This is the Truth Network. Forever thy word is settled in heaven, O Lord. Psalm 119, verse 89. I'm Stu Arberson. Welcome to this special Wednesday in the Word leader podcast, where we prepare and equip our leaders of this special Bible study outreach breakfast every week to teach through the scriptures.
13 Dario locations. There's a men's group meeting and several of the Locations host the women on Thursday morning. Stay tuned. Be encouraged as we jump into this week's Wednesday in the Word. Pray without ceasing.
In everything, give thanks. Rejoice evermore. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. These are. Words from the Bible, God's word from the book of First Thessalonians, our new.
books that we're tackling. This week on our Wednesday in the Word podcast, getting our leaders ready, getting everyone ready. And there's a lot of folks, maybe the lead small group studies from. From small group leaders in women's and men's groups to pastors. who are teaching through Thessalonians that need a little help, need some Some guidance, encouragement.
Dr. Sam Horn, we're looking at a new book, five chapters, 89 verses. 1 Thessalonians, sir. It's exciting to go into this book. Boy, there's a lot in here, and there's a lot of just rich encouragement.
This church seemed to have it together. And I know in a day and age where the church takes a lot of heat, it's nice to see one that's doing it right, isn't it, brother? You know, so true. You know, when you think about the life of the church today. There's so many things that pull at it.
There's so many things that come against it. There's so many things that threaten it. And you come to sometimes as a pastor, think, man, how in the world are we going to survive? And you come to a book like 1 Thessalonians, one of the earliest books. In our New Testament.
It's probably one of the first books written by the Apostle Paul. You know, you can argue that the book of James was written before this by James. But certainly, when Paul started to write, this was probably one of the first books that he wrote, written somewhere between 49 AD or 50 AD, some 15 to maybe at the most, 20 years after the resurrection. of Christ. And so here is This apostle On his second missionary journey.
And he comes to this astonishing city, one of the largest cities in the Greek peninsula. This city was. A military outpost. It was a strategic trade center for that part of Asia and Macedonia. It was a province that was directly under the authority of the Roman Senate.
So it had a really strong connection to Rome. In fact, it had been named After Alexander the Great's sister, who married one of his generals, Cassander. And so, when they established the city to honor Alexander the Great, and by the way, his family tomb, not his tomb, but his family tomb, is in this vicinity. You can still go and see the tomb of Philip of Macedon not too far from here. This is an area of the world rich in history, rich in wealth and power.
And into this city comes the gospel. We see that in chapter one. And a church is established. and it immediately faces all the things that we face it faces persecution It faces the threat of sinful passion, right? It faces opposition from the religious entities in the city.
The city had a very, very strong component of Jews who had come here. In fact, we're told there was a synagogue here, and Paul in Acts 17 reasoned in that synagogue. We even know the name of one of the city officials, a man named Jason, that we encounter. In Acts 17.
So it had a really strong Jewish presence. It was a center of paganism. If you looked out of the harbor, And you looked across the bay, there was Mount Olympus. If you know anything about Greek mythology, Mount Olympus was where the head dude lived. I mean, if you wanted to get to the top of the heap of the gods of paganism, there wasn't a higher god than Zeus.
And Mount Olympus is where he lived and where he held court. And where he governed and held sway over the universe. And so there it was, right across the bay from this city.
So there was a huge amount of paganism there. And then, because it was such an important Roman city directly under the control of the Senate. It certainly had a deep loyalty to Rome. And you'll remember during this time, if you go back in your history, the Roman emperor at that time was a guy named Claudius. And right around 49 AD, he issued a decree expelling all the Jews from Rome.
because of a conflict that had arisen up, a sort of a treasonous, seditious. Movement that he perceived was a threat to his rule and his throne. And it was all about somebody named Crestus. And of course, we know that that was a discussion about Christ. And so all of the Jews were expelled during that time in Roman history under the reign of Claudius.
Well, this is right after that happened.
