Penn Jillette is one half of the magic team known as Penn and Teller. He is widely known for his hard to believe illusions. But Penn is also known for his disdain for Christianity. Penn writes and speaks often against religious belief. In an on-line video blog, Penn tells of meeting a Christian man after a magic show. The man tried to share his faith with Penn (in Penn’s words, the man tried to “proselytize” him.) Here’s what happened…
How remarkable to hear an atheist talk in positive terms about “proselytizing” or “evangelizing”! Penn states that if he believed what we Christians believe, he would definitely try to persuade others to follow Jesus. In Penn’s mind, Christians would have to hate people in order not to evangelize.
Evangelism is such a natural expectation of religious faith that even an atheist sees its necessity. Yet the reality is that very few Christians evangelize. Very few of us share our faith. Why?
To address this question, I want to reflect on one verse in 1 Thessalonians: Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess. 1:1 ESV) In this one verse Paul highlights three groups.
- First, Paul mentions the evangelists—“Paul, Silvanus and Timothy.”
- Second, Paul mentions those evangelized—“the church of the Thessalonians.”
- Third, Paul writes of the Trinity—“God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Later in vs. 5 he will mention the Holy Spirit.)
In this Sunday morning series we’ve seen that the people reading this letter are recent converts to Christianity. They represent what many of us would love to see—people who do not know Jesus coming to faith in Jesus. In this Sunday morning series I’ve described them as people whose lives have been turned around. Many of us would love to be involved in something similar—turning lives around. And all three groups mentioned in this verse are critical to seeing that happen. Let’s reflect on these three groups.
First, let’s consider the Trinity: Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess. 1:1 ESV) Paul indicates that these new Christians are “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” This could mean many things.
- It could mean simply that this church is founded upon God and Jesus.
- The phrase could mean that this church belongs to God and Jesus.
- Further, the phrase could mean that this church gathers in the presence of the Father and the Son. [i]
But what it most likely means is that these Christians derive their new life from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.[ii] Jesus’ longest teaching about what it means to be “in Christ” comes in John 15 where he uses the fruit on a vine. Jesus is the vine. We are the fruit. We derive our life from Jesus. Apart from that vine, the fruit cannot survive. That’s what it means to be “in Christ.” Thus Paul may be saying here that these new Christians owe their life to the Trinity: God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, whom Paul mentions a few verses later. In other words, the Trinity gave life to these new Christians. Everything we’ve witnessed in Thessalonica owes its existence to the Trinity.
Paul is saying that all of this outreach in Thessalonica was the product of the community of Father, Son and Spirit. All of this outreach was the product of community. The starting point for these turned-around lives was the loving community of Father, Son and Spirit. It was that community, in the days before Genesis 1, who lived together and loved together and decided to create humanity. It was this Trinity-community who decided to pursue and win back humanity. It was this Trinity-community who engaged in the most dangerous outreach mission ever—one that would cost the life of one of its members. All of this outreach flowed out of the divine community of Father, Son and Spirit.
And what motivated the Trinity to do this? What motivated God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to reach out to the Thessalonians? Paul puts it this way in 1 Thess. 1:4: For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you. God loved them. What drove this Trinity-community to launch all of this outreach was love.
And that is a critical point because I think too often the dominant emotion in our discussions about evangelism is “guilt.” We often evangelize out of guilt. We share our faith out of guilt. And when we don’t, we feel guilty.
But the Trinity’s outreach was driven by love. For eternity they had shared an unparalleled love with each other, and now they wanted to share it. So they created humans. And when humans strayed, the Trinity launched an effort that would lead humanity back into their loving arms. They were driven by love.
