1 THESSALONIANS 1:1-10 Today we begin a three month study of the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. As we always like to do when starting a new study, let s set a little background for these books. Who wrote these books? What are the themes of these books? Where was the writer when he wrote them? To whom were they written? Why were they written? And also, I hope by the time we get through we ll know how the truths of these books can be applied to our lives today. First Thessalonians is thought by many Bible scholars to be the first epistle that the apostle Paul wrote. Some scholars believe Galatians was his first. At any rate, 1 Thessalonians is among his earliest writings. It was written around 51 A.D. In Acts 16, the Holy Spirit tells us while Paul was in Troas he had a vision in which a man standing in Macedonia called out to Paul and said, Come over to Macedonia and help us. So, Paul left Troas and went to Macedonia. Paul proceeded to Philippi where his ministry didn t measure up to our idea of a huge success. In fact, he and Silas were beaten and cast into jail. Remember, that s where a great earthquake occurred and Paul and Silas led the jailer and his family to Jesus. If you remember after all this, Paul and Silas were urged by the local police to leave Philippi and when they left they moved on to Thessalonica. Thessalonica was located on a superhighway called the Egnatian Way and this made Thessalonica a very strategic location for the spreading of the gospel. The church at Thessalonica could extend its message to the east and west even to Rome itself. So, Paul very much desired that his ministry bore fruit. He very much wanted folks there to come to know Christ and to become a healthy and vibrant church. In Thessalonica, Paul experienced both tremendous success and also great opposition. As was Paul s custom, he went first to the synagogue and told his Jewish brethren about the Lord Jesus Christ. Let s see exactly what happened in Thessalonica and afterwards Acts 17:2-15 See, those who opposed Paul and his message in Thessalonica weren t content to run Paul out of Thessalonica oh, no! they also came to Berea and stirred up the crowds against Paul there. So, Paul found himself in Athens and the rest of Acts 17 tells us although he wasn t run out of Athens, he did meet with a different type of opposition. The folks in Athens were superintellectuals and their method of dealing with Paul was not open hostility it was extreme ridicule. They scoffed at Paul and ridiculed his teaching. I want to tell you sometimes it s just not a real popular thing to be a Christian, is it? Page 1 of 8
I mean, sometimes when we re the only ones in our family, or the only ones at our work, or the only ones in our neighborhood it s difficult, isn t it? Well, when we feel like this, I want to tell you, we re in good company! Paul and Silas and all the other first century Christians were not very popular, were they? And we need to remember to persevere to not get discouraged. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus, and one day we can say like Paul that we ve fought the good fight, we ve finished the course and we have kept the faith. God tells us that the natural man does not understand the things of God, so why should we be surprised or disappointed when they reject our witness? We re not to give up but continue to try and reach folks Have you ever seen one of those pictures where the Lord Jesus is hidden and you have to look at it for a long, long time before His picture is clear to you? Well, I believe that s much what some people go through they have to hear the gospel a long, long time and then one day it all becomes clear to them. Well, after being chased from Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea and scoffed and sneered at in Athens, Paul came to Corinth and he came there with a heart that was burdened for the believers he had left behind. See, he had made converts in the cities where he had preached Jesus. He had brought folks to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But, Paul must have wondered would these converts in Thessalonica stand? After all, he wasn t with them long. He hadn t had a long time to feed them and to nourish them. Were they being opposed as strongly as he had been? Would the opposition they were getting cause them to give up their faith? Had they been run out of town as Paul had been? Would they revert back to their pagan gods? Would they abandon their faith in Christ? Paul had no way of knowing But, you know God is so good! Just when we think all is dark and doom and gloom and despair God sends a message of hope and victory. While Paul was in Corinth, Timothy brought him a report from Thessalonica. Timothy brought Paul good news about the Thessalonians. (1 Thess. 3:6) Timothy told Paul the church in Thessalonica was strong. Timothy told Paul they loved him and were concerned for his well being. Timothy told Paul they wanted him to hurry back and be with them. And this report brought Paul great joy and comfort. And I believe all of us who have ever won anyone to Jesus have just a little idea of what Paul was experiencing. We long for that brand new baby in Christ to grow, don t we? And we re so afraid they re not going to, aren t we? And so often, we believe we have to be with them for this to happen, don t we? Page 2 of 8
These folks, however, were growing, but at the same time, there were also some problems in Thessalonica. For example, they were confused about the rapture and the second coming of Jesus, and we ll see these problems addressed by Paul in the coming weeks. First Thessalonians is a letter of joy a love letter to a group of people who are new in their faith and Paul s desire was to undergird their faith and to challenge them to remain committed even in the face of opposition and persecution. This is also a letter that teaches many of the great doctrines of the church That s why we should pay close attention to the epistles of Paul and John and Peter and Jude. There are wonderful truths in each of them. Let me give you the three-fold purpose of the book of 1 Thessalonians 1) to confirm young believers in the elementary truth of the gospel. 2) to condition young believers to live holy lives. 