe, because I know enough about the strategy of Satan, that Grace Church probably has in its membership some unregenerated people.  And one of the objectives that I have this year is to find out who those people are and bring them to Christ. 

     Now, you...some of 'em, they may be here tonight, and you may be saying, "Maybe he knows it's me."  Well, maybe I do, but probably not.  But we're gonna try to find out.  Why?  Because we want you to know Christ.  We don't want you to be under pretense.  I want this year, for Grace Community Church, a pure fellowship.  You want that?  I want all the people in this church to be wheat, to belong to Jesus Christ.  And, you know, I'll be honest with you, I don't get to meet everybody and...and sometimes somebody'll come up to me and say, "Hello."  And I'll say, "HI, do I know you?"  "Oh, yes, we've been at your church for four years."  You know?  I don't know that.  But we wanna know the people who know Christ, and we want know that all the people who are here do know Christ. 

     I think of Revelation chapter two where John speaks so strongly against intermarriage with the world, against a mixed congregation.  He's writing to Pergamos, and he says, "I have a few things against you, because you tolerate people there with false doctrine."  And what doctrine?  The doctrine of Balaam.  The doctrine of Balaam is to marry the world, to compromise, to seduce the daughters of Israel to intermarry with the pagans.  And he says, "If you keep doing that, I'll come against you and fight against you with the sword of my mouth."  Jesus says, "I'll fight My own church if My own church compromises with the world and begins to allow intermarriage with the system."  God wants a pure church.  And the key to the success of the Thessalonians was, to begin with, they were pure.  If you read Acts, you find that in the early church, it starts out on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:41, three thousand believed and were baptized.  And the next verse says, "And they continued steadfastly."  How many continued?  Three thousand.  That's a regenerated church.  You know what they did?  They turned the city of Jerusalem inside out, didn't they?  They were tearing their hair out, the leaders, and...and soon, in the Book of Acts they were saying, "But you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine."  I hope to tell you, when you have a totally regenerated assembly of people moving through town with the miracle of the Holy Spirit going along with 'em, it's bound to turn that town inside out.  And it did.

     Paul says, in verse 5, notice, "Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.  You remember how we came, and you knew we were men from God, and you received what we said, and you believed in it.  It came in the energy of the Holy Spirit.  And you received it with confidence and assurance.  It changed your life."  They heard, they believed, and they became in Christ.  And that was the beginning...of the affect of that church.  God wants a saved church. 

     Second thing, and this is just a word that starts with "S" so you can remember it.  God wants a surrendered church, and Thessalonica was.  I love this statement, and I don't wanna get stuck on it, but I could.  Verse 6, just a rich statement, "And you became followers of us and of the Lord."  Stop there.  The genuine character of the salvation of the Thessalonicans becomes apparent in this statement.  They "became followers of us and of the Lord."  The word followers, a beautiful word in the Greek.  It's the word mimiti from which we get the English word mimic.  You mimicked us.  I like that.  The Thessalonian christens weren't just talkers.  They were imitators.  They didn't just talk about their Christian experience.  They actually set their lives to follow somebody else.  This is a theme with Paul, and he repeats this concept in many Scriptures.

     But in 1 Corinthians 4:16 he says, "I beseech you...to the Corinthians...be followers of me.  Please."  He didn't have to say that to the Thessalonians.  They did it.  But to the Corinthians, he says, "Please be followers of me."  You say, "That's pretty audacious to say pattern your life after mine."  Well, it isn't because of what he says in 1 Corinthians 11:1.  "Be followers of me even as I am of Christ."  In Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1, Paul said, "Be ye therefore followers of God."  What a rich concept.  "Be ye followers of me," said Paul.  "Be ye followers of Christ," said Paul.  "Be ye followers of God."

     Now, if I, as a pastor, and your elders and your leaders, follow Christ, then you can follow us.  Is that right?  And be following God.  Now, that is precisely what was happing in the Thessalonian assembly.  This church was surrendered to one thing.  Christ-likeness.  They were abandoned to being like Jesus.  What a tremendous thing.  Now, collectively, it's true that we are the body of Christ.  I like to call it body two.  We are collectively as His body all over the world to represent Him.  But, individually, beloved, we're to be like Him.  You remember the passage we studied when we went through 1 John a few months ago?  Listen to it again.  "He that says he abides in Him...and he's talking about abiding in Christ...he that says he abides in Him ought also to walk even as...what?...He walked."  If I say I am in Christ, then I should be like Christ.  What is the pursuit of a Christian?  To be like Christ.  And, you see, that's the key to the life of the church.  You know that if all of us are like Christ, we'll have no...no problem getting along with each other?  You know why we have problems getting along with each other?  Because we're all kind of out of tune. 

