1 Thessellonians
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1 Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you. 2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
Church History:
Church established during Paul’s Second missionary journey.
The letter was written by Paul 18 years after the death of Christ..AD 51
Paul and Silas were so badly treated here that they fled to Berea
State:
The letter to the Thessalonians is giving some very sensible instructions to them about how to live a Christian life.
We are going to look at what made the Thessalonica church a “model” church
First:
3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The “work of faith” lauded here is the Christian life, the deeds that result from the indwelling Spirit
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
These are not prerequisites of salvation but the results of salvation in the lives of those transformed by Christ
Exactly which works and labors Paul had in mind is not stated
What we know is that they as Christians were doing things that displayed their Christian faith
Indurance
What were they enduring
Let’s look at what the city of Thessalonica did to Paul and Silas
1 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. 5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil.
Silas and Timothy leave and go to Barea
Paul goes to Athens
When Timouthy comes to Athens, Paul asks him to go back to Thessalonica to see how the few people that believed in Christ were doing.
Timouthy finds a fully functioning church community
Without any leadership left to teach them, they became a
church that was doing good deeds with love and enduring the hostile attitudes of the thessalonians.
Paul said this was a model for the rest of the province.
John 16:13 (NIV)
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.