Am I Thanking God For Real Christians?

1 Thessalonians 1:2-6

(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon.)

Please turn to 1 Thessalonians 1:2-6. Our passage this morning is 1 Thessalonians 1:2-6. As you are turning there, I want to remind you that we looked at the introduction to 1 Thessalonians from Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, last week. The apostle Paul, of course, is the primary author, but we see that the epistle has the reference to all three as we and us in practically each point of thought in the epistle. The Thessalonians that are truly saved are who Paul is writing to.

In becoming familiarized with the Thessalonian Christians, we also looked at Acts 13 through 17. It is the record of the ministry of Paul's outreach leading to his evangelism in Thessalonica. We saw Paul's outreach method, and we learned from it. We saw that Paul and Silvanus were used by God to bring the good news to Thessalonica on their second missionary journey. Silas, in Acts, is called Silvanus in 1 Thessalonians. The Acts record shows us that Paul and Barnabas first began preaching in the synagogues up North above Israel in what is called Paul's first missionary outreach. They preached there in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. In Lystra, while Paul was preaching, he commanded a crippled man to stand up and walk. The Holy Spirit instantly healed the man. Paul had full conviction that the man would be healed. Paul knew it would happen because of God's power, and it did happen. Then Paul went over to Europe. The record shows us that Paul and Silvanus preached the good news of Christ in Philippi. Then Paul and Silvanus left Philippi and made their way down about a hundred miles over to the Southwest to our city of Thessalonica. Paul preached the gospel message in the synagogue on three Sabbaths. He preached Jesus Christ in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. The opposition and persecution was fiery in Thessalonica, so Paul and Silvanus went about 50 miles over to the West, to Berea. In Berea, Paul did the same thing. He immediately began preaching the gospel of Christ in the synagogue in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. In Berea, many Jews and Gentiles received Christ in a demonstration of God's miraculous grace, and power. God had opened their hearts to understand. This is what God does. It is like when God opened Lydia's heart to understand the things spoken by Paul in Philippi. Praise God for His power at work to change lives forever. Thank God he changes our lives in the same way. Ultimately, Paul ended up in the city of Corinth. He preached Christ crucified, and Christ resurrected in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction as we see from 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 (crucifixion) with 15:1-4, (resurrection). Paul writes this Thessalonian letter the same way. He writes it to Christians who were the result of God's power. Paul writes it in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Paul's ministry was never powerless, and the power continues to exist, using these same words, to change lives, as the very word of God--the Bible. Let's continue to learn from it now. Starting in verse 2 of our passage, Paul says,

"2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, 4 knowing, brothers loved by God, His election of you; 5 because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit," 1 Thessalonians 1:2-6

Please prepare your heart to receive, learn, and live, the word of God as we glean vital truths from it in this sermon titled,

Am I Thanking God For Real Christians?

In starting out asking this question, which is our theme: Am I thanking God for real Christians?; we notice that Paul gives the kind of thanks that our question is concerned with. He says,

"2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; ... 4 knowing, brothers loved by God, His election of you;" 1 Thessalonians 1:2 & 4

It is God's will that you and I thank Him for real Christians. God wants the glory because it is all about Him and His power. He loves us, but we are secondary. He is primary. For God to get the glory in the salvation of people, we must thank Him for the work, and the power, rather than thanking the minister for the minister's work, and so-called power, or thanking the one who receives Christ for their so-called, powerful reaction. It is God's favor, and it is God's miracle work. This is why Paul says, we give thanks to God for all of you, knowing that you are loved by Him, and are elected by Him. The thanks goes to God because we haven't done anything to make ourselves favorable. We haven't done anything to help out with doing the miracle. So, realizing this, we should be very eager to give God all the glory for His grace miracle of saving people, by giving simple thanks to Him for their salvation. Paul explains it in 2 Corinthians 4:15. He says that the grace of God which is spreading to more and more people should cause the giving of thanks to increase to the glory of God. Whenever God's grace is bestowed, the resultant cause should be pure thankful appreciation that increases, where all celebration is given to God in honor of what He has done. Thanksgiving is something that the Holy Spirit causes us to do because we recognize God's power, authority, and rightness in everything. The Holy Spirit is always about the work of glorifying God. Now thank about this with me: It is absurd, and maybe even paramount to blasphemy to go up to someone, and say something like,

"You know, I am really thankful to you for accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior. You are so honorable to do it. Glory to you. Glory to you!"

