A Life Pleasing to God: Four Ways the Gospel Changes People

Pastor Fletcher preaches from 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5 [read for us in Korean]. Discussion points: The gospel is true good news, not just good advice for how to be a nice person; the power of the gospel comes from God and not from our intellect or church-planting strategy or influence; the Spirit of God comes with gifts and with conviction of your heart.

• See Transcript

  Scripture reader: [1 Thessalonians 1:1-5a, read in Korean] Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, 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.

  This is the word of the Lord.

  Preacher: All right, good morning. How are we doing? Wow. You know, everybody's talking about the weather this morning, and, you know, it's, it's a little cold again. If you're new to Boston, let me explain to you what just happened, OK? that was the first fall spring that we experienced the past couple of days. There will be a second fall spring. And then there will come a time in about in April when you think it's actual spring. No, that's 3rd fall spring, then we're gonna get another snowstorm, like mid to late April, and then we'll go into spring, OK? Spring has not sprung until May in Boston, just accept it, OK? You're gonna be wearing sweaters until May. That's, that's life. Today we're starting a new series on the book of First Thessalonians. First Thessalonians, if you're new to the church or, or, or new, to Christianity, First Thessalonians is what you call an epistle, and, an epistle is really just something Christians call letters. Because it literally means letter. And so it is one of the letters written by the apostle Paul to one of the first churches that he planted.

  In fact, 1 Thessalonians is what we think to be probably the first letter that Paul wrote to any of the churches, and these letters were written. There's about 13 of them written by Paul, and there's a few other epistles written by. John and Peter, and these are just letters. It's what makes up the majority of your New Testament, which if you are new to the church, I would, I would encourage you to start with the New Testament, to read through there first and, and learn about Jesus. And so, this is Paul's, kind of encouragement to the church at Thessalonica and how and honestly answering a lot of their questions.

  I would like for you to take a moment, since this is our first epistle in quite a little while that we've been going through, to consider the apostle Paul. Most people have heard of Paul, and I just want you to think, what would Paul be like today if he was around today? Do you think he would be a celebrity pastor? Do you think that like all the different churches would be clamoring to get him to come and visit? Maybe he would have some snazzy sneakers, they get on preachers and sneakers, Instagram channel. Maybe, maybe Paul would have to keep up with the travel demands and feel the pressure to get a private jet to go between those things, like one of the televangelists on TV. We'd like to imagine that if Paul was around today, that we would be excited and encouraged to hear what he has to say.

  I think many of us would be, oh, Paul's preaching, this place would be packed. Like everybody would be here to hear what Paul has to say. But the reality is Paul wasn't always very popular. Especially in Thessalonica. In fact, on the 2nd missionary journey, so Paul took 4 missionary journeys, and he visited Thessalonica on his 2nd missionary journey. First he went to Philippi, and, before he got to Thessalonica, he was in Philippi, and while he was in Philippi, he got thrown into prison and then there was an the earthquake and the chains around his ankles, they broke and he was let out of prison and the Philippian jailer was like, oh no, they're going to kill me, so I'm just going to kill myself first.

  So he starts to go kill himself before all the prisoners escape and Paul is just like, Hey, stop it, don't do that, you know, hey, we're not going anywhere. And they still kind of get run out of town. The the Philippian jailer becomes a Christian. His whole family becomes Christians, and then Paul kind of gets run out of town after being thrown in prison, and he goes to Thessalonica.

  And when he goes to Thessalonica, he spends in which Thessalonica was a major city at the time, and it still is a major city. Thessalonica at the time, probably 100,000 people today, maybe 300,000 in the in the city and then a million in the metro. It's the second largest city in the entire nation of Greece and in Thessalonica, Paul goes to the synagogue for 3 sequential Sundays, and this is all you can find all of this in Acts chapter 17. It records what happened with Paul. He goes to the synagogue for 3 Sundays, and he preaches the good news of Jesus. He preaches the message that Jesus is the king, and what he actually does is he exposes what's happening throughout the Old Testament and he reasons with the people in Thessalonica, helping them to see that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah.

  Several people come to know the Lord, but after a little while, some people get angry that Paul is doing this. So after just 3 Sundays, an angry mob comes together and they kidnap a dude named Jason, and they hold him ransom, and they're like, get out of our city. And so Paul and his companion Silas and Timothy, we assume, all had to run. Out of Thessalonica, they go to the next town over Berea. All right, so they're in Berea. They're seeing fruit. Lots of good things are happening. Who shows up? But the angry mob from Thessalonica, they follow him to the next. How much do you have to hate someone to follow him to the next town over, OK? I'm not going over to Medford if I can avoid it, let alone, like all the way down to Berea.

