Church Sermon - October 23, 2005

THE THESSALONIANS ARE A MODEL FOR US

Rev. Bernt P. Tweit

Old Testament Lesson; Leviticus 19:1-18
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 22:34-40
Sermon Text; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10

Each summer when I go to Camp Indianhead, with the youth and the adults from Holy Cross, my wife, Katie, goes to see her parents in St. Paul, MN. One of the things they love to do is go to the Mall of America. Benjamin and Kira love to put a penny into a machine (and you can do this in many places) and watch that penny get conformed into a different shape. It becomes elongated. And, it becomes stamped. This one, for example, says, "Camp Snoopy" on it. It has Charlie Brown and the whole gang. So, a penny gets conformed, after it is put through extreme pressure, into the image that is stamped on it.

That, along with some beautiful examples from our text for this morning, help us to understand how it is that the Thessalonians congregation can be a model for us.

If you turn to the front of your bulletin this morning, you will see two examples from our text. Two examples in which we can imitate, or which we can be a model of Christ. On the right hand side of the bulletin is pictured an archaic machine. It is a mimeograph. We don’t see mimeographs anymore, because we now have risographs. But, I remember as a child, (and if you are younger than 30 years old, you probably never have seen a mimeograph), but I remember my grade school principal running the school newsletter through the mimeograph. The master was on a transparency. And as those papers were fed through the mimeograph, they took on the image of that transparency master. (Perhaps you even recall the purple ink that would get everywhere.)

The Greek word that is used for imitate, is ‘mimeomai’. It is from that Greek word that we get the English word, ‘mime or mimic or mimeograph’. Just as that mimeograph gets an image that imitates the master, so also the Thessalonians imitated the example that was set before them.

The other example on the front of our bulletin cover is the typewriter. The Greek word for model is ‘tupis’. If you could transliterate that into English it would be ‘tupis’. It is what we get our English word, ‘type’ from. And so the Thessalonians became a type, or a stamp, or a model that other congregations followed from them.

And so mimeo and tupis, (mimeograph and type) those are wonderful examples, or ways to imitate, or model other people.

If I were to ask you if there was a person that you imitate, or model, you would probably give me some wonderful people whom you model your life after. I know for me, I imitated and wanted to model the life of my grandfather. Blessed be his memory, he is in Heaven now, but I even in third grade I wanted to imitate what he did.

Let’s look at our text and see how the Thessalonian congregation can be a model for us. Let’s begin by looking at whom it is that they wanted to imitate. In the second chapter of this book of the Bible, it tells us that the Thessalonian congregation wanted to model the example set for them by the Judean congregation. Now the Judean congregations were hundreds of miles away, and yet they heard the example that they had set and the Thessalonians wanted to follow that.

Well, how about the Judean congregations? What example did they want to follow? They wanted to follow the example set for them by the apostles.

Last week, we read whom it is that is writing or coming to the church in Thessalonica. It is Paul. It is Silas. And, it is Timothy. Think of the example of Timothy. Timothy wanted to imitate the example that had been set for him by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. St. Paul once said to Timothy, "And how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." Timothy wanted to model that example that was set for him by his mother and by his grandmother.

Or, take the example of Paul. Before he was Paul, he was Saul. He persecuted the Christians. But, after Jesus came and appeared to him, Paul wanted to present Jesus as the Savior, as the rescuer of our sin.

Ultimately, it goes back to Christ, doesn’t it? Christ is the perfect example. He became a model for the apostles, who became a model for the Judeans, who became a model for the Thessalonians. And now our scripture reading for today says that churches in Macedonia and Achaia wanted to imitate the model that the Thessalonians had set for them.

Thessalonica was the largest city in the area known as Macedonia. Achaia was the area right next to Macedonia. The scripture text tells that not only did the Macedonian and Achaian believers wanted to follow the example or the model set by the Thessalonians, but also believers everywhere wanted to follow the example of Christ.