So there is all of this sort of tension going on in the city. There is the Jewish population. There is the pagan population and there is this Roman sense in which. There is a heightened awareness, a heightened worry about a new sect preaching about a new king named Jesus. And you can sort of see this background and make sense of what's happening in Acts 17 when Paul and Silas and Barnabas, or Barnabas wasn't with them, obviously, because this is the second missionary journey, but when Saul and Silas, or Paul and Silas reach there.
And so all of this plays into the massive thing that happened in chapter one, where they opened up their mouth and released the gospel. and the gospel went into all of this all of this turmoil All of this paganism, all of this political intrigue, and set people free. And that's what it does today. Amen. Cloud, who wrote a book called The Way of Life Commentary Series.
He says this: he says, like all Roman cities, Thessalonica. Was devoted to idolatry. Favorites like the filthy Dionysus, god of drunkenness in. ribaldry and Aphrodite, goddess of sensual lust, Archaeology has uncovered places of worship for Greek Of the Greek pantheon, Zeus or Jupiter, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hermes. the emperor and cults such as those of Isis, Serapis, Osaurus, and Mithra.
I mean, there's all these, they have all these gods, but this was a place. Completely given over to idolatry. You know, 50 miles, as you mentioned, from Mount Olympus. all these Greek mythological gods and Of course, the worship of Caesar right in the center of the temple. Dr.
Horne, this was a town that was strategic for trade. For a robust economy. Right there in a strategic port, the second largest city population-wise, I believe, in Greece. We see references to other Greek areas and regions, but this was just fascinating how Paul was there for three Sabbaths, it says in Acts 17, and he faithfully preached. And some say that You know, he gets to he goes to Athens next, and we know what happened there, the whole message, you know, the unknown God, just a very powerful experience, but also a very kind of mixed reception as he's laughed at and harangued.
And then he gets to Corinth. And by the time he gets to Corinth, That's when they say somewhere in there, he wrote this first letter. He wrote the second letter not too long after that. To kind of just kind of check on these guys, like, man, like, what happened? You know, like, what was that incredible dust up?
These people so strongly well received me. But then this whole band came over. to drive us out, these Jews that were angry. that we were coming in and talking about this Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. And so he sends this letter back.
He dispatches Timothy. to go and minister to them. And what he finds, the language, Dr. Horn. Just remarkable.
By the way, You know, you've heard this said before. I'm sure you've said it too, maybe from your own pulpit. Hey, if you find the perfect church. Don't join it. Because you'll wreck it up pretty quickly.
You'll mess it up. And you have this language in this book. I mean, Paul calls them his glory and joy. You know, in chapter two, he calls them, just he says, I labor for you day and night. I mean, this language is, he was like a mother to them, like a father to them.
And then, this is something I don't know how many people you would say this of, Dr. Horner, I would say this of. where I would say, I give thanks to God always for you all. Making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing. Your work of faith, your labor of love, the patience of hope.
You have faith, hope, and love, that trilogy that Paul loves to talk about, like in 1 Corinthians, you know, 13, 13.
So, Dr. Horn, there's a. There's an intense warmth there. But it's not a church without challenges. It's not, you know, there are going to be some challenges related to their eschatology.
Some, you know, are kind of getting lax because the Lord's coming back, so why do we need to work? I mean, so there's things that he has to straighten out too. But there's a whole lot of love here. Maybe in contrast to like the letter to the Galatians, where he just comes right out and says, Hey guys, what are you doing? What are you thinking?
You know, and he jumps right on him to correct him.
So, so maybe you can, as you as we look at these first 10 verses. You can kind of help us see this real. Bond, this real brotherly love and affection Paul has toward these guys. And kind of like these initial. exhortations he has to them you know related to to hanging in there and Uh in this the description of the fruit of this church.
just is the power of God to show that. Hey, this church, this is one little word in here that throws a lot of people, and it's not there to cause us to debate election or predestination. But he mentions one mark of this church as they are elect of God. This has to be a work of God. for Paul to be there for such a short time.