  So, Paul not universally loved. Many of the people of Thessalonica hated him. And when I read this, I'm always a little surprised that Paul would even write a letter to the Thessalonians, because if I'm Paul, I'm just marking that one in now, OK? Like, nothing happened in Thessalonica. I saw a few people coming of the Lord. There's no way that church is surviving though. 3 Sundays. I had 3 Sundays to teach them everything they need to know about Jesus. People had never heard the name of Jesus, the Bible, the New Testament's not written. Everything they need to know about Jesus. He taught them in 3 Sundays, and then he left, and he had the gall to write a letter to that church.

  He has better faith than I do. I mean, for me, our church is still at the point to where like, I feel a little nervous if I take off a Sunday, let alone just 33 weeks. I mean, Paul has greater faith than I do, and I just love where he finds his assurance that the church will survive because my anxious feelings aren't about you guys, they're about me. And for me, too often, I have this overblown sense of self-importance that God needs me here to build His church. But look at Paul, he's like, that church doesn't need me. All they need is the gospel. And the gospel came to them, and it changed them. You know, last week I, I, we did the, the vision Sunday and I cast the vision for where we want to be in 5 years so that we can continue to be a church in 100 years. And our vision was this, that City on a Hill is a community of faith that cannot be hidden, shining and sending the light of Christ in Somerville and beyond for generations to come.

  And when we proclaim that vision, it's easy to focus on the practicalities of it, what all it will take for a City on a Hill to last for that long. We can talk about stuff like building facilities. We can talk about parking, we can talk about leaders, we can talk about budget, all this different stuff, but that stuff is not what makes a church last for the long haul. What makes a church last for the long haul is the message of the good news of Jesus, piercing the hearts of the people of God. And helping them to see God for who He is. God makes the mission move forward.

  Paul was confident that the church would continue because they received the good news of Jesus. He also sent back his, his, mentor, Timothy, and Timothy went to the church in Thessalonica and he checked on them and but yeah, so he, he sent his, his servant Timothy, his mentor Timothy, and then Timothy comes back, and we assume 1 Thessalonians is probably like a list of answers to the Thessalonians questions. I'm sure that they had a lot of questions. If they only heard the gospel for 3 weeks, they had a lot of different things that they had were wondering about after that.

  So we're just gonna dive in. We're gonna look at the first 4, 5 verses of this passage, and then, we'll continue through this. We're gonna be in this book through like the middle of June. So we're gonna be going through it verse by verse pretty slowly.

  So the letter starts with a customary introduction. Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace. Three names, Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy. I'm gonna teach you something that you probably don't know at the moment. Sylvanus is just kind of the Greek form of the word. Silas of the name Silas. And so he's saying Sylvanus, even though Acts talked about Silas. Paul really just kind of the Greek form of the name Saul. It's not, he didn't have an Abraham, Abraham moment. It's just like the Greek version of Saul, that he called Paul.

  Then Paul tells them that he's been praying for him. All of this is really customary. We get, he says this verse 2, 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. Oh, that is, that's beautiful, and we could spend time looking at that, but really this is kind of customary for Paul's letters to start with like a short prayer. It's almost the same as us saying dear dear Sirs or madam or to whom it may concern at the beginning of the letter.

  What I really want to focus on for the rest of our time this morning is this next passage, verses 4 and 5. Where it says this, 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. Paul visited the city of Thessalonica for 3 weeks. Preaching the message of Jesus and somehow there's a whole church that continued to endure year after year. Probably generations after that, and how it's because they received the gospel. The church that lasts for the long haul is one where the people have fully received and been transformed by the gospel. And so he lists 4 different ways that the gospel changes people, 4 different things about it that people receive, how the gospel comes to people, and they are this. The gospel comes in word, the gospel comes in power, the gospel comes in the Holy Spirit, and the gospel comes with full conviction.

  Number 1, the gospel comes in word. We're just gonna work through these four. The gospel comes in word. Verse 4, for we know, brothers, loved by God that He has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in Word, but this assumes that the gospel must come in word. So to be a Christian, it means that you must accept the good news of the gospel as a mental thing. You must believe it. You must look at the the historicity of the resurrection, which there is good reason for, and believe that it is true, that Jesus really did raise from the dead. The word gospel means good news. It means good news. That's what the word means and we talk about the gospel all the time.

