Title: THE CHURCH—ROOTED AND RINGING

Focus: Rooted or established in the Triune God, the church community rings out or exhibits the good news in daily life.

Function: To encourage members of the church to see themselves firmly established or rooted as God’s people, called to live out the gospel daily in faith, hope, and love.

Text: I Thessalonians 1:1-10

When I grew up in a small village in the Netherlands in the early 50’s and 60’s, it was common fair to hear the church bells toll on a regular basis: on Sundays the church bells called us to public worship; on weekdays, the church bells tolled to remind us of the hours of the day, including the times of private prayer: morning, noon, and vespers.

The tolling or ringing out of church bells was common practice all over Europe. Sometimes the church bells rang out to warn the villagers and town’s people of dangers—the thread of a flood, for example; sometimes the bells tolled because there was a fire in town and the bells would summon volunteer fire fighters to abandon their work and gather to fight the fire. The bells would also ring out at the time of funerals—to raise the awareness of the people to the shortness and frailty of life, and to pay final respects to the family of the deceased. Ah, the ringing out of bells brings back many memories for me.

Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica triggered these memories for me, because at one point Paul uses language that connects with the tolling of bells. For example, writing to the Christian community in Thessalonica (vs. 8), Paul says: “The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.” The image that comes to my mind is the image of church members who are like bells—who in their daily living toll the message: “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”

As we bend our ears to hear and apply God’s Word in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian Christians, we need to unpack Paul’s major focus in chapter 1:1-10. That focus is this: rooted or established in the Triune God, the church community rings out or exhibits the good news in daily life.

As we unpack this major focus or theme of Paul, we must first note why Paul is writing his letter to the church in Thessalonica. The Christians in Thessalonica are recent, new converts to the faith. It was only about 6 months ago that they heard Paul preach the gospel and sat under his teaching. Because of opposition in Thessalonica, Paul and his companions had to leave Thessalonica, and these converts were without a pastor or teacher.

Although they were persecuted by their neighbors and town’s people, these new believers remained firm in their faith; they were sincere in their conversion, and they endured hardship and returned hatred and rejection with love and kindness. But these new Christians did have many questions.

And Paul is eager to teach them and encourage them—even by way of a letter—to remain faithful to the gospel. Thus Paul makes the point with thanksgiving that the members of the church in Thessalonica ring out the good news in daily life as they are firmly rooted in the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

That Christians are rooted in the Triune God, for example, becomes clear in the following observations:

1. Christians live and have their being in God. In his opening statement Paul writes: “To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul reminds us that our relationship with God is one of “belonging,” of being connected, established or rooted in God.

Paul also teaches that God reveals himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In chapter 2:14, for example, Paul writes: “…you…became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus….” Christians, then, belong to God the Father and the Son. And it is through the Holy Spirit that we derive our life, our strength and hope for daily living. In vs. 6 we note, for example, that the converts in Thessalonica “welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” So, that we belong to the Triune God and that our lives are established in him is the first thing that must be clear in our hearts and minds. The second thing is this:

2. Christians are loved and chosen by God. Listen (vs. 4) “For we know, brothers and sisters, loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.” Here we learn that our faith conviction in response to the preaching of the gospel is a sign that God loves us and has set us apart or chosen for a particular task—to ring out the good news to others in and through our daily living.

The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts. That work is a sign of God’s electing love. We are set apart and cherished by God. Such love and election is part of being rooted or established in the triune God.

How close and tender and beautiful is our relationship with God! And what privilege we have to live out the gospel with that orientation of belonging to God! Here is the third thing that marks Christians as being rooted in the Triune God:

3. Christians live by faith, in hope and love. These three characteristics—faith, hope and love—mark us as the people of God. These characteristics are the fruit we bear; they point to our actions in daily life. Paul writes (vs. 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.”

I find the comments from John Stott—pastor/theologian-helpful when he writes in his commentary on Thessalonians: “Faith is directed towards God, love towards others (both within the Christian fellowship and beyond it), and hope towards the future, in particular the glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…

Similarly, faith rests on the past; love works in the present; hope looks to the future.” So then, faith, hope and love are fruit—evidence that God’s Spirit is at work in us. These characteristics also drive home the realization that Christians are rooted in the Triune God.

Thus we declare with conviction: rooted or established in the Triune God, the church community rings out or exhibits the good news in daily life. In other words: as we belong to God, we now are called to live out the gospel.

I say that in light of the sequence or order of Paul’s thought in verses 5-10. In verse 5 Paul says: the “gospel came to you….” In verse 6 Paul says: “you welcomed the message with joy….” And in verse 8 Paul says: “The Lord’s message rang out from you….” That’s the sequence of Paul’s thought after he reminds the Thessalonian members of church that they are rooted or established in the Triune God. And thus Paul shows the connection that as we belong to God, we now are called to live out the gospel in daily life.

Ringing out the gospel in daily life calls for conversion, for gratitude, and for a forward look or orientation. Listen to Paul (vs. 9,10): (The people all over Macedonia and Achaia) “…tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” You see?

First, Paul points to the conversion of these Christians in Thessalonica. When the good news of Christ’s resurrection and victory over death was preached by Paul to a pagan audience, some of them responded with joy and faith. The Spirit gave them eyes to see the truth in Christ, ears to hear the music of the gospel message, and hearts to turn their backs to idols.

Their old gods lost hands down to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because God raised Jesus from the dead. Not one Roman or Greek god had ever done such a thing as raising someone from the dead. Thus a number of people converted—they turned away from powerless idols. The gods of the pagans are dead. In order to ring out the gospel of Christ, you and I must be converted from idols and idolatry. We must turn away from them.

Secondly, Paul tells us that we must turn away from idols “to serve the living and true God.” Unlike the pagan idols, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the living and true God. And him we must serve. Conversion, then, leads to service. And serving God is a matter of responding with gratitude and deep joy to God’s mighty acts in Christ. Our service results in doing good works that show faith, hope and love.

The Heidelberg Catechism is right on when it says that we do good “because Christ by his Spirit is also renewing us to be like himself, so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all he has done for us, and so that he may be praised through us. And we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.”

Ringing out the gospel in our circles of influence calls for conversion and gratitude that leads to service—deeds of love and faith and hope. It also calls for an orientation that looks forward, that anticipates the renewed creation. It’s an orientation of hope and confidence in the saving work of Christ, for Paul reminds us that Jesus is the One who “rescues us from the coming wrath.” And, says Paul, we “wait for God’s Son from heaven.”

We live in a volatile era; life is cheap and short. Death is always around us, threatening us in one way or another. Life is hard. One day we find ourselves prosper in our work; the next we find ourselves flounder and out of work. Uncertainty and daily struggles to survive and flourish are part and parcel of daily experience. But Christians go through such experience with a sense of hope: for our orientation centers on Christ from heaven who will make all things new and deliver us forever from the wrath of God on our sins and from the bondage to sin and death.

Thus we are called to live out the gospel: turning from idols; bent on serving the living and true God; keeping our eyes of faith on the renewal of all things that is surely to come.

Have you responded to the gospel with repentance and conversion? Are we deeply touched by the Holy Spirit and by the work of Jesus Christ? Do we anchor our hope in the coming of Christ while we serve the living God today? Do you sense what God’s Word is laying on our hearts tonight?

Hear the good news once more: rooted in the Triune God, you and I must ring out the message in our daily living: “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.” All of this is to the glory of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now and always. Amen!