Well, good evening. Everyone
All 4 of you. Now I'm just getting physically here, so we are gonna begin the book of first Thessalonians, a delightful book.
Certainly one that can be read in about 15 min. If you sit down, it's really remarkable how quickly you can move through this this book.
But it's packed with a lot of things. So let's open with a word of God, and then we'll begin looking at the first chapter. Tonight is just 10 verses and some background and such and for this church in Tesla, and it Greece
So, father, we just come before you in Jesus, name, we are so grateful, Lord for the Word of God as we're going to be talking about tonight, the Word that guides us and assures us and Yeah, speaks as as Jesus said the Scriptures speak of me and we're so grateful for
That Lord, and we are just blessed to study it tonight, and to gather together like-minded believers, and for those also on zoom, and we just thank you and praise you in the mighty and precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ
So. There are no perfect churches in the world, and because churches are filled with centers saved by grace.
It's not possible to have a perfect church, and in fact, if you find a perfect church and you join it by definition, it won't be perfect anymore, because you're singer saved by Grace, but if we want to find elements, of the model church.
We would look at first and second, Thessalonians.
This is a church. The displays really no real problems like those founded Coronavirusations, and when we look into the church and Thessalonica, it is a church that brought a lot of joy to paul's, heart Paul talks about the fact that he, makes mention of the churches he had burdened
About him. But when this church came to mind he was filled with joy, he overflowed with thankfulness.
So in the New Testament we're looking at a model church that was new, filled with Gentiles, and it came from a pagan background.
They were in exemplary church. Let's begin by just looking at verse. 7.
We have the new case. It says that so that you verse 7 chapter one, so that you became examples to all, and mastodonia, and a chaos who believe so the word here example using new King James is a Greek Greek word 2 pause which is where we get the word type so we
Get a retype from it. So the word meant that if you strike something I would leave an impression.
Impression of what struck it. And so we see the word developed into a pattern or a type or a model.
So in Thessalonica this church became a model of the believers to others, in Macedonia, and which is northern Greece and Akia, which is Southern Greece.
What they did. And they're powerful examples. The fruit of those elect individuals shown forth or later on we see trumpeted forth to other churches.
They were well known. And why were they a model to other churches?
We really find that it's 3 things: first, that they were elect second, they re evangelistic, and third, they were expectant of Jesus's return.
So they were elect evangelistic and expectant. These are the 3 points or marks of this model.
Church we can look at it another way in verse. 3 says this in chapter, one remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience, of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight.
Of God our Father. So, it's we can say this in a different way.
They have a faith that worked a love that labored, and they had.
Hope, I hope, that endured so we're going to look at this we're going to see how this tied in their faith or love and their whole and so every believer can be said to be a lover of the truth and one who hopes, because we expect the Lord Jesus Christ to come
So Christians are to be believing in God, loving God and others, and hoping for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In this is this is a Biblical, conf Biblical example of hope, a confident assurance of his return. You know.
Dan just prayed about this world and what's happening with it?
If we didn't have the hope of Christ's return, it would be just a very, very difficult time.
It's becoming quite a dark world, so as we look at this, let's look at the 3 categories of a model church so versus one through 4.
They were in elect church, and let's read these verses together.
Verse, one chapter, one for Sssalonians, says Paul.
Sylvanus and Timothy or Silas is another word for Sylvanus to the church of the fossil Thessalonians in God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ or the Lord Jesus Christ grace to you and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ first do we give
thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you and our prayers.
Remembering, without ceasing. Here we have this note again, your work of faith, labor of love, and patience, of hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father.
Knowing verse, 4, knowing beloved brethren, your election by God!
And here's our theme of the first 4 for versus our you were elected by God our theme, so we would note 3 things in these first 4 verses that should be pointed out we're gonna look at the salutation.
Greeting the common salutation verse, one the commendation versus 2 through 3, and the election of the believer.
Verse, 4, so let's look at verse one again.
Here Paul, Salvanus and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you, in peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ so first one it starts with the human author Paul, and then he mentions his companion, Silas and
Timothy. When Po Paul founded this church or co-founded it with his traveling companions, he did this in act 17.
There's really no dispute that Paul wrote these letters, and this letter is of God written by Paul.
So we have the inspiration, the Scriptures, and the writers call, and we can go into.
