Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8

1 Thessalonians 1. We’ll read verses 1-8. The sermon will be on verses 6-8.

1 Thessalonians chapter 1. “Paul and Sylvanus 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 in 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 and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that we were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything.”

Okay, we continue now in our series going through the book of First Thessalonians. Today we’re going to start moving a little bit faster. We’re actually going to cover three whole verses. We’ve been going about a verse or a little less than a verse every Sunday, and of course, we don’t want to forget the context as we go through this.

That’s why we read the first eight verses instead of just verses 6 through 8. Remember, we’re talking now about Paul’s thanksgiving section of this epistle. After the beginning greeting, then begins talking about how he gives thanks for them. And then he gives thanks for evidence of their salvation. That’s what this section is all about. The evidence of that salvation was talked about first in terms of their faith, love, and their hope, which resulted in work, labor, and endurance.

And then the manner in which the gospel came to them was another evidence of their election, power, and with the Holy Ghost with assurance. And then this section here, verses 6-8, talk about three specific words—one word in each verse that talks about and describes the church both collectively and individually. And again, this section is more evidence of their election. And so we here see a result of what we spoke about last week.

The word gave great entrance to the Thessalonians. It was preached to them. The word came with power in the Holy Ghost, full conviction by means of the men that it was delivered to them with. And that whole process produced verses 6-8 and that result. So it’s another evidence of their election. And so we now see kind of a shift in changing from the manner of men they were, which was at the end of verse five—rather, he talked about the manner of men we were among you.

And the next three verses talk about the manner of men they are now, the Thessalonians, as a result of hearing the word. And it’s important as we go through any book of the Bible to remember that this is a command word from God to us. We’ll talk about that a little bit later. First, what we’re going to do then is come to a working knowledge of this passage to understand what’s going on here. We’ll go over that and then we’ll kind of wrap it up by making specific reference to a couple of applications to us today.

And I’ll just warn you going into this that it probably will be a bit uncomfortable some of the things I have to say in terms of the admonitions to us based on this passage. But remember that God gives us things—he gives us the power and the Holy Spirit indwelling us—that we can walk in fulfillment to what he requires of us. And so if you feel a little bad that you haven’t done just what you should do, you could either look at that as a cup half empty or a cup half full.

And believe me that if you’re in this church and we’ve come to know you, we’re assured of your election as Paul was of the Thessalonians. And so these things will be characteristic of your life as you mature in the Lord. And so don’t get discouraged. I’m just warning you going in. What the scriptures want out of us is to assure us and then command us to obedience on the basis of that assurance in the Holy Ghost.

And that’s my goal this morning, this afternoon as well.

Okay. And you’ve seen in your outline, it’s a very brief outline today. Basically, it’s just three really words that I wanted to put for points one, two, and three of the outline. Verse 6 describes the Thessalonians as followers. Verse 7 talks about the Thessalonian church as a model or a pattern. And verse 8 talks about them as a sounding board. And so that’s the basic thrust of what we’re going to be talking about this afternoon for the next few minutes—the Thessalonian church and then how we’re also to be followers, models, and sounding boards in our community and in our area as well.

Okay. First, verse 6.

“And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost.”

So he now points, as an evidence of their election, to the fact that they became followers of us—that speaks to Paul, Silas and Timothy, the authors of the letter. And so first of all he tells them here that they became followers. Now in terms of this particular verse, I’ll just mention that the title for the talk today is “Faith, Men, the Transmission Belt of the Gospel.” What we’ll see as we get down to verse 8 is that faith is at the center of what he’s talking about in verse 6. And so their faith is what has produced this. In verse 8, he talks about their faith in God is basically what’s sounded forth.

So their faith toward God, and it’s produced this aspect of their lives as well. They have become followers of the apostles and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction. One commentator has said that verse 6 gives us the range of faith. First, it tells us the act of faith. They received the word—and the word there means that they received it and took it into their lives as it were. The object of faith is the word. What did they receive? It was an act of theirs, but the object of their faith was the word itself, this faithful word of God.

