There is a lot of noise out there. It kind of feels like everyone is shouting their opinions all the time. Even when I try to watch the news, everyone just talks over each other. Who wins? The loudest person, I guess.

This causes a lot of confusion. Who are we supposed to trust? What are we supposed to believe? What is really true? There are so many voices, so many questions, so many proposed solutions, so many conflicting “truths”...What should we really listen to? Which words should we receive and accept?

Not the Jewish Law

Remember that Thessalonica was a bustling city located on a port and a major highway. So, even though they didn’t have any forms of media as we know them today, they heard a lot of diverse and conflicting voices in their culture as well. There were Jews who talked about God and the Hebrew Law. There were also the Greek and Roman pantheons of pagan gods, as well as deep thinkers and philosophers. Plus, there were many itinerant religious charlatans out to trick, mislead, and exploit people.

Enter Paul, Silas, and Timothy. They were Jewish (at least half Jewish in Timothy’s case) but they weren’t preaching the Hebrew Law. They were preaching a new message—the Gospel of God. Acts 17:2-4 records that Paul went into the synagogue of the Jews in Thessalonica and, for three Sabbaths, “he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.’” He preached that Jesus is the resurrected Messiah, the one the Jews had been waiting for.

Now, some Jews were persuaded but many prominent Greeks were persuaded as well. Why? Why were they willing to accept and receive a message that was brand new to them? Why were they willing to abandon whatever religious beliefs they had previously held? How were they convinced that Paul and his gang weren’t just another bunch of religious nuts that came to them with smooth-talking nonsense?

God’s Word is at Work

Well, in today’s passage, Paul said it is because the word of God was at work among them. It certainly seems as if Paul was a gifted communicator. We know that he was well-educated and that he had a strong personality. He knew both the Law and the Gospel so he was able to reason with them. But is that why so many accepted his words as truth? Because he seemed smart and knowledgeable?

Well, I think it had less to do with Paul and more to do with God. And I think Paul would agree with me. In fact, Paul thanked God, not himself, that when they received his words, they received them as God’s Word, not his own. Paul, Silas, and Timothy weren’t preaching a message that a human mind had conceived. This wasn’t a myth or a legend or a false teaching. This was the word of God and, as such, it worked in a powerful way through them in Thessalonica.

Be God’s Vehicle

In Romans 1:16, Paul wrote: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Paul knew that power of the Gospel was God’s power. He was the vehicle God was using to share His Word but it was only because of God’s power that anyone listened, believed, and received. In a world full of loud, contradictory words, it is only the power of God in His Word that softens and prepares the hearts of those who will receive it as truth.

The power is in the Word of God, not the preacher. This should be a great encouragement to you today. We’ve all been called to share the Gospel but we don’t all feel like gifted communicators. We may not feel confident in our apologetics skills so that we can engage in compelling arguments for the faith. But we can be encouraged that God is the one who does the saving work anyway! It is our job to simply be obedient and proclaim the powerful Gospel of God.

Don’t worry about whether or not you feel confident in your preaching ability. Proclaim the Gospel and reveal God’s truth anyway. The power is His Words, not yours.