Category: Band

When we say that we follow Christ, there are several ways in which we mean it. The first way that most people would think of is to follow him in the way that he lived his life. We want to have the mind and heart of Chrst. We want to do the things that he did and speak in the way that he spoke. We can probably never live up to the perfection that Christ showed us as an example, but we look to him as our ideal, the example that we want to emulate.

But more than trying to live a life or pursue holiness in the way of Christ, we also think about eternity. Not just an eternity that starts when we die, but an eternity that starts today. And the only way that we can see into that eternity is in Christ.

In Christ, we can enter into eternity, an eternity with God. But God is holy and can only be with those who are holy, and to be holy, we must be rid of our old selves, and this is another way in which we follow Christ. As Paul told the Romans, we are baptized into Christ’s death. As we are baptized and place our faith in Christ, our old person dies. The spiritual person who was under the law dies a spiritual death. The old person is gone and a new person rises from the water into life.

This is a third way that we can follow Christ. We follow him into life, an eternal life that we have placed our faith and hope in. We trust Christ that we will not be destroyed. We trust him that what he says is true. We trust him that we will live forever with him and we will know the Father through Christ. This is what we mean when we say that we place our faith in Christ. We trust him that he will do what he says he will do. We trust that our hope for salvation from God’s wrath will not be in vain.

From a human perspective, this is probably the most important way that we follow Christ, trusting that we will be saved through him. But this is not necessarily, from God’s perspective, the most important way that we follow him. We also follow him in glorifying both him, Christ, as well as the Father. We give our entire lives for him to use. We give ourselves, just as Christ did, so that we can be both his children as well as his instruments in the world, that more people would hear and would know, and more people would glorify the Father, just as Christ did. Jesus gave himself completely so that the Father would be glorified, and as followers of Christ, we must do the same.

I want to make an important point here, though, that we are no longer under the law. As followers of Christ, the law no longer applies to us. Christ fulfilled the law and we are found within him, so we are no longer subject to the law that was given by God:

For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey —whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Romans 6:14-16

An argument that I frequently hear, especially from Muslim apologists, is that Christians believe that they are under grace and believe that they have a right to continue to sin. That is simply not true and is nothing but fiction or a misunderstanding of what the scripture actually teaches. Here, Paul says that we should no longer offer ourselves to sin, but instead we have died to sin.

As I noted above, as Christ’s followers, as we rise to eternal life as the new spiritual person, we find ourselves now desiring to live for God. Not living for myself and to glorify myself, but living for him, to glorify him. As a true follower of Christ, this should be my attitude, that the Father is lifted up, that the Father is glorified. If I don’t have this attitude, I am not following Christ. I am not living under grace, but instead I am living under the law.

But thank God that, through Christ, I don’t have to live under the law any longer. Christ fulfilled the law and I am found in him! As a follower of Christ, I am now a new person, a new creation, and I am living for him and no longer for me.

The love, grace, and mercy of God is astounding. Many people think that if they just clean themselves up enough, if they are just good enough, then God will accept them. They won’t come to God because they haven’t become good enough yet. They haven’t “cleaned up their act” just yet.

Yet this demonstrates, once again, the difference between the way God thinks and the way man thinks. Man would say that we need to earn our way to God. God says that even though you were his enemy, he would come to die for you so that you would be saved.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Romans 5:6-10

Paul clearly points out the difference between man’s thought process and God’s thought process. Men might give themselves for others in only some specific and outstanding circumstances. Not for a righteous person and only possibly for a “good” person. But God came to give himself while we were still sinners. While we were his enemies, God gave himself.

Imagine this: Someone is against you. Someone opposes you. In word, in deed, and in every way. This person is against you. What would you want to do? What would I want to do? We would want that person discredited. Put down. Destroyed.

What did God do? In this very same situation, because each of us were against God, opposed God, and did everything contrary to what God commanded or desired, we showed ourselves to be against God. And yet in that very same situation, instead of destroying us, God gave himself for us. God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, came to give himself. While we were opposed to him, while we were opposed to God, God himself paid the penalty that was required. He paid with his own blood the price of the rebellion. He paid for our sins through the death of Jesus on the cross.

How incredible of a love is that? While we were his enemies, God gave himself for us. When we truly understand that, what else can we do other than to give our entire lives back to him?

When God created the world, he spoke, and it was. Everything that we see, everything that we are, everything that would be came from God and his word. By saying the word, it was, and it is.

