Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5

1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verses 1-5. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, that is Silas and Timothy, unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and the sight of God and our Father, knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God.

For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, but in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

Okay. At this point, the younger children may be dismissed to go to their Sabbath schools if the parents desire that. We continue this afternoon going through our series of studies in the book of First Thessalonians. And this afternoon we get to another demonstration of the election of the Thessalonian church.

Remember last week we talked upon God’s election, his choice of them. We talked about the unconditional election the scriptures plainly teach. And that election is to the end that we bear fruit for him. And today we’re going to kind of shift focus on that fruit a little bit and talk about the fruit of believers—the fruit of evangelism, which is believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and disciples.

Paul, in this first section of thanksgiving for the Thessalonian church, and that is really the context of everything we’ve said up to date, really is that Paul gives thanks for this church. In the context of that, he thanks them for the evidence of their election.

And that evidence is pointed out first, as we said, by their faith, hope, and love and the demonstration of that in works and labor and in the patience that hope brings. But then secondly, Paul says that there’s other evidences of their election as well. And there are two full things there. First, the manner of the entrance of the gospel to them and then the transmission of the faith from men to men, as it were, and the demonstration of their lives.

Again, here he turns to that in the last half of this chapter. So what we’re going to talk about today in verse 5 really is directly connected to Paul’s assurance that there were members of this church, that the church had been elect by God in Jesus Christ before the foundations of the world. And so he’s going to talk about that now, giving us some of those reasons.

Essentially what I’m doing is I’m taking this verse and breaking it up into five clauses or five aspects that talk about the components of an effectual gospel. What does the gospel look like when it is effectual to bring forth salvation in hearers? And it has these aspects to it: it has the word, power, the Holy Spirit, assurance, and of course, it’s transmitted by men. So we’re going to talk about that.

Paul here essentially introduces some recognized facts, and he looks to them for the demonstration of this as well that give proof of his previous statement of their election.

Some people think, and it’s useful to point out here, that one of the reasons Paul goes on for quite a long time about his manner with them—as we’ll see going into these next few verses and into chapter 2—really a lot of time he spends talking about himself and the way they were, the way they preached the gospel to the Thessalonians. And some people think this is evidence that what was going on at Thessalonica was that their integrity is being attacked.

Remember that Paul got driven out of Thessalonica shortly after beginning to preach there. And so there’s evidence to support the fact that what he’s doing here is making sure they recognize that with these first couple of chapters of his epistle to them, he demonstrates again that we really were the apostles of God. And you’re the demonstration of proof of that.

Hendrickson in his commentary on this particular section—and by that I mean verses 4-10—sums up this section that we begun to deal with last week, and we’ll deal with the next few weeks, in this way. Hendrickson says that essentially here’s what Paul is saying: Do not be deceived by the enemies of the faith who are lying by means of an attack on our integrity. They’re trying by doing this to undermine your faith and your assurance of salvation. Our behavior among you was proof of our integrity and of the reliability of our message. Your own joyful acceptance of the gospel which we preached, so that you began to spread the news everywhere and turned away from those idols of yours to serve the living God and to await his Son from heaven, these clearly indicate that what happened and is happening in Thessalonica was and is wrought by the Holy Spirit and was and is the fruit of election. Any doubt about the genuine character of your faith was removed by Timothy. So continue steadfastly.

So he points out to this evidence then, and that’s what we’re going to go over. And our purpose really is twofold: one, to look at how this would affect our own evangelism, and then how it affects our lives as well. Because he—as Hendrickson correctly points out—he points to these evidences we’ll look at in the past, but they are continuing to be manifested in the Thessalonian church. And so first for evangelism purposes, and then secondly for the way in which we grow as well, these five characteristics are important for us to consider.

Before we get into them, however, we’re going to turn to Acts 17 for a couple of minutes just to remind ourselves again of the context of this particular church.

