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A wise and anonymous poet penned these words:
If you should find the perfect church
Without one spot or sore
For goodness sake! Don't join that church!
For it won't be perfect anymore.
If you should find the perfect church
Where all anxieties cease
Then pass it by, lest you join it,
And mar the masterpiece.
But since no perfect church exists
With perfect women and men,
Let's stop looking for that church
And start loving the church that we're in.
This truth is evident. There are no perfect churches. Many adjectives can be used to describe the church--small, large, formal, informal, traditional, contemporary, warm, cold, conservative, liberal, Protestant or Catholic--but the church can not be described as perfect. Like the imperfect people who comprise them, not withstanding the sincere faith of the majority of its membership, the church is flawed and falls short not only of the glory of God, but also of its own goals and expectations.
However, while there are no perfect churches, there are churches seeking to be the presence of Christ in their world and to fulfill their God-given purpose. There are churches seeking to proclaim the gospel, mold disciples, and love God supremely, as well as loving their neighbors. There are those churches that can serve as models of ministry in various areas, and the church of Thessalonica was one such church. It was not a perfect church. There were those who criticized the Apostle Paul. Some members were confused about the teaching of Christ's return. Other members failed to respect their leaders producing some disagreements, but as a whole, this church served as a model congregation and was commended by Paul for doing several things.
(1) The church listened up.
They gave a sincere and honest examination of the gospel, which was presented to them powerfully and effectively. They didn't turn a deaf ear to the gospel. They opened their minds and hearts to God, allowing him to convince them of the truth found in Jesus Christ. Rather than throwing up barriers to the gospel because of their pagan background or religious traditions, they allowed the Holy Spirit to work in their lives and responded to the gospel message. According to Paul, they repented. They made a change in their lives. They turned from their idols in order to trust in and serve the living and true God. This congregation listened up and opened up to a new thing God was doing and revealing to them.
Obviously the church in the twenty-first century is different from the Thessalonian church, especially when it concerns revelation. Today, the church has the complete revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures. We live on this side of the cross. We have two thousand years of church history to give witness to the truth and validity of those Scriptures. Consequently, as far as the "gospel" is concerned, there is no new truth. For us, the gospel is an old truth from which we must not depart. But while it is old, it is still relevant to our spiritual need for forgiveness, and it is still effective to save souls and change lives. However, what we can learn from the Thessalonian church is to be open to God's leadership in areas of ministry and missions' methodology.
As the church today seeks to proclaim the gospel to each generation, it must resist being cemented to the past. It must keep its ears attuned to the voice of God for new and fresh instructions. The truth of God in Jesus Christ stands forever, but the ways in which the gospel is proclaimed and applied may need to be changed. In their book, Issachar Factor (based on 1 Chronicles 12:32) Glen Martin and Gary McIntosh remind the church to be aware of the times in which we live and serve and to plan ministry accordingly. In other words, for the church to be effective in its ministry it must not get stuck in the past. It must be open to change. It must listen up. It must be open to a new word from God.
(2) The church lived out their faith.
Christianity for them was not just an intellectual exercise of the mind or an emotional experience of the heart. It was a life altering commitment that affected their daily lives. In verse 6 Paul declared that they became imitators of him, his colleagues, and of the Lord. They sought to pattern their lives after Jesus in their thinking, speaking, and acting. Specifically, Paul commended their lifestyles in three ways.
They possessed a working faith. This is to say, not only was their faith effective but it was also active. Real faith does more than contemplate high theological truths. It does more than enjoy uplifting worship in beautiful are conditioned sanctuaries while sitting on cushioned pews. Real faith is active. It gets involved. James reminds us (James 2:14-25) that faith without works is dead and accomplishes nothing.
James Wilson writes,
Before her death, Judy Lawson became a "spiritual Mother" to scores of hardened criminals. "On her last Mother's Day," according to Bill Myers, "she received 40 Mother's Day cards from men whose lives she had touched." Her prison ministry began eighteen months after her son was brutally murdered. She knew it was God's will for her to forgive the murderer. She had spoken the words, but she continued to harbor ill will toward the man who robbed her of her son. She had agreed to never say "no" to God, so when she heard Him saying, "I want you to love the man who killed your son" she had no choice but to fight the natural rage boiling up and to practice Christian love and forgiveness.
While visiting a prison to support a friend at a parole hearing, she came face-to-face with the murderer. She fought God, but soon, in faith gave in to His leading to speak to the man. "Richard," she said, "my name is Judy Lawson--you murdered my son and I want you to know that I love you and I forgive you."
The man began sobbing and the prison guards removed her from the facility. She sent the murderer letters. He sent them back. She continued to write. Her family said stop. Her pastor said stop. But her God said continue. Soon, God's grace broke through and the vicious killer and the victim reconciled and began a ministry together proclaiming grace and forgiveness.
Judy Lawson's faith was real because it produced good works, and the same was true with the Thessalonian congregation.
