+I. There is an eternal election.+
+II. Which comes out in the election made in time.+
+III. Let us rejoice in it, for apart from it none would be
saved.+--_Stewart._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 5.
_The Gospel in Word and in Power._
You have passed through a bleak, barren moorland, where the soil
seemed sown with stones and disfigured with stumps of trees, the only
signs of vegetable life were scattered patches of heather and
flowerless lichen. After a while, you have again traversed the same
region, and observed fields of grain ripening for the harvest, and
budding saplings giving promise of the future forest. Whence the
transformation? The cultivator has been at work. Not less apparent
was the change effected in Thessalonica by the diligent toil and
faithful preaching of the apostles. We have here two prominent
features in the successful declaration of the Gospel.
+I. The Gospel in word.+--"Our gospel came unto you in word." In the
history of the introduction of the Gospel into Thessalonica (Acts
xvii.) we learn the leading themes of apostolic preaching.
"Paul . . . reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and
alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from
the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ"
(vers. 2, 3). It is worthy of note that the inspired apostle grounded
his discourse on the Holy Scriptures. Even _he_ did not feel himself
free from their sacred bonds. The apostle's preaching embraced three
leading topics:--
1. _He demonstrates that the preached Messiah was to be a suffering
Messiah._--The mind of the Jewish people was so dazed with the
splendid prophecies of the regal magnificence and dominion of Jesus,
that they overlooked the painful steps by which alone He was to climb
to this imperial greatness: the steps of suffering that bore
melancholy evidence of the load of anguish under which the world's
Redeemer staggered--steps crimsoned with the blood of the sacred
Victim. Out of their Scriptures he proved that the only Messiah
referred to there was to be a "Man of sorrows" (Isa. liii. 3).
2. _He demonstrates that the Messiah who was thus to suffer and die
was to rise again._--This declared the Divine dignity of His person,
and was the pledge of the future success and eternal stability of His
redeeming work.
3. _He insisted that the Jesus who thus suffered, died, and rose
again was none other than the identical Messiah promised in their
Scriptures._--The grand topic of apostolic preaching must be the
staple theme of the pulpit to-day--JESUS CHRIST: Christ suffering,
Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ regnant and triumphant. When
John Huss was in prison at Constance for the Gospel's sake, he dreamt
that his chapel at Prague was broken into and all the pictures of
Christ on the walls destroyed. But immediately he beheld several
painters in the chapel, who drew a greater number of pictures, and
more exquisitely beautiful than those that had perished. While gazing
on these with rapture, the sanctuary suddenly filled with his beloved
congregation, and the painters, addressing them, said, "Now, let the
bishops and priests come and destroy _these_ pictures!" The people
shouted for joy. Huss heartily joined them, and amid the acclamation
awoke. So modern unbelievers may try to expunge the pictures of
Christ familiar to the mind for generations, and to some extent they
may succeed. But the Divine Artist, with graving-tool of Gospel Word,
will trace on the tablet of the soul an image more beautiful and
enduring than that which has been destroyed; and by-and-by a universe
of worshippers shall rejoice with thundering acclaim, while
recognising in each other the reproduction of the image of Him whose
visage was once marred more than any man's, but whose face now gleams
with celestial beauty and is radiant with the lustre of many crowns.
+II. The Gospel in power.+--"Not in word only, but also in power."
1. _In the exercise of miraculous power._--The apostles were
specially invested with this power, and used it in substantiating the
great facts of the Gospel.
2. _In the Holy Ghost._--Not only in His miraculous manifestations
necessary in that age, but in the ordinary exercise of His power, as
continued down to the present day--enlightening, convincing, renewing.
3. _With much assurance._--Literally, with full assurance, and much
of it. Πληροφοία--full conviction--is from a word that means to _fill
up,_ and is used to denote the hurrying ship on her career, with all
her sails spread and filled with the wind. So the soul, filled with
the full conviction of truth, is urged to a course of conduct in
harmony with that conviction.
4. _An assurance enforced by high integrity of character._--"As ye
know what manner of men we were among you, for your sake." Their
earnest labours and upright lives showed they were men moved by
profound conviction--a blending of evidence that is not less potent
in these days.
+Lessons.+--1. _To receive the Gospel in word only is
disastrous._--In a certain mountainous region under the tropics the
stillness of night is sometimes broken by a loud, sharp report, like
the crack of a rifle. What causes this strange, alarming sound? It is
the splitting of rocks charged with the intense heat of the tropical
sun. Day by day the sun throws down its red-hot rays of fire, and bit
by bit the rock, as it cools, is riven and crumbles into ruin. So is
it with the mere hearer of the Word. The Gospel pours upon him its
light and heat, and his heart, hardened with long and repeated
resistance, becomes damaged by that which is intended to better it.
2. _The Gospel must be received in power._--What is wanted is strong,
deep faith-compelling conviction--conviction of the awful truth and
saving power of the Gospel. To be a mighty force, man must have
clear, solid, all-powerful convictions.
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._