And for This kind of response to the gospel, this kind of fruit that's going, that's sounding forth everywhere, Dr. Horn. This has to be something from. from a divine supernatural transformation and not for man. Yeah, that is so true, Stu.
You know, when I think about 1 Thessalonians and I try to capture in my head. Literally, by the time you get to the end of the book, you find a group of people who have been so transformed by the gospel. that they are living boldly. For the gospel, and the gospel is sounding out from them to the entire world. And so the whole idea of living boldly for the gospel is at the heart of what's happening here.
And when you think about how Paul deals with this topic in these five chapters, living boldly for the gospel. by a people who've been transformed by the gospel rests on three simple foundational truths that Paul introduces at the front end of the book. And those truths are this. Jesus Christ died for you. Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.
And Jesus Christ is coming back for you. And so you have those three truths that sort of summarize not entirely everything that Paul taught, but certainly were core. You know, when he came into a city, here's what you need to know about Jesus: here's who he was, here's what he did. But here's why it matters in your life. And he's coming again.
So Jesus Christ died for you. Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. And that impacts you. And then Jesus Christ is coming again. And that has massive implications for you.
If you stop and think about Second Thessalonians, every one of those ideas becomes. The ground for some significant challenge.
So, for example, Jesus Christ died for you. The minute you start talking that way in a pagan city or even in a city full of Jews, you're going to have severe persecution.
So, one of the big things that on the back end of the story is the severe persecution. Then, secondly, You're going to be faced with strong delusion. About the second coming. And that's exactly what we find going on by the end of First Thessalonians. There are huge questions that are coming up about this coming of Jesus again.
And by 2 Thessalonians, it is really sort of heated up to the point that Paul has to write a whole letter to set aside that strong delusion and false teaching. And then, of course, there's sinful behavior going on that has to be addressed. And that sinful behavior sometimes comes out of a stubborn refusal. To submit to apostolic teaching.
Well, all of those things are true in any church today, right? We face persecution. Because of our strong faith, we have to deal with false teaching. And delusion that comes against our orthodoxy. We have to deal with sinful behavior in our own lives and stubborn refusal to submit to the authority of scripture in our church.
So, all of the things that Paul talks about that are so necessary to a bold and beautiful faith are in this book. And that's why I'm excited that we're studying it. Yes, sir. And so, you know. Everything we've talked about, in a very real sense, we've kind of covered.
The 10 first verses. You know, this first week, we're kind of challenging our leaders to kind of give some background, like we've done. Go back and read Acts 17. It's just the first eight or nine verses, and kind of how Paul got there, his interaction with this. this church in this area, this region.
And kind of how he moved on through onto his next destination in his journeys. But then you have this rich greeting at the beginning: Paul Sylvanius, which is another word for Silas and Timothy. They were the three involved in the church plant and in ministering. You have the grace and the peace from God. And our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, of course.
And then you have this. This uh this rich Just kind of gratitude for them. Dr. Warren, how do we look at these first 10 verses? Just kind of breaking them down.
Just, we don't need to go too granular, but there's just. Boy, there's just a lot in here. I just hope, I hope everyone will take some time with each phrase. And, you know, in a sense, you could almost write a book, you know, The Marks of a Healthy Church, you know, based on just these words here.
Well, let me give you maybe and give us all some hooks to hang our thinking on, because that's very helpful. And there's a lot of commentaries. I have a whole shelf full of commentaries on 1 Thessalonians, but one of my favorite ones is a little book that was written many years ago by a faithful expositor named John Stott. And he wrote a little commentary on 1 and 2 Thessalonians called the Gospel. And the end of time.
And I would highly recommend that if our leaders are looking for something. And he divided the book up probably better than anybody I know. And I'll just let me just give you his little outline for the book because I think it's super helpful. In chapter one, he said that's all about Christian evangelism. That's about how the gospel enters into a city like Thessalonica and spreads to the point that there is a Christian church.