  But to be good news, it means that it is not advice. This is not the advice column. This is the news. And to be news, it means that something happened in history. That we receive as good news, not as advice. Too many people treat the gospel as its advice for how to live your life, as it's a few moral lessons for how to move forward with being a good person. But the gospel is not moral lessons to be a good person. The gospel is the good news of what Jesus has. Accomplished on our behalf that God sent His one and only Son to live the life that we should have lived and to die the death that we deserve to die.

  And how often do we turn the gospel into advice instead of news, where we say, I'm not following Jesus like I should be, I need to do more so that Jesus will love me more. That is not the gospel. It's a careful, cheap imitation of the gospel. You just have to be careful with this. Because the gospel is, I'm loved perfectly because of Christ's obedience for me. And we have to go back to that over and over again. It's so easy to turn Christianity into moralism, to say, I need to do things so that God will love me more. But that is not the gospel. The gospel is Jesus obeyed completely for you, and because of that, you follow God. You see, religion says, I obey, therefore God loves me. When the gospel says, God loves me, therefore I obey. Does that make sense?

  So this is what he proclaimed to them. We actually know exactly what he proclaimed to them. In the book of Acts, he says, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews, and Paul went, as was his custom, and on 3 Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. And then later on, they, the reason why the mob comes after him is they say, he's claiming there's another king other than Caesar. So, he's also proclaiming that Jesus is king.

  And I just want you to take a moment and see this, that, a lot of times we as Christians, we do a failure to people, because we say, hey, don't think about it, just believe. That's not what Paul is saying. What Paul is saying is that he spent weeks reasoning with them, arguing with them, helping them to understand and to think about their faith. Your faith is something that you should understand and think about. It's, that's not where it should stop because that's what he says, that the gospel not only came to you in word, but the gospel came to you through these other means. The gospel came to you through in power also.

  That's what he says, verse 5, look at this with me. Because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. So you can believe the right things about who God is and not be a Christian. Because the gospel is not simply knowing the answers. If you grew up in church, it's not simply knowing the answers, but it's receiving this thing with the power and with the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Look, the scripture says that even the demons believe. The demons know who Jesus is.

  And Philippi, before Paul goes to Thessalonica, they have this little girl following him around who's possessed by a demon, and she is declaring that these men serve Jesus, the Lord Most High. She's not a Christian, she just knows the truth. And then he turns around, he casts the demon out of the woman, out of the little girl, and then the slave, the slave owners get upset because she was doing, she was telling fortunes because of this demonic presence in her life, and that's when they send them to to prison. And so you can understand who Jesus is. Sorry, I hope that didn't throw any of you off the logical, it's like demons, OK. But you can believe right things about who Jesus is and not be a Christian. Because the gospel doesn't only come in word, but it also comes with power.

  What does it mean for the gospel to come with power? It means that when you receive the message of Jesus, you believe it, and that it changes you. That the gospel has power, that it changes you from the inside out. It's transformational. You don't merely believe the gospel, you experience the truth of it. The message of Jesus changes you. You experience the love of God in such a way that it changes you. You don't live for the things you once did. The allure of the things of this world grow strangely dim.

  For the gospel to come in power means that when the gospel is preached, God acts. The power isn't found in Paul's eloquence or any church growth strategy. The power is not found in the Thessalonians intellectual capacity. The power is God's power to awaken hearts and bring them to life. And friends, this is good news, and we've seen it, but you need to be reminded of this, that the gospel. The simple message of who Jesus is, can change the most ardent atheist into a follower of Jesus. We've heard the stories of people who are anti-Jesus, anti-religion, but yet they hear the good news, they meet some Christians who love them, and they're brought into the kingdom. The gospel changes them.

  It can also change the most self-sufficient moralist into a follower of Christ. And let me tell you, the second one is harder than the first one. Because you're, if you're a self-sufficient moralist, you don't feel like you need religion at all. But it can even turn that person into a worshiper, understanding their created purpose and what they live for. The, the gospel comes with power. It always does. And the gospel can come with power in your life. Where do you want to see change? Ask the Lord to move. Ask him to move with power. He can bring change to your life.

  Point number 3, the gospel comes in the with the Holy Spirit. Let's read the verse again, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. Let me hear my Pentecostal say amen. All right. Well, there's more of you than I thought. I hope you like the rest of this. so what does it mean for the gospel to come with the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the 3rd person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God's presence and dwelling in every believer. Every believer has the Holy Spirit. But not only that, the Holy Spirit has been around since the beginning. When you read Genesis chapter 1, it says, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of the deep. That's the Holy Spirit right there, all the way from the beginning.