So turn to Acts 17, verses 1-9, and we’ll just read that to remind ourselves of what had happened, because Paul is going to talk about the entrance of the gospel to the Thessalonians. He’s going to say remember the way we were. And we actually can look a little bit at the way Paul was as we can look at the words of holy scripture that tell us what happened there in Thessalonica, which is recorded in Acts 17.

And when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ.

Okay, so there we have what happened. They came to this city. Remember, there was miraculous things that happened to put them in that direction. But he came to Thessalonica eventually. There was a synagogue, and for three Sabbath days, for three weeks successively, Paul reasons with them in the synagogue opening and alleging the death and resurrection of Christ and that Jesus is the Christ.

And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. So some of the Jewish members of the synagogue believed, and a great multitude of Gentiles who are not part of the synagogue really believed as well as some of the chief women.

But the Jews which believe not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the base sort and gathered a company and set all the city in an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of the city, saying, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason hath received. And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.” And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them go.

And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, when coming into the synagogue of the Jews.

So in addition to this message that we’re recorded in the first couple of verses there, we also see here that the Jews by their testimony that these Christians were essentially turning the world upside down by proclaiming another king, Jesus Christ, contrary to Caesar. And so that was part of what they were teaching as well. And that brought a great deal of uproar.

Now, whether or not they were actually only there three weeks or somewhat longer is open to debate. The indications here seems to be that it only occurred for three weeks and then all this happened, but it’s possible there was a lag between those three weeks they spent in the synagogues and then this other stuff happening. So it could have been a little longer. But the shorter period of time is three weeks that they spent there planting this church at Thessalonica.

And that’ll help us to remember Paul’s manner with them when we get to that part of what we’re going through.

Okay. So now let’s get into the actual text itself from 1 Thessalonians 1:5.

First of all, he says that our gospel came unto you not in word only. This is the first clause. Now, while his point is that it came in various other demonstrations, it is very important that we see that one of the assertions first made here is that the gospel did come in word. It didn’t come in word only, but it did come in word. That’s important.

You know, you’ve heard some people say that, well, I testify to Jesus by my lifestyle and I don’t have to use words. Well, he doesn’t say here that the gospel was preached without words. He just says that the words were accompanied by other things. So it’s important we recognize that.

Secondly, it’s important we look a little bit at this term gospel. And I suppose that this is going to review for many of you, but it’s good that we point this out. What is this gospel he’s talking about? Well, we have the evidence that we just had from the book of Acts that this gospel was that Jesus died and rose again and that this Jesus is Messiah or Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, of course, we have what some people see as the classic statement of the gospel. He says in verse one, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you which you received and wherein ye stand. And he says, I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and that there were witnesses to his resurrection.

So certainly the gospel is not preached when the facts of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior are not preached. And so it’s important that our words contain those historical facts. But those historical facts of the death, burial, and resurrection of one person named Jesus are given for a purpose as his own activity. The death, burial, and resurrection accomplish something. So then we share the gospel with people. We share those facts, but we point them to a greater reality in terms of what that gospel is.

The term here used, the Greek word used, is the basis for our term evangelism. And it comes from two words stuck together. The first word meaning good and the second word meaning news. And that second word, by the way, is the word for like angel. It’s the root is the word for angel or messenger, somebody who was sent to proclaim something or to say something to somebody else. So this is news brought by a messenger. But it’s good news. It’s very good news. And this gospel is the good news that Jesus died and was buried and was resurrected.

But it’s really more, I think, than just those simple historical facts. Because the scriptures teach us, beginning for instance in Matthew 4:23, when Jesus himself preached the gospel, it says that he preached the gospel of the kingdom, of the kingdom. And Matthew 24:14 talks about the gospel of this kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. So he’s not—you can’t tie off that gospel of the kingdom just to the times when Jesus himself was alive. But he says that the gospel of this kingdom shall be preached in all the world. So this is what Paul was doing. He was preaching the same gospel as Jesus preached, and it was a gospel of the kingdom.

