Missionary Work in the Church

Text: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-8

Series: Restoration Sermons

Date:

Speaker: Ed Rangel

Location: Waupaca Church of Christ

Bible Version: NASB 1995

Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Show from Acts that God's plan reached the whole world through the missionary zeal of local churches.
2. Explain the New Testament pattern: the local congregation as God's fully equipped unit for evangelism.
3. See his own congregation as a link in a chain of churches reaching others.

Thesis

The New Testament church spread the gospel to the whole world through the missionary zeal of independent local congregations — each one God's fully equipped unit for evangelism — and that pattern, not human zeal alone, is how the work is to be done.

Burden

The early church took the gospel to the whole known world in a single generation, with no money, no buildings, and no power but the truth and the zeal of ordinary congregations. We have far more of everything and reach far less. The outline asks the uncomfortable question: the gospel blazed across the earth THEN — why not NOW? Part of the answer is that we have forgotten how they worked: not through human machinery, but through living congregations, each sending and supporting, link after link. This lesson recovers the pattern.

Introduction

Christ was a missionary, and His disciples must be; every Christian true to Christ is a missionary, and all who have learned Christ are bound to teach Him to others (1 Thess. 1:8). Paul commends the Thessalonians because the word "sounded forth" from them everywhere. The outline works through God's plan, how it was actually carried out, and how the reports were made.

I. God's Plan (Acts 1:8; Rom. 10:18)

The plan was global from the start: "Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

1. And it was accomplished — the gospel had been carried "to all creation under heaven" before Paul died (Rom. 10:18; Col. 1:6, 23).
2. The gospel reached all parts of the earth then like a blaze of glory — and we must ask why it does not now.
3. The reason was not miraculous inspiration, for the spread continued and even accelerated in the century after inspiration and miracles ceased.
4. Within three centuries it had conquered the Roman Empire — by preaching, not by power.

What carried it was not signs but saints: converted people who would not keep quiet.

II. How It Was Worked (Acts 11:22; 13:1-3)

Through what organization did they do it? The kind used then was God-appointed — the local church, and nothing larger. Trace the chain:

1. The Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to Antioch (Acts 11:22) — the church "sent" him.
2. The Antioch church then sent Barnabas and Saul (Acts 13:1-3) on the first journey — Cyprus, Perga, Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe — and on the second tour Paul and Silas revisited those churches and pressed on to Philippi, planting a church there.
3. The Philippi church sustained Paul while he labored at Thessalonica (Phil. 4:15-16).
4. The Thessalonica church then sounded the gospel out through Macedonia, Achaia, and beyond (1 Thess. 1:8).

What a chain — church planting church, church supporting preacher, that church reaching still others. Suppose every congregation did as these did; how fast the churches would multiply.

III. The Reports and the Pattern (Acts 14:27)

When the work was done, the missionaries reported directly to the church that sent them — "they... began to report all things that God had done with them" (Acts 14:27). From this the pattern is plain:

1. Each church is God's fully equipped organization for preaching the gospel — it needs no super-structure above it.
2. In the New Testament no two churches ever operated under one head but Christ; there was no missionary society, no governing board over the congregations.
3. Churches may cooperate, but each acts independently, under its own oversight, answerable to Christ.

This guards both the work and the autonomy of the local church: the congregation is the unit God appointed, and it is enough.

Application

Look at your own congregation as a link in that chain. It is not waiting for some larger organization to evangelize the world; under Christ it is already God's fully equipped unit for the work — it only needs to do it. Support the preaching of the gospel near and far; send and sustain those who go; report what God does and rejoice in it. And personally, remember that the chain is finally made of people: the Thessalonians' faith "sounded forth" because individual believers would not be silent. Be a link, not a dead end.

Conclusion

The gospel conquered the ancient world through the missionary zeal of local churches — sending, supporting, reaching, reporting — each one independent under Christ, each one enough. The pattern has not changed and the commission has not expired. What blazed across the earth then can blaze again wherever congregations and Christians take up the work.

Invitation

The whole missionary chain exists to reach one more soul — and tonight that may be you. The gospel that sounded out from Thessalonica sounds to you now: believe in Christ, repent, confess Him, and be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38), and become yourself a link that carries it to others. Come while we sing.

Word Study

Scripture Interlock Table

---

Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 28. Doctrinal audit: core-framework — the local congregation as God's appointed, fully equipped, autonomous unit for evangelism; no organization over the church but Christ; churches cooperate but act independently. No correction. Style audit: OCR cleanup ("missionmy"→missionary; "Derby"→Derbe; "pan of"→part of; references normalized).