  He's described as an advocate, as a counselor, and we have to be careful because many times people describe the Holy Spirit as in it, the Holy Spirit is a person. He, we, we use the, we use the third that pronoun, he, that he is a counselor, he's an advocate. He wants to help us. He helps us in temptation. He gives us wisdom. He helps us to pray and interceding for us. So the gospel, it's not just a message, it's an encounter with God Himself. That's what that means. That this isn't just a message that you think about and you believe. It's an encounter with God Himself that the gospel comes with the Holy Spirit, with God. And when you receive the gospel, it comes with the Holy Spirit. It's the job of the Holy Spirit to pour out the love of the Father into your heart.

  When you think about the Holy Spirit, what a lot of people think about with the Holy Spirit is, the the physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit, right? Things like speaking in tongues or speaking prophecy or any of the spiritual gifts that we might see. But when we read the scripture, the emphasis on the Holy Spirit is love. Love, love, love. When Paul is giving a teaching on the gifts of the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12 to 14, he takes a chapter and says, hold on. In the very middle of it, he like stops his argument and he's like, wait a second, but let's talk about this. If you don't have love, you got nothing. If you can speak in tongues, no one cares if you're not loving. The job of the Holy Spirit is to pour out the love of the Father in your life so that you can pour it out in the life of others. Amen. That's what he does.

  But many times, it does come with physical manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit. To speak in tongues is to speak a a spiritual language. In some situations, such as this in a public setting, you would need an interpreter to help people understand. So it's not helpful to speak in tongues unless you feel though there's an interpreter or that God's gonna give an interpreter in that. Situation, unless you're, you're in your private place. If you have a personal private prayer language, that's fine, and many people do in this church. And if that freaks you out, I'm sorry, but that just is oftentimes a gift of the spirit. Personally, I've never spoken in tongues. I've tried to. I've asked the Lord, Lord, can I have this gift? And I was like, maybe I just need to kickstart it. So I was like, Hala Kamala, you got a Honda. And I just started, and then I just heard the Lord say, no. And so I stopped, you know, I've never spoken in tongues, but that doesn't mean that I don't have the Holy Spirit.

  You can be filled with the Holy Spirit without all of the, the gifts in that way. And I, I'm envious at times of people who have that private spiritual prayer language. But here's what I'll, I'll tell you that I don't have any shortage of giftings from the Holy Spirit because the love of the Father has been poured into my heart. And I get to enjoy that day in and day out. And it brings God to light to pour the love of the Father into your heart too. He wants to do that, no matter where you are in life. You can be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you've never received the Holy Spirit before, we encourage you to be, to receive Him, to trust in that power. Maybe you've been resistant to it, to say like, I kind of believe the gospel, but I don't know about this Holy Spirit thing, and I don't know if I want to even like go there, go there, OK? You have to open yourself to, to go there.

  And so maybe that's a step of courage for some of you to step into allowing yourself to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And for many of us, we've been following Jesus for a long time and as I said, every believer is dwelled with the Holy Spirit. But many times we don't live in connection with Him. We don't listening for Him. We aren't sensitive to Him, and we aren't experiencing his presence, but he wants to help you to experience His presence in the full.

  Now let me tell you about a friend. My friend who I can think of when I thought of, I, I was just like, I want to tell a story about someone who is filled with the spirit, and this is a friend who was more filled with the spirit than anyone I could think of at the moment. His name was Justin Linky. I think he lives in in Kentucky today. I went to seminary with him. He was my next door neighbor in seminary. Justin Linky, I am willing to bet money. If that's not a sin, I'm not sure if it is or not, but I'm willing to bet money that Justin Linky has never spoken in tongues. OK, this man wears khakis every day of his life. But I'll tell you this, he was, he was my, neighbor, we shared a bathroom. He sings hymns, he sings hymns in the shower, even if he doesn't speak tongues. And he was well respected by everyone. He was the guy that everyone, all the dudes in the dorm back when we were single, would go to his room to seek wisdom. He was so loving and open, even to those who were nervous or shy or not so open, who are pretentious as I was, or thought that they were better than others. He was just loving and kind, and it's because he just had this connection with the Lord. He's the Lord's praises all the time. He was a man who I would say, filled with the spirit and left a mark on me.