Endurance of the faith is indicated in that they received that word in much affliction. And then the joy of the faith is indicated by the fact that they endured affliction in receiving the word with joy. And so faith produces joy. Finally, the power of faith is indicated in the Holy Ghost who brings that joy in the midst of affliction.

So all these things center around faith and the word of God and the various things that accompany that. All of which are pointed out to us in verse 6.

The word “became”—and ye became—the verb there indicates correlating back to this evidence of election. And then the word “became” is a point action in terms of its tense. “You became”—single point action tense there—and that indicates a definite observable change in their lives has happened. Past tense, it has happened. It has come to pass. This was because they didn’t simply become followers of the teachings of the apostles, but they actually patterned their lives after Paul and the missionaries. This particular verb, this “became” verb, is the same verb and tense as that which described the manner of men they were back in verse 5—the manner of men the missionaries were among the Thessalonians.

So there’s a real grammatical shift here now to saying: just as we were among you, you became that as well in your lives and in your connections. And so, and of course, all of this is really heightened with the use of the term “followers” there. That particular term “followers” is the Greek term from which our modern word “mimic” comes. And so the word means to mimic, to imitate, to follow somebody in that way.

I remember—I don’t know why I attached this to my sister so much. Maybe she was just more of a pliable personality—but I remember growing up watching my sister go through junior high and high school. She was a couple years older than me. And whoever she came in contact with, she’d have a close friend, you know, for 6 months, a year or two. And that friend—I noticed my sister would pick up characteristics of that friend. And it really bugged me a lot that she would do that. I thought, “Can’t she just be her own person?” She always seemed to imitate or ape her friends. And I noticed in my own life over the last few years that I do the same thing.

I was thinking, as I was talking and thinking of this particular word to mimic or to imitate: last—I guess it was end of September—Roy and I went down and spent a week learning from George Scipion, who is with Jay Adams’s counseling foundation. And George is quite a powerful personality. I hope we’re going to have him here in Portland maybe in September this coming year. But in any event, I noticed when I came back that I was imitating some of his hand movements. He does this kind of a thing a lot, and I noticed in the next sermon that I was doing that all of a sudden, you know. Well, that’s really what this word means—to kind of imitate by mimicking.

Now, Paul actually instructs people to become imitators of him in various other places in the scriptures. He actually, for instance, in 1 Corinthians 4:16, we read, “Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me”—same word, be a mimic of me. He’s telling the Corinthian church. In 1 Corinthians 4:16, again in 2 Thessalonians 3:9, the second of these epistles to the Thessalonians, he says, “We have not because we have power, but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us.” Now, he’s talking there about how they worked at their own hands to support themselves.

But the important thing is that phrase he said—that we made ourselves an example to you to follow us. So what Paul is describing here as having happened was self-consciously the intention of the missionaries who went to Thessalonica. They wanted the Thessalonians to imitate them, okay? And to mimic them in that way.

In Philippians 3:17, Paul writes to that church, saying, “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example.” Again, in Philippians 4:9, “Those things which you have learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you.” So he doesn’t just say what you’ve learned. He says what you’ve learned, received, heard, and seen in me—by actually physically watching Paul do those things. He tells the Philippian church they’re supposed to become imitators of him.

But secondly, he tells the Thessalonians that not only have they become imitators of him, he says, “And of the Lord.” And of course, that’s the real source of Paul’s actions as well. Paul had imitated God, as it were—Jesus. And so they then imitated Paul. And so “of the Lord” is the source of the activity that the Thessalonians are now engaged in.

In 1 Corinthians 11:1, he told that church, “Be ye followers of me even as I am also of Christ.” And that same word is used—mimickers—mimic me just because I am mimicking, as it were, the life of Jesus Christ.

