How does one pioneer a power-packed effective church? That’s the question today. We are going to take a look at how the call of God and the zeal of the Lord upon the Apostle Paul turned into a power-packed Church in one of the ten most influential cities in the Roman Empire, the city of Thessaloniki. Now, one thing is certain from the following illustration — this is not how Paul did it. You know, about 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. In the first year, this group of pioneers established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. In the third year, the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. In the fourth year, the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway? Is that wild or what? Here were people who had the vision to travel three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But, once they got there, in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision¹ F.B. Myer said, that the church that refuses to be a missionary church will become a missing church. the Apostle Paul didn’t get saved to sit — He got saved to be sent. The result of his obedience to go? The powerful church at Thessaloniki. How to Start a Power-Packed Effective Church: Lessons from Thessaloniki, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 45 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Power-Packed Church: Background to 1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 1:1 (ESV) — 1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

• So, in last week’s introductory podcast to First Thessalonians, we took a basic look at who wrote this letter, Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
• We looked as well at some of the background relating to the city.
• That’s as far as we got.
• Today, we want to dive into how the church became the Church in Thessaloniki.
• Paul and company wrote this first letter to this church in the year 50 AD.
• He wrote the second letter a year later.
• So Paul and company visited this area to start this church prior to AD 50.

Power-Packed Church – Paul’s Missionary Journeys

• Now, the book of Acts and the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul call attention to the area of Macedonia where this church is located.

Acts 16:6–10 (ESV) — 6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

• The word ‘region’ means district, place, or country.
• So, we have the region of Phrygia, the region of Galatia, and the region of Macedonia.
• This region or country is where Thessaloniki is.
• So the city of the Thessalonians was an influential city that had money and was built to last.
• Politically, it was hooked up with Rome.
• The city enjoyed favored status because they were hooked up with Rome.
• One of those benefits was that there weren’t any Roman troops stationed there.
• The taxes were not as severe.
• Financially, they were good — politically they were good.
• Things were really looking up in this place from the natural standpoint.

Power-Packed Church: the Greatest Impact

• But the good news is that the Good News of Jesus came to Thessaloniki.
• Besides all of the other natural and wonderful physical things about this city, this is what made the greatest impact.
• The light of the gospel of Jesus Christ always makes the absolute biggest difference.
• Now, with believers coming to Jesus, the citizens of this city have the most vital of all blessings — God’s kids are living there.
• These people are linked to God, they are joined with Jesus.
• That’s what verse nine of chapter one says.

1 Thessalonians 1:9 (ESV) — 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

• Financially, they are good — politically they are good. Spiritually, they are the best they have ever been.
• That’s the impact the gospel makes.
• Studies have been done on this that show that the level of inventions, creative approaches, and solutions to a whole plethora of things comes because the light of the gospel of Jesus has shined on that nation.
• The reverse is also true that in parts of the world that are dark because there are little to no Christian churches, that’s where innovation lags and countries are backward.

Power-Packed Church: Why Eternal Life is The Difference Maker

• The impact of eternal life, the Zoe God-kind of life, on the spirits and minds of men is unparalleled.
• You see this in the Old Testament.

Daniel 1:17–20 (ESV) – 17 As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. 18 At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 19 And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. 20 And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.

• Ten times better.
• The light of the gospel of Jesus Christ makes any city ten times better with it than without it.

Power-Packed Church: The Role of the Synagogue

• So, we’ve already read that the church was established in this city in verse one.
• Let’s read it again.

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…

• Now, what’s the storyline on how this church came into being?
• Acts seventeen has the details.