Think about that if you can even bear it. Or what about this;

"I thank you from the bottom of my heart for becoming the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. If you only knew how much I appreciate you doing that. Glory to you. Glory to you!"

It sounds so absurd doesn't it?; and though most Christians would never say such things, a lot of people who claim to be Christians have theology that says such things; but what happens is that it comes out in different terms, and so it is hard to immediately identify that this is what they believe. The point is that when it comes to salvation, God wants us to give all the thanks to Him, and glorify Him for His comprehensive power and His right, wise, and perfect decision in doing what He does. One of the primary ways for you and me do this is by making mention of the people God has saved, in our prayers. Paul says that he does this always. Whenever we take the other members of the body for granted, then we will either seldom thank God for them, or we will quit thanking God for them. Whenever we are being carnal, and sinning because we are perturbed with a brother or sister to the point of treating them in contempt, then we quit having thanks for them. But think about what is going on when we do this; We are not appreciating them, and when we don't appreciate them, we are not appreciating God's work in making them for His glory. And so we are not glorifying God. Thanks is a manifestation of love. Now think about this;

It is so easy to always thank God for the passing, fading, selfish things like extra money--right?

"Thank you Lord for providing for me once again."

It is so easy to always thank God for temporal selfish things like good health.

Thank you Lord for healing me.

Isn't it interesting that, in our human nature, we always seem to thank God for people that God puts in our lives that make us feel good? Isn't it curious that we always seem to thank God for people that God puts in our lives to help us out in some way? We always seem to thank God for people we like. It is not unusual to thank God for people we get along with. We are so grateful for the ones that want to be around us. It is so easy to thank God for people that He puts in our lives that we can get something from; or we respect a whole lot. But God wants us to thank Him, with love in action, for what He thinks is of the greater eternal value than all of that. The fact of the matter is that we should be thanking God for all the Christians that we know, and the reason that God is telling us to do it, is because God saved them. Paul says,

"We give thanks to God always for all of you, ..."

Two things:

First of all-- Paul wasn't getting anything from the Thessalonians that merited his thanks.

Secondly-- Paul wasn't leaving anybody out.

We should not leave anyone out either.

@1 God wants me to __________ Him for all Christians.

"All of you," means every single Christian in the church, no matter who they are. Now, to do this you are going to need to have a certain confidence that the people you are thanking God for, and making mention of in your prayers, are actually the elect, the saved; the body of Christ. So, we look at our question again. We have been dealing with the first part:

Am I thanking God for the other Christians I know in the first place?

Now let's get the second part out of the way.

Am I thanking God for real, authentic, genuine Christians?

You see, it is just as wrong to thank God for the salvation of someone who is not saved as it is to thank a person for their own salvation. And so this leads us to consider several evidences for identifying who we are thanking God for. They are evidences that Paul keeps in mind when he says,

"3 constantly bearing in mind [remembering] your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father," 1 Thessalonians 1:3

The first three evidences of the real Christians that Paul keeps in mind, are a holy trinity of attributes that God, the Holy Trinity, bestows upon the elect as fruits of the Spirit Who is at work in us. Notice that Paul mentions, Faith, hope, and love. Remember what Paul said about them in 1 Corinthians? They are those attributes that exist in true Christians,

"13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three;" 1 Corinthians 13:13

These are abiding fruits of the Holy Spirit.

@2 Three marks of a Christian are ________, ________, and __________.