Again in Romans 10:15, we’ve talked about this verse a few weeks ago. How shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.” Going back to an Old Testament citation, and you remember I used the analogy that what these New Testament writers do is they play a few bars of a song. You’ve got to go back to that book and bring in the whole content of that song into the quote that they quote here. And this quote goes on in the Old Testament citation to say it’s the beautiful—the gospel of priests and the good tidings of good things is the fact that our God reigns. Our God reigns, and that is the good news.

The good news is that the kingdom has been established, that our God reigns, and the thing that brought that into force was the death, burial and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. And so we have the interesting statement in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 that flaming fire will come upon those that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. See, it’s kind of hard to understand that till you recognize that the gospel is a word of a kingdom. And if you have a kingdom, you’ve got a king and he has certain laws. And so the gospel brings with it the kingdom, the proclamation of the king, Jesus Christ, that he died for sinners, that he was raised up to new life so that we could have new life and be transplanted, as it were, into that visible kingdom of his which has laws with it and has obedience required.

The kingdom consists then of a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, of a law, and of a people, and that is the good news that our gospel is supposed to contain. It is the gospel of the kingdom, and that kingdom is going out into all the world. And this is also was pointed to by those verses from Acts 17. Remember we said we can look at that for demonstration of what he’s talking about in this verse. Remember he said that he preached that Jesus died and was resurrected and that he is the Christ. The Christ is the anointed one, the king again, the Messiah, the one who would rule over all people.

Historical facts are important, but the object of those facts, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, are a vital part of the preaching of the gospel. And that’s why within a few weeks, the Jews could say, “These guys are turning the world upside down by proclaiming one above Caesar.” They were proclaiming another one who was higher, had ultimate authority over Caesar himself.

It is an interesting fact that Augustus Caesar, who is contemporary with Jesus in his life, had his own gospel. And the gospel was the term they would use to say that Augustus Caesar now reigns over this territory. And they level the hills and make things steady, road to go to a territory to announce his reign over them. Well, that really was a false gospel, but it’s just as false, I think, an implication of the gospel to say simply that the gospel is aimed at personal salvation. No, the gospel is the good news of the kingdom. Very important that gospel is communicated with words.

As we said, words are necessary. The good news is only good news. It’s only news when it is told or communicated. And so in Hebrews 2:3, we read, “How should we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken of by the Lord in words?” In other words, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. They spoke words. And these is connected to the great salvation that has been ushered in for us.

1 Peter 1:25 is the word of the Lord endureth, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. And so the word has direct reference to the word of God and then the words that we use to communicate that word to those that are perishing and to those that made the elect by God and brought into the kingdom.

And so Paul says back again in Acts 17, he didn’t say they just came in, quoted some scriptures in the synagogue and left. They used the word of the scriptures, but he also says that the opening and alleging we read—reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging, opening up the scriptures to them and reasoning with them to demonstrate to them the veracity, the biblical claims, that Jesus is the Messiah.

And so our words as well are important for evangelism. But words are not sufficient in and of themselves. In Hebrews 4:2, we read, “For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but them—that is those who were not saved and who were perishing—but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” And again in Acts 16:14, the description of the conversion of Lydia, it says that her heart was opened by the Lord.

So unless the heart is opened by the Lord, then the gospel is not effectual in the life of that person in terms of salvation. It becomes a curse to them instead of a blessing.

One commentator in his Greek commentary on the New Testament talks about it in terms of the gospel being a kernel and an open heart. And it requires these other factors we’re going to talk about by which this kernel is opened up and the gospel, as it were, takes effect and becomes powerful in the lives of those members that God has elected in Jesus Christ. The kernel must burst its bounds, so to speak, and go beyond the mere words, as it were. Or really, we don’t see salvation occurring. But what are these other things?

I’m going to take a short diversion here just for a couple of minutes. I hope you bear with me, but I think it’s important. We’re going through a transition now. Really, this outline you can look at it as: one, words are important; three, these middle manifestations are manifestations of the work of the Holy Spirit; and then the fifth one, the last one, is that men are used to accomplish all this in God’s providence.