I mean when you look at commentaries and for Thessalonians they go into great detail about this but the bottom line is it's Paul writing this letter, and we'll go into a little bit of background here in verse one the recipients are are those in the church of the
Thessalonians. A church now it that is located in vessel and icon, and that church is in God.
The Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the salutation is grace and peace.
So the church is the Greek word Eclipseia.
Called out people from a pagan world. Gentiles here, and the Church is the people who go in and out of this church, obviously, and it's the living, breathing people saved by grace and placed into his body pretty basic concepts here and so they Paul came to Macedonia North or he was I should say the massive
Man of Macedonia called him, and they first went to Philippi.
Then they went to Thessalonica and the Bible says that Paul reasoned from the Scriptures in that the Christ must suffer and die, and that this Jesus Paul says whom I preached unto you is the Messiah who God rose.
Raised from the debt pretty, straightforward now out of anger they drove him out of Thessalonica, and he went down to the city of Korea.
So Paul effectively, was there for 3 Sabbath days, maybe 3 to 4 weeks.
Can't be sure. But basically that's the amount of time.
And so this church was very, very new, and in just a few months later Paul wrote back to them from Corinth, and we find this in acts.
18. This letter to them, and this is the first letter Paul wrote about probably 51 AD, and Paul wrote this for 4 reasons in chapter one to commend them for what was going on in the church in verse a chapters 2 and 3 to vindicate himself thirdly to admonish them to
Live holy lives. Chapter 4, the first part, and then finally, the fourth reason was to instruct the instruct them about dead believers in their relationship to the coming crisis.
And so the issue there was. People have died in Christ. The rapture had not occurred that they missed this, and so that's going to be addressed.
I'm gonna give that to Fred to to hand.
Le so it'll be good. But in this particular case here, let's go back to the salutation now that we we we want to note that the the churches position spiritually is in God the Father.
So he writes to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here, just you know, to talk about this. We have God, the Father, Jesus Christ being placed in the same plane, indication of the Trinity here, and he says, Grace to you in peace from God, or Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ both give these things race cars piece would be Shalom here and and really where Paul
Is going is that this is not a social club. It's a living organism, founded, thriving, and growing in God.
The Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and so he gives this great graded brace and peace.
That fact that he couples to Jesus Christ is a source of grace and peace with Gaza, Father, and and he's mentioning this because this is the basis of their power grace and peace.
So we find this find this fact first back and then we don't.
We move on to the commendation versus 2 and 3.
He says, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers.
I remember talking to Ruth about praying, and she said: The key is, we make mention of people in our prayers, and this is what Paul did frequently.
Here he he had a huge agenda of prayer.
If you would, including this church? And the question are you thinking the question is, Are you thankful for this church, Wbc.
And this church family. Are you praying for the church? We we would want to be thankful for being part of this church.
We elders need your prayers, and we can meet Christians who you know at times, and I think we've all talked to people like this who claim they're Christians, and they probably are, but they're not part of a local church, so you can have.
Someone being a Christian, but you can't be a good Christian unless you're involved in church fellowship.
You have a gift, Holy Spirit, giving you that gift you're to to use that gift in the church fellowship. Right?
What are you doing alone? So we want to be part of the local church.
And so Paul says we thank God for you all, and vessel and icon so it's not easy to thank God for everyone in a local church someone.
Has said that and I've heard this quoted from many teachers.
I don't know who who wrote this origin. I can't find the source of it.
I wish I could, but it says this to live above in the sames, and love that will be glory to dwell below with the saints.
I know, brother, that's another story. So I I love that.
I've heard many people quoted. I wish I knew would do that.
So Paul is, you know we think about Paul. He he! Was involved in the church in Corinth, and then in Galatia we just studied Galatians, and here he is, battling people who are introducing a false gospel Questioning his authority.
The concern that he had that perhaps his work would be undone by these Judaizers who were coming up and confusing people.
Corinth you have. I mean it's it's a study on how to handle church problems.
But I remember John Dcorn preaching Corinthians, or teaching Corinthians, and he mentioned I just never thought about this but at 1 point he said, you know I don't like to send Apollo to Corinth and he said well, maybe a policy.
Doesn't want to go to court, because it's so bad.
There, I mean. It's just hard to get these people to get along, but we don't find any of that in the church in Thessalon Icon.
So when Paul thought about all the believers in the Church if that's a line sess festival and Nikka, he was so thankful, and he was thrilled by what was happening he had been there a short-term a time and yet they're known he could see the the vast fruit of their
Salvation they were models to the churches in Macedonia and Aka.