God, just by calling something into being, can make it become a reality. By contrast, for us, we must labor and work, but for God, that which is not comes from the word of his mouth. That is what Paul says as he speaks of the power of God:

As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

Romans 4:17

We can apply this, of course, to the time of creation, as I’ve tried to do above. But I think that there is much more that we can say. Paul starts this verse by making reference to what he said to Abraham when he said “I have made you a father of many nations.” This refers back to Genesis 17:5 where God spoke to Abraham to declare that he, God, had done what he had promised Abraham that he would do. God had told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and that his descendants would be like the stars in the sky. To do this, Abraham would need to have children, most specifically a son, but he and Sarah didn’t have any children from the two of them. Only through Hagar, the servant woman from Egypt, in Ishmael.

But God told Abraham that he had fulfilled his promise. In fact, God uses the past tense as he says this to Abraham: “I have made you”, God says when he says this to Abraham. It is done. It is complete. The work is done. There is nothing that is left for you to do.

Except one thing: to believe. He must believe. Abraham can’t see it yet, because he still has no children. He has Ishmael, but God doesn’t count Ishmael within the context of the promise that he gave to Abraham. No, Ishmael is not part of the covenant, God said to Abraham, so Abraham still doesn’t have any children. He has no descendants that are part of God’s promise, so Abraham cannot yet see God’s promise come into reality. The promise has been completed, but Abraham can’t see it yet. So, because he can’t see it, he only has one recourse: to believe that God’s plan will become a reality.

That is the reason that God made Abraham righteous before him. Because he believed that God could do it. He believed that God would carry out his plan. He believed that what God said would become a reality.

God is a God who is able, with a word, to make those things that are not true today in one moment become a reality in the next moment. God can change things with a simple word. This is what we are praying for here in Catania as well. We are praying and asking God to move, to see a movement of disciples and churches as well. God has given us life and declared us righteous through Jesus Christ, but we are also praying for the impossible, that God would call into being new believer after new believer and we are believing that God will do this in our midst, for his glory. By faith, we believe.

Religion is powerful. As human beings, we want to believe that we can be in control and manage our own lives, that we can make our own way to God. Generally speaking, that is the point of a religion: to put in place a series of rules to live by that, by adhering to those rules, we can please God.

I had a similar conversation yesterday with a Muslim man. He started with the suggesting the idea that the most important thing that we can do in our life is to follow our religion. He told me that, whether we are Christian, Muslim, or Jew doesn’t make a difference. What matters is that we follow our religion to come to God.

We read through Jesus’s words to his disciples that he is the way, the truth, and the life. We read that Jesus said that no one can come to the Father except through him. We even read where Jesus said told Philip that if he had seen Jesus, he had seen the Father. Whoa…

My friend was pretty surprised as we read through all of these things. We discussed that there is a way to come to God, but it isn’t through the church, it isn’t through the mosque, and it isn’t through the synagogue. Instead, it is only through Christ. You see, through each of these religions, we effectively say, “I’ll do it – I’ll take care of it”, meaning that we will each be good enough to reach God, to please God.

But this is, of course, completely different from what Jesus says. Jesus essentially says, instead, “I did it – I took care of it”. In other words, it is done. It is already taken care of.

Meaning what?

Meaning that Jesus is the one who was sacrificed by God himself on the cross. That sacrifice was the payment for my sins. There is no more sacrifice required to be right before God. There is no more work that needs to be done. There are no more religious actions that we need to do.

So what is left to do? What is our role?

We are called into a proper relationship with God through repentance and through belief in what Jesus has done for us. He has done it all, he has taken care of everything, and now our job is to live by faith, to have faith that Jesus’s sacrifice has paid for my sins and that I am clean and right before God, and that his resurrection will precede my resurrection. I will live because he lives and I am found in him. I place my faith in Christ to save me from God’s justice and wrath on the day of judgment.

Paul says that we must live by faith:

For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed —a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Romans 1:17

Paul is quoting Habakkuk when he says that the righteous will live by faith, but he is echoing even the beginning of the promise that God gave to Abraham, that through Abraham would come many nations, that his descendants would be like the stars in the sky.

And so Abraham waited…and waited…and waited. And finally, God gave him a son through his wife Sarah that would be a fulfillment of the promise. Abraham and Sarah tried to fulfill God’s promise themselves through Hagar when they had Ishmael. In my estimation, this is similar to the way that religion works: “We’ll take care of it!” But by continuing to have faith, even despite our failings, God will fulfill his promises and we will be saved.

Like my Muslim friend, we each have a choice to make. That is how we ended our conversation yesterday. Do we believe in what Jesus said? Or do we declare him to be a liar? Do we believe that he is truly the way, the truth, and the life? Or do we choose our own path to try to reach God? Do we live by faith from first to the last? Or do we prefer our own religious practices? It is time to choose…

Paul showed himself to be an example for the Thessalonians. When he was with them, he worked so that he and his companions wouldn’t be a burden to the Thessalonian people. They earned their money and in this way they were able to eat. They preached the Gospel as they went, and they were also supported by the churches as they went on their way, but they also worked for their money so that they could live in the areas where they were making disciples and planting churches.