And so that's chapter one. Chapter two: that church has to have ministers. And so, chapter two is all about Christian ministry. how pastors serve the gospel And equip the saints. And so when you get into chapter two, you're gonna focus in on.
The kind of minister that Paul and Silas were when they were with the Thessalonians. And then in chapter four, so chapters two and three have to do with Christian ministry. The first part of chapter four has to do with Christian behavior. How should the church live? In a pagan context, now that the gospel has transformed the lives of its members.
And then in the last part of chapter four, in the first part of chapter five, there's this Christian hope, this confidence in the coming of Christ. And then in chapter five, verses 12 through 28, how to be Christian community. Christian evangelism, Christian ministry, Christian behavior, Christian help. and Christian community. And so that's sort of the big hook that Stott sees when it comes to how the book is arranged.
When you get to the first 10 verses, chapter one. I think you could probably, there's a lot of different ways to go at it, obviously, but let me give you one that I think might be helpful. And if you think about it in three parts, so part one would describe the church. That God established in this great community. And that's in the first four verses.
And what you find out about the church. Is how it started. What it was like. And who was in it? Right, so how did it start?
So basically Um Paul says this, we thank God for you all, mentioning. You in our prayers, we continually remember. before our God. And father, your work produced by faith. And then it goes on, we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you.
So, to your point earlier, the gospel that birthed this church. Did not birth the church by human effort. This was not a human institution that somebody thought up. and decided, hey, this would be a good thing to start. And we could get a lot of people around this idea if we got a little building somewhere.
And man, it'd be awesome. That's not how this started. The God of heaven designed. a community Of believers to exist in this hard and dark place for his glory. And he called that community into existence.
And that's a really important thing to remember: that when we get saved today, because of our propensity as Americans to think of ourselves as an individual versus a part of something bigger than ourselves, in the New Testament, believers didn't predominantly think of themselves as standalone believers, they were always part of the church. And so this community had been called into existence by God. And the means that he did it was through his word, right?
So, Paul is going to talk about how they received. The word that had come among them for what it really was: the word of God and not of men. And that word produced something. It produced radical change. In the life of these people that was being lived out.
No, Paul says in verse 3: we continually remember. your work produced by faith. your labor prompted by love. and your endurance inspired by hope. In the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so There are these amazing things, this labor, this work of faith, this labor of love, and this steadfastness of hope. And so, as we think about the very first part, it's the church of God. What should mark the church of God? It should be marked by service that comes out of our faith. It should be marked by labor that comes out of our love, and it should be marked by steadfastness that comes out of our confidence in the Lord.
And it's not going to predominantly come out of our programs or our buildings or our budget. It's not going to come because we have some incredible posture before the world and our pastor has all these degrees. It's going to come because the gospel that produced us is at work in us. And so, the church of God, in verses one and four, it's marked by faith and hope and love. And that faith and that hope and that love are producing something in us.
And so that's the first thing. And then secondly, In verses five through nine, if you look at what is happening, or even five through eight, there is the gospel that came to them. There is the church that we just see in the first part, but what produced it? What is it that brought about this labor of love and this work of faith and this steadfastness of hope? And Paul's answer is: it's the gospel that we brought to you.
You can see in verse 4: We know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you, not in word only, but in power. and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. In other words, when we brought this word to you, this gospel to you. By the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brought about full conviction in you.
that this gospel is true. It's not talking about Paul coming with a lot of conviction and passion. It's talking about the fact that the Holy Spirit. Produced Conviction in the heart of the hearer that what they were hearing was actually true. This is what Paul was talking about when he told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4 that the God of this world has blinded the eyes.
of people so they cannot see the truth of the gospel. And then he says, but the God who caused light to shine in the beginning. Has caused light to shine in your heart so that you see the beauty of God and the truth of the gospel in the face of Jesus. And so all of a sudden, here is the Holy Spirit. Taking the word that is being announced by these two unlikely men who sort of come into the city after having been beaten and imprisoned in Philippi, they come dragging into the city and they start talking about Jesus and who he was and what he came to do and what happened.
