1 Thessalonians: A Church Set on Fire | Guest Speaker: Sam Rapp

Again, good morning and happy 4th of July.

We're glad you're here.

If you do have your Bibles, we're actually not going to be camped out in 1 Thessalonians.

We're going to be camped out in Acts.

So my sermon on 1 Thessalonians is mostly going to be in the book of Acts.

So y'all just bear with me.

We're going to bounce around a little bit, but y'all are going to do great.

We're going to be good.

We're going to be spending, again, the next few weeks going through this book, 1 Thessalonians.

And in this book, there are several themes that I think Paul hits on a lot.

But there's one theme that I think is just the engine behind why Paul wrote this book, what the Thessalonian Church finds their hope in, and ultimately what I think we can find our hope in is that, one, the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And then number two, that Jesus is coming back one day.

That's what our hope is built upon.

That's what this church's hope is built upon, is that the ultimate reality behind everything that we see, behind the brokenness of our world and our nation, is that Jesus is on the throne and that Jesus is coming back.

Y'all follow me with that?

And so that's where our hope is.

Now last week, Brian gave us a very encouraging message that this book opens with, right?

That Paul loves this church.

He just lavishes his love upon them in the first chapter, right?

And his letter is full of grace to this church and encouragement to this church because he loves them.

And he's seen what the gospel has done in the lives of these Christians.

He's seen how they've endured persecution.

He's heard from Timothy, as we'll see later in the book, that they're killing it.

This church is killing it in the midst of persecution.

And as Brian reminded us last week, we are called to obedience only because of the grace given to us in Jesus.

We can only live in obedience because of the grace given to us in Jesus.

Now, again, today we're going to be in 1 Thessalonians 2, but we're going to be mostly camped out in Acts 17.

So again, if you have your Bibles, you can go and flip over to those, but maybe keep 1 Thessalonians marked too.

So, I have one goal for us this morning.

One goal.

And this is it.

To instill confidence and courage in you, and knowing that God is at work in his church.

That's the goal.

That's the one direction we're going this morning is for you to be confident in knowing that the God of the Bible, the God of our fathers, the God of Jesus Christ is over our church and is moving in his church, both here in Marietta and on a global scale.

Y'all know who Kirby Smart is?

Coach of Georgia, the superior coach?

But this is Kirby Smart.

I don't know if you've ever watched one of his pep talks before, alright?

Even if you're not a Georgia guy.

If you've ever watched one of his pregame pep talks before, you might hate Georgia, but you're still ready to fight on that field.

I mean, it's it's something else.

So he's one of the best tight men I think I've ever seen.

And my goal this morning is not to quite be a Kirby Smart, but I want to kind of be a more pastoral version of Kirby Smart, uh, a little bit more PG-rated.

Uh but we're gonna be we're gonna be just be diving in this morning, and I want you guys to finish this morning when we leave, just fired up, not only just about the gospel, but about where we are going as a church and what the mission of God is calling us to here in Marietta.

So, let's go.

In 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul opens up by reminding the Thessalonians of the way that the apostles came to them, right?

Saying, we came to you genuinely, it wasn't with words of flattery, but we came to you with the word of God and persecution, and that's that, right?

So I want to jump over to Acts 17 so we can get a glimpse as to what he's talking about.

So, Acts 17, 1 through 9, this is basically how the church at Thessalonica was planted, was with these verses, and then it finishes out.

But let's jump in.

So, now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollon Apollonia.

Listen, listen, if you're not a pastor and you can't pronounce these things, y'all see it.

It's it's hard, all right?

Here we go.

Uh there was a synagogue of the Jews, and Paul went in as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.

And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women.

But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.

And Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.

And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

Now, let me set the stage for us.

Right before this, Paul and Silas were doing missionary journeys all throughout the ancient Roman world.

And right before this, they were doing ministry in Philippi, planting the Philippian church.

So here's what happened.

They begin by walking out of the city and going to this place where a bunch of women were praying.

And they start sharing the gospel with them, teaching them from the scriptures.

