The Messiah's Secret - The Great Commission

“Remembering before God and Father your  work  of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1: 3

Thessalonians 1: 3  is linked with this verse Chapter 5: 8 Breastplate of faith and love. The Helmet of the hope of salvation

Visual Aid – Breastplate of faith and love

In the Old Testament the chief priest wore on his chest a breastplate. 

On it were 12 precious stones each stone represented one of the tribes of Israel. This meant that the people belonging to the tribes the 12 sons of Jacob were close to the heart of the chief priest.                           

Breastplate of faith and love covering our heart, it speaks of our close relationship with God.(A child came forward and we put on the breast plate firstly the heart shape and other children put on the other words and pictures) 

Our faith in Jesus and of the Lord’s love for us. We are so precious to God that nothing can separate us from God’s love for us. 

“For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 27-29                                                        

God created us and he also in his love gives to us his joy, love and peace. (put on breastplate love, joy and peace)

The Lord our God surrounds us with all that we need to live: water, air ( the wind blowing trees) and food.

Visual Aid - The helmet the hope of our salvation

The high priest wore a helmet made of linen cloth on it was a few words ‘Holy to the Lord’ his life was dedicated to serving God.              

The Christians crown– Greek word stephanos which translates, the crown given to a victor, like an athlete who has won a race, the Christian who faithfully serves the Lord our God. (place on the head of the child the crown)                                        

 ‘Salvation’ means that we have received the gift of Jesus into our heart.          

Our hope is that we will continue always have Jesus in our heart until the day we die. (place on the crown the rosette)

The breastplate means that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

The helmet of hope looking towards our heavenly home that God has provided for us. 

1 Thessalonians 1: 1-10. Mark 16: 15-20   RSV Bible                   

Paul wrote this letter from Corinth after he had been updated by Timothy on the progress of the Thessalonica church.  

On Paul’s second ministry tour he teamed up with Silas they went from Philippi to Thessalonica.  In Acts 17 we read that on arrival they went to the synagogue where following the custom of visiting Jews they were invited to speak. Paul told those present: the Jews and the God fearing Greeks the message of the suffering and resurrection of Jesus. Paul argued with them for three weeks from the scriptures proving that Jesus was the Christ. 
The Messiahs Secret Revealed 
The Messiahs calling was a call to the nation to repent and the Messiah would return. Peter explained that they had acted in ignorance, not realising that the Messiah had to suffer and die and be raised from the dead and ascend into heaven before the nation could receive Jesus as the Messiah. Acts 3: 17 - 21
I was taught by the church that the time for the Jewish people to accept Jesus as the nations' Messiah was before Jesus' death. 

Many of the Greeks and leading women believed and this caused jealousy among the Jews.  

Paul sent Timothy to build up their faith and to encourage them so that they were not moved away by the controversy coming from the unbelieving Jews. Thessalonians 3: 2, 6.                                                                                        

Paul pointed out to the church that they would encounter opposition. 3: 4. “For when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction; just as it has come to pass.”

When we look at the Gospel reading Jesus prepared his disciples before he commissioned them by reminding them of their unbelief and hardness of heart when they first heard of Jesus’ resurrection from the women.

“Afterwards he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who saw him after he had risen.” Mark 16: 14. 

Rejection and suffering part of the commission

Paul through his unbelief caused suffering to Christians, he had arrested many Christians and put them in prison, before he became a follower of Jesus.                                 

Between 16 and 27 years old I did not appreciate the gospel message from Christians. After my first child was baptised I took up my faith again and on many occasions I witnessed to my relations and they ignored me and at work some people distanced themselves from me after I had shared my faith with them. My sister eventually responded and she was filled with the Holy Spirit at her children's baptism.         

‘Living Waters’ by Chinese Pastor Brother Yun. The Chinese house church confirmed this view, the Henan Province Church sent 17 Christians to Sen Province.

 Time and time again they returned beaten and bruised and on numerous occasions arrested and put in jail, but Brother Yun wrote that eventually the people began to respond until the whole of the province became Christian. 

In many situations rejection and suffering go before conversion.                                                                  

In Thessalonians Chapter 1: 3 Paul was encouraged by their work of faith, labour of love and their steadfastness of the hope in Jesus. 

These three things had inspired Paul: faith, hope and love. 

The Thessalonians were steadfast in faith against the opposition.They had faith to move the mountains of discouragement, they rejoiced  in their suffering and nothing could separate them from the love of God. And they hoped for Jesus’ return.                                                                                                                                 

Paul wrote in verse 10 about the hope of Jesus return it will happen when we least expect and it’s before the day of wrath, when Jesus will defeat the Antichrist. John recorded in Revelation 3: 10,11. “Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming upon the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth. I am coming soon; hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. Those who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God;”

Jesus said he could come at any time, don’t allow anyone to discourage or persuade you to turn away from your faith in Jesus.

These three things for us today Faith, hope and love

The most wonderful gracious gift is to bring a person to faith in Jesus. For them to receive our words as from God and turn to Christ and walk with him in their heart, and as a result signs will follow.

The signs from the Thessalonians they turned away from pagan worship to worship Jesus and this news went through Macedonia and Greece.

Today, changes that take place for some can be dramatic or for some it’s a gradual thing being inwardly convicted to get right with God. 
Last week on Friday and Saturday I heard at CAPs Christians Against Poverty Training days  many people are coming to faith as they respond to the help they receive in becoming free from debt by the expert free guidance from CAPs  and finding a job through CAPs Jobs Clubs. Lives are being transformed by the love of God and the excellent service and kindness of Christians giving up their time in serving the needs of others in their communities.  

Do not lose hope? What causes us to lose hope it maybe through Anxiety, exhaustion, failure and suffering of some kind?

I heard last Thursday evening at the Bury Bible Society Action Group with Rossendale Annual Conference Canon Noel Proctor in his address mentioned his own suffering: after the Strangeways Prison riots combined with the death of his wife he was completely devastated and shattered. He felt that he had lost hope in everything: his Chaplaincy work had taken a beating and his grief for his wife left him a broken man, something he had ever experienced before.  

In his despair he brought it all to the cross and prayed for the Lord forgiveness and healing and the Lord heard his prayer, he was renewed in receiving a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit, he said that his faith had grown he was stronger now than it was before.                                                                    

In Noel's testimony we can see those three things: love, hope and faith. 

The love of God that would not let him go and the hope that was rekindled through his faith in Jesus’ cross. He clung to the old rugged cross knowing that some day he will exchange it for a crown.                        

Finally Paul wrote that the greatest of the three is love.  
God’s Love that reaches out through the message that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and to everyone who believes he will give eternal life.  Even though at first it may be rejected through unbelief. The Lord will still stand and wait knocking on the door of a person’s heart to let him in.                                                   
The love that would not let Noel go in his state of hopelessness, the bonding between the Lord our God and ourselves it's like super glue. When super glue first came out people had to have items surgically removed from their hands etc. 
How Paul understood that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
 “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”