To Thessalonians, With Love Series

Good Christmas Eve morning! Boys and girls, one more sleep until Christmas morning! Hopefully everyone has their shopping done, presents wrapped, stockings hung, cookies baked, and plans made.

And I hope those plans include coming back this evening for our Christmas Eve service. It’s going to be a special time of praise and worship.

As you think about all the gifts you’ve bought and who you bought them for, let me ask you a question: What kind of a giver are you?

Several years ago a psychologist was on one of the morning talk shows discussing the three types of Christmas gift givers. First, there’s the OBLIGATED Gift Giver. This person has an obligation to give a gift--it really doesn’t matter what it is just so it will serve the purpose. Your heart is not really into choosing “the right” gift or the “perfect gift” or “even something that the person will like”--just something--ANYTHING will do. Think gift cards for the mailman, or your child’s teacher.

The second kind of giver is the APPROPRIATE Gift Giver. They always choose something “acceptable” to give. Sometimes that’s based on what they gave you last year, so it’s based on price range. Sometimes the price range is set for you, like the gift exchange at the annual office Christmas party. Sometimes you know it has to be a gag gift because that’s what people give, or sometimes it has to be something spiritual because it’s a Sunday school Christmas party. So it’s acceptable, appropriate. It might be a book for the coffee table--always “acceptable” but hardly “Personal” gift. It is a Nice--Acceptable--Appropriate gift that never goes over budget.

Finally, there is the PASSIONATE Gift Giver. This giver can’t wait to shop for the people that matter to them. They ENTHUSIASTICALLY looks for just the Right Gift and knows the person well enough to say, “I know that this is something he needs or this is what she has been wanting.” The giver knows the right color, the right size, and doesn’t mind going over budget if need be. They know the recipient so well that they know they’ll love it, because it meets the need, it satisfies a want, it communicates how much you care for them. And you can’t wait to see them open it.

So what kind of giver are you? Most of us would say it depends on the person we are shopping for. There’s a difference between whoever picks your gift at the Christmas party, your server at Chappy’s and your son or daughter, right?

But then a second question: what kind of giver is Jesus? How did He demonstrate it? And if you are a Christian and seek to represent Christ on earth, what kind of gift giver are you?

Please open your copy of God’s Word to the first letter of Paul to the Christians living in Thessalonica. You may be scratching your head, thinking, “Do you mean 1 Thessalonians?” Yes, I do. “Then why not just say “Turn to 1 Thessalonians” like a normal person?”

Well, it’s just because a lot of times we lose sight of the fact that the letters of Paul weren’t written to be doctrinal treatises. They weren’t meant to be impersonal explanations of complicated theology. Before they were anything else, they were personal letters.

And I’m calling this message “To Thessalonians, With Love” to remind us that Paul is writing to a group of people he loves dearly. Some of whom he might have led to Jesus in the first place. Others had partnered with him in ministry. Most of them had dealt with or were dealing with persecution.

So, I invite you to turn to the second chapter of the first letter of Paul to the believers in Thessalonica, beginning with verse 7

7 But we were gentle[c] among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

Skip down to verse 11:

11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

May God bless the reading of His word. Let’s pray:

Before we dive in to this letter, let’s do a little background on Paul’s relationship with the Thessalonians.

Paul and Silas got to Thessalonica around AD 50. They had just come from Philippi about 100 miles up the road, where, according to verses 22-24, they were beaten with rods, flogged with whips, and then thrown into prison (See Acts 16:22-24).

Now, let’s be honest. If you had just been beaten with rods, flogged with whips, and thrown into prison for preaching the gospel, how many of you would just go home and lay low, at least until you recovered? Nobody could blame Paul for doing the same thing, right?