For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

2 Thessalonians 3:7-10

So Paul gave the Thessalonians, and several of the other churches, an example to follow. As he came into a new location, he frequently didn’t have monies to support himself, so he became a physical worker while also doing his work within the kingdom of God.

In the same way, we want to help people to understand that work in the kingdom happens alongside of work in the world. By working in the world, we not only support ourselves and allow ourselves to eat and live, but we also get to know people and establish relationships with non-believers, thus allowing us to be able to share with them our faith. This is an important, practical component to working in the kingdom: knowing how also to work in the world.

Paul had taught the Thessalonians, and other believers and churches, that the end would come when a rebellion had occurred and a man of lawlessness appeared. This man would lead people into the belief that God had been overthrown and would set himself up to lead the people, even declaring himself to be God:

He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

2 Thessalonians 2:4

Paul is speaking of the end times and is noting this in his letter to the Thessalonians because they had become alarmed that this time had already come and gone. We had seen previously, in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, that he had encouraged them to continue to live normal, quiet lives of faith until Christ would return. They would know when it happens because Christ will come with a shout and with trumpet blasts. Paul is now reminding them to continue on this way, not believing that the day of the Lord had already come, as they had heard some say.

Another of the signs will be that this man will set himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Presumably this will be in Jerusalem, literally at the temple mount as a specific historic event. I anticipate that this will happen in the physical world with a specific person, just as Paul has said.

However, I wanted to make a note that it is also possible for us to see ourselves in this same picture, and it is a warning for each of us as well.

At one time, the temple stood in Jerusalem on the temple mount, a place that still exists today but has a mosque-type of museum standing on it today. But at this point, our bodies, instead of a physical structure, are considered to be God’s temple:

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

1 Corinthians 6:19

In this way, we can understand also that each of us represent the temple.

And this same verse tells us that the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Previously, as the temple was built by Solomon, God’s presence filled the temple. Now, God’s Holy Spirit fills us as we believe in Christ:

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38

So as people who are the temple of God and have received the Holy Spirit within us, we want to stay on guard that we do not try to overthrow God either in rebellion and setting ourselves up as God within his holy temple. Instead, God needs to maintain his place within us. He needs to remain the king. The one who is in charge. He must remain as God over each of us.

But within each of us is a desire to be God. It is for this reason that Adam and Eve at the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Satan told them that their eyes would be opened and they would be like God. And in fact, that is what happened. Their eyes were opened, and in the sense of knowing the difference between good and evil, their eyes were opened. But this wasn’t for their benefit. This was only for their detriment.

Yet even today, we continue to do the same thing. At the foundation of the problem, we can tend against worshiping God as God and instead looking to ourselves as little gods. We refuse to worship him or even acknowledge him and instead look only to ourselves:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Romans 1:21

So this is an important warning for each of us. Yes, I believe that there will be an actual Man of Lawlessness. Yes, I believe that he will precede the coming judgement. But I also believe that within each of us is a desire to be God himself and so we must stay on our guard to not believe the lie that we can be him, but instead continue to worship and glory God.

Paul begins to write his second letter to the church in Thessalonica, giving thanks to God for the faith that the Thessalonians have and their perseverance in the midst of trials and persecution. They have continued to stand fast in their faith, regardless of the fact that they have been persecuted for leaving their Jewish faith or pagan practices and instead go on to follow Christ in the way of suffering.

Paul reassures the church that there will be justice. God doesn’t allow people’s injustice to go unpunished, but instead, he will have his vengeance. God’s vengeance will come upon those who have done wrong, who have remained in their sins, and who continue on persecuting the believers. And Paul assures the Thessalonians that they will be rewarded for their faith.

The timing is important here, though. He says that this will happen upon Christ’s return:

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-8

In this life, we shouldn’t expect that all will be set right just because we are a believer in Jesus. No, instead, we should expect the opposite. Suffering and persecution will come. Difficulty will come. But God will have his vengeance upon those who have perpetrated that suffering, persecution, and difficulty.

After saying all of this, Paul talks about how he prays for the Thesslonians and for their growth, for their sanctification. Paul says that he prays that God will make them worthy of the calling that he, God, gave to the Thesslonians. Paul is praying also that God will give his power to do everything that the Thessalonians desire to do in the name of goodness and in that which they desire to do, those things that are prompted by faith.