So we’re making a transition here from the word being mixed with faith and being mixed with these other evidences of election. Those evidences being the power, Holy Spirit, and full assurance. And I want to just make reference here to a recent article by R.J. Rushdoony that just came out this week in the Council of the Chalcedon Report. And I think it’s very important that you understand what Reverend Rushdoony is trying to say there. He talks about the false trust in paper alone or in creeds or confessions or constitutions. And he says that really you should never put your ultimate trust in a written document in words as it were. Okay? But instead, what we have in the Christian faith is the growing aspect of the Holy Spirit who indwells believers and causes them to bring their lives into conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.

So that’s a dynamic process and it can’t be limited.

Now, just to speak to this, I want to have us turn to Nehemiah for a couple of minutes. Probably shouldn’t do this, but I set myself to this task. So let’s do it. Book of Nehemiah, just to get to this combination between words and yet going beyond words.

In Nehemiah chapter 9, in Nehemiah chapter 9, we have the taking of the covenant. Actually, chapter 10 would probably want to look at Nehemiah chapter 10. It actually lists a whole bunch of people—those first 27 verses, their names of particular leaders of the people who signed this covenant. This was a written document, a church confession as it were, a creed or a covenant document. And it says in that these—the nation here as they’re being brought back into the land—retake covenant with God. This is a high point of the book of Nehemiah. They retake covenant with God.

And without having us look at it verse by verse, essentially what you have in this chapter are three aspects of this covenant. They agree in verse 30 in this written document that consists of words not to intermarry with those who are outside of the faith community. They say in verse 31 that they endeavor and covenant to keep Sabbath. So they’re not going to buy and sell merchandise on the Sabbath. And then in verses 32-39 they agree to the support of the ministry of the temple.

Okay? And that includes the tithes of the Levites. It includes bringing wood for the offerings. It includes various things. But essentially verses 32-39 are all gathered around supporting the Levitical ministry in terms of the temple. Okay.

So we see there from scripture an obvious example where a church confession, a covenant, is a good thing. It’s words. But if you turn to chapter 13 at the end of this book of Nehemiah, you’ll see there three things happening that he has to correct in the people. Some time has passed now, and now he comes back to the land after being gone for a while and some other affairs, and he comes back and he finds out—lo and behold, told in verses 10-14 of chapter 13—that the Levites have gone back to other vocations because they’re not being paid their tithe anymore. And he finds out in verses 15-22 that they’re buying and selling on the Sabbath again. And he takes care of that problem. And then he finds out in verses 23-29 that they’re back to intermarrying again with people outside of the faith community. And at the end of each of those sections, he takes care of it. He gets to work. He pulls some beards. He strikes some people, and he gets the situation in hand and he brings them back to be—and that’s those three things are very clearly marked out at the end of each one of those sections. He says, “Lord, remember me for this work.”

Well, it’s interesting there because what we have then is the very three things they covenanted to do in chapters 9 and 10. Those are the things they don’t do in chapter 13. They fall away from that covenant within a fairly short period of time. Now, it’s in reverse order. They begin by neglecting the tithe, at least in terms of the way Nehemiah presents it. It’s not a chronology, but I think it does show the importance, the centrality of the tithe.

They ignore the Sabbatical restrictions, then begin to buy and sell on the Sabbath. And then they actually end up intermarrying. And the covenant was originally cited the reverse order: marriage, Sabbath, support of the Levites. Now they fail in support of the Levites, Sabbath, and marriage.

I think it’s a good picture of what happens as you move away from an act of obedience to the words that you have heard and the words that you have made to God in terms of covenant. It shows that picture of moving away at the center of worshiping God at the altar with the Levitical order, moving away then from the observance of the Sabbath, and finally your life itself and your home becomes polluted, as it were, by intermarrying with people outside of the faith community.

And the whole point of that is really a simple one: words are good. Confessions and creeds are important. But if you don’t have men who are moving in the power of the Holy Spirit to keep people on track, to keep each other on track, and those words become empty documents. By the time Nehemiah got back, the covenant was still sitting there. They’d signed it all, but it meant nothing to them.