And the Holy Spirit took that word and powerfully worked in the heart of the hearers.
so that they became convinced. that the word they were hearing was true. And so That's what you see in verse 6. Uh you you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake and you became imitators of us and of the lord in other words you followed the way of the lord just like we're following the way of the lord For you received the word in much affliction. With the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers.
So in the first part, verses one through four, you have the powerful ministry. of the word in the life of the church. And this is what it looked like. in verses five through uh eight you have the powerful work of the gospel in the life of the church. And so, this is what produced it all.
And then, the final thing, since we're trying to keep ourselves short on time today, is what started to happen. because of that.
So now you have a church. And you want to know how in the world did this happen here in Thessalonica? This center of paganism, this center of Judaism, how did we get a Christian church here? And the answer is.
Soon guys showed up. With a word about Jesus of Nazareth, and the Holy Spirit took that word. energized it with his power, opened the eyes of people who were hearing, and they became fully convinced. And they decided to do what Paul and Silas did. They decided to imitate them, they decided to become followers of Jesus.
that these two men were preaching. And something magnificent happened. And the thing that was so magnificent that happened begins in verse eight and goes to the end of verse 10. And it is the testimony. of God through this church that began to spread.
It wasn't just that there's this magnificent church in Thessalonica. And it isn't just that the church was birthed by a powerful gospel. The big thing Paul wants you to see is what's happening through this church. And what's happening through the church. Is spreading through all of the region, all of Macedonia.
Paul said it this way: For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere.
So we don't have to say anything. In other words, we don't have to tell people what happened to you. They've already heard. In fact, when we show up, they want to know what happened at Thessalonica, Paul, when you were there, because we've heard about this. We've heard about the amazing thing that went on when you and Silas showed up there.
Tell us about it because we have heard that the word of God came and did something. And we are hearing now about that word and it's spreading like wildfire. And so in verse 9, they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you.
So literally, the testimony of the gospel is being spread by you.
So when we show up somewhere, people are telling us about our work. that happened while we were there. We don't have to tell anybody what we did. They already know. And here's how they sum up.
What happened? They would say to us, when you guys were there, here's what happened: those Thessalonians turned to God from their idols. They turned from their idols to serve, to worship. The word serve there means to worship, to worship the living and true God. They're no longer going to just worship the pagan pantheon of gods.
They're not going to worship. Zeus, whose mountain is 50 miles away, and they can see it on a clear day. They're not going to continue to bow down to Caesar as the God of the empire. They're not even going to just embrace Moses the way that their Jewish friends have embraced him. They have turned from all of that to worship the true and the living God and to wait for his son from heaven.
So turning to God from idols, right? Worshiping the true God of heaven. and waiting for his son. Who is coming one day from heaven, whom he raised from the dead? And the reason this is important is that as we worship the true God of heaven, Through his son, who was raised from the dead, that son delivers us from the wrath to come.
And so this word has gone everywhere. Their faith in God that started with turning from idols. to worship the true and living God. and to wait for the coming of his son has produced a powerful effect. In Thessalonica, powerful effect in the lives of a small community of people who are having a worldwide impact.
Well, I don't know about you, brother, but this is true for me. I want to have a worldwide impact. And I don't have to have a large church. I don't have to be a big name. All I have to do is do what these Thessalonians did.
I have to turn to God from idols. I have to worship him with my whole life and I have to serve his son who's coming one day from heaven. And that looks like a work of faith, a work that comes out of my faith. A labor that comes out of my love and an endurance that comes out of my hope. Because as we get into this book, we're going to find out this was not a picnic for these people.
This was hard. And they endured. And may the Lord use this book to help us endure. Amen. You know, the church that was on fire for God, but they were also.