  The Lord wants to use you in a similar way, and he is, and he has. I could name names, if it wouldn't blow up your heads too big or, I mean, make anybody feel left out. But there are many in this church who are filled with the spirit in such a way that is just visibly noticeable. And I'm so thankful for you. The gospel comes with the Spirit.

  And lastly, the gospel comes with full conviction. Verse 5, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. And this means that with this full conviction, it comes in two different ways. First, the conviction to stop sinning, and the conviction also to live for God. That being a Christian isn't just about what you don't do, but it's about pursuing God and being with them and how you must live.

  To live in full conviction means that you experience the conviction of sin, you feel true remorse when you've gone your own way. And remember, sin is not just a list of do's and don'ts. Sin is not just you did this thing, but sin is to live your own way, to live selfishly in light of the Lord. You can do a good thing with a sinful heart. If you try to make it about yourself, or you're not doing it for His glory, you can do a good thing with a sinful heart. But also full conviction of how you should live. When you receive the gospel, it changes what you live for. You live for the kingdom of God, which is the mission of the church.

  And the church is not simply this thing that we go to, but we are the church, and we've received this conviction that we live out the mission of the church to go and make disciples of all nations. And so church, as I wrap things up here. I just want to tell you I'm thankful for you. In the same similar way that Paul was thankful to the Thessalonians. That the gospel came to them, not only in word, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

  And we're going to give you a moment this morning to meditate on these realities. Have you received the gospel in this way? What part of it Are you holding off on? Has it, or maybe you're still at this place where you're debating whether it's true or not, and we invite those conversations. We'd love to connect you with someone that you can talk to about your logical doubts. There are lots of good people out there who would love to talk to you about that. Maybe you're not someone who's been really experienced the power of the gospel. Maybe you've been closed off to this whole Holy Spirit thing, cause it is not spooky. That's why we changed the name from ghost to Spirit, OK? It is, it is not spooky. It is the spirit of God pouring the Father's love. He wants you to experience the love of the Father.

  That's the whole reason Jesus came, was that we might be invited in to the loving relationship that he's enjoyed within the Trinity throughout eternity path that we might be invited, that's what Jesus prayed, that they might experience your love in the same way that I've experienced your love. That's what Jesus is praying. That's what God most wants for you, that you might experience His love, but it also comes with full conviction. And maybe you're in a place where you've just held out on, on allowing yourself to follow him with full conviction. You've held on to your own personal pursuits. And whatever that means, however you need to loosen up your hands, whether it's through this digital fasting, or whatever it might be, we encourage you to follow Christ in those things.

  So today is a day of all days, as we talk about the Holy Spirit and receiving the Holy Spirit, and if you just feel distant from him, or if you haven't ever received Him, I'm going to invite you. To open yourself To receive the Spirit, or to acknowledge his presence more dearly, to savor it. And there'll be some people in the back, ready to pray for you, and they would love to not weirdly place a hand on your shoulder and pray with you. And you know, sometimes, sometimes. God really moves in that moment. And the call is open today. I would love to see a line back there. So, if you would like to receive prayer, you're open, you're, we're willing to give it to you.

  But today is a day where it could be a breakthrough moment for you where you really experience Jesus in a powerful way. And that is kind of the point of the communion meal, is to experience the presence of God. Now, we don't believe that God is in the actual elements. OK, that, that would be like a Roman Catholic belief. But what we believe is that Jesus is spiritually present with us as we're taking the bread and the cup. And as we do these things, we're reminded that his body was broken for us and his blood was shed for us. And as we take them, we're reminded that he's with us in a really personal kind of way. And in fact, he's with us in this moment. And we do this to remember him, but also to draw near to him, to be, to have this tangible physical reminder of who he is.

  And so each week we participate in a sacred meal that we call communion or Eucharist or Lord's Supper, whatever you want to call it. And if you are a believer here today, we would encourage you and invite you to receive this. Remember, the gospel is not advice on how to live, but it's good news. So if you've received the good news, then we invite you to receive this meal. With that being said, I want to invite you to stand if you are able, and we will end with a prayer and a, and singing praises to our God.

  Father, we, we pray now. I want to ask that, anyone who is resistant to receiving or to sdmitting or just being near to the Holy Spirit, that you would open their minds and their hearts to receive your love in a new kind of way. God, would you help us to hear from you. Would you pour out the love of the Son, your love for your Son on us. That we might experience the gospel as good news in a powerful kind of way. We ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.