In a few more chapters in our Thessalonian epistle, Paul is going to mention these three attributes of saved people again, where he says,

"since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on [already] the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation." 1 Thessalonians 5:8

/1/
The first Christian attribute that Paul is mindful of, and thanks God for doing in the truly saved Thessalonians, is the work of faith. Paul is talking about their whole work in Christ. The Thessalonians have been miraculously regenerated. They are slaves of the King now. They are working for the Lord now--doing the work of the Lord as His children. True, living, spiritual, saving faith is what produces true living works. There is no other way to do it. In fact, true, living, spiritual, saving faith always produces works,

"26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." James 2:26

Think about this--When someone gets a job, the person is now called something like an employee. But to merely say that you have a job, and to merely claim to be an employee, means nothing unless you are actually doing something. When you do a job, you are doing something. Further, when you do the job, then you are doing what you say you have. You are doing the job of who you are working for. Think about it. You can also say that someone's body is alive all you want to, but if their brain is not working, and their heart is not working, and their lungs are not working, and their cells are not working, then they are dead. A body that has no life is dead. Yes, it is body. No, it is not alive. A body that is simply moving because it is falling, or rolling down a hill, is not necessarily alive. But a body that is moving according to a brain, a heart, lungs, and cells, is working. It is alive. Listen to me--Works of faith, are a result of being born again into newness of life into the family of God. Works of faith come from real, living, faith that real Christians have. So the point is that real Christians have real works of faith.

/2/
The second thing that Paul bears in mind in His thanks to God concerning the truly saved of Thessalonica is their labor of love. The labor that the Thessalonians did, that Paul is talking about, was hard effort. It was sacrificial. It is consistent love-work that keeps on going, even to the point of fatigue. Paul uses the same word two other times in the letter,

"For you recall, brothers, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God." I Thessalonians 2:9

"... when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you, and our labor should be in vain." 1 Thessalonians 3:5

The kind of labor that Paul is talking about is self sacrificing works and action that is a manifestation of the Law of love that the Holy Spirit puts in the hearts of true believers. Paul is not talking about labor for personal gain, like someone who becomes a workaholic for the sole purpose of making a lot of money. This is labor out of godly generated love, which is labor that comes because of God's Spirit convicting His true children. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who claim to be Christians but they are not, and yet the do a lot of labor stuff. They do not believe that Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth, and the only life, and that there is no other way to get to the Father except by Him. But they will claim the label of being a Christian as they do religious kinds of things. What they believe is a cultural gospel, where, out of some kind of emotional compassion that is based on humanistic sentimentality, feelings, or philosophies of justice, they will try to feed the world, help people out, and all this kind of stuff. They work to make themselves feel good inside, or to make other people impressed with their altruism, or to impress others with their zeal for popular social causes. It is all based out of self, and so even though it doesn't look selfish, it is; and so it ends up glorifying self in the end. God's Spirit is not talking about ego boosting stuff, or doing things out of emotion. Paul is recognizing Christians working for Christ, doing the work of advancing the gospel, of helping out the other members of the body, and doing it in personal dedication and sacrifice based upon Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. This goes beyond satisfying humanistic sentimentality, or some emotion, where you feel sorry for the world so you want to feed the world. This goes beyond fulfilling a social philosophy of a new world order. What God is talking about is purely motivated by living for Christ by living as the body for the body of Christ. All of it finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. Christ gave Himself for us in the greatest most self sacrificing labor ever;

"We know love by this,

[How? What does the Spirit wants us to hear?--]

that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." 1 John 3:16

God's point is sharp and crisp--only people who are born of God have this kind of love for Christians;

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and every one who loves is born of God and knows God." 1 John 4:7

@3 Everyone who ___________ one another in the body is born of God, and knows God.

If this kind of love does not characterize someone who claims to be a Christian, then they are not a true Christian. You say,

"Wow Kerry. Are you judging people?"