Now I’ll just mention here that this term “the Lord” that’s used in this verse 6—Milligan in his commentary has actually described 1 and 2 Thessalonians. He’s given them the title “the Lord” because it’s used so often in these two epistles. That phrase, that particular word—kyrios in the Greek—and if you wouldn’t—well, most people wouldn’t have software to do this—but in my particular Bible software, it tells me the density of any particular word by book. And if you look up the term “the Lord,” that term is used most densely—in other words, there’s not as many occurrences in these epistles because they’re short epistles. But in terms of number of occurrences per words in the epistle, these two epistles, First and Second Thessalonians, are the densest—were the densest books that use the term “the Lord.” And so it’s a very important element of what he’s writing to this church. And we’ll get back to that a little bit later.

There’s a reason I bring that up. But in any event, they became imitators of Paul and of the Lord.

Ephesians 5:1 again repeats this basic admonition. It says, “Be ye therefore followers, imitators, mimickers as it were, of God as dear children.” This is all to a purpose. We have a—as I mentioned by bringing up my sister and my own example with George Scipion—imitation is a God-given propensity that God has provided for us for a reason. It can be used positively as Paul is commanding these various churches and as he remarks upon the life of the Thessalonians. It is used positively when you imitate or mimic positive, good people who are, who are in essence passing on the attributes of God. And so the scriptures in other places talk about other forms of mimicking which can be good or bad.

For instance, in 3 John 1:11, he writes, “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.” And so we have this God-given propensity to imitate or to follow. And we are admonished in the scriptures to make use of that, not to deny it, but rather to make use of that by imitating godly people who are themselves imitating God. And on the contrary, don’t let yourself fall into a pattern of mimicking those around you who are ungodly. Okay?

So the first thing he tells them about: he says, “You’ve become imitators of myself and of the Lord.” This imitation is not skin deep, however. It’s not just the outward actions. It may involve some of that, but ultimately it is not simply artificial or outward only.

Dobson in his commentary on this said it was an imitation in the deep and basic sense of the word. It was a bringing to expression in their own lives of what they had seen and detected outside of themselves. It was the capturing of something they had witnessed around them and making it a part of themselves. This is what they were being rewarded or commended by Paul for.

Hendrickson says that even before any conversion had taken place, the earnestness, devotion, enthusiasm, and willingness to suffer for Christ and other qualities of the missionaries could be seen and watched and appreciated by men. And that was part of the process whereby Paul preached the gospel, as it were. It’s part of the transmission belt by which the gospel was preached to a people—the mannerisms and the very godly character of those people themselves.

Now the scriptures tell us a couple of things specifically that we are supposed to imitate other believers and God in. One is holiness. So in 1 Peter 1:16, we have the reference back to Leviticus that says it’s written: “Be ye holy. God says for I am holy.” And so that’s a vital part of our invitation to the God of God—to be holy. Holiness is consecration to a standard. It’s being set apart to something. And it doesn’t mean being set apart to whatever our own idea is or the culture’s idea is of a good person.

Being holy, in terms of Leviticus—of course, that’s the theme of that book: “Be ye holy for I am holy”—relates to the law of God, which is repeated in the book of Leviticus. Remember we talked about the holiness code that starts in Leviticus about halfway through the book. After talking about the tabernacle and the priests, it talks about specific laws and the definition of holiness, and it is the same for us as First Peter 1 tells us. We have continuity with that standard in Leviticus. So holiness is one of the ways in which we’re supposed to imitate God.

Love is another aspect. In Luke 6:36, “Be ye therefore merciful as your father also is merciful.” Love is the extension of mercy and grace and compassion to other people. Matthew 5:48 says, “Be ye perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.” In that context, he’s talking specifically of loving people and how we’re supposed to imitate God in love and in mercy.

John 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” So he tells us there that we’re to love one another and that the content of that is the way that Christ loves us. And so that love, of course, is defined by God’s law. So mercy and love.

And then one other aspect that comes through repeatedly in the scriptures is suffering. And that has application to what we’re going to talk about in a couple of minutes here. In 1 Peter 2:21, it says, “Even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, a pattern that ye should follow his steps.” And so we’re to follow our Savior’s steps in affliction or in tribulation, in suffering for the cause of the gospel.