Acts 17:1–4 (ESV) — Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

• Paul’s evangelistic method was to visit the local Jewish synagogue of whatever town or area he traveled into.
• You see this again and again.
• God called Paul to be an Apostle to the Gentiles but the first thing in any city is hit the synagogue.
• That’s mentioned in verse two — Paul went into the synagogue as was his custom.
• Why?
• Well, there are a few reasons.
• Yes, they’re mostly Jews who are in the synagogue.
• And, of course, they are unsaved because they haven’t heard the gospel, yet.
• But they have all the Word that they know about in that place.
• They have the Old Testament scriptures.
• That beats anything any of the idol temples had within their walls.
• At least they are talking about the right God — the only true and living God.
• The other thing you should know about synagogues is that it was more than a place to have a Jewish service.
• Synagogues were a meeting place for social functions.
• Connections were made here — friendships were born.
• Coming to the local synagogue was a good place to start if you were new in town.
• Now, here’s the question.
• You are the new guy in town.
• How would you go about this thing knowing what you know about Jesus and also knowing that these people in the synagogue know zero about Him?
• Do you go easy?
• Take baby steps maybe?
• What do you think?
• Acts thirteen records Paul’s method.
• What you have there is a sermon that Paul preached on his first missionary journey.

Power-Packed Church: Paul’s Missionary Journeys

• Paul had three missionary tours of duty.
• We will talk about the first two.
• In his first missionary tour, Paul hit the following cities.
• He started in Antioch, went to Cyprus, then to Pamphylia — someone said I don’t where Pamphylia is — it’s in modern-day Turkey.
• Then he went to Iconium — also in Turkey – the city still exists in Turkey today but by a different name — Konya.
• After this, Paul went to Lycaonia and then Paul worked his way back the same way that he came until he came back to Antioch.
• All of that was round one.
• Paul’s second missionary tour starts in Derby and Lystra, then back to Iconium and Galatia.
• After this, the missionary team travels west to Troas.
• Troas is where Paul experiences a supernatural move of God.
• He was a vision.
• In it, he sees a man from Macedonia.
• In the vision, the man says ‘Come over and help us.’
• And with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.

David Livingstone, great explorer and Christian pioneer, wrote in one magnificent sentence, “I will go anywhere—provided it be forward.”

• Paul was going forward.
• He was trying to ascertain the will of God.
• Paul concludes from this supernatural vision that he is supposed to go to Macedonia.
• Sometimes, God will lead us in this kind of remarkable, out-of-the-ordinary way.
• At times, He needs to do this to arrest our attention.
• Now, Macedonia is a big place.
• Where in Macedonia should we go, Paul’s team may have thought.
• Well, they go to Philippi and then to Thessalonica.
• Both of these cities are in Macedonia.
• After this they go Corinth — and establish the Corinthian church and then they go back to Jerusalem — that was the end of the second missionary tour.
• A lot of significant church-building work is accomplished on this second tour.
• The Galatian Church, the Corinthian church, and the church at Thessaloniki.
• Man, those are some major churches that were established.

Power-Packed Church: Comes with Direction

• But, I said all of that to say this: ‘How did the power-packed church of the Thessalonians come to be?
• Well, first it came by the supernatural direction of the Spirit of God.
• It came into being via gifts of the Spirit. — specifically, Discerning of Spirits coupled with the Word of Knowledge.
• Paul had a vision — he saw a man in this vision — the man in the vision gave him direction.
• These nine gifts of the Spirit, found in 1 Corinthians twelve are out of this world – literally.
• These nine gifts are nine ways the Holy Spirit manifests himself.
• Paul received direction this way, in this case, but that’s not the normal way God leads us.

Romans 8:14 (ESV) — For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God… 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

• The Spirit of God bearing witness in your heart is the normal way God leads.
• When I mean normal, I mean the great majority of the time.
• Now, there are other ways that God can lead you.
• But in either case, whether an individual has the normal everyday leading of the Spirit, this unusual kind of leading that Paul had or, any other of the ways God leads a person, starting a church takes direction from the Spirit.
• The man from Macedonia in Paul’s vision said ‘Come and help us.’
• You don’t start a power-packed church with a good program, a community outreach, or anything that you can think up in your head.
• Building the Kingdom of God starts with the King.
• You start it with the direction or the moving of God’s Spirit.
• Many years ago, the Spirit of God said the following to me.