And this woman named Lydia, who is this Asian rich businesswoman, comes to know Jesus, gets converted, and becomes a powerhouse for the Philippian church.

Alright?

Next step.

Paul and Silas were being followed essentially by this slave girl who was like, she had the spirit of divination, is what the scriptures say.

And what she was doing is like screaming at Paul and Silas repeatedly to the point where it says, literally the scripture says, Paul was greatly annoyed.

I love the Bible and how honest it is, but he was greatly annoyed, right?

So Paul, being greatly annoyed, cast the demon out of her, right?

As you do, right?

Listen, I don't know, I don't know how annoyed you've ever been, all right?

Let's talk for a second.

I don't know how annoyed you've ever been.

I'm a student pastor.

I hang out with like 12-year-old boys all week long.

I ain't been there yet.

Listen, I have not thought about exorcism yet.

But, you know, that that's Paul, right?

That's where he was.

So also, I don't think Paul, for this slave girl, I don't think Paul was a dude you want to annoy, right?

Y'all remember in Acts, or Acts chapter 8, verse 3, he says this.

Acts 8:3

This is this is the same Paul here in uh Acts 16.

But Paul was ravaging the church and entering house after house.

He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

I don't know about y'all.

That's not a dude I'm gonna get on his last nerve, right?

And in Acts 9, right before his conversion, it says Paul was breathing threats of murder.

So, uh, if there's guys you want to annoy, he's not on the list.

That's all I'm trying to say.

So, Paul casts the demon out, right?

And then essentially, they're beaten up with rods, sent to jail, and put in chains.

Okay.

Now, while they're in jail, bloody, nearly dead, they start singing hymns, right?

As one does when you're in jail, bloodied and beaten, right?

That's just what you think to do is immediately, let's sing some hymns.

So, this is why Paul was so frustrating to deal with in the Roman world, right?

Okay, Paul, we're gonna beat you up.

Okay, great.

I don't count my present sufferings as worth comparing to the future glory, right?

We're gonna put you in chains and throw you in jail.

Okay, great.

I'm gonna start singing hymns, convert your prison garden, cause an earthquake, okay?

All right, we're gonna kill you.

Great, to live as Christ, to die as gain.

Okay, you see why this guy was so frustrating, right?

You could not win with Saul of Tarsus.

So, right before the Thessalonian church, Paul had himself a week, right?

He had himself a week.

So naturally, when he gets the Thessalonica, he dives just right back in, as Paul does.

And for three weeks in a row, as we saw in Acts 17, he just dives in.

He teaches to the people at the synagogue that Christ is the one that they're waiting for, right?

That Christ is to suffer, that he will, that he died at the hands of the Jews and was raised on the third day to be this Messiah that y'all are waiting for.

So what's the point?

For Paul, why was he like this?

Is essentially what we're getting to.

Paul, after his conversion, after he had faced Jesus Christ, the risen Christ, was spiritually alive.

He wasn't just the same Saul anymore.

And it didn't mean that he was perfect all of a sudden.

I mean, we see that even through the scriptures, but it did mean that from the inside out he was different.

He was changed.

All of his past, present, and future sin was forgiven.

And then after this, he saw the gospel move through the ancient world, which we see in Acts and then we see in Thessalonians.

And he saw that happen by a bunch of average people.

Average people who were simply just being faithful to what God had called them to.

So, when he got to Thessalonica, he was ready to see it happen again.

He was ready to see some conversions and some moves of the Spirit of the Living God happen, just like he did with Lydia, the slave girl, and the jailer.

And that's how this church was planted.

That's the nature in which they were coming.

This church was planted in the midst of persecution.

It wasn't a sweet little planting of a church.

It was through hardship, through getting beaten up with rods, right?

Okay, let's talk for a second.

If we're honest, our country and our world are moving in a direction where persecution of Christianity is going to be increasingly more often.

Where Christians will increasingly be considered hateful, bigots, homophobic.

But from what I see in the scriptures, church, I believe that we were made for moments like this.