And so that’s another way in which we imitate, mimic, as it were, Christ and his followers—by being willing to suffer affliction for the sake of the gospel. Now all these three things—holiness, love or mercy, covenantal faithfulness, and suffering—are all mentioned in 1 Thessalonians itself.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:13, Paul says that the end result of what he wants is that their hearts may be established unblameable in holiness before God. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, “You should abstain from fornication.” In verse 7 of that chapter, “You should—you’re not called into uncleanness but holiness.” And then 1 Thessalonians 3:12, “The Lord make you increase and abound to in love one toward another and toward all men even as we do toward you.” So as we have loved you, Paul says, so you are to abound in love toward each other.

So this mimicking has to do with these essential attributes: holiness—devotion or consecration to God’s law; love—extension of mercy and loving compassion to other people; and then suffering, if need be, for the gospel.

And you’ll notice if you think through it a little bit that again that relates back to what I’ve talked about many times since we went through the book of Micah—those three-fold requirements of man: to do justice, to conform to God’s law; to love mercy because God loves mercy; and to walk humbly with God. That includes suffering if need be for the sake of the gospel.

Well, indeed, they do suffer affliction. The Thessalonians did. Now, the terms used in terms of what we’ve been talking about here—and the imitation going on, and the word “became”—both indicates a total life change. It has to do with more than just affliction. But the specific reference point that he uses in verse 6 is indeed receiving the word in affliction and joy.

Now, I mentioned that word “receiving” as a pretty strong term. It is used actually in other places of scripture—Luke 10 and Hebrews 11—to talk of receiving. Yes, it means to actively open yourself up to the word of God. It’s what we’re supposed to do every Lord’s day when we come together and hear the word preached. We’re supposed to receive the word, not just hear it and intellectually think it through—to receive it into our lives so that it might change our lives.

And that’s what we’re supposed to do whenever we read our scriptures. And we should pray that God would, through his Holy Spirit, cause that to happen in our lives as we read his word.

But they received it in affliction and joy. Remember, we talked about Acts 17. We read it last week. Let me remind ourselves of the context of the Thessalonian conversion. Paul had been directed by God in a special way to go to Macedonia. He went there and he preached the gospel, and he preached in Thessalonica, and within just several weeks the Jews in the synagogue there got up, got mad at him, drove him out of town essentially, hauled Jason and some of the other brothers into court, and they suffered great persecution. And Paul actually had to leave. They had to get him out of the city before something—before they killed him. And so great affliction accompanied the word of God.

But the Thessalonians here became imitators of Paul in receiving that word in spite of the affliction and even more than that—joyously, in spite of the affliction. Now the term “affliction,” the root of that term means pressure. You know the scriptures tell us that narrow is the way that leadeth to life. That word “narrow” is the root word for the word “affliction.” And so basically in the New Testament, affliction has the idea of great pressure coming upon you—by being closed in by a throng of people or a narrow way or a narrow gate, whatever it is. And so affliction can pertain to lots of things in our lives that bring lots of pressure to bear upon us.

Now the specific application here, of course, they’re being afflicted, persecuted for the sake of the gospel. And I guess that maybe we’re a little bit more able to understand the sort of affliction they suffered in Thessalonica for conversion when we think of Saudi Arabia with the troops over there now and how strict a religious setting they’re in. You know, we can’t—the servicemen cannot openly worship God. Now they can’t have worship services, but the contract that our government entered into with Saudi Arabia, for right or wrong, was that they could not worship openly because they’re a very strict and devout Muslim nation. And so for a Saudi Arabian to convert to Jesus Christ, or to take another nation in the vicinity—for an Israeli to convert to Christianity—is a very bad deal. They come under all kinds of persecution and can actually be killed for the faith in those countries, and in other countries of the world as well.

Well, that’s the kind of situation they faced in Thessalonica. Great affliction, but they received the word anyway, and they received it, combining that affliction with great joy. Now, it isn’t ultimately our direction today to talk about the relationship of affliction and joy, but it’d probably be good just to point out a couple of things and not go over this too quickly.

Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 7, verses 4 and following, and we’ll look at a passage that talks about the relationship of affliction and joy.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:4: “Great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my glory in you. I’m filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation. For when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless, God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me, so that I rejoice the more.”