     Tozer said, "If you have a hundred pianos and you wanna tune a hundred pianos, and you just start tuning one to the other, whew, what a mess.  But if you have tuning fork, tune all the pianos to that one tuning fork, and they'll automatically be tuned to each other."  Right?  You know how simple it is in the church?  It isn't running around adjusting to everybody else.  It's everybody becoming like Jesus Christ.  Then we don't have any problem with everybody else.  Christ-likeness. 

     The Thessalonian church was surrendered to Christ-likeness.  I...I trust it'll be a commitment in your heart this year that your desire would be to be like Christ, to walk as He walked.  And, of course, in 1 John 2, he's talking about obedience.  He walked obediently.  And that's the way you oughta walk, obedient to God.  He came into the world and said, "My need is to do...what?...the will of Him who sent Me."  He was obedient.  Philippians 2 said He was obedient even unto what?  Unto death.  And then Philippians 2 adds another dimension of Christ-likeness.  "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not something to hold onto to be equal with God, but humbled Himself."

     Two things that really stand out about Christ.  He was obedient and He was humble.  The Thessalonian church was like Paul and Silas and Timothy, and they were like Jesus.  Now, I hope you realize that in even understanding that how that lays a heavy burden on my heart.  You have every right, beloved, you have every right, biblically, before God, to pattern your life after mine and after the leaders of this church.  You have every right to do that.  And we have the obligation and the responsibility to make sure that, if you do that, you'll be following Christ, because we're following Him.  I pray God this year that myself and the other elders of the church and all those who lead as a part of Grace Church will so live Christ-like lives that you, as a congregation, will be able to follow along.  And even patterning your life from the human standpoint after us, you'll be patterning it after Jesus Christ.  Because then you'll be the kind of church and we'll be the kind of church that God wants us to be.  This church was saved and surrendered to being like Christ. 

     There's a third thing that I see here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, and that is that this was a suffering church.  Now, we've talked about this on many occasions, and I'm not gonna belabor the point.  I'm just gonna mention it to you, because you're aware of its realities.  But notice verse 6, "And you became followers or mimics of us unto the Lord, having received the Word in much affliction."  And what was their attitude even though there was affliction?  With what?  Joy in their circumstances.  Is that what it said?  Joy of what?  The Holy Spirit.  Now, you see, the Thessalonian church hadn't had it easy, and I don't really believe that any church that really is saved and surrendered to Christ and to being like Christ is gonna have it very easy. 

     Just to remind you of what happened in Thessalonica assembly, as soon as they got saved, they hadn't even begun.  They'd just got off the pad and immediately, in Acts 17:5, we find out what happened.  No sooner had they had - the people believed, "The Jews who believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain vile fellows of the baser sort...I like that, cruddy characters in the vernacular, common criminals...and gathered a company and set the city in an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason."  Here was Jason, a new believer, "And they tried to bring out the...Paul and Silas and Timothy.  And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren to the rulers of the city, crying, 'These that have turned the world upside are come here also.'"  What a reputation.  These people are turning the world upside down, and now they're here.  Persecution began immediately.  "They troubled the city...they said...and the people...etc., so forth."  And persecution broke out.

     If you look at the second chapter of 1 Thessalonians and verse 14, you'll find something of that.  "For you, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.  You also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us.  And they please not God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always.  For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."

     Now, let me pull some thoughts out of there.  He says, "You've suffered everything we suffered in Judea."  Some of them had been martyred, persecuted, forbidden to speak...You see, the church that is saved and surrendered to being like Jesus Christ is going to antagonize the world.  There's gonna come some suffering.  Jesus put it this way, "If the world hates Me, you can expect them to do...what?...hate you, especially if you're like Me."  I love what Paul says.  Colossians 1:24, he says something that's been misunderstood, and I supposed misinterpreted because it is difficult.  But it says, "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you." 

     Say, "But, Paul, how could you do that?" 

     "Well, I may suffer a little bit, I may get beat up, but you get saved, and I'll take it that way.  I rejoice in my suffering for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh." 

     "What are you saying, Paul?  What do you mean you fill up that is behind of the afflictions of Christ in your flesh?"  What he means is this.  The world can't hit Jesus anymore, so they hit those who are like Him, right?  "The world isn't done persecuting Christ.  But since they can't get at Him, they get at me, and I'm kinda glad about that.  I'm willing to suffer for the One who suffered for me.  If He could take the blows on the cross that should've been mine, I think I can take a few blows that are meant for Him."