Under fire. For their faith in God, to turn from all of those idols, to turn from the social acceptance and the. The worldly love of all these other things and to follow Jesus. Dr. Horne, you said it.
So well, and we see it in this first chapter, we'll see it throughout the whole book. You know, it's interesting. I just can't get past verse five where Paul said, our gospel did not come to you in word only. but also in power. In the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake, there's a sense to which our world today.
is calling out, is crying out, where is the power? Show me the power. These people say they follow the risen Lord. Where's the power in their life? Where's the power?
Where's the forgiveness? Where's the love, joy, peace, the Holy Spirit fruit coming out of their life? And there was power. in Paul's life when he came to them, which is seen in the fruit Of this church that emerged, it came out. And is just strong and.
in growing And has all these wonderful attributes of a healthy church. The church of the living God is God's plan A. And we encourage in all of our studies, we don't meet in a church at Wednesday in the Word, but we encourage everyone. A lot of pastors, by the way, lead our groups that are listening to this right now. We encourage everyone to get into church.
Getting a healthy church. It's a balanced church. It teaches the word of God. And use your gifts. Where there, how do you know it's a good church?
Well, is God's power there? is does do the lips match the life? And there was a very real sense to which these people weren't just Professing Christians, they were possessing Christians, and Dr. Horn. Another mark of this is, I love this verse 8.
The word of the Lord sounded forth. It says not only in Macedonia, which would have been north of there, or Achaea. which would have been south of them, but in every place. Your faith from God has gone out.
So... This isn't something you can keep to yourself. This is something that individually, I got to tell somebody, and corporately as a church. What's your missions plan? How many missionaries are you sending out?
How are people in your church mobilized to go on short-term missions trips? How are you reaching? The people not just around the world, but across the street from your church.
So, this church was missiological, this church was. Christological. They were in love with Jesus. You know, Dr. Warren, I just can't help but think That as we look at this, we should maybe walk away encourage, shouldn't we?
That, hey, There are churches that are growing, and there are churches that the gospel is sounding forth from. There are churches that the power of God is in that are full of the Holy Spirit, that there's joy, but there's also great trial, there's great tribulation. And Some of that fire doesn't turn us inward to become bitter, but it grows us outward to become healthy, to become better, to become more light in a dark world. That the world's saying, how can these people under this kind of heat, facing this kind of loss, dealing with these kind of things? How can they still follow Jesus, love Jesus, and tell everyone about him?
So that just is just so much encouragement in these 10 verses, chapter one.
Well, let me say one more thing before we sign off here. You know, in a world and in a day when we get news instantly about That happened across the country, you know, or some big thing that happened in another state away from us, and we hear about it 10 minutes later on our Instagram account or on Facebook. It's really easy to look at all of that and say, okay, you know, that it just becomes normal.
So I want you to notice when the word of God sounded forth from Macedonia. and I Kea or two Macedonia from this group of people. Paul says we didn't have to say anything. You know, we didn't have to post anything on our on our they didn't have Facebook in the day, but he would have said today, we didn't have to post anything about this, right? We didn't have to make any big announcement.
By the time we got there, everybody was talking about this. And they weren't talking about it because they got some news report. They were talking about it because your lives had changed.
So incredibly That in such a credible way over time that it couldn't be denied. By the time you get to 2 Thessalonians, these people are still living this way. This wasn't sort of an emotional thing. Hey, the two guys came in. You wouldn't believe they went to Jason's house.
They reasoned in the synagogue. You wouldn't believe the beauty of their arguments. It was awesome. You wouldn't believe the move that came. I couldn't explain.
It was like a wind came upon us. And this next thing you know, we're all repenting. It was incredible. And then, you know, six months later, you go back and where are those people? They're back worshiping their old gods.
There's been no change. What was so powerful about what happened here? Isn't the initial movement? It was the effect of movement. the permanent effect of that movement.