No, God's word judges people. All I'm doing is quoting God's word. Without being born of God you will not love the brothers and sisters of the body of Christ in a sacrificing manner where you don't get anything out of it. You will not love, when there is no self glory or human recognition that comes from it. So, in the same way that you can't see faith, but you can see its work, you can't see love, but you can certainly see the labor of love coming from people who claim to be truly saved.

/3/
The third thing that Paul bears in mind in His thanks to God concerning the truly saved of Thessalonica is their steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. What Paul is talking about is endurance. True salvation manifests perseverance in Christ. The very fact that someone who claims to be saved actually endures to the end, is proof that they were saved all along. In the culture of the Thessalonians, their whole lives had been changed to the point of being persecuted for being born again. Their prior pagan friends, are now their enemies. Their families who once embraced them, are now embarrassed by them, and now their families reject them. Many Thessalonians lost their jobs; they lost their reputations; they lost their families; they lost their property; they lost their freedom. But in the midst of it all, the evidence of their salvation radiated out of hearts filled with the Light of Christ. They remained steadfast in their hope in the Lord. Work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father; These three are grand evidences of the real deal.

There are more evidences that Paul has in mind. The apostles realized that their gospel was being proclaimed with the supernatural force of God behind it. The apostles saw faith blossom forth from miraculously changed hearts. They saw the people's hearts changed by that power right before their very eyes. They were immersed in it. Paul writes,

"4 knowing, brothers loved by God, His election of you, 5 because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit ..." 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5

Before we get to the fourth thing that Paul mentions that gives Him confidence that He is thanking God for the elect in Thessalonica, let's look at what it means to be truly elected in Christ. First we notice that Paul calls the Thessalonians, brothers. This is family language. It has to do with God sovereignly adopting those whom He has elected out of the domain of darkness. When God saves us, He makes us a part of the family of God through this adoption, which is also part of the power-miracle of being born again into the first born heir who is Jesus. Paul says that he knows that those he is writing to were elected. Election by God originates from His sovereignty over all things. God elected all who will be saved in the person, and work of Christ Jesus, and God did this before He created the world. We read,

"just as He elected us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him ... 13 In Him, you also, ... ." Ephesians 1:4

When Paul wrote his second letter to these same Thessalonians, he repeats this reason for giving thanks to God for them, and he gives the same time frame of election, saying,

"But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has elected you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification [being set apart] by the Spirit and faith in the truth." 2 Thessalonians 2:13

It is almost too deep to understand that God's election unto salvation is from the beginning, before the foundation of the world, but it is. God ordained the end, which is salvation. He also ordains the means to that end through the powerful work of the Holy Spirit and the proclamation of the gospel of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the key. The Holy Spirit sets apart those who have been elected to certainly have faith in the truth of the gospel when it is preached. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes. The Holy Spirit changes us. The non-elect reject the true Christ and His gospel, and as Stephen proclaimed in Acts 7:51, when he was being stoned as a martyr for Christ--he said, they always resist the Holy Spirit. So, they perish in their sins and experience eternal destruction away from God. What this means is that not everyone is saved. Not everyone's name has been written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world;

"... those who dwell on the earth will wonder, whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, ..." Revelation 17:8

The principle is that God elected some people to receive eternal salvation, and likewise God also elected not to write the names of others in the book of life. In Revelation 20:15, we are told that those whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire. Nobody is immune from these things. Left to ourselves, without the power of the Holy Spirit, none of us seeks after God. In our sinful state, we want nothing to do with the true God. What happens is that God, in His purpose, and in His mercy, is the one, in His power, Who provides the enablement for people to receive Christ Jesus and His finished work, by grace through faith, giving us eternal spiritual salvation through the forgiveness of all our sins. So, God provided more than the means of salvation for everyone. God elected all who will be saved, because nobody can elect salvation on their own. A lot of people, who claim to be Christians, have a personal theology in place that causes them not to like this. So, in their dislike, they will ask questions like,

"So, why is anyone lost?"

