This sermon will explore how to maintain unwavering faith and rejoice amidst suffering and persecution, drawing lessons from Paul's letters to the church in Thessalonica.
Welcome back church! We’re excited to have you here today as we continue in our series from 1 Thessalonians. As a brief recap, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians were some of the first “epistles” or letters to be written by Paul, and the church in Thessalonica was one of the churches established by Paul during his second missionary journey. Paul wrote to encourage the young church to continue in their faith in spite of the persecution and rejection they received from the diverse culture around them.
It’s hard to imagine what it must have felt like for Christians in the 1st and 2nd century to practice their faith. There were many other dominant systems of thought and belief, not to mention deeply embedded power structures and long standing systems of authority.
As we now understand it, the early church was seen as a threat to the other more established religious systems and earthly authorities… And those in power didn’t like it when their authority was challenged. Especially when the challenge originated from a traveling band of disciples who followed around a poor Jewish carpenter from Nazareth.
Consequently, the early church suffered because of their faith, and we should expect the same as we follow Jesus.
The world that Jesus came to save ultimately rejected and refused Him and as this passage from John points out, the same will happen to you and I as we follow Jesus.
The first 2 chapters of 1 Thessalonians give us great insight into the affection and admiration Paul had for the church. He speaks of them “becoming a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” (vs. 1:8) What’s interesting here is that Paul recognizes the amazing faith of the young church to receive the gospel in spite of and in the midst of great suffering.
Paul says they “welcomed the message with joy ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium
“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 5:10-11
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