     And wouldn't it be nice to be persecuted for being Christ-like?  I mean at least you'd have that recognition.  I don't know if I've ever been mistaken for Jesus Christ.  If I have, nobody ever told me.  Wouldn't it be nice to have somebody persecute you because you've turned the world upside down?  Be kind of exciting.  I'd like everybody to get irritated about Grace Church, not because we're offensive, but because we preach the Gospel and that exposes sin...The church that's gonna confront the world is gonna suffer.  Eleven out of the twelve apostles, as far as we know, were martyred.  The church must be the conscience of the world.  I'm not saying we want our church to be obnoxious.  I'm not saying we wanna have a bad reputation.  I'm not saying we wanna be unkind to people who don't know Christ.  I'm not saying that at all.  I mean...the opposite of that is true.  But I am saying this.  That where the world is sinful, we wanna expose that sin.  And where the world needs a clear picture of Christ, we want 'em to see that picture.  And if Satan and his system reacts, then we'll be ready for that, too.  But let's be something in the world that is not the world, all right?  Let's stick out and...and let's this year and every year, let's be different.  Let's be the conscience of the system.  Let's make people face the reality of God and Christ and sin and death and immortality. 

     The Thessalonian church was saved, surrendered and suffering, and there's something else.  This is something that's really on my heart.  They were a soul-winning church...The Thessalonian church was a soul-winning church.  And, you know, they had a marvelous twofold testimony.  I want you to look at verse 7.  Here's the first way we...we give testimony, "So that you were an example to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia."  They lived exemplary lives.  Man, you know, the rest of the people around could look over at that Thessalonian church and say, "That's the way our church oughta be."  You know how long it took 'em to become that?  About two weeks.  They were yielded, surrendered to Christ-likeness.  Once they had done that, everything happened.  It isn't the programs that we have.  It isn't the...the creativity that we have.  It's the Christ-likeness.  And the Thessalonians were like Jesus Christ.  And, consequently, they set a pattern for everybody else. 

     You know what I'd like Grace Church to be?  I'd like Grace Church to be an example of what life can be with Jesus Christ for all the world to see.  Wouldn't you like that?  I'd like us even to be an example to other believers.  I'd like us to be an encouragement to Christians around us and other churches in our community, other churches in our country.  They set an example, even for the believers.  But look at verse 9, skipping verse 8 for a minute.  "For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God."  The term "they themselves show us" refers to people in every place, in verse 8.  You know, Paul didn't have to go around and tell about the conversion of the Thessalonians.  You know why?  They told it.  How?  By their life.  You know what the word was everywhere?  "Have you heard what happened to Thessalonica?  Do you now what happened up there?  They turned to God from...what?...from idols."

     Do you know that Thessalonica was 50 miles from Mount Olympus?  And Mount Olympus was the headquarters of all the gods.  That those people had been raised from their earliest years of childhood to believe in all kinds of gods.  That they were polytheistic.  That they had a complex, idolatrous system of deities.  And do you realize that, after an entire lifetime of that, on three successive Sabbaths, the entire community of believers dropped the whole system of idolatry and turned to serve the living God.  And you know what happened?  That made news.  "Have you hard what happened to them?"

     "People are talking about you...he says...everywhere I go.  I don't have to tell anything because they, themselves, are telling me.  The Word is out.  They have turned from idols to the living God."  You know, you first of all witness to the world by the change in your life.  Isn't that true?  The platform on which we speak is the platform of a changed life.  I mean, you know, if you're a drunk, it doesn't do you any good to go help a drunkard and tell him you've got to reform and shape up.  Doesn't do you any good...If you're a crook in your business, it doesn't good...do you any good to get up in the sight of God and say, "Lemme tell you how to be an honest man."  Ooh-hoo, funny joke.  And if you're living an obviously unchanged life, you haven't got anything to offer anybody. 

     Hein, the German philosopher, said, "You show me your redeemed life, and I might believe in your Redeemer."  That's fair, don't you think?  Let's...let's pray for this year for Grace Church, that our lives would be so transformed...that...the Word would spread all over the world, and people would say, "Have you heard what happened in Penarasee?  It's amazing.  People have turned from idols to serve the living God."  Wouldn't it be nice if the world was telling the Christians about it?  How about that for a switch?  If the world was telling us?  The living witness, people, is the basis of everything.

     Now, look at verse 8, and here's the witness of the word that's based upon that lie.  "For from you sounded out the Word of the Lord."  Now, the word "sounded out," eckteckatai, is the word from which we get echo.  "From you echoed the Word of the Lord."  You know, one good thing about Christian testimony, it should never be independent of the Word of God.  It should only be an echo, right?  When you proclaim something, it ought not to be your ideas.  It ought to be simply an echo of God's truth.  And an echo always says the same thing, right?  You stand on a hill.  You say, "Hello."  What do you get back?  "Hello."  Not goodbye, hello.  You stand on a hill, and whatever you say is gonna come back.  That's an echo, and an echo is always the same, because it's the same voice bouncing.  God has put His voice in you.  It's the Holy Spirit.  He doesn't want you creating your own words.  He wants you to echo the truth. 

     And you know what happened to this Thessalonian congregation?  They not only had such exemplary lives, and there was not only such a dramatic transformation in their character that the world couldn'