The notion of being a ‘gospel-centred church’ is so common that it’s almost lost its meaning. But the tone of 1 Thessalonians 1 is so upbeat and cheerful because Paul is really delighted: This small, new church is already very much a truly gospel-centred church.
By ‘gospel’, of course, we mean ‘good news.’ It’s the good news of Jesus Christ, saviour of the world
And the church at Thessalonica embodied that good news, because they’d embraced it fully. Even more, they evangelised the good news spectacularly in a way of evangelising that you might never have thought about before – but is very much within our ability: They became talked about.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church in November 2024. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Embody the gospel (1-4)
Read 1 Thess 1:1.
This is a letter, actually written by Paul but sent from the three men. It’s to the church at Thessalonica. Remember, in the New Testament the word ‘church’ always means a group of people.
So he’s writing to a group of people who are “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” A Christian has a union with Jesus. The New Testament often describes Christians as being “in Christ.” And because God the Father is one with the Son, a Christian is also in the Father, and the Father is in you. So this letter is spiritual truth for spiritual people – where by “spiritual” I mean people enlivened by the Holy Spirit.
So when you see Christians around you, remember who and what they really are: People in spiritual union with the infinite, holy God. The church actually represents him on the earth.
Now, Paul speaks of thanking God for that church, and he does it in three ways. Read 1 Thess 1:2-4.
Giving thanks specifically
He gives thanks, mentioning the church constantly in his prayers: Sometimes our prayers can be a bit vague: “Bless all people everywhere.” But Paul’s prayers were specific, praying for the church in Thessalonica by name.
That speaks of habits of prayer that you might well want to think about and adopt:
- It’s good to be specific in your prayers.
- For that, you need to keep yourself updated.
- We have a weekly prayer sheet as a church (on the app or on PrayerMate).
- Make it your business to know who the people are (just ask!), and find out what to pray for.
- Paul was obviously diligent in prayer – organised in prayer.
- Get a notepad; write things down; use an app.
- Be deliberate about having good prayer habits. You might have a different working day routine from your days off.
Paul gave thanks for that church, mentioning them by name.
Giving thanks for what they do
He also gave thanks as he recalled their faith, love, and hope. Those can sound like fairly vague concepts, but they’re a favourite trio of Paul (think of the end of 1 Corinthians 13). But you can see someone’s strength by what they can lift, what they can do: So it is with faith, love and hope.
Faith must work.
- As a Christian, you know that the works you do won’t buy you a ticket to heaven. You can’t offset your sin by doing good.
- You put your faith in Jesus, trusting that his death and resurrection will bring you life; God forgiving you, while taking the punishment for your sin on himself.
- If you have true faith, that must inevitably show in works: You’re united to Jesus, and he will work through you.
Similarly, love motivates labour.
- Imagine a lover who says, “I love you, but I’m too busy watching funny videos on YouTube to come and help you just now…” You’d question the love because of the action.
- Love is always an action. If you’re not prompted to do something for someone, you’re not loving them.
- So who did the Thessalonian Christians love? Each other, and those around them. They were known for it.
- Too often, Christians are actually known for being unloving. That’s even worse than simply not being known for loving.
Also, hope inspires endurance.
- You might practise a musical instrument in the hope of being able to play your favourite song.
- Or you can work hard to achieve something in school, or work, hoping to reach a particular goal.
- You endure in the hope of the prize ahead.
- The hope that Jesus brings is secure: Like a lifeboat is your only hope when you’re lost at sea, Jesus is your only hope of eternal peace:
- And that hope will keep you going under all sorts of problems and opposition.
Paul recalled all these things about the church when he was praying, when he was in the presence of God.
Giving thanks for election
And the third thing he gave thanks for was that he knew they were chosen by God.
- Their work and perseverance were visible signs of the faith, love and hope within.
- They could only be like that if they were truly in the Father and Son, truly Christian.
- So Paul can be confident that they were truly saved, chosen by God. And he gave thanks for that.
- Being chosen means that whatever happens against you in this life, you’re save in the Father and the Son.
- And you’re chosen simply because God loves you.
- No-one is saved on their own merit, but only by God’s love and grace extended to you in Christ.
- And because God does the choosing, he cannot fail to save those he has chosen. Christ will keep his own.
The Thessalonian church embodied the gospel, the good news about Jesus, and Paul gave thanks to God for it.
So: How did they do it, and how can we fully embody the gospel here, to be a gospel-centred church?
Embrace the gospel (5-6)
He describes what made the church so gospel-centred in the first place, so that they’d embody it so clearly. It comes in two parts: First, the true gospel was brought to them, and second, they embraced it wholeheartedly.
Read 1 Thess 1:5-6.
How the gospel came to them
There are four aspects to how the gospel came to them:
- First, it came to them not in word only. That obviously means it did come to them in word, plus other things. The gospel, the good news of Jesus, does come to you with words. It’s not a feeling, or an emptying of your minds or intellect: Hear the truth, and believe.