This is critical because “guilt” leads to what one author has called “Spam Evangelism.” Spam evangelism is the kind of evangelism done with the sensitivity and personal touch of spam email. Evangelism that is driven by guilt is often done in as quick and impersonal a way as possible, so that those feelings of guilt can be resolved as quickly as possible. Author Mike Bechtle shares this story:[iii] A college classmate decided to walk down Central Avenue in Phoenix at lunchtime and ask women to kiss him. He wanted to see how many people he would have to ask before someone took him up on it. After being repeatedly cursed, ignored, and slapped a couple of times, the 98th woman gave him a kiss. Using the logic of spam evangelism, he might say, “It was worth it, because I actually got one person to kiss me.” I wondered about the other 97 women who might be more hardened than ever, more suspicious, and more wary of men approaching them on the street. In the same way, I think a lot of unbelievers have been hardened by aggressive witnessing techniques.”
The outreach that led to the turn-around in Thessalonica was radically different from spam evangelism. It grew out of a loving divine community of Father, Son and Spirit. It was sensitive and personal. And this first group in our verse reminds us of the importance of the right motive for evangelism—not guilt but love.
Let’s return to our verse and reflect upon the second group: [PP text and ref. with indicated highlights] Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess. 1:1 ESV) Father, Son and Spirit were motivated by love to engage in outreach. But notice how they pursued that outreach. Notice that this verse does not read “Paul, to the church of the Thessalonians…” Instead, it reads, “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians…” God’s mission to Thessalonica was not pursued through a lone individual. Instead, it was pursued through a group of people, a trio. God’s outreach to Thessalonica was pursued through community.
Paul draws a great deal of attention to this in his letter. Imaging taking a different letter, like Philippians, and looking at the total number of times Paul writes the words “we” and “I.” Then imagine looking at what percentage of that total is “we” and what percentage of the total is “I.” In a book like Philippians “we” is only 9% of that total. The other 81% is Paul writing “I.” But in 1 Thessalonians it’s very different. In this letter the word “we” is used 97% of the time. Paul only writes of “I” 3% of the time.[iv] This letter is a record of how God used a “we” rather than a “me” to turn lives around in Thessalonica. God pursued his outreach through community.
And what a community! Luke, the author of Acts, calls Silvanus “Silas.” He comes on the scene in Acts 15 as a distinguished delegate who travelled to a city called Antioch carrying the decree of a group of Christian leaders. These leaders had just met in Jerusalem to discuss whether non Jews could become Christians without being circumcised. Silas carried their decision to Antioch. And he apparently remained in Antioch. When Paul, who was also living in that city, decided to launch his second road trip as a missionary, he asked Silas to join him. Silas’s name appears eight times during Luke’s account of the second missionary journey (Acts 16:19, 25, 29; 17:4, 10, 14–15; 18:5).
In Luke’s Acts, Timothy first appears in Acts 16, shortly after Paul and Silas leave Antioch. Luke tells us that Timothy was the son of a non Christian Greek father and a Christian Jewish mother. Luke also tells us that Timothy was a Christian. Most likely, Paul converted Timothy during this second missionary journey. Paul invites Timothy to join him and Silas as they journey to tell people all over that part of the world about Jesus.
Thus we have a highly trained scholar and former persecutor of Christians in Paul. We have a respected Jewish leader and seasoned Christian in Silas. And we have the child of a mixed faith marriage and brand new Christian in Timothy. God sends this trio to turn lives around in Thessalonica.
And this reminds us of the critical importance of pursuing outreach in community. Ideally, outreach is best conducted as a team-effort. Harold Shank preached for this congregation for 20 years. And one thing that Harold excelled at was outreach through community. I watched him on numerous occasions meet someone new, find out something about them, and then quickly connect them to someone at Highland who had something in common with them. For example Harold would find out the person was an accountant and he’d introduce the person to an accountant at Highland. He’d find out the person was from Nebraska and he’d introduce the person to someone at Highland who used to live in Nebraska. Then the two of them would try to take the next step with that new person.