But they are asking the wrong question. They should be asking,

"Why are any people saved at all?"

That is the huge and amazing question. It is easy for Christians to understand why sinful people go to hell. They see that God clearly says that the wages of sin is death. It makes sense. What they don't see is just how amazing God's amazing grace really is. So, when we look at Scripture, we see that it deals with how amazing God's grace really is, because when it comes to grace, grace is really grace, from A to Z. It also deals with the huge amazing question:

"Why is anyone saved at all?"

The huge amazing answer is that God, in His loving grace, provided redemption, atonement, and propitiation for salvation in His Son that is sufficient to save those who believe. According to Ephesians 1:5, God predestines those whom He has elected to be sons, according to "the kind intention of His will." And there is no need to add any more to the answer. In other words, the huge amazing answer to the huge amazing question is that no human anywhere deserves to be saved, but even though nobody deserves it, God, in real grace, according to His super-wise choice, elects people to rescue out of the domain of darkness anyway. But sometimes people think, (like my father in law says about them) -- they think that they are more loving than God. They think they are more fair than God. They think they have more grace than God. They think that they are smarter, wiser; clearer thinkers than God, and so what happens is that when they look at all of these things in God's word, they are tempted to ask another question.

"If God is in complete control in ordination, determination, and election, then why does He find fault with people?"

It seems like, if God is in control, then everything must be His responsibility--right? Further, God is love. So, it seems like He should have kind intention on everyone, and so nobody should ever be lost. At least, it seems that way to us mere finite humans looking at it from our own perspectives. We can be like Asaph in Psalm 73 that we read about yesterday in Men's meeting. Asaph was looking at his own view of God's sovereignty, and he realized that he was drawing the wrong conclusions, and so he said about his humanistic speculations about God and God's dealings with men,

"I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast." Psalm 73:22

But God is pretty smart, and that is what we are talking about. And so God, in his smartness, anticipated that people might ask the kinds of questions I presented, and so the answer is in His word,

"19 You will say to me then,

'Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?'

On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder,

'Why did you make me like this,'

will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use?" Romans 9:19-20

The point is that God is the one Who is sovereign. His mind in this matter is so much smarter than us, that in comparison, we are mentally handicapped. We are like Asaph--senseless, ignorant, and like beasts. God is the smarter, more loving One, Who understands it all better than you do, "O man, who answers back to God." So, what God wants His children to do is trust Him and accept what He tells us plainly in His word, so that we will not make fools out of ourselves and argue with the genius of the God of the universe concerning His created order. How many people have taken the Scriptures that plainly state these things and poured hours upon hours over them trying to figure out how to make these Scriptures mean something else than what they mean? This senseless, ignorant, and beastly, ambition is driven by a personal theology that they already had to begin with that I talked about beforehand. The point is to just accept what God says and move on.

/4/
With this out of the way, let's move on to the fourth thing upon which Paul bases his assurance that these Thessalonians are true members of the body according to election. Paul says,

5 because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit ... You know what kind of men we proved to be among you ..." 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6

@4 The gospel does not come to people in words only, but also in __________ and in the Holy ____________.

This is the fourth thing that is evidence of salvation, where we think of it this way: The gospel is brought to the elect who are effectually called and saved in power, but the power actually effects the heart of the hearer in such a way that the elect are effectually called, convicted, and are saved through the miracle of regeneration. In other words, the gospel is more than just mere words to the elect. It is only mere words to those who are not elect. But, it comes in power in the Holy Spirit, wrought by the Holy Spirit, and sustained by the Holy Spirit for those who are saved. What Paul is talking about contextually, is His own experiences with Silvanus as they ministered at Thessalonica, seen in what was produced in the miracle. Certainly, they were aware of the power of God at work in their lives through the Spirit. Along with this, they were apparently aware of the power of God working in the Thessalonians lives through the ministry. It was not merely the human strength of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy that moved them to minister and see fruits of harvest for the kingdom. It was the supernatural power of God Himself, which worked within them. This is what God wants in our own lives. But notice that the gospel came with both power, and with the Holy Spirit. Two things on this:

First, Without the Holy Spirit, there is no power.

