In the last three weeks of summer, we have been looking, we are going to be looking at sort of the three stool legs, if you will, of the purpose statement of hope of Christ. And while I talk about our purpose statement, vision statement, mission statement, whatever you would call it, you can turn in the Black Bibles to page 986. We will be looking at 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, if you've brought your own Bibles or your own Bible devices. In the last three weeks, I'm sorry, at Hope of Christ, our mission statement is simple. We seek to glorify God and enjoy His pleasure by knowing Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection, by growing in our understanding and our application of God's amazing grace, and by going into our communities, into our region, into our world with the message and the mission of the hope of Christ. knowing Jesus Christ, growing in grace, going into the world with hope. Last week we looked at one aspect of what knowing Jesus Christ meant as we worshiped under the guidance of John chapter 3. Today I wanted us to look at really sort of one application of what growing in grace means. Specifically, Growing in grace, what does it mean to grow in grace as we experience community together? In June, the Presbyterian Church in America held our annual denominational meeting in Greenville, South Carolina. And while we were down there, one of the evening worship services was led by a pastor in Greenville. His name is Brian Habig. And he preached on this passage in 1 Thessalonians 2. And he preached it very much to the denomination as a whole. But as he was preaching it, as I was reading the passage, I began to feel convicted that this passage isn't just helpful for a denomination spanning the nation as far as what it looks like to be a community, but it seemed like this passage would be very helpful for a local congregation. and what it means to move from just the noun of community into the experience of community. We technically, by the fact that we exist here, we are already a community, but we don't always, that's not what we mean by genuine community. So how do we move from the noun of community to the experience of community? Would you stand with me for the reading of God's word? First Thessalonians chapter two, For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from his people, whether from you or from others. Though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ, but we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. The grass withers and the flowers fade, and yet the word of the Lord remains forever. Please be seated. I had a friend one time tell me that his father gave him this counsel once and his father was a Christian man and raised all of his children in the church and raised them to be Christians. Every adult sibling of this man's had made a profession of faith and he told me that his father would constantly, this was sort of a repeating refrain in his father's advice to him as he became an adult, he said, you know the church The church is okay up to a point, but if you ever find yourself in a bind and you really need help and you want the help to come without questions and without guilt and without judgment, go to the local bar. I thought that was kind of weird advice from a Christian, but doesn't that perhaps that describes how you feel perhaps about the church community? Maybe you've heard someone say, or maybe you even said it yourself, you know, I finally did find Christian community outside the church. You know, we see when tragedy strikes in towns, small towns like Newtown, Connecticut, or large metropolises, metropolises? Metropoli, like New York City, whether it's 9-11 or Hurricane Sandy, we see these tragedies strike and these These cities become communities. They come together. It brings them together. And sometimes in the church, it doesn't always feel that way. Tragedy strikes and it splinters the church. Maybe you were in a fantastic, maybe you are now in a fantastic college ministry. Everyone is eager to care for each other and eager to be in the Word and or everyone was and then you got out of college and and you're just you're searching for that same level of commitment to one another and you just haven't found it. or those counseling groups that come together with one purpose. The group comes together to help each other through very specific hardships, very specific addictions, or pains, or struggles, or griefs, or sorrows. And in those groups, people unbear, they unburden their souls, they share everything. They're as open with one another as they can be. And then you come to church and you think, well, I thought the church was supposed to be where we experience that kind of commitment, that level of openness where we wouldn't be judged and we could experience community. In this passage, we sort of see three things. We see obstacles to community, we see the source of community, and we see some practices of community. The first thing we see in this passage are the obstacles to community. And there are three that we see, and they don't necessarily come right out of the passage, but they maybe come out of the context that the passage comes from. The first is