Bryant Wright, Founder

“Because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” 1 Thessalonians 1:5

The gospel is characterized by power. Whether miraculous power or power in preaching, it brings the explosive might of heaven to bear on the human heart. This power, like dynamite, changes what surrounds it. It crumbles our hardness of heart as we come face to face with our guilt and sin, and it ignites within us a love for the One who reconciles us to the Father.

That is exactly what happened in Thessalonica.

The gospel didn’t merely inform these believers—it transformed them. They turned “from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). So real was this change that their testimony began to “ring out” far beyond their city (1 Thessalonians 1:8).

This same gospel power was first evident in the messengers who brought it to them.

Paul and his fellow missionaries didn’t merely write about what it must be like to be changed by the gospel. Quite the contrary—there is an intense ownership as Paul refers to it as “our gospel.” For them, the gospel was not a vague theological idea detached from everyday life. It was their “good news”—the message that had taken hold of them completely.

Not that they created it or originated it, but they had been changed by it. Through the “renewing of their minds” (Romans 12:2) and the “washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5), the gospel altered them at the core. It transformed a former enemy of God and persecutor like Saul of Tarsus into the first missionary of the Church.

The question, then, is not whether the gospel has power, but whether we’ve allowed that power to truly work in us. The same message that shattered idols and transformed an enemy of God into His ambassador is still alive today. If the gospel has truly taken root in our hearts, it will show up in how we live.

So, what kind of men and women will we prove to be where God has placed us? Will others encounter the gospel, not only in our words, but through the change they see in us?

DIG DEEPER:
Read “The Gospel Changes Our Relationships” taken from a sermon by George Wright