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This sermon was preached for Capital Pres Fairfax on October 27, 2024 as a part of our series “1 Thessalonians: The Gospel-Shaped Church.” This series explores how the gospel of Jesus shapes the community of Jesus. In a world eager to shape us with powerful agendas and persuasive messages, the Church must be shaped—in every aspect of its life—by the transformative message of the gospel. This week we worked through 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 and looked at gospel-shaped work. A recording of this sermon will be available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. An edited manuscript of this message has been published by the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture. You can find it here: www.washingtoninst.org
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In AD 52, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter, either the first or second New Testament epistle ever written, to a small church in the city of Thessalonica, a church he had started not long before. This church was planted in a highly cosmopolitan, affluent, powerful city where Christians struggled with the same kinds of things with which we struggle. They were asking questions like “How do I share my faith when it’s not popular?” and “How do I think about death and the meaning of my life?” and “What does the gospel have to do with the bedroom?” At every single point, Paul points to how the gospel of Jesus Christ shapes every aspect of their lives—how Jesus, being the eternal Son of God, dying on a cross, and raising from the dead, and saving sinners by his grace, changes everything.
In the middle of chapter 4 of this letter, Paul turns to yet another “What does the gospel have to do with…?” question, this time that of work:
9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
I write from Northern Virginia, in the Washington, D.C. metro area. In spite of whatever aspersions may be cast, I can testify—because it has been my home since I was a boy—that this is one of the wealthiest, most highly educated, and hardest working cities in America; work is at the core of our culture. Work is what we do here.
So, D.C. friends—and friends across the country and globe—what does the gospel of Jesus Christ have to do with our work? In only four verses Paul shows something beautiful: the gospel frees us to work for the glory of God and the good of our brother.
The rest of this article can be found at www.washingtoninst.org
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