different backgrounds. Now to see this, you have to remember some of your Sunday school lessons. And maybe you didn't grow up in the church, and so I'll just explain to you that if you did grow up in the church, you know this, but you know it so well that you've forgotten whether it means anything at all to you. Paul is the man who wrote this book, this letter. Paul grew up in a devout Jewish home. I mean, he didn't grow up in a kind of nominal Jewish home. It wasn't that it was sort of a culturally expected thing to do to go to synagogue every Sabbath, and it was just a good way to raise their children, just kind of make them good Jewish little boys and girls who would grow into good Jewish men and women. No, Paul's family was devout. in their Judaism. They were religious about their religion. Paul himself was trained to be a Pharisee. This means that he was in the devout groups of the devout groups. The Pharisees, for example, memorized the first five books of the Bible. Now, we're impressed when we memorize, you know, maybe the Ten Commandments and we get them out of order, but it's okay, or we memorize three or four verses. These guys memorized Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Yes, Numbers and Deuteronomy, five books of the Bible. This guy was committed. He was trained theologically and academically by one of the best of the time, a man named Gamaliel. the town Thessalonica was almost entirely Gentile. It wasn't entirely Gentile. There were some Jewish folks there. In fact, when Paul went, first he ministered to the Jewish folks and taught them the gospel and he taught and preached in the synagogue for about three weeks. But most of his success in this town of Thessalonica came from the Greeks. Some of the Greeks had been devout, they were committed to some of the Jewish teachings, but some of the Greeks were pagan idol worshipers. These were the people who made up the majority of the church in this town. Now again, you may not understand this, but for a devout Jewish person, Gentiles are what's wrong with the world. I mean, we all have those categories of people that they're what's wrong with the world. If they would just be more like me, if they would just vote more like me, if they would just treat the important things as important like I do, this world would be a better place. That is the difference between the Jews and the Gentiles, only it's even bigger. They wouldn't even touch Gentiles. They wouldn't eat with Gentiles. They wouldn't use a plate that a Gentile had used. They were absolutely what was wrong with the world. These are the people that came together, the devout Jewish missionary and these pagan idol worshipers and they came together, you know, different backgrounds can be an obstacle. Not just different backgrounds though, temporary relationships. And again, maybe you don't remember this, but Paul goes to Thessalonica in Acts chapter 17 and we learn that he's there for about four or five weeks. He wasn't there for very long. It was a very temporary stay. And third obstacle to community that Paul experienced was past suffering. Again, we have to look back at Acts chapter 16 and 17, be reminded how Paul got to Thessalonica. Well, he came to Thessalonica from a town called Philippi. It's where we get the book Philippians. It's another letter that Paul wrote to another church. And a lot of times, again, if we grew up in the church and we grew up in Sunday school, we hear all about the people in Philippi who came to know Jesus. And one of them was this rich businesswoman named Lydia, and it was wonderful. And then another one was this little slave girl who was demon-possessed, and Paul delivers her from that, and that's great. And then this Roman retired military Philippian jailer, he comes to know Jesus, and we preach huge sermons on, look at how diverse that church was, and how cross-cultural they were, and the rich businesswoman, and the blue-collar retired military man, and isn't it wonderful? But we never remember to talk about why Paul was in front of the Philippian jailer preaching the gospel to begin with. Because the people of Philippi had grabbed him and his partners and stripped them and beaten them with rods and sticks and then thrown them into jail. And then from jail they meet the Philippian jailer because they're in jail with him. And then the next day they're released, the charges are dropped, and they go to Thessalonica. They showed up in Thessalonica with that kind of pain, with that kind of bruising out of ministry. I mean, they came into Thessalonica with physical bruises and beatings evident to everyone. Different backgrounds, temporary status, past suffering. Are these just obstacles that they faced back 2,000 years ago? Are these obstacles that we face here at Hope of Christ? Are these obstacles to community? Different backgrounds. Military versus non-military. Different educational backgrounds. Different socioeconomic backgrounds. Maybe you grew up in a Christian home, maybe you grew up in a Catholic home, maybe you grew up in a pagan home, a home that just didn't believe in God at all. different backgrounds as far as what our convictions are, as far as our feelings on what kind of freedoms do we