Now, I read that passage of scripture for a couple of reasons. One: to say it was not the automatic response of the Apostle Paul, even to combine affliction with immediate and full-fledged joy. He talks about there were fightings without and fears within. The pressure, the affliction, the pushing on him was really getting to him. Okay? He didn’t have abounding joy in that circumstance until some things happened here. He had some joy. But what happened? Well, first, he had somebody come to him. The coming of Titus, he said, was part of the mechanism whereby he was comforted by God. And when we have afflictions and pressures, one of the means that God uses to bring us into more of a joyous situation are other believers coming into our lives.

Simply their presence with us—who have a common world view, a common faith, and a common God—and to remind us of that faith, the very presence of other Christians brings comfort and increases joy in times of affliction. But beyond that, he says in verse 7: “And not by his coming only, but also by the consolation wherewith he was comforted, he was comforted in you. When he told us, ‘Your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me,’ then I rejoice the more.”

Now, Paul isn’t an egotist here. He doesn’t—he’s not really happy because they’re thinking about him. He’s happy because the Corinthians were also remaining steadfast in the faith. And so Titus reminded him first of the love of God and the comfort of God given to him personally by sending another believer to talk to him. But also, he got Paul’s perspective wider than his particular situation. He widened out the perspective, as it were, and gave him a broader picture, and that increased his joy.

And the broader picture is that affliction frequently accompanies the progress of the gospel as it goes out. And so Paul rejoiced in that. Then his joy was made more full.

Now in John 16:21, the word “tribulation” and “joy” are used together. And in that context, we read about the woman who travails because she is in birth pains, and tribulation comes upon her, as it were. She’s beset by trials and tribulations. But it says that when she is delivered—as of the child—she remembereth no more the anguish—that’s the word “tribulation”—for joy that a man is born into the world.

Okay, for joy that a man is born into the world. One of the ways to have joy in tribulation is to recognize the end result of what you are going through. And that’s what Titus did for Paul. He said: the end result of all this—our churches are being established and persistent in the faith. And that brings joy. And the end result of a woman in childbirth is the joy that a child is born. And if she keeps that in mind, then she can have joy even in her tribulation.

So Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:7 wrote that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The end result of affliction is not only the progress of the gospel. It’s also our own—we are all being perfected into the image of Christ, going from glory to glory, and our own personal maturation in the faith and understanding of God is also being accomplished by that tribulation.

And Paul says that’s another reason for joy in the face of affliction.

Romans 12 says: “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.” Prayer is a key to having joy in affliction. Patience and hope are both related there—patience in tribulation, rejoicing in hope. Remember we talked about in terms of the faith, love, and hope that produced work, labor, and endurance. Hope is what produces the endurance that Paul spoke of back in verse 3. Hope is a reliance upon the covenant promises of God to accomplish all that his word has said will be accomplished in the life of the elect. And hope gives us patience and endurance in affliction. And more than that, it leads us to joy for what God is accomplishing in our life and in the growth of the Christian community as well.

Now, so joy and affliction are commonly linked in scripture, and they’re linked in the life of the Thessalonians, and they’ve been linked in the life of believers ever since then as well.

Rutherford wrote that he said, “I never knew, by my nine years of preaching, so much of Christ’s love as he hath taught me in Aberdeen by 6 months of imprisonment.” Nine years of preaching, 6 months of imprisonment. He came to realize Christ’s love more in that 6 months of imprisonment than he did in the nine years of preaching. Rutherford—tremendous man.

Another group of Christian boys in 1885 experienced joy and tribulation as well. They were in a particular country where persecution was ongoing, and they were actually a group of Christian schoolboys who were bound alive and burned on a scaffold—burned slowly to death. As Eddie Marsh in his commentary on the book of Thessalonians recounts the story, the spirit of the martyrs at once entered into these boys, and together they raised their voices and praised Jesus in the fire, singing till their shriveled tongues refused to form a sound.

And here’s what they sang: “Daily, daily, sing to Jesus. Sing my soul, his praise is due. All he does deserves our praises and our deep devotion, too. For in deep humiliation, he for us did live below, died on Calvary’s cross of torture, rose to save our souls from woe.”