That we were made to be in the midst of persecution.

We were made to be pressed down upon.

So if you and myself, if we're worried about where our country is going, where the American church is going, I just want to tell y'all about the fastest growing church in the world and where it is and why it's growing so fast.

So there's this documentary I watched a couple weeks ago.

It's called Sheep Among Wolves.

This is like kind of what it looks like if you were to go find it on YouTube.

Um there should be a picture at some point.

Here we go.

Um yeah, so if you were to go look it up on YouTube, that's what it looks like.

Um, and it's free on YouTube.

I just commend it to each of you to watch.

Um, it is not PG, as most of the Old Testament is.

It is very much something that you might want to guard your uh six-year-old from watching with you.

But this is something for you, uh men and women in this church, I would commend it to you to watch.

Um, and in this documentary, they say this this quote from the guys that made it.

It says, Muslim background Iranians are leading a quiet but mass exodus out of Islam and bowing their knees to the Jewish Messiah.

The Iranian Awakening is a rapidly reproducing discipleship movement that owns no property, no buildings, has no budget, no 501 status, and is predominantly led by women.

According to the men who made this documentary, this church, this gospel movement is growing at 20% per year.

So, in other words, in five years, it's gonna double.

And there are almost a million Christians in Iran, which I didn't know until I started reading about this.

The gospel is moving through this country at rapid speeds, and this is the country, according to Pew Research, this is the hardest country in the world to be a Christian.

And it is also the fastest growing gospel movement.

So, what does this mean?

What does this mean for us?

What does this mean for where we're going?

Like we see in the Thessalonian Church, the gospel is not hindered or stopped by any human powers.

Right?

We see that all throughout the New Testament.

And even throughout the history of the church, all the church fathers, all throughout centuries and centuries of men and women preaching the gospel, the more a government or people group presses down on the church, the more it seems to flourish.

That's a trend we see over millennia of the history of the church.

So, first thing, with that in mind, I want you to know that this gospel that has power to change governments and countries has the same power for you in your life specifically.

It is the same power.

And, man, let's be honest.

Maybe you've been, man, trying with all your might to hide this one sin issue that you've been fighting for years, but you just can't let anybody know about it.

Maybe you've been wrestling with some doubts about your faith, about this God.

I mean, is he even there?

And maybe you you feel shameful about these doubts.

And think, man, if any of my good Christian friends knew about these things, they wouldn't, they wouldn't approve of me.

Maybe you feel like you're too broken or dirty for God to ever use you.

Like if you if you're honest, if if anyone actually ever knew you, you might be unlovable.

Maybe you're believing that this morning.

But I just want to tell you today, if if the God of the Bible, if Jesus Christ has the power to seek and save a dude like Saul of Tarsus, who was a terrorist, if he has power to save a brother like that, I just am begging for you to believe that he has power to not only save you, but to actually use you in ways that I don't even think you realize you can be used in.

To realize that you have gifts that he's placed in your soul to be used for the mission of the church.

Cleaning the toilets for the name of Jesus is just as important as standing up in this pulpit teaching from the Word of God.

So, what does this mean for us as a church?

I think one, uh, this means that I think we as a body of believers and soon-to-be believers, hopefully, will be full of people who are one, most aware of their brokenness, but two, most secure in the peace and love that Christ has for them.

Second conclusion from our scripture, I think.

I believe that God is up to something here in Marietta.

I believe that he is stirring his spirit not only in the schools, but I think in workplaces and coffee shops, all around here.

I think that he is up to something here.

With that said, I think that we can play this part in four ways.

So we're just gonna we're just gonna work through these.

Number one, and this is the most important out of all four, is resting more securely in who you are as a beloved son or daughter of King Jesus.

Nothing else matters apart from that.

If you do not know who you are, what you're made for, who made you, who knows you, who owns you, if you do not know these things, then the next three things won't happen.

And so I'm just begging for you to rest more deeply in this identity.

This is the ultimate reality.