What was Paul thankful for? We look at verse 3.
There. There are 3 things: their work of faith, the labor of love, and their patience of home.
And this is a description of the model Church. Again. They had the work of faith.
This is the work that is produced by faith, we're not saved on by works.
But we're saved unto good works. And of course fusions 210.
This is something that I have. The high schoolers. We're working on memorizing this.
I I I my kids, even devot, has memorized this, and and the reason I I want them to memorize this is because, as I say to them, when the Lord puts people in your path, and he will because these are works, pretty before the foundation of the world have one or 2 verses like polished
Chestnut, said, You can bring out and talk to people, otherwise you get flustered, and so Ehstein's 2 10 says that the fruit that they were producing was the work that the Lord created before the foundation of the world and he saw it it was evidence it was evidence of their
Belief. If you are saved you will work and your life surely shows this evidence and the result of their true election in Christ Jesus was the fruit they produced.
They also. The second point was that they had their labor of love.
Their labor was motivated by love. It could be their their love of God, or love of serving each other, but most likely it's their evangelism because they love the Lord they open their mouth as it says, later and trumpeted forth the gospel message later on Paul uses an example
In in Corinthians, you know we, you know we want harmony.
We don't want to be like a a clanging, you know.
An instrument that doesn't have a tune, or will produce anything that is that is useful.
In this particular case, sort of loose analogy here they love the Lord, and the result of that was that without a with abandoned they preached the word of God.
Even being this young and lord. And so the question becomes the more loving you are of the Lord.
The more I think frequently you look for those opportunities to talk to the Lord, chalk others about the word the third thing is their patience of hope.
Your patience could be better translated. A steadfast endurance, so patience isn't just being passive.
And what this is saying is that because they had the hope of the coming Lord, it gave them patience, strength, and endurance to live in this world, and and as he says, when they accepted the gospel persecution came upon them as we saw in Galatia Paul makes this Point
I'm preaching the Word of God and I'm I'm enduring enormous suffering because of that.
These Judaizers do not want to suffer. They just simply want you as their trophy.
Look at the scars on my back. It's proof of what I've endured for this gospel message and in this particular case they received the Word of God with passion even though it brought enormous persecution here, so the the the the the hope of Christ's return was this motivation
For them, and so you know Heaven is not just a destination.
It's a present motivation, and this should cause us to labor for him, and in a waiting that we have is expresses itself in patient endurance, and so a faith that works is a love that labors in a faith that endures, and of all of these things we can summon it by saying this is
Productive. This is productive. Can't just sit around and say, I, faith and I have love, and I have hope and not really engage in the Lord's work right?
So as James says, you know, let me see your face working and labor and hope in in in in in other words, you have say you have faith, but the evidence of that is the good fruits that result to it we don't work onto salvation.
Obviously. But it's that the evidence of it is the fruit that is produced.
And so we have 3 things here that Paul is concentrating on here once again their work of faith or labor, of love, and the patience of hope
In addition to that, we're looking at verse.
4 Paul Mansions. Their election says inverse 4: knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God, and so regardless of how you look at election, whether it's election on the salvation or elect in Christ Jesus the cornerstone if you are a Christian you have been chosen by God and
Paul's point, I think, is that this should make one humble, holy, and eager to share God's word, all of which, it seems, Paul observed in Thessalonica here
So this leads to our next section versus 5 through 8, and it says this verse: 5 for our Gospel to not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy spirit and in much assurance as you know what kind, of men, we were among you for yourself, or 6 and
you became followers or imitators, or models of us, and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction with joy, the Holy Spirit so that you became examples to all in Macedonia, and Akia who believe perceived for from you the word of the Lord has
sounded forth, evangelism once again, not only in Macedonian and Aka, but also in every place.
Your face toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything.
And Paul's point is this: We don't need to talk about you, because everybody knows about you.
3 facts come out about this 3 facts about the Gospel in its relationship to those in Thessalonica.
The first one, is the Gospel, keen to them.
It didn't come in words, only the preaching. The gospel came to them in power.
This is Romans, chapter one verse, 16. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, where it is the power.
I remember any rich. It's preaching at it like an f 5 tornado 200 mile an hour winds.
It comes, it takes a hold of someone and and I remember so many times.
We you know we look at our lives, and we realize the Holy Spirit.
Does the flesh whether we see this or not, it does great work transforming work, supernatural work, and this is what Paul is saying?
