Page 21 - April 2025 - Truth & Tidings

" or our gospel did not come to you in found in the work, person and blood
word only, but also in power, and in
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As Paul
Fthe Holy Spirit and in much assur- wrote to those believers in Thessalonica,
ance, as you know what kind of men we he felt the need to encourage and re-
were among you for your sake” (1Th 1:5). mind them of four facets of the glori-
1
Are you able to recall an event in your ous gospel message that had delivered
life that was life-changing? Was there a them and had changed them forever.
moment in time that completely changed Aspect #1: In Speech – A Mes-
the course of your life and, even more
importantly, your eternal destiny? For the sage that Was Spoken
Thessalonian believers, many could look The first and most obvious way in
back to three Sabbath days in succession which the gospel was delivered to the
when they responded to the preaching believers was in word, the spoken word.
and reasoning of the apostle Paul in the Even today, just as in that day, it pleases
synagogue in Thessalonica. They heard “God through the foolishness of the mes-
the message of the gospel, the message sage preached to save those who believe”
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the (1Co 1:21). While no written manuscript
Messiah who suffered and rose again (Act of the New Testament could be presented
17). Some believed, and others became to them at the time, no doubt Paul would
jealous and protested, but the preacher have reasoned with them from the Old
who came to that largest city of Macedo- Testament Scriptures and would have
nia proclaimed a message that altered the declared the message publicly, as was so
eternal destiny of many. The message was often the case in the book of Acts, so that
so impactful that those who preached it even the most illiterate of sinners could
were said to have “turned the world up- grasp something of the unsearchable
side down” (Act 17:6). Thessalonica was riches of Christ. The message spoken was
a free city – free of Roman occupation not empty words; it wasn’t through excel-
and soldiers, free of taxation to Rome, lency of speech or through the persuasive
free of Roman government – yet, sadly, words of man’s wisdom (1Co 2:1,4). Paul
imprisoned in the imperial cult of Caesar could rejoice that they had accepted the
worship. But the empowered preaching spoken message as what it was in truth, a
of Paul turned things upside down and word from God Himself (1Th 2:13).
offered true, real, profound freedom for
the first time. It was a freedom from sin, Aspect #2: In Strength – A
freedom from guilt, a freedom that was Message that Was Powerful

1 Bible quotations in this article are from the When the gospel was preached in Thes-
NKJV. salonica, it wasn’t just a spoken message,
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