And see, ultimately R.J. Rushdoony is completely correct in giving that corrective: that you cannot put ultimate trust in a confession or creed document. It’s got to be on the work of the Holy Spirit ministered through men like Nehemiah under the power of the Holy Ghost.

What are some of the manifestations of these things that are specifically pointed out to us, going back to our original text, then in First Thessalonians?

One of the other essential components of the effectual gospel, in addition to the words that are used based upon the word of God, is power. Power. Our gospel came to you not only in words but also in—actually it’s singular—in word but also in power. And as I said, these middle three really are one unit: power, Holy Spirit, assurance, really linked together.

This word for power here is the same word that’s the root of our modern word dynamite. Power, strength. Dynamite is a little bit different because it’s used to blow things up. Whereas the power here talked about is used to put things together and to create good work, and reconstructive or constructive work as opposed to destructive work. This word can refer to miracles, but usually the plural form, which is not used here. The plural form of this word is the one that’s used when miracles themselves are being spoken of.

So in the gospel, the same essential word, the plural form talks about the mighty works that Jesus did, the various miracles. So really I don’t think the thrust here in this particular instance is miracles. Rather it’s this enabling of the Holy Spirit for effectual preaching.

Now the power of course is related to the gospel in other places in scripture. Again we’ll start with the most famous one, Romans 1:16. I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power—the dynamite, the constructive force of God—the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Okay. Power to those that believe, that God brings to belief. In other words, so power is linked to the gospel.

Again, in 1 Corinthians 1:18, the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Power of God. The one of the essential components of the gospel, of course, is the resurrection of our Savior. And we are specifically told in 1 Corinthians 6:14 that God raised up the Lord according to the working of his power, of God’s power. And so power is essential to the component of the gospel itself and the correct presentation of it.

Now, I mentioned—I haven’t mentioned yet—but some commentators disagree what’s he talking about here? Whose power does this mean that Paul was filled with power when he preached the gospel, or does he mean that the Thessalonians themselves received it with power? And you see, commentators they debate about this fact. But I think that what’s really going on is that the process is one that’s characterized by power. I don’t think it’s limited to either the preacher or the receiver. Power flows in the whole process in the dynamic of the gospel itself.

And I’ve got a couple of scriptures that I’ve listed on your outlines there to demonstrate this. In Acts 4:33, it says, “With great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection.” And this would refer to Paul when he was preaching to the Thessalonians. He did it with great power, great ability.

Romans 15:13 says, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.” And so in Romans, he says, “As receiving the word of God, may it give you power in the Holy Ghost.” Both sides are emphasized.

This is really played out real clearly in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5. Paul says, “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. For what reason? He tells us: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

So Paul says in 1 Corinthians that this power characterizes the preacher, but it also characterizes the effect on the person being preached to, his life. So power pervades the process and isn’t limited to one class or the other. The power in the preaching of the gospel occurs in the entire process of preacher and the one being preached to.

Now another point that’s quite important that we recognize about this power, and that is that the scriptures repeatedly refer to power in relationship to the kingdom of God. This gospel has a reference to the kingdom of God. So power does.

I’ve listed various verses there. Matthew 6:13, of course, the Lord’s Prayer: “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.” Jesus says, “There are some here—when he was speaking of what would occur in the future—there’s some here who hear my preaching who will not taste of death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.” Well, you see, if you understand what the kingdom of God is, the—is what’s contained in the gospel—the Thessalonians saw the kingdom of God come with power to them, effectual to changing their hearts and lives.

2 Corinthians 10:4 says that this power is mighty, that God is powerful through the pulling down of strongholds. “So the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty, powerful, dynamiting as it were through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” This is real important in terms of preaching the gospel because what this means is that we don’t have to rely upon our own ability to speak, upon Madison Avenue techniques, upon taking a line that people will like. None of those accounted.