But there is a final, bottom line reason that Paul is saying all of these things. There is a reason that he gives them assurance of justice and the fact that God will set all things right. There is a reason that Paul prays God will fulfill their desires for what is right. That reason is that Jesus will be glorified.

We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1:12

Sometimes we say things like this too flippantly. Sometimes we are too nonchalant. “Yes, of course, I want Jesus to be glorifed,” we might think. But this should be the reason for why we do all things. Yet, is it? Is that truly the reason that we are doing what we are doing? Because Jesus would be glorified? Our desire, truly, is that he would be lifted up? Or is it so that we can gain? Or is it so that we can acquire? Or is it so that we can have a greater position or status in society?

Are we making the decisions that we are making because we want Jesus to be glorified? That we want him to be lifted up? That is the bottom line reason that Paul was praying for the growth of the Thessalonians. That is the bottom line reason that God will bring justice upon those who persecute the believers. It is all so that Jesus will be lifted up, that he will be magnified, that he will be glorified.

What decisions would we make differently if that was our true end game? How differently would we live our lives if glorifying Christ was the goal of our lives? What would we risk? What would we change?

May Christ be lifted up in our lives. May Jesus be glorified.

Jesus will return one day soon. No one knows when that day will be, but to many it will be a surprise, while to many others, it will be an expected event that they anticipated and planned to see.

As Paul was writing to the Thessalonians in chapter 4, he starts a contrast that carries over into chapter 5. First, in chapter 4, he says that when Jesus returns, he will come as the result of a loud command, with the voice of an arcangel, and with a trumpet call of God. That in no way, of course, seems subtle, nor hidden. There is nothing that will be hidden about Christ’s return. He will come with a shout and with the sounding of a trumpet. Everyone will know that he is coming and there will be no doubt as to what is happening.

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

1 Thessalonians 4:16

Paul was explaining this so that the Thesslonians wouldn’t be worried that people who had died between the time that they had believed and the time when Jesus will return would miss Christ’s return. No, in fact, Paul explained that they will go on to be raised first from the dead and then those who are still alive at Christ’s return would then be taken with Jesus.

On the other hand, looking forward into chapter 5, Paul says that Jesus’s day to return will come like a thief in the night. That day will, in fact, sneak up on people like a thief. It won’t come shouting. It won’t come blaring trumpets. It won’t come with a loud voice.

So, wait a minute… How can these two things be true? How can, on the one hand, Jesus come with the sound of the trumpet, and on the other hand, his day comes silently, like a thief in the night.

The difference comes in our preparedness. The difference is us. We can be prepared for Christ’s return, or not. We can find ourselves ready to be judged or not. As Paul says, we can choose to live in the light, or not.

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-6

We must be prepared for Christ to return. Not only must we believe in him, place our faith for our salvation in him and call him Lord, but we must be living for him and doing what he has called us to do. Not distracted by the things of the world. Not looking to other things that are not of God. Not living in darkness, but walking completely in light of Christ. Only in this way can we be ready for Christ’s return.

Jesus talked about this same type of scenario in the parable of the ten virgins. He said that some of them kept oil in their lamps, and also carried extra oil along with them, even though they didn’t know when the bridegroom would return. In this way, they would be prepared.

And wouldn’t you know it, the bridegroom arrives in the night! Since the virgins don’t have extra oil to light their way to where the bridegroom is, they have to go buy extra oil, the oil that they should have been carrying with them along the way already, as the other ones did. In the end, they arrive late to the wedding banquet and aren’t allowed to enter. The bridegroom simply tells them that he doesn’t know them.

So if we understand what Paul is saying to the Thessalonians and we understand that aligned with Jesus’s parable, we can understand that there will be no mistake about Jesus’s return. The return itself will not be hidden. It will not be like a thief in the night. It will be loud and Jesus will come with power.

However, what will be hidden is the indication that he is coming. There won’t be more and more warning. There will not be additional flashing light nor sound to draw your attention to the fact that Jesus will be coming, or that his day will arrive within X amount of time. No, in fact, just at the time when people think that all is fine, that they are at peace, that all is well…then is the time that Christ will return. And it will be loud because the king will be coming in all of his glory. And there will be no more excuses.

Paul was afraid that they had fallen away. He had labored intensely to preach the Gospel there in Thessalonica, but the opposition was strong. The Jews in the synagogue had opposed Paul, and done so to the extent that they needed to escape. Paul left for Berea where, even there, the Jews from Thessalonica came to find him and stir up the crowds against him there.

So, it was one thing that Paul had left, but there was more to the story. Those that he left in his wake would have to continue on in the midst of persecution. They weren’t able to easily leave. Their lives, their homes, their families, their work, was all there in Thessalonica. And now it was all at risk because of the message that Paul had given them.