A contemplation on the anguish and the tribulations of Jesus and the resultant joy that became as a result of his resurrection stood these boys in good stead to understand and experience joy in the midst of tremendous affliction—actually being burned to death. This relationship of Christ’s affliction on the cross and then the joy of his resurrection is made throughout the scriptures. It is the basic model that forms the pattern which we’re to imitate when we come into times of affliction in our own life.

The scriptures tell us, of course, that if we have been united with Christ in suffering, then we’ll surely be united with him in glory as well. And that’s what those boys understood, and we need to understand that when we’re in times of affliction that it’s proof, as it were, of the election of God and of the great joy we have to meditate on the person of Jesus Christ.

Now Jesus said that when he left the apostles, when he left the disciples, he said he was going to send a Comforter. And the specific purpose of that Comforter was to bring the teachings of Christ and what he taught them to mind in their lives, and he would be present in the life of the disciples through the Comforter that he would send.

And so the Holy Spirit is connected to joy. Of course, it is one of the fruits of the Spirit, because the Spirit ministers to us and reminds us of the presence of our Savior through the Spirit. The Spirit comes to remind us of the presence of Jesus Christ. And it is the presence of the Savior, who comes to earth to save mankind and to usher in his kingdom, that is the source of all joy. And so the Holy Spirit brings that joy to the believer.

And so here in the Thessalonian church, they receive the word with affliction and joy in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the one who brings that joy because, as I said, he brings to us Jesus, as it were—the source of all joy.

I think another thing that’s quite important—and again it’s a simple point we made it last week, but I think it’s so important—when considering the names that God gives himself in scriptures: here the third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. He is a spirit who is holiness unto the Lord. He is holy, set apart or consecrated. And the Holy Spirit comes to minister to us, to remind us of our holiness to God and that our affliction, if need be, and the persecution, the pressure we feel, either from persecution for the faith or from other situations that may come into life and cause us great distress and fear in our hearts—that these things come as part of God’s making us holy as well.

The Holy Spirit, who is consecrated himself, and his very name indicates the consecration, reminds us of our consecration for the work of our Savior and reminds us that our affliction is part of that work. And so ministers to joy to us in that way as well by giving us that perspective that Titus brought to Paul in Corinth—by widening it out, as it were, reminding us of God’s purposes.

So all of this is sort of summed up in Revelation, the first chapter, verse 9, where John says, introducing himself in this epistle: “I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos.” And he reminds us there—he writes to a church that is in affliction. He was a companion in tribulation, but he reminds them of the kingdom and the patience of Jesus Christ—the kingdom, the reign of our Savior, the present reign that brings joy, and then calling us to patience and hope in the promises of that kingdom as they come to pass in terms of the world and our own personal maturation.

And the rest of the book of Revelation is written that people might have joy in affliction. And the Thessalonians did. They had joy in affliction. They had become imitators.

But secondly, they were models as well. They were models.

Verse 7: “So that ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.”

Now the word “examples” here comes from the word that is the base of our word “type.” Yet really, it is the root word means to hit something or to thump it. And this particular word “example” is the impression left after something is struck. And so like you have a die, for instance. It hits something and leaves the impression of the die upon the coin or whatever it is. And that’s what it’s talking about. So the example is a model or a pattern that then other people can look to so that they can imitate you.

Paul said he was an example that they might follow him. He was that impression of the die that they could look to and then pattern their lives after in all that he was. That’s the impression that’s talked about here.

In John 20:25, the word is used to refer to the nail holes in Jesus’s hand. Okay, the nail holes that developed—and it comes to Romans 6:17, where we see a pattern of doctrine that’s talked about. Paul says to conform yourself to this pattern or impression of teaching. It is the pattern that—the same term that’s used—where God showed to Moses a pattern to build the tabernacle. So it has this idea of being a model or a pattern, and that’s what the Thessalonian church had become. They had become a pattern or a model church to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

The term “example” really is in the singular. Okay. And so the apparent implication—the first implication of this—is: while he was talking about the plural in the last verse, the church as a whole, now as an entity, had become a model. And so the way translation of the Bible calls—refers to this phrase as a model church, instead of an example. It says, “So that ye were the model church to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.” The church—the community of faith collectively at Thessalonica becomes a model, then, to other believers and, of course, to non-believers as well.

