The Method Pt. 2 The Gospel That Saves 1 Thessalonians 1:1–5

1 Thessalonians 1:1–5 NIV   Paul, Silas and Timothy,  To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:  Grace and peace to you. 2 We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 

  In my previous post I discussed the Method God uses by focusing in on the God That Seeks.  God's method begins with Himself and His divine love for humanity.  However the second part of Gods Divine plan is The gospel that saves. Paul does a great thing here in verse 5. He says, "Because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction," He breaks it down into the different parts of the gospel. However before we examine the different ways the Gospel came to these people let's look at what Paul means when he says  "Our gospel."

  He wasn't saying our gospel because this was the gospel of the apostle Paul, he wasn't saying our gospel because he believed he was the one who made the gospel up. He wasn't saying our gospel, taking possession of it because he was the one who was saving people through his own gospel, no, he was saying our gospel because he believed in what he preached. Do you? Do you believe in what you preach to others? Do you believe in what you read in the Bible? Do you believe? Is it your gospel? Have you taken possession of it? Do you believe it is the core of who you are? Down deep, do you know it to be true?

  The apostle Paul certainly did because he takes ownership of it, and he says, "Because our gospel came to you." This wasn't his daddy's gospel. It wasn't his momma's gospel. It wasn't his grandpa or his grandma's gospel. This wasn't his preacher's gospel or his priests' gospel, or his pastor's gospel. He said, "This is our gospel. We believe it. We know it to be true. We've experienced it. Our gospel came to you." They took ownership of it. They believed in it. We must as well if we're going to be effective. The method depends on it.

  Then he tells us how the gospel came. He says, "Not simply with words." Not simply with words…he uses a negative here in the Greek. What he is saying is that it came with words, but not just with words. He doesn't want anybody to be confused. He doesn't want anybody to say, "Well, you know the reason all these people were saved in Thessalonica is because the apostle Paul showed up. That guy, he is a crafty teacher. He is a great preacher. He somehow convinced them to give their lives to Christ. It was his great sermons and his great teachings, and his great writings that brought the people to Christ."

  So, he says, "The gospel came not simply with words." He wants to make sure everybody knows and everybody understands the gospel came with words because we must verbalize the gospel, but it did not come simply with words. We know words are important when it comes to the gospel. I'm not going to read the entire passage to you. Words are important when it comes to the Gospel and Paul certianly beleived that.  Just look at what he says in 10:14 "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?" Paul penned these words, "And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" Paul believed in the power of words when it came to the gospel, but he says, "The gospel does not come simply with words, or only with words." We must be careful as we're out there preaching the gospel and telling people about the good news of Jesus in two areas…two things we must be careful of.

  First, we must be careful that we do not rely on words alone. We must be careful we do not think because we can explain it well, or because we can talk really well, or because we have a great illustration, or because we have an evangelism cube, or because we have the next greatest track in the world, that we can just go up and by our own power and our own will and convince people to give their lives to Christ. That's the first thing we must watch out for.

  The second thing is that we don't keep our mouths shut and we don't just walk around and say, "You know what? It's not my job to tell people about the gospel because it doesn't come just with words." No it doesn't come just with words, but words are a part of it. It's the only part we get to play in the gospel…using our words to verbalize it. These next three areas we have nothing to do with them.

  He then says, "It came not simply with words, but it came with power." It is not within the scope of this post to analyze this one word in the Greek, but you should know that it comes from the Greek word we get the word dynamite from. This power Paul speaks of is a huge power. This isn't like a power drink. It's not like a powerade. It's not like a boost you get in the morning from a power breakfast, or it's not like how you feel after taking a power nap, man. This is some powerful stuff. It's an overwhelming power.  It's a mysterious power. It's a power that can't be comprehended. The only thing I can even think we might even be able to relate this to is the power of nuclear weapons.

  Sometimes I fear that Christians forget that it was the power of the gospel that transformed their lives, that caused them to go from the old to the new. We forget the power of the gospel, the power to save us of our sins and cast them as far as the east is from the west, we forget the power to take that load off of our shoulders and get rid of it all. We forget the power of the gospel when it came into our lives and filled that hole that we had lived with for so long. We forget we lay in bed that night, or we went through that day wondering, Where did this awesome power come from, and how did it find its way to me?

  Well Paul says, "The gospel came not simply with words, no, it came with power…a great power." Not just with power, it also came with the Holy Spirit, he says. The Holy Spirit plays a major role in the work of the gospel. We forget this all the time, too. We treat the Holy Spirit kind of like a redheaded stepchild, as they say.  Paul says, "The Holy Spirit plays a great role in the gospel." He doesn't just say it here, he says it in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 6 verse 11.  "And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

  The book of Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 13 and 14 says, "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of His glory."

  Paul says, "The Holy Spirit was at work in your life when the gospel came to you. It's part of the method."
  Then he lists the last one…deep conviction. The conviction in question here is not that of Paul, Timothy, and Silas. We know they were convicted. They didn't stop when they were shipwrecked. They didn't stop when they were beaten. They didn't stop when they were in prison. No, when all that happened, they just prayed, "God, where do we go next?" We know they were convicted. We know they believed in the gospel. Paul says the conviction came to the Thessalonians. They were convicted of their sins. They were convicted of their shortcomings. They were convicted of their evil ways. They were convicted of their ungodly lives because when the gospel comes, it comes in power.

  When the Holy Spirit begins to move, you begin to get convicted. It came with deep conviction. This wasn't a decision the Thessalonians made on a whim. It wasn't just because Paul showed up and preached good sermons. Remember, it wasn't simply with words. No, it came from their deep conviction. As they pondered their lives, and what was going on, as they searched the Scriptures, they came to the conclusion through their conviction that Christ was the only way. The method beings with the God who seeks and it moves to the gospel that saves. We must never forget that it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that saves and God is still using that message as part of His Method today.