You know, Charles Finney, of course, was a famous revivalist in the 1800s who found that what he concentrated on was really early psychological manipulation of people. He found various ways to make people respond emotionally with their minds and their hearts, and he would bring them to the point of frenzy, at which point they would convert. Well, see, the problem with that is that’s not what’s being talked about here.

In fact, Paul goes out of his way to say that his preaching wasn’t like that. It wasn’t persuasive in terms of men’s minds, eloquence of speech, knowing how to push all your buttons, so to speak. That’s not what Paul knew. What Paul knew was the preaching of the gospel. And to some people, it’s going to be stupid and foolish, because their minds are darkened and they’re perishing. There’s no power that goes to them in terms of this presentation. Okay?

But to those that God has called, there is power that occurs in the context of that sort of preaching. And I guess one way you can look at this is that if people—if everybody responds to a particular kind of evangelist and all kinds of people come forward and they don’t really stay with it—then probably his power was not the power of the Holy Spirit, but somehow the eloquence of speech, ability to manipulate people. The scriptures say that’s not to be how we preach. Our gospel is tied to the word of God, and that word brings with it power when the Holy Spirit is present. Okay?

Related to the kingdom: 1 Corinthians 4:20. “The kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” Very good verse here too. The kingdom of God comes in words, of course, but it’s not restricted to words as a dynamic. Words are a vehicle, as it were, that God has chosen in his providence whereby to communicate power to people’s lives. Power to change. Power to come to conviction, repentance of sin, and power then to move in terms of belief in Jesus Christ.

One final thing about power, or couple things here before we leave. Power, at its core, the word for power means the ability to do a particular thing. So power isn’t sort of seen as some kind of abstract thing in the scriptures. It’s seen as a particular empowering or ability to do something.

For instance, in Matthew 25:15, we have the parable of the talents. It says, “He gave unto them some—he gave five talents to another two, to another one—to every man according to his several ability.” And that word ability is the same word power. See, well, if you just think of it as some kind of abstract force of big explosion or something, that doesn’t fit. But think of it as enabling for a task, then it fits very well.

And so the power that accompanies the biblical preaching of the gospel and true evangelism is the power to bring people to enablement to a particular function, to repentance, and then also to live in terms of the life that God has called them to, to demonstrate that faith, hope, and love with works and labor and patience that comes as a result of the power of God, the enabling of them to move in terms of the kingdom of God instead of the kingdom of man.

And power comes to the life of the believer. I’ve listed a bunch of scriptures there. We won’t take time to do it. It would be great to just go through some of those for a while, but I don’t really have time. But what you find there, of course, is that the believer’s lives are characterized as being submitted to and demonstrating the power of God.

Remember when Paul cried out to God for a relief from a particular problem he had—a medical problem with his eyes, apparently—God says that my strength, my power, is made perfect in weakness. Last week we talked about that election is unto pruning in one sense. Election is unto pain and tribulation that God is going to bring into the life of everybody. But that pain and tribulation is for the effect of pruning, is that we might bear more fruit, that we might be more enabled, more powerful to bring forth manifestations for the kingdom.

And so God told Paul, “My strength is made perfect in weakness. I humble you. I prune you. I make you weak that you might be strong in me and in my word.”

In fact, Paul prays in Ephesians that they might know the exceeding greatness of the power that works in them. 2 Timothy 1:7: “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner.”

And the point of all this is that if we understand that power is the enabling of God’s Spirit for the particular task of work in the kingdom, and that it produces fruit both in terms of disciples and also in terms of manifestations in our lives—the fruits of the Spirit—then we’re going to move in terms of the word of God and the simplicity of that word rather than in terms of man.

Men achieve power through different mechanisms, not through adhering to the word.

I was talking with my wife as we were driving in today about various anti- and pro-war demonstrations that are going on. And people can amass to themselves what they think is political power or power to change course of events through manipulating people with simple messages, but that are not messages that are based upon the scriptures. Either you whip up the patriotism, or you can whip up the fear of death, and if you’re into the peace movement, and so get political power to yourself. The scriptures tell us that in terms of what’s going on in the Persian Gulf, our responsibility is to cleave to that word, the word of God, understand what it has to say to a particular situation, proclaim that word—what the laws of the kingdom are relative to a particular current event, in this case warfare.