But notice that the emphasis is placed upon other believers.

However, a singular noun can be used distributively. In other words, you can have a single noun and yet have impact for each member of the collective as well. And so there’s no reason to see in this—are we talking about the church corporately or each Thessalonian individually. Both things can be true and are true. It seems to me, from reading this text and then other texts as well that talk and use these same two terms of imitating and then becoming a model, the church itself is a model—model as is clear from the singular use—but also each Thessalonian as well had become, as it were, a model for other believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

In 2 Corinthians 3:3, Paul says that the Corinthian church had become his epistle. The collective—now they become an epistle of Paul.

Well, the model is said specifically to be to those in Macedonia and Achaia. Now the Romans had divided ancient Greece into two provinces. These provinces were Macedonia in the north and Achaia in the south. In Macedonia we had Thessalonica, Philippi and Berea, and then in Achaia in the south was Athens and Corinth. And they comprise, the two of them together, ancient Greece. And here definite articles are placed with each province. So Paul says that both the northern province and the southern province of ancient Greece—which is now part of Rome—you became an example to believers in those areas.

Now I bring that up because a Dutch commentator named Albert Oecke has commented on how Paul thinks in terms of provinces. I’ll return to this in a couple of minutes as well, but he does that here—refers to two provinces or large geographic areas and commenting upon their becoming a model church and model believers.

But third, the Thessalonian church, in addition to imitating the pattern of Paul and then becoming a model themselves, third, they became a sounding board.

Verse 8: “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia but also in every place your faith to God word is spread abroad so that we need not speak anything.”

So the word had sounded out from them. That term there—”sounded out”—this is the only place in the scriptures where it’s used. However, the root—the root term is used twice in scripture: once in Luke 21:25, where it talks about the roaring of waves, and once in 1 Corinthians 13:1, where Paul says, “If I don’t have love, I become a sounding brass”—sounding, echoing, as it were. And actually, this word—the specific Greek word—is the root of our word “echo,” okay. And so the word echoed out, as it were, through the Thessalonians. They became a sounding board.

In the Greek language at the time, this term was used of a parabolic arch or an actual sounding board, which does not of itself create sounds but simply amplifies them and sends them on. I think that might be what a transponder is. I don’t know for sure, but there’s radio equipment does that same thing. It takes a signal in and boosts the signal up and sends it on. Well, that’s what’s being referred to here in terms of the Thessalonians. Through this process of imitating God, the men of God, and becoming models themselves, then they had become an amplifier of the signal—as it were—that signal coming, of course, and identified as the word of God.

Ward, in his commentary on this particular portion of scripture, says: “That as a violent clap of thunder may be followed by severe reverberations rumbling around the enclosing hills to remind us that the storm is still with us, and as the blare of the trumpet with its call to arms leaves the unresponsive slugger disquieted in conscience and still hearing the tuneful note—a sensational tale starts its course and is blown through the streets like autumn leaves before the wind. So starting from you has the word of the Lord sounded forth.”

The word of the Lord sounded forth. And the idea is that Paul, while writing from Corinth in the other section—the other province of Greece of old ancient Greece—had heard of the report of the Thessalonians there. And beginning his missionary endeavors with various individuals, he didn’t need to speak of them as an example. They had already heard of the Thessalonian church. They had become a model, through not all of ancient Greece. So they were telling Paul about it. And he says, “We don’t need to speak anything. We’re hearing it from other people.”