Now knowing that the Thessalonians followed the example of Christ, we ask the question today, "Are we able to perfectly follow the example of Christ?" And the answer is "no." We can’t perfectly follow the example of Christ. But, that does not give us a license then to go and live the way that we want to live, or sin the way that we want to sin. After we come to faith in Jesus as our Savior, and as we live a life after coming to faith, we call that doctrine in scripture sanctification.

I want to share with you what Professor Lyle Lang, (the son-in-law of one of our members), had to say about this very thing. While we can’t perfectly follow the example of Christ, it does not give us a license to sin. He says, "Can people live together so they enjoy the privilege of marriage, without the commitment of marriage and still retain faith? Can people follow the loose morals of the world, and still remain God’s Children? Can people abuse alcohol and drugs? Can they abuse their spouses and children? Can they live with hatred in their hearts? Can they give money the first place in their lives and still keep faith? We obviously cannot judge hearts. Only God can do that. Yet, for those whose lives are characterized by repeated and willful disobedience to God, the warning is in place. Those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Wake up! Evil works destroy faith. Faith will not flirt with or live with sin. Rather, in the face of sin, faith responds with Joseph (remember Joseph fleeing from Potipher’s wife), ‘How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?’"

We can’t perfectly follow the example that Christ has set for us. And yet, it does not give us the right to willfully sin, knowing that we will be forgiven.

Luther put it this way. Luther was explaining to a young man who was troubled by the sin that was around him, saying, "you can’t prevent birds from flying over your head, you can prevent those birds from building a nest in your hair!"

In our scripture readings for today, (which Pastor Bartels read), we first of all see Moses talking about two very specific commandments. He talks about the Eighth Commandment and the Fifth Commandment. First of all Moses says,

As we hear slander, our sinful nature loves to take that and share it with other people. But here, following Christ as the perfect example, that slander should stop with us. The best thing for us to do is to go back to that person who that slander is about and ask, "Is this true?" And then, do the best we can to help them retain their reputation.

Moses also said that we should not hold hatred in our hearts.

As we live with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and rub shoulders and elbows with them, it is so easy for us, according to our sinful nature, to hold grudges against our brothers and sisters. Again, may we follow the example of Christ, who in our Gospel Lesson for today said,

There, talking about our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with our neighbor.

III. How can the Thessalonians be a Model for us?

Knowing all that gets us to the question that I asked this morning. How can the Thessalonians be a model for us? Well, our scripture reading shares with us. It shares with us three ways that the Thessalonians can be a model for us.

Paul says about the Thessalonians that they turned from idols, first of all. Where the Thessalonians lived was not to far from Greece and the Greek mountains where all of the Greek gods were talked about, shared about, and believed in. The Thessalonians turned from those idols and they followed the true and living God. What a wonderful example that is for us - to turn from anything that we may set up as idols, and turn to the true and living God.

The second thing that Paul says in our text for today, that we can model the Thessalonians is that they served God. Believers everywhere wanted to follow the example that the Thessalonians had set, to serve God. In the book of 2 Corinthians, it tells how the Corinthian church followed the example of the Thessalonians in their giving. They would set aside a sum of money in keeping with their income, on the first day of the week. They would give with cheerful and happy hearts. That was an example the Corinthian church used from the Thessalonian church. We can also do that, as we serve God through our time, through our talents, and through our treasures.

Finally, the Thessalonians church is a wonderful model for us, because they waited for the return of Christ. As believers, we wait for that day too. We wait for the return of Christ. In light of the catastrophes that have been happening in the course of this past week, and this past year, those are all signs - signs that Jesus says will be fulfilled, before the end comes.

And so, may we be prepared in our faith. May we be prepared in our faith in Jesus, as our rescuer. What a wonderful picture that is of Jesus our Savior, the rescuer, the strong, powerful One who comes to save us who are weak and sinful.

May the Thessalonian believers and the Thessalonian congregation be a wonderful example for us. They ultimately modeled the life of Christ. And so we, through the help of the Holy Spirit, live Christ-like lives, as we give thanks for our forgiveness and salvation that has been won for us, so that others can model our Savior through us.

Amen.

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