have in Christ, or different backgrounds on what's the best way to educate our children, different backgrounds on what's the best way to be involved in the community. Do we have, are we in a church that maybe different backgrounds is sometimes an obstacle to community? I think we might be. What about temporary status? Does that describe hope of Christ at all? Temporary relationships? People coming in, you know they're only going to be here for a couple of years, so I mean you're nice to them, but I mean you're not going to dig in. You're not going to expose anything because what would be the point? They're going to leave in a couple of years. or maybe you're here for a couple years, and you're going to be nice to people, but this is your life. You come in, you settle down, you hang a picture, the caulk dries, and you leave. So why Why put in the effort? Why expose yourself? Why tell anyone anything? Let's just be nice, let's be surfacy. Does temporary relationships, is that an obstacle to genuine community at Hope of Christ? It might be. What about past suffering? Have you ever been hurt by your church experience? Do you come to church with something like this running through your mind? I will come to worship. I will come to the other activities in the church. I will volunteer. I will serve. I will even lead some of those ministries and you will not know me because I tried that once and it didn't go very well. Maybe some of your past suffering has come even during your time here at Hope of Christ. Maybe this is more what runs through the back of your mind. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me. I know that is in Proverbs somewhere. It's not. Could we admit that moving from noun to experience is more than just an exchange of words when it comes to community? Moving from the noun of community to the experience of community is kind of a sort of an uphill battle, isn't it? And yet here's Paul, five weeks, beaten, past ministry failures or at least past ministry suffering, temporary status, completely different backgrounds. And what does he say? Verse 7, we were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her children. Or verse 8, we were affectionately desirous of you. We were ready to share with you our very selves. You had become very dear to us. How did he achieve this level of rich community with the people in Thessalonica? Well, one thing we can see from the passage, one thing he did not do is he did not tone down his content. He did not ease the content of his message. You know, he says in verse 2, we had boldness from God to declare to you the gospel. Now, when the man who writes, we had boldness with God, is the same man who wrote to another church in Corinth and said, kick the sinner out. Or he wrote to another church in Galatia, I wish those enemies of the gospel would just dismember themselves. Now, when a man who writes those kinds of letters says, we were bold. you can be sure that he was probably bold when it came to the gospel. He says we didn't use cunning or deceptive language in verse 3. In verse 4 he says we didn't speak just in order to win friends or to influence enemies. In verse 5 he says we didn't flatter anyone. We weren't in it for the money. We weren't looking for fame or fortune. So what brings a man with a devout Jewish background into an obvious loving relationship with people with pagan, idol-worshipping, Gentile backgrounds? Well, verse two says, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God. Verse four says, we have been approved by God and entrusted with the gospel. Verse eight says, we were ready to share with you the gospel of God. The source of genuine community The source of genuine Christian community is always, will only ever be, the gospel. It can't be our backgrounds or our socioeconomics or who we root for on Sundays. The source of genuine community has to be the gospel. Now, what is the gospel? What is the gospel that would affect such devoutly religious and devoutly pagan people in the exact same way? What is this gospel? Well, if you look back at the last verse in chapter 1, We read, we wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. One aspect of the gospel is that reminder that no matter who we are, no matter who you are, whether you were born in a Christian home or you were not born in a Christian home, whether you are a follower of Jesus Christ or not a follower of Jesus Christ, all of us at some point in our lives were standing in line for that cool, refreshing drink from the wrath of God. All of us were standing in line for the wrath of God. It is exactly what we deserved. We deserve the wrath of God for our sins. In fact, when we take communion, when we celebrate communion together, one of the things that I delight in reminding you of when you come forward for the cup is telling you Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath so that this could be for you the cup of God's blessing. Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath. It's why Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane says, Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me. He's talking about the cup of God's own wrath over sin. Jesus drinks that cup. He spares us the wrath that we deserve from God. That is amazing. That is amazing. You and I who deserve God's wrath are spared that wrath by Jesus Christ. But as amazing as that is, it's not all that we need. I mean, it's more than we deserve, don't get me wrong, but it's not all that we need. We need more than just to be spared from the wrath of God, and by God's grace, it's not all that we get. Look at verse four in chapter one. For we know, brothers, loved by God, that God has chosen you. We, you and I, who trust in Jesus Christ for our salvation, we don't stand simply in a zero spot when it comes to God's wrath. It's not just that God's wrath has been removed from us so we're back to square zero, but we're actually on the positive side because God loves you. God loves me. God positively views us. He doesn't just put us to ground zero and say, now earn this. but God loves you, God is delighted in you. That should be enough to unite us in amazing genuine community that each of us realize that I have been both spared the wrath of God and God delights in me. You know, our larger church, the PCA, recognizes that this is really the only foundation we have for community. Think about our membership vows. And maybe you remember we just had three folks join last week. Now think about this. Some of you grew up in the Presbyterian church, and that's happening more and more as the PCA gets older. And so maybe all you've ever known have been our membership vows, but trust me, they're weird. And some of you, maybe you haven't grown up in the Presbyterian church and you've taken membership vows in other churches. And you know what I'm talking about. I mean, what is the first question that we ask our members? We ask our members, do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure without hope, save for in His sovereign mercy? Okay, let me boil that down for you. Our first question to become a member is, do you deserve to go to hell? And if that question isn't bizarre enough, everyone always answers, yes. Yes, I do. And if you're not in the PCA and you haven't heard this kind of stuff, you're like, what kind of gathering is this? Are they passing the Kool-Aid out later? Do you deserve to go to hell? Yes. But, question two, do you believe the good news? Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of sinners, and do you rest and hope in Him alone as He is offered in the gospel? I don't know if you noticed, but every song we sang today so far has been a song that has celebrated either the wrath of God being satisfied or the love of God being offered to us. And some of the songs have done both. We opened with joy in every tongue to sing in praise. He saved us from the wrath of God. Our guilt broke his guiltless heart with the wrath that we incurred. In Christ alone, the line in Christ alone, till on the cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. We sang, Jesus, thank you. You, the perfect holy one, crushed your son who drank the bitter cup reserved for me. But then that bridge, that line that we repeat over and over, lover of my soul, I want to live for you. We're saying how deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure that He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure. We're saying He will rejoice over you with singing. If you could only hear His voice, you would hear the Lord rejoicing over you with singing. This is what unites us in brotherly love and affection for each other. in the work of celebrating and growing in the grace of Jesus Christ, the full picture of the gospel. So what are some of the practices of community? Well, first of all, we must preach and teach the whole gospel. We can't shy away from any aspect of the gospel. It's clear from this small paragraph that the gospel was central to Paul's ministry in Thessalonica. Verse 2, he declared the gospel. Verse 4, he speaks the gospel. Verse 8, he's ready to share the gospel. Now maybe when you first became a believer What really finally moved your heart as far as what God had done for you was God's holiness, God's justice, God's wrath being satisfied. Your coming to Christ was very much an understanding of the transcendence, the bigness of God, and you just want others to get that. You want people to get that God's wrath has been satisfied, that God is as holy as you're afraid He is, that God is as just as you fear He is. Or maybe when you first came to Christ, what finally won you over, what finally moved your heart was the realization that God loves you, that God is delighted in you, that the cross is proof that God loves sinners, that you are chosen by Him, that He chose to love you. He didn't wait for you to earn it. God is very imminent. He's very near to you. And you just want others to realize how close God is. God's pursuing love for sinners. You know what's sad is when these two sides of one gospel start suspecting one another. When those who are amazed by the wrath and justice and holiness of God hear people talk about the love of God and they just kind of... That's a little, that's a little suspicious. I mean, are we all gonna hug now? You know, can we sing another refrain of holy, holy, holy, please? And then the other people on the other side, they're so amazed