Now in other portions of scripture, we’re told that Aquila and Priscilla came to Paul from Rome to Corinth shortly before, apparently, he wrote this letter. They came from Rome, and they probably brought news of the Thessalonians to Paul as well. And because what we see here is that now he does—no longer—he no longer restricts the area to these two specific provinces. Macedonia and Achaia are not—they’re, in grammar, they’re bound together into Greece here. And then he says, “Also in every place—over the whole world.” In other words, your faith is being reported of. And that’s probably because he was hearing reports from Rome as well. And so throughout the known world, then, literally, the faith of the Thessalonians and their growth and their becoming an example to other believers was being known and was now the buzz of the town, as it were, as is indicated in this particular verse.

Now Thessalonica was well situated for this to occur. It was a populous trading center. It was located on something called the Ignatian Highway and was thus in the position of linking the east and the west. They were also a seaport located at the head of the Thermic Gulf, connecting it with harbors all over the known world. And so news could spread very quickly indeed to literally all the known places of the world at that particular point in time. And they simply had to avail themselves of the opportunities which this tremendous location provided to them.

Now, remember back in Acts 17—we mentioned last week—that remember what the charge against the Thessalonians was. It was treason against Caesar. And so that kind of a charge probably was reported quite widely and quite far. And so it was their exaltation of Jesus Christ as Lord of Lords. Remember we said that word “Lord”—it’s important in these epistles because it means sovereign. It means the ultimate supreme commander. And that is what characterized the message of the Thessalonian church according to Acts 17. And that is probably much of what led to its renown or its fame throughout the known world at that particular time—was its exultation of the crown rights of King Jesus even over Caesar. That was a big deal. That was newsworthy to pass on.

And their lifestyle, of course, amplified that as well in acknowledging Jesus Christ in all that they did.

Okay. So Paul saw in this sounding board going out into all the known world the beginning of winning the whole world for Jesus Christ. That is essentially what seems to be the picture here.

Now there’s no indication from the text that the Thessalonians had actually sent ambassadors or emissaries or missionaries to other parts of Greece. That is nowhere indicated in the text. Some people get that from the fact that it was heard all over the place, but there’s no reason to read that in. It seems like—I think the best understanding of this text is that the sounding board was the life experiences themselves of the Thessalonians—the way they lived and, of course, their lips and what they said as well. But their lives themselves had become an example to other believers in all that they were.

And so because of that, then, the word of the Lord spread forth through reports of what had happened in Thessalonica.

Neil, in his commentary, said that travelers and merchants probably became the church’s best advertising agents, more so if some of them were Christians. Word of mouth, as it were, is what happens here. The spread of the gospel from Thessalonica was the result of vital Christian living rather than an aggressive missionary campaign or propaganda.

Now he says that what sounded forth in this matter to all the known world was the word of the Lord. Very important. We could spend a lot of time on this, but it’s one of the very few occurrences in the Pauline epistles where the “word of the Lord” is indicated. But essentially it has continuity with the “word of the Lord”—that phrase in the Old Testament. And what it refers to is an authoritative word from the Lord, from the supreme commander.

And so it’s important to recognize here that it was faithful men who were speaking forth and living in accordance with the command word of the King of Kings that was resulting in them being a model and a sounding board for the faith in all of the known world. The command word of the King of Kings—it is an authoritative, abiding, aggressive word that they were proclaiming and living their lives in accordance with.

He goes on in that verse to talk about their faith toward God being the basis for all this. “From you sounded out the word of the Lord, the prophetic, powerful, authoritative word for every area of life and thought, not only in Macedonia, Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith to God word is spread abroad so that we need not speak anything.” Your faith toward God—we’ll speak more about that next week because the next verse talks about the turning to God. And this sort of ties in with that grammatically. Their faith toward God—they turn to God and away from idols. They turn to the living God. We’ll talk about that next week, how that works itself out.

But in any event, that faith which characterized their life and their teaching sounded out to them—to all the known world.

Okay. So what we have in this text then is three specific words that indicate what had happened to this group of new believers who believed that Jesus Christ was Lord of Lords. They mimicked themselves. They patterned themselves after the apostles and the missionaries. They became a model to every church. And they became a sounding board for the faith to all the known world. Based upon their adherence to that faith and specifically receiving the word in affliction with joy.

Now, what does this have to do with us? Well, first I want us to note the eschatological implications of this text.

As mentioned before…