We saw this in them and the preach, the preaching of the gospel came in power and in the Holy Spirit.
So we have the word of God and the Spirit of God, and this is very important in the Christians.
Life, the dynamic power in the Christians. Life is is extremely important.
I like a preacher by the name of Jim Miller.
He says this: if you have the word of God, only you dry up, if you have only the Holy Spirit you'll blow up if you have both yogurt.
So the word of God in the Spirit of God, worked together in harmony.
God speaks through what he has spoken, not only in the Scripture given by inspiration of God, but there's still, but it's it's still living and powerful, and active, as I says, in heaver Sharper than any two-edged sword and the holy spirit who alone can
teach us, and bring illumination, that spirit brings inspiration, interpretation and the spirit brings transformation in our lives.
And again, this is Paul observing what is going on, and really thrilled by this.
And really it's a remarkable thing given all the labor that he put into other churches, and even his just his traveling experience verse.
5 notice that it came with deep conviction. It says with much conviction: So we need much conviction to preach the word with a assurance.
This is the good news of Jesus Christ, and this is what Thessalonians heard.
Notice also. The Gospel was in W. What it said in verse 6.
It was received in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit.
So again, in spite of suffering, the suffering that it brought, they received the word they received the gospel, and and they immediately felt the opposition of the world, and we feel that all of us we feel that but it also, brought much joy think about works acts chapter 8 when when Phil, preached
and Samaria. It said there was great joy in that city, because of the preaching of Philip, or in act 16.
The Philippian jailer was converted, and he rejoiced believing in God in all this household.
So you receive the word, and it brings opposition of the world, but it also brings a great deep sea to joy.
A piece that passes understanding, and such an the joy of the Lord, so that you say, who cares what happens?
And the joy of the Lord, which comes to me by the Holy Spirit.
I think this is I just. I just feel that strongly that at some point you're telling people about Jesus Christ they don't really care like I remember dealing with clients.
It doesn't matter if I don't get business or not, you can provide, and this needs to be be sad.
So versus 7 and 8. The word of the Lord has sounded forth.
It says so the Gospel was spread by them. This is evangelism, and they became examples.
So they lived it out with their lives, and then it sounded up verse 7.
They preached the gospel with their lives verse 8.
They preached it with their lips, lives, lives we we have to use both of these, our lives and our lips, and it's sounded out it.
It it it another word could be. It trumpeted out the same echoed out this gospel message not only in Macedonian Aka, but they spread the word everywhere they received the word they lived.
God's Word, with their lives. They preached God's words with their lives. Again.
A model church.
Now there's a third mark of the church and Thessalonians.
They were expectant, we can look at versus 9 and 10, and closing here, for they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God first 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from
The dead, even right, specifically. Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come so we can know 3 things here.
This gospel turned turned them around. They literally says, Turn to God from idols.
The new believer repents, it turns. The second thing is they serve the true and living God.
They immediately got busy serving the Lord, and we're known for this.
Think about Mark chapter one where Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law, and she just got up and started serving just a great.
It's a great line to preach I'll tell you that.
And then, thirdly, they waited for Christ to return the mark of a model church for the Scripture is one that is waiting for Christ's return, and and really, you can say God have mercy on a church that is not occupied with its return.
I mean it's just it, just really. I would say that.
And they lived in expectation of Christ's sure return.
Titus, two-third says this, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ course we have the table here, but built, in expectation that Christ's already continue to do this until he returns and so you know the world is getting darker this should
Be our hope more and more so, just to sum up, they lived in confident expectation.
We, of course, can just ask ourselves, our our we living like.
We could be raptured tomorrow. This is something that would apply to me too obviously, next time, as we continue in Thessalonings, we will look and unpack more of this model.
Church but the note here is that the end of each chapter in Thessalonians is very, very interesting.
There's always a reference to the coming again with Jesus Christ in each case it gives us a practical application to the Christian life, and so in this case it's the doctrine of the salvation of i'm sorry the doctrine of salvation and also the
Doctrine of assurance. Yeah, the evidence that their election was sure, and the evidence of this was their evangelism and their expectations.
So election, evangelism, expectations. And then finally in verse 10 is: Paul was preaching that Jesus Christ came.
He died and rose again. This took a hold of them, so just to wrap up again, we have a faith that works.
I love that labors and I hope that endures and make out help all churches to be like the one in festival, and I go so thanks for your attention here, man this short little book very interesting study