3) to comfort young believers regarding the return of the Lord. First Thessalonians emphasizes the rapture of the church. Second Thessalonians emphasizes the second coming of Jesus. At the rapture believers are caught up to heaven with Jesus. At the second coming, believers come down to earth with Jesus. So, that s the background for these epistles of Paul to the believers in Thessalonica. That s the who, what, where, when, why and how! This book is a wonderful revelation from the heart of God through the heart of Paul to the hearts of these new believers And with that in mind, let s look at 1 Thessalonians 1:1 The first verse forms the greeting of the letter. The pattern of that day was to identify the writer first and then identify the person or persons to whom the letter was written. Paul first identified himself and his two companions. Silvanus is the Greek name for Silas and Timothy, of course, is Paul s beloved son in the faith. And Paul says this letter is written to the church of the Thessalonians. The Greek word for church is ekklesia those who are called out, those who are called for a specific purpose. You and I are called out you and I are called out of sinfulness into holiness into God s own character! See where we are called to? Our position is in God and in Christ. We are not simply a group of people who believes in God but a group of people who takes our very being from God. We live and move and have our being in Him! We are safe in the hands of Jesus and Jesus is safe in the hands of God we have DOUBLE SECURITY!! God is the atmosphere of the church! God s presence is the very life of the church! And Paul calls the Savior the LORD JESUS CHRIST! Lord is the Greek equivalent of the Old Testament Hebrew Jehovah. Page 3 of 8
When Paul, who was a Jew of the Jews, called Jesus Lord, he was ascribing to Him all of the characteristics of God. Jesus is God. Everything that God is, Jesus is! Then, Paul calls Him Jesus His human name. Jesus means Savior. He is called Jesus because He will save His people from their sins, and Paul was underscoring the fact that there is no one else by whom we can be saved. The word Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. He is the promised One the One who is the mediator between God and man He is the Lord Jesus Christ. Don t ever forget that in these simple greetings and in these casual words that we often take for granted is a world of theology and truth. And Paul commends grace and peace to them. When God s grace is poured out on us, we will have peace! Verses 2-4 Paul is famous for long sentences, but we re going to break this one up The apostle Paul prayed daily for the saints in Thessalonica. He thanked God for what He was doing in their lives It s as though Paul is saying here, We think of each of you individually and call your name one by one before God. In other words, their prayers were not vague. This was specific praying, and it was continuous praying! They did not stop praying! Isn t it so very, very comforting to know someone is lifting us up in prayer? Paul must have had a tremendous prayer list. Do you? How many people do you regularly and consistently and continuously pray for? Verse 3 tells us of their work of faith, their labor of love and their steadfastness of hope. Work of faith Paul tells us works don t save us in fact, he says, by grace you have been saved through faith, not as a result of works, lest any man should boast And so often we stop there but the next verse following that tells us that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Works don t save us but faith without works is dead! Paul also commends them for their labor of love. This is an extension of their work of faith. The word labor here is a strong word meaning labor to the point of weariness until they were exhausted. It was not labor for praise it was labor of love. Paul commended the steadfastness of hope in Jesus. Where would we be without the hope we have in Jesus? I don t know what people do who don t have Jesus. Jesus Christ in you, the hope of glory. Then, in verse 4, Paul says he knows God chose them. We don t have a hope so salvation. We have a know so salvation. Not only could Paul know he was saved, but he could know they were saved. Page 4 of 8
And that s true many times with us, isn t it? You don t have to be with a person too long before you know if that person is saved or lost, do you? Paul knew God had chosen these Thessalonians. Paul knew these Thessalonians had trusted Christ. His choice of you points up the fact that salvation is in God s hands. We would never desire salvation without God s initiative. We would never desire salvation without His Holy Spirit revealing Himself to us. We love Him because He first loved us We didn t choose Him He chose us!! Verses 5-7 Paul tells them the gospel wasn t just words! Paul didn t just fling the good news on each listener s doorstep and then go on to the next house but we ll see next week that he entered their homes and their hearts, giving them not only the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ but his very own life. It came to them in power. It came to them in the Holy Spirit. It came to them with full conviction. The word power is the Greek word dunamis from which we get our word dynamite. The dynamite of the gospel is more exciting than physical dynamite because it doesn t explode or tear down it builds up and blesses! The gospel is good news. But, much like Moses gave the people a blessing and a curse there is bad news that must be shared. And the bad news is that if you don t care to accept the good news, you will suffer and eternity away from God s presence. It s amazing how many people don t think about eternity, isn t it? But, there is a heaven and there s a Way to get there, and there is also a hell and it can be avoided. It wasn t Paul s power that gave the gospel to the Thessalonians it was the Holy Spirit s power! What Paul is saying here is When I preached to you, I had the confident assurance that God was in it and when you were saved I had the great assurance that you belonged to God. The assurance came to the preacher as he proclaimed the message. There was a quiet confidence, a great assurance that God was stirring their hearts, that God was bringing redemption and salvation. We went to two funerals this past week. Both of the people were saved. However, at one, there were folks in the congregation who agreed with the preacher many amens were said but at the other funeral there was great resistance and opposition to the words being faithfully proclaimed by the preacher. At one funeral, the Holy Spirit was free to bring comfort and encouragement to hearts, but at the other funeral, He was opposed by Satan. Satan didn t want any conviction of sin. He didn t want anyone thinking about eternity. The first funeral was a celebration. The second funeral was a struggle. Look at the last part of verse 5 Throughout 1 Thessalonians Paul is going to remind them of the example of the preacher. If any of us are going to be effective in sharing the gospel, it must be confirmed by fruit in our own lives. Page 5 of 8