Secondly, it is important for us to realize that the Holy Spirit is more than just a power.

The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is a member of the triune Godhead Who personally indwells all those He makes into the body of Christ by grace through faith in Christ's finished work. The "power" is the result of the Holy Spirit.

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

@5 God is the God of __________.

Every fruit of true ministry, and every spiritual fruit of a true member of the body, is a fruit of the Holy Spirit wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit. Believing, itself, is a first fruit of this power. What I mean is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be preached to the ears of everyone, but it only comes with power to save some. The power behind the good news is not in the eloquence of the preacher, or evangelist. If that was the power, then people would be the ones who save others. It is not a matter of how educated you are when you proclaim the gospel. If it was, then the power would be in your knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence. The power is not in your sales techniques in trying to persuade someone to become saved. The power is not in some kind of emotional appeal that you can make. The power comes from God through your proclamation of the word of the Lord. The power is what we recognize breaks through the rocky heart as God does His work to turn the heart to flesh. The power is what those who are convicted of their sins, and Who receive Christ as their Lord and Savior, sense piercing their souls and making them move to turn to the living, merciful, God in the gift of faith. It is the miracle process of salvation, where the power is God working in this world through His ministers, through His word, and throughout the soul of the very one He is rescuing. It is what makes the true Christian. The power continues after salvation too. When you hear a Biblical sermon, the power of God touches your heart and you see the light that brightens your soul and empowers you to live in clarity and understanding. The word of God is powerful, and it pierces us, and it tears down strongholds in our minds. The Holy Spirit uses the word, but it is the Holy Spirit Who changes us, and the power, and the change, effects those around us, but it does this because there isn't a bunch of philosophy behind it. There is the power of God working in the person of the Holy Spirit to make His word a miracle in you heart. This is evidence of your salvation--the power of the Holy Spirit changes you from the inside out. When the Word does not come with power to your soul, then you lack the proof of election. There are people who claim to be Christians, but sadly, they deny this power. They are like the people of 2 Timothy 3:5 who hold to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Paul goes on and says that we are to avoid such men as these. Many Christians deny the power of God for salvation. Instead they rely on sales tactics, and props, or religious kinds of man-made rituals, and even others rely upon all kinds of requirements. They will structure church meetings around being trendy to attract and keep the unsaved hanging around in hopes that they will get saved by seductive osmosis. They will do anything to make someone into a Christian--anything except rely upon the power of God through the basic preaching of the simple gospel. In 1 Corinthians 2:4, Paul says that his preaching was "in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power." This is what we want. We want the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. This demonstration, in the lives of those who claim to be Christians, is evidence of their election. Then Paul says,

"... and with full conviction." 1 Thessalonians 1:5

The Greek noun and adjective, rendered here as full conviction, literally means that Paul preached being fully convinced, fully persuaded and fully assured that the message, the power, and the Holy Spirit was working, and had worked, to produce the desired effect in the elect that Paul thanks God for. Dr. Robert Thomas in the Expositor's Commentary, deals with this statement by Paul and says,

"Growing out of his special activity is a ... ingredient of the spoken word. 'With deep conviction' (plerophora polle) means that the preachers possessed perfect assurance as to the truth and effectiveness of their message. ... Such subjective certainty, sensed by Paul and his associates, served as a major ingredient of this first proof that these readers had been chosen by God." (Expositor's Commentary, 1 Thess. 1:5)

And I would add that this insight of Paul's was supernatural revelation. Paul is saying that he had a full conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit as a special apostolic insight to know with surety that his ministry of the gospel was powerfully effective in reaching the elect of God in Thessalonica. Then Paul goes on with a final kind of evidence.

"6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, ... 1 Thessalonians 1:2-6

@6 God wants me to be an imitator of the apostles and of the __________.