It's powerful display over time. in the life of these people who used to worship idols. And now, over time, they have had this moment where the power of the gospel has radically changed them, and the change was real, it was permanent. This labor of love, this steadiest hope, this work of faith was not a momentary. Couple of months-long spiritual high kind of deal.
This became a new way of life for them. And that's, I think, something we sometimes miss in a book like this. We see chapter one and it's like, that was awesome. and we want to replicate it. And so we bring in a name and the name talks.
And we have this sort of emotionally manipulated response. And boy, when God works in us, there ought to be emotion. And we do respond with emotion.
So please don't hear that we shouldn't have emotional things. But the real power of the gospel is going to show up when those people. those hundreds of people that responded. At that arena or wherever got saved, and then you meet them a year later, and they are still passionate. They are still worshiping God, they haven't gone back to their idols, they are fighting sin in their life.
Their lives have been so transformed that everybody is now talking about it. And that's, I think. What this book is designed to do. Remember, we said this is a bold faith. It is a bold and beautiful faith that the gospel is producing in these believers in this hard place.
And that bold and beautiful faith isn't temporary. It's powerful because it is permanent. And that's what we want in our lives. That's what we want in our churches. And I think we can get there if we let it all take us there.
Absolutely. Yeah, connecting. with Jesus connecting in the power of the Holy Spirit. and really connecting with You know, God's word and allowing his word to do the work and to bring us together. And then there's this great outlet we're sounding forth.
There's a. There is a This is a God has called us to Reach our world. There's still billions who've never heard the gospel, and all of us are to be doing that. And certainly the church. And Thessaloniki was committed.
To the great commission, to the point where I love what Paul said here: this little phrase. He said, Hey, we didn't need to say anything at the end of verse 9. Your faith toward God has gone out. We did not need to say anything. That's a beautiful picture of discipleship, Dr.
Horne. When you You take a young Timothy, you pour into him so much. That They're leading someone to Christ. I have never been more excited than when I get a call from someone who I've brought to the Lord and been a part of bringing them to Christ. And they call me and they say, Hey, guess what?
I just led someone to Christ. I just preached, or I just preached the gospel. I'm like, wow, I wasn't there. I wasn't a part of it. I wasn't even in the receiving line to help these people.
This person by the power of the Holy Spirit, is now making other Timothy's This is reproduction. This is growth. This is the disciple making were called to This is how, this is God's way of reaching the world through his church. And this is a church that the training wheels are off. And they are doing it.
And Dr. Horn, pray us out of here that we will all take this, and for all of our leaders, as they. As they walk through these wonderful verses this week in their groups, if you would. Lord, we are again. humbled and grateful at the power of this word.
That never, never dulls. It never, it never loses its edge. It never loses its life. It never, it never loses its brilliant shine. And Lord, it's been around for thousands of years.
This gospel that Paul brought. 2000 plus years ago to this city is as true and as bright and as powerful and as alive as it was back then. It hasn't changed in any way, in any shape. It hasn't lost any of its beauty or its power. And so, Lord, we are confident of this thing.
If we can bring this gospel to the front and let this gospel loose and let it shine in our churches, our lives, and in our Bible studies, it will change people. And so we ask that you would do that. I pray for our Bibles.
next week as they introduce this wonderful book. I pray that what we have covered today would be helpful to them and encouraging to them. Lord, may each of them take one simple thought, one simple truth that your spirit would put in their heart and drive that home so that people who hear them would sense that they have been with you in this book.
So we pray a blessing on them. We pray for Stu. And Lord, we ask that you would bless him and Julie and their family and the ministry of the Truth Network. And we thank you for how you have lifted it up. And we ask that you would preserve it.
In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Dr. Horne, and thank you for joining us for this Wednesday in the Word podcast. Learn more at wedintheword.com. Follow us on YouTube.
Facebook and all social media, including in Stu Graham, and be encouraged, stay in the word. Read it. Share it, study it, memorize it, and meditate on God's Word. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him.
Proverbs 30 verse 5.
