He Will Do It

I just want to refer to the groundbreaking time that Paul was involved in as the church extended from Jerusalem to Judea and then worldwide. But we zero in on him arriving at Thessalonica.

Acts 17:1-7

Just note the fact that when Paul came to an area, here he starts at the synagogue and starts talking with people about Jesus Christ, who he is and what he means; who he stands for. He is the Lord, he is the Christ. The accusation in verse 7 that “there was another king apart from Caesar called Jesus.”

So it was that “the world was turned upside down” is so accurate on the strength and power of the gospel.

Acts 17:9

He was only with these people for three weeks and he formed a church, probably in his house. Here we have believers who are meeting in a house and Jason was obviously one of these people And yet in these three weeks that Paul was there, there was a real pulling together of Christ and fellowship.

1 Thessalonians1:2-6

There’s something about the word of God which is in line with his will. God can work through you, by his holy spirit.

There’s no way that there was some weak-knee-ed membership form that they signed up to. They were aware of the power of what they were preaching.

The more we go on, day by day, so it is, that God is revealing what he wants to do in this place, for his glory. The links that we are forming and the way that God is moving in your heart and bringing to your attention that he is faithful. He is being faithful and he will be faithful. To the end that his name with be glorified in his church.

1 Thessalonians 2:13

It’s the word of God, it’s the truth. And as we go forwards we will cherish the word of God. There’s a narrow way and a broad way; there’s good fruit and there’s bad faith; there’s a foundation built on rock and there’s a foundation built on sand.

How do you know if the foundation is right? It’s when the storms and the floods come. They both look the same but when the circumstances hit you, it’s then that you know what the foundation is. And this church in Thessalonica was formed when other people were totally anti-what they believed in. Their lives were changing and the Jews couldn’t stand it because these people weren’t becoming Jews. And the whole world was turned upside down.

And as Paul writes to them, he can’t stop thanking God!

1 Thessalonians 3:9-14

He longed to be there, he’d founded the church and he privately wondered how things were and couldn’t wait for Timothy’s report and it was the truth, God was taking them forwards. And it was the Lord who was causing them to expand.

“Love towards another”.

What is a church? It is a body of people because they have a common goal and purpose to worship him, to lift up His name. It isn’t a place where people are trying to score points off others.

It’s a place where Jesus Christ has the pre-eminence. It’s about who he is.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-19

You notice it’s not “for” everything” it’s “in” everything, give thanks.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-25

Who is faithful? Jesus Christ is faithful. God is faithful. If you want to stand there and hurl at him a heart of mistrust or non thanks! Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. There is no way that God gets involved with a life, injects his power and life into a life and then somehow leaves them or forgets about them or leaves them on their own. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. In other words, this faithfulness goes all the way until such time as you see him face to face. All the way through. It isn’t that you’re sort of looked after and then left to work things out for a few years. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.