When I was in college, my campus minister was an expert at this. During one of his walks around campus, he met and connected with a guy named Santiago. The next day the campus minister introduced three of us to Santiago and the four of us walked with Santiago through some faith questions and his baptism into Christ.
This is why our Neighborhood Cafes’ are so important. These neighborhood Bible studies which we hope to launch in October will allow you to reach out to a friend or neighbor with the help of all of the others in that study. The other Highland members in your study will have gifts and talents you don’t have that will help your friend take those next faith steps.
This is also why we encourage you to bring those you are reaching out to into a ministry or service project, or into our worship services, or into your Sunday School class, or into your Reach Group. We understand that the best method of outreach is community. You don’t have to do this alone. Bring that friend to a ministry or service event, a worship service, your class or your group and let others there also interact with your friend. Our Scream Free parenting seminar will be a perfect opportunity for this.
Lillian Daniel writes about her daughter’s elementary school musical program.[v] The printed brochure had this note: “This musical was originally written for 15 actors, but it has been adapted to accommodate our cast of 206.” The show had a no-cut audition. If you tried out, you got a part. So that night all 206 children danced, sang, and spoke. The church has the ultimate no-cut audition when it comes to evangelism. If you try out, you get a part. God has graced every one of you with a part to play in evangelism. Outreach is the product of community. And outreach is pursued in community.
Let’s reflect on the last group in our verse: Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess. 1:1 ESV) Notice that Paul does not write “to Bill the new Christian in Thessalonica.” Paul does not write “to Barbara the new Christian in Thessalonica.” The result of Paul’s, Silas’, and Timothy’s outreach was not a disconnected group of individuals. Instead the result was a group, a community, a church. Paul writes “to the church of the Thessalonians.” Paul was not content to “get people wet.” Paul was not content to merely save people from hell. The goal of outreach for Paul was community. What Paul worked for was to see people come to Christ and become part of Christ’s church. We see here that outreach produces community. The goal of outreach is not just individuals dripping wet from baptism. The goal of outreach is not just to save as many as possible. The goal is the formation of a new community—people who find a common purpose and together serve that purpose.
Anne Lamott tells of a girl who got lost in her hometown:[vi] “The little girl ran up and down the streets of the big town where they lived, but she couldn’t find a single landmark. She was very frightened. Finally a policeman stopped to help her. He put her in the passenger seat of his car, and they drove around until she finally saw her church. She pointed it out to the policeman, and then she told him firmly, ‘You could let me out now. This is my church, and I can always find my way home from here.’ Lamott writes: “And that is why I have stayed so close to [my church]—because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see the faces of the people at my church, and hear their tawny voices, I can always find my way home.” God knows there’s something vital about church. We need it. We thrive with it. We are lost without it. And that’s why outreach must ultimately seek to produce community. What God wants more than anything else is to see the people you reach become part of a loving and serving community of Christ.
“My Turn” is your turn to put this lesson into action. Spend time today reflecting on these issues in today’s “My Turn”:
1. Evangelism is such a natural expectation of religious faith that even an atheist sees its necessity. Yet the reality is that very few Christians evangelize. Why? What keeps me from evangelizing? _________________________________________________________________________
2. What is my dominant motive for evangelizing? If it’s not love, how would my evangelism change if driven by love?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. One way I can use the help of others in reaching out to a friend/neighbor/coworker/classmate this week is ______________________________________________________________.
4. One thing I can do this week to better connect someone I am evangelizing to Christian community is ____________________________________________________________________.
[i] Ben Witherington III 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Eerdmans, 2006), 50.
[ii] John Stott The Message of 1 & 2 Thessalonians The Bible Speaks Today (IVP, 1991), 28.
[iii] Marvin Olasky, “Evangelism for Introverts,” World (10/07/06).
[iv] Witherington, 9 (footnote 44).
[v] Lillian Daniel, “A Cast of Thousands,” LeadershipJournal.net (12/19/08).
[vi] Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies (Anchor, 1999), 55.