For the Thessalonians, like each of the believers and churches that Paul left in his wake, to believe and truly follow Christ meant that they were not only believing in Christ as the Messiah, but it meant that they were breaking with their local cultural beliefs. If you were a Jew, it meant that you believed differently than the other Jews which left you open to the possibility of being shunned, and you likely were. On the other hand, if you were a Gentile, and your local culture was to worship the Greek gods, and that likely was the culture, then you left yourself open to the possibility of being placed outside of the rest of the mainstream of society. No longer did you worship this Greek “god” at the temple. No longer did you offer sacrifices to that god or to its idol. No longer would you go to the temple prostitute.

The persecution, therefore, was not simply just a question of a difference of beliefs. It was a difference in society. It was a question of how you would carry on business. It was a question of how you were going to eat and live.

So it was little wonder that Paul was concerned about the persecution that was about to come upon the Thessalonians. But Paul was thrilled that they were standing strong and continuing in their faith:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 3:7-8

It is interesting that Paul says here that, despite the persecution, and despite all of the troubles that they are now having, that it is now that they really live. That is true, of course, in various senses of this statement. Being spiritually dead and having come to Christ, they do now really live. What is more, they give their lives to Christ and understand this larger purpose for their lives, to glorify him instead of living for themselves. They do begin to really live at this point, but to many, it may not feel this way, and this is why Paul wanted to confirm that they were standing firm in their faith. Thankfully, that is the report that Timothy gave back to Paul after visiting the Thessalonians and for this, Paul is encouraged because of their faith.

I want to make one additional note here as well that I see a direct connection between this situation here with the Thessalonians and the parable of the four soils that Jesus told in Matthew 13. On the one hand, we see that Jesus spoke of the second type of soil being the rocky soil where the roots do not go deep and when the sun comes out – read: when persecution comes – then the plant withers and dies.

Thankfully, that isn’t what happened in this case. Instead, even in the short time that Paul was with them in Thessalonica – only 3 weeks! – the Thessalonians had taken root well enough to stand up to the persecution that was now coming their way. As the “sun”, as Jesus said, came out in the form of persecution, the Thessalonian church was rooted well enough to stand in the face of the persecution so that they could continue on in their faith.

And even more than just continue in their faith. As we saw in chapter 1, Paul said that their faith had become known everywhere. The church had become renowned for their faith and it was ringing out and they had become an example. This is similar to the fourth soil of which Jesus spoke in the parable. He said that the seed on the good soil produced a crop. Not just one plant from one seed, but many, and that is what is happening in this case in Thessalonica. Paul had planted the seed, but it wasn’t just the one seed that was producing one plant. Instead, the seed that he had sown had fallen on good soil and was producing a crop throughout the entire area.

There is a reason to go on a mission. When you have a mission, you have something that you want to achieve. When you have a mission, you desire a specific result, a specific outcome, and Paul notes that this is the same for him as he went about his work:

You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.

1 Thessalonians 2:1-4

As Paul moved from one city to another, he shared the Gospel and taught the people to have faith in Christ. As he left, he left churches in his wake, small groups of people who carried on the ministry work in the local areas.

That is what had happened as Paul had come to Thessalonica. He had been treated badly in Philippi, even having been thrown into prison for doing nothing more than freeing a slave girl from her demon possession, making angry her owners because she could no longer predict the future. Now, as he arrives in Thessalonica, he was opposed by the Jews as he preached at the synagogue and elsewhere and is persecuted for the message that he brought of Jesus being the Messiah who was killed by the Jews and resurrected to life.

Despite all of the opposition, Paul began to win people to Christ. Some people began to believe, and this is the outcome that he had hoped for. These were the first steps toward achieving the outcome that he had desired for his mission.

We also must look toward achieving an outcome. I don’t believe Paul would have been satisfied to simply think or say, “Well, I guess they didn’t believe…time to move on.” No, he is doing this travel, he is enduring through the hardship, he is working night and day to see an outcome. He is doing these things so that there would be a result. He desires to see Jesus worshiped and glorified. He desires to see the people in Thessalonica know Christ and have others know him through these new believers.

Our work must lead toward these outcomes. It must lead toward these results. The results don’t come without God’s leading, and they also don’t come without our participation and work. We see this same thing in what Paul tells us as well. He said that their message came both through words as well as through the power of the Holy Spirit. In the same way, we must also work and continue to ask the Holy Spirit for his leading and confirmation of the message that we are speaking so that we will see the results that we are hoping to see as we complete the mission that Christ has sent us to accomplish.