And the scriptures tell us that if we do that, then power will be the accompaniment of that for the changing of men’s minds, at least in terms of the elect community, which is what history moves in accordance with. So we don’t rely upon fancy speech or common positions or popular positions. We look instead to God’s word, and the scriptures tell us when we do that faithfully, power accompanies it.

That power comes about, of course, as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is in the middle of these middle three I mentioned—power, Holy Spirit, assurance—because he’s the source of power and of assurance to the believer.

Scriptures tell us that Jesus, when he returned to Galilee, he returned in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit brings power. In Luke 24:49, Jesus in that whole section says, “Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you, but carry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high.” And indeed in Acts 1:8, Jesus said, “You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and then you shall be my witnesses.”

And that happens to them. The Holy Ghost comes upon them. They receive power, and they testify to the reality of Jesus Christ and the manifestation of the kingdom, the present reality of it. So power comes forth from the fact that the Holy Spirit is involved in this dynamic process of preaching the gospel.

Now, it’s a simple thing, but it’s worth pointing out that the name of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit—the person who permeates the preaching of the gospel and the changing of men’s lives—is holy. Holy Spirit. Holy is from the word meaning set apart, consecrated, dedicated, as it were. And Spirit, of course, is pneuma—breath, the movement of the air that’s manifested through the movement of trees, for instance. The Holy Spirit’s activities can be seen by the evidences of what happens in men’s lives.

And so Paul can look at the Thessalonians and what they done, what they became, and can see the evidences of the Spirit himself as a person moving in their lives. But that first part of the word, the Holy Spirit, this is the Spirit of God that is set apart and consecrated totally to him. God is holy. And Leviticus tells us, because God is holy, we’re to be holy.

Now, it’s a simple point, but if we’re going to move in terms of the power of the Holy Spirit, then the most obvious implication of that is that we must move to be holy. We must attempt to walk in obedience to be ye holy, for I am holy. Holiness is consecration to a standard, conformity to it, dedication to it, being set apart to it. What’s the standard? Well, there’s no standard that we have except the law of God. And so the Holy Ghost comes that he might do what, in the New Testament times, according to Jeremiah 31, that he might write the law upon our hearts, that he might make us holy as he is holy. He comes to contribute that, bring that attribute of God—holiness—to our lives.

And so if we’re going to preach effectually with power, we’ve got to do it in the Holy Spirit. And that means an awareness that we ourselves have been elect, chosen, set apart to perform a work. That work is conformity to the law of God. And that brings with it power from God, the affecting the manifestation of the kingdom, bringing people into it, and affecting its manifestation in the world around us.

And so there are a lot of scriptures that talk about that. God is—1 Thessalonians 4:7: “God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth not man but God who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.”

Now that’s a very important verse first because it’s found in the same epistle and helps us to understand what Paul you always look at how words are used in the context of the same writing first, and then in that particular author’s other writings, to understand what he’s trying to say. So it’s important for us to understand this first section of Thessalonians in relating it to other passages in Thessalonians. And here’s one of them.

And what he said there is he relates the holiness that we are called to, as opposed to uncleanness, he relates that to the person of the Holy Spirit. He is holy. We’re to be holy. And based upon that, he also says that if you resist or despise this, you despise not man but God who hath also given us his Holy Spirit.

And the same thing is true in terms of the preaching of the gospel. Effectual preaching of the gospel communicates to the unbeliever that rejection of the message of the Holy Spirit that comes in power and assurance through the preached word of God is rejection not of you. You got no personal stake in this. It’s a rejection of the Holy Spirit who sent you and his message.

And so you bring people to the awareness that they’re pitting themselves up not against you but against the Holy Spirit and the word of God.