- Second, the gospel came to them with power. Now Paul wasn’t an impressive speaker, and yet the message went with power – because the message is itself powerful to save. Paul didn’t save anyone; I won’t save you. But there’s a message here that will save you for eternity.
- Third, the gospel was preached “in the Holy Spirit”. The gospel is spiritual truth. When I speak, I aim to help you understand. But I can’t save you. I pray that the Holy Spirit of God will move in you as I open up the Bible and point you to Jesus.
- Fourthly, the gospel was preached with full assurance. Paul was in no doubt about the message, and didn’t need to jazz it up or tone it down.
That’s the kind of preaching you need, and that’s what the Thessalonians heard.
But even more, Paul lived among them for their benefit (end of v5), so that they could see that he embodied the message he preached.
How the gospel was received
How did they receive it? They received it with great joy from the Holy Spirit.
Notice that. The fact that they could embody the gospel in their lives was grounded in the fact that they had embraced it in their hearts. To live for Christ was a joy – a joy given by the Spirit.
And you know that that was genuine because the church at Thessalonica suffered persecution when it was just two or three weeks old. In Acts 17, the Jews had threatened violence against Paul. They’d had new believer Jason imprisoned, released on bail, because of teaching and faith in Jesus of Nazareth.
Those people were saved, united to Jesus – and it showed. They had faith, love, and hope – displayed in work, labour, and perseverance. And all under persecution.
And it’s worth pointing out that although everyone comes to faith individually, your faith is expressed most fully as part of a local church. There’s no Bible concept of “private faith.”
Faith is always there to see, always part of church life.
But in a sense, much of this ought to be true of every true church of God: Founded on sound preaching of the gospel, and on joyful hearing of the gospel. But the church in Thessalonica was more remarkable still: They were talked about everywhere.
Evangelise the gospel (7-10)
Thessalonica is in northern Greece. Back then, Greece was split in two regions: Macedonia to the north Achaia to the south. Read 1 Thess 1:7-10.
They had seen Paul and his colleagues embody the gospel, and then followed their example. In doing that, they became an example for many, many others.
Good news goes viral. ASDA recently advertised cheap Christmas chocolates available through their app. The app crashed because so many people were using it at once. Good news goes viral.
The gospel travelled so fast that Paul says, “we don’t need to say anything” (exaggerating a bit, in the pleasure of seeing such a vibrant church). He didn’t need to tell anyone about the church at Thessalonica because everyone is already talking about them. “Have you heard? They’ve changed so much!”
That’s not a small thing.
It means that the gospel was being spread organically, naturally – gossip evangelism, rumour evangelism if you like.
That means two important things:
- By embodying the gospel in a way that others see, hear, and feel it in a local church, that church spreads the gospel as it’s being talked about.
- Second, when Christians really embrace and embody the gospel, the good news goes ahead of formal mission structures and events.
- The news didn’t wait for Paul to catch up. You don’t need to wait for Christmas to invite someone to something – you can tell them about Jesus right now.
Encouraging possibilities
You think you’re not a great speaker? Live life with your faith, love, and hope on display. How?
- As an absolute minimum, love the people in this church. Love is an action, not a feeling of well-wishing.
- Are you the only Christian at work? Persevere in hope.
- Are you facing serious treatment at hospital? Explain your hope.
- If there are any people around you who are unloved, love them. Love always makes the first move.
The word of the Lord “rang out” from that church like a bell. You can’t ring out if everyone around you is ringing too. It’s like shining a torch at the sun.
If you want to ring out the gospel alarm then you need to go to the places where people need to hear it. You need unsaved friends; don’t bury yourself in holy huddles of Christian-only groups. If you struggle to think who you might tell about Jesus then you need to nurture more friendships with unsaved people. Seek them out. Join clubs and societies. Get out there.
The goal here is to be a church that people speak about because they can see our faith, love and hope in action.
But there’s a lovely paradox about all this: The news about us is that it’s not about us.
Look at what people were saying: how you turned to God from idols [came to faith in Jesus] to serve the living and true God [loving him and loving others in service to him] and to wait for his Son from heaven [hope in Christ].
Different from the world
The world around you has faith in the wrong things – things that will fail and pass away. It promotes love of self and things rather than others. And it offers you little hope for the future, and nothing beyond death.
But in Christ there is eternal life that starts now, for everyone who will come. Let’s be a church that rings out this good news. Which means we’re all involved, doesn’t it?
You need your faith to work, to labour in love, and to persevere in hope in Christ. And we must all do that together – we need each other.
Even more, you must remember that we are all one here, all in the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (v1 again). Dependent on God, dependent in prayer, together.
Will you think about how you embody the gospel? How do people see the grace of God by seeing you and this church? Embrace it fully, and evangelism will follow.