with how much God loves them, and then they hear people talk about God's holiness, God's wrath, they hear people talk about sin, it's like, oh, here we go again. This entire church needs a prescription. It's just ridiculous how we always just focus on the negative. How is it possible that where Paul is so impressed with both sides of this truth, both sides of this gospel, the wrath of God has been satisfied by Jesus and God loves you. God delights in you. How could we take these two truths of one gospel and use them to divide us? We need to preach and teach the whole aspect of the gospel. Those who are amazed by God's holiness and wrath need to talk about how, you know what, God likes you. God delights in you. God loves you. Those of us who are amazed by God's love and closeness need to talk about God is a holy God. He is not like us. And yet His wrath was satisfied. We need to preach and teach the whole gospel to each other. Second, we need to consider how we label each other. Notice how Paul labels these Gentile Greek former idol worshipers. In verse 1 of chapter 2, he says, you yourselves know, brothers. In verse 4 of chapter 1, he says, brothers, loved by God, chosen. And again, we don't get this because we read it so many times and we're so far away from the chasm that was between the Jew and the Gentile, but these are labels that were reserved for the Israelites alone. The Israelites were brothers. The Gentiles weren't brothers to the Israelites. The Israelites were all sons of Abraham. They were brothers to one another. The Gentiles weren't considered brothers. The Israelites were chosen by God. They were the chosen people. The Gentiles weren't chosen. Israel was God's beloved. He delighted in them. They were His loved child. The Gentiles weren't, and yet this is how Paul describes them. This is the label he puts on them. Brother, loved by God, chosen. What are our labels? How do we label each other? liberal, conservative, relativist, legalist, tree hugger, Calvinist, Arminian. We get real fancy and start using letters. It's not just the Marines that can talk in letters. We say T-R-B-E. No one even knows what those mean anymore, but we like to throw them at each other. Sissy boy in a bow tie. I was just saying, we don't call each other that, I'm just saying, although some of you look uncomfortable, so now I'm uncomfortable, so maybe we do. Proverbs 18, 21 says, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Death is in the power of the tongue, but life is in the power of the tongue. What are the labels we use for each other? And third, in verse eight, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves. We must preach and teach the gospel. It was the first one up there. But we must not preach and teach the gospel and think that now we've done our duty and we can pull out our little magic wand and say, communitize. See, it doesn't work. See, he just tried it, and none of you feel any closer to each other. Yes, preach and teach, but we have to give ourselves to each other. You know, we need to laugh with each other. We need to cry with each other. We need to admit to each other when things are broken or things are hurting or things aren't working the way we thought they were supposed to work. We need to pray with and for each other. Don't let your different backgrounds, don't let our different backgrounds stop us from reaching out to each other, from genuinely, intentionally getting into each other's lives and into each other's hearts and homes. Don't be tempted to ignore or overlook the short timers, or as a short timer, don't be tempted to just kind of pass through, but pour yourselves into each other's hearts and homes and lives. Don't let the suffering and pain that you've experienced in the past keep you from the full joy of God's community that is available to you, the joy of God's community that God desires for you. Let's label each other correctly, brother, sister, loved by God, chosen. Let's share the gospel, the whole gospel with each other. Jesus has delivered you from the wrath of God and God delights in you. He quiets you with his love. Let's be eager to share even our own selves with each other. Let's be sacrificial of our time, of our energies, of our homes, of our stuff. Let's be in each other's lives. Let's pray. Father God we are grateful to you. For indeed you have allowed your wrath to be satisfied by your son Jesus Christ. And it wasn't just that he tricked you into pouring your wrath out onto him or that he has gone against your will, but it was your will to crush him. And it can only be out of love for us. You've chosen us. You delight in us. You rejoice over us with singing. You quiet us with your love. God grant to us here at Hope of Christ that we would That we would grow in grace. That we would grow in our understanding of grace. That we would grow in our offering of grace to each other. That we would grow in our desire to help one another know the full gospel. and the truth that we have been set free from our sins. God, help us to love each other with the love of Jesus Christ. Help us to serve each other even as Christ has served us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's sing together in closing.