Number two, I think we can be a people built on prayer.

Um, prayer here corporately as a church, but also I think the calling from this text is to consistently pray for God to work here in our city, for God to stir his spirit among us and among our streets and our neighbors.

Number three, I think being serious about the word of God.

Just like in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 13, Paul says, Hey, you didn't receive our words as our words, but you took them as the word of God, right?

1 Thessalonians 2:13

You took them as what they really are.

Recognizing, man, yeah, that the word of God is alive and active.

It's not condemning, uh, but it's moving like a sword through our world.

Uh and then lastly, number four, living on mission.

Um, that is that's the last uh point for us from this.

That man, here in Marietta in our neighborhoods at session stand on the square and our jobs, man, like we have this ultimate mission that we can all play a part in.

And what a joyful thing is that.

And man, like if we if we were to go around our days thinking, man, like, okay, how can I reflect the love of Jesus here?

Even if, you know, home girl at Starbucks messes up my frappuccino, right?

Like, how can I love her and show her that that's not the ultimate reality, but that I can show her what this true love that I have found is.

But like, let's be human for a second.

Okay?

Let's let's have permission to be humans at church for a second.

Paul kind of became a superstar, didn't he?

Like, yeah, he started off rough.

We can agree on that, right?

But he kind of became a five-star recruit by the end of his days.

Like, yeah, you know, he was a terrorist.

Like, yeah, he was breathing threats of murder on the church.

But he was Paul, right?

Like he was Paul.

And if y'all, if y'all are anything like me, you probably believe on paper that God can use you.

You believe because the word of God says you can, but man, deep in your gut, you got some doubts.

Like, God, you obviously can use me, but you might as well use the the guy that knows his Bible really well.

You might as well use that woman who volunteers for everything in the church and has lived a way more godly life than me, right?

You might as well use her.

Can we talk about Peter really quick?

If you know your Bible, you know Peter was not the superstar of Acts his whole life.

He's the guy in the beginning of Acts, right?

He's like, he's boys with Jesus.

Like he's he's boys with Jesus.

Can we think about that for one second?

Like him and Jesus would like hug.

He plants the original church, he preaches the sermon at Pentecost, where 3,000 people come to know Jesus.

3,000! He sets the church on fire for mission and discipleship through the book of Acts, right?

He ultimately gets crucified upside down.

But let's talk about what Peter was like.

I mean, y'all, days before Acts, weeks before Acts.

Not only did Jesus or did Peter deny Jesus three times, but the third time, when that little poor girl was kind of like pushing at him, he kind of like curses at her.

Like, I don't know if you've read between the lines in the scriptures there, but he's an unhappy dude at that point.

So if you go look in the Greek, uh, it's not some nice language he's using.

So he he kind of cusses this poor little girl out.

Uh and then, man, he wasn't even good at his job.

Like, he was a bad fisherman.

Right?

Like, I mean, at least at least we, for the most part, got our day jobs down.

At least okay.

Like, he was all night on the boat, not with a fish.

A fish, zero.

Okay?

He was bad at that.

This is the Peter where the church is set on fire through.

The church we know today is built upon the work, obviously, from Jesus, but that Peter did in Acts.

This is that same Peter.

All that being said, you don't have to, in your own eyes, be a Jesus rock star to be used for the mission of the church and of Christ.

You don't have to be.

What you do need to recognize is that you are loved by God.

You have an identity that's deeper than you even realize it is, and you have gifts that he's given you.

You have a personality, you have talents, you have passions.

Those things are there for a reason.

And they're there ultimately for the mission of the church.

So I just want to invite you to come, to step into this with us, to join us.

We as a church, wherever Jesus is to be found, that's where we're going.

Wherever he's leading us to go, that's where we're gonna head.

And so I just want to ask you guys to come, to come with us.

So, here's what's gonna happen.

This is gonna look a little different than normal.

We're gonna close here in a second, and I'm just gonna pray for us.

Um, and this is gonna be kind of like an extended, guided prayer time.

It can be whatever you want it to be.