They also possessed a laboring love. Similar to its "first cousin" faith, love is more than a sweet emotion or passing out "warm fuzzies." If love is biblical, it is a committed, giving, and sacrificial love, which is also manifested in acts of kindness and grace.
In Tom S. Sampson's book, Only by Grace, he describes what such love is all about. He tells of a woman who joined his church and wanted to do something to help others. She found a position as a volunteer in a home for older men. She hadn't worked in the home long before she noticed that many of the men experienced the humiliating problem of bed-wetting in the night. So this dear woman began to rise from her own bed at 2:00 am to make the rounds of the rooms, gently waking the men and reminding them to go to the bathroom. There will be stars in her crown!
John reminds us of what real love does. "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth (1 John 3:17-18). The Thessalonians possessed a laboring love.
The Thessalonian church also possessed an enduring hope. This hope, which produced endurance, did not arise from their government programs, their educational degrees, their bank accounts, or their good medical reports. Rather, this hope, which sustained them, encouraged them, motivated them, and strengthened them to persevere was based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because Christ conquered death and the grave, they were given a living hope, which enabled them to hang on and move forward no matter what.
Rodney Buchanan read an article that told this story, "The most sacred symbol in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a tree; a sprawling, shade-bearing, 80-year-old American Elm. Tourists drive from miles around to see her. People pose for pictures beneath her. Arborists carefully protect her. She adorns posters and letterheads. Other trees grow larger, fuller-even greener. But not one is equally cherished. The city treasures the tree not because of her appearance, but because of her endurance.
The tree endured the Oklahoma City bombing. Timothy McVeigh parked his death-laden truck only yards from her. His malice killed 168 people, wounded 850, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and buried the tree in rubble. No one expected it to survive. No one, in fact, gave any thought to the dusty, branch-stripped tree. But then she began to bud. Sprouts pressed through the damaged bark; green leaves pushed away gray soot. Life resurrected from an acre of death. People noticed. The tree modeled the resilience the victims desired. The elm was appropriately named "the Survivor Tree." Maybe your life is buried under the rubble of some disaster in your life. Jesus' life was too. His crucifixion looked like a miserable end to a good life. But he rose from the rubble, brimming with life.
Because the Thessalonians possessed this hope, they would survive whatever the day brought them. They would endure. Paul was delighted to hold up this congregation as a model because it lived out its faith in the world.
This church also spoke out.
They became proclaimers of the gospel. Verse 8 declares that the Lord's message rang out from them not only locally, but everywhere. They were not ashamed of the gospel. Undoubtedly, even though Paul had only been in Thessalonica for a short time, he discipled them well. He taught them that the Lord Jesus called his followers to be faithful witnesses to their world and this body of believers was true to that call.
In his book, The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, George Sweeting tells of a man by the name of John Currier who in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee. In 1968, Currier's sentence was terminated, and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it. Life on that farm was hard and without promise for the future. Yet John kept doing what he was told even after the farmer for whom he worked had died. Ten years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier's plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free man.
Sweating concluded that story by asking, "Would it matter to you if someone sent you an important message--the most important in your life--and year after year the urgent message was never delivered?" We who have heard the good news and experienced freedom through Christ are responsible to proclaim it to others still enslaved by sin.
The Thessalonian church accepted that responsibility and spoke out the gospel.
Finally, the church also believed in the promise of Christ's return and waited faithfully for him.
Jerry Shirley told of a farmer who had an old clock, which was not working properly. One night it struck 16 times. He woke up and said, "wife get up, and it's later than it's ever been before." The same can be said of the return of Jesus Christ. His second coming is a glorious promise, which will be fulfilled one day. His coming is closer today than it was yesterday, and it will be closer tomorrow than it is today.
So what must we do in response to this glorious truth? We must do what the Thessalonians did. We must wait faithfully for it. That is to say, we must be ready for it. On September 15, 2001, four days after "911" President George W. Bush spoke from Camp David. He sought to prepare the nation for a prolonged conflict against terrorism. And to the United States armed forces, according to Guy Coley, he delivered a clear message, "Everybody who wears the uniform--get ready!"
As we consider the promise of our Lord's return, the message to us is the same--get ready! Be prepared! (Matthew 23:42). But how are we to prepare ourselves? When Paul used the term "wait" in verse 10, he was not suggesting that we cease our work, sit down, and do nothing until he comes. Rather, our "waiting" is to be spent doing the Lord's work faithfully and obediently. We are to continue to proclaim the good news, mold disciples, and serve one another. We are to continue the ministry God has given us and to do it with greater commitment and intensity because, who knows? The Lord Jesus Christ could return today! We must not be caught unprepared!
While the church in Thessalonica was not without flaws, it was making a difference for God in that city. It was listening up to the voice of God for his instruction. It was living out the faith in everyday life. It was speaking out the good news of Jesus Christ. It was believing in the truth of Christ's return, seeking to be faithful to its mission. It was making a difference! Are we making such a difference for God and His kingdom in our church?
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