Go to North Tulsa and open up a family worship center where people can come and worship me.

• That was direction — that’s how God lead me.
• I didn’t have a vision in the seasons of the night.
• There was no supernatural sign flashing across the sky.
• He spoke up in my spirit plain and simple.
• Our family, Sharon, the children, and myself obeyed that direction.
• That simple ‘Yes, that we said to God,” took about eleven years of our lives.
• Then, another word from God came.
• It came the same way as the last word.
• The Spirit of God spoke up in my spirit.

Write a running commentary on the New Testament and publish it as your life’s written work.

• We are still in that phase.
• He’s added some things to this phase.
• But, we are still in it.
• That’s why I teach the way I teach.
• That’s why we have a website emeryhorvath.com, to publish our life’s written work.
• We are endeavoring to fulfill the Word of the Lord that He spoke.
• Reiterating the point, the Thessalonian church began with Holy Spirit direction.

Power-Packed Church: Comes by the Ministry of the Word.

• So, Paul headed to the synagogue — now, what do you think his conversation was when he got there?
• Well, we don’t know specifically, but we do have a sample from his first missionary tour.
• It’s in Acts 13:13–41.
• Now, go and look at this sermon.
• I encourage you to read it.
• When you do, you will find the following – it consists of 593 English words.
• Of course, that’s what’s in your Bible.
• Paul didn’t preach the Word in English, he preached it in Hebrew.
• At any rate, it’s a short message.
• To give you a framework for comparison, my podcast runs around 35–3600 words on average for a thirty-minute Bible lesson.
• So 593 words, rounding it off to 600, would take me about five minutes time.
• Paul’s sermon was five minutes long.
• In our circles coming up, we would call this a sermonette.
• It’s short but full of faith and power.

Acts 13:14–41 (ESV) — 14… And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:

• Here’s the sermon…

1. “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years.

• So Paul covers Israeli in Egypt, the Exodus, and Israel coming into the Promised Land short and to the point.
• Four hundred and fifty years of history in 72 words.
• Now to give this some perspective, America is 246 years old.
• Could you give our history in 72 words?
• Could you give out history in less than 100 words if we bumped you up?

20… And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

• Paul just covered 1300 years of history in 111 words.
• He did all this just to get to Jesus.
• So, in less than 200 words total, Paul gets us to Jesus and then he spends the next 400 words talking about 33 years of one man’s life.
• Listen to it now.

25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ 26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. 32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “ ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ 34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, “ ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ 35 Therefore he says also in another psalm, “ ‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ 36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: 41 “ ‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’ ”

• What’s the point of all this breaking down of Paul’s sermon?
• Here’s the point — everything in this message points to Jesus.
• The main focus of Paul’s message is Jesus.
• He spends most of his time talking about Him.
• How do you start a power-packed church?
• You get direction from the Spirit of God about ‘the when and the where’ and then you talk a lot about Jesus!
• You know in life you maximize what you emphasize.
• Emphasize Jesus.
• Let all you do point to Him.
• The songwriter said — “Heaven stands at attention when you mention the Name,” the Name of Jesus.
• And that’s absolutely right — but starting a power-packed means that the inhabitants of earth, need to stand at attention as well — they need to have their attention arrested.
• The only way to do that is to lift Jesus up.

John 12:32 (ESV) — 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

• So Paul goes to the local synagogue and preaches Jesus — and he does it three consecutive Saturdays in a row.

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

• Then what – does that mean Paul was only in the city of the Thessalonians for three weeks?
• Nope — we’ll talk about the tremendous impact of the gospel on the Gentiles in next week’s podcast.

Now, Father God, I thank you for how the church is yet growing and expanding. Thank you for the great outpouring of the Spirit that has been and is yet to come. Glory to God — it’s yet to come. And, I am thankful for it. Thank you for the lessons that we can learn on how the church became THE power-packed church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the city of the Thessalonians.

Love [Scripture List]

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