But I'm just gonna invite you to sit in this moment with us, to get comfortable in your chair, um, and I'm gonna give kind of some bullet points for us to pray through, and I just invite you to pray alongside me.

Um, to pray alongside your brothers and sisters sitting next to you.

Um, there's gonna be some things for us to pray for personally, and then there's gonna be some things that I want us to pray for for our church and for our neighborhoods.

Okay?

Let's pray together.

Uh, Father, thank you, uh, Lord, for your word.

Thank you for, uh gosh, the gospel uh that, man, it frees us, it redeems us, it heals us.

There are scars that each of us are carrying, uh, Father, that we don't need to carry anymore.

Uh Lord, there are wounds that we've dealt with that are still there, that still hurt, and Father, I just know that the gospel doesn't just have the power to do spiritual work, Lord, but it has power to transform our whole being and our whole self.

So, Lord, I just want to open up this time to each of us in this room.

Man, maybe you have grown up in church, maybe you grew up in the south, grew up not really knowing anything about Jesus, but it was all around you.

And man, maybe this morning you encountered Jesus in a new way.

And maybe you are finally finding saving faith in your heart.

And I just want to invite you to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to be poured into your life.

And for you to, man, like Paul, have your eyes fully opened to the things of Jesus, to recognize your beloved identity as a son or daughter.

Maybe uh you have, man, grown kind of apathetic, kind of bored with church, with the things of Jesus.

I just want to invite you right now to pray for the Holy Spirit to renew your joy in the gospel, to kindle a fire in your heart for the Word of God in the Mission of Christ to know that you don't have to try harder, but that man, just simply following in the commands of Jesus, you will find greater life.

Man, maybe you have been walking through a very hard season of suffering.

Maybe someone knows about it.

Maybe no one knows about it.

Maybe that's a divorce, a death, mental health.

Maybe there's financial stress.

And I just want to invite you right now to rest in the embrace of your Father in heaven.

To feel his closeness right now.

To feel his love.

To know that he weeps with you.

Man, maybe there's some sin in your life that has been left alone for a while.

That has kind of taken the backseat.

Whether that, man, is bitterness or jealousy or alcohol or pornography.

And I just want to invite you right now to seek healing and freedom in the gospel of Christ.

I just invite you right now to pray for a brother or a sister that is safe to confess these things to and know that there's no shame in confession, but there's actually greater healing and life to be found there.

Pray that you would know that you are treasured and loved by God in your darkest parts.

Not just the pretty church parts of you, but in your deepest, darkest corners.

That's where Jesus wants to come in and heal.

And lastly, I just want to pray for our heart of mission as a church.

There are a couple points that I want to invite you each to pray in your hearts with me this morning.

Pray for your neighbors, both in your physical neighborhood where you live, people you walk by, people you see at coffee shops.

Pray for those people by name right now, that they would come to a saving faith of Jesus.

Pray for the Lord to open up opportunities for you to be a missionary right here.

Wanna invite you to pray for your coworkers, for the people in your jobs that you know do not know Jesus, don't have the treasure that you've found.

Pray for those people.

And then lastly, pray for us as a church.

Pray for our staff, for our elders.

Pray for each of you to lead in this mission with us.

Pray that the gospel would go through our city like a wildfire.

Not just because of our work, but with all of the churches here in Marietta.

That we would seek to save the lost alongside our Savior.

Father, we we love you.

Pray that our church is a safe place for the broken, for the non-believing, for the atheist, for the Hindu, for the Muslim.

Pray that it would be a safe place for all of those people.

I pray that the gospel would move forth in our hearts and in our city, in our streets, here in Lewis Park, here in Kennesaw Avenue on the Square, Polk Street, all of these places, Lord, that the gospel would go out like a wildfire.

We want to see you move.

We believe that you can move just like you are in the country of Iran.

And so, Lord, we ask that you would come do that.

Pour out your spirit like Pentecost.

Father, we love you.

Thank you for the cross of Christ.

We ask all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.