This evidence is recognition of God's apostolic pattern, and the fruits of discipleship. The fruits of discipleship that the Thessalonians manifested was that they recognized the same men as being, in fact, true ambassadors of God who taught by word and by example, and then they imitated those me as their shepherds. Along with this evidence, they imitated Christ as their Lord. In 1 Corinthians, Paul said,

"1 Be imitators of me, ..."

But then Paul gives the reason,

"... just as I also am of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1

The questions for you, me or anyone who claims to be the elect is:

Are you imitating Christlikeness?; or do you even want to?

Can you forgive your enemy, and can you love him and do good to him?

Can you look at others as being better than yourself?

Are you thanking God for real Christians?

To do so is to imitate Christ. We really need to consider whether we desire to imitate Paul and the Lord by living unselfishly, and living for the body, and living for Christ.

Are we seeking to imitate Paul by praying like Paul prayed?

Are we seeking to imitate Jesus by praying as Jesus did?

This is what God wants from His children.

Are you careful with your words and actions like Paul was?

Nobody is perfect, but the question is,

Are you seeking to imitate the example of Paul and the apostles who were following the example of Christ?

Are you seeking to imitate your Lord?

Brothers and sisters, the Biblical example of the apostles and our Lord in the way they express love is the godly pattern of expressing love as real Christians. Being imitators of Christ, is one of the surest evidences of your election. On the other hand, someone who does not seek to imitate Christ, will be considered as someone who is not of the Lord's elect. People will logically ask;

"Where is the life of Christ in you?"

"Where is His Light that is supposed to shine out of you?"

"Where is the imitation of the Father that children who love their Father are so fond of wanting to do?"

They will say,

"Should I really thank God for saving so and so? I can't really tell whether they are a real Christian, or not."

Is he, or is she, a true child of God?

Over and over again, the Lord tells us,

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;" Ephesians 5:1

/5/
As we finish this morning, Paul finally says,

"... having received the word in much tribulation [affliction] with the joy of the Holy Spirit," 1 Thessalonians 1:6

The final thing Paul mentions as an evidence for identifying true Christians we are thanking God for is that the true believer receives the word with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Someone who loves God, and realizes the grace of God for them, and has truly been regenerated, will be joyous concerning their experience in receiving the word of the gospel which gave them life. Even in the midst of persecution, they will have joy at the overwhelming weight of glory that outweighs any persecution they experience. It is the joy of the Holy Spirit that He produces in true Christians, and so once again, it is His power. Paul is explaining that these are men and women who delight in God's Word, and they give the best evidences of being elect of God. They have shown perseverance, and joy; And the Holy Spirit in salvation has caused these things.

This morning, I urge you, if you do not know the joy of the Holy Spirit; if you do not know Jesus Christ as your life, then receive Him as your Lord and Savior right now. God says in His word that everybody is a sinner. All have sinned, and so all fall short of the glory of God. In our sinfulness, we are separated from God and doomed to eternal destruction. God says that the wages of sin is death, and hell. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Christ came into this world to die on a cross as the sacrifice for sins. He rose from the dead three days later, just like the prophets said He would do, and just like He said He would do. He raised to give newness of life. The only way to be saved is by the power of God in receiving Christ as your Lord and Savior. Salvation is by His love and grace though faith in God's finished work. Turn to God (repent) right now and you will be saved. God will do a miracle in your life and change you into His child, where he cleanses you from all sin and unrighteousness. He puts Christ in you, and you become the righteousness of God in Him. If you want to become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus--fully convinced that you are forgiven of all your sins, then pray with me ...

@1 God wants me to __________ Him for all Christians.
@2 Three marks of a Christian are ________, ________, and __________.
@3 Everyone who ___________ one another in the body is born of God, and knows God.
@4 The gospel does not come to people in words only, but also in __________ and in the Holy ____________.
@5 God is the God of __________.
@6 God wants me to be an imitator of the apostles and of the __________.