Germany Devotion #1
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skim over chapter 16 of Acts, look closer at 16:6-10, skim rest of chapter
Now look at , this is during Paul’s second missionary journey.
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days 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.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
Acts 17:
Thessalonica was a free city not under Roman rule and was a huge commercial city on a harbor and the Egnatian Way, very strategic, called the key to the whole of Macedonia. Largest city in Macedonia with as many as 200K people, and a large Jewish population.
The they is Paul, Timothy, Silas and Luke, see 16:1
So, how many weeks was Paul in Thessalonica? 3 weeks
What was his customary practice? He goes to the synagogue Why? Jesus was Jewish, first come for the Jews and from the Jews.
What does it mean to reason from the scriptures? Simple message to the Jews that they would understand and already waiting for the Messiah
What was he reasoning? Jesus as Messiah, that He had to suffer and die in order to rise from the dead
What happened there? The Jews freaked out. Look at verses 5-9
Why? What was the Jews belief in regards to the Messiah? The Jews had it twisted. They believed the Messiah was for them, instead of God sending a Messiah through the Jews for mankind, they twisted it to believe that God would send a savior to the Jews for the Jews. The Messiah would be their savior for them and to them, all about them.
Devout Greeks, followers of Judaism but not the chosen ones, laid no claim to God as their God, in fact they know Yahweh is the God of the Jews.
The Jews were jealous, of what? This story of a Messiah is their story, their God, He’s theirs not the Gentiles.
What do you think they mean by verse 6, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.”
Look at verse 10, what happened? The brothers send Paul and Silas away to Berrea
How old is the church in Thessalonica when Paul leaves? 3-4 weeks old. Or so it would seem. More than likely Paul spent a little more time there than that, see 2:9, 2. Thess. 3:8, and but the church wouldn’t have been more than 2 months old.
For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.
Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again.
Philippians
Look at , they rejoin Paul from Berea
When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
It seems in that Paul would have gone through and revisited the church in Macedonia
What affect do you think this had on the church in Thessalonica? An infant baby church, who is leading? How are they standing strong in the face of Jewish opposition?
Paul is run out of town and goes to Berea and then from there Paul leaves and goes to Athens, but leaves behind Timothy and Silas.
But from there Paul sends Timothy back to Thessalonica.
Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith,
Timothy and Silas then rejoin Paul in Corinth
After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
1 Thessalonians 3:1-2
It seems in that Paul would have gone through Macedonia and possibly revisited the church in Thessalonica.
When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
It seems that Paul would have written 1 Thessalonians from Corinth (, , )
It seems in that Paul would have gone through Macedonia and possibly revisited the church in Thessalonica.
Regardless of that, It seems that Paul would have written 1 Thessalonians from Corinth (, , )
Okay, let’s turn to 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5
1 Thessalonians 1:1-
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
What does it mean to be saved?
What does salvation and the Christian life really look like? What does a right relationship with God look like?
How have we twisted it? Is it for ourselves or for God?
Verse 1 indicates Paul, Silas and Timothy are back together
Verse 2 is a common statement from Paul
Let’s focus on verse 3
One thing to look for when studying the Bible is lists, do you see a list here? Work of faith, labor of love, steadfastness of hope, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love ()
So what do these 3 phrases mean?
Work of faith—Works that you do that come as the result of the faith that you have in God/Jesus. Things you wouldn’t normally do if it weren’t for your faith in God, the former you would not have done that. It comes from our being saved and have approval and want to please God. Most of our work is transactional, do to get, work to earn. This is not what Paul is talking about, these are works to give. Not working for security, significance or acceptance, you now have all of these in Jesus. You now work free from your new identity and faith in God.
Labor of love—Acts born out of love. Love that emanates out of you unconditionally. Most of our love is eros, where we get erotic love, but it’s a consuming selfish love, all about us and what we get from what we think we love. Wedding vows are agape but soon after we are all about selfish love, it’s about us. What does a love look like that is selfless? All for someone else? What is the source of this love? Who modeled this kind of love? See , ; This love comes from our understanding of who we were before we received this love from God, how much we’ve been forgiven, the mercy, grace and love of God that transforms our hearts and fills us with this love so we can give it out. The world needs it and we supposedly have it.
Steadfastness of hope—steady in your life because you are confident in the future. Endurance because we know how it’s going to end. We live in such an anxious and worrying culture all about the here and now. Now is all you have so we are impatient. We hate discomfort, inconvenience, struggle, hardship, are all a sign of failure. We want to be comfortable. We want to control everything so we can feel fine and have no suffering. How can we think, serve, love others when we are so consumed with ourselves and the here and now and making our life comfortable and “good”? What if our focus was on what’s to come, the peace, comfort, good things, that await us? What would our life look like? If we didn’t want this life to be perfect and controlled and safe and predictable etc.
Can we be so sure of what God’s done for me, of who I am, of what’s to come that we can live otherworldly? We can have true good acts of faith, labors of love, and steadfastness of hope if we truly understand our salvation and who we now are and what we’ve been called to be and do.