Okay. One other scripture in terms of the Holy Spirit and the working of this in 1 Corinthians 12:7-8: “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For unto one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit,” and he lists other manifestations. Power, as we said, is an enabling for a particular task. That power comes forth from the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

And here we’re told specifically that the manifestations of the Spirit, that power, enabling, is again for a particular task. And so what I’m saying here is both in terms of power—it is a dynamic of the Christian’s life—the consecration of the Christian’s life in terms of the Holy Spirit is a dynamic ongoing process, as is the enabling of the Spirit to do particular tasks.

And so what Paul is saying here in reference to the preaching of the gospel to the Thessalonians also has corresponding activity in terms of our lives after we’ve been converted as well, and how we interact one with another. We’ll return to that in a couple of minutes.

Okay. So the gospel came not in word only but also in empowering the Holy Spirit and in assurance. Now, this is a word that’s kind of a funny word. It doesn’t really have its ultimate meaning here. Well, let’s see there. This word is only used four other times directly in the scriptures, as well as a few other cognate uses.

And without getting into all that, I’ll just tell you—you’ll have to trust me—to do your own study on it. Literally it means a complete carrying. You—excuse me—or bearing. The root word has to do with wearing something, and then as a result of that of carrying of something about, and then finally it comes out in this idea of fully assured, fully wearing, as it were, complete caring or bearing of a particular thing.

Now when this word is used here in this particular sentence out of First Thessalonians, there’s no article before the term. So it’s very closely—the only point important to bring that out is that it’s closely linked to the Holy Spirit. So it isn’t something separate from, but it comes forth from the Holy Spirit.

In Colossians 2, we read one of the three other occurrences—I’m sorry, the only three other occurrences—of this word, and it has a modifier. He says that “your hearts may be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.” And so in Colossians 2:2, that full assurance, the full caring you have in your being, is understanding. Okay?

In Hebrews 6:11 says, “We desire that every one of you to show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.” And here the full manifestation is of hope in the believer.

In Hebrews 10:22, “Let us draw near a true heart in full assurance of faith.” And so full assurance implies faith. It implies hope, and as a result perseverance under trials, and it implies understanding. But it encompasses all of those things because the full assurance is of the working of God in our lives, and that brings with it an assurance of salvation and a wondrous trust in what God has accomplished.

It brings forward understanding. It brings forward hope in the promises of God, and it also brings forth full assurance of faith. And in Hebrews 10:22, the specific implication of that is that we might boldly enter into the holy of holies, as it were, into the holy place, in terms of approaching God.

Related to that—yeah, Ephesians 3:12—”In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him when we have full assurance of God’s work in our lives.”

That Paul had full assurance that the power of the Holy Spirit was manifest best in the preaching of the gospel, then we also have with that boldness to speak for Jesus Christ, to speak on behalf of God in terms of using his word, and also to be bold then in the face of tribulations. So Paul will go on—I don’t want to dwell on that—but in the next couple of verses he will go on to talk about that boldness in face of tribulation and courage, and that comes about as a full awareness of what God is doing in the life of the believer.

So the preaching of the gospel comes with that assurance that makes men bold to proclaim the faith and to believe it in spite of afflictions and things to the contrary.

Okay. So the gospel, the effectual gospel, has these component elements: the word, the Spirit drives that word’s home, as it were, in a particular person’s life and makes it effectual, and the Spirit brings power and assurance and boldness and assurance of salvation as well.

Hendrickson, in summing up these three, said that as the apostles spoke, the preachers were keenly conscious of the presence of supernatural power behind their words, producing spiritual persuasiveness and penetrating conviction. Nighron said in commenting on this text that the gospel is not merely the presentation of an idea but the operation of a power transferring men into the new age of life. And that’s really what biblical presentation of the gospel and its accompanied by the Holy Spirit is. It brings men into the new age of God’s life, as it were, and into his kingdom.

Matthew Henry commenting on this said that the Thessalonians, now looking at it from their side, they not only heard the sound of the gospel, they submitted to the power of it. It did not