If your witness is to be believable, it must be the testimony of a life that is believable. Is God only interested in getting us saved? What happens after a person is saved? What is God going to do with that person next? God isn t through with us when we come to Christ. He s just starting with us. Salvation is the beginning, not the end. Paul says, You became imitators of us and of the Lord. Was Paul being presumptuous in naming himself first - in naming himself at all? I don t think so. The person who brings us the gospel is the first person we see, and Paul says, Since we were the ones that delivered the message you started out imitating us, but you went on to imitate the Lord. That s the way it ought to be. May God make us vessels that are so fit for His service that when folks imitate us they will be led past us to imitate God Himself. Do you see a progression here? First, they imitated Paul. Then they imitated the Lord and next they became examples to others. The word example is the Greek word for pattern and this phrase is singular in the Greek. It means that individually the Thessalonian believers had become imitators of Paul and then of Christ, but together, as a church, they became a single pattern community. And people would see them and say, If only we loved each other like that! If only we could forgive each other like that! If only we could just live like that! And they did this in the midst of much tribulation and they did this with much joy! Joy and affliction don t go together in our thinking, do they? When we are afflicted, we aren t happy about it, are we? I mean, when we have great pressure brought upon us, it is not natural to have joy at the same time But if Jesus Christ lives in our lives, He wants the gospel to progress in us until we receive the affliction, the pressure, the discouragement, and the frustration with joy! And let me tell you something we ll never have that joy walking in the flesh we have that joy one way and that s by walking in the dear Holy Spirit! Verses 8-10 There is so much in these verses that we need to see If you desire to know that it means to be converted, look at these verses. If you want to know how a believer is to live, study these verses. If you want to know what kind of witness ought to come from God s people, study these verses. The phrase sounded forth comes from a word which refers to a trumpet blast or to a roll of thunder. The church is to be a trumpet declaring God s Word to a lost world. Remember what happened to Paul in Thessalonica? A mob had driven him out of the city. Common sense would have told these folks Don t get too excited. Don t talk too much about salvation and Christ. The same thing might happen to you that happened to Paul. Page 6 of 8
But, rather than withdrawing into themselves, they went to the other extreme and boldly declared that Jesus Christ had changed their lives! That s what being a Christian is! It means we have received the Word and we have been transformed and we are sharing with those around us the Word of God which we have received. I m always skeptical when I hear someone say, My faith is a very private thing just between me and my God. What would have happened if the first century Christians said, My faith is a very private thing? Not only does Paul tell us they were sharing their faith, but he emphasizes their repentance. Repentance declares I was going this way, but now I m going this way. I once loved this, now I love this. These people gave up serving pagan gods. They found out that pagan gods can t do for a person what the Lord Jesus Christ can do. I ve used this illustration before Suppose a man had run up a huge bill at a mom and pop grocery store. And suppose this man went into the store one day and announced that he was turning over a new leaf. He said, From now on I m going to pay cash for all my purchases. I m not going to charge anything any more! You know what the owner of that store would say? He would say, Well, that s all well and good, but what about that big amount you already owe? What about that past debt? What are you going to do about that? See, these folks had found out that their gods couldn t forgive sin. And although following after these gods may have encouraged them to live a good life they could not forgive sin and they certainly couldn t forgive past sin. But, Jesus forgives our sin debt past, present and future! And when these folks found this truth, they turned from idols to serve the living God! The last thing we see in this first chapter is that they were waiting for Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. The wrath of God is not like man s wrath. The wrath of God is a perfect wrath. It is not limited by human tendencies and limitations. It is never unjust. It is always right. It is a strong expression of the holiness of God reacting against evil. One day, there will be an expression of God s wrath that will come upon this world, and upon all those who have rejected Him. But you and I will be delivered from that wrath by the Lord Jesus Christ! Evil is not going to win! Sinfulness is not going to have ultimate success. Ungodly people are not always going to be in command. Page 7 of 8
The pornographers and the abortionists and the perverts and the gamblers and the immoral people will not always come out on top. The wicked will not always prosper. History is moving toward a time when God s wrath will be revealed from heaven. The scales will be balanced. The only way we escape such wrath is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we will! God promises us He has not destined us for wrath! Well, that s our beginning of 1 Thessalonians. I think we re going to love this book. Study this week to show yourselves approved unto God a workman who does not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of Truth. God will bless you for it! Page 8 of 8